Does TOTK make sense in the Zelda timeline?

truthfully I didn't think I'd be making this video with much confusion surrounding tears of the Kingdom's relation to the Zelda Timeline I figured I'd let the internet theorists examine the series lore well enough to come to a satisfactory conclusion however after watching various videos and reading quite a few comments from Zelda fans I've decided that I want to offer my own perspective or rather present a culmination of ideas from said videos and comments that I believe makes sense firstly spoiler warning for tears of the Kingdom I will be talking about the general premise of the game and some of the memories however there will be no end game spoilers so if you haven't beaten the game nothing to worry about there secondly I won't be addressing the impact of the timeline split on tears of the Kingdom or how the game fits into one of the three branches or connects them all but instead will address how it's possible for the major events of this game to logically take place in the timeline as a whole if you want a more complex albeit interesting explanation of Tears of the Kingdom's connection to the timeline split I suggest watching this video by thinking at max volume in which he uses the concept of dragon brain from the Elder Scrolls series and the principal of quantum superposition to justify tears of the Kingdom's seemingly multiversal aspects go check it out it's honestly Einstein levels of Genius but without further Ado here's my analysis of Tears of the Kingdom from the perspective of a Zelda lore enthusiast tears of the Kingdom story similar to that of breath of the wild and even Ocarina of Time covers two periods of time the present in which the gameplay takes place and the distant past where Zelda is sent back in time link views the story of the past through Visions or memories however there is just one main issue revealed by the memories that seems to contradict much of what we knew about the Zelda timeline and it all has to do with this guy I'll explain why Ganondorf full name Ganondorf of dragmire is known by most to be the main villain of the Zelda franchise before tears of the Kingdom we understood that Ganondorf is introduced to the Zelda timeline in the same game he made his debut in in real life Ocarina of Time despite having a story that spans multiple timelines in which he fights multiple iterations of Lincoln Zelda Ganondorf has always been the same guy yes he does experience multiple different Fates in the adult timeline he is defeated by the adult hero of time and later returns to be defeated by Wind Waker Link in the child timeline he never fights the hero of time and instead is banished to the Twilight realm and eventually defeated by Twilight Princess Link the downfall timeline he kills the hero of time and Reigns Supreme is Gannon but at the end of the day the Ganondorf we see in each of these games was originally the same person we see in the beginning of Ocarina of Time a man from the desert leader of the Gerudo raised by the witches kome and kotake the problem with him being in the memory is in tears of the kingdom is that raru claims he and Sonia are the founders of Hyrule but wait I thought Ganondorf made his debut in Ocarina of Time which takes place long after hyrule's establishment if the Ganondorf we see in tears of the kingdom is the same one we've always known how could he have been sealed under the castle since hyrule's founding if he makes appearances an Ocarina of Time Twilight Princess and Wind Waker what would this mean for the timeline there are some possible answers to these questions but first let's clarify what we already know for sure tears of the Kingdom's present time takes place a few years after breath of the wild we're not sure how many years exactly but it's not too large of a gap we know from ionuma himself the breath of the wild definitely takes place after Ocarina of Time not directly after but some point in the second half of the timeline does breath of the wild take place before or after Ocarina of Time this eliminates the possibility of Ganondorf being defeated at the very end of Tears of the kingdom and then returning in Ocarina of Time most of us already assumed that the breath of the wild and tears of the Kingdom era takes place way after any of the other games but this clears up any ambiguity as for the past events shown in tears of the Kingdom's memories I believe they must take place after Skyward Sword I've seen some people theorize that raro and Sonia might have lived in the time before Skyward Sword took place before the goddess hylia ever even put people in the sky for their protection and I did consider the idea myself before too but I don't think it's totally logical the reason being the presence of demise in Skyward Sword demise is described as an eternal entity who had conquered time he is the origin of all evil and Malice you can think of him as the Satan of the Zelda franchise he is the reason Hyrule is subject to Calamity forever as at the end of Skyward Sword he curses the land to forever