Being the bearer of the Triforce of Courage, Link is known for throwing himself into danger. Players force the hero into battle after escalating battle against Bokoblins, Darknuts, and larger beasts ranging from Gleeoks to whatever form of Gannon awaits at the end of the quest. In Tears of the Kingdom, one of the greatest fights is between Link, Tulin, and the monstrous Colgera. While the music is fantastic, for me, it’s the scale of the fight that makes it one to remember. ISOONET’s art, “Colgera Battle Fanart,” emphasizes the enormity of the task facing the hero and his feathered friend through the use of scale.
During the battle, Colgera is huge, swooping around our warriors as the swoop and soar. In this art, the demon is even bigger. It fills nearly the whole image with its wings, crystalline spikes, and fearsome mandibles threatening to overwhelm any foe. Not only that, but the cerulean scales of the creature blend into the swirling storm, acting to almost camouflage it in the sleet and snow. The eye of the storm can be seen as well, falsely promising a safe haven, as it sits right between the slicing, biting maw of the beast.
Fortunately, Hyrule has courageous warriors. Pointed like an arrow straight into the jaw, we see the tiny Link and Tulin. In scale, they are not even as big as one of Colgera’s claws and barely the size of one of the mandibles, but size doesn’t matter to our heroes. Their bows are notched and their line of sight leads right to the teeth, and in very Zelda fashion, right towards the eyes of the monster.
Very few pieces of Zelda art feature a Link as small as this one, but choosing to make the hero so tiny, ISOONET only reinforces the courage it must take for Link and Tulin to face the monster devastating the Rito region. Little more than a toothpick in comparison to Colgera’s massive jaws, our heroes still will not flinch. They will slay the giant. With a little help from the player.
