Just What Exactly Does the Triforce in Zelda Do?

[Enlong]

Yeah, I myself just ignore all the parts of WindWaker and the other games that treat the triforce like a trinket anyone can dig up with a boat and map. It's a symbolic representation of the virtues of three people, dammit! It has no physical form that can be thrown around like an empty beer can, or worse, broken into pieces (seriously wtf windwaker)!

*cough*

Um.

Wind Waker didn't come up with the idea of a piece of the triforce being broken into pieces that then have to be gathered to re-form the triangle.

Zelda 1 did that [http://zachpallen.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/31368-the-legend-of-zelda-nes-screenshot-the-inventory-screens1.jpg].

Oh I know, however my argument that "story was put aside for the purposes of gameplay" amplifies ad infinitum if you want to talk about the earliest titles. More accurately though, "The Legend of Zelda" is a NES game with a simple backstory. You don't have much depth of mechanics or story there. I would argue that, upon entering the world of 3D games, the Zelda franchise had a soft reboot in terms of lore. As well as gaining a 3rd visual dimension, the plot in the first 3D Zelda also gained some depth. WindWaker was a revisit to the concept of it being fallible material. Something I hoped they would just forget about.

Alright. There's not much more that can be said to that point of view, since it takes into account all the existing material, but just makes the choice to interpret it differently.

I will say that it's not really the manifestation of a person's courage/wisdom/power. Rather, the pieces go to people who prove that they already have those qualities. Take the triforce from Link, and he's still brave.

 

[GUIGUI]

In short, the Triforce is a physical manifestation of the Goddess Hylia's power.(...)

Uuh no? Not at all. Even when Hylia was still a Godess, the Triforce already existed. The trriforce was created byt the 3 Goddesses: Faror, Naryu and Din. The things is, only mortals can use the Triforce. As Hylia was unable o fully destroy Demize, she chose to become a mortal to wish Demize away. The Triforce is made of the essence of the 3 original Goddesses, not Hylia.

it just made more sense that way, since there were so many conflicting details.(...)

Except there isn't a single contradiction inthe Zelda Series. As a matter of fact, there is much more ellement that contradict the "It's the same tale, jut with different takes" theory. The story of the different Zelda games tend to differ too much and have too varied themes, (not to mention actually having elements of continuity) for it to work whtout discarding many ellements.

Also, even if it wasn't in the game themselves, the manuals already brought a deep story (for an 80's game) to the series. Back then, manual was were the story was.

It's interresting that in the first ame you only get the Shard of Wisdom and Power and have to wait for the second game to have the third shard, the one of courage.

 

[V4Viewtiful]

Maybe the Triforce acts as a kind of insurance so that the Hylians renews itself and doesn't stagnate or maybe it's used Because it stagnates?

 

[Candescence]

Yahtzee, as fun as your theory is, a little research would go a long way to explaining the Triforce, what it's done, and how it works.

Firstly, it has been repeatedly shown to have incredible power - such as restoring its Lorule counterpart, killing a demon god, dispelling a seemingly unbreakable curse, shaping an entire world, and so on. Hyrule being sealed away in Wind Waker was the work of the gods, not the king, and only the power of the gods could break the seal and flood it. Its ability to grant wishes is not in dispute by any means.

Secondly, Ganondorf very rarely gains possession of the true Triforce - he usually only has the Triforce of Power, just one portion of three, after his first attempt to acquire it resulted in it splitting because of his wicked heart, meaning he had to hunt down Link and Zelda to retrieve the other parts to actually use its full power. Even the Triforce of Power itself has the power to basically cheat death - in OoT, he literally wills himself back to life for the final battle, forcing Zelda and Link to seal him away instead, and in Twilight Princess, the Sages tried to execute him, and failed miserably. The guy shrugged off being impaled in the chest by a sword literally made from his weakness, for pete's sake.

Thirdly, even when he has gotten the full Triforce, its implied that it doesn't necessarily respond to any specifics when it comes to wishes unless a wish is strong enough - hence the Dark World in ALttP and Hyrule turning into a hellish wasteland in Hyrule Warriors. Its quite possible that his nature as the reincarnation of Demise, who is quite possibly a deity himself (at the very least, a demon king who is certainly not mortal), he cannot properly use the Triforce, because the Triforce cannot be used by Gods, only mortals, and thus it only responds to the basic desire to 'rule the world', which shapes the world into something that reflects his evil heart.

