What are the Bargainer Statues? - Tears of the Kingdom Theory

[Music] foreign [Music] The Depths a series of caverns found deep beneath Hyrule surface shrouded in a darkness which encompasses the entirety of the underground where both monsters and Gloom are abundant a location left undisturbed for time immemorial only recently opened up following the events of the upheaval because of this The Depths have become one of hyrule's greatest Mysteries not only to us but the people living in the world the only thing connecting Both Worlds being the chasms found all across the surface yet what makes this Uncharted Territory so ominous isn't the unfamiliarity with what we see rather it's the stuff that feels familiar light Roots can be found directly beneath surface shrines of light iconic landmarks such as the Leviathan bones and labyrinths have their own counterparts within the depths and most importantly the layout of the depths itself is an inverted version of hyrule's map locations such as the grudo highlands and mount laneru being some of the lowest points in the underground in a way the depths feel like a mirror of the land above a lamb was super natural elements to it not unlike a link to the past's dark world it's unclear what exactly the depths are or how they tie in with the lore breath of the wild included but one mystery which immediately piqued my interest involves these statues found all throughout the depths one of which we see as early as the first visit to look at Landing according to Joshua this statue is excavated from the depths and brought up to the surface eventually link is able to use these statues as a shop of sorts exchanging pose for a variety of items in gear the game refers to these beings as bargainer statues and in many ways they are similar to The Goddess statues and Horn statue a total of eight bargainer statues can be found all across Hyrule most of which are within the depths layer the other two are located on Hyrule surface first being the onealuka landing and the other part of a side quest where link Returns the bargainer statue's eyes to the statue in the depths the first time link talks to this entity is via a smaller statue not unlike the ones seen at Lookout Landing however this is only 10 Prairie as continuing through the side quest causes a statue to fall silent later possessing the Temple of times got a statue and finally the one beneath the central mine if link returns to one of the bargainer statues with pose from the depths they provide additional information stating that the purpose is to return pose to the afterlife where they belong the next bit of this conversation goes on to talk more about what pose are pose are pitiful beings who have lost their way home and wander the depths of this land good evil that's the futile perspective of narrow-minded beings there is no such distinction in wandering Spirits it's worth noting that pose are a recurring enemy in The Legend of Zelda series and that while they're technically present in tears of the Kingdom instead they're treated as an item of sorts link collects them to later exchange for materials and armor pieces in past titles pose were described as beings which transformed into monsters due to an unresolved attachment to the world another quote from Ocarina of times Poe collector describes them as spirits of concentrated hatred this draws parallels to the URI of Japanese folklore spirits that can be born through a variety of means one of which being powerful emotions such as the desire for Revenge love jealousy hatred or sorrow this would certainly explain the abundance of pose in the depths given the cataclysmic events that took place in breath of the wild and to suggest that these individuals left the world with feelings of regret anger and sorrow would certainly be an understatement however the wording of the statue implies that these are merely Spirits which have left the underworld and lost their way there's no mention of lingering attachments to the world or strong emotions the same can be said with the Japanese translations pose are pitiful things that have become lost in the depths of the earth cannot find the way to the beyond the term Beyond is often used to describe the unknown or in this case when talking about life after death this also seems to confirm that the depths aren't meant to be an underworld of sorts it certainly gives off that Vibe with how dark and dreary everything is but the statues themselves refer to this place as the depths of the earth there's also shadowy figures resembling soldiers standing atop Stone platforms each holding a weapon when link takes these weapons the special entity Fades into nothingness You could argue that these ones fit the more traditional definition of ayuray one who can't pass on to the afterlife due to regret much like how the Canaan Champions only disappear at the very end of breath of the wild their roles finally fulfilled sometimes you can even come across these bigger platforms holding three Shadow soldiers directly above each of these spots is a monument dedicated to those who lost their lives to the Calamity all but confirming that the ones holding these weapons were indeed soldiers that fought for Hyrule at the time of breath of the wild in a way these bargainer statues are similar to the personification of death or to put it another way they're meant to represent the Grim Reaper often this entity is depicted as a rogue skeleton wielding a scythe and while it's believed that the Grim Reaper is what causes the death of an individual others think that they merely act as a guide of sorts escorting recently deceased souls to the afterlife this train of thought lines up perfectly with the bargainer statues if we're to believe that the primary purpose is to return pose to the