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Spoiler The timeline intended by the developers of the series?

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1. Does this really make a difference? Who even knows what Ganon wished for. And ALttP also mentions the thing about the Dark World reflecting his heart.
2. Fair enough.
3. Ignoring this doesn't bother me too much. The fact is the sages sealed the Sacred Realm, whether it was by the king's order or not.
4. There was probably a pretty big battle when Ganon took over Castle town. Although I don't know how he did this, perhaps the Triforce granted him an army. But clearly the Hyrulean army was pretty much destroyed as mentioned in ALttP.
5. He doesn't have to be trapped in the Dark World to send his army. And why wouldn't he be able to enter the Light World? This could only be the case if there's already some sort of seal containing him, like the one the sages place in the Downfall ending of OoT.
6. This has always been an issue with ALttP's prologue, and was retconned out in the GBA version.
7. I'm not sure what you mean here. He already has the full Triforce in the Downfall ending.
8 and 9. True, but again not essential to the story.

I admit ALttP's backstory fits much better with the Imprisoning War happening many years after OoT as it does in Historia. But it's still true that the Downfall ending of OoT puts everything in place perfectly for the in-game events of ALttP, which I consider more important than the backstory.

But even accepting that OoT isn't the Imprisoning War, it sets up the Imprisoning War too well to justify assuming so much that's not supported by any of the games. Nowhere does it say Ganon's followers revived him after TP, or that he existed before OoT. Of course, HH also makes assumptions like a new Ganondorf in FSA, but from what I know of FSA's story, that seems to be the only possible choice. I mean, it shows him turn into beast Ganon, but without getting the Triforce? Yet somehow the Dark World already exists? And then he gets sealed in the Four Sword, which is never again mentioned in the series. The whole game seems like a nightmare for the timeline.

The Downfall Timeline definitely wasn't consistent with developer intentions at the time, but I feel like they probably accept it to make space for all the older games, because they never followed from OoT as well as WW or TP did.
The Gang of Thieves reviving him is more speculation, yes. But Ganondorf in Four Swords Adventures turning to Ganon was because of the Malicious Trident of Demon Tribe! It was used by the last King of Darkness and Zelda recognized him as that King reborn because of that Trident. The Dark World in FSA has assets from ALttP but its WAY different! It's not the corrupted Sacred Realm. FSA actually in my book sets it better up than OoT. But this is not for my fan Timeline but a speculated developers Timeline. Ganon's wish was confirmed by the essence of the Triforce. It said that he wished to rule the lands and that had turned the Sacred Realm to the Dark World! The same fate nearly happened to Hyrule as we hear per the Dark Clouds and the chaos in the Imprisoning War. Where did you get the idea of the Thieves being retconned? They ALWAYS were part of this story! Until well... the books.
 
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Spiritual Mask Salesman

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Just like NoA (while yes, the book Timeline is also in NoJ) had put the "Same Link" Timeline on a website. Again, interviews which AREN'T the infamous Miyamoto order seem more accurate for a speculative "developers placement".
Creation of Hyrule>Ancient Battle against Demise and his evil horde of demons>Skyward Sword>establishment of Hyrule Kingdom>The Hero of Men seals away an evil horde with the picori blade>The Minish Cap>Interloper War>Construction of the Temple of Time>Vaati resurrects and kidnaps town girls, he's sealed with the Four Sword by a Hero>Four Swords>Ganondorf, a lone male gerudo steals the Trident of the Demon Tribe>Four Swords Adventures>Twinrova free Ganon from his seal and he adopts the form of a Gerudo again, Twinrova change the rules to make him the King of the Gerudo>Fierce War>Ocarina of Time*
The chronology you have here is fine, up until you get to Four Swords Adventures being a sequel to Four Swords and happening before OoT - this doesn't make sense. OoT was always supposed to be the first appearence of Ganondorf, and meant to show us his first transformation into Ganon. You theory on Twinrova is a massive stretch, but very convenient for you interpretation, sadly, it doesn't line up with a "developer timeline", if that's what you are shooting for. It's generally held that the developers always intended FSA to be after OoT, and perhaps after A Link to the Past considering there was a version of FSA with A Link to the Past bundled along with it. Also, iirc FSA started out as sequel to ALttP or perhaps a prequel to it during development, but it definitely isn't before OoT.

