Revali (The Legend of Zelda)



"Well, then. I suppose the time has finally come… to reveal Vah Medoh’s DIVINE POWER!"

- Revali

Revali is the Rito Champion of Hyrule who was born and raised in Rito Village. He is among one of the major characters of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and returns in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. His signature weapon is the Great Eagle Bow, and his signature power is Revali's Gale, which allows him to soar into the air with ease. As the Champions are to pilot the Divine Beasts to drive back Calamity Ganon, Revali pilots Divine Beast Vah Medoh. Depending on the game, Revali and the other Champions either die in Breath of the Wild or survive due to Terrako's intervention in Age of Calamity.

Why His Gale is Now Ready

 * 1) Revali is a character who has a three-dimensional personality out of all the other Champions in the games. He is very prideful, cocky, and arrogant, while having a soft spot in him at the same time. These traits are the very factors that prevented Revali from being a flat character that completely lacks flaws and depth.
 * 2) His voice actor, Sean Chiplock does an incredible job voicing Revali, as it fits the character perfectly.
 * 3) Not counting the villains who naturally despise Link for constantly interfering with their plans, Revali is one of Link's few allies who actually resents him over the fact that he is chosen by the Master Sword to defeat Calamity Ganon and he thought of himself as superior to him. He can be seen as Link’s rival but could not be honest with himself about it.
 * 4) His sly sense of humor and his grandstanding can be considered very funny and entertaining at times.
 * 5) His character design is very cool and seems to match his personality well.
 * 6) Revali's display of his archery skills, in conjunction with his flying abilities, is truly mind-blowing and graceful, especially when he blew up several targets within a couple of seconds. It's also worth a mention that he is able to wield his Great Eagle Bow with ease as it was said that no other Rito had been able to use it. A strong implication that Revali is the strongest Rito in his time which is impressive.
 * 7) *Additionally, Revali's Gale is very useful for many things, up to including flying to great heights to save stamina when climbing cliffs, or to avoid most unwanted battles.
 * 8) In the DLC, Revali is given a much different side. As it turns out, the reason that he acts arrogant and conceited was that he is doing this to conceal the fact that he is very insecure about his abilities as well as himself, and he had to go to extreme lengths to develop his signature power called "Revali's Gale", even though he often gets hurt in the process, which makes him more of a likable jerk kind of character.
 * 9) *Revali's Diary humanizes him further as it shows that he has a difficult time breaking out of his comfort zone through showing his vulnerabilities around people and admits that while he has a hard time understanding the talentless, like Princess Zelda trying to awaken her power for the upcoming disaster, he still tries to show empathy for them. At one point, he even tried to make friends with Link and tries to impress him but to no avail, as Link is being stoic to cope with his responsibilities; this made Revali flustered about his indifference towards his performance. These makes him the kind of person that anyone can relate to.
 * 10) Despite his vanity and tendency to be aloof at times, Revali's heart is still in the right place and has shown to be willing to brush aside those traits when it means that it would benefit others, as well as himself, and being a caring person deep down, sometimes even to Link. In one scene, he is looking at Mipha when she was looking nervous during a group photo take and smiles warmly when she calms down. During the battle with Windblight Ganon, if Link takes heavy damage, he will be worried and ask if he is okay, and after the post-boss challenge, he thinks about Rito Village and how it has been doing since his death and humbly states that he will always remember it as his home.
 * 11) *Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity shows more of his good side as well, as he is willing to protect his village from invaders and sometimes compliments his fellow warriors for their performance in battle. He also displayed a brief moment of sadness when Terrako was critically damaged by Link when it was possessed by Malice, and later contributed to searching for Terrako's components for its reconstruction. He smiled happily before turning away when Terrako reactivated; when Terrako pays Revali a visit at his village during the credits, Revali actually pets the little Guardian before letting it fly with him on his back and later joined the other Champions and Princess Zelda in a group hug together.
 * 12) Revali does get a good deal of character development over time. He couldn't bring himself to accept the fact that Link is destined to be the Hero of Hyrule and consistently thought of himself as better than Link, but after his death during the Great Calamity and Link's eventual victory over Windblight and freeing Medoh in the process, Revali starts to respect Link and accepts the fact that he is worthy to be the hero, though attributing more to luck than skill and even expresses gratitude by granting Link his power.
 * 13) *In Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, Revali's grim fate (as well as the other three Champions) is averted thanks to Terrako's ability to create time portals to bring powerful warriors (Teba in Revali's case) from the future to save them from the respective elemental Blight Ganons. Even in circumstances where he is at his worst (See Bad Quality #1), Revali is still tolerable and gets his character growth and expresses some begrudging gratitude to Link for backing them up, becoming more of a decent person. The fact that he tells Link "Don't screw this up!", when he is about to defeat Ganon is also passable since this indicates that he is showing Link some faith, despite their difficult relationship.
 * 14) The scene where Impa and Terrako were fighting around Revali and making him angry is hilarious.
 * 15) In the endearing scene Guardian of Remembrance DLC, Revali and Teba rescued the latter’s son Tulin; the scene where Revali bonds with the rambunctious child that wants to be a great warrior and master the Great Eagle Bow. Revali actually gives him words of encouragement to pursue this dream. Tulin’s imitation of Revali didn’t upset him; it got Revali to laugh out loud, not in his usual sardonic manner, but because he actually found it pretty funny and he was extremely joyous about Tulin’s father-son bond, idolization of him, and sense of humor. This is the first time Revali actually laughs because he is happy instead of a taunting tone. During the secret ending of the DLC, Revali cradles the sleeping Tulin and prevented the blanket from blowing away, which is very cute. Revali’s bond with Tulin also improved Teba’s opinion on him. That said, it’s safe to say that Tulin brought out the best in Revali; he isn’t always a jerk, he cares about other people, and sometimes he just doesn’t always know how to show it.

Asinine Qualities

 * 1) Revali viciously insulted Link at the outskirts of Korok Forest, which was going a little too far. Thankfully, he managed to get better later on in both games.
 * 2) Revali acts arrogant, egotistical, and sometimes tends to rant about any inconveniences that happen to him and his friends.

Comments
