Breath of the Wild: ESCAPE the Malice! (ft. Xenogamer)

so [Music] hyrule a vast kingdom filled with life and rich in history what started as highly as realm later abandoned by the people of the surface to seek refuge in the sky is now a prosperous kingdom under the rule of the royal family of hyrule descendants who share the bloodline of goddess hylia and maintain order throughout the land home to many different races this realm serves as the iconic setting for most games in the series and breath of the wild is no exception from the scorching deserts of the grudo wasteland occupied by a tribe consisting of females to the korok forest resting place of the master sword and home to the koroks but even a place as magnificent and beautiful as hyrule has its dark secrets and tainted history endless wars and conflicts over an ancient power known as the triforce and one man who has repeatedly brought the kingdom to its ruin all because of a curse welcome to part three of the malice series [Music] a blood sacrifice for the calamity fate gives you this role and you will play it that is my face before we continue a quick recap the first episode went into detail on what exactly malice is and its parasitic-like tendencies latching onto the world and spreading like a sort of virus part 2 explained its origins and how anyone can have malice as well as its connections to the ancient sister a dungeon entirely built around the opposing themes of gratitude and malice but just when you thought it ended there nintendo and koetecmo graced us with yet another installment within the series hyrule warriors age of calamity a game taking place in an alternate timeline where the threat of calamity ganon is dealt with according to koei tecmo's producer yosuke hayashi nintendo worked closely with the team in every step of the game's development and it shows from the gameplay story and overall design it feels less like a warriors game and more like breath of the wild as a matter of fact age of calamity brings so much more to the table when it comes to lore regarding malice that it deserves its own video and because it's a topic closely associated with breath of the wild we're going to be diving into this mystery head on explaining elements such as harbinger ganon's abilities and the hollows age of calamity begins directly after the events of breath of the wild's great calamity ganon has already taken over the shika technology now in control of hyrule castle and its town while in pursuit of the hero and princess via the corrupted guardians just when link is about to be killed a desperate zelda finally activates her power in an attempt to save her appointed knight which both destroys the guardians and awakens terrico who upon witnessing this destruction opens a portal to go back in time to save everyone as a means of fulfilling zelda's wish whether the princess was using the power of the triforce or not is still unclear but before tariko can enter the portal one stray guardian attempts to destroy the robot and when that fails a sliver of calamity ganon's malice follows terrico through the portal bringing it and the robot to a hyrule not yet devastated by the calamity tyrico's goal throughout the game is to prevent this disaster from happening again something that calamity gannon is well aware of the first big revelation of age of calamity story is that it features two different calamity ganons in one timeline harbinger again in the sliver of breath of the wild's calamity that went through the portal and now resides in that world's terraco and the calamity ganon of age of calamity's timeline which has yet to appear the corrupted terracote we see in the game is very different to that of the hundreds of guardians taken over by ganon's malice not only do the colors of tarako's eye and circuit change but the entire shell takes a blackish appearance this corrupted guardian is different from the rest it too has a consciousness of calamity but it acts as a mother brain or hive mind of the bunch this is breath of the wild's calamity ganon now referred to as harbinger gamut each has their own memories and this is why we see harbinger gannon act the way he does the alternative timeline of age of calamity drastically changes its sequence of events as ganon forms his whole plan around past memories to ensure that history repeats itself with hyrule's destruction to accomplish this he targets certain pieces on a hypothetical chessboard in hopes of manipulating the final outcome three variables in particular stick out to him princess zelda the master sword and tarako breath of the wild calamity ganon is significantly weaker after going through the portal as the description of harbinger ganon states that only a sliver of his malice traveled to this new world however he retained all the memories of the old world as seen later on this leads to his first attempt of sealing hyrule's fate get rid of the princess so her power can't awaken the bit of malice which takes over the guardian at the breach of demise was calamity ganon's first move of this elaborate chess game the calamity gannon of this world had yet to appear therefore the chances of this malice belonging to him is unlikely of course this assassination attempt ultimately fails as the hero was already accompanying the princess on her journey but this was only one of the demon kane's plans calamity gannon had a more elaborate scheme cooking during the attack on zelda to corrupt a vessel and use it to carry out his evil deeds that vessel being the inactive terrico of that world as it lay dormant in zelda study he then sought out someone who would assist him in his schemes an individual who with borrowed power worked alongside the yiga clan in preparation for calamity ganon's inevitable return [Music] astor not much is known about asdor other than the knowledge of him being born and raised in a certain village of hyrule he's described as both a seer and prophet of doom possibly connecting him to the fortune teller who foretold calamity gammon's return but aside from that everything about him and his past is shrouded in mystery through a series of events unknown the two combined forces and set out to stop the heroes from altering hyrule's course of history throughout the story astor acts as a mediator relaying information from harbinger gannon to the yiga clan a group of chica now loyal to the calamity after their banishment astor is portrayed as common collected very similar to ganondorf but this facade is eventually broken as the seer's plans are foiled by the protagonists what lies beyond this mask is a delusional and insane man obsessed with power he sought out to control something beyond his understanding and like most villains this ended up being his downfall one of astor's most notable traits is his powerful sorcery able to wield and use malice for various things his