Headscratchers / The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Hylian descent

• How exactly would a dynasty of Hylians be derived from a founding pair of one Hylian and one Zonai? The species are so distinct it seems dubious that they'd be biologically compatible.
  • Species in Zelda are all weirdly compatible, it's sort of a fantasy trope.
  • The Elder Scrolls would like a word with you about interspecies getting together.
  • Adding to the first question, there's no indication in the memories that they had any children. Who does the line descend from?
  • Given Sonia states she senses a blood connection, and Zelda carries both Sonia and Rauru's powers, the most likely answer is that they did have at least one child and said child is simply not directly mentioned or seen. The only other possibility might be that Mineru had a child with a relative of Sonia's, but we have no indication Mineru was even in a romantic relationship.
  • A prospective heir to Hyrule would have been incredibly important. How is Zelda able to insert herself as essentially an adoptive daughter of the king and queen if there wasn't already a prince or princess? What about when Ganondorf tried to launch his coup. The queen dies and the king has to exist in a liminal state between life and death forever to keep him at bay. Who does the kingdom go to? Also, while Rauru says Zelda has his powers of light, he never calls her his descendant the way that Sonia does. Zelda may be descended from a brother or a cousin of Sonia's. To use the example above about the Elder Scrolls: precisely none of the Emperors of Tamriel are descended from Tiber Septim, despite the Amulet of Kings magically recognizing them as his heirs.
  • While Rauru doesn't state she is his descendant, Zelda does say her family line is said to have sky gods in their distant ancestry, and reasons those gods must have been the Zonai. Assuming Rauru and Sonia indeed did not have children, perhaps there were other Zonai in the past who intermarried with relatives of Sonia?
  • Sonia says Zelda has Rauru's powers of light. Rauru never says she's a descendant, but he clearly didn't pick up on whatever aura stuff Sonia did, since he only believed Zelda when he saw her secret stone, while Sonia immediately saw her for what she is. As for the question of a heir, Zelda is never adopted as a daughter, she's brought into court as a "distant relative". Enough to get royal treatment, but probably also distant enough to not get ahead of anyone who could have any dreams of inheriting the throne. Any issue of Rauru and Sonia would still be heir to the throne, and no one involved, Zelda least of all, would want to mess with that.
  • Rauru and Sonia spend time personally helping Zelda hone her powers and take specific focus in nurturing her. If there was an heir it seems unlikely that they would be uninvolved. They would get jealous because an unknown literally dropped from the sky and got taken in, or think they were being set aside in favor of her. Zelda just has to be for that to cause conflict. And having an outwardly completely Hylian "distant relative" would no doubt rankle for a half-Zonai princeling in a time where all of the Hyruleans are Hylian and there's only two Zonai left in the world. Zelda, even then, probably looks more like the people of Hyrule than Rauru does. That's not to mention Ganondorf apparently completely ignores their family in favor of killing only Sonia — if he was really serious about conquering Hyrule, killing or subverting the heir would be a natural step. There being no heir, and thus no direct line of descent from Rauru to Zelda is the most parsimonious option.
  • This is assuming that their heir was old enough to be trained to do so. It's also entirely possible that they have a newborn up to a young child that they have stashed away with retainers for safety.
  • Except the royal family continued on after the death of both Sonia and Rauru, with some distinct magical inheritance that makes Zelda recognisable as having both of their powers, so a heir certainly existed. Zelda was never a series that focused on political machinations and nobility drama, there's no reason to believe any of that would have happened in this game. Zelda being descended from Rauru and Sonia is a fact, and that fact necessitates a heir to have existed by the time of the memories. That's all there is to it, anything else is just asking for the game to be about something the series just isn't. As for Ganondorf specifically, he's a brutish warlord whose only conceivable way to conquer the world is through overwhelming force. His slight attempt at subterfurge regarding Sonia only happened because he figured out he couldn't brute-force his way into owning a secret stone. And even that was so badly done that he got immediately caught, and resorted to his usual methods of just punching his way to victory. Even if the series was about political intrigue, Ganondorf never was.
  • Gandondorf absolutely was an intriguer. The entire premise that underpinned Ocarina of Time was that he insinuated himself into the good graces of the king and that allowed him to engage in his villainy. It's an essential aspect of his character.
  • In Ocarina, he insinuated himself into the good graces of the king in such an obviously duplicitous way that even his 10 years old daughter could immediately see through it. And then he immediately used that trust to invade the castle and force the royal family out (or worse) in what must have been the following weeks, if not days. All the while he's been directly sabotaging the other allied races without even attempting to hide his identity, in an attempt to strong-arm them into giving him what he wants. Not exactly Game of Thrones level of court drama. In this game, he likewise gets into the good graces of the king (after his latest attempt at using force, the Molduga army, failed miserably, letting him realise he couldn't overpower the Hyruleans without a secret stone of his own), again in such an obvious way that even the king himself doesn't believe him at all, even though he lets him play his hand out of overconfidence. Then he makes a Zelda double that looks identical to the real deal, but acts nothing like her, and that plan for subtle assassination falls flat because anyone with two braincells could see that the phantom Zelda was not the real deal. Ganondorf tries to use subtletly when brute force doesn't work, but he's not any good at it, and eventually he always reverts back to his true modus operandi: showing strength. There's a reason he's usually the scion of the Triforce of Power, not Wisdom.
  • With regards of whether or not the Zonai court/Child would be upset with Zelda being there — easy fix. All Rauru and Sonia would have to do is tell them that Zelda was a distant relative (they did) and that she was merely there to learn how to hone her powers (implied). Presumably they made it clear off-screen that they have no plans to make her the heir apparent over their own child.
  • There's also the fact that we're seeing the past through maybe 15 minutes' worth of memory. Whatever children Rauru and Sonia had, Zelda had no reason to share memories about them in particular and Link had no need to learn about them.

Reboot?

• Is... is this officially a reboot? Admittedly, it's a soft one, as it has nods to the previous games, but all signs so far are pointing to it. "Ten thousand years ago" is not just the Imprisoning War as well as the founding of Hyrule, with the Zonai apparently as the sky people involved in the latter, but it's also Ganondorf's treasonous rise to power as well.
  • I think so. Mostly because of the fact that the previous game had a timeline that combined things from the three timelines while contradicting them as well (e.g. The Great Deku Tree being based off his Wind Waker design and being attended to by Koroks but you have to go through the Lost Woods which has its A Link To The Past layout and look and showing Zoras and Ritos as two separate species whereas Wind Waker showed that Zoras evolved into Ritos after the Goddesses flooded the planet.
  • If that's true, then how come we still have Goddess Statues all over the place? And where did The Master Sword come from in this timeline? It's still implied that Fi is there in BOTW when the sword speaks to Zelda and in TOTK when you can hear the distinctive chime right before it gets sent to Zelda to get healed. Not to mention you still canonically get given the green garb by the Sheikah if you do all the shrines in BOTW.
  • Broad Strokes. Events and characters may be similar but can be wildly different upon closer look. Look at Rauru. He is the Sage of Light in both Tears of the Kingdom and Ocarina of Time, but this continuity has him as a Zonai and King of Hyrule rather than an old Hylian Sage. Suffice to say... the Zelda Timeline is at best a series of legends based events that have been misinterpreted or distorted by storytellers over generations if we were to put TOTK and BOTW as part of the old timeline. Or we can subscribe to the Multiverse theory.
  • I mean, the split-timeline theory was confirmed quite a long time ago, up to and including OoT being the divergence point, even before Hyrule Historia revealed the Downfall Timeline.
  • Just to throw the idea out there, it is possible that, after the last game of each timeline, Hyrule fell (possibly for a second time) and was reestablished several generations or centuries later.
  • Occam's Razor, friend. Possible, yes, but Not Proven as possibility alone is not enough.
  • It seems like this game cements at least it and BOTW as being a hard reboot of the previous series continuity. Skyward Sword may still have happened mostly unchanged, as these games reference it heavily, but other games probably didn't happen in any way close to what we saw, even though some events similar to them must have happened (since this game canonises the nostalgia items from BOTW, by making them available without amiibo). For instance, the scene where we see Ganondorf pledging loyalty to Rauru is pretty much a retelling of the same scene from Ocarina of Time, right down to Zelda warning the king and having her worries be dismissed.
  • I think it still fits the timeline. The founding of Hyrule happens sometime after Skyward Sword, but before Minish Cap, the Demon King Ganondorf is sealed, and he stays in his prison for an undetermined amount of time. Then it starts to crack and unleash Calamity Ganon, who is eventually resealed in the Imprisoning War, which I believe is separate from the Link to the Past's Imprisoning War. 10,000 years pass and the events of Bot W play out.
  • Problem with that. We still have a Ganondorf debuting in OoT to menace Hyrule in between the founding and 10,000 years before BotW.
  • The Ganondorf from OoT could easily be another Gerudo male that Demise's hatred infected. Possibly he was even named Ganondorf in honor of the other earlier Ganondorf.
  • This series is 'The Legend of Zelda', not 'The History of Zelda'. If there is a timeline, it's a timeline of mythology where things either did or did not happen, depending on your views of things. Maybe OoT happened, maybe not. All that is certain is that the hero seemed to like wearing a green tunic and a funny hat. Sure, scenes can mirror scenes from earlier games but again, that kind of happens a lot in mythology in our world.
  • There is, in fact, an official timeline, albeit subject to the occasional small revision, that was shown in both Hyrule Historia and the later Encyclopedia.
  • Regarding the game featuring the “first” king of Hyrule, it never says that Rauru was king of the first Hyrule. And concerning the Zonai being sky people, lots of founding and origin stories from different games have their own takes on that concept. The Golden Goddesses came from the heavens and created the world, the Minish and Wind Tribe both came from the sky, the Oocca also came from the sky, and in Spirit Tracks the Lokomo and the spirits seem to have came from the sky too. Really, this game isn’t any more evidently a reboot than Spirit Tracks is.
  • Point of order: Skyward Sword. The descendants of the surviving Hylians also came down from the sky, and their decision to live on the Surface was, prior to the revelations in TotK, the accepted point where Hyrule was founded. Furthermore, outside of a New Hyrule being founded between Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks, it's Not Proven that Hyrule was re-founded the other times it fell, such as prior to The Hyrule Fantasy, which saw Hyrule rebuilt in the six years between then and The Adventure Of Link. Rather, it was simply rebuilt and carried on.

