There really wasn't ever confusion about the timeline in the early days. Ocarina of Time was the backstory to A LInk to the Past and came first, with Majora's Mask as its direct sequel. Then we had A Link to the Past with Link's Awakening and the Oracles games as its direct sequels. And lastly we had The Legend of Zelda with The Adventure of Link as its direct sequel. So, three different time periods, three different Links, and four Zeldas. And nobody cared about the weird games for the CDi, but it was just taken for granted that those were the same Link and Zelda from the original game. It was only after this that things started to get weird.
My vision of the Zelda timeline… It’s not just a single correlated timeline… but rather multiple realities… *CANON TIMELINE* - Skyward Sword - Ocarina of Time - Majora’s Mask - Twilight Princess (- Era of Smash Ultimate Zelda and her “smashing” routine) Note: I did not include Minish Cap because I fail to see how it correlates what happened between Skyward Sword and Ocarina of Time. Of all mainline Zelda titles, at least to my knowledge, Minish Cap has the least amount of references. No Zelda game before and after it brought it back up. I’m aware that it originally was the beginning of the timeline, but Skyward Sword took the title as the beginning. And with this in mind, it’s hard for me to associate the Minish with the events surrounding Skyloft or even the 7-year timeline of Ocarina’s Hyrule. As much as I loved Minish Cap for what it was, I still fail to call it part of my canon timeline. Lorulean Historian did make an interesting timeline, but the more I look at it, he had some oversights. I’ll get to it soon here. And that last part… just a little creative liberty and headcanon I made up… XD *EXPANDED TIMELINE* - Ocarina of Time (Adult) - The Wind Waker - Phantom Hourglass - Spirit Tracks Note: Logically speaking, because the Hero of Time reversed the tragedy that befell upon Hyrule, this timeline shouldn’t exist, but it’s not to dismiss it entirely. It’s basically a what-if scenario just by perspective. “What if this timeline continued?” It’s a parallel reality. It may sound like a generic multiverse plot structure, but this point here is unique. It does it differently from the perspective of the people who were oppressed by Ganondorf and lived on free after he was sealed, and the Hero of Time’s actions were passed on to generations until Ganondorf came back to lay waste to Hyrule. It’s parallel to the Canon Timeline; that’s why I dub it as the Expanded Timeline. With this considered, here’s where I go back with Lorulean Historian. Now he placed a branch of the timeline from Minish Cap. The canon route was when Vaati was destroyed, and the what-if scenario which Vaati succeeded in draining the Light Force from Zelda. This altered branch led to Four Swords, Four Swords Adventures, and then A Link to the Past and onwards. But this is where I find to be an oversight on his part. Princess Zelda and her death by Vaati’s drainage. With that Zelda dead… then Hylia’s bloodline would’ve ended there. And that Zelda didn’t seem to have any other relatives besides her father, King Daltus. So how can the other Zeldas later on exist with Minish Cap Zelda dead if Link was too late to save her in time? And with that into consideration, here’s where I just have Minish Cap and all other top-down Zelda titles as their separate reality from the canon timeline. *ORIGINAL TIMELINE* - Minish Cap - Four Swords - Four Swords Adventures - A Link to the Past (A Link Between Worlds) - Oracle of Seasons/Ages (Seasons chronologically comes first) - Link’s Awakening - Echoes of Wisdom? (Unknown until further notice) - The Legend of Zelda - Zelda II: The Adventure of Link Note: The reason I call it the “original” timeline is because the titles ranging from the original Zelda to Link’s Awakening came out at a time when not everything about Zelda was all set in stone. A Link to the Past was the first to establish lore. Link’s Awakening was the first to stray from the series running gag. All the other aforementioned titles drew much closer to the original titles even more than most 3D Zeldas. Now the reason I had A Link Between Worlds alongside A Link to the Past is because there’s a common argument whether or not it is a sequel to ALTTP or a loose (and more kidified) retelling of it. So the way I see it, it kinda doesn’t matter which one you play, while the stories are different, but the plot structure is rather similar. You also may have noticed that I didn’t include Tri-Force Heroes in this timeline either. As criminally underrated it’s said to be… I don’t deem it canon to the series at all, and it should’ve been a spinoff. It just doesn’t connect here… Some people would say that the same Link and Zelda from ALTTP are present in the Oracle titles, but Zelda doesn’t seem to recognize Link. Not to mention, their appearances don’t match their ALTTP iterations. Now we still don’t know about the overarching details of Echoes of Wisdom, but only time will tell when the game releases. Overall, this “original” timeline arguably the most inconsistent and most convoluted of the timelines thus far. It’s hard to connect the dots. But if we took Lorulean Historian’s timeline into consideration but branch Minish Cap off the canon line, then this is what we should call it as the “original” continuity. Makes sense because they all tie with the original titles better than most that came after. Now as for the Era of the Wilds titles… despite 6 years of fan speculation… it became clear Nintendo wanted to “start over”… So… *REIMAGINED TIMELINE* - Zonai arrival; union of Zonai Rauru and Hylian priestess Sonia; Hyrule Kingdom “founded” - Tears of the Kingdom (Past) - First Great Calamity (10,000 year legend) - Breath of the Wild (Past) - Breath of the Wild (Present) - Tears of the Kingdom (Present) Separate reality… No connections with past titles… Just a reimagining of the lore. Period.
