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Spoiler Ocarina Of Time Triforce Theory (Sequel to MM?)

OcarinalinkLOZ

Your Link to the Past
Joined
Jun 15, 2010
Location
Hyrule in the winter, Canada in the summer
Well, most of your know the ending of Oot, and if you don't I suggest you play the game (which is a fantastic experience!) or just read a walkthrough :( It is often pointed out that Link still has the triforce on his hand in the last scene of the credits...what is this implying? Here is a picture for you...
normal_linktriforce.jpg

Notice the Triforce of Courage on his left hand? We know that Navi leaves Link at the end of Oot, most likely because he has
finally defeated Ganon and fulfilled his destiny...and this causes Link to go off looking for navi and the events of Majora's mask unfold. So, we have Link in the past with a piece of the triforce, Ganondorf in the future, locked away in the sacred realm under the sages' seal, and it isn't clear which Zelda has the triforce of Wisdom. It is most commonly thought that the timeline goes from MM to TP on the child timeline and to WW on the adult timeline...but, what happens to the pieces of the Triforce in the later games? If the triforce was to be unified again in a future game in any timeline, so sort of event would have to happen between MM and TP on the child timeline, as well as on the Adult timeline! The pieces are between these two timelines and it is only possible to unite them again when all the pieces are back together. This opens up room for a sequel to MM and a prequel to TP as well as WW. Link would have to travel between timelines to fix the triforce. Now, this is a problem in this theory, as in WW Ganondorf returns to Hyrule, and there is no Link to fight him....but in TP, we have the Hero's Shade (often thought of the Hero of time) and another form of Ganondorf. So, wait a second, this means that Link must have died in the Lost Woods to become a Stalfos and teach his (possible son) student. Why would Link die in the Lost Woods? Did he get lost looking for Navi? Or some other event altogether..be it his attempt to restore the triforce? He must have failed, or had to seal ganon away again in the WW timeline to make a sequel have any sense...Or you could just have a sequel in between MM and TP? This triforce theory opens many possibilities and has been the subject of debate for a while...but it is obviouslly significant and can point to a sequel in the MM to Tp and OOT to WW timeline...Anyway that is just a brief overview of the triforce theory, so do your own research and share what you think!
 
Joined
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Well, most of your know the ending of Oot, and if you don't I suggest you play the game (which is a fantastic experience!) or just read a walkthrough :( It is often pointed out that Link still has the triforce on his hand in the last scene of the credits...what is this implying? Here is a picture for you...
normal_linktriforce.jpg

Notice the Triforce of Courage on his left hand? We know that Navi leaves Link at the end of Oot, most likely because he has
finally defeated Ganon and fulfilled his destiny...and this causes Link to go off looking for navi and the events of Majora's mask unfold. So, we have Link in the past with a piece of the triforce, Ganondorf in the future, locked away in the sacred realm under the sages' seal, and it isn't clear which Zelda has the triforce of Wisdom. It is most commonly thought that the timeline goes from MM to TP on the child timeline and to WW on the adult timeline...but, what happens to the pieces of the Triforce in the later games? If the triforce was to be unified again in a future game in any timeline, so sort of event would have to happen between MM and TP on the child timeline, as well as on the Adult timeline! The pieces are between these two timelines and it is only possible to unite them again when all the pieces are back together. This opens up room for a sequel to MM and a prequel to TP as well as WW. Link would have to travel between timelines to fix the triforce. Now, this is a problem in this theory, as in WW Ganondorf returns to Hyrule, and there is no Link to fight him....but in TP, we have the Hero's Shade (often thought of the Hero of time) and another form of Ganondorf. So, wait a second, this means that Link must have died in the Lost Woods to become a Stalfos and teach his (possible son) student. Why would Link die in the Lost Woods? Did he get lost looking for Navi? Or some other event altogether..be it his attempt to restore the triforce? He must have failed, or had to seal ganon away again in the WW timeline to make a sequel have any sense...Or you could just have a sequel in between MM and TP? This triforce theory opens many possibilities and has been the subject of debate for a while...but it is obviouslly significant and can point to a sequel in the MM to Tp and OOT to WW timeline...Anyway that is just a brief overview of the triforce theory, so do your own research and share what you think!

Can you please clarify this? I am a bit confused.
 

