Spoiler Was Hylia's Sacrifice Worth It?

[Locke]

Her second plan...was to abandon her
divine form and transfer her soul to
the body of a mortal.

...She made this sacrifice, as you have
likely guessed, so that the supreme
power created by the old gods could
one day be used.
For while the supreme power of the
Triforce was created by gods, all of its
power can never be wielded by one.

Knowing this power was her last and
only hope, the goddess gave up her
divine powers and her immortal form.

So let me get this straight...
1. The Triforce can't be used by gods.
2. The Triforce was the only hope to defeat Demise.
3. Hylia became mortal
4. Link used the Triforce to defeat Demise.

...what does #3 have to do with #4? Couldn't everything have worked out just fine with #3 omitted? Link's not a god. He can use the Triforce. So Demise can be defeated.

But Hylia decides to sacrifice her divinity needlessly... just so she can waste away as a mortal holding The Imprisoned's seal. Why does she need to be mortal for that?

So, what's the point of Hylia's second plan? I think it's bad storytelling. They really wanted Zelda to be important, but weren't able to come up with a good enough reason for it.

 

[Roy]

Very good point but very hard to find a answer (in my opinion).

 

[HyruleLove]

You have made an awesomely good point. Honestly, I found the story to be kinda empty at the end.

 

[Koosholts]

This is just me being skeptic, but perhaps Hylia wanted to become mortal so her descendent would grow up with, and be close to her chosen hero.

Remember, the soul reason as to why Link started his journey in the first place was to save Zelda, nohing more. Hylia could have foresaw the troubles of convincing a mortal hero to understand and accept his fate if the only incentive he had was from an immortal Goddess telling him to. Sacraficing her immortality to allow one of her descendents the chance to grow up and form emotional connections with the hero is not only courageous, but a strategic move on the Goddeses part. This would insure that Link would go on his journey and accep his fate, if only for the shallow reason of saving the one he has a crush on.

Again, this is just what I took from the game. I'm not much of a theorist like you Locke, and you will probably provide some concrete evidence completley throwing my idea into a burning pit of tar. This, however, is the sufficient amount of justification I need to let it go and not bother me while I try to fall asleep at night.

Oh, and I agree, it is ba storytelling. But really, since when has Zelda ever been good at telling a story? It's all a crockpot of ambiguous fiction. I love it.

 

[Ronin]

But Hylia decides to sacrifice her divinity needlessly... just so she can waste away as a mortal holding The Imprisoned's seal. Why does she need to be mortal for that?

That's just it. She needed a method of constraining The Imprisoned's revival and rampage that would have destroyed the remains of Hyrule. Perhaps in its final form that beast could have slowly ascended to the heavens and destroyed Skyloft, along with all other islands, even Levias, I daresay.

But the point is that Hylia intentionally sacrificed her divinity so that the seal could be made. She'd already set Link's destiny in motion before relinquishing her old self, and as Zelda she retraced her steps to prepare the Hero for his upcoming battle. This sacrifice was far from needless, because there was a need. The entire duration of a land and its inhabitants relied on her plan; and once again, I believe that abandoning her heavenly form was not in vain because just think of all it covered.

As for the Triforce, I'm pretty sure it was mentioned somewhere that Hylia placed the Triforce pieces in Skykeep. There they stayed for centuries(?) as they awaited the time for the Hero to come and retrieve them. The Triforce had to be kept safe, after all, and Skyloft was the best place to "keep" it. Hylia never used it, as something disallows the old gods to implement its power for themselves. Only Link, her predestined weapon against Demise, could gather the three pieces in order to defeat the Demon King.

Lastly, Hylia transferred her spirit to a mortal body that acted as a restrictive obstruction to keep Demise from returning to his full power. It was necessitated of her to hold him at bay somehow and also guide Link through his quest, although Zelda likely felt nothing of her subconscious presence within. Hence the voice she heard more often as events led up to her abduction/escape below the surface. Yet another quintessential motive for the desertion of her divinity.

