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Timeline Theories

Joined
Nov 14, 2015
Why is TFH after Spirit Tracks? Why can't it be sometime after ALBWs?
Oh it can; I just think Tri Force Heroes fits better as an Adult Timeline game. Small things adding up like the legend of the Hero and the Triforce has been twisted so long that the Heroes are literally associated with the elements of the individual Triforce pieces, the appearance of Linebeck's uniform, Hytopia's square actually bears a slight resemblance to Hyrule Castle Town in Spirit Tracks, etc. Just make me think it's more at home centuries after Spirit Tracks in a Hyrule that has changed its name and lost the truth of its origins.
 
Joined
Jan 16, 2019
I think it’s

SS > LoZ > OoT >(Fail)> OoX > ALttP > AST (Ancient Stone Tablets) > ALBW > (Lorule becomes Termina) > MM
OoT >(Success)> MM
I know it doesn’t have every game, but it has all my favorite, so it’s my timeline.
 

TheDragonHawk

Casually Homophobic
Joined
Jan 31, 2019
When it comes to the timeline, Breath of the Wild does not seem to be a direct sequel to any of the other games, like Twilight Princess or Wind Waker. It stands apart from pretty much every other game in the series. However, there is evidence for a very different timeline placement. To find out what it is, several pieces of evidence must be examined.

The locations in the game are big pointers. Here are some important ones. Mekar Island is by the Lost Woods. This is spelled differently than Makar, but over time, such errors could develop. On the island itself, there is a twisted, rotted tree. If you go to the top of the tree, the whistling wind sounds like Makar's Song. This seems to point towards the Adult Era Timeline. This is further supported by a few more things.

Have you ever considered the names of the Divine Beasts? Their names are Vah Ruta, Vah Medoh, Vah Rudania, and Vah Naboris. These seem like just some names that they came up with, but in reality, they are much more important.

Ruta, Rudania, and Naboris are named after the sages Ruto, Darunia, and Nabooru, from Ocarina of Time. Since this game is consistent across all three timelines, these are not important. What is important is Medoh. It is named after Rito Sage Medli, who only appears in the Adult Era Timeline.

The final piece of evidence for the Adult Era is salt. Rock Salt. The item description is "Crystallized salt from the ancient sea, commonly used to season meals. Cannot be eaten in this form". The key here is Ancient Sea. This could be referring to the Great Sea from Wind Waker.

So overall, there seems to be a lot of evidence for the Adult Era, and this would be great if that was all the evidence for the timeline placement. However, there is evidence for the other two timelines. Let's start with the Child Era.

The Child Era timeline does not have much evidence, but the one piece of evidence is massive. At the knighting ceremony, when Link is knighted by Zelda while the four champions watch, she says something intriguing. "Whether skyward bound, adrift in time, or steeped in the glowing embers of twilight, the sword is forever bound to the soul of the hero". "skyward bound" and "adrift in time" both refer to Skyward Sword and Ocarina of Time, which are before the timeline split. But "steeped in the glowing embers of twilight" is referring to Twilight Princess. This game is only in the Child Era timeline.

But that is where the evidence for the Child Era ends. And frankly, it doesn't seem like a lot to go off of. This leaves one other timeline. What evidence is there for the Hero is Defeated timeline?

There is some evidence for this timeline. First, there are some locations that are seen only in the failed hero timeline. Spectacle Rock, a particular rock formation that looks like a pair of spectacles, is one of those locations (if you want to see it, the Gerudo Desert Tower is on one spectacle, and Vah Naboris rests on the other spectacle after completing it).

Also, Ganon is evidence. You probably have noticed that you do not ever see Ganon's Gerudo form, Ganondorf, in Breath of the Wild. You also never see Ganondorf in any of the games falling into the failed hero timeline. And this is official. Hyrule Historia says that one Ganon defeated Link in Ocarina of Time, he shed his Gerudo form to become the incarnation of evil, Ganon.

All this evidence for all three timelines might leave you confused. There seems to be evidence for all three timelines. That is why my view of Breath of the Wild's timeline placement is that all the timelines converge into Breath of the Wild, finally unifying the Zelda timeline. Tell me any problems you may have with this, or your own views.
 

