For those of you who don’t know, today, the day before Halloween, is known as Mischief Night, and is a day typically associated with the pranks and trouble-making that take place during this season. That’s why it felt right to talk about the mischief Ganon creates with the Blood Moon. You probably know what I’m referring to: when Ganon uses the Blood Moon to resurrect all of the monsters Link fought his hardest to kill. Ganon seems like the kind of person who wouldn’t know when a joke stops being funny.
The rise of the Blood Moon is a frightening part of Breath of Wild. This is especially true the first time it happens, but it also retains and then imparts the same sense of tension every additional time the moon turns the sky that deep red hue. It’s a terror that the world has to live with, and artist Orioto did an amazing job capturing this repeating sense of dread.
In the portrait, Link watches as the Blood Moon rises over the mountain tops in the distance, its piercing red glow shining through the storm clouds. The clouds swirl around the scene, the thunder and rain they produce almost seem like a show of nature’s lamentation over this night of ungodly resurrection. To the left of Link is a rising Moblin, to the right of him is a proud buck, and above him drifts one of the mighty dragons. The natural, the unnatural, and the supernatural are all under the gaze of the crimson curse in the sky.
The scene is dire, there’s no pretending that it’s not, but the signs of life, the hero facing the danger head-on, and the unmistakable gaze of a Divine Beast — proof that Link has made progress in his quest to save Hyrule — are enough to ward off any lasting despair. Ganon has schemes and devices in place to ensure his victory, but even having one of those devices be a celestial body cannot keep a lone champion’s unbreakable courage at bay forever.
