Headscratchers / Hyrule Warriors

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Warning: Spoilers Off applies to this page. Proceed at your own risk.

Sheik

• So where did Zelda learn how to fight as Sheik? In Ocarina of Time, there was always an implication that Impa trained her, since they escaped together and Impa's dialogue after the Shadow Temple indicates she knows where Zelda is. But this Impa is explicitly unaware of Sheik's identity. Also, why did Zelda choose to reveal herself in front of Wizzro when her whole reason for the disguise was to hide herself from her enemies?
  • By that time, there was no point in hiding her true identity, since Cia already discovered the secret after gaining the Triforce of Wisdom from her Sheik alter ego.
  • Rule of Cool. She needed to have a cool reveal while fighting Dark Zelda/Wizzro.
  • As far as how Zelda learned to fight as Sheik, it could be Hand Waved if one assumes the "Guise of Sheik" is just another magical weapon of the Hyrulian Royal Family. Ocarina of Time Zelda used Sheik in the past, so perhaps the magical powers that allowed that Zelda to be a Sheikah Warrior was passed down generations, the same as the Goddess Harp, Royal Rapier, Wind Waker, and Dominion Rod. As for why she remained as Sheik after her Triforce piece was stolen, it could be that she was afraid that if she revealed herself, Impa would refuse to let her continue fighting, and this Zelda didn't want to just sit safely in her castle while her entire kingdom was in peril. Of course, a lot of this is just conjecture.
    • To add to this, Tetra in The Wind Waker actually has a lot in common with Sheik, in terms of her appearance and skillset. Maybe the princess who survived the Great Flood assumed the guise of Sheik in order to hide herself better on the Great Sea, and Tetra is what the royal family looks like after several generations under this disguise. Also explains why she loses her tan once she's revealed as Princess Zelda, just like Sheik did in Ocarina of Time.

Reasoning of Sheik

• Related to the above, aside from just having a reason to get her into the game, what exactly was the point of the whole Sheik persona? Zelda's excuse was flimsy at best. Cia stole her Triforce two levels before Zelda turned back to normal. And the enemy even used Zelda's disappearance to cause even more trouble for the Hylian forces. And of course, once she changes back, the whole thing is never mentioned again.
  • There are multiple reasons one could assume for Zelda using a disguise, for instance: By being 'missing', Cia would have no reason to continue her attack on Hyrule Castle. This could be a strategic move so that the castle wouldn't stand risk of falling and be a crushing blow to the morale of Zelda's troops. Second, Cia was not aware that Sheik was Zelda, and therefore had to split her forces, one to continue fighting Link and the rest to search for Zelda. Otherwise, Cia would have had no reason not to just pool her forces together and crush the Hyrulian army if both of her intended targets (Link and Zelda) were in one place. Again, conjecture, but possible reasoning for Zelda's actions.

Effectiveness of Sheik

• How was the Sheik disguise even effective? Given Cia's former job, she should know the truth about the original Sheik in the Hero of Time's era, considering how vital she was to that Link's quest.
  • Zelda doesn't know about the other timelines. As far as she's aware, Sheik is a completely original idea that's never been done before.
  • This is unfortunate, as it's established that Impa remembered the stories of the Hero of Time, and even recognized Ruto's name when it was first used. She really should have taught Zelda more history.
  • Ruto’s legacy being famed in-universe would make a lot more sense than Sheik’s, since the latter is apparently a secret identity that the royals can assume in times of need. Such a secret identity being common knowledge to the point of being passed down through history would defeat the purpose of it being a disguise. As for Cia recognizing it, it’s likely she knew that Sheik was really Zelda but didn’t see the point in revealing the truth. After all, if Impa were to find out, she’d probably insist that Zelda go back into hiding, making it harder for Cia to target her than if she’s out on the battlefield unbeknownst to her allies.

