Revali

Revali is one of the supporting characters who first appeared in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and has made his return in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.
He is voiced by Noboru Yamaguchi in the Japanese version, and by Sean Chiplock in the English version, with the latter also voicing Teba and the Great Deku Tree in the same game.
==What Makes Him an Ensemble Dark Horse?==
*Revali's design was the most original of the four Champions and the various expressions he makes accurately made him look like he was meant to be the tough arrogant pilot who is willing to put aside his pride for the greater good. 
*Out of all the Champions, Revali is the only known character who is the least pleasant and is not too supportive of Link, which fans agree that it helps balance the dynamic, where the other ones are already good-natured, and someone needs to counter it. Additionally, it helps Revali stand out much more in a memorable way. It helps that his voice actor, Sean Chiplock provides an excellent performance by giving Revali a tough smooth toned voice. 
*While Revali tends to be jerkish, mainly towards Link, other characters call him out for it and the part where Terrako and Impa catch him in the middle of their scuffle and making him mad is hilarious and also very satisfying to watch, which helps him avoid the Karma Houdini territory. 
*Revali's reputation among the fans proved to be quite a journey, Revali started out as base-breaking when he was first introduced, with him already having fans from the beginning, and with detractors finding his personality and general harshness towards Link to be annoying and off-putting, though when The Champions' Ballad was released, Revali was seen in a sympathetic light when his insecurities and relatability came to the surface and him showing off his incredible archery and wind skills to back up all of his boasts and his diary about his development of his gale and reasons for his contempt towards Link, with Revali having trained his entire life to be the best he can be and wanted to prove himself to the world by defeating Calamity Ganon, only to be overshadowed by Link, the Hylian he never heard of until Princess Zelda told him, and Link's perpetual silence also bugs him since he never replies to him when he wanted to have a decent conversation with him and showed off his gale which he created, which won fans over to his side and when Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity was released, his interactions with his friends in gameplay shows his warmness towards them and it wasn't until the Guardian of Remembrance DLC Pack 2 released that was a drastic turning point for Revali where he bonds with Tulin is where fans grew to love him even more and even his detractors found this scene to be the most endearing Revali moment for them and began to respect and appreciate him, to which their former dislike towards him has diminished. 
**Even the music composer, Yasuaki Iwata stated in an interview on Breath of the Wild's music change wasn't very fond of Revali at first and winded up transmitting that distaste into his theme, but Hajime Wakai stepped in to ask him to help make Revali more likable through music which he was reluctant about making such a character more tolerable initially and ended up managing to be creative with his theme to help improve his level of likability and ended up loving him in the end. It is also pretty clear that Revali was meant to be liked by the audience and it shows through his many pet the dog moments too. 
*To add more context, even before Guardian of Remembrance was released, the Creating a Champion book reveals that Revali is a huge softie when it comes to children: he initially had the Flight Range constructed for personal use before he decides to open it for everyone, especially children. This gets more exploration in the Age of Calamity DLC Scenario EX Searching Hyrule Forest, he goes all out to rescue Tulin out of worry for his safety with Teba. When the Hero Worship cutscene begins, fans were expecting Revali to brush him down on his dreams and talk down to him, but to their surprise and delight, he instead praises him for his courage despite his age and sees so much potential in him being the master of the wind just like him and he was being sincere about it, after Tulin tells him that wants to be like him and to master the Great Eagle Bow. The part where Revali laughs after Tulin imitates him is the first endearing one. The laughter from the nicer characters already brings a smile, but when Revali, the usual arrogant and sarcastic character does that, it manages to take this heartwarming moment up to eleven. To sum it up even more, Teba was unpleasantly surprised by his abrasive persona at first, but seeing Revali bonding with his only son has significantly improved his opinion and understands that he is a person overall. This has been one of the major topics among fans. 
**To add the icing on the cake, nobody expected a foreshadowing of Tulin's expanded role in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and the fact that he actually owns the Great Eagle Bow, which makes it all the more heartwarming and especially delighted fans even more, further adding to his ensemble dark horse status. 
*A running joke among the fanbase has the fans deliberately confusing Revali to Falco Lombardi from the Star Fox series, this is even more noticeable in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with his Spirit Battle where the opponent in question is a different colored variation of Falco himself. 
