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This is kind of old news (A week is forever in internet time) but the Zelda timeline may have been revealed in the concept art book, Hyrule Historia. Check out the updated entry here.

tl;dr version At the end of Ocarina of Time there are 3 split timelines. One where adult link defeats Ganon and gets reverted back to a child (The Majora Mask path), Another where adult link defeats Ganon and stays an adult (The Wind Waker path), and lastly a path where Ganon beats Link (The Link To The Past path).

Thoughts?

Pah! I bet they came up with this in 2 minutes.

Wait, so basically the latest Zelda game released is the prequel to the last one? Well, F*[quack]* me.

Also, Cyber6xmas, the one who defeated Link causing the storyline of "A Link to the Past" wasn't Ganon. it was Gannon. Since "Gannon" is never referred to outside the first game, it's safe to assume that the only reason Link was defeated in OoT was because Link was too busy pondering why his name is spelled that way.

What about this one?

I just realized, since those CD-i games were never listed, they never happened.

But since I have played those games, what it all a dream?

Am I going mad? What was that?

inb4 Kalmo

They have their own separate timeline.

Now there's THREE of them?!
Excuse me while I kill myself.

Ok, here's my two cents. This timeline doesn't work. Here's why:

The seal was placed on Ganon hundreds of years ago, right? And the sages placed the seal on Ganon, right? The sages weren't able to seal him without Link stabbing him in the fucking face with the Master Sword. He was too powerful at that time. So Link could not have been defeated and the Sages seal him.

Not only that, but the Oracle series could not have happened at the same time in the same timeline. They happen at the same time, in the same land of Holodrum. Also because of the Oracle of Ages even more timelines can be created. It's the Butterfly Effect. Since Link changed something in the past, that means something had to have happened in the future. Which sets in motion another split timeline.

Not only that but they're forgetting about Majora's Mask. For every time that Link went back in time, the day he left is set on it's own timeline.

Also, Ganon can't be killed as long as he has the Triforce of Power. He just keeps coming back. The only instance of him dying, was because Zant was technically a part of Ganondorf, meaning he too had the Triforce of Power which gave him the strength to kill Ganondorf and himself.

In Wind Waker, Ganondorf didn't die. He was turned into a rock. And in Ocarina of Time, Ganon wasn't killed, he was sealed away as Ganondorf. Which can imply that Agahnim released Ganon_before_ Twilight Princess because Link could have defeated Ganondorf long enough for Link to receive the Triforce to remove the Dark World entirely, changing it back to the sacred realm, and allowing the Sages to capture Ganon while he was weak from his battle with Link. And since he was no longer in the Dark Realm, he was Ganondorf again.

Also at the end of Oracle of Ages and Seasons Link is leaving in a boat, meaning that they could re-conjoin the timeline, if even for a short time

tl;dr

Skyward Sword
Minish Cap
Four Swords
OoT (Young) --------- OoT (Old)
Majora's Mask ------ Wind Waker
ALttP ------------------- Phantom Hourglass
Twilight Princess --- Spirit Tracks
Zelda I
Zelda II
Oracles of A/S ------ Oracle of A/S
Link's Awakening

^

I don't get the "hero is defeated" timeline, considering that never happened. There should only be two timelines after OoT. Ganondorf is trapped in the Sacred Realm and Link is sent back is the Adult Link timeline, which leads to WW. Link warns Zelda about Ganondorf and he is stopped before he got a chance to start is the Young Link timeline, which leads to MM. Both of those actually happened. Link never gets defeated, so I don't understand how there could be a third timeline.

Now we can finally beat Zelda.

Acid trip, but this fully explains why Zelda loses his gear every game.

Don't get the meaning of "Hero of Time is Defeated". How could Link be defeated by Ganon (or Gannon, jeez) at the end of the Ocarina of Time and then beginning A Link to the Past with Link living relatively peacefully with his "uncle" at the beginning of the game? Did Ganon had mercy on the one and only guy that could possibly defeat him over and over again?

Unless, of course, we are talking about different Links and heroes. OoT Link was defeated and then the Link in A Link to the Past is altogether a new Link. That would mean there were also many Zeldas in the timeline.

Is this confusing? How about a Mario series timeline, anyone?

What I find funny about this whole business is:
A. If I'm correct, that was made by Kotaku. Since when does that mean it's canon?
B. No one ever considers the idea that the timelines don't make sense because, considering the series isn't chronological by release, there are games still missing from areas in the timeline between others.

Kalmo, you're forgetting something. What about how you can link the oracle games so that they're one long game? Another thing is that in the oracle games opening the triforce is in hyrule castle, something which didn't exist after LoZ I and II, and if I'm not mistaken the triforce wasn't even a "thing" in spirit tracks. Another thing is that we know that AlttP is directly before Links Awakening due to the manual for LA, and we can easily place the oracle games between the two for a similar reason, as it says link was returning to hyrule after "training in distant lands" when he was shipwrecked.

This is why the CD-i games don't count.

If I was Zelda I'd stop saving the princess, he has fallen under the same fate as Mario with Princess Peach, plus she is hella ugly too.

On the surface, it appears to work, but I'm not ready to consider this official until Nintendo says so.

I'm almost positive they published that third timeline.

It was published in Japan a few days ago, in the 25th-anniversary commemorative art book, Hyrule Historia .

The timeline is on the last part of my link. Seems legit? And even with this real timeline, the CDI games were never to be recognized by Nintendo. > <

Apparently, you know more about Zelda than the people who MADE THE FUCKING GAMES

And that is a 100% accurate depiction of the Zelda time line.

I'm sure once Nintendo realizes there is a lot of money in porn, Zelda will become a shemale.

