How TotK Made Me Hate ZeLink—and How Treating ZeLink as Canon Damages the Story
A ZeLink Thread Asked Why Other Zelda Fans Were So Toxic About ZeLink—While Demonstrating Part of the Answer
I recently came across a Reddit thread in which backlash against ZeLink was repeatedly explained as jealousy or poor reading comprehension on the part of fans of other pairings—a framing that ruled out from the start the possibility that some of the backlash might be caused by behavior within the ZeLink fandom itself.
In the original post, Link and Zelda were described as clearly living together and sharing a bed by the time of TotK. Several replies went further, treating their mutual romantic feelings and established relationship as already confirmed, and claiming that anyone who did not accept this simply did not understand the core of the story.
But the games never confirm any of this outright.
It is possible to read Link and Zelda’s relationship romantically. But other readings remain possible: friendship, loyalty, a family-like bond, or the relationship between a knight and his princess.
The problem is not liking ZeLink. The problem is treating one interpretation as confirmed canon and then deciding, on that basis, what must be motivating anyone who disagrees.
Those who dislike ZeLink are said to be jealous over another pairing. Those who refuse to accept it as canon are said not to understand the story’s core. Opposition to the pairing is portrayed as stemming from hatred of Zelda herself.
Some commenters went even further. Zelda was called “the best girl,” people who hated her were described as “wrong, and stupid,” and another commenter insisted that there was “literally nothing to hate about her.”
Adopting this kind of explanation means never having to examine one’s own interpretation or behavior. Whatever criticism arises can be dismissed as someone else’s jealousy, ignorance, or malice.
But that is not a rebuttal to criticism. It treats the mere existence of negative feelings toward Zelda or ZeLink as a defect of intelligence or character, without ever asking why those feelings arose in the first place.
In the same thread, a commenter who suggested that the ZeLink community might also need to examine its own behavior was met with a defensive dismissal. Elsewhere, when another commenter asked the original poster to show the attacks they claimed to have received, the original poster mocked the request instead of providing evidence.
That attitude is itself one answer to the question being asked.
I do not think these comments represent the fandom as a whole. But the broader narrative of victimhood and jealousy appeared repeatedly throughout the thread. It was not confined to a single extreme outlier.
And to be clear, the backlash I am discussing did not arise simply because ZeLink is popular. It is this pattern—presenting an unofficial interpretation as canon, dismissing dissent as jealousy or poor reading comprehension, and then casting oneself as the sole victim—that keeps generating new resentment.
I did not begin with a strong dislike for ZeLink. I was indifferent to it at first, developed a mild aversion during BotW, and came to hate it outright because of TotK’s portrayal of the relationship and the fandom discourse that followed.
That thread also reminded me of a broader pattern I have repeatedly encountered in discussions surrounding TotK: the habit of using “Link loves Zelda” as the answer to every problem.
Link’s house is treated as Zelda’s house—he must not mind, because he loves her.
Link’s belongings from BotW are gone—he must have given them away willingly, because he loves her.
Link’s past and his other relationships are diminished—it does not matter, because he loves her.
And anyone unconvinced by these explanations is assumed either not to understand romance or to be jealous over a different pairing.
This kind of reasoning never requires asking what Link himself actually wants. Everything he leaves unsaid becomes a blank space that some fans can fill with whatever willingness their preferred interpretation requires.
He wanted to give his house to Zelda.
He does not mind that his belongings are gone.
He does not care that his past relationships are diminished.
He wants to devote his entire life to Zelda.
None of these readings are impossible. But a reading being possible is not the same as it being confirmed by the story.
What I am criticizing here is not liking ZeLink as a pairing. It is the habit of turning interpretation into fact, turning Link’s silence into consent, and turning dissent into proof of jealousy or ignorance.
And if, despite all this, people keep insisting, “I don’t know why we’re hated” or “It’s because other fans are toxic,” why does it never seem to occur to them that their own behavior may be generating more of that dislike?
People who were once indifferent can become hostile not simply because a pairing is popular, but because its popularity is used as proof that it is canon and that one interpretation is correct.
