Halloween had finally come, and all who know me know that I’ve been working on my costume all year. I worked on my costume till the very day of Halloween. I had worked hard to ensure that costume was accurate, functional, and looked great. And boy did I do a great job.
This year, I went as none other than Link, from the Legend Of Zelda games. Link’s my favorite character of all time, so I thought it’d be appropriate to put on the Hero’s tunic and represent its proud green. Fully equipped with a REAL Master Sword, Hylian Shield, and Ocarina of time, I knew this Halloween night was going to rock.
Everyone had come over to my house in their costumes to see my long awaited creation in anticipation. Victor was Captain Jack Sparrow, Marvin was Luigi, Erica was SuperGirl, and my buddy Lisa was a…sorceress, right? I suited up and jaws were dropped. We headed out to Joan’s house where we all showed off our costumes to our other friends. I busted out a few Linkish poses, and off we headed to the city.
We ran into a miscommunication when we arrived at Grand Central. We thought Lisa’s sister had been on the same train as us, but actually wasn’t. We waited on the platform for almost an hour, but not a minute of it was boring. Everyone loved the Link costume. Girls waved from the train, people came from all over to snap photos with me, and people shouted things like “Yooooooo Zelda!” and “Look! It’s Link!!” A played the Ocarina as best as I could for the people who wanted to hear it. After we got word that Lisa’s sister was on her way, out we headed to the downtown-bound 6 train…Next stop, the Village.
I ran into a small problem as I stepped onto the 6 train. The handle piece from my shield broke and fell into the tracks as I stepped onto the train…..there went my shield for the night. I was forced to have it hang from my scabbard the whole night. Which was ok, considering I didn’t even think it would work, haha. Thank goodness it did. When I got onto the train, I was greeted by probably the BEST Captain Jack Sparrow ever. The dude had EVERYTHING. He was even talking like him and doing the hand thing and everything. He absolutely loved my Link costume, and gave me word on where the hottest costumes were gonna be at…Astor Place in SoHo.
As soon as we got off the train, these Vampire girls who wanted me to play the ocarina for them stopped me. We all snapped photos, and I kept the Ocarina out cause I knew it would be the center attention of my costume. As we headed to Astor place, all over people were shouting appraisals about my costume from across the streets, down the blocks and as they passed me.
At one point I ran into another Link! It was awesome, I just saw him standing there, and he was with a girl dressed as a princess. Obviously, she was Zelda, but she looked exactly like Princess Peach…I even told her so. As we walked around the city, I saw so many amazing costumes.
A funny thing that happened was as we were waiting for the train home, this fat dude comes outta nowhere with this astonished look on his face…Now, this dude was either a bigger Zelda fan than me, or he was just very nerdy. He trots over to me, and then starts singing the main theme to Zelda. I smiled, and asked if he wanted a picture, and then he proceeds to sing another Zelda song…It was awesome, but was creeping me out a bit. But if you can’t beat em, join em, right? So I pulled out my Ocarina, and played along to his singing, haha.
Although I didn’t get to do all the things I wanted to do this year, I had lots of fun, and being the center of attention in the streets of Manhattan was great. I wanted to be in the parade as well as head over to Nintendo World, but didn’t get to. I promise next year I’m going to go with a group of dedicated people and we’re gonna go ALL OUT, and go everywhere.
Overall, I loved the experience. People told me that Halloween in Manhattan was something that had to be seen to believe, but I never thought it would be this awesome. People were really going all out this year, and I was honored to be apart of it.
PS- The funniest part of the night was when we came back from the city and we were chilling in a Dunkin Donuts…I met this 3 people, and one of them (the cute girl, hehe) was really interested in my Link costume. She started telling me about cosplaying, and about the best cosplayer in the world, and had letme know that I had done a superb job on my Link costume. Here’s the funny part, after snapping a few photos, I gave her my card with my number, website and email address on it, and walked over to sit down. Her friend says, “Is that a real sword?” So I pulled it out about half way to show them it was indeed real. As I put it back, two cops walked in, and one of them stops right in front of me, looks me dead in the eye, points right at me, and says…”Ah yea….Link from Zelda right?”
……I thought I was ready to get arrested, haha
-Links-