attacks against the player in combat creation of the hollows which copy the abilities and appearance of the champions and resurrecting the blights he does so with his orb which closely resembles a giant ancient core one of the parts found in guardians including terraco and harbinger gannon this along with the fact that constellation-like patterns appear when used suggest it is of shika origin and while useful to aster it appears useless to calamity again in itself as he crushes it absorbing the seer at hyrule castle it's likely this orb acts as a connection or gateway to harbinger ganon's malice so others such as aster can use it as it solely serves as a link to calamity ganon's power source there is no need for such an item once aster is out of the picture what's interesting about malice and age of calamity is that nothing contradicts what's already been established within breath of the wild as a matter of fact when you break down how it works it reinforces some previous thoughts and theories on the substance age of calamity introduced us to the hollows malice made clones of the champions first appearing in korak forest at first it's only copies amita daruk or bosa and nirvali but later we see a hollow version of link what makes hollow so interesting is how they are only seen in age of calamity so why didn't they appear in breath of the wild the simplest answer is because cory tecmo wanted to introduce some new enemies into the game but given this game's story there is a canonical explanation to this which makes a lot of sense it's important to remember that harbinger ganon comes from a timeline where the great calamity has already happened hyrule castle and its town have fallen and the blights have taken over the divine beasts most likely killing the champions at this point were the hollows made because ganon traveled from a timeline where he had already fought them and therefore could replicate their combat abilities remember that calamity gannon has a connection of sorts to the malice he uses meaning that the four blights are a part of him this explains the similarity in title described as scourges and why each one must be defeated before fighting calamity ganon himself plus he shares similar attacks and weapons to the blights whatever the blights see ganon sees it could explain why the boggs and malice have eyes so that the calamity can keep watch on the heroes at all times the memories of fighting the champions carried over to this new timeline where he was able to construct the hollows to use as his pawns so what about hollow link technically he did have some battle experience with the guardians of breath of loud's timeline when fleeing the castle so the memories of that may have carried over if each corrupted guardian has the same connection to the calamity as the blights but even if it didn't hollow link doesn't appear until aster attacks koga and suga at hyrule field remember that link had fought the hollows at quark forest in both cutscene and battle with aster his powers and abilities may have been studied there to later recreate a hollow version of the hero as a matter of fact in the midst of battle aster states that link's power is his for the taking harbinger ganon's past memories also explain why he took over the terracote of that timeline since he knew it was stored in princess zelda study it's something worth mentioning though it has no relevance to the overall theory what has to be the darkest part of age of calamity is what happens near the end of the game backed into a corner astor and calamity ganon betray the eager clan and use the souls of the now deceased soldiers to revive the four blights something similar is later done to astor himself who is absorbed by the calamity transforming him into a more complete form it's definitely one of zelda's darkest moments and that's saying a lot given the events of breath of the wild another thing to note is how the form calamity ganon takes may depend on what's absorbed the cocoon above the sanctum and breath of the wild is strewn with guardian parts and the form calamity ganon takes is that of a spider a combination of shika weapons and machine parts all fused together by malice same thing goes with age of calamity since ganon appears as a bipedal figure after absorbing astor in the zelda series using one's life force as a source of power is something we've seen on multiple occasions the adventure of link states that ganon's followers are trying to kill link so they can sprinkle his blood on the demon king's ashes bringing him back to life if the player dies at any point they're given a game over screen which also says return of ganon princess zelda is kidnapped in the oracle games to light the flame of despair later to be killed by twin rova so her body can be used as a vessel for ganon in minishcap vati attempts to extract the light force from zelda so he can become a god and the japanese refers to both the light force and life force as simply force implying that both are the same thing and something similar happens in phantom hourglass when tetra is turned into stone and her life force is absorbed by bellum i believe it's likely that what's being absorbed by harbinger gannon isn't the soul of the person well technically it is but that's sort of a vague term what if the target isn't necessarily their soul or life force but malice age of calamity has several quests for each of the unlockable characters in the game and one of those characters happens to be calamity gannon all of his quests follow the same pattern ganon craves the power of a certain monster or item which once obtained makes him stronger some examples include him craving elemental power from some choo choos and the power of a lionel all the quests end stating that by absorbing the malice calamity ganon has gained more power and three of these quests have the term life force in the quest title and no context is missing or changed in the localization as the direct translations for the most part remain the same one of the stranger ones is otherworldly malice where the calamity wants power that isn't of this world this is referencing the ethereal stones which according to the game most likely exist because terrico traveled between worlds it's possible that these stones are somehow linked to the original timeline and ganon can extract malice from that world through the stones but that's just me spitballing other items he demands are star fragments and diamonds and to be completely honest i have no way of explaining those point is harbinger ganon is capable of absorbing the malice of others to make himself more powerful and aster specifically says that koga and suga's deaths would be blood sacrifices for the calamity linking back to zelda 2 one of the main series titles where death was required to regain power if this is true and malice is being absorbed