Imprisoning War



The Imprisoning War (Seal War in Japan) started after Ganondorf entered the Sacred Realm and laid claim to the Triforce, becoming Ganon. Although it was confirmed by Nintendo that this war is retold in Ocarina of Time shortly after its release, many fans don't accord with these statements anymore. The similarities between Four Swords Adventures and the Imprisoning War may also mean that Nintendo no longer considers Ocarina of Time to be the Imprisoning War.

Although The Imprisoning War was first mentioned in A Link to the Past and was covered in detail in the instruction manual, the American translation differed in several key places from the original Japanese. This made it inconsistent with the story told in other parts of the series. (See below for comparisons in translation of the manual.)

Storyline
A long time after the creation of the world, an opening to the Sacred Realm was discovered in Hyrule and the people began to seek the Triforce for themselves. No one returned, however, and evil forces began to issue forth from the Golden Land.

This was because the leader of a band of thieves named Ganondorf had serendipitously discovered the entrance to the Golden Land. After killing his comrades and seizing control of the Triforce, he made his wish on it. The evil forces coming out of the Sacred Realm swarmed over Hyrule and threatened to engulf the Light World. These evil forces emanating from the Sacred Realm were the first signs of its transformation into the Dark World.

The king of Hyrule summoned seven Sages to seal the entrance to the Golden Land shut, so that Ganon's darkness could no longer plague the land. The sages searched far and wide for the Master Sword so that Ganon could be vanquished, but neither the sword nor one worthy of wielding it could be found.

Without a hero worthy of wielding the blade, the Knights of Hyrule engaged in open combat with Ganon's army as the sages cast the seal. Though most of them were killed, the Knights' lives were not lost in vain, because the seal was cast, and Ganon and his dark forces were cut off from the Light World until the events of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

Version Differences

 * Ganondorf is given the surname "Dragmire" in the American manual, while in the Japanese version is simply called Ganondorf.
 * The Japanese version tells that the Master Sword is ancient, and was forged at the direction of the gods. The American version has the people forge it on their own initiative to fight Ganon.
 * The American version of the story has the sages forget where the Triforce is hidden.
 * The Japanese name for the war is the "Seal War," referring to the Sages' seal.
 * The story was heavily truncated for the manual of the Game Boy Advance version of A Link to the Past and did not include such important details as Ganon seizing the Triforce or the search for the Master Sword. These details are still provided by in-game text, however.

Candidates for the Imprisoning War
To date, no game has seamlessly told the story of the Imprisoning War without some discrepancies with the backstory provided in A Link to the Past. However, three games in particular stand out as the most likely candidates for the Imprisoning War: Ocarina of Time, Four Swords Adventures, and Twilight Princess. The strengths and weaknesses of each candidate are listed below.

Four Swords Adventures
As indicated by deleted text in Four Swords Adventures the original concept for that game would have included elements which might have made it the game in which the Imprisoning War occurred. Deleted text talks of Link not being able to wield the Master Sword, and more explicit references to the Hylia. Several elements of the backstory from A Link to the Past are present in Four Swords Adventures such as the Dark World, the Knights of Hyrule, and a new origin story for Ganon. However, the absence of such elements as the Master Sword and the Triforce in the final version of the game likely means that Four Swords Adventures does not cover the entire story of the Imprisoning War. A common answer to these discrepancies is to answer that the Imprisoning War is a myth, a combination of the stories of Ocarina of Time (The Triforce and seal) and Four Swords Adventures (The Knights, the Dark World, human sages). Supporters of this theory point to the Palace of the Four Sword included in the GBA version of A Link to the Past which could indicate that the Four Sword was sealed in the Dark World sometime following the events of Four Swords Adventures.

Twilight Princess
The events of the Twilight Princess backstory bear at least a superficial similarity to the events of the Imprisoning War. Ganon invades Hyrule, but is captured and sealed in the Twilight Realm by seven sages. Upon further inspection, however, it is evident that these similarities are merely superficial. Although Ganon sought the Triforce, he did not take it by force as in the story, but had it mysteriously granted to him (and only in part). Likewise, neither the Knights of Hyrule nor the Sacred Realm are involved in the plot, as the Twilight Realm is explicitly not the Dark World. The similarities between the plot of Twilight Princess and the Imprisoning War could simply be developer homage or reused memes.

As a Separate Event
A common explanation for the discrepancies between the Imprisoning War story and Ocarina of Time and Four Swords Adventures is that neither game is the true story, and that because the backstory does not include Link, it cannot be adequately told in any game. Thus, these theorists place it as an event separate from any particular game, sometime before A Link to the Past.