WMG / The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Pre-release

Breath of the Wild sequels (pre-E3 2019 Direct)

The next major Zelda game will reintroduce Voluntary Shapeshifting to better serve the open world design.

Imagine a game world similar to this one's, but you can swim even faster through the water as a Zora, climb even faster as some frog-like creature, or even soar above the world as a Rito. Also, this would probably change the balance of Breath of the Wild too drastically for Nintendo to put it in the DLC (a Rito transformation especially has the potential to become a Game-Breaker if it means you can surmount any obstacle too easily), so they would more likely save it for a game world tailored for such transformations.

Furthermore, the story may involve Link being a Hero with Bad Publicity much like he was in A Link to the Past, which would require him to stay in his alternate forms for extended periods to keep from being recognized by NPCs.

• Jossed. Link does not transform in any way during the game.

The next 3D game will "pull a Majora's Mask/Spirit Tracks" and reuse many art assets or even in-game models.

Because Breath of the Wild took a whopping six years to make, a longer Sequel Gap than for any other Zelda game except Ocarina of Time, Nintendo will likely look for ways to speed up development of the next big game. Even though Breath of the Wild was made for the Wii U and the next game will be done for the more powerful Switch, the HD remakes of The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess demonstrate that it's easy for them to freshen up old assets to such an extent as to be impressive by more modern graphical standards (and The Wind Waker HD remake reportedly only took 6 months to accomplish, which proves that time would not be a major issue). Much like Majora's Mask, it would probably be a direct sequel rather than a story taking place centuries later in order to justify any returning characters looking exactly as they did the first time around. Nintendo could also introduce some crazy attention-getting feature to preempt accusations of It's the Same, So It Sucks, such as Princess Zelda being Promoted to Playable (something they admit to considering for Breath of the Wild originally), multiple player characters (something they tried to do for A Link to the Past), taking place in some kind of ultra-surreal setting, or something else.

• Perhaps it will be to Breath of the Wild what MM was to OoT — an extremely experimental and strange sequel in the same engine.
• So far, confirmed to be a direct sequel on the same engine and with the same art style.

If Princess Zelda ends up being Promoted to Playable, it will be this Zelda.

She will train in the traditional combat arts under Link, with the justification being that she must learn to defend herself against monsters and the Yiga Clan with the Hyrulean military gone and in case something happens to Link. Something will happen to separate Link and Zelda, whether that be Link getting kidnapped, Zelda journeying to some other land or dimension, or some combination of the two, requiring Zelda to put her new training to the test. Furthermore, this Zelda having already awoken her Royalty Super Power means that she can use magic abilities to make up for any gaps in her combat proficiency. Plus, Aonuma and company admit that they didn't make her the player character in Breath of the Wild in part because of several story-related complications (e.g. where Link would be while Zelda was adventuring, keeping "the balance of the Triforce" intact); using a preexisting Zelda like this one rather than a new made-from-scratch incarnation might make it easier for them to think through those questions, on top of her already having established connections to other characters.

• Which brings Sheik from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate to mind (see Tears of the Kingdom speculation)...
  • Jossed. Zelda isn't playable.

The Sheikah and Yiga will become more prominent in the next Zelda game(s) and there will be an Evil Counterpart of Impa for Ganondorf.

This game was a major point where the story seemed to involve loads of Sheikah elements, both in terms of lifestyle, aesthetic, and story. They even got a faction who allied themselves to Ganondorf. It would seem like such a waste to not make use of what they've made in this game for the Sheikah in any of the other games, especially since Sheikah barely got attention before.

The idea of an Impa Evil Counterpart for Ganondorf was more or less wishful thinking, but it does feel fitting as a mirror to Zelda having the Sheikah following her.

The next game will take place in a very tech-heavy setting.

While this game has a heavier Science Fantasy setting compared to previous Zelda games, the game world is still predominantly abandoned wilderness and pre-modern villages with the occasional Magitek scattered around. Nintendo may decide to take the opposite approach next time in a heavily industrialized futuristic land with sporadic patches of untouched nature. The backstory could be that a faction of Sheikah who didn't want to abandon their technology retreated to either an alternate dimension or another continent where they could continue to use and improve their technology without the Hylians getting in their business. It could be used to emphasize what Hyrule itself could have been like if they hadn't abandoned the Ancient Sheikah Technology.

• Zonai tech is used by various groups in Hyrule, so confirmed.

The "retrievable memories" mechanic will return in an altered form.

The memories provide a good way of having Story Breadcrumbs that complement the open world, nonlinear design of the game, but having another Amnesiac Hero might be seen as hewing too closely to this game's formula. The next game could, for example, replace them with videos stored on various Magitek devices designed to record significant events. The recordings could even focus more on the Big Bad rather than on the protagonists.

• Confirmed. They serve as a means to see what happened to Zelda after she was Recalled into the past.

A Gerudo male will appear in the next game...

And he will be the child of Malena, the Gerudo woman you give the Molduga guts to as a cure for her husband. Her comment on 'Link' being a 'voe-ish' name wasn't just a funny line about the Gerudo being unable to see through Link's Paper-Thin Disguise, it was actually Foreshadowing.

• Jossed. There hasn't been another male Gerudo since Ganondorf was sealed.

The next game will have a Contrasting Sequel Antagonist.

In Breath of the Wild, Calamity Ganon is an Almighty Idiot Eldritch Abomination serving as a largely impersonal force of destruction with a gruesome, monstrous physical appearance and no sympathetic qualities whatsoever. The next game might take the opposite approach by having a sympathetic but nonetheless dangerous Anti-Villain who is a normal-looking (maybe even good-looking) humanoid devoted to preserving things no matter the cost. The new villain could be a woman in order to provide further contrast. If the game is a direct sequel to Breath of the Wild rather than a story taking place in a different era, the villain could be motivated by revenge against Link and Zelda for not doing enough to stop the Calamity in the first place to provide further differentiation from Ganon.

The next game will have a high-tech device like the Sheikah Slate, but smaller.

Whereas the Sheikah Slate is basically a fantasy tablet, the new device will be more like a smart watch, or maybe even a high-tech ring. On top of differentiating the device from the Sheikah Slate visually, having an object that doesn't require Link to hold it in at least one hand would free him up to do things like attack with weapons while also using Runes.

• Jossed. We get the Purah Pad instead.

The next major game will have a more fleshed-out companion system.

As mentioned above, the interactions with Wolf Link and Yunobo indicate that Breath of the Wild's engine can handle having a companion character the player can command and fight alongside. The next game may expand on this by letting the player interact with one companion from each race. The first companion who the player meets and who sticks with them most often may be a Hylian or a Sheikah who is a Jack of All Stats and a Crutch Character (and a Sheikah character would have their tribe's signature Smoke Out Flash Step that would be useful in case the NPC's AI gets caught on parts of the environment). Any further companions would have various abilities that would be very useful in some situations but would be cumbersome in others: for example, a Zora companion could easily help out the player when traveling in or near bodies of water but would be slow and sluggish further inland, while a Rito companion could give the player a lift into the sky like Teba but would be a Fragile Speedster who would get overheated quickly in lava-filled areas. Each companion would specialize in their race's National Weapon, and the player could both have a steady supply of those weapons from each companion and also give each companion an extra supply of those weapons themselves (assuming the companions' weapons operate under the same breakability rules as those the player carries). The player could also prepare meals for the companions to eat so they can recover health and boost stats, and the meals would have to be tailored to each race's tastes (fish-based dishes for the Zora companion, rock-based dishes for the Goron companion). Lastly, all the companions would collectively fill the traditional role of the Exposition Fairy, except each companion would only have small bits of hints to give based on their own personal proficiencies.

• Somewhat, yes.

The next game will merge its main quests with its equivalent of the Tarrey Town sidequest.

One of the more common complaints about the story is that the characters of each race's plot arc, while likable and well-designed, don't interact with people outside of their races aside from Link. The next game could have a system where there is a some central hub town that the characters will converge upon once their respective arcs wrap up (e.g. once you help the Zoras with whatever problems they're dealing with, the major Zora character will travel there) while also helping build the place up into a respectable settlement.

• Mostly confirmed. Lookout Landing is the first town and player hub, and the outpost gets more populated and decorated with the convergence of NPCs from the different Hyrulean races, very much like Tarrey Town, after completing stages of the main quest. However, the characters who travel are supporting characters rather than the major heroes, and the Landing is never built up to anything more than an investigative outpost shelter. The different races and cultures are depicted intermingling in other areas as well, like Lurelin Village and some of the Monster Control squads.

If the next game is a direct sequel to this one and has shrines...

Then there will also be Yiga shrines made as traps for Link, ages ago. Some Sheikah monks became Yiga and switched from Hylia to Ganon, engineering punishing shrines for Link at the time of the schism. On the outside, Yiga shrines will look identical, save for the eye being upside-down. If your Sheikah Sensor is set to shrines, it will not go off around Yiga ones, serving as another clue. Inside are either intensely challenging gauntlets or, perhaps more fittingly, the Yiga monks will be right there and they'll initiate surprise fights by coming to life (think Maz Koshia reduced to the power of a Guardian Scout IV, bringing it closer to an overworld Yiga attack and making it the equivalent of a Major Test of Strength shrine). If the latter is how it works, Link will end up beating a Spirit Orb out of the monk, and it will be a unique type that can be cashed in for its own purpose, maybe to a demon statue like this game's. After clearing a Yiga shrine, it'll light up red to set it apart, and its icon will turn red on the map as well.

• Jossed, partly due to the fact that we have Zonai Shrines now, but they do claim a few areas that used to be important.

Tears of the Kingdom Speculation (post-E3 2019 Direct)

The sequel will deal with how the Sheikah accidentally set the BotW world down its current path.

Specifically judging by the trailer for TotK, they mummified Ganon into a ReDead, hoping to sidestep the issue of reincarnation entirely by keeping his soul trapped. As a result, down deep below Hyrule Castle, there is a secret catacomb containing his mummified body. This created the Malice infection, corrupted various people, and ultimately set in motion the events leading up to BOTW. The reason being with his soul trapped as a ReDead, Ganon couldn't reincarnate properly and instead started growing in magical might as the eons passed, his mind refining its control to the point that it could reach out in the form of that evil black and reddish ooze named Malice to act in the world despite being physically trapped.

The player can choose to play as either Link or Zelda.

Perhaps this is just a cosmetic difference, and both characters will have the same abilities. Alternatively, Zelda may be more focused on magic and ranged attacks than Link, but has less durability.

• Jossed.

Zelda will be the only playable character.

It would be the easiest way to implement the same growth progression and struggle as the first game without having to explain why Link doesn't have all the upgrades he can get in BotW, though the greenish magic that affects him and removes him from the scene might be that reason. Also, Zelda's haircut seems designed for easier animations on a more active character model, and makes her similarly androgynous to Link's design, both suggesting she'll be playable.

• Looks to be Jossed in the recent teaser trailer, where we clearly see Link in a cutscreen with the corrupted arm — and we see his face.

Combining both above theories, Link will become unlockable at or after the end of the game.

And you can import your BoTW save to get Link's inventory and heart/stamina upgrades back. That way you still have to start from square one as Zelda but all your work playing through the first game isn't wasted.

• Jossed. Link has been marketed as the default (or sole) playable character in the game.

If Zelda is playable, her Master Sword will be...

Either the Bow of Light for a signature physical weapon, reduced in power for her, or her sealing power. The Bow would need to be lost or given up before the game starts, since Link still has it at the end of the first game, but Zelda does say her powers are weakened and she could have to work toward them again like Link did for the Master Sword, with her prowess hampered even at full strength for fair game design.

• Jossed. Zelda isn't playable.

Ganondorf was forced to relinquish his body.

The hand and magic restraining the Gerudo corpse may have been a sealing ritual that Ganondorf escaped from by transforming into Calamity Ganon, thus turning him down that inhuman path in order to survive, not as a planned choice. The body was left behind, sealed, while the people sealing him were killed in the transformation, and now Ganon is strong enough to resist the magic and take his body back after failing to create a new one.

• Jossed.

The Twili will be involved somehow.

The hand and magic that restrained Ganon's corpse had a greener tinge than the Sheikah technology's blue, looking closer in coloration to the markings on the bodies and clothes of the Twili as well as Midna's magic. On top of that, the distorted vocals resemble the gibberish used for Midna's voice acting.

• However, the glyphs formed by the magic look like Gerudo script, so this may be an entirely new situation.
• The music that plays in the trailer is also very similar to the music in the Twilight Realm, with the same black squares floating and rotating through the air. There has a very definite and likely intentional Twilight Princess vibe to the whole thing. But looking closely at the shapes the magic forms, they aren't Gerudo script. Even still, Gerudo Desert was the site of Ganondorf's botched execution, in the Arbiter's Ground. There is an implied connection between the Twili and the Gerudo, since that's where the Mirror of Twilight was kept as well.
• Adding to this, with the cover art and logo revealed in the September 2022 direct, the markings on the Master Sword's blade resemble those of Twili magic.
  • Sadly Jossed - but the Fused Helm grants Gloom Resistance if you find it.

The body wouldn't have been revived if not for Link and Zelda.

