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Origins of the Hero of Hyrule? (NES Link)

DekuNut

I play my drum for you
Joined
Jan 30, 2011
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Tangent Universe
In medieval times, many boys were taught how to swordfight from a very young age. However, in the case of the Zelda series, the way I like to look at it is that since Link is destined to be the hero, it's just something that comes naturally to him.
Actually, only most who were landed and/or noble. More boys learned to farm than to fight.
 

Retro Ganon

Canon-Candy-Coded
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Its a mystery I don't think we will ever find out. He is just a 10 year old (or 12 years old...) kid wandering arounding, that's about it. It is annoying, sure, but it's all that we know and may ever know.

Maiden in Skull Woods:

Link, thanks to you, I was able to escape the clutches of the evil monsters. Thank you! ...Do you know the prophecy of the Great Cataclysm? This is the way I heard it...
If a person with an evil heart gets the Triforce, a Hero is destined to appear... and he alone must face the person who unleashed the Great Cataclysm. If the evil one destroys the Hero, nothing can save the world from his wicked reign. Only a member of the Knights of Hyrule, who protected the Hylian royalty, can become the Hero... You are of their bloodline, aren't you? Then you must rescue Zelda without fail!


Though this may seem specific to AlttP, it is a recurring formula in most Zelda titles that involve Ganon's posing threat to Hyrule. FSA and TWW (to some extent) pay homage to this lineage of Hyrulian Knights. Given the domino effect of the DT events, its imperative that this 'bloodline' stays intact. I would wager that our friend in LoZ is in no more of a mysterious awakening predicament than what most hero predecessors were.

The only clues we have are a boy having nothing but a cross-crescent shield on him, and the mysterious Impa - whom conveniently has the maps of all the labarynths holding the Triforce of Wisdom fragments. Firstly, the nature of the shield design could be taken in the same way as the Ordon Shield in TP. AoL BS suggests that Hyrule is no longer one country. I agree that Link is a traveler out of his domain like Emmanuel stated earlier. What is his mission? Who goes traveling without both a sword and shield anyways? I speculate he lost his sword fighting off an enemy to aid Impa - but her role may play more significance in drawing him into Hyrule. Given that Impa is a messenger and caretaker of the Royal Family household, it was her duty to seek out a hero. I deduct that based on the AoL manual essentially saying that Link had a "birthmark" to begin with (only it glowed on his 16th birthday) concludes an innate feeling of trust Impa had in the young boy. Link probably found himself wandering into Hyrule, curious why he bared one of the Royal Family's adopted symbols. His quest could very well been based on looking for answers. After all, TP Link and OoS/OoA Link got there answers in more or less the same way when they had the very same birthmarks too.
 

Masked Bastard

formerly Captain B
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...
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As I recall, It wasn't a birthmark. The entire crest itself appeared on his birthday. This might be JP/US fumbling though. After all, the Oracle games were supposed to be a remake once, and Ages begins with a pre-crested Link saving Impa from monsters.

As for a lot of the debate on Link's prior experience, I think much of it can be summed up as likely being similar to Miyamoto's intentions for the player. Although Link does not literally grow into an adult over the course of the game, Miyamoto has been quoted regarding Zelda 1 as saying that the player essentially starts off as a child, and matures as they gather more fragments. It is very likely that Link had no idea what he was doing, but figured it out as he went along and became both skilled and deadly by the time he slew Ganon. There's several anime and manga out there about boys Link's age who follow this path, and if they keep at it, you do see some impressive development.

As for Link coming from another province... it seems a strange thing to say Link came from elsewhere if that's all it means. Also, the context of Zelda II seems to imply that when Link "decided to stay in Hyrule", he wasn't referring to the overworld of the first game. Even though it says he was helping to rebuild, you still don't see any structures in Death Mountain Area.
 

DekuNut

I play my drum for you
Joined
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Location
Tangent Universe
By all means do argue with millions of people's booklets and the creator of Zelda. I mean its not as if had anything to do with it.
As you replied to a post more than a year old, I'll defend it.
By all means argue with the current canon of the series with approval from the creator of Zelda. I mean it's not as if * had anything to do with it.

* What pronoun is supposed to go there?
 
Joined
Nov 14, 2015
By all means do argue with millions of people's booklets and the creator of Zelda. I mean its not as if had anything to do with it.
To be fair, most of Zelda I and II's lore has been retconned, and Shigeru literally says the most backwards ass things after officially establishing something, like when he claimed Young Link was 7-8 and "Adult Link" was 14-15
 

Crono

Hylian Rebel
Joined
Dec 5, 2010
But it's not canon.

Yeah but the whole map works out for both games. Then again the comic was licensed and published by Nintendo, therefore it very well can be canon. The comic is an "official Nintendo licensed product".

hyrule-map.jpg
 
Last edited:
Joined
Nov 14, 2015
Yeah but the whole map works out for both games. Then again the comic was licensed and published by Nintendo, therefore it very well can be canon. The comic is an "official Nintendo licensed product".

hyrule-map.jpg
The Tingle games are also an official product of Nintendo, but they aren't canon; your point? Not to mention, that arrow pointing to Calatia is most likely where the normal Hyrule seen in other games is located.
 

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