#but then i remembered that the big war fight still has happened in totk

[darkdragon768]

Was taking a look into the zelda botw masters work book (or whatever it's called) again to look for my silly guys and...

I'm really fucking disappointed that the yiga got only like half a page. "Oh yea, here are the designs of the novice, officers and their leader, and a few fun facts, haha. That's all. Take it or leave it" Some concept art would have been cool, man...

Anyway, what's funny is that the creators were like

"Hey look, I designed those really cool ninjas that are out to kill Link!"

"Cool, but uh... why tho?"

"Uhh I don't know, I haven't thought that far."

I mean, I see a lot of people having the same kinda struggle with their OCs so it's not that weird but still funny to me.

[loracarol]

Yes, I know that this makes no sense in the context of the Hyrule Historia...

....And like, I do own a copy of the Hyrule Historia & I've actually read it, so I get in theory the way that the timelines in the Legend of Zelda series work, and I get that some people find it genuinely enjoyable to try and figure out where various games fit in the timeline (shine on you crazy diamonds) but honestly I find it easier to borrow comic book universes and think about the Legend of Zelda in that term. Sometimes the same event, or something similar, can happen in multiple universes, but that doesn't mean it happens the same way in all universes. Think about the Marvel comic version of Civil War vs. the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of Civil War.

(some Tears of the Kingdom spoilers)

With that in mind, here's the part where I start spouting completely made up nonsense as I'd like to make two hypotheses based on this framework:

Firstly: The imprisoning war in Tears of the Kingdom, as it's understood by future historians is the BoTW/ToTK universe's version of Skyward Sword.

No, I'm not saying the Skyward Sword didn't happen/isn't canon. It 100% happened exactly how it happened in the game/manga/how you personally played it in the Prime Zelda Universe.

But here me out, and remember that I'm basing this off of how people might remember it/not necessarily how it actually went down.

Both stories have:

People who live in the sky and fly on birds - or in TotK's case, bird-shaped gliders/planes

A goddess figure (put a pin in this) who suffers grave injuries and passes away

This goddess figure was part of the founding of the new Hyrulian nation

The goddess figure had a descendant/incarnation who had the same powers who went around rallying the people of the time to fight a new foe

A sword is forged in holy, "goddess" energy

Dragons

The foe could not be defeated permanently, and would instead return at some later for a hero/the descendant to fight at that time instead

Ganondorf and Demise look visually similar

Again, I am not saying that Skyward Sword happened in BoTW, just that this war may be a plausible interpretation of why Skyward Sword may look like in this universe.

As for that pin:

A goddess figure (put a pin in this) who suffers grave injuries and passes away

My second theory is that Sonia and Hylia got syncretised either accidentally or intentionally-for-political-reasons.

In this bullshit I just made up theory, Hylia is still genuinely a Hyrulian goddess, however she has nothing to do with Sonia, or any of Zelda's line.

At some point, Sonia's actions (having a descendant with Light powers that could seal darkness) accidentally got merged with Hylia.

This could be why Zelda had no luck praying to Hylia, despite the fact that Link can go to the different statues and get hearts/stamina; Hylia genuinely couldn't have helped Zelda because she had no connection to her.

Admittedly, I'm not sure if this works in the context of people like Zelda's mother, or the glowing lady that Zelda mentions in her diary in BotW.

I'm not saying that Hylia isn't real! I'm just saying that maybe in this universe, she has no connection to Zelda/the Hyrulian line. She's still around as a valid Hyrulian goddess though. Possibly even one that Queen Sonia worshipped herself?

This either was intentional/political, or could genuinely have been accidentally by scholars trying to decipher ancient Zonai text and mistranslating/the script being worn away.

For example, in Japanese, the kanji for "dog" is pronounced "inu" and it looks like this: 犬 while the kanji for "big" is pronounced "ooki" and looks like this 大. Lose that stroke in the upper right of the kanji and you can drastically change the meaning. If "Son" and "Hyl" in the ancient Zonai script had something similar and the carvings were worn away, that is one possible way that could have happened.

Another way is if "Son" and "Hyl" in ancient Zonai have the same symbol but are pronounced differently, like the kanji for "tree" 木 which can be pronounced both "ki" and "moku."

I know that people have translated the Zonai script IRL, this is hypothetical in-world shenanigans

Maybe Sonia wasn't referred to by name in some of the originally found carvings, but by an epithet, and people made that assumption that that epithet was about Hylia instead. "Mother of Hyrule", for example. And then later researchers found out otherwise.

IDK, this is just a theory. A game theor-

But what about Link and Fi?

Hylia is still around as a goddess, so it's possible that she still created the original master sword, it was just unrelated to Zelda's powers.

Link is the kind of guy who wakes up from a 100 year coma with amnesia sees Calamity Ganon and goes, "yeah I'll go kill that thing", so he's definitely Hero material, but Hylia could be involved in this as well.

Alternatively, Hylia was also around to hear the stories about Link and thought, "damn that kid will need a sword."

Like, literally I'm not saying at all that Hylia isn't real, just that she has no relation to Zelda in the BoTW/ToTK timeline/universe.

