Tear Jerker / The Myth of Link & Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Moments pages are Spoilers Off. Read at your own risk!

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1 - The Awakening

• It can be difficult watching Link wake up from his slumber with no memories at all, and so weak that he can barely even walk. It's like watching a naïve child waking up and trying to make sense of everything around him. All he knows is that he's alone save for a strange woman's voice speaking to him.
• The description the wrecked Hyrule Castle leaves a sour taste. It's described as colorless with no life and rotting into nothing, an unfortunate fate for a once grand castle. The same thing for the Temple of Time, which is completely wrecked and decaying. Knowing that this once great kingdom is pretty much nonexistent and rotting is a very depressing way to establish an After the End setting.

2 - The Trials of the Runes

• When Link finds the old man at his cabin, the old man advises Link to take it easy at times. He admits that he knows what it is to be so lost in working towards a goal that you forget what matters, which carries a double dose of implications.
  • The obvious one is, knowing that the old man is King Rhoam and Zelda is his daughter. Knowing that he was so focused on trying to take down Ganon that he really didn't spare time to be a real father to Zelda, which meant he lost so much with her. He even lost Zelda herself to a degree, as they were not on good terms when the Calamity struck, killing him before he could reconcile. He's telling Link that he needs to spare time to be a person, not just a warrior, because he'll forget what really matters: having an actual life to live.
  • The other side is that the King knows what happened to Link in the Blatchery Plain. He has already seen what happens to Link when he overexerts himself, and the result was that he almost died. Not from a Heroic RRoD, but it still stands. Rhoam doesn't want Link to suffer that again, and wants him to survive.
  • The undertone of this is that Rhoam is trying to make amends for failing at being a father to Zelda by helping Link in the best way he can. Mostly in a hands-off manner, with verbal advice to guide him. He made a mistake with Zelda, and he is rectifying that mistake with Link, at least trying to.
• The moment where Link nearly falls from the cliff. The old man freaks out and nearly falls to his knees in relief when Link pulls himself up. He really cares for someone who right now looks at him as a stranger.

3 - Secrets of a Century

• The old man reveals himself as King Rhoam, and he reveals to Link what had happened that caused him to be in the Shrine of Resurrection. Link's so overwhelmed by seeing the Divine Beasts, the Champions, Ganon, and the Great Calamity that he can't give any expression at all.
  • King Rhoam's plea for Link to save his daughter has the undertone of the King begging Link to save Zelda for something that he knows is his own fault. Had the King been less restrictive with his own daughter, she may have awakened her power far earlier and none of this ever would have happened. He likely faults himself for his daughter's precarious situation, and is begging for Link to get her out of it.
• Link's awakening from the Shrine of Resurrection finally is clarified to be a call for backup. Zelda's power won't hold Ganon back for much longer, and she knows it. She's called in her only hope for salvation, Link, to help her.
• The moment King Rhoam's spirit disappeared, Link is left completely alone. He has nothing at this point. No memories, no friends, nothing at all from which to draw. All he has is his own conscience of mind and fortitude to carry him forward. No one is there to accompany him on his quest, no one to support him, and at this point seemingly no one to help him fight this Eldritch Abomination ready to obliterate Hyrule. For a long time, it seemed that Link was the only living human in this world. Yet he soldier on with determination either way.

4 - Kakariko Village

• Hestu the giant Korok is the first person that Link comes across along his travels who recognizes him, and even calls him by name. Poor Hestu is devastated when Link doesn't remember him. As with other Long-Lived characters, he chalks it up to the passage of time, but it's still tugs at the heartstrings a bit.
• The same thing that happens with Hestu happens right afterwards with Impa. She admits that No Doubt the Years Have Changed Me, but she's still crushed that her old friend has no memory of her. Once again, this impacts Link, making him feel like a jerk even though it's nowhere near his own fault.

5 - Locked Mementos

• There's a scene with a couple of Bit Characters Holden and Mara are a married couple travelling together to Hateno Village. They end up ambushed by Bokoblins it looked like the end for them, until Link saved them. Even so, they're still badly shaken up and traumatized by the near-death experience. This is just one little instance of what it's like to travel through Hyrule with all these monsters roaming around.
• Purah is shocked and hurt that Link doesn't remember her. This is the third time so far that Link doesn't recognize someone that used to be a friend, and this also hurts Link himself.

6 - Ancient Weaponry

• Akkala Citadel Ruins. A woman named Lana tells Link all about the ruins' history, specifically about the last stand they took and the fact that they all died. Her tone is quite excited, but it's still sad to know that so many people died in those ruins.
• In addition, Lana's friend Rina mentions that a lot of people's grandparents or great-grandparents died there, including hers. As expected, a lot of these soldiers had children of their own at the time, and many of them were killed, leaving lots of orphaned children in the wake of the devastation.
• A recurring theme with Link is his lack of memory for those who clearly remember him. This includes Robbie, though he at least is not that upset about it since he knew it was a possibility.

7 - Sacred Ground Ruins and Lake Kolomo

• There's extensive Description Porn of the Scenery Gorn around Hyrule Castle and the Castle Town and the surrounding fields. The skulls and blood-stained Bokoblin spears, the skeletons crushed under the Guardians' feet establishes a somber apocalyptic atmosphere for the entire region.
• "Subdued Ceremony"
  • Zelda's insecurities are quite apparent during the ceremony. Urbosa further adds that Zelda looks at Link as a living reminder of her own failures. Up until now, anytime Zelda's voice is heard, she's genuinely kind and helpful, so seeing her like this is a bit of a shock.
• "Resolve and Grief"
  • Game veterans know what the powers of Nayru's Love, Farore's Wind, and Din's Fire should look like. They're all strong and firm powers, but when Zelda uses them, they're extremely weak, a reflection of her internal struggle, which can be a depressing surprise that she can't even do this successfully.
  • The scene itself has Zelda go from being quite happy and jovial to somber and dejected very quickly. She seems so energetic and bubbly until the conversation shifts to the subject of what people have done wrong and right, and at that point is when she decides they needed to move on as her insecurities come back to her, making her seem as down as she was during the ceremony.
• Afterwards, Link notes that the memory restoration creates a huge hole inside of Link's heart. He feels emotions for people that are still strangers. He even describes that it's like his heart knows who they are, but his mind doesn't recognize them. To know that you have friends but that you can't even remember their voices or face is heartbreaking.

8 - The Ancient Columns and Kara Kara Bazaar

• The moment between Teba and Saki where the latter begs Teba to just stay for at least the day, given how he's been gone every day for a time. It gets a little worse when you realize that their son Tulin is awake and listening in on them.
• Kass tells the same story that Impa told Link in recapping the events that happened 10,000 years prior. In addition, he reveals the sad reason why so many towns and horse stables are located near shrines. Apparently, many residents of Hyrule did not like the Ungrateful Bastard reaction from the fearful king, so they built their settlements near shrines in protest, but it failed.
• "Zelda's Resentment"
  • Zelda lampshades that the Ancient Columns look like the ruins of a once great building, especially with the still visible cobblestone tiles on the ground. This is reminiscent of how the Temple of Time in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess went from a gorgeous ornate temple in ancient times to a rotting structure. It's always disappointing seeing grand structures being reduced to nothing.
  • Zelda really tries to do something useful when she tries to open the inactive shrine. But she goes beyond just speculating ways to get in, she begs for it to work because she needs something to finally go right in her life.
  • This is what culminates in her lashing out to Link, displacing her anger onto him. The spells that she had left that were still lingering suddenly exploded in response to her outburst. It's enough to rattle both of them, but Zelda's so overcome by her anger that she can't let go of her anger.
• "Blades of the Yiga"
  • While Zelda's attack is disturbing, it's also heart-wrenching to see an otherwise completely innocent girl trying to desperately escape the clutches of the murderous Yiga, especially when Zelda begs her powers to work so that she can survive this.

