The idea of a refounding of Hyrule makes so much more sense then trying to explain how multiple Zeldas, Master Swords, and Ganondorfs could all be existing simultaneously. Seriously thank you so much for this theory it makes a whole lot of sense and allows us to make even further speculations and infinite possibilities for things that could take place in between the vast time gap.
It also feels like an extremely lazy explanation for the gaping plot holes Nintendo left in the Zelda timeline with totk. The whole "Hyrule was refounded" theory also leaves dozens of smaller plot holes all throughout the last two Zelda games. I, personally, don't like that theory at all
@@famlrnamemssngwhat works better? Having the past sections of TotK be before Skyward Sword doesn't really work much better anyways. I've seen people say that the Wild games are the definitive games that all the other games are just retellings of, but I don't really feel that makes a ton of sense. To me the plot is trying to touch on themes of cycles and entropy, the games take place so far into the future the timelines have collapsed in on themselves and events begin to repeat themselves with slight differences (Ganondorf betrays the king of Hyrule, is stopped by a group of sages, an advanced people descending from the sky and founding Hyrule, etc)
@@famlrnamemssngAlso it seems to me that Nintendo went "ok we want to completely reinvent the Zelda games and we don't want to be beholden to the settings or lore of the previous games so we're just gonna set it so far into the future none of it matters" And like yeah thats lazy but I don't think there's a factually better or more likely interpretation
I'm actually of the opposite though. I actually don't see how a re-founding can solve anything, in fact it creates even more plot holes in BOTW and TOTK. It also kills all speculations and theories possibles, since everything can be solved by "it's not the same Hyrule".
@@lipedax That's a double edged sword as the same could be said about it been the same Hyrule as an easy fix it without addressing the myriad of discrepancies stemming from the similar geography between Rauru's Hyrule and the current Hyrule whereas every other kingdom looks radically different to one another, the lack of the Triforce _anywhere_ in Rauru's Hyrule despite the Royal Family been the faction most acquantied with the ancient History and Lore regarding the divine relic left by the Golden Goddesses and most important of all the incoherence regarding Shad's words in Twilight Princess stating the *Oocca* (or "Skypeople" in the original japanese version of the game) been the race responsible for _creating Hyrule._ We have 2 sky-faring races attributed with the creation of Hyrule here: the Oocca and the Zonai. ¿How can the Zonai PREDATE the Oocca when they are the ones said to have founded the original land of Hyrule...?
While many are not fans of the way Tears of the Kingdom caused confusion with the reuse of names and such, I really really do. As Mark Twain allegedly once quipped: "History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes." This is Hyrule History rhyming, echoing the past. Just like the foundation of all its conflicts are echoes of the previous, constant cycles of incarnation very similar to one another, the grander history of Hyrule rhymes as well. I think it's a great story beat, though it could perhaps have been pulled off a little better
It also fits the themes of the series regarding _cycles_ of Life and Death, Order and Chaos and the ever constant conflict between the 3 primordial concepts of Courage (Link), Power (Ganondorf) and Wisdom (Zelda). The Zelda universe itself functions as part of a natural cycle which repeats itself as part of cosmic order as preordained by the 3 Golden Goddesses who established said cycle in the first place.
Honesty the further away we get from the games having to bend to a strict timeline, the better. The whole MO of the new games is to break free from expectations and conventions, and im glad that has applied to the story as well
@@Ketagcntotally agreed. In games, gameplay should come first and they need to leave themselves room for new stories that serve new gameplay. To put anything in stone is to trap themselves in a corner.
My personal head canon is that there was a Hero & a Zelda who had a battle so grand against Ganondorf, it rippled across all timelines & somehow caused them all to converge into one. Because of that convergence, the Hyrule's of each timeline overlapped & destroyed each other, thus leading to the refounding of the Hyrule we are currently familiar with in the Age of the Wild. It would also explain why we see various references from all 3 timelines in this single Hyrule as well. As for what the future holds, my theory is that history may repeat itself & past events from the Age of Myth will happen again in this new unified timeline, albeit in a different way.
If i can graft onto this... the battle you describe could of gotten the attention of the three golden goddesses and they didn't like the split. Each one took a branch and braided them together. With the convergence of three realities, some things that resonated merged together, but other things canceled each other out and were destroyed. The energies of these these destroyed things had to go somewhere, so the goddesses used it to create the Zonai. That's why they are so completely new, because their essence is everything from each timeline which was different.
I wish I could remember who it was but anyway I watched a video some months back that theorized that BotW and TotK are basically more fantastical retellings of the original LoZ game and I believe he said LttP. He made some good arguments and had plenty of examples pointing out the parallels between LoZ/LttP and BotW/TotK. Like how LoZ's old man in the cave is a very similar figure to the the first person we meet in BotW both of them helping you by providing the tool(s) you'll need to survive. The original is also an open world game like BotW, you could go basically anywhere and there were less restrictions on the order in which you do things compared to some of the later entries. There's also this weird quirk with LttP where it's the only game in the series with a red/pink haired Link, but if you know, _you know_ . Since the series has always been cyclical in nature it would make sense that they're using the soft reboot to basically retell the overall story again in a maybe more cohesive way on a grander scale. It's not exactly like when they started making the first game or any of it's sequels/spin-offs that there was any real plan on how they fit together as a whole. I definitely like the idea of a sort of re-imagining of the entire series as part of an even grander cycle within the Zelda universe. In another 30 some odd years we'll get another soft reboot when it inevitably gets too confusing and convoluted and the cycle wilk begin again.
There is no reason for the first Zelda film to deal with timelines. They should simply make the best movie they can in which the gameplay elements serve the story, and the story in turn serves the characters. Start with the characters, then story, then everything else. Of course they should pull story elements from the games, but there’s no reason for the films to follow the hard canon of the games. Things must happen differently in a film than they do in a game.
@@F0XD1E for real, I personally have no problem treating a lot of these games as their own stories. Except OOT, MM, and TP those obviously happen in the same time line, canonically
@@yungkaleido Yeah, those direct sequels including BOTW-TOTK are obviously connected, but the rest of it is just people trying to find order where there is none, and doesn't need to be. You can tell the devs do not care about it since they made botw and totk completely unrelated. Then people like this just hand wave it away and say "oh that's because it's super far in the future"
It makes sense that BOTW and TOTK's Hyrule is a re-founding after all timelines, not directly after Skyward Sword, but at the end of any timeline branch or the convergence of all timelines, Hyrule fell into decline or chaos again. Rauru and Sonia likely unified the kingdom against this, founding it when Ganon's monsters were already a threat, leading to the creation of the Shrines of Light to seal them away. Personally, I formerly theorised that the events from the past of Tears of the Kingdom to the present of TOTK occur in an alternate timeline to Skyward Sword. Ganondorf, the incarnation of Demise's hatred, is sealed, and calamities strike the kingdom, prompting the Sheikah 10,000 years before BOTW to create ancient weaponry in anticipation of these events.
The Japanese text of Demise's speech doesn't even use the word Incarnation, it just says "My hatred the hatred of the demon tribe will go on till the end of time." Ganondorf is not a direct mortal reincarnation of Demise.
But what about ganandorf’s gerudo bodyguards seemingly having the same name as the witches in oot. Maybe different individuals, much like link, Zelda etc. I also don’t get how the zora go from being friendly civilisation in oot, to monsters in LTTP, then back to being a friendly civilisation in botw. If it wasn’t for all the previous game references in botw, I think it would sit better earlier in the timeline.
@@JonGPxl Regarding the question of the 2 Gerudo women sharing Twinrova's name the answer is simple: they're _reincarnations_ just like Link, Zelda and Ganondorf himself as part of the same cycle which most main characters are a part of as shown with their many incarnations across the series. The question regarding the "Evil Zora" is also easy: they are a different _breed_ of Zora which exists appart from the "Good Zora" most usually seen on the 3D games rather then 2D games where their evil counterparts are more predominant. This is confirmed in the Oracle of Ages where both River Zora (Evil Zora) and Good Zora appear as seperate races. The one problem i see with placing Rauru's Hyrule before the timeline is that unleashes the many inconsistencies regarding 2 living Ganondorfs been around at all times all while dismissing the ever shifting geography of the kingdom through every major game in the timeline not to mention the refoundation of Hyrule from Spirit Tracks which itself has been heavily supported as canon to the Era of the Wild. If Tetra's Hyrule is canon to the Era of the Wild that means the original Hyrule was destroyed, then Tetra refounded the kingdom elsewhere and eventually returned to seemingly revive the old kingdom without care for the new one she founded. The circumstances give very little precedence to justify the Zonai as predating the entire history of the franchise instead of postdating it.
Even though BotW and TotK create a lot of discussions online when it comes to the Timeline placement, I think we can all agree on the overall logic in this list. And I'm glad that there is a rather simplified version as a video now available. So thank you very much for that video! :)
You can always ignore such discussion by arguing the Era of the Wild is either a soft reboot thousands of years after the old timelines or a full reboot altogether and you can avoid the discussion no problem (like i'm doing). I tell you people who defend the "Rauru is the literal first king of Hyrule" stance don't know any better on how to fix their sad depressing lives that they would be willing to waste time making dumb arguments with no value. Kudos to Zeltik for standing with us on the matter (mostly).
Uhhh...no. a refounding makes no sense leading into the near identical kingdom we see in BOTW and TotK, especially since said Kingdom knows about and considers elements of the past kingdom part of its history.
@@stuffz1757 You lost with the _"...knows about and considers elements of the Past kingdom part of its history"_ part. ¿Do you have any evidence to back anything you say?
@@stuffz1757 There's no in-game knowledge of a previous kingdom, we only find things vaguely described as from ancient times by the game itself. The weirdest part is that Rauru himself and "wise" people talk about him as the first king, but that can be part of an unreliable narration where everything is vague and not always literal.
@@javiervasquez625 I don't think it's fair to project someone defending any theory as more "miserable" than anyone else, that in itself sounds excessive for what's essentially speculation about inconsistent fiction for gameplay-focused video games. But if I'm not mistaken you're the guy who spent a good dozen of replies stubbornly ignoring my simple reminder that any theory is fair play as long as Nintendo haven't confirmed specifically. In any case the re-founding does sound nice and convenient, but let's not call people names for so little.
So true i'm still depressed that the "Mirror of Twilight" near Lurellin Village turned out to be just a red herring that i'm wondering if Aonuma and Fujibayashi would be willing to bring the Twilight back into the spotlight either through a prequel to Twilight Princess or a sequel to Tears of the Kingdom. Wathever scenario works as long as they stop teasing us like with the aforementioned mirror. 😭
If you miss them..stop by my twitch,im streaming twilight princess (im in the desert..the arbiters grounds...right now) But i see where you're coming from...and yea i miss the twilight and midna (mostly wolf link) aswell
The Legend of Zelda's timeline is definitely part of what makes the series a fascinating gaming experience for me. Not every little detail may fit perfectly together, retcons are to be expected and Nintendo obviously prioritizes gameplay above continuity but I can still enjoy the games for what they are and still find fun in learning how they piece together at the same time; it doesn't have to be an "either or" situation as some make it out to be. Even before the developer interview brought it up, I stood by the belief that Zonai Rauru is simply the co-founder and 1st king of the most recent iteration of Hyrule. The developers bringing up the "kingdom was re-established after falling" theory in said interview strengthens this belief for me.
he mentioned it was one of many possibilities tho? Fujibayashi: It is definitely a story after "Breath of the Wild". And basically, the "Legend of Zelda" series is designed to have a story and world that doesn't break down. That is all I can say at this point. With the assumption that the story will not break down, there is room for the fans to think, "So that means there are other possibilities? I think there is room for fans to think about various possibilities. If I am speaking only as a possibility, there is the possibility that the story of the founding of Hyrule may have a history of destruction before the founding of the Kingdom of Hyrule. I don't make things in a random way, like "wouldn't it be interesting if we did this here? So I hope you will enjoy it by imagining the parts of the story that have not yet been told. "I think there is room for fans to think about various possibilities. If I am speaking only as a possibility," " only as a possibility," he mentions its one of many possibilities.
@@GaryJuuce It's true that Fujibayashi mentions the "kingdom was re-established after falling" theory as a possibility which is why I made a point to still refer to it as a theory and said it strengthened my belief in said theory, not act like it is the definitive answer. To elaborate, the main reason for my belief in this theory actually came from a blog post that gathered many details in the game (along with Creating a Champion among other sources) that support the idea of Zonai Rauru & Sonia's Hyrule being the most recent iteration of the kingdom in which ever branch of the timeline Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom take place within. Since it seems RUclips no longer allows links in their comments, I will mention the title of the blog post is "Tears of the Kingdom's story is not at conflict with Ocarina of Time's story, nor does it retcon/contradict the rest of the series." for anyone who wishes to seek it out for themselves. Fujibayashi mentioning that particular theory as a specific example among many was really more of a "the cherry on top" situation for strengthening my belief in the theory, not the main reasons for why I believe in that particular theory. On a side note, I have seen some interpreted Fujibayashi calling it a possibility as him "being coy" but I acknowledge that is really just speculation/something to take with a grain of salt at the moment. In any case, I trust that Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom's exact place in the timeline will be explicitly made clear eventually even if the general public will have to wait some time.
ok thats a fair point, my bad. Sorry for bein a dick. That does make sense actually. "Fujibayashi calling it a possibility as him "being coy"" I honeslty dont, hes worked on the franchise and has a lot of things that make sense like you just mentioned and even in the interview he said "he doesnt do things randomly" the exact quote escapes me but thats the general idea of what he said. So i do agree. again sorry for being a dick, and please have a good day @@The_Orange_Fan
@@GaryJuuce Thank you for the apology and the well wishes, I always appreciate when conversations and discussions can be handled in a calm and cordial manner. This is why I strive to be as clear as possible about what I mean and make a point to provide clarifications as misunderstandings can cause many unintended problems. I can definitely understand how frustrating it can be when misinformation spreads and/or opinions are treated as fact. Speaking from personal experience regarding the video's topic, I find it very frustrating how some have a habit of spreading the false narrative that "the timeline was a fan creation that Nintendo felt obligated to go along with" when the truth is that Nintendo, themselves, were the ones to bring up the timeline in the first place. Likewise, I find it very frustrating how some try to act like the timeline not being Nintendo's top priority is "evidence" that they don't care about it at all when the truth is more along the lines of "Nintendo prioritizes gameplay over continuity between the games but they still put some thought/care into the continuity between the games even if that means there may be some retcons as more games are added to the series". Once again, I appreciate your apology & well wishes and wish your holiday celebrations this year be pleasant ones.
thank you and yeah i agree with you bout that with the timeline and fans sayin that. bugs me too. you have a wonderful holiday too! Have a happy new years! @@The_Orange_Fan
Great video! I was confused about the official timeline and how each game followed one another, so this really helped me to better understand the sequence of events.
