11 Zelda Tears of the Kingdom Theories - Bargainer Statues, Timeline, Tauro, and More

[@theman599]

i have a feeling that the depths used to have more "life" in them before ganondorf got sealed. in game, gloom literally sucks the life out of you and everybody who touches it, and in the depths, not only are there large amounts of gloom, but also gloom roots that dig into the ground (which also point back to hyrule castle.)

[@bdhuffman42]

The Zonai are closer to being Aliens bringing super advanced technology, than being gods.

[@silverdust9176]

Here’s some of my theories: .Lurelin people are the descendants of the Barbarians who once attacked Hyrule, and they’re the offshoots of ANCIENT Hylians. Like, only Garini and Tauro are able to read the Ancient Hylian texts which mention Zonai. And they made the Barbarian set to praise the Ancient Hero (note that both got same red fiery hair). .Zonai are Minish. Both descend from Skies and gift the Hylians some form of power. Some probably returned to Skies but ones who stayed on Hyrule ended up going in hiding or smth evolving into tiny being. Both are furries. .Constructs in Lanayru Desert were constructed by Zonai to harvest Zonaite / Timeshift stones. Both kinda constructs give off same vibe and aesthetics, both minerals give off same hue. .Depths are the Dark World which was once the Sacred Realm, it probably is the afterlife of this world too and it is Demise’s / Ganonforf’s hatred which turned it dark. Heck, we can even say that Demise actually called it home because the rocks found in Demise’s Breach is same as ones found in depths. After he was killed and sealed, the depths were rediscovered by Zonai / Hylians and named sacred realm because of the abundance of resources and wonders found there. I would even say that Gorons too originate from Depths because they had a giant ancient city underneath, and only came to surface when corruption started spreading across their sacred realm.

[@Xenogamer]

I think that the Depths/Dark World connection is really cool! We know thanks to the poes and bargainer statues that there is definitely a connection to the afterlife. And without the Triforce it’s easy to imagine the sacred realm falling into decay.

[@noors7081]

Omg the Lanayru desert mining constructs fits so well into this you are so right!!

[@josephkilpack]

A thoery I thought of while watching the video: Perhaps the three dragons, whether the actual gods, or representatives of them, swallowed the three pieces of the triforce. This would explain the connection the dragons have with each of the springs. Maybe the triforce was brought together but these three thought it too powerful to remain in play, so they each swallowed a portion to become dragons, and prevent it from getting into the wrong hands. This would also mean that the secret stones and the triforce are similar in nature, which would continue with the "gift from the gods" theme surrounding them.

[@tumultuousv]

So triforce is just secret stones now? (Whatever the fck a secret stone even is) also i don't think this theory works as past zelda games have story where if the trirorce is destroyed then the land doesn't flourish. Lorule for example.

[@mazhiwezakizo3513]

Well, going off of the physical features of the Dragons, it's pretty clear they were Zonai, likely something similar to a High Priest of their respective Goddesses. The fact the Lighting Attack set is required to gain access to part of Minaru's .... helmet... head...??? ... signifies how the dragon's were already present by the time of the Past Events period, and were already there long enough that their origin had fallen from memory. The physical features of the Dragon faces are representative of the features of the person they were before. Zelda and Ganon's Dragons have much smaller, narrower faces, and Ganon's Dragon even has a small "Pig Snout", and their Manes are representative of their own hair. The other 3 Dragons have "goat-like" faces and ears, and their "Manes" are more indicative of the kind of hair that Zonai are depicted as having. Most of these points i got from a video posted by someone else though. As for the Timeline, both the Past Events, and "Present Day Events" have to be occurring in the Future of every other Zelda Game. Just because they said they "Founded Hyrule" doesn't mean this is the First Hyrule, only the most recent version of it, as Hyrule as been totally destroyed before, and has even moved to an entirely new continent in some of the games, games that would have taken place between the Past and Present day events if the Past events here were of the Actual first Founding of Hyrule. Then you have to account for the Rito existing at the Past Era, which doesn't work if it was the 1st Hyrule Founding. You also have take into account the Gerudo. The Past and Present Gerudo have pointed Ears and Green Eyes, but in older games they have Gold Eyes and round Ears, during games they would have fallen between these periods. This isn't a retcon either, because Ganondorf is specifically depicted with Gold eyes and Round Ears, unlike the rest of the Gerudo in the game. Additionally, the Present day Gerudo clearly don't permit the existence of male Gerudo anymore, and this goes to the shame of what "A Male Gerudo" did in the past, but they are specifically talking about the Ganondorf in the game, and there is no mention of OoT Ganondorf, who would have caused the same shame, and would have been a far more recent example, historically speaking, if OoT occured between the Past and Present periods of the Game. Thirdly, if the Past and Present events were not both after all the other games, then there would be TWO different Ganondorfs existing at the same time, which seems like something that shouldn't be possible.

[@MadamNerd]

I honestly do think that the dragons are the golden goddesses... Who realized after so many centuries of turmoil against the demon king and his piece of the Triforce, decided to try to end the cyclical curse, and reclaim the entirety of the Triforce by eating their respective pieces... Transforming them into the ultimate earthly form to watch over their world: Dragons.

[@MrFRNTIK]

The demon king doesn't have a piece of the triforce in these games

[@fishbowl5308]

@@MrFRNTIK as far as we know the triforce doesn't exist in these games

[@tumultuousv]

Triforce imagery is very much in the game. It could be gone though so this theory could be correct

[@fishbowl5308]

@@tumultuousv the imagery has to be in the game its literally in the hylian crest. The only proof we've seen that it's real in these games is when Zelda activates her sealing powers and it's on the back of her hand.

[@Varunic219]

​@@fishbowl5308so you're saying the proof of it not existing is it existing. Makes perfect sense.

[@SiriusCygnus]

My theory is that the ancient hero is a hylian/zonai, who during their quest to join/recruite/unite all the tribes in hyrule against the calamity, receives a specific power from each tribe that changes part of his physical form, and by the end of his quest he has a physical trait and power from each tribe and looks like what the heros aspect depicts.

[@jan.akisa.]

that would be a really cool game but also they only really have traits of hylians zonai and maybe gerudo

[@SiriusCygnus]

@@jan.akisa. lol idk maybe the other ones just become the dangly mask things in front of his crotch.

[@benjaminh.clement1292]

For the future of Zelda. There stuff I wouldn't mind as remake. I would ABSOLUTELY love a remake of Ocarina of Time on the Switch with todays look. And the part that would make it a good remake. Additional content at the end of the game that could almost feel like a new game in itself. We do the story of Ocarina of Time from Zelda perspectives. Training her powers and as a Sheikah and helping every nation leader awaken as a sage to be able to free their people. AMAZING potential in my opinion. Would justify an Ocarina of Time Remake.

[@LonksAdventures]

A little theory I’ve had since exploring the depths is that the poes are the souls of dead Zonai. There’s also evidence that the poes are dead peoples souls in general but what’s interesting is how many there are around the Zonai mines and ruins in the depths. The depths and it’s mining operation most likely predates Rauru's Hyrule's which means the Zonai were mining/exploring the depths for a while. I wonder if whatever caused the Zonai's disappearance (excluding Mineru and Rauru) resulted in a lot of their souls getting left in the depths where they were working. Idk it just adds a kinda sad vibe when exploring the Zonai ruins

[@vibun]

My thought is that from this point onwards. Zelda games are going to mostly be linked in name only with references to the past games sprinkled in, a bit like how Final Fantasy does it. So I consider BotW and TotK to be in their own separate timelines/worlds where legends of the previous games are told but they’re not the same legends we played.

[@JonathanStanley]

There's no Hylia, and there's no Demise... they are two facets of the same god... and it has four eyes...

[@Xenogamer]

Interesting way to flip the perspective.

