I feel like the problem is Minecraft became a game about conquering the world, not building the world and it feels different. I still love minecraft but the simplicity of just living in Minecraft and surviving and making bigger and bigger settlements is gone. Now, it's about optimal play, how to speedrun diamonds, knowing everything about every block, I don't know, the world doesn't feel alive anymore, somehow.

I love this so much! Especially when so much of the lore we get is directly stated to be myth, legend, or folktales - stories that by their very nature, are altered each time they're told - there has to be some skepticism and creative thinking when piecing it all together. This was a beautiful way to weave the larger tale of Zelda. It even made some more sense to my own headcanons (specifically that the reason that Sheikah and Zonai tech are so similar is that the Sheikah were directly imitating the "gods" in their creations, makes SO much more sense if the first Sheikah was a descendant of Sonia and Rauru)

I personally think the time travel causes the new games exist in a new timeline where things happened differently. A timeline where demise was imprisoned differently. Ganondorf is Demise. “The Bringer of Demise” is a title, not a name. I feel it’s no coincidence that Ganondorf is the demon king. I think he looks different because he’s a redesign. And boy is it a better design. He has the same design cues, the scale looking bits on his clothes, the full length waist cloth. And it’d just make more sense if Demise reincarnates as himself instead of the same random dude every time. It would also explain why “Demise” is never mentioned. I think they may leave Hyrule for a separate reason, likely related to malice. Malice and gloom are also obviously the same thing. They just call it different since the malice was gone for many years. The eyes of malice and gloom are also the same as Ganondorf’s demon eyes and they both originated from beneath the castle, where Ganondorf is imprisoned. Nintendo has also started listing BotW and TotK separately from the timeline, listed as an independent part of the timeline, not an after.

Nice fanfiction :3

the editing in this video is so fun. Didn't need to do all that but I'm glad you did!

I wanna hate so bad but it’s actually making sense

If you think about it, there are two different types of rito, too- one with more hylian features, one with full bird features; could've even been that one evolved from Zora, while the other evolved from the Loftwings

My only issue with this is why was BotW the first time we ever heard the word Zonai? With there canonically being 10,000 years of history between Ocarina and BotW (to my understanding), you would think that concept would come up more. Unless the Picori are supposed to be Zonai? (They came from the sky) I if that's the case then why do they have the same name as what people call them in BotW? Edit: This is the first time I've engaged with Zelda lore in a long while because TotK kind of broke me. However, I think if you mix some of the ideas in this video with another one by Thinking at Max Volume, "How Totk Fixed the Zelda Timeline," we'd be cooking with some gas. Basically it gets into magical quantum superpostion of states being what unites the timeline when Zelda travels to the past. I just wanna mush these two videos together lol.

BOTW didn’t necessarily create continuity errors, but TOTK definitely does. We already have an established lore of the three goddesses, the creation of the world, Hylia, Demise, Skyloft, and Hyrule. BOTW, by being set in the distant future, doesn’t need to really address this. TOTK by going to the distant past and introducing a new race and new begging of Hyrule and a new war with Ganondorf…it is a contradiction.

This makes a lot of sense lore wise

WOO!!

Wait.... no.... this..... why does this make sense..... im.... why did you do this to me

When will Nintendo fan stop coping so hard and just tell Nintendo to start actually caring about the timeline they claim all these games exist in 😂 Only reason three or four or five people are all going to wear the same green tunic

This fixed my confusion and misunderstanding of totk

ALSO! is it not interesting that the sages from Twilight Princess decide to try and "kill" their version of Ganondorf with a sword into his heart.... as if they had some prior knowledge that his heart held more vulnerability than say chopping his head off?.... Just like how Rauru, First King of Hyrule, stopped the first Ganondorf by binding his heart (sub theory: perhaps the heart is what holds his malic/is where Demise resides) and all the first sages were witness to this heart binding hault of Ganondorf!????!

This theory, if indeed true/correct, would be excellent for creating an endless amount of Zelda games. A continuous cycle of storylines. If i were a creator of storys for a franchise whilst living within capitalism, I would avoid deadends and ensure my stories could be reborn whilst paying homage to its ancestors. that sounded kind of odd, im tired and shouldnt probbaly post this lol

i already had my own suspicions and now that ive seen this video i am 100% convinced of this theory i subscribed! now where's my pizza?! if i have to go back in time i dont want it no more ;)

