Finding God in Hyrule

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."

~ C.S. Lewis

  C.S. Lewis was ahead of his time in much of his thinking. He saw the world in such a way that would allow him to consider God's hand in everything from the good and the bad. While not everything that happens in life is good, it works together for good. The beauty about fantasy whether it's from the pages of a book or the game console is that a lot of things are up for interpretation. The way we see things comes right down to the way our souls interact with our creator. Some people have chosen to live their lives away from God and see things through the scope of their own desires. For a believer, even something as simple as a video game can hold a Godly message. For me, the Legend of Zelda is one of those games.

Recently, Nintendo released the official Legend of Zelda Timeline. While this threw the fans into an uproar, especially those who identified as "linear timeline theorists", it gave us some perspective on not only how the games relate but how Hyrule's history is influenced by the power of choice.

Firstly, let's look at the founding of the world. The Zelda universe starts out with The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. It opens with a short story of the lore of the events that came before the start of the game. Strangely enough, there is no mention of the three golden goddess' of Hyrule that, in later games, are said to have been the creating force behind the world. Instead we are introduced to Hylia, a goddess who held an "ultimate power" passed down by the gods (not goddesses) of old. There's no number given to the gods, no names, and they are identified as males rather than female. (This is interesting if you know Zelda lore.) She is soon met with hoards of dark beings that rose out of the earth to begin a massacre of all those that lived on the surface. Hylia sent the "ultimate power" into the sky along with a small population of people on board a large chunk of earth to protect both the power and the people that would guard it. She and those who remained managed to seal the evil but as the game goes on you discover this seal is hardly enough to contain the darkness.

One thing I find fascinating is that while she is supposed to be a goddess, Hylia is strangely vulnerable. She is charged with protecting this power but she sends it away instead. She is also made mortal later on and takes Zelda as her vessel. While she's said to be a goddess, Hylia is shown to be very vulnerable and mortal. On multiple occasions Link has to save her from Demise, the villain of the game.The goddesses of Hyrule are mentioned, but not as goddesses. They're mentioned only when you learn songs to open up certain locations within the game. "Din's power", "Nayru's wisom", and "Farore's courage". In the games, the goddess' are shown as actually very vulnerable, even when they do arrive in later games. In the  Oracle games, you actually have to save Din and Nayru. The goddess' in Hyrule's lore are shown to be not only incapable of demonstrating the power credited to them in Ocarina of Time, but unable to defend themselves from mortals themselves. Spells and songs are attributed to them, but they don't bestow these things personally. These things are given to you through another party, namely the great fairies or Fi in the case of Skyward Sword.

In all three timelines, belief in these goddess' seems to wane to almost nothing. In the fallen Hero Timeline, which is the one I find to be the most compelling for a Christian Message, Link actually takes up a shield bearing the Christian Cross on it towards the end of the timeline. In A Link to the Past, the original context for the "Book of magic" and the"Sanctuary" was "The Bible" and "Church". The Bible item even has a Christian Cross on the cover. Even official artwork from the original manual of the game shows Link praying in front of a crucifix. Even in the other timelines, mention of the three goddesses is minimal and there seems to be an abandonment of the old beliefs of Hyrule.

Let me back up a bit.

In Ocarina of Time you learn the creation mythos of that time period. There's no mention of the goddes Hylia, that's simply the name of the world now. You hear about the three goddess' that are credited with the creation of Hyrule itself- Din who represents fire and power, Nayru who represents water and wisdom, and Farore who represents the earth and courage. The goddess' are also credited with creating the Triforce, the "Ultimate power" mentioned in Skyward sword with the power to grant the wish of anyone that holds it. The Triforce is a golden relic that splits into three when one piece is touched and seeks out spirits who bear the strongest spirits representing the pieces- power, courage, and wisdom. When all three bearers are brought together and the pieces are combined once more, a wish is granted. This mythos is a little odd seeing as it was gods who were credited with creating the Triforce, not goddesses. It's also odd that the goddesses are depicted and spoken of as being golden.

