A rather impressive fan animated film from Innervation Bros called Lost in Time has appeared on YouTube, and Legend of Zelda fans, especially those that enjoy Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, should consider giving it a watch. The story focuses on Link’s final moments before he becomes a stalfos as we see him in Twilight Princess. You can watch the entirety of the 43 minute film below.
What happens in Lost in Time?
Throughout Lost in Time, Link is trapped in the Lost Woods. Anyone who becomes lost in this area becomes a stalfos eventually, as we know happens to him in Twilight Princess. Not only is Link beginning to lose the fight for his mind, but you can see the stalfos rot overtaking his left arm as the hero’s spirit fights to survive.
We see Link struggling against an army of stalfos, including a chief who is hinted at to be the father of the Hero of Time. In canon, Link’s mother left him as a baby with the Deku Tree, who oversaw him growing up until it was time to leave Kokiri Forest. This is actually the first time we hear about the father in that situation, so that was a really cool story moment. Seeing a korok, who is a descendant of the kokiri, is also a neat bit of world-building as the Lost Woods are treated as a different realm with various links to different points in time. We also get a visit from an old friend who seals Link’s fate.
Does this fit in the Zelda timeline?
Lost in Time says it takes place “25 years after the Hero of Time’s journey.” Given that wording, we expect that in this storyline, Link saved Termina from the falling moon and continued on his journey looking for Navi for decades. There is a popular theory that the events of Majora’s Mask never really happened, and that story is all part of Link’s purgatory as he makes the transition to a stalfos. However, that is the Kid Link and the stalfos version is adult-sized, so in this sense, it is believable that his story could go on within the Zelda timeline.
The Lost in Time fan film is a pretty entertaining movie overall. We may never get the gaps in the true story filled in by Nintendo, so it is cool to imagine what those final moments for one of the most popular iterations of Link could look like. We definitely recommend watching it for any Zelda fan, especially considering the first teaser for this project came out over four years ago. This has been in the works for a long time.