You know, there is plenty to like about Midlink. But one thing that always stood out to me is how Midna and Link’s relationship developes so naturally.
No matter if you ship them or see them as friends, they grow together. They start out as hostile allies to friends to lovers/besties. And they grow into these roles through amazing, well-written story-telling that is both honest and realistic.
When they first meet, Link is reluctant to help Midna, but does so simply because he has no choice. Throughout their journey, he learns little bits and pieces about her, about what happened to her and why she is so dead-set on fighting Zant. He starts to understand why she is the way she is. Later when Midna is injured, he saves her without a second thought. He saves her people and her kingdom not just for the sake of his own, but because he wants to help his friend. He accepts who she is and why she acted the way she did when they first met each other. He’s grown to respect her, he’s grown to like her because he now understands her.
Midna starts out by being really rude to Link. She hides how vulnerable and helpless she is under a deep layer of dry humor and sarcasm. She has no regard for his own destiny, because she feels the urgency to help her people. Urgency lets her become unkind. But then slowly, the more time they spend together, she sees how she doesn’t need to be unkind to have Link help her. She shares more of her story and has it respected. She grows to genuinely trust Link and his motives. She grows to believe that he is not a danger to her people like the Light Dwellers that sealed the Twili away all those centuries ago. She wants to help him on his journey as much as she is thankful for his help. In the final battle, she is willing to pay the ultimate price just to help Link get the upper hand. She cries when they part because she knows what she will leave behind.
Now, these two aren’t perfect. Their relationship isn’t perfect. In the beginning, they aren’t abusive to one another, but they are also not kind. Each of them is after their own interest. They keep secrets and argue and poke fun at each other. They are bad at communicating.
But then they learn to trust and rely on one another, to joke and enjoy their time together. They talk about their plans and goals. They share their struggles. They are genuinely concerned for one another’s well-being. They are important enough to one another that the twist of the final battle is Midna’s presumed death; and Link racing towards her in the end, leaving the Zelda and Ganon and everything else behind to check on her.
These two aren’t fated lovers.
They aren’t the hero and the princess of legend.
They are two teens in a horrible situation who grow to accept their fate and choose to fight their way forward together. They form a real bond through growth, not through destiny. There is no magic between them. There is no easy love at first sight. There is no romantic idealization. They fight tooth and nail for their relationship, grow together and choose to have the other person along for the ride with them.
In media, a genuine, realistic relationship like theirs is so rare. They have ups and downs. They are not meant to be. Rather, they have experiences that mold them into who they are, individually and together. They make it work because they work on it constantly without giving up on the other.
And I really hope that a future Zelda game can write a relationship as genuine and honest as their again.
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