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One of Nintendo’s premiere franchises, has been a s꧟taple of the medium 𒊎since the late 80s. The original Legend of Zelda captured the feeling of adventure better than most games of its timꦆ💞e, with Zelda II and A Link to the Past expand൲ing the series’ horizons even further. By the time Ocarina of Time turned the franꦯchise into an even🐻 bigger hit, it was already hard to deny the series’ legendary status.
Despite being a Nintendo property, The Legend of Zelda is allowed to tackle darker and more mature plots than 🐬its brethren, even featuring a few𒁏 instances where Link has killed other characters. Always villainous, of course, and almost always in service of the story in some capacity, but it’s an interesting aspect of Link’s character to reflect on.
10 Ganon (The Legend Of Zelda)
Given how little emphasis the original Legend of Zelda places on sto꧑ry (read: next to none,) it’s easy to miss the fact that Link actually does kill ꦉGanon at the end of the game. Ganon does not get sealed away or temporarily defeated, the Silver Arrows straight up finish him off. The whole premise of Zelda II centers around his folღlowers trying to r𒊎evive him, after all.
That’s an important distinction to make. While the premise of Ganon coming back is ingrained in the series, later𝓀 entries tend to operate on bringing back a Ganon who is alive and keeps getting sealed away. In the first game, Link kills him. Plain and simple.
9 Koume & Kotake (Ocarina Of Time)
Ocarina of Time introduces a lot of iᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚnteresting characters into the Legend of Zelda franchise, but Koume and Kotake stand out in particular. Not only because they’re the most expressive bosses in the game, actually bantering with Link & each other, but they have a personal connection Ganondorf, essentially having raised him to be the King o𒉰f theꦕ Gerudo.
After a long fight, Koume & Kotake notably do not poof into thin air. Rather, they actually die in front of Link’s eyes, sprouting👍 halos out of nowhere and then ascending into heaven. It’s debatable whether or not they deserve such a fate, but hey, gotta respect your elders, right?
8 Sakon (Majora’s Mask)
Sakon is the sole instance in the entire Legend of Zelda franchise where playe🦋rs are actually allowed to kill another NPC. Sakon is a villainous character, but he’s not an enemy or a boss. He’s really just a nasty NPC. That said, Link is able to detonate the bomb bag Sakon steals from the old woman on the night of the first day.
Once Sakon steals the bag, simply shoot an arrow or the hookshot into the bomb bag. The ba𓆏g will explode, and Sakon will vanish into nothing. He will not appear for the remainder of the cycle, and Kafei & Anju’s quest will be impossible to complete due to the fact that Sakon, a plot sensitive character, is dead.
7 Garo Master (Majora’s Mask)
Technically the Garo Master kills himself with a bomb, much in the same way his soldie🥂rs take their own lives, but by this point in the game, both Link and the player will already be aware of what a Garo does when they’re defeated. It’s pretty hardcore, especially for a Nintendo game, but The Legend of Zelda does often touch upon dark or matur🥂e subject matter.🉐
With any boss or mini-boss, however, there’s naturally an argument ovꦅerﷺ whether or not they count as players defeat them in gameplay. But here’s the thing, the gameplay is the story. Gameplay and storꦐy segregation is a thing, but never to the point where you outright dismiss what you see h𓆏appen in the game.
6 Ganondorf (The Wind Waker)
It’s one thing to see Link kill Ganon the beast, but it’s another to see him kill Ganondorf the man. In a game where Ganondorf does not so much as transform into Ganon, playe𒁃rs are tasked with truly killing 🃏another person. Link doesn’t agonize over it, he just does it– taking the role of the Hero of Winds into his hand and allowing the seas to claim Ganondorf’s lifeless body.
To be fair, Link killing Ganondorf here is stylized. Although Link plunges the Ma💦ster Sword straight into Ganondorf’s head and he turns to stone, it’s obviously supposed to fill in for a traditional death. It makes for a powerful image, but a necessary one for a story so focused on saying goodbye to Hyrule and its iconography.
5 Anyone Who Turns Into A Twili (Twilight Princess)
This is one of the 🐎uncomfortable, underlying truths at play w🃏ithin Twilight Princess– one that the story very understandably does not highlight. All those horrifying Twili Link keeps fighting? They’re people. And striking ꧂them down does not bring them back. Every Twili Link ♉kills in the game is a person he’s killing.
Now, it can be argued he’s just putting them out of their misery and that they’re better off dead (a very soun꧅d argument,) but it’s important to recognize the morbidity at play here. The Legend of Zelda can be a surprisingly dark series, it 🏅just tends to hide it well.
4 Zant (Twilight Princess)
Now Link doesn’t deal the finishing blow on Zant himself– with Midna intercepting the kill and crushing Zant’s body to death– but the guy was more or less on death’s door by the time Midna got her hands on him꧒. Link absol🐲utely wears Zant down, breaking the poor guy’s body and spirits to the point of insanity.
Granted, Zant already had 𝕴a few screws loose before Link ever pummeled the Master Sword into him, but Link very much enters this fight with the intent to kill Zant. Not just that, the only reason Midna’s even able to finish Zant off is because Link wear🀅s him down so much.
3 Ganondorf (Twilight Princess)
Following in the footsteps of The Wind Waker’s Link, Twilight Princess’ Link is more than comfortable plunging his sword deep into Ganondorf’s abdomen, leaving the Prince of Darkness writhing in agony as he succumbs to a slow༒, painful death. It’s far more savage than TWW Link’s killing of Ganondorf, but that’s appꦡropriate given🔯 TP’s tone.
Link killing Ganondorf also ♐feels incredibly earned here. Ganondorf possessed Zelda, ﷽seemingly killed Midna, fought back with the full might of the Triforce of Power, and still has enough energy to challenge Link to a one on one duel to the death. Seeing him finally go down is cathartic.
2 Vaati (Four Swords Adventures)
Vaati hasn’t appeared in a Zelda game since The Minish Cap– the game which finꦿally established Vaati’s origin story– and it's unlikely he’ll appear again anytime soon. While he doesn’t end up being the title’s main antagonist, Four Swords Adventures marks the l🎃ast time Vaཧati makes mischief in any of the three timelines.
Currently the last entry in the Child Timeline, Vaati is ultimately killed by the Links before the end of the game.After defeating Vaati, the Links go on to fight and defeat Ganondorf II. It’s entirely possib✨le they killed Ganondorf II, as well, but as far as Vaati is concerned, his defeat in FSA feels final. For the time being, at least.
1 Master Kohga (Breath Of The Wild)
It’s entirely possible Breath of the Wild 2 (or whatever the sequels ends up being called) brings Master Kohga back, confirming that he didn’t die after Link beat him into submission, dropping the Yiga Clan master down a massivಞe hole. But hopefully that doesn’t happen, because Master Kohga kind of had it coming.
Despite how amicable and goofy Master Kohga is, this man is still in charge of a group that actively terrorizes Hyrule while actively trying to assassinate Link. Defeating Kohga ♒only increases how often the Yiga target Link, lending further credence to th🌟e notion that Link finishes Kohga off for good.