Arm Theories, Part Two
Sheikah Slate Who?
Link's most important possession in Breath of the Wild is his iPad — I mean, Sheikah Slate, which gives him the ability to activate towers, open shrines, and use powers like Magnesis and Stasis. Without the Sheikah Slate, you can't beat Ganon.
But Link's trusty tablet is nowhere to be seen in BOTW 2 — and yet, he still has powers. The 2021 teaser shows him using a Stasis-like power that seems to give him the ability to rewind time (more on that in a minute) but the power is coming from a glowy yellow bit on his arm/hand. When he climbs out of the weird portal that looks like it helps him go through the ground, his arm is glowing the same colour as the portal.
It's probably not too ludicrous to take a guess that the Sheikah Slate will somehow be replaced with whatever's going on in Link's limbs. The Legend of Zelda: Inspector Gadget?
The Hero Of Time Returns
We know that Link has the power over time. In Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, he is able to literally traverse time with the help of a magical instrument and a special church, but let's not forget all the time powers he has in Breath of the Wild, too: Stasis literally stops time, Link has the ability to go into bullet-time mode when he likes, and here's a snippet from the Goron Champion Daruk's journal, which could be seen as a theory about Link's own Champion power:
"Eating isn't the only thing Link and I have in common. The little guy is also incredibly strong! He said sometimes when he focuses, it feels like time slows down. Heh! I really like that guy."
Is this grasping at straws? Oh, almost definitely. But when you only have two trailers and a 5-second snippet to go on, you're going to get a lot of very strange theories based on nothing but a Goron saying the word "time".
Fun thought: I'm going to call this Sheikah Slate-like arm power "ArmOS".
Malice A(rm)forethought
We already know that Malice, the evil pink goo that infected Hyrule in Breath of the Wild, tried to creep up Link's arm in the 2021 trailer — and it looks like it got the sword, too, which Link was holding at the time. But does the Malice infect his hand, or does the magical seal-hand save him? Or is it... both?
Here's a theory: Link's arm is going to be corrupted by evil, and he combines the arm with the one that sealed evil away to create a half-good, half-evil arm. But a half-good, half-evil arm would not be able to wield the Master Sword, which answers only to good... Unless the Master Sword's half-evil bit (Demise, who was locked inside the sword, remember?) responds to the half-evil arm, awakening the dark forces within.
Or something like that.
Left Hand Free
It's only the briefest little bit of the 2021 trailer, but Link's left arm looks like it gets cool powers too. We see Link using a dragon-shaped flamethrower against some poor enemy, which appears to be some kind of ceiling worm, and though it's probably just a sort of glove and not a permanent arm-bility like the right arm, it's still cool to see how very arm-based the mechanics in BOTW 2 will be.
Ghibli-Wibbly Timey-Wimey
The Ghibli influences on the Legend of Zelda series are well-documented, and Breath of the Wild in particular bore a lot of similarities to Princess Mononoke, Studio Ghibli's fable about nature fighting back against those who would exploit and destroy it.
Breath of the Wild 2 continues this homage with Link's goopy arm, which recalls Princess Mononoke's hero, Prince Ashitaka. Ashitaka has a curse placed on his arm by a demon, which is amplified by his own anger; it appears as a black pulsing mass of worms. The curse was given to him as the result of trying to kill the infected Nago, a god of the forest, and will eventually kill him if not cured. Ashitaka manages to cure the curse by helping out the Forest Spirit and defeating the resource-hungry humans who tried to hurt it.
This doesn't necessarily mean that Breath of the Wild 2 will directly correspond to the plot of Princess Mononoke, but the arm similarity does make us wonder if there will be some kind of pastoral deity element to the story — like the Lord of the Mountain in the first game, who could be a reference to the Shishigami in the Ghibli movie, or Princess Mononoke herself, who plays an unwilling guide on Ashitaka's quest.
