As part of the Nintendo Live 2024 in Sydney event, Nintendo showcased a newer version of the timeline for the critically acclaimed The Legend of Zelda series of video games which ultimately suggests that both The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild aren’t part of the existing timelines Nintendo has produced before. The current timeline now show that both games stand alone on the timeline as you can see down below.
Thanks to Greatsong1 for sending in the news tip!
It doesn’t really matter as long as the games are fun, but it seems to me to be the easy way out.
I thought for sure botw would have been the time lines joining back together considering the Rito and Zora are both in the game because the Rito supposedly evolved from the Zora. Not to mention the map shows the most common similarities between all the other time lines. Kinda depressing tbh 😕
That was the original idea, the initial timeline update had BOTW at the end of all 3 but I guess they changed their mind.
TotK mentions the imprisoning war. in the hero is defeated timeline before aLttP the imprisoning war happens which means that Botw and totk take place years after Zelda 2 adventure of link.
I never understood why there is a need for a timeline, the same “legend” can have 100 different variations depending who the storyteller is
Simply put because when the games are connected via a timeline it enriches those game worlds more for the people who have played and experienced the other games. Each game is designed to be enjoyed as a standalone title, however when you play Wind Waker and see a Goron wearing a thinly veiled mask and riding on a raft you won’t think too much about it. That is unless you played Ocarina of Time and understood that the reason why he’s on a raft is because his homeland, Death Mountain, is submerged by the ocean. This is not explicitly told in Wind Waker’s story, and by taking what we know about them from previous games (Majora’s Mask also establishes the Gorons can’t swim) we can imagine deeper interpretations and differences between the Goron race in OoT and WW.
In Wind Waker the Rito evolved from the Zora. We can assume this happened because the Zora in OoT are likely freshwater Zora, so an ocean flooding them would kill off their race unless they evolved. That Goron on the raft- his race never evolved, despite being completely at risk of immediately drowning if they fell into the sea. The stark contrast between these two races and how they faced extinction by adapting in different ways showcases each races different characteristics as a whole. While the Zora gracefully evolved, the Gorons were stubborn like a rock, and yet they both survived.
You can infer all of this because of the connection the two games share due to their placement on the timeline. That’s why the timeline is important to people. It enriches the games further than just playing them standalone.
Yeah, you didn’t need an official timeline to connect Wind Waker and OoT. Wind Waker connects itself to OoT with the intro legend and dialogue from Ganondorf and the King.
Ganondorf’s homeland is Gerudo Valley/Desert btw not Death Mountain.
There was always a timeline. It began with Zelda 2 and ALttP. Up until BotW and TotK every game was set up as a prequel or sequel. Like how Four Swords was considered to be the oldest Zelda tale according to Aonuma placing it before OoT and The Minish Cap was about the origins of Vaati and the Four Swords so it was clearly a prequel of that.
He was not talking about Ganondorf, he mentioned the homeland of the Gorons, Death Mountain.
This entire answer explains why Nintendo felt pressured to create something official. Otherwise people are pinning things together themselves, the fanbase starts debating about what’s what and right in said timeline, then wanting Nintendo to put it together, Nintendo does so, people still argue against it, and all hell breaks loose.
I never even thought of a timeline in my vocab before Hyrule Historia, ngl. Each game is special in their own ways, says this diehard.
I think it’s ’cause most of the first half-dozen Zelda games were explicitly connected to each other (Zelda II is a direct sequel, ALttP is a prequel and LA is a sequel to that, OoT has the Sealing War mentioned in ALttP and MM and WW are sequels to OoT). After the OoT timeline split was established, it became a lot harder to make the canon backwards-compatible, but people still wanted to try.
Ok, but where does echoes of wisdom fit?
My guess is it’s a alternative ending(timeline) to Links Awakening. Since Link loses the final battle in the trailer of Echoes of Wisdom.
