There's something that's been bothering me about The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time ever since I beat it back during the era of the N64. It has to do with the ending of the game, and certain story elements of the game, so if you ahven't played this game and are dead-set against spoilers, it's best if you don't read on.

Now, in the game Link travels between two different time periods. The first time period is where you start out from, when Link is a kid trying to help princess Zelda. The second time period is seven years in the future after Ganondorf has taken over Hyrule and Link is an adult. The player travels between these two time periods to solve puzzles and get information which helps them progress through the game. At the end of the game Adult Link defeats Ganondorf in the future and he is imprisoned.

This is all very straightfoward until the epilogue where Zelda, also an adult, uses the Ocarina of Time to send Link back to the past so that he has the opportunity to live the seven years he lost between both time periods. Basically, Link gets a second chance to make up for lost time, but this raises some serious issues with the storyline.

First, Link is sent back to his childhood in the first time period (we'll call this the past for the sake of convenience, as we'll refer to the second time period as the future). However, Ganondorf is only defeated in the future by Adult Link, which means that this event hasn't even happened yet. This also means that Ganondorf, who from the beginning is searching for the Triforce, is still running around, doing his thing.

Second, in the final scene of the epilogue Young Link is seen visiting Young Zelda, seemingly for the first time. This is confirmed in a cutscene from the sequel to Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, where Zelda mentions that she feels as if she's know Link for a long time, even though she presumably hasn't. If in fact Zelda sends Link so far back in time that he is returned to a time even before the two of them met, then it is entirely possible that the events in Ocarina of Time don't even happen due to the mechanics of time-travel. This is supported by the fact that right after this "second" meeting with Zelda, Young Link goes on another quest, to one depicted in Majora's Mask, without repeating the events which in turn brought about the events of Ocarina of Time.

Therefore my dilemma is this: did the events of Ocarina of Time actually "happen", or were they cancelled out through time travel? If they happened, does Link experience the whole period of time when Ganondorf ruled Hyrule? If they didn't happen, then do any of the issues which were present at the beginning of the story actually get solved? What about Ganondorf? He just can't go away since he was present even berfore the story began. Further complicating the matter is the fact that Ganondorf used Link and Zelda to gain access to the Triforce? Would he have gotten his hands on it even without their help? If he had, then wouldn't the situation have been even worse as Young Link is off on his own and Ganondorf is taking over the world "again".

It's all very complicated. I know it's just a game and that the answer isn't really worth all of this trouble, but it's something that has stuck in my mind for many years. Ocarina of Time is probably my favorite game of all time, and I like to concern myself with all relevant matters pertaining to it.

So, that's what I have to say. Take it for what it's worth, but Zelda fans might contemplate this this matter to themselves.