The Insane History of the Zelda Timeline 

Cringe millennial humor made this completely unwatchable. My god the cringe killed me

I love that at one point it was canon that Link’s awakening took place through one black loading screen in Zelda II

I love how they eventually gave up and told us to come up with our own timelines

It's pretty funny that Eiji always tries his best to clear up the timeline while Miyamoto always just finds a way to mess it up again

It's always fun when fans realize Creators spend less time thinking about their creations than the fans do.

I love how every game mostly makes chronological sense in relation to the one before it but then over 30 years it becomes a big pile of time spaghetti

I'm of the opinion that, while making botw, a bunch of the important Zelda people sat down and were like "we're all tired of this timeline stuff, let's make it not a thing anymore" so they added stuff from every timeline and when totk came around they went "seriously? Was it not clear enough? We're going full reboot"

It’s kinda funny that in the timeline, before Windwaker, there was only one Link and he had to kill Ganon like 20 times cause the sages could never seal him form more than a month

I love how in this context, every new zelda game is like a massive new burden 😂

Okay but let's be honest, Zelda Monopoly is the most important game in the timeline.

The “Zelda Timeline Document” that Aonuma and Miyamoto keep referring to has to be some damn bar napkin that now has so much pen ink and drink stains on it from continued amendments that it is now incomprehensible, leading to each new screwed up timeline retcon.

I always personally speculated that the reason Ganondorf has the triforce already during his execution is because Zelda sent Link back to the child timeline after he’d already obtained the triforce of courage, so the triforce of power and wisdom went to ganondorf and Zelda automatically the same way it did when ganondorf touches it in Ocarina. This could also explain why you find the triforce shattered in the Wind Waker and have to repair it.

I always just treat the franchise as an anthology: there’s some direct sequels but the whole continuity of the series is the shared vibes. Done. Answers like the entire thing 😂

Shigiru Miamoto is known to not let a good story get in the way of gameplay and actively ignoring story when he wants to.

I really like the old canon of Link's Awakening being in the middle of Zelda 2 its creative

"see that? That was links awakening." I laughed so hard, you got my subscription.

What I’ve always believed since BOTW, and TOTK only served to reinforce, is that after years upon years of timeline-related questions and the higher ups realizing just how convoluted their own lore had become, BOTW was meant to be an effective reboot of the series. Do away with split timelines and tell a singular story that reinterprets all the significant events that came before in a newer, simpler way. That was necessary for them as creatives so as to not drive themselves insane dealing with the mess of their poor planning, but they know a lot of long time fans will be pissed if they admit that basically nothing from any of the previous games is canon anymore, so they can’t just come out and say it.

I like the idea that Hyrule Warriors royally messed up the timeline, and Tears of the Kingdom's flashbacks are what the history of this horribly stitched together world is now, with elements from a whole lot of different bits of history all thrown together. It also explains some of the whole "fairytale thing", if they are stories passed down from the people who were pulled across from other timelines, but that didn't actually happen in this one.

I love the theory that Hyrule Warriors converged the 3 timelines, and after that came Breath of the Wild, despite Nintendo saying that Hyrule Warriors was non-canonical, it's still the best way to merge timelines, since there, we have the mixture of all of them

My understanding of BotW’s timeline placement was always that the events 10,000 years ago, didn’t happen like a thousand years after the other games, but that there were like 50,000 to 100,000 years in between. The calamity is mentioned as a repeating cycle as far as I remember, so I don’t think it only happened twice.

That last dungeon image is called a manji. In Buddhism it represents internal/external harmony and is typically the icon used to mark Buddhist temples or shrines on older maps

The whole legend of zelda timeline should all be contained in Legend of Zelda, Adventures of Link. A missed opportunity if you ask me.

I’ve been championing the refounded Hyrule theory for weeks now. It works in the continuity while also giving the Zelda team basically complete freedom going forward

I hope we get a third game in the newest Hyrule that creates a time loop back to the beginning of the timeline just to make people explode from frustration

Really enjoying this! Btw, just in case you didn't know, the swastika symbol is not just a Nazi thing. From Wikipedia: "The swastika (卐 or 卍) is an ancient religious and cultural symbol, predominantly in various Eurasian, as well as some African and American cultures, now also widely recognized for its appropriation by the Nazi Party and by neo-Nazis.[1][2][3][4] It continues to be used as a symbol of divinity and spirituality in Indian religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.[5][6][7][8][1] It generally takes the form of a cross,[A] the arms of which are of equal length and perpendicular to the adjacent arms, each bent midway at a right angle."

