Is Zelda's Navi a glowing orb with wings, or is there a traditional fairy under there?

[Rotobit]

Up until Ocarina of Time, Zelda's fairies were your run-of-the-mill traditional "tiny woman with wings".

Come Ocarina of Time, however, we were introduced to Navi with a close-up, and she's depicted as a flying glowing orb with wings.

I assume this was done for the sake of performance - Navi is on the screen quite often and it'd be wasted resources to render polygons when a simple sprite would suffice.

But since then we've seen this style of fairy show up again and again, even when the hardware could probably render a proper tiny fairy. Like this one, from Breath of the Wild:

So, do you perceive Navi, and similarly depicted fairies, as glowing orbs, or as fairies that are giving off a strong amount of light?

Give me your answers to this incredibly pressing and important question in the poll above.

 

[Kalentan]

I always looked at them as glowing orbs with wings tbh.

 

[Furfur]

As an actual fairy obscured by glowing light.

 

[Grapezard]

Navi is a golden snitch, change my mind.

 

[BanetteAndBaguette]

Didn't the fairies in Wind Waker look like traditional fairies?

 

[Diddy Kong]

#TeamOrb

 

[Astra Planeta]

I always thought it was your own fairy, similar to the ones you catch.

 

[upandaway]

I always thought there's a normal fairy underneath and she's just really glowy, not literally an orb

As proof look at the great fairies

 

[Rotobit]

Didn't the fairies in Wind Waker look like traditional fairies?

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Yeah, there are unquestionably traditional fairies in Zelda, the question is more if you perceive Navi and other similar fairy designs in particular as among them or as a weird glowy orbs with wings

 

[JazzmanZ]

They're firefly's from hell.

 

[Deleted member 1102]

It's an orb and I will accept no other alternative

 

[KartuneDX]

It could be one of those interchangeable lore things like Zoras becoming Ritos but wait now Zoras and Ritos coexist... aka try not to put too much thought into it.

FWIW I prefer the orb design.

 

[brinstar]

She's a tiny glowing person

 

[Coinspinner]

A flat circle with wings.

 

[Zomba13]

I believe it's just a glowing fairy, like a little Tinkerbell but glowing very brightly.

I PREFER if it's just a glowy orb of light with wings though. I think it's cuter.

 

[Rotobit]

For what it's worth, there's this early OoT art which depicts what is presumably Navi and she looks like a Hanna Barbera character

Whether you factor this into your Orb vs. Tiny Person opinion depends on whether you take it as canon

 

[LinkStrikesBack]

In hyrule warriors, companion fairies have the ability to show up both in the orb of light form and the more traditional fairy form. So I assume all fairies can have both if they so wish.

 

[Tesser]

The bigger question is: through what manner of biology, magic or whatever, are the wings attached to a theoretical ball of light energy?

 

[PMS341]

I assume the orb is just a generic glow of light that was used for easier modeling back when Ocarina of Time hit, and I suppose the design stuck depending on the game.

 

[SturokBGD]

I think Navi was likely depicted as a glowing orb for performance reasons but the design became so iconic they just kept it despite more powerful hardware.

 

[Future Gazer]

100% orb

 

[Lord Azrael]

I prefer just a glowing orb but it's obviously an actual fairy obscured by light

 

[ned_ballad]

I always assumed the orbs was just an abstract way to represent the fairy because the graphis of the N64 weren't really good enough to make a little creature look detailed enough and also without being distracting since Navi is a gameplay mechanic

 

[Deleted member 721]

Its like tinker bell

 

[mclem]

As an actual fairy obscured by glowing light.

Click to shrink...

This.

 

[Spacejaws]

I love the orb wing design. The generic fairy design is dull. So I guarantee she's just a generic fairy obscured by light so life can kick me in the nuts in a new and original way.

 

[WestEgg]

I assume she has a body, otherwise they should probably be called wisps.

 

[FormatCompatible]

As an actual fairy obscured by glowing light.

Click to shrink...

Exactly this.

 

[Uncle Squingis]

They're firefly's from hell.

Click to shrink...

I understood this reference.

 

[Crayon]

No traditional fairy under there. Eight legged fairy. Arachnofairy.

 

[Hu3]

Orb.

 

[Tiddy]

You can only see her true form if you have a pure heart. :)

 

[Qikz]

This.

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I'm with these two.

 

[ArmadilloGame]

They're "real" fairies, just shown as orbs with wing for graphical simplicity. N64 hardware was a thing. The fountain fairies aren't canonically grotesquely shaped leaf monster beasts, but that's what they look like in game. You have to use your imagination.

 

[Neuromancer]

As an actual fairy obscured by glowing light.

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This.

A glowing orb with wings makes zero sense.

 

[abellwillring]

I think she's a traditional fairy that has glowing light surrounding her/obscuring her from vision.

 

[ReyVGM]

Navi's naked, that's why you only see the glowing light.

 

[Deleted member 1190]

As an actual fairy obscured by glowing light.

Click to shrink...

Ding ding ding

 

[nbnt]

A lightbulb with electric wings.

 

[Gradon]

She probably looks like... this.

-3-

 

[dorjjj]

I always imagined Navi as a tiny Samuel L. Jackson

 

[RagnarokX]

They probably drew inspiration from Tinkerbell

She makes bell sounds like Tinkerbell, too.

Link was inspired by Peter Pan.

 

[Asbsand]

I have a saying I like to use:
"What I see in the game is canon" and I mean it literally. Concept art looks cool but the way everything looked in Ocarina of Time is what it was, on face value. That's why I love how in Metal Gear Solid 4 they didn't try to re-render the events of the previous games in the flashbacks, they simply showed them as they were, because that is the truth.

 

[Mullet2000]

#teamorb

 

[Dinjoralo]

It is supposed to be a proper fairy, but I prefer the idea of them just being orbs.

 

[Cess007]

I always imagined Navi as a tiny Samuel L. Jackson

Click to shrink...

"Link, listen! I have had it with these mother-fucking Ganon on this mother-fucking Hyrule!"

 

[Daniel Westlake]

As an actual fairy obscured by glowing light.

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This

 

[Dreamboum]

I refuse to believe they're not just sentient orbs.

 

[sir_crocodile]

making them fireflies prob makes it less disturbing that you're kidnapping them and sealing them in jars

 

[Skittzo]

It was a lot easier to render and animate a ball of light back then. #TeamActualFairy.