Zelda OOT- Wait... so Link gets transported back to the world Gannondorf is about to take over?

[DudeistBelieve]

I just beat Zelda OOT for the first time.

You get to the end and Zelda's like, okay put the sword back. you're going back to your own time.

So the peace that's happening in the future, the peace that Link worked so hard to earn... He isn't going to get to experince. Because he's being sent back in time where Gannondorf is still plotting. And since he's being dropped off at the place he was when he first picked up the sword... isn't that... I mean is it still the same timeline then?

 

[FillerDmon]

The "official timeline" stuff messed it up to heck, but before it came out, it could easily be assumed that Ganondorf was stopped. He was a threat, but not nearly as strong as when he had the Triforce of Courage; all Link had to do was tell the King of Hyrule and reveal his treachery. In fact, in Twilight Princess, that actually happens, with Ganondorf being executed for his crimes. ...except then he runs into Zant, so that doesn't take.

Besides, in the second timeline that spun off from Ganondorf's defeat, apparently his sealment doesn't take, so that future's peace doesn't even stay. But it does lead to a kick ass ocean world with nice sailing.

 

[Creator002]

From what I understand, the time that Link gets sent back to is in a different timeline that he was originally in. One where Gannondorf doesn't rise to power. But the timeline you saved is the one Wind Waker is in.
Best not to think about it since Nintendo doesn't even really know where everything is.

I'm pretty sure Game Theory did a video on the Zelda timeline if you want to follow what they consider most likely. I don't think it's on the Escapist though. Might have to go to their YouTube channel.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Yeah, it's best not to think too much about it

Spoiler: Here is the timeline feature in that Hyrule Historia book

Granted I wouldn't say that is 100% official given how the original timeline wasn't a continuation from one game to another.

Next thing you will know is they will scrapped the whole thing and only keep a couple canon!

 

[Sniper Team 4]

It's the same timeline, but that scene at the end, where Link is standing before Zelda again in the garden? That's him telling Zelda, "Look, about that Ganondorf guy your dad is talking to? Bad juju." As someone else already mentioned, Game Theory did a great video on it, there's also a great fan video out there, and someone else has posted the official timeline as well.

Basically, Link goes back in time, but he changes the outcome because he already knows stuff.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

Basically, Link goes back in time, but he changes the outcome because he already knows stuff.

Exactly. Because Link knows what Ganon's up to, and he's become a pint-sized badass, he's able to foil Ganon's plot and with Zelda, Expose him for the asshole traitor he is, changing the course that the world originally took when he went ahead 7 years.

This causes an unexpected fork in the timeline. For Link, this is good, since Ganon never takes over and fucks all the shit up. It's NOT so good for the timeline he just split off from, because now, there are no incarnations of Link waiting to come back to stop Ganon. Ergo, Ganon is now able to fuck up all this shit since no one can stop him, up until someone FINALLY proves themselves worthy of being the next Link.

Or something like that.

 

[feeback06]

Timeline splits off three ways, right? There's the "child" timeline where Link goes back to his youth and exposes Ganon as a traitor. This timeline has Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess in it. Then there is, what I like to call the "cel-shaded" time line. Where Ganon breaks out of the seal from Ocarina of Time which causes the world to flood...or something. That timeline has Wind Waker, and Phantom Hourglass. And then their is the "old school" time line, where Link is killed by Ganon and then...bad stuff happens. That's the timeline of the Original Zelda, Zelda 2, and A Link to the Past apparently.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

I wouldn't think too hard about Zelda's timeline. The series actually dwells on time travel a little too often. Besides Ocarina, there are two other games where a Link does some major changes in the past, Skyward Sword and Oracle of Ages. Then, there is Majora's Mask, where somehow all of the good deeds Link did during numerous three day loops actually funnel into a single timeline.

If any of those games followed the split timeline theory, Nintendo would have oodles of choices for new turmoils for the player to defeat. And I wouldn't put it past them if they did set a game, at the very least a spinoff, in a new branch of the timeline. Actually, I'd gladly welcome a Zelda title where Akuma from Street Fighter regained his power and razed the lands.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

I just beat Zelda OOT for the first time.

You get to the end and Zelda's like, okay put the sword back. you're going back to your own time.

So the peace that's happening in the future, the peace that Link worked so hard to earn... He isn't going to get to experince. Because he's being sent back in time where Gannondorf is still plotting. And since he's being dropped off at the place he was when he first picked up the sword... isn't that... I mean is it still the same timeline then?

By the official Zelda timeline and what we see in Twilight Princess, it's heavily implied that Link uses his knowledge of the future to prevent Ganondorf from ever obtaining the Triforce in the first place.

 

[CaitSeith]

In the official timeline (Hyrule Historia's) the young Link and the young Zelda manage to stop Ganondorf after Link returns from the future (the prologue shows Zelda and Link meeting in the courtyard, so Zelda hasn't escaped yet). The timeline splits up at that point.

 

[Hero of Lime]

As everyone already said, Link was able to now convince Zelda and the King to take action against Ganondorf, thus leading to his execution that you see in Twilight Princess.

After the threat is averted, he then leaves to go to find Navi, which sets the events of Majora's Mask in motion.

 

[Chaos Isaac]

I always took it as, he goes back in time to the moment he met Zelda, and basically reveals what happens, and does one simple thing.

He doesn't open the room to the Master Sword or the holy realm or whatever. It's actually been a while since I played, but I remember that being a thing for Ganondorf. With that, Zelda or more likely Impa, found a way to prove Ganon's treachery, or trap the guy knowing the future and foil EVIL.

But who knows, it's super vague and just kinda happens.

 

[Remus]

Great Scott!
And remember, the CD-I games don't count!

 

[WolfThomas]

I really like the explanation around 2 of the timelined. Not so much the "oh also this is the timeline where he was defeated" but the child/adult eras. The idea that Link defeated Gannondorf in the Adult era and then is transported to the child era again and foils him again preventing the bad future.

But that the Adult era wasn't erased by this time travel. It's just a separate alternative universe. Also it's bittersweet, because despite Link prevailing in the Adult era, Gannon gained so much power, Hyrule was so weakened and Link absent that Gannon was resurrected and the realm thrown into chaos again.

 

[karkashan]

To throw my two cents in here - About the Dark Timeline

From what I understand this was actually caused by all of the timey-wimey shenanigans involving the Well. Time(aka Nayru and/or Farore, possibly) setting up the stable time-loop, but it had to forcefully split off that Dark timeline in order to set it up that way.

praisegrima

 

[Something Amyss]

Granted I wouldn't say that is 100% official given how the original timeline wasn't a continuation from one game to another.

Depends on what you mean. Zelda 2 was a direct sequel and LTTP was treated as a prequel, I think even by the creator IIRC. Link's Awakening also takes place after Gannon is defeated, originally after LTTP but now after the two Oracle games because they tried to shoehorn the canon together.

People seem to forget this. The first four games all originally happened in some sort of explicit continuity. There was an implied continuity for at least some of the others, too. Not sure about all of them. The problem is more that the canon was always very loose at best. So yeah, there was no direct line of sequels, but there was continuation.

 

[WolfThomas]

To throw my two cents in here - About the Dark Timeline

From what I understand this was actually caused by all of the timey-wimey shenanigans involving the Well. Time(aka Nayru and/or Farore, possibly) setting up the stable time-loop, but it had to forcefully split off that Dark timeline in order to set it up that way.

praisegrima

Well that makes some sense. Lots of paradoxes and timey-wimey stuff in the well part.