The Complete LEGEND OF ZELDA Timeline Explained!

ah The Legend of Zelda Timeline one of the most infamous timelines in all of gaming Nintendo's fantasy franchise unfurls its tale of Grand Adventure across 19 Mainline games that kicks off from a rather neat starting point into three totally separate timelines and then sort of back again yeah it's an absolute Minefield of a timeline and it's not made any simpler by the fact that Nintendo has already retconned it a handful of times in the years since it was first introduced in this Beast and with tears of the Kingdom further expanding the timeline what better time to dive back into The Many Adventures of Link be they big or small by land sea or air or just plain weird hey my name's Adam and this is the complete Zelda Timeline fully explained The Legend of Zelda's sweeping narrative kicks off with well nothing a whole load of nothing actually well a whole load of nothing and the odd bit of cosmic space rain but mostly nothing into this nothingness come the three goddesses DIN nehru and Ferrari din the goddess of power creates land nehru goddess of wisdom brings order and Ferrari the goddess of Courage breathes life into the world and thus the land of Hyrule is born or the land that Hyrule will become at least as the three goddesses depart back into the heavens they leave behind three shiny golden triangles which form the Triforce a magical artifact that's left in the care of another goddess known as hylia the Triforce aside from being a very expensive looking slab of bling actually grants wishes to those who come into contact with it those with just the right balance of the three virtues of the goddesses power wisdom and courage will unlock its true potential those who don't fit somewhat complex Cosmic criteria will break apart the Triforce taking a hold of the piece that best fits their personality and leaving the other two bits to go walkies or something to that effect and naturally when you create a source of omnipotent power there are going to be a fair few Romans that want to get their hands on it and that brings us nicely along to the very first game in our timeline [Applause] Scarlet wood sword sits pretty right at the very beginning of this timeline and pretty much establishes all the key elements of the iconic legends that will come to know across the timeline and all of that kicks off with a great big bloody fight for the Triforce it's the era of the goddess hylia and demons are running amok led by a malevolent Demon King known as demise in order to protect her people from demise hylia gathers them all up on a chunk of land and fires them off into the sky which feels a little extreme but desperate times I guess hylia herself stays behind and eventually defeats demise before sealing him away in order to finish him off for good hylia tries to use the Triforce herself but because she's a goddess she can't wield its true power so in another desperate move hylia demotes herself from goddess to human and I think you can see where this is going yeah that demotion sees hylia reborn as a human but not any old human Zelda she's reborn as Zelda and so the Legend Starts but I'm getting ahead of myself okay remember that slab of land that hylia sent off into the sky well that becomes the Isle of the Goddess which eventually twins itself with the flying island of skyloft with the bloody battle on the surface fresh in their memory skyloft develops a strong military presence which eventually becomes the night Academy effectively a small army of flying cops who protect and serve the people of the skies and that's where our pointy eared hero link first comes into the story he takes part in the Knight Academy's Wing ceremony and absolutely smashes it beating his obnoxious peer grews to first place and the honor of performing in the ceremony of the Goddess opposite Zelda right aside from that great big battle at the beginning this all sounds bloody adorable but not for long entering stage left is the flamboyant Demon Lord Gira him who's been Unleashed by demise to hunt down The Reincarnation of hylia AKA Zelda girohim scours the land before he finally tracks down Zelda to the skies and with the help of a devastating tornado he flings Zelda down to the deaths below and this is where the next part of the Legend of Zelda starts to take shape you see our blonde lad link is told about his Destiny by the head of the Knight Academy a wise old keeper of Legends called gaypora gaypora The Wise Old owl of a man guides linked to finding the goddess sword an ancient weapon left behind by hylia to guide a chosen hero how is an inanimate object guiding a grown lad I hear none of you ask well that's where the sword Spirit fee comes into play effectively a blue robot satnav fee guides linked to plunge down through the impenetrable Cloud separating Skyla from the lands below and so begins Link's quest to rescue Zelda for the very first time well first time chronologically fortunately Zelda has miraculously survived her 4. her rescuer is an old woman who tells Zelda that she's The Reincarnation of the goddess hylia and that to unlock her memories and full potential she needs to cleanse herself in two temples Zelda hastens to do just that and regains her memories in the process all this new Divine information rattling around her head triggers an epiphany to strengthen the seal on the imprisoned demise she makes the executive decision to travel back in time to the sacred Temple and take a nap not any old nap though like a really long nav a thousand year long nap but she's nearly thwarted before this plan can even get off the ground when she's attacked by Gira him at the Temple of Time fortunately link shows up just in time and holds back gear at him while Zelda and her protector a warrior woman called impa Escape into the past on their way out imper destroys the gate and they pass through so that no one can follow them with Zelda napping in the past Link's work is cut out holding back the hordes of monsters in the present to help with this he upgrades the goddess sword with a source of sacred power which eventually transforms it into the iconic Master Sword a sword so powerful it allows him to literally travel back in time to have a quick conflab with a prenapse Elder Upon returning