I hate Simon.
Not just any person named Simon — that would be super rude — but that multi-colored devilry that older people have been trying to pass off as “fun” to children for decades. The cacophony of lights and sounds mixed with the unpleasant smoke emanating from my head as my brain tries to remember the pattern only to end up forgetting is not very fun. All that to say that when I entered the Subrosian Dance Hall during my playthrough of Oracle of Seasons, I was less than thrilled. High-stakes memorization dancing? No thanks!
Through his art titled “The Subrosia Dance,” Haychel captures both my own apprehension when it comes to rhythm-based gaming segments as well as the joy that can come from just not worrying about it all and reaching for that rhythm that comes when you and the game are in sync.
Much as it dominates the room, the gigantic flow of lava commands attention upon initially viewing this art. It flows in the dead center of the piece and, in any other room in the Zelda series, it would hint at danger and demise. In this instance, though, the feelings it evokes are much different. For the Subrosians, lava is just a part of life. It’s not dangerous. It gives off light and warmth. It keeps their underground society going. Haychel shows this through the way that the lava casts a warm glow over everything. It lights the faces of Link, Rosa, and the other Subrosians and allows them to celebrate together. It also casts gentle shadows along the bottom of the piece. All in all, it radiates a warmth and comfiness reminiscent of sitting by a warm fire on a cold day.
As they do in Oracles of Seasons, two figures hog the spotlight in this art: Link and Rosa. Rosa stands above the rest on a literal pedestal. This not only calls back to the actual minigame, but it also brings to mind how the Subrosians see Rosa. Throughout the game, she is mentioned to be the most beautiful of her people, and when Link wins her heart by gifting her a ribbon after she lost hers, the other Subrosians’ eyes match the jealous green shade of their cloaks.
Link’s position in the art hints at the connection between him and Rosa. While all of the other Subrosians are following the same dance, lest they be thrown out of the dance hall, their positioning around Rosa makes it so none of them match her actual movements. It’s really only Link, who is positioned immediately diagonally left of her, whose angle allows him to match her dance moves almost identically. In fact, you can almost draw a straight line from Link’s hand straight through Rosa’s shrouded one. They are in sync while the rest of the green-clothed mob are not.
Even the next closest dancer, standing to the bottom right of Rosa, is in the correct position, but by placing him slightly off-center, Haychel denies this hooded potential suitor the chance of ever getting in line with Rosa. Too bad, Subrosian! Link is the only pop star for this ribboned diva!
Despite having a clear inside track to Rosa’s heart, Link’s expression matches my own when playing this minigame. His eyes and mouth are both open wide while his eyebrows remain lowered in concentration. The Hyrulean hero could be acting as a backup dancer to the lovely Rosa, but I prefer to think that his expression is capturing a moment of doubt in his dancing abilities instead. He’s going all in and faking it until he makes it, but there’s fear in his eyes that he’s about to be bounced right out of the hottest club in Subrosia.
The last element that catches my eye is just as much a comment on the design of the Subrosians as it is Haychel’s art, but I find the shape of the darkness-dwelling dancers’ eyes in the piece to be very interesting. Their eyes follow the same rough shape as two drops of water that have been slightly rotated, so their tips come together into a point. I find this interesting because it makes it very hard for me to read their facial expressions as happy. Their little teardrop-shaped eyes seem to be locked into a mask of perpetual sadness, yet they are shown boogying down with the most beautiful singing and dancing sensation of their land. Aside from feeling some jealousy toward Link, they seem to be loving life. This contrast between design and story is fascinating. Haychel has done as much as possible to show an image of pure Subrosian happiness as the source material will allow.
Haychel has done the impossible with this piece of art: I actually want to boot up my copy of Oracle of Seasons and go visit this iconic location again despite all the bad memories it evokes for me. That’s what great Zelda art does. It allows us to revisit that moment from the game and bask in the nostalgia, but it also adds new feelings and interpretations that can take a moment that we might not have enjoyed initially and give it new meaning. It invites us to try the dance again.
