BOTW 2 speculation (1/?)
so i just posted this on discord and i'm also going to dump this here because if i'm right, if i'm actually on the money with this, i'm going to become THE MOST SMUG PERSON ON THE ENTIRE PLANET.
so.
so the ancient hero in kass's song/etc. is shown depicted with red hair, unlike the princess's blonde. link has brown-blond hair.... gerudo got red hair tho. and so does calamity ganon...
BOTW 2 speculation (2/?)
so. what if. "calamity ganon" is not that-shrivelled-corpse-we-see as much as it is some more eldritch horror that hops from body to body. what if it's only calamity GANON now because GANON was the ancient hero who helped to seal it away.
what if we're playing zelda realizing that sealing away the calamity monster is done by making the hero its new host, and desperately trying to figure out how to undo this/find a third option to save link
BOTW 2 speculation (3/?)
(it makes sense to me from a gamedev point of view bc it means there's a good reason for no new-game-plus or import of progress over in a potentially gamebreaking way - switch of protag means a forced fresh start. and taking link out at the beginning means nobody gets much chance to quibble about how it's not THEIR link etc etc. people have been demanding playable zelda for years, too.)
BOTW 2 speculation (4/?)
(it might even be with the similarity in haircuts that we play zelda pretending to be link and doing a lot of WE'VE GOT IT ALL HANDLED CITIZENS DON'T PANIC and/or having to rebuild trust and ties after it all goes to hell.)
if the deep lore is that this entity is supposed to be because Demise (from Skyward Sword) cursed Link and Zelda to torment them forever - thus we have Ganon in all LoZ games - and if Calamity Ganon was supposed to have given up his human form...
BOTW 2 speculation (5/?)
why's there a shrivelled human form in the ruins?
is it ganon? or is it the remains of ganon after becoming host to an entity that wants to torment link and zelda forever?
and what better way to torment them than to hijack link's body, and drive zelda mad knowing she has to be the one to kill link?
BOTW 2 speculation (6/?)
if we have an incarnation of ganondorf that grew up gerudo, fought his destiny, and then... realized at the last moment there was only one way to keep the curse contained, and that was sacrificing himself... willingly or unwillingly...
is he so angry now because he remembers a thousand years ago, being made champion, fighting side by side with a princess... who shoved him into the darkness to save herself...?
BOTW 2 speculation (7/?)
and is he now making zelda prove herself different now, as to break his cycle of rage? is this a test to make zelda - and her kingdom - show that she is worthy of existing, instead of just repeating the same pattern of willingly sacrificing the champion for a momentary break?
BOTW 2 speculation (8/?)
what if the parallels coming up with twilight princess are in the whole... link-is-not-himself. usually he gets to stay human. in twilight princess (if i've got the different games right HNERF) he gets turned into a dog as sort of like... almost faery realm logic, or purgatory, even
he gets pulled into serving a shadowy force, whether he wants to or not. he can put up a token resistance but ultimately, it's dancing to midna's tune
BOTW 2 speculation (9/?)
what if he's dancing to ganon's tune now? and the ultimately kinda good cause is that we get to reveal how ganon made such strides to break the cycle - a ganon who has a paarthurnax moment, of being good not by birth, but by great effort - only to be betrayed? sure, it's extreme methods, but "a ruler who would betray her dearest friend like that is not fit to rule a kingdom" is also... kind of a good point.
BOTW 2 speculation (10/?)
if this is zelda's test to show she is actually committed to not just repeating the past, there's a point there.
also perhaps the idea of... hyrule of this time rebuilding, but being stuck in the "well back in the glory days". maybe hijacking the divine beasts and guardians was also to say, "y'all can't just rely on shit done thousands of years ago forever and ever. this reliance is holding hyrule back."
BOTW 2 speculation (12/12)
listen, i don't know LoZ lore, i'm stretching so much you can call me stretch armstrong, and yet
SURPRISINGLY PLAUSIBLE, I FEEL.
BOTW 2 speculation (11/?)
"everyone needs to move forward, because that's how the kingdom will survive and thrive. if you aren't going to move yourselves, though, then i'm going to make you consider the changes."
and ironically that's the same moral that zelda possibly guides the-remains-of-true-champion-ganon to - "living in the past to excess is hurtful. then is not now. begin again."