Link’s age tends to vary a lot throughout Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda games, thanks to the series’ infamously complicated timeline and premise. While the games are all connected, they do feature many different incarnations of Link and Zelda, so it isn’t surprising that he isn’t always the same age in every Legend of Zelda game. Things became more complicated when time travel entered the mix and Zelda sent Link back to his childhood. Over the course of 20 canonical games, Link’s age has varied from 10 to somewhere in adulthood. Link generally tends to remain on the younger side, often appearing no older than 18.
In addition to the messy timelines and multiple iterations, Nintendo has seldom explicitly confirmed Link’s age in the Zelda games. There are usually enough hints to make an educated guess, and this determination is important, given that many view the games as coming-of-age stories; Link’s age adds context to his growth and journey to adulthood. The newest game, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, is a direct sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This means that the time between games needs to considered when figuring out Link’s age. Plus, one event in Breath of the Wild might have added a couple of decades to that number.
Link’s age in Tears of the Kingdom, explained
To determine Link’s age, we first need to remember that Tears of the Kingdom takes place a few years after Breath of the Wild. Considering the subtle changes to the landscape and characters, it is reasonable to assume that at least two or three years have gone by. Meanwhile, Link appears to be at least 17 years old in Breath of the Wild based on a flashback in which he visits the Spring of Wisdom in Hyrule. Fans of the game know that only those 17 years of age or older may access the Spring of Wisdom, as 17 is considered the age of adulthood, when one holds sufficient wisdom to visit the location.
So, if Link is about 17 in Breath of the Wild, and Tears of the Kingdom takes place two or three years later, that would put him at age 19 or 20. However, Breath of the Wild also reveals that Link spent a long time sleeping. In the beginning, the game explains that he was gravely injured during the Great Calamity, causing him to enter a Slumber of Restoration in which he slept for 100 years to recover from his injuries. Of course, he didn’t physically age during his slumber. However, if we add those years to his age, he would’ve actually been 117 years old in Breath of the Wild, making him close to 120 in Tears of the Kingdom.
(featured image: Nintendo)