Sheikah Slate

• What happened to it? The Purah Pad has many of the same functions, but not all of them, and there's no sign that Purah is mass-producing the pads (so it's not like the Slate was a Super Prototype). What gives?
  • It's sad that the game decides to not explain at all what happened to all the Sheikah tech, but the easiest solution is that it all just mysteriously vanished just as it had appeared out of nowhere before. Or maybe it just stopped working, and Purah had to recreate it from scratch.
  • It may be related to why the Divine Beasts stop working at the end of Breath of the Wild.
  • I am not sure where the scene is, but I have read that there is a flashback in Breath of the Wild where it is noted the Sheikah Slate only activates in response to the Calamity. Presumably it ceased functioning at the end of the previous game and Purah invented a replacement.
  • My assumption is that in the (at least) six or five years that have passed since Breath of the Wild all the old Sheikah technology was dismantled and reversed engineered. Understandable, considering how completely Ganon took over the guardians…
  • Actually, Purah mentions in one of her diaries that she someday wants to mass-produce Purah Pads for everybody in Hyrule. Zelda's just the one who got the first test model.

Shouldn't Zelda be dead?

• Both of Zelda's ancestors were killed by Ganondorf, and there are no signs that suggest they had any children at that point. So how is it possible for Zelda to still exist for another 10,000 years?
  • It's possible — indeed, probable — that they had a child prior to their deaths.
  • Alternatively perhaps Zelda descends from a dynasty that assumed power afterwards. Is it ever actually confirmed that she and they are related?
  • Sonia says she can feel her and Zelda are related, and that Zelda has both her time powers and Rauru's light powers.
  • They definitely had a kid before passing. The game doesn't show them because they're not important to the plot.
  • How would a prospective child of Rauru and Sonia be unimportant to the plot? Ganondorf would want to kill any children of theirs to conquer the kingdom.
  • Building off the above, it's also likely that their child wasn't shown due to not wanting to explain the logistics of Zonai/Hylian breeding, or to show what a child that crossed two different species would look like.
  • I highly doubt Ganondorf cared if a legitimate heir existed or not. He killed Sonia for her stone, not to remove a royal. Unless someone was powerful enough to oppose him he wouldn't have considered them a threat. It's not like he needed or wanted public support as some kind of legitimately crowned king of Hyrule either, he was fine with killing off pretty much everyone and just having monsters and Yiga as subjects.
  • It's possible hunting down and killing any heirs would have been on Ganondorf's to-do list after he won, but Rauru sealed him away before he got around to that part.
  • Given Rauru's statement about how Zelda wasn't present in the original version of events depicted in the Murals she and Link found, it's possible that Zelda hasn't actually traveled to the past of HER timeline, but to the past of an identical one, which is subtly adjusted due to her actions. It's hard to explain, but just chalk it up to Time Travel not having consistent rules or logic.
  • Rauru's statement about Zelda not being present in an original timeline is a followup to his previous line, which is him wondering should they fail in defeating Ganondorf. He's basically saying something along the lines of "If we fail, then we'll do that. But hey, we're not going to fail now that you're here". There is no alternate timeline, it is a Stable Time Loop as the murals in the prologue (and endgame) show.
    Rauru: And if it proves impossible for us to defeat Ganondorf... we rely on your knight... But remember, that was a future where you never appeared in this world.
  • Rauru was simply wrong about Zelda not having been there in the original events. He thought her presence would allow them to change the future, but in fact her presence was needed there to cause the Stable Time Loop.
  • The only thing that insinuates Zelda is related to Sonia and Rauru is Sonia saying that she “senses” a blood connection, whatever that means. She could just as easily be making an educated guess that turns out to be wrong.
  • "Blood connection" can reasonably be taken at face value to mean a familial genetic relation. It's also far from the only insinuation that they are related. Zelda states her family are recorded as having descended from sky gods who married Hylians, i.e. Rauru and Sonia, Zelda is stated and shown to have both Rauru and Sonia's powers, and every other modern Sage is stated to be a descendant of the originals. It's not even really an insinuation by that point.
  • I know what “blood connection” means; I was referring to whatever Sonia meant about “sensing” that relationship. Moreover, Zelda and the princesses before her have had the same powers in many of the previous games, powers which were then attributed to sources other than Sonia and Rauru — be it the Triforce, the Light Force, Hylia, the spirits of good, or some combination thereof. And her family descending from “sky gods” could be referring to Hylia just as easily as the Zonai.

Divine Beast Helmets

• In Breath of the Wild it's established that the ancient Sheikah built the Divine Beasts and Guardians 10,000 years ago to fight Calamity Ganon. Tears of the Kingdom looks back even further to shortly after the Kingdom of Hyrule's foundation, but the Rito, Zora, Gerudo, and Goron Sages are all wearing masks patterned after their people's respective Divine Beasts without addressing how or why that's possible given the Divine Beasts haven't been built yet. Were the Divine Beasts simply patterned and named after the Sages' masks?
  • Most likely the Divine Beasts were patterned after longstanding cultural motifs in each race, of which the masks were merely an earlier instance.
  • The Divine Beasts were probably modeled after divine beings that the respective races worshipped. They are also said to be named after ancient Sages. In Breath of the Wild, this was a clear reference to the Ocarina of Time Sages (and Wind Waker, for Vah Medoh), but Tears of the Kingdom may have retconned it to be a reference to these four unnamed Sages.
  • Further supporting this, a close examination of the Zonai-style masks worn by the sages will reveal some key differences. The Sage of Wind wears a mask that appears to have protruding fangs, not unlike an oni mask.

"Princess" Zelda

• I admit I haven't completed the game yet when writing this, but it seems like a plot hole so far: It's clear, through Mattison's existence if nothing else, that a few years have passed since Breath of the Wild, possibly even the six years that took place in the real world. Zelda's father was killed during the original Calamity 100 years ago. Zelda would never have had a chance to be coronated while using her powers to keep herself and Ganon in stasis, but what about the last few years? Why is Zelda not a queen?
  • She's spent the last few years rebuilding the kingdom, reestablishing formal education, and most importantly regaining the public's trust and respect that would let her take the title. Presumably there was enough widespread support for her personally to take the step of declaring herself queen but the kingdom wasn't fully reestablished with chains of command just yet so there wasn't anything formally to be queen of.
  • Perhaps she doesn't want to be coronated until Hyrule is at least restored to a basically functional kingdom again? Alternatively, she may be awaiting some ceremonial age of majority (as she is still biologically a teenager) or there may even be some kind of ancient dynastic tradition requiring her to complete some ritual, quest, or even just getting married before assuming formal queenship.
  • As the original question noted, she's probably not biologically a teenager as years are implied to have passed since the first game, however, it is noted at the start of the game that Hyrule Castle has fallen even further into a state of disrepair. Further, Zelda and Link have been living in a simple home together since the Calamity. Perhaps until the castle is restored Zelda can't officially become queen, or she simply sees other matters as more important for now. The nation was able to hold itself together with just its regional leaders for a hundred years, so presumably there is no hurry to crown a new king or queen.
  • Neither Link nor Zelda have gotten noticeably older or taller in the interim, compared to the adult Hylians we meet they're still significantly shorter. However much time has passed between games, it seems very unlikely to have to have been the real life six years.
  • Indeed, probably not six years. But Zelda was seventeen before she went into stasis with Ganon. Given Hylians grow and age like humans, she wouldn't likely get any taller (most girls have reached their max height by sixteen). Link might as men can grow for a few more years, but chances are they are both just shorter than average Hylians.
  • It seems rather unlikely that both Link and Zelda would have remained exactly the same physically if significant amounts of time had passed. Further, Riju is at an age where she ought to be growing significantly were much time to have passed, and yet, hairstyle aside, she doesn't appear to have changed much. I can see little reason to assume that anything more than a handful of months have passed between the games.
  • Hudson and Rhondson (who are introduced to each other by Link during Breath of the Wild) have a daughter that's old enough to read and write (and has the usual "young child" model for the Gerudo), it's undeniably that at least around 5 years have passed, any character that didn't change was just due to the designers not wanting to redesign them. As for the original Headscratchers, Zelda probably doesn't want to get crowned before she's helped the kingdom recover in a more hands on way, or something like that.
  • For another bit of proof that Link is older and simply short, he's now able to order the Noble Pursuit drink from the Gerudo that he was regarded as too young for in Breath of the Wild.
  • The Noble Pursuit Link can order is specifically stated to be a new recipe that all ages can enjoy; the creator even comments that normally Link would still be too young to drink the old version.
  • Which just raises questions about what is it about that drink that requires such a high age. Especially when to my knowledge it is never even said to be alcoholic. Regarding Riju, she did get taller. She was about half a head shorter than Link in the previous game, but now from what I can tell is slightly taller than him.
  • It probably is alcoholic, but they wouldn't be able to say as such explicitly without raising the age rating and so just had to imply it.
  • It could be simply that a royal title doesn't have much priority for Zelda. Given how humble she is, she's probably more concerned with her research, her personal life and helping out everyone, wherever she can. Given how harsh her life was as a princess prior to the calamity, she may even prefer the lifestyle as a commoner, rather than going back to being royalty.
  • The above explanation is supported by the fact that Zelda has been living in Link's house in Hateno Village, while in Hyrule Castle there are no signs of her having moved back there.
  • It's questionable whether the kingdom of Hyrule even exists anymore. The kingdom was destroyed over a 100 years ago, and ever since then various regions and towns of Hyrule have been self-governing units that work just fine without a higher king/queen above their regional leader. The majority of Hyrulians don't even have any memory of a unified rule, since only among the Zora is there a large number of people who were alive before the Calamity. Considering all this, maybe Zelda doesn't even want to try and restore the kingdom? What right does he have to force her rule on people who have been living without such rule for generations? The reason why everyone still calls her Princess Zelda might be out of tradition, or out of respect for her part in ending the Calamity, not because they still consider her to be their future ruler.
  • The above seems unlikely at least for most Hylians and Sheikah. One reason Phantom Ganon's various actions are as successful as they are is due to how many people take Zelda's word as law and obey her almost without question, so they clearly treat her as being their ruler. Further, Zelda herself seems still attached to her royal status to some degree as she invokes her father's name and title when introducing herself to Rauru and Sonia. Then we have the special ending with the new sages all pledging themselves to her.
  • Depending on the Kingdoms ascendancy requirements it might he that Zelda isn't married yet. Some Kingdoms historically required or had strong preference for married heirs to assure the bloodline would continue. If that's the case Zelda wouldn't officially take the title until she married making her Queen and her husband Queens Consort.

