The Princess Before the Legend Got to Her

The Legend of Zelda turned 25 in 2011, and somewhere in that anniversary noise someone produced a genuinely affecting piece of fan art imagining Zelda as a young girl—not the stoic royal, not the Sheikah disguise, just a kid with pointed ears and the weight of prophecy not yet on her shoulders. Kotaku ran it and it hit differently than any of the official anniversary merch. Something about seeing an iconic face before it became iconic.