Characters / A Tale of Two Rulers

The Characters page for the online comic "A Tale of Two Rulers". As this is a fancomic that uses characters found in the main series, these tropes should not be taken as canon for the main series.

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The Two Rulers and the Princess

Zelda

Queen of Hyrule

The Princess of Hyrule and the female protagonist. She kicks off the comic series by proposing to marry Ganondorf in order to end the cycle of war between them. Unlike her normally graceful demeanor we see in the games, here she is a much more proactive force dealing with the political messes of Hyrule and trying to maintain the peace by marrying the man who had threatened to burn down Hyrule countless times before. But it seems she grows some attachment to him as well...

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• The Alcoholic: Understandably speaking. She slips Gin into her tea and is noted for drinking heavily. Possibly due to the stress from the marriage, the work on politics, trying to juggle Rinku and any threats to her as well as if she should recall her Past-Life Memories. Gets zig-zagged later on when Ganondorf gets her to stop drinking during her pregnancy.
• Befriending the Enemy: Downplayed. Zelda has no intention of befriending Vaati initially, but after spending some time working together she's open to the idea. Admitting this is enough to change Vaati's tune.
• Benevolent Mage Ruler: She is the Queen of Hyrule and still knows plenty of magic.
• Clueless Boss: Although Zelda is the highest authority in Hyrule, she's also one of the least informed of things that happen outside of her castle. To wit, she was unaware of the atrocities her people caused against the Gerudo, and her lack of control over her own castle guards who try to kill Ganondorf (but of course fail spectacularly) is part of her issues. Part of this was because several of her forces were so focused on Ganondorf and his lackeys that they didn't think to watch their own people.
• Commonality Connection: Much to her surprise, she and Vaati bond over their shared love of magic theory when they collaborate on a Magitek project, and she actually starts to enjoy his company. It helps that he's too engaged by their work to keep acting like an Abhorrent Admirer towards her, but he notably drops the perving and even the sarcasm after she tells him she's willing to be friends with him.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Oh boy. Well, she was the unfortunate victim of a predatory teacher, who ended up raping her with her ending up pregnant as a young teenager. Her people then proceed to make rumors that she's a whore and her child is unclean.
• Lie Back and Think of England: The entire premise of the Marriage. Zelda accepts that, in marrying Ganondorf, she's going to more than likely have to do several marital things with Ganondorf, up to and including bearing children.
• Nay-Theist: She believes that if the Goddesses are real, they're evil. It's to the point that she allows chapels dedicated to them to fall into disrepair and rot.
  Zelda: If these entities are TRULY omnipotent, and not some simply powerful mages pulling the world's greatest fraud...then they are evil. They allow starvation, violence and disease to ravage countless innocent people. They forsake us in our most desperate moments, and demand our love and worship! These so called "goddesses" deserve nothing! ...Not even our acknowledgement.
• Nerves of Steel: Played with and subverted. She's the one who went to face Ganondorf, alone, on the cusp of him attacking again, all to propose the marriage. It gets somewhat subverted throughout the comic as it takes place, namely in that she's actually a nervous wreck beneath the queenly mask and tries dealing with any factors that could endanger the peace brought by marriage to Ganondorf or to Rinku.
• No Last Name Given: Subverted! When going over the wedding contracts, Zelda's last name is revealed to be Hyrule, making her full name "Zelda Hyrule".
• Odd Friendship: Funnily enough, she develops one with Vaati once the latter stops trying to seduce her and they begin to bond over their shared interest in magic theory.
• The Paranoiac: One of her traits is that she's constantly worried and paranoid of things falling apart with the compromise between herself, Rinku and Ganondorf and anything that could ruin that. Very visibly seen given the amount of scenes she spends worrying about things and being paranoid rather than being comfortable.
• Past-Life Memories: Out of the three Triforce users, Zelda has almost no memories from her previous lives. This gets pointed out by Ganondorf on some occasions, despite being the wielder of the Triforce of Wisdom.
• Rape as Backstory: Zelda was raped by a lecherous tutor when she was a child, which ended up with her getting pregnant with Rinku. This is the reason why she's fearful of intimacy with Ganondorf and part of the reason she curses the Goddesses.
• Scars Are Forever: Played with. The scar that Rinku gave Zelda on her cheek by accident is still there plenty of comic strips later.

Ganondorf

King of Evil

The King of Evil-come-Hyrule and the male protagonist. Surprised to hear Zelda's plans of marriage to satisfy his ambitions for Hyrule, Ganondorf goes along with it to see what he could do. However, as time goes on, we begin to see the more human sides of the King of Evil...

