The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword/Headscratchers


 * If Link's outfit is his school uniform, and this is the first chronological Zelda, why do the Kokiri dress like that?
 * Maybe Link becomes a hero to this game's version of the Kokiri who decide to honour him by wearing his tunic.
 * Or maybe its just a coincidence--Link's the only one wearing that specific tunic design in the Kokiri Forest, after all. All the other male Kokiri are wearing smaller hats, shirts, and shorts.
 * If Link was the only one with that tunic (I can't remember) than maybe the Deku Tree dressed him like that on purpose, knowing him to be the destined child.
 * The Kokiri dress much, much differently from SS!Link. The only things they have in common are the green tunic and the boys' hats. It could very easily be coincidence.
 * So, Skyward Sword supposedly takes place before Ocarina of Time, meaning it takes place before Twilight Princess. Can someone tell me how Lanayru turned from an ocean to a desert, and then to a lake in Twilight Princess? Is it just because of the time that passed, or are they in different areas?
 * Judging from the geography, Lake Hylia/Floria is different from the Lanayru region. And I always assumed it was just time passing and climates changing.
 * The maps were never very consistent anyway, apparently Eldin and Lanayru magically switched places.
 * Remember that the Twilight Princess map was mirror-imaged with itself, depending on whether you played it for Game Cube or Wii.
 * Add to that the sea and lush land became a desert in 1000 years. Whose to say in several generations down the line the shift came back. Plus, we don't know if Lanayru's reach went into the Geurdo desert in TP, so maybe only that part of the desert remained a desert.
 * If there's supposed to be an impenetrable cloud barrier between Skyloft and the surface, why are the sun and sky visible from the ground?
 * Because a the passages Link uses to get to the surface makes a BIG HOLE IN IT.
 * And because it's only impenetrable for living creatures.
 * That "big hole" doesn't account for why the whole sky is blue from horizon to horizon once you're on the ground.
 * I think it's only impenetrable to the Loftwings, and since Link is the only one with a sailcloth to keep him from going splat (or with a means of returning to the sky for that matter since it takes the Goddess Sword to activate the bird statues), no one else has ever managed to prove otherwise and live to tell. Things such as the clown-guy's party wheel and the windmill's control pinwheel have managed to fall through after all. And some of the small islands have octoroks sitting on them waiting to spit rocks as you fly past. Those things had to get up there somehow.
 * If it was only penetrable to the Loftwings then why does Link need to open up holes in the sky?
 * No, he said impenetrable, meaning that Loftwings can't break through, which the game also states. This is also why the statues send Link back above it rather then his Loftwing simply coming down and flying back up.
 * My only issue with that "Loftwings can't break through" thing is that even once you punch giant gaping holes in this massive cloud wall, your Loftwing still won't fly below the clouds. Ever fly near one of the holes at the lowest possible altitude? The Loftwing will dump you on its own; you don't even have to dive. It's possible the Loftwings have some sort of instinct to avoid it at all costs, even if it means abandoning their bonded Skyloftian rider. If that's the case, it may not be that the cloud barrier is "impenetrable" and more a case of "no one's ever tried it and come back to prove otherwise." And there's still the issue of those octoroks mentioned above.
 * It might just be Gameplay and Story Segregation. Plus, when that happens, you can hear Link make a jumping grunt, rather than a shocked cry. To say that the Loftwing will dump you, abandoning its bonded Skyloftian rider (and established from the beginning that Link and his Loftwing have a special connection, nonetheless) is a bit rash.
 * Not to mention  at the end.
 * It's impenetrable, but not infinite in extent. The clouds only extend for a radius of about 20km or so around Skyloft, which is as far as the eye can see and really too far for a Loftwing to fly, but to an observer on the ground would just be a tiny little cloud.
 * Is anyone else wondering where that water from Skyloft is coming from?
 * The waterfall. See it?
 * "Arrangements are made."
