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Legend of Zelda Storyline Explained!
Tuesday, Nov. 21 2006 | Author: GriffithGameTrailers have recently released a series of videos that try to connect all the past and present Zelda games’ story lines together. And, surprisingly, their theory makes sense. Right now it is possible to link all of the games together, although I always imagined that all the stories were separated from each other (like the Final Fantasy Series, with the exception of the sequels).
Click next to “Continue reading” see the video, or on Visit Site for the original Link (get it? Link from Zelda? Oh forget it…)
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30 Responses for "Legend of Zelda Storyline Explained!"
November 22nd, 2006 at 1:36 pm
1ah…! memories!
Zelda 1, I loved that game, but somehow, after
that, not so much..
December 21st, 2006 at 2:49 am
2At the end of Oracle of Ages/Seasons, Link is seen getting on a boat. Wouldn’t that lead into Links Awakening? I think it’s weird to say that on his way back from MM, he just decided to take a boat back when he came on a horse, which also says what happened to Epona. You could fix this by keeping the theory, but putting Oracle of Seasons/Ages after MM and the other one after Wind Waker. Other than that, i think the timeline is PERFECT!!! And to be honest i’m probably wrong, but just a thought that bothered me.
December 28th, 2006 at 12:39 pm
3Then one thing that Puzzles me is that when you beat the Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Time, you link up the games to defeat Ganon!? So how would the be explained?
December 29th, 2006 at 4:21 pm
4In response to Patrick; at the end of Wind Waker, Link also boards a boat.
December 29th, 2006 at 5:47 pm
5Yes Kevin but could they link so each link goes to the other world or even more confuseing when they link that may fix the time split ?
January 1st, 2007 at 6:11 pm
6this is very clever but it is still leaving major gaps in the history, if link went back to a child in oot and warned the king of hyrule abou ganon thn wudnt he of stpped
him? thus the triforce remaining untouched.?? However the split idea is one theory i think this must als be a single timeline theory. Which i am to discover.
January 1st, 2007 at 6:25 pm
7I just realised some thing there can’t be a time split! thing about it water ever happens in past is gonna change the future isnt it like going back to stop gannon but how u no they told on him aye? Unless like u said he did tell him but hows tht destroy gannon?
January 2nd, 2007 at 11:20 am
8no but thn thts the part were the king sends ganon to be put in the twilight realm
January 28th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
9Hyperchao:
the most accepted theory about sending someone back in time states that the timeline goes on without the person in question and a new one begins, otherwise any changes would cancel each other out.
man… they are SOO wrong about Twilight Princess. I am pretty sure it comes after Link to the Past, but thats only because of what the ancient hero says after you learn the last technique.
of course the hourglass game might shake my theory too… cant wait for it!
February 17th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
10At the end of ocarina of time, link is given back his childhood. however, because of link’s ability to jump back and forth through time, Ganon was already sealed when he went back to his childhood. as he left for termina(majoras mask), ganon was somehow freed from the seal and gained control of hyrule because the hero was not there(explained in wind waker). there is no split timeline, there is only one Hyrule.
February 23rd, 2007 at 1:56 am
11I think this is how it all goes down…this
does contain spoilers from “Twilight Princess” so if you’ve yet to play the game or are not that far into the game yet DO NOT READ THIS…now, because the games themselves were not made in chronilogical order, you’re gonna have to take in affect that things that happened in past games are different now due to what we now know from the newest games…least that’s how I see it…like I said, this is just my theory on what happened…hopefully, the next Zelda game will finally clear up this debate…
First you have the three goddesses creating Hyrule, leaving the Triforce thus creating the Sacred Realm and all that…
(Spoiler!) Soon after that, dark forces attempted to steal the Triforce for their own use so they could rule over the Sacred Realm themselves. In response to this, the three goddesses unleashed the Four Light Spirts who banished the dark forces to the Twilight Realm where they would eventually become the Twili race. Sealed away, the Mirror of Twilight was created as the only link to the Twilight Realm and was to be guarded over…
Now that we got the early history out of the way, we get into the games…the events of “Minish Cap” take place then “Ocarina” where finally, our three main characters, Link, Zelda, and Ganon recieve their Triforce pieces which will forever link them…
