The Legend of Zelda: Hero's Purpose is a Fan Animation series created by MajorLink. Set in between Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess, it aims to bridge the gap between the two games. It tells the untold story of Link as he returns to Hyrule after saving Termina many years ago, only to find that he has to defeat Ganondorf once again to protect the kingdom from destruction.
The first episode was released on October 9, 2020, and can be found here.
This series provides examples of:
- Adaptation Name Change: In Ocarina of Time, Link's name can be whatever the player can give him, whereas everyone in the web animation refers to him as "Link". This is likely justified given that in In-Universe lore of the canon games, "Link" is implied to be merely the pseudonym used in the retelling of the legend of the various boys who inherited the spirit of the hero through the ages, with their actual names lost to the mists of time.
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Link shows very little emotion in Ocarina of Time or Majora's Mask, in contrast with some of his later incarnations who emote more clearly and regularly. Here, flashbacks to those events show Link being deeply affected by the hardships he endures, and the whole story deals with his trauma and depression coming to the surface.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: As monstrous as Ganondorf's actions are regardless, here he does not revel in them, he is relatively polite and respectful to others, and his motivation has become a more sympathetic type of selfishness instead of evil overlord ambition. Of course, it's a Foregone Conclusion that he will ultimately become the Ganondorf seen in Twilight Princess, who is as despicable as ever.
- Adaptational Villainy: Implied with Hylia, who is railroading her Hero into fighting Ganondorf when the latter doesn't want to fight him, nor even conquer Hyrule, anymore. It calls to mind a similar implication of God Is Evil from A Tale of Two Rulers, wherein the Golden Goddesses are not pleased with Zelda and Ganondorf trying to break the cycle, and are actively trying to get Link and Zelda to fight Ganondorf again.
- Armor Is Useless: The Knights' fancy armor doesn't stop Gerudo spears from stabbing clean through one side and out the other.
- Bag of Spilling: Link hands off all his transformation masks to the Happy Mask Salesman for safe keeping.
- Broken Ace: No one can doubt that Link is an accomplished hero. But he also happens to be deeply traumatized by what he went through, he watched all the people he connected with be torn away from him, and no one around him remotely understands those things because to them they haven't happened.
- The Bus Came Back: After leaving Hyrule and its characters behind for a game, Link returns and reunites with all the people he met before he left.
- Call-Forward: As a theoretical Midquel between Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess, there are nods to the latter.
- The armor of the Knights of Hyrule is the same design as what the Hero's Shade wears. Similarly, he's shown being taught the same respectful sword gesture that the Shade later offers. This represents a hint to what will happen to Link in this film, and sure enough he's Knighted as part of the war effort against Ganondorf.
- Over the time skip biding his time in the desert, Ganondorf has updated his look to the armor and beard he would appear with in Twilight Princess.
- Compressed Adaptation: In the game, Link has to complete part of the Spirit Temple as a child, requiring him to return the Master Sword to the Temple of Time and go back in time. That part was cut out here, instead cutting straight to the end of the game a few seconds after pulling the Master Sword for the first time (from Ganondorf’s perspective, anyways.)
- Foregone Conclusion: The creator stated in the description of the first episode that he wanted to make the series as canon as possible, which includes Twilight Princess, so this was inevitable. Anybody familiar with that game will know going into the series that the Hero of Time will eventually become the Hero's Spirit, unable to cross into the afterlife until the events of the latter game, and Ganondorf will be banished to the Twilight Realm, and succumb once more to Demise's influence, just as he fears will happen in this story.
- Got Me Doing It: While talking with the Happy Mask Salesman, Link quotes him and briefly imitates his signature animation style where he snaps between poses.
- Heroic Mime: Downplayed. While we still never hear Link, like in the games, outside of Voice Grunting, we do get to see what his dialogue options are.
- He's Back!: After drifting into depression for however many years and losing his drive, Link starts to get his motivation back after a cathartic talk with Saria and the realization that he needs a specific job to do to break out of his funk. However, just because he now feels able to take action again doesn't mean he's fully alright.
- Iconic Outfit: Averted. Link has long since grown out of his green Kokiri tunic and hat, and there was no one to magically gift him an adult-sized set like the first time around. He instead wears a similar tunic outfit, this time in brown, and with no hat but sometimes a rain cloak. Then he enlists in the war effort and dons a set of Knight's armor. Ganondorf initially doesn't recognize him when they finally meet again, only seeing him as another nameless soldier, until his helmet is knocked off and he gets a better look at his face and hair..
- I Hate Past Me: At seeing an illusion of himself on the day of his first attack, Ganondorf gets frustrated, as at that time he had nearly lost himself entirely in the demon's curse. It's also his worst fear, that he'll succumb once more, which we already know, he will.
