Princess Zelda

Princess Zelda is a fictional character in the Legend of Zelda series of video games. She is a member of Hyrule's Royal Family and plays an integral role in the Legend of Hyrule. Though she is the titular character, the player normally takes control of Hylian, savior and all-around nice guy Link. Usually, she is in some way kidnapped or imprisoned by Ganon, also known as Ganondorf. In some games she appears as one of the sages, or wise men (and women). According to her creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, she was named after Zelda Fitzgerald.

She has appeared in Super Smash Bros. Melee, a game for the Nintendo GameCube released on December 2, 2001. In the game, she is one, or maybe two, playable characters. Zelda uses magic to fight her enemies; she is powerful when attacking but has trouble evading or surviving when being attacked. But at the push of a button she also can transform into her Sheik alter ego, using speed, agility, needles, a chain, and high-momentum physical attacks. Smart players master the ins and outs of both forms.

Also, she starred in two games made by a third party for the CD-i system, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon and Zelda's Adventure. The games are generally criticized by fans.

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

An ancient princess named Zelda was put into a sleeping spell by an evil wizard working for her brother, the prince. The prince tried to stop the wizard, but Zelda fell into a deep sleep. The prince ordered that every female born into the royal family would be named Zelda, in memory of the event.

Ocarina of Time

Zelda is the daughter of the King of Hyrule, the Seventh Sage, and the holder of the Triforce of Wisdom. The true heir to the royal family, she is of the Hylian race with blonde hair and blue eyes. She begins the game as a young girl of around 10 blessed with psychic abilities. Due to a dream of symbolic importance, she sensed Ganondorf's treachery and predicts Link's arrival before either occur. When Link meets her for the first time in Hyrule Castle Courtyard, she sends him on a quest to collect the three Spiritual Stones and protect the Triforce from Ganondorf. When Ganondorf attacks Hyrule Castle, Zelda and her nurse maid Impa, a Sheikah, ride away from the castle. The princess threw the Ocarina of Time into the moat that was in front of the castle village, then Link dove down into the water and retrived the ocarina. When Link returns seven years later, he encounters Zelda disguised as Sheik, a survivor of the Sheikah tribe. It is Zelda who gives Link clues as to the locations of the various temples and teaches him the warp songs. After the final temple seal is dispersed, Sheik reveals herself as Zelda, the Seventh Sage, and informs Link that both she and he hold pieces of the Triforce. She then gives Link the Light Arrows but moments later is captured by Ganondorf and imprisoned in a pink crystal in his tower, formerly Hyrule Castle. After Ganondorf's defeat, she is freed and assists Link in his escape from the collapsing fortress. She also helps Link defeat Ganon by holding him in place with her magic while Link delivers the final blow. After Hyrule is saved, Zelda uses the Ocarina of Time to send Link back to the past.

The Wind Waker

There is a pirate girl named Tetra who leads her band of pirates across the great sea in search of a great legendary treasure hidden beneath the sea. She was orphaned at a young age and because she coped with so much she commands a lot of respect among her pirate crew. She later finds from the King of Red Lions (actually Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule, the ancient King of Hyrule that was sealed underneath the sea along with his doomed kingdom) that she is actually princess Zelda (a descendant of the one from Ocarina of Time). During the final battle she helps to slow down Ganondorf with light arrows that she borrows from the Hero of Winds.

The Minish Cap

Princess Zelda is the daughter of King Daltus. She and Link were good friends due to the fact that Link's grandfather was the King's blacksmith. One day when Zelda and Link went to the Hyrule Festivals in honour of the Picori, Zelda was turned into stone by Vaati. Link was then sent on a mission to save her and Hyrule.

Zelda's Alter Ego

Sheik is Princess Zelda's alter ego in Ocarina of Time. Zelda passes herself off as a male Sheikah, known as Sheik (who derived his name from the name of the Sheikah tribe. She keeps her voice muffled and her face concealed, and wears a tight-fitting blue suit with the red Sheikah eye in the center. She plays the harp and teaches Link new songs to help him on his quest. When Link got to the Temple of Time, because Rauru says that somebody is waiting for Link, Sheik showed her true identity, by using the Triforce of Wisdom, unveilling that she is really; Princess Zelda. It is assumed that she uses her magical skills (as a Sage) to change her skin tone, hair length and eye color, as well as her body build and shape. As to Sheik's gender, the revelation at the end of Ocarina of Time reveals Sheik was Zelda all along. Sheik was a female who passed herself off as a male, which raises issues of Gender Identity in the Zelda series, something unusual for a Nintendo title. Also, according to the figurines/ trophies and the instruction booklet for Super Smash Bros. Melee, Sheik is a female.

Incarnations of Zelda

Much like Link, Zelda has taken on more than one incarnation throughout the series. Most of the time, she is portrayed as a child, but twice she has been in adult form (The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link). She will probably be returning to her adult form in the upcoming game, as it is quite apparent that Link is.