oh you

Links Awakening DX was pretty good, but the Oracles series was better, both for better graphics and better dungeon layout. i also preferred the items you got, and the relatively massive amount of NPC interaction..

Now don't you dare say it hasn't got one. Most of the games are quite obviously linked, and the existence of a chronology, even if a controversial and uncertain one, is absolutely, completely, totally and comprovedly undeniable, in any and all aspects. How can you even consider suggesting that such a deep, rich and creating game series is nothing more than a bunch of disconnected and meaningless stand-alone childish tales? Would you so ruthlessly take from all of us Zelda-addicts the right to create hundreds of theories and timeline possibilities, just to brag about each small and apparently meaningless detail that supports our personal hypotheses and to squabble between each other just for the fun of it? Would you really wish to tell us that our mindless efforts through countless years, that had the sole purpose of trying to make some sense of the plot, were squandered and rendered useless? I think not.

Well, at least you are not one of those fools that say that Zelda 1 and Adventure of Link were the last ones in the timeline. Otherwise, I would be forced to hit you in the head with a fire extinguisher. Hard.

Also, Roy-G-Biv, I am not acquainted with the split timeline theory, as I have not yet been able to play Wind Waker to its full extent. Care to explain?

And geti, I haven't played the oracle series yet, so I don't have a formed opinion on that. I'll try and play it, as I've heard it's really good.

Also, sorry if this post offends anyone: that is not my intention, but I get really touchy when it comes to Zelda.

It's true, they are connected, even if they are ridiculously interwoven like some crack addled spider's web.
If you are talking about disconnected threads of story, each different with each game, then bring up Final Fantasy. The only things in common were Summon Spirits/Espers, The Crystals, and MAGYK.

And the fact that some games were explicitly stated to be in different universes.

get them both now. its a good way to not sleep much.

Got 'em both this very morning.
You are completely right. They are just as epic as Link's Awakening! ( Though I do miss the photograph system...)

One of the only things that was kept the same, is that they were all completely different. Ow. I felt my brain break right thar.

I do recall in the ending, it splits when Zelda sends you back in time.

Most fans call the split timeline, "Child" and "adult" timelines.

The Child timeline: Link talks to Zelda and informs her of Ganon's plans, and stuff happens and Twilight princess happens.

Adult Timeline: Link doesn't talk to zelda and disappears and Ganon is released from some seals and some stuff and the Wind waker series begins.

So you mean that the timeline split happened at the ending of OoT?
Hmm.
... That actually makes sense! In the endgame, Zelda, before warping Link back to his childhood with the Ocarina, she says that she's sending him to "the time where he was supposed to be". How could that be, if Link wasn't warped to that time? As he had merely been sleeping for seven years, it was still the timeline in which he belonged. Or at least it should be. Other evidence is when she says that "they could never see each other again". Once again, how? Zelda existed as a child in the past, so they could meet as many time as they wanted, as Link really did, after the credits ended. There is only one possibility that allows what she said to be true: The child Zelda and the future Zelda aren't the same person! Apparently, that's because when the seven sages banned Ganon to the Dark Realm (sometimes referred to as Evil Realm), that Gabon ( for I believe that there is more than one Ganon: he would be but a representative alegory of all the "Evil" in Hyrule, more like a title, such as "that guy is the Ganon of our time" than a real name. But that's a different subject. ) was erased from the Hyrule world, as if he had never existed. Therefore, he never attacked Hyrule castle, and young Zelda never had to flee from the city, making it possible for young Link to meet her in the castle in the endgame. As a result, he did not take the Master Sword and was never taken to the future: the second part of the game simply didn't happen. And then Link lived happily ever after with Zelda, Saria, Ruto, Malon (why does Link always meet a bunch of pretty gals in the series?!) and all that happy folk from Hyrule. Until he got involved in all that Majora's Mask mess and the Oracles trouble, but that's a story for some other time. And then, many many many years later, one of his descendants - named Link - met Ganon again, when he escaped from the Twilight Realm ( Which is apparently a different realm than the Dark one, what I think supports my theory that they were not the same Ganon. ), killed him, and brought peace to the land for once and for all. Or until the next game in the series, at least, as Ganon assured everyone that he would be back. So much for the "Child Timeline", or "Main Timeline", as I would like to call it.

Now, for the "Adult Timeline", or "Alternate Timeline":

When Link and the sages banned Ganon, all the mess that he had made in those seven years magically disappeared, and everyone lived happily ever after. Right?
Maybe not. While the mess was really fixed in the Main Timeline, the flow of time has this nasty tendency to branch out when time paradoxes occur ( If Link made Ganon never exist in the timeline, then Link would never have gone to the future to stop Ganon from existing, and then Ganon would exist, making Link go on his quest to stop him from existing, what would cause him never to exist and make Link not go on his quest, and so on... ), generating alternate timelines. And so, the Adult Timeline appeared. In such a time sequence, Link came to the future, defeated Ganon, and then was warped back to the Main timeline.

The main guide for the alternate story is the prologue of Wind Waker. In it, a from ancient years is told: a hero (Link) defeated a great evil (Ganon), saving the world (End of OoT). Some time later, the great evil came back to endanger the world (Ganon escaped from the Dark Realm or sumthin' like that), but the hero did not appear to defeat it ( Because Link didn't exist in that world: he had been warped back to the main timeline! ) and great disasters befell the land. The three goddesses (the same ones that made Hyrule and the Triforce) decided that the best option was to blow up the world sky-high and start it all over again. So they sent a huge flood to destroy the world and all evil contained in it. Hyrule was covered by the oceans, and became a bunch of islands on an endless sea. And then begins the story of the Wind Waker.


I have some more points to make, but it's already past midnight, and if I don't sleep now I think I'm gonna have a seizure of some sort. So that's it for today. Sorry for the big post, but I think that I at least got the main points of the split-timeline theory, amirite?

...uh.
Sure, a Nintendo guy told this other guy that Zelda has no timeline, but so what? It's not like Shigeru Miyamoto had made a public appearance and pronounced that Zelda games are unrelated to each other. Heck, it was a stock response. It could be even a computer that wrote it. And computers, unlike what they think of themselves, are not error-proof. I want concrete proof! Nothing but a formal letter with the signature of all the Zelda dev teams will convince me. And even if I receive that letter, I shall not lose hope!
For they said that Fontaine was dead, and he was alive and breathing. They said that it was impossible to build a spudgun in less than 8 hours, and people made one in four. They said that it was impossible to transform CC in a upscrolling shoot-'em-up game, and you, Grif, are the living proof that they were wrong.
And so, I shall trust in the power of mistakes, and never, ever, let my dreams be crushed.




tl;dr: You have a very good point, but I shall choose to ignore it because:

1- I'm a mighty stubborn (and a bit foolish) fellow;

2- A timeline makes Zelda more awesome, and awesomeness is my ultimate objective;

3- If I didn't spend a few hours a day trying to figure out Zelda's timeline, what would I do with my spare time?

i'm with grif on this one.
awesome games or not, they are interrelated only through recurring characters and concepts; there is no real chronological storyline.

I THINK there is one between OoT and Majora, or between all the Cell shaded Wind Waker series. Other than that, NOT A BIT!

OoT and Majora's Mask are directly related; the introduction to MM quite literally has a cutscene from the end of OoT. Beyond that there's no "official" link/timeline.

EDIT: Oh and well I guess ages/seasons? And phantom hourglass seemed to follow WW (kinda? haven't played it).