The Mystery of Breath of the Wild’s Last Leviathan (Zelda Theory)

[Music] the most famous and widely discussed of breath of the wild's many mysteries is of course that of the zonai an ancient civilization who vanished suddenly in the distant past leaving behind their haunting stone ruins but others are just as enticing like mecca island a seemingly pointless isle which at night crawls with the undead or the dragons divine servants of the springs which have lived in hyrule for thousands of years slowly drifting through the skies but for what purpose the mysteries of breath of the wild add depth and a sense of wonder to hyrule and today together with commonwealth realm let's look at another of the game's enigmas the third leviathan at the serene stable three scientists stand locked and heated debate the three hylians onya akra and garshin discuss the course of an extinction event in ancient times which wiped out a race known only as the leviathans onya believes this extinction event was an extended ice age but the others disagree accra believes it to have been a violent volcanic eruption and gaussian as sudden cataclysmic drought or regardless of the cause this extinction event did occur and levitans are dead the scientists will ask link to find and draw pictures of their remains found in the gerudo desert the hebra mountains and the elden region and found within these regions are remains which can only be described as leviathan absolutely gargantuan fossils as large as temples half buried in the dirt relics of a lost age when true monsters walk the earth the elden skeleton lies at the edge of the world north of the smoldering death mountain identifiable due to a crowned plate on its skull the gerudo skeleton is found deep in the burning heat of the desert lying amongst the dunes identifiable by additional appendages on its back and the hebrew skeleton is found sealed in a colossal icy cavern in the heart of the mountains rising from the freezing waters taking pictures of all three leviathan skeletons and returning to the scientists at the stable causes each of them to believe their own theory has been proven true that the elden fossil was killed by volcanic eruption the gerudo by drought and the hebra by an ice age the implication behind this is that they're possibly all correct and each individual fossil was killed by a different cataclysmic event which isn't unlikely considering the long and tumultuous history of hyrule however understanding how the levitons met the end doesn't explain the fossils themselves these creatures must have been terrifying dwarfing hyrule's current fauna like the mighty hinoks the tough stone talus or the hulking muldugo even the dragons huge otherworldly servants of the goddesses are almost insignificant in comparison to the scale of the levitis and interestingly the structures of the fossils seem to suggest that all three were whales despite being found nowhere near the sea the zelda series is no stranger to gigantic citations having appeared in multiple games in the series and shortly after the release of breath of the wild fans quickly began comparing these leviathan fossils to the great whales of zelda connecting the various features of each to try and identify the skeletons which actually works one of the most popular of these attempts is this posted here on the zelda reddit by mr makaka which identifies the elden great skeleton as levias from skyward sword the gerudo skeleton as oshas from phantom hourglass and the hebrew skeleton as the wind fish from link's awakening let's begin with the elden great skeleton this one is by far the most simple it's almost one to one the same as levies the great spirit of the sky the defining characteristic being the large plate of the skull including the blowhole on top from which bile site appeared with two small nostrils below while the skeleton's appendages are buried or broken we can clearly see on the south side two large fins with four fingers very similar again to those found on levies and the final irrefutable evidence here is the concept artwork of the fossil showing that it was initially planned to resemble the sky spirit even more including its iconic lower jaw and all fins so regardless of whether or not the beast which the skeleton belonged to really did meet its end as a result of a volcanic eruption it is more than likely that it was levious himself the spirit created in a forgotten age by goddess highly next is where i believe this post isn't quite right and most fans i think agree the post assumes that the gerudo great skeleton could be osha's while the hebrew fossil is the wind fish though the game doesn't support this of course aside from being a massive flying whale the wind fish has an iconic feature a set of comically tiny wings on its back the hebrew fossil features no such wings and the appendages often mistaken as them are actually simply its fins but interestingly the gerudo great skeleton does aside from very clearly having the skull of a sort of whale it features bones from a tiny set of wings on its back again just like with levias we can look at the concept artwork to see the design process behind this skeleton where again it features these tiny wings almost confirming its identity as the skeleton of the windfish a mysterious deity of the skies plagued by the evil nightmare during link's awakening which as garchon suggests was perhaps killed due to a cataclysmic drought resulting in its skeleton being found in the barren gerudo desert so the third fossil is likely oceans right while it's possible i don't think so while the other two skeletons give us clear hints to their identities such as the plated skull of levias or the wings of the wind fish the hebrew leviathan is relatively regular looking almost exactly resembling and admittedly oversized real world whale skeleton which would fit oshas the most traditional looking of the citation deities except for the fact that the hebrew skeleton features one bizarre defining characteristic a strange protrusion from the back of the skull it's hard to see in game due to the fossil being fit snugly in its icy cavern but it is there and it's clear from the concept art that this head spike was intended to be even more pronounced than in the final design not only this but the skeleton was originally intended to have six large tusk-like growths three on either side of its skull somewhat similar to the skull of a sawfish even in game where it lacks these tusks and its head protrusion is smaller it's still very clearly there a sort of crest reaching back from the end of the skull not only does the skeleton not resemble oshas it doesn't fit with any of the other great whales of the zelda series not jaboon or lower jaw