Over the many ages that make up the Zelda
series the hero in green and most recently blue, Link has taken on a wide variety of
evils plaguing the land of Hyrule. Not just your average ground level monsters
but much more powerful foes in the form of bosses. From demonic monstrous eels to infernal beasts
hotter than Death Mountain itself to the stuff of pure fantasy like actual dragons fought
in mid air. It’s fair to say that the Zelda series knows
how to do enemies, especially the boss battles. Whilst Breath of The Wild stepped away from
the traditional format of bosses, instead having more of a focus on overworld bosses,
the evils from the past have not gone forgotten. The bosses of the past often have an untold
story behind them, pieces of lore and history not fully known to the player and one boss
that screams mystery to me, is Stallord. The Twilit Fossil of the Arbiter's Grounds. This colossal titan of a skeleton is the boss
of the 4th dungeon in Twilight Princess the Arbiter's Grounds and whilst based on first
impressions Stallord may seem like nothing more than a badass epic boss fight, there
is actually a lot of history about this foe that we don’t know. Why is Stallord here, what did Stallord look
like alive and in the flesh and the big one… What is Stallord?. That is today's video. Be sure to go grab yourself a snack or drink
and let’s dive into the mystery of the origins of the mighty Twilit Fossil Stallord. To begin we will need to briefly analyze Stallord
and the surroundings we find the beast in. When Link first enters the room we can see
that this is some sort of chamber, a massive cylindrical room with a dipping pit of sand
at the bottom. Upon making our way down the sand we get our
first proper look at Stallord. We can see the stagnate remains of some sort
of large beast. A massive skull, spine, ribcage and demonic
claw breaching the sand. Once Link walks right up to the remains his
new found rival Zant appears and stabs the skull of this beast with the scimitar of Twilight
resulting in the re-animation of this monster. Not to be confused with re-resection which
we will cover later in the video for a much bigger reason. After Zant vanishes the beast begins to rise
from the depths of the sand. What looked like a few broken bones on the
surface emerges into a titan of a skeleton with corrupt red demonic eyes, with the Scimitar
of Twilight still lodged into the skull. We can take a few things from this view of
Stallord. After rising from the ground we can see that
the beast has long arms equipped with claws at the end, which will be useful information
to know later in the video. The torso and spine build are rather general
and normal so there isn’t much to take from that but one of the most important skeletal
features to note is the skull. We get a few good shots on the skull both
from the front, sides and behind. We can see there is a sort of ridged spike
feature going down the skull which would connect to the spine. The beast has large fanged teeth, likely having
more smaller ones when it was alive but due the size of these fangs they've remained intact. This is important for making connections to
other beasts later. Then there are also these doubled horn-like
features which curl and rise to the back of the skull, which is incredibly important to
note so be sure to keep that in mind also. It’s a small detail but there also seems
to be some sort of metal poles or worn down blades penetrating the skull. There is a second phase to the battle which
is incredibly awesome but it doesn’t give us any new skeltal features to note. Although we learn Stallord can now shoot fireballs
at us, indicating towards this monster being some sort of fire based enemy in the past
but we’ll discuss that more shortly. Moving away from Stallord directly, as previously
mentioned the location Stallord is found within is this massive chamber. At first it’s filled with sand but as the
second phase of the fight commences the sand drains and reveals a spinner slot which protects
a massive tower with spinner rails that are used to fight Stallord on in mid air. This reveals to us that the chamber has a
ton of sand below it. Possibly meaning Stallord was formerly a sand
type enemy but I personally believe the sand was more of a containment method but that’s
just me personally. Other details we can note about this place
is that the chamber is in fact very out of the way to reach and has a sort of grand entrance. This could mean the chamber was planned for
containing large monsters as this was a prison after all and enemies pose a threat to Hyrule
but the fact that it’s very distanced from the heart of the prison could indicate the
threat Stallord posed which will be used in a connection point shortly. We do also need to remember that the Arbiter's
Grounds was the prison for the worst of the worst, built far out in the Gerudo Desert
which is extremely hard to access in this interaction of Hyrule. Meaning Stallord was definitely one of the
most terrifying and threatening beasts of it’s time. On top of that, moments before Zant re-aniamtes
Stallord he says the following to Link “For I fear this is the last time I will see you
alive” which whilst could just be an intimidation tactic, it could also mean Zant knows the
dangers of a live Stallord. How would he know this you may ask? Well it’s possible that when Ganondorf was
banished to the Twilight Realm and teamed up with Zant, he was made aware of the tools
to use in their planned takeover. With Stallord being the most deadly one. A tool for their plan. Now that we have a full understanding and
analysis if you like we can begin comparing it to monsters of the past and see if there
are any relevant connections. The obvious things to look for are size and
shape. Stallord is clearly huge compared to the size
of Link so we are realistically looking at Stallord being some sort of Dragon or Dodongo. Two of the largest known creatures in the
Zelda series. You could argue the possibility of leviathans
being on the cards here but the skeletal features don’t really add up as the leviathans known
to the series don’t typically have fanged saber teeth or claws. Firstly, we should look at a creature found
in the same game as Stallord, the Twilit Dragon Argorok. This soaring beast of the skies is the boss
to the 7th dungeon in the game the City in The Sky and shares some similarities to our
landbourn friend Stallord. Argorok has a body build similar to Stallord,
a narrow and sharp skull, followed down by a prominent rib cage. The dragon also has claws but they appear
to be on the feet whether as Stallord seems to be more hands. These could have been wings but Argoroks wings
