Link's Loves - Breath of the Wild & Age of Calamity

it's been nearly four months since the release of my first lynx loves video and i still can't believe how much attention that video has received lately i've been getting a crap ton of comments asking when i'm going to make the next part of the series so ladies and gents or whatever you want to call yourself the next link's love is finally here initially that video was going to be the first part of a two-part series but in order to allow myself to go into more detail about each potential match for each link i've decided to split up link's loves into several videos each dedicated to a particular iteration of link after making this decision i posted a community poll to allow you the viewers to decide which link we will analyze in this video unsurprisingly breath of the wild won the vote by a large margin so that will be the focus of this video and with the recent release of hyrule warriors age of calamity i've decided to include that game in this video as well however i will be separating the content to avoid spoilers for those who have not yet played or completed age of calamity yet and will give separate conclusions for the two games due to this please keep in mind that i may admit some analysis from the breath of the wild section because i plan to discuss it more in the age of calamity portion in this video with all that out of the way let's get started i'm your host andy and welcome to zelda [Music] it's been three almost four years since the release of breath of the wild on the wii u and i'd have to say that it's the most popular zelda game when it comes to shipping in fact i'm pretty sure there's ships out there on the internet for link with probably half the characters in the game due to this i'm going to only focus on the ones that actually have ground to support them plus the most popular fan chips regardless of canonical support let's start our analysis with the latter the first candidate or i should say candidates that we are going to talk about are the great fairies most of you are probably already giving me a weird face but i did have a couple of subscribers suggest the great fairies in a community post for this video so here it is the great fairies are not one of the most popular internet ships because of the romantic connection but rather for the memes all four of the great fairies perform the same actions in the same circumstances so i'm going to refer them as if they were one unit the fairies are always slightly flirty when speaking to link it's not known whether or not they act like this to all travelers so let's not take this as evidence that they might have an actual attraction to link however the real reason why they are a meme ship is because what they do to link whenever he comes to them to get his armor upgraded depending on the level of the upgrade the fairies will flirt or violate league differently for a level 1 upgrade the fairies merely blow him a kiss in a level 2 upgrade the fairies will kiss their finger and then prod link's forehead level 3 upgrades is where it gets intense here they go all in and kiss them as link tries to troll back finally a level 4 armor upgrade will result in the fairies snatching link up like an action figure pulls them in and takes him down into the fountain i don't think we even want to know what happens down there i think ling's face alone makes it pretty clear that he is not okay with this violation of his personal space and that he has no mutual infatuation with these fairies so on to the next character said on this character instantly gained a lot of popularity among fans but i was rather surprised to find that many took their love for saidon's character to shipping him with link i'm not here to tell anyone what their headcanon should and should not be but as a zelda theorist i consider it my job to provide a thorough analysis sure i'm a person with my own bias but i do my best to support my conclusions with evidence from the games and if i come across contradictory information i'll modify these conclusions anyways let's talk about sidon link or at least the player is first introduced to saidon during the journey to soar's domain along the journey to the domain and even until the completion of varuta sidon is always saying highly supportive things to link this is what i think is a large reason many fans love sidon's character however i don't think this in any way suggests a romantic relationship with link prince cyron is known to be a highly positive and charming dude according to various sora women in the domain even has a small fan club of female zoras who are constantly talking about him here i think it's safe to say that zidane's positive and encouraging remarks to link are not said out of attraction he's just an awesome and positive guy i think there's also another factor that should be enough to put this to rest though you are free to disagree hey that rhymed after completing varuta in the champions ballad link can talk to sidon who will of course thank him for his help and tell him how amazing he is then link can ask about mifa and sidon will tell link of his memories as a child where he remembered a hylian swordsman who spent so much time with his sister which made sidon feel as if his sister was being stolen from him he then reveals that the swordsman was link and says he hopes he hasn't offended him then sodom proceeds to tell link that had things turned out differently he might have been my sister's husband my brother-in-law i too like zadon's character but i guess not to the extent of shipping him with link after all sidon seems like a cool guy and even if he did roll that way i highly doubt that he would go after his sister's man especially after acknowledging had mifa survived they would have been brother-in-law's that's just my interpretation and i can't tell anyone how to write their headcanon but i think sidon and link can better be described as a bromance and would be good friends with that said the next one will be vilia this is the suspicious cross-dressing dude from the caracara bazaar in my opinion this one has more support than sydlink but not by much philia is a man who dresses in garuda vibe clothing and acts like a woman to be able to enter gerudo town it's not made perfectly clear if he does this just to be around a bunch of women and if so that's pretty creepy the only alternative motive i can think of is he actually thinks himself as a woman which would actually make some sense based off his interactions with link when lake meets up with him to obtain garuda clothing so he may sneak into garuda town villius says some pretty sus things such as oh my what a lovely young lad you are when link tells him that he heard about a man who stuck into gorito town by wearing women's clothing philia pretends to know nothing and when lincoln inspects the details of ilya's face not covered by the veil bilia tells him hee-hee you're making my cheeks warm looking at me like that if link chooses to acknowledge philly as a man he will be brushed off the only way to get the gerudo clothes to go stealth mode is to tell villa he or yes she is beautiful and is then offered to buy the set after link equips the gerudo clothing vilia says you look adorable with double exclamation marks just as i thought you make for a quite good looking gal when he's told this link shows rather embarrassed or bashful body language finally after link is about to leave philia tells him if you're free to grab something to eat sometime keep me in mind suddenly a gust of wind blows his veil off his face and link gives a very surprised reaction because link was already highly suspicious that vilia was actually a man i doubt he would give such a surprise reaction after seeing philia's full face if they were actually a dude this leads me to think that there's actually a slight possibility