Zelda's Goddess Powers

• So... why can't Zelda use the divine powers she used to finish off Dark Beast Ganon in the last game again? Did they just up and vanish into the aether?
  • She needed Link's help to do that if I recall right, and Ganondorf is more powerful than Dark Beast Ganon.
  • Those powers included, among other things, flight. Would have been fairly helpful there at the beginning.
  • I don't think they vanished, but maybe said powers had been overused during Breath of the Wild, and would take a long time to recover.
  • At the end of Breath of the Wild, she mentions her powers weakened after the final battle with Calamity Ganon. They probably haven't fully recovered by the time she's sent to the past, and when they do come back in the following millenia, she's been turned into a mostly-mindless dragon, and those powers are channeled into powering up the Master Sword.

Ancient Language

• Why do people more than 10,000 years removed from the present day speak any language even remotely recognizable to modern Hylians, let alone the exact same language? That's like going back to the pre-Neolithic era and finding cavemen speaking modern English.
  • The setting has always operated under some form of magic-filled Medieval Stasis, so perhaps just as there is a lack of change in most technology (barring the advanced tech that comes in and out of use but is never available to most people), there is also a lack of change in language.
  • Actually, in one sidequest we see text from the time of the founding of Hyrule, and it's written in an older variety of English (I think it's middle English?), so it's possible that Zelda, being a history afficionado, simply knows the ancient language, and the memories are translated for our (and Link's) convenience. Sure, it's still very little change for over 10000 years, but it's also 10000 years of the same dynasty being in charge.
  • This may actually be a case of lost in translation in the English localization. While it might not be the same in the Japanese localization, in the German localization this is actually played with. The people from the past speak in a very archaic German akin to the language used during the enlightenment period (compare to Shakespearean English). It's implied to be Old Hylian and Zelda (who usually speaks modern German) is even able to adapt to this language and speaks it during most of the memories.

What happened to all of the old Sheikah technology?

• From what I've seen, basically everything to do with the Guardians and Sheikah Shrines has vanished. Even the Shrine of Resurrection is gone, with only a hot spring left in its place (which still does heal Link, but the point remains). While there are traces of the technology in the Skytowers, the Purah Pad, and the Hateno Research Lab, almost everything else is just gone without a trace. So, what happened?
  • Any guardians which had been destroyed at any point over the intervening century and were thus only being held together by Ganons magic disintegrated when he was beaten, along with all the resurrected monsters and skeleton monsters. The rest were disassembled along with the Divine Beasts as while useful they had a known highly exploitable weakness that Ganon could use. Purah and the rest of the Shiekah are in the process of reengineering the old tech to avoid this problem but it's been slow going so far with only the Shiekah Slate having been redesigned thus far. Many of the still usable parts have been reused for projects like the Skyview Towers or are waiting in storage but the cores have had to be scrapped by necessity limiting what can be done.
  • It's likely most of the guidance towers were torn down and used to make the Skytowers. As for the Shrine of Resurrection, considering that there's a hidden Yiga clan base there, it's possible the Yiga destroyed it and other Sheikah technology since they were so key to Link's victory over Calamity Ganon.
  • With the Sheikah towers, it's easy to explain: we see them emerge from the ground at the beginning of Bot W, so presumably they went back down after their purpose was fulfilled, though some of them are tall enough that they should be poking into the Depths if that was the case (unless they collapse like telescopes). The shrines might be the same way: some of them emerge from the ground, while others have seemingly been out in the open for the last ten thousand years. All of them could presumably have gone underground again. As for the guardian remnants, Purah and Robbie still have enough guardian parts in their workshops that it's possible they cannibalized all of them for their own purposes.
  • The Divine Beasts are still missing without explanation, however. Even if they had been disassembled you'd think that such massive machines would still at least have some recognizable parts laying around, and there's no indication that they were buried back underground or anything. It's hard to believe that "massive archaeology nerd" Zelda would just scrap things as ancient, important, and advanced as the Divine Beasts so casually, especially since IIRC both the Rito and Zora literally refer to their respective Divine Beasts as guardian deities of their people. You don't disassemble something like that without a really good reason! And that's assuming they even could destroy them, considering that even the ancient king who wanted them gone forever just had them buried and they survived the subsequent millenia mostly intact.
  • Another theory is that this is result of Zelda traveling back in time at the start of the game and leaving a warning for future generations to not unearth Ancient Sheikah technology at the massive scale they did in the Age of Calamity era in order to prevent Calamity Ganon from ever turning it against the kingdom. Without King Rhoam pushing for it, research on Ancient Sheikah technology instead remained just an archaeological curiosity pursued only by a few enthusiasts like Robbie and Purah who never had the resources dig out more than a few pieces here and there, at least until they were called to build stuff the Skyview Towers and the Purah Pad in recent years.
  • That seems unlikely given everything about Zelda traveling through time is treated as a Stable Time Loop and her focus is entirely on helping Link against Ganondorf, not changing the use of ancient Sheikah technology in ways that would be impossible for her to predict. If she did change it then it would mean somehow Hyrule still endured a hundred years of stalled Calamity, Mipha still died, Link and Zelda still ended up awaking a hundred years later, etc.

How can the Hero from the first calamity 10000 years ago be a zonai?

• The ancient heros aspect armor reveals that the hero from the first calamity was a Zonai. How is this possible when we know that the last surviving zonai (Rauru and Mineru) died during the imprisonment war, which (as it is widely believed) took place before the first calamity?
  • Perhaps he was part Zonai from an earlier intermarriage, and the Zonai characteristics simply showed very strongly in him as some kind of genetic throwback/atavism, but not enough to have him count as a true Zonai? And over time, as the Zonai blood got diluted, such characteristics ceased to be seen in the descendants at all. Outside of Gerudo (who always birth more Gerudo) we don't have much info on what results from interbreeding between Hylians and other peoples. Alternatively there were other surviving Zonai that Ganondorf, Mineru and Rauru were simply not aware of.
  • The Ancient Hero Aspect isn't even fully Zonai. The hero has distinclty non-Zonai ears, it looks more like a hybrid (that weirdly enough, has some Gerudo traits as well). It's likely that it's meant to be some descendant of Sonia and Rauru, perhaps not in the royal line, but still with enough Zonai blood to have some traits from the species.
  • It's possible that Rauru and Mineru were the last surviving "pure-blooded" zonai that weren't a result of mixed marriage, and there were enough half and quarter zonai still around to pass traits down for a few decades after.
  • Do we know how long the Zonai can live? For all we know, this Zonai warrior from the first Calamity was actually their son all grown up.

Ganondorf and Calamity Ganon

• What even is the relationship between Ganondorf and Calamity Ganon? Traditional Zelda lore would logically imply they are the same, but how would one square the backstory for Ganondorf here with Breath of the Wild's story? It seems to be implied that Ganondorf has been in stasis ever since the Imprisoning War, and no direct connection is ever drawn other than their theme music and one mention from Zelda about how the name "Ganondorf" sets off warning bells in her mind. Furthermore Calamity Ganon was claimed to have attacked many times throughout Hyrule's history, while Ganondorf seems to just be all "Well, finally I'm free, time to resume what I was doing immediately before being sealed by that damned Rauru." It really feels like Ganondorf and Calamity Ganon are just entirely separate entities in this world and if so, how are Ganondorf and Calamity Ganon entirely separate entities in this world?
  • Seeing as Calamity Ganon was supposed to be literally made of Malice, it's possible that the Gloom/Malice leaking from Ganondorf's sealed body somehow managed to take on a mind of its own while he was in stasis.
  • Related to this, Calamity Ganon appearing repeatedly would be linked to the Malice leaking from Ganondorf building up enough each time to gain a bit of sentience.
  • Calamity Ganon was also described as mindless, which explains why Ganondorf was not aware of it. It was just Malice taking a monstrous form and acting on its own, without intent from the original Demon King. The people of Hyrule probably named it Ganon because they thought the threat was similar enough as to be related. Like the Blights, it was just a different form of Phantom Ganon.
  • It's stated by Impa to be Ganondorf's Hatred and Malice freeing itself from the depths of the Castle.
  • Short version: Ganondorf was a Sealed Evil in a Can. Said can leaked a bit, and leaked power eventually built up into Calamity Ganon. That's why it's mindlessly trying to destroy Hyrule; it doesn't have a mind of its own, just jumbled bits of Ganondorf's hatred for Hyrule oozing out of the seal.

Where did the sky islands, shrines and geoglyphs come from?

