Game Theory - I FIXED Zelda's Broken Timeline!

Episode Date: March 17, 2025

Join Game Theory Host Tom as he fixes the broken Zelda Timeline!

The Zelda timeline is broken. Again! While Echoes of Wisdom recently received an official spot in the Zelda timeline, Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are yet to receive the same definitive level of treatment. But don't worry, loyal theorists, because today I'm here to fix that. Hello internet, welcome to Game Theory, the show that's finally found the Triforce of Courage to talk about the Zelda timeline. This is one of those game franchises I've been wanting to cover for a while. But it's an intimidating challenge, to say the least. In 2011, Nintendo released the Hira

containing a definitive timeline of when every game in the franchise took place, only to then release the Zelda Incyclopedia seven years later that changed it all. And as more Zelda games came out, people wanted to know more than ever where they fit into this established timeline. Recently, it's all been about echoes of wisdom, which seemed to be combining elements from all over the Zelda timeline, causing a lot of debate as to where this was supposed to take place. Thankfully, Good Guy Nintendo came out a few months later to give it an official spot in the timeline, showing us that they do still care about the timeline and that games are going to continue to be added to it.

But that then begs the question, why haven't they done the same thing for Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom? The creators have said vague things like it's at the end of the timeline, but which timeline? Then a few months back, this image was presented at a Nintendo event displaying Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom to be in its own separate place, not connected to the rest of the timeline. Which brought this debate back to the forefront? Which one is it? Is it at the end? Is it separate?

Is it so far in the future it's basically separate? Their response? It's up to the player's imagination. What? No, that's not how this works, Nintendo. You can't just say that one set of games are definitively in this one specific place in the timeline, but then for others just say it's up to interpretation. If you're going to be definitive about one, there has to be a definitive answer for the other.

And so today, I am going to do what Nintendo won't. won't. And figure out the definitive timeline for the legend of Zelda. Because actually, I believe there is a solution that can dig Nintendo out of this hole. And set them up for success in the future while also keeping us, the fans, happy and content with a cohesive timeline. So, let's get started. As a quick refresher, how the timeline currently works is that after a couple of games, we reach the events of Okarina of Time. And thanks to time travel, the timeline splits into three. One of those is the child timeline. After Link defeats Ganon, he returns.

to his original timeline where he was a child, leading to games like Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess. Then there's the adult timeline, the one Link traveled to to defeat Ganon, and subsequently left when he returned to the child timeline, leaving this timeline saved, but without a hero, leading to games like Wind Waker and Spirit Tracks. Finally, you have the Downfall timeline. This is where Link failed to defeat Ganon, and so Ganon takes over and the world turns to ruin. This is the timeline where games like the original Legend of Zelda, Link's Awakening, and recently

Echoes of Wisdom take place. According to Nintendo, it sits right here after TriForce Heroes, but before the original Legend of Zelda. Fun side note here, I actually had a whole theory written about the timeline placement for Echoes of Wisdom months before this announcement, and actually, I came to the same conclusion. Look, here's the script starting date, and here is the line about its placement. Alas, that theory will never see the light of day now, but I am happy that this placement from Nintendo makes a lot of sense. Echoes of Wisdom uses the same map as a link to the past, just expanded, which is one of the two maps the Downfall timeline uses constantly. Areas from a link to the past like the Desert Palace, the Swamp Palace and the Eastern Palace

are now withered, aged and broken archaeological sites. You've also got the echo of Blue Pig Gannon, which implies the main villain, Null, has seen this Gannon before in order to make an echo in the first place. And that version of Gannon only really shows up in the Downfall timeline. And finally, the Triforce, although it's not called that in this game, still has three pieces. Whereas, after the era of decline, and by the time of the original legend of Zelda, the third piece has been lost for so long that some don't even believe there to be a third piece. So, Nintendo clearly did their homework, and now Echoes of Wisdom is solidly part of the Zelda timeline. But now, let's take a look at the real problem, children in this

