Earlier this week Console Wars author Blake J. Harris shared some scans of Super Mario Bros. characters from a 1993/1994 Nintendo Character Reference Guide, revealing Yoshi's last name and some other strange facts about the Mushroom Kingdom. We reached out to Blake to obtain more of the outdated (but really cool) document and he provided some additional scans of characters from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

In this batch of images, we are introduced to Link, Zelda and Ganon. While the art is top notch (some of this appeared in the book Hyrule Historia), some of the trivia included in the descriptions is especially interesting. Check out the full scans of the images below:

Link, who was "forced" to save Zelda -- twice!

 

A bit of background on Ganon the "wizard-thief."

 

According to this description, Princess Zelda was nearly killed by Link but there was some spider -- we're not sure if this story has been told yet. So: Spoilers?

 

This sheet would have been used to show the relative sizes of Hyrule's denizens. For instance, Link is about the size of Ganon's right shoulder horn.

We find out that Link comes from a family of telepaths -- and Zelda was nearly killed by Link thanks to "poor lighting" and a giant spider...

Each Princess of the House of Hyrule was a heroine in her own right. At sixteen years of age, Zelda the First defied Agahnim when he usurped power from the King. legend has it that she survived a cruel imprisonment and was rescued by Link. The truth, however, is that she had been on the verge of escaping on her own when Link burst into the chamber and nearly slew her on the spot on account of the poor lighting and an enormous spider that had sat down beside her.

It's fun stuff, but not exactly familiar canon. The Nintendo Character Guide states its meant "to serve as a reference guide when reproducing any of the Nintendo characters" and was likely shared with licensees like makers of fruit snacks, T-shirts and anything else Mario, Link and co. could be printed on to sell.

Having trouble viewing the images? Check out these full-sized Zelda Nintendo Character Guide images in image gallery form.

If you liked these images, you're in luck: Blake J. Harris has provided a few more scans that we'll be showing off soon -- so thank him by checking out his comprehensive history Nintendo and SEGA, Console Wars: SEGA, Nintendo, and the Battle That Defined a Generation, which we profiled in 21 Crazy Facts About Sonic and the Console War He Started.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/08/07/link-nearly-killed-zelda-according-unearthed-nintendo-documents

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So I thought this was hilarious. Too bad Link isn't really a telepath. That would have been cool.

Why make any details like that? It's not like the system could have showed something like that on a ful scale...

For the lolz.

Enormous spider that sat down beside her just seems to be an allusion to the classic nursery rhyme.

We could've had an even sexier princess!

I mean, just imagine Zelda the second.

Cool little bit of info !

Could be, wouldn't be the only time. Like in Skyward Sword where in the Ancient Cistern you have that part where you climb out of the underground via a rope, while enemies slowly climb after you to pull you back down. That was a reference to some kind of Japanese fairy tale as well.

EDIT: A reference to this story.

The Ancient Cistern was a giant buddhism allegory. That's what i picked up from "The Spider's Thread" segment.

(thank god for "Aoi Bungaku" or i would never have made the reference)