We see the creepy glowing arm holding down the body, but people have wondered if it is benevolent or not. However, slowing down the shots indicate that it is, and that Link and Zelda caused it to fail its task. There are shuffled-around shots of Zelda falling and then Link grabbing her...and the glowing hand grabbing Link, who is also falling. That hand had to let go of the corpse to save Link and Zelda, showing that it is good in nature...but there is also a shot of a vital probably-Ganondorf's shadow flashing behind the corpse while the glowing hand's shadow reaches toward it. The second the hand let go to save Link and Zelda, the dark energy was able to revive the body.

• The gem on his forehead was also already glowing, meaning he was waiting for the split second it wasn't holding onto him to take control again.
  • From the memories and such, I believe that once the arm could sense the duo, it let go hoping that Link and Zelda could stop him there and then.

Going on the previous theory, the hand will task Link with his quest and give him its powers.

The early shots of Link absorbing the hand's magic could be the hand lending its powers to Link after it failed to keep the body restrained and knowing that its power is no longer useful in the ancient chamber. Link will have to use the hand's strange powers to hunt down and defeat this new incarnation of Ganon(dorf) because he indirectly caused the hand to fail at its job. This lines up with rejected concepts for BotW which featured a transforming arm for Link, but because of this, Zelda won't be the protagonist.

• The hand - or at least, the original owner - does help guide Link on the Great Sky Islands much like the king did on the Great Plateau, and gives the basic main quest. Also, the powers are part of the arm. Including the Sage's Wills, which become rings on said arm.

Gannondorf's corpse is being controlled by another entity outright.

Perhaps the Malice itself is a Hive Mind controlled by a sentient force and was enticed by Ganon's raging hatred for the hero and princess for so many generations.

• Or maybe it's Demise.

The game will feature some Old Save Bonus from Breath of the Wild.

In defiance of the usual Bag of Spilling, it will be possible to transfer at least some items from the previous game.

• Confirmed. Any horses you had are transferred over, and completing the Champion's Ballad gets the photo from there to be found in Link's House in Hateno.

This game will crib a lot from Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, much like how its predecessor did to the original Zelda.

We've already got Ganondorf seemingly coming back from the dead, though that doesn't bode well for our favorite hero of prophecy.

Link's now magical right arm will fill the purpose of the Sheikah Slate this time around.

In a short scene significant enough to be the thumbnail on the official trailer video, Link comes in contact with one of those bright green streams of magic floating in the underground. He may be able to channel magic through it and thus, we now have an organic Sheikah Slate. In addition to have a more magic-focused Link, Nintendo could use the magical nature of his hand as a reason to swap sword-fighting hands, thus finally returning Link's status as a left-hander.

• Link still uses his right hand to fight, but the powers are also used by it, so confirmed.

The game will have some survival horror themes in the form of an undead Ganondorf.

Considering the game will have darker themes than its predecessor, similarly as Majora's Mask is to Ocarina of Time, it would make sense to make the game scarier than normal. That's why I propose that until you regain the means to fight back (Possibly in the late game), Ganondorf's corpse will wander Hyrule searching for a way to restore its body, and will chase you like a cross between your average slasher villain and the angry flower girl from the last game if it notices you, so you may have to sneak past him should you feel him nearby.

• Not like that, but there are the Gloom Hands and the Phantom Ganondorf they can spawn which may count?

Ganondorf wanted Zelda's power to awaken, so that he can steal it to restore himself.

The Calamity Ganon was in fact another Blight Ganon. The real Ganon created the beastly creature as a means of causing destruction in hopes of finding the one thing that could revive him. What else is powerful enough but the Triforce? Since Zelda's hand had the symbol, it's possible it was sealed within her at birth and it might have been why the king wanted her power awakened sooner. Unfortunately, the early Sheikah created the Divine Beasts and the Guardians to defeat the Calamity before it could potentially claim her power. But the 100 years of Zelda being in the castle caused some of her power to slowly reach the real Ganon, giving him enough to start coming back to life. Now he needs the full thing to restore himself whole.

• There's some interesting potential there, but Zelda made it clear that the Calamity Ganon was in fact the spirit of Ganondorf given an Eldritch Abomination form. But, he's escaped dimensional prisons before and there was no indication that the Triforce of Power was part of the Calamity Ganon. So, Zelda's power could have slowly been leaking in and giving his body just enough juice to wait for the right moment to escape, but Calamity Ganon wouldn't be another Blight Ganon.
  • Keep in mind that Ganon/Ganondorf once created a bunshin by splitting his soul, in order to get past a seal. That bunshin was known as Agahnim. This doesn't stop him from doing it again for to re-enact his true resurrection, while also wiping out all the competetion at the same time.

Ganondorf's skeleton is an empty husk, yet is being perpetually kept alive, and in check, possibly by a previous Zelda.

At some point, the entirety of Hyrule had enough of Ganondorf ruling over the land and shackled him down, at the cost of Zelda to be entombed along with him under Hyrule Castle. Zelda died, but her focus and devotion manifested itself as Hylia's power. Ganondorf, possibly with the aid of Sheikah technology was preventing him from dying as a way to prevent him from reincarnating. Zelda dies, leaving herself as a hand, and Ganondorf as a perpetually-living skeleton. Eventually the rage within Ganondorf caused him to ditch his humanity, releasing his essence into the world, which lead to him possessing the Sheikah's Guardians, and also forming into Calamity Ganon. However, the previous Zelda's hand was losing power; on the flip-side this caused Hylia's power to gather and cause one of the most powerful Zeldas to emerge.

When the Calamity Ganon was defeated, the essence is expelled and seeps back into the earth. In comes TotK where Link/Zelda are exploring the catacombs. What remaining Hylia essence is pretty much overpowered by Demise's collective power, also reanimating Ganondorf's skeleton as his own vessel.

If possible, somehow two Ganondorfs existed at the same time. The actual soul that formed Ganondorf was spent when he went Calamity, Calamity is Ganondorf's power unleashed but became a beast, but the energy in the skeleton is all-Demise.

Gameplay mechanics-wise: The Sheikah slate will probably break after Link apparently falls to his death, mostly as a way to get rid of some access to Runes; on the flipside it's repaired into a item similar to a Joycon. (less of a tablet and more of a mobile device?) The Hand of Hylia will inadvertendly be parasitically attached to Link's Triforce of Courage due to Demise's original curse where their incarnations will war for eternity.

As a replacement for Shrines, you instead hunt down more traditional enemies, as well as bosses within actual dungeons, to purge enemies/demons of Demise's power to gather the fragments of Hylia's power that interminged to unlock more abilities for Hylia's Hand itself, whilst at the same time, you're returning Demise's power back to the skeleton. probably some kind of ending where Demise curses Link/Zelda again and another Ganondorf/Zelda/Link reincarnates in like 400 years.

The Bomb, Freeze, and Magnesis runes are gone, though you could probably buy bombs and augment them to allow them to freeze enemies OR water, powering up the hand lets you use it as either a winging arm, a hookshot or to pick up, push (and eventually throw) heavy objects, as well as being able to squish bombs into a cube or into a disc. As a possible hard mode, using the hand will cause a bar to slowly fall until it starts to hurt him, and inevitably kills him. The Stasis Rune will probably be an endgame Rune, and the Master Cycle Zero will be an aftergame unlockable.

Mechanically the Hand would enable you to telepathically communicate with Zelda, making her in a similar companion role to Toon Zelda's in Spirit Tracks, whilst the sheer reach of the Hand would be somewhat similar to Midna's Prehensile Hair.

• Jossed. So very, very Jossed.

If the playable Zelda theories are true, previous Zelda costumes can be obtained.

Just like the previous Link costumes in the first game.

• Not every previous Zelda has an amiibo, though, and only one Link classic outfit was in the base game.
  • Actually, several previous Link costumes were available. Original, Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, Toon Link, and Fierce Deity. They could be obtained in the base game with the right amiibo from the beginning. Zelda herself already has 4 different amiibo, and 10 new ones were release for BotW. It's not a stretch that they could release more for the sequel.

The Sheikah technology used Ganondorf's power as a battery.

It was always weird that a mostly mindless Calamity Ganon was able to do something like corrupting the Guardian technlology, which presumably would require some intelligence to do. Now, with Ganondorf's body being sealed below the castle, with a magical hand presumably sucking something out of his corpse (as the flux of the green energy of the hand implies), we may get an explanation to that. This sealing of Ganondorf happened prior even to the events 10000 before the first game, and the seal is what allowed the Sheikah to have their technological revolution, by using his own magic as a power source. When some Malice started leaking from the seal, they used this technological might to help stop Calamity Ganon, but the king of Hyrule deemed that tinkering with the seal like that could cause further damage, this being the real reason the technology was sealed away.

• As I had mentioned in my own guess above, there are some indications that Calamity Ganon isn't as mindless as it seems. Or, even if it is, that it's being directed somehow.
  • Jossed. The hand was just sealing Ganondorf away, not using it as a power source.

Calamity Ganon wasn't sentient at all.

Connected to the above, this would remove the only action Calamity Ganon ever took that seemed to imply a degree of sentience. The Calamity doesn't have Ganondorf's mind, and is only a mass of Malice, acting instinctively in an attempt to corrupt and destroy. Even if it was able to finish its body, it would be no more than a rampaging monster. The corruption of the tecnology, thus, is less about Calamity Ganon executing on a plan, and more about his Malice corrupting the Guardians incidentally because they always used purified magic from Ganon to begin with.

The Yiga Clan will come back under new management.

Even if you took out Master Kohga, they were still organized enough to send assassins after you in the name of vengeance. Even if you assume they surrendered or were wiped out after Ganon wasn't around to take up Link and Zelda's attention, there are probably remnants that will be all too happy to take up their sickles after calamity strikes Hyrule again, maybe even being directly commanded by Ganondorf himself. They could become more threatening on their return as a sign of things becoming bleaker this time around, or they could be just as silly as always to provide some much needed comic relief. There will also probably be another Kohga who serves as a Foil to the first one Link met, maybe a Lean and Mean hardass to his jovial Fat Bastard. That is, if the first one didn't somehow survive his long fall or was never confronted by Link in the first place.

• Did you actually think Master Kohga didn't survive his fall into the Depths? Because he did, so Jossed.

The sequel's official title will also have to with "the wild".

In a similar vein to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will probably be named "[noun] of the Wild". Perhaps something like "Revival of the Wild" to reflect Ganondorf's return?

• Another option would be that it might be named "Breath of the [noun]" — perhaps "Breath of the Deep", if the speculation that it will take place wholly or partly underground is correct.
• Jossed. The game is titled The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

The glowing hand in the trailer is Link's new companion.

In one shot of the trailer, we can see Link's arm glowing just like the hand grabbing Ganondorf's chest. In another, it seems to be helping Link up. Given its mysterious link to Ganondorf (especially since we see a shot of Ganondorf's silhouette seemingly being subdued by a similar hand), it may be that the hand will join forces with Link.

• Expanding upon this, that hand will be the spirit of the 8th Gerudo heroine; the one whose statue was discarded. We'll be going back to the old seven-dungeon model, with each dungeon being the tomb of one of the other heroines. Link (with help from Zelda) will be tasked with gathering their power to restore the seal on Ganondorf. Potentially gaining a new power or skill from each of them like the champion's powers. Alternatively they remain a gameplay element and we get useful items like the good old days.

For bonus points: at the start of the game we choose whether to play as Link or Zelda with each having their own unique play style.

• It's only for the Great Sky Islands, but yes, the spirit of the arm does act as a companion for Link there. But the expansion stuff is Jossed.

Calamity Ganon was the Ganon from Four Swords Adventures.

This is based on Nintendo World Report Tv's theory that the timeline Breath of the Wild takes place in is the Child Timeline and that the Ganondorf seen in the trailer is "Twilight Princess" Ganondorf's corpse. So I think Calamity Ganon is a mindless version of Four Swords Adventures, that has transferred his soul to his previous incarnation's body and is using Malice to revive his original body.

• According to Nintendo, it takes place in all three timelines simultaneously. But even then, there's no particular reason why it should (or shouldn't, for that matter) be a specific incarnation of Ganon. But the body seen under Hyrule Castle doesn't appear to be specifically from Twilight Princess, lacking the large scar on the chest, the beard, and the armor.

The Hero's Shade will return.

This is also based on Nintendo World Report Tv's theory that Breath of the Wild takes place in is the Child Timeline, this is the timeline where the Hero's Shade appeared in Twilight Princess. He will appear again to help Link and Zelda stop Ganondorf and at the end of the game, he will finally be able to move on to the afterlife.

The Hero of Twilight will return in his human form.

His restless spirit was content to aid the current Hero as a wolf in the first game, but in this one he will show up as a spiritual mentor like his own ancestor the Hero's Shade/Hero of Time. The backwards singing and general iconography of the magic in the trailer hints at Twili involvement; perhaps one of the reasons the Hero of Twilight has stuck around so long is because he has unfinished business with the seal on Ganondorf.

There will be evil counterparts to the Champions.

