Zelda: the Hero Archetype

Merin's presentation got me thinking, and I've been far too busy to toss this out there until now.

I have, since my introduction to the Hero Archetype during my freshman year of highschool, found the theory to be compelling, and in fact, have seen it resurface time and again. (I refer here to the Joseph Campbell work on the Hero's Journey, derived my Jungian psychology - see Star Wars, for example. Wiki has a somewhat pitiful introduction to the concept if any of you are interested.) It occurred to me that in spite of the fact that technology is moving us away from linearity, as Eilola suggests, into multi-faceted, parellel cognitive processes, it is ironic that in my opinion, there has been a massive revival of classic archytipal themes, especially in the case of video games and movies (technology being the CGI in film), where we are devoting the resources of these new technological advancements to bringing Middle Earth to life, and taking Link through the mythic Hero Journey to rescue Zelda. I am an abominable video-gamer, but my brother is gifted, and I found that although a number of the games he played on the Nintendo 64 console were fun and involving, none of them caught my attention the way Zelda did - ever. In spite of the technology, for me, it is still archetypes and classic themes which draw me in as an audience member, rather than the technology or non-linearity.

[As further example, I would cite the Final Fantasy series, for those of you who are familiar with it: although I have only played IX, and briefly seen VIII and X, I hear almost infallibly from everyone I've ever aske that FF:VII is the best of all the games. The surprising note here is the fact that the game is significantly less-complex, the graphics far inferior to more recent games, and game-play in general reductive and simplistic (it is much more linear and less multi-layered than its successive cousins) yet it is the most beloved of them all. Why? The answer I invariably get: it has the best story... Interesting.]