What is the Dark Triforce?

In a recent editorial, I theorized that the Dark Triforce might just be an idea, and if Lorule was specifically created to mirror Hyrule, then that idea is still valid. However, if Lorule is a completely new world in its own right, then the Dark Triforce would be a very real object. So if the Dark Triforce is a real object, what could this imply?

Just as Lorule appears to be a dark reflection of Hyrule, could this mean that the Dark Triforce is a dark reflection of the Triforce? This would imply that it was created for a purpose, and to represent certain prized qualities within a person. So who created it? What for? And what does it represent?

Let’s start off with who created the Dark Triforce. In my theory about Lorule being Demise’s Realm, I suggested that Demise created it, and only made the three different components of it, so that it further paralleled the Triforce. But in nearly every game in which the Triforce is mentioned, it is also mentioned that it was created by the three Golden Goddesses, and if you think back to Skyward Sword, the legend that we are told at the start of the game is of the war between the Demon King (Demise) and Hylia. This legend also states that Hylia is protecting the Ultimate Power (which is shown to be the Triforce), with absolutely no mention of the Golden Goddesses who actually created it. So does this hold true for the Dark Triforce?

We know that Demise seeks the Triforce, and because of this, we can rule out the idea that Demise is protecting the Dark Triforce, because why would he need both? In my theory about Lorule being Demise’s Realm, I suggested that the Dark Triforce was somehow created after Demise’s defeat, and I reckon that holds true here. When Demise failed to attain the Triforce and use it to take over the world, those who employed Demise for this mission chose to instead create their own, dark version of the Triforce, and build an entirely new world (Lorule) around it.

By this reasoning, Lorule is its own world, not an older one that has been repurposed, nor an alternate-timeline version of a previously seen parallel world to Hyrule. So why is Ganon constantly trying to take over Hyrule if there’s a whole other world that could be his? Because Ganondorf was the reincarnation of Demise’s hatred not his purpose; Ganondorf was the reincarnation of Demise’s hatred for Hylia and his lust to rule the world that she protected.

So that explains that, now, getting back to who created the Dark Triforce: just as the Golden Goddesses, creators of the Triforce, employed Hylia to watch over the Triforce and the land they created, I believe that another three deities employed Demise to get the Triforce and transform the world. Now, I’m not saying that there are three Grotty Goddesses that are named Nid, Eroraf, and Uryan, but given Lorule’s tendency to parallel Hyrule, I’d expect something similar.

This doesn’t mean that these three other deities are inherently evil, as can be seen in that Hilda appears to be a good-natured inhabitant of Lorule, it just means that they aren’t as righteous as the Golden Goddesses. This can be seen through the fact that they lowered themselves to employing the Demon King to make them a world of their own. But because Demise specifically went after the Triforce and tried to corrupt the land of the Golden Goddesses, this could indicate that these other three deities do have something against the Golden Goddesses for one reason or another.

Now, moving onto the Dark Triforce’s purpose, first we need to know the Triforce’s purpose. In Skyward Sword, Zelda, having regained her memories from her lifetime as the deity, Hylia, states that while she does not know the true reason that the Golden Goddesses created the Triforce, she believes that, because it was created so that it could not be used by their kind (by any form of deity), it was the Goddesses’ way of giving hope to the mortals of the land.

In the same way, we cannot be entirely sure as to why the Dark Triforce was created. Perhaps these three other deities thought it was a requirement in creating a new world? Or maybe, because they appeared to have something against the Golden Goddesses, they made the Dark Triforce and Lorule as a testament to their power and their worth? As I said, we can’t be sure about the Dark Triforce’s purpose.

But the Dark Triforce was still created by whoever, for whatever reason. So what does it represent. People have speculated that because the Triforce represents power, courage, and wisdom, then the Dark Triforce, being its opposite, represents submissiveness, cowardice, and ignorance. But the Triforce was designed to be wielded by a person with a balanced, well-natured heart; so if the Dark Triforce is the opposite of the Triforce, then it is designed to be wielded by a person with a balanced, ill-natured heart.

For this next section, I will be referring to other narrative or visual texts to reinforce my idea. My primary reference is the Doctor Who episode, ‘Planet of the Ood’. In this episode, the main character, the Doctor, witnesses the revolt of a race known as the Ood, who had been enslaved by humans in the 42nd Century. After seeing first-hand the different methods that different groups of Ood used to overthrow humans, the Doctor summarises to say that there were three distinct traits that different Ood demonstrated, the first one being revenge.

Keeping in mind that revenge, being the act of getting back at one person or several for an act that they had previously committed, can be thought of as widely as being the motivation for malicious acts as a result of previous, unfortunate events. After thinking of revenge that way, how many villains can you think of that aren’t motivated by thoughts of revenge? Specifically in the Zelda universe, Ganondorf is a prime example of this. It’s revealed in The Wind Waker that Ganondorf was strongly motivated in his attempts to take over Hyrule by the harsh environment that his society was forced to endure whilst all other societies lived in environments that they considered ideal.

But there are villains that aren’t motivated by revenge, instead, as the Doctor next described, there is anger. Anger is a powerful emotion, and hatred is an even more powerful, and it can also serve as motivation for certain actions. Anger can be defined simply as a strong feeling of displeasure, and nobody likes displeasure, so what’s your immediate idea? To get rid of the source of this displeasure. In the Zelda universe, this can be seen in both Demise and Vaati. Demise hated Hylia and everything she stood for, and sought to destroy her; Vaati hated his lack of power, and sought to obtain it, and as I theorized in my editorial on Vaati, Vaati’s later incarnations are motivated solely by the anger that they retained from Vaati’s first incarnation.

And lastly, patience. In ‘Planet of the Ood’, there was one Ood, called Ood Sigma, who appeared to still be friendly, though it is revealed that he was following through with a larger scheme. Once again, this can be seen in the Zelda universe in Ganondorf, in his appearances in Twilight Princess and The Wind Waker. In the former, he gives Zant some of his power and waits while he invades and takes over Hyrule so that Ganondorf can take over both Hyrule and the Twilight Realm afterwards; and in The Wind Waker, Ganondorf abducts pointy-eared girls from the islands of the Great Sea, sort-of patiently sorting through them all until he finds the descendent of Princess Zelda. Another example of a villain demonstrating patience can be found in the Deltora Quest books by Emily Rodda, in which the primary villain of the series, the Shadow Lord, is said to have been hiding away for thousands of years, but that, to one so evil, a thousand years can be like the blink of an eye.

So to summarise, I believe the Dark Triforce in A Link Between Worlds is comprised of the Dark Triforce of Revenge, the Dark Triforce of Anger/Hatred, and the Dark Triforce of Patience.

So far, we only know of two characters in A Link Between Worlds who are from Lorule: Hilda and Yuga. Yuga is the primary villain of the game, but apart from wanting to resurrect Ganon, his motives are unclear, so if he did possess a part of the Dark Triforce, we can’t be sure which one. But there could be one that we could rule out. Hilda has appeared to be an innocent character who is caught up in the events of A Link Between Worlds, but a line from Yuga in one of the trailers suggests otherwise:

“Her Grace will be most pleased…”

Could it be that Hilda does in fact have ill intentions, and is simply following through with a larger plan, that plan being Yuga’s actions toward reviving Ganon? Does Hilda possess the Dark Triforce of Patience.

But what do you guys think? Who do you think created the Dark Triforce, and what for? What do you think each part of the Dark Triforce represents? Let me know in the comments!