LoZ: OoT Spoilers?
Here's my theory... At the point that Link puts the sword into the stone he creates a second timeline (with some minor changes). First, what happens according to the point of view of an onlooker, Link puts the sword in, pulls it out, goes and does the Gerudo Valley crap, and then puts it back in (Assume the same will happen for other instances of link pulling out). Eventually Link will stop making love to the stone and just stay there frozen in time creating the first outcome where the hero of time is defeated. Think of this as a branching outcome, the hero doesn't travel in a straight line (like in DBZ or maybe BttF) ---<=== in the first outcome the hero never appears and Ganon just enjoys himself some delicious ruling. In the second outcome we have adult Link arriving from the temple, then he goes to destroy Ganon and this creates the third timeline, where Ganon is defeated. Once Ganon is defeated, Zelda is like dood I don't want you to get caught up in this crap so she sends Link back to be a child. This is where I get confused, the two timelines on the right should either happen simultaneously or merge later on. Either that or when she sends link back with the ocarina it creates the third branch leading to no merge. If Link had just put the sword back into the stone it would have created a paradox as there would be a period of time where Link would exist twice during the Ganon take over years.
So basically the two splits occur when Link pulls the sword out and when Zelda sends Link back with the Ocarina. Resulting in nothing being contingent with a game over and each outcome will occur upon a successful game.
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Run, run, run, or you'll be well done!
[NO BARKLEY NO PEACE]