OoT v. MM

“I get excited at the sight of my blood, you're in a fight with a nut

Cause I'mma fight 'til I die or win, biting the dust

It'll just make me angrier, wait, let me remind you of what

Got me this far, picture me quitting, now draw a circle around it and put a line through it, slut

It's survival of what?”

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (OOT) is a hero’s journey through destiny.  The game opens with a prophecy; the Great Deku tree puts this prophecy into action when he commands the fairy Navi to get the boy.  You are the boy and Navi is your first ally.  You are not chosen coincidentally or randomly, you have been earmarked by a prophecy and the fulfillment of that prophecy starts now. 

After speaking with the Deku Tree you leave your hometown to find the princess.  Before leaving you are approached by your hometown friend, Saria, she gives you her Ocarina, Saria is your second ally.  After finding the princess you are introduced to her care taker, Impa, they become your third and fourth allies.  The care taker sends you up Death Mountain where you befriend the Gorons.  There you make a fifth powerful friend, Darunia.  Darunia sends you to Lake Hylia, where you find a message in a bottle.  This message leads you into the belly of Lord Jabu Jabu, and there you make a sixth ally, Princess Ruto.

At this point you are a young boy marked by destiny to be a hero and surrounded by friends who will fight with you to fulfill your destiny.  Then you grow up.  Suddenly you are the hero of time.  Characters in the game look at you and say “it’s you”, or “are you really here?”  They all recognize you as the hero.  You meet a new friend, Sheikh.  She is there to help you through this quest, and she checks in on you every step of the way.  The amount of people there to fight with and support you increases every day.  Although they aren’t physically there to help you, they have laid plans to aid you in your quest.  They have prepared the next generation to aid you, or left clues to help you navigate this new world.  Every non player character believes in the prophecy and they believe it is your destiny to fulfill it.  They offer you all the help you need to be successful.

Right before the final showdown, it is revealed to you that you possess the Triforce of courage.  Your right to this piece of the Triforce is sealed in a prophecy.  At this point it is clear that you are the one the prophecy spoke about.  There is now nothing that can stop you from fulfilling that destiny, with the help of your friends you have become as powerful as you can be and all that is left is to step into the ring.

It is unavoidable to feel a sense of destiny when entering college ultimate.  When you arrive at a program and start to get to know your classmates it is exciting, it is fun to day dream about what you could do with that group.  With these brothers you could be great.  These guys become your allies; they are the people who are with you throughout the entire quest, the people who check in on you every step of the way. 

Obviously, in ultimate no one is marked by destiny, but this feel that “I will be the one to make a difference on this team” is pervasive.  I strongly believe everyone feels this at some point.  At my first tournament, Western Illinois Classic, I remember looking at three other guys and thinking, these guys are pretty good.  I believed strongly that we would have the potential to be really good.  I thought the four of us could be the future cutters of this team.  I was very wrong.  All three of them would quit during our freshman year, only one of them would return the next year.  Despite them quitting I never stop believing that we were going to be the one.  We were the destined class to bring this team into greatness. 

You believe in this destiny until the fat lady sings.  Her song can either be the sweetest sound, are a gut wrenching tragedy.

Majora’s Mask (MM) is no hero’s journey.  It is a personal journey.  In MM you are wandering through the forest, when a lonely skull kid jumps you.  He curses you, and flees leaving behind one of his fairies, Tatl.  Your connection to the rest of the plot is through Tatl.  You are working to reunite Tatl with the other fairy Tael.  There is no destiny at play here; there are no gods or prophecies pushing this story forward.  You don’t make any powerful allies who will be there working to help you.  The only reason you are sticking around is to get your horse back, and because Tatl has asked you for your help.

One of the first things to do in ClockTown is to become a member of the bombers, they welcome you into their club and announce that you are their brother.  The moment you travel back in time, they don’t recognize you anymore.  This veil, preventing you from becoming truly a part of the world around you, pervades the entirety of the game.  You can pierce this veil for a time, you can become deeply attached to a part of the story and completely immerse yourself in this, but eventually you will need to shift back in time putting yourself again on the outside of this story.

You yourself are not the hero of this journey.  At each stage of the game, you put on a mask which breathes life into the true hero of that arc of the game.  When you don the Goron mask, you become a Goron hero.  When you put on the Zora’s mask, you become a hero of the Zora’s.  You are not this hero, you have not worked hard to develop the skills or the power that this hero wields, and you are simply giving your life and some guidance to them so that they may complete their own work.  If you play the game correctly you aren’t even the one to bring down Majora, you bring to life the Fierce Deity and take on Majora Spirit v. Spirit.

The true beauty of MM lies in the tangential stories.  Every character in ClockTown has a story.  As you float through time you are given the opportunity to hear and experience the story of everyone.  You can have a profound impact on their life and you can help them in great ways, but due to the nature of the game you are never truly a part of it.  During all of these quests, you spend days helping someone work out a personal issue or battle their inner demons.  At the end of these quests, you slide back to a time where all that you have done for them has not happened.

As a coach of ultimate, I rarely feel the call of destiny.  I see a team of guys going through their own personal journeys.  I feel a great desire to help them along these journeys, but I am not a part of this journey.  I am not on the field with them, I am not in the weight room with them or living in the house with them.  I spend 6 hours a week with them; they spend 80 hours a week together.

They are the heroes that must take the field, and battle their own battles.  I can breathe a little life into them, I can help them be prepared for those battles but ultimately it is they who step into the dungeon and defeat the evil. 

You can pierce the veil that separates you from them you can develop a close relationship with your team and you can be there for them as much as you can, but you cannot go into battle with them.  You cannot bleed with them on the field, and experience the immense joy and pain that comes from going to war with your teammates.  (When coaching I feel relieved after a big win, when playing I am all hopped up on mountain dew).  This bond that they are able to forge shifts you back again, puts you in your place out of the focus of the story.  The story is not about you, and never will be about you.  All I can do is believe in them even when they don’t believe in themselves, and that makes it beautiful.

                I like Majora’s Mask a lot more than I like Ocarina of Time.