The Legend of Zelda’s Link is one of gaming’s most iconic heroes. He is the archetypal swordsman of games – even the lame men who do not play video games recognize Link as the icon that he is. While most Legend of Zelda games have their own variations of Link (and Zelda), there are common attributes among all the different Links. All Links are pretty much mute, with the exception being the occasional commands and grunts. All Links are blond and wear the legendary green tunic that has become major gaming symbol.

Most Links have also suffered a lot throughout the franchise. From turning to a wolf to having to endure some of the most brutal dungeons in all of gaming, all the Links have to put up a lot in their quests. Often times he would save Hyrule without the gratification of the people; he is truly the unsung hero in many of these games.

Fortunately for Link, we gamers know what he has to go through in each game, which is why we are going over The 15 Worst Things That Have Happened To Link. For all the trouble that Link has to go through in each title, it is time we recognize all the trauma he has endured.

15 Nothin' But A Scrub

In one of the more mature and darkest Zelda games, Link goes through a variety different transformations in Majora’s Mask. A sequel to Ocarina of Time, Majora begins with Link coming across the mischievous Skull Kid. Taking away his ocarina, Skull Kid uses the Majora’s mask to turn Link into a Deku Scrub.

A Deku Scrub is a plant-like species that lives within the world of Zelda. They are generally round and short. Their skin appears to be made of wood, and leaves grow out of them. The opening act of Majora’s Mask forces gamers to play as Deku Link, as he travels the land of Termina to find a way to cure his curse. Eventually the Happy Mask Salesman was able to turn Link back to normal, and transfer his curse into a mask. He would later use the Deku mask, along with other masks, to transform into a variety of different versions of himself.

14 Just Wolfin' Around

Twilight Princess is another dark Zelda title; the main premise of the game is about a mad ruler from a dark dimension trying to invade the land of Hyrule. Zelda, this time the ruler of Hyrule, surrenders to the madman to prevent harm to her kingdom. Hyrule is then surrounded by Twilight, a dark matter that reduces beings of light (like Hylians) into spirits.

Despite being a Hylian himself, Link does not become a spirit when he comes across Twilight. Instead, he turns into a wolf. Apparently Link’s transformation into a wolf was foretold by the people of the Twilight Realm, and Link’s wolf form is actually a divine beast. While that’s cool and all, the first time Link turns into a wolf appeared to be very painful. He actually wails in agony as he starts transforming, and it certainly did not look pleasant. He wouldn’t scream like that for the other times he turns into a wolf, possibly because he may have endured the pain.

13 The Girl Of His Dreams, Literally

Link’s Awakening is charming title from the classic Game Boy. The game is about Link being shipwrecked on an island. His main goal is to find a way off the island, and in order to do that he needs to awaken the Wind Fish. He meets a series of oddball characters, including the sweet Marin. Marin is the girl who found Link on the beaches after his shipwreck, and throughout the game they form a bond.

It is a cute side story while Link travels the island to find the instruments of the sirens to awaken the fish. As Link continues traveling Koholint, it is revealed that the entire island is just the Wind Fish’s dream. Once the Wind Fish is awakened, Koholint Island will disappear along with all the citizens, including Marin. Even though he has fallen in love with Marin, Link still chooses to wake the Wind Fish. Marin, along with all of Koholint Island, disappears as the Wind Fish takes Link back to where he first sunk his ship. The Wind Fish assures him that the memories of Koholint Island will be with him forever, and it is one of the more bittersweet endings in the franchise.

12 Literally Everyone Hated This One

Ocarina of Time is not only one of the best games in the Zelda franchise, it is also possibly one of the best games of all time, period. From gameplay to the graphics, everything about the game has been lauded since it first came out in 1998. All the praise the game gets is well deserved, as the game is truly amazing.

If there is only one thing from Ocarina of Time that is often criticized, it would the Water Temple. One of the more confusing dungeons in the game, the Water Temple is a mess to navigate through. Link is forced to spend the majority of the temple underwater, which makes traversing the dungeon that much harder. It is just a very difficult dungeon to navigate, and Link is the one in the center of it all. Good thing Link is a silent protagonist, or else Ocarina of Time would quickly turn into a rated M game for language alone.

11 Everything About This

In the early 90s, Nintendo gave permission to Philips to create their own Legend of Zelda games for the CD-i. Philips made three Zelda games on the CD-i: Link: The Faces of Evil, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, and Zelda's Adventure. Nintendo would end up regretting the partnership due to the fact that those CD-i games are often considered to be some of the worst games ever.

