Daily Debate: Could Zelda Be Part of a Connected Universe?

The previous decade of films have put a lot of attention towards interconnected franchises, where characters can come together and have interweaving storylines. Perhaps all the buzz around such films is why a particular Zelda theory never faded away, and still pops up to this day. Some people posit that Nintendo has been building the groundwork of a shared universe for a long time, and all it would take is confirmation that this has been the case. Would this even be a good idea, though?

Digging back, the earliest piece of evidence for this theory came from Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, where a character that is unmistakably Link can be found sleeping in the Rose Town Inn (Samus is also found sleeping there as well). A painting of Mario can be found in A Link to the Past. Link’s Awakening features Goombas, Chain-Chomps, and Anti-Kirbys; and despite Koholint being a dream world, it’s been argued that the dreamscape is a manifestation of real things that either Link or the Wind Fish encountered. Going deeper into the rabbit hole, I once saw an assertion that the moon in Majora’s Mask is actually the astroid that has a face from Star Fox; the theory being the astroid fell into the black hole that appears after shooting it, and ended up near Termina.

I would dislike Nintendo trying to validate a connected universe with their games, I’ve always considered points used as evidence in favor of it as fans digging too deep into Easter Eggs. Sometimes people who worked on other Nintendo series end up working on Zelda, and that would explain why there are so many easter eggs. For example, Takaya Imamura was a Graphic Designer for Star Fox, and he was also an Art Director for Majora’s Mask. That could explain the similarity between the moon in Majora’s Mask and the Star Fox astroid, plus all the other Star Fox easter eggs that people have noticed in Majora’s Mask.

Would you be interested in Nintendo incorporating a connected universe that involved Zelda? Which game series would be the best candidate to tie all the main Nintendo IPs together? Or do you agree with me that this would be a bad idea? We’re interested to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

This Daily Debate was inspired by Discord User billykline13#9761

Charles Xavier

Charles is a Senior Editor at Zelda Dungeon. He is a Visual Development artist focused on enviroments and pitch paintings. Check out his Instagram and Twitter to see his latest artworks, a lot of which is Zelda fan art! His favorite candy is Skittles – he feels the world should know this.