did you see zelda's research notes in hyrule castle? i love reading her perspective on things
Yes! Haha, I ducked into her room immediately after getting the memory on the walkway in order to avoid the Guardians that were targeting me. I mean, I wanted to read her diary anyway, but yeah, I pretty much booked it immediately to avoid insta-death, haha.
I have to say that this iteration of Zelda is my favorite iteration of Zelda yet, because she’s so beautifully fleshed out as a character. We see so many different facets of her personality; we see her when she’s frustrated, despaired, happy, excited, cheeky, furious, guilt and grief-stricken … and we see all of the different layers for this, too, all of the reasons that intertwine and build on top of each other. This Zelda is complex; she’s not just a beautiful princess, or a cheeky pirate. She’s a person who is burdened with a responsibility, with a hurdle that she just can’t overcome no matter how hard she tries. In all honesty, I find this aspect of her character to be immensely relatable. While of course I can’t exactly empathize with needing to unlock holy power to seal away the incarnation of pure evil, I can empathize with having a learning disability that makes it pretty much impossible for me to understand more than the simplest math no matter how hard I try at it. I can understand the frustration and pain that comes with trying over, and over, and over again to make myself understand and complete it, only to be met with failure and a complete lack of comprehension each and every time. I mean, I gave myself stomach ulcers over a basic algebra course freshman year of university. I know full well what it is to have an insurmountable hurdle like that. And I’m positive that other people with different disabilities all across the board know that feeling, too. I’m sure that they would be able to see themselves in Zelda’s struggle, and would understand the hopeless despair she feels at the fact that she can’t manage when everyone else around her seems perfectly capable.
(Mental illness can play into this, too. I have several, and Zelda’s despairing cry of “what is wrong with me?” really spoke to me on that level. So I think her struggle can really hit home on several different levels.)
But what I love even more than her struggle, and even more that we get to see such a wide range of emotions from her over a wide range of issues, is the fact that we also see so much of just how she is as a person. Zelda, according to her father, “plays at being a scholar.” But the thing is, he’s wrong. He’s wrong, because Zelda isn’t playing; she’s genuinely interested in scholarly pursuits. She loves learning, has a fantastic memory for the knowledge she learns, and grows genuinely excited when she makes new discoveries, no matter how silly or trivial. After all, that frog she captured is not going to help them defeat Calamity Ganon. However, she’s still thrilled to have captured it, and even more excited at the prospect of getting Link to taste it so that she can see what it does (even as she mentions that it’s not a controlled environment—what a scientist she is). Even better is the fact that although she genuinely loves learning for the sake of learning, she also pours herself into this because she wants to try to find an alternative method to save Hyrule just in case her powers don’t awaken. This comes back to her insecurities, her doubts, her fears; her low self-esteem and lack of self-worth because she’s not living up to the role she has been told she was born to play. But although Zelda is being crushed by the weight of these things, she’s not giving up (or at least, she’s trying her best not to). She’s researching and desperately trying to construct a secondary plan that they can use to fight Calamity Ganon should the need arise. She’s doing what she has to in order to protect her kingdom, using the strengths she knows she has to do so. She’s a damn fine queen if I’ve ever seen one, to be entirely honest. She makes for a better queen than her father does a king.
This version of Zelda is absolutely wonderful. I love how she feels like an actual person rather than just a stock character. She has such life and personality. They did a really excellent job with her; I’m quite impressed.
(I also just watched a video on YouTube that put all of the memories in order, and yeah—it really is best to watch them in order, I think. I also think that I’ve been perhaps a bit too hard on her voice actress; there are some scenes in which she’s quite good and the tone does fit. Watching the memories again, I really, really think the issue is less with her voice and more with the direction. There are still some parts which seem under-acted, but that is probably more the result of the voice director rather than the actress herself. I’ve been blaming the wrong person, I think. Apologies to Zelda’s voice actress for that.)
