How BOTW Solves The Timeline

[TattooArtist]

So, a brief summary of the timeline. It starts with Skyward Sword and remains linear which includes The Minish Cap, Four swords and Ocarina of time being at the bottom and splits in three. During OOT you use the master sword to travel between time, young in the past and adult in the future. At the end of the game, three timelines are created. One follows the adult timeline that you just saved from Ganon, the second timeline follows Link when he turns back into a child at the end of the game and finally the third one is where you failed to defeat Ganon and die and the pig man takes over the triforce.

So, now we know the timeline it's a bit tricky to sort out where BOTW stands on it. Though the creator specifically said that BOTW's placement is after OOT. Which isn't that helpful, so, I will get to digging. Just so this doesn't get confusing, I will only being using items and clothing physically found in the game, not ambiio since they kind of act as easter eggs. So, one of the most common things you will find when you smash rocks is rock salt. The in game description for rock salt was that it is crystallised salt from the ancient seas which immediately made people think that it was referring to the great sea in the overworld in Wind Waker. Which would pretty must place BOTW in the Adult era timeline. This is also supported by the two races from BOTW which is also in WW, rito and the korok. The creator exactly states this "We set it up so that the Rito tribe was the evolved form of the Zora tribe that appeared in Ocarina of Time. And the Kokiri tribe left the forest and became the Koroks. Their appearances are different but they have the same bloodline". Between the rock salt and the races it seemed that BOTW would place some time after WW, but it would of been if WW was the only game that had Rito and Koroks. Because the Rito race can be found in the other two timelines, so it doesn't match up. It can be found in Twilight Princess and Zelda II. But, even though the rock salt could be referring to the WW great sea, it could also refer to what used to be a sea in Lanayru ruins in Skyward Sword. Since a huge ship takes place in one of the "must do" quests in that region, it clearly shows that Lanayra ruins used to be filled with water. Which means, BOTW could still be in any of the three timelines (God help me.)

Another big clue we get from BOTW is from Link's memories. In memory number one, where Zelda is knighting Link, Zelda states "Whether skyward bound, adrift in time, or steeped in the glowing embers of Twilight" Skyward bound and adrift in time are obviously referring to Link's battles in Skyward Sword and Ocarina of Time, which could easily say that BOTW is near the two in the timeline, but it mentions Twilight, referring to Twilight Princess, and it's the only game where Link deals with the twilight realm. The fact Zelda mentions this is a pretty big hint that BOTW could land in the child era timeline, which is supported by how similar the appearance of the two Hyrule castles look. But...that's about it. It doesn't seem enough. (This is hurting me, my God this is long.)

Going back to Breath of the Wild (I just nearly wrote Breast of the wild...) there is still a lot of physical clues, starting with Hyrules geography. In each game, the map of Hyrule looks clearly different. But BOTW have a lot of landmarks that make it fall into the failed hero timeline. Link to the past and BOTW's map have quite a lot of similarities. Death mountain is in the north, the desert is in the south west, lost woods also north and lake Hyrule is to the south on both maps. Also, BOTW's rock formation is only found in the Hero's Failed timeline (includes games Link to the past, Link between worlds, oracle of ages and seasons, Links awakening and Zelda I and II). Also, BOTW's Lynel enemy only appears in 5 other games in Zelda 1, Link to the past, Link between worlds and the Oracle games. You never see lynels in any of the other games in the other timelines. which strongly suggests that BOTW is in the hero is defeated timeline.

With Ganon, in both the child era and adult era Ganon is often seen in his Gerudo form, Ganondolf. Ganondolf has other incarnations of him like puppets or beasts, but Calamity Ganon is demon all the way through. He has no humanoid form. You never see his human form in the Hero Defeated Timeline, which is official. But the most convincing piece of evidence, is when you complete all 120 shrines in BOTW and you claim the tunic, trousers and cap of the wild. The outfit has one similarity to Link's green outfit in Zelda one, Zelda two, Ages and seasons, Link to the past and Link between worlds. The yellow stripe that goes across the hat. Every single game from the failed hero timeline, on his green outfit, a yellow stripe is on his cap that comes just before his head. In every other timeline, he doesn't.

This huge detail proves that Breath of the Wild is apart of the Hero Defeated Timeline and that Nintendo have been keeping track of Links outfit since the very first game. And there you have it. My fingers are hurting now..heh. What are your opinions? It'd be nice to read some while my fingers are recovering, heheh.

Theory goes to The Game Theorists.

