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[decoyplatypus]

Here's how I figure Zelda works. They have some vague ideas about stories they might like to tell. They DO plan SOME things ahead because they did explicitly set up the split timeline with OoT. They designed OoT around the idea of ALttP's prologue and showed Link at the end with the triforce in his hand setting up an alternate timeline. That means that they had some idea of what they wanted to do with the future of Zelda. The create a game first with the gameplay in mind, and then they chose a story to fit the gameplay, but this doesn't mean they don't have stories waiting to be told. In the case of this game, they wanted to make a game hearkening back to Zeldas of the past and chose a plot that would set up such gameplay and a world. Fallen Hero would be the best choice for that.

I think we disagree on the level of forethought in some of these story seeds. For example, although OoT was clearly designed around LttP's prologue, I don't think Nintendo wrote LttP's prologue intending for it to be used in later games. And while OoT's ending in fact led directly to the plots of Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess, I kind of doubt that anyone at the time thought that they were setting up future games. But I'm not working from any development sources here, so I could very well be mistaken.

As for the appropriateness of the Fallen Hero timeline, I will defer to your knowledge of the timelines. My intuition is that Nintendo is plenty willing to retcon timelines or place games in uncertain relation to the rest of the continuity (after all, any newly-created hole is a chance for another game to close the gap) but as I said, I don't go in for timeline theory. Maybe they've been more serious about the timeline stuff than I realized.

 

[Bjoern the Smexy]

The three timelines merging into one again would be very great and brilliant.
I would support that decision.

BotW makes me so brutally interested in the game's story and lore, I'd almost treat it like a sweet Souls game if it hadn't Zelda right there in its title.

 

[Benzychenz]

-Hyrule was DESTROYED at the end of Wind Waker. The way the ruins in this game look this set within 100 years of OoT. These aren't ruins that have been underwater.

The flood seemed magical from the start. Hyrule Castle and everything was chilling nicely underwater in Wind Waker. So if they want the Temple of Time there it's not that much of a stretch for them to plop it down there.

-New Hyrule was settled and people were enjoying an industrial revolution. Even if the Great Sea was drained, why would anyone go back to hicksville Hyrule?

Why would anyone have to go back? People would still be living on the islands over the hundreds or thousands of years it took for the land to be restored.
And the game seems to be based on exploring a wild world, so a low population makes sense.

-The games getting the most references are OoT and Skyward Sword. The general geography is very OoT, the Temple of Time is straight out of OoT. Lots of references to Hylia and the pre-Skyward Sword technologically advance Sheikah civilization.

Well I mean, OoT is the most popular Zelda and Skyward is the most recent, so yeah of course they'll get references.

-Ganon straight up died in Wind Waker. This would have to be a new Ganon or a reincarnation of Ganon.

Uhhh yeah. That's kind of his thing.

 

[CharminUltra]

Zelda lore makes me head hurt. Which is why I stick to the glorious gameplay.

It's cool that it is there for those who like dig it, of course.

 

[MajorMane]

Is that said specifically though? Unless it was, for all we know it could have happened sometime when Ganondorf was revived.

It really wouldn't make any sense to go after Wind Waker, as Hyrule is underwater, and ST is somewhere completely different with none of this stuff.

This quote from the Great Deku Tree in Wind Waker specifically makes me believe that the evolution of Kokiri into Korok was spurred on by the great flood:

"Once upon a time, long ago, the Koroks took on human forms, but when they came to live on the sea, they took these shapes."

Thus I'm not sure they'd be possible in other timelines. (lifefindsaway.gif)

It's possible they are just there for cameo appearance, but why not just use fairies or something else then? Why specifically Korok who have only appeared in one game?

 

[Eric the Red]

OP is thinking how I'm thinking.

What's more I think the absence of visible towns on the map (and why they were held back for spoilers) is because each is a different period of history you must travel to to learn / retrieve something. Perhaps spirit orbs allow your spirit to travel in that way. It would also sync up with the way that shrines are detached from the game world that towns would work in the same way.

Well they confirmed on the treehouse stream that they took out npcs and towns for the demo so we can concentrate only on the map and systems this E3. So I wouldn't factor their absence into the lore.

