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- Jan 23, 2018
"The Continuation Timeline" - A Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Timeline Theory
Written by: NoSkinnedKoopa
Table of Contents
Main TheoryWritten by: NoSkinnedKoopa
Table of Contents
I. Introduction, Hypothesis, and Giving Credit - Preface
Hello everyone, today I would like to propose my theory for a new Legend of Zelda timeline that contains Breath of the Wild. My hypothesis is Breath of the Wild takes place in a new alternate timeline after Ocarina of Time. This supposed new timeline is an alteration of the Adult Timeline, the Continuation Timeline. Credit to Youtuber HMK for the original idea, as I have expanded further upon it in my own direction. (Note he made a video on the theory before the game came out and he stands with the game falling in the Child Timeline currently) I hope you enjoy and read everything, this theory is very long. (Some parts of this theory could even stand by themselves as mini theories!) Here is an image of the new timeline I theorize:
II. The Creation of the Continuation Timeline
For those who haven't seen HMK's video:
The original timeline split in Ocarina of Time is created after the final boss fight when Zelda sends Link back in time to live his childhood, creating two timelines with Link as a kid without the 7 year slumber (leads to Majora's Mask), which causes Zelda after sending Link back to rebuild Hyrule by herself and prolonging the incarnation of another Hero (leads to Wind Waker). What if this NEVER happened?
Imagine Link right after the final boss fight of Ocarina of Time DECLINING Zelda's offer to re-live his childhood. This would eradicate timeline split of Child and Adult, leaving the Zelda timeline still unified. Link would now be living within an alternate Adult Timeline changing its events because of his stay. The Hero of Time has a new fate and role in this timeline, the Continuation Timeline.
III. Hero of Time's New Fate as it Differs from Other Timelines
Now living in this alternate timeline, the Hero of Time remains an adult and will create his bloodline, different from his fate in the other timelines. We can see the Hero of Time does care about his legacy and descendants, as he was confirmed to be the influential Hero's Shade in Twilight Princess. So now in this timeline, the Hero of Time will have a lineage, continuing to his descendant - the Hero of the Wild. (This topic continues and has evidence in Section 7)
IV. Post Ocarina of Time and the Sheikah's Technological Advancement
With the Hero of Time creating his own lineage after Ocarina of Time, a new era begins. The Sheikah is now respected and regrown, with them receiving much support from the Hero of Time. (We can even see their technology present in the original Adult Timeline in the Wind Waker with the design of the exterior of the Tower of the Gods, so surely in THIS timeline the technology will be a lot more prominent without the Flood - see Section 6 for more on this) The Sheikah then pursue their technological revolution, and the Hero of Time and/or his descendants are prepared for the unexpected return of Ganon.
V. The Unknown Game and/or Era, Ganon's Return, and Going into the 10,000 Year Gap
Now this where things get interesting and very theoretical. In the Wind Waker's prologue, Ganon emerges and there is no Hero, thus Hyrule is flooded by the gods. However, in this timeline, the situation is different. Now, this timeline is similar to the Adult Timeline with the exception of the Hero of Time(his lineage) and his influence being present. This is the difference of Wind Waker and Breath of the Wild. So I am saying when Ganon returned in the Wind Waker, it most likely was the form of Calamity Ganon. Difference now, everyone is ready to face Ganon, now Calamity Ganon, with a Hero(es) and the highly advanced Sheikah technology. This is the 10,000 year prologue to Breath of the Wild. We do not know how long the first known showdown with Calamity Ganon was, or how it led up, and what happened after, so I call this the Unknown Era, the empty slot between Ocarina of Time and Breath of the Wild in this new timeline.
The Unknown Era could simply be a story that we learn about in a Legend of Zelda textbook or a *new* game being the prequel to Breath of the Wild. I'm going with a prequel game. I believe this prequel will basically confirm my theory to be true, along with giving us a solid story on the four ORIGINAL champions that piloted the Divine Beasts, Ganondorf's return (since he returned in the Wind Waker), how the Link of that time became a hero, and how everyone utilized advanced Sheikah technology to stop Ganon. If you think about, this could make a pretty good Zelda game. I also predict in the trailer for this game, Nintendo will be sneaky and not reveal the game as the prequel right away, heck, Calamity Ganon won't even be called Calamity Ganon to create confusion until the game releases. I'll probably write a separate prediction altogether of the game's story and game mechanics and such. (A bit more on this topic in Sections 7, 8, and 9) Sidenote: Events that happened in other timelines could also happen in my timeline but in different ways. Such as: Another Twilight Invasion in my theorized timeline since the Mirror of Twilight was not broken (yet) in my alternate Adult Timeline, giving the opportunity for either Ganondorf, Calamity Ganon, or some other evil entity to take advantage of it. (More on this in Section 9)
VI. Breath of the Wild's Era Parallel to the Wind Waker's Era
I have previously stated how Breath of the Wild (along with its assumed prequel and 10,000 year gap) relates to the Wind Waker, as I believe they are parallel games and pretty much close in time period to each other in their timelines. I am going to dive a lot more into this. First off, I already have explained how Calamity Ganon IS the Ganon from the Wind Waker prologue (refer back to Section 5 if needed). Now let's look at races, characters, and locations.
