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Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma has always been cryptic when it comes to the timeline, and Tears of the Kingdom is no exception. Despite desperate fans scouring Hyrule for clues, Aonuma won't tell us where Tears of the Kingdom fits on the Legend of Zelda timeline, leaving fans to come to their own conclusions.
This comes from an interview with The Washington Post, just after Tears of the Kingdom's immensely successful launch. Now, even if it is one of the biggest games on Switch, we shouldn't expect any Zelda lore explanations from Aonuma, as it seems that he and the rest of the team are happy for the work to speak for itself.
This comes after Breath of the Wild changed everything we know about Zelda, both in terms of gameplay and lore. Even so long after launch, fans aren't exactly sure where to place it, and Tears of the Kingdom seems to be doing very little to help. Something Aonuma is very pleased with.
"I guess I would leave it to the fans and hope they will continue to discuss this among themselves," says Aonuma, "I’ll be looking forward to see where those discussions lead."
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Now, even if Aonuma isn't spilling the beans, it certainly sounds like he and the rest of the team have their own ideas on how Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom fit into the Zelda series as a whole. But after years of development, it seems that they are happy to sit back and watch fans desperately try to decipher the clues they left behind.
Over the years, there have been a whole lot of attempts to place the Zelda series on a linear timeline. Of course, this doesn't work so well when some games openly contradict each other, showing different interpretations of the same characters.
Due to this, timelines are often split into branching paths, and even different ages. For example, it is often accepted that after Ocarina of Time, the universe was split into three. One path in which Link is defeated, a second where he wins, and another where Ganon is sealed away. Unfortunately for us, Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom actually aren't on this timeline, although one theory has these games take place after all three timelines converge, so there's that.
Tears of the Kingdom has only just launched, so no doubt fans will come up with new theories as they make their way through this take on Hyrule. Just don't expect Aonuma to make anything canon any time soon - he likes to see fans try and figure it out on their own.