The Great Dark Skeleton Mystery! (Tears of The Kingdom)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 พ.ค. 2024
- What exactly are the Dark Skeletons of Hyrule's Depths?
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Timestamps!
Intro - 00:00
The Dark Skeletons - 01:28
Conclusion & Outro - 12:32
#zelda #tearsofthekingdom #nintendo - เกม
Correction on my part: I may have misunderstood the true definition of "immortal" my bad 😅
How does this change your theory? Now that you know, the implications must be intriguing.
@@side-beeetaloniswolfwolfac4179 In biology inmortality is an organism that doesn't age, cancer for example are considered inmortal cells since they stop aging. But that doesn't mean they can't die, as you can kill cancer cells with chemotherapy.
In brief, an inmortal organism in biology can die if it's killed externally, but not for aging. Such as cancer cells, jellyfish, crabs and lobsters.
You’re fine, there are some stories that include invincibility with immortality, and others that don’t, so there isn’t a set definition
@@side-beeetaloniswolfwolfac4179 I am also curious for a short update on this, as three zonai dragons being punched to death is an interesting tale no matter how you spin it.
The game actualy gintes you that you can kill a dragon 😅
My uncle's a paleontologist, and he says that those are all just clearly the skeletons of perfectly normal bears.
👀😂
No bear is normal... they're all freak monsters of absolute terror and destruction
Yea, that tracks
Sounds legit. Tell ur totally real Paleontologist Uncle that we need more people like him teaching the people of the world about stuff.
@@chrislevack405 As my uncle always says, "when all bears are freak monsters of absolute terror and destruction, then none are; trust me, I'm a paleontologist."
My theory: Those creatures are the true reason the act of Draconification is "forbidden". The three Elemental dragons flying around Hyrule each have a general purpose, even though I think they were originally Zonai. What I think is that at least three times, some evil fool swallowed a Secret Stone to be immortal, didn't realize the true cost, and went on a rampage. Heck, probably more than three times, which is why some dragon skeletons litter the surface, and these three are in the Depths. It is also probably why the Elemental dragons have returned to flying through the depths on occasion....because they had to venture down here before to battle some evil dragon that might have been immortal, but not indestructible. They may not have minds enough to remember doing it, but they remember they were down there before, for a very important reason, so they keep mindlessly returning, now that the depths are once again accessible by the surface.
This is actually my theory also, but I think the secret stones are the leftover refined teeth of natural dragons who were killed. It's forbidden to ingest them because they are a manifestation of the power killed to create them
Ooo, I like that theory. That's a good one
The dragon wars…
I love these open ended mysteries, it gets everyone’s imagination racing and the result is cool stuff like this!
i honestly believe that the 3 elemental dragons are the physical incarnations of the 3 goddesses, especially because their names are so similar, and they have reincarnated to protect the land from evil, which is why they could move in and out of the cloud barrier in botw, when it still existed
@@chickenfila379 the three dragons of skyward sword also have similar names to the goddesses, but are different entities
“Immortal” commonly just means “won’t die of natural causes”, not “cannot be killed”. They could easily be dragons felled by some incredibly powerful enemy and not contradict the description
possibly the same hero from the tapestry 10 000 years ago????? If he is zonai, he must know about the secret stones and the dragons
The game itself offers the best proof for this: Link kills the Demon Dragon
In the Latin American Spanish version they’re described as “dragones perennes”, which is closer to saying they’ll live forever, unchanged, but it doesn’t really include the implication that they _can’t die_ at all.
This. Link kills Dragondorf afterall.
Nah man, You can definitely NEVER kill a secret stone dragon. Just ask Gannondorf. ...oh wait.
considering we're able to obtain dragon parts (meaning the dragons can be marred), and kill ganondorf, even after draconification, i'm thinking mineru's account is more about not being able to die of old age.
Biological immortality.
Yeah, immortality doesn't mean invincibility.
Like a lobster
According to BotW, the dragon parts are blessings granted by the dragons. You can't injure the four, only the last one, and only because his evil corruption forms tumors on the otherwise holy transformation.
@@Xahnel something interesting I’ve noticed is the Demon Dragon goes completely stationary when it spews out miasma, and its red glows disappears until it regenerates and only THEN it can start flying again. Maybe the reason it’s able to be killed apart from other dragons is that it’s expending a lot of magical energy; it’s destructive nature is making it rip itself apart, which is why it’s back has these abscesses. If it had just flown away and didn’t engage Link and Zelda, it might have been successful in razing Hyrule.
Fun fact: each dark skeleton houses a gloom spawn! Always wondered if it may be the early stages of ganondorf attempting to re-animate them through the gloom.
