Zelda noob watches the Complete Legend of Zelda Timeline 💔

[@barbaracarli]

All of the games begin with Link napping, short and sleepy king

[@Freckxi]

short people need their naps :)

[@historicalbob1237]

Or y'know, knocked unconscious.

[@brtruev1710]

Except the NES ones.

[@GarroshTV]

Twilight Princess doesn‘t tho!

[@historicalbob1237]

@@GarroshTV and Phantom hourglass and Link's Adventure starts with link washed up on a shore, knocked out unwillingly. Can't call that a nap.

[@devonm042690]

Impa seems more like a title than a name. In every age, the leader of the Sheikah Tribe has been named Impa. As for Hylia becoming Zelda, Hylia shed her divine form so she could wield the Triforce.

[@RikThunder33]

i mean..it is a name, clearly. just like Zelda.

[@Mari_Izu]

Impa being a title could explain why Purah wasn't named Impa even when she's the older sister.

[@RikThunder33]

@@Mari_Izu ...older sister of who...?

[@devonm042690]

@@RikThunder33 Purah is Impa's older sister.

[@RikThunder33]

@@devonm042690 IIIii confused Purah with... another character. yeah alright.

[@calebgoodman3028]

Keep in mind that killing Ganon would still end up with him being resurrected due to the curse.

[@halosaft]

No, you can kill and get rid of Ganon, what you can't get rid of is Demise's hatred. Anyone can reincarnate with Demise's hatred, Vaati, Zant, someone new etc. Ganon is just one of many incarnations of hatred.

[@calebgoodman3028]

@@halosaft Vaati was never reincarnated, it was the same guy. Zant only appeared once. Ganondorf is the only one that has been killed and reborn again. You are right that Demise’s curse doesn’t specifically have to be Ganon though.

[@halosaft]

@@calebgoodman3028 I never said Vaati nor Zant have been reincarnated before. But you said that Ganon reincarnates because of the curse Demise set, and that you can't get rid of Ganon because of that. Neither of which are true.
The curse is that Demise's hatred will be incarnated and forever follow Zelda and Link. Meaning Vaati *is* one of Demises incarnarions, Zant too. Any antagonist to Zelda and Link are. The curse and Ganon's reincarnation has nothing to do with eachother because the curse isn't specific to Ganon. Ganon reincarnates because of magic.
The only exception might be TotK, but that's just speculation right now.

[@calebgoodman3028]

@@halosaft There’s also the translation error to think about. The curse in the Japanese version states that it isn’t just Demise, but the entire Demon Tribe that reincarnates, not just him.

[@Santafe4115]

@@halosaft this guy zeldas

[@CodinskiSchwartzando]

If anyone has noticed the endless reincarnation of Zelda, Link, and Ganon, it’s probably the Sheikah tribe. They always seem to know way more about the world they’re in than anyone else.

[@calebgoodman3028]

Makes sense since they’re the royal families personal spies and heavily implied to torture enemies to the kingdom for information.

[@moisesmartinezmorales5885]

Nah

[@JACpotatos]

The reincarnation is already explained

[@filletmignon5221]

Probably because the sheikah tribe is a tribe of historians and reasearchers and live multiple generations….

[@azentra7560]

@@filletmignon5221 historians and researchers, and royal retainers, and secret service/spies for the royal family.... and prison guards... and torturers... and basically everything else they need to do to serve the royal family. There is nothing they WOULDN'T do for the royal family, nothing is too low for them

[@barbaracarli]

And, again about the reincarnations:
Every Zelda is related and a descendant of the goddess (The first Zelda was the reincarnation of the goddess - directly- , but the rest is just like the great-great-grandauther of that Zelda, so they are mostly just related). And Every Link (with one exception) is not related and is just a reincarnation, being always some random blonde teenager.

[@satinsleeves]

Link isn't always blond! His hair is brown/auburn in the original Legend of Zelda, and it's pink in A Link to the Past.

[@enderofyt]

Isn t Twilight Link s father a previous Link ?

[@isthisagoodusername9764]

​@Enderof YT that's the exception

[@wildmoonchild8210]

one of the links had pink hair too lol

[@Satheo05]

@@isthisagoodusername9764 Father? if you're referring to Ocarina of Time Link then I highly doubt that.

[@flowersandchocolate14]

7 years is not a lot when youre an adult, but if you turn from 10 to 17 suddenly then you lose the most of your years of growth.
Also Zelda isnt always the reincarnated goddess, only the first one is, and others are her children with some grands

[@theskargul]

"7 years isn't that much time to lose"
Imagine being put in a coma in 5th grade and when you wake up it's your Senior year of high school. That's the 7 years.

[@evilmandrake]

The video kinda blows past this. True, only the first Zelda is Hylia in human form, but her power is passed down through her genetic line. This is the power that Vaati sought- The Light Force. The Light Force is what gives Zelda's line the ability to imbue and create Light Arrows, and in turn, the ability to weaken and seal away reincarnations of Demon King Demise.

[@isgamer-8732]

​@@theskargul pretty sure you'd still be stuck in 5th grade making up work but yes 7 years is a long time. Roughly a 10th of the average lifespan

[@alyssahopson5926]

the part about zelda is up to interpretation as there are a lot of contradicting pieces of info. some believe she's constantly reincarnated, some believe that SS zelda was the only hylia reincarnation and the rest are bloodline

[@XanderVJ]

@@alyssahopson5926 No, she is constantly reincarnated. The English localization team tend to tone down any reference to reincarnations in the Zelda series when compared to the Japanese text. No idea why. Maybe to avoid controversy from the religious types in the US.

[@maebeez]

Sami: *simps for Link*
Also Sami now: "IS LINK A CHILD???"

[@Portersona69420]

Well yes, but actually no. In some incarnations he's a literal child (looking at you four swords, ocarina/majora and wind waker) but most of the time he's a teenager roughly around 16-18. (Not counting BOTW who is technically 118 due to cyro-sleep or twilight princess where the ocarina of time link is an undead warrior.)

[@calebgoodman3028]

@@Portersona69420 Most games he is a child. Only in the 3D games and one 2D game has he been a teenager.

[@Freckxi]

ok ok ok ok dont call the cops im sorry

[@triscuitgonzalez7936]

@@Portersona69420 using "well yes but actually no" when talking about a characters age brings me such confusion yet the fun kind

[@valkyyfan]

JAIL

[@RetroCheats]

The Zelda in Zelda 2, was sleeping for a super long time.. so much so, there's actually two Zeldas that exist in this era!

[@Inkdisc]

sealing them away makes more sense when you consider beings like ganondorf can be reincarnated after death, whereas sealing them away prolongs that even further than just killing them. also in the original legend of zelda link is only 10 when he kills that ganon, as indicated by the adventure of link saying 6 years have passed and link is now 16 when the symbol appears on his hand

[@patchworkgolem]

Also, these are like proper gods. Instead of thinking of Thor in Marvel, think Cthulu or Haster. You don't just kill them. You put them to sleep, distract, seal, or just endure them. They are endless and kinda outside the rule of time and life.
But that's just how I see them.

[@Dr.HooWho]

​@@patchworkgolem that...actually makes sense
But what about the mythos were gods end up permanently dead when other gods kill one another?

[@patchworkgolem]

@dr.weewemongoose8633 Honesty, most of those happen when the gods have no choice but to fight or desperately want one another dead. Tbh, I think they dont care about the mortal world that much in Zelda lore. Like they are fighting for control of the mortal world, but their lives mater more to them. Hylia seems to be a lesser goddess who was put in charge of holding the mortal world by the other three, so she has to hold it under orders. I think that's why she goes as far as to reincarnate into a human blood line, but most of the other gods seem pretty apathetic. The mortals are playthings or pets, and all of their actions are to spite the gods on the other sides.
Here's a metaphor for it, I guess. The good pantheon has a doll they like (the mortal world). They dress it in pretty clothes (the mortal races we see as the good races) and play with it. Then their brother (the darker forces) wants to dress it in ugly clothes (the monsters and such) and tears some of the fabric while trying to change it (millions of lives). When you realize that the gods don't value individual lives as they can just wave their hands and more appear or disappear, you can see that their fight won't be to the death as they are fighting over pets at the best and objects at the worst. The fights are earth-shattering tragedies on our scale, but from their scale, it can be seen as petty squabbles.
That's how I see it, though. That's the whole Lovecraftian. "we aren't even at the scale of dust compared to the universe" mentality

[@JonnZth]

(NO SPOILERS FOR BOTW)
Some people already explained in more details but I want to give my thoughts about the reincarnation, repeating of names and some other stuff. As I'm not exactly studying this I may have understood something incorrectly, so take this with a grain of salt:
- All Zeldas are of Hylia's bloodline, with only the first one being a direct reincarnation;
- All Links(Or most of them, at least) have the reincarnated SPIRIT of the hero, not necessarily having any blood ties to the og hero;
- Demise's curse is apparently what causes it, the curse makes so that they and the demon king's hatred come back in a cycle. *But it doesn't mean that the evil come back always in the same way, that sort of explains the multiple demons apart from ganondorf that appear as villains*;
- `Ganon` is a monstrocity born from `Ganondorf`, they are not necessarily the same entity;
- Repeating names, such as Impa, is nothing more then a callback. But they CAN mean something else if you think hard enough;
- About not outright killing Ganon.... Well, maybe they simply can't. Maybe they are not powerful enough, or maybe ganon doesn't have a `core` or something easy to destroy.

[@xaoz2362]

Killing Ganon will only make him reincarnate again, sealing him away is the only way to have somewhat control over the curse.

