As a high school English teacher, I often see the effects of stress on teenagers. At times, my students have raged, cried, and broken down because of the heavy weight put upon them by their parents, coaches, and themselves. During these moments, I do my best to remind my students that they need to take care of themselves, and if they are struggling to manage the stress put upon them, they may need to have an honest conversation with those people in their life who are sources of it. Being a teenager today is hard, but it may not be as hard as being a teenage princess in Hyrule during the Great Calamity.
Princess Zelda has to deal with much more than the average teen during the events of Breath of the Wild. Prior to the Great Calamity, Zelda experiences a constant cycle of pressure and disappointment. Her father constantly instructs her to pray at the various springs in order to unlock her sealing power, and afterwards, Zelda falls into a familiar feeling of self-loathing because she can never find success. Each plea to the goddess seems to only fall on empty ears. Even when she finds something that she loves and finds success with, studying the ancient Sheikah technology, her father tells Zelda to focus on the very activity that fuels her depression rather than encouraging her.
Few artists capture the absolute devastation of this cycle like Twitter user Sheg. In this particular piece, Zelda looks absolutely devastated. One hand is clenched in a tight fist that the princess has slammed against the ground as if the frustration of constantly trying to unlock her sealing power has finally erupted from her. Her entire body is bent forward with her other hand entwined in her hair, barely holding her head just off of the ground. Zelda’s hair is pooled on the ground and hides her eyes which must surely be overflowing with tears.
The sketchiness of Sheg’s lines contributes to the feeling of pain emoted by this art. Zelda’s clenched fist is less round and more sharp and angular, appearing almost like a knife. This pointiness might imply that Zelda’s struggle to not only deal with the expectations of her father but also her own expectations acts as a blade cutting into her self-esteem.
In addition to the straight lines of Zelda’s fist, the use of black lines is also worth noticing. Most of Zelda’s figure is enclosed by some degree of a black line. While the thickness of the black line varies, of particular importance are the parts that aren’t held in by them. Only some of Zelda’s golden hair is enclosed by the black lines of the rest of the piece. Much of it bleeds into the white of the ground just as Zelda’s pain is flowing out of her. It reminds us of how much it can hurt to feel like you don’t measure up to a loved one’s expectations when you feel like you never will.
As adults, we all struggle with juggling jobs and relationships amongst other things, but it’s important to remember the struggles of growing up, too. As teenagers are building their identity, they are often being told by peers and the adults in their life that the person they’re constructing isn’t good enough. Perhaps it’s during these times that we need to remember the lesson recounted by King Rhoam Bosphoramus Hyrule in the later entries in his journal where he resolves to quit his scolding of Zelda when she returns from the Spring of Wisdom and vows to encourage her instead.