• This may be explained in a sidequest I haven't seen, but doesn't seem touched on in the main story. Rauru does mention the sky Island Link awakens on was on the surface during his time, but doesn't elaborate further. Multiple characters note that the shrines and sky islands appeared seemingly out of nowhere overnight, and there is no sign they emerged from underground like the Sheikah shrines and towers. Were they summoned from another dimension? Were they cloaked in some way from sight? If so then why did Ganondorf waking up reveal them? Perhaps the original sages set all this up to happen, given how many of the sky islands protect their secret stones, but why put them in the sky specifically? That the sky island above the Zora Domain specifically is the source of the waters in the region makes it sound like the island was always there but somehow invisible. As for the geoglyphs, they were made as a consequence of places Zelda's tears fell, but again, what made them become visible only after Ganondorf awoke? Was there some massive cloaking spell that had his awakening as a trigger to turn off?
  • Skyward Sword introduces the concept of the Cloud Barrier, a magical veil obscuring Skyloft from the ground below which looks like a mass of clouds from above but is totally invisible from the surface. It's been a popular fan-theory that the Cloud Barrier was still around at the time of Breath of the Wild, as the three elemental dragons pass through cloudy portals in the sky that look similar to the holes in the Barrier that Link falls through to reach the surface in Skyward Sword. So presumably all the sky islands were just hiding out above the Barrier until they were revealed at the start of Tot K. The Barrier being gone is also supported by the fact that the dragons no longer disappear into cloudy portals like in the last game. It might not be the same exact same Barrier as in Skyward Sword and instead some kind of recreation of it made with Zonai magic, but regardless the effect would be the same.
  • The Shrines are seen in a few quests literally appearing out of thin air via magic, so it's possible that that's how they showed up on the surface.
  • As for why they were revealed... that one's harder to explain. Seeing as Zelda made preparations for helping Link in his fight against Ganondorf, she might have just had things arranged so that all of these things would reappear when the Demon King broke free from his seal.
  • A sidequest explains that the islands were created by Zelda and the Sages after Ganondorf's sealing, in order to safeguard those ruins specifically for Link to use in the present. As explained above, a spell like the cloud barrier was possibly in place, with the condition that it would disappear soon after Ganondorf awakened (since that's when Zelda's knowledge of the future ends). As for the geoglyphs, some offhand NPC comment says they were made by a previous person or people who saw the contents of the dragon tears. It's never explained why they were not visible in the previous game.
  • When Zelda created the dragon tears, she probably included some kind of spell which would make them visible to Link only after she had travelled to the past. If Link or Zelda herself would have found them in the present day, before Ganon's awakening and her time travel, they would've had knowledge of what happens with Ganon and with her before it actually happens, and they might've wanted to try and stop it from happening. Being the Sage of Time, she probably knew this could create some dangerous time paradoxes, so she created a spell to ensure neither Link nor her past self would find the tears before the time was right. And if the geoglyphs were created later by some other person, the spell probably affected them too, so that they wouldn't help anyone find the tears too early.
  • Even if Zelda didn't know that the tears were a thing that was going to happen, the geoglyphs could have been both marked and hidden by people who took part in Zelda's plan to aid Link from the distant past. They just decided that they should also leave these memories for Link to discover when the time was right, presumably linking whatever spell was keeping them hidden to the same trigger as the one hiding the islands.

Why raise the castle?

• Is it ever explained why Ganondorf levitated Hyrule Castle after awakening? It seemed a superflous addition to Phantom Ganon's whole "create distractions for Link" plan given Ganondorf assumed Link was going to die from his initial injuries anyway. Not to mention how the castle somehow continues to levitate even after Ganondorf dies.
  • It's not levitating, but being supported by a pillar of stone that is possibly where the original final boss fight is stored inside of.
  • Ganondorf's whole initial plan was basically "become King of Hyrule"; it's possible he did so to claim the castle for himself and as a taunt to the current rulers of Hyrule, unaware that there was no royalty actively inhabiting the castle at the time since Zelda was living with Link.
  • Raising the castle has a huge strategic benefit to Ganondorf—it keeps the dang place out of Link's reach! It seems to be a deliberate contrast that rushing straight to the final boss is significantly harder to achieve this time, mostly by virtue of the castle being so inaccessibly high up and remote in the early game—and that's exactly what Ganondorf wants. For all its stature, Calamity Ganon was potentially able to be defeated by a naked 100-year-old gremlin teenager with nearly no health and paltry armament. Ganondorf is also said to be biding his energy late in the story. And if he's not at full power and is in a world where it's possible for the hero to defeat you with nothing but unhinged nigh-suicidal determination...he needs to get out of the gremlin man's reach for his own sake!
  • Except... there's nothing at the castle that Link or Ganondorf really need. It's not like Ganondorf himself is there, he's inside the chasm that was opened by his lifting of the castle. What would have made it harder for Link to reach him would be exactly the opposite, leaving the castle where it was, which would force Link to go through the entirety of the secret tunnels under the castle, rather than just the tailend of them.
  • The castle is part of the seal keeping Ganondorf in check. Ripping it out of the ground is necessary for Ganondorf to break free and makes it easier for him to spread his Gloom.
    • To explain the above in more detail, there is a stone tablet in the Royal Hidden Passage that explains Hyrule Castle was built in order to protect the site where Ganondorf was sealed. How exactly it does this is not entirely clear, but Ganondorf's profile states that damage to the castle during the previous Calamity is what caused Rauru's seal to weaken and eventually fail completely. Course given he was freed of the seal before he raised the castle, it still leaves the question of why Ganondorf did it, but perhaps the castle was still having some kind of negative effect on him, or he was just petty enough to want the former hindrance moved out of the way with no further goal in mind.
  • Alternatively, the castle is a deliberate red herring. Ganondorf knew that raising the castle would give Link a point of interest, with its intrigue only compunded by it inaccessibility, making it the perfect trap. Ganondorf made the castle seem like an important place to reach in order to set up an elaborate ambush with Phantom Ganon.

Why is Zelda impressed by a camera?

• In the prologue, Zelda is impressed by how easily the Purah Pad records images, citing that she simply has to point and shoot. But this is the same Zelda from Breath of the Wild and we know she has used a camera before because she took the pictures from the "Captured Memories" quest. I get that she's supposed to be impressed by the Purah Pad as a whole, but why praise a camera for working exactly the same way as the camera you used to own?
  • It's probably more that Purah successfully replicated a piece of ancient technology. We didn't see what Purah's previous attempts looked like; this is probably a huge upgrade in functionality and ease of use, which as a scientist and an engineer, Zelda appreciates.
  • This is the most likely case. Purah not only replicated ancient lost tech, but successfully iterated on it. It may also be that the Purah Pad is ACTUALLY faster/easier/better than the old camera, but, for gameplay reasons, we didn't see the technical side (for example, the Purah Pad may instantly process the camera data into a usable form, instead of requiring an additional connected piece of equipment).
  • On a meta level, it's just expository dialogue meant to inform the player of the camera function of the Purah Pad. That's it.

Blood Moon and the Zonai constructs

• As in the previous game, the Blood Moon is used as an in-game explanation for enemies respawning. However, the Blood Moon is explicitly said to be Ganon's creation, bringing his dead minions back to life. So why does it also affect the Zonai robots, which have nothing to do with Ganon?
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation. Same reason it respawned Sheikah tech enemies in the previous game, even the ones inside Shrines, which were never corrupted in the first place. The game needs to respawn those enemies somehow, and throwing an entire different game mechanic just for them would be too much.
  • The Constructs defend their territory, even if they're defending it from Link. If Link happens to fight and defeat some Constructs, they would be among the "dead", and even though they don't serve Ganon, and can even fight some of his minions, maybe the fact that they fought Link would be grounds enough to bring them back— to try and fight and defeat the hero again.
  • An ancient Hyrulean stone tablet deciphered by Wortsworth explains that Zonai shrines were built to stop the revival of monsters, meaning that they were active in the distant past long before Link came into the picture. This is reinforced in the memory with Ganondorf attacking Hyrule with Moldugas, where a shrine and the original Temple of Time can be seen in the background since the scene takes place before the latter was lifted into the sky. A possible explanation is that the shrines don't necessarily stop monsters directly, but purposefully revive Constructs so when monsters are resurrected, so are the anti-monster Constructs to keep them at bay.
  • It doesn't. The constructs do eventually respawn, but this is not tied to the blood moon.

Blood Moon and skeletons

• If the Blood Moon resurrects monsters, why are there undead skeletons walking around? Shouldn't they also be revived as living monsters?
  • It's possible that the Blood Moon is just reviving the same monsters as they originally existed over and over again, meaning if an enemy was already undead thousands of years ago, it would be revived as a Stalkoblin, or if it was alive, it would stay a living Bokoblin/Lizalfos/etc. every time it is revived. Ignoring gameplay reasons, any differences to monsters in an area like blue, black, and silver enemies or entirely new species of monsters could be attributed to Ganondorf choosing to use his magic to empower his monsters or relocate his forces to make things more challenging for Link.

Why does the Master Sword still "run out of energy" in this game?

• It is no longer justified by the sword being in a weakened state and needing to recharge.
  • It's possible that the Master Sword has never fully recovered from its wear and tear from BotW and this game especially, it can surely dish out the damage it needs to, but because it has been chipped and even destroyed, even the legendary sword needs to recover.
  • You mean that 10,000 plus year restoration wasn't enough? Or perhaps as the Gloom is still around, it needs the time to recover its power. Also the Master Sword would also absorb the material which was fused to it as part of it.
  • Maybe it's saving its strength for Ganondorf?
  • Or perhaps even more alternatively, the power it stored into itself was so great that it basically causes the Master Sword to not be able to contain it, like it's too overcharged. So instead, it explodes from the sheer amount of power it now has.
  • The Deku Tree says the Master Sword had fully recovered since Breath of the Wild, but that was before it got wrecked again by the gloom. Presumably, even after all the time it spent recovering from that, it’s still not at peak strength.
  • More than likely it's a full on case of Gameplay and Story Segregation. They wanted to maintain the loop of constantly rotating weapons, and wanted to explain why you can fuse things with the Master Sword. The breaking is likely to justify attaching different parts to it again and again.

Are there parallel timelines or not?

• According to Hyrule Historia, parallel timelines and the concept of the multiverse applies to the Zelda games, so when a time traveler alters the past, it doesn't change the timeline the time traveller came from, but instead creates a new timeline where the past was always the altered one. And Age of Calamity confirms that this applies specifically to the Breath of the Wild universe, if you consider it to be different from the universe of the previous Zelda games. In AoC, when Terrako travels back in time and changes the past so that Ganon is defeated 100 years earlier, it doesn't change the events of BotW. Instead there's a new timeline where the war was won a 100 years ago, and the BotW timeline remains as seen in that game. However, in Tears of the Kingdom Zelda travelling to the past and changing the past events directly alters her own timeline, as the changes (Zelda being of one of the Sages, her becoming a dragon and creating the tears/geoglyphs, healing the Master Sword and giving it back to Link, etc.) can be witnessed by Link in the present day. If the rules of parallel timelines applied here, her time travel should've created a new timeline where those changes were witnessed by the Link of that timeline, but the Link in her original timeline (i.e. the player character) would not see the geoglyphs or get the Master Sword from her dragon form, as they should not even appear there. So why is there such a discrepancy on how time travel works in this game when compared to the previous games?
  • Zelda has always played fast and loose with time travel rules, with each game following its own rules, and some times implementing more than one paradigm. Ocarina of Time had both the split timelines and You Already Changed the Past in place, for example, even though they both can't be true at the same time. As things go, this game is more consistent than the norm when seen on its own, working entirely on the You Already Changed the Past paradigm.
  • It's best to consider each game as entirely self-contained unless directly indicated otherwise in the game itself (Wind Waker for example). It's doubtful the writers took any great pains to follow the series timeline(s), such as it is, beyond passing references. The Hyrule Historia seems to just be a production notes type of thing and not a Universe Bible.
  • There were at one point. Then Hylia, the goddess of time and light, merged them back together at some point creating a new unified timeline with only some minor anachronisms.
  • If that's the case, why does Age of Calamity show a parallel timeline that was created by someone travelling to the past and changing it?
  • The easiest answer is probably that not every instance of time travel works the same way. Here it's repeatedly indicated some higher power was at work, that there was a "reason" Zelda time traveled when and where she did. We find that reason was to provide our Link the means to slay Ganondorf, and that can't happen if a parallel universe is created.

