Gonna warn readers beforehand that this post is very nerdy, long, and full of shit about Zelda continuity both obscure and well-known. If you don't care about Zelda continuity, lore, and theorizing avoid at all costs. This post is about my own timeline that I've held onto for years now.
@royalan
That really depends if Nintendo feels that way or not. I think it's quite easy putting the games together in a timeline if you know exactly why they're there.
Ignoring the obvious 3D game timeline, let's look at every other title.
The Minish Cap -> Four Swords -> Four Swords Adventure
A Link to the Past -> Link's Awakening -> Legend of Zelda -> Adventure of Link
No inconsistencies here, both official timelines. Happens in sequence, with nothing contradictory or off-putting.
We can assume that Four Swords Adventure is the origin of Ganon obtaining the trident he gets in the classic games, so we can place the entire classic timeline after the Four Swords timeline.
The Minish Cap -> Four Swords -> Four Swords Adventure -> A Link to the Past -> Link's Awakening -> Legend of Zelda -> Adventure of Link
Looking at this timeline, still no contradictions or inconsistencies.
Now I'm about to get real nerdy here in explaining why the Imprisoning War/Ocarina of Time theory is fucking stupid. You can skip this part but I have to let it off my chest to establish that people need to shut the fuck up about this shit.
IMPRISONING WAR TANGENT
We can also assume that the Imprisoning War takes place in between Four Swords Adventure and A Link to the Past. In the bonus Four Swords dungeon in A Link to the Past (GBA), you enter a dungeon that has a broken entrance, with the Four Sword broken into four pieces. In Four Swords Adventure, Link seals Ganon into the Four Sword itself. It's commonly thought that Ganon broke out of the Four Sword (hence the damage), and reek havoc from the Dark World hence the Imprisoning War.
It's commonly thought that the Imprisoning War is Ocarina of Time, but there is no official word or evidence to suggest this aside from the script director and concept artist from saying it. No one important like Miyamoto, Aonuma, Koizumi, the actual script writers, or anyone has officially recognized this. I don't even think Nintendo has.
If they have, this isn't the case anymore. It's been retconned, and for good reason. The Imprisoning War is a story that takes place because Link
didn't exist, so the sages had to seal Ganon into the Dark World. This is directly contradictory to what goes on in Ocarina of Time. For one it's never implied or said in Ocarina of Time that a war occured in the game itself. What happened in Ocarina of Time is that Ganondorf got ahold of the Triforce of Power, and destroyed Hyrule Castle/Hyrule Town from the
inside rather than the outside (the walls are still up afterall). Every NPC in the entire game survived (except for the dead soldier, lulz), and no real war occurred.
Most people confuse the Imprisoning War for the Civil War that happened around 20 years ago before Ocarina of Time, but this isn't the case. The Imprisoning War was Ganon vs. Hyrule. The Civil War is Hyrule + Ganondorf + some others vs. everyone else. This is why Ganondorf was accepted by the King of Hyrule, cause Ganondorf and the Gerudo built a trust with the Royal Family. The result of the war was Hyrule getting united as a country.
The only real evidence is that Ocarina of Time is about the origin of Ganon rather than the Imprisoning War. See it for yourself:
http://www.zeldalegends.net/files/text/z3translation/z3_manual_story.html. The original manual where all of this backstory comes from even separates Ganon's backstory from the Imprisoning War in segment, similar to how it seperates the creation story from the rest of everything else.
The Sacred Realm never returns back to normal. In Ocarina of Time, Ganondorf corrupts it when he breaks the Triforce into pieces. In the English version, it's called the "Evil Realm." The Japanese version calls it both "Hell" and "Dark World" which is used to describe the home of Ganon in all three of the classic games (Legend of Zelda, Adventure of Link, A Link to the Past).
Another point about the Imprisoning War is that all of the sages were Hylian, which is shown by the fact that the descendants of the sages like Sahasrahla, Aginah, and the maidens from ALttP are all Hylian rather than Kokiri, Goron, Zora, Sheikah, Gerudo, etc. etc. The sealing done on Ganon is also very different. In Ocarina of Time, they sealed Ganon himself. In A Link to the Past, they sealed Ganon into something. They sealed him
in the Sacred Realm, rather than sealing him completely to where he becomes immobile practically.
Also the Imprisoning War happens only a couple hundred years before A Link to the Past. it didn't happen very long ago, which doesn't really fit if you want to place the game after either Twilight Princess and Wind Waker, cause both of those take places hundreds of years after Ocarina of Time (Wind Waker probably takes place at least 1000 years after it at least).
IMPRISONING WAR TANGENT OVER
So the timeline is:
The Minish Cap -> Four Swords -> Four Swords Adventure -> Imprisoning War -> A Link to the Past -> Link's Awakening -> Legend of Zelda -> Adventure of Link
Then you have the Oracle games, which are probably considered canon to both The Minish Cap and Four Swords due to the inclusion of the seeds, and the fact that both Holodrum and Labrynna exist in The Minish Cap world.
