Finished the game last night. Easily one of the best games I've ever played, but the ending was a letdown. The picture memories were such a brilliant way to build up Zelda's character, but there was no payoff for that character development in the ending. It really felt like the game was building towards some final revelation or twist, and it wasn't there.
Which is why I constructed this headcanon:
After sending Link to the Shrine of Resurrection, Zelda went to Hyrule Castle to turn her newly awakened power against Ganon. In the process of sealing him, her physical form died, and she became some sort of
Force Ghost.
Over the next 100 years, Zelda is largely forgotten by the people of Hyrule. In the moments leading up to Ganon's arrival, Zelda had been viewed as a failure by her people (as given by the Hyrule Castle memory), and after 100 years she isn't remembered as anything more than a name from an era past. The number of people who know she seals Ganon away is small, and it only dwindles with time.
In the present day, Link awakens. He hears Zelda's ghost calling out to him to finish what she started and destroy Ganon forever. Link meets Zelda's father's ghost, who implores him to save his daughter. This has a bit of a double meaning: the king wants Zelda's spirit to be unshackled from the duty of having to seal Ganon, but he also wants Link to remember Zelda and ensure that her sacrifice isn't lost to the winds of time.
Link goes on his journey. Notably, many people still recognize Link or remember the legend of the Hero of Hyrule, but fairly few people ever comment on Zelda (besides Impa and the Champions, but she seems to have been forgotten among the "common people"). Link regains his memories from 100 years ago, and in doing so comes to remember Zelda as she was.
When the time comes to fight Ganon, Zelda's force ghost appears to him in the form that he remembers her as: a young woman. With Link weakening Ganon once more, Zelda's force ghost is finally able to seal Ganon away once and for all. Zelda says little during this time, but when the conflict is over she looks to Link and asks "Do you really remember me?", wondering if her actions 100 years ago are still going to be lost to time, or if Link will be able to recount her legacy.
The secret ending is where things get a little trippy. If Link has viewed every single memory (that is, he really
does remember Zelda), then it seems like Zelda might return to Hyrule in some sort of physical form. This isn't totally unreasonable, since the King's ghost takes a physical form at the start of the game. Maybe Link's memories of Zelda were strong enough that he's able to bring her back into the world 100 years later, or maybe it's all a hallucination.
Anyway, nice things about this theory:
- It explains why Zelda doesn't age.
- It makes Ganon more intimidating, since frankly it's kind of weird that Zelda is able to stop him from destroying the world for 100 years despite literally everything in their plan going wrong. If Zelda's physical form has died, then at least Ganon accomplished something.
- It's gives some meaning to the phrases "Link" (he's the only link to what happened 100 years ago) and "The Legend of Zelda" (since, without finding the memories, Zelda's legend will be lost forever).
- It explains some of Zelda's weird dialogue near the end (namely the "Do you remember me?" line), and lets her character development build towards something (I feel like a "vanilla" interpretation of the ending makes her into a plot device and leaves the memories with no emotional payoff).