Well After the Wind Waker (Hero Is Triumphant Timeline)
Where does Breath of the Wild fit in the Zelda timeline?
Okay, hear us out on this one. I know that many are you are thinking that’s impossible, and one of the main reasons can be the fact that the world isn’t an infinite sea stretching out all around you. However there are some similarities between the worlds that spring out and can contribute to them being in the same continuity.
The first is the presence of the Koroks in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. These small, wooden creatures are hidden all around the world and they even take the same form that they had in Wind Waker, though they all appear to be a bit more green than before (a minor difference). What’s interesting about this piece of information is that the reason for the Koroks’ form is that they needed to adjust after the Great Flood that you see dominating Wind Waker’s world. Originally they were humanoid. They had no other reason to evolve in such a fashion in any of the other timelines, which is a strong case to be made for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s presence after this GameCube entry.
The piece of possible evidence as to the game’s placement comes in one of the cooking ingredients: Rock Salt. The description for this simply item reads:
“Crystalized salt from the ancient sea commonly used to season meals. Cannot be eaten in this form.”
Seems simple enough, since salt is commonly found in the sea, but you curiously find it in places such as mountain peaks and other high areas that the current water level clearly doesn’t reach. The developers also made the point of saying it’s from the ancient sea, which is completely unnecessary to describe salt in a game with hundreds of different ingredients.
Another point to consider is that Breath of the Wild takes place in a world where the hero has been triumphant at several points in the past, but Breath of the Wild’s backstory begins with his failure.
Ganon is a recurring threat that appears every few thousand years, and the Hylians, along with the other iconic races that the series has always included, figured out a way to beat the powerful evil. Using technology that they developed after thousands of years and reaching the peak of civilization, they were able to quickly and easily subdue Ganon 10,000 years prior to the events of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. However, 100 years before the game starts, Ganon figures out how to take over that technology and uses it to defeat the Hyrule Kingdom, taking control of the world.
It could be that although this is the timeline where the hero was triumphant, it didn’t remain that way forever. After all, even in the Hero is Defeated timeline, Link does eventually win. The fact that the very beginning of Breath of the Wild’s story focuses on Hyrule’s victories before the major defeat is a bit telling.
Our one final possible clue is the inclusion of Beedle the merchant. This charismatic young man with the large backpack only appears within Wind Waker’s timeline. Yes, he does appear before the split (which is marked by Ocarina of Time), but after the split, he’s only in the adult, triumphant era led by Wind Waker. The fact that he’s present and that several character likenesses closely resemble those found in Wind Waker cannot be just some mere coincidence.
Or course, Breath of the Wild wouldn’t be directly after Wind Waker. Phantom Hourglass is a more direct sequel, and still involved quite a bit of water. It most likely takes place after Spirit Tracks. That entry takes place during the end of the Hyrule Rebirth, after a new Hyrule is founded to replace the one that was sealed and flooded. Spirit Tracks is also one of the first entries in the series, and the first in this particular timeline, to show a large leap in technology for the Hylians and those around them. It makes sense that it would be the founding for what would eventually become Breath of the Wilds’ high-tech civilization (they have tablet computers and everything).
