Too Many Timelines?

[ReDead]

If you look at it this way and realistically, at how many times you've died in the games and counting if Link dies at the hands of Ganon in OOT to make the third branch or him letting the moon fall you got way too many timelines branching out in the games...



In MM, you save the world, or you let the moon fall which crates an second branch from MM like this.

What I am saying is, all the times you've failed would create more Zelda games, but only after you died once.


MM---TP or.
MM(Link fails in his quest) ----???

 

[Justac00lguy]

Yeah this is also one of my main gripes with the Timeline and until we actually get some sort of explanation on how Link died, I mean of course the player can die many times in the game but we know the story is that Link always conquers evil. This is why this split was so unexpected, something significant must have happened at his death and there should be a good reason as to why.

In my opinion though Ocarina of Time is the most significant game I the series not just for its critical acclaim but as it has the most infamous hero, the Hero of Time. I think that Nintendo wanted to make a hypothesis as to what would happen if Link actually failed... This is probably going to be a one off situation and maybe it will never get explained but in a way we just have to accept it, I mean the order of the games for the most part I can actually accept so it's not all bad.

 

[Cfrock]

This is why this split was so unexpected, something significant must have happened at his death and there should be a good reason as to why.

It did, the Triforce split into separate pieces for the first time chronologically.

I've said pretty much since the timeline was revealed that calling them 'Adult', 'Child' and 'Hero Defeated' may be misleading. Calling them 'Wisdom', 'Courage' and 'Power' would make things clearer, or at least clearer if you were to see it the way I do. I'm not going to say the way I interpret it is correct but this does make the whole Link-Got-Deaded thing plausible at that one specific moment, I feel. The Triforce is supposed to be claimed by someone who has those three qualities in equal balance. Skyward Sword spent the whole game making sure Link fit the bill perfectly before he was allowed near the thing. This need for balance implies that each piece of the Triforce is as powerful as the others, albeit in their own way. An object of three balanced and equal forces wouldn't make much sense if one of them could trump the other two, right? So when the Triforce splits during Ocarina of Time and a piece goes to Link, Zelda and Ganondorf I interpret this to be the cause of the timeline split. Each piece of the Triforce has its 'victory': Child Timeline sees the wielder of 'Courage' return to the past and prevent the whole thing from happening; Adult Timeline sees 'Wisdom' as the only piece physically left in Hyrule after Ganon's defeat; Hero Defeated sees 'Power' defeat the Hero and then corrupt the Sacred Realm into a hive of evil.

In this way each individual piece beats the other two, in a manner of speaking, and thus over the whole cosmilogical-quantum-continuum-of-space-and-time-and-wibbly-wobbly-energy-and-dark-matter-or-whatever the Triforce manages to retain its balance since all three pieces were able to triumph. Of course, this is a poor solution as it basically means there will be many more incidents caused by the now split Triforce(s) but then Goddesses be crazy, yo. The 'Hero Defeated', or 'Power', timeline has the Triforce brought back together by Ganon (it had to be him because this was 'his' timeline) and then it goes on to help Hyrule prosper for generations. The other timelines just haven't gotten to their 'unification' point yet.

That's how I make sense of things and in there is our reason for why every death does not create a new timeline. It wasn't Link dying that split the thing in the first place so why would it do so at other points? Call me crazy but this just how I see it. Who knows, maybe I'm so wide of the mark I'm not even talking about Zelda anymore.

 

[Spirit]

It did, the Triforce split into separate pieces for the first time chronologically.

I've said pretty much since the timeline was revealed that calling them 'Adult', 'Child' and 'Hero Defeated' may be misleading. Calling them 'Wisdom', 'Courage' and 'Power' would make things clearer, or at least clearer if you were to see it the way I do. I'm not going to say the way I interpret it is correct but this does make the whole Link-Got-Deaded thing plausible at that one specific moment, I feel. The Triforce is supposed to be claimed by someone who has those three qualities in equal balance. Skyward Sword spent the whole game making sure Link fit the bill perfectly before he was allowed near the thing. This need for balance implies that each piece of the Triforce is as powerful as the others, albeit in their own way. An object of three balanced and equal forces wouldn't make much sense if one of them could trump the other two, right? So when the Triforce splits during Ocarina of Time and a piece goes to Link, Zelda and Ganondorf I interpret this to be the cause of the timeline split. Each piece of the Triforce has its 'victory': Child Timeline sees the wielder of 'Courage' return to the past and prevent the whole thing from happening; Adult Timeline sees 'Wisdom' as the only piece physically left in Hyrule after Ganon's defeat; Hero Defeated sees 'Power' defeat the Hero and then corrupt the Sacred Realm into a hive of evil.

In this way each individual piece beats the other two, in a manner of speaking, and thus over the whole cosmilogical-quantum-continuum-of-space-and-time-and-wibbly-wobbly-energy-and-dark-matter-or-whatever the Triforce manages to retain its balance since all three pieces were able to triumph. Of course, this is a poor solution as it basically means there will be many more incidents caused by the now split Triforce(s) but then Goddesses be crazy, yo. The 'Hero Defeated', or 'Power', timeline has the Triforce brought back together by Ganon (it had to be him because this was 'his' timeline) and then it goes on to help Hyrule prosper for generations. The other timelines just haven't gotten to their 'unification' point yet.

