Rain patters down, doing little to extinguish the flames of the guardian’s fire. Embers float in the wind coating the air with the stench of destruction. Guardians search, with their once peaceful blue turned to red, embracing the calamity. Link, her knight, her hero, struggles to stand. The once mighty Master Sword pierces into the ground, its light dissipated. Many guardians lay defeated but too many still walk. The princess knows that there’s no hope. The champions are gone. The Divine Beasts are conquered. She can’t lose Link too. She begs him to save himself, to let her go. Link holds up the Master Sword once more and faces yet another guardian despite his wavering strength and the injuries sapping his spirit. The guardian takes aim, the laser a strong red marking the hero’s death. “No!” Zelda steps in front of him, a golden light erupting from her form. The goddess’s power awakens within her, ready to protect all… only too late to save her kingdom.
Zelda’s awakening in the memories of Breath of the Wild is by far one of the most emotional scenes in the game. The first time I witnessed Zelda’s desperate cry was enough to bring me to tears. Here was the princess who was trying everything to fulfill her destiny and by the time the goddess’s power finally ignited, Princess Zelda had already lost everything. Her friends, her family, her kingdom… and Link. The knight that refused to leave her side right until the very end. The lovely artist, Mimimaru, recaptures this moment of Zelda’s awakening in her piece “Must Protect Them All,” and in one shot she brings forth all the emotions once again.
Mimimaru’s scene redraw holds a similar stance to Princess Zelda’s pose on the cover art of Age of Calamity. Unlike the princess shown in the original artwork, Mimimaru added stains to Zelda’s dress and skin and brought tears to her eyes, more akin to the iconic memory in Breath of the Wild. Zelda’s awakening does hold similarities in Age of Calamity, with Link surrounded by guardians and Princess Zelda rushing to his side, feeling like she must do something to help. She can’t leave Link behind to potentially die while she lives on. However, due to the success in Age of Calamity’s timeline, the new version of events doesn’t hold nearly as much emotion as the fall of Hyrule in Breath of the Wild.
Comparisons between games and timelines aside, Mimimaru’s artwork is a stunning piece of simple elements brought together to make a powerful impact upon all who see it. While the golden light is sure to draw attention, Zelda’s eyes are fierce and broken, capturing my gaze first. The eyes show the princess’s anguish but also her determination to not give up. The tear that escapes, falling down her cheeks holds the sadness of loss of everyone falling around her. But that spark. That single spark in her eyes shows that she won’t be a damsel-in-distress. She will fight, as Mimimaru perfectly captures in the title of her work. Princess Zelda must protect them all.
I could talk about Zelda’s eyes and the emotions painted on the canvas forever, but there are more elements working hard in this piece. The color scheme touches on neutral, washed-out colors, complementing Zelda’s goddess design and not overshadowing the golden power. While most of the piece is in shades of gold and white, Zelda’s belt bears the iconic blue of the champions and works in this piece as a matching tone to the shades of the princess’s dress. While blue would normally be a strong contrast to the almost orange hues, the edge of gold and dulled hues blend into the design, ensuring that the main focus is still Zelda’s eyes and the power erupting from her hand.
The background choice in Mimimaru’s piece doesn’t match the trees and guardians drenched in rain from Breath of the Wild, nor the kingdom and sky of Age of Calamity’s artwork. Mimimaru created her own background that I think was the best choice to hero Princess Zelda. In the same hues of gold with both dark and light tones blending about, a whirlwind erupts behind Princess Zelda. Similar to the colors of the sky found in dusk, the swirling background acts like clouds running away as the sun shines through. Only here, Zelda is the sun and the clouds are the calamity. Little embers float around her like in the scene from Breath of the Wild ,or perhaps in Mimimaru’s piece, they’re more like golden droplets of power spreading out across the lands.
Memory seventeen from Breath of the Wild is a heart-wrenching moment that has the power to bring tears five years later. Mimimaru not only recaptures the cutscene, but also showcases the many emotions running through Princess Zelda as her kingdom falls around her. The sadness, the anguish but most importantly, the hope. The Goddess’s power is a beacon of light that will shine when we need it most. Upon a dark day, call upon the princess’s hope and remember that if she can take control when all seems lost, so can you.