At the game’s end, many believe in the whole split timeline theory but I do not…I believe Zelda merely restored Link, Hyrule, and herself to their past stages not time itself…if she did, Ganon would not be locked away, the six sages wouldn’t have been awakened, and so forth…plus, the big party at the game’s end plus the sages appearing on the moutain top leave me to believe everything is finally right in Hyrule (Castle Town and the Castle itself are restored, Zora’s Domain is unfrozen, etc.)…
SO, with our ONE timeline theory going, the events of “Majora’s Mask” occur and at the end, Link, the Hero of Time, returns to Hyrule to live out the rest of his life in the peace Zelda said would last for some time…
Many years later, the events of “A Link to the Past” take place with the descendants of Link and Zelda whom Ganon swore to kill…Ganon still trapped in the evil realm (in his demonic form) which he now taken over (hey, its plausable, he was only banished there at Ocarina’s end not imprisoned or anything, he once again gets his hands on the Triforce and attempts to take over Hyrule…at the game’s end, Ganon is destroyed however he’s not dead, possibly banished back to the Evil Realm with the Master Sword being laid to rest…
Even hunderds of more years later, the events of “Wind Waker” take place…we finally learn of the legend of the Hero of Time being passed down…Ganon once again rises, escaping from the Evil Realm yet and with no Hero of Time there to save the people, the goddessess flood Hyrule away, leaving it sunken beneath the Great Sea…years later, yet another descendant from our Ocarina Link arises, finds the Master Sword in Hyrule Castle, takes it, comes to realize who he is and who Tetra is (Zelda) as does Ganon…Link battles Ganon, freezing him in stone and watches as appearently Hyrule Castle and the Master Sword are lost to the Great Sea forever…
NOT SO FAST though! Now we have the events of “Twilight Princess”…spoilers lay ahead so stop now if you don’t want the game ruined…if you played this game, you probably like me realize we’re in a much more advanced Hyrule technologically…everything from Link’s gear to some dungeons some this…so it’s very plausable to me that Hyrule itself was either re-built or the flood waters receded…either way, Ganon somehow free himself from his stone prison and starts to wreck havoc in Hyrule again (don’t ask me how, he’s the King of Evil, he finds ways to do shit) but this time, the Sages finally decide to do something about it…they imprison him and decide to execute him…however, things go horribly wrong and in their panic, the Sages use the Mirror of Twilight, forgotten about for all these years, to banish Ganon to the Twilight Realm, where he exists without a physical form…
It’s here where the events of “Twilight Princess” take place…
There’s enough hints and clues throughout the game to lead me to believe this does exist in our timeline as well…such as Link being the Hero Chosen by the Gods, the Hero’s Spirit passing down techiques to you and informing you he himself was once a hero who regretted not passing his skills down and are of his bloodline (Ocarina Link perhaps?)…the Hero’s Bow protected by the Goron’s used by a legendary hero…the remains of old Kakariko village, guarded by the last surving Sheikah…stuff like that…
Well, that’s just my two sense on the timeline…I’m prolly wrong but to prevent myself from going nuts trying to figure stuff out, this is how I see it played out…
March 4th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
12In response to John Doe, I think that’s right about the Goddesses making the four light spirits in Early Hyrule. But I don’t think there’d be a drainage of the Great Sea. I like your thinking so I wrote this.
If you wanna know more about this theory, read this carefully, and make sure you have the time to do it.
(Flaw in the Timeline)
The split timeline theory also makes a lot of sense. Except for one DRASTIC thing.
In Orcarina of Time, Ganon gets into the Sacred Realm, via link. When he goes to the future, it’s Link, and Ganondorf who are going as themselves. They’re not turning into their future selves. Zelda is, as she tells link that he was sealed in their for 7 years.
Now the split timeline theory may work. But if Ganondorf is sealed as is self in Hryule B, then, his past self couldn’t exsist in Hryule A. Since it’s the same Link and Ganondorf traveling to the future.
This game timeline is so complex, because it’s hard for the human to comprehend different dimensions and timelines.
Another thing I want to state is that TP probably takes place 200 to 400 years after OOT. Mainly because the map has been changed with the snow mountains, the Ordon Province was put in Hryule, and Castle town is bigger. Plus the Eldin bridge, Temple of Time being moved to Forbidden Woods (Later the Sacred Grove), and Kakariko Village (Hidden Village) being moved.
After TP, it seems like many centuries past by into WW. Because the WW legend of OOT is very old. And it feels like 1,000 years to 1,500 years, possibly, from the time distance of OOT to WW.
