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May 8th, 2008 at 5:19 am by
Archaic Sage
A grim title, but the experience of death, for most people is a grim thing. Be that the death of a valued family member, the death of a loved pet, or just a disaster in the world. All of these things are negative experiences in life, and we all mourn over these things different – depending which culture we are from. Some cultures burn their dead, others bury them, some will mourn in silence, and others will mourn only with their own gender. These real life examples of grief are but a few of what actually happens in life, yet, when we look at the way grief and death is dealt with in Hyrule it seems as if it is a taboo subject. With evidence of death in the series going back as far as the first ever Zelda title, The Legend of Zelda, there is a stark lack of culture in terms of this cross-culture experience. In fact, it could be argued that there are only six incidences when we see some form of death. The four times where death can actually be physically seen would be with the death of The Great Deku Tree in Ocarina of Time, the death of Twinrova twins, Koume and Kotake, the death of Ganon/Ganondorf in Twilight Princess and in The Wind Waker in the same style. These four areas are prominent deaths throughout the series, and yet, on the whole, they go unnoticed. The most memorably, and possibly touching, of all of these deaths would be the death of The Great Deku Tree. After spending an extended period of time battling against the evil creatures inside of him, they still managed to destroy The Great Deku Tree, the one of the last demi-Gods in the land. In this instance, we see that he simple shrivels up and goes grey. He is not referred to again in any significant context throughout the rest of the title. It is clear that The Great Deku Tree passes away. Not only because he states it himself, but also because the Kokiri in the forest believe this as well, this is seen from the following quotes:
Source: Zelda Legends
Source: Zelda Legends
Source: Zelda Legends Therefore it can see that the mystical creatures of Hyrule do manage to pass on to another world, but we don’t know where they go or what happens for that matter. Continuing with the Ocarina of Time theme list with the demise of Twinvora, or Koume and Kotake. The guardians of the Spirit Temple, they will go to any length to protect the Spirit Medallion, and go as far as to be destroyed by our Hero for the greater good. In their death scenes they have “halos” over their head to indicate that they have passed on to the next life, as we can see below:
However, nothing more is noted about them. That’s it. It’s almost as is they are removed from Zelda history, as they do not seem to pop up again throughout the rest of the Zelda games. Even in games after Ocarina of Time where they could appear, they do not. Then there is the multiple death of Ganondorf/Ganon, it must be noted that Ganon was first executed by Link in The Legend of Zelda, in which he seems to simply fade into obscurity until The Adventure of Link, whereby his followers are trying to revive him by taking some of Link’s blood (i.e. the person who originally killed him). Aside from that, Ganondorf/Ganon was killed in The Wind Waker by a sword through the head. It’s a lovely way to go, and his death is seen. In fact, at the point of his probable death, Ganondorf/Ganon is also drowned as the “frozen” Hyrule is let fall apart by the King of Hyrule. Then in Twilight Princess Ganondorf is killed again by the sword, and again just seems to disappear into obscurity. If these deaths were real, or if Hyrule had some form of burial or mourning process it should be seen immediately after all of the above events, even for the death of Ganondorf/Ganon as ultimately his followers would have to mourn his death. Yet, it would appear that there could be an afterlife. With the above examples, there are two important points. The first is with Twinrova twins, Koume and Kotake. The pair do ascend, and that’s an important thing to note. In most major religions there is a belief of a heaven and a hell, for symbolic reasons, if Koume and Kotake were to have descended it would have meant that they were going to hell. However, they ascended, which means that they are going to heaven. Although is there a hell and heaven system in Hyrule, or does everyone simply ascend to