I know that the director of ToTK was asked about Hyrules founding and he pretty much said it was more of a refounding. so thats been confirmed. This was fantastic!!!!
I agree with your placement for totks pre story, I thought that it wouldn't make sense if it was before minish and after skyward since, there are multiple other Ganondorfs, and as we see in botw and totk that even if 100 years pass another Geruedo king would not be born if ones already alive. Many races are also present in the pre story that skyward and minish lack, such as the Rito and Koroks. Overall it would make the most sense that totks pre story is tooken after all the previous games and around 10,000 - 30,000 years before botw/totk, we also see no calamity in the past games according to the timeline even though the calamity is told as a repeated thing. Hyrule was likely abandoned or it's history just forgotten in another war long ago because the land of Hyrule seemed separated by its races until Rauru united them once again. I hope we will explore that hopefully in another direct sequel along with triforce, I need a botw 3/totk 2 with more linear dungeons and story that's well told.
There is one male birth per century in the Gerudo. That’s what the games say. It’s not “only one can be alive per century”. I’ve already had so many debates online with people on most of your points, that I’m not really interested in another repeat of that. BUT one thing I’m dying to know, because I’ve had 2 others try to argue it, but then when I ask where, they suddenly do everything to avoid answering. Where are there Koroks in the past? Where do we see that? The two other times someone has attempted that argument, I’ve asked where the Koroks are and get “K, well anyway, so-“ and they start in on other points. Perhaps you could be the one to answer that?
@@WindMageMasterRegarding the Geruedo male argument, I know a Geruedo male is born every century but I just speculated that if the male is still alive, another would not be born yet. The reason I believe this is because a century has passed from the pre story of botw to the present time of botw yet there is no Geruedo male leader, only Riju who is a female, So either the Geruedo exiled or killed the Male Geruedo (which is possible, but highly unlikely) or he wasn't born, which is the option I think is correct. I couldn't quite understand your second question so If you could type it a little clearer, I may be able to answer it.
Fujibayashi and Aounuma explained that perhaps Totk is a new founding hyrule. The directly state “is it possible that the hyrule we are seeing now is a new hyrule and the past of had been destroyed” so that pretty much confirms it. The hyrule of the past timelines ended up being destroyed somehow someway. And this is sooooo far into the future and the rauru founded the new hyrule
That was only one possibility. He mentioned that there was an obvious explanation but that it could change based on future games. I think the more obvious interpretation is that TotK bookends the series, personally. But that could always change 😂 But i love trying to figure it out!!!
I had no idea how rich the Zelda lore was until now. It is very interesting and understandable as to decide on making a Zelda movie. Thanks Zeltik for your rundown on the timeline! 😊
Don't get too excited, it's highly likely that the Zelda movie will ignore most of this lore and follow their own, isolated story, at most dropping background references and Easter eggs. That's the Mario and Zelda philosophy.
You make amazing content and this video is no different. I am a huge fan of Zelda and seeing your quick 15 minute explanation of the timeline is amazing! Thank you!
I can’t remember who came up with this mini-theory, but I still like the idea that the downfall timeline isn’t a “what-if” but the original course of events. In the theory, the wish made on the Triforce (presumably) at the end of Zelda II is to undo ganon’s reign-the only way to do so being to change the fate of OoT Link (who failed) by sealing him in the sacred realm to age him until he would be prepared to defeat Ganondorf (in my head canon, Ganondorf also gets sloppy and too relaxed in his seven year unchecked rule which allows link to surprise and get the better of him). Just explains the downfall timeline’s existence to me and its historical place more than the “what-if”. I love your placement of BotW and TotK though, great video!
I still have a pet theory that the original Hyrule Warriors is actually canon and converges the timelines back on themselves, which then means the "Era of Myth" all condenses into one, which then leads to the new founding of Hyrule by Rauru many years later.
for a while i've liked the idea that between worlds or a similar event is inevitable on all 3 timelines. They learn of the timeline split and the need to restore time. When the triforce is used to merge the 3 timelines, the natural outcome is it ending with the destruction of the old hyrule followed by the arrival of the zonai to make a new one... (hyrule was destroyed how many times across all 3?)
Holy crap that's almost the same as the idea I had. I was thinking that there would have been an event in witch the Tri-force had to be used to merge the three timelines together. This would explain why there are elements of the three timelines in botw that shouldn't be able to mingle even if each one eventually ended the same mess lol. And the event would have been so epic that it would have depleted the Tri-force to where it wasn't as major of a thing and mostly forgotten and possibly only really need able to be access by the Zelda family to hold Gannon at bay so this time. The same power she was trying so hard to access and finally use. The same power that she used at the end of the game when she was a badass and joined the final fight (loved how it appeared just briefly then). What do you think? 😃
I assumed Rauru's and Sonia's kindom was the original Hyrule, but if it did come after everything else, that would explain why we don't see the Zonai in the other games.
Yeah, but you could also say the same thing about how we don't see almost any SS lore in games that came before it, but that's still at the start of the timeline.
It’s a popular headcanon amongst the community that before Rauru’s Refounding Era, and after the ends of all three timelines, the Spin-Off Hyrule Warriors takes place. Although not strictly canonical, the “War of Eras” sees interconnection between all three timelines, Child, Adult, and Downfall. Characters completely exclusive to each timeline such as Midna, Ravio, and Tetra make direct appearances. With the underlying premise of the game’s end being the restoration of the Witch of Time, Hyrule Warriors is a promising point where the proper recombination of the fractured timeline can take place, or at least begin to happen. Breath of the Wild also essentially _has_ to take place in a recombined timeline, as the Zora and Rito species cannot exist at the same time according to established lore. The Zora came from Child, the Rito from Adult, and certain names and artifacts can be found in BotW/TotK that could only have originated from Downfall. Factoring in the Refounding, the recombination could very well have caused an era of utter chaos and disaster. Oh, but don’t get too sad about the original timeline shenanigans ending, because it’s happened again. In her youth, BotW Zelda built a toy Guardian Terrako, accidentally installing a part that bestowed it with the power to travel through time. Through a series of improbable events, it became the Guardian of Time, traveling back several years to defend Zelda and divert the inevitable disaster, causing Age of Calamity. The Unification timeline is one where the very premise of BotW has been averted, causing Ganon’s defeat one century ahead of time.
Great job as always man. People act like this timeline is dumb but it definitely does make decent sense, especially when broken down so concisely like this. Hopefully the Zelda movie team will watch this!
This timeline IS dumb. They didn’t plan it, they had to patch it together halfway through the games and try to convince everyone it does make sense. You don’t need a timeline if you just acknowledge you never planned to have the games be in the same world.
Some part of it makes sense but the rest are just pure nonsense like you want me to believe Triforce heroes link is the same one as link between worlds? Or that four swords adventure is after twilight princess? You can tell they were just slapped together with a duct tape to “please the fans”
@@RinZDR yeah I can see that, Link Between Worlds Link pops off to Hytopia for a bit (just like LttP Link exploring Holodrum and Labryna in Oracles). It was made as a sequel to LBW after all. Four swords adventures feels a bit janky but it's agessss after Twilight Princess with a different chosen three so yeah I can see that working. Even before the timeline, Nintendo planned each game to be a sequel or prequel, they wanted them to be linked by legend, in some capacity. Stuff like the Ocarina split allows for more unique stories to be told and I'm all here for it - I love that we get to see "what if" scenarios i.e. no hero so flood the world or adult Hero of Tmes deeds forgotten so become a depressed Hero's Shade. It's not a big deal but it was cooler that they've linked them together instead of a lazy reboot reboot reboot each time.
@@RinZDRThere was always a timeline, it wasn't a priority, but it always existed, there's a reason why Wind Waker and the two DS Zelda games were made. Skyward sword was made to establish the origin of everything, and 2 lore books were published. I don't think Nintendo would waste time, and would commit to all of this just to "please the fans". Yes, there are mistakes, but nothing that can't be changed or explained in the future, they've made changes before, so who knows. The timeline as a whole makes sense, with small exceptions here and there, many people exaggerate when talking about it.
I think it would be cool to have a Zelda set in space. We've been to points in the Zelda Timeline where the technology is pretty advanced, and the Golden Goddesses are out there somewhere. It would be really interesting if they did a Zelda story where we had to go find them beyond Hyrule and beyond even the skies. Maybe the Goddesses made other worlds and other species.
The biggest and most important lesson of the timeline is that the timeline doesn't matter. No matter what, there will always be chaos, there will always be order, and there will always be volition. Zelda represents the desire for perfect order. While ideal, it is unsustainable; everything must eventually break and renew. Ganon represents chaos, limitless expulsion of power, of change, and of destruction. Link is volition, the "will" to carry out Zelda's wishes or, perhaps, even Ganon's. Note that Link's actions often aid the darkness in search of a way to strengthen the light. In OoT, pulling the Master Sword gives Ganondorf a 7 year reign in which many lose their lives and homes. The Skull Kid in Majora's Mask is the very same one Link played with in the Lost Woods. So often Link's actions allow the presence of darkness to very nearly swallow the world before pushing back with light to maintain the balance. And that's what the game is; a story of balance. There will always be light. There will always be darkness. There will always be one with the courage to defy the fate offered by perfect order and perfect chaos, putting the world to rights in a more "gray area".
im still of the headcanon that Hyrule Warriors (the first one) is the game that causes the timelines to merge, as that game literally involves elements of all 3 timelines merging into one instance of hyrule
Another theory that could work and maybe make for a great game is to have an event in which the Tri-force is used to fuse the timelines back into one. This event could explain two of the biggest questions from BOTW and TOTK. The fussing would explain why there are distinct elements of each timeline in the games that shouldn't be able to mingle for one and three lack of Tri-force in the games. Could simply be that the sheer power of would take to bring all three lines together depleted the Tri-force to the point where it wasn't as epically powerful anymore and was possibly sidelined and forgotten and possibly only and to be tapped into by family line or Zelda, this being the same power that was still enough to keep Gannon in check and can be seen when she gonna the fight at the end of BOTW (which i still think was awesome the way it showed just how potentially badass Zelda can be). That's just something i came up with because i hated the whole "they all eventually end up the same mess" that felt like a cop out to me. I hope this idea catches your attention and could even give you another idea sir an episode. As i said before i enjoy your channel and look forward to more fun episodes 😁
That would deserve its own game, and could be an attempt to under the era of decline in the Fallen Hero TL by using the Ocarina of Time and trifoce. Merging it with the child TL and adult TL. The triforce splits between Zelda, Link and Ganon (revived by the merge) For fun. Say they get born in the wrong place because of the merge as well. Ganon is Hyrule’s prince. Zelda a commoner and Link a male gerudo and it is essentially the gerudo leading Zelda’s rebellion against Ganon and the eight sages of the fallen TLs kingdom
As cool as it is, imagine being a kid playing this new Zelda game and you have to be taught an actual history lesson on the entire lore of Zelda so understand why there are all these converging races, locations and lore.
@@kingcyclops4079 cool birdmen. Cool tree fairies! Cool people who can turn into tree friaries! Etc. kids don’t care much. Make a good story and the older fans can geek out while the kids enjoy all the different and cool people
I honestly like the idea of the imprisoning war happening during the era of myth. With Ganondorf’s real body being sealed (though his spirit continuing to reincarnate), and Zelda flying above the cloud barrier as a dragon, throughout it all. Even with all the duplicate Master Swords it entails.
I do agree that essentially Hyrule is re-founded. Ie the original Hyrule in the Era of Myth is lost in the natural rise and fall of civilizations. However while yes, it ultimately doesn't matter due to how far ahead in the future they are in BotW we do know what era we are following. It's the child timeline as Zelda recalls the specific myths the heroes have gone through. Namely Sky, Time, amd most importantly Twilight. This brings up a very interesting possibly for where they may want to set the next games. Perhaps the same amount of time in the fallen and adult. Or perhaps a game similar to Wind Waker where the old Hyrule has to fall and be lost to time. Either way nicely done on those 15 mins.
your videos never fail to make me fall in love with this series all over again. I can’t wait until Nintendo tries their best to fit the final two games into the timeline. I was actually planning to do the same thing you are on the Zeldudes channel on stream, although it will be by myself.
One of my favorite theories is that all of the OoT timeline branches happen in the “era of myth.” So, in the millennia between the timeline split and Rauru’s foundation, all three timelines have happened, creating the legends together meshed.
I mean, creating a champion literally puts the events of OoT in the era of myth, go the timeline that is closer to the end of the book and you will see in the zora history section that they list the story of princess ruto as the era of myth.
I could honestly buy either the refounding of Hyrule or the "Ganondorf 1.0 and Rauru are comatose underground for the whole ass series" explanations. The refounding of Hyrule is probably the one that makes the most sense and is easiest to swallow, but I have to admit, I prefer the idea of Ganondorf being a sort of wellspring of Malice beneath Hyrule the whole time, maintaining a steady supply of monsters and evil for the Hero and the Princess to fight.
I still maintain that the same spirit of the Hero manifested in ways the gods couldn’t foresee in Windwaker, partly due to Demise curse. The spirit obviously transcends bloodlines (ex SS Link not related to OoT Link but most likely the royal bloodline) and really just manifests as needed (such as in response to Demise’s incarnation)
Imo, they just skipped a step ahead in this timeline. So LTTP and twilight princess link are the same. Link between worlds, FSA, and Windwaker link are also the same. Original Zelda Link and spirit tracks Link are also the same, with there also being another link going to appear after FSA in the child timeline
i still think "the spirit of the hero" is more of an idea than a physical magical soul entity, like a concept that the hero needs to embody rather than a literal ghost sort of deal
I think that Zelda tripping and going back in time in Tears of the Kingdom caused some kind of time paradox that either created a new timeline, erased all other timelines, merged all timelines together, or somehow all of those at once.
TotK pretty heavily implies that it is a separate Hyrule from the older games with the lore in the depths, so I’ve never understood the confusion a lot of people have.