 * Aside from water, the only crop seen growing in any fields are pumpkins, yet everyone has clothes despite no apparent resources to make new cloth such as cotton. They also have enough stone to build structures such as the Knight Academy, the giant statue of the goddess, and the Tower of Light. They also have metal to make swords for their knights, yet there's no apparent place to mine such resources.Sure there are the other sky islands, but most of them are much smaller than Skyloft and I doubt the loftwings could carry a huge payload such as stone or metal ore. But then didn't it pretty much say in the intro that the Goddess Hylia designed Skyloft to be a safe haven for humans? It's possible that the Goddess used some sort of divine enchantment or something to make sure the denizens of Skyloft would have what they needed to make a living. After all, it would defeat the purpose of making Skyloft a safe haven if the humans died after a few months or so due to lacking food, water, and other resources.
 * I think we can assume that the game representation of Skyloft is much smaller than Skyloft really is. Compare to Ocarina of Time, obviously Hyrule is supposed to be larger than it is portrayed in game, we can assume the same for Skyloft, it is probably supposed to be the size of a small kingdom.
 * Probably all those things were built or created before Skyloft was sent into the sky. The fact that seems to confirm this theory. As for the clothes, given how small the population of Skyloft is to begin with, they're likely hand-me-downs or something.
 * I might have an explanation about the clothing: It's possible to make clothes out of bamboo, which is fast growing and plentiful (recall the bamboo-chopping minigame that Peatrice's dad runs).
 * The short answer: Rule of Cool. The long answer:.
 * Because the Triforce flew away after it was used like it always does.
 * No it didn't. It's more likely Link simply can't reach  without his loftwing.
 * Or more simply, he only earned one wish from it.
 * So, Batreaux hides underneath Skyloft because his demonic appearance would frighten the humans. If he doesn't have any contact with humans, how does he have access to so many Rupees?
 * Well he does have that Cursed Medal. Wherever he goes, Rupees probably throw themselves at him.
 * He also has those giant bat wings. No one else flies at night, so that's probably when he goes around collecting Rupees from monsters and grass the same way Link does, for lack of anything better to do.
 * The idea of Demise reminds me of various fan-fictions that I read in the past of an ancient god who rebelled against the other Hylian gods and was sealed away. Does Nintendo pay attention to the fanon concepts that the gaming community comes up with?
 * I highly doubt it. They probably came up with it on their own since it's such an obvious, archetypal, and universal idea.
 * So if Ganondorf is an  does that demonic influence explain how he took on the form of Ganon? I would hope that would be the extent of it because I would prefer that Ganondorf's motivations be his own.
 * I put in a WMG about this- my guess is,  is just a voice in Ganondorf's ear most of the time, egging him on but not ultimately in control, and Ganon is what happens when Ganondorf hands the wheel over to that voice in exchange for power.
 * This troper believes that  equals   as Ganondorf equals Princess Zelda. Ganondorf is basically a part of   in human form, without any memory of his possible ancient past but with his great ambition, and a little voice telling him to distrust and antagonize Link and Zelda. While, deep inside,   knows that his hatred stems from an ancient past in which   sealed him and   took his life, Ganondorf rationalizes his urge, telling himself that Link (or the long line of Links according to the One Ganon Theory), is an interloper preventing him from achieving his destiny, and Zelda is a source of power waiting to be used and discarded. As for Ganon, Ganondorf simply believes his mastery and affinity for dark magic a byproduct of his tutelage and his efforts.
 * Perhaps the hatred/spirit of Demise sortof lurks around, searching for someone evil enough to meet Demise's standards and/or someone who will likely desire to kill the newest Chosen Hero (i.e. Link). When the hatred/spirit finds such a person (i.e. Ganondorf), it gives him a magical power-up. So Ganondorf always had his own motivations, but Demise helped him out.
