The meaning of Triforce

[Izagar]

(Sorry. Dunno where to post this).

I have seen it a lot around the forums, and right now it's really pissing me off. So, I'm going to make a short thread about what the Triforce is and it's meaning.

In the beginning, blah blah blah, there was three goddesses who descended from their world to make a new one. Din, the Goddess of Power and the red Earth. Nayru, the Goddess of Wisdom, Time, and Law. And Farore, the Goddess of Courage and the creator of all life forms on this world. When they departed they formed a Triangular shaped item: the Triforce.

Now, what people are beginning to think is why there is an empty space in the center of the triangle? It must be a 4th piece, right? WRONG.

Tri = Three. That means a 3 forced item. Yes, it is in the shape of a triangle, and yes it has a missing center, but name another shape that has three sides. Hard to find yes? That's the reason it's a Triforce. If it was a quadforce, it would be a diamond or a square, not a triangle. Plus, what would this 4th piece be called? You already have the three that make a good Hero, Ruler, etc: Power, Wisdom, Courage.

Through courage you learn wisdom from recklessness. From Wisdom you get the power to do things. From Power you get courage to stand against things. It's a cycle.

So basically this thread is telling you the meaning of Triforce. Not because it is a triangle, but it is because of the three forces it represents.

 

[Skull_Kid]

my siggie thing has that
well... it is pretty sure that these three things were meant to create a cycle... like there can't be one without another

 

[Zemen]

im not saying i believe in a 4th piece, but just for kicks and just to keep this discussion blooming, ill present some stances that could go against whats been said.

triforce could mean one of three things. it could either refer to the number of pieces that make it up, it could refer to the shape, or it could refer to how many sides it has.

now with this in mind, if there was a fourth piece that went into the middle, it would still be a triangle, except it would be a solid triangle. if its still a triangle then the only one of those three explanations of its name that would not make sense is if it referred to the number of pieces to it. if the fourth piece was put in the middle it could still be called the triforce because it would still be a triangle and it would still have three sides. you are only looking at the name in one respect.

also, in regards of what the fourth pieces power would be, i think that if there was a fourth piece of it would be the triforce of hope.

hope could tie into any of the other three triforce pieces perfectly.

ganondorf gets the triforce of power to try and rule the world. he isnt 100% sure that he will succeed so he has to hope that he has enough power, thus hope ties in with power.

Zelda hopes she has the wisdom needed to protect her kingdom, thus hope ties in with wisdom.

link's amazing courage is what gives hope to everyone that they may be saved, thus hope ties in to courage.

hope would most certainly keep the cycle going.

From Power you hope that you will maintain such power. from hope you gain the courage to do things you may not have done before. from courage you gain wisdom by taking risks and putting yourself out there. from wisdom you gain the power needed to be a leader. and the cycle continues.

you cant have any of those without the other. and you especially cant have courage without hope.

as i said before, i am not saying i believe in the 4th piece. this is just something to discuss.

 

[blackice_cc]

Zemen, what you said about there being three possibilities, there are only two. The Triangle is the only shape with three sides, therefore whether referring to shape or amount of sides it would be the same thing.

But also, why would there be three Goddesses and four powers? Like Judai said, it's the Triforce, which makes it very likely that it's 3 forces. I suppose it could mean that it's a three sided/Triangle force, but it's always Triforce, not triangle force.

 

[Izagar]

As well, if there was a fourth piece, where was the goddess or god?

 

[Zemen]

Zemen, what you said about there being three possibilities, there are only two. The Triangle is the only shape with three sides, therefore whether referring to shape or amount of sides it would be the same thing.

But also, why would there be three Goddesses and four powers? Like Judai said, it's the Triforce, which makes it very likely that it's 3 forces. I suppose it could mean that it's a three sided/Triangle force, but it's always Triforce, not triangle force.

why would it be called the triangle force? that just sounds silly. triforce is much cooler and lets figure this out...TRIforce...TRIangle. not that hard to figure out.

As well, if there was a fourth piece, where was the goddess or god?

to answer this, lets just say that the fourth piece represents hope.

hope doesnt need to be governed by anyone/anything. hope is just there. when the three goddesses made the world and the triforce, they made hope as well. hope for a better or worse future. courage, power and wisdome have to be made, but from those comes hope on its own. hope is created by the ones who control courage, power and wisdom and the people who control courage, power and wisdom were created by the goddesses.

also, this is a theory that some have. they think the fourth piece was created by a dark goddesses who was banished from the world and so was the fourth goddesses piece of the triforce.

 

[Izagar]

Still, it doesn't matter. There is no fourth piece, and you would think over 20+ years of Zelda, they would REVEAL it? ALTTP and OOT both said three goddesses made Hyrule. ONLY THREE DESCENDED AND ONLY THREE MADE IT!

 

[Linkmaster]

I always thought it would be cool to have a fourth piece, but I also realized it would not make any sense. So I don't think there is a fourth piece. Would still be cool though.

 

[MrMosley]

Triforce originally meant the shape. TRIangle and its a source of power, or force. I am not sure if they had the story made that there existed another piece during LoZ, but I highly doubt it. This was a time where gaming was just recovering from close to extinction, so Nintendo probably had no intention of a part 2 until they realized how good part 1 done.

Therefore, since a third piece was not though until the second game, the original meaning comes from its shape, of course, because you cant make a full triangle with just two pieces. And even still when there are three pieces which "tri" can apply to, they each individually have names (Triforce of Courage, Triforce of Power, Triforce of Wisdom). So since each one in itself is known as the Triforce of whatever, its obviously still for the shape of the objects.

