The Mystery of the Forest Temple (Twilight Princess) - Zelda Theory

[Music] twilight princesses forest temple is one of the most atmospheric dungeons in the series its entrance is tunneled into the trunk of a great tree which reaches over a chasm with thick ancient branches the doorway is decorated with whittled wooden pillars and beams as well as floor tiles depicting strange designs and symbols but the dungeon itself isn't found within this great tree link passes through a tunnel and finds himself in a dark forest gigantic shelf mushrooms hang from the trunks of huge trees which reach far up into the fog above with empty twisted branches this area of the forest is littered with the same wooden decorations totem poles torches stairs and another ornate entrance into a tree trunk this time though we see a symbol that we recognize the crest of the kakiri this doorway leads through into the forest temple proper an eerie forgotten shrine carved into a colossal tree but it isn't just carved into a single tree the temple is built into the trunks of multiple massive trees deep in a strange forest the kakiri crest is found on doors all throughout the temple suggesting that the children of the forest built this strange place or lived here but the kakiri are nowhere to be found in twilight princess and neither is their protector the great deku tree so what was the forest temple [Music] twilight princess's link travels through both light and shadow you could call him a shadow legend raid shadow legends is a pretty niche fancy mobile rpg there's definitely no way you've heard about it before in raid you collect champions and build a team then take your squad into battle and face off against enemies in turn-based combat each enemy builds up a gauge and when full they're able to attack you so prioritizing enemies closest to their attack is a good move you can use my link down below to download the game on either mobile or pc there's a ridiculous amount of playable characters in raid each with unique skill sets strengths and weaknesses and each 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shadow legends with a link in the description or scan my qr codes to net yourself the epic hero chinoru as well as a ton of silver and other bonuses which will be waiting for you in your inbox here thanks again to raid for the sponsor the forest temple is twilight princess's first dungeon the beginning of link's quest to rebuild the fused shadow long before the events of the game a powerful race known as the twilight lived in hyrule with their powerful magic they sought to take the triforce for their own the goddesses intervened however and the light spirits imprisoned them within the twilight realm where they remained until ganondorf began his manipulation of zant and took control of the twilight who uses his army when the twilight was sealed away so was their most powerful magic an artifact of unimaginable power known as the fused shadow was split into four shards by the spirits three of which were locked away in various places across hyrule and the fourth passed down through the generations of the twilight one of these shards was sealed within the forest temple and its dark power corrupts the deku baba into the twilight parasite's dayababa a monstrous three-headed creature which pollutes the tree around it once the parasite is destroyed the poisoned water clears and the fused shadow is released it's strange that this fused shadow is found here in a temple in the deep woods which seems to be home to nothing more than monkeys it seems that two other pieces of the fused shadow were entrusted to the gorons and the zora much like how the goron's ruby and zora's sapphire were protected by the races during ocarina of time gorkoron explains that within their minds the gorons have a treasure which was entrusted to them by the spirits a treasure which corrupted their leader as soon as he touched it obviously referring to their shard of the fused shadow the third shard is found within the lake bed temple a place obviously built by the zoras it's known as a sacred place to their people where rituals took place and their symbol decorates the interior of the shrine for a piece of the fused shadow to be found here it makes sense that the zora like the gorons were entrusted with its protection so why is the first shard found within a mostly empty temple overgrown and forgotten within the deep forest it would make sense that this fused shadow piece was like the others guarded by someone within this temple there are two obvious candidates the kokiri whose symbol is carved into most doors throughout the structure and the monkeys who are now the only intelligent life found within it the kokiri first appear in ocarina of time their childlike spirits under the protection of the great deku tree an ancient benevolent deity who watches over the forest the great deku dream gave life to the kokiri and is implied that his death will eventually lead to their deaths too shortly before ocarina of time ganondorf attempted to extort the kokiri emerald from the great dekutri and cursed a deity when he refused to give up the stone despite the valiant effort of link who slayed the parasitic gomer within the tree the guardian of the forest passes away leaving the kokiri without the father seven years later however after link purges the evil from the forest temple and awakened zarya as the sage of forest a new deku tree appears next to the husk of his predecessor this decade free sprout was able to grow because link broke the curse on the forest temple which had previously prevented him from taking form centuries after the hero of time saved hyrule from ganon in the adult timeline this decade sprout has grown into an adult deku tree and his children the kokiri have evolved into the koroks but in the child timeline which stems from link changing the course of history by warning zelda about ganondorf's betrayal there's no sign of a great dekutry kokiri or koroks link is sent back through time by zelda at the end of ocarina of time and his actions here cause the alternate child timeline he is sent back to a time before he met princess zelda in a courtyard in hyrule castle which takes place after the curse and eventual death of the original great deku tree while in this child timeline link doesn't travel to the forest temple and awakens sorry as a sage this doesn't mean that the deku tree sprout is unable to grow the sprout explains that it was the curse on the forest temple that prevented its growth and this curse was gandolf's dark power emanating out from the sacred realm into the temples across hyrule by preventing ganondorf from ever reaching the sacred realm link prevents the curses on the temples and therefore allows the dekutri sprout to grow in