How many Links and Zeldas are there in the Legend of Zelda series?
Umm… there’s 1 Link and 1 Zelda per game, if that’s what you’re talking about. Link is the hero, Zelda is the princess.
Purely from memory, so I might not be right…
The Link from the first two games for the NES was the same person. The sequel was ten years after the first.
Link to the Past (for the SNES) was set several generations before the first ones.
The character from Link’s Awakening (Game Boy) is the same Link as from Link to the Past.
Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask feature the same character, and is set hundreds of years before any of the others, and is the “first” one - Ganon gets the Triforce for the first time, and the power with which he keeps rising from the dead in the other games.
As far as I can tell (so far) Wind waker for the GC is thousands of years after any of the others.
Actually, Wind Waker takes place at least 100 years after Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask. The rest of the games occur after Wind Waker.
Oh, and the princesses.
Zelda is the same in both the NES games.
In Link to the Past, there’s a different princess, also named Zelda.
Zelda doesn’t appear in Link’s Awakening or Majora’s Mask.
There is a Zelda in OoT, and I guess you could call this one the Zelda, since she’s the one that gets the whole mess started.
As for Wind Waker: There isn’t a Zelda per se, but a descendant of her is kicking around and ends up “becoming” her or someting. I don’t know yet if the player character is descended from the Hero of Time, but it’d be weird if he was.
And for anal completeness, the characters from Smash Brothers are the ones from Ocarina of Time.
I won’t argue with you, skateboarder, because I haven’t finished WW yet. But they’ll have some explaining to do! 
It was my understanding that the Zelda games are variations on a theme and not part of the timeline of a single universe. Of course some of them are related to one another, but all of them?
The basic rule for Links, as far as I know, is every 2 games have the same one. The Oracle games share a Link, OOT and MM share a Link, and so on. I don’t know of any rule for Zeldas, but I imagine that whenever you’ve got the same Link, you’ve also got the same Zelda.
It’s my opinion that there’s not a lot of effort internally to make them part of the same timeline, but externally Shigeru Miyamoto is fond of linking them. I think that BraheSilver has it more or less right, but it’s possible to vary it somewhat and still be consistent. Ocarina of Time has to come first, though. I think it was Adventures of Link that established that there’s more than one Zelda.
Hauky, the rule of twos gets kind of tricky. Are you putting Link to the Past with Link’s Awakening? Even if so, you’ve still got Wand of Gamelon, Faces of Evil, and Zelda’s Adventure to worry about.
Zelda Universe’s timeline is the most comprehensive that I’ve seen, but as I said, it’s really difficult to say that it’s the right answer.
HAHAHAHAAHAHA!!! Good one. (Btw, to the uninformed, those games don’t count).
Actually, Zelda does appear in Majora’s Mask during a flashback link has. (I’m a hardcore Zelda nerd).
Quote from an interview with the director himself
Where does The Wind Waker fit into the overall timeline of the Legend of Zelda?
AONUMA: In terms of the storyline, we’ve decided that this takes place 100 years after the events in The Ocarina of Time. We think that as you play through the game, you’ll notice that in the beginning the storyline explains some of the events in The Ocarina of Time. You’ll also find hints of things from The Ocarina of Time that exist in The Wind Waker.
There’s also a more complicated explanation. If you think back to the end of The Ocarina of Time, there were two endings to that game in different time periods. First Link defeated Ganon as an adult, and then he actually went back to being a child. You could say that The Wind Waker takes place 100 years after the ending in which Link was an adult.
http://www.gamecubicle.com/interview-legend_of_zelda_wind_waker_miyamoto.htm
I did forget about the Oracle games, as well as the 3do ones. My mistake. I also don’t know where they would fit into a timeline.
On another note, from the same interview as linked in the previous post:
\Let me whip out the manual to Link’s Awakening…
“Though you fulfilled the Hyrulian prophecy of the Legendary Hero and destroyed the evil tyrant Ganon, the land of Hyrule enjoyed only a precarious peace. . . [Y]ou decided to journey away from Hyrule on a quest for enlightenment, in search of wisdom that would make you better able to withstand the next threat to your homeland.”
If I had a little more inclination, I’d go digging for the manuals to the other games and see what they have to say.
They’re still going to have to pull some major tricks to make me think it’s been 100 years between Ocarina and WW.
Speaking of Ocarina of Time…has anyone beaten the marathon runner?
-M
It can’t be done. That’s the #2 largest false rumor in Ocarina.
While is is absolutely true that he said this…he was wrong. The King clearly states that it takes place “hundreds” of years after OoT. He was probably speaking off hand and didn’t realize what he had said.
First, we don’t know how much liberty the translation department at NOA took. Second, assuming the game’s context is correct, the implication remains the same, which is that the game takes place after Ocarina of Time and before the others. This is further confirmed by the copious references to Ocarina of Time.
I find it odd that Link=boy, Zelda=girl, thus, why not call it Legend of Link?
What was the #1 false rumor in Ocarina of Time?
(I spent many lonely nights in front of the tv on the floor playing that game, I thank the stars that I overcame my obsession…but I still see Poes every once in a while.)
-M
Why is that odd? As for why it’s not called Legend of Link, here goes:
History records the names of those in places of power, the sovereigns who rule and the villains who conquer. Those faithful few who actually put their lives on the line for the cause of righteousness are fated to be forever forgotten. This is the destiny of a Hero, to be owed a debt of gratitude by the world, a debt that can never be repayed, for little reward but obscurity is forthcoming. The recognition of legend shall always be bestowed upon those under whose reign the deeds of heroism are carried out.