Daily Debate: What Song Would You Use to Make a Zelda-Themed Music Video?

My youth consisted a lot of several things, which will surely date myself: my Microsoft Zune full of J-pop and emo music, Neopets, and Windows Movie Maker. For some reason, this era of my internet use inspired me to create anime music videos (AMVs). For those not in the know, these are fan-made videos where you downloaded cutscenes or episodes from your favorite media and edited any song you wanted over top of them. These were particularly big in the early days of YouTube (think between 15-17 years ago), and have fallen out of fashion. Even if the video featured video game footage, my friends and I still called it an AMV.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how I used to make these to Final Fantasy X, Death Note, and Madoka Magica. The key to a good AMV was picking a popular or emotional song tied with what fandom was trending at the time. If the lyrics evoked something about the characters or plot, that was an added bonus. It was not uncommon for many Naruto videos to feature hits by Linkin Park or Kingdom Hearts videos to have an Evanescence song. The edits were, by today’s standards, cringe-worthy, laden with sepia filters, angled zooms, and dramatic cuts to black. I don’t remember consuming a lot of Zelda AMVs, but I do remember this iconic video of Twilight Princess footage combined with “Knights of Cydonia” by Muse. This should give you an idea of what period of the internet I’m thinking about, in all of its pixelated glory.

I couldn’t help but think if I made an AMV today with Zelda content, what would I choose? I landed on some nostalgic picks for this nostalgic hypothetical question. I think I would’ve made a dramatic music video for Skyward Sword with Paramore’s “Misguided Ghosts.” With the right clips, I think you could paint a point-of-view where Zelda laments over her departure from Skyloft to Link:

I am going away for a while
But I’ll be back, don’t try and follow me
‘Cause I’ll return as soon as possible
See, I’m trying to find my place
But it might not be here where I feel safe

No song will be exactly accurate, but that was the fun of an AMV; you found a way to make it work anyway!

Did you consume a lot fan-made music videos back in the day? If you could mash up a song with your favorite Zelda game, what would make the ideal pairing? Let us know in the comments below!

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