"The happier link's childhood is the worse off the world is" I tell myself thats how my life works too.

This is genuinely the cleanest and most comprehensive explanation of totk I’ve seen. Idk how this doesn’t have more views, seriously this is great stuff

"Demise was a bad guy, and Hylia was a good guy." the intonation and delivery had me lmao. Awesome video dude, you're a very talented artist too!

For some reason i find it very funny that the triforce would have been sitting in the sacred realm for 40k years because noone bothered to take it

Just want to add that Zelda lending Rauru power is what tips Ganondorf off on the secret stones. Without Zelda there, Ganondorf doesn’t get obsessed with the stones and pursues the Triforce instead. Zelda being in the timeline is why the Triforce goes unmentioned in TOTK. In the original timeline, GD probably just killed the King and Queen and went after Zelda

I fuckin loved this When i heard totk utter the words "imprisoning war" i also came to the conclusion that all the ganons in the downfall timeline were all just the calamity Like they had more solid forms cuz it was much closer to when he was sealed This for me was much easier to follow than theories that rework the timeline entirelt Great work man!

My personal interpretation is that Rauru and Sonia were alive in a time so far into the future of other games that the previous Hyrule didn't exist anymore. As such, when Rauru said he was founding Hyrule, it was basically a new dynasty, a new Hyrule (not New Hyrule). That would put BotW and TotK even further into the future.

This is the perfect balance of chronological design aspect, canonical lore, and don't ask so many questions kid, to fully explain the timeline in my head. Hilarious and exceptionally well done. Going on my big fat Zelda playlist.

The fact that the entire time he sounds like that one image of Charlie Day looking absolutely psychotic and connecting the dots really sells this video for me

This might be my favorite zelda video on youtube

This is both hilarious and informative. I can't get over, "And then the sages build a rainbow bridge!"

As a note. The necklace that TotK Rauru wears is an owl specifically. In the Zonai armor and in the Ancient Hero Aspect armor you can see this owl as well as a dragon and a boar. The Creating a Champion book explains that the Zonai use boars, owls, and dragons to represent the Triforce rather than the classic three-triangle design. The owl serves both as areference to Rauru's Ocarina of time lore with showing up as Kaepora Gaebora and it also connects to how the Royal family/the Royal Princess, Zelda tends to be most associated with the triforce of wisdom. A further interesting note on this trail is that each of the labyrinth quests in TotK is given by different mysterious voices that provide their title as "the Ruler of Boars", "the Ruler of Dragons", and the "Ruler of Owls". Each Ruler for a different maze.

this is awesome!! i love your interpretation of the timeline, i agree that finding exactly correct details is way less important than how cool and impactful the story is. i like the story you tell!! i like your sense of humor and the way you deliver your lines, and the way you describe each game is highly engaging, i love it. and of course i love your art! i forgot how much i enjoy watching speedpaints :) i have no idea how you ended up in my recommended feed but im so glad you did!! i look forward to your next upload, thank you for making an hour at the office a little more interesting :)

TotK is a closed time loop, it can't change the past. We know this because the Zelda that goes back is from the same timeline that we play in, Ganondorf recognized her before she went back. Zelda coming from an altered future to change the past to become that future would be a paradox.

Edit: Wow, listening to this covers a lot of bases. It is one thing to think about it from in game lore but outside story creation really does match up. The Idea that the Downfall Timeline happens because Zelda went back in time and prevented Link from becoming an orphan is just wild. I do hope that this is what Nintendo was planning for as it cover a lot of bases.

idk about the rest of this theory but GOD DAMNIT you beat me to it i was gunna say oot Rauru was originally planned to be the king of hyrule!! it makes too much sense