[@MrFRNTIK]

Moat interesting zelda theory I've heard all year

[@Simonpumpernickel]

@@MrFRNTIKno it’s not…

[@tumultuousv]

But why tho

[@Simonpumpernickel]

@@tumultuousv exactly, they really just be saying stuff. Which is why Zelda theories are now getting out of hand. I remember when theories used to be BASED at the very least.

[@KBroly]

In the Royal Secret Passageway, there's a Tablet that states that Hyrule Castle serves as a seal of sorts to Ganondorf's power. Therefore, you summise that the Calamity/Malice is just a slow build-up of that energy manifesting and re-manifesting itself. EDIT: Oh, and the Triforce is on Zelda's right hand, like it is in BotW. It's very hard to see in that one cutscene, but play around with the color/contrast and you'll see it.

[@Xenogamer]

I just have trouble imagining something as powerful as the Calamity is nothing more than malice escaping the seal. It just feels like something more has to be going on there. Also good catch on the Triforce. I think my point still stands that it has no story importance and is not expanded upon beyond a implied relation to Zelda’s sacred power.

[@Pysnpai]

@@Xenogamerthat’s exactly what it is though. Malice seems to be a repressed for of Gloom, which only appears after the seal on Ganondorf weakens due to the Calamity structurally damaging the castle in BOTW. Calamity Ganon is a Phantom Ganon. The same Phantom Ganons that we fight in TOTK, just made from a weaker substance.

[@SarahsSnakeShop]

I think the secret stones are broken pieces of the triforce. Zonai that embodied the 3 goddesses swallowed them to prevent evil from getting all of it. Also, it makes sense that it would be forbidden for anyone to swallow them, we dont want just anyone to have that forever.

[@noors7081]

the secret stones/tears are the triforce is really intruguing, combined with what someone here commented about Sonias connection to the triforce and possibly being a priestess. Maybe she prayed for help and the gods wanted to give them the triforce, but remembering how that always turns out, split into smaller pieces to spread to more people to work together. or maybe they're something new to replace the triforce. maybe the other dragons are the goddesses who ate the physical triforces to guard over hyrule forever. though that would be weird with BotW Zelda's power being explixitly linked to the triforce.. i don't know, i have a lot of thoughts..

[@kevingerst5852]

DLC idea: Nintendo could do something like you finish the game zelda says that she wants to say a lot from the past and then you can travel through time and stop ganondorf back then when hyrule was founded or Nintendo could do another gamemode like the master mode but not in the present but in the past and as i already said stop ganondorf back then

[@ReiMari12]

I don't really want more classic Zelda , although I would welcome it, I just want more synthesis between the new and classic styles.

[@rinb4599]

Unlike the horned statue, I don't think the bargainer statues are necessarily evil. When talking to one of the bargainers for the first time, they say that they return poes to the afterlife without judgement for who they used to be because good and evil are "the futile perspective of narrow-minded beings", which doesn't (to me) seem like justified grounds for banishment to the depths. Instead, I think Hylia just has personal gripes with the morals the bargainers stand for, and uses her power to opress them in a sense. Despite being a goddess of light, I do think she is morally grey and capable of making mistakes. Also, I didn't realize that the bargainer statues were located under the goddess statues; maybe that makes their connection similar the twilight realm in TP, with the whole "light and dark are two sides of the same coin"? And in terms of the three main dragons, I'm less sure of. It might be easy to say that they used to be Zonai who swallowed secret stones, but that's what I believe thus far. The dragons being Zonai previously would explain well why Mineru is familiar with the forbidden act. Maybe they used to be sages of wisdom/ice, courage/thunder and power/fire before choosing to become dragons? Or maybe the dragons are connected with the labyrinths' rulers of owls, boars and dragons somehow - maybe the dragons used to be those rulers before choosing a more immortal approach? I've no definitive answer yet.

