Purah

From child-like form to mature leader: a scientist whose experiments reshaped Hyrule's history.

Purah is a pivotal Sheikah scientist in Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda series, originally appearing as an elderly woman who accidentally de-aged herself into a child-like form due to a botched experiment. This unique condition persisted until The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, where she aged herself back up to a mature adult appearance. Voiced by Krizia Bajos in English and Ayano Shibuya in Japanese, Purah serves as a driving force for the narrative, utilizing her expertise in ancient technology to aid Link. Her redesign in Tears of the Kingdom received significant praise from media outlets, who highlighted her attractiveness and expanded role compared to her previous depiction.

Quick Facts

Series: The Legend of Zelda
First game: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017)
Voice: EN: Kate Higgins; JA: Ayano Shibuya
Race: Sheikah
Nationality: Hyrulean

Lore & Background

Purah is a member of the Sheikah clan, a technologically advanced culture with designs contributed to by concept artist Hirohito Shinoda, among others, around the concept of a "hidden village away from the eyes of the world." In Breath of the Wild, she appears as a young girl despite being elderly, having de-aged herself out of curiosity. Her finalized design shifted from a "punk rock girl" archetype to a magical girl style, retaining only heavy eye makeup from earlier concepts while adopting a dress with a frilled interior and gold butterfly-shaped goggles.

In Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, set 100 years prior, she is depicted as a woman in her twenties wearing a long beige coat. By Tears of the Kingdom, she has aged herself up again, appearing as a significantly taller mature woman in a dress with a tight slit, red tights/leggings, high heels, and blue gloves, with hair framing her face to emphasize adulthood.

Reader's Guide

Her role expands significantly in Tears of the Kingdom, where she is praised for her expanded narrative presence and technical knowledge. While some players utilized game mechanics to take her on "dates," critics noted that her redesign avoided common tropes regarding childlike characters who are actually adults. Purah is often analyzed as an example of the mad scientist archetype, though academic study notes she demonstrates ethical restraint by experimenting on herself rather than others. Her character represents a positive portrayal of strong older women in the series, challenging archetypes with humor and science. Fan reception has been overwhelmingly positive regarding her adult redesign, with Pornhub reporting a 42,257% rise in searches related to the character, reflecting both her popularity and the large volume of fan-produced sexualized content.

Did You Know?

In Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, Purah and Robbie are separate playable characters in the downloadable content.
Purah is one of several Sheikah who were alive during the Calamity 100 years prior to Breath of the Wild, alongside Impa and Robbie.
Critics praised Purah's redesign in Tears of the Kingdom for deviating from the trope where a childlike character is actually a mature adult.