 

[Soapbox Killer]

I think I got!


Much like Ocarina of Time having 2 sequels (Majora's Mask and Wind Waker), Breath of the Wild is the sequel to Skyward Sword but placed at the end of the Adult Time Line. This Link is the Hero of Legend, which explains the right handedness but how does that Link end up 10,000 years or so in the future?

The Gates of Time.


What if after the the Sky Era ended (Skyward Sword) but before the Era of Chaos before The Minish Cap but there is no game for that huge gap. It's annotated in Hyrule Historia that something happens here but we don't know what. What we do know is that once the people learned of the Great Power know as the Triforce, greed and lust became the people and there was much chaos in Hyrule. Link and Zelda attempt to hide the Triforce using the Gate of Time but fail* and Link is trapped in the device. (that is why it is eventually sealed in the Sacred Realm by Rauru. They attempt to free him but send him far into the future

There was much technology in the Old Kingdom of Hyrule. They even had robots (scrapper) and lasers and the like. Maybe they also got through the gate but come out 100 years prior to Link or something to thais effect.


I'll stop here and wait to see why this theory is much wrong.

 

[AGITΩ]

Here's another thought: You know how when Ganon reappeared in the WW prologue and the people waited for the hero to appear, but he never did?

Maybe the Sheikah were trying to "create" their own hero with their technology/magic (knowing that the hero was permanently gone from their timeline due to the events of the adult timeline of OoT), but the process wasn't completed in time to save Hyrule from the flood, and "Link" ends up waking up super late, far after the ocean already evaporated. And also with the ocean finally evaporated, Ganon's spirit is freed somewhat from his stone body, although limited in its movement.

That's really the biggest mystery, who is the Link? Possibly WW Link but I doubt it, Maybe an Incarnation of the Hero's Spirit who was just born too Late or Too Early and the Sheikah or the Hylian Royal Family/both just raised him of Age and kept him suspended until the proper time. Or it could be possible that yes, this is the Hero's Spirit/Hero of Time, gone from the Era of Wind and needing a proper vessel, since they were lost to a parallel universe, they created the prime vessel for him. With the Lack of a Hero after OoT Adult timeline, Zelda[OoT/Sheik] was forced to revive or rather, re-emerge the Sheikah tribe to take care of Hyrule, so as Hyrule was Flooded, the Sheikah elders protected the artifacts and legacy of the Original Hyrule.

 

[RagnarokX]

I think we disagree on the level of forethought in some of these story seeds. For example, although OoT was clearly designed around LttP's prologue, I don't think Nintendo wrote LttP's prologue intending for it to be used in later games. And while OoT's ending in fact led directly to the plots of Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess, I kind of doubt that anyone at the time thought that they were setting up future games. But I'm not working from any development sources here, so I could very well be mistaken.

As for the appropriateness of the Fallen Hero timeline, I will defer to your knowledge of the timelines. My intuition is that Nintendo is plenty willing to retcon timelines or place games in uncertain relation to the rest of the continuity (after all, any newly-created hole is a chance for another game to close the gap) but as I said, I don't go in for timeline theory. Maybe they've been more serious about the timeline stuff than I realized.

You misunderstand. I'm in no way implying that they created ALttP's prologue with the thought of making OoT. I'm saying that they were very open during OoT's development that they were designing OoT around ALttP's prologue. Ultimately that ended up being a failure, but that's what they were trying to do.

As for setting up future games with OoT, that is certain. They may not have known EXACTLY what stories they wanted to tell after OoT, but what they did know was that they wanted to have two timelines. They explicitly set this up with a detail that most people don't notice because it's very subtle but has huge plot implications that they expounded upon in sequels.

This is the very last scene in OoT. After being sent back in time by Zelda, Link meets with Zelda in the past for the first time again, but this time things are different. If you look at his left hand, he has the triforce of courage. This ending purposely set up the split timeline for future games.

The two indirect sequels to follow OoT immediately made use of the things that OoT set up. Wind Waker made use of the idea that being sent back in time erased the Hero from the timeline he left, create a world without a Hero that was doomed. Twilight Princess made use of the idea that Link having the triforce of courage in the new timeline also meant that Ganon got the triforce of power.