The Triforce isn't exactly consistent across games, to be fair, but it's not like there isn't an established ruleset and history for it.

 

[Kenjitsuka]

"So why pretend it was the Triforce granting his wish? That's obvious: because it's in everyone's best interest for Ganondorf not to realize that the Triforce is scrap metal, something he was moments from discovering. If he couldn't be eternally distracted by the wild goose chase, then he may finally start devoting his energies to finding the true artifact of ultimate power in the Zelda universe"

Ooh, I like that! Could be true!
Anyway, Tingle's Jockstrap aside, I'd hunt the Master Sword if I was Gannondorf, as that appears to be what always does him in.
And he could use it himself it not destroy it so Link can't use it.

Plus, in other games he does stuff against/with Elders, medallions and shards or something if I recall correctly.
Generally it's Zelda that needs the Triforce to defeat Gannon, not the other way around.

 

[Mangue Surfer]

I think that the green tunic is the real deal. Has the power of turn a 12 years old in to a mass murder.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

I'm more willing to accept Hyrule Historia's timeline as the correct (not that I have much saying). However, each new Zelda game is centuries apart from the previous one (with exceptions) which leads to some detail being forgotten or changed when retold. That's why some things in WW aren't explained the same as it happened in OoT. The people who you meet don't know what actually happened. They just know the story, the story is retold over and over again until it changes and becomes a legend. Each previous Zelda game is a legend in the next one (chronologically speaking, not by release date).
That's why the story about the creation of the Master Sword in SS isn't the same as told in other games.

That's why I don't consider it to be "retconning" when a character says "It happened like X" and another character in a different game says "It happened like Y". They are telling the story, the history, the legend as they know it. Depending on how far apart the things that happened are, they will lose details.

Saying that the games can't be put in a continuous timeline is doing the franchise a disservice. Sure, it's hard to believe that Miyamoto thought how Zelda 1 happened because a previous Link lost against Ganon, a huge Imprisoning war happened, Ganon got the Triforce, was trapped in the sacred realm, broke out, got killed, got resurrected, got killed, got resurrected and new resurrection prevented. I doubt he planed the timeline a it is. But there is no doubt that there are hints in games that there is a timeline connection between them.

As for the triforce, if someone unworthy touches it, it will break apart into the 3 parts. Power, Wisdom and Courage. What the Triforce of Power does is rather straightforward. It gives power. The Triforce of Wisdom is less straightforward. It gives less of a bonus, it's rather a proof of the person being really wise. It does appear to increase the magical/holy power and give regenerative magic, but not even a tiny bit as much as the Triforce of Power.
And last is the Triforce of Courage. As it appears, it doesn't actually give any bonuses to the person possessing it. It just shows that the person is worthy of holding the piece and it's a necessary trait to obtain the whole triforce.

How to obtain it is rather simple. There are 2 cases. 1st case is if it's already complete. 2nd if it's separated.
1. You touch it. If you're deemed worthy, you get 1 wish. If you're deemed unworthy, it breaks apart, you get the part that fits the best to your trait and the other 2 find hosts in the people who are deemed to be most fitting. To obtain the whole thing, you have to take it from the other 2.
2. It's separated. You have to prove yourself to be worthy of each part before you can obtain it. Sometimes it's just a collection quest, but only the one who is worthy of it will be able to finish the quest.

 

[MaddKossack115]

Personally, while I support the notion that the Triforce always DID have power in the previous games, and how the power manifested with the personalities of Link (Courageous Hero), Zelda (Wise Ruler) and Ganon (Powerful Tyrant), the concept of it losing power over time does give something to ponder about if it affected a future game, or if a game decides to take a meta look on the 'perpetual cycle of the Triforce' over the series.

I already gave my suggestions for what a Zelda game subverting the usual plotlines of the game could look like ( link [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/6.833124-Wind-Waker-is-Still-the-Best-Zelda-and-Youre-Surprised?page=3#20370240]), but here are some things I would add based on Yahtzee's points:

First, the villain (still codenamed Mr. X for now), isn't just a genre-savvy villain who kills Ganon before the game, and uses the Triforce of Power to kickstart a steampunk empire that conquers the world before Link and Zelda are even children, but also has motivations based on Yahtzee's long-standing complaints against the Zelda series: the fact all the games were reincarnation cycles of Link, Zelda and Ganon going through the motions of "Ganon wants to take over world, Ganon gets Triforce to take over world, Link (and sometimes Zelda) set out to stop him". This happens after Mr. X studies historical and mythological records referring to this reincarnation cycle (or perhaps realizes it after the cross-continuity explosion of Hyrule Warriors makes him realize the scope of the 'problem'), and concludes Hyrule would be doomed to stagnation because of it. So, he takes out Ganon when his reincarnation first makes his presence known in Mr. X's timeline, and takes the Triforce of Power to forge an empire of his own. However, that's only the first step of Mr. X's plan.

