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The Triforce Wielders
Recurring: Goddesses and Allies, Villains and Enemies, Races
Main Series: The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, A Link to the Past, Link's Awakening, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Oracle games, Four Swords, The Wind Waker, Four Swords Adventures, The Minish Cap, Twilight Princess, Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks, Skyward Sword, A Link Between Worlds, Tri Force Heroes, Breath of the Wild & Tears of the Kingdom
Spin-Offs: Philips CD-i Games, Hyrule Warriors, Cadence of Hyrule, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

Goddesses and other major recurring and/or Legacy Character allies that help out Link in several games.


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The Golden Goddesses

    Goddesses as a Group 

The Golden Goddesses

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/golden_goddesses.png
Clockwise from top: Din, Farore, and Nayru

The divine creators of Hyrule, Din, Nayru, and Farore. In ancient times, they descended to the chaos that was the world at the time, created the known world and the creatures within it, and then departed, leaving the Triforce at the point in the world they left it. The Goddesses have never directly appeared in a Zelda title outside of flashbacks to their creation of the world, but creatures named for them and artifacts bearing their power frequently appear.


  • All There in the Manual: They were first mentioned in the manual for A Link to the Past, but they wouldn't be portrayed in the actual games until Ocarina of Time.
  • Color-Coded Characters: Din is usually represented by red, sometimes orange; Nayru is usually represented by blue, sometimes violet or purple; Farore is usually represented by green, sometimes yellow.
  • The Dividual: They have their individual domains, but story-wise function as a single unit.
  • Fantasy Counterpart Religion: Essentially an analogue for the three kami of creation (zōka sanshin) in Shinto: Ame-no-Minakanushi, Takamimusubi and Kamimusubi.
  • Freudian Trio: Din is the Id, being associated with fire and power, and Ganondorf, who wields her part of the Triforce, is the power-hungry Big Bad; Nayru is the Superego, being associated with water and wisdom, and Zelda, who wields her part of the Triforce, is the wise and peaceful ruler of Hyrule; and Farore is the Ego, by virtue of being associated with Link, who defeats Ganondorf, rescues Zelda, and restores balance to the land in the process with a combination of wisdom and power.
  • The Ghost: They only appeared in a flashback scene in Ocarina of Time.
  • God Is Good: Whenever an evil great enough to demand it threatens the land, they will intervene to help stop it.
  • Greater-Scope Paragon: While Hylia is the Big Good in games that feature her, they're still higher in the Hyrule Pantheon's pecking order than she.
  • Have You Seen My God?: They left the world of Hyrule shortly after creating it.
  • In Mysterious Ways: The motives and methods of the Golden Goddesses are impossible for lesser beings to understand. Even Hylia herself can only theorize about the reasoning behind their actions.
  • The Old Gods: In Skyward Sword and following games, they are characterized as this. The Golden Goddesses are still vaguely remembered as the creators of the world, but direct worship is instead reserved for their underling Hylia.
  • The Omnipotent: They're not characters as much as they are a concept and they are all-knowing and all-powerful enough to forge an artifact of power that turns its owner into a Physical God. They are likely far, far above beings like Hylia, Majora, the Dragons and Calamity Ganon.
  • Story-Breaker Power: If they are even half as powerful as the legend depicting their creation of the Triforce implies, they are far and away too powerful for any other character in the entire series to compare to.
  • Top God: Of the "God of Gods" variety. The Legend of Zelda provides no shortage of deities, but they all pale in comparison to the Hyrulean goddesses, who created the universe and every living creature in it.

    Din 

Din, Goddess of Power

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/din_statue_tww.png
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mark_of_din.png

Goddess of Power, represented by fire and earth, the color red, and the Goron and Gerudo races. She created Hyrule itself, shaping the earth and the mountains.


  • Dishing Out Dirt: She created the landmasses and terrain of Hyrule with her power.
  • Ethnic Goddess: She is associated with the Gorons and the Gerudo, each of which is a One-Gender Race of strong warriors inhabiting a hot and dry region and commonly associated with the color red. The fact that a Gerudo man, Ganondorf, obtained Din's Triforce of Power is also significant. She's also associated with the Rito, due to Din's Pearl being in their possession in Wind Waker.
  • Fire Is Red: Din and her creations are strongly associated with fire and typically depicted with red as a dominant color motif.
  • Playing with Fire: She's said to have created Hyrule with her "strong, flaming arms", and is generally associated with fire, such as Din's Fire and Death Mountain.
  • The Power of Creation: She brought the physical universe into existence out of the chaotic void it once was.

    Nayru 

Nayru, Goddess of Wisdom

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nayru_statue_tww.png
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mark_of_nayru.png

Goddess of Wisdom, represented by water, the color blue, and the Zora race. After Din created the land of Hyrule, Nayru breathed her wisdom onto it, creating the laws of space-time.


  • Blue Means Smart One: Nayru is the Goddess of Wisdom who created the laws of the world, and she is associated with the color blue.
  • Deflector Shields: The spell associated with her, Nayru's Love, creates an energy barrier to protect the user.
  • Ear Fins: Her statue in The Wind Waker depicts her with webbed fins instead of ears, matching her association with water and the Zora people.
  • Ethnic Goddess: She is associated with the Zora, an aquatic race with a complex social structure associated with the color blue. The fact that they are described as particularly close to the Royal Family of Hyrule, whose most prominent member, Princess Zelda, is the wielder of Nayru's Triforce of Wisdom, is also significant. There are also indications that the Sheikah, a similarly wise, Long-Lived Tribe of Priests with close ties to the Royal Family and Magitek with predominantly blue Tron Lines, have some connection to Nayru, but the connection isn't nearly as explicit as with the Zora.
  • God of Knowledge: Nayru is the Goddess of Wisdom, and is usually also described as the one who established the world's physical laws.
  • Making a Splash: She's associated with Water via the Zora's Sapphire and similar artifacts.
  • Time Master: Implied but not clear — Ocarina of Time says she "gave the spirit of law to the land", implying she created the laws of physics and time. Additionally the oracle that bears her name explicitly has the power to control time. However, while the series often makes reference to a "goddess of time", it has never been specified if that is just an alternate title for Nayru, or a separate goddess entirely.
  • Water Is Blue: Nayru and her creations are strongly associated with water and typically depicted with blue as a dominant color motif.

    Farore 

Farore, Goddess of Courage

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/farore_statue_tww.png
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mark_of_farore.png

Goddess of Courage, represented by the forests and the wind, the color green, and the Kokiri and Deku races. Once Nayru created the law of the land, Farore created life itself, all creatures and plantlife.


  • Creating Life: She created all life in Hyrule.
  • Ethnic Goddess: She is associated with the Kokiri, a plantlike race with close connections to nature associated with the color green. The fact that the Hero of Time incarnation of Link, the first to wield Farore's Triforce of Courage, was raised among them is also significant. By extension, the Koroks are also associated with Farore.
  • Fertility Goddess: Farore was the goddess who created life. Though she is mostly known as the Goddess of Courage, and is specifically the one who blesses and empowers the chosen hero, her other blessings and sacred relics may also help various forms of life flourish.
  • Flash Step: Farore's Wind, the spell associated with her, allows the user to teleport.
  • Green Means Natural: Farore and her creations are strongly associated with nature and plant life and typically depicted with green as a dominant color motif.
  • Heroic Spirit: It's implied that while Zelda gets great wisdom and Ganondorf great power, the Triforce of Courage grants Link this trope. Being the Goddess of Courage, it only makes sense.
  • Humans Are Special: Created all manner of endlessly diverse lifeforms in Hyrule and beyond its borders. Hylians were according to legend said to be her chosen people who would uphold all Nayru's laws.
  • Wind Is Green: She's associated with wind, and her spell in Ocarina of Time, Farore's Wind, is green.

Other Holy Figures

    The Triforce 

The Triforce

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TriforceALttP.jpg

The Golden Power, these three triangular artifacts were left behind when the Golden Goddesses returned to the heavens after creating Hyrule. It consists of the Triforce of Power (the top piece), the Triforce of Wisdom (the bottom left piece), and the Triforce of Courage (the bottom right piece). Any mortal who holds all three pieces will be granted the ability to achieve whatever one desires, and even holding just one piece will give its wielder unmatched magic power. Many wars were fought for possession of the Triforce, requiring those sworn to protect Hyrule to seal it away and suppress knowledge of it. Link, Zelda, and Ganon are the only people shown to consistently keep hold of pieces of the Triforce. Several games portray the Triforce as a sapient entity on its own.


