A question for Christian Zelda fans

Vulgivagus hagiographus · Mar 12, 2004

Hello, I'm new! Yay, starting a new thread for my first post. I'm so bold. Anyway, I would like to get an oppinion from some of my fellow Christian Zelda fans, specifically Ocarina of Time (though you might be able to help with knowledge from other games). I don't know about you, but while playing the games, I've noticed what might be taken as parallels to Christianity in them. One big example would be that in the games for the original NES, Link carries a shield with a cross on it. Now Ocarina of Time goes deepest into the theology of Hyrule, and they state that the universe was created by three goddesses, one representing power, one wisdom, and another courage. This seems to me a sort of Trinity parallel. One thing that comes to mind is what I call the "Zelda theology verse," Jeremiah 51:15 (NIV): "He made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding." Also, the fact that Link has the Triforce of Courage dwelling in him to help him in his task makes me think of how the Holy Spirit dwells in us and gives us courage.

Anyway, I'm not really asking if that's what the game was actually going for, since it would be close to impossible to know the makers' real intent. What I want to do with this parallel is write some fanfiction that could reach a Zelda audience but have Christian lessons in it. Do you think this is too much of a stretch? And how far should I go with it and what alterations or additions might I have to make to the religion to make it work? I think it's a good thing, but I have trouble calling God, "she" if you know what I mean. So to use one of these fine smilies,

Heaven_Bound · Mar 12, 2004

Welcome to the Christian Forums.

The only Zelda I have played is A link to the past. Don't remember too much about it. I can tell you pay great attention to detail, I will never look at Zelda the same.

Vulgivagus hagiographus · Mar 12, 2004

Cool! I went to go eat dinner and I've already got a reply! I guess that's the advantage of being part of a huge forum. I'm rather crazy about research, as in I do an extreme amount for anything I might try to take on. Besides, my audience is most likely to be a bunch of teenagers who think they know everything. Get something wrong and yikes! You're dinner!

Newsboy1900 · Mar 12, 2004

i have played every zelda but Ms mask i mean it could be idk its pretty cool tho i like windwalker

TrustNo1 · Mar 13, 2004

hey thats pretty cool how you found links with christianity. i dont think they did it on purpose though

Rogue · Mar 14, 2004

That is pretty cool. But I highly doubt it's on purpose. I'll be lookin though... next time I play... LOL

TubamanRH · Mar 14, 2004

OOT is the best Zelda I've played, as well as my favorite game of all time. I noticed the Triforce/Trinity parallel, but I only thought that maybe it was just my intpretation. However, you've found some concrete stuff that really links them together! Before bed I'm gonna look up that verse in my Bible and probably mark it.

Vulgivagus hagiographus · Mar 15, 2004

Thanks for all your lovely replies! I assume by all these encouraging messages that nobody thinks comparing God to three golden godesses is blasphemous?

Creationist2004 · Mar 15, 2004

No, i don't think it's blasphemous at all.
My Christian RE teacher compared Christianity to the matrix.
He explained that there were the 3 main heroes, like the trinity (Not to mention that trinity is the name of one of them) and that if you rearrange the letters of the name Neo, you get One. As in, the one.

I think comparing the two actually promotes Christianity.

Anyway, iam a Zelda fan too. I think that Link is really cool.
And the comparisons you made are awesome.

TubamanRH · Mar 16, 2004

I agree, I don't think it's sacreligious at all. Of course, I don't think a lot of things are sacreligious, but this isn't.

JESUS_FREAK_01 · Mar 17, 2004

You know, I think you have a good point. I have played and beaten that game many times and never noticed that till now!!!

VigilanteHamster · Mar 26, 2004

I think the Triforce is a mockery of the Trinity, and it is blasphemous... run away! (Its the three GODDESSES part that torques me more than anything.)

Lady_Firehawk · Mar 26, 2004

VigilanteHamster said:
I think the Triforce is a mockery of the Trinity, and it is blasphemous... run away! (Its the three GODDESSES part that torques me more than anything.)

*bows down before Din, Farore and Nayru*

It's a video game! And the goddesses don't figure that much into it anyway... it's all about them golden triangles!

