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be depressing, to be able to come to an understanding of a person’s or country’s motivations in terms of power alone. The Holocaust and the shameful actions carried about by Hitler and the Nazis can all be described in terms of power and force. Nevertheless, power is not to be considered solely as negative or dominant; the will-to-power can also be seen in acts of great generosity. Rich and powerful leaders may express their overflowing power by giving to the poor and needy; in this act the feeling of power and nobility is heightened. At one point Nietzsche writes that an increase in the power of the people who are weaker than you ultimately increases your power as well. If you own a computer that is able to download files faster off the internet, not only the computer has an increase in its power, but you do as well since you have power over the computer.

Beyond simple dominance over others, the will-to-power can be understood as personal strength and moral courage. Nietzsche demands that the depths of our psyche be investigated, that the values of our own cultural values be unearthed, that we walk dangerously close to the abyss. All of these tasks require an immense bravery and power to cut into your own beliefs and assumptions, and to recognize that even the deepest and most profound “truths” of your life are but interpretations in a certain perspective that have been put forth by the will-to-power of others. The task then is to become aware of the man made values and ultimately become the creator of new life affirming ones.

As Link crusades through the eight original dungeons and acquires the broken pieces of the Triforce, he is engaging not only in a macrocosmic journey to save Zelda, but also in a profoundly personal expedition to overcome the inner treachery of life-denying values, obstacles that must be overcome to embrace the full brilliance of the unified Triforce. Link starts the game as a young boy full of raw courage, who slowly multiplies the strength and vigor needed to triumph over Ganon: this is one of the ways Link can be viewed in terms of will-to-power.

The will-to-power and the eternal return are interconnected in Nietzsche’s Philosophy. In the strong reading of the eternal return, everything from the smallest atom to Mount Everest to your random thoughts repeats again and again. In Nietzsche’s notebooks, which are controversial since he did not publish many of the ideas in them, he plays with the idea that the world is made up of “quanta” of power or energy. In this manner, power is the structure of all reality; not only is the NES Zelda Cartridge subject to the will-to-power, but also the player’s psyche and the avatar’s pixels. The idea that the cosmos is made up of small packets of power or energy coalesces with some of the advances in twentieth-century physics, namely quantum theory.

Will You Say Yes?

It would take an enormous amount of strength to live and play according to how life actually is, and not according to how you envision it. To affirm life, and to battle, struggle, and overcome is the expression of will-to-power; to not only want life to follow through as it has, to love your life in the face of pessimistic and world negating moralities that you have to rally against—this is amor fati, and this is one way Link soldiers onward. Link’s bravery (and consequently the gamer’s bravery) is just the sort of moral fortitude that Nietzsche envisions, a free spirit with the abundance of personal strength to will his life eternally.

At the end of the day, though, the force of Nietzsche’s eternal return and its relation to The Legend of Zelda comes down to one question: this life as you now live it and have lived it, this game as you now play it and have played it, do you will to live and play once more and innumerable times more?

Level 8

The Triforce—Need I Say More?

16

A Link to The Triforce: Miyamoto, Lacan, and You

PATRICK DUGAN

First there’s darkness, then a chime, “Nintendo Presents” blips onto the screen, and then you see them: three triangular