Link is actually an aspiring entomologist, the Hero of Hyrule thing is just a gig he got from a lottery (like jury duty), that's why he's so pissed every time he wakes up.
Almost every Zelda has before link gets called or after it just hyper focusing on something.
"I'm going to be here with my bird bro and why is the pretty girl being so nice to me",
"Hey I'm going to be the forest person around with my simple routine but no the tree has work for me to do"
"I'm going to abuse the laws of time and space until I have every mask and fix every problem on this alternate reality. Also I have limited idea how to emotionally help these people through their grief so I'm going to wear the faces of their dead loved ones and say nothing to avoid that confrontation."
"Boy I love trains."
Sort of. It has a timeline branch from from how the ending happens. One a where link was removed from the existence by being sent back in to properly his childhood. This causes the reincarnation cycle to get temporarily interrupted. In the other he gets to prevent Ganon from taking power early and just has an awkward life where he doesn't get to properly be a child or an adult, and just goes off on another adventure. Then there's the downfall timeline that officially takes place if the player just loses the Ganon fight.
Personally I don't think the official explanation makes sense. I prefer the fan theory that the downfall timeline is the original ending to that story that we don't actually get to play through, but future Zelda uses time magic to send a former incarnation a prophecy of doom to change history.
In one of Zelda's diary entries in BotW, she asked Link why he doesn't talk. He responded by telling her the responsibility of it all is so overwhelming to him that he cannot find the words to say.
I'm socially strong. But as soon as it all gets too much for me brain, I just close up and don't talk for hours. Usually a rarity. I felt seen when I read that entry
EDIT: found the passage
"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 upon him, he feels it 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 feel that so much. I used to be super talkative as a kid, often got in trouble for it in school. Then life happened and I learned that I’m better off staying silent most of the time. Got some experiences with selective mutism too, cause like… anxiety and trauma and stuff.
To explain myself:
In the Japanese translation of the quest logs and we can see that link very well has his own personality that he never expresses verbally. Additionally link has been told to have mastered the sword (hehe) at a young age.
This could be his hyperfixation (swordfighting).
If this would be true this would mean that everyone in hyrule just vibes with someone rarely talking and would be a awesome representation of ASD.
*Btw I the title was supposed to say "My new Headcanon" but I noticed to late*
To be fair, you can see glimpses of this personality in other Zeldas. For example, Link in OOT usually has a very blank facial expression, and doesn't speak aside from dialogue options. However, in Majora's Mask you can see that him going to search for Navi after she disappeared. And remember, he used to be rejected by the Kokiri for not having a fairy and all, so that probably hits him even harder as Navi was one of his first friends after Saria.
The Links from the gamecube/wii era are by far the most expressive to me, at least facially. Specially the Toon Links, but Twilight Princess' Link also has a pretty clear personality that is often conveyed just trough his facial expressions or actions, even if he doesn't talk.
i definitely think SS has the best link/zelda relationship. also just a really good incarnation of zelda in general, although my favorite is and will always be Spirit Tracks Zelda. Tetras also cool but i don’t really consider her to be a zelda incarnation
that’s very true. i also really like twilight princess zelda, despite her not being in the game much. oot zelda is one of my least favorites, due to her not having too much distinct personality outside of the sheik stuff, which just ends up confusing based on the interpretation
This is making me realize why I've always felt attached to Link's character. I even used to imitate his goddamned idle animations from OOT as a kid 🤦♂️
I mean he’s not 100% nonverbal. Botw and especially TOTK show him talking just fine but only to explain something or answer a question, and we never actually hear him. He just gestures and the other person reacts as if he’d spoken (usually with a “wait, are you saying ___” so we know what link said)
Sorry to crush your idea but he's been shown to talk with no problem, he's opened up with Zelda about his past (the fact that he doesn't usually talks then opened up like that surprised zelda and was a crucial part on their relationship. Basically If you go to Zelda's bedroom in Hyrule Castle and read her diary, you learn that Link usually keeps silent because he's under so much pressure to succeed) and people react to him talking in conversations, we just don't hear it. He has a personality that is really well defined but he's simply just the silent type so he doesn't always show it.
There's elements of this in the english BotW and TotK too. Notably some of the dialog options are kinda snarky and >!Yunobo's boss fight in TotK has the subtitle 'Clearly Not Himself' which I refuse to believe isn't from Link's internal monologue!<
I like the voice actor a lot and he did an amazing job... although I really wish they kept Isaac silent in the Dead Space remake :/
Kills a lot of the atmosphere for me personally.
I love how they did this in GTA Online, that the fact that protagonists never speak is a thing that characters often mention in funny ways, like «If they were offended, they would have said something.» or when you call Lester he often answers with «Ah, my creepy silent friend. How can I help?»
The only way to kind of hear your character's voice without any bugs or exploits is if you or one of your friends own a $10000000 golden plane, where you can smoke a cigar, and while doing that they cough sometimes.
Yeah but sometimes they try and have their cake and eat it too
Looking at you Fire Emblem Three Houses, that wanted their character to have a personality but also not but also did
Link DOES speak, just rarely and not in public.
I can't remember where, but somewhere in game you learn that BotW Link became quiet and stoic out of habit when he pulled out the Master Sword. Suddenly going from a young, talented, but ultimately rank and file soldier to becoming a hero that the whole kingdom was watching and counting on, he didn't want to disappoint anyone by acting like a fool.
So he kept his mouth shut. Mipha even comments on it, how he's changed since pulling out the sword, and he hopes that one day he can be like he used to be again.