Notably, Zelda does have that nice new bob, making her look a lot more like Princess Mononoke... and she does have two wolf companions, which would tie in nicely with Twilight Princess' Wolf Link... Just sayin'.
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Adventure Time
Call me crazy, but I got big Adventure Time vibes from the very first BOTW 2 trailer. In Adventure Time, our hero Finn has long, blonde hair, a penchant for going on quests and saving princesses, and most importantly, a missing right arm. It gets torn off in an episode where Finn meets his absent father, and never grows back — although it does later get replaced by a magical grass-limb, then a robot arm, both of which give Finn cool powers.
Sound familiar? Uh, yeah it does. That's Link's whole business! But what can Adventure Time tell us about BOTW 2? Probably nothing — although we wouldn't say no to Link getting a magical shapeshifting dog companion.
What's All This Glowy Business?
As I hypothesized in our Everything We Know About Breath Of The Wild 2 mega-feature, I reckon the colours of all the glowy things in the trailer may be a clue. Here's what we know:
- The sword glows blue
- The hand glows yellow
- The arm glows teal
- There's also a glowing yellow orb of some kind in the new teaser
Blue in the Zelda games means Wisdom. That's the part of the Triforce that Zelda possesses, and it's governed by Nayru, or Naydra the dragon in BOTW, who has ice powers. Interestingly, Naydra is the only one of the three dragons that is infected by Malice in the game. If the Master Sword glows blue, does that mean that Wisdom and/or Zelda are involved somehow? It's also worth noting that characters designed to impart wisdom — like Navi and Fi — are blue, which could be why the sword is blue as well.
Red (or pink) means Power. That's the Triforce bit that Ganon(dorf) has, although he's hoping to get more by killing Link and/or Zelda. This is governed by Din, or Dinraal the dragon in BOTW, who has fire powers. Malice is red/pink because it comes from Ganon's evil influence, probably.
Yellow is a bit harder to pin down. It usually represents the desert and/or lightning in the Zelda games, but in BOTW, it could also represent Courage, as the final dragon, Farosh, is the equivalent of Farore, the Goddess of Courage — and Farosh has lightning powers. Of course, the Triforce of Courage is the one that Link possesses, so it would make sense for his powers to be yellow. Not sure what the yellow orb that Link approaches in the teaser is, but it could be tied to his own powers. Plus, that pattern on Link's toga-shawl thing looks a lot like a dragon...
Oh, and fun fact: The Zonai tribe, the mystery people who used to live in the Faron region who left behind ruins and ancient shrines, worshipped the Spring of Courage, and the dragon Farosh. The mystery deepends.
And what do you get when you add blue (wisdom) and yellow (courage)? You get teal. Interesting, no?
Is Link Dying?
Usually, if you turn up to a hospital with a totally black arm, it's a sign of severe frostbite, or some other Very Bad Disease. It's not a good sign! Could it be that Link's arm is a sign of something slowly taking over his entire body? Are we going to have a time limit? Link did actually die in BOTW — I mean, he woke up in the Shrine of Resurrection, not just the Shrine of Having A Nice Long Nap — so it's not like the developers are afraid to kill him.
That's No Triforce
The first time I watched this snippet, I thought, "Link's got the Triforce on his hand! Nice!" But on closer inspection, it's not the Triforce at all. In past games, the Triforce has appeared on the back of the hands of those who possess one of its fragments, which I've always thought was a bit weird — why the hands? So it's easy to assume that the glowy-thing here is the same deal, especially as it's the same bright yellow as it's been in the past.
But look closer, and you'll see that it's actually a sort of swirly pattern, potentially reminiscent of the Zonai tribe's motifs. What does it mean? I not sure I can even begin to speculate on this one. The Triforce definitely exists, because it's right there on the non-melted part of the Master Sword (and various other art assets in BOTW), so this isn't some kind of precursor to the famous triangle... But perhaps it's something that works alongside the Triforce?
