How does Tears of the Kingdom fit into the Zelda timeline?

That's the neat part. It doesn't.

I think the events described in TOTK and BOTW bookend the entire timeline. The Zonai founded Hyrule, and after the timelines reconverged, Link and Zelda bring it to where it is now.

To me, the Amiibo Items and their descriptions are more tongue-in-cheek references to the other games in the series, rather than definitive evidence that they truly are connected. Many other games do this with entirely different IPs. It's called an Easter Egg.

I personally believe that this is merely a soft-reboot of the series in its entirety, but with familiar faces and names. The primary evidence for this is Rauru's claim as the FIRST King of Hyrule.
Now, I know others have said that it could simply be a DIFFERENT Hyrule, but at what point does documented Hyrulean history simply vanish from existence before another one takes its place? At what point does it just become a fresh, blank slate where an entirely different kingdom could be founded there? At what point does it being named Hyrule mean absolutely nothing? And at what point does it become infinitely simpler to just define it as an alternate timeline?
Another interesting detail is the lack of a Triforce. The Triforce simply DOES NOT EXIST in BotW/TotK. Netiher Link nor Ganondorf bear their respective parts of the Triforce on their hand. Din, Farore, and Nayru are Dragons, named Dinraal, Farosh, and Naydra respectively, which in TotK, are revealed to previously be living Humans/Zonai, rather than Godesses. It could be a case of names being reused, but it could alsobe intentional, to show how these beings are in entirely different forms. Twinrova, i.e. Koume and Kotake, are present in a cutscene in TotK where Rauru, Sonia, and Zelda collectively laser a ton of Molduga. Are we to believe that Twinrova reincarnates the same way that the Chosen Hero, the Mortal Goddess, and the King of Demons do? So many details are present that aren't easily explained by just saying it's cosmic coincidence that all of these major players happened to line up in exactly the same way.

It's my hope that in the next game, we will get yet another sequel. Perhaps it could follow the restored land of Hyrule we play in during these two games. Expanded greatly, on a console that can properly handle a map larger than BotW/TotK's Hyrule. Rather than this Link and Zelda again, we get a new duo of Swordsman and Princess, hundreds, or thousands of years after the events of TotK. With all of the lore and worldbuilding still in play. That would be epic.

I think totk on its entirety is just at the end same as botw

Or, all these Items from other timelines are just Fanservice

If I had to put botw & totk into one of the timelines, I’d put it in the child timeline simply due to the fact that the Master Sword is still around at the end of the timeline, and the Hero of Time Being defeated is just stupid.

For me it almost seems like all the timelines are converging on top of eachother. 😅 though i am still new to the zelda series.

hey i have a theory about that that….
-found hyrule by rauru and sonia, then the have their daughter: young Zelda in oot
-ganon find way to take ovet Hyrule
-the scene that ganondorf meet the king in totk exactly like the scene we met zelda from oot
-ganon make a phantom (i think) and the real ganon looking for the secret stone n the phantom is looking for triforce

in my opinion, Oot and Totk is in the same event

I’ve only just began BOTW. My understanding is that during OOT link loses and is sealed away. Fast forward, BOTW. I’m unsure about TOTK

Same as BotW timeline.
The question you really are asking is, when is Raurus timeline. His is long before.

I believe the fact that the Master Sword doesn’t exist in the past side of Tears of the Kingdom proves that it happens before Skyward Sword.

I think its the start of a new second part of the time loop, new hyrule, the ouroboros is two heads eating, not one. This explains how the new hyrule is founded with a new god and new islands, resetting the timeline, explaining the goddess sword. I would bet that the next game explains how it leads back into skyward sword.

I really dont think the items are anything more than fan service and the fact that you are using gear as a justification to not place this game just seems lazy to me

Ive kinda just come to the conclusion that nintendo really didnt care and just did what they wanted to.

There is no timeline, there never was.

I feel like Hyrule warriors for the WiiU is canon and is the end of all three timelines and at the end of the game, merges the timelines into one, leading into Breath of the Wild's main timeline. Thats how I see it.

I guess the zelda timeline is just all newbgames happen millions of yesrs after the other games combing the three zelda timelines

can u shout out at the max?

The sky sword could be a replica

The dragonbreak theory sounds like what makes most sense merging the three timelines into one on another video. I wouldn't mind if next Zelda games they don't do timey wimey stuff anymore. I'd love to see the vast myterious open world lands beyond Hyrule next to the North especially and the West, and new villains that are not Ganon., new adventures.

And the only time someone actually mentions anything that happened in botw while playing totk is Impa talking about a war that is long forgotten by everyone except her and Link. Also all shrines and gurdians are gone. I dont think you can put them on the same timeline, but I was hoping that only the beginning of totk was actually the past of botw, and with Zeldas time travel would create a different timeline.