Dear Zeltik I wanted to take a moment to express my admiration for you and your incredible videos. I've been a dedicated viewer for quite some time now, and I must say, you are truly one of the best RUclipsrs out there. Your content never fails to captivate me, and I love how you go the extra mile to entertain and help others. Your dedication and effort in creating such amazing videos is truly commendable. You have a unique ability to bring joy to people's lives and make a positive impact. We need more individuals like you who use their platform to uplift others. Thank you for being an inspiration and for all the incredible work you do. You are, without a doubt, the best RUclipsr ever in my eyes. Keep up the fantastic work, and know that you have a massive fan and supporter here. Sending you my heartfelt appreciation and best wishes. With admiration, Me
As a massive Zelda fan since Ocarina of Time, I have to say: Thank you Zeltik! I have always found the timeline to be slightly confusing. Now it makes sense. Cheers!
i do like how you handled timeline placement for BOTW and TOTK, though personally i'm still leaning toward the Triforce/Dragonbreak theory. Each timeline branch represents a piece of the Triforce, and once each timeline has been fully resolved (i.e. Ganondorf/Ganon being killed in all three, his reincarnation caused a temporal event that merged the timelines events back into a singular timeline. All events that happened in separate timelines are now remembered as if they had happened to those in the Wilds era. There is so much that mirrors events from OoT and TP and even WW between BOTW and TOTK. Korok's and Rito exist, suggesting the flood still happened, they recreated the Throne room scene from OoT, showing Zelda warning Rauru and Sonya about Ganondorf. In Twilight Princess when the Sages attempted to execute Ganondorf for his treachery, he kills one of them before they seal him in the twilight realm, in TOTK, Sonya is the Sage of Time, and Ganondorf kills her to mirror killing a sage during the execution in TP, which results in The Imprisoning War happening, and Ganondorf being sealed in the under dark, his power seeps out to create the Calamity, and then we are back to BOTW. TL;DR, once the timelines merged back into a single timeline, all events of all 3 timelines override what we as players know to be "true" to become one, and we are left with a reconverged timeline to start the series fresh again, which also IMO explains why at the end of BOTW, Zelda has all 3 pieces of the Triforce in her possession to defeat Dark Beast Ganon. All 3 pieces of the Triforce gather in Hylia's descendant as their respective timelines resolve themselves. The Timeline course corrected from what never should have happened to begin with, Ganondorf putting his hand on the Triforce and splitting it into 3 pieces.
I'm of the opinion BotW/TotK occurs in a timline fork deriving from Skyward Sword with the Hyrule Warriors games occuring as a Dragon Break scenario connecting the other timelines back in. This timeline would start from the Slaying of Demise, rather than the Triforce Wish. This would explain why the world itself is so unchanged between distant past and BotW.
I like this! And I really like the idea of each post-Ocarina timeline representing a different part of the Triforce, along with its holder. The Downfall Timeline is Ganon’s/Power’s victory, while the Child and Adult Timelines…could be considered either or both as Zelda’s/Wisdom’s Victory and Link’s/Courage’s Victory. I.e. was it wise for Zelda to send Link back to his childhood instead of letting him live on in the post-Ganon Hyrule? Was it more courageous of the Hyruleans to face the re-emergence of Ganon without a Hero, or for Child Link and Zelda to confront the king about Ganondorf (he could’ve easily dismissed them both just as he dismissed Zelda the first time she brought up her concerns, since they technically only had Link’s word to go on regarding the future he’d seen)? I think it could be any or all of the above!
i like the idea of Adult being Wisdom personally, since Tetra played a HUGE role in that timeline between helping beat Ganondorf and making New Hyrule, though the courage question for the Kingdom facing Ganon without the hero is an interesting thought! @@NeriSiren
Amazing vid! I had always assumed TOTK took place after The Adventure of Link, Four Swords Adventure, Spirit Tracks, etc... It never occurred to me the reason people were mad was because they thought TOTK took place post-Skyward Sword/pre-Minish Cap. It makes way more sense to group BOTW and TOTK as all happening so far in the future that none of it can interfere with the previous games at least in my opinion. I DO think the timeline was made in response to fans but I don't think that's a bad thing. Everything does fit fairly well and I appreciate that they officially gave us a timeline. Nintendo can be either heavy or light on lore and I'm happy they typically choose the former with Zelda.
The zelda timeline is as cool as it is silly, thank you for the amazing video and most importantly for the amazing design of the timeline. I was really looking for one in order to check out what games I've played till now but I just ended up making my own graphic since every timeline out there is either confusing or straight up bad... Now i can mark my list of zelda games both in order of which i played them and their place in the timeline.
I like the idea that TotK shows a refounding of Hyrule. Their fashions and buildings are all extremely old and tribal, but it’s common for post-apocalyptic societies to be presented that way, having lost all their complex social/economic systems and technologies. Plus the buildings being super old makes sense if they were ruins to begin with from a kingdom long forgotten. The people would still recognize themselves as Hylians, just as we would recognize our nationalities without the state that once represented it, so it makes sense why they just renamed their kingdom Hyrule.
I have one question: In TotK, in the past where Zelda ends up, where is the Master Sword from Rauru's time period? To clarify, *Not* the one Link sends back, the one that should already be there. Presumably the Great Deku Tree would have it, but why doesn't Zelda or Rauru go get it? They didn't just make a new one, because Fi is still in/is the Master Sword. The one sent back *cannot* be that era's sword either, because Zelda carries it with her all the way back to present day, *and* we know that the Master Sword is used by the hero in the Ancient Calamity mural. So where the fuck is the Master Sword?
Since there's no living _Hero_ around the times of the Imprisoning War who could wield the Blade of Evil's Bane there's no reason for either Zelda or Rauru to go look for it as neither of the 2 happens to be the Hero destined to wield the sword.
The master sword of that time period eventually becomes the one held by the Deku Tree, and is the one used in BOTW. Ganondorf destroys that one, so it's sent back and kept by Zelda to repair and strengthen it, essentially becoming a separate sword. Meanwhile, the "original" Master Sword is passed down throughout history and used by the heroes, until it ends up in BOTW Link's hands and is destroyed. At that moment, the strengthened Master Sword that Zelda has been carrying reveals itself, along with Zelda herself, having been hidden above the clouds along with the Zonai islands. Finally, Link takes the "new" Master Sword and uses it to defeat the Demon Dragon.
Here's an idea, the reason the timelines split in the first place, was because the Golden Goddesses Dissagreed about how the story should end. In turn, they went on to make their timelines, one following an empowered Ganondorf, one Following an empowered Zelda, one Following an empowered Link. But this, Three Triforces, Three Masterswords, Three Heroes, Princess, Evils, inevitably caused an instability where the timelines were forced to merge some time in the future. Because of this happening, Time itself is maliable and ever changing, which is how there are multiple foundings of the same Hyrule in Totk. It wasn't like this until that game and ever since it, it's always been this way.
One game that you missed that some don't want to call cannon but I think can easily work in with no problem is Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. Some say it's more of a what if setting but really it does fit and the story in the game pretty much explains it neatly. This is a timeline branch much like the child and adult timeline but without the speculation. Robbie and Pura literally explain how the small guardian going back in time and bringing some malice with it caused the divide and without a really bad paradox situation. I love that it gives a different outcome to that war in which a more realized Gannon emerges and defeated. Even plays on the potential misleading prophecy that led to Gannon being able to take control of the Shika tech in the form of the dark prophet. Yes it's a very different playing style and some limp it in with the first Hyrule Warriors but Age of Calamity isn't a crazy mashup like the first and has a legit tie in. If someone can have a solid disproof please share with me, otherwise I can't see otherwise. This may also be a great episode for your show. I've enjoyed your channel greatly and sincerely hope you read this. (And no I'm not gonna try and justify Link's crossbow training lol)
Confirmed non canon in the official japanese timeline page of The Legend of Zelda. You can check it up yourself by writing down "Zelda timeline Japan" and clicking on the first site at the top.
It was a Famitsu interview. Fujibayashi suggested that there could've been a destructive event prior to the Zonai descending and later Rauru founding Hyrule. So, a hint. But I wouldn't call it confirmation. At the very least it was the first thing he thought of, when asked on the spot.
Pretty much. It's a patern with the zelda community. The devs give important informations in interview, but people somehow try their hardest to ignore it and complain about how nothing makes sense and that it's just a theory. Until it becomes an accepted part of the story a few years down the line
In my own opinion, somewhere in the distant past all timelines merged and that is how so many things from different games appear, there a whole game theory episode on it
I love how Nintendo was like, "Nope, I don't want to do the whole time crossword puzzle thing anymore. Just put it so far in the future that nothing matters." I mean, yeah, this wouldn't be the first refounding of Hyrule.
One thing that has always stumped me has been Lon Lon Ranch as seen in Botw. Even if botw and totk didnt exist and you just looked at the end of the three timelines prior, the ranch would be hundreds of years old and almost certainly in a state of disrepair, especially in a world like this where the entire kingdom is regularly threatened. You cannot tell me that the original structure from Oot would still be even remotely standing after a period supposedly much longer than 10,000 years
It's not..... History "repeats" .....look around you for proof. How many cities, and Streets have similar if not exact names. People with same names ......etc....
Just because it _ressembles_ the original Lon Lon Ranch from Ocarina of Time design wise doesn't mean it is the exact _same_ ranch tens of thousands of years after. This is what you call a *replica* made by Nintendo as a neat callback and reference to a previous game without the actual intent of wanting players to assume it is the very same ranch owned by Talon magically intact after thousands of years.
There are hotels in Japan older than the history of half of Europe. Makes sense that the devs would treat history in such a manner. Plus reconstructions of an older temple/monument/structure are nothing new.
Yes, so many other's are trying to place TOK at the begining of the timeline after skyward sword. And that just doesn't make sense! Also it was directly stated by Nintendo that TOK and BOTW take place at the end of the timeline, so it's so weird that people just willfully refuse to believe it.
Not TOTK itself- the past memories of TOTK which show the founding of Hyrule are what is being debated. We know that the present day events happen after BOTW.
My take on which timeline is canon is this: they are all canon. Hyrule warriors sets precedent that it’s possible that at some point in time a great conflict emerged where all the timelines became open to each other and a massive battle was waged. Possibly causing irreparable harm and damage to all of the timelines. The possible ending outcome of the conflict was that by using the triforce a link and Zelda from each timeline wishes for a new timeline to be born from the old ones. Thus getting the reconverged timeline, the age of myths, and the story and history that we know in BoTW and ToTK
As time went by I started to become increasingly frustrated at the fact that TOTK seemed to not care about any of the games prior to BOTW. However, I went back to playing ToTk after beating the game to finish the side quests and shrines I had left. Needless I had a lot of fun with this game. I decided to just accept the fact that BOTW and TOTK are two different games separate from the exhausting limits of the timeline that I so wished to force myself to follow. This way I found a new way to appreciate TOTK and BOTW as their own thing. They are both magnificent games. With that said I do wish Nintendo goes back and makes another game with the hero of time just to make me happy 😊
This is a perfect video for those who are just starting the Zelda series or who have been fans for a long time but haven’t played many of the games. My mom, for example, grew up with Zelda 1 and has played Ocarina and bits of Twilight Princess and Wind Waker, but very few other Zelda games. She still loves the series though, so this is a great way to help her feel more up to date and included!
Thank you for making this! I liked TOTK a lot and my only disappointment has been the lack of the slightest attempt from many Zelda Tubers to talk about lore and connections. It’s there, they just have to try a little! Hopefully this video will have some impact.
agreed, seems like most are going for the contrarian aproach to get views. Almost as if they wanted rauru to look straight to the camera and explain all lore in detail for 5h
This is interesting because I haven't seen the connections. I'm actually replaying BOTW again before going back to TOTK because of this. When going to Hateno village, people don't know Link even though he bought a house there, lived there (probably) with Zelda but nobody knows him? He got it from Bolson but they act like they're meeting him for the first time? Hetsu as well, you talk to him a lot but in TOTK it's like you two just met. This doesn't happen to everyone but the ones that it does doesn't make sense. If we look at the Temple Of Time, in the flashback the one in the sky is in the same location as the one on the surface. But there were no changes in the land when it apparently went to the sky and the plateau looks the same. There is a lot more, but this comment would be quite long. My thoughts would echo BanditGames and his recent rants on TOTK along with the yggdrasil podcast that had Bandit, Monster Maze, and etc talking about the sheer amount of lore that doesn't connect or make sense.
@@infinitecurlie the games have never attempted to be 1:1 continuations of each other-obvi down to the layout of Hyrule they’re all completely different. Hasn’t stopped people from making lore videos or drawing connections. Part of the fun is taking what otherwise doesn’t make sense and coming up with theories for why it would be like that. That’s what Zeltik is doing here (and Hyrule Gamer on his channel), and what all of them have been doing for all of the games the whole time. For some reason just because the continuation is closer this time, people are throwing tantrums and treating it completely differently. It’s always been fun BECAUSE it’s been different and the fun has always been in theorycrafting to make it make sense.
people in hateno know him though, you can even see link and zelda drawings made by the kids at the school and about the temple of time, the original one got sent to the sky a long time ago after the war, after that the one we know from botw got built at some point, so there would be no reason for tha landscape to be afected @@infinitecurlie
I love the idea that they are all connected. The idea that the previous games exist in the same timeline as legends and myth truly makes the series of Zelda, a masterpiece work of art
I definitely prefer the idea that the ToTK founding of Hyrule happened way after everything already and its Ganondorf is another reincarnation of Demise than it just being a different universe
what nintendo needs to do is create a game that connects the three timelines at the end of all of them so its not confusing, and have a battle, that completely ends hyrule and everything is destoyed, then have the goddeses come back and create a new hyrule, and have rauru and stuff find it, so then they can continue making games even after totk because yeah im confused already but that would be cool.
I think I've come up with something to explain the timeline discrepancies. I headcanon that the reason the split occurs in Ocarina is because the Triforce is also split there and exposed to time shenanigans. I mean think about it, it's the first time the Triforce ever split like that, it's a divine artifact, and Link unknowingly took his piece of it to the past 3 times. Once to get the Lens of Truth, next to do the first half of the Spirit Temple, and then finally when Zelda sent him back. I also don’t think the one timeline is a result of Link's death so much as that there are two child timelines. The original past that connects to the adult timeline is basically locked away, but Link must still go back for the Lens and the Gold Gauntlets, yet all his deeds are erased. So, he goes to the past of another timeline and this one causes Ganon to win because neither the Shadow nor Spirit Temples could be cleansed with those two items missing. Zelda then sends Link back to yet another timeline that had been untouched. The splitting of the original Triforce scattered it's original pieces across two timelines and created a third. So, unifying them would make time whole again. Courage went with Link to a new timeline, while Power and Wisdom stayed in the adult line. Unifying them would likely cause the completed original Triforce to resonate with its complete copies in the other timelines and merge time back together, and viola! The way is opened for Breath of the Wild and its sequel. This would explain why the Courage piece of the Triforce was shattered in Wind Waker, not because the Hero’s Spirit didn’t exist and hadn't incarnated, Link is right there afterall, no, it's because the power of the original piece was gone. Thus, sometime long before BotW and probably long after Zelda 2, there was an adventure to remerge the original Triforce together because its power couldn't remain split between three timelines indefinitely. So there's my headcanon for why things are the way they are.
Something which I would like to notate, is the fact the layanru mine constructs, Scrapper, Skipper, and robots from that region all share the same hand shape and structure that the zonal constructs which are zonai stewards have, with a bit of differences shown only in the coloring and the shape of the tip of the fingers, but otherwise having their hands not connected to their body.
