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00:08As much as we love The Legend of Zelda, it's no secret that things get pretty messy when
00:13you dig into plot and lore. Welcome to MojoPlays, and today we're exploring the biggest plot holes
00:18across the Zelda series. What an unexpected answer. We are the king and queen who founded
00:24Hyrule, after all. Or at least we were the last time I checked. But before we dive in,
00:29we publish new content all week long. So be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to get notified
00:34about our latest videos. Time Travel Paradoxes
00:48It's essentially impossible for anything to include time travel and not immediately run into plot
00:54problems. There are several Zelda games that feature it heavily, and it always breaks the story in one
01:00way or another. One of the most famous examples occurs in Ocarina of Time, when Link both learns
01:05the Song of Storms in the future, and teaches it to the same NPC in the past.
01:20Different items are saved or lost when Link resets a loop in Majora's Mask, which makes no sense.
01:25Although it's a spin-off, one of the biggest time travel plot holes occurs in Age of Calamity,
01:30where the lives of the champions are saved with the help of their loved ones from 100 years in the
01:36future.
01:43The Return of Ganon
01:49Ganon, or Ganondorf in his Gerudo form, is the most commonly occurring villain in the Zelda series.
01:54Most appearances are of the same being, either having been revived or broken free of a magical seal.
02:00But, the reason behind his return isn't always clear. Sometimes it will be, like the revival ritual
02:07in the Oracle games. Other times it will be extremely vague, like, I don't know, the Triforce of Power did
02:14it, I guess. In Wind Waker, Ganon returns twice, both in the prologue and in the game. And both times,
02:21the explanation essentially amounts to... Somehow Palpatine returned.
02:27And that is never a satisfying answer. Even versions that are reincarnations,
02:32like Four Swords Adventures or Tears of the Kingdom, it isn't explained why he's reborn.
02:38Link and Zelda reincarnating across time makes sense, but Demise's curse in Skyward Sword,
02:44that his hatred would follow them, has manifested as other villains. But the real reason is just that
02:50Ganon is the series' most iconic baddie.
02:53Don't be immortal! You will not stand in my way!
02:57Everyone is reborn.
03:10Speaking of people being reborn, let's talk about some of the more famous NPCs in the series.
03:16Demise's curse explains the different versions of Link and Zelda that appear at different points in
03:21Hyrule's history, but it doesn't explain everyone else.
03:31There are plenty of other characters who have reappeared even across timelines. You could easily
03:36explain Impa, she plays a vital role in most games, and has even been a sage, so maybe the goddesses
03:42see
03:42fit to keep bringing her back to keep the world safe. But I doubt they see much reason to keep
03:47reincarnating a random merchant with an affinity for bugs, no matter how GD delightful Beatle is.
03:55And what about Tingle? Or Dompei? Or Anju? Or any of the other mini-NPCs like them?
04:02Link the Wolf.
04:12Nintendo tends to come up with fun gameplay mechanics before building a story around them.
04:17Case in point? Link can turn into a wolf in Twilight Princess because the developers thought
04:22it would be cool. But when you start to think about these mechanics in relation to the story,
04:27they don't always make sense.
04:36Link's village is attacked and the children are taken.
04:37During the opening of the game, Link's village is attacked and the children are taken.
04:41Firstly, why all the other young folk are taken while Link is left behind seems like an oversight.
04:47Secondly, when he does go after them and enters the Twilight Realm, why does he take on the form of
04:51a
04:52wolf instead of a spirit like everyone else? Midna makes mention of a prophecy of her people about a
04:57destined one taking on this form, but that's all we get.
05:01This transformation is all the more confusing considering Zelda, who also doesn't turn into a
05:06spirit, probably because of some Triforce shenanigans, but still, she gets to keep her true form.
05:19Rito Ancestry
05:28I'm sure Eiji Awanuma regrets saying this every time it's brought up, but the fact remains that it's
05:34one of the bigger inconsistencies within the overall lore. In the Wind Waker, the Rito are
05:39said to be the evolved form of the Zora. Plenty of fans have poked fun at that bit of history.
05:44Naturally so. Fish people evolving into bird people in a world mostly made of ocean is easy to poke fun
05:50at.
05:51But the big glaring obvious thing that doesn't make sense about this evolutionary tree now is Breath
05:57of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. This is the Sheikah Slate, eh?