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• Anti-Villain: He was originally this before degrading to vengeful warlord. The Gerudo were suffering from lack of resources, especially as the land became a desert around them, and Hyrule wasn't willing to do trade with them. Thus they invaded Hyrule for the first time out of desperation for resources.
• Armor-Piercing Question: He's on the receiving end of one by Zelda, who calls him out on his power hunger in the first few pages and then throws this question at him that haunts him a good majority of the comic.
  Zelda: "Are you a man, or are you a pig?"
• Bad Boss: Though he's clearly close to Ghirahim, he still lets his temper get the best of him sometimes and takes it out on the sensitive servant, though he clearly feels bad about it. He's clearly NOT close to Vaati at all, to the point where Vaati is thoroughly blasé about being terrifyingly threatened regularly, and snarks back even after Ganondorf has left him bleeding. Hazard a guess as to which of the two is plotting his death.
• Berserk Button: Ganondorf has at least three of them.
  • Do not, under any circumstances, say he was a bad king to his people. Zelda learns this and wisely backs off on it.
  • Disloyalty to one's leaders and/or superiors seems to be one for him as well. He calls out the Hylian citizens for their mockeries aimed at him and Zelda, before saying that he may not be the king they wanted, but he'll be the king they deserve. The citizens appropriately shut up after that. Ganondorf also reacts very poorly when Ghirahim poisons Zelda when Ganon has refused to do so, and furthermore is peeved when Vaati proves to be a nuisance to Zelda.
  • Link. Ganondorf takes his defeats by Links hands very personally and nearly flips out when Zelda tries to give the idea to get along with him. Which is incredibly ironic, considering he gets along very well with Rinku, whom he doesn't know is a reincarnation of Link.
• Chivalrous Pervert: At first in the comic. He comments on how Zelda's kiss seems to be born from starvation for lovers and messes with her that she'll eventually have to sleep with him, but never goes too far without Zelda's consent. The pervert part gets deconstructed as the series goes on, implying it might be a coping mechanism with his past and it's seemingly gone as of present scenes.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Similarly to Zelda, Ganondorf's past is also sad. He was the child of a sex worker in a brothel who died before he could even learn her name, and he was forced to work there until he received the Triforce of Power. He presumably recalled all of his previous lives, who had their various failures at maintaining power, fear from losing their kids, sisters and lovers, and whatnot. He still even has nightmares of being attacked by Link, Zelda tormenting him by asking if he's a man or a pig, and even of himself telling him of how far he's gone in his power hunger.
• Dark Is Not Evil: He moves into this territory as the comic progresses, showing more of his good sides despite his actions in the games. He is still cruel and vicious when he wants to be, but he's also very capable of being loving and doting, doing his best to try and make the marriage work, be a doting parent to Rinku, and trying to force Zelda to relax while she's pregnant. And he ultimately wants to be a good and just king, which is partly why he actually increasingly respects Zelda's objections to some of his methods as time goes on.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Of a sort. Ganondorf's morality is cobbled together from the rest of his previous lives. This comes to a head when his battle against all of the worst prisoners that Hyrule has to offer kicks off for him as a show of showmanship and to earn the people's favor, while Zelda is incredibly horrified at the notion.
• Dissonant Serenity: Even as he's being threatened by the Hylian Guards to be killed, he continues to nonchalantly eat his stolen piece of cake until he's finished, sets the plate down, before starting up the Black Magic.
• Doting Parent: An adoptive version where he turns out to be one for Rinku, wanting to show her how to fight and giving her things in order to keep her happy even when he feels she'd be threatened, like if getting a new sibling would make her feel unsafe.
• Entitled Bastard: Ganondorf believes that if the world and everyone in it doesn't bend over backwards at his whims, then he has the right to make it. Zelda consistently makes compromises she's not comfortable with to accommodate for Ganondorf, but he refuses to do the same and gets angry when she doesn't immediately capitulate to his will. He browbeats her and tries to cut off arguments with ultimatums while working around the letter of their agreements to violate the spirit; and that's without mentioning how he throws his weight around outside of his marriage.
