The Mystery of Twilight Princess' DARKEST Dungeon (Zelda Theory)

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at risk of this information being stolen what a VPN or virtual private network does is increase encrypt this data as well as hide your IP address protecting both your privacy and personal information whenever you're connected to a public network another benefit you get when using nordvpn is that it allows you to bypass region blocked content if you're someone who subscribed to a service such as Netflix this is especially useful since you are able to watch shows that would otherwise be unavailable so make sure to go to the link in the description nordvpn.com Nintendo BC to get a huge discount on a two-year plan plus one additional month for free that's nordvpn.com ninton dobc foreign there's a story I heard once long ago it was when I worked for the royal family educating the young Princess Zelda the Gerudo desert once held a prison built to hold the worst criminals this land has ever known the criminals who were sentenced to death were sent directly to the underworld by a Cursed Mirror that was kept in the prison now that prison is condemned and even the road leading to the desert is impassable this desert at World's End it still holds the Cursed Mirror and the malice of the doomed inmates aru The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess arbiter's grounds is the fourth and arguably one of the most important dungeons of Twilight Princess as it holds the mirror of twilight linked back to The Interlopers who according to Legend used their powerful magic to establish dominion over the sacred realm and its Triforce this was followed up by their banishment into the Twilight realm the mirror later being used as an execution method of sorts for hyrule's worst criminals including Ganondorf himself not long after did Ganondorf seek out Zant who used his newly obtained power to invade Hyrule leading to the events of Twilight Princess by definition the term Arbiter is used to describe a person who settles a dispute or has ultimate Authority in a matter however in the Japanese version of the game arbiter's grounds is instead named desert execution grounds but the word Arbiter can still be found on the dungeon map and map of Hyrule with highly in text that translates to Arbiters keep this combined with some in-game quotes already gives us a pretty good idea at what this dungeon was used for in some ways it's similar to The Shadow Temple another dungeon of the series which served as a prison and torture site for those deemed enemies of the royal family however there are a lot of things unique about arbiter's grounds first and foremost it's design many have linked this site back to Ocarina of Time Spirit Temple believing that both are one and the same the former includes massive statues of a woman with a snake wrapped around her neck which may or may not be connected to the goddess of the Sands featured prominently on both the exterior and interior of the spirit Temple a topic which we'll get into later here for now I'd like to focus on the overall aesthetic of arbiter's grounds while the inside of this dungeon resembles an Egyptian tomb with hieroglyphic patterns and traps one may find in a pyramid comparing this to what's present on the exterior portion of the dungeon really makes you question what led to the creation of arbiter's grounds and more importantly who built it anyone who's even the slightest bit interested in history will immediately recognize this structure as something akin to the Coliseum an Amphitheater located in the center of the city Rome it almost feels as if the inside and outside were built by not one but two separate cultures who exactly you ask well it's time for a little history lesson The Legend of Zelda is a series often influenced by real world culture and religion some examples include A Link to the Past references to Christianity and Skyward sword's Ancient Cistern a dungeon filled with imagery linking back to Buddhism however some of this inspiration has also led to controversies surrounding these games one of the best examples being the music for the fire temple in the background a faint chanting could be heard a chanting that sounded similar to an Islamic prayer with part of it supposedly translating to I bear witness that there is no God but Allah another controversy had to do with the original design of the Gerudo Crest as it was nearly identical to the star in Crescent Moon symbol a symbol often associated with Islam in fact the gurudo as a whole seemed to be based on Middle Eastern culture whether it be their architecture weapons or music in Ocarina of Time their clothing reinforced The Stereotype of Arabic women wearing veils curled toe shoes and an overall aesthetic meant to mirror that of a belly dancer and while future games have cut back on these sorts of details it continues to be the main source of inspiration for the Gerudo with much of it coming from ancient Egypt in Ocarina of Time the pattern carved into the entrance of the spirit Temple resembles a winged Sun found at religious sites and often associated with the god Horus in fact one of the enemies in this dungeon is simply named Anubis obviously referencing a jackal-headed deity who weighed down one's heart to see if their soul was worthy of entering the realm of the dead and in A Link to the Past gannon's hideout in the Dark World takes a form of a Great Pyramid as Gannon himself was once Gerudo this is yet another tie between both cultures not to mention that the Gerudo have always been associated with the desert in one part of Ocarina of Time link navigates through a treacherous Sandstorm to arrive at the desert Colossus in breath of the wild the Gerudo Wasteland is just as the name suggests A Wasteland covered in miles of sand going well beyond the map's border not only is arbiter's grounds found in the once populated Gerudo desert but its interior resembles a sort of Tomb filled with dangerous traps and mysterious carving this suggests that the Gerudo themselves were the ones that built this place their emblem is even etched into some of the pillars enclosed within