 * Well,, yes? The way I see it in Ocarina of Time when the Sacred Realm was opened, Link was protected thanks to being the Hero of Time and being sealed in the Realm for seven years, and Ganondorf already had terrible ambitions.  So Ganondorf pretty much had his own consciousness and in my theory wasn't an incarnation per se,  and the Triforce of Power only offered him the strength he needed at that time. And yeah,  spirit would explain why Ganondorf could transform into Ganon despite technically being no different otherwise than say Link or Zelda.
 * Ganondorf himself is not the reincarnation of, but instead the reincarnation of hatred and desire for the power of the gods themselves, i.e.: the Triforce. However for all intents and purposes, Ganondorf is merely a human incarnation of this drive, similar to . When Ganondorf got his hands on the Triforce in Ocarina of Time, he made his wish, he wishes for the world, but as the failsafe of the Triforce causes one with an impure heart to cause it to split, Ganondorf was only left with the Triforce of Power, therefore he only had the Power to take over the world, and not the Wisdom or Courage to acheive that goal. In the end, Ganon is the by-product of that dark power, Ganondorf uses the Triforce of Power to transform himself into the hideous beast Ganon, so in the end, while 's legacy spawned Ganondorf's cruelty and lust for power, it was the Triforce of Power itself that fueled that transformation into Ganon. At least that is my theory.
 * OK so  was destroyed in the present so he is revived in the past to circumvent that problem. Question: If Link defeated   in the past then how does the version of him exist in the present? This series never does bother to think about all the various time paradox issues that time travel presents does it.
 * This Troper thinks is a Terminator 2 thing. Imagine a timeline diverging because of Ghirahim's actions. In the first timeline  the Chosen Hero to use the Triforce in a creative way to kill him.
 * Ghirahim then creates a second timeline, . The resulting paradox may be handwaved with magic: the end result still needed Hylia's power to work.
 * Proof are the subtle changes Link does, and did, during the whole game to the past. Before the Lanaryu quest, for example, Groose is seen egging Link for having a tree to grow in the temple. After the quest is done, Groose seems under the belief that . Returning to the final scene, after , the present seems changed as well, with only the main characters having knowledge of it.
 * Paraphrased from Soul Music because it's relevant here: "That little shop? It's always been here." "Yes, but was it always here yesterday?"
 * Just where did Tentalus come from? Now, while the Timeshift Orb keeps the ship afloat in water, it's only a set radius around it, at which point the rest outside that is sand. Tentalus is huge. Was it just... hiding underneath in the water and waiting until it knew you opened the boss door? And even then, while I cannot remember, wasn't the boss fight ENTIRELY at sea? Meaning the entire ocean of sand became water just for that fight? After all, Tentalus, as mentioned, is HUGE. He would need all that water. Alright, I'll get straight to the point... Just where did Tentalus come from, and where did all that water come from?
 * Dude, get to the top of the boat and activate the Timestone. Its radius is HUUUUGE.
 * Okay, fair enough. But still, just where could Tentalus have come from? Was it just conveniently waiting underneath the ship or something until it knew Link opened up the boss door? The other bosses have some explanation: Ghirahim was seeking Zelda / the Gate of Time in the Skyview Temple and Fire Sanctuary, respectively, he brought Koloktos to life, and possibly same with Scaldera as well. Finally, Moldarach is the one of the oldest scorpions in the Lanayru Mining Facility, while all the little younger ones plague the dungeon. And Tentalus? Um...
 * This is more likely related to how the Timeshift Stones work. I always thought that it creates a spherical portal to the past for Link, and Link alone, with the stone at the center of the sphere. All of the LD-301s besides Skipper seem totally oblivious to Lanayru as a desert--one of them "corrects" your map, for instance. So what I figured is that Tentalus existed in the past outside of the sphere enveloping the Sandship. Link tries to access Nayru's Flame in the past and somehow provokes Tentalus to come to the ship. Tentalus comes close enough to the ship to be entirely within the Timeshift Stone's radius and thus appears whole to Link. So if, say, Tentalus moved away from the ship as Link is watching, he would seem to "disappear" as he crosses the Timeshift Stone's radius. The same goes with those frog enemies in the water--they appear as Link and the Timeshift Stone gets close to them. The same principle applies to Tentalus, only he's unique in that he comes to Link while the Timeshift Stone remains stationary.