Incredibly well made! I also personally like the "Refounding" theory. They gave themselves SOOO MUCH room to work with after BOTW and they still had to mess with the old timeline, it blows my mind.

How could you forget about Link‘s Crossbow Training? 😱 Also, irony aside, keep in mind that Breath of the Wild‘s Hyrule Warriors spin-off Age of Calamity is apparently also official canon, thus introducing yet another Timeline split 😅

Something else to consider that might support the idea of this not being a retcon: the Rito. Unless they retconned that as well, this should be evidence of Wind Waker's flood, so maybe they just founded Hyrule again at some point, either in a new land or on a newly flushed Hyrule. Perhaps Spirit Tracks' magic trains are the precursor to the Sheikah tech.

I always like to imagine that breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom are their own separate thing, with all the events happening before simply games that don’t exist.

My favorite thing about Zelda Timeline videos is that it's starting to mirror real-life archeology/ancient history - we have multiple differing accounts, each of which claims to be true and has evidence to support it, some key events keep coming up but are described differently, and there's no single theory that unites them all.

I feel like the only reason why people react this way to TotK's many retcons is because we went over 10 years of safe places in the timeline. Nintendo always stated that changes in history/retcons can and will happen eventually. That's why they never really canonised anything in the first place. But we just got used to a fixed narrative over time. *Edit:* Hyrule Historia has this to say about Zelda's lore: "This chronicle merely collects information that is *believed to be true at this time,* and there are many obscured and unanswered secrets that still lie within the tale. As the stories and storytellers of Hyrule change, so, too does its history. Hyrule's history is a continuously woven tapestry of events. *Changes that seem inconsequential, disregarded without a shrug, could evolve at some point and hatch new legends and, perhaps, change this tapestry of history itself."* Zelda lore was always meant with retcons in mind. Only now this statement really took effect. Just treat Hyrule Historia as a bunch of "historical conjecture", how it was always meant to be.

New theory. BotW and TotK are a reboot, but the reboot actually started with skyward sword. ALBW and TH are still old canon though. Also the Four Swords games are banished to their own canon too. This means that all games within a canon are now related by direct prequel/sequel status except BotW and SS (Also links awakening, but that doesn't influence anything anyway.) It also means one Ganon/Ganondorf per canon, and thats cool.

One interesting theory that I heard is that after spirit tracks, four swords adventure, and Zelda II the timelines merge together due to Zelda being the sage of time creating a brand new timeline that shares similarities to all three timelines. This theory also explains how you can find tunics belonging to Zelda 1 link, twilight princess link, and wind waker link in the same game

If you really think about it it becomes obvious that every game in the series is actually just a dream had by the wind fish and takes place during the loading screen between west and east hyrule in Zelda II

Never heard of the theory that links awakening happens during adventure of link...I weirdly like that idea a lot

I'm old enough to remember when, in the 2000's, Miyamoto and Aonuma used to say there wasn't a continuing canon. Nerds wouldn't stop asking about it.

between the ranch ruins, the slate at the bottom of the royal secret passage, and the rito/zora EXISTING IN THE SAME PLACE, I like the in-universe explanation that the old games are myths, almost like a greek or norse epic that got told and told and changed and told some more, but the irl explanation that it's a hard retcon/reboot makes the most sense to me.

Honestly I kinda like the myth theory. It makes the past games feel more fun knowing you’re playing in some passed-down story about an old hero who saved Hyrule

Random theory a friend and I came up with, what if the Zonai are time travelers and went back in time to insert themselves into Hyrule's history for some reason or another. This theory is based on no evidence and a lethal dose of Zonai =Twili copium. Nintendo pls give us DLC to clarify this mess.

Personally I like the idea that each of the oracle games take place on different timelines but that the events were similar enough that the were able to converge. If we wanna get meta us using the code for the extra content is what fuses those timeline together.

