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brightknightie) wrote2025-03-21 08:38 am
brightknightie) wrote2025-03-21 08:38 am
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Speculation on the nature of Null & the Triforce (EOW spoilers)
As we know from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and other canon, only a mortal can wield the Triforce (what EOW calls "the Prime Energy"). As the origin myth goes, in the form we have it now, the golden goddesses (aka the Creation Trio, the story universe's omnipotent power), made the Triforce for mortals and made the lesser goddess Hylia to protect the Triforce and the non-demon mortals. That's why Hylia becomes the first Zelda, after nearly losing to Demise: to be able to wield the Triforce in defense of mortals instead of only to guard it for them. And depending how we interpret Demise, it's potentially also why Demise became Ganon and Ganondorf, but that's fully optional; Demise is a demon first, whether or not he's a deity also, and demons are mortal. So, clear: The blood of the goddess, the spirit of the hero, the hatred of the demon king -- all endlessly mortal, because only mortals can wield the Triforce.
(TLOZ was originally Tolkein-inspired, but vacuums up literature and mythologies and folktales like a katamari.)
Now, from Echoes of Wisdom, we also know about Null. Null's Japanese name is Mu, which is literally "lack," "without," "nothingness," and is an important Buddhist concept. Null existed before Hylia and most of creation, but -- evidently, yet admittedly arguably -- not before the golden goddesses. The golden goddesses created the great mass of creation in a concerted push specifically to pen in Null, who had previously been wiping out all the little bits and pieces of creation that came into existence to restore the void in which Null had first existed. (This has quite rightly delighted proponents of the Tetraforce theory, now explaining the empty triangle in the middle of the Triforce as representing Null penned by the Creation Trio. Mmmm, good lore!)
Does this mean that Null is Hylia's older sibling, her true opposite and equal number instead of Demise, and that Demise and his army actually crawled up from Null's rifts (instead of or in addition to the Depths from TOTK), swayed and seduced by Null, and perhaps many, even most were echoes? I think this is plausible! But that's not this post.
Today's point is: Null got the Triforce of Power via the Zelda echo and felt its power. But only mortals can wield the Triforce. Right?
The Great Dekku Tree said that the Zelda echo ("Tekom," in the game code) wouldn't be able to fool the Prime Energy. Yet the Zelda echo, Tekom, puppeted by Null, did cause the Triforce to split, just as any unbalanced mortal heart would -- proving that the echo is not "perfect" despite Null's claim, as the real Zelda's heart is balanced at that time and would not have split it -- and did serve the Triforce of Power to Null through Tekom, and Null did claim to "understand" and feel "all that is the Prime Energy." So.
All are viable explanations that can make excellent fanfic and future games!
Yet I feel that one is conclusive. Until proven otherwise in a future game, Null was actually mortal, just extremely long-lived. Zelda and Link destroyed Null in the final battle, and Tri pronounced Null "gone."
Surely because EOW is the first mainline game from Zelda's perspective, not Link's, this is the first time players have encountered the golden goddesses since the creation myth itself. For the first time, the golden goddesses play a role in the story, speak to their priestess, manifest inside time. (Imagine if Skyward Sword had been from Zelda's perspective.) To get, if you will, the "fortunate fall" of Demise's war and Hylia's reincarnation and the coming of the Hero's Spirit, you must have Demise and the "demon tribe," who must come from somewhere. So. The golden goddesses knew what they were doing from the start.
What do you think?
(TLOZ was originally Tolkein-inspired, but vacuums up literature and mythologies and folktales like a katamari.)
Now, from Echoes of Wisdom, we also know about Null. Null's Japanese name is Mu, which is literally "lack," "without," "nothingness," and is an important Buddhist concept. Null existed before Hylia and most of creation, but -- evidently, yet admittedly arguably -- not before the golden goddesses. The golden goddesses created the great mass of creation in a concerted push specifically to pen in Null, who had previously been wiping out all the little bits and pieces of creation that came into existence to restore the void in which Null had first existed. (This has quite rightly delighted proponents of the Tetraforce theory, now explaining the empty triangle in the middle of the Triforce as representing Null penned by the Creation Trio. Mmmm, good lore!)
Does this mean that Null is Hylia's older sibling, her true opposite and equal number instead of Demise, and that Demise and his army actually crawled up from Null's rifts (instead of or in addition to the Depths from TOTK), swayed and seduced by Null, and perhaps many, even most were echoes? I think this is plausible! But that's not this post.
Today's point is: Null got the Triforce of Power via the Zelda echo and felt its power. But only mortals can wield the Triforce. Right?
The Great Dekku Tree said that the Zelda echo ("Tekom," in the game code) wouldn't be able to fool the Prime Energy. Yet the Zelda echo, Tekom, puppeted by Null, did cause the Triforce to split, just as any unbalanced mortal heart would -- proving that the echo is not "perfect" despite Null's claim, as the real Zelda's heart is balanced at that time and would not have split it -- and did serve the Triforce of Power to Null through Tekom, and Null did claim to "understand" and feel "all that is the Prime Energy." So.
- Did Tekom fool the Triforce into treating Null as a mortal, though Null is immortal?
- Is Null mortal, like demons, even though he is older than most of creation, and that's why he can weild the Triforce?
- Was there never a restriction on immortals wielding the Triforce at all, and Hylia gave up her divinity unnecessarily, or for a different motivation than we thought?
- Has the restriction on the Triforce's use by immortals changed through the eons somehow, perhaps by Null's own machinations, perhaps by timeline shenanigans?
- Has Null changed, perhaps via all the [Triforce] energy it consumed from the Tris?
- Are the golden goddesses not "clock-maker" deities who left creation to its own devices, but active presences in and through their creation, and this was all intended in some way from the very start?
All are viable explanations that can make excellent fanfic and future games!
Yet I feel that one is conclusive. Until proven otherwise in a future game, Null was actually mortal, just extremely long-lived. Zelda and Link destroyed Null in the final battle, and Tri pronounced Null "gone."
Surely because EOW is the first mainline game from Zelda's perspective, not Link's, this is the first time players have encountered the golden goddesses since the creation myth itself. For the first time, the golden goddesses play a role in the story, speak to their priestess, manifest inside time. (Imagine if Skyward Sword had been from Zelda's perspective.) To get, if you will, the "fortunate fall" of Demise's war and Hylia's reincarnation and the coming of the Hero's Spirit, you must have Demise and the "demon tribe," who must come from somewhere. So. The golden goddesses knew what they were doing from the start.
What do you think?