The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker/Characters

Characters in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.

Link


"[I'm] an ally of justice!"

Link lived a peaceful, happy, giant enemy bird-free life on sunny Outset Island until his birthday, when his adorable little sister Aryll was kidnapped by a giant enemy bird. Link set out to do what any Knight Templar Big Brother would-- find his little sister, rescue her, and stab whoever took her, preferably repeatedly. However, it turned out that the kidnapping of his sister was part of something much bigger; having Chronic Hero Syndrome, he decides to put a stop to it.


 * Adorkable
 * Badass: You betcha!
 * Badass Adorable
 * Badass Normal: Well, until he  anyway. Then he's a...
 * Badass Abnormal
 * Berserk Button: Harming Aryll.
 * Or Zelda. Watch his face when Ganondorf backhands her during the final battle.
 * Beware the Nice Ones: He's a sweet, slightly dopey little kid until you mess with someone close to him.
 * Big Brother Instinct
 * Bow and Sword In Accord
 * Butt Monkey: A running gag involves him being launched into the air, smacking into a stone wall and falling several stories.
 * Chronic Hero Syndrome
 * Clothes Make the Legend: In this case, they're just clothes all boys on Outset Island wear when they reach a certain age (presumably the age that the Link from Ocarina of Time set out on his quest to save Hyrule). So, in this case, the legend defined the clothes (though Link writes his own legend regardless).
 * Cool Boat
 * Cool Sword
 * Crazy Prepared: Has a weapon/item for every possible situation.
 * The Determinator: Practically his superpower.
 * Instant Expert: ...unless it's this.
 * Die Chair Die: All Links seem to share an instinctive hatred of pottery and tall grass.
 * Fan Nickname: Thanks to Brawl, you now refer to him as "Toon Link".
 * Hair of Gold
 * The Hero
 * Heroic Mime
 * Except when he has a Dialogue Tree.
 * Kid Hero
 * Kleptomaniac Hero: If it even vaguely looks useful and isn't nailed down, Link will nab it.
 * Knight Templar Big Brother: Ganondorf was already screwed as soon as his bird even dared to touch Aryll.
 * Legacy Character: Though he is not actually "chosen" to be the Hero Of Time's successor at first.
 * Magic Music: The Wind Waker is a magical baton that lets him control the direction of the wind, teleport himself, and other such things.
 * Nice Hat
 * Parental Abandonment: Though he's raised by his grandma, so his parents are never really brought up.
 * Plot Tailored to The Party: No matter how bizarre the magical knicknacks he picks up, he'll find some way to kill at least one giant monster with it.
 * Raised By Grandparents
 * Second Coming: Years after the Hero of Time failed to return when Ganondorf was released from captivity, a new hero by the name of Link would be recognized by Ganondorf as "the Hero of Time, reborn".
 * The Southpaw
 * The Unchosen One: He actually has to get the Triforce of Courage in order to be considered a successor to the Hero of Time.

The King of Red Lions


Link's sidekick here is a talking red sailboat capable of carrying him all over the Great Sea and giving him advice. After Aryll is rescued, it is revealed that.


 * The Atoner
 * Cool Boat
 * Exposition Fairy
 * The Obi-Wan
 * Really Seven Hundred Years Old
 * Voice With an Internet Connection: Through the Pirate's Charm.
 * Voice With an Internet Connection: Through the Pirate's Charm.

Tetra


A young pirate girl sailing the seven seas, she meets Link fairly early in his quest and ends up taking him to the Forsaken Fortress. Even after she fires him from a cannon into the fortress wall and leaves, she and Link keep crossing paths for some reason.


