I remember the first time I saw concept art of Fi from Skyward Sword. The hype was REAL. I thought for sure that she was somehow connected to the very similarly-designed Fairy Queen from a previous Zelda game, Wind Waker. My sister and I excitedly discussed how she may be a more humanoid incarnation of Link’s beloved fairy, Navi. Or maybe the Fairy Queen herself. Our anticipation for playing this game was so intense. When we finally got a chance to play, we were instantly charmed by the intriguing cast of characters.

And then there was Fi.

I cannot explain to you our sheer disappoint when Fi first opened her mouth and sounded like a GPS computer. She has no personality whatsoever. She proceeds to spend the rest of the game terrorizing the player with constant useless interruptions in which she spews out emotionless and pointless statistics. There were a few scenes of her dancing that re-ignited our initial excitement. But that was quickly snuffed out by the absolutely ridiculous animation of her “singing” which looks more like she’s screaming in agony and having a seizure.

For such an interesting design, Fi is unfortunately SO LAME and one of my least-favorite of Link’s companions. She’s supposed to have a heartfelt scene at the end where she imagines what it must be like to feel, but by then I was so over it and just looked forward to her finally shutting up.

I wanted to draw her in a way that captured that early intrigue and anticipation for a character that could have been so cool.

Here are the rest of the Skyward Sword bookmarks:

Impa has had many iterations across the Zelda franchise. Sometimes she’s Zelda’s nurse or nanny, other times her personal guard. In this game, Impa is a hero from the distant past who time travels forward a thousand years in order to rescue Zelda when she’s captured by demon lord Ghirahim. They then take off on an epic game of cat-and-mouse in which Impa barely manages to keep Zelda a step ahead of Ghirahim, rescuing her just in the nick of time. Meanwhile, Link lags behind, enmeshed in dungeon after dungeon, held back by a frustratingly linear plot which explores the same three areas over and over and over while the player wrestles with some of the worst control mechanics in the whole series. Yeah, this game isn’t my favorite. But none of my frustrations come from the main cast. In fact, this game has some of the most layered and entertaining characters in the whole series.

Here is the rest of the Skyward Sword series:

I was inspired by the Switch re-release of Skyward Sword to draw a series of bookmarks of the main cast. I know myself and I know my strengths. I completely expected for Zelda to be the easiest bookmark to draw. Imagine my surprise and dismay when I struggled again and again and again to make her look good. It felt like every single inch of this bookmark was a massive battle. I got so frustrated that I eventually just flattened the whole bookmark and painted on top of it. Only then did I finally get her face to look good. I’m very proud of it now, but I can’t even look at this bookmark without remembering the pain.

Here are the rest of the Skyward Sword series: