Headscratchers / The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

New entries on the bottom.

The Champion's Ballad Shrines

• It's said that one hundred years ago, the Champions did the challenges in the Champions Ballad, passing through rings, throwing balls in holes, etc. But did they also unlock the Shrines and complete them? And if they didn't, how did they get their emblems. Did they need the emblems?
  • It's stated by Zelda and confirmed by Purah that none of the shrines or Sheikah Towers were activated until the Great Plateau Tower's terminal was activated by Link. The trials the Champions partook in likely only consisted of the tasks you need to do to uncover each shrine, not the shrines themselves.

Characters never sleeping

• Some characters, such as Lasli, Claree, Segassa and Sophie are constantly wide awake despite never having a wink of sleep. How on earth are they not collasping of exhaustion?
  • In the case of Claree and Sophie, both being shopkeepers, they probably catch up on sleep whenever Link isn't in their shops. Same could go for the other characters, too; the game obviously isn't expecting you to tail them 24/7, so it can get away with the explanation that Link only happens to catch them when they're awake.

Hateno Village elders/leaders

• Every town and village in the game seems to have an elder or monarch yet Hateno has none. Tarrey Town doesn't seem to have one either but I'm assuming that would be Hudson due to him building that town from the ground up. But Hateno doesn't appear to have any kind of leader whatsoever. I'm guessing that it would have been ruled directly by the royal family due to being a Hylian village but with Zelda being busy keeping Ganon at bay, how come they didn't elect a mayor or something? Is Hateno basically an anarchy?
  • Another possibility is that, as a smaller village, it's more a relationship based system of doing things. Everyone knows everyone, and they trust their neighbors, so there's no need for a central leader
  • Hateno Village does have a leader; he's the man named Reede who lives in the large house with the Goddess Statue. He tells you he's the leader when you first speak to him out in the fields, but it's easy to miss him because he doesn't do anything leader-ish and is never mentioned by the other villagers, probably because Hateno is so small and uneventful that his role isn't very demanding.

Minish

• After The Minish Cap told us that the Minish hide little things in the grass and elsewhere to make people happy (which is a way to explain the rupees and hearts one finds cutting and breaking stuff), does that mean that they are extinct in Breath of the Wild?
  • Considering Rupees can still occasionally be found beneath rocks and such, it's safe to assume that the Minish are actually still around, just with dwindling numbers due to the castle being sealed off.
  • Since the door only opens every 100 years, it could be that only recently have any new Minish populations been able to migrate over to Hyrule. They could have been wiped out at one point, and now are beginning to reestablish themselves.
  • Context clues hint that a large part of the castle was destroyed when the Guardian pillars rose up from underground 100 years ago, and the room where you fight Ganon is located where most of the castle's interior (where all the collapsed hallways lead) is supposed to be. It's very likely that the door to the Minish world isn't even around anymore, meaning the only Minish remaining are those who were already in Hyrule before the Calamity.

Link's metabolism

• Despite that Link has a hyperactive metabolism, he cannot make use of it to simple survive the harsh cold, as the Ice Man aka Wim Hof demonstrates.
  • Just because the game is meant to be more realistic and accurate...doesn't mean it's going to be entirely realistic and accurate, you know.
  • It also wouldn't be nearly as funny.

Link's shield

• In all the flashbacks, how come Link is not carrying a shield? Aren't shields standard gear for the Royal Knights?
  • Probably because Hyrule wasn't actively at war. Carrying full battle gear (shield, bow, arrows, etc) all the time would be uncomfortable and send the wrong message to ordinary onlookers. The Master Sword was more than enough to handle the threats that lurked at the time. No one was sure when Calamity Ganon would awaken. Everyone was unprepared. The Hylian Shield, which I'm sure was going to be used by Link had there been pre-warning, was still locked away in Hyrule Castle. It's actually a bit of Fridge Logic really: because Link didn't have a shield (much less the Hylian Shield) to perfect block the Guardian horde, he was doomed to failure. tl;dr: Though the end times were approaching, it was still a golden age of peace. Even the other Champions didn't carry their gear 24-7. Link wielding the Master Sword all the time was necessary to protect Zelda, as well as a badge of office.
  • Either that, or it broke.
  • Ironically, the DLC reveals that Link was chosen as Zelda's bodyguard specifically because of his proficiency with a shield, as it's explained that a Guardian went nuts and started rampaging, but Link grabbed a pot lid and reflected its beam back at it before it could hurt anyone. Maybe things would've been different at Fort Hateno had he bothered to keep one on him...
  • Maybe it’s also meant to show that Link was too confident in his sword skills to think that a shield was necessary back then — Mipha does recall how reckless (and bruised) he was when she met him as a child, and Zelda says something similar after he’s taken out a horde of monsters in one of his memories.

Link's family

• If Link is from a prominent family of Hylian knights, how is he not at least minor nobility? Kass will tell you during his cutscene in the Rito Village that his teacher the court poet was jealous of Link in part because of the way Zelda was in love with him despite him being neither royalty or nobility. You would think that if his family put in enough service to be recognized they would have gotten a title somewhere along the way.
  • There is no reason to think Link is not nobility. In the past no one calls him Master Link because his associates are peers (Revali, Urbosa) or superiors (Zelda, Mipha). In the present nothing is left of Hylian nobility. The non-Hylian nobles who identify him are superiors (Prince Sidon, King Dorephan, Chief Riju) or another peer (Buliara). It should be pointed out the Sheikah DO call him Master Link (Paya does it all the time; others say it once or twice). They know who he is and are commoners, so it makes sense. Since we are unaware what the Hylian noble ranks are, Master for a martial noble could be the equivalent of Duke or Count; maybe they use the Templar system (Grand Master, Master, Brother, Acolyte, etc). We also never see Link kneel to anyone except the King of Hyrule and Princess Zelda. He doesn't even bow in the presence of King Dorephan or Chief Riju. That he doesn't give Riju enough respect causes obvious hate from Buliara. In addition, Mipha has known Link since he was a child. One does not traditionally associate with a Princess without having some social status. Unless Link was chosen by the Master Sword at a very young age, he was already a person of privilege who become someone even more important after becoming The Chosen One.
  • Minor point, but Urbosa is also his superior. Revali and Daruk are peers (and parallels to each other, rising in status through feats of arms). Urbosa, Mipha, and Zelda outrank him (Cheiftan of the Gerudo, Princess of the Zora, and Princess of Hyrule, respectively)
  • Plus, several of the Zora who remember Link (Such as the innkeeper, or Bazz if you talk to him a second time) do call him "Master Link."
  • I'd question Mipha calling Link Master outside Rule 34 kinks myself.
  • Actually the original poster already stated the reason to believe Link has no noble status: The only one who brings this up explicitly (via Kass) is Kass's mentor, the court poet and also a member of the Sheikah clan. If anything he'd know who would or wouldn't have a noble status in the king's court because it's his job, as a part of making poems and songs about the people important to Hyrule's history, and his jealousy towards Link was entirely because Zelda loved him despite his lack of status. Yes it's weird that Link's family have a history of being knights without at least some status to their name that would put them above general commoners but as Kass was given this information long after the poet's spite towards Link waned it wouldn't make sense for him to lie and make a false allegation like that. The Modern Sheikah addressing him as "Master" makes plenty of sense for something to be done for Link personally, not based on his family's merits, as Zelda valued him enough personally to put him in recovery for a century instead of allow the reincarnation cycle to take effect and replace him and made it their job to help aid him as Hyrule's last hope.
  • There's still an interpretation that allows Link to be nobility AND Kass's mentor to not be lying, but have a prejudice against him. Link's father is nouveau riche and Link was already born when his father was knighted. It was common for old school nobility to refuse acceptance of the uplifted nobility. Thus Link is nobility because his father was knighted, and those in his family also became so, but the established nobility don't consider them "true blue blood" because they haven't been established long enough. Zelda does mention that his father is a notable knight. Whatever deed he performed, might have been worthy for elevation from common status. The king's diary mentions that Link was selected as Zelda's knight not because of his heritage, but because he was outstanding with a sword (and of course The Chosen One). Link is still a commoner to the established — a mere parvenu lacking pedigree. It takes a few more generations before that prejudice goes away. Such a resentment would fit and perhaps fuel Kass's mentor jealousy. The king does hint this sort of petty court intrigue exists in Hyrule: he tells Zelda as much... that some whisper she's unworthy to inherit the throne (in worst case scenario, such talk can even lead to sedition).
  • Another possibility is that, just like in Modern Britain, knighthood is a status, but not an inherited title, comparable to a military rank. While historically, knights were derived from nobility, the two ranks were independent of each other. "Master" is roughly equivalent to "sir", so Link has acquired the title from being knighted, and has a father who is also a knight, but he has no noble blood of his own.
  • To make this clear for other tropers, knighthood doesn't require a noble birth necessarily, but to be trained as one from childhood. Knights typically became Pages at age 6, Squires upon reaching sexual maturity (which is age 12), and you only really attained knighthood upon either performing a heroic and noble feat (as in Link's case), or reaching age 21. While it was a requirement to be rich to fund the knight's education, rigorous training, and their horses, being part of the nobility was not an official requirement to become a knight. Since Link's family has a pedigree of being knights, it could be that his family was just rich, (at least enough to fund Link's education, training, and horse riding), but not be considered true nobility as Kass's mentor hints at. In light of this, Link attaining true knighthood at age 17 shows not only his heroism and selflessness, but his combat prowess, which far exceeded the knights at the time. How he did this by deflecting a death beam from a rogue Guardian with a pot lid as a mere Squire or Knight-In-Training, impressing the KING HIMSELF enough to knight him and make him as the guardian of his beloved daughter (who is royalty, mind you), doubles as an Off Screen Moment Of Awesome, and an Awesome Moment of Crowning. They don't call Link The Hero for nothing!
  • Another possibility is that Kass' teacher doesn't count Link's family as "true" nobility, in the sense of power. Sure, Link's father is a renowned knight, as is Link, but their family may not have been counted as proper nobility. No wealth, no land, no stake in governance, etc. They were simply uplifted swordsmen given a title, not "proper" nobility who ruled over Hyrule.
  • Possibly the traditions of Link's family include a long history of refusing to accept proffered titles of nobility, arguing that so far as they're concerned, there isn't any status they'd deem more worthy to hold than "knight".

Yiga fortress

• How does Link survive devastating attacks from Ganon or giant monsters (at least 15 hearts), yet an instant attack from a Yiga inside the hideout kills him?
  • Getting knocked down while surrounded by enemy combatants is a surefire way to get yourself killed.
  • Alternatively, it's so you know you aren't supposed to get caught.
  • When they are that dedicated to kill Link.
  • They binged on bananas beforehand.
  • They are former Sheikah, they probably have some sort of anti-Link technique in case a Link went a bit nuts and had to be put down.
  • ^ That seems unlikely, considering they didn't even have a shutoff feature in case their own robotic creations when a bit nuts and had to be shut down.
  • Perhaps it's a One-Hit Kill technique that the Blademasters developed and honed over the years between the Calamity and Link returning to save Hyrule. They practice it on anyone unlucky enough to be spotted within their hideout to keep their edge in using it (although this raises the question of why they didn't use it on Barta to ensure that Link is going in blind about the guards).
  • The likeliest answer is one that was suggested above - Link is more likely to get killed just by falling over when he's surrounded by people who won't give him time to get back up. The Yiga are certainly merciless enough for this to have merit, and if it were just a one-hit kill technique each of them has learned, it would raise the question of why none of them ever use it outside the fortress.
  • ^ One explanation why they only use the instant-kill inside their hideout: There is no chance of any non-Yiga seeing the technique. If they use it outside the fortress, there is a risk of someone witnessing the technique being used and spreading word about it no matter how small it is. Even if it would be advantageous for the Yiga to let this be known so that people live in fear of them or join them, someone allied with Link who hears of this technique would warn him about it.
    • Alternatively, if someone witnesses the technique, they could eventually learn to counter it, or perhaps even copy it.
  • Captain Obvious Gameplay and Story Segregation since the attack ignores fairies and Mipha's grace. The blademasters outside of the hideout does a lot less damage. The game will not let you save at that point. If this were logically canon, however, it is likely that the enemies in the game were too stupid enough to let their anti-Link weapons in the hideout, Calamity Ganon included.
  • Blademasters are likely being monitored by Master Kohga and their fellow members since they're inside the hideout so they had to be really careful when landing a hit. Should they fail to kill Link in a single hit, they could face a harsh consequences if Link survives the hit.
  • We know that ancient Sheikah technology had the potential for delivering One-Hit Kill attacks, thanks to stuff like Ancient Arrows and the Obliterator. Possibly the Yiga have managed to unravel some of the same Lost Technology secrets that Robbie's been messing with, sufficient to endow their Windcleavers with a one-shot instant death capacity. However, its lethality needs to be sustained by a power source that's hardwired into their hideout and can't be moved elsewhere, so they're unable to wield it if they bump into Link on the road.

Koroks and Zoras/Timeline Placement

• So in Wind Waker, it's established that the Kokiri evolved into Koroks to be able to traverse the Great Sea. However, we also learn that the Zoras evolved into Ritos due to the Great Sea not being hospitable to any kind of water-dwelling life. So how are both species around at the same time? The Koroks existing implies the game takes place after The Wind Waker, while the Zoras existing implies it doesn't. The two races existing at the same time shouldn't be possible.
  • It's possible in the same way that the coexistence of dogs and wolves is possible; a new species is capable of developing without necessitating the extinction of the species it evolved from. We only know of one population of Zoras who evolved into birdfolk (and we weren't given an exact reason why it happened); the Oracle games establish that there are other populations in the same world that Hyrule exists in. We don't even know if this game's Rito are meant to tie back to the Zora anyway.

Zelda and the Gerudo's eyes

• So, the Gerudo have always had yellow eyes in previous games, and the Hylians (Link and Zelda especially) have always had blue eyes. In this game, both Zelda and the woman from the story trailer who appears to be a Gerudo both have green eyes instead. Now, it would be logical to assume that they are both mixed-race, since blue and yellow combine to make green, but a Gossip Stone in Ocarina of Time states that Gerudo usually breed with Hylians, since all Gerudo are female, so all Gerudo should be mixed-race. So why are their eyes green?
  • I don't know about the Gerudo, but, in regards to Zelda, I think her eyes are blue and just look green because of the lighting, since the most we see of her face is either in a dark forest or with really bright light, either from the sun or a spell. If her eyes are green, then most likely explanation I can think of is that while Hylians "generally have blue or blue-grey eyes", it is still possible for them to have other eye colors, they're just rarer.
  • There was at least one instance of a green-eyed woman who was suspected of being partly Gerudo, which was Telma in Twilight Princess. As for Zelda, 1.) I don't recall it being stated that every Hylian had blue eyes, and 2.) her eyes do still look roughly blue, even with a hint of green to them. (Especially in the official artwork; in-game, it is a little harder to tell.)
  • Heck, Link and Zelda themselves don't always have blue eyes. Link's were brown in Spirit Tracks, as were Zelda's in at least one of the Four Swords games, and Zelda's actually are green in some versions of Twilight Princess, so.
  • Hylians seem to be able to have any hair/eye colour combination that real world humans do (and some that we don't too). Link himself has had brown and blonde hair, and brown, blue and green eyes. As for the Gerudo, they all have green eyes in this game, and it pretty much confirms that they perpetuate their race by mating with other species, so if that would result in miscegenation, the Gerudo genotype would have been wiped out ages ago. All we can assume is that a Gerudo/non-Gerudo pairing results in a "pure" Gerudo child (or maybe a Gerudo if female, father's race if male thing), and that the green eyes are just a change in design, just like most other races go through. It may even have happened to make them look less threatening, now that they're a friendly race.
  • The game seems to be updating the looks of most Zelda tribes, in general...Apart from the Gerudo's green eyes, they're now at least a head or two taller than most Hylians, whereas they were about the same height in previous games. The Zoras are given a new design as well as many different colors, and the Rito are significantly more bird-like than they were in The Wind Waker. All of these can probably just be chalked up to evolution, especially for the Gerudo, who haven't been sighted since Four Swords Adventures.

Drawing the Master Sword

• Why is it that in this game the Master Sword will drain your health as you pull it out? I understand that the developers didn't want you to get it too early, but from an in-universe perspective, why does it behave so differently than in other games? It's also a bit odd that Fi would be willing to kill Link.
  • There was some indication in previous games that physical strength and vitality were needed to draw the Master Sword. In Ocarina of Time, Link needed to be aged up from nine years old to sixteen in order to be old enough to wield the sword. In The Wind Waker, he winces in pain the two times its power is awakened at the Earth and Wind Temples. Breath of the Wild is just the first time that this attribute manifests as a gameplay element, as the open-world nature of the game means that it can't be guaranteed Link will be strong enough to wield the sword at the time he finds it like in previous installments. High-tier weapons having this effect on their wielders is also present in other media — The Chronicles of Prydain, for example, feature an enchanted sword whose might is so great that it breaks the main character's arm when he finally manages, with significant effort, to yank it from its sheath.

The last memory

• So, you get the Master Sword, and unlock memory #18... and Link isn't in there. How can this be a "memory", then?
  • It's Fi's memory.
  • It's not supposed to be. The memory cutscenes are supposed to represent Link having flashbacks of his own lost memories, not Link magically downloading other people's memories like he's a Matrix character.
  • They played it a little fast and loose with the memories for the sake of storytelling. There are at least two or three where Link doesn't show up until partway through, allowing us to witness things with Zelda that he couldn't, and there's one where he's straight-up unconscious in the latter portion. The Master Sword one seems special, because the Deku Tree says something like "I see you've witnessed that event from 100 years ago," which would imply that there was a deliberate and magical transmission of information, Matrix-style. There's no good explanation for it beyond "artistic license."
  • The short version: somebody made a magical record of the Master Sword being brought to the forest, and somehow Link was able to access that record when he pulled the sword. Which makes some sense; in that they knew it would probably be a while before he showed up again, and it would be an easy way to explain to him what had happened.
  • The concept that the memory is Fi's still holds water. The reincarnations of Link are her true master and she's spiritually linked to him by providence and destiny. That she can transfer her memories to him, if she chooses to, is not out of character or context of the setting. All said and done: she's an intelligent magic sword.
  • Lending merit to this, Skyward Sword showed that Fi could communicate telepathically with Scrapper, with the possibility that she could also do so with Zelda, and she appeared and spoke directly in a dream Link was having early on.
  • Also, that memory is the only one where Link doesn't do his gasp animation (for lack of a better term). He just pulls the sword and the memory immediately starts up, so Fi could have send the memory as soon as Link released the "seal".
  • Of course, the DLC introduces "memories" of events for which neither Link nor Fi were present at any point, so maybe it is just the "fast and loose" explanation. Who knows? (Though Memory 18 could still probably be Fi's.)
    • Regarding the DLC memories, if we were to go off of her previously-mentioned telepathic abilities... Mayhaps those are ones that she "uploaded" from scanning Zelda's memories, since Zelda was there for all of them, and then shared them with Link later. Maybe she likes to store memories of significant moments corresponding to all the heroes who wield her, and this time she stumbled upon a practical use for them.
  • It's worth noting that unlike the memories triggered by the pictures or the memories involving the champions, this particular scene isn't preceded with a shot of Link having a moment of realization. And immediately after the scene plays, the Deku Tree knows specifically what event Link just witnessed. Taken together, it implies that it was never intended to be one of Link's own memories and is more of a magical record of the event created by either Fi or the Deku tree. In the menu it's probably just lumped in with the other memories to save the trouble of having to give that one scene its own subsection.
  • This. The menu category isn't specifically called "Link's Memories", after all: it's just "Memories".

Astronomy of the Blood Moon

• Is the Blood Moon a phase of a singular Hylian satellite or is a second satellite with an erratic orbit? It looks and behaves differently from the moon normally seen every night, as if it's an evil sibling that appears when the white moon is hidden.
  • It appears in the same place as the normal moon, so I think it's the same satellite, but under Ganon's influence.
  • In real life, a Blood Moon is a total lunar eclipse. Perhaps the orbits of the moon and Earth in the Zelda universe are such that such eclipses are more common, and there's something about them that powers up Ganon.

Blood moon and Guardians

• Why does the Blood Moon reincarnate the corrupted Guardians? Anyone can fully understand that "reincarnation should only apply to organic beings" which completely explains why all the monsters you've slain so far will respawn under the Blood Moon. But the Guardians are artificial, mechanical constructs that were built by Hyrule with processes that were long lost after the calamity which would make them irreplaceable.
  • The ancient Sheikah pillars surrounding the castle are storage structures for the guardians. Since Ganon is influencing the moon, it can be assumed that he's also releasing more Guardians into the world from the pillars. It's true that the guardians are, in universe at least, finite, but the storage structures are massive.
  • That explains why the fully functional Guardians would reappear, but what about the Decayed Guardians? They’ve slowly withered over the course of 100 years, and in most cases, are stuck in the ground with no legs.
  • Another interesting point to bring up in relation to this are the Pebbits and Taluses: They're golem-like monsters made of earth elements. No organic matter whatsoever. Yet the Blood Moon will reincarnate them as well.
  • The rule seems to be that anything infected or powered by Malice will be revived, regardless of whether or not they're organic. The only exception seen are the Blights.
  • That can't be the case, as the Master Sword reacts to entities controlled or infected with malice, and yet many creatures brought back by the Blood Moon trigger nothing in the sword itself. And for that matter, if it did bring back the Decayed Guardians, why would they be brought back in a damaged form as opposed to a full repaired one? In reality the Blood Moon is simply an explanation of the game respawning enemies to avoid save bloat, and to ensure there isn't a limited source of enemy drops, as well as an announcement to the player of this occurring. It doesn't make much sense, but few explanations would anyway.

Cotera

• Why did Cotera wind up losing so much power over the years? Her fountain is just a brief trek into the woods right above Kakariko, and Impa mentions that the village was built with her blessings and protection — shouldn't she be an important figure to the people living there?
  • Maybe the loss of power was abrupt after Ganon's victory, and people were too preocupied with their own problems to go there and break the fairy from her cage.
  • A man in the village says there are too many monsters in those woods for them to visit. This isn't really true, but maybe the woods were overrun with monsters in the recent past and so nobody dares venture there anymore.
  • The man who says that, Dorian, is later revealed to be a defector from the Yiga Clan who's trying to protect his children from them. He would have good reason to lie about what's up there if it helps to keep them away.
  • That also explains why the Great Fairy in the hidden region of the desert needs so many Rupees.
  • I'm pretty sure the amount of Rupees each one needs corresponds to the order in which you come across them - Tera was the second one I found, so the amount she asked for was relatively low compared to the later two.
  • It's never said how long ago the fairies lost their powers. We naturally assume it was around the time of the Calamity, but it could've been so long ago that knowledge of the fairies passed into little more than legend. They might also have needed to be restored by someone magically inclined, so even if the people of Kakariko were aware of the fairy fountain nearby they wouldn't be able to interact with the weakened Cotera for the same reason they can't see the koroks.
  • For all its nonlinearity, the game does at least nudge you toward unlocking the four Great Fairies in a specific and presumably "canonical" order, with Cotera being first since she's near the earliest village, Kaysa being second since a sidequest gives you 500 Rupees to offer her, and Tera being last since she's the most isolated. 100 Rupees to restore Cotera's powers is a pretty paltry sum; it's possible she just went into hibernation once the flow of power from her sisters dried up and most of her own strength was going toward protecting the village. For why the villagers don't go up and free her, the only ones who know about her are an infirmed woman and her granddaughter and a man who admits to being too intimidated to meet her in person. (Probably due to his above-mentioned Yiga history.)

The Three Elemental Dragons

• What is their purpose and what is their story? They don't speak, they just fly around, and they "attack" you via magic energy balls if you get too close, yet the in-game data says they hold no grudge towards people.
  • They don't directly attack you, they just have those elemental balls around their heads naturally. And they don't seem to have a purpose in the story, they're just there for some cool visuals and fluff.
  • Their purpose is to provide rare materials by "testing" you. They seem to be directly connected to the Golden Goddesses, guarding the Shrines of Power, Wisdom, and Courage.
  • They could be comparable to the spirits of the sky, earth, and water in The Wind Waker, only much older, and unintentionally deadlier to mortals. They could speak a language that's so ancient that no one understands or remembers it anymore, and the lack of treasures they have to guard, like the Goddess Pearls the spirits had, limits their need for contact with Hyruleans.
  • Dinraal, Naydra, and Farosh are clearly related to the Goddesses Din, Nayru, and Farore. However, the three Golden Goddesses seem to have been largely forgotten in present day Hyrule. It's possible the dragons once served other roles that have also been forgotten.

