Spoiler The Dead Hero Tangent!!

[caleb11roy]

So I watched that video of the Zelda timeline that was posted today. (Found here--->GameTrailers Presents the Legend of Zelda Timeline)

I am very confused and surprised that Nintendo would do such a thing! Firstly the Fallen Hero Tangent is just a scapegoat Nintendo used to connect the games! Secondly, Where are Gorons in aLttP and why are the Zora's Evil. I mean Link saved them in the OoT! The Fact is that the first two Zelda titles were only experiments for the game designers to what people wanted in a video game. From there they were able to add some real details to their games. I discount The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: Link's Adventure as credible parts of the Zelda Timeline!

 

[Jirohnagi]

How can you discount them, they were released people consider them part of the timeline, they always have. The Fallen Hero tangent sound logical to me, i don't know why people like you who refuse to agree with the OFFICIAL timeline feel the need to discount games from their chronological order, the truth is if Link falls against Ganondorf/Ganon then obviously the hero dies, and with that the world is plunged into ruin. Hence the ruined timeline where each Zelda game thereafter looks like it is continuing in a downward spiral. What i find amusing is how everyone will calmly accept the Hero's Shade in TP is MM/OOT Link, who never found his way home. <--- this i would've thought would cause the most issues after all we see link being indomitable in every game as good as.

 

[caleb11roy]

You still never proved where the Gorons went or why the Zora's have turned against people! The first two zelda titles have no real merit on any of the games considering they are after them anyways (in the timeline) I don't doubt that MM and TP are connected! Beleive me, I love the Fallen Hero Tangent! It make aLttP much more connected than it had been before! I am simply stating facts! You can sit and argue about the timeline and what not, but the truth is that they are just video games and because the timeline has split into three different tangents just proves that Nintendo cares more about "Where we Are" in the Zelda Universe, instead of "When we Are." I love Zelda with all my Gamer heart! I will always joy in it's releases and wait patiently for the next! However, the fact remains that Zelda is just as it's name implies... A Legend!

 

[Locke]

While reading over "The Full History of Hyrule," it's possible that some parts may look contradictory. For instance, the Mogma race or the beetle item that appear on the very first story do not appear on any other game that takes place in the future. I'd like to ask everyone just to enjoy the book and to be broad-minded, and to think that those parts are the way they are because of the way Zelda games are developed.

-Hyrule Historia

Consider your concerns hand-waved.

 

[DarkestLink]

Having two universes and maybe putting TP before OoT would have made the timeline far more logical.

 

[Zorth]

The Fallen Hero tangent sound logical to me, i don't know why people like you who refuse to agree with the OFFICIAL timeline feel the need to discount games from their chronological order

Not to me, Truth is that Link defeats the bad guy in all of the games. That's why it sounds stupid to some people, Nintendo make a game.. Find out they have no clue where to put it in a timeline (which isn't even needed, who cares if the games aren't connected) so they tell us that if Link were to hypothetically die or fail to kill the bad guy then the events that took place in game XYZ will make sense. :?

the truth is if Link falls against Ganondorf/Ganon then obviously the hero dies, and with that the world is plunged into ruin

Yup, Except he never dies and never will die because in games like Zelda the hero always wins and the bad guy always dies. So yea it's true that Link in some parallel universe gets slaughtered by the bad guy and fails to bring back light so we get darkness ruling the world, After that epic fail the games that don't fit in any other timeline start making sense. But to me this is just a pointless thing to say because;

1. It never has and never will happen.

2. It's really not that big of a deal to have all the games connected in some way. Why not just make a game where the story just doesn't fit anywhere and we have something COMPLETELY new?

 

[PAPezoneJr]

I really think everyone is mis-interpreting what is known as "the fallen hero" time line. I agree, if Nintendo just said oh yeah, the player character dies so a new time line spawned, you'd have at least two new timelines for every single Zelda game out there. That is not what I think is going on. Lets start with motive. The seven sages decided that Link would be sealed away/time travel forward seven years into the future to face Ganondorf. From the sages and Zelda's perspective, seven years occurred where there was no hero, and Ganondorf was free to take over Hyrule. Why did they do this? The easy answer is, so adult Link could challenge Ganondorf. Okay, well if you were going to let him take over in the first place, and you were willing to go through the seven years with him in rule, well why seal Link? Wouldn't Link have grown up anyways? Couldn't the sages just tell Link, hey, go train for seven years and then go take him on? But the purposefully did not do this, they chose to seal him. Why? Here's my theory. After pulling out the Master Sword, Link, as a child, challenged Ganondorf and lost. This makes sense to the complete timeline as well. Ganondorf beats Link as a child, obtains the Triforce of Courage. With no hero to save her, Ganondorf eventually gets ahold of Zelda, obtains Triforce of Wisdom. He now has the complete triforce, the sealing war happens as explained in 'A Link to the Past' and would explain why, in that game, Ganondorf already has the complete triforce. That is the only situation in which he would have it. (unless something in between that was unexplained happened). My guess is that the sages, before the sealing war happened, uncertain that they would be able to seal him away, came up with a Plan B. Lets go back in time, and prevent the hero of time from fighting Ganondorf until he is old enough. We when he pulls the master sword out and the gate of time is once again opened, we will use our abilities to seal him in the sacred realm for seven years. There would have been absolutely ZERO reason for them to have to protect him unless they knew he would fail. Hind sight is 20/20 after-all. Thoughts on this near flawless theory?