Where exactly do they go? Well there's a lot of hints, even some lost in translation arguably. For one the Triforce is directly inside Hyrule Castle in the Oracle games, which means it takes place either after A Link to the Past, or after Adventure of Link. These are the only two games in the entire series where the Royal Family actually has ahold of the physical Triforce.
Argument for A Link to the Past: Ganon takes up the same appearance as he does in A Link to the Past. A lot of the bosses and NPCs are based off Link's Awakening stuff, directly taking up on that. Also Link sails off in a boat at the end that uses the same sprite as the boat in Link's Awakening, which may mean both Link's Awakening and Oracle share the same Link. Link's Awakening also shares the same Link with A Link to the Past.
Counterargument: Some people believe the Oracle games feature the same Link as both A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening, but there's quite a bit of contradictions for this. For one the Oracle games establish that the Link in it is a brand new hero, and Zelda never even met him before in the game. Don't you think if he defeated like the worst evil known imaginable, he'd be recognized for it? He also looks a lot younger and it's
not because of the art style cause adults and teenagers in the Oracles art look normal.
Argument for Adventure of Link: This is something I heard a while back on a Zelda forum translating information from various Zelda games that is not commonly known about, but I can't find the source right at the moment.
The mark Link gets on his hand, in the Japanese version, is referred to as a "mystery" which is the same wording used to describe Link's mark in Adventure of Link. The English version keeps it more in line with the mark from Ocarina of Time, but the Japanese version is a bit different. Why is this relevant? Because that mark comes from the King of Hyrule. In the backstory of Adventure of Link, the king of Hyrule placed a spell on the land that anyone that is born with that "mystery" mark is destined to get the Triforce basically. That's why in Adventure of Link, Link is going out of his way to get the Triforce of Courage. This means that possibly the only way for the Oracle games to fit on the timeline is to place them sometime after the king casts the spell on Hyrule, and after the Triforce is in the hands of the Royal Family.
Also the way Twinrova resurrects Ganon is the same way Dark Link tried to resurrect Ganon in Adventure of Link.
Both games are also spawns of an idea to remake Zelda 1 and Zelda 2. You can see some leftovers of that in both games.
Counterargument: The developers may not have the above in mind, since the game was full of references about various Zelda games. Then again, Flagship has shown to care about continuity with The Minish Cap, so why not?
Regardless of what you prefer there's only really two real choices here
Timeline A:
The Minish Cap -> Four Swords -> Four Swords Adventure -> Imprisoning War -> A Link to the Past -> Link's Awakening/Oracles (choose where these go) -> Legend of Zelda -> Adventure of Link
Timeline B:
The Minish Cap -> Four Swords -> Four Swords Adventure -> Imprisoning War -> A Link to the Past -> Link's Awakening -> Legend of Zelda -> Adventure of Link -> Oracle of Seasons/Ages
I prefer Timeline B, cause it makes the most sense to be to keep A Link to the Past -> Link's Awakening together, and I think spiritually Oracles follows Adventure of Link very nicely. Because of this I'm going to use it for this upcoming timeline I'm going to make.
Both of the above timelines are reasonable and contain no real contradictions. Placing Oracles in between A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening does, but otherwise it's perfectly fine.
Where does Sleeping Zelda take place? Well you have to remember that there's three different stories in the
manual of Adventure of Link:
1. Sleeping Zelda. Prince gets influenced by an evil Magician, and puts Zelda to sleep forever. Every Zelda after that is named after her.
2. King builds temples across the world and puts Triforce of Courage in Great Temple. He casts a spell on Hyrule so someone could obtain a mark that says they're qualified to use the Triforce.
3. Present time. Impa is explaining to Link about stuff, and Link heads off for an adventure. Adventure of Link happens.
All three of these points can easily be separated into different events, making Sleeping Zelda
still possibly the origin story for the Zelda name being inherited.
Sleeping Zelda -> The Minish Cap -> Four Swords -> Four Swords Adventure -> Imprisoning War -> A Link to the Past -> Link's Awakening -> King's Spell -> Legend of Zelda -> Adventure of Link -> Oracle of Seasons/Ages
Now that I have a solid 2D game timeline with no real contradictions or inconsistencies, let's go to the 3D Zelda timeline.
The official timeline.
/////////////Adult Timeline: Ocarina of Time -> The Wind Waker -> Phantom Hourglass -> Spirit Tracks
Skyward Sword -> Civil War ->
/////////////Child Timeline: Majora's Mask -> Twilight Princess
The Civil War happens before Ocarina of Time, I placed it there was a marker of something that happened in that timespan, but doesn't take place on the Adult Timeline.
The thing people tend to not realize about Ocarina of Time is that it
never happens in the Child Timeline. The events of the game happen in a single timeline. The timeline split happened when Zelda sent Link back using the Ocarina of Time, in which Link was sent back in a timespan BEFORE Ocarina of Time. According to Aonuma, after this Link told Zelda about Ganondorf's potential actions, hence why he was locked up at Arbiter's Grounds in Twilight Princess. This is unfortunately the only real connection Twilight Princess has to Ocarina of Time, which tends to confuse a lot of people cause it's never made clear why Ganondorf is in jail in the backstory in-game.
