Gossip Stone (Response to Comments!): What If Link Played the Anti Hero?

Last week, in our Gossip Stone about possible karma systems in Zelda, I discussed how certain decisions you (and by extension, Link) make could have serious effects on the lives and perspectives of those all across the kingdom. But what about Link himself? The question of what makes him, or anyone else, a hero is a rather broad one at times, but to me, that does not always mean being the squeaky-clean image of greatness. Sometimes, it takes a tough exterior, and a will to do what everyone else will not like, to save people. Maybe Link could do that. Maybe not. Let’s go over some ideas.

This will essentially act as a response to certain comments from last week’s Gossip Stone – ones that I will point out – as well as the general discussion on this topic I saw there. You guys had some great points, and I’m happy to talk about them.

Join the discussion after the jump!

“In Zelda, you play as Link, the hero. It’s in his blood to be the hero, and he’s chosen by the Goddesses. It would be a very bad decision to incorporate Karma in the series, because making Link an anti-hero or even worse would change the game altogether. It might sound like a good idea, but it just doesn’t work well with the Zelda series.” – Mr. Heck

Thank you to Mr . Heck for the comment last week that sparked this topic. He and many others made great discussion on the article. Anyway, I can only half-agree with him. Karma may or may not work well in Zelda, and I can certainly see how it could potentially go badly, but Link as an anti-hero? That, I must say, sounds interesting – and more to the point, rather plausible. Link is destined to save the world, but sometimes, that takes stepping outside of others’, and often one’s own, moral boundaries for the sake of the world. Here’s one example of a rather conceivable instance of Link having to do some bad for the greater good. Note that second sentence: “…he’s chosen by the Goddesses.” Yep, he sure is. He is chosen to be the tool of three golden goddesses, creators of the world and the Triforce. Link must follow their bidding to better the land of Hyrule. …right? What if the goddesses are a bit more, say, righteous than those living in the world can handle? I mean, when Ganondorf tried to overtake Hyrule again after Ocarina of Time, they FLOODED it. That’s pretty cold. They see the destruction of the land as better than its corruption, no matter the lives it holds. And that is not even touching the fact that the relic they left behind keeps causing wars and death. Perhaps all of that would be a system worth resisting on Link’s part. A hero saves the day, but a true hero makes the hardest choices, even ones the people around them may hate them for (insert Dark Knight quote here). For Link, it certainly is “in his blood to be the hero”, but I think that it is about time he stopped getting it so easy when it comes to moral decisions. If protecting the people he cares about meant something as huge as resisting the will of the goddesses, could he make that choice? Could you?

Here’s a response to Mr. Heck’s original comment:

“All the history you hear about previous Links in the games is that they saved Hyrule, nothing is mentioned about his morals.” – Strobro

To many, morals do not really have much to do with being the hero. People call other people heroes a lot without thinking much about their morality, instead looking only at their accomplishments, and that is not entirely bad. After all, who says that heroes must be flawless? Perfection makes for a boring hero, if you ask me. That is not to say “ends always justify means” or anything, but no one is perfect, and Link should not be either. If one of us was suddenly out to save the world, we would all make totally different choices left, right and center, and any number of them could be seen as right or wrong. In the end, saving the world/princess/kingdom/whatever is what matters as a whole, but there could easily be serious choices to make that would greatly effect the future of certain people, or many across Hyrule. Heck, given the trend of decision-heavy games lately, maybe even the ending of the game would involve one large choice. Like I said, if things got as big as questioning the choices of Din, Nayru and Farore, decisions could get real tough real fast.

“In a future Zelda game, they should make it possible for Link to turn dark! Playable Dark Link (one that’s actually a person with bad*** character and bad attitude) anyone?” – DraculaLink625

Whether things would go that far is questionable, as that would call into question your final goal as the main character. Perhaps if you could only be out to save yourself, then such a path could work gameplay-wise. But this is not Undertale, and I imagine Zelda will not have any “genocide endings”. Still, the “evil outcome” concept could be a factor, if used well.

What do you guys think? Is the concept of Link being more characterized as the anti-hero worth exploring, and to what extent of harsh decision making is he still seen as the hero? Thank you to the quoted commenters (I would love to see more responses on this from you), as well as all those in the previous discussion. Let me know all your thoughts!