The Legend of Zelda TV series retrospective: Episode 5, ‘Sing for the Unicorn’

I’ve been a huge fan of the animated series ever since I first discovered it, and I’m so happy that I have been graciously allowed to review one of my favorite episodes of this zany series “Sing for the Unicorn.”

I’ve hosted many parties in which my friends and I would gather to watch silly shows and movies, and this episode would always be my favorite contribution. I love The Legend of Zelda cartoon series and always want to indulge my friends in the hilarity that brings, so this is the episode I use to introduce them to it. It may not be the first episode, but it has some of the best of what the show has to offer: action, comedy, and of course, “Excuuuuuuse me, princess!”

Once upon a time in Hyrule…

This episode’s opening is the part that I remember the most out of the entire series because of all the laughs it brings. It’s got that cheesy ’80s humor throughout, and it’s brilliant because of it. Link’s outrageously goofy schemes to get a kiss from Zelda are usually the highlights of the series. Yes, his behavior is rather unheroic, but it’s his over-the-top antics that make these scenes memorable and humorous. 

After spying on Zelda from atop of the castle yet again — seriously, Zelda, please get some curtains! This is like the third time and we’re only up to episode number five — Link makes an attempt to steal a kiss from the Hylian Princess. How does he do this? By using a grappling hook to swing into her room through the wide-open window. You can say all you want about how out-of-character this is compared to how Link behaves in the games, but, if he’s going to be a weirdo, this is the Link way to do it.

“Uh, I was, er, just gonna swing through your daughter’s window and try to get her to kiss me?”

However, Link is caught by the King of Hyrule. Link is as blunt as ever and admits his intentions. Luckily for him, this king is no strict and serious Daphnes Nohanson, no sir; King Harkinian instead gives Link some flowers and wishes him luck crashing through his daughter’s window to smooch her. He even shoves him off the roof to send him on his way. Dad of the year, everyone. 

Link clumsily enters the room, which doesn’t even phase Zelda. She actually finds him bringing her flowers rather charming. As per usual though, Link’s kiss is interrupted by Ganon’s evil doings. With the King Harkinian in danger, Zelda drops everything and goes to his rescue.

Ganon comes riding in on a unicorn, and Link starts chucking furniture to create a springboard and leaps back up to the king’s aid. If anything, you have to give Link credit for his resourcefulness in this and future episodes (most of the time). He does hold his own in this fight for a decent amount of time, staving off the Vires while the king calls out Ganon for being “impolite.” He’s the king for a reason, guys.

In the end, however, Ganon manages to escape with the king, and Link and Zelda must venture out to save him. Of course, Link first fakes his death to try and get a kiss from Zelda instead of focusing on the more pressing matters, but Zelda, rightfully so, gives him a scolding before they set out to find her father. 

Link and Zelda quickly make their way to the Underworld, having only one hour before the king will be dropped into a never-ending pit. Their time is cut short when Zelda accidentally triggers multiple Armos to attack. Though they fight off the armored foes, they fall into yet another trap and are greeted by an army of Stalfos, and that encounter doesn’t go nearly as well as the one with the Armos. Luckily, a new ally appears just in time… or so they think.

A mysterious stranger dressed in black dives in and defeats the Stalfos with ease but then proceeds to attack Link as well. To their surprise, it’s not a creature as they initially thought, but a real person. Once the stranger is unmasked, it’s revealed to be a raven-haired woman, who Link immediately hits on. Classy. 

She starts to speak in a strange, high-pitched language that neither Link or Zelda can understand. Zelda believes she can translate, and with a quick transition to the “B” plot and no real explanation, she does. She finds out the woman’s name is “Sing” and that the unicorn Ganon was riding in the earlier battle was stolen from her. Seeing how Ganon had wronged her, Link and Zelda decide to help Sing. 

The three make their way to Ganon’s lair, fighting off a few Lynels to get there. After what we’ve seen of Lynels in Breath of the Wild, you’d think this battle would last longer, but Link takes out the two with ease and snatches a magic whistle from them. Sing fights a few Moblins before she reunites with her noble steed, but King Harkinian is nowhere to be found. 

Instead, another Armos emerges from the lair with a bomb in hand, which Zelda easily knocks out of his hand with her boomerang. The bomb detonates and leaves a hole in the floor, revealing the location of the missing king. Right before Link can assist Zelda in saving him from his prison, Ganon reveals himself and attacks. The two fight, and Link gets the upper hand, but, as he’s about to finish him off, Ganon decides to play dirty and dismantles the bridge Link is standing on.