[@danielmunoz1275]

The Triforce appears within Zelda again (the same way as it did in BotW). SPOILERS When Zelda talks leaves her message to Link (after pulling the Master Sword off the White Dragon) she's shown healing the Master Sword with a light power that's coming out of ther hand, and on the back of said hand there's the Triforce. In lore, TotK is the game where the Master Sword is at her strongest capacity, most likely because it was literally healed and reinforced with the power of the Triforce.

[@katarina7520]

heres a thought, you know how the zonai were introduced as creatures believed to have been gods? what if the three goddesses were zonai? the goddesses ate their individual secret stones, and turned into the dragons we now see. this would explain why the three botw dragons have floppy ears like the zonai we’ve seen, where as the one hylian-turned-dragon had pointy ears?

[@theloruleanhistorian]

Ah, my friend, did you find the old plaque under the castle at the end of the Royal Ancient Passageway? It reveals…some things… about the Calamity and what it is in relation to Ganondorf~

[@ThebSayraduka]

"Where's the Triforce in TotK?" Dude. Sonia had it on her body paint 8T If you do a side mission regarding stone tablets around Hyrule's sky islands, you find out that Sonia was once a priestess but it's not clarified what to, but it seems that her body paint has some association with the golden goddesses and/or the Triforce seeing as how that and something close to the Sheikah Eye are both part of her body paint

[@tumultuousv]

Yes, triforce imagery but no triforce. Which is weird cuz zelda has the triforce in botw..

[@GenMars]

07:38 this could indicate that the devs might just roll with fan ideas for the lore if they like it enough

[@noors7081]

it kinda feels like that's what they did regarding the zonai, like it wasn't that big of a part in BotW, but the fans went buckwild on the concept, so they rolled with it. i think there's a video theorising this somewhere also..

[@GenMars]

@@noors7081 Id believe it

[@4wheal]

I dont think the Bargainers are linked to the Horn Statue but they are clearly linked to the Goddess statues as they are located under all the main ones and even the ones under both Temple of Times. I do think they are linked to a possible god of death as they clearly care about regaining souls whitch could explain why they hate the Yiga as they are impilled to be brought back to life by Ganondolf so thats why they rip out there souls.

[@coastercook]

What if instead of a Sacred Stone that the dragons ate, it was the three pieces of the triforce? They would be hidden in plane sight for all of the games.

[@Kingz_706]

link was probably kicked out cuz the bed only has 1 pillow

[@ryanscanlon2151]

Got some theory fodder for you, you notice how in the tapestry with the first calamity the great evil looks a lot more like a dragon and than calamity Ganon from Botw? Combine that with something else I found odd, the evil spirit armor that is clearly based on ocarina of time with a whole quest line referring to it as "other worldly". My out in left field theory I'm thinking there was some kind of timeline cross over event where Ocarina timeline Ganondorf winds up in this timeline, perhaps this is the sacred realm he was imprisoned in. Further he manages take a sacred stone and ends up becoming a Ganon dragon as well and the ancient to defeat him. This may also be involved in the true identity of the dragons, I believe they are the sages of fir water and thunder, I believe in what ever happened after Zelda left they had to become dragons to set it right and in the above case the wind sage dies and has his secret stone stolen. Alternatively I noticed we never hear mention of Sonia and Rauru's children/child, we might have a time paradox on our hands and the only way they could fix it is by having the 4 remaining sages become dragons powerful enough to mend the time line and the reason we don't see the wind dragon is because it's simply flying around different parts of the world, being a wind dragon it would have unparalleled flying ability and the names given to the remaining three happened later after their true identity was forgotten

[@themar.i.per3374]

my head canon about the calamity and the ancient hero is that the zonai discovered the new sky islands and had bred with hyleans who went up with them (the islands). the ancient hero is a hylean zonai hybrid who was scent to the surface to complete sheikah shrines and to fight the calamity alongside the princess with the blood of the goddess.