Locke

Hegemon
Site Staff
Joined
Nov 24, 2009
Location
Redmond, Washington
Even if that crest means that Link has the ToC on the CT, we also know that it remained on the AT as well. Daphnes(?) in WW says that when the HoT left on his journey through time, the ToC was split into 8 pieces and scattered around Hyrule. When the timeline split, everything was copied, even the Triforce. On the AT, Zelda has Wisdom, Ganondorf has Power, and Courage is scattered. On the CT, it's not quite as clear, but at one point it may have remained whole in the SR and eventually split between Zelda, Link, and Ganondorf. The question there is if it happened as soon as Link arrived, when Ganondorf [did/tried to do] "something outrageous," or during his execution.

Also, I think this is better suited for the Theory section.
 

Kombatgod

Timeline Exegete
Joined
Feb 7, 2011
Location
Florence, Italy
So are you saying that Link brought the ToC in the CT, while the other two remained in the AT? The Triforce.JPG was a whole at the beginning of OoT, so the time Link arrived. If you believe things to multiply by going back in time, as in most time travel storyes, where a person is able to meet himself, then there MUST be four pieces of the Triforce.JPG in the CT, while only two in the AT. So something is needed between OoT/MM and sequent games. I like that theory.

Anyway as long asthey don't retcon the story, if we want to write down a timeline to create only one story out of the games, then it's our duty to keep it linear and without gaps. So I'd say that for now the story is that things don't multiply by going back, as many time-travel theorists think, like phisical matter can't be created out of nowhere, so if you go a year back in time, the one-year-younger yourself would disappear to let only one of you exist.
Something like that happened to the Triforce.JPG: When the HoT went back in time, the ToC continued to exist in the AT, while the previous ToC in the CT disappeared. Since in TP we see it splitted, it is likely that as a person with the symbol on his hand appeared, it was forced to split.

Anyway I'd say that a TP prequel could be done to explain what Ganondorf did to be sentenced to death and it would be just awesome to be a direct sequel to MM featuring an adult HoT!

Also about the travel trough timelines I think it would be cool, but very difficult for them to keep the coninuity, and they'd have to, in a game about timelines!
I actually tought of home-making a Zelda game with the AT/CT travel ingame, instead of the Light World/Dark World system, but to keep possible every timeline theory I had to place it in the end and make it a sequel to ST: trough some fortune teller Cole or a new demon like him discovers that there's an alternate reality where Link's family never went to New Hyrule and Malladus wasn't defeated, so he tries to bring him in the AT.
 

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DuckNoises

Gone (Wind) Fishin'
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Location
Montreal, QC, Canada
OcarinalinkLOLZ said:
This opens up room for a sequel to MM and a prequel to TP as well as WW. Link would have to travel between timelines to fix the triforce. Now, this is a problem in this theory, as in WW Ganondorf returns to Hyrule, and there is no Link to fight him....but in TP, we have the Hero's Shade (often thought of the Hero of time) and another form of Ganondorf. So, wait a second, this means that Link must have died in the Lost Woods to become a Stalfos and teach his (possible son) student.
I don't see why this necessitates there being a sequel to MM and the Hero of Time needing to die in the lost woods (my opinion on that can be found at http://zeldadungeon.net/forum/showt...Opinion-on-What-Happened-in-Between-MM-and-TP ).
So are you saying that Link brought the ToC in the CT, while the other two remained in the AT?

That's sort of what Locke is saying, but not quite. This is a question that comes up a fair bit on the forums and is one of the more confusing issues with the timeline split. (Good job on OcarinalinkLOLZ for finding that screen shot; it's a hard one to find)

I will answer both of your questions as best I can at the same time:

Here is a combination of things Locke and I have said, that seem to supplement each other nicely.
DuckNoises said:
Sheik said:
The Triforce...the sacred triangle...
it is a balance that weighs the
three forces:
Power, Wisdom and Courage.

If the heart of the one who holds
the sacred triangle has all three
forces in balance, that one will
gain the True Force to govern all.
But, if that one's heart is not in
balance, the Triforce will separate
into three parts:
Power, Wisdom and Courage.
Only one part will remain for the
one who touched the Triforce...the
part representing the force that
one most believes in.
If that one seeks the True Force,
that one must acquire the two
lost parts.
Those two parts will be held
within others chosen by destiny,
who will bear the Triforce mark
on the backs of their hands.





Locke said:
I think one of three things happened:
1. The state of the Triforce is consistent along a line perpendicular to the flow of time, meaning when it splits in OoT's AT it also splits in the CT at the same time.
2. When Link went back in time after defeating Ganondorf in OoT, the ToX saw that he had received the ToC, and 'glitched' itself into thinking that the ToW and ToP must also be distributed.
3. Zelda went to 'check' on the ToX after Link told her about the AT, and she touched it. (Though I don't know how she'd get the ToW after doing a stupid thing like that.)



