rereading revali’s diary made me remember how good his character actually was…
like i often joke to myself that revali stans act like he’s sooo complex and they’re reading too far into him because he’s another conventially attractive male character (yes, even though he’s a bird) but in reality they aren’t really making anything up when they talk about him.
age of calamity really did massacre this character by making him an arrogant jerk 100% of the time. its defense was that revali really does have the skills to back up his claims, and everyone else believes his self-praising words. but they completely missed the most crucial point: he himself doesn’t.
revali is incredibly insecure. this is shown time and again in breath of the wild. he doesn’t think he’s good enough, and is always pushing himself harder in private. when people are around, he suddenly switches back to his stuck up self. he tells everyone he’s a great warrior and hero because he needs to believe that for himself.
and even when revali is a pompous jerk in breath of the wild, he’s not nearly as cruel as people act like he is. (or as he is in age of calamity, for that matter.) he’s not so bluntly abrasive that everyone around him immediately rolls their eyes. he can still act like a team player. he doesn’t just say awful things out of left field (like in aoc).
revali says in his diary that heis trying to understand other people, namely link and zelda. he’s a work in progress. if he had gotten more time, i believe he would’ve gotten even better.
revali’s death surely put him in his place…
we hear the sos signal in the divine beast suddenly come in fast and high pitched. the music that sounds like a bird struggling to fly, frantically flapping its wings in the heavy wind.
it sounds like fear. the fear he felt 100 years ago as he was dying, the fear that any honor he once had was gone, the fear that the ‘pathetic knight’ he belittled could really be his only hope, and even he could die here too.
we hear revali ask link, with all the genuineness in the world, to avenge him. and when he does, revali can only admit defeat. link has saved his soul, but more than that, link has bested him.
that’s the peculiar thing about revali as opposed to the other champions- they were all honorable warriors willing to die for their cause. but revali in particular,upon his defeat to windblight ganon, seemed less hurt by his physical death than by the destruction of his pride. he literally died and lost his physical body and is now a ghost and he doesn’t seem shaken up about it much at all. all he cares about is still winners and losers.
once it’s undeniable that link could do something he couldn’t, revali allows himself to rest and stop trying to one up link. he lets himself die. finally, he’s at peace.
that’s probably why revali’s theme sounds much happier than the others-the conflict within link to be resolved here is not so much coping with the fact that a beloved friend has been untimely ripped away from him, like the other champions, but that he needed to make things right with someone. and once that was taken care of, they could both be satisfied.
it’s in this character resolution that you feel happy in this scene. that was the most important thing between them, and it’s something that can be fixed even though one of them is now dead.
tldr: uh yeah so revali is a great character in breath of the wild. that’s basically it. and this game’s tragedy is written well and really lingers in your heart. and i’m crying now goodbye
