The Legend of Zelda/Tropes


 * Adaptation Destillation: While the first and third acts are based on Skyward Sword, the rest is based on Zelda II: The Adventure of Link while featuring dungeons from other games to simplify the story while keeping it faithful to the source material. Link's character arc is also strongly based on his pre-amnesia self from Breath of the Wild, as is most of the lore.
 * Adaptational Angst Update:
 * Link is plagued with anxiety and self-doubt upon learning of his destiny, something that never happened in the games.
 * Zelda similarly struggles with the expectations upon her as heir to the throne.
 * Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: Instead of being Demise's sword spirit, Girahim is merely a follower of his.
 * Adapted Out: The time travel elements from Skyward Sword were eliminated to make the plot less convulted.
 * Awesome Art:
 * The film's animation was provided by Spencer Wan's Studio Grackle and marks DreamWorks' return to hand-drawn animated films. And boy what a way to come back! The art style is the perfect blend between that of DreamWorks' old 2D movies, anime, and the games, giving the film a look that is recognizably DreamWorks and recognizably Zelda at the same time.
 * The animation during the fight scenes, with a great fluidity and awe-inspiring vusuals, is nothing short of amazing. Sharped eyeswill notice that the film keeps the simple fighting style frequent in the games, but everything happens so fast that the fights are far more thrilling than in the games.
 * Awesome Moments: Link's return to the battlefield. With his faith in himself renewed, he walks to face Demise riding Epona, holding the Master Sword and broken shield that resembles the iconic Hyrulian Shield. All while a triumphant version of the Zelda theme plays out. That's when we knew. He is now the Link.
 * Awesome Music: Well, what do you expect when you handle the games' iconic themes to Hans Zimmer?
 * Casting Gag: The Loftwing's vocal effects are provided by Pete Docter, who previously voiced Kevin the bird in his 2009 film, Up.
 * Company Cross-References:
 * The sheeps in the film have the same design as in How To Train Your Dragon.
 * Girahim's lair is strikingly similar to Rumpelstinkin's original home in Shrek Forever After.
 * Girahim's first scene is reminiscent of DuBois' entrance in Madagscar 3: Europe's Most Wanted.
 * Spirit makes a cameo as a horse running througth the forests of the surface.
 * As a Freeze-Frame Bonus, Shrek's swamp can be seen as Link observes the surface for the first time.
 * Among the objects in the Sheikah's camp is King Julien's crown, while one of the swords they wield is the 2018 version of She-Ra's sword.
 * During the climax, as a group of soldiers is surrounded by Demise's creatures, their leader says "It's been an honor serving with you, boys". This is a reference to when the Penguins were cornered by the Fossa in the original Madagascar.
 * The pose Link's Loftwing does upon dying is the same one Toothless does after Hiccup shoots him down in the first How To Train Your Dragon film.
 * The shot of Link and Zelda riding horses in front of the sunset is an homage to the ending of Puss in Boots.
 * Deconstruction: Just like Breath of the Wild, the film deconstructs Link's status as The Chosen One and the Silent Hero. He acquires a more silent persona to project the kind of person they want him to be, but in truth the fact that a random person like him was chosen as the world's savior has left him deeply insecure and afraid of failure at such a big task, his Silent Hero persona ultimately not letting him express his feelings. It isn't until he opens up to Zelda that his self-steem improves.
 * Composite Character: The film's post-credits scene reveals Girahim to be this universe's version of Ganondorf.
 * Damself out of Distress: Zelda manages to free herself from captivity early in the film.
 * Death by Adaptation: Link's Loftwing dies near the film's third act.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything: Girahim's devotion to Demise is deliberatedly evocative of a cult member.
 * Fridge Brilliance:
 * The third act sees Link attempting to leave after failing to defeat Demise, only to instead find the confidence to fight him again. This ties to a line from another DreamWorks film where The Chosen One is somebody seemingly unfit for the role: "One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it".
 * Link in the games was originally meant to have whatever personality the players project on him. In this version, he starts off as a regular person whom audiences can project themselves onto. This even ties to Zeno Robinson voicing him over a celebrity: Had him been voiced by Chris Pratt or Ryan Reynolds, the illusion of Link being a regular person would havd been lost due to sharing voices with a notable person. A professional voice actor capable of altering his voice according to his role, however, would be able to give Link a far less recognizable voice.
 * Mythology Gag:
 * To the games:
 * The DreamWorks logo in this film is changed into a recreation if the orihinal game's overworld.
 * The book in the opening is a pitch-perfect copy of the real-life Hyrule Historia. The book is also refered in-universe as a bible; one of the objects Link could find in the original games was the Bible.
 * Girahim's henchmen wear pig-like helmets, an homage to Ganon's original appearance in the games.
 * The opening features the same monologue as The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.
 * Link's dream starts with him waking up in a cave within a pool. This is an homage to the first scene of Breath of the Wild.
 * Link briefly worries his Loftwing was locked after he fails to appear, which did happened in Skyward Sword.
 * Zelda's first scene was lifted straight from Spirit Tracks.
 * An old man is the one that gives new knights their swords, a nod to when Link receives his first sword in The Legend of Zelda.
 * Link races to the Goddess' temple with a lantern during a storm, calling back to the first level of A Link to the Past.
 * While the concept of calling the Loftwings after jumping off Skyloft was Adapted Out, a brief nod is made when Link's Loftwing only shows up after he jumps off to find Zelda.
 * The scene where Zelda wakes up in her cell is an homage to Wolf Link's first playable scene in Twilight Princess.
 * One of the shots during the fight against Stallord is similar to the second part of the boss fight against him in Twilight Sword. Link akso destroys him by blowing up his head, similar to how players had to destroy his head to finish him in the game.
 * Some of the fighting poses Zelda learns througth the film are remiscent of her Sheik identity. She also expresses an interest in ships, a nod to her Terra identity from The Wind Waker.
 * At one point, Link, Zelda, & Impa find a temple for Hylia. The scene as a whole is reminiscent of when Link found the Hyrule Castle in The Wind Waker.
 * After defeating Link, Demise paraphrases one of Ganondorf's first lines in Tears of the Kingdom.
 * As Demise destroys Skyloft, King Harkinan tries to escape his crumbling castle as bokoblins attack him. This is similar to wgen Link had to escape the castle in Majora's Mask.
 * During the final battle, Zelda recreates her "final smash" move from Super Smash Bros. Brawl. She also uses arrows to fight Demise alongside Link at the climax, akin to how they fought Ganondorf in Twilight Princess.
 * During the credits, Link and Zelda do their winning poses from the Super Smash Bros. games.
 * To the 1989 The Legend of Zelda series:
 * The king has the same name as his 1989 self.
 * Girahim's fortress resembles Ganon's castle in the 1989 cartoon.
 * During training, Groose bruefly taunts Link by saying "I thougth you'd pretend to be sick and skip training! With that physique...". An episode from the 1989 series had Link faking sickness to avoid spring cleaning.
 * Ghirahim, after seeing how Zelda refuses to depart with him, says "Well, excuse me, princess. But I just can't take no for an answer right now!", a reference to Link's catchphrase in the Zelda cartoon.
 * Upon arriving to the surface, Link saves his Loftwing from a group of Tektites in a similar manner to how he saved Zelda from them in the episode "That Sinking Feeling".
 * The horse Zelda adopts while living with the Sheikah resembles Catherine, Link's horse in the series.
 * While explaining the Triforce to Zelda and Link, Impa says "this is the Triforce of Wisdom. The evil Demise had the Triforce of Power. Whoever holds all of them would rule this land forever". This is taken near straight from the opening of the cartoon.
 * To the manga adaptations:
 * Ghirahim vanishes into smoke after kidnapping Zelda, just like Agahnim in the A Link to the Past manga.
 * One of the knights resembles Ghanti from Akira Himekawa's A Link to the Past adaptation.
 * The drawing of the Triforce that Impa shows to Zelda and Link was lifted straight from Oath of Lilto.
 * To other Nintendo media:
 * The opening features an extract of the Zelda theme, much like the 1993 Super Mario Bros. film.
 * The chase sequence in the middle of the film was based on the minecart levels from Donkey Kong.
 * Nightmare Fuel:
 * Demise himself is built on this. His ressurrection has him emerging from the Earth as if he was Satan, and his overrall goal is to turn the Earth into Hell itself. And just for the sake of more power.
 * Girahim is also among the nastier DreamWorks villains. He treats everytgung liie a game, including killing. At one point he even threatens Link woth tprturing him to death if he keeps interfering with his plans. Oh, and he is voiced by Paul "The Riddler" Dano.
 * Then there's Girahim's devotion to Demise. Everytime he speaks about him, he talks like if he was a divine creature meant to enlight the world. Every word about him might as well come from a cult member.
 * His behavior becomes even more unnerving when Demise returns, becoming downright formal with him. Keep in mind he has never been formal with anyone before that. Just to show how geniune his devotion is.
 * Just as eerie us the fact that the only thing that causes him to lose hus temper is anything that delays Demise's return. He is that devoted.
 * The Bokoblins. The more detailed version of their Breath of the Wild designs combined with their feral behabior ensure they will be very frightening goons.
 * The entire scene where Skyloft is attacked is downright nightmerish:
 * First is the complete Mood Whiplash. Up until that point, all we got was hilarious moments and Ship Teasing between Zelda and Link. And suddenly, a gigantic ball of fire comes from nowhere. And, like a creature from Hell, a man emerges, demanding Zelda, while his personality makes it clear is not for good reason.
 * And when the kingdom refuses to let him take Zelda away, Girahim's response is to unleash an army of Bokoblins into Skyloft. An army of feral creatures with not only good weaponry at their hand but the knowledge to use them properly. This creatures are feral, yet at the sane time Tghy Can Think, somehow making them more frightening that if they were either. Amd an entire army was just unleashed into an small village. The soldiers were doing their best, yet their are overwhelmed. Noe, try to oucture these things running free after killing the soldiers.
 * To highlight how frightening the situation is, we briefly cut to a house whose family is being attacked by a Bokoblin. And they ln,y msnage to escape by an inch.
 * The very moment where Ghirahim attacks Zelda is straight out of Alien (and according to director Patty Jenkins, it was inspired by the film). Zelda is hiding in the castle, hoping to brpe safe from whatever is going on out there. However, audiences get easy-to-miss shots that Ghirahim found her, before grabbing her out-of-nowhere and teleporting before anyone could notice what happened. Even worse is that, Ghirahim's background shots are so easy to miss that, even if you suspect he is there, no confirmation actually comes... until he already grabbed her.
 * The post-credits scene has Demise transfer his essence into Girahim... turning him into Ganondorf. Link and Zelda's problems have just began...
 * Pragmatic Adaptation: The Sheikah bombs here are smaller than in the videogqmes. Seeing how a gake-accurate one would make Link look like Adam West's Batman, this makes sense.
 * Promoted Fanboy: Matt Braly, an executive-producer and Link's supervisor animator in the film, is a longtime Zelda fan.
 * Rescued From the Scrappy Heap: Fi was a rather Base-Breaking Character in Skyward Sword, but she had a more positive reception in the film, mainly due to most of the complaints being gameplay-related, which obviously the film had to scrap.
 * Salvaged Story: Zelda's detractors often complained about her not beimg as badass as Nintendo hypes her and being a Damsel-in-Distress. In the film, while the storyline starts with Zelda being kidnapped, she's rescued early in the film and spends the rest of the film becoming a geniune warrior, with her skills allowing her to defeat Ghirahim at the climax and made her vital to Demise's death at the end of the film.
 * Ship Tease: Par the course with the games, Link and Zelda's romantic is full of romantic hints, througth they don't become an Official Couple.
 * Spared by the Adaptation: Fi survives until the end of the story, unlike in Skyward Sword.
 * Shout-Out:
 * Link's dream at the film's opening is an homage to the "Knightmare" sequence in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.
 * The Sheikah bombs here look like the Green Goblin's pumpkin bombs. Girahim's entrance also resembles the Goblin's entrance in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
 * One of the Cukcoos in the Sheikah village is named Camilla, the name of Gonzo's chicken girlfriend in The Muppets.
 * The scene where Link us almost killed by Demise and Zelda unlocks her powers is similar to when Captain America used Mjølnir to save Thor from Thanos in Avengers: Endgame.
 * The way Link destroys Stallord is similar to how the shark was killed at the end of Jaws.
 * Demise's ressurrection is very similar to Gozer's return in Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Some of Girahim's lines are even the same ones Ivan Shantor uttered during that scene.
 * Demise at one point sarcastically asks "Where's your goddess now, kid?!".
 * The scene where Zelda holds on the Bokoblins as an Heroic Sacrifice is a reference to Hawkeye's own sacrifice in the What If...? (2021) episode "What If... Ultron Won?".
 * The entry of the Sheikahs into the final battle is an obvious nod to Mad Max: Fury Road.
 * The shot were Link impales Demise is an homage to Wonder Woman beheading Steppenwolf in Zack Snyder's Justice League.
 * Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Link may be a knight-in-training, but he still is pretty much a regular guy. So when he learms he is destined to save the world from who is pretty much the Devil, he finds himself overwhelmed, as wou,d be anybody who is handled a responsability far bigger than they expected to ever have.
 * Tearjerker: The death of Link's Loftwing. The two shared a pretty close bond througth the film, so seeing him die hurts the audience as much as it hurt Link.
 * Unexpected Character: Nabat, from the Oath of Lilto mangas and never appeared in a game, appears in a minor role as Ghirahim's second-in command.