It's More Than a Game...

When a person brings up a discussion about video games, most other people would label him (or her) as a “dork,” “nerd,” “loser,” or a variety of other teenage clichés. If the aforementioned person is still attached to his video games when he is an adult, even more ridicule is cast upon him. The type of people who commits this obloquy normally cannot understand why the person can’t live a normal, mature life. Most feel that video games cannot hold the same literary credibility as the writing masterpieces they read. Fortunately for us “dorks,” the argument of credibility leans to our favor, especially in the case of The Legend of Zelda video game series. One of the aspects that separates good games from great games is the game’s literary composition. The fact that a game has literary credibility or not is what gives the game its level of quality. A factor that can give a game, especially that of the action and adventure genre, literary credibility is whether or not the storyline follows Joseph Campbell’s “Hero with A Thousand Faces” monomyth.

While it’s hard for the classic Atari and Nintendo games to follow this pattern, most of the newer Zelda games, as well as many other adventure games, do show signs of Joseph Campbell’s monomyth. Campbell describes his monomyth as being in three parts: “departure,” “initiation,” and “return.” Link’s struggles, especially those in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, are a prime example of a plot that follows the “hero’s journey” monomyth. Twilight Princess opens up with Link and the village’s swordsman, Rusl, sitting at the Spirit’s Spring and discussing the “loneliness [that] pervades the hour of twilight.” Rusl then asks if Link would like to go in his stead and “deliver something to the royal family of Hyrule” (Twilight Princess). This is Link’s “call to adventure;” the first stage in the hero’s departure (Campbell). While Link delivering to the royal family is not his true quest, this task being ascribed to him is the first event in a domino effect that leads to his true calling. After Link finishes herding the village’s goats a few days later, his best friend, Ilia, accuses Link of hurting his horse, Epona. Ilia then takes Epona to the Spirit’s Spring to heal her. Because time is pressing, Link and Colin go to convince Ilia to let Link take Epona and ride her to Hyrule Castle. This scene is when his true “call to adventure” takes place. Just as Ilia subjugates to Link and Colin, King Bulbin, one of the evil King Ganondorf’s followers, burst through the gate to the spring and kidnaps Ilia and Colin (Twilight Princess). Two important factors that Campbell states are met in this scene: that the call may take the form of the hero losing something, therefore having to retrieve it; and that the call may take place in “the babbling spring.” The call to adventure forces the hero to outgrow his “familiar life horizon,” which Link must now do to retrieve his lost friends.

The next stage in Campbell’s monomyth is where the hero must cross the threshold. After Link regains his consciousness, he races to find Ilia and Colin. He comes upon a very literal adaptation of Campbell’s threshold, shown as a gateway to the twilit Hyrule. A palled, monstrous arm reaches from the gateway, pulling Link through. After crossing, Link is turned into a wolf (The protection that the Triforce of Courage – a holy relic in Hyrule along with the Triforce of Wisdom and the Triforce of Power – gives Link keeps him from turning into a twilit monster himself) and is taken to a cell in Hyrule Castle, where he meets his “Supernatural Aid” (Campbell). An incurious imp named Midna calls out to Link and helps him escape his cell. Midna guides Link through his adventure and eventually “provides [him] with amulets” later in the game (Campbell). She extracts an amulet which allows Link to transform between a human and wolf at will. Link’s transformation and journey into the twilit Hyrule also symbolize Campbell’s idea of the hero “disappearing from the world, seeming to be dead” (Long).

Here begins “The Road of Trials” for the hero, which is filled with “surprising barriers” that must be “passed again, again, and again” (Campbell). Link is “aided by the advice of the supernatural helper,” Midna, and sets out to rescue the four Spirits of Light; who Campbell characterizes as the “curiously fluid, ambiguous forms” that the hero will meet in his new world (Campbell). In Link’s “Road of Trials” through Hyrule, characters of “benign power” will assist him in concordance with Midna (Campbell). The characters Gor Amoto, Gor Ebizo, the third Goron Elder, Prince Ralis, and even the mayor of Ordon help Link in their own respective ways. They especially help him on his journey to retrieve the Mirror of Twilight, which is the gateway between Link’s world and Midna’s.