to the present link seeks out the fabled Triforce and upon discovering it is deemed worthy of its power and is granted a wish he wishes for the Statue of the goddess to be returned to its original place on the surface where it handily destroys the Demon King demise and awakens Zelda from her long Slumber and with that the story of Skyward Sword comes to a close hold up that's not how it ends oh no there's one last twist in this tale you see that Pratt girohim is still knocking about and he nabbed Zelda and travels back in time to reawaken demise before he gets crushed by a giant statue link follows in Pursuit and after an epic battle defeats both girohim and the reawakened demise with the Demon King defeated once and for all which as you'll come to see is something of a lie his sheer evil and hatred is absorbed into the master sword which effectively kick-starts the beginning of a curse a curse that sees link Zelda and the literal embodiment of hatred locked into a never-ending battle between good and evil with peace returning to the lands above and below the master sword is returned to its pedestal inside the goddess statue waiting for the next hero to emerge and fight the Everlasting curse okay I know that that was a lot to take in but at least we've established the core elements of The Legend of Zelda franchise so stick with me foreign [Music] things first the surface lands from the era of Skyward Sword eventually become the kingdom of Hyrule the central location for most games in the franchise peace extends across the lands for many generations but after a while rumors of the power of the Triforce start to spread and Chaos begins to take rule with the Triforce at risk its latest protector rauru the sage of light builds the Temple of Time supposedly over the ruins of the seal temple from Skyward Sword here he locks up the master sword behind the door of time and places the Triforce in the Temple of Light which is sealed away in the sacred realm which itself is now separated from Hyrule gosh that's a lot of grandiose titles in the last couple of sentences to summarize the Triforce and the sacred realm are locked away from bad people to further protect the Triforce the descendants of the Goddess hylia build Hyrule Castle next door to the Temple of Time and established the royal family to protect it as they're all effectively descendants of a goddess many of them are born with special powers and it's during this time that the addition of naming their princesses Zelda is started the years pass by and peace extends across the lands that is until yet another wave of evil washes across Hyrule I guess that curse ain't messing about in this latest bout of Terror the people of Hyrule are saved by of all things a tiny little fella known as a pickary who brings with him a sword and a golden light the latest flavor of the hero of men uses them to restore peace and seal the evil in a big old chest for future generations to worry about and lo and behold that's where we pick up at the beginning of Minish Cap the smallest of Zelda adventures in honor of their little savior Hyrule holds a pickery festival and legends state that the pickery will return every century and guess what it's been 100 years since they were last seen the festival culminates with a sword fighting tournament and the winner of this year's tourney is a Shifty looking wizard lad called vati who true to his appearance causes a scene by breaking open the chest full of badge before turning Princess Zelda into a stone statue he also breaks the pickery sword in the process to rub salt in the wound and it turned turns out that the key to saving Zelda is through the magic of the sword because we need a reason to explore Hyrule this prompts a capless link to seek out the tiny pickery people who actually call themselves the Minish and on Route he bumps into a weird Little Bird hat thing called eslo you see it turns out eslo is a Minish Sage who's also Fallen foul of vati hence why he's a bird Hat Thing eslow joins forces with link and the pair seek out the Minish who promptly tell them that to fix the sword they'll need to seek out four elements around Hyrule and long story short link seeks out the four elements obtains some powerful new items and defeats and bosses you know normal Zelda varti however is biding his time in his quest to seek the fabled Golden Light of the pickery he learns of the power of the pickary sword and instead of being proactive about it he's just happy for link to do all the hard work this all comes to a head when link fuses the elements of the pickery sword to create the fabled 4 sword which gives the wielder the ability to quadruple himself Lin uses this power to see off vati who's busy draining the light Force out of Zelda who it turns out is The Keeper of the pickery's golden light and with farty thwarted the curses on Zelda and eslo break and Hyrule is restored to its former glory peace and Hyrule however does not last long foreign [Music] The Crafty old bastard reappears out of nowhere and starts terrorizing Hyrule but yet another legendary hero or should that be heroes plural stand in his way when they harness the power of the four sword and defeat him which seals the old wizard in the four sword itself Generations pass as they tend to do after these Zelda prologues and surprise surprise vati breaks free he kidnaps the latest incarnation of Princess Zelda and hightails it into the night hot on his heels are the four links that spring out of the titular four sword and after collecting up a bunch of rupees and defeating some monsters to prove their worth the four Swordsmen confront varti in his palatial Den with their strength in numbers the links defeat vati and Hyrule returns to peace once again but for how long spoilers not long [Music] you see following the four Swords Saga the kingdom of Hyrule is embroiled in a bleak Civil War which spreads death and destruction across the lands amongst all this Carnage a young mother flees with her baby into the kakiri forest where she leaves her child with the sacred Deku Tree because trees are known to be very good foster parents naturally the Deku Tree senses great things to come from the tiny baby he agrees and the child grows up within the kakiri community a community of