• Et Tu, Brute?: When he learns that Ghirahim disobeyed him and poisoned Zelda, he reacts in this fashion at the betrayal.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Despite being the supposed "King of Evil", he seems to draw the line at several points.
  • He clearly despises rape, threatening horrible violence onto the tutor who abused Zelda as a child.
  • He treats his children well and never mistreats them or used them as pawns for his evil plans, as evidenced by the way he speaks of how he intends to raise Rinku. Additionally, he is rightfully disgusted when he sees the Goron King's treatment of his son, going as far as to intervene by giving the boy an encouraging pep talk.
• Family Man: He appears to be one, wanting to be Rinku's adoptive father upon seeing she doesn't have one, and wants no less than twelve children from his union with Zelda.
• Gender Bender: By his own admission, he's once been reincarnated as a woman.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Ganondorf is initially not truly jealous, but rather sees Vaati's flirting as an act of disrespect towards Ganondorf himself, in keeping with his previous displays of prideful temper. Unfortunately, Vaati and Zelda soon bond over a Commonality Connection and develop a genuine friendship which plants insecurity in Ganondorf's mind.
  Ganondorf: "OK... well then... how about... ... ...we don't share a lot of hobbies, do we?"
• Hidden Depths: He has numerous skills you wouldn't think the King of Evil would have, such as knitting, and easily being able to tell if a woman's pregnant even if she doesn't know herself, as Zelda personally found out. It comes from the fact that he's reincarnated into a female-dominated society.
• If I Wanted You Dead...: Played with. Given the atrocities pulled against his people, Zelda asks if she were responsible for it in any way. Ganondorf replies that if she were, he wouldn't have gone through the contracts and wedding stuff with her.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Though his judgment is clearly clouded by envy and his decision to punish Vaati is clearly out of line, given the latter's track record with seducing women, Ganondorf has every right to be skeptical when Vaati begins to dote on Zelda after developing a genuine friendship with her.
• Knew It All Along: Played with. When Zelda is training at firing arrows and is dressed like Sheik, Ganondorf challenges her to an arrow shooting contest for a kiss. When it's pointed out that it is Zelda by a passing Rinku, Ganondorf says "I knew it was you all along, Zelda." Could possibly be truth, given he has the most vivid Past-Life Memories and could recall how she disguised as Sheik.
• Last of His Kind: Implied, given that Ganondorf doesn't know of any Gerudo in this lifetime aside from his own mother, and a good amount of their population was decimated thanks to prejudice against his race for his actions.
• My God, What Have I Done?: As the comic goes on, Ganondorf sees how far his war on Hyrule has gone when he's not only destroyed Hyrule Castle multiple times, but also the remaining remnants of the Gerudo Language; the language of his own people. He reacts with this trope.
• No Last Name Given: Averted! When going over the wedding contracts, Ganondorf's last name is revealed to be Dragmire, making his full name "Ganondorf Dragmire".
• Past-Life Memories: Out of the three Triforce wielders, Ganondorf has the most memories that are detailed enough for him to even recall skills from them, like knitting.
• Rape as Backstory: His mother was a sex worker in a brothel, and he was forced to work there in her place.
• Reasoning with God: Played with. Being on the other end of the divinely powered and backed Zelda and Link on multiple occasions have instilled a fear of the Goddesses into him and suffering their wrath. Because he wants his marriage with Zelda to work, he decides to try appealing to them in hopes that they won't do anything.
• Suddenly Always Knew That: Played with and with a reason unlike the trope. Ganondorf's memories of his previous lives are so precise that he can recall skills he had in them as well as knowledge and language he knows of. He knows how to knit, how to tell if someone is pregnant (partially by courtesy of living in a near all females race for almost all of his lifetimes), and recall the Gerudo language to a perfect degree that he can write a book on the Gerudo language in order to recover lost history.
• Villain Respect: Well, more anti-villain respect as time goes on, but before love his relationship with Zelda becomes one of at least mutual respect, which is entirely Zelda's intent. Later, while he and Impa don't see eye-to-eye on a lot of things, Ganondorf explicitly tells Zelda that he considers Impa to be trustworthy, which says a lot.

