History of the Zelda Timeline/Timeline Quotes

Creator Quotes are commonly studied in timeline discussion by theorists attempting to interpret the Nintendo-intended path of the storyline. The precise meanings and relevancies of these quotes are commonly debated, and often raise more questions then they answer.

On The Wind Waker
Without a doubt, the most famous of such statements were made by Eiji Aonuma in two separate interviews concerning the release of The Wind Waker. They succeeded in elevating the notion of a Double Timeline from a little known hypothesis to a popular theory.

The first came in a summer 2002 Game Pro interview:


 * Q: Where does The Wind Waker fit into the overall Zelda series timeline?


 * Aonuma: You can think of this game as taking place over a hundred years after Ocarina of Time. You can tell this from the opening story, and there are references to things from Ocarina located throughout the game as well.


 * Miyamoto: Well, wait, which point does the hundred years start from?


 * Aonuma: From the end.


 * Miyamoto: No, I mean, as a child or as a...


 * Aonuma: Oh, right, let me elaborate on that. Ocarina of Time basically has two endings of sorts; one has Link as a child and the other has him as an adult. This game, The Wind Waker, takes place a hundred years after the adult Link defeats Ganon at the end of Ocarina.


 * Miyamoto: This is pretty confusing for us, too. (laughs) So be careful.

Followed by a similar (though better worded) comment on the Official Zelda Homepage:


 * In terms of the storyline, we've decided that this takes place 100 years after the events in The Ocarina of Time. We think that as you play through the game, you'll notice that in the beginning the storyline explains some of the events in The Ocarina of Time. You'll also find hints of things from The Ocarina of Time that exist in The Wind Waker.


 * There's also a more complicated explanation. If you think back to the end of The Ocarina of Time, there were two endings to that game in different time periods. First Link defeated Ganon as an adult, and then he actually went back to being a child. You could say that The Wind Waker takes place 100 years after the ending in which Link was an adult.''

Very often, only the bolded portions of these statements are quoted. Though this may be done merely to save space, doing so lends more weight to Double Timeline arguments, while nearly eliminating the Single Timeline counter argument. Therefore, experienced theorist politely include the statements in there entirity whenever possible.

Double Timeline interpretation
Theorists suggesting that OOT splits the timeline into separate, parallel universes believe that Aonuma is confirming their theory by distinguishing between an ending in the “child timeline” and an ending in the “adult timeline”.

Single Timeline Interpretation
Theorist who oppose this idea believe the statement simply makes reference to the strange occurrences which, by the end of the game, separate OOT’s main characters between two time periods, seven years apart.

The Argument
To prove their point, single theorists ask opponents to state how Majora’s Mask relates to OOT in terms of the timeline. This is almost impossible to accomplish without identifying the “two time period” nature of OOT’s ending and “STers” triumphantly chortle that Aonuma was following a similar vein in his comments.

“DTers” do not believe the situations are comparable. Seven years is quite a gap compared to the mere months between OOT and MM, but barely relevant alongside the centuries between OOT and MM. They wonder why Aonuma bothered to differentiate.

In an often unanswered response, the STers will point out that Aonuma did not, in either case, begin by going so in depth, but started with the simple answer and became more in depth when it became necessary.

On The Four Sword Series
On May 17, 2004, an "Embargo" Nintendo had placed on information from the Game Developer's Conference (early March 2004) was lifted and a wealth of new Ninty info flooded the internet.

The first recognised timeline relevant quote was found in a GameInformer interview


 * Aonuma: The GBA Four Swords Zelda is what we’re thinking as the oldest tale in the Zelda timeline. With this one on the GameCube [(FSA)] being a sequel to that, and taking place sometime after that.

This was excellent! A concrete Nintendo placement with no argument against made timeline theorising that much easier.

Problems quickly arose with the release of FSA, which, simultaneously, was quite obviously the sequel to FS. Once again, it seemed game Canon was challenging developer quotes.

A deeper look at the May 17th interview pack revealed the Aonuma's statement may have had little credibility in the first place. Nintendo World Report had released their own interview;


 * Aonuma: In an example with Four Swords Adventures, I was the producer.. I didn’t actually put the story for that game together... Mr. Miyamoto then came in and upended the tea table... we changed the story around quite a bit... storyline shouldn’t be something complicated that confuses the player... and the storyline changed all the way up until the very end

This suggests that the development of the FS arc's storyline was a chaotic process which Mr. Aonuma was barely involved with. Opinion was suddenly split; some saw fit to completely disregard the frst interview and allow FS to occur elsewhere in the timeline, while others stuck by Aonuma's original words and kept FS pre-OOT.