I will say upfront, I find this a very interesting theory. There are a lot of details in here that I think are fascinating, such as the connections between the Goddess Sword and the Zonai. However, I don't think this works for a lot of reasons, though I'll attempt to only focus on the biggest reasons. 1. Given how the Gerudo still carry the knowledge that Calamity Ganon is connected to their tribe and a past chief in Breath of the Wild despite it being well over 10,000 years since OoT Ganondorf was born, why in the world would they name a SECOND male chief as Ganondorf (aka OoT Ganondorf by your theory)? I've no doubt that the name Ganondorf would be viewed as a "Never use again" name by the Gerudo given what the "first" Ganondorf did. 2. Calamity Ganon has to be connected to the Ganondorf sealed under Hyrule Castle for one reason: the Eyes of Malice. The Eyes of Malice are identical to the eyes on Gloom Hands. These eyes ALSO match Ganondorf's eyes when he assumes the form of Demon King Ganon. There's also the fact that Ganondorf, who has been sealed deep underground since before Hyrule Castle was built, is able to create a perfect illusion of Sanctum. We also know that Calamity Ganon was trapped in Sanctum by Zelda and thus spent a long time there, which would allow Ganondorf to see the throne room if the two are connected. 3. There's a small detail that people continually seem to ignore that's revealed in Breath of the Wild and then furthered in Tears of the Kingdom: if Hylia shed her divinity and became mortal, how is she still an acting entity in those games? In Breath of the Wild, the Goddess Statues speak to Link in a manner suggesting it's Hylia herself. Meanwhile, Hylia moved the Horned God Statue multiple times between Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. If she shed her divinity, she'd be dead now and wouldn't be able to do this. There's also something I want to point out, a detail I forgot about until I replayed Skyward Sword: there's Gloom in that game, but it behaves like Malice. This, to me, suggests a connection between the two. Truth be told, I have my own theory about TotK that goes in a completely different direction (which your Goddess Sword/Zonai connection would actually help reinforce). I'm working on a video for it, but it's taking longer than I want. However, if you ever want to talk Zelda theory I'd love to get your view on it.

AWESOME thanks!

“But they’re doing that, why do they keep telling us where this game takes place?” Hoo boy, HOO BOY, that did *_not_* age well lmao

Checks out in my opinion, also something that supports the theory is the striking resemblance breath and tears' map has to skyward swords' map. From the springs to the locations of the provinces.

some good ideas, but you miss so many things and then make up a reason for them when they already have an obvious explanation

thank you for defending lore of a game that god forbid wants to be independent from the others. The story of Breath and Tears is amazing and people are so hung up on non existent "rules"

2:13 I’ve thought this about the names “Link” and “Zelda” being the Hylian words for hero and Princess respectively for very similar reasons. Except I started to say they were older words that lost meaning after a while, to the point where they started being used as names.

1:03 a theory, a story, a… legend, if you will

I dig it

This is the greatest Zelda lore video I've ever seen, absolutely genius!

Ok but what about Pepe Silvia?

This is a great video! I think you put a lot of great thought into it. While I personally have my own theory that differs in a couple key ways, I think this is super compelling, and you make a good argument. Tears of the Kingdom is a fantastic game, and the claim that it “ruins the lore of Zelda” is completely wrong., Thank you for showing that here!

my biggest question here is with the gerudo... totk and oot both bring up the "one man born every 100 years" thing, but there seem to be no men born to the gerudo at any point from around the calamity to botw, even though that perfectly covers the 100 year timespan. i think this implies that so long as one gerudo male lives, even if he's imprisoned like totk ganondorf is, another cannot be born. which would then raise the question of how the idea and another ganondorf exist in the era of the hero of time still the details aren't the important part--i was also really put off by the pessimism around totk lore and i loved your energy and delivery!! definitely going to check out more of your vids!

Haven't watched the video yet but my theory is that BOTW takes place at the end of the timeline and the events of Hyrule Warriors somehow merged all the timelines together, then present day TOTK takes place after BOTW but past TOTK takes place after one of the great wars that destroy Hyrule. After Demise is defeated in Skyward Sword, Link and Zelda go to the surface and create Hyrule, other Skyloftians stay in Skyloft where they are pretty much oblivious to what happens on the surface. Overtime these Skyloftians evolve into the Zonai and after a certain amount of time they go to Hyrule, but this is Hyrule after one of the many great wars so basically most people are gone except for a few and there's still some old settlements. Since the former monarchy isn't there anymore, Rauru and Sonia create (New) Hyrule, then the events of past TOTK play out and thousands of years pass then BOTW plays out. That would explain why the villain is Ganondorf and not Demise as well, because Demise was defeated but his hatred lives on in Ganondorf. It's basically a timeloop, and it's confusing but it makes sense, to me at least. Edit now that I've seen the video: this theory makes so much sense!! It is a timeloop but because Link defeats Ganondorf in the modern day it also gives the lore an out of the timeloop. The only thing I'm not sure about is the descendants of Rauru and Sonia. Amazing video.

maybe just play the Telltale game instead ;p

one exception here is spiderman, MCU spiderman does have a unique theme and even a leitmotif that gets modified for different scenarios, only ever shows up in his movies i think though, not sure if i have heard it when he appears elsewhere.

