Adventure of Link Back Story

[Mases]

There was a thread about this buried way back, but I wanted to emphasize a specific part of that topic. Now, some of you know that I'm not well-versed when it comes to Timeline stuff and I've just recently started to get my feet wet, so please help clarify things that might seem obvious to you, since this is all new to me.

In the Adventure of Link manual it states...

"In his grief, the prince placed the princess in this room. He hoped that someday she would come back to life. So that this tragedy would never be forgotten, he ordered every female child born into the royal household should be given the name Zelda."

This backstory tells what the actual 'Legend of Zelda' legend is all about and why every single female in the Royal Family is given the name Zelda. Now, the problem for me comes with the chronology of events here.

According to 99% of timelines I've seen, the first game is either The Minish Cap or Ocarina of Time, both of which have a Princess Zelda in the royal family who play prominent roles in the game. While almost everybody believes the Adventure of Link takes place much later in one of the brances of the timelines. So the question is, when exactly does the backstory of Adventure of Link take place?

To me, it makes logical sense for the AoL backstory to happen BEFORE either The Minish Cap or Ocarina of Time, (whichever you think may come first). I'm thinking that, outside of the creation stories, the Adventure of Link backstory has to be one of the first stories in the entire timeline as it's the only way how I can comprehend why every Zelda game is known as "The Legend of Zelda" and why all the Princesses in the Royal Family are known as Zelda.

However, from what I've been told, there are other things in the Adventure of Link backstory that have inconsistencies that make it "impossible" to take place before Ocarina of Time.

I'm having trouble understanding this, but I'd like to see what more established theorists out there think of this topic. Does the AoL backstory actually take place before any of the current Zelda games? Is this a glaring whole in the timeline? Is the backstory of Adventure of Link so outdated that it isn't taken literally? Any help with this topic would be much appreciated.

 

[Zeruda]

This doesn't pertain much to the BS's placement, but for a long while people were talking about the possibility that before the "law" set to name every girl born into the royal household "Zelda" it could have already been a tradition. With men, especially in medieval and even older times, sons were often named after their fathers, and so the name would constantly be passed down. It's possible that a similar tradition already existed before the events of AoL's backstory, and the "law" the prince created only made it so that they couldn't be named anything else. It's not at all probable if you think about it, but it is possible.

Just thought I'd mention that since it was a big topic a while ago... dunno if it still is or not..

 

[Shadsie]

The simplest answer is that AoL is an early Zelda game, Nintendo didn't know at that point that they'd be making more with different "Links" and "Zelda's" on other points in chronology and just didn't pay it much mind when they did.

It is something I've been wondering about. I think Zeruda's answer is simple and to the point - it could have already been a tradition, or even that "Zelda" was just a recurrent name, not happening in every generation, but it would seem that it would happen whenever a "Link" was born somewhere. - It could even be like the tradition in my own family of people using "Katie" somewhere in the naming of baby girls (as a first name or as a middle name) to honor my late grandmother whom everyone loved, it was basically the "great-grandchildren" tradition - I do not have the name, nor does my sister, but I have nieces named "Sabrina Kate" and "Katyln" and maybe they'll have great-grandchildren named after them.

And maybe it's not even strict... maybe the royal family at a given time has to feel that their daughter "carries the ancient spirit of Zelda" to bestow the portentious name. Who knows?

 

[Hero of Time]

I agree with Shadsie about it just being an early game. Back then they didn't know what they were gonna do with the series.

 

[Zemen]

Back then there were only two games in the timeline, the timeline was obvious (as AoL was a clear sequel) and the timeline only went in one direction, the future. It was easy for them to make a BS about the Zelda's name because at that time they were only going one direction with the series. Now, with each new game that comes out, there is a possibility of that game taking place in Ancient Hyrule or in some further advanced new Hyrule. The games are all over the place and I think that retcons anything the AoL BS messes up.