Gamers are currently in the midst of the longest drought ever between major Nintendo Direct announcements ever. The games company has given fans a couple of small Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Pokémon announcements in the meantime, but plenty of Nintendo diehards out there are anxiously waiting for one thing and one thing only: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2.
One Zelda fan took to Reddit Wednesday with a compelling new theory that may have just cracked the plot of the sequel wide open.
It’s been a year since Nintendo confirmed BotW 2 is in development with an E3 2019 trailer, and it hasn’t said a word about Link and Zelda’s next adventure ever since. This has led fans to speculate where the series could go next based on what was teased at E3 and its past installments.
A Redditor by the name JaySpike has presented one of the most interesting theories about the BotW 2 plot to date. They believe the game’s narrative will revolve around a common item in the original BotW and that’s seen littering the BotW 2 trailer: Luminous Stones.
Link and Zelda pass by massive Luminous Stones formations in the BotW 2 trailer as they explore the underbelly of Hyrule Castle. They eventually stumble upon what is assumed to be Ganondorf’s mummified corpse, and it's spewing out globs of Malice (that black oily energy). The body is also locked in battle with a glowing arm. JaySpike points out that Luminous Stones and that arm are seeming trying to hold back Ganon’s full power.
BotW describes the stones as a “mysterious mineral [that] gives off a pale blue glow in the dark, which some believe to be the souls of the dead.” Additionally, Kass the wandering musician Link runs into during his BotW journey sings a song that suggests the glowing arm could be a much more powerful manifestation of Luminous Stones.
“But Ganon lurked beneath the surface, strengthening its jaws / So the ancient people of Hyrule set out to help the cause. / Their efforts bore fruit in an automated force / To help avert Calamity by sealing it at its source.”
This hints at the possibility that the glowing arm could be the collection of the souls of ancient Hyrule inhabitants that are constantly fighting against Ganon’s dark power. It could be the work of the Sheikah Tribe, a race of people with a long lineage in Hyrule that created most of the arcane machinery Link uses in BotW.
During one of the last scenes from the trailer, the glowing arm is seen releasing its grip on Ganon and it seemingly saves Link and Zelda instead. Link then seems to gain the power of the glowing limb, but at the cost of releasing Ganon whose eyes then ignite in a fiery red and Hyrule Castle is lifted up from its foundation.
Link might be tasked with wielding that hand's power to defeat Ganon's true form.
The Inverse Analysis — Out of all of the BotW 2 theories that have popped up online, this one does the best job at explaining many of the mysterious details included in E3 2019 trailer.
It appears like Link will gain a new set of abilities thanks to the glowing hand, potentially powerful abilities similar to the ones he unlocks throughout the BotW using the Sheikah Slate. This comes as a relief because if the glowing arm was truly holding back Ganon’s full power, then players are going to be faced with a bigger, badder, and even more calamitous Ganadorf in BotW 2.
We can’t be sure that this will be how the sequel shakes out until Nintendo reveals more details about the game, but there’s good evidence to suggest JaySpikes’ theory might not be too far from the truth.
Breath of the Wild 2 is currently in development.