Elf like kids who all have companion fairies and never grow old it's kind of like Zelda's version of Peter Pan meanwhile the war eventually comes to an end when the king of Hyrule is able to unify the sparring tribes under one Kingdom one of the leaders of those tribes is a lad called Ganondorf who swears allegiance to the king but he should under no circumstances be trusted this evil looking bastard is secretly after the power of the Triforce that was last seen hidden somewhere near to Hyrule Castle while he's keeping faced with the King Ganondorf puts into action his plan to find the three keys to the sacred realm precious jewels dotted about Hyrule even the King's Daughter our latest flavor of Princess Zelda can sense his evil ganondorf's treachery comes to her in a dream and she implores her father to banish the ginger warlord from the kingdom a plea that unfortunately falls on deaf ears the other part of her prophetic dream was the emergence of a young boy in a fairy that would counter the evil of Ganondorf cue another legendary hero in the form of that aforementioned baby all grown up and his pet fairy Navi and it turns out that he's already got one of the Sacred Jewels he's a keeper the pair hatch a plan for linked to nav the remaining keys to the sacred realm while Zelda keeps an eye on ganondorf's nefarious plans before gaining access to the Triforce to beat the demon Thief at his own game and so link hustles around Hyrule to get the last two keys meeting the people of fire the gorans and the people of water the Zoras in the process two races that will crop up a fair whack across the the timeline so I just thought I'd name drop them here anyway link Journeys back to Hyrule Castle keys in hand but as he's arriving at the gates to the keep he's confronted by Zelda fleeing on Horseback with her protector impa one of the last remaining members of the sheikah tribe the same tribe that protected the original Zelda back in Skyward Sword she's fleeing from Ganondorf who's halfway through an attack on the castle all in the name of stealing a musical instrument but not any old musical instrument only the titular Ocarina of Time a magical music maker that can transport its user through space and time oh and it's also a key to the sacred realm which is kind of Handy with Zelda AWOL Linksys through their original plan of opening the sacred realm but this plan does not go well you see Ganondorf accesses the sacred realm too and is able to grab the Triforce of power he's only able to grab that part as he's a rotten egg and the other two pieces scattered to the wind at his mere whiff regardless ganondorf's invasion of the Sacred realm turns Hyrule Castle into a literal Hells Gate populated by nightmares zombies and monsters and a lad who will pay good money for ghosts but ignore him anyway link let's not forget is still a child and as a result is in no fit state to counter any of this as he draws the master sword from its pedestal it seals him within the sacred realm until he's the right age to take up his mantle as the hero of time and so link sleeps for seven long years watched over by the sage of light rauru while he's taking this prolonged nap Zelda is forced to go into hiding to escape ganondor's forces and she disguises herself as Sheik a strapping lad at the sheikah tribe when link awakes he's greeted by Sheikh who sends him off on another Epic Quest this time to break the curses on five temples around the land and awaken the sages that Slumber within the endgame lur Ganondorf into a trap and use the power of the entire contingent of sages to lock him within the sacred realm and so are Plucky adult hero Ventures off high and low to save the sages and reunite the old gang a gang of individuals he's actually met along his travels already long story short link unites the sages and heads back to the Temple of time where he has a long-awaited reunion with Zelda where she reveals that she's in possession of the Triforce of wisdom this reunion does not last long though as Ganondorf soon rocks up to crash the party and kidnaps Elder link follows in pursue and falls right into the Dark Lord's trap you see link is in possession of the Triforce of courage and with all three brought together Ganondorf makes a play to collect the full set following a chaotic battle atop Hyrule castle where Ganondorf morphs into the boar-like Ganon link is finally Victorious and aided by Zelda and the other sages are heroes trap Ganondorf away in the sacred realm with his precious Triforce of Power with the curtains closing on another epic adventure peace once again extends across Hyrule but while the people get peace this timeline gets pure chaos let me explain [Music] right with all the time travel Shenanigans knocking about an Ocarina of Time it kind of breaks the timeline and I mean really breaks the timeline from Ocarina the chronology splits into three different strands the first of which is incredibly Grim that strand follows one possible outcome where the hero of time is defeated by Ganondorf which sets in motion the path to a link to the past and the original Legend of Zelda among others yeah Nintendo came up with an actual canonical path where their Central hero dies you don't see that in Mario the other two strands stem from the opposite outcome where the hero of time is successful in the fight against Ganondorf but this is where it gets all timey wimy the second timeline Branch sees link return in time to his childhood and this sets in motion the path towards Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess which sees Ganondorf reincarnated to terrorize Hyrule once again the third and last branch of the timeline is the adult Era timeline and basically sees a world in which the hero of time vanishes largely because he sort of has just back to his old childhood time instead of wiping this timeline clean Nintendo just doubles down on the time paradoxes and this sets in motion a path where Hyrule is flooded to protect the Triforce which as you can probably guess leads to the maritime Madness of the Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass all before a new Hyrule is established on a new continent so moral of the story you can't exactly mess with time travel and expect there not to be consequences I