Summary
As part of its Nintendo Live celebration in Sydney, Australia– an all-encompassing celebration of Nintendo and its properties – the gaming giant has revealed a new look at the canonical timeline ofThe Legend of Zelda. Most interestingly, the timeline puts bothBreath of the WildandTears of the Kingdomwithin their own universe, apart from all the other titles.
The timeline,which was originally shared online by Vooks, anAustralian Nintendo site, and latershared online by Wario64, has the twoNintendo Switchtitles separate from any existing games.
Whose Timeline Is It, Anyway?
As many longtime Zelda fans may recognize, Skyward Sword opens the timeline, with the seminalOcarina of Timeserving as the entry in which the canon can split into two different directions. There is the timeline in which the Hero is defeated, which leads straight intoA Link to the Past.
The timeline where the Hero is triumphant bleeds into the “Child” and “Adult” eras, withMajora’s MaskandWind Wakerserving as those entries, respectively.
But nowhere in that timeline are TotK or BotW included. Instead, they are shown all the way at the end of the display, with a separator between them and Spirit Tracks. Even more strange, those two titles do not have a link (see what we did there) between each other like the others do.
It’s important to remember that the Zelda timeline is a pretty jumbled mess. In other words, it’s entirely possible that Nintendo simply hasn’t found a place for the two titles yet, so they are placed separately to prevent any sort of misleading theory. It’s also possible that these two titles exist so far into the future that it really doesn’t make sense for there to be a spot.
Lore stuff aside, it’s a fascinating look at just how long the series has existed, and the many entries that have filled it. Gamers can almost certainly pinpoint their exact entry into the series, with the franchise having appeared throughout Nintendo’s history. That alone is worth celebrating.