The second step is that Mr. X and his new government suppresses any person or item that in some way mentions the reincarnation cycle, hoping it would prevent the Link and Zelda of this cycle from realizing their destinies this time around. However, this is ultimately a stop-gap measure for Mr. X to continue building his empire and army, since he knows there will be some documents of the cycle that would escape his purging, or people who know enough of the legends but are able to escape his notice. Eventually, the reincarnated Link and Zelda do indeed learn of their destinies, or are taken in by a movement that knows of their destinies, and thus set off to stop Mr. X. But then there's the final part of Mr. X's plan.

The third step involves Mr. X's army defeating Link and Zelda in a way that doesn't just kill them, as that would only send their souls to begin the next cycle, but to claim their souls along with their Triforce pieces, and add them to the great machine that Mr. X used to power his empire - once he added their Triforces and souls of Link and Zelda to those of Ganon, Mr. X would use the concentrated power to destroy the cycle caused by the Triforce, even if it risked destroying his empire, the world, or even all of creation - as far as he's concerned, it's best to completely wipe the slate clean than go through another rerun of The Legend of Zelda.

Sadly for Yahtzee, Mr. X is still defeated by Link and Zelda, and the cycle would still continue - however, the effects of this one game would actually make Ganon less of a villain in future games, as his torment within Mr. X's machine, along with the realization of his role the cycle, would begin to make Ganon question why he's eternally doomed to become a monster that would always lay waste to the world, only to be repeatedly destroyed or defeated by Link and Zelda for his troubles. This may even result in one incarnation of Ganon openly defying Demize (the demon who started Ganon's side of the reincarnation mess in Skyward Sword) to become a genuine hero in his own right, and also leading to more villains in the series in his place - either those who wanted to take Ganon's position as Demize's disciple on Earth, or wanted to follow Mr. X's example of destroying the reincarnation cycle to reform the world in their own image.

Over time, it would result in a situation akin to the Mario RPG series, where Mario/Link is still the hero, but Princess Peach/Zelda serves more as an active ally instead of a captured damsel, and even Bowser/Ganon more often than not joins the heroes to stop whatever new villain is trying to conquer or destroy the world HE wanted to destroy or conquer in the first place. No, it won't completely break the reincarnation cycle, or render the Triforce to useless chunks of metal, but it would finally give the 'meta-aware Batman/Joker rivalry' that Yahtzee mentioned at the beginning of the review. For some long-running franchises you're not a devoted fan of, that's probably the best you can hope for.

 

[jctyproj]

You fool. The triforce doesn't need to do anything because it doesn't want to do anything. It exists not as this great artifact of power to benefit some kind of "chosen" that can assemble it. The triforce isn't some source of magic. It is a magic drain. Something that feeds on magic. It causes the things that happen in Zelda. It causes a similar story to happen every time because it has identified that these certain key individuals feed it the most. And what exactly is that? It is the energy directed throughout the tale. All the hope and all the struggle and battles and magic thrown around and magic items procured and put to use. The triforce feeds on all of it and becomes more powerful. To continue the charade it will then convert some, which it then bestows upon someone, to give the whole nonsense some credibility and validity. But it isn't an even conversion. The triforce keeps most of the power for itself. But as time passes it gets less and less from those from which it takes. And as its power grows it becomes more and more evil. As these things happen it gets stingier with the power it is willing to give away. And this is what causes the games to get darker and darker as time goes by. Those that it has fight and struggle for it must struggle harder and harder in their weakend states to appease its greater desire for power, for less reward each time, making them even colder and harder. To say nothing of the impact the constant battles have on them. Somebody showing up at the last minute seems awfully convenient doesn't it? Why didn't they just do that before? Well that's because that was before the triforce was fed with another giant struggle. But the triforce had other plans about what would happen when it came time to bestow some magic this time. This is the truth of things. You identified that there is something wrong with the story and that it has to do with the triforce but you missed what's really happening in Hyrule.

 

[Link Satonaka]

it just made more sense that way, since there were so many conflicting details.(...)