philia is actually a woman after all philia does have the iconic red hair of the gerudo then again philia has red eyes while all the grudo and breath of the wild as far as i'm aware of green eyes these red eyes seem to match those of ganondorf from ocarina of time so there's also a slight possibility that vilia is actually one of the rare gerudo males then again those are both very narrow possibilities and i don't have anything else to support those theories at this time anyways odds are velia is a man because after their face is revealed they warn link to be cautious of the wind to which link face palms given that we're supposed to believe villa is a man posing as a woman i don't think there's a probable ship here despite vilya's supposed flirtiness and link's bashful or embarrassed reaction when wearing the korita clothes there's just not enough support for these two besides this person is acting rather weird regardless of their gender if i were in link's shoes having to buy women's clothing from the sky and then wear it as you were saying these things i'd be pretty embarrassed and uncomfortable too while we are in the gerudo region i think it would be appropriate to discuss riju next the current chief of the gerudo tribe she's rather young to be chief but due to the unexpected death of her mother she had to step in to fulfill the role despite her age we can even see extra cushions on her throne which finally seemed to serve the purpose of a booster seat it's not exactly clear how old riju is but based on her appearance i'll assume she's somewhere in her mid-teens she looks like she could be around the same age as zelda pre-calamity so let's just assume she's 16 years old lincoln rishu don't have as many interactions as some of the upcoming characters but i think she's still worth discussing when link sneaks into gerudo town and presents himself to riju she quickly realizes who he is and pardons him she's rather dismissive of link breaking the most iconic law of the civilization but then again she also makes him stay in disguise to not disturb the public later when she's alone with link she openly shares some of her self-doubts and worries with link which seemed to be very similar to zelda's before the calamity why she's expressing her self-doubt to a stranger like link i don't know but it's possible it's because she has the hots for him like 80 of the other characters in the game after link retrieves the thunderhelm from riju she starts acting in a way that could be interpreted as subtly flirty she puts on the thunderhelm while alone with link and asks him what's wrong you're just staring anyway what matters now is how how does it look the knots here convey hesitation or stuttering which gives me the impression rishi is basically asking link the cliche female trap question how do i look blank has the option of replying with it looks good and it's a tad big if the latter is chosen riju will sarcastically respond with you don't say another thing that makes me suspicious that rishi might have a thing for link is her complete willingness to lend link the thunderhelm to precious heirloom with the gerudo for until generations sure she could have lent it to him as a symbol of thanks for helping her people and trusting he would return it but i think there's a little more to her motives she could very likely have the hots for link like so many of the other characters seem to what is particularly odd about lynx and rishi's relationship is that link can elaborately sneak into rishu's personal quarters at night and find her playing with a standstill stuffed animal if link speaks with her she will get embarrassed and obviously lie about playing with the stuffed sand seal telling link to just ignore them riju then says town hero or no you shouldn't just come wandering into someone's room at this time of night this feistiness is likely our product could have her embarrassment to link catching her playing with stuffed animals though she does have a good point going into a girl's bedroom in the middle of the night is a bit sus link but then again she does have personal conversations with adam about her mother if he lingers longer so i don't really know to me i think link is violating her personal space but she doesn't seem to mind his company after all her nightly routine is playing followed by mourning the loss of her mother so she could probably use some company although i think shipping lincoln riju has some perfectly valid reasoning i think the more developed upcoming characters have a better chance if you're enjoying this video so far please go ahead and take a moment to subscribe to the channel this channel focuses on zelda theories and analyzing other aspects of the games such as links loves anyways enough of me let's continue another one of the highly popular ships with link is paya i'm sure anyone who has played breath of the wild is aware of playa's hardcore crush on link when the player first meets her she's immediately flustered and at one point thinks out loud and says how close he is to her even though they're standing apart she's very excited but flustered when lynx asks about her and often hides her face on her hands pie has got to be one of the most bashful characters i've ever seen if link talks to her without a shirt on she'll stutter out a master link that that modest outfit is quite unbecoming of a hero like you so please cover yourself up this instant i'm pretty sure she's only saying this because she's gonna lose absolute control of herself if she sees them shirtless for too long i'm not gonna go through and explain every single interaction they have for a couple of reasons one of them being this is such a well-known crush and relationship in the game that i don't want to beat a dead horse the second is that most of their interactions are very similar and go like this link shows up paya gets flustered as heck and makes it obvious how attracted she is to him and then there's a little bit of discussion every single time there shouldn't be any need for me to prove paya has a crush on link but if you want proof her entire diary is about link with the final entry expressing how grateful she is for link teaching her what it's like to love the real question comes down to does link clover back to which the answer is probably not ultimately it comes down to how the players feels for link but i believe the developer has laid enough groundwork to show link's separate attention the following can be found in pius diary i wonder if master link is in love with princess zelda if so i think they suit each other quite splendidly if they became a couple i'd give that pairing my full support though just the thought of that makes my heart hurt here we can see that paya is a zealand shipper herself though she wishes it could be her this is one of many subtle hints that link has or at least had affection for princess zelda but like i said it only comes down to interpretation so far i'd have to rate payout one of the more likely ships but we still have two more to go naturally this leads us to the first of the two big love interests for link princess zelda it's important to keep in mind that zelda did not like link for quite a while during birth of the wild story because c-link is perhaps the most popular birth of the wild ship i'll cover all of the main points as well as some details i think are important but i'll go through it all a bit quickly to avoid redundancy since this topic has been widely discussed and analyzed by countless others over the last few years it's revealed in various cutscenes that occur shortly after link is appointed to be zelda's night or bodyguard the link makes her feel like a failure and she is very insecure with him around when link was appointed to be zelda's knight he was already highly accomplished and possessed the legendary blade the master sword we don't