WMG / The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

Wild Mass Guessing for The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Feel free to add theories about whatever you like.

Concerning Link

Link is not a reincarnation of the Hero of Time

He's just a normal boy who happens to have a resemblance to him. His name might not even be "Link", since apparently not all Link's are named "Link".

• This is already confirmed, as the resurrection cycle was broken in this timeline after the Hero of Time returned to his timeline.

The Hero of Winds is descended from The Minish Cap Link.

This would explain how Link's "family shield" was also "used by the hero himself" — the game's backstory implies that this was the Hero of Time, but it looks nothing like the Kokiri or Hylian Shields, and the Hero of Time didn't sire any descendants in this timeline. It looks identical, however, to the Small Shield that Zelda gives to Link in The Minish Cap. The Links from both games are also identical to each other, and are the only iterations to have grandparents.

It's also what makes Link the perfect candidate for the new hero - he's not a reincarnation of any previous one, nor is he a descendant of the Hero of Time... but he is the descendant of Minish Link, one of the only two heroes who still existed in this branch.

Link and Zelda are older than they look

They look like ten-year-old kids because of the art style, but think about it. At the beginning of the game, Link's Granny says he's the same age as the Legendary Hero. But Wind Waker takes place in the adult timeline where Link did his best work at the age of 17. Also, his age in the game is never actually given (at least not in game).

• Toon Link's trophy in Brawl states that he was 12.
  • Smash isn't knowing for giving accurate or consistent data, though.

Tetra and WW Link are currently in the possession of their Triforce pieces.

We never saw the Triforce again after it split up to flood Hyrule once and for all, so it may have gone back to Tetra and Link, since they are its chosen holders. This also opens up the possibility that Ganon(dorf) is still alive, since Twilight Princess has shown how damn hard he is to kill with the Triforce of Power on his hand. The Master Sword probably just put him into stasis, like it did with Hyrule. Also, the grafik of Phantom Hourglass stylized Tetra's and Link's hands so much that it would be very hard to tell if they were having the symbols on them, and Link seems to be a lot stronger in this game than he was in Wind Waker, beating more temples in shorter time (but this could just be due to that stupid Triforce-shard-quest in WW...)

Just like Ocarina of Times Zelda was one of the seven sages of the sacred realm, The Wind Wakers Link is the third sage of the Master Sword.

He's using an instrument and the Master Sword doesn't completely get back all of its power until he finds the Triforce of Courage and, therefore "awakens".

• Last I checked, it was back at full power when Makar joined Medli in prayer for the Master Sword's power. How does it power up again when you get the Triforce Of Courage without saying so?
  • The Triforce symbol on the hilt lights up.
• This seems to be supported by Skyward Sword: The Goddess Sword is imbued with the power of the three flames and becomes the Master Sword, but it isn't until Zelda affords it the power of the Triforce that it becomes The True Master Sword.

Concerning Tetra

Tetra's family originally hailed from Greatfish Isle.

It would've been quite a leap for them to have switched from "ruling family of the kingdom" to "terrifying gang of pirates who pilfer and rob their own former subjects" — it's only sensible that they initially adopted a more obscure lifestyle as peaceful islanders, to hide their noble origins and keep under the radar in the event that Ganon ever made his return. Then, a few generations later, a group of them tired of that kind of life and switched to piracy on the open seas. Jabun even asks the King of Red Lions whether he has found one who carries on the royal line, whereas neither of the other spirits ever mention this, suggesting that he may've been in touch with them when they lived on his home island, and then lost contact after they left.

It would also explain Tetra's odd behavior during the Nayru's Pearl questline, and why she would be more concerned about Outset's well-being than treasure and riches. She's already seen her home destroyed by Ganon and doesn't want the same thing to happen to Link's island. She doesn't actually care who gets the pearl.

The "persona" of Tetra was due to the same magic that turned Zelda into Sheik

• The two characters have a lot in common — they're both alter-egos of the princess with the intent of keeping hidden from Ganondorf, both have tan skin, advanced skillsets in sneakery, and wear primarily blue and white, with red accents. Here's how it happened: when the Great Flood occurred, the princess of the time used the Triforce of Wisdom to assume the form of Sheik, like her ancestor did, when she escaped to the surface of the Great Sea, and this magical guise was passed down onto her descendants, although intermingling with Hylians over the years led to certain features (namely the red eyes) being weaned out of the bloodline. This explains why Tetra and Princess Zelda have different skin tones and body types — it's not "what she would look like if she were born as Princess Zelda" — it's what she naturally looks like, without the magic of the Triforce of Wisdom keeping her in disguise.

Concerning Ganondorf

Ganondorf isn't sealed permanently

Chances are the magic of the Sword and his own magic are going to preserve him rather well, so he won't erode. Eventually, somebody is going to decide to try looking for sunken treasure in the ruins of Old Hyrule, and dredge up this weird statue of a Gerudo with a sword in it... and then it's just a matter of waiting until someone or something manages to convince a Link that he needs the now-available Master Sword.

• When the Master Sword gets sealed in something, isn't it normal for the sword to be unpullable except by a chosen hero? So if anybody is going to pull the sword out of Ganondorf, it's going to be a future Link, and Ganondorf's track record against people named Link is miserable.
  • Unless something else bad comes up that crosses the Godzilla Threshold, forcing Link to draw the sword, resulting in either Ganondorf's redemption or the plot to be Hijacked by Ganon.
  • Jossed; Word of God is that Ganondorf is completely and officially dead as of The Wind Waker's end.

The magical shell protecting Hyrule-that-Was and keeping it frozen in time was not created by the Goddesses, but by Ganondorf.

