History Fridge / TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild

* Zelda is barely keeping Ganon contained within Hyrule Castle, and the game all but spells out to you that her power to do so ''will'' eventually run out [[TakeYourTime (even though it never actually does until you enter the throne room)]], and when that happens, Ganon will finish the job he started a hundred years ago. Most of the [=NPCs=] you meet, [[AdultFear especially younger ones like children?]] ''They have no idea they're living on borrowed time.''

** I couldn't find any scenes where Ganon in any form calls in the Triforce of Power. He gave up any kind of wisdom he had and became a hulking, mindless beast. While he does seem to keep some cunning left, [[RevengeBeforeReason he simply wants to utterly destroy Hyrule with no motivation to rule it or "improve" it under his command.]]

* A neat little BookEnds I noticed was that the Old Man directs you to the Temple of Time by telling you to check your map and imagine the four shrines you conquered forming an X, the Temple of Time being at the center. What do the Divine Beasts all do once they're freed? Form an X, with the castle holding the FinalBoss right at the center.

*** [[This video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ti3qY2AeFo0]] posits that Revali (and the Rito in general) have terrible night vision, and thus he may not have been able to even ''see'' during his battle.

** The Gorons and Rito don't know as much about Link's past. Kaneli of the Rito only thinks Link is the descendant of the hero when he sees the Sheikah Slate, but begins to believe he ''is'' the hero if he sees the Master Sword. Bludo of the Gorons hardly brings up the hero, only really pondering it when he sees Link's sword. Neither the Rito nor Gorons are enemies of Hyrulians, but they ''are'' distant, living in far off areas that often require Link to wear protective gear, so they probably didn't get as many Hyrulian tourists, and unlike the Zora and Gerudo, their Champions didn't have the personal history with Hyrule royalty or Link that [[ChildhoodRomance Mipha]], [[OldFriend Urbosa]], or [[ArchEnemy Ganon]] did. However, the fact that they bring up the Master Sword regardless shows that Link's story did indeed reach them.

* The BagOfSpilling situation Link is in after his awakening seems like your typical invoked videogame trope...at first. In fact, it's more like SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome. Link was in stasis for ''a hundred years''. Anybody who's spent a long time similarly hospitalized knows that ''your body goes feeble'' with the inactivity; it's only natural he'd reawaken far weaker than he was in the past. Think his retaining of his skillfulness with weapons is a contradiction? Think again. Amnesia patients are known to retain skills and muscle memory, only losing ''active'' memory.

* How come that Link seems to know both the monk's name and what kind of trial awaits him at each shrine? Well, he opened the shrine by using his Sheikah Slate which would most likely have downloaded the info.

* The Blight Ganons have a lot of parallels to the Divine Beasts and the Champions they have slain. In a slight case of FridgeHorror and sick irony, they are even designed to outclass the Champions they defeated, right down to using similar fighting styles and weapons... which explains why Link could succeed where the Champions all failed. The Blights were each geared to a specific Champion, so Link is a curve-ball to them.
** Waterblight Ganon has a long-reaching spear just like Mipha's Lightscale Trident, and can use ice powers just like Vah Ruta. However, it floats above the platforms in the battle arena, which would make fighting it more difficult for Mipha, and its spear can reach most of the water around the platform it floats over.

** Fireblight Ganon is a [[MightyGlacier slow, heavy hitter]], just like Daruk with his Boulder Breaker, and even has a twisted variant of Daruk's Protection which allows him to charge a very powerful attack that requires a shield to reflect which was not something Daruk fought with. It can also draw power from the volcano just like Vah Rudania.

** Link, however, does not have a Blight set on him despite being Ganon's archenemy and biggest threat. Why? Because he's the hardest to counter. As a Hylian, Link [[HumansAreAverage doesn't have the specific strengths or weaknesses of the other races]] that Ganon could take advantage of. He's also the only Champion to [[MultiMeleeMaster carry multiple different weapons]] as well as [[ImprobableWeaponUser more exotic tools]], meaning he's able to adapt quickly and use tactics that no single other Champion ever could. Combine that with Link also holding the Master Sword which means that there isn't a single minion he could tailor make to counter everything Link could do. This is why the demon lord was forced to [[ZergRush wear him down with sheer numbers of minions]] while refusing to attack directly until Link was on his doorstep.
** While the above might be true, the second DLC seems to show that though the Champions may have been outclassed, they did, for the most part, stand a chance and were not in a completely hopeless situation. We can infer this because we are now allowed to fight the Blights again but this time with equipment comparable to that of the Champion slain by the each Blight and with that very Champion's power already at our disposal. In the specific:

*** Waterblight, because of its second phase, is the hardest to defeat without using runes nor Champion Powers. It can be done by quickly swimming to the ramp that led down into the boss room, getting to the top, jumping down and bulls eying Waterblight in-between ice cubes. Mipha may have had a easier time if she was able to leap out of the water and draw a Zoran bow, but either way, she was met with the hardest challenge. All of this is moot anyway because she states after beating a few times she was completely ambushed.
** ''Age of Calamity'' gives us further insights on this subject, since we get to see the Champions battling the Blights in cutscenes; Urbosa seems to be overwhelmed by Thunderblight's speed, Revali is overwhelmed by Windblight's constant lasers and manipulation of the winds he's using to fly, and both Mipha and Daruk are simply unable to keep up with the amounts of attacks and projectiles Waterblight and Fireblight are using. In addition, the floor of Vah Ruta has been frozen over, putting Mipha at an additional disadvantage since she can't use her aquatic abilities to evade Waterblight's attacks.
** ''Age of Calamity'' also shows that the Blights were a ''lot'' tougher during Ganon's initial attack; in that game, all of them have altered designs, including expanded weaponry, and are positively overflowing with elemental energy. They're so powerful that ''three'' Champions are needed to take each one down. By the time of ''Breath of the Wild'' Ganon has been sealed away for a century, so he was no longer around to issue orders to the Blights and they had possibly even been separated from Ganon's power. A hundred years of basically doing watch duty in the Divine Beasts had left them to age and their powers waned to the point Link could kill them by himself.

* Here's something regarding Master Koga. In "''Age of Calamity''", we see he hasn't changed much in the past 100 years. Impa was a young girl around Zelda's age at that time, and now she's aged to the point where she looks like a completely different person. Keeping in mind the fact that Kohga doesn't seem to recognize Link until he sees the Sheikah Slate, it's quite possible that [[TheFogOfAges Kohga's age was catching up with him]]. He may have very well been on his lasts legs by the time Link confronts him in BOTW.

* The Rito are adept [[ArcherArchetype with the bow and arrow.]] Too-small wingspan aside, the general consensus with Bird People such as them is that they'd have ''ridiculously strong'' wing/arm and back muscles to power their flight needs, so archery is a LogicalConclusion for them.

* The beginning of almost every ''Zelda'' game has Link waking up from sleep, usually to a character important to him (his uncle in ''Link to the Past'', Aryll in ''Wind Waker'', Zelda's Loftwing in ''Skyward Sword''). Often he's shown not responding well, either falling out of bed or grimacing as if to say "just five more minutes". This entry amps it up to eleven, since this time Link has been asleep for ''over a century''.

* Link's shield doesn't degrade if he does a Perfect Parry. While this is clearly an AntiFrustrationFeature, it makes sense from an in-universe perspective, too; Link isn't taking the full brunt of the attack on the shield, like he would if he blocked, he's instead deflecting the attack where it can't hurt him, and therefore taking almost none of thr actual force behind the attack. (How this works with things like Guardian lasers, we'll never know.)

** ''Age of Calamity'' gives us further insights on this subject, since we get to see the Champions battling the Blights in cutscenes; Urbosa seems to be overwhelmed by Thunderblight's speed, Revali is overwhelmed by Windblight's constant lasers and manipulation of the winds he's using to fly, and both Mipha and Daruk are simply unable to keep up with the amounts of attacks and projectiles Waterblight and Fireblight are using.
** ''Age of Calamity'' also gives a reason that makes a lot of sense as to why Link can defeat them, looking at the Blights' attributes all of them have changes to their design and are positively overflowing with elemental damage and take ''three'' Champions to take down, not just Link and their original targets. Ganon had been sealed away for a century at the time you fight them in ''Breath of the Wild'', so he was no longer around to issue orders to the Blights and they had possibly even been separated from Ganon's power. A hundred years of basically doing watch duty in the Divine Beasts had left them to age and their powers wane to the point Link could kill them by himself.

* The BagOfSpilling situation Link is in after his awakening seems like your typical invoked videogame trope...at first. In fact, it's more like RealityEnsues. Link was in stasis for ''a hundred years''. Anybody who's spent a long time similarly hospitalized knows that ''your body goes feeble'' with the inactivity; it's only natural he'd reawaken far weaker than he was in the past. Think his retaining of his skillfulness with weapons is a contradiction? Think again. Amnesia patients are known to retain skills and muscle memory, only losing ''active'' memory.

* Why does Urbosa have lightning abilities? The last ruler of the Gerudo we met was Ganondorf Dragmire, and even before gaining the Triforce of Power he was able to electrify his enemies. Perhaps it's InTheBlood?

* When you meet Corrupted Naydra, everything about its state is brilliant: it's been [[StealthPun polluted]] with Malice. Kind of fitting when one considers Breath of the Wild's central theme aboute [[GreenAesop nature]], with Ganon's malice representing civilization's effect on nature.

* When you meet Corrupted Naydra, everything about its state is brilliant: it's been [[StealthPun polluted]] with Malice.