The True Hero of Hyrule in “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild”

by: Eric Eisdorfer

Warning: Spoilers for Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Background

While many of the early video games released by Nintendo proved to be mechanically revolutionary for the industry, their narratives (perhaps expectedly) often came off as relatively generic. In Super Mario Bros. (1985) for instance, the player controls Mario, a mustached man with considerable lower-body strength. Mario is tasked with navigating through eight worlds populated by a multitude of dangerous beast-like enemies with the ultimate goal of rescuing a captured princess. However, upon beating the boss of each world, the player is told that their “princess is in another castle.” Only upon the completion of the eighth world is the player finally given their “reward.”

The possessive language used when referring to the princess shows how the “character” of the princess is reduced to motivation for the player to keep moving forward. The princess can just as easily be replaced with a pot of gold or a stolen item with no noticeable change to the overall plot of the game.

Applying the Trend to The Legend of Zelda

This trend tends to occur repeatedly throughout Nintendo franchises. One such franchise is The Legend of Zelda series where the main playable character, Link, is often required to save princess Zelda from the evil Ganon. In the series’ most recent entry, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, initial observations may lead players to believe that this trend continues. Upon completion of the first section of the game, a spectral version of King Rhoam of Hyrule even pleads to Link “You must save her… my daughter.” However, upon learning more about the narrative of the game, it becomes clear that the character of Zelda is much more than a generic damsel in distress.

Link’s Role as the Avatar

As in most Legend of Zelda games, the player controls the expert swordsman and royal knight Link. In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Link has been asleep for 100 years. He wakes to find himself faced with the immense threat of “Calamity Ganon” eerily circling the ruins of Hyrule castle. From the beginning of the game, Link is already proficient with all manners of weaponry from short swords to spears to bows and arrows. It is also later revealed that he is the “chosen” wielder of “the sword that seals the darkness.”

While narratively it is implied that Link has undergone numerous years of training to become such an accomplished knight, from the player’s perspective, his combat skills and inheritance of the sword that seals the darkness may as well have been unearned attributes. Brendan Keogh notes in his “Across Worlds and Bodies: Criticism in the Age of Video Games” regarding the role of the player in constructing an immersive experience:

While most media call for a suspension of disbelief, texts like videogames that strive for immersion demand the player actively makes belief.

Links impressive attributes lead the player to adopt the usual role of the strong and competent hero. This role tends to be filled by male protagonists such as Link or Mario whose task it is to “save” their female counterparts like Zelda and Princess Peach. The prominence of these trends in gaming, as well as placing the player in the shoes of such a naturally proficient character like Link further solidifies belief that Zelda is helpless and in need of “saving.”

Zelda’s Story Slowly Revealed

As the player makes their way through the vast world of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, they begin to unlock Link’s memories from events preceding his 100 year sleep. While Link is present in the memories, he remains largely a secondary character. The real focus of the memories is princess Zelda.

The memories reveal that Zelda is the inheritor to a “sealing” magic which is essential to the defeat of Calamity Ganon. However, despite her best efforts, she is unable to awaken the power. By observing her various interactions with Link, it also becomes clear that she would much rather spend her time researching ancient technology instead of training to use her sealing power. In a particular dialogue with Link, she muses to Link “what if one day you realized that you just weren't meant to be a fighter?”

This exchange draws parallels between the plights of Zelda and Link. They both have vital roles to fill to stop the Calamity. This detail immediately puts pressure on the belief that Zelda is a helpless damsel with no meaningful value.

The narrative revealed from the memories in Breath of the Wild also encourages players to identify more with Zelda than with Link. Zelda’s desire to follow her own path contrasts Link’s robotic compliance to his “chosen” role. This distinction as well as the juxtaposition of the two characters leads the player to associate more with Zelda’s plight as opposed to Link’s. By doing so, the prestige of the grandiose masculine hero, Link, is brought into question.

Role Reversal

Zelda’s struggle to awaken her power persists throughout the story told by Link’s memories. When Calamity Ganon finally returns, despite the efforts of Link and Hyrule’s other champions, all end up vanquished. The final unlock-able memory shows Link, still assuming his “heroic” role, struggling to protect Zelda from a horde of deadly Guardian automatons. When Link finally collapses from exhaustion and all seems lost, Zelda steps up and successfully awakens her sealing power to save Link. In this instance the traditional roles of the characters were reversed.

This event challenges the typical hero role found in many video games. Link failed to “save” Zelda. Instead, Zelda ended up becoming Link’s savior. By highlighting this event, it can be seen that the typical masculine hero character, while effective in some instances, falls short compared to a more dynamic character such as Zelda.

This role reversal is continued in the events at the climax of the game. When Calamity Ganon is finally confronted, its is revealed that for the past 100 years while Link was asleep, Zelda had been holding back Ganon’s power. During the final confrontation, Ganon reveals his true form, described as “hatred and malice incarnate.” The only way for the player to damage Ganon is to wait for Zelda to create openings for them. When the last blow is dealt by Link, Zelda once again uses her sealing power to finally defeat the beast.

King Rhoam’s initial plea to save Zelda, while technically accurate, is very misleading. Not only had Zelda been the one to save Link in the events preceding the game, she also had been fending of Ganon’s evil while Link was recovering. Link “saving” her is merely helping to relieve her of her burden of protecting Hyrule. In this way, the expectation of the infallible hero character rescuing the damsel in distress is inaccurate. In Breath of the Wild, the “damsel” saves the “hero,” and only with Zelda’s power, was the Calamity ultimately defeated.

Conclusions

The narrative in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild does well to emphasize the shortcomings of a hero character such as Link. When the illusion of Link’s apparent infallibility results in his defeat, the more relatable hero character, Zelda, emerges as his savior.

Much less so than Link, Zelda is provided with a story of internal conflict, struggle, failure, and ultimate triumph. Not only does this narrative make her a more interesting character, it also makes her a more relatable hero to the player.