That final reach for Zelda is such an epic feeling. They could've just made that a cutscene but giving that to the player was a solid move. Damn good job by Nintendo.
It’s such a good mirror to the opening of the game too, one of the first things you’re taught is how to dive in the shrine of awakening, and the last thing you do is dive to complete your quest. Also when Link failed to grab her in the beginning
It is worth pointing out that this game highlights the weight of Link's mission way more than any other game has ever done. Rauru and Zelda literally sacrificed their lives with the hopes that Link would be able to step up to the challenge and save Hyrule no matter what. As far as Zelda knows, she trusts Link so much, that she´s completely willing to become a soulless dragon that will wonder around Hyrule with no purpose other than charging the Master sword, only hoping that it will work.
I also love how Rauru trusts Zelda's word so completely that he is willing to throw his life away over that hope, and tells Ganondorf with such resolve that Link, a man neither of them have ever met, will be the one to ultimately defeat him. It's so fucking powerful. The stakes are so high this time around.
@@autumn_breeze616 As story telling goes, this game feels like Zelda is the actual protagonist, but is the story of her traveling to the past on faith on the Chose One...
Also she was rebuilding Hyrule after the calamity, technically working nonstop, only for it all to nearly be destroyed, AGAIN, by another form of Ganon. Who was under the castle the entire time. Which the ending of the calamity could have even been the source for the gloom and the other Ganon's awakening. And this time around. She travels to the past which is very unfamiliar, meeting people who are the reason for her kingdom and her being a princess, having to study AGAIN just to use her power, plus seeing the Ganon just as he was about to be sealed, watching her new friends the moment they die, in real time, compared to her books. Zelda probably at the end was not holding any hope for any peace anytime soon, as even more trouble could start up again at any time. Plus she will learn all the issues caused by Ganon including her being sent to the past, Ganon's creatures, copies of her betraying friends, and that is gonna be one heck of a conversation with literally everybody in Hyrule (also anybody else noticed this with these sages, Wind Sage looks like Tulin all grown up, or Teba--Fire Sage looks and sounds exactly like Daruk)
If you see the prespective of people in the kingdom, there’s this girl with a really odd name for a Hylian who the King and Queen introduced out of nowhere, fought in the great war, survived and disappeared. Only the 4 chosen heroes know her story and tell it to their people. People of Hyrule create the tradition to name the daughter of the Kings the same as this girl to honor her and wishing they could be as strong as her stories. Stories become Tales and become Legends. hence known as The Legend of Zelda.
how does demise fit into it though? Where was the triforce involved in this? didn't the ancient zora look like squids? What the hell is going on in this strange world??? to many questions
it really moves me that, even though her mind is completely gone as a dragon, zelda still comes to link's aid. the need to watch over him and protect him is so innate to zelda by the time of totk, that it doesn't matter whether she's human or dragon, that instinct breaks through, and she goes to him
It's so stupid. They put such emphasis on the fact that she would lose her mind and body and just become an immortal dragon forever. That means that it's no longer ZELDA! What a piece of shit story.
@@DukeEllision329 What's wrong with Zelda assisting Link? Yes, the story was always emphasizing the idea that she'd lose herself if she became a dragon. It doesn't mean she'd be unable to assist Link. She's the Dragon of Light.
@@DukeEllision329 Dude, if you don't like it that's your opinion and that's fine but don't go saying other people are wrong for liking it by shoving your opinion in their face. Like I said you are fine not liking it just don't go and sh*t on people who do, okay?
@@SerenadedArk it's been obvious since the first game that the dragons just fly around and don't really have any agency whatsoever. There is absolutely no reason why Zelda should be an outlier
Zelda being a dragon for thousands of years flying around unconscious is the saddest thing ever…I sure hope link and Zelda get to spend a lot of time together after the events of this game. Heaven knows they did after the events of breath of the wild! His hair tie was found in her sacret well and they seem to share the same house. You can actually sleep in the bed unlike other NPC beds
Yeah fr this Zelda has suffered a-lot. She had her entire family die, the Kingdom fall, stuck in a 100 year battle against the Calamity, then is sent back in time after reawakening Ganondorf, and then has to be a dragon for thousands of years just to get back to her own time. Very sad indeed.
Man zelda in these games suffers too much. First 100 years of fighting calamity Ganon then thousands of years as a dragon charging the master sword to kill Ganondorf. She is so great, I love her.
So much suffering and waiting in sealed states for thousands of years i would call her the "Princess of Waiting" parallel to the Hero of the Wild for being unnable to do anything other than waiting until the right time to do something before waiting yet again until the right time something else. Wish she had been a little more proactive in the story like Tetra or Twilight Princess Zelda but alas she's still relevant to the story in her own way making me happy she didn't become a damsel trapped in a tower for the entire game.
@@ashaadele140 With the revelation that Hudson's daughter Mattison is around 5 years old after he married Rhondson Link would be around 123 years old and if we count Zelda's time spent transformed into the Light Dragon she would be around 10.123+ years old. This 2 have definetly beaten all their predecessors on the longevity department.
One of the most touching parts for me was at the end, when Sonia and Rauru both held hands and looked at Link with such pride and joy. Like they knew he was exactly what Zelda described, and they couldn't be happier to have helped him❤❤❤❤❤
Link is an absolute tank that saved Hyrule twice in his normal lifespan, but Zelda is the one that went through the most traumatic, mind-exhausting stuff ever. She lost her mother as a child, felt the burden of responsibilities as the teenage princess of a kingdom threatened by a legendary calamity, then saw 4 of her best friends die and 1 end up comatose in a losing battle that she partially caused to end that way, THEN spent 100 years alone using her magic powers to keep calamity Ganon trapped in the castle in a tremendous effort both psychological and physical, THEN got sent to the past where she, again, saw her two protectors die, and then SPENT LITERALLY TENS OF THOUSANDS OF YEARS AS A DRAGON WITH NO AWARENESS OR SENSE OF SELF in order to fix and boost a goddamn sword. Like seriously, it's so much for one person that I argue it's even TOO much and literally makes her character sort of bad because of how unrealistically sane she still is, because it's kind of ridiculous that after all of this she isn't just mentally damaged in the finale.
She does mention at the end that it felt like a dream so maybe the 1000 years just felt like a long nap. Those 100 years in the first game would have me beat though.
It’s so hard to compare the two. Honestly, they both went through way too much. For Zelda, all that you just said. For Link, he finds the master sword around age 12, then at 15 is announced as the hero of legend who will defeat Ganon alongside Zelda. We know from Zelda’s diary that this placed a huge strain on him, the responsibility causing him to stop talking (feeling like he has to be the silent swordsman). He fights waves of Guardians, only to be fatally wounded and fall in battle protecting Zelda. He then wakes up a hundred years later with no memory, and is told that he was a hero who fell and failed his mission. Now he must go fight the creatures that killed his old friends while simultaneously trying to regain his memories. He does so much and faces so much danger, and then has to fight the big bad Calamity Ganon. Fast forwards, and then Link loses an arm protecting Zelda. Malice hurts. Malice strong enough to break the master sword? We saw what happens to people who come in contact with malice in Age of Calamity. For that to envelop his arm, causing it to have to be replaced, and then he has to go on another journey all while not knowing what happened to his friend. Both of these kids have gone through way too much. I want to wrap them in blankets and protect them. As a side note, we can see malice/gloom leaving Link’s body whenever he gets a Heart Container/Stamina Wheel. Does that mean he just has gloom in him constantly? That can’t be comfortable.
I’ve been a Zelda fan since Ocarina of Time, and, as much as I’ve liked past incarnations of the character, BOTW/TOTK’s incarnation of Princess Zelda is the first one that I’ve really loved. You get a great sense for her internal struggle, her love not only for Link but also for Hyrule and its people, how she puts everything on the line to save Hyrule, and how she ultimately overcomes everything in the end. I love that in TOTK she grows into a strong leader as a result of receiving love and kindness from the people she meets in the past. And when she makes that one really important decision in the last memory (as soul-crushingly heartbreaking as it is), she does not because she's been pressured to do it (she was actually dissuaded from doing it), but rather of her own determination and volition. And despite that, she even sub/unconsciouly helps Link in the final battle, which indicates her love for him is that strong. Another thing I love about her is I find the side of her that is obsessed with research to be absolutely adorable and endearing. I like to think that Link grew to love her the more he saw of her nerdy side. She’s also my favorite Zelda design-wise; she looks amazing in all of her outfits, particularly her default outfit in both games and her ritual outfit in TOTK.
1:55:36 I love the way she refers to the sword as 'she' in reference (i assume and hope) to Fi, who was locked into an eternal slumber within the sword at the end of Skyward Sword.
@@yosefpoysun3534 Its done that in multiple games throughout the series too. TP did it, WW (i believe) did it, and both BOTW and TOTK did it. It makes sense that the flashes are her speaking to whoever wields her.
So like, are we not gonna talk about how expressive they made Zelda look when she’s scared, like it is some of the best emotion I’ve ever seen out of a character in a video game and in my opinion the VA for Zelda has improved a lot since breath of the wild.
What confuses me more is its connection to the past zelda games., it feels like it doesn't make sense or at least just bad at writing at this point how at a time there is 2 ganondorf and 2 zelda's and 2 masterswords co existing from the establishment of hyrule castle which is from the start to a thousand yrs passing of many different links zelda and ganondorf. Its basically Narating tht the treat of all legend of zelda is beneath the castle itself the original ganondorf (and this is not the ganondorf of ocarina of time means he is also a seperate entity and not a reincarnation) please enlighten me i wanna make sense of this.
@@kronno1196 This new Ganondorf IS a reincarnation just as his predecessor from Four Swords Adventures. The kingdom of Hyrule seen in the Era of the Wild is a _new_ kingdom formed _after_ the ones from the 3 timelines vanished and ceased to exist leading to Sonia's union with the Zonai Rauru and a new incarnation of the kingdom of Hyrule. Aonuma himself has confirmed that the Era of the Wild takes place thousands of years after the timelines ended and so everything that happens in this 2 games occurs after the timelines reached their respective conclusion.
@@javiervasquez625 But would the kingdom of Hyrule cease to exist so easily? To the point where the remaining Hylians had to start seemingly from scratch with the help of the Zonai?
@@ripclaw3008 Nothing in the Lore says the kingdoms of Hyrule "ceased to exist" just like that after the timelines ended but simply that they disbanded as the Royal Families of the time didn't see it necessary for a kingdom to exist to watch over the world as shown with Sonia being content leading the people of Hyrule regardless of the lack of a kingdom to protect the land. It wouldn't be until the Zonai arrived that the union between the Hylian and Zonai races would lead to a renewal of old traditions bringing the kingdom back to life.
@@javiervasquez625 Interesting. Watching the cutscenes for the first time, I wanted to like it, but I was just so confused because it clashed so much with existing lore. I feel a lot more positive about this game’s story if what’s being depicted fits into the middle of the three timelines and BOTW. Still, I wished they used a different name other than “Imprisoning War” or gave Rauru a different name (I believe he might be a reincarnation of the original Rauru) to not confuse fans with the events from OOT.
