Byrne

Byrne in Spirit Tracks.
Byrne
Species	Human
Hair color	Black
Eye color	Yellow
Voiced by	Unknown
Debut	The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

Byrne (known as Staven in the PAL release) is a supporting character in The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, who initially is an antagonist and a minion of Cole.

Background

Presumably a descendant of the Lokomo tribe, Byrne was initially an apprentice working for Anjean as a protector of the Tower of Spirits and a disciple of the spirits. However, Byrne was motivated by a desire to become as powerful as the spirits and did not truly wish to follow them. He lost faith after the spirits never answered his prayers for power, so he concluded that the only thing more powerful than the spirits was the Demon King Malladus. This caused Byrne to abandon Anjean and instead become a follower of Cole, who was working to resurrect Malladus. Byrne fashioned a Compass of Light that Cole could use to locate the Demon Train in the Dark Realm, which Byrne than hid within a hidden portion of the Tower.

Their efforts were able to split the Tower into multiple segments and make many of the Spirit Tracks disappear, which brought them closer to reviving Malladus. Cole and Byrne than ambushed Princess Zelda while she was traveling with Link and Alfonzo. Alfonzo, formerly the kingdom's greatest swordsman, stood to protect Zelda, but Byrne knew that Alfonzo was out of his league and, after giving him a warning, proceeded to defeat Alfonzo, wounding him badly in the process. Cole than separated Zelda's spirit from her body, at which point Byrne carried her body away so that they could use it as a vessel to revive Malladus in.

However, Link worked together with Zelda's ghost to repair the Tower of Spirits and restore most of the Spirit Tracks. Byrne noticed this and attempted to stop them after they collected the final rail map, but Anjean intervened and held Byrne off while Link and Zelda escaped. The results of this skirmish are unclear, although Anjean had apparently been injured by this battle when she appeared later. After the Tower of Spirits was fully united again, Byrne confronted Link and Zelda (whom had possessed a Phantom as a temporary body) in the top floor and battled them. He was defeated, but was able to slip away while Link and Zelda were preoccupied with celebrating their victory over him.

On the roof of the tower, Byrne witnessed Malladus's rebirth in Zelda's body. He then called upon Malladus and asked the Demon King to grant him power, but Malladus chose to attack Byrne with a magic attack that severely injured him instead. After Cole and Malladus left on the Demon Train, the seemingly unconscious Byrne was brought onto the spirit train with Link, Zelda and Anjean. Zelda decided to spare Byrne's life so that she could punish him later on, playfully punching at the air while she did so, which the secretly conscious Byrne seemed to find amusing. After they recovered the Bow of Light, Byrne offered to help them find the Demon Train by telling them about the Compass of Light and its hiding place.

When they entered the Dark Realm and prepared for the final battles, Byrne was prepared to fight in Anjean's place due to her injuries, but Link and Zelda decided to battle Malladus by themselves because both Byrne and Anjean were suffering from injuries. He allowed this, and after Malladus was forced out of Zelda's body, they were all dropped back into Hyrule. There Byrne went into action again, creating a field of energy that held Malladus at bay while Zelda reunited with her body, although this caused Malladus to attack Byrne with a magic attack that seemed to completely destroy his body.

Despite this death, the ending showed that Byrne's spirit had survived with no memory of these events and would be reborn in a new form years later. Anjean and the other Lokomos than transformed into spirits as well, and together with Byrne's spirit they all ascended into the heavens.

Abilities/Gameplay Information

Byrne was an agile figure who seemed to be good at jumping, and he was also capable of producing blasts of some sort of energy or magic. His primary weapon was a gauntlet on his right hand that was at least as strong as a sword and could also be fired on a chain, which could then be retracted to his arm. He was a quite skilled fighter as well, as he was able to best Alfonzo, who once was the kingdom's greatest swordsman.

During the boss battle in the Tower of Spirits, they battle in what seems to be an arena. Byrne initially hops along the pillars above Link and Zelda while blasting energy waves. Eventually he fires out his grappling hand to grab either Link or Zelda. If one of them is grabbed, the other has to attack the hand to free them. Otherwise, Zelda can grab the hand while its on the ground and yank on it to drop Byrne to the ground, at which point he could be attacked by Link. Later in the battle, Byrne would spend more time on the ground trying to attack Link and Zelda directly with his gauntlet. This time the prevailing strategy was to distract Byrne with Zelda so that Link could attack him from behind.

Other Appearances

Video Games

• In the Super Smash Bros. series, Byrne has been represented by a trophy in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and a Novice-rank Primary Spirit in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. When fought against in a Spirit battle, Byrne's Spirit would possess Sheik for a stamina battle in which his punches, elbow strikes and throws are more powerful.

Trivia

• As most of the characters in Spirit Tracks are named after train-related puns, it seems that Byrne's name is a play on "burn", to represent how coal (the namesake for Cole) burns in fire. His Japanese name is Digo, in reference to the D51 steam locomotive, which is particularly popular in Japan.