Three-Branched Timeline Split Explanations

[Fierce]

Mod edit: Please use this thread for all discussion of the Hyrule Historia's 3-split timeline that involves time travel. If everyone posts their own explanation as a thread, we'd have several redundant locations of the same discussion.
~Locke

---

Hello everyone, I'm Fierce... I've been on quite a hiatus from Zelda Theory as we lacked new data. Now, we are inundated with new facts and myths gifted to us from our lovely friends at Nintendo and I feel the need to dive straight into it. So bear with me!


The 3-way Timeline
For a long time most Zelda fans prescribed to the "Split Timeline" theory. Why? For one, Nintendo confirmed it... but yes, it made perfect sense given the complexities of time travel and its effects on the time-space continuum.

Why it works:
When you travel forward or backwards in time, that timeline persists with you (LINK) no longer in it. When you return to the past, it is the moment you left, so therin you are creating a new dimension as time is constantly moving.

You do not create a split time-line until the moment you return to the past.


Why? Because when you first draw the Master Sword you simply sleep (Not Time Travel)
So presumably... The fraction is caused at the end of the game, and the defeat of Ganon. Zelda sends you back into the Child Timeline, creating an Adult Timeline where Link has defeated Ganon.

The events continue even after you leave which is why Ganon breaking the seal and conquering Hyrule causes Wind Waker, and Link's hand in setting up Ganon's execution causes Twilight Princess.

So now there are two Timelines. Fair enough?


The Introduction of a Third FRACTURE
Now, many may ask... why the heck would a THIRD timeline make sense!? Isn't time-travel the reason for the split? Not outcomes? Possibilities and plausibilities are hardly good reasons to constitute a split. Correct. If this was the case, we'd have billions upon billions of time-lines. HOWEVER...

There is another time we (Link) time traveled in Ocarina of Time... wasn't there?
In order to gain access to the Well and the Spirit temple we needed to return to the past. However if you recall... this act of traveling creates a SPLIT.
So therefore, it creates a split ADULT timeline. One where Link returned to the past. When you return to the past, that dimension you traveled from continues with you no longer existing...

So wait... in this dimension... Link never defeats Ganon. There is no legendary hero to conquer Ganon... and it is the efforts of the people and the sages that ultimately conquer and seal the Demon lord... causing the events of Link to the Past (JPN: Triforce of the Gods)

So no longer do you have a concrete Adult and Child Timeline... now we have three:

1. Link never returns to Hyrule and Ganon wins- Ganon's rule
2. Link returns to defeat Ganon and brings prosperity- Zelda's rule
3. Link returns to his own time and foils Ganon- Link's rule

The Importance of Threes
The third timeline makes sense, because the majority of the Zelda universe reflects this balance. Like the Yin and Yang, the DI FA NA is the separation of spirituality in the Zelda World.

Think of the way these Timelines happened and it makes perfect sense!
1. Link's Courage allows him to defeat Ganon himself
2. Knowledge and Wisdom learned from the future is what allows ganon to be executed
3. Ganon's Power reigns over until it is eventually overpowered by the people of Hyrule


The separation exists in every game...
- 3 Sacred flames
- 3 Sacred Pearls
- 3 Spiritual Pendants
- 3 Spiritual Stones
- 3 Sacred Dragons
- 3 Mirror Fragments
- 3 Goddesses (the old gods)
- 3 Tunics
- Etc

I think it is only natural that time itself follows this pattern.

There are still many mysteries of time and such but I do believe this provides a very cogent explanation.
Perhaps there are more time-lines yet to be discovered (just as there are new Gods and Godness and things we will never know until later.) But based on this data, this is the best we have.




To close this little explanation, I will give a brief run-down of how things go:



-Skyward Sword:
Creation of the Master Sword
The death of the Goddess Hylia and start of her bloodline in Zelda
The death of the Demi-God Demise and start of his curse in Ganon
The trials that chose the Hero, and start of his chain in Link
The use of the Triforce to create Hyrule


-Minish Cap:
The creation of the Four Sword
Seal of Vaati

-War-

-Ocarina of Time
Creation of Three Timelines due to use of Ocarina of Time
Timelines Power, Wisdom, Courage


Power Timeline
Link travels back in time to open the Well and meet Nabooru, time continues without him
Ganons rein continues until war seals away Ganon, ending his rule.

-Four Swords Adventure
Vaati is released and destroyed
Ganon gains Trident
Ganon Sealed Again

(War over Triforce)

-Link to the Past
Ganon breaks out yet again is defeated again.

