The Tears of the Kingdom Timeline Mystery will FINALLY Be Solved! 

It is TIME FOR DELIVERANCE!

What we are missing is Zelda’s time in the distant past since we only got glimpses of them through the Dragon Tears. The story of Tears of the Kingdom would’ve been great if Nintendo makes her playable since both games treated Zelda and Link as the main characters. Regardless, I am looking forward on the Master Works for more information from the developers behind it.

I believe in a combination of the Dragon Break and Reset Hyrule theories. The 3 timelines merged back together, but it caused a cataclysm that destroyed the Kingdom of Hyrule. Years later, Rauru founds the new Kingdom of Hyrule.

Considering Aonuma and Fujibayashi gave information about it in the No DLC Interview already I think we will still just get stuff like "There might be a past Kingdom but its History got errased", which is basically a soft Reboot in some form, they make a restart for Hyrule's Kingdom itself instead of rewriting so they will not fuck up the lore that People like me love already and make sure that Newcomers wont get confused by simply Introducing the Main Characters without any connections.

I'm also with you when it comes to the theory of a 4th timeline split beaconing back to Skyward Sword. In this new timeline, not only do we keep the other legends and mysteries intact, respected, and more interesting, but it gives Nintendo room to "remake" or "retell" other Zelda games in new and unique ways. But, if they choose the dragonbreak route, I'll be fine. So long as they don't forget the games that came before.

The Zelda floodgates boutta open...AGAIN 🤯😂

I mean, what they should do is make a "No way Home" like game, where we get 3 Link's from each timeline to face a villain who's goal is to merge the timelines for an evil purpose, but by the end of the game, the results end up bringing the timelines together into 1 singularly that shares aspects from all 3. This can explain both why we have items from different timelines mentioned in Breath of the Wild and why the art style looks like a mix between Ocarina, Twilight, and Wind.

The timeline placement is this WHATEVER WE WANT IT TO BE🥳🥳🥳🍺🍺🍺

My personal opnion is that if there was a timeline merge it happened in a similar way to the gates of time that appeared in Hyrule Warriors

What about the Age of Calamity alternate timeline? There is a chance Ganondorf’s suspended body is beneath Hyrule Castle. Nintendo needs to make a sequel.

They just work the same way as Donnie Darko and FLCL: shoegaze, which by the way both Zelda and Donnie Darko had easter eggs in Shoegaze. This is INSANELY common in Japanese media, this sort of fantasy, where reality does exist but at the same time the dream world is a parallel reality that also exists, and influences our world. From writers like Ursula Le Guin and Peter Dickinson, TopCraft made a movie The flight of Dragons that Zelda is based on, and later Ghibli has made Tales of Earthsea and The Boy and The Heron.

It is whatever theory you want it to be because I don't think the developers take things such as timelines into account when they are making the game they just want to create a fun gameplay experience. Anything they say afterwards is a retcon.

4th timeline for the win

I still stand by the Dragon Break theory. When I heard it, it made total sense.

The Dragon Break and Legends Theories fits perfectly on both games if you ask me.

I think it is the Reset Hyrule Theory with a little bit of the Legend Theory mixed to iron out possible questions about the timeline split.

Interesting Video.

I still think we’re dealing with a Dragonbreak situation.

I believe Rauru and Sonia's kingdom is the original founding of Hyrule, established between SS and OoT. Furthermore, I believe the Wilds era takes place far into the future of the Child Link timeline-what I consider to be the primary, canonical ending of Ocarina of Time, as it's the direct continuation of the game's story and post-credits scene. There's a lot of evidence that further supports this, and I in no way wish to debate or argue here; this is simply my opinion on the subject. I am excited to see what the Master Works will have to say on the subject~

I hope so, I miss being able to enjoy Zelda lore. Really hoping they figure out a better balance of old and new. These last two games felt so disconnected I struggle to imagine them on the same timeline. Too much time difference and too little connection, outside of reused names.