 * Alright, now that makes sense. Although, on the subject of Timeshift Stones... is Link simply immune to the effects? For instance, the electric frogs don't exist in the past, so if they enter the radius, they disappear. How is it that Link is able to exist both inside and outside of the Timeshift Stone radius, therefore being in both the past and present whenever he likes?
 * He's the one activating the dormant stones or carrying the orbs around, so he is immune while everything else isn't. In the point of view of the robots, Link just appears literally out of thin air in front of them and disappears when he walks out of the radius or deactivates the stone, because they're completely in the past and don't see anything wrong. It doesn't make much sense that they all just stayed in the exact same places until they broke down completely, which implies that something later happened that quickly destroyed them and hastened the creation of the desert. Skipper seems to be a special case though, in that he seems to know that everything has been gone for thousands of years and that he will only stay alive as long as he's near his motorboat (or the Sandship when it is time-shifted). He is probably able to see the time effects in the same way as Link, but unfortunately can't move outside the radius or he'll die.
 * Unless I'm mistaken, Timeshift Stones aren't portals into the past. They regress the area within their radius back to the state they were an undisclosed amount of time into the past, but Link's not actually going back into the past. Perhaps the effect of the Timeshift Stones is limited to beings and things that have spent quite some time in the province, or have explicitly only existed in the past that they reach into.
 * Or it could be that Link is the chosen Hero of Time. I just felt like I needed to mention that, maybe it's helpful?
 * The whole deal about sealing Demise in the present then killing him in the past. So does this basically mean the timeline got split again? And if so, where does the next game take place: the sealing timeline or the slaying timeline? This could mean the Zelda timeline is actually in 3 parts and not 2...which reminds me of a theory I read somewhere that there's a separate timeline for each triforce piece or something.
 * Actually thanks to the official time-line spitting it again would create four timelines, it already has three.
 * If the timeline split every time Time Travel was used then that would mean there'd be another split timeline from Oracle of Ages. The timeline splits whenever the creators want it to split, otherwise Timey-Wimey Ball is in effect.
 * Groose complains that Link is always bragging about the fact that he and Zelda have known each other all their lives. But if (as stated on the main page) Skyloft is a completely contained world unto itself, then wouldn't all the students have had to know each other all their lives?
 * I think he meant that Zelda and Link were pretty much joined at the hip since childhood, while Groose and the other students are, well, just the other students to them.
 * I think it is reasonable to suppose that Skyloft is much bigger than it appears in game. I mean, they lived there for a thousand years. To suppose that what we see is the actual extant of the civilization is pretty ridiculous, how could such a small population remain so stable for so long? Especially since the various families we do see don't appear to be related to each other...
 * Note that the main island of Skyloft that we see appears to be something of a boarding school or college. While some other students would have come to the island for the purpose of the school, Zelda would have been there for her whole life because of her father's work, and Link, well... perhaps he was brought to Skyloft as a child and taken in by the people there?
 * This is just a smalll nitpick, but in the Silent Realm, when going up those wind-tunnels... LINK DOESN'T HAVE HIS SAILCLOTH. HOW CAN HE FLY UPWARDS WITHOUT IT?
 * A Goddess Did It?
 * The Silent Realm is a mystical spirit world, it doesn't need to conform to the physics of the outside world. You can fall long distances without hurting yourself for one thing.
 * Maybe the gust of wind itself is what's strong enough to push him up, and the sailcloth is just what keeps him upright as he flies up. This troper noticed that when he was blown up, he seemed to be flipping around more than when he had the sailcloth.
 * Is Zelda's Loftwing ever seen or mentioned after the black tornado? Why would everyone just forget about him?
