I've been sitting on this timeline theory for a good while now, trying to rationalise how Hyrule Historia's 3 timelines work in conjuction or rather in sequence so that every outcome happens. What I mean by this is that HH writes the Downfall timeline in which the Hero of Time from OOT loses to Ganondorf as an alternate event or "what if" scenario to OOT. My theory hypothesises why there are 3 outcomes after OOT which includes another event unseen in OOT, explained in the attached image and below.
Let me first start by saying this theory although inspired partly by VortexxyGaming's video of the Zelda downfall timeline, is in no way a ripoff of her theory. Granted there are similarities (hence the inspiration) but I'm an avid fan and subscriber to her channel and others alike who may have similar theories. Vortexxy hypothesised something alone the lines of after initially losing to Ganon, the Goddess of Time sent Link back to before the fight which subsequently was won by Link. This got me thinking...
I don't know how much detail to go into, but let's start at the......
Hero's Downfall Timeline:
There is a version of events which happens prior to OOT which I've labelled as the OOT Prologue.
In this version of events, things are different. Notably the differences to OOT are:
- Child Link withdraws the Master Sword without his spirit being put to sleep for 7 years - POINT (A)
- This still triggers the door to the Sacred Realm to open.
- Ganon still follows Link into the Sacred Realm, meaning he ceases his pursuit of Zelda/ Impa on horseback shortly after he's seen by Child Link in said pursuit (Zelda then throwing the Ocarina of Time into Hyrule Castle Town's moat)
- Shortly after the events above, Ganon still obtains the Triforce, and it still splits, dividing between himself, Link and Zelda - the same way it did in OOT i.e. Power = Ganon, Courage = Link, Wisdom = Zelda.
- Child Zelda (perhaps with Impa) winds up facing Ganondorf in a final showdown alongside Child Link. Child Link/ Zelda can not win against Ganondorf as they're not strong enough
- The Triforce resonates as it did by will of Ganondorf similarly to OOT's Ganondorf battle/ WW's Ganondorf battle, with him managing to pry the Triforce of Wisdom and Courage from the bodies of Zelda and Link. He touches the Triforce becoming the creature known as 'Ganon', as stated in HH.
- Zelda summons the sages (not the same sages as OOT as they were not awakened, these would be the ancient sages from TP) to seal Ganon into the Sacred Realm - more than likely just prior to him making his wish.
- Zelda grabs the Ocarina of Time from Link and plays Zelda's lullaby, sending Child Link back to the point right before he withdrew the Master Sword - POINT (B)*
- Upon drawing the Master Sword (POINT B) divine forces - let's say The Goddesses - put Link's soul to sleep for a specific amount of time (in this case 7 years) so that his body could mature, allowing him to be able to face Ganondorf, which he was unable to do as a Child.**
- The rest of OOT ensues as the gamer would play from POINT (B) onward; Ganondorf overthrowing Hyrule Castle and building Ganon's fortress.
*Child Link does not remember what happened prior to POINT (B) because he did not have the Triforce of Courage anymore, Ganon had stripped him of it. This is important, because Triforce pieces protect their wielders as demonstrated in TP (Ganon survived death and the Twilight Realm, Zelda survived the Twilight by maintaining her human form, Link survived the Twilight by becoming a wolf aka the spirit of the 'divine beast') but also in OOT by Zelda becoming Shiek to disguise herself from Ganondorf, and Link being able to time travel between times without any loss/ overwriting of memory or negative effects to his physical state of being. This 'protection' from the Goddesses is also evident in that OOT's normal playthrough and ending involves Link going back to Child Zelda in the Child timeline for the benefit of the Hylians. In addition to this Zelda does state in MM that "The Goddess of Time will protect You[Link]". Whether in context this was directed to Farore's protection of Link is not 100% clear, but it does directly demonstrate protection from a relevant Goddess.
** After POINT (B) Link still travels between being a Child and Adult to awaken the sages, however he does not face Ganondorf as a Child and is unable to use the Master Sword as a Child without moving 7 years into the future. This is why even though after the first instance of Child Link withdrawing the Master Sword and Ganon obtaining the Triforce of Power, Link is still able to travel through "the door between times" and can never fully draw the Master Sword in his Child form.
