• Welcome to ZD Forums! You must create an account and log in to see and participate in the Shoutbox chat on this main index page.

The Worthiness of The Master Sword

Joined
Jul 1, 2018
Location
Canada
This may be one of those obvious forums, but have any of you ever given thought to the aspect which goes into the worthiness of the Master Sword? I believe that because Link is solely chosen to be worthy of wielding the Blade of Evil's Bane that means there is something definitively special about him and him alone. Is it his moral attributes alone? I believe so.

Consider, he is the Bearer of the Triforce of Courage, does his tremendous valour in the face of true evil enable him to properly wield the full might of the Master Sword to vanquish malevolent forces pervading the land of Hyrule?

Perhaps the Master Sword can be comparable to that of Mjölnir, Thor's hammer. The inscription of the hammer often reads, "He whoever wields this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the powers of Thor." Does this, therefore mean, one who wields the Master Sword shall possess the full power of the Spirit of the Hero?

What do you all think? Do you think the Triforce of Courage enables Link to be the sole user of the Master Sword? To give credence to this, I recall that in Wind Waker, you must first collect all the scattered shards of the Triforce of Courage before entering the Trial of the Gods and then after which you became worthy to wield the Master Sword, but the blade had lost its ability to slay evil.

It's just something I've been pondering about before and thought it made for an interesting bit of debate.
 

Dio

~ It's me, Dio!~
Joined
Jul 6, 2011
Location
England
Gender
Absolute unit
I'd say you just need the spirit of the hero. Whoever has it does not necessarily have to wield the Triforce of Courage as Link doesn't in OOT when he draws the sword or in BotW or WW but Link would always be the chosen wielder should an OOT style split happen.
 

TheGreatCthulhu

Composer of the Night.
Joined
Jan 22, 2016
Location
United States of America
Gender
Very much a dude.
The sword I always assumed requires one of righteous mind and an unbreakable spirit.

Many of the Medieval manuscripts that I talked about in my weapon review series contain quotes about honor, valor, and prudence.

For example a quote from Fiore dei Liberi's Fior di Battaglia:

"Prudence/Wisdom

No creature sees better than me, the Lynx.
And I always set things in order with compass and measure.


Celerity/Speed

I, the tiger, am so swift to run and to wheel
That even the bolt from the sky cannot overtake me.


Audacity/Daring

None carries a more ardent heart than me, the lion,
But to everyone I make an invitation to battle.


Fortitude/Strength

I am the elephant and I carry a castle as cargo,
And I do not kneel nor lose my footing."


So I imagine the Master Sword only accepts wielders if:

  1. They have a pure and noble moral compass.
  2. Have a bold and courageous heart.
  3. Are strong in body and mind.
Evidence of number one being that evil ones cannot touch the Master Sword, evidence of number two is that the Master Sword only accepts those courageous enough to combat evil, and evidence of number three is having a strong body and mind so you do not kneel and surrender against evil.
 

Spiritual Mask Salesman

CHIMer Dragonborn
Staff member
Comm. Coordinator
Site Staff
I can subscribe to this comparison. While we've seen other characters manage to pick up the Master Sword, they lack the skill to properly unleash its full potential. Only someone who has the Spirit of the Hero can wield the sword the way it's intended, at least that's how I always looked at it.
 

GrooseIsLoose

Slickest pompadour in town
ZD Legend
Joined
Aug 16, 2019
Location
Skyloft
I personally think that Skyward sword ruined the Mjölnir effect of Master sword when they let Ghirahim snatch it
 
I personally think that Skyward sword ruined the Mjölnir effect of Master sword when they let Ghirahim snatch it
Zelda in the Wind Waker held it too, tho. If anything being chosen by the blade is probably more about physically drawing it from the pedestal, and being able to use its full power afterward--otherwise it might just be a standard sword in the wrong hands.
 

Spiritual Mask Salesman

CHIMer Dragonborn
Staff member
Comm. Coordinator
Site Staff
I personally think that Skyward sword ruined the Mjölnir effect of Master sword when they let Ghirahim snatch it
That was only in the Thunder Dragon's Boss Rush game, those battles were reconstructions using Link's memories. The Goddess Sword obviously wasn't the Master Sword at it's full strength and that's how I chalk up why Ghirahim was able to snatch it.
 
