Everyone Missed the Point of Tears of the Kingdom

This is such a great analysis, thank you for helping me see what I was missing in this game. I was in initially iffy about your thesis of verticality representing time, but I think it makes perfect sense now that I've seen the full argument. One thing I thought was a piece of evidence you didn't mention is the absence of Kass, which was a bit of a sore point for many fans of Breath of the Wild when this game released. In Breath of the Wild, Kass was a traveling bard who relayed stories of the distant past that were meant to be clues to puzzles left to train the current incarnation of Link. The closest analog to Kass in Tears of the Kingdom is Penn, a journalist who goes around collecting stories about current events, mostly relating rumors about Zelda's whereabouts. The developers clearly want the player to connect these two characters, because after Penn's quests are all completed he can be found at Kass' study investigating his disappearance. Kass' stories and clues were always formatted as a ballad, like the real world ballads that were used to pass stories along orally in many real-world cultures throughout history. By contrast, Penn is always writing things down, and the stories you help him uncover are being printed and mass-distributed, as characters at stables will read them from the newspaper. By removing Kass and introducing Penn in his place, the developers are indicating that Hyrule's methods of spreading information are becoming modernized to the point where cheap and disposable publications have replaced oral traditions meant to be passed down for generations, which in turn will make the details of this cycle less likely to be passed along to the next one. It would be interesting to see if the Champions' Ballad that Kass composed in the Breath of the Wild DLC will survive into future cycles because of it's lasting nature as a Ballad. I hope that it will, even if only in melody.

The lightroots DO have something to do with the sun. The roots are fiberoptic cables that are carrying sunlight down into the depths. When you’re standing under them, you’re standing in sunlight.

"weapons can't get depression" sir may I introduce you to Xenoblade?

Honestly, I feel that the ending would have been so much better if Link actually loses his arm in order to save Zelda. At the beginning of the game, Link's arm gets consumed by Ganondorf's gloom magic, and the Master Sword shatters... But then Link's arm gets replaced by Rauru, fitting the theme of community and the past helping the future generation. When Zelda gets returned to normal, Link's arm is suddenly completely fine. Rauru's arm disappears, but Link somehow gets his old arm back. It would have hit a lot harder if Link lost his arm completely, and would have helped the overall message of sacrifice that Zelda, Rauru, and even Ganondorf showed (it also would have felt less like a dues ex machina if Link actually lost something from it).

God damn that clip of Zelda saying “I hope this sword reaches you” broke me again. Year later and her sacrifice still hits. Damn this game is beautiful

I also like the parallel between Rauru and Ganadorf of what they think "a King must do". For Rauru it's to sacrifice himself so Zelda and the others can live. And for Ganandorf, it's to rule as the mightiest only interested in his own power and self-preservation.

Rauru, in Ocarina of Time is the Sage of Light, not the Sage of Time. It is Sage Rauru who gives Link the Light Medallion in Ocarina of Time.

when you called the Arm a 'dummed down developer too,l' I was reminded of how the 'ascend power' IS a developer tool left in for the player to use

A verticality dichotomy I realized while watching this video and just thinking about TotK was the Yiga and Sheikah clans. The Yiga are mostly constrained to the depths, particularly Master Khoga. But the Sheikah are on the surface, and the interaction of the Sheikah and the sky are a couple of the important side quests. You have the Zonai Survey Team's HQ being there (as far as I can remember), the Ring Ruins landing on Kakariko Village, and many of the Sheikah tribe traveling to gain knowledge on upheaval subjects (Impa and the glyphs, and Pikango and painting the sky islands). That was a kind of convoluted way to say it, but this video really got me thinking. I will be mentioning this analysis to everybody I meet lol.

Absolutely floored by this video. Fantastic reading on a game that I'm already starting to look back fondly on only a year later. You raised a lot of connections I hadn't even noticed before, and really put into perspective what this game was trying to say. Looking forward to what the future will hold.

I am always looking forward to big analytics pieces from you and you totally nailed it again. I really enjoy your calm and thought out way of presenting your thoughts on the game you talk about. One thing I'd like to add is that the Ouroboros contains two separate dragon figures - not just one eating itself - which I think very beautifully ties into your interpretation of the future and the past. Promotional materials for the game usually depict their heads on the top and bottom - the future and the past. So I think one could think of it as the future feeding on the past while the past is feeding on the future. But due to the motion and rotation of the thing as a whole the future will eventually become the present, by moving towards the middle part and eventually become the past from which the new future can feed off of. The past on the other hand rises to the top and creates a new future which can be read as past influences directly creating a new future based on previous experiences, events and legends. Thank you for this phenomenal video about one of my favorite games of all time!

The moment I found out the game saved the data of my tamed horses and had them available to me once I got to a stable was when I knew this game was something special

I'm pretty sure the reversal of Zelda being a dragon was Sonia using her time powers, amplified by Rauru and Link joining her. It was set up, the amplification was set up when Zelda and Sonia amplified Rauru's attack, and them manipulating time is set up throughout the tear memories. They time reversed the draconification. It felt very satisfying to me.

"In the past game they just sat in their beasts and shot a laser" Well, they were dead, lol

:hand-orange-covering-eyes:Me counting on both hands and feet how many big zelda youtubers I'm bout to send this video to!

With so many totk hate videos breaking 100k and sometimes 1 million views, it’s nice to see someone praising it in a way and then getting recognition. It’s been so long.

So really TOTK is death stranding

33:38 about that; A biker surrounded by smoke in a leather jacket was among the early concept art for the next Zelda game before it became TOTK. Truly NOTHING was off the table for them...

This is the most thoughtful Legend of Zelda analysis video I have ever seen. I appreciate the time, effort and consideration that went into this. When I was playing the game for the first time, the theme of succession stood out to me a lot. While the mechanic of comraderie was lost on me around the time Tulin blew resources off a cliff or Yunobo killed me by setting off a bomb flower in my face for the upteenth time... I did occasionally find myself summoning them again when I feel alone in the dark depths or the vast expanse of Hyrule. I find them comforting more than helpful, which I think is more important to me. Funny enough, at times, the depths are more fun to me to explore than the surface. Yes, they are barren. Yes, they are dark. Yes, they are difficult and cumbersome to navigate. But there is a very unique thrill to charting the underground bit by bit, looking for the light roots and figuring out how to get there in pitch black darkness. A limited supply of light, food, stamina... and no way to get more supplies once you are down there. For me, the underground is where the adventure happens. The surface is where the story progression happens. And the sky is where I really only go if I need to. It was more fun on my first playthrough, but I do not enjoy the flying mechanics very much, which sours the sky experience.

I love how Link sometimes needs to embody Zelda for the NPCs in Hyrule. I really noticed this in the school sidequests where Link becomes a professor, and they come to admire him just as much as Zelda. He even picks up the slack with stable quests that Zelda herself was doing before she disappeared. It paints a warm fuzzy picture where she comes back and is overjoyed to see Link was still able to keep Hyrule going.