0:00 - introduction scene 9:03 - Link gets the arm 10:44 - the great sky island jump 11:36 - Rauru’s introduction 13:20 - Zelda’s secret stone 16:31 - delivering the master sword 19:04 - Purah’s introduction 😳 19:52 - Purah’s recap 20:54 - Tulin’s introduction 21:37 - the stormwind ark 21:48 - Colgera 22:46 - Colgera second phase 23:10 - Colgera death and Rito sage 31:46 - Rito village is saved 32:42 - Yunobo introduction 33:28 - Moragia 34:53 - Moragia death 35:14 - Gorondia 35:26 - inside Gorondia 35:47 - Marbled Gohma 36:47 - Marbled Gohma second phase 36:59 - Marbled Gohma death and goron sage 45:48 - Goron city is saved 46:34 - Sidon introduction 47:01 - The whirlpool 47:46 - the path to the wellspring of hyrule 48:35 - The wellspring of Hyrule 48:47 - Mucktorok 49:57 - Mucktorok second phase 50:11 - Mucktorok death and zora sage 58:37 - Zora’s domain is saved 59:17 - Riju introduction 1:00:19 - Kara Kara bazar is saved 1:01:45 - Victory to Gerudo town 1:01:54 - a temple erected from the ground 1:02:37 - Queen Gibdo 1:03:18 - Cowardly Queen Gibdo 1:03:45 - Queen Gibdo again 1:04:07 - Queen Gibdo second phase 1:04:20 - Queen Gibdo death and gerudo sage 1:12:56 - Gerudo town is saved 1:13:43 - The Master sword’s power memory 1:15:34 - Where am I? Memory 1:17:21 - An unfamiliar world memory 1:20:08 - Mineru’s counsel memory 1:23:42 - The Gerudo assault memory 1:26:18 - A show of fealty memory 1:29:23 - Zelda and Sonia memory 1:32:38 - Sonia is caught by treachery memory 1:34:37 - Birth of the demon king memory 1:38:55 - The sage’s vow memory 1:41:49 - A king’s duty memory 1:45:09 - The imprisoning war memory 1:45:53 - A master sword in time memory 1:48:32 - Tears of the dragon memory 1:52:53 - Pulling the master sword 1:56:56 - Crisis at Hyrule castle 1:57:57 - Ganondorf’s puppet 2:00:20 - Phantom Ganon phase 2 2:01:53 - Demon king’s army memory 2:02:41 - The sages 2:04:04- the thunderhead isles 2:04:49 - Mineru’s mask 2:08:40 - Mineru 2:09:18 - the sprit temple 2:09:30 - Seized Construct 2:10:16 - Seized Construct phase 2 2:10:35 - Seized Construct death and the sage of spirit 2:14:15 - Rauru’s sacrifice 2:19:32 - Critical decisions memory 2:22:27 - the demon king’s army 2:23:49 - the bosses return 2:24:54 - ganondorf 2:27:22 - demon king ganondorf (health bar go brrrr) 2:28:20 - demon king ganondorf phase 2 2:28:50 - demon dragon 2:32:30 - demon dragon death and Zelda’s revival 2:38:56 - Zelda is saved! 2:41:44 - credits 2:51:54 - post-credits scene
Okay... the way that Zelda woke up bc she felt a loving embrace, AND THE FACT THAT THE FIRST THING SHE ASKED WAS "how are you?" SHUT UP, I'm in tears. This is my favorite princess zelda out of all of them. She risked knowing she'd never wake up, AGAIN after being stuck 100 years and still sacrificed everything for Hyrule. Despite the plot holes, this story made me cry
Sameeee 😭 Though I think her "how are you" was an incomplete question, like she was going to ask "how are you here?" since she thought she was still in the past before remembering what she had done to get him that sword!
@@wildbard4112 Well the fact that the Time Stone duplicated itself when Zelda traveled back in time, that shouldn’t be possible, so technically Zelda and Ganondorf have the same secret stone but they’re using it for different purposes.
Am I the only one who genuinely wanted the ending to be a warm intimate embrace between link and Zelda, I was literally screaming “WTF JUST DO SOMETHING!”😂
When Zelda was saying “Oh, Link, you did it!” for a split second, I thought she was going to hug him in her joy. And I think that would’ve been perfect. They could’ve at least shown Link looking at her warmly in that scene. It was a great scene but I can’t help but feel it needed just a little something more.
The first thing that happened in Breath of the Wild was Zelda waking Link up. The last thing that happened in Tears of the Kingdom was Link waking Zelda up. Don’t mind me, I’ll be over here sobbing my eyes out.
It’s so neat that the masks of the sages reflect the designs of the divine beasts! It was such a fun detail to put for the sages! Plus the sages being similar in design to the champions from BOTW? I loved it
i think they should totally make a new zelda anime, i dont even watch anime lol but i feel like the style would be perfect especially for the botw/totk series
Rauru is the best designed character I have seen in a game released recently. Not only is he a good character design, with a unique, recognizable silhouette, he is also a good character. Everything he says makes me want to hug him
I can't get over his legs though. He's got long ears, long hair, long face, long neck, long arms, long torso, tiny stubby little legs. It threw me off for a while when I noticed lol
I noticed that too. I'm not sure if this means the Divine Beasts were designed based on said masks's animals or visceversa given the ambiguity regarding the Sheikah technology's connection to the Zonai and the ancient past prior to the foundation of New Hyrule.
To see so much of Skyward Sword and other installments being paid homage, to seeing tribute to real-life wonders like the Nazca lines, these guys really made it worth the wait. Ganondorf becoming Demise essentially made me giggle with excitement. This is the Ganondorf we were meant to see. What a fantastic story and now finally after so long we can start wondering more about the Zonai. Were they the left over Skyloftians?
1:37:44 I love the subtle details they do with Rauru’s ears where they almost vibrate with fury, it really is a cool detail that adds a lot of character
1:52:14 Zelda became a dragon so that she could use her power to restore the Master Sword and waited several thousand years to help Link! This is now officially my favorite incarnation of Zelda!
I found that a tadbit convoluted though i mean imagine staying as a 🐉 for _thousands_ of years just so that your boyfriend could get a magic sword to defeat some evil pig guy? I feel very sorry for this Zelda wasting so much time just waiting so that Link could save the day.
@@javiervasquez625 ganandorf was not a pig in this universe, that was calamity ganon and that is another beast born from ganandorf's malice, also she becoming a dragon was the best thing any zelda has ever done to aid link
@@Gigabarto Ganondorf _becomes_ a pig when filled with Malice and hatred for Link and Zelda. In the case of the final boss his final transformation was that of Boar-Dragon _hybrid_ (🐗+🐲=😈) with distinctive pig-like features just like in PAST games. Becoming a floating dragon who does nothing but float around without any _memory_ of it is one thing, but _ruling_ the kingdom at the young age of 17 YEARS as seen in Twilight Princess is another thing entirely which makes this Zelda the most *mature* QUEEN of Hyrule to be willing to rule at such a young age with no Link support you. This Zelda's only contributions rely on her reforging the Master Sword which, in case you didn't notice, had NO DANGER to speak of compared to Twilight Zelda facing execution at Zant and Ganondorf's grasp. Lol the copium some people have to defend this Zelda's importance is heartbreakingly depressing.
@@javiervasquez625 why are we comparing two wonderful characters like it's a competition. if people like botw zelda more it's fine, she has more screentime and is more developed regardless of who suffers more. I personally love both!
As soon as I knew for sure that Zelda was okay, I started crying and just kept repeating "thank you, thank you"... I was so relieved that a fictional character was fine, it's insane how emotional these games make me
Seeing Zelda becoming a dragon due to the Zonai and the Gods being described as Zonai, its awesome to think that the three dragons are actually Din, Nayru and Farore whom enacted dragonification
Very unlikely that the 3 dragons _are_ the 3 Golden Goddesses as both their names and qualities are clearly bellow those of the omnipotent Goddesses who would never take such mundane forms easily threathened by Ganondorf's Malice (eg: Naydra in BotW). Should the 3 dragons be revealed to be human like Zelda in a future DLC/sequel i imagine they'll be revealed as the 3 Oracles from the Oracle games only _sharing_ the names of the goddesses without actually being the goddeses in human form.
@@javiervasquez625 My theory is they were originally Zonai who ate their beans and became the dragons. For what reason I have no idea. But if you look at their features and then look at Rauru & Minaru you can see clear features shared with both. Then when you look at how Zelda looked, a Hylian who at her bean & dragonified, she has totally different features especially with her face & ears compared to the other 3. Now lore-wise with your connections(cause I am certainly no Zelda lore expert) they could still have been those 3 oracle roles but as Zonai in the past?
Okay, I can't be the only one to think that the ending scene with Link diving to Zelda was framed in a very romantic way, what with that music and camera angles?
You know, ever since the title was revealed. I always wondered why the game was called, "Tears of the Kingdom"? But now after watching this scene, ( 1:52:02 ) it all makes sense now. I even shed a tear after that beautiful scene. Well done Nintendo, well done. 🤧
2:18:50 has me in tears genuinely, its such a haunting moment them using the song at the moment, as Ganondorf uses Links name, its haunting but so empowering.
As a massive Zelda fan who has loved every insallment for unique reasons, I can say that Tears of the Kingdom is now my favorite. The story, the versions of the characters, the amazing gameplay, this game is truly a work of art. Twilight Princess was my first one as a kid, BOTW became my favorite in 2017, and this one now passed it in 2023. A true masterpiece💚
@@towinandsave1520 well when playing the game after beating it u return to the time frame where Ganon was never defeated (because it wouldn't make sense, there would be no enemies to face the entire world would be messed up etc.) So there you go.
She gave you Recall. Notice you only use it on inanimate objects, nothing living. Sonia doesn't bring it into the discussion because it wouldn't be wise to imply it could work on the living and likely flat out taboo in the first place. Because it does work, but there's the moral issues and the fact its at the cost of your own life under normal circumstances. Rauru and sonia didn't have to worry about mortalality so they were able to amplify zelda's power she gave link to their fullest extent. Not only did they undo her transformation but did the same to link's arm. Also i love the fact rauru's right arm is a lighter green, showing his right arm was an autobuild of what he lost.
Then they retconned it entirely from canon and saved the fandom from pulling their hair out in frustration at Nintendo's lazyness writing a timetravel plot.
i’m actually crying. The way you view it from playing is different when all cutscenes are put together, the emotion really just spills. It’s so easy understand that Zelda not only made the sacrifice for Link, but for Hyrule. She knew the risks, yet she still did it. Honestly what did I expect, it’s Zelda. But watching the cutscenes together like this is just beautiful. I’m actually balling 💀
Can we talk about how much faith Rauru and the sages had in link? Zelda time travels to their era, helps them fight Ganondorf. NONE of the sages could hurt him, and she tells them that Link, thousands of years from now can defeat him. The amount of faith Zelda had, to be able to convince them that it WAS possible is amazing.
1:31:26 In this tear memory, Sonia and Rauru would like to meet Link as Zelda speaks highly of him (since I can tell she’s blushing on the Hero of Hyrule and how much she admires his dedication). It may sounded crazy but I feel her ancestors are the kind of parents Zelda needed since her father King Rhoam is always cold towards his own daughter, as well as forbidden her from being A scholar and calls her a failure. They would have accepted Link as her boyfriend since the pair do lived together in his childhood home in present day Hateno Village. Nintendo needs to make Zelink canon!
No but fr it doesn’t sound crazy everyone does feel like Sonia and Rauru really are those parents who are like “hmm who’s this ‘friend’ of yours and i would very much like to meet him/her” :) also them sharing one bed in Link’s house just sounds pretty much canon to me 😭😭😭😭😭
Zelink will be and is the only canon ship. If not, they wouldnt have made Zelda the protagonist alongside Link. Maybe in the next game we will see them much closer. I'm 100% sure they will show us some more closeness between these two
BOTW & TOTK are both so good you can make movies out of these & I hope they do one day. A lot of people are missing out on this master piece because it’s a video game. Same thing with GOW
So..... They never actually said it, but I'm gonna assume Rauru and Sonia had a kid running around somewhere that Zelda is descended from, which is why she has both their powers.
@@iandavidvillaloboswong5180 yeah, be being blood related to hylia. Its likely that the first queen is a direct descendent as well. It just doesn't make sense if the royal family have no heirs, their powers are all genetic
@@iandavidvillaloboswong5180 Actually it comes from the _Triforce_ hidden away inside the Goddess's bloodline as shown in this scene: 1:55:31 That said it's clear that Zelda is a descendant of Sonia as she is the only first queen of New Hyrule for Zelda to not carry her blood as a direct descendant of first Royal Family.
Zelda in Botw: *Massive trauma and has to keep the calamity Ganon consciously at bay for a hundreds years" Me: So Zelda can be a little more happy and does not need to go through more trauma, grief and pain over an inhumane period of time again right? TotK: ... Me: Right?