If the past events are just an alternate version of Ocarina of Time, then I have several questions. Firstly, why in the past do Sonia and Rauru never mention that their own daughter is named Zelda? Upon Zelda telling them that's her name, that would be their first reaction, no? Unless they somehow had a daughter during the memories (which we would definitely see if this is what the developers intended) then it's therefore impossible. Either they would note that the stranger's name and their daughter's name is the same, or the Royal bloodline wouldn't have continued. Since their daughter would've had to been born before and named Zelda since it had to have happened before the point of the timeline splitting from Ocarina, then what gives? Additionally, one of the stone tablets written by Sidon by Zora's Domain mentions Princess Ruto. According to him, she fought alongside "The Princess of Hyrule and the Hero of Legend". We could assume the Zora Sage is Ruto and that the Princess of Hyrule is referring to TotK's time-traveling Zelda; but which Hero? During the events of the memories, a hero of legend is not present. Additionally, unless the events of the memories take place over the course of 7 years, Ruto would still be a child, not an adult like we see in the memories. Additionally, if the splitting point is Zelda going back in time, then where are the Secret Stones during Ocarina of Time? Even just one turned Ganondorf into the Demon King; are we believe that in Ocarina he just... didn't care about it? Likewise, it seems a little unusual that no one would mention that the King was not a Hylian; and that Mineru, the King's sister, is completely absent. If your theory is that the Hyrulean Civil War ended earlier, then that would just give Ganondorf even more time to learn about the Secret Stones. If the theory is that he *did* take both Sonia's and Rauru's, then why did Rauru as the Sage of Light not direct Link to the Forgotten Temple so that they could recover the other five Secret Stones? I also think that the difference between Kotake and Konume can't be chalked up solely to design changes. In TotK, they are portrayed as very young; about the same age as any of the other Gerudo, whereas in OoT them being extremely old--four hundred years if their dialogue is to be believed--is something they mention at least once. You can't really look at the ones in TotK and tell me they are several hundred years old. The Hyrule Castle we see in TotK is also very clearly using Zonai architecture. We know ancient Hylian architecture is in the game, most notably in the Lanayru Promenade; so why didn't they use that style for the buildings in the ancient memories? It would match much more closely with the Ocarina style. Not to mention, the Temple of Time seen in the ancient memories and the Temple of Time in Ocarina are completely different structures, but both right next to the Hyrule Castle of their time. I don't think it's impossible that TotK is a bookend to the Downfall Timeline and the memories a parallel to Ocarina; however, the split would have to be waaaay earlier than Ocarina of Time, back around Skyward Sword or Minish Cap. There are simply too many inconsistencies between Ocarina and the TotK memories's for them to be depicting essentially the same events.

great video man, this is gonna blow up

24:01 except the Water Sage from TP is alive enough to be killed a second time by Ganondorf (who is explicitly not dead; that’s the entire problem) grabbing their face with his hand.

Alright after watching this, i do like the theory but it still brings heavy retcons, namely into OOT as far as architecture and cultural norms go. Like the temple of time, hyrule guards, the position of the castle, the mention of "zonai", that being said i am def willing to accept its more an artistic reimagining of OOT in those instances but is still meant to be OOT. Though that being said it wouldve been SICK if they actually used remastered versions of the original hyrule from oot in order to tell the story, it would breathe so much more life into the story but would admittedly be less artistically interesting so i understand the retcons.

If this video taught me anything, it’s that Ocarina’s Zelda absolutely does not deserve the Triforce of Wisdom. Literally every idea she ever had made the world worse: “Let’s get the master sword before Ganondorf gets the Triforce!” Literally is how Ganondorf gets the Triforce as we let him in the Sacred Realm when we claim the sword. “Let me send you back to your childhood!” Shatters the Triforce of courage and leaves the world without a Hero.

This theory does somewhat hold itself up by its own bootstraps - the child timeline is caused by time travel in the adult line, so that's fine, but this timeline is caused by time travel from itself...

Honestly, really damn good video and a great theory, even over a year later. One of the best, most comprehensive recaps of the Zelda Timeline like... ever, and its enjoyable too. And the art is always a plus

This is legitimately the clearest, funniest Zelda theory video I've ever seen. Bravo 👏

Im glad im not the only one who thinks Zelda's tear memories is an exact retelling of OoT. Its almost too perfect.

Wow. You absolutely nailed this. This is without a doubt the best TotK timeline video I’ve seen. You are a brilliant, beautiful man. Thank you.

This was a great video, and I ended up way more convinced of the possibility of this interpretation than I thought I would! The only thing I'm still really hung up on is that, if Rauru and Sonia are really the parents of OoT Zelda, why did they not react at all when hearing BoTW Zelda's name for the first time? If I'm remembering correctly, Rauru even seems a bit surprised when Sonia says she senses a blood connection between them and Zelda. Though, this is a small enough detail that I could see how some people wouldn't have a problem overlooking it, but I just think that if this was really the intention of the devs then they would have done that moment a little differently. So I personally think that the least messy place to put TotK's memories is long after all the timelines, in an era where the old Hyrule has long fallen for some reason and needed to be refounded. Though your video did make me think that it would be cool if the next 2D Zelda (if they ever make one at all lol) was set after Zelda II and featured a fully revived Ganondorf for us to kill!

I had no idea where you were going with this untill like, 42 minutes in I paused and thought "Oh yeah, we never did see what Zelda's parents looked like in Oot", I'm fully on board with this being how the Downfall Timeline happens.

This makes so much sense and feels just right. I was as excited as you are! Great build up of tension in this video!

38 mins in and you NAILED IT. If you want to know what happened to the Zelda timeline, imagine the impact she had. And what would have happened if she wasn't around. I mean puppet Ganon used her image to try to trick Sonia.

Dude this was just so much fun to watch and listen to. Your drawings and narrations are brilliant and clever and hilarious. I love the way you continue to chuckle at yourself as you're explaining the absurdity of it all. And the end of the video is the cherry on top. Fun to speculate about but not to overthink because we all love the franchise and shit is just ever expanding. Well done!

This is the best TotK timeline video I've seen on KZfaq. Keep up the great work!

The algorithm brought me here and I was skeptical but dang this was pretty convincing! I'll consider this canon until informed otherwise.

man this video is one of the funniest i has hear about zelda , in a good way love thje way you carry the story , now we know nintendo think of zelda like " imprisoning time"

Bro I love your art and your script. Glad to find another binge channel.

This works so well, I just know that whatever Nintendo comes up with later is never going to be as clean as this haha

I can’t believe you’ve actually convinced me to care about the timeline lol. Like this actually makes sense more or less

Great video! I’ve always had a problem with the “downfall timeline” because it’s dependent on Link losing (creating more timeline questions). You’ve fixed the silliness of that timeline and clearly placed the TOTK flashbacks.

Why is there so much tension in their stares at 12:18 💀💀

6:21 it’s understandable that Link does all the work because there’s no way Zelda would be let outside the castle, let alone into Dodongo’s Cavern, let alone have the items and athleticism needed to solve puzzles and survive boss fights.

Regarding the Rito question, we know that texture wasn't intentional through direct comments by the artist working on it. He added it in as a reference to a story he had in his head that he'd like to happen and wasn't asked to change it. You could interpret that as the devs accepting the possibility of the Rito but it seems more like an accident than anything intentional.

I always imagined the imprisoning war being Ocarina of Time but every lower video I have seen puts it separate from it. Nice to see someone else express it. By default you're now my favorite KZfaqr.

"the happier a childhood Link has, the worse off the world ends up" is such a funny and sad line

Niiice. Havent heard this yet. 100% agree with the Gerudo Male explanation. Everyone seems to take it so literally but I think evidence points in the direction of the previous male’s lifespan. Also it’s my understanding that Age of Calamity is likewise not canon, sadly. But I’d like for it to be a new timeline split.

Looking forward to another one of you are unhinged explanation videos. This was really enjoyable you weren’t boring for a moment really you weren’t you made total cohesive sense to me… now I’m going to listen to it again because it was that fun

Impa: "The History of Hyrule is also the History of Calamity Ganon" This explanation is the best out of all the ones i've seen. Fantastic 10/10

there's a small detail you missed when arguing that oot Rauru is plausibly the king of hyrule; and that is that a king of hyrule was already shown in the ending to alttp... and he's a big, white-haired bearded man, just like every future king of hyrule. That means that it's likely that Rauru was always meant to be a king of hyrule, if not the current one. Another thing: the master sword being already made by oot's time period isn't a retcon, it's the result of alttp's manual being mistranslated into english

This just makes sense. Nice job trying to put this mess together

I love anything introducing time travel, and dealing with time. It doesn’t break my brain like it does most people… one of my favorite pastimes is debating people who bring up the time travel and say it doesn’t match the thing that their favorite movie spoke about time travel only because they disregard 50 other movies that talked about time travel. So in the case of time travel debates against other people, I come off as a villain. Lol I love it though 😆

My personal headcanon is that every Zelda game everyone looks human because, we, the players, are, but really the Hylian race looks like whatever (in this case, goats).

This version of the timeline makes a lot of sense. Even if the timelines converge into breath of the wild, it would mean only one ganondorf remains, as the ones from the previous timelines are dead dead. This could explain the appearance of the canonical amiibo items in totk and keep in line with this theory

51:09 except this Rauru heeds present Zelda’s warning, which wouldn’t be consistent with the king in Ocarina, who is completely oblivious to Ganondorf’s obvious evil.

I assumed this was a bigger channel, you need way more recognition!!

This was a fantastic video! I personally have a different theory, but I think this is super well thought out and was super entertaining!

I’ve listened to this video four times so far back to back so that I might be able to combat you in a friendly sparring match about this theory lol and every time I concede, and you win. Lol This is a good video… And you are correct no one is speaking the way you are speaking. Hats off to you, sir.

the timeline of Legend of Zelda is one big stroke happening at once.

This is very similar to the theory I've been considering. I like your theory a lot. The difference is that I think SS created a new timeline, where the humans came down from the sky in a different timeframe, and Hyrule isn't formed by humans exclusively, and not until after the minish cap would have taken place. In TotK, we get both the skyward sword, and the master sword as separate swords, and the skyward sword is treated as unique because you can't purchase duplicates from the bargainer statue. It felt really intentional. Also, Gannondorf recognizes Zelda, and references Rauru's closing line before Zelda time travels. It comes across as more of a destiny loop, like the song of storms paradox. I think it made a difference, but I doubt it's what caused the split.

The way you cover stuff, and the timbre of your voice, reminds me of JaruJaruJ in the most flattering way I can express

As much as I don't quite understand why Zelda's travel to the past, in what is assumed to be a closed loop in which everything only ever happened one way, which means Zelda ALWAYS traveled back in time, would mean that the Downfall timeline is created and the Child and Adult timelines are BOTH averted (as far as this scenario goes), this does at least make the logic of each of the timelines make more sense. Assuming we take the timeline they released as literal, that is. So... From that standpoint, which you made very clear you were going for, this is a fantastic video.

59:20 it’s the Hero of the Wild. We knew this from finishing 120 Shrines in base BotW.

This is a pretty good theory I like it a lot, but there are a few things I want to bring up. There is a glaring hole in tear of the kingdoms story so important that it has to be filled either in a DLC or a third game in this series. Where are Sonia and Rauru's children? At no point do we see or hear anything about them at all which wouldn't be the weirdest thing on its own but they couldn't have been born after Zelda showed up Sonia and Rauru are for all intents are purposes dead before Zelda turns into a dragon. Either we are going to go back again and see these children/child or we have a massive paradox on our hands. so in what I expect we would see in a DLC is the actual imprisoning war, not quite to the scale of future calamity events but serious enough to require a full on war to stop since the events of the flashbacks hardly constitute a "war". I suspect that the gloom/malice started leaking out of ganondorf shortly after Zelda turns into a dragon which is going to be the prompting for building Hyrule Castle to further imprison his power. It would cause many monsters to spawn around the world and then reason for the monsters we see into the modern era and the blood moon mechanic's origin. However if that DLC doesn't at least mention the wearabouts of Sonia and Rauru's child/children we will end up with another game in this series where we are setting the timeline straight which would likely be the cause of the timeline merger in some capacity.

Unhinged is great…. Means there ls passion present in you. I really enjoyed this theory//explanation, and look into your perception of how things might have played out. Thank you friend. Now I’m going to listen to this at least two more times so I can comprehend exactly what you said and I’ve already pass it on to three of my best friends and who are also passionate about the Zelda timeline stuff

This makes the most sense out of everything I’ve seen so far, except for one thing. Many people I have talked to say that they think this is the end of the Zelda timeline. There will be more games, but none chronologically after years of the kingdom. There could be more adventures with ganandorf, but they take place before he dies.

