(Pre-comment Edit: Wow, I made this comment way, way longer than I expected to. Uhh… Sorry in advance? Hey, it just means your video was good enough that it gave me a lot to say! That’s a good thing, right…? Okay, now on to the actual comment) Hmm… I’m not entirely sure you could call those points “evidence”, but I definitely like this a lot. It actually solves one of the biggest contradictions in SS, IMO: the ending time travel bit. Time travel is _weird_ in Skyward Sword; part of the time, it’s a predestination type time travel (even on your first visit to the Sealed Grounds, you can find Zelda’s crystal behind Old!Impa, if you look properly) suggesting time travel is preordained, and everything is basically following a script of what already happened before. It can’t really be changed, since it technically already happened. On the other hand, there’s situations where time travel allows the present to change drastically, such as the plot with the Thunder Dragon. If time travel is preordained, you shouldn’t need to take that seed to the temple and plant it in the past; the tree should already be there. And sure, Groose suddenly acts like it’s always been there when talking to him, but Link could see Zelda’s crystal before she formed it, so he should see the tree before it’s planted. Similarly, if Link defeated Demise in the past and sealed him in the Master Sword, then the Imprisoned shouldn’t exist to be a reoccurring boss throughout the game. The points you made are good connections and parallels, but that wouldn’t quite qualify as “evidence”, I don’t think. For evidence, I’d say the fact that you can find the various Springs that SS!Zelda visited and prayed at when exploring BotW, almost one-to-one like their SS counterparts, as well as the Skyloft Goddess Statue in that temple all serve as better examples. Other ‘reference locations’ that you can find, such as Lon Lon Ranch, while looking similar, always had pieces that struck me as a bit off (which could also be evidence they aren’t the same exact places from the other game, just similar places that happened in parallel), whereas those springs were almost exact. The real question, though, is ‘which Skyward Sword timeline is which history timeline?’ Personally, I’d say the Present Time line would be more likely to be the one to continue on to the “Wild timeline”, as you called it, considering the Goddess Statue was called down in that timeline, and it would make some sense for Sonia to be that Link and Zelda’s descendant, especially considering there was nothing about creating any sort of kingdom implied in the SS ending, so that could come later. Furthermore, the Past time timeline was the one where Demise set his ‘curse’, so it would make sense for him to be constantly incarnating and fighting the various Heroes in that timeline, as opposed to incarnating once, being sealed right away, and various problems caused by his leaking malice instead. Of course, this causes some problems with the origin of the Master Sword, as Link forged it from the Goddess Sword in the Present time, brought it into the past to seal Demise, then brought it back to the present time to rest. That means the Past time never had any reason to forge it. Although, there’s nothing to say that _that_ Master Sword wasn’t forged later. It could even be an explanation for why, in BotW, it’s a ‘known thing’ that the Master Sword has a spirit inside that talks/communicates with its wielders, whereas that was never a thing in any previous games; that Master Sword is different, and Fi didn’t grow like she did in the other time. Furthermore, Hylia doesn’t actually have much of a roll in the other games, so having them take place in the timeline where her statue never came down to the surface, and thus left her relatively unknown, contrasting to the BotW timeline, where she has statues everywhere and the Three Golden Goddesses are much less talked about. And, wow. Was just looking back at this to pre read it before posting, and noticed how long this ended up. Probably gonna put an apology/disclaimer at the start… sorry if it seems I went in and on in random thoughts and directions like that. I meant it all in a good way! I promise!

I said this on reddit some time ago and got downvoted. Most people forget that the idea of different timelines was crazy before Hyrule Historia made it official.

As further evidence, this would explain why Hylia is suddenly an active entity again in BotW and TotK when she wasn't in any other games, literally speaking to Link directly when interacting with her statues, despite seemingly shedding her divinity prior to Skyward Sword. What people don't notice in the ending of SS is that the door leading to the room with the orange crystal is closed when Ghirahim brings Zelda back to the past, but after Link defeats Demise and returns to the temple, the door is open and the crystal is gone. Of course, with Demise defeated early, there would be no need for her to reinforce the seal anymore and the Zelda in there would wake up, but then where did she go? If she just poofed out of existence then the door wouldn't also be open. The only explanation is that she woke up, opened the door herself, and Impa explained what happened, so she left out the back door and hid until Link and the others returned to their own time, in order to avoid coming into contact with the other Zelda and risking some kind of paradox. This leaves her as a "spare" Zelda who's trapped in the past, but knows where the Triforce is hidden and could potentially use it to become Hylia again and continue protecting the land. Furthermore, in this alternate past, the Master Sword and Goddess Sword would both exist simultaneously, which is the only way to explain their coexistence later since the Goddess Sword in TotK is confirmed to be the real deal gifted to you by Hylia herself, and not just a replica like most other legacy weapons. This detail is impossible unless the ending of SS indeed made a new branch.

