The land of Hyrule is home to all kinds of creatures, some more common than others. While creatures such as Bokoblin deeply color the fields of Hyrule in games like Breath of the Wild, feeling as numerous as the very blades of grass they reside on, creatures such as dragons are almost never encountered by comparison. Dragons themselves have somewhat of a prescense in the land of Hyrule, appearing in many Zelda games at least once, but with their nature changing dramatically between entries.
For example, while the great Immortal Dragons of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are regal, commanding a beautiful song to play just by being in their proximity, they are hardly comparable to the unremarkable Aquamentus, the first boss of the entire Zelda chronology, who is, for lack of better words, just a regular old dragon. However, that is not to say there is no connections to be drawn whatsoever. There is one dragon, one of the only in the world at the time, who lives on the Great Sea of The Wind Waker that is a particularly interesting case. Valoo, Sky Spirit of Dragon Roost Island, is not only one of the few dragons that call the Zelda series home but also perhaps the most involved with other important dragons in Zelda history.
Link first encounters Valoo at the behest of the King of Red Lions, who sets him off on a quest to collect the Goddess Pearls at the beginning of The Wind Waker. Link goes on to explore Dragon Roost, finding that the Rito people are dealing with the problem of Valoo’s unusual rage. As the story progresses, Link discovers that Ganondorf summoned the creature Gohma to torment Valoo by attacking his tail as it vulnerably dangled atop a room in the depths of Dragon Roost Cavern.
After solving this problem for the Rito, Link earns the favor of Valoo and the Rito people which nets him the Goddess Pearl he had come there to retrieve in the first place. Valoo goes on to help Link out several times during the remainder of the game, advising him on the location of Jabun as well as burning Ganondorf’s Forsaken Fortress Hideout to cinders.
Interestingly, each Goddess Pearl in The Wind Waker corresponds to important characters from the previous game in the timeline, Ocarina of Time. These connections are mentioned explicitly in the Hyrule Historia, which is nice to have even though they are not particularly difficult to deduce. The Deku Tree of Forest Haven is, of course, related to the Deku Tree of Kokiri Forest and Jabun is related to the Great Jabu-Jabu, an important figure for the Zora tribe. Valoo’s historical counterpart is the dragon Volvagia, an ancient dragon that was revived by Ganondorf to defend the Fire Temple. Allegdly, Valoo is a descendent of the very same Volvagia, which begs the question: how far in the past and future does this lineage stretch? In the Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia, it is mentioned that Barba, the boss of the Three-Eye Rock Palace in The Adventure of Link, is also sometimes called Volvagia. Chronologically, The Adventure of Link happens during the timeline where the hero is defeated, so it’s possible that Valoo and Barba are simply the same dragon in a different timeline.
Valoo has always been a personal favorite character of mine, showing a degree of silliness during his cutscenes that I have found charming throughout the years. My admiration for him was only deepened as I learned more about him, namely about his relation to Volvagia of Ocarina of Time. I have always found connections like these fascinating in the Zelda series, and drawing a connection to Barba of Adventure of Link only served to deepen my fascination with the dragons. Though it is not exactly canon, Volga of Hyrule Warriors is yet another, more recent, connection that can be made with this very same lineage of dragons. Perhaps someday, we will see more of this family of dragons in a future Zelda title.