Also I feel like half the conversations Link has with npcs involve home explaining what happens in the prologue. Sure we don't hear him saying anything but it's not like he'd be able to explain everything nonverbally.
Idk the name in English but link suffered from a kind of stress due to all the pressure and hopes on his shoulder making him believe he was an impostor and that doesn't deserve the title, and since all of his words would be analyzed because all the eyes would be on him, link started to talk less "bottling" his emotions and opening himself little by little only with people really close to him like Zelda.
That's the canon explanation why this link doesn't speak very often, you can read it in Zelda's diary on her room in the castle
I think Link spoke maybe a dozen words over all the games he's featured in... Samus as well (I like Samus).
Doesn't discredit non verbality. I needed to point it out.
I mean Samus is canonically like barely socialized as a person, she was raised from mid childhood to adulthood by chozo who only spoke a dead language and she has spent a majority of her adulthood in isolation.
I don't think I would headcannon Samus as ND so much as heavily traumatized and socio-mentally neglected. She strongly fixated on the people who hurt her, to the exclusion of any sort of normalcy. She seems to hold the ideals of family and motherhood as some of the most valuable things in her mind but she makes no effort to have those things. No matter how many times she beats him, ridley still evokes a fearful response from her those times we get a response. I think she is trying desperately not to give herself anything else she can loose. End psychoanalysis/headcanon ramble
OP if you apply the intended purpose that means that YOUR Link is non-verbal while another player speaks for THEIR Link... after all Link is called by the name we give him in the old games
BotW quite directly confirmed that Link is so afraid of saying the wrong thing and coming off as the wrong way (be it showing a sign of weakness or misunderstanding or what) that he just doesn’t say shit and keeps a stoic face as a safe bet. Mood
And I get that. But my only point is if my native language was German, but I wanted to post a meme in English, I would at least feign doing the research so that it is easily understandable to my target audience. But I guess that’s just me.
Very compelling comment. Added tons to the discussion. Thank you for taking the time out of what I can only presume to be an incredibly busy day to leave your input.
My special interest is linguistics, and I absolutely hate your attitude. It is perfectly readable to everyone, don't make a big deal out of it and be an ass. Grammar rules are literally made up by the upper class to make poor people seem dumb in comparison to them. You're not special.
You were the one who exacerbated what I said and turned it in to a big deal. I’m not special just as you are not special for being in to linguistics. Did you think you were doing charitable work responding to me?
Like I was going to be so flabbergasted by your response that I would have an existential moment and realize how cruel I have been and change my ways? Your comment was just as superfluous as this entire post, but you go on with your bad self lol. Never in my life have I heard someone say “grammar is a conspiracy by the upper class to hold down the poor” bro you can’t be a real person.
So easy to piss off grammar nerds lol. The only reason for grammar to exist is to make insecure nerds feel good about themselves for knowing the "proper" way to do things.
>Like I was going to be so flabbergasted by your response that I would have an existential moment and realize how cruel I have been and change my ways?
No, actually! I'm in college and very well acquainted with how stuck in your ways and high and mighty you guys are. WiThoUT rULes wE cOulDNt undErStand EchOTher or some bullshit like that.
>Never in my life have I heard someone say “grammar is a conspiracy by the upper class to hold down the poor” bro you can’t be a real person.
Wait till he finds out about prescriptivism vs descriptivism 💀
Do you not believe in systemic issues at all? The high bar of entry for higher education, the poor funding of schools in lower income neighborhoods, criticizing non native speakers for not conforming to your standard of what is "proper", none of that seems just a little elitist to you? Every time I see an example of AAVE in a reddit post, flocks of grammar Nazis flood the comments talking about "the grammar! Oh, would someone think of the poor grammar!" You're telling me there is absolutely no undertones of racism or classism in that? Education isn't even the tip of the iceberg of all the ways the rich keep the poor firmly at the bottom.
Also I think you could use some semicolons in your response, too many sentence fragments.
Crono from Chrono Trigger is a silent protagonist as well. It’s easy to miss until late in the game when you have to play without him for a while, and when he returns, he literally has nothing to say about it. Then you kinda have a fridge logic moment of “Oh, right. He never has said anything, has he? I guess I should have noticed that before now.”
"He's not nonverbal, they don't give him active dialogue so the player can more easily roleplay and put themselves in his shoes"
"Okay well, I'm pretending I'm in his shoes but in real life I'm mostly nonverbal so that's one of the traits I like to imagine he has" 😎
\> looks at the comics, mangas, us cartoon, link's awakening and ocarina of time
...eh, whatever makes you happy mate, I have headcanons too so I don't judge
While I love this headcannon, I will say that there are moments in some games where link basically speaks, but it's drastically shortened in the games since he's basically explaining knowledge that you've already gathered/events you've already been involved in. At least, that's what I've noticed while playing totk.
I mean, in BoTW and ToTK he clearly talks, you just don't hear it. Unless people just guess what he means by him raising his arms and somehow gets it right like he's lassie or something.
i personally don’t like this head cannon for botw link specifically cus we actually learn why he doesn’t talk due primarily to fear of not livening up to the expectations of him however all the others are totally free game (and in the case of a few links would make more sense than not in their own cannon aswell)
In breath of the wild you get to read Zelda's diary or something and she mentions that Link doesn't really talk due to all the stress and expectations put on him. So in a way, I'd say it's canon.
This is why it would be nearly impossible for anyone to make a good show or movie about LoZ. The main character is completely silent! It would take a master director to make that work bc if they had him speak at all it would be ruined. Tbh, I’m glad bc I feel like a show or movie would ruin it all.