I also think that link sleeping for 100 years in BOTW parallels link being sealed for 7 years in OOT

I’ve had this idea for ages, it makes the most sense. If the Hero of Time can break time in three ways then it makes just as much sense that the Demise paradox in SKyward Sword broke time as well.

could have included extra stuff like the great flood, evolution of Rito, the fact The Zora had a Princess Ruto, etc...

Also, the Great Flood and the Twili Invasion are those time timeline equivalents of the Imprisoning War, where Ganon makes his first attempt at conquering Hyrule after being sealed and FSA, LttP, WW are Ganon's second attempt on Hyrule after being sealed

I've been thinking for the longest time that BOTW and TOTK are thei own timeline after Skyward Sword with all of the changes to gameplay and lore and how it mostly just connects to Skyward Sword with the rest of the games just being fan service mentions or costumes/ items/ references etc.

I accept this theory. It also suggests the Triforce must exist in this timeline, binding Zelda, Link and Ganon by destiny just like all the others.

Thanks Hylia someone made this in a objective way instead of a 40 straight minutes video. it was pretty enough to make more sense than any other theory.

you gotta turn your music down my guy

This makes much more sense than it just floating around and it also makes sense because that specific timeline in the past in skyward sword was just abandoned

OK, I wasn't sold on previous arguments made for this idea. But you make a solid case. I will consider this more… Good work! 👏 ✨️

You got my subscription. You're the only one who made sense dude

Are you kidding me? Someone has a perfectly plausible reason why the new games seem disconnected from everything EXCEPT skyward sword, but he has a fraction of the viewers of these "zelda is dead" goobers? Good luck, my dude.

This was interesting. I’ve seen other people using a similar explanation to try to rationalize where it fits in despite COMPLETELY contradicting Ocarina of Time. Let’s hope that Nintendo use this explanation. A while ago I watched this video talking about the history of the Zelda timeline and it was definitely interesting seeing how it’s changed overtime. It’s kind of a mess and TOTK would mess up the continuity. Nintendo by their own admission don’t really think about where the games will fit in the timeline because they don’t want to be confined to it and figure things out later. Even though a lot of the things don’t exactly fit together it’s still really interesting to look into and I LOVE looking at the various fan theories people have to make sense of the games. The tone is also all over the place with some being really dark, while other games are ridiculous by design. I’m personally fine with that and care more about the games as individual experiences with gameplay being most important to me. My favorite of the timelines is the Wind Waker one. Such a shame there’s only 3 games set in it. There’s a lot of cool storytelling potential with it. The other best timeline is the one with Wand of Gamalon and Zelda’s Adventure🤣. If it were up to me Nintendo would canonize those because it would be the funniest thing in the world.

I do like this theory, however, I believe that Rauru and Sonia founding Hyrule was just like the New Hyrule of Spirit Tracks: Some sort of cataclysmic event leading to the eventual founding of yet another New Hyrule. This could explain why the Zonai, never before seen deities that are said to come from the heavens, intervened. Without Rauru, a New Hyrule could have the possibility of never being established. This also leaves room for other things that are mentioned in BotW/TotK, such as the existence of Princess Ruto being mentioned on manuscript stones in BotW, Arbiter's grounds still existing, Urbosa mentioning that Calamity Ganon derived from the Gerudo (likely referring to Ganondorf himself), and the existence of many other things from different games such as the Lon Lon Ranch ruins, the existence of the Rito and Koroks since they had evolved from Zora and Kokiri respectively, etc. This could place BotW and TotK far ahead of the other games, making the timelines converge together into one singular linear (for now, anyways) branch.

Just a random shout out, but just had to let everyone know that today, on March 16, is my channels birthday.

Honestly, I agree - Skyward Sword, BOTW and TOTK feel like a trilogy to me, and the evidence you bring forward really helps solidify that belief.

