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ordon-shield · 1 year

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The Split/Swapped Triforce Theory

The Link we see in Breath of the Wild, and now Tears of the Kingdom is different to his previous incarnations in many ways, and I’m not just talking about the colour of his tunic. Every other Link that we’ve seen through the series starts their adventure with no expectation of being a great hero, of saving the land from evil. No, they set out to rescue a sister, or some children from their village, or their best friend, or a princess calling out for help. It’s only after they set out that they inevitably have to make a decision— does it have to be them that’s the hero? Couldn’t they step aside, and let someone else, older and more experienced take charge? Once they’ve rescued whoever they set out to save, or someone else has arrived to help, why keep putting themselves in danger? Even if destiny says they have to be the one, that doesn’t mean they’re forced to play that role— but each of them still chooses to, proving their courage.

The Link of Breath of the Wild never gets that moment. He’s young when he draws the Master Sword for the first time, years before the return of Calamity Ganon. He isn’t set out on a quest to protect someone he cares about, but instead given the title of hero immediately, and assigned as Zelda’s personal guard. He grew up knowing what was expected of him, and even when he wakes up in the Shrine of Resurrection, his memories lost? One of the first things he’s told is that he is the light that must shine upon Hyrule, and his first glimpse of Calamity Ganon comes alongside Zelda telling him that its freedom will mean the destruction of the world, and that he must hurry. This version of Link is never given that choice that every other version of him makes at some point, never given the choice to be the hero— and is it really courage to fight when you’ve been told your whole life it’s what you’re meant to do?

Though the Zelda series, the three pieces of the Triforce have been present since the second game, which introduces the Triforce of Courage, and at the same time ties Link to it for the first time. The Link we see in the Adventure of Link gained the Triforce of Wisdom by finding its scattered pieces, the Triforce of Power by defeating its previous holder. The Triforce of Courage however, he is chosen to find when the symbol of the united Triforce appears on his hand, travelling through seven palaces and facing his own dark reflection to earn it. This connection only grew stronger in Ocarina of Time, the fourth game in the series, after the Triforce splits when Ganondorf, someone with an imbalances heart makes a wish on it, transforming the Sacred Realm into the Dark World and cursing the temples of Hyrule, the Triforce of Courage is eventually revealed to rest within Link’s body. Further games only reinforced the link between the hero and courage, with the Link of The Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and A Link Between Worlds all carrying the Triforce of Courage at some point. A pattern was formed— Power with Ganondorf, Wisdom with Zelda, and Courage with Link.

The Triforce is never mentioned in Breath of the Wild, but we do see it. While its true nature and name have been forgotten over the ages, the inherited sealing power that lies within Zelda. We see it as she defeats Dark Beast Ganon, her hand outstretched as it manifests before her, a burst of light— much like the one we see in Skyward Sword when Link wishes away the Imprisoned— blossoming out and obliterating the Calamity, once and for all. In the true ending to the game, she says her powers seem to have dwindled after holding back Ganon for so long (in Japanese the specific term she uses is ‘withered’), but importantly, she doesn’t say that they’re completely gone, only that they’re less than what they once were. We’ve seen this happen before, as mentioned above— the Triforce can split into its three parts, with the one who touched it acquiring the part that represents what they desire the most. But is Wisdom what the Zelda we see in Breath of the Wild truly desires? Let me remind you, that her defeat of Dark Beast Ganon isn’t the first time we see her access the power of the Triforce. During the defence of Fort Hateno, she accesses it for the first time, the symbol of the Triforce shining on the back of her hand as we’ve seen it do time and time again for other wielders— yet only after she steps between Link and the laser of a Guardian, unarmed and powerless… in an act of courage, which is followed by her leaving to face Ganon alone after Link falls. Where this version of Link was never given the option to choose to be courageous, this version of Zelda, despite being told her entire life that her role was merely to seal the beast once the hero had defeated it, was the one to stand up and make the choice to face Ganon head-on, keeping him contained by herself for a century. If the Triforce she held did split into its three parts, the one that fits her best, the one she would desire is the Triforce of Courage.

