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—clearly prefer this pre-lapsarian Hyrule to the one in which Link does battle. However the adventure might change Link, the net result for the Hylians is freedom from fear. According to Nietzsche, fear marks the most concise difference between master and slave morality. The master seeks to inspire fear, while the slave seeks to avoid it. In slave morality, “those qualities are brought out and flooded with light which serve to ease existence for those who suffer: here pity, the complaisant and obliging hand, the warm heart, patience, industry, humility, and friendliness are honored” (p. 397). It would be difficult to describe the moral character of Link more accurately than this. But remember, this is “protagonist” Link. The player is a different matter.

Can We Play Beyond Good and Evil?

No, really, can we? When we explored the play styles of ludus and paidia, we argued that as the player of the game it is possible to play against the grain of the game’s story, and therefore the protagonist’s morality; this complicates the design of any morally meaningful choice the game might present.

Even when a protagonist’s morality is chosen by designers, enterprising players will inevitably find ways to opt out—and this “opting out” might be more important to players than the game the designers thought they made. We do not, of course, mean to suggest that the Legend of Zelda games validate the theories espoused by Nietzsche; as far as moral philosophy goes, one ought to be skeptical of mad, anti-Semitic Germans. Rather, looking at Nietzsche through the lens of Zelda, and vice versa, yields intriguing new perspectives on both.

Whether or not the opposition of good and evil comes from slave morality, in videogames it is irrevocably connected to ludus. In the Zelda games, the rejection of that ludus is neither good nor evil. Some people want to be heroes, some people want to be villains, but some people—many Zelda fans among them—just want to be naughty.32

7

Shape Shifting and Time Traveling: Link’s Identity Issues

RACHEL ROBISON

Part of the charm of the Zelda series is that there are classic elements of the story that remain the same, but each individual game manages to be unpredictable. Virtually anything is possible; the characters are not bound by the laws of physics and can change from old to young and from one kind of creature to another. In early Zelda games, the princess plays a standard damsel in distress role. In later games, her personality is wholly different. Her attitude takes on a feminist kick and she can be found knocking down the baddies right alongside the boy in green. Given the drastic changes the characters undergo within any given game or from one game to another, it’s puzzling to see how their identity remains the same over time, but the story tells us that it does.

This is a problem not only for characters in the Zelda games, but also for philosophers. Thinkers struggle with the concept of how a person’s identity can persist through time and change. For example, humans transition from having tiny bodies and abnormally large heads into creatures that are much larger and better proportioned. Cells die and are regenerated so that the physical substance that constituted the baby is entirely different from the physical substance which constitutes the adult. We gain emotional maturity as we progress as well. This problem is commonly known as the persistence problem. It seems to be an even bigger problem for the Zelda characters because they are going through substantially more significant changes. How we can conceive of the Zelda characters as the same people throughout time?

This question can be divided into two sets of interesting issues. First, we could consider the Zelda characters as fictional entities. If we consider the question from this perspective, identity issues arise such as how the character Link that I move with my controller is the same Link as the one you control with yours. They may proceed through the game in different fashions. My Link, for example, may pummel