[@isgamer-8732]

​@@xaoz2362 actually he never reincarnates in the fallen timeline. So killing him works for quite awhile especially since the reincarnation lacks any memories meaning it's a less experienced demon king. He was always brought back through rituals in the fallen timeline, all of which failed in some way
in Oracles he was brought back without the triforce and was insane because the ritual was botched. Was only Sane in LBW due to being controlled by Yuga so was still technically a mindless beast. In Zelda 1 he is brought back but is still insane although slightly less so. Only time we've ever seen a reincarnation was FSA until BOTW. All other appearances were OOT Ganondorf. So there's 12 Zelda's(Zelda 2 Zelda is a different Zelda but it's the same Link from Zelda 1) 11 Link's and 3 Ganon's(OOT, FSA, BOTW. 4 counting Demise)

[@Exile_Sky]

3:00 One theory for why the old Goddesses can't use the Tri-Force is because they ARE the Tri-Force. In that they are only really referenced in the games and are never outright characterized is the only real support. Its also why Hylia could use the Tri-Force.
It's also suggested in another game that if the Tri-Force was to be destroyed, it would also destroy the world, as one cannot exist without the other.

[@nworder4life]

Hylia can't use the Triforce, that's the entire reason why she became a mortal woman. Also there's a good chance that the oracle games characters, Din the dancer and Naryu the singer are in fact mortal incarnations of the God's they were named after. Especially since they are in control of the land and time, both powers attributed to those God's.(you can connect wisdom to Zelda which is also linked to time throughout the franchise)

[@Matagu1]

​@@nworder4life you forgot Farore who had her own game cancelled.

[@rhettmitchell]

@@Matagu1 yeah and farore shows up in some side quests at least

[@Matagu1]

@@rhettmitchell i was hoping for Nintendo to remake the Oracle games the way it was planned with codes and stuff to continue the other game.

[@SaraAdrian]

Link (and Zelda) vary in age from 11 to 18 depending on game. Oh and to answer your quest question if they know they are reincarnated. Zelda night but probably not. There are thousands of years between games… it is a legend after all.
As far as romance goes, it’s only implied they may become a couple in a few games. Link often has romantic interests in other games, like in ocarina of time when he returns he likely ends up with Malon, in twilight princess he probably ends up with Ilia post game.
Impa isn’t always an old woman, in some games she’s a strong warrior lady.
The whole series wasn’t written with cohesion in mind. It’s crazy partly because the game creators prioritized a good game vs making each game make sense with the other games. The timeline is fun for lore but shouldn’t be taken too seriously.
Side note, if you could only play one other game in the series, play ocarina of time. It’s still ranked as one of the best games ever and contains heaps of lore relevant to the series. Skyward sword is second for lore dumping. In general tho all of them are a good time. Majora’s mask and twilight princess hold special places in my heart. I do like it when Zelda goes dark.
Oh and why sealing? Because of the curse. The curse of demise can only be contained, never fully killed.

[@nicolem1012]

in the canon twilight princess manga, Midna and Link are a couple!!

[@Zodia195]

@@nicolem1012 That doesn't surprise me because I was getting major shipping vibes between them or Link and Ilia. I really should read the manga. Probably a dumb question but Link does actually talk in the manga right?

[@nicolem1012]

@@Zodia195 the mangas are great, and he does talk in them! He actually talks in all games too, they just don’t give him full lines, it’s implied in i think all games that he responds or tell things, plus his dialogue options, he sometimes has little phrases he says out loud.
In BOTW, zelda references conversations she’s had with Link, and in her diary she writes that Link confided in her that he feels too anxious to talk, afraid of his big responsibility and that’s why he finds it hard to speak most of times, implying he is selective mute.

[@Zodia195]

@@nicolem1012 Oh believe me, I loved reading Zelda's diary and loved learning about Link through the Champions too.

[@enriquecotza]

@@nicolem1012 the mangas aren’t canon in the zelda series confirmed by the makers

[@Inebriated_Goat]

Even for veterans of the series get confused by the timeline tbh Nintendo kind of just threw it together over the years but it's still super fun to learn. Hero Of Time Link is best Link

[@manouxx]

her little dancy dance when she thinks zelda and link are gonna kiss ... girl me too

[@TKnightcrawler]

They actually do in that scene. Video skipped over that.

[@Lemon_squee]

Nah nah As long time Zelda fan, it is STILL just as confusing when you've played a majority of the games. Thats why I love it haha so much mystery

[@Freckxi]

thank god it’s not just my brain

[@Turambar88]

If you seal them away they can't resurrect until the seal breaks, if you kill them, they can resurrect whenever. So even if it is just a bandaid solution, you do wind up getting more time between evil demon king outbreaks by locking them away.

[@heroofmasks]

Idk about the evil bosses being reincarnated whenever after killed there seems to be atlease 1 to 2 hundred years difference atlease from the only known reincarnated Ganondorf we got being tp death to reincarnated b4 the events of 4sa. But yea sealing usually stops anymore from appearing until they break free.

[@UltimateCerberus]

To be fair, it feels like most people forget Zelda is the reincarnation of Hylia herself.

[@isthisagoodusername9764]

This is a really small thing but there's (mostly) reason all the Link's wear green.
It's usually based off the Link from Ocarina of Time who wore green and every new hero wears it in honor of him. Skyward Sword was just chance since every student in the school wears that outfit. Minish Cap is the only one that has no explanation for the green.

[@heroofmasks]

Not true about ss its every year the people who get to move up after the ceremony gets a specific color tunic that class has to wear that's why a couple of the upper classmates wear different colors hilariously link was the only one to graduate so he'd be the only one to wear green. As for Mc I'd say it's because he worked with his grandpa as a blacksmith and he was wearing a green tunic so either family thing or job thing. Also only ww did it because of oot link but it was to be for 1 day.

[@isthisagoodusername9764]

@@heroofmasks I believe Twilight wears it for a similar reason? But you’re right a lot of the ones in the fallen timeline don’t wear it for that reason, sorry. I thought of Wind Waker and Twilight Princess and applied that to alot of other Links.

[@CPPpotkustartti]

Small correction on video:
When Demise cursed Link and Zelda, his curse would send worth someone harboring his malice and hatred (Ganondorf and perhaps Vaati and other main bosses we meet?).
He did not word it to mean HE would be reincarnated along with Link and Zelda.
Demise is either dead or trapped inside Master Sword while Links and Zeldas souls are visited by death and chaos every now and then.
Demise pretty much is resting and left the world showing middle finger to those who are responsible for his defeat, Hylia and Link ✌XD
Bit on context why Hylia chose to be reborn as Hylian, or human (i don't know why they don't just stick with what they are):
After defeating Demise Hylia was severely weakened.
Her choice was to heal the land that their battle had wrecked but use her strength to do so, leaving her weak when Demise would return
Or she could prepare for Demises return and repeat it, but lands she wanted to protect would be again ravaged by their battle.
But she wanted both, way to defeat Demise and to protect land.
She created two plans
1. She created (not yet Master) Sword as well as trials for chosen knight to complete and to hone their soul to become someone that holds all three values, Strength, Courage and Wisdom in balance and could make wish to get rid of Demise (it kinda worked and needed bit of Courage, Strength and Wisdom to end the deal).
2. Hylia reincarnated as Human generations later, would arrive to surface where she would meet Impa, travel to Springs to reawaken her memories and then travel back in time just after Hylia gave up her divine form and Zelda would then use her power to heal the lands and keep Demise imprisoned (healing lands seemed to have her primary goal) while sleeping until Demise would been defeated.

[@calebgoodman3028]

Small correction on the curse since it was mistranslated. It applies to the entire Demon Tribe, not just Demise’s malice. Makes characters like Vaati more tragic in hindsight considering what he became.

[@ThePanameno507]

That video she saw is unfortunately bad, has many mistakes and missconceptions, shortens the stories too much and does not explain details that can make the narrative more interesting. I think it's because the one who made that chronology vidoe only played wind waker haha. because it is in the only she give details with some.. love I guess
In twilight princes she goes from the beginning to the middle, and from the middle to the end, omitting everything. And she treat majoras mask as if it didn't exist. There are a lot of better chronology videos

[@nathanpfirman625]

Yeah the earlier Zelda games can be pretty scary. For example the Shadow Temple could be a horror game. Also majoras mask is pretty scary for example in one side quest your told by a kid that every year this alien like entities attack a ranch and she has to defend against it. If they don't kill the aliens the kid disappears and then comes back severely disturbed not remembering what happened or the aliens.

[@Freckxi]

ngl they look so fun!!

[@Exile_Sky]

The games are all fun. The more depressing and darkish titles are Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess, and Link's Awakening.
The older games are not exactly like the newest title.

[@carljohansson3512]

ZeldaLore's timeline video is pretty great. One thing to note about the Zelda timeline is that only the connections and lore in the games(with the original Japanese text as the localizations usually have some mistranslations) matter, the connections and lore found in the books exist to fill our imagination but they aren't set in stone. The developers have said in interviews that they like to leave the order of events up to the players to interpret. More than one answer can exist and we are encouraged to find them.
My own lore knowledge of the important bits in the replies

[@carljohansson3512]