Back to Ganon and Link from OOT in both timelines. Since Ganon as himself and Link as himself going to the future with Link going back to Hyrule A, and Ganon being in the Sacred Realm in Hyrule B, then Ganon couldn’t exsist in Hyrule A. And he couldn’t be reincarnated since the Gerudo females make a male every 100 years.
Unless there is way for Ganon to reincarnate himself, then there cannot be a split timeline.
But if there is, it’d be like this.
-Ganon in Sacred Realm in Timeline B.
-Link in Hryule and beyond in Timeline A.
-Zelda in BOTH timelines.
Hyrule A, the games are in the correct order in my opinion.
Hyrule B, the games are in the correct order, aswell. Except for Orcale of Ages/Seasons being after Wind Waker. I don’t believe in Hyrule being De-flooded. I believe though, that if the game makers found a brilliant and sensible way to make this work, then I’d accept it.
(Possible final Zelda Game)
Another cool thing about the split timeline theory is that, if this is the real story line, then the last Zelda game could be something like this…
*After WW*:
The Great Sea may still exsist or the whole thing isn’t flooded anymore.
Wherever they are, Link is on an Adventure (and is an adult). He meets with Zelda later in the game and somehow, they come accross story articles from the Legend from OOT. If this happens, these articles could be 2,000 to 3,000 years old since they were written in OOT.
They discover what Zelda B does to split the timeline, and they discover that there is ANOTHER Hyrule, and they have the chance to merge the timelines into one again.
This game could involve the SAME Ocarina of Time from the game (OOT), and would thus make, a Hero of Time 2. The Hero of Time 2 would fight Ganon for a last time or something like that and would somehow get Zelda to play the OOT inorder to merge both Hryules into one again. Thus having the Goddesses destroy Ganon for ETERNITY.
That is how I’d finish off the series.
Also during the game, the storyline could be you playing 2 Links throughout the game. With like 9 dungeons in both Hyrules, thus creating 18 dungeons in total. Cause for the timelines to merge, the ALMOST exact same thing would have to happen at the same time.
So after one section in the game in Hyrule B, it would skip to Hyrule A, until the end of the game. Where you would make Hyrule.
That’s how’d I’d finish the series if Miyamoto eventually had to.
It’s just a cool idea I’ve been thinking of for the past couple of days.
March 5th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
13Im pretty lol at the moment.
Cauz you are alle in one BIIIIG MAJOR GAP
Look at the first game “A link tot he past” he kills ganon with a light arrow and so on bla bla.
go look at “Orcania of time” WASENT GANNON DEAD ?, How did link become a kid.
And why the fuck does he have to kill him the same way as in the first game ??
THAT SUXX, The zelda games had never had any connections execpt Orcania of time leading to Majoras mask and onto twilight Princess
NO MORE
March 6th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
14Ganon didn’t die in OOT. He was put in the Sacred Realm, then escaped. Then I guess later on, he’s put into the Twilight Realm after Twilight Princess, then dies. But is brought back to life, which probably later resolves into Hyrule being flooded, and WW, starting.
It doesn’t matter what he did in Link to the Past to kill Ganon. They killed him with light arrows in OOT, TP, and WW aswell.
And in OOT, he’s a kid because it’s a different link. This timeline says that Link turns goes into Link to the Past after the other games, unless there’s a different Link in Four Swords.
They do connect all the series in a subtle way anyways. The main thing is Ganon being in both Hyrules… unless… they have a sacred realm in Hyrule A aswell!
March 8th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
15the events in Links awakening take place after you (link) have “fulfilled the hyrulian prophecy of legendary hero and destroyed the evel tyrant ganon.” now ” the land of hyrule enjoyed only a precarious peace. who knows what threats may airse from ganon’s ashes? the restless people murmured as they knitted their brows and shook their heads.ever vigilant, you (link) decided that to journey away from hyrule on a quest for enlightenment, in search of wisdom that would make you better able to withstand the next threat to your homeland.” It goes on to say that your ship you were in took you away from hyrule. Links awakening clearly is not a result of link heading home from termania. i took this from the links awakening original black and white game boy instruction booklet. LA takes place after you have DESTROYED ganon in hyrule. it can only of took place after link to the past or the original legend of zelda. i really like the idea of the split time line though, and i propose that LA be moved after the original legend of zelda.