  • Benevolent Genie: Yes and no. The Triforce cannot and will not distinguish between a good wish and an evil wish — however, it can speak to its owners and offer guidance, and its very being contains several failsafes to prevent an evil owner from attaining absolute power. If touched by someone without a proper balance of seeking Power, Wisdom and Courage, it will only grant him or her the piece they most embody and then hide inside those who embody the other two. If this doesn't work and the Triforce is re-combined, then the power and application of the wish still depends on the heart and will, as well as whether or not they possess those three virtues. If you still lack Courage and Wisdom, then you will make a cowardly, stupid wish and the Triforce will give you exactly what you asked for.
  • Cosmic Keystone: The Triforce's wish-granting powers are indicated to be a result of it being the primary link between the gods and their creations. Indeed, when the people of Lorule decided to destroy their Triforce to put an end to the conflict over it, their land started to be consumed by the void between dimensions.
  • A Day in the Limelight: We don't often see the united Triforce actually grant wishes, but almost always in games where we do, the Triforce serves as an extremely important plot point. To date, we've seen it a grand total of four times.
    • It forms the crux of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, where Ganon had already wished upon it and gained control over the Dark World, and now he has his sights set on Hyrule proper. It is up to Link to kill him and to wish the world back to a balanced state.
    • The second half of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker centers around reassembling the shattered Triforce of Courage, and King Daphnes wishes upon the Triforce to bury Hyrule beneath the seas once and for all.
    • In The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, the Triforce is only vaguely alluded to for most of the game, but upon completing Sky Keep, Link is able to wish upon the Triforce, which he does to destroy Demise.
    • Finally, in The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, both the Hyrulean and Lorulean Triforces are major plot points, as the Lorulean Triforce has been completely destroyed, and this is causing the land to fall into utter ruin. Thus, Hilda is seeking to take the Hyrulean Triforce for herself to let its light shine on Lorule once again, but her plans fail because Yuga betrays her. However, with the Triforce reassembled in Hyrule in the epilogue, Princess Zelda wishes for the restoration of the Lorulean Triforce, saving Lorule from its impending destruction.
  • Demoted to Extra: The Triforce has occasionally been portrayed onscreen without being mentioned by name or having its relevance to the plot explicitly spelled out. Twilight Princess shows that the Link and Zelda of that generation have inherited their pieces of the Triforce from their Ocarina of Time ancestors, and Ganondorf also has the Triforce of Power thanks to related Timey-Wimey Ball shenanigans, but much of this was only explained in supplementary texts like the Hyrule Historia, and the word "Triforce" is never even used in the game. Similarly, Breath of the Wild seems to imply based on the imagery that Zelda's Royalty Super Power is the completed Triforce, but the explicit story never describes it as anything other than a "sealing power." And that's not even getting into all the games where it's not shown at all beyond being portrayed on statues and fabrics.
  • God's Hands Are Tied: Skyward Sword makes clear that the Golden Goddesses decreed that none of the lesser gods were allowed to wield the Triforce. This is one reason that Hylia chose to shed her divinity in death and be reborn as a mortal.
  • Holy Is Not Safe: The Triforce may be a holy relic of the Golden Goddesses, but as an object representing morally neutral virtues, it makes no distinction between good or evil. It will freely grant its near-unlimited power in service to any being who can make contact with it, so long as they are not gods themselves. Ganondorf used the sacred magic of his Triforce of Power to transform himself into the demonic Ganon and has caused atrocities throughout Hyrule's history.
  • It Can Think: A Link to the Past and the Oracle games show that the Triforce is capable of thinking and speaking with the characters. Other games imply that this is the reason Ganon has trouble getting what he desires even when he has all three pieces; it goes out of its way to act like a Literal Genie whenever he has it but always gives the good guys exactly what they want.
  • Legend Fades to Myth: The Triforce frequently goes in and out of common knowledge over the ages. Impa's words in Skyward Sword indicate that this is in large part because groups like the Sheikah actively suppress that knowledge in order to keep the greedy and the wicked from seeking it out.
  • Literal Genie: This is why the user of the Triforce needs to have their heart equally balanced with powers, wisdom and courage—lacking one or more will make whatever wishes the Triforce grants corrupted and not entirely what the user intended. Ganon found this out when he wished to "rule the world" but only wound up ruling the empty Sacred Realm; his wish wasn't a particularly wise one.
  • MacGuffin: Many of the games' plots revolve around obtaining, restoring, or protecting the Triforce.
  • No Man Should Have This Power: The Triforce always splits apart to keep anyone without a balance of Courage, Wisdom and Power in their heart from obtaining the whole thing from the get-go. Even so, the very promise of its omnipotent power tends to cause civil war in Hyrule; Impa in Skyward Sword even spells out that its very existence has to be "hidden from mortal history" because it's too tempting. The backstories of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds also deal with individuals who do have the whole thing deciding to deliberately split it up anyway to prevent any wars among greedy individuals like the one that led to it originally being sealed in the Sacred Realm in the first place.
  • The Omnipotent: As the Triforce is directly connected to the strongest deities in the setting, it could grant any wish a wielder could have. Its only real limitation is the imagination of the one making the wish.
  • Only the Chosen May Wield: In theory, anyone who isn't a god could use the Triforce by touching it. If they aren't in perfect sync with all its virtues, they would receive the fragment most closely aligned to their values with the remaining two seeking out qualified wielders. In practice, ever since it was first split in Ocarina of Time the three segments have consistently gone to the trio of Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf. Zelda and Link have been the only ones to consistently hold the pieces of Wisdom and Courage respectively because they are deemed by the gods to best represent those virtues. Played with in Ganondorf's case; in the Adult and Decline timelines, he wasn't chosen by the gods to hold the Triforce of Power, but instead received it because his heart was not in balance when he first touched the complete Triforce. In the Child timeline, his plan was stopped before it began, but he was still "chosen" to bear the Triforce of Power just before being put to death as punishment. While his heart is deeply corrupted, it seems his sheer power is too great for the Triforce to not recognize.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
    • The Minish Cap deals with another divine wish-granting artifact called the "Light Force" that is also shaped like a golden triangle.
    • Four Swords Adventures has a substitute for the Triforce of Power in the form of the Trident of the Pyramid, which Ganondorf steals to become Ganon.
    • Tears of the Kingdom has the secret stones, Amplifier Artifacts that are initially owned and protected by the Royal Family of Hyrule, and one of which Ganondorf steals to start his reign of terror. They're also similarly shaped like something from Japanese history; while the Triforce is based on the emblem of the Hōjō clan, the secret stones are based on magatama.
  • Wishing for More Wishes: At the end of A Link Between Worlds, Link and Zelda wish for Lorule to have its own Triforce to replace the one that was previously destroyed.

    Hylia 

Goddess Hylia

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hylia_statue.png
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/goddess_crest.png

Hyrule's original protector goddess. She is the original identity of the very first Zelda, until she took a human form and began her plans to defeat evil. Her statues are magically-imbued sites of great importance for Link's quests in Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild. She continuously reincarnates alongside Link as her descendants, Zelda.


