Midna's Lament

No side in any conflict is infallible. Beneath the surface of any fight there is nuance and morally gray slide that corrodes the overall clarity of where one might want to side, if they side at all with either aggrieved party. It is in that uncertainty that the complexity of our living breathing world takes its shape. While it may be a perfect sphere, there is nothing but imperfections that make up its every orifice.

To describe just how much The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess means to me, almost feels like an impossibility. It is and always will be my favorite game of all time, one of my favorite works of art of all time, regardless of medium. A 14 year old Peter giddily ripped open his Christmas present after a 10 day spell without power via the New England Ice Storm Of ’08, having no idea just how formative of an experience he was about to have. I could go on for hours/pages about every detail, little and large, and comprehensively review the entirety of the game, but in respect to each others time, I’m going to stick with what I believe to be the most important narrative beat of the game, and within this vignette, captures the soul of Twilight Princess.

In just about every Zelda game, your companion’s allegiances are never particularly in doubt, from the King Of Red Lions in Wind Waker to Navi in Ocarina Of Time, each one was a loyal and faithful guide (with the partial exception of Tatl from Majora’s Mask). Midna on the other hand, does not begin as such. Upon your capture and subsequent imprisonment in the Twilight realm as Wolf Link, the form you take on in the Twilight realm, you are taunted on the outside of your cell by her. Her motivations for freeing you only self serving as she demands that you do exactly what she says, a desire she’s not afraid to remind you of often throughout the first third of the game.

Upon your escape from the Twilight riddled Hyrule Castle, the taunts continue, as Midna shape-shifts into your Ordon Village friends in quick succession whose lives have been turned upside-down by the encroaching Twilight. Using them as manipulation to continue doing her bidding. Not exactly a friendly companion, who always has your back, is she? It’s the moral ambiguity that seeps into the pores of damn near everything in the game.

After your grueling escapades in the Lakebed Temple (this game’s water temple) you are confronted outside of Lake Hylia by Zant. Who clearly has history with Midna, being a Twilight dweller herself. Suspends her in midair, stealing the fused shadow pieces, ancient weaponry we’ve been hunting down, from her. “You are a foolish traitor, Midna, why do you defy your King?” says Zant. Midna furiously rebukes, accusing him of abusing the magic of their tribe. He smashes her against the ground. Link, transformed into a wolf by Zant’s Twilight lunges at him only to be easily pushed aside.

Zant pulls Midna close. “Did you forget? That beast is one of the light dwellers who oppressed our people. No matter how much you may desire otherwise, you will never be more than a shadow in their world,” the form which she inhabits outside of Twilight influence. “But…” Zant tantalizes, “if we can make their world ours, Midna…light and darkness will meet at last. I need you. Not just for me but for all our people.” She wriggles free of his hold in defiance. Zant threatens retaliation with the light world in which she “covets” as he summons the lake goddess Hylia to blast Midna with the light most devastating to the Twilight dwellers.

Still maintaining your beast form, you teleport to a remote location in Hyrule Field, Midna, barely clinging to life and your back with staggered breaths. The spirit implores you that Zelda, locked away in Hyrule Castle is the only one who has any chance of restoring Midna to health.

A solemn, driving, minimalistic piano ballad begins playing and does not stop until you reach your destination. As rain begins pouring down, the lightning intermittently illuminating the night sky. The sense of desperation that has been a steady undercurrent throughout proceedings so far become full blown panic. Let us not forget the precarious moral position Link is placed in, tasked with saving someone who hasn’t been all too kind to him so far. Going the nihilistic route isn’t exactly in a heroes blood. It’s the first time for an extended period of time in which there hasn’t been someone, or something to guide you along your path. You’re left with something resembling a fraught anguish. The rain continues to drive, the piano pieces continues to repeat. The most precarious position. You don’t get the sense that a singular life is at stake, it feels the whole of Hyrule rests on your ability to transport Midna before it is too late.

It’s hard not to imagine that is where the name comes from, Midna’s Lament. It is the thought of her, grasping at the strands of life on Link’s back that she had failed her mission, it was no longer in her hands. The only thing between her and the end is Link, the person whom she teased and berated at every turn, a cruel irony to say the least.

And all of this is expressed within a comparatively small vignette of the overall story. The weight of this defeat is gargantuan. Midna may be light but it weighs heavier than any tangible object could possibly on Link’s path. The feeling of failing each other permeates the mood in the immediate aftermath.

Twilight Princess has always read to me as the importance of the middle ground, straddling between seemingly opposing forces and finding a place of commonality. And this theme is realized through its main characters of Link and Midna. While cast on opposing “sides” of the conflict between darkness and light, they are not so succumbed to dogmas of those driving the conflict forward to be able to make a difference themselves, ultimately finding common ground between each other and working together to create something better than the clash of ideological vanity.

The reason I’ve been scant on deeper narrative ideas and plot details is because, as this game came to me when I needed it most, I hope the same happens for you as well. To understand not only why this series as a whole is held with such reverence within the annals of gaming history, but why good art as a whole can have such a unifying effect on a singular person at war with themselves trying to find why they are, what they mean to themselves, a group of people on uncertain terms needing to find commonality between each other, or a society on the verge of collapse.