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Which timeline is most valid?

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The Adult Timeline is most valid, in my opinion. The Downfall Timeline is the "What if" scenario (What if Link fails). And the Child Timeline is an alternate history. The Adult Timeline progresses exactly the same as it would have with the only exception being the Hero of Time is no longer present.

Him not getting sent back in time by Zelda wouldn't have changed anything for the Adult Timeline. It is implied that Ganon broke out of the sages seal at some point after what would have been the Hero of Time's lifetime.
 
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The Adult Timeline is most valid, in my opinion. The Downfall Timeline is the "What if" scenario (What if Link fails). And the Child Timeline is an alternate history. The Adult Timeline progresses exactly the same as it would have with the only exception being the Hero of Time is no longer present.

Him not getting sent back in time by Zelda wouldn't have changed anything for the Adult Timeline. It is implied that Ganon broke out of the sages seal at some point after what would have been the Hero of Time's lifetime.

In my opinion, both are valid... furthermore, consider it this way; Zelda sends Link back in time to well before Ganondorf assassinates the King of Hyrule, and infiltrates the Sacred Realm. Now let's think about how OoT Link kept the Triforce of Courage... that's because the Link that is sent back in time is the Adult Link that awakened as the Hero of Time, and so the piece of the Triforce that he bears, is actually the Triforce of Courage from the future, OoT/MM Link is from the future, he's a time traveller. However, if we are to consider the timeline in a linear process, the Adult Timeline would no longer be valid simply because it hasn't happened yet, and could never happen because Link alters events in the past due to his quantum nature as a time traveller. So, Ganondorf is imprisoned before he can execute his maligned plans, and naturally would escape but Link is not in Hyrule anymore, he left Hyrule in search of meaning because he regrets not being remembered as the Hero of Time. It's probably not recognition he seeks, but respect for his achievements, because he battled the Evil King, Ganondorf from the future, and it was because of him, that the present Hyrule, er, the past that is, could benefit so greatly.
 
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None of them really. Nintendo has never much cared about the continuity, considering they've ignored it, avoided it entirely, or overridden it constantly ever since A Link to the Past.
And yet, the back of the box for ALttP places it before the original two games. The manual even goes into the origins of Ganon and the Triforce, which are expanded upon even further in OoT, which was confirmed to be a prequel to ALttP in interviews. Also, TWW was confirmed to be a sequel to OoT, with the game itself even referencing characters and events from OoT, TP being another sequel to OoT as mentioned in interviews, ST being an obvious sequel to TWW/PH, FS being confirmed to be the first tale at its release, TMC being a prequel to FS, SS being a prequel to everything(made clear ingame as well), etc.

Most games made have explicit connections, either through official sources such as interviews/manuals/boxes, ingame references, or both. This has been true ever since AoL.

There is no timeline that's especially important, valid, or anything like that; none of them matter. Even now with Hyrule Encyclopedia they've essentially just retconned a ton of details from WITHIN actual games, so if the contents of the games themselves aren't even sacred in their mind there's no way between-game connections are.

Aonuma has mentioned in MW that the HE timeline is canon, but the writers of the book said that they took liberties. While the former statement makes it clear that the new timeline(which retcons OoX) is canon, the latter statement means that its possible that some of the details from other parts of the book may not be 100% fact, like the Termina thing that people keep harping on about.
 

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