And no, I don't mean the Blight Ganons. I mean like characters loosely inspired by past villains in the series:

• A Twili, loosely based on Zant.
• A sword demon (if there's more than one), loosely based on Ghirahim.
• The new Yiga Clan leader who's closer to Agahnim than Kohga was.
• A "Dark Hylian", loosely based on Vaati.

With Ganondorf resurrected, he creates four "Champions" of his own, similarly to how Zelda did with Daruk, Revali, Mipha, and Urbosa. They will serve as some of the bosses of the game, taking cues from their descendants.

• Jossed... Unless you count the 'Zelda' he creates to mess with the minds of the locals.

Link will actually lose an arm.

Word of God says that the sequel will be "slightly darker than Majora's Mask", and we all know how dark that was. Additionally, in one shot of the reveal trailer, we see Link's arm glow just like the one holding down Ganon. This troper's theory is that Link will lose his arm when Ganon breaks loose and the glowing arm will replace it as a pseudo-prosthetic.

• Somewhat confirmed - while Link doesn’t seem to actually lose his physical arm, it is severely burned by Malice and kept usable by a magic brace.
  • The arm in question is a transplant - so while we don't see him without the arm, it's confirmed.

The sequel will give more focus to Teba, Yunobo, Sidon, and Riju — and will take up the titles of "New Champions".

• Sidon and Riju are both confirmed, to return for the Sequel.
  • Teba is the only 'new champion' who isn't focused on, as instead his son Tulin takes up his role. But they become the Sages of Water, Fire, Wind and Lightning.

The arm that resurrected Ganon will take away Link's abilities gifted to him by the four Champions.

A sideplot to the game will involve Link trying to get them back. However, it is (unfortunately) unlikely that the Champions themselves would be involved, since it is heavily implied that they, and King Rhoam, passed on to the afterlife at the end of BOTW.

• Jossed. The arm didn't resurrect Ganon, and the abilities Link didn't have during the prologue.

Link will be Suddenly Voiced and will talk for the first time in the (non CD-i) games.

Since BOTW is the first game in the series to have full voice acting in the cutscenes but still kept Link quiet, the sequel will go one step further. Keeping in mind that there was an in-canon reason for Link being a Heroic Mime this time around: Zelda's diary confirmed that Link's silence was voluntary due to the pressure he felt as The Chosen One, and put on a strong, silent facade on purpose to make him look braver than he felt with so much at stake and with so many eyes on him. And as mentioned on the Heartwarming page, because Link got amnesia, he forgot about this pressure and the players got to see a more human/dorky side to him. And since 100 years has passed, Calamity Ganon is gone (for now, anyway) and his duty as the hero is fulfilled — he no longer has any reason to stay quiet. This will, inevitably, lead to a huge Broken Base. Not just due to him talking in the first place, but over whichever voice actor they cast, his characterisation, the script, etc.

• Minor guess: Link will speak with an Irish accent... despite this being the very first time his signature outfit isn't green.
  • Jossed. Link still doesn't speak.

Ganondorf will be cross the Moral Event Horizon in the worst possible way.

Just because it will be the darkest Zelda game.

• What's the "worst possible way"?
  • One possibility: his own perverse take on the Shrine of Resurrection, made for the sole purpose of keeping a battered Link just alive enough to hear Ganondorf mock him for his failures and explain what he's doing to the remains of Hyrule, his various injuries leaving him in sharp, persistent agony.

Ghirahim will make a reappearance...

And take over the Yiga clan due to Kohga's absence.

• Jossed. Kohga is still alive, and Ghirahim doesn't appear at all.

Link will die in the opening of the game.

Considering that sequel looks to be Darker and Edgier, and that evidence points to Zelda being playable, killing Link in the beginning may be a good way to establish the tone and to set up Zelda as the new protagonist.

• So far there is zero evidence that Zelda will be playable.
• Likely Jossed, as Link is featured in the gameplay footage.
  • He **almost** dies, but is saved by the hand.

Sheik will finally make "his" canonical return.

As seen in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, while Zelda from this game was supposedly passed up in favor of a different Zelda incarnation, Sheik is instead representing her game, despite having never appeared there, without any explanation. Could this Sheik actually be a Production Foreshadowing of what's in store for Zelda in the sequel?

• Realistically, Sheik is in Ultimate because they appeared in previous Smash titles and Ultimate made a point of including every playable fighter from the series — that's the same reason young and toon Link also appear there.
  • Jossed.

The sequel will deconstruct Ganondorf as a villain.

The game will explore Ganondorf's past and endless reincarnations. He will be portrayed as more of an Anti-Villain who wanted to live a more normal life, but because of Demise's curse, he ends up down the path of evil no matter how hard he fights against it. Whether or not he finally breaks free of the cycle or if he perpetuates it will be something to explore.

The quest that kicks off the story...

...Will be about Link and Zelda in their search for the Triforce, which they believe can help them rebuild their ruined kingdom.

• Jossed. The Triforce is never mentioned.

The game will take place almost entirely underground.

From a practical perspective, it would be kind of boring to explore the same map all over again, even with some minor alterations. This sequel could follow Link and Zelda exploring the bowels of Hyrule's forgotten "underworld" in search of Ganon's origins.

• Looks to be jossed as Link seems to be able to access the sky and the land in gameplay videos.

The game will be split between an underworld, surface Hyrule, and floating or raised areas.

This is based on how the trailer focuses in a subterranean area but also shows at least Hyrule Castle seeming to rise out of the earth. The speculation is then that whatever kicks off the events of the game will cause certain areas of Hyrule to be forcefully raised into the sky, in the process opening access to an extensive underworld that had previously been cut off from the surface world. The game will then alternate between exploring the underground spaces, returning to Hyrule (with potential changes there caused by this event) and climbing or flying to the now-floating or inaccessibly high areas.

• There are indeed three maps: the Sky, the Surface and the Depths.

Even if she isn't playable, Zelda will at least appear rendered in the "overworld", unlike the first game, where she was only in pre-rendered cutscenes.

As seen in the trailer, Zelda has shorter hair than last time, which caused many to speculate that she will be playable or at least a companion a la Spirit Tracks, since it is much easier to animate a rendered model in the overworld when you don't have to worry about long hair clipping through the model. This doesn't necessarily mean she will be playable, but she may likely appear as a rendered model in the overworld (or rather, "underworld" in this case) for at least a short amount of time.

• Zelda was playable just fine with her long hair in Age of Calamity, so her haircut doesn't necessarily confirm anything in terms of playability and/or appearances.
  • She is seen during the prologue, but after that is another question entirely... She sometimes appears in places like the Great Plateau, but these turn out to be Yiga traps.

The game will introduce a underground race.

The race will either be Subrosian or an expy of them.

• The Mogmas, or a race otherwise based on burrowing animals, might also be a fitting choice.
  • Jossed. No new races other than the Zonai are introduced.

The mummified body is Link from 10,000 years ago, and the glowing hand is Zelda from 10,000 years ago.

10K Link and Zelda didn't just save Hyrule, they sacrificed themselves to do it. Calamity Ganon was sealed inside 10K Link's body, and 10K Zelda is keeping Ganon sealed.

• Jossed. The hand is that of the Sage of Light from that time period, while the body is that of the Demon King, Ganondorf.

The sequel will see additional enemies from the franchise's past returning.

That is, additional creatures from the series' bestiary will be added to the game in addition to the ones already present in Breath of the Wild. This could be explained in any number of ways if it is explained at all, such as them being native to areas the first game didn't visit or being attracted to Hyrule be Ganon's machinations. This could also allow the game to more extensively exploit the sub-series' various mechanics in a number of ways — for instance, tektites capable of leaping up and down ledges other foes can't scale, or leevers that can drain Link's stamina wheel.

• Confirmed. Like Likes, Gibdos, and Gleeoks all return, with the latter making their 3D-series debut.

If Zelda is playable, Link will be fought at some point.

In the vein of the Puppet Zelda fight from Twilight Princess, Zelda being playable will mean that Link, possessed by the blue hand/Ganondorf/both will need have the possession beaten out of him.

• Jossed. Link is the only playable character.

Adding onto the above speculation about the "New Champions", Paya will also become the Sheikah's "Champion"

Due to her close connection to Link and Zelda, Impa could be considered an unofficial Sheikah Champion. Paya will take this role in the sequel.

• Jossed.

Hyrule is about to suffer a violent case of The Magic Comes Back.

To power his five story tall demon pig monster made of Malice as well as to reach out from where his mummified body was entombed, Ganon has been sucking up the entire ambient mana pool for all of Hyrule. That's why the only ones with magic are his minions the wizrobes, the sheikah with their high tech work arounds, and creatures like the Great Deku Tree or Great Fairies who are natural wells of magic as well is the subordinates that pull from them. With Ganon's evil spell broken all that raw magic is going to be freed up.

Either Link or Zelda will be trapped in the Dark World and they will be able to explore it while the other character explores the light world

And that will cause both characters to be playable as you’ll be able to switch between them at a bed or campfire.

• Jossed.

Ganondorf will be aware of his role in Demise's curse... and not care

He will reveal he knows his role as the recurring evil and that there's nothing he can do about it. However, he's not upset one bit, because he realizes this means he can't die for good and that he'll just keep coming back until he wins. This gives him some Character Rerailment, going back to the evil sociopath he was depicted as before and tossing aside any reason to sympathize with him, Link and Zelda seeing he's Beyond Redemption by choice.

They'll flip the script by having Ganondorf play the role of the seemingly random old man

To really mess with players and their expectations we'll have another tutorial area similar to the plateau with a random old man. But instead of a friendly ally in the King of Hyrule, it will be Ganondorf having tricked Link, and potentially Zelda, into a Nice Job Breaking It, Hero moment.

• Jossed. The tutorial guide is the ghost of King Rauru.

Most of Hyrule will change beyond recognition due to yet-undiscovered Sheikah technology

Zelda's research notes mention that she has previously explored underneath the Hyrule Castle in search of the Guardian-filled columns, but failed to find them and concluded that they were hidden deeper underground, which seems to be the area shown in the teaser. Said teaser also shows the castle seemingly rising up. In BOTW, it was shown that the Sheikah Towers and some Shrine entrances were buried underground until activated, but those structures are small enough to not affect the landscape — the actual Shrine dungeons remain below the surface. Even the massive Divine Beasts had to be unearthed after 10000 years. It is possible that Hyrule is stuffed with even more Sheikah tech, and if it surfaces all at once — possibly due to Malice possessing it — it could change the map pretty dramatically. The plot could then follow Link and Zelda trying to do something about this while also preparing for another fight.

The final boss will be Demise

It's a well-heeled Zelda tradition to fight a final boss who takes multiple forms — see Calamity and Dark Beast Ganon, for instance. The sequel's final boss will start out as Ganondorf's husk as seen in the trailer; after defeating him, however, Malice will pour from his broken corpse, collecting itself into the original King of Demons, whole once more after millennia, and ready to take the fight to the Hero once again.

• Jossed - it's Ganondorf.

Ganon will not be the only characters revived by the mysterious other entity...

... the previous Champions and the Kng will also be revived as horrific versions of themselves, and serve as bosses to whatever serve as dungeons in the sequel. Defeating them will either allow their souls to finally rest (again)... OR, if the player has met certain criteria/uses a certain very rare item, can restore them to life, which will be a key part of achieving the Golden Ending.

Link will be Dead All Along

Not just dying in the intro, as theorized above, but dying in the intro and not letting us know about it. After being attacked by whatever attacked him in the reveal (presumably Ganondorf), Link will be knocked out and wake up in whatever place the game starts in, and will then go about his journey as normal. However, throughout the game, he will be hounded by a masked swordsman who fights suspiciously similar to him. Eventually, he'll remove their mask to find his own body, reduced to a husk in the same way Ganondorf was. He'll then find that his soul was forced from his body, and whatever power awoke Ganon also created a new body for Link. However, this means that once Ganondorf dies, Link will go with him. He'll still defeat Ganon, of course, and have one last tearful goodbye with Zelda before his body breaks down. Afterwards, all of his gear and power will transfer over to Zelda for the Playable Epilogue.

Tears of the Kingdom Speculation (post-E3 2021 Direct)

We will meet at least one Zonai character

The new trailer featured a lot of architecture with similar symbols found in Zonai ruins and in the previous trailer. There's a likelihood that not only will the plot focus more on Zonai lore, but that there will be a new character that's a Zonai, most likely the floating ghost arm seen in the previous trailer.

• Confirmed - the original owner of Link's new arm is the Zonai Rauru who became King of Hyrule, and his sister Mineru appears in the story as the Sage of Spirit.

There will be seamless transitions between the land and sky worlds

The trailer shows that we'll be going up into what is essentially the Wild equivalent of Skyloft, where a large chunk of the game is appearing to be set in. Because of how well Nintendo managed to make the environment seamlessly transition wherever you explore without load times (Well, for the most part), and some of the functions of the new arm showed in the trailer, it wouldn't surprise this Troper to see Nintendo have the Wild-Skyloft be accessible with no load times at all.

• Confirmed, and this also applies to the Depths as well.

The cyclopean robot is not controlled by Ganondorf, but is still an enemy.

It was created by the same people who built the ruins seen in the trailer, and was intended to be a guardian. When Link arrives to explore the ruins, it registers Link as a trespasser and attacks him.

