>Best Game?Ocarina, NES, or Awakening. Ocarina is the best made imo and is peak Zelda in terms of tone and having the best ratio of story to exploring and dungeons. NES is really fun and while it has the least interesting story/world besides maybe AoL it makes up for it by having the best gameplay of the 2D games. Awakening is just charming and has a really cozy atmosphere.
>Best iteration of Link/Hyrule? For Link its actually Twilight Princess, I like the strong farm boy routes and of course being able to turn into a wolf is a plus. Termina is my favorite world and I love the way the NPCs are interwoven into the core game and masks. Probably the best implementation of NPCs in a video game I've seen that isn't a Point and Click or visual novel. If that doesn't count because it's not "Hyrule" I guess Ocarina, again that game just really knocked it out of the park for the first 3D venture and similarly has a great tone.
>Does the timeline matter at all?Kind of? With stuff like Ocarina -> Twilight Princess or any of the games that are clearly sequels it does, but really as long as you have a general vibe that there is a hero of legend born ever generation I really couldn't care beyond that. Anyone who tries to play the games in "Timeline" order is setting themselves up for failure.
>What is the best ship, alternatively what game produced the best fanworks?Oooh, tough one. One underrated 2D ship I like is Ralph x Link from Oracle of Ages and I honestly think if the game was released today there would be more art of the two. Ralph is the bodyguard of Nayru in that game and takes great offense to Link trying to rescue her since he thinks he can handle everything himself until he's forced to begrudgingly accept Link. Skyward Sword with Giralink is awesome and the best villain/Link ship easily. For Twilight Princess Shad x Link and Minish Cap Link x Vaati though I don't feel as strongly about those two.
>Dark Link x Link or 4swordscest?Don't particularly ship either. Never understood the Dark Link x Link ship because it always felt like a less interesting version of Link x Ganondorf or people too afraid to ship some weird stuff like Poe Collector x Link. Dark Link is just an absolute nothing character and their are more interesting "dark" characters in th
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