Purah

Purah (プルア) is a character in Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda series. She originally appeared in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, where despite being elderly she appears as a young girl due to a science mishap. A young adult version of Purah is depicted in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, which is set 100 years before Breath of the Wild. She appears as this age once again in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, having aged herself up since Breath of the Wild. In Japanese, she is voiced by Ayano Shibuya, while in English she is voiced by Kate Higgins.

Purah's appearance in Tears of the Kingdom received significant praise, with several media outlets voicing approval of her redesign in comparison to her child-like appearance in Breath of the Wild. Many reactions from media outlets and fans alike voice approval for her attractiveness in this new iteration. Purah was often sexualized by the latter, with searches on PornHub for content related to the character rising dramatically after the game's release. Additional praise was given for the character's expanded role in Tears of the Kingdom, and how she was an integral part of the game's story and a driving force for its narrative.

Conception and design
Purah was created for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and is a member of the Sheikah clan in the game. A technologically advanced culture that became oppressed by the local kingdom over time, lead artist Hirohito Shindoa developed them around the concept of a "hidden village away from the eyes of the world". Unified in appearance by their completely white hair, their outfits were given a very "Japanese aesthetic" to help differentiate them from other characters in the game at a glance, as well as utilizing hats, accessories and poses to further differentiate the members of the clan from each other.

After completing the design of fellow Sheikah character Robbie, they began work on Purah, building her concept around the magical girl archetype and resembling a young child due to a botched experiment to reduce her age. Her characterization meanwhile was motivated by wanting money for her research. Initial designs portrayed her as "languid and unenergetic", built around the theme of a "punk rock girl." In this design she utilized heavy eyeliner to illustrate she was "not just some kid", while she wore a large purse on her midsection, and an oversized collar around her neck from before she transformed herself into a child-like appearance. Of these elements only the eye makeup remained, as she was given a cheerful and strong personality instead. While her original outfit was meant to resemble Robbie's, it was changed to a dress with a frilled interior, while chopsticks held up her hair in a topknot. Though she wears ornate red glasses, she was given a set of gold goggles as well, meant to be shaped like a butterfly.

In Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, a game set prior to the events of Breath of the Wild, she was portrayed as a woman in her twenties, now wearing a long beige coat and a black skirt. In The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, a sequel to Breath of the Wild, she is portrayed as a mature woman, now significantly taller and wearing a dress with a tight slit, and red stockings and high heels, while a set of blue gloves cover her hands. Her hair now frames her face, meant to give her a more adult appearance.

Appearances
Purah first appears in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as a character who assists the protagonist, Link, in his quest to save Hyrule and Princess Zelda from Calamity Ganon. Link, who spent the past 100 years recovering from his injuries, discovers that Purah, who was an elderly woman at the time, recently de-aged her body into that of a child due to a scientific mishap. She is one of only three Sheikah who were alive during the Calamity 100 years ago, alongside Impa and Robbie. She helps Link by improving his Sheikah Slate through upgrading its abilities.

In Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity Purah appears alongside other members of her clan as a non-playable character. In this game, she helps train people to pilot the Divine Beasts, Sheikah-produced mecha intended to help prevent a looming disaster. With her help, they are able to travel back in time and defeat Ganon in the past. Purah later appears in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, a sequel to Breath of the Wild set some years later. In this game, Purah is assisting in rebuilding Hyrule, and has also managed to age herself up into an adult body. Providing Link with a paraglider, she helps him with explorer the game's dungeons, acting as the central quest giver in the game and providing several side quests for Link.

In all appearances, Purah is voiced in English by Kate Higgins, and by Ayano Shibuya in Japanese.

Critical reception
The character has received generally positive reception. Ana Diaz of Polygon described Purah's "amazing" redesign as an improvement over her previous childlike appearance, and noted that while she didn't do anything "particularly sexy" in Tears of the Kingdom, it resulted in viral fan videos of the character on social media outlets such as TikTok. VG247's Oisin Kuhnke stated that despite an adult redesign for Purah first appearing in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, her iteration seen in Tears of the Kingdom brought more exposure to the concept and helped make the game feel "directly targeted at NSFW content lovers". In a later article, she noted following the game's release pornographic website Pornhub experienced a large uptick in searches related to the Zelda series, particularly a 42,257% rise in searches related to Purah. Iain Harris of GamesRadar+ cited the presence of a large amount of thirst posts on social media websites such as Reddit and Twitter while researching the article, stating "I've seen more than enough thirst posts to get a telling-off from two of my bosses."

Joshua Furr of DualShockers examined the character's popularity since her Tears of the Kingdom redesign, speculating that the appeal came from how the game presented her in that "the camera pans up her legs when introducing her, the way she removes her mechanical glasses is clearly flirtatious", though he felt games had become more subtle about the male gaze. He nonetheless argued that certain "archetypes of desirability" were also a factor particularly in dominant women, noting Purah's aggressive personality in the game and drawing comparisons to Resident Evil character Lady Dimitrescu. Acknowledging that Purah was not a "dom" herself, with her genius intellect and constant presence acting as a driving force in the game's story, Furr questioned if the character's appeal was due to being "attracted to beautiful brainiacs who’re way smarter than me".

Madeline Carpou of The Mary Sue praised Purah's redesign as "the best thing they could have done", noting its deviation from a particular trope often found in media in which a childlike character is actually supposed to be a "mature" adult, and praising her sex appeal by commenting, "good god, they made her a baddie". She noted that while there was no real explanation given in the game's narrative, she appreciated it nonetheless and questioned the younger version's presence in the previous game.

Jared Carvalho of Game Rant singled out Purah's role in Tears of the Kingdom in praising the game's deeper involvement of supporting characters whose roles prior often consisted of brief interactions with the protagonist. He noted Purah's impact on the narrative that included setting up the final confrontation with main villain Ganondorf, in addition to doing the "heavy lifting" of "acting as a leading figure in Hyrule" in the absence of Princess Zelda, which he felt enhanced the game's player experience and worldbuilding. The staff of DualShockers named her one of the best video game characters of 2023 for her expanded role, stating that while her altered appearance offered a lot towards her popularity, "any character that appears on both sides of a massive time skip is bound to be a fan favorite."