Daily Debate: Would You Enjoy a Future Zelda Game Allowing Link to Choose Evil?

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild frustrated and exhilarated longtime fans of the series by breaking the traditional mold. The game offered ambiance over music, Shrines over dungeons, and a true ability to play the game in any order desired. Yet there is one key pillar of the Zelda narrative universe that the 2017 hit left well enough alone: the unquestioned morality of Link. The Hero of the Wilds, like his many predecessors, is good to his core. Perhaps it is time, even for just one installment, to allow players to do the unthinkable…

I’ll never forget the joy of playing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic during my college years. Having played videos games since the days of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), I felt floored at the notion that I had control over a protagonist’s moral arc, and this drove me to play through the narrative again and again. At first, I couldn’t break free of the moral confines I’d been raised with — obviously I would choose the path of the Jedi and end the threat of the Dark Side. Eventually though, the pull of something different, a chance to explore a narrative rarely offered, tempted me down the path of the Sith. Of course, many games have leveraged this feature since, but I’ve never been able to shake the awe of that first experience.

What if players had this same ability in a future mainline Zelda game? There are plenty of possible narrative explanations that would remain true to the lore of the series, which so many fans (myself included) know and love. Perhaps followers of Ganon, such as the Yiga Clan, find a way to harness the Curse of Demise and target its incarnation at the spirit of the Hero. After all, there is nothing in the curse itself that prevents it from being used on the Hero. Demise himself uttered these fateful words:

Those like you… those who share the blood of the goddess and the soul of the hero… they are eternally bound to this curse. An incarnation of my hatred shall forever follow your kind, dooming them to wander a blood-soaked sea of darkness for all time!

What if Link becomes the incarnation of this hatred? The curse that follows him would assume the form of temptation and corruption rather than the corporeal form of an adversary. There could be no greater victory for Demise.

More simply, perhaps the wielder of the Triforce of Courage uses that bravery to commit brazen acts of greed, lawlessness, and aggression. There is nothing innately good about courage; it is simply the ability to do what one must in the presence of fear. In such a universe, it would become possible for a character like Ganondorf to resist the Curse of Demise, ultimately using the Triforce of Power to combat the threat posed by a Dark Link. Such a game could elevate replay value, a concept most Zelda games already embrace. Players could produce multiple endings through a myriad of moral choices.

Famous Swiss Psychiatrist Carl Jung once said, “Everyone carries a shadow. And the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is.” We know this is true for Link; indeed we’ve already seen him battle his shadow twice before. Perhaps it is time to let players decide who wins in the soul of the Hero.

Let us know what you think. Would you enjoy a future Zelda game allowing Link to choose evil? Let us know in the comments below!

Featured Image: Charcoca

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