The end of timeline speculation?, *SPOILERS!*

Ah, I feel a hilarious flame war coming ...

In the interest of offending everyone, here are my thoughts, despite not having reached the end of Skyward Sword as of yet. As such, I don't have anything worth offering to that portion of the conversation.

Personally, I can't imagine the ending of a Zelda game ruining the experience for me. That being said, I do wish we had better endings in the series. Many of you probably remember that I used to be of the camp that Ganon was a great villain that we ought to stick with. While I no longer hold this position, I now realize that it was because the games featuring Ganon weren't nearly as disappointing for me as the others.

I disliked the end of Link's Awakening ... very much. I mean, it works with the theme of the game and everything, but there's always the feeling of staring at a giant middle finger every time a game ends with the protagonist waking up. I loved Ocarina of Time, but also felt as if I were staring at a giant middle finger when the protagonist "went back in time." Majora's Mask was simply terrible in the story department all around, so the ending didn't change things one way or the other.

It took Capcom to make a decent non-Ganon centric story, IMO. The Oracle games were fantastic, and as much as I wanted to hate The Minish Cap, I couldn't.

So far, though, I'm very pleased with Skyward Sword. We'll have to see if the ending changes that, but I'd be surprised if it did.

There's no need for flame wars - just because we're on the internet doesn't mean every conversation has to devolve into insults and bitching

Possum raises a few good points about Zelda games having disappointing endings - although I thought LA handled the 'it was all a dream' thing pretty well - yes it was a dream, but it always came off to me as being a 'living dream' - especially with Marin longing to be real and getting her wish in the 100% ending. LA was a game with character

I think though that you underestimate the power of a bad ending - it's slightly different with video games where the ending can be indefinitely post-poned if you want to, but the ending is your last experience with a piece of narrative fiction - if someone said that the ending of a movie ruined the experience for them would that be questioned as much?

YOU MEAN TO TELL ME I'VE BEEN MISLED ALL THESE YEARS?!

Yes, as far as "... and then he woke up," endings go, Link's Awakening was definitely as good as it gets. But I still didn't care for it.

Well, that's just it. The ending is pretty much indefinitely post-poned by virtue of there being the opportunities for sequels/prequels/side-quels/etc. I mean, who can think about Ocarina of Time's ending without all the weird stuff it does to the timeline, and the split? I think that we were given some payoff for the ending by finding out how those two separate timelines turned out, which then made me feel okay with OOT's ending. (Or an inexplicable three timelines, apparently ... whatever.)

(Although, for the record, I'm not questioning Serkol's cause for having the game ruined for him. Heaven knows things have been ruined for me for far less cause, I'm just stating that I doubt the end will ruin Skyward Sword for me, personally.)

Certainly not if it's a standalone movie. But it's hard for a movie series, or a TV series, or a book series, or a video game series to be ruined for me unless we're given a "this is the absolute end, period, end of conversation." And even when we're given that, often, they'll change their mind and give us more.

Just so long as the ride keeps being fun, I keep coming back.

Because there's always the room for prequels/sequels/side-quels/etc. that often will make things better. For example, I disliked the ending to my favorite TV series, Battlestar Galactica, I hated a lot of concepts that they introduced, but I was able to live with it after the series was over and they published a pre-prequel comic book called, "The Final Five" named after (IMO) one of the biggest mis-steps of the series.

For example, I hated the story in "Majora's Mask," but it didn't ruin the Zelda for me.

Anyway, I am kind of speaking blind here not knowing what the ending to Skyward Sword is. So I'll shut up now. But yeah.

This post has been edited by 2awesome4apossum on Dec 31 2011, 09:23 PM

I make it out as

Here's a clearer image I got from HCKBlog.

I hope you all realize that the Zelda games are all different. They all have a character named Link who's a hero who rescues Princess Zelda, but they aren't the same Link or Zelda. Some of them may have a continuity from game to game (like the continuity from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers through Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, which at least one character from the previous season shows up in the next season), but many of the Zelda games (like Link to The Past compared to Minish Cap) has about as much continuity as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers compared to Power Rangers Samurai, that is to say they are IN NO WAY part of the same timeline or even teh same universe, just common names of characters and places between games, and NOTHING ELSE is in common (like all the Power Rangers shows have Power Rangers as heroes, but none the story from one season has anything to do with the story from another season except for the first few seasons of Power Rangers, even when Tommy shows up in Dino Thunder, he's the same character name and same actor as in Mighty Morphin but he has no connection to the plot/story of the original Mighty Morphin when he's in Dino Thunder, and is therefore actually a completely different character, same as Link or Zelda between any 2 Zelda games most of the time, same name and same appearence but different character because it's a completely different timeline and different universe).

Any attempt to connect most of the Zelda games just makes no sense, because they NEVER WERE MEANT TO BE CONNECTED. And any action now on Nintendo's part pretending they are connected is JUST DUMB.

This post has been edited by Videogamer555 on Mar 11 2012, 11:47 AM

Maybe I should just remove that question mark from the title of this topic...

I mean, I don't know about the rest of you guys but I, for one, am done with this.

Hello again. I've got an idea for a downfall timeline (Link losing against Ganon), which makes more sense than Hyrule Historia's "official" timeline.

The beginning is obviously Hyrule's creation, war against demons, and Skyward Sword. Later, the Kingdom of Hyrule has been created. Some time after that, the kingdom was attacked by the Interlopers. They lost, and they were banished to the Twilight Realm. The Triforce was moved to a safer place (Sacred Realm) after this war.

Years later, the Minish arrived, and Hero of Men locked all monsters in a chest (War of the Bound Chest). Later, at the Picori Festival, Vaati arrived. This is the beginning of wars against Vaati.

In just started The Minish Cap. Vaati is defeated by newly-created Four Sword. Later, Vaati breaks out and kidnaps young girls, but loses again. Unfortuately, this FS game is missing (unless this never happened - the story has been retconned during TMC release, "Hero of the Four Sword" is actually Link from the Minish Cap and Vaati only kidnapped Zelda). Vaati breaks out and loses again in Four Swords.

Now is the most important part - Four Swords Adventures. Sequel to Four Swords (with the same Link or not, it doesn't matter). Ganondorf Dragmire arrives, steals the Trident and becomes Ganon (the blue pig one). Link takes the Four Sword again, defeats released Vaati for the last time, and fights Ganon.

Here is the split - Link either wins or loses.
If Link wins - Ganon is sealed in the Four Sword forever. FS is never used again, but this is not the end of Ganon - this leads to Hyrulean Civil War and Ocarina of Time. Ganondorf from OoT is different.
If Link loses - This leads to the Imprisoning/Seal War and A Link to the Past. Link wielding the Four Sword is divided into four, but because he has been defeated, the sword is still divided. That's the reason why four separate swords are present in the Palace of the Four Sword. Ganon enters the Sacred Realm and claims the whole Triforce. The Seven Sages locks Ganon in the Sacred Realm (Dark World).

Everything else is pretty much straight-forward. OoT splits into two timelines (which leads to Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess on the Child timeline, and The Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks on the Adult timeline. A Link to the Past leads to the Oracle series, Link's Awakening, The Legend of Zelda and The Adventure of Link.

---------------------------/MM--TP
SS--TMC--FS/FSA--OoT--TWW/PH--ST
--------------------\--ALttP/OoX/LA--TLoZ/TAoL

This post has been edited by JamesBond007 on Apr 24 2012, 07:18 PM

But that's hardly different... it's still all a what if scenario with no real cause (as to why one particular game would split the timeline by having Link win or lose), you just changed which game Link may win or lose in.