guess [Applause] [Music] right first The Morbid timeline so link straight up dies during his battle with Ganondorf during the climactic events of Ocarina of Time and this sets in motion Aid path where the demon Thief gains possession of the complete Triforce Zelda and the sages are still powerful enough to seal the ginger Pratt away in the sacred realm but he takes the full might of the Triforce with him a shaky piece descends across Hyrule as the years Roll by but fueled by Dark Rumors about a hidden golden Power word starts to spread about the sacred realm and a fair few brave souls even try to access it never to be seen again you see ganondorf's residence in the sacred realm has turned it into the Dark World a place of Pure Evil and Malice and this prompts the sages to seal the realm off for good fast forward a couple of generations and we reach the beginning of a link to the past the sacred realm has remained untouched but that all changes when a flashy wizard lad called agonim turns up kills the king and starts stealing the female descendants of of the sages Princess Zelda just so happens to be one of those kidnapped and she sends out a telepathic message guess she's got psychic powers in this timeline which is picked up by our old mate link and his uncle who are themselves descended from the fabled Knights of Hyrule link saves Zelda and escorts her through the castle sewers to a sanctuary where he is then sent out on an epic quest to find the mythical Master Sword before using it to fight back against agonim after proving his worth by securing the three mystical pendants link finally lays his hands on the master sword which now sits in a deep dark Forest presumably the Temple of Time Has crumbled away over the years after zapping back and forth between Hyrule and the sacred realm or light and dark worlds as they're now called link eventually confronts the evil wizard atop a giant pyramid in the Dark World defeating him before taking on the game's true antagonist Ganon the evil pig monster who's been pulling the strings all along link makes short work of Ganon takes a hold of the Triforce and wishes for peace to return to the world and with that we get a brief happy ending amid this timeline of Doom and Gloom peace returns to Hyrule as does the Triforce and even people who died at the hands of Agony in return as well jobs are good and Link foreign now we get to the bit of the timeline that let's say is a little bit flexible I say flexible because Nintendo themselves have straight up shifted around the order back in the original Hyrule Historia the Oracle Games took place after a link to the past but fast forward to the release of the Zelda encyclopedia and the order has changed with Link's Awakening coming next Nintendo announced this with all the Fanfare of a footnote look there it is anyway Link's Awakening is next up on the timeline and sees the very same hero from A Link to the Past Shipwrecked on the shores of the Mysterious kohalen Island after a training Mission and it turns out that Colin is weird there's a giant air Atop The Central mountain and a weird sense of deja vu surrounding certain Island residents that he meets and that's because it's all a dream well sort of it turns out that color lint has in fact been manifested by the consciousness of a wind fish and for link to escape he'll need to wake said windfish destroying the island and all of its inhabitants as a result while he may be used to saving Kingdom's link does not hesitate in condemning this one and he Ventures about on his merry way to collecting eight magical instruments that will wake the wind fish and with the wind fish up from his nap Cohen shimmers away to be remembered only in Link's memories which is quite a dark ending for such a jovial Adventure foreign next up we've got the duo of Oracle games Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages which again features the very same link from a link to the past the Oracle game see a return for the twin Rover witches a pair first introduced towards the tail end of Ocarina of Time and who were instrumental in the upbringing of the ginger head delinquent Ganondorf their mischievous game plan to resurrect Gannon himself through some weird culty ceremony to this end they infiltrate the worlds of holodrum and laburna where they kidnap the titular Oracle of Seasons and ages DIN and nehru using the power of the Triforce link is transported to the two aforementioned worlds where he defeats the lieutenants of twin Rover to bring peace and Order back to their Realms all of this is in vain however as twin Rover kidnaps Zelda with a view to sacrificing her as part of their Resurrection ceremony link disrupts The Witch's mid-ceremony and saves Zelda and as a result twin Rover sacrifice themselves and this brings Ganon back once again as the ceremony was only half finished this iteration of Ganon is something of a brainless Pig a shadow of his Porky Glory ugh sorry about that Turner phrase anyway link defeats the gormless Ganon which brings the Oracle games to a close [Music] centuries pass in the wake of the Oracle games in which time the Triforce is split with the wisdom piece remaining in the hands of the royal family the power Triforce returning to the steel sealed Ganon and the courage slab going AWOL awaiting a new hero to come and find it enter said hero an apprentice blacksmith handily also called Link at the beginning of A Link Between Worlds which is very much a spiritual sequel as well as an actual sequel I guess to a link to the past which means the story is pretty much a rerun of the snares classic that said there is a whole load of fresh story content Within A Link Between Worlds namely the introduction of a whole new world called Low rule yeah technically it's another parallel universe in the ilk of the Dark World but it's a little different this time a link between World season Evil sorcerer known as Yuga infiltrate Hyrule in a bid to kidnap the descendants of the sages so far so familiar while out delivering a sword link stumbles upon Yuga mid kidnap and well he Witnesses the evil wizards straight up to turning a poor lass into a painting Yuga knocks link out for his troubles and scarpers back to his home in Lowell link investigates further and with the