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There is more to Tri than some folks think
Saturday, December 14th, 2024 10:15 amTaking a quick little break from finishing my HL exchange story...
I enjoy the Sacred Realms The Legend of Zelda podcast tremendously (always fast-forwarding through the "Whiskey Bit" to get to the real rundown). But of course quibbling with them is part of the fun. On a recent "Echoes of Wisdom" episode, one of the two hosts raised an incredibly good story question and then, oops, blundered the first story fact available to answer it.
[Light spoilers for EoW] Lyndon posed the intriguing question of what, if anything, makes Tri, the companion character, different from all its friends. But then he immediately, mistakenly, asserted that Tri's first appearance is in the dungeon of Hyrule Castle, thereby dismissing the uniqueness and proximity of Tri as just a clumsy Convenient Plot Device with nothing more to it, and moved on. No, silly! Tri is right there from the very start, in the chamber where Zelda is imprisoned in the crystal. Tri is the ball of light that follows the freed Zelda, hides in Link's discarded cloak, which Zelda retrieves (and puts in her pocket, which, like Link's, is infinitely bigger on the inside), and then emerges from the cloak in the dungeon. Tri even says: "My name's Tri. That blue monster? He caught me, too. I've been watching you since then. I followed you here, to this castle."
Tri is clearly the last of the Tris to be free (or at least the only free Tri we meet). Is that coincidence, cleverness, destiny? It seems less likely to me to be a plotty effort by its friends to ensure someone can go for help, because if the other Tris think like our Tri, they're very disconnected from understanding such things, but it's not impossible. Tri says, "He caught me, too." That means Tri was caught and then escaped! How did Tri escape? Why did none of the other Tris escape? Why did Tri choose to hide in the cloak and follow Zelda? Of course it's likely the fact that she is who she is at a much deeper level -- chosen priestess, not just born princess -- and the Tris are attuned to that, but it could also just be that she's the only one who made it out and Tri chose wisely ("wisely"). Could Tri be a leader among the Tris? Or could our Tri be a child, and any other Tri would be more sophisticated? (If the Big Bad Final Boss can dissolve and/or enslave Tris, then their ranks need replenishment, either by being born or being directly created... unless a slow decline in their numbers is what allowed this Big Bad to make this much progress in the first place! If the Big Bad first caught a Tri by accident, and then learned what it could be done with its power over time...)
Anyway. I've been meaning to post this observation for a week or two. Tri is clearly not the tippy-top best of the companions -- Midna vs. Fi vs. Navi, apparently an eternal question? -- but Tri must be allowed a mention in the running.
(BTW, about gendering Tri, the individual companion? Many folks are using "they." I've also seen he, she, and it. Elderly Impa addresses Tri as "Master Tri," in the sense of the old formal honorific for a boy-child, and that made me think "he." (Would the Japanese original be revealing?) Is there anywhere in the game where Tri, the individual companion, not the species of Tris, is referred to by a pronoun? Almost all the dialogue is to Tri, not about Tri. I'll keep a lookout.)
I enjoy the Sacred Realms The Legend of Zelda podcast tremendously (always fast-forwarding through the "Whiskey Bit" to get to the real rundown). But of course quibbling with them is part of the fun. On a recent "Echoes of Wisdom" episode, one of the two hosts raised an incredibly good story question and then, oops, blundered the first story fact available to answer it.
[Light spoilers for EoW] Lyndon posed the intriguing question of what, if anything, makes Tri, the companion character, different from all its friends. But then he immediately, mistakenly, asserted that Tri's first appearance is in the dungeon of Hyrule Castle, thereby dismissing the uniqueness and proximity of Tri as just a clumsy Convenient Plot Device with nothing more to it, and moved on. No, silly! Tri is right there from the very start, in the chamber where Zelda is imprisoned in the crystal. Tri is the ball of light that follows the freed Zelda, hides in Link's discarded cloak, which Zelda retrieves (and puts in her pocket, which, like Link's, is infinitely bigger on the inside), and then emerges from the cloak in the dungeon. Tri even says: "My name's Tri. That blue monster? He caught me, too. I've been watching you since then. I followed you here, to this castle."
Tri is clearly the last of the Tris to be free (or at least the only free Tri we meet). Is that coincidence, cleverness, destiny? It seems less likely to me to be a plotty effort by its friends to ensure someone can go for help, because if the other Tris think like our Tri, they're very disconnected from understanding such things, but it's not impossible. Tri says, "He caught me, too." That means Tri was caught and then escaped! How did Tri escape? Why did none of the other Tris escape? Why did Tri choose to hide in the cloak and follow Zelda? Of course it's likely the fact that she is who she is at a much deeper level -- chosen priestess, not just born princess -- and the Tris are attuned to that, but it could also just be that she's the only one who made it out and Tri chose wisely ("wisely"). Could Tri be a leader among the Tris? Or could our Tri be a child, and any other Tri would be more sophisticated? (If the Big Bad Final Boss can dissolve and/or enslave Tris, then their ranks need replenishment, either by being born or being directly created... unless a slow decline in their numbers is what allowed this Big Bad to make this much progress in the first place! If the Big Bad first caught a Tri by accident, and then learned what it could be done with its power over time...)
Anyway. I've been meaning to post this observation for a week or two. Tri is clearly not the tippy-top best of the companions -- Midna vs. Fi vs. Navi, apparently an eternal question? -- but Tri must be allowed a mention in the running.
(BTW, about gendering Tri, the individual companion? Many folks are using "they." I've also seen he, she, and it. Elderly Impa addresses Tri as "Master Tri," in the sense of the old formal honorific for a boy-child, and that made me think "he." (Would the Japanese original be revealing?) Is there anywhere in the game where Tri, the individual companion, not the species of Tris, is referred to by a pronoun? Almost all the dialogue is to Tri, not about Tri. I'll keep a lookout.)