  • Action Girl: She forged the Goddess Sword and originally wielded it against the Demon King Demise, before passing it down to her chosen Hero.
  • Adaptation Expansion: She appears in a prequel manga included in Hyrule Historia, wherein she chooses the first incarnation of Link as her champion against Demise, and forsakes her immortality after he is killed to be reincarnated at his side.
  • Big Good: Working under the Golden Goddesses, Hylia protected Hyrule and the Triforce in the series' backstory. She is the one that started the Royal Family, created the first iteration of the Master Sword and chose the first Hero.
  • Celestial Paragons and Archangels: Statues depict her as a winged woman wielding the Goddess Sword.
  • The Chessmaster: She is said to have the ability to perceive events from beyond time, allowing her to set up plans that will take thousands of years to reach fruition. This has allowed her to indirectly influence events throughout the series despite having died thousands of years before the first game in the timeline.
  • Divine Birds: Her crest is a stylized pair of wings (most likely a Loftwing).
  • Divine Delegation: She was created by the Golden Goddesses to watch over the Triforce and the land of Hyrule that they created. Hylia herself is the boss of various other powerful spirits and divine beings that answer directly to her.
  • Divine Parentage: Without her, the Royal Family wouldn't exist.
  • Ethnic Goddess: Considered the patron goddess of the Hylian people, and in Breath of the Wild people primarily invoke her instead of the Golden Goddesses.
  • Fantasy Counterpart Religion: Most closely resembles Amaterasu, the Shinto sun goddess. Like Amaterasu, Hylia is the direct ancestor to the Royal Family, the most worshipped goddess (at least after Skyward Sword) and is often pursued by an angry storm god.
  • Founder of the Kingdom: While she herself had long died by the time Hyrule was founded, Mount Hylia, Hylia River, the Hylian people, and even the Kingdom of Hyrule itself are named after her.
  • The Ghost: Never makes a physical appearance in the games (not counting her mortal incarnation in Skyward Sword). She is only visible in artistic representations, such as paintings and statues, though she does speak to Link when he comes to one of her statues in Breath of the Wild.
  • God of Good: She is a benevolent goddess with the power to vanquish evil, an ability passed down to her mortal incarnations and descendants and imbued into the Master Sword.
  • God's Hands Are Tied: As a deity, she couldn't wield the power of the Golden Goddesses herself, so she had to reincarnate as a mortal just for a chance at using the Triforce. She's portrayed as only acting within her reincarnation (Zelda) in the games that name her, save for possibly manning the Goddess Statues and somewhat-pettily moving a demon she dislikes.
  • Great Offscreen War: She led the forces of the surface against the armies of Demise in the earliest known era of the series. The battle was so intense that she was forced to send the few surviving humans aside from her personal bodyguard on a floating island in the sky to prevent them from being entirely wiped out by the forces involved. It ended with Demise's defeat and imprisonment, but Hylia herself was mortally wounded in the process and died shortly after it.
  • Harp of Femininity: The Goddess's Harp is a relic that once belonged to her, and it is passed down through the Royal Family over time.
  • Lady and Knight: She appointed a Hylian knight as her champion in the war against Demise, presenting him with the Goddess Sword. This chosen Hero would be reincarnated as the various Links, tasked with defending the bloodline and reincarnations of the Goddess, Zelda, against the incarnation of Demise's hatred.
  • Living Statue: A quest in Tears of the Kingdom reveals that the Goddess Statues are independent entities from Hylia that need offerings to function.
  • MacGuffin Guardian: She was tasked with protecting the Triforce by Farore, Nayru, and Din.
  • Mortality Ensues: She gives up her status as a goddess to reincarnate as Zelda.
  • Our Angels Are Different: While referred to as a goddess she shares many traits with angels. She's a powerful, immortal and benevolent being but is still herself subservient to an all-powerful creator (or creators in the case of the 3 golden goddesses) that has been given a divine task and does battle with demons. She's also depicted with wings and a harp which are also common among angels in fiction.
  • Our Founder: Statues of her appear in Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild, and Tears of the Kingdom signifying her status as the founder and patron goddess of Hyrule.
  • Physical Goddess: She lived among and ruled the people of the world in prehistoric times. While the full extent of her power is unknown, she is implied to have been near-equal in strength to the Demon King, Demise.
  • Reincarnation Romance: When her chosen knight died in battle, Hylia chose to give up her immortality and allow herself to die. While this was a part of her greater plans, the real reason she chose to take this path is so that she would always eventually be reunited with him throughout all of their lives.
  • Sealed Evil in a Duel: Through her time-displaced reincarnation, the original Zelda, she maintained the seal on Demise with her own power for thousands of years.
  • Seers: She is stated to have the power of future sight, allowing her to make plans that allow the ideal future to come to fruition and to prepare messages from the present to the future. The Sheikah Monks in Breath of the Wild are also said to be blessed with her sight.
  • Time Master: She is associated with time-related abilities. Tears of the Kingdom shows that her descendants carry the potential to magically manipulate time, albeit to a limited degree.
  • Winged Humanoid: Her statues depict her with angel-like wings, and the presence of the "Goddess Plume" items in Skyward Sword indicates that she really did have them.

    The Master Sword 

The Master Sword / The Goddess Sword / Fi

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tphd_master_sword.png
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Fi_resized_full_4810.png

The legendary Blade of Evil's Bane often wielded by the Hero of Hyrule. It is later revealed to house a mind of its own named Fi.