I always thought that Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom were meant to be a Remake (like FF7 Remake style) of the first two games that came in the 80's.

Show this to James so he won't be chronologically confused anymore

Very cool indeed.

while disturbing, I think the obly eveidence I could not refute would be the part with the rise of ganondorf. i'll explain: zelda curse is to be reincarnated in multiple occurences in her descendents, because she's the goddess hylia. link's curse is to have his spirit (not memory) passed to different heroes (not always blood related). ganondorf curse is to never die, only to be defeated, and come back again. we see only once this cycle being broken: in windwaker, ganondorf is killed. not sealed, killed. and, in the two following games, his name is forgotten, and other villains appear, which are clearly not demise wrath related (heck, even the master sword does not exist.) this can be explained by the king's wish for hope, and specifically for the curse to be broken (he probably did not think about demise's curse as it has been lost to time, but still). meaning, after windwaker, ganondorf can be reborn, but not resurrected. in totk, ganondorf is still ganondorf. this could only happen in timelines where he did not change to a boar (if he was resurrected) or if that's a new ganondorf (either after windwaker, or in a new timeline). in every single timeline, ganondorf holds the triforce of power, which should have obliterated zonai magic (triforce above all). meaning, ganondorf in totk does not hold it. again, either new timeline, or windwaker far futur. what leads me to doubt is that, we hear fi in botw (or at least, something that could be fi), but the master sword can break. heck, even in totk it can, after resting for millenia, feeding from zelda's power. this mastersword is quite weak compared to the others (and especially the one from skyward sword). the only other mastersword I know that is weak would be the one from wind waker, as it *might* be human fabricated (so not the og one). I would personnally place the games after spirit track, however I would place it in old hyrule territory (not new hyrule), mostly because there's still a mastersword, a deku tree and other very well known races (and no races exclusive to spirit track are found).

I've been thinking about something exactly like this, with important events happening in the 4th branch and leading to breath and tears; good video. But, if nintendo insists in not making a clear conection with the rest of the games, i think that the 3 timelines would lead to breath and tears, because similar events would happen in each one of the 3 timelines. And rauru saying that he is the king of hyrule means that hyrule was founded again, like some people say.

Though, what if the sleeping Zelda from Adventures of Link was really Skyward Sword's Zelda?

But how do the Zonai appear? Or were they already a hidden race in Skyward Sword and just happen to go extinct before the Founding of Hyrule in the Original Timeline?

It has to be a split from Skyward Sword. Great stuff man! Can't wait for the Triforce upcoming theory video 👀

been trying to put 2 and 2 together since I started playing TotK because I'm kinda annoyed at everyone trying to fit it into the Nintendo's Official Timeline™ (which as a long time player I refuse) and this either proves TotK's placement on it or completely disproves the timeline because it's the same logic as OoT the algorithm was SO real for this rec

I still think it makes more sense for the FourSword and the Master Sword to be the same sword... the beginning of Minish Cap talks about the sword/hero coming from the sky, like in Skyward Sword. It just isn't aware of all the legends that have happened since, which places Minish Cap on the child timeline, after MM/TP/OoA/OoS, because none of those happened in the awareness of the hylians. With this change, you only need two timelines, splitting via OoT: SS - OoT - WW/PH - ST - LttP/LA - LbW/TH - LoZ/AoL SS - OoT/MM - TP/OoA/OoS - MC - FS - FSA At which point, it's pretty clear that BotW/TotK have to happen at the end of the adult timeline, because (1) the child timeline doesn't have a Master Sword anymore, it has a FourSword instead, and (2) the Rito only exist in WW's timeline. That puts the "past" of TotK as the "third founding" of Hyrule, after the "second founding" from ST. Alternatively, BotW/TotK could be happening in original Hyrule, while LoZ and AoL take place in New Hyrule, which explains why we don't see the Master Sword after LbW.

