What do you mean Link looks the same? Both Link and Zelda has changed roughly the same amount through out the series.
Canonically the two Zeldas in the first two games are two different princesses of the same royal family. Just try the Japanese FDS Zelda 2 and you will see it clearly says "another princess Zelda". The localizers just screwed up a bit when they fixed the Engrish and managed to hide that fact, but it's still clearly stated in the manual backstory (which is an excellent translation of the Japanese manual).
The American TV series and Valiant comics mixes Zelda 1 and 2 and only have one princess, of course it's not canon in any way. My image of Link and Zelda was partly formed from those comics but it soon changed as it didn't fit well with later games that had more dialogue. Zelda is said to be a bit of a tomboy (heard from gossip stones) but she still can act like a princess at least.
DRW wrote:
Pokun wrote:
One exception may be the ALttP Link who is, together with his uncle, the last descendants of the knights of Hyrule who fought Ganon. It's possible that Ocarina of Time Link is supposed to be this knight, but I'm not sure about that.
ALttP plays in the fallen timeline where Link of OoT died in the final battle against Ganon. That's why Ganon had to be defeated by the knights instead of the Hero of Time.
But even if the fallen timeline didn't exist, it's logically impossible that the uncle is a descendent of OoT Link.
Because at the end of OoT, Link was sent back into his child days where Ganondorf could be stopped long before anything serious happened.
So, in the timeline where the big showdown with Ganon happened, the Hero of Time disappeared because he was sent back in time, so this timeline didn't have a Link anymore, hence he couldn't have any children there.
Yes and that's the thing, the backstory of Alttp tells that the knight(s) were defeated by Ganon but the fight bought time for the sages to seal Ganon. If Link is this knight or one of them, it makes sense if he lost against Ganon in OoT. Though if that is the case and he died in the battle, he must have left (illegitimate) descendants after him sometime during the game before the final battle in the game. If he was defeated but somehow survived however it's not a problem.
DRW wrote:
Pokun wrote:
I'm not sure about goddess interventions in Zelda 2 but the game explains why the Zelda from Zelda 1 has the same name as the Zelda from Zelda 2 (all baby girls in the royal household had to be named Zelda after that sleeping beauty incident). But considering there are tons of Zeldas before her in the royal household it doesn't really say much.
Which is pretty ironic: Zelda from part 1 is one of
the Zeldas. One of the Zeldas who is connected to Link and Ganon.
While the Zelda from part 2 is obviously just some random princess.
But still, the one from part 1 (the predestined one) is named after the one from part 2 (the regular one).
More interesting though, who did Link hook up with? I bet it was Zelda 2 Zelda as he kisses her behind the curtains. He is such a playboy having two princesses, but not as much as Hero of Time though, sweeping off the feet of every girl he meets and then runs away after the smallest one (Navi) to the forest.
DRW wrote:
Pokun wrote:
I could be wrong but I I'm not sure if Nintendo planned the series to be in the same universe from the start. When ALttP came out it felt more like a reboot or alternate universe reusing the same characters and places. OoT however was clearly made to be the backstory of ALttP, but they screwed up and made it super complicated which had to be fixed with alternate timelines and what not.
ALttP was also intended as a prequel to the NES games. They even mentioned Link and Zelda from those games in the box texts and (Japanese?) manual.
So, yeah, it was intended as an on-going series.
OoT then included the timeline split. (And to fill the plot hole where ALttP says that knights defeated Ganon, they invented this third timeline/alternate continuity where Link was defeated by Ganon, so other people had to fight him afterwards.)
Yeah it's possible. Although at the time I thought they did a university switch. It was very common in the RPG genre after all.
I don't remember that from the Japanese manual though.
The map in Alttp seems to be designed after the Zelda 1 map. The Zelda 1 map is in ruins though, Kakariko is a grave yard and the castle is pretty much gone. The sea has also strangely appeared in place of Lake Hylia. The mountain has also been renamed from Hera back to Death Mountain again. Actually Zelda 1 is the only game where the name makes sense as it's the big bad's hideout, and not just some innocent mountain that has got an unfortunate name. I guess that's why the renamed it to Hera in AlttP.