Hero of Time

The Hero of Time is the title given to the Link who appears in, and later in  as the Ancient Hero. Link is bestowed this title upon awakening from his seven-year slumber after retrieving the Master Sword from the Pedestal of Time. By traveling through time to awaken the Six Sages and stop the King of Evil Ganondorf from conquering Hyrule, the Hero of Time's tale becomes a legend that is passed down through generations, proving to be of great relevance to both the Mythology in series as well as the timeline in which the games take place.

Childhood
As a child the Hero of Time grew up in the Kokiri Forest believing that he was a Kokiri, but in reality he was an orphaned Hylian. Because the Hero of Time was not a Kokiri, he did not possess a Fairy companion, which led to him being ostracized by the majority of the Kokiri Forest, with the exception of Saria and the Deku Tree. Eventually, the Hero of Time was bestowed with a fairy named Navi by the Deku Tree to help guide him on his quest to save Hyrule.

The Legend of the Hero of Time


In the land of Hyrule, legends speak of the Triforce, the mythical Golden Power said to reside in the Sacred Realm which has the power to grant the wishes of its holder. Ganondorf, the King of the Gerudo tribe, schemes to enter the Sacred Realm to claim the Triforce and thus rule the world. With the unwitting assistance of a young boy named Link and Hyrule's Princess Zelda, Ganondorf is able to enter the Sacred Realm after Link retrieves the Master Sword from the Pedestal of Time. However, because Ganondorf's heart was not in balance, the Triforce separated upon being touched by the King of Evil, leaving him with only the Triforce of Power and transforming the Sacred Realm into a corrupt world of evil. The Triforce of Wisdom was then bestowed upon Princess Zelda and the Triforce of Courage upon Link, respectively. Link was then put into a slumber for seven years until he matured enough to properly handle the Blade of Evil's Bane, the Master Sword. Meanwhile, Ganondorf used the Triforce of Power to take over Hyrule, transforming the land into a world of monsters.

Link eventually awakens as the Hero of Time and, using the Master Sword and the Pedestal of Time, travels through time to seek the Seven Sages, who were said to have the power to bind Ganondorf and return peace to Hyrule. With the assistance of the Seven Sages, the Hero of Time, wielding the Master Sword, battles Ganondorf and weakens him enough to allow the Sages the time they need to bind him and throw him back into the void of the Evil Realm. The King of Evil, with the Triforce of Power still in his hand, threatens to return one day to exterminate the descendants of the Hero of Time and the Sages to make them pay for his imprisonment.

With Hyrule now at peace, Princess Zelda uses her power as a Sage to send the Hero of Time back to his own age in order to regain his lost childhood. Upon his departure, the Triforce of Courage splits apart into eight shards and are scattered across the land to be found again one day by another Hero that would have need of its power. The Master Sword is also left in the Hero's wake, being returned to its pedestal in turn. With this act, the Hero of Time vanishes from this branch of Hyrule's history, leaving only his legend behind.

The Hero's Fate
Before leaving the land of Hyrule, the Hero of Time warns Princess Zelda about Ganondorf's plans and what the future would unfold if the King of Evil was not stopped. The princess entrusts Link with the OoT3D: to prevent Ganondorf from entering the Sacred Realm, and the young hero then departs from Hyrule with the ocarina in hand to seek his fairy companion, Navi. In the process, however, he stumbles into a parallel universe known as Termina, which was being threatened to be destroyed by its Moon. With the aid of the Ocarina of Time and the fairy Tatl, Link saves Termina from its imminent downfall and soon after leaves the land.

Despite this, the Hero of Time continued to lament the fact that he was not remembered as a hero after he was returned to his original time upon defeating Ganon. After his death, he was unable to go to the afterlife because of the regrets that kept him tied to the world of the living, feeling regret that he was unable to pass on the lessons of his life to the younger generations. In order to ease his regrets and finally pass on his knowledge, he teaches the seven NaN Hidden Skills to his descendant, the Link of.

Legacy
The legend of the Hero of Time becomes of great significance in the development of the Zelda Timeline and the mythology in series. His battle against Ganondorf marked the point in which the timeline split into three branches: the Downfall, Child, and Adult Timeline. Princess Zelda's plan with Link to save Hyrule by retrieving the Triforce resulted in Ganondorf obtaining the Triforce of Power, leading eventually, in one continuity, to Link's defeat and the formation of the Downfall Timeline. In the alternate continuity where Link succeeds in defeating Ganondorf, the princess sends the Hero of Time back to his original time, creating two timelines; the Child Timeline and the Adult Timeline. In the latter of the two, the Triforce of Courage is shattered and the hero in the Adult Timeline vanishes, resulting in Hyrule eventually being flooded since there was no hero to defeat Ganon once the Sages' seal broke. In the Child Timeline, the Hero of Time becomes filled with regret by not being remembered as the hero that saved Hyrule from Ganondorf, eventually leading him to linger on as the Ancient Hero in the Era of Twilight.

