Ok, so every Zelda fan knows that in Ocarina of Time, the big gameplay gimmick was having Link travel back and forwards in time to his childhood and adulthood. When he places the Master Sword back in its Pedestal of Time, he returns to his childhood, and when he draws it out, he goes to his adulthood. The game says that this is because as he is a child, he is 'not worthy' to wield the Blade of Evil's Bane.
Now let's skip forward a century or two to Wind Waker.
In Wind Waker, the entire world has been flooded to stop Ganon from rising again (it didn't really work XD). Link must use the Master sword to defeat him.
BUT...
in this game, Link is a child. So how come he doesn't have to fall asleep for seven years to wake up as an adult as well? In Ocarina of Time, the Master Sword is fully empowered. However, in Wind Waker, its gotten a bit rusty and must be restored to its full power. So when Link first takes the Master Sword, it does not have the power to send him into the future. So Link goes off to fix it. When he HAS fixed it, then The master Sword (or Fi, if you want to bring her into it...) realizes that after all the work he has done to resurrect it/her, he is already worthy. So it/she doesn't send him into the future.
Something I would like to discount:
I have heard the theory that Link is actually an adult in Wind Waker,and that the graphics just make him look younger. I do not believe this is true, because most adults in the game are taller than Link, and I don't think Nintendo would make Link shorter than he normally is just randomly.
BUT REMEMBER, THESE ARE JUST MY THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS. I DO NOT, AND I REPEAT, DO NOT, KNOW EVERYTHING. Please tell me your thoughts!
Okay so, if we recall this was done in another game, ALTTP, in that Link had to collect the three virtues to claim the Master Sword, this eventually led to Link getting his Wish from the Triforce (we only see this happen in 3 games total, each game where we see a Link that is truly in balance) if we look at Hyrule Historia both games happen around the same time ALTTP and WW, we can state that the 3 Pendants and the 3 Orbs are similar artifacts from the gods, something to judge an individual "worthy" of the Master Sword, now here's where Wind Waker Deviates, The gods had a direct hand in many things in the game from flooding Hyrule to creating the Tower of the Gods, to entrusting the the pearls to a guardian who epitomizes that race. We see that Din's Pearl is with the Sky Spirit, similar to how the Pendant of Power was in Hera's Tower and the Goron's Ruby was with the Goron Leader Darunia, Farore's Pearl with the forest folk where in ALTTP a forest once stood if we look towards the trees nearby and where in OOT the Kokiri Emerald Resided and finally Nayru's Pearl is given to the Sea Spirit where funny enough it's in a close enough place where if we looked at ALTTP where the same pendant was found in a desert and yet a discrepency is the Zora's Sapphire which was the heirloom of the zoras, i say discrepency because both Zora's and Gorons exist in the overworld of WW but they've changed one into the Rito and one into a wandering folk never settling down.
The biggest reason for that 7 years sleep was that Link wasn't mature enough to fight Ganondorf, he lacked the power to do so and hell even afterwards he had to enlist the seven sages for help for that fight, we see the Lost Woods and Tower of the Gods as Transition stages from Link being a mere hero into being THE HERO, after which they both find their respective version of the Master Sword which recognizes them as the hero for that age, neither were of the Hero Of Time's Bloodline as far as we know, one was totally unrelated and the other was a son of a hylian knight during the sealing war. Which makes me think the Pearls and Pendants were created from the Spiritual Stones and given over into the guardianship of 3 power spirits who in some ways represent that virtue in one timeline and in the other sealed inside dungeons that require a true balance of each virtue to complete.
In ALTTP and WW we see a transformation from hero to HERO similar to what we see in SS yes i am bring in SS as many will know that was the ONLY other game where we see the triforce grant a wish, and that Link and a true balance, Steel like will for courage, great fortitude for Power and great Wisdom as we see by how well he navigates his world one he isn't familiar with (just like WW link and to some extent ALTTP) and he eventually succeeds in gaining the full might of the triforce and using it to eradicate the darkness of his time (paradoxes aside) we see the same in ALTTP that Link fought through many trials and proved himself to be balanced in the three virtues and ended up getting his wish granted. WW Link while it wasn't HIS wish granted still showed that he possessed the abilities of the Original Hero as did ALTTP Link (yeah that's right OOT Link was different) and he himself worked through many trials such as Dragon Roost a place of Unparalleled power, (what is greater than the sheer elemental force of a active volcano) The Forbidden Woods which took great courage to even enter for such a diminutive person and finally immense wisdom to not only locate Jabun but how to find him (we actually can see remants of Jabuns hide out in the waters around greatfish)
OOT was Truly Unique and at the time of his rising into Hero status the Sacred realm was unsullied (we can speculate the Silent realm was the Sacred Realm who knows), but like much his spiritual ancestor he passed three trials of virtue and gained the master sword but of course he was forced to sleep, i think this time was a time for his body, mind and spirit to mature enough to fight Ganondorf, and as we know the timeline fractures here so maybe he wasn't truly ready to fight ganondorf.
