Meeting the journalistic Rito Penn in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom offers some fascinating new lore regarding the Rito as a whole. Unlike other notable races like the Hylians and Gorons, the Rito have only appeared in a small handful of games, including TOTK. As a result, there is much more room to develop their species’ abilities and culture than the other inhabitants of Hyrule, something which TOTK has subtly taken advantage of.
The Rito first appeared in The Wind Waker, albeit in a much different form to their modern incarnation. Here, they look more like beak-nosed and talon-footed humans. This version of the Rito somewhat bizarrely evolved from the Zora (an already amphibious race) in response to the flooding of Hyrule, although it is uncertain if the version of the Rito seen in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom have similar roots. It is worth noting, however, that the Divine Beast Vah Medoh seems to be named after The Wind Waker’s Medli, implying some level of continuity with this part of The Legend of Zelda’s infamous timeline.
Related: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Review – Building Excellence
In Tears of the Kingdom, Penn demonstrates a curious ability which suggests that the changes to the Rito are far from being cosmetic. When Link approaches him outside various stables as part of the “Potential Princess Sightings” Side Adventure, Penn can be seen gathering information from actual birds, which relate various pieces of gossip and rumors to him, explaining how news from across Hyrule can reach him so easily. The Rito is evidently able to understand their chirping as speech, and there is nothing to suggest that this is unique to Penn alone. Instead, the implication is that all Rito have the same impressive ability to talk to birds.
Rito being able to communicate with birds does make a lot of sense, as they can essentially be seen as birds themselves. Their name even seems to come from the Japanese word for bird, “tori.” Moreover, given that they have beaks instead of mouths, it is perhaps more surprising that Rito can speak Hylian without the use of lips. While this is clearly just a stylistic choice, it does also imply that Rito vocal cords must be radically different from those of other Hyrulean races. Therefore, although Penn is seen responding to his bird friends in Hylian, it is possible that the Rito is also capable of chirping a response.
2023-11-27 04:00:05
Article from screenrant.com
rnrn