[SPOILERS] Legend of Zelda Continuity - SPLIT from 3D Zelda graphical styles

[deanb]

 

I have no idea what else was said in this thread nor do I have any bets on how it works but thought I'd share.

[TheMightyEthan]

I think that or something quite similar was already posted.

[TheMightyEthan]

Also, I meant to come post in here when I finished Skyward Sword but I forgot: I believe Skyward Sword reinforces my reincarnation hypothesis.

 

Inside the tags I discuss the very end of Skyward Sword, along with some earlier-in-the-game spoilers.

 

 

Okay, so in Skyward Sword Link is the Goddess' chosen Hero. Big surprise. It is also revealed that (at least in this game) Zelda is in fact the Goddess' soul in a human form. At the very end, after you defeat the Goddess' eternal enemy, the Demon King Demise (who I had noticed when he first showed himself that he looks very similar to Ganon from Wind Waker and Twilight Princess) he expresses shock at being defeated by a mere human, yada yada. The important part is when he says

 

My hate... never perishes. It is born anew in a cycle without end!

 

I will rise again!

 

Those like you... those who share the blood of goddess and the spirit of the hero... They are eternally bound to this curse.

 

An incarnation of my hatred shall ever follow your kind, dooming them to wander a blood-soaked sea of darkness for all time!

Now obviously that's open to interpretation, but I think it suggests a larger, metaphysical connection between the Links and Zeldas that goes beyond each Link merely being some random, heroic person and Zeldas just being a series of princesses in the one royal family. It certainly suggests that Ganon is one being, but that wasn't really ever in any doubt anyway.

 

Anyway, those are my thoughts.

 

[Johnny]

I don't mean to disregard your post, Ethan, but I have not played Skyward Sword yet, so I'm not willing to read any spoilers.

 

@Dean: Holy lol. Putting the Four Swords saga in it's own timeline is just an excuse not to think.

[TheMightyEthan]

That's fine, that's why I put it in spoiler tags.

[TCP]

 

I have no idea what else was said in this thread nor do I have any bets on how it works but thought I'd share.

This is more or less how I see it. One difference is, I thought the original Legend of Zelda came after Wind Waker/Spirit Tracks because the barren land Link explores is the original Hyrule, now with the ocean gone.

The Oracle games coming from different timelines makes a lot of sense.

[Waldorf and Statler]

I haven't played Oracle of Seasons/Ages. Can somebody give me a very watered down version as to why they know they're the last in the "continuity"?

[Johnny]

@TheCowboyPoet: I disagree so much about the Oracle games. There's nothing in the story indicating they are separate timelines. The backstory for ages/seasons requires a very specific condition that the triforce be restored to it's resting place and Ganon being dead. As I laid out on the first page, I think there's really only one place where this fits well.

 

@Waldorf: They aren't considered very important and are often left to last in the discussion, and many people seem to just put them last in the time line as an excuse not to think about it.

[TCP]

I haven't played Oracle of Seasons/Ages. Can somebody give me a very watered down version as to why they know they're the last in the "continuity"?

Ignoring Johnny's post (sorry Johnny). It's not so much that they're last in the timeline, but it makes sense that they take place in two different time lines because they both start almost exactly the same. So the belief is that they take place at the same time, with two separate Links. Ganon being dead makes sense as well, if Legend of Zelda is after Wind Waker/Phantom Hourglass/Spirit Tracks like I suspect, than he'd be dead from Legend of Zelda, and hence needing to be restored.

 

All this talk about the Oracle games is really reminding me, Nintendo needs to hurry up and release them on the Virtual Console.

 

 

 

EDIT: Upon reading some of Johnny's older posts, you're reading waaay too much into things. There's a very loose timeline with a lot of holes and things that don't make sense and entire games that don't make sense. A lot of the references are nods to players who've played previous games. It makes sense for one game to reference another but stringing them all together doesn't really work. That's Nintendo's fault for poor planning but clearly story hasn't always been their biggest focus. It's not like we're dealing with Star Wars here.

I will admit that clearly Wind Waker was meant as a follow up to Ocarina, that's the most obvious out of them (besides direct sequels like Majora's Mask).