During Link's second visit to the Forsaken Fortress, Ganondorf tells him that his pulling the Master Sword from the Pedestal of Time both unfroze time in Hyrule, and broke the seal on Ganondorf's power. This troper never really understood the connection between these two things, but here's a theory:

When Link first travels to Hyrule below the waves, he finds the castle seemingly under attack by Moblins and Darknuts. This seems to indicate that Ganondorf was in the midst of a direct attack on Hyrule when time was frozen. The theory goes that the Goddesses began their flood of Hyrule in the midst of Ganon's attack on the Castle. Ganondorf, sensing what was happening, began to apply his vast magical powers to try and reverse the floodwaters and preserve the kingdom so he could conquer it. He summoned a large magical barrier in the shape of a shell, encompassing the entire land of Hyrule, keeping it dry. He did possess a third of the Triforce, after all. He may have had a chance at succeeding. Someone in the Castle, maybe King Daphnes himself, saw what Ganondorf was doing, and rushed to the Pedestal of Time, knowing that the Master Sword was capable of altering the flow of time. He pulled the sword and replaced it, freezing time. Thus, the attack was halted in its tracks, and all of the magical energy that Ganondorf was using to preserve the kingdom was frozen in time as well, unreachable and unuseable by Ganondorf. Ganondorf himself eventually regained enough strength to break free of the time-freeze and invade the world above, but it wasn't until Link drew the Master Sword from the Pedestal that the "seal" on his power was broken and he re-aquired his full strength.

• The Master Sword alone isn't capable of controlling time. That was only the case for the Hero of Time, when it was being kept in the Temple of Time in Ocarina of Time. Also, the Master Sword can't be drawn by anyone but the chosen hero, so King Daphnes wouldn't have been able to.

Ganondorf is Killed Off for Real at the end of The Wind Waker.

• No, taking a Master Sword to the forehead and being turned to stone isn't what sealed his fate (though it did finish him off). Reassembling the Triforce required the three chosen ones to give up their pieces. After the wish was made by the King of Hyrule, the Triforce departed, leaving Ganondorf with nothing. It is not much of a stretch to assume that his possession of the Triforce of Power kept him from truly dying, which would explain why he always returned in the other timelines. He has yet to return in the Wind Waker's timeline, so it's safe to assume that he really is gone this time.
• Actually, Ganondorf's death can be inferred from Hyrule Historia, which says that the cycle started by Demise at the end of Skyward Sword is ended by Wind Waker. Which can happen only if Demise (Ganondorf) is dead.
  • Makes sense, then, that none of the later games in the Wind Waker timeline deals with Ganon(dorf) or the Triforce.
  • This Troper believes maybe that isn't the case, mainly because the fact that the sword is unreachable, and even by the time it is (using technology like subs) how likely is it that Link or someone else who is worthy will be there to attempt to remove it? The cycle is literally ended on the back of how improbable it would be to find and find someone capable of removing the sword more than on that Ganondorf died. Which even then this troper would have to ask....Why didn't it just reincarnate? Yes Ganon is dead, but Demise said he specified "[My hatred] will be born a new, a cycle with NO end" and "[Link and Zelda's bloodline] will be eternally bound to this curse".
    • The curse doesn't seem to refer only to Ganondorf. Others, such as Bellum and Malladus, could count as said manifestations, as well.
    • This troper thinks the curse is over, mainly due to a bit of exact wording. Demise said "share the blood of the goddess and the spirit of the hero". However, in this timeline, the one bearing the spirit of the hero was sent back into the child timeline at the end of OOT. It's stated by several characters that WW Link does not have the spirit of the hero. As such, the two conditions for the curse (blood of the goddess and the spirit of the hero) are not fulfilled. Only the blood of the goddess part of that statement is true. As such, the curse won't be triggered again. Furthermore, Ganondorf is only there because he was sealed in the sacred realm at the end of the OOT Adult Timeline. He's more-or-less grandfathered in.

Ganon is a Death Seeker

Think about it. His actions do not resonate as someone who wants to live. They really seem more like someone who is just looking to make enough noise that someone will try to stop him, allowing him to commit Suicide by Cop. Even his speech doesn't sound like someone who wants to win, but rather someone who's just sick of it all, was tired of fighting, and just wanted it to be done. He didn't even try to flee the sinking Hyrule... like at all.

• With the Triforce stolen away, his last hope was gone, leaving him to lash out but never killing Zelda to ensure victory.

A factor in Ganondorf's permanent death is him letting go of his desire

Related to above, he at the moment of his mortal wound, fully gives up since his last effort to eek out some sort of victory has failed. There was no defiance or rage as his past and other timeline selves had expressed. This was enough to break his connection to the Demise curse cycle as it's based on desire/rage.

Ganondorf doesn't seem to hate Link because he didn't have the Spirit of the Hero.

Gannon(dorf) is know to be an if not the incarnation of the curse Demise put on the Spirit of the Hero. Now assuming the Spirit stayed with Ocarina of Time Link when he went to Termina this Link naturally wouldn't posses it, so there was no reason for Gannon(dorf) to hate him.

• While this does make sense in theory, Ganondorf never shows any signs of not hating this iteration of Link. He still has the Helmaroc King toss him into the sea, tries to kill him himself before Tetra intervenes, and even tells Link not to betray his expectations before putting him up against Puppet Ganon. It would seem that Ganondorf is basically testing the Hero of Winds just as the Golden Goddesses were, trying to figure out whether this new hero is worthy of his unyielding hatred and fury. (And in the end, he seems to decide that yes, he is.)