Link returns to his childhood and warns Zelda and the King about Ganondorf's evil plans>Majora's Mask>The Hero prepares for Ganondorf's future attack but one day dies awfully>Ganondorf is tried to be executed, but it fails and he's sent in the Twilight Realm instead>Twilight Princess>Centuries later, Ganondorf is revived by a gang of thieves, his followers even had prepared his trident, they go inside the Sacred Realm but he slaughters them all>the Imprisoning War>A Link to the Past>Link journeys away from Hyrule to train for a next big threat>Link's Awakening>Ganon is resurrected but he's sealed away>A Link Between Worlds>Triforce Heroes>Twinrova plan to resurrect Ganon again>Oracle of Seasons and Ages>The Tragedy of Zelda I>Ganon is resurrected, this time not as a mindless beast and he steals the Triforce of Power, he Imprisoned Zelda after hearing she spit the Triforce of Wisdom, Impa tells a young traveler named Link the whole story>The Legend of Zelda>The Adventure of Link>Ganon adapts his Gerudo form yet again after he's resurrected but is sealed afterwards, he with his hatred creates an off-shoot named Calamity Ganon. That'd terrorize Hyrule every 10.000 years>Breath of the Wild>It's sequel
Lol I just saw you mentioned you got inspired by this from LoruleHistorian. I agree with him on some things, but there are a lot of his theories that I don't agree with. Anyway, ALttP after TP just doesn't make sense with "developer intent", and usually these extended child timeline theories place FSA as the lead up to ALttP whereever you place them.

But bottomline, the official timeline isn't that bad imo, and the existence of the Downfall timeline works well to maintain the continuity they have presented via interviews over the years.
 
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The chronology you have here is fine, up until you get to Four Swords Adventures being a sequel to Four Swords and happening before OoT - this doesn't make sense. OoT was always supposed to be the first appearence of Ganondorf, and meant to show us his first transformation into Ganon. You theory on Twinrova is a massive stretch, but very convenient for you interpretation, sadly, it doesn't line up with a "developer timeline", if that's what you are shooting for. It's generally held that the developers always intended FSA to be after OoT, and perhaps after A Link to the Past considering there was a version of FSA with A Link to the Past bundled along with it. Also, iirc FSA started out as sequel to ALttP or perhaps a prequel to it during development, but it definitely isn't before OoT.


Lol I just saw you mentioned you got inspired by this from LoruleHistorian. I agree with him on some things, but there are a lot of his theories that I don't agree with. Anyway, ALttP after TP just doesn't make sense with "developer intent", and usually these extended child timeline theories place FSA as the lead up to ALttP whereever you place them.

But bottomline, the official timeline isn't that bad imo, and the existence of the Downfall timeline works well to maintain the continuity they have presented via interviews over the years.
I can see that really, I also disagree with FSA being before OoT. This was just to try and fill in the gaps for this theorized version which also uses that interview with Aonuma. I mean, him just being their protector and now suddenly being the king seems like a Twinrova thing to do if you ask me personally. I just don't think these two stories can be separated like the Historia and Encyclopedia did. And well, it was already called a "sequel". It COULD work with a explanation like the Twinrova proposal. If FSA truly was a sequel to any of the 2D Timeline games, it'd be OoX tbh, ALttP Ganon being FSA Ganon lines way too well up for me. Again, this was more for fun to explain the things for this theorized developers intended Timeline and always keeping it as the same dorf. I'm fine with the downfall Timeline as concept overall but I have a ton of problems with it. (this is for child but) Four Swords not being after TP, I will never understand at all. Otherwise, it's fine? They basically just gave it as base for people to discuss. Though imo they should next time not use people who were fans of the games and genuinely just use the games scripts or Aonumas notes. You could technically say the "oldest tale" part was outdated since Four Swords Adventures, but I don't wanna speculate THAT, though we know FSA went through a hell of a ton of changes. And how the intro is constructed screams to me that they're the same Link and Zelda from Four Swords. I actually wasn't inspired by Lorulean, he only speculated this Timeline per the interviews in a server I am in, both of us obviously don't interpret the Timeline like that (I use the generic Extended child while he uses FS and FSA as parallel to OoT)

Why would ALttP after TP not make sense? Link and Zelda could lose their piece as well just as the Hero, Princess and King of Darkness did in the adult era. Where it returned to the Sacred Realm. The Master Sword in the "Sacred Grove" also works as hint and Ganondorf at that point being remembered as Demon Thief also works well.

And how would ALttP work as Prequel to FSA? I think you've said that before... The bombos and quake medallions origins are revealed and how Ganon had gotten his Trident.
 
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el :BeoWolf:

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Why would ALttP after TP not make sense?
I actually have entertained this idea before.
OoT > MM > TP > FSA > ALttP
In TP Ganondorf dies and FSA talks about a new Ganon as the Gerudo speak of him as tho events happened recently
"The village is in a bit of an uproar contending with a man who broke our laws.
"I don't know what he plans but I am worried "
So the Ganon of ALttP on ward but, may or may not be BotW Ganon, is not the Ganon of Ocarina of Time.
 