Midna's curse

• Cia's the one who cursed Midna in this game, right? How is she gonna fix that? She never does get cured of the condition at the end, which takes place after Cia's death, even.
  • Out of universe, the obvious answer is that they just didn't have a model built for Midna's true form, so they couldn't show it. But if you're looking for an in-universe explanation, in Twilight Princess, even though Zant cursed her, he did so with Ganon's magic, so the curse didn't end until Ganon was killed. Given Cia's initial status as The Dragon to Ganondorf in this game, it's possible something similar occurred, and since Midna and the others left almost immediately after his defeat, she was gone before we saw her shift back (it wasn't instantaneous in TP either).
  • It's been speculated that True Form Midna was planned, due to at least one Demo verion showing a locked second weapon slot for her. It's also possible she's the charcter (or the weapon) from the TP pack.
  • Yep. Midna's true form is a DLC character.
  • Yeah... it struck me as odd that the lore said Cia turned Midna into her imp form, but when Cia first enters the Twilight Realm in her story mode, Midna is already in her imp form fighting against Zant.
  • A possible thought no one remembered: both Cia and Zant had been given extra power by Ganondorf in different ways, so the curse may not be due to Cia, but due to Ganondorf, explaining why Midna was still in her form after Cia's defeat (Remember, in Twilight Princess, Midna still was in her imp form after Zant's defeat, and only changed back after Ganondorf was defeated). Her exact quote, "I'm cursed to look like this because of HER!", may not have been directed to Cia, but the entity that was controlling her - Ganondorf.

Power bracelet and Armos

• Why do you need a Power Bracelet to move an Armos in Adventure Mode? It's particularly glaring when you consider that one Armos you need to move is the one that was hiding the Power Bracelet in the original game.
  • They just needed another object for the Power Bracelet card to affect, would be my guess.

Other Links and Zeldas

• Shouldn't there be three other Links and Zeldas hanging out somewhere in the three past eras?
  • Well, beside the DLC costume of them, I'd take it.
  • The characters don't travel to the other eras. Instead, pieces of the terrain, along with the people there, got mixed together with the present. Since no past version of the Hyrule Castle (or wherever the past Links are) got brought to the present, those characters are nowhere to be seen.
  • Also, let's have a looksee at the three different eras - in one, we've got Princess Ruto as an adult and Darunia with the Megaton Hammer, meaning it's clearly after the ending of Ocarina of Time, where Link was banished from the Adult branch of the timeline and returned to his childhood years; meanwhile, Fi is still inside the Goddess Sword in Skyloft, meaning her incarnation of Link probably hasn't been born yet, and I'm not sure about Midna and the era of Twilight, but since she has those Twilit wolves as part of her moveset, it stands to reason that it could've been at a time after the events of her game, and Link just didn't happen to be in the area.
  • This does stand out when Navi asks Impa and Sheik for help. According to her, someone named Zelda showed up and kidnapped Princess Ruto. She doesn't recognize the name of the very-much-alive princess from her own era?
    • Maybe Navi knows SOMETHING about "Zelda" was off. She doesn't know exactly what, but can perceive that whatever that person is, it's not the Zelda of her era
  • Maybe saying "someone named Zelda" instead of just "Zelda" was her way of differentiating between the newcomer and the princess from her own time? On the other hand, it's possible that the Japanese version of the game (which has a generic, nameless fairy instead of Navi) is canon over the NA release in this regard - in-universe, it's actually just a regular healing fairy who's asking for help, and she doesn't know that the queen of Hyrule at that time happens to also be named Zelda.

Twilight and non-natives

• If you take a look at Twilight Princess, whenever someone went into the Twilight when they didn't naturally live in it, they became a spirit. The exceptions are the Triforce bearers — Zelda maintaining human form, Link becoming a wolf, and Ganondorf becoming a... Head thing — and Link probably keeps his human form in he the Palace of Twilight because he has the Master Sword (and in that case, the twilight is naturally part of the area instead of forced on it like in Hyrule). The light is also quite absolute in its status: the light spirit is okay and the land is bathed in light or it's dying/injured/not okay and the land is cloaked in twilight. Here in Hyrule Warriors? When you play as Lana in the Twlight Fields, neither her nor Agitha (nor any of the Hylian soldiers) become spirits, and Twlight covers the area in patches. Lana's case could be justified with her magic, but what about Agitha? And also the region is pretty clearly Eldin province, and therefore under the rule of the light spirit Eldin, so is he half dead or something? Neither Lana or Agitha bring up anything more about the twilight than "it's shadowy" or "Mr. Butterfly doesn't like it much", of course, so why is no one becoming a spirit, and why isn't the whole map under the influence of twilight?
  • The Twilight areas in Hyrule Warriors are presumably created by Midna, possibly using the Fused Shadows, rather than Zant with the help from Ganon's power. Maybe that's enough to create the areas without the need to incapacitate the Light Spirit. Or, in Doylist terms, Gameplay and Story Segregation. It's also weird that Midna has no problems walking around in the Light World without resorting to her shadowy form.
  • It's probably all because Midna's the one behind it this time. Midna's magic is very different from Zant's. Midna's only made some areas Twilit, and even then, maybe she cut a deal with the Light Spirits. It's not unreasonable. As for how she's okay in the light realm, this clearly takes place AFTER Twilight Princess considering how open Midna is this time, and her wolves.
• Because it is fanservice, it is not supposed to follow the games.