I'm still going to say that BotW/TotK are the result of a timeline vortex that pulls in events and histories that happened in timelines that haven't happened yet as a result of Zelda going so far back in time. In a time that Zelda goes back to takes place before skyward sword, with the very first Ganondorf. That present day would take place sometime well before OoT where The essence of demise gets absorbed into Ganondorf while he is still sealed away.

It's about time they finally confirm the Skyward Sword split in which BotW/TotK take place and serve as a parallel timeline to the current one👌🏻

I hope we do get the answer, I have also always thought Skyward Sword should've caused another split so it'd be awesome if BOTW and TOTK are in another split

I think for them to just keep it simple, I think they'll go for the Reset Hyrule theory

My prediction for the placement: Hyrule fizzled from existence and is destroyed, The Zonai descend and Rauru establishes a new Hyrule with Sonia. Which is why Rauru said he was the "first" king of Hyrule, because he technically he wasn't. Also I need an explanation as to what race the Ancient Hero is? Hope these questions get answered.

I believe that everything before will either still be the „Era of Myth and Legend“ or that they will place it in the child Timeline. If it is in the child timeline that would explain why Zants and Midnas helmet descriptions are phrased as facts while Ravios hat/lobster shirt as „myths“ or at least as sayings. This way it could connect to fsa where Ganon is more beast than man being one of many calamity’s in between that slowly turn into more mindless beast like we saw in botw. In that gap, they also could fit in a Dragonbreak if they wanted to. This Dragonbreak leaving the adult and downfall timeline as is, but also continuing them. But for that Raurus Kingdom must be first, which might be possible if the Interloper War happened before Hyrule‘s founding and destroyed the civilization as we saw it in Skyward Sword. Thats at least what I believe. We would have 3 timelines with 2 technically ending and one „main timeline“ that can also be a new unified timeline in some sense.

A combination of Dragon Break and Timeline reset is what I believe in. Plus we also need to look back at what we get to see of the Depth in TotK. So below is the comment which I made on a video by the RU-vidr GanonFan who believed that he Solved the Zelda Timeline. *The Comment.* Counter Theory: With what we know from WInd Waker, the Saplings which the Koroks had planted would turn into massive trees that would over time make their islands become big enough to the point where they become one land mass. And in TotK, we see gigantic roots in the depths. Most likely hinting at how the quest did matter in the end. And with how BoTW and TotK seems to be the result of timelines converging, we should wonder if the original Hyrule Warriors(The one which was on the Wii U that got ported to the switch) being non-canon is even a good thing. Since HW does have different parts of the timelines ending up in the same place. Also to anyone who says that totk Rauru's Hyrule Contradict this. The Kingdom of Hyrule could have fallen long before the Zonai descended from the sky. With legends of the Kingdom of Hyrule being what caused Rauru and Sonia to name their Kingdom after it. And even then, the Zonai being in the Sky can be easily explained as them being a race which stayed in the Sky since Skyward Sword before eventually descending to the surface.

