in retrospect, that whole "zelda cycle" thing was always nonsense. like, it only ever really applied to wind waker. (a vocal subset of) fans hated it when it came out for being "too kiddy" or whatever, and then years later, most folks came around on it. but if you look at twilight princess, it's the opposite. the initial reaction to its announcement was so hype, footage of crowds cheering about it still get used as reaction gifs. and then folks eventually just kind of stopped caring about it. some folks started criticizing it for being too similar to ocarina of time, but even they weren't making that big a deal out of it. now, twilight princess has kind of settled into being almost a cult classic, with a small but vocal minority of fans swearing by it (ourselves included), and everyone else going "yeah it was good i guess". and then skyward sword was initially divisive, what with the controversial motion controls, with opinion on it souring more over time. it still has its fans, but most folks have issues with it.
but the most damning proof that there was no "zelda cycle" is that none of this was ever applied to the 2d games. no one argued that phantom hourglass or spirit tracks ever became more popular than just being cult classics at best. general opinion on minish cap and a link between worlds has never really been negative. no one ever thinks about the multiplayer ones. like, come on.