  • Barrier Maiden: Was originally used as the final key to the Sacred Realm to prevent anyone unworthy from claiming the Triforce. By the time of The Wind Waker, most of her power was sacrificed in order to both seal Hyrule Castle and diminish Ganondorf's power. The Hero of the Winds manages to recharge the sword to defeat Ganondorf once again.
  • Breakout Character: Fi's unexpected popularity gave her a small, yet important role in Breath of the Wild, and the positive reception to that appearance led to her having an even more important (yet still small) role in Tears of the Kingdom.
  • The Chooser of the One: She decides who is worthy of holding the Master Sword, based on her impressions of the first Link.
  • Color Motif: Blue and purple/indigo.
  • Cool Sword: The Master Sword is a holy weapon imbued with the power to destroy evil, and it comes with a mind of its own.
  • A Day in the Limelight: Skyward Sword is this by virtue of being the sword's Origins Episode, definitively expositing its creation (albeit while retconning away previously told origins) and properly expanding on the concept of the sword having a mind of its own.
  • Early Installment Character-Design Difference: In A Link to the Past, official artwork shows that the sword has a yellow crossguard and a red grip. In the same game, its sprite representation on the title screen is purple, but is more simplistic (likely due to limitations), and its hilt has a sinister-looking eye on it. From Ocarina of Time onward, the sword would consistently have the overall design of the A Link to the Past artwork while having the purple color scheme of its sprite
  • Empathic Weapon: The sword is shown to have a mind of its own as early as Ocarina of Time, justifying how it selects the hero and deems him worthy to wield it. As of Skyward Sword, it graduates to a full Living Weapon.
  • Energy Absorption: The sword is shown throughout the series to be able to absorb energy to make itself more powerful. The Encyclopedia even claims that its power isn't permanent and needs to be refreshed in any number of ways to keep it as strong as it is.
    • In A Link to the Past, a tempered Master Sword gets imbued with the power of a Great Fairy, giving it the power to harm Ganon without a Spin Attack.
    • In Wind Waker, it absorbs the power of Wind and Earth in order to restore its blade and its power to destroy evil.
    • In Twilight Princess, the sword absorbs the power of the two Sols of the Twilight Realm, giving it the ability to instantly destroy monsters and break curses both created by Zant's power borrowed from Ganon.
    • In Skyward Sword, the Goddess Sword can absorb divine energy from the heavens to fire a Sword Beam called the Skyward Strike. Fi herself absorbs the three flames of the Golden Goddesses, which she then takes into the Goddess Sword to progressively change it into the Master Sword. After that, the sword gets one more blessing from a fully realized Zelda as Hylia, further enhancing its power to destroy evil. During the Final Boss battle against Demise, the sword is able to absorb lightning in lieu of the divine energy, as Link is cut off from the latter due to the fight taking place in a pocket dimension.
    • In Tears of the Kingdom, this becomes a plot point, as the sword has been corrupted and completely eaten away by Ganondorf's Gloom corruption. Zelda, sent over 10,000 years into the past, receives the remains of the blade and seeks to repair it as it is the only weapon capable of defeating Ganondorf. Knowing that the sword absorbs and is strengthened by power from Sacred Light, which she carries, she offers to serve as its power source herself, but learns that the Master Sword would need to absorb energy for far longer than she could live to restore itself. To resolve this problem, Zelda willingly swallows her secret stone to become an immortal dragon of pure Sacred Light and has the Master Sword embedded in her own forehead so that it may continuously draw power from her while Zelda slowly catches up to her own time as the Light Dragon.
  • Forged by the Gods: It was originally created by Hylia to serve as her divine personal weapon. It was broken and reforged into the smaller and weaker Goddess Sword to be passed down to her chosen mortal hero. The Goddess Sword was later infused with the power of the old gods and granted a further blessing by Hylia's reincarnation, empowering it and transforming it into the Master Sword as it is now known.
  • Gold-Colored Superiority: The Master Sword's golden-bladed form, which appears only in A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds, is proportionally the strongest weapon in the series.
  • Holy Burns Evil: The Master Sword is infused with the power of Hylia, giving it the power to destroy evil. However, in some games, it's not quite powerful enough when first acquired and must be either enhanced or re-empowered.
  • Iconic Sequel Character: The Master Sword is the most iconic weapon in the franchise and one of the most iconic weapons in gaming history. New fans would be surprised to learn that it wasn’t actually introduced until the 3rd game in the series, and it wasn't even the most powerful sword in its game.
  • Legendary Weapon: Her story is tied to those of the Heroes of Hyrule.
  • Leitmotif: As the Master Sword, a certain jingle that accompanies every drawing of the blade from its pedestal. For Fi herself, Fi's Theme. As of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, Fi's theme has become the Master Sword's main leitmotif, with the iconic jingle remaining for when the sword is first obtained.
  • Living Weapon: The Master Sword was stated to have a mind of its own as early as Ocarina of Time. Skyward Sword later introduces the spirit form of that mind as Fi.
  • Loyal Phlebotinum: The Master Sword is loyal to the Hero, regardless of his current incarnation. Several games have said that the sword is joyful to be reunited with its master when Link comes to claim it.
  • Minor Major Character: Fi is technically and retroactively in every game the Master Sword appears in, it's just that Fi herself doesn't come out to speak to her current wielder aside from Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild, but in the latter we don't hear what she says. Only Link and Zelda do. She later does the same in Tears of the Kingdom.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: She is technically responsible for Ganondorf, Demise's reincarnation/descendant getting a hold of the Triforce in the first place, due to sealing Link for 7 years until he was old enough to wield her in Ocarina of Time.
  • Only the Chosen May Wield: While those not considered evil can touch the sword, the Master Sword refuses to allow anyone aside from the Hero to wield it. Even then, each incarnation of the Hero must prove himself worthy of the blade's power by completing great deeds beforehand.
  • Only the Worthy May Pass: The Sword may be loyal to the spirit of the Hero, but Link usually must find some way to prove himself worthy of the blade before he can wield it:
    • In A Link to the Past, the sword only allows itself to be drawn if Link has acquired the three Pendants of Virtue beforehand.
    • In Ocarina of Time, only those who have gathered the three Spiritual Stones may open the Door of Time and access its chamber.
    • In Wind Waker only someone who can gain acknowledgment from the gods as a hero will be allowed passage to its chamber in Hyrule Castle sealed under the Great Sea.
    • In Twilight Princess, Link must solve a puzzle with two guardian statues to gain access to the sword's ruined chamber.
    • In Breath of the Wild, the sword's chosen must be strong enough to draw it from the Pedestal of Time.
    • Subverted in Tears of the Kingdom, as the sword is embedded in the head of the Light Dragon. The sword requires no strength to pull, but it requires stamina to hang on as the Light Dragon thrashes wildly when the sword is touched.
  • Red Baron: "The Blade of Evil's Bane". Later retranslated to "The Sword that Seals the Darkness" in Breath of the Wild.
  • Reforged Blade: Sometimes, the Master Sword must be reforged in order to increase its power. Unlike most examples, however, the Master Sword is not broken in the first place, with the exception of Breath of the Wild, where the sword is pushed beyond its limits and requires 100 years' rest in order to be reforged, and Tears of the Kingdom where it has been corrupted and eaten away by Ganondorf's Gloom Corruption. In the Skyward Sword prequel manga included in Hyrule Historia, the original incarnation of Link is shown shattering the Master Sword in order to reforge it from a divine greatsword only wieldable by Hylia into a longsword he can use.
  • Reincarnation Friendship: Regardless of the eons or number of reincarnations, the bond between the Master Sword and the Hero remains as strong as it was when Fi served the Hero of the Sky directly in Skyward Sword.
  • Rewrite: The sword's origin has been subject to several rewrites that contradict and override previous origins.
    • The Japanese manual of A Link to the Past states that the Master Sword was originally forged by the people of Hyrule in the distant past to destroy any evil that may want the Triforce. The American manual mistranslates this to state that the sword was forged in response to Ganon invading the Sacred Realm, while future games would make it clear that the sword existed before Ganondorf was born.
    • When Link and Midna meet with Zelda for the second time in Twilight Princess, Zelda states that the Master Sword was "crafted by the wisdom of the ancient sages" rather than the people of Hyrule.
    • Skyward Sword most definitively exposits the sword's origin, as it was originally created as the Goddess Sword by Hylia, and it would later become the Master Sword due to the Hero of the Sky acting on Hylia's further instructions.
  • Sealed Good in a Can: The Master Sword is always found sealed away in a hidden location to protect it for the Hero to claim. After most games, Link usually returns it to the place he found it so that it can restore itself and be ready when the next incarnation of the Hero needs it.
  • Sword of Plot Advancement: In most of its appearances, the collection of the Master Sword marks the major turning point of the story and beginning of the second "act" of the game. This is not the case in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, in which it is not strictly required to reach the game's conclusion. In Tears, you are given the sword if you haven't obtained it for the Post-Final Boss.
  • Talking Weapon: Fi has the ability to speak from within the sword. While many characters allude to the voice within the sword, her voice is only heard by the audience in Skyward Sword. In Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, she speaks to Link and Zelda, but her voice is inaudible to the audience.
  • Telepathy: Fi can contact others through psychic means. She uses this ability in Skyward Sword to initially inform Link of his great destiny and to remotely contact the helper robot Scrapper to transport certain objects. In Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, she also communicates wordlessly this way to both Link and Zelda.
  • Villain-Beating Artifact: Whenever she, or rather the Master Sword, shows up, that's when Link has a chance at beating Ganondorf.
  • Wrecked Weapon: Fi, and by extension, the Master Sword, gets brutally reduced to slag by Gloom, Malice's refined form from Ganondorf's mummified body in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, compared to last time, where it was damaged and eventually repaired after 100 years' rest. She is eventually fixed, but retains a subtle difference in the blade's hue matching the area that remained from its near destruction as a sort of lingering metal scar.
  • You Are Not Ready: Fi's refuses to grant Link the Master Sword's full power until he has proven himself ready for it. Her adherence to this can cause just as much harm as good.
    • In Ocarina of Time, she sealed Link's spirit in the Sacred Realm for 7 years because he wasn't ready to wield the Master Sword. This also had the effect of letting Ganondorf get to the Triforce.
    • In Breath of the Wild she will actually kill Link if he is not ready to use the Master Sword.

Other Legacy Characters

    Impa 

Impa

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/impa_collage.png

Impa is a name given to each Zelda's attendant/nursemaid, though many characters of the name are quite different from one another. In most of her incarnations, she is a member of the mysterious Sheikah tribe and generally the leader of the tribe (if not the last of her kind). Beyond that, she tends to be either a youthful warrior who serves as Zelda's bodyguard or an elderly sage who provides Link with guidance and advice.


  • Action Girl: In some incarnations, she seems less a nanny and closer to a bodyguard. In general, Impa is either a young Sheikah not unlike a ninja, or she's an old and possibly portly woman. In Skyward Sword, she's both. Even the elderly version from the NES games managed to escape capture and survive monster attacks long enough to find Link.
  • All There in the Manual: She never made an on-screen appearance until Wand of Gamelon/Ocarina of Time. In the NES games, she only showed up in the manuals.
  • Cool Old Lady: When she isn't a young Ninja, she comes across as this.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: In Ocarina of Time and Skyward Sword, she's a fearsome-looking Ninja who dresses in predominantly dark colors and in the former game is specifically the "Sage of Shadow" whose associated temple is an undead crypt. She's nonetheless a good and heroic character utterly devoted to Zelda's safety.
  • Demoted to Extra: According to the Hyrule Historia, originally Ganon was just the bad guy and it was Link, Zelda, and Impa forming a trio that protected Hyrule. Then Ocarina of Time came around and Ganon became the third member of the trinity.
  • Facial Markings: Starting with Ocarina of Time, she has frequently had tattoos somewhere on her face, usually the Third Eye emblem of the Sheikah.
  • Last of Their Kind: A recurring trait with her is that she is the last remaining Sheikah. Except in Breath of the Wild, where the Sheikah tribe is fine and dandy.
  • Legacy Character: One who actually looks different in each of her incarnations, having been everything from a diminutive and feeble old lady, a muscular warrior, an overweight middle-aged woman, a tall, thin ninja, and a teenage confidant around Zelda's age.
  • Ms. Exposition: She always explains the backstory. Even back when she only appeared in the manual, her role was still primarily to explain the backstory. In fact, according to Word of God, her name is derived from the word "impart" because she imparts the legend of Zelda.
  • Miniature Senior Citizens: Her elderly incarnations are always portrayed as noticeably shorter than her younger incarnations. This is especially apparent in Skyward Sword, where we see her both young and old, and in the latter case she seems to have shrunk over the years.
  • Ninja: The Ocarina of Time, Skyward Sword, and Breath of the Wild incarnations are of the Sheikah tribe, a race of ninja-like people of the shadows. The Hyrule Warriors incarnation is also this, primarily based on the Skyward Sword incarnation in appearance.
  • Parental Substitute: Most games have her as this to Zelda, due to her parents rarely being mentioned.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: She frequently has these, as is fitting for Zelda's shadowy Ninja bodyguard.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
    • There is a character in Twilight Princess named Impaz who is implied but never explicitly stated to be a Sheikah descended from the Impa in Ocarina of Time. She claims to be a member of a tribe devoted to guarding the Royal Family and its secrets, and she has also been tasked with one day giving crucial assistance to a "messenger to the heavens" wielding the Dominion Rod (in other words, Link). However, she is also the only incarnation of "Impa" who never interacts with Princess Zelda.
    • Although Impa appears in Breath of the Wild, Urbosa more closely fits the former's traditional character niche of being a Parental Substitute who protects Zelda when Link isn't around. The prequel Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity shows that Impa did protect Zelda during her travels, but she was much closer to the princess's age and thus just a close friend rather than a mother figure.
  • Team Mom: She's Zelda's nursemaid in most of her appearances.
  • Undying Loyalty: As a member of the Shiekah tribe, her loyalty is to the royal family, mostly Princess Zelda. She's seen as Zelda's surrogate mother or bodyguard in various games.
  • Xenafication: Zig-Zagged. In the first two games, Impa appeared as a feeble old woman. In Ocarina of Time, she's a muscular Ninja. In the Oracle games, she's a pudgy middle-aged woman and is less active in the plot. In Skyward Sword, she's back to being an Action Girl Ninja as Zelda's bodyguard and also a short elderly woman. In A Link Between Worlds, she's once again an old woman. In Breath of the Wild she's an old woman, but mentioned to be a Retired Badass. In Hyrule Warriors, she's back to being a muscular amazonian ninja, but she's more conventionally attractive than her Ocarina of Time counterpart. And in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, a prequel set 100 years before Breath of the Wild, the Impa from that game is a Badass Adorable Cute Clumsy Girl who greatly resembles and has much more in common with her granddaughter Paya than the Gerudo Champion Urbosa, who is much more in line with how Impa was usually depicted.

