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Tears of the Kingdom's most recent trailer is just as cryptic as the first.
There’s less than 100 days now until release, and Nintendo are keeping their cards so close
to their chest.
It begins with mysterious, ancient stone carvings, showing a woman in a dress and a strange creature
with long, flowing hair and pointed ears.
The carvings reappear at the end of the trailer, too, where we can see the full version of
this carving - showing the woman and the creature with their hands cupped together into a circle
- a shape mirrored in the game’s logo.
Zelda games’ logos are pretty important.
They almost always feature the classic Zelda logo, in the same style used since A Link
to the Past, but everything else - the fonts, colours, and graphics, are used to represent
the game’s identity.
Majora’s Mask’s logo is a deep purple, standing out as weird and different among
the other titles.
Breath of the Wild’s logo is chipped and worn, mirroring the broken state of Hyrule
after the Great Calamity.
How a Zelda logo is designed says a lot - the graphics chosen are often hugely important
parts of the games - Majora’s Mask features, well, Majora’s Mask, the Wind Waker has
the King of Red Lions, Link’s companion and transport across the seas, and Twilight
Princess shows Wolf Link and the Fused Shadow, the magical artefact Link pieces together
for the first half of the game.
Breath of the Wild not only features the broken Master Sword, which symbolises the defeat
of Link and Hyrule, but a Silent Princess, too - the flower closely linked to Princess
Zelda’s role in the story.
So, it’s fair to assume that the decisions made about Tears of the Kingdom’s logo are
important, too.
We can see the broken Master Sword, notably repaired with Link’s new magic, but far
more interesting is what they’ve chosen to show behind the logo - an image of two
serpentine dragons consuming each others’ tails and forming a ring.
Again, this decision won’t have been taken lightly - this symbol probably represents
something absolutely integral to Tears of the Kingdom - just like Majora’s Mask, the King of Red Lions, or the Fused Shadow.
The dragons’ design is the same as those found on the Sky Islands: not just here, but
the big doors too - where the dragons form a ring, though they’re face to face instead.
They feature the exact same feathers, eyelashes, and horn-like protrusions on their heads.
The dragons also obviously glow the same green-blue colour as the new magic - which we’ve seen
not only connected to Ganondorf’s body and Link’s right arm, but also his abilities
like this jump, his weaponry like this dragonhead flamethrower, and the technology found on
the Sky Islands, like this stone golem.
Just behind the logo, the two mysterious characters form a circle with their hands.
Together with Bandit, I posted an analysis video after the last trailer covering these
two characters, suggesting that the figure in a dress with long hair could be Zelda,
and the mysterious alien character the Goddess Hylia.
The woman looks like a classic depiction of Zelda, with long hair, a dress, and pointed
ears, and the pair cup their hands together in a way that suggests they are two parts
of a whole - as does the pair of magatama symbols found above the characters.
Skyward Sword’s Zelda is of course the mortal reincarnation of the Goddess Hylia, who sacrificed
her godhood as part of her plan to defeat Demise, and her divine bloodline has been
passed down through the Hyrulean Royal Family ever since.
There are strong similarities between the pair - some parts of their bodies are almost
identical, and they both have the same flowing hair.
If this is Zelda, then it would make perfect sense for her other half to be Hylia, her
divine ancestor - more so than any other character in the Zelda series or a new character entirely.
Hylia is most commonly depicted as a winged woman, but we’ve never actually seen her
physical form in any game - she speaks through Fi, or through Goddess Statues from her place
at the edge of time.
For all we know, Hylia could look like this - alien, yet graceful.
It’s also worth noting that “Hylia” has a closed third eye on her forehead.
A third eye obviously has connotations of prescience or enlightenment, but in-universe
has connections to the Sheikah, a clan known as the Goddess’ Chosen Guardians, who paint
their Sheikah Eye symbol on their foreheads.
The character who could be Hylia appears to be on a sky island in this carving - we can
see clouds surrounding it, mountains below, and the figure stands on a floating platform.
So, this connection between Zelda and Hylia, then, could be what is symbolised by the two
dragons in the logo - two separate yet identical beings coming together to form a whole.
In Breath of the Wild, Zelda struggles to connect with Hylia, she despairs that she
cannot awaken the powers within her bloodline.
From a character perspective, reconnecting with Hylia would be a perfect continuation
of this Zelda’s story.
But it doesn’t end there.
The dragon symbol is an example of an ouroboros - an symbol used since ancient times depicting
a serpent or dragon eating its own tail.
It symbolises infinity and eternity, an endless cycle of life and death, which is obviously
fitting for the Zelda series - a story that tells of the endless rise and fall of Hyrule,
the inevitable return of evil balanced against a hero to defeat it.
