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

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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

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.

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.

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.

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...

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 😭

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.

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 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.!

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).

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.

16:40 Also, as this was made by a Japanese company, it's good to note that how a character says "I'm home" can hold a lot of meaning. Kids usually yell "I'm back!" while a loveless couple will plainly say "I'm back/I'm home." A couple in love will be genuinely happy to be back, no matter how long or short their time apart, and Zelda's was definitely more "I'm here with you" rather than "I'm back in this era."

a few things to add hinting towards their romance in totk: in the description of the light dragon in the compendium, it says that "its presence is somehow comforting (presumably to link)" meaning that even in dragon form, zelda is "comforting" to him you already pointed out how, in botw, link cares about zelda way more than his job description demands, but that goes doubly so in totk. i'm sure he no longer holds the title of "appointed knight", considering not only is the one who gave that order (king rhoam) long dead, but link has also fullfilled that role tenfold, in a kingdom that no longer exists, meaning that, realistically, his obligations as zelda's bodyguard are pretty much over. however, many npcs recognize him as "zelda's knight", or "her favourite swordsman", and i swear someone even calls him her shadow. what this means is, long after he fullfilled his duty, link still chooses to devote his life to zelda, protect her and stay by her side, which, needless to say, you don't do for just anyone and lastly, tho this one is more of a crack point, but after zelda wakes up at the end of the game and sees link half-naked in front of her, she has no reaction to that, whatsoever. now, of course it's because they didn't want to draw attention to that during an otherwise dramatic scene, but what if that isn't the first time she sees him topless, so she hasn't got much of a reason to be fazed/embarassed by it? combined with the theory that they share a house/bed in hateno... yeah

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.

One of the things I really liked about the 'Find Zelda' quest was that it wasn't resolved when you got all the memories, know that Zelda became the light dragon, and then find the light dragon and take the sword from it's head. When I played through, I thought that Zelda was just the dragon forever now, and I expected to see the 'Find Zelda' quest fulfilled when you got the master sword or something since you've now figured out she is the dragon and have 'found' her though in a tragic way. I was honestly perplexed when the quest wasn't resolved and didn't know why at first. Eventually I figured that they might just bring her back because tragic endings are sad. Though there was another possibility I considered. I think of the quests as being reminders or something like that that Link actually makes for himself (If I remember correctly, in the Japanese version the quests are written in the first person implying Link is actually writing them), so I also thought that maybe he didn't put it all together yet and the ending would be him mourning at the loss of Zelda. The actual ending surprised me though when I went through it. Zelda got brought back because of Link! The reason Link never dismissed the quest to find her was because he was determined to find a way bring her back no matter the difficulty! It didn't matter that even the Zonai with their almost godlike abilities couldn't figure it out. He wouldn't give up on her because he loves her!