be plagued by his hatred which is reincarnated over and over again Ganondorf is the Incarnation of demise's hatred Even If Tears of the Kingdom's Ganondorf were to be different from the one we've known I still think he had to have been born following demise's defeat demise was the original Demon King in fact I think ganondorf's Demon King form and tears of the kingdom is intentionally meant to resemble his precursor which would be demise so inferring that tears of the Kingdom's past events take place after Skyward Sword and its present events take place after Ocarina of Time we are now free to speculate there are three plausible explanations for tears of the Kingdom's timeline placement number one which I'm not a fan of is that tears of the Kingdom has its own new branch in the timeline following Skyward Sword the events of breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom do not directly relate to the other games in the franchise other than Skyward Sword number two the past events of Tears of the Kingdom take place somewhere in between Skyward Sword and the Minish Cap and feature a different Ganondorf from the one we've already known from the other games and number three the past events of Tears of the Kingdom take place at the bottom of the timeline long after any of the other games and raru is actually the founder of a new Hyrule let's examine each of these possibilities in order starting off with the idea of Tears of the Kingdom being in a new timeline following Skyward Sword again I'm not personally a big fan of this one and I'll get into why later but I do think we have to consider it being a possibility if we choose to view amiibo drops and DLC items from breath of the wild as well as their counterparts from tears of the Kingdom as mere references to the other Zelda games there is no indication in the story that the events of the other games ever took place that is excluding Skyward Sword of course yes there are ruins of landmarks from other Zelda games in breath of the wild and tears of the Kingdom such as the Temple of Time Arbiters grounds and Long Long Ranch however these landmarks could still have been built in this timeline without the events of the other games ever occurring meaning in this timeline Ganondorf would make his debut around hyrule's establishment be sealed by raru and never be seen until the present events of Tears of the Kingdom the reason I think skyward's sword would still be relevant is one because of demise's curse and two the master sword containing phi's voice in breath of the wild and tears of the Kingdom the main issue I have with this theory is not because of Any in-game contradictions per se but because I feel as if it disrespects the idea of there being a Zelda timeline in the first place since the development of the very first Zelda games Nintendo has always had a timeline in mind ionuma even claims to have a master timeline on a file that only he has access to you could probably even argue that aonuma confirming breath of the wild takes place after Ocarina of Time renders this Theory useless but it's up to interpretation as is Zelda lore in general who knows maybe an updated timeline will come out someday showing a complete change in continuity specifically for breath of the wild and tears of the king moving on to the next possibility the past events of Tears of the Kingdom take place sometime after skyward's sword this is sort of what the game itself implies I want to throw out that Hyrule was not necessarily established immediately after Skyward sword's ending I've seen people claim that raru and Sonia founding Hyrule contradicts the events of Skyward Sword but nowhere in that game does it state that Hyrule is established by Skyward Sword Link and Zelda there could have been sufficient time between skyward Swords ending and the past events of Tears of the Kingdom for the zonai to come down from the heavens and eventually establish the political entity or Kingdom that is Hyrule there's even a perfect spot depicted on the timeline that could represent that point in time labeled the era of prosperity however tears of the Kingdom's past events taking place at this point in the timeline would also mean another thing there are two ganondorfs the Ganondorf we see in tears of the kingdom is the OG Gerudo Menace and while he is sealed beneath Hyrule Castle we see the rise of ganondorfragmire in Ocarina of Time both ganondorfs exist simultaneously but the original one is trapped in raru's Seal way underground I saw someone also point out that in this memory where Ganondorf bows before rauru he has two green-skinned Garuda women behind him which I didn't even notice before these are presumably the younger versions of kome and kotake from Ocarina of Time and they could have named Ocarina of Time Ganondorf after the Ganondorf they served in tears of the Kingdom they are over 400 years old in Ocarina of Time so it does allow for a few centuries of gap between the two games whether you think that's enough time for the events of Minish Cap and four Swords to occur is up to