We’ll have to wait and see when the game releases and find any clues in the story and in the environment that shows where it takes place in the timeline. if it’s not in the same boat as botw and totk that is.
I remember when Aonuma said that BotW takes place at the end of the timeline, so to me it means that BotW and TotK are not apart from the timelines, but they are just too far into the future that it doesn’t make sense to put them inside the timeline, yet. Either way you can see that they are situated on the direction of the “Hero is Triumphant” timeline, so they are probably tied to that but far into the future.
This is the article Aonuma says the games are at the end of the timeline: https://mynintendonews.com/2018/08/06/zelda-breath-of-the-wild-has-been-added-to-official-timeline/
That’s not at all how it looks. There’s a clear divide between these games and the rest, indicating they don’t mix. So no, they aren’t part of any timeline. Moreover, TotK makes it explicit they can’t fit in any timeline.
Also Nintendo constantly retcons stuff about their games so an Aonuma article from 2018 means nothing in 2024.
I know there is a divide, but why would BotW and TotK be located in the direction of the triumphant timeline and not at the end (on the right side of the picture), in the center or even below the timeline, at the bottom? Placing the games in the same direction of the triumphant timeline can just cause confusion. It really implies that the games happen many years in the timeline where Ganon is defeated. That is why there is a division, because they are not directly connected to the ones before, but still happen after many events of the previous games.
Since this article from 2018 that I mentioned, Aonuma didn’t dismiss what he said, he only said that thinking too much about the chronology of the series “really boxes” their creative decisions and limit them, so it is highly possible that BotW and TotK still take place far in the future of the timeline.
It can. Originally due to the whole Hyrule Warriors 1 ending making the multiple timelines into one timeline that’s how Aoc, Botw, and Totk made sense, but yeah they are definitely throwing a monkey wrench in that like 10 years after then partially confirmed this.
The original answer we had for that was that the Links present in Hyrule Warriors 1 were the end of the split timeline and by getting the ending of the game Hyrule Warriors 1 the timelines were put back into one. Then we had 10,000 years into the future Hyrule Warriors 2: Age of Calamity, Then Botw, then Totk.
But with how there new timeline is I have no clue what’s going on?
BotW & TotK make sense not being in any of the 3 established timelines. For one thing in it’s past, Ganondorf sought power but the Triforce wasn’t his endgame, it was the Zonai Sacred Stone. Then he gets Sealed for a time. Then in his first breakout attempt 10k years before BotW he is stopped by the 5 Champions & Zelda. Then BotW happens where he is eventually stopped again. Then after 5 or more years Ganondorf finally breaks free only to be killed by Link. This time there is no Escaping from the Seal, he is going to have to Reincarnate. Imagine the Gerudo seeing a Male Gerudo child born & kills him cause they don’t want Ganondorf to rise again after all the Chaos he has caused & would cause should he rise again.
Didn’t they say in botw that 10,000 years ago was at least the second attempt? They built the guardians and divine beasts in order to counter a calamity that was already faced once before by their ancestors
That’s what those dark timeline flat earthers get for insisting that botw/totk is somehow exclusive to the dark timeline.
Eh Who cares, the whole thing is glued together with spit, the only thing that matter is that they mostly have great stories alone
This isn’t new nor is the information about BotW and TotK being on their own separate timeline/universe. This was revealed before the release of TotK.
Nintendo revealed this on their JP site for Zelda. The timelines are visible even now. All of the theory crafter’s deliberately ignored the timeline placement for these two games were already released.
Nintendo did it because they didn’t like talking about timelines and having to answer forevery discrepancy in the past games.
They are connected of course as the devs have stated multiple times, they have just left the 2 latest games upto the imagination regarding placement. Again the devs have stated this. This timeline shows that.
They are connected… where, exactly?
All that I’m seeing are two games separated from the others with a clear divide between them.
No, they aren’t connected.