We actually don't hear about the Triforce at all in BOTW, until Zelda uses it to defeat Calamity Ganon
If the Triforce represents Wisdom, Power, and Courage, perhaps this mysterious symbol represents a fourth important virtue. Maybe, er... Friendship?
I think that's about all the speculation I can do on one single arm and about three minutes of footage, so hopefully at least one of these theories turns out to be true, and this wasn't a total waste of my time and brain!
Of course, let me know your theories in the comments, and feel free to expand on mine, too!
Comments 45
It's a key to open shrines. It also gives me a Hellboy hand of doom vibe.
It's the arm from Princess Mononoke, obviously.
The arm let's you summon huge elemental creatures you control by using finger motions infront of the IR camera...
...ok, no idea...but it sounded cool!
Normally Nintendolife are pretty good at this sort of thing but half these theories fall apart when you realise the screenshots seem to show leftie Link but Nintendo’s own video show him as a rightie.
It's MIKE from Twin Peaks missing arm
As shown in other trailers the green hand seems to absorb into links arm.presumably it is said hand giving him the sheikah abilities. It couldn’t be the Shinkansen slate doing that because it is not in any of the trailers.( with link or Zelda)
I knew 100% who the author of the article would be, just from the title.
I couldn't really think of any other writer who would be compelled to write about weird arms
This game is clearly just setting up for something bigger:
Arms 2: Hyrule Hysteria
did link have the trifoce tatoo on any of his hands in BOTW? what if Link and Zelda tried to destroy the Triforce so Ganon wont have any power ifhe got back again (and he always does) sonething goes wrong and link loses the arm he has the triforce tatoo on.
YES - a sixth article!
@RadioHedgeFund I just reversed a couple of the images for composition reasons, that's all
This is his journey to become the legendary hero Robo-Elf.
No no, see, Link's arm was blasted off by an alchemist, and Link's brother sacrificed his own arm to save him, leaving him with the power of deconstruction.
It's a speed run mechanic. The darkness eminating from his arm visibly spreads accross his body and you have to complete the game in under 2 minutes before he is consumed entirely.
It's a new armour set that he obtains throughout the course of the game as he defeats evil. Ganondorf is actually the first boss...
Zekiro: Ganons Die Multiple Times.
(even though I'm joking, a grappling mode like Sekiro would be really cool)
“The suspense is terrible! I hope it’ll last.”
We will find out next year.
The arm is necrotic. It's decomposition is why the nails are so pronounced (and why people (used to) think fingernails continue to grow after death).
Hope you weren't eating.
If the fourth virtue is friendship, as you say, does that mean that...
Friendship Is Magic?
Took me WAY to long to decipher that “Fi-Turn” pun since I pronounce it as in “eye”…someone’s gonna have my head for this take🥴
Breath of The Wild 2: Re-Armed - ARMageddon Edition
I'm simultaneously reminded of Ashitaka from Princess Mononoke, as well as Guts' prosthetic arm from Berserk.
@GrailUK
Think about who isn't with Nintendo Life anymore and things start to make sense and then start to think about why they left?
Kate covered so much here, she’s guaranteed to be at least partially right!
I’m no Zelda scholar, but it seems evident they are borrowing a bit from Mononoke-hime and Link will journey to save his sword and himself from an evil curse or tatari. He would have been consumed by the malevolence already if not for some Zonai or Triforce-y intervention, but the protection is temporary.
Maybe he looks like a ragged monk because he was half mad and wandering for a long time, or just went full hermit to protect folks from his evil fingernails.
Like Dr. David/Bruce Banner - we wouldn’t like Link when he’s angry?
Or maybe Zelda’s missing (again…) and creepy arm Link is suspect #1? Hyrulians must be quite upset and paranoid about the cataclysm and all that.
It’ll be fun to keep speculating and see how things develop in the trailers over the next year.
@RadioHedgeFund and @KateGray Rotate the image in the thumbnail just under a quater and all i can see is a worried Scrooge McDuck from Ducktales in his top hat. I cant unsee it now 😂😂
Surely its not just me?
