What are the Zelda’s genuine relationship with their links?
Like who’s platonic, sibling, or romantically paired.
Kinda unrelated, but I’m a big Artemis fan—in a past post u said she dated around in her era and so did wars, are they friends or perchance something more?
Behold: Yet another long #lin thinks post. You have been warned :)
My favorite part of writing is exploring a variety of character interactions, so I had a lot of fun back in the day planning out different relationship dynamics for each Zelda and Link duo. Some of these are new— mostly Echo/Silent lol— but much of it is the same as it was three years ago!
(There are also quick descriptions of each Zelda’s view of their Link in the Intro Cards in the Masterpost. But I can certainly go into more detail on them!)
Pink: They’re romantically attracted to each other in Wisdomverse; I ship ‘em <3
Purple: They totally could be romantically attracted to each other in Wisdomverse; I don’t really mind either way!
Blue: I don’t personally ship ‘em, and I’ll probably be depicting them platonically. But I still don’t mind either way!
NOTE: As always, blanket permission to ship whoever you want!
This is just how I’ll be portraying them; I absolutely don’t mind if folks want to use the Wisdomverse tag, story, and designs for ship pairs I don’t support. Want to draw Time being fought over by Lullaby and Malon? Want to write Echo/Dohna AoL angst? Want to draw construct-armed Wild romancing Sidon post-TotK? I don’t ship any of those, but I don’t mind at all! Go for it!
With that said, let’s begin!
Sun and Sky: Power couple!
Very much in love. They won’t shut up about their relationship (affectionate).
Engaged to be married! (My original plan was for their sailcloths to be their engagement tokens, but I’ve since been considering other options for reasons… I’ll finalize this when I get to Sun’s detailed design page lol)
Dot and Four: Childhood friends; amicable exes.
They tried dating two years ago, but they weren’t in the right frame of mind for it back then and decided to break up. For extra trauma, consider that they constantly unintentionally remind each other of Shadow and it breaks them 🥲.
They’re still best friends, of course. Maybe they’ll date again later; maybe not; who knows!
Lullaby and Time: Guilt-ridden comrades-in-arms.
There’s a lot of history and tension between them. Both have taken actions that the other understands, yet really hates. More on their story in the fic Time’s Refrain.
However (no matter how much they hate each other sometimes) their loyalty to each other will never fade.
Fable and Legend: Bisexual disaster twins >:).
Annoying as fuck to each other in their daily lives. They’ve both got strong personalities and they clash often.
But they’re absolutely ride-or-die when it counts. They’d give up anything for each other. In some ways, they both already have 🥲.
Echo and Silent: Star-crossed lovers.
A cheerful gremlin-coded heroine and her quiet, fondly exasperated guide.
Except now Silent is long dead because of the sleep curse, and Echo is alone and depressed :'(
More on their story in the comic Echo of the Past.
Dawn and Hyrule: The classic, wholesome “princess and her hero.”
They’ve both got a lil’ crush on each other :)
But they both don’t believe the other could possibly like them back. So they’ve both been way too shy to do anything about it so far other than blush cutely when the other so much as says their name.
Tetra and Wind: Partners in crime (literal).
They bicker like an old married couple and curse at each other like… well, like sailors.
Would catapult each other into a stone fortress; would kill for each other; would somehow do both at once.
Phantom and Spirit: Demanding queen and her obedient servant (affectionate)
Phantom orders him around, and Spirit is happy to comply. (Think of the “As you wish” scenes from the beginning of Princess Bride, lol.)
Meanwhile, Spirit is a train nerd ^TM, and Phantom loves listening to him talk— not because she’s into trains, but because she’s into him :).
Dusk and Twilight: Acquaintances with a common friend that they both cared about very deeply.
Midna’s departure brought them much closer together— she was what connected them, and then she left, and that devastated them both.
They’re still trying to figure out why exactly she left. Both of them kind of blame themselves.
Artemis and Warriors: They’re each other’s secret fling; a constant “will they; won’t they” situationship.
Warriors uses his charm to maintain his standing as the hero despite his commoner origins, and Artemis dangles the possibility of a relationship with herself in front of her political opponents to keep them complacent.
So they both end up dating around for political power and casual stakes— and then get jealous when the other is in a relationship.
Flora and Wild: Learning to love again.
They’ve been though a lot, and it really changed them: (misunderstanding and envy) -> (amnesia and a century of stasis) -> (amputation and draconification). But they’re still willing to rebuild their relationship, even after everything.
On the whole, Flora is a fan of this newer, freer version of Wild. Meanwhile, Wild is doing his best to enjoy the process of learning to love his princess all over again.
More on their Post-TotK interactions in the shortcomic As I Recall
I’ve drawn little Extra Artworks for some or all of these by this point! If you’d like to see more of any one character, just search their tag in my blog! (#wis sun, #wis spirit, etc for the Zeldas + Spirit and Silent)(#lu legend, #lu wars etc for the nine LU Links whose designs I’m using :).
You can also find more theories and analyses at #lin thinks!
And lastly, if you haven’t already, check out the:
