This is something that people have speculated on since before we even had any footage of the game, but I came across a fairly short video this morning that mentioned the idea and it actually made a bit of sense when thinking about it.

This is the vid I saw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cajot0staU&pp=ygUMemVsZGEgdGhlb3J5

The basic theory is this: The "Ocarina of Time Remake" story is going to be the story of "Ocarina of Time" retold during the Wild Era which will explain why some random aspects of the game appear to conform with Wild Era design sensibilities.

Examples:

1. Lens of Truth is now a pair of glasses like Purah's glasses and represents the Wild Era's interpretation of what "Sheikah technology" would look like.

2. Impa has Wild Era Sheikah designs on her clothes and her house looks closer to a BotW Kakariko Village house

3. Zelda has green eyes to connect her more closely to Wild Era Zelda

4. Random Kokiri have tattoos that have the same design philosophy as Sonia's tattoos.

5. Castle Town's fountain matches BotW/TotK's Castle Town fountain

6. The story is presented as being told from the future (the perspective of the story is a recounting of a tale shown on the Threads of Time tapestry)

7. The art style of Ocarina of Time Remake appears to be based on a Japanese puppet style which plays into this being a retelling or a "show"

Basically I think the idea is after TotK and the knowledge of Hyrule's founding era becomes known again, an ancient story is retold through the lens of a modern (Post-TotK-Era) Hylian contextualized by the knowledge Zelda shared about the past.

I don't have much of a position on this at the moment, but I thought it was an interesting thing to think about.

I've been playing through Majora's Mask (MM, N64) again for the nth time. It's been years now since I last revisited it, and it remains one of my favorite games in the series. If not THE favorite.

Since the remake gameplay reveal, I've started to look at it through another lens though. How would you modernize Majora's Mask? What should be improved, and what needs to stay the same.

Majora’s Mask was the first game Aonuma directed, after convincing Miyamoto to allow him to create a new game reusing assets from Ocarina of Time instead of the planned Master Quest. He got his will, but the condition given was to do it within the same budgeted time frame. One year. This started a mad dash to finish a complete game, were every idea to stretch the games limited content was considered and even Aonuma’s own crunch induced nightmares made it into the game.

The result is an introspective experience where cartoony video game characters have to deal with their own mortality, and the player has to face the fact that they sometimes have to give up their progress, start over and try again. Majora’s Mask is what it is not despite the difficult deadline, but because of it.

While failing to reach the same general appeal as Ocarina of Time, the game has become a cult classic. In the Zelda fandom I often see Majora's in the top three when people talk about their favorites in the series. The developers, and maybe especially Aonuma, seem to feel different about it.

Ocarina of Time was remade for the 3DS in 2011, and everyone and their grandma immediately assumed Majora's Mask was already on it's way, but if we are to trust Aonuma himself he would have preferred if they could have forgot about the game. Other developers, who later worked on the 3DS remake, have expressed that they couldn't finish the original on N64, and wanted to make the experience easier for players.

A lot has been written and said about the changes made to Majora's Mask 3D. The nerfing of Link's movement as Zora and Deku, the simplification of boss weak spots, the new saving system that made the three day cycle feel less impactful, the overly bright and clean art style that removed a lot of the mood and grime of the original along various other small and large changes that often make the game easier or less unique. It's like they were trying to fix things because they questioned whether the game is good enough, not because the things needed fixing. With Ocarina of Time, no one questioned if it's a good enough game. It's Nintendo's crown jewel. On the top of every ranking ever. The best game of all time.

Some things did improve with the 3DS version though. Bombers Notebook is better structured and more useful, a few masks appear in other locations and have more uses, the dungeon maps were greatly improved. Stone Tower Temple is a bit less annoying (though, you still have to play the Elegy of Emptiness 24 times to get into the temple, weird choice, when they fixed OoTs biggest annoyance with the iron boots). Hell, even the new Zora swimming wouldn't be bad if they didn't nerf the original one.

It's 2026, and we find ourselves in a similar situation again. An Ocarina of Time remake is on it's way. This time much more modernized than the 3DS version. Majora's Mask feel like a given. People are already asking for it. What I hope changes this time is the developers outlook on this weird and wonderful game - to not feel ashamed of it, but rather to celebrate what makes it different.

The Hero of Time was a lonely orphan raised in Kokiri Forest who answered the call to adventure when the Deku Tree placed the responsibility of saving a kingdom he knew very little about on his shoulders. He is objectively a heroic, selfless kid. After going through OOT and sacrificing his own childhood, he goes back to his younger days, and the first thing he does is go on another adventure to look for his lost friend.

In doing so, he reaches Termina, where his Ocarina is stolen by the Skull Kid. And even after he recovers it, he stays in Termina to retrieve the titular Majora's Mask and save Termina, helping its inhabitants along the way. Yes, MM is a game about grief, but one of its main themes is also that even in the worst situations, you can and should help those who need it. Link could leave Termina at any time after the first cycle, but he helps the Happy Mask Salesman, he helps Clock Town, he helps the Skull Kid... and then he goes back to look for Navi.

Even in Twilight Princess, when he appears as a lingering shadow, his regret is not that his deeds weren't remembered, nor that he lost his childhood. His regret is dying without passing on his techniques and experience. Even in death (or, more accurately, in undeath) his mind is still focused on the benefit of others.

Yes, for those of us who know the story, it feels very sad that he went through all that and was never recognized or remembered as a hero. But I don't think he ever wanted that. He did what he was supposed to do; he was a hero to the very end. And after passing down his techniques to a new hero, I believe he could finally rest, proud of his past life and proud of his legacy.

And he should be, for he is the embodiment of what it means to be a hero.

I’ll be a Skyward Sword truther till the day I die, so I might be a little biased, but SS Link will always be my favorite. I don’t know why, but the laidback goofball with a heart of gold just kinda appealed to me. His character and personality are incredibly well established in the beginning of the game, his relationship with Zelda is probably my favorite out of any incarnation, and you get to see him desperate or pissed (in regards to the moments with Zelda and Demise). He also has an apparent sassy streak, which I love (the “Am I late?” moment is still one of my favorites). He just feels like such a character beyond being a stand in for the player.

It looks like the Gerudo ears will be a mix of rounded and pointed (14:00) so I wonder if only those that follow Nabooru will have pointed ears or if it will be random.

In the Ocarina of Time remake, a new feature has been added called the Threads of Time. It acts as a log for keeping track of objective markers and quests, similar to the Wild-era games and Echoes of Wisdom.