— 16/06/2021

• Jossed.

Ganondorf's awakening in the trailer has caused a surge of his power across Hyrule, strengthening monsters.

Once Ganondorf is freed, he's able to exert more of his influence across the world. This causes monsters under his influence to become stronger as more of his power begins to flow into them. The elongated horns in the bokoblins seen in the trailer is the first outward sign showing how they're evolving into stronger forms. This may tie into enemy progression as well; as the game goes on and Ganondorf's power grows and grows, the monsters will begin to take on increasingly large, strong and monstrous forms.

— 16/06/2021

• Jossed. The Upheaval has significantly weakened all unaltered weapons, though, providing a similar effect from the opposite direction.

Link's adventure will take place on Hyrule, while Zelda will explore the floating islands.

The trailer in the direct has two very distinct settings, with "Link" looking very different in each one — on the ground in Hyrule, he looks exactly as he did in Breath of the Wild, including the same hairstyle. In the sky, however, the player charater shown has much longer hair, which isn't tied back, and is dressed very differently — and is very carefully never shown from the front. This could be a way to hide their identity, and it's possible this person is actually Zelda.

— 19/06/2021

• Jossed. Link is the only playable character, and his default hairstyle is now loose.

Zelda is dead

From what it looks like, she falls into a very deep cavern that I doubt anyone could survive (unless her goddess powers kicked in). The entirety of the game will be about Link avenging her.

• Very unlikely. That would give Nintendo the worst kind of press for their highly anticipated game and a backlash even greater than Metroid: Other M.
• Not only that, but Nintendo is notoriously protective of their characters. It's basically inconceivable that they would ever truly kill off Princess Zelda. That would be like them genuinely killing off Princess Peach or Kirby.
• Jossed in the final trailer, as she is shown holding the Master Sword, alive and well considering how the adventure starts on the sky islands, indicating that everything that happens in the cave happens at the start of the game.

The person with the green garment is Link post-time skip

In a similar vein to Ocarina of Time, something horrible will happen and then the game skips to a number of years later where Link has an Adrenaline Makeover.

There will be a lot of time based abilities for Link to use.

Based on the brief snippet of a water drop reversing itself from the ground as well as one nee ability shown with Link using an upgraded form of Stasis to have a spike ball roll back up a hill. It is possible the game will focus on a lot of temporarily twisting abilities. Perhaps even one that will allow Link to save himself from death like in Prince of Persia: Sand of Time.

• Jossed. There's only one: Recall.

The Master Sword has been corrupted.

If one pays close eye to the trailer where Link is having Malice go up his arm, it can be noted he is holding the Master Sword as it is being swarmed.

Since the game is likely not going to give Link the Sword of Evil's Bane that early and without any fanfare, he obviously loses it to the corruption. How he gets it back is anyone's guess.

• From a recent trailer in March 2022, we see that the Master Sword has been broken badly, which may be why he can't use it at the start of the main bulk of the game — but he may have it for the prologue up until the malace corrupts his arm and damages the sword.

Fi will fully reappear in some manner.

We got her sound effect after clearing the Master Sword trials, and Zelda talked about the swords wielder hearing a voice before hearing it herself. Since this game is taking us back to Skyloft and Skyward Sword is being rereleased, we will see a full return of Fi in some form in TotK.

— 6/26/2021

• Jossed. We only hear her theme and ping voice.

You're not actually playing as Link or Zelda.

If the game setup is similar to BotW (with the player waking up with amnesia and recovering his memories), it could set up a twist. The scenes shown in the previews might be flashbacks, and it turns out you're actually not Link, but rather Ganondorf's reincarnation. That would be quite the swerve. The player would then get the choice of multiple endings: whether to become the villain Ganon usually is, or to break the cycle and redeem yourself.

• Looks to be Jossed as we get to see that the playable character in one of the cutscreens is Link.

Link is being corrupted by Malice.

Link's Malice-corrupted arm will act as a Superpowered Evil Side for Link, which he is freed from by the green arm. Or, even worse, it will take over his mind, making him Brainwashed and Crazy until he's knocked unconscious and fitted with said green arm.

Ganondorf's plot will be a combination of Skyward Sword and The Adventure of Link

Redead Gandondorf's plot is to utilize both Zelda and Link to revive himself to true life, kidnapping Zelda and corrupting Link will only be a small part of plot. He won't kill them because he will want to fight them at his full strength and win. The corruption on Link will slowly be purged but this will play right into Ganondorf's plot as he not only gets stronger as Link purges the malice from himself.

Ganondorf will create a Malice Link

This seems kind of obvious in a sense. Breath of the Wild harkened back to the first The Legend of Zelda with its open "do anything in any order" world while also containing elements that tie back other games, especially one with Link awakening after a period of time to find the world in ruin. TotK will take notes from The Adventure of Link, and have an incarnation of Dark Link appear.

• Jossed.

The Yiga won't be the only splinter group serving Ganondorf

The Rito will have a group called the Fokka, and the Zora will be split between the ones we already met in the first game and the classic River Zora, the Gerudo will be split between traditionalists who are willing to serve a male gerudo as king and loyalists who support Riju, the Gorons might be an exception though corruption might as well be involved for any of them.

Old bosses will return

Part of whatever plans Ganondorf has will involve reviving old bosses, particularly ones that plagued the various races. Twinrova for the Gerudo, Dodongo or Volvagia for the Gorons, etc. This can even be combined with the idea that old races that haven't appeared in a while will return such as the Minish and so Vaati would be revived to plague them, or Zant for the Twili.

• Ghirahim would be revived and used by a Dark Link combining this theory with a couple above.
  • Jossed.
• Confirmed: Gleeok is returning.
• Ganondorf will bring back more Zelda 1 bosses such as Gohma, Digdogger, Manhandla, Dodongo, Aquamentus.
  • Gohma confirmed as Marbled Gohma.

The sequel will remove more Zelda traditions

Breath of the Wild did away with many traditions; the "three dungeons then plot twist then more dungeons" formula, semi-linear storytelling, the green tunic as Link's default outfit, etc. The sequel will follow on that line of thought to eliminate more traditions:

• The Master Sword will be destroyed and stay destroyed.
  • Or otherwise used one last time to destroy the Final Boss, but afterwards would be unable to be recovered at all.
    • Jossed: the Master Sword is repaired over a long, long time.
• The Triforce will be either destroyed or rendered completely unattainable from this game forward.
• The cycle of reincarnation will break completely.
• Nonconventional dungeon exploration and boss fights (but better than what the first one did).
• Iconic weapons and items (hookshot, hammers, boomerangs, etc) will not return in any form.
  • Jossed. Hammers can be made and Boomerangs return.

The reason why the title that would be considered spoiler...

Is because the title would refer to two overworlds in the game, one in the sky and one underground. And that you won't be playing as just Link; you also be playing Princess Zelda. The two E3 trailers foreshadow it with first one focusing on the underground caverns and Zelda in the forefront, and the second one focusing on the sky with Link travelling this Skyward Sword world. The two are separated and must find their way back at the center with their own unique gameplay, with Ganondorf in the middle as the final boss.

The Link we see in the sky overworld is the hero from 10,000 years ago.

Link's design looks very similar to the hero from 10,000 years ago in the Calamity Ganon Tapestry. They might be in different time periods as in the ground overworld scenes we don't see any of the sky islands at all, so they might take place in different timeframes.

• Jossed. Link's still in the present, he's just in a different outfit.

Tears of the Kingdom Speculation (post-September 2022 Direct)

The "Tears of the Kingdom" are physical artifacts.

The floating, tear-shaped icons surrounding the humanoid figure in the 2022 trailer depict magical artifacts of some kind, which Link will be tasked with collecting over the course of the game.

• Confirmed: they are the Secret Stones which are seen in the trailers.

—13/09/2022

The figure in the 2022 trailer is Hylia.

They're placed in a clear position of importance and centrality, suggesting that this figure was seen with reverence by the mural-makers. Its face/mask is also very owl-like; Hylia has an avian Animal Motif, while the Zonai ruins in Breath of the Wild use owls to represent Wisdom, Hylia/Zelda's part of the Triforce.

—13/09/2022

• This makes sense actually, would also give the Blupee's and Satori are connected to Hylia, both for their owl-like faces and blue colouration, blue being of course the color associated with Wisdom.
  • Jossed. She's the Queen of Hyrule from 10,000 years ago.

Both Cry and Rip are appropriate interpretations of Tears

This is Zelda and while not every title had double meanings there were a few that did and it wouldn't be out of possibility that 'Tears of the Kingdom' is one of those double meanings. Shedding Tears over the loss of Zelda who is seen falling into a dark abyss or Tears of joy over the end of calamity and the cycle. Perhaps its the kingdom tearing itself apart at the seams due to the mass influx of Malice underground as seen erupting from Death Mountain in one scene of the trailer... or perhaps Hyrule's people will tear themselves apart from one another in the wake of whatever threat is in this game. Tears could also be the name of the game's McGuffin.

• The glowing gold light reminiscent of the Tears of Light from Twilight Princess and the Tears of the Silent Trials in Skyward Sword, one involved in purging corruption, the other in empowering the Goddess Sword and making it the Master Sword, would suggest that's true.

The person being resurrected is NOT Ganondorf

It's Demise. Let's break it down:

• At the end of Breath of the Wild, Calamity Ganon degenerates into Malice Incarnate in a final attempt to kill Link, giving up all attempts at reincarnation.
  • It should be noted this was only in the English translation. The original stated this was a sign at his determination to reincarnate.
• Ganondorf, and Ganon, and all other Zelda villains are aspects of Demise's hatred. Erase all identity, and what you've got is essentially Demise's raw hatred and power. Very much like something else we've seen before: the Imprisoned.
• One of the carvings in the latest trailer has Zelda, either the present one in a prediction, or a past one, hanging loose over a rising tide of Malice. Some have speculated that's her falling into the Malice, but the physics are wrong — her hair and limbs are drooping below her back, rather than being whipped up by the winds of descent. She's hanging there, suspended over a pool of darkness. We've seen this before, too: in Skyward Sword.
• At the end of Skyward Sword, Zelda is suspended over the Imprisoned's pit by Ghirahim, who unleashes his master, who emerges in a rising tide of darkness, and feeds on Zelda's divine soul to restore himself from rampaging and incoherent Eldritch Abomination driven by instinct to a controlled figure of godlike power. Then Link kills him, undoing matters.
• Furthermore, one of the first things that "Ganondorf", or his corpse, does is to separate Link and Zelda, then to attack Link viciously, corrupting his arm and breaking the Master Sword. Most incarnations of Ganondorf don't take Link that seriously, even when they hate him. Demise, on the other hand, decided to be a Fair-Play Villain and paid for it horribly. He also spent eons trapped in the Master Sword, counterpart to his own blade.
• In other words, he'd recognise the threat and decide to be a No-Nonsense Nemesis, destroying both with Malice before they can interfere. Given that Link ends up as a kind of Magic Punk Cable with a broken sword, and only seems to survive thanks to the intervention of the mysterious figure keeping Ganondorf's corpse pinned, he comes pretty close.
• More generally, this game seems to be about the closing of the circle, with the possible return of Hylia and lots of themes from Skyward Sword. It would be fitting to have Demise make his return.
  • Ultimately Jossed. It's Ganondorf after all.

Body and Elemental Motifs in Zelda — concepts for a trilogy?

This may be simply overreaching, but here it goes:

• The first title of this Neo-Zelda world is called "Breath of the Wild". A breath is a physical process that involves inhaling and exhaling air. A breath is the first process that a baby does as proof of life — the same thing a drowning victim does when they come back to life. Thus, breath is related to the element of AIR. Also, a breath can indicate beginnings: "a breath of life", etc.
• The title of the direct sequel is called "Tears of the Kingdom". A more literal interpretation of the title may refer to the physical process of lacrimation (i.e., shedding tears). Tears are related to "water". The image of the logo appears to be an Ourobouros-like image, with two serpents eating each other. Serpents are also linked to water in real-world mythologies and, in the franchise, serpentine-like motifs are found in OoT's Water temple. The tears may also refer to sorrow, sadness — which may indicate this is Act 2 of a trilogy (sort of The Empire Strikes Back, with the heroes' Darkest Hour).
  • As an addendum, it may relate to the "Rehydrated Ganon" meme.
• Perhaps the third and final will do with Earth or Fire as a motif.

The game will feature a great focus on Malice corruption.

This concept is already present in Breath of the Wild through Naydra, which begins the game corrupted and controlled by large Malice growths and needs to be freed by Link, and less gruesomely through the possessed Guardians. In Tears of the Kingdom, Malice appears to have a greater presence in general, such as the large quantities spewing forth from beneath Hyrule Castle and Death Mountain's crater, and is seen in the trailer trying to climb up Link's arm. It's quite possible that Tears of the Kingdom will expand on this theme and feature more beings overwhelmed and puppeteered by Ganon's manifest hatred — it could be monsters empowered by Ganon's direct presence, more twisted spirits, corrupted natural animals, or even Malice-dominated members of Hyrule's races.

