Zelda Producer Eiji Aonuma Doesn’t Really Care About the Series’ Chronology
Zelda Producer Eiji Aonuma Doesn’t Really Care About the Series’ Chronology
by Turbostrider27
48 Comments
KneeDeepInRagu
I don’t think anyone at Nintendo does, not even Miyamoto.
Zelda is my favorite franchise, but I think most Zelda fans don’t want to accept that the timeline Nintendo put out was mostly just a marketing gimmick. It was an angle to sell Skyward Sword since they were marketing it as the “first Zelda” that started the reincarnation cycle. They haven’t even addressed it since Skyward Sword came out.
This is fine IMO. Zelda has always been done in the style of an ancient legend being retold. Connecting the games doesn’t matter. Before the timeline was revealed people thought it was just the same tale being retold in the way that the oral tradition tends to change details and scenarios while keeping the bones the same.
ghohneke
I’m shocked.
SpeedyPlatypusBoi
I feel like I should be surprised
iWantToLickEly
Implying there even was one in the first place
Ttm-o
Almost a no brainer. If you guys have been listening to Kit & Krystal’podcast, former Nintendo employees, you can tell Eiji Aonuma doesn’t care about that, gameplay first.
skylu1991
Considering they only ever released an “official“ timeline after enough of the fanbase cried out about it and then set the next games either at the very start before anything else or at the very end after everything, implies they simply don’t want to be “shackled“ by continuity.
And they’re not alone, as for example the Dark Souls creator Hidetaka Miyazaki, has gone in record saying he’d rather do new universes, than sequels in the same lore, as those felt to restrictive from a creative freedom point of view!
Shas_Erra
No shit.
In all seriousness though, an overarching chronology is not the appeal of Zelda. The way I see it is that as with other myths and legends, it changes with every retelling
MrDeltt
No shit sherlock
CountBleckwantedlove
I think, after Aonuma retires, and the new guard takes over, the timeline will be firmly established. The old guard doesn’t fixate on that, but new devs know how important story telling continuity is to the Gen Y and Z crowds. We’ve grown up hooked on massively expansive stories that all have to have canonical connections in things like Marvel, Star Wars, Doctor Who, etc. It will lead to a more engaged fanbase, which leads to more sales, if theybjust embrace the timeline rather than being vague about it. Older gamers may not care about that, but their economic value to gaming companies is lessening each year compared to the younger generations.
Griffdude13
There’s always a princess, there’s always a castle, there’s always a boy with a sword. That’s all you really need.
kaminari1
As a Zelda fan for the past 30 years, even I don’t care. Just give me a good story and gameplay.
acemandoom
Neither do I. Sorry, I know this is unpopular opinion on reddit, but the timeline and it’s fandom suck the fun out of the franchise. Every discussion of Zelda and its lore having to be tied to this lazy timeline that Nintendo does NOT care about in terms of quality or consistency. Not to mention I think it and Skyward sword have lead to a lot of questionable/boring lore choices. Like the creation and focus on Hylia over the trio and the Triforce. The last Zelda with lore I really enjoyed was probably Twilight Princess and Minish Cap.
TheHoboRoadshow
He should have cared a bit in regards to BotW and TotK…
Totk had great gameplay, but was ruined by a weak plot that consistently ignored and contradicted the events of BotW
Don’t do direct sequels if you aren’t going to make a direct sequel. That is, imo, one of the biggest justifications for overworld map reuse, and they just ignored any canon they had anyway
ZakTH
Breath of the Wild and by extension Tears of the Kingdom felt like a direct challenge to anyone trying to maintain a series timeline. “This is Hyrule, with Zora. But also Rito somehow. Pre tri-force, but there’s only one goddess not three. Also forget whatever Hyrule creation myth you remember, here’s a completely different one. Fuck you.”
munchyslacks
Might be an unpopular opinion, but I’m okay with this. My impression is that they care about the timeline when they want to (Skyward Sword / Hyrule Historia) and don’t care when it hinders their ability to create the game they want to make.
I kind of prefer that they mostly leave it up to fans to fill in the blanks with their own theories because it keeps the community talking and speculating, while also letting them make the game they want to make without having to comb through the lore to make sure they aren’t creating a plot hole, which arguably has already happened a number of times depending on how you understand the timeline. I just accept each game for what it is and if I’m feeling invested I’ll take a look into what other people are saying about their timeline theories, and that’s enough for me.
