With all of the changes that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom makes to the Zelda franchise’s famously complex timeline, it seems less likely than ever that there will be a proper update to the official chronology. Both Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild make nostalgic references to the entirety of the franchise, but this also makes definitively placing them in the series timeline very difficult. Moreover, the story of TOTK seems to contradict several aspects of the previously established canon, complicating things even further.
As it stands, Nintendo’s official Zelda timeline, released after Skyward Sword, splits into three branches, each representing a different outcome of the events of Ocarina of Time. The Child and Adult Timelines respectively follow a Hyrule in which Link returns from the future to prevent Ganondorf’s plot, and the future version of the kingdom he consequently leaves bereft of a hero. Unusually for a game franchise, the third timeline branch, the Fallen Hero Timeline, also canonizes the possibility of Link’s death in OoT and its consequences. With conflicting references to these timelines, BOTW can reside at the end of all three branches concurrently. However, the timeline placement of TOTK itself is harder to understand.
Related: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Review – Building Excellence
Logically speaking, TOTK should simply be considered a sequel to BOTW, and consequently succeed the entirety of the franchise in the same way. However, much of the background story and plot established for TOTK is entirely new material, and by extension, seems to contradict this interpretation. For example, the Zonai are introduced in TOTK as the founders of Hyrule, but this conflicts with the state of affairs shown in Skyward Sword, which seems to imply that Hyrule was established by Hylians led by that game’s Link and Zelda. The existence of King Rauru seems to therefore contradict the existing canon timeline, making a coherent update of the existing timeline impossible.
By itself, there are several ways that this contradiction could be rationalized. For example, the Zonai’s Hyrule could actually be an older iteration of the kingdom that existed before the emergence of Demise and his war with Hylia, and so before the creation of Skyloft (although this conflicts with Ganon seemingly being a product solely of Demise’s malice). Alternatively, it is also possible that Queen Sonia is a descendant of Skyward Sword’s Zelda (and thus most likely Link as well), and that Hyrule was not officially formed in the latter’s lifetime, although in this scenario the absence of the Zonai in Skyward Sword’s own sky is in itself notable.
2023-11-30 20:00:05
Source from screenrant.com
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