From what I see, the general consensus around here is Locke's second reasoning, that Link going back in time with the ToC caused the Triforce to break and remain broken up to and including Twilight Princess. That reasoning seems to fall in line with the Sheik quote that I posted above.

This was the second part of my answer to a near identical question (sorry for reusing so many things I've said before-- like I've said, these questions come up a lot :sweat:):

Warning: TP and TWW Spoilers
DuckNoises said:
The highlighted portions are the most important; remember, when Link returned from the future, he returned with the Triforce of Courage. If you look carefully, it can be seen on his hand in the courtyard scene at the end of OoT. Since he returned to the past with the Triforce of Courage, the Triforce was no longer in balance. Because it must always remain in a state of perpetual balance, it redistributed itself to the three individuals chosen by destiny, each Triforce fragment to be awakened at different times. Ganondorf's fragment awakens long before the others, during the execution scene, many, many years before the events of Twilight Princess. The other two fragments will awaken in Twilight Princess Link and Twilight Princess Zelda, as they are chosen by destiny. In fact, Link from Twilight Princess is often referred to the Hero Chosen by the Gods, or the Hero chosen by destiny.
Another thing to note is that Twilight Princess occurs parallel to TWW, as indicated by Eiji Aonuma (which is also a strong piece of evidence why TP occurs on the Child Timeline). Note that in TWW, the Triforce is broken, likely because the Triforce of Courage was removed from the Adult Timeline, where it should have remained. It is quite possible that the Hero of Time returning to the past with the Triforce of Courage is what caused the Triforce to break in TWW, as it was no longer in balance.

We cannot assume that the Triforce exists independent of time, because the Triforce is broken in two different ways at the same time periods (TWW and TP) opposite each other on the split timeline. On the AT, it is split and broken, being split still after the events of OoT, and the ToC broken into 8 further fragments while the ToW and ToP are whole, but separated. If I recall correctly, Ganondorf retains (or regains -- it's unclear) the ToP, and the ToW is awakened in Zelda; the Hero of Winds, however, cannot have the ToC because it is broken, and never does actually obtain it. At the beginning of TWW, the Triforce is split in 10 pieces; the ToP and ToW are isolated, and the ToC is split into 8 pieces that are scattered around the Great Sea.
Conversely, in TP, the Triforce is broken into three pieces, but only one is active for most of the game -- the ToP. The other two do not awaken until the final battle.

Spoilers End Here
I hope that was helpful! :)
 
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If I recall correctly, Ganondorf retains (or regains -- it's unclear)

I'm pretty sure that he retained it from when he gained it in OoT. It never said he lost the Triforce of Power in Ocarina of Time, and it never showed him regain it in Wind Waker, so it's safe to assume he always had it.

the ToP, and the ToW is awakened in Zelda; the Hero of Winds, however, cannot have the ToC because it is broken, and never does actually obtain it.

The Hero of Winds does obtain it, once he gathers all eight pieces, the Triforce awakens in him, as the Triforce had selected him as the bearer.
 

Kombatgod

Timeline Exegete
Joined
Feb 7, 2011
Location
Florence, Italy
At the beginning of TWW, the Triforce is split in 10 pieces; the ToP and ToW are isolated, and the ToC is split into 8 pieces that are scattered around the Great Sea.

I agree with everything you said. Just one little correction: in WW it is spit in 11 pieces! ToP isoleted, ToC in 8 pieces and ToW is in two pieces! Zelda only has a half, while the king has the other half.

I'm pretty sure that he retained it from when he gained it in OoT. It never said he lost the Triforce of Power in Ocarina of Time, and it never showed him regain it in Wind Waker, so it's safe to assume he always had it.

I think the point is that the 2d titles or at least ALttP may have occoured between OoT and WW. If that's the case then it's obvious that Ganon lost the ToP at the end of ALttP and regained it when resurrecting or returning.
 

ZeldafreakCJM

Hey there, it's me.
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Non-binary cookie sheet.
Is it really that hard for people to believe that when the Timeline split, two Triforces were created in the two universes that correspond to each side of the timeline? I think that when Link came back from the Adult Timeline having already achieved the Triforce of Courage, the Triforce recognized this and split it's self. Either that or having the mark on the back of your hand doesn't mean anything....