Beyond but things get interesting when we look at the placement of the bargainer statues found within the depths and compare it to hyrule's Overworld the three of them would be beneath the Springs of power courage and wisdom and the rest are found under the ruins of the Forgotten Temple the great plateaus Temple of Time and to the south of the bottomless Pond what most of these places have in common is that each one holds a goddess statue implying that they're closely related to one another that is except for the one beneath Central Hyrule Field Until you realize that there's one other layer we haven't yet considered because the placement of this bargainer statue just so happens to be directly underneath the great Sky Islands Temple of Time a place which has its own goddess statue considering that the depths are sort of mirrored version of Hyrule with its own version of iconic landmarks like the skeletons and labyrinths this sort of connection isn't a coincidence right well let's look at some other similarities between the bargainer and goddess statues the first is obviously the fact that both are otherworldly beings which communicate to link fire statues we know that the residents often pray to the goddess statues in breath of the wild and tears of the Kingdom although link seems to be the only one who can hear their voice the same may be true for the bargainer statues as Joshua never mentions anything about the Statue speaking however when you get entry from the depths does talk about some rumors of an odd voice echoing from night to night and we know that in the case of the horn statue only some hear its voice one person obviously being link which the horn statue comments about but according to Jaron she too hears a creepy demonic-like voice which no one else seems to hear but two other Clues come from a call from the depths the side quests involving the bargainer statue on the great Plateau first is the fact that this being is capable of temporarily taking over the Temple of times goddess statue link can't even use a statue to exchange his light of blessings for stamina vessels or heart containers until the side quest is completed second once link returns all four eyes to the bargainer Statue he's rewarded with either a heart container or stamina vessel considering that the only other way to obtain them is through goddess statues or bosses the latter of which only given out heart containers it's a pretty significant detail it's a bit odd that a bargainer statue has the power to enter and subsequently speak through one of these goddess statues especially if we're to assume that the entity communicating to link is hylia herself is it possible that the ones being speaking to the player isn't actually goddess hylia one quest in particular suggests this the mother got a statue where link gives offerings to the springs of power courage and wisdom which in return restores power to the top old mother goddess statue at the Forgotten Temple prior to starting this Quest the goddess statues are unaware of what happened to the mother goddess statue implying that each one is a separate entity the same can be said for the bargainer statues as they tell link to seek out their Brethren so I went back and checked breath of the Wild's Tech stump to find any sort of dialogue where the statues straight up tell us they're hylia one line coming from the Sprint of powers got a statue States the following I goddess hylia will guide you with the Japanese saying pretty much the same thing so unless this was changed it's safe to assume that link is communicating with the goddess herself maybe each statue holds a fragment of her spirit or something building off of this the bargainer statues themselves may also be Gods explaining how one is capable of taking over the Temple of Time statue this might also give us a time frame as to when these bargainer statues appeared along with the goddess statues while every bargainer statue is paired with the goddess statue the reverse isn't true for example none of the ones in towns have a depths counterpart and in every case where we have this sort of pairing it's always with the big goddess statues so perhaps this means that these are the oldest ones and others such as the small ones in settlements were later created however this raises several questions one being the two smaller versions of the bargainer statue located on the surface assuming that these originated from the depths how did this one get on the plateau we know that the one at Lookout Landing was brought up from the depths but it's strange to see another one in the great plateaus entrance did another group bring it up is it related to the statue's missing eyes but if this is the real bargainer Statue why is there a second one and where in the depths did Joshua find the first statue it's similar in size to the goddess statues at towns and Villages so maybe it was was originally paired with one of these places just like the goddess statues of the springs and other spots also the great Sky Islands Temple of Time was originally on the plateau the only way to have a bargainer statue beneath it is if this structure was created after the landmass took to the skies and moved to this new position well even if we don't see the depths as a dark world or underworld parts of it do have a supernatural sort of feeling one possibility is that bits of this place change based on what happens on the surface Joshua describes the appearance of the statue as something that looks both man-made as well as a natural formation which is an odd way to put it however this might be a similar case to the eighth heroine statue a structure which was carved out of a natural rock formation but to be perfectly honest with you there's a good chance that the Zelda team just didn't put