[@russellcunningham-yk4gr]

I think ur on to something about the shards of triforce but not that the stones make up the triforce but tiny pieces that came off when they broke it in to 3 separate pieces just a thought

[@adamflanders1092]

The next game should be after the end of the 3 timelines...it should be where Ganondorf is trying to collect the triforce from the different timelines in order to unite the timelines and rule over the combined timeline. He is eventually defeated but the combining of the timelines puts an end to Hyrule and shattered the triforce to create the secret stones. After a period of time the zonai come down and reestablish Hyrule based on what they have observed from the sky. This is where the past in totk picks up and continues with a united timeline through botw and totk.

[@Ash-bl7vm]

22:19 is completely wrong. The triforce shows up on Zelda’s hand in the last memory when she is healing the master sword. Sonia says that Zelda has a “sacred power” other than her control over time, that power was the triforce.

[@Xenogamer]

I did forget about that interaction and some have pointed out that the Triforce sign is visible when Zelda is healing the Master Sword but even then I think it’s worth it to still point out the overall lack of plot relevance and explanation for an artifact that used to rule the series lore.

[@themar.i.per3374]

the tribe in faron is most likely hylean. typhlo ruins are hylean and their architecture matches the on in faron. we also know that the world was barbaric before rauru, so the barbarian armor could belong to that era.

[@themar.i.per3374]

the lomei tribe, who built the labyrinths

[@themar.i.per3374]

the three dragons dont look like draconified zelda and ganondorf they dont have the same eyes. they might be the new version of the three dragons and the secret stones could be pieces of the triforce and if the dragons are the three goddesses, then eating their creation could transform you in their image. the zonai are descendants of the gods and thats why their appearance is very similar to the 3 dragons. they (the zonai) also look like dragon moths. zonai have a lot of dragon imagery and their outfits appear to have been designed to look like the dragons with raurus outfit that is the same as farosh's outfit from the dracozu river. maybe the dragons come to the depths to purify or bring light to the area.

[@sa3270]

Never in a million years did I guess the Zonai would be goat people.

[@Schramm525]

Ok, question. What's up with all the squiggly lines around the chuncks of land that are all on hyrules surface? Easy answer, impact damage, but that's not how rocks work. Odd theory, they were all in a different dimension, like an ethereal plane. And the land of hyrule did its best to smash the two worlds together.

[@sa3270]

It's like some sort of fusing between the sky material and surface material. Similar to the marks between Link's body and his new arm.

[@Schramm525]

@@sa3270 dude, the arm connection... spot Flippin on! Phenomenal observation. Made my day.

[@slateoffate9812]

For timeline placement, I've scrapped the Official Timeline and made up my own. Everything can be explained with the cycle of reincarnation, and history has a habit of repeating itself. Skyfall Eon: 1: Skyward Sword(Time Travel here works similar to the Timeshift Stones) ?: Unseen Adventure, Hero of the Picori Blade 2: Minish Cap 3: Four Swords 4: Zelda 1(Ganon 1) 4: Adventure of Link 5: A Link to the Past(Ganon 2) 6: Link's Awakening 7: A Link Between Worlds 7.1: Ultimate(Zelda) 8: Four Swords Adventures(Ganon 3) Water Rise Eon: 9: Ocarina of Time(Ganon 4) 10: Majora's Mask 11: Twilight Princess ?: Subspace Emissary(Ganon 5) 12: Wind Waker 12.1: Brawl 12.2: Wii U/3DS 12.3: Ultimate 13: Phantom Hourglass New Hyrule Eon: 14: Spirit Tracks 15: Hyrule Warriors(Ganon 6, also return of the Zora and Gerudo) Zonai Hyrule Eon: ???: Tears of the Dragon ????: Original Calamity(10, 000 years ago) 16: Age of Calamity(previous sealing, 5000 years before Breath of the Wild. All the characters reincarnate) 17: Breath of the Wild 18: Tears of the Kingdom

[@slateoffate9812]

