The Legends of Zelda: Nintendo's Chronological Timeline
Nintendo's Timeline
NOTE: This book was originally released in Japan in 2011 displaying the official timeline that Nintendo works off of when they release a new Zelda title. This book has been translated and as of this writing has been released in America as well. Below you will find the timeline they wrote along with a video that GameTrailers made explaining the timeline. After everything there are little tidbits in which I found that makes me disagree with this. Enjoy.
Also note that after Ocarina of Time it splits into 3 sections. We knew two for sure, but one of the splits specifically states The Hero of Time was defeated. We are not sure what this means yet. There may be a Zelda game that fits into this section. But until then, it remains a hole in their overall plot. View after the timeline to see my bulletpoints on the in-accuracy of this timeline, in my opinion. Special thanks to www.glitterberri.com for translation x7razorback7x for the picture.
The Loopholes I have found with this.
-Ocarina of Time never had three different timelines at once. Nintendo has always claimed that it splits into 2 timeline after the events of Ocarina of Time.
-Going hand in hand with the above point, the Hero of Time was never defeated, so the fact that there is a section even called this baffles me entirely.
-Four Swords Adventures specifically has Ganon finding his trident which paves the road for the events of A Link to the Past. Nintendo also made this very apparent in Four Swords Adventures too. They had an entire area dedicated to getting there first before Ganon did. So it has to be important.
-At the end of A Link to the Past the credits say… “The Master Sword sleeps again… FOREVER!” However, you can obtain the weapon in both Oracle of Ages and Seasons. This one is huge, because the games have already been placed after A Link to the Past and no Zelda game being placed between the two can help that concept.
-Twinrova promises they would come back and attack Link’s descendants. In this particular timeline they would re-appear in the oracle games, taking place in the off-tangent side of the storyline.
-The Triforce has come together a total of 3 times in the events of all the games. Once in Skyward Sword, once in A Link to the Past, and once in Wind Waker. The Triforce has always needed perfect balance between power, courage, and wisdom to even touch it. In Skyward Sword, Zelda tells Link he has obtained all those facets to be able to do so. In Wind Waker the three holders naturally come together for the Triforce to be complete. In A Link to the Past, Link just goes and grabs it at the end after defeating Ganon. Now one would say, “Well, he did collect the pendants that you could assume just did that for him allowing him to touch the Triforce” and I would agree. However, at this point in the timeline the Triforce was still split into 3 sections, since (according to this timeline) A Link to the Past takes place after Ocarina of Time. Not to mention, Ganondorf states at the end of Ocarina of Time that he will come back to exterminate your descendants. However, in the A Link to the Past timeline, there is no more Ganondorf, there is only a Ganon. So what happened to Ganondorf, did he transform while in the Evil Realm? Okay, I can even be fine with that concept too, but once again how is Link holding the entire Triforce above his head at the end of the game with no Triforce of Wisdom collected from Zelda’s bloodline. This clue is also huge according to the lore Zelda has created. At one point Link would have needed to collect the Triforce of Wisdom, which he only does in one game, The Legend of Zelda. Which brings me to my next point.
-Let’s assume for a second that this is 100% accurate and that Link obtains the Triforce at the end of A Link to the Past. Checks up on it at the beginning of the Oracle series, then what? Taking Link’s Awakening out of the equation, because it was only a dream, Link comes back from his questing in the Oracle games to a destroyed Hyrule? How? Zelda is in the Oracle Games, and she doesn’t appear to be in any distress at all whatsoever about her beloved kingdom being destroyed. Then The Legend of Zelda takes place where Zelda gets kidnapped and then splits her Triforce of Wisdom into 8 pieces. Wait a second, where did she even get the Triforce of Wisdom if Link had retrieved the entire Triforce in A Link to the Past. Once again a major loophole.
-In Twilight Princess Link has the image of the Triforce of Courage. We assume he has the Triforce of Courage did not go back to Link when he returned as a kid because Ocarina of Time had Link grow up in the first place because he needed to be an adult to be the Hero and obtain the Triforce. In my timeline at this point Link goes back to his time at the end of Ocarina of Time and then goes onto Majora’s Mask. But then I have him go through the events of Adventure of Link to re-obtain the Triforce of Courage before he even, and then The Legend of Zelda to get the Triforce of Wisdom, and then A Link to the Past for Power. However, Link already has it in Twilight Princess with no explanation of it. At least mine explains it.
Now I know a lot of these things are simple loopholes that Nintendo can fill the gaps with. You can fit so many things in between each and every game basically setting this up entirely so that it makes 100% sense. But we are talking about a game that needs to take place after Ocarina of Time and before A Link to the Past. A game that has to be released to take place in between the Oracle series and The Legend of Zelda. I understand that some of this is speculation too but some is not. The Master Sword sleeps forever in my timeline, but doesn’t in Nintendo’s. Also the whole Triforce thing as well needs to be covered completely for anything in the left branch of the timeline to be explained better. Also with Twilight Princess, there needs to be a game before it explaining how Link obtained the Triforce of Courage, because Ocarina of Time does state that he needed to be an adult to be the Hero and obtain the Triforce of Courage and when he went back to being a kid, he lost it. This part is also not speculation.
Well, there you have it. If I find more loopholes in it I will definitely post them.
-Zyndae
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