One key note about their justification is that each game is intended to be told as a *legend* and not a first hand account of the story, and legends often have details misconstrued as the story is passed along.
StyleVSTAR253
Aonuma and Miyamoto have both said this in various ways without outright saying it for years. They’ve even said in a round about way that the Hyrule Historia was made so fans would stfu about lore.
They don’t care. Never have. 😂
IllustriousAmoeba304
It’s such a nerdy thing to care lol, which is fine. It’s just funny and reminds me of Trekkies arguing over canonical episodes when the people involved with the show could give a shit.
HallowedMiscreant66
A bit late to try and join the dots now
FalafelBall
Neither do I. They are just games that take place in their own timeline as far as I’m concerned.
figureout07
I mean i am not sure if i should be surprised about it or not. I play zelda games since kid and never cared about any chronology so we will how the new game is going to be about
redflowerbluethorns
I know a lot of Zelda fans are fine with it, and I’m fine with not every Zelda game being part of a coherent overarching plot, but I would be lying if I said this didn’t bother me a bit.
It didn’t become an issue for me until ToTK, where now we have a story on the founding of Hyrule that contradicts what we learned from Skyward Sword. Sure, these can be reconciled by stating that the “founding” depicted in ToTK was simply a re-founding, generations after the events of the other games (potentially after the flood that created the Great Sea in WW subsided).
But they retold the story of the imprisoning war, and it just doesn’t fit with the other times we had heard about it. It bothers me. IMO it makes it harder to get into the games
AgentFour
GOOD
DoombotBL
There really shouldn’t be one unless that was the intention from the beginning, but it wasn’t
Maxximillianaire
I care about the timeline and despite what Nintendo says so do they. They wouldn’t put hints and things in the games that help place the games in a certain order if they didn’t.
Moondoggie25
No shit lol. And good, let the timeline die. Reoccurring themes are fine, but a continuous story bogs down the creativity of what can happen and where the games can go.
figureout07
I feel like this is a big hint for an upcoming zelda project because it feels like zelda team runs out of ideas a have to create absolutely something . That is not absolutely realted do zelda timeline
Odd-Pumpkin-2567
Am I the only one that likes the chronology? 😔
Ferricplusthree
Link, he comes to town, he comes to savvvve the princess Zelda.
That’s it. That’s the whole story verbatim.
tlozfox
r/truezelda on suicide watch
Molwar
I like Hyrule Historia, it’s fun book that likes to put in some ifs and buts. However even the book itself literally says that this isn’t a definitive chronology but more a fun connect the dots type thing that is almost fan made.
If anything I would love a prequel to Skyward Sword where you get to play the “original” link of that universe.
Paulsonmn31
We all know the only ones who care are in r/truezelda
TacticalTobi
let’s go. SS first zelda is still canon though, and i’m not accepting anything different.
No timeline (other than SS, OOT and sequels) means we can keep doing zelda forever
ipsen_castle
no shit
TwEE-N-Toast
Good, I think the timeline is very restricting and should be ignored.
Yimmyyyy
and neither should we.
treat each game as an individual story, only count the other games as canon if they mention them
LaMystika
Not surprised; Nintendo largely doesn’t care about stories beyond “this is you. this is bad guy. here are the tools you need to defeat bad guy, but first, navigate a series of obstacle courses.”
Squaretangles
Neither do we, Eiji.
NoNudeNormal
Its supposed to be a legend, so I’m fine with there not being a super strict adherence to any timeline between all the games. But with TOTK, I was disappointed that there were many moments where the established timeline could have been referenced to add depth to the story, and it just wasn’t. I loved the game overall, but certain parts of the story felt unfinished to me.
Joshawott27
I’ve honestly always thought that the timeline is bullshit, and was just cobbled together because people asked.
I’ve always largely viewed the series as the exact same story being retold throughout history, with details changing as it continues to be spread. There are exceptions like Majora’s Mask and Tears of the Kingdom, but yeah.
Green-Bluebird4308
Perhaps not Aonuma, but SS/ BotW/ TotK director Fujibayashi said he doesn’t do anything by accident and that both BotW and TotK fit in the general timeline.
