Link

Link is the main protagonist of The Legend of Zelda series. He was created for the original Legend of Zelda game, in 1986 by Shigeru Miyamoto. He has been the central character of all canonical The Legend of Zelda games. He was introduced as a young sword-fighting boy, but, since The Adventure of Link his identity, appearance, and role have changed from game to game.

As already confirmed by Miyamoto, there are many different incarnations of Link. The games tend to call them Hero of Something (i.e. Ocarina of Time Link is called the Hero of Time), but many fans used to number them, according to their own timeline theories (i.e. Ocarina of Time Link is generally called Link I by fans).

Common attributes of all Links
In almost all the games (with the exception of The Adventure of Link, A Link to the Past and Twilight Princess only), Link starts his journey as a child or young adolescent, and has not yet been depicted as being older than his late teens at any point of the series. Though many people believe Link to be mute, he is not. He does not speak, because the intention is that he says what the player wants to say, to some extent.

Link’s adventures mostly take place in the kingdom of Hyrule, which he had to save several times; although Link's Awakening, Majora’s Mask, Oracle of Seasons, Oracle of Ages, The Wind Waker, and Phantom Hourglass and portions of Twilight Princess are set outside of Hyrule proper. However, Hyrule is mentioned in all the games, and in The Wind Waker, the Great Sea is supposed to encompass the mountaintops of Hyrule after a great disaster that resulted in the flooding of the world. In Majora’s Mask, the land of Termina is considered a different dimension, a world parallel to the land of Hyrule.

Link is also often associated with the Triforce of Courage and the goddess Farore. The Triforce of Courage activated when Link stepped into the Twilight, it protected him from becoming a lost soul and turned him into a wolf.

Invariably, every Link wears a green tunic and a long, floppy green cap, at least for part of each adventure, although the shades of green vary. He also wears different clothes during parts of some Legend of Zelda games, most often color variations on his basic outfit (a notable exception being the Magic Armor in Twilight Princess. His hair color changes between varying shades of light brown or gold from game to game, but his hair style remains largely the same, long and unkempt.

In all games thus far, Link has been descended from the Hylians, and, due to that, appears as a young man with pointed ears. In many games, he has the Triforce mark on the back of his left-hand, either to signify possession of the Triforce of Courage or, in some cases, to signify his exemplary courage.

He is also depicted as left-handed in almost all games, except for the Wii version of Twilight Princess, which depicts him as right-handed, the same hand most people use to hold the Wii Remote. There is no option for left-handers, but in the GameCube version, Link will be a traditional lefty. Arguably, Link is still left-handed in the Wii game and it is only that the camera is somehow reversed; this is supported by the fact that the entire Wii version of "Twilight Princess" is the complete reverse of the GameCube version. Link's "canonical" appearance is still as a lefty.

The Legend of Zelda
In the The Legend of Zelda that started it all, Link is a young swordsman who decides to save Hyrule and Zelda from the clutches of the evil Ganon. In this game, he collects the pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom and defeats Ganon in order to secure the Triforce of Power. After almost 20 years since its release, Link's original adventure still holds up and its formula is the basis to all other Zelda games and storylines.

The Adventure of Link
In The Adventure of Link, which is quite different game than the original title in that it featured side-scrolling gampeplay rather than the overhead view used in The Legend of Zelda, Link returns to again rescue a different Princess Zelda from a potent sleeping spell. This time, he journeys to retrieve the Triforce of Courage from the Great Palace. At the same time, he also does battle with Ganon's minions who are in the process of trying to revive the evil king. (This hero is considered to be the same one from the original Legend of Zelda)

