By Mike P

One of the eldest questions in my memory is whether or not "The Legend of Zelda" does, indeed, have a canon. It began with playing "A Link to the Past", and it took years for me to realize that just because the games were released in a certain order, that doesn't mean that they happened in that order. Many people on the web have said that each Link is a different Link (for the most part) and this is easily acceptable. They also claim that some of the games don't fit anywhere or anything, as well. This is wrong. The only games that don't fit are the ones for CD-I, and I'm leaving "The Four Swords" and "Super Smash Brothers" out of this. So now, in order to put my belief about the "Legend of Zelda" series on hypertext protocol, I bring to you…

First Game: The Ocarina of Time
System: Nintendo 64 (Re-released for the GameCube)
Story: Evil leader of the Gerudo Ganondorf takes over the land of Hyrule for the first time, and the only one that can stop him is a Hylian-come-Kokiri named Link. Link stops him and commits the genocide of the Gerudo people.

Hailed by many as the greatest game of its time, "Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time" (hitherto mentioned as OoT because I'm lazy) was the first time our hero Link had stepped into the 3D world, and the results were very good. The Ocarina proved that music was much more powerful than it was cracked up to be, and the system of using random music-inclined items seems to have become a staple in the Zelda series. It also introduced the Gorons, the benevolent Zora, the Kokiri, and it promptly introduced and wiped out the Gerudo. The game obviously takes place before any wrongdoings of Ganondorf, as he isn't mentioned in hushed whispers and the Triforce is still where it should be. After Link's brief stint as an adult, he skips out on all the women who want him by slipping into the next game in the canon…

Second Game: Majora's Mask
System: Nintendo 64 (To be re-released for the GameCube)
Story: Link goes to Tempora, an alternate reality, to get his horse back and find his fairy. He ends up getting wound up in saving the place from getting smashed in by a moon.

The only direct sequel in the series (discounting the Oracle games, for reasons to be explained later) had many… interesting things about it. Link could get an obscene number of (sometimes) enchanted masks, three of which turned him into a Goron, a Deku Shrub, or a Zora. The game also limits the amount of things you could complete at one time with a limit of "three days". This could be expanded and contracted with use of the Ocarina, or course, which somehow transformed into drums, pipes, or a guitar depending on Link's form. Since the opening scene of the game takes place "six months after the events of Ocarina of Time", it's a given that it’s the second game in the canon. Tingle is also introduced in this game, a character that is supposedly popular enough to become a reoccurring character. After this, the Link of this time kind of slipped away forever.

Third Game: A Link to the Past
System: Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Re-released on Game Boy Advance)
Story: Ganon returns for a bit, and reigns terror on Hyrule. Link, some guy's nephew and the last in a line of knights, is told by Zelda to save her and Hyrule.

Many call it "The Best Zelda Ever". It's really not, but that is neither here nor there. In this game, Link turns into a bunny, and is under suspicion for kidnapping. Other than that, it's basic Zelda. You go around killing stuff to save Zelda. Another Zelda I've never beaten (working on it), I have no idea what happens at the end of it. I'm guessing Link skips out on Zelda, though.

Fourth Game: The Legend of Zelda
System: Nintendo Entertainment System (To be re-released for the GameCube)
Story: Link kind of pops out of nowhere and decides to save the land of Hyrule.

To be honest, I've only read a hell of a lot about this game. I do own it, but the battery saved seemed to stop working a long time ago, so yeah… and I refuse to play it on an emulator. When I get the re-released version, however, I'll do a bit more on the game. I do know that it was hugely innovative and involved Link going around picking up pieces of the Triforce of Courage from big guys. Zelda is asleep in this one. And Ganon is still in his evil form.

Fifth Game: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
System: Nintendo Entertainment System (To be re-released for the GameCube)
Story: Impa finds the mark of the Triforce on Link's hand, which proves that he's going to be the one to wake up Zelda… Link also has to keep from getting killed, otherwise Ganon will be revived and stuff.