9 - Eldin Canyon and Irch Plain

• Right before Link goes to the next location, he hears singing coming from Lost Woods. What does he hear? The Ballad of the Goddess, Song of Time, and lyrics that match the rhythm of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess's title them. Any fan of the games will know that this is Fi, the spirit of the master sword, calling out to her master to reclaim her. It's bittersweet because it seems that this loyal sword spirit can't do anything but just call out, and Link ends up ignoring her, not realizing that she's trying to call to him.
• "A Premonition"
  • Once again, Zelda puts herself down because she feels like a failure. This time, she mentions it in reference to her foil, Mipha's apparent success compared to Zelda's own repeated failures.
  • The otherwise comical scene of Zelda advising Link to take it easy because he's not immortal, and him joking that he has Zelda to protect him, is Harsher in Hindsight when something similar happens in the Blatchery Plain during the Calamity, and it results in his death because they're both completely overwhelmed. It's especially uncomfortable on a reread.
• "Silent Princess"
  • A much more comedically tragic moment. We don't actually get to see if Zelda gets Link to eat the toad that she found in the grass, but if she did, that poor little toad got eaten alive!

10 - West Necluda and Hyrule Castle

• "Shelter from the Storm"
  • Zelda gives the same little speech about Link's path mirroring his father's, but Link notes her dejected voice, and that's when the conversation veers into the subject of whether or not they really chose the paths they're going down.
  • Link mentions that he's been a knight for as long as he could remember, and can't really imagine a life outside of it. That's kind of pitiable, because Link in a sense never really had a choice in his life's outcomes, and neither has Zelda. Neither of them have had much in the way of agency over their own lives. Their lives are dictated by the destiny of Demise's curse.
  • It's during this that it's revealed that a daughter 100 years prior. Link was a father...100 years ago. Link breaks when he remembers that he has a daughter. It's a one-two punch for him, because one, he doesn't remember his own daughter at all, and two, he immediately realizes that this must mean that his daughter is long dead and grew up without him in her life. Zelda mitigates this revealing that his daughter's alive, but that doesn't eliminate the fact that he missed 100 years with her.
    • The actual memory itself foreshadows that his daughter is part Zora, because he laments about the fact that he'll never get to see her grow up. It's the same as a young father who has a terminal illness and won't get to see his children grow up while they watch him die.
• "Father and Daughter"
  • Zelda is in her office, and above her is a box described as having a miniature egg-shaped Guardian, which gamers will recognize as Terrako, and not just that one, but two other diminutive variants of Skywatchers and Turrets. She's completely oblivious to all three of them, despite gamers being very likely to figure out that all three of these things were her childhood friends, and yet she seems to have completely forgotten them.
  • Zelda and King Rhoam's confrontation is far tenser than it was in the game. Rhoam still chastises her for supposedly shirking her duties as the princess of Hyrule and wasting her time before forbidding her from doing anything further with the Guardians and Sheikah Technology. It's here that she reaches a breaking point.
  • Zelda starts out by deliberately calling her father by his name and then trapping him inside of Nayru's Love to force him to listen to her. She aggressively calls him out on how he's treated her for her whole life. She claims on how he's spent virtually all the time since her mother died trying to get her to unlock her powers instead of being an actual father to her. She finishes by claiming she doesn't remember him ever being a father to her.
  • Once the confrontation ends, Zelda has the last words, but they're not harsh towards her father, they're mournful words about how her mother would have hated seeing her husband and daughter in such conflict.
  • The memory ends with King Rhoam realizing what kind of father he's been to Zelda, and quietly ponders if Zelda could forgive him one day.

11 - Spring of Power and Sanidin Park Ruins

• "Slumbering Power"
  • Zelda's ritual is clearly forced on her part. At this point with so many years of nothing but failure, she tearfully curses Hylia and just asks what's wrong with her.
  • Link coming to comfort her is bittersweet, sweet because it's nice to see him doing this for her, but also bitter because it's all he can do. Comforting her is the sole thing he can do for her, because he can't actually help her.
• "To Mount Lanayru"
  • Zelda tells Link that the Spring of Wisdom may yet be the one, as it's the last spring that she hasn't prayed at. However, this is heavily undercut by her adding that she has no real reason to believe that this will be the case.
  • Link postulates that prayer may not be the key after all, despite what everyone has told her. Zelda admits that she knows this, but this futile hope is really her only hope that she can see. This poor girl really is losing her hope at this point.

12 - Lanayru East Gate and Hyrule Field

• "Return of Calamity Ganon"
  • As in canon, Zelda fails to awaken her powers atop Mount Lanayru's Spring of Wisdom. Remember that this is her 17th birthday, and this is how it's going. As she comes down with Link, she's very much despondent over the failure, yet another in a long line of them in her life.
  • In addition to above, Zelda is also feeling immense regret for her last interactions with her father. She concedes that even if she was right about everything, she doesn't think the way she went about calling him out was the right way. She provides a bit of evidence for it when she reveals that she lied about Rhoam not being a father to her, and lists the various times that he was a father to her. She mostly said things that she knew would hurt him out of anger.
  • The line where Link reassures Zelda that she'll get the chance to speak and reconcile with her father. We already know that she'll never get that chance.
• "Despair"
  • The state of Hyrule as the Age of Burning Fields begins is complete Nightmare Fuel, and it's also harrowing to see. The once beautiful Hyrule Castle and the town that surrounded it is being completely wasted. The desperate people trying to escape mostly fail as they run into Guardians.
  • Link and Zelda tried to get to Hyrule Castle to help save people, but were far too late to do so. They really tried to do what they could, but with Zelda had her three main powers, they were not a match against an onslaught of Guardians. She has all this power and yet is completely powerless.
  • Zelda has spent eleven years, repeat eleven years, trying to unlock her sealing power, doing everything she could to try and do so, alongside preparing the Guardians and the Divine Beasts, and it's been All for Nothing. And she feels it's her fault for not unlocking her sealing power. And now her father is dead, the Champions are dead, and the denizens of Hyrule are being exterminated in droves. It's so much that she uncharacteristically starts swearing because of it.
  • Link vainly tries to help Zelda, but unlike everything else, he has nothing to say. There's nothing he can say to try and help her...because for all intents and purposes, Zelda's right. Her inability so access her sealing power, while he thinks it's not her fault, is part of the reason for this happening. And...it's true that pretty much everyone they love is dead.
  • And then Zelda finally just shatters in Link's arms. She screams and wails at the top of her lungs in his arms. And in turn, Link himself finally starts acknowledging his own losses of friends and family, especially Mipha, and he starts to cry just the same. At this point, their titles, their skills, their powers mean nothing. Link and Zelda were just two lovers in a large continent being overrun by a cataclysmic entity, and they both knew that at least one of them wasn't going to survive to the next day.
• The pain from that memory 100 years prior is so intense that it literally resonates across time and hits him like a ton of bricks. The trauma from that time in his life has come back, imagining that Zelda is still in his arms screaming, and remembering the pain of knowing that he wouldn't be able to protect her.

