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Any Theories on Why It is Called the Legend of Zelda?

Joined
May 13, 2012
I myself have one, and I want your opinion on it, and also your theories if you have one.
My theory is as follows:
There are three elements here
1. The Donkey Kong series (I'll explain)
2. The Mario Series
3. Similarities between the three
One major similarity is the love triangles
Donkey Kong, Jumpman, Pauline
Mario, Peach, Bowser
Zelda, Link, Gannon.
Nintendo named these series after one member in each; a hero, Mario, a villain, Donkey Kong, and a love interest, Zelda. Do you see what Nintendo did now? It all makes sense to me.
 
The "Zelda" part clearly stems from having to save the princess whereas the "legend" appears to originate from the mythical elements in each adventure. Miyamoto took inspiration for the "Zelda" name from hearing the name of F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife and loving the sound of it, hence how the princess got her namesake.
 

Cfrock

Keep it strong
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Mar 17, 2012
Location
Liverpool, England
The manual to Adventure of Link explains the literal 'Legend of Zelda'.

""Here lies the Princess Zelda." Impa began to speak calmly. "Link, the time has come when I must tell you the legend of Zelda handed down in Hyrule."

After Ganon was defeated in A Link to the Past and the Oracels games, Hyrule entered a golden age, with the king's using the Triforce to rule the land. Eventually one of these kings dies and the prince cannot claim the whole Triforce. He discovers from a mysterious magician that his father entrusted the secrets of the Triforce only to his daughter, Princess Zelda. Zelda would not tell the prince these secrets, nor would she tell the magician, so the magician started to cast a spell on her. The prince tried to stop him but failed and when the spell was complete, Princess Zelda fell into a deep sleep, seemingly never to awaken.

The grief stricken prince placed his sister's sleepig body in the North Castle and ordered every female born to the royal family be named Zelda so that none would ever forget his sister's tale.
 

felipe970421

Mardek Innanu El-Enkidu
Joined
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Location
Colombia
The manual to Adventure of Link explains the literal 'Legend of Zelda'.

""Here lies the Princess Zelda." Impa began to speak calmly. "Link, the time has come when I must tell you the legend of Zelda handed down in Hyrule."

After Ganon was defeated in A Link to the Past and the Oracels games, Hyrule entered a golden age, with the king's using the Triforce to rule the land. Eventually one of these kings dies and the prince cannot claim the whole Triforce. He discovers from a mysterious magician that his father entrusted the secrets of the Triforce only to his daughter, Princess Zelda. Zelda would not tell the prince these secrets, nor would she tell the magician, so the magician started to cast a spell on her. The prince tried to stop him but failed and when the spell was complete, Princess Zelda fell into a deep sleep, seemingly never to awaken.

The grief stricken prince placed his sister's sleepig body in the North Castle and ordered every female born to the royal family be named Zelda so that none would ever forget his sister's tale.

However that story had to be retconned, sleeping Zelda is no longer the first Zelda, SS:Zelda/Hylia is.

Edit: Which still makes sense to name the stories like that, it's the legend of the goddess Hylia's legacy, the legend of Zelda
 

Dio

~ It's me, Dio!~
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I imagine it's called the legend of zelda because it sounds better than legend of link. Miyamoto liked the name so I guess it's nothing more than that.
 

Ventus

Mad haters lmao
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I'm sure it's called LoZ because Miyamoto thought Zelda was a pretty name. Isn't that what he told us before? xD
 

Satsy

~~SaturnStorm
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From a game perspective, it's called the Legend of Zelda because the Princess is always called Zelda (even if she's not necessarily present). Calling it the Adventures of Link would be dishonest to the naming-screen process, since you can really call him anything. Even if everyone just calls him Link anyway. Calling it the Legend of the Triforce would also technically make sense, only it seems about as present typically as the Princess anyway. Plus it would have been confusing for the first game, considering you're going around collecting more than 3 triangles, to fill one triangle. And without that in the name, the Triforce can be left in the dust at any time.

So really any title could be confusing, but that's why they have by-lines. ;)
 

Jetter

Type to myself in silence
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Location
Washington, USA
Cfrock did explain "original" story that (to my theories) everything is rooted from, but I do have an idea that would fit every game. Link is the one going on the quests, isn't he? I don't believe he would have the time to sit down and write these adventures out. Obviously, Zelda was part of the whole quest since she was part of the ending goal in most of the games. It may have been that Zelda told these stories to everyone and since she is the Queen or Princess of Hyrule, the stories are called the Legend of Zelda. I am not sure if it would work with the canon of Zelda on some of the games, such as Majora's Mask, but if you believe Link made it back to Hyrule, I guess you could.
 

AnimeHat

Humming Swordsman
Joined
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Location
Arkansas, US
I believe I heard somewhere that the setup is like this: The Donkey Kong series was named after the villain, the Mario series was named after the protagonist, so for Nintendo's next game, the series would be named after the damsel. In this case, Zelda.
 

Terminus

If I was a wizard this wouldn't be happening to me
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I believe I heard somewhere that the setup is like this: The Donkey Kong series was named after the villain, the Mario series was named after the protagonist, so for Nintendo's next game, the series would be named after the damsel. In this case, Zelda.

This has already been said several times...
 

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