The Horrifying Truth of the ReDeads... (Zelda Theory)

the dim flickering light of na'vi did little to cut through the blackness the dark here was thick not even simply an absence of light it was heavy like a great blanket laying the dead to rest in their stone coffins link moved through the oily gloom with purpose the fate of a kingdom above rested on his shoulders which was still just the small frame of a child yet carried the weight of the world the hard stone of the crypts floor beneath his boots was the only guide the hero had through the darkness the darkness that cloaked long-forgotten graves the silence here was deafening only broken by the short sharp breaths of the boy from the forest and the soft sound of the leather of his boots on the stone tiles but suddenly the silence ruptured like a rock dropped into a steel pool the sound of stones scraping together cut through the Toon Link turned and to his horror a coffin had been sealed tightly shut seconds ago had been prized open the great stone lid shifted some two feet from the base with nothing but more darkness inside just as the heavy silence began to creep back into the crypt it was shattered entirely by a blood curdling shriek and shadows a gaunt figure stood staring at Linc and a chill ran down his spine as he remembered the warning at the entrance to the grave those who break into the royal tomb will be obstructed by the lurkers in the dark [Music] in the deepest darkest catacombs below Hyrule lurking in the shadows corpses move in the cold black their decrepit faces hidden behind old wooden masks their flesh pulled tightly over a framework of ancient bones the redeads shuffled through the darkness waiting for an unwary traveler to enter their domain if you've ever played a Zelda game you know that very few things compare to the sheer terror of having a redead lock eyes with you across a dark room and that blood-curdling scream these zombie lighting nightmare creatures lurking cold twos and labyrinths deep below the otherwise bright and happy kingdom of Hyrule the redeads have appeared in ocarina of time whether found primarily in the dark catacombs below Kakariko village in Majora's Mask primarily in the shadowy ruins of ikana Valley and in the Wind Waker primarily in the Forgotten earth temple and they also appear in Triforce heroes - if you count that but let's be real no one counts Triforce heroes enemies called redead knights appear in Twilight princesses arbiters grounds though their English name is a mistranslation and they're actually give dos a similar but separate zelda enemy but wherever and whenever they appear one thing is always true of the redeads they're absolutely terrifying despite the fact that they've only appeared in a few games they're some of the most popular zelda enemies of all time just due to how most of us who played zelda games as kids was scarred forever by these undead and nightmares but since they've only appeared a handful of times the redeads are still shrouded in mystery what are they are they zombies or are they animated clay like the Smash Bros series that have you believe who created them and why let's delve into darkness and try to dig up the dark truth behind the redeads a secret that makes these already horrifying enemies even scarier so the redeads obviously appear to be zombies which we can tell from their appearance in Ocarina of Time and in the Waker in most of their appearances they're brown in color skeletally thin unnaturally tall zombie-like figures wearing an eerie wooden mask with two black eye holes and a third hole through which we can see their yellowing yet creepily human teeth in the Wind Waker however redeads appears slightly differently their turquoise in color and they don't wear a mask instead having strange tribal tattoos and large pierced ears with golden hoop earrings redeads always function similarly they hide in the darkest areas of Hyrule and if link gets too close will paralyze him with a scream before latching on to the petrified hero and biting him so they're zombies right they look like human corpses and they bite link well that's a bit of a mystery super smash bros melee while being non-canon to the Zelda series mentions that redeads are simply animated magic rather than the Living Dead Smash 4 goes one step further saying that redeads are clay monsters fashioned in the shapes of humans Triforce heroes would support this in this game while they look similar to their previous appearances with a haunting mask and gaunt brown bodies they can actually melt into the floor and quickly travel around as if they're made of something malleable like clay more evidence to support this comes from their masks which bear an uncanny resemblance to Hannah WA ancient Japanese funeral ornaments that were placed outside graves likely to help protect the dead and serve as a marker for the resting places of the deceased because of how old Hannah WA are their true purpose is unknown but commonly accepted theory is that they served as separating the dead from the living marking the boundaries between life and death and magically protecting the pure resting places of the deceased from the impure space of the living hanno are shaped like warriors would have defended the dead from harm and is possible that the ancient Japanese believed the souls of the deceased would inhabit these figures jus Tejano are being placed primarily in great tombs it's likely that only the remains of the incredibly wealthy and powerful would have been watched over by these clay audience these ancient figurines were molded from clay and it's clear that the redeads masks were inspired by them heavily because the redead are based on these clay figures from ancient Japan it would make sense for them to be made of clay themselves and animated through some sort of dark magic just like the smash bros series states but while it's obvious that the redeads were inspired by this clay pottery it doesn't make sense for them to be made of clay themselves the earliest point in the series where redeads can be encountered is the Royal Family's tomb in the Kakariko graveyard from ocarina of time the grave in which