The Complete History of The Gerudo | Zelda Theory

[Music] [Music] um the expansive zelda universe has seen many races tribes groups and civilizations come and go over the years some been present from the very beginning of time and others vanishing at random points of history for unknown and in some cases known reasons every racer group can be found all across hyrule in the current age as it's a rather welcoming kingdom it hasn't always been this way however each respective group of people have their main settlements such as the zora typically been located within zoro's domain the goron's been housed within or on death mountain and the gerudo typically been far out within the gerudo desert but the gerudo have always been a bit of an outsider race not necessarily by choice either you see the grudo have a very complicated history with parts of it which even we as the player don't know or can't explain their true origin is a mystery their connection to the king of evil ganondorf is an interesting time frame to study and their way of life and evolution over the years is also a mystery as they appear to be a dying race by the times of twilight princess and four swords adventures but seemingly appear to be a well-established group cumbreath of the wild point being the history of the grudo is an incomplete one and i thought it would be a really fun idea to make a sort of griddle history video explaining their full history with a combination of facts but also theories to fill in the gaps such as their origin disappearances what happened to them in each individual timeline and so on the inspiration behind all of this is both the new players brought into or back into the series with breath of the wild but haven't been able to play or learn the lore of the older games and b my girlfriend requested that i cover the groudo for a birthday which is actually today so happy birthday babe if you enjoy let me know and maybe i'll do more of this on other zelda races tribes groups and such as i understand the large majority of fans at the moment have only played breath of the wild but have an interest in the older games be sure to remember that this will be partially theories and partially facts as well as that this video took a tremendous amount of effort so be sure to subscribe if you haven't already and let's get to 100k subs very soon now sit back be sure to go grab yourself a snack or drink and send them in to get featured right here and let's go over the complete history of the gerudo in the legend of zelda in the chronological zelda timeline the grudo make their first official appearance during the events of ocarina of time they play the role of a band of thieves notorious for their way of life stealing for a living hiding out in the harsh desert but this isn't believed to be where they truly started off so we'll come back to this rather it is believed by many fans that the gerudo actually originated from the first chronological game skyward sword this is the game in which we learn of her hyrule came to be following the ceiling of demise this is the earliest point of the zelda timeline and we see a few races the gorons the kikui the parella the magma the sheikah and the skyloftians who later went on to become the hylians upon the establishment of hyrule shortly after the events of the game you could also consider the loftwings demons and robots as races but i'm not quite sure to be honest regardless there was no sign of the grudo in the game of zelda origin so why do fans believe they started back here well that is thanks to one man gross if you've played skyward sword you'll know that grace is a bit of a loved character he is a little bit of a meanie at first but ultimately has a really fun personality which shines later in the game but is his connection to the grudo true well as we know ingrid allure there is only one brutal male born every 100 years now it is debatable whether this means every 100 years from the birth of the first male gerudo or 100 years after the death of the current male gordo personally i believe the former but we'll be delving into that somewhere later in the video bruce shares common groudo traits traits which no other character appears to possess in this game he has red hair and golden eyes the two main features of the gerudo it has been commonly theorized by fans that bruce may actually be the forefather of the gerudo a popular theory is that upon bruce landing on the surface and being told by granny that he has a role there on the surface obviously this actually means eddie link but it has been suggested that the role didn't stop there his role was to start a new race the gerudo which if true would actually make the grudo very close to hylians i mean they are more often referred to as the grudo tribe and not the brutal race but nintendo themselves have said both i typically say try personally the point is they do resemble hylians just a lot bigger and stronger funny enough so is gross compared to the rest of the skyloftians another part of this theory is that when demise's curse was laid down bruce was included putin has soon to be race of people in some form of incarnation every 100 years which is why we only see one male gerudo every 100 years but that is just the theory so the theory goes that bruce basically starred the tribe which i'm sure i don't need to display the details on how but you get the point the main point here is that their origin is a bit of a mystery and the only real somewhat solid theory suggestion is that bruce was the first due to his red hair and golden eyes but we can't say for sure although there is one fact to remember about their origin in grudo lore there can only be one gerudo male born every 100 years