A tingly theory

As it turns out, Uncle Rupee's grand plan isn't to bring Tingle to the paradisical Rupeeland. In reality, Rupeeland is a place of slavery. It's what Uncle Rupee wants to turn the world into so that everyone will be forced to gather rupees to feed his greed. In fact, Uncle Rupee's ultimate goal is to turn everyone into a Tingle - something especially terrifying for Western gamers.

All of that doom-saying aside, the game says, precisely, "a Tingle." Yes, "a Tingle," not "Tingles." This means that "Tingle" isn't a person, but rather a thing, some sort of entity; an entity possibly like "The Hero of Time."

This little insight, though questionably canonical, does suggest that there's some sort of cultural bleed through between the worlds of Termina and Hyrule. After all, Tingle first appeared in Majora's Mask, the game that introduced the land of Termina. He then appears in Minish Cap and The Wind Waker.

Setting aside the former game, Tingle isn't the only thing from Termina in the Hyrule of The Wind Waker. The game's Phantom Ganon uses a sword apparently made by Zubora and Gabora, the blacksmiths from the foot of Snowhead in Termina.

Clearly there's some kind of dimensional crossover here. Perhaps the reason Tingle's not in so many of the Zelda games if looked at chronologically is because of Hyrule's cultural cycle. Tingle could be a one-off in Termina, but recurs in Hyrule whenever the Master Sword needs powering up. Perhaps it's a process that requires an influx of energy from the Termina dimension, thus causing the idea of Tingle to enter Hyrule's zeitgeist, and imprinting Phantom Ganon's sword with a maker's mark from Termina. Thus, Tingle is an entity born of an energy influx (or exchange) between dimensions (at least in mainstream Zelda titles).

What do you think? Feel free to leave your own thoughts on the question of what Tingle is in the comments.