The curse the primordial Demon king explains to remind his enemies that the conflicts with the demon tribe wouldn't end with his destruction was likely placed long before his resurrection in Skyward sword. The curse is called the curse of the demon tribe, it is the hatred of the original Demon king and all demons towards the Gods' tribe which later included the spirit of the hero and the blood of the goddess after the Demon king's eradication. It forms a cycle of death and resurrection for all souls that hate and bear grudges, a different reincarnation cycle unrelated to the curse exists for other souls. The primordial Demon king was destroyed by a Triforce wish but was resurrected in the distant past before getting defeated again, his residual thoughts was sealed away in the Blade of evil's bane to decay. A Sheikah made it her duty to watch over the sword to ensure that the Demon king wouldn't return, thousands of years later she dies peacefully possibly fullfilling her duty. If the Demon king wasn't destroyed then he would still decay and wouldn't be able to threaten the world again. However the Demon king mentioned before dying that there would be incarnations/manifestations/embodiments of his and the demon tribe's undying hatred and grudge.
Ganondorf/Ganon is one of the manifestations/embodiments/incarnations of the original Demon king's hatred and grudge. He was one of the Gerudo males(which are said to only be born every 100 years) and was a master of dark magic. The Gerudo thief was an evil individual who stole, killed, betrayed, lied and manipulated his way to power. He claimed the entire Triforce/Triforce of power(sometimes the Triforce is fragmented so he steals this piece, in Ocarina of time when he attempted to steal the entire Triforce he shattered it due to his imbalanced heart)/the Trident(there are different origin stories) that gave him a power surge that allowed him to become became a Great demon king/Demon king of darkness/King of evil, at some point during the origins he transformed into a form reflecting his evil heart/his true self:a terrifying boar-like demon beast. He has been defeated, killed, sealed/imprisoned, resurrected ever since and his hatred and grudge towards the heroes, princesses, the sages, the gods, the Kingdom of Hyrule and her allies grew each time. The Gerudo demon king's history brought shame to the Gerudo tribe and no male Gerudo has become a Gerudo king since Ganondorf, no one knows where they are or if they are still born but one thing is for sure: The Gerudo aren't allowing males from any race into their towns anymore and they challenge Ganon along with the rest of Hyrule whenever he rears his ugly head. Ganondorf’s main attribute is Power so he usually obtains the Triforce of power when the Triforce is fragmented, his dark magic is fueled by hatred, malice and grudge and can curse others. He is capable of creating phantoms/offshoots of himself and his dark power grant him resistances that can only be repelled by sacred energy(The Master sword, the light Arrows, sealing power, Four sword possess it). Ganondorf/Ganon after becoming a demon king has become a spiritual successor of the Primordial Demon king who fulfills the same role as a Demon king and harbinger of calamity(the primordial Demon king doesn't have a name, only a title. The title can be translated to Demise/The destroyer/The avatar of demise/The Bringer of demise/The one of Demise). Malladus Ganondorf's title incarnation of darkness and demon king so he's another embodiment of hatred and grudge. Because of Ganondorf's demonic soul he can resurrect after death because of the demon tribe curse, no in-game evidence prove that he can literally reincarnate so the Four swords adventures situation is up to interpretation(timeline parallel in a timeline branch that resulted in a different culture and society/reincarnation of a previous Ganon like in the Official timeline/resurrected Ganondorf in the body of a vessel). Four swords adventures doesn't have any in-game evidence that prove that it is connected to Twilight princess so it's placement isn't set in stone and is up to interpretation.
The Links are incarnations/manifestations of the spirit of the hero and are born from the Knight's family/clan's bloodline, they are sometimes unaware of this. A Link can meet the spirit of a previous Link as both possess the same soul, if a Link disappears from a timeline branch the Hero's spirit will eventually still manifest in that branch. They are bound to the Master sword which easily recognizes them and their main attribute is Courage so they usually obtain or inherit the Triforce of courage when the Triforce is fragmented.
The Princesses of Hyrule who bear the traditional name Zelda are descendants of the first Zelda who was a reincarnation of the Goddess Hylia. They inherit Hylia's powers and can become her manifestations, their main attribute is Wisdom so they usually obtain or inherit the Triforce of wisdom when the Triforce is fragmented. The Triforce can't be wielded by members of the Gods' tribe so Hylia found a loophole, her plan to destroy the primordial Demon king didn't go as planned because Hylia didn't forsee Ghirahim's(the spirit of the Demon king's sword) interference so the plan had to be improvised. Hylia's chosen hero Link ended up being the one who touched the Triforce to wish for the Demon king's destruction but Ghirahim traveled to the past to revive his master.
Ocarina of time’s timeline split occurred because the road between times closed, past and present became seperated(before that they were connected) and started to coexist as seperate timeline branches. Link altered the path of the Child branch so the events that created the future the Adult branch continues from wouldn't be repeated. Interestingly in Ocarina of time Ganondorf like in A link to the past was able to corrupt the Sacred realm but not to the same extent.
The fallen split doesn't have any in-game evidence but there are other answers you can find to explain the existence of the fallen branch(official name, anyone is free to rename their own version of it).
Breath of the wild takes place a long time in the distant future of Ocarina of time, it takes place in one of the branches that was created in Ocarina of time’s ending, many pieces of evidence exists that can explain the presence of things only seen in one branch(some things aren't timeline exclusive). The Child branch has cross-timeline knowledge of the events of Ocarina of time before the timeline split brought by the Hero of time when he warned the royal family. The last game in the Adult branch takes place in a different land but there is a small possibility that the people returned to Hyrule, the Great sea disappeared and Ganondorf accidentally became unsealed though there was a Triforce wish that destroyed old Hyrule. The fallen branch has the debatable fallen but stuff we learn about Breath of the wild claims that the Hero of time was victorious, one way for it to still work is through cross-timeline knowledge brought by people jumping through portals between worlds.
Force is something residing in all lifeforms, it can manifest through positive feelings and desires. The Triforce is believed to be the force of the Golden goddesses. Force seems to be the opposite of malice/evil energy/grudge/noxious gas manifests from negative feelings and desires. Force is the sacred energy residing within the Master sword. A lot of Force power can grant a wish similar to the Triforce aka the Master force/True force though the wish is far less powerful. In the localization Force is called life-force/light force/force gems, Gratitude crystals in Skyward sword is very similar to force and is likely the same thing. The opposite of the Gratitude crystals is evil crystals said to be the malevolent cursed hearts of demons.

[@enriquecotza]

A fact most people get confused about: only skyward sword zelda is hylias reincarnation and she passed her powers down to her descendants. After ss zelda died, she went obviously back to the heavens as hylia because botw link can pray to hylia. Only ganondorf and link are most of the time reincarnation, like demise curse said: “I will return again like those of you… Those who share the *blood* of the goddess (descendants) and the *spirit* of the hero (reincarnation). They are eternally bound to this curse. An incarnation of my hatred (now known as ganon/ganondorf) shall ever fellow your kind, dooming them to wander a blood-soaked sea of darkness for all times.”

[@botz77]

As someone that played the original as a kid back in the 80's I am also confused by the timeline.

[@sourishka]

Her face at 24:23 LMAOO

[@Shritistrang]

Ah, yes. The greatest king Hyrule ever had. Daftness.
Also, I want to clarify that pink bunny Link is a very important piece of Zelda lore!

[@Freckxi]

i’d be angry if pink bunny baby link was not important

[@avaliausd.]

Zelda being Hylia was definitely not common knowledge until Skyward Sword, which was the most recent game before Breath Of The Wild, so don't feel awkward about not knowing. I was born in the 1991 and have been playing Zelda for all of my life, yet I didn't find out about Hylia until around 2011.

[@luissaumeth8000]

actually it was the thirdmost recent game before BoTW, the one before BoTW was link Triforce heroes, then link between worlds

[@Arzfx709]

Botw was my introduction to Zelda so at least I’m not alone😂

[@Matt23488]

There is a kiss heavily hinted in Zelda 2. When you beat it, when it shows Link and Zelda standing together, the curtain lowers until only their legs are shown, then they move closer together before the curtains continue closing. That's the only canon kiss I can think of. Skyward Sword strongly hints at a romantic relationship between Link and Zelda, but nothing concrete. And sometimes they are relatives. It's hinted at in Ocarina of Time that Link and Zelda are siblings, though that requires a few assumptions. But they are logical assumptions.

[@wayland513]

Wait, Link and Zelda could be siblings in Ocarina? Where do they hint to that? I've played that game multiple times, and never picked up on that. Can you explain?

[@gerrysnk]

I thought than in SS they had a best friend kind of sibling relationship.
In Breath of the wild I feel there is something more romantic implied

[@nworder4life]

@@gerrysnk They literally have their own music titled "romance in the sky" SS Zelda and Link create the royal family of Hyrule, who do you think Hylia did the deed with to make a bloodline in the first place? There's no humans on the surface.

[@nayruofthezoras1458]

There's no such hints of Zelda and Link being related in OoT. That sounds more like a fan theory, if anything.

[@nworder4life]

@Nayru of the Zoras probably spawned from A link to the past "Zelda is your..."

[@KolorMixStudios]

It's always fun seeing people getting into this franchise and getting confused with the lore. And it's even more fun reading the comments of people trying to explain specific details.

[@stargazer99]

Link is sometimes a child sometimes a young adult. Just depends on when a form of Ganon decides to attack

[@JohnSmithsu2006]

all the adult links are 16-17

[@Anths_art]

0:47 the way I laughed knowing that I said the exact same thing like way back when i became a fan AHAHAHA

[@jenarogonzalez5151]

Links a lazy boy but has an unbelievable spirit

[@DarkDezhel]

My first Zelda game was Ocarina of Time (when the timeline splits) you can imagine my face when I found out that this game caused all the mess 🤣

[@protojager]

Link is between 10-17 in nearly every Zelda game, Breath of The Wild is a 17 year old Link and one of the oldest heroes at the time of his journey.

[@VegetaLF7]

Yeah, the only adult Links we really get in the series are Breath of the Wild, Twilight Princess, and half of Ocarina of Time's Links. The other half of OoT and all the others are children.

[@tcrpgfan]

And that is never going to change as now he's physically in his 20s in TOTK as at LEAST five years have passed since BOTW. It's never directly stated, but the evidence is there. Like Riju no longer needing a booster seat in order to sit on the throne and Hudson and Rhondson having a young toddler of a daughter.

[@pedroespana6281]

This is very entertaining to watch

[@knightowl1985]

I could be wrong but I think the reason they keep sealing Ganon instead of killing him is that he can not be reborn if he is still alive. So in theory sealing keeps him away longer but bad guys keep unsealing him.

[@XanderVJ]

To the people saying that Zelda doesn't reincarnate: No, she totally does.
People tend to think otherwise because the English localization team tones down reincarnation references in general. In the Japanese text, there's little doubt of that. Although also partly because Zelda always reincarnates inside the Royal Family, while Link can reincarnate both inside and outside of his own bloodline. But there is an explanation for it, but it's one that is familiar to Japanese audiences, but not to Western audiences.
The thing is, Zelda is following the Japanese concept of the "arahitogami" ("現人神"), or "God in human form". At some points in the history of Japan, the Emperor was considered to be both a direct descendant and reincarnation/avatar of the goddess Amaterasu. Zelda basically has the same thing going on with Hylia.

