Online wars have been waged over the existence of a timeline for Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda series, and those battles will rage on long after we’re all dead. Whether you give much stock to the chronology or not, Nintendo maintains an “official” timeline on its website that places each game into context with the others. For years now, Breath of the Wild has seemingly existed on its own, but Nintendo has now outright confirmed that its events are their own separate timeline from what I guess will now be referred to as the “classic” timeline.
On the official site, the timeline begins with The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and goes on from there as normal. Fans already know about the timeline diversions, which result in three separate continuities following specific events after Ocarina of Time. Whichever path you follow, after scrolling to the current end of it, the website makes a hard split that then explains Breath of the Wild as being an entirely separate founding of Hyrule in a different existence. Some people aren’t convinced, though.
A new fan theory making the rounds is that Nintendo has tweaked elements of the upcoming Ocarina of Time remake to incorporate elements from Breath of the Wild into it. YouTuber Zeltik has uploaded a video which notes how the pattern for The Lens of Truth more closely matches the Sheikah design from Breath of the Wild. There also seem to be new tattoos on the Kokiri which resemble Queen Sonia’s markings from Tears of the Kingdom. Maybe it’s possible the timeline split is just so far in the future that history kind of repeated.
For my money, I still believe that these two open-world titles are a separate thing unto themselves, but then that’s the beauty of the Zelda timeline. No one will ever agree on anything, even when Nintendo says otherwise.
Check out more Zelda content
EB Games Canada is offering a holographic slipcover for Zelda: Ocarina of Time pre-orders
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time – Switch 2 pre-order guide
New Legend of Zelda additions coming to the Nintendo Museum and Nintendo Today! app
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