There are still two more pieces of the Triforce left though, one for Link, and one for the corpse-like Ganondorf we see in the trailers for Tears of the Kingdom. When we look at Link in Breath of the Wild, we see surprisingly few references to courage in association with him in the base game (and those references come from characters familiar with the stories of previous heroes), even when they might be expected, such as before or after completing a combat trial in a shrine, but we do see some interesting references to another third, from the Goddess Hylia, the original protector of the Triforce herself. When Link exchanges spirit orbs for a heart container or a stamina vessel, what does she say? “I shall grant the power you seek.” When Link faces the dragon Naydra, corrupted with malice, she asks him to “Show what [his] power can achieve!”. Even in his childhood, he had ties to the concept, defeating adults in combat as a young child according to Mipha. In the eighth memory of the ones he recovers a century later, we see he’d defeated a large group of monsters, including multiple silver lynels, presumably alone, and with only mild wounds. Even when we play as him, Link is constantly breaking even high-quality weapons with the strength of his blows. This link with power can also fit in with the changes to the Zelda formula, and the introduction of an open world. Breath of the Wild is a game that’s all about freedom, about having the power to choose where you go and when, rejecting the linear paths and restrictions that previous incarnations of Link faced. Even in the first Zelda game, the full Triforce of Wisdom was required to face the final dungeon. Instead of being forced to proceed in a predetermined path, this Link is the one with the power to break free from the expectations of his past and the boundaries that held them back, exploring on his own terms. To this version of Link, the Triforce of Power would represent his freedom from both his past role as a knight, something that caused him so much stress he stopped talking, and from the fears that hold back the other people of Hyrule, of the monsters that infest the kingdom‘s roads and the many ruins he explores.

Finally, we get to Ganondorf. We’ve only seen a little of him from the handful of trailers for Tears of the Kingdom, but of the many questions and mysteries surrounding him, this theory can answer at least one— why now? Why is it only after the defeat of the Calamity that he seems to be ‘waking up’ or ‘breaking free’ from the place he’s been sealed away in since 10,000 or more years ago? If the Triforce indeed split when Zelda used it to defeat Dark Beast Ganon, we have our explanation— with a piece of the Triforce returned to his body, he’s been able to slowly recover his strength. If Zelda has Courage, and Link has Power, that leaves Wisdom to him, which seems to be reflected in his actions. Previously only acting as a near-mindless beast, with little in the way of strategy other than targeting the technology that defeated him the last time, this version of Ganondorf has good reason to value wisdom, and accordingly, we see him attempt to take out the three things most likely to foil his plans as soon as he can— Link (and his sword arm), Zelda, and the Master Sword that has been his downfall again and again. Even the monsters we’ve glimpsed in the trailers seem to be more organised, and strengthened by his malice. Even his appearance seems to mirror this change, as we see him dressed in golden jewellery and a loose robe , rather than the dark armour of most other appearances, or the thick formal clothing of his Wind Waker version. This gives the impression that, unless he regains one of his previous forms, this version of Ganondorf will likely focus more on his skill as a sorcerer than physical combat to fight Link, as somewhat of a contrast to his Twilight Princess version, who fights physically, only using his magic to possess Zelda and transform into Ganon. He also seems prepared to heal and boost his servants to help them achieve his goals. This falls in line with what little we know about the Triforce of Wisdom from seeing the versions of Zelda that have held it. Admittedly, this is the weakest part of this theory, just because we haven’t seen much of Ganondorf or his abilities in Tears of the Kingdom yet.

In conclusion, Breath of the Wild was all about breaking the conventions of a Zelda game to make something new, and if Tears of the Kingdom wants to achieve the same, shaking up the holders of the Triforce would certainly be one way to do it. Purely talking from a mechanical viewpoint, Link learning to use the Triforce of Power could act as a replacement for the Champion’s abilities in the previous game— a known ability of that piece is to bring the wielder back from a mortal wound, stronger than before, which could serve as a replacement for Mipha’s Grace to give an example. We could even see something as cool as Zelda wielding a reforged Master Sword— after all, she was the one who heard the voice inside the sword. This all relies on Nintendo being willing to take that leap and change things up even more and I’m not sure they’d be willing to do it.

#legend of zelda #loz #the legend of zelda #botw #breath of the wild #botw theory #totk #tears of the kingdom #totk theory #split/swapped triforce theory #triforce of power link #triforce of courage zelda #triforce of wisdom ganondorf

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lunarsilkscreen · 6 months

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Two More Zelda Theories (Z1 Timelines)

The first Zelda Game was also the first to introduce "Master Quest". The master quest is like a randomizer before randomizers were a thing. With the intention of making the game more challenging, but still feeling fresh and retain the qualities the designers and devs imposed on the original game.

But there's one way to access the Master Quest without beating the game. (Which is the requirement to unlock it.)

The original Manual says that "The Hero" doesn't exist until you make them. And the original character delete mode sounded more like "unaliving" the main character that you had created.

Which already gives us two endings created by the Devs. Either you beat Ganon, or don't. OR, worse than giving up, you unregister your character. The player (or to Link, God) chooses which ending through these methods.

