Religious References in The Legend of Zelda

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Maybe it is because I am a follower of Christianity that these things are more obvious to me, but there are many references to Christian as well as Muslim and other Abrahamic religion symbolism in the Zelda series. I'm sure I'm far from the first person to pay attention to this, but I thought I would make an article to discuss such things.

First off, I'll talk about the original Legend of Zelda for NES. Link's shield has a cross on it. Quite possibly, this means nothing, and is more to be associated with the knights of the round more than anything. After all, many other media types such as anime also have things such as thin in them, but are not meant to be religious.

Then, also in the original, there is the Magic Book...well...here is the image.

Look like another book to you?

Next up is non other than the legendary triforce.

The triforce plays a huge role in the series, and is arguably, a religious symbol to the people of Hyrule. The three triangles of the triforce could be compared to the Holy Trinity. The Father(God), The Son(Jesus Christ), and The Holy Ghost(The Spirit thereof) could go hand in hand with the Triforce of power, the Triforce of Courage and the triforce of wisdom. Further more, newer Zelda games depict the Triforce with the form of a phoenix underneath it. How is this religious symbolism you ask? Think about it for a moment. in Christian religion, one is saved by Christ, and therefore "reborn" as a forgiven being. The phoenix dies, and is reborn from it's own ashes.

Next up is a symbol of Islam. The moon and star. It appears twice in Ocarina of Time, but was removed in reissued editions of the game at the request of many Islamic followers. Here is the image on the mirror shield. it also appeared on some movable blocks.

 At the request of many, Nintendo recalled all unsold copies of the game, and replaced the image with this.

While we're on the topic of OOT, the music in the Fire Temple in the version 1.0 cartridges such as mine contains Islamic chanting. Although it was actually just computer generated chanting not actually saying anything, many thought it sounded like "Allahu Akbar" which means "Allah is the Greatest!". this was also removes later.
*Please correct me if I am wrong about what the alleged words mean.

Also in OOT, Link gets eaten by a giant fish. Sound like a certain popular Bible story?

Furthermore, In Windwaker and all it's direct sequel on the DS, Phantom Hourglass, the entire world has been flooded, and in some timelines(please don't argue the timeline here. does it actually matter that much?), The Minish Cap is placed AFTER WW and said to take place in "New Hyrule"
***that is a fan theory, and not my own***

I will end my lengthy post with a link to a VERY interesting article. I'm sure you are familiar with the Tower of Babel. In the bible, men tried to build a tower to get to Heaven, and so God dispersed the people and made them all speak different languages so they could not communicate well enough to complete the project. This wasn't because it was actually possible to build a tower to Heaven, but rather to show them "You do NOT defy me!". anyway, I'm going a bit of course. Here is a link to an article called "The Message of Majora's Mask" by a Zelda fan under the alias "Hylian Dan". I think you'll find it an interesting read.


http://www.zeldainformer.com/2010/10/the-message-of-majoras-mask.html

If you leave a reply or want to discuss this, PLEASE keep in mind the banner above my article.

Nintendo and Peripherals

Recently, because of things like the touch screen DS line,and the motion controlled Wii, people have been saying that Nintendo is now all gimmicks and peripherals. Well, the honest truth is that Nintendo has always been this way, even in the NES days.The NES came packed with a cartridge containing both Super Mario Bros, and Duck hunt, which requires a light gun called the NES Zapper. That's right, Nintendo's first console came with a gimmick peripheral right inside the box. It seemed so amazing at the time that this toy gun was actually picking up what was on your television screen, but in actuality, the lens only detected light sources.

Ever wanted the power to control your games with just your hand, controller free? While Microsoft seems to think so more recently, the NES Power Glove was the answer to this back in the day. Contrary to what most believe, Nintendo had no hand in desing or manufacturing of the Poer Glove. Nintendo only officially licensed it. the Power Glove is pretty dorky looking, and is an absolute mess to control pretty much any game with. To further complicate things, you have to set up multiple detectors on your TV to pick it up, and even worse, every game has a code that must be entered on the Power Glove so that it could be compatible. Ever programmed a universal remote, and gone through the book looking for your TVs code, only to find it has about 20 and you have to go down the list until you find the one that works? think that, but for games. It was a mess.

