Hi. Had to know for my own fanfic. Decided to share my findings. Sorry if it's been done before, I just couldn't find it. All script information is taken from the Zelda wiki. Let's dive right in.
This is what we're given. Good to know: Time, Sky and Twilight all have their own scripts. Four and Wind both use the script from the "Era without a Hero." The remaining four also all use the same script.
At the very top is Time's script and thus also his handwriting. (This also makes sense as he's the first to arrive at the inn, with Twilight.)
Up next, Hyrule and Four arrived at the inn.
Hyrule wrote his name first.
Then Four.
Then Warriors and Wind arrived at the inn. (Wind is talking to Four upstairs, and Warriors is downstairs when the innkeeper asks him how many of his friends are staying, right before Legend and Sky enter.)
First Warriors. (Of course his handwriting is the fanciest.)
Then Wind.
After the innkeeper talks to Warriors, we see Legend and Sky enter.
Legend writes his name first.
Then Sky.
Finally, after calming down, Wild arrives at the inn, too.
And after Twilight recovers, he also writes down his name.
So, all together, we get this:
Alright. That's it. That's the post! Thank you for reading! Hope this is of use to some of you.
So, earlier this year I made this post regarding Demise having been on the earth before the Golden Goddesses descended. And while I still believe this to be true (because I can't imagine the Goddesses making malevolent beings themselves—and these beings also aren't even made of Light Force, afaik, therefore they are not their creation), I really need to know how Demise and Null were both trapped underneath the earth. Since, you know, Demise broke through and all.
It feels like they partially retconned things for the lore of this game, which seems to be the Zelda devs' specialty. I know they make things up as they go, but like, at least make an effort to not completely discard the lore you previously established?
There's no way that I'm supposed to imagine something like this:
Where did Demise even come from? Did he just kinda come from outer space or another dimension, saw all the beautiful green earth and said, "Yeah, this one will do." I doubt that Null made him?
If anyone has any idea let me know, I'd love to hear just about anything.
What if we're picking Lil Judd's motivation for being evil.
For anyone out of the loop, it's genuinely no secret that he is the one that has taken over Grizzco after Mr Grizz bit the dust, and that he's probably going to be Splat4's villain. He's gotten fuzzier in 3 (which has a plot about making everyone fuzzy), he represents the "bad guys" when judging turf and anarchy matches, his deck in tableturf consists of salmonid cards (including the Mr. Grizz card), he has concept art with a Grizzco eyepatch on, etc etc.
I am writing this without a draft and I'm very chaotic so bear with me please.
There's all these pieces that I'm trying to connect and some good theorist might have to help me out here.
In one of the earliest chapters of the story, we learn that Amane was supposed to be a teacher. It was written in his book in the 5pm bookstacks.
Tsuchigomori says that he is supposedly the only person to change his future, but I am now getting the feeling that that's not the case. He is not the person changing his future, but it is our trio (Teru, Akane and Nene) that change his future, because they are not from this timeline. It makes sense that the bookstacks can't predict something irregular like that.
I can't tell which "future" for Amane was the original one, or which timeline came first. Sort of chicken-or-the-egg-timeloop type deal.
There's also some other things that I'm trying to make sense of.
Obviously Amane is involved in Tsukasa's new myth somehow, but I have no idea in what way or why. At first, Amane smiling all creepy like that made me think that he was actually Tsukasa, and the child we see running around is Amane, and that he died from his illness as a child. But that doesn't make any sense, because...
They are together here, while Amane is fixing up the clock, so he can freely control time, presumably to change the outcome of something.
I wonder if maybe past him meets Nene & squad and they tell him to fix up the clock and go to the past, to undo whatever the Clock Keepers did?
Not to mention what will happen when do finally go back to the timeline we are familiar with. Surely the Clock Keepers' yorishiro will be destroyed then, and then Hanako's/Tsukasa as well, and then someone can make a wish to "God" (likely Hanako trying to wish for Nene to be spared) or everything will be destroyed like Sakura said.
