the actual narrative problem of Zelda games isn’t that she doesn’t have agency but that her arc so clearly revolves around the first game that whenever they make a sequel they’re just like “idk turn her into stone”

link to the past: zelda is a character, she contacts link telepathically, she doesn’t do much afterwards but she is REALLY cute

link’s awakening: no zelda

ocarina of time: zelda turns into sheik, she helps out link a bunch and has a whole character evolution from knowitall sassy little kid to badass mystery dude to either trans or sapphically sorrowful princess

majora’s mask: zelda gets a flashback i guess

wind waker: zelda is tetra, she’s a badass pirate, loads of agency, whole narrative arc about being dumped with a legacy she doesn’t want, metaphorically and physically is imprisoned by it, eventually breaks free with link’s help and goes sailing away as a badass pirate again

phantom hourglass: tetra jumps on a boat and is immediately turned into a statue

breath of the wild: zelda is this trans dude who just wants to run around like a wild child and play with robots but her meanie dad tells her she has to be a PRINCESS and PRAY A BUNCH and she gets a lot of trauma from it and it keeps her from accessing her divine gifts until she finally realizes that there are others who have supported her and she has the power to help them

tears of the kingdom: who wants to guess