link can learn the sons song and before learning it link reads an inscription a poem which describes the uses of the song the Rising Sun will eventually set a newborn's life will fade from Sun to moon moon to Sun give peaceful rest to the Living Dead this poem is describing the purpose of the sun's song the Rising Sun will eventually set a newborn's life will fade both lines describing the passage of time but the poem also describes the secondary use of the sun's song give peaceful rest to the Living Dead this is obviously referring to how the Sun song can paralyze redeads and give doze stunning them with its light and allowing link to gracefully end their horrifying existence but if the redeads were simply figures made of clay and animated by magic they wouldn't be described here as living dead so the mystery deepens restless souls wonder where they don't belong bring them calm with the sun's song this line too also describing the use of the sun's song refers to the redeads as more than magical clay they're restless souls people who've died but due to some unholy magic are kept from death hyrule encyclopedia goes one step further calling redeads mummified corpses and the original ocarina of time artwork clearly shows bones sinews and veins under the redead skin showing that they're clearly more than clay and as their name implies there again or perhaps reanimated dead these restless souls inhabiting their living dead bodies elude death until link lays them to rest the same royal tomb also features skeletons who warned of the redeads those who break into the royal tomb will be obstructed by the lurkers in the dark and tell link to shine light on the living debt linking back to their masks inspired by Japanese haniwa we can actually wear one of these terrifying things in ocarina of time through the mask trading sequence the spooky mask it's used to scare people into different dialogue dan pay the gravekeeper for example will ask if you know what sort of mask it is and if so why you're still wearing it the lake scientist will identify his origin view though it was fashioned apparently from the wood from a coffin visually it's obviously meant to be the exact same mask worn by the game's redeads so we know that the redeads are the mummified walking corpses of long dead people and that they wear masks carved from the wood from a coffin but there's still something missing here a mystery still surrounds these Walking Dead's who created them and what's their purpose if ganondorf's magic caused dead bodies to attack the living why would they wear masks carved from coffin wood and be found in secret sealed locations like the Royal Family's tomb before ganondorf's dominion of hyrule why would an inscription on this tomb built long before the events of the game mentioned their presence in the grave if they were created by Ganondorf it's because I think the redeads have a far darker secret a secret that makes the already terrifying enemy even scarier I don't think the redeads were created by Ganondorf or any other Zelda villain I think the redeads are the creations of none other than the Hylian royal family themselves twisted horrific guardians of tombs and sacred places walking evidence of one of the Roy family's darkest most terrifying crimes I think they're living haniwa protectors of the grave created from corpses by the royal family themselves let's look back at the Hanna Hwa I've mentioned that it's theorized that Hanna where were created to defend the remains of deceased powerful wealthy people and serve as a wall between tombs in the outside world and this is exactly what the redeads do they're primarily found in places that have a connection with death and the dead the underground torture chambers of the bottom of the well and the shadow temple the royal families to the ancient long dead kingdom of ikana and the earth temple the earth temple is the ancient forgotten crypt that served as a place for the sage of earth Naruto to pray and infuse the Master Sword the sacred power of the gods we can see across the temple that it's a place of worship but also a place of burial the symbol of the triforce and the symbol of medleys Sacred Harp decorates the temple but soda coffins and skulls even symbols that represent the grim reaper death himself the whole temple is built to embody the parallel of light and dark death and life shown by the symbol of a Sun and a moon combined and the puzzles based around bringing light into the darkness of the temple the boss room where link fights JAL hala is actually revealed to be the main prayer hall where the sage of earth must offer her power to the master sword it's complete with a giant winged crest on the floor the official symbol of the royal family of hyrule meaning that whoever built this temple did it under the command of the royal family the item found in the earth temple is the mirror shield a powerful item which can reflect beams of light the mirror shield found in ocarina of time spirit temple a Gerudo shrine was emblazoned with the Gerudo symbol but this mirror shield found in the earth temple features twin birds and a symbol of the triforce likely inspired by the legendary Hylian Shield and the harp symbol found all throughout the earth temple is also found in hyrule castle despite ganondorf's corruption of the temple with gajala the king of pose and his minions like choo-choos and dark nuts this temple was once a sacred place of worship built by the royal family to grant power to the master sort but we know that at the time link enters the earth temple has been poisoned by ganondorf's evil powers it's inhabited by his minions his malice moblins and pose bubbles and floor masters the readouts here could simply just be yet more creations of Ganondorf monsters lurking in the darkness sent by the evil king to stop the hero of winds right if only there were assigned some piece of evidence that showed that the royal family knew about the redeads that the royal family had placed them here as a way to defend the temple from outsiders the statue the centerpiece of the earth temple is a colossal grinning statue which guards the main part of the complex