Although Hyrule was flooded in the Adult Timeline and the memory of the kingdom vanished, the legend of the Hero of Time transcended through time. In Outset Island, it became a custom to clothe boys in green once they came of age. A statue depicting the Hero of Time is also prominently displayed in the sunken Hyrule Castle, demonstrating how meaningful the legend of the brave boy clothed in green was to the citizens of Hyrule. When the Hero of the Wind defeated Puppet Ganon, Ganondorf compared him with the Hero of Time who defeated him hundreds of years ago.

Relationships
In his childhood, the Hero of Time establishes the relationships that will come to his benefit in his adult years, after pulling the Master Sword from the Pedestal of Time. Link is the one to establish his beneficial and plot-necessary relationship with Saria, and Mido's dislike for him can be attributed to this in addition to the Great Deku Tree's favor for him over anyone else, namely Mido himself. The young hero also strikes up a friendship with Princess Zelda, and indirectly with Impa as well, while conversing with her about Ganondorf and the fate of her kingdom in the Hyrule Castle courtyard, after vanquishing the parasite from the Great Deku Tree. In helping Darunia reopen the Dodongo's Cavern, and saving Princess Ruto from the depths of the stomach of Lord Jabu-Jabu, Link had, unbeknownst to him, met and aided almost all of the future Sages who would, in turn, help him in his quest to save Hyrule from the Evil King Ganondorf in the young hero's adult years. Even after returning to his childhood for the second time, he continues this by befriending Nabooru by agreeing to aid her in overthrowing Ganondorf. He is also the one that forms the initial bond with Epona and Malon.

Personality
Like with most other Links in the series, the Hero of Time is not seen speaking or emoting to a large degree in the games where he is playable. ￼Twilight Princess and Hyrule Historia serve as the only real look into his thoughts and feelings. Even at a young age, he displayed an immense amount of bravery and skill that only grew when he became an adult. He is also shown to be very helpful to others throughout his journeys in both Hyrule and Termina, even if it wasn't related to his main quest. As the Hero's Shade, he is shown to be much sterner and blunt, telling his descendant that the latter's current skill level dishonors their bloodline upon first meeting him. He also reflected on his time as a hero, saying that the path to becoming a true hero is a long one, and that while he accepted the life as a hero, he regretted that he couldn't pass on the lessons he had learned. As he trained the Hero of Twilight in the lost arts of the sword, he reminded the latter that he must continue to improve his skill and courage so that he could become the savior Hyrule needed, as he saw his former self reflected in his descendant. Once the Hero of Twilight mastered all of the hidden skills, the shade told him that he now knew all of what it took to be a hero, and could now march forth with his vision unclouded. Even as a ghost, the Hero of Time continued to aid the land of Hyrule and its people.


 * See article on  for more information.



The Hero of Time appears in his adult and child forms in. His adult form is a default character while his child form has to be unlocked. There are two ways to unlock his child form, including by playing 500 Vs. matches, or Completing with 10 different characters, including Adult Link and Zelda. The player will then be challenged by Young Link, and upon defeating him, Young Link will become a playable character. His appearance is based on his younger and older counterparts as seen in, since he wields the Kokiri Sword and the Deku Shield during combat as a child, and the Master Sword and the Hylian Shield as an adult. Young Link is more agile, but weaker while Adult Link is slower, but stronger. Young Link has some of the same weaponry and moves as his adult counterpart, but they are usually accompanied with a few changes, like his Hookshot and Boomerang having a shorter reach. Great Bay serves as the home stage of Young Link, and Hyrule: Temple is the home stage of Adult Link.

Both Adult Link and Young Link can choose different color tunics, including the Goron and Zora tunics, and a black tunic. When the Young Link taunts his foes, he drinks a Bottle of Lon Lon Milk, then wipes his mouth.

Young Link's special moves are the same as the adult version. He wields the Fairy Bow from as his ; however, instead of it shooting normal Arrows like Adult Link's, Young Link shoots Fire Arrows, although they do not travel as far as Adult Link's and inflict less damage. Young Link's is the Boomerang. Bombs function as both Link's, while the Spin Attack is their as well as his. Young Link's Spin Attack is weaker than Adult Link's, but it can trap nearby foes in a cyclone of slashes upon performing this move.

The Hero of Time is replaced by Toon Link and a Link resembling the incarnation in in  and, for his child and adult forms. Both appear as Trophies in.


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Although his adult form remains absent from (being replaced by the Breath of the Wild incarnation of Link) the Hero of Time reappears as Young Link. His moveset is almost identical to how it was in, with slight changes.