The: Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild theories have swirling since the game was first announced, but one particular fan has made some pretty shocking claims about the Old Man’s role and the title’s timeline placement.
The speculation arrives via HyperBoyGames on YouTube. While the channel itself is fairly new, the provided content is quite relevant. It recaps five major arguments made by Zelda theorists about the truth behind Breath Of The Wild. Many of the ideas get really deep into lore, but we’ll try to keep our explanation as simple as possible for brevity’s sake.
One of the most interesting concepts is the possible identity of the Old Man seen at the beginning of Breath Of The Wild’s E3 demo. As many Adult Timeline shippers have pointed out, the man’s theme appears to be a slightly sped up version of the Hyrule Castle theme. This song was previously correlated to King Daphnes in Wind Waker, but the source suggests that it could be tied to any form of royalty in the series.
An alternate perspective is that the Old Man could be one of the Seven Sages and Hyrule’s leader during the Downfall Timeline. In A Link To The Past, the Seven Maidens, including Princess Zelda, were revealed to be descendants of the Sages. With his long beard, the Old Man looks like a Sage who is also supplemented by Royal music. Combining these two schools of thought, it’s a popular belief that Zelda from the SNES game could be a descendant of this Old Man. It would explain both the royal lineage and his appearance.
With that royal blood in mind, will the Old Man in Breath Of The Wild play a quiet but significant role in Link’s upcoming quest? It certainly seems possible. The Link To the Past manual also references a “cloud of darkness” that sounds similar to the Calamity Ganon descending on Hyrule Palace in Breath Of The Wild. This may prove yet another thread uniting the two titles.
As far as general timeline placement for the game is concerned, HyperBoyGames believes strongly in the Downfall Timeline as it seems to be the cleanest fit of all. He specifically takes shots at Adult Timeline theories that suggest ties to Wind Waker. However, if Hyrule is destroyed at the end of that game, how can it exist again in the future? Downfall would require less retconning, as the time after the Imprisoning War hasn’t been fully developed. This is all perspective of course, and shouldn’t be taken as fact quite yet.
For those that watch the full clip, you’ll also learn why Koroks are important and how a single Rock Salt item could be the key to understanding everything.
The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild comes to Wii U and NX in 2017.
What do you think of these theories? Is Breath Of The Wild’s Old Man related to Zelda? Tell us in the comments section!