Zelda finishes the job with her trusty boomerang (man, I wish they were actually that helpful in the games), but there’s no time to celebrate yet. Not only is Link dangling for dear life, but the pit in King Harkinian’s prison opens fully and he falls to his doom. The end. 

Obviously that’s not how things end in this happy-go-lucky television series. Just when you’re starting to wonder what happened to Sing, she appears from bellow on her unicorn along with the king. Link uses that handy whistle he snagged earlier to save himself and warps the whole party back to the safety of Hyrule. Link also tries to get a kiss while in the spiraling winds. There’s a time and place for everything, Link: This is not it.

Sing flies back to her home and bids the heroes farewell, and Ganon, as usual, curses Link and Zelda. And with that, the episode ends. Yeah, it’s kind of anti-climactic in the actual episode, too.

Something new to Sing about

Sing is introduced in this episode and is not seen in any future ones. While the idea of having a female warrior introduced as an ally to Link and Zelda seems fascinating, she actually doesn’t do much in this episode. Her strongest point was when she fought Link — despite it being a misunderstanding — to save her beloved unicorn.

When she first appears she has a ninja aesthetic, even so far as being dressed in all dark colors and having sais as weapons. Though sais are better suited as melee weapons, hers can shoot energy beams the same as Link’s sword can, and she could easily use this attack from atop a winged mount. If the series were to be rebooted with all the new lore we have in the Zelda encyclopedia, I think it would be really fascinating to see Sing as a Sheikah warrior. 

“Her name is Sing. She’s from a land far away. Ganon stole her unicorn and she’s trying to rescue it.”

A unicornucopia of trivia

This episode is just before the halfway point of the series, but it still introduces some enemies we have yet to see. Vires, Armos, and Lynels all have their first appearances in this episode. The Armos are most prominently featured, as multiple are shown during many different portions of the episode. Interestingly enough, the Lynels are two different colors, red and blue, similarly to how the two versions can be found in the games.

We’ve got your red Lynels and your blue Lynels. Take your pick.

The Magic Flute was also a new addition. The flute has a few different purposes in the original Legend of Zelda, but, similarly to how it was used in the episode, it has the ability to warp Link to another location. In the game it could only take Link to dungeons he’s already explored, though in the series it seemed as if it could go wherever the user so desired. 

Another interesting bit of trivia has to do with the series trying to appeal to the network executives. Link already does not stab or slice to reduce the amount of violence in the show, but in this episode in particular we learn that Link’s sword also can not harm other (humanoid) people. When the bolt from Link’s sword strikes Sing, it does not affect her, leading Link to the conclusion that she wasn’t a monster.

The Hylian highs and lows

This episode is one of my favorites for one reason and one reason alone: The opening. That first scene with Link trying to make his way to Zelda’s room, getting caught, and actually getting help from the King is a hilarious situation from beginning to the end. Yeah, it hasn’t aged too well, but that’s kind of what makes it all the more enjoyable. It’s clear Link and Zelda like each other and it’s meant to be over-the-top ’80s cheesiness for kids, but, if you don’t like that kind of stuff, well, then this series as a whole might not be for you.

This episode also has a lot of action sequences, which I’m sure all the kids who watched the show when it first aired really wanted to see after playing the game. Not only that, but I really appreciate how the show made sure that both Link and Zelda were both saving each other at one point or another. Perhaps Zelda was being rescued a teensy bit more than Link, but she fights well and shows competence — well, except when she puts her hand on the Armos statue and asks why it’s not okay to touch them.

I think the idea of Sing’s character was an interesting one, but again, I feel like she was underutilized. Perhaps if there were more than the 13 episodes we were given, she could have returned and been a little more fleshed out. Maybe we could have found out more about where she came from or her people’s traditions. Little things like that could have made all the difference.

While I mentioned that the action sequences were fun, I do feel like there could have been a little more meat to this story. Now I’m not expecting the kind of drama we get from cartoons nowadays, but at a certain point the story becomes “and then there was another fight, and then there was another fight.” Things just became a bit too repetitious to keep an older viewer such as myself engaged.

As I mentioned, this episode is one of my favorites, and I greatly enjoyed revisiting it. From the silly scenarios to the goofy voices, it was a fun ride. If you haven’t watched it yourself, I would recommend you do the same.