I was digging through my files tonight. Fun times.

Once I started writing an essay about the Triforce in literature. It's not finished, but I find it fairly amusing regardless. Read on, homies!

The Triforce is, as a literary motif, a very basic principle. Put quite simply, you have three parts: one who desires the power to conquer, one who desires the courage to become itself, and one who desires the wisdom to balance the other two.

Power knows exactly what it wants, but always fall short of its goal of reigning supreme. Now, it might not want to literally take over, but it does want to at least be considered an expert in its area of expertise. Power is usually an overachiever, blindly following its goals often at the expense of its compatriots. It seldom meets these goals, however, as it is undone by either its own greed or the efforts of Courage.

Courage itself similarly has only one goal: it wishes to become its own person and make its mark on the world. Do not confuse this with Power, however; Power is fully aware of its goals and what it needs to do to achieve them, while Courage only has a vague concept of being recognized for achieving something great. Unfortunately, it rarely has the ability to focus on its own goals; far more often it bends to the needs and wishes of those around it, becoming little more than a pawn in a larger system.

Power and Courage are, as you may have guessed, diametrically opposed. Power acts for itself, Courage acts for others. This is not to say that either is good or evil, just that they are opposite each other. They do battle until Courage manages to achieve something for itself and Power learns that its goals are unnecessary, or alternatively until Courage slays Power to stop its rampant selfishness. Sometimes, a Courage is seen undoing itself by never achieving its goal of self-realization, thus allowing Power to accomplish its goals, though this is much rarer.

The third part of this equation is Wisdom. Now Wisdom is a bit different in that it does not seek out its own goals, but rather a balance between Power and Courage, whatever that may be. It seeks the knowledge to make the two stop their struggle with each other, either through neutrality or by aligning itself with one or the other of them. Despite the specificity and facility of this goal, seldom does it have any effect. More often than not, Wisdom must watch helplessly on the sidelines while the two others have at each other.