at the end of Ocarina of Time Zelda tells Link: "You must lay the Master Sword to rest and Close the Door of Time, however, by doing this, THE ROAD BETWEEN TIME WILL BE CLOSED", thinking of this it reminds me of the Gate of Time of Skyward Sword, and how different they are, a gate can, if destroyed, maintain the flow of time without consecuences, while the door can erase everything that happened before it was open, stating this, I also remember this from the memories in Breath of the Wild, "whether skyward bound, adrift in time or steeped in the glowing embers of twilight", reterring to the three main games where we fight Ganon, yes Demise was to be called Demon King Ganon, because at the end of Ocarina of Time Link is successfull and closes the Door of Time erasing both the downfall and adult timelines, know with the events of the past of Tears of the Kingdom, it shows that besides Queen Sonia, NO ONE knows about the Triforce, but ONLY the Great Deku Tree knows about the sword, Ganondorf was after the Secret Stones, after Rauru's seal, how long did it take for enough malice to leak out and gain the form of Calamity Ganon? According to the events of Breath of the Wild 10100 years since the last calamity, but the Sheika knew about it and build the legion of guardians to help the hero in the event of the calamity, how devastating was the calamity that led to build such a number of protectors? My theory is that the first calamity, happend some 50,000 years after the events of the imprisoning war, the second calamity, where the guardians were up and running 30,000 years after the first one, and so two Master Swords were available at the same time for around 90107 years, until the decayed Master Sword went to Zelda in the Past, so my theory is that the events of the foundation of Tears of the Kingdom/Breath of the Wild's Hyrule happened some millions of years after the events of Twilight Princess, that explains the Korok's as in WindWaker the Great Deku Tree stated that they abandoned their humanoid form some hundreds of years, also the connection to the other games through armor sets are not attachable to the games

I think the first three are the most likely to be true. I feel that Nintendo want to stray away from the whole timeline split.

The timeline split for SS doesn't work imo. It's a closed loop. Not only does old Impa have Zelda's bracelet the entire game (she would only have it at the end if it were on one split), but in the final scene, we see the goddess statue with the Triforce and the Groosenator track outside the temple. If they were now in a timeline where Demise was defeated in the past, there would be no Groosenator outside- which Groose built to contain the Imprisoned in the present- and there would be no goddess statue with the Triforce where it crashed onto the Imprisoned. Anyway, my take is the TotK memories happen between SS and TMC. OoT Ganondorf being the first manifestation & rebirth of TotK Ganondorf, and BotW Ganon being the final rebirth. Present day BotW and TotK happen on the child timeline for me. However, I highly doubt Master Works is going to give us a flat out answer. I'm expecting a vague answer similar to BotW taking place after "the era of myth" and that's it. Could surprise me, I expect some answers at least, but I'm not getting my hopes up for everything to be handed to us.

I just hope Nintendo won't release information that contradicts the Reset-Theory, to which I'm subscribed to for many months now. Dragon Break and 4th Timeline could be valid and interesting theories too. Legend-Theory I don't quite understand yet and have to wrap my head around further.

It definitely will be interesting 🤔

There are Manakete's in Zelda?!

Oh yeah

I think the Zora tablets need to be addressed if hypothesizing on a timeline theory. They make both complete sense and completely contradict all of those timeline theories unless you stretch some truths. Personally I like the alternate timeline theory of BOTW/TOTK, where the event's of TOTK's past are just an alternate telling of Ocarina of Time. The "Sages" in TOTK's ancient past & namesakes are equivalent to their parallels in OOT.

YESSIR I SEE AN HMK NOTIFICATION THERES A 150% CHANCE IMMA CLICK IT!!!

I don't believe for one second that Nintendo will ever specify which branch of the timeline the new games are on. It would defeat the purpose of this soft reboot.

My guess is the book wont say a damn thing about timeline placement. That said.. i hate that and i want an answer. If i had to pick on to be true id go with 4th timeline off of Skyward Sword. Though i also align with the idea the downfall timeline is split from the alternate ending in Minish Cap. So me an unpopular opinions go hand and hand.

Reveal the truth now, Big N.

