Tye
All-around Nintendo enjoyer
- Pronouns
- they/them
Finally beat it, and absolutely loved the game, though I am left wishing the game gave more answers.
Like…what’s up with the Master Sword in the ancient past? Not the second instance of it that had been sent back in time after being destroyed in the future—I mean the original instance of the Master Sword in that time that should exist dormant somewhere. Why did no one seem to know about it or where it was? It’s especially odd since assuming the Forgotten Temple is what had become of the Sealed Temple from Skyward Sword, the Master Sword should have originally been there. And since that back room of the Forgotten Temple where the Secret Stones originally were that was hidden in BotW was shown in a memory, we know the sages had already been there, of course. So they should clearly at least know about, if not have the Master Sword back then…yet it’s seemingly completely unknown to everyone besides Zelda, for some reason.
Speaking of Zelda, if she’s a distant relative of Sonia and Rauru…why wasn’t their kid shown? Surely they had to have had a child already that would carry on their lineage. It’s probably just supposed to be implied that they exist but are just never shown, but then why not even mention them?
And then there’s Ganondorf. Why was he able to become so powerful—enough to overpower all of the sages—just by stealing a single Secret Stone? There’s just no explanation given at all for that. It can’t be the Triforce either, as it seems to still exist within Zelda in whole as it did in BotW, though neither game acknowledges it at all. That’s yet another oddity that goes unexplained.
Also, while they go unnamed, I assume the ancient sages have the same names as their OoT counterparts; Darunia, Ruto, and Nabooru. (Not sure about the Rito; could be Medli as Vah Medoh seems to get its name from, but since the Rito sage is male I’m not so sure.) That would explain the mentions of Ruto and Nabooru despite the events of OoT clearly not taking place in this timeline.
Finally, that brings me to timeline stuff. Leading up to the release I believed that BotW and TotK took place on the Child Timeline, then thought that it had to somehow be the Downfall Timeline after learning that the Imprisoning War is mentioned, until finally realizing that no, actually, this has to be an entirely new timeline altogether. The question is, is it supposed to connect to one of the other timelines in some way, or is it just supposed to be its own separate continuity entirely?
I personally believe (and hope) that it’s the former, with this game taking place in a branching timeline from Skyward Sword. Specifically, the timeline where Link defeats Demise in Hylia’s era and then leaves to his original timeline. This would be a timeline where Demise was already destroyed in the distant past, so the full events of SS would have no reason to happen, and it would make sense for things to eventually play out very differently. The main issue being that SS’s time travel is kinda…weird and contradictory to itself at times, sometimes presenting itself as a closed loop but not always, and honestly just thinking about it makes my head hurt, lol. But inconsistencies with time travel aside (that was also a thing in OoT to a degree, after all), BotW/TotK would fit into that timeline very well.
It explains why Hylia is seemingly still around as a goddess in BotW/TotK despite becoming mortal in SS, for example; rather than choosing to become mortal thousands of years later in an effort to use the Triforce to completely eradicate Demise, Demise is instead defeated early by Link with the Master Sword, so Hylia could have stayed a goddess in that timeline, though weakened—possibly bound to the Goddess Statue? I always thought it was weird that Hylia was apparently still around as a goddess in BotW since that shouldn’t be possible after she became mortal in SS…but BotW/TotK taking place in a timeline where she didn’t become mortal finally explains that!
It could also somehow explain the weirdness of the Triforce in BotW/TotK, because it would have presumably stayed hidden by Hylia in that timeline…and somehow found its way into the bloodline of Royal Family (likely by Hylia’s doing), though its true nature left unknown. That would explain why the Triforce is never mentioned and this timeline’s parallel of OoT has no conflict over the Triforce, but the Secret Stones instead. There are other things that make a lot of sense with this timeline, too, but it’s late and I’m tired and can’t think super well right now, lol.