There are no fish in the great sea because Ganondorf killed them.

Everybody who played Twilight Princess knows that Ganondorf's one weakness is, in fact, not the Master Sword, but that fancy fishing rod Colin made for Link. Clearly, Wind Waker Ganondorf wanted to eliminate the possibility of anyone facing him with a fishing-rod in his inventory, so he killed all the fish. Simple.

• But not all the fish in Wind Waker are killed, so possibly... that debt the first one you meet mentioned was incurred because they asked for the king's protection... and maybe they weren't technically his responsibility to begin with? Unless there's something that actually states what that debt was all about...

Concerning Other Characters

The three swordsmen on Outset Island represent the Triforce in total

• Orca represents Power. He spends all his time either honing his own physique, or training Link in the ways of the sword.
• Sturgeon represents Wisdom. Retired from swordplay, he spends all his time in careful study. He outright states that he wishes to imbue Link with wisdom.
• Link, obviously, represents Courage.
• Orca considers Sturgeon a weakling and an embarrassment for not maintaining his physical prowess and spending all his time with books. Sturgeon considers Orca a roughian and a Jerk Jock for spending all his time working out and carelessly breaking Sturgeon's belongings with all the commotion. The two embody what happens when one's life is out of balance, showing that both "all brawn and no brains" and "all brains and no brawn" are paths leading to frustration, anger, and even broken families. Link, on the other hand, learns valuable lessons in Power and Wisdom from them, and balances them with his own Courage to prove himself worthy of being the next Hero.
  • This is believable as the Zelda games is fond of having things in three along those lines. It'd be more telling if Orca wore read and Sturgeon wore blue.

Tingle is a Death Eater.

• Seriously, look at what's on the back of his green outfit. It's a picture of a cobra about to strike! (When I discovered this, it was during the stormy Endless Night chapter of the game, which made my Fridge Horror even worse.)

Lenzo is Link's grandfather.

When you're in the photo shop at Windfall Island, you can see the photographs Lenzo has taken and get commentary from him as well. When you come to a picture of Outset Island, Lenzo says something like, "When I was but a lad, I met a beautiful young girl there. Although I suspect she is not as young as she once was...". The young girl he means was Link's grandmother when she was only 18 or 19. Lenzo was the same age, and they were young lovers. He left a few weeks after he met her, and nine months later she had Link's mother (or father).

• This troper is speechless...

The Queen of the Great Fairies is Fi.

An obvious one really. The Queen looks quite a bit like a younger version of Fi (or more accurately, Fi is an older version of the Queen), but since they're both Really 700 Years Old, it doesn't really matter. Perhaps, after they flooded Hyrule, they drew Fi out of the Master Sword (Ganondorf killed the two Sages, so it was already de-powered anyways), and made her the new Queen to help the next hero that would inevitably appear. (And if the new appearances of the other Great Fairies in WW isn't a straight-up Art Shift, perhaps Fi recreated them in the interim.) She even says that she likes Link when they meet, probably because he reminds her of her old master.

• It's implied that the form the Fairy Queen takes isn't her true appearance, considering how she goes out of her way to refer to Link as "child" and "young one" — she's clearly reminding him (or at least letting him know) that there's a significant age gap in between them.

Nudge is a Sheikah

Nudge is Zelda's confidant and the strongest of the pirates. In the ancient portrait in Hyrule Castle, his ancestor was the only female attendant. This attendant was the Impa of that time, another nurse maid and bodyguard. Now Nudge fills in the Impa role of sworn protector and lancer.

Molgera is based on a Eunice aphroditois.

If you've ever seen one of these worms alive and moving, they not only bury themselves in the sand and sometimes stick their heads out like Molgera, they also resemble Molgera and swim through the water like Molgera flies through the air.

Zephos and Cyclos are Flat and Sharp.

They're a nicer-looking green younger brother and a sterner-looking red older brother; their shrines are at the base of Dragon Roost Mountain, which may be Death Mountain, at the base of which was Kakariko and the cemetary where you meet the Composer Brothers at their graves; the Composer Bros. hold white batons and Zephos gives Link the Wind Waker at his shrine; and the Composer Bros. write and (at least in Majora's Mask) can use environmental-conditions-impacting Magic Music which they teach to Link in both games they show up in. Zelda-verse music is powerful stuff - who knows if being an expert in it could get/earn a bump from Poe to nature spirit somewhere in how-many-years?

• Zephos doesn't give Link the Wind Waker, though. The King of Red Lions does.

Miss Marie is a necromancer

Why the hell else would she have freaking zombies in her basement? It's made fairly clear throughout the series that the dead don't just rise on their own, all of the undead creatures in the LOZ universe are created by forces of dark magic. The reason she had a house on such a remote island is so she could practice her necromancy in secrecy. She inexplicably gives the deed to Link hoping the ReDeads in the basement will kill him, thus giving her an exceptional specimen to experiment on.

• This is only really plausible if you take every piece of evidence at face value; we're given no reason to think that Ms. Marie knew anything about the Redeads underneath the cabana, especially since the "basement" being referenced clearly isn't a basement; by all appearances, it's just some kind of sewer system or reservoir that the cabana was built on top of. In particular, the Redeads are tucked away in the deepest, most remote parts of this system, in a section that looks to be even older, and you can only leave the room they're in through a crawlspace too small for Ms. Marie to fit through. She's just some person who owns a house that happens to have some dead bodies buried underneath it.

Alternatively, Ms. Marie is a descendant of the Sheikah, and her Cabana is her equivalent of a Shrine.