• As a related question, exactly how did a Great Fairy start hanging out in the Twilight Realm? And does any of that above stuff affect her?
  • Midna mentioned the existence of guardian gods in her realm back in Twilight Princess, so it's not out of the question that a Great Fairy could live there, as well. As for the effects of living there, it's only the "evil" twilight Zant casts over Hyrule that transforms light-dwellers into spirits; the natural twilight of Midna's realm only effects people long-term, seemingly by causing them to evolve into the forms the Twili take. And not only is the Great Fairy an immensely powerful magical being who probably wouldn't be affected by the twilight, but she only spends a few minutes in the twilight each time she's summoned at her fountain.

Complete Triforce

• So both Cia and Ganondorf end up obtaining the complete Triforce at different points in the game, with Cia making it look criminally easy. Cia's goal is to have Link all to herself, so she uses the Triforce's omnipotent power to... mix the timelines together for the evil plan. Why didn't Cia just wish for Link to be hers forever and for Zelda to vanish? And when Ganondorf tries to hijack the plot, she separates the Triforce, then uses the Triforce of Power to seal Ganondorf. WHY?! Why couldn't she use the whole Triforce for that? What was the point of separating it? And then we have the latter, who uses the Triforce to gather power to become Ganon again. That is more reasonable, but that still begs the question why he didn't use the Triforce to wish for all the heroes to vanish as soon as the battle started going south. Both villains get the ultimate power and they both waste it! Is there any reason behind this or is it just bad writing?
  • Well, we wouldn't have much of a game if they just wished for that, but maybe their minds slipped?
  • Perhaps evil fell to vices: Cia to pettiness and Ganondorf to pride. At first, under the Big Bad's influence, Cia was not able to bring about her own wish, and later, in order to spite Ganondorf, she performs her acts in defiance of the Big Bad. As for Ganondorf — come on, it's the King of Evil himself, they've got to show their stuff, which translates to personally squashing the resistance with extreme prejudice.
  • The Triforce never seems so all-powerful in the games. It could never get rid of evil permanently, and even when Ganon asked for dominion over Hyrule before The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, all he got was enough power to conquer it by himself (and the Sages still managed to seal him before he could act on it). It's seen to be able to bring people back to life, but it never directly kills anything or compels anyone to go against their will. As for the part that Cia separated the Triforce, she probably knew she wouldn't be able to stop Ganon for long even with the whole thing, so she made sure to send the other pieces back to their chosen ones... somehow. And since the Triforce of Power rightfully belongs to Ganon, all she could do was try to use it against him to buy them time.
  • Cia has the excuse of being possessed by Ganondorf for the first portion of the game, and losing the full Triforce by the time he exits. As for Ganondorf, even as the battle is going south and he's near death, his dialogue suggests he still thinks his own victory is ensured, so he didn't see a need to waste the Triforce on a wish until it was too late.
  • Maybe Cia doesn't want to wish for Link's love because it's something she wants to earn for herself? I mean, yeah, trying to kill him and his friends and generally acting against everything he's ever stood for obviously isn't the best way to win him over, but it makes sense that she'd want to try to win his affection legitimately.

