History Headscratchers / TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker

**** Maybe Tetra was just ''really'' dirty and the Triforce cleaned her up? Her hair also looked a bit shinier and cleaner

** SkywardSword proposes a possible answer to this. The revelation that Princess Zelda is the reincarnation of the Goddess Hylia explains the mystery of why all the Zeldas look ''extremely'' similar, in contrast to the varying appearances of the Links. It's possible that the reason Tetra's skin tone changes when she becomes Zelda is because her body is being transformed in order to, as all Zeldas before her, resemble the Goddess. Tetra is Zelda as she was actually born and lives, while "Princess Zelda" is Zelda as the mortal form of the Goddess, and her appearance changes accordingly. This isn't an issue encountered with other Princess Zeldas in the series, because every other Zelda has been born into royalty and tradition, and raised to be Princess Zelda, while Tetra was not.

** Evolutionary answer: Zora are already amphibious. Ocarina Zoras leave the water and walk on land ''all the time''. Zora's Domain has more land than it does water, and their king has a dry throne. They aren't fish, they're amphibians. Now, assuming that the world ''around'' Hyrule has oceans, that is where the water for flooding Hyrule would have come from. To flood Hyrule ''permanently'' as has happened in Wind Waker, the oceans would have to rise until they covered all of Hyrule, and remain there. Zoras being predominantly freshwater creatures, the sudden onset of saltwater would destroy their lungs and kill them. Zoras being amphibious, those that survived the flood would have done so by clinging to what vestiges of land remain above the ocean after it's risen. At this point, we're left with an amphibious race that can't actually survive in the water anymore, and that isn't naturally equipped to exist solely on land. Whether evolution or Valoo happened next, their only chance for survival at that point is to change.

** Evolutionary answer: Zora are already amphibious. Ocarina Zoras leave the water and walk on land ''all the time''. Zora's Domain has more land than it does water, and their king has a dry throne. They aren't fish, they're amphibians. Now, assuming that the world ''around'' Hyrule has oceans, that is where the water for flooding Hyrule would have come from. To flood Hyrule ''permanently'' as has happened in Wind Waker, the oceans would have to rise until they covered all of Hyrule, and remain there. Zoras being predominantly freshwater creatures, the sudden onset of saltwater would destroy their lungs and kill them. Zoras being amphibious, those that survived the flood would have done so by clinging to what vestiges of land remain above the ocean after it's risen. At this point, we're left with an amphibious race that can't actually survive in the water anymore, and that isn't naturally equipped to exist solely on land. Whether or not evolution or Valoo happened next, their only chance for survival at that point is to change.

** It could be that they were simply unable to isolate the flooding to just Hyrule alone, given how massive it would had to have been to have any lasting effect against Ganon. The Goddesses were faced with a SadisticChoice, and even they, with all their power, were unable to [[TakeAThirdOption find a way around it]]...flood the entire world to stop Ganondorf from conquering Hyrule and sending it into an age of darkness that makes the BadFuture from Ocarina of Time look like an episode of {{Hamtaro}}, or let Ganondorf run free and unopposed, dooming Hyrule and everyone who lived there...and eventually the rest of the world, once he realized there were lands other than Hyrule. With the first choice, there was at least a ''small'' hope of salvation, so they reluctantly went with it.

** I'd say around 12

*** But [[spoiler: Fi's asleep...]]

** This troper always assumed the game designers did that on purpose, as to make it less obvious who the sages were right off the bat.