#when the smoke clears zelda should be tending to her body which could be badly injured nearby

[wickedcriminal]

Pspsppspspsppspspps scriminal bestie what's your favorite zelink in any of the zelda games 👀

AHSJSJFOGOGLXJUSFJVK I HAVE TO CHOOSE,??? impossible, all the zelink flavors are so magnificent in their own ways. There's so many ways to interpret them, they're all so good in their own contexts, different in every incarnation of Goddess and Chosen Hero.

There's no POSSIBLE WAY I could--

Who am I kidding.

Okay, maybe it's the nostalgia factor; or maybe it's because this is probably the real-est, sweetest, cutest, most GENUINE relationship I've seen develop between Link and Zelda in any Zelda game I can think of-- even Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild, which all but confirmed a romantic relationship, just doesn't hit the same. Not for me. I don't think anything can top Spirit Tracks zelink.

Maybe it's because they start out barely knowing each other- but then again, most zeldas do. At most she sees him as a means of transportation and he sees her as the high class VIP passenger that she is, but after the plot kicks off and suddenly they're stuck with each other, you see their walls finally fall. Zelda is distinguished and composed; that is, until she's a ghost. It falls away, showing a sassy, naive, jumpy young girl who at first didn't even want to get involved in her own rescue mission-- though eventually, she starts to shoulder that responsibility, there with Link every step of the way until she eventually saves herself. And Link-- he's a typical young guy, sleeps in late, loves his vehicle, gets flustered over the pretty girl inviting him to sneak into her room where no one would see them-- still, he doesn't automatically try to save her when she's attacked the first time (she has to yell at him) and he suffers and sighs at her dramatics; clearly he's bitten off more than he can chew.

But they work together, and Zelda is learning new things, and Link is guiding her through the Tower of Spirits in a suit of armor. What do you know, they make a good team! And then Zelda is dancing to Link's flute music, and cheering "ALLL ABOOAARD" when Link boards the train, and excitedly rushing to tell him all the new cool things she can do in a suit of armor. And then they're genuinely hanging out, catching bunnies, complaining about Linebeck, even making plans to come back to Papuchia Village after they get Zelda's body back so that they can go swimming together. So on and so on and so on you watch them interact, getting more and more friendly and causal and kind, until at the top of the Tower of Spirits, Link and Zelda get so caught up in the crescendo of their friendship that they nearly let the bad guy sneak away. They goof off, they high five, they smile and laugh and there even comes a point at the end where Link does step in front of Zelda protectively, even though he doesn't even need to, because she's a ghost, but it doesn't even seem to occur to him.

When Zelda finally gets back into her body, Link jumps to catch her, and when they hug, it feels so earned. She doesn't even wait for him to get up.

And that entire ending. There's just too much to say about it-- it's OVERFLOWING with the genuine affection of two now best friends, singing the prettiest song in the ost together in the most beautiful cinematic cutscene, then fighting and defeating the final boss together, THE HAND HOLDING SCENE AT THE END,,

LOOK AT THE WAY HE SQUEEZES HER HAND. Gets me every single time.

Even the credits. Zelda has a picture of him and her and the train FRAMED on her desk and she's looking at it with the sweetest smile before she hears him outside the window and RUSHES to go see him. Either he's riding his train and blowing the horn for her to hear as he passes by, or he's in the courtyard training with the other knights, getting knocked over because he wanted to stop for a minute just to smile back at her.

It's. Positively. Precious.

All in all, as much as I love and WORSHIP the complete adoration of Skyward Sword zelink, and the humble loyalty of Breath of the Wild zelink, and the fated destiny of the Skyward Sword manga's hylink, and the playful energy of Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass's telink, and the utter tragedy of Ocarina of Time's zelink... gosh, you just don't see any of them grow and evolve in real time the way Spirit Tracks zelink does. The way it doesn't even have to try, feeling natural and developed because it was allowed to stretch throughout the whole game, and it didn't straight up tell you they were in love, it simply let you watch it happen.