with a light puzzle but this statue is a redead the ears elongated pointed pierced with large hoop earrings its skin an eerie graying blue lined with white tribal tattoos and it stands there front and center in a temple built by the royal family a warning here be monsters only those who harness the power of light may pass just like how light is used to defeat real redeads whoever built this temple built it for the royal family as a place of prayer and a place of burial and knew about the redeads they built a behemoth statue of one of the Living Dead guarding the lower levels of the temple to intimidate and deter those who would invade it and looking back at the other locations where redeads appear the connection to the royal family just gets stronger the royal family's tomb itself in the graveyard of Kakariko crawls with redeads despite being tightly sealed with a tombstone that will only move if the royal families song Zelda's Lullaby is played and the redeads hair didn't just appear due to ganondorf's power inscriptions carved into stone in it talk about the restless souls in the Living Dead the royal family knew they always need the shadow temple the bottom of the well both torture chambers used by the royal family full of redeads and redeads are also found in the ruins of castle town when Ganondorf attacked Hyrule both Castle Town and the entirety of Hyrule Castle the seat of the royal family were destroyed and subsequently redeads lurk amongst the wreckage could these redeads have been hidden somewhere originally guarding a tomb or a crypt which was destroyed by Ganondorf but this theory goes deeper still throughout the history of the Hylian royal family the rulers have had a shadow the sheikah tribe guarding and protecting the bloodline of the goddess hylia the sheikah are known for their magical abilities in particular shadow magic the sheikah interrogated tortured and executed enemies of the royal family in the shadow temple undertaking tasks so unspeakable that even the slightest mention of the temple is strictly forbidden by the royal family if the royal family were to resurrect corpses to serve as undead guardians who would they turn to to create these horrific creatures the sheikah the shadow folk will der's of unknown magics devout protectors of the royal family we've actually seen the sheikah perform some sort of magical mummification before in a Zelda game in breadth of the wilds where each shrine features a sheik a monk magically preserved to deliver a message and a spirit orb to the hero when he completes their trial these monks are skeletally thin with gaunt gray blue skin strange golden hoops jewelry and white tattoos just like the redeads in the Wind Waker the redeads look incredibly similar to these sheikah monks they're tall and incredibly thin grey blue skin golden hoop jewelry white tattoos the redeads were corpses resurrected by the sheikah to serve the royal family to deter invaders from entering tombs graves and temple using similar magic to that which keeps the sheikah monks preserved for millennia the sheikah at the command of the royal family could have created the readouts just like the earth temple itself the redeads symbolize a balance between light and darkness as with the redead statue the monsters represent dark and light life and death they're the Living Dead a walking paradox creatures of darkness used to serve the light these creations of the shadow folk the sheikah can be paralyzed with lights the redeads are living haniwa created by the sheikah using some form of dark magic to reanimate the bodies of the dead transforming the restless souls into the horrifying guardians of tombs crypts and sanctuaries this is one of the darkest secrets of the Hylian royal family a family who are usually depicted as the benevolent rulers of a peaceful nation but we know from the history of the hyrulean civil war the arbiters grounds the shadow temple that the Hylian royal family and the sheikah at their side have a history stained with blood the horrific truth of the redeads is that they're not evil they're not monsters resurrected or created by the dark powers of Ganondorf they were highly in people perhaps soldiers or just civilians prevented from dying and forced into this terrible undeath for decades the redeads wrought in dark crypts or tombs defending the dead the royal family resurrected these corpses either fashioning wooden masks from coffin wood or decorating them in tribal war paints and piercings to make them more terrifying and stationed them in graves and temples garish guardians of the underworld now we know this it's depressing to see that when they're left alone the readers can be seen to sit in the fetal position both in ocarina of time and to a lesser extent the wind waker the fetal position is a universal symbol of comfort for humans reminding us of when we were in our mother's wombs of warmth comfort and humanity the redeads whose humanity has been torn and now in death they serve as monsters curl up in the fetal position perhaps one of their last remaining human instincts searching for comfort the waking nightmare that the redeads endure as mindless servants in the darkness brings new purpose to Link's journey as the composer brothers poem reads as the hero the healer of the land link must give peaceful rest to the living debt he must bring calm to the restless souls of the redeads thanks for watching this theory it took a load of work to research and put together so a light could be really appreciated or subscribe if you haven't already for more zelda content from me what do you think about the redeads do you agree with my theory on their origin let me know in the comments below cheers guys and I'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: Zeltik

Views: 1,543,356

Keywords: Zelda, legend of zelda, theory, nintendo, switch, cadence of hyrule, new, game, 2018, 2019, breath of the wild, redead, scary, terrifying, game theory, zeltik, music, theme, ocarina of time, wind waker hd, skyward sword, matpat, creepy, creepypasta

Id: eNJsfP_7lbc

Length: 20min 13sec (1213 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 30 2019