Princess Zelda in Spirit Tracks is such a mixture of opposites. Throughout the whole game, she’s dressed in all the finery befitting a princess, but in order to stop the rise of the Demon King Malladus, she has to inhabit the hulking armor of a Phantom. At the beginning of the adventure, she doesn’t want to help Link. She just wants to be a princess. Why couldn’t she just let Link be the hero? That’s what she’d been told princesses did in the past.
As they traveled together though, she started to enjoy the adventure. She enjoyed the speed of flying alongside the Spirit Train, the adrenaline of swinging her gigantic sword at enemies, and the camaraderie of journeying alongside Link. The journey was fun.
This art by Tellielz does a great job capturing the joy Zelda learns to take in adventuring. Zelda herself is the largest figure in the image aside from the Spirit Train that serves to emphasize her, and the most noticeable thing about her in this picture is the freedom she seems to be feeling. She has a huge smile, and her eyes are fixed forward toward what’s coming next as she flies arms widespread to the next stop. In fact, her arms are even in the foreground in front of the smokestack of the Spirit Train, almost as if she’s racing Link and winning.
On the left side of the picture, Link is seen wearing his engineer outfit, which is an odd inclusion considering that he doesn’t wear it for that long. It’s a fun outfit though, which may be the whole point. Link’s wide grin as he watches Zelda’s spirit soar seems to imply that maybe sometimes fun is just enough.
In addition to Link, Zelda, and the Spirit Train, there are also some important things to notice in the background. Ferrus, ever the train enthusiast, is seen smiling as his flashbulb goes off, adding another photo to his collection. Behind him, rabbits are sitting just outside the gates of Rabbit Haven, inviting Link and Zelda to while away the hours rescuing a few more of them. While neither of these elements can replace the importance of Link and Zelda, they are both extremely cute and add to the cheerfulness that the art elicits.
Maybe Zelda had been wrong at the beginning of Spirit Tracks. Maybe princesses didn’t have to stay behind. Maybe they just needed to join the adventure and have fun; after all, it was her legend.
