Spoiler So, Wait… What?

[Fraxinus]

This concerns time paradoxes, mostly. I know it's been pointed out before that when you first visit the Sealed Temple, if you look through the crack between the two large doors, you are able to see the amber-colored crystal in which Zelda has sealed herself later in the game... but, if that is the case... --I'm going to restate some things about the event when she sealed herself, just to make sure I'm following this correctly.

Spoiler

When Ghirahim attacks Zelda at the Temple of Time, Impa sends her through the Gate of Time and then destroys it. So, Zelda and Impa are both in the past. While Impa is actually from the past, Zelda is not. She awaits Link, in the past, to activate the second Gate of Time in the present so he may meet up with her in the past. When Link arrives in the past, Zelda explains some "stuff" to him about her role, and then preserves herself in a crystal in the past. So it is visible in the present--even before Zelda was encountered at the Temple of Time.

Oh, but don't think that's the focus of this thread. There is already a thread about that paradox elsewhere, I believe. No, this thread is about why another paradox did not occur. About another event that happened in the past that should have had a lot of impact on the present: Demise's resurrection.

It actually bothers me that his return had no effect at all on the present. I mean, he initially was killed in the present by the Isle of the Goddess crashing down upon him, but if he is revived in the past--as Ghirahim well realized--that would create an alternate timeline that branches off the main one. A timeline split? Perhaps, I guess. I'd think that maybe the Gate of Time just keeps sending Link to the main timeline rather than the alternate one, but then that would not explain why the crystal Zelda was sealed in was visible before Link encountered that event.

--But, like, Demise created this alternate dimension waiting to battle Link. So, did he just chill there for the duration of the time between the past and the present, waiting for Link to face him? Like, what? If his goal to take over Hylia's Realm, then he's really dumb to sit there the entire time. There could have--and maybe even should have--been something like there was in Ocarina of Time with the difference of Hyrule within those mere seven years. I'm probably overlooking something just because... that seems to be something I tend to do, but... seriously. This has bothered me for a little while, but I looked more and more into it, and now it's raising more questions than answers. ;/ (Gah, time travel always makes things too complicated.)

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I tried my best to explain this, and it's hard to when I don't understand it myself, but... I'm pretty much venting a question in a sense. Discussion would definitely be great. So, like, nerm and stuff.

 

[Simpol]

If you Z-target Demise, then called Fi, she'll tell you that Demise has mastered time itself...whatever that means.
So that pocket dimension final battle arena may have been outside of time.

Also, you're forgetting that Link used the Triforce in the present time.
The Triforce is a reality-changer so that may mean that whatever happens in the past can't affect things in the present because the Triforce is "blocking" any changes to the time stream to conform to Link's wish.

But I think it's a mistake for us to apply real-world theoretical physics to a video game.
Nintendo clearly didn't care about the real-world science. They just wanted to drive the plot along however they wanted.

 

[Feral]

I believe this is like Schrödinger's cat. It did and didn't not happen and in many worlds.

 

[ZeldafreakCJM]

I haven't been on here in a while, but I'll explain SS's ending for you. Basically everything in Skyward Sword is a giant loop in time. Everything Link, Zelda, Hylia, and Ghirahim do in the past causes that present to happen. So when Link defeated Demise in the past, he sealed his consciousness in the Master Sword, the Imprisoned is everything that was left trying to reach the Master Sword to regain it's consciousness and become Demise again. And the Timeshift Stones work in such a way as that you aren't changing time but overwriting the future.

 

[Simpol]

So when Link defeated Demise in the past, he sealed his consciousness in the Master Sword, the Imprisoned is everything that was left trying to reach the Master Sword to regain it's consciousness and become Demise again.

That's fan speculation.

Hylia already knew that the Seal wasn't going to hold after she sealed Demise after her original battle with him. She said so herself during that cutscene with Zelda just after Link went through the Gate of Time.
That's why she implemented her two-part plan: for her to maintain the Seal's integrity in the past to slow down the Imprisoned getting out & to give her Chosen Hero time to find the Triforce to get rid of Demise for good.

Also, the Imprisoned did not change to Demise until it sucked down Hylia's energy force from Zelda.
There was nothing about the Imprisoned trying to reach the Master Sword, that's just poor theorizing.

 

[ZeldafreakCJM]

I'll admit there was a bit of theorizing in that original post of mine, but IMO it makes more sense then Demise being defeated in the past and there being a split in the timeline. Not only that but there being a split timeline flies in the face of the entire games story of how their actions in the past create and lead up to their actions in the present. Plus it was only stated that Demise needed Zelda's soul, it was never really explained why the imprisoned was trying so hard to reach the sealed temple. Also again IMO my theory (while still being a theory) explains why the game goes out of it's way to state that Demise was sealed and as to why Link would need to leave the Master Sword in the past and not just take it with him.