The Valentines of Zelda Dungeon: Love Amongst Legends
Posted on February 14 2024 by Alexandria Weber
The Zelda series is one that is fundamentally rooted in connections — connections between where we are and where we’re going, connections between real life and being immersed into Hyrule, and of course the way it connects us to other people. Ever since 1986, siblings have fought over controllers, friends have gone to the house that has the newest console, and parents have found themselves drawn in to what was initially meant to be an industry geared towards kids. As we’ve grown up, the Zelda series has also forged connections through it being a common interest between people, anywhere between complimenting a stranger’s Zelda cap to meeting your future life partner at a video game charity event.
Here at Zelda Dungeon we’ve done plenty of Daily Debates about love, like where romance belongs in the series, what platonic connections pull the biggest heartstrings, etc.. There’s Yeta and Yeto, the cozy couple who lives in Snowpeak Ruins, Hudson and Rhondson, the construction power couple who built Tarrey Town from the ground up, and even Link and Zelda, who are always strung together by fate.
We also have some real-life couples right here at Zelda Dungeon, with varying dynamics and ways that the series has bonded them. Let’s meet them!
Miranda and Cal
Image Credit: Katie Shaffer
Together Since: 2016
Roles At Zelda Dungeon: Miranda is the ZD YouTube Community Manager and Cal is a producer on our weekly podcast The Zelda Cast. Miranda and Cal have also attended more than one Zelda Dungeon Marathon together.
Q: When did you two meet? What were the circumstances?
Mir: We met at gaming club in college around eight years ago. We mostly played Super Smash Bros. 4 but I was the one that got him into The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD since he didn’t get to play the originals.
Q: What was the first Zelda game you played together?
Mir: Hyrule Warriors for Wii U!
Q: Do you two have any conflicting opinions about the Zelda series?
Cal: Not really, apart from the games we consider our favorites. (Twilight Princess vs Ocarina of Time)
Q: Would you ever consider naming a future pet or child after a Zelda character? If you already have, describe.
Cal: Our next plant will be named Terrako for sure!
Mir: Planty needs a friend.
Q: How competitive are the two of you when it comes to gaming?
Cal: Most of what we play is single-player so we often set personal challenges. When we do play multi-player games…
Mir: I like to attack first and ask questions later! Cal’s too patient lol.
Q: How has the Zelda series influenced your connection besides it being a common interest/helping you meet?
Cal: With music and art we tend to have different preferences, but Zelda artwork and soundtracks brought our opinions together and from there we’ve found even more common interests.
Rachel and Locke
Together Since: 2021
Roles at Zelda Dungeon: Rachel (aka Zelda1Fan, shortened to “Z1”) is a ZD community member and Locke is the Site Administrator. Rachel and Locke have both attended multiple Zelda Dungeon Marathons, where Locke is instrumental in the technology behind the stream.
Q: When did you two meet? What were the circumstances?
Rachel & Locke: We first “interacted” around 2015-16 chatting on ZD’s Twitch channel, which extended into Blake’s and other community channels, and group gaming sessions over Skype. We ended up following each other and participated more and more in each other’s channels (mostly Locke watching Z1’s speedruns). We first met in person at the 2019 ZD marathon, and later started playing a lot of Splatoon 2 together. But it wasn’t until 2021 when we became a couple.
Q: What was the first Zelda game you played together?
Rachel & Locke: Before our relationship started, the first game we played together was probably Skyward Sword, when we did a “race” to prepare for the 2020 marathon. We also played through Age of Calamity simultaneously when it was released later that year. That was our first game as a couple, when we did a co-op speedrun the first time we met up as a couple in 2021.
Q: Do you two have any conflicting opinions about the Zelda series?
Rachel & Locke: Nothing major, we tend to agree on a lot of things when it comes to Zelda. We have similar top/bottom five games, similar opinions about what the recent games do and don’t do well, similar opinions about which games are overrated, etc. Our play styles differ a bit, with Locke putting more value into 100%ing a casual playthrough, and both of us finding different speedrunning tricks too risky to attempt.
Q: Would you ever consider naming a future pet or child after a Zelda character? If you already have, describe.
Rachel & Locke: Maybe, we haven’t really thought about it.
Q: How competitive are the two of you when it comes to gaming?
Rachel & Locke: We’re both a little bit competitive. We both speedrun several Zelda games, though fairly infrequently. Z1 speedruns a bit more, and Locke used to play Splatoon competitively. We both tend to get a little frustrated by failure.
Q: How has the Zelda series influenced your connection besides it being a common interest/helping you meet?
Rachel & Locke: One ritual we’ve developed is playing Zelda Heardle together when the song changes at midnight. Zelda music is a common discussion topic, especially during Musical March Madness. Z1’s engagement ring is Zelda-inspired. On the other hand, the closest we’ve come to fighting has been during The Wind Waker 2p1c playthroughs.
Kieran and Alex
Together Since: 2022
Roles at Zelda Dungeon: Kieran is a YouTube Team site post editor and Alex is a Copy Editor. Kieran and Alex have both attended more than one Zelda Dungeon Marathon.
Q: When did you two meet? What were the circumstances?
Kieran: We met at the Zelda Dungeon Marathon #notsponsored. I was playing Skyward Sword…
Alex: Well we met the day before but yes, that was the first time we bonded. It was a hard day for both of us for unrelated reasons but reflecting on it later it turns out we brightened up each other’s lives from the very start! Good thing I insisted on coming down to watch Skyward Sword!
Q: What was the first Zelda game you played together?