Could be the reason as to why the calamity kept on returning there could have been 5 skeletons but ganondorf used two to try and return but they failed
@@fionngallagher2754 I always saw malice in botw as basically a decayed/diluted version of gloom, as the small amounts sullied with water. While it's health effects were weakened to inflict non-permanent damage it still retained the ability to hijack technologies (e.g guardians and divine beasts). Gloom does the same thing as seen with the seized construct, which is why I reckon it's possible if given time the dark skeletons could have been possessed too.
@@MrSuperleobros this is funny, as Gloom has two major disadvantages compared to Malice. Presumably due to added water, Malice was a sludgy substance that could block paths and form spikes, with Link having a hard time walking through any of it. In comparison, Gloom is a thin layer that can be walked through at normal speed, and cannot be used to block paths. You see a lot more Gloom than Malice, but that surely has more to do with Ganondorf’s power than Gloom being any more efficient.
Someone lied to me and said that the dark skeletons were boss fights, I got so excited :[
@@aidanhammans9337gloom does have the major advantage of being gaseous and degenerative though. Malice just seems to be corrosive.
In many works of fiction, immortal has been used to describe beings who don’t die from old age. The elves in The Lord of the Ring for example. But they can still be killed. So just because the dragons in TotK are immortal, doesn’t mean they can’t be killed. Demon Dragon was killed Link after all. So those three skeletons could have draconified people that were killed. They were probably evil because they are called Dark Skeletons.
or, possibly, the event that killed them was in some degree very tragic, or culturally significant? Maybe the Zonai or whoever else considered them cursed?
Or changed during translation?
Well, my uncles aren't paleontologists, so that's that.
The spikes on the skeletons, or spinous processes, wouldn't stick out of whatever beasts those were. They're to small for that. I mean, we have those too and they make up about half of the length of a vertebra, and we don't have spikes coming out of our backs
It could be that the dragon's "immortality" is more akin to that of a phoenix. Their bodies can still die, but they just keep coming back to life afterwards.
Wasn't it with the dragons more like functional immortality. You will not age or wither with time but can still be killed like the spoiler
Demon Dragon at the end of the game.
with all the enormous skeletons littered around Hyrule, it’s a shame there wasn’t a massive Stal-lord boss fight in the game 😑
I had a whole concept drawn up for a malice infested dragon stalord, who would be the final guardian of the fragments of the master sword
@@ArtemisWasHere - sounds dope! 👌
the Moldugas and Hinoxen and such are really cool, and I especially love the Tali… but it would’ve been awesome to have a few completely unique overworld bosses, like one for the land, one for the sky, and one for the Depths?
Stal-lord was my favorite boss in Twilight Princess
Anything I say will sound like a joke, but whatever. Paleonthologist here.
The Eldin Leviathan skull has a distinct lack of a temporal fenestra (basically a hole behind the eye socket), which would either classify it as a close relative of turtles or early reptiles, depending on how this species evolved (we need Hyrule scientists to step up here).
The Eldin depths skeleton on the other hand had one singular temporal fenestra, which would put him ironically in the synapsid group, so he is kind of related to mammals. Go figure.
Okay, now I feel like finishing this analysis since the leviathans have very different morphologies. Depths skeletons are all identical.
Gerudo Leviathan: One temporal fenestra, so also a synapsid.
Hebra Leviathan: Very weird, seems to have a vestigial temporal fenestra. Maybe a new branch derived from Synapsida? Also, the skull is very similar to a whale skull.
In conclusion, the Gerudo leviathan seems to be the closest relative to the depths skeletons. And I have several more questions but that's enough for now.
Do you think the stones in the eyes of the leviathans are scleral rings/bones? I know modern fish and some birds have them, but wasn’t sure if any mammalian ancestors besides terrestrial Synapsids had them.
Minor nitpick but those "spikes" along the spines of the skeletons are actually attachment points for muscles. We to have similar "spikes" along our spines for our back muscles.
The spikes on the top of the heads though like at 1:45 could be anchor points for spikes or some keratinous structure that was once there.
Also something cool to note about the skull at 3:59 is that it appears to have 2 sets of jaw bones! Kind of like that of a moray eel though still clearly different as the secondary jaw seems to be attached to the main jaw bone. Perhaps the smaller, internal jaw once held a second row of teeth which would be pretty unique!
I wonder if maybe the skeletons aren't from dragons, like they suggest, but sea-serpents of some kind? Hyrule was once flooded after all. 🤔
And you _did_ mention one bearing similarity to a moray eel. Maybe there's some merit to that line of thought?
Thank you!! I was about to comment about the "spikes" not being spikes, glad to know someone else got there before me!
