The Legend of Zelda
| Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name: | The Legend of Zelda (ゼルダの伝説, Zeruda no Densetsu) |
| Abbreviation(s): | Zelda |
| Creator: | Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka (Nintendo) |
| Date(s): | 1986 - present |
| Medium: | Video game (NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance, Gamecube, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Wii, Wii U, Switch), cartoon, comic |
| Country of Origin: | Japan |
| External Links: | http://zelda.com |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Legend of Zelda is one of Nintendo's longest-running and most popular series. Set in a magical world, the Zelda games generally follow the adventures of three characters (or incarnations thereof): the protagonists Link, Princess Zelda, and their antagonist Ganondorf.
Synopsis
While each game is different, the general plot revolves around the Triforce, a mystical artifact left by the three goddesses that created the world of Hyrule. Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf each embody one of the three parts of the Triforce: courage for Link, knowledge for Zelda, and power for Ganondorf. In attempts to obtain the Triforce, or at least a piece of it, Ganondorf captures Zelda, and it is Link's fate to rescue her by defeating the villainous Ganondorf.
Some games leave this basic plot behind: Majora's Mask (2000), for example, takes place in a land called Termina, and Ganondorf and Zelda never make appearances during the span of the game.
Games
- The Legend of Zelda (1986)
- The Adventure of Link (1987)
- A Link to the Past (1991)
- Link's Awakening (1993)
- Ocarina of Time (1998)
- Majora's Mask (2000)
- Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages (2001)
- Four Swords (2002)
- The Wind Waker (2002)
- Four Swords Adventures (2004)
- The Minish Cap (2004)
- Twilight Princess (2006)
- Phantom Hourglass (2007)
- Spirit Tracks (2009)
- Skyward Sword (2011)
- A Link Between Worlds (2013)
- Tri-Force Heroes (2015)
- Breath of the Wild (2017)
Fandom
Major websites
The release of Ocarina of Time, one of the most popular and well received games in the Zelda series, coincided with the growing use of the Internet in homes. Websites blossomed, some on free hosts like Geocities and Angelfire and some with their own domains. Hyrule: The Land of Zelda was a massive resource for fans and their forums nurtured an active community.
See also: Zelda Fansite Directory at Zelda Wiki
Major fans
- Lady Juliet
- Imagine Dragons - The band have made their love of Zelda clear, to the extent that at the Game Awards 2014, the group performed the track 'Great Fairy Fountain' and their song 'It's Time' alongside The Legend of Zelda composer Koji Kondo.[1]
Fanworks
The Legend of Zelda fandom is fairly prolific in terms of fanworks. While it is harder to find statistics for other archives, Archive of Our Own has over 10k works listed for the fandom as a whole, just over 4,000 of which are tagged for the game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess, as of February 2020, are the next most prolific with a bit over a thousand works on AO3 each. Most fanworks for this series, however, are on other platforms—Fanfiction.net currently hosts just over 31 thousand works in their Legend of Zelda category, and there are many websites devoted entirely to the series, or even specific subsets of the series.
Common tropes include a mute or selectively mute Link, crossovers between different incarnations of Link, and many more. The most popular pairing is Link/Zelda.
Comics
Zines
Game Mods
Fangames
Online resources
General information
- ZeldaWiki.org
- Zelda Dungeon (previously Zelda Informer)
- Zelda Legends
For fanworks
- The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms at Archive of Our Own
- Legend of Zelda at FanFiction.Net
- The North Castle
- ZG Fanfiction (archive for the ZeldaGuide fansite)
