What is happening during the time travel in Ocarina of Time?

[Jacob van Eyck]

I was perusing another thread and started thinking about how time travel is presented to us in OoT. Why is it that Link is reverted back into a child after going back in time? Another user suggested it is his mind that is traveling back and forth but if this is true it would mean Link's body would remain in Hyrule at the end of the game perhaps in a comatose state..

Why is this time travel so different than what we see in Skyward Sword?

It is something that seems almost incoherent if I think about it too much and I'd really like some more input!

 

[Spiritual Mask Salesman]

Well obviously it was a gameplay mechanic they wanted to achieve even if its not realistic, he needs to be in his child body to get into areas his adult body can't reach, like the Bottom of the Well, and parts of the Spirit Temple.

The most common theory I've seen is that every time he places or picks up the Master Sword he is appearing in an alternate reality that is basically similar in every way to the "past" or "future". And it does seem like his mind is traveling rather than his body but I don't think him traveling away leaves behind a lifeless body, it's probably more like he takes over that body briefly to do what he needs, and when he travels ahead in time 7 years by pulling the Master Sword the body he left behind regains its own consciousness, and vice versa.

Problems like these are bound to happen though when time travel is a gameplay mechanic that isn't explained well.

 

[Ryuu Kage Desu]

I'm in the camp of his mind being transferred, between time frames, though I also think that having endless slices of reality needlessly complicates things. If the mind is transfered back, the moment it left, we don't need to worry about a comatose boby, elapsed time, or mostly similar parallel realities. At the end of the game, we have more room for speculation because Zelda's magic is a different source, and it appears that the older version of Link actually does vanish, allong with the master sword, I might add.

In different games, we are shown different forms of time travel. I broke most of it down in this thread; https://zeldadungeon.net/forum/threads/time-travel-and-time-manipulation.61120/. It goes further than your question, here, but there is another explanation that I will bring over. Time echoes. It's kinda like fake, or extremely localized, time travel. In the end, the traveler and current day are changed by the new events, but the past is not. It could be that after pulling the sword the first time, Link's mind was sent back via time echo, until the end, where he was really sent back.

 

[Jacob van Eyck]

Okay that gives me a lot to think about. I'll check out that thread, thanks. One idea that I really liked was the idea of a linear timeline. I saw you on that thread as well. How do you feel about that concept in relation to the ideas presented in this thread? Like, does the way time travel happens in OoT preclude the linear timeline?

 

[Ryuu Kage Desu]

Okay that gives me a lot to think about. I'll check out that thread, thanks. One idea that I really liked was the idea of a linear timeline. I saw you on that thread as well. How do you feel about that concept in relation to the ideas presented in this thread? Like, does the way time travel happens in OoT preclude the linear timeline?

I'm personally more of a fan of a split universe. I've even suggested that the animated series is yet another timeline, avoided by Zelda, by sending Link back. It's more of a fun jab, than a legitimate theoy because the series is not cannon.

The best way to combine what we see, and a liniar timeline, in my opinion, is the idea @Mikey the Moblin had, with a wheel timeline. In my mind, it's more of a coil, with each time around playing out differently, due to the events of each previous time around.

 

[Dio]

I dont believe Link is actually travelling through time in the same universe exactly but rather hopping to alternate universes. Though the first time he pulls the sword in OOT he is simply sealed and sleeping for 7 years.

When he returns to the past I expect he is actually entering another universe that is a copy of his original yet is 7 years younger. For him it seems as though he is travelling through time but actually he's altering the course of history for a different universe. This goes well with the split timeline which is rather a chart of 3 parallel universes. This doesn't mean there is only 3 but in a multiverse there can be an infinite number of different ones so it is best to show the ones relevant to the games.

 

[Skunk]

One way to think about it is that time/Hylia adjusts Link to an age consistent with the time he's in. Link isn't present for the seven years between when he pulls the Master Sword, or at most he's present inside the sword chamber in the Temple of Time. I think of it as Link being moved from one time to another, which would mean he just gets aged up in however much pseudo-time it takes to move him. If he stays in the chamber though, he might just be knocked out but kept alive for that time. To be fair, I haven't played Ocarina of Time in a while, so I bet Rauru says something about it when you get there.

 

[Mikey the Moblin]

When link pulls the master sword for the first time he gets transported to the spirit realm and just stays there for 7 years
When he pulls it as an adult he must just stay there for negative 7 years

 

[Jacob van Eyck]

The only problem I have with the multiverse theory is that it makes the main conflict of the game basically meaningless. If there are infinite universes what are we really trying to save? Nothing really matters at that point as you might save one or two but infinite versions of you are failing and succeeding all the time. It almost seems like hell to me haha.
Also, everyone in the original universe you left is basically screwed at that point and those are technically the people you know and love. Not to mention that if there really are infinite universes there has to be one in which infinite universes are impossible...
I definitely tend to overthink things like this..