The era of myth works well as a way to either be in such a distant future that all the other timelines are relegated there or simply that all these other games were myths. There's also other possible ways to answer some contradictions that would exist if all timelines do exist, like how we can have Rito, Gorons, _and_ Zora if the events of Wind Waker happened - other lands outside of Hyrule do exist as we can see given the map in BotW/TotK and with Yona who is from another [Zora's] Domain. If we take the idea of them being myths, though, it's possible that they could be viewed the same way real-world myths were made as attempts to explain the world where even the same story can vary by the teller or even how gods and goddesses often seem to be behaving in entirely different ways from one story to the next.
This idea is interesting, but I’ve always seen the world of botw/totk as an “inevitable end point” of the timeline. No matter what path you take after oot, you always end up with hyrule as it is in botw/totk, a possibly unfathomable time after the last game chronologically. In this way, Hyrule will always have zora and rito and koroks eventually, but that can happen at different times depending on the state of the world (ie. the result of oot). All paths converge on botw and totk.
This is exactly right. People want so badly to think that these stories are histories. They have trouble letting them be the Legends that the title says they are. Once you do that, things get a lot simpler and it's still really enjoyable - maybe even more!
I like to imagine that one of the reasons all the timelines are brought back together is due to the first Hyrule Warriors, which pulls all the canon timelines into one single universe, with Hyrule Warriors happening near the end of the Era of Myth. It wouldn't take very long, perhaps, if someone could tempt Lana into doing something she did in the Past. Or the fact that the different timelines were all pulled in as part of "History" that the worlds eventually collided, ending the Era of Myth with the orginal Hyrules destroyed or possibly Rauru's Hyrule Kingdom is formed from the remnants of the three separate timelines' kingdoms, the Ganondorf sealed under Hylia, probably being the reincarnation of all three of Demise' Curse at once, or perhaps because there is both a "Calamity Ganon" and an actual "Ganondorf" perhaps because the Fallen Timeline's Ganon was consumed and fused with Yuga, that there's only TWO Ganondorfs to be resurrected, the one killed at the end of Wind Waker, and the one killed in the end of Twilight Princess, both being the same man.
I have a theory on the timelines. What if each piece of the triforce is connected to each timeline? Power = Fallen, Wisdom = Adult, Courage = Child. And the timeline BotW/TotK are in is the center of the other three timelines. Just as the center of the triforce lacks a piece of its own, so too does this timeline seem to lack a physical triforce of its own. Rather than a physical triforce holding the world together in this timeline, the existence of the other three timelines are what holds this timeline together.
Pretty much confirmed if the Hyrule Historia's depiction of the timeline is anything to go by. Also the Golden Goddesses are more than likely the ones responsible for the "timeline unification" as they have been shown interacting with the world across the series making a strong case for them been the ones responsible for "willing" the timelines into a single one once more.
This is why I love Zeltik. Other Zeldatuber like Bandit just too spoiled about the timeline. There's just multiple Link Zelda And Ganondorf with different new stories. New Era new founding of Hyrule is amazing.
One of my favorite Zelda-tubers in the comment section of another of my favorites. Yay! PS the purple T-shirt (your merchandise) fits me better than 95% of T-shirts I’ve bought in stores. Really appreciate how exact the measurements were described (bonus for adding metric-system as well).
I think that after the destruction of Hyrule in 2/3 timelines, something happened to unite the timelines. Probably divine intervention like in WW; then the Goddesses restablished Hyrule via the Zonai and the Secret Stones. I think the big question is what happened to the Triforce during this time. It kind of seems like it's part of Zelda's bloodline now.
Mine is that you can't just keep making the same basic game with tweaks and changes and insist that they all remain in an established timberline Also, stop naming Garudo boys "Ganondorf," FFS. It never ends well
It is both funny and amazing how the older Zelda games appear to occur later down the Zelda timeline whereas the advanced and recent Zelda game occurr during the earlier phases of the Time line outside of the Switch games
My biggest question with the revelations from TotK is, "are Sonia and Zelda still reincarnations of Hylia", bc that story made it feel like Hylia somehow became a Goddess again and Zelda's powers come from Sonia and Rauru. But then there is also the fact that compared to Sonia (something we see on the Molduga swarm memory), Zelda has a lot more power, 100x more. But is that from having Rauru's blood, Hylia's blood or bc she wields the Triforce on her right hand? This are the questions that have been bugging me the most.
This is very similar to my basic understanding of the timeline, although I have a few theories (with varying levels of 'made-up-stuff-just-to-make-it-fit' to them) that slightly change a few things. For one, I think the regular interpretation of the 3-way timeline split is kind of off; I don't think that split has anything particularly to do with time travel (time travel has been used several other times throughout the series, and even within OoT itself and has never split the timelines before, only over-written them), and I think that it's not quite right to call them the 'adult' timeline, the 'child' timeline, and the 'hero defeated' timeline (even though Nintendo themselves have referred to them as such). Instead, I think each timeline was sustained from being overwritten by the timetravel by virtue of a piece of the triforce and the will of its wielder. Thus the 'adult' timeline is actually the timeline of Wisdom (or Zelda's timeline, in which she must remain and help her kingdom rebuild), the 'child' timeline is actually the timeline of Courage (aka, Link's timeline), and the 'hero defeated' timeline is actually the timeline of Power (or Ganondorf's timeline, where he seemingly looses himself to the Ganon transformation and is almost impossible to completely destroy). I like to follow this up with the theory that there is a 'reconvergence' event, where the three timelines are fused back into one (likely in response to a yet-unknown threat, possibly to the entire Zelda multiverse) which quite possibly destroys or uses up the Triforce (hence its lack of appearance/mention in BotW and TotK, as well as the idea of Zonai and their Secret Stones being sent by the gods specifically to replace it). There are a few other theories that I think make sense (and open up interesting future stories as well), such as my belief that Ganon and Ganondorf are actually two separate entities (and thus, Calamity Ganon is actually unrelated to TotK Ganondorf, and is actually probably the husk of Ganon from the split-timeline days), or a few wild ideas about the true origins of the Shiekah or the Zonai; as well as several headcanon reworking of some official claims to try and make some established things make more sense (particularly in regards to the nature and role of the various gods of the setting, especially Hylia). I've been wanting to start my own channel for a while, and one of the ideas was to make a big Zelda timeline video that went into detail on all this stuff, but you know how it is when you are a serial procrastinator and have tons of plans that you never get around to...
If there was a spectrum of zelda theories we would be on complete opposite sides of it Hylia is part Zonai and related to Sonia, and after the Zonai extinction, the Shiekah are founded by Hylians in the depths who worked for Minaru and eventually built the gates of time and developed the technology used 10,000 years before BOTW. Knowing the seal will break, they wait for a calamity and when one does happen they find the hero (Hylia's brother?) and used the gates of time to time travel to before the first calamity but leave some sheikah behind. these sheikah mostly live in the depths while attempting to block access what would become BOTW and TOTK hyrule. Demise comes and the rest of the timeline happens outside of BOTW Hyrlue before the first calamity, the Sheikah and Hero complete the time travel, do all of their tech stuff, and build the shrine of resurrection, built to house the hero in the time between calamities so they can get him out whenever they need to. The King, realising they could do something similar to Zelda, ban Sheikah tech. Demise could be one of 3 things A: a calamity B: ressurection of TOTK Ganon that got sent back in time (it is said Demise conquered time itself) C: a result of his own curse due to time travel (it is said Demise conquered time itself)
@@unoriginalname7925 Yup, very different directions to take some of the lore (although we both seem to have latched on to the Sheikah connection to time travel). My version of the Sheikah stuff came together from a couple of ideas and points; there are some incongruities with the Shiekah and their role as allies and servants of the Hyrule royal family and Hylia herself, they also are keepers of secrets and forbidden knowledge, and have strong connections to time travel (also, I’m like 98% convinced that Sonia is a Sheikah, not a Hylian). There are some odd quirks about the Skyward Sword backstory/prologue stuff that I’ve always interpreted as the era before the appearance of Demise was an age of gods, with every tribe and race (not to mention locations, elements, types of creatures, etc) having their own patron deity; and Hylia was specifically the goddess of the Hylians (hence why she only could take the Hylians to Skyloft to flee Demise, and none of the other peoples). This means that the Sheikah, though shown to be servants of Hylia, were NOT actually her people, and had their own god or goddess originally. To me, the answer that makes the most sense is that they are the people of the goddess of time; and that something happened to her (my theory is that some version of Vaati went back to the age of the gods and tried to consume her and take her powers, hence the eye motif seen on both him and the Sheikah, and that Hylia helped save her from being completely consumed by him, but had to seal them away, as is the trend in the series), and after the goddess of time was basically lost, her people latched onto Hylia, helping her set up her plan to stop demise and becoming servants of the Hyrule royal family ever after. This gives some interesting opportunities for future games in my eyes (which for me, is the most important thing for lore of an ongoing series like Zelda: the potential for cool future stories). I like the idea that the Sheikah-Yiga split was actually a secret conflict when the forbidden knowledge was revealed that their original goddess was ‘dead’ or seems to be Vaati (I think if they made a Zelda game to really focus on NPC quests with more mysteries and dialogue mechanics, having an iteration of Link that was raised by the Sheikah during this time would be super interesting, and you could use it to foreshadow that the Sheikah goddess was actually evil for the conflict within the tribe, so that later you could reveal that she wasn’t actually, but Vaati, in taking her over, had been corrupting things). Another possibility is that saving the goddess of time from Vaati might be a good premise for the reconvergence; restoring the goddess of time might be the only way to fix the splintered timeline (plus I’ve got this whole convoluted idea about the Master Sword being built from a piece of the Four-Sword due to time-travel shenanigans). ---- While my Zonai theory isn’t nearly as involved, I do have one. I think that the Zonai are basically the Picori/Minish (either some kind of evolution of them, or their descendants/successors). They are both furry races sent by the gods themselves at the founding of Hyrule to give the sacred power of Light to the royal family, as well as bringing powerful artifacts to help the mortals in their time of need (also, the Zonai ancient hero has a little tuft of red on his tail that’s kind of reminiscent of the Picori).
Great video, I still consider BotW and TotK as taking place in a multiverse parallel to the Hyrule/timeline we knew. This explains the number of familiar references (people, places, events etc) that are similar to what we know but different to how we saw them unfold.
Honestly this makes way more sense to me than the idea of establishing a second kingdom with the exact same name and same landmark names tens of thousands of years later. Also remember that Skyward Sword does kinda have two endings, one where The Imprisoned is crushed by the Sky Keep, and then the one where Link goes back a thousand years to kill Demise personally. It's very likely the a timeline split was created there, one where the OG timeline exists, then an alternate timeline where BotW/TotK exists.
I was extremely disappointed by tears of the kingdom's lack of enemy variety. you should try to contact Nintendo and have them use your ideas for classic Zelda enemy redesigns that you showed off in your classic enemies reimagined videos in a potential third open-world Zelda game.
It's funny how some people say the zelda game doesn't have any stories, especially BOTW, but the truth is, the series does have a story, and a very interesting and deep lore at that. Zelda is designed to be a more gameplay rather than emphasizing on story. Twilight Princess is where nintendo actually combined the two aspects pretty well. I wish Twilight Princess was on the Switch. A remake of that game would've been bad ass, but I rather much see the next zelda game incorporate the story more. Bring back dungeons too. I rather have 125 mini dungeons mixed with big dungeons than have 170 boring shrines lol. Shrines are cool, but for the next zelda I rather see 25 shrines and more dungeons.
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At what point in the timeline does Link wander off to race go-karts?
In his century long dreams
Around breath of the wild
Anywhere from the profecy of Ganon in botw to before the Upheval given the tunic it wears in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
@@OrdinaryHoomanTho but you can also play as skyward sword link
Must be in between BOTW and TOTK
The idea of a refounding of Hyrule makes so much more sense then trying to explain how multiple Zeldas, Master Swords, and Ganondorfs could all be existing simultaneously. Seriously thank you so much for this theory it makes a whole lot of sense and allows us to make even further speculations and infinite possibilities for things that could take place in between the vast time gap.
It also feels like an extremely lazy explanation for the gaping plot holes Nintendo left in the Zelda timeline with totk. The whole "Hyrule was refounded" theory also leaves dozens of smaller plot holes all throughout the last two Zelda games. I, personally, don't like that theory at all
@@famlrnamemssngwhat works better? Having the past sections of TotK be before Skyward Sword doesn't really work much better anyways. I've seen people say that the Wild games are the definitive games that all the other games are just retellings of, but I don't really feel that makes a ton of sense. To me the plot is trying to touch on themes of cycles and entropy, the games take place so far into the future the timelines have collapsed in on themselves and events begin to repeat themselves with slight differences (Ganondorf betrays the king of Hyrule, is stopped by a group of sages, an advanced people descending from the sky and founding Hyrule, etc)
@@famlrnamemssngAlso it seems to me that Nintendo went "ok we want to completely reinvent the Zelda games and we don't want to be beholden to the settings or lore of the previous games so we're just gonna set it so far into the future none of it matters"
And like yeah thats lazy but I don't think there's a factually better or more likely interpretation
I'm actually of the opposite though. I actually don't see how a re-founding can solve anything, in fact it creates even more plot holes in BOTW and TOTK. It also kills all speculations and theories possibles, since everything can be solved by "it's not the same Hyrule".
@@lipedax That's a double edged sword as the same could be said about it been the same Hyrule as an easy fix it without addressing the myriad of discrepancies stemming from the similar geography between Rauru's Hyrule and the current Hyrule whereas every other kingdom looks radically different to one another, the lack of the Triforce _anywhere_ in Rauru's Hyrule despite the Royal Family been the faction most acquantied with the ancient History and Lore regarding the divine relic left by the Golden Goddesses and most important of all the incoherence regarding Shad's words in Twilight Princess stating the *Oocca* (or "Skypeople" in the original japanese version of the game) been the race responsible for _creating Hyrule._ We have 2 sky-faring races attributed with the creation of Hyrule here: the Oocca and the Zonai. ¿How can the Zonai PREDATE the Oocca when they are the ones said to have founded the original land of Hyrule...?
While many are not fans of the way Tears of the Kingdom caused confusion with the reuse of names and such, I really really do. As Mark Twain allegedly once quipped: "History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes." This is Hyrule History rhyming, echoing the past. Just like the foundation of all its conflicts are echoes of the previous, constant cycles of incarnation very similar to one another, the grander history of Hyrule rhymes as well. I think it's a great story beat, though it could perhaps have been pulled off a little better
It also fits the themes of the series regarding _cycles_ of Life and Death, Order and Chaos and the ever constant conflict between the 3 primordial concepts of Courage (Link), Power (Ganondorf) and Wisdom (Zelda). The Zelda universe itself functions as part of a natural cycle which repeats itself as part of cosmic order as preordained by the 3 Golden Goddesses who established said cycle in the first place.
