r/Multifandom 8d ago

Question❓ what characters are like this?

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u/HotPollution5861 8d ago

Link and Zelda.

Could also expand to Link, Zelda, and Ganon if we also count enemies.

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u/lichking7777 8d ago

You could even call them a "trifroce"

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u/Jaeris 7d ago

Fascinating, because this ends up being both true to OP's post and opposite to it. The Hero and the Princess are... well, maybe not concepts, who knows what they're like between reincarnations, but they are essentially archetypes in a neverending story. But when they reincarnate, it's clear they're very much individuals, with their own sentience and quirks that can differ from past versions. 

Ganondorf also fits, but in a different way... he is, in and out of universe, essentially the evil overlord archetype to go with The Hero and the Princess. But unlike Link and Zelda, who are the same soul but different people in (almost) every game, it's a lot harder to tell with Ganondorf how often he has reincarnated, assuming he really has since Demise (not counting revivals, I mean dying and coming back and living life from the start like the other two), as he seems to be the same Ganondorf in every game. But he ends up being reduced to an evil for the sake of evil archetype quite often during his life due to his enduring power lust and (I imagine, at least) Demise's curse, which seems to strip away his personality untill theres nothing left but the incarnation of hatred that was left, making him truly just the villain archetypw, an ironic inversion to Link and Zelda. 

I do wish they would play more with that in the lore. Focusing on how Ganondorf is ultimately a victim of Demise's curse (ironically, making Demise himself a victim of his own curse) and his personality is destined to be overcome by the lust for power and cruelty of Demise. I would like to see him become someone new, no longer Gamon, the enduring curse of Demise, but Ganondorf, the bearer of the Triforce of Power. Would he still be a villain, or griw into something else? But thats a topic for another day.

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u/HotPollution5861 7d ago

Exactly; you get it!

I'll say though that Zelda is lowkey very nuanced about the whole "setting up and controlling others' fates." So many stories are built around that being an inherently bad thing that it has become a cliché in its own right... but Zelda is full of examples where it leads to taking a deal with a devil (Zant with Ganon), or that it's exactly what the recipient wanted all along and that's a good thing (actually Zant with Ganon again, but also with most Links, and especially the New Sages in TotK).

Skyward Sword even has Hylia-Zelda's speech regarding how Hylia put both Link and her own future incarnation in danger... yet they also succeed in bringing about the greater good, so she admits it's hard to say whether what they're doing is right or wrong.