I'm really trying to make sense of everything all together, everything we've learned in all the arcs in this manga. This is some masterful writing to do this much setup through the entirety of the story, and then it's all going to come together near the end.
after some googling i found out that link does move his mouth in twilight princess cutscenes, so he does talk, but if you hc that link is mute it makes this scene 20x funnier because midna's like "say nothing if you think i'm hot 😏 why, thank you!"
I do this sexy thing called “emotional regulation” which is where i have big feelings and i make cards about it and stick them in my emotion cards collection and do fuckall about the emotions themselves and anyways update still in the loverboy arena over here
I've had this theory in my mind for a while, and finally decided to write it down.
Hyrule was, before the Golden Goddesses came down, "chaos." "Time" did not exist yet (even though the Golden Goddesses are said to have existed "forever" so there must be a starting point somewhere. Anyway. Time shenanigans). Neither life nor spirits existed yet either.
Din, with her strong arms, cultivated (interesting choice of words, by the way) the land. Nayru, with her wisdom, gave the land the spirit of law. And Farore, with her rich soul, produced all lifeforms who would uphold the law.
I do believe Hylia was created to uphold the law of "time," and so she became the Goddess of Time. She was also tasked with protecting the Triforce that the Goddesses left behind.
Time passes, until:
One dark, fateful day, the earth cracked wide and malevolent forces rushed forth from the fissure, in pursuit of the Triforce.
Now, I don't know what the Golden Goddesses were thinking, but I do believe they had no reason to create malevolent forces underneath the earth, or any kind of forces at all that should uphold "laws" down there.
No, what I believe is that these lifeforms existed before the Golden Goddesses came down, and the "chaos" that was described above, was just these monsters living the only way they know how.
The Goddesses basically barged in, put some land on top of these creatures' heads, and started decorating in a way they thought was nice.
It is no wonder, then, that Demise dug his way out to the surface, saw the Triforce, and said: "I would LOVE to take this place back with that power."
To him, it is likely the Golden Goddesses and Hylia who are the villains.
His hate for the Goddesses never perishes. "It is born anew in a cycle with no end."
His most popular incarnation (Ganondorf) seeks to always rule Hyrule. Demise's hate, envy, and will are ingrained into his very soul.
I also think that for many people, Totk Ganondorf was "disappointing" due to a lack of characterization. But I also think that, at the end of the day, Ganondorf's character is always the same: he is the personification of Demise's need for revenge, and to rule what was stolen from him.
The Adventure of the Ancient Hero: The Merging of all Timelines
For all those that have played mainline Zelda games (namely Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess and Wind Waker) know that the Rito and Gerudo existing both in past-Totk and modern-Totk with direct descendants is… strange. The Rito don’t exist in most timelines (and when they do, they look nothing like how they do in Botw and Totk), and the Gerudo are implied to go extinct in TP (or there are very, very little of them left, and they fled Hyrule, because the desert is barren and abandoned.)
The Rito, Zora, Gerudo and Gorons all coexisting for thousands of years and having direct descendants far into the future (and those descendants having the same appearance) made me think: what if it all takes place on its own timeline? But if it’s all on its own timeline… then why are many, many of the previous games referenced in Botw/Totk?
I’ve never written such a long theory before (and such a complicated one), so I hope I explained everything well enough for other people to follow. (Also, a note before we begin: this entire theory is based on the assumption that Totk’s past takes place sometime after Skyward Sword.)
Let’s get into it!
1: Abandoning a Timeline
First, we must begin with Ocarina of Time. Link gets sent back into the past by Zelda after his journey is complete, to relive his childhood. Unbeknownst to him, this leaves behind a timeline where Ganondorf is sealed, but still lives. At some point in time, Ganondorf breaks free from the Sacred Realm, but this time there is no hero to oppose him. Because of this, the Golden Goddesses intervene and flood Hyrule.
We don't know exactly how many years it took for Ganondorf to break free. It could have been a decade or two, it could have been a century. I’m going to assume it must have taken him at least a good while, because I can’t imagine the Sages ending up being so weak that it took him a couple of years to break out from whatever seal they’d placed on him.
There is something strange about there being no hero to fight him. It shouldn't really be possible. Demise’s curse states that he will follow those with the spirit of the hero and the blood of the Goddess. So where is the hero? (Well... in the other timeline, likely haunting the Lost Woods.)
