Zelda Timeline
Anybody who hangs around Zelda forums for long enough knows that theorising about the Zelda series timeline is a hotly debated topic. I remember when it began in 1998. Up until the release of Ocarina of Time there was no doubt that the timeline was as follows:
(ALttP/LA) > (LoZ/AoL)
That’s all we had to worry about. A Link to the Past was stated to be a prequel to the NES games right there on the box. Then Ocarina came along, another prequel telling the legend of the Imprisoning War from ALttP, leaving the timeline something like this:
OoT > (ALttP/LA) > (LoZ/AoL)
But then in an interview, Miyamoto suggested the timeline might be the following:
OoT > (LoZ/AoL) > ALttP ~ LA (could go anywhere)
That quote started the timeline debate. Fans began to side with either the original timeline or Miyamoto’s timeline, and even though Miyamoto has since confirmed that the original timeline was the correct one, the damage was done. One website that sprung up in the aftermath was The Legends of Zelda (now Zelda Legends), where timeline theories were collected and shared by Davogones.
One theory that struck a chord was the split timeline theory. This suggests that the ending to Ocarina of Time results in two separate timelines due to its time travel endings. In the Adult Link ending, Ganondorf is sealed in the Sacred Realm by the Sages and Link disappears (sent back in time), and in the Child Link ending, Link changes the future by stopping Ganondorf from ever entering the Sacred Realm. The concept of the two endings resulting in two timelines was actually debated in various forms by myself and Davogones, who then posted one of the first articles on the subject.
While the details of the split timeline were embryonic, I was delighted to hear that it turned out to be part of the official timeline with the release of The Wind Waker. Taking place after the Adult Link ending, Ganondorf escapes the Sacred Realm, and without Link to save the day, all of Hyrule is flooded by the Great Sea. It was later confirmed that the result of the Child Link timeline is the events of Twilight Princess, on a parallel timeline to TWW. Here, Link changed the future and Ganondorf was restrained by the sages, but a “cosmic prank” led to Ganondorf acquiring the Triforce of Power anyway and escaping to the Twilight Realm.
So we have the result of the two endings:
OoT:A > (TWW/PH/ST)
(OoT:C/MM) > (TP)
If it seems straightforward, then what happened to the old games? ALttP tells us what happens after the OoT:Adult ending, with Ganondorf trapped in the Sacred Realm and freed by Aganhim. So shouldn’t ALttP be a sequel to OoT as well?
And this is where the timelines become a problem. We have three outcomes to a story with two endings. One suggests Ganondorf escapes the Sacred Realm in search of the Triforce of Wisdom and Courage, one suggests he doesn’t escape but acquires the Triforce in the Sacred Realm, transforming it into the Dark World, and one suggests he was never put in the Sacred Realm in the first place, but escaped into the Twilight Realm with the Triforce of Power.
The natural inclination would be to move the (ALttP/LA) > (LoZ/AoL) timeline somewhere around those two timelines, but no matter where you place them it simply doesn’t work:
OoT:A > (TWW/PH/ST) > (ALttP/LA)
At the end of Wind Waker, Ganon is not sent back to the Sacred Realm, but dropped into the ocean as a rock with the Master Sword in his head.OoT:A > (ALttP/LA) > (TWW/PH/ST)
Ganondorf escaped the Sacred Realm, but took over and Hyrule was flooded, but in ALttP, Ganon is pretty certainly killed.(OoT:C/MM) > (ALttP/LA) > (TP)
Between OoT and TP, Ganon was never sealed in the Sacred Realm according to both games, so this placement doesn’t make sense.(OoT:C/MM) > (TP) > (ALttP/LA)
At the end of Twilight Princess, Ganon has been run through with the Master Sword. He could still be revived (it happens to him a lot), and sealed in the Sacred Realm. After all, very few people knew of Ganondorf’s involvement in the events of TP. It was mostly Zant’s work.
Of course, having ALttP follow the Child Ending means that OoT really isn’t a backstory to ALttP at all, as the Imprisoning War never happened in the child link timeline. The Imprisoning War would then have to be a separate event that occurred, as yet unseen… and those are the kind of loose ends that drive a man to madness.
We’re still just dealing with the main series here. There’s the Oracle games which actually seem to fit comfortably between ALttP and LA, were it not for the fact Zelda doesn’t recognise you at the end (translation issue, perhaps?) Then there’s the Four Swords series, including Minish Cap, which is its own mini-timeline (MC/FS/FSA) but doesn’t weave comfortably into the above timeline at all. Theories abound, but none of them conclusive.