Joined
Jul 1, 2018
Location
Canada
The sword I always assumed requires one of righteous mind and an unbreakable spirit.

Many of the Medieval manuscripts that I talked about in my weapon review series contain quotes about honor, valor, and prudence.

For example a quote from Fiore dei Liberi's Fior di Battaglia:

"Prudence/Wisdom

No creature sees better than me, the Lynx.
And I always set things in order with compass and measure.


Celerity/Speed

I, the tiger, am so swift to run and to wheel
That even the bolt from the sky cannot overtake me.


Audacity/Daring

None carries a more ardent heart than me, the lion,
But to everyone I make an invitation to battle.


Fortitude/Strength

I am the elephant and I carry a castle as cargo,
And I do not kneel nor lose my footing."


So I imagine the Master Sword only accepts wielders if:

  1. They have a pure and noble moral compass.
  2. Have a bold and courageous heart.
  3. Are strong in body and mind.
Evidence of number one being that evil ones cannot touch the Master Sword, evidence of number two is that the Master Sword only accepts those courageous enough to combat evil, and evidence of number three is having a strong body and mind so you do not kneel and surrender against evil.

That's extremely interesting information. Are these Medieval manuscripts available online or do you have to specially procure them from somewhere? I assume the copyright from them are in the public domain, so people can do whatever with them right now.
 

TheGreatCthulhu

Composer of the Night.
Joined
Jan 22, 2016
Location
United States of America
Gender
Very much a dude.
That's extremely interesting information. Are these Medieval manuscripts available online or do you have to specially procure them from somewhere? I assume the copyright from them are in the public domain, so people can do whatever with them right now.
Wiktenauer is your best bet. It has freely available translations of Medieval fencing and fighting treatises.

I reference Fiore dei Liberi a lot, because I own a copy of Fior di Battaglia, translated into English of course. :)

http://wiktenauer.com/
 
Joined
Jul 1, 2018
Location
Canada
I can subscribe to this comparison. While we've seen other characters manage to pick up the Master Sword, they lack the skill to properly unleash its full potential. Only someone who has the Spirit of the Hero can wield the sword the way it's intended, at least that's how I always looked at it.

Yeah, but I was also going for the whole, "If you're not worthy of being the Hero, whichever accolade you have from the goddesses, you will be physically unable to even pick up the sword."

I remember reading a FanFic, called the Hylian Storm, very well written and I am sure I have mentioned it before, and there's a scene where Link is forced to relinquish his sword to enter a town that has strict policies on violence, so he just drives the sword into the ground in front of the gates and then mocks the attempts of the guards to try and pick it up. They couldn't budge the sword, it would not move for them. It's possible that Fi's consciousness only permits one who is born with the Spirit of the Hero to wield the Master Sword and anyone not fitting this trope is denied. I guess Zelda wielding it makes sense since she's a reincarnation of Hylia and that's the one loophole in my theory.
 
Joined
Jul 1, 2018
Location
Canada
Wiktenauer is your best bet. It has freely available translations of Medieval fencing and fighting treatises.

I reference Fiore dei Liberi a lot, because I own a copy of Fior di Battaglia, translated into English of course. :)

http://wiktenauer.com/

Thanks, I'll take a gander at it. It'd be interesting to read Medieval treatises on fighting and such. It'd be eye-opening to learn how people in the Medieval era actually thought. So few books or documents exist from that time. Not much got to be published. Most are transliterated in later history.
 

Spiritual Mask Salesman

CHIMer Dragonborn
Staff member
Comm. Coordinator
Site Staff
Yeah, but I was also going for the whole, "If you're not worthy of being the Hero, whichever accolade you have from the goddesses, you will be physically unable to even pick up the sword."
Ah, well in that case, Ganondorf can't use it because he's evil. Zelda has picked it up, but as you said yourself she has the blood of Hylia: the Goddess who made the sword to begin with, and that's probably the only loophole.
 