The games suffered from nearly unplayable controls, and horribly animated cutscenes. Everything about the game was a train wreck, and neither Link or Zelda end up looking good in either game. Link is actually given a voice in the game, and he sounds awful. Zelda was actually made playable in two of these CD-i games, which is unfortunate considering that is the first time she was ever playable. While the CD-i games have become well-known among the gaming community because of morbid curiosity, the games did a lot to tarnish the reputation of the Legend of Zelda series.

10 Becoming A Regretful Spirit

In Twilight Princess, Link encounters a golden wolf who can transform into a skeleton warrior. Called the Hero’s Shade (or Hero’s Spirit), he takes Link to a mysterious heavenly place to teach him specific sword techniques. His true identity is an enigma, yet it's heavily suggested he's a past warrior who lived with regret.

The Hyrule Historia book suggests that the Shade is a past incarnation of Link, specifically the Hero of Time version, aka Ocarina of Time Link. Legend of Zelda has a surprisingly confusing timeline; multiple branches of the timeline are splintered after Ocarina of Time. Twilight Princess takes place many years after Majora’s Mask, which has the Hero of Time variation of Link. One of most prevailing fan theory of Majora’s Mask is that the whole game takes place in purgatory, and Link died in the beginning of the game. If the Shade is supposed to be the Hero of Time from Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, then him dying in the latter game may explain the regret he has and why he is such a sorrowful spirit.

9 Saving His Little Sister

The games rarely dwell on Link’s family life. Often he is just an orphan living on his own before he is called into action to save Hyrule. Wind Waker is different: he actually has a family in it. Though it is implied that his parents are MIA, he still has a Grandma and little sister, Aryll. Aryll often likes to chastise her older brother for his laziness, but you can tell they have deep bond. Not long after the game starts, Aryll is kidnapped by the giant bird, the Helmaroc King.

Aryll’s kidnapping is the call of action for Link to leave his peaceful life and to go on an epic quest. Wind Waker is one of the few times that Link has an actually personally motivation to go on his quest, outside of simply Hyrule from Ganon. Link’s goal to save his sister is what leads to the entire events of the game. For once Link had something more to fight for; he had something to go back to once his quest he was done. It is because of this incident that his life became inversely changed, and he is forced to grow up faster than he would have.

8 The Link Family Curse

As mentioned, the Legend of Zelda games rarely ever delved into Link’s home life. When it does, usually something bad happens. Even though Aryll gets kidnapped early on in Wind Waker, at least Link is able to save her and bring her home safely. Link’s uncle in A Link to the Past is a totally different story. The story of A Link to the Past starts with Link going after his uncle to Hyrule castle, only to find him dying in the sewers.

He passes on his sword and shield before he presumably dies of his wounds. Link’s uncle is one of the few known relatives of any reincarnations of Link, and he is killed off in the opening act of the game. Along with Aryll’s kidnapping, it would appear that Link may be cursed. It's probably best that Link is usually portrayed as an orphan. Any family members would just be in harm’s way.

7 The Story Of A Lost Childhood

The timeline of the Legend of Zelda has always been confusing. With nearly each title in the series focusing on a different incarnation of Link and Zelda, there are rarely any direct connections between the games outside the fact there are characters named Link and Zelda. The Hyrule Historia book finally revealed the official timeline, and boy did it make things more confusing.

Not only did some of the earlier games take place later in the timeline, like the original Legend of Zelda, yet the timeline splinters after Ocarina of Time. During Ocarina of Time, when Link pulls out the Master Sword, he goes seven years into the future, with his body becoming seven years older as well. At the end of Ocarina of Time, it showed Link putting back the Master Sword and continuing his life as a kid. Apparently there is a timeline where Link continues his life as an adult, which is honestly kind of sad. No one should lose out of having a childhood. Everyone needs to experience some short of childhood in order for all us to grow and learn.

6 An Alternate Failure

A Link Between Worlds is game on the Nintendo 3DS that is meant to act as a sequel to A Link to the Past. In Between Worlds, an evil wizard from a parallel world arrives in Hyrule to hunt down the descendants of the seven sages and use them to resurrect Ganon. It turns out the wizard was part of an even more elaborate plot to steal Hyrule’s Triforce in order to replace the broken Triforce in Lorule, Hyrule’s dark mirror in the parallel world.

Apparently Lorule’s Triforce lost all its power after years of civil war within the kingdom. Hilda, Zelda’s Lorule doppelganger, decided to trick Hyrule to get their Triforce. Ravio, Link’s Lorule doppelganger, was too much of coward to stop her, so he ran to the Hyrule to find a real hero to stop her. It is interesting to witness a version of Link who completely lacks the one single attribute that all Links have shared at that point: courage. Ravio’s complete lack of a backbone is what leads to the events of the game, and he is only able to speak up to Hilda at the very end. Maybe Lorule wouldn’t have been in such a dire situation if they had a hero like Link.