the Goddesses? That’s an important question, as we know that Ganondorf is banished to the realm between dimensions in Ocarina of Time. This then confirms the fact that Hyrule is a multi-dimensional realm, and it also confirms that Hyrule will have a place for those who have passed on. More importantly however, is the fact that in The Adventure of Link, Ganondorf/Ganon’s followers are trying to revive him from the dead. This indicates that death may not be a permanent state of being in Hyrule, or alternatively it could meant that death is optional – similar to the known theory as to why “Ghosts” exist (unfinished business). The other two areas in which death can be immediately seen are with the two different types of Zombies in the series. The first that have been encountered are the Gibdo. The Gibdo are essentially dead people that have been mummified. The other type of Zombie is the ReDead. The first time that a Gibdo is encountered is in the very first Zelda game, The Legend of Zelda. The Gibdo is not a strong opponent and doesn’t require much thought to dispose of them. The Gibdo manages to evolve a little in Ocarina of Time, in which they develop the ability to “freeze” Link upon looking at him. The ReDead first appears in Ocarina of Time and is essentially the same as a Gibdo, except in two respects. The first is the obvious one, they are un-bandaged and the second is that they appear to have some form of ritual for death. Upon a ReDead’s execution, the other ReDead’s will gather around the newly deceased and just stand there. With the limited animation that was given to them in Ocarina of Time, it’s hard to tell what they are doing. However, they do just stand there until the creature disappears. This could be interpreted as a form of mourning for their deceased brethren. Although this behaviour pattern only occurs in Ocarina of Time and does not again appear in The Wind Waker or in Twilight Princess, which are the only other games which feature the enemy in Hyrule. We know that these two creatures were formerly alive as they are usually found in tombs or graves, which the dead tend to be buried. The four other types of creatures that could be used within any article discussing death would be the Poe’s, the Ghini’s, the Stalfos and the Stalchild’s. However, including these creatures in any form of burial ritual would be unwise as the Poe and the Ghini were formerly alive, however, they have not gone on to the next world. Further, at no point can they be used in circumstantial evidence for any form of burial practise. In regards to the Stalfos Knights or the Stalchild, it would be foolish to include them as they were never mourned or destroyed in the first place. They continue to fight after their bodies have been destroyed. Therefore there was no burial or mourning process for them. Additionally, the Stalchild was never a Hylian in the first place:
Source: Zelda.com Now that all of the obvious areas of death have been identified in brief, the two, which will be focused on, will be the ReDead and the Gibdo, as they may hold the most obvious clues to the habits of the Hylian’s for mourning and class discrimination as well. In Japan only the Buddhist monks of the highest power and enlightenment would be mummified, and leaving all else to be burned or buried in the traditional Japanese manner (as a side note, in Shinto it tends to be burning, simply because it’s left to the Buddhist religion to deal with death as in Shinto it’s a source of impurity), this would indicate that it would be the Gibdo are the people who used to be more wealthy or powerful. However, many would use an obvious example to try and counter this. In Ocarina of Time when Link enters into the Royal Family’s Tomb, there are ReDeads everywhere. This would indicate that surely it’s the deceased Royal Family members were not mummified and left as ReDeads. A solution to this mindset would be that it is not actually the members of the Royal Family in the outer tomb, but it is actually their servants. In the culture of the ancient Egyptians, when someone dies, they would kill their servants and animals and take them along for the ride as well. This is because they believed that they would need everything important in their current life in the afterlife. Furthermore, the ReDead are found littered all around the place in Hyrule, which is a clear indication that they are neither