#BUT IT COMPLETELY DEFEATS THE PURPOSE OF THE GATEHOUSES AND THE REST OF THE INFRASTRUCTURE

[whostoleallthecookies]

ok as promised here's the post about botw-adjacent hyrule castle's theorized main entrance

so: as anyone who's explored the castle in breath of the wild or tears of the kingdom knows, there are limited entrances to the interior of the castle. there's the docks, some tunnels, the balcony of the observation room, etc. then there are a couple of side doors, like the ones to the guards' chambers, the library door that leads outside, the door(s) to zelda's room, etc. but like, none of those is a *main entrance*. you'd think it's obvious, duh, it's the door to the sanctum!

but here's the kicker. the sanctum doesn't lead anywhere.

you can't actually get anywhere else from the sanctum. you can get on top of the sanctum, sure, and you can get outside, but it does not connect to any other parts of the castle. There aren't even rubble filled doorways that would indicate that you could! (this is Very Likely so that you wouldn't accidentally end up in the boss fight in botw while exploring the rest of the castle, and like, that makes sense from a dungeon design point of view, but not from a *liveable castle* point of view.) this is ESPECIALLY frustrating because Creating a Champion literally states that Zelda's room is where it is so that she could get to the sanctum in less than 5 minutes without going outside. SHE CAN'T, NINTENDO, BECAUSE YOU REMOVED ALL INNER THE DOORS TO THE SANCTUM!!

so this creates the question: where was the main entrance before calamity then?

well, youtuber banan039 has an answer: under the observation room balcony! genious, i thought, that makes so much sense omg why wasn't that in there in botw. (by the way i'm in love with banan039's pre-calamity mod's progress videos they give me so much strength on my harrowing journey to trying to figure out intact hyrule castle's layout please go watch them and support the creator if you have the means.)

but uh yeah anyway turns out the door isn't there in botw because there's a cliff like right in front of it. well that's inconvenient, i thought, but idk, maybe the calamity caused it and collapsed the door.

NOPE! that door was never in there even pre-calamity in breath of the wild canon!

(https://www.reddit.com/r/Breath_of_the_Wild/comments/7xkavh/hyrule_castle_town_on_its_prime_before_the/)

this screenshot is from the cutscene in champion's ballad where king rhoam appoints the champions. if you look closely, you can see that the area underneath the observation room (right above the castle gates) is the same texture as the cliffs around it, and you can see the bit of grass there, yeah, that would block the front door.

(also, minor spoilers for tears of the kingdom: you couldn't have anything under the observation room anyway because of the royal secret passage.)

and actually then i got to thinking: if the front door was under the observation room, what would be the purpose of the gatehouses??? and, as a friend pointed out, the narrow winding path that would be difficult to climb, heightening the castle's defenses????

so what makes the most sense is that the main entrance would be in the sanctum after all, especially since it was said in creating a champion that it would have had an indoors access to zelda's room. my current working theory is that there was a spiral staircase in one of the corner towers of the sanctum's lowest floor, but i have not yet been able to explore that area in depth enough to confirm that it could have been possible. however, it seems... plausible, likely even if i happen to find a spot with a lot of rubble on the floor, because that could be a staircase hole filled up. it's not the most conventional castle architecture but eh, it makes more sense than the front door being before either of the gatehouses, straight on the line of attack after the castle gate gets broken.

except.

THERE'S A FUCKING FRONT DOOR UNDER THE OBSERVATION ROOM IN AGE OF CALAMITY

(https://nintendo.fandom.com/wiki/Hyrule_Castle?file=Hyrule_Castle.jpg) (and a bunch of aoc cutscenes, though i wasn't able to find the one this screenshot is from.)

sigh.

#the legend of zelda #breath of the wild #tears of the kingdom #tears of the kingdom spoilers #totk spoilers #anyway like botw hyrule castle is a great dungeon design but they clearly left it at that and did not think about the castle's #original purpose i.e. you know a castle #but then in aoc they had to think 'wait a second how is the royal family supposed to use this' #and added a front door lol #BUT IT COMPLETELY DEFEATS THE PURPOSE OF THE GATEHOUSES AND THE REST OF THE INFRASTRUCTURE #i told my spouse about my findings and they went 'the front door is what stopped the calamity' #AND I MEAN- #maybe botw rhoam was so prideful because he thought his house was infallible #but aoc rhoam realized he had a shitty front door and had to accept alternative means of protection if it meant saving his skin #aslgjldjljlskjgl #age of calamity #hyrule warriors age of calamity #hyrule castle