Extent of Link's memories

• How much of Link's past is he really able to recall through each memory? Off the top of my head, I can only remember there being about 18 or so of them, and he whenever he recalls a new one, he never seems to have any emotional responses afterward. Clearly, him recalling one memory of Zelda doesn't mean anything in terms of the others you can collect that pertain to her, so how much context comes with each recollection, if any? Conversely, when he recalls his time spent with Mipha, does that also let him remember that they were friends, or was it just that one memory and nothing else? (Just an FYI, by the way, I've only uncovered a few of the memories at this point, so I'd appreciate it if any new information that's too revealing would still be marked as a spoiler.)
  • When I faced the final boss after finding all of the memories, Zelda says something along the lines of Link still not having all of his memory. So I'd assume there are still blanks, and the memories you find just fill in some gaps for him.
  • It's likely intended to be up to the player's interpretation; some of Zelda's dialogue once all the photo memories are recovered could be interpreted as implying that Link at least remembers more than what's explicitly shown in the cutscenes, but it's very vague and there isn't much concrete evidence either way.

Link's whereabouts after his near-death experience

• OK, someone explain this for me: we see in the second-to-last memory Link getting a face-full of a Guardian laser and is now basically, mostly-dead. Zelda instructs the soldiers to get him to the Shrine of Resurrection immediately or else he'll die. Yet we see in the Hateno lab that Link was first whisked there so the people could examine his injuries before he's taken to the Shrine of Resurrection. One glance at the map will tell you that these are on completely opposite sides of the map with the Shrine of Resurrection being more out west. So... why did the soldiers not obey Zelda's command by taking him to the Shrine? Why risk him dying by taking him exactly opposite of where she told them to take him?
  • Did Purah specifically say that he was examined there, in Hateno? It may be that she went to the Shrine of Resurrection, and he was examined while they set up the whole thing to work. Robbie also shows knowledge of Link's injuries, and it's unlikely that they went to the Akkala lab after going to Hateno, and I would imagine Purah and Robbie were both out there studying every Sheikah ruin they could back when the world was safe enough.
  • My guess is that the two Sheikah Zelda entrusted Link to didn't know where the shrine was, or maybe weren't sure how to activate it, so they had to bring him to someone who did first.
  • This makes sense. The Shrine probably needed the use of the Sheikah Slate to be activated, and since the slate isn't with Zelda or Link during that cutscene, the most likely scenario was that Purah and Robbie were studying it.
  • The Ancient Tech Lab wasn't in Hateno at that time. It was to the west of Hyrule Castle Town. You can find the ruins there. This is still out of the way from where Link was hurt, but it's not in the opposite direction.
  • Though, why would Purah or Robbie still deem it safe to be at that lab? The Guardians came up from underneath Hyrule Castle and spread out from there - any lab that was nearby seems like it would've been the first place they'd have gone.
  • From what I recall, Robbie's journal in Akkala suggests that he and Purah were already in Kakariko Village when Link kicked the bucket, since I believe he mentioned going "back" there after sealing him in the Slumber of Resurrection. Presumably, both of them had used their knowledge of the Guardians to escape the castle safely, and it wasn't until afterward that they decided to split up and go their seperate ways - Impa remained in the village, and Purah and Robbie took Guidance Stones they'd brought from the castle and went off to found their respective labs.
  • There are also quite a number of Guardian husks on the Great Plateau, especially clustered around the Temple of Time, almost in attitudes of attack. The Temple may have been used to prepare his interment in Resurrection, and Zelda and/or Robbie and other Sheikah ninja had to put down some Stalkers so they could do the job in peace.
  • Another thought I had recently: perhaps the two Sheikah who find Zelda and the nearly-dead Link did immediately take him to the Shrine of Resurrection. Then, after some time had passed—most likely after Zelda had entrapped the Calamity—Purah and Robbie saw that Link's wounds and vital signs were healed enough to temporarily halt the procedure and give him a proper examination, with the understanding that he needed to get back to the Shrine as soon as possible.
  • Or maybe Purah and Robbie went back to examine Link at the Shrine, because they'd had no idea his recovery was going to take a hundred freaking years. None of them had any direct experience of how the Slumber of Restoration worked or how rapidly it could restore someone, prior to Link's near-death. They extract him from the bath after several days' immersion, hoping he'll be able to go help Zelda soon, only to discover he's barely even begun to heal up, and needs to resume his nap. They assess his progress, groan at what their math tells them, tuck Link back to beddy-bye, seal up the site for the duration, and trudge dejectedly back to Hateno with the bad news: neither they nor Impa can plan on early retirement, and Zelda's gonna have a loooooong wait for backup.

Underwater bowl

• One of the shrines challenges you to use a large metal bowl to move a ball into a cage to open a door. The balls are floating on a pool of water and the bowl is at the bottom of the pool. This challenge makes sense except for the fact that the bowl is solid on the bottom with no drainage. If you tried this in real life, the bowl would still be full of water when you lift it out of the pool, meaning guiding the ball over to the cage would be nearly impossible without the ball sliding off the bowl (since the balls are buoyant). Instead, when you raise the bowl out of the pool, the water mysteriously vanishes as soon as it's above the surface, leaving the ball cradled inside.
  • Perhaps the bowl is kind of like a Shiekah technologically made cooking strainer where we don't see the water leaving the bottom?
  • It's a bulked-up sieve. Also, the graphics/physics CAN get wonky due to game limitations, so maybe the developers just didn't focus too much on smaller stuff like that while they were focusing on the big issues?
  • Another curious thing is that, due to the shape of the bowl, it should float when put on the surface of the water. This implies that the bowls are not watertight, nor they are meant to be.
  • The bowl's pretty shallow, and its material looks quite thick. Even if it were leak-proof, it's probably dense enough that the mass of its metal outweighs the mass of the limited amount of water it displaces, and it sinks like a stoneware plate lowered into dishwater.

Champion's Tunic

• At equal upgrade levels, the Champion's Tunic has more defense than the Soldier's Armor. On top of the Stat-O-Vision, a shirt is more durable than platemail. Seriously, what the heck is that thing made of?
  • It's a shirt that's been enhanced by body parts from powerful spirit dragons. With such a potent source of magic, it sort of makes sense that it'd be so unnaturally durable.
  • For that matter, the Wild set is equal to the Soldier's armor in defense, and it's got short sleeves. At least the Champion's Tunic has gauntlets and maybe some underarmor.
  • It's also worth noting that many other sets of armor in the game that seem to be mere pieces of cloth are mentioned to have ancient tech inside them. The idea that the Champion's Tunic is somehow special is also backed up by the Dye shop in Hateno saying he can't dye the fabric the Tunic is made of, further suggesting its not normal cloth. It'd be unusual for the Hero to be expected to fight Calamity Ganon in an ordinary blue T-shirt anyway.

Great Fairies and Rupees

• If great fairies need Rupees from travelers to maintain their power, then how on earth are half the fairies in the other games still powerful enough to help Link? They're in incredibly isolated areas, so it's not likely they'd have visitors. Who could even survive the journey there anyway?
  • Different types of Great Fairies. Some fairies need you to throw in items while others will give them. Some need Rupees to makeout with you and enhance your armor while others will just laugh and give you double health.
  • Alternatively, it's a case of Gods Need Prayer Badly. In previous games, the existence of Great Fairies was common knowledge, even if their exact locations and natures were mysterious. This time, they've been forgotten, and need material proof that Link believes in the worth of their power in order to awaken.
  • The four Great Fairies are also able to share their power with each other, allowing them to upgrade Link's gear further than only one of them could on her own. Maybe the same is true for other games - the ones in more populous locations share their strength with those from more remote ones, who also sustain themselves through the occasional visitor (who is usually Link).

Infecting the Dragons

• Why didn't Calamity Ganon infect the other two dragons? It seems like an oversight on its part.
  • As sorta seen when you hit any one of the dragons, it'll automatically begin flying towards the sky and eventually out of your reach through a portal. Perhaps Naydra was simply unlucky enough to not escape before it was tainted, or the other two hid away once they saw Naydra get corrupted.
  • Plus, the Spring of Wisdom is the closest one to Hyrule Castle and the one that Naydra makes its home. Maybe they sensed the corruption?
  • After failing to fully turn Naydra evil despite the successful corruption, he gave up trying on the other two.
  • I've already passed this point in the game, and I don't really remember...Did anything ever say that Naydra's corruption was intentional? Maybe she happened to come into contact with Malice by accident, resulting in it coating and covering her entire body, and the other two spirits learned to stay away from it because of that. Or maybe I'm just wrong - that is entirely possible.
  • Given that Calamity Ganon has failed to the capitalize on any of his advantages, it seems pretty unlikely that there was any strategy involved.
  • Also, corrupting the dragons doesn't seem to accomplish anything for Ganon. No one is shown to worship them and they don't do anything to protect Hyrule, and Naydra remained atop Mt. Lanayru the entire time she was infected. Even if it was intentional and he were able to do it again, he might not see the point of expending that much of his power without any benefit of having done so.
  • This is a bit of a WMG but Naydra might have gotten herself infected on purpose. After you free her, as noted on the Fridge Brilliance page, she lets you claim a scale and shows you how to access shrines at the other springs. She is related to the Goddess of Wisdom, and may have realized that having the hero save her could help his quest.

Vah Rudania and Temperature

• It makes sense that an airtight divine beast would be at a livable temperature provided it had been closed for a century. But what about when the entire top of it opens? Wouldn't everything be raised to an unbearable temperature?
  • This could be explained away by saying that hot air rises, but the sides appear to be open as well. And the heat would set the cold air on fire, too.
  • If Rudania spent the last century inside or around a volcano with its innards closed off, wouldn't that mean that its interior would've turned into an oven once Link got inside?
  • Given that it was meant to be piloted, it might have some sort of magic in place to keep the inside at a reasonable temperature for whoever was piloting it.
  • Rudania may have been designed specifically after a salamander, in fact, which was a type of lizard known in mythology for its affinity for and immunity to flames and high temperatures. If this were the intent behind it, it'd make sense for extreme temperature resistance to be one of its features, even if its original pilot was someone who could withstand those temperatures anyway. (It's not like the Sheikah of 10,000 years before would've known that a Goron would become Rudania's Champion when they built him, after all.)
  • My guess is that every Beast has magic to regulate the temperature, otherwise Naboris' pilot would probably not survive the desert. The desert goes from scorching hot to freezing cold in a matter of minutes. This coupled with the elevation, it is likely that the temperatures will be extreme at the best of times. Also, the Ancient Sheikah would probably not be able to predict the climate 10,000 years in the future, never mind hundreds of thousands of years in the future, so they probably put magic spells in place as a safety measure.

Paraglider at Death Mountain

• So... the paraglider is made of wood and cloth. How is it not on fire when you use it?
  • It was given to you by the ghost of a dead king taken physical form, so it's not a stretch to say that it might be magically protected somehow.
  • Maybe like most of the clothes, it could be be enhanced with Ancient Technology.
  • According to the Hyrule Compendium, the Hotfeather Pigeon that appears throughout Death Mountain has fireproof feathers that are valued for their use as a clothing material. The paraglider is probably made from them.

Vah Naboris

• In terms of rampaging and causing trouble, does Vah Naboris actually do anything noteworthy? Vah Ruta nearly flooded Zora's Domain and the rest of Hyrule by creating an endless rain, Rudania seems to be keeping the Gorons from accessing the mines they have up on Death Mountain, and Medoh is...keeping the Rito from flying, I guess? Even though they could just fly somewhere else? Regardless, why doesn't Naboris do anything like that? It stomps around in the desert and zaps people with lightning if they get too close, but it seems like that's about it. it never goes anywhere near Gerudo Town or anything, so what's the big deal about it?
  • Vah Naboris is stirring up a giant sandstorm dangerously close to the bazaar and town, so the fear is having an unpredictable, out-of-control machine capable of mass destruction nearby. Aside from that, the divine beast has caused a massive decrease in business from tourists and merchants. And unlike the Rito, it's not like moving an entire town of people across an unbearably hot desert is easy — and where to find shelter, sustainable food, etc. for so many is another question entirely.
  • Some people you can talk to before freeing Vah Naboris also express the concern that it seems to be slowly getting closer to Gerudo Town. Now imagine if Vah Naboris showed up causing sand and lightning storms in your neighborhood and tell me that you wouldn't be alarmed by it.

Vah Medoh

• Similarly to the above, does Vah Medoh actually cause any real problems? Ruta nearly floods a large portion of Hyrule; Rudania is pummeling Goron City with eruptions, and Naboris constantly threatens Gerudo Town with sandstorms. But Medoh doesn't seem to really be doing anything to Rito village outside of slowly flying around it. Yeah, some of the Rito are injured, but as far as I can remember, the only ones who are are the ones who were attacking Medoh to begin with. It gives off the impression that they would've been fine if they just didn't get too close to Medoh.
  • A Rito guard states that it's depressing for them to have to fly so close to the ground, implying that Rito would usually fly up high but they can't now. Ganon's also regaining power, so if Link didn't free Medoh eventually it would probably just fly down and destroy the village on Ganon's orders. The Rito can't move because the south is full of monsters and the north is freezing.
  • True - as was explained regarding Naboris, some of the Rito are worried that Medoh will take shooting them out of the sky one step further and just start bombing the village before long. So it's more of a case of what it could do, rather than what she's currently doing.
  • That's the Long-Term problem. As a race of bird-like people, flying is the most efficient method of travel for them, just like how us humans have our cars to travel long distances quickly. Imagine if there was some miasma causing any car travelling more than 15 mph to instantly burst into flames, or spontaneously get into an accident.
  • If that's what the developers were going for, then I don't really see the point of it...The Rito can still fly with Medoh around, just not as high. They seem free leave the area surrounding the village in order to fly as high as they want elsewhere.
  • It also makes sense given that Calamity Ganon isn't exactly a master-planner any more; he's just a mass of hatred and revenge. As such the four beasts are making their respective races' lives miserable whether that involves directly endangering them or not: keeping the Gorons away from resources, preventing the Rito from flying free, entrapping the Zora and cutting the Gerudo off from outsiders (particularly men).
  • It's not actually causing any problems but you have to admit that having bunch of death lasers hanging above your head that you don't control can make you uneasy even if they're not firing.
  • If you care for a Doylist interpretation, maybe Medoh's threat, and indeed the entire Rito quest in general, feels underdeveloped because it was a late addition to the game. Word of God has stated that the final Champion and Tribe was originally going to be a Kokiri. Building on this, the Kokiri Forest would probably be in the Faron Woods—they're named for Farore, the Kokiri's guardian goddess, and in Ocarina of Time the Forest was also in the southeast portion of Hyrule. That would also allow for the four Divine Beasts to occupy the four corners of Hyrule (with Death Mountain going where the Hebra Mountains are in the final product), creating an image of the Beasts shooting their lasers from the entire world. But somewhere along the line, things got changed, and we got the Rito instead. As a result of the swap, the developers didn't have enough time to create an elaborate, multi-stage quest for Rito Village (leading to "head to this location, shoot some arrows, bam, we're good to go"), or a species-threatening angle for Vah Medoh. It's not the most exciting explanation, but it adds up.

Ganon's Regeneration

• Calamity Ganon's Hyrule Compendium entry notes that Link was able to interrupt its reincarnation before it was finished, explaining why it looks like an undead cyborg. This raises the question of what it would have looked like if it had been able to fully regenerate.
  • Could be anything: Cell, Freiza, Darth Vader, DIO, Sonic the Hedgehog, Master Chief...
  • It seemed to me that Ganon was trying to become a Reaper. Link just happened to arrive before he figured out how to manifest Indoctrination.
  • I think he would have had a humanoid form, kind of like Ganondorf, because it is implied that the second form of the final boss is Ganon abandoning his search for a physical body, and letting his hatred give him the beast look
  • While it sounds logical on paper, I don't think a new Ganondorf look is what he was really going for. The body he ends up with looks like some sort of creepy cyborg-wasp-thing with spider limbs. Assuming he's had 100 years to try and form this new form, either he's really bad at making a humanoid body (which is unlikely, considering the Blights look distinctly more human than he does), or he was going for something else entirely.
  • Maybe the cyborg mess Ganon appears as probably wasn't what he was going for, instead being just a pile of goop in a cocoon much like during the metamorphosis cycle of a butterfly. Ganon's malice had always permeated the world, and it was implied he had some sort of observation ability over the world, so one could always assume he purposely decided to adopt aspects from the enemies Link was seen to have the greatest difficulty in fighting against.

Medoh's cannons

• Why are Vah Medoh's cannons built to operate outside the barrier it surrounds itself with? Wouldn't it be safer for them to be installed somewhere where they're well-protected?
  • Maybe the barrier works both ways, and shots from the inside wouldn't be able to get out of it.
  • Maybe the shield used to be bigger, but lost power over the past 100 years.

Childhood friends

• Does the game ever explain how Link and Mipha originally became friends? The way she speaks to him in one of his memories implies that she's known him since they both were children, but if Link is the son of one of the Knights of Hyrule, when would he have had the opportunity to get to know her that well as a child?
  • It might be possible since she was the Zora princess at the time and it's also possible that herself/her people and the people of Hyrule Castle had to have met each other many times for political talk. While Link's social life isn't known, there had to have been some free time for him to be able to do what he wanted.
  • There would be many easy explanations for them to meet. Hylians lived all around the place, after all.
  • But Link was said to be the son of a knight, yet a lot of the Zoras in the domain seem to know him as well as someone who'd grown up with them. It's not like in Ocarina of Time, where he was raised alongside the other Kokiri.
  • Most likely, Link's father was simply stationed around Zora's Domain for some time (the Hylian Knights seem to have been responsible for maintaining the security of the whole kingdom, after all), and brought his family with him. He might have been a royal guard, but that doesn't preclude him from being sent to other places that need his abilities.
    • Link being a Military Brat might actually explain a few things about his demeanor, like his extreme devotion to service, his resilience, most of his friends being non-Hylians, his wanderlust, and his "outsider" tendencies.
  • Zora's Domain is also open to everyone, so it's not really that far fetched for Link to have spent a lot of time there.
  • One of the stone slabs chronicling the history of the Zora actually mentions that Mipha once came of age to be trained in spearmanship by the Hyrulean guard. I'm thinking that Link's father may've been among those who trained her, and he brought along his family to Zora's Domain in the process, thus explaining how Link may've met her.

Rudania's drones

• Why does Vah Rudania have the ability to release surveillance drones? Is that something it could always do? From what I can tell, they don't seem to be able to attack you in anyway, only alerting Rudania to your position so it can summon an eruption. If Rudania was only meant to act as a weapon against Ganon and to be controlled remotely by a living, sentient being like Daruk, what purpose could a handful of tiny drones serve to fulfill?
  • Maybe they originally scanned for Lizalfos or Moblins or something.
  • Alternatively, it could grant Rudania some better coverage. Daruk doesn't have eyes in the back of his head, and Death Mountain is the most likely place in Hyrule where incredibly powerful fire-based creatures would show up and try to swarm the beast. Most monsters can't swim to Vah Ruta, fly to Vah Medoh, or climb all the way up Vah Naboris' legs. They can, however, resist heat and may be able to infiltrate Vah Rudania through the roof.
  • Perhaps the drones are to help navigate the volcano. Being around an active volcano is dangerous: ground fissures, lava flows, unstable surfaces, and other environmental hazards. The ground is constantly changing: what it looks like today will not be what it looks like tomorrow. The drones can survey ahead (and behind) of Vah Rudania to ensure its route is safe from hazards that could impede its mobility or cause significant damage.

Trapped spirits

• Given he probably died somewhere near Hyrule Castle, why is Old Man Roahm able to appear to Link atop the Great Plateau, while the spirits of the four Champions were seemingly trapped inside their Divine Beasts? Was their staying there all those years motivated by want, rather than obligation?
  • Obligation is a major theme in this game. Every spirit we see stays around because of their unfulfilled duties, the Shrine monks to pass on the spirit orbs, the Champions to activate the beasts and use their skills, etc. The King would be no different. It's his duty to instruct the hero and see Ganon's defeat to come to fruition.
  • We have no guarantee that the king died at the castle. The Temple of Time is at the Great Plateau, maybe he died there, trying some last ditch effort to get a clue of what needed to be done. Alternatively, the conditions of his death seem to be very different than the Champions. The way they don't show themselves until you beat the Blights makes it seem like they were trapped somewhere inside the Divine Beasts (perhaps inside each of the Bligths specifically), until Link freed them.
  • Oooh new head canon; he was headed towards the chamber to resurrection when he died. Maybe he was dying and remaining soldiers had hoped to use it on him, maybe he headed over there knowing that if Zelda was hurt this is where she would be taken. Instead Link is placed inside and the King dies in the Temple.
  • Nope. In the Second last Memory where Zelda and Link are fleeing the castle with Ganon's forces in pursuit It's mentioned that the King was already dead in the battle.
  • Just wanted to add that, the old man explicitly states that the Great Plateau is the cradle of the kingdom, so it's not far fetched to assume that this was much more than a glorified tutorial zone before the calamity.
  • On the subject of Obligation, King Roahm's obligation is to Zelda or rather his guilt on her behalf. While the other Champions are bound to their respective Divine Beasts (they were killed by the Blight Ganons and probably held there until the blights were purged), Roahm's mishandling of Zelda's situation with her powers (he kept pushing her to unlock them through prayer and devotion and was harsh with her when she failed) contributed to his kingdom's downfall and his daughter's imprisonment (for lack of a better term). Unfortunately devotion and prayer weren't the answer to unlocking them. If you read his his journal in the palace it will tell you that while he wanted to comfort Zelda over the fact she hadn't unlocked her powers, he felt he had to be a king above being a father since they all knew the return of Ganon was imminent. He had in fact made up his mind to be the father first if the Spring of Wisdom venture was a bust, but we all know how that turned out...
  • Since you see all 5 spirits at the castle in one of the final cutscenes it's likely that the default is that spirits can move around more or less as they choose and the Champions being stuck on the Divine Beasts has something to do with the malice or blights, rather than the location of death.

