S.Peelman said:
I don't know. He is personally mentioned in the prologue of the Wind Waker, several times during Twilight Princess and because of what is now said about it in Hyrule Historia, you could say it's implied in the prologue to ALttP that he died at some point before that (though ofcourse that was never written as such back then). Plus the ending to Majora's Mask doesn't exacly wrap things up. So now there are explanations for the Wind Waker and A Link to the Past stories, but all the references to him in Twilight Princess don't. Some people believe the 'Hero's Shade', the ghost-character that teaches you new moves inside a dream world, is in fact the Hero of Time, mainly because he knows so much about that Link while most of his adventures didn't actually happen for the TP timeline due to timeline issues caused in OoT. Personally I don't think it is Link, but if it is, how? What happened there? It gets quite complicated because of the split timelines and stuff to figure out what happened prior to what game and what in TP could reference the OoT/MM Link though. Like the green tunic in TP, said to have belonged to a 'Legendary Hero', or the Hero's Bow, said by the Gorons to have belonged to one that helped them centuries ago. Concerning Majora's Mask, the game starts with Link searching for 'a friend', of whom it can be assumed is Navi the fairy since she's abscent, while riding through a dark forest. At the end of the game however, Link is seen riding off through the same woods someplace else, presumably continueing his initial quest before he got interupted by the Skull Kid. This leaves a very open end. |
Having read the chronology section of Hyrule Historia, I can reveal the following:
The Hero's Shade is the Hero of Time, confirmed. Twilight Princess follows on from Majora's Mask. The Hero of Time remains as the Hero's Shade and instructs Twilight Princess Link because the Hero of Time has been largely forgotten by the time of Twilight Princess. Remember, Majora's Mask follows on from a timeline in which Young Link saves Hyrule not by defeating Ganondorf, but by warning Zelda of what will happen should she interfere and open the door to the Sacred Realm. The second act of Ocarina, the Adult Link era, only happens because Ganondorf anticipates what Zelda and Link will do, using them to enter the Sacred Realm. Without access to the Sacred Realm, Ganondorf is caught, imprisoned, and eventually the Sages attempt to execute him, as we see in a flashback in TP. So the Hero's Shade is the surviving remnant of the Hero of Time, but in the timeline in which he survives and has saved Hyrule and returned to the past, and THEN saves Termina, he is almost completely forgotten in Hyrule because his confrontation with Ganondorf and his defeat of the King of Evil never happens. Training the new Hero is his way of continuing his forgotten legacy.
The Hero of Time dies in the Link to the Past timeline, because the Imprisoning War follows should Link fail to defeat Ganondorf at Ganon's Castle at the end of Ocarina. The Hero of Time disappears from the Great Sea timeline, because Zelda returns him to his original time (the 'straight line' section of the timeline that results in Majora and Twilight), where his heroic actions never took place. Ironically, in the Great Sea timeline, the Hero of Time is celebrated as a legend and remembered even to the time of Wind Waker, centuries later. In fact, when Ganondorf initially returns, the people of Hyrule expect a Hero to appear to save them, but the Hero's Spirit (as it is referred to in the chronology section) hasn't been able to reappear due to Zelda using the ocarina to give Link his childhood back.
It's important to remember that the history in the Legend of Zelda isn't constrained by how we percieve history. It's much more like Tolkien's legendarium--certain ideas and themes and heroes and evils are reborn in different forms throughout the Ages, so it won't make sense as literal, linear history. It will only make sense if we accept that certain people, spirits, ideals and evils will renew themselves from time to time. In Zelda, however, the Princess and Hero always have the blood of the Princess and the spirit of the Hero in them. Everyone is bound by the curse of Demise from Skyward Sword, and further bound by Ganondorf splitting the Triforce in Ocarina. For example, in Twilight Princess, despite taking place in the timeline when Ganondorf was stopped from entering the Sacred Realm, the Triforce still splits and resides in Link, Zelda and Ganon. The Triforce is the unifying constant of Hyrule, so it seems to be exempt from normal laws of space and time. These powerful, binding ties, inevitably mean that during many periods of strife in Hyrule (though not all of them, as the Great Flood and Imprisoning War testify) the Hero and the Princess will return to fight the Demon King, whether that's Vaati, Ganon (the most common and continuous form of evil), or Malladus.