Rinku

Princess of Hyrule

The Princess of Hyrule, and Zelda's child. A natural troublemaker who enjoys playing pranks and dislikes doing actual high society "princess like" stuff. And as shown early on, is the reincarnation of Link.

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• Blade Enthusiast: Rinku has had some training at using knives, revealed that she carries at least one in her shoes at all times. It's up to the point that Zelda has "knife privileges" set for her.
• Child by Rape: The unfortunate product of an abusive tutor's attention to Zelda.
• Didn't Think This Through: She pushes Ganondorf into a lake...and she very quickly realizes how big of a mistake she made, and hides in a cabinet with Navi who calls her out on this.
• Hate at First Sight: A somewhat one sided version that later gets subverted. Rinku hates Ganondorf and thinks he's evil the first time she sees him through the window and tries to pick a fight with him at first, but later grows to like him as a dad. Possibly part of the package of the past life trauma as Link.
• Heroic Bastard: She is a bastard child of Zelda, and every bit as heroic.
• Heroic Mime: An aversion that seems to eventually and sadly be played straight. Impa points out that when Rinku regains her memories as Link, the combined trauma of the memories will make her go mute.
• I Hate Past Me: Rinku hates Link and wants to kill him due to the stories Ganondorf has been telling her, despite the fact that she is Link's reincarnation. Played with in that Rinku doesn't yet have her past memories, and so is unaware of the irony.
• The Nicknamer: Only towards Ganondorf, whom she refers to as "Ganondad".
• Past-Life Memories: Out of the three Triforce wielders, Rinku's memories are somewhere between Zelda's and Ganondorf's in terms of quality. Like Ganondorf, Rinku/Link recalls a good portion of the details throughout his lives. Unlike him though, his memories aren't as vivid as Ganondorf's.
• The Prankster: Rinku enjoys playing pranks on people, especially in parties, or to mess with people. For example, when she's got Ganondorf listening to her demands that she wants him to be good to Zelda and her, to not mess with her things...and then to give her swimming lessons while tackling Ganondorf off the dock and into the water!
• Shout-Out: Rinku's outfit at the wedding reassembles that of Princess Peach, complete with High-Class Gloves.
• Unwillingly Girly Tomboy: Princess Rinku hates having to wear dresses and acting like a stereotypical princess when she's rather spend her time playing games and pranks with the Skull Kid. She even latches onto the idea of Ganondorf teaching her to fight.
• Warrior Princess: Princess Rinku's training is to be a warrior, instead of something more purely courtly (in fact, she can't stand the courtly stuff). While still young and in training, she shows an immense amount of courage, even willing to fight and kill Ganondorf when she thinks he's a threat to her mother.

Secondary Characters

Impa

• Always Save the Girl: Implied for Zelda in that she places Zelda's life above both her own and that of innocent lives.
• Ambiguous Gender: Assumed by the audience to be a woman as in canon, but otherwise never actually confirmed. The only character to use she/her pronouns for Impa is Vaati, and he is not sure.
  Vaati: ... She IS a woman, right?
  Dr. Featherton: ... I have no idea.
• Large Ham: Though usually The Stoic, Impa is uncharacteristically loud when trying to give Rinku's pet pig "Zelda" a bath.
  "ZELLLDAAA!!! GET BACK HERE, YOU DAMN DIRTY SWINE!!!"
• Not So Above It All: The Skull Kid is prankster, and a bit of a thorn in the side of the royal family, setting up pranks and traps. Impa's not above setting up little traps for him herself.
  • Impa responds to Vaati's flirting with revulsion... until he changes form to "something that may better suit to [her] taste". To her credit, she still doesn't go for it.
    Impa: I don't respond well to threats, Vaati. [...] I respect the beauty of your craft...
• Not So Stoic: She's...unhappy when she learns that Ganondorf gave Rinku a war piglet...and that he said "Zelda" was the perfect name for her.
• The Straight Man: She's the most serious minded of everyone in the royal activities, having little time for any silliness. It puts her at odds with the prankster Skull Kid.
• Undying Loyalty: To Zelda.

