General Kaliero
F = ma, beeyotches.
Originally posted by Darth Jello
I thought it was time to cause some more pointless bickering and division on the boards so i thought i'd post my zelda timeline on here and hope that people will discuss this in a civilized manner. My order follows Shigeru Miyamato's (creator's) basic order in that Ocerina goes first and Link to the Past is last (sorta). anyways:Zelda GCN (all rumors indicate that this is a prequal to Ocerina)
Ocerina of Time
Majora's Mask
Link's Awakening
The Wind Waker
The Legend of Zelda
The Adventure of Link
Oracle of Ages
Oracle of Seasons
The Minish Cap
Four Swords
Four Sword Adventures
A Link to the Past
oh, and for the purpose of this (and this makes sense if you think about it), the Magical sword from the first game is the Piccori Blade
You timeline is much flawed. Look at this logically.
There are several different Links. The divisions (based on cutscenes and manual and boxart) are as follows:
Legend of Zelda and Adventure of Link
A Link to the Past
Link's Awakening, Oracle of Ages, Oracle of Seasons
Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, (possibly) Zelda 2K5
Wind Waker
The Phillips CD-i Zelda games have been disowned by Nintendo and are irrelevant to the rest of the games' timeline.
The Four Swords and Minish Cap games are a separate storyline, spanning several thousand years, and are irrelevant to the rest of the games' timeline.
That makes for five Links in the basic timeline.
The most logical timeline goes like this:
OoT
MM
(2K5?)
WW
ALttP
LA
Ages/Seasons
LoZ
AoL
now, for that part with the new game in the third spot? Read on...
PROBLEM #1:
Miyamoto himself has declared OoT to be the first game in the series. This makes sense, as Ganon is still Ganondorf, and he has yet to find the Triforce of Power. MM naturally follows immediately thereafter, as Link leaves Hyrule in search of Navi, in possession of the Ocarina. The manual for MM states that Link leaves "several months after rescuing Princess Zelda".
Now, WW has been declared the third in line, because Eiji Aonuma stated that it "takes place 100 years after the [Ocarina of Time] ending in which Link was an adult." The intro supports this, clearly telling the legend of the Hero of Time, A.K.A. OoT. The Hero leaves Hyrule, and afterwards ("several generations" according to the intro) Ganon breaks free of the seal, and turns the land to darkness. The gods decide to flood the world to stop him, and a select few Hyrulians retreat to the highest mountaintops as the land is consumed by sea. Kinda difficult for all that to happen within only 100 years, no? However, the game itself (in the King's telling of the Great Flood) states that "hundreds of years have passed since then [the flooding]."
PROBLEM #2:
Before WW, A Link to the Past was declared number three. The intro to ALttP mirrors closely the intro to WW, telling of an ancient seal placed on the Golden Land. Once again, it seems to tell of the events of OoT, as seven wise men (Sages) are needed to seal the evil (Ganon) in the Sacred Realm.
However, basic logic shows this cannot be so. In ALttP, a King orders seven Sages to seal the Realm. In OoT, there is no King to speak of, and only one Sage is actually present. Further the Maidens you must save in ALttP, the "descendants of the Sages" are all human/Hylian. The Sages in OoT are of several different races. Obviously, ALttP's intro cannot be referring to OoT.
The event in ALttP's intro is also referred to as the Imprisoning War. hundreds of knights were needed to protect the Sages from the evil issuing forth, and hundreds died. The only "knight" present at OoT's sealing was Link.
Therefore, the Imprisoning War could not have been the events of OoT.
ANSWER?
The footage we've seen so far of the 2005 GCN Zelda has had a very dark overtone, indicating some great event of catastrophic scale. We've seen huge groups of enemies; a veritable "army of darkness."
Link is much more mature (believed to be around 20-22) and is definitely an older version of the 17-year-old Link from OoT. It is also somewhat important to note that he does not have the Master Sword with him.
At the end of OoT/beginning of MM Link left Hyrule to search for Navi. Presumably it was during his travels that Ganon broke free of the seal and began to twist Hyrule (WW's intro). If he returned, he would find a kingdom split by strife and war. A kingdom kind of like what we're seeing of the 2K5 game, no?
Therefore, the two intros to ALttP and WW, I think, are referring to two halves of the same legend. Ganon broke free of the sacred realm, his evil spilling forth and twisting the land of Hyrule to darkness. No Hero was to be found, as Link was still gone, and the King of Hyrule sought the powers of wise men to seal the Golden Land.
Link returns to Hyrule after 12 years searching, and finds Hyrule in the middle of this huge war. Good way to start a game off.