The flood seemed magical from the start. Hyrule Castle and everything was chilling nicely underwater in Wind Waker. So if they want the Temple of Time there it's not that much of a stretch for them to plop it down there.


Why would anyone have to go back? People would still be living on the islands over the hundreds or thousands of years it took for the land to be restored.
And the game seems to be based on exploring a wild world, so a low population makes sense.


Well I mean, OoT is the most popular Zelda and Skyward is the most recent, so yeah of course they'll get references.


Uhhh yeah. That's kind of his thing.

-Hyrule was protected from the flood by a barrier until the end of WW. At the end Daphnes wished for Hyrule to be swept away and the magical barrier went away and Hyrule was destroyed by the ocean.

-Hyrule Castle is definitely in this game and it's very safe to assume Zelda is there. The royal family would have had to move the kingdom back there because Zelda is a specific bloodline.

-The references aren't just throwaway. This game seems deeply tied to those 2 games specifically and not as long after them as a game set after Spirit Tracks. Especially with all of the references to ancient technology and the sheikah, who pretty much disappeared in TWW's timeline.

-Reincarnating is not Ganon's thing. He has only been killed twice, once in each timeline. In the others he was simply sealed. Only once has Ganon reincarnated, and that was in FSA, which had a throwaway plot. Oracles and Zelda 2 had his followers try to revive him, but ALBW shows that he wasn't killed in ALttP, just sealed in darkness.

That's really the biggest mystery, who is the Link? Possibly WW Link but I doubt it, Maybe an Incarnation of the Hero's Spirit who was just born too Late or Too Early and the Sheikah or the Hylian Royal Family/both just raised him of Age and kept him suspended until the proper time. Or it could be possible that yes, this is the Hero's Spirit/Hero of Time, gone from the Era of Wind and needing a proper vessel, since they were lost to a parallel universe, they created the prime vessel for him. With the Lack of a Hero after OoT Adult timeline, Zelda[OoT/Sheik] was forced to revive or rather, re-emerge the Sheikah tribe to take care of Hyrule, so as Hyrule was Flooded, the Sheikah elders protected the artifacts and legacy of the Original Hyrule.

His being awakened in a tub called a "care unit" and having amnesia implies that he is a Link who got his ass kicked really really hard 100 years ago.

 

[eyeball_kid]

I think the Old Man / King link is a bit tenuous. I don't really see a strong resemblance. I think it's more likely, given the strong influence from Zelda 1, that the Old Man is an homage to Zelda 1's Old Man in the cave.

 

[_Clash_]

He's the hero that never arrived mentioned in WW opening for mine

Maybe with some connection to the child timeline through a twilight realm.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

I really support the idea that this Link is a Link that we know. That makes things so much more interesting.

 

[Crayolan]

Crazy theory: The Hyrule in BotW is actually the sealed Hyrule under the sea in WW (but before WW's Link is born), that's why it's so devoid of human life and the only reason Link is able to even be here is because he was cryogenically frozen in time. Note how the only other human we've seen seems to resemble the only other human known to be able to access the flooded hyrule in WW.

 

[Soapbox Killer]

He's the hero that never arrived mentioned in WW opening for mine

Maybe with some connection to the child timeline through a twilight realm.

But that Link dies in before Twilight Princess but after Majora's Mask. Hard to be him.

 

[watershed]

Crazy theory: The Hyrule in BotW is actually the sealed Hyrule under the sea in WW (but before WW's Link is born), that's why it's so devoid of human life and the only reason Link is able to even be here is because he was cryogenically frozen in time. Note how the only other human we've seen seems to resemble the only other human known to be able to access the flooded hyrule in WW.

But they already confirmed towns and npcs beyond the great plateau in the actual game.

 

[Crayolan]

But they already confirmed towns and npcs beyond the great plateau in the actual game.

Other people who froze themselves to survive the initial flood.

Spoiler

I didn't put that much thought into this lol

 

[Diffense]

If Link is a previous Link, he's probably Skyward Sword Link, considering he's right handed, and SS Link is the only canonically right-handed Link (for good reason in Skyward Sword, but for seemingly no reason in BotW...)

It would be cool to have the "final" story in the Zelda timline star the very first Link.

