On Ravio, Manipulation, and Cowardice
I wanted to take a bit to talk about Ravio's characterization in ALBW and how it pertains to my AU, since it's something I find fascinating. I feel like there's some pretty key aspects to his character that people tend to miss or excuse. This may be a cohesive post or it may be incoherent screaming, who knows? :D
First and foremost: Ravio is manipulative. People tend to criticize Hilda for lying and deceiving Link, for portraying a false image of herself in hopes of getting Link to do what she wants/needs, and then blatantly ignore the fact Ravio does the same thing. Ravio presents himself to Link as a foolish idiot, a traveling merchant that stumbled across Link by happenstance; a coward who needs a place to stay and a shop to run. He flatters Link and encourages him to go to the castle to report what Yuga did in the sanctuary, calls him a hero, and gives him items that he can't beat the dungeons without. He directly pushes Link into saving Hyrule and Lorule.
In the first conversation we have with him, Ravio portrays himself as a clueless innocent with Link as his better. And this, of course, is fundamentally a lie.
At the end of the game, we see Ravio take off his hood, literally and figuratively unmasking himself. He is now seen as the mirror of Link instead of a quirky side character. Ravio speaks with Hilda, someone who we know he was close with due to his line "But not long ago, I served Princess Hilda here in Lorule", as well as his diary entries -- more on that later -- and we see him drop this facade.
He tells Hilda why he helped Link; "I-I'm sorry, my princess. But [betraying you by helping Link] was with the best of intentions. I wish the best for our kingdom. But by ruining Hyrule? You'd bring out the absolute worst in Lorule. [...] Don't you see? The reason your noble ancestors destroyed our Triforce was to STOP such chaos!"
Here we see Ravio make a convincing, thoughtful argument. He's no longer the bumbling idiot we knew him as before. This is the truth of his character: he is smart, has had ulterior motives from the beginning, and lied and used Link to achieve them.
Now, don't get me wrong; Ravio undoubtedly does have good intentions. I'm not here to argue Ravio is evil and heartless. He gives Link his bracelet, the one that allows Link access to the main gimmick of ALBW, he gives Link items that help his journey, and he doesn't try to sabotage Link.
But this begs the question: why is he helping Link? Well, that's a pretty easy question to answer. At the end of the game, Ravio says, "Princess Hilda, I... I just wanted to save you from all this—you, who've worried endlessly about the fate of Lorule.". So there we have it. Ravio did everything in service of Hilda.
Except this raises a second question: Why was this the only way he could think to do it?
Here's another truth to Ravio: he is selfish.
I've seen a lot of people contend this idea, usually due to a reluctance to admit their blorbo has any faults at all, and I get it. And this is gonna be a bit of a small tangent, but it's important to remember that selfishness, while commonly depicted as a vice, is not inherently bad. Selfishness is merely the act of acting in your own self interest. You are your number one priority and you absolutely should act in your own self interest some of the time. Of course selfishness should be practiced in moderation, and you should try to help others as much as you can, but you should always remember that you are one of the people you need to help. So this is in no way me trying to call Ravio a bad person.
But more to the point: why am I making this argument about Ravio to begin with?
Ravio is a coward -- that's one of the things he wasn't lying about. In the game, his cowardice is portrayed as the direct inverse of Link's courage, and Link's courage throughout the franchise has always been the thing that defines him as a hero. What makes a hero a hero? The act of helping others, of saving them, of risking life and limb for a better future. So, in other words, Ravio is inherently characterized by the fact he is missing the selflessness and self-sacrifice Link exhibits.
Furthermore, in ALBW, the player can find a collection of three diary entries, all belonging to Ravio. They read as follows:
"3 Days to Go: She wants to do the right thing. I wish I could help her. But leaving is my only option."
"2 Days to Go: She's being duped. Doesn't she realize that? He's just a leech. There's no choice but to go."
"1 Day to Go: I have so little magic. Enough to go there—maybe not to come back. But tomorrow must be the day. I may never see her again, but I vow to save her from all of this."
If you're unfamiliar with the context, the pieces we have are this: Ravio used to serve Princess Hilda, and he was close enough to her for the two to form a personal bond. Hilda sought out Yuga in order to find a way to Hyrule to take their Triforce and restore Lorule to its former glory. Ravio had front row seats to Yuga's manipulation of Hilda, and he was able to see and understand Yuga's true intentions while Hilda was too focused on her goal. He knew Yuga always intended to piggy-back off her success for his own gain.
So what exactly is stopping Ravio from doing something?