Honesty the further away we get from the games having to bend to a strict timeline, the better. The whole MO of the new games is to break free from expectations and conventions, and im glad that has applied to the story as well
@@Ketagcntotally agreed. In games, gameplay should come first and they need to leave themselves room for new stories that serve new gameplay. To put anything in stone is to trap themselves in a corner.
History is always written after the fact.
It's up to game makers to make a fun product.
Historians can do the work to make it fit ex post facto.
@@overused6632 you’re*
This is probably one of the quickest explanations I’ve seen when it comes to this timeline. This was really well explained, well done.
My personal head canon is that there was a Hero & a Zelda who had a battle so grand against Ganondorf, it rippled across all timelines & somehow caused them all to converge into one. Because of that convergence, the Hyrule's of each timeline overlapped & destroyed each other, thus leading to the refounding of the Hyrule we are currently familiar with in the Age of the Wild. It would also explain why we see various references from all 3 timelines in this single Hyrule as well. As for what the future holds, my theory is that history may repeat itself & past events from the Age of Myth will happen again in this new unified timeline, albeit in a different way.
If i can graft onto this... the battle you describe could of gotten the attention of the three golden goddesses and they didn't like the split. Each one took a branch and braided them together. With the convergence of three realities, some things that resonated merged together, but other things canceled each other out and were destroyed.
The energies of these these destroyed things had to go somewhere, so the goddesses used it to create the Zonai. That's why they are so completely new, because their essence is everything from each timeline which was different.
Oh I absolutely LOOVE THIS !!!! Three Goddesses, Three Timelines. It's all connected.
what the fuck does that even mean
@@mikebrushing1851 Ngl, everything described in this thread is actually fairly straightforward 😄
I wish I could remember who it was but anyway I watched a video some months back that theorized that BotW and TotK are basically more fantastical retellings of the original LoZ game and I believe he said LttP. He made some good arguments and had plenty of examples pointing out the parallels between LoZ/LttP and BotW/TotK. Like how LoZ's old man in the cave is a very similar figure to the the first person we meet in BotW both of them helping you by providing the tool(s) you'll need to survive. The original is also an open world game like BotW, you could go basically anywhere and there were less restrictions on the order in which you do things compared to some of the later entries. There's also this weird quirk with LttP where it's the only game in the series with a red/pink haired Link, but if you know, _you know_ .
Since the series has always been cyclical in nature it would make sense that they're using the soft reboot to basically retell the overall story again in a maybe more cohesive way on a grander scale. It's not exactly like when they started making the first game or any of it's sequels/spin-offs that there was any real plan on how they fit together as a whole. I definitely like the idea of a sort of re-imagining of the entire series as part of an even grander cycle within the Zelda universe. In another 30 some odd years we'll get another soft reboot when it inevitably gets too confusing and convoluted and the cycle wilk begin again.
I want everyone involved in the Zelda movie to watch this video at least once.
I hope they this and not do something like trying to make a whole different story that has no connections to the games.
There is no reason for the first Zelda film to deal with timelines. They should simply make the best movie they can in which the gameplay elements serve the story, and the story in turn serves the characters. Start with the characters, then story, then everything else. Of course they should pull story elements from the games, but there’s no reason for the films to follow the hard canon of the games. Things must happen differently in a film than they do in a game.
I hope they pay absolutely zero attention to the fanfiction that is the overarching Zelda timeline.
@@F0XD1E for real, I personally have no problem treating a lot of these games as their own stories. Except OOT, MM, and TP those obviously happen in the same time line, canonically
@@yungkaleido Yeah, those direct sequels including BOTW-TOTK are obviously connected, but the rest of it is just people trying to find order where there is none, and doesn't need to be.
You can tell the devs do not care about it since they made botw and totk completely unrelated. Then people like this just hand wave it away and say "oh that's because it's super far in the future"
It makes sense that BOTW and TOTK's Hyrule is a re-founding after all timelines, not directly after Skyward Sword, but at the end of any timeline branch or the convergence of all timelines, Hyrule fell into decline or chaos again. Rauru and Sonia likely unified the kingdom against this, founding it when Ganon's monsters were already a threat, leading to the creation of the Shrines of Light to seal them away. Personally, I formerly theorised that the events from the past of Tears of the Kingdom to the present of TOTK occur in an alternate timeline to Skyward Sword. Ganondorf, the incarnation of Demise's hatred, is sealed, and calamities strike the kingdom, prompting the Sheikah 10,000 years before BOTW to create ancient weaponry in anticipation of these events.
The Japanese text of Demise's speech doesn't even use the word Incarnation, it just says "My hatred the hatred of the demon tribe will go on till the end of time." Ganondorf is not a direct mortal reincarnation of Demise.
That's some serious copium, when we know the real answer is Nintendo just doesn't care about the historia.
But what about ganandorf’s gerudo bodyguards seemingly having the same name as the witches in oot. Maybe different individuals, much like link, Zelda etc. I also don’t get how the zora go from being friendly civilisation in oot, to monsters in LTTP, then back to being a friendly civilisation in botw. If it wasn’t for all the previous game references in botw, I think it would sit better earlier in the timeline.
@@JonGPxl Regarding the question of the 2 Gerudo women sharing Twinrova's name the answer is simple: they're _reincarnations_ just like Link, Zelda and Ganondorf himself as part of the same cycle which most main characters are a part of as shown with their many incarnations across the series.
The question regarding the "Evil Zora" is also easy: they are a different _breed_ of Zora which exists appart from the "Good Zora" most usually seen on the 3D games rather then 2D games where their evil counterparts are more predominant. This is confirmed in the Oracle of Ages where both River Zora (Evil Zora) and Good Zora appear as seperate races.
The one problem i see with placing Rauru's Hyrule before the timeline is that unleashes the many inconsistencies regarding 2 living Ganondorfs been around at all times all while dismissing the ever shifting geography of the kingdom through every major game in the timeline not to mention the refoundation of Hyrule from Spirit Tracks which itself has been heavily supported as canon to the Era of the Wild. If Tetra's Hyrule is canon to the Era of the Wild that means the original Hyrule was destroyed, then Tetra refounded the kingdom elsewhere and eventually returned to seemingly revive the old kingdom without care for the new one she founded.
The circumstances give very little precedence to justify the Zonai as predating the entire history of the franchise instead of postdating it.
Perhaps it's after Wind Waker?
Even though BotW and TotK create a lot of discussions online when it comes to the Timeline placement, I think we can all agree on the overall logic in this list. And I'm glad that there is a rather simplified version as a video now available. So thank you very much for that video! :)
You can always ignore such discussion by arguing the Era of the Wild is either a soft reboot thousands of years after the old timelines or a full reboot altogether and you can avoid the discussion no problem (like i'm doing). I tell you people who defend the "Rauru is the literal first king of Hyrule" stance don't know any better on how to fix their sad depressing lives that they would be willing to waste time making dumb arguments with no value. Kudos to Zeltik for standing with us on the matter (mostly).
Uhhh...no. a refounding makes no sense leading into the near identical kingdom we see in BOTW and TotK, especially since said Kingdom knows about and considers elements of the past kingdom part of its history.
@@stuffz1757 You lost with the _"...knows about and considers elements of the Past kingdom part of its history"_ part. ¿Do you have any evidence to back anything you say?
@@stuffz1757 There's no in-game knowledge of a previous kingdom, we only find things vaguely described as from ancient times by the game itself. The weirdest part is that Rauru himself and "wise" people talk about him as the first king, but that can be part of an unreliable narration where everything is vague and not always literal.
@@javiervasquez625 I don't think it's fair to project someone defending any theory as more "miserable" than anyone else, that in itself sounds excessive for what's essentially speculation about inconsistent fiction for gameplay-focused video games. But if I'm not mistaken you're the guy who spent a good dozen of replies stubbornly ignoring my simple reminder that any theory is fair play as long as Nintendo haven't confirmed specifically. In any case the re-founding does sound nice and convenient, but let's not call people names for so little.
We need the interloper war to be made into a game because I miss the twili
So true i'm still depressed that the "Mirror of Twilight" near Lurellin Village turned out to be just a red herring that i'm wondering if Aonuma and Fujibayashi would be willing to bring the Twilight back into the spotlight either through a prequel to Twilight Princess or a sequel to Tears of the Kingdom. Wathever scenario works as long as they stop teasing us like with the aforementioned mirror. 😭
Well even if they made a game about the war, they wouldn’t look remotely the same.
If you miss them..stop by my twitch,im streaming twilight princess (im in the desert..the arbiters grounds...right now)
But i see where you're coming from...and yea i miss the twilight and midna (mostly wolf link) aswell
I was so hoping the Zonai would be the Interlopers before TotK came out, but oh well. For next time
@@javiervasquez625There's a "Mirror of Twilight" near Lurelin?
The Legend of Zelda's timeline is definitely part of what makes the series a fascinating gaming experience for me. Not every little detail may fit perfectly together, retcons are to be expected and Nintendo obviously prioritizes gameplay above continuity but I can still enjoy the games for what they are and still find fun in learning how they piece together at the same time; it doesn't have to be an "either or" situation as some make it out to be.
Even before the developer interview brought it up, I stood by the belief that Zonai Rauru is simply the co-founder and 1st king of the most recent iteration of Hyrule. The developers bringing up the "kingdom was re-established after falling" theory in said interview strengthens this belief for me.
he mentioned it was one of many possibilities tho?
Fujibayashi: It is definitely a story after "Breath of the Wild". And basically, the "Legend of Zelda" series is designed to have a story and world that doesn't break down. That is all I can say at this point.
With the assumption that the story will not break down, there is room for the fans to think, "So that means there are other possibilities? I think there is room for fans to think about various possibilities. If I am speaking only as a possibility, there is the possibility that the story of the founding of Hyrule may have a history of destruction before the founding of the Kingdom of Hyrule. I don't make things in a random way, like "wouldn't it be interesting if we did this here? So I hope you will enjoy it by imagining the parts of the story that have not yet been told.
"I think there is room for fans to think about various possibilities.
If I am speaking only as a possibility,"
" only as a possibility,"
he mentions its one of many possibilities.
@@GaryJuuce It's true that Fujibayashi mentions the "kingdom was re-established after falling" theory as a possibility which is why I made a point to still refer to it as a theory and said it strengthened my belief in said theory, not act like it is the definitive answer.
To elaborate, the main reason for my belief in this theory actually came from a blog post that gathered many details in the game (along with Creating a Champion among other sources) that support the idea of Zonai Rauru & Sonia's Hyrule being the most recent iteration of the kingdom in which ever branch of the timeline Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom take place within. Since it seems RUclips no longer allows links in their comments, I will mention the title of the blog post is "Tears of the Kingdom's story is not at conflict with Ocarina of Time's story, nor does it retcon/contradict the rest of the series." for anyone who wishes to seek it out for themselves. Fujibayashi mentioning that particular theory as a specific example among many was really more of a "the cherry on top" situation for strengthening my belief in the theory, not the main reasons for why I believe in that particular theory.
On a side note, I have seen some interpreted Fujibayashi calling it a possibility as him "being coy" but I acknowledge that is really just speculation/something to take with a grain of salt at the moment. In any case, I trust that Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom's exact place in the timeline will be explicitly made clear eventually even if the general public will have to wait some time.
ok thats a fair point, my bad. Sorry for bein a dick. That does make sense actually. "Fujibayashi calling it a possibility as him "being coy""
I honeslty dont, hes worked on the franchise and has a lot of things that make sense like you just mentioned and even in the interview he said "he doesnt do things randomly" the exact quote escapes me but thats the general idea of what he said. So i do agree. again sorry for being a dick, and please have a good day @@The_Orange_Fan
@@GaryJuuce Thank you for the apology and the well wishes, I always appreciate when conversations and discussions can be handled in a calm and cordial manner. This is why I strive to be as clear as possible about what I mean and make a point to provide clarifications as misunderstandings can cause many unintended problems.
I can definitely understand how frustrating it can be when misinformation spreads and/or opinions are treated as fact. Speaking from personal experience regarding the video's topic, I find it very frustrating how some have a habit of spreading the false narrative that "the timeline was a fan creation that Nintendo felt obligated to go along with" when the truth is that Nintendo, themselves, were the ones to bring up the timeline in the first place. Likewise, I find it very frustrating how some try to act like the timeline not being Nintendo's top priority is "evidence" that they don't care about it at all when the truth is more along the lines of "Nintendo prioritizes gameplay over continuity between the games but they still put some thought/care into the continuity between the games even if that means there may be some retcons as more games are added to the series".
Once again, I appreciate your apology & well wishes and wish your holiday celebrations this year be pleasant ones.
thank you and yeah i agree with you bout that with the timeline and fans sayin that. bugs me too. you have a wonderful holiday too! Have a happy new years! @@The_Orange_Fan
Great video! I was confused about the official timeline and how each game followed one another, so this really helped me to better understand the sequence of events.
I know that the director of ToTK was asked about Hyrules founding and he pretty much said it was more of a refounding. so thats been confirmed. This was fantastic!!!!
ehhhh... no.
@@Bene_Singularisi hate people like you that don't explain
I agree with your placement for totks pre story, I thought that it wouldn't make sense if it was before minish and after skyward since, there are multiple other Ganondorfs, and as we see in botw and totk that even if 100 years pass another Geruedo king would not be born if ones already alive. Many races are also present in the pre story that skyward and minish lack, such as the Rito and Koroks. Overall it would make the most sense that totks pre story is tooken after all the previous games and around 10,000 - 30,000 years before botw/totk, we also see no calamity in the past games according to the timeline even though the calamity is told as a repeated thing. Hyrule was likely abandoned or it's history just forgotten in another war long ago because the land of Hyrule seemed separated by its races until Rauru united them once again. I hope we will explore that hopefully in another direct sequel along with triforce, I need a botw 3/totk 2 with more linear dungeons and story that's well told.
Uhm temple of time
@@Mystelblade what about it
There is one male birth per century in the Gerudo. That’s what the games say. It’s not “only one can be alive per century”.
I’ve already had so many debates online with people on most of your points, that I’m not really interested in another repeat of that. BUT one thing I’m dying to know, because I’ve had 2 others try to argue it, but then when I ask where, they suddenly do everything to avoid answering. Where are there Koroks in the past? Where do we see that? The two other times someone has attempted that argument, I’ve asked where the Koroks are and get “K, well anyway, so-“ and they start in on other points. Perhaps you could be the one to answer that?
@@WindMageMasterRegarding the Geruedo male argument, I know a Geruedo male is born every century but I just speculated that if the male is still alive, another would not be born yet. The reason I believe this is because a century has passed from the pre story of botw to the present time of botw yet there is no Geruedo male leader, only Riju who is a female, So either the Geruedo exiled or killed the Male Geruedo (which is possible, but highly unlikely) or he wasn't born, which is the option I think is correct.
I couldn't quite understand your second question so If you could type it a little clearer, I may be able to answer it.
imagine the next remake of OoT depicts Rauru as a Zonai 😅
thanks for more zelda content Zeltik. i know its been a little hard to make lately with the lack of lore in TotK
There's another timeline video that suggests the Zonai are actually the Picori from Minish Cap, and I see some validity to it.