Timeline Theories: 1: The Cult of Masks from Lorule either created or revered Majora's Mask. 2: At least some of the Dark Links are Ghirahim reincarnated. 3: The Hero's Shade was killed during Ganondorf's war for the Triforce. He either enlisted or was drafted. 4: The upside down Triangle of the Triforce does exist: the gap is where the completed Triforce channels its power. The user could also be seen as the fourth Triforce; the Triforce of Intent. It does require intent to wish after all. 5: Hyrule Warriors was a time loop. The Ganondorf of that era had no beginning or end. He was always defeated, sealed across the eras, finds Cia, and rinse repeat. Until, that is, the Wind Waker expansion happened, where the latest loop of Cia survived the game's events, and the dark smoke was absent when Link returned the Master Sword. Ganondorf escaped his physical form as Phantom Ganon. 6: The timey-wimey shenanigans of Hyrule Warriors drastically reshaped the environment, in a sense restoring Hyrule to how it's seen in the Zonai Eon. 7: The Bringer of Demise's name is Dragmire. 8: At the end of Skyward Sword, humanity was split in two. Those on the surface became Hylians. Those who chose to stay in the sky became the Minish, who later became the bird things from Twilight Princess, and eventually the Zonai. TotK Theories 1: TotK Ganondorf only had horns instead of tusks because of the Secret Stone's connection to Dragons. 2: The Ancient Hero was a genetic science creation, a Hybrid of all the races of Hyrule at the time. 3: Ancient Sheikah technology began development BEFORE Zelda became the Light Dragon. It was initially intended to counter the infrastructural blindspot left by the Zonai tech returning to the sky, but then Zelda warned them of the Calamity, and so the idea of Guardians and Divine Beasts were born. 4: The Divine Beasts are named after the Sages of Rauru and Sonia's time. That's why the headpieces are referred to as having a connection to the Sages.

[@slateoffate9812]

5:22 Yeah, but that's not exactly new. There's the Light Spirits from Twilight Princess, the Dragons from Skyward Sword, all named after the three golden goddesses, and also those 3 descendants from Minish Cap and the Oracle Games. I don't think they're the original three. 13:26 I want a prequel about the Ancient Hero. As for Open World vs. Linear Story, I think a good compromise would be for certain npc that are required to continue the story have very minimal time on the map until it's their turn to fire Chekhov's Gun. So for example, you COULD go to Gerudo Village early on, but Riju wouldn't be there to grant you access to her Sage Ability and progress the whole Gibdo storyline.

[@GenMars]

lurelin could also be linked with the twili since botw had that quest where that lurelin guy could read the mirror at the beach

[@13ean13urito]

All right, here is what I think you can do for future Zelda games. Take the sandbox of breath of the wild or tears of the Kingdom, and remake old games on top of it. Make Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, Link to the Past in this space, so that way you have an open world to mess around in, but an interesting story to playthrough

[@philippelavoie5674]

Thr triforce symbol apears breathly in the cean with zelda holding the masther sword on her rigth hand.

[@StormsparkPegasus]

The ancient hero's aspect is NOT a Zonai. He looks virtually nothing like a Zonai. What he does look like, it's hard to say, he looks like he's a mix of a bunch of different races. The Zonai themselves are weird because Nintendo did not have any plans for them. In BOTW, it was just a punny name to give some ruins. In Japanese, Zonai is an anagram of nazo which means mystery or puzzle. It was just something to get players talking, they had no plans to make them a race. They only made them a race because of the incessant player speculation. What Nintendo does now is give vague information in games, then watch player speculation and use that to develop the next story. What *I* think, is that BOTW/TOTK take place either at the end of the Downfall timeline, or at the end of a unified timeline. Hyrule has fallen and been re-founded several times already...I just assume the old Hyrule from the older games fell, and was re-founded far in the future by Rauru.