RyanDefog
Multiverse
giraffeman3705
I never got why people care so much LOL. No one cares about mario chronology?????
_bonertime
Great to hear, can we have a Zelda Maker VR please
Snoo-4357
I’m all for it, Hyrule Historia was nice addition,but too many people treat it as more important as games core material. Termina isn’t a dream, cause there’s nothing beside HH that states so, nor is Hero Shade OoT Link for me. AoC is canon. Fight me.
48 Comments
I don’t think anyone at Nintendo does, not even Miyamoto.
Zelda is my favorite franchise, but I think most Zelda fans don’t want to accept that the timeline Nintendo put out was mostly just a marketing gimmick. It was an angle to sell Skyward Sword since they were marketing it as the “first Zelda” that started the reincarnation cycle. They haven’t even addressed it since Skyward Sword came out.
This is fine IMO. Zelda has always been done in the style of an ancient legend being retold. Connecting the games doesn’t matter. Before the timeline was revealed people thought it was just the same tale being retold in the way that the oral tradition tends to change details and scenarios while keeping the bones the same.
I’m shocked.
I feel like I should be surprised
Implying there even was one in the first place
Almost a no brainer. If you guys have been listening to Kit & Krystal’podcast, former Nintendo employees, you can tell Eiji Aonuma doesn’t care about that, gameplay first.
Considering they only ever released an “official“ timeline after enough of the fanbase cried out about it and then set the next games either at the very start before anything else or at the very end after everything, implies they simply don’t want to be “shackled“ by continuity.
And they’re not alone, as for example the Dark Souls creator Hidetaka Miyazaki, has gone in record saying he’d rather do new universes, than sequels in the same lore, as those felt to restrictive from a creative freedom point of view!
No shit.
In all seriousness though, an overarching chronology is not the appeal of Zelda. The way I see it is that as with other myths and legends, it changes with every retelling
No shit sherlock
I think, after Aonuma retires, and the new guard takes over, the timeline will be firmly established. The old guard doesn’t fixate on that, but new devs know how important story telling continuity is to the Gen Y and Z crowds. We’ve grown up hooked on massively expansive stories that all have to have canonical connections in things like Marvel, Star Wars, Doctor Who, etc. It will lead to a more engaged fanbase, which leads to more sales, if theybjust embrace the timeline rather than being vague about it. Older gamers may not care about that, but their economic value to gaming companies is lessening each year compared to the younger generations.
There’s always a princess, there’s always a castle, there’s always a boy with a sword. That’s all you really need.
As a Zelda fan for the past 30 years, even I don’t care. Just give me a good story and gameplay.
Neither do I. Sorry, I know this is unpopular opinion on reddit, but the timeline and it’s fandom suck the fun out of the franchise. Every discussion of Zelda and its lore having to be tied to this lazy timeline that Nintendo does NOT care about in terms of quality or consistency. Not to mention I think it and Skyward sword have lead to a lot of questionable/boring lore choices. Like the creation and focus on Hylia over the trio and the Triforce. The last Zelda with lore I really enjoyed was probably Twilight Princess and Minish Cap.
He should have cared a bit in regards to BotW and TotK…
Totk had great gameplay, but was ruined by a weak plot that consistently ignored and contradicted the events of BotW
Don’t do direct sequels if you aren’t going to make a direct sequel. That is, imo, one of the biggest justifications for overworld map reuse, and they just ignored any canon they had anyway
Breath of the Wild and by extension Tears of the Kingdom felt like a direct challenge to anyone trying to maintain a series timeline. “This is Hyrule, with Zora. But also Rito somehow. Pre tri-force, but there’s only one goddess not three. Also forget whatever Hyrule creation myth you remember, here’s a completely different one. Fuck you.”
Might be an unpopular opinion, but I’m okay with this. My impression is that they care about the timeline when they want to (Skyward Sword / Hyrule Historia) and don’t care when it hinders their ability to create the game they want to make.
I kind of prefer that they mostly leave it up to fans to fill in the blanks with their own theories because it keeps the community talking and speculating, while also letting them make the game they want to make without having to comb through the lore to make sure they aren’t creating a plot hole, which arguably has already happened a number of times depending on how you understand the timeline. I just accept each game for what it is and if I’m feeling invested I’ll take a look into what other people are saying about their timeline theories, and that’s enough for me.