13 - The Blatchery Plain

• A female traveler sells Link some Mighty Bananas, which is a major fear trigger for any Breath of the Wild player. Once Link gets the bananas, every reader expects her to transform into a Yiga...but she doesn't and he leaves. And then she gets a Slashed Throat from a Yiga Footsoldier stalking Link. She spends a long period trying to hold her throat closed and escape with her life, but she can do nothing but helplessly fall to the ground and die alone looking up at the stars. A sweet innocent girl's ended just like that.
  • Link and the nearby stable's reaction to it doesn't help either. The stable was familiar with this girl, and they're sad to see her die. Link feels guilty that he couldn't save her, because he knows the Yiga was after him. It hits home because the last person who was attacked by Yiga was Zelda, and he managed to save her, yet couldn't do the same for another innocent girl. Especially poignant is that there was just no reason for Leena's death. She didn't factor into anything involving Ganon or Link. She was just an innocent traveler who was killed For the Evulz.
• "Zelda's Awakening"
  • Several chapters of memories, and there's only one final picture left. We gamers already know what it is, we'd seen it in the trailers, and videos all over the internet have seen the iconic scene where Zelda cries into Link's chest. And now we get to see it in a medium where we get both Link and Zelda's thoughts, not just their faces.
  • Link doesn't just have a Disney Death comatose state where he's quickly saved by being put in the Shrine of Resurrection. It's outright clear that he actually dies in Zelda's arms. He's mangled with burns and cuts, and bleeding from wounds caused by explosively splintering wood. He coughs up blood, and his last words are to tell Zelda that he loves her, and then he stops breathing, and goes limp in Zelda's arms. The Hero Dies, and Zelda is left the only survivor.
  • The English dub of the game has Zelda futilely promising Link that he'd be fine. This version is more faithful to the Japanese version, where she's pleading with him not to die. And it gets more heartbreaking when she starts begging him to wake up.
  • This is the last straw for Zelda. At this point, she's lost everything: her mother, her dad, the kingdom, her friends, and then the love of her life. She literally doesn't have anything at this point. She can only let out an anguished scream in response...and then just lies down on Link's dead body and waits to die.

14 - The Korok Forest

• Link's Deadpan Snarker confession to the Hero's Shade about the "missing pieces" of his life. Four friends he doesn't remember and a daughter who's face he doesn't remember.
• The Hero's Shade, who veteran gamers already know is the Hero of Time, outlived his first son when the boy fell into a lake and drowned. That's something that happens all the time in real life with young children and just pools.
• The Hero's Shade refers to the Master Sword as "she", referencing Fi. We've already known that she's still around, but it seems that the various heroes across time and space never really forgot her either. Given the context of the fact that each Hero is chosen by the Master Sword, every time a hero's drawn the sword, he's reunited with Fi. So sweet that it leaves you in tears.
• Link has to endure immense pain to draw the Master Sword again. It gets so bad that he literally loses his senses to all the pain, and the Sheikah Monks, the Deku Tree, and the Koroks can only watch and wait and hope that he'll survive this.
• When Fi explains everything to Link involving Demise and the curse and the spirits created by the Goddesses, she mentions Groose was a self-made hero who was chosen after his death to be a third hero...only for his soul to be enslaved by the curse left behind by Demise to become Ganondorf. Groose, the sweet egotistical guy who went through so much Character Development to become a genuine friend to the Hero of the Skies is afflicted with Demise's curse and forced to be a dark force for millennia. A future chapter reveals that it was for 120,000 years that he suffered this.

15 - Lakna Rokee Quest

• This chapter adapts the rather emotional titular sidequest in the game. The events of this game reflect the gamers' experience, where by the end of it, once Link realizes the Yiga Clan is behind this, he's practically bloodthirsty for a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the Yiga Clan.
  • Link finds Paya under the house in tears and he has to pull the poor girl out from under there. And when they get inside, she's almost childlike in how she swears that she only looked away for a second. She also mentions how she feels completely violated by someone coming into her home with malicious intent.
  • Later on, Link and Paya happen to catch a little girl named Koko crying in the graveyard. Link very quickly realizes that girl is crying over her deceased mother. Koko begs Link not to tell her baby sister Cottla that Koko was there...and Link realizes that the little girl playing hide and seek with her mother was Cottla herself and there was a good reason Cottla could never find her. Paya confirms that Koko's mother, Dorian's wife, is dead.
  • Paya mentions how guilty she feels for being so completely helpless. She thinks that had anything worse happened, like someone trying to hurt her or Impa, that it would have been her fault. Link reassures her otherwise, as choosing not to be a warrior isn't a flaw, but it doesn't really work.
  • Dorian's backstory is the same as in canon. He was a Yiga Clan member who fell in love with and married his wife and defected from the clan. They weren't happy with this and killed her, robbing their daughters of their mother. Facing the Yiga Clan threatening the lives of Paya and Impa, Dorian plays spy for them until they declare You Have Outlived Your Usefulness. Link is the only reason he's alive...barely, because Link is ready to kill Dorian himself thinking he's a straight Yiga Clan member. Dorian reveals everything to Link, but he still feels guilty for it all.
• Link admits to Paya that he has a daughter, but doesn't remember anything about her, not even her mother. When Link explains that he believes he was closer to Mipha than the other Champions, Paya gives him hope by telling him that Mipha had a child with a Hylian, Princess Lochlia of the Zora. This revelation is sweet...but Link is terrified that he still won't remember her when he sees her.
• Paya confesses to Link that she's in love with Link...and he has to painfully admit to her that his heart is already with Zelda. Paya is a bit saddened, but she's mostly grateful for Link showing her what love feels like, and is happy for him either way.

16 - Reaching Zora's Domain

• The moment Link learns he's a grandfather. He's overwhelmed. He's happy that he's a grandfather, and desperate to see them and their mother.
• He finally gets to see his daughter as she fights alongside the path. For a long time, he's just mesmerized with her and her combat maneuvers and powers...and no matter how much he wants to be proud of his daughter, he couldn't, because he still didn't remember her, and she seemed little more than a stranger to him. This really tears him apart.
• While the audience knows that Link will be fine, Sidon doesn't know this when he sees a bunch of Silver Moblins closing in around him. Sidon doesn't yet realize that he knows Link, but his horrified reaction to seeing Link seemingly about to be mauled to death makes it clear that he really cares about everyone in his life, stranger or family.
• A little moment where one of the guards protecting Zora's Domain, Rivan, recognizes and greets Link. Rivan's said that Link doesn't remember him, but it's lessened by Rivan reasoning that it had been 100 years...which is an especially long time for Hylians.