Trying to make the whole zelda timeline fit together sounds like the pixar theory haha. I think its clear there is no official timeline until they include the newest two games into it where it officially belongs

At this point I hope we get a DLC that actually reveals the final placement of Botw and Totk cause it's breaking my brain rn

Ok, I just found a logical way to include amiibos in the lore without having to speculate about the different timelines merging into one (a theory wich I hate btw):

Link has always used magic. We don't think as him being a magical sorcerer, but he does uses magic constantly (Zelda II, A link to the past, Ocarina of Time). So Link could have learned a spell that "brings" weapons and useful artifacts into his reality for him to use. But the spell does not bring the original item, it just copies it (since it doesn't make sense that Botw Link can just grab the sword of the sky and leave Skyward Sword Link without a weapon). This would perfectly explain Botw Link using weapons, garbs, and even wolf link and epona in his quest: he's just using a spell to bring more weapons and helpful items into his reality.

Of course Link not being a powerful sorcerer, the spell is kind of limited and that's why the results are kind of random.

This spell could also explain why the Zonai have placed such random armors from all timelines in treasure chests: they used the same spell to bring items to the hero to aid in his quest.

And one thing to note is that this theory goes hand to hand with Nintendo official explanation in the book "Creating a Champion".

The White Sword of the Sky is NOT the one that turns into the Master Sword. It's a replica of it created by the goddess statues. This is pretty much stated by the quest.

I say it is it indivual timeline because Ganondorf doesn't seem to have reincarnations like Link and Zelda.

Think about it. Every Zelda is a descendant of Hylia because of the bloodline while every Link is reincarnated through the soul of the hero. Yet so far, Ganondorf has come back through resurrection or because he was sealed away. Not once was he reincarnated much like Link and Zelda. Add that to the fact that Zoni founded Hyrule kinda makes me think that we are in another alterate timeline. One before Skyward Sword.

Here my idea. Hylia and the first hero (the hero before Link from Skyward Sword) easily defeated Demise and recieve the same curse as Link and Zelda in the current timeline. Afterwards, they had children who became the Zonai while other races was born/made naturally. A few thousands years later, Ganondorf was born and the events of Tear of the Kingdom past happen which cause the second hero (who is a Zonai) and princess of that time imprison Ganondorf in his corpse. A few centuries past, and Ganondorf found a way to release Ganon in order to free him. This eventually lead to Ganon being seal as well before becoming Calamity Ganon. After the events of Hyrule, a part of Calamity Ganon return to Ganondorf. After 4-5 years. Ganondorf finally broke free just as Zelda and Link check under the castle which started the Tear of the Kingdom events.

As for the whole Wolf Link, Heroes Outfits, and previous weapons... I think there is a weak spot in the veil between timelines. Reason is because I found the Mirror of Twilight (Twilight Princess) which should have been broken to dust by Midna. So either the Twilight Mirror was a very ancient tool created before Skyward Sword, ir Midna really send it to an alternate timeline.

I always interpreted Botw as the story that united the three timelines once again. No matter what divergences were made at the end of Ocarina of Time, all roads let to the events of BotW/TotK. Tears muddied things again tho, with the references to the Imprisoning War and Ganondorf. A lot of those featured items (Goddess sword, etc) is all just fan service

The only thing that makes sense to me would be that some type of event occurred to converge the timelines. Like maybe after so many thousands of years of fighting each other throughout time and space and different realities starting all the way back from the original incarnation of evil (Demise), Link and Ganon engaged in a fight outside the confines of time and space that was so violent it reset the timelines basically and that’s why the timelines converge and why the physical layout of the land resembles the way things were in skyward sword. Then, when the zonai founded hyrule it was actually re-establishing the kingdom that once existed. However they didn’t even know this because any memories and knowledge of the history of the world had been lost in the convergence event. Then some of the unexplained reoccurrence of past items and locations and names can be explained simply by “history repeats itself” as it was set in motion by Demise way back when.

I always liked MatPat's Hyrule warriors theory, saying that even though Nintendo claims it's not canon Hyrule warriors allows for all the different timelines to mingle and displace items and people into whichever timeline that breath of the wild takes place in and allow for both the Zora and the Rito to exist simultaneously while each having their own histories

A BotW3 that takes place before the calamity, where all the towns, villages, and cities are fully built would be really cool.

Botw takes place in the child timeline. So totk takes places in the 5-10yrs after that so our twink is like 123-128 and also the backstory cant depict hyrules founding as that was exclusively from princess zeldas of skylofts people, this depicts hyrules refounding after whatever apocalyptic event converged the adult and downfall timelines with the child timeline.

So I'm going to post my explanations of the goddess sword and other amiibo items.

Amiibo items are basically replicas created by Misko, he was fascinated with old legends and decided to replicate items from both history and myths alike. From "Creating a Champion" we know that events from old timelines have faded away with time and it's hard to tell which events are historical fact and which are fairy tale, it only makes sense that replicas and fanatics like Misko exist. There's a reason why Majora's Mask and the Fierce Deity have no powers in BOTW and TOTK.

Some of Misko treasures include the Fierce Deity, Tingle set and the Awakening set, the latter confirming the theory given the toy look of the set. Other sets are found in the Depths and even though we can't tell for sure if Misko made them it's safe to assume he or someone else did, from everything we know there's more proof of them being fakes than the real deal.

It's also interesting to note that the Yiga clan made their own version of the thunder helm, this is not directly related to the Misko theory but it goes to show that replicas are already a thing in TOTK.

This makes more sense than actually trying to explain how the Goddess Sword is canon in TOTK, yes I know the sword is given to you by the Mother Goddess statue herself but I think we need to keep in mind that not every amiibo items is the real deal in TOTK and BOTW.

For the godess sword appearing, I believe there's a section in Hyrule Historia (or one of the other books) that says that due to the time travel shenanigans in Skyward Sword that there's actually two godess swords: one that became the master sword and one that didn't.

I was afraid of this, but.. yeah. I'm just gonna write these off as an attempt to start a new "timeline" while making the events of the other games purely.. stories. It's sad (like REALLY sad) that they'd just retcon so much for the sake of a new, original story, but I guess I also kinda get it. New timeline, new games, new references, aaaand the series is now immortal. Woo.

Just accept botw and totk are in a new timeline

TotK is in the Good Place.

My favorite theory so far is that BotW and Tears are the "real" universe, and all of the other games were "legends" within the real universe.
So you were playing the story in the old games (thus why things were more tight and linear), while the open-world games are the actual world things take place it.

I suppose we'll see in 10 years when Nintendo tries to remake the timeline again. :P

You're overthinking this to the point where you just sound silly. All of this deep speculation about what this sword means for the timeline... IT MEANS NOTHING!!! They just wanted to include a cool weapon.

Well i think
In the original timeline you had Demise as the demon king
But now it's ganondorf
And also
The zonai is said to be the founder of hyrule
That and two spoilers about a long black snake and the fact that gerudo tribe after ganondorf didn't have a male gerudo in 10 000 years because ganondorf was still alive and it is mentionned that a gerudo male is born every 100 years exactly like from the original timeline
I think botw and tears of the kingdom are on their own and as of today the zelda franchise will go in a new direction perfecting their new formula and by the same way make a new timeline story

Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are a timeline vortex. The events and tears of the kingdom where Zelda gets sent to the past takes place before Skyward Sword. During that time we have very first Ganondorf. This ganondorf not yet imbued with the malice of demise. After ganondorf is sealed under Hyrule Castle, sometime passes and we get the events of Skyward sword with the defeat of demise and and infusing his malice into Ganondorf starting the cycle of reincarnation. But since Ganondorf is technically not dead, there is no reincarnation yet. But we do have the new malice of ganondorf which is Ganon. This Ganon can appear in multiple different timelines during this time after the defeat of demise. Now since ganondorf has technically not died, and still makes him the first Ganondorf in the timeline, this should put him before Ocarina of Time. Now as for the time vortex, we get this with random ruins and artifacts pulled from both past, future, and alternate timelines. All because Zelda found herself so far in the past it created a time vortex. There's my two cents.

I like the idea that each game has its own continuity and is its own timeline but I feel like each game should easily tie back to skyward sword

Here is my take:
These two games take place in a parallel universe, which explains why Ganondorf has more or less the same plan as OoT’s Ganondorf. The Zonai are actually the sky people that lived in their universe’s skyloft, and when they came down, Rauru, the time sage founded the Hyrule kingdom and sealed the stones in the temple of time (just like Hylian Rauru did with the triforce in OoT’s universe)

I always assumed a timeline convergence, something something the terrible power of Calamity Gannon ripped through the timelines and brought them all together. Because even like base botw does have stuff from different timelines in the world iirc? Like locations and stuff

For a game nearly perfect in its design direction and every choice being so carefully considered, there’s no way they are not aware of what they’re doing. The timeline was not forgotten due to constraints.

This is the same people who made the environment “triangles” you can see between and around, to subconsciously guide the player. Triangles, which fit the theme of the Triforce. Surely that same mindset is fully aware of what timeline this is set in. We just haven’t figured it out yet.

After Zelda holds back Ganon for 100 years, Link wakes up and does random shit

Zelda: “Oh no no, please, take your time”

30 seconds before the video ends he admits that he has no clue where it goes in the timeline and just wasted the last 12 minutes of your life.

I think its more easier if we assume that this is a different hyrule with different history.