Nintendo Confirms Zelda Series Timeline.

[Triforceman22]

First of all, the split-timeline is not an idea, theory, or whatever else you want to call it, and I don't get why people think it is.  Fans didn't speculate the idea of a split-timeline; Nintendo themselves created, announced, and explained the split-timeline back when WW was released.  You see, even though Nintendo refuses to make a timeline for the series as a whole, certain parts have been confirmed, such as how MM follows OoT.

Secondly, to answer your question:  you are half-right.  Here's how it works:  At the end of Ocarina of Time, Link sealed up Ganon in the future, and Zelda, feeling sorry that she had gotten Link involved in all this, sent him back to the past so he could relive those lost 7 years of his life.  However, the problem was that Zelda sent him back in time instead of rewinding time, which made two separate timelines.  In the Child Timeline, Link was a kid again and was now sent back to right before Ganondorf attacked.  Because he was sent back instead of rewound, Link retained all his memories and informed Zelda and the King of what Ganondorf was going to do.  This allowed them to stop it from ever happening in their timeline, which is actually shown in a flashback scene of TP in which they fail to execute him and decide to send him to the Twilight Realm, and during the execution, MM happens as Link is in Termina looking for the missing Navi.  Meanwhile, in the Adult Timeline, the events of OoT are still in effect, with Zelda as an adult and Ganon[dorf] sealed in the Sacred realm, but Link has ceased to exist because he was sent to the Child Timeline.  Years later, ALttP happens as Ganon tries to escape the Sacred Realm but is stopped by a Link, and then the next time he tries it there is no Link so Hyrule is flooded to stop him, resulting in WW.

Well that clears that up...

I was confused about the whole split timeline thing too. :P

[JrDude]

If you think that Minish Cap is the first because he got his hat there, I feel like pointing out how it's a stupid reason to be called the "first." That Link may have gotten his hat in Minish Cap, but in Ocarina of Time, Link got his hat there too! Oh wait, he got his whole uniform there because all Kokiri wear those clothes.

I know only little (if any) think that's the first game due to that, but I just felt like saying it somewhere.

[Jono2]

why do people even care that much?  Nintendo released the "Official" Metroid timeline and they screwed it up then already. :\