it is because of said middle finger, I stopped caring. Because Nintendo obviously doesn't. The simple answer is..there never was an intended time line. It was all wishful thinking on the fans parts, as i used to be. Nintendo just does what they want. That said. Have fun.
Did you confuse Creating a Champion with Zelda Encyclopedia. Hyrule Historia was only published in English by Dark horse. What have Nintendo made canon on a whim.
The On a whim comment was referring to Nintendo of America's original timeline where it's all the same exact Link, but there are other oddities in the cannon I didn't get too far into for the sake of time, like how the Japanese encyclopedia says LTTP Link and LA Link are two different incarnations, but English says they are the same. That said it does look like I misspoke on "Creating a Champion" instead of the encyclopedia. Thanks for catching me!
The story of the early games is mainly written in the original game manuals, which are also good to take into account.
Oh absolutely! I make sure to go into the story of the manuals
There really wasn't ever confusion about the timeline in the early days. Ocarina of Time was the backstory to A LInk to the Past and came first, with Majora's Mask as its direct sequel. Then we had A Link to the Past with Link's Awakening and the Oracles games as its direct sequels. And lastly we had The Legend of Zelda with The Adventure of Link as its direct sequel. So, three different time periods, three different Links, and four Zeldas. And nobody cared about the weird games for the CDi, but it was just taken for granted that those were the same Link and Zelda from the original game. It was only after this that things started to get weird.
nice character design and edit.
nice video!
pretty interesting
My vision of the Zelda timeline… It’s not just a single correlated timeline… but rather multiple realities…
*CANON TIMELINE*
- Skyward Sword
- Ocarina of Time
- Majora’s Mask
- Twilight Princess
(- Era of Smash Ultimate Zelda and her “smashing” routine)
Note: I did not include Minish Cap because I fail to see how it correlates what happened between Skyward Sword and Ocarina of Time. Of all mainline Zelda titles, at least to my knowledge, Minish Cap has the least amount of references. No Zelda game before and after it brought it back up. I’m aware that it originally was the beginning of the timeline, but Skyward Sword took the title as the beginning. And with this in mind, it’s hard for me to associate the Minish with the events surrounding Skyloft or even the 7-year timeline of Ocarina’s Hyrule. As much as I loved Minish Cap for what it was, I still fail to call it part of my canon timeline. Lorulean Historian did make an interesting timeline, but the more I look at it, he had some oversights. I’ll get to it soon here.
And that last part… just a little creative liberty and headcanon I made up… XD
*EXPANDED TIMELINE*
- Ocarina of Time (Adult)
- The Wind Waker
- Phantom Hourglass
- Spirit Tracks
Note: Logically speaking, because the Hero of Time reversed the tragedy that befell upon Hyrule, this timeline shouldn’t exist, but it’s not to dismiss it entirely. It’s basically a what-if scenario just by perspective. “What if this timeline continued?” It’s a parallel reality. It may sound like a generic multiverse plot structure, but this point here is unique. It does it differently from the perspective of the people who were oppressed by Ganondorf and lived on free after he was sealed, and the Hero of Time’s actions were passed on to generations until Ganondorf came back to lay waste to Hyrule. It’s parallel to the Canon Timeline; that’s why I dub it as the Expanded Timeline.
