“See you later…” Midna’s last words ring out at the Mirror Chamber above the Arbiter’s Grounds. Such simple and casual words of goodbye hiding what is left unsaid. Beneath Midna’s cool demeanor is a girl accepting a final farewell and sacrificing her own happiness for the future of both light and dark realms. The Twilight Princess must leave behind the friends she made, and go rebuild her kingdom and heal her people. In time, her journey with Link and Princess Zelda will become a distant memory, but that doesn’t mean she will ever forget them or lose the longing in her heart to see them again.
Artist Yuqoi contemplates the possibility of Midna’s life beyond the shattered twilight mirror in their piece “Midna’s Yearning”. Yuqoi draws Twili (True Form) Midna sitting amongst the hues of twilight with her cloak flowing back behind her. Not a detail is left behind with intricate patterns painted over the shadows of her dark garb and the glowing blue markings of her body shining even under her sleeve. Their light becomes almost extinguished under the bright light that washes over her body.
To capture the essence of twilight, Yuqoi’s piece starts in darkness on the left and shifts into the distinct golden light that washes over the Twilight Realm. The golden almost daylight-like light bathes over Midna’s body contrasting the usual darkness associated with her realm disappearing behind her. Her past was dark and her future is bright, thought it is neither she looks to. Her story is not in how she sits, nor the twilight sky behind her but the small Twili artifact sitting in her hand. The one used against Link to keep him as a Twilight consumed beast even in the world of light.
Midna’s red eyes lock onto the small artifact of dark magic. In this artwork of yearning it’s not the light, Hyrule, or even the Princess herself that Midna longs to see again. It’s Link, the hero that rescued her when she didn’t even know she needed rescuing. Her unlikely friend. Despite that gaze, that yearning as the artist Yuqoi describes it, there is still a peace present. An acceptance of her decision, even if deep down it shattered her heart.
