Majora's Mask Timeline Split?

[Zemen]

i highly doubt this is true at all and im sure many of you will completely think its dumb to think about but i just randomly thought about it so i thought i would post what i was thinking about.

what if there is a split timeline after MM? if you think about it, MM has two possible outcomes to the game.

either you stop Majora and save Termina and ultimately return back to Hyrule

or

you dont stop Majora, the moon crashes into Termina, Link dies and never goes back to Hyrule.

now i know that when the moon crashes it is technically just a game over but doesnt it have its own cutscene and everything? dying leads to a game over in every zelda game, but this is a cannon ending to the game regardless of it being a game over. either you save Termina or you dont. wouldnt this lead to a split especially since the game deals with time travel?

and what if TP takes place 100 years after the timeline where Termina is destroyed? the twilight realm could be the remains of Termina and the 4 light spirits that try to execute ganondorf could be the spirits of the 4 giants from Termina.

and then every other game in the child timeline would take place after the timeline where Link saves Termina.

i know this is a stretch. i dont even believe it myself am i just thinking out loud. what does everyone think?

[Bluelink6]

Ii had tjouyghts about split timelines. Every time link travels back how does he do it ? He might see hmself running around from that day before he travelled back. = bad. 2 links might meet. All he does is go to the begginning of the 1st day. If he odes that that doesnt erase what he did before. I think maybe every time he travels back he slips into another timeline where he cant ossibbly meet a past or future self.

[blackice_cc]

Well, I think it's more likely that they just decided to give this kind of 'game over' a special cut-scene. I mean, you have a big moon going to crash when the time is up, and if you just get a big 'GAME OVER' screen, wouldn't that be a little... boring? And also, if you just die in MM, you get the normal 'game over' screen. I think that since this is a unique way of getting a 'game over' they had to sort of explain what had happened. And also, Link doesn't die, he just goes back to the beginning. Remember the Happy Mask Salesman saying "you must have met a terrible end"? What could that refer to other than the moon crashing?

[Josh]

Could you please repeat your post Bluelink. I don't think I understood half of it.

I think I'd have to go with Blackice mostly. It's just a big fancy cut scene for when you die. I mean, it would be insanely boring to be fighting against a falling moon, and then you die and you don't even get to see it kill anyone.

[Mases]

Bluelink, I think the answer to that question is that time is linear. Let me explain. A lot of the reason why I don't think there is a paradox when Link time travels, is that as a player, time is only in the essence of Link, not a broad overview of time. If that makes sense...

Meaning, I don't think the past can be changed and the future hasn't been written. Time only happens as we play through with Link. So although we are playing the same time period over and over, the previous times we played it is in the PAST not the PRESENT. We don't see another Link because that is in the past, not the present. So while we are repeating the same flicker of time, for Link, time is actually still progressing.


That all being said, I agree with Blackice. It was so vital to the story, that not having a scene showing the moon crash would just seem like a mistake for the game. On the flip side of things, look at Ocarina of Time. I suppose there is an 'alternate' ending where Ganon defeats Link. Ganon then continues to rule over Hyrule. While that's not what we see in the game, it's hypothetically possible. Still, improbable since the only story that we should know, is the one that is told. So in MM, when the moon crashes, it's just... start over, but there is only 1 end result of the game.

Nice job using your mind to think though. I like it.

[MrMosley]

In my opinion, it dosen't create a split. And even if it did, it wouldn't necessarily be a different timeline. Link came back from Termina after MM, but apparently Ganondorf was put to trial by the Sages way after his death. So, if he died in Termina, or if he went back and died later on in life in Hyrule, either way he was dead whenever Twilight Princess took place. There was a new Link during this time, so either way TP would have taken place accordingly. I just think, like most other people, that the moon crashing was a better way to show what happened than just running out of time and having a traditional Game Over, because its not like Link died causing a Game Over, rather than the game was still going and he just ran out of time.

[Zemen]

In my opinion, it dosen't create a split. And even if it did, it wouldn't necessarily be a different timeline. Link came back from Termina after MM, but apparently Ganondorf was put to trial by the Sages way after his death. So, if he died in Termina, or if he went back and died later on in life in Hyrule, either way he was dead whenever Twilight Princess took place. There was a new Link during this time, so either way TP would have taken place accordingly. I just think, like most other people, that the moon crashing was a better way to show what happened than just running out of time and having a traditional Game Over, because its not like Link died causing a Game Over, rather than the game was still going and he just ran out of time.

actually the cutscene where they show ganondorfs execution is a flash back, not something that is actually happening in the time of TP. no one knows for sure when the execution took place. it could be right after the events of MM for all we know. as far as i can tell, ganondorfs execution was something that happened a while before the actual events in TP.

[MrMosley]

True, I did forget that it was a flashback. Yet still the Hero of Time didn't really do anything as far as after MM. Termina dosen't seem to have any impact on Hyrule at all since they seem to be set in different deminsions, so its destruction wouldn't matter much. Since Link didn't do anything after his return, my guess was simply that the same thing would have happend whether he stopped the moon from crashing or not. After he left Hyrule, his job was pretty much done as far as the whole Ganondorf deal goes.

[Zemen]

True, I did forget that it was a flashback. Yet still the Hero of Time didn't really do anything as far as after MM. Termina dosen't seem to have any impact on Hyrule at all since they seem to be set in different deminsions, so its destruction wouldn't matter much. Since Link didn't do anything after his return, my guess was simply that the same thing would have happend whether he stopped the moon from crashing or not. After he left Hyrule, his job was pretty much done as far as the whole Ganondorf deal goes.

but what i was saying is that if the moon had crashed causing a split, link would be dead. no one knew he went to Termina, it just randomly happened. also, if termina was destroyed the 4 giants would have been destroyed and the only reason i had the theory that TP would come after a time when Termina was destroyed is because of the 4 light spirits which i said might represent the 4 defeated giants in Termina.

just a thought, i dont really believe it at all.

[ChargewithSword]

We can't really put this kind of theory into place without any knowledge on the future of Termina. It had only really appeared in one game and we already know that if you did get the good ending Link just goes off once again to search for Navi like before without any indication of where he went exactly. And the bad ending is pretty much the same thing but they're both dead ends. I'll admit the fact that they made 2 endings for the game where no other Zelda has done does throw suspicion but we still don't have any real info on Termina's future.

[Zlaja]

they say that termina is his personal journy that happen and passed but maybe now there will be termina in continue to be back. I would like to see link travell throught time to get something in what he forgget in past and get in hyrule and termina........parts all in one game.(visit termina long ago things changed...)

[Zemen]

they say that termina is his personal journy that happen and passed but maybe now there will be termina in continue to be back. I would like to see link travell throught time to get something in what he forgget in past and get in hyrule and termina........parts all in one game.(visit termina long ago things changed...)

but its not the same link. the link in MM is the only link that would know about Termina and since all of the other Zelda games take place much, much later in time, chances are that the new link doesnt know anything about a past link and the chances are even slimmer that a new link would know about Termina. why would a completely different link need to go back in time to get something that an older link had? for example, link was looking for navi in MM and he never really finds her and you want link to go back in time in a game and find what he had forgotten, but a link later on in life probably has absolutely no idea who navi is so why would he go looking for her unless it was vital for him to find her in order to save the world.