[@stuartmckitrick2149]

In regards to Link's green tunic, as you play the other games, most of the characters who comment on the outfit, comment that the outfit is either an old hero's outfit, or a replica of the outfit. So, these characters do realize that this hero looks like the old hero. But, they do not typically assume that just because new Link looks like the old hero, that they are the new hero.

[@thewinterprince1731]

Seven years is an entire quarter of the life I've lived so far, and close to one tenth of an entire lifespan. In seven years, humanity went from gameboys to smart phones. Seven years can mean a looooooot.

[@NL-X]

7 years from a 10 years old to 17 is a lot lol. It's when a person mostly grows up besides, think about this... Link is still a kid with 10 years old that from 1 second to another is now 17.
And for another thing, Ganondorf is the reincarnation of the demon king Demise. Zelda and Link are just heirs of the original ones.

[@dragonstorm0888]

As for Link and Zelda romances which you seemed interested in, Surprisingly, the games only seem to depict their relationship romantically are Skyward Sword, Spirit Tracks, and Breath of the Wild (also the original games if you count one implied smooch at the very end). The rest of the time they're either strangers or very close friends.

[@LoinkLoink]

There's also ALBW Zelda, sort of. She's a fellow admirer of Zelink(according to the gossip dude), though it's up to interpretation if she feels that way towards Link lol

[@GenetMJF]

Loved your reaction to the timeline split :,,,D

[@fabuloussuperstar]

Saw that you wanted romance between Zelda and Link, and the only two games I know that it happens for sure is Skyward Sword and Spirit Tracks. Everything else is open to interpretation besides Ocarina of Time's Child Timeline's ending, where he seems to end up with Malon, and Twilight Princess where there's 0 connection between the two.
Breath of the Wild/Age of Calamity/Tears of the Kingdom....I leave that up to you to find out 👀
Hope this satisfies you!

[@wayland513]

Spoilers
In BOTW it's confirmed that Zelda had feelings for Link. Kass says "the Princess however, only had eyes for her appointed Knight" when talking about how his teacher had a crush on Zelda. He also says in his final song that Zelda awakened her powers because of her love for Link.

[@aurorabassani5446]

It's not really canon in any Zelda game anyway :/

[@delphy2478]

to be honest, 'i curse you with eternal reincarnation so i can try again forever' is actually a pretty smart way to try to win
also, yeah hyrule has a really bad history of sealing away bad guys rather than killing them and them coming back later

[@Ninemis69]

I know the Zelda lore since i was a kid and its always fun to watch people discover it for the first time

[@brunokingz]

You think you know.. not even Nintendo knows lol

[@Ninemis69]

@@brunokingz Yea im still confused about the Totk Timeline

[@Fawriel]

This has probably been pointed out, but the reason this stuff is so convoluted is because they only came up with it after the fact. I don’t know what exactly they were thinking in the beginning - maybe each game was supposed to be a retelling of a similar story, like an actual legend. But yeah, aside from some vague and some explicit connections between individual games, it was only towards Skyward Sword that they decided that everything should fit into some sort of historical timeline.

[@Evnyofdeath]

"Its only 7 years"
The absolute oldest Link was during the start of Ocarina was 10 to 12. 7 years is nearly half of his entire life. He also missed all his formative years and its clear from his actions in Ocarina that he still has a child's mind during the adult half of the story.

[@DaNintendude]

Link actually isn't reincarnated at all.
All Links are just people born across generations that possess the "Spirit of the Hero."

[@TheSorrel]

I'm pretty sure they keep sealing people into stuff because they can't kill them.
Also, the Magic in the Zelda universe likes to just do whatever it does and is rarely controlled by people.

[@PrixtoTNT]

11:23
Seven years isn't much time for an adult person, but for a kid who becomes a teenager it's actually a lot. Some of the most important years of the growth of a person

[@joshuana5132]

The reason for the sealing: it lasts longer than killing him, because he just reincarnates otherwise.

[@spenser-ir1lt]

“It probably isn’t that complicated” oh how she was wrong.😂

[@Freckxi]

oh how is was ......

[@Falco.exe93]

"Who are these fucking people?"
Literally me, when I go out anywhere

[@Freckxi]

same lmao

[@danielmunoz1275]

Some further explanations to keep things clearer:
OG Link is the one from Skyward Sword, the Goddess Hylia devised a plan to kill the Demon King Demise (basically Zelda's world Devil). For her plan to succed the Goddess became human and her mortal being is the First Zelda of the timeline, and she made the Spirit of her chosen hero (OG Link) immortal. Then, the Demon King curses both those who hold the Spirit of the Hero and the Blood of the Goddess to suffer under a never ending cycle of war, because his hate as the Demon King is ETERNAL.
After all that Zelda goes on to have children, the kingdom of Hyrule is stablished, and First Zelda's descendants become The Royal family? Why? Well, because they're quite literally offspring of a Goddess. This is why all Zeldas awaken sacred powers, it's their Divine blood that allows them to tap into them. So, all Zeldas, including Breath of the Wild are long relatives from the first Zelda who was the Goddess in mortal form.
Link, each Link is a different person, they are called out to adventure and to be the hero at different ages. The thing they all hold in common is that they inherit the Hero's soul that was forged by the OG Link. Some Links are descendants of previous Links, but not all of them are. For example Ocarina Link is a past relative of Twilight Princess Link. From Breath of the Wild we only know that Link is the youngest generation from a lineage of Hyrule's Knights, so far not related to a previous Link.
The Demon King is a title, it goes to whoever that gathers enough power and malice to be the leader of the Demon Tribe. Demons being many of the monsters we see in the games, including Breath of the Wild. As stated before Demise (First Demon King) stated that his hatred never dies, and so, his malice finds a way to corrupt and influence individuals into causing trouble for the Goddess descendant and reincarnated Hero of the time. Vaati, and Yuga for example, but the most meaningful and iconic example being Ganondorf, who was just a Gerudo who wanted to take his people out of the desert, but his ambition and malice turned him evil and corrupted him into becoming Ganon, a new Demon King. The rest is history.
To finish off, even if the current Demon King is killed instead of sealed away, Demise's curse will make it so a new threat appears. This is why Ganon/Ganondorf is usually sealed, because it actually makes peace last longer. The malice of the Demon King is within a trapped individual and has to make its way out of imprisonment. While killing said individual makes said malice roam free just waiting for anyone else keen of malice and making them the new threat, definitively the later option makes it quicker for trouble to stir up again.

[@thomaspereira1545]

11:09 Link defeats Ganon, Zelda sends Link back in time. So now we have 2 timelines, 1 where Link is sent back and the other where (older) Zelda is.
Even if Link is not there anymore, the timeline continues to exist without him/

[@Purechaos61]

8:27 Precisely. Demise’s curse ensures not only his own rebirth in the form of Ganon/Ganondorf/Vaati, but also ensures that both Zelda and Link are reborn alongside him in a never-ending cycle.
Why? Because Demise absolutely despises anyone that possess the blood of the goddess (Zelda) and the spirit of the hero (Link), and has trapped them in this cycle of rebirth so that they will never know normal, peaceful lives.

[@SweetCrumblingDoll]

There's a reason why I tell my friends "Zelda is my Lord of the Rings." There's so much lore within the games that it can be overwhelming for a newcomer. That's alright! Just enjoy the games as you play them, and make the connections yourself. You do not have to pay attention to the official timeline because connections can be made everywhere.
If you want to invest in the basics of the lore:
I think part of what makes this video so confusing is the use of game footage over the events being explained. Not all the footage matches up with the events being discussed. The most important points of note are: The Triforce is a powerful magic that can bring paradise or corruption; God/dess shenanigans; Demise's curse keeps the cycle of good vs. evil going; the timeline split happens at the Ocarina of Time junction; and Breath of the Wild takes place 10,000+ years after Ocarina of Time (and seems to converge all the timelines back together).

[@imklubb]

Ayyyyyyy I edited that video for the Leaderboard! I hope you enjoyed it!

[@valkyyfan]

her botw gameplay videos are really cozy and fun for the nex peopple here!

[@maskedgamerjoker6148]

So what I remember from the wiki that explain in Hyrule Historia( the book) that all the Links in the games have different as a supposed references that you can name Link or something else hence why most of the game openings and prologue mention a nameless hero dress in Green, Zelda names is based on a royal family tradition of sorts that every daughter born in the royal family have to be named Zelda. So no one truly notices any reincarnation stuff I believe.
Plus yeah Links and Zelda age various depends on and designs
Classic design which is Link with Green tunic and brown overalls depicts around his preteens somewhere 13 to 15 years old
Toon Link the one with lime green overalls is somewhere around 10-12 years old
Adult link is states around 17 years old
And Young Links stays as 10 years old

[@LegoEngineer003]

If you kill them instead of sealing them, that just means they can be reborn faster. For example, Breath of the Wild Ganon was sealed for 10,000 years; if he had been killed, he might be back in 100 or so

[@zorojuro9076]

believe me even after years being a fan and playing almost all the games, the timeline still gets confusing. I won't spoil anything but with tears of the kingdom coming out in just a few days it feels like the story is gonna get even more complicated, just a heads up! Please be careful these days because most probably there will be ton of spoilers for tears of the kingdom and therefore for BOTW so better to be safe

[@isaacbunsen5833]

Link dying being a timeline split wasn't really thought through, as that game was at one point INTENDED to be a prequel to the older game. They just made up a way for that to happen for when they eventually released a timeline. Fans often brainstorm other places that section of time can go. The other game that gets moved a lot, is the one where the narrator stated "ganon reincarnates with all of his memories". The official placement of that game makes no sense, and that's the only time ganon strictly reincarnates, so its popular to invent ANOTHER timeline split earlier in the timeline before ganon is born.
Fans like to brainstorm timelines that make a little more sense. Basically most of the games have a clear order they can go in, but some strings of games are a little isolated and unclear of where they go.

