Malon (Zelda)

What she does in Ocarina of Time

You meet her in the Castle Town market while she is waiting for her father. She sees through the Keaton mask, calls Link “fairy boy,” and hands over the Weird Egg. The cucco that hatches is how you wake Talon. At the ranch she shows you Epona, a young horse who likes her singing, and she teaches Epona’s Song. She says her mother composed it. In the 2026 remake one transcription changes that line to “My mama taught it to me when I was little.” I keep both, and I mark the new line as a single transcription on the remake page.

Seven years later Ingo has the ranch and the name on the sign. Malon stays because she is afraid the horses will be treated badly. After you win Epona back in the race, she tells you she was sure it was you because Epona remembered you. She then lets you try her obstacle course. Beat 50 seconds and she sends a cow to your house in Kokiri Forest. The steps are on the cow page.

Other appearances

• Oracle of Seasons: she appears with Talon, drawn with rounded ears.
• Four Swords Adventures: another rounded-ear appearance alongside her father.
• The Minish Cap: a Hylian cameo connected to the ranch family.
• Himekawa’s manga: a loose adaptation. She is kidnapped by a brainwashed Ingo, then steps back when she sees how Link looks at Zelda. See the comic page.
• Super Smash Bros.: a trophy on 3DS, a spirit in Ultimate, and a Swapdoodle drawing. Those are cameos, not new plot.

Why she looks like Marin

Toru Osawa said Talon and Malon were based on Tarin and Marin from Link’s Awakening, so players of the earlier game would catch the reference. Shigeru Miyamoto has said he wanted a singer in the game because he likes country music, including Emmylou Harris, and he turned the ranch girl into that singer so the horse would come to her voice. Both remarks are in the 1101.com interview as translated by GlitterBerri, and Zelda Wiki repeats them. The look-alike chart is on Malon vs Marin.

Outfit and the name

Her Ocarina of Time clothes are a white blouse, a red skirt or apron, a yellow scarf, and brown boots. Zelda Wiki notes Hylian letters on the hem that spell “Lon,” and a Bowser-style brooch that she and Talon both wear. I am not linking costume shops here. If you are sewing the outfit, those four pieces are the ones the artwork repeats. Her name has no official etymology on the pages I used. I am not going to borrow a dictionary guess and call it Nintendo’s intent. A man named Malon in Gothic 1 Remake is a different character in a different series.

One remake-only detail: a gossip quest says she named a toy horse Malanya. That is recorded on Zelda Wiki’s Malanya article as new text in the Switch 2 version. It is one source. It does not put her in Breath of the Wild, where a horse god shares the name. That mix-up is answered on the “is she in later games?” page.