The Tragedy at Lake Hylia

I bow down to pray
I try to make the worst seem better
Lord show me the way
To cut through all his worn out leather

Something about the Legend of Zelda games has always seemed spiritual to me. While Lady Gaga's "A Million Reasons" doesn't fit this piece perfectly, I feel the chorus did and as a result listened to it on loop for the last half or so.

A bit of background: I started this way back in June, simply toying with the thought of swapping Aerith and Cloud out of one of their most iconic scenes and replacing them with Link and Zelda. I remember thinking "why is it always the women dying?" so decided to take it a little further by having Link die off instead. It got me wondering what Zelda would do without her hero. Would she continue to go on and fight the fight? Could she?

Then a lot of things hit me at once. In the span of three months I lost a friend, my dog and my grandma. Suddenly, I couldn't bring myself to look at this picture. I couldn't bring myself to draw very much at all. I still don't feel quite like myself. In video games, there's always a second chance, a continue option after game over. Not the case in real life. Zelda's pain became too real and too relatable to me.

But a few days ago I opened it up and forced myself to work on it, and it's been therapeutic. I played "A Million Reasons" and felt it helped to capture Zelda's expression, which I had struggled with; for a while I contemplated having her gaze cast down, towards Link and in a gesture of defeat. But I feel like when we lose someone, we ask why. Even people who aren't necessarily spiritual or religious look for some sort of answer or someone to blame. In her grief, Zelda is asking her divine goddesses "Why?" That is why I decided that she should gaze skyward and am pleased with my choice.

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