[@tcrpgfan]

Not dead. Defeated. Big difference.

[@MrSonicHedgehog]

Fun fact: Ganon is dead under Hyrule Castle the whole time in BotW and it's the essence of his malice that we fight at the end. Demise's curse made it impossible for him to truly die

[@tomrees82]

26:22
Keep in mind, if Zelda & Link get together in Skyward Sword (for example) then every Zelda after that is a descendant of both Zelda & Link.
Each new Link can also be a descendant of a former Link (Twilight Princess for example). In these cases this Link is also a descendant of both Zelda & Link.

[@crackedjudgement4365]

You can't kill demise (who Ganondorf is imbued with) because hes an immortal, just like hylia
Link's and Zelda's relationship is platonic in most games because they have little interaction, just a desire to save the kingdom (go play mario if you want sweet nothings) there are a few instances where they are childhood friends and might have a relationship but this cant be consistent or else future versions would be related by blood as zelda must come from the same bloodline.

[@SuicidebyYourMom]

"I'm sure it's not that complicated".
Zelda timeline: challenge accepted.

[@smoldragon339]

6:49 Link (and Zelda) are constantly reincarnated. There are a LOT of Links and a LOT of Zeldas throughout the franchise. The version of Link in THAT game is a child, but there are also teen Links and adult Links, in other games. The Link in Breath of the Wild is an adult, for instance.

[@CountMonsparkle]

Great reaction! I think you should watch one more video as a follow-up: Solving the Zelda timeline by Unraveled. It's a completely hilarious video that makes fun of the Zelda lore while also tying up all the loose ends. Huge recommend.

[@sly_cat]

Fun fact, Link isn't super special usually, canonically lots of hylians have the name link because the legend is so well known.

[@OtakuJuanma2]

For the record. Zelda and Link tend to be in some way aware of the reincarnation cycle, because it's part of the mythos of the world, but they don't have memories of their previous life. So at some point it's reasonable to say they go "wait a minute... I'm a hero, wearing green clothes, wielding the legendary sword... Wellp, I'm a reincarnation, moving on with my current quest!" (Same for princess)

[@doodlenat1647]

The zeldas have some knowledge of the hero's reicarnation, link however is just a kid who lives a normal life and then apparently he has to do something

[@del4028]

If they kill Ganon/Ganondorf he'll reincarnate (reborn)
If they seal him he won't.
Although if he's only sealed it's easy to other characters or by mistakes to free him.
Basically they can't get Ganondorf away forever.

[@jamesonharding6865]

Most of the games have LAAAAAAARGE Time Gaps in between so no one would’ve really noticed. The only thing left of the Hero Of Time 10,000 years later would probably be legends/fables/myths

[@reshawshid]

Some notes that aren't in the video you watched, relating to questions you had:
-The tunic supposedly came as a result of the Skyloft era, where it was a knight's uniform. This was retroactively decided in Skyward Sword. In Wind Waker it IS mentioned early on that it's part of a tradition to dress males of that Link's age in that tunic for their birthday, but it's more of a passing thing. The real reason is that Japan, unlike the West, still has a very strong mascot culture and brands are often associated with iconic characters. Link is the mascot, so although his appearance has changed with multiple incarnations, he is still recognizable as a mascot due to the tunic.
-Zelda being a goddess is very recent, as in it only started being a thing in Skyward Sword. I don't think it was a very good addition to the lore when Din, Nayru, and Farore already existed. Fun fact, by the way, Christianity was intended to be a heavily noted presence in the original Legend of Zelda, and potentially also future games, but someone told the team that doing so wouldn't go over well in the West (I think it was the West?) and it was removed. Hence why the lore was eventually made to have three goddesses... and then four.
-They also didn't think of any of this in advance. People made their own theories for around a decade, and it was a very hot topic in forums, until Nintendo likely got tired of being asked, and made their own official timeline retroactively. Until Skyward Sword, there was no continuity, none of them were considered related other than in name only. Seeing a pattern with this particular game? Either way, I have interesting memories of back when I frequented a Legend of Zelda forum and those theories were common. People were very passionate about it and many made very good arguments for their ideas. Back when people COULD make arguments instead of just accusing people of being hateful.
-The closest Link and Zelda have ever gotten to being a couple is in Minish Cap (the one with the Picori blade and the first one in the video to mention four Links). They're close friends there. They're also somewhat close in Skyward Sword (skyloft era). The reason they don't get together is due to the stigma of relationships in Japan. It would seem there is a heavy stigma that being in a relationship means you're not allowed to do anything other than work, sleep, tend to family, and gossip, lest you be labeled a failure. Probably why Japan's birth rate is rapidly declining. That's a whole other discussion, but that's most of the relevant information surrounding it.
-In Japanese lore much of what they believe about evil and evil spirits is that you cannot permanently kill any of it, but seal it away and hope it stays sealed away. Killing the host just means it goes elsewhere rather immediately.
All that said, you should definitely play:
-A Link to the Past
-Ocarina of Time
-Majora's Mask
-Wind Waker
-Twilight Princess
-A Link Between Worlds
-Minish Cap
They're all great games and a lot more fun than BotW. TotK fixed the problems in BotW though.

[@cherokydonato]

so all princesses born in the hyrulean royal family are named Zelda. It's a tradition thing. While Link isn't necessarily named Link because the player can re-name him in most games. Rather It's more of the spirit of being heroic that makes a Link Link. Hylians do know of heroes of legend "in green" but since it seems like the time between games is so vast they are just like ancient legend

[@IGN_OFFClAL]

People did notice a pattern and do read about it. it's passed down as... well... a legend.
later entries in the timeline actually have link put on his tunic as a rite of passage or it's given to him by the gods, because the look of the hero is well established.
many boys coming of age do the same, but of course when link does it's already fighting time.

[@okinaa]

fave new cozy streamer/youtuber

[@flumphflumph6021]

11:35 Imagine being a 10 year-old. For whatever reason you wake up 7 years later. You've missed your education, childhood friendships and in Link's case his Childhood innocence.
The existence of the Child Timeline suggests he might of retained his innocence and sense of adventure.
The Adult Timeline is where Link suggests he couldn't go back to being an "Adventurous Kid" and in a way was punished for it because his actions may of saved many lives , he was turned into a Shade (the opposite of dying peacefully) to aid the next Link.
Whether or not Link lived the life of a Child, Young Adventurer or Warrior doesn't matter though as every Link and Zelda are forced to play Martyrs and Ganondorf the villain when there is no other foe to disturb the peace.

[@rhettmitchell]

Idk if anyone said it yet, but it looks like the video you watched was made before Nintendo revealed that Breath of the Wild is at the end of all three timelines. It’s most likely not a convergence of the timelines, but more that Breath of the Wild is inevitable to happen. Bc it happens well over 10,000 years after any of the other games in any of the timelines. It’s honestly kind of a cop-out lol. They wanted to put in as many names, things, races, and references from the old games as possible, so they had to make all the timelines eventually end up with BOTW happening for it to make more sense
For example, there’s rock salt and the Rito and Korok races in BOTW, which all reference the Wind Waker, the game with the huge ocean over Hyrule. But then we also have the Zora and Gerudo races in BOTW, which don’t exist in that timeline. There are a lot more things but those are the biggest things pointing to the theory that eventually, all timelines have the events of other timelines also similarly happen within themselves. So they all eventually become BOTW after a few dozen thousand years

[@KingsBard]

I think you're safe simping for Link in Tears of the Kingdom, since at least a year has passed so Link would be (100 &) 18 years old

[@patchworkgolem]

This is going to be a long post but this is how I view the seals in Zelda and a lot of fiction where they use puzzles and keys on seals for bad guys.
Sealing magic is like a Prince Rupert's drop. A Prince Rupert's drop, for any unfamiliar, is where you drip melting glass into water to cool it in such a way that it ends up looking like a tadpole, with a spherical head and a long thin tail at the end. It's an interesting quirk of crystalline structures where a bunch of tension is stored in the head making it super tough. You can look it up on youtube and see people hitting the glass head of it with a hammer and not even dent it. It is super hard and repels most blows. However, even a little bit of pressure on the tail and it shatters in an explosion as it releases all that internal pressure.
I think sealing magic is similar in that trying to make a seal without a key/way to break it is as weak as a regular glass ball. There is no point of tension giving it strength. Instead, a seal is strong and unbreakable in most ways but easy to break with the key, just as you hit the tail of a PR drop. However even then there are other ways. You can't just hit it to break it as the tension repels the blow but you can just put a constant force to weather it. I guess the best way to fit it in the metaphor would be rubing the head of the drop for years or having it under a flow of water, eventually it will get worn down bit by but before (presumably*) exploding as enough tension is released.
So in summary, seals can either be undone by their weak point being hit hit (the key which is the master sword being pulled out in a lot of the cases here) which ends them instantly or they have to worn down over a long period of time. Like we joke about how the bad guys keep getting sealed in swords and the seals weaken eventually to free them but most of the time frames are centuries or they fail due to someone actively trying to free them.

[@JaggerG]

A fun thing about Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons: they’re consecutive in the timeline, but they’re also interchangeable. They’re separate games that can be linked together after completing one to form a continuity. A couple characters from the previous game migrate to the other land, and a couple choices you’d made carry over. They pretty much have the same ending, though.

