| “ | So you're trying to get your mitts on the treasure! ... If that's what this is about, I'm on board! | „ |
| ~ Linebeck |
| “ | Well, I guess, if I have to... If you insist... Can you bring back my ship? The one that sank? | „ |
| ~ Linebeck wishing to have his ship back afloat |
Captain Linebeck is the tritagonist of the 2007 action-adventure game The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.
He is a sailor who lives on Mercay Island and helps Link navigate the World of the Ocean King. He is obsessed with hunting for treasure and serves as the main driving force for almost everything, including helping Link find Tetra, who went missing aboard the Ghost Ship. He captains his steamboat, the S.S. Linebeck, as a main source of transportation for getting from one place to another.
Biography[]
Linebeck had gone to the Temple of the Ocean King in hopes of finding the treasure there, but he is soon trapped by spikes and unable to leave. Oshus informs Link about Linebeck, who might help him find his kidnapped friend. When he isn't able to find him on his ship, he heads to the Milk Bar where one of the tenants told him that he went to the Temple of the Ocean King and hasn't come out yet and warns him that the Temple of the Ocean King is cursed and will drain his life energy if he ventures into the building. Link does so anyway, and he eventually finds Linebeck imprisoned by the spikes and cautions him about venturing outside the safe zones, areas that are untouched by the evil curse, and claims that his ankle is injured and is unable to save himself. After Link activates a switch that drops the spikes, he runs to the entrance and didn't even wince in pain as he did. Linebeck introduces himself, and when he learns that he has a goal that involves finding the Ghost Ship, with Link's reason being that he wanted to save his friend Tetra, who was imprisoned, he offers to help him out. While their reasons for boarding the Ghost Ship are slightly different, their goals of reaching the Ghost Ship remain the same.
On their travels, Linebeck will be paranoid of the pirate Jolene who is seeking revenge for stealing some of her treasure and once she spies them, she will board their ship and fight Link while Linebeck is hiding in a crate. After a few encounters, Jolene finally gives up and hint at the fact that she still has some emotional attachment to Linebeck despite her grudge against him. Linebeck works with Link until they manage to board the Ghost Ship and find a petrified Tetra, whose life energy was drained. Then Oshus reveal himself as the Ocean King, the deity protecting this alternate world. Oshus tell the duo the tale about the Ghost Ship which was created by an evil creature known as Bellum to attract those who seeks treasures and then drain their life forces. Upon learning that there never was any treasure to begin with, Linebeck gets upset over it and refuses to let Link continue to use his ship but changes his mind when Oshus promise him a wish if he continues to help them.
After Link defeats Bellum in the Temple of the Ocean King, he returns to the S.S. Linebeck and witness Tetra's revival. She is immediately kidnapped by a vengeful Bellum who departs for the Ghost Ship. Link and Linebeck use the ship to destroy the Ghost Ship in naval combat. When they board the floating remains of the Ghost Ship to retrieve Tetra, they are attacked by Bellum who destroy the S.S. Linebeck, to the captain's horror, alongside Oshus' human body and then incapacitate Link and Tetra. Linebeck takes the Phantom Sword and uses it to slash Bellum and free Link. Bellum immediately attach himself to Linebeck and possess him in a last-ditch effort to get rid of Link, resulting in the monster named Bellumbeck the monster in Phantom armor with Bellum attached to his back. During the fight, Bellum captures Ciela with his tentacles to prevent her from giving Link the ability to stop time. Link destabilizes Bellumbeck with his sword enough for Ciela to free herself from Bellum's grasp and give him the ability to stop time. Link must then wait for Bellum to open his eye located on Bellumbeck's back and then stop time and attack it. This must be repeated until Bellum is destroyed and Linebeck is finally freed, but he is heavily remorseful for his actions despite not being in control.
With Bellum finally destroyed, Oshus retrieves all of his power and returns to his original form. He then offers a wish to Linebeck like he promised. While Ciela was expecting him to wish for treasure, she was surprised when Linebeck instead wished for his ship to be repaired. The Ocean King then reveal to Link and Tetra that they are no longer in their world but in a parallel world, which is under his protection and that they only came here due to Bellum's powers. He then returns them to their world where only 10 minutes have passed. They are not sure if their adventure was real but then Link realize that he still has the empty Phantom Hourglass in his pockets. He then notices Linebeck's ship on the horizon, indicating that the captain followed them to their world.
Gallery[]
Personality[]
He dubs himself a man of the sea, yet he is often cowardly and tends to make poor excuses to get out of doing something he doesn't want to do and seems to look out for himself and his obsession with treasure more than he does for other characters, which often results in him clashing with Ciela a lot and had strained a friendship with a female pirate named Jolene after having stolen some of her treasure. He is also known to be a blatantly terrible liar when he tells Link that he hurt his ankle and couldn't save himself, but after Link frees him, he runs off without crying out in pain, and this lie continued for a bit in spite of him not limping. Despite that, there are rare moments where he is genuinely caring towards Link and his companions, such as when he tells Link to be careful exploring the Temple of the Ocean King as he was aware that it was cursed. Over the course of the game, he does eventually cast aside his cowardice by risking his life to save Link and Tetra from Bellum after the former drops the Phantom Sword, which he used to battle the monster and give Link time to recover.
