Daily Debate: What is the Most Laugh-Out-Loud Boss Name in the Legend of Zelda Series?

Depending on which Zelda title you’re playing, you may or may not get the chance to meditate on a given boss name while your main focus is on feeling out their weak spots to bring them down. Until Ocarina of Time, bosses presented themselves unannounced, so you wouldn’t know them by name unless you read supplemental materials or used a guide. From then on, whether or not you get to see the boss name for a fight tends to divide itself neatly between 2D and 3D titles, although there are exceptions to this rule (for example, Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks, and Tri Force Heroes do present boss names before a fight, and Link’s Awakening for the Switch added in boss names appearing at the beginning of dungeon boss fights, where the original 1993 release had no introductory fanfare).

Most of the time, boss names add an extra bit of character to the fight experience, but usually, it’s so thematically consistent or even neutral it doesn’t cause much of a stir. Ocarina of Time‘s Bongo Bongo is a boss you fight on a giant drum? Sure, makes sense. Adventure of Link‘s Thunderbird is vulnerable to Thunder Magic? Seems a little tongue-in-cheek, but I’ll take it. Skyward Sword‘s celebrated Ancient Cistern boss Koloktos certainly sounds cool, but as the fight commences, the name’s meaning isn’t as concerning as the need to take the enemy down, and I imagine for most people, that’s where the intrigue ends (I, on the other hand, started down the cultural and linguistic rabbit hole before finishing the fight). Then, there are those boss names that make you pause.

There is a recurring boss that particularly resembles a four-headed Mario universe Pirahna Plant when it appears in Oracle of Seasons‘ Ancient Ruins, but it also makes appearances in The Legend of Zelda, Four Swords Adventures, and Hyrule Warriors, although the design is markedly different in each instance. When I realized this boss is called “Manhandla,” I lost it. The name immediately makes you think of someone saying “Manhandler” in an American New Englander accent, and it takes such little effort (or a lack of sufficient self-control) to yell “Stop Manhandla’n me!” as you try to take the boss down. Does the name really fit? In my mind, not really, because as far as I can tell across all its iterations, this boss doesn’t actually grab you or push you around, which would be quintessential manhandling behavior. Does it have something to do with the way you defeat the boss? Not at all. But, is it hilarious? Absolutely.

So, what about you? What boss names in the Zelda series have made you do a double take or laugh out loud the first time you saw them? Did you have this experience as you were playing the game, or before or afterward when you were reading the game booklet or looking up the fight in a strategy guide? We want to hear you funniest stories about Zelda boss names (just keep it Nintendo!) down in the comments below!

Image captured from gameplay by VideoGamePhenom

Kora Burton

Location: Athens, Georgia, USA

Favorite Zeldas: Wild Era, Twilight Princess, Ocarina of Time

Date Joined: 2022

“Tell me… Do you ever feel a strange sadness as dusk falls?”