This is referring to scenarios like the following:

• Demise defeats Link in SS
• Ganondorf defeats Link in TP
• Malladus defeats Link in ST
• Ganondorf defeats Link in TotK
• Vaati defeats Link in TMC/FS/FSA
• Ganondorf is allowed to wish in WW

Some of these are a little different than others with a Vaati victory maybe just meaning that you have a kind of demonic tyrant occupying part of Hyrule maybe while some others like Demise winning may mean the end of the world itself. Some of these guys talk about ruling the world under darkness; would this manifest by everyone turning into demons? Would demons and non-demons remain separate and the non-demons are just enslaved or otherwise marginalized?

If Ganondorf in WW was able to make his wish, what next? Does Hyrule just unflood and he gets to rule over it? Does it instead turn into a Dark World?

If Demise is able to claim the Triforce after defeating Link in SS, does he destroy the world? Does he make it into a Dark World?

This is an open ended discussion, I think the answer probably depends on who the villain is and the circumstances around their victory.

The answer may literally also just be "it cannot happen because the gods will intervene if that would ever happen"

So, when the timeline updated on the Japanese Zelda site, many (including the YouTuber Zeltik) were excited to see that within the website’s code, the placement of BOTW/TOTK is referred to as a “shared epilogue”, leading people to see this as some kind of confirmation that BOTW/TOTK are an “inevitable future” which would occur at the end of any branch of the timeline.

I don’t buy it, personally. For one, I highly doubt that anybody actually involved in the lore building or writing process was involved in the actual coding of the website. Most importantly however, in the context of the website, it is indeed literally a shared epilogue, as it displays the Wild era games after you finish scrolling through any of the timelines. It just feels like more of a coding label than anything else.

How do you guys feel? Sorry if this is poorly written, I am tired and hungover!