People always say that he's Hylia's favorite incarnation of the Hero. Why is that?
The Hero of Legend has been through it all. Being Hylia's favorite isn't a good thing.
The Hero of Legend exists in a tumultuous timeline, one where the Hero of Time was defeated by Ganondorf. In that ancient era, Ganondorf took the Triforces of Link and Zelda and possessed the power of the complete Triforce, and the Seven Sages only barely sealed him away in the Sacred Realm, which, due to Ganon's influence, became the Dark World.
The War of Imprisonment rampaged the land, and souls who disappeared into the Sacred Realm's gates never returned. Eventually the Sages were able to seal it again, much tighter than before, and peace returned to Hyrule.
However, this is a timeline when the Hylians are fading away, and the blood of the goddess is thinning. Hyrule in and of itself is becoming no more than a legend in current time.
Agahnim, an evil sorcerer looking to open the Sacred Realm's doors once again, begins taking young girls who are descended from the Seven Sages and sacrificing them to the Dark World, hoping to bring Ganon back. He's about to do the same to Zelda, who telepathically cries out for help. It's Link, the nephew of the last knight in Hyrule, who hears her. His uncle races off to help the castle guards, alerted by the chaos at the palace, but is overwhelmed. Link finds him and accepts his sword, unknowingly accepting a lifetime of quests and adventures set up on him by the gods.
Link rescues Zelda and takes her to the Sanctuary, where he is told he must find the Master Sword if he is to defeat Agahnim. He journeys across Hyrule, obtaining the three Charms of Virtue, and even the Dark World (where he turns into a pink bunny until he gets the Moon Pearl) before getting the Master Sword-- but he's too late. Zelda is sacrificed to the Dark World right in front of him.
Link saves the seven girls that Agahnim had sacrificed, defeats Agahnim, then Ganon; and peace returns to Hyrule. His uncle and the king of Hyrule as Link puts his hands on the Triforce and wishes for peace.
The gods certainly found a loophole with that one, instead taking him to the neighboring lands of Holodrum and Labrynna, where he must rescue Din (Oracle of Seasons) after Twinrova (yes, the same ones from Ocarina of Time) capture her in an effort to resurrect Ganon, again. He undertakes another vast journey, defeats their minion Onox and his Dark Dragon form, then defeats Ganon and rescues Zelda for the second time.
And again, he's whisked away to another world, Labrynna, where he must stop the wicked sorceress Veran from upending their world by traveling across time to save Nayru, the Oracle of Ages.
After all of this, Link briefly returns to Hyrule before probably deciding that he's had enough. He sets out on a ship for his final, and most bitter, journey.
On the open ocean, Link is caught in a storm and wrecks. He finds himself on the island of Koholint, a peaceful and wonderful place where he meets and (according to largely-accepted canon) falls in love with Marin, a beautiful girl who nurses him back to health.
In my mind, I believe that Link probably wanted to stay there forever, but he was pulled into another adventure by a mysterious owl, maybe sent by Hylia or influenced by the gods. He is told he needs to wake the Wind Fish, and after a long adventure, he discovers that the entire island only exists in the Wind Fish's dream. The monsters that attacked him were trying to save their island home, and the citizens have no clue what's going on.
Link-- pushed by the gods' influence, I believe-- was forced to wake the Wind Fish, losing the one peaceful place he'd ever been and his beloved Marin.
After this, the hero sets off on the sea once more, never to be seen again.
The fact that he's never heard from again could mean plenty of things. Perhaps he was finally allowed to rest, and made a life somewhere else. Or maybe he did get pulled into another adventure, but somewhere far away. Or maybe, he fell victim to the sea now that his purpose was served and Hylia's protection disappeared.
He is called Hylia's favorite because he is possibly the incarnation of the hero that has seen the most adventures. He was pulled into saving the world multiple times, even when he tried to escape it. His final journey was probably his worst, since he fell in love with someone he ultimately had to destroy.
The only reason he was forced to wake the Wind Fish was because it was the only way to return to his own world, where Hylia could continue to use him if necessary-- and ultimately she never did. Link had to live with the decision that cost him Marin until the end of his days.
In conclusion the Hero of Legend's story is bittersweet. He is certainly a hero, having saved Hyrule twice, Holodrum, and Labrynna. He defeated Ganon and saved Zelda twice. He was renowned as a legend as time went on, but no one knows where he went or what became of him. Perhaps we will never know.
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Featured Artists: Nocturne, Hylian Tactician, Decopunk1927, @moon-x-flower
Late posting! I was the background artist for the Zelda Creator's August banner. The monthly location's based on Lyanna City [Present day] from Oracle of Ages.
This one was more difficult than I anticipated. Specifically, trying to translate a 2D topdown pixel image into a 3D layout from a ground level perspective. I actually resorted to using my Genshin Impact account's Serenitea Teapot realm to build a makeshift layout as reference.
Please check out the featured artists! They are all amazing!
The Oracle of Secrets, Farore! I always gravitate towards characters done dirty by the plot, I still mourn the loss of her game. Anyway, play the Oracle games!! Oracle of Seasons is genuinely one of my favourite Zelda games
The "secrets" Farore is the oracle of is the fact that they all have the same exact power set given different fancy names to match their goddess-inspired aesthetics. Ages, Seasons, and... well, they couldn't come up with a third time-related thing that wasn't "eras" (same as ages) or straight up just "days" or "minutes." Who's going to seek out the Oracle of Minutes? Not me, that's for sure. They just gave up after the first two.
The third in my series of “fight like a girl”-themed prints featuring the three oracles from The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons. Farore has always had a special place in my heart, so I saved her for last.
You can purchase this as a print or various other merchandise on my Society6 and Redbubble stores!
