**SPOILERS*** Links Purpose in Tears of the Kingdom And Other Questions.

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**WARNING**: This discussion will talk about the story of Tears of the Kingdom. If you haven't yet played yet or have not beaten the game then I advise you to not comment or read if you want to experience the game itself.

So I myself have yet to play the game so my opinion on it thus far may be clouded by ignorance and only relevant by what I have seen, but by watching all of cutscenes my question is, what is Link's purpose of existence? I mean, we know he is Zelda's knight. He always saves Zelda, it's how it is based upon story but yet we know nothing of this Link's background, lineage or heritage in this game. We only know he is a descendant of knights and was a good one.

Are we just suppose to accept the fact that he is a rando that gets this powerful sword and can now do things others can't? Link is a sacred holder of the triforce of courage but none of that is ever mentioned really and I feel they don't touch upon his background enough to show why he is the chosen hero in this game. Zelda at the end of BoTW showed her triforce on her hand but where does Nayru, Farore and Din come in all this? Where is Link's Triforce piece? In the other games, he is constantly reincarnated and in SS (the start of it before BotW and ToTK) it was established he is a triforce of courage weilder implementing his status as hero so it makes sense, but this is the start of it all so there should be a major story for him I'd assume? I just don't understand how a normal knight is able to weild such a sacred weapon without any background to him explaining his importance? We got to see Zelda's lineage and Ganondorf but nothing is touched upon with Link. Is he just a normal Hylian?

If this game comes out before Skyward Sword, it should explain more in depth Link's lineage, why he was chosen, how Din, Nayru, and Farore came into play, etc. I was left with more questions than answers I feel after watching all of the cutscenes.

Another question, how did Zelda's ancestor Sonia die before she could have a kid? If she is related to Zelda, how is she going to be born? No mention of Rauru and Sonia's child? A writing error? She was also supposed to forsee everything being time and so her death makes little to no sense?

Quickly turning to Ganon now, I get the whole "swallow a tear and turn into an immortal dragon" bit but he's a pig demon? If so, when does he become a pig demon? Are they changing the story? Is this an alternate timeline that is non canon to the story? I have mixed feelings on the story as a whole.

Your thoughts?

 

[Mick]

What is the purpose of any of us, really?

Link is just Hyrule's royal knight, just as he has always been. His purpose, protect the kingdom and the princess. We know his background, absolutely nothing new there: The game takes place after BotW so it is the same Link and the same Zelda, as is revealed in the first set of cutscenes.

My thoughts: the Zelda timeline has never mattered at all anyway, for decades Nintendo has been making Zelda titles without worrying about an overarching plot. Any attempt to glue all of them together has either been done for promotional material and merchandise, or by fans desperately trying to turn game design decisions into story. It's why even the 'canon' is a discombobulated pile of timelines and multiverses.

It's easiest to just not worry about all that and enjoy the game, because it changes nothing, not matter how much time you spend thinking about it you won't suddenly understand lore that was never there in the first place.

 

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I'm not so sure on Nintendo not caring for story. LoZ was always about story and the developers always found ways to contribute it to a much larger piece of a puzzle. Didn't Nintendo release an official timline book about LoZ?

I could be wrong. I could be overthinking it but I am still curious as a long time Zelda player.

 

[Mick]

Well yes, the games individually all have a (similar) story. It's just that I think most of them are standalone stories that happen to re-use story elements, locations, and characters.

I don't think the book means much. I think the concept of the book started with "let's publish a Zelda book to make money" and that any timeline included in the book was made up on the spot specifically to be published for money instead of it being something that they had secretly kept track of since 1987. I believe trying to fit games that released later into that timeline is a pointless endeavour, because they stopped caring about it as soon as the book was published.

I definitely think you're overthinking it haha, but to each their own!

 

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You know, I'm watching this YouTube video on how Twilight Princess was the game they didn't want to make and you're right! They focus way more the gameplay. If something is wrong they never assume it's the story they think its game mechanics. Story is pretty irrelevant to them but oddly, I always thought they did it pretty well! It's really fascinating actually. Perhaps that is my nostalgia talking lol

 

[Mick]

You know, I'm watching this YouTube video on how Twilight Princess was the game they didn't want to make and you're right! They focus way more the gameplay. If something is wrong they never assume it's the story they think its game mechanics. Story is pretty irrelevant to them but oddly, I always thought they did it pretty well! It's really fascinating actually. Perhaps that is my nostalgia talking lol

Yes! I feel like for pretty much all games in the series they practically must have started with thinking out the items/powerups you get, then design the dungeons, bosses, and eventually the entire world around that. Having fun, unique gameplay seems to be the core of the series to me, they hardly ever give out items that are common in other games (you're unlikely to just get like, a double jump or dash ability). Across their own games too, they don't re-use that many items from older games (like the Mario series likes to do, for example) but instead keep introducing new, well thought out item mechanics that take advantage of the console they release on. I find that super impressive.

As for the story though, most games are just:
1. Evil arrives
2. Link (you) runs across Hyrule fighting the evil everywhere
3. The princess and the kingdom are now safe, until next time

It's a concept that has already proven itself to work, and you can tell they still put a lot of effort into designing nice looking individual areas that are well thought out (with their own lore and backstories). These individual areas hardly interact within a game, though, so I don't think they're meant to be too coherent across several games either. Of course, I could be wrong! But if they had an overarching plot with a beginning and an end, I don't think they would be re-using steps 1-3 every single time.