it isn't actually said that there can only be one at a time but presumably they don't typically live past 100 well most the male gerudo isn't necessarily ganondorf either which is a commonly confused fact he just happens to be the male gerudo of that time frame during ocarina of time twilight princess the wind waker and four swords adventures as in three of those games he is the same man and one he is just reincarnated with the mysterious origins now covered let's get into the first chronological appearance of the gerudo between the very beginning of hyrule and ocarina of time there are only two games taking place the minish cap and four swords they grew to appear in neither of those games which could be down to them not being a very well established group yet but come ocarina of time we finally meet the gerudo for the first time outside the central regions of hyrule lies gerudo valley a blistering hot canyon leading to the harsh deserts outside of central hyrule this is the home of the gerudo across the bridge of the valley is considered grudo territory and following down the slender crevices of the valley we can find the gerudo fortress the home of these warriors during this period of time the grid were actually sworn allies of the royal family following the hyrulean civil war prior to the events of the game the gruders were fealty to the royal family and the desert became under their control however their leader of this time ganondorf had other ideas a common misconception about this time frame is that the gerudo as a whole were evil which is actually false ganondorf was the evil one but as the only male guru of this time frame tradition states that he becomes their leader so the band of female warriors are simply following him they themselves may not actually agree with him but they do follow him ganondorf lies to the king of hyrule early in the game swearing his allegiance to the king but ultimately this was part of his master plan to take over the entire kingdom which he eventually succeeds in which would explain why upon his takeover of the kingdom the guerrilla settlements remain intact and unharmed unlike castletown which was destroyed and overrun zoro's domain which was frozen over and the gorons which were imprisoned within the fire temple however the gerudo his people remained untouched so technically yes the guru are evil but only because their leader is is just their way of life at this point in time to make the male griddle of that time their leader and ganondorf just so happened to have ellen 10 well that is also because he is part of demise's curse aside from the story of the grudo during this time let's take a look at the warriors themselves we know that the griddle are based on amazons an ancient greek legend of an all-female race of warriors this is evident in the game link enters the grudo fortress in an attempt to free the carpenters who were taken captive by the gerdo for being on their land instantly upon confrontation we learn just how skillful the gurudo are they are extremely fast agile and precise sporting dual blades which double as a shield when put together unlike many enemies which can be chopped down in a matter of seconds gerudo warriors take real effort and timing in my opinion besting agreed a warrior is a patience game waiting for the perfect time to strike as going in full force will result in their agility getting the better of you i mean they even pull off backflips like link to dodge attacks most incredible warriors they can be bested by the hero and when that happens the leader of the fort says to link i've seen your fine work to get past the guards here you must have good thieving skills i used to think that all men except for the great ganondorf were useless but now that i've seen you i don't think so anymore the exalted nibiru our leader put me in charge of this fortress nibiru is the second in command to the great ganondorf king of the grudo thiefs her headquarters are in the spirit temple which is at the end of the desert say you must want to become one of us eh alright then you're in from there on take this with it you will have free access to all areas of the fortress and thus she gives him a token granting him permission this quote shows us the leadership they see in ganondorf and how strong their traditions are at this point in time something that we'll see change further down the line following this link can meet naburu in the spirit temple as we know naburu is actually one of the sages that plays a role in taking down ganondorf but i hear you asking mr hyrulgamer how can she be a sage and a follower of ganondorf well nimburu actually had her rebellion against the king of thieves planned as not only had she become the new sage of spirits but also she didn't agree with his ways ultimately aiding linking his battle against her former leader now one thing that we haven't covered yet is who was ganondorf's mother it is said that one gerudo male is born every 100 years but who exactly gave birth to this king well the boss of the spirit temple twin rover the combination of witches kotaki and kyuume kum kyuumi are the surrogate mothers of ganondorf it's never explained how exactly this works but i think this is just one of those things where we have to put our hands up as fearless and video game fans and say well it is a video game this could also explain how ganondorf lives so long over the course of multiple games his mother or mothers were witches at the young ripe age of 400 years old maybe they infused him with some kind of magic who knows this is the state of the gerudo during octane of time but what happens following ganondorf's defeat well we can see the grudo celebrating at london ranch in the