Why have so many so many NPCs forgotten about Link?

• Link in the previous game was a big hero who saved a whole bunch of people from the threat of the Divine Beasts and Calamity Ganon. However, in this game only a handful of NPCs he met in BotW seem remember him, while many others have forgotten about him altogether. It doesn't seem to be a case of Cutting Off the Branches either, because the game clearly assumes, for example, that the Tarrey Town sidequest in the previous game happened, as all of the people Link invited there are still living in the town... But for some reason most of them don't seem to remember Link at all.
  • Maybe it's some kind of running gag that, to a lot of people in Hyrule, Link is just not that memorable a face? Even a lot of people who recognize him seem to take a moment to do so (i.e. instead of saying "hello Link," or some such they will pause and then exclaim "oh, it's you").
  • Link keeps turning up in outlandish costumes. Last time they met him he was decked out in a flame resistant armor with a face enclosing helmet. This time he rocks up sporting a long fringed wig and lipstick. Is sometimes hard to get your head around the world saving hero of the Wild isn't some impressive towering knight but it's the guy that's currently crouched over, grunting like a bokoblin, wearing a homemade big-headed mask.
  • This is somewhat supported by Malena, the Gerudo who requests Gleeok Guts to save her husband. While talking to her, she does mention having been helped by a traveler in the past, referencing Link's actions in acquiring Molduga Guts for her in Breath of the Wild. However, the only way for Link to meet Malena in that game is within Gerudo Town, meaning he had to have been wearing the Gerudo vai disguise to activate the quest. From her perspective, that traveler was female even if the player chose to share Link's name in a dialogue option. While she does comment that it's a "sturdy voe name", she may use that name for a future "vehvi" (implied to be Gerudo for "baby") regardless, so generally she has little reason to suspect her new male helper is the same person. It doesn't fully explain why characters outside of Gerudo Town don't recognize Link but it's entirely possible that he switched outfits far more frequently than the player assumes, thus contributing to the lack of recognition.
  • In the case of Tarrey Town, Hudson and Rhondson recognize him after a delay and say it’s been a while since he’s been there. But to most of the other villagers, he’s just a guy who recommended that they move there to live. Overall, it does seem like a case of Cutting Off the Branches; the characters who still know or remember Link are limited to the New Champions, the Sheikah, some of the Zoras, Hudson and Rhondson, one of the Great Fairies (presumably he helped all four canonically, but it’s only the one who’s attracted to him that remembers him well enough), Master Kohga, and the stable workers.
  • Cutting Off the Branches doesn't really explain it though, because the way things are in TotK, Link clearly did do some of the sidequests in BotW, but some of the people involved in them don't remember Link, even though they have every reason to do so. For example, as mentioned above, the full Tarrey Town chain of sidequests must have happened as seen in BotW, because Rhondson and Hudson are married in TotK, and they do remember Link. But for the Tarrey Town subplot to reach that conclusion in BotW, Link must have several interactions with Bolson, who takes a liking to Link, giving him some fatherly advice along the way. However, for some inexplicable reason Bolson in TotK doesn't seem to know Link at all. Similarly, in Gerudo Town in TotK we can meet Perda and Wabbin, who are married and have a child. That must mean that the Lover's Pond sidequest in BotW did happen, with Link providing the two great assistance so that they were able to woo each other and become a couple. You'd think they would remember the person without whom they wouldn't haven't gotten together, but neither of them seems to recognise Link.
    • Methinks you’re overselling Bolson’s significance a little bit. He’s just a guy who Link bought a house from, and he may be easygoing and friendly toward him, but he’s probably like that with everybody. And Perda and Wabbin could well have gotten together eventually without Link’s help.
    • There was nothing about Link's interaction with Bolson in this game that made me think Bolson didn't remember him. Bolson's a great, memorable character to us, but in BOTW he was just doing what he does every day.
  • There's a reason "Link is Tony Hawk" became a meme. Everyone remembers Link, but it's hard to match up the hero who saved the world from a hundred years of darkness with the short weirdo in front of you. Even some of the Sheikah seem to forget about Link every once in a while; they'll mention he was always with Zelda, and that they had conversations with Zelda, and then fail to remember he was there. Apparently he just has a bland face.
  • If we're feeling more humorous, it could also be chalked up Link (or the player's penchant for unusual armors). Given how many different sets there are, it's possible that Link looks totally different in TOTK than he did in BOTW.
    • I think it's a combination of the outfits and that Link just doesn't fully explain what he's doing to most people. In cutscenes, when Link is out doing *serious business* with Zelda, he's always wearing the Champion's Tunic, but who's wearing that for the whole game? As soon as Zelda disappears, Link takes the opportunity to become a fashionista. And on top of that, he's not going around and telling everyone he meets that he's trying to save Hyrule. He just does stuff and if people ask him specifically about something he'll tell them the information he's learned. So, people probably remember that one soldier who's always following Princess Zelda around, but there's no way they'd make the connection that that's the same person in front of them dressed in dyed-pink Froggy Armor.

So... Are the amiibo items canon?

• In Breath of the Wild, the items exclusive to amiibo were just fun little extras that came with the amiibo. In Tears, however, they can actually be found throughout the world either by exploring or through various sidequests. This begs the question; are they canon? Should they be treated as canon? By far the oddest thing this causes is there being a second Goddess Sword in canon now.
  • It's in a game of a sequel that soft-rebooted the franchise, sure. I mean it doesn't really matter. We had to split the previous games into three timelines for it to sorta make sense...with caveats. I think people should accept that Nintendo never has had a solid intention to create a linking timeline but really liked referencing previous titles. Hell BotW and TotK conflict and it's the direct sequel.
  • Why couldn't there be multiples? Most weapons in the game have duplicates. There are Knight's Broadswords all over the place and you can even buy duplicates of a lot of the "unique" weapons from Bargainer Statues. Isha can turn any Gerudo Scimitar into the Scimitar of the Seven with the right materials and the Mother Goddess Statue can make the White Sword of the Sky from three dragon claws. She could have definitely made other ones before.

About the Light Dragon and Master Sword...

• So. The Light Dragon has the Master Sword that was sent into the past. We know that it's had it for at least 10,000 years. Does this mean that in various points of history, there were two Master Swords present in a given era? Could (a) Link dual wield Master Swords?
  • In theory yes, but the Light Dragon wasn't present in BotW and there was no easy way to land on a dragon's head to find a random sword embedded into it's skull, made it rather unlikely. Although I do wonder how many people figured out they could land on dragons before figuring out where the Master Sword was and potentially found it before they were meant to.
  • My assumption was the Light Dragon was there all along but nobody knew about her because she stayed in the part of the sky that magically camouflaged the sky islands. Only when that barrier came down could she be seen and she began moving closer to the ground.
  • Even though the sword would probably accept to be dual-wielded by any given hero, it's likely that draconified Zelda's lingering conscience would not allow anyone other than her Link to take it out (the dragon already struggled to allow the correct Link to get the sword, if he tries to remove it ahead of time). Despite Mineru saying a dragon loses its mind, the Light Dragon seemed to still have some of Zelda in it.

What Happened to the Bird?

• Is there a reason as to why Kass doesn't physically appear in this game? He's only mentioned by some NPCs and that's it.
  • Nintendo either failed to realize how conspicuous it would be to replace Kass with Penn and never include him, or they're saving him for a DLC appearance.
  • Since Yona is said to be from "another settlement of Zora" when there aren't any in-game, there's clearly locations outside of the currently-explorable map. Maybe he went to some far-off land to seek out new songs and legends?
  • There are indeed locations outside the currently explorable map, since you can see them with your own eyes beyond the western and northern edge of the map, the game just doesn't allow you to go there. Hyrule is obviously not a full continent, merely the southeastern part of a larger landmass.
  • From and out-of-universe perspective, considering nintendo also made a point of removing the gerudo outfit, it's likely they were concerned about both being elements of the previous game that were heavily sexualized by fans.
  • Is that implying that Kass was too sexual to return in Tears of the Kingdom?
  • It can't be a matter of Kass being "too sexual"; Zelda, Sidon, and other commonly-sexualized characters returned in this game, AND Purah was given a Hotter and Sexier adult design as well. Kass wasn't even the most sexualized BOTW character by a long shot. Likely his absence is one of the above-listed reasons: They didn't have a reason to include him, weren't aware of how popular he was, or are saving him for a DLC appearance.
    • The Gerudo outfit being gone is also a consequence of it not serving a purpose anymore; the aspect of needing to disguise as a woman was removed, and the Voe armor set handles reducing damage from desert heat better anyway. Short of including it as an optional cosmetic set (which might be being saved for DLC; remember how BOTW had multiple cosmetic DLC outfits), it has no use anymore and was likely removed for being redundant.

Why is the Light Dragon present before the Master Sword disappears?

• The whole purpose of the intro segment is that Link sends the sword to Zelda in the distant past, after which she becomes the dragon, meaning the emergence of the dragon from the clouds signifies the sword has returned with Zelda as well...but she's already clearly there as the Light Dragon before Link unwittingly sends the sword back in time. What's going on? Is the implication that a time loop already happened without the Sword, thus requiring Link to rectify it by sending the Sword back and undoing the version of events where Zelda draconified for nothing?
  • A time loop is indeed in effect, meaning that the Light Dragon already has the Master Sword in its head before the sword is sent back. There's no version of events where the sword is not sent back, it's all a time loop with no changes made to the past by time travellers. You Already Changed the Past is in full effect.
  • In the final dungeon under Hyrule Castle, Link comes across the chamber where Ganondorf was imprisoned in the intro. An ancient mural was featured prominently there, but the last portion of it was covered by rubble. Using bombs, Link can destroy this rubble, and uncover the mural, which, importantly, depicts Zelda receiving the Master Sword and subsequently transforming into a dragon. This event was fated to happen.

