Friday, March 17, 2017

Where Does Breath of the Wild Fit in the Zelda Timeline?


     Breath of the Wild is simply stunning. The game all about exploring an incredibly vast Hyrule as you brave trials and formidable odds in order to save Princess Zelda and Hyrule from Calamity Ganon. You can say fans are extremely satisfied with the game, or almost. While the game is incredible, one question or you can say one quest is left for fans to explore: Where does Breath of the Wild fit on the Zelda timeline? Beware of spoilers down below.


     For those who don't know most of the games in the Legend of Zelda series have been disputed exactly where they fit and relate to each other and theories of where they fit in a timeline have been one of the biggest mysteries in gaming, with few clues given, until Hyrule Historia officially revealed a map of where everything fits. There is a line where a few games are pretty linear like Skyward Sword happening before The Minish Cap. It gets funny when it gets to Ocarina of Time where there are three branches which is no wonder as that game deals largely with time travel. The three branches are a timeline where Link is returned to as a child at the end of the game (The Child timeline), the timeline that takes place after the events of the game (The Adult timeline) and a paradox timeline where Link fails to save Hyrule (The Fallen timeline).
    Like games before, Breath of the Wild gives sorta vague clues. In the game you do experience not only the ruins of the Temple of Time, but ruins of Lon Lon Ranch so this indicates that the game takes place after Ocarina of Time. Narrowing things down? Not really. Most of the games take place after Ocarina of time. Some fans have indicated that maybe the game takes place in the Fallen timeline as Link in this game has failed and has to be put to sleep for hundreds of years and the Master Sword is in the Lost Woods like A Link to the Past which is in the same timeline. While the former might be obvious, the latter could also be just a decision of visual artistry as the image of it resting in the Lost Woods is an iconic moment in the game. You do have things like certain creatures existing like Koroks and Ritos in the game which existed in other timelines, but that doesn't mean much as the series have done thing like put certain characters in other timelines as well.
    One theory is that the game takes place far in the future past the other games and is in a convergence time where the branches are rejoined. An example of this is where it has been stated that the Sacred Beasts in the game have fought Ganon 10,000 years years before and again 100 years and in during the final battle where Zelda has stated that Ganon, in his primal form has been tired of being reincarnated and that his final form in the game is his rage of doing so.
     So, let's get down to the nitty gritty. Does Breath of the Wild fit in the adult timeline? Not really. Even though it references a lot of stuff and creatures in that timeline according to the events in Wind Waker, Hyrule is under attacked by a somehow unsealed Ganon which causes it to flood and later on in the game Hyrule is forever in the bottom of the ocean, where the Temple of Time and Lon Lon Ranch is. It is most likely that it is in the Child timeline or the Fallen timeline, more so the Fallen timeline since what happens in the game seem to have a scenario where Link and Zelda fails and does have to restore Hyrule to its glory. Of course nothing is certain until Nintendo officially reveals where it is and shocks us all once again.

What are your thoughts?

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