One interesting fact is that the names of the goddesses are a part of three elemental dragons that protect certain areas of Hyrule. Eldin for Din, Faron for Farore, and Lanayru for Nayru. Only one of these dragons is said to be female (just an intersting side note) and none of these dragons are truely godly. In fact, you have to save the lives of two of them. It's possible that the goddess' find their origin within the dragons of ancient Hyrule and became icons as time went on.

Parallels to this are the three parts of the Holy Trinity: God the father, God the Son, and God the holy spirit. Three parts to one whole. The parts of the triforce have heavy reflections in Christianity as well. In reading on the gifts often given to those who receive the holy spirit, three stand out especially: Power, courage, and wisdom. Samson, for example, was given great power beyond that of a mortal man when the Holy Spirit was laid upon him. Soloman was said to be the wisest man to ever live and he too was gifted by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was with David when he fought Goliath granting him great courage through his faith. Time and time again these three traits are seen given to those who the Holy Spirit falls onto.

When we get to OOT, the world has embraced the idea of three golden goddesses, much the way the Israelite people embraced the golden calf and worshiped them rather than the true God. In OOT there are three timeline splits, and I theorize each of these splits represents the wishes of each of the three bearers of the triforce. In one, Link is killed, fulfilling Ganon's wishes. In one, Link slays Ganon and saves Hyrule which was his goal. Afterwards he is sent back to the past so he can live his childhood out. This is known as the Child timeline. The third Link still saves Hyrule, but he's sent away to live his childhood at Zelda's request. Unfortunately, when Evil returns there is no hero to stand in its way.

In the fallen timeline, it seems that the people of Hyrule lose their admiration for the three goddesses. In the very next game there is no mention of them anywhere. Instead of temples of the goddesses there are Churches. Instead of stories of origin, there are Bibles. Following Link to the Past comes the Oracle games where the distrust in the divinity of the goddess' is only confirmed. When Link rides to check on the Trifore, ensuring its safe keeping, he finds himself taken to alternate realities where he must save two of the goddess' of his world's old religion. They were easily tricked, easily captured, and easily put into harm's way. It took Link, a mortal, to save them and restore order. Armed with only his courage and a sword- he managed to take down a threat that the supposed goddess' were unable to even predict. 

On his way back from these other worlds, Link is shipwrecked and forced to awaken yet another deity to get him on his way home. Unfortunately at the end of the game he finds that this deity was really a dream or a vision rather than a real being. I find this game to reflect the story of Jonah quite well. Link is sailing for an unknown reason, perhaps to flee from his responsibilities to tell Hyrule about the falsehood of their own religion, and meets with a storm that swallows him up. The 'god' of the world he 'wakes' in is a massive whale that he must awaken. When the game ends, Link is seen on a piece of driftwood watching the island vanish. It could be that this is his "Belly of the Whale" experience, forcing him to realize the reality of Hyrule and its lore.

Upon his return to Hyrule, we see Link in the next two games taking up the shield bearing the Christian cross, praying at the alter, and rising up against Ganon once more.

In the child timeline, Hyrule falls into shadow and the goddess seem to have become forgotten. Instead, their names are spoken of only through the names of the Light Spirits that, strangely, bear the same names as the dragons from Skyward sword. In this game, the spirits take beast forms. Like the goddess, and the dragons, they find themselves weakened by the evil within the world and are in need of Link's rescue. 

In the adult timeline, Noah's flood is reflected in the worldwide flood that covers the land of Hyrule following Link's disappearance and Ganon's return.  This reflects pretty well on the Noah story as God flooded the world itself to wash away the over-whealming evil that was spread across the surface of the world. In this game, the goddess are mentioned only through the three pearls that you have to collect. There is a tower of the gods, but there's very little actual reverence of the old religion of Hyrule. Instead it seems the world is moving away from the gods entirely. In spirit tracks the only force for good from the supernatural that is identified are the "spirits of good" which supposedly sealed up the evil that plagued New Hyrule.

