[Article] Is There One Complete Timeline?

[silver arrow]

Here is my Bombers entry essay that sadly did not win my entry into the group. Keep in mind that it was written before anything on PH was known, meaning that the knowledge of there being gerudos in PH was unknown to me.
The purpose of this article was to support the idea of multiple continuities. Unfortunately, I ended up making a large part of it a history of ZUs theorizing, which in turn brought the failure of my work.
Please comment and tell me what you think.

That was the introduction to an identical thread that I posted earlier today in the theory forum. A short while later it was discovered that my article was not read for whatever reason during the submissions, and it turns out that I would have gotten in. After getting over the irony that I had been killing myself thinking of how to make a better article than this one to get in, I've posted here. Without out further ado, I present to you my long overdue article.

Over the years there have been countless arguments and debates over whether the timeline splits, or if it is a single linear line. These debates have grown to astronomical proportions and have spawned long lines of spam and flame wars on various Zelda related message boards. The ones who called themselves splittists pointed out the flaws in the linear line with such things as pointing out the fact that Ganon was quite dead and Hyrule was quite buried at the end of The Wind Waker. The linearists however responded with their own evidence by presenting facts such as Tingle’s mention in The Wind Waker, which told of events that occurred in Majora’s Mask, thus theoretically proving that there was no split in the timeline. The splittists retorted that the mention of Tingle was simply an easter egg and nothing more, and that it didn’t change the fact that no games could happen after The Wind Waker due to Ganon’s being dead, the triforce not being in the sacred realm, and Hyrule’s being buried. The linearists retorted that Ganon was a new, reborn Ganon in Four Swords Adventures, and that the Hyrule in that game was simply the new land that was found after the flood.

After the release of Twilight Princess, it became obvious to most serious theorists that a linear timeline was impossible. A few lone theorists tried in a pitiful attempt to prove it came between Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker. Due to the nature of the games, and Ganon’s being dead at the end of both, it just didn’t work. Shortly after this came the announcement of the interview with Aonuma in where the split timeline was confirmed. This event was dubbed the ‘blue swamp’ incident. Some splittists wallowed in their rather unearned victory, while others just felt cheated out of a true win. Ultimately, all it accomplished was to narrow down the possible timelines and set the entire Ocarina of Time story arc in stone. All theorists were forced to accept this truth, and in the end it boiled down to the question of which timeline the rest of the games followed in.

Some argue that the games should follow after The Wind waker, due to various references to the game in The Minish Cap. It can be seen that The Minish cap takes place on or near an island filled ocean that bears a striking resemblance to the great sea of The Wind Waker. Another reference is seen in the form of a book on a shelf in the library near Librari’s home. The Hylian text on the spine of the book translates to the phrase ‘Triumph Forks’, the name that the mermen of The Wind Waker confuse with the word ‘Triforce’. Others argue that the games take place after the events that happen in Twilight Princess. They argue that the games can’t take place after The Wind Waker for such reasons as Twinrova’s still being alive. Other reasons include their refusal to acknowledge the possibility of the land being a different Hyrule, and that the lack of The Wind Waker, opens the way for Ocarina of Time to be the seal war mentioned in A Link to the Past. The response to these reasons include the fact that Twinrova’s appearance has little meaning based on the reuse of characters in the past, as well as the fact that Twinrova said she would come back to haunt Link, so she could just be staying true to her word. As for the general response to Ocarina of Time being the seal war, it is mostly negative. Though most serious theorists discredit the theory as nigh impossible, there are some who try to prove it. The theories for this are accepted by a surprising number of theorists, leaving other theorists baffled that they could possibly even consider such a ridiculously unlikely theory.

The general view on how the games not included in the Ocarina of Time arc fall into the timeline is not varied, but in fact almost the same for every theorist with the one major difference being the placement of the oracle games. It is almost unanimously agreed upon that The Minish Cap is the first game in this set of games, as it predates Four Swords Adventures which shows how Ganon obtained the trident. There is no question that Four Swords is placed between the two aforementioned games with the latter being a direct sequel to it. This is made obvious by viewing Vaati’s life throughout the games. His origins are revealed in The Minish Cap whereas his death is shown in Four Swords Adventures. The first snag in the common views of the theorists is what happens after the events that lead to Ganon’s being sealed in the Four Sword. It can be deduced that A Link to the Past occurs after the events of Ganon’s escaping his seal in the sword, due to the appearance of a split Four Sword being guarded in a temple located in the dark realm in A Link to the Past. The view of some that are not of the belief that Ocarina of Time is the depiction of the seal war is that the temple that houses the now split Four Sword is where it was located at the time of Ganon’s escape. Upon his escape, he found himself in the sacred realm and, realizing this, he formed a group of thieves made up of others lost in the sacred realm to help him find the mythical triforce. Upon finding it he murders his companions and claims its power. His evil malice takes on a physical form, infects the entire sacred realm, and begins infecting the light world upon leaking out of the entrance to the sacred realm. With the kings order, the sages seal the entrance to the sacred realm while the knights of Hyrule give their lives holding back the malice. This is the seal war, which is followed up by A Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening.

This is where the second snag in the common beliefs of the theorists lay. Some believe that the Oracle series takes place after A Link to the Past, while others believe that they take place later in the timeline after The Adventure of Link. The games could in fact take place in either spot. The only thing that is known to have happened before the Oracle series is that Ganon died, and that the triforce is in one piece at Hyrule castle. Both games meet these conditions and there is no evidence to further support or disprove either of them. The idea that it is after A Link to the Past seems to have greater support however due to the idea that Ganon could have survived his defeat in the Oracle series to live to be in The Legend of Zelda, whereas the other placement requires Ganon to be resurrected in an untold story, only to be slain again to be resurrected on the oracles. Regardless of people’s placement of them however, the first two games are almost always last, or before only the oracles.

Now there is a possibility that has been brought up by few, and that is that the games outside of the Ocarina of Time arc are not involved at all in that timeline. This theory has little support however and is poorly presented the few times that it is. The major support in this theory lies in Four Swords Adventures. In this game we see that Ganon was born in the recent generation, and that he was kicked out of his tribe for his evil doings. Regardless of how you look at it, the Gerudos were absent in The Wind Waker, as well as in Twilight Princess. On top of this, in Twilight Princess, their fort has been turned into a moblin camp and previous inhabitants look to be long gone. Now to a logical mind that is not yearning for a complete timeline, it is quite obvious that the reemergence of the Gerudos after so many absent years, and especially after the destruction of Hyrule in the flood, is just short of impossible. Add to this the parallel events that follow the Ocarina story arc it seems very likely that the games form their own story that is, in a way, a different telling of the same story. Ganon’s birth into the same tribe, in a Hyrule that shares many of the same famous landmarks makes a post The Wind Waker placing seem highly unlikely, as land covered by sea cannot simply be brought back to the surface as so many theorists try to say. Only the structures of the strongest buildings would remain and all forestry and land marks save for Death Mountain would be gone. It is also made exceedingly more unlikely due to the Master Sword’s placement in the forest of A Link to the Past, when at the end of The Wind Waker it is at the bottom of the sea. A post Twilight Princess placement also seems unlikely due to the Gerudos being gone in Twilight Princess and that the woods that the Master Sword is located in are located to the south whereas they are found in the northwest in A Link to the Past. Add to this the fact that in Four Swords Adventures, a game that takes place in a nearly same Hyrule as Ocarina of Time, there are no Lost Woods. The woods were called the Woods of Light, and were later made into the Lost Woods by Ganon’s magic. This points to either a pre Ocarina of Time placement, or to its being a separate story altogether. A pre Ocarina placement would be unlikely, as it would require Ganon in Ocarina of Time to be a reincarnation of the previous Ganon, or for him to be the same Ganon after emerging from the Four Sword. This would make for a choppy story, and would not make sense due to the trust shown to Ganon by the king in Ocarina of Time. The only real connections between the two arcs is the ‘Triumph Forks’ book, which, since the stories would be retellings of each other, could easily be the common peoples’ misnaming of the triforce, just as it was in The Wind Waker.

The final supporting piece of the multi story theory is that the Ocarina arc’s story has already been concluded. Sure, there will still be Phantom Hourglass, and there will probably also be a Twilight Princess side-game, but the story surrounding Ganon has been completely resolved. He’s dead in both timelines. To slap another working story that is unlikely to be part of the same story in the first place, after one of the lines, when the story works quite well independently, only ruins the concluded story. To try and add the two stories together will end in folly, and what the point of this article is, is to make theorists see this. Though they need not stop working for a complete timeline, for that is a sport which can be quite fun in passing the time, they need to realize that the actuality of a complete timeline is unlikely. This is a realization that I, along with many other theorists have come to after many years of theorizing. Accepting and understanding the probability of this and to continue theorizing anyway is part of what it means to be a true theorist.

Edit : Turns out there AREN'T any Gerudos in PH. Just one pirate that resembles one.

[Mr. Lexxi Aileron]

I would ask you to break up the paragraphs a bit more.

I would also implore you to revisit your look at the attempts to reconcile TP in a linear timeline, since including more than two or three games in which Ganon appears in any timeline is comparatively "pitiful", looking purely at in-game evidence.

OoT-TP works well enough.
OoT-TWW works well enough as well.
FSA being the rebirth of Ganon works.

FSA-ALttP requires speculation.
ALttP-LoZ requires speculation.
The event leading to Ganon being dead in Oracles is unknown.

So, at the time, the placement of TP in-between OoT and TWW was simply a matter of looking at early intentions, and looking at the state of the Triforce in TP, and what parts of the history of Ganondorf were shown in TP, and simply shoehorning TP as some event that happened after Ganon's initial sealing in OoT.

This might have involved an all-out retcon of the OoT-TWW connection, similar to the speculated retcon of the OoT-ALttP connection, or it could have involved a complication of the transition, similar to the views of the opposite camp in the matter of ALttP. Either of these, until the nature of the events prior to TP was confirmed, was equally possible. Same is true of the interpretation involved in supposing the later-confirmed events, which we really had no evidence for, looking at TP and OoT alone.

My main rebuttal can be found in FSA itself, oddly. While you say that the nature of the Zelda universe in that game is drastically different than that in TP or TWW, what with the lack of Gerudos, and similar elements, I say the opposite. FSA is a melding of the worlds of OoT/TWW and of the world in ALttP. It is our strongest evidence for a connection between the old and the new. It carries the theme of recurring heroes and villains, what with the constant reappearances of Vaati and the rebirths of Ganon, Link, and Zelda.

I would also add that using FSA as an explanation for Ganon's return to the Sacred Realm pre-ALttP works just as well if OoT is the IW, since there would then be no need for another war before ALttP in which the Sacred Realm is sealed again; Ganon would simply escape the sword into the sacred-land-turned-prison-world, and be unable to leave.

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I agree with your points Lex. They are ideal for one of the mind that there is a complete line. The whole point of my article was to be from the state of mind that a complete line is unlikely, not to convince people of a complete line thought to convert.

Sorry for the absence. I've been camping for the past week. I'll be camping all of next week too, so please, no ragging on me for lack of participation.