[@mackenziedeversationgame1287]

The lurelians could just be the descendants of the zonal and hylians that had kids together

[@theloruleanhistorian]

I highly suggest re watching Zelda's Wish~ Her sacred mark is still there~

[@Jan12700]

There should be a DLC, because there is also no Master Mode in TOTK. I thing they are waiting for the Switch 2/Pro announcement that is rumored to be at the Tokyo Games Show in September. We also need a 2. Creating a Champion Book. I also got 2 Theories: 1. The Zonai are a space faring civilization, that either got on the planet of Hyrule to life there or to gather resources like the Zonanium. The Devs had plans for an alien invasion for BOTW with we can see in Creating a Champion. The disappearance of the Zonai was just that they left the planed if they wanted Zonanium, most of the deposits of it are deplenished. 2. It is related to my first theory. Or the Zonai got sick of the Zonanium, because I think it could be highly radioactiv. The Zonai had no natural defense in their genes and slowly got sterile because of it. People that are from the Planet have probably a natural repair mechanism in their genes so that the radiation is harmless for them. High Radiation is also the biggest source of mutation in nature and this could explain how species change from one Game to the next.

[@tumultuousv]

Absolutely not. At least not the radiation

[@crystaltriforce64]

i have a theory that breath of the wild/age of calamity/tears of the kingdom is set in a 4th timeline split off from skyward sword

[@Ylurple]

A shame they don't care that much about the timeline, because they've created such an expansive world and history, and to just be all willy-nilly with it is kinda annoying. But I do think that there could have been a timeline split after Skyward Sword. The Zonai could be descendants of the people of Skyloft. There could be a few things that support this. Amber Relics and Dusk Relics perhaps have something to do with the secret stones. Maybe secret stones are hypercharged versions of them. Then there's the world. There are some things that show up in BOTW's and TOTK's hyrule that we don't see in other games. The spring of power is from the Earth Temple from Skyward Sword, down to the torches. We don't see a lot of the surface in SS, so there's a lot of space to fill in. The Breach of Demise is a strong connection to SS. It could be just named after Demise because it's a cool story and has nothing to do with his actual breach of the earth, but even so, his name being passed down would suggest people remember him. Lanayru, Eldin, and Faron are the same names as the regions in SS (of course, so are the regions in Twilight Princess, but TP would have come after SS anyway). There are a ton of other areas named after old Zelda games in the BOTW map, but it could be that those games happened in between SS and BOTW in some sort of singular timeline. I think the "convergent timeline" or "timeline rejoining" is nonsense, because how does that even happen? Rather, some of the games would have just happened in between. And they could have played out in a completely different order, but it would have to have been linearly, in the 10,000+ years in between the beginning and end of the timeline. The Lanayru Mining Robots were created by some ancient civilization. This could have likely been the ancestors of Skyloftians, or perhaps it was the Zonai, or perhaps the Zonai and Skyloftians are one and the same. Either way, the robots have swirls on their helmets that look like secret stones. And the constructs could be later models of the robots. Nintendo dropping the Skyward Sword HD edition so soon before TOTK makes me think they wanted us to make this connection.

[@Ylurple]

Oh, and there is a lot of architectural connections to the Zonai. Rauru and Mineru's outfits feature orange and turquoise. Many structures in Lanayru feature orange and turquoise in their design, such as the Lanayru Mining Facility and the robots. And of course there are 3 dragons in SS, and the Zonai have a huge connection to dragons.

[@VitBlooma1.0.0Totk]

I’m curious about dragons! did the other ancient champions swallow their stones??? One of each element for each region. I’d like to think that they saw what Zelda did and followed suit. I asked discord, just randomly and there wasn’t much of a conversation.

[@noors7081]

if the other champions ate their stones we would see more dragons, but i like where your head is at, they seemed like the type of people to do that, i could see it happening. and there's the possibility there are more dragons, we just don't see them, maybe they're outside the limits of the game map Hyrule or something..

[@silverthehero1295]

@@noors7081Not just that, but the sages wouldn’t be dead, so their spirits wouldn’t be around to speak to their descendants.