I like the Theory, here is some things to think of.
On the trophy in Super Smash Bro I think it says Link is 12 in WW. But during the game it he gets the Hero clothes on the day the Legendary Hero was said to have started his journey. So either he was the same age as OoT Link or he was a few years older.
I always thought the reason WW Link was able to use the Master Sword unaffected was because he proved himself at the Tower of the Gods. While Oot Time never proved himself, he just got some shiny rocks to open a door.
Also wasn't their a prophecy about the Hero of Time? It might have something to do with this.
I've always assumed WW link was the same age as Child Link in OOT which i thought was Ten, Adult Link was i thought 17, ALTTP Link i'd say 15, The 7 year slumber never happened to WW Link due to differing times and trials, the gods themselves had a direct hand in the fate of WW's world
A couple things to consider (outside the "its a game" reasoning).
1) I don't believe the sword accepting him is the issue for OoT Link. I don't think you can wield the sword if it doesn't accept you which TP kind of hints towards. If you recall, the Master Sword in TP was only supposed to relieve Link of his curse. Midna didn't expect Link to be able to pick up the sword, but Link did anyway and Midna says. "The sword has accepted you." Because OoT Link was able to lift the sword from its pedestal as a child, I believe he was considered accepted by the sword. It was whether or not he was ready to face Ganondorf that propelled him forward through time.
2) Take note that while WW Link was preparing to face Ganondorf, he wasn't preparing to be the Hero of Time. OoT Link had to sleep for seven years because he wasn't ready to be the Hero of Time, not just because he wasn't ready to wield the sword. Being the Hero of Time included facing trials that only an adult could do, while being able to go back and forth through time. If Link hadn't been able to go back and forth through time, he wouldn't have been able to succeed in some of his missions, thus not fulfilling his destiny as the Hero of Time. So while the sword may not have put the Hero of Winds to sleep for seven years, that's because he was already ready to do the task at hand, as you suggested though it may not have anything to do with the concept that he'd already proven it to the sword by giving it its power.
I think your theory is sound, just wanted to add my two cents.
This makes a helluva lotta sense, i actually have based some of my own thoughts above on this.
In Wind Waker there is a sense of urgency, if Link would have fell asleep 7 years it's likely Ganondorf would have accomplished his goals. Plus like the OP points out when the blade was first drawn it wasn't fully powered, that could explain why he was able to draw it. With the power to repel evil gone the Master Sword is no different from any other sword. Anyon could have lifted it in WW. Link gies on a quest to restore it's power and succeeds, proving that he is worthy of the blade.
Ganondorf in WW was taking over the world by stealth, some such as tetra recognized that he was a danger but NO ONE knew who he was, only KORL knew him of old, most people only knew blond females with pointy ears were being Kidnapped, which leads to the thought that:
One: Link of the age before was friendly with Tingle, or Tingle tracked down the Triforce Locations or personally found the Triforce Chart
Two: If Link hadn't interfered Ganondorf would've had two Triforce segments and i think he knew that the triforce of courage was out of commission so to speak so he had nothing to fear (his arrogance)
Three: after obtaining both wisdom and power he would've revealed himself to the world once more and taken over, But as we see near the end of WW he was hell bent on restoring Hyrule to rule over so chances are he would've done what link himself did which was to trawl the sea floor for the pieces.
Four: we see in WW Ganondorf, doesn't underestimate Link's Skills like he did in OOT which lead to his defeat, he learned from that fight and thus created a series of puppets and his own phantom to gauge links strength and to see if he could win, i think if another zelda game comes out WW could be the scene of another split in time due Ganondorf Could've won that fight if he'd been better prepared of if Tetra/zelda hadn't awoken when she did.
Five: we actually see that Ganondorf wises up to Links stunts and only the Light Arrows will harm him from then on, i think in the down fall timeline the Light Arrows lose their light and become the Silver Arrows the only thing with a remnant of the god's light which can harm Ganon.