Hylia's Bloodline and Hyrule's Royalty

• I haven't found what's supposed to claim this but I see talk of how Zelda's father, who is explicitly mentioned to have the title of "King", isn't of Hylia's bloodline. As Hylia's incarnation is always Princess Zelda that would indicate that her kin should be the side of the family with the literal divine right of kings. So unless there's something important here I'm missing how in the world did Zelda's mother, who was of Hylia's blood which was why losing her was so crippling to this incarnation of Zelda and assumedly the naturally born crown princess/Queen of Hyrule, get outranked by some schmuck she married and who does this glorified Prince Consort think he is to declare himself King while acting as Zelda's regent until she comes of age to rule on her own? "King" as a title can't belong to anyone not of the direct ruling bloodline after all, as in a Kingdom it outranks its sister title of "Queen", since consorts/spouses aren't permitted to have titles higher than the actual ruler's. On a similar note if being protected by a religiously powered matriarch is so fundamental to Hyrule in the first place (And as the local deities of worship that can be confirmed to exist are almost all female) why is it a Kingdom instead of a Queendom in the first place?
  • You're looking way too far into this. The simplified way that the royalty in this game works is the same one that has been portrayed not just in other Zelda games, but across most realms of media and fiction in general - the idea of Prince-consorts as opposed to true kingship seems almost strictly limited to the real world. And that's even if the thing about Rhoam being from outside the line is true.
  • Original poster here: This is the headscratchers page, no need to be so rudely dismissive about answering since this is where fridge logic is meant to be put and nothing is considered "too far" as long as you can see how the question came up. Why comment if you aren't actually addressing the question being posed in the first place for that matter and instead just attacking someone for asking it? Most other Zelda games just plain don't talk about the royal family beyond Zelda herself so there's no need to question if her father has the right to be called king, as their competence isn't in question and neither is her own (Unlike here where her father outright tells her that her people think she's the "Heir to Nothing" like an abusive asshole and encourages the only heir to the throne to act more like a priestess than a studious princess) so the fact this game did want to go into royal politics for a change doesn't make me out of line. And just because mainstream media doesn't like to do it's research most works that do want to make royal politics a major plot point, like Zelda tried here, do go into this sort of thing plenty often. Only part I'd grant would be "too deep" is the notion of a patriarchy existing in a world where the major religious and cultural foundations are primarily presented as female-focused with confirmable magical existences, and that contradiction has always been a part of the game's setting. And as I said in the first line I don't know if it's true so the least you could have done was find what could confirm or deny it, as obviously that's my main concern here.
  • First of all, let me apologize for coming off as rude, since that wasn't my intention. It just seemed like you were getting a bit too...upset, if I may, about something that's been a common part of royalty's portrayal throughout most of popular culture. Having nearly completed the main story and collected all of the memories, I've yet to come across anything indicating that King Rhoam was from outside the line, but even if he was, what I meant with my earlier response was that, in the game's universe, he would probably still be considered a genuine "king", as opposed to prince-consort, because that's how it typically works in fiction. So his line to Zelda about her inheritance probably wouldn't be seen as that level of disrespectful, in-universe - I didn't want you to get that worked up about it, and I'm sorry if it came out wrong.
  • OP again: Alright, it just rubbed me wrong that it didn't seem like any other questions got that sort of treatment without any meaningful expansion/explanation on anything added to it even though this one isn't the only one with parts that can be difficult to check by the nature of the game, like the timeline debates, or one based on honest confusion. But with monarchies hardly being a fictional concept as Great Britian's royal family is easily one of the most well known existing monarchies to date (regardless of how vital it is for their current system of government) and seeing it used as an excuse for sexism's a Pet Peeve trope of mine as well... you'd figure people should know or at least infer by now as despite easily being the world's best known monarchy it openly has no King at present and hasn't in ages (with the Queen's husband indeed only ever having the title of "Prince") that not all Kingdoms need a King to function you know? Though his telling his daughter to her face that the people she knows should be looking to her for future guidance have no faith in her like that in such brutal phrasing was still an awful parenting move on his part considering it couldn't help her with anything and just further hurt her self esteem all because she tried to act like princess in her situation should.
  • For all we know, both of Zelda's parents might be descended from Hylia's line. An awful lot of time has passed since the Skyward Sword era, and unless the line of Hyrule enforces a strictly one-child-per-generation rule, it's bound to have branched out countless times. Rhoam may be the de-facto king, and married to a member of a cadet branch. Apparently being a woman is a requirement for the powers of the blood of Hylia to fully manifest, so only his wife was taught the procedures.
  • I can find no mention that he isn't a descendant. I think we can assume, as with European nobility, a lot of inbreeding was happening. The King probably married a distant cousin who happened to be a priestess. This sort of thing happened all the time to keep blood-lines "pure", and that's before we add in descended from Gods into the mix to have some sort of actual reason to do it. Of course this then raises further questions; if there is a large body of nobility all tangentially related to each other then losing Zelda's mother shouldn't have been the death blow to her teachings the King and Zelda believe it to be.
    • Maybe most of the hylians are descendant from her at this point.
  • Because she's smart enough to know that ruling the kingdom is nothing like sitting on the throne and ordering minions around while gloating in their ego on their high title; The Good King or Queen takes care of their people and make their place safe. After all, she holds the Triforce of Wisdom. So she brushed all her responsibilities as a ruler to her husband even though it means he'll get the glory and status in the process.
  • Issue with that would be that the title of "King" couldn't be given to him under any circumstances barring him overthrowing his wife if she was the by blood rights ruling party because that's not how royal titles work period and it is factually wrong to depict them as such and was the core point of my initial complaint/confusion. In order to be King, Rhoam would have to have more royal blood than the Queen does in the first place, so you missed the point about how having the title "King" over "Prince" or "Regent" isn't possible if she was the primary and acknowledged descendant of Hylia instead of him, which is why the focus of most attempts to make sense of this are instead focusing on looking into where his blood right is called into question. Also with the implications that holding the Triforce of Wisdom wouldn't obviously make her best qualified for and the one who would be actually preforming the duties you are at the same time suggesting she delegates away to the man who would still be required to have a lower title than her own by basic law and common sense sounds incredibly confusing at best and overtly sexist at worst as why wouldn't she want her subjects to know who exactly in HER country deserved their respect exactly and by whos authority they lived under?
  • One thing I'd like to note is that Rhoam very closely resembles Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule from The Wind Waker (who, by the way, also seemed to possess mystical, divine powers - did anything every say that Hylia's powers only went to the females?), as well as various other Hyrulean kings across the series, just with a longer beard and hair and a pointier nose. The resemblance suggests that they're related through more than just marriage.
  • As a common thread seems to be that whatever helped make the idea that Rhoam wasn't Hylia's descendant seems to have been a rumor more than an actual in game claim or a particularly hard to find diary entry so thanks everybody for helping clear that up! Being a Daphnes Expy does make him being at least one of Wind Waker Zelda's descendants does seem very likely (or something similar if this can't connect with that timeline at all) instead of Nintendo just dropping the ball where their research or world building was concerned and falling into harmful/sexist traps regarding royal politics just when they decided to try and go that extra mile for this series. At the very least Zelda's lack of spiritual connection could easily be attributed to just taking after him too much as, even though him being a guy made it a less important issue, he certainly seems less attuned with his bloodline's magic or their piece of the Triforce than Daphnes was and provide a reason for how if her mother was less "pure"/directly connected to Hylia she was supposed to have been in charge of this area of Zelda's teachings.
  • As I understand your remarks, you've basically made three distinct arguments: (1) A man cannot become a king by marrying a queen; (2) A king always outranks a queen; and (3) All monarchies operate according to uniform rules of heredity. All three are historically false. Argument (1) is false because there exist two different ways of becoming king by marrying a queen: the king jure uxoris ("by right of [his] wife"), who becomes king in fact as well as name by marrying an heiress or a queen regnant; although these men did not wholly displace their wives, they did acquire the right to rule on their wives' behalves by what English law would later call coverture, the woman's property being automatically administered by her husband. There are a number of examples of kings jure uxoris in the Medieval period: Fulk, Count of Anjou, as king of Jerusalem via Melisende, daughter and heiress of King Baldwin II; Conrad, Marquis of Montferrat, and Aimery, King of Cyprus, as kings of Jerusalem via Queen Isabella I; John of Brienne (later emperor of Constantinople) as king of Jerusalem via Queen Mary (Isabella I's daughter by Conrad); Emperor Frederick II as king of Jerusalem via Queen Isabella II (Mary I's daughter by John); Philip IV, King of France, as King Philip I of Navarre via Queen Joan I; Emperor Sigismund as king of Hungary via Queen Mary; and Albert V, Duke of Austria, as king of Hungary via Elizabeth of Luxemburg, daughter and heiress of Emperor Sigismund. Kingship jure uxoris more or less died out by the time of the Renaissance and the Early Modern Period. Around this time we see the rise of the king consort, as women were accepted as queens regnant suo jure; their husbands might be granted the title of king. The existence of the king consort simultaneously demonstrates that both arguments (1) and (2) are false. Examples of kings consort include Philip IV of Burgundy as King Philip I of Castile via Queen Juana I; Philip of Spain, King of Naples (later Philip II of Spain), as king of England via Queen Mary I (Philip's father, Emperor Charles V, had donated his kingship of Naples to Philip in 1554 as a wedding gift, so that the Spanish prince would be equal in rank to his fiancée, Queen Mary, at the time of their wedding); Francis II of France as king of Scots via Queen Mary; Henry Stuart, Lord Dudley, as king of Scots via the same Queen Mary; Infante Pedro of Portugal as King Peter III of Portugal via Queen Mary I; Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry as King Ferdinand II of Portugal via Queen Mary II; and Francisco, Duque de Cádiz, as king of Spain via Queen Isabella II. There are also a handful of cases in which a queen regnant shared her authority with her husband as co-ruler without being legally displaced by him, such as Prince Louis of Taranto as king of Naples via Queen Joanna I; Philip, Count of Évreaux, as King Philip III of Navarre via Queen Joan II; Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania, as King Władysław II of Poland via Queen Jadwiga; Ferdinand II of Aragon as King Ferdinand V of Castile via Queen Isabella I; and William III, Prince of Orange, as King William III of England via Queen Mary II. Władysław and William continued to reign after their wives died. Argument (3) is false because each monarchy operates on its own individual rules. In England (and by extension, the modern UK), male-preference primogeniture meant that a female could inherit the crown if there was no male with a superior claim (e.g., Mary I, Anne, Victoria, Elizabeth II), and also that the line of succession can pass through a female dynast (e.g., the current Prince of Wales and his sons). In France, however, the legal fiction of Salic law forbade a woman from inheriting the crown and also forbade the line of succession from passing through female dynasts (i.e., if a king's daughter had a son, he would have no rights of succession through his mother). In the Holy Roman Empire, Poland, Bohemia, and Hungary, the crown became elective (although in many cases, election was merely a formality). In Wallachia, any male with royal blood was eligible to succeed, even if he were illegitimate. In the Ottoman Empire, any male of the dynasty could become sultan through a rather vague process of dynastic consensus, resulting in uncles succeeding their nephews on occasion. Furthermore, all of these rules operated only so long as it was advantageous to the most influential and most powerful that they operate. When these rules were inconvenient, people could and did flout them. The Norman Invasion (1066), the Anarchy (1135-1154), the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453), the Wars of the Roses (1455-1487), the War of the Castilian Succession (1475-1479), the War of the Burgundian Succession (1477-1482), the War of the Portuguese Succession (1580-1583), the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1715), the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748), the '45 Rebellion (1745), the War of the Bavarian Succession (1778-1779), and the Carlist Wars (1833-1840, 1846-1849, 1872-1876) — to name only a few prominent examples — were all results of disputes over succession.This is to say nothing of civil wars or usurpations of monarchs already ruling. Of course, all of this is moot because (A) there is no evidence whatsoever that King Rhoam Bosphoramus Hyrule is not king suo jure, and (B) we know very little about how the House of Hyrule determines succession. As far as point (A) is concerned, Rhoam bears a physical resemblance to the King of Hyrule (AL), the King of Hyrule (LP), King Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule (WW), King Daltus and King Gustaf (MC), and the deuterocanonical King Harkinian (LZ animated series and comic series, but less so his appearances in FE and WG), and, like Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule, appears to use Hyrule as a cognomen or surname. All of this circumstantially suggests that he should be interpreted as exactly what he appears to be. With respect to point (B), we know only that the royal family apparently practices male-preference primogeniture during the Golden Age in the Downfall timeline (the Prince of Hyrule and the Princess Zelda in AL), and that it is possible for a princess to be "queen-in-waiting" (TP trading cards and Prima guides). Presumably this means she is the legal ruler in reginam promovenda, pending some the completion of some ceremony or other condition before coronation as queen, and we further assume that this is the case of other princesses whom we might otherwise expect to have acceded as queens (the Princess Zelda in the Adult era of OT, Tetra in WW and PH, the Princess Zelda in ST, and the Princess Zelda in BW, although it is also possible that some of these princesses could be regents pending the arrival of another dynast with a superior claim to succession). We simply don't know how the crown is passed, and there's certainly no reason to assume that the English rules of succession apply.
  • The short version of the above is: "Yes, a man can become a king by marrying a queen. No, this does not automatically mean he rules instead of her. No, there's no reason to assume that King Rhoam shouldn't be king."
  • The issues with the above come from saying we have no reason to assume Rhoam isn't the by-blood king when we really do, which is what lead to the king debate. If he married into the royal family taking his wife's surname in a case like this would most likely be the expected practice, so his name doesn't seem to prove much of anything here. Looking like kings of the past could also be just as indicative of him coming from one of the supposed side families as he is lacking in the royal family's ability to use Hylia's magic which seems a lot more important for this than appearances. Hylia's bloodline being central to why "Princess Zelda" is always a princess (As opposed to just having the prophecy say a descendant of Hylia is needed to seal Ganon) seems to indicate their connection to this Goddess is why they are the ruling family, a lot like the legends about the Japanese ruling family being descendant of the Goddess Amaterasu in a variation of the divine right of kings, so it seems like decent reasoning to assume he's more likely to have married into the family than his wife did. Had Hylia's power come from a "side family" it seems odd he wouldn't have had any other alternatives for Zelda's teacher after the Queen died, as mentioned above, when if the power was kept within the direct royal family this element of the story makes more sense. Also it's unclear if Hylia's power really is gender locked since no other goddesses power in this series seems to be restricted in this way, as two of the three holders of the Golden Goddesses' triforce are male, and since Wind Waker's king was adept at least at general magic, given how he animated the King of Red Lions and created the Pirate's Charm, Rhoam completely lacking in this area sticks out more as an oddity.
  • In point of fact, no, we really don't have any reason to assume that Rhoam is not king suo jure. There is no evidence saying this. There is no reason to assume this. Your suggestion that he might have adopted his wife's name — which has no precedent in history that I am aware of (the closest being the examples of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine and the surname Mountbatten-Windsor, neither of which support your argument) — is both begging the question and a violation of Ockham's razor. There is no reason to assume that his surname "Hyrule" means anything other than his dynastic kingship of Hyrule, so you are positing complexity without need in order to explain why he has it. Your talk about his apparent lack of magic powers is irrelevant; of the eight kings of Hyrule we know of (Harkinian, AL, LP, OT, Daphnes, Daltus, Gustaf, and Rhoam), precisely one of them (Daphnes) has displayed magical abilities without use of the Triforce — and there is absolutely no indication that his magic has anything to do with Hylia, given that it is possible for Hyrulians to learn magic via study (AL) or to use it via talismans (LP, OT) — , so there is no reason to believe that magic has any strong correlation to Hylian kingship. If anything, the ability to use magic makes Daphnes the odd man out.

  • I would also like to point out that Hyrule was both founded by a woman and named after a goddess. It's very likely that despite being called a 'kingdom', it is very likely that queens were the higher ranking royalty, especially considering that only women could inherit Hylia's power.
    • Except we have no proof that either of these things are true. It was never stated that Zelda I was responsible for establishing a monarchy or that she named it after Hylia.
  • You mean they used the wrong word and use of "kingdom" has become a case of The Artifact as the series has gone on? Since there is already a word for this concept in English, as pointed out in the question that led to this. A queendom would be a realm controlled by a queen first and foremost, much the same way kingdoms are for kings which is why ruling queens in a kingdom are technically considered "queen regent" when "regent" is a title for someone serving in the place of the "proper" ruling party.
  • You're mistaken. A ruling queen in a kingdom is called a "queen regnant," to make clear that she is reigning in her own right and is not a queen consort, a woman who has the title of queen because she is married to a king; it is possible for one woman to be both a queen regnant and a queen consort (e.g., Isabella the Catholic, Mary of England, Maria Theresia). "Queen regent" refers either to a queen consort who exercises royal authority in a kingdom on behalf of her husband the king (who is absent or incapacitated) or to a queen dowager (wife of a previous king who is now dead) who exercises royal authority in a kingdom on behalf of her son the king or her daughter the queen regnant (who is absent, incapacitated, or has not reached his or her majority).
  • Is it really that hard to believe that a fictional kingdom just has a different hierarchy/titles/rules for succession? There's never been much but practically everything we've ever heard about the Hylian royal court across all games doesn't jive with historical monarchies. At this point it's more ridiculous to try and shoehorn the Hyrule family into our understanding of real-world royalty than it is to just start theorizing how their monarchy works from scratch.
  • That's what I was going to say, but I'm gonna rehash anyway. First of all it's not like this is the first time we've had a Hylian King; Daphnes from WW and OoT's King, for instance, and there's no evidence for or against them being of Hylia's blood. Secondly, as the above says, it's a fictional world and applying real world conventions to it without any proof of it is kind of silly. Hyrule could easily be a "a Prince/Princess has to get married and they become King and Queen" sort of Kingdom. TBH I didn't even read all of the real world examples and arguments because bottom line... this is not the real world. There are flying tree people, giant bird people, giant fish people, ROCK people, flying dragons, and that's not even getting into monsters and Gods and such. It's not the real world, bottom line.
  • Hyrule is a fictional kingdom so it likely follows different rules. Since the power of the bloodline only appears to manifest in the women of the royal family it's possible that succession is matriarchal (and the powers might even been seen as the right to rule, remember Rhoam's line about "heir to nothing"). Also remember that Hyrule fell on the day Zelda went to the Spring of Wisdom, which was her 17th birthday and the day she was seen as an adult in Hyrule (No one under the age of 17 is allowed there) so Rhoam could have been Zelda's regent. Now Rhoam could easily also be a descendant of Hylia, see above about the Royal family branching out and intermarrying with other noble families (this might even be a requirement of the royal spouse to keep the bloodline and powers as strong as possible), but since he's not a female of the line he doesn't know how to access the special powers.
  • Technically speaking, we also have no reason to assume that Hylia's power doesn't manifest in male members of the royal line; as previously noted, Daphnes displayed magical talent that was never implied to be not his own (when recounting how Ganondorf overtook Hyrule, he does say "My power alone could not stop the fiend"), and the king from Adventure of Link also knew enough to hide the Triforce of Courage so well. Neither of those contradict anything we're told in this game, either, because even if Rhoam can access the divine magic of his line, he's established as being such a stickler for tradition that he would still see the duty to harness it as falling to Zelda, if he even knows that he could do it just as well himself.
  • Age of Calamity contains some details that shed a bit more light on things. Rhoam's main weapon in that game is a Royal Claymore, which is explicitly stated to be the type of weapon issued to the royal family's personal guards. This strongly implies that Rhoam served in the Royal Guard, and may have even been one of Zelda's mother's bodyguards prior to their marriage (in real-world history, it wasn't unusual for younger sons in noble families to enter the military, where their rank would put them on the fast track to promotion—Hyrule's nobility might do something similar). While not an outright confirmation, this suggests that Zelda's mother was the direct heir and Rhoam married into the throne. If the sealing power is a sign of the right to rule, as mentioned above, Rhoam may fall victim to the opposite side of the coin: he can't use it because he's King by marriage, not a direct member of the royal line. If it's accepted in-universe that Zelda is the only one who can wield it as long as she's alive and has no children, this would also explain why no one else with Hylian blood is trying to unlock the sealing power in her stead.
  • There's still his resemblance to previous Hylian kings, though, particularly Daphnes in The Wind Waker, who seemed to be a direct heir since he possessed the requisite powers. And Rhoam is already a king by the time of Age of Calamity when he's using the Royal Claymour. Being so adept with it doesn't mean he must have had a past as a royal guard; he could've been born a royal who chose to use it as a weapon.

Recognizing Link

• How do so many of the Yiga seem to know immediately that Link is the hero? I could buy them simply ambushing every traveler they happen to come across, but at least a few of them refer to him directly as "hero".
  • Depending on the age of some of the Yiga Clan members, as the Sheikah tribe is shown to be very long lived even without as strong of a connection to their lost technology, they might just remember Link from 100 years ago like the Zora do, or been keeping tabs on his condition and journey through the use of moles. Their techniques seem to indicate they either have their technology to a point where it looks like magic, or actually learned magic after siding with what's left of the wizard-king so who knows what their limits are as far as information gathering goes. For example if it's true that Kohga founded the Yiga clan, who were wronged by the King of Hyrule from 10,000 years ago, some being over 100 and having fought Link in the past isn't too out of the question.
  • Probably the same way most people recognise Link as the hero: he's a Hylian carrying a priceless Sheikah artifact that was last seen in the hands of the princess. Also, they're ninja, they probably gathered intel on him. We know for sure they had at least one mole in Kakariko, so a physical description of the hero, as well as the fact he finally woke up again, wouldn't be hard to come by.
  • You don't start seeing hidden Yiga assassins until after you have visited Impa in Kakariko. Most likely, their mole in the village tells his contact that the hero is active again, and gives a description.

Gerudo Male

• For the longest time, it's been said that the Gerudo race births one male every 100 years. Since the period of Link's slumber was explicitly 100 years, what gives with there being no Gerudo male? It stands to reason that there would have been one alive either when he went down or by the time he woke up, and if that was the case, said Gerudo definitely would have been mentioned. It seems like an especially glaring waste considering the extent to which the Gerudo as a whole were re-characterized in Breath of the Wild. Did the lore change on this point?
  • Maybe the last male died sometime during Link's 100-year sleep, and the next one has yet to be born. The only glimpses of the past we're shown are Link's interactions with Zelda and the Champions, and considering, as was mentioned, they ditched the rule about kingship being the male's birthright, it's possible that the male who was alive at that time just wasn't important enough in the grand scheme of things to appear. (Though I am curious as to whether the "no voe allowed in town" rule they've adopted would apply to him, as well.)
  • This Very Wiki speculated that Villa could be the male Gerudo due to his dark skin and redhead, but he had been referred to as a Hylian instead.
  • I was pretty sure, so I went and checked, but Villa has light skin under his mask. I think the dark skin is just paint.
  • Well if Gerudo reproduce mostly with Hylians that wouldn't technically be wrong to say, even if he should count as a male Gerudo, would it? If the Gerudo remember enough about Ganondorf to consider him a stain on their history acknowledging a male could be considered an equally bad omen by this point, especially during a period of time where Ganon is an active negative force in Hyrule so he could have just been left with his dad.
  • Maybe there are other Gerudo tribes that live in countries outside of Hyrule, and they have the sacred male child.
  • I was disappointed that wearing the Phantom Ganon costume from the DLC doesn't elicit any kind of a response from the Gerudo. I know it's obviously not detailed enough to fool them for very long, but it'd have been nice if they at least said something about it.
• This is more of a WMG than anything else, but with the advent of the BoTW 2 Trailer, I saw a theorist on youtube^* genuinely can't remember who as I've been mainlining BoTW videos, if someone does remember it and can link, please feel free point out that maybe there haven't been any new male Gerudos because the last male Gerudo (a Ganon? But which one is still unknown) is still alive, just in a mummified state.

Shouldn't she be called Queen Zelda?

• Seeing how she's the only survivor of the Hylian royalty - possibly the only nobility left - and the rightful heir to the kingdom, shouldn't people be referring to her as Queen Zelda? When the king died, line of succession automatically fell to her, so she's no longer a mere Princess.
  • The vast majority of characters in the game have no idea that Zelda is still alive; they all probably assume she died 100 years ago in the Calamity and have no way of knowing if it was before or after her father did. Any references to "the princess" are being made in past tense. Regarding the few who know that she's still alive, she probably wouldn't even be considered a princess anymore, since the monarchy hasn't been maintained or reestablished since the Calamity. As Rhoam tells you early on, the "kingdom" called Hyrule no longer exists. Characters like Impa only refer to Zelda as "the princess" because that's how they and Link all remember her, but she wouldn't have any authority in the present unless the populace submits to her rule again.
  • In addition to the above issue of her being otherwise occupied for the previous century, she might be in the same situation as the Zelda in Twilight Princess. In Twilight Princess, Zelda was depicted as being a de facto ruler of Hyrule up until Zant stormed the castle and took over, with her still being a princess being largely a formality. Presumably the same rules apply, Zelda in this game is only still a princess because there hasn't been any time for a formal coronation, and would probably be acting as a de facto queen if she had any time in between the king's death and her clash with Calamity Ganon to serve in a leadership role.

Koroks on Death Mountain

• How do the Korok spirits survive on Death Mountain? Their bodies are made completely of wood. Did they lather themselves with fireproof elixir before going into hiding, or are they using some sort of forest magic?
  • A spirit made of wood would have a great need for fireproofing magic, even in a forest.
  • One possibility is that the Koroks aren't ACTUALLY made of wood, but rather are embodiments of the Forest Spirit. So they're not combustible, as they're more concentrated mana.
  • Them using some variant of fireproof elixir is also a distinct possibility considering one of their own in The Wind Waker was a potion-maker.

Blight Ganon regeneration

• Not that I'm complaining or anything, but why doesn't the Blood Moon bring defeated Blight Ganons back to life?
  • The Blights are composed of the corruption caused by Ganon's Malice. I'm thinking that Link didn't merely destroy that corruption, he also fully activated the Beasts so that they could keep further corruption at bay. He never used the Sheikah Slate the first time around, despite it apparently being made specifically for his use, so I think the Beasts were not fully active at that time.
  • In the first blood moon cutscene, Zelda mentions that Ganon's power reaches its peak during the blood moons. The monster resurrection doesn't seem like a side effect of the moon itself, but a result of Ganon using his increased power to bring them back. Maybe bringing back pieces of himself requires even more power than he can muster, even during the event.
  • Even if he had the power to resummon them they may not have been worth it. Since all the blights are incorporated into Ganon's last-ditch effort to reincarnate, he seems to have focused his power on making sure he was as powerful as possible when he finally broke free. Since it's probably harder for a blight to kill a spirit champion than it was to kill a fleshy one, they were more useful to him as spare body parts than they were as separate projections.
  • Given their complexity, as they seemed to custom made rather than just a corruption of pre-existing creatures, Calamity Ganon may no longer have the intellect needed to create them.
  • Defeating a Blight is one of the things that causes harder monsters to spawn all over Hyrule. Even if Ganon could re-create the Blights inside functioning Divine Beasts, they respawn in places that Link is unlikely to return to. In strategy game terms, Ganon lost a big unit far away from the front line, and instead of paying to repair it he's reinvesting the money to upgrade his other unit types.
  • Defeating Blights and freeing the Divine Beasts only upgrades the monsters in the Coliseum. All other monsters across Hyrule either don't upgrade or upgrade based on how many monsters Link has killed irrespective of the Divine Beasts.

