Although my friends will tell you I only became vocal about it rather recently (blame the gorgeousness which is Twilight Princess), the "Legend of Zelda" franchise is actually my oldest enduring fandom. I have loved Link, Zelda, Hyrule, and everything else about the games since I was twelve years old, when I played the original game for the first time.
Okay, sure, the storyline can't keep its own timeline coherent. Nobody is altogether certain when one game happened in relation to the others. Who cares? It's still great storytelling, cool graphics, a compelling challenge, and the chance to be a hero. What's not to love? Plus there's Link himself, who my friend Jaclyn and I cheerfully refer to as "animated man candy." Let's face it, for a cartoon character, he's pretty cute. See?
Part of the reason I've always been a little quiet about the Zelda fandom is that back when I first got involved in it, the internet wasn't exactly widespread. In those days, I didn't have access to the shared excitement that I've enjoyed with all of my other fandoms. It didn't help matters that I haven't played most of the games, having lacked the correct console. But things are different now, and the advent of Twilight Princess (and the acquisition of a Wii) reawakened my affections for the franchise. I also love Super Smash Bros. Brawl, where Link is my favorite character to play.
I've written, at this point, exactly one piece of fan fiction for the Zeldaverse, which has been surprisingly well received. It's over here if you're interested; I'm presently fleshing out ideas for a sequel.
I belong to two LiveJournal communities for the fandom. Hero X Princess is for fans of the Link/Zelda romantic pairing, and Zelda TP is for fans of Twilight Princess.
The Zeldapedia is the best place to go on the web for anything you might possibly want to know about the games and anything associated with them. I'm one of the junior admin, and the single most active female user. (Girl gamers are SO under-represented...)
Some crazy, wonderful person (people?) took the time to type up every single scrap of dialogue found in Twilight Princess, and posted it here. I found this page really useful when I was doing my fanfic.
At the website Zelda Infinite, they have posted "scanalations" (translated scans) of the Legend of Zelda manga.
The greatest April Fool's Day prank of all time -- the website IGN.com produced and uploaded the trailer for a fake Legend of Zelda movie. (It's also over at YouTube, so if you can't watch it on IGN, try there.) I was disappointed, I think it looks amazing!
Perfect Drug: The fanlisting for the Legend of Zelda series
The Eternal Hero: The Link fanlisting
Hyrule's Princess: The Princess Zelda fanlisting
Darkness Rising: The Twilight Princess fanlisting (my favorite game in the series)
Linked by Fate: The Link/Zelda fanlisting
And, last but by no means least, Zelda.com -- the official website.
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