The Tunic of Twilight and the Tunic of the Winds shirt existing in the same timeline as they do in Tears of the Kingdom presents a problem! Does Twilight Princess take place before or after Wind Waker in Tears of the Kingdom's past in the 4th timeline?
............../WW>PH>ST
/SS>OoT--MM>TP>FSA
|............. \ALttP>LA>OoS>OoA>ALBW>TFH>EoW>Z1>Z2
\BotW>TotK
You need the parallel events before BotW/TotK. There are SS, MC, OoT, MM, TP, WW, PH, ST, ALttP, LA, OoA, OoS, ALBW, Z1 and Z2 references in BotW/TotK.
What I'm saying is you need to make a parallel event timeline. What's the pitch for that 4th timeline order?
A 4th timeline is not far-fetched when it's abiding by rules established in the series already and can actually serve a purpose. Is it complicated and convoluted? Of course it is, but that’s the nature of time travel. A merging of timelines like it's DC comics or a linear timeline are a lot harder sells here as it is imposing new rules to the series.
I'm not saying it's farfetched, I'm saying it's impractical.
I'm just trying to put myself inside Nintendo and try to see where they're possibly going with this and a 4th timeline just seems very functional from a development standpoint. As a fan, I get wanting the series to feel more connected, but I also think people are putting too much thought into how these games connect to past games as opposed to what they mean for the future.
A 4th timeline is functional if you are going to de-canonize the references to past games in BotW and TotK. That would be unprecedented.
That isn't solving the problem, it's parsing the problem out. Splitting up the franchise's inconsistent storytelling into another timeline that doesn't actually exist in game is just building another lane in the interstate and hoping it helps with congestion. There is a single real solution to the series' chronic continuity problems: either hire better writers or stop stepping on the toes of the ones you already have.
Or we all go linear and work it out from there. When all the games reference each other across timelines, a split timeline is a major problem. The more and more we talk about this, the less and less feasible it is for the current in-universe canon status quo to remain.
Some games obviously have stronger connections to eachother, some are a lot more loose, others don't even connect at all. But given what we know about Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, a new timeline is not outside the realm of possibility with this series and fits Nintendo's pattern with these releases constantly separating themselves so drastically from the last.
It's not outside the realm of possibility, but it doesn't solve the problem.