Link's Awakening

-Legend of Zelda
Link sets out to find the Triforce of Wisdom
Ganon dies for good. (Power is obtained)

-Adventure of Link
Link sets out to find the Triforce of Courage
Defeats his own darkness (Presumably the curse set by Demise)
Thwarts Ganon's rival and awakens Hylia (Zelda)
- End -

Wisdom Timeline
Link returns from the future with Ganon defeated but the split remains.
Zelda uses Link's knowledge from the future to eventually get Ganondorf executed, yet unable to do so, they send
him to the Twilight Realm
Ganon's Hatred grows (Due to Demise)

Majora's Mask

-Twilight Princess
Zelda becomes Queen
Minda is overthrown by Zant
Ganon breaks free
Ganon is killed
Mirror of Twilight Destroyed
- End -

Courage Timeline
Link defeats Ganon
Link returns to his time and no longer exists
Ganon escapes the sacred realm conquering Hyrule ruthlessly
Gods flood Hyrule and seal Ganon's power in the sword, send people above the sea

-Wind Waker
Ganon Dies, Hyrule is destroyed
-End -

- Phantom Hourglass
- Spirit Tracks


Well, this should pretty much clear things up. Given the oracle games were not included in the Historia, you can assume them non-canon.
Honestly I'd argue Four Swords and Minish are also uncanon but that is neither here nor there. Hope this helps and makes sense of it all.


Edit:

I have also devised another take on my theory if you will hear me out...

I will attempt to make it as simple as possible. First Observe this diagram.

View attachment 21190

Zoom: http://postimage.org/image/4wnug6s43/
This makes the most sense to me. I've really set my mind to this one. I think the first break occurs when you first enter the sacred realm, separating you permanently from the original timeline. Why is this you may ask? It is the same reason the Master Sword forces you to sleep for seven years... Child Link will die against Ganondorf after he obtains the Triforce of Power. I believe that is what the cutscene almost implies when he is talking to you with the white background.

Either way, this is likely where the split occurs regardless of whether young Link dies or just disappears from that Timeline due to time travel. Personally, I find time travel accounting for his absence the most plausible.

^ My other theory

 

[TwilightKing]

AHA! I understand now...:nerd:

 

[SilentLink]

makes enough sense to me t accept it

 

[linkvsganon]

it looks correct because of new information that link is defeated somehow by ganon this looks like a flawless explanation good work.

 

[Blue Window]

Good job in making a well-written and organized post!

There are some things I don't understand in your argumentation, however:
-Why is there only timeline splits in OoT when time travelling occurs in several games?
-How can Ganondorf be sealed away (on the Power Timeline) before the War over the Triforce had begun?
---The War over the Triforce happens before the Seal War:

(The AlttP back story)
1. Ganondorf discovers the Golden Land.
2. People fight over the Golden Land.
3. Ganondorf gets the Triforce inside the Golden Land.
4. Ganondorf wishes upon the Triforce.
5. The Sages stop Ganon from conquering Hyrule by sealing him.

- Why do you include FSA but not FS?

Good Luck!

/Blue Window

 

[TheGermanLegend]

I don't quite agree with you. There are two diffrent ways Link travels through time. The first one is the way he does it in the end. As you said he left his timeline. You can imagin this process like rewinding a tape and then put a diffrent record on it from the point you stoped rewindig. (Zelda sends Link to a time BEFOR he took the mastersword. then he explains to Zelda in the past what will happen so she gives him the ocarina so he can go to termina with it. without it ganon can't enter the sacred realm.)

But the second timetravel is a diffrent thing. It's like listening to a tape, then jumping to another point of it and then returning to the point you left. For Link it looks like he traveld to the futur and then returned. but actualy he never timetravels with his body, only with his consciousness and he doesn't change anything in the past because he returns to the point he started.
Chronologicly he only touches the mastersword for a few seconds and then wakes up again and goes to the well and the spirit temple. then he returns to the ms and sleeps for 7 years.

Proof for it: Guru-Guru already knows the song of storms when link is in the futur for the first time. In your theory he shouldn't because Link never teaches it to him

 

[Locke]

While that sounds nice, it destroys the whole concept of time travel introduced in OoT. The MS was clearly described to allow one to travel back and forth along the same timeline.

