Link Headcanon Hub-bub

revali: if you let anything happen to the princess urbosa will come after you and beat you to death lol

link: wait who's urbosa

urbosa: *appears*

link: ...

Link only has one child. I have headcanons about a son and daughter individually but they’re never more than an only child. (Or, if it pleases you, a neuter child because imo Link would treat his child the same but for the sake of this I’m going with genders because until they’re old enough to say otherwise, dad!Link goes with traditional genders but is accepting to genderqueers (which is another headcanon about dad!Link).)

Dad!headcanon is totally that Link takes his son EVERYWHERE with him. He smiles while he watches his son go on imaginary quests through Hyrule Field, slaying dragonflies and swinging his practice wooden sword around so one day he can be just like his papa. He even eggs him on sometimes and tells him to watch out for an octorok and reminds him to look in chests for keys. 

Dad!Link is a proud papa who shows off his kid to his close friends and is a little more reserved in the face of strangers but he’s still proud to drag his child along with him everywhere he goes when he can. 

Dad!Link teaches his daughter how to adventure just the same as he would if he had a son. He takes the same time and care to make sure she knows how to hold a sword and fight (and win) and that she listens to herself to do what is right, just the same he would his son. 

Dad!Link hides things around his home (be it the castle or just a nice cottage in a nice town or the Zora Domain (wink wink)) for his kid to find. He doesn’t want his kid to have to face the dangers he did, so he tries to substitute actual dangerous adventure for safe fun adventure at home. He knows the value of courage and tries to support his kid, even if they lack courage themselves sometimes.

Dad!Link is kind of a pushover for his kid. Five stories tonight? Why not six? Anything for his little warrior. 

Dad!Link talks to his child more than he talks to anyone else (because my biggest headcanon for Link is that he almost n e v e r speaks). But he’ll hold whole conversations with his kid and be super animated and invested and Link has always been popular with kids and he just loves them sO MUCH.

When his kid grows up and is a teenager with teen problems, Link absolutely pulls the ‘when I was your age’ card in jest but always does what he can to make sure he actually hears them out, but he always tries to make them smile first. He had more trouble connecting to teenage kids than to children but he does his very best. Things always felt decided for him so having a child with problems that are kind of frivolous is a little lost on him.

Link has spent ages trying to prepare his kid for the world and whatever they want to do in it, so if they decide to leave on some kind of real Quest he might find comfort that they’re ready but he really doesn’t want them to go and risk their lives when they could stay home and be shepherds or something safer. His kid going away is the one thing Link has no courage about, it scares him more than risking his own life ever would. 

Ooooh good yes. Most of this is going to be with BOTW on my mind because I’m playing it rn and holy crusty sandwich I can’t stop thinking about it.

Link’s dad is renown for his swordsmanship and dedication, which is exactly what Link had to look up to his whole life and explains why he works so hard to follow in his father’s footsteps . I headcanon that his father always told him that it was important that he (Link’s dad) serve the Royal Family this way because he could see no other way to show his love for Hyrule. Serving as a knight was the only path that he could see for himself. (I think he selfishly wanted a little bit of glory too but that was a silent secret.)

Of course, I headcanon that he didn’t pressure Link into being a knight (perhaps if we look across the games it could explain why Link isn’t always a knight but, say, a shepherd) and even though he didn’t ever tell Link that he had to be a knight, he always hoped that Link would choose the noble and honorable thing to do. 

Even though I headcanon that Link straight up barely ever talks (even if we have some canon saying he does), I think his dad might have instilled in him that it is better to listen than speak unnecessarily. I headcanon that if we look at Link that we can see tiny things that manifest Link into who he is. 

Link’s dad, in my headcanon, never approved of his son’s ability to sleep at any given moment. Much like everyone else in the series, Link’s dad had to wake him up when he needed something done, and since he worked SO HARD AS A KNIGHT he was exhausted himself, seeing his son’s laziness was frustrating. 

Link’s dad had the patience of an unwavering landmass of steadfast nerve and Link inherited that from him. I also can’t stop imagining Link and his father (botw) being the only family each other has, but I’m not sure why. Single!dad headcanon is strong.