Princess Zelda

Zelda is a character from The Legend of Zelda Series. She is the princess of Hyrule, and helps Link out along his journey. Usually, in the last boss battle, Zelda will help in some sort of way. Her first game was The Legend of Zelda, where she was kidnapped by Ganon. She has appeared in every major Legend of Zelda game, and has even appeared as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Melee.

History
Zelda, like Link, has many incarnations througout the Legend of Zelda series.

Zelda's first appearance was in The Legend of Zelda, the first game in the Zelda Series. In the game, She shatters the triforce of Wisdom, and scatters them throughout the land of Hyrule for the hero, Link to find so Ganon, who kiddnaped her and hid her in Death Mountain, won't find them. Also, before she is captured, she sends Impa out to find the Hero, who is Link. During the battle with Ganon, Link must defeat him, where he will then find Zelda, and save her.

In the sequel, Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link, a magician casts a spell on Zelda after her refusing to reveal where the triforce is. The spell puts her to sleep, and the only way to break it is if Link finds the triforce of courage. once he does, Zelda awakens and grasps link, ending the game.

Super Smash Bros.
So far, Zelda has appeared in Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. In Melee, the most notable of her abilities is the fact that she can quickly transform into her alter-ego Sheik. It is unknown if Shiek will return in Brawl.

While in her normal form, Zelda has a wide range of powerful magic attacks, though in return she is rather slow. While Sheik, however, she is very fast, though the attacks that she can perform aren't as powerful.