The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy_ I Link Therefore I Am - Luke Cuddy [96]
Now imagine that life was lived without this schism of reality, and there was only one world, one life. The orientation to life and the meaning experienced in the world take on a radically new importance. If there is no other world after this, if this world is in a sense the true world for which we are not strangers on a train, but rather that we have evolved from and emerged out of this earth, then this life is saturated with meanings and purposes. Compounded with the idea of a life that eternally returns, value becomes placed on the concrete experiences of the life, of experimenting and exploring, of self-overcoming and the life affirming heroic impulse of those willing to take on this life as it is.
In the two-worlds philosophy there exists our normal world of change and becoming that is less real and therefore less valuable than the true world of Being and eternal fullness. The brilliance of Nietzsche’s thought experiment is that an amazing thing happens when you overcome this schizophrenic worldview; namely, that if you release the idea of another world, of the things-in-themselves, you also deflate the chimera of “appearances.” This world is not illusory or deceiving so that we can never get to its core essence—this is the world as such!
An important facet of The Legend of Zelda is that there are no directions or divine laws. While in some of the later installments characters are given some form of instructions, in the old-school Zelda games, for the most part, Link is able to explore wherever he wants, whenever he wants. Link can go into castles out of order, and there is no guide (or Bible) that dictates the one true way (Oh sure, there’s the magic book, but what use is that without the wand?). Again, the absence of a time clock that pushes the avatar down a linear path opens up the possibility of non-linear time, like cyclical or looped time. Many ancient cultures and the philosophies they produced did not express linear time; like the seasons, the tides, the rising and setting of the sun, time was understood as a circle of life and death, abundance and dearth. With the inception of Christianity, which plotted a beginning (God created the world in six days) and an end (Armageddon and Judgment), a different understanding of time and history flared forth.
Will-to-Triforce
If we go back to the initial premises of The Legend of Zelda we find that Link must recover the Triforce:
In the original game, the Triforce of Wisdom and Triforce of Power are described as “Magical Golden Triangles” that grant their holders great power. The game begins with Ganon in possession of the Triforce of Power, and with the Triforce of Wisdom split into eight pieces hidden in the dungeons beneath Hyrule. Link must fight his way through the eight dungeons to recover the pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom, and then battle his way through Ganon’s stronghold to defeat him and recover the Triforce of Power. (http://zelda.wikia.com/wiki/Triforce)
The division between wisdom and power is an overriding theme throughout the work of Nietzsche. He sees what he calls the “unconditional will-to-truth,” or truth at any cost, devastating to a healthy culture. For Nietzsche, untruth is a necessary condition for life, as untruth or created fictions often successfully promote life affirming actions and beliefs. Power, or the will-to-power as Nietzsche names it, is the underlying drive that informs and propels all forms of life. The will-to-truth is a veiled attempt to express the lurking will-to-power that is trying to find an outlet for its satisfaction.
Viewing the world in terms of power moves, of “might makes right,” is easy to do. It’s quite reasonable, yet can