06:01Both the Zora and Rito exist in this era of Hyrule, with no explanation ever given on how that could
06:08possibly be.
06:09Stay just like that. Here we go. Smile. Click Snap.
06:16Gannon's inaction
06:25Gannon usually brings a lot of mayhem and chaos to Hyrule. But once he's done,
06:31he sits and waits quietly in his lair for Link to put everything back together again,
06:35before coming to kick his butt. It's true that he's done some pretty horrible things,
06:39but sometimes it's like he never comes up with a next step.
06:50Sure, there are always a few monsters roaming the overworld, but it never feels like Gannon plays
06:55an active role in trying to stop Link, only putting up the initial obstacles and watching
07:01him clear them. This is most noticeable in Tears of the Kingdom, he just waits in his hole for Link
07:06to
07:06save everyone, where in the past he's shown unleashing full armies. Maybe this is more of a
07:11criticism of Gannon's methods than a plot hole, but if he tried stopping Link before he got too strong,
07:17he might actually win one.
07:25Aging up the Hero
07:35One of the most famous moments in Ocarina of Time comes when Link claims the Master Sword,
07:40and is held in the Sacred Realm for seven years until he's ready to be the hero that Hyrule needs.
07:45It defines Link's journey, but it retroactively calls other games into question, most notably,
07:51the Wind Waker.
07:57If the Hero of Time has to age up, why does the same thing not happen to the Hero of
08:02Winds?
08:03Toon Link is canonically only two years older than Young Link, but if 12 is the cutoff age,
08:09why was he held for seven years instead of two? Realistically, it's because Nintendo built the
08:14two games with totally different mechanics, but it does make us wonder about the sword's logic.
08:22Saving Across a Loop
08:32It's hard to call something out as a plot hole when it's there for the player's convenience, but here we
08:38are.
08:38We already touched on how certain items being saved or lost when resetting the loop in Majora's Mask
08:43doesn't make much sense. But there's also a huge paradox when it comes to the story.
08:48All plot lines and the progression of each area are essentially reset when Link plays the Song of Time.
08:54Except, once you've completed a quest, those NPCs are shown to still get their happy endings during
09:00the credits, even if it's been multiple loops since you've spoken to them.
09:10You could write this off as everything working itself out with the mask now gone,
09:15but that would be ignoring how active and vital a role Link played in resolving most of them.
09:26The Messy Lore of Tears of the Kingdom
09:38The history and lore of Tears of the Kingdom has been picked apart to death
09:42since the game's release. And even today, Nintendo's inability to draw clear connections
09:47between this game, Breath of the Wild, and the overall series has brought nothing but confusion.
09:53The disappearance of most ancient Sheikah tech had to be retconned in a voice memory for the Switch 2
09:58version of Tears.
09:59It is quite an interesting device. This is definitely not from this era.
10:06The Zonai founding Hyrule and Nintendo having to clarify that Zelda's flashbacks
10:10are thousands of years in the past yet still far in the future for most of the franchise
10:15only made us scratch our heads more. Then there's the paradox of two Master Swords existing
10:20simultaneously. And you know, this game is just a lot more enjoyable if you don't think about the lore.
10:33The Fallen Hero Timeline
10:45The Zelda timeline is famously messy and the Fallen Hero section is one of the most inconsistent.
10:51It's a creative solution, we'll give them that. To say Link's possible death at Ganon's hands in
10:56Ocarina of Time created an alternate path in history. But it's just Nintendo's place to lump
11:02in most of the 2D games, which of course don't have much connecting them. Nintendo originally claimed
11:08the Link in A Link to the Past was the same as Link's Awakening and the Oracle games.
11:21But it was later retconned that the Oracle Link was different since Zelda doesn't recognize him in
11:26those games. They've also crammed Echoes of Wisdom in there which comes with a huge lore bomb concerning
11:33Null, who feels like he definitely would have come up in a previous game. Then you have general plot holes
11:39like the disappearance of the Master Sword, as well as one of those unexplained Ganon revivals before the NES
11:44originals at the timeline's end. The timeline isn't necessary to enjoy the series, so it's best to ignore it most
11:52of the time.
12:01The Legend of Zelda can clearly thrive regardless of plot consistency, so let us know what some of
12:06your favorite plot holes in the series are in the comments below, and we will see you next time.
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