Timeline For Beginners

[Garo]

Hello ZD Theory community - I have a proposition for you guys.

Recently, the lure of Skyward Sword has led a number of my friends to catch up and play the entire Zelda series, including a lot of the older games that they skipped over. This has been wildly successful, and a lot of them are now very stalwart fans of the series. The problem I am running into, however, is explaining the timeline to them.

Several of them have expressed an interest in the timeline, being fantasy fans themselves, but I am having difficulty explaining to them the intricacies of the timeline. They've unfortunately turned to a lot of the highly flawed YouTube timelines - linear ones, even. So I set out to create a definitive introduction to what we know about the timeline.

Here is my most recent attempt at distilling all this information into a less intimidating, simple to understand form: http://zeldadungeon.net/forum/entry...ces-Explaining-the-Timeline-for-New-Theorists (it was too long for a thread)

I would ask you guys - my fellow theorists - to critique the work and see if I have omitted important information, or am not entirely objective. I want to be able to have a link to send people to and say "This is what we KNOW, and this is what people are still debating." It would make the whole business a lot less difficult to understand and much more accessible to new theorists, and that is always a good thing. The Timeline isn't simple, but it doesn't have to be cumbersome.

(Mods, not sure if you guys would consider this sort of thread against the spirit of the theory forum or not, but if you need to lock/move/etc, I understand.)

 

[Forlong]

"Four Swords Adventure" cannot occur after "Twilight Princess". The Gerudo make an appearance in that game, yet they appear to have died out prior to the events of TP. I also don't think it makes much sense for Ganondorf to be after that trident in FSA unless he doesn't know about the Triforce. Why go for a pistol, when you can have an assault riffle? Other than that, it's good. The Four Swords arc has always been a source of constant irritation for timeline theorists.

Cudos on putting together the separate arcs first. That's what I did. The only difference between your timeline and mine is that I put the Four Swords arc between "Skyward Sword" and "Ocarina of Time" instead of where you put it, and it took me a while before I decided on that.

 

[Michael Heide]

I can't find the link right now, but I'm 100% sure that Aonuma and/or Miyamoto have said that Ocarina of Time was the first game in the timeline before Skyward Sword was developed. That would make OoT the second game in the timeline, not Minish Cap/FS/FSA or any other game.

 

[Forlong]

I can't find the link right now, but I'm 100% sure that Aonuma and/or Miyamoto have said that Ocarina of Time was the first game in the timeline before Skyward Sword was developed. That would make OoT the second game in the timeline, not Minish Cap/FS/FSA or any other game.

That was said before "Four Swords" was released, thus it can come before it.

 

[Deniro]

That was said before "Four Swords" was released, thus it can come before it.

Nope, the most recent interview stating that is talking about Skyward Sword, however, Miyamoto and Aounoma is saying very different things about the timeline, and do very often change their opinion, so what they say isn't always right, at least not for a long time

 

[JuicieJ]

The only problem with the FSS being placed on the canon is everything right now. There is literally no placement for those games without any kind of contradiction or inconsistency. (I've gone into that so many times before, though, and I really don't feel like going into it again.) I will say, though, that (imo) the most logical thing to say is this:

............/WW/PH--ST
SS--OoT
............\MM--TP__ALttP/(OoX)/LA--LoZ/AoL

-(?)MC--FS/FSA

 

[UraZelda]

i think the timline is
child mm tp mc
ss OoT
adult lttp ww ph st
and all the rest you can place in any order exept things like mc coming after fs

 

[Vault Boy]

thanks for making this. I never really like to discuss the timeline because it is so complicated.

 

[DuckNoises]

MrMosley, one of our most prominent theorists and former admin, actually made a timeline guide a long way back. I recommend they take a look at that. It's stickied in the Theory section.

 

[Garo]

The only problem with the FSS being placed on the canon is everything right now. There is literally no placement for those games without any kind of contradiction or inconsistency. (I've gone into that so many times before, though, and I really don't feel like going into it again.) I will say, though, that (imo) the most logical thing to say is this:

............/WW/PH--ST
SS--OoT
............\MM--TP__ALttP/(OoX)/LA--LoZ/AoL

-(?)MC--FS/FSA

I assume that the Seal War would be somewhere in that "____" between TP and ALttP? If so, then yeah I fully agree.

@DuckNoises: I saw that, and it's a very useful guide, but it doesn't give a very good impression on where the main points of contention in the theory currently are - that's really what I was trying to get at with this. Something that people can turn to, read over, and then jump right into discussion, rather than having to post their own (most likely flawed, since nobody is right the first time) theory, have people critique it, and then go back and understand their mistakes, and THEN join the main discussion.

 

[Forlong]

Nope, the most recent interview stating that is talking about Skyward Sword, however, Miyamoto and Aounoma is saying very different things about the timeline, and do very often change their opinion, so what they say isn't always right, at least not for a long time

Really? I'd have to see that, but it looks like that's going to complicate things even farther. The Four Swords games were already hard enough to deal with. Capcom, someday, I will have my revenge!

 

[JuicieJ]

I assume that the Seal War would be somewhere in that "____" between TP and ALttP? If so, then yeah I fully agree.

Yes, I use the "__" to both say the Seal War would have to go there and that I don't actually say that's what the "timeline" is. I fully acknowledge that ALttP and the other original games (and maybe the OoX) are not officially anywhere on the canon at this point.

 

[Scorpion's Claw]

You should write (under oot) that link is sealed away in 7 years, so that people ho haven't plaid oot understand why he was sent back in time...

And the fact that there are no rail roads in minish cap is not an clear evidence against that placement. Having to add tracks in all following games would make it hard or almost impossible for Nintendo to make new games, and they always try to make the timeline open for easy placement of new games, wherever they want to. So you should not wait for another game with rail roads to add something on the adult timeline, since that will probably never happen....

Except for that: Nice guide It was fun and informal to read