    Kings of Hyrule 

The King of Hyrule

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kings_of_hyrule.png

The rulers of Hyrule whenever Princess Zelda isn't ruling on her own. Most Kings mentioned in the stories have been Zelda's father, though there have also been games that portrayed Kings who were her distant ancestors instead.


  • The Ghost: Early on, the king was usually referred to but never seen. This is most prominent in Ocarina of Time, where Link can peer through a window at Ganondorf bowing before the king but can't see the king himself.
  • The Good King: They've generally been portrayed as kind and just rulers. Even King Rhoam appears to be a decent ruler who cares about his daughter despite his Fantasy-Forbidding Father tendencies.
  • The High King: Usually, the king theoretically rule over all the races of Hyrule, but the lesser kings, chieftains and village elders mostly run local things on their own.
  • Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: The Kings always tower over Zelda. King Rhoam in particular looks like he could easily lift her in one hand.
  • Humans are Leaders: Hyrule is always full of many sapient, civilized races on a broad spectrum of humanlike to beastlike, but the reigning monarch of the whole country is almost always one of the very humanlike Hylians. The one known exception is Rauru of the Zonai in Tears of the Kingdom, and even then he and his sister are the last living Zonai who planned to pass their legacy on to the Hylians.
  • Killed Offscreen: In games where they get killed, their deaths usually occur off-camera and, almost always, in the backstory. The closest cases to averting this trope in in A Link to the Past, where the King's skeleton can be seen in the opening cutscene on his throne, and Tears of the Kingdom, where we see Rauru seal Ganondorf away alongside him and eventually decay into an arm.
  • King Incognito: Kings Daphnes and Rhoam initially hide their true identities from Link until the time is right.
  • Lord Country: The Kings in The Wind Waker and Breath of the Wild have the last name "Hyrule".
  • No Name Given: Initially, the Kings were never given proper names in the mainline games, though this changed from The Wind Waker onward.
  • Recurring Element: There is a fairly common tendency for the Kings to lose their lives to someone or something they initially trusted or underestimated (to Agahnim in A Link to the Past, to Ganondorf in Ocarina of Time and to the Guardians in Breath of the Wild). In Tears of the Kingdom, he instead loses his wife to Ganondorf, though they were both well aware of his evil and only pretended to trust him so they could monitor him.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
    • Gaepora from Skyward Sword is the father of that game's version of Zelda, the headmaster of the Knight Academy, and the implied leader of Skyloft, but as Hyrule has yet to be founded he is not a king.
    • King Tuft of Hytopia from Tri Force Heroes resembles a very foppish rendition of the typical Hylian king.

    Kaepora Gaebora 

Kaepora Gaebora

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kaepora_gaebora_artwork_ocarina_of_time.png

The wise old owl who shows up in Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, and Four Swords Adventures. A similar owl also appears in Link's Awakening, but is not named. He appears to give the player hints as to where to go next and what to do. However, his long-winded text conversations and Exposition Break manner of speaking made him annoying in any playthrough but the first one.


  • Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: Frequently turns his head upside-down.
  • Exposition Break: "Do you want to hear what I said again?"
  • Exposition Fairy: His main purpose is to give the player information.
  • Fantastic Fauna Counterpart: Even though he is described as an owl, he has a number of elements that draw from the great hormed owl, one of the largest living species of owls, most notably with the "eyebrows", the call heard in Four Swords Adventures, and his overall size, which has more in line with eagles.
  • Giant Flyer: In Ocarina of Time, he's able to pick Link up and fly him from Lake Hylia to Hyrule Castle.
  • The Owl-Knowing One: He's always willing to give Link some advice.
  • Shall I Repeat That?: Probably the most famous example. Players Button Mashing to get through his text boxes are liable to make him repeat himself, as the cursor always defaults to that option.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Of the Owl from Link's Awakening.

    The Sages 

The Seven Sages

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ssbb_sages_trophy.png
The Sages' spirits in Twilight Princess.

A group of people with special powers that they use to support Link and Zelda - usually after Link has to rescue them. The title of Sage is a hereditary one and the identities of the Sages change with each game they're in, though Zelda is usually considered one and if Impa is in a game with Sages in it, then she's one too.


  • Ambiguously Human: Different games depict them as being all human or being a Party of Representatives from numerous species despite the position of "Sage" being hereditary. In Ocarina of Time, Zelda and Rauru are Hylians, and then they have a Sheikah (Impa), a Kokiri (Saria), a Zora (Ruto), a Goron (Darunia), and a Gerudo (Nabooru). Then A Link to the Past shows the Seven Maidens, their descendants, as all being human. A Link Between Worlds, a distant sequel to A Link To The Past, depicts five of them as Hylian, a Zora, and then there is Rosso, ostensibly a Hylian but he looks an awful lot like a Goron, who otherwise don't appear in the game. Rosso may imply that the other races just interbred with the Hylians over the centuries, which raises more questions, particularly since Saria in Ocarina of Time was a Kokiri, meaning she is an eternally youthful child who presumably could not bear children.
  • Barrier Maiden: They always have some major role to play in keeping Hyrule safe, whether that be sealing Ganon away, maintaining that seal, or granting Link the ability to use or continue using divine artifacts against the villains.'
  • Chekhov's Gunman: In Ocarina of Time and A Link Between Worlds, you meet each of the Sages (except for Rauru) in the early parts of the game long before you (or even they) realize they are a Sage.
  • Damsel in Distress: Ganon and other bad guys usually target the Sages and imprison them at the beginning of the game, forcing Link to rescue them. Some of them are Distressed Dudes instead, but "damsel" is more common (A Link to the Past and Four Swords Adventures specifically make them the Seven Maidens).
  • Doomed by Canon: The presence of the Sages in the Adult half of Ocarina of Time heavily implies that in that timeline, all of the Sages from Twilight Princess (which is in the Child timeline) were killed, with the Ocarina Sages awakening to replace them.
  • Nominal Importance: You can tell which characters will be revealed as Sages because they are usually the only members of their respective races to have proper names. The only exceptions are The Wind Waker, Breath of the Wild, and Tears of the Kingdom where almost every NPC has a name regardless of importance.
  • Party of Representatives: Most games with the Sages portray each as being from one of Hyrule's different races and most readily exhibiting the attributes of each Elemental Nation.
  • Posthumous Character: The Sages in The Wind Waker and the Champions in Breath of the Wild were killed by Ganon before the main stories of those games began. In addition, the original Sages sans Zelda and Mineru are all dead by the time of Tears of the Kingdom, and Mineru is a Dead Man Walking who exists solely within the Purah Pad until a Construct is built for her.
  • Recurring Element: It is common for Link and one Sage being Childhood Friends (Saria in Ocarina of Time, Gulley in A Link Between Worlds, Mipha in Breath of the Wild).
  • Rule of Seven: As a rule of thumb, whenever they are plot relevant, they appear as a seven member group:
    • In The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, the seven sages are mentioned in the game's backstory as the ones that helped banish Ganon.
    • They return in Ocarina of Time, and their identities in-game are revealed: Rauru, Saria, Darunia, Ruto, Impa, Nabooru and Zelda.
    • The group also returns in A Link Between Worlds, with distinctive characters fulfilling the role of sages. In this game, however, Zelda is not one of them.
    • In The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, there are two generations of sages: one existing at the time of the founding of Hyrule, and another in the present time. As part of the first generation, there is Rauru (not a Hylian this time, but a Zonai), his sister Mineru, and Zelda, coexisting with unnamed heroes from the Zora, the Gorons, the Rito and the Gerudo. In the present time, Link awakens their descendants to assume their roles: respectively, Sidon, Yunobo, Tulin and Riju. This time, Impa, Zelda's Sheikah attendant, is not one of them.
    • However, in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, the group reappears as generic group of "wise old men", though lacking the Sage of Water, killed by Ganon.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The Lokomo fill the role of the Sages in Spirit Tracks, while the Champions fill their role in Breath of the Wild.

