SkullLink

SkullLink is the slash ship between Skull Kid and Link from The Legend of Zelda fandom.

Ocarina of Time
Skull Kid can be seen playing his flute in the Lost Woods and when child Link comes into his area, he will play Saria's Song for him, which the Skull Kid immediately takes a liking to it and gives Link a Piece of Heart. Two other Skull Kids will have Link play a minigame where he must follow along with the song that they are playing. When Link returns as an adult, Skull Kid will attack Link and when shot at, he will vanish. In Navi's description, Skull Kids does not like adults.

Majora's Mask
As Link rides with Epona through the Lost Woods in search of his friend, Skull Kid and the fairies, Tatl and Tael were watching and the two of them ambush Link and Epona making Link fall and knocked him out. As the fairy siblings were arguing, Skull Kid was inspecting Link's inventory and finds the Ocarina of Time in his possession and plays a few notes before Link wakes up. Upon seeing Link stare at him, he holds the ocarina behind his back though he was already too late in hiding it from him and takes Epona from him with Link pursuing them and ends up falling behind. Link continues to give chase until he enters a tree stump which he finds out too late that there was a hole to an abyss and falls into it. Upon landing, the Skull Kid will taunt Link and tell him that he got rid of Epona because she did not listen to him at all. He then proceeds to curse Link by turning him to a Deku Scrub and laughs at his horror before he and Tael left, but accidentally leaves Tatl behind, who then apologizes to Link for the trouble and becomes his companion for the rest of the game. After three days pass and the arrival of midnight, Link accesses the Clock Tower where the Skull Kid was waiting for him with the Ocarina of Time in hand, and he taunts him that he won't stop the moon from crashing and speeds up the collision course. Deku Link blows a bubble at him, hitting him which he drops the Ocarina of Time and Link gets it back. Princess Zelda teaches Link the Song of Time in a vision and tells him that the Goddess of Time is watching over him. Link did not stand a chance against the Skull Kid and goes back in time where everything was what it used to be upon first arrival.

Over the course of the game, Link learns of the Skull Kid's troubled history where he was left behind by his friends who were the Four Giants which made him feel lonely and his mischievous actions towards others as led to him being shunned by everyone and was alone until he met Tatl and Tael who played together up until Skull Kid stole Majora's Mask from the Happy Mask Salesman and falls under its influence after putting it on, giving him more malicious intent on destroying the world, but not without first subjecting the regions to disasters with his general actions causing problems with serious consequences for everyone around him. When observed through a telescope, he will taunt Link after the Moon's Tear falls.

After Link frees the Four Giants and saves the regions from the disasters that plague them, Link waits for the clock to strike midnight on the final day where he confronts the Skull Kid again where the same scenario plays out again with Skull Kid speeding up the collision course of the Moon. Link once again could not fight him directly and instead plays the Oath to Order to summon the Four Guardians to stop the moon. After a brief reunion of Tatl and Tael, the latter explains that the Skull Kid is not at fault for his actions and the evil power in Majora's Mask easily took him over since it was too powerful for him to handle. Majora reveals itself and abandons the Skull Kid and vows to destroy everything, prompting Link to enter the moon to destroy Majora and save the world. After Link wakes up, the Skull Kid and the Giants make amends and assure him that they are still friends and never truly left him, and the Giants leave on a positive note. Skull Kid turns his attention to Link asking if he was the one who saved him, and he thought he was abandoned when he wasn't and now understands friendship better. He asks Link if he can be his friend too and upon sniffing him, he states that he has the same scent as the boy who taught him that song in the Lost Woods, and he wants to do something. The Happy Mask Salesman notes that Majora's Mask which he got back no longer had any evil influence and tells them that good-byes don't have to be forever as they will see each other again, but it was up to them whether their good-byes are temporary or forever before leaving. Link gets on Epona and bids farewell as he departs for the Lost Woods while Skull Kid, Tatl, and Tael enjoy the Carnival of Time.

Twilight Princess
Sometime after the events of Majora's Mask and the lead up to Twilight Princess, the Hero of Time asked the Skull Kid he befriended as a child to watch over the Master Sword by protecting the forest that is home to the ruins that the blade once reside in. Should Skull Kid ever encounter the hero's successor, who will need the sword to save Hyrule, he is to lead the next hero to it.

Skull Kid kept his promise and found a way to control puppets to fight intruders with. After centuries of waiting, Skull Kid comes across a blue-eyed wolf who has the Triforce mark on one of its paws, he knew that his friend had returned. Even though this Link is the Hero of Twilight, he is a descendant of the Hero of Time. The adaption manga of Twilight Princess has Skull Kid view the Hero of Twilight as his Link, who had promised Skull Kid that he would one day return when he asked him this request, while the current Link he was hugging was confused and curious about the person Skull Kid mistook him for. Despite the trouble he caused Link and Midna, Link was able to reach the Master Sword and become human again. All while picking up the sword and mental that Skull Kid was asked to protect by a previous Link.

Fanon
SkullLink has a level of popularity within the Zelda community, and it has been notable through numerous fan art and fanfics. In Ocarina of Time, there was barely any attention to Link and Skull Kid's relationship due to their extremely minimal interactions with each other aside from playing Saria's Song to get a Piece of Heart and the Skull Kid treating Link like an enemy when he returns as an adult. Majora's Mask ended up changing everything when the Skull Kid was promoted to being an unwilling antagonist, where their relationship has garnered more attention due to the game's darker tone and their tragic backstories having a way of hitting home and the ending cutscene where the Skull Kid comments that Link has the same scent as the person who taught him a song in the woods have suggested that he was the same one from Ocarina of Time, which the fans of the game ended up seeing them in a different light since then. This is further helped that in Twilight Princess that Skull Kid (although unknown if they are the same or not) was given the task of protecting the Master Sword, presumably from the Hero of Time and after his descendant, who is a wolf at the time, comes through, he ends up putting him to the test before being sure that he can trust him.

Fans have preferred to ship Link with Skull Kid when the former is still a child, as it isn't known if the Skull Kid species is capable of aging, but those who are not comfortable with shipping them romantically have preferred to keep them as friends instead.

Fandom

 * FAN FICTION