"Immortal" is commonly used to mean ageless. Meaning they won't ever age or die of natural causes, but can be killed. We killed Ganondorf on screen, so he obviously wasn't immortal.
It's a shame people conflate "immortal" with "unkillable" too often.
@John-bj1zx People tend to be dumb hence the mistake.
what if every "layer" in TOTK represents one timeline. The lowest one represents the fallen timeline, the "neutral" one the heros legacy and the sky layer the "hero of winds" timeline. Resulting in truly combining the timelines
I like that theory!
I like that theory!
Thats an amazing theory
Immortal could refer to not dying from age/illness, etc.
They could still be killed by injury.
Im gald someone is talking about the even bigger skeletons, cause great skeletons can be explained but i wanna know who the BIG ones are
Just like to say immortal does not mean invenerable. Immortal being will live forever yes but providing they dont sucome to injury, illness or toxants. Immortal beings can still die just not due to the passage of time as in growing old. They could be being who consumed the stones but were of a darker nature so the zoni put them down.
right? people easily confuse immortal to mean more then it does all the time.
also id like to point out that immortality does not prevent ailments that come alongside aging still, just that you will not die from aging.
immortality is used as a curse in quite a few folklores
Immortal actually can mean invulnerable as well. Like all words it's up to how the user utilizes the word. An example of this is if something is biologically immortal, they won't age but still suffer from ailments and such.
Immortal refers to never dying or decaying. This doesn't mean they won't suffer from other conditions like hunger, pain, and thirst.
Like a jellyfish
It’s fun to speculate about these sorts of things in games.
I like to think that these skeletons are of dragons, ones even older than the 3 we see in BOTW/TOTK. I think that dragons made through draconification with secret stones are not actually immortal, but can eventually die of old age (we at least know they can be killed with means not natural). They simply live for so long that they seem immortal. Secret stones do appear to have a limit to their power, so it’s safe to assume that after long enough the dragons run out of the divine energy and die of “old age”.
The depths is commonly patrolled by dragons. As soon as they reopened, the three dragons instinctively knew how to traverse the depths and immediately made consistent routes to follow. But why? Well, there are many animals IRL that have consistent migration patterns or territory patrol routes for different reasons. In this case, I believe the dragons patrol the depths because they know there safer and because it’s their burial grounds. One day, though after a very very long time, they will die and need a place for their bodies to rest and decay.
The dragons are not intelligent whatsoever. They are about as intelligent as reptiles IRL: incredibly dumb. They would never do anything with a reason made from conscious thought, they would run off of instinct. Because the dragons have no need to hunt, eat, drink, or what have you, their brains haven’t needed to grow. They don’t need brainpower to survive. All they know is “fly in circles, go to depths, and fly into portals in BOTW”.
Being in the Depths, I kind of thought they might have been dragons, but more snake like as opposed to airborne like the Great Dragons. No arms or legs, slithering along through the depths.
I'm personally fond of the theory that the 3 Dark Skeletons who were once Zonai (like the 3 Noble Spirit Dragons we know), who went down a darker path. These 3 were likely males compared to the 3 today being female if the size difference between the Light and Dark Dragons are anything to go off of; with the Light Dragon Zelda being the same size as the elemental Dragons, and the freaking MASSIVE Demon Dragon Gannon being roughly the same size as the Dark Skeletons.
What if these three, upon eating their sacred stones, were consumed by the darkness in their hearts? And the reason they're dead now despite being "Immortal" is because they were felled by the Elemental Dragon Trio? We know that the Dragons _can_ be harmed (we chip their parts off all the time) and even killed if they take enough damage (See the Demon Dragon).
Ganondorf turned into a huge demon dragon, so perhaps these three dragons were also demon dragons?
actually in the japanese version they called him a black dragon questwithaaron has a video on this this also means that ganon became a water dragon
Fun fact - Each dark skeleton has a gloom spawn and a piece of the wild gear.
They're probably not unconditionally immortal, and can die if enough physical trauma is inflicted. Hence, Drago-Ganon getting his shit rocked up all Evangelion explosion ways.
The first time I came across with one of these skeletons, I also thought they were the remains of Volvagia. Especially because the first one I found was the one under Death Mountain. But I discarded the idea when I discovered the rest.
Even so, I think these remains could be related to the fall of the ancient Kingdom of Hyrule. We all know that the Hyrule of TotK and BotW is a completely different Kingdom than the rest of the games. But what we don't know is what happened to the old kingdom, and what caused its fall. Perhaps these remains could be a clue about the type of cataclysm that devastated the kingdom tens of thousands of years ago.
