Hero's Shade

The Hero's Shade is a character from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Once a famed swordsman of Hyrule, he died with the eternal regret of never having passed on his knowledge of the art of the sword. The Hero's Shade manifests himself as a red-eyed, golden wolf in the world of the living. He is missing his right eye in both humanoid and ghostly form, according to the GameCube version (which is considered canonical). As a wolf, the left eye is bright red while the right eye is closed and appears scarred. As a ghostly warrior, the left eye is a bright red sphere, while the right is unlit and transparent. He is also left-handed. The Hero's Shade is impervious against attacks and cannot be damaged during training sessions; he also possesses the ability to replicate himself, which he uses for purposes of training sessions involving multiple enemies.

Biography
When Link, a young man from Ordon Village, is pointed out as the one destined to overcome the evils of Zant, usurper to the throne of the Twilight Realm, the Hero's Shade sees the potential to be a master swordsman within him, and in his golden wolf form, approaches Link on his way to the Forest Temple. Link is taken into another world &mdash; the realm of the Hero's Shade.

The Hero's Shade offers Link his knowledge of the sword. After teaching him the first skill, the Ending Blow, he tells Link that in order to meet him again, he must, in wolf form, approach a Howling Stone and howl the notes that the stone echoes. When Link successfully performs this, the golden wolf manifestation of the Hero's Shade will appear somewhere in the land of Hyrule. In his normal form, Link can then approach the wolf to once again enter the other world and learn a new skill. However, before he can learn a new one, he has to prove his mastery of the previously learned skill by utilizing it against the Hero's Shade. He seems to grow frustrated with Link when he forgets or has a hard time mastering a skill.

When Link has learned six of the skills, he makes his final appearance in front of Hyrule Castle and teaches him the Great Spin Attack. His destiny fulfilled, the Hero's Shade then passes on to the world of spirits. Interestingly, even though Link seemingly blacks out during his sessions with the Hero's Shade, Midna never says anything of it nor seems to even notice anything amiss, but this could be because time freezes while the training sessions are going on: no matter how much time is spent in them, the time is always the same when Link returns to the real world. However, after Zelda allows Midna to exist in the Light World without being hurt, Midna is seen atop Link's back whenever he howls a song at a Howling Stone.

Relation to Link
One of the small pieces of his backstory that the Shade reveals to Link are "I accepted life as the hero," which has led many to believe he is the spirit of the Hero of Time. It should be noted that four of the six songs used to summon the Golden Wolf are songs from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, the games which centered around the deeds of the Hero of Time. In the GameCube version of Twilight Princess, the Hero's Shade is left-handed, just as the Hero of Time is. If examined carefully, the hilt of the Hero's Shade's sword resembles the Great Fairy's Sword. Even the character's name further supports this theory: "Hero" could refer to Hero of Time, and a shade is a kind of spirit or ghost &mdash; one who leaves behind a ghostly imprint of themselves in the physical realm when they die. His final words to Link, "Go and do not falter, my child", may signify some blood relation between him and Link &mdash; perhaps even a direct parentage, although this could also simply be a term of familiarity or even endearment. However, similar words are spoken earlier when he teaches Link certain skills: after learning the Ending Blow, the Shade claims that only those of the hero's bloodline may learn the sacred art. This could simply be metaphorical; an indication that Link has become a successor to the lost art. Adding to the blood-relation theory, however, is the fact that the Shade takes the form of a wolf in the physical realm &mdash; the same as Link. The quote could be interpreted as validation of various theories: that the Shade is a blood relative of the Link of Twilight Princess, who in turn is a blood-descendant of the Hero of Time, and that the the Shade is, if not the Hero of Time, then at least a heroic descendant of him and ancestor of the Link of Twilight Princess.

The Hero's Shade's appearance, in his ghostly warrior form, is very similar to that of a Stalfos, suggesting that he might be a similar creature. Even the round shield and simple t-shaped sword resonate with classic Stalfos design. According to Fado, people who venture into the Lost Woods without a fairy will inevitably become lost and in the end, transform into a Stalfos. Supposedly, after the events of Majora's Mask, the Hero of Time returned to Hyrule without Navi or Tatl, only to become lost in the Lost Woods some time after, thus becoming one of these skeleton creatures.

There are also theories that the Hero Shade is Gustaf, the Hero of Men from The Minish Cap's back story. Gustaf is believed to become the King of Hyrule, and after death, he was disappointed because he didn't get to share his techniques that helped him win the war from The Minish Cap's back story.

Sheikah
The Hero's Shade could also be a Sheikah, or at least have a connection with them, as the Howling Stones used to summon him are adorned with what appears to be the Sheikah symbol. Furthermore, all but one of the Wind Stone songs is a warp song from Ocarina of Time. However, if the Howling Stones are connected to the Gossip Stones, as their appearance would suggest, it's not implausible that the Hero of Time, who learned to interact with these just as he learned to use other Sheikah artifacts, could be associated with them despite the lack of Sheikah descent. Similarly, the songs echoed by the Howling Stones, which the Golden Wolf howls alongside Wolf Link, are part of the Hero of Time's repertoire.