Princess Zelda

Revision as of 20:51, 4 February 2006

Description

Biography

Overall

There are numerous Zeldas throughout the series. Each Zelda is the princess of Hyrule, and also in most games Zelda holds the Triforce of Wisdom. Zelda's physical appearance changes quite a lot considering the first three games, after OoT Zelda always seems to wear a pink dress, a golden tiara, long gloves and she also has long blonde hair. Even her Official Art for ALttP was redone for the GBA release to make her look more similar to the other Zeldas.

The Legend of Zelda

Zelda is the blond-haired princess of Hyrule kingdom.

When Ganon attacked, taking the Triforce of Power, Zelda broke the Triforce of Wisdom into eight pieces, hiding them in Hyrule, south of Death Mountain. Ganon kidnapped Zelda, imprisoning her in Death Mountain.

The Adventure of link

The red-haired princess of Hyrule. She lived with her father, the king, and her brother, the prince.

Before the king died, he entrusted his daughter with information about the Triforce. After the king passed on, the prince and a wizard questioned Zelda on this information. Because Zelda would not reveal what the king had told her, the wizard cast a spell on her. Zelda would sleep eternally.

The prince placed his sleeping sister in a shrine. So no one would forget what happened, he ordered that every female child born to royalty in Hyrule would carry on the name "Zelda".

The princess featured in AoL is actually a different Zelda than the one seen in the NES prequel. AoL Zelda's story is told in the manual as "The Legend of Zelda", and Zelda in AoL is usually called the "Sleeping Zelda." As Impa explains, the legend took place centuries before AoL. Impa is the one who actually tells Link this legend because it is his destiny is to awaken this sleeping Zelda by obtaining the Triforce of Courage and reuniting it with the other two pieces.

A Link to the Past

Ocarina of Time

The Princess of Destiny

Zelda is the beloved only daughter of the (possibly) widow King of Hyrule. As the true heir to the throne she's been instructed in all the legends of Hyrule, legends she know perfectly. She is entrusted with one of the four keys to the Sacred Realm, the Ocarina of Time. Since her birth, she has been protected by her muscular attendant, Impa the Sheikah. One of her functions was to play the ancient and mysterious melody passed down the Royal Family as a lullaby for the princess. Maybe because of this, she started to have prophetic dreams that were never wrong. The divination powers of the princess were quickly spread in all Hyrule Castle Town.

With one of her prophetic dreams began the disgrace that would befall Hyrule. In her words:

I had a dream... In the dream, dark storm clouds  
were billowing over the land of Hyrule...
But suddenly, a ray of light shot out of the 
forest, parted the clouds and lit up the ground...
The light turned into a figure holding a green and 
shining stone, followed by a fairy...

In her dream she also saw Impa, who had the role of teaching the melody she had used as Zelda's Lullaby to the boy from the forest. She also was able to understand who the dark clouds represented in the dream, Ganondorf, the leader of the GerudosShe told the dream to her father, to whom Ganondorf has swore allegiance, but he didn't believe it was nothing more than a mere dream.

While Zelda is spying Ganondorf through a window, Link arrives to the Castle Courtyard looking for the Princess of Destiny. Zelda immediately recognizes him as the forest boy from her dream, and asks him whether he has the Spiritual Stone of Forest, the shining green stone of her dream. She tells her what she has dreamed and her suspects about Ganondorf. She plans how to protect the Sacred Realm from Ganondorf, so she commands Link to look for the other two Spiritual Stones while she protects the Ocarina of Time with all her power. By keeping away the four keys of the Door of Timefrom Ganondorf. That way he would never get the Triforce. When Link gets the other two Spiritual Stones, the Goron's Ruby and the Zora's Sapphire, Ganondorf attacks the Hyrule Castle. Because of this, Zelda cannot wait for Link any more and has to flee with her attendant, Impa, to a place where Ganondorf can't reach them. As Link arrives to the entrance to Hyrule Castle Town, he sees Zelda and Impa riding in a white horse escaping from Ganondorf. Not being able to give Link the last key to the Door of Time, she throws the Ocarina of Time to the city moat. After Link meets Ganondorf, he dives into the water, taking the Ocarina of Time, and receiving a telepathical message from Zelda where she appears in front of the altar of the Temple of Time and teaches Link the Song of Time.