 

[Locke]

I agree, if Nintendo just said oh yeah, the player character dies so a new time line spawned

That's exactly what they said. Well, not quite. They didn't say that a new timeline was created because Link died, they simply said that Link died on that timeline. The creation of the timeline was left ambiguous, aside from the graphic at the beginning of the section. Disregarding quantum theories of the multiverse (under which comes the argument that there are an infinite number of timelines spawning from Link dying at different parts of the games, or turning left instead of right, or a rain drop striking his nose a picosecond sooner or later), the conclusion that I came to is that there are two parallel universes which are identical up until that point. On one, he defeats Ganondorf; on the other, he dies.

The seven sages decided that Link would be sealed away/time travel forward seven years into the future to face Ganondorf. From the sages and Zelda's perspective, seven years occurred where there was no hero, and Ganondorf was free to take over Hyrule. Why did they do this? The easy answer is, so adult Link could challenge Ganondorf. Okay, well if you were going to let him take over in the first place, and you were willing to go through the seven years with him in rule, well why seal Link? Wouldn't Link have grown up anyways? Couldn't the sages just tell Link, hey, go train for seven years and then go take him on? But the purposefully did not do this, they chose to seal him. Why?

The Sages didn't choose to seal him; he was sealed by the force of the prophecy of the Hero of Time. Evidently prophecies actually have mystical power over the future in this universe. The Sages also didn't choose to let Ganondorf come to power. It was Zelda's plan of beating Ganondorf to the Triforce that ultimately led to the unexpected disaster of allowing him into the Sacred Realm.

Here's my theory. After pulling out the Master Sword, Link, as a child, challenged Ganondorf and lost. [...] Plan B. Lets go back in time, and prevent the hero of time from fighting Ganondorf until he is old enough. We when he pulls the master sword out and the gate of time is once again opened, we will use our abilities to seal him in the sacred realm for seven years.

Again, the Sages credit the Master Sword as the source of the seal. Also, keep in mind that Ganondorf likely killed the original Sages besides Rauru, and Link would have to awaken new ones.

Oh, and the section describing Link being defeated by Ganondorf appears next the sidebar labeled "The Era of the Hero of Time (Adult Era)", so it happens while Link is an adult.

 

[Time]

While I Like your interpretation, and I agree that official is official. I, as well as many others think it to be far more logical to place the events on the third timeline on the second timeline after Twilight Princess. The official Time Line is almost exactly the same as the timeline that I had constructed myself, however they created the third split, as well as some other miniscule differences. The point is the Fallen Hero branch is not necessarily needed to explain the events of the chronology. Instead of Ganon being killed in TP I had always assumed that his human form had been killed and that he was returned under the seal since he hadn't completely broken away from the seal yet, due to his connection to Zant. Also is it not equally possible, also much more probable that Link fell in the Final Battle and Ganon killed Zelda taking her piece in his frenzied beast state thus explaining his beast form in ALTTP.

 

[RegalBryant]

There's no logical explanation for why that timeline exists. Besides simply the Parallel universes theory, which means they might as well split off of every single game.

 

[felipe970421]

It may be a "what-if", it may be quantum multiverse, it may be a convulted explanation, the fact is this

When they made AlttP, the backstory said something, when they made OoT as a prequel, the ending conflicted with the established canon, but they didn't give this much thought, ten then made a sequel to OoT that conflicted with AlttP(MM), a sequel to AlttP (OoX), another sequel to OoT that once again conflicted with AlttP, but not with MM (WW), a standalone game (FS), a sequel and a prequel to that game (MC and FSA), a sequel to OoT that didn't really reference MM but didn't conflict with it (TP), 2 sequels to WW (PH and ST), and lastly one prequel to all (SS)

So at first they had this
Edit: Damn, forgot about LA, it is just an extra sequel to AlttP

