Does Tears of The Kingdom Fit In The Zelda Timeline? w/  

I understand why some people want a timeline and the context it can bring to the story of Zelda as a whole. At the same time, I don't really care which games fit where and why. The enjoyment I get outside of playing the games is speculating how they connect as well as how they expand our understanding of the history and lore of Hyrule. What we understood about the timeline a month ago has today been completely turned on its head. Instead of focusing on where the games take place in the timeline, which is honestly irrelevant, we should focus more on how each new game rewrites and expands the lore of the series. Just as every new day gives us new understanding about our own ancient past, the games parallel the real world. We thought we knew the events of the Imprisoning War and now we learn new information about it that proves what we knew to be incorrect. We thought we knew about the who and when of the founding of Hyrule, now we know we were incorrect. I think all of this is simply a reaction to our own confusion now that we know we were completely wrong in our previous understanding. While I'm happy that people are asking questions, I think everyone thus far is too focused on the wrong questions.

Thank you for having me on your channel. I look forward to you joining my podcast sometime! Good chatting with you.

You have to watch the Zelda Timeline Truthers and what theories they are coming up to fit everything into a single continuity. It’s wild.

Hyrule is kept vague intentionally so we can fill the gaps ourselves and use our imagination. I dont think Aonuma's lazy, I just dont think he wants to take that mystique away from the series. To put it another way, I think the more the fans try to piece everything together, the weirder the next entry has to get to reestablish mystery.

Great discussion! I personally think Nintendo wanted a way to escape the timeline, because that would give them far more liberty and creativity designing new games. Having to fit every new game to the timeline means that there would be less and less room for new ideas, so the timeline would eventually become full. That could even mean the end of the Zelda series. Who here would like that?

When it comes to continuity in a game series like Zelda, I think Soul Calibur said it best: Transcending history and the world, a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold. Zelda is a multiverse, and while some games happen on the same timeline, not all games happen in one timeline.

Zelda created a time paradox when she went back in time. It was supposed to be the imprisoning war with Hylia inhabiting Sonia after death and Rauru acting as her champion. Skyloft was created to protect the people and the world was wiped. When Zelda went back in time it wasn’t necessary for Hylia to show up and yeet people into the sky. She created a new timeline where similar events happened with Gannon popping up as a phantom, but it wasn’t the exact events of the other games. This is the only way for the timeline to make any sense

The king and queen of hyrule in the timeline after demise was broken from his seal wouldn’t have a way of knowing about demise’s curse tho because all the witnesses went to the other timeline (with exception of Impa) and with the death of demise the skyloftians may take longer too reach the surface and therefore Impa may have died beforehand of old age. Just because the kingdom is founded in totk doesn’t mean it’s immediately after the skyloftians arrive to the surface for all we know generations could have passed in this timeline before the kingdom was founded

My headcanon was that a long time ago before botw Hyrule might have fallen and then it was built up again and that’s where the “first King and Queen” thing happened but it was in a period of time that was still far enough in the future to where it didn’t matter Edit: oh apparently this is just the “refounding” theory

Totally agree with the 2D game in between, but I’m not so sure if I’m ready for the Oracle remakes. As I was typing this, the Fire Temple was brought up and I’m very happy it did. I tried to play TotK in an intended method. The Fire Temple was amazing to me because of that. My favorite dungeon in fact.

Here's my personal theory as an enjoyer of the series who's missed a few games and not dug deep into the timeline lore. (And I've specifically not played Skyward Sword which probably nullifies all of this). The past of Tears of the Kingdom happens before Skyward Sword. Demise is another name for the sealed Ganondorf, and the citizens of Hyrule retreated to the sky due to his lingering armies on the ground. That's why the past doesn't have a Link or Zelda to match up with Ganondorf. So Ganondorf, now known as Demise, attempts to escape by using Ghirahim, and when that fails he starts the cursed cycle of three that persists all the way through the present of Tears of the Kingdom. So in Breath of the Wild we defeat the spirit of the curse, the part that continually revived through the series, and now in Tears of the Kingdom, we've bookended the series by finally defeating Demise himself, Ganondorf, in his true body. Of course this would make it hard to make more games in the series and I'm probably completely proven wrong by a dozen things, but I like it.

I've mostly considered it another branch of the timeline entirely. BoTW mushing all three timelines from the OoT split strikes me as being just as nonsensical as the split itself, but after ToTK I'm doubtful that even Skyward Sword is canon to it, but it really wouldn't take that much to make it fit in.

I believe that botw and totk are so far in the future that even the past hyrule in totk is far after any of the old games and it’s kind of like a soft reboot but the old games still technically happened in the far past

well i hoped there were was a good ganondorf who would team up with link and zelda to end the curse of demise on them

I wanted to also say doesn't ganondorf in every timeline know who link and zelda are. Why is it in this timeline he's suddenly like I am anxious to meet this hero. And stuff he says it as if he doesn't know who they are.

I saw a good one at the end of the child timeline you put hyrule warriors and that creates a converged timeline at the end of legends then its hyrule warriors age of Calamity then breath of the wild then tears of the kingdom I personally put another timeline split in age of Calamity one where the Calamity happens you get breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom then in the new timeline where the Calamity dosnt happen you get the cdi games😂😂😂

I wouldnt say TOTK nullifies BOTW. I mean the story of BOTW still is important and all. But TOTK does make BOTW look like a tech demo.

For me, Legend of Zelda is tank full of ideas, new mechanics and usually closed stories (unless said its continuation of story). BoTW isnt complete without first Zelda and ToTK is direct continuation of BoTW. Uh, but I started with ToTK while I will see how the world looked like before upheaval.

I love the honesty on this panel. The Zelda Timeline Truthers are in the mud.

Nintendo never wanted a time line... they shoved a timeline together because fans demanded it. Why does it matter?