Twilight Princess height comparison (or new line dancing craze in Hyrule?) (2024)

One of the most iconic scenes in Twilight Princess is Link’s mounted battlewith King Bulblin on the Bridge of Eldin. Link had formerly been powerless toprevent the Bulblins from attacking Ordon Village, but now he’s able to holdhis ground and prove himself as the Hero of Twilight. Three more battles with KingBulblin ensue: one on the Great Bridge of Hylia, one in the Bulblin Camp in thedesert, and one in the courtyard of Hyrule Castle. After this final encounter, KingBulblin says, “Enough. I follow the strongest side! That is all I have everknown.” His words are shocking, as they imply that Link has been killing actualpeople throughout most of the game.

Ironically, it’s Midna who makes this observation regardingKingBulblin’s ability to speak.

This is the very same Midna who has witnessed her own peopleturn into creatures that she refers to as “Shadow Beasts.”

This is the very same Midna who tells Link how to killthem and then physically aids him in doing so.

This is the very same Midna who then turns herself into afaceless seven-limbed creature in order to gain power over Ganondorf.

Midna shatters the Mirror of Twilight at the end of Twilight Princessnot because light and shadow can’t mix, but rather because she’s come torealize how thin and tenuous the line dividing the ontological categories of“person” and “monster” is in Hyrule. Midna knows what happened to her people,and she has come to understand what happened to Ganondorf and his people aswell. It’s therefore understandable that she feels the need to protect bothherself and her kingdom from the very real danger of falling on the wrong sideof the divide between who is allowed to become a “hero” and who it isacceptable for heroes to murder.

At the end of Twilight Princess, right before the secondhalf of the final boss fight, the player is led to believe that Midna is dead.Ganondorf has not actually killed her, however, and I want to talk about that.

Ganondorf has experienced incredible suffering inTwilight Princess. He is accused of a crime he has not (yet) committed, andthis accusation of treason leads to war. After years of resistance, Ganondorfis eventually caught, imprisoned, and executed without a trial. As Ganondorfdies, the Triforce of Power manifests, which saves him but also forces him tolive a terrible half-life in the Twilight Realm. For him, as for other peoplein Hyrule, exposure to the Twilight must have been intensely painful.

Ganondorf manipulates Zant in order to escape, but he onlyendows Zant with enough magic to disempower Midna. It would have been far easier toget rid of her altogether (just as it probably would have been expedient forGanondorf to kill Zant as well), but he chooses not to do so.

When Ganondorf finally arrives in Hyrule, the people he once fought to defend haveall been killed or driven away, but he does not retaliate by attacking thecastle town. Not only does he allow Zelda to live, but also, he more thanlikely saves her from wasting away in the Twilight. Ganondorf later possesses Zelda as a meansof forcing Link to sheath his sword before a real battle can commence, and this hostage strategy is awful. Nevertheless, the bluntness of this ultimatum should havebeen effective. When Link proves that he will not hesitate to kill even Zeldaherself, only then is Ganondorf overcome with rage. Midna is tempted to use the forbidden power of her crown once again, becoming a beast inorder to keep Ganon at bay so that Link and Zelda can escape.

When we next see Ganondorf, he is holding Midna’s crown, whichcrumbles to dust in his hand. We think he’s killed Midna, but of course he hasn’t. Ganondorfhas spared Midna’s life and obliterated the cursedartifact that transformed her into an uncontrollable monstrosity. This incidentmarks the last time we see Midna in her imp form, which means that the spell onher has now been lifted.

Ganondorf has suffered through war, genocide, andunimaginable physical pain, yet he does not kill Midna, who has openly attemptedto kill him. He takes the formidable weapon Midna has been assembling throughoutthe game and, instead of using it, destroys it.

At the end of Twilight Princess, broken and defeated, Ganondorfstill finds the strength to warn Zelda and Link about how a cycle of hatred has createda history “written in blood.” This begs the question of why Ganondorf waschosen by the Triforce of Power. What could “power” have meant to Ganondorf, aman who lost everything and had every reason to killboth Midna and Zelda but refused to do so?

Perhaps Ganondorf was granted the Triforce of Power after having witnessed the horrors of Hyrule so that he could break thecycle of retribution. If this is the case, it would make sense that Ganondorf refrains from taking control of the kingdom through conquest and murder, even though doing so would have been well within his abilities. Nevertheless, Zelda and Link still insist on fighting him to the death.

So why does Midna,whose life and sanity have been spared by Ganondorf, ultimately decide to shatter the Mirror ofTwilight? It’s worth thinking about.