    Malon 

Malon

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/malon_oos.png

The girl from Lon Lon Ranch in Ocarina of Time, who also appears as a minor NPC in other games, from Oracle of Seasons to The Minish Cap. She's the one who gives Link his horse, Epona.

Ocarina's Malon herself is the second version of the character, the first having a starring role as "Marin" from Link's Awakening. Aryll from The Wind Waker is meant to be another incarnation of the archetype and was named "Maryll" early in development. Ilia in Twilight Princess is another counterpart, albeit as a semi-prominent character in that game. Kina from Skyward Sword is yet another close counterpart.


  • Demoted to Extra: Has happened over the course of her legacy. In Link's Awakening, Marin is a major character, having saved Link upon arriving on Koholint Island and teaching him the Ballad of the Wind Fish. In Ocarina of Time, while not a major character, Malon proves vital in helping Link get into Hyrule Castle and later is the one who gives him Epona. In all games since, she's a very minor character, only providing minor sidequests at best.
  • Escort Mission: In Four Swords Adventures. In Majora's Mask, you can help her counterparts in two different escort missions.
  • Farm Boy: Farm girl, really, but she's almost always a farmer.
  • Friend to All Living Things: The archetype also has an affinity for animals. Particularly cows in rural games, and seagulls in tropical ones.
  • Magic Music: Always has a lovely singing voice. Marin could use her song to summon the Wind Fish. Malon is the first to sing Epona's Song which summons the horse and gets free Lon Lon Milk from Cows. Kina's song at least keeps the patrons of Lumpy Pumpkin entertained.
  • Missing Mom: Like Marin, she has only her dad. However, her counterparts in Majora's Mask have both parents deceased.
  • The Nicknamer: In Ocarina of Time, Malon refers to Link as "Fairy Boy" because he's dressed like a Kokiri. In Majora's Mask, Romani refers to Link as "Grasshopper" because he dresses in green and patters about. In Link's Awakening, Marin along with everyone else will refer to Link as "THIEF" if you steal from the village shop.
  • Put on a Bus: Her last appearance in a Zelda title, not counting the remake of Ocarina of Time, was Minish Cap in 2005. Even Link Between Worlds, which references Lon Lon Ranch, makes no mention of her and doesn't even have the ranch itself appear.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
    • Of Marin from Link's Awakening. Hyrule Historia implies that with the Link of Link's Awakening coming into the adventure fresh from the Oracle games, Marin was formed from his memories of Malon (though the later-published Hyrule Encyclopedia contradicts this and says that Awakening came first). In Awakening itself, Marin is a stand-in for the absent Princess Zelda.
    • Malon herself has two 1:1 counterparts in Majora's Mask, Romani (child Malon) and Cremia (adult Malon).
  • The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Inherited this from Marin. Her dad always looks like Mario.
  • Wacky Parent, Serious Child: A rare mixed-gender example in Ocarina of Time. Despite her youth, Malon is clearly more on the ball than her laid-back, lazy goof of a father.

    Talon 

Talon

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/talon_oos.png

The owner of Lon Lon Ranch and Malon's father. He's good-natured but somewhat lazy. He shows up in every game that Malon does.


  • Bumbling Dad: Malon is much more level headed than he is, and better liked.
  • Heavy Sleeper: A Fetch Quest in Ocarina of Time and Oracle of Seasons involves finding an item to wake him up.
  • Lazy Bum: He has a bad tendency to fall asleep in out-of-the-way places and typically spends hours at a time asleep. Quests featuring him typically involve the need to wake him up.
  • Shipper on Deck: In Ocarina of Time he talks about Link marrying Malon when they grow up, though he claims to be just joking around.
  • Sleepy Head: Frequently found napping during the day.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Of Tarin from Link's Awakening and by extension, an expy of Mario. It seems he gets more Mario-like with each successive game. In Link's Awakening, Tarin's sprite looked a lot like Mario and he was associated with mushrooms and tanuki, but his character art was somewhat different. In Ocarina of Time he has the blue overalls and red shirt. In Oracle of Seasons, he has Mario's "M" logo on his hat, Mario's exact mustache, sideburns, nose, ears, and eyes. He even gives Link a mushroom as part of the trading sequence.
  • Wacky Parent, Serious Child: A rare mixed-gender example in Ocarina of Time. Malon is the sensible one of the two, and their authority is somewhat reversed as a result; when you first wake Talon up and he realizes Malon sent you, he is terrified, lamenting that Malon is going to be so mad at him before racing off to meet her in Castle Town faster than Epona can run!

    Ingo 

Ingo

The Luigi to Talon's Mario, sometimes called Gorman. Unlike Talon, he tends to be grouchy and overbearing.


  • Early-Installment Weirdness: His earliest incarnation in Link's Awakening was an unnamed Cucco Keeper who was completely disconnected from the story, not even relevant to any sidequests.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: While making Malon his servant under threat of abusing the horses was cruel, he wasn't wrong that Talon was a Lazy Bum in Ocarina of Time. Talon agrees and promises to work harder once returning to the ranch.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In Oracle of Seasons, Ingo is a collector of pottery who complains about how people seem to always have the urge to break them.
  • No Social Skills: Gorman in The Minish Cap is a real estate agent who tends to scare off potential tenants with his overbearing attitude, requiring Link to find one for him.
  • Took a Level in Kindness: Generally, finishing the sidequest pertaining to him results in Ingo acting much more pleasant.

    Anju 

Anju

A stressed woman who needs Link's help with a sidequest, usually something involving Cuccos.


    Great Deku Tree 

The Great Deku Tree

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/great_deku_tree_botw.png

The guardian spirit of the Kokiri tribe in Ocarina of Time, the Forest Haven in The Wind Waker, and Korok Forest in Breath of the Wild. He is cursed by Ganondorf at the beginning of Ocarina, and dies shortly after Link breaks the curse. A new Deku Tree grows in his place when Link is an adult, who tells Link that he is a Hylian and not a Kokiri. This is the Deku Tree that later features in The Wind Waker. A third Deku Tree serves as the guardian of Korok Forest in Breath of the Wild, though his connection to the other trees isn't directly mentioned. Although the Deku Tree does not appear in the Oracle games, these feature the otherwise very similar Maku Trees in largely the same role.


  • Ancient Keeper: The Great Deku Tree is usually entrusted with protecting divine knowledge and artifacts to be given to the Hero when he is next needed.
  • Born-Again Immortality: The Great Deku Tree can and will eventually die like any other mortal, but after death a new sprout will appear that to replace it. This new Deku Sprout will inherit its predecessor's knowledge, but will develop its own personality and have to slowly regain its magical power as it matures into a true Great Deku Tree.
  • Fisher King: As the protector of Kokiri Forest, the health and safety and of the area is directly dependent on its health. If it dies before a new sprout can replace it, the forest becomes infested with evil creatures.
  • Genius Loci: He's a sapient individual, but also large enough, in Ocarina of Time, that your first dungeon is exploring his cavernous interior. The one from Breath of the Wild has a small inn and two shops inside his trunk.
  • Legacy Character: The Wind Waker Deku Tree is a descendant of the original. The Deku Tree passes on its power and knowledge to each of its descendants.
  • Long-Lived: Unsurprisingly, the Great Deku Trees are extremely long lived. They will eventually die of old age, but they can easily keep growing for many centuries at least.
  • Mr. Exposition: The Great Deku Tree is an old and powerful spirit, so it will take the time to pass on bits of its knowledge relevant to the current crisis when Link meets it.
  • Nature Spirit: He's a tree that talks and holds dominion over the wild, untamed Lost Woods and Kokiri Forest. He also is guardian and leader of a tribe of magical beings; the eternally child-like pseudo-elves of the Kokiri in Ocarina of Time, and the Plant Person tribe of Koroks in Wind Waker and Breath of the Wild. In the second game, he's also responsible for trying to coax great trees across the islands of the Great Sea.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The Maku Trees of the Oracle games are ones of him.
  • There Can Be Only One: Deku Trees disperse their seeds regularly throughout their lives, but only one Great Deku Tree exists at a time. Whenever the current one dies, a single seed grows to become its successor. All of the other seeds will sprout rapidly growing, but otherwise fairly normal trees.
  • World Tree: A sapient, talking, magical tree of immense size, big enough in Breath of the Wild for his canopy to be seen from most places in Hyrule.

