The best Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom memes

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has taught us one thing: Give players an inch of freedom and they’ll take a mile (and then make a million memes out of it). In Tears of the Kingdom, Link can build machines and structures using his new powers. While players are often using these powers to solve puzzles, they’re also making wild builds that have inspired memes.

As it turns out, nearly anything — from war vehicles to awful jokes — is now possible in Hyrule. Players have used Link’s powers to create threatening machines, torture Koroks, make elongated bridges, and more. These moments are going viral and inspiring even more shenanigans. Here are our favorite memes inspired by Tears of the Kingdom.

The dark truth about scanning Animal Crossing: New Horizons amiibo

Tears of the Kingdom players can scan not only Zelda-themed amiibos, but a whole range of different ones from other popular games. Most of these give players items, like ingredients or equipment. And a startling number of Animal Crossing amiibo give players... meat. This suggests a rather devastating turn of events for favorite villagers — an end that TikToker mayplaystv turned into comedy gold.

Link using the Ascend ability to jump into the butts of statues

In Tears of the Kingdom, Link gets the new ability to Ascend — courtesy of Rauru’s arm — and he puts it to good use. Instead of, you know, saving Zelda or Hyrule, players have been using the Ascend ability to jump into the butts of statues. (My favorite part is when Link looks like he’s swimming through the butt.) There are loads of example videos, but this is our favorite.

Going full Monsanto on Cuccos

It took Link more than 30 years, but he finally found a way to protect himself from Cucco attacks. This YouTuber stuck the birds into a metal box built using Ultrahand, plopped some threatening Zonai devices inside, and then reaped the reward of many, many eggs. All the while, Link stayed protected from attacks while inside the metal cage.

Ranking Zelda hotties on TikTok

Polygon created a filter on TikTok that allowed fans to do a bracket and rank their favorite characters from Tears of the Kingdom. The filter allowed people to pick their favorite characters and was definitely not about kissing them. Thousands used the filter, and let’s just say many had a hard time choosing between Sidon and our newly anointed mama Purah.

Players are torturing Koroks

Ya-ha-ha! Tears of the Kingdom players torturing Koroks has become an especially popular meme. The list of crimes runs long: People have shared videos of Link crucifying Koroks, shooting them into the sky strapped to rockets, and even using Ultrahand to glue them ass-to-face in a giant chain, Human Centipede-style. It’s fucked up, but it’s quickly become a defining trend.

Purah is a hot mommy now

Purah might be over 100 years old, but she’s a certified mommy. Her new design is a major slay. In Breath of the Wild she resembled a child, but she has since aged up and her more mature look and general disheveled vibe is really working for people. Fans couldn’t be more grateful, and they’ve responded with edits and fan art.

Building war machines and weird trucks

Link’s new powers give players the ability to make a near-infinite number of designs. The sky’s the limit, quite literally, in this game. And players have used Ultrahand to create intense war machines, using everyday in-game objects like logs and boards, along with Zonai items, to make trucks, flamethrowers, and even Trojan horses.

Ultrahand is also useful for making flaming dicks

While some players are building tons of locomotives and vehicles — for traversal and for waging war — others are using their power in more inventive ways. The TTP (time to penis) in Tears of the Kingdom has been incredibly short, even as the dicks that are built into the game are incredibly... creative!

Link is a skateboarding pro

Sure, you can fuse weapons to make them more powerful. But if you stick a cart to a shield, you can turn Tears of the Kingdom into a pretty convincing skateboarding game. Fans have made tons of TikToks of Link shredding, Tony Hawk-style, through the hills of Hyrule — not to mention all of the rail-grinding through the Great Sky Island. (You can do the latter with just a shield, even.)

Fans put Addison, the sign guy, in ‘jail’

Addison is an overworked NPC who just wants to put some signs up — supporting the president of Hyrule’s preeminent construction company — in Tears of the Kingdom. The only issue is that he can’t figure out how to prop up his signs. To help him, Link needs to solve basic physics puzzles to help keep the signs up. Players can find Addison at the far ends of Hyrule with his signs in tow, and while he’s charmed some fans, others have decided to put him in jail.

Players are using Tears of the Kingdom logic in real life

In Tears of the Kingdom, Link can activate Zonai devices by smacking them with a melee weapon. TikTokers who have played the game for a little too long have stepped away from their Switches only to apply that same logic to real-life fans and other appliances. Isn’t it weird how fans don’t turn on in real life when you smack them? Suddenly, we’re all reaching for our paragliders, only to realize we didn’t pack them.

Fans rehydrated Ganondorf, making him hot

Did you hear? Ganondorf is also hot now. In the first teaser for Tears of the Kingdom, we saw a shriveled-up raisin version of Ganondorf. However, now he’s back in the game and looking, uh, more supple than ever. No matter how hydrated the Gerudo royal might be, no amount of water would be enough to quench fans’ thirst.