perhaps calamity ganon specifically targeted the ego and asked her because of their hatred within the zelda series malice is a byproduct of one's well malice the more hatred an individual has the more malice can be produced and therefore the more power they possess in that regard anyone can create malice just like how anyone can produce gratitude crystals or evil crystals and skyward sword it's a physical byproduct of one's emotions if strong enough of course ganondorf and demise harbor the most malice since it's been said their hatred never perishes it can only grow stronger to become what we see in breath of the wild 2's trailer the yiga's past with the royal family makes them the perfect source of malice as the grudge felt is what made them side with calamity yannon after their banishment more anger and hatred means more malice for the calamity to use and astor goes from common collected to irritation with the heroes to full-on madness by the end at this point his soul would no doubt hold an incredible amount of malice which after noticing causes harbinger gannon to absorb him chances are this is how he managed to gain power throughout the story and while this leads into speculation i propose that calamity gannon had an ulterior motive in working with the yiga clan they are tasked with doing certain jobs throughout the game while asdor and harbinger gannon operate in the shadows but remember that the calamity's power was extremely weak as only a bit of that malice traveled through terrico's portal perhaps ganon worked with the yiga specifically so he could have access to a stable source of malice their malice and was absorbing their souls or life force long before the great calamity we see this happen in the story but what's to say this is the first time asdor and harbinger gannon did this out of desperation since their powers were diminishing but one can only wonder if this was calamity ganon's plan from the very start [Music] so we've discussed the origins of the hollows and how the use of malice and age of calamity makes sense this all leads back to the fact that this game has two calamity ganons one from breath of the wild and age of calamity first off the idea that breath of the wild's ganon is active in both timelines at once is genuinely terrifying in both calamity ganons act independently as their memories differ from one another harbinger is described as a catalyst because that's the whole point of him in the game to speed up the process of the great calamity and we don't see the calamity ganon of this world until said events occur now although each one has separate minds and memories it wouldn't be surprising if they were somehow linked in a way not the exact same but having the ability to transfer information logically this makes sense since harbinger's entire plan revolves around those past memories thanks to terracote the protagonists find the exact date of calamity's return and to counter that harbinger ganon needed a way to communicate with the other ganon this is where things get complicated because you'd think that the great calamity happened before zelda's 17th birthday but according to the game it happened on the same day rivali's journal in breath of the wild tells us that the events happened around sunset and judging from the lighting it looks like it's around the same time an age of calamity but given how the characters react to these events along with harbinger's title containing the word catalyst were expected to believe the events started before breath of the wilds did the last piece to this whole puzzle comes from the final boss yes boss not boss says after consuming astor harbinger transforms into the calamity ganon which serves as the game's final boss it shares the same title as dark beast ganon hatred and malice incarnate and since the calamity is averted once this threat is destroyed it means that at some point the two of them merged into one we get a glimpse of calamity ganon spectral form before it's hit by the divine beast lasers however it's not killed as a blood moon restores its power but this is the last time age of calamities ganon is ever seen astor and harbinger gannon are already at the castle waiting for the heroes so it's possible that the two merged before this but if i had to pinpoint a specific time from the game it would be just before harbinger gannon's fight in the gatehouse before you fight the final boss in breath of the wild he's within a cocoon hanging on the ceiling of the sanctum the fight begins once he breaks free and drops down this is exactly how harbinger gannon begins his battle the corrupted guardian haines upside down on the roof attached to pools of malice there's a direct parallel here between both games and it's why he could have merged himself with the original calamity then absorbing asdor was simply the final step in his plan transforming him into the monstrosity we fight saving hyrule once and for all and that just about sums it all up i may have missed a couple details when researching for this video but you'd be surprised just how much age of calamity offers in terms of malice lore best part about it is that nothing really contradicts what's already established in breath of the wild there's a couple more things to add here which fall under heavy speculation two calamity ganons in a single timeline may explain why the blights are much more powerful and since the blood moon event is directly tied to the calamity maybe harbinger forced a blood moon to save calamity ganon after he was hit with the divine beast lasers as i said before these are loose thoughts that don't have much evidence to back up i hope you enjoyed the third part of this unofficial quote-unquote malice series there's a good chance we'll be back with a part 4 once a sequel to breath of the wild 2 releases since malice is one of my favorite topics to discuss in zelda special thanks to xenogamer for joining me on this one and his channel link will be in the description along with a video on his channel regarding breath of the wild sequel the usual links to discord and twitter will be down below along with my patreon page i've been nintendo black crisis and i will see you all next time [Music] you

Channel: NintendoBlackCrisis

Views: 125,839

Keywords: breath of the wild, breath of the wild 2, botw 2, botw sequel, age of calamity, hyrule warriors, malice, beware the malice, fear the malice, astor, calamity ganon, ganondorf, fortune teller, analysis, theory, release date, teaser, malice theory, nintendoblackcrisis, xenogamer, life force, ancient cistern, demise, dark beast ganon, zelda theory, canon, alternate timeline, secrets, mysteries, harbinger ganon, astor death, yiga clan, kohga, sooga, skyward sword, legend of zelda, timeline

Id: n_8ceov7_C8

Length: 21min 18sec (1278 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 28 2021