Strife · Mar 26, 2004

Simply use the idea of the godesses as being a metaphor to what each were,courage,power, and wisdom. Not such a blasphemous problem now when you think of it that way.

twosteppin · Mar 26, 2004

i was thinking about this thread while playing OOT today. Its intresting to think about. I think the whole good vs. evil thing going on in Zelda is cool.

christian-only · Mar 26, 2004

Have you heard of OpenZelda? It's a free, open source, Zelda for PC.

Vulgivagus hagiographus · Mar 27, 2004

I'm glad to here some new opinions. The female thing is the big issue that bothers me. I know this may sound as if I'm not heeding any of your very much appreciated advice, but I'm going to go ahead with the writing of my fanfiction. What I really want to know is if I should tweak some parts of the game to make it better fit Christianity, and what those parts may be? For example, I did the same sort of thing with a Star Wars story. I made George Lucas out to be a Jedi defector, so how he portrayed the Force was twisted to make us think away from the truth. Then I was able to make the story blatently Christian (okay, that probably didn't make any sense...).

My point is, I tweeked the "facts" of Star Wars so I could use it as a Christian witness. I don't feel it will be as necessary to make such radical differences in the Zelda games, but I don't want to put something blasphemous. One thing I would change is that I would make the goddesses much more involved in the affairs of the people of Hyrule. The game in itself seems rather deistic to me. I don't think I would get away with something as drastic as changing the gender of the goddesses, since that's a big thing to OOT fans.

My other question is how far should I take this parallel? Should I add onto it to the extent of Nayru came to earth in the form of a mortal and died for the sins of the people? (Now that just seems really blasphemous...) I'm thinking alot of the people who read this won't be more interested in Zelda than in Christianity, so this will be a good way to get the message to them. I feel that God really wants me to do this.... Are there any more comments?

Aggie · Apr 3, 2004

I haven't posted in this forum for a while--I was too busy in the Science forum--but this is interesting. I thought a lot about this when I was a Christian.

First of all, in A Link to the Past the three creators of the world are referred to as male gods. (It's not in the game itself, but it's in the instructions.) The way most fans of the series explain this is that gender is something that only exists in creatures of this world, and any attempt to assign it to divine beings will reflect only the preferences of the person doing so.

The best symbol of Christ in the Zelda series is the Deku Tree. As you probably remember from Ocarina of Time, he gave up his life near the beginning of that game in order to save Hyrule from Ganondorf, and later returned to life as a sapling in order to protect the Kokiri people again. There's nothing to suggest that the Deku tree is intended as an embodiment of one of the three deities, but he's definitely a better candidate than any other character in the series--he's the source of life for all of the Kokiri people, and the creation of Hyrule's peoples was also attributed to Nayru.

I viewed--and still view--the Triforce in that series as representing power. The thing to compare it to in this world is not any sort of spiritual force, but power the way we normally think of it: physical, political, military, or economic power. God has given humans more potential for power than any other species that has ever existed, but there is nothing about this power that prevents it from being used for evil as well as good. It can be used to grant any sort of wish--good or evil.

This explains a lot of the other details about the Triforce. For example, one of the effects of its power is that a person's outward appearance changes to reflect their personality, which can be compared to the way power causes the personalities of people who have it to be exposed more than they otherwise would be. Likewise, someone who has power without wisdom or courage is unlikely to be able to be able to be as powerful as someone who has all three. I consider that to be the basis of the idea that the idea about the Triforce splitting up.

It's quite well-known that J. R. R. Tolkien, the creator of the Lord of the Rigns series, was a Christian. What I've sometimes wondered is whether or not Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of the Legend of Zelda series, is a Christian as well.

Vulgivagus hagiographus · Apr 5, 2004

Thank you so much, Aggie! The one thing that I've been a bit confused on is the role of the actual Triforce in this parallel, which you explain excellently here! I hope you don't mind me taking your ideas, since there so good I'm going to. Here, take some blessings to compensate. Really, your message was a blessing from God, even though you aren't a Christian.

Tier · Apr 6, 2004

I don't want to tromp on your idea , but why are you writing fan fiction? It seems, well, kind of silly in my opinion to write something... that isn't yours... if that makes sense.

It would be way cooler to see an original allegory.

A question for Christian Zelda fans

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