I actually prefer Zelda games to not be connected. Some obviously are very connected if they’re sequels or prequels and others reference things and that’s cool but it’s like FINAL FANTASY to me, I just think of them as new stories. I don’t need (or want, really) every game to fit nicely in somewhere. The fact that all these games are in a different order than they came out kinda irks me (not enough to care but just like, hmm…)
Yep. Just as I thought.
I interpret it to say they are on the triumphant split but still ambiguous. This graphic doesn’t prove anything…
Let’s just say the “Wild Era” games have no KNOWN connection to any other part of the timeline. I, like many others, read them as being completely disconnected from the rest of the timeline l, but some future Legend could forge a Link we are unaware of.
This time line is incorrect, before BOTW there should be Hyrule Warriors – Age of Calamity, which is set 100 years before BOTW. But as seen in that screen shot, it’s absent. So either HWAoC is not canon, this new timeline is fake, or Nintendo effed up.
Pretty sure HW were never canon
Neither Hyrule Warriors nor Age of Calamity are canon.
Does this series even need a timeline? I think it should just be a new incarnation of the hero every game. You can make a sequel and continue the story of that world like TOTK did with BOTW. But I think its time Nintendo did away with the timeline and officially announce that going forward they would just like the freedom to make exciting games that introduce new mechanics to keep upcoming games fresh.
I’m really not sure who is doing this but there are only two timelines in the The Legend of Zelda series. The first and main timeline are all of the original games where Link fights Ganon with the Master Sword. Every other game including BotW and TotK are spinoffs and sequels from the original timeline.
Actually, it is a recombination of the later two timelines. You can tell that just by playing the games.
Again with this “timeline merge” nonsense? It’s not shown in any game and this graphic just finished disproving that. There is no recombination at all.
I might be late to the conversation… but the Zelda timeline adds flavor and lore to the series. I always enjoyed the idea of Ocarina branching out to three different timelines. The newer games do feel more like a sandbox with a bunch of random callbacks to past Zelda games, and they lack focus on story… makes sense they’re their own thing but lazy at the same time.
Why not just make it a new timeline that takes place directly after skyward sword then?
Nintendo just throwing crap at 5he wall again, hoping it sticks.
I think the reason why they stand alone is because Hyrule warriors isn’t cannon to the timeline
I knew it. BOTW was a reboot and we’ve entered the Zelda multiverse era
It’s the basketball timeline ofc
Like Endisend said, BotW & TotK are so far into the future that they can’t place them into the timeline yet. 10k years is a pretty big fucking gap in time, after all. Til told otherwise by Nintendo, I’m just gonna assume that Tears’ Ganondorf is another future incarnation of the original Ganondorf from Ocarina of Time.
At this point in time, it’s clear that Ninty considers the timeline to be very malleable. It makes Aonuma’s words of “thinking too much about the chronology of the series “really boxes” their creative decisions and limits them.” make sense. But this is what happens when a fictional world’s history is told ‘out of’ chronological order instead of ‘in’ chronological order.
Anyway, if BotW & TotK is part if the Hero of Time is triumphant timeline, that means Hyrule eventually falls & is reborn through King Rauru who probably chose the name Hyrule from historical documents. Or Sonia was the last of the Hyrule Royal Family bloodline & Rauru named his new kingdom in honor of his beloved wife’s last name & family while also, in turn, taking her last name as his own. Last names are technically made up, anyway, since last names weren’t a thing when humanity was first starting out. I mean, you don’t need a middle & last name when there is currently only one Adam, Eve, etc in existence at the dawn of time.
Honestly, I’m glad Nintendo finally stopped trying to force these games into a messy timeline. Let BOTW and TOTK stand on their own – it fits their whole vibe better anyway.
TOTK talks about the imprisoning war. The imprisoning war “cannotically” takes place before A Link to the Past. Therefore due to Botw taking place thousands of years after Zelda 2, we can figure out that BOTW and TOTK take place in the fallen hero timeline after zelda 2