much thought into this tears of the Kingdom's lore feels more messy when compared to breath of the wild especially with the environmental storytelling and I don't want to sit here and pretend that everything brought up in this video was intentional but if you think that we've already covered everything there is to talk about you'd be mistaken as previously mentioned posts can be exchanged for a number of items and outfits almost all of these are death related with the exception of the tunic of memories as well as being able to get copies of rare armor you've already collected two armor sets exclusive to the bargainer Statue shop are the dark outfit and more importantly the armor of the depths this set gives link Gloom resistance making underground navigation a lot easier however it's worth noting that the hood appears to be based off of the bargainer statue's head it seems that this set in particular has some sort of connection to these entities the question is why does this armor exist in the first place who wore it and what exactly was its purpose we know that the role of the bargainer statues was to return pose to the afterlife but one thing that's made clear is that in order to do so link himself must offer them to the statues whether a statue is in the depths or moved doesn't seem to change this fact and if this is true it means that someone had to have been making these offerings prior to link it's already established that there was some sort of civilization underground whether it be the zonai and their mining facilities this odd statue not representing any of the races currently known about or the fire temple which apparently is built from the remains of an ancient Goron City so perhaps this armor belonged to a group of people who worked with these statues to return the souls of the Dead to the afterlife likely an off branch of the zonai both the ankle and neck of the depth set include those same accessories worn by Zelda as well as raru and Sonia we don't know for certain whether Gloom or Monsters were present in the depths prior to Ganondorf obtaining the secret Stone however puppet Zelda is scene transforming into Gloom in one of the memories all this to say that it would make sense for this group to be wearing Gloom resistant gear as traversing The Depths may still have been dangerous even if we assumed that the bargainer statues only appeared following Ganondorf ceiling and the great Skylands movement it would end up making even more sense it's not like this ancient civilization stopped functioning after these events if anything their activity would have only increased recall that minaru used underground factories to construct a Golem body that was later used to assist link later as in tens of thousands of years later it's also possible that this group actually became the bargainer statues minaru herself has the ability to separate her spirit from her body and rather than the entity being the statue itself it's more so a spectral being that can possess an object we know this because the one on the great Plateau speaks to us through three different statues at most we're told that the eyes of these statues act as a vessel for their spirit and that the eyes of bargainer statue beneath the plateau had been stolen and sealed in a distant past these statues may have also acted as a sort of network since the one on the plateau says that it's talking to link from the distant depths of the earth almost as if the voice is still originating from below some bits on the in-game texture file of the bargainer statues also have a similar style to the patterns on the Depp's armor set the appearance of the statues themselves are rather odd we can see that these heads have four separate eyes and are paired with a bulky humanoid figure each hand having three fingers similar to mineru's Golem construct it draws some parallels to the ancient robots of Castle in the Sky a film which definitely served as inspiration for tears of the Kingdom but things get rather ominous when you take a look at the back side of these colossal statues what appears to be a monstrous face is protruding out from the chest I'm not entirely sure if that's what it's supposed to be though it does make you wonder if the origins of these beings are more Sinister in nature if we look look at the Japanese name for the bargainer statues it reads as Majin ma for which demon evil spirit and Jinn being person not something you'd expect from a being such as this and there's more to that you get entry regarding the rumors of Echoes during the night time it goes on to say that those who come closer to these statues have their souls pulled out of them in other words the statues are killing people but this doesn't line up with what we're told in game no sort of context that would change the outcome of this is lost in the translations and it's hard to believe that an evil entity would be tasked with returning The Souls of the Dead to the afterlife they even say that the Poes are neither good or evil having more of a neutral stance on the matter even the information taken from our yiga entry is based on mere rumors so the whole story about people having their souls stolen is likely made up or at the very least overly exaggerated with this in mind let's take another look at the Japanese names for these statues the two which had argue are applicable in this case are witch and Demon the series has already established that not all demons are evil and while which is a term often used for women in Minish Cap vati is also referred to as Majin when first donning the wishing cap so synonyms such as sorcerer or magician would tie in nicely given what we know these statues also use the term blessing in the localization a detail also present in the Japanese version if these entities