Moments pages are Spoilers Off. Read at your own risk!
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1 - Sixteen
- There's a scene in the Coliseum where Terrako, Cerako, and Argiko come through a portal. The description matches the time portals created by Terrako, meaning these three robots came from the future. Malice from Calamity Ganon follows them back, and gives chase to them, eventually catching up to them and transforming each into the Catalysts of the Calamity. These gentle little robots from the prior story are possessed by a demonic power and forced to become their own Evil Counterparts.
- Terrako becomes Harbinger Ganon.
- Cerako becomes Arbiter Ganon.
- Argiko becomes Executioner Ganon.
- This kind of heartwarming and sweet introduction is given a complete sudden sharp turn when the Hyruleans spot a massive army coming in at them out of nowhere in a sudden Zerg Rush ambush. It's enough to send the entirety of Castle Town and the surrounding area into a bit of a panic. Given the prior scene establishing the existence of the Catalysts of the Calamity, it seems that the trio are already making Hyrule a deceptively dangerous place in the pre-Calamity days.
2 - Battle of Hyrule Field
- The Hyrulean Army does rather well early on, but once the signal fireworks go off all around in the civilian areas, things take a much bleaker turn.
- The army of monsters attack the civilian sector which didn't have the time to evacuate. Buildings are destroyed at the Moblins' hands, and the civilians are shown panicking and fleeeing for their lives, but it doesn't stop there. There are extremely disturbing descriptions of dead bodies, many mutilated and dismembered at the monster's hands. Their blood stains the battlefield, and among the victims include numerous children.
- The Hyrulean Army doesn't fare that much better. The chapter shows what happens in detail to the Red Shirts when facing the monsters that are just Cannon Fodder to the main characters. While they fare well against the weaker Red Bokoblins, the Blue Bokoblins give them a struggle. When Moblins come onto the scene, things go From Bad to Worse. The soldiers can't escape, and are violently bludgeoned by a single Moblin. The lucky ones get hit and escape with badly broken limbs. The ones killed have their necks broken so massively that they're for all intents and purposes, decapitated.
- The final scene in the chapter. It's a recreation of the scene from Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity where Harbinger Ganon kills all of Astor's cult. This time, it's made even worse.
- First, there's the vision itself. The vision of the dark future ahead for Hyrule is nothing but death, chaos, and violence. The castle is consumed by Malice, and the corrupted Guardians flood into the land, killing anything in their way. And this is what's going to happen, so who knows how bad the real thing will be once seen from lenses outside of those of Link and Zelda?
- Second, there's the moment Astor is "chosen" as the Dark Messiah. The Malice surrounds this otherwise generic man, and literally transforms him into the ugly emaciated man who we see in the previous story. His face is literally described as visibly shifting under his skin.
- Finally, there's the death of the entire cult. In the game, the Malice just goes around killing everyone in the cult without much violence. They just fall to the ground dead. In this version, Astor maliciously declares himself to be the Calamity, and claims that the others' future ends here. All while laughing malevolently and sadistically, he one by one sucks out their souls. One of the dead bodies breaks open its skull on a rock during the fall. Among the victims include Astor's brother, wife, and his own preteen daughter. The others scream and beg for Astor to stop until he rips her soul out and discards her body. This guys really crosses the Moral Event Horizon.
3 - Road to the Ancient Tech Lab
- The original lighthearted game glossed over any consequences of the monster invasions. This one does not shy away from the devastation left in the wake of these monster invading. People are left dead and traumatized and some of them lost their homes. An invasion is nothing to take lightly.
- The entire fight with the corrupted Guardian.
- The corruption of the Guardian itself. It comes dangerously close to killing Zelda right off the bat. Had it not been for Uava and Grépe's intervention, she'd have been dead. It's also a teaser of the Foregone Conclusion of Hyrule's fate.
