application for songerein.

[foremother]

Player: Agatha
Age: 30
Contact: hagclub, PM
Current Characters: im not that guy

Character: Zelda
Canon: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Age: There's no canonical age for Zelda in Skyward Sword. Hyrule Historia notes Link to be 17, so I'll tentatively say 17 but no older than 19 for sure.


Background Information: It is worth noting that The Legend of Zelda's status as a continuous story is rather confusing, as Nintendo largely kept the playerbase in the dark about how each game was connected until 2011. That year marked the first release of a trilogy of books known as The Goddess Collection, which aimed to decipher decades worth of lore. The first book, Hyrule Historia, published this image. Thankfully, I'm only mentioning this to stress that this incarnation of Zelda predates everything, including the curse binding Link, Zelda and Demise. Additionally, this particular Zelda is not a princess, but a knight-in-training at Knight Academy: a place of education on Skyloft that essentially trains young people for protecting the citizens of the clouds. Skyward Sword's Zelda is also the only one confirmed to have reincarnated at some point; her past life as the Goddess Hylia is a major plot point, after all. Now that you've got the primer, here is a wiki link.

Personality:

In much of The Legend of Zelda, the Princess herself is more of an idea, a plot asset by necessity. In Skyward Sword, Zelda is not the Princess. It makes her an outlier in depiction of Zelda, anchoring her as something from the beforetimes, when Hyrule didn't exist and when Ganondorf couldn't even have been fathomed. So, like all Zelda games, this one opens with a dream and a tutorial, but this one happens by the side of the legend herself, and the major difference is just how much spunk she has.

So, like all Zelda games, this one opens with the hero's awakening.

He is roused rudely from his ominous dream by the Loftwing of his childhood best friend, a girl named Zelda who teases him relentlessly in her letter. She calls him sleepyhead, and she reminds him not to keep her waiting on him, because they made a promise. Arguably the bulk of Zelda's personality is shown in this tutorial, giving way to a clear image of a rambunctious, active girl.

In addition to being headstrong and possessing a fondness for teasing, Zelda does not lack in self-confidence. When Link meets her after receiving her letter, she eagerly explains to him that she's playing the role of the Goddess in the Wing Ceremony, and goes as far as to say that she asserts easily that she knows she'll be a great goddess that day.

In these early games interactions, we see Zelda as free and energetic, but deeply concerned for her loved ones. When Gaepora, her father and headmaster to the academy, arrives and says he wants Link to give it his best today, Zelda quickly reveals to him that she doesn't know if Link can do it, because he hasn't been practicing as of late. This worry is obviously unfounded, but it quickly establishes Zelda as someone who frets about people she cares about, expecting them in tip-top shape.

This worry and her powerful personality go hand-in-hand: Zelda is a stubborn, difficult person who stands up to injustices easily and even argues with her father when questioning Link's ability to win the Wing Ceremony. It's not for her benefit, however: She supports those she cares about unwaveringly, even when she might be a little too harsh on them. But how are you going to not try your hardest when Zelda believes in you, anyway?

So, obviously, Zelda pushes people to do their best. Quite literally, of course: The scene where Zelda tells Link to practice culminates in her pushing him off a ledge. It's okay, when his Loftwing doesn't come for him, she jumps off it, too. She even quickly apologizes for it, noting she was wrong, and why specifically she was so.

This is an important bit of characterization. Zelda recognizes when she was wrong, and tries to rectify it by her own hand. Independent, confident and righteous, Zelda will go out of her way to try and fix things, whether they are her fault or not. When the issue is her fault, she immediately identifies herself as the problem, and handles it accordingly. This bit of her personality comes back later on in game, manifesting in a manner of punishment she doles out for herself.

This astuteness serves her well. You may not be inclined to think she's the best judge, but it's Zelda who deduces that Groose and his lackeys are the ones who stole Link's Loftwing, and she, too, possesses the almost morbid level of curiosity that her descendants possess. As they watch over their birds fly, Zelda tells Link about a text in her Father's possession that she's read about the surface, a land below them in Skyloft. Her gut tells her that this text is true, and that there is something below the cloud barrier, and she asserts a desire to find out more about it, an urge to see it for herself.

She does, of course, but not on her own terms. Zelda is plucked from Skyloft's clouds and pulled down to the surface. She is, effectively, kidnapped. Although true, it doesn't keep Zelda down for her long. She is still bubbly and truly herself during her journey with Impa, a Sheikah woman leading her through ritual purification. While Impa pushes her back from Link, Zelda tries to break through, crying out for him and telling him she'll see him again— all this after giving up her harp to aid him in his own journey.