But my point is the following: the curse may have flaws, and “malfunctions” could theoretically happen, if time shenanigans are involved.
(The thing about the Legend of Zelda is that time shenanigans are always involved.)
This entire theory is based on that “malfunction.” Somehow, heroes abandoning timelines does something odd with the curse. It is possible for a hero to be missing at a time Demise's curse threatens Hyrule.
With that, we go back all the way to Skyward Sword.
2: Skyward Sword’s Oopsie
Link starts his adventure. He goes into the Statue of the Goddess, acquires the Goddess Sword, and chases after Zelda. He travels from region to region, forges the Master Sword, and watches as Zelda steps into the crystal. He gathers the Triforce and wishes for the obliteration of Demise. Zelda gets out of the crystal, and they almost have their happy ending.
Then Ghirahim drags them into the past.
He drags them to the time after Zelda crystallizes herself. The doors are closed, so we can't see her, but Impa is there guarding her. Impa also knows who Link is, so Ghirahim can not have taken them to the time before Impa met Link and Zelda.
All these points just to prove one thing: after Link kills Demise with his own hands, there are two Zelda’s.
The Zelda and Link from the future step back through the portal, after saying goodbye to Fi and Impa.
The second Zelda, no longer keeping Demise sealed down below, breaks free from her crystal.
No matter how I try to justify it, it makes no sense for Skyward Sword to have just one singular timeline in it. Demise physically can’t be already dead and then also be obliterated by a Triforce wish in the future. There would be no reason for Link to have a journey in the first place. There would be nothing to kill. You might even say there’s no reason for him to be born.
This leaves us with another “abandoned” timeline that only has a person with the blood of the Goddess in it. There is no spirit of the hero. The hero already did his job, in this timeline, and he left, exactly how Ocarina of Time Link did.
This completely breaks several things. First, Link leaving the Master Sword behind makes no sense, because then there’s technically both a Master Sword and Goddess Sword in the second timeline (elaborated on later). Also, Old Impa has had Zelda’s bracelet since the very beginning of the game, which suggests everything was going to turn out this way since the beginning. (Somehow different from Link planting the tree or placing the Master Sword and it only showing up later.) It’s all very messy and thinking too long about it makes my brain just stop completely, so let’s assume the devs never planned this far ahead (as they never do and make stuff up as they go).
Anyway, back to Zelda2 breaking free from her crystal. This leaves us with the following: Zelda, with no hero, likely dispels the cloud barrier. With Demise (and Ghirahim) gone, there is no more threat. All they really have to do is wait up there on Skyloft for the land to heal. They’ll likely descend back to the surface sooner than they did in the other timeline.
The Triforce remains in the Sky Keep. The Goddess Sword remains in the Statue of the Goddess. (But we also have a Master Sword left behind by Link in the Sealed Temple, I think? So there’s two Fi’s now?)
The humans/Hylians go back to the surface and rebuild. Several races develop, such as the Zora, Gerudo, and Rito. (Personally I think the Rito evolved from Loftwings, instead of Zora, in this timeline.)
Several thousand years later, it is in this timeline that the Zonai descend.
3: Mineru’s Survival
The Zonai’s exact origins are still a mystery. I, unfortunately, don’t have all the answers. My guess is that they stayed even higher up in the sky than the Skyloftians did, which is how they missed each other. Or the Zonai only came into existence after the Skyloftians went back to the surface. Or they are the Skyloftians that stayed behind. Any of these are possible. The details about this also don’t really matter.
What does matter is that another couple thousand years later, the Zonai almost go extinct. Then, a Zonai named Rauru marries a Hylian named Sonia, one with the blood of the Goddess, and together they found Hyrule Kingdom.
Demise’s curse still haunts her bloodline. It was only a matter of time, really. But the curse malfunctions or breaks. There is nobody with the Spirit of the Hero to defeat him. All we have is Rauru, who I think is something like a stand-in for the hero, the only one powerful enough to somewhat oppose him or attempt to defeat him.
This is where the timeline splits again.