In fact, since there seems to be quite a lot of fresh Malice around Death Mountain, we might be looking forward to facing Malice-possessed Gorons in particular.

18/10/2022

Tears of the Kingdom Speculation (post-February 2023 Direct)

The game will heavily feature weapon-crafting.

The "horns" of many of the monsterse featured in the trailer heavily resemble sword blades, spearheads, and other weapon parts. There's even one bit of promotional artwork with a Boss Bokoblin who has what is clearly just an axehead sticking out of the top of his skull. It would make a natural extension of making elixirs out of monster parts, giving you more things to do with them and more reason to kill them — a common complaint was that all of your weapons breaking made many combat encounters feel like they weren't worth it, but every single enemy dropping something that could be used to make more weapons would lessen that somewhat.

• Confirmed in the March 2023 gameplay footage, where Eiji Aonuma reveals the new "Fuse" rune, which can be used to combine various objects and weapons together to make them more powerful and durable.

Zelda will not be playable, but will be very prominent.

This survery that Nintendo apparently sent out includes a few descriptions of the game, one of them seeming to frame both Link and Zelda as having equal importance, describing it as "an adventure that pits both Link and Zelda against a dangerous force." There's also a line that says "Your loyalty to each other," placing both of them as "you," the player. However, the official Nintendo store page for the game includes the words "harness the power of Link’s new abilities," heavily implying that he'll still be the primary protagonist.

If Zelda is playable, it will likely be in a smaller scope than Link, like having a dungeon where you have to switch between the two to solve puzzles or her having a side-mode or something.

• Or alternatively, Zelda is playable in some capacity, but it'll be in a critical point in the game's story kept hidden to avoid massive spoilers, likely the final boss.

Zelda moved in with Link before the start of the game and there will be evidence of this at his house in Hateno

Fans have put together that Zelda didn't exactly have anywhere to live anymore at the end of Botw. It's become a popular headcanon that they started living together in the time between both games. In the latest trailer, Hateno is shown to be intact and is the only village we've seen in any trailer so far, as though it has unique importance.Additionally, Link buying the house is what starts the chain of events leading to Tarrey Town's construction, so unless they remove a whole town from the world, Link must have canonically bought the house. Something else worth mentioning is that Link's house has only one bed...

If true, this would likely be the most explicit ship tease by far.

• Confirmed! You can find Zelda's diary on the desk on the second floor. Along with information about what's happened since BOTW, the diary mentions that Zelda commissioned Bolson to make her a secret room at the bottom of a well next to the house as a sort of private workspace for her. You can go down there to find a Well-Worn Headband that gives Link back his ponytail from BOTW, as well as a second diary giving you information on a sidequest. And yes, there is still only one bed.

Calamity Ganon is, and always has been, the Blood Moon

We know very little about the Blood Moon aside from the fact that it's meant to make enemies respawn through Malice and in one context clear system memory when it's near full. But this occasional mass necromancy appears to be something that this troper can't seem to recall in any previous incarnation of Ganondorf. So one must wonder: were the Calamity Ganon we fought in Breath of the Wild and the Ganondorf that's been advertised piece-by-piece in each trailer actually puppets, and that the true Calamity Ganon is the Blood Moon? It would explain why more powerful monsters like the Talus, the Hinox, and especially the Lynels can be revived and why Malice has begun erupting from key locations like Hyrule Castle and Death Mountain: it was because the influence of the Blood Moon has gotten stronger since the events of Breath of the Wild.

• Alternatively, the corpse is the current incarnation of Ganondorf, and he's drawing all his new powers from the moon in some fashion. Maybe with the Master Sword broken he can use his fill powers as he did in Wind Waker, or it somehow set what was left of Demise free to merge with Ganondorf.

You will face Dinraal, Farosh and Naydra as Boss Bonanza before the Final Boss courtesy of Malice

We already know that Malice is strong enough to corrupt Naydra, although perhaps due to Zelda's sealing it's not so strong as to be able to corrupt all three dragons at once, in addition to Naydra still having its sound mind which caused it to retreat to Lanaryu mountain to avoid bringing disaster in a Malice-induced rampage. We also know that the dragons make their return, courtesy of the March gameplay trailer where you can see one/two of them in the distance (unclear which one(s) it is). If Ganon's weakened Malice can still corrupt a divine dragon, now that an even worse Malice is on the loose, who's to say the dragons will be spared? With such a level of Malice, even the three dragons may succumb into corruption, turning into Ganon's (or Demise's) last line of defense as Link tries to face him in the climatic fight.

However, whereas in BotW certain actions allow you to skip the pre-Final Boss Boss Rush, the three dragons will always be the pre-Final Boss Boss Bonanza no matter what you do, and certain key items you have obtained or how you defeat them instead determine the ending you get (well, yeah, the dragons aren't really the reincarnation of the Golden Goddesses, merely their servants at best, but they are still beings of great power and influence that their deaths will still have some impact to Hyrule, i.e., killing them instead of purifying them during the final fight results in a bad ending).

• Jossed. They are not required to fight, and instead are just flying through the map, minding their own business.

Tears of the Kingdom Speculation (post-Final Trailer)

Demise will return

One shot shows a towering figure from behind, standing before the Blood Moon, with a long mane of glowing red Malice tendrils for hair. At first glance, one would assume this to be Ganondorf in a partially-revived state... but the figure's left arm sports what appear to be scales and a Freeze-Frame Bonus as he turns around shows what appear to be horns on his forehead, leading many to speculate that the true progenitor of the Calamity — the Demon-King Demise — will return for the final battle.

• Alternatively, "Demise" is actually Ganondorf accessing a dark Super Mode through the red magatama in his possession.
  • Jossed. It's still Ganondorf.

Zelda will get a Super Mode

A shot of the final trailer shows a blonde woman with tanned skin, wearing robes and earrings identical to the ones Zelda is shown wearing, and wearing the glowing yellow magatama bead Zelda is shown holding. This has led to some speculation that rather than being Hylia herself, the woman is actually Princess Zelda in a Super Mode triggered by the magatama bead.

• Not exactly... But the Dragon of Light? That's Zelda.

The grey-skinned woman who looks like Zelda is the Sage of Light

She uses some kind of light-based magic typically associated with the divine and there appear to be seven of those magatama symbols seen in one of the trailers which hints that the Sages might make an appearance, so if she isn't Zelda or Hylia then she's likely the Sage of Light.

• Jossed. She was a Sage, but not the Sage of Light - that honor goes to the owner of the arm who had been sealing Ganondorf. She was a Sage of Time, much like Zelda is.

Sidon, Tulin, and Riju will be sages

The champions' successors being sages just kinda makes sense if the sages are there, as the Ocarina of Time sages were each from one of the different races of Hyrule and they already compose four of those. The young Rito who appears in the trailer is obviously a slightly older version of Tulin, so he's likely the rito sage.

• Confirmed! And so is Yunobo.

Teba is either seriously injured, or dead.

He has been curiously absent from the trailer, with his son seemingly taking over as a major character (a bit of a reference to his own desire to become like Revali in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity). It's thus possible that either Teba was horribly injured in whatever brought Ganondorf back to the point that he can't continue his duties as a new Champion, or he's dead. This might factor into whatever characterization Tulin ends up getting.

• Jossed. He's not dead, just taken over as the Village Elder after Kaneli retired.

The man talking to Zelda and the grey-skinned woman are both Zonai

Both their jewelry and clothing bear a heavy resemblance to Zonai symbolism, and from what has been seen of the woman, they don't seem to bear a resemblance to any other race seen in the previous game.

• Half Jossed. The man is a Zonai, but the woman is a Hylian.

The final battle will be a reenactment of The Ancient Battle

Tulin will be revealed to be a direct descendant of Revali, but it will be through his mother

Admittedly, this WMG is based off the "Guardian of Remembrance" DLC for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. As noted earlier, while Sidon and Riju are "new" champions from BotW returning from that game, Teba seems to have been replaced by Tulin, and it follows that Tulin's backstory will be explored more in depth. We saw that Tulin was working on his own version of Revali's Gale in AoC, and while it was still very novice, it was still more than what we've seen any Rito not named Revali accomplish. If it turns out that the ability to create this updraft is hereditary (not unlike Yunobo's protection ability from his ancestor Daruk), and we have no record of Teba accomplishing this feat, then this means that Tulin would have had to receive the ability through his mother.

• In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, in the scene where Riju, Sidon, and Tulin are rushing forward together, Tulin is actually wielding the Great Eagle Bow, a weapon that Teba says "is way too heavy to use in aerial fighting" and that he'd "end up sacrificing all of [his] speed just to take a shot", giving further credence to this theory.
  • Jossed, They have no relation to one another whatsoever. However Tulin, and by extension Teba, is confirmed to be a descendant of the Sage of Wind instead.

There will be a "Rebuild Castle Town" side quest similar to the Colony 6 Reconstruction Quest.

In Breath of the Wild, there was a construction quest identical to Xenoblade Chronicles's Colony 6 Reconstruction questline where Link works with the Bolson Construction Company to create an entire village called Tarrey Town. In the final trailer there's a shot of Link running through the Castle Town ruins, which are now inhabited by various tents. Perhaps in the final release, there will be an expanded-upon quest where Link works to rebuild Castle Town in an identical storyline.

• Not Castle Town, but there is another Tarry Town like sidequest.

Ganondorf will attempt to invoke the "Every Century, a male Gerudo is born and becomes king" clause from older games, and is proptly told to go fuck himself by Riju

Since this Ganondorf seems to be a previous incarnation that was resurrected rather than reincarnated in the present day, he's going to attempt to take control of the Gerudo much like he's done before, not knowing that the Gerudo have long since moved on from being Desert Bandits. It doesn't help Ganondorf that the Gerudo consider him a stain on their history.

Zelda is Trapped in the Past

At the end of the final trailer, Zelda is shown standing on a platform similar to the ones seen on the sky islands – but the platform is on the ground, and even though we get a good of the clear blue sky above her, there are no islands floating there. Then she pleads Link to come and find her, even though it doesn't look like she's being held prisoner or anything. All this would make sense if she has accidentally travelled back in time to an era where the islands had not yet been lifted to the sky, and she doesn't know how to get back to her own time. Time travel would also explain how the Zonai can be involved in the plot, even though they presumably went extinct thousands of years ago.

• Adding to this theory, in the final trailer when Zelda is falling, there is a yellow glow before it cuts to the next scene - since she is holding the yellow magatama in the supposed past scenes, many have speculated that she used the Recall rune to save herself and ended up in the past. Since Recall can be used to reverse the movement of objects (like the chunks from the sky islands, or the Octorok boulder seen in the same trailer), it’s not a stretch that it could send someone into the past with a bit of Gameplay and Story Segregation.
• In addition, we see Hyrule Castle sanctum in pristine condition. While it's not impossible that Zelda might have commissioned the repair of the castle during the Time Skip, the sanctum looks too fresh to have been merely rebuilt, especially when we take into account that the castle is currently hoisted up by Malice and thus it should've been filled with debris at the very least. So instead, we're seeing Hyrule Castle in the past, before Calamity Ganon struck the first time.
  • More like the Recall power with the tear is strong enough to send Zelda and the Master Sword back in time, while Link only has a limited version of it that rewinds time for an object - so confirmed

The dark-skinned blonde woman is Zelda's mother

Building upon the above-mentioned time travel speculation, what if Zelda gets thrown into past and meets the previous holder of Goddess Hylia's power, a.k.a., her own mother? The dark-skinned blond woman certainly has light powers, and her having the yellow magatama may indicate she'll bequeath it to Zelda later. Besides, with Malice going into overdrive thanks to Ganondorf's revival, Zelda would definitely need that holy magic crash course, and what better way to learn it from the expert?

• Jossed. The woman is Queen Sonia, one of Zelda's ancestors and the first queen of Hyrule 10,000 years go. Also, she taught Zelda time magic instead of light magic.

Hyrule's transformation is a side effect from the Triforce.

Tears of the Kingdom will finally establish why Hyrule's nature and layout has constantly changed throughout the games. The changes are caused directly or indirectly from using the Triforce. Because it can grant anyone's wish, the user can alter the countryside to how they see fit. This is why there are now floating islands in Hyrule, as Gannondorf has warped the landscape to free himself and launch a new assault on Hyrule.

• Jossed for this game. The Triforce plays no role at all in the entire story, and the Regional Redecoration is primarily caused by Ganondorf.

Zelda will need to be woken up from a statis sleep similar to what happened in Skyward Sword

In the final trailer, Zelda implores Link to find her. While it could mean that Link needs to find a way into the past to rescue her, it doesn't make sense because it runs the risk of leaving Ganondorf unchecked in the present. If Skyward Sword is anything to go by, Zelda has the ability to put herself in a sleep that can last millenia, and this is what she will most likely do here. Because she is aware that Ganondorf will break free from whatever's sealing him and may also be looking for her as well, she will need to resort to placing cryptic clues around Hyrule that only Link can understand.

• Nope, she is awake all right... As the Dragon of Light.

Post-release

History/Lore

Dinraal, Farosh and Naydra are other ancient Sages who consumed their Secret Stones the same way Zelda did.