know if link and zelda had interacted much before he was assigned as her bodyguard but zelda did write this in her diary tomorrow my father is assigning him in all caps as my appointed knight based on this i don't think luke and zelda already had a relationship but rather she knew who link was based on his reputation and ownership of the master sword without even knowing who link was as a person zelda seems to have assumed link was a person who obtained his accomplishments due to his destiny rather than having to work for his skill making her feel like an utter failure her insecurities which are mildly presented in the cutscenes are developed further in her diary i still recall feeling his eyes on me as i walked ahead the feeling stayed with me so long i grew anxious and weary it is the same feeling i felt before in his company and still not a word passes his lips i never know what he's thinking makes my imagination run wild guessing out what he is thinking but will not say what does the boy chosen by the sword that seals the darkness think of me will i ever truly know then i suppose it's simple a daughter of hyrule's royal family yet unable to use her ceiling magic you must despise me later on she implies in her diary that she and link didn't speak much to each other despite link having to follow her around everywhere in most other videos out there and listening to people discuss links in zelda's relationship i've heard countless times that lincoln zelda opened up to each other after link saved her from the blades of the yiga clan but there's far more to it than that rabosa played wingman and gave lincoln zelda the push they needed to bond and her diary arbosa writes the following in a similar yet distinct way link seems to have trouble expressing himself perhaps the two can help each other that is if she ever gives him the chance it's not yet clear whether ibosa was trying to bring them together as a couple my gut tells me she was merely trying to reduce the tension between the two for zelda's sanity [Music] furthermore the night in which memory number six takes place are bosa writes i sent a word to link who showed up at naboris faster than i expected although it is none of my business i thought the least i could do to bridge their gap was share some things about zelda the rest is up to them memory number six which shows the dialogue between herbosa and link is titled urboso's hand further strengthening my argument that urbosa served as a catalyst to links and zelda's relationship memory number seven blades to the yiga takes place the very next day and after the attempt on her life in saving link zelda decides she is going to try opening up to link not long after she follows through on this and zelda writes what happened in her diary bit by bit i've gotten linked to open up to me it turns out she's quite a glutton he can't resist a delicious meal when i finally got around to asking why he's so quiet all the time i could tell it was difficult for him to say but he did with so much at stake and so many eyes on him he feels it's necessary to stay strong and to silently bear any burden a feeling i know all too well for him it has caused him to stop outwardly expressing his thoughts and feelings i always believed him to be simply a gifted person who had never faced a day of hardship how wrong i was everyone has struggles that go unseen by the world i was so absorbed with my own problems i failed to see his i wish to talk to him more and to see what lies beneath those calm waters to hear him speak freely and openly and perhaps i too will be able to bear my soul to him and share the demons that have plagued me all these years this entry provides us with a lot of insight into link's motives and explains why he is always so silent despite being capable of talking like everyone else with his push from arbosa and zelda's desire to speak to link after he saved her they were able to begin to open up to each other and realize they both shared the similar insecurities caused by their foretold destinies towards the end of verbose's diary she even writes about how zelda had been smiling a lot more lately and she assumed she and link were finally getting along the final piece of evidence i have to try to prove that arbosa brought link and zelda together lies after link defeats thunderblade ganon and frees our bose's spirit near the end of her monologue her boso tells link you take good care of the princess oh and also take good care of her it's important to make note of the wink she gives to link here at the end the fact that she says take care of zelda could simply be referring to his everlasting duty to defend her but the addition of and also take care of hyrule makes it sound like she believes he will marry zelda and become king now i don't need anyone getting technical with me and saying that marrying zelda doesn't mean he will become king if we're following the highly complex european system but you get the point he and zelda would rebuild hyrule side by side sure they bonded but that could nearly have developed into a platonic relationship not romance we still need to see if there was any actual love between the two since zelda's thoughts and emotions are shown far more than links i think it's easier to start from there in the not-so-secret ending of the game we hear zelda tell link that together they must start rebuilding hyrule i believe in my heart that if all of us work together we can restore hyrule to its former [Music] glory perhaps even beyond but it all must start with us what i take from this is that link and zelda set off to rebuild hyrule hand in hand but once again we still need a bit more proof to show this was out of love instead of giving a long analysis in my interpretations of zelda's body language throughout the game to determine if she loved link i'm going to give the quick and easy piece of evidence right away in the champions ballot dlc cast the bar and performs the song of the hero written by his mentor who is the court poet before the calamity hit it goes like this an ancient hero a calamity appears now resurrected after ten thousand years her appointed night pays the price the princess's love for her fall and night awakens her power and within the castle the calamity is forced to cower but the night survives in the shrine of resurrection he sleeps until from his healing dream he leaps to become a hero once again to rest the princess from evil's den the hero the princess hand in hand must bring the light back to this land the two big lines we need to focus on for the goal of this video is the princess's love for her fall and night awakens her power and the hero the princess hand in hand must bring the light back to this land these two lines should make it obvious that zelda truly did love link cass also explains how his mentor had a crush on zelda but as he related to cass the princess only had eyes for her escort her own attendant however one thing to consider is that even though the poet says lincoln zelda must restore the land hand in hand they were just a poet not a fortune teller so they had no idea how link would feel after he awoke from the shrine of resurrection though the fact that this was included into the poem does lead me to believe that link did develop feelings for zelda prior to the calamity we can even see this is likely the case when he and zelda are fleeing through the woods during the calamity zelda falls to the ground and begins to mourn instead of fulfilling his nightly duty and pulling her back onto her feet and rushing her to safety lake kneels down and comforts her though he could be doing this out of a platonic care for zelda i think in unison with the other zealand hints we've discussed makes it more likely for it to be out of love we've established that zelda most certainly did fall in love with link and that there's a very good