Ranking The Champions by Their Character Depth

The four Champions are all powerful characters working alongside Link and Zelda. But how do their character arcs compare to each other? Hold your horses – here is the definitive ranking of each of their arcs throughout Breath of the Wild based on their relationships with others, personalities, journeys, and changes to themselves as they lived for their land.

4. Daruk

Yes, Daruk is a nice guy who acts as a father figure to Link. But if you look at him for his arc, he’s quite bland: he doesn’t have internal conflicts that spark interest as Mipha and Revali do, and his spectrum of personality doesn’t extend very far. He’s always that same big hunk of rock that slaps people on the back a little too hard.

3. Mipha

Mipha is definitely one of my favorite Champions and characters in BotW. Her arc is naturally better than Daruk’s; she has lots of interesting relationships with her peers and has many shades of personality. She can be tough and stubborn about something like accompanying Link to Ploymus Mountain, but she can also be that gentle, respectful, kind Zora Princess who will do everything for her people. Plus, she is in love with Link, but just can’t bring herself to pour out all her feelings to him, at the same time being an adept young lady who can climb waterfalls and figure out how to pilot a Divine Beast more easily than the three other Champions. But aside from that, she’s still kind of that one-dimensional character who is slightly too predictable – a shame for someone like her with a lot of character potential. Her romance with Link wasn’t even emphasized enough in Age of Calamity.

2. Urbosa

Urbosa: the mama bear to the lost Princess Zelda and the only Gerudo Chief as sharp as her Scimitar of the Seven. She’s a refuge for the afflicted and poised to strike those who dare to come near. Her spectrum of personality is wider than both Daruk’s and Mipha’s, being caring, witty, strong, and glamorous all at the same time. There is only one weakness that can be found in her: she has little to no internal conflict, being the perfect-ish model of a chief who is pretty much fine on the outside and inside.

1. Revali

Oh, Revali. That green-eyed archer of a bird who nearly everyone hates (except for me). He’s downright mean to Link sometimes, but he can also be hilarious and compassionate towards the princess. His relationships with the other Champions are absolutely fascinating to watch – you can see the best of him in Link’s knight inauguration memory and the final Champions’ Ballad memory – and the other members of the Rito tribe. And then he has precision archery that simply can’t be ignored. Finally, he put all his will, courage, and diligence into proudly perfecting Revali’s Gale. There’s tons of internal conflict going on all at the same time, too: insecurity consumed him early on, as he wrote in his diary, and he used his haughty facade to cover it up as he mentally battled with himself. At last, he admitted his faults to Link after the young knight’s freeing of the Divine Beast Vah Medoh, and wished the elf boy good luck on his journey across Hyrule to save Zelda – a satisfying ending to his long story. This is exactly why Revali is an awesome example of a Champion with a good character arc. Now, does he deserve more love?

Stay tuned to Galaxy of Fans for more articles fit for every fan!