This week in The Ringer, we are hosting the Best Video Game Character Bracket – an expansive competition among the greatest heroes, helpers and villains in the gaming world. And along with the investigation of some of these iconic figures, we will also explore and celebrate the gaming industry as a whole. Welcome to Video game week.
You may think you know THE Legend of ZeldaLink’s like the dumb blond man with the Sword Master, who always saves Hyrule, rescues Princess Zelda and defeats Ganon. But what if none of this is what Link really does, Link?
Link always wears green … except when he doesn’t. He always has blond hair … except when he doesn’t. He always saves Hyrule … except when he’s somewhere else. He always rescues Zelda … except when she is away. He always uses the Master Sword … except when he has a different weapon. He always fights Ganon … except when he has someone else to fight. And Link always wins … except when he loses.
Link is not always named Connection. At first Zelda titles, the player would type a name for the hero at the beginning of the game, and all other characters would use that name to refer to him. In examining your character for this piece, I kept asking the question: Can “Link” be considered a character?
Of course he can. The frequent exceptions to Link’s defining characteristics are not bugs – they are features, since Link is canonically a different person in almost every game. THE Zelda The series, which spans tens of thousands of years and several different timelines, is steeped in reincarnation. Link, Zelda and Ganon are not exactly the same people in each game, but they are the same spirits – Zelda, for example, is the personification of the goddess Hylia – who always play similar roles while waging the cyclical battle between good and evil that she has been fought for ages.
What links Links (sorry) is that each one has the spirit of the hero. And the hero’s spirit has, by my account, two real characteristics – none of which has anything to do with the aim of Link’s cap. The first is an overflowing abundance of courage, and the second is a complete absence of any dialogue. It is the combination of these two that makes Link the quintessential video game hero.
Courage is a natural and perfect fit for a video game hero. Any video game player will not hesitate to choose battles to save the world, so Nintendo incorporating this feature into Link itself helps to match the way players play as Link with the way Link as a character acts. Link is the holder of the Triforce of Courage, which sometimes grants him magical abilities and serves as an integral part of the plot for some of the games. Courage is a perfect trait for a video game hero. Link’s lack of dialogue, however, is a little more curious.
How did Link become such an enigmatic character? The easy answer may be that the first game was released in 1986, and that history and folklore were dramatically limited by the technology of the time. (To get an idea of how limited the scope of the first video games was, The legend of Zelda was the first console game in history that allowed players to save their progress.) Most of the story from the first game was told in an included instruction booklet, which detailed how Princess Zelda broke the Triforce into fragments and hid them around. of the eighth. bit the whole world until a hero could unite them and defeat Ganon. Link didn’t mention The legend of Zelda because that game had very little dialogue to begin with. He was a hero out of necessity – Nintendo wanted to make an action fantasy game and you can’t get there without him.
In the following decades, Nintendo built the ship while sailing it. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link it was a side-scrolling adventure that represented a departure from the original game, before 1992 A link to the past helped the franchise reach its pace. This game expanded Hyrule and introduced definition Zelda elements like the Master Sword, as well as a parallel world structure that was present in many subsequent games. Since then, the series has continued to evolve, but some elements of the original title, like Link’s silence, have remained.
When Nintendo significantly expanded the tradition of the series with the 2011 launch of Hyrule Historia, the book that included details like the series’s official timeline, a foreword by Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto explained how Link’s name came up: “We call the protagonist Link because he connects people,” wrote Miyamoto. “He should spread the world’s scattered energy over time.”
But that may not be everything in the story. Just a year later, in an interview with the French video game channel Gamekult, Miyamoto had a slightly different origin for Link: “Link’s name comes from the fact that originally, the fragments of Triforce should have been electronic chips,” said Miyamoto. “The game would take place both in the past and in the future and as the main character would travel between the two and be the link between them, they called him Link.”
The origins of the other iconic characters in the franchise are also blurred. Princess Zelda was named after Zelda Fitzgerald, the 20th century writer who was the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald, but the way Miyamoto describes her, you shouldn’t read the name too much:
“I knew I wanted it to be The legend of something, but I had a hard time figuring out what that ‘something’ would be, ”explained Miyamoto. “It was then that the public relations planner said, ‘Why don’t you make a storybook for this game?’
“He suggested an illustrated story in which Link rescues a princess who is a timeless beauty with classic appeal and mentioned ‘There is a famous American author whose wife’s name is Zelda. How about giving that name to eternal beauty? ‘
“I couldn’t really support the idea of the book, but I really liked the name Zelda. I asked if I could use it, and he said it would be great. And that’s where the title The legend of Zelda he was born.”
Meanwhile, Ganon’s name has unknown origins, and Impa – Zelda’s companion who appears in many of the franchise’s titles – was named after the word “transmit” because she conveys the story of the Triforce fragments to Link in the original game. Together, there is a very obvious reason why the series – and Link – should be like this: Nintendo was improvising.
But Nintendo can also see Link as the archetype of the silent hero, and his lack of speech as a way to keep players immersed. What happens if Link talks, but doesn’t sound like longtime fans think? Or does he say something that seems strange to the character that the players built in their minds? Just as book-to-film adaptations can disappoint fans if they change essential scenes or characters, a talking Link would seem wrong at this point. He may not be the most interesting video game character, but there is no more perfect empty container for players to evict.
A main character without a character and some hurried world-building never hurt the franchise. Zelda built a rich and rewarding universe, despite both. Breath of the Wild, which features voice actors from Zelda and other non-Link characters, expands Link’s muteness a little. A note from the princess’s diary explains that Link “feels it is necessary to remain strong and silently bear any burden. (…) It stopped him from expressing his thoughts and feelings externally ”.
Zelda continues: “I want to talk to him more and see what is hidden under these calm waters, to hear him speak freely and openly. And maybe I can also open my soul to him and share the demons that have plagued me all these years. “
Link is not just a hero because he swings a magic sword; he has the grace, determination and attitude to save Hyrule. But none of this means that Link is completely devoid of personality. Some of Link’s best moments are in the faces he makes in Wind Waker, which used its cel-shaded graphics to allow the characters to express themselves. And although players never listen to Link, some of the dialogue options that the player sees throughout the games reveal that he is a bit cheeky.
A dumb but brave hero was the perfect character for a fantasy adventure game in the 1980s. About 35 years later, the video game narrative evolved, as did the Legend of Zelda franchise. But Link does not. He didn’t have to. He’s been the perfect video game character all along.