TotK: Gets transformed into a dragon for 10.000 years, experiences pain and sorrow all the way to the final battle yet she's totally fine suffering no PTSD whatsoever and going back to normal like nothing happened.
@@javiervasquez625 They did mention she pretty much spent that time asleep, she wasn't really conscious as a dragon. If she had been there's no way she would've come out of that sane
@@pikabolt5196 I know which is why i feel Nintendo took the lazy path in giving this Zelda plot armor to overcome anything that came her way in order to justify a happy ever after ending at the end of the game. Like Link surviving Ganondorf's attack at the start of the game despite Ganondorf having the upper hand and been able to _kill_ him right then and there the story demanded that Zelda be left unharmed regardless of the physical trauma that is having a sword stabbed to her head in order to deliver the traditional fairytale ending the Zelda formula is forced to rely upon.
@@javiervasquez625 And that's your opinion. I don't agree - I think the game's story was wonderfully done - but that doesn't make it any less valid. As for the sword, I was under the impression it was tangled in her hair/fur(??) rather than stabbed into her skull, but I could be wrong
Now I also wanna bring up on how TotK plays out that basically when future Zelda turns into a dragon and for millenias lives past many reincarnations of her past selves means there has always been 2 existing master swords. It truly makes me sad that we'll never get a version of Link dual wielding them.
I love how they were telling us what happened to Zelda from the very start with the dragon appearing right after the memory of Zelda with the master sword.
2:40:51 this moment in the cutscene is absolutely amazing, the way the orchestra crescendos and plays the main zelda theme motif while showcasing the ungoomified hyrule castle is stunning, it sends chills down my spine every time.
When Link comes out of the cave and flies through the sky for the first time, the dragon you see in the distance is Zelda, waiting patiently 1000s of years for Link to arrive. And he's finally here 😭
All the callbacks to OOT/MM are absolutely incredible!!! so much nostalgia I can’t even handle it! It’s like a 90’s Breath Of The Wild with 2022 animation. My god this is so sick!!! I’ve never even played BOTW but have seen the entire story. I just can’t afford a Nintendo Switch honestly…..as I spend most days in the hospital or therapy. I hope someday I’ll be able to acquire one and play both these games!!!
@@javiervasquez625 But this implies the Triforce was duplicated when Zelda went back in time. Since she had it and then someone else had it aside from the Royal Family in the past
@@iandavidvillaloboswong5180 The Triforce is a magic relic of _divine_ origin so it's existence in mulitple timelines at the _same time_ isn't either a paradox or a plothole as seen in the Child Timeline where Ganondorf had the Triforce of Power in his grasp as a _reaction_ in the Adult Timeline while in the Downfall Timeline he had the *complete* Triforce even thought it should have remained split like in the other timelines. Basically put the Triforce is such a powerful object it can exist in multiple states at the SAME TIME.
1:26:23-1:29:04 in case anyone didn’t know, this scene resembles the scene in OOT when child Link first meets Zelda and peeking through the window in hyrule castle garden after sneaking past the guards. Both involve zelda suspicious of ganondorf, him pretending be an “allegiance”.
@@yosefpoysun3534 Barely makes sense as usual. For most Zelda games the only Ganon is the one from Ocarina of Time. So if this is another Ganon then its much later from the endings of all the other timelines, since its a reincarnation not a revival. If it says Hyrule is being created here then it means its a completely new Hyrule after the old one fell I guess.
@Ian David Villalobos Wong Spitballing a theory I guess, but it could be new hyrule from Spirit Tracks. They have ley lines in the form of train tracks to seal away a demon king that looks like a blue beast Ganon. A technologically advanced New Hyrule could have been the one established in Totk. A stretch for sure, but so is the entire time line
@@yosefpoysun3534 Soft reboot thousands of years after the Era of Myth mentioned in the Creating a Champion with a new kingdom of Hyrule founded by Sonia and Rauru. We're in a convergent timeline now after the Era of Myth unified the 3 timelines into a single one once more.
@@javiervasquez625 Well one of the timelines is basically a "what if". Rauru was an old man originally so I guess his sage thing eventually reincarnated into the new Rauru and he made a new Hyrule (still missing like 3 or 4 sages tho). These two games are a good example of ignoring all lore and just making a fun game with lore-breaking easter eggs
I was actually hoping would keep that new arm of his after he defeated Ganondorf. But I'm glad he was able to find Zelda and return her to her human form.
I mean Link probably wanted his original arm back and i can't imagine Rauru willing to force him to walk the rest of his life with his Zonai arm attached to his body like a freak. Since Ganondorf was no more there was no reason for the arm to stick around giving Rauru reason enough to heal Link's arm back no normal.
I mean, I do wonder what the post-game is going to be like. Is he going to have his original arm back, or are we just going to ignore the story that just happened and he's still going to have that Zonai arm? From our past experiences of Nintendo, it's probably going to be the latter, but who knows.
@@garlic6620 No post-game in Tears of the Kingdom either as Nintendo doesn't do post-games with the Zelda series. As for Link's Zonai arm he clearly lost it at the end of the game so i can't see why you would assume he would still carry it following the ending cutscene.
@@airrider-jk9ik It's a magic fairy tale world where the story MUST end in a "and they lived happily ever after". Having Zelda remain a dragon means ending on a bittersweet note which destroys the escapist power fantasy formula which fuels Nintendo's making of the Zelda series.
I think it’s intentionally made so that more mature audiences can go with that if they wish. With all they’ve been through it’s hard to think otherwise given their chemistry. EDIT: I think it's actually a lot less vague then normal for Nintendo. If you look at how Zelda speaks about Link in BOTW and TOTK, she speaks about him in a way she speaks about no other. Especially in the scene where she's talking to the first King and Queen of Hyrule. Both remark of how highly Zelda speaks of him. She's also always thinking about him, she seems saddened at the thought that she will never see him again. She cares for him deeply, it seems her actions have his benefit and Hyrule's benefit in near equal standing. She also became a dragon for 10,000 years to secure victory. She didn't just do that for Hyrule...if that's not love I'm not sure what is. Her face always seems to have a faint blush, but I think the artists and animators were very intentional in the way Zelda looks at Link. She doesn't look at anyone else like that.
@@northproductions6104 I get how that works out as well. I'm definitely someone who leans more towards romance between the two but she definitely achieved her goal. I've never had a platonic friend that close to me so that's a personal bias I have.
I've always seen them as ride or die/ war buddy type friends. The kind who will drop everything for the other because of the bond forged by suffering together
I just realized something. Tears of the Kingdom makes Age of Calamity actually make so much more sense. The reason Terrako was able to go back in time and summon people from the future was because Zelda has time powers. When she built him she must have put some of that into him. Interesting :)
That's actually a really good point, but then that opens the massive can of worms that is the possibilities for what happened after Age of Calamity's events, because now the circumstances of Ganondorf's awakening are different and it's possible Zelda never travels to the past. With how time travel works in Tears of the Kingdom, would that then mean the Light Dragon doesn't exist, or that the Age of Calamity variants would be meeting Tears of the Kingdom Zelda?
I know I'm spoiling this for myself, but I'm not going to finish this game in a timely manner. no time unfortunately. Absolutely Phenomenal story. All of my hopes for it and then some. This was an absolute treat to watch. Excellent job to the developers.
@@ATLAoftheHill Congratulations. Raising young life is one of the most beautiful things. Lots of memories to be made by sharing the great stories of our age with the next generation. Get to see the magic we experienced in our youth. I have a young one in my household too and I cant wait for her to experience the same wondrous magic that I had when I was a kid.
Fury:… and I’d like to know how he turned two of the smartest men I know into his personal flying monkeys. Thor: monkeys? I do not understand this ref… Cap: I DO!!!…… I understood that reference.
The scene where Rauru tells ganondorf to remember links name is so badass! Still gives me chills every time just based on context alone like this one dude has been beating your ass time and time again without fail and is destined to do so over and over again since ancient times is wild! ughhhh I love this series sm!!
Zelda’s actions during the past were so noble and self sacrificial, that it would make sense that Rauru and Sonia’s children would start the tradition of naming princesses of Hyrule Zelda. With the passage of time her deeds would only be remembered as legends. Or rather the legend of Zelda… It’s officially lads, BOTW/TOTK Zelda is best girl/Zelda in the series.
18:20 SPOILER: It’s crazy how the game just literally shows you what happened to Zelda right to your face at the very start of the game. And then as soon as she leaves, you hear Zelda implore you to find her, followed by the Quest objective prompting on your screen.
@@Gigabarto My guess is the "emotion" has evolved from simple hatred manifested into energy (Malice) to downright desire for destruction and conquest against the entire world (Gloom). It's a simple level up term to aknowledge the fact Ganondorf has become more powerful than ever before.
I feel like that was just an overall dIscriptor or synonym more than an official term like Octorok or something. Zelda likes science and varies her vocabulary.
My only issue with the game is how it kinda feels like they completely forgot about the first one? Like, theres little to no mention or things relating to the Sheikah. And at the very end when everyone plesged themselves to Zelda, instead of reminding her of her past champions, its of the sages??? She barely knew any of them, and they made a *pact* not an oath of fealty. Idk, great game otherwise.
1. Why do they call them secret stones? Wouldn't it have made more sense if they called them sacred tears (or would it have been too similar to Elden Ring). 2. Averting Sonia's death was possible. It's clear to Zelda that Ganondorf was powerful as well, although she isn't sure if this is the same Ganondorf as the one from the future and Ganondorf may have some political immunity. This moment was just right to put Ganon in prison, all they needed was Rauru and some guards. 3. A secret room was built for Zelda in Link's house by Bolson. Here's the question: Why didn't Link renovate and add a separate bedroom for himself or Zelda? 4. HOLY SHIT, THE BOSS FIGHTS WERE BEAUTIFUL. THE VISUALS WERE AMAZING AND THE DRAGON GANON EXPLOSION WAS MAGNIFIC !!! BRAVO!!!
5. This game doesn't have any weight towards the timeline ITSELF given the ambiguous possibility that Ganondorf WILL RETURN just as he's done several times in the past 3 timelines.
For your third question, Zelda's secret well isn't exactly a "room". It was a small spot for her to get away for some peace and quiet. Why didn't Link add a separate bedroom? It's cause they'd rather sleep together.
the story was quite generic, it further contradicts every other zelda game, it even contradicts botw, although the story was made by the same dude, so now instead of the triforce, and goddess hylia who had a lot of importance in BOTW, now they screwed all of that to say that instead of the triforce and all of that, now a bunny guy was the one that gave zelda her powers by fucking princess sonia and becoming the first king of hyrule, this doesn't make any sense with Skyward sword or minish cap, I think that this "new hyrule" was actually created after the last one was destroyed, scenes on the past look identical to the current hyrule, that doesn't make any sense, where does the great calamity fits into this?
So does Link still have the four champions’ abilities? (Revali’s Gale, Mipha’s Grace, Urbosa’s Fury, and Daruk’s Protection) Like what happened to those powers he gained from them?
@@JohnJones- remember at the beginning where the ‘gloom’/malice steals Link’s vitality and breaks the master sword? I’d like to think that in that moment, the powers of the four champions was also stolen and dissolved into the metaphorical beast. Either that, or as the commenter you responded to suggested, the powers were simply dispelled once they were no longer needed and when the champions finally moved on from being spirits.
the extents this zelda goes to save her kingdom. 100 years of holding back calamity ganon and now thoudands of years of being an unconcious dragon charging the master sword. that's a ruler i can follow.
Just looking at this, to me it feels like the first script of this was supposed to be about the version of Hyrule Breath of the Wild mentions 10,000 years prior. Somewhere along the line, it turned into a response to Skyward Sword. And then the want to put Ganondorf in this setting turned it into this final product. Where the lore is just fused together into a whole new entity.