After offering prayers to the goddess statues on the surface, Zelda's body is pure again, and she is blessed with a perfect vessel to house the Goddess' power. During the ritual, she remembers her past life as Hylia, and she remembers how much of this whole kerfuffle has been her own doing. Zelda identifies the problem— herself, Hylia— and takes up vigil over the Demise, the imprisoned evil that Hylia has been at war with all this time, even as Zelda lived her life. The revelation of her actions eats away at her, saddling her with deep regrets for the future she's cursed her loved ones with. The selfishness of her own actions slowly overwhelms her, chipping away at her selfhood as Goddesshood envelops her, and she later explains how she knows what she's done to Link is truly inexcusable. Although that was Hylia, she is Hylia, the one who has done it to him. Manipulating and lying to him in her own interests in order to say that world— Zelda says she's prepared to pay the price for this crime. She traps herself into a pillar of crystalline light, and falls into a deep slumber, using herself to keep the seal over Demise until Link is ready. With the problem identified and nullified, all that's left is for her to wait for him to wake her up.

To go with this penchant for punishment is a nasty jealousy streak; Zelda's father notes that he recalls her having a legendary temper tantrum as a child. She saw the bond between Link and his bird and became angry, pitching a fit over it, something that he seems to remember fondly as she looks over at Link. More recently, Fi will warn you to keep any dealings with Peatrice, the Item Check girl, that go too far in one direction to yourself. Zelda might feel jealous over it, she notes.

Zelda is, at heart, a fixer. She does well by the people she loves, overly so, and she works hard for them. She willingly jumps into trouble for her family and friends. Eagerly, she is always there for others, and has always made sure to wake Link up on time through it all. These are the things she cherishes: Her life in the clouds with her father and Link at her side, playing and simply living, trying her best to find happiness and propel others there, too.

At heart, she's just Zelda.

Abilities & Inventory:

Like all her descendants, Zelda possesses a line to the powers of the Goddess. Also like all her descendants, this is never clearly laid out for the playerbase to understand. Given that Princess Zelda acts like a vessel for the divine, it's likely intended to not be something you think about too much while playing the games, but in the interest of trying to make it clear what you'd be working with as a mod if she were to get in:

Holy magic alignment. She 'reads' as holy, to those who can sense magical ability.

Sealing magic. She can use an anchoring point to hold a seal in place for many, many years— or herself, if she desires. This is the primary ability she unlocks in Skyward Sword, and what she uses to hold back Demise so Link can travel back to the time of Skyloft and defeat him properly.

Knight training, of a kind. While we never get to play as her, it was originally intended for Zelda to be playable in Skyward Sword. This idea got far enough in development that a few scenes following her pilgrimage on the surface were animated and then later used during credits. Despite Zelda being in Knight Academy, it seems Impa ultimately took up combat to protect Zelda, so how much training stuck with her is up to interpretation. Even so, it is undeniable she's a student at the academy and has the same curriculum as her classmates, so she certainly knows about combat.

Blessing items; bestowing them with the Goddess' favor, thus making them capable of purification. The Master Sword requires her blessing to be complete, and ready for the fight with Demise, after all.

Zelda will be entering Songerein with her goddess robes, as she's from the post-credits scene in Skyward Sword. Additionally, she is coming in with her time's Goddess Harp, if only to sit and play the lullaby from time to time in peace.

Suitability & Plans:

While Skyward Sword did not commit to Playable Zelda, I do.

Jokes aside: Zelda is a girl on the precipice of womanhood, directly descended from the Goddess Hylia. The last thousand years of her life has been dedicated to this. Skyward Sword sees her grappling with grief and regret over her actions as a divine being: manipulation, war tactics, and even depriving herself of a normal life as a normal mortal girl. She stands at odds with herself, of two identities— a rambunctious, energetic young woman, and the unknowable Goddess. Years and decades and centuries after her death, no longer do you hear mentions of the Golden Goddesses, but it is instead Hylia's name on everyone's lips. Being the it girl has consequences and repercussions that she's still mapping out with sadness.

As such, plopping her down into Songerein, a place where Hylia is largely a non-entity and can't reach her, makes for a delicious set-up: Zelda has the opportunity to free herself from Hylia's shadow, and her own regrets as Hylia's shadow. There is a true opportunity here for her— freedom.

After all, this seems like a great primer for living on the surface.

Test Drive Sample: toplevel

Questions: you got cheese that i can eat?