That's how I make sense of things and in there is our reason for why every death does not create a new timeline. It wasn't Link dying that split the thing in the first place so why would it do so at other points? Call me crazy but this just how I see it. Who knows, maybe I'm so wide of the mark I'm not even talking about Zelda anymore.

totally what he said

 

[Locke]

So when the Triforce splits during Ocarina of Time and a piece goes to Link, Zelda and Ganondorf I interpret this to be the cause of the timeline split. Each piece of the Triforce has its 'victory': Child Timeline sees the wielder of 'Courage' return to the past and prevent the whole thing from happening; Adult Timeline sees 'Wisdom' as the only piece physically left in Hyrule after Ganon's defeat; Hero Defeated sees 'Power' defeat the Hero and then corrupt the Sacred Realm into a hive of evil.

In this way each individual piece beats the other two, in a manner of speaking, and thus over the whole cosmilogical-quantum-continuum-of-space-and-time-and-wibbly-wobbly-energy-and-dark-matter-or-whatever the Triforce manages to retain its balance since all three pieces were able to triumph.

One piece (rather, one wielder) being victorious or dominant over the others doesn't make that piece more powerful than the others. It splits in order to maintain its balance. By your logic, balance would better be achieved by not splitting at all and just remaining whole with the most powerful or dominant entity. You're looking at a pattern of outcomes and presenting them as the cause.

Your pattern's rather shaky, too. Link was only able to display his courage successfully on your "wisdom" timeline; Wisdom merely cleaned up after courage on your "wisdom" timeline, while on your "power" timeline its former holder managed to overpower the entire Triforce. Wisdom also isn't "the only piece physically left in Hyrule after Ganon's defeat" - the ToC remains as well (split into pieces and scattered across Hyrule). If the pattern had the strength of each respective character controlling the entire Triforce as a result, I might be inclined to view it as more than a simple observation.

That's how I make sense of things and in there is our reason for why every death does not create a new timeline. It wasn't Link dying that split the thing in the first place so why would it do so at other points? Call me crazy but this just how I see it. Who knows, maybe I'm so wide of the mark I'm not even talking about Zelda anymore.

I agree that it doesn't make sense for Link's death to split the timeline. Every moment is a direct result of the preceding moments. To achieve an alternate result, one of these preceding moments must be altered, meaning the split must have happened earlier. This can be traced back infinitely, so it is a paradox. Instead, I think HH describes a parallel timeline which matches the 'original' one except for that/those altered moment(s) which result in Link's death, causing further divergence. Your Triforce theory still contains that paradox. Hopefully a quantum physicist will come to refute me.

 

[hero of time 20]

I don't understand why the failed timeline splits after oot. I mean he could fail in any game right? Another thing to consider is that the timeline in my opinion isn't really a timeline. It is more of an explanation of the events in the Zelda multiverse. think of it this way, the hero cannot be victorious and be defeated at the same time correct? There is not an infinite amount of links waiting for their turn to drowned in the water temple. There is only one link who must make it through the whole game without failure. That is why I do not agree with the official Zelda timeline and I think that the hero get defeated timeline should be removed. This is just my opinion and I don't expect anyone to agree but what do you think?

 

[Keese Keese]

I think Nintendo really just wanted to open their options up to make new games with new stories... the less games in a line, the more opportunity to fill in "holes" I think. Having Link defeated and splitting the timeline a third time, especially from the same junction as the other two, just doesn't make much logical sense to me other than that. Sure, it might make some sense the way it's set up, but why it splits it what's a little crooked... I'll go along with it if they stick to their guns and don't switch it around again, but I have a feeling they'll never really be set in stone, which is fine because it allows for fans to speculate. That's a part of the fun in Zelda lore. In HH they even state that the way it's told is constantly changing, and how the gameplay is developed first, with the intricate story details as, more often than not, an afterthought.

 

[The Jade Fist]

Although , you do kinda create extra timelines in Majora's Mask, in all of them except 1, the world dies, so I guess it doesn't much matter what happens after that point.

 

[Locke]

Although , you do kinda create extra timelines in Majora's Mask, in all of them except 1, the world dies, so I guess it doesn't much matter what happens after that point.

MM's time travel isn't the same as either type of time travel in OoT. The game's conclusion shows the results of all your quests, even those that happened in previous cycles. Therefore each cycle leads to the same conclusion. Either the cycles are somehow merged at the end, or there are no alternate timelines created in the first place. (These possibilities are difficult to justify on their own, but this is where the evidence leads.)

 

[The Jade Fist]

That ending always did bug me, but at the same time is motivation to craft a perfect 3 days so the credits aren't lying.

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

one of the most idiotic things nintendo has done....still better than ocarinahero10's timeline