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Kyle Gratton is an editor and writer based out of Kansas City. He received a bachelor's degree, dual majoring in English and History with a minor in Film and Media Studies, and has been a senior staff writer and reviewer for Screen Rant's Gaming section since 2021, with roles in editorial, and various freelance projects.
A terminal Midwesterner who graduated from the University of Kansas, Kyle also has knowledge and interest in literature, film, film adaptions of literature, and history.
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Through 40 years and 21 mainline entries, The Legend of Zelda has accumulated a tremendous number of compounding narratives and a deep well of lore. But for all the rich storytelling and world-building, Zelda isn't without its fair share of mysteries.
Each game has its quirky characters and unexplained phenomena, but the Zelda series at large has many looming questions. Some involve unresolved plot lines and the strangest characters yet seen in the franchise, while others deal with metaphysical uncertainties regarding parallel realms and deities.
Is The Breath Of The Wild & Tears Of The Kingdom Timeline Truly Separate?
Over a year after Tears of the Kingdom's release, it was revealed that it and its predecessor, Breath of the Wild, are set in a completely separate Zelda timeline. The franchise's chronology is notoriously convoluted, splitting into three distinct timelines based on potential eventualities following the events of Ocarina of Time, but a new one makes a lot of sense for BOTW and TOTK – there's plenty of room to add games in this new canon, while minimizing complications and the need for retcons.
It also poses many significant questions going forward. Are these games truly sequestered in some parallel reality, or will they be part of yet another timeline divergence not yet established? BOTW and TOTK's connections to other games in the series are numerous; characters and locations share names, and their depiction of the eternal conflict pitting Link and Zelda against Ganondorf does, of course, share many of the series' trademark cyclical narrative beats.
What Happened To The Sheikah Before Ocarina Of Time?
The Legend of Zelda's Sheikah tribe is uniformly depicted as a dying culture. Impa is often its lone known member, but in no other game is the Sheikah's decline more evident than in Ocarina of Time. Before Impa served as Princess Zelda's protector, she was the leader of Kakariko Village, which was once inhabited solely by the Sheikah, presumably when they served the Hyrulean royal family by torturing dissenters in the Shadow Temple.
The Sheikah were presumably instrumental in the Hyrulean Civil War, which took place only a decade before Ocarina begins, but Impa is the only proper member of the tribe we see during the game, with Sheik – Zelda in disguise – an honorary inductee, of sorts. How did Sheikah society go from occupying a whole town to having one surviving member in the course of a generation or two?
Where Is Navi After Majora's Mask?
In all the profound weirdness of Majora's Mask, it's often overlooked that its inciting incident is never resolved. Majora's Mask opens with Link searching for Navi a few months after he's sent back in time by Zelda following his defeat of Ganon. Navi has disappeared for unknown reasons, and before Link can find her, he's waylaid by his adventure in Termina.
Navi is never found in Majora's Mask, and the storyline's conclusion remains a mystery. It's hard to believe Link would simply give up – Navi is Link's only constant companion throughout his time-jumping quest in Ocarina – but that branch of the timeline next picks up with Twilight Princess many years later, long after the Hero of Time has passed away.
How Did The Happy Mask Salesman Get Majora's Mask?
On the other side of Majora's Mask is another mystery involving the Happy Mask Salesman. As proprietor of the Happy Mask Shop in Ocarina, the Happy Mask Salesman is an innocuous citizen of Castle Town. When Link meets the salesman in Termina's Clock Tower, however, he regales the young hero with the tale of Majora's Mask's creation.
A product of an unspecified ancient tribe, the Happy Mask Salesman says Majora's Mask is imbued with exceptional power, fearing it will bring Termina's destruction in the hands of the Skull Kid. How a humble shop owner came to possess such a powerful relic is never explained. At times, the Happy Mask Salesman seems almost wise, waxing philosophic about Link's quest, which only make him and his mask more mysterious.
Who Are The Dark Interlopers In Twilight Princess?
One of the most striking scenes in Twilight Princess is when Link is shown a vision of the Dark Interlopers, who long ago attempted to access the Sacred Realm and take control of the Triforce. A group of sorcerers, the Interlopers were banished to the Twilight Realm (their descendants would become the Twili), setting the events of Twilight Princess in motion.
This Battle for the Sacred Realm, also known as the Interloper War, is the most notable conflict to follow the founding of Hyrule post-Skyward Sword. Many thought Breath of the Wild's mysterious Zonai would be revealed as the Interlopers in Tears of the Kingdom, but the exact nature of the sorcerers remains a mystery. The Dark Interlopers prompted Rauru to build the Temple of Time to protect the Sacred Realm's entrance.
Is Ganondorf Immortal?
Ganondorf and his monstrous alter ego, Ganon, are, of course, killed at numerous points in the Zelda series. Each timeline branch has currently passed the death of a Ganondorf: Link defeats Ganon in the original The Legend of Zelda (and his minions fail to resurrect him in Zelda 2); Ganon is sealed inside the Four Sword at the end of Four Swords Adventure; Ganondorf is slain in combat against Link and Zelda atop Ganon's Tower in The Wind Waker; and his transformation into the Demon Dragon doesn't save him in Tears of the Kingdom.
For most of the Zelda chronology, though, a single Ganondorf lives for an exceptionally long time. Ocarina of Time's incarnation of the character is the earliest to appear, and he seems to live extended lifetimes in each of the timeline splits:
- When he defeats Link in the Fallen Hero timeline, he's sealed in the Sacred Realm by the Seven Sages, morphing it into the Dark World over the course of many years, then killed at the end of A Link to the Past (and later resurrected multiple times).
