History of the Zelda Timeline
Historically, the Zelda Timeline has been an afterthought with respect to game development. It was not pre-planned and has grown incrementally with each new release, often being re-arranged to accomodate new tiles. An official overarching timeline was not laid out in full until Hyrule Historia was first released in 2011. Prior to the release of Hyrule Historia, the overall timeline was the subject of numerous fan theories.
This article details the evolution of the timeline—and its fan intepretations—throughout the series' history.
History of the official timeline
1986-1993
The first decade of the series saw four releases from 1986 to 1993. With so few games, the timeline remained relatively straightforward.
- The Legend of Zelda is the original game of the series, first released in Japan in 1986.
- The Adventure of Link is released as a direct sequel to the original The Legend of Zelda,[1] set some years later.[2]
- A Link to the Past is released as a prequel to the original The Legend of Zelda. Its main characters are described as the predecessors of the Link and Zelda from the first two titles.[3]
- Link's Awakening is released as a direct sequel to A Link to the Past according to its official Japanese site.
The timeline complications begin with the next wave of releases five years later.
1998-2001
In 1998, Ocarina of Time is released as a prequel to A Link to the Past. Nintendo purports the game to be a retelling of the Imprisoning War in the backstory of A Link to the Past.[4] However the actual events of Ocarina of Time do not fully align with the Imprisoning War.[how?]
In 2000, Majora's Mask is released but has a minimal impact on the timeline, taking place in a parellel world.
In 2001, Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages are released. The Triforce plays a central role in the plot and Ganon is still the ultimate villain, but the games have no apparent connection to the overall timeline.[verification needed]
Also in 2001, Nintendo of America releases a timeline of the first eight games on Zelda Universe.[5] This timeline has the games in the following order: Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, A Link to the Past, Oracle of Ages, Oracle of Seasons, The Legend of Zelda, The Adventure of Link, and Link's Awakening. All of the games are purported to involve the same Link. This timeline is not recognized to be canonical due to lack of involvement from the developers, as well as the impossibility of Ocarina of Time and A Link to the Past featuring the same Link.
2002-2011
In 2002 and 2003, The Wind Waker is released as a distant-future sequel to Ocarina of Time. It takes place in a time after a Great Flood washes away Hyrule completely, an event that upheaves the timeline. The game does not recognize the events of A Link to the Past, which would have occurred between Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker.
In 2006, Twilight Princess is released as yet another sequel to Ocarina of Time, ostensibly contradicting The Wind Waker. Shortly after, producer Eiji Aonuma officially declares the existence of two parallel timelines resulting from Link's time travel in Ocarina of Time.[6] Twilight Princess is stated to occur in the "Child Link Timeline" while The Wind Waker occurs in the "Adult Link Timeline".
In the meantime, from 2002 to 2005, Four Swords, Four Swords Adventures, and The Minish Cap are released. The games form their own plot featuring Vaati as the primary villain and the Four Sword as the holy grail instead of the Triforce. The Minish Cap is a distant prequel to Four Swords. Four Swords Adventures, at the time, is presented as a direct sequel to Four Swords. Four Swords Adventures ties into the greater series by re-introducing Ganon as the ultimate villain behind Vaati's power. However, the game's placement in the timeline—in either of the two branches—is unclear at the time. The same is true for A Link to the Past and the other three titles preceding Ocarina of Time.
From 2007 to 2009, Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks are released as sequels to The Wind Waker.[clarification needed]
Skyward Sword is released in 2011 and is placed at the very beginning of the timeline.
2011–Present
Shortly after Skyward Sword, a full account of the timeline is released in Hyrule Historia. It attempts to resolve the contradictions by contriving a third timeline branch where Link is defeated by Ganon in Ocarina of Time.
The so-called Fallen Hero Timeline accounts for the events of A Link to the Past, Oracle of Seasons, and Oracle of Ages, Link's Awakening, The Legend of Zelda and The Adventure of Link in that order. Later, in Encyclopedia, this timeline branch is re-arranged to account for A Link Between Worlds and Tri Force Heroes, which are placed directly after Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages. Link's Awakening is once again placed directly after A Link to the Past.
Hyrule Historia places The Minish Cap and Four Swords after Skyward Sword at the beginning of the timeline. Four Swords Adventures is shoehorned into the Child Timeline as its latest games.
In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Creating a Champion, all preceding games are described as being so far in the past as to have faded into myth.[7] The timeline begins anew with Breath of the Wild.
Fan interpretations of timeline
The benchmark of the Zelda community is timeline theorizing - Zelda lovers flock from far and wide to the respective community fansites and stack their evidence, game knowledge, and experience against other Zelda fans, all towards attempting to make sense of the convoluted timeline that has become one of the most popular aspects of the franchise. While some of these ideas are better justified than others, all of them arise from a personal perspective on the series. As such, with no official categorization of Zelda canon and no officially-released complete timeline, any personal view may be valid as any other view.
The theories themselves are the fruit of these personal interpretations and the conclusions reached in debate. They are the most important products of timeline discussion and as such it is important for all theorists to carefully examine them before they attempt to draw conclusions on the quality of their content.
The official timeline and its effect on Timeline Theories
When Nintendo of Japan's published the official Zelda timeline in Hyrule Historia, it did a hard reset on fan's interpretations of the Zelda timeline. The biggest surprise was the existence of a third split, the 'Downfall timeline', in which Ganondorf defeats Link; a scenario only considered by a few fans before.[8] While Hyrule Historia has now given an official outline as to how the games are placed the timeline in relation to eachother, many question still remain unanswered. As fans gather a better understanding of the official timeline, fan interpretations of the Zelda timeline will start to focus on these details, until the release of the next game in The Legend of Zelda series.
Gallery
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The timeline as shown in Hyrule Historia
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The timeline as shown in Encyclopedia
References
- ↑ "At the end of a fierce fight, Link overthrew Ganon, took back the Triforce and rescued Princess Zelda. However, is it all really finished? Many seasons have passed since then." (The Adventure of Link manual, pg. 3)
- ↑ "One day, a strange mark, exactly like the crest of the kingdom, appeared on the back of Link's hand as he approached his 16th birthday." (The Adventure of Link manual, pg. 3)
- ↑ "The predecessors of Link and Zelda face monsters on the march when a menacing magician takes over the kingdom." — A Link to the Past (Box)
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20021002111625/http://www.zelda.com/lib_timeline.html
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ "The kingdom of Hyrule has a long, long history. So long, in fact, that the events that occurred leading up to its founding and in its early years have faded into myth. Hyrule's recurring periods of prosperity and decline have made it impossible to tell which legends are historical fact and which are mere fairy tale. However, it is an undisputable truth that Calamity Ganon attacked Hyrule and was sealed ten thousand years ago, and that it revived one hundred years ago in an event called the Great Calamity." (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Creating a Champion, Dark Horse Books, pg. 360)
- ↑ Template:Cite web