The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (contains spoilers)

It's a very Nintendo move to re-release something so it's fresh on everyone's mind and then immediately retcon it into oblivion.

It's even funnier when the game itself uses classic terms like Imprisoning War but in an entirely different context than A Link To the Past.

I swear Nintendo is deliberately trolling the audience who try to make sense of Zelda canon.

Huh, from the trailers I expected the New Champions to fight alongside Link during certain sections. But them, or rather spirit versions of them becomming permanent companions for everything after their respective tempels is still quite a surprise, pretty cool.

The gravity in the Water Temple is weeeeird

good for paragliding tho

holy crap riju's ability is insane

urbosa's fury on roids

Riju is best girl.

.....And I mean that platonically.

I'm surprised "Princess" Zelda has any authority at all. I figured the remaining Hylians would be like "That was a century ago, we're an autonomous collective now."

The Continuity Snarl PAGE is bound to be a fun time. You know it's coming.

Because she defeated and sealed Calamity Ganon? There's a whole lotta clout to be had there.

Edited by asterism on May 13th 2023 at 10:29:47 AM

Oh, great, Like Likes are back.

Yup.

Didn't know what they were when I first saw them because they got redesigned. Until I killed the first one and collected their drop then I realize that they're back.

Edited by terumokou on May 13th 2023 at 3:28:33 AM

You'll be pleased to know that if one noms you, it will indeed eat your (currently equipped) shield

Seriously, they've just moved BotW and friends to a new continuity. They're contradicting Ocarina of Time, the single most lionized game in the franchise, and it wouldn't have been that hard not to. This is a deliberate choice to start over

Oh I'm familiar with the shield nom alright. Although I rarely actually use them on account of how ooga booga I am at attacking.

This isn't even the first time there's been a new incarnation of Ganondorf (Four Swords Adventures for one) running around, this guy would be #3, so I think that until we get a Word of God statement or something comes out I think it's a bit premature to be stating that BOTW onwards is a whole new continuity.

Like, if it is, no skin off my back, but ATM it seems like people are jumping the gun a bit and proclaiming things as ironclad fact when it isn't.

Because how else can you reconcile the events of TOTK with the rest of the Zelda Timeline?

Skyward Sword at least was conscious enough to not call the Big Bad of that game Ganon or Ganondorf because that would contradict Ganon's origin story in Ocarina of Time. But they just had a remastered version of Skyward Sword so therefore, they didn't forget about the lore brought by Skyward Sword. And thus, they knew TOTK's backstory was going to be contradictory to the Zelda timeline.

Edited by Shadao on May 13th 2023 at 5:28:37 AM

Definitely feels like they stepped up the puzzles here... Or my brain just has trouble wrapping around all the possibilities with Ultrahand.

At this point, until there's concrete info from the devs, I'm chalking this to "Zelda thought of time traveling while (accidentally) time traveling and completely screwed up the timeline."

Edited by terumokou on May 13th 2023 at 6:23:05 AM

TBH I respect them for that. It's a worthy cause.

Yeah I think I'll be potholing back to this particular post for many years to come.

"We actually don't give a shit." Has been Nintendo's official stance on continuity for like a decade.

Edited by ShirowShirow on May 13th 2023 at 1:37:41 PM

Oh I'm definitely borrowing that.

Oh, I'm sure the people who want to will find some way to finagle a timeline together, no matter how impossible it should be.

Honestly I've never understood the disdain for people who like continuity stuff, except for the odd cases where they're like hostily insistent about it, but whatever...

Edited by diddyknux on May 13th 2023 at 8:48:48 AM

Its that the Zelda games aren't exactly known for their deep lore to begin with which makes the prospect of obsessing over continuity for it like seem akin to trying to build a submarine out of screen doors and getting mad one's careful creation sprang a leak. Like sure weave a continuity chart but we all know Nintendo did not give it a fraction of the thought that fans did.

Like it's always been apparent Nintendo holds continuity in all their games at a level just short of non-existence. Their franchise with the strongest continuity is the one they ignored for 2 decades and pawn off to third parties all the time coz they arent sure what to do with it.

Oh I love continuity. Obviously some people take it too far (Everyone had that kid on the playground who tried to fit every Final Fantasy game on the same planet) but you can say that about anything.

There's an argument to be made for ignoring it in favor of the freedom that provides, and heavily continuity-laden works can feel cumbersome (Marvel), but personally I think having a few limits on your setting actually enhances creativity. People that are given a blank canvas usually just go over the same tropes we've always seen honestly.

One thing continuity nerds do say that irks me is anything that can be boiled down to "X can't happen because of Y" and I think that's what scares some people into going continuity-free like Zelda seems to be heading towards. And it's stupid. You can still do X, you just gotta take Y into account and get clever about it. Every time.

My issue is when people talk about Zelda spin-offs (namely Hyrule Warriors), there's a lot of zealous fans who just harp upon them, stating that it's non-canon because something-something "It's not part of the Zelda Timeline."

The worst are Age of Calamity debates. It was quite obvious that the BOTW team intended Age of Calamity to be canon or at least important enough to recommend fans of BOTW world to play it and know the characters better. But then you have people who were so bitter about Age of Calamity being an Alternate Timeline where the good guys prevail that they seek any possible contradiction between it and the original Breath of the Wild to declare it's non-canon. They even go as far using Creating a Champion art book to find errors in Age of Calamity or again, use the Zelda Timeline to declare it's not canon.

And I'm like... contradictions? In Zelda? That's your reason to declare Age of Calamity non-canon? Do you even know what kind of franchise this is?

Apparently, there's a lot of Zelda fans who treat the Zelda timeline like gospel and assume that TOTK would answer all their questions in regards to the Zelda timeline, bringing up Skyward Sword lore numerous of times in theory videos.

And I feel old because I came into the Zelda fandom during a time where there was no official timeline and every theorists had to pick and choose their games in what I consider to be the dark ages of Zelda theories.

And now, I'm a Zelda Multiverse proponent and will now insist that every single Zelda media made by Nintendo is also canon. That includes the Philip CD-I games.

Edited by Shadao on May 13th 2023 at 7:18:31 AM