Thanks to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom appearing to significantly reshape players' understanding of the broader Zelda canon, there's a case to be made for Nintendo to capitalize on the growing multiverse trend and finally form a link between universes. With a growing abundance of different Zelda games that, despite sharing a general premise of familiar characters and story beats, were wildly different from art styles to game mechanics, Nintendo's solution was to canonize everything through its now well-known branching timelines. But with Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom ending these timelines, Nintendo could pull a soft reboot.
Though the various Zelda timelines gave the series breathing room, it still left Nintendo with the challenge of deciding on which timeline each new game belonged to and where it was supposed to be set. Over time, this chronology has become more complicated and even controversial as games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom appear to revise Skyward Sword's lore. To avoid a future narrative dead end, Zelda has the opportunity to embrace the current multiverse trend, so that what were once branching timelines can become altogether new universes and The Legend of Zelda expands to become The Legends of Zelda.
The Legend of Zelda Benefits More From A Multiverse Than Timelines
While the speculation around where each new Zelda game belongs within the timelines has become a tradition among fans, it is beginning to show signs of diminishing returns as a narrative structure. So though an official chronology was first confirmed by the Hyrule Historia in 2011 with Ocarina of Time serving as Zelda's very own nexus event, many more games have since been added to an already full series with revisions along the way. The result might paint an intricate legacy that fans already in the know can enjoy, and an overwhelming canon not only stifles Nintendo's creativity, but it limits new players coming to the series.
But in addition to this, even when placed in order within the current Zelda timelines, many games still differ significantly from one another. Direct sequels like Tears of the Kingdom and Majora's Mask don't raise any eyebrows, but games like the very first The Legend of Zelda which was released before yet is set after the timeline of Skyward Sword and Ocarina of Time certainly require the suspension of disbelief considering the jumps in hardware and gameplay. So instead of trying to make each game fit into a crude chronology, placing some of these into alternate universes would arguably better suit the series and give Nintendo greater creative freedom.
The Legends of Zelda's Meta Has Big Creative Potential
By stylizing it as a "soft reboot" for the series, Nintendo could ambitiously revise Zelda's chronology, or it could leave the current timelines as they are and use Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom as a new nexus. Since both games have been stated to be the end of all timelines and with Tears of the Kingdom seemingly completing Skyward Sword's cycle once and for all, for the series to continue something needs to replace them. Just as Zelda has already dabbled with alternate worlds from the Twilight Realm to Lorule, then a game following Tears of the Kingdom could reveal universes beyond.
At the surface level, this would actually remedy a few loose threads within the Zelda series that canonize Hyrule Warriors and its sequels, Cadence of Hyrule, and even characters like Linkle. But beyond this Zelda games could experiment more, such as Princess Zelda becoming a playable character while the unmentionable Zelda Philips CD-i games can be relegated to their own universe. Better yet, since Super Smash Bros. recognizes three versions of Link, a meta Zelda game could pay homage to the series and pitch these same Links against series' foes like Ganondorf, Agahnim, Vaati, and more in a war of multiversal conquest.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available now on Nintendo Switch.
