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so consistently portrayed according to these types, in this series of videogames but also in other story forms? Examining the work of one very famous and influential feminist philosopher, Simon de Beauvoir, will help provide an answer to such questions. Furthermore, since the mythology of Zelda is the product of male imaginations, examining the world they have created may say something about the way these men imagine women in the world that is not merely played in, but actually inhabited.

The Women of Zelda

Examining Zelda requires quite a bit of work, for three main reasons. The first is that there are so many games in the series. The second is that the character of Zelda is, like Link, not necessarily the same person in each game. But in every one there is at least mention of a female character named Zelda, and she often has a particular set of characteristics that creates continuity among all of the versions of Zelda. Without getting into the inextricably complicated issue of the Zelda timelines, the reappearance of the name and personality of Zelda in different characters is not usually a result of her being the same actual person.

This phenomenon is somewhat explained in the English manual of The Adventure of Link, according to which it is a tradition of Hyrule’s monarchy for each princess in the royal family to be named Zelda.81 So each princess of Hyrule is a Zelda, and their similarities in role, personality, and name are explained by this pattern of common inheritance. Third, there are the occasional appearances of disguised Zeldas. The two chief examples of this phenomenon are Sheik, in Ocarina of Time, and Tetra, who appears in both The Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass, as well as briefly in Four Swords Adventures. In these cases each character is actually another version of Zelda.

Together, these complications mean that there are many different persons named Zelda as well as several not named Zelda, all of whom in some way represent the general character of Zelda. That these Zeldas have common characteristics is significant, capturing a sort of essence of Zelda-ness, which is representative of the consistent and coherent personality of the most important woman in The Legend of Zelda series. Discussing Zelda’s role throughout the games of the franchise illuminates the remarkable consistencies in the different characterizations, and helps to develop a consistent understanding of this Zelda-ness.

The first Zelda, from the original Legend of Zelda, displays few personality traits, since she is not actually seen until the end of the game. But she does play an important role in that her actions set the stage for Link’s first adventure, and these actions can tell us something about her character. The plot of the first game revolves around Link’s mission to collect the eight pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom that Princess Zelda hid from Ganon, an invading Prince of Darkness who has taken over Hyrule. Once Link has united all eight pieces, he must fight Ganon, who possesses the Triforce of Power, in order to defeat him and rescue Zelda, whom Ganon has imprisoned.

So at the start of the Zelda franchise, Zelda herself already displays several of what will become her key characteristics: royalty, wisdom, resolve, and foresight. Throughout the series, Zelda is associated with royalty, usually as a princess, a daughter of the king of Hyrule. Making Zelda the possessor of the Triforce of Wisdom implies that Zelda herself is very wise. And this wisdom is linked to a kind of foresight: Zelda knows that she must hide the Triforce of Wisdom from Ganon, and is able to do so before he captures her. She also sends her nursemaid Impa to find a hero to unite the Triforce and defeat Ganon. This hero turns out, of course, to be Link. Finally, Zelda exhibits characteristic resolve in her refusal to betray the location of the pieces of the Triforce to Ganon, as well as in her stoic acceptance of her role in the story: to be captured and imprisoned by Ganon, waiting in hope that someone else can complete the task of defeating