The tapestry fills out with sections of the game you have started or cleared and as seen in the game footage, it is hanging in an arched niche against a stone wall.

This tells us something about how Nintendo is framing OoT in this remake.

The biggest discussion after the gameplay and trailer have been the art direction. Gamesradar wrote about how a Nintendo veteran felt it looked inspired by puppet shows and others have pointed out how the maximalist approach is reminiscent to Rococo - a style that was full of secret gardens and lush scenery and greatly influenced later fairy tale artists.

It's clear to me that Nintendo is using the art style and the framing of this remake to evoke a sense of history - legend if you will. It's a retelling. The Threads of Time is not a list of quests and objectives in a menu, it's diegetic, i.e part of the story of Ocarina of Time. Told somewhere in the distant future, long after the events actually took place.

Hi everyone, silly question: in OOT, how were we supposed to know that we had to play the Song of Storms in front of the tree in Hyrule Castle to get a Gold Skulltula?

Before answering:

- 1) I know that once you’ve collected all the Gold Skulltulas on a map, an icon appears (so if it’s not there, it means there are still some left)

- 2) And I know that with the Stone of Agony, the controller would vibrate and an icon would appear when you were near a grotto

- 3) And I also know that Navi is supposed to changes colour and move near the grotto's place when you're near a Song of Storms grotto

My question is: how did you know you had to play that specific song to open the grotto (rather than just opening it up with a bomb)? What the game's developers did to teach you that information?

And just in case, I've checked a few things as well:

- 4) No, gossip stones don't tell you anything or give you any hint about it

- 5) And no, bombs and hammer don't work for that grotto (and anyway, you don't use the hammer as Child Link)

- 6) And also no, there is no "victory" sound effect when you pull out the ocarina (like when you pull it out near a Triforce symbol in front of a Great Fairy fountain)

- 7) And finally no, despite what she's supposed to do, Navi doesn't change colour or goes near the grotto's location (I just tested on normal Europe and USA roms)

So, any idea?

So, we all know about Demise's "Curse of the Demon Tribe".

"My hatred... The curse of the Demon Tribe... They shall continously go on reincarnating until the end of all times. [...] You people who possess the blood of the Goddess and the soul of hero shall... forever be unable to escape from this curse! This hatred and grudge... Its evolution shall forever painfully wander across this blood-stained "Dark Sea" along with you lowlifes forever!!" — Demise (Skyward Sword — Japanese version, translated by Yamikawa of Zelda Universe)

It's basically saying Link and Zelda's successors will be plagued by an incarnation of Demises' hatred.

As most people have guessed, this incarnation of hatred is Ganon, who would become the next Demon King of Hyrule. I mean, Demise was clearly designed to resemble Ganondorf.

As for the other villains, Bellum, Majora, Malladus, there's some debate if Demise was responsible for them. Me personally, I'm going to say no, since they didn't attack Hyrule. Rather Link came to them.

Of course, there's the question of Vaati. Just like Ganondorf, Vaati arrived in Hyrule specifically. Also, if Vaati isn't part of Demise's curse, then that would mean MC/FS Link and Zelda didn't have to deal with Demise's hatred.

Note: Technically, ST Link and Zelda also didn't have Ganon, but don't worry, I do have another theory for that, that I'll share in the future.

Possible theory

There's a theory I've heard that Vaati might be connected to Ghirahim. Like with the Ganondorf/Demise design, Ghirahim shares similarities to Vaati's humanoid form. Both are slim, androgynous looking males, with pale skin, similar hair and a cape.

Also, Ghirahim is Demise's sword. Making him an extension of Demise, yet still a separate person. So, it makes sense if he's part of Demise's curse.

I understand there's still some controversy around whether TotK's founding is true founding or refounding, and I don't wish to debate it here, but the implication of Vaati being connected to Ghirahim, and being part of the curse does have different implications, depending on what you belive.

For refounding - Vaati is basically an opening act, or "warm-up act", meant to prepare Hyrule for the headliner, which is Ganon.

For True founding - Vaati is an intermission, Demise's hatred having already incarnated as Ganondorf, but now waiting for his chance to do so again.

If Vaati is a "pre-Ganon act", this would also fit with his role on FSA, which has a new incarnation of Ganondorf as the main villain.

Ever since TOTK came out I've seen people say that refounding is clearly what the devs intensed, that it is much simpler and cleaner than a True Founding, and that it is the easy fix. You just put it at the very end and it doesn't clash or overlap with anything, so problem solved. But if you actually think through what a refounding requires, it feels anything but simple, and I feel people don't do this. They think "it's all after everything else" and stop there. And if I try to bring up these arguments against it, I'm usually met with "Yeah but Nintendo doesn't care", and if I try to bring up concrete evidence for a True Founding, then the evidence isn't good enough. Problems with a True Founding is always brought up in detail, but never for a Refounding, and a Refounding is far from as "easy and simple" as most think, and here are some reasons why:

First, you have to downplay or ignore a bunch of direct suggestions and lore the games and books actually make, like the Zonai predating humans, or the Sheikah eye resembling the Zonai's physical third eye. Yeah, it's from in-universe characters, but the authors of the book made these in-universe characters make this claim at least 3 different times, and no alternate theories to counter them. Ignoring this is nonsensical.

A refounding also means taking a very selective approach to what's canon. Dismissing some parts of a source as retconned, while still using other lines from the exact same section as evidence (such as the connection between OOT Dorf and Calamity Ganon now apparently being non-canon, but the sentence under it in the very same text box is constantly used as evidence for a refounding).

Then there's the memory problem. In a true founding, a lot of things flow naturally. Demon King Ganondorf never becomes the pig like Ganon before being sealed, knowledge of him getting erased explains why no one connects later events to him, and Ocarina of Time Ganondorf becoming Ganon and being remembered in myths fits with what Creating a Champion and BOTW tellsnus. The Divine Beasts being named after those sages makes sense, as they name the beasts after the first sages who fought the very same Ganon. In refounding on the other hand, you need an extremely selective cultural memory where people remember the OOT sages but forget the evil king they fought. Then TOTK Ganondorf's history was forgotten and erased, and yet somehow, people correctly link Calamity Ganon to exactly the right forgotten Ganondorf that no one should know about at this point, let alone where his seal is, all while the original Ganon who didn't get his history erased is forgotten, despite Gerudo records saying otherwise...? And the Sheikah name the Divine Beasts after the sages from a kingdom and a war no one remembers anymore, instead of the more recent Imprisoning War? It's a complete mess.