 * Action Girl: She tries to stop Ganondorf from killing Link at the Forsaken Fortress, and she helps in
 * The Archer: Starting a recurring element of
 * Badass Adorable
 * Dark-Skinned Blond
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Do Not Call Me Paul:
 * Implied Love Interest
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold: Lampshaded by one her crewmates when they're gathering bombs. "You sound more worried about the island than the treasure."
 * Locked Out of the Loop:
 * Ornamental Weapon: Tetra never once draws that cutlass of hers.
 * Parental Abandonment
 * Pirate
 * Pirate Girl
 * Pirate Who Doesn't Do Anything
 * Tomboy
 * Tsundere: Type A
 * Silk Hiding Steel:

Tetra's Pirates
A group of Pirates Who Don't Do Anything that later appear in Phantom Hourglass, led by Tetra. Despite being much older than her, they are extremely loyal to their captain and follow every single one of her commands. They reluctantly provide Link with a ride on their ship to the Forsaken Fortress in the beginning on the game and are actually joined by him in the game's end. They are hinted to be descended from the Hyrulean aristocracy; post-game, they became the first settlers of the new Kingdom of Hyrule in Spirit Tracks.

Gonzo


Apparently Tetra's first mate and also the member most dedicated to her. He shows an initial dislike of Link, though it wears off quicker than he'd willingly admit, claiming to have tricked a postman worried about him into giving him information about the whereabouts of a treasure when, really, he was just as worried about the little guy.


 * The Big Guy
 * Identical Grandson: Alfonzo from Spirit Tracks is apparently his decendant and looks absolutely identical to him, except for his clothes. Their personalities, however, vary slightly.
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold: Despite his unfriendly behaviour, he's shown to be very caring for Tetra and blushes when Mako jokes that they should marry. Later, Aryll claims in one of her letters that underneath all his muscles, Gonzo is just a big softy.
 * The Lancer

Nudge



 * The Big Guy: Actually surpasses Gonzo in terms of strength.
 * Dude Looks Like a Lady: Not quite enough to pass for a girl, but has a definite effeminate flare.

Senza



 * Badass Beard
 * Carpet of Virility: Just look at that thing!
 * Con Man: According to his statue
 * Informed Ability: His status as a Con Man.

Zuko



 * Name's the Same: Maybe he joined the crew looking for a means of transport so he could hunt down the Avatar.
 * Maybe he's just having adventures away from Sandy.
 * Or he was going to be a Grand Summoner, but turned around at the Calm Lands.
 * The Quiet One
 * The Unintelligible: According to his statue

Mako


The most knowledgeable member of the crew.


 * Book Safe: According to his statue, he keeps a dagger in his book.
 * Expy/Shout Out: He bears a resemblance to Professor E. Gadd.
 * The Smart Guy
 * Smart People Wear Glasses
 * Vague Age: It's difficult to tell if he's young or old. He does seem to have what may be gray hair and wrinkles, and is hunched over, but he also has a childlike appearance as well.

Niko


The lowest-ranked of Tetra's pirates, Niko is overjoyed when Link joins the crew, because now he at least outranks somebody. He narrates the opening of Phantom Hourglass with his paper cut-outs, and is later seen doing the same in Spirit Tracks. He appears in that game as an old man, presumably the last survivor of the founding generation of new Hyrule.


 * Book Ends: He makes paper cutouts for both the opening and closing sequences of Phantom Hourglass.
 * Butt Monkey
 * Drill Sergeant Nasty: He tries to be this, but fails.
 * Name's the Same: No relation to the main character from Grand Theft Auto IV. That we know of.
 * Small Name, Big Ego
 * Training From Hell: What he thinks he's putting Link through in The Wind Waker. He's a bit bitter when Link actually passes his tests.
 * Video Game Cruelty Potential: Subverted with the test he makes you take to get the bomb bag. He locks himself behind a grate in the room with the treasure, and you're supposed to press a button that will keep it open on a timer and get over there. You can just turn around and leave the ship with him still in there, but he doesn't seem bothered by it and you'll eventually have to come back and pass his test to progress through the game, fairly.

Sages Of The Master Sword
The Sages of the Master Sword are the Earth Sage and the Wind Sage. Their prayers keep the Master Sword sharp and give it the power to repel evil. Because of this, Ganondorf summoned two monsters to kill the original sages, and Link has to awaken the new sages.

Medli


A young girl of the bird-like Rito race in The Wind Waker. Maid to Prince Komali and the only female member of her race who's seen on-screen. She is later revealed to be the reincarnation of the Sage of the Earth, who blessed the Master Sword with its evil-destroying properties.