It's noted that despite Sheikah having been a pretty consistent part of Hylian society in a number of games, and their heavy importance to the lore, that Wind Waker is distinctly lacking in their appearance. Easy enough to assume that they must have died out. However, Ms. Marie is distinct in several major factors:

• 1) In the original GameCube release, she gave you the valuable Hero's Charm, which has many elements in it's design similar to that of a Sheikah artifact.
• 2) Additionally, her clothing has the Lens of Truth on it as a pattern. On the one hand, it could be possibly a form of cultural osmosis; a trendy piece of clothing using long forgotten designs on it. On the other hand, she's the only one who has these designs on her clothing, and her circumstances are quite unusual.
• 3) Why would she just happen to have a deed that has such an elaborate underground system, with a mysterious magical door butler, and a hole hidden in her fireplace? Given how small the cabana was, it's not likely that she could have failed to notice that those things are there...unless she was aware it was there all along, and knew what was hidden there.
• 4) Butterflies in some cultures have a strong association with death and resurrection...two motifs VERY heavily tied with the Sheikah as a whole, and their past affiliations with death including the Shadow Temple and the Bottom of the Well, a temple set in the back of a graveyard and buried torture chambers hidden beneath Kakariko Village. And Kakariko Village's theme is heavily associated with Windfall Island, being a much more jolly remix...

Thus it's entirely possible that she's one of the last Sheikah in existence, or at least a descendant, and was able to realize far ahead of basically everyone else besides the King of Red Lions that Link was something special. But given both her circumstances as one of the last Sheikah, Ganondorf being around, and also not being sure if Link was the one who would bear the mantle of hero, she had to test him in a subtle way. So why not send him hunting for Joy Pendants, both for their symbolic association with Death and Resurrection (and being her favorite jewelry), to see if he was willing to go far enough, to show his courage and worthiness of heading into the Cabana's underbelly when the time was right?

Wizzrobes are Rito who fell to the Dark Side

They look very alike — Wizzrobes resemble toucans, and Rito resemble hawks or gulls, and that can easily be attributed to an Evil Makeover.

The Moblins are polymorphed Gerudos

Compare the weapons they wield and the markers in Gerudo valley from Ocarina of Time. The similarity is pretty striking, isn't it? Plus, the Moblins themselves (in this game, at least) resemble large, bipedal pigs... a form Ganondorf has taken on at the end of almost every game in the series (the exceptions being when he was in that form to begin with or not there at all). In addition, they seem to be a One-Gender Race (all male), which would be a kind of Ironic Hell for the all-female, man-hating Gerudos...

• There are so many leaps of logic in this entry that they need to be touched upon one at a time:
  • Compare the weapons they wield and the markers in Gerudo valley from Ocarina of Time. The similarity is pretty striking, isn't it? ...So what? Ganondorf was also from Gerudo Valley, and it's doubtful he would let his underlings choose their own weapons anyway.
  • Plus, the Moblins themselves (in this game, at least) resemble large, bipedal pigs... a form Ganondorf has taken on at the end of almost every game in the series (the exceptions being when he was in that form to begin with or not there at all). ...Again, so what? What does this have to do with the Gerudo if Ganondorf is the one who became a pig-monster in every game? And for that matter, the Moblins have resembled pigs in almost all of their appearances to date.
  • In addition, they seem to be a One-Gender Race (all male), which would be a kind of Ironic Hell for the all-female, man-hating Gerudos... That's kind of true, but it's not enough to substantiate this entire theory. Ganondorf already brainwashed his people to follow him exactly as they were in his debut game; one would think that would be enough for him this time around. The game already implies that he slaughtered his people upon his return anyway, considering the way the door to his lair is all decked out in skulls, machetes, and some red coloring that looks suspiciously like blood.

Aryll was the Third Sage

Aonuma confirmed some time ago that the two scrapped dungeons from WW were one where you go inside Jabun and a third sage temple. That means there would've been a third sage, and based on what we can infer about the other two, the most likely candidate for the third is Aryll. Here's why:

• Reason 1: The basic framework

• Both of the sages in the game, Medli and Makar, are characters that are significant early in the game and driving forces in the narrative of the first two dungeons. Aryll is significant early on and a driving force in the narrative of the game.
  • Remember the other scrapped dungeon you mentioned, though? If Jabun had a dungeon centered around him, odds are it would've been located on Greatfish Isle where he originally lived. Medli and Makar were both significant because they were attendants to Valoo and the Great Deku Tree, meaning there was probably an equivalent character you would've met on Greatfish Island who looked after Jabun, a la Princess Ruto in Ocarina of Time. As it is, Aryll has no preestablished connection to Jabun and isn't even native to the island he was originally from. She also doesn't play any kind of an instrument like Medli and Makar do, so it's unlikely she was meant to be grouped up with them.

• Reason 2: Connection to the guardians

• Medli is connected to Valoo and Makar is connected to the Great Deku Tree. It stands to reason that Sage #3 would've been connected to Jabun. We never see any signs of a previous civilization on Greatfish Isle, nor does it seem big enough to be home to an entire separate race. However, Jabun has a second home, an island where he would go if Ganon returned, and that just so happens to have a cave that will fit him. This seens to hint that the sage Jabun was connected to and tasked with overseeing lives on Outset Island. Furthermore, there are two instances where, while you're in the process of finding a way to meet with Jabun, a character states "Jabun is hiding in the back of the island you were born on", the last six words of which are even highlighted in red as if this detail is really important and significant.
  • Except there are most definitely hints that a settlement once existed on Greatfish Isle; there are two canoes sitting on the beach and what looks like a wrecked hut atop one of the slopes. There's no way of telling how different the island looked before it was destroyed. As for the bits about "the island you were born on" being significant, you're taking those from the final game. There were other things that had to be left out besides the two scrapped dungeons; your theory treats it as though they would've just been dropped into the final product with no fine-tuning needed to account for them. As mentioned above, it's unlikely that Greatfish would've been destroyed if Jabun had his own dungeon and the third sage had been kept in.