56:21 keep in mind this means that ganondorf is able to re-incarnate, so no it’s not the end of ganondorf once and for all in the series. A new incarnation could easily fit into the series, it just might not be the OOT version according to this videos take. Also, I COULD see ganondorf return in the adult timeline, maybe somebody salvaged a “weird looking statue” and brings it back to new hyrule, then a competition could be held (ala King Arthur) for somebody to pull the sword out of the statue. Old hyrule was washed away along with its history, so it’s not out of the question that they forgot about ganondorf. Anyways, this new link would pull the master sword out of the statue, unsealing ganondorf on accident, then ganondorf does ganondorf things and link beats this incarnation (hopefully) for good

44:00 “Link had a happy childhood in this timeline. And the happier links childhood is, as we all know, the worse off the world becomes”

Also this is BRILLIANT AHH U NEED MORE SUBSCRIBERS NOW

i keep coming back to this video, some of the details might be a little off but i still see it as a very viable theory

Age of Clams, though people want it to be canon, isn't. It was made by koei techmo and uses the same tropes as their other non-canon warriors crossover games. There's also the fact that evidence in-game in totk such as the murals shows that zelda's time travel is a causality loop. botw's events had to happen because otherwise zelda doesn't go back and become the light dragon but the light dragon always existed

Love this presentation. It really expresses all of our frustration ms with the timeline. Lol. Also I really think you’re on to something with raru being Zelda’s father in OoT.

Another thing to note that I just learned (maybe someone else has said this already) is that the Gerudo in OoT/MM have rounded ears, as does OoT Ganondorf. In BoTW and TotK, the Gerudo have pointed ears like Hylians, with the notable exception of TotK Ganondorf having his original rounded ear design!

this is not getting the recognition it deserves! I keep revisiting it to fresh up my memory of this mess of a timeline. Thank you for this awesome video!!

well done sir! Great timeline theory!

Soooo ... retcon everything to unretcon everything. Incredible. Little note about the sages of TotK, I guess that their names would be related to the Divine Beasts. They could be Darunia, Ruto, Nabooru, and maybe Medley.

GENIUS!!! BRAVO!!! This was fun... thanks for making this so much "clearer".😂 I played Zelda for the first time on my Nintendo Entertainment System. I was 20 years old and a newlywed. My husband and I played together every night after work. Playing The Legend of Zelda changed game nights. It was a single player game so we had to take turns. Times were simple back then. I was addicted to playing Zelda and Mario. Here I am, 38 years later, and I'm still addicted to Zelda. I played Breath of the wild so much that my family hid my Switch from me. Now, here I am playing Tears of the Kingdom with my 10 year old great-nephew. We play for hours. He on his switch and me on mine we play and talk about the game... life is good. Anyway, I went of for a moment, sorry. Thanks for the timeline and art. This is really a fun video. ❤

I kind of had this same idea that it was the same events of OoT (because of how they obviously homaged it) but couldn't really put it into words like you did. Really enjoyed just chilling and listening to the talk while occasionally watching the drawings while I worked on my own. And damn that's a lot of hours of drawing to make this video. Props. I would have loved to see screencaps of some of the things mentioned (like I had to look up the TP mural with the bird people because I have no memory of it) but that's just me being a whiny viewer. Great video.

The Oracle games came out in 2001, a year AFTER Majora's Mask, NOT before! Also, OoT Rauru and TotK Rauru are NOT the same Rauru! Just because they have the same name and events in both their time play out similarly to each other, that does NOT mean that they're the same person or that the events are same either. We've literally seen history repeat itself multiple times throughout the entire timeline. I mean one single type of event literally happens twice in the Downfall Timeline! TotK's "Imprisoning War" and ALttP's "Imprisoning War" both have completely different names in Japanese. Canonically, TotK's war is actually the Exile War, while ALttP's war is actually the Sealing War. They are both completely different wars. If they were, then that would put TotK into a completely different timeline because there was no Zelda native to TotK's past era. Otherwise, TotK completely retcons OoT by removing Daphnes from canon, inserting Rauru as the king, making Rauru into a furry, BotW/TotK's Zelda exists instead of OoT Zelda, and OoT Link is completely removed from canon as there was no Link in that time period at all, unless the royal family just didn't ever meet Link in that timeline. But Link in that time period still wouldn't be the same as in OoT. And also, finally, please STOP ignoring the Old Maps treasure quests from TotK! We know that TotK's past is far removed from Old Traditional Hyrule lore because when TotK Rauru seals Ganon, Ganondorf literally states that he's seen that all play out before, implying that since become the Demon King again, he's recalled being sealed and possibly even killed multiple times before. Proving that BotW/TotK's Hyrule is NOT the Same Hyrule we know from OoT, but a brand new Hyrule altogether, existing far after the destruction of the old one. Hence why TotK Rauru and Sonia have no memory or knowledge of any Hyrule existing prior or any of the Links and Zeldas from that Hyrule's age.

