This image is heavily cropped. Just let that sink in.
Nintendo's Eiji Aonuma admitted to the existence of an official timeline for the Legend of Zelda series, but it's a secret. Only Aonuma, Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto, and the director of the upcoming Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Hidemaro Fujibayashi, have seen the classified document.
Surely this confirmation has sent Zelda fans raving, not to mention the news that Skyward Sword will take place before Ocarina of Time. Considering that this critically acclaimed title has been the chronological anchor to which every other Zelda release has been attached, this is huge–
Wait, since when is all of this nonsense relevant?
While all of the speculation might be good fun, this equivalent to Einstein's theory of relativity is downright ridiculous. Unlike complex plots found in shows like Lost or in movies like the hyped-up Inception, whether Game A happened before Game B has little to no relevance to the enjoyment of the Zelda franchise.
It's not as if players are being rewarded for all of their speculation and research in the same way people scrutinizing the plot in Lost are (although I'd say we weren't rewarded handsomely for that, either). The experience of a Zelda game, quite frankly, is too beautifully simple.
Regardless of the sequence of events or whether the Link in question is tied hereditarily to the original Link, Skyward Sword will most likely be structured in the same way as Ocarina of Time, A Link to the Past, and nearly every other Zelda title was before it. The only situation in which the sequence of events would matter is if each title followed the same characters in an iterative plot, like the somewhat-direct sequel to Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask.
Here's a scenario: If Miyamoto made an announcement stating that, similar to the Final Fantasy franchise, each Zelda game is a separate incarnation of Hyrule and has little to no relevance to the title before it, would it affect how you perceive Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf so much that you'd lose interest? Would it change the way you approach exploring the land and its usual 11 dungeons and final castle?
After 25 years Zelda titles, nothing Miyamoto nor Aonuma will reveal about this timeline can satisfy interested fans or change anything about how we enjoy Zelda games — at least how that enjoyment pertains to each individual release. Link's adventures will still be enthralling and sprawling, Hyrule will still be as vast as it is lively, and Ganondorf will still be one of the greatest video game villains of all time.
Next time you enter Hyrule as our favorite elf in pajamas, try to ignore any mentions of "The Hero of Time" (this is all your fault, Nintendo). Pretend that this Link is the only Link and your adventure in Hyrule is the first of its kind. See how it affects your enjoyment of the game. Unless, of course, you wash up on the shore of an unfamiliar island. Then, you're probably just dreaming anyway.
This has been an installment of Dialog Tree (formerly known as Coffee Talk), where we discuss the finer topics concerning video games, technology, and other issues your less geeky friends don't care to talk about. Have questions or something you'd like to see discussed? Let me know in the comments! (Note: These posts originally appear every Monday at Geekadelphia.)