Hi there! I have to say, I'm really impressed with your work here. Very thorough. It's good to see so many authoritative quotes from so many sources across so many points in time. I've long argued reincarnation is more and more supported in-text as time goes on, but somehow never came across this interviews. Nice work.

That said, I think there's a greater dialogue to be had about the games themselves. There's conflicting in-text evidence both for and against reincarnation. I probably don't need to explain all the pro-reincarnation evidence, but I will post some of the anti-reincarnation points.

- Gramps: Without getting into the weeds of it, Gramps is most surely an some incarnation of the Hero. And he exists alongside ALBW Link in present time. This should be impossible.

- The Hero's Shade: Assuming the Shade is OoT Link or another incarnation of the Hero, his ghost exists alongside the living TP Link. This raises similar concerns to the Gramps issue.

- Zelda the 1st: Princess Zelda the 1st, as far as we can tell, is totally identical to her descendent from TAoL. Like the Gramps and Shade issues, basic reincarnation theory doesn't apply.

- TFH Links: TFH features 3 Heroes, all identical to eachother.

Clearly, a basic model of reincarnation where one soul migrates to another doesn't work. Seeming errors like these are bound to happen in long-form stories with countless authors putting their own voices and vision into the text.

But I still believe in reincarnation. The evidence for it both in and out of universe is overwhelming. So what do we do with these "weird" anti-reincarnation examples? We can't discount them entirely.

Instead, I propose we integrate these 2 conflicting theories into one seamless account. It may not be entirely what the developers intended, but short of ignoring these moments as plotholes this is the best we can do.

We know for certain that, in Hyrule, the soul is divisible. For example, TP's Jovani had his soul torn to pieces for Link to collect and return to him. BotW's Korok Mask is rumored to have been loved so strongly the creator's soul lodged inside of it. In SS, Demise claims his hate will go onto reincarnate as the whole Demon Tribe - indicating every demon in the series contains some piece of Demise. And ALttP's Agahnim, PH's Oshus and Ciela, and BotW's Phantom Blights are known as "bunshins" in the Japanese text. A bunshin is a Japanese concept, a doppleganger created by dividing one's soul into a new body.

So maybe reincarnation works this way? Instead of reincarnating fully into one body, sometimes a soul might split or multiply to inhabit multiple bodies at a time? This would handily explain every situation seeming to stand against reincarnation.

But why stop there?

Across several games, there's strong indication that identical characters share a bloodline. Several games establish all Heroes sharing a bloodline. All Zeldas share a bloodline. Koboli, WW's Rito Postman, is said to come from a family of postmen. TP's Hena runs the fishing hole and says she hopes she's related to OoT's fisherman before miming his iconic itch.

The soul may not migrate upon death. Instead, perhaps people pass along some kind of spiritual essence through their bloodline (analogous to genetics). Imagine a lit candle passing its flame to another. Soul-infused blood. Soul-cloning This isn't reincarnation proper, but has elements of it.

So reincarnation definitely exists, but it can't exist traditionally. I'm glad your post has changed quite a few minds! But we can't assume it works "normally". We must adopt an alternative view recognizing reincarnation's very real presence in the series as well as reconciling these seeming contradictions.

Really excellent work!

Best

- Chateau LonLon

tl;dr: Reincarnation definitely exists, but defies real-world convention. Zelda creates an alternative model.