Giant Horses

• From a game development and in-universe standpoint, why is it that the two giant horses still can’t be equipped with different gear, not even towing harnesses? The stables all say they don’t have gear that would fit those horses, but why can’t they just take some measurements and make custom gear, like they do when the horses are registered?
  • Doylist: They didn't want the extra work having to fit and test the different equipment on those horses. They're different models, unlike the regular horses, so it's not just a matter of moving around some numbers. Specially since they also have slightly different mechanics going on, so towing specially would come with its own set of challenges.
  • Watsonian: The stables only have so much material to spend. They're willing to give you a special saddle and bridle fit for those horses when you acquire them, but they're not willing to adapt every special set to two unique horses, making the equipment useless for anyone else.

Wind Sage lineage

• I've seen people refer to Teba as a decedent of the Wind Sage because his son Tulin is, but I don't recall any dialogue mentioning that Teba was decedent from them, only Tulin. Teba may be a great warrior, but so was Revali and he wasn't related to the Wind Sage (that we know of). It's possible the Sage powers comes from Saki's side of the family just as much as Teba's. So is this people assuming Lineage Comes from the Father or did I miss something?
  • It's mostly because in Breath of the Wild, Teba was the one to help Link get on Vah Medoh, which is a parallel to how Riju, Yunobo, and Sidon also helped him with the Divine Beasts. Since the other three are descendants of the sages, it seems reasonable to assume that Teba is also a descendant.
  • Given the small size of the Rito community and how much time has passed, it's possible that *everyone* in Rito Village could draw a line of ancestry to the Wind Sage.

A second master sword

• So all throughout BOTW, a second time-displaced master sword has been present in the head of the light dragon, in addition to the one in Kokiri forest. The great deku tree has the ability to sense the location of the master sword - something he does immediately, without any visible or implied effort or cost. So for 100 years, while up against an enemy that managed to hijack shiekah tech explicitly designed to fight against it, he never once thought: 'Hey, this thing is pretty important, maybe I should turn my master sword sense on for just a moment and make absolutely sure the one in front of me is the real deal and not a fake, just in case... Wait, why are there two of them?'
  • There's no reason for him to suspect that the Master Sword can be stolen in front of him given the amount of strength (hearts) required to pull it, or that there should only be one sword. Even if he can detect two of them, he wouldn't need to question it for too long since the second sword would've existed for thousands of years and eventually become a normal part of the world. If he did question it and sent a Korok, a Hylian, or even the Ancient Hero himself to investigate, he would've eventually learned its tragic origins and probably stayed quiet about it until the time was right. We don't know exactly when the sword finished healing itself, it could've still been damaged during the time of the Calamity.
  • Maybe his sensing ability works in a way where things are easier to sense when they're close by. If that's the case, any time he tried to sense the Master Sword, it would immediately register as being right in front of him, so he wouldn't bother looking further away.
  • It's also possible that the sword could've been out of range entirely; it's theorized elsewhere that the Light Dragon remained in the Depths during most of the intervening years and only emerged during the Upheaval. There's no indication whether the Deku tree can sense anything down there, so it's possible that he couldn't.
  • What’s more, Fi might have been able to keep the Master Sword off the Deku Tree’s radar until it was recovered from the damage it had sustained. We know telepathy is one of her powers, so that could be what the Deku Tree uses to keep track of where the sword is.

Riju's technique

• Thing Riju cannot do: hit a stationary, human-sized training dummy with her lightning without any distractions. Things Riju can do: track and hit a swift-moving arrow significantly smaller than that target at the moment of impact in the heat of combat. Exactly how is Link 'assisting' her, and why is that somehow easier for her? I'd accept that the arrowhead is conductive, except for the fact that 1: the game never brings this up as the reason, the reason given is 'she needs practice' and 2: There is a mechanic in the game for conductive materials attracting lightning in thunderstorms, and arrows are a notable exception that DO NOT attract lightning. Especially egregious in the defence of gerudo town segment, which while a fun quest, features her standing in the centre of town while Link uses her technique to destroy hives from a distance where his arrows couldn't possibly be helping her aim, being obscured by the walls of the town, and where a number of her troops are present and actively using weapons that DO conduct lightning during thunderstorms.
  • It's probably that she's just able to concentrate better when she knows she has Link working alongside her. In Breath of the Wild, Mipha implied that she would channel her healing powers better by focusing on how she felt about Link, and Zelda’s powers turned out to work the same way. Since Riju clearly likes Link as well, it's not a stretch that her lightning might work that way, too.
  • I imagined it as Riju focusing and "locking onto" Link's arrow the moment he activates her power, and that allowing her to hit the arrow even after he looses it.
  • It still doesn't make sense, though, that she would be able to lock onto small, fast-moving objects like arrows but not onto bigger objects like monsters or her practice dummies.
  • This doesn’t really answer the question, but past a certain point, Riju likely doesn’t need the arrow trick to channel her lightning. She just continues to use it that way in cases where Link needs to use her power, because that’s simpler than having to program a separate way to direct her after the arrows served their narrative purpose. Gameplay and Story Segregation, basically.
  • Riju could have given Link's arrows an opposite charge from her lightning strikes, causing them to attract, but we're not really shown Riju doing anything to Link's arrows.

Thief of shirts

• Where did Link's shirt go in between defeating Ganondorf and his sudden spiritual experience with the ghosts to cure Zelda? Did Rauru steal it?
  • More likely an out-of-universe mechanic so we'd see Link's right arm growing back. I'd advise testing the scene with tops that don't obscure his right arm like the Archaic Tunic and see if it stays.
  • Just beat the game wearing the Archaic Tunic. Can confirm that he still loses his shirt.

Sage Avatars

• Why do the Sages develop this ability? They have nothing to do with Wind, Fire, Water, or Lightning.
  • They develop the ability specifically to aid Link. The secret stones don't grant new elemental powers; they merely amplify the extraordinary abilities the Sages already have. It's not a stretch to believe amplification can manifest as allowing them to copy themselves with astral projections, and the Sages decide these avatars should stand at Link's side to help.

Did Pondo die?

• Pondo's lodge has been wrecked by the upheaval and he's nowhere to be seen. Was he killed by the destruction of his lodge?
  • Pondo is alive and can be seen riding on a pink horse either at Snowfield Stable or close by on the western trail, depending on the time of day and his schedule.

Dragon Immortality

• If swallowing a secret stone to undergo the forbidden act of draconification turns the user into an immortal dragon, how is it that the Demon Dragon can be slain? Did Ganondorf's draconification just happen to create weak spots exploitable by the Master Sword, unlike the other known dragons that have no weak spots and only shed rare materials upon being struck? Does the definition of immortality mean that the dragons are ageless and can actually be slain with sufficient external force?
  • Dragons are immortal in the old sense of not falling to age or disease. Given Dragons are otherwise considered divine it's unlikely anyone has previously made a serious attempt to kill one.
  • We can find three sets of skeletons in the Depths that look a lot like the secret stone-made dragons, so it would seem they can be killed, it's just extremely difficult to do so.
  • Immortality comes in many forms, from being completely incapable of dying to anything, to simply being immune to causes of natural death like old age. Ordinarily, the Demon Dragon would have likely been given Complete Immortality if he had swallowed his stone while unhurt, and then become entirely undefeatable... but given that he does it after fighting Link for an extended period and losing in both phases of the fight, the wounds on his body don't get healed when he transforms. Hence why they become massive weakpoints - Ganondorf only transformed into a monster, he didn't actually do anything to recover from the fight.
  • It could also be a case of Gameplay and Story Segregation, where the other dragons are supposed to have weak points that could allow you to kill them, but the game just doesn’t give you the option to exploit them. Sort of like how attacking harmless NPCs doesn’t actually hurt them even though it should.

Secret Stone

• What would have happened if Link had obtained a Secret Stone?
  • Probably nothing. It's explicitly said the Stones don't give their wielder any new supernatural powers rather than enhance the ones they already had, and Link is never shown to have any such power.
  • If he did get one it might enhance his ability to slow time.
  • Age of Calamity shows that other characters can go into Flurry Rush too. So the Bullet Time effect doesn't seem to be a supernatural ability Link has, rather than a mechanic that makes the quick reflexes he and other characters possess a practical part of gameplay.
  • This specific Link is portrayed, again and again, as being exceptional among other Hylians. The Secret Stone would probably just enhance these exceptional combat traits, which may include the Flurry Rush and slow down aiming (those are not time manipulation, though, in one of the diaries in Breath of the Wild we learn that this is actually just Link's keen senses making the world seem like it's slowing down, and despite Age of Calamity giving this ability to every character, Daruk doesn't seem to recognise that as a thing he can do too).
  • If we go by Zelda being the Sage of Time, Link, because he wields the Master Sword aka The Sword that Seals the Darkness, would be the new Sage of Light, like Rauru before him.

The wrong kind of Gleeok heat

• Why do Flame Gleeoks, who are representative of the fire element, create the "extreme heat" climate effect instead of the "flame" climate effect? It doesn't make much sense for their designated weather-immunity armor to be the Desert Voe set instead of the Flamebreaker one.
  • They’re heating the air around them, but they aren’t burning the air and setting it aflame. Compare Dinraal, who does require the Fireproof effect to approach safely. She creates visible flame from her presence unlike Flame Gleeoks who have to produce fire from their breath.

The fourth memory's POV

• Looking at all memories as part of the Dragon Tears quest, it becomes evident that all memories are from Zelda's point of view since she's the Light Dragon and the one who shed the tears. But if so, why do we see Ganondorf launch the Molduga attack and hear his reaction ? Zelda couldn't possibly hear him and she clearly encounters him for the first time in the next memory.
  • Just as all the memories are depicted as us watching the characters (including Zelda) from a third person viewpoint, and depicts them speaking the same as the modern people of Hyrule (as opposed to the old English used when reading texts from the time), one can presume the memories Link sees and what we the viewer see are not necessarily identical, with many extra details and perspectives added for the sake of the viewer that Link likely did not see or hear.
  • Also, remember, Breath of the Wild established that the Master Sword can both communicate telepathically and convey memories to Link of events that he wasn’t present (or conscious) for. And if you go further back, Skyward Sword showed us that Fi was able to manifest in Link’s dreams. If you combine these ideas, maybe Fi was able to provide an alternate viewpoint of the events shown in Zelda’s memories whenever Link went to view them?