chance link felt the same way before the calamity but with link's loss of memory we don't know if that changes his feelings after they are reunited after ganon is defeated however the japanese version of the game gives us totally different information than what's told in the english release in breath of the wild one of the many uses of the sheikah slate is to track the quest log in the english release all of the quests and entries are written in the third person however in the original context the japanese version is written in first person meaning they are written from link's point of view this essentially makes the quest log in sheikah slate entries link's journal some of the translated entries offer great insights into link's feelings for zelda here are a couple of them after link re-obtains the master sword he writes i finally retrieve the legendary master sword i don't know if it's just an illusion but the sword itself seems to be delighted about this to this moment princess zelda is still inside hyrule castle fighting to suppress the calamity she is still holding on to the faith in me believing that i will definitely come for her but with the power that i have now can she really be saved link may not fully remember everything about zelda yet but from hearing her speak to him telepathically he knows she still has faith in him though he doubts his own abilities i'm asking if the little power he has now if she's still able to be saved shows his genuine concern for her and desire to be able to do more after visiting all the 13 locations and recalling those memories link writes i finished visiting all 13 of the locations in the old pictures i remembered everything i've been through together with princess zelda in these memories princess zelda always strived to complete the task burden onto her even if it's just a moment sooner i want to save her as quickly as possible i want to see her smile again with these eyes of my own first of all is that sweet or what the ending cutscene we were talking about earlier seems to fulfill both zelda's wishes of being able to fully open up to link without any self-doubt and link's desire to see her smile again as link begins to follow zelda to their horses zelda stops and expresses how she can no longer hear the voice coming from the master sword she then proceeds to express to link i suppose it would make sense if my power had dwindled over the past 100 years i'm surprised to admit it but i can accept that i mentioned previously how she wrote in her diary how she hopes to share the demons that have plagued her for so long referring to her insecurities about her power and how she wishes to have these heartfelt conversations with link here i believe zelda did just that right after she says this she looks right at link and gives him a big goofy smile satisfying his wish to see her smile again length then runs up to her and the two walk to their horses side by side as this is happening the camera pans way back and shows countless petals of the silent princess flowers being carried by the breeze the game ends with the camera focusing on one close silent princess flower with lincoln zelda way off in the background this is a dead giveaway of links and zelda's relationship as the silent princess is mentioned in several points throughout the game to symbolize love i'm not gonna spend five more minutes proving how important this flower is i think it's been well established at this point but for those who don't know much about this topic go check out some of nintendo black crisis's many breath of the wild ceiling videos as in just about each one of them he goes in depth to prove this point with all of this information we have collected i'm going to conclude that c-link is the strongest ship we have for breath of the wild so far and it's perhaps the second most suggested romance between lincoln zelda out of all of the games just falling behind skyward sword z-link of course however we still aren't done with our breath of the wild ships yet we still have one more to talk about the flower lady okay fine of course no video covering breath of the wild's love stories would be complete if we didn't talk about mifa this relationship seems to call back to ruto's crush on link from ocarina of time but breath of the wild fleshes it out far more and makes mifa another leading candidate for link's affection link first met mifa when he was only about four years old since zora aged far slower than hylians mifo was already the equivalent of a teenager or young adult in sorority years but as link ages their relationship develops child link made quite the first impression on mifa as she writes in her diary link's father was a hylian knight and likely brought link with them to zora's domain when instructed to travel by the king bifa describes the child link as full of energy always with a ready smile she was impressed by his swordsmanship abilities as well being told of how we can already best fully grown men in training seeing him all bruised up she offers to heal like bruises and describes link's face as she looked up with her with big eyes as adorable i'm pretty sure it's safe to say that mifa hadn't fallen in love with link yet at least i hope so since he's only four but as he grows into adulthood it certainly becomes the case link appears to have spent a noteworthy amount of time in zora's domain while growing it's worth noting that the next entry in mifa's diary does say it feels like forever since he was here last he no longer resembles the child i first met this has led some to believe that link hadn't visited the zora's domain between that first visit and after he'd become a knight with the master sword however we can learn through talking with various adult zora who were alive 100 years prior to the setting of the game that this isn't the case there's one zora known as baz who claims link had taught him swordsmanship skills and gives link credit for enabling his career as captain of the zora guard although link was already talented in combat at a very young age i highly doubt he was able to train others of a four-year-old to further prove this point there's also another female zora named coda who apparently grew up with link and mifa and gave link the nickname linny talking to her reveals that prior to the calamity she has slinged to choose between her and mifa and apologizes for her behavior back then this shows that while growing up link must have spent a noteworthy amount of time at the domain to build the relationships with the other characters also this little detail from coda also highlights that lincoln mifa had an obvious bond and must have spent quite a bit of time together during the times he was at the domain the fact that koda tried to make link choose between her and mifa and that she is apologetic about these actions hence the lincoln mifa had become so close that koda felt like mifa was stealing her crush i have no doubt in my mind that link genuinely cared for mifa that she was probably his best friend throughout his life leading up to the calamity most of us already know how much mifa cared for link but it's important to discuss the proof that she loved link romantically so we can tie that into link's emotions later the tradition of the zorro princesses is to craft special armor for the one they intend to marry making it the equivalent of an engagement ring while playing through the varuta quest in the game it's revealed mifa had crafted zora armor for link prior to the calamity and her diary tells of how much time she invested into it in memory number 10 titled mifa's touch which occurs not long before mifa finishes crafting the soraa armor she starts hinting at her proposal by telling link once this whole thing is over maybe things can go back to how they used to be when we were young you know perhaps we could spend some time together mifa