help of a mysterious bunny eared traveler named ravio finally tracks Yuga down only to be turned into a painting himself instead of living out his days as a piece of street art link has the power to switch between 2D and 3D at will thanks to the timely intervention of a magical bracelet given to him by ravio using this newfound gimmick link discovers that Yuga is surprise surprise planning on resurrecting Ganon but once link digs a little deeper it turns out that there's a whole load more at stake after Zelda is kidnapped by Yuga and taken back to Laurel link follows in Pursuit and discovers the tragic history of hyrule's dark twin you see it turns out that Laurel had its own Triforce at one point which was destroyed when the people of the land fought over its power link also meets Princess Hilda a dark-haired doppelganger of Zelda who helps him keep Yuga at Bay while he can track down the Triforce of Courage but wait there's one more twist it turns out that Hilda is actually playing link as she's in League with Yuga and his plan to resurrect Gannon with the ultimate end goal of stealing hyrule's Triforce to replace their own destroyed one this all comes to a head when link defeats Yuga and Hilda with the help of ravio before uniting the hillion Triforce and as he's a good agar link he wishes on the Triforce for peace and prosperity to return to Laurel which brings the game to a happy ending with not one realm saved but two [Music] right next up on the timeline is the most inconsequential Zelda Adventure to date and I do not say that lightly after saving Hyrule and Laurel our Victorious blacksmith hero travels far and wide eventually finding himself in the land of high Topia the most fashion conscious of all the Zelda Realms here he takes up a job listing asking for Heroes with pointy ears and truly epic sideburns Nintendo's words not mine to break a curse that an evil witch is cast on the princess yup Triforce Heroes is literally a game about saving a princess from a cursed jumpsuit long story short link and a couple of look-alike Lads this is a three-player multiplayer game after all venture into a kingdom known as the drab lands to confront the witch responsible they find said witch drive her away and Bobs your uncle the curse is broken they return to the incredibly vain Kingdom of hytopia and the princess no longer looks like a turd so that counts for a win I guess right from the frivolity of high fashion to the decline of the entire Kingdom of Hyrule damn that's Eternal Whiplash okay before we dive into the story of the original 1986 Zelda which sits next on our timeline there's a little bit of backstory that we learn later on in its sequel the adventure of Link in the wake of the complete Triforce returning to the royal family of Hyrule successive generations of Kings used it to retain peace and Order across the kingdom until one of them just decided nah this power might go to someone's head eventually so that King hid the Triforce of carriage away and entrusted his daughter Zelda with the Triforce of wisdom unfortunately this plan completely backfired and it cast a spell across the land of Hyrule which eventually led to its decline not only that but his Prat of a son the prince craved the power of his father and under the influence of an evil wizard there's a lot of those about in this timeline puts his sister Zelda into a long deep sleep finally coming to his senses the prince places his dormant husk of a sister in a sacred Altar and her story is passed down from generation to generation as the tragedy of Princess Zelda the first which itself is a little bit confusing in the context of this timeline as we've already had a handful of zelders but hey ho here we are with Zelda the first anyway all of this was backstory to the original 1986 Legend of Zelda remember so time I got back to that Gannon is back once again because why the hell not by this point and the reigning Princess Zelda not sure what number she is splits up the Triforce of wisdom into eight chunks which he hides across the land so Gannon and his minions can't get their hands on them a young hero turns up in the devastated Kingdom of Hyrule which is now a shadow of its former glory and he finds his way into the path of impa Zelda's handmaiden who instructs him to seek out the hriforce pieces so he can defeat Ganon he does the end but this ending is far from happily ever after [Music] after defeating Ganon link decides to stick around Hyrule and help clean up the mess that Ganon has left and there's a lot of mess you see ganon's minions are still running a mark across the lands and they organize a resurrection attempt by planning to sprinkle the blood of link on ganon's charred remains which is a Bonkers plan but I'm sold anyway six years pass and on Link's 16th birthday the crest of the royal family appears on the back of his hand side note that little detail about link being 16 an adventure of Link means that the hero in the original Legend of Zelda was 10 and that fact just blows my mind I digress link shows the Cresta imber who regales the history of Hyrule to link and tells him about the tragedy of Princess Zelda the first now that he's come of age input implores link to search for the Triforce of courage in a bid to unite the complete Triforce once again and save Zelda the first she gives him an ancient scroll which eventually leads him to the great palace and the resting place of the final Triforce piece after an epic final battle with the guardian deity and a shadow version of himself link is victorious in uniting the Triforce he uses its power to awaken Princess Zelda the first from her long nap disrupts the attempts to resurrect Ganon and hey ho peace once again returns to the kingdom of Hyrule which brings this branch of the timeline to a close Well for now at least but before link can even think about putting his feet up with a good cupper it's time to rewind back to that pivotal timeline split all the way back at Ocarina of time's conclusion okay we're back at the ending of Ocarina of Time or more specifically the first meeting between Link and Zelda which is still the first meeting for Zelda but technically the second for link gosh uh let me explain right so after defeating Ganondorf link travels back to his childhood