A bit unrelated, but I noticed something a while back that I don't think I've seen anyone talk about. You can see Shrines of Light on the Great Plateau in the memory cutscenes, but they're in the locations of the Breath of the Wild Sheikah Shrines. In The Gerudo Assault, you can see one in the area where the Cryonis Shrine was originally, and in Tears of the Dragon, you see one at the Stasis Shrine's old location. I dunno if you've already covered this, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.
Maybe the ancient Sheikah used the light shrines as a basis of their own? 🤔 Or even based their technology on them? Imagine that.
Okay, it is NOT COINCIDENCE that right after I was in the Depths just a few minutes ago and thinking, "I really want a video about the Great Dark Skeletons" a video for this pops up! WHAT SORCERY DID YOU DO?! XD
If there could've been more public input on what should be added into the BOTW and TOTK games, then I think they should've had a major Stal boss created from a resurrected leviathan skeleton. It could be like a cursed bokoblin where some of its skin comes back but the rest of its body is covered by mutated masses of malice/gloom.
Wow wow... This is exactly the type of theory I'd wanted since the very beginning of the release! I think you forgot to mention that the Dark skeletons dwarf the great skeletons in size, which I found fascinating since I first discovered them. I'm not sure about the true definition of Immortal. I take that to mean a fleshly body that doesn't die. If you go beyond that, you're getting into reincarnation territory.
"The Zelda cycle" may be finding a bottom, and on the way out of this bear market. But HG has always been making new highs. ☺️
The Secret Stones curse people to become dragons, regardless of the nature of the person. This lines up with Ganondorf's death at the end of the game. For no matter how long he would have aged...he would be killed eventually.
Perhaps for these ones, they died from injury, perhaps from a war long ago. The Depths have probably been around since before Skyward Sword, so who knows what these creatures are.
The Depths my beloved.♥
But yeah, the Dark Skeletons are colossal and serpentlike, but... not necessarily "dragons" of the deific kind we encounter in the game. Maybe there was a time when there was entire population of this species.
Thank you so much for making such interesting videos! Most of the other zelda youtubers i follow have stopped uploading which is sad, but whenever i see any new content from you i get super hyped! your theories and analyses are always really cool and i love learning and seeing new ideas about games i love. thank you again for the amazing videos! ^^
The presence of these three skeletons in the depths means that there could have been mirrored (and possibly had mirrored in intent) of the great beings of the surface. Like, people wouldn’t have even known these huge and just as powerful beings dwelled beneath their feet. Chilling.
We know the dragons don't die of old age (that we know of) and no dragon was ever reported dead in any circunstance (are leviathan remains actual dragons?).
Does that mean they can't be killed? No. Draganon was killed in spectacular fashion.
If we take the draconification method as absolute, we end up with at least 10 known secret stones (3 dragons, 4 sages, 2 zonai and 1 human).
Maybe the dark skeletons also ate secret stones way back when times were darker and someone had to do some dragon killing to save Hyrule.
Also, the current dragons do in fact visit the depths, so who knows if those were even evil.
What really bothers me about the depths is its timeline of events, as in, were those dark skeletons already there when the Zonai were digging zonaite at max capacity?
9:36 - Lookin good! 😎
Great vid, man!
LOL
I'm so glad you made a video on these dragons in the depths, they're something I am sooo curious about in TotK. I really think they are parallels of the dragons above ground too! The contrast could also be a result of Demise's curse or just a nice parallel that Nintendo added. Always love the content!
The dragons are immortal (as in, can’t die of old age), not invincible (as in, cannot be killed). Someone who’s invincible but not immortal will die of old age. Someone who’s immortal but not invincible could easily die from a stab wound.
What do you think the Dark Skeletons were?
get the vibe that the skelletone snoots are a bit too short to be like the Dragons we've seen
i noticed you did not question about the dark skeletons having the wild set in them
I am guessing that it was that they where draconified people and even though it is said that it makes you immortal but you kill Gannon in dragon form so that is proboly not true I think that it just makes you immortal to age and that the skeletons are slain draconified people
I am thinking either Dragons or Serpent like creatures. Nintendo has used real life mythologies snd Religions before in Zelda Games. But the fact that the sky and depths seem to make me think about Heaven and Hell; makes me think Serpent for these skeletons. Serpents and used as a symbol for Satan in Jewish and Christian beliefs. But the fact thst the Leviathan could be seen as potentially Angelic, based on multiple factors; it honestly makes sense to make the anti Leviathan a Serpent.
Well, with the coincidence of dying in the same spot as the flying leviathans as to settlements over mining spots it is a spirit or energy bonding to that level/tier. I don't think they anti or dark version, rather that they deities of different era. Remember in Wind Waker old Hyrule was covered by the sea. Get where I coming from this?