I'm constantly impressed by your editing and content. Superb video as always!
Fujibayashi and Aounuma explained that perhaps Totk is a new founding hyrule. The directly state “is it possible that the hyrule we are seeing now is a new hyrule and the past of had been destroyed” so that pretty much confirms it. The hyrule of the past timelines ended up being destroyed somehow someway. And this is sooooo far into the future and the rauru founded the new hyrule
That was only one possibility. He mentioned that there was an obvious explanation but that it could change based on future games. I think the more obvious interpretation is that TotK bookends the series, personally. But that could always change 😂
But i love trying to figure it out!!!
Zeltik: "All my training has prepared me for this moment. 3...2...1...go."
Excellent summary. 👍
I had no idea how rich the Zelda lore was until now. It is very interesting and understandable as to decide on making a Zelda movie. Thanks Zeltik for your rundown on the timeline! 😊
Don't get too excited, it's highly likely that the Zelda movie will ignore most of this lore and follow their own, isolated story, at most dropping background references and Easter eggs. That's the Mario and Zelda philosophy.
@@swishfish8858 Probably, then again, the movie will be live action. Every bit of detail is shadowed of uncertainty.
I can't recommend Brian David Gilbert's time break video enough. This one is among the better ones.
You make amazing content and this video is no different. I am a huge fan of Zelda and seeing your quick 15 minute explanation of the timeline is amazing! Thank you!
I can’t remember who came up with this mini-theory, but I still like the idea that the downfall timeline isn’t a “what-if” but the original course of events. In the theory, the wish made on the Triforce (presumably) at the end of Zelda II is to undo ganon’s reign-the only way to do so being to change the fate of OoT Link (who failed) by sealing him in the sacred realm to age him until he would be prepared to defeat Ganondorf (in my head canon, Ganondorf also gets sloppy and too relaxed in his seven year unchecked rule which allows link to surprise and get the better of him). Just explains the downfall timeline’s existence to me and its historical place more than the “what-if”.
I love your placement of BotW and TotK though, great video!
Really like that idea!
I'm late but this is fantastic. I'm 100% spreading this to every Zelda fan I know haha
"The imaginativly named ''New Hryule," was just perfect.
You know it’s a good day when Zeltik uploads
I still have a pet theory that the original Hyrule Warriors is actually canon and converges the timelines back on themselves, which then means the "Era of Myth" all condenses into one, which then leads to the new founding of Hyrule by Rauru many years later.
All the timelines get separated at the end of that game though so that being canon would produce the opposite affect.
for a while i've liked the idea that between worlds or a similar event is inevitable on all 3 timelines. They learn of the timeline split and the need to restore time. When the triforce is used to merge the 3 timelines, the natural outcome is it ending with the destruction of the old hyrule followed by the arrival of the zonai to make a new one... (hyrule was destroyed how many times across all 3?)
Holy crap that's almost the same as the idea I had. I was thinking that there would have been an event in witch the Tri-force had to be used to merge the three timelines together. This would explain why there are elements of the three timelines in botw that shouldn't be able to mingle even if each one eventually ended the same mess lol. And the event would have been so epic that it would have depleted the Tri-force to where it wasn't as major of a thing and mostly forgotten and possibly only really need able to be access by the Zelda family to hold Gannon at bay so this time. The same power she was trying so hard to access and finally use. The same power that she used at the end of the game when she was a badass and joined the final fight (loved how it appeared just briefly then). What do you think? 😃
I assumed Rauru's and Sonia's kindom was the original Hyrule, but if it did come after everything else, that would explain why we don't see the Zonai in the other games.
Yeah, but you could also say the same thing about how we don't see almost any SS lore in games that came before it, but that's still at the start of the timeline.
It’s a popular headcanon amongst the community that before Rauru’s Refounding Era, and after the ends of all three timelines, the Spin-Off Hyrule Warriors takes place.
Although not strictly canonical, the “War of Eras” sees interconnection between all three timelines, Child, Adult, and Downfall. Characters completely exclusive to each timeline such as Midna, Ravio, and Tetra make direct appearances. With the underlying premise of the game’s end being the restoration of the Witch of Time, Hyrule Warriors is a promising point where the proper recombination of the fractured timeline can take place, or at least begin to happen.
Breath of the Wild also essentially _has_ to take place in a recombined timeline, as the Zora and Rito species cannot exist at the same time according to established lore. The Zora came from Child, the Rito from Adult, and certain names and artifacts can be found in BotW/TotK that could only have originated from Downfall. Factoring in the Refounding, the recombination could very well have caused an era of utter chaos and disaster.
Oh, but don’t get too sad about the original timeline shenanigans ending, because it’s happened again. In her youth, BotW Zelda built a toy Guardian Terrako, accidentally installing a part that bestowed it with the power to travel through time. Through a series of improbable events, it became the Guardian of Time, traveling back several years to defend Zelda and divert the inevitable disaster, causing Age of Calamity. The Unification timeline is one where the very premise of BotW has been averted, causing Ganon’s defeat one century ahead of time.
Great job as always man.
People act like this timeline is dumb but it definitely does make decent sense, especially when broken down so concisely like this.
Hopefully the Zelda movie team will watch this!
If you watched this and are like "It all makes sense." You definitely took something different than I did. lol
This timeline IS dumb. They didn’t plan it, they had to patch it together halfway through the games and try to convince everyone it does make sense. You don’t need a timeline if you just acknowledge you never planned to have the games be in the same world.
Some part of it makes sense but the rest are just pure nonsense like you want me to believe Triforce heroes link is the same one as link between worlds? Or that four swords adventure is after twilight princess? You can tell they were just slapped together with a duct tape to “please the fans”
@@RinZDR yeah I can see that, Link Between Worlds Link pops off to Hytopia for a bit (just like LttP Link exploring Holodrum and Labryna in Oracles). It was made as a sequel to LBW after all.
Four swords adventures feels a bit janky but it's agessss after Twilight Princess with a different chosen three so yeah I can see that working.
Even before the timeline, Nintendo planned each game to be a sequel or prequel, they wanted them to be linked by legend, in some capacity.
Stuff like the Ocarina split allows for more unique stories to be told and I'm all here for it - I love that we get to see "what if" scenarios i.e. no hero so flood the world or adult Hero of Tmes deeds forgotten so become a depressed Hero's Shade.
It's not a big deal but it was cooler that they've linked them together instead of a lazy reboot reboot reboot each time.
@@RinZDRThere was always a timeline, it wasn't a priority, but it always existed, there's a reason why Wind Waker and the two DS Zelda games were made. Skyward sword was made to establish the origin of everything, and 2 lore books were published. I don't think Nintendo would waste time, and would commit to all of this just to "please the fans". Yes, there are mistakes, but nothing that can't be changed or explained in the future, they've made changes before, so who knows. The timeline as a whole makes sense, with small exceptions here and there, many people exaggerate when talking about it.
Didn't know the re-founding theory was controversial. I always thought it was generally accepted since it makes by far the most sense
I think it would be cool to have a Zelda set in space. We've been to points in the Zelda Timeline where the technology is pretty advanced, and the Golden Goddesses are out there somewhere. It would be really interesting if they did a Zelda story where we had to go find them beyond Hyrule and beyond even the skies.
Maybe the Goddesses made other worlds and other species.
Impressive. Being a Zelda aficionado after all.
The biggest and most important lesson of the timeline is that the timeline doesn't matter.
No matter what, there will always be chaos, there will always be order, and there will always be volition.
Zelda represents the desire for perfect order. While ideal, it is unsustainable; everything must eventually break and renew.
Ganon represents chaos, limitless expulsion of power, of change, and of destruction.
Link is volition, the "will" to carry out Zelda's wishes or, perhaps, even Ganon's.
Note that Link's actions often aid the darkness in search of a way to strengthen the light. In OoT, pulling the Master Sword gives Ganondorf a 7 year reign in which many lose their lives and homes.
The Skull Kid in Majora's Mask is the very same one Link played with in the Lost Woods.
So often Link's actions allow the presence of darkness to very nearly swallow the world before pushing back with light to maintain the balance.
And that's what the game is; a story of balance.
There will always be light. There will always be darkness.
There will always be one with the courage to defy the fate offered by perfect order and perfect chaos, putting the world to rights in a more "gray area".
I love the Basketball timeline.
I can’t believe zeltik forgot to include the TIME BREAK in this video. He didn’t even mention zelda monopoly!
@@user-qv2mc3dw5o The appearance of Air Bud was a clever twist
im still of the headcanon that Hyrule Warriors (the first one) is the game that causes the timelines to merge, as that game literally involves elements of all 3 timelines merging into one instance of hyrule
Another theory that could work and maybe make for a great game is to have an event in which the Tri-force is used to fuse the timelines back into one. This event could explain two of the biggest questions from BOTW and TOTK. The fussing would explain why there are distinct elements of each timeline in the games that shouldn't be able to mingle for one and three lack of Tri-force in the games. Could simply be that the sheer power of would take to bring all three lines together depleted the Tri-force to the point where it wasn't as epically powerful anymore and was possibly sidelined and forgotten and possibly only and to be tapped into by family line or Zelda, this being the same power that was still enough to keep Gannon in check and can be seen when she gonna the fight at the end of BOTW (which i still think was awesome the way it showed just how potentially badass Zelda can be). That's just something i came up with because i hated the whole "they all eventually end up the same mess" that felt like a cop out to me. I hope this idea catches your attention and could even give you another idea sir an episode. As i said before i enjoy your channel and look forward to more fun episodes 😁
That would deserve its own game, and could be an attempt to under the era of decline in the Fallen Hero TL by using the Ocarina of Time and trifoce. Merging it with the child TL and adult TL. The triforce splits between Zelda, Link and Ganon (revived by the merge)
For fun. Say they get born in the wrong place because of the merge as well. Ganon is Hyrule’s prince. Zelda a commoner and Link a male gerudo and it is essentially the gerudo leading Zelda’s rebellion against Ganon and the eight sages of the fallen TLs kingdom
As cool as it is, imagine being a kid playing this new Zelda game and you have to be taught an actual history lesson on the entire lore of Zelda so understand why there are all these converging races, locations and lore.
@@kingcyclops4079 cool birdmen. Cool tree fairies! Cool people who can turn into tree friaries! Etc. kids don’t care much. Make a good story and the older fans can geek out while the kids enjoy all the different and cool people
I honestly like the idea of the imprisoning war happening during the era of myth. With Ganondorf’s real body being sealed (though his spirit continuing to reincarnate), and Zelda flying above the cloud barrier as a dragon, throughout it all. Even with all the duplicate Master Swords it entails.
EoW spoilers:
Allat just because a ourple orb was too hungry
This is the most brilliant marketing for a new RUclips channel I’ve ever seen
I do agree that essentially Hyrule is re-founded. Ie the original Hyrule in the Era of Myth is lost in the natural rise and fall of civilizations.
However while yes, it ultimately doesn't matter due to how far ahead in the future they are in BotW we do know what era we are following. It's the child timeline as Zelda recalls the specific myths the heroes have gone through. Namely Sky, Time, amd most importantly Twilight.
This brings up a very interesting possibly for where they may want to set the next games. Perhaps the same amount of time in the fallen and adult. Or perhaps a game similar to Wind Waker where the old Hyrule has to fall and be lost to time.
Either way nicely done on those 15 mins.
In the first memory in Botw all timeline splits are reference by Zelda.
Oracle games are the best handheld. They never get enough love
your videos never fail to make me fall in love with this series all over again. I can’t wait until Nintendo tries their best to fit the final two games into the timeline. I was actually planning to do the same thing you are on the Zeldudes channel on stream, although it will be by myself.
oh they did, when BoTW came out they said it was so far ahead the previous timeline became lost knowledge
One of my favorite theories is that all of the OoT timeline branches happen in the “era of myth.” So, in the millennia between the timeline split and Rauru’s foundation, all three timelines have happened, creating the legends together meshed.
I mean, creating a champion literally puts the events of OoT in the era of myth, go the timeline that is closer to the end of the book and you will see in the zora history section that they list the story of princess ruto as the era of myth.
wow thanks if only this was literally the video’s take too wouldn’t that be wild
I could honestly buy either the refounding of Hyrule or the "Ganondorf 1.0 and Rauru are comatose underground for the whole ass series" explanations. The refounding of Hyrule is probably the one that makes the most sense and is easiest to swallow, but I have to admit, I prefer the idea of Ganondorf being a sort of wellspring of Malice beneath Hyrule the whole time, maintaining a steady supply of monsters and evil for the Hero and the Princess to fight.
I still maintain that the same spirit of the Hero manifested in ways the gods couldn’t foresee in Windwaker, partly due to Demise curse. The spirit obviously transcends bloodlines (ex SS Link not related to OoT Link but most likely the royal bloodline) and really just manifests as needed (such as in response to Demise’s incarnation)
Imo, they just skipped a step ahead in this timeline. So LTTP and twilight princess link are the same. Link between worlds, FSA, and Windwaker link are also the same. Original Zelda Link and spirit tracks Link are also the same, with there also being another link going to appear after FSA in the child timeline
i still think "the spirit of the hero" is more of an idea than a physical magical soul entity, like a concept that the hero needs to embody rather than a literal ghost sort of deal
@@TheLuigiBrother77you are very wrong of what you just said but what ever
@@thatjrpganimefanplayerjusi8003 It's an interpretation thing. I'd say it's subjective
SS Link is related to every Link the same way all Europeans are related to Charlemagne.
I think that Zelda tripping and going back in time in Tears of the Kingdom caused some kind of time paradox that either created a new timeline, erased all other timelines, merged all timelines together, or somehow all of those at once.
Needed this video... Been feeling Down lately...
Thank you for the good content Bro ❤ 🤌
Feel better bro 🍪🥛
@@viktorthevictor6240Thanks bro 🙏🗿
TotK pretty heavily implies that it is a separate Hyrule from the older games with the lore in the depths, so I’ve never understood the confusion a lot of people have.
Dear Zeltik
I wanted to take a moment to express my admiration for you and your incredible videos. I've been a dedicated viewer for quite some time now, and I must say, you are truly one of the best RUclipsrs out there. Your content never fails to captivate me, and I love how you go the extra mile to entertain and help others.
Your dedication and effort in creating such amazing videos is truly commendable. You have a unique ability to bring joy to people's lives and make a positive impact. We need more individuals like you who use their platform to uplift others.
Thank you for being an inspiration and for all the incredible work you do. You are, without a doubt, the best RUclipsr ever in my eyes. Keep up the fantastic work, and know that you have a massive fan and supporter here.
Sending you my heartfelt appreciation and best wishes.