Spoiler

AlttP -> LoZ -> AoL

Then they had this

Spoiler

OoT -> AlttP -> LoZ -> AoL
But OoT and AlttP contradict

Then they pushed what they had to the corner

Spoiler

OoT -> MM

AlttP's backstory can go F himself

Suddenly, timeline splits

Spoiler

....../WW
OoT
......\MM

[OoT should go here] -> AlttP -> OoX -> LoZ -> AoL

They had 3 sequels to OoT, but one contradicted, then they said screw it, we are making 3 unrelated games

Spoiler

....../WW
OoT
......\MM

AlttP -> OoX -> LoZ -> AoL

MC -> FS -> FSA

Then they returned to the "good" timeline

Spoiler

....../WW -> PH -> ST
OoT
......\MM -> TP

And left the other two alone for while,but suddenly, PREQUEL TIME!

Spoiler

............./WW -> PH -> ST
SS-> OoT
.............\MM -> TP

But they wanted a single neat timeline, so they said, "OK, we can put the FS stuff before OoT" and some one suggested FSA after TP, they discussed the idea, and liked it, said it was a different Ganon, and there they

Spoiler

.............................../WW -> PH -> ST
SS-> MC -> FS -> OoT
...............................\MM -> TP -> FSA

"But what do we do with AlttP and the others? OoT is the prequel, but that makes no sense! Who designed that?", said one of them.

"What if we say the hero failed on OoT? It gets close enough to AlttP's backstory" said someone else

They discussed, disagreed, then they agreed and then ate cake to celebrate

Spoiler

.............................../WW -> PH -> ST
SS-> MC -> FS -> OoT
...........................\...\MM -> TP -> FSA
............................\
.............................\"what if the hero fails?"
..............................\
............................[OoT in which hero dies] -> AlttP -> OoX -> LoZ -> AoL

And thus, the official timeline, some liberties were taken by Nintendo, but in the end t all makes sense

 

[bspurka]

The zora's in the downfall timeline are different zoras from the child timeline and the main timeline.

 

[snakeoiltanker]

This is all a lil too much to take it, i agree SS is the beggining, and i always thought that ALttP was after OoT due to gannon being sealed away already. but didnt understand why the Zora's were always trying to kill you. Not to mention, all the enemies from the Dark World have really never seen the light of day since that game minus like 5 of em. breaking this down into 3 separate timelines however is just dumb to me though. oh well sooner or later this will all be figured out, or we will simply realize that all they games are their own story, with the acception of MM, OoX, and the WW trilogy!

If you ask me SS threw a wrench in all the gears by presenting the possibility of a Timeline that untill then, i had never even thought about!

 

[felipe970421]

This is all a lil too much to take it, i agree SS is the beggining, and i always thought that ALttP was after OoT due to gannon being sealed away already. but didnt understand why the Zora's were always trying to kill you. Not to mention, all the enemies from the Dark World have really never seen the light of day since that game minus like 5 of em. breaking this down into 3 separate timelines however is just dumb to me though. oh well sooner or later this will all be figured out, or we will simply realize that all they games are their own story, with the acception of MM, OoX, and the WW trilogy!

If you ask me SS threw a wrench in all the gears by presenting the possibility of a Timeline that untill then, i had never even thought about!

It wasn't SS, it was Hyrule Historia, there was always a timeline, the thing is that it was a loose one, the FS trilogy probably was never intended to be part of the main timeline, and AlttP simply contradicted its prequel

There are direct references to events of OoT in both TP and WW, almost all the timelines before HH were a variation of

....../MM -> TP
OoT
......\WW -> PH -> ST

With the FS-series and Downfall timeline thrown where they fit

 

[snakeoiltanker]

agreed, i still wish we could all figure it out, and discrediting a game seems un-fair, but as a true franchise fan, what are we to do. if we want the storyline to make sence, and be a normal one way time line, we are gonna have to throw out games. Oh and the contradiction about ALttP and OoT was figured out in a recent article writtin on this very site, so its not really that big a deal. there is a differents in the zoras in ALttP and OoT. the ones in OoT were Sea Zora, a humanoid tribe. Whereas the one from ALttP we concidered River Zora, which were monsters that tried to kill you. they were only defending their territory, where as King Zora was the only "friendly" one of the bunch. so i figured that out, but the zora werent the only ones was it, what was the other.... oh the gorons were missing..... i cant explain that one, but i think ive made a case for the zoras, so it doesnt really contradict as much as we thought

heres a link so you know what im talking about: The Division Between Tribes and Monsters

its about a quarter of the was through the article and then again mentioned on down near the classic picture of the river zora from ALttP