So of all the three timelines, the fallen hero timeline moves the world towards what seems to be a Great Awakening of sorts. While the religious references were removed by Nintendo of America for political reasons, they're still part of the games themselves. It reflects the spiritual awakening of Europe and the loss of faith in old gods and goddesses. Several further Biblical reflections can be seen in the Zelda games but those have been touched on quite a bit by other theorists. These were some of the observations I made through the games and through my own Biblical study and I thought it would be fun to share. Take what you want from it, but as mentioned above, I see the world through the eyes of a believer.

Gamers vs. Sports Fans

I grew up in a very athletic family. My parents would play soccer no less than once a week and watch it on TV no less than three times a week. I even tried getting into the athletics when I was younger, not because I really liked the sports I tried out for but because I wanted some way to  bond with my parents. I played soccer for several years and wasn't too horrible at it but I had no passion for the game. I tried swim team for a year and was among the worst on the team. I gave that up the next year. Senior year in high school I ran a marathon and trained for a year with the high school team. Since then I've decided that sports are just not my thing.

When I was growing up, gaming wasn't really a part of my life until middle school. The first game I ever played was Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. I played this in grade school by going over to a friend's house and playing for hours on his SNES.  I was enchanted by it right away. Growing up, I was into fantasy and most of my fantasy came out of books. Here was a story as good as any book that came to life in full color at the pace my fingers took it. I was able to make decisions for the character, interact with all the npc's I wanted, and explore the landscape rather than just passing through it on the shoulders of the main character of a book. For years the only gaming system that my family actually owned as an old game boy and the only games we had were a football game, a nascar game, and tetris. Needless to say, my folks weren't fans of games.

They still aren't, but over the years they slowly conceded to allowing us to earn our way to getting game systems and games. In order to get a N64 I had to get straight A's on my report card. We got The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for Nicky's birthday. In-between the "big consoles" I earned games through hard work. I would collect bottles and cans from around our small town and turn them in for money every day during the summer just so I could afford pokemon. I traded a lot of my cards so I could get a gameboy color. I suppose this made the games more meaningful to me because I wasn't just handed them- I earned them. Pokemon got me through some especially rough times when we first moved to Oregon. Most of my early collage years were spent playing Suikoden with my then-best friend. They were good times for me.

Sadly, games are still a point of contention in my family. My parents see them as a waste of time, they produce nothing and have a laundry list of bad side-effects. While I can't deny all of their reasoning, I thought about it a little more and came to realize that aside from how they are played- sports and video games aren't so different.

For the record, I really can't stand sports. I understand that they're a great way to work out and keep fit and that's fine. What I never understood is watching someone else play sports. Basketball bothers me because it's constant squeaking and the sound of a ball echoing on a court while fans scream and players swear. Soccer is watching a ball being kicked back and forth while fans scream and refs argue. Football is huddle, gain a few feet, drop the ball. Huddle, gain a few feet, drop the ball. And while I'm at it- I'm exceedingly baffled by sport video games but that's another blog for another day.

Then I thought about it- watching sports is kind of like playing a video game. You're not making anything, you aren't doing anything, you're sitting idle eating junk food, screaming at a screen, and getting upset at what little people are doing on your screen. You discuss sports with your friends and people around you after the game, you come up with dream team scenarios and argue about the choices made by coaches and refs alike. It's...really not that different from gamers. Yeah we're sitting around eating junk food while screaming at the screen. We discuss the games with friends and perfect strangers after the game, we come up with theories and ideas about the games and what we hope to see. We argue about timelines and implications in game. Looking at just brass tacks- it's not so different.

One thing my mom observed during the world cup is that no matter what's going on in the world or what tensions sit between nations- the people can come together to appreciate and enjoy a game. They cheer together, they sit in a stadium together, they wave their flags, and open up to perfect strangers over something as little as kicking a ball into a net. Thinking about it, it's the same way for gamers. I've struck up more conversations with perfect strangers over games than over anything else.  Regardless of politics, religion, or anything else, two Zelda fans can talk like old friends about timelines, mechanics, and the games themselves. Wearing a pokemon shirt to the cafe has gotten me more warm smiles and cheerful conversation than wearing a pair of cute jeans and shoes have.

Granted, there are downsides that both games and sports have.

