Legend of Zelda cartoon

Each episode of Zelda followed the adventures of the hero Link and the royal Princess Zelda as they defended the kingdom of Hyrule from an evil wizard named Ganon. Most episodes consisted of Ganon (or his minions) either attempting to capture the Triforce of Wisdom from Zelda, kidnap Zelda herself, or use some other villainous scheme to conquer Hyrule. Link and Zelda are in some episodes assisted and accompanied by a fairy-princess, Spryte.

A common running joke of the series was Link’s repeated failure to convince Zelda that he deserved a kiss for his heroic deeds; whenever it seemed they were going to kiss, something bad would happen. This theme was most likely inspired by the final moments of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, and may itself have influenced the common belief that Link and Zelda are romantically involved in the subsequent games, an idea only rarely hinted at in the games themselves.

Zelda also had more of a protagonist role in the show than in the video games up to that point, where she is simply the character the player must rescue. While Link did have to save Zelda in a few episodes, she mostly battled side by side with Link, often preferring the bow and arrow as her weapon of choice. Some later games in the series continued the trend of making Zelda more and more of an ally to Link and hero in her own right.