both the adult and the child timelines while the deku tree sprout likely would have matured in this timeline we don't see evidence of any deku tree alive or dead in the forest temple there are massive trees but the temple seems to be found in a forest where everything is massive there are huge mushrooms and trees so large they appear like cliffs and while the kakiri would likely have continued to live under the protection of the deku tree then nowhere to be seen as hyrule historia puts it their crest is all that remains of the children of the forest instead the temple is now home to monkeys monkeys are encountered early on in the game where one becomes a nuisance to the people of ordon village by stealing a cradle later both this monkey and tallow are captured by the goblins and tallow admits that the monkey tried to help defend him from the monsters later the monkey explains that ever since something happened to their boss monsters have appeared everywhere and the whole forest is weird this is referencing ook a white baboon-like ape who is presumably their leader ook cuts down a bridge within the temple and later attacks link with a boomerang it's revealed that ook's madness was caused by a parasite a huge bug had latched onto his head supposedly controlling his actions without the parasites ook is friendly he appears to help link during the fight against diababa regardless of where ook and the monkeys came from it's likely that his parasite was related to the dark magic of the fused shadow found within the temple and the twilight parasite itself dayababa the female monkey explains that ever since ooka started acting strangely the forest has been filled with monsters suggesting that prior to this the woods were relatively peaceful other than this we don't know anything about the monkeys except that they seem to call the forest temple home coupled with a strong possibility that the forest temple was built by or for the kakiri many fans tend to believe that the monkeys aren't real monkeys at all but another form or evolution of the kakiri similar to the koroks this would explain their helpful friendly nature their connection to the forest temple and would explain the disappearance of the kakiri it's a convenient idea and it's possible but i don't really think there's all too much to support it friendly intelligent monkeys aren't new to the zelda series a helpful monkey named kiki appears in a link to the past and link's awakening oracle of ages features forest monkeys and majora's mask features multiple monkeys one of which is wrongfully imprisoned by the deku having monkeys appear in twilight princesses farron woods isn't strange in fact the light spirit farron itself takes the form of a monkey the monkeys don't seem to know too much about the older more mysterious parts of the forest like the sacred grove describing it as a really pretty wooded area and wondering what's in there despite the sacred grove being accessed via the exact same bridges found within the forest temple presumably carved by the kakiri it's suggested that the crest on their shoulder resembles the kakiri crest but i don't really see it it's possible that the kikiri became the monkeys but it's not a theory i really subscribe to twilight princess's forest temple has obvious similarities to another forest dungeon the wind waker's forbidden woods both are well forest themed both are set inside giant trees both feature puzzles involving wind both give link a boomerang both feature the kakiri crest on the doors and both have a giant parasite based on a baba as their boss the forbidden woods is almost explicitly stated to be the abandoned remains of kakiri forest we can see the kakiri's tree stump houses inside which i've covered before on the channel the wind waker and twilight princess take place roughly around the same time both said to be centuries after ocarina of time but they're in different timelines so it's not a bad guess that the forest temple and the forbidden woods might be the same location in different timelines two different outcomes for the kakiri forest thematically this would definitely fit but in my opinion there isn't quite enough to support it except for the parallels to the forbidden woods the symbol on the doors and the fact that it's in a forest there really isn't much connecting twilight princess's forest temple to the kakiri forest we know that the koroks once lived in stump-shaped houses inside the forbidden woods but there's nothing similar in the forest temple at all if the kakiri crest wasn't present on every door then the architecture and carvings within the temple wouldn't call back to the children of the forest whatsoever let alone show evidence of being their former homes instead the forest temple seems purpose-built as a temple a place of worship most rooms seem to serve no purpose other than for worship like the large chamber in which uk's fought which features nine totem poles or this chamber where a path leads down to a clearing with a single totem pole totem poles are carved by indigenous peoples to commemorate a huge variety of different things gods historical events rulers or grave markers to name just a few the forest temple's totem poles feature the design of a flower which makes sense considering its location what could be a stylized face and more often than not a pair of wings wings are actually incredibly prevalent in the forest temple's carvings they're found above and surrounding certain doors not only this but another design is prevalent throughout the dungeon a swirling pattern this pattern can be seen on most doors and pillars throughout the temple and while it could possibly depict tree branches or roots i think it's more likely to depict another of the forest temple's major themes wind there's even a bizarre depiction of what looks like a humanoid figure arms outstretched from which wind appears to blow pushing back the surrounding trees this isn't an addition to the hd remake either it's found in all versions of the game in multiple rooms i think it's possible that the forest temple isn't the abandoned home of the kakiri but it was built by them as a place of worship for a sacred being in the forest the fairy of winds the ferry of winds is one of the most overlooked characters in twilight princess because we only hear from them once when link obtains the gale boomerang and never again the boomerang itself is initially wielded by the possessed ook and when thrown it has a dark aura and functions much like a regular boomerang would however once ook has been freed from the parasite the gale boomerang glows and then launches into the air suspended in a small tornado leaves whipping around the weapon as they're caught in the wind a voice from the boomerang introduces itself as