Daily Debate: Are We Seeing Link, or Someone Else, in the Latest Breath of the Wild 2 Trailer?

I, like many of you have watched the new teaser trailer for the Breath of the Wild sequel countless times already, trying to spot and theorize about every single minute detail in an attempt to discover what the actual heck is going on.

But one specific thing I noticed blew my mind.

At first, I believed the long-haired hero wearing green and falling from the sky was Link, but now I’m not so sure. For one thing, his face isn’t shown (seemingly intentionally) throughout the trailer. And all in all, he just sort of looks like he’s from a whole different time period. From his long, wild hair, to his weird off-the-shoulder tunic and Greek gladiator-inspired sandals, he doesn’t look like the Link we know and love in Breath of the Wild.

But what really brought my jaw to the floor was when I realized that this person in the sky looks exactly like the ancient hero from 10,000 years before Breath of the Wild, as shown in the tapestry that explains the legend of Calamity Ganon. The hero in that depiction has a green tunic and long flowing hair too!

That’s when I noticed even more hints that this ancient hero could be making an appearance. Remember the ominous green glowing hand in the first teaser that was holding Ganondorf in the depths of the cavern? If you watch the new trailer, you’ll notice that when Link is dressed in his traditional blue champion’s tunic, his right arm looks black and decrepit (probably a result of the malice that got ahold of it in the beginning of the trailer). Whereas when Link (?) is in the skies, it looks exactly like that glowing arm that was at the bottom of Hyrule Castle, complete with gnarly tech. And in the first teaser, that spirit-like arm seemingly aided Link and Zelda by grabbing onto Link as they were about to fall beneath the crumbling castle.

I wondered if that glowing hand could very well be the spirit of the ancient hero?

I started to consider that this ancient hero could have made a sacrifice that parallels what happened Zelda in Breath of the Wild. Ganon can hardly be defeated without both Link and Zelda working together. So perhaps, like Zelda kept the Calamity sealed in the castle for 100 years while she waited for Link to help her finish the job, maybe the ancient hero was only able to keep the human Ganondorf at bay, but unable to defeat and seal him away completely without the help of the princess in his time. That would explain why this monstrous, undead version of Ganondorf was not completely dead and woke up when the new incarnations of Link and Zelda disturbed him.

I could be dead wrong, but I believe some sort of time travel and connection to ancient Hyrule is possible. The ancient hero could be the character we see in the skies above Hyrule, striving to help Link take down this new evil.

But alas, we will have to wait a while until we know more. 2022 can’t come fast enough.

What do you think? Could that arm be the spirit of the hero from 10,000 years ago? Is he the one we see exploring the skies above Hyrule?  Could he possibly lend Link a hand? Let me know in the comments!

Chakell Herbert

Chakell (pronounced shuh-kell) is an associate editor for Zelda Dungeon! She has loved The Legend of Zelda series since she was a little girl because of its equal mix of princesses, besting bad guys, and heartfelt stories. Chakell lives in the overall tame state of Utah, but holds onto her childhood hopes to find an adventure in her backyard one day. She has a degree in English and is a full-time editor for a magazine. You can usually find her gaming (obviously), laughing with her husband, taking a long time to tell stories because she keeps getting distracted; getting sucked into books and podcasts; or snuggling her cute Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.