This still takes place years and years after the timelines of all the other games. You see NOTHING about the Triforce, none of the Zoni have symbolism of the Trifoce with queen Sonia is the only one that did. So the knowledge of the Triforce is lost to antiquity. Edit: going over the timeline again, I believe this is at the end of the adult timeline. The old Hyrule was destroyed in the flood, the Triforce is whole and when the water finally subsided from the land this is where they start the new kingdom of Hyrule.
@@Naifukiti This causes a plothole when you realize the Adult Timeline had both Ganondorf and the Master Sword left _trapped_ at the bottom of the Great Sea to be "erased from existence" as per the japanese translation of King Rhoam's wish to the Triforce which automatically brings the question of how did the Master Sword managed to detach itself from Ganondorf's petrified corpse and make it's way into the Land of the Lokomos which hypothetically became the origin for this new kingdom of Hyrule formed by Sonia and the Zonai tribe? While it's possible that the Golden Goddesses might have done some "divine intervention" shenanigans to ensure the Master Sword made it's way to a new pedestal millions of miles away in another land i doubt they would ignore Rhoam's wish to destroy the entire kingdom just so that Link could use the exact same sword to fight the yet to be reincarnated Ganondorf.
@@javiervasquez625I don’t think you understand the “so far into the future” part, it’s basically an excuse of Nintendo that makes everything that happened in all the timelines so far in the past that they mixed together, don’t think too hard about it.
Funny that Ganondorf mentioned fate being unchangeable, because he and Chrom (who recently got a fallen alt in FEH), share Matthew Mercer as their English VA.
There's something so satisfying watching Rauru bind Ganondorfs heart. It became personal- like he was saying, "you took my wife and my kingdom away... now we're both dying together"💯💯
Thank you so much for posting this! I don't know how you do it so fast, but I'm still waiting for my game to arrive and seeing this will help me wait. This definitely throws a few wrenches into the previous understanding of the timeline. I feel like developers first watched all of the theory videos by fans, then got together and smoked a little bit of something, and produced this 😊 can't wait to play to see how it all develops. Will abstain from watching the playthroughs for a while though.
Dehydrated Ganondorf’s malice formed by his uncontrollable hatred was powerful enough to take on the form of Calamity Ganon on the surface and possess the guardians, divine beasts, etc. At least, that’s what I remember lol
His demon hordes are able to find ways if Ganon is unable to escape easily. Twinrova or the previous stated entities. Also had the Yiga Clan not helping the situation.
God Link is so fuckin stoic, the least they could've done after ALL OF THIS is have him hug her when she wakes at the end. Kind of bummed Queen Sonia ended up being just an ancient Hylian, and not the Goddess Hylia herself.
Agreed on the former, disagree on the latter. I wish Aonuma and co. had taken cues from Twilight Princess Link who by far shows the most emotion among ALL incarnations of the Hero constantly smiling, laughing, hugging Colin and Midna like a big brother and just being an all around protagonist. Sonia being her own character made sense from a narrative level as it would have been convoluted for Hylia to have had a past with the "Zonai character" (before the game released), reincarnated into a human in Skyward Sword, then became a goddess again and THEN the events of Tears of the Kingdom happened. By having this new female character brought up it's clear that Nintendo is trying to _expand_ the Lore in an interesting direction without the risk of creating contrived and convoluted storylines which outright _contradict_ key elements of the narrative.
Disagree on the latter but yeah, this incarnation of Link is so sassy outside of cutscenes and a lot of horrible stuff happens to him and Zelda in this game. I was at least expecting some kind of shock or grief on discovering that she was the dragon or being tricked by the puppet. Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess are older games and still have much more emotive Links. I don't see an excuse for his stone face here.
For future dlc, we need a “second quest” story since Skyward Sword hasn’t been given us. I want to see Zelda’s own adventures in the distant past since get a glimpse of it through those Dragon Tear memories. Also, with Ancient Sages as her NPC companions to fight alongside Rauru and Zelda.
@@jayq2571 Not for A.J is not this poor soul has been parroting the game's canon since 2021 so you have no idea how frustrating it's been bumping into him repeating the same thing over and over again (AoC is canon!) without any concrete evidence to shut him up for good. This game finally achieved what thousands of replies could never have done in a million years.
This is the BEST version of Link and Zelda. They have sacrificed so much, went through a lot. 100 years against the calamity, and 10,000+ years for Ganondorf. This is truly the Legend of Zelda. There are a few things I would’ve changed sure. The inclusion of the triforce, a power boost to the new champions, and maybe more references to Calamity Ganon or officially making Purah the new Sage of Spirit. But this game is my all time favorite! Breath of the Wild was my previous game ever. But now, a new fave exists. Thank you Nintendo for such beautiful story telling!
Masterpiece. I think my favorite part of the game was realizing Zelda was actually Links protector all along and the way it culminated at the end was incredible. Storytelling in the Zelda franchise stays undefeated.
Nintendo 100% saw the ridiculous outfits we would wear in the final cutscene and took that liberty away from us. We abused it, and thus they tooketh away.
That final reach for Zelda is such an epic feeling. They could've just made that a cutscene but giving that to the player was a solid move. Damn good job by Nintendo.
It’s such a good mirror to the opening of the game too, one of the first things you’re taught is how to dive in the shrine of awakening, and the last thing you do is dive to complete your quest. Also when Link failed to grab her in the beginning
Such a good moment, the music just made it fantastic!
I wonder...what happens if you dont reach her
How the **** survive the fall!?
@@MilesCHC They landed in water. Gaem Logeec lol
The beautiful poetry of the game beginning with you not being able to catch Zelda, and by the end you do.. absolutely love this game so much.
It is worth pointing out that this game highlights the weight of Link's mission way more than any other game has ever done. Rauru and Zelda literally sacrificed their lives with the hopes that Link would be able to step up to the challenge and save Hyrule no matter what. As far as Zelda knows, she trusts Link so much, that she´s completely willing to become a soulless dragon that will wonder around Hyrule with no purpose other than charging the Master sword, only hoping that it will work.
I also love how Rauru trusts Zelda's word so completely that he is willing to throw his life away over that hope, and tells Ganondorf with such resolve that Link, a man neither of them have ever met, will be the one to ultimately defeat him. It's so fucking powerful. The stakes are so high this time around.
@@autumn_breeze616 As story telling goes, this game feels like Zelda is the actual protagonist, but is the story of her traveling to the past on faith on the Chose One...
But then Link spends all of eternity doing the most random crap around Hyrule…
@@HonstlyIdontKnow shhhh, Zel does not need to know that
Also she was rebuilding Hyrule after the calamity, technically working nonstop, only for it all to nearly be destroyed, AGAIN, by another form of Ganon. Who was under the castle the entire time. Which the ending of the calamity could have even been the source for the gloom and the other Ganon's awakening. And this time around. She travels to the past which is very unfamiliar, meeting people who are the reason for her kingdom and her being a princess, having to study AGAIN just to use her power, plus seeing the Ganon just as he was about to be sealed, watching her new friends the moment they die, in real time, compared to her books.
Zelda probably at the end was not holding any hope for any peace anytime soon, as even more trouble could start up again at any time.
Plus she will learn all the issues caused by Ganon including her being sent to the past, Ganon's creatures, copies of her betraying friends, and that is gonna be one heck of a conversation with literally everybody in Hyrule
(also anybody else noticed this with these sages, Wind Sage looks like Tulin all grown up, or Teba--Fire Sage looks and sounds exactly like Daruk)
If you see the prespective of people in the kingdom, there’s this girl with a really odd name for a Hylian who the King and Queen introduced out of nowhere, fought in the great war, survived and disappeared.
Only the 4 chosen heroes know her story and tell it to their people.
People of Hyrule create the tradition to name the daughter of the Kings the same as this girl to honor her and wishing they could be as strong as her stories.
Stories become Tales and become Legends.
hence known as The Legend of Zelda.
天才だ
:0
Makes sense
how does demise fit into it though? Where was the triforce involved in this? didn't the ancient zora look like squids? What the hell is going on in this strange world??? to many questions
how was the master sword created?! didnt the haylians get their name from haylia?
it really moves me that, even though her mind is completely gone as a dragon, zelda still comes to link's aid. the need to watch over him and protect him is so innate to zelda by the time of totk, that it doesn't matter whether she's human or dragon, that instinct breaks through, and she goes to him
It's so stupid. They put such emphasis on the fact that she would lose her mind and body and just become an immortal dragon forever. That means that it's no longer ZELDA! What a piece of shit story.
@@DukeEllision329 What's wrong with Zelda assisting Link? Yes, the story was always emphasizing the idea that she'd lose herself if she became a dragon. It doesn't mean she'd be unable to assist Link. She's the Dragon of Light.
@@DukeEllision329 Dude, if you don't like it that's your opinion and that's fine but don't go saying other people are wrong for liking it by shoving your opinion in their face. Like I said you are fine not liking it just don't go and sh*t on people who do, okay?
@@simonpugh3731 don't shove YOUR opinion in MY face.
@@SerenadedArk it's been obvious since the first game that the dragons just fly around and don't really have any agency whatsoever. There is absolutely no reason why Zelda should be an outlier
Zelda being a dragon for thousands of years flying around unconscious is the saddest thing ever…I sure hope link and Zelda get to spend a lot of time together after the events of this game. Heaven knows they did after the events of breath of the wild! His hair tie was found in her sacret well and they seem to share the same house. You can actually sleep in the bed unlike other NPC beds
Realistically speaking, I bet Zelda kept sleeping on that well of hers most of the time while Link slept on the bed.
Yeah fr this Zelda has suffered a-lot. She had her entire family die, the Kingdom fall, stuck in a 100 year battle against the Calamity, then is sent back in time after reawakening Ganondorf, and then has to be a dragon for thousands of years just to get back to her own time. Very sad indeed.
Just one thing tho, it’s actually Zelda’s hairclip. Wear that old hairclip to Purah and she’d tell you that
Mf just spoiled me the end
@@definitiv7891 then perhaps not look at videos of all totk cutscenes because people are going to be discussing it
For the first time in a while, this really feels like the legend of ZELDA.
Only if Gannondorf turns into a Pig and triforce, As a True Zelda Game
@@piraterumble2973 thats what was missing tho fr
@@piraterumble2973 You got that 25 times.
You have plenty of Zelda games with Ganon in it. Move on.
@@DarkElvishChick98 Says a Botw Fanboy
@@piraterumble2973 Then why you here? Obviously you played BoTW if you know Ganon didn’t turn into a pig and tri force
Man zelda in these games suffers too much. First 100 years of fighting calamity Ganon then thousands of years as a dragon charging the master sword to kill Ganondorf. She is so great, I love her.
So much suffering and waiting in sealed states for thousands of years i would call her the "Princess of Waiting" parallel to the Hero of the Wild for being unnable to do anything other than waiting until the right time to do something before waiting yet again until the right time something else. Wish she had been a little more proactive in the story like Tetra or Twilight Princess Zelda but alas she's still relevant to the story in her own way making me happy she didn't become a damsel trapped in a tower for the entire game.
Dude there so much waiting in these 1,000 years here a hundred here how old is zelda a link now honesty
@@ashaadele140 With the revelation that Hudson's daughter Mattison is around 5 years old after he married Rhondson Link would be around 123 years old and if we count Zelda's time spent transformed into the Light Dragon she would be around 10.123+ years old. This 2 have definetly beaten all their predecessors on the longevity department.
@@javiervasquez625 dam and we thought the link form ocarina of time was old lol
@@javiervasquez625 She was sent to the time Hyrule began getting founded, she's way older than 10.000 years now
One of the most touching parts for me was at the end, when Sonia and Rauru both held hands and looked at Link with such pride and joy. Like they knew he was exactly what Zelda described, and they couldn't be happier to have helped him❤❤❤❤❤
They were looking at the boy who loved their child, because I felt their bond with her was so parental 🥹
Link is an absolute tank that saved Hyrule twice in his normal lifespan, but Zelda is the one that went through the most traumatic, mind-exhausting stuff ever. She lost her mother as a child, felt the burden of responsibilities as the teenage princess of a kingdom threatened by a legendary calamity, then saw 4 of her best friends die and 1 end up comatose in a losing battle that she partially caused to end that way, THEN spent 100 years alone using her magic powers to keep calamity Ganon trapped in the castle in a tremendous effort both psychological and physical, THEN got sent to the past where she, again, saw her two protectors die, and then SPENT LITERALLY TENS OF THOUSANDS OF YEARS AS A DRAGON WITH NO AWARENESS OR SENSE OF SELF in order to fix and boost a goddamn sword. Like seriously, it's so much for one person that I argue it's even TOO much and literally makes her character sort of bad because of how unrealistically sane she still is, because it's kind of ridiculous that after all of this she isn't just mentally damaged in the finale.
