It's Official: The "Zelda" Timeline has been Translated

The moment we've been waiting for since we realized there was a "Zelda" timeline.

[Agent Smith]

Interesting

[Bay]

Still doesn't explain why Link is inconsistently older and younger in various games - if there's a continuous timeline with Skyward Sword being the earliest, then that doesn't explain Link being older in it.

I'd rather just accept the Legend of Zelda games each as their own contained story, except for Majora's Mask and OoT.

[PirateThom]

It's not the same Link in each game.

[NukaCola]

@Bay

This was already figured out recently. There are 3 paths that come off of Ocarina of Time. There was a rip in the paradoz due to messing with Time.

Led to the Future after like in Wind Waker and on.
Alternate universe starting with Link to the Past, and then
I believe the natural continuation as if all was well hence Majora's mask.

You can google the link to find it out, but it is well put together and makes sense. I do wish Nintendo would release an actual book that historically sets it all into place.

As for Mario there are 3 time lines
The RPG, the platform and the party universes.

[TheFirstClassic]

Link gets reincarnated or something like that I'm pretty sure. I think I remember TP referencing that in some way, and they give you the "clothes of the ancient hero" or something like that, which are the green clothes link always wears. Also, remember in TP when you get shot in the sky to some floating land? It's kind of like the landmasses in SS, but have since been abondoned.

However, I think it's pretty dumb that they went and made alternate histories. They should just have one straight timeline, and their shouldn't be any question of whether Link won or not in Oot. Whatever...maybe I'm too picky.

[ChickeyCantor]

Was it wrong for me to laugh at Bay?

XD

[Bay]

Lol I laugh at myself for not knowing much of this. I played a lot of the Legend of Zelda games when I was way younger (a ton of OoT, Majora's Mask and the Oracle of games a lot), and only recently played Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword (only one I ever skipped was Spirit Tracks).

I didn't think too much on it, although I did come to the conclusion that every link is either alternate dimension, or the world of the game destroys and reincarnates itself over and over.

But really, I wish the connections were stronger and had more mention in the games besides just a prophecy or relics of previous Links. Maybe Nintendo can start a new chronicle starting off Skyward Sword, I dunno.

[ChickeyCantor]

Skyward sword just establishes the world of hyrule though.

The first princess and all.

[Micro_Sony]

Both Occarina of time and Majora's Mask were directly linked timeline wise i.e. the same Link, Zelda and world. It speaks volumes that these are also the best loved Zelda games of the last decade. For me they are the best in the bunch because they start to tell the story of what happens to link after he saves Hyrule and starts the journey of a wandering hero. Arguably the tale we all want to hear anyway.

We all love continuity in stories because we like to follow the adventures of our favourite hero. A re-boot removes any connection we had with that hero and so causes us to think twice about re-investing time into their story. I don't consider it a good thing that the same tale is simply re-told with new characters or locations. This only worked in stories like Robin hood because originally they were told through word of mouth and so would often be embelished by the teller. Nowadays with the proliferation of books and reading, it is identical in the telling from one version to another and only the actors change. If you've seen one robin hood movie, you've seen them all. They may have more flashy explosions but, when all is said and done, you still have sherwood forest, a guy called robin, king richard, robbing of the rich to feed the poor and a maid called marion for fobin to rescue and marry. The rest is incidental fluff.

I feel that Zelda is pretty much a robin hood style story. Certainly it's starting to feel like if you've played one Zelda, you've played them all. The core story never changes, nor does the task assigned the hero. All Zelda games have the following in common; The guardians create the world and leave the tri-force, the tri-force is split by greed, link get's the power of courage, gannon get's power and zelda get's wisdom. Link has to save zelda from gannon to stop all the pieces being re-united (no idea what the wisdom tri-force piece has to do with wisdom, if it continually chooses zelda, arguably the person with the least wisdom of all the characters! but that's another argument...).

I would argue that you don't need a unifying timeline for zelda as it feels more like one story being told on a grapevine, where each teller get's part of the story wrong or changes parts of it to embelish deeds that would otherwise seem dull and routine. Eventually all stories like that become forgotten as new deeds and tales take their place. This usually happens because people start to correct the story teller as they have heard the story many times before and can spot the inconsistencies within it. I would argue that this is what is starting to happen to the Zelda series. The fans have played through enough zelda games to spot the similarities and the flaws in the tales. Eventually they will not even need to play the games in order to predict with almost perfect accuracy, what will happen throughout any new zelda story.

To advance the tale Nintendo would be best served by forgetting the old story and instead building on the journey that was started with Majora's mask. Taking link to new places and forgetting the old characters all together. Perhaps re-visiting them far down the line, when the hero eventually returns to Hyrule. Let's face it. A lot of us are fed up of rescuing the wise zelda from her own short sighted stupidity. If the tri-force had any sense it would simply find link and yell "Let's get out of here before Gannon and dopey er Zelda show up!"

[pcz]

lol you talk too much sense. Thats why you have one bubble, just like me :D

[trikster40]

Great, now where is my Mario Bros. timeline?

[despair]

that one could take years to decipher.

[ChickeyCantor]

If only there was a hint that there was a third dimension where links adventures went on.

It makes more sense now.