planned to present the armor to them when they had some alone time after zelda's training at mount la neru but unfortunately that's when the calamity hit and she was never able to propose to link [Music] a hundred years later when link returns and frees mifa's spirit from varuta she thanks link and says that a new freedom will allow her to be with link once again and that her only wish while being trapped as a spirit in varuta for 100 years is just to see him one more time since she is a spirit it seems odd that she claims she can be with link once again but this is given more meaning when she gives him mifa's grace mifa tells link that her spirit can rest in peace knowing that he can call on her power to heal him when he is wounded this in unison with multiple other entries in her diary mentioning how she can help link makes it perfectly clear that mifa had fallen in love with link so much that she made her purpose to always be there to protect him even after death although mifa obviously loves link we still need to determine if link's affection for mipha is either platonic or mutually romantic i've already talked about why i think link feels very close to mifa but i want to decide if he loved her as much as she loved him in the champions balla dlc there's a scene that occurs after the champions inauguration ceremony where mifa asks a favor from zelda [Music] um princess may i ask a special favor of you then everyone including mifa looks over at link everyone's attention shifting to link during this strongly suggests that the favor mifo was asking zelda was about link ifa wrote in her diary following the ceremony i am grateful to the princess for agreeing to my request into daruk for um well for bringing me closer to link oh i did hear something that shocked me enough to almost overshadow that happy moment link had been chosen to guard the princess wherever she goes they shall be spending much time together it's important to keep in mind that link had just now been assigned to accompany zelda wherever she goes so zelda and link hardly even know each other at this point so it leaves me wondering why mifa seems to be worried about link spending so much time with zelda i have two explanations the first being that mifa simply knew that would mean there would be less time for her to be with link and at this point she had already begun making her engagement armor for him so i think she was just concerned about not being able to find a good time to propose to him unfortunately that turned out to be the case the second reason i have is that mifa could tell from his last visit that link had become burdened with the responsibility of his destiny and was silently bottling up his feelings giving him something in common with zelda previously i told part of a journal entry from mifa where she said link no longer resembles the child she first met but that's not the full story here's all of what she said from that day link came to visit the domain it feels like forever since he was here last he no longer resembles the child i first met he is now an accomplished knight and keeper of the sword who seals the darkness i am so proud however he hardly speaks anymore he smiles even more rarely he is still the kind soul i knew but something has changed i asked him if something had happened if something was wrong he merely shook his head perhaps it is his newly acquired height but i feel he is ever looking past me into the distance beyond despite mifa probably being link's best friend since childhood link tried to conceal his inner struggles from her i think this narrative is a subtle reference to the ever-growing increase of silent stress among people in the real world the term silent stress refers to a method of people coping with extreme anxiety by bottling up their emotions or in other words trying to cope with it by concealing all signs of emotion over the last few decades this issue has been on the rise especially in males the biggest sign of this is the refusal to share one's problems and emotions with others even those closest to them deteriorating their relationships i can attest to this not just from my research sources but also for my personal experience however to avoid getting too deep and personal we'll shift back to link as our example as i've been discussing this i hope you can immediately see how link suffers from this the pressure of being the one destined to defeat the world's greatest evil surely would cause mass amounts of stress and it's not like link being the responsible knight he is can physically turn to unhealthy methods of stress relief so what does he do he bottles up all of his emotions becoming the stoic knight we can see in all of the breath of the wild cutscenes to mipha this was a big change she described his former personality as energetic and gave cute smiles so when it became stoic mifa immediately knew something was wrong but link didn't let her in the two had been close for such a long time and link's sudden refusal to be open with her surely caused her to worry about him i think this is not only because she loves him and wants to help protect him from physical harm but also to provide the moral support that he needed the last detail i have to bring up before we make our conclusions about the ship is mifa's final journal entry i finally completed that special armor for link i'm confident it will fit him perfectly he is coming to the domain soon i hope to give him my gift when i see him but should i really go through with it according to the old legend long ago a zora princess fell in love with the hylian swordsman perhaps there is hope this will be a rare occasion that link is not accompanying the princess we should have some time to ourselves oh i have an idea at sunset i shall ride upon valruta with link sora princess of the past please lend me your courage this legend that mifa is referring to is from ocarina of time when princess ruto got engaged to the hero of time kinda in the previous links loves episode i concluded that ruto's relationship with link in that game could be summarized as i love him but he doesn't love me back mifas and link's relationship is far more complex than the ocarina of time counterpart but i'd have to say the same results still apply it's truly a tragic story i genuinely believe that if mifa had been a little bit more assertive and had tried directly telling link she was worried about him and kept asking for what was troubling him link may have just done so if he did i think there's a very good chance lincoln mifa would have ended up together but alas mifo was just too passive to help stop link's unhealthy method of coping with the stress it took being around zelda 24 7 and a little push from arbosa for like to finally open up to someone after zelda gave him the chance plus there's no possible way link could have ended up with mifa post calamities since she kind of died so although mifa is one of my favorite characters in the entire zelda franchise and i would love me link to be a canon ship there's just too much evidence pointing towards zelda making z-link the most likely ship for breath of the wild if i had to pick a runner-up other than mifa because once again she's dead i'd have to give it to riju i think in terms of actual evidence riju is about even with paya so i'm using my bias as the tiebreaker paya obviously has a huge crush on link but since there aren't many cut scenes dialogue or journal entries that could suggest link has similar interest in her i'm just going to leave that be raishu is quite a bit different as i said during her section rishu isn't shown to have an obvious interest in link but some of her sarcastic remarks and embarrassment when he finds her playing with the stuffed stand seal can be interpreted as a mild crush on link which is plenty of time to develop however what i think levels a ship with rishu and