Honestly yeah, poor girl needs a break
This is where the Legend of Zelda begins
I'm sure after the credits she was like "I'm tired..."
She does mention at the end that it felt like a dream so maybe the 1000 years just felt like a long nap. Those 100 years in the first game would have me beat though.
It’s so hard to compare the two. Honestly, they both went through way too much. For Zelda, all that you just said.
For Link, he finds the master sword around age 12, then at 15 is announced as the hero of legend who will defeat Ganon alongside Zelda. We know from Zelda’s diary that this placed a huge strain on him, the responsibility causing him to stop talking (feeling like he has to be the silent swordsman). He fights waves of Guardians, only to be fatally wounded and fall in battle protecting Zelda.
He then wakes up a hundred years later with no memory, and is told that he was a hero who fell and failed his mission. Now he must go fight the creatures that killed his old friends while simultaneously trying to regain his memories. He does so much and faces so much danger, and then has to fight the big bad Calamity Ganon.
Fast forwards, and then Link loses an arm protecting Zelda. Malice hurts. Malice strong enough to break the master sword? We saw what happens to people who come in contact with malice in Age of Calamity. For that to envelop his arm, causing it to have to be replaced, and then he has to go on another journey all while not knowing what happened to his friend.
Both of these kids have gone through way too much. I want to wrap them in blankets and protect them.
As a side note, we can see malice/gloom leaving Link’s body whenever he gets a Heart Container/Stamina Wheel. Does that mean he just has gloom in him constantly? That can’t be comfortable.
That little quiver in her voice when she says "Oh Link, I'm home." I am crying oh my god
She just said it as I read this comment
I cried too
I think Link getting the master sword in TOTK is one of the greatest gaming moments of all time.
Its so cool
that shit was so fun
@@draw0833 Poor Zelda Had To Get Her HAIR YANKED
@@haileeraestout5567I’m sure she’s used Link pulling her hair by this point
@@Lilly-eh9rx why are you guys joking like this do you know what she sacrefice? do you know what form she has to stay in?
I’ve been a Zelda fan since Ocarina of Time, and, as much as I’ve liked past incarnations of the character, BOTW/TOTK’s incarnation of Princess Zelda is the first one that I’ve really loved. You get a great sense for her internal struggle, her love not only for Link but also for Hyrule and its people, how she puts everything on the line to save Hyrule, and how she ultimately overcomes everything in the end. I love that in TOTK she grows into a strong leader as a result of receiving love and kindness from the people she meets in the past. And when she makes that one really important decision in the last memory (as soul-crushingly heartbreaking as it is), she does not because she's been pressured to do it (she was actually dissuaded from doing it), but rather of her own determination and volition. And despite that, she even sub/unconsciouly helps Link in the final battle, which indicates her love for him is that strong.
Another thing I love about her is I find the side of her that is obsessed with research to be absolutely adorable and endearing. I like to think that Link grew to love her the more he saw of her nerdy side. She’s also my favorite Zelda design-wise; she looks amazing in all of her outfits, particularly her default outfit in both games and her ritual outfit in TOTK.
I read all of this and love it ❤
smash
You know a character is good when people write full essays about them in TH-cam comments. I read the whole thing and I couldn’t agree more.
Literally agree with it all. She’s amaziiiiing.
Except that stupid white dress. Frick that dress, looks like crap.
1:55:36
I love the way she refers to the sword as 'she' in reference (i assume and hope) to Fi, who was locked into an eternal slumber within the sword at the end of Skyward Sword.
Well maybe, but all swords are girls
It also SEEMS like she may have spoken at 2:30:16
The sword keeps pinging like she did in Skyward Sword too.
@@yosefpoysun3534 i kept thinking it's her too cuz zelda doesnt show up til after link is in ganon's mouth to rescue him
@@yosefpoysun3534 Its done that in multiple games throughout the series too. TP did it, WW (i believe) did it, and both BOTW and TOTK did it.
It makes sense that the flashes are her speaking to whoever wields her.
@@hjonk8434 I don't recall it ever making that sound.
So like, are we not gonna talk about how expressive they made Zelda look when she’s scared, like it is some of the best emotion I’ve ever seen out of a character in a video game and in my opinion the VA for Zelda has improved a lot since breath of the wild.
What confuses me more is its connection to the past zelda games., it feels like it doesn't make sense or at least just bad at writing at this point how at a time there is 2 ganondorf and 2 zelda's and 2 masterswords co existing from the establishment of hyrule castle which is from the start to a thousand yrs passing of many different links zelda and ganondorf. Its basically Narating tht the treat of all legend of zelda is beneath the castle itself the original ganondorf (and this is not the ganondorf of ocarina of time means he is also a seperate entity and not a reincarnation) please enlighten me i wanna make sense of this.
@@kronno1196 This new Ganondorf IS a reincarnation just as his predecessor from Four Swords Adventures. The kingdom of Hyrule seen in the Era of the Wild is a _new_ kingdom formed _after_ the ones from the 3 timelines vanished and ceased to exist leading to Sonia's union with the Zonai Rauru and a new incarnation of the kingdom of Hyrule. Aonuma himself has confirmed that the Era of the Wild takes place thousands of years after the timelines ended and so everything that happens in this 2 games occurs after the timelines reached their respective conclusion.
@@javiervasquez625 But would the kingdom of Hyrule cease to exist so easily? To the point where the remaining Hylians had to start seemingly from scratch with the help of the Zonai?
@@ripclaw3008 Nothing in the Lore says the kingdoms of Hyrule "ceased to exist" just like that after the timelines ended but simply that they disbanded as the Royal Families of the time didn't see it necessary for a kingdom to exist to watch over the world as shown with Sonia being content leading the people of Hyrule regardless of the lack of a kingdom to protect the land. It wouldn't be until the Zonai arrived that the union between the Hylian and Zonai races would lead to a renewal of old traditions bringing the kingdom back to life.
@@javiervasquez625 Interesting. Watching the cutscenes for the first time, I wanted to like it, but I was just so confused because it clashed so much with existing lore. I feel a lot more positive about this game’s story if what’s being depicted fits into the middle of the three timelines and BOTW. Still, I wished they used a different name other than “Imprisoning War” or gave Rauru a different name (I believe he might be a reincarnation of the original Rauru) to not confuse fans with the events from OOT.
did i just buy a $70 game and intentionally spoil the whole thing for my self? Yes, I did. Am I still going to play the the entire game? Also yes.
Same 😂
Me too 😂😂
You right let me click off (grabs popcorn)
Same, it means nothing to me to see spoilers. Everyone’s adventure and experience will be completely different
For me Only if Gannondorf turns into a Pig and triforce
0:00 - introduction scene
9:03 - Link gets the arm
10:44 - the great sky island jump
11:36 - Rauru’s introduction
13:20 - Zelda’s secret stone
16:31 - delivering the master sword
19:04 - Purah’s introduction 😳
19:52 - Purah’s recap
20:54 - Tulin’s introduction
21:37 - the stormwind ark
21:48 - Colgera
22:46 - Colgera second phase
23:10 - Colgera death and Rito sage
31:46 - Rito village is saved
32:42 - Yunobo introduction
33:28 - Moragia
34:53 - Moragia death
35:14 - Gorondia
35:26 - inside Gorondia
35:47 - Marbled Gohma
36:47 - Marbled Gohma second phase
36:59 - Marbled Gohma death and goron sage
45:48 - Goron city is saved
46:34 - Sidon introduction
47:01 - The whirlpool
47:46 - the path to the wellspring of hyrule
48:35 - The wellspring of Hyrule
48:47 - Mucktorok
49:57 - Mucktorok second phase
50:11 - Mucktorok death and zora sage
58:37 - Zora’s domain is saved
59:17 - Riju introduction
1:00:19 - Kara Kara bazar is saved
1:01:45 - Victory to Gerudo town
1:01:54 - a temple erected from the ground
1:02:37 - Queen Gibdo
1:03:18 - Cowardly Queen Gibdo
1:03:45 - Queen Gibdo again
1:04:07 - Queen Gibdo second phase
1:04:20 - Queen Gibdo death and gerudo sage
1:12:56 - Gerudo town is saved
1:13:43 - The Master sword’s power memory
1:15:34 - Where am I? Memory
1:17:21 - An unfamiliar world memory
1:20:08 - Mineru’s counsel memory
1:23:42 - The Gerudo assault memory
1:26:18 - A show of fealty memory
1:29:23 - Zelda and Sonia memory
1:32:38 - Sonia is caught by treachery memory
1:34:37 - Birth of the demon king memory
1:38:55 - The sage’s vow memory
1:41:49 - A king’s duty memory
1:45:09 - The imprisoning war memory
1:45:53 - A master sword in time memory
1:48:32 - Tears of the dragon memory
1:52:53 - Pulling the master sword
1:56:56 - Crisis at Hyrule castle
1:57:57 - Ganondorf’s puppet
2:00:20 - Phantom Ganon phase 2
2:01:53 - Demon king’s army memory
2:02:41 - The sages
2:04:04- the thunderhead isles
2:04:49 - Mineru’s mask
2:08:40 - Mineru
2:09:18 - the sprit temple
2:09:30 - Seized Construct
2:10:16 - Seized Construct phase 2
2:10:35 - Seized Construct death and the sage of spirit
2:14:15 - Rauru’s sacrifice
2:19:32 - Critical decisions memory
2:22:27 - the demon king’s army
2:23:49 - the bosses return
2:24:54 - ganondorf
2:27:22 - demon king ganondorf (health bar go brrrr)
2:28:20 - demon king ganondorf phase 2
2:28:50 - demon dragon
2:32:30 - demon dragon death and Zelda’s revival
2:38:56 - Zelda is saved!
2:41:44 - credits
2:51:54 - post-credits scene
Thank you 🫶🏻
I really needed this; thanks!
Okay... the way that Zelda woke up bc she felt a loving embrace, AND THE FACT THAT THE FIRST THING SHE ASKED WAS "how are you?" SHUT UP, I'm in tears. This is my favorite princess zelda out of all of them. She risked knowing she'd never wake up, AGAIN after being stuck 100 years and still sacrificed everything for Hyrule. Despite the plot holes, this story made me cry
Sameeee 😭 Though I think her "how are you" was an incomplete question, like she was going to ask "how are you here?" since she thought she was still in the past before remembering what she had done to get him that sword!
@@jesseerousel6172 OHHH that makes more sense! I CARE HER
Well.. if a Zelda game- no if a game- no if ANYTHING’s story involves time travel it’s gonna have plot holes.
Wait what plot holes?
@@wildbard4112 Well the fact that the Time Stone duplicated itself when Zelda traveled back in time, that shouldn’t be possible, so technically Zelda and Ganondorf have the same secret stone but they’re using it for different purposes.
Am I the only one who genuinely wanted the ending to be a warm intimate embrace between link and Zelda, I was literally screaming “WTF JUST DO SOMETHING!”😂
I thought Link was gonna hug Zelda after he turned her back
When Zelda was saying “Oh, Link, you did it!” for a split second, I thought she was going to hug him in her joy. And I think that would’ve been perfect. They could’ve at least shown Link looking at her warmly in that scene. It was a great scene but I can’t help but feel it needed just a little something more.
@@ripclaw3008 Nintendo would never let them get THAT close.
@@elsahyrule6711 I know, but I think it would make a good emotional climax, whether or not the audience ships them.
@@elsahyrule6711 Why?
