#they showed us a very interesting behind the scenes video with the BOTW trailer music and gotta say. Immactualte vibes

[narwhalsarefalling]

met these guys at LBX! seeing their behind-the-scene work made me even more excited for their upcoming project. I can’t wait to see it!

[kyrie-ray]

Analyzing the BOTW Sequel teaser.

--- THIS IS A VERY LONG POST. ---

I think I speak for all of us when I say that a sequel to Breath Of The Wild was a huge surprise out of all of Nintendo’s announcements at E3, and the only information we have right now about the game is the teaser itself. 

The teaser opens with a slow heartbeat in the background while green glowing runes seem to write themselves in the air, flowing upwards. It looks like writing, but it doesn’t look like Shiekah writing, or Hylian runes.

However! These runes ARE still recognizable as Gerudo script, which we can see here:

With how quickly the green runes flow in the video, a translation would be difficult, but there’s an undeniable connection here.

The teaser cuts to show this, with the heartbeat still present in the background. The green script is flowing towards a corpse in the center of the room, drawing together to form a spectral hand, while purple/black energy flows from the body it’s touching.

There are also structures around the room that look vaguely familiar, although we haven’t seen them before. If one were to draw some kind of parallel, I would say they look like this:

The runic pillars that surround Hyrule castle after Calamity Ganon’s re-awakening. HOWEVER, they’re not quite the same. Similar to the Shiekah script and architecture that was prevalent at the time, the pillars that rise around Hyrule Castle are blocky and square. In contrast, the structures in the cavern with the corpse are pointed and circular. Both have patterns on them, but they don’t appear to be the same kind of pattern at all.

The teaser cuts to Link and Zelda traversing underground ruins, where again, the architecture and murals don’t appear the same as traditional Shiekah architecture and artwork we’ve seen before. 

At this point it’s pretty obvious that whatever we are dealing with, it isn’t originating from our Shiekah roots in Breath of the Wild.

The bottom image doesn’t seem to show anything in the wall carvings, but in the upper image we see a man on a horse wielding a trident. The torch is in the way in this still frame, but there are depictions of other warriors behind him. This man is a Gerudo-- we can tell because of the crest on his back.

That’s the original Gerudo crest from Ocarina of Time, and we see this crest again later in the trailer, although both are more stylized than the original. 

One could also argue that the crest in the teaser is shaped like Majora’s Mask, as the pattern seen on the man’s back is more pronounced at the sides rather than spherical, but this could be due to artistic developments over the years.

As we know from other Zelda games, the Gerudo tribe is mostly made of women- there is only a male Gerudo born every 100 years, and traditionally in Zelda lore this male Gerudo has been Ganondorf. We have not yet seen a Zelda game with a male Gerudo who isn’t Ganondorf, although that doesn’t necessarily mean that this won’t be different. 

In the image he seems to be depicted as a hero (or at least an ordinary man), rather than the evil force Calamity Ganon was, so it could either be another man entirely or Ganondorf before he somehow became Calamity Ganon.

We get more shots here of the swirling Gerudo script, and our first detailed look at the hand touching the corpse’s chest. From this point on the teaser doesn’t seem to go in chronological order.

After revealing a more detailed look at whatever ritual is going on, we cut to a scene of darkness spreading quickly throughout the ruins. However, this darkness looks different from the darkness we’re familiar with:

You’ll notice that Calamity Ganon’s taint was traditionally sludgy, had a more purple tint, and often looked like a slime or sinewy flesh growing over buildings and creatures. The darkness that spreads through the ruins in the teaser, on the other hand, is a vibrant red and looks more like fingers or possibly feathers, reaching out to grab everything it can.

The trailer continues to cut through scenes non-chronologically, as we get another look at the ruins that Zelda and Link had to traverse to reach the room with the ritual and corpse.

We cut to close-ups of the hand and corpse, where we see the Gerudo crest again on the back of the man’s cloak. Sounds familiar.

This is our first detailed look at that lovely corpse, and wow, it definitely looks like Ganon! However, from the lore of Breath of the Wild, Calamity Ganon didn’t seem to have a body. At least, not like this one. The way Calamity Ganon was consistently depicted implied he was more of a force or energy with malicious intent rather than the distinct, intelligent individual that Ganondorf usually is. 

(Sure, Calamity Ganon had the foresight to take over the Shiekah technology and use it against the rest of Hyrule, but that isn’t necessarily as clever as some of Ganon’s ploys in other games and I wouldn’t use it as evidence that Calamity Ganon was a person in the usual sense.)

This leaves a very large question: How did Ganondorf get here? IS this the same Ganondorf that we’ve fought before, or is he somehow different and seperate from Calamity Ganon?