• Reason 3: The letters

• Throughout the game, you receive letters from lots of different people. Three in particular are interesting. All three of them mention wanting Link to visit again someday. The letters are from the Rito Chieftan, the Great Deku Tree, and Aryll. You do indeed visit Dragon Roost Island and Forest Haven again to awaken the sages, but you never see Aryll again, and she never returns to Outset Island.
  • This is incorrect for a couple of reasons. You might just be misremembering, but at no point does Link receive a letter from the Deku Tree or anyone else from the Forest Haven, and Aryll never mentions wanting Link to visit her again in the letter she sends to him. All it says is, "I'm on the pirate ship, I'm sending you some money, you can keep using my telescope, and good luck!"

• Reason 4: The credits music

• During the credits, four songs play. These are Earth God's Lyric, Wind God's Aria, Zelda's Lullaby, and Aryll's Theme. Unlike Zelda's Lullaby, which stands on its own, Aryll's theme flows directly into Wind God's Aria, suggesting a connection between Aryll and the sages.
  • As you pointed out earlier, though, Aryll is already a significant part of the game's narrative, and the Wind God's Aria isn't only significant to the sages as it's part of the game's main theme.

• Reason 5: The ending cutscene

• In the ending cutscene, when Link and Tetra awaken to see Tetra's ship, several other characters are there in addition to Tetra's crew. This includes Medli, Makar (who were both probably picked up by the pirates now once their duties as the sages were complete), Komali (who is obviously just there to see Medli), and Aryll. As mentioned before, Aryll never returns to Outset. Why not? Because her return to Outset was part of her being a sage, and when that got cut, she was left on the pirate ship so that the ending cutscene would make sense. What drives this home is that, unlike every other cutscene in the game, the final one is pre-rendered. This scene was set in stone. Aryll couldn't return to Outset after the rest of her story got cut because the devs would have to redo the entire final cutscene, and they didn't have the time because of the rush for the holiday release date.
  • This part seems like you're just trying to explain away an issue that isn't there. In the final game, there's nothing strange about Aryll being on the pirate ship during the ending because that's where she was when Link last heard from her, and it makes for a more emotionally satisfying ending if Link gets to reunite with his sister after his journey is over. There's no need for all this writing in circles to explain it as her originally returning to Outset, but then being kept on the pirate ship because they didn't want to redo a single pre-rendered cutscene. This is just an explanation for how your theory could be possible, not evidence in support of it.

Beedle is an older Link who travelled back in time

Beedle, of Beedle's Floating Ship Shop, is Link all grown up. He not only knows where Link is headed next, but gets there before he does and knows exactly what he's going to buy. Link would probably grow in power as he aged, and it makes sense to dye your hair and conceal your identity if you're going to be dealing with a past self.

• However, time travel in the Zelda universe has never allowed anyone to interact with themselves — Link either travels to periods before his birth (OoA, TP, SS), or overwrite his own past self (OoT, MM). Then again, each game has different rules for time travel due to different methods...

Tingle is Ganondorf in disguise.

In order for Ganon's Evil Plan to succeed, he needs Link to find and bring the Triforce of courage. The whole game is an attempt to capture Zelda, turn Link into someone capable of gathering the Triforce shards, and then luring him to Ganondorf's castle so that the three Triforce pieces could be joined together. Ganon, disguised as Tingle, helped Link by deciphering the Triforce charts, while funding his own sinister operations through the exorbitant fees he charges for this service. This sounds implausible, but really, Tingle's searing evilness becomes obvious after a few seconds of interacting with him.

• Alternatively, Tingle simply is the Zelda version of the anti-christ and needs no reason to sear evil.

The fairy doll that the Fairy Queen crushes?

Was a real fairy. Her life force went to Link's powerup, either because of displeasing the fairy queen, or worse, the fairy queen thinking, "eh, I've got five others anyway, and this thing is conveniently here now. Poof!"

Prince Komali's grandmother was killed by the great Valoo in his rage.

Even for someone who just failed to get his wings, Komali behaves incredibly Emo when you first encounter him in the game. He's also incredibly attached to Din's pearl, which previously belonged to his granny. Just a few minutes latter, we learn from Medli that his Grandma was her teacher and an attendant of Valoo as well. The same Valoo, who's now rampaging and destroying everything in his sight, because of that pesky, little crab-monster under his nest, who won't stop yanking his tail. My guess: Grandma Komali went up, tried to calm him down, got incinerated. Leaving her grandson even more upset than he already was and her pupil in despair. Hurray for the great sky spirit Valoo.

Fado, the Wind Sage from The Wind Waker is Saria's son. And Link is the father.

This one takes quite a few inspirations; first off, Fado looks A LOT like Link, and not just because of the Kokiri clothing (though that definitely helps). What happened is that at some points during the events of Ocarina of Time, Link and Saria ended up having some form of relationship during his adult years prior to his going back in time, and they bore a child. However, Link was sent back in time before ever getting to see his son. After he was born, Saria decided to name the child after one of her close friends: Fado, another one of the Kokiri who lived in the Forest with the Deku Tree.

