The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2will see Link face the forces of evil once again, but this time with a twist. Instead of just exploring Hyrule, the upcoming game’s map will see Link explore large floating islands far above the kingdom. Even Hyrule Castle itself appears to lift off the ground in the game’s first trailer, and is seen floating in the E3 trailer. For many Zelda fans, all this talk of flight and floating islands was immediately reminiscent of an earlier game,The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.
The connection could be far deeper than the surface-level visual similarities seem to suggest. In fact, the story ofThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2may be preparing to finish whatSkyward Swordstarted, bringing many of the themes from the earlier game to their conclusions. Here’s how the two titles may fit together, and what the implications could be forBreath of the Wild 2.
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Skyward Sword As An Origin Story
The Legend of Zeldatimelineis trickier to pin down than most series. Some games likeOcarina of TimeandMajoras Maskuse the same incarnation of Link, and the latter can be considered a direct sequel. While the placement of some of the other games is less clear one thing is for sure:Skyward Swordis something of an origin story for the Zelda-Link-Ganondorf dynamic.
Skward Swordtakes place earlier in Hyrule’s history than any other game so far. It establishes Zelda as an incarnation of the Goddess Hylia, Link as her champion, and Ganondorf as the avatar of the Demon King Demise. When Demise is defeated he claims that his hatred will be reborn, and it is heavily implied that the different versions of Ganon seen throughout theLegend of Zeldafranchise are all in fact new manifestations of Demise’s hatred from his original conflict with Hylia and later Link.
In the backstory toSkyward Sword, Demise was a being who had conquered time. When the the Golden Goddesses left Hyrule they gavethe Triforceto the Goddess Hylia, entrusting it to her protection. With just Hylia to protect the Triforce, however, Demise attacked hoping to claim the powerful object for himself. In the ensuing conflict and with the combined power of Hylia and the five tribes of Hyrule, Demise was sealed away for a time.
When Demise managed to escape from his bonds, he was eventually defeated by Link for the first time. In his final moments, he stated that a version of his hatred would return generation after generation to try and conquer Hyrule. Ganondorf’s appearance even resembles a more humanized version of Demise, with Demise’s literal fiery hair replaced byGanon’s red hair.
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Skyward Sword And BOTW2 Connections
WhileSkyward Swordacts as an origin story for the cycle of reincarnation seen through the series, there seems to be some evidence thatBreath of the Wild 2will explore the end ofThe Legend of Zelda’s long cycle of reincarnation. One reason that someZelda fanshave begun to speculate thatBreath of the Wild 2could be aiming to finish whatSkyward Swordstarted is the theory thatBreath of the Wild 2’s Ganon could be getting a redemption arc. For a start, it’s clear that Ganon is being at least partially influenced by an outside force, with Malice reanimating what seems to be the corpse of Ganondorf in the 2019 trailer.
Ganondorf is specifically a reincarnation of Demise’s hatred, not necessarily of Demise himself. This could allow him to be seen as a victim in some way, doomed to pursue conquest over and over again, and almost always facing defeat. While theories thatGanondorf could be a player character inBreath of the Wild 2may stray too far from the franchise’s formula, it would make sense to see the more human side of Ganon in the sequel. The firstBreath of the Wild’s villain was Calamity Ganon, a version of the iconic character with barely a shred of humanity left in him, physically or otherwise.
More Breath of the Wild 2 Theories
There have also been some theories going around that Link and Ganon will merge in some way in the next game. This has come from older speculation about the identity of the legendarySheikahhero seen in the firstBreath of the Wild’s opening tapestry, who has Ganon’s long red hair. In theBreath of the Wild 2trailers revealed so far, both Ganondorf’s body and Link also seem to be influenced by Malice and a mysterious green force emanating from an equally mysterious green hand.
The same thing happening to both the villain and the hero might simply point to their connection throughout the series so far. However, the mysterious magic in the trailer could also call back to the far larger forces at play inSkyward Sword, dealing with the series main conflict at a more fundamental level than the games have sinceSkyward Sword’s story.
It’s possible that the avatars of Demise and Hylia will finally become detached from the forces behind them inBreath of the Wild 2. Ganondorf could become separated from the Malice controlling him or Demise’s hatred. The green hand that appears multiple times in the trailers could be the Goddess Hylia, separated fromPrincess Zelda. With sound effects also hinting at time travel, however, the identity of the being behind the green hand could get even more complicated.
Some have speculated that the green hand could be Ganon as well, or even Link himself usingtime travel inBreath of the Wild2to keep Ganondorf imprisoned. The full details will likely have to wait until the game’s release. With the return of other elements fromSkyward Sword, however, many fans are hoping to see a resolution to the cycle of reincarnation that has defined so much of the series so far, even if future games then take place beforeBreath of the Wildand explore the classic dynamic again.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2will release for Nintendo Switch in 2022.
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