Link

Link is the main protagonist of The Legend of Zelda. Throughout the series, there has been many different incarnations of Link but all have a few things in common. Link usually has to save the land of Hyrule from the evil Ganondorf.
== Incarnations/Appearances ==
=== The Legend of Zelda===
Link, in The Legend of Zelda, is a young swordsman who is asked by Impa to save the land of Hyrule and Princess Zelda from the evil Ganon. Link eventually collects all of the pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom and defeats Ganon in order to secure the Triforce of Courage.
=== Zelda II: The Adventure of Link ===
Link appears in The Adventure of Link but this time being older. Link now has to retrieve the Triforce of Courage from the Great Palace and also has to save a different Princess Zelda from a sleeping spell. He also must battle Ganon's minions who are attempting to revive him. Link seems able to speak verbally in this game as he talks in Saria Town when he finds a mirror.
=== The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past ===
In A Link to the Past, 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 adviser 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, 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 alter ego Ganon.
=== The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening ===
In Link's Awakening, Link had defeated the evil Ganon and had regained peace in Hyrule. However, he does not enjoy the peace for long and soon becomes restless. He sails away on a boat for training or enlightenment. But when he sails back home, Link is caught in a deadly thunderstorm which results in the destruction of his ship. His unconscious body is later found by Marin on a faraway island's shores. When he awakes, he discovers that he had miraculously been washed ashore on Koholint Island and makes preparations to leave the island by first finding his missing sword. A mysterious owl then approaches Link and explains to him about a sleeping being on the island, The Wind Fish, and that Link can only leave the island once The Wind Fish has been awoken from its eternal slumber. To awaken The Wind Fish, Link was forced to embark on a long journey and go through many dungeons to retrieve the Eight Instruments of the Sirens.
Link is eventually instructed by the owl to go to the Southern Face Shrine where he discoveries a startling truth about the island. Koholint Island is but a dream of The Wind Fish, whose dreams had been invaded by Nightmares and who is unable to awaken. If The Wind Fish awakes, the whole island shall disappear. Link had apparently been pulled into The Wind Fish's dream world and was now a part of it, and only he can awaken the dreamer. He eventually acquires all eight of the instruments and defeats all of the Nightmares, thus freeing The Wind Fish from their terror. Link is then named the hero of The Wind Fish's dream world by the owl before it disappears, and Link finally awakens The Wind Fish. As the island fades away, Link is forced out by a stream of water and awakens to find himself on a wooden board, back in the ocean. When he looks up, he sees The Wind Fish flying in the sky and smiles. It is unknown what happens to Link afterward, as he no longer has a ship.
=== The Legend of Zelda: 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 Great Deku Tree was doomed to die before Link started. Before passing away, 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 Link defeats the evil in the Forest Temple, 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 using the Master Sword and the Ocarina of Time in order to awaken the Seven Sages and return peace of Hyrule. At the end of the game, after Ganondorf has been defeated and sent to the Dark Realm, he is returned to his youth by Princess Zelda, and Navi soon departs from him.
=== The Legend of Zelda: 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 of Time. Chasing the Skull Kid, Link falls into a crevasse and arrives in a world 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. Aonuma mentioned that "we wanted Link to get inside of a wonderland, to experience the adventures and think hard about what he should do."
=== The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages ===
In Oracle of Seasons, Link is a young teenager who is summoned by the Triforce to save the land of Holodrum. Upon his arrival, he is cared for by a young girl named Din who takes him to meet the troupe of performers that she's a part of; however, soon after, General Onox appears and captures Din, revealing that she is actually the Oracle of Seasons who was just disguising herself as a dancer. The seasons soon begin to go out of control now that Din has been kidnapped, and it is up to Link to return Holodrum back to normal. With the help of the Rod of Seasons, Link acquires the eight Essences of Nature scattered all over the land in order to restore the Maku Tree's power and enter Onox's Castle. After the young hero defeats the evil menace and rescues the Oracle of Seasons, peace returns to Holodrum and the order of nature is back to its normal state.
In Oracle of Ages, Link is also a young teenager who is summoned by the Triforce to save the land of Labrynna. Upon landing, he hears a cry for help, and he soon finds that Impa, Zelda's caretaker, is being surrounded by monsters. Link easily scares them off, and Impa asks that he help her search for a woman named Nayru. After finding Nayru, it is revealed that Veran, the Sorceress of Shadows, possessed Impa in order to manipulate Link into leading her to Nayru, who turns out to be the Oracle of Ages. Veran quickly takes over Nayru's body, which she uses to alter events in the past to ruin the future. It is Link who, with the help of the Harp of Ages, travels through time in order to rescue the Oracle and restore the ages back to normal.
After Link frees Nayru from Veran's possession, the Oracle of Ages teaches the young hero a song crucial to his quest in collecting the eight Essences of Time scattered over the land of Labrynna. Unfortunately, soon after, the Sorceress of Shadows possesses Ambi, the queen of Labrynna in the past, and takes refuge in the Black Tower. Link, with all the Essences in hand, heads over to the sinister tower to defeat Veran once and for all. Now that the evil sorceress has been defeated, Labrynna and its queen return back to normal, and a statue of Link is built in honor of his bravery.