Past, present, future...
The Master Sword is a ship with
which you can sail upstream and
downstream through time's river...
The port for that ship is in the
Temple of Time...
To restore the Desert Colossus
and enter the Spirit Temple, you
must travel back through time's
flow...

The Song of Storms paradox also requires Link to return to the same timeline to teach Guru-Guru the song so that he can learn it in the future. If he's creating a new future, what happened to the Sages he awoke in the timeline he abandoned, and how are they awake on this new one? Anything Link did as an adult in the original timeline would be erased in the new timeline since the split happened as a child and a new future would unwind.

A note on the timeline explanation you posted... they had FSA after TP, didn't they? And presumably OoT is still the SW.

 

[Fierce]

But the second timetravel is a diffrent thing. It's like listening to a tape, then jumping to another point of it and then returning to the point you left. For Link it looks like he traveld to the futur and then returned. but actualy he never timetravels with his body, only with his consciousness and he doesn't change anything in the past because he returns to the point he started.
Chronologicly he only touches the mastersword for a few seconds and then wakes up again and goes to the well and the spirit temple. then he returns to the ms and sleeps for 7 years.

Proof for it: Guru-Guru already knows the song of storms when link is in the futur for the first time. In your theory he shouldn't because Link never teaches it to him

Counter:
Just because the future timeline reflects something he did in the past... doesn't mean the timeline won't split and continue onwards after he has traveled back in the past. It doesn't matter how long he has touched the sword, he is still returning to the past causing a split. It isn't like rewinding a tape, if it was... we'd have a game similar to Majora's mask.

Time is fragile, and as such it splits and fractures. It will continue on with or without one traveler. Why would time stop just because Link left it? Time continued after you traveled to the past and Ganon won.

The MS was clearly described to allow one to travel back and forth along the same timeline.
The Song of Storms paradox also requires Link to return to the same timeline to teach Guru-Guru the song so that he can learn it in the future. If he's creating a new future, what happened to the Sages he awoke in the timeline he abandoned, and how are they awake on this new one? Anything Link did as an adult in the original timeline would be erased in the new timeline since the split happened as a child and a new future would unwind.

A note on the timeline explanation you posted... they had FSA after TP, didn't they? And presumably OoT is still the SW.

The sages ultimately triumph if you recall the story of Link to the Past (Which is why towns become named after them)

And I recall no instance of OOT directly explaining how the Master Sword worked.

Also time is never erased. Once it happens... it happens. This is why it splits and causes the existence of multiple outcomes.

To clarify:
Song of Storms and Nabooru paradox counter
Upon Link's arrival to the future, these things already happened if you recall. Link didn't have to travel in time for them to occur as they already occurred prior to his arrival. Do we even know LINK was the one who originally set them in motion?

- I believe the Skull Kid may have later taught Guru Guru the song of storms. The origin of the song is from Termina and other than Link he is the only interdimensional traveler with an affinity for music playing AND PRANKS.

Nabooru would have failed in her endeavors either way, so Link's involvement was irrelevant.

 

[TheGermanLegend]

Counter:
Just because the future timeline reflects something he did in the past... doesn't mean the timeline won't split and continue onwards after he has traveled back in the past. It doesn't matter how long he has touched the sword, he is still returning to the past causing a split. It isn't like rewinding a tape, if it was... we'd have a game similar to Majora's mask.

Time is fragile, and as such it splits and fractures. It will continue on with or without one traveler. Why would time stop just because Link left it? Time continued after you traveled to the past and Ganon won.

Then please tell me how Guru-Guru learnd the Song of Storms in the first place? A split at this point just doesn't work. Returning to the point you left does NOT change the futur. Only going to a point PRIOR your left changes it.

 

[Fierce]

Re-read my edited post. I believe that the Skullkid originally played the Song of Storms as a prank to annoy Guru Guru.

 

[DuckNoises]

There is another time we (Link) time traveled in Ocarina of Time... wasn't there?
In order to gain access to the Well and the Spirit temple we needed to return to the past. However if you recall... this act of traveling creates a SPLIT.
So therefore, it creates a split ADULT timeline. One where Link returned to the past. When you return to the past, that dimension you traveled from continues with you no longer existing...

