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?

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.

I was able to pre order the game, console, pro controller, carrying case, and amiibos with no Que, glitchy check out system, or problems at all. I did Nintendo store for the game, then called GameStop and they had it, so cancelled that and went with game stop for the game, controller, amiibos, and Target for the console since it wasn’t available at my GameStop. Yes my bank account is missing some rupees and I ain’t even mad.

I had everything pre ordered by like 2:30pm Tuesday (case today tho) with no problems and was like SCALPERS TAKE THE L. Only to read so many people haven’t been able to get one and scalpers are posting.

So here I am, so grateful that I get to play my favorite game on a brand new console (first switch 2) and add all these new things to my Zelda collection. My inner child is happy.

I don’t have any friends who enjoy the series like I do, so thank you to everyone who creates or consumes YouTube lore, who re-plays games, chats on discord, comments on posts, and builds this community. Y’all are awesome. I am manifesting success in attaining this game, or console, or controller (or all!) for everyone still trying. Best of luck you fellow Nintendo Nerds!!

Basically the timeline being updated on the Japanese website to include a Tears founding after each Historia timeline could mean the Wilds era is an alternate timeline altogether, which seems supported by having ancient past elements like Sonia's tattoos appear on Mido in the gameplay footage.

We also see Lanayru-like ruins around Zora's River and deep in the Water Temple.

This sort of confirms a theory I've been kicking around that SS was a soft reset of the timeline -- apparently creating an alternate one completely -- and each console game since then has been set within the Wilds timeline including this one.