And then there's the Third; the master quest. Which you unlock either by completing the game, or creating an entirely new character named "Zelda".

This implies that the Master Quest, at least the original one, was taken on by Zelda herself. Which isn't that far off from the actual story written about the game.

Zelda splits the Triforce of Wisdom into pieces, and hides them. And then Link, goes to collect them. This means that Zelda had to go hide them in the first place, and did.

And did so in a different order than Link found them. (possibly even changing how Link has to tackle the dungeons in the process, making them easier to do.)

I've talked on a few other Theories, such as Zelda disguising herself as Link to take on Z2, and Zelda herself being the child referenced in Z64s future timeline who originally played the song of storms for the windmill man. And therefore completed the well sections, releasing Bongo Bongo, but unlike in Link's timeline, didn't kill "Death Hand" who grew up to be Bongo Bongo.

Did I forget to write about that here? Well, since there's no such thing as time loops in Zelda (outside closed ones like Majora's Mask that happen simultaneously and also not at all)

No, the banker doesn't remember Link, he just stamped the amount of rupees he has stored with that bank on his hand. Probably something he does for all the kids there since like ... A hundred rupees is the equivalent of 1 USD. (or rather 1 rupee is equivalent 1 penny or 1 yen) and seriously, if they tried to take him for more than a hundred bucks, he'd notice..because adult wallets only hold like 2 dollars.

In the future timeline, there is no Link. In Z64 there are two possibilities. The first is in Links dream at the beginning of the game, where he sees himself die by Ganon's hand. The Second, when the event actually comes to pass, Ganon just rides past him. He doesn't even recognize him.

These two possibilities give rise to the Future timeline where Zelda is from. And Why Zelda is upset both that Link came to future (and missed out on his childhood) but had to be sent back. To Zelda, this meant one of two things; sending him back to his own death, or to a time where he actually belonged.

Because she *watched* him die.

That means the fairy child in future timeline, was Zelda dressed as Link (or even Shiek) and took on the "Master Quest" herself. The limitations of recreating all the cutscenes means the dev team decided not to.

Or What if, The future Zelda swapped places with Link? (Or even Linkle? If you wanna take it a step further.) And that's why She watched him die. Because Ganon didn't recognize *her*.

I'm not going to go into the implications of Majora's Mask and being about the "Death of Link". Because I think it's about something else entirely. (Overcoming a "failed" timeline.)

The famous final cutscene of Z64 is Link returning to the past to meet with Zelda for a second time.

What if; that's when they switched places.

Because Zelda was killed after her escape.

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powdermelonkeg · 3 years

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Your last post discussing the situation with location swapping made me think. :0

I know that time-travel is a popular theory for botw2, and that’s valid based on the evidence. It’s been difficult to place botw in the timeline because there seems to be evidence for all 3 splits. The salt deposits, the mirror of twilight, all that. People think that botw is so far ahead in time that the timelines have combined somehow - it’s the mostly widely accepted theory I’ve seen, at least.

You know how in every time-travel story, there’s an alternate timeline created because people mess up? Events get mixed up, things fall out of place. Timelines converge.

What if, instead of botw existing far, far ahead in the future, it exists as a result? A pocket of time, created by some sort of time-heist/time mission gone wrong. That’s why there’s evidence for all three timelines - someone fucked things up, somehow. Maybe the ancient hero, or the Sheikah. Maybe the Zonai. And now Link and Zelda of the present day need to fix it. That’s WHY there would be lands above the clouds that no one seems to have seen. Or, they may need to in fact travel back to Skyloft, to stop their current universe from even existing?

I can entertain this theory! Let me just pull out my soapbox to talk about the Zonai.

Our knowledge of them is very, VERY limited, so we don't exactly know where they came from or what they did. There's only a handful of things that we can legitimately attribute to them:

And a handful more we can guess, but not confirm (yet):

Then there's the stuff that the Zonai remind us of.

A lot of people pick Twilight Princess to compare it to, and for good reason.

Now, I'm not saying definitively that the Zonai and the Twili are related, but if they are, that supports your theory. Because, if anyone can recall, there's a pretty disturbing scene in Twilight Princess regarding the Triforce.

youtube

We never learn EXACTLY what those "dark interlopers" DID, or where they came from; we only know that they tried to take power forcefully to get the Sacred Realm, eventually become modern day Twili.

What’s bad enough that the goddesses banish your entire tribe to a dark realm for eternity?

I’d say messing with time is certainly up there.

#zelda #bo2w #botw #botw2 #loz #theory #zonai #twilight princess #I really like supporting other people’s theories #like I don’t personally think it’s time reversal or pockets but this is so FUN to think about regardless

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