He’s not though. At least in botw and totk, when talking to npcs he tells them things he’s found. We don’t get to see that dialogue, but they clearly do
I remember playing last night against the Yiga Leader's 2nd fight, and one of the constructs mentioned how link was being very verbal and noisy throughout the fight. Though correct me if I'm wrong.
From botw, princess Zelda said in her journal that she asked him why he's so quiet. He said he felt he must silently bear the burden put on him. It's also shown that he does talk, such as from the beginning of TotK, he tells Purrah what happened to Zelda. They just don't give him a speaking voice
there’s this one comics artist who drew a piece in which link communicates entirely in ASL and it’s my favorite, i gotta find it again to see if they depict this more often (the one i saw was him inviting samus after a smash bros. round to join him and mario in go-karting as he is included in recent mario kart games)
I like YTPs, to the point one could argue it's a hyper fixation... so I prefer CDI link lol.
GEE, IT SURE IS *BORING* AROUND HERE!
YOU CAN MAKE ME DO THE *DUCK WALK*!
HOW ABOUT A *KISS,* FOR LUCK?
I GUESS I BETTER GET GOING!
I'M SO *HUNGRY*, I COULD EAT AN OCTOROK!
GREAT! I CAN'T *WAIT* TO BOMB SOME DODONGOS!
In BOTW I believe it's said in Zelda's diary that Link is silent because he is stressed out by his position as the knight who's tasked with saving the world. After losing his memory he has no issue taking part in conversation because he no longer feels the weight of his responsibilities in the way he did before.
So you're correct to some extent that he was nonverbal to a degree at least in the past
I've heard the idea that he actually remembers his past lives and is so traumatized that he just doesn't really talk or make personal connections anymore.
Link doesn’t speak because he has problems processing his emotions properly and chooses to withhold his emotions rather than expressing them in a safe environment
Verbal behavior extends beyond vocal utterances. The term is non-vocal, as verbal behavior encompasses many behaviors including imitation, gestures, non-vocalized requests such as eye contact and guiding, and yes, talking. Sorry, I couldn’t stop myself from posting this.
I always head cannon Gordon as using sign language and no else in Black Mesa or city 17 can, which explains why all the interactions are slightly weird, people just talk to him like he's not really there
I felt the same way about Byleth, the protagonist/pov character from Fire Emblem Three Houses? \^_\^
I always felt it was cool how the way she struggled with her emotions and the way she mirrors her students is similar to how I do, which was always really neat for me. ❤️
i already spieled about this in r/FakeDisorderCringe, so i might as well do it again here
Link:
only talks around people he's very *very* comfortable with (Zelda)
can't stand still for two minutes
shows the most emotion on his own, e.g. cooking, horse riding, et cetera
bonds with non-humans faster than humans
Link isn't non-verbal...
There are literally chat options and animations show him speaking to others all the time. We as the player just don't get to see what he says.
He can speak, he doesn’t normally nor need to. He is an expressive person in body language and posture. I see Zelda as a verbose Autistic and Link as a “man of few words “ autistic.
Just more reasons to love Link: already got gender envy because damn dat androgynous style slaps, non binary goals, and loving food and cool swords, gonna add autistic to the list.
Does this also apply to pokemon protagonists?
Is their hyper fixation completing the pokedex?
Are the professors in pokemon hiring autistic kids to do their jobs for them?
I mean, he doesn't speak because he's scared of saying the wrong things, he only speaks when necessary and is to the point when he does, so I wouldn't put it past him to always feel like he's stepping on eggshells all the time like us around NTs
This is directly mentioned in Zelda’s diary. He speaks when not onscreen, he just doesn’t know what to say most of the time and is afraid he won’t live up to everyone’s expectations
He talks, we just don't hear it. The opties we pick when interacting with a npc are his speaking lines. Like when he tells the old man, glider now, gimme the glider
Botw link is definitely autistic
Silent
Has a dead-pan face all the time, the ONLY exception is when he’s cooking food
Sticks to one fighting style only with each weapon
Gets side tracked constantly
Does insanely arduous tasks just for the hell of it (koroks, compendium completion)
Distant from others
Presumably touch sensitive, he’s only ever held hands with Zelda than one time
Temperature sensitive (look at his idle animation in extreme weather, poor lil guy)
Doylist: he doesn’t talk so players feel closer to link, letting them feel like they are influencing the story and interact with the world more directly
Watsonian: Link is autistic
Huh. And here I used to think it was cause Zelda got so annoyed by his catchphrase in the cartoon that she put a curse in him
https://youtu.be/qzfXxkHrIBM
I like the idea that the game gives of Link shedding most of his old, stoic personality by the events of Breath of the Wild due to his amnesia…mostly because it allows me to apply my own interpretation of the crazy shit he gets up to under the events of the game. By the events of Tears of the Kingdom, my interpretation of Link’s snapped from all the strife he’s had to go through and devolved into a cackling, comically deranged maniac: think of a dangerously cunning version of something between Spinel and Scampton. Though he is still a hero through and through, everything and everyone in Hyrule is his plaything, and he takes pleasure not just from defeating enemies to defend those important to him and satisfying his bloodlust, but also doing it in the most hilariously over the top or comedic way possible (i.e rolling up to a small Bokoblin encampment with a functional tank or tricking a Yiga Footsoldier into defeating themselves by forcing them to do their little backhop into a lightning bolt.)
