30 Days: Favorite Couple

This is one of a series called “30 Days of Video Games“, an exercise on daily writing.
Follow the link for the full list.

Here’s where I diverge from the script.

You’ll no doubt be expecting Link & Zelda here.  I would be expecting Link & Zelda here.  There’s hardly a more timeless, classic video game couple than Link & Zelda.   While the two non-Power facets of the Triforce started as a rote, damsel-in-distress story with Link playing the part of the Knight-Errant, the Zelda series has done a wonderful job highlighting Zelda as an appropriate and equally capable adventurer as her long-time legendary beau.  Zelda has been a master of disguise, a sage, a pirate (and a ninja!) and most importantly, the personification & holder of the Triforce of Wisdom.

In short, the girl’s moved up in the world.

I love the evolution of Princess Zelda, and what that’s meant to the series named after her.  Zelda was such a minor character in the first several entries in the series, which always was odd to me considering that she’s the title character.

But they’re not a couple.  They’re a threesome.  Link & Zelda would simply not be Link & Zelda without Ganon.

I know, it’s trite.  Every tired old adventure story is a triangle – the knight-errant, the damsel and the villain.  But the concept of triangles are so prevalent within the Legend of Zelda, it’s impossible to ignore – the Triforce needs all three parts, not just Courage & Wisdom.  In fact, you could argue that Link & Ganon are more of a couple than Link & Zelda, but if you really want to get into it, the real couple is Ganon & Zelda, who represent the two extremes of the power of Triforce.  Anyway, the point being is that Ganon has the Triforce of Power, Zelda Wisdom, and Link eventually gets his tiny little hands on Courage, and the three of them are trapped together forever.

No, my favorite couple comes from Bioware’s excellent Mass Effect series – Commander Sheppard & Garrus Vakarian.  Renegade buddy cops, bounty hunter bros, soldiers of virtue and honor, or just bumping uglies (or incredibly supple wrists), Shep & Garrus are my favorite couple.  Male or Femshep, it doesn’t really matter, though I prefer to bring the scruffy battleworn Turian into Jenna Sheppard’s renegade bed.  To me, Garrus fits the renegade FemShep the best – two incredibly tough badasses that have hearts of gold buried under three feet of steel plating, ready to save the universe, no matter what it takes.

Just… beware of chafing.

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