After finding a possible way of how a time split could work and still satisfy my requirement of a continous story, here is my newly revised Zelda timeline:
Link 1a: OoT->MM->TP
Again, Miyamoto-sama has explicitly said OoT is first. However, Link #1 is the only Link affected by the time split that Aonuma-sama has confirmed. (at least to me.) This is the Child Link timeline.
Link 1b: OoT->WW->PH
This is the Adult Link half of the timeline.
This is where any agreement with the GameTrailers timeline ends.
After TP and PH are completed in their respective timelines, I believe the two timelines somehow become one again, leaving what’s left as a single continous story.
Link #2: TMC->FS->FSA
TMC’s backstory is a pseudo re-imagining of OoT, but the Picori Blade is not the Master Sword from OoT.
Link #3: ALttP->OoA/OoS->LA->LoZ->AoL
The backstory to A Link to the Past, then; is a more “official” account of what happened some hundred years or so after the TMC storyline. After ALttP ends, we are told that Link left Hyrule on a journey of adventure (LA manual). While we don’t yet know exactly how many adventures he went on on this journey, the Oracle games are likely two such adventures. In the endings for these games, we see Link on a boat, likely the same boat he is on at the beginning of LA. By the time Link returns to Hyrule, it is in ruins and Zelda is captured, setting up the original game. AoL occurs some years later. The Zelda story referred to in AoL is to me a general story the residents of Hyrule might have told (at least for now).
I acknowledge I my have gaps in my knowledge due to games I have yet to play, and with a new Zelda coming, it may fill in what we don’t yet know.
If you have any suggestions, counterclaims, or new info for me, please let me know!
