Zelda Timeline 2026

Last verified: 2026-11-10

Twilight Princess on the timeline

Twilight Princess is on the child timeline, generations after Majora's Mask, and it is not a sequel to The Wind Waker.

At a glance

Original platform
Wii / GameCube (regional dates below are Wii)
First release
2006-11-19
Timeline placement
Child branch, generations after Majora's Mask; Ganondorf is executed and banished to the Twilight Realm, and Zant invades Hyrule.
Link
Link (Ordon ranch hand / Hero of Twilight)
Zelda
Princess Zelda
Main antagonist
Zant / Ganondorf
Original parchment chart of the Downfall, Child, and Adult branches
Official key art for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on Nintendo Switch 2

Key art © Nintendo, used with a link to the product page. Chart art on this site is original.

You play a ranch hand from Ordon who becomes the Hero of Twilight. Princess Zelda is in Hyrule Castle. The invasion is Zant's, and the Gerudo king behind that invasion is the same Ganondorf the child timeline was warned about. The execution is the plot point that makes this column different from the adult flood. The warning from the child Hero of Time worked well enough that the king was caught. After the execution failed, the sages banished him through the Mirror of Twilight.

The Wii version launched in North America on 19 Nov 2006, in Japan on 2 Dec, and in Europe on 8 Dec. GameCube followed on 2 Dec in Japan, 11 Dec in North America, and 15 Dec in Europe. Twilight Princess HD launched on Wii U on 4 Mar 2016 in North America and Europe, and 10 Mar in Japan. Our record does not show a Switch release, so I will not invent a Switch date to fill the gap.

Majora's Mask is the previous game on this path. Four Swords Adventures is the next. The Hero of Time appears as a memory and a shade, which is the game's way of saying a long time has passed since the boy left Termina. People who played Wind Waker first sometimes file Twilight Princess on the ocean. The chart does not. The ocean is the adult path.

The HD version adds a dungeon and a different item for the Wii U pad. That is a package change. It does not move the story onto another branch, and it does not retcon the execution. I mention it so a 2016 box is not mistaken for a new legend.

If the question is only which timeline, the answer is the child timeline. If the question is whether Link and Zelda from Ocarina are the couple in this castle, they are not. This Zelda is a later princess. The child-timeline page has the Majora's Mask meeting question, which is a different scene.

Sources