>>720016491 (me)
...Except, despite the Hero's Shade talking about the regrets he died with, Twilight Princess DIDN'T contradict anything - the public perception of it and the Hero's Shade are what spoiled the narrative of Majora's Mask. I'm confident about this one too, because TP is the game I'm on right now.
The Hero's Shade makes it clear on multiple occasions that his regret isn't over his lack of recognition. Several people in TP bring up that Hyrule still had a hero - the Gorons and Zora have the hero's bow and a suit of Zora Armor made for this hero. What the Hero's Shade is so bothered by is that he never got to pass down the hidden skills. I really need to emphasize, that's it.
Throughout the training sessions with the Shade, he quickly lightens up on Link because of how capable he is. Five or six hidden skills in and he outright says Link is basically set to kill the shit out of Dorf. And once the Great Spin is passed down, he has no reason to stick around. He has complete confidence in his descendant and he's resolved the issue that troubled him enough to return as a spirit. Again, that's it.
For whatever reason, however, the internet was so determined to fawn over OOT Link as the ultimate tragic figure in the series (which he IS still in the running for, given how badly he's fucked over by the events of OOT) that they just ignored the fact that he clawed his way out of misery and into what must have been a pretty nice life. It couldn't have been a bad one, given that his biggest regret is his descendant not knowing the family ass-kicking techniques while Ganon is in the middle of returning. But Zelda fans substitute this in favor of Sad Man Link.
And worst of all, the fucking TP manga got in on it by having the Shade clash with Ganondorf. Was it kino? Yes. Would he actually do that? No, because his entire purpose was ensuring the next gen hero could be the one to do that.
tl;dr the Hero of Time is cool as fuck and basically everyone is fucking stupid.
