(clinking swords)
- Playin' a little game?
- Mm-hmm (affirmative).
- What 'cha playing?
- Mm-hmm (affirmative).
- Oh, this is that game where you play
as the dude named Zelda.
(cartoonish cry)
- Yeah, I never really got into it.
It's just a little too weird for me.
What is Zelda's goal?
Are the games sequels?
They just keep rebooting the franchise.
I don't know.
I like games with substance.
(slap) - The Legend of Zelda
has more substance than any other game series in existence.
- Okay, fine, prove it.
- I'm glad you asked.
So, all of the Zelda games are connected
and follow a very specific and beautiful timeline.
- That doesn't look beautiful at all.
- (low monster voice) Shut up and pay attention.
There are four parts to the official Zelda timeline.
The first part is linear,
^beginning with the creation of Hyrule,
and culminating with the events of Ocarina of Time.
- Uh-huh.
^- [Kelsey] The Golden Goddesses create the world
and the Triforce, then in Skyward Sword, Link--
- Wait wait wait wait, who's Link?
- The green man.
- I thought that was Zelda!
- So, in Skyward Sword, Link rides
^a giant bird and saves everyone.
^Sacred Realm is sealed during an Era of Chaos.
Then during an Era of Prosperity, the Kingdom of Hyrule,
ruled by the Royal Family, is created.
After all of that, the Minish Cap comes in
and Link's hat turns into a bird!
(bird squawks)
- Wait wait wait wait wait wait.
So he's a kid here.
Why is he younger?
You can't age backwards,
(whispers) unless Link is Benjamin Button!
- That's because technically every Link you play as
is a descendant of the original green-clad hero.
- So they name all their kids Link?
- Yes.
After the Minish Cap is Four Swords,
where a different Link tries multiplayer for the first time.
- Okay.
- The Hyrulean Civil War takes place
after knowledge of the Triforce spreads.
The Royal Family unites the land and the war ends.
Then the real (bleep) happens!
Ocarina of Time, the holy grail of video games!
Link hits Ganon with some hi-ya,
and then Ganon turns into a boar,
so Link gives him a hi-yaa!
- So he wins?
- Yes, and no, and maybe.
- What?
- (sharp inhale) During Ocarina of Time,
the timeline splits into three parts.
Timeline A, a.k.a., the adult timeline:
Link defeats Ganondorf at the end of Ocarina of Time,
^but Ganondorf is later able to free himself
^from the Sacred Realm where Link sealed him.
The Gods trigger The Great Flood.
The events that take place in Wind Waker happen.
^Link has a boat that talks and eventually, spoilers!
You find out he's the King of Hyrule,
which is weird, but it's great.
Then after that, the events that
take place in Phantom Hourglass happen.
New Hyrule is established after
Tetra's pirates find another continent.
Good on ya, Tetra.
The events that take place
in Spirit Tracks happen on New Hyrule.
Now we'll discuss timeline B, a.k.a., the Child Timeline.
After Link defeats Ganondorf, he is sent back in time
before Ganondorf claimed the Triforce.
Link changes events so that Ganondorf
is never able to claim the Triforce.
Ganondorf attacks Hyrule, but is stopped,
and eventually sent to the Twilight Realm.
Link leaves Hyrule, he hunts for masks and whatnot
in Majora's Mask and tries to stop the moon from falling,
but then he gets turned into a wolf
in Twilight Princess and it's really fun.
You get to howl and stuff; it's really cool.
And then the events that take place
in Four Swords Adventures happens,
which is like Four Swords, but different.
In timeline C, a.k.a., Downfall Timeline,
an alternate reality of what would have happened
if Link had lost to Ganondorf and a player
got a game over in Ocarina of Time.
^Ganondorf defeats Link in the
^last battle of Ocarina of Time.
^Ganondorf then acquires each piece of the Triforce,
so the people of Hyrule, led by Princess Zelda,
seal Ganondorf and the Triforce in the Sacred Realm.
Hyrule is peaceful for a short period of time,
because people suck and they begin searching
for the Triforce after knowledge of the artifact
in the Sacred Realm spread across the kingdom.
^Ganondorf in control, the Sacred Realm turns into
the Dark World, filled with evil.
The Seven Sages, with the protection of the
Knights of Hyrule, seal the entrance to the Sacred Realm
on the orders of the King of Hyrule.
^This is when A Link to the Past, A Link Between Worlds,
^and Triforce Heroes happens, three very fun games
that are underappreciated constantly.
Then in Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons,
^Link get a rod that lets him putz around with the seasons,
though it's not clear which happens first.
Now we're in Link's Awakening,
where Link goes sailing for bit
and crashes his boat onto an island.
He gets off the island and now the Hyrulean monarchy
uses the Triforce, until Princess Zelda
is cursed into an eternal sleep,
and then the Triforce of Courage is sealed away.
This is explained in The Adventures of Link backstory.
Link saves Hyrule two more times
in The Legend of Zelda and The Adventure of Link,
which are the first two titles ever released,
^but technically the end of the story as we know it.
Questions?
- Yes, where does Tingle fit into all this?
(slow electric guitar)