Essentially, they could be ancient sea serpents. With the WW koroks growing new land to cover over the sea, the waters receded and those deities passed, and possible theory of being complete skeletons was enough influence from the leviathans laid to rest. The era sea and sky leviathans were over and thus begin a new age era of dragons.
You could say a "Dragon Age: Origins" ... ... ... I'll see myself out. Remember to tip your host and waiters.
I suspect they are some individual who swallowed a secret stone to become a dragon.
The game said becoming a dragon was irreversible, yet, Zelda was returned to her Hylian self after being one. So the part saying it was an irreversible was not true, maybe the Zonai only thought it was, at least up until the end of the game. It could always be a way to scare people off from swallowing a secret stone?
The immortal part might also be wrong. Link defeated/killed Dragon Ganon at the end of the game, so not immortal. These dragon might not age or be able to die from old age but might still get killed?
When it comes to the dragon bones in the depths, maybe the Zonai killed those who swallowed a secret stone for whatever reason?
SPOILERS
I do personally think that the skeletons are likely dragons from the draconification ritual. Despite the fact that they're "immortal" dragons, the Demon Dragon can be killed. I think the interpretation of immortal in this case is that they can't die of aging or illness, but they can still be forcefully killed
I feel like the conflation with the depths as the "evil" location because of how it is during TOTK takes away the nuance of how it used to be a place the Zonai were heavily involved and theoretically very present in. Plus the fact that the three sacred dragons travel through the depths during their cycles, I think the skeletons could still be related to Zonai-- but more in the way their architecture is designed, with serpent like dragons that lack arms and legs. The more squared off about, too, matches the square designs of (especially botw) Zonai reliefs as well.
Additionally, after staring at the skulls for a long time and feeling they looked incredibly familiar, in struck with how similar to a Utahraptor skull they appear, especially with the 3-4 main cavities in the skull, slightly square appearance, and the way the jaw would fit in. The Depth's skull has more of a little dip in the nose than a raptor does, but maybe we're looking more toward ancient extinct animals for inspiration.
Hyrule Gamer, Your videos always make me happy, so I subscribed!
I’ve been waiting for this one
The leviathan heads are whale skulls, also with the giant fins/flipper skeletons. They were giant whales, no doubt, possibly from the flooded age of Wind Waker.
idk if you do it on purpose or if its just so firmly cemented into your dialect that its subconscious, but i love when you call things "wee" in the intro of your videos!!
I really hope that there's more info on the depths lore in later games, even if they don't come back to this hyrule. But the first thing I think of with these skeletons is the quote "As above, so below".
Volvagia's idle animation just be sitting there jamming to some music while waiting around for Link to finally show up. XD
So a while back, I saw a video which talked about the potiental origins of the Depths and how it connects to a Quest in Wind Waker. Since in WW the quest to water the saplings which gets planted by the Koroks has it confirmed that overtime, the small islands will all become one land mass. And in the Depths, we see what can be described as massive roots coming from the ceiling. Plus the plant life in the Depths seems almost aquatic in nature.
Of course, this is only one possible origin. But it does explain some part of its existance.
They were giant monitor lizards, land dragons like Komodo dragons, or massive snakes, like the Titanoboas, but bigger.
An idea I had for an underground part of TotK, which we now obviously know as the Depths, would’ve been a Land of the Leviathans. A massive play space similar to what we see in the final game but filled with ancient gargantuan leviathans of different species that are still alive and roaming. Many of the ancient bones and creatures’ remains we saw on the surface from Botw would’ve been present and alive down here. Some would’ve been docile while others, extremely hostile. There could’ve also been some pretty cool side quests with them. I think it would’ve given the Depths much more of an interesting hook while also justifying the extremely large play space with not much to actually do and discover.
Can’t believe it’s been almost a year since this came out!
I have just started another play through and thanks to your lore videos I'm enjoying it more than and paying attention to things.
Also my Dad's a Forensic Scientist and he just gave me a look when I asked about the skeletons and said 'they're definitely not human remains'. So an expert in crime scenes has confirmed they're definitely not human. I would post this amazing information on Reddit, but I don't go on Reddit as I value what little sanity I have left.
The "spikes" on the spines are Vertebral Processes, which are protrusions from the bone that provide a place for muscles to attatch to. We have them, giraffes have really long ones, it doesn't always appear visible on the living creature
I think I’ve got a mystery for you and this one is more so related to real life while also being Zelda related like why do so many people simultaneously know and don’t know what happened to Skyloft after skyward sword because those who do know figured out that Skyloft due to a lot of similarities resembles the great plateau not to mention Skyloft was pretty small of a sky Island and not very big even though it was the biggest in skyward sword but there could be potentially bigger sky Islands that weren’t featured in skyward sword but did exist during the time just not featured within the story
The Depths also mirror major changes to the surface, this is evident in the Dueling Peaks split being mirrored in the Depths and the Ancient Underground Fortress matching a wholly man made structure of the Akala Citadel. This could be due to tied fate, ie: if it happens on the surface to change the landscape, a mirrored event happens in the depths to match it. So when the surface leviathan's were cemented enough in the surface world as landmarks, creatures in the depths were born and/or died to match them. The Great Dark Skeletons could have just been created as a result of connected fate and really weren't very significant creatures themselves.
