I like cute things. I have written extensively on the subject on this website and probably will until I draw my last breath. There are so many adorable things in the Legend of Zelda franchise, that it would take me decades to write an article about everything. There would be a twelve part miniseries on the greatest bear with wings, Moosh. I could write several books on how adorable Koroks are. It wouldn’t even be hard. The books would be dictionary sized opuses.
However, I have only really written about cute things or creatures. Cute makes you feel happy and warm inside in a way that “beautiful” or ” gorgeous” doesn’t. I could call something that someone does “adorable,” but I wouldn’t be able to call the person themselves that. It takes a lot for me to call a person cute. The only notable examples are my children, my wife, and… Well, that’s about it. Of course, ShootingStarBea had to come along and draw someone cute enough to make me add a fourth person to the list.
This piece entitled “Legend of Zelda 36th Anniversary” by DeviantArt user ShootingStarBea is on a whole different level of cute. This version of Zelda is based on the version we see in The Legend of Zelda for the NES and reminds us of a very important, yet often overlooked, part of history: Zelda was a redhead at the start. It’s very important lore that was unfairly taken from us too soon.
Anyway, let’s talk about the piece itself. Zelda is wearing a fairy tale princess dress that is two different shades of pink with a third shade of pink in the center for her bow train. The pink compliments her hair well and, even though the top of her dress is light, it doesn’t drown out her skin tones. This dress is contrasted by the background which is an amorphous blob of blue shades which really makes her stand out and almost makes it look like she’s floating.
Her face is chibi-fied in a way that doesn’t look unrealistic like most chibi characters are. Her eyes are large, yes, but they take up an appropriate portion of her face. Her small nose and mouth make her cheeks look round and, well, cute. Her large (and did I mention that it’s red?) hair looks wild, but intentionally so. She intended her hair to look like that. Or, rather, her royal staff did.
This piece shows off a side of Zelda we don’t get to see very often: Zelda the Princess. I love how Zelda has moved past the damsel-in-distress archetype in later games. She’s a complicated warrior in Twilight Princess, a swashbuckler in The Wind Waker, a genius adventurer in Breath of the Wild, each game is different and each version is amazing. We see so much fanart of those versions of her and I love all of them. However, we don’t tend to see the princess side of her very often. She’s got royal duties to attend to as well! And, dang it, she’s going to look cute doing them!
Thank you to ShootingStarBea over on DeviantArt for sharing this amazing piece of art. You can check out more of her work on Twitter!
