Welcome back, everyone!
Today, I’m going to talk to you about my favorite dungeon from Twilight Princess – the Temple of Time.
First, let me just say that Twilight Princess, as well as the other Zelda games referenced in this post, belong to Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo. This post also discusses, briefly, the ending of Ocarina of Time and, even more briefly, Skyward Sword, but the storyline details disclosed are minor and don’t contain spoilers.
Now, on with the show!
It’s not easy for me to pick a favorite dungeon from a Zelda game. There are just too many, and they are all so different! But in Twilight Princess, at least, the Temple of Time stood out to me.
For one thing, it’s just downright gorgeous:
I mean, just look at it!
Yes, I know, the inside is not QUITE as splendid and it’s crawling with monsters just like any other dungeon, but something about the thick stone walls, tiled floors, and intricate windows gives the Temple of Time a sort of quiet, controlled, orderly feel that I noticed in the Tower of the Gods in Wind Waker. The fact that you escort/control large statues and use them to solve puzzles is just a plus.
I think, though, that my favorite part of the Temple of Time is the fact that you have to time travel in order to complete the dungeon. As someone who grew up playing Ocarina of Time, I really liked how the developers worked that mechanic into Twilight Princess.
I was saying as much to my fiancé (though we were just friends at the time) back when we were in high school, and he asked me a question I hadn’t thought of before.
Where is the Master Sword?
When Link steps through the door into the completed temple, the Master Sword is gone from the pedestal, which is necessary in order to unlock the staircase that leads to the dungeon. But he also goes hundreds of years into the past, so why would the Master Sword be missing from the pedestal if Link took possession of it in the present?
Well, my…future fiancé, let’s say, and I put our heads together and realized we had to ask another question first: When TP Link goes back in time, what time period does he land in?
Our answer? The era of Ocarina of Time.
It’s pretty clear that the Temple of Time in Twilight Princess is the same one from Ocarina of Time:
Source for both
Source for both
Sure, there are some differences (staircases, smaller doors, etc.), but both temples have the same basic layout: open antechamber, doorway, and second chamber with the pedestal, surrounded by stained glass windows.
Even the music tracks are virtually identical! This is the OoT theme, and this is the TP theme (both courtesy of GilvaSunner, who has plenty more complete soundtracks on their profile!). I’m pretty sure the only other song that both soundtracks have is Zelda’s Theme.
As for why the temples look different? Well, there are a few possible answers for that. The most basic one is that game design vastly improved during the eight-year-gap between Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess and the developers could add more detail to Twilight Princess’s temple. But I think there could be an in-universe one as well. Twilight Princess is the second sequel in the child timeline, but unlike Majora’s Mask, it’s implied, if not outright confirmed, to take place hundreds of years later, during with time, there have been some drastic changes to Hyrule’s geography, judging by the gorges,
and the shifting of landmarks and settlements.
Source. Translated by me
The Temple of Time was obviously moved during the interim, given how it went from the central Castle Town to the southern Sacred Grove. Was it damaged during the seismic activity that changed Hyrule’s landscape and needed restoration? Did people renovate it or rebuild it all together during a time when its new resting place was more easily accessible? I think any one of these explanations is plausible, given the large time gap between the two games’ storylines.
Plus, to top it all off, Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess are the only two games where the Master Sword is found in the Temple of Time. Every other game has Link find the weapon in the woods,
Hyrule Castle,
or use a different sword all together.
It’s true! The only other time the Master Sword is ever in the Temple of Time is at the end of Skyward Sword, but there are two reasons why I don’t believe TP Link goes back that far. One is the fact that Skyward Sword hadn’t been released yet, and the other is the fact that SS Link LEAVES the sword there at the END of his adventure, so if TP Link went to the SS Temple of Time, the Master Sword would be there in the pedestal.
But it’s not.
So that circles back to question one – where is the Master Sword?
Well, if TP Link travels back to the era of Ocarina of Time and the Master Sword of the past is gone, then it stands to reason that OoT Link is currently using it.
But wait, isn’t Twilight Princess part of the child timeline? The one that starts AFTER OoT Link goes back in time and DOESN’T pick up the Master Sword?
Well, yes and no…
Okay, I’m gonna level with you here. Time travel is complicated. Literally every work of fiction that uses it as a plot device portrays it different. Doctor Who, Terminator, Back to the Future, even Harry Potter and Avengers: Endgame – every single one of these works has different mechanisms, rules, and consequences when it comes to messing with the natural flow of time. And given that time travel does not yet exist in real life (as of 2019, at least), I can’t say what’s right or what’s wrong.
But when I was looking through Hyrule Historia, I saw this quote:
Screenshot of page 110 of my copy of Hyrule Historia
Exactly!
When OoT Link is sent back in time, he retains all the knowledge he gained during his journey as an adult. Those memories are what enable him to warn Zelda of the future and change time in the first place.
And that means that everything that happens during the second half of Ocarina of Time is not just part of the adult timeline, but part of the child timeline as well:
So what does that mean?
Well, I believe it means that while TP Link is clearing the Temple of Time with the Master Sword, OoT Link is out in Hyrule with the same Master Sword, also fighting evil!
So when during the adult half of OoT does TP Link show up? That’s a detail I’m not sure of. It could be two days after OoT Link wakes up from him Sacred Realm coma, or it could be right before he meets Sheik for the last time, or it could be any moment in between.
All I know is that, for a little while, TP Link was in the same time as his ancestor.
I loved putting the pieces of this theory together with my future fiancé. This fandom filler doesn’t necessarily solve a big plot hole or speculate on the future the way my other posts did, but it was just as much fun. We got to look a little deeper at my favorite game and connect it to a game that I grew up with.
Well, connect it a little more than it already was, because I’m pretty sure half the Internet was right when they guessed that this guy:
was the spirit of the Hero of Time.
And the icing on the cake for this filler was the fact that it actually inspired an idea for a fanfic where TP Link has a moment where he, hidden behind the stained glass window, actually sees OoT Link and learns that his ancestor was once a young man on a long, hard journey, just like he is now.
And that, at its core, is what fandom fillers are all about: fun, a deeper appreciation for what we love, and, if we’re lucky, a spark of creativity.
So, what’s your favorite Zelda dungeon? Let me know in the comments!
(I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that none of you are going to say the Water Temple. Did you know that the developers actually apologized for that? It’s amazing – check it out here)
Until next time!