dragon brake theory 7/10 its fun and it easily explains at least 70% of the breadcrumbs that Nintendo has left us! the "legend" theory 6/10 it completely fits with what we know of Nintendo and how they have dealt with zelda story in the past, but its the same old same old.😴 the "reset Hyrule" theory 5/10 all the previous legends being so far in the past that any "authenticity" is lost to time is lazy writing and i have the same problem as i did with the "Legend theory" (especially just having given us a unified timeline after the first 25 years of vagueness we had this theory is garbage! i will get into more detail as to why its bad later) the "4th timeline" theory" 9/10 i really tried to shake out any bias i had with this theory how ever despite my best "devils advocate" style skepticism i attempted to view this theory with the more i realize this theory is not only my favorite, but i think fills in the most "plot holes" made by the wild series! the following are my reasons for putting this theory so high! 1. regardless as to weather or not the "Wild" series is on this timeline aside, the split in the time line logically MUST exist! When link completes the thunder dragon's piece of the song quest link creates an alternate timeline where groose goes from mentioning how there NEVER was anything in the small fertile patch of dirt to how there has always been a tree there after link returns form the past! this suggest that altering the past DOES change the future (at least for mortals i.e. the zelda chrysalis paradox) however when link and zelda return to the present they find themselves in the same "present" that they left from! Therefore there MUST be a timeline that exists where demise was defeated in the past and the goddesses' statue from skyloft (containing sky keep) is still in the sky, or at the very least was not brought down by link during his SS journey! 2. The fact that there is A Rauru is in this story suggest that the events in the 4th timeline might "rhyme" with the original timeline explaining why there are similar and yet differant characters a perhaps events (taking place between the imprisoning war and the present of TotK) could explain the references to past "Legends" referenced in BotW! the fact that the "legend" and "reset Hyrule" theories upset me so is that 1. if they wanted to keep up this "vague series of Legends" aspect then they should have never released a timeline in the first place and second they for damn sure should not have "doubled down" with the (slightly altered, but essentially the same) timeline in the encyclopedia AFTER the release of BotW and then when developing TotK decide to just completely ignore it! 2. while it is more than possible that Nintendo wants us to love and enjoy the past zeldas as their own thing separate from the "new" path the series is taking us, the fact that they left the Hylia and Master Sword lores intact at least suggest they don't want a COMPLETE reset of the series and the best way to have BOTH is to set the series in the "4th"(and suggest that alt timelines "rhyme" to helps cover their bases) and this leaves an opening to create a new story in the old timeline whenever they want! 3 im gonna put what I'm calling theories that could plausibly fit into a "4th", though you have to accept certain assumptions that have little to no evidence as "proof"! A. the hero of the first calamity being a Zonai descendant makes more since if the Zonai are descendants of the skyloftian's, perhaps ones who chose to stay in the sky with zelda (when she inevitably would have awoken from her chrysalis in the past after link defeated demise) instead of returning to the surface! b. the fact that the "main" goddess statue in the forgotten temple gives you a goddess sword in TotK suggest that canonically this goddess statue has a sword that SS Link has never touched let alone forged into the master sword! c. the zonai secret stones don't discriminate between good and evil like the triforce, so perhaps they are a derivative or the remains of the original triforce after alt zelda used it to make a wish! admittedly this theory is the most hypothetical and requires the most assumption , however it still requires no retconning of what we know of LoZ's history!

Personally, regardless of what the official explanation will be, I’m just going to put Breath of the Wild, Age of Calamity, and Tears of the Kingdom in their own 4th timeline that’s separate from the main 3 we all know

not a fan of any of those 4 theroys

I’d also like to bring cyclical timeline theory - where the Zelda timeline repeats itself, but each repeat holds slightly altered history and sometimes significant changes with each repeat. BOTW/TOTK could be around the second starting point. I like 4th Timeline the most - SS must have created a timeline split. Reset Hyrule is great, but only if they get really creative with it I’ll take it.

I'm a big supporter of the fourth timeline theory. It would explain a lot of things for me.

Your headcanon is my headcanon and it is nearly flawless.

