I’ve been thinking about how some Zelda games have really dark elements that don’t get talked about much. Everyone always mentions Majora’s Mask and Twilight Princess when discussing darker entries in the series, but there are other games that have some pretty heavy themes if you look closer. I’m curious about which games you think have surprisingly dark storylines or moments that most players might miss or not talk about as much. What are your thoughts on the hidden darkness in some of the less obvious Zelda titles?
Ocarina of Time has Link losing seven years of his childhood and coming back to a world that’s completely destroyed.
Wind Waker gets pretty heavy if you think about it. The entire world got flooded and everyone died. Hyrule is basically a graveyard underwater and you’re just sailing around on top of all that death. The King of Red Lions even talks about letting the old world stay buried, which is basically accepting that an entire civilization is gone forever.
A Link to the Past never gets enough credit for how brutal it is. The whole parallel world thing means you’re literally seeing what happens when evil wins. Every NPC you meet in the Dark World used to be a person who got transformed into monsters. That old man who turns into a tree? He’s stuck like that forever. The game basically shows you a timeline where Ganon succeeded and tortured an entire population.
Breath of the Wild is basically post-apocalyptic. Link wakes up to find everyone he knew died a century ago while he was sleeping.
Oracle of Ages has some messed up time travel stuff where you basically doom people in the past to save the present. There’s this whole thing where changing history screws over entire generations and you just have to live with it.
Skyward Sword gets dark when you realize Demise basically cursed Link and Zelda to suffer forever. That whole reincarnation cycle means they’ll never get peace.
Link’s Awakening hits different when you realize the whole island disappears at the end