Current Events > Nintendo has made the "official zelda timeline" even dumber

(+) Yeah! (+)

They put BoTW at the end of each timeline branch (all three)

and said it was up to the player to interpret which timeline they think it should be at the end of.

Thus defeating the point of an official timeline.

It's Nintendo admitting the Zelda timeline is dumb BS
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They will pick an official answer in two years.
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There's no way in hell it takes place in the Adult timeline, considering Ganon, the Master Sword and Hyrule are long gone after Wind Waker.
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It cant take place after the Nes games.
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Irony posted...

It's Nintendo admitting the Zelda timeline is dumb BS

There clearly was never an official timeline when they were developing the games, and that it was only thrown together after the fact to appease fans.

I understand why, because it would be too restricting during the development process, but then why bother at all. And then why go back on it and say it's up to interpretation. It's like they can't make up their mind.

I dunno, I thought the timeline was dumb to begin with, but tying them up with BotW feels sensible.
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Spoilers obviously

Bat178 posted...

There's no way in hell it takes place in the Adult timeline, considering Ganon, the Master Sword and Hyrule are long gone after Wind Waker.

It actually could. Somewhere deep in the ocean is ganondorf sealed by the mastersword.
He could have broken free somehow. Not likely, but still.

If the rules of Zelda were actually consistent, Ganon would have actually been unsealed and killed between Wind Waker and Spirit Tracks. In Skyward Sword, it is revealed that every villain Link faces is actually a reincarnation of Demise.

Notice how no villain ever appears while Ganon remains alive and sealed, and whenever he dies another one shows up or he gets reincarnated.

So Ganon could have been unsealed, killed, then reincarnated between Wind Waker and Breath of the Wild.

scar the 1 posted...

I dunno, I thought the timeline was dumb to begin with, but tying them up with BotW feels sensible.

I suppose it is possible there is one single catastrophic event that happens in all three timelines that was going to happen regardless of the circumstances because the goddesses planned to do so after X amount of years... and the goddesses reformed the world to be the BoTW world in all timelines, like a reset.

However, that's not what they are saying. they aren't saying it happens at the end of each branch, they are saying it happens wherever the player thinks it happens

The timeline was hot garbage the moment the introduced the "Link is defeated" branch.

The whole point of the OoT branch was that in the game, both timelines are canon and exist and are plot of the actual canon plot of the game. Link isn't defeated, that's a "what if?" scenario.

Why would that be included with these kinds of branches

Only peasant minds would be confused. It is obvious that the three timelines have been merged in an as of yet unexplored event.
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It's like no one at Nintendo has ever heard the term 'thematic series'.

Dash_Harber posted...

It's like no one at Nintendo has ever heard the term 'thematic series'.

well, some of the games were clearly connected before the timeline was published.

Ignoring the direct sequels, (OoT -> MM, WW -> PH -> ST)
Wind Waker and Twilight Princess reference events in Ocarina Time.
Skyward Sword makes an effort to explain how and why the games are connected.

Rioushu posted...

Only peasant minds would be confused. It is obvious that the three timelines have been merged in an as of yet unexplored event.

They could just make Hyrule Warriors canon, considering it merges the timelines.
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Why even have a timeline? I thought every game (unless a direct sequel like Majora's Mask) was basically contained within a multiverse type of deal.
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Seriously, between this and the change to a generic Western-style sandbox game with no plans to go back to the old formula, Breath of the Wild is now my least favorite 3D Zelda, even below Skyward Sword.
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Ultima Dragon posted...

Why even have a timeline? I thought every game (unless a direct sequel like Majora's Mask) was basically contained within a multiverse type of deal.

Spoilers of course

Wind Waker mentions how Link was missing when Ganondorf broke his seal after the original timeline in Ocarina of Time. That's because Link actually left the timeline to go to another.
Thus there was no Link to fight Ganondorf (and I guess because he didn't die, he wasn't reincarnated) and because there was no resistance, Ganondorf took control over the world for centuries. Somehow however, Link finally got reincarnated (and I'm not sure why.)

In Twilight Princess, they actually reference Ganondorf's execution which happens in the second timeline of Ocarina of Time, where Link goes back to being a kid and has Ganon executed before he could gain access to the Sacred Realm.

Only timeline is:

Link! He come to town!
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Bat178 posted...