an oval not unlike a Cartouche an oval with a line at one end tangent to it indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name as one might guess this also originated from ancient Egypt plus you know the tons of Gerudo script plastered onto the walls however that's only one half of the story if the interior is meant to represent Egypt and thus the Gerudo what about the coliseum-like exterior while there isn't much to show unlike our Gerudo Egyptian comparison it is implied that Roman architecture is associated with hylians aside from arbiter's grounds there lies yet another set of coliseum-shaped ruins in breath of the wild the Japanese version even calls them the arena ruin site suggesting that they served the same purpose as a Roman Colosseum something else which is rather coincidental is the name of King Rome boss foramis Hyrule Rome Rome even if it wasn't intentional it is rather hilarious to think about so with that knowledge is arbiter's grounds a site that was built by both the Gerudo and hylians both halves of the dungeon are vastly different in design yet everything seems to point to this conclusion there's also the Roman conquest of Egypt to think about so history wise it makes sense for these two to be somewhat related well let's go over a number of theories regarding arbiter's grounds foreign my first thoughts when pondering about the origins of arbiter's Grounds was that perhaps this place was originally a grudo site later taken over by The hylians Who then built over the remains this explains why the interior and exterior contrast each other they were made in different times by different people doing so would also make sense if it were done to purposefully hide the fact that it was a tomb or how it was being used for a darker purpose such as a prison or execution site anyone who passed by would view it as a Coliseum it's kind of like how despite being a military Fortress snow peak ruins looks like any ordinary mansion by doing so it hides in plain sight without raising suspicion however given what we see in arbiter's grounds it seems more likely that this dungeon was built at one time by two different races the hylians and Gerudo not only do Ocarina of Time Sage medallions appear on the topmost floor of arbiter's grounds but four of the six are also visible above the dungeons several doorways meaning that this symbol is found in both halves in fact the same can be said for the Royal Crest of Hyrule appearing in several places including the four torches of the central chamber the topmost part of a few entrances and within the monster base guarding the execution grounds another detail which supports this idea is how while the interior and exterior are different in design both were made using the same materials for example the pillars with the Gerudo Crest on them are found all throughout the mirror chamber portion now's probably a good time to bring up the Gerudo script unlike breath of the Wilds which translates into complete sentences the ones found at arbiter's grounds all read as gibberish an assortment of letters and or numbers without any purpose or meaning aside from Aesthetics kind of like the spirit temple in Ocarina of Time however the existence of the script in arbiter's grounds at least tells us that the Gerudo had a massive influence in this dungeon's creation but what's more interesting is the fact that in addition to the grudo language some highly inscript can also be found on parts of the dungeon specifically the decorative trimming many of these are symbols of what we can assume is some unknown texture language however when you look at Twilight princesses highly in script translations and Hyrule encyclopedia a few letters in particular stick out the first two are pretty much identical to ones on the trimming and I and Z the third and fourth letters worth mentioning are W and L since there is script on the trimming that looks sort of like them though there are things that are either missing or slightly different the one tied with the W has a DOT instead of a triangle with both of its tail ends the same length and while the other's left is almost identical to the L's it's missing the entire right chunk with the hook but it definitely looks like the trimming has both I and z and for those curious all textures brought up in this video also appear on the Wii and GameCube versions oh my gosh is that a zonai swirl the more we look into this dungeon the more it seems likely that it was the result of a collaborative effort between the Gerudo and hylians or at the very least the royal family of Hyrule but is that really where this mystery ends or was there perhaps another group which took part in this place as construction another vital clue comes from the spinner the key item of this dungeon link uses a spinner to Traverse across quicksand as well as right along the walls via a built-in rail system but what's even more impressive is the mechanism found at the end of a dungeon which link uses a spinner on to activate a sequence of Gears opening the way to the boss chamber it's a rather complex system found in a place you'd least expect it to be and to top it all off the only other location that has this contraption is City in the sky said to be the capital of the Uka a mysterious race of bird-like creatures according to Shad these beings are said to have been the ones that created the hylians due to a major translation error this statement is incorrect instead it states that the Uka had created Hyrule itself Chad also says that this race was even closer to the gods than the hylians and that following the creation of Hyrule they ascended with their Capital to the heavens with this in mind perhaps the spinner and Contraptions associated with it were built by the Uka and since this technology is found at Arbiters grounds it's likely that They too had a hand in the dungeon's creation other quotes state that the Uka had close relations with the royal family which further suggests their involvement given that this is where the ancient sages reside plus this wouldn't be the first time the Uka took part in the making of a temple as the Dominion Rod a piece of