- In the Child Timeline, which follows Link back to the past after Ocarina, Ganondorf is tried for treason and sentenced to death, but the execution fails, and he's banished to the Twilight Realm before reemerging many years later with Zant.
- In the Adult Timeline, which continues after Ocarina, Hyrule now bereft of a hero, Ganondorf is sealed within the Sacred Realm for ages until the events of The Wind Waker.
Ganondorf's longevity is most obvious in The Wind Waker, which takes place centuries after Ocarina, but all three timeline branches are implied to make significant time jumps following the Hero of Time's efforts. Time not passing in the Sacred Realm is a potential explanation, but Ganondorf's apparent immortality in the Twilight Realm is wholly mysterious. Since the Twili are explicit descendants of the Interlopers, people there presumably age. Perhaps the Triforce of Power keeps Ganondorf alive.
What Is Tingle's Whole Deal?
Tingle's debut is Majora's Mask, in which he's little more than an eccentric: a 35-year-old man who believes himself to be the reincarnation of a fairy, wearing his iconic jumpsuit while piloting a hot air balloon to make maps. Tingle becomes downright bizarre when he reappears in The Wind Waker. Still a map maker, Tingle has his own island, which he inhabits with his two brothers, Ankle and Knuckle (Knuckle is never on Tingle Island during the game), and... another person named David Jr.
The Nintendo Gallery, the exhibition you unlock by taking photos with the Picto Box, has this to say about David Jr.:
"Seventeen-year-old David Jr. set out to sea with dreams of finding the treasure of the Ghost Ship that his now-deceased father once saw.
He gets seasick quite easily and was in just such a state when he awoke in a daze on Tingle Island.
Ankle told him that 'self comes before wealth' and he's been working in the tower ever since. He really hates the uniform."
More troubling, David Jr. tells Link that he awoke in his white-colored jumpsuit, implying the Tingle brothers undressed him, and now won't let him leave their island. "But I guess telling this story to you won't do me any good," David Jr. says. "It sure won't get that crazy guy in green off my back!" Tingle hasn't had a proper Zelda appearance since The Minish Cap, but he remains one of the series' most enigmatic characters.
Who Or What Is Demise, Exactly?
2011's Skyward Sword is effectively an origin story for the Zelda series, and a creation myth for the in-universe eras that would follow it. Its chief antagonist is Demise, who sets the cyclical central conflict in motion by cursing those who possess the Spirit of the Hero (incarnations of Link) and the descendants of Goddess Hylia's mortal incarnation (various Princesses Zelda) to face his repeatedly surfacing malice, which is personified by Ganondorf.
But Demise's origins and nature aren't fully explained. Prior to Skyward Sword, he leads an army of demons to the surface to wage war against Hylia and her worshipers, hoping to claim the Triforce entrusted to Hylia by the Golden Goddesses – a conflict that results in Hylia sending her flock to dwell in the Sky. Fi calls Demise an "eternal being" and "the source of all monsters," but he's never presented as a deity in his own right. He also doesn't seem to have a primordial status like Echoes of Wisdom's Null, despite his power over time.
How Does Rauru Travel In & Out Of The Sacred Realm?
There is only one entrance to the Sacred Realm, sealed by the Master Sword in its pedestal and locked behind the Door of Time, which can only be opened when all three Spiritual Stones are gathered in the Temple of Time. This was devised by Rauru, who sealed himself within the Sacred Realm after the Interlopers attempted to steal the Triforce, which now resides within the Temple of Light, itself inside the Sacred Realm.
If there is only one way in and out, how does Rauru guide Link on his quest in Ocarina of Time as the owl Kaepora Gaebora? Hyrule Historia explicitly states that Rauru takes on the form of an owl, not that Kaepora Gaebora is some projection unbound from the confines of the Sacred Realm. The Sages are clearly very powerful figures, but barring some backdoor into the Temple of Light – unlikely, given the danger another entrance poses to the Triforce – it would seem Rauru's abilities can transcend a realm created by the Golden Goddesses themselves.
How Was Ganon Resurrected In The Original Legend Of Zelda?
When The Legend of Zelda first released in Japan in 1986, Ganon's backstory was rather brief. The game's manual presents him as the ambitious Prince of Darkness, who led his army into Hyrule in search of the Triforce. Zelda 2 established the fact that Ganon could be revived, but it wasn't until A Link Between Worlds released in 2013, after the official timeline was canonized, that the series' oldest mystery became apparent.
Centuries after Link defeats Ganon in ALttP, the Prince of Darkness is resurrected by Yuga in ALBW, an attempt to steal the Triforce and bring it to Lorule. After yet another significant time jump, Ganon returns in The Legend of Zelda, seemingly resurrected, but with no explanation.
It's possible another Ganondorf was born in the Fallen Hero timeline, leading to his transformation into Ganon (this happens in the Child timeline), but there's no evidence for it. 40 years ago, the developers probably never considered that a complicated narrative would spring up around The Legend of Zelda, retroactively making the genesis of its original villain one if the series' greatest mysteries.
Created by Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka
Movie(s) The Legend of Zelda (Live-Action)
Upcoming Films The Legend of Zelda (Live-Action)
First TV Show The Legend of Zelda
First Episode Air Date September 8, 1989
The Legend of Zelda franchise follows the adventures of Link, an elf-like Hylian, and Princess Zelda as they protect the land of Hyrule from the evil warlord-turned-demon king Ganon. The series is known for its mix of action, adventure, and puzzle-solving elements, often revolving around the collection of the Triforce, a powerful relic left by the goddesses who created Hyrule. Each game features different incarnations of Link and Zelda, maintaining core elements while introducing new characters and settings.
English (US) ·