Fairly early on in the series, Princess Zelda stopped being a simple damsel in distress. As early as A Link to the Past, Zelda began taking a more active role even when she was held captive. She often discussed the next steps of the quest with Link and the player telepathically, leading them towards their next objective and closer to her liberation. One of the most multifaceted versions of the princess is from Ocarina of Time. In fact, we see three separate versions of the character in this one single game. Through a beautiful lo-fi remix of “Zelda’s Lullaby”, Qumu invites us to peer into the different elements of this fan-favorite princess.
The remix starts with a fairly simple rendition of the lullaby on an ocarina, similar to what the players do multiple times through both Ocarina of Time and its sequel. It’s followed by a series of piano notes that remind me of the opening notes played at the daybreak of many Zelda games. Pretty soon afterwards, this simple melody is joined by multiple layers of beats. My favorite of these different melodies is a jazzy, unstructured series of notes that sounds like it was made by a digital recorder of sorts. This flourish of notes reminds me of the young Zelda we see spying on Ganondorf. This version of the royal daughter is wise for her age, but she’s also playful and a little unstructured. She has a plan to defeat the Gerudo thief, but it’s a little young in its thinking, not considering Ganondorf’s devious plotting.
A little further into the song, a deeper beat joins the mix. The lower beat initially seems almost out of place with the delicate nature of the lullaby, but it also speaks to a layer of the princess. During the time of Ganondorf’s reign, Zelda puts on the masculine disguise of Sheik. Appearing and disappearing as suits their plan, Sheik helps guide Link from dungeon to dungeon, leading a resistance against the Demon King’s tyranny in this way.
About halfway through the song, a deeper wind instrument also joins the mix and has a similar unstructured nature as the background melody from earlier. This deeper beat calls to mind the older Princess Zelda. It has a similar feel to the flurry of beats that reminded me of the young princess earlier on in the track. The lower tone of the instrument conveys the struggles and despair the older Zelda has had to deal with. Her kingdom has been devastated and conquered, and she’s been leading a quiet resistance in disguise as a young Sheikah man. Even when the Demon King has been defeated, the princess doesn’t get a happy ending. She makes the mature choice to send the Hero of Time back to his childhood, so he might be happy at the cost of the friendship they’d built.
Through their remix, Qumu takes listeners on a journey through both the story of Ocarina of Time and the character development of its princess. Through the course of the quest, she has transformed from a child trying to protect her kingdom but lacking the maturity to understand the depravity of the Demon King to a mature ruler willing to sacrifice her identity and her friendships to do what’s right by her kingdom and her friends.