Let me state that as an avid theorist of timelines, especially with Zelda, I've been through the OOT text dump several times as well as finishing the game multiple times. There is plenty of text to support the fact that the way Zelda had intended to play out. Namely with Link/ Zelda getting into the Sacred Realm and finding the Triforce so that they could have the power to defeat Ganon. To further support this theory, the text inscription on the Pedestal of Time in the Temple of Time actually changes between the Child and Adult segments of OOT. The Child segment states something along the lines of "Place the 3 spiritual Stones on the pedestal and play the Ocarina of Time" where as the Adult segment says something like "The Hero of Time, with the 3 spiritual stones and the Ocarina of Time, descended here..". Although 7 years had passed, nobody but Ganondorf and Rauru (who kept Link's body in the Chamber of Sages for 7 years) would have known Link's spirit was put to sleep - possibly other than Zelda. Therefore I propose that initially this was not meant to occur, something changed the Hero of Time's destiny which imo was the theory in discussion. To add to this, disregarding SS in the context OOT was released, Link meets Zelda for the first time and she says that his name "sounds familiar". These reasons and more are precisely why I'm hypothesising the OOT Prologue.
However, events did not play out as Zelda intended and there was no guarantee that obtaining the Triforce would have worked in their favour against Ganon, as it may have split for either Link or Zelda (not just Ganondorf). The only surefire way to defeat Ganondorf was with the Master Sword which can deflect the Triforce's power (if that power is evil) and we know from SS when the Master Sword was forged with the 3 sacred flames i.e. the actual virtues of the Triforce pieces (/ Goddesses) themself
that this is why it is able to do this. Because of this, The Goddesses' intervention put Link's spirit to sleep to ensure he was physically capable of defeating Ganondorf. It is clear from the first playthrough of OOT when Child Link draws his sword against a Triforce-of-Power-less Ganondorf, he is still no match being floored by a single energy blast.
If my theory is correct, perhaps this could also explain why Link has a dream at the start of OOT taking place just prior to POINT (A) being an important junction point in time where the flow of time seems to alter with each re-visit.
In summary, the version of OOT that we play as the gamer has omitted the aforementioned "Prologue" as it would've entailed actually losing to Ganondorf for the game to progress. Nintendo had also probably not thought about timeline implications as seriously at the time when LOZ's continuum was still relatively linear. Or they may have just wanted each entry to be self-contained as they've previously explained and therefore left it to the perception of the gamers, without drawing out the length of the game and/ or compromising its integrity as a stand alone title (whose popularity speaks for itself.)
I make these assumptions based on the idea that the downfall timeline has to exist, it is as valid a timeline as both the Child and Adult timelines are. It can be argued that although the Child Timeline is the true timeline as it follows the Hero of Time's lineage from MM>>>FSA. However, most of the games do fall onto the downfall timeline. Therefore I see no reason as to why it should be an overwritten timeline, added that the previous 2 Zelda games have also fallen into this timeline. In addition, regardless of what this means for the placement of LOZ>AOL, we now know that Ganon's last place of defeat prior to LOZ is now Lorule.
PS: I still can't work out how to actually "post" an image rather than attach it, so I've attached it.
Thanks to whoever is reading!
zangetsu468
[/list]
Really interesting read and Vortexxy's video, too. (I subscribed after watching.)
I never agreed with the official timeline as it was presented in HH and I feel that the the fans have done a much better job here of explaining how a third timeline could exist. Plus these explanations shed a more positive light on the "downfall" timeline which is refreshing after the rather negative tone I got from HH concerning the classic games.
Thanks Inccubus. VortexxyGaming is probably my favourite theorist at the moment and I'd definitely recommend her.
Although I didn't agree with her take on the Zelda II: AOL ending in relation to this theory mainly because The Triforce was already used by Link to awaken the sleeping Zelda from the spell cast upon her
However, her conceptual ideas are very well thought out and the evidence she uses to back those concepts make for very clear and concise theories. On a side note her voice/ accent sounds familiar and reminds of that ASMRtist Lillium, how trippy would it be if they were the same person.. (Now that's a fan theory :-)
As a longtime fan I was never really on board with Nintendo reverting to Schrodinger's cat, particularly not after a clean timeline split between TP and WW. In actual fact, the timeline image I posted is part of a much larger document (starting to sound like Nintendo...) which I've been working on - currently on the backburner - for a number of months. Some day I'd really like to start a website dedicated to out there theories about LOZ as well as other games. I wouldn't mind including Castlevania on this either.