Building on what you have said here, i think that the Ganondorf we see in TotK stumbled upon the sealing ground and became Demise's champion (most likely unwittingly), perhaps that is how he learned of the Tri-force's existence in the first place, and Demise would learn and see everything that this Ganondorf did, this Ganondorf already knew of the "Sword that seals the Darkness" when he awoke in TotK, so he learned of it when it was sent to the past, which means Demise learned of it, perhaps that is why in Skyward Sword he has his own similar looking sword with a spirit bound to it, he knew the Master Sword was coming and tried to create a counter to it, but under-estimated it, just as TotK Ganondorf did when the seal was broken.

its shown several times in botw that the sheikah and zonai worked together. Even if you say its a retcon, mineru was able to spirit her way into the purah pad, implying she knows atleast a little bit about sheikah tech. Rauru and Mineru are the last of the zonai, meaning the sheikah and zonai had to coexist at some point and raurus child cant be the first sheikah. Plus, in the past, there was a zonai Link. This means the spirit of the hero was around the same time as the zonai were, which cant be before skyward sword because that link was the first link. It also wouldnt make sense for ganondorf to exist at the same time as demise, as ganondorf is demise's mortal incarnation, the same way zelda is hylia's mortal incarnation. The truth is, tears of the kingdom doesnt really care about zelda lore, and has now been retconned into its own seperate continuity, which sucks because breath of the wild fit into the zelda lore in a really cool way. I just think the writers for totk just gave up. Kinda proven with the forgotten temple and the zonai. What was a cool reference to skyward sword is now retconned to be a part of another ancient technology tribe who were definitely super cool and interesting and we get to know nothing about them.

Makes wayyyy more sense than the game theorist did 😭

The only thing missing is that Cia merged the Three Timelines in Hyrule Warriors or mixed them

I love the theories, and they're gonna be canon for me, except for one. See, you forgot the Ganondorf from four swords adventure, and the new Hyrule from ST. First off, they have to move back to old Hyrule, most likely due to a new Ganondorf, a reincarnation of oot's. This one, like fsa's, could be sealed in the four sword. Also, to tie all the timelines together, ganon could have reincarnated in the hero defeated timeline, and have been sealed in the four sword. (Just keeping it neat, don't want inconsistencies here. Also, this makes a true timeline merge.) then, after some time, the Ganon in the four sword turns the light force dark, and then becomes calamity Ganon! And, for the hidden zonai hero, this is his time to shine! And this is basically why you never see the four sword in BotW or TotK. I came up with this origin for calamity Ganon a while ago. Also, this vid is great, the thought that there was a war longer than we previously thought because of SS, it's incredible! All of it (except where he said calamity Ganon is formed from demise) is now canon to me.

also Light spirits in TP has the same symbol and structure as Zonai! including the Twili! the zonai could be the interlopers!

My biggest issue with SS wasn’t the controls or anything like that It was the fact the plot was jump started with a cartoonish tornado like it was Wizard of Oz. Yeah, Ghirahim just knew exactly where to send that ‘nado through the cloud barrier, totally. He did it 360 no scope too.

Botw and tears of the Kingdom would make so much more sense if they took place right after Skyward Sword, instead of at the very end.

Wow I love this video

After I watched I remembered that in the lookout landing secret passage there is a stone that you can examine and it says "Deep beneath this land our mighty first ruler imprisoned the demon king. To ensure the kings magic would hold we erected a castle here to protect this sacred site. Without the castle in place lookout the site may be disturbed allowing the Demon King's hatred and rage to be revived. The preservation of the castle is therefore tied to the prosperity of the kingdom. May it watch in eternal peace. As well as this, at the end of the game there is still Zonai ruins just before you fight the Demon King's army witch made me think that, that is were the Zonai hid the Triforce.

Excellent video. Really like your attitude too.

i like the theory but i the video a disliked because of the editing

Building on this theory, the split in the timeline is proof that this is not the first loop of this massive time loop, it has happened at least three times, eachtime the events are slightly different but they always end at the same place. My theory for the next game is that Demise is going to realize hes in a timeloop, and either try to break it and fail, or successfully break it. The latter of which would create a very interesting story.

You have so many details that put together what I always assumed was kind of hinted at in game, but people online said contradicted Hyrule Historia and other information about all the games. I truly think that given how Skyward Sword was ported to Switch, as well as many of the same people working on BOTW/TOTK, it was not a coincidence. I really believe whatever new entry comes out in the Switch Successor while confirm this further. There’s NO reason they ported Skyward Sword for just funsies. (Maybe they did, but I feel like making the effort to put it on switch as a motion controlled Wii game versus just porting Wind Waker and/or Twilight Princess was definitely A Choice™️ and my copium is there’s lore reasons why and they wanted to make sure players knew) Very entertaining video!! I’m excited to check out the one on the Legendary Zonai (?) Hero! :)

this is a solid theory honestly. it would answer alot of questions i have had about not just botw and totk but also many previous games like tp with the oocca. supposedly the dev team for the zelda series have a secret timeline amongst the higher ups that they refuse to show to anyone and they have said the timeline outside of a few minor things is still in full swing and everything is connected but there are so many questions that its hard to ever imagine they really do have everything connected but if this is a true factual bit of information then i can definitely get on board with this. my only real issue so far is still the split timelines and the fallen timeline being more of a what if timeline rather than an actual timeline.

wait I thought that totk ganondorf's ganon was Phantom Ganon?

Absolute cinema