Firstly, the race of the Koroks/Kokiri. We can see from the Wind Waker that the Koroks evolved from the Kokiri (OoT) because of the flood and the effect of water flushing out their home. Though, I think there is more to this - isolation from society. Because of many years of isolation, the Kokiri could have been turned into Koroks as human forms are no longer needed (it is argued that the Korok form is the original form of the Kokiri), which is why this could be the case in Breath of the Wild. In Breath of the Wild and the Wind Waker, most Koroks seem to be shy and prefer isolation, as they do not need to and do not wish to interact with other people (notice how no one in both games knows about them other than Link, Zelda, and some others). And in Ocarina of Time, the Kokiri are not intimidated at all when they see Adult Link, the human form of the Kokiri/Korok is not isolated from society, as they have probably seen other humans before.
Now, the races of the Rito. First off, if you carefully watch the final memory cutscene of the Champions' Ballad DLC in Breath of the Wild, you can see the symbol of the Rito is a bird, not three circles like what the Zora have. Also, in the Wind Waker, Medli wore this "three circle" symbol on her clothes.
So in this separate timeline, what does that mean? I theorize, before/in the 10,000 year gap of Breath of the Wild, the Rito looked like their Wind Waker forms (part bird, part human). This helps explain the era of the Wind Waker in the Adult Timeline and the era before the 10,000 year gap in my assumed timeline to be parallel. So in 10,000 years, the part bird/human Rito would evolve into the full bird Rito from Breath of the Wild. But if the Rito originally evolved from the Zora regardless of timeline, how do we see them coexist with each other in Breath of the Wild?
The Zora's existence in relation to Breath of the Wild is a mystery among Zelda fans because of the Rito evolution. Though, I do believe they CAN coexist with each other. We know in the Adult Timeline the scales of Valoo helped the Zora grow wings to become the Rito in the Wind Waker, so I theorize Valoo still exists even WITHOUT the flood in my assumed timeline. In my predicted prequel/the Unknown Era between Ocarina of Time and pre-Breath of the Wild, I believe it will tell the story of how two Zora races separated due to first known war/encounter with Calamity Ganon and other story reasons. Valoo (or some alternate form of him) would help one side of Zora become Rito, and the other side of Zora would stay true to their beliefs to prosper, and become fruitful to create rare genetics such as Zoras changing color as well as evolving into their new look would later see in Breath of the Wild.
Let's now take a look at the Goron and Gerudo tribes. These tribes are a lot more simple to explain. Both tribes were taken out and/or fled because of the flood in Wind Waker from the Adult Timeline. However, in this case with my theorized timeline, this is not the case since there is no flood and the races are safe. Speaking of the Gerudo, however, there is Ganondorf. Ganondorf is present within the Wind Waker, but not in Breath of the Wild. That is because he is in my predicted prequel game (refer back to Section 5 if needed), other than Calamity Ganon, Ganondorf also appears a boss and you defeat him. Thus, Ganondorf is defeated within the first encounter with Calamity Ganon in the prequel game/Unknown Era right before the 10,000 year gap before Breath of the Wild.
Lastly, there is the Tower of the Gods. This location, I truly think regardless of whether my ENTIRE theory is true or not, has a definite connection to Breath of the Wild. I am very confident in this. Look at the design of the exterior of the Tower of the Gods.
Those lines and circles resemble an almost identical design to all the Sheikah technology in Breath of the Wild. Even the boss of the Tower of the Gods was mechanical, and was MADE specifically to test Link. In the Adult Timeline, the Sheikah must have made this tower for an emergency, either them knowing Hyrule's fate or them investing all their prowess in this tower for the future Hero since they probably didn't have time to build shrines, Divine Beasts, etc. because there was no Hero at the time of Ganon's return which caused fear among the people! HOWEVER, in my presumed timeline, there was a Hero. I'm assuming the Hero of Time's Lineage gave the Sheikah more confidence to focus more on their technological prowess to develop shrines, Divine Beasts, Guardians, etc.
Evidence Directly from Breath of the Wild
VII. Zelda Mentioning Link's Family Lineage (Minor Evidence)
In Breath of the Wild itself, we can find a lot of evidence to support the things I have stated above. In this section, I am starting off with a bit of evidence towards the Hero of Time's Lineage in Breath of the Wild. In Memory #11, Zelda compares Link's skills to mirror that of his father's. I believe this contributes to my theory of the Hero of Time's bloodline. We see this in Twilight Princess with the Hero's Shade being the Hero of Twilight's ancestor. The Hero of Time in the Child Timeline became a knight after the events of Majora's Mask, but assumingly died in a battle due to his damaged armor and loss of an eye presented in his form as the Hero's Shade. So in this timeline, that would also be the case because of the lineage also taking a vow to knighthood just like in the Child Timeline.
