In a first for Nintendo’s long-running fantasy series, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild actually provides an answer to why Link is a silent protagonist. Through over three decades of Zelda games, Link has seemingly never said a word, a facet which quickly became a cornerstone of his character. BOTW is the first game in the series to grapple with this directly, but its explanation for Link’s silence isn’t exactly thorough, and even highlights a major misconception about The Legend of Zelda‘s leading Hylian.