I think that because the depths is an exact mirror there may have been a nesting ground of sorts at these locations where they went for the end of there life’s which was mirrored below.
"As above, so below".
Maybe because we see pieces of the hero of the wild’s armor set, maybe the idea is this is one of link’s ancestors who was possibly a dragon slayer in his time if we follow the evil dragon theory
It could still be the Zonai Dragons. We see in the final battle that an "Immortal" Dragon like Ganondorf could be killed.
So, by that logic, the dragon bones in the depths could've been Zonai Dragons that were killed and burried, though in hindsight development wise, they're probably just there to mirror the leviathan bones.
“Ganondorf turns into an immortal dragon”
Yup, and got nuked a good 5 minutes later so…
Plus we’ve seen the dragons seem to be pretty comfortable going down into the depths with the exception of Zelda, so that adds to the likelihood.
Hyrule Gamer, This made me laugh so hard, thanks for sharing!
The little "spikes" are something all spinal columns have technically: spinous processes are like a series of levers for our muscles and tendons.
I dont doubt he had spikes, but a spiked spine doesnt mean that since we all have spikey spines
I think when Mineru says “to swallow a secret stone is to become an immortal dragon” she means functional immortality instead of the standard run of the mill immortality we are used to. I think she’s just trying to say that turning into a dragon makes you live for an extraordinarily long time, possibly near infinite, but since we can damage and kill Ganon by the end of the game it’s most certainly not immortality in the traditional sense. Either way I still love the theory, the environmental story telling in this game is amazing
Does anyone else see Molduga when they look at the big head and snout, with the giant eye sockets where Moldy's goofy googly eyes go? Maybe these are an earlier evolution, or even the same family line, as the Moldugas in Gerudo Desert.
could a connection to Dodongo the things you need to feed bombs in OOT be possible? The reason I bring that up is the skeleton you need to make see red to go farther in the cave to fight King Dodongo may seem similar, been awhile since I've played OOT but he popped into my head when I seen the skeleton.
I think the castle mazes in the sky might be related to these dragons. Considering those mazes are in the same region as the skeletons.
I could’ve sworn that they were just the bones continuing deeper underground. I didn’t think of them as separate skeletons.
When the timeline split in three, there became 3 of the same leviathan. When the timelines were braided together again by the goddesses, there became 3 in one timeline and they died out.
The ones in the depths are like the opposites which you describe and couldn't exist without the leviathans
I really liked this one! I'm really into paleontology, so this video was right up my alley.
It is wise to remember the difference between immortal and invincible. Immortal generally means that you cannot die of old age and natural causes, be it you aging infinitely or ceasing to age entirely. To be invincible means to be impervious to physical harm of any sort, sometimes to disease/illness and random ailments. A direct synonym of invincible is invulnerable, they mean the exact same thing technically though invulnerable is generally used to describe inanimate objects or solid protective material on an organism such as scales or shells.
A being that is immortal and invincible can safely be called unkillable. It cannot be killed, unless you say that the rules do not apply to disease. However, they are not necessarily powerful.
A truly all-powerful being would be invincible, immortal, and able to exert force that cannot be stopped. It is both the unstoppable force and immovable object.
"Immortal" doesn't equal "invulnerable." In this context, immortality through draconification simply means you'll never age. As Demon Dragon Ganondorf was more than happy to show us, these dragons could still be killed.
I personally like to think the Leviathans chose their final resting areas intentionally, laying directly above The Dark Skeletons as sort of "posthumous guardians" against these creatures even after death.
I think since gleeoks returned in totk these could be the remains of a creature like aguamentis who looks like this skeleton could be a redesign of the creature
The demon dragon was killed at the end of totk, I assume these dragons were probably defeated similarly. They’re also massive compared to the 3 main dragons, and similar in size to the demon dragon, so maybe there was a need to kill them to restore peace. Which also resulted in draconification being forbidden, to prevent any other evil dragons from appearing (since they’re probably very difficult to kill)
With all the dragons we know in LoZ, if they're not immortal dragons they're possibly Barba. Or, if you like the theory The Depths used to be the great ocean eventually covered and drained, they could be remains of Deep Pythons from Majora's Mask
I appreciate Hyrule Gamer being one of the few Zelda TH-camrs still making TOTK lore videos after everyone else kinda gave up on it ( for reason I definitely understand)
My big sister is a paleontologist, she'd probally say its too big for my studies lmao
They're remains from a REALLY weird crossover episode where Gannondorf inherited the powers of the founding titan.