Have you ever wanted your own personal robot? Sure, now you can get those little interactive toys, but can Robosapien play your NES as a second player? Nintendo's Robotic Operating Buddy(a.k.a. R.O.B.) can! though only compatible with a couple of games, it was a pretty neat concept. More recently, R.O.B. has made a cameo appearance in F-Zero GX, and is a playable character in both Mario Kart DS and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Lots of people today have devices such as the iPhone that take care of almost everything. They don't need to carry a camera, because a single device already takes care of that. Though it's common in products today, the Nintendo Game Boy was quite possibly the first multimedia device, thanks to peripherals.

With the Game Boy camera, you could turn your Game Boy into...um...well, a camera, albeit of low quality.

Now that you've taken a picture with your Game Boy Camera, you're probably not gonna wanna print it out! You can do just that with the handy dandy Game Boy Printer! The game boy Printer was...what else but a printer? It printed out the images on small scrolls of thermal paper with either a blue or red tint. The paper was about 1" x .875" and had a sticky backing so it could be placed on objects.

The SNES, successor of the NES, had a light gun like its predecessor. This gun was called the super Scope, and was more bazooka like in shape. though a bit more advanced than the zapper, it was still pretty simple technology. If you're a younger reader, and this sounds familiar, the super Scope also appears as a weapon in the Super smash Bros. Series.

A game was released for the SNES called Mario Paint. Though not much more that a mimicry of MS Paint with some extra features like a song maker added in, it was still fairly popular. And what does one need to operate what is basically a computer program? a mouse of course! the SNES Mouse came bundled with he game, and was just a simple ball mouse.

Playing Game boy games on the tiny unlit screen can be tiresome, and furthermore, the thing was a battery eating monster. Well, with the Super Game Boy, you can play your Game Boy games on your TV! The Super Game Boy is a large SNES cartridge with a port for the Gameboy game. Instead of displaying a black and white image, you may select from 3 limited color pallets. Some games even had features only available when playing on Super Game Boy!

The N64's peripherals were mostly "controller expansions". The Rumble Pack was a small cartridge that plugged into the controller's memory card port, and added rumble feedback. although now a standard in almost every controller, at the time, ti was something normally only found in arcades.

There are a couple of other honorable mentions, such as the Hey, you! Pikachu! Microphone, and the transfer pack, but the N64 actually has very few peripherals.

Before there was Guitar Hero or Rock Band, music games were normally found only in arcades. Well, the makers of Taiko Drum Master made a game called Donkey Konga for the Gamecube, and a sequel, donkey Konga 2. both of these games, as well as an adventure game called Donkey Kong Jungle beat used the DK Bongo controller. The controller was a replica of a set of bongos, and, just like real bongos, you hit them with your palm to, in the case of Donkey Konga, play the correct note, or, in the case of Jungle Beat, move and jump.

After the Game Boy Advance came along, and usurped the Game Boy and Game boy Color, the cartridges changed in shape. GBA games would not fit in a Super Game Boy, and nether would Game Boy Color only games. Nintendo's answer was the Game Boy Player. This device screwed into the bottom of your Gamecube, increasing its height by about an inch. All Game Boy games are compatible, and since it was only about $50 when it came out,it was a more affordable, albeit less portable alternative to owning a Game Boy Advance.

Speaking of the Game boy advance, the e-Reader was the only peripheral for said system. This catridge allowed you to scan collectible e-Reader cards to unlock NES emulations, extra levels in games, character profiles, and in the case of animal Crossing, it could be linked to the Gamecube via a link cable to unlock items.

In more recent years, things like the game Boy Camera come standard in systems like the DSi, and the Wii remote is basically a combination of a light gun and the Power Glove. So next time you want to ramble on about how Nintendo's problem is peripherals, keep in mind that they have always been this way. Recently, it is simply more obvious and prevalent.