Triumph in the Tower of Hera

I'm not sure why the final dungeon in the Light World is called the Tower of Hera.

Perhaps it's because in Greek mythology Hera is a scorned woman, the jealous wife of the very polyamorous Zeus. Just as there would be few true hearts in her eyes, there are very few hearts available in this tower, despite enemies taking generous bites out of Link relative to what we've seen so far.

Or, maybe it's because she was the queen of the gods and was simply the one to deal with to gain admittance into dark, occult secrets. Not that she was the goddess of the occult (that was Hecate's domain), but simply by virtue of being a powerful woman in mythology she has an air of mystery and intrigue about her.

Or, perhaps more mundanely, the Moon Pearl is essentially a piece of jewellery, and Hera is a woman. Though, the fact that the Moon Pearl helps people to keep their real shape in the Dark World does suggest that it has some sort of truth-holding power. Or at least reality maintaining power. Wouldn't it be neat if the Moon Pearl were actually a hold-over from A Link to the Past's original futuristic, sci-fi setting? An item that created some sort of field around Link that made him appear as he wanted/needed to appear to others?

And maybe the old man who gives you the Magic Mirror was originally some old servant robot. That would at least explain his line: "If you wander into a magical transporter, gaze into this mirror." It's a line that sounds just a little too much like a wrecking ball against the fourth wall, even for a 16-bit era adventure game.

Speculation about the Tower of Hera and its treasure aside, it's a tiny dungeon. It claims to be a tower but Link must take an elevator when the screen goes dark between floors because this thing takes minutes to breeze through. The final boss notwithstanding. Though, I was only knocked off of the platform that you're forced to share with the frantic Moldorm three times, and knocked out not once.

At a guess, ten minutes of my thirty minute session went into this dungeon. The other twenty being spent grabbing the mushroom, visiting the Master Sword, and collecting a few stray heart pieces. Along with just jogging from the desert to Death Mountain.

Everything will get so much faster once I free that duck.