The Zelda Timeline...FINALLY REVEALED!?

[MagmarFire]

In ordinary events, this would be a trolling statement by any member not in the know of Nintendo's secrecy.

This is not an ordinary event.

Nintendo recently released a 200+-page art book called Hyrule Historia (Japan only, of course >_> ) to finish off the 25th-anniversary milestone celebration, and what could be inside it but a Zelda timeline?

You heard me, folks. A. Zelda. Timeline. In an official Nintendo product. By Nintendo.

A timeline with a third split after Ocarina of Time that leads into A Link to the Past and the NES games.

Zelda! How many times must you blow my mind this year!?

[Twilight Wolf]

I question this. I think it's grasping at straws to have a completely separate timeline for Link failing in Ocarina of Time. Every other timeline assumes he succeeds. Wouldn't every game theoretically have that kind of timeline split in the event he fails?

I don't buy it. >.>

[MagmarFire]

I found an explanation online that, I think, explains it quite nicely.

Zelda corrupted the timeline by sending Link back using the Ocarina. But 3 timelines are created based on the three travel points used in the game, 2 created by the sword and 1 by Zelda.

Time Junction 1: This is the point where the Master Sword takes Link whenever Link returns the sword to the pedestal and emerges as a child in the past. Which is after Link has met Zelda and collected the Goron's Ruby, and Zora's Sapphire, after Zelda as fled the Palace with Impa, after Link acquires the Ocarina of Time, and after Link has pulled the sword for the first time and opened the sacred realm.

Time Junction 2: This is the point seven years later where the Master Sword takes Link whenever Link draws the sword from the pedestal and emerges in the future as an adult.

Time Junction 3: This is the point Zelda sends Link to, before Link has met Zelda, before he collects the Goron's Ruby and Zora's Sapphire, before Zelda flees the Palace with Impa and before Link acquires the Ocarina.

When there was two connected Time Junctions (1 connected directly with 2, if Link disappeared from 1 he had to emerge in 2 and vice versa, he could always get to the other Junction as well, with no hindrances) there was no time travel paradoxes or discrepancies. But when Zelda creates a third junction point (and more than that a one way junction point), it removes the connections between the two Master Sword junctions. Link disappears from Junction 2 but instead of emerging in Junction 1 like he should, he emerges from Junction 3, meaning there is no Link in Junction 1 (so the events leading to ALTTP play out), and there is no Link in Junction 2 (so the events leading to WW play out), and the Link in junction 3 stops Ganondorf and leaves for Termina (so the events leading to MM and TP play out)

Since Link has no way of returning to Junction 1, the 'Link Fails' timeline must occur where Link simply vanishes after pulling the Master Sword.

The only headscratcher I can think of regarding the released timeline is how the towns in Zelda II are named after the Sages in Ocarina of Time if it lies in the Failed Timeline, which seems like it implies Link failed to awaken the Sages in the first place. I suppose that could be explained by someone else awakening them, but...eh.

To answer your question, sure, why not? Quantum mechanics could tell you that much.

[Mysterious F.]

Dear God(desses), THREE split timelines?!

You know, this actually makes sense. I still think it is odd that the incident where all future princesses are named Zelda happens near the end of (one of) the timeline(s), but I'm looking into it too much.

Also, the timeline that was included in the Hyrule Historia book. Note the pretty pictures.

EDIT: I still have some quibbles with this timeline. I don't think that the Link in LttP/LA (they're pretty definitely the same) is the same as the Oracles Link, since the Zelda in the Oracle games didn't know who Link was when they first met. You COULD just switch their place with LA and it would be fine, though. I think it's odd that the Gerudos are gone in TP only to come back in FSA, but maybe they're migratory people like Mongols (they DO live in tents in FSA). How are the towns in AoL named after the Sages in OoT when they never did anything in that timeline? How was Ganon revived for the first game?

Also, this explains why LttP and FSA have the same basic geographic design; they occur at the same time the other does in its respective timeline, after both timelines had the same geographic change over the same number of years.

