If time travel is present in Tears of the Kingdom in some form, it carries a few implications. The first is that its version of Hyrule would be very different from BOTW . That much was already known, but if Link is getting sent back to the past, and especially if it’s as far back as the first rise of Calamity Ganon, then it could be practically unrecognizable, and have an all-new cast of characters either unrelated to those in BOTW or with only distant relations. It could also mean that players will see Ganon’s intitial rise first-hand, in addition to other events such as the construction of the Guardians and Divine Beasts, which BOTW ‘s sequel could use in unexpected ways if
Another possibility is that Tears of the Kingdom will bring BOTW ‘s story full circle with its time travel. 10,000 years ago, Ganon was defeated by an unnamed hero and princess, and while they were never identified in-game, it’s a safe assumption that they were iterations of Link and Zelda based on their descriptions and the pair’s intertwined destiny with Ganon. However, it’s possible that the Link legacy from BOTW and the one from 10,000 years ago are one and the same if time travel is indeed prevalent in TOTK . It’s even possible that BOTW ‘s Zelda is the princess and that she and Link get sent back in time together, in which case Zelda could be a playable character in TO
In the trailers for Tears of the Kingdom , Link and Zelda find Ganondorf sealed away underground. Additionally, chunks of land are launched into the sky by Malice. Both of these concepts suggest that Tears of the Kingdom may allow Link and Zelda to explore below ground, spelunking into long-forgotten caverns and unearthing ancient ruins. Some sparser areas of Breath of the Wild ’s map may be populated by these new ruins, like Arbiter’s Grounds in the Gerudo Wasteland. In Breath of the Wild they are barely visible above the sand, but if they rose up they could form a new dungeon recalling Twilight Princess ’ own Arbiter’s Grou
Depending on how deeply time travel is intertwined with Tears of the Kingdom ‘s story, it’s also possible that Link will be traveling back and forth through time. There could be two concurrent stories with their own plot threads in Zelda BOTW 2 , one that takes place in the past and another in the present. Being transported as each story progresses and needing to complete quests to go back and forth doesn’t seem likely given the open-world format focused on player freedom, and neither does a sudden shift halfway through akin to Ocarina of Time , but it’s possible that players will be able to travel between the past and present at will instead. However, two separate maps – each one a fair bit larger than BOTW ‘s Hyrule due to the floating islands – feels like far too much to be within reason, and small self-contained areas of the past or present akin to BOTW ‘s Shrines don’t seem likely either based on what’s been shown so far. There are certainly other ways this concept could be utilized in BOTW ‘s sequel without ruining its story or gameplay, however, and they may become more apparent as additional information becomes availa
The machines created by Zelda ‘s Sheikah tribe were as powerful as the gods themselves, leading to a time of peace in Hyrule thanks to this advanced technology. However, the ancient Sheikah were later ordered to bury their inventions and forced into exile by the king of Hyrule at the time, who realized that his citizens feared their power and its potential to be used for evil. If Hyrule’s technology developed far enough to the point of being feared, this could also explain why the advanced machinery shown on the Surface of Skyward Sword ’s pre-Hylian world disappeared long before the story of any other Legend of Zelda game . As such, it’s not only possible for BOTW ’s First Great Calamity to take place shortly after Skyward Sword , but this placement could resolve several other questions regarding Zelda ’s lore that were raised in past ga
BOTW ’s history of Hyrule is told primarily through vague legends, most of which are passed to Link by Impa after he loses his memories. As such, the legend of the First Great Calamity 10,000 years before the game’s events create a lot of confusion about BOTW ’s story and the overarching Zelda timeline. Either BOTW must take place more than 10,000 years after every other event on the official timeline so far, or the First Great Calamity occurred during some earlier era of the timeline that has yet to be revealed. If the Zelda theory about the Zonai tribe’s identity as the ancient Interlopers is true, however, then it’s possible that learning the full story of their mysterious disappearance may reveal the truth of Hyrule’s history. This outcome would, however, introduce yet another paradox to **The Legend of Zelda ** ‘s timeline – Ganondorf is first introduced in Ocarina of Time , meaning there would have to be justification for Calamity Ganon’s appearance in the Interloper War/First Great Calamity in an earlier