The Women of Legend: Ilia
Posted on May 23 2015 by Kassye Butler
Courage. It is the defining ability of the Hero. It is what we seek as we quest to save the world. In most Zelda titles, the only person who possesses any kind of courage is our hero Link. Most of the citizens of Hyrule are shown as cowards, shirking responsibility for the comfort of ignorance. But there are a few characters whose courage shines as bright as the sun they were born under. One such being is Ilia, a gentle and loving, yet fierce, inhabitant of Ordon village during the Era of Twilight. Join me as we take a stroll through Ilia’s story, and glance at just how much of a Hero she truly is.
17 years and a fair share of responsibility is a pretty good summery of Ilia at the start of our adventure. When we first hear of our girl she is diligently working on a secret project for our main character, Link. It is explained to us that the two grew up together, a connection that is seen as special in Japanese culture. Though this connection doesn’t stop the two from acting like an old married couple. Our first glance of Ilia is of a sassy, unforgiving woman who has a temper to rival anyone’s mother. She shows that she can take control of a situation, and be the dominant personality. She makes off with Link’s horse, an act Link and Ilia’s father Bo can only gawk at as she walks away.
The reason I love the intro to Twilight Princess is because of Ilia’s actions. We will see throughout the rest of the game how kindhearted Ilia is and how much her compassion flows. But this scene depicts a side of her that would otherwise go unnoticed in the cannon world. It demonstrates her motherly side, one she most likely developed early since her own mother is not present. And this upbringing is very important when talking about Ilia, and we will be exploring it more.
Now time for the action. We get to see Ilia’s more natural side as she comes to terms with her childhood friend leaving. We get a warm scene with the two, establishing that their friendship knows little bounds. Just as things are starting to look up, tragedy strikes. King Bulblin rides in and knocks Ilia unconscious, dragging her off into the vast and unknown world. From this point on we will be following the events that Ilia herself went through, and try to flesh out just what makes her one of the most courageous characters in the entire series.
King Bulblin, after knocking out the girl, takes her far from home. We know that she ends up in the Hidden Village, but it is unclear how or when she gets there, or even why she was taken at all. If I were to venture a guess as to why they took the children, it would be to weaken Ordon Villiage and get the Light Spirit Ordona to surrender. We already know the drastic measures Zant took when dealing with the Zora tribe in the taking of the life of their queen, so it would seem to reason that the goal of Zant’s forces was to cause a similar surrender. And with Ilia being the daughter of the town’s leader, her life would have seemed more valuable and would explain why she was kept under guard while the children were left in Kakariko Village.
The actual passage of time in which we last see Ilia in Ordon and when Link meets up with her in Hyrule Castle Town is unknown, but I would like to speculate that it is at least a month or two. Link has to go through all of his introduction to being the hero, brave two temples, and explore 60% of the kingdom of Hyrule before he saw his friend again. This gives Ilia a vast amount of time on her own. Assuming she stayed unconscious for the duration of her kidnapping, she would have woken up in the highly guarded Hidden Village, a town far from the familiar Ordon. Her home had streams and livestock and people, while the place she found herself in was baron and decayed. Her only companion, aside from twenty fun-loving cats and a chicken, is a little old lady who insists she can not leave yet. Ilia listens to the old woman, absorbing the stories of the hero who will one day come and retrieve what the woman was protecting. This is somewhat speculation, but this is probably how Ilia began talking about Link to Impaz. She recalled his bravery and his naivete. She regaled her of stories from their past, and spoke of the boy in the highest of regards. Whether or not Ilia spoke of Link believing him to be the hero in unknown, but one would think she would have not been surprised to find out that this was the case, seeing as how much Impaz knew of Link before she ever met him.
Here is where Ilia’s story makes its greatest turn. Even after hearing the stories of the Hero, Ilia knows she cannot just wait to be rescued. We know from the ending of Twilight Princess that King Bulblin can talk, and therefore it can be reasonably concluded that Ilia might have gained some knowledge as to what their plans were. If she was being held captive in order to make Ordon surrender, then it would make sense that she would want to escape. She would want to take away the leverage they believed they owned, ruining their plans. She schemed and plotted, planning the most effect way to escape her twenty guards and make her way to freedom. With all the courage her upbringing and soul could provide, Ilia fled the Hidden Village in such a way that she sustained minimal injury and was not pursued. This leads me to the believe she found a way to slip past the guards and sneak into Hyrule Field, making her way to the biggest landmark she could find, a feat not even the chosen Hero or bearer of Wisdom can usually accomplish.
Oh my, I think I have forgotten something. You see, during the entire duration of her capture and escape the land of Hyrule was going through something most treacherous, the Twilight. Dark shadows covered the land, and the monsters that hide under your bed brushed your ear during the daytime. The Twilight made Hylians as spirits, unable to affect the world around them. It is shown in the very beginning of our adventure that even the Hyrulian soldiers, an army clad in protective armor and armed with weapons, were scared out of their skins by the mere presence of the Twilight. It is demonstrated over and over again how frightened people were by the presence of the Twlight, and these people generally had the support of other Hylians to get them through their fear. Ilia only had Impaz, and when she escaped she was on her own. She braved one of the most dangerous areas of Hyrule field as she sought freedom. Her journey took her past the flying shadow beasts and the crawling bugs all the way to the entrance to a town bigger than her entire province. But without hesitation she entered, and hoped she would be able to return home and prevent Ordon’s capture.