[MagmarFire]

The good thing about the Oracle games is that they can be placed just about anywhere without raising too many contradictions. I'd sooner place it in the Golden Era than in the Era of Light and Darkness and say that there's at least another generation in between Link's Awakening and OoX.

[Hi no Seijin]

I don't think that the Link in LttP/LA (they're pretty definitely the same) is the same as the Oracles Link, since the Zelda in the Oracle games didn't know who Link was when they first met.

I may have to replay the game to make sure, but I thought Zelda did already know Link in the Oracle games.

And I've always thought that it made sense for part of the timeline to go ALttP -> Oracles -> LA, with only a few years between ALttP and the Oracle games, and the Oracle games leading right into LA, since the Triforce was reclaimed at the end of ALttP, is present at the beginning of the Oracles, Link is shown sailing off on a voyage at the end of a linked Oracle game, and Link is all by himself on a sailboat at the beginning of LA.

However ALttP, Oracles, and LA work out, it's nice to know how it's possible for Koume and Kotake to be present in the Oracle games; if Link fails, then it makes perfect sense for Koume and Kotake to still be alive in that branch of the timeline.

[Mysterious F.]

I don't think that the Link in LttP/LA (they're pretty definitely the same) is the same as the Oracles Link, since the Zelda in the Oracle games didn't know who Link was when they first met.

I may have to replay the game to make sure, but I thought Zelda did already know Link in the Oracle games.

And I've always thought that it made sense for part of the timeline to go ALttP -> Oracles -> LA, with only a few years between ALttP and the Oracle games, and the Oracle games leading right into LA, since the Triforce was reclaimed at the end of ALttP, is present at the beginning of the Oracles, Link is shown sailing off on a voyage at the end of a linked Oracle game, and Link is all by himself on a sailboat at the beginning of LA.

However ALttP, Oracles, and LA work out, it's nice to know how it's possible for Koume and Kotake to be present in the Oracle games; if Link fails, then it makes perfect sense for Koume and Kotake to still be alive in that branch of the timeline.

Her dialogue makes it clear that she does not know him yet.

Again, just move the Oracles a little down the timeline after LttP/LA and problem solved, but it bugs me how Nintendo somehow missed that.

[Hi no Seijin]

Yeah, I looked at a text dump; you're right.  Although, I still can't follow why LA has to follow right after ALttP with no room for the Oracle games.  It can still make sense for LA to come after the Oracle games.

A thought just struck me.  If TMC and FS come before the split, then it's possible that we might see Vaati in the Failure branch and the Adult branch.

[Mysterious F.]

Yeah, I looked at a text dump; you're right.  Although, I still can't follow why LA has to follow right after ALttP with no room for the Oracle games.  It can still make sense for LA to come after the Oracle games.

A thought just struck me.  If TMC and FS come before the split, then it's possible that we might see Vaati in the Failure branch and the Adult branch.

Ehh, just my personal opinion. Largely because I prefer Link to willingly go to new lands, not be sent by the Triforce because destiny says so. And Zelda not knowing him.

Yeah, but in one branch he is flooded under the ocean, and in another he is sent to the Dark World before it is reformed by Link, so...

[MagmarFire]

Largely because I prefer Link to . . . not be sent by the Triforce because destiny says so.

That's kind of how it really is for many of the games. :P

It certainly fits the Hero's Journey story archetype, at any rate.

[Mysterious F.]

http://www.glitterberri.com/hyrule-historia/

This is a translation of Hyrule Historia. If you are not up-to-date about what happens in each game, avoid reading this unless you want spoilers. It doesn't just reveal the timeline, but other priceless information about various things in the series. For example

TWILIGHT PRINCESS SPOILER












































The Hero's Shade is The Hero of Time's ghost.













































OMG

[MagmarFire]

^ Called it. ;D

[Mysterious F.]

I was one of the handful who refused to believe it, heh...

[Keaton]

Yeah, I actually assumed as much the first time I met him.  It's the only thing that makes sense.

[MagmarFire]

Dialogue aside, he was left-handed. There aren't many people in the Zelda universe with that kind of handedness, except Link himself.