timeline. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. As I mentioned earlier, there's a bunch of comments about it being at the end of the timeline, and in the creating a champion law book from Breath of the Wild, it also places Breath of the Wild 10,000 years into the future. And for a long time, this actually made a lot of sense to us here at Theorist. We did a whole theory about how Breath of the Wild was at the end of the timeline like we've been told, but rather than it being of just one timeline, it was of all three converging back into one thanks to Hyrule Warriors, allowing it to remain at the end of the timeline and far in the future, but also allowing for all the weird elements from multiple different games,

like Rocksalt existing, which implies that the land was once completely flooded like it does in the adult timeline, but Zora and Rito being able to exist side by side, rather than one evolving from the other, and the mirror of Twilight existing alongside Linels and Korox. It all made sense. However, unlike Echoes of Wisdom, Nintendo has still refused to put Hyrule Warriors into the canon timeline, which means the timelines haven't converged, and so Breath of the Wild has to take place at the end of just one of them, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me personally. But not only did they refuse to converge to the timelines,

they then doubled down with the direct sequel Tears of the Kingdom. This thing is filled with so many contradictions, it not only ruins its own placement in the timeline, but also ruins the established order of the current confirmed timeline as we know it. One of the major issues comes from how the Kingdom of Hyrule was said to be established. Up until Tears of the Kingdom, we believed what the Hyrule historian told us. After Skyward Sword, the people living in the sky came back down to the surface and quote,

the descendants of the goddess Hylia, who was reincarnated as Princess Zelda, established the kingdom of Hyrule. However, in Tears of the Kingdom, Zelda travels through time to the past. Because things weren't confusing enough after doing it the first time. Now, we have to have two entries for Tears of the Kingdom,

one in the present and one in the past. But anyway, when Zelda meets King Raru in the past, he says this. We are the king and queen who founded Hyrule after all. So, wait, was it Zelda from Skyward Sword who founded Hyrule? Or was it King Rauru? These two things don't seem to be able to work together.

Or at least, that's what I thought, until Nintendo released the Tears of the Kingdom Masterworks, because inside this Japanese only book is a breakdown of the Zonai timeline. After the world was created by the three goddesses, Earth was entrusted to Hilia. The Zonai at this point are living on the surface, but later moved to the sky. Over time, Zonai numbers begin to dwindle,

so they choose to return to the surface and mingle with the surface dwellers. And seeing as King Raru is a zonai and Queen Sonia, well, isn't. They mean mingle. That, my friends, opens up a teeny tiny window of opportunity for things to work out. Notice how the Hyrule historian says the descendants of Princess Zelda established the kingdom of Hyrule, not Zelda herself. At the end of Skywood sword, Zelda and Link begin to build life on the surface. These are the first Hillions, and wouldn't you know it, Sonia is a Hylian herself.

She also has markings on her body depicting Sheika eyes and the Triforce, all things that reflect the history of the people from Skywood Sword, her ancestors. She is one of those descendants that the Hyrule Historia talks about. That would mean that Skywood Sword happens between the Zonai living in the sky and returning to Earth. Then when the Zonai returned to the surface to repopulate, they would run into these Hylian descendants and mingle with them, eventually establishing Hyrule and leading to the events of the past, of the kingdom. But if that's true, why do Raru and Sonia not recognize the names Link or Zelda? Link? That is not a name I have heard.

Sonia is clearly versed in the history of the events of SkyWood Sword, given her markings, so she should know about the legendary Link and Zelda, right? Well, maybe not. Throughout SkyWord, Link is referred to as the goddess's chosen hero. We see the same thing in Windwaker. The Link from Ocarina of Time isn't called Link once. The prologue says he is known as the Hero of the Hero of the Hero of the of Time, and in Twilight Princess, they mentioned the hero of legend.

Clearly, as time went on and the events of Skyward Sword became legend, the title stuck, but Link's real name was likely forgotten. In the real world, this happens all the time. The earliest known recorded name of a person that we have is from around 3,400 to 3,000 BC. The name is Kushim. However, it's unclear whether this is a name of a person or whether it was their title. Either way, one of those elements was noted down, and the other was lost to time. It's also worth mentioning that in Hyrule, it's tradition that the royal family named their daughters Zelda.