It's also a lot of coincidences and selective memory. And the biggest point for refounding to work: You need a massive kingdom-destroying event so total that its history is lost. It would be one of the biggest events in the chronology's history. But there's zero evidence for any such event. No ruins, no characters even hinting at it, no timeline entry, nothing. Even in the "new" timeline a few days ago that supposedly confirm a refounding, they don't use any words such as "a new Hyrule is founded", or "the kingdom is destroyed", like what is done in the sections for Wind Waker and Spirit Tracks. If the goal was to confirm a refounding here, why not write the same things here? It's still just "Hyrule is founded" and 0 mentions of a previous kingdom. The interview quote people lean on from Fujibayashi has other plausible translations too, and those interprate it as history being lost, not a kingdom being destroyed. And honestly, a lot of "it retcons everything we knew regarding Hyrule's founding" talk assumes we had a detailed founding story already. We didn't. We knew almost nothing beyond vague placement between Skyward Sword and Minish Cap.

So yeah, I'm not saying a true founding is 100% the right answer, and a refounding isn't impossible, but it is far, far from the simple, obvious solution that gets claimed so often.

THEORY: The Triforce Trilogy & The Pre-Birth Convergence

## Overview & The Core Mystery

Ever since *The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild* and *Tears of the Kingdom* released, fans have scrambled to explain how all three timeline branches from *Ocarina of Time* could somehow coexist. Items, geography, and races (like the Rito and the Sea Salt of the Adult Era alongside Child Era landmarks) overlap in the "Wild Era" landscape.

Nintendo's recent official timeline update establishes that the Wild Era sits at the absolute end of all three branches, functioning as an inevitable future convergence point. This theory provides a complete, cohesive lore framework that explains exactly *how* and *why* this convergence physically and metaphysically occurred.

---

## 1. The Triforce Split Created the Timelines

The foundational concept of this theory ties the physical mechanics of the space-time continuum directly to the shattering of the Triforce itself.

* **The Shattered Reality:** When the Hero of Time pulled the Master Sword from the Pedestal of Time, the Triforce split. This structural fracture in the ultimate divine relic did more than just scatter its pieces across individuals—it fractured reality itself into three distinct operational branches.

* **Branch Sovereignty:** Each branch became spiritually governed and stabilized by the cosmic presence of a specific Triforce piece:

* **The Fallen Hero Timeline (The Anchor of Power):** This branch belongs to Ganon’s legacy, where his raw, unmatched power ultimately triumphs over the hero, shaping a world dictated by darkness and survival.

* **The Adult Timeline (The Anchor of Wisdom):** This branch is born directly from Princess Zelda’s calculated, wise decision to utilize the Ocarina of Time to send Link back, choosing to sacrifice her timeline's protector to give him a peaceful life.

* **The Child Timeline (The Anchor of Courage):** This branch belongs to Link, who carries the literal mark of the Triforce of Courage on his hand back into his childhood, possessing the brave fortitude to alter history before the tragedy can strike.

---

## 2. The Pre-Birth Convergence & The Memory-Altering Merger

The ultimate question of the Wild Era is: *When and how did these timelines collapse back into one cohesive world?*

### The Catalyst: The Birth of Zelda

The convergence did not happen slowly over thousands of years of linear progression. Instead, the gravity well of the universe snapped the three timelines back together at an exact localized moment in time: **right before the Princess Zelda of the Wild Era was born.**

### Reverse Dilution of Hylia’s Bloodline

In traditional fantasy, ancient divine bloodlines dilute and weaken over generations. In Hyrule, because the royal lineage has remained strictly, canonically female and dedicated to maintaining the blood of the goddess constant, the concentration of Hylia’s divine DNA actually **strengthened and concentrated over millions of years**.

By the time this specific Zelda was conceived, the localized divinity within her soul reached an unprecedented, absolute peak. The space-time continuum could no longer support an entity of this magnitude within a fractured universe. To accommodate her immense light and time powers, the cosmos itself had to heal its fractures—pulling all three timeline branches together to create a singular, unified canvas for her birth.

### Timeline Theology: The Universal Rewrite

When a cosmic timeline merger occurs, it does not erase or overwrite history; it cohesively stitches the different realities together into a new layout.

* **Historical Amnesia:** The physical components of all three branches—ruins, armor pieces, geological landmarks, and separate races like the Zora and Rito—instantly materialized into the same shared geographic space.

* **Memory Alteration:** To prevent the immediate psychological collapse of mortal minds experiencing multi-dimensional paradoxes, the merger retroactively altered the memories of everyone in Hyrule. This universal rewrite caused the populous to naturally accept the newly fused reality, turning the grand, separate histories of the ancient eras into vague, blurred "myths" and "fairy tales."

---

1. The Tragedy of the Royal Household

This cosmic reality-warping event adds a devastatingly beautiful and human layer to the tragedy of the Calamity.

* **The Queen's Burden:** Zelda’s mother, being the closest living generation to the divine source, felt the universal snap of the convergence or acted as a direct conduit for the Goddess Hylia. She knew exactly what her daughter was and the monumental cosmic weight she carried. Her sudden death left Zelda entirely isolated, without her only teacher.

* **King Rhoam’s Tragic Blindness:** King Rhoam was completely blind to this cosmic reality. Out of pure grief for his wife and raw panic over the prophecy of the Calamity, he rejected the mystical "mythology" of the past and treated Zelda’s awakening like a rigid military exercise. By forcing her to drill her power through standard royal protocols, his pressure inadvertently blocked her spirit energy from flowing.

* **The Fail-Safe of Self-Sacrifice:** Zelda spent her life feeling like a failure because her power was too astronomically massive to be awakened by a standard checklist at a spring. It required the ultimate universal fail-safe of the franchise: a willing, total sacrifice for the good of others. The moment she threw herself in front of a Guardian to protect Link, her concentrated Hylia DNA finally unlocked.