- Impa, Tyria, Ulo collectively fight the Guardian...and they're almost completely ineffective. They have no way of really fighting the Guardians themselves in personal combat. The only reason no one is killed is because of Zelda activating another Guardian to fight it.
- It's explicitly confirmed that Astor was the one responsible for the Guardian corruption. He and the Catalyst Guardians are already hard at work to ensure the Calamity happens. And we already know it does...
4 - Eccentric Geniuses
- The North Lomei Labyrinth serves up some serious doses of nightmarish imagery.
- Hestu, Link, and Bani have a collective Oh, Crap! moment when they realize that the archaeology team that was supposed to already be at the labyrinth ahead of them wasn't there.
- The group discovers a Trail of Blood in the labyrinth, and that's where they find the dead body of a Sheikah researcher, Apelia. In that moment, they're not aware that they're being watched by Astor.
- They even discover more bodies as they investigate the labyrinth, and even find signs of Malice. Then they what happens when people are touched by Malice at the labyrinth entrance: people are consumed by it, locked into pained expressions and posed in ways unnatural to human bodies.
- Astor finally reveals himself to the group, attacking them all with Malice-infused magic. He swiftly loses to Link, but Hestu and Bani are not as tough as Link and have to flee from him.
5 - Cult of Demise
- Impa finds the disturbing cite of Astor's massacre of his own cult. She's subtly horrified by what she finds, and the Astor himself confronts her, clearly ready to use his horrendous dark Malice magic to kill Impa should he wish. Especially ominous are his boastful claims of how the heroes won't stop him...especially since the audience knows that one way or another wins.
- Once again, another team of Sheikah researchers is violently murdered, this time the one in Lomei Labyrinth Island, and most of them are killed by being dissolved into the Malice. In fact, Link even spots Sooga and Kolana watching them in the labyrinth, and it's at this point that they realize that Astor is their ally. It turns out that it was their intent for Link to realize this fact, indicating manipulation on the part of the Yiga Clan.
- The expanded sublevel of Lomei Labyrinth Island comes with numerous portraits, including one of Hyrule Castle floating over a cloud of Malice, and a portrait of monsters resembling long-horned Bokoblins and helmet-wearing Moblins. It unnerves most of the group, especially when they notice something that looks like a mummified corpse screaming in perpetual pain beneath Hyrule Castle.
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's nightmare-inducing announcement trailer is teased here with Link, Zelda, and Impa all hearing a strange heartbeat the moment the subterranean chamber of Lomei Labyrinth Island is discovered. None of them know what this means.
6 - Zora Wellspring
- The fate of the Lightning Lynel is just horrendous. It's left in agony with Malice infecting its body, but not outright killing it. It's not until Astor decides to kill and absorb it into the Malice Orb that it's suffering ends.
- This chapter teases a potential reason why the Blights were so well-tailored to combat their respective Champions: the Catalyst Guardians and Astor were actively stalking the heroes to foil their plans.
- The clip where Astor takes possession over Master Kohga. It's a very understated scene that occurs quickly, but it also establishes just how dangerous Malice is, in that it doesn't just conquer machines but living beings too. It even has the ability to imitate Master Kohga's personality and mannerisms, though a little bit imperfectly. Even so, the fact that it does this can easily cause Paranoia Fuel, since you might never know who is real or who's possessed by Malice.
7 - Gerudo Tempest
- Astor's true nature as a Bad Boss is slipping through here. It turns out that the reason there were Yiga members near Urbosa and Zelda was because Astor was using them as Cannon Fodder so that the Catalyst Guardians could witness Urbosa's combat style.
- Master Kohga's fate is horrible at this point. He is trapped in his own mind in a tempest of Malice, with only his will to fulfill his as-of-yet unrevealed purpose keeping him from being wiped out entirely. He can see and hear, but he can't do anything to control himself, leaving him a prisoner in his own body. Even worse is the implication that this might be the reason for Master Kohga's Jumping Off the Slippery Slope to becoming the violent murderous person he becomes 100 years later.
