Are Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, and Twilight Princess a trilogy?
Hmmm I think it's one of the potential ones? I always feel strange to leave Wind Waker out of the equation since I think the game is incredibly enriched in the context of the others (and vice-versa), but I suppose the pseudo-different timeline shenanigans do separate them pretty drastically?
Either way, to me it does feel like those three tell a pretty specific story that can be followed from beginning to end. The only character that somewhat gets lost in the sauce is OoT Zelda, who disappears quietly in the MM's flashback, never to be heard from again even though her role is pretty major in the setup to Twilight Princess (and Navi too, I suppose????)
The thematic arc we go through is also extremely interesting I think, if the three games are meant to tell a complete story!
We have a little boy forced to grow up too fast, ripped from a simple wondrous world he had control over to something much darker, revealing the cracks in what used to be comforting and simple --only to end the game thrown back in that very world now unfamiliar, unrecognizable and inherently fragile. Then we have Majora's Mask, which is *about* the most violent way possible to process that whole situation laid bare at its more frightening and overwhelming expression, but at least forces Link to reckon with these feelings and his sense of lost humanity; recovering himself and handling this trauma through enacting meaningful, small and personal connections (<3 this game!!!!). And then, we have Twilight Princess, which is basically a lot about the echoes of that previous thing, the long-lasting cultural/personal damage of both envy/greed/power obsession BUT ALSO injustice; and TP is among the best attempts the series ever had at sympathizing with the monstrous, as there's a huge throughline of moral values being something everybody has to reckon with and is capable of developing for themselves.
We start very black and white, that falls apart; we have to find meaning again in each other; everyone is accountable for and capable of doing the same.
Yeah, I think there's a lot to say about considering these three games a continuation of this very potent idea.