[@VitBlooma1.0.0Totk]

@@silverthehero1295 Rauru spoke to link, but he died as a sacrifice, to seal ganons magic, then his spirit talked to link faded away again, this time, in a way that doesn’t seem to have a return address, so I don’t think that traversing the spirit realm is out of the question, but I do see how becoming a dragon will steal your mind so that you can’t be a sage, in order to pass down the sacred stone and word. The whole idea of spirits disappearing even further, is what baffled me, and on another note, when Zelda returns, to give us the time ability, rauru said it’s unexplained, that the power of her sheer will was able to do that somehow. That is before she ate the stone but that was interesting to see something so vague and had me asking a lot of questions and left me shrouded in mystery as they haven’t explained anything about the other dragons. The only insight discord had was that there were other dragons in a older Zelda so they do exist in the universe before this series

[@tumultuousv]

No.

[@tumultuousv]

There's only 3 other dragons and there's 4 champions. Who didn't eat the stone? The dragons are literally named after the 3 goddesses who made hyrule

[@jdawg1034]

I believe Zelda place in tears of the kingdom took place after the three time lines and BOTW takes place really far after

[@linderofhyrule]

In the memory zeldas wish it looks like its on her hand not sure wanna look again but im sure it is

[@gamirus6861]

What if tears comes after Age of Calamity and not botw? Just a thought I've had

[@GenMars]

if the sacred stones are anything like the crest stones from fe 3 houses then those are dragon hearts

[@Lamby2509]

Well if I was link in this game I’d be simping for Purah more than zelda

[@ghostlyninja125]

secret stones are probably pieces of the triforce

[@ghostlyninja125]

should be 12 stones in total, 4 for each piece of the triforce

[@davidlowery2294]

If they go the trilogy route I want the set up to be I hybrid of gloom and malace is coming out from the korok forest basically turning people exposed into redead's, link and zelda investigate and learn its coming from the master sword and when link goes to remove the sword shadow link appears takes the sword and it morphs into the Ghirahim sword then build a story I was kinda disappointed shadow link did ppp up in the underground. But if they go with an entirely different zelds I want a return of classic dungeons and collecting heart pieces nothing against the shrines and they could still use the shrines purely for building your stamina, and it's not that I don't like the ambience sounds but some times it's too relaxing honestly does wonders when I need to sleep but I woukd like more old-school zelda music, when I play totk and im exploring the sky or pretty much anywhere I'm jamming ro the old music.

[@themar.i.per3374]

maybe like their god ancestors, the zonai have arrived to earth to bring order to the chaos and civilize the barbaric tribes of the land. ganondorf's true intention from the japanese game was to bring the world to its former glory, the world where people fought for survival and where your wisdom didnt really matter , only power and courage and ganondorf was sure he is going to enjoy this new world.

[@briandoe5746]

The three dragons. Much like Zelda in the master sword. The three other dragons have eaten their stones in an attempt to repair the three pieces of the triforce. This smells like either DLC or the third game in the series?

[@GenMars]

for my money, the zonai are the minish redesigned/reworked to fit the world of breath/tears

[@Xenogamer]

Interesting take, I can see it. Am I the only one that was kind of hoping to see the Minish civilization hiding away in the Depths? Or just some new civilization in general?

[@jacobbenjamin2664]

I think DLC is likely if for no other reason than they are gonna milk this cash cow for what it’s worth. TOTK has been MASSIVELY successful. So much so I think it would be very unlikely for any developer to have that kind of success and not go back to the IP to make even more money. Orrrrrrrrrr maybe I just took a giant bump of copium lmaoooo.

[@benjaminh.clement1292]

Theory before starting the video. BotW and TotK are Reboot of the Zelda franchise. Will explain after watching if it's not already there 😂

[@josda1000]

As to the timeline, someone spoke of this (BOTW and TOTK) a soft reboot to the series. BOTW was like, in spirit, TLOZ and TOTK like Zelda 2. I have to agree with it. So, theoretically, they will keep going with this world and characters for a while, which does excite me. Because then you have a massive story. I just hope for truer dungeons in the future.