 * In Skyward Sword, we're introduced to a single Goddess, while in earlier games, there's always been three (Din, Naryu, Farore). So has there always been just one Goddess, or is a fourth Goddess alongside the original three that created the Triforce?
 * From what I can tell, she's a lower-ranked fourth goddess the other three left behind to keep an eye on the Triforce after their departure.
 * The other three are referred to as the "old gods". Apparently Hylia is a younger, weaker god.
 * Which makes it even more confusing that Hylia had delegated responsibilities to Faron (water), Eldin (fire) and Lanayru (thunder) dragons while she slumbered.
 * Perhaps she is the Goddess of Time mentioned in Majoras Mask?
 * Well, we have been introduced to many gods over the course of the series. There's probably an hierarchy, with the Golden Goddesses being the greatest, then Hylia, who was left in charge of the others. She is apparently powerful enough to create other gods.
 * After you defeat Demise, Impa says she has to stay in the past to protect the Triforce (and Master Sword). But wait...isn't the Triforce still in the future?
 * Probably not an oversight, as Zelda in the present/future makes reference to protecting the Triforce (okay, so either not an oversight or a blindingly huge oversight). The Triforce must have existed in the past as well, though, so perhaps Impa means to guard the Triforce up until Link sets out to obtain it in the present/future?
 * Let's not forget that timelines can be altered. Even though the Triforce is safe and sound in their future, that doesn't mean that, if Impa wasn't there to protect everything, that another agent of Demise or the Ghirahim that is not yet dead could make an attempt on it. She has to stay, because that ensures that the timeline that does occur happens.
 * Why is the bottom floor of the Knight Academy locked at night? The top and bottom can both be accessed from outside by going up stairs, all it does is mildly inconvenience people.
 * So the younger students (living in the lower floor) have to get past the older students' and teachers' rooms to leave the academy? It's a good way to control who leaves the building without downright closing the doors.
 * Why is it that  has arms, but Fi doesn't, if they're the same type of being?
 * Fi and  aren't as similar to one another as they may initially seem. Fi is an artificial being created by the Goddess who inhabits/is tied to the Goddess Sword, whose sole purpose is to guide the Hero in his quest. She has no arms because she has no need to interact with the world physically.   on the other hand, seems to be
 * So, ?
 * That seems to be a pretty accurate analogy for them, yes.
 * Zelda travels back in time with Impa / sleeps through The Slow Path / travels back in time with Ghirahim. Does it mean that, during Ghirahim's ritual at the bottom of the pit, there is another Zelda sleeping in the temple?
 * Moreover, there should be a Zelda sleeping in the present as well (you can see the orange crystal since the very beginning of the game if you look through the Door of Time in first-person) until Link kills The Imprisoned with the Triforce, which means she's been there before she was even born in Skyloft!
 * Most of the treasures Link finds can only be obtained on the surface; tumbleweed, Eldin ore, feathers from "tiny" birds, drops from surface enemies (skull ornaments, evil crystals, Lizalfos tails)...not to mention the Ancient Flower, which can only be found thousands of years in the past. Why, then, are such items not viewed as shockingly rare in Skyloft? Most treasures sell for 30 rupees at the night market, and Gondo even knows how to use them to upgrade items, despite no reason for him to have seen them before. And then there's the Dusk Relics, which are explicitly only found in Silent Realms, yet Fledge gives them away as prizes for shooting pumpkins. Putting aside Gameplay and Story Segregation, why are these treasures apparently commonplace in the sky if nobody there has been to the surface in millennia?
 * Hylia made sure they were very well stocked before sending them up there.
 * Gondo only complicates things. At one point, he tells you that he can't fix his robot without a long-extinct flower, which you provide for him. At the same time, he has no problem asking for identical flowers to upgrade some of the equipment you have collected before that point.