The guy that made this timeline wasn't one of the people that made the game. He assumed that the book had the timeline. Nintendo hasn't said it's correct yet.

I didn't see the thing about the manual, so ok. But as for the oracle games, the only way that would work is they pulled a Four Swords and the Triforce split Link into two separate people facing two different disasters in the same land. But that would have to create a sub-timeline or Link would have gone to Holodrum, defeat one of the villains, go back to Hyrule, and then go back to Holodrum for the next disaster with Ganondorf coming back twice in the same land.

lol i only ever played one of those and didnt even win

Here's an old post of mine.

Ok, here’s what can be known.
Minish Cap is first, as said by Miyamoto.
Then, there’s OOT.
The timeline skews, WW, PH, and ST go one way, while Majora’s Mask goes in the other direction.
Now, Link to the Past is one tough cookie. It’s said in the game to take place after the Adult link timeline in OOT, yet in the game the Master Sword is said to be never used again. Since it was used in Wind Waker, and the Prologue events of Wind Waker is basically like ALttP without a Link, we have a problem.
Then, the original Four Swords is said to be the oldest Zelda, before being succeeded by MS.
Zelda 2 takes place right after Zelda 1. Zelda 1 takes place sometime after LA.
And then, TP is said to be right after OOT/MM.
Now, here’s another problem with the timeline: FSA. FSA takes place X years after FS, and it takes place before TP but after OOT, even though there are no games in between, because of a paradox. The Twilight Mirror is in FSA as the Dark Mirror, but it is shattered at the end of TP.
So, we must assumed it got reformed for the timeline to make sense.
As for ALttP, I’d put it as coming right after FSA, because it makes no sense anywhere else.
Finally, there are the Oracle games. Those are interchangeable, but are implied to take place right before LA. However, that is contradicted. The only place it has in the timeline is after Zelda 2, because Ganon is dead and the Triforce had been united, as said to have happened right before in the Oracle games.
So, the child timeline is MC, FS, OOT, MM, TP, FSA, ALttP, LA, Zelda 1, Zelda 2, OOS/OOA interchangeably.
Btw, Skyward Sword takes place before OOT. Where its exact place in the timeline is is unknown.

Well, we know where SS is now, it's at the very beginning. Now, let's see how Zelda on the Wii U fucks things up.

Also, you want to be able to trash the Link is Defeated timeline once and for all? Eiji Aonuma himself said that there are only 2 timelines. Miyamoto also said that there is a master document containing the timeline, and that they will reveal it someday. This definitely isn't it.

Four swords adventure comes directly after four swords. It's set up that way in the opening to the game if I'm remembering correctly. It's also generally accepted that it's the same Link and same Zelda.

Kalmo, if we're accepting that there can be a split timeline, why can there not be something like a big wobbly timeball of events, and does time really have to be two dimensional? The spacetime six isn't that uncommon an idea. Also, you should know seasons takes place in holodrum, but ages is in labrynna, a completely different land, so it doesn't need to be that complicated either, there are only four possible sets of continuities, or two if you prefer to think that link went nowhere else during his training, one for each where he only goes to one, and one for each where goes to one and then another. Good thing we don't have that third one, it would make this way too complicated. Not that it isn't already.

@Kalmo and @OP
The creatures Moblins(the pig looking monsters) are a recurring enemy and it is canon that they were created by Ganon after his image. Here are some Moblins:

Here is where the dilemma occurs(amongst others). If moblins were created by Ganon after his image, and Ganon was created in OoT after Ganondorf was defeated and turned into Ganon, then how can the Minish Cap have moblins in it if it predates Ganon/Ganondorf in Oot and subsequent games?

Because robots.

But seriously though, they haven't always looked like pigs, in fact in their first appearance in LoZ 1 they were meant to look more like bulldogs than anything else. It's also worth noting that when they appeared during Skyward Sword they had more of a goblin like appearance, but since the events of the end which do result in the eventual creation of Ganon, they become more piglike. Also, where is that mentioned in the actual cannon? Was it mentioned in cannon by someone who would actually know whether they were made that way, or was it said by someone who probably had no way of knowing?

Making a time line for Zelda that manipulates time enough already? This shit is way too con-

I agree with almost all of this. A couple games need to shift around slightly, but hey.

I feel that there is only one timeline split, as this seems to be the only point where completeing the game 100% will result in something diffrent. and that happens at Majoras Mask:

In one timeline Link gets the Fierce Deity mask, and is able to return to Hyrule and stop Ganon's Return. This results in Twilight Princess. (It couled aslo be noted that after MM Link grows up again he partakes in the Soul Calibure 2 plot before taking an arrow to the knee retiring.)

In the other timeline Link does not get the Fierce Deity Mask, and is unable to physically return to Hyrule without rencarnateing. Ganon returns without Link to stop him, and this results in the events of Wind Waker.

Ocarina of time was great, except Nazi the fairy, who's constant chatting pissed you off after awhile. They improve this in Majora's Mask by removing the fairy for ten whole seconds, before replacing it with an Emo traitorous fairy. Then Link turned into a wolf, and replace his fairy with a naked emo midget that had a giant hand attached to its forehead,and this midget got strangely aroused around dogs, that is when I quit and return the game to the store, plus the Wii controls are shit.

After taking a trip to england i came across a game about everyone's favorite character
(cough) which really should have a place in the timeline.

I just started playing Minish Cap, and that game is definatly a sequel to Skyward Sword. On top of there being A statue of one of the Skyward Sword Bosses, the backstory sounds like it was a deformation of the Skyward Sword tale!

OH GOD NO

I literally made this gif because of how awkward I felt after watching the Let’s Play.

Americans Hate Tingle courtesy of TVtropes