Photographs

• It's mentioned at quite a few points that Link's amnesia was an unintended, unforeseen side effect by pretty much everyone, since the Shrine of Resurrection hadn't actually been tested before he was sealed inside. Why, then, did Zelda happen to have saved a handful of photographs to the Sheikah Slate, each of which corresponded to one of his lost memories? And when did she have some of them taken? The slate was sealed inside the shrine with Link, so she couldn't have taken them at any point after instructing for him to be taken there.
  • Zelda took the photos around the time the memories take place in, back when Hyrule was safe (for the most part) and she was travelling around with the Sheikah Slate. The photos were never intended to bring back Link's memories, they're literally just Zelda's photo album. But, since Link was always following Zelda as a bodyguard, he happened to be present at all of the places where photos were taken, so these places could be used to trigger the memories. The big exception being the last memory, which isn't a photo on the Slate, but actually a painting, and seems to have been commissioned specifically to help Link remember his past.
  • Even in that case, what about the forest she and Link wound up in after Ganon took over the Guardians and Divine Beasts? I don't recall her having the Sheikah Slate on her at that point, and as mentioned, she couldn't have gone back and photographed it afterward since it was sealed away with Link - even if she could, wouldn't it seem like a weird location to photograph? The place where you had almost fallen to your lowest point, fearing that all of your hard work had been for nothing?
  • The best logical guess for that photo is Link was carrying the Sheikah Slate (Zelda didn't have anywhere in those robes) and it accidentally took the photo when they were running (all that movement must have hit the snap button). We have to use suspension of disbelief that the photo came out so perfect.
  • There's nothing to say that she didn't take the photo at an earlier, more peaceful time during her travels, and wound up retreating to a place she was already familiar with during the incident that Link recalls.
  • That's a strong possibility. It's worth noting if you "connect the dots" between Memory #16 and Memory #17 on the world map, it seems Link was taking Zelda to Kakariko Village as they fled from Hyrule Castle. Since Zelda can't scale a cliff like Link, they were taking the "long route" while evading Guardians. He was finally defeated on Blatchery Plain, just a short distance from Kakariko Bridge. Since this is where Zelda's powers finally awaken, it would explain why Kakariko Village and Hateno Village were spared from a Guardian slaughter. Had the mechanical horde remained functional, they would have eventually followed the roads to those communities. You can see at Fort Hateno that the Guardians were scaling the walls (which was one of the last lines of defense 100 years ago according to the NPC Celessa) when they deactivated.
  • OP here: I've also considered that Zelda may have foreseen amnesia being a side effect of using the shrine, even if she may've hoped that it wouldn't pop up. If this were the case, I could buy her going around snapping pictures of places that were important (and probably deactivating some Guardians with her power in the process) before returning the slate to be sealed away with Link, or just trimming her album down to the photos that Link would need, just in case he would need to recover his lost memories. This is also the only way the aforementioned painting could've been done in advance - if they hadn't known that Link could wind up losing his memory, why would they have thought it necessary to commission it in the first place?
  • I don't see Zelda having time to do that: Ganon was in the process of awakening. Impa, Purah, and Robbie don't mention Zelda being with them when they sealed Link away in the Resurrection Shrine. I would argue that Zelda gave the Slate to the two Sheikah ninja's that hurried Link away to the Shrine. She then journeyed to the Lost Woods to hide the Master Sword. It was so weak at that point, Ganon's minions could have destroyed it. Once that business was done, she immediately left to hold back Ganon. Time was short... each moment she wasted allowed Ganon to get stronger. The Calamity was getting worst, not better. It only stopped because Zelda sealed Ganon. Various NPC's comment the mass genocide only stopped when when Zelda left for Hyrule Castle and sealed the Calamity. The reason why the Divine Beasts and Guardians became active again, is because Ganon was closer to fully breaking the seal. They were mostly dormant, or at least not very aggressive, for the last 100 years.
  • The very last memory has Zelda saying that "the Slumber of Restoration will most certainly deprive him of his memories" - at the very least, she knew the amnesia was a side effect.

Do the Yiga recognize Link immediately

• Are the disguised Yiga Clan members serious when they ask Link to join the clan or similar topics, or are they aware of his identity and planning to kill him all along?
  • After killing Master Kohga, one Yiga member does admit that he was going to let Link join in BUT was offended by either your forgetfulness (i.e. "Yiga Clan?" implies forgetfulness) or refusal to join. But throughout the whole game, all Yiga will always recognize you, and will proceed to attack you either out of hostility or offense - both before and after Kohga's demise.
  • Considering some of them will also openly mention Master Kohga (and his dumb belly) even before discarding their disguises, I think the whole "asking travelers to join" thing is just a means of luring them into a false sense of security, thereby upping their scare factor. Think about it - you come across someone who compliments and praises you for your battle prowess, making it seem like he's about to invite you into some band of elitist warriors...only for him to casually reveal to you that he's actually the member of a cult who slaughters all who dare to oppose Ganon.
  • It's likely that the Yiga were planning to kill Link all along. Link cannot encounter Yiga Clan members until after raiding the Yiga Clan hideout or meeting Dorian in Kakariko. If it's the former, the Yiga recognize him as the person who infiltrated their hideout and want revenge for Kogha's death; if it's the latter, then Dorian likely told them about the Hylian Champion's return and gave them a physical description. Either way, they definitely know who he is.
  • The Yiga have no way of knowing that Link's memory was lost, so they assume he remembers them as his bitter enemies. The one who teases an invitation to join them was just effing with him.

Zelda's message

• After laying the Master Sword to rest in the final memory, Zelda requests that she leave a message for the Deku Tree to relay to Link, and the Deku Tree suggests that she save it for when she sees him again. I'm curious as to what the message was supposed to be, since I've just beaten the game, and Zelda never seemed to relay it. (Or it wasn't telegraphed, at least.)
  • It was likely that she meant to confess the fact that she was in love with him.
  • Which of course got omitted because No Hugging, No Kissing.
  • To elaborate on the above: we're never told what Zelda would have said. However, given the massive levels of Ship Tease (one NPC all but outright states that Zelda was in love with Link), the most likely answer is that Zelda intended to say she loved him.

Sacred power

• When Zelda finally summons her sacred power and uses it against the Guardians, why does it deactivate them completely? Shouldn't it just rid them of Ganon's influence and return them to their original functionality?
  • Maybe they're so corrupted that there is no difference. Zelda's research diary talks about the five columns around Hyrule Castle as being the place where most of the Guardians were stored. Maybe it also works as some sort of control center for them, and it's still corrupted by Ganon.
  • I was thinking that after Zelda removed Ganon's corruption, the Guardians obeyed Zelda's magical command. I'm sure her desire was something like, "stop," so the Guardians interpreted that as "shutdown" since they're machines.
  • Or she broke them. It was her first time using the sacred power, after all.
  • Age of Calamity lends some support to this theory with the implication that Zelda's sacred power is at least compatible with whatever power source ancient technology runs on. In that game, Terrako gets a supercharge just from one of her tears landing on it. The force of Zelda's full power being unleashed for the first time might have completely overloaded the Guardians and wrecked their circuits, sort of like a magical EMP.

Species Interbreeding

• Hylians, Sheikah, and Gerudo seem like different ethnic groups of the same species. They can successfully interbreed and not have sterile children. However if Link and Mipha did get married in some alternate universe Calamity Ganon didn't emerge... is it possible for Zoras and Hylians to have hybrid offspring? Has there ever been an example of it happening within Zelda lore?
  • Maybe. Possibly. If you'll recall, A Link to the Past did show its sages as a group of six young (human-seeming) women, even though in Ocarina of Time, which came before it, and A Link Between Worlds, which came afterward, at least two of them were of a different species, and one of which was a Zora. This suggests that inbreeding between Hylians and Zoras is indeed possible, and that it would've worked out had Link and Mipha had the chance to end up together.
  • Also, the Zoras still have Sidon. Even if Mipha and Link couldn't viably procreate, Dorephan still showed no issues with her pursuing such a relationship. Mipha could've passed on her claim to the throne and designated Sidon to be the next heir instead, or just ruled over the domain with Link until both of them died childless, at which point the throne would pass to Sidon anyway.
  • Zoras have a much longer natural lifespan than Hylians. Had Ganon never returned and Mipha married Link as she'd wanted to, she would probably have outlived him by centuries: long enough for her to choose a second (Zora) husband once her mourning had run its course, and produce heirs with him.

The Champions' Weapons

• How did the weapons of the four Champions wind up in the care of the leaders of their respective tribes, in order for them to be presented to Link? Shouldn't they have had them with them when they were preparing their Divine Beasts to face Ganon? Or did the Blight Ganons choose to toss the weapons overboard after taking control, and someone went to collect and preserve them from there?
  • Maybe when they boarded the beasts for real, they didn't take their weapons with them, thinking they'd be safe inside the beasts. Or maybe these aren't the actual weapons the Champions used, as we know blacksmiths can make more of those.
  • At the very least I think we can say Mipha's weapon is the original one, since it already has an explicit recreation in-universe as the Ceremonial Trident unlike all of the other weapons so it being fake would be redundant and odd. Revali's Bow would only beg the question of where and how did someone else get the scrap of his Champion's cloth to tie onto it (or know about the detail enough to get something very similar to it) if it isn't his original one, as we don't see any sign of him or explicit descendants among the current Rito tribe unlike the other Champions.
  • It would be entirely appropriate, under the circumstances, for the Champions to insist that other warriors of their people take up their weapons and defend the home front, given that they didn't expect to be fighting hand to hand and would know how such a bequest could provide a morale boost in the clinch.
  • In the case of the Great Eagle Bow, at least, the Rito elder speaks of it as though it's a treasured weapon of the Rito tribe as a whole, and that Revali only happened to have wielded it before the Calamity. Buliara hints at something similar with Urbosa's scimitar and shield, though she isn't as clear whether they're treasures specifically because Urbosa used them or if they were cherished even before then. Whereas the Lightscale Trident and Boulder Breaker were implied to have been crafted specifically for Mipha and Daruk.
  • According to Age of Calamity, the Champions definitely had their weapons with them in their confrontations with the Blights.
  • The problem with Age of Calamity is by the time Calamity Ganon escaped and summoned the Blight Ganons, the timeline had already changed in that the Hylian forces KNEW Calamity Ganon would escape soon (Zelda's 17th Birthday) and shit would hit the fan, thanks to Terroko coming back in time to warn them, as opposed to the Breath of the Wild timeline, where they knew it was likely to happen but didn't have anything but a prophecy and excavated Guardians. It's possible that the Champions originally rushed to the Divine Beasts without their weapons in the Breath of the Wild timeline because they weren't expecting threats there (After you do Champions Ballad, Mipha says that Waterblight Ganon ambushed her, and she really didn't have a chance to fight back), but because everyone knew guardians could be corrupted in the Age of Calamity timeline the Champions made sure to have their weapons with them, in case something went wrong.

The sword's message

• Why is this the first time anyone's heard from Fi in the past 18 games or so? In Skyward Sword, she said that she would be returned to the sword, her purpose fulfilled, in order to enter a "sleep without end", which served to wrap up her appearance and provide a nice, neat explanation why she hasn't spoken up since then. She never reacts whenever any other incarnations of Link keel over and die, nor does she speak when she seals the Hero of Time in sleep, the Hero of Winds restores power to her sword, or when she transforms Wolf Link back into a human...Even in this game, she never even speaks to Link directly, only addresses Zelda with a means of showing she can save him, which probably could've been easily handed off to a Sheikah or something. After spending at least 10,000 years in a silent slumber, why does she only now decide to intervene?
  • Maybe only the descendants of Hylia can actually hear the sword (despite the game implying the heroes can do it too, Link never seems to hear it), and previous Zeldas didn't have enough contact with the sword, and what little contact they had with it was at times when they had it all pretty much figured out, so they didn't need any advice.
  • This is the first time a Link has fought with the Master Sword so hard, he nearly destroyed it. Full stop. I'm sure if anything would get Fi's attention and pull her out of slumber, being pushed to her utmost limit should be one of them. This incarnation of Zelda is also unique for being a very "late bloomer" in attaining and comprehending the nature of her power. There was probably a lot of things that are intuitively learned over time, that she didn't have anymore time to learn, so Fi needed to point Zelda in the right direction or Link AND she would die (seeing how the Master Sword needed a safe place to recover, and probably guided Zelda through the Lost Woods to get back to her pedestal).
  • Also, how did Fi know about the Shrine of Resurrection, anyway? I can only imagine that she was already asleep when it was constructed.
  • Fi has been around for aeons, including the battle 10,000 years prior when the Sheikah were developing the tech. She probably heard about it at some point if not witnessed the shrine being built or in action.
  • Though she's asleep, it seems she's still vaguely aware of what's been going on around her. Asleep is probably more like dormant or "power save" mode for her. She's probably not in a complete coma devoid of all sensory input. Though she doesn't "interact" with anyone or anything for the most part, she's still absorbing information. It's also possible she's able to pull information from each Link she's been wielded by. That is to say, whatever a Link learns, she also learns or gets the gist of.
  • Also, in Skyward Sword, Fi only said she would enter "a sleep without end" when Link laid the Master Sword to rest. She never said she wouldn't wake up if the sword was ever drawn again.
  • Another possibility for Fi’s silence up to this point is that she doesn’t know how to speak post-Skyward Sword languages. Zelda awakening her powers might also allow her to tap into the archaic language the gods spoke, which Fi is capable of understanding.

Blame of the Zoras

• I understand that grief isn't entirely rational sometimes, but where do the elder Zoras get off blaming Link for what happened to Mipha? I must not be understanding their thought process - Mipha being chosen as a Champion was never mentioned as being Link's doing; it's stated through a sidequest that she was "delighted" to be given the role. The two of them were close from when they were children. Mipha was going to propose to him. There's a being of concentrated hatred walled up inside a castle they were both destined to fight against, together, who was directly responsible for her demise. And yet a good deal of them will go so far as to say that Link "stole Mipha away" from them. Even in terms of irrational grief, that just seems illogical; shouldn't they be eager to help him so he can take down the creature that did kill Mipha? Do they think that Link should've been there to protect her, and so blame him for that? Or do they have the honest idea that he somehow was directly responsible?
  • One of the old Zoras kinda spells it out. The old guard of the Zora blame the Hylians in general for being the ones that unearthed the Guardians, as they perceive it as the reason Ganon returned with such strength. They're bigoted, and cling to a flimsy excuse to demonise an entire race, and too proud to ask for help. Link specifically is just a person they happen to have known personally, but they wouldn't treat any other Hylian much better.
  • Plus, it doesn't help that Link recruited Mipha — a beloved member of their home — to fight Ganon and as a consequence, she died. You'd be pretty salty too if the person responsible (however indirectly) for the demise of a beloved member of your society.
  • Except Link didn't seem to have chosen her to act as a Champion. The royal family did. It's actually a pretty amazing coincidence that the two of them happened to be childhood friends who were given the same roles.
  • Whether Link recruited her or not, that fact doesn't matter to the elderly Zoras. As far as they were concerned, Mipha died doing something that involved Link, the Royal Family, and the Hylians in general (please get your minds out of the gutter, dear Tropers...) As the OP said, grief and rage can do funny things to the mind, and these guys have had a century to nurture that feeling. The moment Link shows up, it just ripped open all the old wounds.
  • That's all well and good, but it still doesn't make their expressions of grief very believable, even as grieving goes. This sounds something like two childhood friends joining the military, one of them dying in battle, and the other one being blamed for somehow causing their death by the deceased friend's family members. It's not just irrational - it's almost impossible to see where they're coming from.
  • When I played, I intuited from everything that was said that Mipha having taken up the title of Champion, having wanted to Pilot Vah Ruta, having done the things she did because of her love for Link. Yes, she would have wanted to save Hyrule, but her main motivation was Link himself and therefore no Link = no death of Mipha in their minds.
  • Building off of that, it's likely that the elder Zoras didn't realize just how genuine Mipha's love for Link was, if their reaction to discovering that the Zora Armor was intended to be her marriage proposal to Link is any indication. Without knowing how she really felt, they might have been under the impression that their beloved princess had basically died because she had a simple "schoolgirl" crush on Link and agreed to become a Champion because of that crush.
  • Another possible component of their vitriol is that Link came back. Mipha, their beloved princess, went off to stop Calamity Ganon, and never came home. But Link, the lynchpin of the attempt, comes walking in a century later, seemingly no worse for the wear. It may have inflamed things, seeing the person who was supposed to stop Ganon come back when Mipha never did.

Divine Beast whereabouts

• Various characters from the different villages mention that the Divine Beasts seemed to appear out of nowhere very recently before Link's arrival... While it's conceivable that Ruta was submerged beneath East Reservoir Lake, Rudania inside Death Mountain Crater, and Medoh (possibly) somewhere deep in the Hebra Mountains, where would Naboris have been hiding all that time in order to have escaped notice? Had it just been buried in the sand all those years?
  • Sandstorms are terrifying IRL. I've seen them bury an entire village in under an hour. I'd imagine the sandstorms of a fantasy world could easily bury a giant mecha in mere minutes. Personally, I'm more curious where Medoh crash landed after Zelda's sacrifice sealed Ganon. I don't think it got lost in the mountain range itself (that might have caused catastrophic damage to the machine), but maybe in a snowfield to cushion the landing.
  • My theory is that either Medoh landed on the bird-shaped Biron Snow-shelf and stayed there before reawakening, or that she landed in the same place, but the snow-shelf hadn't developed yet, and the shelf is based on the shape and size of her.
  • Come to think of it, how would being submerged in the reservoir have "concealed" Vah Ruta from the Zora? They spend much of their lives underwater. You'd think fisherfolk with a hankering for lakebed seafood would know exactly where she was.
  • Considering the number of massive ancient relics and remnants scattered across Hyrule's landscape - ruins, leviathan skeletons, giant statues, sacred springs, fairy fountains - that local people only know about from rumors at best, it seems like most villagers never step outside their immediate communities. Until the towers rose, the Beasts were just another bizarre half-buried enigma in the woods/sand/mountains/magma fields.

Dorian and his children

• How is Dorian keeping his children safe from the Yiga after the completion of the "Stolen Heirloom" sidequest? Before then, the only thing that kept them from being targeted was Dorian trading information on Link and Impa in exchange for their safety, but even afterwards, he continues to tell the same stories he admits tend to "excite" his youngest daughter, Cottla, and still permits her to play on the hill near the shrine above the village, which the stories are intended to keep her away from. (Either that or he doesn't know that she plays up there, which is really no better.) Unless Link is there to monitor her 24/7, what's to keep her from being snatched up or attacked?
  • Maybe the Yiga didn't really care to fulfill their threat, so they can focus better on hindering Link directly? I mean, killing the kids wouldn't really get them anything useful, and is something they can easily do after Link is dealt with.
  • Even so, Dorian doesn't have any way of knowing that, so it still seems like he should be a bit more concerned.
  • Cottla only goes up to play on the hill in the early morning, while her father is still asleep at home. She always comes back down before he wakes up for storytime, and spends the rest of the day running around the village. If Dorian doesn't know she goes up the hill to play, he can't exactly do anything about it, and he won't stop telling the story of the sobbing woman unless he realizes it's inspiring her to go up there.
  • It's mentioned by Impa that the Great Fairy Cotera is a guardian spirit of the village and provides it some form of divine protection. She was still drained of power and sealed in her bud at the time Dorian's wife was killed, which was probably how the Yiga managed to pull it off, but once Link restores her, she could be using her power to keep them away. Especially since she's technically the one that Cottla is actually "playing" with, albeit unknowingly.
  • It's also important to note that in the game's timeline (or, at least, the most likely one if you do all of Kakariko's quests early), the Yiga find out about Link's revival themselves and, especially after Master Kohga is killed, begin actively hunting the hero down. They don't need Dorian's intel any longer and thus can afford to lose him as an informant. As to why they let his children live anyway, that might be a case of Pragmatic Villainy: they're mostly interested in Link, and murdering two small children is likely to attract a lot of negative attention, which, given their stealth-based attacks, is something they're trying to avoid.
  • Another possibility is that Dorian, as part of his Heel–Face Turn, told Impa and the other villagers about what had been happening to apologize and explain himself. As such, the rest of the Sheikah would be on the alert and actively guarding the kids from danger.

Daruk's Protection

• Why is Daruk's Protection over Yunobo, which he only inherited through his blood, so much stronger than the one Link has? Yunobo can be launched out of a cannon with enough force to damage the exterior of a Divine Beast multiple times without it wearing off, yet Link's protection shatters through as little as three attacks from a Keese, even though he has the spirit of Daruk himself protecting him.
  • The spirits probably can only bestow lesser versions of their abilities to Link, not the full scope of them.
  • If that were the case, it seems Daruk is the only one it really applies to. Mipha is able to bring Link back from death with five bonus hearts instead of just healing minor injuries, and Urbosa can summon an entire sphere of powerful lightning, instead of just one strike.
  • Actually the limited version does line up with what is shown and said for the others too, with Link seeming to have an "Unskilled, but Strong" variation of what they could do at best. First we have no way of knowing if any of the "cool down periods" they are given in game applied to all of these abilities in life, as Yunobo seems to indicate this isn't the case with Daruk's protection at the very least. Mipha was said to be a great healer before she died, not one who was limited to "healing minor injuries" of others, but now all she can do is use it as a massive "perfect" heal upon his would-be death with no middle ground and he can't use this ability to heal anyone other than himself. Urbosa could summon her attacks with a mere snap of her fingers and could use it to hit even distant targets if she wanted to but Link's has to take more time to trigger, and is a lot less precise than the strikes she showed off as he's limited to always having it centered around himself. Even with Revali's gale, given he could fly without any powers, we can't be sure yet if his gale has always been limited to just going straight up or if that's just because it's the most effective direction Link can use it in.
  • The Gorons are already pretty hardy and defensively tough, adding Daruk's Protection on top of that makes you pretty much unkillable. Link is a fleshy Hylian, so he just gets that one layer of armor.

Guardians on Death Mountain

• How are the Gorons able to safely travel between the base and summit of Death Mountain when there are active Guardians patrolling the lower trails?
  • Perhaps Guardians are more reactive to Hylians, or maybe they just roll down fast enough that going down isn't a problem. They can probably stealth up the mountain easily enough, or use tunnels to avoid them.
  • You can come across one of those Guardians while a Goron happened to also be passing by - when he saw it, he just ran away in terror like most Non Player Characters. So they either stealth their way past them or find some other way up the mountain, as was suggested above. The Guardians stop tailing you after a certain distance, so it wouldn't be too strenuous for a Goron to out-roll them, even if they were heading uphill.

Bodybuilding

• If Ganon was using that chrysalis-thing to try and create himself a new body when Link arrived, then why was he simultaneously struggling against Zelda's attempts to keep him sealed up? (As her line, "I can't hold him" would imply?)
  • Not sure I understand. He was trying to create himself a new body but he also had to deal with Zelda keeping him sealed.
  • I figured that the chrysalis he was sealed inside was necessary to his reincarnation, yet he breaks free of it once Zelda loses her hold on him. Why would he want to break free if he didn't have a new body yet and was still busy making one?
  • Because Link was there? The Hyrule Compendium mentions Link interrupts his reincarnation.
  • My guess is that him trying to break out of Zelda's seal and him trying to regenerate his body are more or less the same thing: Zelda's seal is preventing him from fully regenrating, forcing him to use up his energy to try to break the seal and complete the process rather than use to continue wreaking havoc with the corrupted Guardians. He only manages to break the seal and complete the process right when Link arrives, and he decides to attack, either because he's so far gone mentally that his desire to kill Link overrides his drive to finish his reincarnation, or because he realizes he'll just be a sitting duck while he finishes regenerating and decides to take the chance that his half-done form would be able to take Link down.