 

[Zemen]

Still, it doesn't matter. There is no fourth piece, and you would think over 20+ years of Zelda, they would REVEAL it? ALTTP and OOT both said three goddesses made Hyrule. ONLY THREE DESCENDED AND ONLY THREE MADE IT!

chill out man. dont need to bite peoples heads off. this is a discussion on peoples ideas on the topic. there are a lot of things in the zelda univrse that have not been explained in the past 20 years of its existence. just calm down, maybe take a nice hot bath or something and stop freaking out.

also, as i said before, if the fourth triforce is something like the triforce of hope, then there is no need for a goddess to make it. by creating the other three pieces of the triforce, hope is indirectly made.

Triforce originally meant the shape. TRIangle and its a source of power, or force. I am not sure if they had the story made that there existed another piece during LoZ, but I highly doubt it. This was a time where gaming was just recovering from close to extinction, so Nintendo probably had no intention of a part 2 until they realized how good part 1 done.

Therefore, since a third piece was not though until the second game, the original meaning comes from its shape, of course, because you cant make a full triangle with just two pieces. And even still when there are three pieces which "tri" can apply to, they each individually have names (Triforce of Courage, Triforce of Power, Triforce of Wisdom). So since each one in itself is known as the Triforce of whatever, its obviously still for the shape of the objects.

this is a great observation. its obviously called the TRIforce because of the triangular shape and not because of the number of pieces that make it up.

the triforce of courage isnt made up of 3 different pieces so it obviously refers to the shape of it. same for the other two pieces.

 

[blackice_cc]

also, as i said before, if the fourth triforce is something like the triforce of hope, then there is no need for a goddess to make it. by creating the other three pieces of the triforce, hope is indirectly made.

If hope is indirectly made like that, what's the point of a Triforce of hope? Hope is not an attribute you can gain, as Courage, Power and Wisdom are. Everyone hopes. It is not so easy to have any of the Triforce attributes, but hope, everyone already has.

And yes, I suppose that makes sense Dark_link01. But that does not prove that a fourth piece is there.

 

[Zemen]

If hope is indirectly made like that, what's the point of a Triforce of hope? Hope is not an attribute you can gain, as Courage, Power and Wisdom are. Everyone hopes. It is not so easy to have any of the Triforce attributes, but hope, everyone already has.

And yes, I suppose that makes sense Dark_link01. But that does not prove that a fourth piece is there.

but hope is something that is hard to gain. take MM for example. everyone thought they were gonna die. there was not one person who thought "maybe we CAN survive this"
no, most of them were basically just waiting to die. there was very little hope.

and also, thats the point. you asked why there would need to be a fourth piece for hope if its so easy to obtain. maybe thats the point for the missing triangle. you dont need to obtain hope. you just need to inately have it.

 

[blackice_cc]

but hope is something that is hard to gain. take MM for example. everyone thought they were gonna die. there was not one person who thought "maybe we CAN survive this"
no, most of them were basically just waiting to die. there was very little hope.

and also, thats the point. you asked why there would need to be a fourth piece for hope if its so easy to obtain. maybe thats the point for the missing triangle. you dont need to obtain hope. you just need to inately have it.

It Sounded to me like you were just saying there is no fourth piece right there. If there isn't a need for any godly way to gain hope, than why would there be a Triforce for it? That was basically what you just said, it seems.

Anyways, there was hope in MM. Many of the town people were leaving, and trying to escape the impending doom of the moon crashing into their world. If they had no hope, they would just sit there and wait to die. But no, they hoped they could get far enough away to be safe.

 

[Zemen]

It Sounded to me like you were just saying there is no fourth piece right there. If there isn't a need for any godly way to gain hope, than why would there be a Triforce for it? That was basically what you just said, it seems.

Anyways, there was hope in MM. Many of the town people were leaving, and trying to escape the impending doom of the moon crashing into their world. If they had no hope, they would just sit there and wait to die. But no, they hoped they could get far enough away to be safe.

thats not true. when the airplane flew into the twin towers, people were jumping out of the collapsing building. now when you jump from the 60th floor of a collapsing building i dont think you are hoping to live, infact im pretty sure they knew they were gonna die either way. when your life is threatened, or even when your life is SURELY gonna be taken away no matter what, people still have this instinct to try and protect themselves whether they have hope or not.

all im saying is, if there is a fourth piece and if that fourth piece represents hope, the reason it doesnt show itself is maybe because there isnt much hope. maybe its a metaphor (if it even exists). a metaphor that there are very few people in the world willing to stand up to evil and that everyone else just loses hope. the only time in the zelda games when people have hope is after they have seen the courage link displays. you make it sound like hope is easy to come by, but you have to remember its a videogame and you cant take everything as literal as it would be in the real world.

and just so you know, you said that everyone hopes so it would be pointless but the same goes for the other triforce powers.

you think link is the only person in the world who is courageous?

you think zelda is the only wise person in the world?

you think ganondorf is the only person in the world who has great power?

everyone is wise in their own way. there are a lot of people who display great feats of courage. there are plenty of people in the zelda series that have great power.

there are a lot of powerful characters in Zelda but ganondorf gets the triforce of power.

there are many wise people that link runs into in his adventures but zelda gets the triforce of wisdom.

there are plenty of courageous people that help link on his quest but hes the one who gets the triforce of courage.

with that in mind, why cant there be plenty of people who have hope but only one person who gets the triforce of hope?

 

[Izagar]

Do not bring in a 9/11 discussion here.

There is no fourth triforce piece! I am telling you, because if there was, WHY DIDN'T NINTENDO MENTION IT YET?!