end credits but their story doesn't end here as these celebrations are before we go back in time evident by malone being an adult in this scene once link does go back in time to warn the royal family of ganondorf's betrayal he is sentenced to execution an event which we see during a flashback in twilight princess this scene takes place several years following ocarina of time by definition several means more than two but not by many so we can guesstimate this is five years after occurring of time due to their leader being caught and sentenced to execution following ocarina of time it was said that these girdle fled the land and before you ask but why they were celebrating as mentioned that was before willing was sent back in time in the proper time frame they actually flee their desert home and end up in the desert of doubt and four swords adventures but before going into that we first must cover the games prior and the other timeline splits starting off with the downfall timeline the griddle in this split are non-existent i mean unless you count ganon who stems from ganondorf but isn't really they don't appear in a single game which is honestly a bit odd considering this is the split where canon won video game logic am i right honestly i don't know how to explain this i mean maybe in the monster bistro form of ganon he had just lost his mind and rampaged all over the kingdom killing everyone who knows well since that timeline was a bit of a dead end or star you know since it never even featured the grido anyway moving over to the adult timeline this is the split where during the events of walking of time no hero was present upon ganon's attack as a result the gods flooded the land to prevent any further damage thus creating the great sea and the backstory of the wind waker in this game hyrule is no more well it is but deep below the waves of the great sea everyone who survived the great flood seek refuge on mountaintops which have now become islands ganondorf himself appears in this game but the gerudo as a whole don't and before getting into his story there are some brutal remains to take a look at [Music] the forsaken fortress can be found in the northwest of the grey sea a rocky island citadel with beaming watch lights crawling with maublins and bokoblins at first glance this is just a fortress controlled by monsters but this is actually said to be the very same fortress from ocarina of time the gerudo fortress firstly the question i'd be asking is how was it not flooded well my best guess to this would be that the point of the valley it was located within was high above sea level we saw in ocarina of time rather large cliff tops so perhaps the point we explored was rather high up it's hard to believe but and i hate to bring fearless laws again this is a video game we can actually back this idea up as tedra herself talks about how this place used to be the home of another clan of no good pirates referring to the thieves of the gerudo who in other games are technically pirates obviously it's not one for one as this is a completely different video game but the similarities are there both consist of prison cells wooden beams and the corridors the symbolism has definitely changed but we can put that down to this game taking place at sea and this been more fitting sporting two carved blades which funny enough where the weapons of choice by the gerudo warriors which once inhabited this place aside from the fortress we meet the king of evil once again but this time he is the only gerudo present we meet him within the forsaken fortress as he uses it as his little hider whilst he sends the helmerock king to seek out girls with pointy ears seeking princess zelda the fact that he uses this location as his hideout further supports it being of gerudo origin in this game ganondorf plays the role of a man out for revenge from his view everything was taken from him and his people their home completely destroyed and washed away beneath the waves we don't have many interactions with the man himself until the final moments of the game below the waves atop ganon's tower but this is where we understand his pain as he says the following moments before the final boss fight my country lay within a vast desert when the sun rose into the sky a burning wind punished my lands searing the world and when the moon climbed into the dark knight a frigid gale pierced their homes no matter when it came the wind carried the same thing death but the winds that blew across the greenfields of hyrule brought something other than suffering and ruin i coveted that wind i suppose now whilst we don't see any remains of this landing game through the help of camera tools we can actually view this location from below and it appears to be set in a desert washed below the waves likely the gerudo desert from times long ago ganondorf's former home this really ties this fight together this really flies that this really ties this quote and fight in general together ganondorf about to go battle and vengeance of his land his people his life upon the ceiling of ganondorf in this battle the gerudo are never seen again in the adult timeline now for the child timeline following the events of ocarina of time which we covered earlier comes majora's mask now there is a forever ongoing debate amongst fans as to whether the land this game takes place in termina is or isn't real some fans argue it is in the same world as hyrule and others claim it as a parallel to cater to both sides i will go over an answer for each as ultimately i cannot answer that question today but firstly let's take a look at the griddle in this game in the land of termina the gerudo are known as the gerudo pirates as they live in the