I can’t tell you why, exactly. Timelines seem to be very unpredictable and sometimes split without a clear reason. (After all, there is a timeline where OoT Link fails and dies, and I don’t think we know exactly why or how Ganondorf managed to get all pieces of the Triforce in that timeline.)
My best guess is that this timeline is trying its very best to copy the other side of it, aka the adventure of the Hero of Time. After all, I think it’s no coincidence that the scene from Ocarina of Time where Ganondorf kneels before the king, also happens with Ganondorf and Rauru. And it’s also no coincidence that Ganondorf has “KotakeKoume” written on his swords (or rather, the Gloom swords I suppose), and that two masked women kneel behind him in the throne room (his mommies). This Ganondorf, and OoT Ganondorf, are living the same lives on other sides of the timeline. (You could also say the curse is very unoriginal and needs to come up with better OCs.)
Unlike OoT Link, Rauru is no hero, and I don’t think the difference in the split is his victory or defeat. I think that in both timelines, he seals Ganondorf (for reasons I will clarify later).
In one timeline, Rauru and Ganondorf get cozy in the Depths, and Mineru gets weakened by the battle, resulting in her death. We know what happened.
More importantly, we need to address what happens in the other timeline. Or rather, what kind of effect it has: Mineru’s survival.
It is in this timeline, the timeline where Mineru lives, that she has children of her own. Rauru says himself that Mineru is an expert on Zonai history. Her research, the artifacts she has, her history books, she passes it all down to her descendants. With Mineru still around, Zonai technology is not lost to time. It is in this timeline that the descendants of the Zonai keep further blending with other races. Way down the line, we get a descendant that still wears Zonai clothing, and still wears accessories resembling a third eye. He also has familiar body paint and seems to have two of those strangely decorated arms just like Rauru did. Yes, here he is: the Ancient Hero.
I am saying he is Mineru’s descendant.
In this timeline, there are people that still know how to operate Zonai technology, or perhaps even how to make it. The Sheikah eventually get their hands on it, possibly even on order of the King. After all, the Calamity is still a threat, and it has been foretold that it is coming (like it had been in Botw). They start to develop technology strong enough to defeat the Calamity (just like Impa said they did in Botw).
In this timeline, they don’t even need a hero. Meaning that the Ancient Hero is not even a hero yet (somewhat similar to Wind Waker Link having to prove himself before being chosen) but the Ancient Hero has no reason to prove himself. Their technology (mostly the Divine Beasts and Guardians) should catch the Calamity off guard, and may even be strong enough to kill it.
I wonder if they ever even got the chance to try it, before being pulled into “the wish.”
4: Ancient Zelda’s Wish
In the timeline where Mineru dies, the Ancient Hero does not exist. The Zonai/Sheikah technology does not exist. Mineru’s books and research get locked away in some closet, gathering dust, or are even lost entirely in the same way all books and artifacts get lost over time.
The Calamity’s approach is foretold by a seer, who also says that in order to defeat the Calamity, they need someone with the blood of the Goddess and a person with the spirit of the hero. But this timeline has no hero.
The princess on the Botw/Totk tapestry (who I will refer to as Ancient Zelda) knows what she must do. The Triforce is the royal family’s best kept secret, just like the bodies underneath the castle are. To defeat the upcoming Calamity, she needs a hero, one they do not have.
She gathers the pieces of the Triforce. She wishes for a hero. (Or if it’s possible, she somehow knows about the split timelines, and wishes for the merging of the timelines herself. This latter one makes more sense than the Goddesses deciding to merge all the timelines themselves, but I have no idea how she’d find out about the split timelines.)
Whatever her exact wish was, the Goddesses hear her. They know of someone with the potential to become a hero. He’s in another timeline, but that's easily fixable.
The timelines merge.
This is incredibly messy. Some of the events on the timeline can’t all exist at the same time, for example Hyrule’s flooding. I think some parts of history were partially erased, or altered to better fit into a single timeline. (If we take a look at the Botw memories, Zelda says the following in the first one: “Whether skyward bound, adrift in time, or steeped in the glowing embers of twilight.” This means that, at the very least, Skyward Sword, Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess are canon to this new timeline.)
