Fans need to understand Link and Zelda aren’t a couple

“THAT person?!?!?”

It’s natural for fans to have strong reactions to casting news when a beloved franchise scores a  big-screen adaptation. People have cheered and booed in equal measure for the casting of Pedro Pascal as Joel in The Last of Us, or Robert Pattinson as Batman. Some performers have won stubborn fans over. When Heath Ledger was cast as The Joker, nobody wanted a “gay cowboy” in the role. Dissenters ate those words.

But nothing has mystified me quite as much as some of the reactions I’ve seen to the casting of 21-year-old Bo Bragason as Zelda and 16-year-old Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as Link for the upcoming live-action Zelda movie. 

Because a lot of people think they’re going to kiss.

Across social media, fans are expressing concern about the age gap between the two, saying it will be hard to forget in the theater, and that it’s weird to cast a “love interest” so much older than the main character.

Well, sure, it would be! If Zelda were Link’s love interest.

Zelda and Link have an eternal connection

Nothing has been revealed about the plot of the live-action Zelda movie but if anything, this casting indicates to me that Link and Zelda will not be romantically involved in the film. This wouldn’t be abnormal for any entry in the Zelda franchise.

It’s a narrative choice that would echo not one, but most of the Legend of Zelda games. Link and Zelda have never been canonically and immutably a couple. They’re barely immutably themselves. Sometimes Zelda is a pirate or a ninja. Sometimes Link is 17. In other games he’s four 12-year-olds. 

Link and Zelda’s strongest romantic connection is probably in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, where they make gooey eyes at each other. Zelda’s song is even called “Romance Theme.”

The pair have kissed, in two games. At the end of 1987’s The Legend of Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link, a curtain falls and the two share a smooch. In Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons. Zelda gives Link a thank-you peck, and he gets all dopey and dizzy.

Neither moment feels particularly couple-y. The Adventure of Link kiss comes across as a “reward” typical of games of that era. The Oracle kiss is similarly goofy, and plays as a joke. There is no heat or romance.

In other popular games like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Link and Zelda save Hyrule once more, and Link leaves to pursue his own mysterious destiny, while Zelda rebuilds Hyrule Castle. They’re all business!

If anything, in most games their relationship ranges from platonic to ambiguous. A lot of people ship them. I get it. Their bond literally crosses space, time, and multiple realms. Link and Zelda will always find each other to save their world. That’s potent, baby.

But Zelda’s role has rarely been so simple and straightforward as “love interest.” She’s a symbol of Hyrule, she’s Link’s collaborator, friend, or liege lord. Even at her most damsel-ed, she is never purely “the love interest,” and it’s jarring to see her referred to that way as if it’s a perma-facet of Zelda lore.

Yes, there are exceptions

The comic and cartoon adaptations of The Legend of Zelda have always been a big exception to this tradition. In Valiant Comics series from the 1990s, Link and Zelda express their love for each other. And in the animated CD-i games from Philips Interactive Media, Link is always annoyingly begging for a kiss — which aggravates Zelda.

None of these interpretations are exactly beloved pieces of canon, so I’m not sure why they would be privileged over more ambiguous interpretations that have appeared over and over again in the rest of the games.

It would be a bold statement from Nintendo to choose this upcoming live-action movie as the venue for making Link and Zelda a canonical couple. And again, I think the casting itself is the strongest confirmation that that won’t happen.

If I’m wrong, come find me in May 2027 and I’ll grovel and admit that I was wrong. But until then, don’t assume that Link and Zelda are a couple just because they’re a guy and a gal leading a movie. I really don’t think they’re gonna kiss.