That popularity then becomes a tool for shutting down disagreement altogether.
the new zeltik video finally pushed me over the edge and made the connections between the bunch of details i noticed throughout totk seem more significant than i already thought they were. by myself i was hovering around these connections i came upon like “is this anything?” for a while, but after the video i was like “ok this is something”
alongside the theme of hands, i also noticed a secondary and more minor theme of blood and siphoning/circulation
most importantly
rauru rips into ganon’s chest with his bare hand like a badass to bind ganondorf’s heart, suck away and purify his dark magic. (btw and Not importantly ganondorf still has rauru’s finger holes in him and it’s pretty funny)
gloom seeps out from organically branching root-like structurs in the depths. if you watch closely you can see gloom slowly move inside them. they all seem to lead back to gloom’s lair where ganondorf is absorbing them. this is very evident in the cutscene where you finally make it to ganondorf himself and they show a close-up of this through thicker branches of these “gloom vessels”
gloom sucks away vitality from a person. fittingly, whenever a heart container is damaged due to gloom, you hear a heartbeat. gloom hands visibly siphon this vitality in more of a physical way. if you watch them they will sort of grotesquely pulsate when sucking the Juices out of link
is gloom ganondorf’s dark-magic infused blood? when the edge of the master sword cut mummydorf’s face, instead of blood it oozed gloom which boiled after making contact with a chip of the sword. rather than being magenta gelatin like malice, gloom is red and flat, staining surfaces like a liquid
phantom ganon is made entirely out of gloom. the compendium says it’s made from “the demon king’s own flesh and blood”. the dark clumps left behind from the gloom spawn/phantom ganon (with the depths talisman on them i guess to turn it into gloom antibodies lol??) also pulsate like monster guts
my idea is that this all goes back to those roots that pump this back to ganondorf to revitalize him. he was siphoned by rauru, now he siphons others to revitalize himself. there’s a lot of details put into this no way it isn’t connected
btw i didnt notice it at first but the landing pad for gloom’s lair is shaped like a heart like actually. it shouldve been stupid obvious
the gloom system is like a reverse circulatory system. instead of nurturing the periphery from a central location, it drains the periphery and delivers the nutrients to a central location. so like, oops! all veins. apparently after writing this i found an identical point from a forum post made ONLY YESTERDAY
“real world cardiovascular systems deliver vitality to the rest of the body from a centric location, while Gloom drains vitality from its surroundings and delivers it to a centric location”
and this “nurturance” line of thought made me remember how I thought at one point that the lightroots look a bit like hearts and the big roots are like the vessels. it wasn’t really a significant thought at the time until I made these newer connections. if we put them into my analogy, they would be the opposite to the gloom vessel system since they deliver light from the surface and emit it to the periphery (the surrounding area). i associate light with rauru, and he healed/nurtured link, so there’s just parallels and another reason that made me think of the lightroots. also the lightroots heal gloom-damaged heart containers
there are more minor but supplementary details such as
the sound of a heartbeat is featured very prominently in the E3 2019 teaser, and is literally the first noise in the game itself as the opening screens play. so it’s literally the first experiences we have with the game, both the game itself and in the meta about the game.
gaining an essence from a goddess statue, the heartbeat was not in botw (and of course neither was the miasma emitting from link’s entire body every time)
the gloom in link’s body reacts to every shrine of light blessing he absorbs into his arm and the joycons themselves pulse using the haptics
probably more shit i missed lol
the whole thing doesn’t really mean anything significant to the lore at all but neither does the hands theme. but it’s just definitely a pattern, potentially a minor theme, and deliberate choice in setting tone. i think it’s Something. im not a heavy zelda theorist tuber or anything but i’m very observant of patterns and i like to share them for deeper appreciation and contemplation/discussion
Insane to me that in BOTW you are asked to question the validity of tradition and the powers that govern through it. Whether relying solely on beliefs of ancestors from thousands of years ago should still be upheld despite overwhelming proof that it's not working. Through Princess Zelda you see just how constricting and cruel tradition can be when one doesn't fit the mold of its requirements and how it can utterly destroy someone's sense of value to themselves and to the world around them. It asks "How many like her have come before? How many Zeldas who, by the misfortune of being born in a peaceful era, never got the same opportunity for freedom in the same way that this Zelda does? Ironic that the Calamity became the very thing that freed Zelda from the confines of Tradition."