A Link to the Past
In A Link to the Past, centuries before the events of The Legend of Zelda, Ganon and his army of evil were banished into the Sacred Realm, the realm of the Triforce, by the Hylians, at the price of countless lives. The portal to this world was magically blocked by seven sages, and the lands behind that seal, which Hylians hoped would never be broken again, became known as the Dark World, as they were corrupted by Ganon’s malice. One day, when the Imprisoning War was all but forgotten, the land was plagued by sudden disaster, until the wizard Agahnim appeared at the court of the king of Hyrule and quelled the upheaval. Named chief advisor to the throne, he soon seized power from the king and kidnapped six maidens, descendants of the sages who had sealed the entrance of the Dark World. The maidens were taken to the castle tower, and never seen again. Agahnim then began a dark ritual to break the seal on the Dark World and unleash Ganon’s fury upon Hyrule. Princess Zelda herself descended from the seventh sage, and managed to send out a telepathic call for help before being taken away. Link’s uncle headed for the royal castle first, but was quickly dispatched. He left Link his sword and with his last breath imparted the Spin Attack. The young hero rescues Zelda from the castle dungeons, then begins a journey to collect three magical Pendants of Virtue, and claim the Master Sword as his own before finally facing Agahnim, and, later, his evil master Ganon.

Link's Awakening
In Link's Awakening, Link is on a sea voyage to test his skills. He comes across a deadly sea storm which leaves him stranded on a mysterious island where he must begin a quest to awaken the Wind Fish and defeat its nightmares. (This hero is considered to be the same one from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past)

Ocarina of Time
In Ocarina of Time, a young Link has been raised as one of the Kokiri, the “children of the forest”. Unlike the other Kokiri, Link does not have a fairy companion, and is thus shunned by their self-proclaimed leader, Mido. Link's life changes one day when the Great Deku Tree, the forest's guardian, sends Navi the fairy to Link with instructions to bring him immediately. A curse has been cast on the Deku Tree, and he asks Link to break it; while Link is successful in defeating the monsters inside the Tree, the Tree was doomed before Link started. Dying, the Deku Tree tells Link of the Triforce and directs Link to Hyrule Castle, where he encounters Princess Zelda.

Zelda sends Link on a mission to collect three Spiritual Stones and save Hyrule. Once Link obtains the Stones, he travels to the Temple of Time and opens the Door of Time with the Stones and the Ocarina of Time. He then draws the Master Sword from the Pedestal of Time. This action imprisons Link in the Temple of Light in the Sacred Realm for seven years so his body can mature, while Ganondorf takes control of Hyrule and seizes the Triforce of Power. Seven years after drawing the sword from the pedestal, Link is awakened as the Hero of Time by Rauru, Sage of Light. Link finds that much time has passed, and he has grown up. He sets off on a quest to cleanse the land of Ganondorf’s evil by awakening the Sages, who can seal Ganondorf in what used to be the Sacred Realm. Returning to the Kokiri Forest, he finds that none of his friends have grown up, and most now no longer recognize him.

After the player completes the first dungeon in this phase of the game, the Deku Tree's successor, the Deku Sprout, reveals the hidden story of Link's past to him. The Kokiri never grow up; the reason Link has grown, while his Kokiri friends have not, is that he is actually a Hylian, orphaned in the wars that raged before Hyrule was united. When Link was a baby, his mother fled with him to Kokiri Forest, and, mortally wounded, left him under the Deku Tree’s protection. He was brought up as one of the Kokiri, and knew no differently. Through the rest of the game, Link travels back and forth between the two time periods and his two ages using the Master Sword. At the end of the game, he is returned to his youth by Princess Zelda, and Navi departs from him.

Majora's Mask
Majora's Mask occurs after Ganondorf's defeat and Link has been sent back to his childhood. He leaves Hyrule to search for a lost friend (suggested to be his old fairy companion, Navi). While riding deep in the Lost Woods, he is ambushed by a Skull Kid who is possessed by an evil artifact, Majora’s Mask, and his horse, Epona, is stolen along with the magical Ocarina. Chasing the Skull Kid, Link falls into a crevasse and arrives in a country called Termina. He must save this land from the evil of Majora’s Mask, which has drawn the moon into a decaying orbit, causing it to crash into Termina’s capital city in just three days. Link uses the Ocarina of Time (reclaimed early on) and the Song of Time, which sends him back in time and saves the game when he plays it, to relive these three days again and again in order to prevent the disaster. Along the way Link finds many magical masks of his own, a handful of which allow him to transform. Those masks can turn him into a rock-like Goron; a petite, plant-like Deku Scrub; a graceful aquatic Zora; or the Fierce Deity. In this game, Link never grows up in the traditional sense, but the dark power of the Fierce Deity’s Mask allows Link to assume a powerful adult form, “Fierce Deity Link”. Miyamoto mentioned that "we wanted Link to get inside of a wonderland, to experience the adventures and think hard about what he should do."

