So, before I posted my Zelda rankings, I watched all the memories straight through in Tears of the Kingdom. It's why the new rankings lean on story so hard.

I've seen Spock die in Wrath of Khan so many times, it almost becomes comical. But I remember the first time I saw it I was devasted. There are certain media experiences I refuse to repeat, because I never ever want to be desensitized to them.

One is the ending to Babylon 5, Sleeping in Light. I've seen it EXACTLY twice. The first time was so devastatingly "sad in a good way," I didn't want to lose that. The only other time I saw it was when I was showing a friend the series, and we'd gone through it all over the course of a summer. And it was just as devastatingly sad in a good way. I've refused to watch it again, just to not get desensitized and always have the memory of how a piece of fiction touched me.

The story in Tears of the Kingdom hits very close to me for personal reasons. So I've already got a deep connection to the storyline. And the story we get in flashback is, again, so devastatingly "sad in a good way" that I will likely never watch the last cutscenes again (not counting a possible stream playthrough, where I will have a ton of tissues waiting next to me), just to keep that memory of emotion alive.

This version of Zelda? Through Breath of the Wild to Tears of the Kingdom? She's seen some shit.

#tearsofthekingdom