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At the beginning of this trailer, there's reference to humans. Which leads me to wonder, were there ever humans in the other Zelda games? For example, would Hylians be considered humans?

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To my memory, Skyward Sword is the first Zelda game to refer to any people as humans. – CyberSkull Nov 28 '11 at 2:38
Yeah you're right. – Jeff Nov 28 '11 at 3:24

2 Answers

up vote 17 down vote accepted

According to Zeldapedia,

Humans are a race of people that include Hylians, Gerudo, round-eared non-Hylian humans, and possibly other groups. Hylians and Gerudo have been referred to both as human and by their more specific race. The round-eared, non-Hylian humans however, are simply called humans. They live in Hyrule during the time of A Link to the Past, The Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess. These Non-Hylian humans are only distinguishable from Hylians by their short, rounded ears, as opposed to the long pointed ears of the Hylians. The types of humans are capable of reproduction with one another; Gerudo females and Hylian males produce Gerudo offspring, and one character who's parents are a Hylian and non-Hylian human has a round-eared appearance.

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There's a bit of a contradiction on this site. At zelda.wikia.com/wiki/Hylian they say "Physically, Hylians resemble humans", yet in your answer they clearly say they are Humans. However this does answer my question about whether there are human. But I question the legitimacy of this site. (Maybe I'm taking a video game too seriously :P) – Jeff Oct 11 '11 at 20:08
Yeah, I found a few sites that backed up this conclusion when I searched originally, but then later found sites that said the opposite. I suspect it is one of those things (like most of the Zelda timeline) that is mostly speculation, and unless someone asks Shigeru Myamoto directly, I doubt we will ever know. (And it's not taking a game too seriously! I think about things like this all the time. Thanks for accepting my answer regardless!) – Ashley Nunn Oct 11 '11 at 21:27
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Is Ganandorf officially human then? He's Gerudo. – Ben Brocka Feb 19 '12 at 23:04
up vote 4 down vote

As far as I can tell, Skyward Sword is the first game in the Zelda series to refer to humans in any capacity. Previous games have mentioned the Hylia, the original people of Hyrule (Link to the Past), the Hylians of contemporary Hyrule (LttP again) and the Gerudo (Ocarina of Time). At no time though have they made a distinction of species in the rather elfin-looking "people" of Hyrule, though the Gerudo I think have been mentioned as a separate tribe (OoT again).

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