I hope you're right. I like ganondorf but I hope he doesn't return just so this works. Unless of course they do a spinoff timeline from aoc.

This is so convoluted yet you managed to make it sound sensible, nicely done

One of the biggest questions I have is: if TOTK's flashbacks take place when OOT would, but in the "fallen" timeline, then that would mean that Link "fell". What do you think would prevent Link from simply standing back up?

this is an amazing video. subscribed

Wtf are you doing only having 200 subs? This was a fantastic analysis, with a ton of fun art, not to mention you've got talent and a velvety smooth, well enunciated voice. Hope this is where your channel really blows up.

Here's the thing: It's stated that Rauru founded Hyrule, but it is never stated he founded the FIRST Hyrule. Throughout the series we see several different kingdoms of Hyrule, the first of which starts in Wind Waker, the next Phantom Hourglass, the next after that is Spirit Tracks, and then of course there's Skyward Sword which has a completely different Hyrule from most other iteration. However Minish Cap calls the "Kingdom" Hyrule Town. Implying it was the first set of events to happen after Skyloft dropped. Meaning Rauru did not in fact found the first incarnation of Hyrule but rather founded the final incarnation. As for the similarities between ToTK and games like OoT or even TP, it's merely history repeating itself.

Rauru is Zelda's father in Skyward Sword.

definitely an interesting idea, but there could be more. Basically, at the end of every timeline they become aware of the other worlds (a link between words and hyrule warriors), then zelda makes a massive wish to remerge all of the timelines. With 2 massive changes to the combined timeline, the triforce no longer acts as a physical object (appearing only as the sealing power) and demise's curse is bound to the gerudo bloodline (only needing a sacred stone to use his true power). Without the triforce/demise, skyward sword never occurs, and the hylians split, half return to the earth and the other half becoming the zonai... Thousands of years later the zonai come to the earth and totk occurs. Timeline changes result in no civil war = this being the time of ocarina as you explained. the legendary warrior appears at least half zonai, so link is either zelda's brother or cousin or another lost zonai, and they defeat the first calamity after the sealing. And finally with the timelines merged breath of the wild = zelda 1!

What helps Minish Cap’s placement. Is a video I saw that fits all the Zelda games maps into BOTW. I feel like Hyrule could exist before Rauru and Sonia’s founding, but as a lesser kingdom, sorta a refounding.

Clear script? Voices? Doodles? Oh I'm instantly in love with this video.

46:25 so turning into an owl is just a thing he can do and not a part of him being dead as a Sage?

My mind was fucking blown with that Rauru thing. It really does all make sense.

“People are gonna be evil in politics, Zelda. I don’t know if you just got born yesterday.” This is what got me to lol

Thank you for this video! I really enjoyed it. I had different theory on where totk is in the timeline but you really inspired me to think otherwise! Damn I love Zelda theories.

Part of me likes to think that the history of Hyrule was written by actual denizens of Hyrule, who have next to no clue how the Master Sword got there and assumed that someone made it just to fight Ganon, even though somebody from a PREVIOUS era would have known more about it than someone in a later era. The lack of proper communication of information is kinda realistic if you think about it. Not every historian would know all the information about a previous era becuase they didn't live it!