 

[WikiEezEpic]

i guess it was to make the story interesting. Axel's also mentioned the whole mystery concept in zelda. Its a secret to everyone XD

 

[Djinn]

Well taking a few examples from the game it is clear that Hylia was very good at planning ahead. Way waaaaay ahead and thinking of an extra avenue for each and every little thing that could come up. This goes along with things like making multiple time gates, giving Fi just that right amount of information, placing goddess cubes in all the right places, placing statues in the same right places, etc. It may have been that she was damaged to the point of near death already before she gave up her divinity. It was already said that she could not take Demise on a second time, that was the whole reason behind the plan. So either she was to use the triforce herself, or work alongside the person who was to use it.

As Zelda she seemed to fulfill two roles. Pray at each and every temple so that Link could later go there and take the goddess flame from each one empowering his sword until it transformed into the master sword. And secondly for a reason I do not think was completely understood, she had to sleep in that large crystal device to maintain the seal on Demise. I am not entirely sure if if she could still accomplish these tasks as Hylia or needed to be Zelda to do them. Praying I'm sure does not matter either way, but the sleeping in the crystal in the past I do not know. It could be that this was also another "possible" outcome that was thought of as well. This means that she planned to

A) Use the triforce herself when Demise returns
Go to the past and strengthen the seal keeping Demise asleep so that a hero could gain the triforce instead
C) Pray at each Goddess Spring empowering the Goddess Sword so the hero could defeat Demise should that plan not work and Demise woke up anyway

It looks like she planned for every outcome at once. The reincarnation part may have been accomplished so she would be guaranteed to be alive at the time Demise was assumed to return. That way she could use the triforce or help someone else find it and use it. Another thing to remember is, when Demise was released he drew more power from the soul of Zelda to regain his past abilities, but it was not quite enough to fully regain all of his past strength. This might have been because he could only draw so much from an ordinary mortal Zelda. Whereas he could have drawn much much more from an injured goddess Hylia. That would have made him much more dangerous for any mortal hero to fight.

 

[DeletedUser9]

You're all forgetting the exact line that explicitly explains this:

But spirit alone wasn't enough. You had to overcome many trials and awaken the hero within yourself so that you could wield that supreme power. And so Hylia... I mean, and so I...

I knew that if it meant saving Zelda, you would throw yourself headfirst into any danger, without even a moment's doubt... I... I used you.

It was never Hylia's intention to use the Triforce herself. Link was the intended user all along and Zelda herself was to be the bait. You could argue there's better ways to do this than to become mortal... but for all we know it just doesn't work that way. Hylia was, after all, never stated to have the ability to create life nor manipulate or control it... that's more Farore's thing, and Farore is a higher deity than Hylia.

i guess it was to make the story interesting. Axel's also mentioned the whole mystery concept in zelda. Its a secret to everyone XD

...?

Well taking a few examples from the game it is clear that Hylia was very good at planning ahead. Way waaaaay ahead and thinking of an extra avenue for each and every little thing that could come up. This goes along with things like making multiple time gates, giving Fi just that right amount of information, placing goddess cubes in all the right places, placing statues in the same right places, etc. It may have been that she was damaged to the point of near death already before she gave up her divinity. It was already said that she could not take Demise on a second time, that was the whole reason behind the plan. So either she was to use the triforce herself, or work alongside the person who was to use it.

I also agree with a lot of your points. Hylia was definitely a master planner and a lot of the strange things she did had to do with this. It's also interesting to note that her holy blood has become crucial in defeating evil at multiple other points later along the timeline.

As Zelda she seemed to fulfill two roles. Pray at each and every temple so that Link could later go there and take the goddess flame from each one empowering his sword until it transformed into the master sword.

None of the temples corresponded to any of the flame locations, unless you just mean Link getting introduced to the region.

C) Pray at each Goddess Spring empowering the Goddess Sword so the hero could defeat Demise should that plan not work and Demise woke up anyway

It was never addressed that Zelda's praying did anything resembling this. All her praying was designed to do (as far as we know) was awaken her memories and otherwise awaken her as Hylia.

Another thing to remember is, when Demise was released he drew more power from the soul of Zelda to regain his past abilities, but it was not quite enough to fully regain all of his past strength. This might have been because he could only draw so much from an ordinary mortal Zelda. Whereas he could have drawn much much more from an injured goddess Hylia. That would have made him much more dangerous for any mortal hero to fight.

Well I can get behind the idea of him gaining more power had she been a goddess still, but the reason stated as to why Demise didn't regain his full strength was because he hadn't finished absorbing Zelda yet. That's why you could still save her. Groose is the one who said this (relayed from Impa.)

