Explaining the legend of Zelda to a friend

[kisukoev]

The worst nightmare of every zelda lore fan: "how does TotK fit into this?"

[thepopeisnotawarcriminal]

No, the weirdest part of Zelda is how the games don’t even make a big deal out of you scattering ashes everywhere

[insomniacnerd]

Rest well in your retirement, MatPat.
Truly the GOAT.

[esteban]

That ending made me smile. We're gonna miss you, Matpat.

[friendlyneighborhoodSpider]

At this moment in time, that "thanks for watching" just hurt me...that hurt me bad

[That_Scubs]

I like Matpat’s theory that Hyrule Warriors brought the timelines together because Botw and Totk have things from every timeline like having both the Rito and the Zora

[trvezifer]

I'm still convinced that BotW and TotK are a reboot. The whole "they take place so far in the future that we can't really say what timeline they belong to and what the past of this version of Hyrule is" was just to sort-of please both sides of the fandom.

[insomniacnerd]

Oh no. He’s too far gone.
Before long, he will be questioning why Ganondorf is hot.
It’s only a matter of time after one goes too deep.

[coolman]

Man having this pop up for me the day after MatPat retired hits different.

[TheMaskOfZack]

BotW is placed so far in the future that it doesn’t matter which timeline it is. It is the fusion point of all 3 timelines. TotKis speculated to place 7 years after BotW

[No_OneO_N]

I feel like the theory that the timelines got connected by Hyrule Warriors just helps make sense even if Nintendo refuses it.

[Aerowarrier]

I absolutely love BDG’s timeline that places BoTW (and TotK by association) at the very end inside all three timelines, which happens because Hyrule Warriors breaks time across all three timelines, and Zelda Monopoly puts it all back together. Absolutely iconic

[koelee]

So just for anyone confused:
Zelda is a reincarnation of the Godess Hylia, and each Zelda we see is a descendant of the Zelda from Skyward Sword, not a reincarnation of the previous Zelda.
Each Link is a reincarnation of the Link from Skyward Sword, except for when he's not, and is not a descendant of the previous Links, except for when he is.
Ganondorf/Ganon is an incarnation of Demise's evil, but is not Demise himself. Each Ganondorf is the same Ganondorf except for when he isn't, and is not a reincarnation of himself, except for when he is.
Hope that helps!

[mrinfinity]

From what we can tell, based on what Nintendo says, botw is the endpoint of all timelines. Like all three converge into botw, which then directly goes into tears of the kingdom.

But also, time travel in tears of the kingdom

[lukeputhuff]

Loved it at the end when he made a Game Theory reference! May MatPat live a long and healthy life.

[berryhayden]

What gets me is that in breath of the wild one of the memory fragments has Zelda talking not only about skyward sword but OOT, twilight princess, wind waker, and even the ancient princess sleeping in a palace so somewhere its gotta be connected at the very least where all 3 time lines reconnect

[StreamMaster-iimz]

He forgot that 4 swords adventure had a new Ganondorf after the first one died in Twilight Princess.

[utywefyiefgwa]

zelda knows how complicated the timeline is and goes "screw it lemme make it so no one understands"

[noahjacoby-twigg]

ToTK and BoTW just take place at the furthest point from Skyward Sword on the timeline. 10'000 years+ from the last game, at least. Hyrule is just mindbogglingly ancient

[JaceMorley]

My current theory is:
* BOTW+ is set so far after that all the timelines have effectively merged together.
* Calamity Ganon is the remnant of the OG Ganon from OoT onwards.
* Hyrule fell completely sometime before BOTW and was re-founded by the Zonai, which is what is seen in TOTK.
* TOTK Ganondorf was a new incarnation (in the same way two Zeldas existed at the same time in Zelda I and II)