Good Job with the video. I would just like to say the face that both Raurus are involved with Light Power is very compelling evidence. Also the only 2 actual green Gerudos behind Ganondorf in the Show of Fealty memory could very well be the two witch's from OOT. Great Theory

I knew there were references to Oot in totk but I wasn’t expecting for both games to feel soo connected lol 🤯 Great video and refreshing considering Zelda lore KZfaqrs are hating the game instead of connecting the games and literally not doing their job 😭 First timeline lore video about totk I really enjoyed makes me appreciate the game a lot more

I don't think totk offered anything other than a look at what the twilli were before generations born in the twilight realm.

10/10 amazing video i loved the art

Loved the style of the video. From the explanation, to the drawings, and the music (seriously, how is nobody mentioning the music? It was such a wild ride)

A little nitpick, because otherwise i agree completely (Also i just realized we never actually see the king in ocarina lol) In the japanese version, Demise's curse is worded diferently. Its less a curse and more a profecy, that someone eventually would come to hate all of creation the way he did. Now obviously this aplies to Ganondorf/Ganon, but it also would aply to Vaati and Malladus So the demon king cant be preventing the birth of new gerudo males as Vaati is suposedly still alive in the downfall and adult timelines Also, we have no confirmation that there hasnt been a new male gerudo since the inprisonment war, only that this hipotetical male gerudo has not been crowned king

I have 3 possible explanations for where TOTK falls. It either takes place after Spirit Tracks (and also Zelda 2 and Twilight Princess), so long after the original timeline that the Kingdom of Hyrule faded away and was replaced by a second incarnation (and 10000 years later everyone forgot that there are 2 Kingdoms of Hyrule), or it’s a sequel to a version of the events of Skyward Sword in which the Zonai are present, or it’s a new continuity and the Zelda team are officially putting the timeline clusterfuck behind them.

Ah, now I understand why the sages in Twilight Princess look so weird (because the original sages never had to awake/die in the child timeline). I never thought of that.

This does indeed work, and with all the small(ish) retcons in place, it makes sense. Let me, however, posit a different theory: Skyward Sword, 4 Sword, Minish Cap, and Ocarina of Time happen normally, but the timeline split happens a little earlier in the game, when Link goes into the Sacred Realm after gaining the 3 pendants and opening the door to the Master Sword. We know Ganondorf goes in after him, and touches the Triforce, making it split apart. The 3 timelines then follow the 3 pieces of the Triforce. The Triforce of Power follows the Downfall timeline, where after Link is defeated, Ganondorf obtains the full Triforce and is subsequently sealed in the Sacred Realm in the Imprisoning War, the rest of the Downfall Timeline happens as normal. The other two Timelines follow the Triforces of Courage and Wisdom. In both Timelines, Zelda sends Link back, however, the events of each Timeline differ after that. In the Adult timeline, this create a causality loop, and that Link is forever fated to go back, get the Master Sword, and have the battle over and over again, that’s why the Spirit of the Hero has disappeared from that Timeline, because it is stuck with Link constantly going back after defeating Ganondorf. The timeline does go on for the story’s sake, and follows a Hyrule without Link, since he is stuck in the causality loop. In the Child Timeline, Link heeds Zelda’s words, and actively works to stop what he had just fought. Once Ganondorf is stopped in that era, the Hero becomes complacent, and becomes part of the Royal Knights of Hyrule, dying in an unnamed battle, after which he becomes the Hero’s Shade, and vows to help the next Link with the Hero’s spirit fight evil. In all three timelines, the Triforce is split apart because of the events of OoT, so all three timelines hold their own individual Triforce while also being represented by a piece of the True Triforce, the one Ganondorf split apart in Ocarina. Once each Triforce is complete again in each timeline, the actual True Triforce becomes complete again, merging all three timelines into one, hence the melding of the timelines for BotW. Once the True Triforce is complete again, a reboot of the entire world happens; this is where the Zonai show up, and become relevant. The Triforce is gifted to the Zonai by the Gods, and is subsequently split up into 10 different pieces, becoming the Zonai secret stones. Farosh, Naydra, and Dinraal swallow 3 stones, leaving the seven for Rauru, Sonia, and the Sages. The events of TotK and BotW happen in this rebooted Hyrule after the True Triforce has been restored again, which leads credence to Rauru and Sonia becoming the first royals of Hyrule. This also explains why artifacts from all three timelines exist in TotK, and BotW.