And that’s the problem. No matter what theory you propose, you could never make everyone happy. The fabled Master Timeline that sits at Nintendo’s HQ where only three people can look at it will not be an airtight and conclusive document that will make everyone happy. It will have holes. It will have evidence against it, no doubt much of the evidence already hotly contested by fans. The only thing it will do is canonise one of the wrong timelines, so everyone has to tailor the evidence to fit the canon. A new game will come out and screw us all over.
Speaking of which, it has been said that Skyward Sword will be a prequel to Ocarina of Time. I really hope Ganondorf appears as the villain. That will start the Multiple Ganon debates, the placement of the Four Swords mini-timeline will become more vociferous and the fans will spit more blood than ever before.
You have to admit, it’s amusing to watch.
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9 August 2010 at 00:40
Ah yes, the big headache. Since it came up on the Starmen.net forums recently I’ve been giving it some thought. Naturally though it’s not something you can flick through and find the proper order. ^^; Pain in the arse that.
Personally unless they’ve been confirmed to go into the timeline somehow, I don’t tend to include the Capcom-made games. It’s as you say trying to fit them in only makes things worse.
The way these games play out, I’d almost think there was a third timeline running somewhere. I’ve already heard people claim it split into four (which makes less sense to me somehow) but… *shrug* I’m sure it’ll make sense some day. In the distant future.
9 August 2010 at 22:26
Honestly, with a proper understanding of all the Zelda games and a few concepts, constructing the correct timeline isn’t all that hard. Maybe it’s just that my timeline has seen six years of revisions and reconsiderations. I might as well post it:
SS–OoT(Past)/
Adult Timeline:
/OoT(Future)–TWW/PH-ST
Child Timeline:
\MM–TP–TMC–FS\FSA–LttP\LA–LoZ\AoL–OoS\OoA
A few considerations:
- The Miyamoto Order was a mistranslation.
- OoT as the Seal War (from LttP’s backstory) was retconned.
- The Oracle games can go in either order.
- The Oracle games play off the concept of Ganon’s minions trying to resurrect him from AoL.
- FSA works nicely as the Seal War, though it does not encompass the entire thing or give you all the details concerning the Triforce.
- TMC cannot be before OoT because Hyrule was founded around the time of OoT Link’s birth.
10 August 2010 at 09:21
The Miyamoto order was a mistranslation, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t start the debates. And Oh Boy, they were fought with just as much venom back then as they are today. I’m sure Aonuma is doing it on purpose!
Here’s a problem (as there’s always a problem)… If the Seal War was retconned as only occurring following the Adult Ending, presumably that means the OoT sages were not the ones who sealed Ganondorf away on the child timeline.
In that case, why would they have towns named after their heroic deeds on the Child timeline? It’s even been officially stated that the towns were named after the sages (within the game universe).
See? There’s always some hole that can be picked.
24 August 2010 at 02:11
Man it won’t get out of my head now! *shakes fist*
Having said I wouldn’t count the capcom games, I considered them and found their position in the timeline is more than likely set around LttP, most likely before Link’s Awakening. The Oracle games, being set within realms otherwise created by the Triforce/Goddesses, may well have been the very same Link from Zelda 3, whereas Minish Cap and Four Swords have a very distinct other style, so it’s pretty clear it’s not meant to be that same Link. From that I’d have set it before LttP, but closer than the standard 100 years that the other games seem to use, judging from the similarities in land and music the games have to LttP.
Of course whether or not I consider this, I also still consider them a disposable part of the timeline — their purpose doesn’t hold any real bearing on the timeline as it stands.
What I WILL say is that after LttP, Link goes off on a journey to get stronger since the people of Hyrule worried that Ganon may still pose a threat. Even if he was most certainly killed in that game, he was also, from the sounds of things, most certainly killed in the original game as well. Chances are he suffers this same fate pretty regularly throughout the series, but his dabbling in magic meant it never really stuck (not quite like the Master Sword through his skull anyway). Which leads me to wonder if, during Link’s journey away to train is precisely when Ganon, through some trickery that may or may not have involved the Triforce, made his return. And that storm that wrecked Link’s boat at the beginning of Link’s Awakening was actually the storm that was sinking Hyrule.
No doubt someone’s mentioned this somewhere before and there’s still probably plenty of holes in even that much. Mostly why I’m sounding it off. It’s just been stuck in my head for a few days now. :/