The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom came out the other week and has already sold millions of copies, setting a record for the long-running Zelda franchise.
Nintendo broke a lot of new ground with this one, both in terms of gameplay — the game is basically an engineering simulator — and story. Nintendo has always been slow to adapt to modern storytelling trends in gaming like voice acting, but Tears of the Kingdom includes more of it than any past entry.
That includes Patricia Summersett as Princess Zelda herself; Summersett also played the title character in 2017’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Speaking to Axios, she said she drew inspiration from “women who are very strong, heady but also placed in a royal position,” as well as those who have “a zeal for education, that kind of sparky brain.” That meant turning to some familiar figures from pop culture.
There’s a bit of Daenerys Targaryen in Princess Zelda
According to Summersett, she based some of her performance as Princess Zelda on Daenerys Targaryen, the deposed dragon queen from Game of Thrones. I think Daenerys is a bit more fierce than this Zelda, but they’re both proud women of royal lineage, so it tracks.
Summersett also tossed in “a little bit” of Emma Watson as Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter movies, which fits. And there’s a touch of Mia Farrow as the unicorn from The Last Unicorn, “because I grew up with that and it’s always somewhere in my child brain.”
With the huge success of the game, perhaps Summersett’s performance will go on to inspire others. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available now.
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