Twilight Princess - Ending
Regulars will know that we do a comic book-style “Ending” page for each Zelda game; Twilight Princess is now no different. You must understand, your virgin eyes must have already been tainted by the real version - your sweaty hands quivering as they put down your sword and shield - until you can handle even static images of the epic final battle and its emotional aftermath. Or, maybe you just don’t care about hardcore spoilers. In either case, I hope you proceed and enjoy.
When I changed the bottom graphic to read “2007″ instead of “2006″, I got a feeling different from every other year. Its nature was the same (”have I been doing this for so long?”), but its ferocity was greater, and I predict greater still in years to come. Entering our sixth year of cataloguing every nuance of the Zelda universe, I at last feel qualified to share with you some things I’ve noticed. The first is something I realised just the other day. It was striking because of its simplicity. We, at Zelda Elements, have only tried once to create an encyclopaedia. It was in conjunction with The Master Sword and boiled down to an A-Z of the Zelda universe. Kieron and myself wanted one purely because all the “big boys” were doing it, but now I know that if your site is complete enough, you are already sitting on a catalogue of knowledge that exceeds the possible depth of an online encyclopaedia. I’ve been debating with myself whether to join the Zelda Wiki; in some areas it benefits from its unique organisation, and in others it suffers. Ultimately, if it does something better than our site, and in some cases it does, then it’s an indication that I’ve done something wrong, or not well enough.
Currently, I’m rewriting the Zelda Timeline section to include a new Twilight Princess chapter. On further reflection, I also decided to swap Link III with Link IV, because the Hyrule of LoZ and AoL looks much more like a land that has been recently drained, rather than the lush diversity of the world depicted in ALttP. If you’re a Zelda fan who enjoys debating points like these, you’ve probably heard comments from the naysayers who just don’t get it; “they’re all independent of each other,” or, “they’re retellings of the same legend,” or, my favourite, “why do you bother? It’s just a bloody game.” Well, yeah, but what a bloody game. And more than that, what a series. The reason we Zelda fans love debating the timeline so much is because we like to think, however secretly, that Hyrule exists. It sounds childish in the way children like to think that Santa or the Tooth Fairy exist, but what a wonderful life children lead. To give it a coherent timeline and an intricate legend is to bring it to life that little bit more. Almost within our grasp. We also like to think that our actions have made a difference to that world. If we didn’t, we’d be just as happy playing the role of the shop-keeper, or that annoying beggar. It’s why we love the mysteries; what happened to the Kokiri? How does Link really feel towards Ilia/Malon/Zelda/Midna? And how does that postman always know where you are? It’s why some people have been disappointed with The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess; we want Aonuma to just grab the legend by the horns and make Hyrule that little bit more aware of its own existence.
The depth and knowledge required to pay true homage to the series and create a poetic, encyclopaedic resource for Zelda fans means that we must always stay pure Zelda. Recently, The Hylia announced plans for expansion into the world of Nintendo, and as a fan of that site I think that’s great, if you want to create the next GoNintendo. Here, we’ve always been clear on our mission statement. We’ve been accused in the past of not being innovative of original enough. I’ve always seen this site as becoming the biggest and the best. Quality and quantity. We do what they do but better. That’s always been our mission statement. However, originality is a big part of that achieving that goal, a necessary part, which is why I want to kick the new year off with the latest instalment of a feature that we do best, and we do differently, and we do originally.
I hope it will set the tone for the coming months.