 * The Chosen One: She's the descendant of the Earth sage Laruto and therefore destined to take her place.
 * Guest Star Party Member: She joins Link in the Earth Temple dungeon.
 * Harp of Femininity
 * Magic Music: The harp she plays is actually the Earth god's harp, which opens the entrance to the Earth temple.
 * People Puppets: The Command Melody allows Link to control her.
 * Plucky Girl: She went off to calm Valoo down by herself, despite the fact she's only an apprentice carer. Gotta give her props for that.
 * Video Game Cruelty Potential: There's nothing stopping you from throwing her face first into a wall. She gets Circling Birdies and speaks nonsensically if you do it.
 * Winged Humanoid: Her whole race consists of those.

Makar


A member of the plant-like Korok Race from The Wind Waker, who are an evolved form of the Kokiri. He's later revealed to be the Sage of the Wind, the other Sage who blessed the Master Sword.


 * The Chosen One: He's a descendant of the Wind Sage Fado (Not that one.) and has to take his place.
 * Guest Star Party Member: He joins Link in the Wind Temple dungeon.
 * Magic Music: He plays the Wind god's violin - as a cello, because he's too small to carry it on his shoulders.
 * Not Quite Flight: He and the rest of the Koroks "fly" by hovering around with leaves.
 * People Puppets: The Command Melody allows Link to control him.
 * Plant People
 * Video Game Cruelty Potential: One puzzle involves moving him among the sliding razor traps frequently found in the series. It's kind of amusing how much of a beating he takes.

Aryll


Link's beloved little sister. She has a similar personality to Malon from Ocarina of Time and is always surrounded by seagulls, which is probably a nod to Marin from Link's Awakening. She is kidnapped along with several other Hylian girls at the beginning of The Wind Waker, setting Link off on his quest.


 * Cheerful Child: She's the first thing we get to see in the game, which, unfortunately, really set the tone in stone for some. A pity, because she's actually a really good character.
 * The Cutie
 * Dead Little Sister: Replace "Dead" with "Kidnapped". She's pretty much all of Link's motivation to keep going, until
 * Distressed Damsel: She is mistaken for Zelda in the beginning of the game and kidnapped. Link was not pleased.
 * Friend to All Living Things: She's always surrounded by seagulls.
 * Genki Girl: It's soooo obvious from the very first time we see her run and shout. She makes Ran look like her grandma.
 * Girlish Pigtails
 * Hair of Gold
 * Leitmotif: A short melody, that is part of all BGMs related to her, most prominently The Outset-Island theme and the music that plays during her kidnapping-scene.
 * Parental Abandonment: That's your fate when you're the sister of Link.
 * Raised By Grandparents
 * Talking Grunting To Herself: Believe it or not, but her "voice" is done by the same woman who also "voiced" Link in The Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass and Super Smash Bros Brawl (Toon-Variant).

Mila
A spoiled rich girl who lives on Windfall Island, she is captured and imprisoned along with Aryll. Tetra's crew eventually bring her home, but not before demanding her father's entire fortune as a reward. Afterwards she can be seen in rags working for Zunari, and a sidequest involves Link stalking her to reveal her as the burglar stealing from Zunari.


 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold: Seems to be this when you get her to confess.
 * Pimped-Out Dress: Wears this when you first see her at Forsaken Fortress.
 * Princess in Rags: She pretty much plays it straight.
 * Ship Tease: (Nintendo can't seem to help themselves) One of the answers Link can tell her when she asks why he won't let her go is that he likes her. This causes her to run off, Not that we can blame her.
 * Spoiled Brat: She was this before she lost her wealth. She has problems coping with the change in lifestyle.
 * Stealth Based Mission: Following her initiates one of these.
 * Tsundere

Maggie
Another one of the girls kidnapped along with Aryll. You can find her father begging for someone to go find her when you first visit Windfall Island. Unlike Mila, she starts off pretty poor.


 * I Never Got Any Letters: Her dad refuses to let the mail man deliver letters to her.
 * Interspecies Romance: She seems to have fallen in love with one of the Moblins in the Forsaken Fortress. It's totally one-sided, though.
 * Jerkass: Her dad is.
 * Pimped-Out Dress: Wears one after being rescued.
 * Rags to Riches

Gohma
A large fiery insectoid monster that dwelled within the cavern underneath Valoo on Dragon Roost Island.