    Mutoh and Carpenters 

Mutoh and Carpenters

An irritable foreman and his crew.


  • Early-Installment Weirdness: Mutoh was unnamed in Ocarina of Time.
  • Later-Installment Weirdness: Their incarnations in Phantom Hourglass are not carpenters but rather a king and his Elite Four knights.
  • Mean Boss: Mutoh berates and criticizes his men all the time, but is willing to praise them when they succeed.
  • No Name Given: Mutoh had no name in Ocarina of Time. In Majora's Mask, only the carpenter Bremor was named. None of the carpenters had names in Oracle of Ages.
  • Spell My Name With An S: While Mutoh's name is unchanged in Phantom Hourglass, his knights have fancier versions of the names they had in The Minish Cap (Doyle is now Doylan, for example).

    Biggoron 

Biggoron

A Goron who is very big. Usually involved in a sidequest that gets you a powerful item.


  • Artifact Name: Downplayed in Phantom Hourglass; He's still the biggest Goron, but nowhere near the kaiju size he was in previous games.
  • Blessed with Suck: In Oracle of Seasons, his large size means he can't take shelter from the heavy Winter caused by Onox's screwing with the weather.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: His brother Medigoron stopped appearing after the N64 games.
  • Giant's Knife; Human's Greatsword: Medigoron's Giant's Knife and his own Biggoron Sword are too heavy for Link to carry in one hand (except in Soul Calibur 2 where doing so causes Link to lose health with each swing).
  • Meaningful Name: Biggoron is a big Goron.
  • Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome: Subverted. While he's hostile to the player in Majora's Mask, this is only due to Majora's brainwashing.

    Guru-Guru 

Guru-Guru

A jolly (usually) man who is perpetually playing the Song of Storms on his phonograph and is usually the caretaker of a windmill.


  • The Artifact: He still plays the Song of Storms in Majora's Mask and Oracle of Seasons, but Link does not learn it from him and his sidequests in those games have nothing to do with storms.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: Like many other characters, he was unnamed in Ocarina of Time.
  • Eyes Always Shut: Much like the Happy Mask Salesman, he only opens his when not happy.
  • You Already Changed the Past: He tells an adult Link about how a kid seven years ago played the Song of Storms and caused the windmill to go screwy. Link goes back in time to play the Song of Storms and make the windmill go screwy.

    Tingle 

Tingle

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tingle_tww_hd.png

The goofy-looking man who rides around by tying a balloon to his belt, floating in the air drawing maps. He first meets Link in Majora's Mask where he's jealous that Link has a Fairy Companion because he thinks that he's the very reincarnation of a fairy. He later appears in The Wind Waker, where he charges 398 Rupees apiece to translate the Triforce Charts.


  • Adaptational Badass: Certain games make him out to be deceptively tough, particularly those that place him in the protagonist role.
  • Adaptational Villainy: In Four Swords Adventures his primary role is to swoop in when a large amount of force gems are on screen and try to steal them from the Links. It's his only appearance where he's an outright detriment to the player.
  • Americans Hate Tingle: Although loved and cherished in Japan and some parts of Europe, he is despised in America and several other countries, to the point he's the Trope Namer for the trope of "a character is received in starkly different manners in different countries". invoked
  • Berserk Button: In The Wind Waker, if Link damages his golden Tingle Statues while the Tingle Turner is activated, he will attack Link with a bomb.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: His cheerful and flamboyant demeanor masks the fact that he's a greedy cheapskate who overcharges Link for maps and forces his brothers (and one guy with an uncanny resemblance to him) into slave labor for the sake of saving money.
  • Breakout Character: Stars in three Spin-Off games: Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland, a Tingle-themed reskin of Balloon Fight, and a Dating Sim/The Wizard of Oz parody called Ripened Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love. All were exclusive to Japan except for Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland, which was released in Europe.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite his eccentricities, he is a skilled cartographer, and in The Wind Waker, you can't beat the game without his help.
  • Butt-Monkey: Often suffers when on screen. In Majora's Mask, the only way to talk to him is to shoot him out of the sky by popping his balloon.
  • Camp Straight: He dresses in extremely tight spandex, moves and speaks quite flamboyantly, and believes that he is a fairy. However, his spin-off series shows him to be quite obsessed with women.
  • Character Catchphrase: "Kooloo-Limpah!"
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: After appearing semi-regularly in canon Zelda games starting with Majora's Mask, he disappeared from them after The Minish Cap, instead sticking to his own spin-offs. The most we've seen of him have been a Suspiciously Similar Substitute named Purlo in Twilight Princess and a Tingle outfit for Link in Breath of the Wild. Out-of-canon, though, he was made a playable character in Hyrule Warriors.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: He's a 35-year-old ballooning map salesman who thinks he's a fairy.
  • Fanboy: He seems to be a parody of a stereotypical Otaku; a middle-aged man who has allowed his childish personal hobbies (in this case fairies) to negatively impact every aspect of his life.
  • Flanderization: In Majora's Mask, he's a flamboyant and emotionally-stunted eccentric, but he otherwise comes across as fairly innocuous and well-intentioned. Wind Waker suddenly begins portraying him as being much sketchier and prone to engaging in illegal business practices, which has stuck with the character ever since. It reaches a point where his spin-off games are all about his single-minded fixation on amassing wealth for himself no matter the cost.
  • Gonk: Even if you look past the ugly costume, he's got a very disturbing face, not helped by the somewhat grating simlish used to convey his speaking voice.
  • Hero-Worshipper: A consistent trait of his is that, no matter the game, he will always fawn over Link due to believing him to be a fairy.
  • Honest John's Dealership: From Wind Waker onward, his prices are outrageous and his products are of dubious quality, but they're often vital to advance the plot.
  • Intrepid Merchant: He may be an oddball, to say the least, but he's willing to go anywhere and do anything to get Rupees.
  • Jerkass: While he spends most of his screentime fanboying over Link, from what we see of how he treats his brothers, Tingle is a literal slave driver. He also is far from above scamming Link out of hundreds of rupees for work he could likely do for far less.
  • Manchild: He's convinced he's the reincarnation of a fairy, constantly drifting around on a balloon and wearing a goofy green leotard in hopes that it will help the other fairies find him to take him back with them.
  • Narcissist: From Wind Waker onwards, he's prone to needlessly plastering his name and face onto things, and forces his brothers to act like him.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: It might just a coincidence, but he does look kinda like Nintendo's own Koji Kondo.
  • Nominal Hero: In certain portrayals, he's made out to be a greedy skinflint conman who actively tries to scam Link out of his cash, but he's always technically on the side of good.
  • Pointy Ears: Subverted, he's a "plain" human, not a Hylian. The pointy ears are part of his costume.
  • Stylistic Suck: As part of his Flanderization, chances are anything that's made by him from Wind Waker onward will be of visibly slapdash quality.
  • This Loser Is You: Possibly unintentional, but Tingle is portrayed as a pathetic emotionally-stunted man whose obsession with Link (and fairies in general) has made him an outcast from society. It isn't hard to view him as a parody of a hardcore Zelda fanboy.

    Postman 

Postman

A speedy mailman who's always running from place to place.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: His first two incarnations in A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time were not postmen but generic "running men", though the latter's descendants were postmen according to Wind Waker. The former also bore little resemblance to the later incarnations.
  • Inexplicably Awesome: The Twilight Princess Postman can not only recognize Link when he's in Wolf form, he can make it all the way to the final floor of the Cave of Ordeals.
  • Offscreen Teleportation: You cannot win the "race" against him in Ocarina of Time, he's always waiting for you at the entrance to Kokiri Forest, claiming he beat you by a second. In Twilight Princess, Phantom Hourglass, and Spirit Tracks, he shows up to give you a letter the moment you fulfill the requirements to receive one.
  • Schedule Fanatic: The Majora's Mask Postman is always either on his mail route or at home training for his mail route, unless Link gets him relieved from duty on the final day.
  • Silly Walk: The Spirit Tracks Postman imitates a train chugging along as he runs.
  • Winged Humanoid: Has wings in Phantom Hourglass but is not a Rito, whereas his incarnation in Wind Waker, Koboli the mail sorter, was.

