Zelda undergoing draconification hits so much harder when you take into account all the things she's done to help Hyrule and its people. By the time TOTK takes place, she's been living with Link for about five years. During that time, she's been helping the people of Hyrule rebuild, she started a research team with Purah, and she even established a school in Hateno where she was a teacher (and became a sort of surrogate mother to one of the girls in attendance). She was living her life and cultivating a love for Hyrule, it's culture, history, people, and wildlife, in a way she hadn't been able to before. And she made this choice to ensure the future of the kingdom she loved so much, even if it meant she wouldn't be there to see it.

you can tell by the way she hesitates and tells herself “you must” that she is SO scared…but she does it anyways, because her people need her to. and THAT’S why it’s called The Legend of ZELDA

Tears of the kingdom gives Zelda s Lullaby a whole new meaning. Heartbreaking.

I didn't cry, but not because I didn't care, but because when I streamed the game someone came in to spoil everything, ending included and peaced out. it's demotivating but I still love the game anyway.

It's even MORE heart breaking when you Realise that In the Japanese Version she actually says ''Link... I Love You''

This was such a dark and unsettling fate for Zelda. Every time I see her flying I get chills a bit, because WOW, what a sacrifice, and what a sad fate it is for you to lose yourself into a dragon form and fly around for way more than 10,000 years. It’s heartbreaking to think about.

She was there all along. When you finish the tutorial island she is the dragon who breaks the clouds for you right after you gave your broken sword into her time portal.

You want to talk about showing feelings, emotions? I can’t cry for the love of god. I’m emotionally dry, I cannot feel anything thanks to the past relationships I’ve lived through. Miscarriage, used for what I own and body, mentally abused, cast aside without a second thought. Plus true love betrayed me!!!!!

Alone for 10,000 to 15,000 years

they extra gut punch of the flowers tho

I have nothing in terms of hard proof that this is the case, but I wonder if nintendo is hinting that she actually wasn't just flying in the skies above for thousands of years. When we pull the sword she takes us somewhere that doesn't look like the skies of hyrule, it looks heavenly and has the same color as her sacred sealing power. I wonder if she was able to enter the sacred realm and stay there most of the time, allowing the sword to soak in the sacred power of that realm in addition to her own power. Once the upheaval began she was called back to hyrule with the powered up sword.

and the dragon is litterally silent princess

There's a few details about the last scene that become more impactful after you get far enough into the game.

The REAL Tears of the Kingdom

Zelda eating the ancient stone and becoming a dragon was pretty sad i cried too

Most of the people who would say they did not felt like tearing up at this moment, would be lying.

Hopefully I can find all of the memories including the final one where you get the master sword i found a couple of them though

When I played TotK in the beginning for the most part I was pretty dissapointed in how little they changed from BotW core gameplay-wise and how the dungeons and everything you do in the game goes by the same excact formular. But damn was I blown away by Zelda being the White Dragon, the whole story behind it and the whole finale of the game. They couldn't have wrote that any better. Really saved the game for me and left an amazingly positive and satisfying impression of the game as a whole.

Damn, the purah pad is really old

At least you got the Sword so early in the Game, it has a base damage of 30 that can be increased with Fuse and durrability of 40 (which cannot be increased by fuse due to a Glitch) state the strongest weapon that you have in your arsenal, over time you would have gotten weapons which potentially deal more damage if you do specific things like Flurry Rush with Royal Gear or similar