Opinion: Tears Of The Kingdom was more damaging to Zelda theorycrafting than the timeline was

[Mikey the Moblin]

The official timeline was published in Hyrule Historia, and while some still debate the canonicity of that source, it's safe to say the majority of Zelda theorycrafters base their theories off that timeline and generally try to make their theories work within that context. Before the official timeline was released, much of the ongoing theorycrafting was about timelines and timeline branches and alternate dimensions and which links are related to each other. After the official release, theorycrafting stalled out somewhat as the main talking point had, to most people, been resolved by a higher authority. While Zelda theory on this website has made somewhat of a resurgence, it's still pretty accurate to say that many people who used to talk about Zelda theory before the timeline release no longer do so.

After Tears of the Kingdom came out, I had so many questions. It felt to me that Tears had so many answers buried just under the surface that I couldn't solve because I'm an inexperienced lore gamer. I started a bunch of conversations about lore elements in Tears only to eventually realize that the reason the lore in Tears felt inaccessible to me was because it simply wasn't there. None of the answers to questions about Tears of the Kingdom had any bearing on the rest of the series. None of the questions from the rest of the series were answered in Tears of the Kingdom. In other words, Tears of the Kingdom fractured Zelda theorycrafting into the old and the new, and the two proved incompatible.

Do the facts echo this sentiment? Do you echo this sentiment? Do you have hope that Echoes of Wisdom will put us back on track with ties to earlier entries, or will it feel as isolated and disconnected as Tears of the Kingdom did?

 

[King Link]

I agree and disagree with your statement because TOTK has great potential for fan theories but that is all they are fan theories because there is no solid proof or building ground for TOTK theories.

 

[Daku Rinku]

Lets be honest The Zonai is just Chariots of the Gods by Daniken and makes me think of the echo of Daniken, “Cuz of Aliens!” Guy on the History Channel. It cheapens the mythology and lore that the Hylians, Gerudo, Gorons, Zora, and etc to have some super/advanced race behind their founding. I was fine with the Golden Goddesses being creators, but the civilizations and cultures rose up organically, and were not high tech but magic based and Medieval. Sigh..

Having some hi tech time traveling race feels like something J. J. Abrams invented.

So yes I agree it damages the timeline. Frankly I think time travel needed to end with The Hero of Time. Too many time traveling events makes a coherent timeline neigh impossible.