Rewriting Twilight Princess: Spirits and Sages

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was a fantastic game, filled with epic battles, an enormous world, and a…horribly flawed storyline. Each week we’ll be looking at one of these flaws to determine what went wrong and why, as well as to discuss ideas of how the tale could have been rewritten to fix these problems and strengthen the story as a whole. …Preferably without drastically departing from the original storyline of the game, but I make no promises.

It might seem nitpicky to say that there are issues with the Light Spirits and the Sages. Really, nothing they did was necessarily wrong – in fact, some of my favorite scenes of the game revolve around them (Lanayru’s Legend of the Dark Interlopers, anyone?). But, as with several issues we’ve discussed thus far, it isn’t always about what happened as much as what didn’t happen. In the case of the Spirits and the Sages, there’s a noticeable gap between what they could have been, and what they actually were.

Let’s expand on that, shall we?

The Game We Got

During the course of his search for the Ordonian children, Link meets with each of the Light Spirits who have watched over Hyrule since ancient times. Each one, save Ordona, grants him the power to dispel the Twilight in their respective regions and points him towards his next destination, after which they aren’t even mentioned again until the final boss battle against Ganondorf.

In the meantime, Link’s quest to enter the Twilight Realm leads him to the Arbiter’s Grounds, where ancient Sages await him. They inform him of Ganondorf and his banishment to the Twilight Realm, then disappear until the Mirror of Twilight is reforged. At that point, they reveal Midna to be the true Twilight Princess and…disappear again, this time for good.

The Problem

The primary issue with these two groups isn’t that they do anything wrong – it’s just that there are enormous gaps of time where they vanish. Each Light Spirit enables you to dispel the Twilight, points you towards a dungeon, and then tells you where you’re supposed to go next post-dungeon – that’s all, at least until they return to help Zelda and Midna in the endgame. And the Sages are even worse: they tell you the story of Ganondorf, tell you Midna is the Twilight Princess…and that’s it.

Sure, it’s kinda cool to show the Sages as a sort of cameo appearance…except that it’s not really a cameo because these probably aren’t the Ocarina Sages (TP is in the Child Timeline, remember). Even if they were, by the very definition of ‘cameo,’ they should have had a minor part – and banishing Ganondorf and revealing Midna’s title are anything but minor. Same for the Light Spirits’ rescue of the Twilit regions of Hyrule. Both groups have very important roles in the story, but that importance only makes their disappearance during the rest of the game all the more noticeable.

The Light Spirits won’t appear or even speak to the Hero? Why not? What are they doing during that time, and why aren’t they helping Link in his quest to recover the Mirror Fragments? And don’t forget the Sages – where do they go between their two appearances? Did they even have to be there at all? I mean, Ganondorf could have been executed by any sacred beings!

Any sacred beings…

Proposed Solution

…including the Light Spirits.

Spirits of the Arbiter’s Grounds

Maybe I’ll get some flak for this (read: I’ll definitely get some flak for this), but I think it needs to be said: the Sages should never have appeared in Twilight Princess. The story would have worked out just as well without them – better, in fact, if their role as Ganondorf’s sealers was taken over by the Light Spirits.

Alright, fine, it’s a bit difficult to see those massive beasts wielding a sacred blade of some sort. I’ll give you that one. So…why don’t we throw a few more characters into the scene as well? Say, the Princess of Destiny? How about the Hero of Time while we’re at it, too?

This is a complete reimagining of the scene, but it’s not that difficult to justify. We know that Ganondorf’s failure to conquer Hyrule in the Child Timeline was caused, at least in part, by Ocarina‘s Link and Zelda; it’s not so farfetched, then, that they might be present for his execution. Replacing the Sages with the Light Spirits is as simple as having the gods assign them the task of watching over the Arbiter’s Grounds instead. The rest falls into

place rather nicely.

Our reimagining of this scene, then, plays out like so: Ocarina‘s Zelda (or one of her guards, if she’s still too young for this sort of thing) receives a magical blade from the Light Spirits and uses it to kill Ganondorf. The Triforce of Power saves him (and hey! Now we have an additional reason for it to abruptly appear, as he is in the presence of both Zelda’s Triforce of Wisdom and Link’s Triforce of Courage), and he breaks free of his chains and attacks. The Hero of Time manages to defend Zelda and the others, but he is still caught off guard by the sudden strike. Link falters and is nearly overpowered, prompting Zelda and the Light Spirits to activate the Mirror of Twilight and banish the Dark Lord.

This actually does a lot for the characters in the present day. Suddenly, Twilight Princess Zelda may have sacrificed herself not only because she believes in Midna, but also to repay a debt she feels is owed the Twili by her ancestor’s actions. The Hero of Twilight (or whatever title you want to give to TP Link), feeling similarly responsible for his ancestor’s failure, now has a new, personal motivation to defeat Ganondorf.

