If we had to pick the WORST in-game partner of all time, that honor would go to Navi, the little fairy who'd annoy everyone with her "HEY LISTEN!" and "WATCH OUT!" whenever anything bad would happen.
But Navi's not up for the running here. The ones who are is a little imp, and the spirit of the Master Sword.
I've been starting with Twilight Princess a lot, so this time, let's start with Skyward Sword.
Fi is the spirit of the Goddess Sword, left by Hylia for her chosen hero long ago. She first appears to Link in a sort of vision when Zelda gets taken by an unnatural tornado. Later that night, Link follows her to the Goddess Statue where the Goddess Sword lays inside. Upon taking the sword, Link cements himself as the Goddesses Chosen Hero, and he's off to find and rescue Zelda.
Throughout his journey, Fi provides information about enemies and locations, providing stats about enemies you've defeated and occasional snarky comments. She also absorbs the three Goddess Flames in order to strengthen the Goddess Sword until it becomes the Master Sword. HOLY MACKERAL BIG SPOILERS! Fi falls into a permanent sleep after defeating Demise, her mission now over.
Despite having all this knowledge about enemies, Fi refuses to disclose all of it until an enemy has defeated you. Apparently, she doesn't realize that the enemy at hand is killing you, and advice regarding its defeat would be MOST APPRECIATED!
Fi's presence also confuses me. Does everyone else see her? Or does just Link see her? The game never really made that clear to me. Because Fi will react to a piece of information, but no one reacts to a freakin' girl materializing out of a sword hilt! I mean, come on.
Fi's personality just irritates me as well. While she's not annoying like Navi, she remains stiff and formal all the time. And while her parting lines are tear-jerking, they're nowhere near as powerful as Midna's final lines, or even other character final lines! She may say the data she's collected is the most precious on record, but she's never going to awaken again and know if any of the other Links are just as good or better of a master than the first one. Alternatley, you could take it as the first Link will always be her master...but I'm getting into too much speculation.
Midna's turn!
Midna is a funny little imp that you meet right after you transform into a wolf for the first time. She mocks your condition and then fails to properly remove a manacle from your leg, and then she abandons you for a time in the dungeons while the creepy Twilit Rats are chasing you! And then she basically recruits you to be her slave to get her Fused Shadows for her because she's too lazy to navigate the dungeons herself.
And then Zant happens. Rather than joining with a fellow Twili, she refuses to join him and to punish her for her "disloyalty" he summons Lanayru and blasts Midna with the light.
Link rescues Midna via Princess Zelda, and from then on, Midna is a different person. She's still snarky, but you feel less used and more like you're actually working together.
In the end, it turns out Midna is the Twilight Princess the game is named for, and it turns out Zant is the reason Midna's stuck as an imp. Midna turns back into her regular form, and then, just as she's heading back to the Twilight Realm, she breaks the Mirror of Twilight so that nothing bad can happen in Hyrule again.
Holy Crap Midna is awesome. The minute she enters the game she just steals the show. Midna also has an active role in the story. Not only is she your guide, but she teleports you around Hyrule. And seriously, that makes the game so much easier when you can just teleport to a location instead of having to walk/ride your horse there. Midna also has serious character development, and it makes her one of the greatest characters in gaming I've ever encountered. She goes from helping only herself and only worrying about herself and her kingdom, to worrying about the well-being of others and those in Hyrule.
When she shatters the Mirror, I always felt like she was saying, "No matter what troubles may come, I know it won't come from my world. What happened her will not happen again."
Really, Midna felt more like an actual person than Fi ever did. Fi always felt like a tool, which, I kind of get she was, but she could have had a lot more characterization, and it just bothered me how, really, Fi wasn't super helpful. Honestly, after coming fresh off of Midna, I felt like Fi just...sucked.
All in game partners need to be held to the standard of characterization that Midna had. Especially if at the end of the game they leave you. That needs to be a super sad moment.
So the Twilight Princess wins this round.
Skyward Sword: 2
Twilight Princess: 1
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