Destined love

• Why exactly is it such a foregone conclusion that Link and Zelda will end up together before the story starts? Granted, this particular game makes that outcome seem likely; however, that's explicitly due to Cia's own actions. Since previous games have often given Link several potential love interests, one has to wonder what would have happened if Cia had just tried saying "Hello" instead of dumping her good side and starting a war. I guess the implication that Link and Zelda always end up together feels like it flies in the face of many other games' tradition.
  • I took it to mean they get "together" in a more platonic way, being so close to each other, but not necessarily in a romantic fashion. And I also imagined Cia's job prevented her from just having a normal life and pursuing a relationship, she had all of time-space to guard. So, seeing how Zelda was so close to her hero across the ages, while she couldn't really leave her place and meet him personally ended up causing the downward spiral that led to Cia.
  • The opening cutscene spells out that the reason Cia was so broken was because "his heart was destined for another", so it's more or less stated they will eventually fall in love. Zelda seeing Link for the first time made it pretty clear she was impressed already, though there isn't a whole lot of romance going on in the game itself. I think it's more that they eventually will fall for each other, or at the very most only the beginnings of those feelings are already there. Either way, the fact that they say "[the Hero's] heart" so often makes it pretty obvious that he's going to fall in love with Zelda.
  • I think what they're asking is why we have to assume that Link will always end up with Zelda, to the point where Cia (or Lana) will never have a chance to have him for herself. Link had interest in girls other than Zelda in other games - both Marin and Ilia immediately come to mind - and there are a few games that don't have him paired up with any girl at all, so people just pair the hero and the princess because that's what happens in fairy tales, not because of any interaction they have with each other. In my opinion, it severely cheapens a relationship or a whole series of relationships if what's implied is that they are all only assumed because destiny says so.
  • Also, why are you expecting a Yandere to pursue a relationship in a sensible fashion?
    • That's a good point actually. Cia was kinda forced into being a Yandere for Link before the story even really started.
  • I kind of took the 'destined for each other' bit as more that their destinies would always intertwine due to the triforce and such, doesn't necessarily have to be romantic (big case being Twilight Princess). Mind you, I ship Zelink like nobodies business (TP being like the only exception due to Midna and Illia having better chemistry with Link in that game), but I think the 'destined for romance' idea may have been an oversight in the writing or the translation. At the very least, the way I see it is Cia, watching Link and Zelda's destinies constantly being involved with each other, regardless of how platonic they may be, became jealous of how they were destined to be involved in each other's lives. That being said, while the relationship wasn't handled particularly well, the game's story is as basic as basic gets. I don't think it was meant to be deep anyway so this could be over-analyzing what is supposed to be a fairly shallow story.
  • The general rule in the main games seems to be that Link will either have a childhood friend he's interested in, or he gets paired with Zelda. And ignoring that, Cia does tell Lana that they've both seen how their hopes will be dashed; in other words, with or without Zelda, it's apparently fated that Link will never choose either of them. That could be where their true anguish lies: not with Link for neglecting to choose them, but with the tragic fates they've been assigned that bar them off from him.

Twilight DLC damage

• Why do the enemies do so much more damage in the Twilight Princess DLC than in any other map, excluding Critical Damage levels? A grunt, the smallest enemies, take off 700 HP (a heart and three quarters) in one hit! That's almost half of the total damage you can take before the second Skulltula for any level is lost! For mooks that almost always go down in one hit, that is a lot of damage. Every other map's base units only do a quarter heart of damage, so why the drastic change in damage output for the TP DLC? Yes, I know I could just not get hit, but people get careless.
  • One theory is that with the level cap getting repeatedly raised and stronger potions added with each update, the developers wanted one map that would be challenging to even the strongest players.

Lana's survival

• How is Lana still alive after the second Ganondorf level? While a lot of characters merely "retreat" after being defeated, that's because they're usually in your way and you're usually playing as a hero, who isn't likely to murder them unless necessary. With this mission, though, Lana's already trying to retreat and you're moving to intercept her, you're playing as Ganondorf who has no problem killing everything to get what he wants, Lana as a character is unlikely to just surrender and give up the Triforce to save her own skin, and to top it all off, she did a good job of pissing the King of Evil off. It gets even stranger in the next level, where you have to beat Zelda and Link into submission several times to claim their pieces, and yet Ganondorf never thinks to just ram his swords through their guts afterward.
  • Maybe it's one of those "too weak to kill" scenarios. He's disappointing they lost and doesn't see a point to killing them when he has what he wants anyway. He might also want to kill them all at once.
  • Well with Lana, you could justify Ganondorf sparing her or at least Hand Wave it that the second he got the Triforce of Power, he didn't want to waste another second before marching on Hyrule to claim Wisdom and Courage. Basically to Ganon, it was like not bothering to swat a fly that happened to be there.
  • To those who haven't played it, this is basically what happens at the end of The Wind Waker - Ganondorf beats Link to a pulp, only to admit that he's not concerned with killing him and only wants the Triforce pieces that he and Zelda possess. Stands to reason the same could conceivably apply to Lana.

Lana in the end

• What's going to happen to Lana now that everything is over? Does she go back to overseeing the balance of the Triforce and the timelines in Cia's place, or...?
  • Legends expands the story a bit more, and in the new ending Cia is resurrected and Lana and Cia work together as the guardians of the timelines.

