Average Middle-Aged Man

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Template:Character The Average Middle-Aged Man[1] is a strange man who appears in A Link to the Past.

Biography

Tha man is a former Thief specialized in the picking of locks that now lives at the entrance of the Desert of Mystery under the guise of being a ordinary man in silent meditation, sitting by a sign that tells people to leave him be. If Link picks up or slices his sign, the man will break his silence and follow Link until he leaves the area.[2]

After hearing about the "average" man from a Thief in the Lost Woods [3] or from a former thief located in a cave found in the same area as the Ice Palace in the Light World,[4] Link can return to him with the Locked Chest found in the Village of Outcasts. The man offers to open the chest for Link in exchange for him not telling anyone about his true identity.[5] He gives Link the Magic Bottle that was inside in exchange for Link's silence. Afterwards, he won't care one way or the other whether or not his sign is taken by Link.[6]

Trivia

  • The man asking Link to keep his identity a "secret from everyone" is possibly a reference to the famous quote from The Legend of Zelda.
  • During the ending credits, the man can be seen back to his old ways trying to pick locks in the Desert of Mystery.

References

  1. "Pay no attention to the average middle-aged man sitting by this sign. Leave him alone!" — Sign (A Link to the Past)
  2. "Why did you take my sign? It says plain as day to just leave me alone! Sheeesh!" — Average Middle-Aged Man (A Link to the Past)
  3. "Hey kid, this is a secret hide-out for a gang of thieves! Don't enter without permission! By the way, I heard that one of our ex-members is staying at the entrance to the Desert" — Thief (A Link to the Past)
  4. "Heh heh. Thank you. To tell you the truth, I used to be a thief in the Light World... some of my fellow thieves went into hiding because they were afraid of being caught. One of them was a master locksmith, but now he is hiding the fact that he was a thief... by pretending to be a strange middle-aged guy! Ha ha ha..." — Storytelling Creature (A Link to the Past)
  5. "I heard that you know I used to be a thief, right? Well, I'll open a chest for you. Will you keep it secret from everyone else? Would you please promise?" — Average Middle-Aged Man (A Link to the Past)
  6. "Remember, you promised... Don't tell to anyone." — Average Middle-Aged Man (A Link to the Past)