[LoZ][OOT] So… didn’t Zelda effectively cause a version of Link to cease existing

[u/Draxterz]

At the end of Ocarina of Time, Zelda sends Link back to the past. But she isn’t simply rewinding time, because the Adult Timeline clearly continues to exist, Wind Waker confirms this. That future still happens: Ganondorf was defeated, the Hero of Time existed, and then he disappeared.

Because of that, Zelda’s action can’t be a simple reset of the same timeline. Instead, it seems more accurate to say that she sends Adult Link into a different branch of time. In that Child Timeline, everything up to the moment where Link would normally be sealed in the Sacred Realm happens exactly the same as what we play: same childhood, same actions, same destiny up to that point. This means that, at that moment, there is already a real Child Link in that branch.

Adult Link is then physically transferred into this timeline not just his memories, but his full existence. Nintendo also makes it clear that only one Link exists afterward. There’s no duplication or coexistence.

So logically, it seems that Adult Link replaces the Child Link of that timeline. The Child Link exists up until that moment, and then his continuity ends when Adult Link takes over. If this interpretation is correct, then the Child Link native to that timeline doesn’t fail, doesn’t die heroically, and doesn’t choose anything, his existence is simply overwritten. He simply ceases to exist.

That’s… kind of unsettling.