Kieran: It was Skyward Sword. We did the blindfolded thing…
Alex: Do you know that because you got it wrong in the Newlywed Game?
Kieran: Don’t worry about it.
Q: Do you two have any conflicting opinions about the Zelda series?
Kieran: Where do I begin?
Alex: I feel like we surprisingly agree on a lot of things that people…that are controversial. Like we think Ocarina of Time is overrated, we think A Link to the Past is overrated, like we both think those things that are not common…wait what do we have different then? I actually can’t think of anything.
Kieran: Age of Calamity?
Alex: Oh…
Kieran: I like both of the Hyrule Warriors more than Breath of the Wild.
Alex: That’s very, very no.
Q: Would you ever consider naming a future pet or child after a Zelda character? If you already have, describe.
Kieran: We’ll name it Midna if it’s like a black and white cat.
Q: How competitive are the two of you when it comes to gaming?
Kieran: Yes.
Q: How has the Zelda series influenced your connection besides it being a common interest/helping you meet?
Alex: I don’t even know how I would answer…oh well yeah it’s the way I proposed. Yeah, for reference he keeps holding things up to…to the camera. I don’t know how to say this, it like…because we’re long distance it’s one of the things that keeps me rooted in our connection. He feels less far away when he streams or when I play a game he likes, even without him…it makes him seem less distant when he’s physically distant. Do you have an answer for this or…
Kieran: Nothing that you haven’t already said.
Spawny and Moogle
Together Since: 2020
Roles at Zelda Dungeon: Moogle and Spawny (aka satan_spawn, hereafter referred to as Satan) have attended the past three Zelda Dungeon Marathons together as guests.
Q: When did you two meet? What were the circumstances?
Satan and Moogle: We first met on Twitch. Moogle noticed Satan was asking good questions about A Link to the Past speedrunning in a popular stream. Moogle was actively helping new players at the time so he decided to check out her stream to see how the runs were going. Moogle was surprised to see Satan drinking out of a giant 32oz beer can, listening to good music, and wearing a Pantera shirt. Satan was a new Twitch streamer at the time and was ecstatic to learn the cute Zelda nerd was only three and a half hours away and had family that lived close to her. They both had the same reaction of “this streamer is really hot. I have no chance.” They very quickly became good friends while doing weekly training sessions of A Link to the Past and decided to meet up a few months later. Moogle had plans to move to Arizona, but didn’t quite make it that far. Instead they started a life together in Michigan where they continue to speedrun A Link to the Past.
Q: What was the first Zelda game you played together?
Satan and Moogle: We completed our A Link to the Past segment grinds in person the weekend we met.
Q: Do you two have any conflicting opinions about the Zelda series?
Moogle: The Adventure of Link is better than Oracle of Seasons.
Satan: Moogle thinks Twilight Princess didn’t need to make all of the filler “fetch quest” content a requirement. He wouldn’t play the game without a speedrun guide again. I really wasn’t bothered by it because it lengthened an awesome game.
Q: Would you ever consider naming a future pet or child after a Zelda character? If you already have, describe.
Satan and Moogle: We would name a pet after a Zelda character, but the pet would have to remind us of a specific character. We plan to raise chickens, and if one of them lays blue eggs, we will name it Cojiro.
Q: How competitive are the two of you when it comes to gaming?
Satan and Moogle: We aren’t competitive with each other in gaming. We have different interests within speedrunning, but are both extremely competitive separately. We are planning on learning different games. Moogle is less competitive than he used to be, but he plans on running several Zelda games instead of focusing all of his attention on one.
Q: How has the Zelda series influenced your connection besides it being a common interest/helping you meet?
Satan and Moogle: Moogle started playing one of Satan’s favorite games, Twilight Princess, the day after they met. They were long distance for a few months and sometimes would meet at a motel in the middle, where Moogle would haul his 150lb CRT into a motel room to play Twilight Princess while they drank blueberry mead.
Justin and Heather
Together Since: 2011
Roles at Zelda Dungeon: Heather is our Art Director and one of our Senior Editors and Justin is her dutiful husband.
Q: When did you two meet? What were the circumstances?
Heather: We were friends while he was going through school, and then we had mutual friends. It was only a few years later that a friend of mine was dating his brother and she gave him (Justin) my phone number. The rest is history.
Q: What was the first Zelda game you played together?
Heather: A Link to the Past – it’s his favorite game, and he encouraged me to give it a try
Q: Do you two have any conflicting opinions about the Zelda series?
Heather: Not anything major or world breaking. Our biggest differences comes in which games we rank as the best.
Q: Would you ever consider naming a future pet or child after a Zelda character? If you already have, describe.
Heather: We don’t have any pets named after characters, but I could see us naming a pet after a Zelda character. No, for naming our children though. Not that it’s not cool, just not really our thing.
Q: How competitive are the two of you when it comes to gaming?
Heather: It depends on the game. We love to play games together video games and board games. We love friendly competition and sharing that time together.
Q: How has the Zelda series influenced your connection besides it being a common interest/helping you meet?
Heather: It’s just something that we enjoy talking about, me more so than him. He supports my being a part of ZD, nurtures my interests, and just something that we love to share with each other. Zelda is such a big thing for us that we bought two copies of Tears of the Kingdom because we KNEW that we would not be able to share one. It’s a fun part of our lives and I’m glad we can share it together.
What do you think? Do you know of anyone that met because of the Zelda series? Do you and your partner have any Zelda-related traditions? Let us know in the comments below!
Alexandria Weber is a Senior Editor and an aspiring creative writer. Her favorite food is apple pie and she loves her cat Galadriel. Ask her for pictures!