And then ToTK turns around, looks you in the eyes and says "Actually tradition is very Important and Good and The Only Thing that stands in the way of Pure Evil. Go on this quest centered around praising ancestors past and mimic their tragically lost influence to Bring Peace and Happiness to everyone!! Also Zelda's character growth involves becoming the picture perfect Ideal of the very thing that made the majority of her life utterly miserable because now she's Perfect and isnt that divine? Definitely don't think about the tragic implications that has lore wise since it tells you that no matter how unique you may be, you will eventually become exactly like the rest from ages past. Anyways go kill a Lynel!!"
So one take on TOTK’s ending I’ve seen quite a bit of is the idea that it deprived all dramatic weight from Zelda’s sacrifice and that she should have suffered the consequences of her choice (I.e. stay a dragon forever or come back as a dragon human hybrid). This strikes me as a shallow reading of the text and another example of how some people think punishment (or in this case “dying for a cause”) is the only viable ending for someone who made the choice Zelda made. It really rubs me the wrong way given all the development and tragedy she faced in both games. What are your thoughts?
There is something beautiful and tragic and meaningful about the stories etched upon our skin by powers beyond our control. I don't think the people that wish for Amputee Link or Dragon Zelda think that 'dying for a cause' is the only reward for sacrifice. It comes from the truth that most of us don't get to recover from the consequences of our actions the way characters in a story can. Which I absolutely get (one of my earliest fics was written to call out anime fanservice). To escape with no scars or signs that anything awful happened can feel unrealistic or like cheating in a world where we must bear the consequences of our actions. But is that really what happened?
First off is the Doyalist framework the story has to exist within. This is a video game for a major franchise that, while they are excellent at re-writing and ignoring their own canon, still needs to be available for future stories to be told through it. After all the emphasis botw placed on the 'goddess bloodline', if they were to kill Zelda, or even render her sterile, that puts a huge shadow over any future games they could make. You don't kill Harry in the Order of the Phoenix. The stories of Hyrule are far from over, even if this would be a satisfying end point for the timeline. Heck, there's no guarantee Link's not going to wake up in his underwear in a damp cave a third time, tbh. That's the reality of why Zelda had to return to her old body.
But does that mean that totk is a bad story? Does it render Zelda's sacrifices meaningless? Do these sacrifices only have meaning if she came back visibly changed?
I don't think so. Because the sacrifice was never about her body, it was always about her sense of self. "To become an immortal dragon is to lose ones' self" was the sacrifice that was demanded and that Zelda offered.
Guess what? She did have to leave Link to face Ganondorf without her. Zelda did lose all sense of herself for uncountable years. Zelda's memories, her sense of self, was stripped away from her and scattered across all of Hyrule.
It was only because Link loved her enough to collect the pieces of who Zelda was, only because he was able to understand them through the gift of Rauru's arm, and only because both Sonia and Rauru consigned themselves to living as spirits for as long as Zelda was a dragon, that Zelda's sense of self was returned.
It may feel like cheating, or maybe unearned, that Zelda got her body and sense of self back with no visible changes. But how many times have other people stepped in to help shoulder the consequences of your actions? How many times did your parents step in when you made a mistake, to give you another chance?
You ever leave the fridge open as a kid, and accidentally spoil all your food? In a family where money is tight, Mom and Dad might have to sacrifice eating full meals for a while so that their children can eat. That sacrifice is a form of love. If the neighbor hears about it (thin walls) and brings over some casseroles they took from their food stores, that took a few hours to make, does that diminish the parent's sacrifice for their kids? The consequences of that sacrifice, going hungry, have gone away because someone else stepped in.
The mistake was Rauru and Sonia's, letting Ganondorf in and not being strong enough to stop him. The sacrifice was Zelda's, her mind/memories/self. The intercessors are Rauru, Sonia, and Link, unwilling to let Zelda bear the full weight of her sacrifice.