Eventually, there came a time when new temples were being built for prayer in the name of the Master Sword, which was left behind by the Hero of Time. What temples did they decide to build? Well, there's a theory that the Forest Temple in Ocarina was originally going to be a Wind Temple: The symbol of the Forest Medallion could pass for a wind symbol, and the Forest Temple trial in Ganon's Castle has wind puzzles.

Assuming this is true, an actual Wind Temple was built with close ties to the Forest Temple. When they needed a Sage for the new temple, they appointed the child of the Forest Temple's sage (and the Hero of Time's son himself!). There, Fado would pray to the gods in hopes that they would continue to lend their blessing to the Master Sword. It helps that Fado, like his mother, also has a musical passion, but he preferred the violin to the ocarina.

• Taking this a step further, because Fado was never raised by Link, he never learned any of the hero's skills, and was unable to defend himself from Molgera when Ganon attacked the Wind Temple. Link (OoT) may regret that he never got to raise the son he had in another timeline, and this regret would manifest itself in such a way that, even after death, his soul could not rest until he could teach and pass on his greatest skills. He would become the Hero's Shade, and his guilt would not be lifted until the events of Twilight Princess, when he was finally able to pass his skills down to another one of the chosen heroes.
  • The Shade's quotes also hint towards this a lot. He tells Link "Although I accepted life as the hero, I could not convey the lessons of that life to those who came after." That is, his heroic destiny was great, but it also robbed him of the chance to pass his abilities down to his son 'who came after'. Afterwards, he says to Link "Go and do not falter, my child!"
• This seems unlikely... I always assumed that the Deku Sprout's statement that Kokiri never grow up implies they never become sexually mature, and reproduce through some other method. The theory that they're plant-based and grown from the Deku Tree's seeds is a popular one, and I think that makes sense for forest fairy creatures.

WW's Fado was the "Kokiri who left the forest and is still alive" that that one Gossip Stones spoke of.

Because it's possible that he left for his temple before OoT (and not after like many people think). Also, if we see the Kokiri in Skyward Sword (which I hope we do), we might even meet him before he leaves. And maybe Saria too.

Fado is a reincarnation of the Fado of OoT.

Same name, same hair color, and there was evidence she was supposed to be a wind sage. He is her reincarnated and is living her prophecy of being a sage.

Concerning the Great Sea and its Islands

The sea and Hyrule are located in an alternate Earth

• The constellations are the same as in Real Life. That's enough to guess it.

Windfall is the remains of the Hyrule Castle from Ocarina of Time.

• If you look at the town's entrance, it looks similar to the barred guard gate you use to sneak inside to meet Zelda; also, the buildings may have been built from the same materials as the castle itself. It also seems to be where the castle town was.
  • But the whole castle is underwater.
  • I think this person meant the original castle, since Hyrule Castle seems to be rebuilt every game.
    • I think the person you're responding to means that you actually visit Hyrule Castle, and it's underwater, well south of Windfall, so it can't be the remains of it. Note that the area around Hyrule Castle strongly resembles that around Hyrule Castle in Ocarina of Time, too, so it's not a rebuilt castle in the meantime.
  • More likely is that Windfall is the remains of Kakariko Village, not too far from Death Mountain, which would be Dragon Roost Island. The alternative conclusion is that the Castle was actually moved to where Lon Lon Ranch was, which could explain the similar geography, and accurately place Kokiri Forest/Forest Haven, Death Mountain/Dragon Roost Island, Gerudo Fortress/Forsaken Fortress, and possibly Lake Hylia/Outset Island.
  • It's highly unlikely that Windfall is the remains of Hyrule Castle from Ocarina of Time. The Wind Waker takes place in the adult timeline, where Adult Link defeated Ganondorf and ceased to exist when he was sent back to the past. The relevance of this is that Ganon destroyed Hyrule Castle, so it no longer exists as of TWW for anyone to build on it. (This incidentally is also why a new castle was built elsewhere in Hyrule after Ganon was sealed in the Sacred Realm and presumably Zelda took the throne.)

Fire Mountain is part of the Death Mountain range

• It is a hot spot that is constantly moving, seeing how Dragon Roost could be Death Mountain but is not as active as before, it could be the Zelda equivalent of the Hawai'i Islands.

Outset island is the remains of Lake Hylia waterfront.

• The gap between the two islands is the path that led to Hyrule Field; also, Aryll's lookout appears to be built from the remains of the lakeside laboratory, specifically the tower you can access via magic bean.

The Forsaken Fortress once belonged to the Sheikah

Take a good look at the entrance to the Ship perched on top: there are Sheikah eye symbols on the door!

• It could be a coincidence, though, since there seems to be only a vague resemblance...
• Alternatively Ganon already took out the remnants of the sheik and has been using the half of there ship that isn't at the bottom of the ocean as part of his base and a trophy.
  • More likely, the fortress was once the hideout of the Gerudo, since it and their home were in similar locations. Might explain why there are skulls and machetes strung up along the suspiciously-red-splattered walls outside Ganondorf's chamber...

Windfall Island is Kakariko Village.

It's near Dragon Roost Island, rumored to be Death Mountain, and it has a windmill, just like in OoT, it's the main town, just like it was for most of OoT, and its music has a few points where it sounds like Kakariko Village's theme in OoT. The only question is how it didn't end up underwater. Perhaps Kakariko is higher up than we thought?

• It's probably meant to be a successor to the original village, built on higher ground by residents who had survived through the flood.

Location, Location, Location

In between Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker, there was a Great Flood, which turned Hyrule into the Great Sea. Although most of it was underwater, many of the islands and locations seem to be remnants of the drowned kingdom. (And as for how those places became islands instead of staying underwater - the Goddesses raised them up.)