technology created by the Uka is found in the Temple of Time it's even etched into the dungeon itself along with the word Stone statue sanctuary and master sword Russell even says that it was the ancestors of the hylians who built the temple and that even now the superior civilization of ancient times Still Remains while we don't know much about this race one theory is that they are the same as Minish caps win tribe another group who used their advanced technology to ascend to the heavens like the Uka they too appear to have good relations with the Royal fam family some unused concept art of the Uka also suggests that at one time they were planned to take on a much more humanoid appearance now I'd love to sit here and talk more about why the Ooka could be the wind tribe but for the sake of staying on topic I'll instead have a link to my video covering them as well as the city in the sky previously I mentioned that some believe arbiter's grounds is related to the spirit Temple either the former used to be the spirit Temple which over time underwent drastic changes and was transformed into arbiter's grounds or it was a different place entirely in my opinion it's more likely to be the latter option and to explain why we must look at the timeline of events lyneeru tells us that amidst the people were those who excelled at sorcery and used their magic to establish dominion over the sacred realm the localization uses the term interloper when describing this group and thus this war was dubbed the interloper War it's rather vague about when this war took place though Hyrule Historia places it at around the time of hyrule's establishment and this claim is backed up with information found in game first off the way linnaeiru talks suggests that this conflict happened at a time when the sacred realm's entrance had yet to be closed off this is also one rare case where the gods themselves intervened with hyrule's Affairs one of the only other times this has happened was in Wind Waker since the absence of a hero left the people vulnerable these sorts of problems were exactly why the gods left the duties and protecting the Triforce to the royal family they may have felt a need to stop The Interlopers because it was before the Temple of times construction lastly if the Uka were partially responsible for arbiter's grounds but also ascended to the heavens after the formation of Hyrule it would have to have been a very long time ago as the spirit Temple is seen in Ocarina of Time which happens in between the interloper war and Twilight Princess it's likely unrelated to arbiter's grounds on that topic breath of the wild does have a location named arbiter's grounds within the Gerudo desert so is it the same place I decided to look at the Japanese name for this place to see if it matched with the name of Twilight princess's arbiter's grounds the official name for this place is execution grounds ruins which is nearly identical to our other translation The Only Exception being the removal of desert and edition of ruins as the Japanese name is so close to Twilight princesses in my opinion this is meant to be that same location now buried under tons of sand plus the fact that the word ruins is included reinforces this idea of course we still have the inclusion of the goddess of the Sands in both dungeons assuming the ones in arbiter's grounds are meant to be of the same being but who exactly was this goddess at the very least we know that they were worshiped by the Gerudo so it's likely that they are some deity the most common theory is that the goddess of the Sands is another title for din one of the three golden goddesses responsible for the creation of Hyrule first and foremost din is the one associated with the Triforce of power the piece held by the grudo king ginidorf in numerous games the statues in Arbiters grounds also hold Flames a possible reference to din's fire din was also the one said to have cultivated the land and created the red Earth and a deity named after the Sands would certainly fit the theme of Earth in breath of the wild riju states that vanaburus draws its power from the ground so perhaps the goddess of the Sands is the gerudo's interpretation of the Golden Goddess din or it's an entirely different deity since it's portrayed as a woman it may even have to do with why the Gerudo is a mostly female race the exception being one male every 100 years however this does bring up another interesting question was this individual good or evil I mean it's hard to imagine this being a betrayal of din if it weren't the former Navi makes an interesting comment when at the desert Colossus she states that the face of it sure looks evil while this could be taken at face value foreign I'll just let that joke sit there for a bit okay moving on the wording suggests it's navi's superficial opinion of it the relationship between the Gerudo and other races of Hyrule has always been rather complicated factors such as past conflicts their reclusive nature and life of thievery may have influenced outsider's opinion of their goddess of the Sans to the point where it's assumed that its Origins are of evil with that said in the Japanese version of Ocarina of Time the desert Colossus has a different name translating to Wicked God Colossus Wicked of course being another term used for evil or moral Iran either way this remains a mystery not yet solved but it does make for a rather fitting transition into our next topic foreign for why Arbiters grounds is such a memorable and iconic dungeon varies based on who you ask but one of the most common answers is because of its rather unique boss battle where link faces off against the Twilight fossil Stallard and don't get me wrong this is a very memorable moment of the game however I'd argue that arbiter's grounds has not won but two interesting bosses the other being death sword who prior to fighting link is sealed within a sword once the hero Cuts any of the ropes holding this entity down it breaks from the seal initiating a battle because of this death sword is one of the best mini bosses in the series up there with others such as Dark Link and Phantom Ganon but what about its