but retains all of his memories as an adult Chief leader of ganondorf's treachery he hightails it to Zelda to tell her and shows her the Triforce of Courage on the back of his hand as proof Zelda believes in Ganondorf is thrown in jail and the crisis is averted before it can all kick off in the first place to make doubly sure that Ganondorf will never enter the sacred realm Zelda entrusts Link with the Ocarina of Time and tells him to venture far away from Hyrule link hops on a tiny little opponent just look at how cute she is and Journeys off into the Wilderness he travels so far he literally breaks the fabric of time and space and haphazardly hops into an alternate Dimension where he gets turned into the long dead Spirit of a Deku scrub yeah did I mention that Majora's Mask is weirdest hit anyway link finds himself in the land of termina which is a strange parallel world of sorts occurring of times Hyrule featuring a whole load of characters that look Vaguely Familiar largely because it came out two years after Ocarina of Time and Nintendo reused a lot of the same assets but we'll give them a pass because the game's a stone cold banger termina is having something of a crisis of its own and by crisis I mean the literal apocalypse is nigh signposted by a massive grinning Moon that is about to crash down and flatten everything after chatting to a seriously creepy Mass salesman link learns that the world is in this situation because a powerful mask the titular one belonging to Majora has fallen into the hands of a rascally skull kid who's up to no good and so link Ventures off around termina to right the wrongs in the world and there are a lot of wrongs the fire loving gorons are frozen there's a load of aliens abducting cows and there's even a disembodied hand emerging from a toilet remember I did say Majora's Mask was weird by using the Ocarina of Time link is able to get through all these weird little jobs by traveling back in time to see out the final three days in term in his life over and over again and he eventually fixes everything to the point where he can face the skull kid himself oh and he also enlists the help of four handy Giants to literally hold the moon in place you know which helps it turns out that Majora's Mask itself is causing all the Carnage and after a really odd final battle link defeats the mask returns it to the creepy salesman and is on his way to a location that's likely not as delightfully weird [Music] meanwhile back in Hyrule years have passed since the events of Ocarina of Time and our old friend Ganondorf is finally set to be executed for his crimes he's taken to a sacred Place known as The Arbiter grounds where he's executed by A Great Big bloody sword right to the chest only this doesn't kill him as he's in possession of the Triforce of power he survives the impaling only to be banished to a never before mentioned Twilight Realm by the sages you see the Twilight realm is a parallel world of sorts there's really a lot of them knocking about in this franchise that was created when four light Spirits banished magic wielding people out of Hyrule this shadowy Lookout is populated by a race of people known as the Twilight and when Ganondorf rocks up with all his evil thoughts and plans he inspires one of the Twilight a wrong Unknown Known as Zant to invade Hyrule this devilish Duo is opposed by the titular Twilight Princess a last called midna whose first by Zan and banished a Hyrule Zant then invades Hyrule transforms the world into a dense land of Twilight and turns all humans into anxiety-racked spirits and that's all just the backstory for Twilight Princess Link hasn't even turned up yet speaking of Link this time he's a wolf you see as Twilight spreads through the land of Hyrule it finally reaches the outskirts of Link's home Village but instead of turning into a spirit link turns into a good boy as a result of him being a descendant of the hero of time and possessing the Triforce of Courage speaking of the hero of time he actually rocks up in this game as an embittered old skeleton to Dole out sword fighting tips and tricks but I'm digressing again so with the help of midna Link Ventures around Hyrule catches up with Zelda clears the land of Twilight finds the master sword in the ruins of the Temple of Time snowboards with a Yeti fixes a broken mirror and eventually travels to the Twilight realm itself to destroy Zant but that's just half the job done with Ganondorf back in Hyrule Lincoln midna confront him in the car throne room and after not one not two but three bounce in the ring with him Ganondorf is finally defeated courtesy of a good old-fashioned Master Sword to the chest it didn't work last time but this isn't any old sword and he loses the Triforce of power as a result and with Zant and Ganondorf gone the curse on Hyrule and midna is lifted and as link turns to celebrate with her he's shocked by the true form of the Twilight Princess stand before him and with that the game comes to a close when midner says her farewells to Zelda and Link before traveling back to her own realm and in her last act before departing she shatters the mirror of twilight and breaks the connection between the two worlds forever [Music] okay several hundred years have passed since the events of Twilight Princess and pieces extended across the Realms of Hyrule especially in the relations between the hillians and the Gerudo people the tribe that Ganondorf was born into but here's the kicker somehow rather inexplicably if you ask me Ganondorf is back how you may ask well he's just sort of Born Again into the Gerudo tribe ready and willing to tear the place up he starts by trespassing into a forbidden pyramid to steal a mystical Trident before he nabbed a dark mirror which is remarkably familiar to the one in Twilight Princess but has absolutely nothing to do with it for um reasons to add insult to injury the demon Thief resurrects are old pal vati remember him the old wind wizard himself kicks into life and the evil pair kidnaps Zelda and her maidens and enshroud the world of Hyrule in darkness as is the tradition in Zelda games link not wanting to suffer about a fomo draws the fabled force sword which hasn't been used for Millennia by this point I guess and he immediately