It would be quite something if BotW is a direct sequel to SS with the same Link and Zelda. Assuming the voice is Zelda, it's no wonder she would be saying "Try to Remember". At the end of SS they decided to

Spoiler

stay on the surface

and probably something happened to release the evil they defeated.

The Koroks don't really fit into this scenario though because they're so strongly associated with tWW.

 

[AGITΩ]

He's the hero that never arrived mentioned in WW opening for mine

Maybe with some connection to the child timeline through a twilight realm.

I still believe it's safe to believe that the Hero that failed to show up was Adult Link from OoT since he was sent back in time, which lead to the Hero's Spirit from leaving that timeline and why WW Link had to reconstruct and replace him as a whole new Hero's Spirit.

Twilight Realm could still be a possibility in the Adult or Fallen Timeline, as the events that lead to the Twili becoming what they are (and likely are Sheikah that turned against their roles and were banished) likely happened well before OoT. Once again leading to my theory of seeing what happened to these established races in one timeline, seen interact in a parallel timeline.

 

[KingBroly]

I'm left wondering how Link was awoken. I know what's the big mystery behind the narrative, I suppose, but if it was Zelda that woke him, she either has telepathy...or something else is going on. The Old Man didn't wake him. He doesn't seem to care who Link is or where he came from.

 

[CronoShot]

I'm left wondering how Link was awoken. I know what's the big mystery behind the narrative, I suppose, but if it was Zelda that woke him, she either has telepathy...or something else is going on. The Old Man didn't wake him. He doesn't seem to care who Link is or where he came from.

Zelda woke him up with telepathy (or magic, whatever you want to call it) in ALttP too.

 

[watershed]

I'm wondering if Koroks should be thought of as belonging to WW because that's the only other time we've seen them or if this game is really just showing that they are now a part of Zelda lore in general like the Sheikah or even different incarnations like Impa or Beedle.

 

[Fandangox]

This is the first time I'm actually interested in finding out where a Zelda game would fit on the timeline. I think it may be on the Zelda 1 timeline as its mentioned as the "era of decline"

I'm more interested in the Master Sword though, never really occurred to me that thing could even get rusted.

 

[Benzychenz]

I'm more interested in the Master Sword though, never really occurred to me that thing could even get rusted.

Well considering this is after Wind Waker, it was sitting underwater for potentially thousands of years.

It poses the question of who moved it from Ganon's skull back to it's pedestal in the woods though.

 

[AGITΩ]

I'm left wondering how Link was awoken. I know what's the big mystery behind the narrative, I suppose, but if it was Zelda that woke him, she either has telepathy...or something else is going on. The Old Man didn't wake him. He doesn't seem to care who Link is or where he came from.

It could be a Reverse Skyward Sword in a sense. Zelda went back in time and was frozen in stone after fulfilling her duty, with Link reviving her after her had cleared the path. Possibly Zelda or whoever is also a Hylian from the past that awoke before Link or herd of a tale of the Hero's Spirit laying dormant until the time needed to reawaken him. Since Link seemed pretty aware of who Ganon was when he was told of him.

 

[zeldablue]

I have no idea where I'd put this in the timeline. I think it could be:

- Between OoT and ALttP
- Between OoT and TWW
- at the very end of any of the timeline branches
- Or...a new stemmed off timeline.

It can't possible be before OoT, because Ganon(dorf) didn't exist yet.

Either way...Nintendo likes to keep Zelda games tight and self-contained for newcomers, so even though I wish this was a previous Link...I think it's a new one. And maybe we'll get to play flashbacks of when he was around 100 years in the past. And find out how he "fell asleep."

But anywaaaays...about the Resurrection Towers. Zelda usually borrows heavily from real world mythologies...both western and eastern. Dang...what if this is like Link coming back from the dead and resurrecting other important characters from the past?

Also...is anyone else bothered by the Sheikah? They were introduced in OoT as ninja guardians who died out during prolonged wars fighting alongside the Royal Family. And I still think about the Shadow Temple and undead stuff when they are mentioned. Now I have to think about sci-fi stuff...?

At the same time, they mentioned "clairvoyance" in the demo...which makes sense. The Eye (Lens/Mask) of Truth could be used to see through illusions, see the dead, talk to animals and even (supposedly) read people's minds. I hope the Sheikah Slate gets into that.