Origins what exactly led to the creation and subsequent ceiling of this being judging from its spectral appearance death's sword may be Loosely based off of the demon azuzzle the Zelda Wiki goes into more detail about this and although it's speculation the Phantom wielding the sword takes on the appearance of a demonic goat much like Azazel a few years ago zeltic made a video on the topic of who or what death sword was I'll have a link to it in the description but the tldr of his theory is that it may have at one time been Ganondorf splayed not only does it look like something he'd use but the fact that it was sealed away at the same place he was executed would make a whole lot of sense he goes as far to suggest that the spectral entity wielding the blade is this game's version of phantom Ganon a recurring boss found in games such as Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker and while I could leave it at that I do feel like it's worth going over a few other possibilities a detail that's often overlooked when it comes to death sword is ironically the sword itself once link defeats this entity the sword explodes into a poof of black smoke the spirit disintegrating into a bunch of flies which then fly away but that's exactly what makes death sword such an interesting case whenever you kill or other monster they die in a similar manner the body explodes into a dark foggy substance if this is the case for death sword and not the spectral being holding the blade then it's the sword itself that's considered the enemy and when you look at it from that perspective it makes sense why it was a sword that was bound down with ropes and ofuda ofuda being a Talisman often used for protection against evil spirits it also explains why the spirit wielding a sword has such an odd name because death sword isn't the name of the spectral being it's because it's literally a death sword now with that said the Japanese version does have a different name for this mini boss the sword of gobella depending on the context the word gobela may be referring to the name of the person wielding the sword or the name of the blade itself it's not uncommon for people to give names to swords something interesting that was brought up by Laura Lee and historian was its similarity to the word gobero an archaeological site getting to approximately 8000 BCE it was the oldest known graveyard in the Sahara Desert and the interior of arbiter's grounds is based off of a tomb which is located within the Gerudo desert coincidence maybe maybe not so how exactly does this knowledge help with figuring out death sword's true identity and Origins well there are a couple of additional possibilities to look into if arbiter's Grounds was an execution grounds perhaps this blade was the one used to execute criminals and over time their hatred manifested into an evil spirit cursed swords aren't anything new in fact one of the most well-known examples comes from Sango muramasa a famous swordsmith who lived During the muramachi period often his swords are depicted as cursed swords with demonic Powers most of this originates from pop culture and lore during the 18th century many using the phrase Yoto to describe muramasa's blades Yoto meaning Wicked Katana the spirit wielding the blade might even be the Executioner themself it's also possible that death sword is some sort of Sword Spirit similar to Gira him or Phi although there isn't much to support this claim Triforce imagery can be found on the back of the spirit's cloak as well as part of the blade though the ladder is too small to know for certain some believe that it may even be Gira him and while I'm not fully convinced demise's sword also has Triforce imagery on it with that said could death sword be another ancient Twilight Relic that was sealed away at arbiter's grounds well the biggest issue with this idea is that in order to provide a solid case we need to make a couple assumptions for example it's been theorized that The Interlopers and Majora's mask's ancient tribe are the same group of people not only do they share similar backstories described as groups who excelled in Magic and or sorcery each with their own dark artifacts but when closely looking at the two the Iza Majora's Mask and the fused Shadow are eerily similar but how does this relate to our hypothesis the happy mask salesman tells us that Majora's Mask was used in hexing rituals however this power was so dangerous that the ancient ones sealed it away in the final boss fight of the game Majora takes on three sep separate forms and although any one of these could be its true form there's nothing in the game that tells us for certain after all it's an evil being inhabiting Majora's Mask now assuming that death sword was created by the same group of people you begin to realize just how similar the two are nothing in the game says that the spectral being wielding the sword is the true form of death sword and we've already established how the enemy is the blade itself it's more so speculation since we don't know if The Interlopers actually were the same as Majora's mask's ancient tribe one thing that may hint towards a connection though is the fact that death sword share is the same mini boss theme as Phantom's ant hello there final obstacle between yourself and the topmost floor of arbiter's grounds is stalord an ancient fossil brought back to life through Zant's dark magic Stallard remains in the middle of the chamber summoning an army of Undead soldiers to protect his spine in the second phase link uses a spinner to hit stalord's head allowing you to strike its weak point for a brief moment but what exactly is stalord and what led to its demise the full title of this boss in the English version of the game is the Twilight fossil stalord this suggests two things one that the origins of this ancient Beast are somehow related to the Twilight and two it's connected to the style enemies the name stalord can be split into two separate words stal and Lord thus it is the lord of the style creatures however the Japanese version of the game instead uses the title resurrected ancient Beast Hara gigant not only are there no