[Jason1]

I still think Nintendo had no real timeline ever in their minds. I always figured that each Zelda title was just a standalone zelda with a new link, with the exception of a few like Majoras Mask. I think when they did the timeline for this book they just started making stuff up, as in "does this make sense? Multiple timelines? Yes yes thats good and if Link had failed in OOT we cant now stick this random game that doesnt belong over here...DONE"

I think thats pretty much how it went. No way that they had all this "this is the timeline if link fails" stuff in their heads from the begining.