 * Big Creepy Crawlies
 * Breath Weapon
 * King Mook: It's a giant Magtail, essentially. This is especially noticeable after its armor is broken off. The only notable visual difference other than size and the aforementioned armor is that it has two large clawed arms.
 * Name's the Same: Not to be confused with the first boss of Ocarina, which was an arachnid, not an insectoid.
 * Playing With Fire

Kalle Demos
A giant Boko Baba.


 * Ceiling Cling: It uses its upper set of tentacles for this...
 * Combat Tentacles: ...And has a lower set of much larger root-like tentacles for this.
 * King Mook: Interestingly, the stem and head are actually smaller than the typical Boko Baba. But the flower it grows from is much, much bigger... and armed.
 * Man-Eating Plant

Gohdan, The Great Arbiter
A large, apparently mechanical statue guarding the top floor of the Tower of the Gods as a final test of the Goddesses for anyone attempting to enter Hyrule to claim the Master Sword.


 * Feed It a Bomb
 * Giant Hands of Doom
 * King Mook: Strangely, Gohdan comes off as a king mook for two different kinds of monsters; Beamos (shoots very similar lasers), and Armos and Armos Knight (hit a jeweled weak spot and dropping bombs in its mouth).
 * Magitek
 * Tactical Suicide Boss: If Link runs out of bombs or arrows, both of which are needed to fight him, Gohdan will gladly sneeze some out for him. Justified, since it's a test of Link's skill, not of how many bombs and arrows he entered with.

Helmaroc King
A giant Kargoroc that wears a mask under Ganon's control that stalks the Great Sea searching for "girls with long ears" in an attempt to find Zelda.


 * The Dragon: To Ganondorf.
 * Feathered Fiend
 * Giant Flyer
 * It's Personal: Between kidnapping your sister, airlifting you right when you're about to save her, chucking you into the ocean to drown, and probably being closely related to those annoying Kargorocs, bashing this thing's head in with the Skull Hammer can easily turn out to be one of the most satisfying moments in the entire game.
 * King Mook: Like many of this game's bosses, it's a large version of an enemy. In this case, it's a large Kargoroc. It fights completely differently, though. And doesn't make that annoying noise, either.
 * Mask of Power
 * Perpetual Molt: It leaves its feathers everywhere during its fight with Link.

Jalhalla, Protector of the Seal
A gigantic Poe wearing a vest that is actually formed from 15 normal poes fusing together.


 * Asteroids Monster
 * Floating Mask: Jalhalla seems to be the mask itself and the Poes are giving it a body.
 * King Mook: Giant Poe, obviously.
 * Mood Whiplash: A very lighthearted and humorous boss battle in a very dank, spooky dungeon.
 * Offscreen Villainy: Did away with Laruto the Earth Sage.
 * Soul Power

Molgera, Protector of the Seal
A large worm like monster that hides beneath the sand and sends smaller larval versions of itself to hunt Link from beneath the ground.


 * Giant Flyer: Yes, it's a flying giant worm.
 * Offscreen Villainy: Ate Fado the Wind Sage.
 * Our Monsters Are Weird: A giant sand worm/ant-lion that weaponizes its offspring and brays like a donkey when injured.
 * Quicksand Sucks: It will make antlion-like sand traps to pull Link in toward its mouth.
 * Sand Worm

Ganondorf


""My country lay within a vast desert. When the sun rose into the sky, a burning wind punished my lands, searing the world. And when the moon climbed into the dark of night, a frigid gale pierced our homes. No matter when it came, the wind carried the same thing... Death. But the winds that blew across the green fields of Hyrule brought something other than suffering and ruin. I coveted that wind, I suppose.""