[@johnlucas1543]

I can break down some questions you have about The Legend of Zelda series, a 37 year old series.
Each game can be enjoyed all on its own but it ALSO fits into a larger story within the timeline too.
#1: Zelda is Hylia Reborn as a Mortal.
ALL Zeldas. But with each rebirth of Zelda, she has to rediscover & relearn the Goddess within.
It's like a Jelly Doughnut. Mortal Shell with Goddess Filling.
The Human Zelda is the Doughnut but the Goddess Hylia is the Jelly.
And Goddess Hylia is the Goddess of Light & the Goddess of Time though you can only know that by reading the subtext.
But Zelda is weaker than Hylia because Human is weaker than Goddess.
Hylia incarnating as a mortal was a downgrade in order to use the Triforce to overcome the Demon King Demise.
Gods can't use the Triforce of the Gods because the Goddesses Din, Nayru, Farore left it for the hope of the mortals.
#2: Is Zelda & Link a couple who kisses & makes babies together?
Sometimes, sometimes not. In Skyward Sword, most definitely. In Breath of the Wild & Tears of the Kingdom, we'll see.
In Ocarina of Time, no. In The Adventure of Link, possibly but only with the ancient sleeping Zelda.
#3: Do Zelda & Link know of the endless cycle started by the Curse of Demise?
Princess Zelda does as a member of the Royal Family. Link does NOT because he is usually a Knight or Knight Descendant who serves the Royal Family & fights for Hyrule as his national duty or destined calling.
#4: Do others in the Kingdom of Hyrule know of the endless cycle or at least the constant appearance of green-clad Link?
The regular citizens of Hyrule? No. But the Sheikah Tribe, which Impa is a part of, tend to know.
The full story of why Hyrule exists as it does is not 100% understood by its citizens. They know only bits & pieces.
The Royal Family & their right-hand agents, the Sheikah, know the secrets of Hyrule.
The Sheikah were humans Goddess Hylia enhanced with her Light & it gave them Special Sight.
That's why they're smarter & more advanced than others & wear that Eye as their symbol.
The Sheikah actually know a little TOO much & that knowledge corrupts them & sometimes they split amongst themselves causing havoc for the Kingdom. They were specifically designed to serve Hylia and thus Zelda & the Royal Family.
But sometimes they go rogue & you see one prominent instance of this in the Yiga Clan of Breath of the Wild.
Sheikah splits are behind a lot of the tragedy in Hyrule but you will only learn that by reading the subtext of the games.
#5: Who are all these different races in Hyrule & what do they do?
HYLIANS are the dominant race of Hyrule & they were humans specially protected by Hylia in the war against The Demise.
They are pretty much Humans with Pointy Ears & those pointy ears are supposed to allow them to hear the Gods.
Both Zelda & Link come from this race & it is the central governing race of Hyrule through the Hyrulean Royal Family.
GORONS are Rock People who tend to live in the volcanic Death Mountain area.
They're super strong, super tough, like to eat rocks, & are macho men who like to play sports. All Male race somehow.
They also roll like boulders when they curl up into a ball & can thrive even in hot lava which they drink like a beverage.
They're simple people not necessarily dumb & very loyal to the Royal Family often doing metalwork & mining for the Kingdom.
ZORAS are the Mermen/Mermaids of Hyrule. "Fish" People basically.
They possibly were once the jellyfish-like Parella of Skyward Sword long ago but are different varieties of Fish People now.
They prefer to live in fairly isolated water pool regions like the mountain basin of Zora's Domain & the great Lake Hylia.
They are sensitive to the health of the waters & can change drastically in appearance based on those waters as well as the mineral deposits in environment. They can relocate to other waters if conditions are bad enough.
A fairly territorial race who is sometimes a Friend of the Kingdom & sometimes an Enemy of the Kingdom.
They have long lifespans & also hold similarly long grudges.
GERUDOS are the Amazonian Warrior Women of the Great Western Desert of Hyrule.
The Gerudos & the Hylians originally come from the same people, the Skyloftians of Skyloft in Skyward Sword.
Groose, a tall strong red-haired yellow-eyed dark-skinned rival of that era's Link, is the ancestor of the Gerudo & he was one of the Skyloftian Humans responsible for the defeat of Demise. The Gerudo continue to carry his traits...and Demise's curse.
For some reason, the Gerudo are an almost 100% Female Race but if a Gerudo Male is ever born, he becomes their God-King.
One such God-King was named Ganondorf, who houses the curse of Demise & becomes his avatar as series villain Ganon.
The Gerudo have been hardened by harsh desert life & have learned about elemental magic from jewels & gems.
The Gerudo fell out with the Hylians for unknown reasons in Hyrule's past & were once Hyrule's greatest enemies.
But all Gerudo didn't follow their God-King's lead & have reconciled with the Kingdom even though they don't worship Hylia.
Groose' inability to win over the 1st Zelda (Hylia Reborn) way back when still shapes their distinct culture eons later.
RITOS are the Bird People of Hyrule.
The Rito actually evolved from the Zora due to the apocalypse of the Great Flood in the Adult Timeline.
The Goddesses sealed Ganon underwater along with Hyrule & the Zora were ordered to transform at Death Mountain.
This was done in order to keep the water-traveling Zora from tampering with the underwater seal.
The Zora followed Nayru the Goddess of Wisdom, Water, & Sky but now were to be transformed by the Fire Dragon Valoo.
Valoo followed the alignment of Din the Goddess of Power, Fire, & Earth & used his dragon scales to transform the race.
They would now fly in the sky much like they used to swim in the sea. Still fits with Nayru considering the Sky situation.
This gradual transformation shortened their formerly long lifespans & their territorial personalities.
Now free as a bird, they follow no particular Goddess alignment & are friendly to the Kingdom of Hyrule.
KOROKS are one of the Forest Peoples of Hyrule who are led by the Great Deku Tree.
They used to be a race of Forest-Dwelling Eternal Children named the KOKIRI but the Great Flood forced the Great Deku Tree to transform the Kokiri Children into these tiny Plant People called the Koroks.
They are pretty much little Forest Sprites who can float on the wind & plant seeds to grow forests or even new Deku Trees.
And the Great Deku Tree is a mighty sentient talking tree who is the guardian of the forest he resides in.
Ocarina of Time Link grew up in a Kokiri Village & was raised as one of them even though he was really a Hylian.

[@LoinkLoink]

#1: There's no evidence that any zelda outside of SS Zelda is Hylia reborn. In fact, the game hints that other zeldas are only her descendants when Demise has his curse target those 'with the blood of the goddess.' Although I do agree with the jelly doughnut comparison, since even though they likely aren't the goddess, they inherited her power, or as it came to be known, the power of their bloodline. It's also never explicitly stated that Hylia is the Goddess of Time. We don't really know anything about the Goddess of Time since she's only been referenced in one game(maybe a second one, though I only know of Majora's Mask), hence why a lot of people would like to believe that it is Hylia.
#2: Yeah, pretty accurate, although I would like to add that there are some strong hints of romance between Link and Zelda in Spirit Tracks as well, and implications from ALBW that ALttP Link and Zelda got together, though it's very much up in the air still. But yeah, Nintendo tries very hard to make it as up to interpretation as possible aside from a couple games.
#3: We don't know if Zelda knows about the curse. I could see it going either way. Either the royal family has been keeping track of history as far back as the Skyloft days and have committed Demise's curse to secret knowledge, or their tracked history doesn't go that far back. We just don't know how far in the past Skyword Sword takes place from the rest of the timeline. It could be hundreds to thousands of years. There's really no way of knowing unless the truth is explicitly revealed to us.
#4: I actually would like to add onto this point and state that the average citizen of Hyrule likely knows the story of the hero from the previous game, as Link is a name that constantly is given to the boy that would eventually save Hyrule. And while this is a personal theory and not specifically stated, I like to imagine that the Sheikah is a cult of Hylians that have dedicated their lives to serving Hylia and as such are given the ability to wield magic. Though that's speculation.
#5: You explained all the races pretty well!

[@johnlucas1543]

@@LoinkLoink Thanks for your comment, LoinkLoink.
I love talking about The Legend of Zelda & wanted new players like Freckxi to understand the lore.
Let's go over your points right quick. Have to break this into 2 parts.
[Part 1 of 2]
#1: The reason I'm sure of EACH Zelda being the mortal embodiment of Hylia rests in The Minish Cap.
Remember The Imprisoned in Skyward Sword each time he tried to ascend to the Sealed Temple?
"Granny" is scared to death of him reaching the top. WHY? Because of who rests in that Amber Crystal in the back room there: Zelda. If The Imprisoned gets to the top, it's an Instant Game Over, right?
WHY? Because he devours the body & soul of Zelda who is Hylia Reborn & restores himself as Demise.
Well guess what happens in The Minish Cap's endgame when the 3rd Bell rings in Hyrule Castle.
The Wind Mage Vaati, who has turned Princess Zelda to stone & is trying to extract her Light Force, will have completed his goal on the 3rd Bell & what happens then? INSTANT GAME OVER.
The unspoken hidden truth in the series is that ZELDA CANNOT DIE. If Zelda dies, THE SERIES IS OVER.
There is a REASON why Zelda stays in the Deuteragonist role with Link in the Protagonist role.
When Hylia became Mortal as Zelda, she became vulnerable & needed protection.
That's why she lives in a CASTLE with guards & armaments everywhere.
Link is NOTHING without Zelda. He is merely her Agent, HYLIA'S Agent. Links can die but Zeldas cannot.
She has great power but a soft flesh & blood body to house it. Her survival is paramount.
ALL Zeldas not just the first one. That's why she hides in disguise wittingly or unwittingly as Sheik or Tetra.
The bloodline cannot be broken. The rebirth of the Goddess Hylia must continue ad infinitum.
The only thing you can say about the 1st Zelda vs. the other Zeldas is that she has THE MEMORIES of Hylia.
That's what separates her from the other Zeldas & even she didn't have them at first.
But ALL Zeldas are Hylia Reborn & this is why the series is called The Legend of ZELDA.
Also about The Goddess of Time being Hylia.
Well my idea on that deals with the fact that You Cannot Measure TIME Without A LIGHT Source.
We use SOLAR (Sun) or LUNAR (Moon) cycles in our calendars & subsequent timepieces.
Direct Sun-LIGHT itself or Indirect Moon-LIGHT which reflects off of the Sun-LIGHT.
Nintendo knows about this truth too. Check Ocarina of Time AND Twilight Princess for proof.
We find SEVEN Sages in appropriately-named Temples, right?
1 - Rauru the Sage of Light in the Temple of Light. 2 - Saria the Sage of Forest in the Forest Temple.
3 - Darunia the Sage of Fire in the Fire Temple. 4 - Princess Ruto the Sage of Water in the Water Temple.
5 - Impa the Sage of Shadow in the Shadow Temple. 6 - Nabooru the Sage of Spirit in the Spirit Temple.
Who's Number 7? Sheik AKA Princess Zelda the Sage of TIME in the Temple of TIME.
And what DID Zelda give us in that Temple of Time? The LIGHT Arrows!
Understand that Rauru is probably a relative of the Royal Family so that ties LIGHT & TIME together AGAIN!
Rauru's alter-ego is the wise owl Kaepora Gaebora & Skyward Sword's Zelda's father is Gaepora who laughs "Hoo Hoo!" They even have similar builds & clothes.
AND this Temple of Time is built from the ruins of the former Temple of Hylia AKA Sealed Temple.
It's obvious that Hylia is the Goddess of Light. "THAT LIGHT!" Astor screams in Age of Calamity.
In Twilight Princess, when we get to the Sacred Grove & the ruins of the Temple of Time...
We enter a timewarp taking us back to when the Temple was whole & find out it's a dungeon to explore.
But take a close look on the giant bell we see at the dungeon entrance of the Temple of Time.
What symbol is on that bell? The symbol of the LIGHT MEDALLION, Rauru's LIGHT Medallion.
So you tell ME between time-travelling Terrako, Zelda playing the Ocarina of Time sending Link back in time NOT with the Song of Time but Zelda's Lullaby AKA the Ballad of the Goddess backwards, & all of the time-travelling madness that seems to follow Zelda all over this series, who the Goddess of Time really is.