Edited December 1, 2011 by TheCowboyPoet

[Johnny]

The entire timeline discussion is an exercise in reading too much into things. Everything about the timeline is incredibly vague, and if you're championing one timeline theory, dismissing another for reading too much into it feels... not quite right.

[TheMightyEthan]

The entire timeline discussion is an exercise in reading too much into things.

QFT! Still fun though.

[TCP]

So is Link reincarnated or is each Link the descendent of a previous Link or is there no relation?

[TheMightyEthan]

My theory is that he's reincarnated, but others disagree.

[deanb]

[Waldorf and Statler]

Just beat the game.

 

 

So Demise reincarnates as Ganon in later games, and Zelda and Link are somehow the chosen heroes?

 

[deanb]

http://www.newnintendo.net/blog/2011/12/20/higher-quality-hyrule-historia-preview-pages/

[Johnny]

Wow, they are really doing that? I had dismissed it as a stupid rumor.

 

I can't honestly see why. This takes all the fun out of it.

 

EDIT

 

I... I saw the supposed official timeline on Siliconera. What the fuck, Nintendo. Your solution to Wind Waker not making any sense with the rest of the timeline is to invent a third fork? Clumsy...

 

http://www.siliconera.com/2011/12/21/does-this-legend-of-zelda-timeline-make-sense/

[CorgiShinobi]

Been meaning to get online after I saw the timeline last night while traveling/flying for 12 hours.

 

I always thought Wind Waker worked well with the OoT split. It was Link to the Past that stood out because, in all honestly, it was like a pre-OoT as far as plot. It has, more so, an origin story. It really couldn't go near Ocarina, Twilight, or Wind Waker without proper padding (Awakening, Four Swords, etc).

 

If anything, Skyward Sword (theoretically speaking) has a timeline split. Link to the Past could have been a parallel time period to Ocarina of Time given how similar they are, but with slight differences. I can't explain in full right now though; time is short on my end.

[TCP]

Link failed in OoT so that created a 3rd time line? I call BS, Nintendo.

[Johnny]

Atomsk88: Both Wind Waker and LTTP fit well with a "traiditional" split timeline theory... but they both fit in the same spot. You can't have both, just one or the other.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

The difference between what Nintendo did and what fanboys did was include minish cap, four swords, and oracles, whereas that stuff was always separate in every single fan timeline I saw. People were also curious about the placement of the originals as no one had a good idea. This is Nintendo connecting the dots their way. Either way, I think that people caring too much essentially ruined Zelda's storyline for good.

[TheMightyEthan]

Death of the Author -> this is just another interpretation, no more valid than any other. Only what's in the works themselves is definitive.

[Johnny]

Faiblesse Des Sens: If you haven't seen any timeline theories involving minish cap, four swords and oracles, you might want to actually read the thread you're posting in. There's one on the first page.

 

Also, what ruined the Zelda storyline was fans being passionate about it? Really now? I take offense to that.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

I've seen plenty of theories where four swords and all of that is on their own 3rd, separate timeline, as barely any of those little side games fit in easily and they were never meant to. Now that Nintendo has thrown them in there, and somehow created a 3rd timeline, people be helly mad. I haven't been on /v/ since the initial leak a few nights ago to see if they've updated their many different versions (as the discussion there is much more lively and there's always a ton of different theories) so perhaps they are interpreting the translations differently.

 

Also, you should take offense to that, because it really happened and it's your fault. Basically, you took what was a simple story, bitched about it on the Internet, and now the game company has had to connect things that were never meant to be connected in the first place because the fans wanted it (of course, they also wanted to make money off it with this artbook.) It's pretty obvious that they didn't even bother with anything close to a timeline until the more recent games. Why would they? They're Nintendo games. They're meant to be simple. You're not meant to care about the story. Zelda games have always been fun adventure quests where you don't worry about what is going on so much. You just know there's an evil out there. And you play as the one who has to stop it. Things like Adult Link/Young Link were put in to make the gameplay more interesting. A throwback to the light/dark world of ALTTP.

 

You might want to read back what you said:

 

This takes all the fun out of it.

[Mr. GOH!]

Oooh, the hipster argument: If you care about it, it's no longer cool. Seeing it applied to the Zelda storyline is delicious.