The Legend of Zelda series is beloved by Nintendo fans everywhere, not only for its explorative adventure gameplay and memorable characters, but also for its intriguing lore and history. However, despite seemingly taking place within the same universe, there are scores of inconsistencies between each game, with fans debating everything from the actual timeline of events to the function of certain in-game objects.

Perhaps the most bizarre inconsistency that has sparked almost as much debate as the Zelda timeline is, oddly enough, whether Link is right-handed or left-handed. While Breath of the Wild is the most recent game to make this inconsistency more apparent, the subject of Link's dominant hand has had a much longer history.

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The famed hero of The Legend of Zelda series, Link, was created by Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto in 1987. The character is named for being a "link" between the game and the player. Shigeru Miyamoto himself is ambidextrous, but favors his left hand and likes to create characters who are left-handed.

While artwork for the original Zelda and its sequel The Adventure of Link both feature Link as a lefty, it's a moot point in-game because of sprite mirroring, the process where a 2D character sprite is flipped when facing left or right. This is a time-saving tool on the artist's part, as making the 8-bit Link purely left-handed would mean re-drawing another set of sprites from scratch.

Link didn't become a true southpaw until 1998's Ocarina of Time, the first 3D game in the Zelda series. With the advancements of 3D graphics and animations, sprite mirroring became completely unnecessary, so Link could hold items in his left hand at all times. Link continued to be left-handed in 3D titles and spin-offs like Super Smash Bros. for many years, until the advent of the Nintendo Wii.

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The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was one of the last games for the Nintendo GameCube, but was ported to the Nintendo Wii as a launch title. Since the Wii was marketed heavily with in-game immersion in mind, and Wiimote users are most likely to be right-handed, Link was changed to be right-handed to reflect this. However, with its status as a GameCube game with Link being left-handed originally, Nintendo had flipped the entire game solely to make Link right-handed.

The next major 3D title, Skyward Sword, was released on the Wii in 2011, yet again featuring a right-handed Link. This time, the game was developed from the ground up with the Wiimote in mind, with Link's sword movements closely matching the player's own motions (for the most part) with the Wii MotionPlus feature. There was no lazy flipping on Nintendo's part here -- Link is right-handed by design, and perhaps justifiably so.

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However, while it was understandable to make Link right-handed for the Wii titles, when Breath of the Wild was announced for the Wii U (and subsequently the Nintendo Switch), Link continued to be presented as right-handed. This is very odd, as Breath of the Wild does not feature motion-controlled swinging, returning to more traditional Zelda button controls for combat.

Director Eiji Aonuma stated that the reason for Link's right-handedness is because of the attack button being on the right side of the controller -- a ridiculous notion, as southpaw gamers have played video games with this same layout for decades.

Left-handedness has historically been seen as an undesirable trait throughout most of human history. It's a stigma that has hurt countless people, and even today only 10 percent of the human population is left-handed. There are very few left-handed heroes in popular media, and Link is one of the most notable video game protagonists fighting against this age-old stigma. While it may seem rather insignificant of a change, Link being right-handed in a popular game like Breath of the Wild appears to have unintentionally continued the stigma against left-handedness and deprived millions of left-handed gamers of a hero.

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