A few years back, I received a collection of the various Legend of Zelda manga for Christmas. For days afterward, I delved into their pages marveling at the ways that stories such as Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages were given new life by expansions to the story and more depth to characters like Din and Ralph. Even more story-heavy games like Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask had some new scenes that framed iconic moments in new ways and added additional meaning. Perhaps no game’s story received more of a facelift than Four Swords, however. Rather than being mere copies of the familiar emerald Link, each of the differently hued heroes in the manga has their own personality. Out of the three Link copies, the most interesting was Vio, the violet one.
While Blue Link is always quick to fight and wield his anger and Red Link is optimistic, Vio is calm and cunning. While Shadow Link views Vio as the weak link and tries to turn him from the group, Vio is actually too intelligent for that. He plays the Shadow Link, studying the behavior of the dark deviant and working against him until it’s time to rejoin his fellow Links. It’s a really cool moment that’s only able to be featured in the manga because they chose to make each of the colored Links have their own personality.
Shortly after I finished reading the Four Swords manga, my daughter asked if she could read it. As a Zelda fan, I’m always glad to share anything related to the series with her, but I was curious about how she would react to Vio’s story. Would she be taken in by his ruse and think that he had actually turned against the other Links? If she was fooled, how would she feel? Would it result in tears and hugs, or would she be fine?
All of those questions swirled in my head as I left her bedroom that night. We had just exchanged “I love yous” as she grabbed the manga and laid back to read before sleep. As my wife and I watched television, I waited for an inevitable “What!” to erupt from my daughter’s room, but it never came. When the morning came, I hesitantly asked her what she thought so far, wondering what her reaction would be, but she hadn’t even gotten to the moment of Vio’s seeming betrayal. The moment of dread had not passed. It had only been postponed, and that night a serious sense of deja vu floated through the air as I put her to bed again. The question of how she would respond still lingered.
The next morning, I got my answer. When I asked her if she’d gotten to the part with Vio, she confirmed that she had. I asked her how she felt, and she said, “Dad, it’s clear that he’s messing with Shadow Link. Vio wouldn’t do that to his friends.” I should never have worried. My daughter is a smart kid, smarter than Shadow Link. She was able to read the signs and see the clues of Vio’s plan.
Since reading the manga, any playthrough of Four Swords Adventures is enriched by the manga’s added lore. I do wish we’d get either a new game in the series or a port for the Switch, though. I want to be able to play it with my daughter more easily. After all, I know that she’ll be there to help with any puzzles we encounter because she’s smart like Vio.
