Current Events > Is every Link in Zelda the same soul?

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I dont know much of Zelda lore. Is it supposed to be that you are the same person in every game, who keeps reincarnating throughout history? Or is it just a bunch of people who happen to have the same name and look a like?

Zikten posted...

Or is it just a bunch of people who happen to have the same name and look a like?

i think it's this. incredible storytelling

You meet the soul of a previous hero in at least one game, so it's more bloodlines and destiny than reincarnation. Except maybe Zelda, she's like part goddess or something.

Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. Who knows really? There are lot of great things in the Zelda series but a consistent lore isn't one of them.

Some times, when it is needed, they share the same soul.
Other times not.

I feel like it flip flops every other game.

At the very least, in Wind Wanker it's confirmed that ToonLink is *not* the Hero of Time. But then Skyward Sword made things really weird with some bullshit about Hylia, reincarnation, and some off-brand diet Ganondorf sort of becoming Ganondorf but not really through nothing put pure hatred, but in a vague enough way Nintendo never ever has to acknowledge that specific incarnation ever again >_>

Wind Wanker.

Typo or Freudian slip?

Lokison posted...

You meet the soul of a previous hero in at least one game, so it's more bloodlines and destiny than reincarnation. Except maybe Zelda, she's like part goddess or something.

It could be that only a piece of his soul, like 8%, gets reincarnated.

Kim_Seong-a posted...

I feel like it flip flops every other game.

At the very least, in Wind Wanker it's confirmed that ToonLink is *not* the Hero of Time. But then Skyward Sword made things really weird with some bullshit about Hylia, reincarnation, and some off-brand diet Ganondorf sort of becoming Ganondorf but not really through nothing put pure hatred, but in a vague enough way Nintendo never ever has to acknowledge that specific incarnation ever again >_>

Weve been told a lot though. Ganondorf is Demises hatred reincarnated, hes basically a curse. Most Ganondorfs after are the same guy. Link and Zelda are always different people except for direct sequels and the like. In multiple instances you see previous incarnations either directly or in art.

I've always just thought of it like parallel universes in different periods of time

'Link in Zelda'

You are now picturing Link rocking out to Linkin Park

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/21c6ad78.jpg

pinky0926 posted...

I've always just thought of it like parallel universes in different periods of time

I like to think of them as old legends being told after many generations.
Since they are so old, they have been retold so many times with changes here and there. Some because the teller remembered wrong, or decided to flesh out the story. Others to adapt to a changed society, or to absorb another old legend.
Just like how the Bible adopted the great flood myth, so did the Zelda legend adopt it into Wind Waker.

Foppe posted...

I like to think of them as old legends being told after many generations.
Since they are so old, they have been retold so many times with changes here and there. Some because the teller remembered wrong, or decided to flesh out the story. Others to adapt to a changed society, or to absorb another old legend.
Just like how the Bible adopted the great flood myth, so did the Zelda legend adopt it into Wind Waker.

Wind Waker literally has you travel to the flooded kingdom and you meet peoples ghost ancestors who were a different race because fish got turned into birds overnight to hide said kingdom from them. Nothing is implied, it literally happens.

Zwijn posted...

Wind Waker literally has you travel to the flooded kingdom and you meet peoples ghost ancestors who were a different race because fish got turned into birds overnight to hide said kingdom from them. Nothing is implied, it literally happens.

How does that change I like to think of them as old legends being told after many generations?

Zikten posted...

I dont know much of Zelda lore. Is it supposed to be that you are the same person in every game, who keeps reincarnating throughout history? Or is it just a bunch of people who happen to have the same name and look a like?

It's called the Spirit of the Hero. All versions of Link are technically different people but the Spirit of the Hero is what gets reincarnated. When Ganon comes back so does the Spirit. Although some versions of Link are actually descended from a Hero like the one in Twilight Princess.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/f29e2af9.jpg