March 10th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
16The timeline theory after OOT actually is correct. A bit before WW was realeased, at E3, the Nintendo announcers said there was a parallel universe in which Wind Waker is long after Adult Link in OOT, and MM is child Link in OOT.
But obviously WW does look like it takes place, MANY centuries after OOT since there looks like there’s more technology with the Windmill on Windfall Island and stoves and lamps in it. I don’t think WW takes place only 100 years after OOT. It seriously looks like atleast 1000 years after.
March 18th, 2007 at 11:42 am
17let me just say something:
the sacred realm has no timeline it is too powerful to be ever set in stone. there is only one sacred realm and that connects both hyrules together and ganon uses that to timehop from oracle of seasons and ages back to oot.
March 25th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
18Wait that’s right…
So if they did that Final Game idea… it could be like…
Timeline B:
Link from WW, or the son of Link from WW is 15, or 17 years old and is on Outset Island at the Great Sea.
Somehow he gets wound up in somthing that brings him on a journey. Eventually on his boat, he will cross the area where the Tower of the Gods is, and then the Tower will rise again… assuming that it went back under after the events of WW were over.
The Ring of Light appears and Link goes back to Hyrule. Which isn’t completely flooded anymore, when it was at the end of WW.
He goes in the Castle and meets Zelda and then she gets a book to him that says something about the legend from The Ocarina of Time.
The book will mention something like using the Ocarina of Time to join the parallel people back into one (mentioning the Split Timeline). So Link’s adventure gets bigger and he has to unlock all the sages from the Sacred Realm to get into the Sacred Realm.
Now in Timeline B, he won’t get the Ocarina of Time, because he has the Wind Waker, and the Ocarina of Time is in Timeline A that was passed down in Link A’s family.
At the same time, both Links are on a different quest.
Timeline A Link is trying to find the Ocarina of Time by collecting all the triforce pieces (by that I mean the Triforce of Courage, Wisedome, and Power) to get to the Sacred Realm where the Ocarina of Time was left by the sages of OOT.
Timeline B Link has to the awaken the sages in his world to get in, and use the Wind Waker at the same time as Link A’s Ocarina.
I don’t know, it’d be way to complex and I’d love to give this idea to Myamoto in the future when the series has more prolonged. This would be a great idea for the LOZ series.
July 19th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
19u guys r 4getting a HUUUGE piece of the puzzle, first of all the link in every game starts out not knowing he’s a hero and in most he starts without a sword or sheild, and in oracle of seasons, a being says that the golden dragon thing (the last boss in seasons) was just a puppet of the evil king and twinrova (twins) will rule hyrule
July 25th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
20well i think the split timeline theory is very confusing but it tends to make the most sense
the reason why there are two zeldas and two ganons but only one link is because link was sent to the past. when link takes the master sword out/puts it back in (referring to OoT), he is the only one who jumps through time. gannondorf doesnt automatically jump seven years because he spends those seven years taking over hyrule and ruling it. link is the only one caught in suspended animation.
now, zelda in the past and ganon in the past continue to exist because without them existing, their future selves cannot be. link’s future self, however, is the only one that is transported back to its original time.
now, i dont completely agree with the placing of the SNES a link to the past. because it explicitly states in the game that ganon was sealed away by the seven sages, i believe it should be in hyrule B. similarly, i do see what they are trying to say: that past link tells the king what he did, but since ganon was sealed in the future, past link’s story is referred to as only legend and not an actual occurence. so supposedly, it could go either way
now, what of twilight princess? in TP, ganon has been banished to the twilight realm using the mirror of twilight by the sages. now, because there is a reference to the sages, we have to assume it occurs on hyrule B because in hyrule A, the sages never had to be awakened to seal away gannondorf. so in hyrule B, ganon was originally sealed away in the sacred realm, but when he eventually escaped, the sages sought to destroy ganon, but were for some reason forced to banish him to the twilight realm using the mirror of twilight. so he had to live bodyless in the twilight realm with the rest of the twili. the twili were a race of banished people from early hyrule when everyone sought the triforce. when zant was PO’ed because he wasnt chosen as the king of the twilight realm, he found gannondorf as a god and ganon used zant as a vessel for his power. so when zant entered hyrule’s realm (whatever its called) he brought with him the powers of ganon. then, when link eventually destroys zant, ganons powers are released and he is able to come back to hyrule, where u have to fight him again
there still remains no connection between twilight princess and wind waker, considering there hasnt been a game in which hyrule was flooded. also, ganon is mysteriously ressurected again by another force, so hopefully there will be more games to bridge this gap. so im just assuming that that/those game/games is/are still in the works. i hope. so many questions…man im so anxious!