great bay specifically pirate's cove similar to their fortress in ocarina of time they are housed in the pirates fortress a heavily guarded stronghold unlike tradition dictates we see no male gerudo in this game rather their leader is avio they have a bit of a storyline this time around they stole some zoro eggs from lulu as seemingly skull kid told them that eggs are the key to entering the great bay temple which is said to contain treasure as pirates this was an opportunity part of the storyline is also why we found makuu meku her visa's name dying on the beach as he was a friend of lulu trying to recover the eggs but the pirates had beat him so bad that he died shortly after meeting ling he managed to ask link to finish what he'd started moments before dying following this link infiltrates the pirate fortress to retrieve the eggs and this is where we discover the skills of these pirates similar talking of time they are agile warriors only this time they can be seen to attack in groups one of the eggs is guarded by three gerudo swords women and link must take on all three to retrieve an egg after the grudo found out that all the eggs were stolen or rather taken back by link the grudo set to find the zora in green responsible as link was actually using the zoro mask at this point following this part of the story link later enters the temple but the grudo pirates stupidly tried to follow men on their boat but the temple is surrounded by a literal cyclone i mean i'm not calling their decision making stupid but yeah they got completely thrown out the only other time we see the groot on this game is during the credits scenes as we can see them sailing around the bay perhaps patrolling as we know the gerudo are known to be territorial this is all we really see of them in this game they don't play a huge role rather just part of a dungeon storyline which is really cool in my opinion in terms of lore i previously mentioned that there could be two answers here if we go with the idea that terebina is a parallel world then that answers itself these are just the grudo of this parallel but if we are to say that termina is within the same world of hyrule i believe that these gerudo are to a degree the same as those seen in ocarina of time but a different division if you like or branch they stem from the same origin but over the years travelled and established themselves and their way of life elsewhere in the world one thing we know for sure is that they are not the exact same from ocarina of time as mentioned earlier those gerudo left for the desert of doubt which we will get to shortly it's never explained to us so we do have to speculate here but that is the story of the gerudo in majora's mask following these events comes twilight princess the adventure in twilight taking place around 100 years after ocarina of time similar to the wind waker the only grudel we see in this game is ganondorf well the only confirmed gerudo we'll get to ganondorf shortly but first let's take a look at what's left of the grudo people 100 years following knocking out time the grudo are nowhere to be seen the desert is empty almost abandoned and there are no signs of civilization to be seen out here it does make sense though as the grudo of 100 years ago fled to the desert of dao but there are suspected gerdo in this game or at least brutal bloodline in the southwest end of castletown we can find a little tucked away tavern called telma's bar in here we can meet telma herself and she is our suspected garrido of the bat she shares a few traits most notably the red hair and jewelry it's not a sandstone theory but many fans believe tell me to have brutal blood apart highly in parkerido she has hyaline traits too such as our pointed ears but also sports a gerudo-esque build it's not confirmed but something worth mentioning tell me aside the king of evil ganondorf is our confirmed gerudo of this game and this is in fact the very same man from ocarina of time after link was sent back in time following auckland of time ganondorf was caught out and sentenced to execution that execution is something we see during twilight princess via cutscene the sages impaled the king with their blade but the power of the triforce within him allowed him to break free from his shackles and murder one of the sages before more damage could be done the remaining sages quickly banished him to the twilight realm which is somewhere they thought he would be gone for good however they were wrong within this plane of darkness where the light doesn't shine and the sun doesn't rise ganondorf met zant combining their powers they broke free of the realm and began their invasion on hyrule with the power of twilight infecting the land in a thick cloak of darkness the story of twilight princess is phenomenal and one of the things i love about it is that we don't meet ganondorf until the very end of the game we chase his puppet worker zan up until the end when we can finally confront the king of evil as he sits on the hylian throne as the thunder crashes behind him princess zelda held high above trapped within ganondorf's power thus kicking off what in my opinion is the greatest final boss battle in all of zelda ganondorf possessed princess zelda and forced link to fight her he then turned into his bestial form dark beast cannon not a good version of it anyway then after demolishing hyrule castle we fight him on horseback in hyrule field to finally get a one-on-one jewel in the open grass the guru king puts up a sensational fight but ultimately link triumphs and pushes the master sword directly through his chest in the same spot the sages did long ago thus putting the king to an end killing him putting evil from 100 years