Where Does Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Fit In The Timeline?

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is on its way and will finally release worldwide on May 12th. Tears of the Kingdom is one of the most highly anticipated games that is coming out in 2023 and Zelda fans have been waiting for this game for many years now. As per usual with every Zelda game that releases, fans are coming out with a multitude of theories about the game.

Zelda fans are wondering what exactly they can create with the Ultrahand ability in Tears of the Kingdom. On top of that, they are also looking into what the lore of the game could be like. Zelda fans are also wondering where Tears of the Kingdom fit in the Zelda timeline. Here, we will discuss where we think Tears of the Kingdom fits in the current Zelda timeline.

Where Will Tears Of The Kingdom Fit In The Zelda Timeline?

The only thing that we know for sure is that Tears of the Kingdom is a direct sequel to Breath of the Wild. Unless something strange happens, there is no other reason to believe otherwise at this point. The major winning theory right now is that Breath of the Wild is at the farthest point of the Child Timeline occurring after Ocarina of Time. Some fans have even theorized that Breath of the Wild merged all of the branching timelines together. The following official timeline was released in 2011 in the Hyrule Historia book.

In Breath of the Wild, references to Twilight Princess, Ocarina of Time, and Skyward Sword were directly mentioned. So at this point, it is reasonable to say that Breath of the Wild happens in the Child Timeline. But there are smaller hints of other Zelda games appearing all over Breath of the Wild, so it is possible that Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom will merge all of the Zelda timelines together.

Tears Of The Kingdom Time Loop Theory

Although Tears of the Kingdom will likely be at the end of the Zelda timeline, it is possible that it is also at the beginning of the timeline as well. There is a theory that says that Tears of the Kingdom will be the beginning of the Zelda timeline as it will be the start of a time loop that perpetuates within itself.

Zeltik goes into detail saying that the Ouroboros-like symbol in the logo for Tears of the Kingdom could show that this is the start of the time loop. Fans also theorized that because islands are starting to float in Tears of the Kingdom, these islands could create the Skylands seen in Skyward Sword, the beginning of the Zelda timeline.

Now, this theory could fall flat if the sky islands fall at the end of Tears of the Kingdom, but it is an interesting theory to consider. Nintendo did say that after they released the official timeline that they do encourage fans to come up with their own theories of the Zelda timeline. So Tears of the Kingdom being at the end of the timeline or being the game that starts a time loop could both be correct.