[@johnlucas1543]

@@LoinkLoink OK. Continuing on. Loving this conversation, by the way.
[Part 2 of 2]
#2: Yep. I DID forget Spirit Tracks.
That handholding between the two shows they got close in their adventures together.
Nintendo will leave the Zelink fanfictioners to fill out the details on the potential romances.
More fun that way anyway.
#3: I tend to err on the side of the Royal Family knowing because of the hyper-elaborate security & intel measures the Kingdom of Hyrule undertakes to keep that Triforce protected & secreted away from everyone.
On some level they know it's a cursed kingdom & are trying to stay one step ahead of the destruction.
But the human factor is involved so mistakes are made & made often.
Sometimes they undo the Kingdom in their efforts to protect it.
We see this happen once again in Breath of the Wild's backstory. Unearthing the Divine Beasts & Guardians to get ahead of a Calamity Ganon return actually dooms the Kingdom as an ancient King feared it would which is why he ordered the Sheikah to bury the Divine Beasts & Guardians in the first place.
The Adventure of Link's backstory is another case with an ancient King splitting off the Triforce of Courage & hiding it FROM HIS OWN SON because he fears the Prince of Hyrule would abuse the power.
Only to have this Prince WHIP his sister Princess Zelda because she wouldn't tell him the secret location & put her into a coma under influence of an evil wizard. The Kingdom declines into Lesser Hyrule as a result.
And how in the hell did the Ocarina of Time's King of Hyrule NOT trust his daughter Zelda's premonitions?!
Was he so busy trying to unify the warring tribes of the Kingdom that he was blind to reason???
Well, see what Gerudo King Ganondorf did to that King for his mistake. A 3-Way Catastrophe!
And whatever the Royal Family know, the Sheikah damn sure know or at least make it a point to know.
Hyrule's Spooks. Hyrule's CIA. Doing covert missions to uphold the kingdom by any means necessary.
Sheikah are the Smart Guys, remember? That Eye don't miss a Sight!
The Divine Beasts carrying variations of the names of Ocarina of Time's Sages shows that some kind of history is being passed down. How perfect or complete it is, well that's up to interpretation.
At the very least they could be missing some motivations for the actions of those in the past.
But the Royal Family & the Sheikah know a lot, we can say that for sure. The citizens? Not so much.
#4: Now I'm sure SOME citizens know about specifics about the different Heroes.
It's definitely a thing in The Wind Waker where the Hero of Time is immortalized in ritual.
They have a giant statue in Hyrule Castle of him & even a form of his green tunic is passed down to the young boys coming of age. I think some of the details become lost in time after awhile but the legend of lives on.
Hell, even the Hero of Men from the Minish Cap has some clout.
Grandma passes down HIS shield to Wind Waker Link. Shield of WHICH legendary Hero now?
Or maybe it's the Hero FROM The Minish Cap himself? Hard to know.
Is the shield Minish Cap Link gets from the town Picori Festival a replica of the Hero of Men's shield to commemorate his valor & victory? Seems to be a common shield design of these eras.
But the Heroes tend to get forgotten over time much like our sports stars after they retire.
So much shade on the Hero's Shade. He gets it rough, don't he? At least in that timeline.
The Hero of Winds gets it much better. The guards all wear his tunic in New Hyrule.
#5: Thank you. I tried my best to be thorough with the different races.

[@LoinkLoink]

@@johnlucas1543 I do agree with the idea that the zelda series is about protecting Hylia's bloodline, but I still have to disagree about each zelda being Hylia reborn. Her power is clearly passed down through blood, and so if something were to happen and Hylia's power could no longer be passed down, then Hyrule would be vulnerable to the forces of evil with no real way to defend themselves. So, she doesn't need to be the goddess reborn in order for her death to bring about the end of Hyrule.
And, while you made a good argument for how Hylia could be the goddess of time, a lot of your points could be dismissed because while certain Zeldas tie a lot with time, there's even more Links that tie in with time, and at some points the virtue of courage itself is used in tandem with the concept of time, such as in Phantom Hourglass when Celia turns out to not only be the fairy of courage, but also the fairy of time. As for Rauru and the Temple of Time, the reason it would have his symbol would be because he is the one who built it into the state we see it in in Ocarina of Time. But I do understand your point about time and light having a lot to do with each other. I still think that we have too little information to decide whether Hylia is the Goddess of Time or not, but you made a good argument explaining your point.

[@johnlucas1543]

@@LoinkLoink Thank you for your reply.
We'll just have to agree to disagree on the Hylia Reborn thing.
BUT we ARE in agreement that Zelda must stay alive for the bloodline to maintain the powers & Hyrule itself.
That dimension of the Ocean King in Phantom Hourglass is a weird place.
The fairy/spirit colors don't fully line up to their expected virtue.
Leaf the Spirit of Power is Red which matches Red Din the Goddess of Power.
Neri the Spirit of Wisdom is Blue which matches Blue Nayru the Goddess of Wisdom.
Ciela the Spirit of Courage is Yellow which DOESN'T match Green Farore the Goddess of Courage.
And she was White when she was split in half losing her memory.
So in the World of the Ocean King we get the 3 Primary Colors of PIGMENT: Red, Blue, Yellow.
But in the Light World of Hyrule we get the 3 Primary Colors of LIGHT: Red, Blue, Green.
So I'm thinking that alternate dimension plays by different rules than Hyrule's world.
And lots of people see Nayru as governing Time (Oracle games & stuff about "The Laws") along with Ciela representing Time in Ocean King World.
But I think Color Theory settles the argument & I got this from a site called "Hylia Is The Most High".
In terms of LIGHT when Red, Blue, & Green come together, you get WHITE.
Red = Din. Blue = Nayru. Green = Farore. White = Hylia. WHITE LIGHT for the Goddess of Light.
Artistically Light is often represented with a Golden Tinge hence the Golden White Light of Zelda.
The reason there is not a 4th Triforce piece is because "The 3 Sisters" Din, Nayru, Farore left the World they made & went UP to the Heavens while the "4th Sister" Hylia stayed DOWN on the World to Rule it.
Hylia-Rule = Hyrule.
That explains Ocarina of Time's Hylian Shield with that Downward Triangle under the Red Loftwing.
Look at the Triforce symbol & count how many Triangles you see.
The answer is actually 5 when the 5th Triangle is the entire shape counted as one.
But excluding that 5th Triangle, we see 4 Triangles with 3 pointing UP creating the 1 that points DOWN.
The Downward Triangle GAP in the CENTER represents Hylia & this is all over the series if you look carefully.
Remember, you cannot obtain the TRUE FORCE until all 3 Triforces are brought together.
You cannot form that Downward Triangle until all 3 of the Upward Triangles are brought together.
Check the Title Screen of the original 1986 Legend of Zelda on the Famicom/NES.
Behind the title logo of "The Legend of Zelda", there is a Big DOWNWARD TRIANGLE or Triforce.
Now take a look at the endgame of Twilight Princess where Ganondorf has Zelda's body in the throne room.
Where is Zelda located? In the CENTER DOWNWARD TRIANGLE of the Sculpture of the Triforce & Golden Goddesses. Each Triforce has representation of Din, Nayru, Farore & here's Zelda AKA Hylia in the CENTER.
Not convinced yet? Then revisit the Temple of Time in Breath of the Wild.
3 Halls with the Marks of the Goddess in the center of the floors.
Right Hall is Farore's Hall with Farore's Mark. Left Hall is Nayru's Hall with Nayru's Mark.
Top Hall is Din's Hall with Din's Mark. Then there is the Biggest Hall of all with the Giant Goddess Statue.
The Giant Goddess Statue of Hylia to be precise. Look at the floor at the feet of this statue.
What Mark do you see in this Main Hall? HYLIA'S MARK, the Wingcrest...within a DOWNWARD TRIANGLE.
In some Nintendo Direct, Eiji Aonuma was wearing a T-Shirt representing the Zelda franchise.
On this T-shirt was a Triforce symbol with 8-bit sprites in each Triforce or Triangle.
Top Triangle had a Sword for Offense reflecting Din's Power.
Left Triangle had a Shield for Defense reflecting Nayru's Wisdom.
Right Triangle had a Heart for...well, Heart/Life reflecting Farore's Courage.
Guess what was in the CENTER DOWNWARD TRIANGLE?
An 8-bit sprite of Princess Zelda for the Centerpiece reflecting Hylia's Guiding Light.
I got more. Take it to Skyward Sword & the shapes we make when we reseal The Imprisoned.
1st Time? 1 DOWNWARD TRIANGLE. 2nd time? 2 DOWNWARD TRIANGLES mirroring each other.
3rd Time? 3 DOWNWARD TRIANGLES interlocked & interlaced.
So in effect the seals are saying: HYLIA...HYLIA-HYLIA...HYLIA-HYLIA-HYLIA.
The land is not called Dinrule, Nayrule, or Farule...it's called Hyrule. HYLIA-RULE.
Eldin, Lanayru, & Faron are SUB-REGIONS in overall Hyrule, aren't they?
And wasn't Demon King Demise said to have conquered TIME itself?
Is that meaning Demise conquered Hylia herself, the one who speaks to Link from the edge of TIME?
The Centerpiece, the True Force is seen in Hylia when all 3 of the others fall into place.
Without Time, how can Din create Matter, Nayru create Law, & Farore create Life?
It almost seems like Hylia is the 4th Golden Goddess & the other 3 created the world for her behalf.
All 4 of them are Angel-Winged Female Figures, right?
She diverged from her sisters in the purpose of the Triforce said to be only for the mortals not the gods.
Hylia thinks its power is too great to be trusted in the hands of mortals.
How can she disobey their intent if she was not at least co-equal with the other 3?
So I gotta go with the Architect of the Gates of Time & say Hylia is the Goddess of Time.