It seems that the immortality of a dragon is has an exeption (as the demon dragon can be defeated).
Perhaps the remains of past demon dragons?
The three dark skeletons pose an incredibly interesting conundrum for the game. On the technical side, they were just fun easter eggs thrown in for fun to fill a baren landscape. It makes sense to find them under the leviathans, as with every overworld detail has /something/ in the depths for fun.
But concidering in-game consequences is the fun part. The fact their skeletons are fairly close to 100% present complete means their deaths weren't really that violent. And being still together while going so far as to defy gravity suggests whatever they were, they like the leviathans, left relatively alone after death. Nothing's really scavenged them or the remains would be dispursed.
So i gotta wondered why? Circling back to game design, i know the answer is the "Aesthetics" of a standing skeleton.
But in game, what keeps them standing? Is it connected to the lack of post-mortem scavenging?
If they're older then the Leviathans, what killed them and why did the leviathans die above them?
If they were dragons, where are the legs? The leviathans clearly held onto their limbs so why wouldn't the dark skeletons?
I think about these often
If I recall well, in BotW, the elemental dragons are referred to as spirits. Maybe these skeletons are their physical bodies, and maybe, by immortality, what Mineru means that one's spirit will linger even long after their bodies have decayed. Which would be pretty good news for Ganondorf lol
I do have an *idea* regarding the dark skeletons. Admittedly it's not a well supported idea, but hey, what theory *is* well supported when dealing with these things? And even if it's not a true idea, it's still a fun one that I think is worth sharing. My idea mainly comes from two details we see in game (major spoilers for anyone who hasn't reached the end of the game).
Detail 1: Ganondorf's dragon form is killed. This shows us that, while dragons created from secret stones are immortal in the sense of having a never ending life span, they're not immortal in the sense of being unkillable (although due to only having one point of reference, it's possible you have to be capable of reaching the secret stone and destroying it in order to kill one, but that's a little up in the air due to, as previously mentioned, only having Ganondorf as a point of reference).
Detail 2: The skeletons have patches on gloom on parts of the bones. We don't know how long the gloom in the depths has been where it is, we just know that it started reaching the surface some time between the end of BotW and the beginning of TotK. Considering the depths was sealed off from the surface prior to the upheaval, the creatures that the skeletons used to be probably lived in the depths, and if we assume Ganondorf was able to spread the gloom through the depths significantly sooner than he was able to spread it to the surface, the creatures that the skeletons used to be might very well have gotten exposed to it (and based on a theory I saw some time ago, I don't remember where, it seems likely that the purpose of the gloom is to drain life energy of creatures across hyrule in order to revitalize Ganondorf).
So here's my idea; what if the skeletons *were* dragons created by secret stones, but, being creatures of "eternal life", they were prime targets for Ganondorf's gloom to siphon life from, and so they ended up getting exposed to the gloom and ultimately being killed by Ganondorf who siphoned away their vitality to keep himself alive during his imprisonment. Like I said, it's not a particularly strong theory, but I think it's fun enough to be worth considering, and not entirely implausible.
"Immortal" but not "invincible"? Maybe they were people turned to dragons from consuming stones, but they were killed?
"Immortal" doesn't necessarily mean unkillable. It usually just means "eternally youthful/unable to die via aging."
So those skeletons very well might be immortal dragons that were killed, although their physiology definitely seems to differ from the five live examples we've seen.
I think the skeleton with the flat head lines up REALLY well with the whale god from Skyward Sword. Seems perfect to me. Why wouldn't they do it more? My guess is the others are from other games. Don't forget the ones on Gameboy and other consoles.
Maybe they are servants to the Bargainer statues like the surface dragons are servants of the depths. Then possibly the same entity that stole the eyes of the statue in the Central Mine is the one that ended them.
TotK confirmed the camp skulls aren't made of rock, as some camps are close to caverns and we could see that below them we have ribcages and backbones.
I’m really thinking they were former, more ancient iterations of the “modern” dragon spirits we see now. I know another theory was that the dragon spirits may have been priestesses of the Goddesses, so maybe it’s related in a way.
My theory is that these skeletons were once serpents that roamed Ancient Hyrule, but due to either powerful hunters or lack of food, some burrowed to the depths in search of life. However they could not get back up to the surface and started to die off in the depths. This doesn't quite explain their positioning in the depths but maybe we can just chalk it up to coincidence.
mysterious depths bones: the meaner, weird cousins of the leviathans who lived in another city, which you know exist, but you've never actually met them.