But this isn’t a traditional Ouroboros - here it’s formed from two serpents, each eating
the other’s tail - two becoming one in a loop without end, forever chasing each other.
This is notably different to the design on the doors - which features the same dragons,
only faced in opposite directions so that their heads meet together at the top.
This is true for the hand symbol formed by who we’re assuming is Zelda and Hylia - their
hands are pressed together, but are the same way up.
So, perhaps the fact that these dragons are facing the other way, eating each other in
a loop symbolises an imbalance of forces - as opposed to the dragons on the doors, which
face each other and stand still.
It could be that Link will have to reset this, to fix an imbalance responsible for cycles
of prosperity and destruction.
But if we assume that this symbol is connected to the pairing of Zelda and Hylia, like the
hand symbol suggests, then what this Ouroboros represents could have fascinating story implications.
Before Skyward Sword, the Goddess Hylia became Zelda, but this symbol, and the cupping together
of their hands, might suggest that, in turn, Zelda will become Hylia, who reincarnates
as Zelda, who becomes Hylia, and so on in an endless cycle.
This would necessarily involve some time-bending magic - which of course the Zelda series is
no stranger to.
It’s clear from the trailers that Tears of the Kingdom will feature ancient ruins
and forgotten secrets - in particular, the stone carvings featuring the character who
resembles Zelda look incredibly old.
The symbols seen here match those found on the mysterious, presumably ancient sky islands,
so, for the Princess to appear here, it means that this is either a depiction of a different
incarnation of Zelda, or that Zelda will travel to the past.
Her role in the game is such a mystery - we know that she discovers Ganondorf’s body
alongside Link, but also that she falls into a deep cavern - literally consumed by the
darkness… and nothing else.
As you’d expect, Link appears to be adventuring through the clouds by himself, which begs
the question: what happened to Zelda, and where is she now?
Perhaps Zelda will be imprisoned, or even die underground - but I can’t imagine that
she’ll be sidelined for the entire story.
Her part to play in Tears of the Kingdom has been kept almost entirely secret - perhaps
because it’s incredibly important to the game’s plot - and because her journey will
involve interacting with herself in the distant past.
But let’s go even further.
If Zelda’s story leads to her becoming the Goddess Hylia, this doesn’t just have implications
for Tears of the Kingdom and for this Zelda.
What if the ouroboros symbol not only represents the cycle of the Princess and the Goddess,
but the Zelda timeline itself?
This idea sounds ridiculous.
We know how the Zelda timeline begins - with Skyward Sword, and…
Hylia.
But Breath of the Wild already drastically changed the Zelda timeline as we knew it,
by taking place at the end of every timeline.
This shouldn’t be possible - the three timelines following on from Ocarina of Time are completely
separate threads of history, with entirely different versions of Hyrule.
Yet still, Breath of the Wild takes place at the end of every one - so far in the future
that anything before is lost in the Era of Myth.
Breath of the Wild’s director Hidemaro Fujibayashi also led the development of Skyward Sword
- the two 3D games with him at the helm bookend the timeline - the very beginning and the
very end.
Could Tears of the Kingdom connect these ends?
Like the Ouroboros suggests - the Zelda timeline leads up to this Zelda becoming Hylia, with
Tears of the Kingdom leading into Skyward Sword and the entire timeline, which ends,
once again, with Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.
This could be supported by the sudden appearance of floating islands above Hyrule - which obviously
calls back to Skyloft and the islands above the clouds in Skyward Sword.
These were raised by the Goddess Hylia in order for Hylians to escape from Demise and
his armies on the surface.
Could these sky islands be the very same?
This figure stands on a platform floating above Hyrule - perhaps it’s her magic that
holds the sky islands up, just like Hylia’s power raising Skyloft.
If Tears of the Kingdom bends the timeline into a circle, and Hylia’s story leads through
into Skyward Sword, then the same floating islands could appear at both ends of the timeline
- with Breath of the Wild’s Zelda ending up being the one that raises them skyward.
This wouldn’t mean that Tears of the Kingdom is the last Zelda game ever made, though - the
timeline still spans countless, countless thousands of years.
Even if Tears of the Kingdom is designed to take place at the very end of the timeline,
just like Skyward Sword was at the very beginning, this still leaves room for future games between the two.
This would of course leave one glaring issue.
If Hylia becomes Zelda, who becomes Hylia, then… where did she come from?
Like the Song of Storms, she would have no origin - born somewhere impossible in an endless
time loop.
She would be a being outside of time, the single most important thing in the Zelda world,
its beginning and its end.
Which would make the entire timeline…
...the Legend of Zelda.
Of course, we don’t know anything for certain.
We can only speculate and make guesses until we see more of the game - which hopefully
should be soon.
What do you think about the ouroboros symbol?
What could it mean for Tears of the Kingdom?
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