Highlights
- Each ending in The Legend of Zelda series has a dark undertone, with rewards that can be just as dark as the dungeons.
- In Twilight Princess, Link is separated from his home and friends, while the Twili remain trapped in their prison dimension.
- The ending of Majora's Mask all has grim implications and leaves a haunting aftertaste of melancholy.
Every game in TheLegend of Zelda series is dark in its own way. After all, saving an oppressed people and restoring a warped or ruined landscape to its natural beauty (and defeating the monster responsible) is only made more heroic in contrast to a terrifying, creepy, or depressing backdrop. Zelda games tend to end on a high note in order to acknowledge the player's efforts in saving the day, but sometimes, the reward at the end can be just as dark as a shadowy dungeon filled with torture racks, disembodied giant hands, and lurching undead.
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With some light analysis, these final scenes between the big bad and the end credits have some pretty grim implications, each in their own horrifying way. From eternal curses to broken kingdoms, each ending leaves the haunting aftertaste of melancholy after a feast of heroic victory. Massive, angry, moon-faced spoilers ahead.
6 Twilight Princess
The Continued Imprisonment & Collective Punishment Of The Twili
- Link loses his sense of connection to his home and an actual connection with a great friend.
- The Twili, despite only being the descendants of the interlopers, are still trapped in the prison dimension.
After severing the connection between the worlds of Twilight and Hyrule, the chaos beasts no longer harass the good people of Hyrule, Ganondorf is struck down, and order is restored once again. Given that Twilight Princess has a reputation for being one of the darker games (if mainly because of its nocturnal aesthetics), its ending is rather uplifting. However, because Twilight Mirror had to be sacrificed to sever the connection, Link and Midna become irrevocably separated.
The final scenes show Link's neighbors calling up to him in his treehouse, but to no avail. These scenes are tinged with sadness and demonstrate the fact that Link has been changed by his journey and can no longer be understood by the humble people of his small town. He goes off alone, never able to see the one person who experienced his adventure and who would understand him. On the other side, the residents of the Twilight Realm are helplessly trapped in their night dimension - which initially served as a prison for the Interlopers' (their ancestors) collective punishment - and will never again see the light of day.
5 Majora's Mask
Link Fails In His Quest & His Other Terrible Fate
- After saving Termina, Link ultimately fails in his quest to reunite with his friend Navi.
- His fate is unknown in the game, but according to another Zelda game, this Link is fated to become a cursed skeletal swordsman.
If the theories about Majora's Mask being about a dying link's journey to the void are to be believed, the game's final scenes could be quite uplifting, with the crisis being averted and Majora's magic being undone. However, knowing that the Hero's Shade, as seen in Twilight Princess, is the same Link from Termina, it is clear that Link's exploits over the course of those three days were forgotten, or at least the story never made it back to Hyrule, if the two places co-existed in the same universe.
The Hero's Shade's personality betrays deep regret about having become forgotten. It is unknown whether Link ever made it back to Hyrule to rejoin Zelda or the royal family, but one thing is certain: he entered the Lost Woods and, not being a Kokiri by birth, was cursed to become a skeletal Stalfos for the rest of his afterlife, and the mission that led him to the mirror world, finding his fairy friend, Navi, is left seemingly unfinished.
4 Skyward Sword
This End Marks The Beginning Of An Inevitable Evil
- Even in defeating Demise, Link witnesses the birth of another timeless enemy.
- Demise's curse makes all other victories against evil ring hollow because of its inevitable nature.
Pronouncing itself as the very first story in the Legend of Zelda timeline, Skyward Sword is the origin story of Demise and his curse on Hyrule. While Link saves the day, the big bad uses his final moments to plant the seeds of some truly horrific monsters. Knowing that evil is an inevitable force bound to return to the world eternally casts a shadow over any hope that Hyrule might have for peace.
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With this promise of evil's eternal return, each victory against the big bad rings hollow, as the player now knows that their efforts are ultimately futile. This ending traps the inhabitants of the world in a never-ending war between the royal family and an undefeatable force of hatred.
3 Ocarina of Time
The Splitting Timelines Create Two Worlds Without A Hero Or Hope
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo 64 , GameCube
- Released
- November 21, 1998
- Developer(s)
- Nintendo
- Genre(s)
- Action , Adventure
- Two of the three endings result in an apocalyptic situation for Hyrule.
- One good ending floods the world, and the bad ending has Hyrulians living through the oppressive reign of Ganondorf.
- The child timeline ending leaves players feeling uncertain about the future of Hyrule, at best.
According to official Nintendo sources (the Hyrule Historia), three endings to The Ocarina of Time exist. One ending sees Link defeated. The other two branches occur as a result of Zelda sending Link back in time to his childhood, effectively erasing him from existence. Another Link won't show up in that timeline; the hero is gone forever (leading to the heroless world as described in Wind Waker).
There's no need to explain why the downfall ending is dark, as Ganon is able to run a rampage until the sages finally end his oppression. Even in the timeline where Link is able to return to his childhood, Link loses his friend Navi (as she flies away without a word of explanation), and Link and Zelda are tasked with persuading the King that Ganondorf is mounting an attack. It is never explained how they are supposed to pull this off. From what was shown in Twilight Princess, his takedown did not go down smoothly.
2 Wind Waker
Letting Go Of The Past & Dooming The People Of The Old Kingdom
- While letting go of the past is a good message, the king may have killed all his recently unpetrified subjects.
- Those living on the islands will never see the surface or have enough space to flourish as the former kingdom did.
For such a colorful and whimsical game, The Wind Waker sure does end on a bittersweet (or even sour) note. Ganon is struck between the eyes by the Master Sword and turned to rock, but the King of Hyrule wishes that "the Goddesses wash everything away," including himself and his kingdom, giving Tetra (Zelda) and Link passage to escape their watery grave.
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Considering that Hyrule was in suspended animation under the waves (including Ganon's minions), it's entirely possible that the Kingdom of Hyrule still had people living in it before it was petrified. The small section that Link sees while exploring the lost land below wasn't exactly scorched or salted, and the populations of the various islands across the Great Sea aren't huge (the descendants of Hyrule Castle Town weren't all able to make a new life in the mountains).
1 Link's Awakening
Waking From One Nightmare To The Next
- By coming to, Link erases a whole island of people from the magical dreams of the Wind Fish.
- Even if it was "all just a dream," Link is still left in the middle of the ocean without directions, supplies, or a way to return home.
At the start of the game, Link is knocked out by a sudden storm and wakes up on an island. Before the end of Link's Awakening, it becomes clear that the island itself is the figment of the imagination of a great entity called The Wind Fish and that waking him (and escaping) will mean the end of the lives of those who live there. Of course, Link succeeds, and before the credits roll, he is seen floating on the driftwood of his boat in the middle of the ocean.
Being able to say, "Well, it was all just a dream," would be easier to swallow if it weren't for the implication that the Wind Fish's dreams are more real than those experienced by slumbering mortals. Worse still, Link is still left adrift out at sea, with no means to find land. Depending on the interpretation of the chronology (the Hyrule Historia placed Link's Awakening after Seasons & Ages, but Nintendo revised it to take place "after one of the Links defeated Ganon"), this might have been the last of the Fallen Timeline hero's adventures.