17 - History of the Zora

• King Dorephan is devastated when he sees that Link is alive...and doesn't remember anything about Mipha or the Zora royal family, including his own daughter. Link mitigates by saying he knows he has a daughter, he just doesn't remember much of her.
• When Link receives the Zora Armor Mipha crafted for Link, he immediately fears that he was unfaithful to Zelda or Mipha, as it's explained that its a betrothal gift. It's revealed this isn't the case, but for a moment, he thought he was unfaithful to a woman he loved.
• Seeing Mipha's note "I will always protect you." Tugs at the heart so viciously. The words themselves aren't the sad part, it's the fact that Link still doesn't remember her at this point, and feels horrible that someone who he knows meant a lot to him in life seems little more than a stranger to him now.
• The "Mipha's Touch" memory is perfectly adapted, aside from the presence of their young daughter, but it's given a much more somber mature tone, featuring many of the consequences of their Mayfly–December Romance.
  • The line where Mipha mentions how it was funny that Link looked grown up so much faster than she did is much less comedic. That fact is a source of agony for Link, because they both know he'll be dead before their daughter's out of her "teen" years.
  • Mipha outright admits that she hoped that Link would find his way back to her one day, though she still cherishes the love they shared in his younger years. She confesses that she can still love him and let him go.
  • Link confesses how he's hurt that he'll miss so much of Lochlia's life and many of her firsts. Mipha's just as hurt about this fact, though she tries to mitigate this by revealing that she has a diary entirely about Link so that Lochlia would get to know her father.
• The last exchange between Lochlia and Link where he finally remembers her, and she finally sees him again for the first time in 100 years.
  Link: Lolita?
  Lochlia: Daddy?

18 - Battle Against the Lynel

• Link and Lochlia reunite in a scene taken right out of Avengers: Endgame.
  • Link stands there terrified that she may reject him for being a Disappeared Dad, even if he had good reason. They both just stand there for a long moment, unsure of how the other will react.
  • When Link finally says Lochlia's Affectionate Nickname unique to family members, Lochlia finally breaks down. She immediately gives him The Glomp. She's happy to finally have her surviving parent return to her, and Link is grateful to see that his child so readily accepts him again.
  • Link saying "You're so big." to her just seals her. Have fun trying to stay dry-eyed reading them come back to each other after 100 years of separation.
• When Muzu realizes that Mipha hid her relationship from him because she didn't want Link to be victimized by him and other Zora, he blames himself. He pushed away the very girl he helped raise because of his own bigotry, and now he's forced to realize that.
• As funny as it is, there's still a bit of a dismal undertone to Lochlia and Link's little argument over attacking the Lynel together. Yes, Lochlia has taken down the Lynel many times, but Link is rightfully afraid to lose the daughter that he had just remembered and found again.
• Lochlia mentions how she resented her parents for a time because they were never together. She didn't understand why she couldn't have both her parents...until she suffered a Mayfly–December Friendship with a Hylian girl. As she grew up while her Hylian friend Milla grew old and died while she was still the equivalent of a teenager. People who have known children suffering from real life progeria know what it is to watch someone age so very quickly compared to yourself and die at what you see as a young age. It's not easy and takes a big part of you.
• Then there's Lochlia filling Link in on why she's so good at killing a Lynel that could kill her instantly. As a half-Hylian Zora woman, while no one dared to express such overt bigotry towards her as a royal child, she still saw all the glances and suffered the microaggressions, and no matter what she did to protect and heal and train them like her mother would, they would never accept her. She went after the Lynel in desperation to find some acceptance in the way her uncle had. She risked her life to finally get her people to accept her. This only makes Link feel even worse for not being there when she needed him, which thankfully Lochlia doesn't hold against him.

19 - The Disenthralling of Ruta

• The moment Link enters Ruta, Lochlia's last words to him are to beg him to be careful. The poor woman has already endured the pain of losing one parent and growing up without either. She knows she can't endure losing Link, let alone exactly where she lost her mother.
• The moment Link hears Mipha's voice, he trembles.
• And of course, very little in this story can match the emotion of the scene between Link and Mipha's spirit.
  • The worst part is that as he hears her voice and sees her manifest, he immediately becomes happy...and then remembers that she is still dead. Though he can see her, she'll never be back in his arms. He's looking at her knowing that she will never leave with him and come home.
  • In fact, Link is actually almost entirely silent just watching her approach as she gifts him her power and wipes a tear from his face. The first thing that he tearfully tells her is that he misses her.
  • He then comments that he wishes they could have seen Lochlia grow up. Mipha agrees with him. They both comment how their daughter is just like the other. She looks like Mipha and has her healing power, and she has her father's stubbornness and fierceness.
  • And then there's the moment that Link disappears into golden light. Link so doesn't want to leave Mipha, but has no choice. Mipha's final plea is to tell their daughter how much she loves her.
• Then there's Mipha's final moment with Ruta on the mountain where she quietly speaks of her family. She misses her daughter, her brother, and her father...but most of all, she wishes that she have just met her grandchildren, even if only briefly.

20 - The Lightscale Trident

• The moment where Lochlia finally introduces Link as her father to her children is one with Tears of Joy. Mipha may be lost, but her legacy lives on in the memories she left behind with Link and the family they created. It's also beautiful teary to see Link get to finally be a grandfather to Lochlia's children.
• Link speculates that Muzu saw Mipha as almost his own child. Muzu never denies it, making it clear that he probably did see her as his own, and suffered the same pain as if she were his child.
• While everyone is thanking Link for saving their kingdom, she's just happy that he dad came back to her, which she admits to him in a half-happy, half-melancholic moment where it's once again clear that her mother's loss is still a fresh wound.
• The optional conversation with King Dorephan is adapted here, and it's just as soul-crushing. He quietly asks Link if they were too late to save Mipha. Link is so devastated to tell him that he can't even actually say that she's dead and uses the "spirit" euphemism. The King is crushed to hear this, as is Link who can share the pain as a fellow father. The King requests that Link never forget Mipha.
• Kapson the Zora Priest shows the classic elderly animosity the Zora have towards Link, blaming him for Mipha's loss. But he quickly backtracks...and explains that it was easier to blame Link for losing Mipha than acknowledge that this was her choice. The elderly Zora felt the loss so much that they needed a scapegoat to cope with her loss.
  • In addition, he also describes how his life in retirement is boring, and knowing that he'll die of his old age soon. He wishes to wed at least one more couple before he passes, not wanting to die without having done one last thing he loves. Pitying him, Link throws him a lifeline by mentioning Tarrey Town.
• Link writes extensively about his daughter Lochlia and Mipha in his journal. Most of what he writes is just crushing to read. He pours his heart out as if he's confessing to a therapist his darkest and saddest moments.
  • Link mentions that his and Mipha's relationship could last, but they decided that it shouldn't, because they decided that Link's significantly shorter lifespan would leave her without a father, and they realized that she would be better off finding a Zora husband that would live long enough to be a proper present father. Imagine being Link in that situation, being a father but you can't be a father for your own child's whole life just because of biological lifespan differences.
  • Mipha and Link still loved each other, so much that Mipha hoped that they would get back together. But seeing Link and Zelda together, even Mipha admitted that Zelda was probably the better match for Link as a fellow Hylian. Link himself says that's false and no relationship is more appropriate than the other.
  • He hates that he missed so many milestones in his daughter's life, like the birth of her children or her marriage, and her first monster defeat. He feels like an utter failure, even if Lochlia doesn't feel the same. It's enough that he wishes to have children with Zelda, children that they can raise without the trauma of the Calamity, and that he can actually watch grow up.