SOILER ALERT!!!
At the end of Wind Waker After the King Of Hyrule made his wish the Triforce flys away however at the end in the very moments of Link's final attack on Ganondorf we see this...
http://www.zeldawiki.org/images/5/53/Ganon%27s_defeat.png
...Ganondorf still has his crest of The Triforce Of Power even though the Triforce just flew away.

END SOILER ALERT!!!


P.S. I would of just posted that picture but I couldn't figure how too without it being to small.
 
Joined
Feb 12, 2011
That's an odd image, ZeldaFreak o.o Where did you get it? I'm just curious, cause if you got that off the game itself, the developers screwed up big time lol If you look at the image, you'll see the hilt of the MS is flipped upside down, and Link is actually holding onto the blade XD If you got it off another site...well...I dunno if I trust it so much then cause of that...I don't want to sound like I'm saying it's a forgery, but still. I don't have a way to pause WW at that exact moment, so I can't really say.

On topic: When Link was sent back in time, time was forced to re-write itself. Note that, at the moment when Link returns, the Door of Time is open. As such, the three Spiritual Stones must have been collected and brought to the Temple of Time, along with the Ocarina of Time. You'll also notice that Zelda is in the courtyard, which means Link returned at a time before he and Zelda met in the first place. Now, he travelled back in time, taking the Triforce of Courage with him. Due to this, time had to rewrite itself, forming a secondary timeline where Link had the Triforce of Courage. Naturally, if the Triforce of Courage is in Link's hands, the Triforce must have split. This is seen when the Sages killed Ganondorf in TP, and they claim his gaining of the Triforce of Power as some kind of "Divine prank". The fact was, time rewrote itself so that Link had the Triforce of Courage, giving Ganondorf the ToP and Zelda the ToW (or so we assume). On the Adult Timeline, due to the fact that Link left with the Triforce of Courage, time had to fix itself too. The piece was not allowed to actually travel through time with Link, thus forcing it to shatter into 8 pieces. These 8 pieces were sealed away around the world, and then the story of Wind Waker.

Now, here's the important part. Remember the beginning of WW. It states Ganon returned, but no hero appeared. Because of this, there is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY any games can come after Ocarina of Time and before Wind Waker, because there was no Hero of Time to stop Ganon. Ganon laid siege to the world and the Goddesses flooded the world. He remained there, under the flood, for hundreds of years (the likely amount is about 1000 between WW and OoT due to the fact that Eiji Aonuma's quote is mistranslated. He said "Hundreds of years after Ocarina of Time" not "100 years") So, the Goddesses worked during this period to form a new Hero of Time. Of course, that would be no simple task, as I doubt they could create a soul out of nothing (again, there is no proof that Din, Nayru, and Farore made Hyrule out of nothing since they "came from a distant nebula" and "Din forged the world with flaming arms"). In turn, the Goddesses had to work to form the new Hero of Time, and finally managed it during Wind Waker (whose to say they hadn't tried other times and failed?). As such, the Cycle of Eternity continues and all is back as it should.

So, as a summary: Triforce of Courage split into 8 on the Adult Timeline. Link also travelled back in time with the Triforce of Courage, forcing time to rewrite itself into a form where Link had the Triforce of Courage (thus Ganon the Triforce of Power). No games can come between OoT and WW because there was no hero after OoT until Wind Waker.
 

Locke

Hegemon
Site Staff
Joined
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Location
Redmond, Washington
Note that, at the moment when Link returns, the Door of Time is open. As such, the three Spiritual Stones must have been collected and brought to the Temple of Time, along with the Ocarina of Time. You'll also notice that Zelda is in the courtyard, which means Link returned at a time before he and Zelda met in the first place.
How is this possible? The DoT was only opened after he met Zelda.

Now, here's the important part. Remember the beginning of WW. It states Ganon returned, but no hero appeared. Because of this, there is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY any games can come after Ocarina of Time and before Wind Waker, because there was no Hero of Time to stop Ganon.
It's still possible to argue that a different hero may have risen and fallen between the Seal and the Flood. I think it's better to use the Triforce in this case, which was shattered after OoT and not brought together again until WW. Therefore no games containing the Triforce can fit between OoT and WW.
 
Joined
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How is this possible? The DoT was only opened after he met Zelda.

It's still possible to argue that a different hero may have risen and fallen between the Seal and the Flood. I think it's better to use the Triforce in this case, which was shattered after OoT and not brought together again until WW. Therefore no games containing the Triforce can fit between OoT and WW.