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I actually have entertained this idea before.
OoT > MM > TP > FSA > ALttP
In TP Ganondorf dies and FSA talks about a new Ganon as the Gerudo speak of him as tho events happened recently
"The village is in a bit of an uproar contending with a man who broke our laws.
"I don't know what he plans but I am worried "
So the Ganon of ALttP on ward but, may or may not be BotW Ganon, is not the Ganon of Ocarina of Time.
That's a Timeline I too believe in, I would just put Four Swords also before Four Swords Adventures.
OoT*/MM>TP>FS/FSA>ALttP/LA>it's sequels
The Master Sword is forgotten by time as mentioned by one of my other replies and a descendant of MC Link would take the Four Sword to defeat the newly resurrected Vaati (headcanon for his resurrection is to test resurrections on other evil beings before resurrecting their good ol' guy, Ganon, which they'd technically only do after alttp but yeah)

BotW being placed there is hard because the Demon King had already reincarnated, Master Works and Creating a Champion both say he's Ganondorf from Ocarina of Time/the Wind Waker/Twilight Princess. This proposed Timeline which would use the interviews and in-game stuff as base would make it all the same Dorf in some way. If that was the official Timeline? Sure, BotW fits perfectly in there. The normal extended child Timeline? Not so much. Or you could say Ganondorf II is also just a off-shoot which would make Agahnim an off-shoot of Ganondorf II who's an off-shoot of Ganondorf I. That'd be wack but I guess that's a possibility?

EDIT: another possibility is that the people of Hyrule just seem to remember him as one being. I always imagined the Four Swords saga to be a forgotten story anyway (they literally forget the story of The Minish Cap!)
 
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Let's also not forget that the Dark Mirror from Four Swords Adventures seems to be a less rusty version of the Mirror of Twilight. It seems accurate from the size, it's origin and etc. Making it only work pre TP if that's the case. Ganondorf was only supposed to be the "protector of the desert" in Four Swords Adventures. Not their king or anything like that. Seems to me that Twinrova altered the laws to give him a more god-like status to them. This really isn't a stretch if you remember how they are. TP and ALttP again have a big connection with the Sacred Grove and Ganondorf being known as Demon Thief. The Triforce piece leaving Ganondorf could also leave Link and Zelda as it needs to parallel the events of the Adult Timeline (where the Triforce likely returned to the Sacred Realm). Seems to me that this Timeline really could work neatly. OoX being before ALBW doesn't work as it's a semi-direct sequel of ALttP/LA. It being after aLBW makes more sense. Considering that OoX also ends with Link leaving sets up that his descendant would be considered as traveler.
 
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For timeline theorizing, a thought I like to keep in my head is this: If this fan theorized timeline was released in HH instead of the official one, would people be more or less accepting of it? Now, HH's timeline sets the bar lower with an offscreen defeat of Link, so I won't fun police to hard on other people's theories. But, I really don't see FSA Ganondorf being the same one as OoT. FSA has a new origin story for Ganondorf, so I can only see it as after OoT. Twinrova giving him a new status doesn't mean much if one Ganondorf was pretending to be loyal to the king while the other got a Trident that turned him into a pig demon that had to be stopped by 4 heroes. The King wouldn't have made peace with Ganondorf for OoT; Ganondorf would have been in prison in OoT if he was the same as FSA Ganondorf.

I agree with you that there are similarities between the Dark Mirror and the Twilight Mirror, which wouldn't make sense if Midna closed off connection between the two realms (depending on how hard you take "See you later"), so I also don't think FSA would happen after TP.

FSA is a big wrench, so the only thing I can think of is to pull a Nintendo and make a third timeline, except it splits off after MC's on-screen bad ending and FS and FSA follows it, so FSA's Ganon can parallel OoT or something.

For a simple explanation on why Zelda has to reintroduce herself to Link in OoX, it can be just some random anomaly from Veran messing with time travel. If this was Nintendo's offical explanation, I don't see fans being too upset. With Marin from LA looking like Zelda while Zelda in OoX has a very similar sprite, the boat at the end of the credits and the beginning of LA, and now LAHD having Link wear the same OoX clothes, I believe it was the developers' intentions for OoX to be between ALttP and LA. And, if Link stopped Ganon's revival in OoX, it would make sense that evil people were still trying to revive Ganon. If Link is adrift at sea after LA, it gives evil people time to revive Ganon, just so LA Link can come back and defeat him again, being the backstory of ALBW.

I also like seeing TP -> ALttP theories. First of all, Twinrova is still alive. We don't see non-Ganon revivals much in Zelda, so Twinrova's goofy death in OoT's adult section can work as simply humor, rather than an implication of a fake defeat for future consequences. Ganondorf's Triforce of Power could have returned to the Sacred Realm after TP and the other pieces could have just returned at some other points, similar to how the Triforce was split in ALBW's backstory just to be whole again by the end of the game. The Zelda II town names could be from the legend of the ancient hero from TP, who is the Hero of Time. If some people can recognize the clothes (Shad) and hold onto his past weapons (Hero's Bow), I can definitely see his legend with the sages being remembered.