21 - Entering Gerudo Town

• Paya's Heroic Self-Deprecation. She outright calls herself a weakling because of the fact that she wouldn't have been able to protect herself or her grandmother from the person who stole the family heirloom and begs her grandmother to teach her to fight. Poor girls' been through such a Break the Cutie (which future chapters reveal is even more than what we already know) that she feels the only way to cope is to become a fighter.
• For her part, Impa is devastated that her granddaughter is thinking this way of herself, but she's unable to do anything but acquiesce to Paya's request to teach her the Sheikah arts.

22 - Reclaiming the Thunder Helm

• Captain Teake of the Gerudo mentions that she's lost people under her command to Yiga Clan members.
• The Yiga torture prison. There are few words that describe the depravity and horror of all the victims. But Link looks at all of them, and wonders what their last moments of life were, as he speculates that all of them were alive. This includes a a young child, and remember that Link himself is a parent.
  • The one that nearly gives Link a panic attack was the cell containing a dead Sheikah woman...who was pregnant and had her child ripped from her abdomen. If the woman was alive, it would have been a horrifyingly tragic end to her life.
• Barta's fate. She's barely alive having been tortured so extensively. Link finds her like this and is practically begging her to wake up, and then subsequently begs Mipha's power to heal not let him down.
• Barta chooses to fight alongside Link, until the metal wall leading to where Link fights Master Kohga closes off and separates them. Barta is eventually forced to leave him behind. The readers know that Link will be fine, but Barta's genuine concern is quite moving.
• Master Kohga's attitude towards his own underlings is extremely callous. He finds out they're dead, and all he worries about is cleaning up the mess in there. These guys that fight for him and worship him, and he couldn't care less about them.
  • It's later revealed that this was just his way of expressing his grief for his people, so still a tearjerker from the villainous moral alignment.
• Link's utter brutality and hatred towards the Yiga comes to the full front here. He has shown his brutally pragmatic side before, but here, he seems almost sadistic with how he kills the Yiga Clan.

23 - Prepare to Fight the Sandstorm

• Link's return from the Yiga Clan Hideout. He's trembling and shaken from everything that he did in the hideout. The trauma of everything did is such that his hand won't stop trembling, even when he clenches it. It's enough that Cerako notices from the air, and Buliara refuses to let him leave her without talking to her about it, knowing that a warrior carrying such a burden eats away their soul.
• Buliara proves herself to be quite a competent Warrior Therapist when she gets Link to admit why he was so viciously vengeful against the Yiga. He confesses that Leena's death, though she was a complete stranger to him, weighs down on him. He still blames himself, seeing himself as a Doom Magnet and that he should have seen it coming.
  • And then Buliara gets to the core of the problem. The core of Link's conflict and torment comes from the fact that up to this point, he's never really wanted to kill anyone. He's never hated something so much that he wanted to make them suffer. It's so far that even he's scared himself.
• Link finally asks Riju why she's leading the Gerudo while she's still a child. She confesses that her mother had died recently, which is why she's now the chief so young. Her struggles to be worthy of her people's love is just as much an endeavor to prove it to herself, something Link notes is similar to Zelda's own struggles for most of her life.
• "Urbosa's Hand" is once again beautifully adapted, with all of the emotion present in the original scene and then some thanks to the additions of new characters in the scene, present and implied alike.
  • Link and Urbosa both mention on how it's really not fair to Zelda that all her efforts throughout her life have bore no fruit. Urbosa specifically singles out the moment where Zelda passed out in freezing waters before she was even a teenager to unlock her sealing power.
  • The little moment where Link looks into the eyes of Urbosa's baby daughter and remembers that he won't get to see his daughter grow up while Urbosa will, something that Urbosa notices but doesn't press. The scene is more painful knowing what's coming in the near future, and that Urbosa's daughter will never even get to know her.
• Muava from the game makes her appearance here. Her tragic story of seeking Lover's Pond, never finding it or the love of her life, eventually growing old without ever succeeding, and the fact that she's neglected and ignored by everyone else is all retained. It's enough that Link offers her a second chance in life with Purah's life-extension technology and telling her where she could find Lover's Pond.

24 - The Liberation of Naboris

• A subtle moment with Riju explaining why she has a Disappeared Dad and deconstructs the Gerudo law preventing men from entering the village. The law means that vai have to search for husbands outside of the town, and that they can't bring them back to Gerudo Town. However, being the chief means that Riju's mother couldn't leave the town for long given her job as chief, meaning they just effectively have to find conception partners to continue the chief line. This means that chiefs likely hardly ever get to be close with their fathers.
• It gets worse with the explanation for the law originating from Ganondorf. The fact that he was the reason why subsequent female rulers after him couldn't get to be with their fathers is painful enough, but they still see him as a stain on their history when he's really a victim. Thankfully, Link sets the record straight.
• A very small moment where Kali the sand seal wants to go with Link into the Naboris gives the same effect as a dog wanting to go with its master, but not being able to. It has more of a punch on a reread when you know who she really is.
• Urbosa's Not So Stoic reaction upon Link's Disney Death. She sees him using an attack that she knows will end with his death, not Thunderblight's, and gives a Big "NO!" that she's never shown doing before. Her Little "No" right after just sells how much she cares for Link and is horrified to see this happen to him. Cerako's screech is just as tearjerking.
  • It becomes a heartwarming tearjerker when Mipha comes to save Link, and says "I've got you, Link. I will always protect you." Urbosa and Cerako giving heartfelt thanks to Mipha's spirit does just the same.
• Link's not happy to leave Urbosa's spirit inside Naboris, just like he wasn't happy to leave Mipha's spirit in Ruta. He actually outright says "Do I have to go so soon?" He really considers Urbosa a true friend and like anyone who's lost friends to death, would love to just have one more longer moment with her. But he can't.
• No matter what the circumstance is around Ganon's existence, the Gerudo race will have to live with the fact that the land's greatest and darkest evil used their people as its own pawns.

25 - The Daybreaker and the Scimitar of the Seven

• Everyone watches the Yiga woman's execution, including the young Paya who had never seen that side of Link before. She's described being taken aback significantly by Link's behavior in this scene, enough that she doesn't even say anything as Symin takes her back to the lab.
• This chapter finally addresses the fallout of Link's hatred for the Yiga Clan. He writes in his journal about it and how brutal he was to them. It's enough that he's still a bit rattled by how violent and vicious he was and he questions if he himself is suffering a case of He Who Fights Monsters.
• Once again, Link admits the pain of how it weighs down his heart to know that Riju is losing her precious childhood years to adult responsibilities when she should get to be a child, because a girl being mature for her age means that she's had to mature far faster than she should have. She's adopted intense coping mechanisms to survive struggles that adults have trouble with. This is especially since Riju is still grieving the death of her mother, something she's never seen actually doing.

26 - A Dark Premonition

• Link's dream of Urbosa's fate is horrifying and sad at the same time. He's traumatized just facing down the Blights and is very much affected facing down the monsters that killed his friends. Even worse is that he did in fact get killed by Thunderblight Ganon like she did, and the only reason it didn't stick was because of Mipha.
  • This gets worse when he confesses to Paya that he had a similar nightmare involving Mipha.
• Paya's talk with Link regarding the Yiga woman that he killed in front of most of the village. She knew her. It was an old friend of hers, Melonie. This gives poor Paya a double dose of trauma and grief.
  • On the first side, she witnessed the death of someone she considered a close friend at one point in her life die violently at the hands of another friend who she knows is supposed to be the hero, something that anyone would have trouble trying to reconcile.
  • On the second side, and what Paya finds most painful, is she spent a long time wondering what happened to her disappeared friend. Not just her, but Melonie's family, too. All that time, they wondered what happened to her. And then Paya had to find out very violently that the girl she grew up with betrayed her and her family.
• Further into Paya and Link's talk, Paya asks what Melonie meant when she claimed that Link hunted them down. Link already thinks Paya's idealized image of him was already shaken up, but he tells her the painful truth anyways.
• Paya finally confesses to Link that she herself witnessed what the Yiga Clan does when she discovered the decapitated body of one of their murder victims while her grandmother took her traveling. The worst part? She was seven years old at the time. She explains that this was part of the reason why she didn't want to leave Kakariko Village again like other people her age.