Spiritual Mask Salesman

CHIMer Dragonborn
Staff member
Comm. Coordinator
Site Staff
In any case, I've seen the BotW convergence theory before. I don't subscribe to it, but I'm not saying it is impossible. The thing is a lot of the references in Zelda's Blessing can just describe Skyward Sword. There is a thread that was written recently here on that.

https://zeldadungeon.net/forum/threads/theory-the-ceremonial-prayer-is-about-ss-link.64047/

The final piece of evidence for the Adult Era is salt. Rock Salt. The item description is "Crystallized salt from the ancient sea, commonly used to season meals. Cannot be eaten in this form". The key here is Ancient Sea. This could be referring to the Great Sea from Wind Waker.
There was also the Lanayru Sand Sea from SS, and that might be the ancient sea being referenced.
 

TheDragonHawk

Casually Homophobic
Joined
Jan 31, 2019
If Medoh was named after Mido, then the Divine Beasts would all be named after Ocarina of Time characters. My point is that the Divine Beasts would all be named after sages, and since Medoh belongs to the Rito, then the Divine Beasts would all be named after characters of what race they belong too.
 

Spiritual Mask Salesman

CHIMer Dragonborn
Staff member
Comm. Coordinator
Site Staff
If Medoh was named after Mido, then the Divine Beasts would all be named after Ocarina of Time characters. My point is that the Divine Beasts would all be named after sages, and since Medoh belongs to the Rito, then the Divine Beasts would all be named after characters of what race they belong too.
I was actually joking about the Mido thing. But my other post is legit.
 
Joined
Oct 6, 2016
Gender
Manly man
When it comes to the timeline, Breath of the Wild does not seem to be a direct sequel to any of the other games, like Twilight Princess or Wind Waker. It stands apart from pretty much every other game in the series. However, there is evidence for a very different timeline placement. To find out what it is, several pieces of evidence must be examined.

The ''evidence pointing to all timelines'' narrative is overstated, especially when most of the evidence is circumstantial.

Ruta, Rudania, and Naboris are named after the sages Ruto, Darunia, and Nabooru, from Ocarina of Time. Since this game is consistent across all three timelines, these are not important. What is important is Medoh. It is named after Rito Sage Medli, who only appears in the Adult Era Timeline.

Ruta and Naboris are the only ones confirmed ingame to be named after sages. CaC even goes out of its way to say that it's unknown as to whether Rudania and Medoh have a namesake.

The final piece of evidence for the Adult Era is salt. Rock Salt. The item description is "Crystallized salt from the ancient sea, commonly used to season meals. Cannot be eaten in this form". The key here is Ancient Sea. This could be referring to the Great Sea from Wind Waker.

''Could'' be...no real evidence that it is, especially since there's been tons of seas in the Zelda series. And, like with Medoh, supporting a theory with a theory is fallacious reasoning.

The locations in the game are big pointers. Here are some important ones. Mekar Island is by the Lost Woods. This is spelled differently than Makar, but over time, such errors could develop. On the island itself, there is a twisted, rotted tree. If you go to the top of the tree, the whistling wind sounds like Makar's Song. This seems to point towards the Adult Era Timeline. This is further supported by a few more things.

Considering the fact that we've seen multiple incarnations of different characters throughout the series, and that some characters are from alternate dimensions(Mikau) and even DREAMS of all places(Marin and Tarin), maybe the fact that some of them are misspelled is further proof that it shouldn't be taken as foolproof evidence for any timeline placement.

The Child Era timeline does not have much evidence, but the one piece of evidence is massive. At the knighting ceremony, when Link is knighted by Zelda while the four champions watch, she says something intriguing. "Whether skyward bound, adrift in time, or steeped in the glowing embers of twilight, the sword is forever bound to the soul of the hero". "skyward bound" and "adrift in time" both refer to Skyward Sword and Ocarina of Time, which are before the timeline split. But "steeped in the glowing embers of twilight" is referring to Twilight Princess. This game is only in the Child Era timeline.

Either:

A. The ceremony is a big reference to SS.(my current theory)

B. It's referring to general tropes that appear in a variety of Zelda games, especially since there's more after the twilight line.