One key note about their justification is that each game is intended to be told as a *legend* and not a first hand account of the story, and legends often have details misconstrued as the story is passed along.
Aonuma and Miyamoto have both said this in various ways without outright saying it for years. They’ve even said in a round about way that the Hyrule Historia was made so fans would stfu about lore.
They don’t care. Never have. 😂
It’s such a nerdy thing to care lol, which is fine. It’s just funny and reminds me of Trekkies arguing over canonical episodes when the people involved with the show could give a shit.
A bit late to try and join the dots now
Neither do I. They are just games that take place in their own timeline as far as I’m concerned.
I mean i am not sure if i should be surprised about it or not. I play zelda games since kid and never cared about any chronology so we will how the new game is going to be about
I know a lot of Zelda fans are fine with it, and I’m fine with not every Zelda game being part of a coherent overarching plot, but I would be lying if I said this didn’t bother me a bit.
It didn’t become an issue for me until ToTK, where now we have a story on the founding of Hyrule that contradicts what we learned from Skyward Sword. Sure, these can be reconciled by stating that the “founding” depicted in ToTK was simply a re-founding, generations after the events of the other games (potentially after the flood that created the Great Sea in WW subsided).
But they retold the story of the imprisoning war, and it just doesn’t fit with the other times we had heard about it. It bothers me. IMO it makes it harder to get into the games
GOOD
There really shouldn’t be one unless that was the intention from the beginning, but it wasn’t
I care about the timeline and despite what Nintendo says so do they. They wouldn’t put hints and things in the games that help place the games in a certain order if they didn’t.
No shit lol. And good, let the timeline die. Reoccurring themes are fine, but a continuous story bogs down the creativity of what can happen and where the games can go.
I feel like this is a big hint for an upcoming zelda project because it feels like zelda team runs out of ideas a have to create absolutely something . That is not absolutely realted do zelda timeline
Am I the only one that likes the chronology? 😔
Link, he comes to town, he comes to savvvve the princess Zelda.
That’s it. That’s the whole story verbatim.
r/truezelda on suicide watch
I like Hyrule Historia, it’s fun book that likes to put in some ifs and buts. However even the book itself literally says that this isn’t a definitive chronology but more a fun connect the dots type thing that is almost fan made.
If anything I would love a prequel to Skyward Sword where you get to play the “original” link of that universe.
We all know the only ones who care are in r/truezelda
let’s go. SS first zelda is still canon though, and i’m not accepting anything different.
No timeline (other than SS, OOT and sequels) means we can keep doing zelda forever
no shit
Good, I think the timeline is very restricting and should be ignored.
and neither should we.
treat each game as an individual story, only count the other games as canon if they mention them
Not surprised; Nintendo largely doesn’t care about stories beyond “this is you. this is bad guy. here are the tools you need to defeat bad guy, but first, navigate a series of obstacle courses.”
Neither do we, Eiji.
Its supposed to be a legend, so I’m fine with there not being a super strict adherence to any timeline between all the games. But with TOTK, I was disappointed that there were many moments where the established timeline could have been referenced to add depth to the story, and it just wasn’t. I loved the game overall, but certain parts of the story felt unfinished to me.
I’ve honestly always thought that the timeline is bullshit, and was just cobbled together because people asked.
I’ve always largely viewed the series as the exact same story being retold throughout history, with details changing as it continues to be spread. There are exceptions like Majora’s Mask and Tears of the Kingdom, but yeah.
Perhaps not Aonuma, but SS/ BotW/ TotK director Fujibayashi said he doesn’t do anything by accident and that both BotW and TotK fit in the general timeline.
Multiverse
I never got why people care so much LOL. No one cares about mario chronology?????
Great to hear, can we have a Zelda Maker VR please
I’m all for it, Hyrule Historia was nice addition,but too many people treat it as more important as games core material. Termina isn’t a dream, cause there’s nothing beside HH that states so, nor is Hero Shade OoT Link for me. AoC is canon. Fight me.
Shocker there. 🤭
I haven’t really looked into the timelines myself yet, but I found this interesting video recently:
https://youtube.com/shorts/GdE2qdj7efo?si=G2IijhIa2QIJf8_7
GOOD
And why should he? It was never supposed to matter.