In the end, with four Divine Beasts and their pilots, numerous Guardians, Ancient Zelda (still with the full Triforce on her, as shown on the tapestry) and the Ancient Hero all defeat the Calamity together.
5: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom
10,000 years go by, and Calamity Ganon returns. He is once more defeated by Link and sealed by Zelda at the end of Botw. We also see in numerous cutscenes that Zelda possesses the full Triforce, which I think is a direct result of the wish that Ancient Zelda made. Maybe the princesses and queens of the royal family pass down the Triforce, either purposefully or subconsciously, or maybe it happens automatically without them doing anything at all. (I have played around with the idea of the princesses and queens keeping the timeline together by holding on to the Triforce, but I’m not sure if I believe this, Ancient Zelda’s wish could be something definitive and irreversible.)
In Totk, Zelda goes back into the past. The past she goes back to is not the one before the timelines merged, but after it. She also has no influence over what happens to Rauru and Sonia. After all, if she were to change anything, then maybe Ganondorf does not end up sealed, and the Calamity would have never happened, and Ancient Zelda could not have made her wish. All Totk Zelda does is go back to heal the Master Sword.
In this new timeline, Mineru still dies. So where does the Ancient Hero come from? Well, remember that Ancient Zelda (and the royal family by extension) still ends up in possession of the Triforce. So, I think her wish is the one it always has been: to merge the timelines, or to get a hero. She is one of the few who remembers the time before the merging, and this new world she wishes for is also foreign to her. She is a bridge between the fractured and merged timelines, and the Ancient Hero also crosses that bridge due to her wish, meaning that he also remembers a time before the merging, and in this new unified timeline he also may be the last of his kind. Such a fate is tragic, as Zelda stories usually are.
For everyone that just went “what the fuck did I just read,” you can now think the same thing, but with visuals!
Some end notes
This theory is not without its gaps and holes and oversights. I’ve thought of some myself, feel free to let me know if you find more.
You could say that Ganondorf broke out of his seal in the timeframe that OoT Link could have still been alive, had he remained in that same timeline, and that he would have been destined to fight Ganondorf again. But he isn’t, and that’s why a hero is missing. But still, I’d like to argue that another hero should have been born to fight Ganondorf, but there wasn’t. So, malfunction. Time shenanigans.
I don’t think SS Zelda could stay sealed to keep the remainder of Demise’s spirit inside the master sword. I think that’s Fi’s job. And it would still keep Zelda in the crystal until Demise’s spirit is completely gone, which is... when? Did that ever even happen? Would it keep her in the crystal forever if that were the case? The devs were very vague with this, so I’m going to ignore the possibility entirely.
I’m also not going to accept that somehow the remainder of Demise’s spirit was taken back out of the master sword and into the sealed grounds so there’s something for Link to defeat. Because. It wouldn’t make sense!! That reasoning only works if you desperately want Skyward Sword to be on just one timeline, which I don’t want to believe.
Impa implies in Botw that the Calamity of 10,000 years ago is not the first. I’m guessing that maybe this only is true in the new merged timeline. Maybe some of the heroes whose stories had to get removed from history, now ended up fighting Calamities. (Think the Wind Waker or Spirit Tracks Links.)
For all Impa/Zelda shippers, after Zelda2 broke out of the crystal, they could have been together… love that for us.
All of this is also Ghirahim’s fault. If Ghirahim had not taken Link and Zelda through the portal, the entire second timeline never would have existed.
I think the reason that the Ancient Hero still looks so vaguely Zonai (instead of more like other races) is because their community is probably about as big as all of the other races, meaning they get with each other, keeping their appearance the same. But they also don’t really look like Zonai anymore because they blended with other races in the past as well. I’m guessing that red hair is from the Gerudo, for example. They’re this nice little blend of several races + Zonai.
But that’s just a THEORY, a GAME THEORY
For everyone that got this far, thank you so so much for reading what I think sound like madman ramblings. Feel free to let me know what you think!!
snowghoul
blakekathryn
titsay
annaxmalina
germansingergirl
vaporwave
theartofmadeline
andulkaphoto