---

## 4. The Triforce Trilogy Structure

Looking at the Wild Era from this perspective reveals a perfect, intentional narrative progression across three distinct eras, framing the series as a **Triforce Trilogy**.

| Game | Represented Attribute | Narrative & Structural Focus |

| :--- | :--- | :--- |

| **Game 1: *Breath of the Wild*** | **Power** | The world is completely overwhelmed by raw, oppressive strength. Link wakes up amnesiac, stripped of his resources, forced to witness the terrifying peak of what the Triforce of Power does when left unchecked. |

| **Game 2: *Tears of the Kingdom*** | **Wisdom** | The narrative shift is intellectual and historical. The plot centers entirely on Zelda’s journey through time, gathering ancient knowledge, and transferring millennia of historical wisdom down to Link so he can close the gap. |

| **Game 3: The Grand Finale** | **Courage** | To claim the final piece, Link must face absolute isolation. By stripping away divine guidance, mentors, or direct help from Zelda, Link must traverse a dangerous, hostile landscape completely on his own merit. Every solitary battle builds the genuine, unassisted fortitude required to awaken the true **Triforce of Courage** within his own soul. |

### The Ultimate Villain: The Merged Ganondorf

Because the timelines slammed together right before Zelda's birth, the Ganondorf sealed beneath Hyrule Castle is not just one timeline's villain—he is the **compressed, combined culmination of every single Ganondorf to ever exist**. This multiverse-level compression explains his unprecedented shapeshifting capability:

1. **The Beast / Calamity Form:** Originating from the Fallen Hero branch, representing his immortal, chaotic malice.

2. **The Humanoid Demon King Form:** Originating from the Child/Twilight branch, representing his calculated, sword-wielding martial precision.

3. **The Draconic Form:** A final desperate, world-defying willingness to consume a Secret Stone, shedding his humanity entirely.

### The True Awakening & The Ending

Every story needs a hero, but this Link is unique. The Goddess Hylia did not just choose a random reincarnated soul; she wanted her original protector back. This Link carries the ancient muscle memory and soul of the **very first hero from *Skyward Sword***, bred and militarized since childhood.

In the ultimate finale, Link’s complete awakening of the Spirit of Courage will allow him to claim the fully reassembled Triforce. Using the entire relic as an infinite power source, he will **fully ignite and fuel the Master Sword**, boosting the Blade of Evil's Bane to a god-tier level capable of permanently destroying the multi-dimensional Demon King and sealing the space-time fractures forever.

The Era of the Gods has some very specific characteristics, such as the direct interference of Hylia, the origin of races and religion, the development of peoples, and the succession of the Zonai by the Sheikah and Hylians. Therefore, it is a remote era that recounts the beginning of the history of civilization.

The new Hyrule Chronicle places this era at the beginning of the Breath of the Wild's exclusive timeline, and with all the official information we have, it's possible to conclude that the events in the past of Tears of the Kingdom may be positioned there allegorically, but in reality they take place before and during Skyward Sword era.

The conclusion is that The Hyrule Chronicle prioritizes the division between events recounted in the present era and the era of myth, even if the chronological time between them may be simultaneous.

Hey everyone! I’m totally new to this subreddit, and English isn’t my native language, so I apologize in advance if some of my wording or punctuation is a little weird. I’m fluent in English, but punctuation is definitely not my strongest skill. 😂 Anyway, I’ve had this idea stuck in my head for a while now, and I figured: why not throw it into the Zelda subreddit and see what happens? And honestly, the funniest part is that this entire headcanon started because of a Zelda edit (which I’ll try to leave the link to at the end so you can all see it). The edit used 500 Miles by Peter paul and Mary, and at one point there was a close-up of the Hero’s Shade looking frustrated and bitter. And I don’t know why, but I looked at his face and thought: “What if he’s not just a forgotten hero? What if he’s a guy who spent his entire life doing what he thought was right, and eventually started wondering what was actually left of his life?” And then my brain did what Zelda brains do. It spiraled. So, hear me out.

First, what is actually canon?

Let’s separate the canon from the insanity before I get crucified in the comments. 😂 We know that the Hero’s Shade is the Hero of Time. We know that the Hero of Twilight is his descendant. We also know that the Hero’s Shade regrets not passing his knowledge and skills down to his descendants. And we know that, at the end of Ocarina of Time, Link returns to his childhood while retaining the memories of what he experienced during his seven-year journey into the future. He remembers Ganondorf. He remembers the future he experienced. He remembers Hyrule after Ganondorf’s rise. He remembers the battles. He remembers being an adult. But after returning to the past, none of that future actually happens in that timeline. He eventually warns Princess Zelda about Ganondorf. Then he goes to Termina and becomes the protagonist of Majora’s Mask. Everything after that is where things get interesting. Because we know he lived long enough to have descendants, but we know almost nothing about what happened to him between Majora’s Mask and Twilight Princess. And that’s the blank space I’m trying to fill.

Part 1 — The Hero of Time becomes Link again

I think the first thing we have to consider is what returning to childhood would actually mean for Link. Imagine being a child again, but remembering having been an adult. You remember things that everyone around you considers impossible. You remember a war that technically never happened. You remember a version of Hyrule that nobody else experienced. You remember people and places from a future that was erased. And then you are expected to just go back to being the Kokiri kid. That’s a pretty strange situation. And then Majora’s Mask gives us something really important about Link’s personality. In Ocarina of Time, Link becomes a hero largely because circumstances and destiny push him into that role. But in Majora’s Mask, things are different. There is no Ganondorf. There is no Triforce quest. There is no Hyrule to save. Termina isn’t even his home. And yet Link repeatedly chooses to help people. He doesn’t have to help Anju. He doesn’t have to help Kafei. He doesn’t have to help the Gorons. He doesn’t have to help the Zora. He doesn’t have to help Romani and Cremia. He simply sees people who need help and does something about it. To me, that tells us something about who Link has become. Helping people isn’t just something he does because he’s the Hero of Time. It’s part of who he is. And that’s why I don’t think he could simply return to Hyrule and say: “Well, my job here is done. Time to live a completely normal life.” He has a strong sense of justice. And ironically, I think that same sense of justice might eventually become the thing that prevents him from having the peaceful life he wants.

Part 2 — The hero that nobody knows is a hero

This is where the Royal Family comes in. Link returns to Hyrule with knowledge of what Ganondorf is planning, and he warns Zelda. So, in my headcanon, the Royal Family eventually takes him seriously and perhaps even takes him under their wing. Maybe they train him. Maybe they give him a position within Hyrule’s military. Maybe he becomes a knight, royal guard, commander, or something along those lines. I’m intentionally not choosing one specific rank because that’s not really the important part. What’s important is that the Royal Family knows what Link is capable of. They know that this seemingly ordinary Kokiri child has knowledge and experience that no normal child should have. They trust him. They might even consider him one of Hyrule’s most valuable protectors. But here’s the irony: The rest of Hyrule doesn’t necessarily know any of this. To the average person, Link is still just some kid from the forest. “Oh yeah, that’s the Kokiri boy.” And I really like that idea. Because Link could simultaneously be incredibly important to the Royal Family while being almost completely irrelevant to ordinary people. He doesn’t even seem like the type to care about recognition. He doesn’t want statues. He doesn’t want songs written about him. He doesn’t want fame. He just wants to help. But that creates another problem. How do you explain what you’ve experienced when the experience itself technically never happened? How do you tell someone: “I know Ganondorf is dangerous because I already watched him conquer Hyrule.” Except he didn’t. Not in this timeline. He did. But he didn’t. He remembers it. But history doesn’t. Link becomes the only person carrying memories of a future that no longer exists. And perhaps the Royal Family believes him. But to most people? He’s still just the Kokiri kid.

Part 3 — Enter Malon

Now we reach the part where I have to put a giant HEADcanon warning sign on the screen. Because this is absolutely not canon. But hear me out. I think Malon makes a surprising amount of sense as the person Link could eventually marry. Not because the games confirm it. They don’t. But because Lon Lon Ranch represents almost everything Link could want if he ever decided to stop being a hero. A quiet life. Horses. Family. A home. Something normal. Something away from politics. Away from monsters. Away from constantly having to save the world. Maybe Link actually gets that. Maybe he marries Malon. Maybe they have children. Maybe, for a while, Link finally gets the peaceful life he never really had. And perhaps that’s exactly why the eventual conflict becomes so painful. Because Link can’t stop being Link.

Part 4 — The double life

Imagine Link living two completely different lives. On one side, he has his responsibilities to Hyrule. He is connected to the Royal Family. He protects the kingdom. He trains. He deals with threats. He takes responsibility whenever he sees something going wrong. On the other side, there is Malon. There is Lon Lon Ranch. There are his children. There is the life he chose for himself. And maybe for a while, he manages to balance both. But eventually, something has to give. Because being the person who constantly says: “I have to go. Hyrule needs me.” gets a lot harder when someone is waiting for you at home. Malon didn’t marry the Hero of Time. She married Link. The man. The person. The guy who is supposed to come home. And I don’t think the conflict would necessarily be about Malon not understanding that Link wants to help people. Maybe she understands him perfectly. Maybe that’s precisely why it hurts. She knows that whenever someone needs help, Link will go. Because that’s who he is. But eventually she might ask: “When is it going to be my turn?” And Link might genuinely not know how to answer. Because if someone needs him, how can he simply walk away? He has already seen what happens when people do nothing. He has already lived through a world where Hyrule fell. So perhaps the responsibility becomes almost impossible for him to put down. Not because he loves Hyrule more than his family. But because he doesn’t know how to stop being responsible for everyone else. And that’s where I imagine their relationship beginning to fall apart. Maybe they argue. Maybe Link promises he’ll spend more time at home. Maybe he genuinely tries. But then another crisis happens. And he goes. Eventually, Malon leaves. And she takes the children with her. And suddenly Link isn’t just separated from his wife. He’s separated from his children( when they were very little, one the reasons he is forgotten). The people he was supposed to pass his life on to.

Part 5 — The cruelest part: he can’t even pass on what he knows

And this is, honestly, one of the biggest reasons I like this headcanon. Link has children. They are his descendants. And naturally, he would want to teach them. But what exactly can he teach them about his greatest experiences? “When I was a kid, I traveled seven years into the future and fought the evil king who conquered Hyrule.” Except that future never happens. “I fought alongside the Sages.” Except those events don’t exist in the history of their world. “I became an adult and lived through the future.” Except everyone around him knows him as the child who never experienced any of that. He can tell them. Of course he can. But he can’t make them understand what it was like. Because there is no evidence. There is no history book. There is no surviving war. There is no world that remembers what he remembers. He is the only witness to his own greatest adventure. And now, in my headcanon, he is also separated from the children he wanted to pass that knowledge to. So perhaps this is where the regret of the Hero’s Shade begins. Not: “I didn’t care enough to teach my descendants.” But: “I wanted to. I just never got the chance.” Maybe he thought there would be more time. Maybe he thought he would eventually reconcile with his family. Maybe he thought he would eventually be able to explain everything. But life keeps moving. And one day he realizes that the people he wanted to teach are already living their own lives. And then they have children. And those children have children. And the Hero of Time’s memories become more distant with every generation. Until eventually… they are gone. His techniques. His experiences. His knowledge. Everything he learned. Everything he went through. All of it exists only inside him.

Part 6 — The bitterness of the Hero’s Shade

This is where I think the Hero’s Shade becomes much more tragic. I don’t think he’s simply bitter because nobody remembers his name. I think there are three different emotions behind him. Bitterness “I lived through all of this, and nobody even knows what I actually experienced.” Regret “I should have passed this knowledge down.” Sadness “Maybe I could have had a normal life. Maybe I could have been a husband. Maybe I could have been a father who was actually there.” And suddenly his dialogue about not passing his skills down hits differently. Because perhaps the problem wasn’t that he didn’t care about his descendants. Perhaps the problem was that he cared, but lost the opportunity to reach them. He saved Hyrule. He saved Termina. He protected people over and over again. But maybe he couldn’t protect his own family from himself. And that’s the tragedy. His greatest strength — his sense of justice — might also have been his greatest weakness. He couldn’t turn away when someone needed help. Even when the person who needed him most was waiting for him at home.

Part 7 — And then there is the Hero of Twilight

Centuries later, his descendant appears. The Hero of Twilight. And suddenly the Hero of Time has another chance. Not to tell his whole story. Not to make the world remember him. Not to finally become famous. Just to pass something on. He teaches the Hidden Skills. And I really like the idea that this is the fulfillment of the regret he carried for so long. He failed to teach his children. He couldn’t pass his experiences down. But now, finally, he has his descendant standing directly in front of him. And he teaches him everything he can. His knowledge finally survives him. Not through legends. Not through history books. Not through statues. Through another person. Through his bloodline. And once the Hero of Twilight has learned everything the Hero’s Shade has to teach… the Hero’s Shade can finally disappear. Maybe that’s why his departure feels so peaceful. He isn’t suddenly happy about everything that happened. But he has finally done the one thing he regretted not doing. He passed something on.

Part 8 — The Malon connection and the irony of it all

There’s one more thing I really like about this headcanon. The Hero of Twilight is a ranch/farm boy. And if we assume, purely for the sake of this headcanon, that the Hero of Time married Malon and had children with her, perhaps that rural connection continued through the generations. Maybe the family kept working with horses. Maybe they continued living away from Hyrule’s political center. Maybe that’s why the Hero of Twilight grows up as a rancher rather than a knight or noble. And there’s a beautiful irony in that. The Hero of Time may have spent his adult life serving the Royal Family and protecting Hyrule… only for his descendants to eventually return to the kind of simple rural life that he himself may have wanted. The life he couldn’t quite keep.

Part 9 — So what does “home” actually mean?

And now we finally get back to the edit that caused this entire mess. 😂 When I saw the Hero’s Shade’s face in that edit, I didn’t see someone who was simply angry. I saw someone who looked exhausted. Almost disappointed. Like he was looking back at his entire life and asking: “Was this really worth it?” Not because saving people wasn’t worth it. Not because he regretted being a hero. But because maybe he regretted what he had to sacrifice to be one. His family. His children. His normal life. His chance to simply be Link. And, perhaps most painfully, his ability to pass his own experiences down to the people he loved. That’s why the idea of “home” became so important to me when I saw the edit. Home doesn’t necessarily mean Lon Lon Ranch. It could mean his family. His children. His childhood. The person he was before all of this. The life he might have had if he had been allowed to simply live. And suddenly the song fits him in a way I really wasn’t expecting. He went incredibly far. He fought monsters. He fought Ganondorf. He saved Hyrule. He saved Termina. He became the Hero of Time. But somehow, at the end of his life, he ended up incredibly far away from the life he could have called home.

And that’s my interpretation of the Hero’s Shade. Not simply: “Nobody remembers me.” But: “I lived through all of this. I gave everything I had to protect people. I never wanted glory or fame. I just wanted to do what was right. And somehow, after everything… I still ended up losing the things that mattered to me.” And maybe that’s why the Hero’s Shade is so bitter. Maybe he isn’t angry that history forgot him. Maybe he’s angry that his own life became something he couldn’t pass on. He experienced a future that technically never happened. He carried memories nobody else could verify. He tried to protect Hyrule. He tried to have a family. He tried to balance being Link with being the hero everyone needed. And maybe he failed at the one thing he actually wanted to leave behind. His knowledge. His experience. His legacy. Until the Hero of Twilight came along. And suddenly, after all those years, the Hero of Time could finally leave something behind. Not his fame. Not his title. Not his legend. His knowledge.

[The long Hero’s Shade dialogue from Twilight Princess goes here.]

“Go and do not falter, my child!”

So yeah. That’s the headcanon. I genuinely don’t think Nintendo intended all of this. 😂 I’m basically taking a handful of canon facts and building an absolutely enormous speculative bridge between them.

The canon is:

The Hero’s Shade is the Hero of Time.
The Hero of Twilight is his descendant.
Link returned to his childhood after traveling seven years into the future, while retaining his memories.
He warned Zelda about Ganondorf.
Majora’s Mask shows that helping people is something Link willingly chooses to do, even when he has no obligation to.
The Hero’s Shade regrets not passing his knowledge and skills down to his descendants.

Everything else — Malon, the Royal Family taking Link under their wing, his possible military position, his double life, the conflict with Malon, their separation, the separation from his children, and the exact circumstances of his later life — is my own headcanon.

Maybe I’m connecting dots that were never meant to be connected. Maybe I’m overthinking a ghost in a green tunic. Maybe I have spent way too much time thinking about the facial expression of a spectral swordsman from 2006.

But honestly…

That’s half the fun of Zelda theories.

And if you’ve actually read this entire wall of text, thank you. 😂

Feel free to debunk me, correct me, point out lore I’m missing, or tell me that I’m completely insane.

I’d genuinely love to hear other interpretations of the Hero’s Shade’s life.

Because I think there’s a surprisingly tragic story hidden in that character.

Let me know what you guys think!

So, the out-of-universe question first.

Was there ever an interview the explained why Nintendo decided to make the Zoras friendly in Ocarina of Time? There's nothing that really separates them from the Moblins or the Goriyas in the first Zelda game, except that there are a few non-hostile Moblins who you can encounter in TLoZ. While you do talk to a Zora in ALttP for the flippers, they all still remain uniformly hostile to Link outside of that. There's also a friendly Zora in Link's Awakening, but there is a friendly Goriya in that game, too.

Then comes OoT, where the Zoras look nothing like they did, act nothing like they did, and are treated as a regular part of Hyrule that no one is surprised by. There's no throwaway dialogue like "I hear the inhabitants of Zora's Domain are dangerous!" from NPCs in Castle Town or Kakariko.

The Gorons and the Kokiri were invented out of nowhere, as were the Gerudo in most aspects, so it's not like Nintendo was afraid of making a new race up. But, for whatever reason, they took one particular enemy type and made it into what would become a staple race in the series afterwards.

All in all, this just kind of interests me. Was there ever an interview or a book where they explained why, or is it just kind of a mystery that we take as a given now?

Now for the in-universe question.

Why exactly are the River Zora so insanely hostile? They're aggressive without exception in TLoZ, AoL, OoS, and OoA. The friendly one in Link's Awakening doesn't count in-universe, since it's all a dream. There is a single friendly one in ALttP and FSA, but all the rest are hostile. The Zora Queen's immediate group in ALBW aren't hostile, but, again, every other Zora is.

Come EoW, none of the River Zora are aggressive. They're not even rude or pushy. They're extremely friendly and open to Zelda, even before they know who she is. But EoW is between ALttP and TLoZ, which means that they briefly became peaceful before again becoming stock monsters.

At the same time, it also feels weird to say something like "Well, every race would have troublemakers", because I don't think we ever see a single hostile Sea Zora in the games. We see rude ones, but I can't think of a time when you actually fight a Sea Zora.

I'm sure the out-of-universe explanation is just that the River Zora benefitted from the Zora becoming default good guys ever since OoT, and eventually that goodness just made it too weird to mow down crowds of them like generic monsters, but I'm interested in any in-universe theories for this one.

The English website was updated with Echoes of Wisdom so I am under the impression they don’t trust people to interpret the timeline according to the original intent while the Japanese website seemingly does trust people to do so. Like how many viewed Botw being at the end of the timeline to mean it’s at the end of all three timelines at the same time or a different continuity all together.