references to the Twilight air but even the name of the boss itself is different enemies such as stalphos and style child still have the style bit in their names for the Japanese version in fact it translates to the exact same thing so to call him a ruler of style enemies isn't necessarily true however the fact that he's a massive skeleton and is able to summon an army of skeletal troops does at least hint at some sort of connection for those curious about the Japanese name in some languages the word gigant is another term for Gigantic or giant very fitting for a giant fossilized Beast but who exactly was stalord in truth sallord is one of many giant fossils seen in the series some examples being the dadongo Bones from dadongo's Cavern and breath of the Wild's leviathans this of course includes the other fossilized remains such as the massive rib cages and Aquatic skeletons and the first question we need to ask ourselves is whether stalord is an entirely new creature or if it's meant to be one that's already made an appearance in the series since we're already on the topic of Bones perhaps stalord is related to the dongos not only does link fight a huge tadongo at the end of the dongo's cavern but if we're to take what's scene in the central chamber as real to Dongo bones it means that this creature has potential to grow to very large sizes much larger than kingdadango himself however when it comes to similarities size is the only thing linking the two another idea that has been brought up is surprisingly the dragon laneru from Skyward Sword first off it's likely that this region eventually turned into the Gerudo desert since it's where the Gerudo dragonfly lives since arbiter's grounds is also located in the Gerudo desert stylord could be the fossilized remains of the Dragon God but one of the reasons people believe this is due to the skeletons present in laneru and as we all know this death is prevented in the future once link heals his illness with the life tree fruit but at the very least it does mean that lineru could die later being resurrected as stalord but again visually there are many differences the third and final creature often compared to Stallard is volvagia the Subterranean lava dragon resurrected by Ganondorf in the fire temple both the head and hand somewhat resemble stalords but they aren't one to one volvagia has fewer fingers per hand while stalord has an additional pair of horns but assuming that stalord is a dragon its overall body shape is very different like fairosh dinrel and nadra volvagia has a serpentine appearance meanwhile the rib cage on stylord suggests its body type to be different from a Serpent's it is possible that stallord is related to volvagia somehow in fact despite having a significantly different body shape Hyrule Historia suggests that velu is a descendant of volvagia the only other bit of evidence comes from stalord's boss theme which is a remix of the music played on the battles against both volvagia and king dadongo from Ocarina of Time but unless we're about to suggest that all three of these are the same species this information seems irrelevant a couple other things worth pointing out about stalord have to do with his appearance for one parts of his head and upper spine have some sort of hair this is rather odd since it means that Stallard would have had hair on the inside of his body unless it somehow appeared following his death second are the pieces of metal lodged into its body likely the blades of Swords third we can only see the upper half of stallard's body and that's assuming this creature even has a lower half with all that said I believe that stalord is most likely meant to be a brand new enemy unrelated to past creatures possibly a dragon although it's hard to say a lot of people Point towards the fact that it breathes fire however when you look at its attack in the first phase of the fight it looks more like a dark smog I'd go as far as to say that this attack isn't a result of Stallard himself but the dark powers used to reanimate him for now some of these details won't mean much but I'll be elaborating further on this topic in the next chapter of this video which just so happens to be right about nordvpn.com Nintendo BC for a huge discount on a two-year plan plus one additional month for free don't forget it's not every day that I struggle with writing the script this much to put things into perspective this video has been in the works for around three months and even when I began writing the script I wasn't sure how to structure this video and unlike the Shadow Temple video there's not necessarily going to be a final quote-unquote conclusion with what I believe the arbiter's ground's purpose was obviously we know it's related to executions but that doesn't quite answer everything so with that let's get into it according to aru one of the members of the resistance Arbiters grounds once held a prison built to hold the worst criminals this land has ever known and that the criminals who were sentenced to death were sent directly to the underworld by a Cursed Mirror that was kept in the prison in fact this is something that I've brought up in past videos but when digging through some translations of what it says in the Japanese version a single question has been on my mind recently was arbiter's grounds really a prison at first glance these minor changes to aru's dialogue may seem irrelevant to the overall context but let's quickly comb through some of the more interesting details the first line states that the Gerudo desert once had an execution site which had punished some grave Sinners notice how instead of the word prison it says execution site second is the wording of the last bit it had punished some grave sinners now this part is admittedly up to interpretation however I believe the context is implying this to be some sort of group as opposed to the localization which says it was a prison to hold the worst criminals this land has ever known the second line of both mentions that these grave Sinners or the criminals who were sentenced to death in the English version were sent to the other world slash underworld by a mirror