Pot

"Aren't you a little young to be interested in jar collecting? I don't want those to get broken, so I store 'em up out of the way. It sounds crazy, but I've heard stories of people who have nothing better to do than go around breaking every jar they see. I mean, is that the dumbest thing you've ever heard in your life?! Who would DO that?!"

- Hena

Pots, also known as jars and vases are common pieces of crockery in the The Legend of Zelda. They can commonly be broken for items inside, even while inside peoples' houses, the implications of which have sometimes been parodied in the franchise. Common items include hearts, Rupees, Magic Jars, bombs, and arrows, with fairies occasionally appearing as well.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
In The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, pots are introduced as a very common object in houses and dungeons alike. They can be lifted and thrown or simply pushed around.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
In The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Link requires the Power Bracelet to lift pots. They are the main focus of Bottle Grotto, where the aforementioned item is found. They also appear in the side-scrolling areas, where at one point Link can use the combined weight of himself carrying one to push down a Stone Elevator. The boss of that dungeon, the Genie, lives in a bottle based on them as well. Another boss, Facade, levitates Flying Pots at him. This is the first game in which Link will be reprimanded for breaking pots, as Marin will call him a "bad boy" if she catches him doing it.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, pots are again a common object, now appearing brown with a white squiggly ring and dark band around them. They can now be broken with a sword strike, which follows in all free-camera games and many fixed camera games. A room in the past Hyrule Castle Town is filled with pots, and a nearby bored soldier actually recommends Link break them to blow off steam. Flying Pots now appear as a standalone obstacle.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
In The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, pots appear as they do in Ocarina of Time. Many boss rooms and the Goron Racetrack have special respawning green pots that always give a Magic Bottle upon being broken.

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons/Ages
In both The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages, pots look and act as they do in Link's Awakening. However, Link may also break them with a sufficiently advanced sword.

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords
In The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords, pots have their original role from A Link to the Past.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
In The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, pots can have different appearances depending on where they are found, and sometimes hold enemy melee weapons in dungeons. This game has two instances of breaking pots being punishable: breaking the pot Sue-Belle carries and breaking the expensive vases in the Auction House before the second trip through the Forsaken Fortress will cause Link to be fined. There are also special water-filled jug-like pots that can be thrown into fire or lava to cool it.

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures
In The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, pots have their typical role, but can be picked up many at a time through the wide or long formations. The water-filled pots return for putting out fire, while oil-filled pots can ignite it.

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
In The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, pots appear with their appearance and function from Four Swords, but can be broken with the sword through the Rock Breaker technique.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, pots again appear differently depending on location. The fisher Hena is also an avid jar-collector, and notes the idea of mindlessly breaking others' jars as being incredibly dumb. If Link does so with hers, she bans him from returning until he apologizes. In each dungeon prior to the City in the Sky, a wobbling jar contains the character Ooccoo, who will tag along with Link and be able to be used as a warping item for the dungeon's duration.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
In The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, most pots are light blue with a white squiggle and can be found in a variety of places. Unlike most games, they can hold Bombchus due to said item's expanded use in this game. In the Temple of the Ocean King, there are also red ones that create a small safe zone puddle where they are broken and yellow ones that give more Sand of Hours for the Phantom Hourglass. Like most throwable objects in the game, they are rendered as a 2-dimensional sprite.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
In The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, pots look and act mostly as they do in Phantom Hourglass. Certain pots wobble when approached, with a Like Like bursting out to attack Link if he continues.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
In The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, pots have the same properties as most previous free-camera games.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
In The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, pots look and act the same as in A Link to the Past.

The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes
In The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes, pots generally look like the ones in A Link Between Worlds. There is also a Drablands Challenge called Don't drop the pot! involves keeping a pot held throughout, passing it between the Links if necessary.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, pots are most commonly found in towns, but can rarely be found elsewhere. They act as normal, and in some cases hold highly valuable Rupees, being one of the few sources of higher amounts.

Hyrule Warriors
In Hyrule Warriors, pots of different colors appear along the walls of keeps. The beige ones may hold Rupees of varying amounts, temporary item upgrades, or nothing at all. Red ones hold hearts, green ones Magic Bottles, and yellow ones Force Fragments.