This whole game has something to do with "Opening your eyes" in a more...6th sense sort of way, I think. Maybe that's how we learn more about where the game takes place. Though honestly...I don't think it'll matter too much, because, like I said, Zelda games are usually very self contained experiences story-wise.

 

[RagnarokX]

I'm left wondering how Link was awoken. I know what's the big mystery behind the narrative, I suppose, but if it was Zelda that woke him, she either has telepathy...or something else is going on. The Old Man didn't wake him. He doesn't seem to care who Link is or where he came from.

Zelda has telepathy to varying degrees. Sometimes, like in OoT, SS, and ALBW she shares dreams with Link. In others like ALttP and this game she talks to him.

Zelda doesn't even need telepathy to accomplish this in this game though. Link awakens in a Shiekah medical chamber. It could have been a recording or she could have been talking to him via a device. Sheikah Stones were used for long distance communication, and the Sheikah Slate calls itself a Sheikah Stone:

 

[AGITΩ]

I'm wondering if Koroks should be thought of as belonging to WW because that's the only other time we've seen them or if this game is really just showing that they are now a part of Zelda lore in general like the Sheikah or even different incarnations like Impa or Beedle.

Since the Koroks are a race that exist Post OoT and not During or Mentioned in Pre OoT, that's what leads to the Post WW timeline theory.
Adult Timeline Kokiri became Koroks with the Great Flood to survive in the new Great Deku tree, while Decline era Kokiri are believed to have become the Thieves in the Forest, given their attire being similar to the Kokiri but they looked older thanks to the lack of a Deku tree. Child Era is iffy, with theories of them being the Monkey's in TP given their ties to the "Kokiri Symbol" being tattooed on their arms.

 

[brownfedora]

I was thinking this during the reveal and gameplay the other day with how Kooks can only exist within a Wind Waker timeline due to environmental change and how every other element can show up regardless of that fact. I personally think it will be some Turn A Gundam shit where the timelines all converge because of a consistent wall in every timeline that each hero hits.

Being Calamity Ganon.

Turn A Gundam is pretty cool.

Stick with me here.

Calamity Ganon is like the temporal anomaly in the Star Trek TNG finale All Good Things forcing the timelines together. Who's with me?

 

[RagnarokX]

Since the Koroks are a race that exist Post OoT and not During or Mentioned in Pre OoT, that's what leads to the Post WW timeline theory.
Adult Timeline Kokiri became Koroks with the Great Flood to survive in the new Great Deku tree, while Decline era Kokiri are believed to have become the Thieves in the Forest, given their attire being similar to the Kokiri but they looked older thanks to the lack of a Deku tree. Child Era is iffy, with theories of them being the Monkey's in TP given their ties to the "Kokiri Symbol" being tattooed on their arms.

The Great Deku Tree just says "Once upon a time, long ago, the Koroks took on human forms, but when they came to live on the sea, they took these shapes." This doesn't preclude them from changing their form in other timelines for other reasons. The form gives them the ability to fly, which is pretty sweet. It would be very helpful in in BotW's massive world. Maybe they took flight in this era because Ganon wreaked havoc on the forests and they are reforesting the world.

Connecting the forest thieves to the Kokiri is some serious reaching. Not every game has to have an analog.

 

[SpaceCadetKeon]

*reads op*

Dude. Holy shit. What a fascinating idea.

If this ends up being true, if merging the timelines is what they're actually going for here, then...damn. I take back most of my bitching since Tuesday. In fact, I'm done bitching. I'm interested in seeing where this goes.

 

[zeldablue]

The Great Deku Tree just says "Once upon a time, long ago, the Koroks took on human forms, but when they came to live on the sea, they took these shapes." This doesn't preclude them from changing their form in other timelines for other reasons. The form gives them the ability to fly, which is pretty sweet. It would be very helpful in in BotW's massive world. Maybe they took flight in this era because Ganon wreaked havoc on the forests and they are reforesting the world.

Connecting the forest thieves to the Kokiri is some serious reaching. Not every game has to have an analog.