-----

tl;dr

Legend of Zelda is more like comic book universes and some events happen across multiple timelines but with some differences

The Imprisoning War is the BoTW/ToTK timeline/universe version of the events of Skyward Sword

Sonia was syncretised with Hylia (a real goddess) at some point in the past, and that's why everyone in the BoTW, pre-Calamity timeline thought that Zelda had to go to Hylia to unlock her powers, however in this universe Zelda either doesn't have any divine connection to Hylia at all.

[thorntopieces]

Attempt at explaining the LoZ timeline soup

Every time I look at the Loz time-crossword-puzzle (credit to this video by Chase Kip for the term) I just get more and more confused. ToTK did not help on that front.

But I had a thought - and I haven't watched many theory videos on the timeline after ToTK came out, so it is very possible someone has already discussed this exact idea. In that case, please ignore this post lmao.

Second disclaimer: I haven't played a lot of ToTK yet simply because I haven't had the time. I know a bit of the lore from watching others play it, but uhhh ... don't expect perfect accuracy.

I'll put this under a read more, because who knows how long it's going to be and how many shitty illustrations I might have to add in. I also have like,,, no proof of my idea except what popped into my brain.

Update: 750 words and two images under the "keep reading". Image IDs are provided. No grammar checking has been done.

Basically, my thought is that the entire timeline as we know it, y'know, this one:

[Image ID: picture of the Legend of Zelda Timeline depicted on page 69 of The Hyrule Historia. It shows the typical timeline split after Ocarina of Time into the Downfall, Adult and Child timelines. End Image ID] Source

Yeah, I think this timeline still checks out. Obviously, the version I'm showing here ignores some games (most importantly, my favourite: A Link Between Worlds) but that's alright.

Basically, my thought was that if we take all the fun new games that just ruin whatever remnants of timeline we had left (read: BoTW, AoC, ToTK and Hyrule Warriors) and uhh. Let's create a semi-pocket dimension with them. All of those exist together in their own fun little loop now. Imagine the original timeline as a bed and we just drape my fun BoTW-AoC-ToTk-HW blanket over the bed. Let it lay on top.

At the top of the bed, by the pillow is Skyward Sword. We let Skyward Sword play out and BAM! They're working on establishing the Kingdom of Hyrule on the Surface. At the same time we can have Rauru (the King, not the Sage) and Sonia establish the Kingdom of Hyrule on ... well, the Surface. But since BoTW-AoC-ToTk-HW is a blanket laying on top of the bed, these two Kingdoms of Hyrule don't really interact.

And so the established timeline moves as normal, like we have the Minish Cap and Four Swords and everything is going great. But Ah! Actually Everything Isn't That Great because now we've got Hyrule Warriors happening on the blanket. A big war requires big help, yeah? Well, so what I failed to tell you is that this blanket is ... kind of in need of repair. It's got some thinner areas in the weave here and there and a couple of actual holes. Time kind of doesn't really progress during this war, so let's say that the Hyrule Warriors war lasts ... from around ish around the start of Ocarina of Time through the bottom of the conventional timeline (after Spirit Tracks, Four Swords Adventures and Whatever Is At The Bottom of Downfall).

The holes in the blanket are where we get the interdimensional travel through. Young Link? Yeah he was just temporarily dragged through a hole in the blanket from OoT/MM to aid in this war. Twili Midna? Same thing, just snatched out of the Twili Realm. Ravio? Sure! Snatch him up too. During the time where they're fighting in the war, time doesn't really pass in the normal timeline, and they probably don't remember much of the war afterwards once they've been returned to their original time and place. Think of it like a full body, skill and personality scan of them being done and that copy being dumped into Hyrule Warriors.

And then peaceful times happen and an indeterminate amount of time happens after Hyrule Warriors. Maybe because time passed so slowly during it (a couple of years at most, I think someone said 7 once?) while the normal timeline progressed by thousands of years, it's now catching up and a lot of time passes. Then we get AoC.

Well, you see, this blanket is actually quite fucked. We're getting closer to the bottom of the bed and this blanket has been mauled. There are now two strips of blanket, not just one cohesive blanket. On one side, AoC happens and everything is great, and on the other, BoTW Link falls in battle and takes a long feckin nap. Then he goes and does Breath of the Wild, gets a moment of peace. Then, ToTK.

And bam, we're back at the top of the bed with Skyward Sword and ToTK and it starts all over again.

Makes sense? Eh, probably not so much.

How about a (shitty) visual depiction:

[Image ID: a low-opacity image of the IGN Legend of Zelda timeline. There is handwritten text on top of the image. Between Skyward Sword and Ocarina of Time is written "Tears Of The Kingdom + Peace Era" in dark blue. All the other games are encircled in a dark-blue outlined square. Inside this square is written "This Is All Just Hyrule Warriors". At the bottom of the square is a cutout, where a mini timeline has been drawn. The timeline splits into two. The left side says "AoC" and the right side says "BoTW" and then "ToTK". End Image ID] Original Image Source

Anyways, those are my silly little thoughts.