I guess the one big question is…what’s up with the Zonai in the other timeline(s)? Why don’t they seem to have been around at all? Though a lot of the designs from the Four Swords trilogy games, particularly The Minish Cap, do bear a striking resemblance to Zonai designs, like the eye symbol that’s commonly associated with Vaati (but not exclusively, as it’s also used for ancient artifacts unrelated to Vaati like the Dark Mirror), so perhaps they were still around there in some capacity…
Like…what’s up with the Master Sword in the ancient past? Not the second instance of it that had been sent back in time after being destroyed in the future—I mean the original instance of the Master Sword in that time that should exist dormant somewhere. Why did no one seem to know about it or where it was? It’s especially odd since assuming the Forgotten Temple is what had become of the Sealed Temple from Skyward Sword, the Master Sword should have originally been there. And since that back room of the Forgotten Temple where the Secret Stones originally were that was hidden in BotW was shown in a memory, we know the sages had already been there, of course. So they should clearly at least know about, if not have the Master Sword back then…yet it’s seemingly completely unknown to everyone besides Zelda, for some reason.
Speaking of Zelda, if she’s a distant relative of Sonia and Rauru…why wasn’t their kid shown? Surely they had to have had a child already that would carry on their lineage. It’s probably just supposed to be implied that they exist but are just never shown, but then why not even mention them?
And then there’s Ganondorf. Why was he able to become so powerful—enough to overpower all of the sages—just by stealing a single Secret Stone? There’s just no explanation given at all for that. It can’t be the Triforce either, as it seems to still exist within Zelda in whole as it did in BotW, though neither game acknowledges it at all. That’s yet another oddity that goes unexplained.
Also, while they go unnamed, I assume the ancient sages have the same names as their OoT counterparts; Darunia, Ruto, and Nabooru. (Not sure about the Rito; could be Medli as Vah Medoh seems to get its name from, but since the Rito sage is male I’m not so sure.) That would explain the mentions of Ruto and Nabooru despite the events of OoT clearly not taking place in this timeline.
Finally, that brings me to timeline stuff. Leading up to the release I believed that BotW and TotK took place on the Child Timeline, then thought that it had to somehow be the Downfall Timeline after learning that the Imprisoning War is mentioned, until finally realizing that no, actually, this has to be an entirely new timeline altogether. The question is, is it supposed to connect to one of the other timelines in some way, or is it just supposed to be its own separate continuity entirely?
I personally believe (and hope) that it’s the former, with this game taking place in a branching timeline from Skyward Sword. Specifically, the timeline where Link defeats Demise in Hylia’s era and then leaves to his original timeline. This would be a timeline where Demise was already destroyed in the distant past, so the full events of SS would have no reason to happen, and it would make sense for things to eventually play out very differently. The main issue being that SS’s time travel is kinda…weird and contradictory to itself at times, sometimes presenting itself as a closed loop but not always, and honestly just thinking about it makes my head hurt, lol. But inconsistencies with time travel aside (that was also a thing in OoT to a degree, after all), BotW/TotK would fit into that timeline very well.
It explains why Hylia is seemingly still around as a goddess in BotW/TotK despite becoming mortal in SS, for example; rather than choosing to become mortal thousands of years later in an effort to use the Triforce to completely eradicate Demise, Demise is instead defeated early by Link with the Master Sword, so Hylia could have stayed a goddess in that timeline, though weakened—possibly bound to the Goddess Statue? I always thought it was weird that Hylia was apparently still around as a goddess in BotW since that shouldn’t be possible after she became mortal in SS…but BotW/TotK taking place in a timeline where she didn’t become mortal finally explains that!
It could also somehow explain the weirdness of the Triforce in BotW/TotK, because it would have presumably stayed hidden by Hylia in that timeline…and somehow found its way into the bloodline of Royal Family (likely by Hylia’s doing), though its true nature left unknown. That would explain why the Triforce is never mentioned and this timeline’s parallel of OoT has no conflict over the Triforce, but the Secret Stones instead. There are other things that make a lot of sense with this timeline, too, but it’s late and I’m tired and can’t think super well right now, lol.
I guess the one big question is…what’s up with the Zonai in the other timeline(s)? Why don’t they seem to have been around at all? Though a lot of the designs from the Four Swords trilogy games, particularly The Minish Cap, do bear a striking resemblance to Zonai designs, like the eye symbol that’s commonly associated with Vaati (but not exclusively, as it’s also used for ancient artifacts unrelated to Vaati like the Dark Mirror), so perhaps they were still around there in some capacity…