rich, nor important. Moreover, Gibdo’s do exist in the Spirit Temple in Ocarina of time, in which only the evil and poor souls would reside. This is a perfect example of greed in Hyrule, as the rich and the important are often some of the most impolite and heinous people in the world. Yet at no point throughout the series does a burial, a burning or mummification take place. Mourning and grief is seen, and that’s seen by Midna’s reaction to Zelda’s “death” in Twilight Princess, and the death of many of the Sages in Ocarina of Time is noted in many of the characters across the game. Although in Twilight Princess, an interesting, yet far too short point has been opened. After Link travels to Zora’s Domain to try and discover what is happening, it soon becomes apparent that their Queen has been murdered by the evil forces at work, and her son Ralis has gone missing. Later Link discovers the Queen’s grave, but Ralis is also there mourning his loss. This is the first real time that a Zora graveyard has been discovered, and that the races of Hyrule do actually grieve and mourn for their dead. Moreover, when a person dies and becomes a Poe or a Ghini there is normally a grave that is somewhere close by, so it’s clear that the people of Hyrule tend to burry their dead rather than cremate them. So in reality, even after a five-page review on the features of death in Hyrule, we are still non-the-wiser. There are plenty of references to death, and there are also plenty opportunities to show us more of Hylian culture and religion in the process – it would just seem that we are to be kept in the dark for a little longer yet. Filed under Editorials, Legend of Zelda, Oracle of Ages, The Minish Cap, Twilight Princess Follow This Entry | Leave a Response | ||
16 Messages from the Gossip Stones about “Death in Hyrule”
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Jumanji_Shishioh says:
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Robert-UK says:
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Archaic Sage says:
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uberzeldamaster says:
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mario64mario says:
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mario64mario says:
May 8th, 2008 at 7:57 am [quote]
*bringing a little Monty Python into this*
Pie Farore Domine, Dona eis Requiem… *whacks head with a board*
Pie Farore Domine,*thunk* dona eis Requiem… *thunk; repeats the second line over and over*
lol, If there’s a graveyard, there’s going to be mourning. However, people fear monsters, which pop up whenever Link and Ganon/Vaati/etc. are on the same continent, so burying the dead comes after the war between good and evil had passed. Don’t forget the Split Timeline, and the fact that the Twins live to the Oracle series… *thunk*
May 8th, 2008 at 11:02 am [quote]
Damn Jumanji, I was gonna mention the Twins being alive in the Oracle games but you beat me to it, git, lol. To be honest theres no definitive proof that Ganondorf has ever truly died, in WW he turned to stone so it is possible that he could return if one were to pull out the Master Sword. Twilight Princess however… i’m not sure, that versrion of Ganondorf could be truly dead.
BTW heres one odd little fact, if Twilight Princess and Wind Waker happened at the same time then how can the Triforce exist in both realities? In Wind Waker Link had to collect the shards while Tetra had a piece and Ganondorf had the full Triforce of Power. However, in Twilight Princess Link had the Triforce of Courage, Zelda had the Triforce of Wisdom and Ganondorf had the Triforce of Power, so what gives? Does this mean that there are now two Triforces and two Sacred Realms? Anyone else have any ideas?
May 8th, 2008 at 2:10 pm [quote]
Well, it’s kinda like this:
I was choosing a snack to eat, but I couldn’t decide to go for an orange, or a pack of oreos. I eat one of the, but in an alternative reality, I eat the other, and wonder what would have happened if I ate the first thing instead, while Universe A me wonders what if I ate the other thing rather than the first thing. In short, whenever there’s a multiple of one thing, the alternative will have just about everything else, albeit different from the first. So, when one Ganondorf dies, the other does too, but one of them gets to come back. We should discuss this on a more appropriate topic, or at my site.
