The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 will see Link face the forces of evil once again, but this time with a twist. Instead of just exploring Hyrule, the upcoming game's map will see Link explore large floating islands far above the kingdom. Even Hyrule Castle itself appears to lift off the ground in the game's first trailer, and is seen floating in the E3 trailer. For many Zelda fans, all this talk of flight and floating islands was immediately reminiscent of an earlier game, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.
The connection could be far deeper than the surface-level visual similarities seem to suggest. In fact, the story of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 may be preparing to finish what Skyward Sword started, bringing many of the themes from the earlier game to their conclusions. Here's how the two titles may fit together, and what the implications could be for Breath of the Wild 2.
Skyward Sword As An Origin Story
The Legend of Zelda timeline is trickier to pin down than most series. Some games like Ocarina of Time and Majoras Mask use the same incarnation of Link, and the latter can be considered a direct sequel. While the placement of some of the other games is less clear one thing is for sure: Skyward Sword is something of an origin story for the Zelda-Link-Ganondorf dynamic.
Skward Sword takes place earlier in Hyrule's history than any other game so far. It establishes Zelda as an incarnation of the Goddess Hylia, Link as her champion, and Ganondorf as the avatar of the Demon King Demise. When Demise is defeated he claims that his hatred will be reborn, and it is heavily implied that the different versions of Ganon seen throughout the Legend of Zelda franchise are all in fact new manifestations of Demise's hatred from his original conflict with Hylia and later Link.
In the backstory to Skyward Sword, Demise was a being who had conquered time. When the the Golden Goddesses left Hyrule they gave the Triforce to the Goddess Hylia, entrusting it to her protection. With just Hylia to protect the Triforce, however, Demise attacked hoping to claim the powerful object for himself. In the ensuing conflict and with the combined power of Hylia and the five tribes of Hyrule, Demise was sealed away for a time.
When Demise managed to escape from his bonds, he was eventually defeated by Link for the first time. In his final moments, he stated that a version of his hatred would return generation after generation to try and conquer Hyrule. Ganondorf's appearance even resembles a more humanized version of Demise, with Demise's literal fiery hair replaced by Ganon's red hair.
Skyward Sword And BOTW2 Connections
While Skyward Sword acts as an origin story for the cycle of reincarnation seen through the series, there seems to be some evidence that Breath of the Wild 2 will explore the end of The Legend of Zelda's long cycle of reincarnation. One reason that some Zelda fans have begun to speculate that Breath of the Wild 2 could be aiming to finish what Skyward Sword started is the theory that Breath of the Wild 2's Ganon could be getting a redemption arc. For a start, it's clear that Ganon is being at least partially influenced by an outside force, with Malice reanimating what seems to be the corpse of Ganondorf in the 2019 trailer.
Ganondorf is specifically a reincarnation of Demise's hatred, not necessarily of Demise himself. This could allow him to be seen as a victim in some way, doomed to pursue conquest over and over again, and almost always facing defeat. While theories that Ganondorf could be a player character in Breath of the Wild 2 may stray too far from the franchise's formula, it would make sense to see the more human side of Ganon in the sequel. The first Breath of the Wild's villain was Calamity Ganon, a version of the iconic character with barely a shred of humanity left in him, physically or otherwise.
More Breath of the Wild 2 Theories
There have also been some theories going around that Link and Ganon will merge in some way in the next game. This has come from older speculation about the identity of the legendary Sheikah hero seen in the first Breath of the Wild's opening tapestry, who has Ganon's long red hair. In the Breath of the Wild 2 trailers revealed so far, both Ganondorf's body and Link also seem to be influenced by Malice and a mysterious green force emanating from an equally mysterious green hand.
The same thing happening to both the villain and the hero might simply point to their connection throughout the series so far. However, the mysterious magic in the trailer could also call back to the far larger forces at play in Skyward Sword, dealing with the series main conflict at a more fundamental level than the games have since Skyward Sword's story.
It's possible that the avatars of Demise and Hylia will finally become detached from the forces behind them in Breath of the Wild 2. Ganondorf could become separated from the Malice controlling him or Demise's hatred. The green hand that appears multiple times in the trailers could be the Goddess Hylia, separated from Princess Zelda. With sound effects also hinting at time travel, however, the identity of the being behind the green hand could get even more complicated.
Some have speculated that the green hand could be Ganon as well, or even Link himself using time travel in Breath of the Wild 2 to keep Ganondorf imprisoned. The full details will likely have to wait until the game's release. With the return of other elements from Skyward Sword, however, many fans are hoping to see a resolution to the cycle of reincarnation that has defined so much of the series so far, even if future games then take place before Breath of the Wild and explore the classic dynamic again.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 will release for Nintendo Switch in 2022.