# The Legend Of Zelda Timeline Theories > The Legend Of Zelda Timeline Theories is a community obsession spanning decades of forums, flowcharts, and YouTube essays debating Nintendo's game chronology, fanned in 2011 when Hyrule Historia revealed an official three-way timeline split. The Legend of Zelda Timeline Theories refers to decades of fan speculation about the chronological order of Nintendo's *Legend of Zelda* games. Starting in the early 2000s on fan forums and wikis, the debate grew into one of gaming's longest-running community obsessions, spawning elaborate charts, YouTube video essays, and heated forum arguments. Nintendo's 2011 release of *Hyrule Historia* finally provided an official timeline with a surprise three-way split, but rather than ending the debate, it poured fuel on the fire. ## Origin The *Legend of Zelda* series launched in February 1986 with its first title on the Family Computer Disk System[9]. Nintendo released fifteen main series titles between 1986 and early 2013, each adding new layers of lore without clear connections to one another[5]. The series' creators, Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka, followed a "Gameplay first, story later" approach that worked fine early on but made chronological coherence increasingly difficult as the franchise grew[5]. In the early 2000s, Nintendo of America posted an official timeline on Zelda.com that laid out a coherent progression of games leading up to the 2001 Game Boy titles *Oracle of Ages* and *Oracle of Seasons*[5]. This could have settled the matter, but the Japanese development team vetoed it. They wanted the timeline left open to player interpretation[5]. Around the same time, fan site North Castle launched one of the first detailed "Hyrulian Timelines" as part of its Zelda history project[3]. The site's creator explicitly noted these were not official dates, writing that the timeline was "merely for entertainment value, and a good guide if you wish to write a fan-fiction story"[3]. North Castle's timeline placed *Ocarina of Time* first and the original NES games last, a framework many fans adopted[3]. - **Platform:** Zelda fan forums (North Castle, Zelda Wiki, Neoseeker) - **Creator:** Unknown (community-created from The Legend of Zelda series) - **Date:** Early 2000s ## Overview The Legend of Zelda Timeline Theories encompass a sprawling body of fan-made charts, essays, and video arguments attempting to place every *Zelda* game into a coherent chronological order. The challenge stems from Nintendo's design philosophy of prioritizing gameplay over narrative continuity, which left the connections between games deliberately vague[5]. Each new title in the franchise introduced characters, locations, and events that seemed to reference earlier games while contradicting others, creating an irresistible puzzle for fans who wanted to make it all fit. The debate centers on questions like: Which Link is which? How do the recurring incarnations of Zelda, Link, and Ganon relate across games? And does the series follow one timeline, multiple branching timelines, or no timeline at all? These questions fueled thousands of forum threads, wiki pages, YouTube videos, and social media arguments across more than two decades[5]. ## How It Spread By 2006, the timeline debate had spread across multiple gaming communities. Forum users on Neoseeker generated nine pages of timeline discussion[5]. That same year, Zelda Wiki established a dedicated page for mapping out possible canonical timelines[5]. In November 2006, GameTrailers released a six-part Zelda retrospective that included their own timeline interpretation while questioning whether Nintendo ever had a master plan[5]. Zelda Wiki launched a separate community theory article in 2008 to encourage fan input about game ordering[5]. In August 2009, ZeldaTimeline.com went live with an extensive chronology based exclusively on the Japanese game storylines[5]. The debate hit a major inflection point in March 2009 when YouTuber ocarinahero10 uploaded a video arguing for a split timeline created by the time paradoxes in *Ocarina of Time*[6]. The video gained traction, and ocarinahero10 decided to send it to Nintendo for their reaction. Eight days later, he uploaded a follow-up claiming Nintendo had replied with a stock response referencing series producer Eiji Aonuma's earlier statement that each game features "a brand new hero named Link" and that "there isn't a true frame of reference or timeline possible for the series"[2]. Destructoid, the Hylia, and the Escapist all picked up the story in July 2009, sparking fresh rounds of debate about whether a timeline existed at all[6]. Then in 2010, Aonuma himself complicated things further. In an interview with Official Nintendo Magazine, he confirmed that *Skyward Sword* took place before *Ocarina of Time* and revealed the existence of a confidential master timeline document at Nintendo[5]. The timeline was being kept secret so the developers could freely create prequels without being boxed in[5]. In May 2011, IGN released a comedic fan film suggesting that the timeline's problems were caused by Doc Brown from *Back to the Future*[5]. By February 2013, YouTube hosted roughly 500 results for "Zelda Timeline Theory"[5]. ## How to Use The Zelda Timeline debate typically manifests in a few common formats: **Forum/comment arguments:** Someone posts a claim about where a specific game falls in the timeline. Others reply with counterarguments citing in-game evidence, lore from *Hyrule Historia*, or developer interviews. These threads often spiral into hundreds of replies. **Chart/infographic creation:** Fans create visual timeline diagrams placing each game in sequence, often color-coded by timeline branch. Popular versions include the three-branch split from *Hyrule Historia*, unified single-line timelines, and more elaborate maps incorporating spin-offs. **YouTube video essays:** Creators produce long-form analysis videos walking through evidence for specific placements, often using game footage and official art. These range from serious scholarly deep-dives to comedic takes. **Meme reaction format:** Screenshots of increasingly complex timeline charts are shared alongside reaction images expressing confusion, frustration, or mock-seriousness. The absurd complexity of multi-branching charts is the joke itself. A common pattern involves posting after a new Zelda game announcement, with fans immediately speculating about