don’t seem to have any claws at all and rather are just simply wings. So I think that Argorok writes of Argorok. Next, Valoo. Now before we write this one of because Valoo
is seen as a deity and a general nice guy [COUGH COUGH] Dragon. There could be a connection in terms of species. Looking at Valoo’s shape and structure it’s
clear there aren’t any obvious connections but there is one I wanted to point out, the
skull. Valoo shares that same inverted horn feature
as Stallord, although it’s only a single row or set it is an identical feature so it’s
worth mentioning but is still unlikely to connect the two fully. Thirdly and in my opinion most interestingly,
Volvagia. The Subterranean Lava Dragon of the Fire Temple,
Ocarina of Times firth dungeon. The similarities between Stallord and Volvagia
are insane. The Lava Dragon of Death Mountain is a long
serpent dragon infused with the element of fire. Most noticeable seen with it’s red main
of fire. Volvagia shares four key details to Stallord. They both have clawed hangs, yes Volvagias
are much much smaller but that will be explained soon. They both share those inverted sharp horns
coming out from their skull and whilst some may argue that the skull and horns of Volvagia
is more of an armour plate to protect its face that isn’t exactly true. If you look at the dragon's claws we can see
that they are an identical texture and design to the skull. Meaning it’s more than likely part of the
dragon, an exterior skull that has developed onto the dragon as they’ve evolved as it’s
needed for their survival. They also both share the element of fire and
whilst you could argue that Stallord is found in the sandy dunes of the Gerudo Desert, remember
the Arbiter's Grounds is prison meaning Stallord very well could have been brought here. Stallord can shoot fireballs. Then there is the fourth connection, they
were both brought back to life in one way or another. In the events of Ocarina of Time, after Ganondorf
takes over Hyrule he resurrects the ancient dragon Volgagia to threaten the Gorons who
stood up to Ganondorf's reign of Hyrule, the King of Evil brought the ancient legend of
a beast back to life and imprisoned the Gorons within the Fire Temple and threatened to feed
them to the dragon Volvagia to show them whos boss and to send a message to any other races
or groups who dare defy his reign over Hyrule. Stallord was re-animated by Zant who was under
the wing of Ganondorf in order to take out Link. Could Ganondorf seen in Twilight Princess
somehow have known about the legend of Volvagia and what his descendant incineration in Ocarina
of Time did, inspiring him to find a similar beast or further, a relative beast to threaten
Hyrule with again. Knowing Twilight Princess takes place many
ages after Ocarina of Time, evident by the state of the Hero’s Shade who is the same
Link from Ocarina of Time could the species of dragon that Volvagia is have either evolved
or lived on for years to come? I believe that’s very possible. I am not saying Volvagia and Stallord are
one for one copies but I believe they are part of the same family of dragons. The best way to prove my point and evidence
here is through the identification of dinosaurs. Yes you heard that right. You see dinosaucers were typically identified
by each other by their body features, similar to how us humans do now but it was to a much
greater extent with our dino friends. Many dinosaurs differentiated their gender
by body features such as horns or external skull features. For example, many female dinosaurs had larger
hips. Some species had either longer or shorter
jaws, tails and you guessed it, horns. These defining features were even used for
mating charms which we dive in depth too as I’m sure you can figure that out for yourself. The main point here is that whilst many dinosaurs
looked very different, you could often tell if it was part of the same family though it’s
skeletal structure and features. Lookat Volvagia and Stallord, they both share
that identical invertorn horn. Both appearing like armour for their face. Along with that they both have clawed hands
and from what we can see, a lack of feet. On top of all of that, they both share the
element of fire. It’s just more noticeable with Volvagia
as it was resurrected in it’s living form. Stallord is well a stall enemy, the lord of
the Stall enemies. Made of bones but still shows it’s fire
traits during the fight against Link. Could the story of Stallords re-animation
and fight with Link be an insanely deep and hidden reference to the events of and story
of Volvagia and it’s resurrection? No, that’s rather unlikely but would be
awesome. Rather, I believe that Stallord and Volvagia
are in fact connected by species. I think that they are both part of the same
family of fire dragons, they look different in terms of size and extresution of certain
body parts however their features do add up really well. Like the dinosaurs point earlier, they can
look different but be part of the same family which is defiable through their skeletal features. To add to that, Death Mountain seen in Twilight
Princess technically lacks a true enemy as the boss is a corrupt Goron under the control
and influence of the infectious Twilight. The mountains dungeon, The Goron Mines does
not have an evil boss and now that we know Stallord is the remains of a fire dragon we
could say that Stallord once received it within Death Mountain, similar to how Volvagia once
did many ages ago. Now some of you may ask, what about the inverted
horns on Valoo? Well Valoo could be part of the same family
of fire based dragons or even a branch off within the same family tree which resulted
in a different body, arms, legs and tail but kept that feature of inverted horns coming
from the skull. Valoo just happened to be a deity similar
to the dragons seen in Skyward Sword. To conclude and wrap things up, I believe
that the Twilit Fossil Stallord in its prime was in fact a relentless fire dragon akin
to Volvagia. So much so, that Stallord and Volvagia are
part of the same family of fire dragons but due to Stallord being on the larger and stronger
side of their family tree of species, it was contained inside the Arbiter's Grounds in
a far deep chamber, flooded with sand to hold the beast down and inevitably take it out,
resulting in us finding it as nothing more than the remains of a dragon. Thanks a lot for watching this video, I really
hope you enjoyed it. If you did be sure to drop a like and subscribe
for more smashing Zelda content. What do you think, what is the Twilit Fossil
Stallord? Be sure to leave a comment down below with
what you think about the Origins of Stallord and if I missed anything, I look forward to
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