ago to bed once and for all and this is an interesting thing to think about it was said that a grudo male is born every 100 years this is the same ganondorf around 100 years later so clearly he lives this long this is what i meant earlier by perhaps his surrogate mothers infused him with some sort of magic to allow him to live longer as he definitely hasn't aged that much it's just something interesting to think about following these events we come to the end of the child timeline with force art adventures the garuda way of life at this point in time is rather complicated after their leader's arrest and planned execution between ocarina of time and twilight princess they left the desert for a new home the desert of doubt this game takes place hundreds of years after ocarina of time and after finding this new home they began working on restoring their relationship with the hylians by denouncing their former leader during ocarina of time following the civil war the grudo were under the impression that they were allied with the hylians only for ganondorf to change his mind and betray that agreement by the time of this game the grudo want things to be peaceful and well between the groups as a result of this they are no longer hostile to outsiders and rather welcoming people they live rather nomadic lives living in tents out in the desert the desert pyramid is considered sacred and holy to the brutal people as it holds the trident an extremely powerful relic by grudo law it is forbidden for anyone to enter this is where ganondorf comes into play he was reborn into the world the second ganondorf we know the man seen in ocarina of time the wind waker and twilight princess is all the same man but this is a new ganondorf however he was expelled by the griddle and also explored the forbidden pyramid and eventually reaching the sacred trident but upon touching it he turned into a beast ganon in this time frame gannon is a manipulative monster he tries to cloak the world in darkness using his newfound powers and even tricks link into releasing vati from the four sword this beast wrecks havoc across the land after becoming ganon he becomes less gerudo and more well beast but gorilla nonetheless using the dark mirror which he also stole he summons darkling he absorbs the powers of the shrine maidens and he even turns the knights of hyrule into demons this is arguably the grudo king's strongest appearance so far is it takes a light arrow to slay the beast a battle which takes place in the dark world below the tower of winds following the demise of this beast this is the last we see of the gerudo in the zelda timeline that was until breath of the wild [Music] the era of the wild takes place far far beyond the rest of the zelda timeline whilst the land doesn't visually look overly advanced compared to times long ago this is believe it or not thousands of years forward in this timeframe the gerudo are a very well established group their home can be found in the middle of the griddle desert and there's a well-built sandstone haven this place is beautiful whilst being far far in the future from their days of the past their tradition has stayed alive in terms of being a fully female group gerudo town is strictly for women only and this is made clear by trying to enter as good old link you know the hero of hyrule even he isn't allowed in and will be instantly removed from the premises if he enters link can enter with a disguise however which whilst breaking the law is necessary to save in hyrule so it's all good in the end the gerdo leader of this time frame is reiju the 12 year old leader who was essentially forced into the role upon her mother's unexpected death there are two things to make very clear one regia's mother is not urbosa it is believed that they could be distantly related and probably are but regia's mother passed away shortly before link woke up secondly reedu is a literal child don't sexualise her i've seen it happen and it really annoys me moving on upon meeting lady riju we learned that the grudo thunder helm was stolen by the yiga clan kicking off a questline where link must retrieve it from the eager clan hideout once retrieved lincoln entered the vine beast's van o boris which is actually a reference to naboru with regia's help as she can use the helm to harness her thunder power in order to take the divine beast down this is the main storyline of the grudo here but there are actually a lot of interesting details to know about their way of life now as you can tell they aren't a hostile group whatsoever at this point in time but don't think that they have lost their warrior-like traits they still have massive bill warrior women with a dedicated space for training and we can even see their abilities in both age of calamity and the memories for one we see lady a poster herself tackling two yiga foot soldiers with ease whilst walking with princess zelda i mean look at her what queen breath of the wild in my opinion is peak gerudo i mean just look at them what a queen one of the things i love about them in this time frame is that they can be found all over the land in past games you'd maybe find one or two gerudo at most out with their home but in this day and age you can find them all over the place even after the calamity some want to travel and explore whilst others are seeking a male partner to procreate with and we even see this in a questline actually which is one of my favorite quests i find this really interesting as it was never something we saw in past games and breath of the wild really expands upon their way of life not just explaining it to us but visually showing us which for someone who learns better with visuals was very much appreciated