The Legend of Zelda timeline is and always has been quite convoluted. There really wasn’t one until the mid-2000s when players got tired of misunderstanding where these games happened in time. With the same people popping up in different games despite deaths or character changes, the timeline seemed to make no sense. That’s when Nintendo stepped in and tried its best to fit everything into one timeline. It didn’t work perfectly, but it wasn’t all that hard to follow. Now, a new timeline has been revealed and it seems to retcon a key aspect of the previous one.
New Zelda Timeline Clarifies Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom
Back in 2011, Nintendo released The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. This served as their first attempt at setting the timeline because it was stated as the first instance of any of these characters. It sets the storyline and explains why the characters and some events keep coming back in the future. From there, the gaming company put together a timeline that flowed from that game. It got a little confusing with three split branches out of Ocarina of Time, but the Zelda timeline came back together in Breath of the Wild.
This was evident by its placement but also by a few things in the game. The combination of a few species being in one game meant it came from multiple timelines. It, and the sequel Tears of the Kingdom, seemed to bring the broken branches back together again. Now, the new Zelda timeline seems to indicate that that’s not what happened. In fact, it seems to imply that the BOTW/TOTK era of The Legend of Zelda was standalone, which would be a first.
How The Legend of Zelda’s Timeline Changed
Earlier this year, in Australia, there was a Nintendo Live. This event had serious ramifications on the Zelda franchise. The newly-created timeline is mostly the same as the old one. It still split based on the events of Ocarina of Time, but it never converged again. Instead, both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are by themselves. They’re certainly very different from the original games, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t happen in the same timeline necessarily. That is what the new Zelda timeline seems to state, though. Each of the three branches seems to just end, for now.
This is interesting for two main reasons. First, there’s no real reason for Nintendo to do this. The timeline as so many fans accepted it was fine. It didn’t make a lot of logical sense that everything just inexplicably converged, but it did make things streamlined. This unnecessarily complicates an already-convoluted aspect of the franchise. Second, it showcases that Nintendo probably doesn’t care about this. They haphazardly threw together a timeline originally. Now, they’re breaking it up in the same manner.
Conclusion
This truly doesn’t matter all that much. It’s fun to think about and with some games following others, it’s cool to know why these are direct sequels and others aren’t. But the lack of a timeline doesn’t change anything about the games. The Super Mario franchise has no semblance of a timeline. It is a little annoying for Nintendo to go back and forth on this, but it’s not going to impact the quality of the games. And unfortunately, there’s still no indication of where The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom will fall, if anywhere, on this or the old timeline.
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