Guardians on the Great Plateau

• How did Guardians ever manage to make it to the top of the Great Plateau? Surely, the vertical inclines surrounding it would've been too steep for them to have climbed, wouldn't they?
  • Dude, we're talking about a almost sci-fi level of technology created by the Shiekah, a thing fused with magic and Din knows what else. I'm sure the Great Plateau would've been a breeze for them.
  • I'm pretty sure we see them climbing stone walls in a cutscene, so climbing a natural wall shouldn't be much harder (not to mention there are man-made walls there too).
  • Environmental clues suggest that there was a single ramp/staircase accessing the Plateau towards its northeast edge, directly across from the Gatepost Town Ruins. In present times its door is filled in with dirt and debris, and the ramp flooded with water.

Healing Link

• After Link nearly got done in by Guardians, why couldn't the Sheikah just find a fairy to heal him or have him eat something to recover his lost health? They had to have had enough time to get him up to the shrine atop the Great Plateau - why didn't they just bring him to Kakariko Village and cook up a Hearty dish for him?
  • Link is one of the very rare people who can see fairies and dishes likely don't have the same effect if force-fed. Also, it is likely that he was already dead, just within a state in which he could be brought back.
  • I think it was more of a case that Link was pretty much already dead and they likely didn't have time to scrounge around for the recovery fairy and/or ingredients for a hearty dish what with Hyrule being swarmed by the Guardians.
  • True, but they had to have taken the time to get Link up onto the Great Plateau, which can't exactly be easy when the guy's nearly dead, and they had to wait for Zelda to go out and snap some pictures of his memories before returning the slate so they could seal the shrine. You'd think, in the intervening time, someone could've paid a visit to the Fairy Fountain above the village to look for something that might help.
  • Healing elixirs, like most food, seem to benefit from Gameplay and Story Segregation, so one of those might not have kicked in fast enough to do Link any good, if they could even get him to drink it while unconscious and on the brink of death. Fairies wouldn't have that problem, but they might not have had one on hand. Even if they did have one, or could get one, Link's injuries might have been so bad a fairy just couldn't do more than buy some extra time, which the Sheikah used to hustle him to the Shrine of Resurrection, per Zelda's instructions. It's also possible that even if healing elixirs or fairies would have kept him from dying, Link's injuries would have left him permanently disabled and physically unable to fight Ganon. In that scenario, the Sheikah might have gambled that the Shrine of Resurrection could heal what their comparatively limited technology couldn't.
  • And lest we forget, at that time, the Sheikah were taking orders from Princess Zelda, who was taking orders from the near-omniscient will of the Master Sword. Fi would know enough about fairies after all the heroes she’s served to know whether one would do the trick, and she concluded that the Shrine of Resurrection was Link’s best chance.
  • What’s more, there was a slight hint in earlier games that you had to have already captured a fairy in order for it to Auto-Revive you, sort of like a Genie in a Bottle. Someone else collecting one for Link after he’d already keeled over probably wouldn’t have done the trick.
  • Considering Ganon had only just broken free, unleashing baneful magical energies to every corner of Hyrule, it's likely that beings as shy and mystically-aware as fairies were hiding in terror and couldn't be collected even if Link's caregivers had searched for one. Even after a hundred years to calm down, they're still scarcer than in many other Zelda games.

No guards or anything?

• Unless they knew that Old Man Rhoam would be there to guide him, why didn't the Sheikah have someone stationed atop the Great Plateau for when Link woke up, to be able to explain things to him about what was going on, what had happened, where he should be going, and so on? We already know that they can live well past 100 years.
  • Well, the Old Man didn't really try to make his presence go unnoticed, he even had a cabin of his own with a diary in it, so the Sheikah probably did know about his presence there.
  • They also may not have anticipated his amnesia - if I remember right, Impa at least was taken aback by it.
  • Zelda did, at the very least, and she certainly didn't know Rhoam would be living on the plateau.
  • I suspect the Sheikah avoided the area to prevent drawing the Yiga's attention. I suspect the Yiga have more power outside of the Kakariko area, and if they knew Link's exact location, they would lay in wait to assassinate him as soon as he woke up. Any Sheikah mobilization would tip them off.
  • The Great Plateau also became really hard to access once the old ramp collapsed. Maybe they could have a Rito drop by once in a while to check that the Shrine of Resurrection hadn't been cut off by a landslide or whatever, but actually guarding it full-time wasn't logistically feasible for the Sheikah.

Link and Zelda's journey

• The path Link and Zelda took after Ganon took over the Guardians doesn't seem to make much sense, if we're to assume their goal was to reach Kakariko Village. One of Link's memories took place in a forest near the Bottomless Swamp, just south of which is a path that leads up a hill and right into the village. Yet when Link finally collapsed, the two of them were in the area near Fort Hateno, implying that they traveled further south than they needed to in order to pass through the Dueling Peaks and reach Kakariko that way. Why did they take such a long detour when their destination was right in front of them?
  • My thinking is that they tried to get to Kakariko Village, but the area was swarming with Guardians left and right so that was a no-go. Link probably figured Hateno would be the next best destination. They got there, rested up and were about to complete the journey when an army of Guardians were seen marching closer and closer. He obviously didn't want them to destroy Hateno so he helped the garrison fight back, and that's when he collapsed.
  • Considering how filthy and muddy their clothes were in the two memories, and how distant Hateno is from everywhere else, I doubt Link and Zelda would've been able to find time to get there, stop and rest, and then come back. Guardians were swarming Hyrule at this point - if they were near anywhere near Kakariko when Link and Zelda tried to reach there, odds are they would've made it to Hateno before long. It also begs the question of why no one in the village made any effort to try and help them if there were that many Guardians, considering Purah and Robbie were probably already there at that point, and both of them explicitly have unmatched skill in handling the technology.
  • With regards to Link and Zelda's path, I always thought that they originally intended to follow the more direct route to Kakariko, but realized they would be easy targets for the corrupted Guardians. The direct route to Kakariko is mosly open and inludes a long slope they would have to climb with Guardians shooting at their exposed backs the whole way. Taking the longer route to the south would allow Link and Zelda to stick to patches of forest almost all the way to the Dueling Peaks. The trees would not only make it harder for Guardians to spot them, but also give them some cover if one did happen to see them and start shooting. Going for Fort Hateno instead of Kakariko might have been a last-minute change in plans; the fort would be closer at that point, and at the very least, they would have backup and a degree of shelter there while they planned their next move.
  • I always thought that they tried to reach Hyrule Castle, saw it was overrun and then changed routes to precede to either Hateno or Kakariko. If you look at the memories in chronological order there are only three memories that take place after Calamity Ganon escapes (not including the Master Sword memory). You have the Lanayru Road memory when he breaks free, you have the memory near the Bottomless Swamp in Hyrule Field where Zelda breaks down, and you have the final memory at the Ash Swamp where Link collapses. In the Hyrule Field memory Zelda says she left her father to die, which implies that the King was IN Hyrule Castle when the Calamity began and that Zelda and Link tried to reach it but realized they just couldn't and moved on. The place where Zelda breaks down is extremely out of the way (and in fact is hidden in a group of trees far off the main roads as though Link and Zelda were trying to travel undetected and out of sight) and considering it's distance from Lanayru Road and the direction, they likely would have in fact traveled through Dueling Peaks only to double back when they realied just how bad things had gotten at they Castle and in Hyrule Field. Realizing that they couldn't do anything about the Castle, Link tried to take Zelda to either Hateno, where there would have been better defenses, or Kakariko, the home village or the Sheikah.

Why Are They Hiding?

• Is it ever explained WHY the Koroks are hiding all over Hyrule? Were they always there, or did Calamity Ganon cause them to become separated from Korok Forest? Or was it another reason?
  • They're nature spirits, they're probably drawn to locations like old overgrown ruins and untamed nature. Only the ones in Hyrule Castle feel like they're really out-of-place.
  • Their being in hiding is implied early on to be part of a joke they're playing on Hestu, considering the first one found is surprised he was discovered by someone other than Hestu. Their intent was to take the seeds from his maracas and make him seek all of them out in order to get them back.

Din, Nayru, Farore and Hylia

• Despite signs of Hylia absolutely everywhere (statues, the Master Sword, Zelda herself, the shrines, etc.) Beyond the dragons left at the shrines for Courage, Wisdom, and Power (whose in-game descriptions don't actually reference the goddesses directly) there are no signs of the big 3. The dragons are noted to serve their particular spring, which are set up, made, and likely defended by Hylia. So the question is.... is Hylia the only one that remembers them?
  • The series has been downplaying the three creator goddesses for a while now. They probably haven't been directly mentioned since Wind Waker, with both Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess leaving any references to them quite vague (calling them things like "the old gods" rather than by their names, or their specific moniker "Golden Goddesses"). This game just continues the trend, with Hylia stepping up as the main deity of Hyrulean religion. And since we never hear about the Triforce or the creation of the world, they're left completely out of the events of the game.
  • I can't recall very many Non Player Characters mentioning Hylia, for what it's worth. Zelda talking about her fits perfectly with her struggle to awaken her slumbering power, as it was explicitly passed down to her from Hylia's reincarnation. Same with the Sheikah, who were servants to Hylia in ancient times, and the Master Sword, which was recently revealed to have been originally designed by her. In terms of the general populace, it could depend on which branch of the timeline it takes place in and where - the latter games of both the Adult and Downfall branches saw a declining focus on the old gods by common people. Combine that with the events of the Calamity, and it'd make sense for the survivors to uncover relics of a more "earthly" goddess like Hylia, and start worshiping her instead. Think of it as a less-sinister version of one of those post-apocalypse cults.
  • It isn't even clear in game if the "Goddess" Naydra serves is meant to be Nayru or Hylia, considering the shrine they are attending does seem primarily to honor Hylia, so the Golden Goddesses could also just be gone at this point. I mean if the only carrier of the Triforce that serves as their primary legacy really is Hylia's descendant now wouldn't that indicate they aren't choosing champions of their specific pieces of it anymore like they did with previous Zelda, Link, and Ganondorf? Hylia seemed to show even goddesses in this world can "die" in the right circumstances, even if in her case she happened to get better, and if being worshipped affects godhood in this universe that doesn't exactly bode well for them.
  • Unrelated topic, but I think a good deal of people are mistaken in thinking Zelda carries the full Triforce in this game, since it has yet to be confirmed. The symbol on her hand could just be representative of her divine powers rather than the presence of the complete Triforce inside her.
  • The Triforce mark has only ever had two meanings in the series, either the person in question has a piece of the Triforce (in which case the piece they own glows brighter when it's activated) or they are chosen to use it, but don't have it (in which case its portrayal is inconsistent, some times it's only a tattoo, sometimes it blinks). Without any evidence to the contrary, the fact Zelda has a full glowing Triforce on the back of her hand, which she uses to invoke her sacred powers, it's safe to say she DOES have the full Triforce. We also have past evidence of Triforce pieces being in inherited by bloodline without their owners even knowing about it, and of the Triforce activating on its own when the owner is in grave danger.
  • Skyward Link had a fully glowing Triforce mark on his hand by the end of the game without owning the actual thing. I would argue that aside from an actual object, the triforce is also a symbol. The version we see here is the latter. Furthermore, there is zero reason to assume she even has the full triforce since the narrative only ever refers to Zelda's "power of sealing" which is more or less accepted as an ability inherent to Zelda. Furthermore, if she actually did have the power of the full Triforce, none of this stuff would be happening. Having ownership over the infinite, ultimate power would kind of make defeating Ganon a non-issue.
  • I suppose that could be the case, but it does create a bit of plot hole concerning everything else in the game - if she had the full Triforce, why couldn't she have just used its power to wish away everything that had happened? I still think it's just meant to be a symbol of her divine power in general, or an indication that she, like Link, is just one of the goddesses' chosen ones.
  • The Triforce's abilities to grant wishes, and the way it actually grants them, seems pretty inconsistent from game to game. In some games (LoZ and AoL) this ability is never mentioned at all, in others it grants them with varying efficiency (ALttP, Ganon never gets his wish, only the means to achieve it on his own, while Link just pretty much presses the reset button), and some other times it does a pretty shady job (SS, where it seals the Imprisoned just fine, but then he just comes back in the past, and Link seems powerless to just wish him away again). Maybe at this point in history, the Triforce's true power is simply not known, and as such it's never used to the best effect.
  • Going with the above pointing out the knowledge of what the Triforce was meant to do may be lost, we don't know if they remember what the Triforce even is anymore since the Golden Goddesses who made it have fallen to obscurity in favor of Hylia. Since the dangers of losing important information over time, both on personal and cultural levels, is one of the major themes of the game it's not even really a plot hole as much as it is a Dramatic Irony that follows the trend. Heck considering in-universe people thought worshipping at the three shrines we know are referencing the Goddesses would help Zelda tap onto her powers, rather than something unique to Hylia, could the "sacred power" used to seal Ganon still just be the Triforce granting that "wish" in a wonky way that's been misattributed to Hylia over the ages due to association with her bloodline? We see the "Princess with the blood of the Goddess" with what is clearly the Triforce in the legend tapestry during Impa's story and the phrasing is vague at best. It seems a lot weirder to me to think the Triforce could go from being such important series wide MacGuffin, with very specific Goddesses and concepts tied to its imagery, to simply being used as a general "divine power" visual shorthand for a completely different Goddess here.

Neck problems

• When you see Naboris, out in the desert in the sandstorm, her neck is in the "on" position. When you enter her, from what i remember, her neck is "off". What changed from Link boarding her to accessing the Guidance Stone?
  • Maybe Thunderblight Ganon switches everything off when Link boards the Divine Beast, to impede his progress in taking it back, and then switches it back on when he leaves. Either that or it's a security protocol that kicks in once Link activates the Guidance Stone, since Naboris views him as an outside threat that's trying to invade and take control of it.

It's up to you!

• Why doesn't Sidon accompany Link inside Vah Ruta? The game gives understandable reasons why the other New Champions don't provide help - Teba was injured during the fight with Medoh, Riju is still a child with no weapons or combat experience, and Yunobo didn't have a way to safely reach Rudania like Link did. (And may've been a bit too cowardly to try, anyway.) On the other hand, Sidon is a fully-grown Zora that seems able and willing to hold his own in a fight, and as far as he knew, his own elder sister was still trapped inside Ruta, alive or otherwise. It seems he had plenty of capability and motive to head inside with Link.
  • Maybe because he sees it as Link's fight, as he was close to Mipha. Mipha loved him, so Sidon may have thought it would be awkward if Mipha was alive, and she saw Link after 100 years. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, after all...
  • He didn't seem to think Mipha could have survived locked away in there like their father did, so he could have been worried about the possibility of finding his beloved elder sister's corpse in there even if standing aside would cost him the chance take revenge on her murderer.
  • There's also the more practical reason: Sidon's the only heir the Zora have anymore and can't afford to lose him, so sending him in with Link would be needlessly risky should this attempt to stop Vah Ruta fail. Riju's age wasn't the only reason she stayed out, she was the only leader her people have at the moment unlike Teba who was a trained and ready Rito warrior and Yunobo who seemed more like a relatively normal Goron. As we don't know if Sidon is considered as good of a fighter as Mipha was, and it seems he doesn't have the healing abilities she did, it could just be him deciding that his people would need him more in any case than Link would. Seeing how his father already lost one child to Vah Ruta and how much he means to his people, some who are also still mourning the loss of his sister, it's not hard to see why he might think that.
  • One of the Zoras' stone tablets disagrees, actually, as it states that Sidon once went out of his way to face off with a giant Octorok who was terrorizing the fisherman in (I believe) Hateno Bay...Granted, he did end up getting eaten and was forced to cut his way out from the monster's stomach, but the fact remains that he tried. It seems an even greater danger that was actively threatening his people and that had taken his sister away should've given him all the more reason to want to involve himself, heir to the throne or no.
  • And "can't afford to lose him" seems a bit of a stretch. While he has certainly aged quite a bit, King Dorephan still seems to be alive and healthy, and he never drops any hints that Sidon is going to have to take over his role anytime soon. Riju was the last Gerudo chief there was ever going to be if something happened to her, which wasn't the case with Sidon - I wouldn't go as far as calling him expendable, but the Zoras aren't likely to be very lost without him.
  • The main risk is a succession crisis. If Sidon dies, the current Zora line dies with him. As far as we know, he has no younger siblings, his mother is MIA, and we don't know exactly how old Dorephan actually is. He's still the sole heir to the throne at this point, so if he dies, then things could become problematic.
  • Near the start of the Vah Medoh quest, Kaneli states that only Champions can board the Divine Beasts. Since Sidon was around 100 years before the game, he's probably aware of this fact. The Divine Beasts presumably only let in those who have been proven 'worthy.'
  • However, there's never any indication that the "only Champions can board them" belief is actually true; it sounds more like some rumor people came up with out of reverence or something. Teba was obviously planning on taking Medoh down from the inside before he took a laser to the leg.
  • An additional wrinkle is the fact that they know that whatever's in there killed Mipha, the previous Zora champion, seemingly without too much difficulty. It wouldn't be a stretch for them to believe that whatever corrupted Ruta is specifically designed to counter the skills of a Zora warrior. If that's the case, Sidon would be in even greater danger, and they likely wouldn't want to risk it if it wasn't necessary.
  • And on a purely practical note, Sidon probably expects Link will be making further use of shock arrows to deal with whatever threats might lurk inside the giant elephant robot. If that's the case, having a Zora tag along - even their great warrior/prince/pop idol - is liable to be more of a hinderance than a help.

Yiga's Money Problems

• Why do the Yiga foot-soldiers drop money when Link defeats them?
  • They were all on grocery shopping business, looking after more bananas for their hoard.
  • The Yiga are a band of cutthroats who have no problem murdering innocent people. It wouldn't surprise me if they were willing to stoop to petty theft from any travelers they encounter.
  • It's probably part of their cover as travelers or traders.
  • On top of posing as travelers and traders, the Yiga are also assassins. It's possible they are occasionally paid to go after certain targets.

When Ganon was strong...

• How different was the situation in Hyrule from Ganon returning to when Zelda sealed him away? Most of the Guardians seen in the present are rusted and run-down, and the few that are left only patrol a set area, whereas they were much more active in the past, from what we see in Link's memories. They overran Castle Town and seemed to move on from there in packs - was Ganon controlling them at that point? If not, what made them stop trying to hunt people down after he was sealed away? Also, the Divine Beasts - much is made of Ganon corrupting them and turning them against Hyrule, but the only one who's an active threat in the present is Vah Ruta. Did Ganon have them doing anything more than stomping/flying around and only acting up if someone tried to go near them?
  • It can be inferred that, when Ganon was sealed, he lost control of the Sheikah technology and it went inactive. As he rebuilds his power over time, the technology falls into his grasp once more, with the Divine Beasts resurfacing and the Guardians presumably becoming more aggressive. As for the Divine Beasts's threat, they were all being very passive, just kicking up basic defenses and weather trouble. Vah Ruta seemed like a more urgent problem because of the dam, but all four were doing similar things.
  • Someone—possibly Purah, but I'm honestly not sure—remarks that the Divine Beasts were dormant until Link activated the Great Plateau Tower, which awakened all of the Sheikah technology that had presumably been "offline" since Zelda first trapped Ganon in Hyrule Castle. That means that the Beasts are only just waking up and beginning their rampages again, and others on this page have suggested that the spirits of the Champions are using what's left of their strength to hold them back from going on destructive rampages. As for Hyrule's state: Reede, the chief of Hateno Village, remarks that their people only just beginning to "feel a bit of recovery," and it's been 100 years. The amount of devastation must have been immense if it's taken a century to feel safe again.
  • The "recovery" Reede references may be more of an economic one than a matter of physical safety. We do see a presence of non-subsistence businesses like the dye shop and Ventest's fashion lines there, which would not have been the case in the Calamity's near aftermath.

Energy

• What kind of energy is the Master Sword running on that makes it unable to function at all when depleted? If it's just the sword's evil-repelling power, shouldn't it still be able to work as a regular sword, even without it?
  • Aside from the obvious Gameplay and Story Segregation reason, maybe the sword actually goes back into the "broken" state when it runs out of energy. And to keep the sword from being further damaged, maybe to a point where it couldn't recover again, Link just decides not to use it. Alternatively, the sword itself might teleport somewhere to "heal".
  • This theory has a bit of merit behind it, as if you somehow manage to drop the Master Sword (which is not possible outside of glitches), the weapon status feed says "The Master Sword has returned to the forest.", along with an animation of the Master Sword shooting up into the sky with a blue light.
  • I think maybe Fi uses a Force of Willpower type of magic where if Link goes to use it, the closer he is to wielding it, the less he wants to. Fi basically influences Link to not wield it and to choose another weapon
  • It could be a sort of temporal reversal that "rewinds" the sword to its pristine state, and that, after maintaining it for a protracted battle, Fi has lost her ability to maintain it. Previous Links only used the blade briefly and then could let it rest. Hero of the Wilds Link, on the other hand, may have fought such s lengthy battle that Fi is too tired to hold the spell.
  • The Master Sword's ability to repair itself likely traces back to when it was imbued with Nayru's Flame in Skyward Sword; said flame was mentioned by the ancient robots to have the power of healing and/or repair. Using the term "energy" as the Master Sword's version of durability is likely shorthand for "the magic power the sword uses to keep itself in usable condition for as long as it can, after which it has to go on a short hiatus in order to restore said magic power."
  • Possibly when it's restoring itself, the Master Sword vibrates or becomes slightly electrified or otherwise is no longer feasible to handle. Even if Link could keep hold of it, it'd be unwieldy and not worth it.

Boulder Breaker

• Why does Bludo have Daruk's Boulder Breaker to present to Link once Rudania is appeased? Considering Daruk had to have left behind a descendant (and unlike Mipha or Urbosa, he didn't seem to belong to the Gorons' ruling family), shouldn't it have been passed on to Yunobo instead?
  • The Champions' weapons all seem to be special treasures, not just family heirlooms. They're probably kept in the care of the leaders of each race until someone who deserves to use them shows up.
  • Yunobo isn't really a warrior when Link first meets him, he's Bludo's assistant. Volunteering as part-time ammunition is about all his nerves can take. Daruk may have left his personal weapon in Bludo's charge with the understanding that it's to go to his heir if the kid decides that being a warrior is what he wants out of life, but not to pressure him into it.

Ganon's foreknowledge

• How did Ganon know that the Hyruleans had planned on using the Sheikah technology to defeat him? Maybe he found and corrupted the stores of Guardians that were beneath the castle before his return, but many of the Guardians, not to mention the Divine Beasts, had to be excavated elsewhere and repaired before they could be used. Ganon moving to corrupt them instantly upon his return doesn't make sense unless he knew that the Hyruleans had gone to the trouble of digging them up.
  • He probably just planned to attack with the stored Guardians, and the fact the Hyruleans were planning on using them as well was just a coincidence. Or, since the last time he was defeated was back when the Guardians were first used, he imagined they'd still be in use the next time.
  • As for the Beasts, if a bunch of scrawny Sheikah Towers can punch their way up out of the ground after 10,000 years of being buried, then four giant war machines equipped with elemental powers certainly ought to be able to do so.

Muzu has a point

• Desperate times call for desperate measures and all, but King Dorephan certainly didn't plan on Sidon bringing him a former Champion to help him deal with Ruta, much less the man Mipha had intended to be her husband...So, did he have another, separate set of Zora armor set aside in the event that someone else came to help them, or was he really planning on giving away the set Mipha had made specifically for Link?
  • They can probably craft armour like that at any moment, for anyone. There's the whole thing about Zora princesses crafting armour for their husbands, but that can very well be just tradition, and not related at all with the armour's abilities. Since Link showed up, Doraphan decided to just give the set that was meant for him anyways, instead of issuing a new one.
  • When you first get to Zora's Domain, they make mention of an armor shop that had to close down because of a lack of business. Whoever ran the shop must still be around, though, so they could be commisioned to craft some for Link.

Blood Moon and Guardians

• Considering the Guardians were designed and assembled by the Sheikah and self-destruct each time Link defeats one, how are they brought back whenever the Blood Moon rises? If defeating them just caused them to deactivate, this would make more sense, but would even Ganon himself have the power or knowledge to recreate and reassemble them from scratch?
  • Ganon seems to have a pretty firm grasp on how that technology works after his 10000 years slumber. He had already managed to make four bodies using that technology by the time he defeated the Champions 100 years ago, and spent said century creating a fifth, so just recreating the pre-existing designs should not be that hard.
  • He probably resurrects them the same way that he brings back Bokos that have been set on fire and chopped to pieces. Technical knowledge doesn't seem to be needed, just possession by Malice.
  • And another thing: How would the Blood Moon respawn the guardians in the "X Trial of Strength" shrines, considering those weren't infected with Malice?
    • Maybe it's not the Blood Moon itself, but the shrine automatically reacting to the Blood Moon by replacing the fallen Guardians with identical ones kept in storage? Just in case Ganon's power-peak motivates the foretold hero to seek out a little sparring practice for review.