Now, in Majora’s Mask, there’s a sub-boss (of whom I’ve never seen, considering I never have done the temple in Ikana Canyon before) called Gomess (I’ve seen screenshots, but never the actual boss fight) and he seems to be a Grim Reaper type of enemy. For there to be an after-life, there needs to be the harvestor, or as they called it in the olden times, a reaper of things that have been sown. So, I figured, Gomess is the Grim Reaper that
had been tricked by a couple of kids into shirking his duties, and now roams the land for fresh souls to stealcorrupted by the mask when collecting the souls of the undead.May 8th, 2008 at 5:30 pm [quote]
Not that it’s all that important, but you seem to be forgetting the death of the Hylian soldier in OoT in the back alley of Castle Town after Ganondorf invades the castle. It’s the closest in the series that you’ll find to a real-world death.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:02 am [quote]
You seem to be dismissing what I have always felt were by far the Zelda series most powerful scenes involving death. These scenes are contributed to Majora’s Mask, the death of the Deku butler’s son [as can be finally infered from the closing credits to be the withered tree in the gap between dimensions], Darmani’s death, Mikau’s death, and the entire annihalation of the Ikana Kingdom. What made these deaths so powerful was that in these instances Link as our beloved hero from whom sorrow should find no escape had no possible way of preventing said losses. MM I feel offers a realistic and mature representation of death and what it means to carry on the responsibility of someone as powerful as Link. He as well as us is only capable of dealing with what is directly before us. Fate suffers not his strength, death will ever remain and take the lives of those whose time is up and Link can never do anything about that. He is not ubiquitous despite what titles of “Hero” either people or Gods give him, he is only a man [Hylian]
May 9th, 2008 at 2:13 pm [quote]
Interesting, LoZ has always had the most gruesome deaths for all it’s enemies but never for it’s heroes. As kingmizar was saying, MM does deal with death a lot. Ikana canyon was almost nothing but death lore. The well also seems to be a weird place to bury mummies. They also actually speak in there. I didn’t get what you were talking about with the split timeline thing, though it would provide a lot of escapes for Ganondorf. In short I think that you probably could have spent more time researching this, if you were still bored.
May 10th, 2008 at 12:58 am [quote]
…. the ReDeads would gather around one of their deceased?? And MOURN it?! I was creeped out by them before I knew that. Now I am scared to death of them.
… In the Bottom of The Well (Farore forbid I have to go down there again), there is a room I have visited. It contains… tombs. The kind you see Dracula sliding the top off of in the older movies. The tops would slide off and Gibdos would come out. And a man in the older Link’s time says that a man’s house used to exist where the well is now. Maybe… it wasn’t a house at all… but a mausoleum? I have never visited that room again, nor explored the well fully, for I fear the darkness of the underground… and the Dead Hands… they are a timeless curse, luring men into the folds of unpeirced darkness only to feast upon their flesh. The Deadhands are truly the most evil creations Nintendo has thought of yet.
… Has anyone else noticed that the Gido’s are forced to kill themselves if defeated? They are the Shiekah of Ikana, but they are more gruesome. Also, add a b into the name, and it spells Gibdo. Coincidence?
I think… there is more than one connection between the worlds of Hyrule and Termina. In the tomb room I mentioned earlier, I found a door that would not open. I did not question it, as I was younger, and I thought nothing of it. This might connect Hyrule’s tomb to a tomb in Termina, perhaps in Ikana? Now I wonder… What lies beyond the door?
The darkness shall consume all… as while the light vanquishes it, the dark does not require a source to exist.
May 10th, 2008 at 6:36 am [quote]
Actually UZM, they’re the Garo in Ikana Canyon. I can’t check out anything in OoT or MM because I found out that my Collector’s Edition disc was scratched beyond repair ;_; I don’t have any Wii Points for the Virtual console, so I can’t get OoT, and Majora’s Mask isn’t out yet.
May 10th, 2008 at 6:44 am [quote]
Mine are in perfect working condition, what do you need to know?
May 10th, 2008 at 10:14 am [quote]
@Jumanji_Shishioh
The only issue raised with discussing the Twins in the Oracle series is that we don’t actually know for certain where the Oracle series is placed in the timeline, be it split or single. Which is why their discussion was limited to Ocarina of Time, which we know is the first in the series, with MM, TWW and TP following (be that split or not). Aside from that, we have very little concrete knowledge of the timeline.
@Robert-UK
Although it’s unrelated to this article, the Triforce existing in both timelines makes it even harder for the Split Timeline to be justified by people who research the timeline and by Nintendo.
@Psy
I had totally forgotten about the Hylian Soldier in the Back Alley. However, if you consider that, you see his death, and that’s it. There’s nothing much to gather from that, aside from the fact that he just “disappears” and is never mentioned again. A nice Easter Egg that could, and should’ve been elaborated on further.
@kingmizar64
This is death in Hyrule, not Termina. I agree that Termina’s handling of death is done on a far better ground and has a lot of depth; however, it’s not Hyrule and is an entirely different universe, which is why it’s been omitted. The last thing anyone wants is to mix two different theology’s together - that’s just too confusing.