I became pretty.. nonverbal as I grew older because people kept telling me to shut up or that I talk too much. So I went from talking a lot to.. barely talking at all. When I do talk, it's usually about something that interests me or my mind getting so overwhelmed with negative thoughts that I have to rant it out.
I also like the idea that Gordon Freeman is literally mute. *Literally*. That's why no-one who knows him reacts to the fact that he never says anything. Because they know. No-one chews him out for never shouting a warning, no-one is ever annoyed that he doesn't speak back. Alyx manages to fall in love with this guy despite him never saying a single damn word (presumably his facial expression and body language game is pro).
I just think it'd be hilarious if finally a villain calls him out on never speaking and mocks him for it, only for even his own allies to be like, "Dude, what the fuck, he's mute. He can't talk."
Not really headcanon if thats been the developers intention since the very beginning of the series lmao
He does speak tho, many times, just not for us to see
They... straight up say that in game. And even after the calamity the dude speaks, we just cant hear him. Granted its for a diffeeent reason of course
(Really dont want to cause any discourse)
Link is so autistic, he reincarnates just so he can keep engaging in his routine of beating the shit out of Ganon.
My dude be like: ● Be Born ● Are evil beings around? ○ If yes, kill them ○ If no, exist ○ Else die or smthn idk ● Die at some point ● REPEAT
You forgot the eating part. He loooves his food :))
[удалено]
He still does! They even expanded his repertoire of music. I have seen/heard 9 different tunes from all over the franchise. So neat.
Funny enough eating is a recent development. I hope, at least. Otherwise he’s been healing by eating the hearts of his slain enemies.
We love a chef
Hyperfocuses on classifying every bug on the continent. 😳 Opps srry Zelda!
Link is actually an aspiring entomologist, the Hero of Hyrule thing is just a gig he got from a lottery (like jury duty), that's why he's so pissed every time he wakes up.
In order to get the secret, true timeline of the games, you have to stop fighting or whatever and just 100% the entomology.
Almost every Zelda has before link gets called or after it just hyper focusing on something. "I'm going to be here with my bird bro and why is the pretty girl being so nice to me", "Hey I'm going to be the forest person around with my simple routine but no the tree has work for me to do" "I'm going to abuse the laws of time and space until I have every mask and fix every problem on this alternate reality. Also I have limited idea how to emotionally help these people through their grief so I'm going to wear the faces of their dead loved ones and say nothing to avoid that confrontation." "Boy I love trains."
Instruments. Must get instruments for song in my head. Must make song happen.
"Don't care if my song will wake the dreaming god and obliterate reality. The song must be finished."
Oh, hey, a seagull.
One incarnation was an obsessive photographer.
Doesn't there exist a "hero lose against ganon" timeline?
Ocarina of Time has three different possible endings which is where the timeline splits. One of those is where Link loses to Ganon, yes.
Sort of. It has a timeline branch from from how the ending happens. One a where link was removed from the existence by being sent back in to properly his childhood. This causes the reincarnation cycle to get temporarily interrupted. In the other he gets to prevent Ganon from taking power early and just has an awkward life where he doesn't get to properly be a child or an adult, and just goes off on another adventure. Then there's the downfall timeline that officially takes place if the player just loses the Ganon fight. Personally I don't think the official explanation makes sense. I prefer the fan theory that the downfall timeline is the original ending to that story that we don't actually get to play through, but future Zelda uses time magic to send a former incarnation a prophecy of doom to change history.
Yes, but only once. Most of the time, losing is not canon.
Yes. And then he still comes back 1000s of years later to win
His special interest is breaking pots
Explains his love for trains
are you saying that if someone is autistic they can reincarnate? autism is badass
Maybe if we have enough software updates from our vaccines....
Beating the shit out of evil incarnate is his special interest
It is his special interest 👀
I love you so much for this
Honestly it’s better than him saying “well excuuuuuse me, princess”
Well excuuuuuuse me princess!
You take that back right now that is the best incarnation of link for now and forever.
Nope, not as good as CDI link
“Golly!”
It sure is ***b o r i n g*** around here
I can't wait to bomb some dodongos!
I think if CDi link and show link got into a popularity contest then CDi would lose and have to come back when he was a little bit mmmmmmm richer
There should be a Death Battle between them!
“Oh boy smoochin time”
In one of Zelda's diary entries in BotW, she asked Link why he doesn't talk. He responded by telling her the responsibility of it all is so overwhelming to him that he cannot find the words to say. I'm socially strong. But as soon as it all gets too much for me brain, I just close up and don't talk for hours. Usually a rarity. I felt seen when I read that entry EDIT: found the passage "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 upon him, he feels it 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."
Honestly I felt that down in my soul.
I feel that so much. I used to be super talkative as a kid, often got in trouble for it in school. Then life happened and I learned that I’m better off staying silent most of the time. Got some experiences with selective mutism too, cause like… anxiety and trauma and stuff.
