The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity chronicle the rise and fall of Calamity Ganon, an evil force that reappears throughout the history of Hyrule‘s latest iteration. This take on Ganon; which has assumed numerous forms including a malignant force swirling around Hyrule Castle, a spider-like creature, an immense dark beast, and a skeletal warrior; is a seemingly primordial evil that is undoubtedly the subseries’ ultimate antagonist.
Yet, Breath of the Wild seeds doubt in one other secondary character: Princess Zelda’s father, King Rhoam. While not traditionally “evil” like Ganon, King Rhoam’s single-minded focus on stopping the Calamity to end its cyclical destruction of Hyrule is painted in a dubious light for its effects on Zelda. Story details provided by Age of Calamity, a sort of prequel to Breath of the Wild, suggest his actions may have directly contributed to the downfall of his kingdom in more ways than one. Spoilers ahead for both games.
In the opening portion of 2017’s Breath of the Wild, Rhoam reveals himself to Link on the Great Plateau. This is 100 years after Rhoam dies and Link is put into hibernation to recover from his injuries, and the King says their failure came because he unearthed the Guardians and Divine Beasts that Calamity Ganon turned into dangerous adversaries using its malice. At the same time, Link’s memories and diaries found within the ruined Hyrule Castle reveal Rhoam suppressed Zelda’s archaeological interests to try and force her powers to reawaken through rigorous training.
Those same diaries suggest Zelda feels shamed by her father to an extent, especially as the failure to awaken those powers makes her more upset about not having a teacher or an escape. Story revealed late in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity adds another layer to this by suggesting Zelda’s interest in the study of ancient technology developed because of her late mother, who dies when the Princess is young. While King Rhoam’s aim is to try and help the people of Hyrule by ensuring his daughter can stop Ganon, cutscenes depict his actions as cruel during Zelda’s youth.
The egg-shaped Guardian seen in Age of Calamity‘s marketing, named Terrako, is revealed to be an invention of Zelda and her mother; one that plays Zelda’s Lullaby from Ocarina of Time to comfort the girl following the queen’s death. Terrako is taken away and deactivated by Rhoam, and then left dormant in Zelda’s study, because it is seen as another distraction from her training.
This can be seen as unreasonable and mean-spirited for a parent, but Age of Calamity‘s alternate universe narrative suggests it may have actually been the difference between Hyrule’s demise and success for two timelines. Terrako reawakens alongside Zelda’s powers in Breath of the Wild‘s timeline, and then travel back in time to create the Age of Calamity continuity. In this second timeline, Terrako’s knowledge of the future allows the Hylian army to prepare more resources, and the Guardian is able to bring warriors from the original timeline back to fight Ganon.
Granted, this means the “doomed” timeline that results in Breath of the Wild needs to exist for the Age of Calamity timeline to succeed. However, it also means that by shutting off his daughter’s literal time-travelling Guardian, King Rhoam sets in motion the chain of events that leads to a ruined Hyrule Link later explores. One could argue this also makes Rhoam the ultimate hero in Age of Calamity, as he put everything in the right place at the right time, but in Breath of the Wild he is, charitably, a tragic character at best. A character whose single-minded pursuit of safety inevitably hurts his own people, and his daughter most of all.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity are available now on Nintendo Switch.
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