Adam Terwillegar

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The Legend of Zelda

File:Zelda.png

The Series

The Legend of Zelda is a series of fantasy-based, action-adventure video games developed by Nintendo that follows the many adventures of the character Link. The series got its start in 1986 when "The Legend of Zelda" was released for the Famicom system in Japan. The game would eventually make its way to the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987 and become available to the rest of the world. The series has released more than 20 titles across 15 different consoles and handheld platforms. It is the games' large worlds that can be explored and its balance between puzzles, action, exploring, and completing quests that define the series and have made it so very popular among video gamers. The several year gap between releases of games also keeps the gamers wanting more and keeps the hype up around the games, for every title released is major news in the video game industry.

Play the Past

In his article “Zelda’s Historians: Canonizing Fictional Chronologies”, David Hussey explores The Legend of Zelda video game series and how fans of the series have become historians of the fictional stories. The series features a few games that are strung together with sequels, but there is no overarching linear plot progression throughout all of the games. Each game features the same character, Link, but in new versions of Hyrule Kingdom and sometimes facing different enemies. Ganon and his human form, Ganondorf, are the most prevalent antagonists, but do not appear in every game. These subtle differences in the games led fans to question the over-arching storyline of the series.

As more games were released and the storylines became even more different, the fans wanted to know more about the fictional world they kept saving and how the games related to each other. According to R.G. Collingwood in his book The Idea of History, when conducting historical research, there are two important principles that must be used: evidence and authority. When stringing together the games in the Zelda series, fans had to use hard evidence to prove their points or else their post would be quickly disputed and brushed aside. Fans also had to look past each other’s theories about the chronology of the games in order to develop their own conclusions. David Hussey has shown us that the fans of the Legend of Zelda series have instinctively used the principles of historical thought to develop the history of a fictional world.

Social Impact

David Hussey stated that The Legend of Zelda is one of the most popular video game franchises and is one of his personal favorites as well. Hussey discusses how Zelda fans began theorizing the chronology of the games within the series and how it became an obsession for many. Just how many fans were overcome by this obsession will never be known, but it was enough to catch the attention of Nintendo. In 2011, Nintendo released The Hyrule Historia, a 239 page book outlining the history of The Legend of Zelda franchise and the official timeline of the video games.

Many fans have posted their own versions of the games’ timeline across the internet. Hussey embedded a video of one fan explaining his own timeline theory which has gotten over 500,000 views on Youtube. Some videos that explain other fans’ theories, or even the official timeline, have reached over three million views. Though the debate has had little impact outside of the fan base of the series and other gamers, it has fueled a debate that has gradually expanded The Legend of Zelda fictional world, creating a culture for gamers to immerse themselves in.

The Timeline

Having played several of The Legend of Zelda games, I have always wondered why the maps were different and why you always seemed to come from a different village, but were always the same character. Though I never went as far as to read the manuals and play all of the games in the series to concoct my own version of the Zelda timeline, I was curious as to how the games fit in with one another. I would occasionally do some research on the internet and would scour various wikis and gaming websites. The theories that stuck with me were the ones that had hard evidence, especially evidence that I could personally recall from my time playing the games. While I enjoyed all of the fan based theories and the intricate web they had spun throughout the fictional world, I was satisfied with the official timeline that was presented in The Hyrule Historia. The fact that there is proof to support this timeline and that it is coming straight from the games’ developers is what has me sold on the official timeline. If anyone would know how the games are linked, I assume it would be the ones who created them.