This was such a good synopsis. I am definitely in the camp of TOTK revealing how their modern iteration of Hyrule was founded, not the Ocarina/Twilight Princess Hyrule. After such a ridiculously long history, I think it would only make sense that it would have to be founded again and I have no issue thinking of Sonia as having the blood of Hylia. Even Ganondorf showing up in the same way he did in Ocarina points to Demise's curse still going strong. Just like Link is born again and again with the same blondish hair, blue eyes, and left-handedness (*silent tears*), now we have all the evidence I need to see that Ganondorf does the same. He was reborn as a Gerudo warrior with similar features but isn't a 1:1 copy. Honestly my biggest lore gripe with BOTW and TOTK was Hylia herself no longer being connected to Zelda, that screws with me. Good vid!

So the "Founding of Hyrule" explained in Tears of the Kingdom is supposed to have been just prior to the first Calamity, based on some things you find out in this game's Memories. It's not the first time that they've shown that a new version of Hyrule was founded on the ruins of the old one.

In defense of Princess Zelda, you seem to be expecting omnipotence. Wisdom is knowing what to do with the knowledge you have. She had no idea when Ganondorf would start his attack, that the Master Sword would put Link to sleep, or that Ganon would eventually rise again.

Honestly I really like the idea of Hyrule Warriors being what brings the timelines together as it brings together heroes from all three timelines. It would honestly make a lot of sense

I think every event shown in breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom happens so far in the distant future compared to other games, none of them effect the current timeline at all. We’re simply seeing history repeating itself over and over, as is demise’s original curse and Hylia’s plan to stop him, the spirit of the hero, the goddess hylia’s mortal reincarnations and demise’s demon king spirit are in an infinite loop in every sense

Honestly, in a 4th timeline branching from skyward sword that takes place so far into the future it’s after all the other zelda games (or at least similar adventures) Is the best theory imo

13:35 If you look very closely when Link meet up with Zelda after he goes back in time at the end of oot he has the Triforce on the back of his hand so logically that would mean the other two pieces went to Zelda and Ganondorf respectfully and they kept them until the events of TP

Brilliant video. Very funny and informative in equal measure. I hadn’t come across most of the Miyamoto and Anouma quotes before. You’ve got to wonder if they’re legitimately trolling us at this point!

Great video! A good friend of mine once said that observing the Zelda timeline feels like playing a game of Telephone. After finishing TotK, I'm personally in support of the hard retcon/reboot theory. Stories in Nintendo games are always afterthoughts (albeit some great ones that can stand on their own), meant to flesh out or explain away in-game mechanics. It's why major story elements in games were confined to game manuals back in the old days. Link, Zelda and Ganon(dorf) are well-established so they get recycled from game to game. Demise's curse was an excuse for Nintendo to keep doing that. This franchise is so derivative and iterative, you start to see through the "timeline" nonsense.

The fact that they have just obliterated the Triforce all together still boggles my mind!

All they need to do is make the original Hyrule Warriors canon. It solves everyone's problems by treating each series as alternate spacetime realities that can relate to each other but don't necessarily have to. In short, the Doctor said it best, "It's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff."

you know you've made a good timeline when most of the evidence for when something happens have to be told to us by the devs

awesome video that I had been hoping for for a while! and I totally agree with your opinion about totk’s timeline placement

This video is so insanely entertaining and well edited. Please keep stuff like this coming. It's the kind of stuff I sub too. Also Miyamoto probably has a panic attack everytime someone asks him about the timeline.