 

[Ryuu Kage Desu]

The only problem I have with the multiverse theory is that it makes the main conflict of the game basically meaningless. If there are infinite universes what are we really trying to save? Nothing really matters at that point as you might save one or two but infinite versions of you are failing and succeeding all the time. It almost seems like hell to me haha.
Also, everyone in the original universe you left is basically screwed at that point and those are technically the people you know and love. Not to mention that if there really are infinite universes there has to be one in which infinite universes are impossible...
I definitely tend to overthink things like this..

This is the refuge of over thinking.

I agree that having an infinite multiverse does come with a lot of problems, and doesn't match the games we get. My solution is a timeline split, due to cause and effect, rather than a branching multiverse. I've theorized that the natural state of Ocarina of Time, would have young Link try facing Ganon, with no time travel, and no chance of winning. We don't play this game, and it leads to the downfall timeline. One of the triforce wishes in that timeline, A Link to the past and Zelda 2 seem the most likely, made it possible to alter the past. This allows the game we play, branching to a different timeline. Then again, at the end of the game.

 

[Jacob van Eyck]

I am heavily leaning toward the linear timeline but I definitely respect your view and it is the one that makes the most sense after linear in my mind. Especially factoring in the triforce wishes. I never really thought of the triforce making an otherwise impossible timesplit possible. Maybe the triforce created another universe or 2 for these events to play out differently? But then is the wish really coming true? As the past of the wisher isn't really changing, it's changing somewhere else..

 

[GZ Zelda]

I am heavily leaning toward the linear timeline but I definitely respect your view and it is the one that makes the most sense after linear in my mind. Especially factoring in the triforce wishes. I never really thought of the triforce making an otherwise impossible timesplit possible. Maybe the triforce created another universe or 2 for these events to play out differently? But then is the wish really coming true? As the past of the wisher isn't really changing, it's changing somewhere else..

The Triforce Wish Theory only really accounts for the Downfall timeline, as that's the only timeline where the wish to "restore Hyrule" is made. It still doesn't explain how Zelda's time travel creates an alternate reality for the child timeline to take place in, and it also should erase the timeline? It doesn't really make sense.

 

[Ryuu Kage Desu]

The Triforce Wish Theory only really accounts for the Downfall timeline, as that's the only timeline where the wish to "restore Hyrule" is made. It still doesn't explain how Zelda's time travel creates an alternate reality for the child timeline to take place in, and it also should erase the timeline? It doesn't really make sense.

It might that when Zelda sends Link back, it's still under the causality of the same wish that made it possible. Some have theorized that the Ocarina of Time was created as a pair to the Master Sword, and the seperation of the two, via time travel, caused the split.

 

[Ryuu Kage Desu]

It might that when Zelda sends Link back, it's still under the causality of the same wish that made it possible.

I don't like double posting, but I was thinking about this line of thinking, while driving, and had an interesting idea.

What if the restoration wish was part of each timeline, as well as the convergence (that so many seem to hate). In the downfall timeline, the kingdom is restored in the moment, but the people, history, and the spirit are lost. In the adult timeline, the people are saved, along with the history. By creating a third timeline, the spirit of the kingdom is saved, and restored. By combining the timelines the fullness of the kingdom was restored.

 

[Uwu_Oocoo2]

I was perusing another thread and started thinking about how time travel is presented to us in OoT. Why is it that Link is reverted back into a child after going back in time? Another user suggested it is his mind that is traveling back and forth but if this is true it would mean Link's body would remain in Hyrule at the end of the game perhaps in a comatose state..

Why is this time travel so different than what we see in Skyward Sword?

It is something that seems almost incoherent if I think about it too much and I'd really like some more input!

An idea I just had while reading this was that if you boil it down to its simplest form, it's not a matter of traveling back it time or through alternate dimensions, it's a matter of traveling between timelines.
Think of it this way- Link touches the master sword and falls asleep for seven years. He awakes as an adult. When he returns the master sword to the pedestal, he goes back to being a child. BUT, we already know that Link was asleep in the Sacred Realm during the time he was returned to and therefore can't also be running around Hyrule breaking the laws of time and space. So what I propose is that the child timeline isn't created at the end of the game when Zelda returns Link to the Past, it's created right then. He's not traveling between past and present, he's traveling between timelines (Adult and Child). The adult timeline is the original one, where he pulls the sword and sleeps 7 years. The child timeline he can then travel to is an alternate universe where this event never happened and he can continue to explore Hyrule in a time where he was originally asleep. This theory does have its flaws, however. Whenever Link returns to adult form, he pulls the master sword and it transports him there. But we know that in the child timeline Ganondorf never entered the Sacred Realm. It's unclear what this means exactly or if pulling it for the sake of time travel is different from what he did originally. It's also worth noting that at the end of the game, Zelda sends him back using the ocarina of time, and when we see him again as a child he's in the temple of time, by the master sword, and shrouded in a blue light. The blue light then disperses into the sword. Once again, I don't entirely know what this means, but it feels relevant in weighing the validity of his theory. Other wrenches in this are Ganondorf's attack on the castle, as well as events that affect both child and adult times such a the windmill incident. Personally I think it makes a lot of sense even if it's not perfect. I also feel like we can rule out a straight multiverse theory though, seeing as there are things in the child and adult times that stay consistent when traveling back and forth (Side quests completed, mini game high scores, etc.)