The King of Hyrule is a Jerk

The King of Hyrule is a Jerk

The Legend of Zelda series has been around for well over a decade, and is one of Nintendo's best-selling video game franchises. This series of action-puzzle-adventure games revolve around a single protagonist, Link, as he journeys through the kingdom of Hyrule to save the princess Zelda from the evil sorcerer-warlord Ganon, usually with the help of a trusty sidekick that aids him through difficult puzzles. Although over ten different games have been made, they all contain very similar archetypes and revolve around the same general plot framework: naming of the franchise the 'Legend' of Zelda, rather than simply a series of chronological stories.

On March 27, 2003, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker came out for the Nintendo Gamecube in the United States as the tenth installment in the popular series.  This installment, although many of the same elements appear, uses a heavily different plot framework than the previous Zelda games. For instance, instead of the Kingdom Of Hyrule, a massive ocean is the adventure setting and a large amount of playtime is devoted to sailing between the islands. This ocean is later revealed to be the remnants of the Kingdom of Hyrule, post a massive, and implied genocidal, flooding. Almost at once, the protagonist's sister is kidnapped by Ganon's agent and the hero's first adventure is an espionage-type infiltration of the final boss's fortress to rescue his sister. Unfortunately, it fails and the hero is flung far out to sea where he is then rescued by an animate boat called The King of Red Lions that is soon revealed as Link's new sidekick and helps him get across the seas with a special treasure that can control the wind in the sails.

This sidekick is where The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker breaks a vital characteristic of Legend of Zelda helper characters-- although it is never directly said, The King of Red Lions can be interpreted as trying to deceive and kill the protagonist and eliminate the goal of the story. Because the game is aimed at children and fans of the series, this darker theme is not readily apparent to the casual player, but upon closer examination it is painfully obvious that The King of Red Lions may not have the best interest for Link, or Hyrule, in mind.

The protagonist in all Zelda games but Wind Waker is blessed by the gods with The Triforce of Courage: a magical aspect of the Golden Triforce that is established to protect Hyule. This magical power is said to give the Hero the power to enter the expansive dungeons and eliminate the terrible curses and monsters within. However The King of Red Lions, instead of helping Link rescue his sister, urges him to enter these dungeons without any kind of blessing at all except for the Wind Waker: a baton that can change the wind which is useless in all things except for certain puzzles. From his dialogue, it is clear he is also aware that you are not the Hero from the legends, yet he sends you in anyway. At the earliest stages of the adventure, Link is merely an ordinary boy with some skill in swordsmanship.

Throughout the adventure, there are many ancient beings that still remember the Old Kingdom before the sea and all of them speak Old Hylian: an indecipherable language on the first play-through that The King of Red Lions can understand, but will not translate for you. All dialogue with these characters is done through The King of Red Lions, who merely replies with vague acquiescent statements such as “I am aware of that” (Nintendo, The Wind Waker) when conversing, relaying nothing of the conversation's meaning. This dialogue is translated as a bonus in the second play-through, revealing the fact that The King of Red Lions has been long searching for the Hero of Time, and also that he has not found him. The Ocean Spirit Jabun's dialogue is translated in the second play-through of the game, revealing that The King of Red Lions is aware of Link's powerlessness even after managing to scrape through the game thus far:

King of Red Lions: The one I have brought with me has no connection to the legendary one. And yet I sense great promise in the courage that this one possesses.
Jabun: Promise? You suggest that I leave the fate of Hyrule up to mere chance?
King of Red Lions: I do. It is the only way. (Nintendo, Wind Waker)

