No, that is not true, the CT and AT are definitely not what-ifs. When Link traveled back in time it created a paradox. It is a quite common time theorem.
You could argue that the entire DT is a what-if scenario. But I think that is lazy. And it would be even more lazy if they started to add...
If you read the part on imprisioning war in Hyrule historia, it seems to be two-parts. One were Ganon destroys hyrule and there is a big battle with heavy casulties. And one part where the sages seal him while the hyrulian knights protects them. There is nothing stopping it from being hundred...
Well, Miyamoto probably did the design after christianity. Maybe he envisioned link to be a descendant of a templar or something. I think it is safe to retcon those small references we have in the early games.
Btw, I wouldn't be surprised if they changed it to not upset some americans. I have...
I think we can forgive some inconsistencies in the nes games. They are works of Miyamoto, and we all know he doesn't care about story. Pretend the crosses is the hyrule crest and it makes much more sense.
Spectacle Rock in BotW has a big gaping hole in one of the "eyes", in zelda 2 one of the "eyes" are a cave. Zelda 2 also has bird creatures, the fokka and fokkeru.
Sorry if I wasn't clear. The hero's shade is not a stalfos. He is a ghost (spirit) clad in armour. It is quite obvious. One of the main points people always drags up is that he got lost in the lost wood and therefore becomes a stalfos. But someone always object that he should then be a skull kid...
But this really makes the "link is dead theory" more plausible. One of the flaws has been that the Shade is an adult stalfos and only adults becomes stalfos. But link is actually an adult in a kids body in Majoras Mask. Hence his spirit would show up as an adult spirit, not as a kid.
My point is that he doesn't have to grow up to become a stalfos. The hero's shade is a ghost (restless soul), and link actually have the soul of an adult. So if he died in the lost wood he could come back as an adult ghost, instead of becoming a skullkid. In a sense he is neither a kid nor an...
The same thing could be said for the wind waker timeline, that it doesn't really exists since the past was changed.
@Cyber: Awesome theory. I really like it. Something must have made the timeline split, and it must exist in either the WW timeline or the defeated timeline.