I know it’s a boring not lore dive answer but I think the dark skeletons are directly underneath the leviathan skeletons so that the player can easily locate the special armour set that you find at each one. When you find 2 (or even one if you’re super smart and take a guess) you realise there’s a pattern and if you know where the leviathans are from botw you immediately know where to look for the rest of the set.
I just assumed that they were the same beast as whatever Stallord was in Twilight Princess
Some animals have specific places they go to die. Maybe that is why there are bones in both places. Maybe something about these plots of land were important to these species no matter which part of Hyrule, sky or dept, they roamed.
8:13 Fleems
The problem I always have with the Levias connection in these things is the fact that he and the dragons of SS times were also immortal, so while we know they can be killed, the doing it part is always hard to do except for being done by people like Demise and his incarnations. The idea of just six or more of these colossal beasts being felled with no idea as how is always just odd to me. Since those scenarios would likely become legends themselves. Beyond that all of them should still be alive if they really were like Levias
Those are leviathan skeletons, giant creatures that used to exist back in the past… most likely in the time when rauru lived as king of Hyrule 10,000 years ago
So my personal theory is the depths is a remnant of an old “dark world” maybe the remnant of the dark world from alttp and those leviathan skeletons were features of the land when that dark world was created and those dark skeletons and just perverse copies, and never belonged to a living creature. This also ties in to my theory that the shrines and the trees are a connection to the sacred realm, and the depths is also connected to the sacred realm and that the origin of the secret stones is that they are the shards of the triforce of couraged shaped into stones. Which then leads into a theory about cut content because there was 8 shards and only seven secret stones I think, and I personally believe a shadow temple and Sheikah sage got cut
Hey, you should look into Bone Pond East Cave. It is a masive skeleton underneath one of the skulls the monsters hang out in. Meaning those skulls are real, not stone!!!! What kind of monster would be that big?!
Sorry if you already have, btw. Just found the channel.
If we go with the idea that the ones on top are leviathan maybe they and dragons were sort of mortals foes and such, we’ve seen many times that dragons are considered foes to the hero in past Zelda games. However one thing that I noticed.
Zelda even as a dragon comes to link help to fight dragon ganon. Now is this because she was not a born dragon but transformed.
My idea is that maybe the Levianthan were the counter effect to dragons. And maybe the three we saw in botw and even totk were Zonai of course, so maybe these three changed dragon had a sort of…hate agaisnt the three would explain why if they did attack. Who really knows and I don’t think we ever will
These dragons might have died because of the Malice/Gloom. We do know that the dragons touch the Depths by flying into the Chasms, chasing their light into the darkness. As we know the fossils of the Leviathans are references to the other dragons/creatures which we could also visit in Breath of The Wild, they are in a strange time period considering that Links Awakening happens in a different timeline. Now to go back to the fossils within the Depths, they seem to be the opposite fossils from the ones above, hinting at another *duality* idea like you mentioned. These fossils might just be strange placements from Nintendo as assets and such, however they did think about them because the areas we can find them in are named, we are ment to find them.
They tell the story that the Depths are nothing but death, anything dead related is to be found in this underworld. Gerudo Graveyard, Spirit Temple, spirits and demons.
Your idea was pretty cool about Volvagia, these fossils could be where Ganondorf managed to find and revive them.
One mention though for you, you forgot the Skyward Sword fossil in the Earth Temple boss room! That dungeon/temple has a lot of dragon references.
The First Statues ou find in the Depths under Hyrule Field are statues of Mogmas. you know, those mole guys from Skyward Sword.
I know I’m just pointing out what a lot of other people in the comments are pointing out, but it’s very likely that these immortal dragons were functionally immortal, much like the elves of Lord if the Rings or the Eternals from Marvel Comics. The exact specifics of what they can actually be felled by can vary drastically, yet it’s consistent across all of these beings that they cannot die of old age. It is entirely likely that they are indeed Zonai, but I’m partial to the dark god theory.
There are heavy themes of the “as above, so below” concept in this game. Every major settlement, every mountain, and even every sacred spring or grove has a mirrored counterpart in the depths directly below them. There’s a point in TOTK where you can talk to Robbie’s wife about the horned statue. She speculated that the statue is actually not a demon but Hylia’s dark counterpart-the Horned God. Hylia and this unnamed Horned God have existed in tandem from the beginning and cannot exist without or destroy the other. This might seem like an unrelated tangent, but, thematically speaking, I don’t think it’s too far fetched to propose that the dragon remains in the depths are of old dark gods whose existence may or may not have been tied to the leviathan gods on the surface.