Ghirahim

• Dragon with an Agenda: Most obviously to Ganondorf, as Ghirahim believes that Zelda should be killed and it should be the point of the marriage, in spite of Ganondorf's wishes. He tries to manipulate Ganondorf into poisoning Zelda, then he does so himself for good measure, which infuriates Ganondorf.
• Evil Chancellor: Played with. Ghirahim is this for Ganondorf, although Ganondorf is overall gaining more points in Dark Is Not Evil as time goes on, and later ditches the plan that Ghirahim made. Ghirahim's betrayal comes from him being an Overzealous Underling with a deep love for Ganondorf with no intentions of betraying, defeating or usurping him.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: To Ganondorf, he's willing to set plans into motion in the hopes of doing what he thinks is best for him, even if he doesn't want it. So much so that he immediately tells Ganondorf after taking one such action out of his hands, clearly expecting Ganondorf to be pleased.
• Loving a Shadow: Platonically speaking. It could be that Ghirahim remembers Ganondorf more as Demise and worships that ideal instead of the man Ganondorf is. However, he straight up denies this to Vaati, claiming he loves Ganondorf for who he is rather than what he is, and that Vaati has got it backwards by admiring Zelda as the incarnation of Hylia.
• My God, You Are Serious!:
  • When he hears of the plans to marry Zelda, he's appalled to hear Ganondorf actually 'considering' the idea.
  • He's also dripping with utter disgust when Vaati states his intentions to seduce Zelda.
• Prone to Tears: Whenever Ganondorf seems to be angry with him, he tends to cry. You'd think he'd invest in some waterproof eyeliner given how often it ends up running down his face.
• Psycho Supporter: His fanatical devotion to Ganondorf prompts him to attempt to murder Zelda against his master's wishes in a misguided attempt to "save him" from her.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: His fate after his attempt on Zelda's life: being resealed into his sword.
• Undying Loyalty: To Ganondorf.
• Villain Has a Point: Though he tried to assassinate Zelda against Ganondorf's wishes, Zelda did threaten to summon Link to kill him (something even she admitted was going too far), thus giving Ghirahim a good reason to believe that his master's life was in danger.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Vaati. An interesting example where it may be somewhat one-sided. Ghirahim confides his personal woes to Vaati and does his best to offer advice when Vaati's trying to work through his plans, but Vaati refers to Ghirahim as a coworker and outright tells him to stop acting like they're friends. The latter rejection causes Ghirahim's only non-Ganondorf-related tears so far.

Vaati

A Minish wizard masquerading as human and one of Ganondorf's minions.