I agree. The Kokiri are forest/fairy spirits. They can probably take on any form they want. Maybe they just had human forms in OoT because they had a desire to interact with humans. Then when they wanted to isolate themselves...they changed into tree thingies.

They're based off of "Kodama" so chances are they're hard to spot/see and they appear differently to different people.

 

[watershed]

I feel like Koroks are free to reoccur as little spirits without them being directly tied to WW. Hasn't this happened to a number of races/characters throughout Zelda history? The Zora for example have had different forms/homes/evolutions across games so they are not directly tied to any one Zelda game or timeline.

 

[CronoShot]

If you go back and the watch the intro to Wind Waker, there is a key element missing to the entire intro which is kinda interesting. It's Zelda. She's not mentioned at all. Link defeated Ganon. Link saved Hyrule. Link failed to show up. But if you were there, you know that Zelda sealed Ganon away. She's the 7th Sage. She has the Triforce of Wisdom. Why, in a series called "The Legend of ZELDA" is there no Legend about her? I mean, I guess you can say they tried with Skyward Sword, but I wouldn't say it pushed her as much as it should have. Where was she at the time of Ganon's reincarnation as a supposed black cloud of death in the Wind Waker intro? It's all quite curious to me.

We do know there was at least one Zelda born after OoT Zelda but before the flood.

 

[Kinokou]

Honestly I think this game takes place after Zelda 2 in the fallen hero timeline. Mainly because of the parallels between Link trying to awaken Princess Zelda and now a female voice (most likely Zelda) wakes Link up from a deep sleep. Maybe it's just parallels or maybe it's a coincidence but that was the first thing I thought of when I saw the trailer.

Not to mention their the only two Zelda games with a jump button. Zelda 2 Link is the same one and the only Link to ever know how to jump! It all makes sense!

I was thinking the same, the jump connection could be relevant to the timeline convergence.

It could be possible that after Link woke Zelda (Zelda 2 and U spoiler)

Spoiler

someone reverse engineered the sleeping spell since it was such a great preservative (Impa tells Link that the maiden is Zelda (not the Zelda from the first game), the princess of Hyrule from long ago, and the origin of the "Legend of Zelda". According to wikipedia) and it was later worked into the care unit Link wakes from.

Which is a much thinner theory, but also kind of makes sense if you ask me.

 

[ElFly]

Maybe another tradition they are doing away with is the dumb timeline.

 

[WordAssassin]

Kinda had to given that one of the handheld games is a direct sequel to a console game lol

IMO, if there is a timeline reunification, you're either gonna need time travel and world hopping. Timelines don't just come back together themselves, that'd make literally zero sense.

Not true. Totally depends on the kind of time you have in your story. It could be that there is one timeline, and the events of OoT caused it to split, which is an unnatural state for it so it has been trying to close itself back down into one single stream again. They could make it pretty crazy and terrifying as the worlds from each split off the main timeline begin phasing out and crumbling from the splits merging back into one.

Not saying that they'll go this way just saying there's a pretty easy way to have time itself trying to pull the fractured lines back together.

Edit: I feel like there's a really good story and game mechanic in there but I doubt Nintendo would ever do it. Have the game take place across the three timelines with three different Links and the reason they all answered the Hero's Call "at the same time" is because their respective timelines are coming to an end and you have to do something across all three timelines before they converge. Almost like a really intense sequel to Majora's Mask only instead of a moon it's literally the end of time for 2 of the 3 Links. So then when they converge the 3 Heroes of Time converge into one and that's the Link you control for the remainder of the game. Or you control 3 different Links at once for a segment, bringing in Four Swords gameplay, fighting 3 Ganons, and then they converge into Ganon Prime and the three Links converge too.

 

[Mariolee]

Maybe Hyrule Warriors is the Crisis on Infinite Earths and Breath of the Wild is Rebirth.

(Note: I don't read comics)

 

[ElFly]

Here's how I figure Zelda works. They have some vague ideas about stories they might like to tell. They DO plan SOME things ahead because they did explicitly set up the split timeline with OoT. They designed OoT around the idea of ALttP's prologue and showed Link at the end with the triforce in his hand setting up an alternate timeline. That means that they had some idea of what they wanted to do with the future of Zelda. The create a game first with the gameplay in mind, and then they chose a story to fit the gameplay, but this doesn't mean they don't have stories waiting to be told. In the case of this game, they wanted to make a game hearkening back to Zeldas of the past and chose a plot that would set up such gameplay and a world. Fallen Hero would be the best choice for that.

