Is this the NEW Zelda Timeline?

At Nintendo Live Sydney 2024, a new graphic depicting the Zelda timeline was spotted. Mainstream news sources were quick to jump on the story: have Nintendo confirmed that Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom exist in a separate canon to the rest of the games?

...no, they haven't.

or Instagram: @zeltikinsta
► Music in this video:
Nintendo

Sources:

Breath of the Wild: Creating a Champion

Thank you to @ZeldaLore and @theloruleanhistorian for helping to proof read the script!

#Zelda #Nintendo #LegendofZelda

[matthewmuir]

Tears of the Kingdom could've been far less convoluted if it had confirmed that King Rauru essentially "re-founded" Hyrule. It wouldn't even be the first time in the series that a New Hyrule was founded, as Spirit Tracks takes place in a New Hyrule that was founded by Link and Tetra.

[NintendoBlackCrisis]

Not surprised that someone ended up making a video on this topic. I’ve seen so many articles on this lol

[detectivedewitt]

To me the simplest explanation is both games take place so much further in the future that we had time for Hyrule to fall (again), be forgotten, the zonai rise and fall and a new Hyrule be rebuilt by Rauru and all that still count as "distant past" in relation to both games

[yggdrasilsaltar]

i had a feeling it wasnt new because if it was they totally would’ve added echoes of wisdom somewhere in there

[arc]

A video about the timeline in Zelda?

Aw hell.
I can see the mobs and pitchforks already.

[demonprinceofkhorne]

It’s weird when the games throw around “10, 000 years ago” so casually when you consider that the last 10, 000 in our world contains basically all of human history and technological development

**Edit**
I'm not saying that humans have only been around for 10, 000 years, I'm saying that our written history only goes back that far. The earliest signs of civilisation, not the earliest records of Homo Sapiens as a species

[SkulShurtugalTCG]

I had always thought that BOTW took place SO far in the future that the very concept of "timelines" simply doesn't exist anymore. Thousands, perhaps even millions of years in the future, it's impossible to know what happened in the past.

[veebot]

Just imagine we find out that Four Swords Adventures being spelled as Four Sword Adventures carries massive lore implications for the series.

[Madchimpz]

The main thing that bothered me was stating Rauru founded Hyrule. Sure it, it could be that the original Hyrule is so ancient that its origins are long forgotten, but that's not believable with how many references are still present. The name of Hyrule is the same, all the provinces have the same names, Nabooru and princess Ruto from Ocarina of Time are remembered and written about in botw, so clearly there is knowledge of the kingdom's past. Yet somehow they forgot about Hyrule's first founding? I agree that keeping things ambiguous so fans can theorize is more fun, they could have easily left that one detail about Rauru out and it would have been fine, but by saying he founded Hyrule comes dangerously close to just retconning the whole series.

[SourDohSteele]

My own headcannon is this:

Some universal cataclysmic event essentially wiped the world clean across all timeliness. The Golden Goddesses returned to remake the world using bits and pieces of what was left of the 3 variations of Hyrule. Thus beginning of these games.

Obviously this is simplified version of my thoughts.

[RinkusZelda]

I choose to believe Ganon is actually a master baker and enjoys making baked goods for the people of Hyrule

[Zoroark_Master]

Never really vibed "It’s up to the players imagination" it pretty much means there’s no intended answer, making any answers fundamentally wrong (not saying you can’t make something ambiguous and that it doesn’t need everything to have a full concrete answer. But it would need bread crumbs to lead us to an overall mostly common and intended answer)

[GODOFAWSOMENESS]

That first answer is just annoying. Setting a firm timeline doesn’t remove imagination it makes it so that the imagination can focus on what is true and about filling the holes. No hard placement just means arguments amongst the fans.

[oscca]

My headcanon has always been that BotW took place maybe about 20-50 000 years after the original timeline, accomodating for the "10000 years ago" taking place after the sea had subsided and the timelines had merged (which I imagine happens either through the use of the triforce in order to heal Hyrule during a crisis, or by divine intervention for the same reason). The past seen in TotK would then be either from the re-founding of Hyrule, OR from a time after Skyward Sword where the actual kingdom was established.

It works in my head at least, which is probably enough.

[Cloke]

I vibe with Botw/Totk being in a separate timeline

[KlNGLEGO]

I get the image of the timeline being understandable but what was confusing was the explanation of what appears to be either a retcon story of creation or a second story of creation that takes place in between the end of the era of myth timeline and BOTW

[jessedellross]

The dev team have obviously given up trying to make a coherent timeline. Which is sad cause it was fun to see how each game connected to the others

[Z-Man]

BotW and TotK are essentially a soft reboot.

They will never give a definitive answer on which timeline it is because it doesn't matter.

Nintendo's philosophy is always gameplay first, story second.

Sometimes for better or worse.

[mordinchemist]

Yeah I was also really confused why news outlets were going mad with this. It exactly matched what we've seen before.

[d.saunders]

Timeline boys: Nothing is canon until an official timeline comes out
--Official timeline comes out: "Yeah but not that one though..."