Yeah, no, I'm going to still say it's more than likely the theory that a few people already got to (after long thought) and less so this imaginary "we made it all up, lol, and everything that isn't these games is a different canon". I view these developers as far more creative, and far more forward thinking than that. I do believe they didn't officially release anything to confuse audiences and to provide a bit of "So why" to the mystery. My insinuated tmeline based on actual evidence from the game: - Tears of The Kingdom's Past - "Skyward Sword" (An incorrect story in game, potentially corrected in this Masterworks) - Ocarina of Time > Fallen Timeline - A Link To the Past > Spinoffs/Side Quests > Zelda > Zelda II > Child Timeline - Majora's Mask (spinoff) > Twilight Princess > Adult Timeline - Wind Waker > (Spinoffs) > Breath of The Wild > Tears of The Kingdom My belief is that they will define Skyward Sword as having two separate timelines. One timeline that follows the appropriate Universe of Zelda (above), and the other that follow a separate universe, which spawned Minish Cap & Four Swords/Adventure. "What but why would you even think that" Because Skyward Sword entirely eradicated classic lore of the game to replace it with it's own lore. - "Hylia" is a depiction directly related to The Light Dragon, of which this implies that Zelda turns into Hylia due to the Secret Stone, where she enhances the Master Sword with Sacred Light to become the Sword that "seals" the Darkness (The "True" Master Sword). Otherwise, it was the Master Sword, forged by the sages and imbued with magic from classic lore. - The booklet of A Link To The Past detailed a majority of the lore of the series that, in 2011, was retconned. TOTK preserves that lore, almost perfectly I know a few people will say "lol what there can't be two ganondorfs that just doesn't make sense", and that's where I say the basic "So why was there a demise and a ganondorf, and why would they be two separate people, while Link & Zelda are, in fact, Link & Zelda?" The part overlooked is that there "always was", one was a "symbolic representation of evil that incarnated into ambiguous villains" (whom, in the mainline series, was always Ganondorf). While this theory (and probably more practical) insinuates that Ganondorf The First was the original Geurdo King that turned into a Demon through the Secret Stone, the Ganondorf the Second was a thief who (also turned into a Bore from the Triforce) was a Surragate child to the 400 year old witches Koume and Kotake (Who are young in TOTK). Recap: - Koume and Kotake were in their 20's - 40's in TOTK. - Koume and Kotake were in their 300's in OoT. - Ganondorf The First would have been a naturalized born parent of Koume and Kotake (very likely, he's clearly older) - Ganondorf The Second was the Surrogate Child of Koume and Kotake (They're clearly older) - Ganondorf The First clearly knew of the past where a war happened against the Zonai (Leading to the death of his race) - Ganondorf the Second clearly had no idea about the existence of the Zonai, but did of course know of Ganondorf The First - Rauru the First was clearly the ancestor of Rauru in Ocarina of Time. As you can make a basic connection to understand: Rauru (In TOTK) isn't Human and Rauru (in OoT) is. I'd argue Gaepora is the Father of Rauru from Ocarina of Time, but that's conjecture. Promptly leads me to the present day Sheikah in BOTW/TOTK, who the Ancient Sheikah Monks were, very likely, The Twilight. The original race here were, very likely, a "Barbaric Race" who worshipped the Zonai but wanted to claim the power of their Triforce, and more importantly, their magic. They were banished to the Depths. The Depths has music that is a deviation from the Twilight Realm music. In Wind Waker, we're provided the premise that Ganondorf found his way out of his imprisonment, but did you know that the Adult ending of Ocarina of Time, Ganondorf was sealed in the 'void of the evil realm'? "Now, open the sealed door and send the Evil Incarnation of Darkness into the void of the Evil Realm!!". In Japanese, this specifically is (translated) "Ancient Gods who created Hyrule! Open the sealed door now and entomb the evil incarnation of darkness beyond the realm of the dead!!" And here, this important part. This is where the importance of context comes into play. The Sacred Realm is the Sky. Hyrule is the Surface. The Twilight Realm, or the "Realm of the Dead" is The Depths. This also explicitly insinuates that the "Twilight", the ones who tried to steal the Triforce, were in fact the Sheikah, which would directly indicate the lack of Sheikah in every other Zelda besides