Counter Theory: With what we know from WInd Waker, the Saplings which the Koroks had planted would turn into massive trees that would over time make their islands become big enough to the point where they become one land mass. And in TotK, we see gigantic roots in the depths. Most likely hinting at how the quest did matter in the end. And with how BoTW and TotK seems to be the result of timelines converging, we should wonder if the original Hyrule Warriors(The one which was on the Wii U that got ported to the switch) being non-canon is even a good thing. Since HW does have different parts of the timelines ending up in the same place. Also to anyone who says that totk Rauru's Hyrule Contradict this. The Kingdom of Hyrule could have fallen long before the Zonai descended from the sky. With legends of the Kingdom of Hyrule being what caused Rauru and Sonia to name their Kingdom after it. And even then, the Zonai being in the Sky can be easily explained as them being a race which stayed in the Sky since Skyward Sword before eventually descending to the surface.

your the first youtuber I've seen that actually pieced together that its a fourth timeline I had already made the connections for the fourth timelines existence before I found your video and you did pretty good with this the major flaw is that you placed the defeat of the bringer of demise as a timeline split impas bracelet already proves that wrong however you were close the skyward sword timeline split would be the imprisoned escaping and destroying the gate of time preventing the final battle other than that your fourth branch is solid

Neat

Don't forget that the Downfall timeline has Link even though he had no descendants whereas the Adult timeline has no Link because he had no descendants (until, apparently, Link decided he wasn't going to let no goddesses stop him from saving the world and used his big dick energy to appear there anyway).

Skyward Sword is an Elder Scrolls style Dragonbreak where the timeline splits and merges back into one. The ending of the game clearly shows that.

ok

Actually 14 min 14 sec🤓

It’s not a bad video, and it’s a definitely better option than « convergence of timeline 🤓 » KZfaqrs like to talk about without ever proving it. My issue is that it’s just basically a reboot timeline. So it’s not really a new solution, otherwise kinda good.

This Skyward Sword timeline split theory is simply common sense; the other games can’t have taken place before BOTW and TOTK, because Ganondorf has been sealed for all that time, and the people who just keep saying “well there must be another ganondorf!” are coping HARD and grasping at straws.

Nice video but for the title i don't think you need the "(4 minutes)" part. People can see that when they look at the video. If you just have "SOLVED Zelda timeline Explaned" that's way better then the rest of the stuff even the "zelda speculation" part. Being a minimalist for youtube will get you more views lol. Id rather click on "SOLVED Zelda Timeline Explained" then your title right now. Just the "SOLVED Zelda Timeline Explained" sounds more professional. Id also turn down the music a bit. Its hard to focus for people on the music and your voice making people click off. The audience retention would be better if the music was more quiet.

Pretty sure BotW/TotK, both their "Present" and "Past" events occur AFTER all the other games we've seen so far. Various places are named from characters in the other games. Raaru's founding of Hyrule is just the 2nd (or Third, because of Windwaker) time it has happened. Also, I think Zelda's timeloop is a closed timeloop, not creating any branching. I am intrigued to hear what your theory on where the Triforce is at this point though.

Isn't this just a long winded way of saying that its a timeline reboot lol

BotW excplicitly references Ocarina of Time in multiple sections. Ruto the wster sage existed so Ocarina has to happen in the same timeline. The truth is, Ninetendo just doesnt care that much. They didnt have a plan, they are not FromSoftware.

i do find the timeline now very and i mean very stupid, mostly because of the stupid thing of having all timeline unite on a single one, just because they want to say BOTW and TOTK, happen in the end of all,

a lot of things would make sense if totk and botw werent in the same timeline imo

You’re close. But Skyward Sword starts at the end of its own timeline. Link defeats Demise in the present of that timeline, goes back in time and creates the actual Zelda timeline. he defeats Demise there and then returns in the timeline after the Twilight Princess but before the BotW and TotK games. The Capcom games aren’t canon, and shouldn’t be considered. However, if they were to be included, they would go at the very end of all of the games in the timeline.

ToTK FUKKED UP the Zelda timeline. Gdamn Bamophet bs.

Nintendo goofed up with the timeline in Hyrule Historia. The "Downfall Timeline" makes absolutely zero sense, because the story of Link's Awakening directly follows Ganon's defeat according to the manual. The first paragraph of the prologue says this: "Though you fufilled the Hyrulian prophecy of the Legendary Hero and destroyed the evil tyrant Ganon, the land of Hyrule enjoyed only a precarious peace. Who knows what threats may arise from Ganon's ashes? the restless people murmured as they knitted their brows and shook their heads. Ever vigilant, you decided to journey away from Hyrule on a quest for enlightenment, in search of wisdom that would make you better able to withstand the next threat to your homeland." It is impossible for the Downfall Timeline to exist, at least with LA being a part of it. As for BotW or TotK, I don't give a shit; those games are trash.