With admiration,
Me
As a massive Zelda fan since Ocarina of Time, I have to say: Thank you Zeltik! I have always found the timeline to be slightly confusing. Now it makes sense. Cheers!
i do like how you handled timeline placement for BOTW and TOTK, though personally i'm still leaning toward the Triforce/Dragonbreak theory.
Each timeline branch represents a piece of the Triforce, and once each timeline has been fully resolved (i.e. Ganondorf/Ganon being killed in all three, his reincarnation caused a temporal event that merged the timelines events back into a singular timeline. All events that happened in separate timelines are now remembered as if they had happened to those in the Wilds era. There is so much that mirrors events from OoT and TP and even WW between BOTW and TOTK. Korok's and Rito exist, suggesting the flood still happened, they recreated the Throne room scene from OoT, showing Zelda warning Rauru and Sonya about Ganondorf. In Twilight Princess when the Sages attempted to execute Ganondorf for his treachery, he kills one of them before they seal him in the twilight realm, in TOTK, Sonya is the Sage of Time, and Ganondorf kills her to mirror killing a sage during the execution in TP, which results in The Imprisoning War happening, and Ganondorf being sealed in the under dark, his power seeps out to create the Calamity, and then we are back to BOTW.
TL;DR, once the timelines merged back into a single timeline, all events of all 3 timelines override what we as players know to be "true" to become one, and we are left with a reconverged timeline to start the series fresh again, which also IMO explains why at the end of BOTW, Zelda has all 3 pieces of the Triforce in her possession to defeat Dark Beast Ganon. All 3 pieces of the Triforce gather in Hylia's descendant as their respective timelines resolve themselves. The Timeline course corrected from what never should have happened to begin with, Ganondorf putting his hand on the Triforce and splitting it into 3 pieces.
I'm of the opinion BotW/TotK occurs in a timline fork deriving from Skyward Sword with the Hyrule Warriors games occuring as a Dragon Break scenario connecting the other timelines back in. This timeline would start from the Slaying of Demise, rather than the Triforce Wish. This would explain why the world itself is so unchanged between distant past and BotW.
@@JeffreyJusticeLoseySkyward Sword doesn’t split the timeline
I like this! And I really like the idea of each post-Ocarina timeline representing a different part of the Triforce, along with its holder. The Downfall Timeline is Ganon’s/Power’s victory, while the Child and Adult Timelines…could be considered either or both as Zelda’s/Wisdom’s Victory and Link’s/Courage’s Victory.
I.e. was it wise for Zelda to send Link back to his childhood instead of letting him live on in the post-Ganon Hyrule? Was it more courageous of the Hyruleans to face the re-emergence of Ganon without a Hero, or for Child Link and Zelda to confront the king about Ganondorf (he could’ve easily dismissed them both just as he dismissed Zelda the first time she brought up her concerns, since they technically only had Link’s word to go on regarding the future he’d seen)?
I think it could be any or all of the above!
i like the idea of Adult being Wisdom personally, since Tetra played a HUGE role in that timeline between helping beat Ganondorf and making New Hyrule, though the courage question for the Kingdom facing Ganon without the hero is an interesting thought! @@NeriSiren
I think the zonai are the next canonical event in the timeline after the creation of the world
Amazing vid! I had always assumed TOTK took place after The Adventure of Link, Four Swords Adventure, Spirit Tracks, etc... It never occurred to me the reason people were mad was because they thought TOTK took place post-Skyward Sword/pre-Minish Cap. It makes way more sense to group BOTW and TOTK as all happening so far in the future that none of it can interfere with the previous games at least in my opinion.
I DO think the timeline was made in response to fans but I don't think that's a bad thing. Everything does fit fairly well and I appreciate that they officially gave us a timeline. Nintendo can be either heavy or light on lore and I'm happy they typically choose the former with Zelda.
The zelda timeline is as cool as it is silly, thank you for the amazing video and most importantly for the amazing design of the timeline. I was really looking for one in order to check out what games I've played till now but I just ended up making my own graphic since every timeline out there is either confusing or straight up bad... Now i can mark my list of zelda games both in order of which i played them and their place in the timeline.
I like the idea that TotK shows a refounding of Hyrule.
Their fashions and buildings are all extremely old and tribal, but it’s common for post-apocalyptic societies to be presented that way, having lost all their complex social/economic systems and technologies. Plus the buildings being super old makes sense if they were ruins to begin with from a kingdom long forgotten.
The people would still recognize themselves as Hylians, just as we would recognize our nationalities without the state that once represented it, so it makes sense why they just renamed their kingdom Hyrule.
I have one question: In TotK, in the past where Zelda ends up, where is the Master Sword from Rauru's time period?
To clarify, *Not* the one Link sends back, the one that should already be there.
Presumably the Great Deku Tree would have it, but why doesn't Zelda or Rauru go get it?
They didn't just make a new one, because Fi is still in/is the Master Sword.
The one sent back *cannot* be that era's sword either, because Zelda carries it with her all the way back to present day, *and* we know that the Master Sword is used by the hero in the Ancient Calamity mural.
So where the fuck is the Master Sword?
Since there's no living _Hero_ around the times of the Imprisoning War who could wield the Blade of Evil's Bane there's no reason for either Zelda or Rauru to go look for it as neither of the 2 happens to be the Hero destined to wield the sword.
The master sword of that time period eventually becomes the one held by the Deku Tree, and is the one used in BOTW. Ganondorf destroys that one, so it's sent back and kept by Zelda to repair and strengthen it, essentially becoming a separate sword.
Meanwhile, the "original" Master Sword is passed down throughout history and used by the heroes, until it ends up in BOTW Link's hands and is destroyed. At that moment, the strengthened Master Sword that Zelda has been carrying reveals itself, along with Zelda herself, having been hidden above the clouds along with the Zonai islands. Finally, Link takes the "new" Master Sword and uses it to defeat the Demon Dragon.
idk maybe in korok forest with the deku tree?
It doesn't exist yet because this is all happening before SS
@@unoriginalname7925 ?????
Here's an idea, the reason the timelines split in the first place, was because the Golden Goddesses Dissagreed about how the story should end.
In turn, they went on to make their timelines, one following an empowered Ganondorf, one Following an empowered Zelda, one Following an empowered Link.
But this, Three Triforces, Three Masterswords, Three Heroes, Princess, Evils, inevitably caused an instability where the timelines were forced to merge some time in the future.
Because of this happening, Time itself is maliable and ever changing, which is how there are multiple foundings of the same Hyrule in Totk.
It wasn't like this until that game and ever since it, it's always been this way.
One game that you missed that some don't want to call cannon but I think can easily work in with no problem is Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. Some say it's more of a what if setting but really it does fit and the story in the game pretty much explains it neatly. This is a timeline branch much like the child and adult timeline but without the speculation. Robbie and Pura literally explain how the small guardian going back in time and bringing some malice with it caused the divide and without a really bad paradox situation. I love that it gives a different outcome to that war in which a more realized Gannon emerges and defeated. Even plays on the potential misleading prophecy that led to Gannon being able to take control of the Shika tech in the form of the dark prophet. Yes it's a very different playing style and some limp it in with the first Hyrule Warriors but Age of Calamity isn't a crazy mashup like the first and has a legit tie in. If someone can have a solid disproof please share with me, otherwise I can't see otherwise. This may also be a great episode for your show. I've enjoyed your channel greatly and sincerely hope you read this. (And no I'm not gonna try and justify Link's crossbow training lol)
Confirmed non canon in the official japanese timeline page of The Legend of Zelda. You can check it up yourself by writing down "Zelda timeline Japan" and clicking on the first site at the top.
Totk past to Totk present is a casual loop and can´t change anything in the timeline and HW:Aoc isn´t on the official timeline
wasn't Rauru refounding the kingdom after it's decay basically confirmed in a dev interview a couple months back?
It was a Famitsu interview. Fujibayashi suggested that there could've been a destructive event prior to the Zonai descending and later Rauru founding Hyrule.
So, a hint. But I wouldn't call it confirmation. At the very least it was the first thing he thought of, when asked on the spot.
Pretty much. It's a patern with the zelda community. The devs give important informations in interview, but people somehow try their hardest to ignore it and complain about how nothing makes sense and that it's just a theory. Until it becomes an accepted part of the story a few years down the line
In my own opinion, somewhere in the distant past all timelines merged and that is how so many things from different games appear, there a whole game theory episode on it
I love how Nintendo was like, "Nope, I don't want to do the whole time crossword puzzle thing anymore. Just put it so far in the future that nothing matters." I mean, yeah, this wouldn't be the first refounding of Hyrule.
Good choice imo, the timeline was very messy the best why they could canonically "fix" it is just by making all the timelines converge
I thought Rauru's Hyrule was just another Hyrule in the current canon. Makes a lot of sense with this all lined up
One thing that has always stumped me has been Lon Lon Ranch as seen in Botw. Even if botw and totk didnt exist and you just looked at the end of the three timelines prior, the ranch would be hundreds of years old and almost certainly in a state of disrepair, especially in a world like this where the entire kingdom is regularly threatened. You cannot tell me that the original structure from Oot would still be even remotely standing after a period supposedly much longer than 10,000 years
It's not..... History "repeats" .....look around you for proof. How many cities, and Streets have similar if not exact names. People with same names ......etc....
Just because it _ressembles_ the original Lon Lon Ranch from Ocarina of Time design wise doesn't mean it is the exact _same_ ranch tens of thousands of years after. This is what you call a *replica* made by Nintendo as a neat callback and reference to a previous game without the actual intent of wanting players to assume it is the very same ranch owned by Talon magically intact after thousands of years.
There are hotels in Japan older than the history of half of Europe. Makes sense that the devs would treat history in such a manner. Plus reconstructions of an older temple/monument/structure are nothing new.
Fujibayashi has said recently that the kingdom Rauru founded is indeed a new kingdom created after the era of myth.
Yes, so many other's are trying to place TOK at the begining of the timeline after skyward sword. And that just doesn't make sense! Also it was directly stated by Nintendo that TOK and BOTW take place at the end of the timeline, so it's so weird that people just willfully refuse to believe it.
Not TOTK itself- the past memories of TOTK which show the founding of Hyrule are what is being debated. We know that the present day events happen after BOTW.
My take on which timeline is canon is this: they are all canon. Hyrule warriors sets precedent that it’s possible that at some point in time a great conflict emerged where all the timelines became open to each other and a massive battle was waged. Possibly causing irreparable harm and damage to all of the timelines. The possible ending outcome of the conflict was that by using the triforce a link and Zelda from each timeline wishes for a new timeline to be born from the old ones. Thus getting the reconverged timeline, the age of myths, and the story and history that we know in BoTW and ToTK
Saving this for later I’ll be back
Hah, same
Thanks for letting us know buddy
As time went by I started to become increasingly frustrated at the fact that TOTK seemed to not care about any of the games prior to BOTW. However, I went back to playing ToTk after beating the game to finish the side quests and shrines I had left. Needless I had a lot of fun with this game. I decided to just accept the fact that BOTW and TOTK are two different games separate from the exhausting limits of the timeline that I so wished to force myself to follow. This way I found a new way to appreciate TOTK and BOTW as their own thing. They are both magnificent games.
With that said I do wish Nintendo goes back and makes another game with the hero of time just to make me happy 😊
This is a perfect video for those who are just starting the Zelda series or who have been fans for a long time but haven’t played many of the games. My mom, for example, grew up with Zelda 1 and has played Ocarina and bits of Twilight Princess and Wind Waker, but very few other Zelda games. She still loves the series though, so this is a great way to help her feel more up to date and included!
the best and most comprehensive story of zelda, mad props to you for condensing millions of years of the zelda timeline
Thank you for making this! I liked TOTK a lot and my only disappointment has been the lack of the slightest attempt from many Zelda Tubers to talk about lore and connections. It’s there, they just have to try a little! Hopefully this video will have some impact.
Exactly! This is honestly very true
agreed, seems like most are going for the contrarian aproach to get views. Almost as if they wanted rauru to look straight to the camera and explain all lore in detail for 5h
This is interesting because I haven't seen the connections. I'm actually replaying BOTW again before going back to TOTK because of this.
When going to Hateno village, people don't know Link even though he bought a house there, lived there (probably) with Zelda but nobody knows him? He got it from Bolson but they act like they're meeting him for the first time? Hetsu as well, you talk to him a lot but in TOTK it's like you two just met. This doesn't happen to everyone but the ones that it does doesn't make sense.
If we look at the Temple Of Time, in the flashback the one in the sky is in the same location as the one on the surface. But there were no changes in the land when it apparently went to the sky and the plateau looks the same.
There is a lot more, but this comment would be quite long. My thoughts would echo BanditGames and his recent rants on TOTK along with the yggdrasil podcast that had Bandit, Monster Maze, and etc talking about the sheer amount of lore that doesn't connect or make sense.
@@infinitecurlie the games have never attempted to be 1:1 continuations of each other-obvi down to the layout of Hyrule they’re all completely different. Hasn’t stopped people from making lore videos or drawing connections. Part of the fun is taking what otherwise doesn’t make sense and coming up with theories for why it would be like that. That’s what Zeltik is doing here (and Hyrule Gamer on his channel), and what all of them have been doing for all of the games the whole time. For some reason just because the continuation is closer this time, people are throwing tantrums and treating it completely differently. It’s always been fun BECAUSE it’s been different and the fun has always been in theorycrafting to make it make sense.
people in hateno know him though, you can even see link and zelda drawings made by the kids at the school
and about the temple of time, the original one got sent to the sky a long time ago after the war, after that the one we know from botw got built at some point, so there would be no reason for tha landscape to be afected @@infinitecurlie
I love the idea that they are all connected. The idea that the previous games exist in the same timeline as legends and myth truly makes the series of Zelda, a masterpiece work of art
I definitely prefer the idea that the ToTK founding of Hyrule happened way after everything already and its Ganondorf is another reincarnation of Demise than it just being a different universe
what nintendo needs to do is create a game that connects the three timelines at the end of all of them so its not confusing, and have a battle, that completely ends hyrule and everything is destoyed, then have the goddeses come back and create a new hyrule, and have rauru and stuff find it, so then they can continue making games even after totk because yeah im confused already but that would be cool.
What if botw and totk are cannon to all time lines
I think I've come up with something to explain the timeline discrepancies.
I headcanon that the reason the split occurs in Ocarina is because the Triforce is also split there and exposed to time shenanigans.
I mean think about it, it's the first time the Triforce ever split like that, it's a divine artifact, and Link unknowingly took his piece of it to the past 3 times. Once to get the Lens of Truth, next to do the first half of the Spirit Temple, and then finally when Zelda sent him back.
I also don’t think the one timeline is a result of Link's death so much as that there are two child timelines. The original past that connects to the adult timeline is basically locked away, but Link must still go back for the Lens and the Gold Gauntlets, yet all his deeds are erased.
