Nintendo finally laid fan theories to rest when it released the official timeline for The Legend of Zelda. Fans finally had a reference to go to, but the timeline was thrown for a loop, once again, with the release of Breath of the Wild.
Breath of the Wild feels removed from the rest of the series, both in terms of its story and its gameplay. Ganon took a much different form this time around, as the iconic villain was an ethereal calamity that destroyed the kingdom of Hyrule.
Although Nintendo hasn't revealed a lot about Breath of the Wild 2, the game's reveal trailer raised a slew of questions for fans. Chief among those is which Ganon is under Hyrule castle.
Where Breath of the Wild Falls on the Zelda Timeline
The Legend of Zelda timeline splits off in three different directions with Ocarina of Time, based on whether the hero succeeds or fails in his quest. Breath of the Wild is a bit tricky, however, as it technically falls at the very end of all three timelines. In a 2018 interview with Famitsu, Producer Eiji Aonuma and Director Hidemaro Fujibayashi addressed the question.
Aonuma first said “Well of course it’s at the very end. But, I get what you’re asking, it’s which timeline is it the end of?” Fujibayashi follows up on that by saying "That’s… up to the player’s imagination, isn’t it?”
To this day Nintendo and Aonuma haven't placed Breath of the Wild in an exact place on the timeline, meaning it could theoretically fall anywhere. There are similarities and clues scattered throughout the game, of course, such as the presence of the Koroks from Windwaker. In terms of Ganon in Breath of the Wild 2, though, it opens up a ton of possibilities.
Ganondorf Under Hyrule Most Likely Follows Up on Twilight Princess
While Ganon has always been the main villain of the Zelda series, Ganondorf's first appearance was in Ocarina of Time. Ganondorf is the mortal incarnation of Ganon and a member of the Gerudo tribe. Because the timeline splits at Ocarina of Time, the Ganondorf in Twilight Princess, Ocarina, and Wind Waker are one and the same. The trailer for Breath of the Wild 2 clearly shows the mummified corpse of Ganondorf with his fiery red hair and gem set in the forehead.
The corpse is being held in place by an ominous glowing hand, which seems to be drawing something out of the body. The interesting part here is the exact spot on the body's chest that the hand is grasping. In Twilight Princess' backstory, Ganondorf is meant to be executed by the sages, and he's stabbed in that exact spot in the chest, which leaves a glowing wound. At the end of Twilight Princess Ganon is again stabbed in that exact spot, which then suggests that it's the villain's weak point.
A post on Reddit from Eclipsed Gamer also shows a striking similarity between Breath of the Wild 2's Ganondorf and Twilight Princess, with the characters having the same sharp canine teeth on the bottom jaw. Another potential connection has to do with the Zonai tribe, which has vanished from the world of Breath of the Wild. In BotW the Typhlo Ruins are packed with Zonai architecture, but they're also shrouded in darkness, which can't be totally undone no matter what players do. In Twilight Princess the Twili are called a "shadow race" and they exist in a different world that people can't see, a shadow world. This could easily tie the Zonai to the Twili, and it's likely the Zonai will at least be mentioned in Breath of the Wild 2, based on the underground ruins link and Zelda are traveling through.
There's nothing that outright confirms a connection between Breath of the Wild and Twilight Princess but there are a suspicious amount of similarities between the two.
Calamity Ganon Could Simply Be the Spirit of Demise
If the Ganondorf under Hyrule is from Twilight Princess then that raises another question; what exactly is Calamity Ganon? The villain of Breath of the Wild lacks any sort of personality and feels more like a violent dark force. If the hand is siphoning the malice out of Ganondorf, that energy could have transformed into the Calamity. Skyward Sword revealed the demon king Demise, who's the one responsible for the cycle of reincarnation in the series. When Link defeats Demise at the end of the game, the demon king places a curse on the three of them stating that whoever bears the blood of the goddess and the hero will eternally be followed by an incarnation of his hatred. Demise's essence is sealed in the master sword and is responsible for the birth of Ganondorf in Ocarina of Time.
The energy that makes up Calamity Ganon may simply be the essence of the demon god Demise, which could hold some interesting ramifications for Ganondorf himself. With Calamity Ganon defeated, theoretically, Ganondorf could be free from Demise's essence, which means he may no longer be bound by the curse that pits him against Link and Zelda. This means Breath of the Wild 2 could do something incredibly interesting by flipping the script and not having Ganondorf be the villain.
Breath of the Wild 2 is currently in development for Nintendo Switch.