Daily Debate: Do Link And Zelda Belong Together?

Too often I think people come to the same assumption about Link and Zelda’s relationship as they do of Mario and Peach’s. In the Super Mario Bros. games, we see the same story over and over for the most part; Peach gets captured by Bowser and Mario is on an epic quest to save her. He endures great hardship and trial to make it to her, and all for the sake of love. That love was even more manifest in the most recent entry into the series, Super Mario Odyssey, in which Mario crashes Peach and Bowser’s wedding and essentially declares his love.

This is not the same romantic paradigm we see between Link and Zelda. Link is never on a quest only to save Zelda; he is usually on a grand quest to save Hyrule from Ganon’s schemes. Their relationship shifts from game to game, and often it seems like Zelda instigates most of the quests that Link ventures on. Of course we all naturally see Link and Zelda as two lovers on a quest to bring peace to the world so that they can live happily ever after, however I don’t think that is what we are supposed to think.

There are only a few games where we even see Link and Zelda having a personal relationship with each other. In Skyward Sword, we see a much more down-to-earth Zelda, and as Link completes his flight exam, he (and the player with him) looks forward to spending some quality time with her. After her capture, Link spends most of Skyward Sword following a breadcrumb trail she has left behind. And in Breath of the Wild, we see only snapshots of Link’s memories with Zelda, most of which is centered around the approaching calamity; but Zelda seems more burdened by her fate than her relationship with Link. So are Link and Zelda truly on a desperate quest to declare their love for each other? Or are they close friends that both want to bring about the end of the evil threatening their world?

Do you think Link and Zelda are, or should ever be, an official couple? Do you think Nintendo will bring these two together in a future game? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!