punjabu while the other two levitans were clearly designed to resemble iconic deities from zelda's long history the hebrew skeleton doesn't fit it's seemingly the remains of a creature we've never seen before in the series one originally intended to have six large spikes on its head but now simply featuring a strange curved crest atop its head it's strange it would be very easy to design the leviton skeleton which somewhat resembles say jabu jabu most likely the most iconic whale deity in the entire series but the design team opted instead for this previously unseen design unidentified gargantuan skeletons isn't something that the zelda series and in particular breath of the wild is shy of in fact hyrule at large and in particular areas like the gerudo desert is littered with remains of colossal creatures dwarfing link and the ruins they lie amongst it's something i've covered before and has been summed up brilliantly by nintendo black crisis in the past but this gigantism isn't unusual for the zelda universe instead the hebrew skeleton is strange because it's the only one of the three fossils that isn't easily identifiable however placing the mystery of the third skeleton's identity aside for a second if the elden and gerudo fossils are in fact the remains of levias and the windfish respectively the final resting places of two immensely powerful creatures from the era of myth why haven't we seen them more in the series levies in particular appeared during the very beginning of the zelda timeline skyward sword serving as the protector of the skies a creation of the goddess hylia and a deity in his own right levies was a kind and wise being even developing a taste for pumpkin soup until he was infected by bilasite during the return of demise link frees the sky spirit from his blight and is assumed that the deity lives on after skyward sword until apparently he was killed some time before brother wilde in a volcanic explosion the wind fish similarly is a benevolent sky-dwelling deity the one far more enigmatic than levious we don't know much at all about the origins or purpose of this being except that when plagued by the nightmares he was powerful enough to pull link into his dream and the isle of kaholand within which he was trapped like with levies of the link freestyle dt it's presumed he lived on for some time after link's awakening as we see him take off into disguise well at least until the day he succumbed to a great drought and perished in the gerudo desert the question is if these beings remained alive after skyward sword and link's awakening up until the cataclysmic events which killed them why didn't they appear in any other game in the series if they were still present somewhere in hyrule's skies a logical answer could be that they were somewhere above hyrule carrying out their appointed duties as deities of the skies all the way up until their demise but that they were obscured by what's known as the cloud barrier the cloud barrier was projected by the goddess hylia ages before skyward sword as a protective measure against the threat of demise it separates the land of hyrule from the skies above hiding places like skyloft and beings like levios from those on the surface and is somewhat difficult to circumvent link can only pass through it using the powers of the goddess in the form of columns of light created by ancient tablets while the cloud barrier has only directly appeared in skyward sword there is a strong theory that it exists even millennia later during breath of the wild when the dragons spawn or despawn they appear to materialize reform of portal in the sky reminiscent of a whirphole but formed of clouds very similar to the gaps in the clouds for which link can access the surface during skyward sword it seems as if the dragons don't dematerialize when they leave hyrule skies they instead pass through the cloud barrier into the skies above the sky is separated by the goddess hylia in which skyloft and levious resided as the cloud barrier is probably impassable for normal beings without the aid of the goddess it makes sense for the dragons servants of the sacred springs to be able to travel between these realms if this is the case and the cloud barrier remained intact even now then it could explain how levias and the wind fish seemingly vanish for millennia only to reappear as skeletons during the time of breath of the wild these great sky spirits may have simply remained above the barrier until eventually they met their demise whether this was due to them descending to hyrule and being killed by natural disasters or another unknown reason the third leviathan the hebrew skeleton clearly doesn't belong to any of the zelda series great whales but this was most likely intentional while two were clearly intended to resemble iconic deities from zelda's history the third instead resembles an equally iconic element of the series the mysteries breath of the wild takes place in an age so far in the future so many millennia after any other game that all prior adventures are amalgamated into a period of history only known as the era of myth these two colossal creatures levias and the windfish would scarcely even be legends by the time of breath of the wild and it's only us the player that can understand the truth behind their identities for the inhabitants of hyrule these leviathans are wonders relics of the forgotten old world mysteries from an age long past the remains of elder gods so including a third leviathan which even the player from an out of universe point of view can't identify helps highlight the mystery of the leviathan skeletons it could be that it was once another great sky spirit who up until its demise soared through the clouds above like levious and the wind fish but just like anya accra and garchon at the saren stable we're left with only our theories [Music] thanks for watching this video if you liked it leave a like or subscribe if you haven't already for more zelda videos a huge thank you to commonwealth realm for joining me on this one be sure to check out his videos covering what we'd love to see in breath of the wild too over on his channel cheers guys and i'll see you next time you

Channel: Zeltik

Views: 1,262,949

Keywords: Zelda, breath of the wild, botw, botw2, breath of the wild 2, sequel, trailer, analysis, theory, legend of zelda, link's awakening, zeltik, music, theme, ganondorf, smash bros ultimate, release date, nintendo switch, nintendo direct, direct, e3, 2019, forgotten temple, link, wind waker, skyward sword, majoras mask, twilight princess, zonai, leviathan, skeleton, skeletons, stable, levias, sshd

Id: ZlY1ad2q5V0

Length: 13min 59sec (839 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 20 2020