For only the second time in the long, storied history of the Legend of Zelda franchise, there will be a direct sequel to one of the main games in the series. Breath of the Wild is getting a sequel and the speculation runs rampant.
We know very little, as Nintendo has yet to release any details outside of the creepy, amazing trailer announcing this latest entry in the series. Enough exists to make some pretty good guesses, though. The zombie Link and Zelda find is most certainly Ganondorf, as the body has the same physical features and identifying trinkets of Zelda’s iconic villain. He appears to have been trapped beneath Hyrule Castle, where his body was used for something. It’s a good guess that his essence was being sucked out of him. Perhaps the Calamity Ganon disaster from Breath of the Wild was a result of this process.
After all, Calamity Ganon rose from beneath Hyrule Castle. Does this mean the Hyrule royal family was exploiting Ganondorf for some purpose? Talk about adding an intriguing layer to the already amazing dynamics of this Dutiful Princess story. More questionable is the green, ethereal hand which grabs hold of the withered body and also grabs hold of a falling Link. Is it good? Bad? We don’t know.
Zelda also has a new haircut, and besides making her character even less heterosexual than she already was, it also suggests Zelda will be playable. Long hair makes animation tough, especially on a console like the Nintendo Switch. It’s likely they cut it to make her character model fit the combat better. It’s time, Nintendo. Breath of the Wild was already Zelda’s story anyway. Just make her playable already.
While the theories will fly all over until Nintendo releases more details, I’m hoping all these hints suggest a game based on discovering the origin of Ganondorf’s villainy and resurrections, and the effort to finally stop it once and for all by stopping Demise. What other malevolent force would be released by this seeming siphoning from Ganondorf’s body? Breath of the Wild already served as a rather excellent ending point in the canon timeline, and if a sequel has a playable Zelda go as far as stopping Demise and ending the cycle of conflict involving the Triforce…yeah, I’m excited. Very, very excited. And ready to be dead wrong about all this.
It will probably be a while before we see more of this sequel, let alone have a release date. I’m anxiously counting down the days to see what Nintendo has in store.