 

[DekuNut]

Game Theory does BotW, Thread #3

Here's the thing: the hat was a design choice, not a timeline-proving point.
The yellow band was there in every game in the downfall timeline, yes... but at the time that was every 2-D game. Up through OoX, every 2-D game had the band. And every game up to that point (except MM) are canon in what is now called the downfall timeline. Then they changed the Link designs in later games to more resemble the costume from OoT.
The only DT game to be released after that point - ALBW - specifically made its costume to resemble that of ALttP. It was not a timeline choice.
Oh Yeah, there was one more DT game released... Tri Force Heroes. Which doesn't have the band, but canonically takes place betweem ALBW and LoZ. So that in itself disproves the hat point.
Besides... if they'd really been planning this since even 2001 - before both TP and WW - you'd think they'd have a better explanation for the third split than "Link died I guess. It's canon now."

I agree with the placement, but not the reasoning.

 

[Moblinking5000]

Game Theory does BotW, Thread #3


I agree with the placement, but not the reasoning.

THIS.

Seriously, I don't mean to shamelessly plug, but my topic has a far more detailed argument for a DT placement for BotW:

https://zeldadungeon.net/forum/thre...ne-placement-of-botw-and-my-conclusion.60315/

In case you don't want to read it for whatever reason, I'll break down some of the more prominent points:

-The OoT sages are confirmed to have awakened in the timeline that BotW takes place in, as per the Zora Monument that talks about Ruto, and the cutscene with Urbosa that talks about Nabooru. They never awaken in the CT, which is the only timeline where the later part of OoT never happens, and we don't seem to be in New Hyrule if the existence of the MS and Ganon are of any indication, and the sages are confirmed to be remembered as late as AoL in the DT.

-Not only does Ganon not appear as Ganondorf in this game, but he's at his least human ever in this game, fitting with the DT theme of Ganon losing more and more of his humanity. Aonuma said that BotW is in a timeline where Ganon has appeared many times, and he's appeared more in the DT than any other.

-Hyrule is an era of decline in BotW, a recurring theme on the DT.

 

[DragonEleven]

Yeah, this doesn't seem to be a particularly strong argument to me.
That first big section discrediting the adult timeline has basically been done to death and doesn't add anything to the argument... it basically just leaves it open for any timeline.
The next section about the speech is actually missing out the fact that the full speech (audible in other language versions) actually refers to events in all three timelines... which is impossible... with the only logical explanation for this being the existence of a fourth timeline.
Geography becomes relatively irrelevant when you take into consideration that the games themselves are supposed to be legends... stories that have been passed down through generations, with details inevitably being changed or forgotten... it was implied that Nintendo acknowledge this in Skyward Sword when Fi mentioned the 'oral tradition'.
The tunic is purely stylistic choice... DekuNut gave a pretty good explanation of that.

Ganondorf/Ganon is a point that I think needs a bit more expanding upon... as there is one instance outside the DT where Ganon's fully demonic form seems to appear... the backstory of WW.
It would seem that when he escaped from the Sacred Realm he was in his demonic Ganon form, and only returned to his Gerudo Ganondorf form some time later.
Comparing this to his appearances in the DT, all but one of his appearances show him either shortly after his return, or within the Sacred Realm itself... so he may have simply not had the opportunity to revert to his Gerudo form like he had prior to WW.
The only exception to this being in the original LoZ game where he'd already been back for a while before Link encounters him... we do not know whether this is intentional or not, but it is likely related to his multiple defeats in the past... he may have chosen to stay in this form, or he may have lost the ability to transform back (either way, the same could potentially happen in any timeline where he had become Ganon at some point).
The fact that Calamity Ganon was attempting to revert to a physical form in BotW could be an extension of this (return in one form, then revert to another)... for all we know, he may have even returned to his Gerudo form if he had been given long enough (the physical form he was attempting to create did look more like Ganondorf than Ganon).

 

[TattooArtist]

The Tunic - Nintendo did say that they wanted gamers to play BOTW as it was like playing the very first Legend of Zelda, they even included art like this - This was released by Nintendo. The fact they wanted to recreate the feeling of playing the very first Zelda, only makes sense for them to have the Cap of the Wild, Trousers of the Wild and the Tunic of the Wild to have that single yellow stripe which was only in the Failed Hero timeline, whereas the others have just a green band that blends in with the cap. Though this stripe was in the 2D Games, again, Nintendo states this. "We want to create the feeling of playing the first Zelda game but a modern version" due to them saying that means it wouldn't necessarily be a 2D game anyway, since by "modern" they can only mean 3D, Like Breath of the Wild is.
Geography - I don't think the geography is irrelevant, it's seems too absurd that Nintendo would make the map from Breath of the Wild and Link to the Past so similar, LTTP was also an early game, so this can come in comparison with the Nintendo recreating the first Zelda with BOTW.