whilst the current age of gerudo is amazing their past in this time frame is also interesting we know the story of breath of the wild by now the clam they struck 100 years ago and wiped out most of the land but funny enough the guardians never reached the guru desert however their former leader lady orbosa was killed in action within her divine beast arbosa was a true warrior a true leader and a true gerudo she was said to be close friends with zelda's late mother with some fans even suggesting they were a little bit more than friends but that's for another day and almost nurtured the princess filling in the motherly role following her death we don't know how many leaders came into command but what we do know is that regu's mother was one of them or the only one but died not long before link woke up it has been theorized that her mother has been theories it has been theorized that reedu's mother was assassinated by the yiga clan which is how they stole the hair loom but that's purely speculative this is why riju fell into power so young because her mother died presumably her mother wasn't too old at this point so i'd guess that there was a leader or two between her bosa and regiu's mother the history of the grudo during this timeframe is rather complex but something that is completely unknown entirely is where is the male grudo this time well prior to the reveal of breath of the wild too we had no clue oh that rhymes the closest thing to a grudo male would have been calamity ganon which does have some of ganondorf's traits mainly in its face but this thing is purely malice we eventually saw the corpse of ganondorf somewhere deep below the ground in the reveal trailer for the sequel which has raised a lot of questions is this a ganondorf we've seen before where is this has it stopped the cycle and many more but we sadly cannot answer them but it really does beg the question of is the cycle of a male guru born every 100 years from the first or is one born every 100 years following the death of the current if you were to say 100 from the current then this would in fact be holding back the cycle as ganondorf is alive here just contained and sealed by this hand if not it has also been speculated that who else the bit grim that the griddle actually kill the grudo male every 100 years to prevent the past from repeating which could actually be true well either of those two ideas could be true as we see that for at least three generations of gerudo they had female leaders no man in charge which is their tradition but to be honest what if by this point in time that tradition is no more making the male grudo their leader traditions aren't law they can be broken or fade out of existence over time perhaps the whole male griddle thing was scrapped over the years in terms of making them their leader the male guru of this time frame will likely remain questionable until the recent breath of the wild sequel but for now this is the state of the gerudo in breath of the wild to sort of conclude the video one of the biggest things i learned about the grudo whilst making this is that there is so much depth to them from an origin of mystery to following the lead of ganondorf to disappearing into thin air to being a peaceful and settled group and breath of the wild a lot has changed over the years but one thing that has evidently remained is the badass women they are strong fearless and skillful i hope that this was helpful to those who haven't had the opportunity to play all of the older games and wanted to know more about the lore and stories of certain groups again if you'd like to see more history videos like this then definitely let me know but with that this concludes the complete history of the gerudo for now thanks a ton for watching i really hope you enjoyed the video and if you did be sure to drop a like as this one took a tremendous amount of and also consider subscribing for more zelda content what do you think of my presentation on griddle history of course a lot of it is theories and speculation as we simply don't know for sure but i hope it helped you to show more of how truly unique and low-rich the gerudo are leave a comment below with your favorite garudo and what you thought of the video and look out for my replies i'd actually like to dedicate this to not only my channel supporters but also my wonderful girlfriend merlin who is the brains behind this idea it is her birthday today and i asked her if there would be a certain video she'd like to see for it as believe it or not she's my biggest fan and this was the idea so happy birthday to you my love and i hope it is a good one as always a huge heartfelt thank you also goes out to all of my supporters across patreon and youtube i cannot express enough to you how helpful and appreciated the support is if you'd like to join them here at the end of all of my videos get yourself a shout out upon joining and more thinking desert support then consider supporting via patreon or youtube again thanks for watching and until the next time i've been hiro gamer [Music] you

Channel: Hyrule Gamer

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Keywords: Zelda, Legend of Zelda, Breath of The Wild 2, Breath of The Wild sequel, Botw 2, Botw sequel, Botw, Breath of The Wild, Hyrule, Hylian, Princess Zelda, Ganon, Ganondorf, Malice, Calamity Ganon, Triforce, Zelda Theory, Zelda Lore, Mystery, Mysteries, Explained, Analysis, Zelda News, Nintendo, Nintendo Switch, Zeldatubers, HG, Zeltik, NintendoBlackCrisis, RMFH, MaskedNintendoBandit, Croton, Hyrule Gamer, TLOZ, LOZ, Master Sword, Sheikah, Sheikah Slate, Kakariko Village, Link, Zonai

Id: 0-azPU2nIiA

Length: 32min 12sec (1932 seconds)

Published: Mon May 10 2021