Linkle is a playable female counterpart to Link introduced by Koei Tecmo and Nintendo in the 3DS game Hyrule Warriors Legends, armed with dual crossbows instead of a sword.

Where did Linkle come from?

Her design first appeared as unused concept art in a August 2014 Japanese guidebook for the original Hyrule Warriors before being revived as a real character in 2015.

What does Linkle mean?

Linkle (リンクル, Rinkuru) is the character's given name, built off Link with a diminutive Japanese suffix; she is styled as a village girl who thinks she is the reincarnated hero.

How do you use Linkle?

In-game she is played as a crossbow-focused fighter with a signature spinning kick that mirrors Link's spin attack, while fandom uses her image as shorthand for a canon female Link in art and cosplay.

Is Linkle still popular?

She is still one of the most recognized Warriors-side additions to the Zelda cast in fan art, dating back to her Nintendo Direct reveal on November 12th, 2015.

Linkle

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Published September 5, 2026

Linkle is a female counterpart to the hero Link, revealed by Nintendo on November 12th, 2015 as a playable character in the 3DS spin-off Hyrule Warriors Legends. Her crossbow-wielding design, adapted from scrapped concept art in a 2014 guidebook, sparked immediate excitement across gaming Twitter and kicked off a wave of fan art and cosplay.

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Overview

Linkle is a young woman from a rural village who believes she is the reincarnated hero of legend, and Koei Tecmo built her kit around dual crossbows instead of the Master Sword that defines her male counterpart1. Her signature move set includes a spinning kick that riffs on Link's classic spin attack, giving the character an identifiable animation for fans to reference in art and gameplay clips1.

The fandom reaction fixated on the fact that Nintendo had finally shipped a playable female Link after years of the studio publicly resisting the idea, with past directors arguing only male characters were heir to the prophecy1. Linkle (リンクル, Rinkuru) is written with the same base name as Link plus a diminutive suffix in Japanese, and the crossbow gimmick, braided pigtails and green tunic became the visual shorthand fans still use in cosplay and art trades4.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Nintendo art book (design origin) / Twitter (viral spread)

Creator

Koei Tecmo / Nintendo

Date

2015

Linkle first surfaced in August 2014 as unused concept art in a Japanese guidebook supplement for the original Hyrule Warriors on Wii U4. Photographs of the illustration circulated on gaming forums and image boards, where fans nicknamed her the female Link long before Koei Tecmo confirmed she was a real character.

The design sat in limbo for over a year until the studio pulled it back off the shelf for the 3DS port. When Linkle was officially revealed in 2015, journalists at The Mary Sue pointed out that the finished character was strikingly close to the leaked 2014 guidebook art, suggesting Koei Tecmo went back and finished the scrapped concept rather than starting from scratch1.

How It Spread

The character went public on November 12th, 2015 during a Nintendo Direct broadcast that announced Hyrule Warriors Legends for the 3DS, with Linkle presented as a new playable fighter1. Nintendo of America pushed the reveal on Twitter the same day2, and within 24 hours the post pulled in more than 10,500 favorites and 9,700 retweets according to KYM's tracking of the thread4.

Coverage snowballed within hours. The Mary Sue ran a piece the same afternoon celebrating the reveal and connecting the new fighter back to the 2014 guidebook leak1. The GameXplain YouTube channel followed with a gameplay breakdown that showed off her crossbow combos and spin kick3, giving fans their first look at how Linkle actually played rather than just how she looked in stills.

Hyrule Warriors Legends shipped in March 2016 as planned, and Linkle stuck around as a recurring roster pick in later expanded editions of the game1. She is still one of the most drawn original Warriors-side additions to the Zelda cast in fan art circles.

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How to Use This Meme

Fans typically use Linkle as shorthand for the idea of a canon female Link, either in cosplay, fan art crossovers with other Zelda titles, or debates about whether Nintendo will let players pick a female protagonist in a mainline entry. Common conventions include keeping the braided pigtails, the green hood, and swapping the sword for twin crossbows to keep her visually distinct from Link himself.