Link And Death: Dualism Immortality?

"Do you ever feel a strange sadness as the dusk falls? They say it's the only time when our world intersects with theirs…

The only time we can feel the lingering regrets of spirits who have left our world. That is why loneliness always pervades in the hours of twilight." -Rusl (Twilight Princess)

When it comes to Dualism, The Legend of Zelda has every aspect of it down. We see it in every game that has been released, but the best examples are included in Twilight Princess, and A Link to the Past.

To fully understand the concept of parallel universe in Zelda we need to brush up on a little background info. first. Remember the Triforce that the three Goddesses created at the beginning of time? Well they didn't just create balance and order when they made this mysterious relic. They made an entire separate world- within reality. This world is sort of similar to our perception of a heaven, and this is where the Triforce resides. Except the people of Hyrule are able to enter and remain alive. According to legend, whoever touches the Triforce gets one wish and there are no rules tethered to it. So of course, everyone goes out to find it. Including our favorite demon pig king, Ganondorf. The Sacred Realm (what the heaven was titled) was a pure place until Ganondorf touched the Triforce, wishing himself complete rule over the world (how original).

This is the opening for one of the most famous Nintendo games of our childhood, A Link to the Past.

Because the Sacred Realm was now tainted with evil, the entrance gates that allowed people to enter were sealed. But evil still existed in the real world (or as the game calls the Light world). It is then up to Link to go to the Realm and kill Ganon to restore peace.

Link versus his evil double, Shadow Link

Dualism is the notion that even in a mortal body, there exists an immortal soul. When Link finally arrives and enters the gates to the Sacred Realm, he transforms. He doesn't die, but instead turns into his true spirit animal. A rabbit, to be precise. One can't save Hyrule as a rabbit, so he returns to the Light world to complete a series of tasks to gain the solution of going into the Dark Realm (the now-tainted Sacred Realm) without becoming a spirit.

What makes this idea so profound is that Link has work very hard to just get to a place he can walk to anytime he wants. In our lives, are we working hard to just die in the end? Is death the ultimate reward?

Except in the Zelda reality, entering "heaven" isn't the same as death. It is just a safe haven made to retain peace and order. So according to this philosophy, spirituality coexists with mortality. Even if it can be accessed just by unlocking a gate.

We are all simply trying to reach inner peace and find a sanctuary that will always protect us. We only have to use the right tools and conquer the right dungeons first.

In one of the final dungeons, Link faces the most difficult battle in the game: himself. Shadow Link pervades many Zelda story lines, bringing to light that the only real demon is within us. And guess where his shadow came from? None other than the Dark Realm.

Inner Harmony

The game ends perfectly, with Link defeating his evil self, and Ganon. The Triforce materializes in front of him asking what he wishes for more than anything in the world. Like the pure soul he is, Link only asks for peace.

But the Sacred Realm doesn't remain sacred forever. In Twilight Princess, all of Hyrule is suddenly shrouded with the same dark, evil that comes from the Dark world, meaning only one thing: The Realm has been compromised yet again.
Link immediately transforms into a wolf, while the rest of the world simply stays oblivious as floating spirit flames, wandering about, unaware of what has occurred. The clip below, beginning at 3:21 illustrates how this moment transpires: 

Their souls continue through life, only knowing something dark has passed from the feeling of fear in their gut. The entire game centers around the symbolism of light and darkness intertwining. From the looks of Zelda beliefs, it appears that when souls pass on, they aren't so much leaving the world, but remain as different entities. This is reflective of many realistic fears of humanity today: Ghosts.
Ghosts, or Poes as they are called in Zelda, reveal themselves only at nighttime. This begs the question of the difference between day and night compared to life and death. When someone dies, do they remain here? If not, where do they go?
Dualism and Twilight philosophy says they stay here, the only difference being the mortal body decaying. Death is only in the physical.

Which brings us to the metaphysical, or more specifically: can Link die, or is he Immortal?

Ha.

Ah, Fairies. Because of these wonderful creatures, death is impossible in Zelda games. Whenever you are fighting a monster, or accidentally fall off a cliff, these exquisite beings come to the rescue each time. But you have to find one and capture it into an empty bottle first.
For the people of Hyrule, all you would need to avoid certain demise is find yourself a fairy! And those things are everywhere.
So not only were magical death-defing pixies created by the Goddesses to prevent an afterlife, but also the fact that if you do die, you're not actually going anywhere. You are a soul who floats in-between reality and spirit for eternity. There is actually a forest called the Lost Woods where Link was born next to in Ocarina of Time where if a child lost their way, they would be turned into a Skull Kid. The children Link grew up with were immune to age, they stayed perpetually children. Their only concept of death was by entering the forest and getting lost. This certainly wasn't a difficult task as the forest was separated into a maze of caves and trees where a strange, whimsical tune echoed constantly. Now, if an adult was trapped in the Lost Woods, he becomes a Stalfos.

(On right) normal child. (On Left) Skull Kid

In fact Twilight Princess has a Stalfos referred to as The Hero's Shade that gives Link guidance to sharpen his skills to defeat Ganondorf. A theory floating around is that the Hero's Shade was the Link from Majora's Mask who was searching the Lost Woods for Navi, and deteriorated into the armor-plated skeleton he is now.
This idea only reinforces the lack of mortality within the Zelda universe. What is a life where death is absolutely not plausible? Even the monsters respawn every time you leave a dungeon. No one dies!

From William Bernard's perception, the way Link lives his life is not too different from the way we live ours. This stems from the idea that the afterlife is better than the one we are experiencing now. Cases other than Link are taken into consideration. Like Ganon, who is resurrected only to fail, over and over. We see many people in our lives who make the same mistakes, expecting a different result. Who would have the heart to tell them that it only gets worse afterwards? It appears that the only sense to be made out of the Zelda lifestyle is that there is always a pattern, and always the same ending. Link will attain balance, and Ganon will lose.

Final Post: Who is Princess Zelda? Feminism in Hyrule