Mute Link

• I get that this game tries to provide an explanation for this Link's expressionless persona and quiet, introverted nature...but it says that he only adopted that in the past, as a coping mechanism for dealing with his responsibilities as a knight. So why is he still so stoic and emotionless in the present, when all his memories of his old life have been erased? The only time he really emotes beyond showing brief surprise is when he cooks a particularly good meal. Did he ingrain that persona into himself so much in the past that it became an innate part of his demeanor?
  • Well, he woke up, not remembering a thing about his past, and with people basically saying he's supposed to save the world from the get-go. If anything, he's under more pressure after the Sleep of Resurrection.
  • It isn't accurate to consider Link to be mute or emotionless in light of the dialogue options you get as you go through the game. Leading a guy on for free boots only to brutally reject him, displaying an inability to speak of seals without making some terrible puns, being generally curt or dismissive: this Link probably has more personality than any other we've seen. Don't mistake the fact that he's not voiced for voicelessness; based on the reactions of Non Player Characters, everything that is written is exactly what he's actually saying, and the only times I can think of when he could be voiced, but isn't, he's in full Hero mode (i.e. the flashbacks and assaulting the Divine Beasts).
  • I understand what you're saying about his dialogue. My problem is that the bits of his personality that show through it aren't supported very well by how expressionless he is. When he first wakes up in the Shrine of Resurrection, there really isn't anything in his demeanor to suggest that he doesn't recognize or remember where he is. And when he recovers his lost memories, he never shows any reactions to them. The only times he expresses a real sort of emotion are at scripted points during conversations with other characters. He's clearly supposed to be more expressive than he was in the past, as evidenced by his idle animations and certain dialogue choices, but it's a little jarring that his expressions (or lack thereof) don't match up with that persona at all.
  • Perhaps this iteration of Link has some degree of expressive disorder (think something akin to autism), either being born with it, or as a result of being mostly dead for a century. Verbally, he's quite expressive, and also in writing (in the Japanese version, at least), but his facial expressions tend to fall a bit flat.
  • According to Zelda's journals you can find in her room in the castle, he does talk, but he opts not to when under extreme pressure. It's a coping mechanism. He's perfectly capable of expressing himself.
  • Which can, to a degree, be seen in gameplay. Outside of battle, Link will emote much more (flexing, shivering, getting startled by a bug on his hand, etc), but once a conflict starts, he's stoically serious.
  • In addition, speaking from personal experience, it’s possible Link doesn’t know how to emote very strongly after maintaining an emotionless façade for so long. He could think he’s smiling from his perspective, but it’s not discernible enough for anyone else to see it. That could also explain why he overcompensates by gesturing with his hands so often.
  • Basic personality traits and habits are hardwired into the brain. Losing access to the declarative memory of why he's so stone-faced isn't going to stop him from unconsciously maintaining that demeanor.

Male Goron in Gerudo Town

• The Gerudo make it very clear that no men at all allowed in Gerudo Town even kicking out Link whenever he enters. However, how the heck does this Goron (who is named Lyndae by the way) make it into Gerudo Town without being kicked out? Link has to sneak in by disguising himself as a Gerudo but Lyndae doesn't make the effort to do so. He's even standing in the middle of town in broad daylight where the other Gerudo can clearly see him! What is with that?
  • Given that we never saw, in any game, a female Goron, the likely conclusion is that they don't have biological genders at all (and just happen to use male pronouns for themselves). The Gerudo might consider this enough to say that they aren't male, so they could enter the city.
  • You can check out the Fridge page for more details, and this does depend on how the Gorons reproduce...but it could be that since they, like the Gerudo, are a single-gender race who are somewhat boisterous and tower over most normal people, the Gerudo understand that it's already very difficult for them to find a willing mate then it would be for, say, a normal Hylian, and choose to let them into town as a result. (Probably citing the above reasoning that there's no differentiating between genders in a single-gender tribe of people.) Add that to how the Gorons aren't overtly desperate to get into town just so they can flirt with the Gerudo, unlike every other voe we see trying to find a way in.
  • Also, Lyndae is eventually joined in Gerudo Town by another Goron after you appease Naboris, who similarly wonders why he was let in even though he's male.
  • Alternatively, Lyndae may be a female Goron. It's possible that Gorons have had two genders all along, but they invert Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism and look so similar to each other that no non-Goron can tell them apart. As for how the other male Goron got in? The guards weren't sure if he was vai or voe, and didn't ask! (If male Gorons were explicitly allowed, there would be no reason for his confusion.)
  • Lyndae's own dialogue after the other Goron arrives confirms that he's male.
  • If the Gorons are indeed a One-Gender Race, then it makes sense for them to be allowed into Gerudo Town from a practical standpoint, as otherwise it would be much more difficult for the Gerudo to establish trade with them.
  • Maybe they mistook him for a female because of his ponytail and moobs.

Master Sword's effectiveness

• This one has me puzzled a bit. We know the Master Sword is very effective against enemies such as Guardians and the Blight Ganons (including on Calamity Ganon himself obviously), but how come it's not effected against other enemies of evil? Bokoblins for example are commonly on Ganon's side but the Master Sword still doesn't deal extra damage on them (though I don't see anyone wasting the Master Sword on them anyway). Another good example are the Yiga Clan who actually swore allegiance to Ganon. I wonder why the Master Sword is no extra effective against them especially since they did extremely vile stuff ever since joining the side of evil.
  • It's implied that Link's overuse of the sword 100 years previous led to it being severely weakened, even as it managed to repair itself since then. As a result, the sword's true strength is only able to shine forth when in the presence of Malice, which is probably the most base form of evil and hatred imaginable, and is implied to come from Demise himself. It's what Ganon and his Blights are composed of, and what he used to corrupt the Gaurdians, so they're probably full of the stuff. Bokoblins and the like may be servants of Ganon, but they aren't made of or affected by Malice, so the Master Sword isn't as effective against them. The Yiga Clan, meanwhile, is not directly connected or affiliated with Ganon at all - they say that they serve him, but he's too mindless to recognize them as loyal followers, so it hardly matters. The game also claims that clearing the Trial of the Sword unlocks the blade's true power, so that probably does so by speeding up the repair process and healing the damage that had been done to it during the Calamity.
  • Traditionally, the Master Sword's specialty isn't fighting evil in general, it's fighting evil magic. In this game, it seems like "evil magic" applies only to Malice.

Design flaw

• Why is Divine Beast Vah Ruta designed so that electricity is needed to power down its water-generating powers? That seems like a pretty foolish design choice...Why not make it the other way around?
  • The electricity seems to be less of an "off switch" and more of a weak point that you exploit to forcibly shut down the water generators. Much in the same way you can shut down an electronic device by overloading it with power and popping a fuse (or just frying the whole thing, in case there isn't a fuse to protect it) rather than cutting off the power.
  • But the way the Zoras explain it really makes it sound like giving the orbs power is the intended shutoff procedure. Zelda said in her research notes that the orbs control how much water Ruta generates and that they require electricity in order to work; the Zoras managed to slow the water by shooting one of them with a shock arrow, but it eventually came back full-force because they couldn't handle any more electricity than that.
  • I got the impression that the orbs were like batteries that powered the water control mechanisms, and after 10,100 years with no maintenance (or perhaps the Blight drained them on purpose) the batteries had run dry. A good shock arrow barrage served to jump-start and recharge some juice back into the system.

No Stamina for Ladders

• We know climbing anything from tress to walls to mountains drains stamina. Why doesn't it do that when Link is climbing ladders? You need as much effort to climb up them especially tall ones that go up in the air. It's even weirder that they can restore stamina.
  • It's possible to rest on a ladder. Not the most comfy, but it's a thing.
  • Also, on ladders, you have clear, easy to grip hand and footholds, where as trees/walls/mountains/rocks, you're digging fingers and toes into whatever you can get some purchase on, so they're a lot more taxing on the body. Imagine taking a ladder up a rock wall, compared to actually having to grab and cling to the tiny hand and foot holds you can find.
  • Reducing the strain and difficulty of climbing is why ladders were invented in the first place. Link doesn't lose stamina when he ambles along at a normal walking pace either, even though walking can certainly tire someone out in real life. The game simply treats the stamina cost of such mild activities as negligible, given how good a shape Link's in and how much terrain, horizontal and vertical, he has to cover.

The Slumber of Resurrection

• "100 years" is a nice round number, and they really wanted to push the 'Wild' thing" works well enough as a meta answer, but in-story, is there any explanation for why the Slumber of Resurrection would last a whole century? With a recovery period that long, you'd think his body must have been little more than a fine slurry when they put him in. I mean, if advanced technology can bring a pile of charred meat and bones back to the prime form of a man in 2-5 years, I'd think that advanced magical technology could bring a hero he'd "only" been battered to death back in significantly less than 100 years. Related: did they know it would take that long? If so, they may as well have let him die and waited for a new hero to be reborn, right? From what we see in previous games, that probably would have taken half the time.
  • Both can be answered by the fact that the shrine had gone untested until the very day it was needed. Maybe the Sheikah could've installed some updates to it that could make it heal people in a lot less time, but they were probably too busy working on the Guardians and the Divine Beasts. They thought that they had a complete advantage and so dismissed the shrine as unnecessary, up until Ganon appeared and turned all their hard work against them. Going along with this, they probably didn't know exactly how long the restoration process would take, in the same vein that they failed to foresee his memory loss - and anyway, it's never been said that they actually know that Link is constantly reincarnated, so they aren't going to take the chance of losing the one they have when the Master Sword itself is telling them to save him.
  • They did foresee him losing his memories. They didn't know it for certain, so they all ask him if he remembers them, but they don't act that surprised when he says he doesn't.
  • What still nettles me about that is that even in the absence of medical treatment, wounds that can heal will not take a whole lifetime and change to do so. They'll heal or they won't. If the many hearts Link can gain in-game and his missing memories are anything to go by, the Shrine already did a botched job of fixing Link up (though the memory point is a little fuzzy since Zelda, at least, somehow knew that memory loss would be a side effect). It just really seems more like the Shrine put him in stasis for longer than it needed to, though I suppose it might be a case of it not always "being on" (i.e. healing him for a period, stopping to recharge for a period, repeat until 100 years). As for the reincarnation thing, it's hard to figure with the constantly-repeating legends that they outright don't expect that a hero will always arise/reincarnate. Admittedly, it would be awfully callous and out of character for all involved to let Link die if he could be saved, so perhaps it was just a case of them "being selfish," so to speak.
  • A reincarnation would probably take about a century to be born anyways, and it would be a new person, who would need to re-learn all the skills that the Champion Link already had (instinctively, even if he didn't have memories). Also, are you really comparing healing technologies of two entirely different series as if they're equivalent? For all intents and purposes, it seems Link flat out died, and was brought back to life, taking 100 years feels like it's a fair trade-off for that.
  • I didn't intend to spark a discussion about the details of the reincarnation since there seems to be little agreement in the fandom on whether that's explicitly what happens for Link at all, and if it does, the timing varies from game to game. All that appears clear is that barring extraordinary circumstances (i.e. Wind Waker's prologue), if Ganon goes from dormant to active, a Link will show up. As for the tech, I'm not considering them equal at all; Mass Effect's tech reversed the effects of blunt trauma, depressurization, suffocation, atmospheric reentry, and terminal velocity impact (death should go without saying there) in 2-5 years, leaving only some scarring and no memory loss at all. It's clearly superior. What I find curious is how the Sheikah's tech, which is both highly advanced and powered to some extent by outright magic, takes a full century to heal blunt trauma, broken bones, (probable) internal bleeding/ruptured organs, and burns. That's absolutely one hell of a beating, but as advanced as all the other ancient tech is, it seems odd that the healing tech is the sole area where it more-or-less just holds pace with our world.
  • When you consider that in-universe, there's a type of healing magic that's strong enough to kick in and revitalize Link completely, with bonus hearts, the moment he gets killed...the most likely explanation is that the shrine has become outdated by the time it was needed, or maybe was unfinished from the very beginning - the technology could've been banished before the Sheikah had finished programming it completely, which might explain why it takes 100 years, requires a complete memory wipe, and severely atrophies the subject in the process. (And let's not forget somehow damaging the Sheikah Slate, too - there's no other explanation for how it could've lost the files for the Camera rune.)
  • The Magic that revitalizes Link completely works immediately. Therefore, one could assume he's only about to die- not actually dead- when this happens. He could have been mostly dead when they put him in the Shrine and so it would have been much harder to bring him back to life.
  • It's possible the Shrine of Resurrection had multiple functions. What if "heal" and "preserve alive indefinitely" were two separate functions? And the second one slowed down the patient's metabolism (and thus their healing rate) to almost nothing? With no manual and little understanding of how it worked, Impa, Purah, and/or Robbie turned on all functions; if they'd known more, they could've left the "preserve alive indefinitely" function off and Link would've healed much faster.
  • As for the Shrine's failure to restore Link's original supply of hearts and stamina, remember that one of the first things Link hears from both Zelda and Rhoam is that Hyrule is running out of time. It's Zelda's voice that rouses him from his slumber, because Zelda knows that her sealing power can't hold out much longer: if her chosen knight doesn't get a move on now, all he's going to awaken to is Malice and dust. Had Link lingered in the resurrection vat for an additional four or five centuries, he potentially could have strode out of that Shrine with fifty hearts, six stamina wheels, and a helpful selection of the previous Link's memories as well as his own - heck, he might've had Super-Strength and a Healing Factor to boot - but with Ganon kicking down the walls of his cage, our boy couldn't be allowed that luxury: he has to haul out of his hospital bed now, against medical advice or not.

Battle scars

• When you meet Robbie at the Akkala ancient tech lab, he mentions that Link's scars from the Calamity have almost fully healed, and one of the Zora's stone monuments attributes the scar on King Dorephan's head to a battle he once had with a Guardian who was endangering his people. But a Guardian's sole means of attack is shooting lasers - would that really be able to leave a scar like that?
  • They could have gotten those particular scars from mini-Guardians like you find in the shrines and Divine Beasts. Those frequently come equipped with bladed weapons. Alternatively, it's a case of Gameplay and Story Segregation: while the Guardians never attack with their limbs in gameplay, there's no reason to assume that they're physically incapable of doing so. They have metal claws at the end of each of those legs, after all, and plenty of spares to support them when they strike.
  • Dorephan in particular is said to have hurled the Guardian over his head down a cliff. It's conceivable that the Guardian nicked him on the head with a leg as it flailed about while Dorephan was lifting it.
  • A high-powered laser like a Guardian uses could potentially lead to a long-lasting or permanent case of hypopigmentation, which would result in something close to a scar (although a lighter color, similar to what the scar on Dorephan's head looks like).
  • Maybe he dodged a laser blast, but the beam shattered a nearby structure and some of the resulting shrapnel caught him across the forehead.

Yunobo's hankie

• Where did Yunobo get the blue fabric for the handkerchief he wears? It looks identical to the kind the Champions wore, but it seems unlikely that it's actually Daruk's, since he was killed inside Rudania, and the royal family was disbanded at around the same time, so they couldn't have made it as a memorial or anything.
  • I assume The Royal Family gave several pieces of the "Champion's Cloth", in case it was lost, damaged, or stolen, and Yunobo is using the spare. Either that, or Daruk ripped his in some way, he had some on him when the Calamity hit and Yunobo found the reserve piece somewhere in Daruk's home.
  • Gorons don't normally wear much clothing, particularly not fabric that might get tangled or torn when they curl up to roll. Possibly Daruk only wore his sash of Champion's Cloth on occasions calling for formality, and he left it behind so it wouldn't restrict his movements or distract him while actually piloting his Beast in battle.

Zelda's age

• Why is Zelda still 17 years old at the end of the game? I was half-expecting her to emerge from the sealing as an old woman or something, but she's still the exact same as she was before the Calamity. Not only did this seem a little unjust in-story (since she gets to outlive the Calamity unscathed, whereas Rhoam, the Champions, and countless others weren't as fortunate), but if Hylia's power just gives her the ability to become immortal, then why hasn't she ever used it in any other games?
  • She has, in Skyward Sword. The exact same situation happens in that game, Zelda seals herself with some evil, and that keeps her from aging as long as the seal lasts. So, it's probably a consequence of the seal itself.
  • Some other details sprinkled throughout the series also support the theory above. Zelda's powers are all but stated to be her birthright as a direct descendant of Hylia's mortal incarnation. Hylia's portfolio is strongly implied, as mentioned elsewhere on this page, to include some degree of control over time. To wit: when Zelda sealed herself away with Ganon, she did so by freezing them both in time, which both stopped Ganon from making progress toward reincarnation and prevented Zelda herself from aging as long as the seal held.
  • If several dozen withered old monks can sit sealed away in glowing blue cubes for ten thousand years, and still be in good enough shape to talk (and fight in one case) afterward, then Zelda's hundred-year suspension is barely worth mentioning. Hylia's good at that sort of thing.
  • Additionally, she ends up walking away with the knowledge almost everyone she knew is dead and just came out of a century of imprisonment with an Eldritch Abomination. While she hardly shows much angst about it in the sequel, she most likely has some underlying trauma that prevents her from being unscathed.

Getting into Gerudo Town

• Instead of crossdressing in order to get past the guards, why doesn't Link try telling them that he's there to help them appease the Divine Beast? The threat Naboris poses to the town is already quite clear, and by the time of Link's arrival, the amount of ideas they have of how to go about dealing with it is just about zero. Wouldn't it at least warrant a try?
  • They simply don't seem willing to bend their rules, even with the crisis at hand. Hell, they need to circumvent the rules even when their de facto ruler knows Link is a man, and is willing to help them. So, basically, chalk it up to Honor Before Reason.
  • But would they need to bend the rules if he told them? No part of Link's quest requires that he actually be in Gerudo Town - they could just bring Riju and Buliara outside the town walls so that they can speak with him.
  • That does sound logical, but remember, the Yiga Clan have stolen the Thunder Helm, showing they are capable of petty theft; how hard would it be to kill someone? I doubt the guards would risk Riju's life for someone who "claims" to want to help, it could easily be a Yiga assassin out to eliminate her.
  • Waving the Sheikah Slate in front of their faces wouldn't be enough? How about (assuming you already have it) the Master Sword? There's a number of non-player characters who recognize you by the Slate. There's even a few side characters at stables who recognize the Master Sword! If that wouldn't do the trick, I don't know what would.
  • Is that right? The only people I recall recognizing the slate are those who've seen or known about it before, like the Sheikah or (possibly) King Dorephan. Even Riju, though it did catch her eye, didn't take it as proof at face value. I doubt the Gerudo guards would've paid special attention to it at all. As for the Master Sword, a few people know about it, sure, but most of them don't seem to know much about it beyond "magic sword hidden in a forest somewhere," so I don't see why the guards would make the connection between it and calming Naboris.

Access to mines

• Supposedly, the problem Rudania is causing for the Gorons is that the magma bombs he keeps sending down (apart from being extremely dangerous on their own) are keeping them away from the mines "near the summit" - however, the only mine we see other than the southern one where they're still working is the Abandoned North Mine, which seems to remain abandoned even after Rudania is freed from Ganon. Is there some other reason why the Gorons don't go back to mining there?
  • From the Goron's perspective, Rudania has gone from a raging monster to a docile statue. This may look like it is safe, but this is a world with a Blood Moon. Granted, the BM never actually resets the Divine Beasts, but i doubt the Gorons would risk their lives and take that chance, as there is a possibility of the BM appearing while they are mining, but even if they left at night, Rudania may decide to be mean and rain down fireballs and ruin the tools each night. Either way, maintaining it as a mine while the threat of Ganon is still there may not be the best choice, and would explain why the Gorons make no attempt to resume work.
  • Also, the lack of postgame probably has something to do with it. If Ganon's defeat triggered changes in the world (rather than the game always being at a pre-defeat state afterward), the mine would probably get use again since Rudania's not powering up a laser anymore. But since, gameplay-wise, it will be for the rest of the game, the Gorons probably don't want to wind up on the end of its beam, much like how Link won't go too near the Divine Beasts.
  • Tears of the Kingdom shows that the lava that covered most of Death Mountain in this game has cooled enough to become traversable solid rock. Presumably, the eruptions caused by Rudania were to blame for so much lava being there in the first place, meaning the Gorons had to wait for it to cool before they could access the mines.

Stealth-Enhancing Materials

• It seems like every material that can be cooked into a stealth-increase dish glows in the dark. How can food that makes you stealthy be so easily detectable?
  • Differentiation from other ingredients as a design standpoint and simply because it's kind of funny/ironic, from a biology standpoint, eating glowing things has never made anyone glow in the dark, not even that one kid from recess who eats fireflies.
  • Well, if you're being very stealthy, the only way for anything to detect you is visually. In that sense, it does put more emphasis on you being visible than normal. Stealthy materials being all glowy and eye-catching could be referencing that - without them glowing to attract attention, no one would ever notice them. It's their only distinguishing trait.
  • Indeed, during the day, stealthy ingredients are much harder to notice. It's more situational.
  • If there's a plant or critter that's super-inconspicuous and doesn't glow in the dark, how would anyone ever find enough of them to discover that they grant stealth-enhancement, in the first place?

New Divine Beast

• Why is the motorcycle in the DLC called a Divine Beast? The Divine Beasts were created in order to help fight Ganon, and yet this one doesn't do anything to him.
  • It helps the hero get to where he needs to be, so it does help in the fight. Plus, it's a mechanical beast made with the same technology as the others, so that alone would warrant the name. What's really weird is that the dungeon is called a Divine Beast, when it's effectively a larger Shrine.
  • I thought the dungeon was actually a part of the motorcycle, and you had to go through it in order to restore the bike to working order. I thought it might be the engine at first, but then it turned out that the shape of it looks nothing like a motorcycle engine. (Not a normal one, anyway.)
  • The Champions needed a way to badly hurt Ganon, not having a Master Sword or magic bow to do so, so they were given titans with powerful lasers. The Hero needed a way to get in close quickly while still being able to dodge attacks, so he was given something small and agile. They were both created the same why, so both are Divine Beasts. That's my theory anyway.

What's To Stop Him From Doing It Again?

• Why should Link try to fix the Divine Beasts to fight against Ganon? Doesn't it seem like Ganon could just take them over once more and cause them to cause havoc all over again? There basically doesn't seem to be any difference between the plan now and 100 years ago, so there's nothing really to stop Ganon from just using his power to take over the Beasts again.
  • Yes, there is something stopping him: Zelda. While she's fighting to keep him contained inside the castle, the only time his power can influence things outside is during the Blood Moon, and that's not enough for him to recreate the Blights. And since the Champions are all spirits now, it'd probably be a lot more difficult to get rid of them and hijack control.
  • At this point in time the beasts are already awaken and under Ganon's control, so it's less a matter of needing to use them, and more a matter of keeping Ganon from using them. There was nothing but Ganon's own madness stopping him from making the four beasts stomp Link down on his way to Hyrule Castle, or killing all remaining life on the kingdom (which they were already threatening to do, in their own slow way), or even just making the four Blights attack at once instead of one at a time. After the current threat is dealt with, it's likely the beasts and guardians will be slowly decommissioned and dismantled, with a warning for the next generations not to rely on them when dealing with Ganon.
  • The secret ending implies that Zelda plans to continue using the Sheikah's technology. Hopefully, someone's made some progress toward antivirusing them in the past 100 years.
  • Robbie actually mentions working on an antivirus so the Guardians can't be corrupted again.
  • Also, Ganon's never been known to return that quickly, and the Divine Beasts have other uses besides attacking him, like protecting Hyrule from the monsters that are probably still around. Ruta's ability to create rainstorms out of nothing would likely come in handy in the event of a drought, as another example.