Blood of a Hero, Soul of a Goddess

• Why aren't there any incarnations of Link and Zelda during the Imprisoning War? There have been some people who argue that this may be in a world where Demise's curse didn't exist, but it's pretty explicitly referenced in Breath of the Wild, plus we see the Link from 10,000 years ago.
  • Demise's curse was "Blood of the Goddess and Spirit of the Hero", so it is possible that Sonia and Rauru were filling those roles.
  • Link and Zelda don’t always manifest whenever Ganondorf does. There was no Link during Ganondorf’s return in the backstory of The Wind Waker.
    • Except there was an actual reason for that; Link being sent back in time at the end of Ocarina of Time removed his spirit from the adult timeline. There was no incarnation of Link because he literally didn't exist in that continuity anymore. There is no such explanation as to how why he didn't show up here.
  • Demise's curse is kind of a poorly thought out retcon that doesn't quite fit series comtinuity. The original Imprisonment War is one event where Ganon reappeared without a corresponding Link to fight him, and this one is a "remix" of the original, so they wanted to keep the theme of the Sages having to barely be able to hold on without a hero.

How did the Sages get Down There?

• In the final dungeon, the sages make their way down to help Link, but how? They don't have paragliders. Tulin can fly, but if you didn't finish his quest presumably the others will still show up.
  • Yunobo was able to dive into the Depths from the peak of Death Mountain to get to the Fire Temple. And he’s used Daruk’s Protection to survive being shot out of cannons in the last game, so he’d probably be fine. It’s possible Riju was light enough for Tulin to carry her down there, or she and Sidon just used paragliders or a hot-air balloon. Purah tells you she’ll have the sages ready to assist you when needed, so she would’ve been able to prepare a means for them to get down there in advance.
  • Alternately, Mineru carried some or all of them. Riding her construct makes you immune to fall damage.

Moldugas in Memory Four

• As I understand it, Ganondorf gained the power to create an army of monsters once he became the Demon King. However, the Molduga attack predates that event, so did Ganondorf have the ability to create them before obtaining that power, or are Moldugas wild animals that he managed to weaponize?
  • Definitely wild. The lore we see in side missions say monsters existed long before Ganondorf came to power, so some were probably wandering the desert.
  • Also, Ganondorf did have some power before stealing a secret stone — since he was able to create an evil imposter of Zelda. And in Ocarina of Time, he created three powerful monsters to plague the ones who held the Spiritual Stones before getting his hands on the Triforce of Power, so it’s not technically out of the question that he would be able to create some Moldugas.
  • Supporting the above further is the fact that Secret Stones are stated to not give their bearers any new powers, they only enhance powers they already possess. Of course, that doesn't prove Ganondorf created those Molduga, in BOTW it's stated monsters existed even when Calamity Ganon was not present, Ganon's imminent awakening merely causes existing monsters to increase in number. In wider Zelda lore monsters originated ultimately from Demise, and so they may not need a Ganondorf incarnation to keep existing. Ganondorf's blood moon powers are also specified to not be creating monsters but rather giving flesh to monster souls who died in the past.
  • There aren't any Molduga in the Depths, either. It seems pretty likely that they aren't creations of Ganondorf.

Twinkle in the Sky

• How did Master Kohga disappear as A Twinkle in the Sky after his final defeat? This takes place inside a chasm directly inside of a cave, so we should have at least heard him smashing through the roof of it before the twinkle.
  • Toon Physics. Master Kohga is an inherently goofy character so they just skipped him smashing through the roof.
  • Maybe the twinkle was just him being plowed into the ceiling and then the rockets fading out. It’s not as if you could see or hear him smashing out of the cave from that far down, or that those rockets would be powerful enough for that, anyway.

Why would the Yiga just stop attacking?

• If you're out and about, sometimes you'll get ambushed by a Yiga member. But if you change into the Yiga Clan outfit right then and there, they just stop. Do they not just see their sworn enemy don their own uniform right before their eyes?
  • Maybe they figure you’re actually one of their own and were simply disguised as Link. They are dumb enough not to verify their members despite knowing that Link infiltrated the hideouts where their costumes were being made, so you can’t really put it past them. And loyalty to the Clan is pretty important to them, so they could just be trying to play it safe.

Why would the Sheikah tech stop working just because the Calamity was gone?

• That’s the most commonly given explanation as to the absence of all that technology, but we saw that the Sheikah Slate was already functional before Calamity Ganon made its return, and even though that form of Ganon is gone, Ganondorf himself was still sealed underneath the castle. So why would the technology have sensed one but not the other?
  • The claim that all the Sheikah tech just stopped working is based on the fact that Vah Ruta is stated to have gone dormant in the ending of Breath of the Wild, and people just extrapolated from that to provide an explanation for why there's no Sheikah tech in Tears. The fact of the matter is just that there isn't really a clean and consistent Watsonian explanation for why most of the Sheikah tech would have stopped working, but people want one for consistency's sake so they grasp at straws to try and make their own explanations even though they're imperfect. Vah Ruta going dormant was probably just because the spirits of its pilot was no longer present and the other Divine beasts would likely follow suit, but there isn't really a logical reason for all the rest of it vanishing.
• I could swear it was mentioned in Breath of the Wild that the Sheikah Slate becoming functional was taken as a sign that Calamity Ganon was going to return soon, and from that fans extrapolated that the slate must be nonfunctional outside of those circumstances (and in turn the rest of the ancient Shiekah tech). Yet, I do not recall where to find this information so it may be off.

Penn's takeoffs

• It's specifically stated that Rito need an updraft of some kind to take off quickly, it's the entire reason why Revali developed his Gale. But Penn is seen repeatedly taking off from a standstill with no run-up or updrafts.
  • Penn is a better flier than Revali confirmed.
  • A number of Rito (including, I think, Genli after you first talk to her and her siblings) are shown taking to the air without any obvious updraft happening, so perhaps this limitation of the Rito has been retconned away? I haven't seen any Rito in Tears saying it beyond noting they use their power over the wind to help them fly (with Tulin being the best at it of the current Rito).
  • Rather than a retcon, it’s possible that Revali’s Gale was the best method of generating lift for takeoff, but it wasn’t necessarily the only one. It makes sense that each of the Rito would try to develop their own way of coping with such a disadvantage, and that Revali simply wanted his to surpass any other due to his prideful nature.
  • The Zora also seem to all have water purifying powers not that visually different from Mipha's healing, so it seems like the Champions’ abilities were all changed from unique or hereditary things, and just became regular abilities of each species, which the Champions just happened to excel at.

The voice(s) of the Lomei labyrinths

• What are the voices that address Link in the Lomei labyrinths? They speak with the same Zonai text as the Shrines of Light, but could they really just be more messages left by Rauru? The Hebra one calls itself "ruler of owls", the Akkala one calls itself "ruler of dragons", and the Gerudo one calls itself "ruler of boars". Each voice tests Link's wisdom (navigating the labyrinth), courage (diving into the Depths from the Sky), and power (defeating a Flux Construct III), so there's some sort of Triforce connection there too. What could it be?
  • It could be the unnamed Zonai hero represented in the Ancient Hero's Aspect armor. He's the only other Zonai we know besides Rauru and Mineru, and his armor bears three faces on the waist: a dragon (eyelashes and pointed snout), an owl (eyebrows and beak), and a boar (tusks and round snout).
    • Odd that he would refer to himself as the ruler of three separate beasts at three separate times, but still very possible.
  • Note: Those three animals each have traditional roles in the Zelda franchise too. Owls are often tutorial mentors (i.e. Kaepora Gaebora and the Owl), dragons are often deities in need of Link's help (i.e. Valoo, Naydra, and the three Skyward Sword dragons), and boars are enemies aligned with Ganon (i.e. the Bullbos and Dark Beast Ganon). This indicates that owls represent wisdom, dragons represent courage, and boars represent power.
  • Boar, owl and dragon imagery appears in a lot of Zonai stuff and the power/wisdom/courage association is well-known (which is why a lot of fans called them "Triforce worshipers" before TOTK came out). It's possible that the "rulers" were some kind of religious leaders among the Zonai, and Link is hearing either their spirits or a message they left behind. Alternatively, they might be some kind of supernatural spirit left to watch over the labyrinths, or even the labyrinths themselves speaking to Link like each one is a single, massive Construct.

The timeskip and children

• While an exact length of time between BotW and TotK is never given, fans generally estimate 5-7 years while citing Mattison and Aaqlet (who weren't even born yet in BotW and are now of age to move to Gerudo Town). This does line up with other notable characters having an age-up between games, most notably Riju and Tulin. And yet, there are many children who appear to be the same age in both games. This is most noticeable in Hylians, who are assumed to age at the same rate as real humans (as opposed to other races like Zoras or Gorons). While the Doylist explanation is most likely just developer oversight for minor NPCs, how come nobody else grew during the timeskip?
  • Some have suggested that this is because Nintendo didn’t want to differentiate the models of children who were meant to be different ages in Breath of the Wild, but they did do so for Tears of the Kingdom. It’s not a perfect solution, though — among other things, Link still isn’t able to purchase a Noble Pursuit in Gerudo Town, even though if he was 17 in the last game he should be old enough now to be considered on adult. (They introduce a variant of the drink that you can purchase, but they say that one is available to all ages.)
  • In Creating a Champion it's said that Gerudo age faster than Hylians, so the age of Mattison may not reflect that of the other children seen around Hyrule.

What material is the Demon King's Bow made of?

• It looks like any other wooden bow, but it doesn't catch on fire, and since it's not metallic, it doesn't conduct electricity either. The Gloom weapons you also get from Phantom Ganon are still subject to electricity if there's a thunderstorm, so they're somehow just made of regular materials.
  • It's probably made of some sort of Unobtanium that Ganondorf made himself. The Gloom weapons are made of metal because that cuts better than said Unobtanium (though Ganondorf may have also made that metal himself).
  • Or, it's wood, but Phantom Ganon's magic protects it from catching fire. The real Ganondorf has a level of resistance to elemental attacks (e.g. icy attacks hurt, but they don't freeze him) so it makes sense that might carry over to the bow. The reason this doesn't apply to the other Gloom weapons, besides not being unique to him, is that it's not much need - the Phantoms aren't at great risk of getting caught in thunderstorms.