27 - Learning from the Rito

• The sight of the little Rito girl Kola being terrified of Medoh. She calls it the "bird monster" like a child would refer to the monster under their bed or in the closet.
• Kaneli's concern for Harth and Teba is very much like a father, or at least like an older general who can't fight alongside his soldiers.
• "Revali's Flap" is practically line for line and shot for shot, but there is an additional scene where it's revealed that Revali had an older sister, Takki, who herself had an unhatched child when we see her. One can only imagine her grief when her baby brother never came back home after the Calamity, and realized that she lost him.

28 - Finding an Ally in Teba

• Harth and Saki. Both of them worry about Teba going after Medoh. The former doesn't want to lose his best friend and the latter doesn't want to lose the love of her life, a situation uncannily like when soldiers go downrange and leave their loved ones behind to risk their lives.
• Teba goes silent and becomes very angry just at the mention of Ganon's name. Link empathizes, remembering the loss of his own friends and loved ones at its hands 100 years earlier. Who's to say that Teba hasn't lost a few friends to Ganon's dark forces, too?

29 - The Unbridling of Medoh

• Revali's reaction to Link nearly falling off Medoh. Yes, Link is just fine, but for a moment, Revali is scared that Link fell to his death. Even if he's a jerkass, he still cares about Link.
• Revali's described as possibly never having any real animosity towards Link. For all the reader or Link know, Revali possibly died and spent a long time wondering if his compatriot died thinking that he didn't like him.

30 - The Great Eagle Bow

• A little moment with Misa, Fyson's mother, reminiscing about her son finally leaving the nest, literally since they're Bird People, and hoping he found what he wanted. Any loving parent can feel Misa's clash of pain for her son leaving and joy for him going out on his own.
• A little moment where Bedoli implies that she's lost all hope. She correctly, if bluntly, states that Nothing Will Ever Be The Same Again. She states that no matter what side Medoh's on, nothing will stop Calamity Ganon from awakening, and that they can't keep hiding it from the kids.
• The scene where Paya and Link come to the rescue of two Hylian travelers being attacked by Bokoblins. The two immediately come to the travelers' rescue, but are only able to save the girl and are too late to save her companion and they have to comfort her loss is heartwrenching...until Paya realizes the truth...the woman is a Yiga Footsoldier and she killed the traveler by slitting his throat, meaning an innocent person was once again murdered by the Yiga for nothing.
• The Bokoblins who were massacred by Paya and Link were for once actually innocent of any wrongdoing. They weren't pillaging these two for resources or anything of that nature, they were literal monsters trying to kill an an actual monster in their midst. Seeing Paya and Link kill them on a reread is more tragic than awesome.
• Paya, a young innocent teenager, being exposed to this kind of violence at the hands of Yiga, after having already been through a Break the Cutie at their hands before, is just as devastating as it was then...maybe even more given her uncharacteristic underreaction to this.
  • It hits even harder in hindsight to what Paya told Link about discovering the body of a Yiga Clan murder victim when she was 7 years old. She had to go through that again.

31 - Traumas of a Survivor

• This chapter picks up from the fallout of what happened in the last chapter with the Yiga Clan Footsoldier. Link is fine and apparently so is Paya, something that really rattles Link. Specifically, he compares her completely broken reaction to her heirloom being stolen to her almost indifferent reaction to what happened with the Yiga Footsoldier.
• When Link asks Impa why Paya seems so indifferent to what happened, she explains that Paya went through a very traumatic training regimen in the spirit realm. Repeat, Paya, the sweet shy girl, was put through actual trauma to train her as a warrior. Link is outraged with this revelation. Impa's behavior makes it clear that she isn't happy with her sweet granddaughter enduring this either.
• Paya's death in the spirit realm. Death Is Cheap in this dimension, but Link literally watches this innocent girl get impaled through the chest. And even worse, she has to face the worst situation one can ever experience, being Forced to Watch her grandmother, Link, and an unknown innocent get burned to death in front of her.
  • The spirit that trains Paya, a manifestation resembling Sheik, is an amalgam of various Sheikah warriors' souls, and many of them explain that they don't like this either, as many of them experienced this themselves.
  • The concept even resonates with the seasoned warrior that is Link. To him, and to all warriors and fighters and those whose job it is to save lives, being helpless to save others while you yourself survive is considered a Fate Worse than Death.

32 - Finding Goron Painkillers

• It's one of many villainous examples. Sooga makes his entrance...by stepping through the dead bodies of many Yiga Clan members. Yes, they're Asshole Victims, but Sooga's speech to the Yiga makes it clear that losing so many of their own is painful, moral alignment notwithstanding.

33 - The Goron Chief of Old

• Bludo's reaction to Link not knowing Daruk is Played for Laughs, but the moment is still a little heartwrenching from both of their perspectives.
  • For Link, this guy is someone who he practically grew up with, and was very much his brother in arms as a fellow Champion. Link asks Bludo who he is, not out of curiosity, but because a big part of Link's character is that he wants to remember his old friends to pay them respect. The fact that even now, there are still things he doesn't remember is just torturous from his perspective.
  • For Bludo, Daruk is a literal legend carved into the mountain. While his reaction is funny, the Goron Champion is someone who the Gorons themselves worship as much as the Zora worship Mipha. His loss, just like with every Champion, left a scar in the Goron culture.
• "Daruk's Mettle" establishes the true blood brother relationship between Daruk and Link, and that not everything was all roses and sunshine between them. It's here where it's mentioned that Daruk was The Matchmaker for Link and Mipha. Link's immediate reaction makes it clear once more that knowing Mipha and Lochlia would outlive him by more than a century is painful, but Daruk's reaction indicates that he feels a little bit bad about this, not thinking through the consequences of a Mayfly–December Romance.
• Bludo is highly offended when Link talks so casually about the Great Daruk. It's unknown if the Gorons live a long enough time, but there is a strong possibility that Bludo may have been alive as a child during Daruk's tenure as Boss and Champion.

34 - The Emancipation of Rudania

• Once his spirit is freed, Daruk apologizes to Link for feeling like he failed, just as in canon.
• Daruk and Link's conversation is rather sad to read as well. The exchange itself isn't so sad, but this is the last of the four Champions. This is the last time that Link will get to speak directly with his closest friends in his prior life.
  • The conversation itself carries a more depressing undertone than the canon game, as Link and Daruk have been best friends for a number of years, enough that Daruk was The Matchmaker between him and Mipha. This isn't just the last time Link gets to speak with a fellow Champion, it's one of the last times that he gets to speak with his lifelong friend.

