King Gustaf

King Gustaf
King Gustaf
First appearance	The Minish Cap (2005)
Title(s)	King of Hyrule
Gender	Male
Homeland	Hyrule
Kindred	King Daltus (descendant) Princess Zelda (descendant)
Race	Ghost, formerly Hylian
Affiliation(s)	Royal Family of Hyrule

"The spirit of an ancient king of Hyrule who wishes to secure peace in his land from beyond the grave. He was very fond of the people of the Wind Tribe."

— Figurine

King Gustaf is a character from The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. A former King of Hyrule, he is long dead at the time of the events of the game.

Story

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

After Link obtains the Water Element, King Gustaf's ghost appears and tells Link to seek him out, marking the Royal Valley on Link's map. After navigating the graveyard and the Valley itself, Link traverses the Royal Crypt, wherein King Gustaf's ghost appears before him once more. Gustaf presents Link with the Golden Kinstone needed to open the source of the flow in Veil Falls, and thus, scale the mountain and recover the Wind Element from the Palace of Winds.

Spoiler warning: Spoilers end here.

References in the series

Like many locations in Breath of the Wild named after a character from a previous game, Mount Gustaf in the Hyrule Field region takes its name from King Gustaf.

Theory

Theory warning: This section contains theoretical information based on the research of one or several other users. It has not been officially verified by Nintendo and its factual accuracy is disputed.

It is believed that King Gustaf could possibly be the Hero of Men spoken of in the stories of the War of the Bound Chest due to his statement that he ruled Hyrule "countless ages ago." He also seemed to be an influential and well-respected person, even to such isolated groups as the Wind Tribe. This is in no way proven, but it remains a possibility, given King Gustaf's mysterious background and his particular appearance within the game's story over other former rulers of Hyrule.

This theory is compounded by the fact that it was King Gustaf that possessed the Kinstone needed to proceed to the Palace of Winds where the Wind Element is kept. It is also stated in the figurine description of his descendant, King Daltus, that Daltus was a great swordsman in his youth, once fighting to a draw with Smith in the Picori Festival sword-fighting tournament. If swordsmanship runs in Daltus' lineage, Gustaf may also have been a very competent swordsman, which the Hero of Men was noted to have been.

It would also be fitting that the Hero of Men was made King of Hyrule as a reward for his efforts in saving the new kingdom from the army of evil. As the fate of the Light Force was never ascertained, it is possible that the Hero of Men imparted it to his descendants, explaining how it came into Princess Zelda's possession. Lastly, the Bound Chest and the Picori Blade were in the care of the Royal Family; artifacts of the Hero of Men ending up in their possession could indicate that the Hero of Men ultimately became a member of the Royal Family himself.

Theory warning: Theories end here.