Link liked his rather simple life.
He and his best friend Gulley often had a ton of fun together, sharing abond not too unsimilar to the one siblings have.
He worked for Gulley's father as a blacksmith and always did his best, his only real problem being insomnia keeping him from any good results.
Like all other kids his age, he admired the legends the appropriately named Hero of Legend has spawned and felt pride in being named after said hero.
Everything started with just another regular, simple day. Link's favorite. The only weird part was a strange dream he had, but he could shrug that off, it's nothing he hasn't seen before. Because of said dream, he overslept and Gulley had to wake him up like usual.
The captain came to get his sword from the blacksmith, but uncharacteristically forgot it.
Link, being the chivalrous lad he happens to be, was forced, I mean, he decided to bring him said sword. After finding out that the captain went to the Sanctuary instead of Hyrule Castle like he should've, Link went there too. He couldn't get in though, because it was closed, forcing him to go through a secret dungeon to enter.
If he knew what he got into because of this, he would've quit right then and there.
Once he got in, he found that a weirdo called Yuga transformed the captain and the priest's daughter Seres into paintings, knocking out Link afterwards.
He woke up in his own house, apparently being brought there by some guy wearing a bunny hat calling himself Ravio. Without asking, something Link didn't appreciate, the guy moved into Link's house, the only payment being a weird, ugly bracelet, and essentially took it over, turning it into an item shop, while Link went on his quest.
Oh yeah, the quest.
After Link talked to the princess of Hyrule and her nursemaid, Zelda and Impa, he went to the Eastern Palace and tried to face Yuga, only to get turned into a painting too. That was traumatizing for the young boy. Luckily, Ravio's ugly bracelet somehow saved him from being imprisoned on a wall, something Link did appreciate.
Hyrule Castle was then sealed off, which was very annoying.
After some tedious quests, he got the Master Sword, giving him visions of the warriors that wielded it before him, those being his previous incarnations, not that he would know. He only knew of one hero before him, but the visions he got from that guy weren't enjoyable for him.
'What? Is… is this the adventure the Hero of Legend was on? Why- why is it so similar to the one I am on?'
With the Master Sword, he could unseal Hyrule Castle and got to Yuga, who turned the descendants of the Seven Sages and Zelda into paintings to summon Ganon and fuse with him, only to run off into an alternate world that was a dark reflection of Hyrule called Lorule. All that made Link really unhappy.
'What? What's with all the similarities to the Hero of Legend? Am… am I really just a copy?"
After going to Lorule, he met Hilda, someone who held Yuga/Ganon/Yuganon back and gave Link time to save the sages. After doing so, he gained the Triforce of Courage, the experience he got on the way allowing him to finally enter Lorule Castle and fight Yuganon.
Being annoyed by all the signs of being a copycat was bad enough, but suddenly, it stopped mattering.
He was betrayed by Hilda.
She sent Yuga to Hyrule.
She sent Link on a pointless fetchquest to get the Triforce of Courage.
She wanted Zelda trapped in a painting to get the Triforce of Wisdom.
She wanted Ganon resurrected to get the Triforce of Power.
She is the entire reason for his copy of an adventure.
She is the only reason for him feeling like he isn't his own person.
He blanked. From the little attention he payed after that, Yuganon also betrayed her. Not that he cared, all he concentrated on was not breaking down and crying. He was not really having a good time.
After a long and annoying fight against Yuganon, he finally won and saved both Hyrule and Lorule, reunited the parts of the Triforce of Hyrule and used his wish to restore Lorule's. Yeah, that happened too, he barely caught that during Hilda's monologue. And Ravio turned out to be his counterpart in that reflection of Hyrule. This all was weird.
After all that, he put back the Master Sword and made a decision nobody expected.
"Is this really it? Am I just a repetition of him? They call me the 'New Hero of Hyrule'. What an insult." He turned to the Master Sword in its pedestal. "Listen up, Links before me. I am not just one of many, I refuse to be! I will do something on my own! My own adventure, not yours, Hero of Legend!"
He left Hyrule.
Later on, he found a new kingdom to serve in. It had the name Hytopia.
The princess called Styla got an irremovable ugly jumpsuit as a gift-slash-curse and he had to beat up who gifted it to her. Some witch called Lady Maud. Link didn't care about the details, he was just happy to finally have his own adventure.
Of course, fate had to beat the happiness out of him again. Not only was he not allowed to go on his own, his partners had to be totems he could possess. Literal copies of himself. Of course, he could ignore that, they were just totems.
And they somehow became sentient, making them real partners. Due to them wearing green, blue and red, they took the nicknames Emerald, Sapphire and Ruby to avoid confusion, since they were technically the same person. It wasn't great for his self-consciousness problems, but he could deal with it somewhat.
That was because they were just that fun to have around. In Hytopia, they quickly got the reputation of the trickster heroes, as they wouldn't stop playing pranks on everyone.
The rest of the adventure didn't matter that much to Link, he was just happy he could finally enjoy one without feeling like garbage. The three of them then saved the kingdom in really fancy costumes and the curse on the princess was lifted.
Afterwards, the trio (including Emerald), all became separate entities from Link.
Link also decided that he doesn't need an adventure to have his own identity. He returned to Hyrule and was welcomed back with open arms.
At first, he took up his work as a smith again and wanted his old simple life back, but it didn't work for him. After all he's been through, he couldn't just return to his prior life that easily.
Luckily, he was quickly hired as a Royal Guard by Zelda due to his service to the country. (And the rumors of a certain hero saving Hytopia, everyone already knew it was him.)
Not just that, but they actually became good friends after that. Turns out that it's very easy to bond over shared trauma.
Link liked the new state of his life.
But it wasn't meant to last.
One day, many other Links in the iconic green tunic showed up and told him that some evil guy is threatening the entire universe. Even after all that happened, Link was still a chivalrous lad. He accepted the call to adventure.
And yes, more Links, more self-consciousness.
But they couldn't all call each other Link, that would've been confusing. Due to his title being taken already ('Seriously? What the hell?'), he was named after his ability to turn into a painting. Now he is commonly referred to as Sketch.
Sketch gave up the simplicity from his old life he's missing and now seeks for an identity of his own, since he is now so in-tune with the legacy of the heroes called Link, refusing to blend in.