When Nintendo called Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment “canonical” to the Zelda timeline during the July Partner Direct, I did whatever the audible equivalent of a double-take is. Nintendo, so averse to timelines. Nintendo, who had Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma on record saying the history of Zelda-world really doesn’t matter that much.
Then, I remembered something I’ve tried to forget over the last five years — Age of Calamity‘s story — and realized this seems very much like Nintendo quietly telling people they won’t be pulling the same trick again. That’s one of the best choices they could make for Age of Imprisonment in my book, though probably not for the reasons you’re thinking if you’re big into timeline lore.
[Ed. note: Spoilers for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity follow]
When things are at their worst in Age of Calamity, and it looks like Ganon will triumph over the Champions in their cursed Divine Beasts as he does in Breath of the Wild‘s backstory, something unexpected happens. The little egg-like Guardian who follows Zelda around summons Champions from a different timeline who save their counterparts and help turn the tide against Ganon. The evil pig is sealed away for good, and Hyrule and all its people (except the king, who dies anyway) can enjoy peace again.
The events of Breath of the Wild never happen in this version, as they don’t need to. Everyone gets a happy ending. That won’t be the case in Age of Imprisonment, since it’s “canonical” events will, presumably, lead right into the conflict from Tears of the Kingdom‘s backstory that ends with Rauru (temporarily) sealing Ganondorf.
Normally, this fixation on fitting things neatly into their immovable, unshakable order annoys me, as it’s my least favorite trend in storytelling. It’s okay to be messy and tell stories that don’t join seamlessly together, with carefully planned room for additions. You’re focused too much on writing in ways for people to build on later that way, instead of creating a story that’s actually worth continuing.
Age of Calamity‘s problem isn’t that it’s non-canonical. It’s that it plays on your expectations of impending misery as you wait for the Champions to meet their end, puts you and all of Link’s allies through hell, and then presses the magic time travel button and says “nope, none of it mattered!” Time travel in a Zelda game is nothing new, but this conceit of joining heroes from future and present is a little too Saturday morning cartoon-flavored for my liking. Everyone joins together, the world is saved, and nobody anyone has any affection for dies. And nothing you did had any bearing on it.
I don’t think death is the pinnacle of drama in a story or that you have to be in complete control of the way a video game narrative unfolds. I do, however, think there’s real value in acknowledging the fact that the world gets in a pretty fucked-up state sometimes. You can’t reset it, and you shouldn’t rely on some magic hero to swoop in and do all the work for you. The only solution — which is basically the point of Breath of the Wild and which Nintendo seems to be recognizing with Age of Imprisonment — is to accept what’s gone wrong and figure out the best way to move forward.
