The Death of Link
The Legend of Zelda timeline is a very confusing topic of discussion, and recently at the time of this writing has finally been officially released. It introduced the most shocking and unpredictable event of all. Link’s death. I have a few words on why this is both amazing, but also wrong for Nintendo do to, but not for the reasons you might be thinking.
The death of Link is an incredible and extremely dark event to hear about. Dying in Ocarina of Time and failing to save the world which creates a third timeline split. I am impressed with Nintendo for allowing such a staple in video game history to actually be killed off, and it truly shows a great stride that I believe really allows anything to happen in any future game. Knowing this, we now might see more tragic events in the future such as maybe a species being killed off in one timeline, or a great friend dying before our eyes. I always figured that something bad could happen anyways after Twilight Princess killed off a Sage, but killing Link off truly means anything can happen now. To me this means new and interesting story elements can be explored and allow Nintendo to take deeper darker waters if desired as the gate is now fully open.
The main reason I said before that this is a terribly wrong thing to do, (while at the same time being a great thing that outweighs the wrong) is that it completes defeats the purpose of the timeline. The mysterious timeline has been a puzzle to many over the years and we desired to see what it looked like. I am glad to see if finally revealed, but that problem with the death of Link is that it really does destroy a real timeline. Before the timeline and time traveling etc was all explained in classic theories of how this all can work and was generally established and accepted. By adding his death, this opens the door to every Link that is born and that we can explore both the life and death of one Link, then theoretically this applies to all Links. Because of this, the timeline can go off into several new directions for each Link and what happens in both scenarios of life and death. Now Nintendo can create the largest web of timelines ever because of this, and we could easily have over 10 different timelines with this new door open. Personally I felt more connected when I felt it was only two timelines.
As you can see, learning the history and events of Hyrule has now gone from slightly confusing to the possibility of mega confusing. If Nintendo does explore these new opportunities of the multiple deaths of Link then when talking about Zelda history, you will always have to explain which timeline you are referring to. If Nintendo doesn’t explore the multiple deaths, then this is probably for the better so it’s not as large scale and confusing, and we will only be left to image the “what if” scenarios through the form of fan fiction. When all is said and done though, the games are what matter the most and not necessarily the order of events as they only make up a small portion of what matters the most which is having fun and exploring new dungeons and landscapes with green tunic, and Master Sword in hand.