No real proof, but I think it'd be a fun parallel if they're ancient Sages of Fire, Lightning, and Ice/Water.

• You can get an armor set based on each of them (the Ember, Frostbite, and Charged sets). Judging by their looks and descriptions, they could've belonged to the people who'd later turn into the three dragons. That is, if it's not the other way around and the clothes are simply based on the dragons instead.
• Maybe they're the Oracles from The Legend of Zelda: Oracle Games, or related to them?
• Considering the Soft Reboot the last few games seem to be doing, it could be a retelling of the Creation Myth from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time... with Din / Nayru / Farore simply being the first Zonai Sages to descend to Hyrule and use their powers to make it more hospitable, rather than goddesses who created it from scratch.
  • This is extremely unlikely when one considers that the botw compendium entry of each dragon states that they have watched over the springs of power, wisdom and courage since ancient times... which seems a really small role for beings who have directly influenced an entire land

The names of the ancient Sages are the same as the names of the Divine Beasts

Considering the Divine Beasts are supposed to be named after the ancient Sages of their respective races, it's not a stretch to think that these are the people the Divine Beasts are named after.

• This would make a lot of sense, as the Divine Beasts would be named after the respective races folk heroes.
• Seemingly jossed by a line from the previous game where Urbosa says Naboris was named after a Nabooru. It's likely based on this that the Sages' names are outright lifted from corresponding previous characters just like Zonai king Rauru's was, and the Beasts are named after the Sages, but not exactly (essentially retconning the Beasts being a reference to older games into a self-contained piece of lore continuity).

The reason the ancient Sheikah were so successful (and also eventually failed so hard) at stopping Calamity Ganon has its roots in the Shrines of Light

Doubles as a Breath of the Wild WMG. This game reveals that the Zonai Shrines of Light were made for purifying ancient evil, presumably from the Depths through their respective Lightroots. But in memory cutscenes we see that the Shrines already existed during Ganondorf's ascencion as the Demon King, so they were not made to deal with his Malice/Gloom specifically, but some previous evil energy. The ancient Sheikah took the idea from the Shrines of Light and applied it specifically to Demon King Ganondorf's evil, which was already overflowing from the seal and regularly spawning Calamity Ganons that had to be stopped each time by a princess and a hero. This way, they purified his power and turned it into the energy used to power their technology. Which is why they managed to make Ganondorf unable to spawn a new Calamity Ganon for as long as 10000 years. And also why, when he eventually did manage to create a new one, it immediately took control of most of their tech.

• I seem to remember that the original purpose of the Light Shrines was to prevent the monsters of Hyrule from reviving. Presumably this is suppressed or overpowered by Ganondorf's Blood Moon.

Ganondorf was so much more powerful than the other Secret Stone users because he unknowingly had the Triforce of Power

• I'm going to quickly say that's highly unlikely because what does Zelda's sealing power look like in Breath of the Wild? It appears as the full Triforce.
  • Perhaps it’s because he actually did have Demise’s curse, and that’s why the Stone was able to turn him into a Demon King. After all, the Stone only amplifies the user’s power, and his demon form curiously looks a lot like Demise did when he died.
    • As also outlined on the fridge horror page - Demise was sealed in the master sword, and at the start of the game, it was shattered, and then sent back in time to when Gannondorf became the demon king. He may be much more powerful not because he has the triforce but because part of Demise's own power has escaped it's damaged prison and joined with him. This would also explain why he resembles Demise far more than his previous incarnations, and why this iteration of him is granted the title of 'demon king' Gannondorf - Demise's OWN title.
    • Uh... It was sent back in time to after Ganondorf was sealed, so how could Demise reach Ganondorf back then? Also, while broken, the sword isn't destroyed - and that may be what's keeping Demise inside still.

The Zonai coming from the sky is a myth.

We learn during the game that the Zonai was a godlike race that came from the skies, much like many other divine entities often do in the series. But the truth of the matter is that the sky ruins we see in the game, despite having Zonai aesthetics and technology in them, were all raised after the Zonai were gone, by orders of a Hylian no less (who themselves were a "divine sky civilization" at one point). Instead, the place where we see a ton of Zonai ruins seemingly from the time before the Kingdom of Hyrule existed is the Depths, where the ore that's invaluable for their technology to function is also found in abundance. Their constructs and architecture also feature a lot of Brightblooms as symbols and sources of light, which would make sense for an underground civilization, where such a resource would be an important light source. Thus, it would make sense that the Zonai are actually an advanced underground species, and the stories about them coming from the sky come either from religious syncretism with previous sky-based religions, or from tales of the ruins in the sky from the founding of Hyrule being mixed up with the Zonai as a civilization over the ages.

• Ganondorf, when talking to Rauru in the flashbacks, also talks about how the Zonai came from the sky. So this is an idea that the people at the time of Hyrule's founding believed, not something that crept in later.
• It's also possible that ancient Hylians mistook the Zonai's use of flying vehicles or connection with dragons as a sign of divinity. To an outsider who has no knowledge of how forbidden draconification actually is and how the Zonai machines work, they do appear god-like.

The Zonai are aliens

An advanced race that show up suddenly from the sky, only for most of them to disappear just as suddenly with only two of their number staying? Maybe they came from another planet in search of the Triforce.

The Rauru from the Era of the Hero of Time is simply another form taken by King Rauru

• Apparently, the humanoid Rauru was present during or before Hyrule’s founding, having made the Temple of Time, and it’s been confirmed he took the form of a certain owl, so he can change shape. Assuming this isn’t a reboot, perhaps the two are one and the same? Though this theory may have holes, of course, such as whether his seal with Ganon prevents him from manifesting elsewhere.

Ganondorf killed Queen Sonia by striking her so hard in the back that he broke her spine.

We don't see the weapon that Ganondorf uses to murder Queen Sonia: the camera only shows her face in close-up, there is no blood or wounds on her body, and no weapon is shown once we cut back to Ganondorf. But this version of Ganondorf is an absolute beast of a man; it probably wouldn't be too difficult for him to kill someone with his bare hands alone, which is what he did here. It's brutal, but it's also very much in keeping with this version of Ganondorf.

• He basically did a now canon version of his neutral B Warlock Punch from Super Smash Bros..

The White Sword of the Sky is a prototype

Assuming that the game is not set in a hard reboot, this was a previous attempt to create the Goddess Sword that would eventually become the Master Sword, but was flawed and didn't have a sword beam or a spirit. After all, how many successful inventions are the first version created?

The ancient sages share their names with the sages of Ocarina of Time

If Rauru shares his name with the Sage of Light from the Era of the Hero of Time, perhaps the other sages do the same, being named Darunia, Ruto, Nabooru, and Medli. If the series is a hard reboot, perhaps these were the individuals the Divine Beasts were named after.

• It would make sense that the different races would name the divine beasts honoring the heroes of old.
• Likely confirmed based on one voice line in the previous game where Urbosa specifically says Vah Naboris's name was derived from the name of an ancient Gerudo hero named Nabooru. Now that we have a Sage visually tied to the Beast who it's likely named for, the Sage of Lightning is probably named Nabooru and the other Sages' names are lifted from the previous corresponding characters' as well.

The ancient Sheikah emulated the Zonai

The ancient Sheikah tech from Breath of the Wild — the Guardians, Shrines, and Divine Beasts — came about as a result of the Sheikah attempting to replicate or reverse-engineer the Zonai constructs, battle mechs, and Shrines.

• That seems to be implied in their looks as well. The Zonai have a third eye in their forehead, and a tear-shaped mark under them (which may just be make-up, but both Zonai we see have them). The Sheikah have an eye with a tear as their symbol, with all of the monks (as well as Impa and Paya in the present) painting the symbol on their forehead.

The Forgotten Temple was originally a memorial of the Imprisoning War and/or the tomb of Queen Sonia and the Sages

At the back of the Forgotten Temple — an ancient Hylian building with Skyward Sword-style architecture where the Set of the Wild was obtained in Breath of the Wild — there was a massive statue of Hylia that has since toppled over to reveal a hidden door to an even older structure: a building dating back to the Zonai era containing a pair of pits arranged in such a way as to suggest a religious site and/or the tomb of someone important. In the second chamber, murals depicting Queen Sonia, King Rauru, Ganondorf as the Demon King, a Secret Stone, and the Master Sword can be found; with matching tiles on the ground — suggesting that the Forgotten Temple was originally built to commemorate the Imprisoning War, and possibly to serve as the final resting place for Queen Sonia and the Sages.

• One memory reveals the Forgotten Temple was the site of the ceremony where the original Sages received their secret stones, as it takes place in the chamber with the lotus-like sculpture in the middle. The temple existed before the war, but may have become a memorial thereafter.
• Talking to Impa after the final dragon tear while she's in the Forgotten Temple actually explains that the geoglyphs were made by an ancient people who were able to see the visions from the tears and record them, an ability that she speculates that they were more attuned to in the past than the present. A grave, on the other hand, can be seen in the sage ceremony area surrounded by three Sundelions - specifically, it is Sonia's grave.

Flurry Rush is a latent Triforce ability

Assuming the triforce exists in Tot K (And depictions of it are plastered all over Hyrule, so that's not a huge leap, even if it doesn't play a part in this series of stories). Link's part of the Triforce is Courage. What's the one power he always has, no matter how weakened a condition he's in, that doesn't rely on borrowed powers (His new arm) or technology (The shiekah slate/purah pad)? Flurry rush. No matter how drained he is, he can always trigger a surge of power by, well, playing courageously. In order to activate flurry rush you need to risk taking damage from a poorly timed dodge instead of playing cautiously and fighting from afar, it's about as close as a mechanic can be to rewarding courage. So when Link is courageous, he taps into the power of his part of the Triforce for a brief moment, boosting his reflexes and allowing him to hit harder. Neither he nor Zelda seem to know much about the relationship between themselves and Ganon,so he may not even be aware of where the power actually comes from or how to activate it at will.

• But Ganondorf can do it too, so it can't be specifically tied to Courage.

Zelda’s divine goddess powers didn’t work for so long because she’s naturally inclined to Sonia’s time magic more than Rauru’s light magic

And in turn, maybe Link has so little trouble tapping in to various divine light abilities because he has a similar light inclination as Rauru, so divine/light themed magic comes more naturally to him.

• Could feed into several things Link is able to do that seem fairly rare, if not mostly unheard of, at least in adults. Being able to interact with The Goddess statues, seeing Koroks and dragons…

Rauru and Sonia's child (or one of them if they have more) is the Ancient Hero

We know Rauru and Mineru were the last Zonai. With Rauru gone and Mineru stuck as a spirit, the percentage of Rauru DNA will dwindle in their bloodline. With this in mind, here are some sub-WMGs.

• The Zonai-Hylian mixed couple had two children. One who would take up the Master Sword and one who would seal away the first Calamity. Obviously this pair of heroes would not get together (though it might be a nice Mythology Gag to the mistranslation and resulting fan theory).
• The original sages are the ones depicted in the mural leading the divine beasts.
• Adding on to the naming WMG listed above, this is also the hero that Mipha mentions in her diary in the previous game that got together with the Sage of Water (if the theories about them getting together are accurate).

The Dangerous Forbidden Technique doesn't destroy all of the mind, only most of it (Spoilers).

With how Draconification is treated as a complete Death of Personality as a way of warding off those who would attempt such a Dangerous Forbidden Technique, isn't it odd that the two draconifications we witness on-screen (Zelda becoming the Light Dragon, and Ganondorf becoming the Demon Dragon) have the two mighty beasts carrying on the wishes of their former selves? What if an individual's greatest desire becomes the core instinct of their dragon form after they transform? It'd make sense, after all: Zelda became a dragon to protect the Master Sword as it healed, something the Light Dragon did for many, many years; while Ganondorf became a dragon with the desire to destroy everything in a fit of petty rage, something he immediately sets to doing after emerging from the depths under Hyrule Castle. If these dragons weren't motivated by their former selves' desires, they would have simply just flew on and did whatever, but they had a purpose.

Rauru has The Soul of The Hero

Rauru and Sonia were a Perfectly Arranged Marriage

They may be the first King and Queen of (this instance of) Hyrule, but that’s not to say they didn’t come from already royal or royal-like status. After all, it seems likely that Sonia is descended from Skyward Sword Zelda at least, putting her firmly in the Bloodline of The Goddess referred to in Skyward Sword. On the other hand, Rauru seems like he’s more used to the idea of actually ruling. Maybe he and Mineru belong to some kind of Zonai royalty, and he and Sonia were initially brought together as a way to bring the Zonai and Hylian peoples together, creating Hyrule itself.

• The game actually tells us how they met, and there's no indication of it being an arranged marriage at all.

This is a new Kingdom and a new royal family, founded long after the previous Kingdom collapsed.

A new incarnation of Ganondorf and Zelda's power coming from Rauru and Sonia seemingly contradicts established lore which could be because Nintendo is trying to make Bot W and Tot K unreliant on previous games. It's possible that events from previous games happened in this new era due to Eternal Recurrence which explains the references to them in item descriptions.

A descendant of Rauru and Sonia and reincarnation of Zelda reascended to Godhood, revitalizing worship of Hylia.

