One of the interesting things about Zelda was talking about your own chronological timeline. Entire threads would begin and end trying to decipher the timeline. Now, Nintendo killed this mystery, but that's not the worst part, oh no. The worst part is when Nintendo releases more Zelda games and decides to retcon this timeline. I expect a confusing mess of legendary (pun intended) proportions.

Yeath, it is also stated by Miyamoto in the introduction.

Several of the Links are known to be direct sequels with the same incarnations: Zelda 1 and 2 have the same Link; MM Link is OoT child Link, etc.. This has been said for many years before Hyrule Historia. That's more of a plot hole in OoT itself, but you're going to run into those issues for any story with time travel.

Also, the Master Sword was the thing that triggered the time travel, not the Ocarina of Time. The only thing resembling time travel in Skyward Sword are the Timeshift Stones in Lanayru Desert, but that doesn't really work in the same way (for one, it doesn't affect Link, only the surrounding environment).

EDIT: No, wait, there was also that bit in the Temple of Time; I forgot about that. It's still somewhat different because it'd going back in time, and also, Skyward Sword can only meaningfully end one way, since it forms the foundation of the entire rest of the series (creating the Master Sword, creating Ganon, etc.). The Dark World is a parallel dimension (corruption of the Sacred Realm), not a different time. The same applies to Lorule in ALBW. There has *always* been a timeline; LoZ2 was stated to be a direct sequel to LoZ1, and LttP was a prequel to both. OoT made it complicated, but it was always there.

Now, we can't be sure exactly how or when this timeline came to be, so it is possible that this is all a retcon. However, try to focus your attention on just the games up to and including OoT: LoZ1, LoZ2, LttP and of course OoT itself. (We'll ignore Link's Awakening because it's all a dream and its location in the timeline is caused purely by Link being the LttP incarnation.)

Because Link is sent back at the end of OoT, that game necessarily introduces two timelines: the adult one and the child one. Both are necessary: if the adult timeline doesn't exist, then there's no point to the storyline in the first place because nothing we do in that timeline changes anything. If the child timeline doesn't exist, then Link couldn't have been sent back at the end of the game.

The problem now is that the first games don't really fit with either of those timelines: Ganondorf has to acquire the Triforce in order for their stories to work, and neither timeline allows that. Therefore, there must be some way for Ganondorf to obtain the Triforces of Courage and Wisdom, and that kind of means he has to defeat both of them. In retrospect, the defeat (Fallen Hero timeline) is actually the most obvious way to resolve that inconsistency, but the conclusion of OoT doesn't cover that situation, so most people didn't think of it.

Again, maybe it's all a retcon brought about by years of fans clamoring for more timeline information, but I haven't really seen any better suggestions.

I completely agree. The timeline is interesting, but I don't really buy into it much. They said upfront that a timeline and a consistant history/story were not very important to them, it was gameplay. I hope that they just continue to make great Zelda games.

While some of it doesn't make sense, this isn't something they've just come up with now. A Link to the Past was always intended to be a prequel to LoZ and AoL and OoT was always intended to be a prequel to aLttP. The games were always meant to be connected.

Yeah, you are right about A Link to the past (I forgot all the Dark/Light worlds thing) and Ocarina (is the sord that trigger the time trivel).

It could be interesting if they do a Zelda where Ganon obtaind the Triforce in some way at the end of the game.

The Timeline is one of the reasons I called it quits on Skyward Sword. That, and looking over the alternate designs for many of the characters and finding that they unanimously chose the design for Fi because they wanted her to be based upon another design I don't like and find outright creepy, the Fairy Queen from Wind Waker. Fi could have been an awesome starlit design, and they instead unanimously chose one of the most deeply uncanny designs I've seen in a Nintendo game upon seeing it.

It honestly baffles me how good and how bad Nintendo is at the same time. (IE: Super Mario 3D World is amazing, but it still has a goddamned timer and they blew their first attempt to advertise it.)

Considering the artistic differences and massive variations in enemy design, I've chose instead of a timeline, a line of worlds. (And that Skyward Sword is an alternative to Wind Waker where the Golden Goddesses were drunk and spilled wine on their picture of Link, drunkenness also explaining most of the plot of Skyward Sword.)

The Legend of Zelda is one of those series that makes me loathe time travel.

I played Link to the Past, the one on the original gameboy, and the cartoony looking one on gamecube. They all seemed to have nothing to do with each other. I always just assumed the games were all independent of one another.

That wasn't Link to the Past, Link to the Past was on the SNES. The one you're thinking of is Link's Awakening, the first of the sequels. (Awakening, and then Seasons & Ages.)

The 'cartoony' one is Wind Waker.

Or he meant to say that he played a Link to the Past in addition to Link's Awakening and Windwaker.

I'll tell you my thought on this, or the way I think it works out: You have 3 timelines, all of which are shown and presented. Two of those timelines see Link removed entirely, and that's the original Child timeline, and the Adult timeline that you play in. Child link disappears into the future and is removed, this is Ganon's success story and leads to the war of ALTTP. The adult timeline is the defeat of Ganon where he is removed after sealing him away, leading to his revival and the flooding of the world. This leaves the ending, the third timeline that places Link before the first meeting with Zelda. In this timepoint, Link knows that Ganon needs him to open the seal to the Triforce, and has seen how he will attack the kingdom and the result of it. Stopping him here leads to Majora's Mask, then Twilight Princess.

This might seem absurd, but it's the explanation I can think of. Ganon is stopped in two worlds, by Adult Link and at the ending by Child Link, but not in his own original life. He's essentially erased from history, and the sword brings him to an parallel point in time between both ages. Where it gets confusing is trying to explain how the adult timeline is not concurrent with the first child timeline. However, you could also say that since he's required to travel back to his child age exactly once in the game (To get into the temple of Sands to fight Twinrova) that there's two adult timelines instead, one where Link was never able to get the last Medallion and left Ganon to his own devices, and one that he is defeated. The change by going backwards in time created it's own split, as did returning backwards to meet Zelda before Ganon's disruptions.

I didn't quite notice the sentance structure and stand corrected.

I think Nintendo is just trolling Zelda fans, and they're doing an excellent job of it too.

LttP and OoT were always intended to be prequels to 1 and 2 which had the same link.

LA link was supposed to be the same link as either LoZ 1 link or LttP link. MM Link is obviously the same as OoT Link.

Oracles Link is implied to be the same Link as LA, and possibly LoZ1 Link (since there was plans for a LoZ1 remake that was scrapped since linking the games together was complicated enough)

Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks are clear sequels to WW (though ST is a different Link). LBW is obviously a sequel to LttP, although it's a different Link.

I thought that Four Swords games and Minish Cap were supposed to be related since they both have the same bad guy or something.

The problems with the timeline come up with WW and TP, since both are kind of based off of BAD END scenarios but in different ways. Which is why the explanation of the current timeline was thought up.