There is one character I did not discuss in my first post about how Skyward Sword was overall. This character is with you for the entire journey. She is probably one of the most controversial characters to ever grace the series because she embraces a philosophy prominent in modern gaming that most gamers reject, despise, and loathe. I am among this group of gamers, so I naturally feel the criticism of her character to be justified. She is the ultimate hand holder, never letting up on conveying extraneous and unnecessary information that can be extracted from the player's own wits if they possess half a brain. I believe a video is in order to demonstrate a major failure and regression in gaming:
I may be sidetracking here, but it's my blag post, so nuts to you, buddy! Egoraptor expertly demonstrates in this video the major folly of modern gaming philosophy. However, modern gaming HAS improved over classic gaming, but alas, that is to discuss for another day. I'll let you take what you will from it because I could talk all day about how much the hand-holding detracted from the experience. My commentary during my blind Let's Play speaks for itself anyway.
But this wouldn't explain why I found myself in tears at the final scene in Skyward Sword. Fi bids our hero farewell, forever to be cast in the blade of evil's bane for all of eternity. For all the times I spent suffering at obvious explanations, bullshit statistics, and a non-existent personality, I felt... something akin to emptiness when she departed. Sadness. How can that be? I thought I hated everything Fi stood for!
There's a certain other partner in a past Zelda game that gets similar hate. Navi the fairy. She played a similar role to Fi, but both characters are distinctly different. Navi and Ocarina of Time Link are connected personally; yes, Navi does so because of the Great Deku Tree, but she enters the partnership with high hopes of becoming Link's friend. She chastises him like a mother figure but already opens up by the time the player leaves Kokiri Forest. She lightens the darkness of Link's solitude, revealing the world of Hyrule to him and forging the path to many friendships in his journey. Unlike other people, I actually really enjoyed Navi's character. She is very important to Link, so much that he would explore unknown lands to reunite with her in Majora's Mask.
I feel that Fi is very analogous to Navi, but in a different way for the Link of Skyward Sword. Fi was always there as well. Even if the player feels that she was grating, he or she continues onward. Fi's partnership with SS Link is one of duty, contrasting heavily with Navi's partnership. Everything Fi says or does throughout the game is strictly business and duty set forth by the goddess Hylia. Her entire persona is based on logic and deductions (despite the statistical tomfoolery). She is simply nothing more than a shell carrying out the will of Hylia. Even a mindless robot would fit her description perfectly. And that is why I feel heartbroken.
Even in the end, she was nothing more than a tool of the goddess.
Fi is one of the tragic characters in Skyward Sword. She was bound by the vile word known as fate. At the end, we finally glimpse and see her departure. In the journey, Fi only expected to carry out her duty and purpose. In the end, she got so much more, yet it still became the same conclusion as expected for her. She had found companionship. She had found a friend in Link. Yet at discovering this happiness, it is so cruelly ripped away from her.
Skyward Sword pays homage to the themes of its predecessors. Fi's farewell closely mirrors Navi's from Ocarina of Time, and to a lesser extent, Midna's from Twilight Princess. Wind Waker Link says farewell to the island that holds his family and friends to sail for brighter seas. The words of the Happy Mask Salesman echo through our minds as we witness Fi's departure:
"Whenever there is a meeting, a parting shall follow. But that parting needs not last forever. Whether a parting be forever or merely for a short while... that is up to you."
For SS Link, maybe that departure IS forever in a sense. However, if one considers that Link is merely a reflection of the player... We remember all of the times we wielded the Master Sword before. A Link To The Past. Ocarina of Time. The Wind Waker. Twilight Princess. And we realize that maybe the Happy Mask Salesman was right. After all... Don't we see Fi again and again as we play these titles and pull the Blade of Evil's Bane from its pedestal once more? She has always been there for the player, yet we don't even realize it because of our ignorance in the previous games! Fi represents what is most precious to us... The love and friendship we fail to realize each and every day from those around us. And that may be the biggest tragedy of all.
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