Malice Corruption - A Breath of the Wild 2 Theory

[Music] [Music] malice played a rather essential role in breath the wild's narrative not only as a way to explain calamity ganon's nature and how he was able to turn the sheik attack against the kingdom but also as a means of environmental storytelling we've seen firsthand the devastation this hate-filled substance can cause to that which it comes into contact with not only can it possess and override machinery is deadly to the touch but it also seems to be able to sap the life force out of organic life forms rendering once green fields and vegetation dead and decayed in breath of the wild the main focus lay on the influence malice has on technology when calamity ganon houses parts of its malice inside a guardian for instance it essentially becomes part of its global consciousness so technically every machine blight and malice eye you encounter is ganon staring you right in the face a very creepy concept machinery aside we got a few small glimpses of its influence on organic creatures as well the cursed mccobblens moblins and lisophos are said to have been given sort of a life after death devoid of any intelligence due to the influence of malice additionally we encountered one of the three dragon spirits nedra infested and incapacitated by malice four years after breath of the wild cui tecmo spin-off title age of calamity expanded the lore behind malice even further it confirmed that even the tiniest sliver of malice is enough to transfer ganon's entire consciousness and can even transcend time itself it also introduced various malice-based enemies making them even more deadly than they were originally but perhaps the most interesting revelation was the effect it can have on other races besides monsters although we saw the influence of malice on nedra the dragon spirits of hyrule are classified as spirits or deities setting them apart from the average life form and thus it's hard to say what rules apply when it comes to what malice can actually do to them nedra seemed disoriented and confused as if struck by an illness but it wasn't hostile to its environment and didn't even bother to attack link himself it didn't fly around and went on a killing spree as we saw the guardians do hinting that gannon didn't have full control over nedra's mind and body we of course don't know what would have happened to nedra hadling not freed it from ganon's influence whether it would have just stayed like this or if ganon eventually would have gotten full control over it or if it would have withered away and slowly died well as much as the spirit can die anyway enter the most recent addition to the collection of zelda villains aster although we don't know much about the prophet of doom he is revealed to be a hylian originating from a small village in hyrule somewhere a guy who threw the power granted to him by calamity ganon served the demon king in his plan to take over hyrule in this timeline but as is often the case when dealing with ganon aster was nothing more than just a pawn a puppet to be used in ganon's plan and once that puppet's role had expired aster became expendable and his death was not exactly a pleasant one peace in a state of shock and confusion aster cannot do anything but watch as the malice slowly consumes his flesh starting with his arm and then spreading to his face and subsequently the rest of his body until nothing of him remains and he himself has become part of calamity ganon which brings us to the recent trailer [Music] now that we've seen what malice can do to a living person rather than a machine or a spirit we can make a pretty accurate prediction as to the fate of link's arm in the sequel and as a matter of fact we do get a small glimpse of the effect the malice had on his body in the new trailer this is also why the part about aster was important to mention when asta gets absorbed by malice his skin turns black and we see that a similar thing has happened to link underneath the bracelet his skin has turned black as well it's most visible in the shot where he's soaring down from the sky but it's observable in other shots as well such as this one it's even visible when he's wearing the champion's outfit link is seen wearing gloves with open fingertips throughout both trailers yet here one hand has normal fingertips while the other has black ones in the shot of his arm up close we can see the discoloration of his skin as well here it's mostly green but as the glow starts to dim you can see the top part of the scars becoming darker and darker it also becomes apparent that when he's using the hen's power the scarred part of his skin becomes green and when he's not it turns black again so yeah the malice sure did a number on link and it didn't stop at just his arm either even the right side of his torso has angular looking scars all over it showing just how far the malice infection spread and just as a side note these scars on link's body have some pretty strong resemblances to the one zelda has in twilight princess which is when ganondorf possesses her body it also just so happens to be the game where ganondorf first started showing the ability to transform into malice like clouds and house himself or his power into other beings something he wasn't capable of in ocarina of time and the wind waker just some food for thought i firmly believe that had the green hand not intervened link could have potentially suffered a similar fate to that of astor a total spread of malice all over his body until it consumed him whole luckily whatever this being is it seems to have been on link's good side and put a damper on the infection before it could spread any further which i'm sure is also where the bracelet comes into play another thing i've discussed a couple of times during my live streams is that i find it quite suspicious that aside from the shot at the very beginning they never show a clear depiction of the right side of his face in fact they barely show his face at all the closest we get is a part of his right cheek and nose but in every other shot link is either not facing the camera at all or they only show his left side it is a bit odd since we know what link looks like it's not exactly a mystery at this point granted the trailer did mostly consist of gameplay which is generally experienced from the back of the character even in the 2016 trailer for breath the wild we don't see his face much though they do show it on some occasions even in the 2014 reveal they showed his face clear as day same goes for the 2019 trailer for the sequel perhaps i'm thinking too deep into this and it's just a coincidence but i don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that the infection may have reached parts of his face similar to aster he could potentially have some scars around his eye for instance or maybe one of his eyes is damaged or discolored or turned into a malasi similar to ganondorfs which kinda reminds me of district 9. awesome movie by the way now normally there wouldn't be a reason to think this if not for the fact that nintendo has published concept art for breath the wild where some weird stuff is happening to link's arm just like we see now with the sequel trailer and in all these concepts link's face is affected as well it's either bandaged up or straight up looks like a weird deformed mess from the looks of it they didn't go that far since his cheeks and his nose still look normal on both sides but how