Seriously, between this and the change to a generic Western-style sandbox game with no plans to go back to the old formula, Breath of the Wild is now my least favorite 3D Zelda, even below Skyward Sword.

I loved the game. One of my favorite games of all time. I don't think you should hold it's timeline placement against it.

Otherwise you should hate A Link to the Past, A Link Between Worlds, The Oracle Games, Link's Awakening and the NES games.

They basically never even happened.

Milkman5 posted...

Bat178 posted...

Seriously, between this and the change to a generic Western-style sandbox game with no plans to go back to the old formula, Breath of the Wild is now my least favorite 3D Zelda, even below Skyward Sword.

I loved the game. One of my favorite games of all time. I don't think you should hold it's timeline placement against it.

Otherwise you should hate A Link to the Past, A Link Between Worlds, The Oracle Games, Link's Awakening and the NES games.

They basically never even happened.

Wind Waker is my favourite Zelda game (in gameplay, artstyle, soundtrack and story), and they basically shit on it's ending with this timeline placement.
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I always figured each iteration was on a different timeline. I mean, once you introduce time travel and inter-dimensional travel as a core game mechanic, following a straight timeline is just dumb.

Each game takes place in a different universe that may or may not be tied to a previous game depending on what the story demands. Infinite possibilities allows events to unfold relitively the same (in the case of, say MM directly refrencing OoT) or completely change the universe to account for radically different timelines (like how WW is a Link failed world).

All possibilities are simultaneously possible, and its a matter of which Hyrule the writers intend to use.
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The fact that WW, OoT, MM, SS, and TP all have the old formula and still exist
makes me ok with them adopting for a new formula.

I don't see a reason why we can't have 2 BoTW-style games when we already have 5 of the old style and none of the new switch tech lends itself to the old formula anyway. So it's not like they could do new things now with the old formula that they couldn't do when those games came out.

BoTW is actually a game that basically could have never existed until recently due to hardware limitations.

Bat178 posted...

Wind Waker is my favourite Zelda game (in gameplay, artstyle, soundtrack and story), and they basically s*** on it's ending with this timeline placement.

The whole point of the series is futility at this point. How the destiny can never be broken.
Ganon has literally been killed in other games and reincarnate right after as someone else.

In a sense, all the endings of all the games are pointless and shat on by the lore, because it's an inevitably that demise will rise once again.

buddhamonster posted...

(like how WW is a Link failed world).

it's not though. The timeline Wind Waker is in follows the OoT timeline where Beast Ganon gets rocked by Adult Link.

Milkman5 posted...

Bat178 posted...

Wind Waker is my favourite Zelda game (in gameplay, artstyle, soundtrack and story), and they basically s*** on it's ending with this timeline placement.

The whole point of the series is futility at this point. How the destiny can never be broken.
Ganon has literally been killed in other games and reincarnate right after as someone else.

In a sense, all the endings of all the games are pointless and shat on by the lore, because it's an inevitably that demise will rise once again.

But Wind Waker was the start of something new. It wasn't just Ganondorf that was gone, but all of Hyrule and the Master Sword. Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks had completely new locations, villains, characters, items and lore, and the Adult timeline was much more Pirate Age/Early Modern era than the others and BotW were more Medieval European (which makes the Adult timeline a nice change from the others), with Scifi elements for Breath of the Wild too.
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Milkman5 posted...

Wind Waker and Twilight Princess reference events in Ocarina Time.

The problem is that the events they are referencing would have to be literal tens of thousands of years separated from each game, so what is the fucking point? Just admit that what connects the games is the themes and aesthetics and leave it at that.

guy in green tunic beats evil pig man and saves the world

why does this need a timeline

Bat178 posted...

But Wind Waker was the start of something new. It wasn't just Ganondorf that was gone, but all of Hyrule and the Master Sword. Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks had completely new locations, villains, characters, items and lore, and the Adult timeline was much more Pirate Age/Early Modern era than the others which were more Medieval European (which makes the Adult timeline a nice change from the others).

I get what you mean. King Hyrule's wish implied the cycle finally ended.

But Skyward Sword kind of cucked Wind Waker already by implying the cycle could never be broken.

Dash_Harber posted...

The problem is that the events they are referencing would have to be literal tens of thousands of years separated from each game, so what is the f***ing point? Just admit that what connects the games is the themes and aesthetics and leave it at that.

I mean the events greatly impact the game. The events of OoT explain the mid-game twist of Wind Waker and why the world is all ocean.