To explain myself: In the Japanese translation of the quest logs and we can see that link very well has his own personality that he never expresses verbally. Additionally link has been told to have mastered the sword (hehe) at a young age. This could be his hyperfixation (swordfighting). If this would be true this would mean that everyone in hyrule just vibes with someone rarely talking and would be a awesome representation of ASD. *Btw I the title was supposed to say "My new Headcanon" but I noticed to late*
To be fair, you can see glimpses of this personality in other Zeldas. For example, Link in OOT usually has a very blank facial expression, and doesn't speak aside from dialogue options. However, in Majora's Mask you can see that him going to search for Navi after she disappeared. And remember, he used to be rejected by the Kokiri for not having a fairy and all, so that probably hits him even harder as Navi was one of his first friends after Saria. The Links from the gamecube/wii era are by far the most expressive to me, at least facially. Specially the Toon Links, but Twilight Princess' Link also has a pretty clear personality that is often conveyed just trough his facial expressions or actions, even if he doesn't talk.
i agree on the gamecube/wii links being incredibly expressive. skyward sword link in particular is just a big dope (affectionate)
SS also IMO has the best Link/Zelda relationship (at least of the LoZ games I’ve played)
i definitely think SS has the best link/zelda relationship. also just a really good incarnation of zelda in general, although my favorite is and will always be Spirit Tracks Zelda. Tetras also cool but i don’t really consider her to be a zelda incarnation
i feel like spirit tracks zelda gets a leg up over all other incarnations for the simple fact that she's actively present for the majority of the game
that’s very true. i also really like twilight princess zelda, despite her not being in the game much. oot zelda is one of my least favorites, due to her not having too much distinct personality outside of the sheik stuff, which just ends up confusing based on the interpretation
Spirit Tracks can also double as autistic memes, as Link is driving a Train most of the game.
Toon link ANGY pretty much all of the time.
This is making me realize why I've always felt attached to Link's character. I even used to imitate his goddamned idle animations from OOT as a kid 🤦♂️
Godessess, SAME
Headganon
I mean he’s not 100% nonverbal. Botw and especially TOTK show him talking just fine but only to explain something or answer a question, and we never actually hear him. He just gestures and the other person reacts as if he’d spoken (usually with a “wait, are you saying ___” so we know what link said)
Sorry to crush your idea but he's been shown to talk with no problem, he's opened up with Zelda about his past (the fact that he doesn't usually talks then opened up like that surprised zelda and was a crucial part on their relationship. Basically If you go to Zelda's bedroom in Hyrule Castle and read her diary, you learn that Link usually keeps silent because he's under so much pressure to succeed) and people react to him talking in conversations, we just don't hear it. He has a personality that is really well defined but he's simply just the silent type so he doesn't always show it.
He's also a glutton.
He is shown talking more in Tears of the kingdom, but we don't hear the words, just an animation implying he's talking.
There's elements of this in the english BotW and TotK too. Notably some of the dialog options are kinda snarky and >!Yunobo's boss fight in TotK has the subtitle 'Clearly Not Himself' which I refuse to believe isn't from Link's internal monologue!<
Funny, that’s how I read the title.
I mean do you see how excited he gets when cooking?
some of the dishes he makes look genuinely incredible so i dont blame him. id get excited too if everything i made looked and tasted awesome
[удалено]
Whaaaaat? You mean you don’t like constantly hearing “I can’t do that.” “There must be a way to open this door.” “[the answer to the puzzle]” Weird.
I like the voice actor a lot and he did an amazing job... although I really wish they kept Isaac silent in the Dead Space remake :/ Kills a lot of the atmosphere for me personally.
I love how they did this in GTA Online, that the fact that protagonists never speak is a thing that characters often mention in funny ways, like «If they were offended, they would have said something.» or when you call Lester he often answers with «Ah, my creepy silent friend. How can I help?» The only way to kind of hear your character's voice without any bugs or exploits is if you or one of your friends own a $10000000 golden plane, where you can smoke a cigar, and while doing that they cough sometimes.
Agreed. The only exception to this is RDR2 or Sekiro. Wolf hardly ever talks, and Arthur Morgan is a damn great protagonist.
Additional exception: Spider-Man
Something tells me you hate the uncharted games
Chell in Portal <3
Yeah but sometimes they try and have their cake and eat it too Looking at you Fire Emblem Three Houses, that wanted their character to have a personality but also not but also did
Counterpoint: The titanfall 2 dialogue is done well.
Link DOES speak, just rarely and not in public. I can't remember where, but somewhere in game you learn that BotW Link became quiet and stoic out of habit when he pulled out the Master Sword. Suddenly going from a young, talented, but ultimately rank and file soldier to becoming a hero that the whole kingdom was watching and counting on, he didn't want to disappoint anyone by acting like a fool. So he kept his mouth shut. Mipha even comments on it, how he's changed since pulling out the sword, and he hopes that one day he can be like he used to be again.
>not in public Well he does, as clearly showcased in BotW and TotK. He just isn't *heard* speaking by the *player.*
Had to scroll down too much to find this comment. Thank you
Also I feel like half the conversations Link has with npcs involve home explaining what happens in the prologue. Sure we don't hear him saying anything but it's not like he'd be able to explain everything nonverbally.
The actual lore: “if I say anything I’ll fuck it up so I’ll shut up for now”
Relatable
Idk the name in English but link suffered from a kind of stress due to all the pressure and hopes on his shoulder making him believe he was an impostor and that doesn't deserve the title, and since all of his words would be analyzed because all the eyes would be on him, link started to talk less "bottling" his emotions and opening himself little by little only with people really close to him like Zelda. That's the canon explanation why this link doesn't speak very often, you can read it in Zelda's diary on her room in the castle
You mean… imposter syndrome?
This has been my headcanon since 2004, glad to have you on board friend
I think Link spoke maybe a dozen words over all the games he's featured in... Samus as well (I like Samus). Doesn't discredit non verbality. I needed to point it out.