Volcano Heat ≠ Desert Heat

• Goron Flamebreaker Armor protects the wearer from the extreme heat of Death Mountain... yet it's useless against the extreme heat of the Gerudo Desert during daytime. How is the heavy thermal radiation of an arid, sun-baked desert considered different enough from the heavy thermal radiation of boiling hot lava that the Flamebreaker Armor doesn't work properly??? Heat is not a "non-interchangeable" element!
  • Well, one thing I'd like to point out is that the Flamebreaker armor specifically provides flame resistance, not just regular heat resistance. I realize that's not much of an answer, since enough heat to set a person on fire is dangerous even if you happen to be fireproof, but still, they don't provide the same effect.
  • The best answer I can come up with is that Death Mountain isn't really too hot for Link to survive there - it's just that all the volcanic activity Rudania's been causing has led to sparks and ashes and soot filling the air, which is a fire hazard unless Link is protected.
  • The temperatures of Death Mountain are so hot, the pain receptors in your body would go numb. The armor is more designed like firefighter gear. It is meant to handle an extreme, but not casual heat. Different dangers, different gear. If you wore firefighter gear in a desert, you would cook.
  • That's because firefighter gear is designed to withstand high temperatures for a limited amount of time, so if you wore it for a long time in a desert you'd overheat. However the Flamebreaker Armour can protect Link from extreme heat indefinitely, so it should be able to do just that in a desert. The only reason I can think of is that the armour contains a (probably magical) cooling system which can't be turned off. Since the temperature is lower in Gerudo Desert than on Death Mountain the armour cools Link too much and he takes damage from cold. That doesn't really add up with what's shown in-game though.
  • We can also consider combining some of these answers. If we assume that the Flamebreaker outfit's flame-resist is indeed a magical property of the stone used to make it, then it makes sense that it wouldn't work in the desert. At the volcano, the stone would be constantly self-extinguishing due to all the flammables in the air, and Link's own body being flammable, which would result in a constant cooldown effect. In the desert, nothing is at risk of igniting, so the armour's magic doesn't activate and you're just wearing a suit of stone. This would indeed make you overheat.
  • Or maybe both kinds of armor provide protection from heat, but the firebreaker version also suppresses active ignition from all those smoldering cinders in the volcanic zone's air, whereas the desert version adds in magical immunity from dehydration: the real killer in arid environments.

Purah's Confusion

• In Purah's Diary, she quotes that Link is the youngest knight to have been appointed in the history of the Hyrulean Imperial Guard. Yet it's very clear as day that the organizaton she's referring to is called the Hyrulean Royal Guard. Is this a translation error or a case of bad memory?
  • It's most certainly a translation error.
  • Alternatively, Purah may have mixed up the terms while writing.
  • Another possibility is that the two are distinct entities, but with one under the purview of the other (hypothetically, the Hyrulean Imperial Guard could be the entire organization, with the Royal Guards being the elite creme de la creme in charge of directly protecting the Royal Family).
  • Purah is a Sheikah, a member of an ethnic minority which in this era hasn't always been treated very well by Hyrule's majority population. It's entirely possible that some of the Sheikah who've lost their ancestors' faith in the system now consider it an empire that barged in and took over their homeland. It could be that Purah's early upbringing was by Sheikah who thought that way, and she unconsciously slips back to using terms like "imperial" about Hyrule when she's writing diary entries.
    • The Sheikah have been serving Hyrule’s royal family since before its inception. Even if the tribe’s opinion of it had changed, that wouldn’t explain them calling it something it’s not or insinuating it did something that it hadn’t. Hylians and Sheikah have lived amongst each other on the same land for eons; there was no recorded instance of one invading the other’s homeland. The likeliest answer is that it’s just a translation goof.

Divine Beasts Have Gender?

• Non Player Characters refer to the Divine Beasts with various pronouns, like he and she. How the hell can a giant robot have gender? I originally assumed that they were using the genders of the sages they were named after, meaning only Rudania would be male, until I heard them refer to one of the "female" Beasts with male pronouns. So how does that work?
  • People refer to boats and cars as "she". Its just a thing people do. We call planets "he" or "she". Human beings continuously gender inanimate objects.
  • Most characters actually don't ascribe genders to the Divine Beasts, instead referring to them as "it" or "them".

Future of the royal family

• Now that she's done sealing Ganon, does Zelda have any authority over the people of Hyrule after the game ends? Yes, the royal family has been out of commission and presumed dead for the last century, but no one else seems to have tried to seize power in their place. Or would it be something like in Adventure of Link, where Zelda decides she's too out of touch with the world after so long to be a proper ruler? (Nevermind how very few people would probably believe her.)
  • The leaders of each race would definitely believe her, with Link at her side. Plus, the royal family of Hyrule has real, tangible holy powers that make the "divine rule" aspect of royalty into a very matter-of-fact thing for this world, so they certainly would like to keep the royal family in power for the next time Ganon comes around.
  • I could see Dorephan and Makeela accepting her story, but the Rito chieftain thought Link was a descendant of the Champions throughout the game. Also, didn't Zelda say that her sacred power had left her during the true ending? Therefore, she wouldn't really have the "Divine right to rule" anymore.
  • She doesn’t say that the power left her, just that it’s dwindled over the years. In other words, she has the power, but it’s weakened.
  • The power comes from her bloodline (she's literally descended from the physical reincarnation of a goddess, after all), it would definitely resurface when the need arises once more.
  • Also, Zelda, unlike Champion Link, is very eloquent and scholarly. She could much more clearly explain that A)) yes, Link is the Champion of old, who was rejuvenated over the course of years via ancient Shiekah technology, and B) that she had sealed herself away using sacred magic to do battle with Ganon, to prevent him ravaging the land. Link probably just decided that trying to explain things was too complicated.

Was Hyrule doomed to fail anyway?

• As of DLC 2, The Champion's Ballad, we know that Link can fight against the Blights in the Divine Beast Tamer Trials. This bugged me. Surely the ancient Sheikah had no way of knowing that Ganon would succeed so why would there be any need to tame the beasts as, theoretically, they would already be on their side? If the Sheikah knew Ganon would return and succeed in taking over the Divine Beasts, they must also know that Hyrule, as a result, would perish. So, was Hyrule always doomed to fail in the first attempt, no matter how much Zelda prepared?
  • Maybe the ancient Sheikah had taken up fortune-telling in the past and foresaw that the corruption of the Divine Beasts was at least a possibility, so they designed the Tamer's Trial just in case it came to pass. I would say that the Tamer's Trial was alternatively designed sometime after their corruption, by Purah and Robbie and the like...but the presence of the emaciated Monk Maz Koshia implies that it was in existence for much longer than that.
  • The rematch fights against the Blights are said to be made from Link's memories, so the Champions probably faced different challenges when they were in the same position.
  • Maybe the original Champions were tasked with battling the Divine Beasts to prove themselves worthy of piloting them, like Link has to in order to board them. This would obviously be too dangerous for Link to to as part of his trial, since the Divine Beasts are already in position and have to be ready to fire at any moment, so he gets the next-best thing.

Picture of the Champions

• At the end of the Champions' Ballad quest, Link sees a memory in which Purah takes a photo with the Sheikah Slate, then Kass gives that photo to Link. But photos taken with the Sheikah Slate are stored in the slate, and there's no record anywhere of any sort of printer. So how did the photo come to be on paper?
  • We never see or hear of a printer in the present, but that doesn't mean they hadn't developed one in the past, since the picture does appear quite old. Either said printer was lost during the Calamity, or Robbie or Purah still has it and a use for it just hasn't come up, so they don't mention it.
  • Tears of the Kingdom features scenarios where photos are "framed" by a painter exactly copying the image, so that could be what happened here too—someone reproduced the photo as a painting.

Dorian's secret

• Shouldn't someone in Kakariko Village have at least suspected that Dorian might have been a Yiga? Dorian is very clearly getting on in age and has probably been around for a while, and Kakariko is a very small settlement where everybody would seemingly know everybody. The only other Sheikah in the game are the ones who work at the labs and Pikango, who everyone in Kakariko is suspicious of when he arrives asking questions about Cotera's fountain. So how did Dorian explain where he came from when he first showed up?
• Perhaps he was already a member of Kakariko Village before becoming a Yiga and lived a double life for a time? I don't recall if there was dialogue to confirm when he became part of the town.

Master Sword selectiveness

• Why is it that being near Malice itself doesn't bring out the Master Sword's true power, only enemies who've been corrupted or infected by it? There are pools of it all over the kingdom, but the Master Sword never behaves any differently unless there's something like a Guardian nearby.
  • Maybe the Sword can detect sentience within the malice. So, normal malice isn't considered a threat bc there is no consciousness to actively spread it or something
• Also, the Sword is absolutely no good against Malice. You need arrows to take out the eyes, and most Malice is invulnerable pools and spires with no body parts whatsoever. Gaining power against a force you can't defeat would be pointless. Ganon's presence infecting things, however, makes it a different story.
  • Actually, depending on where the eyes are, you sometimes can take them out using the Master Sword alone. Besides, the Skywatchers are pretty difficult to defeat with a sword too, but that doesn't stop them from bringing out its power.
  • The Master Sword's sword beam can in fact take out Eyes of Malice.

Despair

• During the "Despair" memory, Zelda laments that Mipha, Daruk, Revali, and Urbosa are all trapped inside the Divine Beasts, which were taken over by Ganon. Exactly how does she know about either of these things, though? What would make her think that the Champions were still on board the Divine Beasts, unless she and Link had time to visit all four of their villages to verify that that's what had happened? For all they know, the Champions could've realized the corruption and chosen not to investigate, meaning they were still safe.
  • Lucky guess. Last she saw of them, they were on their way to get inside the Divine Beasts and control them, so she made the reasonable assumption that that's where they were when things went to hell in a handbasket. And considering her state of mind at the time, it's understandable she'd jump to the worst possible conclusion without thinking of its probability.
  • In addition, even if they weren't inside the Divine Beasts yet (since it's doubtful Urbosa and Daruk could get back to theirs from Mount Lanayru in the time it took Link and Zelda to reach Hyrule Castle), Zelda probably assumed that there was no way to overtake them before they did make it back, given the size of the kingdom. She also would've figured that the corruption wouldn't dissuade the Champions from boarding the Divine Beasts anyway, since all four were capable warriors who knew the Divine Beasts were needed to back Link up. Even if they weren't trapped inside them quite yet, they might as well have been since there was no way to warn them.
  • Ganon, no matter the game, is a nasty sadistic bastard. It's entirely possible he might have broadcast a vision of what the Blights had done to the Champions specifically to Zelda, intending to break her will and cripple her potential to seal him away.

Choosing Champions

• Why did the royal family think it was a good idea to elect the leaders of the Zora and Gerudo as the ones to pilot their respective Divine Beasts? Their combat prowess shouldn't need to be taken into account, since the Champions all have the simple task of taking aim at Ganon and firing, which is something seemingly anyone would be able to perform. Even if Mipha and Urbosa both had heirs, why take the risk of something happening to them when there were safer alternatives?
  • Maybe their had to be some connection to the Beasts. Mipha clearly seemed to have bonded with Ruta, and Urbosa seemed in a similar situation, caring for Naboris. So, maybe their has to be some form of relationship between rider and Beast. Of course, that does seem silly, but the Beasts do seem to have personalities, and the Champions seem to be able to communicate with them.
  • Where was it shown or implied that the Divine Beasts had personalities?
  • Who said they were "elected"? The series is big on The Chosen One as a trope. Zelda wasn't "elected," she was the reincarnated goddess and princess. Link wasn't "elected," he was chosen by the Master Sword. It stands to reason that Urbosa, Mipha, Daruk and Rivali were not "elected," they were picked by the Divine Beasts.
  • Link and Zelda are different than the Champions, though. They were the only ones who could fulfill their respective tasks - Link is the only person the Master Sword will let wield it due to him having the "spirit of the hero", and Zelda is the only person who has Hylia's sacred power within her. I seem to recall it being implied, if not outright stated, that the royal family was responsible for choosing who would act as Champions, based on their (irrelevant) unique abilities and combat skill.
  • "Irrelevant"? The Blights have something to say to that. As do all the other minions of Ganon that we see attacking the Champions at various times. They were planning for a war, so if they indeed picked people, they picked the cultures' best warriors. That "anyone" could run the Beast is an assumption.
  • The Blights were unforeseen by pretty much everyone, and the fact that the Champions all died to them only supports the idea that their combat skill wasn't necessary for the job. And we only see two of the Champions being attacked by Ganon's minions, and both of them happened before they actually became Champions.
  • They were going to fight Ganon. Ganon's minions have a habit of attacking people who are going to fight Ganon. Ergo, you want the people who are going to fight Ganon able to fight off Ganon's minions — that the Blights specifically were unforeseen doesn't make a difference, nor does the fact that they lost. If you want to win, you prepare for more than you think you're going to face, especially if you have no idea what you're going to face. Recall the memory where they get word that Ganon is there — they're all extremely far away from their Beasts. They all have to get from where they are to their Beasts and Ganon's minions (plus the Guardians!) are more than likely in the way and will actively try to stop them.
    
    In fact, reading the diaries in the Champions Ballad DLC, Urbosa at least was confronted with exactly this question — she writes that her advisors thought it was too dangerous, but she accepted the position because she felt it was her personal responsibility to stand and fight Calamity Ganon when he arose again.
  • I feel we're getting too off-topic here. Whether skill in combat was a requirement for the job or not, even if Urbosa and Mipha were two of the most respectable warriors among their people, and regardless of the fact that both of them wanted to take the roles when they were offered to them, why wouldn't their present roles as chief and queen-to-be have overridden whatever other qualifications they had? Even if "just anyone" couldn't have piloted the Divine Beasts, it was possible for people to learn. Daruk was explicitly described as having trouble piloting Rudania at first and had to take time to learn the ropes and familiarize himself with the controls.
  • It seems more likely the case that they were Champions because of their roles as chief and queen-to-be. After all, among the roles and responsibilities of a head of state is to defend his or her nation, and that's exactly what they were doing. One presumes, then, that piloting a Divine Beast was too important for the leader to delegate.
  • The roles of the four Champions in this game seems analogous to that of the Sages and Maidens in previous games, so it's very likely that they were in fact chosen by supernatural means, rather than just being chosen by Zelda (the fact Mipha and Daruk, and possibly Urbosa as well, already had their "Champion powers" before the beasts were even unearthed seems to point at that too). Furthermore, the DLC shows tests that the Champions themselves supposedly had to undertake berote they could control their beasts, and they took a lot of skill.
  • The notion of the Champions continuing the tradition of The Chosen Many is confirmed in the Zora Monuments quest. King Dorephan remarks that Mipha seemed immediately drawn to Vah Ruta the moment it was unearthed, and there was an "unusual sparkle of excitement in her normally calm eyes." Mipha even started referring to Vah Ruta as a friend long before she was ever chosen. So it seems that there was something causing a connection between the Champions and their respective Beast.

Raising the Bridge of Eldin

• The reason for the Bridge of Eldin on Death Mountain being raised is that Bludo didn't want Rudania coming down from the summit and terrorizing everyone. However, Rudania plainly retreats into the crater whenever it's driven off, showing that it can withstand the lava, and the bridge isn't even large enough to support it. If it ever wanted to come down the mountain, it probably wouldn't give the bridge a passing glance, so how is raising it going to do anything?
  • Security theater? Even if it doesn't help, perhaps most Gorons believe it does and don't give it enough thought to see the Fridge Logic. Until Rudania decides to cross the lava anyway to prove them wrong, they can sleep a bit easier at night, while Bludo and Yunobo do the actual work of keeping Rudania at bay every so often.
  • It's also possible that Bludo is trying to keep the tougher Gorons from attempting to fight Rudania themselves. Remember that Gorons are a proud warrior race who value strength and endurance above all else; the reason Yunobo is so distinct is because he's cowardly. Bludo might have assumed that some of the younger Gorons would try to take on Vah Rudania in a show of machismo and raised the bridge to keep them from leaving (at the very least, if he hears the bridge lowering, he knows that someone is trying to cross).

Hylia?

• So the character page says that Hylia became a goddess again after the first Zelda's death. I haven't been able to find any evidence to support that other than maybe the dialogue you get when you pray at the goddess statues (since it doesn't indicate who is speaking). How do we know for sure that it's actually Hylia?
  • My best guess is that the dialogue you get from the Goddess Statues is composed of pre-recorded messages, not unlike those that were relayed to you in Skyward Sword. It's not like it's ever anything more complicated than "What would you like to upgrade? Okay, here, now go save Hyrule." If it were really Hylia/Zelda I speaking to Link herself, it seems odd that she wouldn't have something more to say.
  • Or, mayhaps the messages are being passed on to Link by Fi, just like they were in Skyward Sword. Whenever Link approaches a Goddess Statue, doing so prompts a message for him to appear in Fi's memory, which she proceeds to translate and deliver to him, telepathically. I say this because, if the statues could pre-record and play messages of their own volition, then why would Fi have been needed to translate them in her home game?
  • Except Fi lives in the Master Sword to keep the seal on Demise, and you can hear the Goddess statue's messages even when you don't have the Master Sword. In fact, in order to even get the sword in the first place, you need to upgrade your hearts at the Goddess statues themselves, and you can still hear the messages when you upgrade your life.
  • I consider it possible that she can communicate with people from a distance. She did so with Scrapper and (possibly) Zelda during the events of Skyward Sword.
  • Like the monks visions, it is likely that the Hylia that the monks recieved visions from is not the real Hylia, but an intelligence emulating her similar to how Fi is an intelligence in the Master Sword. It functions as a replacement for when such a thing is necessary.
  • Hylia's divine portfolio seems to not just be a protector of the Hylian race, but also control over time. Her temple in Skyward Sword housed a Gate of Time, the Temple of Time of that era had a symbol that was heavily attached to her specifically (as well ad the royal family she started with her reincarnation), and she predicted all of the events of the game with incredible accuracy, sending many messages "from the edge of time" (and then there are elements from the previous games, that seem to have retconned into being Hylia-related, like the OoT era Temple of Time and the goddess of time mentioned in MM). Being dead seems irrelevant for a being with such control over time, as she can still be just as active as a deity, with the only limitation being her physical presence not being shown.
  • The statue at the Spring of Courage (and maybe Wisdom and Power, I don't remember) does say "I, Goddess Hylia, shall" or something to that effect.
  • That's true, but it doesn't mean it's her speaking directly. Fi's translations in Skyward Sword were also presented to Link as though Hylia were speaking to him. ("From the edge of time I guide you...")

How did she get up there?

• How did Urbosa manage to walk her Divine Beast up to the top of Spectacle Rock? Naboris doesn't look like it's designed for climbing steep cliffs like Rudania is, and there aren't any paths leading up there for it to have taken.
  • Obvious answer: Nintendo pooped. The cutscene clearly implies that Naboris just jumped up there, something probably impossible for a creature of that size. Obviously, that is the interpretation that is most obvious. However, there are some alternative interpretations. For example, Ruta actually did something similar, gliding under the water in a river below the mountain she now resides, then she suddenly appears out of the water. So, it's likely that the Divine Beasts probably have some form of teleportation technology. They are part of the Shrine teleport network, after all. So, Naboris could simply have teleported up a cliff to then climb up into position. And, if there is the argument of the teleporting being a cop out, then you just have to look at the whole story. The Ancient Sheikah were one of the most advanced societies in Zelda lore. When creating the Divine Beasts, they must have realised that Hyrule would be changed by the time they are next needed. So, while they could navigate fine on their own in their time, giving them teleportation would only benefit, and could have potentially been the only chance to get all the Divine Beasts in position.
  • I was surprised when Medoh was able to perch on top of that rock without it snapping like a twig. Maybe the Divine Beasts magically ignore the Square-Cube Law and are lighter and more nimble than they appear at first glance.
  • On closer inspection, there does appear to be a crudely-designated path that leads up from the desert to the Wasteland Tower. I suppose Naboris could've managed the trek up that path and then crossed the bridge to reach the enshrinement spot.

Let's address the elephant-sized Korok in the room

• Does the game ever explain why Hestu is so large compared to his forest brethren? All of the other Koroks in this game and The Wind Waker are around the same size, making him the only outlier we've seen. Is it some kind of defect or something? Is he just older than the other Koroks? Is he actually a human wearing a Korok costume? Or did the developers mess up with his model by making it three times as big as it should've been? It's a small thing to get hung up on, but it seems odd to give him such a strange distinction and not explain or factor it into anything.
  • Perhaps it has something to do with his power of expansion. Maybe he can grow others possessions with a dance, but his power also led to him growing much larger than his kin
  • Why is that a problem? Nowhere is it said that a Korok needs to be small. We've also a huge variance of height in the Zora (King Zora from Ocarina, Sidon and again the king from this game) and Goron (Medigoron and Biggoron, again from Ocarina) populations, there's no reason any other non-human race needs to have a smaller range.
  • I never said it was a “problem”, but several of the Gorons in Ocarina of Time and the Zoras in this game have varying differences in size, so even the most extreme outliers were pretty easy to swallow. But the Koroks are supposed to be childlike spirits and have always been around the same size. As I said, it just seems a little weird to give one of them this very strange and obvious distinction when the rest of them look completely normal.
  • He is, in fact, weird to other Koroks, which is why they stole his maracas and the seeds that made them work.

Men being forbidden entrance to Gerudo Town

• Okay, so Gerudo Town is a bazaar town in the middle of the desert whose economy is dependent on commerce. And going by what one of the Gerudos says, the town, and the Gerudo race as a whole, are in danger of disappearing due to the incredibly low birth rate of male Gerudos. So of course, they forbid all males from entering. Brilliant! This means that their sales and trade will be restricted to Gerudo Town inhabitants and female visitors, ruling out possible male customers, as well as male traveling merchants — in a game where most if not all traveling merchants are male, no less. It also means that the only way to prevent the town from disappearing is sending Gerudos to roam Hyrule in search of male mates who would be willing to a) have children with them, and b) let the Gerudos take the children with them back to Gerudo Town, where their father will never be allowed in. Seriously, did none of the Gerudo Town inhabitants go "You know, forbidding the entrance to the people we need the most may not be such a bright idea after all. Maybe we should let go of that old, counterproductive rule that is clearly holding us back?"
  • A Gerudo NPC exposits how the younger residents of Gerudo Town actually like the law that forbids men from entering, as it gives them an excuse to travel and see the rest of the world in addition to finding a husband. They're the ones who are keeping the law from being overturned, even when there are others who think the town would be better off without it. It's also implied that Gerudo with Hylian boyfriends simply split their time between living in Gerudo Town and with their beaus in the outside world.
  • Because heat, food/water shortage, and sheer boredom wouldn't already have done the trick? Does Gerudo Town really have that much going on that the younger Gerudo would never leave if they didn't "have" to?
  • Moreover, if there are merchants who feel the law is limiting their clientele, all they need to do to remedy that is move to Kara Kara Bazaar and set up shop there, just as a few of them already have.
  • The Bazaar probably exists exactly for that purpose, as a commercial hub between Gerudo Town and the rest of Hyrule. It doesn't have the no-males rules, and it is much closer to the border of the desert, making it ideal for trade. The shops in the town itself are probably meant just for the domestic market, not for trade with the outside.
  • Indeed. And let’s face the facts: the only men we see who really want to get into Gerudo Town clearly aren’t trying to do so for trade reasons.
  • Which really shouldn't be an issue since the Gerudo want to find voe anyway. You'd think they'd try making the town as accomodating to voe as possible. If any unscrupulous sorts show up, well, that's what the guards are for.
  • Part of the issue with the immediate above response—the Gerudo want to find voe, so why not let men into the town?—is that they overall have NO idea how men think and act. We see evidence of this in the night classes that some older, more experienced Gerudo teach about interacting with voe. When quizzed on what to do when a man approaches, one young woman eagerly cheers out that she'll hit him in the head and sincerely believes that this is the right answer. We also know that, in addition to the obviously-lustful guys who can be found in the desert, there's at least one pseudo "nice guy" in the form of Bozai, who pretends to be kind but secretly sets up Link to fail on his quest to find the Eighth Heroine, hoping to score sympathy points and thus a date. As such, the older Gerudo may realize that their younger tribeswomen simply don't know the difference between genuinely good guys and horny ones, since they have no idea how to interact with men overall, and so continue barring voe so that when young Gerudo do leave, they'll have some wisdom and experience under their belts.

Zora Lakes

• The Zora region has lakes named after Mikau and Lulu, even though they lived in Termina, which existed in a parellel universe from Hyrule's, so how would the Zora in Hyrule even know about them?
  • The entire game map is a collection of locations with names from all 3 branches of the timeline. Koholint Rock is obviously based on Koholint Island from Link's Awakening, but then there are other names from other timelines. There are even names based on other alternate realities. Mercay and Bannan Island are based off islands from Phantom Hourglass, which took place in the Land of the Ocean King, completely separate from Hyrule, just like Termina.
  • We know that travel between Hyrule and Termina is possible — Link, Skull Kid, and the Happy Mask Salesman all did it — and there’s a Goron from Termina who mentions “Dodongo Cavern” at one point, which was only confirmed to exist in Hyrule. Link or another character might’ve spread the word about the people of Termina and/or his adventures that took place there.