really are supposed to be death personified it might even explain the Monstrous appearance given the real world monster-like depiction of the Grim Reaper In some cultures evil deities are also used to ward off the Lesser powerful demons and evil spirits and some temples like skyward Swords Earth Temple are filled with monstrous imagery despite being a sacred location but this isn't the only connection these statues have to monsters one of the three ways to get the dark Clump material is by trading pose the Japanese name for it is dark cluster described as an item filled with jet black darkness touching it makes you feel cold somewhat the only other method of obtaining it is as a drop from either the Gloom spawn or Phantom Ganon clearly this item's Origins are sketchy at best now at first I thought this was supposed to be a rock but upon further inspection I soon realized that whatever this thing was it was pulsating like monster guts or a heartbeat first off gross second it gives off the feeling that this item's alive the fact that there's a rope tied around it along with a Talisman of sorts makes me wonder if it's a protective seal which is containing whatever monstrous energy is inside it could be Gloom or going further ganondorf's Flesh and Blood since the Hyrule compendium states that Phantom Ganon was born from Demon Kane ganondorf's flesh and blood and this is where things get spicy I took a look at the textures of a dark Clump and compared it to the textures of the depths outfit one detail in particular is similar between both files did you spot it if you remove the rune-like Engravings from this part of the outfit texture it's a one-to-one match with the material making up the dark Clump if we go to the in-game description of all three pieces of the depth outfit it states that it was created with monstrous materials and since both the dark Clump and outfit provide Gloom resistance it all but confirms that this was the Monstrous material used to create the set the overall design of this Talisman also closely matches the style of the clothes as well as this part of the pattern which is clearly meant to be the same as this bit in fact the overall shape and look of the Talisman is nearly identical to the front cloth of the armor almost as if this whole piece is a giant Talisman of sorts perhaps these symbols are meant to act as a sort of seal just like the Talisman it's difficult to make out what the rest of the patterns are supposed to be at most this bit looks similar to that evil face on the Statue there's also this thorny branch-like design the shape is similar to colgara and the other pattern makes me think of a scorpion as this is an outfit made from monstrous materials it may have to do with the appearance it's also possible that this group was actually made up of evil Sorcerers the Japanese name for this set is the darkness set but I'm not entirely convinced I'd prefer to not dive too deep into that possibility as it's more speculation based with all that said there's another variable we've yet to consider clearly the bargainer statues have close ties to the goddess statues of the surface but what about the horn statue think about it all three of them are entities speaking through statues which only a select few are able to hear each involved in some sort of trading of Vitality in the form of stamina vessels and heart containers the goddess and bargainer statues have the power to gift these to link while the horn statue both gives and takes away at first I viewed the bargainer statue entities as the polar opposite to the goddess one represents life the other death you could even suggest that the Vitality given to the player at the end of the side Quest was taken from The Souls of the deceased but in-game information such as dialogue also links this role back to the horn statue the Japanese name for the horn statue translates to Akuma a demon devil fiend Jaren also States the following when talking to the player if the goddess is a deity that gifts the devil's statue must be a deity that robs I consider that it takes their Mutual existence for their powers to manifest the horn statue is frequently described as a dealer in life and power at first I thought there may be some connection to it in the bargainer statues like perhaps one of them abused their power to make deals for profit and was later punished by the goddess but not only is the horn statue referred to as a deity it's also stated that this deity was confined to the Statue because of these life for money Bargains we also don't know if this individual really was a demon or devil as that's the name the villagers of hatano Village came up with likely based off of the statue's appearance so this may have been a god or goddess of lesser power when compared to hylia kind of like the Three Dragons regardless I'm sure that some of you guys in the comment section have your own theories and speculation as to who this group was and this is one of those Mysteries which feels a lot more open-ended I don't really have a satisfying conclusion but I do want to hear your opinions about this mystery in the meantime if you want to see more Zelda tiers of the Kingdom content do consider subscribing to the channel and turning notifications on I've been Nintendo black crisis and I'll see you all next time [Music] foreign [Music] [Music]

Channel: NintendoBlackCrisis

Views: 253,514

Keywords: zelda totk, tears of the kingdom, totk theory, zelda theory, legend of zelda, bargainer statue, evil, nintendoblackcrisis, secrets, mysteries, zelda lore, loz totk, the depths, tunic of memories, depths outfit, armor of the depths, ganondorf, dark clump, goddess statue, horned statue

Id: QCbXLsBUbIM

Length: 21min 41sec (1301 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 01 2023