kept at the site again this bits up to interpretation however the third line once again describes arbiter's grounds as an execution in sight and not a prison the two conclusions to be made here are one arbiter's grounds is never described as a prison and was solely used for executions and two it's possible that the mirror of twilight was never used on criminals aside from The Interlopers and Ganondorf this is where things get interesting when looking through numerous forums and Wiki pages I came across another translation of this quote done by a different person pay close attention to the bit describing the criminal in the Gerudo desert there once was an execution place at which a certain big criminal was punished as I heard that big criminal was sent to the other world by means of a Cursed Mirror kept at the execution place and so on nowadays that execution place is shut down and even the road leading to the desert is cut off the desert which was separated from the world left behind at that place was the mirror and The Grudge of the deceased the translator notes that while big criminal could be plural the inclusion of certain in the front suggests it to be one criminal when I questioned my own translator about this inconsistency he provided the following terms along with what these translate to in English the first can either be singular or plural for sinner or prisoner notice how after that each following line is simply adding a few additional characters to what we already have the second row adding great or grave before other word and the last one which is taken directly from aru's dialogue translates to either a certain grave sinner or some grave Sinners at this point it entirely depends on the context of this dialogue since laurelian historian believes that it's referring to The Interlopers he believes it's meant to be plural but the thing about this is it doesn't actually matter which translations we use because while both are different they also come to one similar conclusion that the mirror of twilight was used only on two separate occasions the first being The Interlopers banishment to the Twilight realm and the other on Ganondorf after his failed execution it doesn't matter if our other one is referring to a singular criminal because obviously the mirror of twilight had to have been used to send The Interlopers to the Twilight realm aru failing to mention this doesn't mean that it didn't happen now let's look at our translations the English version is worded in a way that suggests arus talking about criminals in general but remember how I said the Japanese version feels like he's describing a group of people if we assume that these grave Sinners were The Interlopers all of a sudden this makes a whole lot of sense meaning that it's very likely that aru is in fact talking about the Twilight here and if this is the case it means that the only bit of information which suggested that the mirror of twilight was used as an execution method is no longer present and that just like the other translation this means that the mirror was only used on two occasions one with the inter Interlopers the other Ganondorf now do not misunderstand this still was an execution site it's just that the method of execution had nothing to do with the mirror of twilight it also explains aru's last bit of dialogue that place still carries that mirror and the malice of the Dead this suggests that the mirror of twilight and Malice of the Dead are separate from each other if criminals were sentenced to death via the mirror you'd assume that both would be related as arbiter's grounds is filled with Undead creatures such as style enemies and redeads this may be due to that lingering malice mentioned by aru it's sort of like Ocarina of time's Shadow Temple naturally this leads to yet another question if the mirror of twilight wasn't used on criminals sentenced to death how were they executed well one possibility has already been brought up that being the death sword executioner blade Theory however maybe the answer lies elsewhere was stalord used to execute arbiter's grounds criminals all we know about this boss is that it's the bones of an ancient beast and that for some unexplained reason it was kept at arbiter's grounds the simplest explanation is that it was imprisoned here and yes we did just go on a whole tangent on how this dungeon is an execution ground however there may have been some exceptions to this rule the best example being death sword However the fact that stallord summons an army of Undead style troops might be because these are the souls of people who lost their lives fighting this monstrous creature assuming that the metal lodged into its skull are swords it means that at some point stalord was fought either it was done by people to kill it or it was imprisoned and used to kill criminals one comment in particular stood out to me as I was researching this video a user by the name of Joseph starts by bringing up the theory of stalord being used to execute criminals but he goes on to also suggest that like the other prison owners Ganondorf was forced to battle stalord and when he killed it the ancient sages resorted to the execution we see play out in Twilight Princess I absolutely love this idea and it would explain how stalord met his demise there are only two problems I have with this Theory and even then they're based on more subjective details first is with the sages even bother with pitting Ganondorf against stalord wouldn't they instead just resort to execution the hero of time came back knowing exactly how much of a threat Gannon posed so wouldn't they just assume he was powerful enough to defeat Stallard there's also the sword of the six sages which according to breath of the wild was crafted specifically for the execution of Ganondorf second is assuming that stalord was an execution method of sorts I'd think it would have been done a very long time ago around the time arbiter's Grounds was first built this is more so an opinion in fact I believe that arbiter's grounds may have stopped being an execution site long before Ganondorf was banished to the Twilight realm especially with the