The teaser then cuts VERY quickly through a series of images that it definitely didn’t take me half an hour at 1/4 speed to screenshot. The music here is much more intense as well.

The first thing we see is Link grabbing his own arm as it begins to glow, rising to send a large burst of the green magic upwards towards the ceiling. This does not look voluntary- look at his expression! Link is desperate, trying to stop his body from acting involuntarily to complete the ritual here in this room.

After he does so, we see a large burst of darkness spread across the room originating from the corpse in response to Link’s release of magic.

We then cut to an important series of hands. First, Link reaching to catch Zelda as she falls:

And then, before we see if he succeeds or not, the green hand grabbing Link and pulling him away. Link’s arm is limp in this shot, implying he’s unconscious. 

(As stated before, these shots are no longer in chronological order, so the juxtaposition doesn’t necessarily mean the magic hand was pulling him away from Zelda to prevent him catching her.)

It quickly cuts to this image:

A flash of light that illuminates an important detail of Ganondorf’s corpse-- he’s frozen in agony, an event we’ve seen in other games that usually happens after Link strikes the finishing blow to seal him away. It supports the implication that this Ganondorf, Calamity or not, was sealed here on purpose a very long time ago. 

The glowing hand seems to cast a shadow here as well, resulting in an interesting shadow-image where it almost looks like the hand is sealing away a healthy Ganondorf rather than resurrecting him. This brings an interesting question-- is the glowing hand Ganon’s spirit, reaching beyond the grave? Is it somehow tied to Link, who released the last magic that finished this ritual? Or is it someone else entirely, manipulating Link to free Ganon again?

After the flash of light the room quickly fills with a faint red glow and begins to collapse, the floor breaking apart:

(This could be where Link tries to catch Zelda, as she ends up falling.)

The room still shaking and falling apart, we get a look at Ganon’s corpse...

... Now alive and filled with malicious and powerful energy.

We move to a long distance shot of Hyrule castle, a massive dust cloud spreading as it seems to rise into the air, becoming quite clearly something more than just a castle. (Perhaps another guardian? A fortress of some sort?)

We know now where the ruins are that Link and Zelda find themselves trapped in, but this only leads to more questions...

The screen fades to black.

We see a mirroring of the introduction, the glowing script again crossing the screen, but this time fading away as the energy seems to run out.

And this is where the teaser trailer ends. 

(Nintendo leaves no other commentary, so this is what we’re left with.)

In-game history from BOTW states that Calamity Ganon was sealed beneath Hyrule castle 10,000 years ago, but that’s not quite where he rose and fell again in the ending of the game. The arena Link fights Calamity Ganon in certainly appears to be a prison meant to seal him away and keep him contained, but you certainly have to climb a long way up to reach it... and the fall down into the arena wasn’t as large as the climb up.

(You can see the arena is basically a massive dome, and runes circle the floor as a perimeter.)

However, the ruins in the teaser don’t fully seem to be meant to seal Ganon away either. With the murals on the walls and all the ties to the Gerudo, this almost seems like a shrine or place of reverence to remember Ganon and store his remains. (These remains were also undeniably sealed, if his posture is to be used as evidence in conjunction with the ritual taking place, but that doesn’t mean the place is what sealed him as was implied with Calamity Ganon.)

So why are there two Ganondorfs sealed underground in different ways? Are they the same person or not? It could be that we are now seeing Ganon’s body while CG was more his spirit or power, but it’s all up in the air at this point-- nothing is certain, and no theories so far have more evidence than any other.

You can see a discussion thread here from 2017 exploring many questions about why Ganon was sealed beneath the castle and how it was depicted in Breath of the Wild. The thread brings up several interesting ideas and points:

From the architecture of Hyrule Castle, Calamity Ganon seems to have been sealed first and Hyrule Castle was built AROUND CG’s prison after the fact

The Shiekah eye on the floor and the runes mean the prison was Shiekah-made, which feels a bit odd during the final fight

Why would the Royal Family and the Shiekah build Hyrule Castle around Calamity Ganon’s prison when they knew it was a ticking time bomb? (The thread brings up several points about how CG’s return could have been less devastating if his prison hadn’t been right beneath the biggest city in Hyrule.)

This last question is addressed in an interesting analysis--

In the end, it’s hard to tell if this new return of Ganon is because of Calamity Ganon and the Shiekah, or something else entirely. 

There is a LOT to analyze here despite the short length of the teaser, and I expect in the next few months many more theories will pop up before the game is actually released.

Needless to say, Zelda fans have a lot to be excited about-- and a lot to look forward to. Hopefully Nintendo releases more information soon!