    Epona 

Epona

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tphd_link_on_epona.png

Link's trusty steed. Link either has to obtain Epona from a ranch or starts with Epona from the beginning of the game, although in that case, it's guaranteed that Epona will soon run off, and Link has to find her again.


  • Ascended Extra: As commonly as Epona appeared in promotional materials for Ocarina of Time, you can technically beat the game without obtaining her as a mount or even visiting Lon Lon Ranch. But you do need her to jump over otherwise impassable fences in Majora's Mask, and she's not only needed for similar navigation in Twilight Princess but also for mounted combat, to the point that you need to ride her for one phase of the Final Boss.
  • Automaton Horse: She never requires any sort of care, other than the Sprint Meter that prevents unlimited spurring to full gallop. Averted in Breath of the Wild, along with all the other horses.
  • Badass Adorable: In Majora's Mask, where she's still a filly, carries Link into battle, and manages to make her way to Romani Ranch on her own after escaping the Skull Kid.
  • The Cameo: Appears as a carthorse in Minish Cap, pulling the Lon Lon Ranch goods to market. If you speak to her while Minish-sized, she'll ask you to buy some milk to lighten her load.
  • Cool Horse: As the hero's horse, this comes naturally, but she has some unique qualities of her own, like her chestnut coloration with white accents. In Twilight Princess, she's an enormous Clydesdale with a spiky facial marking who facilitates Link's Horseback Heroism by obligingly pulling some badass Rearing Horse poses.
  • Demoted to Extra: Despite Breath of the Wild improving horse riding more than ever, Epona is exclusively an amiibo-accessible bonus in said game.
  • Horseback Heroism: Link couldn't do this without her, after all.
  • Horse Jump: Epona is required to jump numerous fences (some actually more than waist high) and even a chasm.
  • Invulnerable Horses: She's completely impervious to enemy damage, to the point that trampling foes is a highly effective tactic. Her supposed injury at the beginning of Twilight Princess does not hinder her in any way, though, in that game, Link can be hurt while riding her. Breath of the Wild completely shuts off the invulnerability — Epona's as mortal as any other horse.
  • Legendary in the Sequel: The various incarnations of Epona have become legendary by the time of Breath of the Wild, to the point that the Stable owners refuse to restyle the current incarnation's mane out of fear it would be irreverent.
  • Meaningful Name: She's named after Epona, a minor Celtic fertility goddess and protector of horses.
  • Power Glows: Her mane glows in Breath of the Wild, and she has four stars in each stat - second only to two unique horses in Strength and Stamina and tied with the fastest possible common horse in Speed.
  • Power-Up Mount: In all her major appearances.
  • Rearing Horse: With some victory close-ups in Twilight Princess.
  • Sprint Shoes: Her primary purpose is to get Link to places more quickly than running.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Even in games where Epona isn't present (or in Breath of the Wild's case, only usable through amiibo), Link will still frequently have some mount or other method of transportation that has a similar crimson-and-white color scheme, whether that be the King of Red Lions in The Wind Waker, the Crimson Loftwing in Skyward Sword, or Prince Sidon in Breath of the Wild.

    Beedle 

Beedle

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/beedle_botw_7.png

A traveling salesman with some form of a mobile shop in each game he shows up in (except for Minish Cap, where he runs a normal market stall).


  • Ambiguously Brown: At a time when the only dark-skinned humanoids in the Zelda games were the Gerudo, he was the first and occasionally only Hylian to be portrayed with dark skin. The "ambiguous" part is averted in Breath of the Wild, where dark-skinned Hylians are as common as their light-skinned counterparts and are explicitly portrayed as coming primarily from Lurelin Village on the sunny southern coast of Hyrule.
  • Beetle Maniac: He has a beetle symbol on his shorts, and demonstrates a fondness for bugs in Wind Waker and Skyward Sword. His backpack is also beetle-shaped in Breath of the Wild, where he sells various sorts of bugs and small critters and is desperate to buy any beetle Link may have in his inventory.
  • Exact Words: The Complimentary Cards in The Wind Waker. You don't get stuff for free (that would be a Complementary Card), Beedle compliments you for being a good customer. This isn't as useless as it sounds — if you redeem these cards while currently injured, the compliments will heal you!
  • Honest John's Dealership: A mild case. His goods are quality and generally not overpriced, but with things like the Complimentary Cards and putting on a Paper-Thin Disguise to sell his premium items, there are still some shady business practices going on.
  • Intrepid Merchant: His shop boat/balloon/airship can travel all over the map, even into extremely dangerous areas. In Breath of the Wild, he just walks alone, carrying his massive backpack along the way, which takes quite some badassery to do in that particular age.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: "Beedle's Assistant", who is just Beedle wearing a golden helmet in The Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass.
  • Super-Strength: One semi-recurring trait is that Beedle displays impressive feats of strength for the purpose of peddling his wares around. In Cadence of Hyrule, his items are stored in a bag that's as large as he is and which he rolls around by hand, like a dung beetle. In Breath of the Wild, that bag of stuff now dwarfs him, doubles as a storefront, and gets carried on his back 24/7. And in Skyward Sword, Beedle has a flying house whose propellers are powered entirely by Beedle constantly pedaling on a bike! He's not even close to being out of breath, as he can yell at Link for wasting his pedaling effort if he doesn't buy anything.

    Old Man 

The Old Men

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lonely_old_man.png
Ghost Old Man from FSA.

A nameless old man who gives advice to Link. He first meets Link in the first game and has made sporadic appearances since.

Despite a prominent role as a giver of items and advice, the Old Man is never given a name, and has little identity in the story. Often there are actually several unnamed old men. Up until Breath of the Wild, the Old Man only appeared in the 2D Zelda games.

Other wise old men directly inspired by this archetype, like Sahasrahla, have appeared in other games, but are set apart by greater individual characterization.


  • Betting Mini-Game: In one location, an Old Man in the first game makes Link pick three rupees which either make Link gain or lose money.
    "Let's play money making game."
  • Composite Character: The Old Man in Breath of the Wild fulfills the typical role of the character and is also the King of Hyrule.
  • Hermit Guru: Even after the NES era, the Old Man archetype is only found in desolate areas such as caves.
  • Inexplicably Awesome: Despite being supposedly nothing more than elderly men, they always manage to survive in areas overrun by monsters.
  • It May Help You on Your Quest: The original Old Man is the person who gives Link the Wooden sword at the start of the first game. This was implemented to show players that exploration and talking to NPCs was important to the game.
  • Legacy Character: It's safe to say the Old Men throughout the series aren't the same guy. In Breath of the Wild, he actually turns out to be the spirit of the old King of Hyrule and Zelda's father in disguise.
  • There Was a Door: In some locations in The Legend of Zelda and the Oracle games, the Old Men force Link to pay for destroying the door to their home (it's a stump, you have to burn it to get in).
  • Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Attacking an Old Man in a dungeon results in the torches in the room shooting fireballs at you.

    Syrup & Maple 

Syrup and Maple

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/maple_and_syrup.png

An old witch who sells Link potions and magic powder, and her granddaughter, who works as her shopkeeper and rides a flying broom, although rather badly.


  • The Bus Came Back: The fact that the Lorulean counterpart to the witch from A Link Between Worlds is referred to as "Mapes" implies that she's supposed to be a grown up Maple, who hadn't otherwise been seen since 2002 (2001 if you discount the Link to the Past remake).
  • Flying Broomstick: Maple flies around on a broomstick, although she's rather bad at it and prone to crashing. If she makes enough money in the Oracle games, she eventually trades it out for a flying vacuum cleaner.
  • Magic Cauldron: Syrup creates her products in a great black cauldron filled with bubbling green brew.
  • Magic Potion: Syrup's main gameplay role is to produce the various flavors of magic potion and sell them to Link.
  • Non-Standard Character Design: In the GBA port of A Link to the Past, Syrup's apprentice is replaced with Maple from the Oracle games using her unaltered, three-colors-plus-transparency sprite from the games, which looks out of place among the SNES-grade graphics.
  • Generation Xerox: It's implied that the witch from A Link Between Worlds is actually Maple from the A Link to the Past GBA port, having taken on the same role and overall appearance as her grandmother Syrup. Likewise, her own granddaughter Irene is the spitting image of Maple in her own youth.
  • Witch Classic: Syrup is a hunched, long-nosed woman in a black robe and wide-brimmed, floppy, point hat, who brews magic potions in a bubbling cauldron and lives in a hut in the middle of the wilderness.

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