that to that apaya is link's dialogue options when talking to her his are actually a little bit funny whereas the few dialogue options he has when talking with paya are very matter-of-fact so there it is the winner of things loves for breath of the wild is z-link with rishu as a runner-up however i genuinely believe that had some things gone differently in breath of the wild before the calamity link probably would have ended up with mifa conveniently enough just last month we were gifted with the release of hyrule warriors age of calamity which ended up as an alternative timeline to the events of breath of the wild this will mark the beginning of the section covering age of calamity if you haven't figured that out so if you haven't played it yet here's your spoiler warning as i will not be holding back on anything i noticed in the game it's important for me to bring up that both sidon and riju were an age of calamity however there isn't much content from them in terms of romance with link saddam spent nearly all of his time in the game with mifa and rishi with herbosa which makes perfect sense saidon's focus is spending as much time with his sister as possible and preventing her death in the alternative timeline while rishu spends all of her time bonding and learning from our arbosa i'd say that the said on and rishi ships are actually weakened here in age of calamity due to their complete lack of direct interaction with link but then again if i time traveled for the purpose of saving my once deceased family i'd probably spend as much time with them as well instead of hitting up my crush there's also the internet shipping link with impa arpora but i think that these are more groundless than sid link and even the great fairies link and empa don't ever interact with each other except in the very first level when they first meet besides they are only around each other through zelda and they are never shown giving each other looks or having a conversation unless it's through zelda ultimately i think shipping info with link is a very poor replacement for paya at least with paya she obviously had a crush on him and they had some actual interaction then there's pura who isn't around link bunch at all except for the couple times so she's showing off her text zelda and her sister imba overall there's not really any content in the game to suggest there would be a romance between link and these two so it's basically just fan fiction what age of calamity did give us in terms of romance is a further developed love triangle between link zelda and mifa it's worth noting that there are many instances where this is shown and can be interpreted as symbolism for their love triangle but i'm not really going to go into it because you can essentially slap a triangle onto any snapshot where all three are shown on screen but that doesn't really give it any meaning i only mentioned this because i saw another video where the love triangle is analyzed based on the initial artwork but i don't think this really means anything however there's plenty of other content i'd like to delve into first things first is that h of calamity occurs in alternative timeline and birth than breath of the wild thanks to the time traveling tarika due to this we can only use some of the information from breath of the wild in our analysis since many of the events in age of calamity change the relationships of some of the characters the most notable is link's seemingly different personality in age of calamity as we discussed earlier from zelda's diary things became very stoic due to the heavy burden of willing the master sword and mifa points out that link rarely smiled anymore during the point in which tarako travels back to blake had not yet obtained the master sword and thus had not yet had the supposed change in personality which explains why we see link give more detailed facial expressions and smiles in the game because link finds terraco lempa takes him with her to meet zelda and link is assigned to accompany input and zelda to the royal research lab along with a few other knights due to his heroic actions in saving zelda when they were being attacked along the way link was appointed to be zelda's bodyguard far sooner than he was in breath of the wild without having already been chosen by the legendary blade of evil spain zelda's insecurities weren't exposed by the presence of link and the two didn't seem to have any animosity between them during the cutscene titled trust link defends zelda and tarako from suga's attack afterwards zelda says this link and then terrico interrupts and starts horseplaying with link as zelda daruk and mifa start laughing link then turns back towards zelda and he looks right at her with his hand rubbing the back of his head to which zelda keeps chuckling and smiling we can see here that lincoln zelda have a much friendlier relationship than they did when they first became acquaintances in breath of the wild one thing i found odd while playing was that zelda and link were the only ones who ran ahead to korok forest after fighting the hollows in the lost woods why did the four champions has to in accompanying hylian soldiers all have to stay back sure there were some monsters but not that many after the hollows are defeated in the lost woods zelda specifically tells link to come with her to correct forest since it was only a single text box there's not any more insight as to why she only requested link odds are that it was not zello trying to get some alone time with link but then again i also can't argue much against the thought either regardless of zelda's motives for only bringing link they are blocked by astor who re-summons all of the four hollows to gang up on link who is actually defeated and has a sword broken in half astor then orders the hollows to kill zelda link and zelda both give a desperation reach for each other and then a flash of light emits from the master sword in its pedestal temporarily dispersing the hollows there's the argument that link reached out to zelda because he was supposed to protect her but couldn't any longer and zelda had no protection other than that however i disagree with this this would be an overly simplistic analysis if that's all we concluded unlike in breath of the wild link is far more expressive and even in birth of the wild he still had feelings he just tried to conceal them age of calamity gives us a different context here the two had already had some time to get to know each other without the animosity of breath of the wild although claiming that link and zelda are reaching because they care for each other may be the obvious explanation i think it's the most reasonable one once link draws the master sword we can see his eyes become fierce as he looks towards astori which gives me the impression link is enraged and is ready to take revenge on asdor for trying to kill them i think this is one of the many hints suggesting zelink in age of calamity but it's not quite strong enough to prove a romance after link zelda and the rest of the group are traveling back to hyrule castle after the lost woods incident we can see that zelda's insecurities about her responsibilities are exposed from link obtaining the master sword but since zelda had the time to know link for a while she doesn't view him the same way she does in breath of the wild this interaction with her boso shows her new thoughts link he's become so much stronger and yet i have not i presume that's what you're thinking zelda nods confirming she's comparing her progress to lynx arbosa helps to comfort zelda by telling her that she and link are alike as they will both rise to any challenge without hesitation unfortunately urbosa's comforting is only effective for the moment but zelda seems to only grow closer with link as the game progresses following the inauguration ceremony arbosa is seen