The first thing that happened in Breath of the Wild was Zelda waking Link up.
The last thing that happened in Tears of the Kingdom was Link waking Zelda up.
Don’t mind me, I’ll be over here sobbing my eyes out.
Yeah! Kinda reminds of Skyward Sword. She wakes Link up near the beginning and later he wakes her up. My heart T^T *cries* These precious bbys
@@anjiahexactly what i had to think of too!
Also link failing to catch Zelda at the beginning but succeed in the end.
"But when I felt something...like a warm, loving embrace, I woke up" It was Link's 'loving' embrace. It was his turn to wake her up then.
It’s so neat that the masks of the sages reflect the designs of the divine beasts! It was such a fun detail to put for the sages! Plus the sages being similar in design to the champions from BOTW? I loved it
Well I am guessing the ancestors were the first champions before the new ones that piloted the divine beasts
Gorgeous art style. If they ever make a Zelda animated movie it should look as close as possible to this.
No they'll probably race change her or some stupid shite
Excuuuuuuuse me, princess
i think they should totally make a new zelda anime, i dont even watch anime lol but i feel like the style would be perfect especially for the botw/totk series
Rauru is the best designed character I have seen in a game released recently. Not only is he a good character design, with a unique, recognizable silhouette, he is also a good character. Everything he says makes me want to hug him
I love how animated he is, and how unique his emotions are. His ears quivering with rage when Ganondorf killed Sonia was really well done.
Yeah a great king right away, all about the light and making a good kingdom. Even when he knew he would die, he believed.
He’s rocking the Ssj3 like hair!!
I can't get over his legs though. He's got long ears, long hair, long face, long neck, long arms, long torso, tiny stubby little legs. It threw me off for a while when I noticed lol
Yea rauru is a G 💯🔥🔥🔥
Has anyone else noticed that the masks worn by the Sages of Wind, Fire, Water, and Lightning resemble their tribes' respective Divine Beasts?
I noticed that too. I'm not sure if this means the Divine Beasts were designed based on said masks's animals or visceversa given the ambiguity regarding the Sheikah technology's connection to the Zonai and the ancient past prior to the foundation of New Hyrule.
Glad I'm not the only one who thought that
Yes, my question is what happen to those mechs since this is a sequel and erase the details about calamity Bacon?
@@kharles1000 Play the game Purah explains what happened to them via text conversation (spoilers).
@@javiervasquez625 spoil dude, will play the game later
To see so much of Skyward Sword and other installments being paid homage, to seeing tribute to real-life wonders like the Nazca lines, these guys really made it worth the wait. Ganondorf becoming Demise essentially made me giggle with excitement. This is the Ganondorf we were meant to see. What a fantastic story and now finally after so long we can start wondering more about the Zonai. Were they the left over Skyloftians?
Not to mention who was the ''tears of time'' zelda, sages of tears who were they? they were not BOTW sages. ''long ago''?!? are there two zelda's?
Only if Gannondorf turns into a Pig and triforce
I must have missed it.. where did Ganondorf become demise? I have so many questions regarding this game and the timeline prior..
@@PrincePalmUwU The first Zelda is supposed to be Hylia
I was wondering the same, mainly because im a huge fan for skyward sword 😅
1:37:44
I love the subtle details they do with Rauru’s ears where they almost vibrate with fury, it really is a cool detail that adds a lot of character
1:52:14 Zelda became a dragon so that she could use her power to restore the Master Sword and waited several thousand years to help Link! This is now officially my favorite incarnation of Zelda!
I found that a tadbit convoluted though i mean imagine staying as a 🐉 for _thousands_ of years just so that your boyfriend could get a magic sword to defeat some evil pig guy? I feel very sorry for this Zelda wasting so much time just waiting so that Link could save the day.
@@javiervasquez625 ganandorf was not a pig in this universe, that was calamity ganon and that is another beast born from ganandorf's malice, also she becoming a dragon was the best thing any zelda has ever done to aid link
@@Gigabarto Ganondorf _becomes_ a pig when filled with Malice and hatred for Link and Zelda. In the case of the final boss his final transformation was that of Boar-Dragon _hybrid_ (🐗+🐲=😈) with distinctive pig-like features just like in PAST games.
Becoming a floating dragon who does nothing but float around without any _memory_ of it is one thing, but _ruling_ the kingdom at the young age of 17 YEARS as seen in Twilight Princess is another thing entirely which makes this Zelda the most *mature* QUEEN of Hyrule to be willing to rule at such a young age with no Link support you. This Zelda's only contributions rely on her reforging the Master Sword which, in case you didn't notice, had NO DANGER to speak of compared to Twilight Zelda facing execution at Zant and Ganondorf's grasp.
Lol the copium some people have to defend this Zelda's importance is heartbreakingly depressing.
@@javiervasquez625 why are we comparing two wonderful characters like it's a competition. if people like botw zelda more it's fine, she has more screentime and is more developed regardless of who suffers more. I personally love both!
@@personal2123 Tell that to Gigabarto see if he cares.
As soon as I knew for sure that Zelda was okay, I started crying and just kept repeating "thank you, thank you"... I was so relieved that a fictional character was fine, it's insane how emotional these games make me
I am so happy Nintendo moved there realease dates a few times to ensure the game was absolutely perfected...what a masterpiece.
Seeing Zelda becoming a dragon due to the Zonai and the Gods being described as Zonai, its awesome to think that the three dragons are actually Din, Nayru and Farore whom enacted dragonification
Very unlikely that the 3 dragons _are_ the 3 Golden Goddesses as both their names and qualities are clearly bellow those of the omnipotent Goddesses who would never take such mundane forms easily threathened by Ganondorf's Malice (eg: Naydra in BotW). Should the 3 dragons be revealed to be human like Zelda in a future DLC/sequel i imagine they'll be revealed as the 3 Oracles from the Oracle games only _sharing_ the names of the goddesses without actually being the goddeses in human form.
@@javiervasquez625 that makes a lot more sense actually, and does seem a lot more likely
@@javiervasquez625 My theory is they were originally Zonai who ate their beans and became the dragons. For what reason I have no idea. But if you look at their features and then look at Rauru & Minaru you can see clear features shared with both. Then when you look at how Zelda looked, a Hylian who at her bean & dragonified, she has totally different features especially with her face & ears compared to the other 3.
Now lore-wise with your connections(cause I am certainly no Zelda lore expert) they could still have been those 3 oracle roles but as Zonai in the past?
@@smoshgirl95lol beans totally using that now
Okay, I can't be the only one to think that the ending scene with Link diving to Zelda was framed in a very romantic way, what with that music and camera angles?
Same 😢
You know, ever since the title was revealed. I always wondered why the game was called, "Tears of the Kingdom"? But now after watching this scene, ( 1:52:02 ) it all makes sense now. I even shed a tear after that beautiful scene. Well done Nintendo, well done. 🤧
You can also see it split up. That tear that she shed, that are the dragons tears we need to find for the visions.
@@piraterumble2973 Bot
@Crazy Dawg no i just need to Emphasize the issue
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Zelda
(This joke woke me up at 1 am)
2:18:50 has me in tears genuinely, its such a haunting moment them using the song at the moment, as Ganondorf uses Links name, its haunting but so empowering.
Same
In my opinion this is the most epic moment in the whole series
this truly was a tears of the kingdom
yeah was terrible
@@Gslayer5then why are you here
Only if Gannondorf turns into a Pig and triforce
@@trollface7116 Only if Gannondorf turns into a Pig and triforce
@@Gslayer5 Seriously why are you here to mope about it elsewhere
As a massive Zelda fan who has loved every insallment for unique reasons, I can say that Tears of the Kingdom is now my favorite. The story, the versions of the characters, the amazing gameplay, this game is truly a work of art. Twilight Princess was my first one as a kid, BOTW became my favorite in 2017, and this one now passed it in 2023. A true masterpiece💚
i dont like it in terms of gameplay for the most part but the cinematics and cutscenes specifically are incredible
Nothing gave me more happiness when Zelda turned back to normal after I thought we lost her. This ending couldn’t have been anymore perfect.
I would love more bitter ending where Zelda stays as dragon
@@towinandsave1520 well when playing the game after beating it u return to the time frame where Ganon was never defeated (because it wouldn't make sense, there would be no enemies to face the entire world would be messed up etc.) So there you go.
@@towinandsave1520If you want a bittersweet ending check out Twilight Princess
She gave you Recall. Notice you only use it on inanimate objects, nothing living. Sonia doesn't bring it into the discussion because it wouldn't be wise to imply it could work on the living and likely flat out taboo in the first place. Because it does work, but there's the moral issues and the fact its at the cost of your own life under normal circumstances. Rauru and sonia didn't have to worry about mortalality so they were able to amplify zelda's power she gave link to their fullest extent. Not only did they undo her transformation but did the same to link's arm.
Also i love the fact rauru's right arm is a lighter green, showing his right arm was an autobuild of what he lost.
The game really looked at Age Of Calamity's time-travel shenanigans and said "amateur"
Then they retconned it entirely from canon and saved the fandom from pulling their hair out in frustration at Nintendo's lazyness writing a timetravel plot.
Let's be honest, Breath of The Wild is terrible.
@@saricubra2867 lol no
@@thriftstorechicken3395 Yes it is.
@@saricubra2867 no
i’m actually crying. The way you view it from playing is different when all cutscenes are put together, the emotion really just spills. It’s so easy understand that Zelda not only made the sacrifice for Link, but for Hyrule. She knew the risks, yet she still did it. Honestly what did I expect, it’s Zelda. But watching the cutscenes together like this is just beautiful. I’m actually balling 💀
As a Zelink shipper I love how link carries Zelda out of the lake shirtless in his arms ❤
Ikdr 🥵🥵
Also the implication that he took the time to cross her arms so would be more comfortable
Can we talk about how much faith Rauru and the sages had in link? Zelda time travels to their era, helps them fight Ganondorf. NONE of the sages could hurt him, and she tells them that Link, thousands of years from now can defeat him. The amount of faith Zelda had, to be able to convince them that it WAS possible is amazing.
1:31:26 In this tear memory, Sonia and Rauru would like to meet Link as Zelda speaks highly of him (since I can tell she’s blushing on the Hero of Hyrule and how much she admires his dedication).
It may sounded crazy but I feel her ancestors are the kind of parents Zelda needed since her father King Rhoam is always cold towards his own daughter, as well as forbidden her from being A scholar and calls her a failure.
They would have accepted Link as her boyfriend since the pair do lived together in his childhood home in present day Hateno Village.
Nintendo needs to make Zelink canon!
No but fr it doesn’t sound crazy everyone does feel like Sonia and Rauru really are those parents who are like “hmm who’s this ‘friend’ of yours and i would very much like to meet him/her” :)
also them sharing one bed in Link’s house just sounds pretty much canon to me 😭😭😭😭😭
Zelink will be and is the only canon ship. If not, they wouldnt have made Zelda the protagonist alongside Link. Maybe in the next game we will see them much closer. I'm 100% sure they will show us some more closeness between these two
I am in total agreement
This makes me wonder, why the hell is the king such a dick to her? Is it cause he's like 60 dealing with an anxty teen? Makes sense
@@chloebelle1194i am imagining rauru being like 🤨 and then sonia nudging him like she did before she invited zelda to the castle
BOTW & TOTK are both so good you can make movies out of these & I hope they do one day. A lot of people are missing out on this master piece because it’s a video game. Same thing with GOW
So..... They never actually said it, but I'm gonna assume Rauru and Sonia had a kid running around somewhere that Zelda is descended from, which is why she has both their powers.
Yeah kind of a plot hole if the whole source of the royal families powers are fake
Zelda's powers come from being the reincarnation of Hylia and all that
@@iandavidvillaloboswong5180 yeah, be being blood related to hylia. Its likely that the first queen is a direct descendent as well. It just doesn't make sense if the royal family have no heirs, their powers are all genetic
@@iandavidvillaloboswong5180 Actually it comes from the _Triforce_ hidden away inside the Goddess's bloodline as shown in this scene: 1:55:31 That said it's clear that Zelda is a descendant of Sonia as she is the only first queen of New Hyrule for Zelda to not carry her blood as a direct descendant of first Royal Family.
