Zelda & Link's Love | TotK BotW Evidence Explained | 2023

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Zelda tells Link "I'm home" at the ending. In Japan, you only tell that to the people at familial level or people that you live with.

After Skyward Sword and how obvious it was that Zelda and Link loved each other in that game, Nintendo can't lie anymore.

for me the biggest evidence is the “find princess zelda” quest. it is the single longest lasting quest in the game. technically, destroying ganondorf is a secondary quest - the goals were aligned, and it was the right thing to do, so of course link would do it. but every lead he chases down, every dungeon he completes and everything he does, everything is intended to find princess zelda. it was never about hyrule. it was about her.

another huge thing that proves link loves zelda is how heartbroken he looks when the dragon's tears quest is done. when he's surrounded by the silent princesses, he looks SO SAD. we hardly ever see him emote like this and it's so 😭

Don’t forget that Dragon Zelda went to Link even when she didn’t have any memories! That’s how strong their love is

something to note: zelda's journal refers to her house as "my house." but in the japanese translation, she refers to it as "our house." in the final cutscene, she says to link "i'm home," which in japan, is only something you say to someone you have a familial or loving bond with. im assuming in the japanese translation, this line is supposed to have a double meaning, "i'm home" referring to their shared house and referring to "the home is where the heart is." in zelda's diary, she mentions that she is making a new champions tunic JUST for link, also saying that (paraphrasing here) she "cannot wait to see the look on his face when [she] surprises him with it." she also says that she will hide it in the castle. now, why would she hide it in the castle? because in their shared home, link could come home and find it! their house also only has one bed! and link can sleep in it, and link can only sleep in beds that he owns or rented out via inn. so in short, they live together, the house only has one bed, zelda has to hide her gifts for him outside of their house because he would find it, because he lives there...

In the german version, the gerudo teacher literally asks Link if he has a girlfriend and he says "Oh yes"" and she tells Link he is very direct and if you say "No..." the teacher doesn't fully believe you

There will never be enough proof for the people that just don't like the pairing. The writers could come forward and spell it out and it wouldn't be enough, they will always say "well actually Link is a blank slate character so he feels whatever I want to feel". Except Link is not a blank slate. He has a backstory, opinions and a personality (even if we kinda got robbed of it in the English translation).

In the distant past in TOTK, Sonia drops a remark to Zelda about how she has to return home to put Link's mind at ease. When Rayru asks Zelda about Link, it's obvious that Sonia and Rayru pick up on her love for him from her reply.

I never expected to love the relationship between Zelda and Link in BOTW and TOTK as much as I did. They really do have a sweet and loving romance. Zelda loves Link for always being there to support her, and Link loves her for being a quirky nerd who is obsessed with history, nature, and science. I imagine him always listening attentively to her talking about her interests, his love growing stronger with each passing minute. Plus, the two of them together also have a bit of a chaotic energy to them, with Link being a wild warrior and Zelda the overly-enthusiastic scientist wanting to try any kind of crazy experiment. Makes me wish we got to see more scenes of them together in Hyrule getting into all kinds of wild situations. 🥰

Important bit from Breath Of the Wild that indicates Link's love for Zelda. He's supposed to be a knight. Only. A knight. And so in the memory, "Despair," when Zelda trips in the mud while they run from the Calamity, Link doesn't grab her arm and tell her they need to go. He doesn't do what a knight would do and stick to his duty by trying to get her out of there. He knows that she isn't okay and she needs to just stop for a minute to cry. She bursts into tears and ends up falling into his arms. Link walked forwards, PUT AWAY THE SWORD—THEIR ONLY MEANS OF PROTECTION—and listened to her. Look in his eyes he looks like he's about to cry. He knows Zelda and he knows her well. He knows that she just needs love right now and he wants to be that person.

one thing to note about the ending cutscene is when zelda says she felt a warm loving embrace, link actually smiles widely. there is a tumblr user who managed to change the camera settings in an emulator and aimed it at link’s face. even though his face isn’t seen in the cutscene, it’s interesting that the zelda team deliberately took the time to animate his expression. maybe they initially wanted to include it but then changed their mind later, or maybe it was a hidden easter egg meant for only the zelda team to know. but either way, it sort of confirms that zelda is referring to link about the “warm loving embrace”. edit: youtube will usually delete comments with url links but the username of the tumblr account with the video is mistress-light, if you scroll down their page you will eventually find the video.

I’d also want to add that in Age of Calamity, when Link gets the master sword, it activates only when Link reaches out to Zelda trying to desperately save her, directly mirroring Zelda saving Link. Further supporting your point that their love is what ultimately awakens their power.

in my head, in hateno village, in their house, Zelda is usually the second one to finally get home after a long day of working and being with the children in the school, and when she does she probably always announces to Link that she’s home, so when she says it at the end “Oh Link… I’m home!” she’s 100% saying that to him with that same mindset just with obviously added emotional baggage

Another thing I liked is that in the memory in BOTW where Zelda says "tomorrow is my 17th birthday", she and Link rode horses together to the spot. She says " Be sure to take the time to soothe your mount. That's the only way it will know how you truly feel" and thanks Link for the advice. So he does speak to her more casually too, not only during the diary. It's cute as fuck.

In the cutscene of Link letting Zelda cry into him, his eyes have such a deep expression, you can almost hear the words that he wants to say. He desperately wants to console her and try to tell her everything will be okay, but he can't, because he knows that he would be lying to her. And Link loves her too much to lie to her, so he just has to kneel there and protect her until he can try to make things better for her. Look at Link's eyes between 18:08 and 18:18

yes!! there's so so so many other little crumbs throughout the games, too: paya's journal in breath of the wild suspects that link is in love with zelda; at the end of the champion's ballad dlc, kass says that his teacher's love for zelda was never reciprocated because "she only had eyes for her knight,"; in tears of the kingdom, in the "voe & me" class, link has the option to say that he's in love with someone; AND other npcs refer to the hudson dream house as being for a family/the furnished room has four chairs, etc.!

This is the most “in love” Link and Zelda have been since Skyward Sword. It’s not every incarnation but it’s definitely romance with these 2 eras.

I'm just a simple person and all I know is that if the storyline goes beyond time and space for something beyond yourself to another.......that's simply love.