tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904713839696769313.post1931537491161448873..comments2024-02-26T00:27:47.712-08:00Comments on Cross-Up: What’s The Deal With Chosen Ones?Voltechhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01038586008627390463noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904713839696769313.post-55835004920041602362015-02-09T13:23:42.745-08:002015-02-09T13:23:42.745-08:00Hilariously, the best approach to this in recent m...Hilariously, the best approach to this in recent movie history has been the Lego Movie. The. Lego. Movie. The thing about fate / chosen ones / blah blah... is more about what it represents rather than the fact some bozo is elevated to reverence. <br /><br /><br />The scenario is always the same. There's a unstoppable evil and SOMEone needs to step up and take care of it. Cue some wizard/wise man/leader to make up some bullcrap about destiny and someone answers the call.<br /><br /><br />It's that simple. <br /><br /><br />Sometimes the person that responds is a total loser, sometimes the person that responds is perfect for the job. The thing is, the tale wouldn't be told if the person SCREWED UP and the world as we know it was reduced to rubble. It is a tale. <br /><br /><br />"Hey, remember that time the universe was almost destroyed and by some FLUKE the janitor saved us all?" <br /><br /><br />"Yeah. That was awesome."<br /><br /><br />No one ever tells the tale of how someone ALMOST saved the world, but stuff got blown up anyway. History is written by the winners, after all.Eric R. Jacksonhttp://dimanagul.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904713839696769313.post-76324003506126597152015-02-06T21:53:04.045-08:002015-02-06T21:53:04.045-08:00No need for the spoilers; I've put my fair sha...No need for the spoilers; I've put my fair share of time into Wind Waker, after all. Speaking of which, one of these days I should probably get around to doing a post on it. Probably.<br /><br />You're definitely not wrong about the Zelda games banking HARD on the chosen one angle...buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut with Skyward Sword behind me, I'm starting to think that's the super-secret entire point of the franchise. On the surface, Link is the hero out to save the princess (and the world) from the king of evil, in whatever form he takes next. So it's as you said; Link and Zelda and Ganon(dorf) are all cogs in the machine, but it's to make a point about how being the chosen hero, princess, and hero utterly sucks. Granted my interpretation's based heavily on SS, but I have a hunch that Wind Waker works on the same axis. Well, sort of. My theory is that WW is supposed to be a parody of Zelda canon and conventions -- and while I could be off-base on that, it's worth remembering that the game that came before it (Majora's Mask, AKA THE SICKEST GAME) is considered by many to not only be the darkest Zelda game, but a dark game in general.<br /><br />On that note, here's a helpful tip: don't go looking at high-res pictures of Majora's Mask. I seriously had some rough nightmares thanks to one measly picture. Those friggin' eyes...<br /><br />You know what, though? Wind Waker didn't NEED to be about a chosen one. IIRC, it's a hundred-years-later offshoot of the Zelda timeline; if there was ever a time to deviate from the formula and expectations (even if that formula got tweaked and prodded), it was that one. As big a risk as the cel-shaded style was, the story linked to it is still relatively safe. Maybe with the upcoming Zelda Wii U we'll see some sweeping reforms, and a bold step away from the chosen one story that the canon's relied on for ages. Maybe.<br /><br />On an unrelated note...YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO PERSONA 5<br /><br />http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/909/453/979.gifVoltech44noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904713839696769313.post-58830802560083444812015-02-06T16:17:44.889-08:002015-02-06T16:17:44.889-08:00The topic of chosen heroes is now making me acknow...The topic of chosen heroes is now making me acknowledge the elephant in the room of my childhood. As much as I adore it to tears, the Zelda series has this problem too. And it's why I never beat Windwaker. It's the closest game in decades to being a heavy exploration game like the first Zelda in the 80's and it has some of the best aesthetics and gameplay in the 3D side of the series. Hell, the story was perfectly fine until the "Triforce mythos" bomb destroyed the experience for me.<br /><br /><br />I apologize for the SPOILERS.<br /><br /><br />Windwaker was the one time where I didn't want Link to be the "goddess' chosen one"; I just wanted him to save his sister and grow up to be a worldly sailor/pirate. The damn curse Skyward Sword canonized is a beaten dead horse with no resolution or ending in sight, and it's physically painful to endure depending on the game and it's story. WW Link was just an ordinary kid leaving his home to explore the vast open sea to find his adorable sister so his grandmother doesn't die from multiple heart attacks. The game was most compelling when Link had to go out, find new weapons, and grow stronger to take down the SOBs who nearly tore his family apart. Once Link reunited with his sister about halfway through the game, I felt things should have been done. Instead, we had yet another master plan of Ganondorf using the Triforce to take over the world b/c destiny said so and blah, blah, blah... My sense of agency vanished to the point that I quit playing once I stood outside of the room to the final boss. I just couldn't do it.<br /><br /><br />To me, Windwaker didn't do the best job in transitioning the focus from a personal story to a chosen one narrative. Sure, there were plenty of times in dungeons when someone told Link of mysterious stories of the past and other legends, but they felt more like interesting backstory and world-building, not foreshadowing for the billionth Link vs Ganon fight. So once Aryll is saved and the Hyrule/Triforce/Goddesses stuff took the front seat, it felt jarring enough to send the game's pacing to a crawl. (Tetra's change in personality b/c of the story's shift in ideas highlights this problem greatly for me. It was practically a 180-degree character reversal.)<br /><br /><br />Maybe I'm being too hard on Windwaker. Maybe I'm alone in feeling that the chosen hero schtick wasn't needed to make it a great game. Maybe I'm overthinking it since I've been in the mood for Zelda for the past month. The series' backbone relies on the chosen hero trope - not always in a bad way - but it's getting repetitive to the point that the different incarnations of Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf are nothing more but pawns or cogs in the machine. They may lose the elements of what make them characters if the Triforce shenanigans keep reoccurring in a copy-and-paste fashion, especially if one of the games has a story in which that dynamic is not needed to stay true to the "essence" of Zelda: puzzles, exploration, magic, pointy ears, bizarre dungeons, and hot-blooded chickens.<br /><br /><br />To defend Zelda, however, at least nearly every Link has to work his ass off to get anywhere close to being a badass swordsman. It's generally worked... depending on the game and the reasons why Link has to go on the journey in the first place.Melanie Lighthttp://melanie-light.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904713839696769313.post-39201728803440608652015-02-05T02:13:21.609-08:002015-02-05T02:13:21.609-08:00I have some comments to make on this. They'll ...I have some comments to make on this. They'll come soon. It's good that you mentioned BioWare, as we need to delve into some of their past, better work: Planescape: Torment and Baldur's Gate (2, which is my favorite).<br /><br />Talk soon.Sean Weeksnoreply@blogger.com