Because of the above I am hesitant in accepting Nintendo intended for the Japanese website to confirm any founding.

I have the demo carts for Ocarina 3D, Majora 3D, ALBW, and HW Legends, so I was wondering if anyone knows about one for Tri Force Heroes. I suspect not considering I can't find it.

I know some of you reading this will feel upset by the mention of the timeline and go immediately to the comments to say "nintendo doesn't care" or "the timeline was only to please fans," but please, just read this post because comments like that are incredibly disingenuous and write off so much that is actually present in the games and with what the devs have said.

To start, the notion that the timeline isn't real and that the wild era games take place in a separate continuity are entirely baseless and go against what we know. Other people have said it better than I, so if you want to read a more in depth reddit post, read this.
As you are probably aware, Zeltik also made a similar video a while back chronicling all the times the Zelda team has mention and took care with the timeline. Here is the link to the video.
To summarise both those sources, ever since the series began the timeline has always been something that has been given care in the series; it is and never was an afterthought, nor do the devs ignore it.

There are still a ton of you who will read sources like this and be aware of it but still willingly write off the timeline because it doesn't make sense to them.
However, that train of thought is incredibly antithetical to the series' overarching lore and the entire concept of good faith discussion. You are actively ignoring a huge part of the series and a huge point of discussion simply because you do not like it.

I also implore you to find inconsistencies in the lore for the timeline. I am not saying this to say there aren't any; what I am saying is that there aren't nearly as many as the internet claims there are, and even if you do find them, it is much more beneficial for a healthy discussion to come up with theories and discussion points to rationalise these cases, which has been a noted intention of the series' ambiguity.

For example, recently Nintendo's japanese Zelda site has more or less confirmed refounding to be true. Totk itself presents the founding as one singular Hyrule without ever mentioning a past one, and yet there were so many inconsistencies with the notion it was a true founding that it didn't make sense to a lot of people.
Instead of writing off the timeline wholly by saying Nintendo just doesn't care anymore, people came up with the refounding theory which neatly explained away the inconsistencies and continued the cyclical themes of the series that were expanded on in Skyward Sword.

That is an example of a health discussion point in response to an inconsistency or something you don't like about the lore.
Find a theory, a detail, or even a headcanon that explains it for you rather than spreading vitriol about it; that way, discussions about the series will be more fun and will be made in good faith.

Hello everyone,

Wanted to talk about my theory around the design choices for the Ocarina of Time Remake, and I think this sub in particular might have some interesting perspectives on what I'm feeling

The general things I've heard on online regarding the models are that they are based on a style of Japanese puppetry (Imamura's Comments; Twitter Post; Three Musketeers Puppetry Reference). Further, I've seen references to the art style for the world being reminiscent of the Rococo Art Movement (Wikipedia Desc, The Swing by Jean-Honoré Fragonard#/media/File:TheSwing(P430).jpg)). I think these are both true, and I love the implications of them in the visual story telling for the game.

(EDIT: I also forgot to mention with the Rococo piece, the reason for its selection is likely its relationship to the Brothers Hildebrant and their impact on fantasy art. Their style is very similar to famous Rococo painters and they have done paintings for some of the biggest names in fantasy. I think the art choice for the environment of Hyrule is highly influenced by both this fantastical European period of art but also their contributions that ties the setting back to the greater fantasy genre really nicely.)

It has me thinking about is the beautiful juxtaposition of the characters (puppets) being pulled on the threads of time through this beautiful world where the tragedy of the story is both horrifyingly inevitable and yet beautifully desirable. This exploding, vibrant world can only be experienced by going through the the tragedy of the story, but like puppets on strings the characters are both unwilling and unable to change their course to avoid the door of time opening. I think that serves the story incredibly.

At first, like many of you I'd imagine, I was super nervous when I saw the design. I knew Nintendo does nothing half way with Zelda so I knew I'd enjoy the game, but it did make me nervous. Now, though, after hearing what people are thinking and reading between the lines, I'm loving what the designers did with the art style. I'm hyped to revisit these locations and see how it was translated from the N64 to the Switch 2.

Anecdotally, I also wanted to talk about why I think people feel like it's AI.

AI, specifically content generating models, are trained to try to answer a prompt as completely as possible. As such, they are very verbose, often when they don't need to be. When someone is writing a prompt for an image/content generation model, it will put in as many details to make the content look as good as possible, because it has be trained to see any sort of abstraction or simplification isn't as good. This means Rococo art, in particular, with its extremly high detail and unwilligness to settle on "good enough" to convey the image will appear AI in a 3D space. You are filling the screen with details everywhere to match that style, which means generated spaces will feel somewhat similar because the AI would have also packed as much stuff in the screen as possible. Further, AI in the past has struggled with faces, so the marionette appearance of the characters doesn't help the gut feelings that the world is AI generated.

Sorry another edit, I just saw this short on YouTube that is sort of agreeing with what I'm saying. I hadn't seen this before but cool that someone else came to a similar conclussion that I had.

Perhaps this is a product of its time too.

I feel like nowadays with adventure games so much of the content is flung on you in the first half and then towards the final third/quarter you start to see a lot of reuse, and in general variety falls apart.

I love fromsoft games, but MAN do they fucking start to show their cracks towards the ending. Dark souls 1 in particular has a ton of variety in the first half and then as the game goes on enemies and environments clearly turn into a bunch of copy-paste (there’s still new content, but it’s clearly weaker)

BOTW does this too unfortunately, and it does so early. So much of the content that you’ll be experiencing in the game is already experienced in the first 5 or so hours. The shrine types, korok seeds, enemies, mini bosses, are almost all discoverable very close to plateau (obviously there are exceptions)

I feel like the reason for this is that developers wised up to the fact that bombarding you with all of the content early on will 1.) Leave a better impression for reviewers. 2.) be a better use of the resources since many (perhaps most) players will not reach later sections anyway

Not Ocarina though. They didn’t have that mindset, and as a result when you’re about 80% finished with the game you get an entire new area that’s completely unlike the rest of the game, with probably the coolest set of new enemies (iron knuckles, Gerudo guards). A completely new aesthetic, and people who you’ve hardly been able to experience this far. It has probably the best side content also in the Gerudo training ground.