He was close enough to know what was going on, and his word is one that Hilda values. Ravio is consistently characterized as charismatic, and he even manages to convince her of his viewpoint at the end of the game (though I recognize that was during unique circumstances). I understand that Hilda is a very desperate person, and she's entirely dedicated herself to her goals. She would be a very hard mind to shake, especially when she was on the cusp of beginning her plan to revive Lorule, but Ravio gives zero indication that he tried. Ravio also had a lot of items at his disposal. While he does say he has little magic (and therefore cannot use magic items to fight), I refuse to believe there was nothing he could have done. And it's not even the fact he failed -- it's the fact he didn't do anything.
Instead of saying I tried to reason with her or I tried to fight, he says he "has no choice but to leave". He never stops to consider an alternative. To him, the only way he can do anything is by running away, abandoning and betraying the woman he wholeheartedly believes can be their salvation, and manipulating Link into doing what Ravio thinks he never could. His self-identification of "coward" is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
It should be said Ravio and Hilda are very similar people. They both intentionally deceived and used Link. They both knew the big picture and kept it secret. The main difference is Hilda did everything for her country, and Ravio did everything because he wasn't willing to do it on his own. That is the point I'm making: it's not that Ravio physically couldn't, or that he tried and failed. It's that he made the deliberate decision to manipulate Link instead of fighting his own battles.
...Now here's the part where I very intelligently segue into talking about my linksmeet AU :D this is my AU blog, after all
This might be a bit funny to say after five thousand paragraphs of talking about him, but Ravio will not be appearing in my comic proper. He is delegated to flashbacks and mentions only, and that's because his absence is a very key part of Sunflower's character.
Ravio is a very closed-off person. It's in the way he talks to the way he's designed. He hides behind his dumb persona and rage-baiting dialogue, manipulates Link, and after everything is said and done, he leaves Link behind.
In my AU, I chose to give him a lot more of an internal dilemma about this. He doesn't like Link at first. He thinks Link isn't taking this seriously enough, that maybe all the years in the blessed land of Hyrule made them ignorant to the stakes. But Ravio has a job to do, so he plays nice. He pretends it doesn't bother him. And as he does, he gets to know Link better, and he begins to like Link.
He's still a bit bitter about everything, and Ravio is constantly reminded of what he's doing to Link, but he learns to judge Link on their own merit instead of the image Ravio built of them. And as the end nears closer and closer, Ravio is torn apart by the fact he got attached. By the fact he knows Link got attached, too. What was once just a means to an end to Ravio is now incredibly personal.
Link knows that there's a lot Ravio won't tell them. Link knows Ravio isn't quite who he says he is, that he's a complete liar, and they're more than a little miffed by it. But they know there must be a reason Ravio acts this way. Link is willing to set it aside because they, in some small way, rely on Ravio. For items, yes, but also a sense of normalcy.
Link was raised in the small town of Kakariko. Everyone knows everyone. When they picked up the mantle of Hero, everyone had thoughts and opinions about it. The community Link was so deeply part of began to see them as someone to pity, a child with too-big boots. No one saw them the same. So someone like Ravio, someone who Link thought had no prior thoughts or opinions about them, feels like a blessing.
To Link, the fact that Ravio knew everything and strung them along is a betrayal. And Ravio knew it would be. There was no time to have a proper conversation about it, because as quick as Link learned about the truth, Ravio was gone, stuck in Lorule while Link had no way to get to him.
So there you have it! I choose to perceive and write Ravio as someone who used and manipulate Link. Did he have good intentions? Sure. Is Sunflower able to get over it and move on? Nope. I hope you enjoyed me yammering for almost 2,000 words lol <3 thanks for reading
I’m a huge Ravio fan; he’s my precious blorbo, and I’ll honestly say that the lack of content exploring his manipulative, selfish, and cunning side is something I deeply regret. I don’t think your analysis is incoherent at all! On the contrary, given the context of Lorule, there’s no way Ravio wouldn’t have been envious of Link ^^”
I also generally love the idea that Sunflower won’t forget Ravio any more than Ravio will forget Sunflower; there’s something exquisitely melancholic about it. Especially when you think about Hyrule Warriors, I’ve always felt that, unintentionally (there’s no way Nintendo actually planned this), making Ravio a playable hero in a different world and era created some incredible character development.
Going from being selfish and manipulative as a way to avoid facing his fears to actively helping in a battle where he could have done nothing at all— it almost feels as though his final words came true, and some of that heroism really did resonate with him haha