where the new title fits. Each Nintendo Direct or game trailer triggers a fresh wave of timeline theorizing across Reddit, Twitter, and gaming forums. ## Cultural Impact The timeline debate is one of gaming's longest-running fan-driven intellectual exercises. It prompted Nintendo to eventually engage with the concept officially through *Hyrule Historia*, a rare case of a developer confirming the existence of (and then revealing) a master narrative document in response to fan pressure[7]. Series producer Eiji Aonuma, who has worked on the franchise since *Ocarina of Time*, became a central figure in the discourse[8]. His alternating statements, sometimes confirming timeline connections and sometimes dismissing them, kept the debate alive for years. In 2010, his confirmation of a secret master timeline validated fans who had spent years insisting the games were connected[5]. The debate also influenced how gaming communities approach narrative analysis. The three-way timeline split in *Hyrule Historia*, particularly the "hero defeated" branch, introduced a canonical alternate-reality structure that was unusual for video game franchises at the time[8]. This approach influenced how fans theorize about other game series with complex lore. GameTrailers' 2006 Zelda retrospective was one of the earliest examples of a gaming media outlet producing long-form video content about fan theories, a format that later became standard on YouTube[5]. ## Fun Facts - North Castle's fan timeline assigned made-up Hyrulian calendar dates to every event, explicitly labeling them as fictional, then mapped out over 5,000 years of Hyrule history across all the games available at the time[3]. - The Korean gaming community on Ruliweb noted that while most fan timeline predictions were wrong, some fans who placed *The Minish Cap* before *Ocarina of Time* and *Four Swords Adventures* after *Twilight Princess* turned out to be correct[8]. - Eiji Aonuma plays percussion as a founding member of the Wind Wakers, a brass band of over 70 Nintendo employees named after the *Zelda* game[7]. - The official *Hyrule Historia* was so popular that an English fan translation project was underway months before Dark Horse Comics announced the official localization[7]. - Within the official chronology, the original 1986 *Legend of Zelda* takes place in the "Era of Decline" on the Downfall Timeline, making the very first game in the franchise one of the last events chronologically[9]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What are the Legend of Zelda Timeline Theories? They are fan-created theories attempting to arrange all *Legend of Zelda* games into a coherent chronological order, a puzzle made difficult by Nintendo's inconsistent narrative connections between titles[5]. ### Where did the Zelda Timeline debate come from? The debate emerged on fan forums and sites like North Castle in the early 2000s, after Nintendo of America posted and then retracted an official timeline on Zelda.com[5]. ### What does the Zelda Timeline debate mean? It reflects the fan community's desire to find narrative order in a game series designed with gameplay, not story continuity, as the priority[5]. Different theories represent different approaches to reconciling contradictions between games. ### How do you participate in the Zelda Timeline debate? Fans typically create charts, write forum posts, or produce YouTube videos arguing for specific game placements, citing in-game evidence, developer interviews, and official materials like *Hyrule Historia*[7]. ### Is the Zelda Timeline debate still popular? Yes. Each new *Zelda* game release reignites discussion, with *Breath of the Wild* (2017) and *Tears of the Kingdom* (2023) creating fresh waves of theorizing about where they fit in the official three-branch timeline[1]. ### What is the official Zelda timeline? Nintendo revealed the official timeline in *Hyrule Historia* (2011), which splits into three branches after *Ocarina of Time*: the Child Timeline, the Adult Timeline, and the Downfall Timeline where the Hero of Time is defeated[7]. ### Who is ocarinahero10? A YouTuber who gained attention in March 2009 for a split timeline theory video. He sent the theory to Nintendo and received a response stating there is no definitive timeline, which was covered by Destructoid and other outlets[6]. ### Did Nintendo always have a timeline planned? Eiji Aonuma confirmed in 2010 that a confidential master timeline existed at Nintendo, but it was kept secret to preserve creative freedom for future game development[5]. ### What is the Downfall Timeline? The most surprising branch revealed in *Hyrule Historia*, it represents a scenario where Link loses to Ganondorf in *Ocarina of Time*. This branch leads to the classic *Zelda* games including *A Link to the Past* and the original NES titles[8]. ### Where does Breath of the Wild fit in the timeline? Its exact placement is debated. The game references elements from all three timeline branches, leading some fans to theorize it takes place after a convergence point where the branches merge[1]. ### What is Hyrule Historia? A Zelda encyclopedia released in Japan in December 2011 for the franchise's 25th anniversary, containing concept art, developer commentary, and the first official timeline. An English edition was published by Dark Horse Comics[7]. ### Why do fans disagree about the timeline? Nintendo's design philosophy of building gameplay first and fitting story in later created genuine inconsistencies between games. Different fans weight different evidence, leading to conflicting interpretations[4]. ## References 1. [10 The Legend Of Zelda Timeline Theories You’ve Probably Never Heard Of]() 2. [Zelda Fan Theories Explained: Unraveling the Mysteries - Toxigon]() 3. [네타 완전히 밝혀진 젤다 타임라인 하이랄 히스토리아]() 4. [The Legend of Zelda Timeline Theories - Know Your Meme]() 5. [List of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom characters]() 6. [The Legend of Zelda (video game)]() 7. [List of The Legend of Zelda media]() 8. [Eiji Aonuma]() 9. [The Legend of Zelda (video game) - Wikipedia]() 10. [Hyrulian Timeline]() 11. [Hyrule Historia -]() 12. [Nintendo Lays To Rest Zelda Timeline Mystery - The Escapist]() 13. [네타 완전히 밝혀진 젤다 타임라인 하이랄 히스토리아]() 14. [There is no Zelda timeline, stop trying – Destructoid]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/the-legend-of-zelda-timeline-theories Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library