Huge mistake? I don't think so. People have been asking Nintendo for an official statement on Zelda's timeline for years, and this is exactly what Nintendo did. I can't see what's wrong with answering one of the biggest requests from Zelda fans.

The official timeline, while not perfect, does make some sense. Yes, it has some inconsistencies, but it's not horrible. Unlike other Nintendo games (like Mario), all Zelda games were meant to be connected in some way, so having an official timeline does make sense. The only Zelda game that "came out of nowhere" was the first Zelda for the NES. All Zelda games after that were meant to be connected in one way or another to a previous game (not necessarily being a direct sequel).

I liked the feature and look forward to the next episode of 'Timeline' - its a cool idea!

Link reminds me bit of Moorcocks Eternal Champion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_Champion

The Triforce was split in three when Ganon attempted to claim it in OoT, with the other two parts going to Link and Zelda.

If Link completely disappears once this happens, what happened to the Triforce of Courage? Ganon must be able to gather all three parts in order for LttP to take place, so this is a rather crucial detail.

The problem with that idea is that Ganondorf still needs to defeat both Link and Zelda to claim their Triforce pieces. While he might be able to track down and defeat Link, he does not have any way of finding Zelda at this point - she's still disguised as Sheik, and doesn't reveal herself until Link gathers all of the medallions. If Link isn't able to do that, she has no reason to reveal herself, so Ganondorf won't be able to find her.

totally agree

Maybe your right, but the only connection between the games I saw was item and character names being reused. If the games are taking place in the same area; I don't think it matters in any way, shape, or form. Maybe hardcore fans of the series see things that a casual player of the franchise(such as myself) doesn't.

Well, it's not like the piece totally vanishes. Link is unaware he has it until the last medallion is gathered, perhaps he hadn't earned the right to wield the piece until that happens, in which case it's found by someone else in the world.

As for the second point, again this assumes Link always has the piece of courage. Zelda trains as Sheik expecting Link to return. If we go by the assumption this follows the ALTTP pathway, then Link's failure to return leads to war, the sacrificing of maidens to open up the holy realm in place of the hero. With the child viewpoint, Zelda returns to wage war with an army of desperate civilians, and the owners of those medallions being 6 of the wise men that seal Gannon away at the start of the story. That would leave either the King of Hyrule, or Zelda herself being the last, as the new Zelda is the last maiden to be sent to unlock Ganon and the Dark Realm. With the split occurring as an adult instead, then the war is delayed, Ganon having time to unlock the powers of his piece and building his own army, and probably making Zelda the last of the wise-men that seal him away. That's just a thought of course.

Well, those three games aren't really a good example of the timeline being there, because Wind Waker is in a different branch of the timeline from the other two - so the only thing they share is the backstories of Hyrule.

While Link's Awakening is in the same timeline as Link to the Past (and has the same incarnation of Link), this is really just circumstantial - LA is all a dream and a side story which doesn't involve the Triforce, Ganon, the Master Sword, or any thing like that, so it could really have gone anywhere in the timeline, in any branch. (Of course, LA predates OoT, so the other branches didn't exist yet, and it had to go somewhere in the LttP branch - Nintendo just deliberately decided to use the same incarnation of Link as the LttP one, so it can't go anywhere else.)

The games are all designed so that they can be played independently, so if you're not looking for the connections, you're not likely to see them (apart from somewhat similar backstories and various names re-appearing). However, knowing the stories of each game (which, especially in the pre-OoT days, usually involved reading the manual) reveals hints about how everything fits together, and that has been the case ever since Zelda 2 (since there wasn't anything to refer *to* before then).

Interestingly, there's only 3 pairs of games that have any direct connection to one another: Zelda 1 and 2, OoT and MM, and OA with LA. The connections with OA and LA is a bit of a stretch to be fair, but the set-up of the story for OA makes it concurrent with OS, and the story beginning the games means they probably occur directly ahead of another game, one with a horse. However, with the linked game's ending, it makes it unlikely that this game has been made yet.