Don’t forget the Hero’s Shade, either – his regrets are now compounded by his failure, and by the fear borne of that failure: he knows that Ganondorf may return, hence why he pushes so hard for Link to learn the Hidden Skills. We might need the reveal of his identity as the Hero of Time to be a bit more obvious…but that’s not a bad thing. And we’ve now given Ganondorf yet another reason to be feared: he didn’t simply kill some nameless, faceless Sage who, for all we know, could have been incredibly weak (again, these likely aren’t the OoT Sages) – he almost beat the Hero who became TP Link’s teacher. Knowing how skilled the Hero’s Shade is, doesn’t that just make Ganondorf seem so much more dangerous?

Finally, to bring focus back to the main subject of this article: the Light Spirits. Not only are they now more prominent in the game’s central storyline, they also gain new reasons to aid Link and Midna’s search for the Fused Shadows. Even though they know full well what dreadful power lies dormant in the Twili artifacts, they would probably have assumed Ganondorf to be playing some sort of role in Zant’s assault on Hyrule – and, having seen what the Dark Lord is capable of firsthand, their willingness to employ the very magic they once sealed away suddenly makes a lot more sense. They fear Ganondorf so much that they guide Link to the Fused Shadows, hoping that, somehow or another, these dark relics will aid him in the battle they know is still to come.

Guardians of the Realm of Light

Removing the Sages is all fine and well…but it still only gives the Light Spirits two additional roles. They’ll appear after you beat the fourth dungeon and just before you enter the eighth, but that’s still a large gap of time where they vanish.

Looking back at some of the earlier articles in this series, there’s one proposal that really stands out as a place where the Light Spirits can shine again. In our article on the Dark Lord, we proposed having Ganondorf send out his monster armies to attack the various settlements of Hyrule – and wouldn’t you know it? Each of those settlements has a Light Spirit nearby. As guardians against the darkness, it only makes sense that they would take a stand against this onslaught and battle against the evil hordes themselves.

So Hyrule’s settlements come under attack, and the Light Spirits move to defend them – Ordona guards Ordon Village, Eldin protects Kakariko and Goron City, Lanayru shields Zora’s Domain, and Faron…um…Faron can watch over the Sacred Grove. That’s a place Ganondorf would want to attack, right? Sure.

Regardless, the Light Spirits hold off the beasts until Link shows up – he could do this right after the Arbiter’s Grounds or as he progresses through the game, in accordance with the next dungeon he’s searching for. Whenever he arrives, he helps defeat the monsters, and the Light Spirits then use their magic to fortify the towns against further onslaughts.

Afterwards, the Light Spirits could return to their Springs or just stay put in the cities they guard (I say this more for Lanayru and Faron’s sake than for Eldin and Ordona’s). Either way, they should be available to speak to Link from then on – giving out sidequests, providing history lessons and details about Hyrule, or even just being there to talk to. Any of those options would be fine! They return to the Mirror Chamber when it’s time to apologize to Midna and reveal her as the true Twilight Princess, and they show up during the final boss battle with Ganondorf in order to help Link and Zelda take down the Dark Lord once and for all.

The End Result

While the initial portions of the game go unchanged, upon arriving at the Mirror Chamber of the Arbiter’s Grounds, Link is met by the Light Spirits rather than the Sages. They inform him of how they attempted to kill Ganondorf many years ago, with the help of the Princess of Destiny and the Hero of Time, but failed and were forced to seal him in the Twilight Realm when he threatened to overpower the Hero. Link later learns that this Hero is both his ancestor and his mentor, the Hero’s Shade.

As the second half of the game goes on, all regions of Hyrule fall under assault by Ganondorf’s beasts. The Light Spirits appear to defend their lands, but Link’s aid is required before the armies are pushed back. After that, the Light Spirits remain on guard and protect the lands themselves while Link searches for pieces of the Mirror of Twilight. When it is at last reforged, the Spirits return with Link and Midna to the Mirror Chamber, where they apologize to the true Twilight Princess for their arrogant attempt to slay the dark lord, and for the subsequent introduction of such evil to her kingdom. They return in the final battle to aid the Hero and Princess’s fight against Ganondorf, as well as to revive the defeated Midna.

Even if a character does nothing wrong in the course of a story, only having them do one single thing is a bit of a waste. For the second half of the storyline, the Light Spirits might as well not even exist; the same can be said of the Sages in the first half. Even when the Sages do appear, it’s as little more than a glorified cameo, as their actions could have easily been performed by an entirely different group. Removing them from the story has no major impact, and in fact bolsters the characters of the Light Spirits by giving them added purpose and connections to the Twilight – things which could have definitely helped to justify their appearance in this tale.

This isn’t the only complaint I have concerning the Light Spirits – although next time, I’m more taking issue with a specific scene. Normally I would, will, and in fact do (in this very article, no less!) sing praises for this scene, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t cause some problems. Check back next week to see what’s so wrong with one of my favorite parts of Twilight Princess.

Until then, this is Alpha, signing off to go do…stuff.

“Rewriting Twilight Princess” is a series focused on examining the many narrative issues of this epic Zelda game in an attempt to understand why it has garnered such negativity from the fanbase over the years. Join us each week as Tyler “Alpha” Meehan delves into each of these issues, explains what was wrong with it, and explores ideas for how the storyline could have been rewritten to salvage such problems.

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