With such an apocalyptic aura, this game is Link's darkest journey yet. (This hero is the same one from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time)

Oracle of Seasons
In Oracle of Seasons, Link is a young teenager, who was summoned by the Triforce to save the land of Holodrum. Like many other 2D Zelda games, he acquires different tools and weapons to complete his quest. However, this game is more action-oriented than puzzle-oriented.

Oracle of Ages
In Oracle of Ages, Link is also a young teenager, who was summoned by the Triforce to save the land of Labrynna. Like many other 2D Zelda games, he aquires different tools and weapons to complete his quest. However, this is more of a puzzle-oriented game, so the amount of puzzles and fights is more balanced than in OoS. (This hero is the same hero from The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons)

Four Swords
In Four Swords, when Link takes the sword, he is divided into 4 different Links (Green, Blue, Red and Purple), each with their own style and personality, and they need to rescue the hylian knights and the maidens from the power of the final boss, the powerful sorcerer Vaati.

The Wind Waker
Link, as seen in The Wind Waker, is a completely different Link when compared to the Links of the past with his newest and most different look yet in the series. In this game, what begins as a quest to sail across the sea to save his sister later turns into another fantastic quest to save the world from Ganondorf and his evil intentions. As Ganon said this Link is said to be the Hero of Time reborn seen as Ganon did not reconise the Link from Four Swords Adventures or A link to the Past, the Link from the Oracle series or the Link from Twilight Princess.

Hero of Winds
After the valleys of ancient Hyrule are flooded in a deluge, mysteriously Ganon's power is tamed for ages before his dark energy begins to be felt over the Great Sea that Link and Aryll grow up on with their Grandmother. Link quickly sets sail and acquires the King of Red Lions in his quest to recover Aryll after she is kidnapped by the Helmaroc King and taken to the Forsaken Fortress. Instead of simply rescuing his sister this Link is drawn into a sequence of events that eventually puts the fate of all the Islands of the Great Sea in his hands. Once again Ganon, or Ganondorf as he is referred to when in Gerudo/human form, has appeared with limited power. Link is pulled into the conflict between the island inhabitants and Ganon's increasing presence as he races to recapture the ancient power of the Triforce and the Master Sword before Ganon's true power is realized.

Eventually the King of Red Lions sees fit to grant Link the title Hero of Winds in honor of his ongoing struggle with the forces of evil...

Four Swords Adventures
This Link had to save Zelda and six other maidens who were captured by Shadow Link. When he followed Shadow Link down to the Four Sword Sanctuary he pulled the four sword spliting him into four like in the other four swords but when he pulled the sword Vaati was released from the seal once again. After the Links saved Zelda and the maidens and got the four Royal Jewels from different heroes of Hyrule and defeated Vaati, Zelda and the Links fought against the dark lord Ganon and sealed both monsters away and restored peace to Hyrule. (This hero is the same Link from Four Swords.)

The Minish Cap
In The Minish Cap Link lives with his Grandpa and is good friends with Princess Zelda. He goes with her to the Picori Festival where Vaati attacks and turns her in to stone. Link meets an odd talking cap in the forest that resembles a bird, Ezlo, who can help him shrink to the size of the Minish. Link must infuse the four elements into the Picori Blade (the Four Sword). Once he has the Four Sword he can save Princess Zelda and seal Vaati away.

Twilight Princess
In Twilight Princess, Link is a teenager (around 17, it says in the booklet) who has been raised as a wrangler outside of Hyrule territory in Ordon Village. His friend, Rusl, request that Link go in his place to deliver a sword he has made to the Hyrule Royal Family. Before Link can go on this journey, his village is attacked by King Bublin. Link is knocked unconscious and all the children are kidnapped. When Link awakens he wanders into a darkness and gets pulled into a twilight realm. Once in the twilight realm, rather than becoming an unaware spirit like everyone else, he transforms into a wolf. He is captured until an imp-creature Midna comes to his aid. She helps him escape and get back to the light realm. Link must journey to save the children of Ordon Village and eventually save the entire Land of Hyrule from the mysterious Twilight. Link sarching for the children saves the light spirits and he becomes the Hero Chosen by the Goddeses. He then sets off with Midna to find the Fused Shadows and stop Zant.