*Revali has numerous subtle aspects that players who pay close attention to the smallest of details have noticed and it’s often through his facial expressions and body language, and on occasions he might outright say them; he is concerned for the nervous Mipha and smiled when she calms down, and he notes that he cares for Rito Village which he regards as his home and will do anything and everything to protect it. He even has moments of expressing genuine distress when Link takes heavy damage during the boss battle with Windblight Ganon. His journal shows that he respects Princess Zelda and notes that he struggles with understanding the problems of those who aren't as talented as he is, but he does try to be empathetic towards them and when he asks her about her progress, his voice is notably much more somber than he is. 
*All of the fights involving Revali in Age of Calamity is incredible in several ways:
**His introductory boss battle feels so much like a rival battle, even if he and Link have not met yet and it ends in a draw when Princess Zelda stops them. 
**During the Air and Lightning Divine Beast battle section, Revali is the only Champion (albeit with Teba's help) to finally get his revenge by destroying Windblight Ganon, with Divine Beast Vah Medoh no less, without Link's help this time. 
*Revali's insecure side has gotten the most attention from the fans which led to fanfics that give this side more insight. 
*Given his popularity alongside the other Champions, Revali has made numerous appearances in fan art. 
*When Revali states that he is the most skilled archer of all the Rito in a conceited manner, he isn’t just saying that he actually proves it in his cutscene in The Champions' Ballad, and Age of Calamity helps even more by giving it much more screen time, topped with him being a playable character in the latter game, which makes him the best example of an awesome ego type of character. 
*Revali is shown to not be related to the Rito Sage in anyway, which contributes to his likability and becomes awesome in hindsight, as it shows that despite lacking this lineage where the Rito Sage and Tulin have demonstrated power over wind, Revali developed his gale through so much hard work and effort which shows that Revali has indeed earned the right to boast over this accomplishment. 
*Fans note that Revali's Gale is one of the most useful abilities out of all the Champions, which allowed players to climb mountains to save stamina and to escape from unnecessary battles and players who have played The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom grew to miss his signature move when faced with extremely high obstacles. 
*Because of how popular he became, the fact that the characters in Tears of the Kingdom hardly mention him by name besides super vague references, has left fans extremely upset and disillusioned by how he was unfairly treated compared to the other Champions who were brought up once or twice and given a bit more lore. Not even his name only being mentioned in the Great Eagle Bow's in-game description isn't even remotely close to being enough to alleviate this heavily starved acknowledgment.
==Trivia==
*It has been mistaken by western gamers that Revali is inconsistent in the English version than he is in Japanese where he is "much less of a jerk". However, there are cultural differences between the West and Japan: 
**In Japanese, there are varying ways of politeness and rudeness which come with a tone of voice and there are two ways of speaking: Keigo, meaning polite/formal and Tameguchi meaning rude/casual, which Revali mainly speaks in Tameguchi, and he also uses "aitsu" many times in his journal whenever he refers to Link, which is a rude way of addressing someone. The Creating a Champion book shows that his creators, the cinematic designer Naoki Mori, and the lead artist of NPCs Hirohito Shinoda, who both live in Japan no less, designed him around the concept of someone who didn’t accept Link as the most exceptional like the others do and a character who sees Link as a rival supports this, since traditional rivals across the media tend to be harsh and usually taunt the other person. So, the "Revali being much nicer in Japanese or another language" is very much a misconception, since in all languages, Revali often gets in Link's face whenever he interacts with him.
**The English versions for rude characters tend to have more abundant direct insults, which is how it is reflected in the West, so Revali is still the same character with the same personality, he just has a different way of portraying it. Each region is localized to reflect their respective cultures while maintaining the characters' core personalities. It should be noted that in the English version, Revali has an abundance of pet the dog moments as well. That said, Revali was supposed to be proud and arrogant while having a soft spot for other people too. 
*Adding to his EDH status, Revali is a popular character used in shipping, both platonic and romantic shipping. He has often been shipped with Link and has been shipped with other characters as well, such as Mipha, Princess Zelda, etc.
==External Links==
*
*Revali on the Zelda Wiki
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
==Navigation==
Category:Male
Category:Heroic Ensemble Dark Horses
Category:Rivals
Category:The Legend of Zelda Ensemble Dark Horses
Category:Animals
Category:Anthropomorphic
Category:Extraordinary
Category:Badass
Category:Fighters
Category:Video Game Ensemble Dark Horses
Category:Tragic
Category:Deceased
Category:Cool
Category:Stylish
Category:Fantasy Ensemble Dark Horses
Category:Sympathetic
Category:Funny
Category:Wise
Category:Leaders
Category:Officials
Category:Mastermind
Category:Nurturing
Category:Attractive
Category:Vindicated by History
Category:Status Dependent on Player Choice
Category:Love Exalted
Category:Spotlight Stealers