Gleeok

A three-headed Gleeok as seen in The Legend of Zelda.
Gleeok
Type	Dragon
Debut	The Legend of Zelda

The Gleeok is a multi-headed dragon that has been featured as a recurring boss for the The Legend of Zelda series.

Information

The Gleeok is a savage and dangerous type of dragon that is notable for the multiple heads it sports. They usually have somewhere from two to four heads, although Gleeoks with only single heads have also been known to exist. The Gleeok's heads are vulnerable to attack, but it will not be defeated until all heads have been destroyed. If a Gleeok is decapitated and still has at least one head left, the disembodied head will usually remain alive and float around while trying to attack Link. There was even one case in which a Gleeook was able to survive with no heads as purely a skeleton. Gleeoks primarily attack with fireballs, although there has been one two-headed Gleeok with elementally powered heads.

Appearances

Within The Legend of Zelda, a two-headed Gleeok appeared as the boss of the Snake Dungeon, and a three-headed Gleeok was the miniboss for the Dragon Labyrinth, and a four-headed one was the Lion Labyrinth's boss. In Oracle of Seasons, a two-headed Gleeok was the boss in the Explorer's Crypt. After it was seemingly defeated, the Gleeok shed its skin, and its skeleton attacked Link by charging at Link and pounding the ground to stun him. It would eventually be brought down with enough sword hits.

A similarly-named dragon-like creature called Gleerok appeared as the boss of the Cave of Flames in The Minish Cap. Its figurine entry refers to it as a Gleerok, which makes it the only single-headed one to appear thus far. A Gleeok with two masked heads appeared as the boss of the Temple of Ice in Phantom Hourglass. This Gleerok was submerged in water so that its body was not visible. One head had fire powers while the other had ice powers, and each head was weak against the other's attacks. For this fight, Link had to set up his grappling hook so that its rope would deflect one head's attack at the other's. This would damage and destroy their masks. At this point, the Gleeok heads only used powerful charged elemental attacks. Link had to grapple onto a head's tongue while it was charging and reel it in to attack directly with his sword. This led to that Gleeok's destruction.

Other Appearances

Other Media

• Gleeoks have made a few appearances in episodes of the The Legend of Zelda cartoon, and have been battled by both Link and Zelda.
• In the The Legend of Zelda comic, one story depicted Link battling a four-headed Gleeok.
• Creatures called "Gleeocs" appeared in an issue of the A Link to the Past comic adaptation, although these creatures actually resembled smaller versions of the game's Helmasaur King as opposed to the actual Gleeoks.

Trivia

• In the original game, there is unused code for a one-headed Gleeok.
• They do not appear in Breath of the Wild, but one bridge in Central Hyrule is named Gleeok Bridge in reference to them.
• A sticker of Gleeok from The Legend of Zelda appeared in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.