 * Gondo's upgrade requirements are just a simplification: what he's asking are the intrinsic properties of treasures. For example he could need "Four kilograms of lightweight but sturdy metal (eldin ore)" or "Ten metres of strong fiber (tumbleweed)", but the game translates that to the individual available items, just like asking for a "gram of blue ink" you could give him 3 ballpoint pens to scrap...
 * Yes, I know this is a knight academy, which doesn't have to focus on literacy. Yes, I know that most of the lessons are taught through example. Yes, I know the tree supply is fairly limited in Skyloft. But still, there's only one loose piece of paper to be found anywhere in a school?
 * At the very least, there's plenty of them stuck all over the walls. Surely they could spare one "no running in the halls" sign? Or maybe Link could pull down one of those "Temple of Time cleaning duties" notices that haven't been needed in thousands of years? Why should Link have to use the one piece of paper that actually matters to someone?
 * In the case of Link giving the toiler paper Cawlin's letter, it could be because he just doesn't like Cawlin (which doesn't seem that odd considering how big of a jerk he can be) and did it out of spite, though whether that's wildly out of character for him is YMMV. On the other hand if he gives the letter to Karane then the hand disappears straight after if I remember (though that doesn't explain why he didn't just give the hand a piece of paper first then give the letter to Karane.)
 * Is it just me or does Erla the "most careless" Kikwi disappear after the flooded forest mission? Did... did he drown?
 * No, he's fine. In fact if you go back to the place you first found him after the Water Dragon de-floods the forest, he'll give you a Goddess Plume.
 * Who built the Ancient Robots? The game's website says that they performed tasks for the "people" of the region, but doesn't elaborate. Were they built by humans, an extinct race or something else? The more we learn about Hyrule's ancient history, the more it becomes clear that even it wasn't the "begininng"...
 * Having now seen the WMG page, it looks as if the Dark Interlopers, the Twili's ancestors, are the most likely candidate. The robots and their civilization's architecture closely resemble the Fused Shadow and other Twili creations.
 * Actually, I'm pretty sure the Thunder Dragon built them.
 * Where did Demise come from? I haven't played the game, but none of the articles on this site or the Zelda wiki explain him any more than that he and his demons "burst out of the ground" a long time ago. Maybe he's the Fierce Deity from Majora's Mask that makes up the upside down triangle in the middle of the Triforce?
 * Demise is an ancient demon who battled the goddess Hylia a long time ago. There is no origin explained beyond that, but then there tends not to be for this sort of thing - there is no explanation of where the goddesses came from either. And the "upside down triangle" is empty space.
 * How has nobody ever discovered Batreaux's house before when they live on a very small island with people regularly patrolling the skies on birds? Did nobody ever fly low enough to see the house embedded in the island?
 * Even if they did see it, they couldn't get there without ramming their bird into the wall. Opening the door requires being in the graveyard at night, when everyone's indoors out of the monsters' reach.
 * Maybe it was an old abandoned house that Batreaux found and decided to live in? The people patrolling around the area would know it's there but have no reason to believe anyone lives inside it.
 * Why is it that Lanayru is still dead (with the stone deactivated) even once you give him the fruit?
 * He's not. Notice how his bones are missing.
 * Ah, right, hadn't left and returned to the area. But even so, where does he go when the central stone is deactivated?
 * Wherever the heck ancient mystic dragons go. Which is probably wherever the heck he wants.
 * Link brings Lanayru back to life. So Lanayru is still alive in the past, but he showed up in the present when you're learning the Song of the Hero. Yet, still in the present, you can see that Lanayru's not there at his spot, since the bones are gone. He's there in the past, though... how does that work? Is he still alive in the present somewhere, but also alive in the past? Or is he only alive in the past?
 * He could be choosing to stay in the past to be nice to all of the Ancient Robots that put their whole lives into saving him.