BOTW, wherein the back story goes (paraphrasing): 'The Sheikah used their power and technology to defend the kingdom from an ambiguous legend that never came true, and once it came true, the Sheikah's technology turned against the kingdom'. Before it could "come true", the King banished the Sheikah from their land because they felt the Sheikah were sinister in nature. There would be zero reason for this plot point to exist if not for using it. Further, the Yiga were created as a off-branch who, directly, worshipped Ganondorf. Even further, even the leaked pages of this Masterworks backs up that theory. The proper translation insinuates that Hyrule Castle had been built as a method to leech "The God of Light" Sacred Light from Rauru & the seal. No, really, the translated part that people apparently didn't grasp: "Hyrule Castle and the huge pillars extending from the castle are devices for purifying healing energy". Zeldatuber theorists already were keen to point out a while ago that the same pillar looked Sheikah in design, which leads us promptly to BOTW's Castle. In BOTW/TOTK, we clearly see an original point of Ocarina of Time & "after" castle on The Great Plateau. The Castle was clearly rebuilt post flooded Hyrule, which was influenced heavily by the Sheikah, or else there wouldn't have been a way to get the Sheikah technology in these locations originally, especially (and especially) the very same pillars on the outside of the castle, along with the one at the central point where Ganondorf is held at. One last final rambling thought here is Skyward Sword. I think they're going to utilize this as a way to split that game into two sections, as insinuated above. One follows the true events of the Zelda entries, which provides a clear "There was nothing here", and the other events (the events that happened in the game) stemmed the successors of that game, the minish cap & four swords. With that, I do concretely believe that there was a secondary backstory that fans were suppose to generate with theory but they didn't. The Ancient Hero Aspect. This is a blend of a some-what Zonai and the Gerudo. Which leads me to believe that this individual, very likely a separate faction of the Zonai tribe, had a union with the Gerudo. The "prophecy" image has this hero, an ambiguous blonde women on the left, and what "you think is Calamity Ganon" in the center. Is it? That looks like a dragon to me. No, really, that's a dragon lol. On the right is clearly someone fighting the dragon. On the left is a woman providing power, with the triforce, to the dragon. On the Right, the "ancient hero", is also using some sort of magic. My belief here is conjecture, but I do believe that it's feasible that this wasn't a hero to the Hyruleans, but a Hero to the "ancient sheikah". The one who tried to steal the Triforce, which was guarded by the Zonai and Sonia. Which leads me to the sword. The sword in this mural has a rounded blade toward the tip, where it goes from 2-pointed pieces near the hilt, bows in, then bows out, then bows back in. No Master Sword, none, has ever done that. But, Ganon's Blades did in Ocarina of Time. To close, I think the "ancient hero aspect" is more of a lore "did you get what we did" pun for the game, and I just think almost all of the youtubers failed at putting it together.

I think the 4 theory works the best, but Nintendo has been known to do some dumb things so who knows.

Tbh, all of you who were peddling the Twili and CT ideas for the past few years were super wrong. Not trying to troll or anything, but leaning on the non-canon books is what led to those conclusions, so it might be wise to take this next one with a grain of salt.

THERE IS NO TIMELINE !!! Nintendo made it up in a very poor attempt to shut down such crap speculation ! In the name of all that is holy, please, please, please quit it with the timeline garbgage !!!

Can I be honest? And it’s not against all the zeldatubers, I really like their content. But this hyper focus on the lore has done more damage than anything. It has created a toxic subculture of entitled individuals who want to take away the fun for everyone else. I hope Nintendo abandons the timeline forever. Again, nothing against people who enjoy lore in video games, I’m one of them. But Zelda haters have gone too far imo.

I truly don't care. Tears of the kingdom is a very good game but it pretty much fucked up everything that made Zelda and it's timeline great. I hope they know this and leave this era. The less they try to fix their mistakes they made with these last games, the better it'll be in the long run.

Probably finding the final piece of a theory puzzle 🧩 to get the answer