Then she imbued statues with her essence so they could assist her and Link's future incarnations in their fight against Calamity Ganon. She also sealed away The Horned Demon during this time. This would explain why Zelda's sacred power is said to come from her Goddess Blood.

Link, Rauru and Sonia combining their powers to restore Zelda from her dragon form may have been a Triforce wish.

[[spoiler: While it seems to be heavily implied that it was a supercharged Recall, another possibility of how Link, Rauru and Sonia were able to do the impossible and undo Zelda's draconification was a Triforce wish.

Traditionally, a full Triforce has the ability to grant any wish from its wielder; this was something Ganondorf has tried to do, notably in The Wind Waker. While the physical magic artifact is not present in this game outside of imagery amongst the world, the three players present at the scene still represented each of the three pieces of the Triforce.

Link is Courage, as usual (and for anyone who wants evidence, what else could be a more apt display of courage than battling an all-powerful Demon Dragon thousands of feet in the sky - and winning?).

Sonia, being the one who always looked at the bigger picture and being able to act as the teacher that Zelda needed, places her squarely in Wisdom.

Rauru, being a powerful wielder of light, places him in Power.

When the spirits of Rauru and Sonia combined their powers with Link, for a moment, the Triforce was fully assembled, and responded to Link's wish, the one thing that he has still yet to consider completed:

Find Princess Zelda.]]

The Upheaval messed with a lot of people's memories.

This is why so many citizens fail to recognise Link, even in Hateno.

This Link never did Hestu's quest in Breath of the Wild.

Since Hestu expanding Link's inventory is presented as him doing something to Link's bag/pack, there is some logic to say the damage Ganondorf inflicted on Link's body should not have effected it. Yet, Link's weapon, shield and bow slots are at their base amounts, as if no Korok seeds were ever used. Hence, Hestu doesn't recognize Link in this game. Admittedly this can't be proven, as you can't access Link's inventory until after the events beneath Hyrule Castle, so you can't see if they are at their base level then or not.

The Ancient Hero wasn't a reincarnation of the Hero.

It's a bit odd that the Ancient Hero is literally the only incarnation of Link who isn't a Hylian, and one possible explanation for it is that he wasn't a reincarnation of Link. Considering the parallels between Tears and Ocarina, it wouldn't be crazy to think that the Hero who came after Ganondorf was sealed might have some parallels to the Hero of Winds. Perhaps the hero's spirit was for some reason missing or unable to reincarnate, as in the backstory of The Wind Waker, and the Ancient Hero, like the Hero of Winds, was just someone who stepped up to take on the role of the Hero and defeat Ganon. It would also explain why Link wasn't present when Ganondorf was menacing the Zonai; he didn't exist until the Ancient Hero took his place.

Gibdos actually are undead

While being the spawn of an insectoid monster seemingly suggests they are merely monsters that happen to look like desiccated corpses, they still behave like zombies and after the Queen Gibdo's defeat, Gibdos are most prominently found in Gerudo burial grounds, and at least one can be found trapped in a sarcophagus. They may simply just be another manifestation of the undead (ala the difference between Stalfos and Poes in other games) shaped by Ganondorf.

The Stasis Rune was the ancient Sheikah attempting to emulate or harness the powers of the goddess

What with their shared color and the fact that they both manipulate time, it's not hard to see the parallels between Stasis and Recall. If Hylia was a goddess of time, it makes sense that the highly devout Sheikah would craft some form of time manipulation technology, presumably seeing it as a form of worship.

Some of the sky islands were brought down to Hyrule for purposes Link never found

Mostly inspired by the Crucible island. It's so oddly specific for the fact that all we seem to be able to do there is a laser dive challenge and a shrine. Perhaps, 10,000 years ago, there was some kind of instruction present that, had it lasted long enough for Link to get there, would have told him how to use the crucible for some purpose.

Timeline placement/Reboot status

BOTW and TOTK take place in the Adult Timeline

TOTK gives a new story about the founding of Hyrule that flatly contradicts everything about the old games. The only way for it to make sense if this is Hyrule being refounded after the Great Ocean finally recedes, revealing a lost world about which only legends have been spoken. What happened to New Hyrule from Spirit Tracks? Maybe it's still there somewhere, but the primitive look of the Hylians in the flashbacks might suggest that some calamity befell them and forced them back to their ancestral homeland. The Master Sword is clearly no longer attatched to the old Ganondorf, meaning it must have been retreived at some point, which would have likely released the Curse of Demise to reincarnate as the new Ganondorf seen in TOTK. As for what happened to the Great Ocean, perhaps the Zonai were the ones to remove it, perhaps looking for the Triforce (as above), only for them to fail and leave, with only Rauru and Mineru staying behind.

BotW has been retroactively made the start of a Soft Reboot that TotK is now cementing

While it's not impossible for the pre-BotW games to still work, even after a Chrono Cross Style merging of timelines, there are some issues.

Hence why I believe a Soft Reboot has occurred between the release of the Guardian of Remembrance DLC for Age of Calamity and that of Tears of the Kingdom.

1. Zelda called the conflict on the murals the "Imprisoning War" instead of the "first Great Calamity" as implied by Breath of the Wild. It's implied that the Imprisoning War is the same event as a certain incident ten thousand years before the Era Of The Wilds. Where did Link and Zelda find Ganondorf? Beneath Hyrule Castle, which is where Calamity Ganon was supposed to have been sealed. When was that, again? That's right, ten thousand years ago. Why is this an issue? We already have an Imprisoning War in the form of the conflict with the victorious Ganondorf in the unseen third ending of Ocarina of Time, that leads to the Downfall Timeline and A Link to the Past.

2. The Imprisoning War takes place not long after the Founding Of Hyrule. Furthermore, Rauru and Sonia are stated to be Hyrule's first rulers. Despite the civil war going on when the Hero Of Time was born, the Kingdom of Hyrule had been around for a long time before even that, as evidenced by The Minish Cap and Four Swords. As stated in Point #1, the Imprisoning War is supposed to have taken place just after Ocarina of Time in the Downfall Timeline, centuries after Hyrule was allegedly founded.

3. The Imprisoning War is Ganondorf's debut. I will be the first to admit this one is slightly shaky due to Four Swords Adventures and Ganondorf reincarnating there, but see Point #2 on why I think that's is not in play here. It's an issue because Ganondorf made his debut, both onscreen^* (Though he was first mentioned in ALttP.) and chronologically, in Ocarina of Time.

4. There is no mention of a hero who rose up to oppose Ganondorf, and died trying, nor do Rauru and Sonia seem to have a daughter, regardless of what her name may be. In A Link to the Past, by the continued existence of the Royal Family after the Hero Of Time's defeat, it's implied the Princess Of Destiny survived the battle despite losing the Triforce Of Wisdom to Ganondorf. As for why the alleged hero would have to die, think about it. Rauru had to seal Ganondorf beneath Hyrule Castle for things to play out as they have. If this hero had successfully defeated Ganondorf, that wouldn't be necessary.

Conclusion from Points 1 — 4: Ocarina Of Time cannot have happened in this implied new continuity.

This is also why I said the decision for the Soft Reboot had to have been made after Age of Calamity stopped updating.

5. The Zonai are stated to have descended from the sky and helped found Hyrule. This could only work with the previous continuity if the Zonai co-existed with the Hylians during the Sky Era and came down with them when the Cloud Barrier was dispelled. But they didn't, and to those who would say they did, I've one thing to say. Knox's 8th. It is forbidden for the case to be resolved with clues that have not been presented. Until it's shown that they did, it's more likely that they didn't.

Conclusion from Point 5: Skyward Sword cannot have happened in this implied new continuity.

Both Ocarina of Time and Skyward Sword are the lynchpins of the Zelda Timeline as we knew it as recently as Encyclopedia^* (for all my opinions on that one compared to Hyrule Historia...) and the Past Era sections of Tears of the Kingdom outright contradict them.

Have they been retconned? I'm not sure. After all, the map is full of references to past games. They need some source we haven't seen.

Zelda traveling to the past changed history so that the events of BOTW never happened, or happened differently.

The Sheikah technolog is all gone, and characters only vaguely refer to events in BOTW. Though this does create a bootstrap paradox. If Zelda didn't travel back in time, would Link and Zelda have encountered the mummified Ganon, causing Zelda to travel back in time?

• Jossed. The mural showing what Zelda did in the past is present before she travels back (you just can't view part of it due to rocks blocking it at the time), it was all going to happen, nothing was changed. While their absence goes unexplained, it is stated by an NPC that the Divine Beasts were active until recently, various major events and characters from the first game are mentioned, and a developer interview confirmed that the events of the first game did still happen.

DLC

A DLC quest will let Link do something about Wabbin and Hudson's situations with their daughters

It seems rather strange for the game to repeatedly present these sad scenarios that come about from a Gerudo tradition that serves no apparent purpose (Wabbin is stuck in jail for the whole game simply because he wanted to see his daughter), and indeed seems to contradict Gerudo reasoning from the previous game (namely no men are allowed in Gerudo town to encourage Gerudo to leave the town, yet in this game we find out Gerudo are required to live in the town from early childhood to young adulthood) and yet Link is not able to do anything to help or even criticize the situations.

The DLC will end up being a huge callback to all the Urban Legend of Zelda from way back in the days of Ocarina of Time

Back in Ocarina of Time, we had five dungeons centered around saving one of the Seven Sages each, with the final dungeon in a way serving as the Sage of Time dungeon. The one Sage that ended up having no dungeon at all was the Light Sage, which joined you automatically. This caused a lot of playground rumours to be passed around about a secret Temple of Light, some of which even gained notoriety on the early internet days. Flash forward to Tears of the Kingdom, and a very similar situation is happening again. We have seven Sages, five of which have dungeons of their own, and the final dungeon (Hyrule Castle, with Ganondorf serving as its boss) doubling as the Sage of Time dungeon (the game even gives you a Time icon on loading screens after you've beaten the game, reinforcing this idea). And once again, the Sage of Light is left out. Except this time, we can expect DLC, and like in Breath of the Wild, it's possible that it'll add a new dungeon into the game. And, just like Breath of the Wild added a new Divine Beast for a Champion that was already in the game, it's likely that Tears of the Kingdom will add a new Temple for a Sage that is already in the game, Rauru, the Sage of Light. Extra points if they decide to be self-aware about what they're doing, and include the Triforce as an element in this game's story through that dungeon, as that was often the big prize the old Ocarina playground rumours had at the end of the "secret" dungeon.

• Actually, Hyrule Castle is not the final dungeon. It's what's beneath the Castle deep in the Depths that serves as the final dungeon. And because the first King and Queen were Sages of Light and Time, it could count as both in a sense.
• There is already the Temple of Time right at the start where Link finds a Secret Stone and recieves a vision from an ancient sage (in this case Zelda), even if it isn't a dungeon, so the area beneath Hyrule Castle is just its own thing and not supposed to tbe the Temple of Time. That does make the absence of a Temple of Light even more conspicuous though.
  • Perhaps the Forgotten Temple is supposed to be the Light Temple? It even has what appears to be a Chamber of Sages (behind a door only Rauru could open), and the resistance against Ganondorf seemed to be using it as a headquarters.
  • Alternatively, the Zonai Temple of Time will be revealed to contain a Temple of Light dungeon inside it somehow, a la the Shrine of Resurrection housing the DLC dungeon in the previous game. This would further reference the Time/Light pairing and more specifically, how the Ocarina Temple of Time is left over from a scrapped Temple of Light, and the Twilight Princess Temple of Time having Light Medallion imagery inside it.

DLC will show the unmasked ancient Sages and address the royal bloodline by revealing Rauru and Sonia's child or children.

It seems rather conspicuous that the Sages aren't seen unmasked, and exploring them more would be a good chance to reveal their faces and make them more meaningful. Meanwhile, Rauru and Sonia had heirs if they had descendants, but the base game never acknowledges this— telling the story of their child or children could be a narrative angle to focus on and remove a notable ambiguity.

DLC armor guesses

• The Zonai-crafted green helms worn by the Ancient Sages
• The Gerudo vai set
• A Cece-designed costume to complete the hat
• The Well-Worn set from the previous game
• The Nintendo Switch shirt from the previous game
• A Light Dragon-themed armor in the same way that the Ember, Frostbite, and Charged armors are themed after the other dragons. Possible effect would be increasing damage at full health, thematically and mechanically tying it to both the Master Sword's sword beams and the healing powers of the Light Dragon parts.

Alternatively, Kohga's defeat is a setup for sky islands that will debut in DLC.

While the use of Zonai rockets could connote a journey to space, it could simply see him returning within this game in DLC, where he has landed on some newly-appeared sky islands and will serve as a boss akin to Maz Koshia and have his character's fate fully resolved this time after his defeat.

Any DLC shrines will be located exclusively in the sky.

Not only would it help expand the sky map, but it would prevent any confusion from shrines being added to the Surface that would necessarily lack corresponding Lightroots in the Depths.

