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Zelda Theory Resources and FAQ

Locke

Hegemon
Site Staff
Joined
Nov 24, 2009
Location
Redmond, Washington
Theories require evidence. To help promote the construction of sound theories, this thread aims to provide easy access to many types of resources and to answer some frequently asked questions.

Hyrule Historia

Translations of the timeline portion of the Hyrule Historia can be found at Glitterberri. This details the official timeline, overseen by Aonuma himself. As more games come out, this timeline and descriptions within it will become obsolete, and more information will be required to patch up the timeline and mythology.


Word of God

This is an ongoing project, but many interviews can be found on the Wiki or the old interviews page. They are in the process of being migrated from the latter to the former. Assistance in this process is appreciated.

The same goes for specific developer quotes. Many relevant quotes have been gathered on the quotes page, but they will be moving to the Wiki along with the interviews project.


Primary Resources

Text Dumps - Good if you know part of a quote and need the exact wording; all-inclusive.
Scripts - Game quotes organized as they're encountered in the story; some quotes may be omitted.
Text Comparisons - Comparing the wording between different languages or different versions.
Re-Translations* - Fan-translated from Japanese with the intention of preserving the original meaning and getting a more accurate look at the original intent than what NoA's localization gives us.
Internal Images* - Screenshots of certain symbols, patterns, and objects found in-game.
*currently hosted at ZeldaInformer

Secondary Resources

Instruction Booklet Scans
Text Versions
Game packaging can be found in its game's Gallery under "Official Artwork".

FAQ

What does the abbreviation ____ mean?

Here's a list of commonly used abbreviations, in alphabetical order. Some things have many different abbreviations, so if you can't find one, use ctrl+f. Capitalization may vary.

ALttP, LttP: A Link to the Past (game)
AoL, TAoL: The Adventure of Link (game)
AST: Ancient Stone Tablets (game)
AT: Adult Timeline
BS: Backstory, or Bandai Satellaview (i.e. BS Zelda) (game)
CitS: City in the Sky (from TP)
CoH: Creation of Hyrule
CT: Child Timeline
DNH, KDNH: (King) Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule (from WW)
DT: Downfall Timeline, or Dark Tribe
DoT: Door of Time
DW: Dark World
FoE: Link: The Faces of Evil (game)
FP:TRR, FPTRR, TRR: Freshly Picked: Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland (game)
FS: Four Swords (game), or the titular item
FSA: Four Swords Adventures (game)
GDT: Great Deku Tree
GF: Great Flood (WW's BS)
IW: Imprisoning War (LttP's BS)
KoRL, TKoRL: (The) King of Red Lions (from WW)
LA: Link's Awakening (game)
LoZ, TLoZ: The Legend of Zelda (game), or the series in general
MC, TMC: The Minish Cap (game), or the titular item
MM: Majora's Mask (game), or the titular item/entity
MS: Master Sword
OoA: Oracle of Ages (game), or the character within the game, Nayru
OoS: Oracle of Seasons (game), or the character within the game, Din
OoT: Ocarina of Time (game), or the titular item
OoX: OoA and OoS collectively
PH: Phantom Hourglass (game), or the titular item
PoT: Pedestal of Time
SR: Sacred Realm, or Silent Realm
SS, SwS: Skyward Sword (game), or the titular item
ST: Spirit Tracks (game)
SW: Seal War (same as Imprisoning War, but a more literal Japanese translation)
SZ: Sleeping Zelda (the one in AoL)
SZS: Sleeping Zelda Story (AoL's BS)
TBF: Tingle's Balloon Fight (game)
ToC: Triforce of Courage
ToP: Triforce of Power
ToT: Temple of Time
TotG: Tower of the Gods (from WW)
TotOK: Temple of the Ocean King (from PH)
ToX: the Triforce as a whole
ToW: Triforce of Wisdom
TP: Twilight Princess (game)
TR: Twilight Realm
TWW, WW: The Wind Waker (game), or the titular item
WoG: Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon (game)
WotOK: World of the Ocean King (from PH)
ZA: Zelda's Adventure (game)
(did I miss any?)


What's the best way to represent my timeline?

While some, especially Youtubers, like to make fancy images involving things like box artwork, at a forum it's generally best to use a standard text format. This standard has the following conventions:

First, use game abbreviations, from the list above. These will be arranged horizontally to represent the timeline.
- or -- (a single or double dash, with or without spaces) represents some time passing between two games that feature different Links. (e.g. SS -- OoT)
/ or \ (a forward or backward slash without spaces) connects two games with the same Link. (e.g. LoZ/AoL)
The split is accomplished using several lines, with "/" and "\" branching off OoT to denote the start of side timelines. Side timelines must begin with a string of periods (.........) in order to line up properly. Spaces will not work. So, the official timeline might look something like:

........................../ - WW/PH - ST
SS - MC - FS - OoT - LttP/OoX/LA - LoZ/AoL
..........................\MM - TP - FSA


What is the official timeline?

See above.


Besides the Historia, what other confirmations are there of game placements?

The following games were marketed as sequels/prequels:
LoZ/AoL
OoT - LttP
OoT/MM
MC - FS (- or /) FSA
OoT - (WW/TP) (WW and TP are parallel, on different timelines)
WW/PH - ST
SS - OoT


Why do you people waste your time with such a stupid thing as a video game timeline?

We don't serve your kind here.





I may also add links to threads dealing with frequent discussion topics to the FAQ section. Meanwhile, if you have any simple questions that you think have probably been asked before and wouldn't solicit too much discussion, go ahead and post them here.
 
I still don't understand why people feel the urge to make timelines after the official one has been revealed but to each their own.


Locke said:
Why do you people waste your time with such a stupid thing as a video game timeline?

We don't serve your kind here.

I lol'd.

Also, the one thing I don't understand is why it's WW/PH not WW-PH because I'm pretty sure PH was confirmed to be a WW sequel.
 
M

Mom

Guest
Wow, I never thought about actually writing out a timeline. My friends and I were just discussing this a couple of days ago - much confusion!
 
C

chirhomin

Guest
Thanks for the information. Very streamlined and helpful!!!!
 

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