VIII. The Zora Stone Monuments and Princess Ruto (MAJOR Evidence)
In Breath of the Wild, stories and events from the previous timelines have been turned into myths and legends, since the game takes place so far in the future. Though one story remains a little more legitimate due to it being written down on the Zora Stone Monuments and referenced by Mipha in her diary. That is, the story of Princess Ruto. Other than a brief mention of Nabooru and Ganon being a human of the desert by Urbosa, Princess Ruto is the only character from another game that had a backstory written down along with also being referenced by one of the main characters. The backstory tells us about Ruto awakening as a SAGE, which does point to the Adult Timeline (more specifically, my alternate version of it, since Zora seem to not be present in Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass, or Spirit Tracks, along with the other reasons I presented). Another interesting quote from The History of the Zora Part 5: "Her achievements are remembered not only by the Zora, they are also FOREVER etched in the history of Hyrule." That quote is indeed from Breath of the Wild itself. This game recalls characters from Ocarina of Time and it also confirmed by Anomua that the game takes place after Ocarina of Time. If Breath of the Wild were to take place in the Downfall, Child, or Adult Timelines, there should be at least one story from those games "etched" in the history of Hyrule that are solidly in the game, outside of DLC journals and what Zelda said in Memory #1. (More on that in Section 9).
Final Theory-Related Points
IX. Arguing Against DLC Item, Location, and Memory #1 "Confirmations" with a Side Theory Supporting my Main Theory (Important Point)
Many people are placing Breath of the Wild in the Downfall, Child, or Adult timelines because the of the descriptions for DLC and/or Locations in the game. Zelda's words from Memory #1 mention "whether skyward bound, adrift in time, or steeped in the glowing embers of twilight", are also making people assume the Child Timeline. I'm here to say that doesn't limit any timeline placement. The Dark Intelopers that would later become the Twili were sealed away early in the timeline after Skyward Sword when the timeline was STILL unified. That means the Twili/Dark Intelopers exist in any alternate reality after Ocarina of Time. So it's possible for Nintendo to make a game revolving around another Twilight Invasion in any other of the timelines. Who's to say also just because Link never met Linebeck in any of the other timelines, that he doesn't exist? What I'm trying to get at is some of the events from other Zelda games could happen in timelines other than their original. So regardless of my theory, maybe Breath of the Wild doesn't take place as the re-unification of the timelines, but in a new timeline in which ALL of those events happened subsequently, one after the other. And that my friends, now to support my belief, can happen in my theorized timeline.
Off Topic Sidenote worth mentioning: Anomua's references to Twilight Princess during the production of Breath of the Wild were simply to market Twilight Princess HD
X. Calamity Ganon's "Multiple" Appearances Does Not Limit this Theory
One of the possible issues that could arise with my theory is the "multiple" encounters with Ganon prior to Breath of the Wild. With my theory, there is only two or three - three encounters with Ganon as a whole (Ocarina of Time, 10,000 Year Prologue to BotW and/or my predicted prequel game to that, and the return of Calamity Ganon 100 years before you play in BotW) and two encounters with just Calamity Ganon (10,000 Year Prologue/Prequel to BotW and 100 years before you play). I have a few answers for this. One, Calamity Ganon could have appeared in other forms than his big pig-dragon form we see in Breath of the Wild and appeared multiple times in one set, short time period in eras/games such as my predicted prequel game, during the 10,000 year gap, before the predicted prequel/right after Ocarina of Time, or maybe even before Ocarina of Time - (That one is kind of a stretch, but Nintendo could do whatever the heck they want). Two, the encounters with Vaati, Ganon, and other big demons that could exist with future Unified Timeline games COUNT as incarnations of Demise that also count as "Calamity Ganon" appearances. Three, maybe the one encounter with Ganondorf to Ganon in Ocarina of Time and two Calamity Ganon appearances before and after the 10,000 year gap are ENOUGH for him to be considered to appear "time and time again."
XI. Where does Nintendo go After Going "The Farthest into the Future" with Zelda?
Finally, where do you go once you've gone the farthest in the future? Breath of the Wild was confirmed to take place after Ocarina of Time and be the farthest Zelda game into the future, we all know that. But now, as Nintendo prepares for the next Zelda game where do they go? Well in the Champions' Ballad DLC, we went backwards with new cutscenes on how Revali, Daruk, Mipha, and Urbosa became Champions. I have a small assumption Nintendo is going backwards in timeline after Breath of the Wild. The game is just so far in the future, they might as pull a Skyward Sword and tell us HOW the events of Breath of the Wild came to be. (Without going as far back as Skyward Sword, obviously) And to explain that, how about a prequel game?
Thank you all so much for reading and please comment your thoughts, opinions, and questions on this theory. I might actually make a YouTube video explaining it. Expect more theories and predictions soon!