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• Abhorrent Admirer: Vaati clearly has it set for Zelda, who obviously doesn't reciprocate. He stops flirting with her and instead views her with disgust after she threatens to inform Ganondorf of his advances. He seems to drop both aspects later as he is met with genuine friendship, and responds with sincere sentiment and consideration going forward.
• The Alcoholic: Zigzagged. It's not unusual to see him with a glass of wine in hand, and his lab when he's working on the portal is littered with empty wine bottles, with a few full ones in an ice bucket (along with a Sheikah Stone). At no point, however, does he appear affected by the alcohol; possibly a Furry Reminder given that Minish somewhat resemble pen-tailed treeshrews which feed on fermented sap.
• Befriending the Enemy: Downplayed. Zelda certainly doesn't plan to befriend Vaati, and he seems to expect that if seduction didn't work then she must hate him. It comes as a shock to him when Zelda admits that she's starting to like him and wants to be his friend, and shakes his conviction in his self-centred plans. After he discovers that Link is an oblivious little girl and that the Sheikah Stones/goddesses are aiming for ruin, he seems to cast aside his plans entirely in favour of Zelda's friendship.
• Berserk Button: Mention that he's a Minish and brace for at least a furious glare. Ganondorf and Ghirahim both regularly refer to him as a rat or a rodent, and on the rare occasion that he's not already in a foul mood that does the trick.
  Zelda: I'm well aware of your attachment to its power. Without it you couldn't maintain that wasteful spell to look human, could you?
  Vaati: ... THAT'S AN UGLY RUMOUR!
• Commonality Connection: As they work together on the portal, Vaati bonds with Zelda over their shared passion for magic theory. When Zelda affirms that she'd like to properly befriend him in time, his expression is surprisingly vulnerable.
• Dragon with an Agenda: A straighter example than Ghirahim who at least tries to look out for what he perceives as Ganondorf's best interests. Vaati wants Ganondorf and Link to go at it, after which he'll kill the victor and take Zelda for himself. He's even trying to find a way to kill Ganondorf without aid of the Master Sword, and is succeeding. Later on he manages to find the Master Sword...
• Evil Chancellor: Plays this much straighter than Ghirahim, given his position as the Royal Wizard and active desire to kill Ganondorf.
• Eye Scream: Zelda splashes an alcoholic drink into Vaati's eyes in response to his unwanted advances. It seems Zelda needed something nice and strong to prepare her for the wedding.
  Vaati: Was she drinking GIN or TURPENTINE?!?!
• Heel–Face Turn: The factions are muddied here, as the basis of the story is the two combining in an attempt at harmony, but if anyone in this case can qualify it would be Vaati. His relationship with Ganondorf was already contentious, and Ghirahim seems to think they're friends when Vaati doesn't, but the earnest care he shows to Zelda later on coupled with keeping Rinku's identity secret for her own sake indicates that if the unification falls apart, Vaati won't be standing on the same side he started at.
• Human Pet: He briefly floats this idea for Zelda as an alternative to murdering her, keeping her himself while Ganondorf makes it look like she died. The juxtaposition between this and his later scolding of Ganondorf for being possessive of Zelda is stark, and a sign of just how much her genuine friendship has affected him.
• Ineffectual Loner: Played for laughs in that he's trying (and failing) to work around the system he's stuck in to ascend to grander heights under his own power and cunning, to the point of rejecting assistance from the Sheikah Stone because it involves following instructions, despite it potentially elevating his capabilities to world-bending levels. Played for drama when he seriously considers following said instructions, coldly rejecting Ghirahim's advice and forced to realise that the main goal of his current plan is unattainable in any desirable way. Yet, this only makes it sweeter when he finally genuinely bonds with another person, and does so wholeheartedly.
• It's All About Me: Vaati is the only character in the comic with no genuine connection to anyone else. His plans are only to further his own ambitions, and every time he's present he's talking about how annoyed he is at inconveniences to himself or thinking of what he wants to aim for next. His soft, stunned reaction to Zelda's offer of friendship implies this lack of connections isn't something he wants, backed up by the sincere affection and respect he treats her with afterwards. After the only entity offering assistance proves a bad call, his self-centered plans don't last long.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Vaati's emotional disconnect from Ganondorf and Ghirahim leaves him as the vastly irritated (and completely ignored) voice of reason when the poison situation gets out of hand. He points out that Ganondorf could just tell Zelda the truth of the situation and it would be put to rights, but Ganondorf's pride won't permit it. He also tells Ganondorf to his face, after getting choke-slammed into a wall for no good reason, that he and Zelda have nothing in common as people and wouldn't even be friends if not for their political marriage, something Zelda confirms.
• Me's a Crowd: He can create numerous clones which he can use for different purposes. Ganondorf even regularly kills these clones in place of killing Vaati himself.
  Ganondorf: The real one doesn't pop so nicely.
• Morality Pet: Surprisingly, Zelda becomes this to Vaati after he stops romantically pursuing her and the two end up forming an Odd Friendship. Ghirahim even lampshades how out-of-character this is for Vaati.
  Vaati: Which gemstone do you think she would like the buttons to be made of?
  Ghirahim: Sorry, I can't get over how odd it is to see you care about someone other than yourself. What was the question again?
• Odd Friendship: Funnily enough, he and Zelda end up bonding over their passion for magic theory after he stops trying to seduce her.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: After finally giving in and following the instructions of the Sheikah Stone, Vaati learns where Link and the Master Sword have been hiding... he hides the Master Sword purposefully this time, and doesn't intend to breathe a word about Rinku.
  Ganondorf: You don't know what you're talking about.
  Vaati: Don't I? Oooh, Ganon, I know PLENTY. I know something that would destroy you and the only reason I let it alone is out of mercy to someone else.
• Shapeshifter Default Form: Vaati is a Minish, though we don't see his true form until Ganondorf forcefully exposes him. He needs to be wearing a potent and unstable magical artifact to provide enough power to maintain it, and everyone who knows thinks it's a wasteful display of vanity and pride. He clearly wants people to believe he's truly human and twice he's seen in a human-sized bed wearing pajamas and the artifact, strongly implying that he even sleeps in his preferred form.
• Shapeshifting Seducer: A tactic he tries on both Zelda and Impa, bearing similar results, though it goes considerably worse with one over the other.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Ghirahim. Potentially one-sided, or at least imbalanced. The two do confide in each other, but Vaati is much more guarded and refutes that what they have is based in friendship at all.
  Vaati: ... Stop talking to me like you're my friend.
  Ghirahim: I AM your friend!

Skull Kid

• Best Friend: To Rinku. And they've been best friends for, in his words, give or take a few thousand years, throughout many of Link's lives.
• Continuity Nod: Skull Kid wears the scarf Link wore in Hyrule Warriors.
• Imaginary Friend: What Zelda assumes the Skull Kid is, until she learns that he's very much real.
• Immortality: The Skull Kid has been living for thousands of years.
• The Prankster: He's the one who influenced Rinku to be a prankster herself. Among his pranks including unleashing spiders into the sauna, which Impa implies he's done more than once.
• Undead Child: Effectively. He got lost in the woods as a child and succumbed to deprivation turning into a creature that isn't quite alive or dead.
• Wham Line: He drops one that changes all perception on Rinku. He calls her Link.

Zelda the War Boar

A boar gifted to Rinku by Ganondorf.

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• Cue the Flying Pigs: Skull Kid saves Zelda from falling to her death by casting a spell that gives her wings.

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