But Raru and Sonia are the first king and queen of Hyrule. So this tradition clearly hasn't begun yet. It may even be that Zelda's visit to the past was what started that tradition, just something I was thinking about while writing this. So there you have it. Tears of the Kingdom's past segments go here and the present events happen at the end of the timeline after Breath of the Wild. Easy! If that was the only major issue with this game. This next one is something that a lot of people

to kiss you with and it kind of screws up what we've already solved. The Imprisoning War. In Tears of the Kingdom, the Imprisoning War is an event that occurs in the past. Once Ganendorf takes a special stone and receives unlimited power, the seven sages, including Zelda, fight him but fail. As a last resort, Raru, the Sage of Light, attacks Ganondorff using his sealing power to trap Ganon within his own body, turning him into the dehydrated Ganon from the beginning of the game. But this isn't the first time we've heard about the imprisoning war. It was also part of the prologue from a link to the past.

In that version of the story, when Link from Ocarina of Time is defeated by Gannendorf, Gannendorff takes the Triforce and receives Ultimate Power. The seven sages, including Zelda and the Sage of Light Raru, seal Gannon away in the dark world. Those sound pretty similar, right? But did you spot the problem? A link to the past's imprisoning war takes place after Ocarina of Time as part of the downfall timeline. Tears of the Kingdom has to come before Ocarina of Time because of the war. the founding of Hyrule. And yet, they still really want you to know that the imprisoning

war definitely happened in this timeline before Hyrule was even found it. That was the imprisoning war. That was the imprisoning war. So that was the imprisoning war. I wondered if maybe we just needed to move the imprisoning war to an earlier point in the timeline just to correct for Nintendo's mistake. Or maybe there had always been two imprisoning wars, much like we've had two World Wars. They just happen to be called the same thing because they depict similar events.

But even with those seemingly simple fixes, it creates more problems. Like, how is there a dehydrated Gannon living beneath Hiraul throughout the entire Zelda timeline? And yet other Gannons are constantly resurrecting. Gannon has to be slain to be resurrected. And that just hasn't happened, making the past events of Tears of the Kingdom unable to occur early in the timeline. There's also the existence of the Rito in both the present and past of Tears of the Kingdom. The first time we saw the Rito was in Windwaker.

looked more human than bird and were descendants of the Zora, evolving after the great flood in the adult timeline. The Rito in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, however, are drastically different, now looking way more like birds than humans. This might just seem like they evolved over time, but then we meet the same Rito in the past of Tears of the Kingdom, and they exist at the same time as the Zora they evolved from. What? The only possible explanation I could come up with was that these bird-looking Rito followed Raru's and mingled with the Zora, creating hybrid Rito, which is what we see in Wind Waker.

And then just basically piecing out like the Garudo did in the downfall timeline. Still around somewhere, we just don't know where. But as you can imagine, I'm not particularly pleased with that answer, and I'm sure you guys aren't either. I kind of understand why Nintendo has been so coy about this whole thing. Any possible explanation feels like we're clutching at straws. Even the catch-all, it's so far into the future idea, has holes in it. It seems like all Nintendo wanted to do was, make some cool games and they ended up digging themselves into a hole that is now impossible to get out of.

And so now, they're just sweeping it under the rug and hoping it goes away. But then, when you release another new game like Echoes of Wisdom and then almost immediately put it on the official timeline, it shows that you are still thinking about it, that there is an answer here. Look, I get it. The timeline is a delicate balance. Before they released it, we'd never even considered the possibility that Link could canonically die in Ocarina of Time to create a branching path. minute, why is that the only death that we consider Canon? I know Ocarina of Time is one of the most beloved games in the franchise, and obviously it's hugely important for the timeline, but if Nintendo has told us that failure is canon

in one game, who's to say failure in other games wouldn't also create new threads of the timeline? In Echoes of Wisdom, Link defeats Gannon, but Gannon's spear then causes Link to fall into the still world, and so, Link fails to restore peace to Hyrule, leading Zelda to become the hero and eventually the events of the original legend of Zelda as we established earlier. In Breath of the Wild, when Calamity Ganon first attacks Hyrule, Link is defeated and then revived 100 years later, eventually fighting Calamity Ganon again, destroying Hyrule Castle, allowing Gloom to appear and leading Zelda and Link to find the dehydrated Gannon in Tears of the Kingdom.

