The Legend of Zelda The series has always been known for its heroic fantasy stories, even if some of those stories follow a simple hero’s journey structure. But Tears of the Kingdom takes the franchise’s narrative ambitions to a new level. It tells a sprawling epic that spans periods, digging into the lost history of Hyrule. It’s an important sequel to the series — one that’s sure to confound anyone who fancies themselves a “Zelda timeline” historian.
With all the time-skipping shenanigans and stacks of lore, it can be a bit difficult to keep up with events Tears of the kingdom straight. Whether you’re looking to flesh out some story beats or just curious about where the story is going, we’re here to help with a basic story outline and ending Tears of the kingdom.
It is understood that the following article contains spoilers for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Realm (as well as the ending Breath of the wild). I’ll go through what’s going on in the memories scattered around Hyrule, as well as some content related to the quests. This includes the ending, but I still highly recommend playing the game through to the end, as its final gameplay sequence is worth experiencing firsthand.
Link’s story, explained
Tears of the kingdom takes place after the events of Breath of the wild, in which Link successfully defeats Calamity Ganon. It is not clear exactly how long it was after that battle, but it seems to have been several years. Anyway, the story begins with Link and Zelda exploring the depths of Hyrule. Down there, they discover a few key things, including a red substance called darkness that infects Hyrule.
The bigger discovery, however, is a series of murals depicting an event called the Prisoner’s War. In that conflict, the ancient people of Hyrule (the lost Zonai race) fought against the demon king Ganondorf and sealed him away. While The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past also had Imprisoning War with a similar premise, taking place in Tears of the kingdom it seems to be all its own. Soon after, Link and Zelda actually find Ganondorf’s encased body, which is sealed in a teardrop-like stone. That doesn’t last long.
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Ganondorf revives, causing Link to draw his master sword – a weapon powerful enough to defeat him. Unfortunately, Ganondorf uses the darkness to destroy both the sword and Link’s hand. The highlight of the scene is that Ganondorf somehow knows who Link and Zelda are, mocking someone named Rauru for trusting Link. After the heroes are thwarted, Ganondorf raises Hyrule Castle into the sky. Zelda falls into the darkness below before disappearing in a yellow flash, as a mysterious blue hand brings Link to safety in the sky islands above.
We learn that Link was saved by the spirit of Rauru, an ancient being from Zonai who was the first king of Hyrule. It turns out that Ganondorf destroyed Link’s arm in that encounter, so Rauru replaced it with a mechanical one through which he can communicate. After completing several shrines, Rauru leads Link to the Temple of Time, where he places his destroyed master sword on a pedestal. It disappears, but somehow reappears in front of Zelda in the same place.
Before I dive too deep into Zelda’s story, let’s get the easy part out of the way. Link must defeat Ganondorf by regaining his power and exploring some mysteries in Hyrule. He goes to different cities and helps various races deal with the problems caused by the darkness (Zora’s water is poisoned, for example). As he investigates, he meets the ancestors of the people who originally imprisoned Ganondorf: Sidon, Tulin, Riya, and Yunobo. Each character inherits the sage powers of their ancestors and the stone of tears during the main story, vowing to help Link in the final battle.
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After gaining these allies, Link eventually learned that there was also a secret fifth sage. A long series of quests eventually lead him to an underground forge where he meets a Zonai spirit named Mineru, Rauru’s older sister and a spiritual sage. Link creates a mech from the Zonai device, which Mineru can inhabit, allowing her to fight alongside the other sages in the battle against Ganondorf.
With all the pieces in place, Link assembled a small army capable of attacking Ganondorf’s castle in the sky. There’s just one problem: Where the hell is Zelda?
Zelda’s story explained
This is where things get a little weird. There’s a doppelganger version of Zelda running around Link’s time causing mayhem that doesn’t seem like a real princess.
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It turns out that when Zelda was separated from Link, she traveled back in time. She reappears in ancient Hyrule and meets Rauru and his wife, Sonia, who take her in. So he gets the destroyed master sword, which also somehow traveled back in time. Zelda is determined to return to her own time, but the king and queen don’t know how to do it. They suggest she talk to Mineru, who mentions that she could potentially come back through a process called dragonification. This happens when someone swallows a tear stone, turning them into an eternal dragon. Zelda could theoretically do this and return to her own time simply by living long enough, but this process is strictly forbidden as it is irreversible.
Meanwhile, Sonia trains Zelda to use the temporal powers she seems to possess. The princess also tells Sonia about Link, a hero from her time who has the power to fight the darkness. That turns out to be a key detail.
It turns out that all of this is happening in the middle of the Prisoner of War. Ganondorf launches an attack on Hyrule and is stopped by Rauru. Defeated, the Demon King notices Rauru’s tear gas. Ganondorf swears his loyalty to Rauru at the court of Hyrule, but it is simply a ruse to get closer to his power. The Demon King tries to trick Sonja by sending a dark creature disguised as Zelda to meet her. She sees through the ruse, but Ganondorf stabs her in the back, kills her, and steals her stone. This indeed turns him into the Demon King, forcing Rauru to retreat with Zelda while Ganondorf summons an army of monsters to Hyrule.
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From there we get more backstory on the original wise men. Rauru summons the five Links who have met together, as well as Zelda, and gives each of them their stone. They swear allegiance to Rauru and become sages sworn to defeat Ganondorf. Zelda tells Rauru that Ganondorf is alive in her time, so she knows whatever they do won’t actually defeat him. Their only hope is to delay it and leave the rest to Link in the future. This is exactly what happens as the sages seal away Ganondorf and Rauru sacrifices his life in the process.
Tears of the End of the Kingdom, explained
It all sets the stage for an epic final act where time really screws up. With Ganondorf imprisoned, Zelda still has to find her way back to her time with the restored master sword. It turns out that the weapon can be repaired, but it will take a long time because the blade needs to be bathed in light for a while. He finds a way to kill two birds with one stone – and I mean that literally.
Zelda places Mineru’s spirit in her Purah Pad and entrusts it to the ancient Zonai who will give it to Link in the future. He then swallows his secret stone and grabs the destroyed Master Sword before transforming into an eternal dragon. With the sword stuck in her head, her lightsaber is able to restore the blade over the centuries as long as Zelda lives long enough to return to Link’s timeline. Link eventually figures it all out and pulls the fixed sword out of Zelda’s head.
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With five sages and a fixed master sword, Link heads to Hyrule Castle to defeat Ganondorf. It turns out that he’s not actually in the sky fortress; he is in the depths below the surface. Link and the sages dive in and attack Ganondorf’s army (if you didn’t get all the sages, Link also has to fight the bosses at the end of their temples). After clearing the army, Link and the sages battle Ganondorf.
On the brink of defeat, the Demon King makes one last move: he swallows his own stone and becomes a dragon himself. Luckily, Link has his dragon to help him. Dragon Zelda swoops in and helps Link as he destroys Ganondorf for good. Link then uses Rauru’s and Sonia’s power stored in his hand to return Zelda back to her human form. The two reunite at the Temple of Time with the new sages and Minera officially entrusts them with the kingdom of Hyrule.
That’s where the happy ending ends. There isn’t much of a sequel to the sequel other than Zelda and Link vowing to protect Hyrule again with new sages on their side. It’s unclear whether the next Zelda game will continue that story or jump into a new part of the timeline, but Tears of the Kingdom ties the story together neatly. Maybe we’ll get more lore in one final muso spinoff Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Realm is now available on Nintendo Switch.
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Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn