This is rather obscure and Non Canon but... the Valiant Comics Zelda series DID show Link's family and explained why they weren't around for the first two games. Turns out that Link came from a distant kingdom from Hyrule and,in fact, one issue has him visting them and that kingdom *with the main plot being Dark Link disgusing himself AS link to overthrow the Queen and Link having to clear his name*.
One of the things I appreciated about Twilight Princess is that Link has a whole chosen family/village whom he clearly cares about. It gave him a reason (other than being the chosen hero) to embark on his quest when the village kids are kidnapped.
This is one of the reasons TP’s slow intro does NOT suck. It quickly sets up this level of care making you more motivated than ever to go find the kids and Ilia. I don’t think any other Zelda game did this (better).
TP has my favorite introduction out of any Zelda game. People only hate it because they just want to go to the first dungeon immediately much like Ocarina of Time. My second favorite intro is probably Skyward Sword’s.
Something that intrigues me is that in Tears of the Kingdom, in the side quest to help discover the recipe for cheese, Link can actually read some of the recipe, something that the farmers tell Link before the quest: "Only family members can read my grandfather's handwriting." So, there's that as something Edit: why is everyone in the replies talking about Twilight Princess Link?
I feel like Our hero of the wild is a descendant of the hero of twilight and the hero of twilight is the descendant of the hero of time. All because all three have a connection to a ranch/farming 🤔
I want to see a Zelda game where both of Link's parents are alive, well and present throughout the game. Dad wanting Link home to help out the family business while Mom knows they can't stop destiny. Maybe a little brother and sister to fawn over him and beg him to play when he comes to visit. Just give the poor soul a nice life with his whole family before throwing Ganon and Zelda at him for once.
I would have loved it in breath of the Wild if link had memories of his father and sister, but got to meet his sister’s descendants in the present day, and have a whole subplot going along with rediscovering his own identity and family connections and honoring the memories of the family he had before the calamity. It would have made the story feel a bit more personal.
Especially with links father being a member of Hyrules Royal guard like link is now, would be awesome to have link learn about the lineage of his family being apart of the guard and whatnot
I agree completely. I do think it would’ve pointless in the long run, but so nice to see. This is why I have my own imagination 😣 I believe that when you get the 13th memory, Link really has recalled EVERYTHING.
Link’s father and sister (from the concept) should’ve been in Breath of the Wild since they’re a part of his character. After all, Link’s father is the member of Hyrule’s Royal Guard.
Since Ocarina of Time, I've always just assumed that Link's parents are dead in every iteration of the hero because it's an integral part of his character. - If Link's mother hadn't carried him to the Deku Forest, if Link had grown up with a normal life with normal parents, he never would've taken up the sword. - Wind Waker Link still had a grandmother and a sister, but all this means is that in a traditional family sense, he's the man of the house who has to provide. I doubt gram-gram was tilling the fields and fishing the sea. In this example then, Link's family situation forces him into early maturity, which prepares him for the journey he's about to embark on - Minish Cap Link's family is more vague, but by placing him with a blacksmith grandfather, the game continues the trend of Link's family being more like a vehicle that places a sword in his hand and starts his journey - Breath of the Wild flips this idea into a more positive light - Link is a young adult, not a child, so losing one's parents is a more normal thing, but in this particular scenario, we know Link's father was a Knight serving the Royal Family, which prompted Link to follow in his footsteps, which implies this Link actually knew and had love and respect for his father, before falling in battle and being revived a century later where both his parents would certainly have passed away decades prior, if not killed in the same event that took Link's life
There's also the possibility that the reason why Link, Zelda AND Ganondorf's parents are always dead across games in the series (the instances where Zelda's father is alive notwithstanding) has to do with a preordained "cosmic plan" set by the Golden Goddesses who require the 3 Triforce bearers to be orphans in order to fulfill their respective roles within the mythology of the Zelda universe. Rather than been a cause of "chance" and "coincidence" it can simply be a divine decision by the powers that be that demands each Link, Zelda and Ganondorf to be parentless across their ever incarnation across the entire timeline.
@@javiervasquez625 Zelda does have a dad that is alive in four of the games, the one thing she never have is a alive mother and Ganondorf we don´t have any information about his biological parents so they could be alive in some games.
@@Ahouro Hence my parenthesis: _"(the instances where Zelda's father is alive notwithstanding)"._ I would have expected you to be the one person in the community who pays attention to every single point within a commenter's comment to avoid writing something which carelessly ignores the entire content of said specific comment. As for Ganondorf's biological parents you would expect them to have something to say regarding their son's demonic actions throughout his many appereances across the timeline yet no dialogue from any Gerudo NPC in the series even alludes to a father or mother of a current Ganondorf been still in the realm of the living making a very strong case for both of them been already deceased by the time their baby boy is trying to conquer the world and spread death and destruction.
I completely agreed that WindWaker has the best look at Link’s family. His sister Aryll is such a sweetie and seeing their grandmother in a depression State really saddens me.
I remember hearing somewhere that Link has no voice to allow the person playing the game to feel more like they're the ones in the game. Maybe the less we know about the family, the more we can feel like we're the ones in it? Haha leaving certain things open ended allows us to make our own predictions and I guess that's what makes it interesting
Maybe, but I don't really see how making Link an orphan or parent less makes him easier to relate to. Most people at least *have* parents, moreso than having one or both of them dead or missing 😆
We could relate this to the curse of Demise, “An incarnation of my hatred shall ever follow your kind, dooming them to wander a blood-soaked sea of darkness for all time!” This could mean that misfortune will befall those related to Link and Zelda.
Pretty much what's most likely the case as Demise and the Demon Tribe are shown to be deadset on ruining the lives of the those connected to the "God Tribe" mentioned in the japanese translation of Skyward Sword corroborating the conclusion that the Links and Zeldas are destined to endure loss and suffering in some form as a direct reaction of Demise's desire to forever torment the successors of the original Hero and Hylia for the rest of time.
The reason is that nintendo uses the archetype of orphan for Link in order for the audiences to empathize with the hero quickly. That is used for almost all heroes. Batman Spiderman Goku etc.
The sad grandmother cutscene in Wind Waker 😭. I do love the games where Link has more of a family established, it's a good set up and motivation for why he sets off in the first place. Though I do enjoy feral OoT Link busting out like "I am here to avenge my guardian tree."
One of the reasons we rarely see Link's family is because of who he's based on. In interviews, Shigeru Miyamoto has said that he's based on Peter Pan, who's famously an orphan. That's why he's living with the Kokiri in the Kokiri Forest at the start of Ocarina of Time, the Kokiri are basically analogs for the Lost Boys. As for will we ever see his family, it's possible we might see them in the movie. Maybe Movie Link will share the Hero of Time's origins of being raised with the Kokiri and we'll get to see his mother leave him with the Great Deku Tree.
I would have loved it if Link had a sister back in Hateno since that area survived the calamity. While she probably wouldn't still be around after a hundred years she could have left Link some nieces and nephews and their children that would be waiting for his return.
A lot of the side material fleshes out Link's backstory more. In the Link to the Past manga, his father was a knight who was a friend of Agahnim before he became evil. Agahnim would later trap Link's parents in the Dark World where they would die. In Twilight Princess, Rusl does fulfil the role of a father to Link. This is made stronger in the manga where Link is a recent immigrant to Ordon Village (explaining his pointy ears) and was taken in by them after his hometown was transported to the Twilight Realm.
The official Nintendo game guide for ALttP actually gave a little bit of insight into Link's parents! They brought Link to his uncle before embarking on a journey. Some villagers speculated that they tried their luck in the golden land and got lost, but the uncle never believed that.
Yet both Ocarina of Time and A Link to the Past provide evidence which confirms the 2 Links in these 2 games are descendants of a long _bloodline_ which dates back to ancient times prooving they were both born through normal means by a Hylian mother.
While I'm not sure this has ever been the intention of the developers, leaving Link without a completely whole, and sometimes no, family might increase the resilience and responsibility of his character. He'd have to grow up fending for himself a lot more and in the scenarios where he has some family, like in Wind Waker with his grandma and sister or in the case of having just a grandfather, those family members would be depending on him a lot more than if there were parents there. I do know there are Links that are the exception to this idea of it making Link more "grown up", even with a lack of family, like Skyward Sword Link.
Someone may have said this already, BUT!: In that artwork, the one that DREW the picture within the game world MAY have been Link's mother. I consider it to be a nice idea.
Whenever the Zelda movie comes out, I hope that Link's family becomes a component of his story. It'd create a more personal motivation for him to go on his quest, and it'd just be good to see the more civilian side of Hyrule more, like Mario's motivation to save Luigi in the movie and their humble beginnings in Brooklyn!
I’ve always figured the “real-life” reason for Link not having much of a family is the same as why he doesn’t talk, it’s so the players can relate better with him. If he had a whole family with both parents and 17 siblings, the characters wouldn’t ever fit with the player’s family. And that would take away from the game. Keeping the characters mysterious or non-existent allows players to imagine scenarios for who the characters are and why they aren’t there.
The hero shade is. the one I got most infatuated with. The fact that it was the Hero of Time itself and having a blood line to Link is kind of symbolic to Twilight Princess as a successor to Ocarina of Time. The shade functioning as a trainer and mentor, his role is more clear cut than both Link's uncle and grandpa. His story of a warrior with regret is sympathetic like his sister and grandma. And a lot of people including me earlier overlooked or ignored the clues that they're related as a bloodline, not just spiritually but ancestor and descendant. I feel like he's the most fleshed out and he's not even a living being than Links living relatives through out the games.
@@scarlethmoon Consider that they lived together in Hateno Village, the Japanese source is more accurate than the re-written English vocalization and how Zelda’s love for Link it the key to unlocking her powers, it is enough for me to see Zelink is canon!
@@a.jthomas6132 Zelda loving Link is pretty much undeniable, but it's Link loving Zelda that's a bit harder to prove. The big thing for me is the falling Silent Princess petals at the end of Breath of the Wild, which seem like a clear reference to what Bolson says about it symbolizing eternal love after Hudson and Rhondson's wedding. On top of that, and I've gone on about this across every corner of Zelda comment sections, I'm pretty sure Link's love for Zelda is how her draconification was reversed (with help from Rauru and Sonia's similar powers to Zelda). Notice how Zelda's description at the end sounds just like how you could describe her Light power's awakening?
@@fatalwaffle1715 Link only sees Mipha as a friend. Even Mipha realizes how he means to Zelda which she was gonna give her a tip of using a strong motive that requires in unlocking her powers. Don’t understand why you of all people wanted Mipha to be with him over her.
I like to see Rusl as a father figure to Link in Twilight Princess and Colin looks up to Link as an 'older brother' But dang...both Link & Zelda have parental issues 😅
It's the classic thing you see in kids adventure books. Kids with parents and regular lives do not go off across the world to vanquish evil. Kids with parents and regular lives have to be in the house for dinner, and washed and into bed before it gets too late.
Nintendo has always cared to work out the psychological aspect of Zelda games. I won’t dive too deep into explaining why this or that, but rather state that the important reason for not portraying Link with a perfect two-parents family in some idyllic countryside cottage is to make him relatable to every one - every child or adult. Explicitly choosing to set Link in such a perfect environment would indeed affect the psyche of children who never experienced such luck… And honestly the percentage of children from split and broken families is greater than of those from “perfect homes”; sadly. Secondly, giving him this detached and “wild” nature, almost as an “independent” child, living by himself or with one relative transmits a sense of maturation and courage lacking in most young children, who are still very dependent on their parents or family. It’s boost so to say their maturation in a psychic level by showing them it’s possible to “become independent”, and such an attitude towards children is a paramount in Japanese societies where little children are constantly conditioned to be responsible, independent, aware of themselves, others and their surroundings - something western kids lack badly if not completely… So, in the end one could observe this strategy as a positive one to incept this joyful, curious and brave instinct into the minds of those diving into the Zelda games. Especially of children who lack adventure, curiosity, and orientation in their lives. I think.
I would love for him to have a family or at least family figures like in Twilight Princess. I also think that giving Link a little sister like Aryll added a lot and they should really consider doing that again.
@@HyruleGamer No, Link wished on the Tri-force to undo all damage that Ganon had done at the end of the game that is why his uncle and the king is back to life.
I did read something about the house in Hateno Village being his family home and that his father did leave to fight in the war, and Presumably died whilst there.
During the quest to buy a house in Hateno, Bolson mentions that the owner of that house was called to hyrule castle (presumably shortly before the calamity) and never returned, and there is alot of evidence that the house we buy actually belonged to Link's family 100 years ago, so while his father was almost certainly killed by the Calamity, it's possible that his mother and sister survived due to Link's stand at the battle of Fort Hateno, but couldn't afford living in that house and fled Hateno or even Hyrule altogether, so there is an existent chance that the descendants of Link's sister are still alive 100+ years later.
I think we have a strong hint that Skyward Sword Link marries his Zelda. Both of their loftwings depart, leaving them together on the surface. The way those two have interacted throughout the game is a strong implication they've been like this since childhood. I'd also venture a guess that Spirit Tracks Zelda is sweet on her Link. I add this since you can't discuss family without including discussion of wives.
Damn then that makes me think if Link did have a sister pre-calamity along with his father they likely died during the calamity which I’m sure Link was either aware of or wasn’t sure if they were dead or alive, and then after 100 years from losing his memories he would have no recollection of his dead sister or father, and would think about his parents and probably wouldn’t even think about his sister (if he did have one) because he doesn’t remember anything.
I’d love to see the mother of a Link be either a Sheikah spy or better yet, a Gerudo warrior. Considering that male Gerudos are automatically supposed to be declared king, I think that would set up a really interesting Link/Ganondorf clash.
one thing to say, is that Link form wind waker is the ancestor of zelda spririt track, so is like that also in one old zelda, Link was suppose to be step brother of Zelda, but maybe scraped
It feels a bit like a trope that is used in fantasy and fairy tales. How many fairy tales, movies, and other works of fiction have a protagonist from a broken, incomplete, or otherwise, quote/unquote, imperfect family. Star Wars did it, Indiana Jones did it, heck even James Bond is an orphan, not to mention so many Disney fairy tale leads.
Hey Truly enjoyed video and Alot of your works. I am a Theorist myself but have committed my studies in Book form and am presently working on Theories to be produced for the world to view. This Theory boggled my mind starting with Skyward Sword. In Windwaker The Hero Sheild or Seabreeze Sheild has an Insignia on it that I cannot trace and its a FAMILY HEIRLOOM? Where does that crest come from then? Last is Grandmas Blanket.... Is that the Tetraforce or the First time Lorules Triforce and Hyrules Triforce depicted Together? Remember your Video on The Ancient Cistern that The Symbols are Expressing Aspects of Nature and there is Someone Else in The Divine Pantheon besides The Godesses and Hylia. With that I am researching and need the tools to produce lore videos aswell. In meantime please do another video on the 2 mentions. The Crest on Sheild and Blanket in Windwaker please. My theory is Link is Immaculately incepted in a Fetus or almost always entrusted to a Family for Safe keeping. He is a Spirit that Must be preserved and Come into a world to battle Forces of Evil. The mystery is like the Illuminati or Priory of Scion, Knight Templars etc. Some kind of Secret Cult Community lies behind the events of The Legend Of Zelda and Hylia Divine Forsight is Scary. How much she planned into the Future to ensure her Victory is Beyond Comprehension at this point.
In oot, there is a theory that the Link and Zelda are secretly twins. I am not sure if i am 100% on it, but even as a kid i thought they looked a lot more like siblings than other Zeldas and Links. They are roughly the same age, have a similar stature, facial features (well as much as pixels make it possible) eye color and hair color. This is especially visbile in the 3d remaster. Zelda has in-game only a father, while Link only has a mother mentioned..not only that, some of the manga have made link and Zelda siblings before (in a manga from 1989 he and Zelda were half-siblings, but these are non-canon and not even the same Link and Zelda) the only reason i doubt this theory a little, is because oot was designed as having some dating-sim elements, it would be weird to make one of the love interests siblings.
In the game A Link Between Worlds as well as a Link to the Past I am pretty sure Link doesnt have a fam. He is the apprentice of a blacksmith, but that doesnt mean they share blood ties (unless something was lost in mistranslation) In Skyward Sword, Legend of Zelda, Link's Adventure, OoT, and multiple others there is no living character who shares blood ties with Link. Crazy that Link is faced with the same issues as Disney characters of having lost his parents. I swear, Link as a character (as a whole, not per game basis) has got to count as a Disney Princess by now. Magic Hand, Magic Hair (In Hytopia it is said that the Hero has certain hair, thats gotta be magic then right?), is fond of playing music, is sometimes saved by a big strong man (Wind Waker lol) and even sometimes has the ability to talk to animals and understand what they say!
One thing they never tell you in this type of video is that Link and Zelda herself are manifestations created by each part of the Tri-force that appear in the world whenever necessary. They are NOT reincarnations, or direct descendants of each other, although it is always implied in the games that the two stay together in adulthood, after the events of each game. It would be nice for some to show what I mentioned before in some way, but you need to understand narrative to realize that this is irrelevant to the story, as are Link's parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. There is no need to know about them in depth, in the same way that Hyrule's royal family or even its aristocracy are also irrelevant to the events of the game. Who wants to know about the political relations of the royal family and the social problems of the Hylians?
Idk it is kinda mind blogging to never see his parents or even a photo of them together but I feel in most cases, him not having any family and essentially being an orphan was to help propel him more into being the hero cause there’s nothing or no one to really hold him back. He doesn’t have anyone so he’s not afraid to lose them. Not afraid of danger or potentially dying either. His main focus in most games is always just protecting Zelda and the people of Hyrule for no reason other than he’s just a good person and brave lol also it’s his destiny
Link probably still has better odds of his family showing up than Zelda's mother does.😊 They might finally have to explain if every "Queen of Hyrule" was a "Princess Zelda" before that, how she might've had divine power at the same time as our Zelda does, how the King of Hyrule marries in, when most monarchies are patralinial, etc. Hell, AoL gave us two Princess Zeldas at the same time, thanks to slumbering magic, and while most people argue that game doesn't count because it's so much older than a lot of the lore, and they hate that game commercially, Nintendo won't even handle that, so to hell with hervwhile family. 😊 Beyond that, I'd bet they'll keep Link's own family, from game to game, vague just so it can help the fan self-insert element Link often has. Sure, BotW, and Tears, sort of cover why this Link often seems like the silent protagonist, though nsybe isn't, but other games seem to establish it so you might imagine he says whatever BS the player might say, or have whatever family life they bore. The father and sister spirits were a Tears thing I really hoped that game would incorporate, but I was pretty sure that they wouldn't, and it was another letdown of that game, for me. I also was wondering if you were going to mention the fan theory that Wild's Link might have a Gerudo mother, as it could explain his armband, a reason why it might be she was absent, and go along with Urbosa also being so close with the Queen of Hyrule. Obviously, there'd be little too say apart from, "fans have another theory...", but I still wondered.
got a theory for you. what if Link caught her hand and they both went through time? how different would everything be? would it just be battling Gannon back then and then they live out their lives since turning into dragons wouldn't be a desperate needed move(or would it because still needing the sword)? then what about the present? would we get the "everything's different because Link went with her this time" and everyone will be fine moving on without them? last is what to do about his arm since Rauru will be alive?
So here is an idea for a Zelda game - Link facing against a family member. Perhaps they are corrupted by evil overtaking the land. Maybe they don't even know they are related to Link at first. Maybe they are just bad and Link tries to save or redeem them. I think we all want some new villains for Link to face, and going up against a family member would certainly be a change of pace.
You would love the Four Sword Adventures manga then, because one of those exact scenarios happens there. In that manga, Link's father is one of the four knights in charge of guarding the Royal Jewels (in the game, they're those guys who you fight in the Dark World as Stalfos, having already been slain by Ganon in secret before Vaati was released), and is so strong that Link could never beat him when they sparred. When Vaati first attacks Hyrule Castle, Link's father is tricked by Shadow Link into thinking that the real Link was killed, and later on in the Tower of Winds he gets brainwashed by Vaati (disguised as Zelda) into thinking that the four Links are just demons disguising themselves as his dead son, causing him to try and kill them while they have to defend themselves. He's so strong that they're forced to use a big magic attack that nearly kills him, but just as he's about to get back up and attack again with a hidden dagger, his sheer willpower and fatherly love directs the attack into his own leg instead, before flinging the dagger straight into the fake Zelda's forehead, breaking the spell and sparing the family from having to fight each other any further. It's a fun mix of emotional and epic (plus a bit of comedy thanks to the Links' initial "WTF?!' reaction to their father knifing "Zelda" in the face before they catch up with the reader and realize the ruse lol).
I mean technically in the four swords manga he has a dad I think but idk abt the game I never rlly payed attention to the game(I didn’t watch the whole video so idk if it talks abt this)
also there's probably an implication that Link from Spirit Tracks may be the [great-grandchild?] of Link from Wind Waker, taking place like 100 years after Phantom Hourglass
In aLttP all of Link's family is dead. A major plot point of the game is that you're the last left of the bloodline of a particular elite clan of "knights of hyrule" (not to be confused with literally any hylian knights) that were thought to be the "successors" of ancient heroes of hyrule, and most were wiped out in the Imprisoning War. Your uncle was the other one left before he dies. When he teaches you the spin attack he specifically reffers to it as a family technique, from this bloodline. aLttP is a wordier and more lore-heavy game than people give it credit for. ambiguously canon material suggests Link from OoT was from this elite clan too, which gives more sense to his parents being killed in the civil war before the game. (which is also ironic since that same ambiguous canon does have Link die in what would result in the Imprisoning War that wiped most of the rest)
I appreciate your videos sm. When ever im having a hard time or very anxious i just turn on one of your videos and just relax. Keep up the amazing work❤️❤️
Links mother was a hylian woman and his father was a hylian guard and his father died in the war and his mother had to flee so she fled to the kokiri forest and left link as a baby with the Great deku tree
OoT has a manga (I think). Link's father had an epic moustache and he was a Captain of his group of soldiers/guards. He died fighting. Link's mother brings the young Hylian to the forest, speaks with the Great Deku Tree and begs him to accept Link. Unfortunately, regular people aren't really supposed to be in Kokiri Forest for long. His mother passed out from exhaustion and somehow becomes a tree and is actually the treehouse Link lives in/starts the game in. PLEASE don't quote me on this, I remember reading/listening about it somewhere. I wish more people knew about it so I could confirm that I'm not crazy.
I've always found it quite odd that Link's Uncle apparently sleeps in a chair in A Link To The Past. Maybe that points to Link not living with him for long/permanently?
I mean the interior of Hyrule Castle is shown to be made of a bunch of empty rooms and corridors with no _bedrooms_ for either the king, Zelda, the royal guards or other subjects in A Link to the Past, The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess so i would take the lack of a second bed inside Link's house as more of a simple oversight on the part of Nintendo who did not bother in adding a second bed for Link's Uncle's to sleep on than a Lore based statement regarding him using the one chair inside the small house as his bed.
Something Im surprised, & even disappointed, we dont see in botw & totk is members of Link's family. As he hadnt had kids of his own, I was thinking we would've seen a great niece or nephew of his. He could've tracked down his family & found descendants of his sister. What seems to have happened is they died in the calamity & werent even at least featured
Having to experienced tragedies does not always make you a hero. A hero is about standing up for those who can’t defend themselves and give people hope. Miles Morales from the Spiderverse trilogy is the perfect example.
In the Ocarina of Time, what if Link was a descendant of the opposing forces of the Hylian civil war? What if Link was a member of a house who either opposed the Kingdom of Hyrule or had a legitimate claim to the thrown? That may mean all those people the Shieka tortured to death for the royal family were members and attendants of Link's house.
Link’s dad is a Royal Knight so, Link’s family is of ROYAL knights so, The NPC in Totk guarding Hyrule Castle says:”I mean you’re From Here”. So, ZELDA AND LINK ARE RELATED MAYBE by 40 yrs?? I’m kidding Hyrule castle house many People
I theorize that it's more than likely link is in some case a royal bastard (botw and minish are strong possibilities as he is raised by people close to the royal family ; oot : his mother die and we never see the queen...)
Lenzo did seem "fond" of Link's grandma leading some to believe he may have enjoyed a brief romance with her leading to the birth of either Link's dad or mom before his eventual departure to Windfall Island. Personally i don't buy this theory due to how convenient it would be for him to have fathered a child with Grandma only for her to never mention anything suggesting having her husband/boyfriend forcing her to take care of their child by herself without any support whatsoever. The odds for this scenario are simply too low for me to even consider it plausible.
When I was younger, I came up with the theory that in Ocarina of Time, Link's Mom was the Queen of Hyrule. Link's Dad was never mentioned, and neither was Zelda's mother, and Link and Zelda looked a lot alike. So I figured they were twin siblings separated through tragedy, kind of like Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia. It would make for an interesting dynamic, and would kill any Zelink for that particular incarnation (hopefully).
I'm sure this was a "theory" which many fans came up with when they first played through Ocarina of Time yet as i recall it was completely disproven by Ocarina of Time director Eiji Aonuma who outright denied such a possibility.
@@javiervasquez625 I've researched this theory extensively and to my knowledge, neither Eiji Aonuma nor any other Zelda developer has ever commented on it or acknowledged it at all. The lore is ambiguous enough that you can read their relationship that way without contradicting anything in the canon, but can also ignore it and read the relationship as platonic or romantic if you choose. You'll find the developers avoid talking about the subject of Link and Zelda's relationship for the same reasons they avoid clarifying it in the game itself. The ambiguity allows every player to interpret it how they want, so everyone is pleased. There is no incentive to destroy this.
@@momohoney5934 Problem with that conclusion arises when you learn that the King of Hyrule eventually *met* Link _face to face_ in the Child Timeline and despite having his own daughter at his side as a reference to COMPARE the facial likeness between the 2 supposed "brother and sister" neither the king or Zelda or Link ever saw any such likeness that would make them realize he's none other than the king's missing son (who's NEVER said to have gone missing during the Hyrulean Civil War mind you). Furthermore Twilight Princess makes no reference or hint at the Hero of Time been a _prince_ of Hyrule who, in case you haven't noticed, went on to become a loyal _knight_ at the service of the Royal Family as proven by the Hero's Shade's coat of armor fashioned after an owl in reference to the Triforce of Wisdom which is the Triforce piece most attributed to the Royal Family as seen in both Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker. For the Hero of Time to become a mere a knight instead of been recognized as the prince who prevented Ganondorf's conquest over the entire world only utterly confirms without a shadow of a doubt that he is not the son of the king from Ocarina of Time after no one within the Royal Family was able to recognize any ressemblance whatsoever between the king, Link and Zelda. As to the detail surrounding Aonuma making a statement denying the theory altogether i'm pretty sure there's an interview somewhere which has him outright denying such possibility as simple fan theorizing without giving it any serious thought or consideration for fans to be invested in such a possibility been real. If there's the chance that it wasn't Aonuma who made such a statement then it's most probable that it was none other than Shigeru Miyamoto _himself_ sometime after the release of Ocarina of Time.
@@javiervasquez625I'm sorry but unless you can source the interviews in question, I cannot accept this as evidence of anything other than your vivid imagination, because I've combed through all of them and this has been a pet theory of mine since 1998. If there was developer word debunking it, believe me, I would know. I'm not going to debate every aspect of this theory either, this is not the place for it. I'm just going to say we have no evidence Link met the King in person, only that he warned the princess about Ganondorf's betrayal. Furthermore, a child who went missing as an infant for over ten years can be unrecognisable even to their closest family. This is something that happens in real life and has been the basis for many (typically tragic) stories in fiction. Even if Link was acknowledged as the long lost prince, royalty can abandon their birthright if they choose to follow their own path. Again, there are countless stories, both fictional and historical along these exact lines. Prince Harry of the British royal family is a recent example. Honestly, I've been involved in Zelda theorising for years and years, and this is far from the wildest theory I've seen. Unless you are a zelink shipper, it's pretty mild and inoffensive. And if you are a shipper, you can just ignore it. The canon can accommodate either preference.
@@HyruleGamer I couldn’t imagine trying to start a Zelda wiki and trying to get all this accurate information when Nintendo makes it so difficult to do so
The heroes shade is not nessisarily related to link by family. Unlike Zelda, a link is not always going to be within the same family line..which makes sense for a multitude of levels. Thematically it shows being a Link is not about lineage like being royal but about being a hero. Hylia will always reincarnate in a member of her own line but Link will show up when Hyrule needs him, in the most likely being. Its less about him being born as the hero and more the vessel already predestined to be who they are being the best fot for his spirit in the time of need and thus it manifesting in them. Narritively this is important. This means any Link can also fail as the vessel is variant. It's always the best at the time, not the perfect one to succeed. We know a link can die because of the hero falls timeline..which supports all Links are not related. As the last known in his direct family after his mother saves him, Link dying without children of his own should likely mean no others can exist later on if it were like with Zelda. But anyone can be born as a Link. Another hero will show up in another family. That's part of why Zelda and the Royal family are always targeted by servants of demise. If the entire royal family is snuffed, Hylia has no target to reincarnate in. That is the vulnerable point. Link however can always return to support hyrule if she is around and there are other living beings that show courage. It's never even stated that Link HAS to be a Hylian. We get implications in TotK that the prior incarnation that we get the costume for had much more Zonai in him. By the point he lived, the iteration of Zelda for the time was more Hylian looking despite having Zonai blood, but the Hero is depicted to be still a lot more pureblood..which leads to another aspect..if Link was always incarnated in the same family line..this would have some VERY disturbing incestial implications. If a Link and Zelda wind up together and having kids, it means future Links and Zeldas would be directly blood related. This is clearly not rhe case. The inference seems to be that Links come from knights or warriors closer tot he royal family than directly in the line. This is likly because these are the individuals in Hyrule with the most potential as a Link. As a result, some COULD be related but don't have to be. The heroes shade is inferedly another split of the ocarina Link, specifically the Majoras Mask timeline where he winds up in Termina. Reguardless how you interpret that game, it is pretty clear that link does not return or have offspring by the shades main point of falling before passing down his skills to an hier. TLP Link thus cant be decendes from the hero of time directly. Having his family obscure helps reinforce these points. Keeping it vague means we don't narratively question his familial relation to Zelda or other links which can be problematic in a few ways. Doing this helps keep the periods of time between games vague and enables for future iterations to be inserted in more easily. Doing this also supports the core point of what makes a hero. It isnt nessisarily about blood but about heart. It would be a bit off for him to go on these very self sacrificing journeys too, especially when depicted as a kid, if he had family. We question why there would allow this, why they are not helping, and how heroic it is when he has people relying on him at home. Keeping the story mainly about link and the current adventure reduces this complication. Having him orphaned in the forest or brought into the adventure through his sister were some ways around this but I think BotW was the best case of eating their cake and having it too. Since it starts you off 100 years after Link fell and has the abilty to hide tidbits of background lore through the game, there is the room for a sensible narrative wothout getting in the players way with the current goal. They are able to explain that Link was simply becoming a soldier when he saved Zelda, was turned into her bodyguard and then hings naturally progressed as the threat behind the adventure continued to surface. We get hints as Links past vulnerabilities and relationships. Detailed storytelling that would not work as well in past iterations.
I would love to see Link and Zelda started a family of their own. It would be very heartwarming and wholesome if they have a daughter named after Sonia.
Well if you wanna dig into some non canon material there's some crazy stuff about Link's family there. With the most famous one being a manga adaptation of the first game made Link and Zelda half siblings.
Here the the thing. To nintendo link's family must give agency to the player to keep going though the game. For example link to the past his uncle teaches link spin attack tells him to rescue zelda. Wind Waker grandma gives link the green tunic and his sister is used as a conduit to introduce ganondawarf. So if nintendo were to introduce parents to the mix they will need to give the player agency to do a thing. After all nintedo is a doing company the a showing comany. Example of a showy comany is square enix and naughty dog. Outside of nintendo an example of a doing company is ID soft, valve, and myself because I love nintendo desighn philocify because you can produce some intresting gameplay loops with it. If you want to trullt understand zeldas lore you must understand nintedo's goal with it.
I, unfortunately, have never played Twilight Princess, so excuse me if this is a dumb question. Shade is the spirit of the hero of time, the Link from OoT. But would that necessarily mean that TP Link is a descendant? Zelda's link seems to be familial, but Link's is the spirit of the hero, not necessarily related by blood?
As the Light Spirit Faron states to Twilight Princess Link: _"Those (clothes) are only for one who carries the _*_blood_*_ of the hero... the one whose spirit is that of the sublime beast"_ Also as the Hero's Shade himself states: _"At last, the skills I have to teach you have entered the realm of true secrecy. They are forgotten ways that do not leave _*_our bloodline"_* The use of the adjective "our" which he uses during one of his training sessions with TP Link suggests a blood connection between the 2 which is corroborated by Faron's own use of the word blood in reference to the current Link been descended from a bloodline dating back to the times of a previous Hero. That said you are very much right in that most of the Links in the entire timeline do in fact only possess the so called "Spirit of the Hero" as confirmed by Demise at the end of Skyward Sword without any blood ties connecting them whatsoever. Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess Links are the only 2 incarnations who are part of the same bloodline.
Spoiler. Link in TP having the Tri-force of courage confirms that he is the descendant of the hero of time because the hero of time had the Tri-force of courage at the end of Oot on the Child split and there is no game in between that say that the Tri-force split.
![[HARD] Future x BDG20man Type Beat - "Draco Run"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/OolQGmTeZyk/mqdefault.jpg)
Have I missed anything? Are there any thoughts you'd like to share?
crazy that link in a link to the past is 17
Considering how small the island is in windwaker i wouldnt be surprised if his sister IS hid mother 💀😭😭😭
Link between worlds...
This is rather obscure and Non Canon but... the Valiant Comics Zelda series DID show Link's family and explained why they weren't around for the first two games. Turns out that Link came from a distant kingdom from Hyrule and,in fact, one issue has him visting them and that kingdom *with the main plot being Dark Link disgusing himself AS link to overthrow the Queen and Link having to clear his name*.
There's a popular fan theory that Link and Zelda are siblings in Ocarina of Time
One of the things I appreciated about Twilight Princess is that Link has a whole chosen family/village whom he clearly cares about. It gave him a reason (other than being the chosen hero) to embark on his quest when the village kids are kidnapped.
This is one of the reasons TP’s slow intro does NOT suck. It quickly sets up this level of care making you more motivated than ever to go find the kids and Ilia. I don’t think any other Zelda game did this (better).
Same
TP has my favorite introduction out of any Zelda game. People only hate it because they just want to go to the first dungeon immediately much like Ocarina of Time. My second favorite intro is probably Skyward Sword’s.
However none of them are Hylian so he is probably not related to them.
@@zachtwilightwindwaker596 His children will most definetly be after he and Illia are married. :)
Something that intrigues me is that in Tears of the Kingdom, in the side quest to help discover the recipe for cheese, Link can actually read some of the recipe, something that the farmers tell Link before the quest: "Only family members can read my grandfather's handwriting."
So, there's that as something
Edit: why is everyone in the replies talking about Twilight Princess Link?
I daresay that would be a reference to Twilight Princess, who's incarnation of Link lived on a farm as a ranch hand :D
@@AFlyingCoconutAnd i dare say that is a hint of Link having married Malon after growing into adulthood. ❤☺️
Oh yeah...Link totally married Malon.
Link just really likes Hateno cheese. Num num num.
I feel like Our hero of the wild is a descendant of the hero of twilight and the hero of twilight is the descendant of the hero of time. All because all three have a connection to a ranch/farming 🤔
I want to see a Zelda game where both of Link's parents are alive, well and present throughout the game. Dad wanting Link home to help out the family business while Mom knows they can't stop destiny. Maybe a little brother and sister to fawn over him and beg him to play when he comes to visit. Just give the poor soul a nice life with his whole family before throwing Ganon and Zelda at him for once.
I also want to see his parents present in game. Involve them in the story too!
"SON! THE TAXES DON'T FILE THEMSELVES"
@@KeiTh0r 🤣
I would have loved it in breath of the Wild if link had memories of his father and sister, but got to meet his sister’s descendants in the present day, and have a whole subplot going along with rediscovering his own identity and family connections and honoring the memories of the family he had before the calamity. It would have made the story feel a bit more personal.
Especially with links father being a member of Hyrules Royal guard like link is now, would be awesome to have link learn about the lineage of his family being apart of the guard and whatnot
I agree completely. I do think it would’ve pointless in the long run, but so nice to see.
This is why I have my own imagination 😣
I believe that when you get the 13th memory, Link really has recalled EVERYTHING.
Link’s father and sister (from the concept) should’ve been in Breath of the Wild since they’re a part of his character.
After all, Link’s father is the member of Hyrule’s Royal Guard.
Since Ocarina of Time, I've always just assumed that Link's parents are dead in every iteration of the hero because it's an integral part of his character.
- If Link's mother hadn't carried him to the Deku Forest, if Link had grown up with a normal life with normal parents, he never would've taken up the sword.
- Wind Waker Link still had a grandmother and a sister, but all this means is that in a traditional family sense, he's the man of the house who has to provide. I doubt gram-gram was tilling the fields and fishing the sea. In this example then, Link's family situation forces him into early maturity, which prepares him for the journey he's about to embark on
- Minish Cap Link's family is more vague, but by placing him with a blacksmith grandfather, the game continues the trend of Link's family being more like a vehicle that places a sword in his hand and starts his journey
- Breath of the Wild flips this idea into a more positive light - Link is a young adult, not a child, so losing one's parents is a more normal thing, but in this particular scenario, we know Link's father was a Knight serving the Royal Family, which prompted Link to follow in his footsteps, which implies this Link actually knew and had love and respect for his father, before falling in battle and being revived a century later where both his parents would certainly have passed away decades prior, if not killed in the same event that took Link's life
Well, from what we know from OoT Link's Dad, he was probably a Knight, if this is True then Link would have a similar life as the Hero of the Wild
@@Chris-gx1ei Source? Afaik there's not a single canon source that speaks about OoT Link's father
There's also the possibility that the reason why Link, Zelda AND Ganondorf's parents are always dead across games in the series (the instances where Zelda's father is alive notwithstanding) has to do with a preordained "cosmic plan" set by the Golden Goddesses who require the 3 Triforce bearers to be orphans in order to fulfill their respective roles within the mythology of the Zelda universe. Rather than been a cause of "chance" and "coincidence" it can simply be a divine decision by the powers that be that demands each Link, Zelda and Ganondorf to be parentless across their ever incarnation across the entire timeline.
@@javiervasquez625 Zelda does have a dad that is alive in four of the games, the one thing she never have is a alive mother and Ganondorf we don´t have any information about his biological parents so they could be alive in some games.
@@Ahouro Hence my parenthesis: _"(the instances where Zelda's father is alive notwithstanding)"._ I would have expected you to be the one person in the community who pays attention to every single point within a commenter's comment to avoid writing something which carelessly ignores the entire content of said specific comment.
As for Ganondorf's biological parents you would expect them to have something to say regarding their son's demonic actions throughout his many appereances across the timeline yet no dialogue from any Gerudo NPC in the series even alludes to a father or mother of a current Ganondorf been still in the realm of the living making a very strong case for both of them been already deceased by the time their baby boy is trying to conquer the world and spread death and destruction.
I completely agreed that WindWaker has the best look at Link’s family. His sister Aryll is such a sweetie and seeing their grandmother in a depression State really saddens me.
I remember hearing somewhere that Link has no voice to allow the person playing the game to feel more like they're the ones in the game. Maybe the less we know about the family, the more we can feel like we're the ones in it? Haha leaving certain things open ended allows us to make our own predictions and I guess that's what makes it interesting
Maybe, but I don't really see how making Link an orphan or parent less makes him easier to relate to. Most people at least *have* parents, moreso than having one or both of them dead or missing 😆
We could relate this to the curse of Demise, “An incarnation of my hatred shall ever follow your kind, dooming them to wander a blood-soaked sea of darkness for all time!” This could mean that misfortune will befall those related to Link and Zelda.
Pretty much what's most likely the case as Demise and the Demon Tribe are shown to be deadset on ruining the lives of the those connected to the "God Tribe" mentioned in the japanese translation of Skyward Sword corroborating the conclusion that the Links and Zeldas are destined to endure loss and suffering in some form as a direct reaction of Demise's desire to forever torment the successors of the original Hero and Hylia for the rest of time.
In BOTW, Zelda mentioned Link's courage a lot. Maybe Link is courageous because he has nothing left to lose since he ain't got no family?
The reason is that nintendo uses the archetype of orphan for Link in order for the audiences to empathize with the hero quickly. That is used for almost all heroes. Batman Spiderman Goku etc.
It's also a way to make less characters.
@@Mari_Izu So you think Nintendo does not like to make extra characters. Because that seems to be an extremely disconnected opinion.
The sad grandmother cutscene in Wind Waker 😭. I do love the games where Link has more of a family established, it's a good set up and motivation for why he sets off in the first place.
Though I do enjoy feral OoT Link busting out like "I am here to avenge my guardian tree."
I really love Wind Waker Link’s family, clearly they’ve been through some tragic times but they’re still so tight knit
a tight knit fam indeed
One of the reasons we rarely see Link's family is because of who he's based on. In interviews, Shigeru Miyamoto has said that he's based on Peter Pan, who's famously an orphan. That's why he's living with the Kokiri in the Kokiri Forest at the start of Ocarina of Time, the Kokiri are basically analogs for the Lost Boys.
As for will we ever see his family, it's possible we might see them in the movie. Maybe Movie Link will share the Hero of Time's origins of being raised with the Kokiri and we'll get to see his mother leave him with the Great Deku Tree.
You know I've always wondered if Link and Peter Pan are related.
I would have loved it if Link had a sister back in Hateno since that area survived the calamity. While she probably wouldn't still be around after a hundred years she could have left Link some nieces and nephews and their children that would be waiting for his return.
Man i love hearing more about links lore, his family and background arent discussed and theorised abour as much as they should be
Link’s parents in wind waker were probably eaten by an octorok out at sea as revenge for what cgi Link did all those years ago.
😮
Best comment 😂😂😂
What did cgi Link do?
A lot of the side material fleshes out Link's backstory more. In the Link to the Past manga, his father was a knight who was a friend of Agahnim before he became evil. Agahnim would later trap Link's parents in the Dark World where they would die.
In Twilight Princess, Rusl does fulfil the role of a father to Link. This is made stronger in the manga where Link is a recent immigrant to Ordon Village (explaining his pointy ears) and was taken in by them after his hometown was transported to the Twilight Realm.
The official Nintendo game guide for ALttP actually gave a little bit of insight into Link's parents! They brought Link to his uncle before embarking on a journey. Some villagers speculated that they tried their luck in the golden land and got lost, but the uncle never believed that.
I imagine each link just appears somewhere and whoever's nearby just goes "oh a baby. I shall raise it"
Very
Yet both Ocarina of Time and A Link to the Past provide evidence which confirms the 2 Links in these 2 games are descendants of a long _bloodline_ which dates back to ancient times prooving they were both born through normal means by a Hylian mother.
I cant believe in OoT, we learn that Link's mother was Hylian and that she existed. I MEAN, THAT'S CRAZY! I NEVER WOULD'VE GUESSED!
While I'm not sure this has ever been the intention of the developers, leaving Link without a completely whole, and sometimes no, family might increase the resilience and responsibility of his character. He'd have to grow up fending for himself a lot more and in the scenarios where he has some family, like in Wind Waker with his grandma and sister or in the case of having just a grandfather, those family members would be depending on him a lot more than if there were parents there.
I do know there are Links that are the exception to this idea of it making Link more "grown up", even with a lack of family, like Skyward Sword Link.
Someone may have said this already, BUT!:
In that artwork, the one that DREW the picture within the game world MAY have been Link's mother. I consider it to be a nice idea.
Whenever the Zelda movie comes out, I hope that Link's family becomes a component of his story. It'd create a more personal motivation for him to go on his quest, and it'd just be good to see the more civilian side of Hyrule more, like Mario's motivation to save Luigi in the movie and their humble beginnings in Brooklyn!
I’ve always figured the “real-life” reason for Link not having much of a family is the same as why he doesn’t talk, it’s so the players can relate better with him. If he had a whole family with both parents and 17 siblings, the characters wouldn’t ever fit with the player’s family. And that would take away from the game. Keeping the characters mysterious or non-existent allows players to imagine scenarios for who the characters are and why they aren’t there.
The hero shade is. the one I got most infatuated with. The fact that it was the Hero of Time itself and having a blood line to Link is kind of symbolic to Twilight Princess as a successor to Ocarina of Time. The shade functioning as a trainer and mentor, his role is more clear cut than both Link's uncle and grandpa. His story of a warrior with regret is sympathetic like his sister and grandma. And a lot of people including me earlier overlooked or ignored the clues that they're related as a bloodline, not just spiritually but ancestor and descendant. I feel like he's the most fleshed out and he's not even a living being than Links living relatives through out the games.
If Link and Zelda started a family of their own after TOTK, I would’ve imagined they had a daughter named after Queen Sonia.
I would love for this to be canon!
@@scarlethmoon Consider that they lived together in Hateno Village, the Japanese source is more accurate than the re-written English vocalization and how Zelda’s love for Link it the key to unlocking her powers, it is enough for me to see Zelink is canon!
@@a.jthomas6132 Zelda loving Link is pretty much undeniable, but it's Link loving Zelda that's a bit harder to prove. The big thing for me is the falling Silent Princess petals at the end of Breath of the Wild, which seem like a clear reference to what Bolson says about it symbolizing eternal love after Hudson and Rhondson's wedding. On top of that, and I've gone on about this across every corner of Zelda comment sections, I'm pretty sure Link's love for Zelda is how her draconification was reversed (with help from Rauru and Sonia's similar powers to Zelda). Notice how Zelda's description at the end sounds just like how you could describe her Light power's awakening?
Link and Zelda are just friends in BOTW and TOTK. Link was going to marry Mipha.
@@fatalwaffle1715 Link only sees Mipha as a friend. Even Mipha realizes how he means to Zelda which she was gonna give her a tip of using a strong motive that requires in unlocking her powers. Don’t understand why you of all people wanted Mipha to be with him over her.
I like to see Rusl as a father figure to Link in Twilight Princess and Colin looks up to Link as an 'older brother'
But dang...both Link & Zelda have parental issues 😅
Link has his hands full already. No time for extra credit assignments 😅
It's the classic thing you see in kids adventure books.
Kids with parents and regular lives do not go off across the world to vanquish evil. Kids with parents and regular lives have to be in the house for dinner, and washed and into bed before it gets too late.
Nintendo has always cared to work out the psychological aspect of Zelda games.
I won’t dive too deep into explaining why this or that, but rather state that the important reason for not portraying Link with a perfect two-parents family in some idyllic countryside cottage is to make him relatable to every one - every child or adult.
Explicitly choosing to set Link in such a perfect environment would indeed affect the psyche of children who never experienced such luck…
And honestly the percentage of children from split and broken families is greater than of those from “perfect homes”; sadly.
Secondly, giving him this detached and “wild” nature, almost as an “independent” child, living by himself or with one relative transmits a sense of maturation and courage lacking in most young children, who are still very dependent on their parents or family. It’s boost so to say their maturation in a psychic level by showing them it’s possible to “become independent”, and such an attitude towards children is a paramount in Japanese societies where little children are constantly conditioned to be responsible, independent, aware of themselves, others and their surroundings - something western kids lack badly if not completely…
So, in the end one could observe this strategy as a positive one to incept this joyful, curious and brave instinct into the minds of those diving into the Zelda games. Especially of children who lack adventure, curiosity, and orientation in their lives. I think.
Grandma’s soup = best soup
fr fr 🍲
I would love for him to have a family or at least family figures like in Twilight Princess. I also think that giving Link a little sister like Aryll added a lot and they should really consider doing that again.
you should have mentioned that the uncle is resurrected in the end
yeah
He appears in the credits, my understanding was that it was a bit of an easter egg.
@@HyruleGamer maybe 👀
@@HyruleGamer No, Link wished on the Tri-force to undo all damage that Ganon had done at the end of the game that is why his uncle and the king is back to life.
I did read something about the house in Hateno Village being his family home and that his father did leave to fight in the war, and Presumably died whilst there.
During the quest to buy a house in Hateno, Bolson mentions that the owner of that house was called to hyrule castle (presumably shortly before the calamity) and never returned, and there is alot of evidence that the house we buy actually belonged to Link's family 100 years ago, so while his father was almost certainly killed by the Calamity, it's possible that his mother and sister survived due to Link's stand at the battle of Fort Hateno, but couldn't afford living in that house and fled Hateno or even Hyrule altogether, so there is an existent chance that the descendants of Link's sister are still alive 100+ years later.
I think we have a strong hint that Skyward Sword Link marries his Zelda. Both of their loftwings depart, leaving them together on the surface. The way those two have interacted throughout the game is a strong implication they've been like this since childhood.
I'd also venture a guess that Spirit Tracks Zelda is sweet on her Link.
I add this since you can't discuss family without including discussion of wives.
Damn then that makes me think if Link did have a sister pre-calamity along with his father they likely died during the calamity which I’m sure Link was either aware of or wasn’t sure if they were dead or alive, and then after 100 years from losing his memories he would have no recollection of his dead sister or father, and would think about his parents and probably wouldn’t even think about his sister (if he did have one) because he doesn’t remember anything.
Awwwww, look how happy Link looks with his dad and sister! 🥺
I’d love to see the mother of a Link be either a Sheikah spy or better yet, a Gerudo warrior. Considering that male Gerudos are automatically supposed to be declared king, I think that would set up a really interesting Link/Ganondorf clash.
one thing to say, is that Link form wind waker is the ancestor of zelda spririt track, so is like that
also in one old zelda, Link was suppose to be step brother of Zelda, but maybe scraped
Would be interesting if one of Link's parents was captured in a future Zelda game. His personal quest to rescue his family from Ganondorf.
It feels a bit like a trope that is used in fantasy and fairy tales. How many fairy tales, movies, and other works of fiction have a protagonist from a broken, incomplete, or otherwise, quote/unquote, imperfect family. Star Wars did it, Indiana Jones did it, heck even James Bond is an orphan, not to mention so many Disney fairy tale leads.
Hey Truly enjoyed video and Alot of your works. I am a Theorist myself but have committed my studies in Book form and am presently working on Theories to be produced for the world to view. This Theory boggled my mind starting with Skyward Sword. In Windwaker The Hero Sheild or Seabreeze Sheild has an Insignia on it that I cannot trace and its a FAMILY HEIRLOOM? Where does that crest come from then? Last is Grandmas Blanket.... Is that the Tetraforce or the First time Lorules Triforce and Hyrules Triforce depicted Together? Remember your Video on The Ancient Cistern that The Symbols are Expressing Aspects of Nature and there is Someone Else in The Divine Pantheon besides The Godesses and Hylia. With that I am researching and need the tools to produce lore videos aswell. In meantime please do another video on the 2 mentions. The Crest on Sheild and Blanket in Windwaker please.
My theory is Link is Immaculately incepted in a Fetus or almost always entrusted to a Family for Safe keeping. He is a Spirit that Must be preserved and Come into a world to battle Forces of Evil. The mystery is like the Illuminati or Priory of Scion, Knight Templars etc. Some kind of Secret Cult Community lies behind the events of The Legend Of Zelda and Hylia Divine Forsight is Scary. How much she planned into the Future to ensure her Victory is Beyond Comprehension at this point.
In oot, there is a theory that the Link and Zelda are secretly twins. I am not sure if i am 100% on it, but even as a kid i thought they looked a lot more like siblings than other Zeldas and Links. They are roughly the same age, have a similar stature, facial features (well as much as pixels make it possible) eye color and hair color. This is especially visbile in the 3d remaster.
Zelda has in-game only a father, while Link only has a mother mentioned..not only that, some of the manga have made link and Zelda siblings before (in a manga from 1989 he and Zelda were half-siblings, but these are non-canon and not even the same Link and Zelda) the only reason i doubt this theory a little, is because oot was designed as having some dating-sim elements, it would be weird to make one of the love interests siblings.
In the game A Link Between Worlds as well as a Link to the Past I am pretty sure Link doesnt have a fam. He is the apprentice of a blacksmith, but that doesnt mean they share blood ties (unless something was lost in mistranslation)
In Skyward Sword, Legend of Zelda, Link's Adventure, OoT, and multiple others there is no living character who shares blood ties with Link.
Crazy that Link is faced with the same issues as Disney characters of having lost his parents. I swear, Link as a character (as a whole, not per game basis) has got to count as a Disney Princess by now. Magic Hand, Magic Hair (In Hytopia it is said that the Hero has certain hair, thats gotta be magic then right?), is fond of playing music, is sometimes saved by a big strong man (Wind Waker lol) and even sometimes has the ability to talk to animals and understand what they say!
One thing they never tell you in this type of video is that Link and Zelda herself are manifestations created by each part of the Tri-force that appear in the world whenever necessary.
They are NOT reincarnations, or direct descendants of each other, although it is always implied in the games that the two stay together in adulthood, after the events of each game.
It would be nice for some to show what I mentioned before in some way, but you need to understand narrative to realize that this is irrelevant to the story, as are Link's parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.
There is no need to know about them in depth, in the same way that Hyrule's royal family or even its aristocracy are also irrelevant to the events of the game.
Who wants to know about the political relations of the royal family and the social problems of the Hylians?
Idk it is kinda mind blogging to never see his parents or even a photo of them together but I feel in most cases, him not having any family and essentially being an orphan was to help propel him more into being the hero cause there’s nothing or no one to really hold him back. He doesn’t have anyone so he’s not afraid to lose them. Not afraid of danger or potentially dying either.
His main focus in most games is always just protecting Zelda and the people of Hyrule for no reason other than he’s just a good person and brave lol also it’s his destiny
Link probably still has better odds of his family showing up than Zelda's mother does.😊 They might finally have to explain if every "Queen of Hyrule" was a "Princess Zelda" before that, how she might've had divine power at the same time as our Zelda does, how the King of Hyrule marries in, when most monarchies are patralinial, etc. Hell, AoL gave us two Princess Zeldas at the same time, thanks to slumbering magic, and while most people argue that game doesn't count because it's so much older than a lot of the lore, and they hate that game commercially, Nintendo won't even handle that, so to hell with hervwhile family. 😊
Beyond that, I'd bet they'll keep Link's own family, from game to game, vague just so it can help the fan self-insert element Link often has. Sure, BotW, and Tears, sort of cover why this Link often seems like the silent protagonist, though nsybe isn't, but other games seem to establish it so you might imagine he says whatever BS the player might say, or have whatever family life they bore. The father and sister spirits were a Tears thing I really hoped that game would incorporate, but I was pretty sure that they wouldn't, and it was another letdown of that game, for me.
I also was wondering if you were going to mention the fan theory that Wild's Link might have a Gerudo mother, as it could explain his armband, a reason why it might be she was absent, and go along with Urbosa also being so close with the Queen of Hyrule. Obviously, there'd be little too say apart from, "fans have another theory...", but I still wondered.
got a theory for you. what if Link caught her hand and they both went through time? how different would everything be? would it just be battling Gannon back then and then they live out their lives since turning into dragons wouldn't be a desperate needed move(or would it because still needing the sword)? then what about the present? would we get the "everything's different because Link went with her this time" and everyone will be fine moving on without them? last is what to do about his arm since Rauru will be alive?
I love the effort that goes into all of these consistent videos! Keep it up
Thanks a lot!
So here is an idea for a Zelda game - Link facing against a family member. Perhaps they are corrupted by evil overtaking the land. Maybe they don't even know they are related to Link at first. Maybe they are just bad and Link tries to save or redeem them. I think we all want some new villains for Link to face, and going up against a family member would certainly be a change of pace.
You would love the Four Sword Adventures manga then, because one of those exact scenarios happens there. In that manga, Link's father is one of the four knights in charge of guarding the Royal Jewels (in the game, they're those guys who you fight in the Dark World as Stalfos, having already been slain by Ganon in secret before Vaati was released), and is so strong that Link could never beat him when they sparred.
When Vaati first attacks Hyrule Castle, Link's father is tricked by Shadow Link into thinking that the real Link was killed, and later on in the Tower of Winds he gets brainwashed by Vaati (disguised as Zelda) into thinking that the four Links are just demons disguising themselves as his dead son, causing him to try and kill them while they have to defend themselves. He's so strong that they're forced to use a big magic attack that nearly kills him, but just as he's about to get back up and attack again with a hidden dagger, his sheer willpower and fatherly love directs the attack into his own leg instead, before flinging the dagger straight into the fake Zelda's forehead, breaking the spell and sparing the family from having to fight each other any further.
It's a fun mix of emotional and epic (plus a bit of comedy thanks to the Links' initial "WTF?!' reaction to their father knifing "Zelda" in the face before they catch up with the reader and realize the ruse lol).
I want a twilight princess sequel so baaaad
We sort of already have it... Crossbow Training (plus Four Sword Adventures according to the timeline).
A lost in Twilight adventure sequel 😍
@@javiervasquez625 True I guess more specifically I want something more involved with the twilight realm and that art style again.
@@HyruleGamer that was be awesome!
There's also that theory that Link and Zelda are siblings in Ocarina of Time, making the king his dad as well.
Just found this channel and I absolutely love it. Hope anyone reading this has a great day.
Thanks a ton, really appreciate that! :D
Link is a different person in every game so his family wouldn’t be the same anyway 😂
My choices have been limited... Snack AND Drink?!!! ;D
I mean technically in the four swords manga he has a dad I think but idk abt the game I never rlly payed attention to the game(I didn’t watch the whole video so idk if it talks abt this)
also there's probably an implication that Link from Spirit Tracks may be the [great-grandchild?] of Link from Wind Waker, taking place like 100 years after Phantom Hourglass
In aLttP all of Link's family is dead. A major plot point of the game is that you're the last left of the bloodline of a particular elite clan of "knights of hyrule" (not to be confused with literally any hylian knights) that were thought to be the "successors" of ancient heroes of hyrule, and most were wiped out in the Imprisoning War.
Your uncle was the other one left before he dies. When he teaches you the spin attack he specifically reffers to it as a family technique, from this bloodline.
aLttP is a wordier and more lore-heavy game than people give it credit for.
ambiguously canon material suggests Link from OoT was from this elite clan too, which gives more sense to his parents being killed in the civil war before the game. (which is also ironic since that same ambiguous canon does have Link die in what would result in the Imprisoning War that wiped most of the rest)
I appreciate your videos sm. When ever im having a hard time or very anxious i just turn on one of your videos and just relax. Keep up the amazing work❤️❤️
Great to hear, thanks for watching! :D
Links mother was a hylian woman and his father was a hylian guard and his father died in the war and his mother had to flee so she fled to the kokiri forest and left link as a baby with the Great deku tree
10:39 Well, only a Century so not that distant.
OoT has a manga (I think). Link's father had an epic moustache and he was a Captain of his group of soldiers/guards. He died fighting. Link's mother brings the young Hylian to the forest, speaks with the Great Deku Tree and begs him to accept Link.
Unfortunately, regular people aren't really supposed to be in Kokiri Forest for long. His mother passed out from exhaustion and somehow becomes a tree and is actually the treehouse Link lives in/starts the game in.
PLEASE don't quote me on this, I remember reading/listening about it somewhere. I wish more people knew about it so I could confirm that I'm not crazy.
Sounds like the old comic from the early 2000s!
I do believe that while Breath of the Wild doesn’t actually show his father, Zelda does talk about him, about how he was a knight.
I've always found it quite odd that Link's Uncle apparently sleeps in a chair in A Link To The Past. Maybe that points to Link not living with him for long/permanently?
I mean the interior of Hyrule Castle is shown to be made of a bunch of empty rooms and corridors with no _bedrooms_ for either the king, Zelda, the royal guards or other subjects in A Link to the Past, The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess so i would take the lack of a second bed inside Link's house as more of a simple oversight on the part of Nintendo who did not bother in adding a second bed for Link's Uncle's to sleep on than a Lore based statement regarding him using the one chair inside the small house as his bed.
I always thought that Link's mother had to do with the goddess Hylia!
I love these lore videos! Cheers man
Ay thank you! :D
Link's Dad in creating a champion looks Alfonzo
Something Im surprised, & even disappointed, we dont see in botw & totk is members of Link's family. As he hadnt had kids of his own, I was thinking we would've seen a great niece or nephew of his. He could've tracked down his family & found descendants of his sister. What seems to have happened is they died in the calamity & werent even at least featured
What makes a hero? Tragedy
Sometimes while in some other instances it is simply the heroic _deeds_ which they carry to save the defenseless.
Having to experienced tragedies does not always make you a hero. A hero is about standing up for those who can’t defend themselves and give people hope. Miles Morales from the Spiderverse trilogy is the perfect example.
@@a.jthomas6132 Peter Parker is another such good example who, if we're been honest here, is far more recognizable as the original Spider-Man.
@@a.jthomas6132 well duh. I didn't mean what literally makes a hero, I meant what creates a hero whatever
In the Ocarina of Time, what if Link was a descendant of the opposing forces of the Hylian civil war? What if Link was a member of a house who either opposed the Kingdom of Hyrule or had a legitimate claim to the thrown? That may mean all those people the Shieka tortured to death for the royal family were members and attendants of Link's house.
Link’s dad is a Royal Knight so,
Link’s family is of ROYAL knights so,
The NPC in Totk guarding Hyrule Castle says:”I mean you’re From Here”.
So, ZELDA AND LINK ARE RELATED MAYBE by 40 yrs??
I’m kidding Hyrule castle house many People
10:36 I’m pretty sure somewhere it says that the hero of time is the hero of twilight’s dad but I might me misremembering it
Ancestor, not dad, like a great-grandfather or something
Im pretty sure its ben confirmed that twilight takes place 100 years after oot/mm so hero shade would be his grandfather or great grandfather
day 63 of mentioning that on 6/6/2023 hyrule gamer made a video where, at 43.46, he spent 12 seconds simping about the ancient gerudo soldiers
I theorize that it's more than likely link is in some case a royal bastard (botw and minish are strong possibilities as he is raised by people close to the royal family ; oot : his mother die and we never see the queen...)
I'm glad I get to give my Link a full family in my comic.
I always think how Link was based off of Peter Pan, a notorious orphan.
Isn’t the pictograph guy in Wind Waker hinted at being Link’s grandfather? I may be mistaken.
Lenzo did seem "fond" of Link's grandma leading some to believe he may have enjoyed a brief romance with her leading to the birth of either Link's dad or mom before his eventual departure to Windfall Island. Personally i don't buy this theory due to how convenient it would be for him to have fathered a child with Grandma only for her to never mention anything suggesting having her husband/boyfriend forcing her to take care of their child by herself without any support whatsoever. The odds for this scenario are simply too low for me to even consider it plausible.
Can you do a video about the history of the royal family of Hyrule?
I'll note down the idea!
...and Bob is his uncle!
Links arm is covering the bottom of the E in lore. I thought it said Links Family Lorf
When I was younger, I came up with the theory that in Ocarina of Time, Link's Mom was the Queen of Hyrule. Link's Dad was never mentioned, and neither was Zelda's mother, and Link and Zelda looked a lot alike. So I figured they were twin siblings separated through tragedy, kind of like Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia.
It would make for an interesting dynamic, and would kill any Zelink for that particular incarnation (hopefully).
I'm sure this was a "theory" which many fans came up with when they first played through Ocarina of Time yet as i recall it was completely disproven by Ocarina of Time director Eiji Aonuma who outright denied such a possibility.
Definitely no Zelink in OoT. He married Malon.
@@javiervasquez625 I've researched this theory extensively and to my knowledge, neither Eiji Aonuma nor any other Zelda developer has ever commented on it or acknowledged it at all. The lore is ambiguous enough that you can read their relationship that way without contradicting anything in the canon, but can also ignore it and read the relationship as platonic or romantic if you choose. You'll find the developers avoid talking about the subject of Link and Zelda's relationship for the same reasons they avoid clarifying it in the game itself. The ambiguity allows every player to interpret it how they want, so everyone is pleased. There is no incentive to destroy this.