35 - The Boulder Breaker

• The moment's leaning towards heartwarming, but there is a slightly bittersweet twinge when he hangs up Daruk's Boulder Breaker alongside the rest of the Champions' gear. This was the last time he'd get to speak to one of his beloved friends.
• Only mildly so, but Paya once again leaving her home that she rarely left until recently still has a feeling of Paya finally growing and flying with her new wings. It's not as intense as it was when she first did it many chapters ago, but Impa and her granddaughter are still close.
• The chapter ends with a Yank the Dog's Chain. After everything that Link has done to prepare Hyrule to fight Ganon, free Zelda, and reclaim their kingdom, the Yiga are coming in to stop them all. He has been fighting nonstop for over a week and barely has a moment to even rest through it all, and yet he still soldiers on, determined to fight. Poor Link just can't catch a break.

36 - Rise of the New Champions

• Zora's Domain
  • Lochlia tells her children the story of the ancient ruler of the Zora, Queen Rutela. We don't see what she tells of her, but given that the story enthralled her children and the words we do see Lochlia using, even thousands of years later, this queen is still beloved...and her loss is still felt.
  • The poor Rito woman sent to warn them of the impending Yiga attack exerts herself so much that she's in a near lethal Heroic RRoD.
  • Upon seeing the onslaught of Malice Guardians, King Dorephan resigns himself to a Hold the Line Heroic Sacrifice. His granddaughter Lochlia takes this as well as you'd expect. Sidon's reaction isn't seen, but it can easily be inferred that he was in just as much horror. Remember that both of them remember losing Mipha, and they were about to lose their grandfather.
• Gerudo Town
  • The fact that Riju is leading her people into battle. This would normally be awesome...except she's a literal child. This girl really is losing all her young years handling adult responsibilities. Even Buliara doesn't like that she's there.
  • She may be a murderous villain, but Kolana's reaction to seeing her people being slaughtered isn't something to ignore. She's A Mother to Her Men, and watching her people being slain by her enemies leaves her angry and visibly shaken. She really does love her people.
  • Riju and Kolana's exchange where it's revealed that Kolana was the one who killed Riju's mother. While Kolana claims to have respected Riju's mother and has the same respect for Riju, the girl herself has none of it. Riju's pained and angered voice just sells how fresh that wound still is. And though Kolana intends it as a Pet the Dog moment, returning Riju's mother's necklace to Riju only gives the girl more pain.
• Rito Village
  • Kaneli and Kass both feel completely helpless to protect their home. The former is a Retired Badass, and the latter a Non-Action Guy. Kaneli feels worse, because as the leader, it's up to him to protect his people and feels that he's failing.
  • One of the Rito women outright mentions how bad it is that this massive threat isn't coming from any of the dangerous monsters, but rather the Yiga Clan, an offshoot of the very human Sheikah tribe. They come quite close to believing Humans Are the Real Monsters, a sad concept to succumb to.
• Goron City
  • There's a moment where Yunobo almost hits the Despair Event Horizon when combatting the Igneo Talus Titan. He realizes that the Yiga are using magic to keep the monster alive, meaning they can do nothing to stop it from destroying their home and their people.

37 - Hyrulean Resistance

• Kakariko Village
  • While the Sheikah emerge victorious over the Yiga, their village is wrecked. The worst part is that this was not at the Yiga's hands, but at Paya's hands when she comes to help, leaving her with a My God, What Have I Done? moment.
  • Koko and Cottla are separated from the others down on the Rabia Plain where they can see Divine Beast Vah Ruta. They only exchange a couple lines, but it's clear from those lines that even now, Koko is dedicating herself to being strong for her baby sister. First, it was the death of their mother, and now, it was the threat of death against the entire village.
• Hateno Village
  • The civilians of the village remained in hiding as the Yiga came to town. The parents shielded their frightened and crying children, complete with false reassurances that everything would be okay. This is uncomfortably akin to parents trying to protect their children during a period of war.
  • As with the other areas, Hateno Village wins. Unfortunately, their village is covered with body parts and flames. It's like the Calamity had finally reached the village 100 years after it awakened, and now these people have to deal with its fallout.
• Korok Forest
  • It's Nightmare Fuel, but it's just as tearjerking to see the Koroks' reaction as they realize that the Yiga want to burn down their home. Especially Hestu's reaction.
  • The Koroks are inspired by Hestu's bravery and help him win the fight...and then they get a moment where they fear for the other settlements. As with so many other scenarios, their helpless reaction tugs at the heartstrings. Note that these Koroks are ageless, and thus they still remember the trauma of the Calamity, and are basically reliving the closest equivalent they had seen in 100 years.
• Akkala Ancient Tech Lab
  • Granté's concern when he spots Yiga teleporting right to his parents' lab. He sprints to go save them. The way he screams for his parents is just the icing on the cake.
  • Sooga's reaction when Link tells him that Master Kohga's sole concern when he realized that his people had been massacred was that he had to clean up the mess. A future chapter shed more light on it, but finding out that your leader potentially never cared for you or your people is definitely something that rocks you to your core, no matter your moral alignment.

38 - Recovery

• Despite the victory of Hyrule, the morning still brings a very somber note.
• The heroes suffered no deaths, but the violence of the night and the events that came with it still have left a lot of people injured and traumatized. They still have to contend with the trauma of being attacked on such a horrendously large scale.
• The Zora warriors' children, many of whom are of older minds than bodies, are highly distressed wondering about the fate of their parents, especially Lochlia's children.
• There's a dour moment where Riju is afraid that the Rito messengers sent out to warn the rest of Hyrule didn't make it in time. The audience knows otherwise, but Riju is terrified that none of the other races survived. While they are not under her command or rulership, she still cares about the other Hyrulean races.

39 - Barriers

• As villainous as they are, the Yiga Clan are still treated like characters, and their losses from the prior chapters still linger with them. It only gets worse for them when Sooga and Kolana command them to retreat without them. The Yiga are complete assholes, but their leaders' pain is still evident.
  • They even have a little conversation that establishes Even Evil Has Standards. Both Would Hurt a Child, but they wouldn't do the same to a pregnant noncombatant, as they consider that too far. They reference the pregnant Sheikah woman in the torture chamber, and they're both very much not happy with where the clan has gone it seems.
  • They also discuss Master Kohga. They speak fondly, mourning their leader's loss. Kolana even has a moment where she wonders if what Link had said about their leader being a Bad Boss was true, though Sooga sets her straight.
• Astor's off-hand comment about the Yiga being junk. He never genuinely cared one bit for the Yiga and he let it slip in that moment.
• Purah's reaction to Link announcing his intent to go through with the Trial of the Wolf. She says pragmatic reasons to Link's face as to why he shouldn't risk going through the trial, but when he leaves, she admits how she doesn't want to see her friend die because she knows she won't be able to save him again. In doing so, she ends up crying in front of her family.
• The last moments before Link enters the trial, his friends and family come to visit, including Lochlia. They have a small exchange where Lochlia makes Link promise that he'll come back to her and her children. Her pain from losing Mipha still lingers, and losing her father would be too much.
  • The little moment where Lochlia's children beg Link not to go through the trial is just soul-crushing. Two of the kids verbally beg him to stay with them, while the other two are just quiet with fear of losing him. It's eerily reminiscent of real-life times when service members are sent downrange and their children have to try and comprehend why they need to go.

40 - Trial of the Wolf

• Very subdued, but Link is forced into this trial all alone. Not even the Champions' spirits can accompany him. Not since the beginning has Link been truly so alone to fight his own battles.