=== The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords ===
In Four Swords, when Link takes the Four Sword, he is divided into four different Links (Green, Blue, Red and Purple), each with their own style and personality. Working together, the Links must find 3 keys that lead to Princess Zelda, who was captured by Vaati the wind mage.
=== The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker ===
Link, as seen in The Wind Waker, is completely different when compared to the Links of the previous games with his most different look yet in the series. The cartoon like appearance caused by the cell shading gave Link very comedic expressions. In this game, what begins as a quest to sail across the sea to save his sister later turns into another quest to save the world from Ganondorf and his evil intentions.
=== The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures ===
Four Swords Adventures 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 splitting him into four like in the original Four Swords, but when he pulled the sword Vaati was released from the seal once again. After the Links saved Zelda and the maidens, 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.
=== The Legend of Zelda: 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 into stone. Link meets Ezlo, an odd talking cap in the forest that resembles a bird, who can help him shrink to the size of the Minish. Link must infuse the four elements into the White Sword to fully restore the Four Sword, which he uses to break the curse on Princess Zelda and seal Vaati away.
=== Link's Crossbow Training ===
In Link's Crossbow Training, Link travels around the land of Hyrule shooting targets, enemies, and more in order to perfect his crossbow skills. The game most likely takes place at different times during Twilight Princess. In the game, Link has very little interaction with other characters.
=== The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass ===
Phantom Hourglass takes place months after the end of The Wind Waker with the Hero of Winds. Link is a child sailing with Tetra and her crew in search of the Ghost Ship. When they find it, Tetra jumps aboard but is kidnapped, so Link goes after her but instead falls into the sea. Link is awakened on Mercay Island by a fairy, and they set out on a journey to find Tetra. Link and Ciela traverse the Great Sea, rescuing the Spirits of the Ocean King and Tetra, and forging the Phantom Sword which can slay Bellum, the devil behind all this misfortune. At the end of the game, Oshus returns Link, Tetra, and Linebeck to their world, thanking them for their help.
Something to note is that Link seems to have brown eyes in this game, instead of the usual blue. As this Link is the same as the Link in The Wind Waker, one might conclude that The Wind Waker Link has brown eyes too.
=== The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks ===
In Spirit Tracks, Link is a child who lives with Niko in Aboda Village. He is an apprentice of a master engineer, named Alfonzo, who has helped him in order to become a Royal Engineer. When Zelda presents Link with a certificate for this achievement, she also gives him a letter, telling him to meet with her, to discuss her suspicions over the mysterious Chancellor Cole as well as the disappearing Spirit Tracks. When Link sneaks Zelda out of the castle, they meet up with Alfonzo, who escorts them to the Tower of Spirits by train. However, as the Spirit Tracks begin to fade, they crash, and are then ambushed by the chancellor, who attacks the trio. Link and his master are knocked unconscious while Zelda is killed, and her body is seized by Cole's apprentice, Byrne. Link awakes back in Hyrule Castle to discover that Zelda is now a ghost and that Link is the only person who can see her. After visiting Anjean in the Tower of Spirits, he agrees to help her in defeating Chancellor Cole and recover her body in the process.
After Link and Zelda travel up to the Tower of Spirits to recover a Rail Map, a Phantom Knight attacks him, but Zelda charges at the Phantom just in time to take control of its body. After this, Link and Zelda begin their journey to restore the Tower of Spirits and the Spirit Tracks, traveling across the overworld using the Spirit Train that is granted to Link by Anjean. Whenever Link returns to the Spirit Tower to obtain another Rail Map, Princess Zelda possesses a Phantom's armor in order to aid the young hero. As the pair continues to travel, Link and Zelda establish a close friendship as the two get to know each other better.
Once Princess Zelda recovers her body from Malladus with the aid of Link, the two together face up against the Demon King, who has now taken over Chancellor Cole's body. Together, Link and Zelda deal the final blow on Malladus using the Lokomo Sword, and shortly after, Anjean and the rest of the Lokomos depart towards the heaven. As they leave, Anjean entrusts Princess Zelda to watch over the land, asking Link to help her as well.[21] Link and Zelda are then seen holding hands as they witness the departure of the Lokomos.
Unlike other instances where Link departs from the land after having saved it, the young hero stays in Hyrule to fulfill Anjean's request, where he continues to be either an engineer or a warrior, depending on which Link chose. This is witnessed when Princess Zelda gets up from her seat in her office and waves out the window after having heard either a train's whistle or the clanking of swords.
=== The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword ===
Link in Skyward Sword grows up on the floating island known as Skyloft. He is close friends with Zelda. One day, while flying around Skyloft with Zelda on his Loftwing, they are knocked off by a black tornado. Link manages to recover, but Zelda is taken to the surface of Hyrule. Link then embarks on a quest to save her.
Category:Nintendo characters
Category:Characters from The Legend of Zelda series
Category:Protagonists
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