TheGreatCthulhu

Composer of the Night.
Joined
Jan 22, 2016
Location
United States of America
Gender
Very much a dude.
Thanks, I'll take a gander at it. It'd be interesting to read Medieval treatises on fighting and such. It'd be eye-opening to learn how people in the Medieval era actually thought. So few books or documents exist from that time. Not much got to be published. Most are transliterated in later history.
The manuals themselves only really discuss how they fought, in terms of how they thought, it is a very narrow window into how they thought.
 

Castle

Ch!ld0fV!si0n
Joined
Oct 24, 2012
Location
Crisis? What Crisis?
Gender
Pan-decepticon-transdeliberate-selfidentifying-sodiumbased-extraexistential-temporal anomaly
This question interacts a lot with the spirit of the hero nonsense and the whole reincarnation debacle that has been covered in other threads here.

The short answer to those is that nobody knows how it all works exactly and there are a lot of contradictory details involved that complicate matters.

As for what makes Link worthy to wield the master sword, to answer that I would focus on the sword's intended purpose. It was designed to lock the sacred realm to keep the Triforce out of evil's clutches. This is true in Ocarina of Time, at least, but it doesn't appear to function this way in ALttP and TP. It is also the Blade of Evil's Bane, specifically designed to slay any jerk bad enough to threaten the Triforce.

Obviously, the sword is going to want a wielder strong and brave enough to face such evil. It appears to be able to sense that in its holder, but it may also have something to do with all the inane "prove your worthiness" quests that seem to take up a third of every Zelda game anymore.

Is that worthiness tied into the hero's spirit that keeps reincarnating into Link or whatever? Does that mean that only Link can wield the sword or could anyone just as brave as he wield it as well, even someone who doesn't even possess the Triforce of Courage?
 
Joined
Jul 1, 2018
Location
Canada
This question interacts a lot with the spirit of the hero nonsense and the whole reincarnation debacle that has been covered in other threads here.

The short answer to those is that nobody knows how it all works exactly and there are a lot of contradictory details involved that complicate matters.

As for what makes Link worthy to wield the master sword, to answer that I would focus on the sword's intended purpose. It was designed to lock the sacred realm to keep the Triforce out of evil's clutches. This is true in Ocarina of Time, at least, but it doesn't appear to function this way in ALttP and TP. It is also the Blade of Evil's Bane, specifically designed to slay any jerk bad enough to threaten the Triforce.

Obviously, the sword is going to want a wielder strong and brave enough to face such evil. It appears to be able to sense that in its holder, but it may also have something to do with all the inane "prove your worthiness" quests that seem to take up a third of every Zelda game anymore.

Is that worthiness tied into the hero's spirit that keeps reincarnating into Link or whatever? Does that mean that only Link can wield the sword or could anyone just as brave as he wield it as well, even someone who doesn't even possess the Triforce of Courage?

I think the worthiness comes in two parts as the sword was constructed with the sole purpose by Hylia for the Chosen Hero and his later iterations, reincarnated or otherwise. These two parts are The Spirit of the Hero and the Triforce of Courage. Now, on a technicality, the Hero of the Winds from Wind Waker wasn't exactly born with the Triforce of Courage, so he wasn't worthy of being the Master Sword's wielder. I can't remember precisely, but I think the Trial of the Gods is completed before collecting the shards of the shattered Triforce of Courage. Perhaps this Trial was a preliminary to his worthiness as the Hero and the disembodied consciousness of Fi permitted Link to pick the Blade of Evil's Bane out of the pedestal because he had the approval of the Gods. And of course, the reason Zelda is able to pick it up would be, as I mentioned, because she is the reincarnation of Hylia, the sword's creator.

Now additionally this introduces a whole new can of worms: one must have the approval of the Gods to be considered worthy of the Master Sword, but in order to obtain that approval, one must have the qualities befitting of the Hero. So, I think it goes more than simply having the attributes otherwise any Hylian Knight could, in theory, wield the blade. Although A Link to the Past stipulates that only those descended from the Knights of Hyrule can wield the Master Sword. So, it's a tricky case of judging worth in the canon.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top Bottom