Does Vaati Play a Bigger Role than Previously Thought?

This is a guest article written by Matt Schell and edited by Devin O’Neill. If you’d like to submit your own guest article, we encourage you to share it with us here, or email Devin at devin@gamnesia.com

Fans of The Legend of Zelda love to generate theories about the various characters and stories in order to gain an understanding of the world in which they play. For the majority of these theorists, Vaati’s importance is often neglected and seems to be forgotten in time. This report refreshes Vaati’s role in the timelines and even presents some original theories to reinforce his significance.

Vaati’s History

Let’s begin by traveling to the period in which the events of Skyward Sword have concluded and a period of peace and stability has returned to the Surface. Soon, Hyrule would stabilize and the tribes of the world would pass around a legend of the powerful Light Force. Eventually, this story would be passed to the tiny world of the Minish, reaching an individual by the name of Vaati. He was the apprentice of the great cap maker Ezlo, and had a developing fascination for evil and men with power. It would be the events of The Minish Cap in which we would see Vaati’s dramatic entrance into the timeline.

As the game unfolds, Vaati’s fascination for power overcomes his self-control. This ultimately leads to him becoming the main antagonist of the game and leads him on a quest for evil. The story of Vaati intensifies when he finds a way to extract a small amount of the light force from Princess Zelda. Link must the defeat Vaati in a final battle in which his evil soul transforms into five successive different forms, saving Zelda in the end.

Vaati is then considered destroyed and peace is brought to the kingdom, until one day news of his destruction is heard again. This time period starts the story of the Four Sword and presents us with an ever-powerful Vaati who hails from the Palace of the Winds. As this tale progresses, Princess Zelda is kidnapped and brought to the palace. Link is then sent on a journey to save her once again. This game concludes with another battle in which Link is victorious and is able to seal Vaati in the legendary Four Sword.

The last appearance of Vaati is seen in the Four Swords Adventures game. The events of this game feature the appearance of Ganondorf and tell a tale in which he tricks Link into a distraction from a plan in which he hopes to achieve great evil power. As a result of these events, Vaati is released from the Four Sword and places the kingdom at great risk. Link must once again destroy Vaati in a battle and end the game by sealing Ganondorf in the Four Sword.

Theory

Let me begin by addressing a very common theory about Vaati. Many theorists consider him to be the rebirth of Ghirahim based off his strikingly similar appearance and fighting techniques. I will not be discussing this topic; instead I will be analyzing from The Minish Cap forward.

The Minish were a very tiny race of beings from the surface that shared the world of Hyrule in a similar ways to Termina. Link is able to use a portal to enter Termina as a child (just like the Minish World), the Minish world is a parallel world that seems to be only the substance of legend (just like Termina), as well as many other similarities of which I will unfortunately not get into in this article. For this reason I find it interesting that Vaati was able to get in contact with Zelda and utilize the Light Force despite this boundary. Once in contact, this force gave him the ability to resurrect himself in successively more powerful forms during the final battle with Link. The ultimate form was none other than Vaati’s Wrath. This name raised my initial interest in Vaati because of the events in Termina that ultimately led to Link fighting Majora and Majora’s successively more powerful forms of which included…Majora’s Wrath. Could it be possible that there is some distant connection between Majora and Vaati? This seems to be quite a stretch: however, this thought has led to many other discoveries that are interesting.

In the manga of Majora’s Mask we discover the origins of the mask in the final chapter. The name of the individual that ultimately destroys the dragon-like creature in this chapter is unknown, however he did possess the ability to craft quite a beautiful mask. If we remember, Vaati was originally Ezlo’s cap making apprentice. It could be possible that when Vaati was destroyed the second time he entered a different world “a world that was neither dead or alive,” and possibly sought after a form of power to bring himself back. The monster in the story could have presented an opportunity to achieve just that. This could be why the mask created by the individual takes on traits of the beast and Vaati as shown in these pictures.

If Majora’s Mask did evolve from the beast and Vaati, there would be good reason for many of the behaviors of the mask. It would explain Majora’s high pitched and child-like actions based off Vaati’s Minish background and young age derived from the fact that he was Ezlo’s apprentice. It would also, once again, explain the form of Majora known as Majora’s Wrath.

Let’s change gears to a different connection to Vaati. Since the release of Twilight Princess, there has been a great deal of speculation that the Fused Shadow was derived from Majora’s Mask. I am a believer in this possibility, however I feel there is more to the story than just Majora. If we look back at the Minish Cap Manga we see a peculiar form of Vaati in the final battle. Note his helmet and the rest of his attire. I feel compelled to acknowledge the similarities in design to the Fused Shadow and to Zant’s gown, or just a Twilight stylized gown if we neglect Zant. Surely, there is a connection here.

The next topic is also related to Twilight Princess, in particular the Dark Interlopers. From the game we find that the Interlopers were from an ancient tribe that sought the power from the Triforce and access to the sacred realm. Is it possible that this ancient tribe had been forming over time and simply needed a leader to give them the confidence to even try to achieve this task? If so, it is possible that when Vaati was defeated, he entered the realm in which this ancient evil tribe resided? Perhaps this tribe was actually in Termina like

some believe. Once Vaati entered this realm after his defeat, he quickly rose to power in the tribe. This occurred after he defeated the dragon-like form of Majora and produced the mask. He would then combine this mask with his helmet seen in the Minish Cap Manga to generate the Fused Shadow (see images). This new piece of armor would be used by the ancient tribe to attempt their goal of obtaining the Triforce.

It is important to note that this same evil tribe is possessed the Dark Mirror, which is the source of Shadow Links. This connection would explain the scene in Twilight Princess that displays the Shadow Links and the Fused Shadow (Vaati evolved from Majora) being sealed away by the Light Spirits. There is one issue with this: Majora’s Mask must have separated from the Fused Shadow at some point. This would have had to occur in order for the events of the Majora’s Mask game to occur given the order of the timeline. This is still definitely possible given the damage of the Fused Shadow. There is an eye missing, and as we know from the game it was split into pieces. Maybe it was this event that released Majora. It is clear that Majora had a very significant impact on the shadow world; review the concept art for Ganondorf for Twilight Princess if you need more evidence.

I appreciate your taking the time to look through this summary of some theory work. If you are like me, you have been trying to decide where the new Zelda for Wii U is going to take place in the timeline. For this reason, I have been studying up on my Hyrule Historia, reading the various blogs out there, and waiting for any update from Nintendo. I hope I have lit a new journey in your theory work by considering Vaati as a more important role than previously thought. We will see, for now I am concerned because he is not even presented in the Concept Art portion of Hyrule Historia. Then again, maybe this was by design by Nintendo to improve the element of surprise for the next game.