Why don't they just drown Ganondorf?

• Link can drown if he's in water for too long. Anyone can. If they can't kill Ganondorf normally with the Master Sword, even though there doesn't seem to be any reason Zelda can't just go "Judith Beheading Holofernes" on Ganon while he's stuck there with what she HAS of the Master Sword, however damaged it is...why don't they just drown him? Just toss his dessicated body into a lake or the ocean. Or just plain put a bucket of water over his head and seal off the underside so the water can't get out. Ganondorf would drown. He might be a magician but he still needs to BREATHE! He'd be dead if they just did that, problem solved, no need for any big, fancy 10,000 year plans. So why didn't they just do THAT?
  • It's quite a big assumption that Ganondorf needs to breathe while sealed. He doesn't need to eat or drink or any other body process during that time after all. And while even a shard of the Master Sword can cut his skin, Fi herself seemed certain that she could not kill him in her current state, hence why she went to the trouble of going into the past to restore herself. Not to mention that messing with the body at all could risk jostling loose Rauru's hand and thus freeing Ganondorf.
  • Also, in the last game, Zelda’s research journal said that the stockpile of Guardians that ended up being corrupted were buried so far beneath the castle that no one was able to find them before the Calamity happened; she says they tried to dig them up but weren’t able to. That would probably mean that Ganondorf’s corpse was also buried too far down for anyone to find, since you’d think it would be worth mentioning if they had come across it.

Yiga weapon shortage?

• Has anyone noticed literally all of the Yiga have stopped using their signature weapons like the vicious sickle, the demon carver, and the Windcleaver? What do you think the reason behind that is? Also...why haven't they been using gloom weapons instead of the weapons the Sheikah, their sworn enemies, once used?
  • Yiga notebooks in the depths show that they are affected by the gloom and have to carry sundelions with them to heal gloom damage. Presumably using gloom weapons would cause the same damage to them. As for the Yiga weapons from the previous game there are a rare few available. I assume because they all looked so fragile they were affected more by the decay than the sturdier weapons scattered around.

Why doesn't Link have abs?

• One of the Gerudo guards will note that Link is clearly not Gerudo, partly because, as she points out, he has no abs (which tracks with his character model). But...why doesn't he? With all the fighting, climbing, running, swimming, horseback riding, etc. he does, he should be freaking ripped, even if he's an extreme ectomorph. And he's a Big Eater, but he's still plenty skinny enough not to hide his definition.
  • Some people really do just have that much trouble gaining muscle or fat. He also might not be doing all that exercise in his day to day life, just when you're playing as him when crises like these happen.
  • If I recall right Link is noted to have very dense muscles, helping him be so strong despite being rather skinny. Still, that doesn't preclude his muscles being large enough to have at least somewhat visible abs (course visible abs don't equal strength, just a lack of fat). It may simply be a limitation of the art style on a frame as slight as his, much as how his body having a bunch of light scars is not visible to us despite it being something other characters can see.

What did monsters need zonaite for?

• All over the Depths we see monsters mining zonaite. But why? For most of the game you'd think they're mining it for the Demon King, but come the Final Boss, he doesn't appear to be thowing anything at you that would use zonaite.
  • It might just be as simple as "hey look a shiny thing", just something for the monsters to gather just because they can, and because they're there. Kind of like how monsters on the surface often group together, hole up in forts or lookout posts and encampments without much rhyme or reason other than that there's strength in numbers.
  • Alternatively, they might just be instinctually territorial. The Yiga are the other residents of the Depths, and likely mine for Zonaite for the sake of their own Zonai builds. Seeing as how the Yiga and the monsters, while technically on the same side (Ganondorf's, and being against everyone else), monsters aren't exactly sapient, so they might've just either seen the Yiga as a threat and want to keep them away, or know that whatever this resource is that they're mining is precious and just want it for themselves, even if they don't really know what to do with it.
  • Maybe the Yiga threatened the monsters into mining zonaite for them to use in powering their devices and stuff.
  • Unlikely, as there's a Yiga journal that reads: "It appears that some of the monsters in the area have been mining for ore, particularly in the Depths. Our fellow Yiga have found them in large numbers around mineral deposits and even carrying these ores. But why?" So the Yiga don't likely know why they're mining it either.
  • We never find out what Ganondorf's full plan for conquering present-day Hyrule is, as he never gets to put it in motion before Link defeats him. As strong as Ganondorf is, he still needs his minions to conquer the land, so maybe he was planning of giving Zonai devices for the monsters, making them into an unstoppable army. And obviously Zonai devices need large amounts of zonaite to fuel them, which would justify the mining operation.

Post-Upheaval Timeskip

• Several characters imply a not-insignificant amount of time has passed since the Upheaval and Link's return from the Great Sky Island, but is there any indication given as to exactly how much time this is?
  • Nothing specific as far as I know, but long enough that the Rito ran out of/low on food within their village, Lookout Landing got its defensive parts built (as originally it was just an observation outpost), a stable closed down due to the lack of customers, and many people in Hyrule figured out how to use some of the Zonai tech (like the hot air balloons). I'd say at least a couple weeks, maybe as long as a month.
  • The way characters react when Link turns up again implies that it wasn’t a hugely significant period of time; their responses are usually “There you are, Link, glad to see you’re safe” and not “Whoa! Where have you been all this time? Everyone thought you were dead!” The Rito are struggling to find more food, but it’s not like they appear to be starving by the time Link gets there, so it doesn’t look like they’ve hit rock bottom yet. Correct me if I’m mistaken, but Lookout Landing could have had those defensive structures before the Upheaval, since it’s out in the open field and there were probably monsters around before. And Zelda closing down the well at Gerudo Stable happened before she and Link went to investigate under the castle, so it wouldn’t have taken long for that place to close down either.

Entrance to the Tunnels

• The plaque at the beginning of the Royal Hidden Passage implies that it's connected to the tunnels Link and Zelda were exploring at the beginning of the game, but I haven't been able to find any location — even one blocked by rubble — that supports this, so where does the original entrance to the Zonai ruins under Hyrule castle lie?

Rito weather patterns

• How come the area surrounding Rito Village is still covered with snow after you’ve finished the Wind Temple? All the snow in the village itself melts away, which makes sense since according to the Purah Pad, it’s way too warm in that area for it to have stuck around.

"Zelda" forbidding the research of the floating Ring Ruin

• In Kakariko village, why does "Zelda" (i.e. Phantom Ganon) forbid the researchers from entering the piece of Ring Ruins floating in the air? When Link finally enters it, he finds a stone slab with a poem, which starts a complex quest chain that eventually leads him to discover the spirit of Mineru. However, there's no way Ganon could have predicted that the poem would eventually lead Link to Mineru, especially since her turning into a spirit and being locked inside the Purah Pad happened after Ganon had already been imprisoned. So why did "Zelda"/Ganon forbid the research of that one specific Ring Ruin? If Ganon thinks any information on the Zonai era and the Imprisoning War could be potentially dangerous in Link's hands, why doesn't "Zelda" forbid researchers from studying the stone slabs in the other Ring Ruins, as well as other large Zonai ruins, such as the ones in Gerudo Canyon?
  • The floating Ring Ruin is unique in being mostly intact and yet accessible to normal people. Perhaps this is why Phantom Ganon thought it worth singling out as opposed to all the ruins that were broken.
  • Why would it being intact and accessible make it any more dangerous to Ganon than the other ruins around Kakariko, which are also accessible, and which contain similar stone slabs with poems?
    • This is presuming that Phantom Ganon thought that the ruins could contain some dangerous weapon or device, which would be operational due to the structure being intact instead of destroyed. It seems unlikely it knew the Ring Ruins were to help Link empower Mineru, given that plan was set up after Ganondorf became dormant.
  • Presumably, the researchers had already explored the more easily acessible ruins enough that prohibiting them from further research would just sound suspicious, they already know they're harmless. So, fake Zelda just forbids them of exploring the one ruin they hadn't managed to access yet.

The last Kohga fight

• So... how exactly does Kohga reach the Abandoned Hebra Mine? It's surrounded by walls going from the ground to the ceiling of the Depths, and Kohga can't leave the Depths to use the entrance on the south side of Rito Village or teleport to the Lightroot there.
  • Does he ever say he can't leave the Depths? The Yiga have made various flying vehicles, and they are in communication with their people on the surface. Also, unless it is meant to be rapid movement, all Yiga demonstrate some kind of limited teleportation ability (especially when beaten).

Mineru's Role in Fighting Ganondorf

• Why was Mineru present at the fight with Ganondorf? She's a non-combatant and her ability is presumably useless unless she has something to possess; wouldn't she have been better suited supporting them elsewhere by continuing to try and find ways to thwart the Demon King without risking her life?
  • She may well have been more capable in combat than we know, we simply never got the chance to see her fight in her physical body. She also knew this was to be the decisive battle, and wanted to do what she could no matter how small as it was past time to find other ways to contribute.

Rauru's Powers and Ganondorf's Imprisonment

• How does having the Power of Light also include the power of "able to put someone in stasis for thousands of years"? It would make enough sense if Rauru's power of sealing worked the same ways Zelda's did in Breath of the Wild — but for one that power came from Zelda's connection with the Triforce and Hylia rather than a Secret Stone, and for another it would beg the question of why Zelda sealing Calamity Ganon didn't kill her like how Rauru sacrificed his life to seal Ganondorf. Wouldn't putting someone in suspended animation be an ability that'd be more expected from Sonia, the one who has the Power of Time?
  • Sonia's power specifically works on objects, not living things. That Zelda was able to be sent back in time herself is implied to have been the work of another power, as it is very different from the time powers Sonia and Zelda otherwise use. As for Rauru, his power isn't simply light but like Zelda it is holy light, a light whose purpose evidently includes to "imprison the ancient evil" (paraphrased) as the shrines he filled with power say whenever you enter one. How this enables a sealing spell is unclear, but perhaps it was a separate spell that simply used Rauru's light as fuel? Also, keep in mind none of the powers actually "come" from a Secret Stone. Thje Secret Stones only enhance powers you already have (though, as with Zelda's time power, you don't have to be aware of the power to have it be enhanced).

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