Ryu
I’m talking about the protagonist in the Breath of Fire series here, rather than the Street Fighting legend of the same name. It’s a problem that pervades a fair few game series, but it seems improbable that so many Ryu’s can exist. I can stay open minded about the idea of multiple universes all existing coherently alongside each other, but there are just too many elements for it to be plausible. There’s far too much similarity in how all of them have blue hair and a similar build, are often struck with amnesia and can transform into dragons. There are too many differences though for them to all be the same person, with Ryu’s child incarnations in BoF 1-3 contradicting his teenage/adult age group in number 4, Dragon Quarter and the majority of Breath of Fire 2. Damn you Capcom, you cheeky chums.
Link
Link has the same problem as Breath of Fire’s Ryu, existing in multiple instances in multiple worlds that have strange overlapping and conflicting elements. If you see Link as more of a metaphor for a courageous hero, rather than a specific individual, it makes more sense, but trying to make any sense of his place in the franchises in a chronological fashion is near impossible. Many have attempted to place the Zelda franchise into some form of foreseeable order, but it just doesn’t work. Link simply couldn’t exist in that many different forms, so there must be some explanation we’re missing.