However, this dialogue is dissonant with what the King promises to Link earlier: that Link is on this quest to rescue his sister: this dialogue occurs before Hyrule is revealed at all. Later, when Link has passed the test of the Gods to prove himself, he acquires the Master Sword from the remnants of the kingdom beneath the sea and is allegedly able to stop Ganon and rescue his sister. However, this Master Sword is visibly different from all of the pictures the players have seen of it previously, and for a serious reason. It is not revealed to us until the critical moment where Link confronts Ganon, but the Master Sword has lost its magical power. Still, The King of Red Lions sent Link in anyway to face Ganon to an inevitable loss. He could be passed off as ignorant of the truth, except for one critical detail revealed in the following scene: The King of Red Lions is merely the wooden avatar of the ghostly King Daphnes IX, the long-dead ruler of Hyrule, who had been sealed within the castle for centuries. It would be impossible for The King of Red Lions (now referred to as Daphnes) to miss the fact that the Master Sword had lost all power. The Master Sword had practically been the pin holding Hyrule frozen in time, with Daphnes himself locked up with it. Daphnes knew the sword was powerless to stop Ganon, so why did he send Link in anyway? According to Renee Seldavia, an analytical critic of the Wind Waker storyline, Daphnes knew all along the Master Sword was defunked and he sent Link in with false confidence in order to get Link and Ganon to destroy one another. With the Master Sword, Ganon always loses, but the Triforce of Courage that aids the hero in surviving the conflict is conveniently missing.

The next point of suspicion revolves the Sages that are revealed to have been praying for The Master Sword's power. In the previous installment that is the direct prequel to The Wind Waker, there are eight sages that at the end of the game sealed Ganon inside the Sacred Realm upon his defeat. In The Wind Waker, there are the ghosts of two sages outside the sacred realm, and both claim to have been murdered by Ganon. This is impossible, because Ganon (The last part of his name is added when is featured as a man and not as a demon) could not have slain them, for he was sealed at the time they were killed. In that case, the only possible explanation is that they erroneously believe they were slain by Ganon, and did not know the true identity of their murderer. Throughout the storyline, Daphnes proceeds to tell every character encountered about Ganon and blame him for all the danger in the world, a behavior that could explain the false beliefs of the dead sages (Seldavia).

It is at the end of the game, after Link has finally gained the Triforce of Courage as a true hero and when Zelda has finally been 'kidnapped' by Ganon (Though Daphnes tried to seal her away, which is yet another questionable, murderous move; Ganon could have very well rescued her from starvation by removing her) when Daphnes' true nature is laid plain to see. It is said that the gods drowned Hyrule, wiping out entire ethnicity, but as recalled in the beginning of the game, The King of Red Lions gives Link the Wind Waker, which is said to house the power of the Gods that did call the drowning storm. However, a boat with no hands has no reason to possess a weather-controlling baton at all, so the only explanation for what he was doing with it, bearing in mind that he claims to have led his 'chosen' people to safety, is that when he was alive he was the one who called down the storm to flood Hyrule. (Seldavia). Furthermore, his final action in the game is to use the regathered Triforce to wish not for the restoration of Hyrule and the correction of his mistake but to drown it forever and destroy it. The well-being of Link and Zelda are merely an afterthought.

These points in the plot, although veiled by Nintendo's upbeat storytelling, tell a much darker tale than what would be easily guessed. Although the player is strongly guided to follow Daphnes' words, when the plotline is observed outside of the context of his directions a second interpretation is strong within the work: The King of Hyrule is a genocidal murderer that not only has wiped entire races and cultures off of the map, but seeks to gather up any remnants that still exist and wipe them out, too, in a single blow. It is heavily implied that only those with aspects of the Triforce, Link, Zelda, and Ganon, can destroy each other -- in this alternative take on the storyline, an oblivious hero is manipulated into finding all of the leftovers of the lost kingdom and charging into a battle where the under-prepared Hero and a weakened Ganon destroy each other and the kingdom with them. This is a clear break in the standard Zelda plot that usually is served with a rigid set of encompassing archetypes and plot points, and a departure from the standard Hero-Saves-The-Princess theme of the Zelda universe. Imbedded within a superficially child-friendly appearance, this complexity appeals to older players that may not have initially accepted the more stylized art style of the game when compared to previous installments.

The darkness of this game's alternative storyline is a marking point in the Zelda franchise-- games thereafter elaborated on darker themes that were previously passed over. These expanded aspects of the storyline allow for deeper storytelling that breathes new life into the standard conventions of the classic Zelda plot, allowing the same basic framework to be retold in many engaging ways for future games that appeal to all ages.



Bibliography:
The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. Nintendo USA, 2003.

Seldavia, Renee. "Cry For Hyrule." 2008.
         Unpublished article. Web. Sepember 2009.