Was I a bad Hero by taking so long to catch up with Zelda?

So, Zelda fell through the clouds and like a good young Hero I rushed after her to save her. I ran through the forest in desperation searching and dowsing for her. I found a Kikwi who said she was with him, but she ran off to the "very dangerous" Forest Temple. Annoyed, I rushed after her... only to reach the end of the Forest Temple to find she has ran away again, to the even more dangerous Earth Temple.

So, I set off for the Eldin Volcano area. But, to be honest, by this point I am quite frustrated with Zelda. She clearly doesn't need my help! And there's all this Questing to be done! There's bugs to be collected and treasures to be found! So many Pieces of Hearts to collect and things to buy in Beedle's Airshop! People in Skyloft need my help! People who don't run away from me when I am trying to help them!

So, after I had done all the Questing I could, I finally reached the Earth Spring where I found Zelda, perfectly safe might I add, and some tall, annoying, bitter woman. This... person... had the gall to tell me I was late! Late! And she said I should be ashamed of myself for taking so long. I know she's right, I was supposed to be going after Zelda... but, Questing! Rupees! Treasures! Bugs! Crystals! Potions! Upgrades! If I actually rescued Zelda she'd just want to settle down, probably start a family, booo-ring! Questing is so much more fun!

Was I a bad Hero by waiting so long to reach Zelda? Do you always get chastised for being too slow, or did I actually hit some time threshold which changed the storyline?

Solution 1:

Nope! You're not a bad hero! Unless you think leaving a damsel in distress hanging is bad... then yeah, you are, sorry buddy.

Whatever you do, you will always be late and Impa will brandish it over your head, so keep questing! I suppose you could call that a character-building experience for Link?

As far as I remember, there are only a few time-limited quests, and you are notified before you set off to complete them. Why have side-quests available if you are supposed to be rushing through the main plot, right?

Solution 2:

The particular cutscene in question is scripted one way only; no matter whether it takes you two hours, two days or two weeks of play time, this character will always scold you for being "late". It's a part of the story. Similarly, other cutscenes along the main arc will have characters praise you for getting something done quickly or skillfully, no matter how many times you attempted and failed to do the task or how long it took you.

While there are time-limited quests, those quests are generally replayable simply by going back to the person who gave you the quest, listening to his/her tirade and then trying it again. Most of the time-limited quests are also fairly easy, such as delivering pumpkin soup before it gets cold; the time limit is simply to ensure you go there directly and don't just hang on to the item for a while until you happen to have some other reason to go visit that character.

Solution 3:

You are always late, as in order for the quest to go as expected, Impa (the woman in black with all that gall) must rush ahead of you (remember how she activated that bridge for you and allowed you to progress?) and get to Zelda first. If you had been so fast that Impa did not beat you, you would have arrived ahead of Ghirahim and had no boss to defeat at the end of the dungeon, no heart container to collect... and Zelda gamemakers can't have that, they have a design solution to stick to!

However, if it makes you feel better, at the end of the next temple, in Lanayru desert, you catch up to Impa and Zelda again. No spoilers, but you basically save Impa from Ghirahim in a cutscene and get the option to toss it back at her.

"Am I late?"