Rauru will be the final boss of the DLC

Since there are no shrine monks, there's no other candidate for the equivalent to Maz Koshia other than the spirit of Rauru. As the Sage of Light who gave Link most of his toolkit, Rauru's spirit would be able to weaponize Ultrahand and Fuse (and maybe Recall because why not) in a Final-Exam Boss friendly duel that tests all of your ingenuity and strength and proves to the player exactly why he was the first King of Hyrule. He could even start controlling constructs similar to (and optimally countered by) his sister Mineru.

A new incarnation of Twinrova will be the final boss of the DLC

The names of Koume and Kotake can be seen on the sashes of two Gerudo in the Dragon Tear cutscenes, which have similar Gerudo lettering and color schemes to the sashes worn by the witches in Ocarina of Time. They also have very distinct models compared to other NPC Gerudo with their gold masks and the same green skin as Ganondorf. Assuming they survive into the present-day Hyrule (which given Ganondorf's power is highly-possible), they could easily be the main antagonists of whatever new side-adventure the DLC offers.

• The Gerudo of the past have very distinct designs and multiple variants for what are currently background characters. While they could be holdovers from a previous version of the game, I get the strong feeling that Twinrova will be the villain of the D.L.C with her forces being Gerudo carrying the designs from the flashbacks.
• Since Koume and Kotake were originally the surrogate mothers of Ganondorf in Ocarina of Time, it raises the question on why they look so young in Tears of the Kingdom. While Ganondorf has noticeable wrinkles on his face, those two look just as young as any other Gerudo soldier apart from their green skin, outfit and haircut. Unless the masks are magical or just meant to hide their age, it's possible that they're descendants of Twinrova. Though regardless of their identity, it seems to be a reversal of what occurred in Ocarina of Time where instead of old witches merging to create a beautiful sorceress - the witches are already "pretty" here and a DLC fight will likely result in knocking off their masks to reveal something hideous underneath.
• It's possible that we'll get a twist about their age. Sure, they look young in the cutscenes (maybe in this version they're supposed to be Ganondorf's sisters rather than mothers), but if we meet them in the present, they would be impossibly old. Ganondorf had Rauru's seal to keep him young, and even then he was pretty much mummified until he had time to use his Demon King powers to restore his body to its prime form, there's no reason to believe they got the same privilege. Maybe we will find them as old witches, and only by fusing together they'll go back to a form resembling their younger self.

Added gameplay mechanics/Quality of Life features/purchase rewards in DLC

• Zonai capsules to pick up loose or deployed devices
• Increased dream home customization (more rooms, color changes, etc.)
• A one-piece summonable vehicle akin to the Master Cycle Zero (or major upgrades to the Sage of Spirit construct, which is kind of that idea in this game)
• Updates to the Sage powers (upgrades for their special elemental effects and/or a change in activation controls)
• Return of the Ancient Saddle or an equivalent horse-teleport saddle
• Yiga Earthwake upgrade
• Another stage and/or another subject type you can make sculptures for in Tarrey Town, or a place on Link's house plot maybe? Also, maybe the option to have sculptures that look more statue-like and monochrome if they can become Link's decor.
• A Korok budddy physics object to summon and play around with so the player will never run out of Koroks to torture

DLC may explore the connection between Calamity Ganon and Ganondorf

DLC may address a connection between the two, specifically that maybe Rauru sundered Ganon's spirit and body, and while his spirit still existed as a malevolent entity in an endless cycle of awakening and being sealed away, finally giving up resurrection to defeat Link in the first game allowed his spirit to return to to his body, priming him for reawakening. He may or may not have known that this how it work, and it's unlikely he would have memories of his time as Calamity Ganon.

• At the bottom of the staircase leading to the Royal Family's secret passage — which was presumably originally the entrance to the Zonai ruins Link and Zelda were exploring in the prologue — there's a plaque warning that the sealed Demon-King's hatred and malice could escape if the Royal Family is not diligent in ensuring the kingdom's peaceful prosperity, which seems to point to the origins of Calamity Ganon.

Kass will return for the DLC side quest story, which will feature King Rauru, Queen Sonia, and the original Sages

Much similar to the Champions Ballad DLC, Kass will return to Hyrule to give Link another story side quest. This quest will focus on how Rauru and Sonia met. And how they later founded Hyrule. It will also focus on the other 5 original sages and how each member contributed to the founding of Hyrule.

In the DLC, a final rune power will be added...

...in the center of the power wheel, which looks like it's completely filled and unable to fit another ability, but could actually fit something in the middle.

DLC will add a fourth layer of the map, below the Depths

It seems odd to me that the Depths and the Surface are clear parallels to each other, but the Sky doesn't have a counterpart. Why not completely mirror both the ground and air of Hyrule with another section that goes even lower than the Depths? Probably called the "Abyss" or something along those lines, it could be a set of ruins floating along an endless black void or an ocean of Gloom. It would also play up the horror to the point of making the Depths look like a nice and cozy vacation home in comparison, with things like colossal monsters that eat Link if he falls below the floating structures. Of course, it would have 32 Lightroots that correspond to the sky Shrines, and most/all of its landmarks will be roughly below a sky structure.

• Or it could be the Hyrule equivalent of Subrosia with oceans of lava.
• It could be accessed from the Depths via long vertical shafts corresponding to the Skyview Towers.

Misko the Thief would make a physical appearance

He could even be an Optional Boss.

Trial of the Sword will return

Or at least something similar to it. Since this game allows and encourages much more creativity Breath of the Wild did, it’d be interesting to limit that creativity by only giving you so many materials (and taking away Autobuild), seeing what you could craft with the Ultrahand or fuse with only a select few materials in different scenarios.

Future games

A potential Tears of the Kingdom sequel

Unless Nintendo comes out and says that Tears of the Kingdom will be the final main game in the Wild Era of Zelda, the possibility for a sequel is still in the air. But right now, many questions are raised about what parts of Tears of the Kingdom could be expanded upon.

• The Antagonist: With Calamity Ganon dispelled and Ganondorf destroyed, it's hard to pick who could be the next major antagonist of the Wild Era in this potential sequel to TotK...except we can uncover several non-Ganondorf antagonists from the series' past and implement it in the sequel as inspirations. The most likely to be the antagonist of this game is Majora, who seems to be a logical next step in the series beyond Ganondorf. As for the bosses for the Divine Beasts/Temples of the game, I believe they would be apostles of Majora based on previous antagonists of the series: a sword demon like Ghirahim, a Twili like Zant, a Dark Hylian like Vaati and a demonic wizard like Aghanim.
• Expanding the map: With all the insane things that make Hyrule significantly bigger than it was in Breath of the Wild, it's hard to imagine how we could go from there...except there is one way: by introducing Termina from Majora's Mask, with its own Sky Island equivalent and its own Depths. The game would start in a remote region of Termina, far away from Hyrule, and once you manage to complete the tutorial you can use the Towers of the game to either shoot you upwards into the Sky Islands or to launch you from Termina all the way to Hyrule or vice versa.
  • In particular, since neither Breath nor Tears explores that massive continent across the giant chasm north/northwest of Hyrule, it's as good a location as any for a sequel. We don't know if there's anything across the sea to the south and east of Hyrule, so that continent is a more likely bet. This does have the hitch that Hyrule is the world of pretty much all Zelda games, but hey.
• Shrines: Shrines seem to be an essential part of the Wild Era, with Sheikah Shrines scattering Hyrule in Breath of the Wild and Zonai Shrines doing the same in Tears of the Kingdom. If Majora is our next main antagonist, then perhaps the premise to these Shrines are that instead of using light to cleanse evil like in Tears of the Kingdom, we instead have to absorb evil energy to ensure Majora doesn't regain his power.

The next game in the series will still follow through with this world and versions of Link, Zelda and Ganondorf

Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom together are a huge turning point for the series in terms of sales and popularity, making it likely that Nintendo will want to preserve these versions of the characters for as long as possible, instead of making new iterations after a couple of games like they usually do. As such, we can expect the next bug Zelda game to not just follow the same formula, but use the same world again. Just like Breath of the Wild had its format inspired by the original Legend of Zelda and Tears of the Kingdom had its plot inspired by A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time, the third game will take clues from Adventure of Link. This game's story will finally introduce the Triforce into this era, maybe as an artifact that had been hidden away since even further in the past than the founding of Hyrule. The villain in the present will be a Ganon who got resurrected by his minions (maybe even involving a sacrifice of Link's vitality, justifying yet another Bag of Spilling), in a form closer to the traditional humanoid pig, not a mindless mass of Malice like Calamity Ganon, nor the human-turned-demon Ganondorf. Explorarion will feature a brand new alternate world in the Sacred Realm/Dark World, with puzzles potentially involving phasing in and out of this world in real time, showcasing how Nintendo's next console can do stuff that was impossible on the Switch.

Everything has been set up for a third game that's a full-blown outer-space fantasy.

The games have displayed progressively advanced technology, and our Zelda is defined by being a scholar and a researcher first and foremost, almost like the games are trying to get the player to accept a harder sci-fi shift, at least for the end of a trilogy. Tears of the Kingdom has introduced floating landmasses, low gravity, launching towers, and vehicular locomotion to this gameplay, which could prove vital structurally for a map outright set in space, the Zonai could quite plausibly be revealed to have alien origins, and Kohga's defeat this time sees him rocketing up out of the Depths to who knows where, implying his next location will be somewhere very high up. If the next game continues in this universe, a stunning finale in space would be the perfect kind of spectacular yet surprisingly not baseless ending for two games that ramp up the tech and fantastical topography. And the Blood Moon could remain as the reset mechanic given that it's a bizarre lunar phenomenon! Alternatively, a space map could be the setting of a large DLC expansion with a new Skyview Tower being added and launching the player even higher up to reach a fourth map layer.

The next Zelda game will have a "Back to Basics" approach.

The next Zelda game will likely be a simple classic 2D top-down approach. This could even be a remake of a similar game (The Oracle games, Minish Cap, Four Swords games). The true spiritual 3D sequel for Tears of the Kingdom would be released later.

Nintendo will reboot the Zelda series again after Tears of the Kingdom

Nintendo will choose to end the "Wild Trilogy" and reboot the series with a new creative style and approach for the games.

• It's not really a trilogy yet without a third main game. Age of Calamity isn't part of the same timeline as the other two, and might not be considered canon. But if there is a third main game following up on Tot K, that could definitely be a cap on this era of the storytelling and lead to another reboot.

There will be a Sequel in Another Medium that will act as an epilogue of the "Wild Trilogy"

It may resolve the remaining few plot threads, such as the fate of the Yiga Clan, the backstory of the other three dragons, Kass's disappearance, the domain Yona is from, etc.

Other

Addison is posting signs everywhere because he's a terrible construction worker, but Hudson is too nice to fire him.

Addision is clearly not good at building things. After putting up dozens of signs, he still hasn't grasped the idea of securing the signpost before putting the sign up, he hasn't taken the hint from Link that you can prop up the sign, and when he does secure the sign, it's a kludged-together mess of boards and ropes. It's obvious that if his job at Hudson and Sons actually involves building things, he's not going to have that job for long, because if he can't manage to even put up a signpost properly he has no buisiness building, say, a house. However, Hudson is a nice guy, and given that Addison clearly idolizes him, he couldn't bring himself to fire Addison outright. So instead, he puts Addison in charge of advertising, knowing that his dedication will be put to good use.

Hylian DNA is dominant over Zonai DNA

Given that Zelda is explicitly stated to be the descendant of Rauru and Sonia, that means she is part Zonai. However, she looks completely Hylian. This suggests that over time, the descendants of Zonai/Hylian couples appear more and more Hylian as the generations pass. This also could mean that instead of supposedly dying off or going extinct, the Zonai simply intermarried with the Hylians, and their descendants are now indistinguishable from normal Hylians. (While Rauru and Mineru are stated to be the last Zonai, this could alternatively mean they are simply the last of the Pure-Blooded Zonai.)

• This would hardly require Zonai genes to be dominant. Over a long enough timeline (and we're talking at least tens of thousands of years over here), Hylians marrying into the Royal Family over and over again with no new Zonai input would inevitably erase all Zonai traces.
• Plus, one could expand the idea to say that one trait has survived. Both Rauru and Mineru have (at least mostly in Rauru's case) silver/white hair. The Sheikah do have a symbol that notably echoes the eye and facepaint sported by both Rauru and Mineru.
• If you're trying to imply that the Sheikah are the descendants of the Zonai, there's a slight problem with that: Zelda would be one, rather than a Hylian like she's established to be.
  • I was thinking more like an extended mixing of bloodlines, rather than the singular Zonai ancestor we know Zelda has in Rauru. Like if, say, before most of the Zonai structures went up to the sky, Kakariko was, or was near, their equivalent of Rito Village, Goron City, or Gerudo Town.

The Divine Beasts have been sunk into the sea.

It’s the one place you could put them where we wouldn’t be able to find them. Possibly this was done to prevent them being subverted again in another Calamity, and to prevent them being misguidedly excavated the way Hyrule did 100 years ago.

• Except that they'd still be very accessible to pretty much any zora.
• And how exactly would they have moved them out to sea in the first place?

The Time Skip is specifically seven years

It makes a parallel to Ocarina of Time, and gives an ample window for the most prominent signs of time passing. Mattison was born about two years after the last game, making her around 5 here, which matches her appearance and personality.

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