Crystal V - The Ice Palace

At first glance, the Ice Palace, situated in the center of Lake Hylia, seems inaccessible.  The stronghold is well protected by four thick walls and there seems to be no way in, at least in the Dark World.  Traveling to the Light World and finding the island center of Lake Hylia reveals a portal to the Dark World, which warps us to the center of this stronghold.

The Ice Palace

For one reason or another, the treasure of the previous dungeon will prove vital in this dungeon while it only proved useful in fighting the boss of that dungeon.  That's an odd building system, but we'll go with it.  Sensible though as the dungeon's theme here is ice and last I checked, fire did a number on ice.  The puzzles and actions within this palace aren't anything that Link can't handle at this point, but that tends to be the way with Zelda games: once Link gets into the latter dungeons, he's well-equipped with a decent amount of life energy so he has an easier time, even with tougher enemies and tougher puzzles.

Blue Mail

Ah, awesome!  This dungeon offers the blue mail as its prize.  This armor cuts our damage in half, essentially doubling our life force!  Now that's what I call a prize!  Later we find the dungeon's boss, Kholdstare.  What a joke this boss is!  The fire rod proves necessary in fighting him, as we need to use it to melt the ice that surrounds his body.  After his body is revealed, you simply have to damage his three eyeballs with your sword.  One of the easiest bosses, by far!  In addition, this guy doesn't attack you...the environment around him does in the form of ice crystals falling from the ceiling but that's the most you have to contend with!

Crystal V

Once Kholdstare is in flames, the fifth crystal is yours.  This maiden tells more about the Great Cataclysm and Hyrule's history, and the involvement of our ancestors in all of this mess.  We're starting to figure out that in reality by sealing Ganon in the Golden Land, we brought on the Golden Land's current state ourselves by imprisoning him here, but that the evil king truly wishes to rule both Hyrule and the Golden Realm, and the only way for him to do that was to manipulate the evil wizard.  If much more time passes, the line between the Dark and Light World will be blurred, like it is at Hyrule Castle and all hope will be lost.  Yikes!  Better move on to the last two crystals so that we can stop Ganon, once and for all!