Say what you will about the timeline found in the Hyrule Historia, it's still an interesting piece of work. In particular, it's kind of cute how the writers of the Historia decided it was necessary to clearly state, to paraphrase, that their timeline could change. The story of Hyrule changes with the teller, and so when there's a different teller, there will be a different story. Maybe we'll see a Zelda first-person game someday after all - maybe even before Miyamoto retires, since that's been an interest of his from the days of Ocarina of Time.
What's really intriguing about the timeline, though, is the sense of permanence it lends the story of (most) of the Zelda games released to date. Rather than letting them be a loose conglomeration of games with similar stories, but always varying gameplay mechanics, the timeline gets them in line and lets them tell a story larger than any of them could on their own.
There are also places on the timeline that are described with only a dash. Along with building things further along any of the forks, it's fair to say that the blank spaces are just waiting for games that may already have some concepts kicking around.
With the next Zelda being a direct sequel to A Link to the Past, the timeline becomes even more solid. A new Zelda game might interrupt the flow, but a sequel to A Link to the Past would fit nicely in between the original and Link's Awakening. Maybe we'll even get some more explanation of why Link decided to go on the excursion he was on at the beginning of Link's Awakening.
With all the framework in place, we can only hope that Nintendo builds the structure sounder than it was before.
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