A The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom player has pointed out that the versions of Link and Zelda in the game may actually be the oldest versions of the characters in the franchise. Each Zelda game features a new version of Link and Zelda, and Tears of the Kingdom may have the only versions of the characters over 18-year-old.For hardcore Zelda fans, one of the main topics of discussion around the lore of the series is the timeline, and when each game happens canonically. There’s no easy explanation for the Legend of Zelda timeline as Nintendo has never spelled out the true answer for the fans. With Tears of the Kingdom, it’s an obvious fact that this game comes after The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, with no one arguing otherwise. What’s not obvious however, is how much time has pasted between the two games, with some fans estimating that only two years have past, and other fans claiming that it has been much longer. The amount of time that’s passed between the two games is mostly left up to interpretation, but some fans, like DragonCatalyst on Twitter, are using Tears of the Kingdom’s most touching side quest as a barometer. In the side quest, the player is introduced to a seven-year-old child named Mattison, whose parents were brought together by the player in Breath of the Wild. This means that seven years have passed between the two games, not just two or three. Link in Breath of the Wild was 17 according to the developers, so this also means that he’s at least 24 in Tears of the Kingdom.
Link’s age is almost never officially said in almost any Zelda game, with fans having to rely on developer notes and context clues to figure it out. For games such as The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, Link is portrayed as a small boy around the age of ten, while other games like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess portray Link to be around 17. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is the only game where the player can play as both the younger and older version of Link. There is no set age explained for Zelda in most of the games either, but she’s always portrayed to be around the same age as Link.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a game that breaks many of the classic traditions of the best Zelda games of all time, and playing as a version of Link that’s older than 17 can now be added to the list. Of course, if Zelda fans include the fact that both Link and Zelda went through a 100-year time skip in Breath of the Wild, that would make them both around 124-years-old. But that’s something that can be argued about at another time.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available for Nintendo Switch.