@Blademaster
At no point did I mention the split timeline, so I’m unsure why you’re referring to this.
@uberzeldamaster
The ReDead’s aren’t pleasant really, but it could be argued that they are mourning their dead, that or eating them. So either way, they’re not an attractive creature to be around.
In regards to the room at the bottom of the well, I don’t recall it at all if I’m honest with you - and I did go back down there whilst writing this article to make sure I wasn’t forgetting anything; but I clearly did. lol
Additionally, it states in the MM manual that Termina is a parallel universe, so it could be argued that what happens to one world should happen to the other world to a degree. Therefore it wouldn’t be unusual to see some sort of similarities between the two worlds, especially on smaller more ambiguous things.
May 12th, 2008 at 4:08 pm [quote]
… Eat them? Possible, but I prefer to mourn then to eat. Heh, ReDead cannabolism. That would be quite a sight.
As for the room in the bottom of the well, I’ll search with all my power for it, because I know what I saw. I just… the Well is my nightmare of real life. Some people have bullies or something similar, I have the Well. It’s more a child-hood thing, but… everytime I see it, haunting images flit through my head.
… Sorry, I must not have good memory, I could have sworn it was called Gido. My bad. :p But, you know… I do have a point. And, in Termina (I realise this does not pertain to Hyrule, but it has some significance in Hyrule), (and the fact it is a parralel universe tells something), there are a a lot more Gibdo then there are ReDeads. Why is it in Hyrule that the ReDead are more common than the Gibdo? The Garo themselves seem to carry death
in the form of a bombin the fact that they do not fear, perhaps, even embrace it. I think, a coven was made (wasn’t there an article we threatened TML over about this?), and they were sworn to secrecy, or death. The Shiekah are a little different. One, they don’t have to kill themselves if found. Instead, they just destroy all evidence of the site. Easy Peasy. I think these societies were responsible for the different burial rituals, too. The Shiekah were very loyal to the Royal Family. It is by their grave (the Royal Family) they have a Shadow Temple, a monument to death itself. Ikana, and the Garo, have what? Stories? Memouires? There is nothing the Garo do to respect death, as far as I could tell, except for their legends. It is almost a Taboo, if you ask me. Plus, there were ReDeads in the King’s castle, and only in the King’s castle. But, there were Gibdos everywhere else. Heck, it was an army in the well.Do the Ikanians just do as the Egyptians do? Or was it a result of the parralel seperation?
It seems to be that there is no end to the riddles that plague my mind and quander it. If only there was a [Total] Solution, one answer to answer all questions.
May 14th, 2008 at 12:18 am [quote]
I used to think that when the ReDeads gathered around a fallen one, they were going to bring it back to life :-O But the fallen one usually disappeared either before, or just as the other ReDeads reached it.
May 14th, 2008 at 3:18 pm [quote]
Heh heh, my problem is that I always kill every ReDead in Gibdo in a room before they can unfreeze (my main weapon against them is the Sun’s Song). It works perfectly, and I don’t take any chances. Period.
Being sure is an asset, just as the gun of a soldier is his weapon. They go hand in hand.
May 14th, 2008 at 4:56 pm [quote]
EB Games has a great disc cleaner! Someone gave me LoZ: Windwaker, and it wouldn’t read. I saw the disc and it was scratched in every way possible. I used the cleaner, and it reads perfectly now =D (just a suggesting to revive 4 great games.)
I think it’s kinda dumb that they didn’t follow up Ganondorf’s ‘death’ in Twilight Princess. -.- So many questions unanswer in that game.
May 14th, 2008 at 6:36 pm [quote]
Hmm, I gotta see if the local EB Games does that… unless it’s just for you guys. Thanks anyways.
May 15th, 2008 at 6:35 pm [quote]
Just a tip when you’re looking for it; it was called something like ‘Merlin’s magic disc cleaner”, and it had a wizard on the front of the box. Go figure.