BotW, in my opinion, is after the Downfall timeline, but it's hard to deny "Dark Beast Ganon" and the Darmani, Goron elder and Cor Goron carvings in Goron City, so if the Downfall timeline happened after TP, BotW would fit even better!
 
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For timeline theorizing, a thought I like to keep in my head is this: If this fan theorized timeline was released in HH instead of the official one, would people be more or less accepting of it? Now, HH's timeline sets the bar lower with an offscreen defeat of Link, so I won't fun police to hard on other people's theories. But, I really don't see FSA Ganondorf being the same one as OoT. FSA has a new origin story for Ganondorf, so I can only see it as after OoT. Twinrova giving him a new status doesn't mean much if one Ganondorf was pretending to be loyal to the king while the other got a Trident that turned him into a pig demon that had to be stopped by 4 heroes. The King wouldn't have made peace with Ganondorf for OoT; Ganondorf would have been in prison in OoT if he was the same as FSA Ganondorf.

I agree with you that there are similarities between the Dark Mirror and the Twilight Mirror, which wouldn't make sense if Midna closed off connection between the two realms (depending on how hard you take "See you later"), so I also don't think FSA would happen after TP.

FSA is a big wrench, so the only thing I can think of is to pull a Nintendo and make a third timeline, except it splits off after MC's on-screen bad ending and FS and FSA follows it, so FSA's Ganon can parallel OoT or something.

For a simple explanation on why Zelda has to reintroduce herself to Link in OoX, it can be just some random anomaly from Veran messing with time travel. If this was Nintendo's offical explanation, I don't see fans being too upset. With Marin from LA looking like Zelda while Zelda in OoX has a very similar sprite, the boat at the end of the credits and the beginning of LA, and now LAHD having Link wear the same OoX clothes, I believe it was the developers' intentions for OoX to be between ALttP and LA. And, if Link stopped Ganon's revival in OoX, it would make sense that evil people were still trying to revive Ganon. If Link is adrift at sea after LA, it gives evil people time to revive Ganon, just so LA Link can come back and defeat him again, being the backstory of ALBW.

I also like seeing TP -> ALttP theories. First of all, Twinrova is still alive. We don't see non-Ganon revivals much in Zelda, so Twinrova's goofy death in OoT's adult section can work as simply humor, rather than an implication of a fake defeat for future consequences. Ganondorf's Triforce of Power could have returned to the Sacred Realm after TP and the other pieces could have just returned at some other points, similar to how the Triforce was split in ALBW's backstory just to be whole again by the end of the game. The Zelda II town names could be from the legend of the ancient hero from TP, who is the Hero of Time. If some people can recognize the clothes (Shad) and hold onto his past weapons (Hero's Bow), I can definitely see his legend with the sages being remembered.

BotW, in my opinion, is after the Downfall timeline, but it's hard to deny "Dark Beast Ganon" and the Darmani, Goron elder and Cor Goron carvings in Goron City, so if the Downfall timeline happened after TP, BotW would fit even better!
I can definitely understand the reasoning for FSA before OoT being wack. I just tried to still keep true to that interview while keeping Four Swords Adventures as direct sequel (which it obviously is) and also Aonuma stating that there only are "two endings" for Ocarina of Time. I also don't hate the OoX between ALttP and LA placement! I just personally believe it could also fit well as build up to the NES games. It also seems to originally have been a semi sequel to Majora's Mask! Oracle of Seasons and Ages are very Wack cases tbh. Zelda's introduction could also be because she didn't see Link for a while so a introduction would be needed. Or she just was sarcastic, some close friends sometimes act like they don't know each other though they're sarcastic from my good memory.

EDIT: the OoX placement also explains gramps having a Master Sword. It could be the Master Sword from OoX which isn't THE Master Sword.

And as mentioned before on the FSA thing: I always imagined that Ganon is freed after two centuries or so, meaning the Four Swords era can be forgotten. Ganon turns back to Ganondorf and participates in the Hyrulean Fierce War after finding out there's a gate to the Sacred Realm. He then finally at the end of the war swears fealty to the king once again... leading to his master plan in OoT.

It's possible that he can turn back to Ganondorf even when wielding the Trident; the painting we see in the teaser could be from the Fierce War.

IMG_20200802_162346.jpg
 
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I truly believe by Ocarina of time timeline existed in the ending there is exactly two timelines Hyrule is saved and where you meet Zelda again and Navi leaves my theory is that originally A Link to the past would be part of the adult timeline after Ocarina but WW and other games put the classic games out and Nintendo created a retcon to bring back these games to the timeline universe
 

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