The Legend of Zelda franchise has been running for a long time. The 35th anniversary passed with barely a whisper because the game has always been with us in some form, so there's nothing to miss and everything that players can remember is readily available on today's latest Nintendo console. One of the results of this longevity is a gaming library that includes a wealth of lore about the land of Hyrule and the characters that inhabit it. A lot of that lore is strange, puzzling, mysterious, and confusing. In other words, it's just plain weird.
The folks at Nintendo certainly are creative, and the debate rages among fans regarding certain details like Link's family tree or the timeline of the games. What often gets overlooked is all of the uncanny and macabre elements in the series that exist along with the beautiful and awe-inspiring sights of Zelda lore.
10 The Running Man
Who in Hyrule dresses like this in the first place? It's never clear where the Running Man came from originally, but he's one of those weird bits of lore that pops up in different games, and he stands out because it seems like he doesn't belong in Hyrule.
Players can find the Running Man in both The Ocarina of Time and A Link to the Past. He's part of a few quests, not all of which are mandatory for completing the game, and he sometimes has something interesting to give or tell Link. However, it's never explained where that tracksuit came from.
9 That Weird Little Tingle
Any character who made their debut with Majora's Mask is going to be weird almost by default. Enter Tingle, who sells maps and uses a balloon attached to his head to get around. He appears in several of the games and even has a major role in The Wind Waker.
Tingle is designed to be both creepy and compelling at the same time. What is he, even? He claims to be the reincarnation of a fairy, but are those really his ears, or is he just dressed like one? Fans seem to have a deep fascination with him, as the fan following has been enough to fuel three spinoff games and an app.
8 The "Not So Happy" Mask Salesman
Ever since he first appeared, players have been creeped out by this strange character. He first appears in Ocarina of Time, and he's an intrinsic part of the ongoing quest to acquire different masks. As his name suggests, he's quite happy, and that is what's so odd.
The Happy Mask salesman is just a bit too cheerful, and it makes the player paranoid and suspicious— especially when his façade does drop once in a while and reveals the angry maniac underneath. He's the character who unwittingly sets the story of Majora's Mask in motion when Skull Kid steals it from him. Despite how innocent he seems to be, the Happy Mask Salesman seems to know a lot about Link and the secrets of Hyrule, deepening the mystery further.
7 Everything About Clock Town
With Majora's Mask, it's almost too easy, but recognition has to be given to the weird and wonderful Clock Town. It's not like other cities in the lore of Zelda with its colorful murals, flags with weird symbols, and mysterious writing that could just be part of the artwork.
What also sets this place apart is its strange level of self-awareness. Everything here is symbolic of time and how it's limited, but it's never clear if the residents ever noticed that or if the references were always intended just for the player.
6 The Mystery of the Snowpeak Ruins
Did Link fall through a glitched floor and end up in Skyrim? The Snowpeak Ruins appear exclusively in Twilight Princess and make up the fifth dungeon of the game. A Yeti couple lives in the few front rooms, but it's clear they moved in after the previous residents left. From the looks of it, they were engineers from another dimension who knew a lot about The Legend of Zelda.
To be serious, what is this place, and where did it come from? It's filled with paintings that seem to depict scenes and characters from other Zelda games. Even if the manga version of Twilight Princess traces the home back to the character of Ashei, that doesn't explain how her family knows about Link's other adventures.
5 Zora: Foe or Friend?
The earliest games in the franchise had some unique and frustrating enemies. New players who encountered this reptilian creature in the rivers or lakes would often die from the spitting projectiles before they even saw the critter. After the Bit Era ended, however, these elusive and dangerous creatures got a welcome makeover.
The name Zora first popped up in The Legend of Zelda franchise very early on, with A Link to the Past for the SNES. From that time on, it expanded with every game to include more important quests and settings. beginning as the name of a waterfall and expanding to include a whole region complete with a unique aquatic race, the Zora. It's not clear as to what turned the Zora to allies of the King of Hyrule, and it's a weird but welcome change.
4 The Elegy of Emptiness
Remember when Link used to just push blocks around when he needed to press down on a loose stone or climb up on something? That's not enough for the perpetual strangeness in Majora's Mask, where an ocarina song called The Elegy of Emptiness summons this handy, but creepy, little effigy.
Link needs to use it, and all four of its various forms, to navigate his way through the Stone Tower Temple. Considering the mundane uses of this thing, it's a mystery as to why it had to have this eerie shape that's not only weird but deeply unsettling.
3 Tetra's Pirate Crew
The pirate lord Tetra is Zelda. What a totally unexpected twist. What fans really want to know, however, is where her crew came from in that case. The story was a cover— or was it? It's never explained if Zelda's mother, the Queen of Hyrule, took refuge with actual pirates or if they were someone else in disguise to go along with the cover story.
They seem like a rough bunch, sincerely the best of all the crooks and lowlifes, so it's not likely they're escaped royals or bodyguards. Does Zelda react with shock when the Triforce is revealed because she didn't know she was Princess Zelda, and therefore doesn't know herself? This happens near the ending of the game, and the player is so caught up in the action that they don't think about how weird this is until later on.
2 Gossip Stones
Okay, it's a gossip stone, but what's a gossip stone? Nobody seems to know exactly what they are or where they come from, but they're a ubiquitous feature in virtually every Zelda game. They made their debut in Ocarina of Time and have played a part in almost every installment since.
Although they appear in several installments of the franchise, they do something different in every game, and the player just has to figure out what: Through trial and error, or maybe just Google. A big part of being a Zelda player is experimenting with the Gossip Stones to see what they'll do or tell you.
1 Zelda & Link: Long Lost Family?
This doesn't have to be like that fan theory about Zelda being Link's mother or sister, but it's weird that the connection between Link and Zelda is never fully revealed. Link is Zelda's chosen champion, and therefore the official defender of Hyrule, but what's the motivating force behind this choice?
Maybe they're both Hyrule royalty, or one of them is some kind of supernatural being? There are only a few subtle hints at a romance (and only in some of the games) which could also be a possibility, but the nature of their relationship has never been fully explained. Considering it's what drives everything in The Legend of Zelda universe, that's just bizarre.