Link

Link is the main protagonist of The Legend of Zelda series. He is a young man who is around 17 years old. He was created for the original Legend of Zelda game, in 1986 by Shigeru Miyamoto. He has appeared in all canonical The Legend of Zelda games. He was introduced as a young sword-fighting boy, but, since The Adventure of Link he's been changing from game to game. Link is named for the “link” the player shares with the hero of each game. In every game, the player can name the character according to his or her wishes.

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 are used to number them, according to their own timeline theories(i.e. Ocarina of Time Link is generally called Link I by fans), which causes too much confusion, since each fan builds his own theory, and none of them are official.

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 his age rarely exceeds 19 years at any point of the series. Though many people believe Link to be mute, he is not. His name is Link to signify the 'link' between the player and character. He does not speak, because this is putting words in the players mouth, thus breaking the link. In a sense, 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 are set in different locales. However, Hyrule is mentioned in all the games, and in The Wind Waker, the Great Sea is supposed to be the kingdom of Hyrule after a great disaster. In Majora’s Mask, the land of Termina is considered a different dimension of the land of Hyrule.

Link is, also, often associated with the Triforce of Courage and the goddess Farore.

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. His hair color changes from game to game, but his hair style remains largely the same.

In all games, Link is a Hylian, and, due to that, appears as a young man with pointed ears. He generally has the Triforce mark on the back of his left-hand.

He is also left-handed as pointed by almost all games. In most of the 2D games, the player can choose in which hand he wants to use each weapon. In the Wii version of Twilight Princess, Link is right-handed because of the Wiimote. There is no option for left-handers, but in the GameCube version, Link will be a traditional leftie. They made Link right-handed in the Wii by mirroring the entire game. Contrary to what some people believe, Link is STILL left-handed, the whole world is simply mirrored (two proofs: the sun rises from west and the Triforce parts are mirrored)This is proved when you see all the artworks in the Wii version manual: all depict Link left-handed, as usual.

The Legend of Zelda
In the The Legend of Zelda that started it all, Link is a brave hero 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 battles Ganon in the final battle of the game. After almost 20 years since its release, Link's original adventure still holds up and is the basis to all other Zelda games and storylines.

The Adventure of Link
In The Adventure of Link, which is a quite different game then the original, in that it featured side-scrolling gampeplay rather than the overhead view used in The Legend of Zelda, Link returns to again rescue a Princess Zelda(It is not the same one as in The Legend of Zelda) as he travels once more across the land of Hyrule to collect the pieces of the Triforce of Courage. 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 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 Golden Land, 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 is all but forgotten, the land is plagued by sudden disaster, until the wizard Agahnim appears at the court of the king of Hyrule and quells the upheaval. Named chief advisor to the throne, he soon seizes power from the king and kidnaps six maidens, descendants of the sages who had sealed the entrance of the Dark World. The maidens are taken to the castle tower, and never seen again. Agahnim then begins a dark ritual to break the seal on the Dark World and unleash Ganon’s fury upon Hyrule. Princess Zelda herself descends from the seventh sage, and manages to send out a telepathic call for help before being taken away. Link’s uncle heads for the royal castle first, but he is quickly dispatched. He leaves Link his sword and with his last breath imparts the sword-spin technique, and tells the player, "Link, Zelda is your.." before perishing, leading some to believe that Link and Zelda may be of the same bloodline. However, he doesn't say this anymore in the Game Boy Advance version. The young hero then begins a journey to collect three magical Pendants of Virtue, and claim the Master Sword as his own before finally facing Agahnim.

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 leaves 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”. This form is easily his largest, standing at least twice as tall as adult Link in Ocarina of Time. 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 considered to be the same one from The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons)

Four Swords
In Four Swords, when Link takes the sword, he is divided into 4(Green, Blue, Red and Purple), 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.

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 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.

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 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 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.

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; a purplish-white tunic inspired by the effect of the Blue Ring from the original Legend of Zelda; and a black Tunic representing Shadow Link.) 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.

Soul Calibur II
Link was a playable character in the GameCube version of Soul Calibur II. He appears in his adult incarnation from Ocarina of Time.

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 to use ranged weapons 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

The shadow-like form who resides in the Water Temple and mirrors Link's sword movement and is solely a creation of Ganon.

Gallery
View the gallery of Link art.