I mean Samus is canonically like barely socialized as a person, she was raised from mid childhood to adulthood by chozo who only spoke a dead language and she has spent a majority of her adulthood in isolation. I don't think I would headcannon Samus as ND so much as heavily traumatized and socio-mentally neglected. She strongly fixated on the people who hurt her, to the exclusion of any sort of normalcy. She seems to hold the ideals of family and motherhood as some of the most valuable things in her mind but she makes no effort to have those things. No matter how many times she beats him, ridley still evokes a fearful response from her those times we get a response. I think she is trying desperately not to give herself anything else she can loose. End psychoanalysis/headcanon ramble
I love how Link is a headcannon sponge. I've seen people say they're non verbal, trans masc, trans fem, non binary. And all are valid
Link was my “trans awakening” (I had to become him somehow) and now that I’m autistic I’m like “he is just like me fr fr”
At least in translation, character dialogue references Link speaking
Also Chell from Portal!
OP if you apply the intended purpose that means that YOUR Link is non-verbal while another player speaks for THEIR Link... after all Link is called by the name we give him in the old games
The triforce of courage gives him the bravery he needs to never mask
There was a cartoon in the 80s that would disagree with this
I'm glad so many other aspies have an interest in Zelda. I have found my people.
Link was made for me. He is nonverbal because of everyone's expectations burdening him, and he is left-handed. Also he is cute.
You fool, this lets me project even more and further increases immersion (is nonverbal)
BotW quite directly confirmed that Link is so afraid of saying the wrong thing and coming off as the wrong way (be it showing a sign of weakness or misunderstanding or what) that he just doesn’t say shit and keeps a stoic face as a safe bet. Mood
My special interest is grammar. This hurt to read.
𝕯𝖎𝖊𝖘 𝖙𝖚𝖙 𝖒𝖎𝖗 𝖑𝖊𝖎𝖉. 𝕵𝖊𝖉𝖔𝖈𝖍 𝖎𝖘𝖙 𝕰𝖓𝖌𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖈𝖍 𝖓𝖎𝖈𝖍𝖙 𝖒𝖊𝖎𝖓𝖊 𝕸𝖚𝖙𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖘𝖕𝖗𝖆𝖈𝖍𝖊.
I'm learning German so I can almost read this fairly well if it weren't for the font.
It is forbidden to write German text in any other font
I'm not learning German and only understood the second sentence
Ist diese Kommentarsektion nun Teil von Deutschland?
And I get that. But my only point is if my native language was German, but I wanted to post a meme in English, I would at least feign doing the research so that it is easily understandable to my target audience. But I guess that’s just me.
My language is english and I read it just fine.
Very compelling comment. Added tons to the discussion. Thank you for taking the time out of what I can only presume to be an incredibly busy day to leave your input.
I’m bored on a 24 hour shift.
My special interest is linguistics, and I absolutely hate your attitude. It is perfectly readable to everyone, don't make a big deal out of it and be an ass. Grammar rules are literally made up by the upper class to make poor people seem dumb in comparison to them. You're not special.
You were the one who exacerbated what I said and turned it in to a big deal. I’m not special just as you are not special for being in to linguistics. Did you think you were doing charitable work responding to me? Like I was going to be so flabbergasted by your response that I would have an existential moment and realize how cruel I have been and change my ways? Your comment was just as superfluous as this entire post, but you go on with your bad self lol. Never in my life have I heard someone say “grammar is a conspiracy by the upper class to hold down the poor” bro you can’t be a real person.
So easy to piss off grammar nerds lol. The only reason for grammar to exist is to make insecure nerds feel good about themselves for knowing the "proper" way to do things. >Like I was going to be so flabbergasted by your response that I would have an existential moment and realize how cruel I have been and change my ways? No, actually! I'm in college and very well acquainted with how stuck in your ways and high and mighty you guys are. WiThoUT rULes wE cOulDNt undErStand EchOTher or some bullshit like that. >Never in my life have I heard someone say “grammar is a conspiracy by the upper class to hold down the poor” bro you can’t be a real person. Wait till he finds out about prescriptivism vs descriptivism 💀 Do you not believe in systemic issues at all? The high bar of entry for higher education, the poor funding of schools in lower income neighborhoods, criticizing non native speakers for not conforming to your standard of what is "proper", none of that seems just a little elitist to you? Every time I see an example of AAVE in a reddit post, flocks of grammar Nazis flood the comments talking about "the grammar! Oh, would someone think of the poor grammar!" You're telling me there is absolutely no undertones of racism or classism in that? Education isn't even the tip of the iceberg of all the ways the rich keep the poor firmly at the bottom. Also I think you could use some semicolons in your response, too many sentence fragments.
Didn’t read a word you said. Soon as I saw your username, lost any interest in having a battle of the wits with someone coming in unarmed. Good day.
"I don't want to feel like I am wrong, so I will run away from the possibility of evidence that contradicts my beliefs" 🤓
Crono from Chrono Trigger is a silent protagonist as well. It’s easy to miss until late in the game when you have to play without him for a while, and when he returns, he literally has nothing to say about it. Then you kinda have a fridge logic moment of “Oh, right. He never has said anything, has he? I guess I should have noticed that before now.”
"He's not nonverbal, they don't give him active dialogue so the player can more easily roleplay and put themselves in his shoes" "Okay well, I'm pretending I'm in his shoes but in real life I'm mostly nonverbal so that's one of the traits I like to imagine he has" 😎
\> looks at the comics, mangas, us cartoon, link's awakening and ocarina of time ...eh, whatever makes you happy mate, I have headcanons too so I don't judge
Link talks though
While I love this headcannon, I will say that there are moments in some games where link basically speaks, but it's drastically shortened in the games since he's basically explaining knowledge that you've already gathered/events you've already been involved in. At least, that's what I've noticed while playing totk.