existence of the Shadow Temple arbiter's grounds may have been the first execution grounds used followed up by the Shadow Temple which also imprisoned and tortured those deemed enemies of the royal family of Hyrule eventually ganondorf's plot was exposed and he was sentenced to execution at Arbiters grounds though I am curious to hear your thoughts on this Theory but enough of that let's go back to stalord and his role in all this first and foremost while it may seem insignificant we still don't know much about what stallart is since only the top half is visible does that mean that he had legs are they simply hidden underneath the sand I believe it's likely I mean just look at what happens to his main body once it sinks beneath the sand for some reason only the skull is left once the chamber empties what's to say that the same didn't happen with his bottom half and surely he'd need legs to hold himself up here otherwise he wouldn't have sung into the sand following his defeat this actually is relevant to my next point I have a pretty good idea as to how this Arena would have been laid out before the second phase link uses a spinner to make the central platform rise and after he kills stalord a retractable Bridge connects the Gap there's also an outer edge that allows people to walk around the room connecting both ends what I believe happened was those who were sentenced to execution were taken to the central platform the bridge was then closed off and prisoners fought a standing stoulord who was stationed in the middle reign since we're on the topic of Arenas another reason why people feel that Stallard was used to execute criminals is the fact that the upper portion of arbiter's grounds resembles a Coliseum but I doubt that any sort of fights would have taken place here in fact it seems more like it's laid out as a courtroom of sorts the sages being the Arbiters who pass judgment on those brought to them any found guilty were then sent to stalord's chamber where they met a gruesome and painful death one of the things abundant in arbiter's grounds is the sand whether it be quicksand pits or the sand flowing into the numerous Chambers these sorts of things are sometimes put there intentionally such as water in water-based Dungeons and while it's true that some of the sand flowing in is through formed cracks in the dungeon walls and ceilings for other spots it's clearly intentional you can see man-made structures channeling the sand into the big chamber one Theory I have is that perhaps once the people who built arbiter's grounds no longer had a need for stalord they filled its enclosure with sand as a means of killing it and disposing of the body over time this sand may have slowly leaked out due to the structural Integrity leaving behind the fossilized remains of this ancient creature another thing I'd like to quickly touch on is the power which brings this monster back to life it's very similar to malice and how it reanimates the corpses of enemies like breath of the Wild's curse book hoblins moblins and lizalfos while Zant does use a twilight-esque weapon it might actually be the powers bestowed to him by Ganondorf that allow the usurper Kane to bring stalord back to life let's close off by talking a bit more about the mirror of twilight The Interlopers and some other additional details one thing I've always been confused about is who exactly made the mirror of twilight my first guess judging from its appearance is that it was constructed by The Interlopers themselves the serpent design featured on the back of the mirror is the exact same found on Twilight architecture but why would they create something that was inevitably used against them it could always be due to a sense of irony in the story being defeated by the very thing you created however is that truly what happened the second possibility is that since it was used to banish The Interlopers it was made by the goddesses themselves later entrusted to the ancient sages at arbiter's grounds and the wording of in-game quote supports this stating that the gods Left Behind one key linking light and Shadow plus the Triforce symbol can be found on the back of the mirror alongside the twinning snake pattern the biggest issue I have with this is the fact that the mirror of twilight seems to hold a dark power similar to the fused shadow that can corrupt normal beings just as the Goron patriarch darbus has transformed into virus staring into the mirror turns yedda into a horrific monster of course it's possible that some of the interloper's dark Powers affected the mirror after they were sealed away but would an object created by the gods be susceptible to such influence well perhaps there is an explanation and Not only would it solve this problem but it also kind of makes sense while Zant was the one who shattered the mirror of twilight the ancient sages tell us that it was done by Mighty magic that magic a dark power that only he possesses his name is Ganondorf remember that ganonorf was the one who gave Zant the power to overthrow the Twilight monarchy and invade Hyrule so he may have been the one who broke the mirror but it wasn't his own power and if it was ganondorf's magic that destroyed it it explains how an object created by the gods could be broken going further perhaps this dark power was used to curse the mirror shards since once again this is Ganondorf we're talking about at the very least it's something to think about the ancient sages tell us that since ancient times they've been watching over the mirror of twilight by order of the goddesses however just because the mirror is found here it doesn't mean that it's always been at arbiter's grounds it's possible that The Interlopers were sealed away elsewhere and the mirror was moved to the execution site at the very least midna does tell us how her people were driven from Hyrule to this other world and one of the shots to accompany her dialogue is a penny shot of Gerudo desert which does sort of hint at this being the place it all went down down but what about arbiter's Grounds was it already built at the time of the interloper's banishment I'd assume so since it's named the desert