quadruples himself the quartet Venture around Hyrule fixing the light World bit by bit before defeating vati at the top of his perilously high wind Palace as they escape the crumbling Palace they're confronted by Ganon who's also easily vanquished the links use the foresaw to seal the giant pig away and with that the ancient weapon is placed back on its pedestal awaiting the next time Nintendo decides to make a multiplayer Zelda that's not Triforce Heroes right with another timeline at an end time to rewind time once again back to that crucial split in the chronology foreign [Music] split at the end of Ocarina for the last time promise this branch of the chronology follows the timeline that shoots off from the events in Ocarina where the hero of time travels back to his childhood but instead of erasing this timeline Allah Back to the Future it just creates a whole new timeline ala Avengers end game are you still with me I really hope you've seen those movies anyway Ganondorf is sealed away as we're following on from the adult timeline ending of Ocarina of Time and peace once again extends across Hyrule by now you should know that that piece will be short-lived and lo and behold Ganondorf is able to crawl his way out from the death to wreak havoc once again in the wake of the hero of time having Zapped back to his childhood and gone off adventuring to termina etc etc the king of Hyrule turns to the gods for help and they choose the Desperate Times Desperate Measures plan of action so they seal Hyrule and flood the whole damn world wow fortunately the good people of Hyrule Survive by traveling to the tops of the tallest mountains in the land and in this new water world a bit like the movie but definitely not the movie they emerge from the flood on isolated Islands across the ocean the king himself stays behind in the sealed castle of Hyrule sending his daughter to the waves above to live out her life with the common folk albeit with a piece of the Triforce of wisdom years pass and Ganondorf turns like a bad Penny stirring up across the seas from his den at The Forsaken Fortress he seeks out and murders two of the sages and starts his search for Zelda and the Triforce of wisdom the king also wakes from islamber and his Spirit takes up residence in a dashing red boat known as the king of the red lines the king boat goes searching for his descendant as well as for a new hero who can take up ownership of the Triforce of Courage the former he finds in the shoes of brash pirate leader Tetra while the latter he finds on a Charming Little Island this strapping young lad also handily known as link has been searching for his sister who's been kidnapped as part of ganondorf's Enterprise to steal young girls until he finds Zelda which is an absolutely mad plan when you stop and think too much about it okay now all the major pieces are finally on the board for Wind Waker let's break it all down okay so link and the King boat Venture off across the seas to prove his worth for the Triforce of courage in the process they save Link's little sister meet the descendants of the kakiri and the Zoras who are now little tree Sprites and dragon birds respectively and chart a series of maps with a talking fish after proving his courage link travels beneath the waves to Hyrule castle where he grabs the master sword little side note but I love all the stained glass windows here that depict the battle with Ganon and the six sages for a Macarena of time it's these little moments that really sell this Bonkers timeline for me anyway the master sword is next to useless against Ganondorf and Lincoln Tetra barely escape with their lives during their attempted attack on The Forsaken Fortress and it's at this point that the king of Red Lions seeks to move matters along a bit first by informing Tetra of her ancestry and uniting the Triforce of wisdom and secondly in directing link to seek out the shards of the Triforce of Courage so they can more successfully put an end to Ganondorf and so we fast forward a bit to the section where link has all the relevant Triforce pieces and can retake the assault to Ganondorf a lot of things happen in a short space of time first as Ganondorf reaches out to take the completed Triforce the actual King rocks up and touches it first and wishes for the ancient land of Hyrule to be destroyed once and for all to make way for a better future this irks the demon Thief somewhere as he kinda had hopes on ruling over said land but hey ho unlucky Ganondorf lad Lincoln Zelda kick into gear and fight off Ganondorf with a combo of light arrows and the master sword itself and finally defeat the evil Bastard with a sword stabbed at the head which has always felt overly violent to me especially within the context of the cutesy cell shaded Graphics anyway Zelda and Link Escape Hyrule as it crumbles around them and the King opts to stay behind like the captain of a sinking ship and so the never-ending cycle of Hyrule and the Triforce finally comes to an end well at least in this timeline I guess but this story branch is far from over [Music] foreign who's now back in the guise of tetra set sail in search of new lands their travels take them into the haunted Waters of the Ghost Ship which promptly kidnaps Tetra and throws link overboard he awakes on Mercy Island and befriends the wise old oceans his pet fairy sealer and the charismatic Captain Lineback across Link's Adventures to catch the Ghost Ship he learns that oshas is actually the local ocean King who's in a long-running battle against some kind of evil squid called Bellum and his pet fairy is actually the Spirit of Courage Lineback is just plain old Lineback though so nothing new there onru link secures another legendary sword fools around with time once again courtesy of the titular Phantom Hourglass and defeats Bellum peace returns to the season OSHA's turns back into his true form which is a giant silver whale but here's the kicker when Lincoln tetrifying themselves back in their own world only 10 minutes have passed since they left on their Voyage which is a proper ballsy link so awakening-esque move by Nintendo and so after their supposedly 10 minute long adventure in Phantom Hourglass link and Tetra continue on with their mission to find new lands they eventually