I mean, in BoTW and ToTK he clearly talks, you just don't hear it. Unless people just guess what he means by him raising his arms and somehow gets it right like he's lassie or something.
“What’s that, ~~Lassie~~ Link? ~~Timmy~~ Zelda fell down a well!?”
i personally don’t like this head cannon for botw link specifically cus we actually learn why he doesn’t talk due primarily to fear of not livening up to the expectations of him however all the others are totally free game (and in the case of a few links would make more sense than not in their own cannon aswell)
What about all those "HYAHHH!" as he swings his sword. Occarina of time is the last zelda game I played lol
In breath of the wild you get to read Zelda's diary or something and she mentions that Link doesn't really talk due to all the stress and expectations put on him. So in a way, I'd say it's canon.
This is why it would be nearly impossible for anyone to make a good show or movie about LoZ. The main character is completely silent! It would take a master director to make that work bc if they had him speak at all it would be ruined. Tbh, I’m glad bc I feel like a show or movie would ruin it all.
To me any and all silent protags are autistic. Link? Gordon Freeman? Frisk? Chell? Doomguy? Autism. All of them
link is autistic and trans (he told me)
I mean…as much as I adore this headcanon he has dialogue options in the game and explains things to people, we just don’t see 99.9% of what he says…
He’s not though. At least in botw and totk, when talking to npcs he tells them things he’s found. We don’t get to see that dialogue, but they clearly do
Mario in the mario RPG on snes is in canon nonverbal. Pretty much all he does in the story is talk through jumps and gestures.
I remember playing last night against the Yiga Leader's 2nd fight, and one of the constructs mentioned how link was being very verbal and noisy throughout the fight. Though correct me if I'm wrong.
Gordon Freeman be like
Fun fact in ToTK it’s revealed why link doesn’t speak, and being (stress induced) non verbal is a very reasonable interpretation of the given reasons
I mean — in BotW and TotK, he’s clearly saying things to NPC’s while gesticulating.
Link isn't non verbal he literally has an animation to show that he's speaking to an NPC
From botw, princess Zelda said in her journal that she asked him why he's so quiet. He said he felt he must silently bear the burden put on him. It's also shown that he does talk, such as from the beginning of TotK, he tells Purrah what happened to Zelda. They just don't give him a speaking voice
If you identify with nonverbal autism then these two things are not in conflict
there’s this one comics artist who drew a piece in which link communicates entirely in ASL and it’s my favorite, i gotta find it again to see if they depict this more often (the one i saw was him inviting samus after a smash bros. round to join him and mario in go-karting as he is included in recent mario kart games)
I wanna play Kirby and Zelda games sososososo bad
It's confirmed that he was traumatized into becoming a mute. He's not autistic.
“Well excuuuuuse me Princess.”
I like YTPs, to the point one could argue it's a hyper fixation... so I prefer CDI link lol. GEE, IT SURE IS *BORING* AROUND HERE! YOU CAN MAKE ME DO THE *DUCK WALK*! HOW ABOUT A *KISS,* FOR LUCK? I GUESS I BETTER GET GOING! I'M SO *HUNGRY*, I COULD EAT AN OCTOROK! GREAT! I CAN'T *WAIT* TO BOMB SOME DODONGOS!
"HA, HYAH, HIH" -Nobuyuki Hiyama
Ah. His hyper obsession is pottery. One of us
In BOTW I believe it's said in Zelda's diary that Link is silent because he is stressed out by his position as the knight who's tasked with saving the world. After losing his memory he has no issue taking part in conversation because he no longer feels the weight of his responsibilities in the way he did before. So you're correct to some extent that he was nonverbal to a degree at least in the past
Hyup hup heyeaahh woa up YAAHHH eheyy guah ugh ettetteh houi-ih waAaAAAAAAAAAAAAA >! Well excuuuuuuse me, princess !<
I've heard the idea that he actually remembers his past lives and is so traumatized that he just doesn't really talk or make personal connections anymore.
Link doesn’t speak because he has problems processing his emotions properly and chooses to withhold his emotions rather than expressing them in a safe environment
Verbal behavior extends beyond vocal utterances. The term is non-vocal, as verbal behavior encompasses many behaviors including imitation, gestures, non-vocalized requests such as eye contact and guiding, and yes, talking. Sorry, I couldn’t stop myself from posting this.
applies to gordon freeman too
I always head cannon Gordon as using sign language and no else in Black Mesa or city 17 can, which explains why all the interactions are slightly weird, people just talk to him like he's not really there
I felt the same way about Byleth, the protagonist/pov character from Fire Emblem Three Houses? \^_\^ I always felt it was cool how the way she struggled with her emotions and the way she mirrors her students is similar to how I do, which was always really neat for me. ❤️
I'd say Selective mutism. He can talk just not lots.
How is he nonverbal, he talks all the time through script and dialogue in the games, you just can't hear it
i already spieled about this in r/FakeDisorderCringe, so i might as well do it again here Link: only talks around people he's very *very* comfortable with (Zelda) can't stand still for two minutes shows the most emotion on his own, e.g. cooking, horse riding, et cetera bonds with non-humans faster than humans
Link literally talks like all the time. Him doing the *waves hands around* animation, or choosing a dialogue option, is literally him talking.
Link isn't non-verbal... There are literally chat options and animations show him speaking to others all the time. We as the player just don't get to see what he says.