The above timeline is official and not debatable.
How do the 2D games fall into place? This is hard to pinpoint exactly, but what we do know that Nintendo has only ever suggested in the entire series that there are only two timelines created from the split. This doesn't really leave much room for three-timeline theories, cause that completely misses the entire purpose of why the split timeline even exists in the first place. Creating a third timeline means one has to find a reason to why the timeline would split again, which there isn't any at this point.
Either the 2D timeline I created takes place after Wind Waker or Twilight Princess.
There are a lot of theories out there for both of them and I'm not going over them extensively.
Some say it's impossible for the towns in Adventure of Link to take place in the Child Timeline since those characters only existed in prominence in the Adult Timeline. However does that point really overweigh the fact that Wind Waker exists in a world where all of ancient Hyrule is destroyed and submerged underwater? How do you explain Spirit Tracks leading into the classic games? Do Hyrule people just abandoned train technology in favor of none?
Twilight Princess still exists in Old Hyrule, meaning it's most likely leads into a game like A Link to the Past. Cut out ending dialogue in Twilight Princess also has Ganondorf saying that bloodshed will be spilled in the battle between light and darkness, alluding to the Imprisoning War. Naturally, this is why I believe Twilight Princess takes place before A Link to the Past. However does this mean it also takes place before the Four Swords trilogy?
Either way, the gap in between the 3D and 2D timelines is just one huge plothole needed to be filled. One day Nintendo will do it, even if we get mixed opinions on it.
I think putting the 2D games on the Child Timeline is more acceptable. Twinrova is still alive on the Child Timeline, hence her appearance in Oracles. Old Hyrule exists in every one of these games. The Master Sword isn't underwater. There's a lot of little things like that, which place these games in a Child Timeline world rather than an Adult Timeline world.
/////////////Adult Timeline: Ocarina of Time -> The Wind Waker -> Phantom Hourglass -> Spirit Tracks
Skyward Sword -> Civil War ->
/////////////Child Timeline: Majora's Mask -> Twilight Princess -> The Minish Cap -> Four Swords -> Four Swords Adventure -> Imprisoning War -> A Link to the Past -> Link's Awakening -> King's Spell -> Legend of Zelda -> Adventure of Link -> Oracle of Seasons/Ages
Before anyone asks:
MINISH CAP DOES NOT TAKE PLACE BEFORE OCARINA OF TIME OR SKYWARD SWORD
I made an essay on this shit, read it:
http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/3928313-post1.html. To sum up my point in this post, The Minish Cap either takes place on the Child Timeline or before Ocarina of Time.
The problem with that? Well Aonuma basically confirmed that Skyward Sword is the only prequel to Ocarina of Time. To quote him:
"This title [Skyward Sword] takes place before Ocarina of Time. If I said a certain title was the first Zelda game, then that means that we cant ever make a title that takes place before that! So for us to be able to add titles to the series, we have to have a way of putting titles before or after each other." He didn't say Skyward Sword takes place before The Minish Cap. If The Minish Cap takes place there, then why avoid mentioning it? It can't even take place before Skyward Sword either because there isn't even a Hyrule Kingdom for it to take place in.
This leaves one available option: Child Timeline. Yes there is a plothole on how Twilight Princess leads into The Minish Cap, but there's an even bigger plothole in how Spirit Tracks leads into The Minish Cap. Which do you prefer? Personally I'm just gonna use my head and choose the plothole that can be field without making up any implausible shit. But hey, you know, Nintendo.
I didn't include Sleeping Zelda yet if you haven't noticed. There isn't any contradictions to why it can't be the catalyst to why Zelda is named every generation. Yes the original name comes from Skyloft, as we all know in Skyward Sword that Zelda even had her name even
before she was a princess. Maybe it's been retconed, but one point is clear from the manual:
"Long ago, when Hyrule was still one country, a great King was said to have used the Triforce to maintain order in Hyrule." This sentence is talking about the timespan Sleeping Zelda takes place in. This means that it takes place in a very early form of Hyrule Kingdom, maybe near the beginning of it. For that I place Sleeping Zelda before Ocarina of Time, but after Skyward Sword.
////////////////////////////Adult Timeline: Ocarina of Time -> The Wind Waker -> Phantom Hourglass -> Spirit Tracks
Skyward Sword -> Sleeping Zelda -> Civil War ->
////////////////////////////Child Timeline: Majora's Mask -> Twilight Princess -> The Minish Cap -> Four Swords -> Four Swords Adventure -> Imprisoning War -> A Link to the Past -> Link's Awakening -> King's Spell -> Legend of Zelda -> Adventure of Link -> Oracle of Seasons/Ages
This is my personal, definitive timeline. Yes, there are tons of plotholes, but only in the sense that we aren't exactly clear how certain games fall in place. But with available information, one could easily come up with something. This timeline is simple, effective, and works perfectly fine for what it needs to be done. There is no real contradictions or inconsistencies here, which makes me believe that contradictions and inconsistencies are only due to misinformation among the fanbase.
I hope this post was informative for people who don't understand some basic concepts in Zelda continuity.
