Headscratchers / Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

• What's up with Mipha, Sidon, Daruk, and Yunobo's powers here? The four of them have abilities that they were never shown to have had, with Mipha and Sidon being able to control water (Sidon can even make water constructs) and Daruk and Yunobo being able to control rocks. Not only that, but no other Zora or Gorons have been shown to have these abilities. You could argue that they're part of their champion powers that we never got in Breath of the Wild but that only works with Daruk and Yunobo, who both share the Power of Protection, and not Mipha and Sidon, where only Mipha has been shown to have the Power of Healing meaning Sidon shouldn't have access to any water magic that comes with it.
  • One possibility is that Mipha and Daruk's powers are a trained part of their skillset, and that most Zora and Gorons CAN use the same ability, but most simply don't learn to (think of it as something like how humans can learn to do very impressive feats like resist extreme temperatures or release massive amounts of power with next to no movement, but only a handful of people learn how to due to how much training it takes). As to Yunobo and Sidon, Yunobo may have been given more insight into combat as he was brought through the time rift, and Sidon may have had his capability to manipulate water strengthened by the same.
  • Most movesets in the game don't really reflect the character's abilities, they're there just to make them fun to play as, and flashy/unique. For example, Zelda is implied to be complete non-combatant in the game until she unlocks her sacred powers, but you can play as her from the beginning using the Sheikah Slate in ways that are very inconsistent.

• During the Battle in Korok Forest, after the Master Sword resonated with Link and first dispelled the hollows, Link is able to pull it out. Considering that Astor was right there watching the whole thing, why didn't he try to STOP Link from from pulling it? Especially since his vision of the future likely showed him that Link was the chosen wielder?
  • It is possible that even if Astor did try to stop Link from pulling the sword, the others would try to prevent him from interfering, and since it IS Link that he's up against, chances of him stopping Link is quite impossible. Remember, Link has done things that are Beyond the Impossible before.

• The whole time traveling concept is quite baffling since the scene does play as if the Terrako from the future accidentally allows some malice from the future to the past which caused the Future!Terrako to be infected with the malice. Not Present!Terrako.
  • The Malice that followed Future!Terrako into the past are outright stated to have corrupted Present!Terrako. Remember that the portal was opened right outside the window to Zelda's study, where Terrako was stored to begin with, so deactivated Present!Terrako was literally the closest ancient tech when that piece of Malice arrived in the past.
  • One of the missions from the "Guardian of Remembrance" DLC actually shows Present!Terrako getting corrupted.

• On the subject of Terrako's time travel, it's assumed and said that he's traveled back 100 years in time. Except he can't have. The opening cutscene makes it clear that he's traveling back from the original BotW calamity. Which happened 100 years before Link awoke in Breath of the Wild. I.e. on Zelda's 17th birthday. As such, had Terrako gone back a century, Link and Zelda wouldn't even have been born. Given his chronological starting point, Terrako could have only travelled back a few months, a year at most, to get to where he needed to be.
  • Where is it stated that Terrako went back 100 years into the past? It's either an oversight or a mistranslation, it's pretty clear that it only went back a few months at most.
    • Original troper here. It's mostly on the main TV Tropes page for the game. Reading through, I saw a few mentions of Terrako going '100 years into the past'.

• Regarding the final battle with Calamity Ganon. I can buy Past Ganon + Future Ganon being so powerful that the heroes can't harm them but how the heck does Terrako's self-destruct knock out his defenses when even the Master Sword couldn't damage him?
  • Terrako is implied to be empowered by Zelda’s magic (he revives the second Zelda gives her all to defend against Ganon), so his self-destruct may have been some kind of extension of Zelda’s anti-Ganon sealing power released all at once.

• During the battle in the Korok Forest, Link awakens the Master Sword’s power and draws it, officially being recognized as the Hero of Legend. But, as with most of Age of Calamity, that is only due to the butterfly effects of Terako’s presence. In the “proper” BotW timeline, Link was recognized as the Hero in some other manner. My question: How? The only true method to recognizing the Hero is through the Master Sword, but I can’t think of any way Link could reasonably be in the Korok Forest to even try. Yes, he was recognized as a very talented and skilled swordsman even at a child, but Age of Calamity shows (and BotW implies) that he was just a normal knight before becoming the Hero and being appointed as Zelda’s knight. So, if he WAS just an average knight, how did he get the chance to even try to pull the Master Sword?
  • It's implied he pulled it sooner in the original timeline, and in this one, Harbinger Ganon's been acting to prevent Link getting it. It was also stated that Terrako and the Malice that created the Harbinger went back even further than expected, hence why things are so different even from the get-go. As for how BotW!Link got the chance, he likely tagged along on a trip to Korok Forest and pulled it unthinkingly, not knowing he shouldn't be able to, and out of innocent curiosity.

• With what we've learned about Tears of the Kingdom, what impact will Terrako's actions have on things, since the Great Calamity has been averted?
  • A sequel game to Age of Calamity is the likely the answer, with the excuse of bringing Ganondorf into the fray early to fight the original Champions plus more time travel shenanigans with the Sages of the future. The only major issue that seriously needs resolving is the Light Dragon (aka Zelda) and the Master Sword flying around since they are from a future that no longer exists.