Unsolved NPC Mysteries
In my post for Achievement Unlocked, I made reference to how I sometimes fill in the blanks on ideas or themes that games leave out, just to flesh out the game I’m playing and give it some extra weight. Sometimes those blanks take the form of NPCs, who are just standing around and don’t really get a whole lot of development. So for this segment on Homestyle, I’m going to point out some random NPC and try to make sense of the senseless.
Let’s start with Error:
Error makes his gaming debut in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, courtesy of the Nintendo Entertainment System. This game was a huge departure from the original Legend of Zelda due to its side scrolling sections and character interaction. Link happens upon Error in the town of Ruto, where the image above recreates the meeting of the minds.
“I AM ERROR” is probably one of the most memorably lines of dialogue from any Zelda game, aside from “HEY!” and “LISTEN!” from Ocarina. “I am error” is an incredibly deep, philosophical thought on the existence of men in the world of Hyrule. In the grand scheme of things, we are all creatures of happenstance, and our being is merely an ‘error’ of chance. Why are we here? “Error.” Where are we going? “To err.” What are we going to do when we get there? “Error.” Error here is ahead of the curve compared to anyone in Hyrule, save for the woman who offers to sleep with Link for health (and if you don’t think that’s what happens there, you’re just lying to yourself). Everyone is worried about trophies and hammers being stolen, but Error knows the truth of his existence, that he is a mistake. He…is….Error…
Or maybe that’s just his name….
Or a typo….