With this considered, here’s where I go back with Lorulean Historian. Now he placed a branch of the timeline from Minish Cap. The canon route was when Vaati was destroyed, and the what-if scenario which Vaati succeeded in draining the Light Force from Zelda. This altered branch led to Four Swords, Four Swords Adventures, and then A Link to the Past and onwards. But this is where I find to be an oversight on his part. Princess Zelda and her death by Vaati’s drainage. With that Zelda dead… then Hylia’s bloodline would’ve ended there. And that Zelda didn’t seem to have any other relatives besides her father, King Daltus. So how can the other Zeldas later on exist with Minish Cap Zelda dead if Link was too late to save her in time? And with that into consideration, here’s where I just have Minish Cap and all other top-down Zelda titles as their separate reality from the canon timeline.
*ORIGINAL TIMELINE*
- Minish Cap
- Four Swords
- Four Swords Adventures
- A Link to the Past (A Link Between Worlds)
- Oracle of Seasons/Ages (Seasons chronologically comes first)
- Link’s Awakening
- Echoes of Wisdom? (Unknown until further notice)
- The Legend of Zelda
- Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
Note: The reason I call it the “original” timeline is because the titles ranging from the original Zelda to Link’s Awakening came out at a time when not everything about Zelda was all set in stone. A Link to the Past was the first to establish lore. Link’s Awakening was the first to stray from the series running gag. All the other aforementioned titles drew much closer to the original titles even more than most 3D Zeldas. Now the reason I had A Link Between Worlds alongside A Link to the Past is because there’s a common argument whether or not it is a sequel to ALTTP or a loose (and more kidified) retelling of it. So the way I see it, it kinda doesn’t matter which one you play, while the stories are different, but the plot structure is rather similar. You also may have noticed that I didn’t include Tri-Force Heroes in this timeline either. As criminally underrated it’s said to be… I don’t deem it canon to the series at all, and it should’ve been a spinoff. It just doesn’t connect here… Some people would say that the same Link and Zelda from ALTTP are present in the Oracle titles, but Zelda doesn’t seem to recognize Link. Not to mention, their appearances don’t match their ALTTP iterations. Now we still don’t know about the overarching details of Echoes of Wisdom, but only time will tell when the game releases. Overall, this “original” timeline arguably the most inconsistent and most convoluted of the timelines thus far. It’s hard to connect the dots. But if we took Lorulean Historian’s timeline into consideration but branch Minish Cap off the canon line, then this is what we should call it as the “original” continuity. Makes sense because they all tie with the original titles better than most that came after.
Now as for the Era of the Wilds titles… despite 6 years of fan speculation… it became clear Nintendo wanted to “start over”… So…
*REIMAGINED TIMELINE*
- Zonai arrival; union of Zonai Rauru and Hylian priestess Sonia; Hyrule Kingdom “founded”
- Tears of the Kingdom (Past)
- First Great Calamity (10,000 year legend)
- Breath of the Wild (Past)
- Breath of the Wild (Present)
- Tears of the Kingdom (Present)
Separate reality… No connections with past titles… Just a reimagining of the lore. Period.
I'll keep it in mind! Currently working on the Zelda 2 video but I'm keeping an open mind through the whole thing
it is because of said middle finger, I stopped caring. Because Nintendo obviously doesn't. The simple answer is..there never was an intended time line. It was all wishful thinking on the fans parts, as i used to be. Nintendo just does what they want.
That said. Have fun.
Did you confuse Creating a Champion with Zelda Encyclopedia.
Hyrule Historia was only published in English by Dark horse.
What have Nintendo made canon on a whim.
The On a whim comment was referring to Nintendo of America's original timeline where it's all the same exact Link, but there are other oddities in the cannon I didn't get too far into for the sake of time, like how the Japanese encyclopedia says LTTP Link and LA Link are two different incarnations, but English says they are the same.
That said it does look like I misspoke on "Creating a Champion" instead of the encyclopedia. Thanks for catching me!
unless you get the devs on board......ya wrong...
I mean... ya... but it's still fun to talk about