Tears of the Kingdom Director Gives More Depth to King Rauru’s Character in Recent Interview

Tears of the Kingdom director Hidemaro Fujibayashi is at it again with  interviews and commentary. This time, he has much to discuss about a new fan-favorite character in the Legend of Zelda series: King Rauru.

In an interview with Polygon’s Ana Diaz, Fujibayashi goes into more depth about the first King of Hyrule who is also one of the two remaining Zonai left in the Breath of the Wild universe. Diaz begins this segment by commenting on fans theorizing about how the Zonai race was no longer part of the world, yet Zonai culture and influence was alluded to throughout Breath of the Wild.

Fujibayashi responded saying:

“I’ll start by saying that whenever we create Zelda titles, it’s gameplay first. So when we’re thinking about wanting to, you know, add elements like the Ultra Hand or the ability to create, that’s something that comes first. And with the story of Breath of the Wild, we intentionally left some things unanswered — and so fast-forward to when we were working in creating Tears of the Kingdom. What we wanted to do was to include this ability to create. Looking at what we have from Breath of the Wild, what seemed to fit right with that idea is this concept of the Zonai and the Zonai devices — well, devices before people discover that there are Zonai — and we thought that adding this element into it helps us expand and flesh out the story in a way that makes sense to add these gameplay elements.”

With this being said, Fujibayashi continued by explaining how Rauru became a key character in the game. He explains that they wanted him to be a character who ties Princess Zelda and Link together, when they are thousands of years apart:

“What I wanted to do was create kind of two different sides of Rauru. You can call it an A-side and B-side. So the A-side is the Rauru of the past, and the B-side is what you see in the present. The A-side Rauru, the one in the past, is what you see through the story unfold[ing] through the Dragon Tears and also through the eyes of Zelda, and you see how Rauru interacts with Zelda, and his feelings, his thoughts towards Zelda. And then there’s the B-side where, with all of that past, with all of that story, with that relationship with Zelda, we show how Rauru interacts with Link in the present world.

He adds:

“The Rauru of the present knows how the story went in the past — including his own tragic end, as well as the end of the Zonai. But the Rauru of the past knows about the future, too, thanks to the appearance of Zelda. And so there’s the Rauru of the past that has this relationship with Zelda. He interacts with Zelda knowing that this is the night, that Zelda had so many expectations for him, and what he expects out of himself. And we thought that mixing those two Rauru together would be kind of a shame, to mix those together and create one character, and so that’s why we intentionally separated [that] out so that there’s only the past Rauru [who] only meets with Zelda, and there’s a modern Rauru.”

Although Tears of the Kingdom brought back beloved characters from its predecessor, you have to admit the new characters were all brilliantly fleshed out and allowed a chance to shine in this universe. Learning more about the reasoning behind certain decisions surrounding a character can really make you love them even more! Don’t forget to check out the full Polygon interview when you have a minute!

What do you think of Fujibayashi’s comments about King Rauru and the Zonai? Is there anything he didn’t elaborate on that you would like to know? Let us know in the comments!

Source: Polygon

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