Evil's Bane

The greatest weapon in a Hero’s arsenal is his sword. The prettier, the stronger and most of the time the bigger, the better off and more respected he (or she) becomes. Link; the manliest, and ‘hottest’ for the fairer sex’s point of view, of these heroes, definitely carries himself one that should strike fear in any evil warlock’s heart. The Master Sword, Blade of Evil’s Bane, is the hardened steel carried proudly at his side.

To think the second most important item in the Zelda series would hold the key to the elusive timeline you see accompanying these articles. No Triforce this time, well, at least for now.

The first appearance of the fabled blade was in A Link to the Past, contrary to what the men behind Super Smash Bros Melee trophies have claimed. It still burns, seeing ‘Ocarina of Time’ being the introduction of the sword. Besides my complaints, everyone has to admit that the Master Sword is one heavy duty creature killing machine; we all understand that without really ending up thinking about it. The first appearance of the fabled blade was also its ‘last’ in timeline standards. Its numerous appearances and that previous sentence hold the key to it all, our adored timeline.

Created from the hands of immortals, the Master Sword was to be held by a Hero worthy of pulling it from its pedestal, a lovely nod to Excalibur and the whole King of England business. Now according to our scriptures of A Link to the Past manuals, it was made and not used in the Imprisoning War with Ganon(dorf) and his thieves. Our villain was taken down and sealed away with his Triforce by the Sages, never heard from again until the events of the SNES epic… No Hero…and no word until Agahnim rears his ugly, broad, blue, pig-ish, and did I mention ugly, face. Just think about it here for a minute.

If the split timeline is true, which it is, thankfully (>_>), wouldn’t that mean that Ganondorf, being stuck in his Dark World with the Triforce, have to escape without recording of the event in any legend, to go and try to break back into the Sacred Realm where he already should be and should already have his Triforce and mighty wishes? Thus causing the split timeline, leading up to A Link to the Past, his first attempt to leave, where he is killed and Link touches the Triforce… So what does that mean? That’s right, the biggest *Naving* break in the Zelda timeline ever *Naving* conceived in the minds of men.

On the ride home one day quite a short while before this sentence finishes, I came up with a defence against this whole Master Sword business. Well you could place it after the breaking of the timelines before Wind Waker, right? At first my answer would be absolute rubbish, but there would be no legends of the toils Ganondorf would face by losing his Triforce and the Sages making a new blade, since of course there is no Master Sword in that timeline until a certain point. So trying to place the war around then actually is something conceivable, until you figure out that Ganondorf escapes the Sacred Realm before Wind Waker and needs to find the Triforce. Utter failure of that concept.

The Master Sword makes several experiences to be sure in the series, some not as notable as others and some that fans like to speculate is the sword. Can we ever be certain? Not yet. The Sacred Blade shows up in OoS and OoA in the linked game, our ending to the two timelines into one. So if the last event of the Sword in history is A Link to the Past, which must mean it occurs after the timeline ‘repairs itself’. Strange, with all of this support that it happens elsewhere, we can’t escape that fact, it happens after the Oracles. End of discussion. Ancestors of LoZ and AoL? Even the first article to this series relies on good translation, how can you be certain that was translated correctly as well? Take Miyamoto’s comment that it takes place after those, meaning the Magical Sword is the Master Sword perhaps? Or was that comment also mistranslated? We know this, the Master Sword does hold the answer to all of our problems with the timeline.

It is serious business, but as it seems, everyone, including Nintendo, is making the war over game placement so heated that maybe you can’t believe a word they have said, or ever will.

Written by Zeldaeinstein

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