 * "Staying in the past" makes no sense. Originally, Lanayru died and his skeleton remained in the same spot because, well, the robots didn't think to bury him. After Link saved his life, the timeline was changed so Lanayru didn't die there and, quite possibly, never did (how long DO those guys live?). We never see him move in the past because we're only seeing a short time period in which Lanayru's haning out with the robots. By the time the present's rolled around, he's had hundreds of years to, you know, GO SOMEWHERE ELSE, which is probably somehwere Link can't get to.
 * To be honest, that specific usage of the Timeshift Stones is inconsistent with how they work elsewhere in the game. Generally, the stones don't fully restore the area to what it was in the past, but just restored whatever is in the area currently to how it was in the past (for instance, if you move one of those carts in the present, it won't go back to its initial place after you activate the stone). So Lanayru being there in the past, but not the present, doesn't quite make sense. I call divine dragon shenanigans.
 * The scene where Zelda is plucked off of her Loftwing by the black tornado makes me wonder a couple things: you can clearly see The Imprisoned got free and is trying to swallow her. Who seals him back, given how it seems that only Link could do that with the help of his sword? And as you can see in the final credits, Zelda pretty much  Talk about endurance!
 * That was a dream sequence. The Imprisoned wasn't actually free right then. As for her falling to the ground without a cushion, she is knocked unconscious, remember, and the old lady is there, so maybe she had something to do with it.
 * At the end of the game Link and Zelda  and the Master Sword   So why is it that in Ocarania   And why didn't Fi ever show up again? She said she was suppossed to sleep for eternity, but that's what they say about the Master Sword at the end every game and it still keeps getting yanked out and put to use.
 * Link to the Past is the only game where it says the Master Sword sleeps forever (and, notably, it has stayed asleep so far after that in that timeline). Fi says right at the end of Skyward Sword that her consciousness will fade out.
 * Fi stays asleep because if she woke up there's a chance . As for why   change location, the former I'd wager is simply Link and Zelda deciding to keep it in a safe place to prevent future generations abusing its power, and the latter is probably due to events between the games- probably relating to the founding of the kingdom.
 * Hyrule Historia explains the gap. The Triforce was sealed in the Sacred Realm because its presence was causing wars (such wars are mentioned in Ocarina of Time), and the Sealed Temple basically IS the Oo T-era Temple of Time, Rauru built his temple on top of the already existing structure.
 * Given that the whole game is a timeloop, and thus ?
 * The Master Sword is put in the temple--the one that stays on the ground. The Goddess Sword was in the temple in Skyloft, which was already up in the air even when you go back in time. They're not the same sword in that sense.
 * In other words, there are two of the same sword timeshifted a few thousand years at the same time. It'd be like if you went back in time and lived your adult life in the past, while your child self grows up. Both versions of you coexist, but they're not the same in terms of development.
 * This is kinda bugging me: in the prologue of Skyward Sword we learn how Demise and his evil forces attacked the people of the surface, seeking for the Triforce, which was guarded by the goddess Hylia. Since the Triforce can make any wish come true, why didn't she ask for the eradication of Demise, given that she had the darn thing in her hands? After all, . Yet, Hylia preferred putting her own people at risk and engaging in a furious war, which only resulted in Demise being sealed. Is there something that prevents a goddess from using the Triforce (with Link always being the chosen one and stuff)? The only possible justification I can think of is that if things went like that, we wouldn't have had to play the game (and any other Lo Z game).
 * I think it is actually mentioned somewhere that a goddess can't use the Triforce.
 * It is. That's the reason
 * Why does  refer to Link as a "Human" multiple times? He has the pointed ears and everything. Admittedly, the term "Hylian" wouldn't likely exist yet, but there should still be a differentiation between Hylians and Humans.
 * Because Link is human. The pointed ears seems to be everything, at least as far as differences go.
 * It is. That's the reason
 * Why does  refer to Link as a "Human" multiple times? He has the pointed ears and everything. Admittedly, the term "Hylian" wouldn't likely exist yet, but there should still be a differentiation between Hylians and Humans.
 * Because Link is human. The pointed ears seems to be everything, at least as far as differences go.