Phantom Hourglass
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass takes place months after the end of the Wind Waker, with the Hero of Winds. Link is sailing along with Tetra, when their boat is shipwrecked, separating Link and Tetra. Link wakes on an Island by a fairy and they set on a journey to find Tetra. Not much is known about Link's journey in this game at this time. (This hero is the same one from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker)

Super Smash Bros.
Link was one of the eight playable characters available at the beginning of Super Smash Bros. in his adult form from Ocarina of Time. He sports his traditional green Kokiri tunic. (The player can also choose from two alternate tunic colors inspired by Link's Ocarina of Time tunics: the red Goron Tunic and blue Zora Tunic, as well as a purplish-white tunic inspired by the effect of the Blue Ring from the original Legend of Zelda.) He also has some of his usual arsenal from the Legend of Zelda series at his disposal, including bombs, his boomerang and a hookshot.

Link returns as one of the 14 playable characters available from the start in Super Smash Bros. Melee, the 2001 sequel to Super Smash Bros. In Super Smash Bros. Melee, he has his bow in addition to the equipment he brought with him to the original Super Smash Bros. Also playable in the game, as a secret unlockable character, is Young Link, the youthful Link from most of the games in the series. Modeled after the Ocarina of Time/Majora’s Mask version of the hero, Young Link is more agile but weaker than the older Link.

On May 10, 2006, at an after-hours press conference during E³, Link became one of the first confirmed fighters in the Wii installment of the franchise, Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Unlike the previous games of the series, Link appears as depicted in Twilight Princess, rather than Ocarina of Time. Also notice that the Master Sword he has in Brawl is much shorter than the one in Twilight Princess.

Soul Calibur II
Link was a playable "guest character" in the GameCube version of Soul Calibur II. His appearance is taken from his adult incarnation from Ocarina of Time, though his in-game profile seems to fit more closely with A Link to the Past.

Not much is revealed about this incarnation of Link, but it is known that, after saving Hyrule from an evil wizard who was being controlled by a fragment of Soul Edge, he went on a quest to destroy the evil sword. Quickly pulling the Master Sword out of its pedestal, he set out to travel to this world to destroy Soul Edge, on a secret mission arranged by Princess Zelda. Miyamoto did not see a problem with Link appearing in what some had thought to be a "violent fighting game", since he had already been established as a fighter in the Super Smash Bros. games. The more realistic Link in this game was also used to help develop Link's Twilight Princess look, which may have been the reason why Link was allowed to be in Soul Calibur.

In Soul Calibur II, Link is the only character with a ranged attack (aside from the guest character for the Xbox version, Spawn) and the only guest character to have his own theme and more than three costumes (he starts with his traditional green Kokiri tunic and the red Goron Tunic; the blue Zora Tunic and purplish-white tunic are unlockable) His weapons are a number of weapons from the Zelda games.

In addition, Link's fighting style retains many of his signature moves from past games in the Zelda series, specifically with direct comparisons drawn from the Smash Bros. Melee iteration.

Other Links

 * Link the young Goron
 * See Link (Goron)

The son of Darunia, Link of the Gorons was born sometime during Link, the Hero of Time's seven year long sleep, and named after the hero who saved the Gorons by chasing off the Dodongos, who had taken possession of Dodongo's Cavern, the place that the Gorons used as their chief source of nourishment.


 * Link the stuttering Goron

The poor Goron who ends every other word with "goro" loses his reserved room at the Stock Pot Inn when Anju mistakenly gives away his room key to Link the boy. He his forced to spend the night outside. The world is such a hard place goro...


 * Dark Link
 * See Dark Link

The shadow-like form mirrors Link's sword movement and is solely a creation of Ganon. It appears in multiple games.

Gallery
View the gallery of Link art.