My personal theory on the convergence of timelines leading to Breath of the Wild, is that it's Farore's doing. Din, Nayru, and Farore are each the goddesses of power, wisdom and courage respectively. The mind/body/spirit triad of the Triforce which should be clear to anyone. I believe Breath of the Wild is the third Oracle game we never got, a quest for Farore, the spirit portion. In Ages, you solve puzzles, displaying wisdom, and time travel, working with the internal logic of the world. In Seasons you fight hard, displaying power, working with the physical nature of the world. Each game involves, if you link them, Ganon's mind and his body. In Breath of the Wild, Ganon's spirit is a literal malevolent cloud hanging over Hyrule. The Calamity. The world is without hope, everyone is depressed and just subsisting. Your goal is to restore the _courage_ of the previous champions, overtly, and the world at large as you quest around Hyrule. See, I think, when the timeline split, Nayru was all "more time, more good!" She'd love complexity there. More time, more possibility of thought across the timelines, more history, more knowledge, more wisdom as different permutations play out. Din, more timelines more bodies, more power, she's cool with that, too. Farore, on the other hand, would have been tortured by the split, with souls being torn across the timelines and having to be reintegrated and ripped apart on every reincarnation cycle (reincarnation definitely being a thing in Zelda). I think she deliberately reassembled Ganon's spirit (and thus Link's and Zelda's, too, thanks to Demise's curse linking them all), and drew all three timelines together. She inflicted the Calamity on the world because it was the only way to reunite everyone's souls. Everyone's souls being reassembled at this point is why historical accounts fit all three timelines. Because it IS so far in the future that it could all be legend, but subconscious memories from every historian and archaeologist trying to explain Hyrule's past have primed their thinking. Salt here? Oh that must be from the great flood! A war against darkness in our past? Oh that was the Imprisoning War! They don't overtly "remember" these events, but just get a sense of them feeling true, because their souls remember.

I just found this today I love your channel nothing funnier than poking fun at the ever changing zelda timeline

One small issue with Queen Sonia and King Rauru founding Hyrule and the royal bloodline, they didn't have any children. Kind broke their own lore immediately with that one, and it would have been so easy, Zelda going back in time could have inspired the Zelda name in a weird paradox too. Was really expecting to see their child peeking thorugh the window when Ganondorf 'took the knee' in the teardrop memory.

My personal theory for TOTK’s story is that it still takes place after all the previous games and isn’t a retcon or 4th timeline. I believe the two major talking points (the imprisoning war and Hyrule’s founding) can be explained. The imprisoning war of TOTK is merely a different imprisoning war from the one we were told about in ALTTP, they’re just called the same thing because… man gets imprisoned lol. As for Hyrule’s founding, I think we need to look at the ending of skyward sword in a different context. We see that link, Zelda, and some other humans go down to the surface. Before TOTK, we all assumed that link and Zelda founded the royal family and Hyrule itself, but I like think that’s not actually true. When Raaru and the other zonia come down from the heavens, people and towns already existed. I like to believe that skyward sword saw the events of humans coming down to cultivate the “land” of Hyrule and that TOTK saw the events of the founding of the “kingdom” of Hyrule.

I like the theory that the Warriors games are actually how the timelines converged, resulting in BotW and TotK existing on a new timeline at the end

This was a great video dude! Subbed 💚

Love the video, my guy 🙏

My personal theory is that there was a full timeline merger rather than a convergence. Sort of like a canon in-lore reboot. In the gap between the age of myths and breath of the wild every timeline was smashed together into one combined one, with past events reshuffling details around to make as much sense as possible. The Zonai are like a weird combination of all the elements of the sky people and magic tribes like the Twili. I also think the Depths are sort of a weird divine dumping ground where the gods crammed their unwanted leftovers after the merger, which is why lost souls, monsters, and demons end up there but also artifacts from previous games that didn't really fit into the new merged world and its history. That also explains how we got formerly mutually exclusive elements from the fractured timelines together at the same time, like having both the Rito and the Zora coexist despite the Rito previously originating FROM the Zora.

I've been looking for a video like this for ages, I was really curious what the story was in the simpler times when there were only 3 games out

ur channel is rlly good dude

Really good video. I appreciate there being no spoilers for totk too :)

I've never heard Miyamoto referred to as "Shiggy" but I love it

If Nintendo really wants to make the timelines confusing they should canonize every game with tine travel shenanigans as making a timeline split and introduce some magic doodad that lets different timelines talk to eachother.

Awesome video man

Great vid you earned my subscription

My understanding of how BotW fits into the timeline was always that, through these cycles of reincarnation, so many tens of thousands of years have passed that the events of all three timelines have managed to play out in every timeline, essentially converging them before the time of the Great Calamity. Now with Tears of the Kingdom, I'm convinced this must be the case, where Hyrule itself had time to be forgotten and re-founded, the Triforce was forgotten besides being a symbol of the royal family, and Ganon was able to actually permanently die and be reincarnated as a new Ganondorf instead of just resurrected like usual.