I think SS is more plot/timeline focused, given how from the start it deals with the goddess and the floating city.

But if you look at stuff like Twilight Princess, that game could have been put almost anywhere in the timeline by changing like one cutscene, namely, the execution of Ganon.

 

[bachikarn]

OoT was made with the intent that it tell the story of ALttP's prologue about the Imprisoning War. However some time between OoT and WW Nintendo apparently abandoned this idea, likely because OoT doesn't really make any sense as the Imprisoning War and Zelda 2's plot paints them into a corner..

Can you explain why OoT doesn't work as the Imprisoning War? I still don't quite get why there needs to be a timeline where the hero is defeated. Is ALBW in this timeline?

 

[justchris]

It would be quite something if BotW is a direct sequel to SS with the same Link and Zelda. Assuming the voice is Zelda, it's no wonder she would be saying "Try to Remember". At the end of SS they decided to

Spoiler

stay on the surface

and probably something happened to release the evil they defeated.

The Koroks don't really fit into this scenario though because they're so strongly associated with tWW.

Well, there's always the possibility that the Kokiri were Koroks first, then evolved into the Kokiri, only to become Koroks again after the great flood. Cause reasons.

 

[WillyFive]

The same locations exist in all three timelines already, this doesn't mean they are being converged, it just means the game takes place in the future.

The Koroks are probably the one clue to the game's timeline, and that is only assuming they evolved due to the Great Flood and didn't exist outside of that.

 

[Litri]

If that is true, it would be really awesome.

 

[foxuzamaki]

Ive been thinking of a theory that might be the sequel to either wind waker or twilight princess, or maybe even both, in WW its said that link just disappeared, and when he did ganondorf took over until the goddesses flooded the land, this could be hyrule after the water receded.

Or this could be Link after MM where he somehow got in the situation he's in now, wakes up and goes on this journey, and in this journey he acquires a certain armor set, and after defeating calamity ganon and bringing order back to hyrule, he still had some regrets that we might see in the story and so he goes to the lost forest and gets lost, maybe intentionally so and ends up becoming the hero's shade.

 

[RagnarokX]

Can you explain why OoT doesn't work as the Imprisoning War? I still don't quite get why there needs to be a timeline where the hero is defeated. Is ALBW in this timeline?

Sure.

The way things went down according to ALttP:

Ganondorf went to the Sacred Realm, found the Triforce, and made a wish. He got stuck in the Sacred Realm. A long time passed and people started disappearing through portals to the Sacred Realm in search of the Triforce and became members of Ganon's army. Evil started spilling out of the portals. The Knights of Hyrule and the sages were ordered to seal the portals in what became known as The Imprisoning War. The sages searched for someone worthy to wield the Master Sword, but nobody could be found, so they just sealed up the portals and called it a day.

The problems with OoT as The Imprisoning War:
-Ganon never gets the complete Triforce. He ends the game sealed in the Sacred Realm with just the Triforce of Power. He has the whole Triforce in ALttP and the only way he can get it is by beating Link and Zelda.
-Ganon was not directly involved in The Imprisoning War. He was trapped in the Sacred Realm and sent his forces out. In OoT he isn't trapped and manages to take over the Hyrule, destroying Hyrule Castle and building his own castle.
-There was no Hero. The sages searched for a person worthy of wielding the Master Sword but they never found one.

The Fallen Hero timeline fixes these issues by explaining how Ganon got the complete Triforce (by beating Link) and how he got stuck in the Sacred Realm (he was sealed by Zelda and the sages after Link was defeated) and it moves the Imprisoning War to some generations after OoT.

Originally Four Sword Adventures was being developed as a replacement to for OoT as ALttP's Imprisoning War, but it was decided that such a plot was too much for the kind of game it was supposed to be and it would have made things even more convoluted.

This game can work in this timeline by having Link aid in the sealing of Ganon prior to the Imprisoning War.