So, he goes to the past of another timeline and this one causes Ganon to win because neither the Shadow nor Spirit Temples could be cleansed with those two items missing. Zelda then sends Link back to yet another timeline that had been untouched.
The splitting of the original Triforce scattered it's original pieces across two timelines and created a third. So, unifying them would make time whole again.
Courage went with Link to a new timeline, while Power and Wisdom stayed in the adult line. Unifying them would likely cause the completed original Triforce to resonate with its complete copies in the other timelines and merge time back together, and viola! The way is opened for Breath of the Wild and its sequel.
This would explain why the Courage piece of the Triforce was shattered in Wind Waker, not because the Hero’s Spirit didn’t exist and hadn't incarnated, Link is right there afterall, no, it's because the power of the original piece was gone.
Thus, sometime long before BotW and probably long after Zelda 2, there was an adventure to remerge the original Triforce together because its power couldn't remain split between three timelines indefinitely.
So there's my headcanon for why things are the way they are.
1:32 The sause of all monsters? ;)
Something which I would like to notate, is the fact the layanru mine constructs, Scrapper, Skipper, and robots from that region all share the same hand shape and structure that the zonal constructs which are zonai stewards have, with a bit of differences shown only in the coloring and the shape of the tip of the fingers, but otherwise having their hands not connected to their body.
The era of myth works well as a way to either be in such a distant future that all the other timelines are relegated there or simply that all these other games were myths. There's also other possible ways to answer some contradictions that would exist if all timelines do exist, like how we can have Rito, Gorons, _and_ Zora if the events of Wind Waker happened - other lands outside of Hyrule do exist as we can see given the map in BotW/TotK and with Yona who is from another [Zora's] Domain. If we take the idea of them being myths, though, it's possible that they could be viewed the same way real-world myths were made as attempts to explain the world where even the same story can vary by the teller or even how gods and goddesses often seem to be behaving in entirely different ways from one story to the next.
This idea is interesting, but I’ve always seen the world of botw/totk as an “inevitable end point” of the timeline. No matter what path you take after oot, you always end up with hyrule as it is in botw/totk, a possibly unfathomable time after the last game chronologically.
In this way, Hyrule will always have zora and rito and koroks eventually, but that can happen at different times depending on the state of the world (ie. the result of oot). All paths converge on botw and totk.
I think its so long in the future that all of the timelines have already happened
This is exactly right. People want so badly to think that these stories are histories. They have trouble letting them be the Legends that the title says they are. Once you do that, things get a lot simpler and it's still really enjoyable - maybe even more!
I like to imagine that one of the reasons all the timelines are brought back together is due to the first Hyrule Warriors, which pulls all the canon timelines into one single universe, with Hyrule Warriors happening near the end of the Era of Myth. It wouldn't take very long, perhaps, if someone could tempt Lana into doing something she did in the Past. Or the fact that the different timelines were all pulled in as part of "History" that the worlds eventually collided, ending the Era of Myth with the orginal Hyrules destroyed or possibly Rauru's Hyrule Kingdom is formed from the remnants of the three separate timelines' kingdoms, the Ganondorf sealed under Hylia, probably being the reincarnation of all three of Demise' Curse at once, or perhaps because there is both a "Calamity Ganon" and an actual "Ganondorf" perhaps because the Fallen Timeline's Ganon was consumed and fused with Yuga, that there's only TWO Ganondorfs to be resurrected, the one killed at the end of Wind Waker, and the one killed in the end of Twilight Princess, both being the same man.
I have a theory on the timelines. What if each piece of the triforce is connected to each timeline? Power = Fallen, Wisdom = Adult, Courage = Child. And the timeline BotW/TotK are in is the center of the other three timelines. Just as the center of the triforce lacks a piece of its own, so too does this timeline seem to lack a physical triforce of its own. Rather than a physical triforce holding the world together in this timeline, the existence of the other three timelines are what holds this timeline together.
Pretty much confirmed if the Hyrule Historia's depiction of the timeline is anything to go by. Also the Golden Goddesses are more than likely the ones responsible for the "timeline unification" as they have been shown interacting with the world across the series making a strong case for them been the ones responsible for "willing" the timelines into a single one once more.
This is why I love Zeltik. Other Zeldatuber like Bandit just too spoiled about the timeline. There's just multiple Link Zelda And Ganondorf with different new stories. New Era new founding of Hyrule is amazing.
This actually helped me understand the timeline better. Like a lot better haha!
One of my favorite Zelda-tubers in the comment section of another of my favorites. Yay!
PS the purple T-shirt (your merchandise) fits me better than 95% of T-shirts I’ve bought in stores. Really appreciate how exact the measurements were described (bonus for adding metric-system as well).
I love the timer on top. It made me laugh when I saw it, and the video is an excellently succinct recap! :D
Oh boy, here we go again...
I think that after the destruction of Hyrule in 2/3 timelines, something happened to unite the timelines. Probably divine intervention like in WW; then the Goddesses restablished Hyrule via the Zonai and the Secret Stones.
I think the big question is what happened to the Triforce during this time. It kind of seems like it's part of Zelda's bloodline now.
My takeaway - don't do drugs
Mine is that you can't just keep making the same basic game with tweaks and changes and insist that they all remain in an established timberline
Also, stop naming Garudo boys "Ganondorf," FFS. It never ends well
I feel like you had a timeline video at one point but I could never find it again. I’m so glad you made another one. All your videos are amazing.
The second Hyrule idea makes me feel so much better about TotK.
Welcome to the club.
Same 👍🏻
It is both funny and amazing how the older Zelda games appear to occur later down the Zelda timeline whereas the advanced and recent Zelda game occurr during the earlier phases of the Time line outside of the Switch games
such a great video
you didn't even watch it yet, bro
@@user-bf6gz8ej4o i know thats the point bro
EXCELLENT video Zeltik
I would've added the separate timeline from SS as well as the confirmed branched timeline created by AoC
My biggest question with the revelations from TotK is, "are Sonia and Zelda still reincarnations of Hylia", bc that story made it feel like Hylia somehow became a Goddess again and Zelda's powers come from Sonia and Rauru. But then there is also the fact that compared to Sonia (something we see on the Molduga swarm memory), Zelda has a lot more power, 100x more. But is that from having Rauru's blood, Hylia's blood or bc she wields the Triforce on her right hand? This are the questions that have been bugging me the most.
Hylia is Sonia's descendant
@@unoriginalname7925 You mean ancestor as Sonia is a mortal woman and Hylia a guardian goddess.
@unoriginalname7925 no, no she isn't. Sonia isn't a Goddess and was born millions of years in the future after the story of Skyward Sword.
This is very similar to my basic understanding of the timeline, although I have a few theories (with varying levels of 'made-up-stuff-just-to-make-it-fit' to them) that slightly change a few things.
For one, I think the regular interpretation of the 3-way timeline split is kind of off; I don't think that split has anything particularly to do with time travel (time travel has been used several other times throughout the series, and even within OoT itself and has never split the timelines before, only over-written them), and I think that it's not quite right to call them the 'adult' timeline, the 'child' timeline, and the 'hero defeated' timeline (even though Nintendo themselves have referred to them as such). Instead, I think each timeline was sustained from being overwritten by the timetravel by virtue of a piece of the triforce and the will of its wielder. Thus the 'adult' timeline is actually the timeline of Wisdom (or Zelda's timeline, in which she must remain and help her kingdom rebuild), the 'child' timeline is actually the timeline of Courage (aka, Link's timeline), and the 'hero defeated' timeline is actually the timeline of Power (or Ganondorf's timeline, where he seemingly looses himself to the Ganon transformation and is almost impossible to completely destroy).
I like to follow this up with the theory that there is a 'reconvergence' event, where the three timelines are fused back into one (likely in response to a yet-unknown threat, possibly to the entire Zelda multiverse) which quite possibly destroys or uses up the Triforce (hence its lack of appearance/mention in BotW and TotK, as well as the idea of Zonai and their Secret Stones being sent by the gods specifically to replace it).
There are a few other theories that I think make sense (and open up interesting future stories as well), such as my belief that Ganon and Ganondorf are actually two separate entities (and thus, Calamity Ganon is actually unrelated to TotK Ganondorf, and is actually probably the husk of Ganon from the split-timeline days), or a few wild ideas about the true origins of the Shiekah or the Zonai; as well as several headcanon reworking of some official claims to try and make some established things make more sense (particularly in regards to the nature and role of the various gods of the setting, especially Hylia).
I've been wanting to start my own channel for a while, and one of the ideas was to make a big Zelda timeline video that went into detail on all this stuff, but you know how it is when you are a serial procrastinator and have tons of plans that you never get around to...
If there was a spectrum of zelda theories we would be on complete opposite sides of it
Hylia is part Zonai and related to Sonia, and after the Zonai extinction, the Shiekah are founded by Hylians in the depths who worked for Minaru and eventually built the gates of time and developed the technology used 10,000 years before BOTW. Knowing the seal will break, they wait for a calamity and when one does happen they find the hero (Hylia's brother?) and used the gates of time to time travel to before the first calamity but leave some sheikah behind. these sheikah mostly live in the depths while attempting to block access what would become BOTW and TOTK hyrule. Demise comes and the rest of the timeline happens outside of BOTW Hyrlue
before the first calamity, the Sheikah and Hero complete the time travel, do all of their tech stuff, and build the shrine of resurrection, built to house the hero in the time between calamities so they can get him out whenever they need to. The King, realising they could do something similar to Zelda, ban Sheikah tech.
Demise could be one of 3 things
A: a calamity
B: ressurection of TOTK Ganon that got sent back in time (it is said Demise conquered time itself)
C: a result of his own curse due to time travel (it is said Demise conquered time itself)
@@unoriginalname7925 Yup, very different directions to take some of the lore (although we both seem to have latched on to the Sheikah connection to time travel).
My version of the Sheikah stuff came together from a couple of ideas and points; there are some incongruities with the Shiekah and their role as allies and servants of the Hyrule royal family and Hylia herself, they also are keepers of secrets and forbidden knowledge, and have strong connections to time travel (also, I’m like 98% convinced that Sonia is a Sheikah, not a Hylian).
There are some odd quirks about the Skyward Sword backstory/prologue stuff that I’ve always interpreted as the era before the appearance of Demise was an age of gods, with every tribe and race (not to mention locations, elements, types of creatures, etc) having their own patron deity; and Hylia was specifically the goddess of the Hylians (hence why she only could take the Hylians to Skyloft to flee Demise, and none of the other peoples). This means that the Sheikah, though shown to be servants of Hylia, were NOT actually her people, and had their own god or goddess originally.
To me, the answer that makes the most sense is that they are the people of the goddess of time; and that something happened to her (my theory is that some version of Vaati went back to the age of the gods and tried to consume her and take her powers, hence the eye motif seen on both him and the Sheikah, and that Hylia helped save her from being completely consumed by him, but had to seal them away, as is the trend in the series), and after the goddess of time was basically lost, her people latched onto Hylia, helping her set up her plan to stop demise and becoming servants of the Hyrule royal family ever after.
This gives some interesting opportunities for future games in my eyes (which for me, is the most important thing for lore of an ongoing series like Zelda: the potential for cool future stories). I like the idea that the Sheikah-Yiga split was actually a secret conflict when the forbidden knowledge was revealed that their original goddess was ‘dead’ or seems to be Vaati (I think if they made a Zelda game to really focus on NPC quests with more mysteries and dialogue mechanics, having an iteration of Link that was raised by the Sheikah during this time would be super interesting, and you could use it to foreshadow that the Sheikah goddess was actually evil for the conflict within the tribe, so that later you could reveal that she wasn’t actually, but Vaati, in taking her over, had been corrupting things).
Another possibility is that saving the goddess of time from Vaati might be a good premise for the reconvergence; restoring the goddess of time might be the only way to fix the splintered timeline (plus I’ve got this whole convoluted idea about the Master Sword being built from a piece of the Four-Sword due to time-travel shenanigans).
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While my Zonai theory isn’t nearly as involved, I do have one. I think that the Zonai are basically the Picori/Minish (either some kind of evolution of them, or their descendants/successors). They are both furry races sent by the gods themselves at the founding of Hyrule to give the sacred power of Light to the royal family, as well as bringing powerful artifacts to help the mortals in their time of need (also, the Zonai ancient hero has a little tuft of red on his tail that’s kind of reminiscent of the Picori).
Great video, I still consider BotW and TotK as taking place in a multiverse parallel to the Hyrule/timeline we knew. This explains the number of familiar references (people, places, events etc) that are similar to what we know but different to how we saw them unfold.
That's one way to see it. I just asume all Zelda switch games aren't canon at all.
Honestly this makes way more sense to me than the idea of establishing a second kingdom with the exact same name and same landmark names tens of thousands of years later. Also remember that Skyward Sword does kinda have two endings, one where The Imprisoned is crushed by the Sky Keep, and then the one where Link goes back a thousand years to kill Demise personally. It's very likely the a timeline split was created there, one where the OG timeline exists, then an alternate timeline where BotW/TotK exists.
Aonuma has confirmed in 2017 that Botw is after Oot on the timeline.
@@Ahouro where ded he do that? Do you have a source to back this up?
@@gamerofthetime Game informer march 2017 page 48
You are amazing! Wow. This was a very challenging project and you totally nailed it! Thank you!
Virgin Banditgames: uuugh talking bout Zelda isnt fun anymore
Chad Zeltik: want a new timeline video?😎
90% of this video is about talking about the same things we already know from 100 other timeline videos
I genuinely think it would be pretty funny to see the spin-off games on the timeline just to see where they’d end up lol
I was extremely disappointed by tears of the kingdom's lack of enemy variety. you should try to contact Nintendo and have them use your ideas for classic Zelda enemy redesigns that you showed off in your classic enemies reimagined videos in a potential third open-world Zelda game.
yeah they had six years and added like 3 new normal enemies
TOTK improves BOTW in many ways but it borrows too much, including its flaws
Lack of enemy variety my ass.
@petitthom2886 Any "flaw" you think the game had, I assure you it was fixed.
I don't know about that, it added 9 new enemies that weren't in Botw ( not 3 like someone else said lol)
I recently started thinking that TotK's ancient Hyrule is the start of a new cycle after the original timeline
Thanks however I prefer the 2 or 3 hour version
It's funny how some people say the zelda game doesn't have any stories, especially BOTW, but the truth is, the series does have a story, and a very interesting and deep lore at that. Zelda is designed to be a more gameplay rather than emphasizing on story. Twilight Princess is where nintendo actually combined the two aspects pretty well. I wish Twilight Princess was on the Switch. A remake of that game would've been bad ass, but I rather much see the next zelda game incorporate the story more. Bring back dungeons too. I rather have 125 mini dungeons mixed with big dungeons than have 170 boring shrines lol. Shrines are cool, but for the next zelda I rather see 25 shrines and more dungeons.
When will part 3 of the classic enemies reimagined series release?
There's going to be a part 3..?