Honestly, the skyward sword split 4th timeline is probably the one that makes the most sense considering the writer of skyward sword Hidemaro Fujibayashi, is the director of this game and botw.

Yeah, this earned my subscription. Good job

Great video!

There's a very simple solution to the timeline, due to reckless time travel and temporal weapons, the timeline is highly unstable and damaged so you'll never have a simple answer. If the cannon is really confusing and they have access to time travel, just take the Doctor Who approach.

Uh. Hold on, a thought occurred. What if Tear of the Kingdom's imprisoning war wasn't the one from Ocarina of Time, but was from the first few years since Hyrule was established? If that's the case, then the Ganondorf in this game is the FIRST reincarnation of Demise. That would also explain he knows Zelda and doesn't know Link; at the time he took action, Link was never born yet, so he only ever met Zelda.

You should definitely do more videos like this one, I loved the little fish faces, you’re funny! Your jokes felt natural. Definitely subscribed!

I have two possible theories on how Breath Of The Wild and Tears Of The Kingdom fit with the rest of the Zelda timeline: Theory 1: Hyrule was founded twice. Either TOTK and BOTW happened first and then something went very wrong and the surviving hylians moved to the sky before eventually Skyward Sword happened and the rest of the timelines followed, or the other games happened first and then something happened in one of the timelines that wiped out enough of Hyrule for it to no longer be considered a kingdom, and then it was re-founded by Rauru and Sonia before BOTW and TOTK happened Theory 2: Breath Of The Wild and Tears Of The Kingdom are in a separate timeline from all the other games, but BOTW/TOTK Zelda, as the sage of time, can see and possibly even visit other timelines. And maybe on a few of these visits, some things crossed over, bringing with them the evidence of other timelines. Maybe the koroks came from the Wind Waker timeline (maybe they brought a seed from the great deku tree, or even just outright cloned it by planting one of its branches), and maybe the blupees were once the minish/picori from the Four Swords timeline (which would explain why they drop rupees when you hit them), and maybe Wolf Link from the Twilight Princess timeline crossed over as well (which could be represented by the fact that we can summon him with amiibo in BOTW) Both options are extremely convoluted, and I don’t know how well either of them would hold up against actual scrutiny (I’m not even sure which one I think is more believable), but they make about as much sense as anything else Nintendo has done recently

I never looked for a timeline in the Zelda franchise. they all felt like their own game so I just treated them as a new story told within that universe.

I was so sure that this had to be posted by a huge channel, the quality and editing were on point! Great video, will definitely be watching whatever comes next

Subbed. Rooting for you!

So I'm just gonna say this: it's not in the timeline we know. This is its own stand-alone timeline. Talking about the botw and tokt games. I'd say everything in past games happened, but very differently. These 2 games are more themed around technology. Tears and breath are in a different timeline from past games. It's the only explanation

I personally believe it makes most sense for TOTK and BOTW to simply be set so far in the future that in the intervening time between them and the era of legend where the other games are, the kingdom of Hyrule was destroyed and then reformed by Rauru. This makes the most sense imo, doesn’t contradict any previous games, and plays into the the endless cyclical apocalypticism of Demise’s curse. No matter how many thousands of years pass, no matter how many times the kingdom of Hyrule falls or the blood of the hero and spirit of the goddess defeat the incarnations of malice, Demise’s curse keeps them eternally bound and unable to win.

Great video! Something I noticed that makes things make some more sense is realizing that there have been 3 different main creative directors throughout the series history. Up to OoT makes sense because Miyamoto was in charge. But after that he gave the series to Aonuma, who only began work on the Series with OoT which is why his games seemingly ignore the rest of them. Then, Fujibiyashi took over as creative director with Skyward Sword, and as you said, Skyward Sword up to TotK have no timeline discrepancies, in isolation

Edit: I came back at the end if the video just to say I really enjoyed this! Your fish mascot is really cute and I love the sense of humour 💌 thanks for making and sharing this work! I had no idea there was dispute about the supposed timeline so early on! My first Zelda game was Twilight Princess (no Nintendo consoles until the Wii) but I had a passing familiarity with the series, and up until the Hyrule Historia (which I...don't like) I always assumed it was just like "what if" type stuff, the same elements but different versions, I never thought that the Master Sword was the same one for thousands of years lmao.