After obtaining the shards to the Mirror of Twilight, players must take Link on a “voyage to the underworld” by using the Mirror to travel to the realm of Twilight (Campbell). While in the realm of the Twilight, Link collects the power of the Twilit suns, the Sols, to add to his Master Sword, giving the sword the ability to banish Twilight. After this, Link takes on the Usurper King Zant, using the power of the Sols to fell the imposter. Unfortunately for Link, killing Zant isn’t the end to his “Road of Trails.” Link must now make an “Atonement with the Father” (Campbell). In Twilight Princess, Link treks through the halls of Hyrule Castle to meet his destiny. Link and Midna meet Ganondorf – the true reason behind all of the trouble that has befallen them. In an epic battle that destroys the castle, Link defeats Ganondorf and rescues Princess Zelda. Concluding the “Road of Trials” is the hero gaining or metamorphosing into a state of “Apotheosis” – a “divine state which the human hero attains” – and receiving the “Ultimate Boon” – that of Link defeating Ganondorf and peace returning to Hyrule (Campbell).

Now that the “Road of Trials” has been passed, it is time for Link to make the “Return” from his journey.  The first part of the hero’s return is “Crossing through the Return Threshold” (Campbell). Since the Twilight palling Hyrule has been lifted, the “Crossing through the Return Threshold” actually shifts over to the other main character, Midna, as she returns home as the rightful leader of the Twilight – the true Twilight Princess. As Midna returns to the realm of Twilight, she breaks the Mirror of Twilight, closing the gateway between the two realms, fulfilling Campbell’s idea that the “two kingdoms are actually one” by sealing the “Return Threshold.” Before returning home, it is Link’s requirement to “knit together his two worlds” (Campbell). He “knits together” his worlds by returning the amulet to Midna before she leaves, thus sealing his ability to change between his human and Twilit, animal form.

After completing his adventure, the hero becomes the “Master of Two Worlds” with the ability to travel through each world “either mentally of physically” (Campbell). Since the Mirror of Twilight has been broken, Link’s mastery of the world’s becomes a part of his mental state. Link will always be scarred by his journey through Hyrule and the Twilight and his decisions later in the game are justly affected by that. Link finally returns to his village of Ordon in a “miraculous passage and return” (Campbell). After his return, the hero must express his “Freedom to Live” which is normally in the form of a psychological epiphany. Link’s scarring makes his quiet life at home unbearable, and so he takes his horse and heads out to wander through Hyrule and other worlds, hoping to quench his thirst for adventure.

The last requirement by the hero’s monomyth is that the hero becomes one with the “phenomena of time” (Campbell). As stated earlier, Link possesses the Triforce of Courage, while Zelda possesses the Triforce of Wisdom and Ganondorf possesses the Triforce of Power. The connection they have with the Goddesses and their holy relic bind them together for eternity. As long as the Triforce exists, there will be an evil King trying to gains its powers (if you bring all three Triforce together, the claimer of the three can have one wish granted to him), and as long as there is an evil King, there will be a young boy garbed in the dress of a hero, saving a princess and her kingdom. Because of this connection, even though peace may reign for a short while, an evil will rise again and a new Link will be resurrected, becoming one with the “phenomena of time.”

Just as Link has become one with time, so have the video games in which he stars. After 20 years and over 15 games, the Zelda series still has adoring fans ranging from young to old. The main key to the game’s success is the amazing stories it holds. Time and time again, the story follows Joseph Campell’s heroic monomyth, giving the series a sense of high literary credibility. So if a person starts to discuss a video game, don’t immediately mark him off as a “dork” or “loser.” He may actually know what he’s talking about and may teach people things they didn’t know before.