having a conversation off to the side with link i think this is rather odd since mifa is his childhood friend and duruk seems to have been a bro to link if we recall back to breath of the wild the only one-on-one conversation that we know of that link had with her bosa was in memory number six or boss's hand where she told link about how insecure he makes zelda but none of it is his fault there's a reasonable assumption that this conversation in age of calamity could also be about zelda the only problem i can think about to hit this assumption is that since link and zelda don't have any tension between them arbosa has no need to help bring them together unless of course she's playing wing man again like she did in birth of the wild regardless of what she said i'm willing to bet it was a rather important conversation most likely regarding zelda before i present the next important ceiling scene we need to take this thing to context using the song by the court poet from breath of the wild more specifically the line that says zelda's love for her appointed knight awoke her power in that timeline zelda's power awoke when link had fallen to his knees trying to protect her and when a guardian was about to shoot the killing blow zelda stepped forward to protect him and her power unleashed itself as the song said it was her love for link in his mortal peril that unlocked her sacred power despite age of calamity splitting off into another timeline and changing many of the events the circumstances in which zelda unlocks her power remain constant revives the blight ganons and sends all four of them to attack link tries to fight them off while input tries to escort zelda to safety zelda has a flashback to when link dragged her away from her father and thought he died and decided she can't let the same thing happen in link even if that means giving up her own life so far we've been able to tell that link and zelda have gotten along pretty well and would probably be considered friends at this point but here zelda is showing deep emotional love for link she breaks free from impa and desperately runs back to link reaching forum just like she did in korak forest in her final desperate yell her sacred power ignites from her hands and temporarily disables the blights and the guardians we do need to keep in mind that the court poet's song is written from the context of birth of the wild but regardless i think it's safe to say that she still ended up loving link i think it's still very possible that this love was plutonic but odds are it was more than that there's still many more details to discuss for zelda but i think we should establish mifa's relationship with link in age of calamity so we can take them both into context for my final points of course since link and mifa had known each other since link was a small child they still have a close bond in each of calamity but link's visit to sora's domain referenced in her diary goes completely different in age of calamity he travels there with zelda and impa to recruit the champions instead of staying with zelda to talk to king dorophan he separates from the group to spend some alone time with mifa well i guess they are third wheeled by tarico but that doesn't really matter here the difference between their meetings goes totally different and we can tell through mifa's dialogue well link you've grown since i last saw you and yet you have not changed we can tell since she says he's grown since the last time she saw him that this is intended to replace the visit from eva's diary in breath of the wild all of link's childhood and time growing up where he had visited zord's domain remained unaffected by time travel up to this point the fact that mifa also says that he has not changed also reestablishes the point that link never made the transformation into the stoic knight he became in breath of the wild let's recall another section in mifa's diary if i wrote that when gs linked what was wrong he merely shrugged making mifa feel as if link was looking past her since this is no longer the case lynxon mifa's relationship is far more stable and this detail alone will make a mealing ship a lot more likely in age of calamity although lynx and mifa's relationship doesn't develop any distance like it did in breath of the wild mifa still has the desire to fight alongside link to protect him she no longer seems to worry about his mental stress so zlink seems to be in better control but she evidently feels as if she needs protection from physical harm if mifa is defeated in gameplay she will occasionally mutter i promise to protect him which is referring to link mitha also seems to take the chance to walk beside link whenever that rare opportunity arises though since he is assigned to accompany zelda she can't do this often since he's required to be by zelda's side most of the time one moment though that stuck out to me was when the group is traveling through the lost woods instead of zelda leading the group she is towards the back while link mifa and rivali are in front since lincoln and ravali are rivals link is probably doing his duty to lead the group but ravali just won't have it so he's just breathing down link's neck the entire time and complaining about how they're going in circles we see mifa standing between the two using her rare opportunity to be beside link and stand between him and her volley the fight were to break out between them again once again presenting mifa's will to protect link in this game mifa is also a bit more open about her feelings towards link her most clear indications that she loved link romantically were told through other means such as her diary or by sidon telling link that she had crafted the armor for him but didn't get the chance to propose in chapter 2 during the cutscene assassination daruk and mifa are walking behind link zelda in the group of knights part of their conversation goes as follows i have a request might i join you for training next time i would like to be fully prepared learning new ways to fight foes might do me some good of course the more the merrier [Music] thing is we still need a night gritty enough to see all the darkness and they're nowhere to be found yes although hey if you see anybody that if you look closely mifa was staring ahead at link zuruk picked up on this which is why he cut himself off and chuckled right after this happens they are interrupted by the yiga attack but if we look at their faces right before we see deruk giving mifa a smug look while mifa has a sheepish slightly embarrassed look on her face here i think deruk chuckles not just because you can tell mifa has confidence link will be the knight that wields the legendary sword but also picks up on her crush on him mifa's sheepish smile boy that's a tongue coaster is more of a hint that she is admitting her affections for link to daruk i think this was a rather clever way of the developers to hint that link will soon obtain the master sword while also simultaneously developing the love story with mifa in the conclusion to the next chapter we once again see mifa and daruk speaking with each other where link becomes the subject of discussion in that cutscene following the inauguration ceremony mifa thanks to rook for agreeing to help her train well let's just play the tape so daruk about what we discussed ah so you're ready to begin your training let's get to it thank you i hope to become stronger so that i can fight alongside oh no it was just um enough as link overhears mifa saying this while looking at him she becomes flustered and tries to explain herself to link who starts to walk over to her although ling's facial expression does not make a significant change when he starts to walk towards miva that doesn't mean he doesn't have any emotional connection to what mipho was saying we may never get a definitive insight to link's