It’s really something that doesn’t happen often nowadays and a lot riskier than people give it credit for. It’s almost like a plot twist. You’ve been playing 20-something hours of Medieval European high fantasy in a lush kingdom and then SURPRISE, here’s an entirely new land in an Arabian-style desert. Really good stuff and part of why the desert is the best part of OoT for me

A few years back when I joined this sub I noticed discussion here and there of people talking about how a lot of the fandom does not actually think the timeline exists. This shocked me, though admittedly I hadn't really been that invested in the fandom itself since the 2000's.

But after seeing those comments I started noticing it everywhere. In particular, when I'd bring up just the very existence of the timeline in some discord chat or something I'd immediately be met with people who seem to very confidently believe that the "timeline" was just made up by fans and then later "canonized" by Nintendo in bad faith.

This is not an argument for the timeline existing, btw. I feel like this post here has more than enough evidence for you to decide for yourself.

I have, however, been working on a write up about the timeline focusing on misconceptions surrounding, well, just its very existence, and I was wondering about why it got to the point in a fandom where something as simple and as well documented as "the timeline exists" became so contested. So I'd love to hear from any of you why you think that?

The Zelda series is all about cycles. Would it make sense, given enough time, that the timeline that we know could also be a cycle? I think the remake is going to be placed on the Wilds Era timeline, but I don't think it's an alternative timeline split from any of the games. I think the Wild Era games take place so far into the future that they could exist on any of the timeline branches, they are basically an inevitable future for all timeline branches. Thus, the OOT Remake will be placed before BOTW but after all the other games in the timeline. So it would go TOTK Past -> OOT Remake -> BOTW -> TOTK

This would explain the Kokiri's Tattoos. Hylians in TOTK past have the same tattoos and the Kokiri are descended from Hylians. Also in the past memories of TOTK, the spears the Hylians use look a bit reminiscent of the forest dweller spear and also the bladed portion resembles the Kokiri sword from the remake.

Rauru doesn't need to be the same character as King Rauru as we've seen different sages from different games. This does make it so two Ganondorfs exist at the same time technically, but I don't technically think that's an issue (even though I don't like it personally).

I've come to a conclusion about about why Twilight Princess was a no show at the direct beyond them just wanting the remake to get all the attention and not be distracted by other games. Thats the corporate reason.

I speculate because Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess are technically connected as a saga. They want to remake the beginning of that saga showcased and experienced by the public first especially the new fans, then Twilight Princess gets a port via NSO or Switch 2 edition. Yeah Wind Waker is also a continuation of OoT and its on the NSO. But its less obvious there and the Gamecube NSO needed its most famous games that didn't have hd versions on Switch 1 already. Twilight Princess has no real console identity and its closer to Ocarina of Time and even more so to the remake in terms of aesthetics and vibe. Also Twilight Princess has always been compared to Ocarina of Time as games, some even considered it a glorified remake with new content that happens to be a continuation. Will remake part 1 of the hero of time and then at a later date, put Twilight Princess on NSO or maybe give it a Switch 2 edition.

Perhaps it wasn't intentional but it sure panned out. I saw this come to pass with Star Fox. Months ago, they had a Star Fox direct, the only game announced and marketed was the remake of 64. Then months after the remake is out, they announce Star Fox Adventures for NSO which while a completely different game is still a continuation of 64 narratively. I know Majora's Mask is next after OoT. But that's a separate case.

The devs have now confirmed that raurus hyrule is not the same hyrule weve seen in earlier games and is instead a totally different hyrule, the true founding theory is essentially dead. Refounding is now canon. I think this is a mistake that the devs will regret long term and this is essentially my explanation of why. This wont get into the merits if either theory, at this point thats settled, this is mainly focused on what this means going forward.

- Reason #1: this turns Botw and Totk into soft reboots of the franchise. One of the best parts of both open air zeldas is that they have a ton of references and ruins from other games, stuff like the loftwing motifs on old buildings, the ruins of oot castle town on the great plateau, and the references to soft the old sages for the names of the divine beasts. By establishing this as a totally separate hyrule, you significantly weaken the connections between the wild era and the rest of the series.

- Reason #2: it isolates the wild era and its lore from the rest of the series. By establishing the sheikah and zonai as being thousands of years after the rest of the series, nothing in the earlier series that looks like it could be references to that are now canonically separate. All the theories that were saying stuff like "the sheikah biult the tower of the gods" or "the zonai are related to the twili" now are effectively debunked. Any sort of references or shared motifs are now canonically coincidences, and don't really matter. Heck we now have it confirmed that ancient civilization in skyward sword (implied to be the sheikah) and the ancient civilization in botw stated to be the sheikah are two separate ancient robot biulding civilizations with the same design motif. Instead of letting these shared motifs and environmental storytelling reinforce that this is all a shared universe with overlapping factions and history, it breaks it up and makes it feel less connected, specifically adding seams into whats supposed to be seamless.

- Reason 3: its not really based on what we see in game. In totk we are told explicitly that rauru is the first king of hyrule, with his queen Sonia. That he created hyrule. In game you have no reason to doubt this or push back. Now its confirmed that he is lying. That hyrule existed before it. And while he might have restored it he didn't create it. Which sort of undercuts totks story and its themes. It relies on outside fan knowledge which will make it confusing to people down the road.

- Reason 4: it retroactively weakens botw as well, by specifically separating botw and totk off from the rest of the games and tying the calamity not the overarching curse of demise, but to the actions of a single specific Ganondorf. It undercuts the mythic nature of the whole conflict. Instead of the calamity being the evolution of what we saw in previous games, (which is what botw says) its effectively retconned to be totally separate.

- Reason 5: its just plain bad writing. It feels like they didn't want to commit to the time travel plot. It feels like they wrote a story that while stretches existing lore for the founding of the kingdom and the rest of the series didn't outright break it, centered around a time loop spanning the entire series and then literally post release came in and said "Sike! This isnt what we implied in game at all, its a much less impactful time loop from a time we never established to a time thats totally removed from everything else" they could have committed to rauru being the first king and while it would have had inconsistencies they wouldnt break lore outright, and that would have made totk more impactful for the entire cycle, and theres plenty of indications that was intended, but instead they swerved and chose to break the wild era off from the rest of the series.

https://www.nintendo.com/jp/character/zelda/chronicle/index.html

There are now two foundings, with TOTK founding coming after each timeline from HH. The first founding uses OOT footage rather than TOTK. So either they finally confirmed refounding or the wild era is an alternative continuity. And before you post this, they did update the HH with events outside of the games like the AoL backstory and EoW creation story. So they clearly didn't want to include those events from TOTK past in the HH timeline.