I'm not going to deal with all Zelda games, but just 2 in general. When trying to fit in all the Zelda games into this theory, it would make things too complicated. With any problem, the best way to solve it is to do it in small steps, and use what you know!
In Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. There are a few known's.
1. Link travels through time multiple times in both games.
2. Link disappears from traditional Hyrule in Majora's mask.
If you ever watch the movie Back to the Future it mentions the idea of paradoxes being introduced in time travel. These paradoxes created tangent time lines. In simple, there were different outcomes in the future based of changes in the past.
For those who haven't seen the movies. In the movie, Marty McFly and Dr. Brown have a time machine they're able to travel.
In the first movie, Marty goes back to the past. There he meddles with his parents' lives. His meddling lead to him almost disappearing because his mom was starting to fall in love with him, rather then his father. Marty was able to fix this and when he went back to his own time, his family life completely changed.
Without going into a whole detail about the movie, my final point is when you go back and meddle, you change the world. The same can be applied to Zelda. When Link goes back in time, he alters Hyrule. The main reason for this is to stop Ganon, but things change.
This image is to help explain my theory.
Time Line A
This time line is Hyrule with Link getting the stones, and being sealed in the chamber for 7 years. Then Link doesn't fight Ganon, and Hyrule goes on living bad life. This is also the time line where he doesn't alter Nabooru's life.
Then the arrowed line is Link going back in time. For this theory, I assume he goes back in time only once. He has to do this to get the gauntlets.
Time Line B
This is the final time line in Ocarina of Time. Link alters Nabooru's life and defeats Ganon. Hyrule lives in peace from there, but Link doesn't! No, he has to go back in time again. So much for Link getting all the ladies for being a hero!
Time Line C
This is where Link lives in Termina saving their hide too. We all know that story. I want to make a special not to the red dot. In Termina, Link has to go back in time multiple times due to the 3 day. I didn't care to make more time lines, because it would make the image more confusing.
We can be at ease, because for every tangent time line Link creates, they all end by the moon crashing and creating chaos, except 1. That is the final time line where Link saves Termina and is able to live the day. Since he didn't go back in time again, or as we know. I left this as the final time line.
Conclusion
My final point is, Link creates multiple time lines in these two games. Each continue on with their own life. Since we only know the story of Link, we aren't totally informed about the other time lines.
Essentially, we have at least three tangential time lines which future Zelda games can be made based from. I can't really say which time line Twilight Princess or Wind Waker come from, but I can say that they can both exist on their own time line. This would keep the story in Wind Waker true about the two encounters of Ganon. In the 2nd encounter of Ganon, there was no Hero and Hyrule Flood.
Any comments or questions?
In Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. There are a few known's.
1. Link travels through time multiple times in both games.
2. Link disappears from traditional Hyrule in Majora's mask.
If you ever watch the movie Back to the Future it mentions the idea of paradoxes being introduced in time travel. These paradoxes created tangent time lines. In simple, there were different outcomes in the future based of changes in the past.
For those who haven't seen the movies. In the movie, Marty McFly and Dr. Brown have a time machine they're able to travel.
![backtothefuturez.jpg](http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/9631/backtothefuturez.jpg)
In the first movie, Marty goes back to the past. There he meddles with his parents' lives. His meddling lead to him almost disappearing because his mom was starting to fall in love with him, rather then his father. Marty was able to fix this and when he went back to his own time, his family life completely changed.
Without going into a whole detail about the movie, my final point is when you go back and meddle, you change the world. The same can be applied to Zelda. When Link goes back in time, he alters Hyrule. The main reason for this is to stop Ganon, but things change.
![paradoxes.jpg](http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/9087/paradoxes.jpg)
This image is to help explain my theory.
Time Line A
This time line is Hyrule with Link getting the stones, and being sealed in the chamber for 7 years. Then Link doesn't fight Ganon, and Hyrule goes on living bad life. This is also the time line where he doesn't alter Nabooru's life.
Then the arrowed line is Link going back in time. For this theory, I assume he goes back in time only once. He has to do this to get the gauntlets.
Time Line B
This is the final time line in Ocarina of Time. Link alters Nabooru's life and defeats Ganon. Hyrule lives in peace from there, but Link doesn't! No, he has to go back in time again. So much for Link getting all the ladies for being a hero!
Time Line C
This is where Link lives in Termina saving their hide too. We all know that story. I want to make a special not to the red dot. In Termina, Link has to go back in time multiple times due to the 3 day. I didn't care to make more time lines, because it would make the image more confusing.
We can be at ease, because for every tangent time line Link creates, they all end by the moon crashing and creating chaos, except 1. That is the final time line where Link saves Termina and is able to live the day. Since he didn't go back in time again, or as we know. I left this as the final time line.
Conclusion
My final point is, Link creates multiple time lines in these two games. Each continue on with their own life. Since we only know the story of Link, we aren't totally informed about the other time lines.
Essentially, we have at least three tangential time lines which future Zelda games can be made based from. I can't really say which time line Twilight Princess or Wind Waker come from, but I can say that they can both exist on their own time line. This would keep the story in Wind Waker true about the two encounters of Ganon. In the 2nd encounter of Ganon, there was no Hero and Hyrule Flood.
Any comments or questions?