Summary
- Zelda games leave unanswered questions that have major implications on the lore, keeping players curious.
- From time loops to missing characters, unsolved mysteries in Zelda games create an endless sense of curiosity.
- The legends and mysteries in Zelda games add depth to the series, leaving players speculating with no concrete answers.
The Legend of Zelda consistently wraps up the main storyline in each game by the end, with Link saving Hyrule - or another land like Termina - from the evil that's threatening it. However, that doesn't mean that every question that comes up in each game receives an answer before the finale. Some of those unanswered questions result in mysteries that could have major implications for the lore of the Zelda universe.
Although many mysteries that are left unsolved in Zelda games seem relatively minor, the implications they could have are much larger than they appear most times. Meanwhile, other mysteries simply leave an unending sense of curiosity that burns to know the answer. Either way, Zelda's mysteries can make replaying games feel like a scavenger hunt for answers that usually won't be found, leaving speculation as the only way to sate the resulting curiosity.
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10 Song Of Storms Time Travel Paradox
Ocarina Of Time
Link learns the Song of Storms from a man in the windmill as an adult, who tells Link that a kid played the song in front of him, and he hasn't been able to get it out of his head since. So, Link then has to go back in time to when he was a kid and go play the Song of Storms in front of the man, so he can then be taught the song as an adult. This creates an endless time loop, which could imply that Link is stuck in an eternal loop of having to save Hyrule and Zelda from Ganondorf.
9 Navi's Location After Helping Link Save Hyrule
Majora's Mask
Link sets out at the beginning of Majora's Mask with the intention of finding Navi since she left at the end of Ocarina of Time, having fulfilled the Great Deku Tree's request for her to guide Link. In the end, Link doesn't find any clues, even during the entirety of Majora's Mask about Navi's location. However, leaving Hyrule means that Link would've searched for Navi there first, but not found any trace of her. And that leaves her location as a true mystery.
8 Why The Poe Collector Buys Ghosts
Ocarina Of Time
Theories suggest the Poe Collector is either a child in the Kakariko Graveyard, or one of Castle Town's guards prior to the timeskip, as both mention being interested in ghosts, though there's no hard evidence for either case. However, once Link is an adult, the Poe Collector appears and runs a ghost shop, but there's no explanation as to why he started such a shop or why those ghosts are so valuable. It could be included to show how strange Hyrule became while Link was sealed in the Sacred Realm, but it still leaves unanswered questions about the value and purpose of ghosts.
7 The Happy Mask Salesman's Strange Connection To His Wares
Majora's Mask
Even in Ocarina of Time, the Happy Mask Salesman is strange. However, that's taken up a notch in Majora's Mask, as he's angry at the fact that Majora's Mask is missing after he went through so much effort to get it in his possession. It's never explained how he got so many unusual masks, why he seems to be able to understand their emotions, or why he collects and sells masks in the first place.
6 How Majora Was Sealed Inside The Mask
Majora's Mask
Speaking of Majora's Mask, it's never explained how the evil entity, Majora, ended up sealed inside the mask. It's said that an ancient tribe summoned Majora as part of their rituals, and that the tribe no longer exists by the time the game takes place. But clearly, the mask wasn't able to save this tribe, so what was the purpose of containing its power that way?
5 Mamu Goes On Tour
Link's Awakening
Link's Awakening takes place on an island, but the entire island is basically the Wind Fish's dream manifested. Which means that all the inhabitants on the island aside from Link aren't real, just part of a dream, and if they leave the island, they vanish. But Mamu, after helping Link, leaves a sign where he was that says he's gone on tour. Mamu, as an island resident, shouldn't be able to leave the island, which creates the mystery over whether he left and vanished, or if he was somehow alive on the island like Link.
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4 The Eighth Heroine's True Identity
Breath Of The Wild & Tears Of The Kingdom
Breath of the Wild includes a legend about the Seven Heroines who saved Gerudo in the past, with their existence mysteriously scrubbed from history. In he's always a Hylian and the prevalence of the number seven throughout the series, but there's no proof, so their true identity remains a mystery.
3 Fado's Disappearance From Kokiri Forest
Ocarina Of Time
Fado is a Kokiri who teaches Link ing first-person camera mode, and she disappears after that interaction until Link returns as an adult. Then, she tells him how anybody who isn't a Kokiri that enters the Lost Woods becomes a Stalfos, seeming strangely obsessed with the idea. There's speculation that Fado was part of the scrapped Wind Temple, but her presence and repeated disappearances alongside her interest in the Stalfos makes her an unsolved mystery.
2 Snowpeak Ruins' Original Owners
Twilight Princess
When Link arrives at Snowpeak Ruins in Twilight Princess, it's rundown and inhabited by a Yeti couple. However, the decorations and design of the manor show that it was likely lived in by somebody with a high status. Not just a high status, but the crest of the Hyrule Royal Family in the manor indicates that it could've belonged to royalty. But there's no indication if Zelda has distant relatives who could've lived there, or if it was just a vacation home of sorts.
1 Are They Actually Aliens?
Majora's Mask
Ghosts, known only as Them or They, appear at Romani Ranch during the night, and Romani asks Link to help her fight them off, since nobody else believes her when she says they keep showing up and abducting cows. While she calls them Ghosts, it'd be more accurate to call them aliens, since they appear and even abduct Romani if Link doesn't help fight them off, and are inspired by a real-life alien sighting, the Flatwoods Monster. However, their existence implies other planets exist in the Zelda universe that are inhabited by intelligent life, not just other realms.
The Zelda series contains messy timelines that are unlikely to ever be clear and concise, but there's also an assortment of mysteries hidden in the games that never receive answers. However, some of the most minor mysteries that are left unsolved actually have huge implications for the series' lore. But in the end, these mysteries are bound to remain oddities without answers in The Legend of Zelda.