Link doesn't always succeed, and yet it still leads to previously established parts of the timeline. If Link didn't fall into the still world, the era of decline might not. have happened. If Link beat Calamity Ganon first try in Breath of the Wild, Zelda might not have ever travelled back in time to set the events of dehydrated Ganon in motion. So what if we consider other failures in other games to also be Canon? It doesn't have to be Link either. Echoes of Wisdom showed us that other important characters can affect the outcomes. Suddenly, if any game can create new branching paths, then the possibilities for stories suddenly becomes a lot more expansive. And this mindset, will not only allow us to place Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom somewhere in the timeline that makes sense,

but it could explain why they've been shown as separated from the rest of the timeline. The prologue to Skywood Sword says, One Dark Day, the earth cracked wide and malevolent forces rushed from the fissure. This is Demi's seeking to rule the world. Now, one thing I've always noticed is how Demise shares a striking resemblance to Ganendorff in the past of Tears of the Kingdom, once he takes the power of the secret stone. The imprisoning war that then ensued was fought in the depths underneath Hyrule, with Raru succeeding in sealing Gannon away.

But what if Raru failed to seal Gannon away? If he failed, Gannon, a malevolent force that wants to rule the world, would have defeated Raru and the sages and broken out from the underground, causing chasms, rushing out of the depths to destroy Hyrule. This would have led the goddess Hylia to lift the surviving Hylians to the sky, just like we saw in Skyward Sword. Raru, failing to seal Gannon, creates a new timeline thread, the main timeline thread,

which I'm going to call the demise timeline. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, on the other hand, play out as we see in game. This is the thread where Raru succeeds to seal Gannon, and so it becomes removed from the rest of the timeline. Let's call this the imprisoned timeline. This is why Skyloft and the Zonite never interact in Skyward's sword, because Skyloft being raised into the sky only happens in the Demise timeline where Hyrule and the Zonai were completely destroyed.

When Zelda and Link defeat Demise and return to the surface, there's nothing there, and their descendants begin to establish a new Hyrule. It's just been so long that there's no one left that remembers the Hyrule that once was. It's also why there are two imprisoning wars. In the Demise timeline, the first one technically doesn't exist because it failed, but the idea of it was passed down. And so many years later, in the Downfall timeline, the Sevensendons sages tried once again and this time they succeeded. Even the Rito makes sense in this version of the timeline. They existed in the past alongside the Zora and in the imprisoned timeline they just continued existing. Wind Waker never occurs and so no mingling with the Zora. But in the demise timeline,

they've hybridized with the Zora in order to survive the mass amount of water now present due to the Great Flood. This new branch can also have an entirely new history that we know nothing about, allowing for things to feel similar to previous games, but with entirely different explanations. The rock salt that covers the landscape implies a flood. Well, who's to say that there can't be a future game exploring a different flood that affected this timeline specifically? Why is there the Temple of Time and Lon Lon Ranch from Ocarina of Time in Breath of the Wild? Well, there's a whole bunch of history between Raru's success of sealing Ganon and Breath of the Wild. Much like Wind Waker and Twilight Princess are at the same time just in parallel timelines,

so too could the Great Flood and the building of the Temple of Time run parallel to Windwaker and Ocarina in this new imprisoned timeline. So there you go, Nintendo. If you do truly believe the timeline can be interpreted in a number of ways and may change depending on the discoveries that have come to light and the player's imagination, then let me use my imagination to give you a get out of fandom jail free card. Take this web of timelines and finally place Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom in a way that works within your established rules.

This will give you so much more freedom in the future. All of those failures or successes can open up the door to so many possibilities that before just wouldn't have been possible without getting the fanbase even more upset. Now what you have to do is make a great game because almost any combination of stuff you use can fit in one of these branches. Heck, even those games you said aren't canon, now could be. Hyrule Warriors, the Tingles Series, Zelda CDI, all of them can now just be another one of these many branches without messing with your core canon timeline as it were.

in this massive web should those go? I think I'll leave that down to the loyal theorists watching to figure out. You guys can let me know down in the comments. In the meantime theorists, remember, that's just a theory. A game theory. Thanks for watching.