I don't think it matters in terms of relevancy how long ago the events happened when the villain was alive for that entire time.

Twilight Princess would have been extremely easy to separate though. They could have just made Zant a reincarnation of Demise or his own villain.

Instead they decided to continue the story which is kind of cool for the overall lore, but it hurt the game a little bit because the twist at the end felt tacked on

Time travel is usually the worst thing to happen to any series.
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Guns_of_Verdun posted...

Only timeline is:

Link! He come to town!

Haha. I remember that song from the good old Newgrounds days. Everyone always thought it was SOAD, but it was Rabbit Joint or something. Does sound a bit like Serj though.
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Milkman5 posted...

I mean the events greatly impact the game. The events of OoT explain the mid-game twist of Wind Waker and why the world is all ocean.

Sort of, but it's pretty vague and, like I said, not direct enough to be noteworthy. If someone had never played OoT, they'd have no trouble understanding the story.

Milkman5 posted...

Instead they decided to continue the story which is kind of cool for the overall lore, but it hurt the game a little bit because the twist at the end felt tacked on

Which is what I've been implying; their obsession with trying to make a timeline is hamstringing the actual storytelling.

Wouldnt Calamity Ganon just be interpreted as the curse of Demise finally breaking free of its host after so many defeats and ravaging the land in ways that were impossible when it was bound to a physical form?

Basically Demises spirit could never succeed as long as it had to put up with manipulating Ganondorf to terrorize Link and Zeldas descendants so it cut out the middleman at some point and became an evil entity in its own right, allowing it to spread blight and despair faster and wider than Ganondorf ever could as a mere man. So Calamity Ganon ends up not being Ganon, exactly, but the driving evil that was always poisoning his mind and making him power mad and corrupt.

Now if the game explains the origins of Calamity Ganon then ignore me because I never bothered to beat the game (though with how far I got it didnt look like they were going to).
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While heavy-handed from Nintendo, keep in mind that everything is always in the eye of the beholder. That's how fiction (or any art form really) works.
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For someone who hates the timeline, you sure like talking about it.
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The thing is they always had a timeline it's just they kept rebooting the story.

OoT retconned everything before it and then every 3D Zelda after followed it's storyline.

And then they retconned again with BoTW.

They need to stop trying to put all the games in the same timeline.
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Why a timeline at all? What was wrong with just saying they are unrelated games that share themes?
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I never understood why Nintendo decided to make all of Zelda this whole mapped out singular thing.
It never needed it. It's like trying to force all of the Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy games into a single cohesive timeline. It doesn't work. It just comes off as forced and trying to bend over backwards to make things connect when they never did.

Each game is just a different vision of a basic story with the same characters. Why did it ever need to be something more.
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Can someone link the official timelines
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LOL that thing is a retconned mess!

The fact that anyone, on any level, entertains this horseshit for even a moment of thought

Imagine instead you held Nintendo to the standard of having any one of their games take the time to tell a good story to begin with.

a bunch of games with zero story are all connected

Who fucking cares.

They want you wasting your time, worrying about this garbage so you dont notice they arent giving a shit.
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DavidWong posted...

Can someone link the official timelines

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That's a really old timeline and is missing games now. It doesn't have ALBW or Triforce Heroes.
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OoT>MM>TP are pretty direct sequels and have to happen that way.

I honestly don't think the Zelda timeline (with the exception of the loss branch) is very confusing, it all makes sense.

BotW doesn't make sense there, at all.

It either has to be the defeat timeline or during the fall gone over in Wind Waker.

Taking place after WW or TP doesn't make sense.
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But its super on the Majora's mask and Twilight timeline >_> You see a statue of Darmani and find shard of the Twilight mirror.

Who the hell are they fooling? lmao
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NeonOctopus posted...

But its super on the Majora's mask and Twilight timeline >_> You see a statue of Darmani and find shard of the Twilight mirror.

Who the hell are they fooling? lmao

It has the WW Koroks and Ritos too which don't exist in TP Hyrule.

Item descriptions muddy it further making reference to literally every timeline.

BotW mentions Ganon attacked Hyrule multiple times in the past.

He did so once in the child timeline (TP), twice in adult (OoT and Wind Waker) and five times in defeat.

It logically should be in defeat, especially as Ganon is totally killed in TP and Wind Waker.
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So the moral of the story is: Fuck the timeline? >_>
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