emotions at this moment but i interpreted this as if he wants to walk off with her and have a personal conversation but like i said we'll never know for sure nevertheless lynx seems to be much more attentive to mipha in age of calamity than he was in breath of the wild for the reasons we discussed before we wrap up this a couple more details i would like to analyze using the context i've just established back in the lost woods when zelda notices hes dues and stops the group link runs back to zelda and stands in front of her in a defensive position ready to defend zelda if needed when hastu begins to lead the way link is once again the first one to lead the group mifa who is previously right beside link stays back with zelda link's two major love interests turn towards each other give one another a half smile and both sound like they're trying to tell each other something but neither could speak something comprehensible remember this event occurs after link had already saved zelda a couple of times including the attack from suga and zelda had already shown a couple of potential signs of affection towards link though zelda's love is probably still developing zelda and mifa are probably both aware they are competing for link but they're too polite to act hostile towards each other it's worth noting that in the cutscenes link smiles more with zelda than he does mifa after they escape from the monsters at the spring of courage empire yells words of encouragement at zelda zelda looks down at terraco then to link who gives her a faint smile and a nod also after defeating calamity ganon lin gives her a smile but of course this could just be him smiling at the entire group since they did after all just sealed the world's grinned steel in my opinion the most significant time link smiles in the game is at the very end when the four descendants of the champions are about to return to the breath of the wild timeline a saidon is giving his farewell to his sister who he will never see again they have an emotional moment and link and zelda are shown watching both of them smiling as zelda steps forward to address the group link remains standing there looking directly at miva in saidon zelda does step into the line between link and mifa so it's possible link was just watching zelda as she was about to give her short speech but he was already looking in miva's direction before cell to step between them overall age of calamity doesn't have enough content to determine who holds link's romantic affection there are a few hints for both zelda and mifa as we've discussed but nothing has been particularly strong and both i'd say are about even so far however when link arrives to help mifa and slide on defeat water blight ganon and the gameplay starts there's a text box that appears where mifa says link i knew you would come at first this may seem insignificant but we need to quickly understand why mipho would have this kind of faith in link we have spent plenty of time discussing how mifa in both birth of the wild and age of calamity tries to protect link but we have never seen link make equivalent sacrifices for mifa however this does not mean that link never came through for her in fact we can logically reason that since mifa has such high faith in him link has often been there for her when she needs it this wasn't the case she probably would have said something like i was hoping you would come rather than i knew you would come this may be a bit too picky but i think it fits what we know about the characters pretty well before the avengers endgame scene that takes place on hyrule field there's also a quick shot of a blooming silent princess flower with the castle in the background when we see close-up shots of the silent princess flowers in breath of the wild they supplemented each other to create symbolism of endless love hinting at the zealing ship but when it's shown here in age of calamity the context is totally different we don't have an emotional moment occurring between lincoln zelda or any characters as a matter of fact zelda has recently unlocked her sacred power and they were about to fight their way to the castle to vanquish the calamity trying to interpret the silent princess shown in this context as a symbol of love doesn't seem to quite match up instead i think it better fits its alternative symbolism of representing zelda's character growth since zelda had just unlocked her power this would make sense i know this is kind of a letdown for zealing compared to the very complex symbolism and breath of the wild but i genuinely think in this context it isn't a symbol of love if you'd like to disagree with me on this feel free to let me know in the comments below so who ultimately is the better match for link in age of calamity zelda or mifa well based on all the information we've covered in this long video i'd still have to say i don't know i mean that too though the developers appear to be hinting at z-link for age of calamity the evidence in this game is far weaker than it is for breath of the wild lincoln zelda never had the tension in their relationship which led them to share each other's insecurities with each other in ancient calamity they just seemed to be aware of each other's progress and were friends but there's a pretty good chance that their relationships were just platonic the only reason i think the odds are slightly in zelda's favor is since the game once again ends with links standing side by side with zelda overlooking hyrule just like they did in breath of the wild but other than that mifa has a pretty balanced chance link never hid his emotions and based on what happened after the inauguration ceremony he seems like he still talks with her fairly regularly in age of calamity's timeline nothing as far as we're aware would have gotten in the way of mifa making the zora armor as a proposal for link and with c-link in this game seemingly being more platonic by the end i think miva has just as good of a shot like i said i think the ball here could roll either way but i know calling it a tie is boring so i'll make my decision even though the developers seem to have intended for another c-link i'm going to have to pick mifa for age of calamity with mifa and all the champions surviving the calamity and links in mifa's unharmed relationship i think that mifo will definitely go through with her proposal and link will likely accept so there we have it ceiling turned out to be the victor for birth of the wild while mifa won my personal tiebreaker for age of calamity i know i definitely had some bias influencing my decision here at the end of my analysis but i hope i did a good job proving to you that link could genuinely go either way if nintendo decided to make a dlc with more story for the game odds are that won't happen but we can dream do you agree with my conclusions for these two games if not let me know who you think link would end up with in each game and why if you enjoyed this video which i hope you did since it's been highly requested for a few months now please remember to leave a like and subscribe to the channel so you know when the future parts of this series are released thank you all so much for watching and i hope to have you here next time

Channel: Zeldom

Views: 272,653

Rating: 4.9213195 out of 5

Keywords: Legend of Zelda, Link loves zelda, Link's Loves - Breath of the Wild & Age of Calamity, Link's love interests, Link's loves, Links loves, Zelda, Zeldom, age of calamity romances, best zelda romances, botw 2, breath of the wild, does link love zelda, legend of zelda romances, link's loves part 2, milink, mipha x link, mipha x link age of calamity, romances in zelda, top zelda romances, zelda romances, zelda x link botw, zelda x link breath of the wild, zelink

Id: trprVgA8NOw

Length: 58min 48sec (3528 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 04 2021