Zelda sealing Ganon

• Was Zelda awake and conscious the entire time Ganon was sealed away, or not? The game never says anything specific, though she does speak to Link at several points, and must've been conscious to wake him up at the start. If she was conscious the entire time, how did she manage to keep Ganon contained for 100 years without going completely insane?
  • My guess is that both she and Ganon were in an intangible, coma-like state for the century between when she first entered the castle and Link waking up; there's precedent for that in Skyward Sword. Maybe when Link finally woke up, she sensed it and began talking to him again, which in turn gave Ganon an opening to unleash more of his power. From then on, the two were both more consciously fighting each other, which might explain why Zelda's power fails her just before the final battle: since she's dividing her attention between the fight and telepathically communicating with Link, it's taking more out of her.

Great Fairy behavior

• Are the romantic gestures by the Great Fairies a necessary part of their upgrades, or just something they like to throw in? If it’s the former, what would they do if the person requesting the upgrades wasn’t someone they were interested in? (Or a female?) If it’s the latter, why do they hold off on the more intimate behavior for later upgrades instead of springing it on Link from the beginning, considering how insanely into him at least one of them clearly is?
  • Upon some discovery, I might be able to answer my own question. I think that the Great Fairies choose to deliver their upgrades the way they do, because I noticed that whatever they use to deliver the upgrade — their breath, their lips, their hands — starts to sparkle and glow once each animation begins, suggesting that they’re choosing to channel their power that way. As to why they don’t spam the third or fourth animation for each upgrade, I think that’s because Link is the first visitor they’ve had in a while and they don’t want to scare him off prematurely. In their minds, easing him into their advances gives him time to grow accustomed to it and lets them know how much he’s able to be put through without backing out.
  • Going off of an above suggestion that the Great Fairies have a semi-intended order when it comes to being restored, it's probable that each upgrade animation is meant to be tied to a specific one of them according to this order — Cotera's the most normal, so she starts by simply blowing a kiss. Kaysa and Mija are more suggestive and flirtatous, hence why they escalate things with more direct kissing. And being the kookiest and most isolated, Tera wouldn't see the problem with the most extreme method of just grabbing Link and pulling him into her fountain.

Yunobo's jumping

• During the Escort Mission on Death Mountain Yunobo can't jump and gets stuck on the smallest ledges. However, if you fire him out of a cannon and miss Vah Rudania he makes an enormous leap back up to you. Why couldn't he just jump up to the cannons rather than forcing you to take the path with the sentries.
  • I would need to see his leap back to you to be sure, but maybe he's using Daruk's Protection along with momentum from the cannon blast to get back up to where you are. Or you missing a shot and him jumping back up to you doesn't actually happen in the story of the game; it's just a technical exploit they put so you wouldn't have to go find Yunobo and guide him back on course.

Thunder Helm origins

• Was the Thunder Helm made to be used in conjunction with Divine Beast Vah Naboris, or was it just a lightning-repelling artifact that was originally created separately by the Gerudo? Its face seem to evoke Naboris’s in design, what with the six eyes, but then its design otherwise leans toward Gerudo (gold with colorful ornamentation) more than Sheikah (sleek, black, with blue Tron Lines and brown, stoney-bits).
  • It may be that the Thunder Helm was an early Sheikah-Gerudo joint effort, perhaps as a token of good will between the two. It just happens to be elementally attuned to the same element as Naboris.
  • Alternately, it was crafted during the ten-millennia-long gap between Ganon's attacks, with powers and a design motif in emulation of Vah Naboris. Indeed, as the original four Champions presumably survived that ancient war, Naboris's original mistress may have had the Thunder Helm crafted to commemorate their victory.

Goron cannons and minecarts

• How do the Gorons power their cannons (including the one that fires Yunobo) and minecarts in an area where conventional explosives spontaneously go off? Did they have access to Sheikah Hard Light explosives too?
  • Presumably, the explosives they use are a bit more fireproof than Link’s bomb arrows, which appear to consist simply of a small sack of gunpowder with a lit fuse tied to the arrowheads. If they had some sort of metal casing, they’d probably last a little longer around Death Mountain.

The Overall Level of Advancement in Hyrule

• If this game is really so far into the future that any given timeline in the series converges to it (at least per Word of God), why does it still seem like the world is stuck in what would be the equivalent of the 18th century at most? Sure there's some semblance of Magitek to compensate for some of that, but most of it is explicitly stated to be ancient anyway, so it's the product of previous super-advanced invention rather than anything modern. Even within the game's time frame - and even accounting for the Calamity - 100 years is a long time for civilization to grow and become more advanced, and yet by and large things seem no more advanced by the time Link wakes up than they did 100 years prior, or really during any of the games that came before this one. Are people just not inventing anything at all?
  • There are some new inventions; people discuss new elixirs, there are many fashion boutiques, two active laboratories adapting ancient leftovers to modern purposes, and so on. But for the most part the people of Hyrule are keeping their heads down — while you don't see it happening, the stables and other small settlements are probably fighting off bokoblins on a fairly regular basis, and the Yiga Clan is everywhere. The real process of rebuilding and advancement can't continue as long as the Blood Moons keep coming and replenishing the ranks, and the Blood Moons won't stop until Calamity Ganon is destroyed.
  • Part of me suspects that Nintendo primarily wanted to throw in big numbers like 100 and 10,000 because they were nice, clear-cut, and even, and so they did so without considering just how big those numbers really were in terms of time. (Or it was a bad translation of some kind.) Humanity was barely starting to exist 10,000 years ago in real life, yet we're supposed to believe that the Yiga have been holding to this grudge of theirs all that time and are still willing to kill people over it. It's like in Phantom Hourglass, when they had Jolene say that it had been 100 years since she and Linebeck last crossed paths. It's basically a really literal way of saying, "It's been such a long time that the exact number isn't important, even if it's not that long."

Shouldn't Link be welcome in Gerudo Town after beating Thunderblight Ganon?

• When you first find Gerudo Town, you learn that men aren't allowed in, so you have to disguise yourself as a woman. However, once you appear before Riju, she and Buliara figure out your true identity fairly early (thanks to your Sheikah Slate). The fact that they don't immediately kick you out suggests that they're willing to make an exception for you, since you're the hero of legend and you might be able to free Vah Naboris. The problem is that even after you beat Thunderblight Ganon and free Vah Naboris, you're still persona non grata in Gerudo Town and you need to disguise yourself. Why? If she's willing to bend the rules for you, why do you need the disguise? And if she's not willing to bend the rules for you, how does the disguise even work, given how easily Riju saw through it? Even if I'll accept that nobody else in the town recognizes the Sheikah Slate, you'd think Riju could give the guards special instructions to keep an eye out for any "vai" holding a strange-looking tablet. Is there just no communication between Riju and the rest of the town?
  • The exception is that they're not booting you out despite your Paper-Thin Disguise. In this particular iteration of Hyrule, Riju can't just declare you're allowed in and break their cultural taboos, so she's using Loophole Abuse to look the other way. The other Gerudo are likely playing along, as well: Vai don't wear voe clothing, so clearly you must be a voe.
  • One of the reasons for the law forbidding men is because the people in town don't want them there. The common Gerudo did not ask for Link's help appeasing Naboris, so them not feeling obligated to reward him if they knew makes sense. And for a people who've spent their whole lives with the security that they'll never have to encounter a male against their wishes, to suddenly learn that one is allowed to intrude upon that security at his discretion and without their consent is bound to make them more than a little uncomfortable. And that means that any trips into town as a male would be basically fruitless for Link if they were handled realistically, since a good portion of the townspeople would feel too uncomfortable around him to want to freely talk or do business. Or even worse, they might become so affronted that they choose to retaliate against Link, the guards, and even Riju for allowing him in. This mechanic might seem unfair from the point of view of certain players, but if you try and look at it from an in-universe perspective, you'll realize that there's a lot more at stake than just a minor bit of gameplay inconvenience.
  • Given the extremely aggressive heterosexuality of the Gerudo as presented, with educational seminars on how to snare a man and be a housewife, not to mention the existence of the GSC, we're not looking at a society that actually fears men or feels uncomfortable around them. If anything, they're man-crazy. What we're looking at is a society that has been sex-segregated for potentially up to 10,000 years! Marriage has only existed in Western society for less than five thousand, and most people can't even conceive of what a world without it would look like. We're never given an actual reason for the taboo, and it's entirely possible no one currently alive can remember it, but it's still going to be absolutely enforced.
  • Riju may be young, but she's not stupid. She knows — as she should — the cultural taboo around allowing a man to openly enter their town. She would know if she allowed an exception for Link to freely wander within their walls sans disguise, she would be face with severe backlash and not just from the populance, but from her own guards. Breaking that cultural taboo is a fast-trek path to getting booted off the throne.
  • If you talk to Kyra in the main square in Gerudo Town in the afternoon, she'll mention that if they allow the voe in, then most of the Gerudo will never leave town and see the world. Seems traveling is almost as important to the Gerudo as getting hitched.
  • By Tears of the Kingdom, Link does get the exception and the vai clothing isn't even available to the player. It seems to be a mix of retroactive honoring and a privilege granted in desperate times, since it's made clear Link didn't previously have that privilege and had never visited undisguised before he goes there in Tot K. It seems like Riju granted him the privilege in the wake of the Upheaval, both because he was their savior beforehand and because she doesn't want to waste time on him going undercover in order to help them again.

Tabantha Wheat

• You can buy Tabantha Wheat in Rito Village, and the name suggests that it's grown in the Tabantha region. However, as far as I know, you never encounter this wheat growing naturally anywhere in the game, let alone in the region to which it's supposed to be native. Where is all of this wheat growing?
  • On farms, I would guess.
  • You can "farm" Tabantha wheat just by cutting grass in the Tabantha region.

Impa's height.

• In Breath of the Wild we see that Impa's just a short old lady, yet we see her as a young adult in Age of Calamity, the spitting image of her granddaughter Paya, and she's not short. Do people get shorter when they get older?
  • Yes. Not all that much in real life, but exaggerating it in fiction is very common.
  • It could also be an inborn trait of the Sheikah. Nintendo took a lot of inspiration from Impa's past appearances when designing the tribe for this game, since it was all they had to go off of. And her being human-height or taller in her youth (in Ocarina of Time, the Oracle games, and Skyward Sword) and losing that height as she grew older (the first two games, Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword again, A Link Between Worlds) has been pretty consistently demonstrated. Robbie also lost a lot of the stature he had in his youth, if his appearance in Age of Calamity is anything to go by.

Damaged Guardians and Blood Moons

• Since the Blood Moon can resurrect Guardians, how come it only revives the several dozens that Link encounters upon his return but not the hundreds of inactive ones all over Hyrule? Additionally, how come it revives some in damaged states, such as the Decayed Guardians or the ones in Castle Town Ruins missing a few limbs, but other Guardians get put back together whole?
  • From a gameplay perspective, because the Blood Moon is just the game's method of reloading everything so that the player doesn't run short on resources; it's not meant to make complete sense in-universe... With that said, in-universe, it could be a sign of Ganon's limited power while he's being sealed by Zelda. He doesn't have the strength he needs to fully repair every Guardian, just to bring them back to the state they were in before Link destroyed them.
  • Maybe the Blood Moons can only recover damage that was done since the last Blood Moon happened, and Zelda's seal 100 years ago stopped that power for a while, until it started weakening, so now the decayed Guardians are stuck in that state. It would also explain why they weren't fixed all the way back 100 years ago, and finished trouncing Hyrule completely.
  • Zelda's dialogue during the game's first Blood Moon says that Ganon revives monsters "slain in the name of the Light". This implies it's the ones which are heroically vanquished that return, not Guardians that broke down after a century with no maintenance or unlucky bokoblin hunters that get gored by a boar. It would also, incidentally, explain why there are so many monster skeletons waiting to re-animate after dark, that the Blood Moon keeps neglecting to re-flesh.

Hylia’s silence to Zelda

• Zelda is seen praying to Hylia but getting no answer back, and apparently this has been the case ever since she first tried accessing her sealing power. Link, however, is able to talk to Hylia directly whenever he wants to upgrade his hearts or stamina. Why couldn’t he speak to Hylia on Zelda’s behalf? Maybe that way they could’ve found out more about why the goddess was giving Zelda the cold shoulder.
  • It seems Link didn't know that he could communicate with the Goddess Statues back when Zelda would've needed to know. Additionally, something I've always assumed is that Hylia isn't really alive anymore and that the statues aren't actively communicating with Link. Instead they're just reciting prerecorded messages for him like what Fi translated back in Skyward Sword, and therefore, they aren't capable of answering whatever question someone wants to ask them.
  • Another possibility is sincerity of intent. When Zelda prays to the statues, her heart isn't in it for pure reasons (she seems more intent on pleasing her father by awakening her powers over necessarily wanting them for the sake of Hyrule), whereas Link's desire to save Zelda and stop Calamity Ganon is pure and selfless. Alternatively, Hylia only grants the power of the Goddess in the darkest hour of Hyrule, which, until the Calamity hit, wasn't there yet. Whereas with Link, the Calamity has fallen, and Ganon is near to returning to finish things.
  • One entry in Zelda's diary describes how she dreamed of a mysterious woman in the days leading up to the Calamity, but that she couldn't hear the words the woman was speaking. Seeming to imply that unlocking Zelda's sacred powers also unlocks the Goddess's ability to speak in the present era.

Lomei Labyrinths

• The Lomei Labryinths are just chilling in three of the corners of the world and no one has any idea why or how they were made. Were they just made for the hero so he they could be a test for him? What's with the Guardian's patrolling them? Who built them? Why do they exist? Did they exist before the shrines? What is their deal?
  • It's implied that they may have to do with the Zonai, who are the makers of the ruins at the rainforest at Faron and the Thyphlo Ruins. I also remember that someone on YouTube had speculated that the Barbarian Set was also made by the Zonai.
  • Other aspects to take into consideration is that the Labyrinths are not Sheikah-made, nor are part of their architecture (like the interiors of shrines), as their walls can be climbed, and also, that there are no Korok seeds in any of the labyrinths.
  • It's also shown that the Sheikah made the Shrines in some already established locations, like the shrine made inside the Hole of Hebra Mountain (which is implied to have been carved by the beam shot from a Divine Beast); this further implies that the labyrinths may predate the shrines contained in them.
  • As for the Guardians, they may have been placed there to protect the respective shrines, but were blighted by malice afterwards. As there's no mention of the labyrinths when the excavation of the Divine Beasts and Guardians took place a century ago, it's implied that the Guardians at the labyrinths were already there to begin with. The labyrinths are pretty inaccessible to regular folks to begin with, both in location and environment.
  • The Legend of Zelda series is hardly a stranger to huge mazes with no known origins appearing on the map; there was one in Adventure of Link, Oracle of Ages, and Phantom Hourglass. As for the Guardians being inside them, only the one in Akkala is inaccessible physically by land, and that wouldn't seem to be a problem for the Guardians anyway, since they were able to get onto the Great Plateau somehow.
  • Tears of the Kingdom confirms the Zonai had a hand in the labyrinths that predates the Sheikah's shrines being associated (which means the Zonai almost certainly built them), as the architecture matches the now-obvious Zonai iconography, Zonai shrines are tied to them, and the challenges are presented in the name of the three creatures they revered—boars, dragons, and owls.

Forgotten Temple

• Why is the Forgotten Temple full of Decayed Guardians? An ancient place that has apparently, given its name, been forgotten for a long time. (Maybe even since Skyward Sword at the very beginning of the timeline, given that the goddess statue beyond the shrine bears a striking resemblance to the statue that crushed Demise at the Sealed Grounds, which has not been seen in any of the games in between, though a shrine has to have been built here at some point, the monks explicitly place Link's reward for all 120 shrines here, and Koroks are found there as well)
  • The Guardians were created 10000 years prior to the era of this game, that's a lot of time for the temple to be forgotten. Back on that age, the Sheikah probably did know about the temple, since they had all the tools Link has in this game (including a very accurate active map of the world). The fact the Sheikah monks give Link his final reward there (and just the fact there's a shrine there) also corroborate this idea of the temple being known back then. Those Guardians could have simply laid dormant there, as part of some ancient battle from that era, instead of getting there just a century ago.
  • Possibly the ancients stationed the Guardians there to defend the Temple from Ganon's forces during the previous conflict, when the Sheikah robots were still loyal to their makers. Whatever events led to the site being abandoned and half-buried, the machines were left on-station rather than recalled to the Castle vaults.

Gerudo Town's temperature

• We all know it gets either too hot or too cold in the middle of Gerudo desert, depending if it's daytime or nighttime. The further away from Gerudo desert gateway, the more powerful the effects are, typically. However, once Link gets into Gerudo Town, these effects disappear. Why is that the case? I know that gameplay-wise, there's only one vai outfit, and getting into the town would be tedious if these effects persist, since Link would have to keep drinking elixirs too keep himself alive if he didn't want to get kicked out of the town, but what about logic-wise? Is it because of the water regulating the temperature inside the walls?
  • Probably. You could also chalk it up to the walls being inlaid with magical sapphires that keep the town cool. The game has a ton of normally-unfeasible mechanics that are explained away with ideas like "ancient technology" or "magic rocks".

The logic of the "blessing" shrines

• The shrines were specifically built to test the power and with of the hero. Most of the shrines function like this, but the shrines with "blessing" subtitle don't contain any obstacles inside them, and instead the test is figuring out how to enter them. However, these shrines were built over 10,000 years ago, and in many cases the "test" needed to enter them is based on seemingly random present-day events, such as a Gerudo woman passing out from dehydration in front of a shrine entrance, or three Gorons just happening to build their training ground next to a hidden shrine. Were the monks inside the shrines somehow able to foresee future events 10,000 years ahead of them with this level of detail? And if they were, couldn't they have, for example, left some warnings for Zelda and the Champions, so that the Calamity could've been avoided altogether?
  • The simple answer is probably just that some of the monks didn't see fit to actually test whomever got into their respective shrines, they just wanted to give something to the person who was presumably worthy of being able to access them in the first place. So in essence, the blessing shrines are the monks saying "you don't have to prove anything further to me, if you're truly the one worthy to get in here then you can have this gift regardless". They just had faith that only someone deserving of their gifts would be able to make it inside.
  • It's also worth noting that most blessing shrines do actively test Link; some are locked behind external puzzles (Eventide Island, Rist Peninsula), others are in locations that are difficult to reach (the labyrinth shrines, Skull Lake), and still others are in locations that are difficult to even find (Lindor's Brow, Hebra Great Skeleton). Even the ones in which most of the challenge comes from external coincidence tend to be in hostile environments or places that are difficult to navigate (the Lost Woods, Gerudo Desert), so even without the extra challenge it would take a skilled explorer to reach them.
  • The monks were following orders from Hylia. As Skyward Sword already showed us, she was capable of predicting future events with incredible accuracy. In fact, considering the fact she's been dead since the age before Skyward Sword, her orders to the monks were probably recorded in advance too, alongside any other interaction between Link and the Goddess Statues.
  • To answer the second part of the question—about why the monks didn't leave warnings for Zelda and the Champions—it's quite possible that they did. Keep in mind that Zelda was extremely interested in the ancient shrines and, as the memories show, repeatedly tried to access them...but Rhoam, as part of his Fantasy-Forbidding Father schtick, kept forcing her away from them and insisting she focus on her sealing power instead. Furthermore, Rhoam probably declared that they didn't need to worry about the Calamity, because he thought that simply repeating the exact same plan as last time would be enough to thwart Ganon. So even if the monks did have knowledge to impart about how to stop Calamity Ganon a second time, Rhoam's stubbornness and complacency kept anyone from receiving it (which the monks could have also foreseen, leading them to a You Can't Fight Fate philosophy).
  • As for the shrine with the Gerudo lying on its pedestal, it's quite possible that she solved whatever puzzle or obstacle originally had to be bypassed to reach it. Then she couldn't get inside (having no Sheikah Slate), and collapsed in self-pity, bitter at having been balked. (In which case, one might argue that she earned that drink, clearing the way for Link....)

Ghosts doing stuff

• So the king, despite being a ghost, is able to assume a physical corporeal existence and do things like cook, hunt, or sleep. Can the Champions' ghosts also do that? If so, what's stopping them from continuing to fight or at the very least take a more active role in helping Link while he's inside the Divine Beasts? Could they have helped out during the fights against the Blights?
  • Maybe Rhoam being able to manifest physically, or at least appear to do so, is due to his royal lineage. The kings of games past have had all sorts of unexplained magical powers, and in The Wind Waker, King Daphnes was able to manifest normally, just like Rhoam appears to. So it's not without precedent.
  • Considering how they don't physically appear until you've killed the respective Blights, and how the beasts are supposed to be piloted exclusively by the Champions (instead of being independent like the other Guardians), it's very likely that the Blights somewhat absorbed their souls in order to properly hijack the beasts.

Monster Origins & Implications

• So did Ganon create the monsters that appear all over Hyrule? That seems to be the case given they revive with the Blood Moon which is tied to Ganon's power, meaning their existences are linked with him in some fashion, right? If that's the case then, given Ganon was dormant prior to the Calamity, was he still able to create & revive monsters even though he apparently needs to wait until the Blood Moon for that? And if indeed the monsters all come from Ganon then how it work for there to have been things like an entire nation of Lizalfos that nearly overtook the Zora at some point in the past - if Ganon has the ability to create an entire functioning nation's worth of monsters then why hasn't he proceeded to do that again during the 100 years Link was asleep?
  • Regarding how Ganon raised monsters before the Calamity, it might have something to do with the seal he's under weakening. Zelda comments on a recent increase in monster attacks in one memory and theorizes that it's a sign of Ganon's imminent return. We also see a similar phenomenon in Skyward Sword, where several characters mention that monsters began to pop up shortly before Link arrived on the surface (which coincides with final days before the seal over Demise fails). This seems to imply that the appearance of monsters is a natural consequence of Ganon breaking through the seal. Thus, when Zelda sealed him in the castle, his power was contained and the monsters either stopped or dropped back to manageable numbers. However, Blood Moons give him enough of a boost to momentarily overcome Zelda's seal and spawn more monsters before she drags him back in.
  • At least some of the monsters Link encounters in the memories don't seem to be as closely bound to Ganon as the ones from Age of Calamity or after his revival. The memory in which Link had just defeated a horde of foes has corpses of moblins, lynels, and so on just lying around intact, not vanished in a puff of purple-black smoke. That suggests that Ganon only started claiming the slain monsters' remains (presumably so he could revive them at the Blood Moon) when the seal was on the brink of shattering. Up to then, Hyrule's monster populations were probably just getting on with their lives. Nasty lives full of bullying, raiding and theft most likely, but not with any fixed agenda beyond individual and/or tribal ambition.

How did Daruk lose?

• For the other Champions I can conceive of how they'd be beaten by their respective Blights - Urbosa could have been outmaneuvered by Thunderblight's speed, Revali could have been outflanked by Windblight's drones, and Mipha doesn't really have any abilities to counter Waterblight's attacks at all - but Daruk losing to Fireblight Ganon seems kind of hard to believe? All Fireblight has at its disposal is its blade, barrier, and the ability to make fire; it's not particularly fast or hard to get the drop on. On the other hand, Daruk is super strong, resistant to heat, and has a power that deflects all attacks whenever he wants, how could he lose?
  • For starters, unless Daruk had some explosives on him, he wouldn't have been able to get through Fireblight's barrier ability. Even if we don't assume that Daruk's Protection has its limits, Fireblight effectively would've become invincible once that second phase started. All it needed to do was wait for Daruk to drop his guard and then whittle his stamina down little by little.
  • If you take Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity as canon, this is exactly what happened. Daruk's Protection did have its limits, and after multiple strong attacks, Fireblight was able to shatter the shield with a single blow, stunning Daruk and leaving him unable to defend himself. Furthermore, Daruk's size made him a Mighty Glacier, and Fireblight Ganon, though slow, was faster than he was, so Daruk had to focus all of his energy on protecting himself. He wasn't landing any hits, and Fireblight was; it was essentially a battle of attrition with Daruk as the loser.

The game’s setting

• Assuming the claim is true that this game takes place at the end of all three timelines, does that mean it’s also taking place in New Hyrule, the setting of Spirit Tracks? Or did the floodwaters covering ancient Hyrule eventually recede, and everyone from New Hyrule moved back there for some reason? And if it is New Hyrule, how did the Master Sword get there, considering where it was left at the end of The Wind Waker?
  • Chronologically, the game takes place long after any of the previous games, but that doesn't mean it's set in the same timeline/parallel universe as any of them. Presumably it takes place in its own timeline/parallel universe with its own history, where some of the events in the past were the same or at least similar as in previous games, but not all of them.

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