Yes, we live in a world where we often do not get to walk away from the consequences of our sacrifices/choices unscathed. But we also live in a world where, every once and a while, we do get to walk away with only internal changes. Almost always because other people were willing to sacrifice too. Your parents? your siblings? Your friends? Your god?
Zelda's hylian body is a reflection of the sense of self she regained. Of her agency as a character instead of as a mindless dragon/a living sacred site. Zelda's character arc ends with her accepting the sacrifice demanded of her by reclaiming her responsibility towards the people of her Hyrule, taking up the mantle of power and leadership once again. The fact that other people step in to blunt the weight of that sacrifice does not degrade how Zelda changed to get there or what she went through.
It's actually the conclusion of Rauru, Sonia's, and Link's arcs that they also sacrificed to support Zelda. Her arc pulls all the others to their conclusions. Zelda is the narrative gravity of totk. I can't call that bad writing.
The dichotomy of the masked characters in Kingdom Hearts and Tears of the Kingdom is enough to make me go insane.
In Tears of the Kingdom, they are not characters at all but symbols. They bear no name—just a region of origin. We know nothing of their personalities nor personal relationships. Only a blind loyalty to the throne. If their masks showed up in Majora’s Mask, they would be soulless.
In Kingdom Hearts, they wear symbols but are so much more than that. Their faces and bodies are hidden from view to disconnect you from what you perceive as human. But what you end up learning in the process is there’s so much more to people than what we see. We may not be able to see their faces but we are still shown their souls.
there is something I've been trying to put into words about how much of the game is spent learning to think like a Zonai. OK. Points:
Look me in the eye and tell me you've never tried to Ascend in another video game after spending a few hours in TOTK. You can't. I don't believe you if you do. I was looking for ascend-able spots in Pokemon the other day. I also saw a pile of just. random materials on the ground and went "what am I supposed to Ultrahand those into." And yes this is standard Tetris Effect nonsense, I'm not claiming it's unique, but in-world, think about Link, a Hylian, learning to rely so completely on these ancient powers. And his access to these powers not being technological a la the Sheikah Slate but being grafted onto his body.
The sheer number of shrines in the "A [Whatever] Device" pattern. Shrines designed very explicitly to teach you "here is the basic function of this Zonai device. Here are some more complex or novel ways to use that same device." I do wonder what purpose these shrines were intended to serve when they were created by Rauru before the Imprisoning War. Did he hope his children/descendants would inherit Zonai magic? Or just that Hyruleans would incorporate Zonai tech into their lives? We do see, for example in the "A King's Duty" tear, Hylians lugging around rockets...
And then there is the skydiving. The way that, at the beginning of the game, yes of course Link is willing to leap after Zelda no questions asked, but he can't catch her. But then you spend dozens of hours exploring the world, navigating the game's verticality. You maybe do the Zonai coming-of-age Diving Ceremonies. You maybe do the labyrinths and dive from the sky to the depths. It seems that these agile dives from high places were meaningful in Zonai culture--and they signified/demonstrated courage, so of course this is something for Link to become proficient in. And become proficient he does, such that at the end of the game he's able to dive and at last catch and save Zelda.
The Zonai are gone, at the end of the game. Rauru and Mineru join Sonia in whatever world beyond there is, and even Link's arm--the arm that allowed him to access this ancient culture, in ways both metaphorical and literal--is returned to normal. If ever Link felt a sense of disconnect, having this arm from another species grafted onto his body, I think he must feel that same sense of disconnect and displacement in having it removed. For a time, he was almost the last embodiment of this culture. And now he isn't anymore.
because i am once again being kept awake by yiga clan thoughts.
do you think the splintered sheikah from 10,000 years ago that swore allegience to ganon slowly evolved into the yiga we know today, gradually phasing out blues for reds and white hair for black in a ship of theseus sense where they don’t notice how different they’ve become until too many generations have passed to notice.
or do you think it all happened overnight in an edgy makeover montage styled like a 00s coming of age movie as they dye their hair black, tack spikes onto their outfits and apply emo eyeliner over their sheikah crests until the look is complete, joan jetts playing all the while as they walk in slo mo towards hyrule castle.