I had always though that almost every game is just separated retellings of basically the same story and not a messy timeline with confusing prophesies that keep repeating itself. The main plots in Zelda games themselves usually aren't that unique and rather simple since they aren't really the focus as the gameplay, mechanics and world building.

I honestly kind of like the theory that all previous Zelda games can be looked at as tales lost to time and TOTK is us experiencing the events as they really happened. It doesn’t necessarily retcon the previous games or branching timelines, it just kinda cleans everything up and gives us a new “definitive” story to go off of.

"I only saw 1 cutscene" Yes, in that cutscene you saw Adult Zelda left behind (Timeline A) as Link traveled back to his childhood era (Timeline B) Thus, 2 "endings" for each character

this is a fantastic video

Everything in this Video was spot on! Also this is the first good take i have seen on how to fit totk into the timeline, i feel like none of the ppl who make theories care about actual canon

As I started playing TotK and the imprisoning war was mentioned I was stoked! Seeing as how a link to the last was one of my favorites…. Well then the rest of the story happened 😂 still love the game though

Your editing skills are god tier, you are so underrated bro

Gee, it's almost like the "every game is just a retelling of a similar legend" idea would make this whole series more palatable and easier to enjoy.

With totk I have given up on Zelda lore. I was so excited when corpse Ganondorf first mentioned the name Rauru, thinking that Nintendo was finally starting with consistent, cross-game lore. Then just moments later all that excitement was crushed with the absurd Zonai founding of Hyrule. Besides, how the hell is nobody talking about Zelda apparently completely forgetting about her sealing power? Her struggle of unlocking her divine abilities was essentailly what the whole story of botw was about and she was basically the most powerful being in existence at the time botw ended. The 7 (or so) years later at the time of totk she has fully regressed and is a helpless damsel in distress again? Why? Why was this necessary, Nintenod? God how much I would've loved to see a fully powered up Zelda fight Ganondorf, but we weren't granted such a fantastic spectacle. UGH

I also ended up realizing the Future in TotK itself is deterministic, actually. Ganondorf remembers Zelda being there when he was sealed (Raura likely might have been wrong about Zelda coming from a timeline where there was no Zelda during the imprisoning war), which means Zelda is already fated to go back in time to meet him again and participate in the Imprisoning War. Once Link gets out of the room of awakening, we see the Light Dragon already. Apparently it already carries the master sword at that point, which means Link is already fated to give the Master Sword to the Zelda back in the Past, setting her Draconification in Motion. This is a very distinct change from the split timeline we get in OoT. If the Future in TotK is deterministic, rather than creating a split, it would mean that OoT and TotK, and by extension BotW, cannot actually exist in the same timeline.

If you look at hyrule historias timeline the creation of Hyrule by settling the surface in Skyward Sword happens, then the fight over the sacred realm by the interlopers(hint future twili ) and the Sealing of the sacred realm by Rauru, creates the Temple of time. Then the next event is the founding of the Kingdom of Hyrule. Hyrule likely existed before Sonia and Rauru just not as a centralized Monarchy.

Bro the little fish avatar is so damn a adorable and fits your voice so well 😂 even if I wasn’t a Zelda fan I’d watch just for all the lil expressions and stuff

"Can you tell us a little bit of trivia about TLoZ timeline?" Miyamoto-san: "I dunno! I just work here!" LOL

Good video, honestly they could have fixed so much with the timeline if they just made the original Hyrule Warriors canon

I havent laughed this hard in a while. This was so well done.

There was no timeline, originally. They were stand-alone, franchised adventure games for a hand-held "entertainment system" in 1986. The idea of video games being franchised was in itself a brand-new idea, let alone the idea that those franchises should/could have overlapping, inter-connected plots. The entire idea that ever individual Zelda game can be connected on a single timeline, branching or otherwise, is in itself a retcon.