Again, own it but the battery save no longer works, and refusal to play it on an emulator. I'm damned sure that this takes place after "The Legend of Zelda", though. After Link manages to wake up Zelda, he ditches her before she can fully wake up by going off on a boat in…

Sixth Game: Link's Awakening
System: Game Boy (Color)
Story: Link gets "shipwrecked" on a island while on the way back to Hyrule.

Why is this here? Why, because in the original instruction manual it says that after Link found out that Ganon could be revived, he went off to "find ways to keep it from happening". Which is why I think this takes place directly after "The Adventure of Link". This is actually one of the few Zelda games I've beaten (I have a nasty habit of restarting my games shortly before finishing them) but I've gotten this one down to a science. Link wakes up in a bed on an island, and goes off to wake the Wind Fish by collecting eight instruments. At one point, he finds out that the island is simply a figment of his dreams and that waking up will destroy the island. After he does so, he wakes up on a piece of wood.

Seventh/Eighth Game: Oracle of Ages and Seasons
System: Game Boy Color
Story: Link is on an island and must stop people from seriously screwing with nature on both of them. Turns out it was all a plan by Twinrova to revive Ganon, though…

I'm thinking that after floating around on his piece of wood for a long time, Link either drifted to one of the lands you can start at, or was rescued by a boat on the island you chose to start with. The general way of doing things is starting with Seasons and going along to Ages, though. These two games are also remarkable because Link can get an animal companion and that they were released at the same time. Also, due to a password feature, you could keep the same Link throughout the two games and make the whole shebang one big adventure! Beginning with Seasons, Link wakes up (in order to make this canon, I'm choosing to believe that the little scene at the beginning was another one of Link's dreams. Considering how he was able to dream up a whole big adventure for himself, this isn't that much of a stretch) and is rescued and nursed to health by Din, the Oracle of Seasons. She is promptly captured by an evil General, and Impa, who went to the island based on a dream by Princess Zelda, told Link to go save her. So Link does, and then promptly goes to the land in Oracle of Ages. He's then tricked by a possessed Impa (yet another plot-hole pops up here, when Link seemingly forgets whom Impa is) to move a rock, allowing the evil witch to possess Nayru, the Oracle of Ages. Link goes about saving her by going back and forth in time.

Interesting bits about this game if go in the suggested order is that at one point, Zelda will come to the Ages island about halfway through. She'll get captured, you'll have to save her, then everything will be hunky-dory. She'll eventually get captured again, and then you'll save her again. As far as I can tell, this Link high-tails it out of there afterwards, never to be seen again. Zelda and Impa then return to Hyrule.

Ninth Game: The Wind Waker
System: GameCube
Story: Link's sister is kidnapped, and he goes out to save her because he has nothing better to do. Then a talking boat tells him Ganondorf is back, and that Link has to stop him.

This takes place after every other Zelda game, because any place where the Links could have ever been is now covered in water. "The Wind Waker" was met with mixed feelings from critics, because it's cel-shaded (re: it looks like a cartoon). It's a good Zelda, though. I haven't beaten this one yet, either, but I'm working on it. So I'll now if Link skips out on Zelda or not at the end.

There you have it, my version of the Zelda canon. Now, some random bits and pieces…

• The Link that appeared from "The Legend of Zelda" until the "Oracle" games is seriously messed up
• Link is either afraid of commitment, or homosexual.
• Based on a conversation between my friends and I:
  The basis behind a hero/princess relationship is eventually having hot, hot rescue sex and the hero becoming the King of whatever. However, since the Links don't seem to want this, one wonders what exactly is keeping the royal line of Hyrule going. Shortly after saving Zelda, Link always bails in some way. He always bails. Zelda, who eventually rises to Queen, finds a man willing to don a green tunic whom have blonde hair, because she really wants some Link. Words of wisdom passed down from mother Zelda to daughter Zelda most likely goes along these lines:
  "Zelda, when if you are ever captured by someone named Ganon, someone named Link will come to rescue you. It is very important that if he tries you leave, you have him captured and chained up so he can't leave Hyrule. No Zelda has ever managed to keep a Link, but we all think that having hot rescue sex with him would be the best thing anyone could ever do."

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