call land ho on a new continent which has a mysterious Tower at its center with a bunch of rail tracks stemming from it and despite there clearly being some form of settlement here Lincoln Tetra colonized this new land as the New Kingdom of Hyrule fast forward 100 years in which going down a new Hyrule the aforementioned tracks are disappearing left right and center and the reigning Princess Zelda wants to know why she dispatches the descendant of link and an engineer named Alfonso to go and investigate turns out that a Shifty looking politician wearing two hats is the culprit God I love Nintendo anyway two hats is called Cole and his ultimate plan is to resurrect a lad called maladis a demon king who's sealed at the top of that aforementioned Tower he succeeded in part of his plan which is to separate Zelda from her physical body to make a vessel for the incoming Demon King this sort of backfires though as Spirit Zelda is instrumental in helping link unify the kingdom relay the spirit tracks and ultimately defeat malodus himself who upon release takes on the form of an evil train as you do and with Cole and maladis vanquished Lincoln Zelda are entrusted with caring over the land and from there the kingdom of new Hyrule prospers the end except it's not [Music] here's where Nintendo kind of just stops caring about their own damn timeline you see breath of the wild wasn't initially given a placement on the overarching chronology for a good while after its release about a year after the game launched though Japanese publication famitsu asked the devs the essential question of where the game sat on the already convoluted timeline their answer and I quote was well of course it's at the very end but I get what you're asking it's which timeline it's at the very end of that's up to the player's imagination isn't it which kinda means that they just haven't figured that out yet so let's for a moment entertain this nonsense and say that breath of the wild takes place at the end of all of the timelines it still leaves a lot for the imagination which I guess is the point according to the developers anyway there's plenty of evidence of hyrule's History across breath of the Wild's vast map both ancient and recent and by ancient I mean 10 000 years ago and by recent I mean a century ago so basically breath of the wild is potentially so very far into the future that it's placement on the timeline doesn't even matter but hey ho let's get to the story most of the key narrative beats of breath of the wild actually take place through extensive flashbacks during these we learn that the kingdom of Hyrule was once a hugely Advanced civilization and the people used this technological prowess to protect themselves from the endlessly repeating Ganon apocalypse to this end they built themselves four huge Divine beasts and a whole Army of Guardian robots to help them repel the advance of Ganon which they did yay until the next time Ganon read his ugly head that is not yay anyway fast forward to about to about a century proceeding hello anyway fast forward to about a century preceding the events of breath of the wild and we catch up with the latest incarnation of Princess Zelda and the Beast piloting Champions who are gearing up for the inevitable next round with Ganon the latest in the line of zeldas has not been blessed with the ancient power of the goddess and in the wake of that she relentlessly pursues any and all means with which to hold back the oncoming Ganon storm unfortunately she runs out a time before ganon's next attack and in the ensuing battle her protector a young lad called link is hurt fatally wounded at the hands of the Guardians themselves who have been possessed by Ganon long story short Zelda whisks Link away to the shrine of Resurrection hides the fabled master sword and in a completely badass move locks herself and Ganon away in Hyrule Castle to Duke it out for time Immortal link the poor lad eventually wakes up fully healed a whopping 100 years later with absolutely no memory after a strange interaction with a wise old man who turns out to be the long dead Spirit of the king of Hyrule link Ventures off on an Epic Quest to take back the four Divine beasts from Ganon before taking on the foul Pig himself and after a lengthy battle link emerges Victorious and as he and Zelda stand over the battlefield they look to the Future to rebuild the devastated Hyrule [Music] but that future might have to wait as there's another destructive force that wants to end the world of Hyrule for good or at least that's the direction that tears of the Kingdom seems to be going in ostensibly a direct sequel to breath of the wild tears of the Kingdom expands the world of Hyrule into the skies possibly as a throwback to Skyward Sword right at the very beginning of this timeline and while there isn't a whole lot of information to go on right now that hasn't stopped people from theorizing about how the last two games fit into the Zelda Timeline Chief among those theories is the return of the Gerudo lad himself Ganondorf Whose actions pretty much kick-started the giant chasm in this timeline how this ties into the wider timeline though is anyone's guess at the point I'm writing this which is about a month away from the release of Tears of the Kingdom but I'm calling it now my guess is that breath of the wild and tears of the Kingdom slot in at the end of the child Era timeline only time will tell though and that Pals is the Zelda Timeline explained to the best of my ability I hope you guys enjoy yeah and I like me looking forward to tears of the Kingdom if you like these gaming timelines we've got plenty of the channel already including Metroid god of war and Resident Evil thanks for watching guys I'll see you next time

Channel: GameSpot

Views: 857,899

Keywords: legend of zelda, zelda, zelda timeline, legend of zelda timeline, zelda chronology, zelda timeline explained, zelda explained, link, ganondorf, triforce, breath of the wild, tears of the kingdom, ocarina of time, majora’s mask, skyward sword, twilight princess, wind waker, zelda lore, zelda history, history of zelda, nintendo, switch, nintendo switch, zelda switch

Id: h6RfOrwej_c

Length: 48min 45sec (2925 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 17 2023