execution grounds thus it being the resting place of the mirror of twilight is more of a secondary function for the dungeon before we finish off I'm going to go over some additional thoughts and ideas that for the sake of keeping this video under an hour will be brief Yes you heard me this is the shortened version though to be fair many of these are less fleshed out compared to the rest of the video and I try my best to remain at least somewhat quote unquote objective we're not told much about The Interlopers aside from them being a group who excelled in Magic some believe this to be a singular race however another possibility is that this group consisted of multiple races and or cultures if you want the full rundown of this idea then check out the second part of my zonai documentary specifically the chapters covering The Interlopers since this video has run with the theory of arbiter's grounds being built by the hylians Uka and Gerudo let's look at evidence which may hint these races being connected to the Twilight specifically the Uka and Gerudo first is this pattern found inside the city of the sky's shop and now here's a shot of one of the doors in the Palace of Twilight sure it's similar but it could be a coincidence right well here's another pattern present in the city in the sky this one is much more intricate when compared to our other example but what if I told you that this exact same pattern was found elsewhere here is a shot of one of the Twilight curtains in Twilight Princess numerous variations of this pattern can also be found in the Palace of Twilight's throne room another area this pattern appears in Four City in the sky are some of the doors next is the Gerudo on the front of Zant's robe is a pattern that should look familiar that's because it may be a stylized Gerudo Crest now before you say that there's no way they do something like this page 156 of Hyrule Historia includes concept art for wind wakers Ganondorf look at what the notes say regarding the pattern on the sash this means that it's entirely plausible that the one on Zan's clothes is meant to be a Gerudo symbol now consider this even before his ant meets Ganondorf he's wearing this outfit meaning that he doesn't have this pattern solely because he's working with Ganondorf knowing this were The Interlopers themselves somehow involved in the making of arbiter's grounds maybe but to be frank with you I have no idea why or what their goal would have been especially since this dungeon has close ties to the sages and all the Medallion imagery was salad already dead and they were trying to use their magic to revive him is death sword somehow related to The Interlopers Arbiters grounds is also filled with numerous odd patterns and while most of them are hard to decipher some are worth noting the first appears to be a front and side view of the same figure sort of like a character reference sheet they seem to be holding a trident and Visually the body resembles a half human half serpent the first thing I think of is Naga described as Divine semi-divine deities or a semi-divine race of half human half serpent beings that reside in the Underworld and can occasionally take human form interesting how the serpent is a recurring theme here another design shows what might be another figure holding a trident could this actually be stalord most tridents in the series are wielded by Ganon including one from four Swords Adventures that was stored in a pyramid located in the desert of Doubt lastly is this image of two figures standing side by side the composition of this suggests that both are meant to be a mirrored version of each other representing different things the most likely answer is that the one on the right holding the shield is link the other being Gannon remember that most of the time link is portrayed as being left-handed further solidifying this Theory at the top one side shows three standing buildings or Towers which I assume are the tower is a Sage's stand on giving the matching design and on the other side in place of the towers is what might be pillars of smoke both are perfectly mirrored meaning that one may be representing ruin or destruction but this creates a sort of Paradox because gannon's first appearance would have been after the making of arbiter's grounds of course one may argue that this proves the dungeon was built sometime after Ocarina of Time but given everything we've discussed I highly doubt this so either it's a paradox or perhaps this figure is meant to be demise or a prophecy of sorts a premonition of the demon tribe's curse and Ganon possibly let me know what you think finally I failed to address the four pose in the dungeon this is obviously a reference to the Forest Temple and the simplest explanation is that they found their way into the dungeon after Giovanni was cursed maybe the malice present here changed their appearance and power I doubt it has any significance to the lore of arbiter's grounds so uh yeah that's that's that was the video I hope you enjoyed this deep dive into yet another one of Zelda's dungeons how this ended up being longer than the Shadow Temple one I have no idea I expected there to be less to talk about but at this point I shouldn't even be surprised a special thanks to Laura Lee and historian and Link for providing translations and contributing to the discussion if you like this video and wish to see more Zelda content such as this please consider dropping a subscription I'd greatly appreciate it and don't forget to check out the link in the description nordvpn.com headobc for a huge discount on their two-year plan with all that said I've been Nintendo black crisis and I'll see you all next time [Music]

Channel: NintendoBlackCrisis

Views: 452,269

Keywords: legend of zelda, zelda theory, tp, twilight princess, arbiters grounds theory, arbiters grounds, shadow temple, stallord, death sword, spirit temple, goddess of the sands, gerudo, oocca, ganondorf, gerudo desert, breath of the wild, tp theory, loz theory, nintendoblackcrisis, secrets, mysteries, anubis

Id: 3o7dh0hPPqo

Length: 50min 24sec (3024 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 01 2023