Impa and Zelda escaping from Ganondorf OoT MQ

Zelda teaching Link the Song of Time telepathically. OoT MQ

When Link pulls out the Master Sword from the Pedestal of Time something that Zelda didn't predict. Zelda didn't think that there was a fifth key to the Sacred Realm, the Master Sword, and that Link was the legendary Hero of Time, the only one able to pull the sword from its pedestal. Because Link isn't old enough to be the Hero of Time, his spirit is sealed inside the Chamber of Sages, leaving the entrance to the Sacred Realm open to Ganondorf.

The Seventh Sage

It's unknown where Impa and Zelda go after they escape from Ganondorf. It's possible that they stay with an unknown Sheikah community, where she is trained in Sheikah magic and techniques. When Ganonodorf gets the Triforce, the ancient prophecy passed down the shadow folk comes true. Because of Ganondorf's heart being unbalanced, the Triforce turns into three pieces: Power, Wisdom and Courage. While the Triforce of Power remains with Ganondorf, the other two, the Triforce of Wisdom and the Triforce of Courage go to the chosen ones: Zelda and Link. Zelda thus becomes the Seventh Sage, who is destined to be the leader of all them. Using the power of her Triforce, Zelda adopts the disguise of a young Sheikah man, Sheik.

Although it's not known how much time Impa and Sheik stay in exile, presumably Impa went quite early to Kakariko Village, to protect it from Ganondorf. What Sheik does until Link wakes up, it's not known. It's possible that she swore allegiance to Ganondorf in order to be able to act with more freedom. She may have also collaborated with Impa at imprisoning the evil spirit of Bongo Bongo, but this is never mentioned.

After Link wakes up, Sheik appears as a kind of guide for the Hero of Time, It's she who writes the new inscription on the altar of the Temple of Time:

The Ocarina of Time opened the 
door. The Hero of Time, with the
Master Sword, descended here.

With her poetry and music, she teaches Link those

things he couldn't learn when he was young. Her poems speak about feelings, young love, friendship... or tell the legends passed down the Sheikah folk, those about the Triforce, the Master Sword, the Sages, The Hero of Time and the temples.

While Link is in the Temples, Sheik does deeds that counterpart those of Ganondorf: she rescues Rutro from the ice, she takes care of Kakariko Village while Link goes to Shadow Temple... But her most important function is to teach Link the warp melodies of the temples.

The fact that Zelda is mentioned very few times before Sheik takes off her disguise helps to cover the secret. Zelda is only mentioned twice. The first time is when Link awakens Ruto as a Sage and she tells Link not to be discouraged, because she feels Zelda is alive. A more specific quote is that of Impa, after awakening as a Sage, where she tells Link that soon he would meet Zelda, and she would explain him everything.

It is curious to see that, of the Six Sages, only Ruto mentions Sheik, but it's known that at least Rauru and Impa know her. Of them, Ruto doesn't know who Sheik really is, only Impa seems to know something exact about her. There is only one in-game clue that suggests that Sheik is Zelda. It comes from a Gossip Stone and says that Princess Zelda, contrary to her elegant image, is a tomboy!

After Link awakens all the Sages, Rauru contacts with Link telepathically, asking him to go to the Temple of Time, where someone's waiting for him. This person is Sheik. Sheik tells Link an unknown legend passed down the Sheikah folk. A legend about the true nature of the Sacred Realm and the Triforce. She explains Link what happened when Ganondorrf got the golden relic: it divides in its three parts, Power, Wisdom and Courage. While the force Ganondorf trusted more, the Triforce of Power, the Triforce of Courage went to Link and the Triforce of Wisdom went to the Seventh Sage.