This video has something to do with that. It does argue it, but it's far fetched. Skip into the video some, I forgot where I heard it.

[video=youtube;2N8VAiFLAXc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N8VAiFLAXc[/video]
 
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Location
Chula Vista, San Diego, CA
How is this possible? The DoT was only opened after he met Zelda.

At the end of the game, Link returned the Ocarina of Time so Zelda could put Link back in his time so he could relive his childhood. In other words, she put him at the time before any of the events of the game happened, so Link hadn't met Zelda at that time.
 

OcarinalinkLOZ

Your Link to the Past
Joined
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Location
Hyrule in the winter, Canada in the summer
Agreeing with Locke, the door of time was opened after Link had talked to Zelda...really it is common sense. How could Link get out of the Temple of Time if the door was still closed? He would be stuck with the Master Sword! The only way to open the door of time is with the 3 sacred stones...So, Link is sent back before Ganondorf enters the Sacred Realm and touches the Triforce, but after Link opens the Dot. Now, back to Locke's comment about a Oot---WW sequel....A sequel featuring the Triforce is highly unlikely...it could be a different Link entirely as the gap between Oot and WW is supposed to be either 100 or 1000 years. But, we could see the Hero of Time go back to the Adult Timeline....and have the ToC shattered at the end of his part in the sequel on the Adult Timeline...At the moment, it is thought that the ToC was shattered at the ending of OoT...but what if it didn't? I know this sounds confusing and highly unlikely...but think about it...if they wanted to do a sequel with the triforce on the Adult Timeline they could...as long as Link goes to the future, ganon is either still sealed or has to be resealed in the sacred realm and the triforce could shatter in or because of this new battle with Ganon. This sequel could also happen at the same time as events of the Child Timeline as switching between timelines requires timetravel. So, we could have a sort of Oracle game situation going on...so on one timeline we have something happening while on the other we have a different story..as well as a hybrid OoT. Now that I've touched on the OoT adult timeline sequel element...I'm going to say some stuff about the MM part. Let's say, after MM, we have Ganondorf's attempted execution, one sage dies and he gets sealed away in the Twilight Realm. Sure, we know this...but, what does Link do after this? Just try and live a normal life? On both timeline's, the OoT Link is considered a Hero. Now, in the MM---TP era, is it because of him warning Zelda about Ganondorf's plans? While this is possible, I believe it was another event such as a war...this goes back to what DuckNoises says about the Hero's Shade...the article he attached is fantastic and is a must read to really understand what I'm saying...here is a piece from that article...


Locke said:
While I don’t think these last two themes are quite as likely to appear in Skyward Sword, they were highlighted in Twilight Princess to such an extent as to believe that the developers had more in mind than just what they presented in that game. The first is the symbol displayed throughout Snowpeak Ruins. This normally wouldn’t be anything special, as dungeons often have recurring symbols on doors and switches, but the ones in this mansion are given much more meaning by the nature of the mansion, the weapons stored there, and the symbol’s reoccurrence in a hidden cave in North Hyrule Field. This ‘dungeon’ isn’t just a cave or a carved out tree. It’s a manmade structure, built for a purpose that seems to be different from what the yetis use it for. Through the display of weapons and armor, and the frequent use of cannons while progressing through the ruins, one gets the impression that this used to be a military outpost. The crests reveal that it belonged to a powerful family or nation.

LockeSSthemesTP2.jpg


As if that wasn’t enough, we were given part of what could prove to be a very interesting story. Deep in a cave situated in North Hyrule Field lies a hidden armory or barracks, protected by walls of ice. Inside, one can find a series of block-pushing puzzles, a treasure chest containing a heart piece, walls lined with various weapons, and more depictions of the same crest found in Snowpeak Mansion. Of particular interest are the banners bearing the crest of the Hylian Royal Family that weren’t present in the mansion. It becomes quite obvious that there is an untold story involving these two locations. I can only guess at what this story is. One of my theories involves some event occurring after the child ending of Ocarina of Time that ties in with a few other themes like the hero’s shade and the many references to a past hero in Twilight Princess. ...

LockeSSthemesTP5.jpg


The other theme is the legend of the ancient hero. It’s not so much a legend like in many other games – such as The Minish Cap – as a series of references pointing to some hero that can’t easily be attributed to any known incarnation of Link. These references included the Hero’s Bow belonging to an ancient hero, the green tunic being worn by the ancient hero, and Renado being reminded of the ancient hero when he sees Link. Before Skyward Sword, the Link from Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask was the only one we knew for certain existed before the one in Twilight Princess. But as far as we know, he never “saved Hyrule from a crisis,” (on the child timeline) as is told of the ancient hero. He also didn’t bring the bow or tunic back with him, so some assumptions would have to be made in order to apply the legend to him. Either he did something heroic after returning from Termina...


