3 replies to this topic

[Sir Turtlelot]

I'm sure these have all been mentioned before, but there's never been a thread for them. I was just thinking about how different games, or story elements of different games, seem to parallel with other events of the universe. The most obvious of these is OoT and the IW. At one point they were considered the same event, and some still argue that they are. Both describe Ganon's rise to power, but in slightly different manners. It is interesting, since these two parallel events are incredibly similar to another pair of parallel events in the Zelda universe, ALttP and WW's backstory. These two events both describe Ganon's attempt of freeing himself from his imprisonment of the Sacred Realm. These two pairs of events are similar in the fact that, in one telling of the stories, Ganon is defeated by Link (OoT & ALttP) and in the other version of the stories Ganon is stopped by another force (IW and WW's BS). One could even argue that Ganon's imprisonment TP's backstory is another parallel to ALttP and WW's BS.

It would seem that most of the series is actually parallel events of different points of the branches, with differing end results, but still generally leading into more similar events.

Examples:

Rise of Ganon:
OoT/IW

Ganon's Escape of Imprisonment:
ALttP/WW's BS/TP's BS

Ganon's First Death:
ALttP/WW/TP

Ganon's (Failed) Resurrection:
AoL/OoX

Second Rise of Ganon:
LoZ/FSA

Surprise Ganon:
TP/FSA




Thoughts? Any parallels I ma have missed?

[joeymartin64]

SS's intro jumped out at me as very similar to TWW's, as well. All of this kinda has me very slightly flirting with this idea that only some of the games (probably ALttP and forward, since that seems to be the "ideal result") actually occur as we see them, and the various other games are basically somewhere between in-universe fables and conflicting historical accounts of "how we got here," nobody really sure which, if any, has the whole truth. It's sort of like the literal-legend thing, I guess.

[Fin]

You've reminded me of an old interpretation of Twilight Princess' story I once thought of. It's not something I've ever seriously considered as a theme of the story, but it's nonetheless an idea I'm kind of fond of. Basically, I interpreted TP and every other Ganon game on the child timeline as being the result of 'echoes' of the Hero of Time prophecy. The idea is that because destiny was averted in OoT, that conflict is playing out again and again because the prophecy was never truly fulfilled. The Imprisoning War is one of these echoes, which is why a lite-version of it plays out in FSA, and then it occurs anew before LttP.

[MikePetersSucks]

I always found it neat that Skyward Sword's ending could be used as an in-universe explanation for every coincidence and parallel in the entire franchise forever.