5 That's One Way To Build Up Muscle

Tri Force Heroes is an interesting 3DS title in the franchise. The game essentially is a co-op game where three friends get together with their 3DS and play the game together. Each player takes control of a different Link, and they solve puzzles as they travel a new kingdom that isn’t Hyrule. The game is actually pretty fun… if you have two friends to play it with.

There is a single player option. Instead of three Links working together to solve the puzzles, there is only one Link, with two statues to carry. You heard that right: in the single player you have to carry around two statues in order to actually play the game alone. You can possess the different the statues and control them manually. However only one Link can be controlled by the player; there will always be two Links stuck as statues. The game is almost unplayable as a single player option, and whatever Link that isn’t stuck as a statue is forced to carry the other two by hand. Link may be strong, but after a while it gets very tedious and hard. At least Link will have incredible upper body strength at end of it.

4 The Only Surviving Champion

Most of the major story beats of Breath of the Wild are told via flashbacks or memories. Link begins the game not remembering what happened before he was put into rest. Recovering the different memories of Link shows the events that led to Ganon’s ascension, and Zelda’s failure to stop it. In the past, Zelda and Link form the Champions, a collective made from the different races of Hyrule. Besides Link and Zelda, there were four other Champions. It was up to those four other Champions to pilot the Devine Beasts, ancient mechanical beings, and help stop Ganon.

Sadly, the plan backfires when Ganon, having transcended into Calamity Ganon, was able to possess the Devine Beasts and seal the Champions. Ganon then uses the Beasts to attack Hyrule. It was one of the biggest failures that both Zelda and Link ever faced; Zelda would then decide to use her power to keep Ganon seal as long as she can until Link heals from the wounds he received from the initial assault. Link would then be alone at the start of Breath of the Wild, with all odds stacked against him.

3 When The Moon Hits Your Eyes... Literally

Majora’s Mask is one of darkest games in the franchise. Centering on Link’s attempts to save a mysterious town from the falling moon, a major theme of the game was about death and accepting your own mortality. The people of Termina, the mysterious town, deal with the inevitability of their demise in their own way. Most are in denial, refusing to acknowledge that they are all going to die.

Link only has three days to save the town. If he fails before the time runs out, the moon will crash onto Termina, destroying everything within sight, including Link. Lucky for Link he has the Ocarina of Time, which he can use to reset back to the start of day 1 and try to save the town again. Though canonically Majora’s Mask has a happy ending with Termina being saved, the what-if scenario of Link failing and being crush by the moon still happens if players do not play the ocarina in time.

2 Goodbye Doesn't Always Mean Forever

Ocarina of Time doesn't have the most complex narrative. It's the same story as past Zelda games: Link needs to save the Princess and her kingdom, and defeat the evil Ganon. Ocarina has a time travel gimmick that makes it more interesting, but other than that the story is pretty textbook. With that said, there are some subtle nuances in the story. A lot of the game covers the theme of growing up, as well as the pain and sacrifices that come with getting older.

Growing up is hard, and Link's literal transformation from child to adult emphasizes the turbulence that happens in the transition into adulthood. When Link has to leave his home at Kokiri Forest when he’s a child, he’s not only leaving the only home he has ever known, but also his best friend, Saria. Link is pretty much a stoic figure in this game, but the emotions on Saria’s face as the two friends say goodbye tells us everything we need to know. Their parting is a metaphor for childhood’s end, and is one of the most significant moments in the game.

1 That's Not My Name!

Link is one of the most recognizable video game characters in the world. His clothing, his weapons, and even his pointy elf ears are burned into the brains of people everywhere. Even people who just have a passing knowledge of video games know what Link looks like, but they might not know that Link is his name. Even though he's the hero of the franchise and the sole playable protagonist in nearly every title, people can't help but think that his name is actually Zelda.

This is due to the fact that the name of the franchise is called The Legend of Zelda, rather than The Legend of Link. Many non-gamers just assume the title is a reference to the hero rather than the damsel in distress he has to save. It's unfortunate that for such a pop culture icon, many non-fans will often confuse him with Zelda. To be fair, Link’s name can actually be changed in most games, particularly in the earlier titles. Link was the default name, but players can change it into anything they want. Technically, anyone can change’s Link’s name into Zelda if they wanted. It's just that most players never bother changing the name, so Link essentially became his official name.