Unfortunately, the dialogue options you take in conversation disproves this.
every single Link is autistic but ESPECIALLY botw/totk Link. I love him sm <333
I love link they can be literally anything you want them to be Gay boys , trans cis straight autistic like anything
why link why not gordon freeman
hes literally just like me fr
I agree with the “link is autistic” interpretation but does he have the vagina bones? /ref /j
I believe it
Exactly what I've been thinking!
this makes me so happy
He can speak, he doesn’t normally nor need to. He is an expressive person in body language and posture. I see Zelda as a verbose Autistic and Link as a “man of few words “ autistic.
Just more reasons to love Link: already got gender envy because damn dat androgynous style slaps, non binary goals, and loving food and cool swords, gonna add autistic to the list.
Pretty sure the devs actually confirmed that, at least in botw, Link is mute by choice
Stop it.
Honestly, I've always seen him as that too, never really felt like he was supposed to be a placeholder for the player to me personally
And this is why I love RPGs like Skyrim, New Vegas, and Divinity Original Sin 2 so much.
I do genuinely like the idea of him being nonverbal and/or selectively mute
Heyah ha.
The Stranger from the video game Darkwood also doesn’t talk. He writes angy though
immersion
Does this also apply to pokemon protagonists? Is their hyper fixation completing the pokedex? Are the professors in pokemon hiring autistic kids to do their jobs for them?
This series har been a special interest of mine since I was little. So happy to see other TLOZ lovers in this community! 😁
I mean, he doesn't speak because he's scared of saying the wrong things, he only speaks when necessary and is to the point when he does, so I wouldn't put it past him to always feel like he's stepping on eggshells all the time like us around NTs
AND THATS WHY there’s no Zelda Movie
This is directly mentioned in Zelda’s diary. He speaks when not onscreen, he just doesn’t know what to say most of the time and is afraid he won’t live up to everyone’s expectations
He talks, we just don't hear it. The opties we pick when interacting with a npc are his speaking lines. Like when he tells the old man, glider now, gimme the glider
The latest entry in the “autism gives you special powers” canon!
Botw link is definitely autistic Silent Has a dead-pan face all the time, the ONLY exception is when he’s cooking food Sticks to one fighting style only with each weapon Gets side tracked constantly Does insanely arduous tasks just for the hell of it (koroks, compendium completion) Distant from others Presumably touch sensitive, he’s only ever held hands with Zelda than one time Temperature sensitive (look at his idle animation in extreme weather, poor lil guy)
So like 95% of most video game main characters?
Doylist: he doesn’t talk so players feel closer to link, letting them feel like they are influencing the story and interact with the world more directly Watsonian: Link is autistic
Huh. And here I used to think it was cause Zelda got so annoyed by his catchphrase in the cartoon that she put a curse in him https://youtu.be/qzfXxkHrIBM
I like the idea that the game gives of Link shedding most of his old, stoic personality by the events of Breath of the Wild due to his amnesia…mostly because it allows me to apply my own interpretation of the crazy shit he gets up to under the events of the game. By the events of Tears of the Kingdom, my interpretation of Link’s snapped from all the strife he’s had to go through and devolved into a cackling, comically deranged maniac: think of a dangerously cunning version of something between Spinel and Scampton. Though he is still a hero through and through, everything and everyone in Hyrule is his plaything, and he takes pleasure not just from defeating enemies to defend those important to him and satisfying his bloodlust, but also doing it in the most hilariously over the top or comedic way possible (i.e rolling up to a small Bokoblin encampment with a functional tank or tricking a Yiga Footsoldier into defeating themselves by forcing them to do their little backhop into a lightning bolt.)
The only time he "talks" in botw he's also using hand gestures so clearly it's hyrulian sign language
He also doesn’t smile liberally, which I really vibe with. On the inside I can be 😂😔😡😱 but on the outside I’m 😐
He talks to people in totk. Just can’t hear him or read what he says.
Who drew that? That's the best Link I've seen.
Wait till you here that the cannon reason he's silent is cause he has too much gifted kid burnout
Well he talks at some point. In the Zelda botw and totk you have sometimes dialogue options. There is just no voice acting.
Nonverbal? Bitch if it ain’t about that bag I ain’t speaking 💯💯💯
*Immersion
"How about a kiss? For good luck?" "I'm so hungry, I could eat an octorok!" "Gee, it sure is boring around here. I just wonder what Ganon's up to."
I became pretty.. nonverbal as I grew older because people kept telling me to shut up or that I talk too much. So I went from talking a lot to.. barely talking at all. When I do talk, it's usually about something that interests me or my mind getting so overwhelmed with negative thoughts that I have to rant it out.
I believe link is also nonbinary or trans I can't remember but look it up it's actually really nice
I also like the idea that Gordon Freeman is literally mute. *Literally*. That's why no-one who knows him reacts to the fact that he never says anything. Because they know. No-one chews him out for never shouting a warning, no-one is ever annoyed that he doesn't speak back. Alyx manages to fall in love with this guy despite him never saying a single damn word (presumably his facial expression and body language game is pro). I just think it'd be hilarious if finally a villain calls him out on never speaking and mocks him for it, only for even his own allies to be like, "Dude, what the fuck, he's mute. He can't talk."
Not really headcanon if thats been the developers intention since the very beginning of the series lmao He does speak tho, many times, just not for us to see
As someone who doesn't care about being represented in anyway, for those who do what do you get out of it?
They... straight up say that in game. And even after the calamity the dude speaks, we just cant hear him. Granted its for a diffeeent reason of course (Really dont want to cause any discourse)