Zelda in Botw: *Massive trauma and has to keep the calamity Ganon consciously at bay for a hundreds years"
Me: So Zelda can be a little more happy and does not need to go through more trauma, grief and pain over an inhumane period of time again right?
TotK: ...
Me: Right?
TotK: Gets transformed into a dragon for 10.000 years, experiences pain and sorrow all the way to the final battle yet she's totally fine suffering no PTSD whatsoever and going back to normal like nothing happened.
@@javiervasquez625 They did mention she pretty much spent that time asleep, she wasn't really conscious as a dragon. If she had been there's no way she would've come out of that sane
@@pikabolt5196 thank god she doesn't need any more trauma
@@pikabolt5196 I know which is why i feel Nintendo took the lazy path in giving this Zelda plot armor to overcome anything that came her way in order to justify a happy ever after ending at the end of the game. Like Link surviving Ganondorf's attack at the start of the game despite Ganondorf having the upper hand and been able to _kill_ him right then and there the story demanded that Zelda be left unharmed regardless of the physical trauma that is having a sword stabbed to her head in order to deliver the traditional fairytale ending the Zelda formula is forced to rely upon.
@@javiervasquez625 And that's your opinion. I don't agree - I think the game's story was wonderfully done - but that doesn't make it any less valid. As for the sword, I was under the impression it was tangled in her hair/fur(??) rather than stabbed into her skull, but I could be wrong
Now I also wanna bring up on how TotK plays out that basically when future Zelda turns into a dragon and for millenias lives past many reincarnations of her past selves means there has always been 2 existing master swords. It truly makes me sad that we'll never get a version of Link dual wielding them.
All I'm going to say is msg not found fuse to sheild, Use story based one. Perfect
I love how they were telling us what happened to Zelda from the very start with the dragon appearing right after the memory of Zelda with the master sword.
The relief on Zelda's face when she says, "thank you" to Link is TANGIBLE❤
2:40:51 this moment in the cutscene is absolutely amazing, the way the orchestra crescendos and plays the main zelda theme motif while showcasing the ungoomified hyrule castle is stunning, it sends chills down my spine every time.
When Link comes out of the cave and flies through the sky for the first time, the dragon you see in the distance is Zelda, waiting patiently 1000s of years for Link to arrive. And he's finally here 😭
All the callbacks to OOT/MM are absolutely incredible!!! so much nostalgia I can’t even handle it! It’s like a 90’s Breath Of The Wild with 2022 animation. My god this is so sick!!! I’ve never even played BOTW but have seen the entire story. I just can’t afford a Nintendo Switch honestly…..as I spend most days in the hospital or therapy. I hope someday I’ll be able to acquire one and play both these games!!!
Damn dog, you still w us? Hospital and therapy? What’s goin on my boy
how's it going? @tomdyer8518
Love how the past and the present went full circle with the ownership of the stones.
With no split timelines whatsoever to boot meaning Nintendo might have finally learned their lesson when writing a timetravel story.
@@javiervasquez625 But this implies the Triforce was duplicated when Zelda went back in time. Since she had it and then someone else had it aside from the Royal Family in the past
@@iandavidvillaloboswong5180 writing a story with time travel in it will always lead to some plot hole or paradox. It is inevitable
@@iandavidvillaloboswong5180 The Triforce is a magic relic of _divine_ origin so it's existence in mulitple timelines at the _same time_ isn't either a paradox or a plothole as seen in the Child Timeline where Ganondorf had the Triforce of Power in his grasp as a _reaction_ in the Adult Timeline while in the Downfall Timeline he had the *complete* Triforce even thought it should have remained split like in the other timelines. Basically put the Triforce is such a powerful object it can exist in multiple states at the SAME TIME.
Even knowing this would happen, hearing Zelda's voice turn into a horrid dragon screech is still such a strong gut punch.
1:26:23-1:29:04 in case anyone didn’t know, this scene resembles the scene in OOT when child Link first meets Zelda and peeking through the window in hyrule castle garden after sneaking past the guards. Both involve zelda suspicious of ganondorf, him pretending be an “allegiance”.
Wondering what that is supposed to mean for the timeline
@@yosefpoysun3534 Barely makes sense as usual. For most Zelda games the only Ganon is the one from Ocarina of Time. So if this is another Ganon then its much later from the endings of all the other timelines, since its a reincarnation not a revival. If it says Hyrule is being created here then it means its a completely new Hyrule after the old one fell I guess.
@Ian David Villalobos Wong Spitballing a theory I guess, but it could be new hyrule from Spirit Tracks. They have ley lines in the form of train tracks to seal away a demon king that looks like a blue beast Ganon. A technologically advanced New Hyrule could have been the one established in Totk.
A stretch for sure, but so is the entire time line
@@yosefpoysun3534 Soft reboot thousands of years after the Era of Myth mentioned in the Creating a Champion with a new kingdom of Hyrule founded by Sonia and Rauru. We're in a convergent timeline now after the Era of Myth unified the 3 timelines into a single one once more.
@@javiervasquez625 Well one of the timelines is basically a "what if". Rauru was an old man originally so I guess his sage thing eventually reincarnated into the new Rauru and he made a new Hyrule (still missing like 3 or 4 sages tho). These two games are a good example of ignoring all lore and just making a fun game with lore-breaking easter eggs
I was actually hoping would keep that new arm of his after he defeated Ganondorf. But I'm glad he was able to find Zelda and return her to her human form.
I mean Link probably wanted his original arm back and i can't imagine Rauru willing to force him to walk the rest of his life with his Zonai arm attached to his body like a freak. Since Ganondorf was no more there was no reason for the arm to stick around giving Rauru reason enough to heal Link's arm back no normal.
I mean, I do wonder what the post-game is going to be like. Is he going to have his original arm back, or are we just going to ignore the story that just happened and he's still going to have that Zonai arm? From our past experiences of Nintendo, it's probably going to be the latter, but who knows.
@@garlic6620 No post-game in Tears of the Kingdom either as Nintendo doesn't do post-games with the Zelda series. As for Link's Zonai arm he clearly lost it at the end of the game so i can't see why you would assume he would still carry it following the ending cutscene.
zelda shouldnt have gotten her hylian form back, it make her sacrifice mean nothing and is just a status quo reset for the next game
@@airrider-jk9ik It's a magic fairy tale world where the story MUST end in a "and they lived happily ever after". Having Zelda remain a dragon means ending on a bittersweet note which destroys the escapist power fantasy formula which fuels Nintendo's making of the Zelda series.
1:29:04 "There is nothing to worry about."
Famous last words.
They didn't know Ganondorf was the King of Trolls so yeah.
1:34:22
Please tell me I’m not the only one that gets the impression that link and Zelda have been a quiet couple since the events of BOTW?
I think it’s intentionally made so that more mature audiences can go with that if they wish. With all they’ve been through it’s hard to think otherwise given their chemistry.
EDIT: I think it's actually a lot less vague then normal for Nintendo. If you look at how Zelda speaks about Link in BOTW and TOTK, she speaks about him in a way she speaks about no other. Especially in the scene where she's talking to the first King and Queen of Hyrule. Both remark of how highly Zelda speaks of him. She's also always thinking about him, she seems saddened at the thought that she will never see him again. She cares for him deeply, it seems her actions have his benefit and Hyrule's benefit in near equal standing. She also became a dragon for 10,000 years to secure victory. She didn't just do that for Hyrule...if that's not love I'm not sure what is.
Her face always seems to have a faint blush, but I think the artists and animators were very intentional in the way Zelda looks at Link. She doesn't look at anyone else like that.
@@northproductions6104 I get how that works out as well. I'm definitely someone who leans more towards romance between the two but she definitely achieved her goal.
I've never had a platonic friend that close to me so that's a personal bias I have.
I've always seen them as ride or die/ war buddy type friends. The kind who will drop everything for the other because of the bond forged by suffering together
I can't believe that "When Zelda said 'It's Zelda time' and teared all over the kingdom" is a viable explanation for the entire plot.
I hate how that actually makes sense
Oh no, a way overused joke that wasn’t even funny after Morbius at all.
I just realized something. Tears of the Kingdom makes Age of Calamity actually make so much more sense. The reason Terrako was able to go back in time and summon people from the future was because Zelda has time powers. When she built him she must have put some of that into him. Interesting :)
WOAAHH you're a genius
So AoC might be cannon? YEAHHH WE GOT MINK
@@legion6211in a series where time diverges so much, saying AoC is cannon isn’t too far fetched, considering it just splits the timeline once again.
That's actually a really good point, but then that opens the massive can of worms that is the possibilities for what happened after Age of Calamity's events, because now the circumstances of Ganondorf's awakening are different and it's possible Zelda never travels to the past. With how time travel works in Tears of the Kingdom, would that then mean the Light Dragon doesn't exist, or that the Age of Calamity variants would be meeting Tears of the Kingdom Zelda?
Zelda is such a badass in this game, from them showcasing her powers more to the sacrifice she makes, she’s literally the GOAT.
I know I'm spoiling this for myself, but I'm not going to finish this game in a timely manner. no time unfortunately.
Absolutely Phenomenal story.
All of my hopes for it and then some. This was an absolute treat to watch. Excellent job to the developers.
Same here. With a toddler at home now, no way I am going to get 70+ hours of gaming in before 2025 lol
same here
@@ATLAoftheHill Congratulations. Raising young life is one of the most beautiful things. Lots of memories to be made by sharing the great stories of our age with the next generation. Get to see the magic we experienced in our youth.
I have a young one in my household too and I cant wait for her to experience the same wondrous magic that I had when I was a kid.
No shame in that. I know it's cliché, but it is just a game at the end of the day. A great one, but still just a game.
@@mtgstudios1556 "new generation" u sure abt that
1:19:28 "Wisdom takes Time"
I understood that reference
Fury:… and I’d like to know how he turned two of the smartest men I know into his personal flying monkeys.
Thor: monkeys? I do not understand this ref…
Cap: I DO!!!…… I understood that reference.
The scene where Rauru tells ganondorf to remember links name is so badass! Still gives me chills every time just based on context alone like this one dude has been beating your ass time and time again without fail and is destined to do so over and over again since ancient times is wild! ughhhh I love this series sm!!
It’s adorable and extremely wholesome to see Zelda so excited over finding the murals. Honestly made me smile when I first played through, really cute
Tulin
24:32 Past
29:09 Realization
30:07 New Power
30:27 Promise
Yunobo
38:19 Past
43:06 Realization
44:00 New Power
44:31 Promise
Sidon
51:28 Past
56:08 Realization
57:00 New Power
57:20 Promise
Riju
1:05:21 Past
1:10:17 Realization
1:11:10 New Power
1:11:35 Promise
Zelda’s actions during the past were so noble and self sacrificial, that it would make sense that Rauru and Sonia’s children would start the tradition of naming princesses of Hyrule Zelda. With the passage of time her deeds would only be remembered as legends.
Or rather the legend of Zelda…
It’s officially lads, BOTW/TOTK Zelda is best girl/Zelda in the series.
18:20 SPOILER:
It’s crazy how the game just literally shows you what happened to Zelda right to your face at the very start of the game. And then as soon as she leaves, you hear Zelda implore you to find her, followed by the Quest objective prompting on your screen.
Why is Ganon's power referred to as gloom in Tears of the Kingdom, when in Breath of the Wild it was called Malice?
ganondorf is the original evil, ganon it was born from the malice sproting from ganandorf body
@@Gigabarto My guess is the "emotion" has evolved from simple hatred manifested into energy (Malice) to downright desire for destruction and conquest against the entire world (Gloom). It's a simple level up term to aknowledge the fact Ganondorf has become more powerful than ever before.
I feel like that was just an overall dIscriptor or synonym more than an official term like Octorok or something. Zelda likes science and varies her vocabulary.
This would be the Game of the Year 2023,I personally think this is truly incredible.
