Got to thinking about twilight Princess Zelda again and the tragedy of her character. TP is already a pretty tragic game, facing a Hyrule that’s become stagnant and rout, the kingdom becoming complacent with outlaying towns becoming rundown. The guards and knights are all lazy, unbothered, unfit and not expecting any disaster or threat to befall their perfect kingdom, and yet it does.
Zant attacks. Zelda and her soldiers try to fight back, but it’s a magic and a power that far out matches Zelda’s and she has no choice but to surrender. And imagine that! For her whole life she was trained to fight for her kingdom, guided by wise mages and sorcerers to hone and train her abilities, skills and education, to be a perfect princess and queen and defend her kingdom from evils and past legends I’m sure she read about and studied in her kingdoms past. And then, just when they needed her most, Zelda immediately fails. Outmatched and unprepared. She was about to be crowned queen, but now, she may never see that day.
She’s put under house arrest in her own home. Alone in her giant, empty, hollow castle. The guards and servants terrified and running, everything now overrun by horrifying beasts and monsters she never could have imagined. She has no way of observing the outside world past the magic shield imprisoning her. Unable to see what was actually happening to her people and unsure if they were being slaughtered or not.
She had to have felt so helpless and terrified. Feeling the weight of her family’s ill choices and sins of her kingdom sinking solely onto her young shoulders. Isolated and having zero autonomy over the situation, doubting if she had made the right choice or not, trying to resist falling into despair and praying so fervently for a miracle to happen. And then Link and Midna arrive! A chance for hope! She has to help them, protect them and give them guidance if she can! She was always praised for her wisdom but now that’s feeling like a false pretense than a reality.
They leave her behind, though I’m sure she desperately wished she could have joined them. But she has to be responsible, it’s up to her to make up for her family’s past wrong doings. And now she has to wait. Again. With bated breath she waits, trying not to spiral into madness as I’m sure Zant tried all he could to torment her.
Link and Midna finally return but Midna is on deaths doorstep. What else can Zelda do but save her? Perhaps saving Midna was the only chance she saw of making an actual impact and helping where she could but also escaping her imprisonment. Perhaps it was a forbidden spell she used, transferring the Triforce, her life force, into Midna. It would be safer in their hands. Maybe she didn’t know if she’d ever be able to return back but she was willing to sacrifice herself if it meant saving her people.
And then somehow, Zelda comes back? Her memories are strange and vague, maybe her conscienceness was tied to Midna’s and saw pieces of what Midna saw. Maybe she was fully aware of Ganon using her as a puppet. Again, she had no autonomy or choice.
She watches her castle, her home explode! It’s destroyed, but Link, they’re both about to die and Zelda finally is able to help, reach into her arcane power and connect with the light spirits for aid! She rides on Epona behind Link, finally able to use her abilities and training to take down the Force that tried to threaten herself and her land! But once again she has to watch someone else take on the responsibility of defending her kingdom when it should have been her all along, facing certain death until Link finally wins! Somehow, they win… it seems a like a dream, it’s gone, it’s over… she will never be able to thank or award Link enough in a thousand lifetimes.
Midna is leaving. She has to. Grief is thick in the air, she feels like she’s intruding in such a sacred bond that she knows formed between Link and Midna. Midna calls her wise, though Zelda is doubtful. The mirror shatters, the connection between that world forever broken, gone forever… Zelda prays, at a loss for words… how do they move forward from this? This is only the beginning towards the step to freedom and rebuilding her broken kingdom. Her home is gone, but the people still love her. She has to depend on them now for a change, but now, Hopefully, she won’t have to be alone this time.
Twilight Princess Zelda, I love you.
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