Memories

This comic was drawn by Meghan Joy (@mjoyart on Twitter) and written by me, Kathryn Hemmann (@kathrynthehuman on Twitter).

I don’t necessary ship Link and Zelda romantically, but I like to think that they were very good friends. Perhaps Link even has a few imaginary conversations with her in his head as he travels.

I think Link’s journey is just as much about him finding himself and remembering his past relationships as it is about “saving the world.” The Sheikah Slate is therefore an interesting conceit in that, just as it allowed Zelda to record impressions of what she saw the past, it allows Link to record his own memories in the present. This is emphasized in the Japanese version of the game, in which all of the text in the Hyrule Compendium is written using a first-person POV, as if Link were making notes so that he can share them after his quest is finished. On a metatextual level, I think this is a lovely perspective on digital technology, which allows people to communicate with one another across time and space, even when the world sometimes seems empty and lonely.