Do Zelda adventures have an order?

[Bodine]

Well, Miyamoto announced that the timeline spilts after Oot happens before WW was released.

[Ads]

[DBloke]

[Booo67]

Yes. Wind Waker takes place after Ganon is defeated in the Adult timeline. It is stated that the Hero vanished after saving Hyrule. This is because he got sent back to his original time by Adult Zelda.

Majora's Mask takes place after Young Link is returned to his own time. It is said that he is searching for an old friend. This is Navi, who left Link after he completed his mission because he's not really a Kokiri and she had fulfilled what had been asked of her by the Great Deku Tree.

That makes scene.

[Napalmbrain]

Well, Miyamoto announced that the timeline spilts after Oot happens before WW was released.

Well I did I bit of searching, and I found this interview from before WW was released, which seems to be the source of all this madness:

Q: Where does The Wind Waker fit into the overall Zelda series timeline?

Aonuma: You can think of this game as taking place over a hundred years after Ocarina of Time. You can tell this from the opening story, and there are references to things from Ocarina located throughout the game as well.
Miyamoto: Well, wait, which point does the hundred years start from?
Aonuma: From the end.
Miyamoto: No, I mean, as a child or as a...
Aonuma: Oh, right, let me elaborate on that. Ocarina of Time basically has two endings of sorts; one has Link as a child and the other has him as an adult. This game, The Wind Waker, takes place a hundred years after the adult Link defeats Ganon at the end of Ocarina.
Miyamoto: This is pretty confusing for us, too. (laughs) So be careful.

Link: http://www.zeldawiki.org/Timeline_Quotes

Note that they don't actually say that there is a split in the timeline, only that it's set "a hundred years after adult Link defeats Ganon".

Here's my take on all of this: Whenever the designers decide to make a new Zelda game, they don't worry about continuity and just go with whatever ideas they like. Miyamoto probably never intended for there to be a definitive timeline. When Aonuma took over, I reckon he decided to cotton to the fan theory about split timelines, in a sort of "sure, why not?" way.

[Bodine]

Well yeah I figured they didn't put any thought into the timeline till fans themselves tried to make sense of it.

[Shadowking]

Note that they don't actually say that there is a split in the timeline

Ocarina of Time basically has two endings of sorts; one has Link as a child and the other has him as an adult.

Erm...what? Yes they did say it has two timelines. Two endings, which split the timeline. He specifically stated that Wind Waker occurred after the adult ending.

[Napalmbrain]

Note that they don't actually say that there is a split in the timeline

Ocarina of Time basically has two endings of sorts; one has Link as a child and the other has him as an adult.

Erm...what? Yes they did say it has two timelines. Two endings, which split the timeline. He specifically stated that Wind Waker occurred after the adult ending.

He said there were two 'endings', not that there were two timelines. He could have meant that WW takes place 100 years after the 'adult ending' as opposed to 100 years after the 'child ending' (which would be, I don't know, 90 years or so after the adult ending).

[Shadowking]

Hm...I suppose...but I doubt it. The split timeline makes too much sense. In fact, if there had to be only one timeline it would have to be the child one. Because that would have made it so the adult one never happened. And since he confirmed that the adult one DID happen (as did the opening of Wind Waker) there HAVE to be two timelines.

[Booo67]

Thanks for that timeline.

Note that they don't actually say that there is a split in the timeline

Ocarina of Time basically has two endings of sorts; one has Link as a child and the other has him as an adult.

Erm...what? Yes they did say it has two timelines. Two endings, which split the timeline. He specifically stated that Wind Waker occurred after the adult ending.

He said there were two 'endings', not that there were two timelines. He could have meant that WW takes place 100 years after the 'adult ending' as opposed to 100 years after the 'child ending' (which would be, I don't know, 90 years or so after the adult ending).

So there are two Links?

[Napalmbrain]

Hm...I suppose...but I doubt it. The split timeline makes too much sense. In fact, if there had to be only one timeline it would have to be the child one. Because that would have made it so the adult one never happened. And since he confirmed that the adult one DID happen (as did the opening of Wind Waker) there HAVE to be two timelines.

Fair enough. I can say this much though, I highly doubt they wrote Ocarina's ending with any clue as to how it would apply to any future games, and the whole split timelines doesn't answer the question of when any of the other games (1, 2, 3, Awakening, Oracles, Four Swords, Minish Cap- remember, it's only fan speculation that Minish Cap is supposed to go first) are set. At best you can relate OoT, MM, TP, and WW and its sequels together.