Guest Post by Scott Manning
Zelda games are full of medievalisms, typically of the Arthurian variety. The basics of tedious side quests, pontificating hermits, damsels in distress, and a sword in the stone are all there.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds for the Nintendo 3DS is no exception.
The first part of the game features a mysterious sorcerer named Yuga who invades the Kingdom of Hyrule. Yuga erects a mysterious energy barrier around the kingdom’s castle, trapping Princess Zelda. Link learns from a Merlin-like sage that the only thing capable of breaking the barrier is the Master Sword. To gain this sword, our hero must hold the pendants of Courage, Power, and Wisdom, which can only be acquired through defeating monsters at the end of dungeons. These are physical manifestations of traits whereas Galahad and other Arthurian knights sought to prove themselves brave and chaste, among other things, through adventures, not physical possessions.
Even after trekking throughout the kingdom and defeating all sorts of enemies and monsters, Link still must take his newfound courage, power, and wisdom into the Lost Woods. There, our hero must make it through a shifting maze where ghost-like creatures try to confuse him. They do a decent job, as it took me nearly a dozen attempts and break to figure out the trick.
Finally, when Link makes it through the Lost Woods, he finds the Master Sword, which he pulls from a literal stone. Then Link’s real adventure begins.
Link’s pendants put a twist on Arthurian legend. If a knight can physically hold courage, power, and wisdom, can the knight also misplace them? In fact, before Link begins his quest, Princess Zelda gave him the Pendant of Courage. At that early stage in the game, there was virtually no feat of note and Link was unaware of the pendant’s value until a hermit explained it to him. Thus, in this world, instead of knights proving themselves, they just must collect all the necessary physical items to prove themselves worthy of the Master Sword. If the pendants can be gifted, could they also be stolen, lost, traded, or gambled away?
Of course, one possible answer is in the Lost Woods, which required more than bruit strength. Although Link physically had the pendants, he still had to best the maze and misleading spirits. Perhaps this final adventure is the answer to protecting the sword from unworthy knights. Could a fierce, but unworthy knight possessing the necessary pendants forever wander the Lost Woods? Or perhaps the knight could only glimpse the sword and never touch it, reminiscent of Lancelot and the Grail.
- Scott Manning (@warpath, scottmanning.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment