Yes. No? Maybe.

November 14, 2022 4:59 AM

Is Link wearing pajamas in A Link to the Past? An investigation [Polygon]

“Link’s green tunic is an iconic game costume that stands the test of time. But when I first booted up The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past on Game Boy Advance at a young age, I was fully convinced that Link spent the entirety of the game running around in his pajamas. In the game’s still-incredible opening segment, Link wakes up after receiving a telepathic plea for help from Princess Zelda. Soon after, Link ignores his uncle’s instructions to go back to sleep, doesn’t bother to change, and — once he sees that his uncle has been killed — barrels into a dungeon crawl through Hyrule Castle to save Princess Zelda. Does Link really save both the Light and Dark worlds in little more than a Hylian nightie? Is he an elite-trained child warrior wearing combat fatigues to bed? And did his uncle manage to pass on his mustache-growing skills before he died?”

posted by Fizz (31 comments total)

Fizz!
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:04 AM on November 14, 2022 [19 favorites]

More on topic, it’s good to see another Zelda controversy erupt. They always seem to be passionate yet wholesome.

PS. Zelda is the boy.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:05 AM on November 14, 2022

Zelda is the boy
posted by tiny frying pan at 5:17 AM on November 14, 2022 [5 favorites]

another Zelda controversy

The new game, is it tears of the kingdom like you're crying about the kingdom, or is it tears like, half the kingdom has been torn off and flung into the sky? I know it doesn't come out for another six months but I need to have a strong opinion on it now.
posted by mittens at 5:24 AM on November 14, 2022 [2 favorites]

Zelda Tears the Kingdom Off
posted by nebulawindphone at 5:26 AM on November 14, 2022 [3 favorites]

“ is it tears of the kingdom like you're crying about the kingdom, or is it tears like, half the kingdom has been torn off and flung into the sky? ”

Nintendo confirmed that its tears 💧, as in "tears of joy", but I like to believe its a little of column A and a little of column B.
posted by Fizz at 5:26 AM on November 14, 2022 [2 favorites]

Also, to answer the topic at hand. I believe that Link wears pantaloons.
posted by Fizz at 5:29 AM on November 14, 2022 [2 favorites]

Truly the most contested question in all of fandom since the slightly bigger Luke controversy.
posted by Mayor West at 5:50 AM on November 14, 2022 [4 favorites]

Link is naked. That’s just what a naked Link looks like.
posted by kyrademon at 5:52 AM on November 14, 2022 [6 favorites]

Link is not an elite-trained warrior, he dies about 25,000 times before he gets any real fighting skill in my experience
posted by lefty lucky cat at 6:13 AM on November 14, 2022 [11 favorites]

Maybe it’s a romper. That would explain why there’s no time to change.
posted by jedicus at 6:14 AM on November 14, 2022

Maybe Link just sleeps in his clothes.
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:18 AM on November 14, 2022 [6 favorites]

I finally got around to beating the original LoZ a couple weeks ago, and now I'm in the middle of another attempt on Zelda II, which has eluded me since I got it for Christmas in 1988. I've already cheated once by using an emulator's save state to avoid having to re-fight my way through the Island Palace for the dozenth time. My death count is already above 40.

Last night I was in the Hidden Palace and I fell down that invisible pit and tried to fly out of it using the Fairy spell. Turns out you can't fly out of pits, and since there's no way to undo the fairy-transformation without walking onto a different screen, I couldn't use my sword to break the blocks and escape. Because there were no enemies to "die" by and I didn't feel like figuring out how to use Controller 2 in the emulator to end the game without dying, I just gave up and reset.

(The fairy spell is so cool yet so underutilized and wow is Zelda II such a broken and messy game)
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:23 AM on November 14, 2022 [6 favorites]

FWIW, you can do your second play through of Wing Waker in Link's beach pajamas, so my answer is yes.
posted by TheKaijuCommuter at 6:37 AM on November 14, 2022 [4 favorites]

Dangit, *WIND Waker, not Wing Waker.
posted by TheKaijuCommuter at 6:48 AM on November 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

FWIW, you can do your second play through of Wing Waker in Link's beach pajamas, so my answer is yes.

On your second playthrough, when you're handed the legendary Green Tunic by your grandmother, with the explanation that this is the traditional garb of the hero, it simply vanishes.

The clear implication is this idea of a "green tunic" is imaginary, the Adventurer's New Clothes. We're expected to simply _believe it's there_ and have never, as a people, fully come to grips with the real truth: that every other Legend of Zelda is no different than the most efficient Breath Of The Wild speedrunners have taught us, that Link, this Link like every Link across untold ages, has woken up, busted out of bed and gone tearing off across the landscape to save the world wearing nothing but his underpants.
posted by mhoye at 6:52 AM on November 14, 2022 [9 favorites]

a) It's not uncommon for little kids to get so tired after a day of adventuring that they go to bed in whatever clothes they're wearing.

b) It's also not uncommon for little kids to just really, really, like wearing one thing and never take it off.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 7:24 AM on November 14, 2022 [4 favorites]

It's remarkable how much personality there is in the little pixel outfits Link wears in early Zelda games, going all the way back to the NES original. A lot of that is the way they animate, something not well conveyed in screenshots. I love the idea that Link is wearing his PJs, it feels very Earthbound.

It's a significant change in newer games when Link's outfits get graphically elaborated. What was the first Zelda game that let Link change his clothes in a way that was visible on screen? I mostly know about Link's outfits from Breath of the Wild. Particularly the elaborate crossdressing subplot. It's fairly problematic and definitely cross-dressing, not transgender representation. It's played for humor. But then also they have you, a young man, wearing belly dancer clothes and adventuring in those clothes and it's all kind of fun and transgressive.

Fizz!
posted by Nelson at 7:26 AM on November 14, 2022 [2 favorites]

Nelson, you could change tunic color as far back as ALTTP, but that's not as elaborate as what you're suggesting, I think. MM and OOT both had masks (in addition to tunic color changes in OOT), but TP is the first game where Link's armor/outift actually changes shape beyond a simple palette swap. It's notable that Tri Force Heroes, which came out before BOTW, has a power-up system built around changing your outfit. You can put on a pretty dress, and it's treated as totally normal.
posted by TheKaijuCommuter at 7:35 AM on November 14, 2022 [2 favorites]

The original Zelda had two armor upgrades (the blue and red rings) that changed Link's tunic color correspondingly.
posted by lefty lucky cat at 8:28 AM on November 14, 2022 [3 favorites]

Thanks, Lefty Lucky Cat. I forgot about the tunic changes in the original as well.
posted by TheKaijuCommuter at 8:29 AM on November 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

This: "While it’s bizarre to wear a belt to sleep, it’s equally strange to refuse to wear any pants in battle."
posted by heyitsgogi at 9:14 AM on November 14, 2022

it’s equally strange to refuse to wear any pants in battle

Pretty much all the ancient Mediterranean cultures went into battle sans trousers, so it's not that strange. I bet if you did a survey of cultures around the globe, you would discover that trouser-wearing was the aberration. On the other hand, criticizing historical accuracy in Hyrulean clothing is so pedantic as to boarder on churlishness....
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:57 AM on November 14, 2022 [2 favorites]

are we to believe that this was, some kind of, MAGIC tunic?
*snort
posted by saturday_morning at 10:42 AM on November 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

The original Zelda had two armor upgrades (the blue and red rings) that changed Link's tunic color correspondingly.

This became an environment-puzzle thing in Ocarina.
posted by mhoye at 11:14 AM on November 14, 2022

if this is a free thread and we can talk about anything, can anyone who watched the "Attack on Titan" series explain to me: in what possible imagination does the omni-directional mobility gear make any kind of sense?
posted by elkevelvet at 11:47 AM on November 14, 2022

Dammit. The title of this post has gotten the Malcom in the Middle theme song stuck in my head now. Thanks a million, Fizz.
posted by fimbulvetr at 11:52 AM on November 14, 2022

in what possible imagination does the omni-directional mobility gear make any kind of sense?

It's another way to jump around like Spider-Man but this time you can also wrap up giants and slash at their necks. It doesn't need to make sense to be cool.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 2:31 PM on November 14, 2022

If it’s a free thread did y’all see that that moron John Boyle used the Zelda recipe for how to make red dye in his latest “book”?
posted by Iteki at 3:48 PM on November 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

Sorry, ya'll, but this thread is $20, same as in town.

Fizz!
posted by kaibutsu at 5:39 PM on November 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

Fizz!
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:31 AM on November 29, 2022