the fairy of winds who resides within the item now that it's free from evil the fairy has its true power back and allows link to take the boomerang with him and harness the power of wind the weapon spins around the room and flies into link's hands its appearance is polished and ornate with a gilded wooden centerpiece featuring a diamond-shaped jewel fittingly for the gale boomerang it's designed like a wing the fairy of wind's true appearance is never revealed they remain within the boomerang they use the same text effects as the great fairy and the light spirits and their name obviously connects them to fairies who throughout the series are known to augment link's weapons or give him new ones entirely so it's safe to assume that the ferry of winds is another great fairy tier being one who resides in the forest and apparently has control over the element of wind ocarina of times forest temple was originally intended to be a wind temple and the connection between these two elements is often highlighted the element of wind is incredibly important to a forest for obvious reasons and this is the same for the universe of zelda too so it makes sense for a temple deep in the woods to venerate a being who controls the wind the designs resembling winds and wings could have been carved to honor the fairy of winds in the gale boomerang and it's even possible that this strange humanoid figure seen throughout the temple apparently blowing back trees with wind could be the fairy themselves as for the kakiri crests decorating nearly every door in the temple i think that this does suggest that the place was built by the kokiri it is possible that another forest dwelling civilization built the temple and just copied the crest to honor the legendary children of the forest but it's unlikely if the designers of twilight princess include the kikiri symbol on every door in the temple it's probably because they want to suggest that it was built by them so where did they go we've established that they probably survived into the child timeline even if they didn't evolve into the koroks where are the kakiri and where is the great deku tree the answer is unfortunately that we don't know many people suggest that the forest temple itself could be the remains of a dead deku tree citing the sheer scale of the dungeon but all of the trees in and surrounding this temple are giants it just seems to be found in a part of farron woods where trees are just terrifyingly large except for their crest there's no sign of the kakiri or of their guardian deity the simplest answer to their disappearance is that we just don't encounter them during twilight princess perhaps the kakiri are extinct by this point or perhaps they simply retreated deeper into the incomprehensibly large mysterious lost woods the same carved wooden wind-controlled platforms can be found in the path leading to the sacred grove which is essentially twilight princess's iteration of the lost woods saria's song plays as background music it conceals the ruins of the temple of time in the master sword like in a link to the past various sections are connected by fallen tree trunks and it's home to a skull kid who serves as a guide through the forest the skull kid is one of the most mysterious parts of the game a lone forest spirit who calls puppets to attack link but ultimately helps the hero by leading him to the temple of time the fact that the temple of time is found in the sacred grove which seems to be within the lost woods seems to suggest that this mysterious forest has grown substantially since ocarina of time where the temple of time was found in castletown the lost woods are dangerous and ancient ocarina of times lost woods are of course found overlooking the kakiri forest and lead-outs to the sacred forest meadow but they also have paths inexplicably leading out to zora's domain and to goron city the lost woods aren't meant to make sense they're supernatural an impossible forest by design what we see in twilight princess with the sacred grove the ruined temple of time and perhaps the forest temple itself could all be different parts of the lost woods this would explain why some areas within the forest temple seem to be in the middle of a thick dark forest at night while others are in an even larger forest in sunlight the lost woods don't appear by name in twilight princess but they are here the skull kid is a strange eerie reminder that while the kokiri and the great deku tree seem to have gone magic still lives in these woods we can assume that the fused shadow was left under the protection of someone by faron as we know that at least one piece of the artifact was entrusted to the gorons and another most likely to the zora so it makes sense for a third to have been given to the kakiri we don't know how long these races protected their fused shadow pieces but can assume that the pieces only began to really spread their evil influence relatively recently as fire implies that he's personally seen rituals taking place at the lake bed temple which by the time of the game is disused and overrun with monsters the recent unending eruption of death mountain caused the gorons to enter and investigate their minds resulting in darvis's corruption and again the monkey suggests that the appearance of monsters happened just after ook fell under the control of the parasite so it's clear that the fused shadows only became truly dangerous very recently as xanthe invaded hyrule they were always incredibly dangerous for those who dwell in the light to touch which is why the spirits entrusted them to different races who sealed them away the twilight invasion however led to the fused shadows corrupting their surroundings creating monsters like dayababa phyrus and morphil this recent explosion of dark magic is probably enough to explain the vanishing of the kakiri they once built this temple deep in farron woods used not only to venerate a sacred being known as the fairy of winds but also to protect and seal a powerful otherworldly weapon a weapon so dangerous that it may have caused them to retreat further into the lost woods the forest temple remains as a magical place once built by the children of the deku tree now abandoned thanks for watching this video a huge thanks to commonwealth realm for joining me on this one check out his theory about the origin and fate of the ocarina of time and of course a huge thanks to raid shadow legends for sponsoring this video go check the game out if you want cheers guys and i'll see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Zeltik

Views: 662,111

Keywords: Zelda, twilight princess, botw, breath of the wild, botw 2, zeltik, theory

Id: rNt7QUJiiSY

Length: 22min 25sec (1345 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 14 2021