Several years after being imprisoned in the Dark Realm, Ganondorf is finally able to get free, and the Hero of Time, having been sent back to the past by Zelda, is nowhere to stop him this time around. Free to do as he pleases, he plunges Hyrule into chaos once again. The citizens of Hyrule pray for the Goddesses to intervene, and so they do, by flooding the kingdom and sending selected people to the mountaintops to survive the flood and repopulate the world. Hyrule was left frozen in time undersea, but Ganondorf still managed to escape to the surface, many centuries later, in a fortress he then seized as his own. His first course of action then is to kidnap every single girl with blond hair and pointy ears he can, in an attempt to find the current descendent of the Royal Family.


 * Amazing Technicolor Population: Although the artwork depicts him as Ambiguously Brown, in-game his skin is very unambiguously green.
 * Badass: Massively so. In fact, Link's badassness is the only one that can match Ganondorf's own. No wonder he's The Hero.
 * Badass Beard Of Evil: The first time he sports this.
 * Badass Longcoat: With big sleeves that flap and flow on the wind.
 * Big Bad: Yet again.
 * Green Skinned Redhead: The red hair comes from his Gerudo heritage, the dark-turned-green skin from his fiendish form. It's practically his trademark.
 * Dual Wield: Does this for the final battle.
 * Duel Boss: Also the final battle, which is recognized as one of the best boss fights in the series.
 * Evil Laugh: A particularly awesome one.
 * Evil Overlord
 * Evil Sorcerer: He . Need anything else?
 * Evil Tower of Ominousness: Ganon's Tower, yet again.
 * Freudian Excuse: This game introduced one for him.
 * Full Boar Action: His Ganon form, . as well, since.
 * Genius Bruiser: As usual, by this point.
 * Genre Savvy: All the time spent pondering his life while trapped in the void gave him great insight into what needed to be done upon being freed. He kills the two sages that would otherwise keep the Master Sword active and kidnaps every girl with pointy ears that he can locate across the Great Sea in order to find the most recent descendant of Princess Zelda.
 * Grass Is Greener: His desire for getting all the parts of the Triforce was fueled by his envy for the life-giving breezes of the lush Hyrulian landscape while his country suffered punishing winds that only brought death.
 * Honor Before Reason: A rare villainous example: During the final fight, after being hit by enough Light Arrows, he approaches Tetra, and, instead of stabbing her, puts away his sword and simply backhands her. Also, he seems to have a habit of, whenever knocking down Link, waiting until he gets back up before he resumes his attack or does a finishing blow.
 * Humanoid Abomination: He was human (or very close to it) to start with, but after finding the Triforce, he's become something much, much worse.
 * Impaled With Extreme Prejudice: Variation:.
 * Laughing Mad: His reaction to.
 * Leitmotif: Same one he always had.
 * Lightning Bruiser: Ganondorf's gotten less reliant on hanging back and chucking magic at you or shifting into his Mighty Glacier Ganon form in favor of up-close and personal swordfights. He proves to be an astonishingly agile opponent while still being bigger and stronger than Link and Stone Walling all but the most advanced sword attacks.
 * Magic Knight: He not only possess powerful magic, but is also unbelievably strong and skilled with a sword. Or two.
 * No Holds Barred Beatdown: Delivers a positively BRUTAL one to Link.
 * Older and Wiser: How he is depicted here. He did have a lot of time to reflect on stuff.
 * One-Winged Angel: Surprisingly averted, as he doesn't transform into Ganon in this game. The one time it looks like he does, it's actually.
 * Physical God: Almost literal considering what powers him.
 * Sealed Evil in A Can: Until he got free.
 * Staying Alive: Word of God says there is only one Ganon. Several games imply or outright state it is due to the Triforce of Power making him immortal.
 * Villainous Breakdown: An epic one right before the final battle.
 * Wicked Cultured
 * Xanatos Gambit: The Master Sword was actually . By taking it from the pedestal, Link . But if he didn't do it, there wouldn't be any way to defeat Ganondorf.
 * Villainous Breakdown: An epic one right before the final battle.
 * Wicked Cultured
 * Xanatos Gambit: The Master Sword was actually . By taking it from the pedestal, Link . But if he didn't do it, there wouldn't be any way to defeat Ganondorf.
 * Xanatos Gambit: The Master Sword was actually . By taking it from the pedestal, Link . But if he didn't do it, there wouldn't be any way to defeat Ganondorf.