Mysteries are still around us when it comes to the Zelda universe. While Hyrule Historia gives a logical and (more or less) solid timeline that places each game in its correct order, it fails to provide further details on in-game events, let alone what happens off-screen, such as backstories and events between games to tie them in. As awesome as the book is, it’s far from being a complete encyclopedia.

One of those mysteries yet to be solved lies upon Ganondorf’s backstory in Twilight Princess. It’s rather confusing that the Gerudo king somehow managed to get a hold on the Triforce of Power, not unlike his counterpart from The Wind Waker. The confusion emerges once we realize that in the timeline Twilight takes place in, Ganondorf could never lay his hand on the sacred relic. Actually, logic would tell us that the Sacred Realm wasn’t ever reached at all in this continuity, and nobody knows how this came to be. Even the Sages are ignorant of this, and the best explanation they could come up with was that it all was a ‘divine prank’, without going into further detail.

However, this is not a bad thing at all. Not only does this work for the benefit of the developers, releasing them from the chore of writing a meticulous explanation and have it make sense, but it benefits the story as well – it surrounds Ganondorf in a veil of mystery, and the Sages stating that he was blessed by the Goddesses gives him a divine aura that makes him more fearsome by telling the player he’s not someone to play with. If Link was chosen by the creators of Hyrule, so was Ganon.

Having said that, I still want to comprehend this so-called divine prank and share my understanding with you, dear fellows. Is this prank another ass pull from the writers, or is it a true, well put mystery of Hyrule?

Ganondorf Before the Timesplit

It is said that the thieves of the desert, who call themselves the Gerudo, are a female-only race; however, one male is born every 100 years, and according to their tradition he will be their legitimate ruler. At the time of the Hero of Time, Ganondorf was this man, the head of the Gerudos. If we believe his speech from Wind Waker, he felt sorrow for his people who fought everyday against the inclement desert, which caused him to long for the green meadows of Hyrule so his people could lead better lives. He plotted to betray the king of Hyrule and obtain the Triforce to take over the kingdom with the help of the ultimate power of the gods. Thanks to Link and Zelda’s mistaken plan, he achieved his goal and laid his hands on the golden triangles, but alas, his heart was not in balance (a requirement one must fulfill to grasp the Triforce at its full); therefore, he could only keep the Triforce of Power. The remaining pieces, Wisdom and Courage, fell to the hands of Zelda and Link, respectively.

Regardless of this, one triangle was enough to grant Ganondorf the power to take over the kingdom. Seven years later, he had usurped the throne and become the new king of Hyrule. But he was not unopposed – few people were loyal to him, and the spurious king, blinded by greed, even ignored his own people, who were still bound in the desert. Ganondorf, facing opposition by the many races of Hyrule, felt the need for the ultimate power and thus he searched for the remaining pieces endlessly. But he failed; instead, Link, now dubbed the Hero of Time, sealed the evil king in the Sacred Realm with the help of Zelda and the Six Sages. Zelda, feeling guilty that it was her own actions that allowed Ganondorf to obtain the Triforce, tried to mend things by resetting time so Link could live his lost childhood and things could find a different and hopefully better outcome.

Instead, Zelda created a new timeline, a second time-space continuum. The original timeline, now known as the Adult Era, went on by its own and led us to the events of Waker, while the new timeline, the Child Era, branched off from Link’s childhood at the moment of his first meeting with Zelda.

The Divine Prank

As Ocarina of Time’s ending shows, Link, being the legitimate owner of the Triforce of Courage, brought his piece with him to the new timeline… Or did he? More on this later, but what matters now is that we see him with the triangular crest on his left hand, as proof to Zelda and the king of how events might unfold if they follow the same path (the king not believing Zelda’s warnings and Zelda wanting to get the Triforce before Ganondorf).

Back in his childhood, a de-aged adult Link rushes to Hyrule Castle and, with the mark of the Triforce on his hand, warns the royal family about the events to come. Everybody takes action. The king finally believes in his daughter’s dreams and Ganondorf is brought to justice as soon as possible. It is plausible he put up a fight to resist the king and his forces, but Zelda’s original plan was definitely scrapped now that she was aware that no matter who entered the Sacred Realm and touched the Triforce, Ganondorf would end up with the Triforce on Power in his hands anyway.

Once Ganondorf was captured, he was imprisoned in Arbiter’s Grounds and sentenced to death; the executioners would be the six Sages. The day his execution took place, however, something went wrong: Ganondorf was impaled by the Sages’ sword, but once mortally wounded, a triangle mark glowed on the back of his right hand – somehow, he did get the Triforce of Power. But how? He’s been imprisoned all the time.

This unexpected turn of events that allowed Ganondorf to survive took everyone by surprise and, by taking advantage of that, he killed one sage in the confusion.

Finally, the desperate Sages had no option but to send Ganondorf to the Twilight Realm, kickstarting the events of Twilight Princess.

The sages’ account made it clear that nobody expected the events of that fateful day. Had they known that Ganondorf owned the Triforce of Power, they would have made proper preparations for the case that Ganondorf would use his Triforce to escape death (how about performing the sentence with the Master Sword?). Instead, they are completely surprised when he does exactly that — they were unaware indeed. Their narration tells that the divine prank was not his survival, but his possession of the Triforce:

“Yet… By some divine prank, he, too, had been blessed by the chosen power of the gods.” – Sage

The fact that nobody knew it proves that the Sacred Realm was never opened in this flow of events. Otherwise, either the complete Triforce would be in someone else’s hand (if the one who touched it had a balanced heart), or everybody would have known that the piece of Power had ended in Ganondorf’s hands (if the one who touched the Triforce didn’t have a balanced heart and caused it to split). But none of these scenarios happened; instead the Triforce just split by itself without anybody’s knowledge. And that’s how we get to our… divine prank.