[@John3_16-17]

Link and Zelda kiss behind the curtain at the end of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

[@anxivty]

some reincarnations of link are children, some are adults, some are late teens

[@LJLvids]

I feel the need to explain that Demise himself doesn't actually reincarnate. He got sealed into the mastersword and his personality got deleted over time. What does reincarnate is his curse, which is powered by his hatred and *malice*.
So, Ganondorf isn't actually Demise reborn but merely an evil man whose fate was swept up into the curse. But he was probably the first person swept up in this cycle of hatred who got his hands on the triforce, making him way harder to get rid of.
Generally the Links and zelda's don't know about the whole rebirth thing. The royal family often does know they have divine origins, but it is unclear if any Zelda's past the firts one are actually the soul of the godess reincarnated.
Same with the Link's actually. The "spirit of the hero" is not necessarily a soul as we understand it from a western perspective. It's more based on some eastern philosophy stuff that i'm not educated enough in to explain properly. But in essence it's more of a 'will to courage' that passes trough similar people trough the generations. Sometimes those people are relalted by blood sometimes not. All they truly have in common is a drive toward doing good, being couragous and a tendency to yelling 'HYAA' alot.
So they *could* all be direct reincarnations of eachother over and over again, but they aren't always necessarily.

[@luissaumeth8000]

i think the "spirit of the hero" is very metaphorical, like, instead of being a normal "spirit" (soul, for example) is more like the ideals of the SKSW link

[@cmrobbins88]

Coming from a Zelda noob who has never beaten a game, I think what we can take away is that everything began with Skyward Sword, Ocarina of Time is the critical point in the timeline, The Child Era leads to through Ocarina Link living his life until his reincarnation in Twilight Princess, the Adult Era leads to the flooding and destruction of Old Hyrule and most of the “Toon Link” games. And the Dark Era leads from where the Hero of Time perishes and we get the “Classic” reincarnations of Link that battle through a Hyrule that is ruled by monsters and curses while preventing the victory of a resurrected Beast Ganon. And they all eventually converge back into a single timeline with Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom which seems to have a mix of topology, technology, and history of all Eras.
Well, it’s still easier to understand than Kingdom Hearts… I think.

[@yang6642]

Ocarina Link isn’t reincarnated in Twilight Princess

[@rhettmitchell]

I’m seeing your stuff for the first time bc of this video and I just wanna say you have a lovely smile!! 😇

[@Freckxi]

me rn: ｡◕ ‿ ◕｡

[@PrixtoTNT]

8:39 They acknowledge it on Breath Of The Wild but it's never touched on depht like something bad except on the Twilight Princess manga, in which Link reflects about how horrifying is that the cycle won't end

[@f_ire_]

Thought despite being dubbed not canon, I like to think Hyrule Warriors is the reason the Timeline was reconverted, because in Hyrule Warriors, a game released a year before BOTW, had it's story being submerged in all of these 3 timelines along with it's own timeline, where we actually go through alot of different the LOZ games areas, and characters (Windwaker, Twilight Princess, Skyward, OOT/MM, etc.) because of this, there is a possibility that BOTW derives from the the Hyrule Warriors Timeline, probably. Plus, well, you can find items in BOTW that comes from all 3 timelines, so yeah.

[@Adventureruler]

I love that your interested in this amazing franchise! :D

[@daniellyancey9087]

I enjoy this narrator's continuous fascination with Gorons.

[@nuclearbirds]

To answer why people try to keep sealing the evil away instead of un-aliving it: many era’s wisest people are at least somewhat aware of the reincarnation process. So, ironically, un-aliving will protect them for less time than sealing them away. You can’t reincarnate if you still exist, so it’s better to magically imprison for 1,000+ years than to “finish him off” and have him back again in 30-40 years.
Also, something about being kid friendly.

[@lylatfox4]

Zelda in Zelda 2 does infact kiss link, albeit behind a curtain with a hear to intricate it lol

[@del5206]

A lot of the timeline doesn't make sense, but to clear some stuff up that I haven't seen other comments say is that a lot of stuff is just coincidence. Like Link always wearing green. The only games the green isn't a coincidence is in Windwaker as it was something Link was supposed to wear as part of a birthday tradition for his island to honor the Hero of Time (his previous reincarnation), Twighlight Princess (as there are Light Spirits who somehow know about the Hero of Time despite being in the timeline where those events didn't happen), the Light Spirits give that Link the Hero of Time's clothes because the recognize that Link to be like the Hero of Time (so they gave him those clothes so he could look the part), and Spirit Tracks had the soldiers wear green in honor of the Hero of Winds and Link had to steal some clothes to pose as those guards.
Also you wondered about if Link and Zelda had anything romantic. Only in Skyward Sword is it heavily implied. You can make arguments for other games too, but as I can remember at the moment, it is just Skyward Sword where they were a thing.
No, they do not keep their memories as they reincarnate, and no, no one has noticed the coincidence as thousands of years take place between each game (with a few exceptions).
Triforce Heroes doesn't really have anything important, and I have no idea why it is cannon
A lot of games say the Master Sword was made by the Sages, however this was most likely retconned, as Link in Skyward Sword made the Master Sword by taking the Goddess Sword, and purifying it in 3 flames (those flames represent each piece of the Triforce/each of the golden goddesses) and then that Zelda (Who was the direct reincarnation of Hylia) blessed it to make the Master Sword as we know it.
Inside the Goddess Sword was a spirit named Fi, and she stayed in the blade even when it became the Master Sword, but went to "A sleep without end" as she put it (she as in Fi), to ensure the complete eradication of Demise (essentially they sealed him inside the Master Sword, but Fi killed him over the span of 1000 years, but she still never woke up after that)
The whole thing with Fi is likely to be important as in Breath of the Wild, when Link almost dies in the last memory, the Master Sword glows and makes a sound, that sound is the same sound that plays whenever Fi comes out of the sword, (so Fi was pretty much confirmed to be alive still, just semi asleep) meaning that Fi was talking to Zelda and told her to put him in the Shrine of Resurrection to heal. In addition to this, if you complete the Trial of the Sword in the dlc and fully upgrade the Master Sword in Breath of the Wild, the sword once again makes that sound and glows while a soft piano version of Fi's theme plays.
Overall, I suggest you play Skyward Sword as it has a lot of stuff for the lore, as it is the first game in the timeline and also one of the newer games to come out (newer as in the last 10 years since Nintendo has been spending way longer than normal making Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, and filled in that long time by making lots of remakes). Also if at all possible, I suggest playing Ocarina of Time as well, as it also will help you understand some stuff for the timeline.
As a whole for this video, it skips over a lot of information, but gets the rough jist of things. If it tried to make a video like this it would take over an hour, with a lot of stuff being just Skyward Sword.

[@42Mrgreenman]

8:30 As far as this video says, it's not DIRECT reincarnation...like they said, it's the BLOOD of the goddess...so, any decedents that have even a bit of royal blood...and the SPIRIT of the hero, meaning anyone with the willpower to overcome evil as the original Link...so they are actually random people and the naming convention is just another thing treated like surnames or titles, it's just a tradition...that's why no one makes the connection that there is reincarnation going on and they can't remember past lives (or at least that's what Nintendo is doing IMO so they can keep their storytelling options open)

[@ngibson3730]

Link woke up and chose violence 😂

[@worldwidewimpy565]

"how do they think of this stuff?" drugs... lots and lots of drugs

[@lykan2]

It's actually adorable to see you struggle with understanding certain points of the Lore. Like Link is not always the same Link, Zelda is not the same Zelda, they are always reincarnations of the "Originals" (From Skyward Sword) when Demise put the Curse on himself and them. So, sometimes Link and Zelda are Children/Teens while in other games they're Young Adults/Adults.
Technically, Link from BotW is now the oldest Link ever, since he slept for 100 Years, making him 117+ years old :P
And no, i don't think they have ever been aware that they keep being reincarnated, at least not Link or Zelda (yet(we will see what happens with Tears)) Ganondorf i'm pretty sure is at least to some degree aware of it.
EDIT: And Wolf Link in Twilight Princess is cool, because Wolves are cool. ;D