"Wow, I actually remembered my password to this user account...... anyways, this thread caught my eye......"
I used to be a hardcore theorist back in the early 2000s (I admit, I'm too embarrassed to say specifically when). This particular account was an alias for a much more common user name I used elsewhere amongst the Zelda sites, but I guess that doesn't matter. I would think my innocent trolling/pretend-ignorance here has been long forgotten since then...
Um, anyways.
I will agree that theorising was much better before Hyrule Historia, but only because a bunch of people abandoned theorising deeming it now "dead", which is false.
Agreed.
The era(s) of that time was certainly fiery, and full of revelation... even when Nintendo didn't even so much as throw the fans a damn bone towards there well thought out theories. I admit that I was one of those who gave up on Zelda Theorizing because I burned myself out. I was tired of settling for scraps every time a new title was released. Like many others during that time, I had high hopes that there would be new canon to support my theories. Sometimes I would win, other times not. But then all of a sudden Nintendo decides to unveil the mother-load they had been holding out on us for years. The Triforce of the Zelda Fandom, all what we had been working so hard to obtain and claim bragging rights towards, was now gone.
Looking back now, as I sit a simple reader and patron of sites like these, I suppose it only seems fair that no one won in the end. The bitterness between fans during the confirmation of the initial split actually, in a way, put Nintendo in an awkward situation with regards to how to handle storyline thereafter. And in time, when the topic became such a focal point of interest amongst the fans, Nintendo had no choice but to release a timeline so they could move the series forward, rather than work around it like they had been with contradicting parallels and or vague storylines.
Honestly, if there are any newbies that really want to know how Zelda Theorizing use to be, check out how websites had their own major timeline theories posted and recorded here:
http://zeldawiki.org/Timeline_Theories
Theorists used their timelines like banners for their home websites - hence the old rivalries between sites trying to collaborate the best way to organize canon. ZD has done a good job trying to preserve Zelda Legends works which were collaborated from Game FAQs... but alas much motivation to continue such projects died with the confirmation of the timeline. Sad to say it, but the only way Zelda Theorizing will return to its former glory is when Nintendo throws in a Pandora's Box of dimensional crossovers (not counting Hyrule Warriors - which they should have made canon just for fun anyways), black holes, paradoxes, and other Back to the Future like ****. lol ... Or they could just move the series away from Hyrule and traditional themes, but hey, I too use to say that for years and it still hasn't happened!
I haven't paid much mind to Zelda Theorizing since early 2013 - when finally all the drama and hashing out of fact from fiction came to a sudden halt within the ZI, ZU, and ZD forums. With all the corners of the Hyrulean globe explored and exploited on youtube for discovery bragging rights, I find it curious that no one ever claimed their theory to be close to the truth prior to HH's release. Were there any major three pronged timeline theories back then? Out of boredom I decided to do research on fan-theories prior to 2011, looking through forums, YouTube videos, wikis, etc. I only found one theorist that might of been on the right track. Its called,
The Phantom Timeline. Another theory that was close in the same way was Lock's, which also acknowledged the possibility of the 2D games going on their own separate timeline, but not necessarily its own timeline branch like the AT and CT.
The Seal War had always been the single most controversial conundrum in the series when sorting out a timeline theory. Like the author explained, you could either try and relate it to OoT, FSA, or as a separate event. Based on what this theory proposed, OoT was always a version of the SW on either timelines, and that the outcome of that event mimicked future themes shared between TP and TWW, from ALttP. Miyamoto had never denied ALttP's relation to OoT, so naturally according to the mechanics of the Split Timeline, this theorist decided to put it in its own timeline branch. Although I cant quite figure out some of the mental gymnastics this person did with fitting the Four Swords Series in between OoT and ALttP, but there was acknowledgement towards the possibility of FSA going after any game where Ganon was defeated last. Strange that this person didn't follow developer intent in the same strict sense with TMC and FS being the oldest tale (per Aonuma ref.) like he or she did with OoT-ALttP intent... Otherwise this guy could have been closer than most.
Oh well. That's enough rambling from me. Theorizing was fun and all but I'll remain watching and reading from the shadows until Nintendo decides to do something interesting. Probably hang around for a little bit until I get bored again.
To Zelda Theorizing
-Cheers