July 26th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
21i believe that their just recreations of the same game the only game that is quite different is majora’s mask
in ocarina of time
their are the stone head things lying around Hyrule
once you unlock the mask of truth you can speak
to the heads and they will let out surprising information
July 26th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
22wait in the beginning of ocarina of time their was a war! with g anon I think ocrania
is going to be last
July 28th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
23We cannot just assume because there is reference to the sages in tp that it belongs in hyrule B because they may not be,and i do not believe them to be, the same sages as in OoT, but more likely, the sges or”wise men” (i think theyre called) in ALttP. Not to mention, both Tp and WW take place about a century after OoT, so they are meant to take place at the same time in opposite timelines. Due to this, providing the video’s timeline is correct, i believe that TP takes place between ALttP and OoA/S in Timeline A, at the same time as WW in Hyrule B
now this leads to the question of “how did the sages have ganondorf in TP?” Well, if you recall, in TP the sages are trying to execute ganondorf. I believe that when he was defeated in ALttP, he was locked away by the sages. But when they tried to execute him in TP, he did not die because he had the triforce of power. I think he must have obtaied this prior to ALttP because he was able to return. That, or Agnihm was able to retrieve it for him, possibly being the power that may have allowed agnihm to bring ganon back, if he was ever truly gone.
No game including ganon/ganondorf is likely to have taken place after TP, because he seemingly ACTUALLY DIED at the end of the game, or after WW in the other timeline, because it ends with the master sword in his head, the drowning of Hyrule, and his being turned to stone (in no game have you retrieved the master sword from ganondorf’s head).
this is my idea of how TP fits into the split timeine. i personally agree with the video otherwise, and i hope i have brought up some interesting points that may have never been considered. I just honestly do not believe that WW and TP could possibly fit in the same timeline.
In closing I would like to say, “LoZ RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
July 29th, 2008 at 1:06 am
24There is an extra bit from twilight princess. You can see by travelling through Hyrule that a couple of fields with NO rivers or lakes nearby have either water still in them…..or have dried up waterbeds. That could support the theory that the flood waters did in fact recede.
July 29th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
25That is a possibility, but WW and TP, as i said both take place about a century after OoT, at the same time. Ganondorf was brought back by zant, so that could explain, if they were in the same timeline, how ganondorf was freed, but then how would the master sword have appeared in the sacred meadow thing in TP? Zant could not have done that
August 9th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
26you guys completely left out the gameboy games….
August 15th, 2008 at 11:09 am
27personally, I think it hardly makes sense, just parts of it.. They makers probably wasnt thinking about it making sense until later, so there are always going to be little gaps that you cant fit together..
August 19th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
28I feel that if you can resolve it into a single timeline, that would be the best way. The split timeline theory is a bit like cheating to make it work, and it has a lot of problems with it like JohnDoe said. So IF someone could figure it out, then that would probably be the best explanation
Here’s one intriguing possibility though that the split timeline theory provides: What if Dark Link is somehow just the Link from the other timeline someohow interacting or being channelled? Killing dark link doesn’t necessarily have to mean that he’s dead, just that the channel to that alternate Link is severed.
August 25th, 2008 at 12:52 am
29Hey, i think we are forgeting a couple things here that could clear things up
1)in oot there are six sages, the same number of sages that was origanaly in TP, before one died
2)ganon AND ganondorf. 2 different evil beings. It could be that one of them could die, but the other would still be there.
3) in sesons, in order to change the seson, you need to go on stumps that remind of the stumps in minish cap
4)link has traveled to the dark world once before through a mirror, and in sesons travels through portal that are uncanny to the TP portals.
5)mm has u transforming a lot, and in tp, u can transform into a wolf. i don’t know if that could be a possible connection, but u never know
6)in tp, the master sword gets light energy pumped into it in the twilight relm. WHY. if it was allready the blade of evils bla bla bla, why would it need the boost?
Trying to help
October 5th, 2008 at 11:56 am
30you guys are all forgeting 1 thing in phantoms hour glass link leaves in a boat with the pirats from WW and mabe there are thousands of hyrules and every thing is happinig all at once and all the links are going to met up at the last game and that link(OoT)and zelda(OoT) are siblings.
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