The Legend of Zelda/YMMV


 * The Adventure of Link
 * A Link to the Past
 * Link's Awakening
 * Ocarina of Time
 * Majora's Mask
 * Oracle of Seasons/Oracle of Ages
 * The Wind Waker
 * Four Swords Adventures
 * The Minish Cap
 * Twilight Princess
 * Phantom Hourglass
 * Spirit Tracks
 * Skyward Sword


 * The manga


 * The animated series


 * The CDi games


 * Freshly Picked Tingles Rosy Rupeeland

The Legend of Zelda (1986):

 * Demonic Spiders:
 * Blue Wizzrobes. They do major damage, they're durable, they have an incredibly hard to predict motion pattern and you can't stand in front of them because they continuously fire spells if you do.
 * Blue Darknuts. They can't be attacked from the front, they're twice as fast and durable as Red Darknuts, and they do major damage.
 * Like-Likes. They eat your Magic Shield.
 * Good Bad Bugs: In both the NES original and the GBA edition, immediately exiting and reentering the Level 1 dungeon will somehow unlock the first door, netting you a spare key. Hard to tell if this is an unintentional bug or a deliberate secret, though.


 * Americans Hate Tingle: The Trope Namer, thanks to Tingle's debut in The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask.
 * And the Fandom Rejoiced: THE OFFICIAL TIMELINE'S RELEASE.
 * Broad Strokes: The continuity certainly is this, moreso with the more recent console games as they generally have more continuity nods than the other games.
 * Broken Base: The fans are divided on whether cel-shading or "realism" is better for the series.
 * Complete Monster:
 * Majora, who causes a lot of destruction in Termina because it finds it fun to do so.
 * Ganon's referred to as the King of Evil for a reason.
 * Ghirahim and Yuga qualify as well.
 * Contested Sequel: ANY of the console games that follow up on Ocarina of Time, there's no arguing against it. Skyward Sword has even become this before it has even been released!
 * Crowning Music of Awesome: Has its own page.
 * Die for Our Ship: Anything that threatens the possibility of a Link/Zelda pairing is violently purged. Zelda herself can suffer this when other choices are available. (Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess)
 * Dork Age: The CD-i games. Their sting wasn't numbed at all by the fact that Nintendo took its sweet time developing Ocarina Of Time, so there were five years between 1993 and 1998 when no Zelda games except for those were being released.
 * Ensemble Darkhorse:
 * Sheik, Tetra, King Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule, Ezlo, Midna, Linebeck, Byrne, Groose; basically, any character who a) has a major secret in their backstory that changes the player's perception of them and/or b) experiences Character Development.
 * And on the villain's side we have Dark Link, who has appeared in all of four games and yet is one of the most popular characters. Also, Vaati, villain of all Four Sword-related games. Many fans want him to make an appearance in a main console game. Then there's Ghirahim of Skyward Sword, who's possibly the CAMPIEST Zelda villain in existence.
 * I AM ERROR.
 * In Japan, Tingle falls under this, getting no less than two of his own games.
 * Malon has quite a fan following to her name. As far as female Zelda characters go, she was probably second in popularity to Zelda before Twilight Princess came out, and Malon's popularity could be considered more impressive given her much smaller role in Ocarina of Time comparison to Midna in Twilight Princess. She probably got even more popular after Twilight Princess, in which the game's Link is a rancher, leading to many to theorize that she and the Hero of Time got together.
 * Fandom Rivalry: Wind Waker-style fans vs. Twilight Princess-style fans.
 * Fanon: Just a little.
 * Fan-Preferred Couple: Technically the vast majority of them, especially Link/Zelda, though there's been an exception or two over the years.
 * Fan-Disliked Explanation: As explained in Hyrule Historia (a guidebook about the franchise by Nintendo), there is a third timeline that also split from Ocarina of Time. The problem is that it is based on an event that didn't happen anywhere in the game: . And no, Game Overs do not count.
 * Fan Dumb: Every time a new zelda game is announced, it's automatically the "Worst game in the series". The previous game, which used to hold that title of "Worst game in the series" is now suddenly praised and beloved. This was especially prevalent with Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, but it dates as far back as Majora's Mask.
 * Fan Wank: The endless, endless confusion over "the timeline," something officially confirmed, but NEVER officially explained.
 * Until a guidebook explained it all.
 * Fan Yay: In addition to causing Stupid Sexy Flanders moments in straight fans, a gay mag voted Link as the hottest video game character of all time.
 * Gannon Banned: Trope Namer and obviously contains a LOT of examples of this trope.
 * Germans Love David Hasselhoff: While wildly popular elsewhere, the Zelda franchise isn't quite as popular in its native Japan (but still popular).
 * Goddamned Bats: An early example, though Keese and Fire Keese are hardly the only ones.
 * Hilarity Ensues: Go ahead. Attack the Cuccos.
 * I Am Not Shazam: The main character is Link. The girl is Zelda. Daring to say otherwise will get you a lot of ire on forums.
 * Iron Woobie: Link.
 * It's the Same, Now It Sucks/They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Every single entry of the series ever since Ocarina of Time (if not even earlier than that) has received both of these at the same time. One second you find a comment trashing the game for not changing the Zelda formula at all, demeaning its new features as "gimmicks", and the next second you find another one that trashes it because those "gimmicks" are new features that totally change (and ruin) the Zelda formula.
 * Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Go to ff.net and see how many ship fics you can find that don't involve Link.
 * Like You Would Really Do It: Ganondorf is apparently Killed Off for Real once or twice a decade. By this stage, we know better.
 * Magnificent Bastard: Ganondorf has gotten very skilled at making his enemies do all his work for him over his career.
 * Memetic Molester:
 * Tingle and Ghirahim.
 * Redeads, in particular the Ocarina of Time and Majoras Mask versions.
 * Memetic Mutation: Too many to list.
 * Memetic Sex God: Everyone is Poe Collector for Link. No exceptions!
 * Protagonist Title Fallacy: Poor Link...
 * The Scrappy: Navi, Kaepora Gaebora, Fi, Tingle and Ralph from the Oracle games.
 * Sequel Displacement: Most of the series' current fans came in after Ocarina of Time and it was surprisingly common to see Majora's Mask referred to as "Zelda 2," even though the real Zelda II was made ten years before Ocarina.
 * Shipping: A rabbit hole that runs too deep to get into right here.
 * So Cool Its Awesome: There's a reason why this is one of Nintendo's flagship franchises and one of the most respected series in the entire video game industry. Even at its worst, no Zelda game is less than stunning.
 * That One Level: Arguably every water dungeon in the series.
 * Viewer Gender Confusion: Inexperienced players have been known to mistake Link for a girl.