This is were the story turns dark. I know we have gone through kidnapping, confinement, solidarity, escape, and a fight for our lives, but I have theorized that the greatest challenge Ilia faced happened to her in Hyrule Castle Town, her supposed haven. I need to put a warning here: This is a very sensitive subject that some people might find offensive. This theory seeks to explain Ilia’s memory loss, and will take us through to finding Prince Ralis. If you wish to skip this section, please go to the paragraph marked THEORY ENDS HERE. Thank You.
Alright, sorry about that but I felt if was necessary. In order for this theory to make sense, we first need to establish what canonically happens at Hyrule Castle. First, Ilia meets Dr. Borville before anything else. This is shown by her scent trail in Hyrule Castle Town. Secondly, Dr. Borville attempted to treat Ilia, but was not able to even though he took the Statue from her as payment. Lastly, Ilia has no recollection of him. The reason I am stating this is because the game makes it very clear that Ilia has not mentioned the doctor. He asks over and over again if she has mentioned him, to which Link says nothing (ba dum pish.)
With these little facts in mind, let’s try to draw up a timeline:
Here is the tricky part: establishing when Ilia lost her memory. But I believe, based on the evidence that Ilia does not remember the Doctor and the Doctor’s quick retreat from the bar, that her memory was lost sometime during or after her visit with Doctor Borville. It is widely accepted that Ilia lost her memory from the trauma of her journey, but if that were the case then I believe that during the one time we see Ilia and the Doctor together then there would have been more to the interaction; she would have remembered him, and could have taken Prince Ralis to Doctor Borville first instead of Telma’s Bar. Also, she could have refuted the need for the doctor, seeing as he was a crook and couldn’t treat a cold. But she stays silent, which if the opening to the game tells us anything is not what her personality tends towards. I believe she would have spoken up against the quack doctor, had she remembered him.
As for what exactly happened to cause the memory loss, that is something you have to decide for yourself. One of his treatments for her could have resulted in the condition, but considering her memory was restored by an artifact from her past its hard to believe that a medicine was the culprit. It is my personal belief that a horrible trauma happened to her at the clinic, and building on all that had conspired on her in the past few months caused her brain to go into ‘safe mode.’ She blocked out everything, hoping to preserve some sort of sanity. I also believe that the doctor was the cause of this trauma, which would explain his reluctance to being around her and the questions he spouts at Link anytime he sees him. This is just my personal theory, but it is one I believe explains the most about Ilia.
THEORY ENDS HERE. Back on the track of our brave girl, Ilia is now caring for the injured Prince Ralis. Despite the trauma and uncertainty, she puts herself on the back burner and cares for someone of another race as if she were her own child. I love how her love shows no borders. She is determined to save this boy, even if that means traveling hundreds of miles with the only escort being a young boy in a green tunic. Some would say that Ilia’s connection with Link caused her to trust him so quickly even though she didn’t remember him, but I believe that it was a combination of trusting him and her own courage that gave her the strength to travel to Kakariko Village.
Even though Ilia has made it to the location where she will spend the rest of the game, her job is not over. Safe in Kakariko Ilia can now tend to the sickly Ralis and even herself, as seen by her needing a bed when you first arrive in the village. And even after the Prince is healed she stays, partly because she doesn’t know who she is, and partly because the children of her home village need her. This is where she resides, until her job is done and the world is safe. Even having her memory returned doesn’t deter her from her responsibility as she holds down the fort while Link saves the world.
Oh my, I forgot to mention something again. You see, no one actually knew what Link was up to during the game. It was all some big secret (for some reason,) and Ilia was never informed of just why he would pop in and out of the village all the time. And yet her final words to him were always, “You don’t need to worry about me any longer. Whenever you return… I’ll be waiting for you.” How does this not speak to you? She has no clue the weight that is on Links shoulder, and yet she refuses to add any more. Her understanding of the situation at hand gives her the ability to put herself last and give the Hero of Courage a needed boost for the final battle. This is a change from the beginning of the adventure, when she instructs Link not to do “anything out of hi league,” a statement that could cause worry in the hero and showed little confidence in him. Whether it is from her maturing into an adult or from her beautiful personality shining through, Ilia reads the situation well and inadvertently becomes a part of the Courage that resides within Link.
If you were to asks me who is the most courageous character in Twilight Princess, I wholeheartedly believe it would be a toss up between Link and Ilia. I believe both have the qualities of the Hero, but Link possess the blood as well. I am not overly enthused to have a female Link in the Zelda series, but if we could have more brave women who could possibly be surrogate holders to the Triforce of Courage, then Ilia would be my top candidate. She braved the entirety of Hyrule without the need of a Hero. She waited for no one as she sought freedom. She has love, compassion, and a sternness about her that are qualities that I myself wish to possess. Ilia, in my book, is a true Hero.
26 year old mother of 2 future gamers. Currently pursuing a degree in Business Administration with a focus in Accounting at Henderson Community College in Henderson, KY