Lana's creation

• All that is said in the story is that Lana is the Light of Cia's soul that was forced out of her by Ganondorf. The most important detail that is missing is HOW the light manifested itself as a corporeal being.
  • My guess is, Ganondorf may have done it, as a means of ensuring her "good half" couldn't just try merging back with her "evil half". Odds are doing so would've been a lot simpler if Lana had just been an ethereal ball of light or something.
  • Well, Ganon has been able to split himself in a separate persona in the past, and both Impa and Lana are seen to have the same ability in Hyrule Warriors (with Ganondorf commenting on how he knows the technique when Impa does it). So, it's probably the same thing that happened with the forceful split.
  • That's probably the most likely explanation - when Lana mentioned Cia's "light" being forced out of her, she presumably didn't mean it that literally.

Fi's defenses

• How is Fi able to take damage so easily? When Ghirahim stripped down to his sword spirit form in Skyward Sword, his body deflected all attacks since he was made entirely of metal, and the only way to deal damage was by stabbing at the diamond in his chest. I know that Fi was originally designed for guidance, not combat, but she spends this entire game in a similar form that appears to be made of a similar material, albeit with clothes on, so is there any in-universe reason why she's so vulnerable to attacks?
  • Perhaps Ghirahim was created by Demise as not just a weapon, but a minion who can act and fight on his own? Meanwhile Fi was always meant to just be a support for the Hero rather than a combatant in her own right, so her physical form is more fragile.

Proportions

• Why are Ravio and Yuga updated to have more realistic proportions, while the Toon-brand of characters retain their signature style?
  • Maybe because the proportions for the art (rather than the in-game graphics) weren't so different.

Lokomo Sword

• The Hero's and Phantom Swords are both paired with the starting shields from their respective games when Toon Link uses them...so why is the Lokomo Sword paired with The Wind Waker's Mirror Shield? It's not as if Spirit Tracks didn't have its own design for a shield, so why didn't they use that one?
  • They probably wanted the level 3 weapon to stand out more, as most weapons have a clear rise in design complexity as they level up. The shield from Spirit Tracks, even though it has a different colour and design, is not that obviously "better", and the Lokomo and Phantom Swords are also quite similar, so they chose to bump up the shield to WW's Mirror Shield instead.
  • It could also be in reference to the fact that the Link who wielded the Kokomo Sword also was given a shield that belonged to the Hero of Winds, although originally it was one of the shields from Phantom Hoyrglass as opposed to The Wind Waker.

Purpose of the guardian

• If the Guardian of Time was intended to keep eternal watch over the timelines, but without interfering...If she can't interfere in anything, why is she keeping watch in the first place? If something were to go wrong, what could she do to remedy it that wouldn't qualify as interfering?
  • Perhaps the Guardian is there to signal others to step in. To awaken a Link, or direct intervention from the Goddesses. Either that, or they're simply supposed to chronicle history as it occurs, for good or ill (thus the existence of both the WW timeline and the "Link falls" timelines in canon)

How can Cia have a Heel-Face Turn?

• Her "good side" is Lana. Even without Ganondorf corrupting Cia anymore, her good side is simply no longer part of her. Without remerging with Lana, how is it possible for her to not be evil, or at best neutral?
  • Character development. She may have started as a being made of all the darkness in original Cia/Lana's soul, but by all means she has become her own person after the split, and thus is capable of changing and improving as a person.
  • It also takes more than just "bad" qualities to make someone an evil person. It's never said that Lana was the "goodness" purged out of Cia; she was just Cia's "better half" who helped keep her negative impulses in check. And Lana helping Cia to make her Heel–Face Turn works in the same way; she convinced Cia to be a better person in the same way she did when they were one.

Missing cast member

• Why does the game only feature one character from Skyward Sword's era while the other eras each contribute two characters? Could they not think of anyone else besides Fi? What about Groose?
  • It did have two though? Ghirahim was right there.
  • The question refers to playable characters who join the Hyrulean cause during the campaign. One era features Darunia and Ruto, another features Agitha and Midna, but the third only has Fi.
  • A possible answer is that they didn’t want to have to explain where Skyward Sword Link was while monster hordes were invading Skyloft. The events of the Sky era can’t be taking place after Skyward Sword since Fi is still alive and kicking, meaning they can’t exactly feature anyone else from that era without begging the question of where Link is. Groose, in particular, would have no reason to join the Hyrulean forces at a point where the Goddess Sword hasn’t left Skyloft yet, since his only motivator prior to his character development was to gain favor from his era’s iteration of Zelda.

Items

I can understand one person grabbing a new item from a chest, but how does EVERYONE have it? Even before they even meet up again? For example, in the Wind Waker saga, you pick up the Hammer with Link and Tetra, then in the next map where in the beginning you only control Lana, she just... has it for some reason? Where did SHE get the hammer? Heck, save for Darunia, where did EVERYONE get their own hammer?