 

[Locke]

Just to clarify some of Axle's points, that quote also states that Hylia had intended Link to use the Triforce all along. There was no 'plan A - become mortal so I can use the Triforce'. And the purpose of going to the springs was to purify herself so she could awaken as Hylia - nothing to do with Link's quest, other than that it's a plot device to make her chase-able.

I guess the best explanation, as Koosholts and Axle said, is that Hylia had to become Link's intimate friend to motivate him on his journey. Well, that sure paints a weak picture of SS-Link, especially when you compare him with someone like LoZ-Link who embarked on his adventure to save someone he didn't even know.

 

[DeletedUser9]

I guess the best explanation, as Koosholts and Axle said, is that Hylia had to become Link's intimate friend to motivate him on his journey. Well, that sure paints a weak picture of SS-Link, especially when you compare him with someone like LoZ-Link who embarked on his adventure to save someone he didn't even know.

Yeah I suppose. I think they were setting this up somewhat in the early game though. Link kinda excelled at everything, but he was lazy. They could probably have carried this theme better throughout the game and addressed this more, but it was repeatedly mentioned (including that same conversation between Link and Zelda). That said, it doesn't mean Link wouldn't have. It just means Hylia had to make sure. All she said was she knew he would if Zelda was in danger. We know that to some degree it was a legitimate concern since Demise basically said all the humans ran around like idiots the last time he was a threat.

I do think TheBlueReptile has a point too. Expecting Link to plunge headfirst into literally anything would have been a naive expectation unless personal incentive was provided. Not everyone (or arguably pretty much no one) can just do anything for no reason. You can argue the "save the world angle", but that only became a realistic, easily-confronted goal once Link had already passed all those trials and acquired pretty significant power. And Ganon on his own was never portrayed as a threat as significant as Demise was in Skyward Sword.

 

[Harp of Ages]

i don't think itt was nessacary but it was used to put zelda in the role of hylia

 

[Dragoncat]

Where does it say Farore is higher than Hylia...as a goddess, shouldnt she have the power to do whatever? I think it's not "one goddess can do this and the other can't", but more like the gods and goddesses in Greek mythology, where they all had the same powers, but each one specialized in something, and that something was their strongest power. So I bet Hylia can also create and control life to a certain extent. But Farore is the goddess of life(and wisdom), so she'd have more clout in that area.

I think Hylia did a good job. She made sure her chosen ones had enough chemistry, so that her hero would want to go rescue her host, and that they would start that special bloodline together when it was all over...and like it lol. Looks like even goddesses know how much arranged marriages suck xD So yes, her sacrifice was definitely worth it. Demise was pwned and peace was restored. Sometimes the ends justify the means.

 

[winterbbytumblr]

Farore is the goddess of life(and wisdom)

I believe you are thinking of Nayru.. she is the goddess of Wisdom, Farore is the goddess of courage

Onto the topic, i do believe that Hylia's sacrifice was worth it, she had it all planned out from the beginning.

 

[endtoendhockey]

I prefer to think that it was only Hylia's mortal form that could maintain the seal. If her mortal form is the only thing that could help maintain the seal, then it would make sense for her to take a mortal form.

I do think TheBlueReptile has a point too. Expecting Link to plunge headfirst into literally anything would have been a naive expectation unless personal incentive was provided. Not everyone (or arguably pretty much no one) can just do anything for no reason. You can argue the "save the world angle", but that only became a realistic, easily-confronted goal once Link had already passed all those trials and acquired pretty significant power. And Ganon on his own was never portrayed as a threat as significant as Demise was in Skyward Sword.

The thing to remember is that storytelling in video games has evolved a lot in the past 25 years. There was pretty minimal storytelling in the original LoZ game for the NES console, and there was no way to convey this rich a story back in the 8-bit days.

I really like Axle's thought about the spring. If she had to take on a mortal form to maintain the seals, she would need to awaken her memories to gain the knowledge required to accomplish this. I didn't read anything else about Zelda's visits to the springs.

 

[Dragoncat]

I believe you are thinking of Nayru.. she is the goddess of Wisdom, Farore is the goddess of courage

*facepalm* Brain fart...good thing it doesn't stink