• The Gerudo Fortress = The Forsaken Fortress.
• Castle Town = Windfall Island.
  • The architecture on the island seems to resemble a castle. The resemblance to Kakariko Village is due to the residents of Kakariko moving to Windfall and rebuilding their homes. Eventually, the sub-cultures/architecture of the people from Castle Town and Kakariko Village merged, and they created Windfall.
  • Doesn't explain its proximity to Death Mountain/Dragon Roost, nor how it's so far from the castle. I suggest that it's the opposite: as seen in (what led to the other timelines from) Ocarina of Time, the moment Ganondorf came back everyone in Castle Town ran off to Kakariko. The castle-like structure is what they knew as the best barricade against either Ganondorf or the threat of pirates in the chaotic years that probably followed the flood.
• Death Mountain = Dragon Roost Island (& Fire Mountain)
  • In Twilight Princess, it's implied that the Gorons don't need to breathe, and can stay underwater indefinitely. So most of them may have felt no need to evacuate to higher ground when the Flood came. (The three traveling merchants — all clearly Gorons — located on Greatfish Isle, Bomb Island, and Mother and Child Isles remain on the surface for business purposes.) So the Gorons stayed in Goron City.
    • The Zoras, on the other hand, despite being highly adapted to aquatic environments, weren’t so lucky. Although they seem at home in the water with their fins and gills, their humanoid bodies imply that they aren’t meant to be in the water all the time.
    • In real life, most fish are meant to be in either saltwater or freshwater; only a few, like bull sharks, can swim and breathe in both. Some of the Zoras, by praying to the Goddess Nayru, were able to adapt quickly to the saltwater environment, and settled on Greatfish Isle until it was destroyed and they all disappeared. To thank Her, they created Nayru's Pearl, which housed some of power of the Goddess Herself. They also hatched, nurtured and raised Lord Jabun, the offspring of the demigod Lord Jabu-Jabu, to watch over them as the new living Water Spirit.
    • The other Zoras travelled north to the top of Death Mountain, and turned to the Goddess Din for aid. In answer to their prayers, She gave them avian features (beaks, feathers, wings) to protect them from the scorching heat, and entrusted a dragon egg to them. This egg held the single surviving offspring of the dragon Volvagia, who was slain by the Hero of Time. When the egg hatched, Din deemed the newborn dragon to be Lord Valoo, the living Sky Spirit. The Zoras, no longer being Zoras, began to call themselves Ritos, in memory of Ruto, the Princess (and later Queen) of the Zoras in ancient times.
    • Although the Ritos had wings, their wings were not big or strong enough to enable flight. So Din instructed Valoo to give each adult Rito one of his scales (which grew back easily). These scales triggered a magical "growth spurt" that caused a Rito’s wings to grow big enough to allow flight. Eventually, it became customary for young Ritos to visit Valoo and receive their wings when they came of age. To thank the Goddess for Her kindness, the Ritos created Din's Pearl, which housed some of the power of the Goddess Herself.
• Kokiri Village and the Lost Woods = the Forest Haven and the Forbidden Woods
  • When the Great Flood came, the Kokiri were completely unprepared. They were afraid to leave their forest, and couldn’t bear to abandon their guardian, the Great Deku Tree. The Deku Tree, who had just reached his juvenile stage of growth, prayed to the Goddess Farore for aid.
    • The Goddess answered by taking away the burden of the human forms the Kokiri took on. They shed their mimicked humanoid features and became what they had always been underneath: the Koroks.
    • The Kokiri, despite their mammalian appearance, had always been sentient plant-people. Instead of blood, they had chlorophyll keeping them alive. When they became the Koroks, they became lightweight enough to use the leaves that the Great Deku Tree shed as makeshift "wings".
    • To thank the Goddess for Her kindness, the Koroks created Farore's Pearl, which housed some of the power of the Goddess Herself.
    Once upon a time, long ago, the Koroks took on human forms, but when they came to live on the sea, they took these shapes.
    —The Great Deku to Link, when the Koroks reveal themselves.

The Great Sea is a colony of a technologically advanced civilization

• The Great Sea is filled with examples of high technology, not the least of which is an electronic device functioning like a cell phone (Tingle Tuner), the multiple self-propelled boats (Beedle's Shop Ship), and the existence of cameras with the ability to save, copy, and delete images at will, much like a digital camera. The reason why the Great Sea does not have much more technology is because it is a faraway colony. The Great Sea is also very similar to maritime Europe of the 1700s, when European colonies were well established with working trade between colony and mother country. The Great Sea as seen in The Wind Waker does not have any sources or processing systems for textiles, food, or other necessary raw materials; these items are brought from the civilization mentioned earlier.

Ice Ring Isle was a lot bigger, until it melted.

The first line of the "The Cutting Room Floor" article claims that Wind Waker depicts the Zeldaverse after global warming. What if they're right?

Concerning Other Things

The Triforce's wish-granting powers are the only reason Ganon is turned to stone.

• At the end of his speech, once the Triforce is active and submerging Hyrule forever, King Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule adds one last thing:

"Ganondorf! May you drown with Hyrule!"

The Triforce took him at his word, ensuring that Ganon stays sealed as a stone at the bottom of the ocean for all time.

• Well, the king wasn't touching the Triforce when he said that part. He directed it more at Ganondorf himself than as a wish to the gods.

The Wind Waker baton doesn't make a sound.

