This post was so refreshing and interesting to read, so job well done. I always found the ice cavern to be, I would almost say a mystical/magical takeaway from the core game. It's such a short dungeon, but it had me sucked in from the time I entered with it's appropriate chimey music and atmosphere. Then that climax in the aforementioned room stands out in my mind as a major emotional plot point, both in game and in my real life. I was probably 9 or 10 when I first entered this dungeon, and at 33, it still stands out as one of my favorites in the game, just from the feelings it induced back then, all the way down to the nostalgia it's inducing in me now as I get chills while I type this.