 

[DragonEleven]

What you're doing is drawing parallels... not creating direct connections.

You're dead set on this tunic thing, but take another look at the band on the hat... it's light green, not yellow... sure it does resemble the yellow band of the original tunic, but it's not the same tunic. The designs of Links tunics are always drawing inspiration from past games regardless of where or when they can be found on the timeline... the WW tunic was also heavily based on the original tunic, rather than the more recent designs, and that was then re-used in MC... the TP tunic was based more on the OoT tunic rather than the original tunic, and was only slightly changed for use in SS (it's also worth pointing out the collars of the TP and SS tunics are very similar to the BotW tunic). Using the design of a tunic as an argument for timeline placement just does not hold up.

You clearly don't seem to have followed what I meant about the oral tradition in regards to the geography, so I'll elaborate.
As a story is passed down, details can easily be lost or changed... most often when they are not critical to the story... so just because a story does not include a specific rock formation does not mean it was not there at the time... likewise, the orientation of different areas could easily become muddled up, which could easily cause inconsistencies like areas being swapped, or an area being moved to a different part of the map.
Hebra is a good example of this... the only other game where there are snowy mountains to the north-west is TP... that's the only other time Link has been there, so it makes sense for that to be the only other time they appear in a game.
Then there's also changes to the landscape to take into account... some landmarks would have taken a long period of time to form, while others would have been cause by a specific event (such as a natural disaster)... just because they hadn't formed at the time of one game does not mean they would not have formed at some point in the future... the same landmark could even form at different points in each timeline.
The fact that LttP and BotW have such similar landscapes is actually an argument against them sharing the same timeline... it is implied that it has been over 10,000 years since the last game in the timeline... there should have been huge geographical changes within that time... if anything, it actually makes it more likely for them to be located at around the same point on each respective timeline, and as they've been fairly vague about how much time has passed within the DT, that is actually a genuine possibility.

 

[TattooArtist]

What you're doing is drawing parallels... not creating direct connections.

You're dead set on this tunic thing, but take another look at the band on the hat... it's light green, not yellow... sure it does resemble the yellow band of the original tunic, but it's not the same tunic. The designs of Links tunics are always drawing inspiration from past games regardless of where or when they can be found on the timeline... the WW tunic was also heavily based on the original tunic, rather than the more recent designs, and that was then re-used in MC... the TP tunic was based more on the OoT tunic rather than the original tunic, and was only slightly changed for use in SS (it's also worth pointing out the collars of the TP and SS tunics are very similar to the BotW tunic). Using the design of a tunic as an argument for timeline placement just does not hold up.

You clearly don't seem to have followed what I meant about the oral tradition in regards to the geography, so I'll elaborate.
As a story is passed down, details can easily be lost or changed... most often when they are not critical to the story... so just because a story does not include a specific rock formation does not mean it was not there at the time... likewise, the orientation of different areas could easily become muddled up, which could easily cause inconsistencies like areas being swapped, or an area being moved to a different part of the map.
Hebra is a good example of this... the only other game where there are snowy mountains to the north-west is TP... that's the only other time Link has been there, so it makes sense for that to be the only other time they appear in a game.
Then there's also changes to the landscape to take into account... some landmarks would have taken a long period of time to form, while others would have been cause by a specific event (such as a natural disaster)... just because they hadn't formed at the time of one game does not mean they would not have formed at some point in the future... the same landmark could even form at different points in each timeline.
The fact that LttP and BotW have such similar landscapes is actually an argument against them sharing the same timeline... it is implied that it has been over 10,000 years since the last game in the timeline... there should have been huge geographical changes within that time... if anything, it actually makes it more likely for them to be located at around the same point on each respective timeline, and as they've been fairly vague about how much time has passed within the DT, that is actually a genuine possibility.

You tell me that band is light green.

I see what you mean about the geography, but I won't drop the tunic.

 

[DekuNut]

You tell me that band is light green.

I see what you mean about the geography, but I won't drop the tunic.

Not that hat

That one

 

[TattooArtist]

Not that hat

That one

I see yellow, if it was light green, it would barely stand out like it is in this picture

 

[DragonEleven]

I see yellow, if it was light green, it would barely stand out like it is in this picture

It does barely stand out in that picture... compared to the yellow band on the cap of the hero it hardly stands out at all... there's a clear difference between their colours.

 

[YIGAhim]

I agree. The band isn't yellow enough to be evidence