The tones the audience hears as the cursor moves back and forth are merely from a built-in metronome of sorts. From Link's point of view, there's no sound whatsoever, just the flashes of light at the tip of the baton to help him keep time. The brief music that we hear after the player makes the correct input is actually the wind (or various spirits, if Link is indoors or underground) singing as Link conducts them.

Vaati created the Wind Waker

Vaati the Wind Mage was originally a student of the magician Ezlo, who created magic items such as the Minish Cap. Vaati created the Wind Waker under tutelage of his master, before transforming into the evil eyeball we all know today.

Fi tried to contact Tetra in this game

Similarly to Breath of the Wild, Fi had attempted to make contact with Tetra to warn her about the Master Sword's power being lost, which was signified by the sword vibrating in her presence when she reunited with Link in the Forsaken Fortress. The unfortunate part was that Tetra couldn't understand her, because she hadn't unlocked Hylia's sacred power like Wild-Zelda had.

The Wind Waker was all an elaborate plan by the King of Red Lions and Ganondorf to get rid of the Triforce and break the cycle

Following on in a way from the theory that the Goddesses want Ganondorf to have the Triforce of Power. While in most games he's in he'd do anything to get the other pieces, Wind Waker Ganondorf shows a lot more restraint, and before the final fight refuses to kill Link or Zelda to get the Triforce pieces that way. It's possible that after the great flood and the sealing away of the majority of his power, he has a My God, What Have I Done? moment, possibly when he realizes that he doomed his own race in his bid for glory and a decent place to live. He's smart enough to realize that he's stuck in a cycle and the only thing that can stop him is Link with the Triforce of Courage, which got shattered when Link went back at the end of OoT. So he conspires with the former King of Hyrule, who's as fed up with the cycle as he is, and they plan to reform the two missing shards in the hope of using the Triforce to hit a great big reset button undoing the great flood and possibly the 7 years of evil rule. To do this, Ganon has to be evil for evil's sake to encourage this: Kidnapping any girl who could possibly be Zelda.

It all goes well when TWW Link takes out the Master Sword and Tetra is revealed to be Zelda; all Link has to do is re-unite the Triforce of courage under the guidance of the King of Red Lions. However, during this time, The King decides that he can't trust Ganondorf, possibly by his off-screen handling of Zelda (who was probably resisting capture) and trying to break out of sunken Hyrule, and decides to stab Ganondorf in the back by having Link re-awaken the Master Sword to its full potential so it can kill Ganondorf. When all this is revealed, Ganondorf has a Villainous Breakdown.

Hyrule flooded because of the moonfall in Termina.

Since Link may not have been there to awaken the giants, stop Skull Kid, and prevent the moon from falling, the moon leaves a huge crater with large fissures across Termina, forcing a rift through the area that Link fell through early in the game. Much of the ocean around Termina drained into the rift, and filled Hyrule with the water that the goddesses supposedly sent to purge the land of Ganon's influence. The moonfall caused the mountains to rise as the water came through, so the goddesses may have done at least that to keep the primary landmarks of Hyrule intact.

• Alternatively, destroying the moon simply caused massive tidal issues.
• Or how about this one: Hyrule is flat, and Termina is on the opposite side (explaining how Link could "fall" through the plane and end up on the other side), but they have a single ocean which wraps around the side of the flat plane. Previously, the gravity of Termina's moon exerted tidal forces that kept most of the ocean on the Termina side (which is why Termina had more watery areas than Hyrule — the Great Bay and the Southern Swamp). Once the moon was destroyed, the water washed back, flooding Hyrule.
  • This would imply that the Hyrule/Termina plane has two moons, one that was always in a fixed position over Termina, and another that rotates around the entire plane. But then why would we not see a second moon traveling overhead in Termina?
  • Of course, since Hyrule's moon is never seen during the day, one reasonable explanation is that while Hyrule/Termina rotates, the sun and moon are in fixed positions on opposite sides of the plane. Once we're talking about flat planets, pretty much all we know about astronomy can be thrown out the window. I Need a Freaking Drink.
• Given that Majora's Mask features Link barely older than in OoT's child section, and the Great Flood takes place some time after Ganondorf's defeat in the adult section, there is no way the two events could match up unless the moon was somehow delayed for multiple years, or the effects of its impact were just that long-winded.

The Great Flood in The Wind Waker is an alternate version of Twilight Princess where Ganon wins because TP Link was never born

Eiji Aonuma has stated that The Wind Waker and the Great Flood takes place in the Adult Timeline from OoT and Twilight Princess takes place in the Child Timeline where Zelda sends Link back in time to when he was a child. It's implied that the Great Flood occurs during the first time Ganon escapes in the Adult Timeline and it's implied that Twilight Princess is the first time Ganon escapes in the Child Timeline. At the very least, this gives the two events a certain degree of parallelism.

Furthermore, it is strongly implied that TP Link is a direct descendant of OoT Link. The Hero's Shade canonically states that TP Link "carries the blood of the hero". The references in Twilight Princess to "the hero" usually refer to OoT Link. Since OoT Link ceases to exist in the Adult Timeline when he is sent back to the Child Timeline, the Hero's bloodline no longer exists in the Adult Timeline and OoT Link has no descendants in the Adult Timeline. As a result, in the Adult Timeline, TP Link is never born and this is why no hero appeared to stop Ganon in The Wind Waker's back story.

The differences between Old Hyrule in The Wind Waker and the Hyrule in Twilight Princess, such as the presence of King Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule, can be Hand Waved as a result of the Butterfly Effect from the various timeline differences, such as the different ways Ganon was sealed and that the people Ganon killed in the Adult Timeline survived in the Child Timeline.

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