Then Sheik makes her second and almost fatal mistake: using the Triforce of Wisdom she takes her disguise off, revealing herself to be the Seventh Sage Zelda. Then, she tells Link her plan to defeat Ganondorf. It's quite simple, Link would protect Zelda while she gathers the power of the Six Sages to seal Ganondorf in the void of the Evil Realm. For this purpose she gives Link a new weapon, one that can penetrate Ganondorf defenses, the sacred Arrow of Light.

Then the temple starts to tremble. It's Ganondorf, who has heard all the conversation between Zelda and Link, so he knows who the holders of the Triforce are. He imprisons Zelda in a pink crystal and tells him to go to his castle to rescue her.

Now Link's mission is to rescue the princess and that's what the Sages tell him to do. Once Ganondorf, Zelda and Link meet in the same room, the Triforce in their hands' backs shine, starting to recombine. After Link defeats Ganondorf, Zelda's imprisonment disappears, releasing her. She, after explaining Link why Ganondorf has died, she notices that he's trying to crash them inside the tower. Then she guides Link to escape from there, opening with her magic all the locked doors. Once they are out of the castle, they see how it is destroyed. But they hear a noise. It's Ganondorf, who still has enough power to use the Triforce and transform into a giant pig-like creature Ganon. After a long battle, Zelda uses her magic against Ganon, holding him while Link finishes the evil incarnation with his now shining Master Sword. Then Zelda creates a yellow energy ball, that is used as a portal for the Six Sages power, sealing him inside the Evil Realm.

In the next scene Link and Zelda appear over the clouds. She apologizes to him and explains how all was a fatal coincidence, how all the disgrace was her fault. Then she asks Link for his Ocarina. For she, as one of the Seven Sages, can return him to his original time by using the Ocarina of Time. He gives her really slowly the Ocarina, after holding hands, and then she plays Zelda's Lullaby, making him return to the past. After the ending sequence it's seen how Link and young Zelda meet again.

Majora's Mask

Although Link doesn't actually meet Zelda in the world of Termina. He does remember her in a short flashback, when he learns the Song of Time again. Zelda's sprite is the same as the one used in OoT, but this time she only appears in black and white.

Oracle of Seasons/Ages

Four Swords

The Wind Waker

Four Swords Adventures

The Minish Cap

Twilight Princess

Miscellaneous Notes

ALttP SNES / GBA differences

There are actually two different pieces of Official Art for Zelda in this game. For it turns out to be that her Artwork was redone for the rerelease of ALttP for the GBA. As clearly visible this newer version looks much more similar to the Zelda of the other games.

How do you enter to the temple?

In OoT there is a curious mistake regarding Zelda. After Rauru tells Link to go to the Temple of Time, in the intro it's shown how Link enters on foot to the temple. It doesn't matter if Link goes on foot are using the Prelude of Light.

The healthy and rich princess

In OoT, when Link and Zelda are escaping from Ganon's Tower she is once imprisoned by a circle of fire that doesn't disappear until Link defeats the two Stalfos that appear then. After that, Zelda gives Link three hearts to heal him. If he has already alll the hearts full, she throws three Rupees.

Other Game Appearances

Zelda also appears as a playable character in Smash Brothers: Melee for the Gamecube. In this game she can use different variations of Din's Fire, Farore's Wind and Nayru's Love. Her fourth special move is Transform, which allows her to fight as the quick and nimble Sheik. In this game her voice acting was done by: Jun Mizusawa.

Relevant Quotes

Translations

Country	Name
Japanese	ゼルダ姫 (ZERUDA-hime)
English	Princess Zelda
French	Princesse Zelda
German	Prinzessin Zelda
Spanish	Princesa Zelda
Italian	Principessa Zelda

Notes

All games refer to her as Princess Zelda.

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Zelda Legends Wiki