you it's just a theory I think the idea of there being two ganondorfs is plausible but there are still some little issues with this timeline placement I'd like to address one of them being the presence of a Rito Warrior during the era of hyrule's founding to our knowledge the Rito are a race that emerged through Evolution over a long period of time they did not exist during Ocarina of Time or prior and actually make their debut in the Wind Waker in fact they don't even seem to be fully evolved as bird people by Wind Waker as there is a notable difference in their features in breath of the wild and tears of the Kingdom having what looks to be a fully evolved Rito before the events of Ocarina of Time is a little strange to me additionally I would like to take into account another theory before moving on to the final timeline placement possibility I've seen many Zelda fans theorize that two Gerudo males cannot coexist you see it's stated an Ocarina of Time that a male Gerudo is born once every 100 years this is restated by raru in the memory with Ganondorf I understand that a single male is born to the Gerudo every 100 years however we have never seen a male Gerudo in the Zelda series other than our villain Ganondorf I think it's made clear in breath of the wild and tears of the Kingdom that the birth of a Gerudo male for some reason has not been seen in ages the events of breath of the wild span 100 Years by Zelda logic a Gerudo male should have been born some point in that that period of time but there is no record of a Gerudo mail whatsoever there is a quest that uncovers the secret of the legendary 8th heroine and tears of the Kingdom which actually turned out to have been a man though this man was not a Gerudo himself the standing theory is that the birth of any Gerudo male has been prevented by the existence of Ganondorf Andra Hyrule castle since being imprisoned by rauru makes sense right however if this is the case it would conflict with the possibility of Tears of the Kingdom's past events taking place before Ocarina of Time as the birth of Ganondorf dragmire would also have been prevented by Og Ganondorf existing under the castle it would be impossible for two ganondorfs to exist at the same time again this is all based on speculation but I think it's worth considering because of the theory about Gerudo males makes sense this brings us to our final possibility regarding tears of the Kingdom's timeline placement the past events of Tears of the Kingdom don't take place between any of the previous Zelda games and instead take place in a Time long after all of them this is the initial belief I had during my playthrough and it's one I've seen other people online agree with even the thinking at max volume video assumed this were the case with tears of the kingdom it didn't even consider the possibility of the past events taking place earlier in time now you may be thinking if raru is the founder of Hyrule how can tears of the Kingdom's Pass events take place after any of the other games in which the kingdom has already been established well the supposed answer is raru isn't the original founder of Hyrule it is possible that tears of the Kingdom's events take place so far into the future relative to the other games the original Hyrule was lost in time you might call it a Fallen Kingdom thus raru's Hyrule would actually be the second coming of Hyrule which then accumulates its own new history over several thousand years if this were the case it would make sense for the Rito to exist during the raurus era and it would mean that no two ganondorfs existed simultaneous in this scenario the OG Ganondorf would be the one we know from Ocarina of Time Wind Waker and Twilight Princess and tears of the Kingdom's Ganondorf is either the same guy who somehow makes a return or possibly a Reincarnation of him so just to clarify it we're not eliminating the possibility of there being two again endorse just two of them existing at the same time personally I think this is the easiest way to fit tears of the Kingdom into the Zelda Timeline while respecting the canonicity of the other games though keep in mind that at the end of the day the timeline is subject to be tweaked or amended over time as nothing is necessarily solidified in its place our understanding of hyrule's history is changed as we're exposed to new material the same way our understanding of our own world's history is shaped as we make more discoveries if there's one thing the majority of us Zelda fans can agree on about tears of the kingdom is that the game is an absolute Masterpiece and no matter what relation it has to the timeline it will be regarded as one of the best Zelda games ever regardless let me know what you guys think is there anything I missed also tell me which Zelda game features your favorite depiction of Ganondorf thanks for watching and good day foreign

Channel: Shi of the Ham

Views: 43,088

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Id: vpVcfDXDNa4

Length: 14min 8sec (848 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 08 2023