My only issue with the game is how it kinda feels like they completely forgot about the first one? Like, theres little to no mention or things relating to the Sheikah. And at the very end when everyone plesged themselves to Zelda, instead of reminding her of her past champions, its of the sages??? She barely knew any of them, and they made a *pact* not an oath of fealty.
Idk, great game otherwise.
Only if Gannondorf turns into a Pig and triforce
Well there’s Mipha’s status still there and zoras made a statue for the calamity
1. Why do they call them secret stones? Wouldn't it have made more sense if they called them sacred tears (or would it have been too similar to Elden Ring).
2. Averting Sonia's death was possible. It's clear to Zelda that Ganondorf was powerful as well, although she isn't sure if this is the same Ganondorf as the one from the future and Ganondorf may have some political immunity. This moment was just right to put Ganon in prison, all they needed was Rauru and some guards.
3. A secret room was built for Zelda in Link's house by Bolson. Here's the question: Why didn't Link renovate and add a separate bedroom for himself or Zelda?
4. HOLY SHIT, THE BOSS FIGHTS WERE BEAUTIFUL. THE VISUALS WERE AMAZING AND THE DRAGON GANON EXPLOSION WAS MAGNIFIC !!! BRAVO!!!
5. This game doesn't have any weight towards the timeline ITSELF given the ambiguous possibility that Ganondorf WILL RETURN just as he's done several times in the past 3 timelines.
For your third question, Zelda's secret well isn't exactly a "room". It was a small spot for her to get away for some peace and quiet. Why didn't Link add a separate bedroom? It's cause they'd rather sleep together.
@@CyberSonic157 💋😏
Hmm
the story was quite generic, it further contradicts every other zelda game, it even contradicts botw, although the story was made by the same dude,
so now instead of the triforce, and goddess hylia who had a lot of importance in BOTW, now they screwed all of that to say that instead of the triforce and all of that, now a bunny guy was the one that gave zelda her powers by fucking princess sonia and becoming the first king of hyrule, this doesn't make any sense with Skyward sword or minish cap,
I think that this "new hyrule" was actually created after the last one was destroyed, scenes on the past look identical to the current hyrule, that doesn't make any sense, where does the great calamity fits into this?
this channel is AWESOME! Thank you for always releasing the cutscenes
Ganondorf is so epic in this game its good to have him back
Matthew Mercer's voice definetly elevated an otherwise one dimensional badguy. Can't wait to hear what roles he plays up next.
@@javiervasquez625 probably Yusuke from Persona 5 series, Chrom in Fire Emblem Heroes, Ira in Kingdom Hearts,
@@jakeriese4862 Wished he voiced the Master of Masters he would have done a terrific job as him.
Yeah Ganondorf’s character was kinda shallow but Matt Mercers VAing made it WAY better than it would have been.
Matthew Mercer should voice of Gandalf in the upcoming Zelda games he should come back because he is a really good voice acting
what a visual masterpiece, looks better than most animated content while running on what's basically a toaster at this point.
2:18:50 when the theme kicks in, it gave me goosebumps. I love this game.
Fr one of my favorite parts of the cutscenes, always manages to give me chills🥰
It was the most epic part in the entire game. Rauru is so confident Link can beat Ganondorf.
botw/totk zelda and link were put through the ringer as fun as a trilogy would be i think these two deserve a break for the rest of their lives
So does Link still have the four champions’ abilities? (Revali’s Gale, Mipha’s Grace, Urbosa’s Fury, and Daruk’s Protection) Like what happened to those powers he gained from them?
Their sprits are gone they left at the end of botw
@@scorch5918 So when the Champion’s disappeared, the abilities from them vanishes too?
@@JohnJones- remember at the beginning where the ‘gloom’/malice steals Link’s vitality and breaks the master sword? I’d like to think that in that moment, the powers of the four champions was also stolen and dissolved into the metaphorical beast. Either that, or as the commenter you responded to suggested, the powers were simply dispelled once they were no longer needed and when the champions finally moved on from being spirits.
@@hjonk8434 Alright, that makes sense now.
the extents this zelda goes to save her kingdom. 100 years of holding back calamity ganon and now thoudands of years of being an unconcious dragon charging the master sword. that's a ruler i can follow.
Please let me adopt Tulin he’s just so precious, we must protect him at all costs
get in line
Link defeated Ganondorf in his dragon form. Well I guess we can officially call him "Link, The Dragon Slayer".
Just looking at this, to me it feels like the first script of this was supposed to be about the version of Hyrule Breath of the Wild mentions 10,000 years prior. Somewhere along the line, it turned into a response to Skyward Sword. And then the want to put Ganondorf in this setting turned it into this final product. Where the lore is just fused together into a whole new entity.
This still takes place years and years after the timelines of all the other games. You see NOTHING about the Triforce, none of the Zoni have symbolism of the Trifoce with queen Sonia is the only one that did. So the knowledge of the Triforce is lost to antiquity.
Edit: going over the timeline again, I believe this is at the end of the adult timeline. The old Hyrule was destroyed in the flood, the Triforce is whole and when the water finally subsided from the land this is where they start the new kingdom of Hyrule.
@@Naifukiti This causes a plothole when you realize the Adult Timeline had both Ganondorf and the Master Sword left _trapped_ at the bottom of the Great Sea to be "erased from existence" as per the japanese translation of King Rhoam's wish to the Triforce which automatically brings the question of how did the Master Sword managed to detach itself from Ganondorf's petrified corpse and make it's way into the Land of the Lokomos which hypothetically became the origin for this new kingdom of Hyrule formed by Sonia and the Zonai tribe? While it's possible that the Golden Goddesses might have done some "divine intervention" shenanigans to ensure the Master Sword made it's way to a new pedestal millions of miles away in another land i doubt they would ignore Rhoam's wish to destroy the entire kingdom just so that Link could use the exact same sword to fight the yet to be reincarnated Ganondorf.
@@javiervasquez625I don’t think you understand the “so far into the future” part, it’s basically an excuse of Nintendo that makes everything that happened in all the timelines so far in the past that they mixed together, don’t think too hard about it.
@@chillswany I actually agree so no need to tell haha. Check the other threads where i explain this very fact to people saying otherwise.
I love watching cutscene videos, to me it's like watching the original movie of your favorite games
Funny that Ganondorf mentioned fate being unchangeable, because he and Chrom (who recently got a fallen alt in FEH), share Matthew Mercer as their English VA.
These cutscenes are really really powerful and emotional
Zelda @ 18:55: "Link you must find me."
Also Zelda, 30 seconds ago @ 18:25: "hey"
Ganon Zelda hit different ngl
1:34:14 My suspicions were correct. Ganondorf did steal a Secret Stone and used it to amplify his dark magic.
He's the titular "King of Thieves" of course he would steal something to become powerful and do evil stuff.
So the Secret Stone Zelda is holding is from the late King Rauru's Stone from the present.
1:43:31 When I first saw this in the games final trailer, I thought it was a mask. Now I know that we were simply seeing the front of Rauru's vest.
1:46:49 I love the soundtrack in this cutscene, feels like the desperate time in an anime before the final battle.
There's something so satisfying watching Rauru bind Ganondorfs heart. It became personal- like he was saying, "you took my wife and my kingdom away... now we're both dying together"💯💯
Thank you so much for posting this! I don't know how you do it so fast, but I'm still waiting for my game to arrive and seeing this will help me wait. This definitely throws a few wrenches into the previous understanding of the timeline. I feel like developers first watched all of the theory videos by fans, then got together and smoked a little bit of something, and produced this 😊 can't wait to play to see how it all develops. Will abstain from watching the playthroughs for a while though.
One thing doesn't make sense: How did Calamity Ganon come into existence when Ganondorf was sealed deep below Hyrule Castle?
Dehydrated Ganondorf’s malice formed by his uncontrollable hatred was powerful enough to take on the form of Calamity Ganon on the surface and possess the guardians, divine beasts, etc. At least, that’s what I remember lol
Calamity Ganon was the manifestation of Ganondorf's hatred for the people of Hyrule.
Couldn’t his hatred and malice have leaked out of his sealed body over time?
@@BlueSun57 It's not malice,it's gloom tho
His demon hordes are able to find ways if Ganon is unable to escape easily. Twinrova or the previous stated entities. Also had the Yiga Clan not helping the situation.
God Link is so fuckin stoic, the least they could've done after ALL OF THIS is have him hug her when she wakes at the end. Kind of bummed Queen Sonia ended up being just an ancient Hylian, and not the Goddess Hylia herself.
Agreed on the former, disagree on the latter. I wish Aonuma and co. had taken cues from Twilight Princess Link who by far shows the most emotion among ALL incarnations of the Hero constantly smiling, laughing, hugging Colin and Midna like a big brother and just being an all around protagonist.
Sonia being her own character made sense from a narrative level as it would have been convoluted for Hylia to have had a past with the "Zonai character" (before the game released), reincarnated into a human in Skyward Sword, then became a goddess again and THEN the events of Tears of the Kingdom happened. By having this new female character brought up it's clear that Nintendo is trying to _expand_ the Lore in an interesting direction without the risk of creating contrived and convoluted storylines which outright _contradict_ key elements of the narrative.
Disagree on the latter but yeah, this incarnation of Link is so sassy outside of cutscenes and a lot of horrible stuff happens to him and Zelda in this game. I was at least expecting some kind of shock or grief on discovering that she was the dragon or being tricked by the puppet. Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess are older games and still have much more emotive Links. I don't see an excuse for his stone face here.
Botw/Totk Link is treated very much like a self insert, even more than the older games, hence the stone face
Fi’s theme playing while Zelda holds the Master Sword is EVERYTHING!
For future dlc, we need a “second quest” story since Skyward Sword hasn’t been given us. I want to see Zelda’s own adventures in the distant past since get a glimpse of it through those Dragon Tear memories. Also, with Ancient Sages as her NPC companions to fight alongside Rauru and Zelda.
Happy you're here to see witness absolute confirmation that Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is NOT CANON to the Zelda timeline.
I mean, we need a whole new game and engine tbh. New hardware. End the Switch, give us Switch 2.
@@javiervasquez625 I mean, it's common sense that AoC is not canon....
@@jayq2571 Not for A.J is not this poor soul has been parroting the game's canon since 2021 so you have no idea how frustrating it's been bumping into him repeating the same thing over and over again (AoC is canon!) without any concrete evidence to shut him up for good. This game finally achieved what thousands of replies could never have done in a million years.
@@javiervasquez625 I see, i'm sorry to see what you're going through... it's a shame people like that are a thing...
This is the BEST version of Link and Zelda. They have sacrificed so much, went through a lot. 100 years against the calamity, and 10,000+ years for Ganondorf. This is truly the Legend of Zelda.
There are a few things I would’ve changed sure. The inclusion of the triforce, a power boost to the new champions, and maybe more references to Calamity Ganon or officially making Purah the new Sage of Spirit.
But this game is my all time favorite! Breath of the Wild was my previous game ever. But now, a new fave exists. Thank you Nintendo for such beautiful story telling!
Masterpiece. I think my favorite part of the game was realizing Zelda was actually Links protector all along and the way it culminated at the end was incredible. Storytelling in the Zelda franchise stays undefeated.
So we didn't get a playable Zelda, but we did get the consolation prize of a DRAGON
There is still hope for a playable Zelda DLC in the coming months so there is reason to remain hopeful still.
Good as hell consolation
Only if Gannondorf turns into a Pig and triforce
1:18:25 The awkward "Ah, I see," that Rauru gives after Sonia suggests that they and Zelda have a blood connection had me laughing.
we need a threequel, i beg, i just wanna see those 2 again
Which 2?
@@EDGESILVERGAMES Link and Zelda of course
It already is a threequel. We've got Age of Calamity, Botw, and TotK.
@@CyberSonic157 same
@@CyberSonic157 then quadquel or something
Nintendo 100% saw the ridiculous outfits we would wear in the final cutscene and took that liberty away from us. We abused it, and thus they tooketh away.