[url=http://zeldawiki.org/The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Mystical_Seed_of_Courage]There was a third game that was supposed to complete the trilogy, but it got canceled due to there being no way to link 3 things together, even though both Oracle of Seasons and Ages are aware of the Gameboy Advance in the form of a special ring.[/url]

At the time of the release of OOT, Nintendo referred to OOT as "the true legend", and and least the local branch of Nintendo explained the discrepancies between OOT & the later games that OOT, Zelda 1 & 2 and A Link to the Past are all different takes on the same legend, and that what happened in OOT was what really happened.

Personally I've found it easier to think of the Zelda series as just being separate stories with connected themes. While some games have obvious connections, Zelda 1 & 2, Wind Waker and its DS sequels, OOT & Majoras Mask and whatever game I might have missed.

But by putting Minish Cap in the timeline, it causes problems with some of the enemies. Moblins were created by Ganon, at least according to some sources.

LttP was always always meant to be a prequel to the original two and OoT was meant to be the legend from LttP's intro. When they said OoT was the 'true version' they meant in relation to the discrepancies between it and the intro of LttP, not that OoT and LttP itself were meant to be the same story told differently.

A timeline was always intended, it just got convoluted once Eiji Aonuma started making games in parallel timelines.
I'm not sure what them being aware of the GBA has to do with anything...

That doesn't work, because the Triforce divides itself at the moment Ganondorf attempts to claim it. The Triforce picked Link for the Triforce of Courage. Quoting Zelda in OoT: This all happens before Link is sealed away for seven years, while he is still a child. If the Triforce of Courage did not choose Link at this point, then where did it go? How (and when) does Link end up with the Triforce of Courage?

The above questions still apply, but there seems to be even more problems with this scenario.

First of all, the OoT-era Sacred Realm is opened by the time Link first claims the Master Sword (as a child). There are no Maidens to be sacrificed; the Maidens are descendents of the seven Sages used to seal Ganon in the Dark World and that hasn't happened yet.

Zelda's goal is to seal Ganondorf away so he can no longer do any harm. Her plan requires all seven Sages to participate in the sealing process, so Link must be successful before revealing her identity has any benefit - she cannot defeat him in any other way, and she knows this - that's why she doesn't reveal her identity until that has happened.

LttP tells us that in this branch, Ganon is sealed away. However, before that happens, he needs to complete the Triforce, because this is what causes the Sacred Realm to be corrupted into the Dark World (and LttP states that this had already happened when he becomes sealed away).

This alone seems to suggest that the seven Sages mentioned in LttP are different from the OoT sages, since Zelda is the seventh Sage. Zelda would somehow need to be captured by Ganondorf, have her piece of the Triforce taken from her, and then escape alive. Everything we've seen so far suggests that this isn't possible.

I've always figured Miyamoto's earlier answer about different Links in different times, alternate time-streams to be the real answer. The games weren't meant to mesh tightly so its no surprise that the current effort to make the official timeline so many fans wanted has so many holes and confusing areas. I took one look at it and started humming the end of the MST3K theme song....

IMHO Minish Cap doesn't fit well as a sequel or prequel of any of the other games, but it was actually one of my favorites. I enjoyed all the mizpah medallions. Then again, I liked Link's Awakening very much too. I guess the silliness in both quests appealed to me.

I love most of the Zelda games, but Seasons/Ages...oh dear. I could never finish them. I bought the guide - but I had more holes in the ground in my games than the guide showed and I just couldn't get the floating bear past that problem, and I kept getting the bear! I liked the games well enough until the sticking point(s.) I wonder if anyone else had that problem. A third frustration like those two would not have been welcome.

How early are we talking? Because there was always a timeline, it just didn't become wonky until WW and TP. When OoT was made there was a clear and obvious time line, it went:

OoT
aLttP
LA
LoZ
AoL

Even Majora's Mask was fine (it goes in between OoT and aLttP). WW was the first to cause real problems and that's the first appearance of the convoluted splits. Just saying, there was always a time line.