 

[antonz]

Well, there's always the possibility that the Kokiri were Koroks first, then evolved into the Kokiri, only to become Koroks again after the great flood. Cause reasons.

The Great Deku tree does say long ago the Korok took on human form. So whatever the Korok were initially it was not humanoid.

Skyward Sword sets the tone of the world being fairly advanced at one point before the evil overtakes everything forcing the good to flee into the sky. The ruins etc in Skyloft land quite nicely back into the ground. The Hylia statue is a pretty big deal because Hylia fades out of memory of Hyrule because Hylia herself gives up her Godhood to become human in the form of Zelda.

So to have a statue of Hylia still remembered let alone sitting in the ruins of the temple of time is something.

 

[CassSept]

Temple of Time, Goddess Statue etc already existed in that timeline, and there's no reason the Bridge of Eldin couldn't have been built between the events of OoT and the great flood.

I feel like in-universe canonically the bridge might have already existed during OoT. Same with the Goddess Statue, it wasn't there in OoT/TP, but after SS it was retconned into always being there (since this is pretty obviously the OoT Temple of Time and the statue is there).

-Ganon straight up died in Wind Waker. This would have to be a new Ganon or a reincarnation of Ganon.

Ganondorf (human incarnation) had never been resurrected I think but Ganon (manifestation) had been shown to resurface several times. I'm fairly confident he died in ALttP, was resurrected for a brief moment and immediately killed in Oracles, later reincarnated somewhere before the first LoZ and the AoL plot is set around attempts to resurrect Ganon. He seems to have died in TP too since I believe FSA Ganon is a brand new one, no?

 

[E-phonk]

I'm currently going for them trying to merge (at least two) timelines: Wind waker + Twilight princess.

They have different story devices set up in the world to do this (triforce, timestones/hero of time/twilight realm).

Some random thoughts:
- set after wind waker
- Maybe the shrines aren't in the current timeline. They teleport you (nothing says where to). They might teleport you to the hylian time that we also saw in skyward swords. It would explain all the magic items and the hylian statue/visual notches - they aren't from this barren, nature-like world but from the hylian time.
- ganon is dead, but his spirit lives on as calamity ganon (locked away?). He doesn't have a physical form at the beginning of the game, but I'm sure ganon will try to get a physical form, maybe using the twilight realm?
- This could explain aonuma's comment about how BotW might surprise people who played Twilight princess, botw could fill in certain plotpoints from it through ganons interventions (aka retconning in a clever way)
- it might even be ganon who tries to merge the timelines to get a physical form again. Maybe he even gets the trifore to do it for him?

 

[Addi]

What if the convergence is what makes the world so big? That it's a combination of different Hyrules from different games? And because we know Link is called Link in the voice acting (can't choose his name), what if he is not only one of the heroes, but all of them?

Sorry, I'm new to timeline speculations.

 

[E-phonk]

Sorry, I'm new to timeline speculations.

http://zeldawiki.org/Zelda_Timeline
have fun reading the official one

 

[Nictel]

I think it takes places after Wind Waker, too many clues to that to ignore. Money > timeline consistency, so Wolf Link is just there as a bonus.

There are similarities to Twilight Princess and aLttP, which makes sense. They are different timelines but that does not mean everything is different; geology and build styles would be similar.

The translated Hylian suggests Link is in a 'care unit'. My theory would be that Link was injured during his last battle with Ganon and placed in this capsule to heal. Ganon was not completely vanished and his lingering spirit caused the world to decay. Now Link is healed and Ganon tries to restore his full power and thus he needs to wake up.

Edit: the resurrection of Hyrule is happening during the events of Spirit Tracks, that means that for a time Hyrule is without it's hero and Zelda as the wielder of the Triforce of Wisdom.

As for the floating sky thing, it does look a lot like Skyloft. It makes sense the tech is in Skyward Sword but not in OoT, you can argue that this is simply because of a changing style in Zelda games but you can also explain this using Skyward Sword: the tech was mostly in the desert area, far from the Temple of Time. So in OoT they did not have access to that tech. The civilization that had was far away. After the draining of the sea the Sheikah found the tech and used it to improve Hyrule.

Spoiler

I can't believe I am thinking about Zelda timelines again.