Behind the Ways of the Triforce

We need a full comprehension of how the Triforce works, for it is the key to unveil our mystery. So, what do we know about the Triforce?

F

irst off, we know for sure that it consists of three triangles, representing Power, Wisdom, and Courage, respectively. We also know that it lies within the Sacred Realm and that if a mortal touches it, their wishes will be granted, along with nearly divine powers. However, as the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility, so the Triforce can’t be simply possessed by the everyday Hylian. No, its rightful owner must have their heart in balance between the three attributes; otherwise, they will only get one piece, depending on which attribute that person believes the most in, while the remaining pieces will be granted to two other people chosen by destiny.

It is also within our knowledge that the Triforce is sentient, as we see it speaking to Link in A Link to the Past. However, it lacks a will of its own and the ability to judge: it grants its bearer their wishes without judging whether they will bring chaos or harmony, and it can’t decide who will bear the pieces when the one who touches it isn’t worthy of the full deal; that decision goes to destiny (probably the Goddesses themselves, but definitely not the Triforce). This is very important because this means that destiny and the Triforce can be tricked should the correct circumstances coincide.

Finally, because it represents the essence of the Goddesses, the Triforce keeps the world in balance, and thus it can’t leave the current time-space continuum, lest the world should fall into despair and chaos, as proven by the events of A Link Between Worlds, where we see the consequences of a world devoid of a Triforce. In Zelda terms, the Triforce can’t leave the timeline should a new one be created, and there is no need for it either, as the new timeline would be blessed with its own Triforce.

The Triforce Exchange

Now that we know how the Triforce acts, let us ask the following question: why did the Triforce split on its own, and when? The answer lies, interestingly enough, not in Twilight Princess, but in The Wind Waker. Why? Because the Triforce of Courage is present in this entry, when it was supposed, as per Ocarina’s ending, that Link carried it from the Adult timeline and into the Child timeline. This in turn means that the Triforce of Courage should not be present in the Adult timeline anymore, and yet, it is there, lying beneath the Great Sea.

This little discrepancy is our main clue if we analyze the Triforce’s capabilities and limitations, hence the previous section. Now I beg of you to please follow me and pay attention to my reasoning.

What we have is Link, traveling between timelines at the end of Ocarina, right? Well now, picture this: when someone crosses the border from one place to another, they don’t simply disappear and appear on the other side – they have to cross over. Therefore, there is a moment when this hypothetical individual would have one foot on one side and one foot on the other, and they’d be between the two places – or, more accurately, in both places. Certainly traveling through time is not the same as traveling through space, but there is still physical matter involved – that which comprises the timetraveler. Therefore, there is still a travel through space of some kind. That’s why in so many works of fiction, the individual crosses a tunnel that bridges both times; even the Zelda franchise does this: pay close attention to Skyward Sword, where each time Link crosses the Gate of Time, he walks through a tunnel before appearing at the other side of the Gate.

Following this train of thought, when Zelda sends Link back in time he still has to cross a gap between timelines and, for a brief moment, he must be in both of them simultaneously. It is at this very moment when something I like to call “the Triforce exchange” happens. As I mentioned earlier, the Triforce contains the essence of the Goddesses and keeps Hyrule in balance; therefore, leaving that plane of existence (i.e. leaving the timeline) would unbalance the world. Thus, it is bound to remain in the Adult timeline once Link leaves it behind.

But we also know that the Triforce doesn’t have the ability to make its own decisions nor make any judgment, while at the same time it is somehow sentient, as it is capable of being aware when someone has touched it in order to proceed to ‘awaken its properties’. Because of this weird contrast, it is capable of being aware of its owners, but can’t judge or decide upon them, which consequently means that during that brief moment Link is in both timelines (or between them if you will), the Triforce from the newly created Child timeline senses that Link possesses the piece of Courage and thus is tricked into ‘thinking’ that it has already been touched and proceeds to split itself. Upon entirely leaving the Adult timeline, Link loses his original Triforce from that timeline and gains the Triforce of Courage from the Child timeline as he arrives in it; the Triforce completes its split and the other two pieces end up again in Ganondorf and Zelda’s hands. However because of the way it happened, nobody, including the bearers of the Triforce themselves, ever realized that any split had occurred. As far as the Hylians knew, the Triforce was safe and secure in the still-sealed Sacred Realm.

Under the erroneous assumption that the Triforce remains untouched within the Sacred Realm, and knowing there is strong risk that if the Triforce is touched, Ganondorf will gain the piece of Power nonetheless, the king orders the Sacred Realm to be perpetually sealed. The pedestal of time is removed to prevent the Door of Time from being opened, nobody bothers to check for the Triforce’s actual state within the Realm, and voilà! Everybody is taken by surprise when Ganondorf’s execution is botched by a mark appearing on his hand. Everybody fell for the prank.

Do you believe the mystery behind the infamous divine prank is now unraveled? Post your opinions and your own possible explanations in the comments. We’ll be looking forward to them.

(Special thanks to ‘alex’ from the comments section for providing me with a graphical representation of my theory)