Also, notice how howling stones and gossip stones are very similar in apperance...does this indicate the Sheikah? So just to summarize all of this....between OoT and WW...I believe Link could go back to the future to help the future Zelda deal with some new Villain but having Ganondorf as a strong influence/plot developper and character eventually having to be battlelled, having Link's ToC shattered during the Battle and having Ganondorf sealed away with a stronger seal...lasting until WW and allowing it all to make sense....while on the Child Timeline we have a war eventually causing the new geography and things in TP such as the destroyed temple of Time and somehow seeing how Hero of Time Link becomes the Hero's Shade and possible has TP link as his son. So in the Adult timeline, the ToC is shattered, we have Ganondorf sealed away with a stronger seal which lasts until WW picks up...and on the child timeline...the ToC is passed on to TP Link without being broken...most of it makes sense, makes the story of both games work while filling that gap on either end of the timeline...so maybe we could see 2 different sequels playing of of each other like the Oracle games...or one sequel following the OoT system....these are my thoughts about the sequels...if there are any problems you can see with this theory, or if it generally works...be sure to point it out!

I APOLOGIZE FOR THE EXTREME LENGTH OF THIS TEXT....but it is really the only way to get all the points and details across...thanks for reading it and im sorry for the length XD
 
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DuckNoises

Gone (Wind) Fishin'
Joined
Jul 16, 2010
Location
Montreal, QC, Canada
ZeldaFreak, that is a phenomenal find, but very confusing given that it contrasts some of Aonuma's statements.
OcarinalinkLOLZ said:
Sure, we know this...but, what does Link do after this? Just try and live a normal life? On both timeline's, the OoT Link is considered a Hero. Now, in the MM---TP era, is it because of him warning Zelda about Ganondorf's plans? While this is possible, I believe it was another event such as a war...this goes back to what DuckNoises says about the Hero's Shade...the article he attached is fantastic and is a must read to really understand what I'm saying...here is a piece from that article...
This is a separate argument we've had elsewhere, and my responses to that are in this thread: http://zeldadungeon.net/forum/showt...Opinion-on-What-Happened-in-Between-MM-and-TP

ZeldafreakCJM said:
Is it really that hard for people to believe that when the Timeline split, two Triforces were created in the two universes that correspond to each side of the timeline? I think that when Link came back from the Adult Timeline having already achieved the Triforce of Courage, the Triforce recognized this and split it's self. Either that or having the mark on the back of your hand doesn't mean anything....
It's not that there are two Triforces, per se, but rather that the Triforce exists twice in two separate realities, one where the Hero of Time defeated Ganondorf after he split the Triforce, and the other where Ganondorf's attack failed and he escaped. In each respective reality, the Triforce is in a different state.
On the AT, before the Hero of Time returns, the ToP is possessed by Ganondorf, the ToW is possessed by Zelda, and ToC is possessed by Link. Once Link returns to the past, the owner of the ToC no longer exists in that reality, so the ToC shatters into 8 pieces on the AT. On the CT, the Hero of Time returns with the full ToC that was formerly on the AT, and the Triforce splits on the CT; Ganondorf receives the ToP (as we learn in the execution scene in TP), but it is unknown whether or not Zelda yet has the ToW, but it certainly has not yet awakened. By the time of TP, TP Link receives the dormant ToC and Zelda receives the dormant ToW, but Ganondorf still has the active ToP.

Now, the "marks on the hand" certainly mean something; according to Sheik, they are the embodiment of a Triforce fragment, as shown in the quote below:

Sheik said:
The Triforce...the sacred triangle...
it is a balance that weighs the
three forces:
Power, Wisdom and Courage.

If the heart of the one who holds
the sacred triangle has all three
forces in balance, that one will
gain the True Force to govern all.
But, if that one's heart is not in
balance, the Triforce will separate
into three parts:
Power, Wisdom and Courage.
Only one part will remain for the
one who touched the Triforce...the
part representing the force that
one most believes in.
If that one seeks the True Force,
that one must acquire the two
lost parts.
Those two parts will be held
within others chosen by destiny,
who will bear the Triforce mark
on the backs of their hands.
 

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