Ganon was never a hero, just drop the dumb theory already. Ganondorf is obviously the main villain of the sequel and the source of every Calamity Ganon and malice through the ages.
@marktornits I'm sorry, I don't follow you.
I've definitely been thinking the same about a few of these theories such as the circular time line and the arm belonging to Ganon/Demise. Was thinking that Zelda might fulfil the role of the Goddess Hylia in having her role in the game focused around sending the land back into the sky. Sad that we'll have to wait at least another year to find out if any of these are true!
i think the yellow glowy ball is link getting one of the runes (or what will be replacing runes). His hand is glowing the same color as the ball, which makes me think he's getting a new power. And fi's probably telling him something about the power he just got. or maybe link's hand is the monado from xenoblade chronicles, i mean there is XC2 armor in the original lol
we better get a trailer at e3 tho
@OrangeSoda I'm chewing my nails.
Ganondorf might be trying to corrupt and bend the Master Sword to his will. It makes sense: if you're malice and hatred incarnate, you'd probably want to take out the one thing that can seal you away or better yet, turn it against the people who wield it. This certainly fits with the links people have pointed out between Shinto shrines and the sky islands, with both being based on the idea of a spiritual journey of purification.
I do find the idea of time-based mechanics interesting, but I think it could work differently; what if you have to keep the evil within the sword at bay? What if there's a tension between exploring and doing quests and having to prevent corruption overwhelming the sword and Link? That would certainly address the "there's not enough to do in BotW 1" criticisms that some people (but not me) have made.
Fi was probably already in a bad mood after being cooped up inside the Master Sword for however many tens of thousands of years, and now she's gone all melty and corrupted I predict an 89% chance that she's capable of going sicko mode on the reincarnation of her former master.
I would love to see that this link is fused with all Links.
Legend of zelda: Multiverse Link fusion 😂
I've always thought since I first played skyward sword was it's the beginning and the end, and the link from the comic at the back of first historia book was the link from botw, and yes on that tapestry it has never been link. I have always stuck to this theory. I wonder if we will see hylia in the second Installment?
The ghirahim comparisons are weird because Ghirahim doesn't actually have black tatooed arms with patterns. That was just his true, pitch-black sword spirit form peeking through his disguised appearance. If anything Link's arm looks as if something is superimposing onto him, rather than being revealed underneath. I do think it's Ganon's arm, yeah. Fused with the arm that was sealing him in the cave, trying to stop him from possessing Link.
Ghibli-Wibbly Timey-Wimey is one of the all-time great subheadings
Well since Lynel monsters only appear in one Zelda timeline it means this is in the Link to the Past timeline. That being said if you played Link to the Past there is a lot of green cyclops statues in the dungeons and one of which is seen in the trailer for BotW2 and appears to communicate with Link. My best guess is that is some even more ancient technology that link can now communicate/activate via his arm, also it enhances him so he can use stronger versions of the Sheikah slate abilities, and in fact the arm itself could be the Sheikah slate transformed somehow.
@MattEriks no, there is a scene where we see the full triforce (equally lit up) on zelda's hand when she saves link so...
I haven't seen so many arm puns being flung around since... well, ARMS.
That's why I find Kate's witty humour utterly disarming.
Nice theories. Very interesting read!
I really lean to the "tapestry Link is Ganondorf" theory. Maybe the king said: "well Ganondorf, thanks for defeating the calamity. But because you are so powerful its better to mummy-fie you and put you underground in a cave".
Wouldn't that be a terrible fate for Ganondorf? You would be pissed too!
The timeline being a cycle sounds pretty convincing for some reason
I'm tired of theories I want actual information
Link couldnt scratch his back, so the goddesses gave him a new hand with nails to scratch, lol no?
No but i hope we see more powers from links side.
It’s tingles ghost slowly possessing link
Obviously
Peripheral neuropathy from shredding too much fish skeleton guitar without a proper warmup and stretching routine.
I think nothing happened with his arm. Only wounded.
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