- I Just Want to Be Free: By the present, Ganondorf is more aware of exactly what fate has in store for him, and hates it. This time around, he's trying to get the Triforce not to take over the world, but to take back his own destiny — though he concedes that it may not be possible even with the Triforce, or that he may succumb to the demon before he can make his wish. See Foregone Conclusion above.
- In Spite of a Nail: Though she doesn't need it to protect herself while on the run, Zelda still has Impa train her in the Sheikah arts and adopts the "Sheik" persona so that she can contribute to her kingdom's defense without her soldiers worrying about her safety.
- Mind Rape: Both Demise and Hylia are doing this to their respective champions, forcing them to play their roles against their will. Link is a Broken Ace forced to bottle up his frustrations and trauma so he can be The Hero for the masses, while Ganondorf has only enough free will to want his freedom and is only allowed that much as he believes the Triforce can help him, and whatever drives him to seek the Triforce is good enough for Demise... unless it interferes with him also killing Hylia's champion and destroying Hyrule, then he gets overridden.
- Mirror Character: Link and Ganondorf have some focus put on them both being defined by a destiny that they didn't ask for and wouldn't have wanted for themselves, but had no choice but to accept.Why did it have to be me...
- Mythology Gag:
- A different timeline in this case, but the summary of Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask is done in the exact same style as Wind Waker, which is set in the Adult Link timeline.
- In the present, Link wears a short ponytail tied with a blue band which makes him resemble a certain hero of the wild.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Ganondorf supposes that Links suffers many of the same struggles he himself does. Sure enough, when he describes them, they're almost identical to what Link has been shown grappling with for the whole series, and hearing it stops Link in his tracks.
- Not So Stoic: After Link uses his ocarina to call Saria in episode 3, he has a mental breakdown as he confesses to her about the burden of having the fate of the world hanging on his shoulders. This is reflected by the dialogue arrow struggling to decide what to pick and rapidly faster with each selection, eventually resulting in two blank "dialogue" choices. Thankfully, Saria is able cheer him up.
- Older and Wiser: This version of Ganondorf somewhat channels his appearance in The Wind Waker, being calmer and somewhat disillusioned with the ambition and evil that he had embraced so much in Ocarina of Time.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Implied. Everyone in the web animation refers to the Hero of Time as "Link" whereas in Ocarina of Time, he's given the Hello, [Insert Name Here] treatment for the player's use, and in-universe lore implying said player's choice was the Hero's real name, lost to time from "Link" being used by the legends and storytellers even in those days.
- Past-Life Memories: After Ganondorf enters the Kokiri Forest for the first time, he's struck by a hallucination, showing him the point of view of someone with a black scaled arm, confronting a warrior in green against a backdrop of the sky.
- Red Shirt Army: The Knights may be the kingdom's elite, but they haven't gotten any better at actually solving anything than they were seven years ago when they got steamrolled by Ganondorf. The unit that gets sent to scout the desert gets easily found and massacred by the Gerudo.
- Retroactive Precognition: Link knows certain things he isn't meant to about the world and the people around him, like his secret heritage and Sheik's identity, because he already went through a whole adventure in the future where he learned those things, before being sent back to age into that time period normally.
- Screw Destiny: Ganondorf's wish has changed from conquering Hyrule Because Destiny Says So to trying to rid himself of that same destiny because he no longer desires it. Yet neither Demise nor even Hylia herself are willing to allow that.
- Sudden Video-Game Moment: While the film is framed like a long Zelda cutscene with dialogue in text boxes matching the style in Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, it's still a linear story. But when Link needs to answer a question, the text box for response options comes up, and the cursor takes a second to decide which answer to go with. The option not chosen invokes the idea of potential dialogue trees and gives hints on what Link is thinking but chooses not to say... or might not be allowed to say...
- That Man Is Dead: Implied. Whatever the Hero of Time's real name was is never revealed and only goes by "Link" as he probably feels whoever he was before had died during the stressful journey of saving Hyrule.
- Villain Override: After a tense conversation and exciting duel, it seems that Link and Ganondorf may finally be about to stand down and reject their destiny of conflict... but the remnant of Demise isn't having it, forcibly taking control of Ganondorf and stomping Link into the ground.
- An antipodes example seems to be going on with Link, as it seems like Hylia is mind-raping him into fighting Ganondorf when the King Of Thieves shows a clear disinterest in fighting the Hero, and forcing him to choose hostile responses when prompted during his conversation with Ganondorf.
- Villain with Good Publicity: In flashbacks, we see a little bit more of Ganondorf before he reveals his true colors and makes a play for the throne. He interacts cordially with Hyrule's soldiers, and only nigh-divine beings like the Deku Tree sense a hint of his dangerous ambitions.
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: The first episode establishes that Link went through this when he pulled the Master Sword for the first time. Ganondorf follows him into the Temple of Time and is shocked as the realm suddenly closes on him and Link has the Triforce of Courage. Unbeknownst to him, Link went through several dungeons and defeated him in the future, all of which took place in around ten seconds from Ganondorf's perspective.