For one- they're both very expensive. Just soccer alone requires a pair of shorts, a shirt, a pair of good cleats, shin guards, water bottles, and soccer balls. None of these things are cheap. You'll drop $80 for one jersey and you'll need at least two! You'll pay $80-300 for cleats alone. Games aren't cheap either. You'll drop $150-300 for a system alone- same as a pair of cleats in most cases. You'll pay $30-60 for just one game. There's a new pair of shin guards or a new soccer ball. Then there's team fees, ref fees, the gas money, going out to eat, etc. Gamers will often get accessories for their games, junk food for game nights, etc. All and all- they're both exceedingly expensive.

They both have been known to spike aggression and desensitize those involved. Personally, I don't like violent games or shooters, but a lot of people do.  But there are sports like boxing and cage fighting, there are cases where in football and soccer the viewers witness bones being shattered, bloodied faces, and a good deal of swearing and crude body language. Yes, sports are an active thing but when there's pain it's on actual, real people. In most games you are sitting idle on your backside but the injuries are on characters rather than people. In both cases there's crude language, violence, and the potential for harm. I won't deny that some people take things too far in gaming- but they do over sports too.

There are riots and looting following sporting events, fights break out in the stands, people are injured during these confrontations and property is destroyed. Gamers take their anger to internet forums. We don't get riots and looting but the debates get rather heated and sometimes very personal, especially when you're interacting with rabid fans. Gamers have perverts twisting the games into something sexual, but sports have that too. There's sex rings and all sorts of dirty practices going on. There's politics on both sides, there's debate on both sides, etc.

On the other hand, there's benefits to both. Yes, games have benefits. Sports' benefits are far more obvious as it's an active thing and encourages a good, healthy lifestyle. I won't deny that. I wish like crazy I could get into a sport so I would delight in being active but the bottom line is I have no love for sports. I see it as a chore to have to learn all the rules behind kicking a ball or jumping into a pool of water. Some people just can't find anything that interests them about sport participation.

With games, you are challenged on a mental level. Take my favorite three games- Zelda, Pokemon, and Suikoden. In Zelda you are always met with puzzles. You have to solve these puzzles before you can progress in the game. There is hacking and slashing, yes, but that's just one little part of the game and Zelda has always been careful to be 'gentle' in the way of putting you against opponents. They're always monsters, not people, and you're always fighting for the right reasons. In the new game, Skyward sword, fighting even has strategy. You have to adjust how you slash in order to break past defenses or to counter your enemy. And as a side note- the wii motion controls for that game were amazing. At the end of the game my arm was actually sore from the workout the final boss gave me. In pokemon, you can play it pretty casually or you can take it to a competitive level. You figure out individual values and train your pokemon accordingly. There's strategy, math, and a good deal of patience that's required to breed the right combatant. In suikoden, there are TONS of puzzles and the game is dictated by your choices. You have to learn what to do in dueling situations, there's strategy during the full scale armies where you are in charge of several units and territories, and there are easter eggs that you have to hunt and put together to get the full story of the game. Where sports work the body, games can and do work the mind.

Take five minutes and look up theories on youtubes. We go beyond the confines of the game and really work on understanding the mechanics of the games we play. We look at the geography, we do math to figure out the speed that sonic runs at, we come up with complicated philosophical theories regarding timelines and character relations through these timelines, and we do all of it as a community.

We aren't kicking balls into nets or running down someone that's making a break for our goal, but we are still actually exercising something- it's just not our bodies. Our minds and our creative sides are being fed by the games we play. The games include artwork, music, and story. Those that aren't good at sports are normally good at less physical things like artwork, writing, and composing music. Games appeal to this crowd. Saying that the games aren't producing anything, that they're useless or that they're a waste of time and money is a little harsh. Like anything there is a bad side but like anything, it does have its redeeming factors. There's no difference between someone sitting on a couch trying to get through the water temple and someone sitting on a couch hoping that their team can make a comeback late in the game.

Sports motivate people to go out and get active.
Games motivate people to go out and get creative.

I think rather than putting eachother down we should appreciate that we have something that can open the lines of communication between perfect strangers and something that inspires us in some way. You grab your cleats and I'll grab my controller.