unsettling would it be if it turns out that link is partially possessed by ganondorf one of his eyes having turned yellow or burning with malice after all in twilight princess zelda's eyes also changed color when she was possessed and we see something similar happening to zelda in spirit tracks when they're fighting maladus an entity who's known for being able to control people's life force also malice malados but anyway that's just heavy speculation for now and we'll just have to wait and see if this ends up being true you might have also noticed that when link is seemingly laying unconscious on the floor he's suddenly down to his boxers again i'm sure this will tie into the reason why link starts out with three hearts again and such obviously they have to somehow set link back to square one again as is always tradition in zelda games an attack on link by malice which has severely scarred him and maybe even zapped parts of his life force would be sufficient as a plot device to get this done the question is from a story perspective how does link suddenly go from fully decked out in clothing to practically naked it's pretty clear that this is still part of the same sequence of events inside the cave and their encounter with ganondorf well again when we look at the scene with astor it's not just his skin being affected his entire cloak turns black along with him of course at some point nintendo decides to cut away after which aster is completely gone clothing and all because you know pg-13 and all but given the nature of malice and how it's able to scorch trees and burn grass away it's not unreasonable to think that malice has some sort of an acidic or flammable element to it which can easily eat through or burn organic material like clothing now you would think that well wouldn't only his sleeve be gone then well i mean we never see how far the malice actually reaches it travels up his arm pretty damn quick and might have reached other parts of his body maybe there's even tendrils of malice climbing up his feet as well we don't know since the shot only lasts a few frames either way the damage is apparently big enough that he ends up half naked and unconscious on the floor which also ties into the last subject of the video which is the fate of the master sword after the opening flash of link the master sword is never seen again all we see him carry after this point is a traveler's sword the weakest highland made sword in the game so something bad definitely happened to it and narrative wise this makes sense the master sword is the one thing that can actually inflict mortal damage to ganondorf in fact link's arm may have not even been his main target but rather a byproduct of ganondorf going after the master sword from there the malice traveled up the blade and onto link's arm and body so the master sword might be either completely gone or at the very least heavily damaged by the malice in breath of the wild we also saw the effect malice has on the sword as creating a champion confirms that these black spots on the master sword are malice not rust which is what i initially thought and that was just from fighting guardians so you can imagine the immense damage this pure bright malice straight from the demon king himself can inflict and again this would tie perfectly into the concept art we've covered earlier here too we can see link carrying a broken master sword in one of the depictions this could even play a central role in the story trying to find a way to restore the master sword in order to get a rematch against ganondorf this could even explain the absence of the deku tree in one of the shots from the new trailer it's unmistakably not there even though if we visit this exact location in breath of the wild it should be visible quite clearly so draw distance definitely isn't the issue some have chalked this up to time travel that this game takes place at least partially in a time before the deku tree was born ten thousand years ago is especially thrown around a lot but there are some big problems with this first is the fact that this ruin we see right here are the ruins of lon lon reg if this takes place 10 000 years ago why would these ruins be here in the exact same state as they were in the present wouldn't the ranch either not be there because it hasn't been built yet or still in a pristine state like we saw 100 years ago in age of calamity on top of that we can also spot akala citadel in the distance another modern hylian building and not an ancient one i'd also like to remind people that if this took place 10 000 years ago the deku tree would most likely already be born and all grown up the deku tree is incredibly old and states himself that he has been around since time immemorial 10 000 years is likely nothing for the guardian of the forest even creating a champion confirms that he is likely seeing countless calamities a more simple explanation for the absence of the deku tree is that korok forest may have been targeted by ganondorf after his awakening and could have killed the deku tree it definitely wouldn't be the first time in ocarina of time it was because the deku tree simply refused to give him the kokiri emerald which he sought after to open the door to the sacred realm but in breath of the wild it carries even more weight story wise one of the lead artists of the game explains that the deku tree taps into the energy of the land which allows for the restoration of the master sword and is why the pedestal is located at the foot of the tree obviously ganondorf would want to prevent link from restoring the sword again so killing the only known being capable of restoring the blade makes perfect sense when we finally get more details about the game in the coming months and into 2022 we'll be able to see exactly what the effects of malice on link's arm as well as the master sword will be but until then i think we have a pretty good general idea it's the details that require a bit more explanation maybe link's face will be screwed up or maybe it's just his arm perhaps the master sword simply drops into the chasm below during the attack and it is zelda who has some sort of a story arc involving the blade given that she survives this fall only time will tell and that is all for now a big thanks to you for watching to my mods who keep my discord alive and monitor my chat during my live streams and of course to my patreon supporters and channel members who make these videos possible a shout out to the newcomers which are as follows nicolas mirage julie eisenring tiny elf sebastian chobar talus roon zaydon dragmar marcelo carmago sah lit 8 bit not so heroic link and zelda connection a big round of applause for this amazing turn up as always words cannot do it justice thank you so much please look forward to a big collaboration theory coming up with none other than the biggest zelda tuber out there which is of course mr celtic himself we are both very excited to present this big two-part theory to you guys very soon so keep an eye out for that this is dawn signing off and have a good one

Channel: Monster Maze

Views: 100,451

Keywords: Breath of the Wild Sequel, Breath of the Wild 2, Breath of the Wild E3, Breath of the Wild Trailer, Breath of the Wild E3 Trailer, Breath of the Wild Sequel Trailer, Breath of the Wild 2021, Breath of the Wild 2022, Breath of the Wild 2 E3

Id: -Iyb8v-dvh4

Length: 13min 46sec (826 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 23 2021