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Grace DoubleNegative

History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days. -Winston Churchill

Chronicles of Destiny

Oh, Zelda, Zelda, Zelda. There are so many games made about you, and so many fans, and so many Hyrules, that it's inevitable that someone would come along and try to sort out this tangled web. But the creators of the series have left things deliberatly vague, so they can take more liberties with future storylines. Which is nice for us, because saving the princess can get old after a while. Nevertheless, people have tried to put the whole Zelda games in some kind of order. There are three major theories of continuity, and here are their basic tenants.

Zelda.com This theory is one put forward by Nintendo online staffers. Basically, it states that Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask star one Link and that these games came first. Then, The Wind Waker comes next, followed by A Link to the Past, which stars descendents of the Ocarina Zelda and Link. Legend of Zelda and the Oracle games star the same Link and happen still later. Link's Awakening comes either directly after ALttP or the Oracle games.

The Parallel Timeline Theory This theory holds that after Ocarina of Time, there was a timeline split: one where Link went back in time and Ganondorf never got the Triforce, and one where Zelda tries to rebuild her broken kingdom after it has been wrecked by years of strife under Ganondorf. The Windwaker stems off of this latter timeline, while the other timeline leads to Majora's Mask. (And LttP, LA, and LoZ.) This seems like a good idea and the best way to fit The Windwaker into things, but, it does seem sort of, well, cheap.

Miyamoto Order One of the major minds behind the Zelda games is Shigero Miyamoto, has been quoted as saying this about the order of the series:

Ocarina of Time is the first story, then the original Legend of Zelda, then Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, and finally A Link to the Past. It's not very clear where Link's Awakening fits in--it could be anytime after Ocarina of Time.

It's clear that Ocarina of Time is meant to come first in the chronology, and most people seem to consider The Windwaker a direct sequel. (Well, after MM.) But I see this as problematic, because the ending of TWW clearly states to me that no Zelda games occur after it. However, there seem to be major references to OoT, and, yeah, it just makes no sense. Also, there's the whole question of the sleeping princess Zelda in Adventure of Link. Who is she? Some whole other Zelda or one of the Zelda's from the current games?

Continuity theories give me a headache.