41 - A Corrupted Generation

• During Lochlia and Sidon's fight with Hollow Mipha, he gets badly wounded by Hollow Mipha's acid. Lochlia heals him quickly, but her horrified reaction just sells how afraid she is at losing any more family members to the Calamity.
• Poor Yunobo is left to fight Hollow Daruk alone. He ultimately wins, but the poor guy is clearly terrified out of his mind, especially facing down something that looks like his own grandfather. He ends up spending the first part of their fight just trying to shield himself from this monster, almost like a terrified child.

42 - The Fourth Spirit

• Impa's horrified reaction to Paya's thrashing as her body accepts the power of the Sheikah Orb. Yes, Paya is ultimately unharmed, but it's still heartwrenching to see a loving grandmother be helpless in watching something happen to her granddaughter.
• Lochlia's husband and children are waiting for their mother's return. While Bazz reassures his daughter Leilani that her mother's fine, the narration describes how he doesn't actually know the answer to that question. He's terrified that she may not make it. Even worse is that Leilani knows her father's hiding his fear.
  • This further explained as Bazz remembering the Zora Royal Family before the Calamity struck. Apparently, King Dorephan reassured Lochlia that her mother would return to her...which never happened. Bazz is terrified that history will repeat.
• There's also the conversation with Symin about what Hyrule was like before. Bazz describes it as beautiful and even visited the Akkala Citadel in its prime. This is pretty heartwarming, but it becomes sad when you realize that so many people, like Symin, have never known a world before the Calamity. They've never seen the world as it was.

43 - Scales of an Ancient Era

• There's a clip where Purah lands near the Sanctum and hears the rumbling from Ganon's Cocoon. Purah quietly pleads for Zelda to hold on just a little longer.
• While the Stalnox is a dangerous monster, the fact that this Hinox was in there long enough to presumably starve to death is a rather sad implication, since the Hinoxes are just territorial rather than malicious. Starving to death is a cruel fate.

44 - Pearls and Flames

• The Reveal that the Goddesses, Din, Nayru, Farore, and Hylia, all set up a Long Game that would end with the elimination of Demise's curse...and part of this was that the Great Calamity had to happen. That means the Sheikah Monks knew what was going to happen. The fact that they had to go into these shrines knowing the inevitable apocalypse that was going to overtake Hyrule couldn't have been easy for them.
• It wasn't easy for the Golden Goddesses or Hylia to set up this Long Game knowing that so many innocent lives would be lost. Consider it from their perspective that they created this world and helped it grow, only for them to be forced into sacrificing so much of it to get rid of Demise's curse.

45 - The Kindness of the Frog

• When Impa tells Link the truth about the inevitability of the Great Calamity, it's subtle but Link doesn't really take it well. He just looks away from her and comments on how truly was all pointless, all the efforts they put in and all the pain they suffered trying to prevent the disaster from happening.
• There's the moment where Link is holding King Rhoam's journal. When Impa asks Link if he'd read it, he said he hadn't. He explains that reading through the Champions' journals is hard to read because all the happy and hopeful entries are too painful because he already knows all the hope is for nothing.
• Impa admits that she witnessed the king's death during the Great Calamity. She also mentions that she could only get a few people out alongside several soldiers...several of whom left her and went to Akkala Citadel to make a last stand. She knew this wasn't going to end well, and she tried to go after them, but got there too late.

46 - Trial of the One-Hit Obliterator

• This is where the last of the Sheikah Monks are finally found. While it's very much heartwarming that every Sheikah Monk's purpose has been fulfilled, there's something sad about the fact that every last one, save for Maz Koshia, is gone. Every last Sheikah that lived during that ancient time period 10,000 years before is gone. It's like they finally decided to entrust the world to Link and the new generation of Sheikah.

47 - Songs of the Warriors

• Mipha's Song itself and the flashback isn't sad, but hearing and seeing Mipha again, it leaves Link in tears. Especially because he got to see another moment where his daughter was still just a little baby Zora, and it's already been pointed out that he missed so much. He tearfully thanks Kass for singing it.

48 - The Champions' Ballad

• The eponymous song that serves as the last key to Link's memories. When he awakens from his flash back, he's in tears reliving one of the last happy moments that the Champions spent together.
• When Kass gives Link the picture of the Champions, he and Impa tearfully reminisce about how much Purah loved it, and how mad Revali was at Daruk.
• Then there's Kass's final line wishing the Champions a peaceful rest, just like he did in the game.

49 - Calamity Ganon

• Just like in the game, Zelda apologizes when her power starts failing.
• There's one moment where Impa is helpless because she's protecting herself from a massive beam attack from Calamity Ganon...and can only watch the monster impale Link. She screams in horror, but thankfully it's mitigated by Mipha coming to save him.
• When Dark Beast Ganon makes its appearance, the entire Hyrulean Army witnesses Link and Impa combating it. Lochlia immediately leads the army to go to help him, and while everyone wants to help, Lochlia is leading because she desperately doesn't want to lose her father.
• When the Beam-O-War ends in a massive blast, Lochlia can only watch in horror, afraid that she just lost her father. Thankfully, not the case. And even when they realize Link is alive, she and the army realize that they can do nothing but helplessly watch Link fight Dark Beast Ganon. The readers know he'll be fine, but from Lochlia's perspective, she's watching her father in the most dangerous fight of his life, and she can't help him, just like she couldn't help her mother.

50 - The Silent Princess

• The scenes where each Champion says goodbye to their successor before moving on to the afterlife.
  • Mipha's goodbye is hands down the saddest, because she doesn't wish a successor good luck, she's saying her last goodbye to her daughter and baby brother. She embraces them both and wipes away their tears. Lochlia can only say that she loves her, and Sidon can only reassure Mipha that he'll keep their home safe. The last thing she does before she vanishes is wiping away their tears.
  • Urbosa's goodbye is also sad, but in this case it mostly comes from Riju's feelings on inadequacy. She outright chastises herself for supposedly always failing, and it takes Urbosa's reassurance to finally convince her she's a worthy leader.
  • Revali's is mostly humorous, but there is a little twinge of sadness when Revali admits that Teba probably wouldn't have liked him had they met in life.
  • Daruk saying goodbye to his nervous grandson is worthy of a few tears. Even after everything Yunobo's done, he still sees himself worse than he really is because he's not the boss like Daruk was. Daruk has to reassure him that boss or no, he's still got what it takes to be Champion.
• King Rhoam's spirit visiting Zelda is the only scene that rival's Mipha's scene in how tearjerking it is. The moment Zelda sees him, she immediately tears up and jumps into his arms as the Diminutive Guardians watch. They both share tearfelt apologies that anyone who's had a significant fight with their parents can empathize with. It's enough that the Diminutive Guardians start playing "Zelda's Lullaby". When Rhoam finally moves on, she falls to her knees in tears.
• There's a subtler moment where it's acknowledged that Zelda doesn't remember the Diminutive Guardians, even when Rhoam's spirit calls them her friends. Thankfully, the three don't really care that she doesn't.
• Even the villainous Yiga Clan gets a moment. Sooga's voice uncharacteristically croaks when he admits that he and the clan failed even after all their immense losses. If nothing else, Sooga truly cares for his people and is devastated that they lost so many people for it all to just end in failure.

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