Also, ''Tasogare'' is also used to refer to the SR in the ALttP manual. ''Kage'' is used to refer to the Twilight Realm in TP.

it doesn't seem like a lot to go off of

We can agree on that, at least.

Also, Ganon is evidence. You probably have noticed that you do not ever see Ganon's Gerudo form, Ganondorf, in Breath of the Wild. You also never see Ganondorf in any of the games falling into the failed hero timeline. And this is official. Hyrule Historia says that one Ganon defeated Link in Ocarina of Time, he shed his Gerudo form to become the incarnation of evil, Ganon.

This, and CaC confirms that he's mindless, which is what he is from OoX-AoL. Also, we're in a version of Old Hyrule where the sages were awakened in OoT.

In the AT, Hyrule is gone.

In the CT, The OoT sages were never awakened.

The DT has no such trump card.

Here's a link to my topic where I explain why BotW makes the most sense to me as a game set in the far future of the DT, if you want to know more:

https://zeldadungeon.net/forum/thre...ne-placement-of-botw-and-my-conclusion.60315/
 

DekuNut

I play my drum for you
Joined
Jan 30, 2011
Location
Tangent Universe
Just gonna come in and say, historically Mido is an important guy. He also had a city in AoL named after him. It isn't out of the realm of possibility that a Divine Beast was named after him too.
I'm not taking location references in BotW to mean anything though. As Spirit said, most of those names are references for references sake. There's far too many for them to all mean something, and most of them are so unimportant it doesn't even matter. The only ones I'm interested in are the Divine Beasts themselves, since they're stated in-game to have some important historical basis in their naming.
Also, I feel like the Zora and Rito appearing together are solid proof against the AT, since the Zora evolved into the Rito specifically because they couldn't survive the Great Sea. Koroks and Rito could've evolved anyways for other reasons, but the fact that Zoras are still around indicates that the Great Sea - and thus WW - never happened in this timeline.
I personally subscribe to the timeline Time & Nature mentioned earlier in this thread, so it fits pretty comfortably at the end of the Child Timeline, after AoL.
 

TheDragonHawk

Casually Homophobic
Joined
Jan 31, 2019
I'm just saying that this is a possible theory. Until we get an official confirmation from Nintendo, we could argue our pet theories all day long.
 

DekuNut

I play my drum for you
Joined
Jan 30, 2011
Location
Tangent Universe
I'm at the point where I'm ignoring official confirmations from Nintendo. If I believed Word of God I'd just trapse around with the HH timeline.
Your theory is possible, I agree. I just disagree. Hence why we debate. I'm not saying you're 100% wrong, or even that I'm 100% right.
 
Joined
Jan 31, 2019
Gender
Female
I am not fond of the split timeline. I think having Ganon forced into a cycle of meeting a new Link and Zelda is fascinating, but I would have liked it to be a trip through history in proper order. That way we can actually progress the Zelda games and evolve them into more modern settings like with the train and see how far into the future the cycle will continue, and if at all possible can the curse Demise created be broken. Maybe have a game where Link must go back in time like in SS, but it's to break the curse by changing something that a previous Link missed. I'm a sucker for time travel stuff, but I just can't keep up with Nintendo's version anymore.

Perhaps having OCD, that's why I like it that way, but that's just how I'd do it if it was up to me.
 
Joined
Dec 11, 2011
All this evidence for all three timelines might leave you confused. There seems to be evidence for all three timelines. That is why my view of Breath of the Wild's timeline placement is that all the timelines converge into Breath of the Wild, finally unifying the Zelda timeline. Tell me any problems you may have with this, or your own views.

You're correct that BotW has stuff from all 3 timelines, making it difficult to place. However, unifying all 3 timelines is impossible. The AT and CT timelines run concurrently to each other.The DT on the other hand doesn't since it's kind of a "what if" scenario. If Link is defeated in the battle with Ganon, then Zelda doesn't send Link back- no split.

"There is some evidence for this timeline. First, there are some locations that are seen only in the failed hero timeline. Spectacle Rock, a particular rock formation that looks like a pair of spectacles, is one of those locations (if you want to see it, the Gerudo Desert Tower is on one spectacle, and Vah Naboris rests on the other spectacle after completing it)."

Well Wind Waker does have Spectacle Island.
 

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