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 Twilight Princess
The current trends in timeline theory began on March 6th, when a two month old inerview with Eiji Aonuma on the Japanese Nintendo-owned website nindori.com was translated into English. No "perfect" translation has yet been decided on, but the gist is very basic:


 * Q When does Twilight Princess take place?


 * Aonuma: It is in a world some hundred years after the Ocarina of time


 * Q- And the Wind Waker?


 * Aonuma: the Wind Waker is parallel. In Ocarina of time Link flies to the world of seven years later, when Ganon is defeated, then returns to his childhood, does he not? Twilight Princess happens in a world over a hundred years after the peace in the child ending. In the last scene of Ocarina of time, there’s a scene where young Zelda converses with young Link after she has already sent him back. The result of this story is that according to the end of the Twilight Princess, at the end of the Ocarina (in the child timeline), Ganon is dragged away to be executed, and this happens in the medium board (in between games). At that point, the notion is that an outrageous thing happens right at the point of the execution. Therefore, that scene (in Twilight Princess) can only happen in the story after the Ocarina several years later. After Ganon is executed he is sent to the twilight realm, at which point he gives his powers to… (basically, he’s saying you need to play TP to find out who he gives his power to). Well that‘s kind of how it turned out (laughs)

It is expected that many interpretations of this quote's various statements will soon follow.

On The Wind Waker
Aonuma had discussed this idea before, to varying interpretation. Many considered the following two infamous quotes to suppost the double timeline ideal, and they have only become more zealous with recent developments.

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.''

What happens to the Single Timeline now? Only time will tell...

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, and almost certainly could not take place before OOT. 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.

On Phantom Hourglass
While nothing timeline-specific besides the confirmed connections to The Wind Waker has been stated thus far, Mr. Aonuma has stated that the development team for Four Swords Adventures is the same team he employed for Phantom Hourglass in a GameInformer interview from GDC 2007:


 * GI: It was...announced that when the DS was first shown that there was a Four Swords Zelda game also coming to the DS. Are you think of incorporating the Four Swords concept into Phantom Hourglass as a sub-game much like when you released Link to the Past for GBA?


 * Aonuma: I remember talking about that game. I think there was something lost in translation. The staff of Four Swords Adventures is working on Phantom Hourglass, not that we’re creating a Four Swords Adventure game for the DS.

This seems to be a continuation of a previous trend between ALttP and FSA; most of the FSA developers had an extensive background with ALttP, and ALttP is widely believed to be connected to FSA, so the speculated connections between PH and the FS saga may possibly bear fruit. Some may note that Aonuma denies that Nintendo is creating a Four Swords Adventure game for the DS (more accurately, that he ever said it; he claims he was mistranslated), but one must consider that the question to which he was responding seems to have been intended to refer to the multiplayer Four Swords franchise, not FS spin-offs like TMC.

Of course, it may prove to be nothing--after all, choice of development teams doesn't have to have anything to do with the timeline--but speculation is a cruel mistress, and all involved in timeline theory are courted by her.