@@momohoney5934 Problem with that conclusion arises when you learn that the King of Hyrule eventually *met* Link _face to face_ in the Child Timeline and despite having his own daughter at his side as a reference to COMPARE the facial likeness between the 2 supposed "brother and sister" neither the king or Zelda or Link ever saw any such likeness that would make them realize he's none other than the king's missing son (who's NEVER said to have gone missing during the Hyrulean Civil War mind you).
Furthermore Twilight Princess makes no reference or hint at the Hero of Time been a _prince_ of Hyrule who, in case you haven't noticed, went on to become a loyal _knight_ at the service of the Royal Family as proven by the Hero's Shade's coat of armor fashioned after an owl in reference to the Triforce of Wisdom which is the Triforce piece most attributed to the Royal Family as seen in both Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker. For the Hero of Time to become a mere a knight instead of been recognized as the prince who prevented Ganondorf's conquest over the entire world only utterly confirms without a shadow of a doubt that he is not the son of the king from Ocarina of Time after no one within the Royal Family was able to recognize any ressemblance whatsoever between the king, Link and Zelda.
As to the detail surrounding Aonuma making a statement denying the theory altogether i'm pretty sure there's an interview somewhere which has him outright denying such possibility as simple fan theorizing without giving it any serious thought or consideration for fans to be invested in such a possibility been real. If there's the chance that it wasn't Aonuma who made such a statement then it's most probable that it was none other than Shigeru Miyamoto _himself_ sometime after the release of Ocarina of Time.
@@javiervasquez625I'm sorry but unless you can source the interviews in question, I cannot accept this as evidence of anything other than your vivid imagination, because I've combed through all of them and this has been a pet theory of mine since 1998. If there was developer word debunking it, believe me, I would know.
I'm not going to debate every aspect of this theory either, this is not the place for it. I'm just going to say we have no evidence Link met the King in person, only that he warned the princess about Ganondorf's betrayal. Furthermore, a child who went missing as an infant for over ten years can be unrecognisable even to their closest family. This is something that happens in real life and has been the basis for many (typically tragic) stories in fiction. Even if Link was acknowledged as the long lost prince, royalty can abandon their birthright if they choose to follow their own path. Again, there are countless stories, both fictional and historical along these exact lines. Prince Harry of the British royal family is a recent example.
Honestly, I've been involved in Zelda theorising for years and years, and this is far from the wildest theory I've seen. Unless you are a zelink shipper, it's pretty mild and inoffensive. And if you are a shipper, you can just ignore it. The canon can accommodate either preference.
a non totk video?? let's gooooo!!
let's go indeed!
Nintendo didn’t put any thought into lore. Every game seems to be its own thing.
And we do the fun part, trying to tie things together!
@@HyruleGamer I couldn’t imagine trying to start a Zelda wiki and trying to get all this accurate information when Nintendo makes it so difficult to do so
The heroes shade is not nessisarily related to link by family. Unlike Zelda, a link is not always going to be within the same family line..which makes sense for a multitude of levels. Thematically it shows being a Link is not about lineage like being royal but about being a hero. Hylia will always reincarnate in a member of her own line but Link will show up when Hyrule needs him, in the most likely being. Its less about him being born as the hero and more the vessel already predestined to be who they are being the best fot for his spirit in the time of need and thus it manifesting in them. Narritively this is important. This means any Link can also fail as the vessel is variant. It's always the best at the time, not the perfect one to succeed. We know a link can die because of the hero falls timeline..which supports all Links are not related. As the last known in his direct family after his mother saves him, Link dying without children of his own should likely mean no others can exist later on if it were like with Zelda. But anyone can be born as a Link. Another hero will show up in another family. That's part of why Zelda and the Royal family are always targeted by servants of demise. If the entire royal family is snuffed, Hylia has no target to reincarnate in. That is the vulnerable point. Link however can always return to support hyrule if she is around and there are other living beings that show courage. It's never even stated that Link HAS to be a Hylian. We get implications in TotK that the prior incarnation that we get the costume for had much more Zonai in him. By the point he lived, the iteration of Zelda for the time was more Hylian looking despite having Zonai blood, but the Hero is depicted to be still a lot more pureblood..which leads to another aspect..if Link was always incarnated in the same family line..this would have some VERY disturbing incestial implications. If a Link and Zelda wind up together and having kids, it means future Links and Zeldas would be directly blood related. This is clearly not rhe case. The inference seems to be that Links come from knights or warriors closer tot he royal family than directly in the line. This is likly because these are the individuals in Hyrule with the most potential as a Link. As a result, some COULD be related but don't have to be. The heroes shade is inferedly another split of the ocarina Link, specifically the Majoras Mask timeline where he winds up in Termina. Reguardless how you interpret that game, it is pretty clear that link does not return or have offspring by the shades main point of falling before passing down his skills to an hier. TLP Link thus cant be decendes from the hero of time directly. Having his family obscure helps reinforce these points. Keeping it vague means we don't narratively question his familial relation to Zelda or other links which can be problematic in a few ways. Doing this helps keep the periods of time between games vague and enables for future iterations to be inserted in more easily. Doing this also supports the core point of what makes a hero. It isnt nessisarily about blood but about heart. It would be a bit off for him to go on these very self sacrificing journeys too, especially when depicted as a kid, if he had family. We question why there would allow this, why they are not helping, and how heroic it is when he has people relying on him at home. Keeping the story mainly about link and the current adventure reduces this complication. Having him orphaned in the forest or brought into the adventure through his sister were some ways around this but I think BotW was the best case of eating their cake and having it too. Since it starts you off 100 years after Link fell and has the abilty to hide tidbits of background lore through the game, there is the room for a sensible narrative wothout getting in the players way with the current goal. They are able to explain that Link was simply becoming a soldier when he saved Zelda, was turned into her bodyguard and then hings naturally progressed as the threat behind the adventure continued to surface. We get hints as Links past vulnerabilities and relationships. Detailed storytelling that would not work as well in past iterations.
You just know that even Link didn't have any family by the beginning of BOTW, he had some after TOTK 😏
Absolutely lmao
I would love to see Link and Zelda started a family of their own. It would be very heartwarming and wholesome if they have a daughter named after Sonia.
Smash
Awesome Video Bro! If Hyrule Warriors was canon and so was Linkle what would she be?
I'm not entirely sure on that one 😅
Well it has been said been said the Linkle is like a sister to him. Though we never truly see them meet in story.
Well if you wanna dig into some non canon material there's some crazy stuff about Link's family there. With the most famous one being a manga adaptation of the first game made Link and Zelda half siblings.
Oh yeah for sure, the non canon lore is crazy cool!
The manga adaptations of the games flesh out his family much better than the games
Cool Video
Thank you for watching!
Yes we will.
In the books his mom dies delivering him to the deku tree
I think Link and Zelda are brothers and sister because his uncle dies telling him before he died that Zelda was his .....
Happy Sunday everyone
Have a good one!
Haha I made it early once again :) I started learning to knit btw 😂
Oh nice, good luck learning to knit!
Here the the thing. To nintendo link's family must give agency to the player to keep going though the game. For example link to the past his uncle teaches link spin attack tells him to rescue zelda. Wind Waker grandma gives link the green tunic and his sister is used as a conduit to introduce ganondawarf. So if nintendo were to introduce parents to the mix they will need to give the player agency to do a thing. After all nintedo is a doing company the a showing comany. Example of a showy comany is square enix and naughty dog. Outside of nintendo an example of a doing company is ID soft, valve, and myself because I love nintendo desighn philocify because you can produce some intresting gameplay loops with it. If you want to trullt understand zeldas lore you must understand nintedo's goal with it.
I, unfortunately, have never played Twilight Princess, so excuse me if this is a dumb question. Shade is the spirit of the hero of time, the Link from OoT. But would that necessarily mean that TP Link is a descendant? Zelda's link seems to be familial, but Link's is the spirit of the hero, not necessarily related by blood?
As the Light Spirit Faron states to Twilight Princess Link:
_"Those (clothes) are only for one who carries the _*_blood_*_ of the hero... the one whose spirit is that of the sublime beast"_
Also as the Hero's Shade himself states:
_"At last, the skills I have to teach you have entered the realm of true secrecy. They are forgotten ways that do not leave _*_our bloodline"_*
The use of the adjective "our" which he uses during one of his training sessions with TP Link suggests a blood connection between the 2 which is corroborated by Faron's own use of the word blood in reference to the current Link been descended from a bloodline dating back to the times of a previous Hero.
That said you are very much right in that most of the Links in the entire timeline do in fact only possess the so called "Spirit of the Hero" as confirmed by Demise at the end of Skyward Sword without any blood ties connecting them whatsoever. Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess Links are the only 2 incarnations who are part of the same bloodline.
@@javiervasquez625 Thanks for explaining. I love learning about the older games. Now if Nintendo would give us WW and TP on Switch, I'd be ecstatic.
Spoiler.
Link in TP having the Tri-force of courage confirms that he is the descendant of the hero of time because the hero of time had the Tri-force of courage at the end of Oot on the Child split and there is no game in between that say that the Tri-force split.