Except there isn't a single contradiction inthe Zelda Series.

Well, remind me to congratulate the intern they hired to weave all the games together on his success in not contradicting himself.

I think what he meant was that there are so many conflicting events that are "resolved" by the addition of many layers of intricate details- it's hard to swallow. As I've stated before, I enjoy the franchise best when it's a mystery- an unknown, a relic of ancient times where details are scarce. The Hyrule Histroria and related works are effectively the same as someone releasing a book containing all the secrets of the universe presented in bland, dry text. "Who was Shakespeare One great writer, or many writers sharing one name?" - "Well the bland book of no mystery says *insert life history that is simultaneously overly complicated while also still being rather dull*". There's a romantic aspect to the unknown, and with the "retold legend" approach to the franchise, there are so many unknowns you can hardly imagine what had to take place for the story to transform in this way.

And stop saying that the "recurring legend" idea is unrealistic or too far fetched: if you were at all familiar with any folklore or legend of any sort (or even religion) you would know that stories continuously evolve, fork, and merge as time passes. The more a story diverges from the source material, the more intriguing it is.

each new Zelda game is centuries apart from the previous one (with exceptions) which leads to some detail being forgotten or changed when retold. That's why some things in WW aren't explained the same as it happened in OoT. The people who you meet don't know what actually happened. They just know the story, the story is retold over and over again until it changes and becomes a legend. Each previous Zelda game is a legend in the next one (chronologically speaking, not by release date).
That's why the story about the creation of the Master Sword in SS isn't the same as told in other games.

That's why I don't consider it to be "retconning" when a character says "It happened like X" and another character in a different game says "It happened like Y". They are telling the story, the history, the legend as they know it. Depending on how far apart the things that happened are, they will lose details.

I like this perspective, unfortunately Skyward Sword does the reverse of this: it doesn't have any one character say, "I know the history of OoT and here's what happened", Skyward Sword places itself at the very beginning of the timeline and says, "this is how things are and consequently you must now consider the events of every Zelda game in this new light". Retcon.

Saying that the games can't be put in a continuous timeline is doing the franchise a disservice. Sure, it's hard to believe that Miyamoto thought how Zelda 1 happened because a previous Link lost against Ganon, a huge Imprisoning war happened, Ganon got the Triforce, was trapped in the sacred realm, broke out, got killed, got resurrected, got killed, got resurrected and new resurrection prevented. I doubt he planed the timeline a it is. But there is no doubt that there are hints in games that there is a timeline connection between them.

How is it a disservice to not fabricate a story that was never originally intended to be there? The only disservice here is in devaluing a previous work by trying to retroactively imbue it with new meaning. And as I mentioned previously, a reference or homage to previous works is not something from which you can connect two stories upon. If you do, then we must also consider how every Mario game fits into the timeline because of this:

And also, you must consider how the Star Fox universe fits into the Zelda timeline

Yes, you can safely say those are mere references, a breaking of the fourth wall, and not part of the canonical story. But who says where you draw the line? Who is to say that a reference to a previous Zelda is canonically part of the timeline and not a breach of the fourth wall for long time fans of the franchise to notice and appreciate?

 

[TristanBelmont]

This...actually is not the angry rambling I expected. This is a pretty good theory piece on the franchise from someone who only likes one of the games.

 

[Olas]

We get it Yahtzee, you find other peoples' love of Nintendo stupid and misplaced, you've made that abundantly clear a hundred times. Regardless, every question you ask here has a clear answer that a little research or common sense could have answered for you.

I'm not asking what the 'legends' say it does. I'm not asking what various characters throughout the years have claimed it does. I want to know what it has actually done, before our eyes, with incontrovertible evidence that the Triforce alone was doing it.

Well let's see, in Skyward Sword Link uses it to cause the island of the goddess statue to fall from the sky and crush demise.


In Link to the Past it restores Hyrule and cures it of Ganondorf's evil.


And in Windwaker it does exactly what you just said, except clearly it wasn't the king of Hyrule simply dispelling his own magic, because if that were true he could have done that all along if he had wished.

Actually, secondary question -- what's the Triforce made from? It looks like a metal of some kind, so is it magical in the same way that isotopes are radioactive? And if so, does magic have a half-life?

It obviously isn't made of some physical substance, or else how would it embed itself into peoples' hands? It has to be made of some sort of magic able to take on a physical form, but clearly not bound to traditional rules of physics since it frequently changes sizes and defies gravity.