Following your argument, this would create four or more timelines, not three; by that logic, shouldn't every little detail you change cause a different split? There should be a split for every change you make as a child. Since much of this is optional, this would result in a completely different timeline for each play-through of the game, and the timeline would change from person to person based on the amount of side quests they did. It doesn't make a lot of sense to conclude that one play-through of the game is the "true" timeline when different people produce different timelines by this mechanism. This is why many people differentiate between the time travel at the end of OoT and the process of time-travel used by the Master Sword.
I will draw a few counter-arguments from my SS time thread:

Past, present, future...
The Master Sword is a ship with
which you can sail upstream and
downstream through time's river...
The port for that ship is in the
Temple of Time...
To restore the Desert Colossus
and enter the Spirit Temple, you
must travel back through time's
flow...

This establishes a metaphor for the flow of time, as a river. Note that the Master Sword and the Door of Time are essentially one in the same, in that the Master Sword in OoT acts as the key to the Door of Time. We will consult OoT for understanding most of how the Door of Time works, and how it remains largely consistent with how time works in SS.

Consider that when you travel from child to adult in Ocarina of Time, you are changing what is the relative present, that is to say, what appears to be currently happening, regardless of where you are in the overall scheme of time, or where you are overall on the “river.” Wherever you are is the “ship” that Sheik refers to, as you are sailing up and down the river of time. Note that when you go from adult to child in OoT, in putting the Master Sword in the Pedestal of Time, you are “rewinding” time – and the relative future (the adulthood of the Hero of Time) remains in a sort of chronological stasis until you sail the ship back there by removing the Master Sword from the pedestal, when it becomes the relative present again.

Imagine the events of OoT before Zelda sends Link back to his childhood as a television program on a given channel. The time travel of the Master Sword merely rewinds or fast-forwards through the television program, without creating an alternate television program, merely changing bits and pieces of the program as we go along. When Zelda sends the Hero of Time back to his childhood, she is not changing the relative present as the Master Sword does, and hence, is not rewinding the program. Instead, Zelda changes the channel on which the Hero of Time finds himself; the Hero of Time is now on a different channel with a program that is identical to an earlier part of the program on the original channel. This new channel has a different schedule, and the program the Hero of Time is presently in has a different relative future than the relative future of the original program, because the circumstances are different. Note that it is not the initial rewinding that constitutes the split; it is the combination of rewinding and changing the channel that constitutes the split. In returning to the “time is a river” metaphor, Zelda has not caused Link’s ship to sail upstream, but rather she has taken it out of its place in the river, and inserted it in a different place further back on the river.

I also discuss the impossibility of the Hero of Time failing in the Kotaku thread, explaining how Link failing causes the split to cease to exist in the first place, because it is Zelda's magic at the end of OoT that causes the split, and not the Master Sword.

 

[JuicieJ]

I also discuss the impossibility of the Hero of Time failing in the Kotaku thread, explaining how Link failing causes the split to cease to exist in the first place, because it is Zelda's magic at the end of OoT that causes the split, and not the Master Sword.

I'm pretty sure the "fail" thing was supposed to be in an alternate universe.

 

[Fierce]

@Ducknoises
It could create four or more, which is fine. However, we are placing the existing games on a timeline, therefore we only need three.
Just because you think it is Zelda's magic that changes things... doesn't mean that is the case. It is a theory, just like mine. While a theory can conflict and question another theory, only a fact can disprove it.

We do not know the nature of the Master Sword's time travel, or if it differs from the Song of Time's.

Also I am a little sick of people always quoting Sheik's song as if it is some sort of a fact. It is merely a song and a hint as to what Link must do to ultimately defeat Ganon... not the fate of what happens to the temporal splits and holes traveling in time creates. If you rewound time, it would erase everything you did so far. Why would time stop moving just because Link traveled back? It isn't time that is moving... rather it is Link. Time continues without us, that is why splits are made.

Link did not fail. Yet the Goddesses always provide a solution for Demise's foiling in every split of the Timeline as you may recall. Look to Wind Waker for an example as to how events can still follow in his absence and failure to stop Ganon.


You should really look at Back to the Future II and note Doc Brown's diagram.
The points you travel to are splits, not the same time as the one you left... as that one continues on without you.
Even if Link changed absolutely nothing there still would have been a split timeline made at every point he traveled into the past (Or future, but the sleeping aspect prevents that)

 

[Fierce]

Both are works of fiction regarding time-splits. We're theorizing, I fail to see why the medium is relevant.

 

[XtremeOne1]

One thing with the 3rd timeline, doesn't it defeat the whole plot/explanation set up by Demise of the "Never Ending Cycle" with Link, Zelda and Ganon? If Link never existed how does the Triforce of Courage continue to be past down his bloodline?