Some new art of female Link from 1986 has resurfaced thanks to a Legend of Zelda historian.
We all know that Link has some androgynous vibes about him, in fact he was even designed that way. But back in the 80s, when there was just a handful of art and an ambiguous pixel art version of him with pink hair, that androgyny was even more unclear. So much so that the official guide book drew Link as a woman with pink hair.
And now, more art of that take on Link has appeared online thanks to History of Hyrule, an account dedicated to archiving Zelda related books and art. Part of that archiving has been about documenting the different instances where Link had pink hair. Link actually had pink hair in a manga adaptation of the second Zelda game. So even before A Link To The Past.
how long has link had pink hair for?
But in some art from a magazine called Shonen Captain, the pink haired Link was drawn as a woman. More of that same art has been found in the official guide book of the first Zelda game. Meaning that both Link’s hair colour and gender were up in the air from early on.
It’s incredibly cool to get to see some previously lost art of such an iconic character. History of Hyrule plans to do some high-resolution scans of the artwork so that they are properly preserved. Though they have already given us a good look at the different drawings that can be found in the guide book.
While it’s only something small, at least it’s a fun thing to look into the history of while we wait for the now delayed Breath of the Wild 2.
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Featured Image Credit: History of Hyrule/ Nintendo