This is the first of a few articles talking about what happens in games, focusing on the beginning and ending situations such that they can be easily compared for placement in timelines. This article will cover the first three games, the next one will cover OoT, MM, and TP, the third one will cover LA and the Oracle games, the fourth will cover WW, PH, and ST, and finally the last one will cover the Four Swords titles, as well as Link's Awakening. It should be noted that there was some fairly public discussion of the timeline of these titles early on. The developer-canon order is that Ocarina of Time comes before Link to the Past and Link's Awakening which come before Legend of Zelda and Adventure of Link. However, this is "obscured by history" and very well might not be true with the approach of split timelines in Ocarina of Time. Much about the first two games lend themselves to being at the very start of the timeline. I digress, hopefully these articles will be of some use to timeline theorists. Feel free to correct me on anything that I am jumping to too large of conclusions on...
Note: This article assumes that the manuals are useless, and does not include any plot elements only revealed by them. The reasoning behind this choice is that they generally contradict other information in a way that is very hard to resolve cleanly. More will be said about them in the future, hopefully.
The Legend of Zelda
Situation at beginning:
The area south of Death Mountain, where this takes place, appears to be uninhabited except for a few hermits. This likely happens at a period in history where urban Hyrule is north of Death Mountain. Ganon is a pig monster, and never referred to as Ganondorf. He already has the Triforce of Power, but only that. Zelda has the Triforce of Wisdom and Link has no Triforce as far as can be reckoned. Zelda splits up the Triforce of Wisdom into 8 pieces, and is captured by Ganon. Link sets out to get both Triforces and save Zelda from Ganon. The Master Sword is nowhere to be found, and Link uses the "Sword" (a wooden sword), the "White Sword", and the "Magical Sword". There is a graveyard to the west, just in the shadow of Death Mountain, but no settlements nearby. River Zoras are a common occurrence, and there is a coast on the East side.
Situation at end:
Pig Ganon is defeated with the Silver Arrows, in his hideout under Spectacle Rock, and is turned into a pile of dust. Link is seen with Zelda, each hold a Triforce, Zelda says that Link is the hero of Hyrule, and that peace has returned to Hyrule now. Good end!
The Adventure of Link
Situation at beginning:
Ganon has been destroyed, Impa has told Link about a sleeping spell cast on Princess Zelda which can only be broken by the power of a third Triforce (The Triforce of Courage), sealed in a palace in Hyrule. To access this Triforce, Link must place 6 crystals in other palaces throughout Hyrule, so he sets out to find this Triforce and save Princess Zelda from sleeping. This is almost always assumed to happen right after The Legend of Zelda because he already has two Triforces and is looking for the third, a rare situation to be sure. What is unclear is exactly how long Princess Zelda has been asleep. The manual makes it seem like a loooong time, which makes no sense. It is most likely that Princess Zelda was attacked with the sleeping spell soon after the conclusion of The Legend of Zelda, probably in part of an attempt to bring Ganon back to life, since after all, when Link dies that is "RETURN OF GANON". This game takes place in a weird location, one not seen in any other game. The Legend of Zelda's map, a large area south of and including Death Mountain, roughly equivalent to the top-right corner of A Link to the Past's map, is a tiny little south-west corner in this game. This is north and east of Death Mountain, in a huge world including a bunch of towns named mostly after sages and also after Mido. Hyrule's coast is on the east side, and also the North, and there are four more islands off east. Two small ones, a boot one, and a maze one. Intriguing. The name of Link's sword and shield are not given in game, but are presumed to be Magical Sword and Shield from The Legend of Zelda, so the Master Sword is still absent. In each town there is an old man with a daughter, who will teach you magic. Volvagia makes an apperance as one of the palace guardians, which is not that surprising. Volvagia is a good choice for a benevolent boss monster.
Situation at end:
Link saves Hyrule and is a real hero! The last boss is, confusingly, Dark Link. He jumps out of Link when he sees the Triforce of Courage, and Link fights him and then takes it and saves Zelda, receiving a kiss in return. Dark Link might represent Link debating with himself over whether to use his wish on saving Zelda or whether to rule the world as a pig demon, or he might be a literal enemy meant to guard the Triforce. Anyways, everything is fine.
A Link to the Past
Situation at beginning:
The Triforce used to rest in the Sacred Realm. Many people fought over it, but eventually someone got in and took it, and since then the Sacred Realm has radiated evil. The Seven Wise Men were ordered by the King to seal the entrance to the Sacred Realm from Hyrule, and did so. Anyways, Ganon was in there. Aghanim has killed the King and opened the seal, and has started kidnapping the Seven Maidens, descendants of the Men. Hyrule is a kingdom surrounded by mountains and forests in this game, with no coast in sight. The geography is all south and west of Death Mountain, with a Lost Woods in the upper left-hand corner and Kakariko village just south of the Woods. Lake Hylia is in the Southeast corner of the map, the Sanctuary and the Graveyard are south of Death Mountain, and the Castle is somewhat in the middle of this area. Link's house is near the Castle, where he lived with his Uncle, a Knight of Hyrule. Ganon is in the Sacred Realm, with the entire Triforce, and has made his wish to rule the entire world, which has only been partially granted to him. He rules the Dark Realm (his corrupted Sacred Realm), and has apparently become a hideous pig demon, but maybe only because he's in the Dark Realm, which corrupts the form of all who enter. His hideout is in a tower he has built in the Dark Realm, replacing the Tower of Hera, named Ganon's Tower. Link starts out with some crappy equipment from his Uncle, but gains the Master Sword (in the Lost Woods) and the Mirror Shield. He then makes the Master Sword twice as awesome by getting some dwarves and then a very fat fairy to improve it. The only place people live, other than still living Wise Men who hide in caves, is Kakariko Village.
Situation at end:
Link kills Aghanim, and then Ganon the pig, using Silver Arrows and the Master Sword. It appears that Aghanim turns into Ganon, which is strange. Perhaps Aghanim was the embodiment of Ganon? Anyways Link gets the Triforce (yeah, the whole thing) who explains a bunch of stuff about it, because apparently it can talk. Link makes a wish to set everything back to normal peace, and then puts the Master Sword back in its pedestal where it "sleeps forever". The Sacred Realm theoretically goes completely back to normal as well, but not definitely, nothing is said about it specifically.
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