Are The Zonai a Beneficial Addition to the Series?

[thePlinko]

As if Nintendo hadn't given up before.

Nope, they hadn’t

 

[Spiritual Mask Salesman]

That's really what they've been doing for the longest time, but it's also the reason their stories are so terrible. They want a timeline, but only when it's easy and convenient.

Yeah, it's a situation where I think it might be better for them to reboot the series to remove themselves from the timeline. I get the impression it's what they've tried doing with BotW and TotK anyway, whether others want to agree or not. It's not so far fetched to think Hylian civilization collapsed at some point and Rauru helped create a new kingdom in an era where most memory of the original kingdom is lost. Doing this is essientially setting up a reboot, just with a vaguely hinted at in universe reasoning.

 

[The Dashing Darknut]

I love the designs a lot but damn they are lacking. The two we do see I couldn't get attached to either at all minus how good their designs are. They just exist, which is a huge shame. Rauru being the king I don't get, and he was pretty uninteresting, Mineru on the other hand had potential to be interesting but she's a big nothing character, and her leaving at the end had no impression on me, because I didn't care about the character.

So amazing designs, otherwise no

 

[Ryuu Kage Desu]

I love the designs a lot but damn they are lacking. The two we do see I couldn't get attached to either at all minus how good their designs are. They just exist, which is a huge shame. Rauru being the king I don't get, and he was pretty uninteresting, Mineru on the other hand had potential to be interesting but she's a big nothing character, and her leaving at the end had no impression on me, because I didn't care about the character.

I've seen many people lament Ghost Rauru not sticking around to be a kind of companion, just hanging around different locations, like in the beginning, ready to give comment about his memories.

 

[Moblinking5000]

Yeah, it's a situation where I think it might be better for them to reboot the series to remove themselves from the timeline. I get the impression it's what they've tried doing with BotW and TotK anyway, whether others want to agree or not. It's not so far fetched to think Hylian civilization collapsed at some point and Rauru helped create a new kingdom in an era where most memory of the original kingdom is lost. Doing this is essientially setting up a reboot, just with a vaguely hinted at in universe reasoning.

That's not a reboot, though.

I agree with a Refounding, but a Refounding is not the same as a reboot. A reboot is a completely new continuity where none of the events of any previous works happened, which we know to be false due to the fact that OoT happened(as per the Ruto and Nabooru references in both BotW//TotK and the fact that Aonuma confirmed that BotW is after OoT) and the fact that even in recent interviews we know that TotK wasn't made to ''break the series apart'', in the words of Hidemaro. Just because the Wild Era is a long ass time after OoT and other games doesn't mean that it's ''removed'' from the timeline; the Wild Era has been confirmed countless times to be in the timeline, just in the FAR future.

As for the Zonai; I'd like to see them expanded on in the future, like the Sheikah were. Maybe a prequel of sorts when they were all still around.

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

That's not a reboot, though.

I agree with a Refounding, but a Refounding is not the same as a reboot. A reboot is a completely new continuity where none of the events of any previous works happened, which we know to be false due to the fact that OoT happened(as per the Ruto and Nabooru references in both BotW//TotK and the fact that Aonuma confirmed that BotW is after OoT) and the fact that even in recent interviews we know that TotK wasn't made to ''break the series apart'', in the words of Hidemaro. Just because the Wild Era is a long ass time after OoT and other games doesn't mean that it's ''removed'' from the timeline; the Wild Era has been confirmed countless times to be in the timeline, just in the FAR future.

As for the Zonai; I'd like to see them expanded on in the future, like the Sheikah were. Maybe a prequel of sorts when they were all still around.

call it a soft reboot if you want, it still stands that these games wanted to do their own thing so it might as well have been it's own continuity

 

[Bowsette Plus-Ultra]

call it a soft reboot if you want, it still stands that these games wanted to do their own thing so it might as well have been it's own continuity

Can't be a soft reboot if your continuity never made sense or mattered to begin with.

 

[thePlinko]

Can't be a soft reboot if your continuity never made sense or mattered to begin with.

 

[Mikey the Moblin]

bowsette reacting to himself like

 

[GZ Zelda]

I would say overall yes. The Zonai and the Sky People having basically identical backstories and incredibly similar technology shouldn't be taken for granted, the idea of a refounding of Hyrule is helpful to explain many inconsistencies in BotW.

However, the theory community have kind of given up trying to explain the Zonai which is really demotivating. I think if the contradictions could be alleviated, and if there were more dev interviews about the story and its intent, we could get a clearer picture on what is (or, maybe more importantly, what is not) going on with the Zonai.

The bigger problem is that the sage elements are all completely ****ed. We have a sage of light and a sage of lightning, what the **** even is that? The much bigger problem is everything related to Ganondorf.

If we look back on a game like Twilight Princess, where the Twili get introduced as a sort of mirrored kingdom to Hyrule existing in a different realm, it's a similar situation where we have this new group that didn't exist before adding new layers to the lore we had before. However, I feel very differently on the Twili than I do about the Zonai. The Twili feel like a nice addition to the lore because they don't majorly disrupt anything; in fact they actually add to the lore with them being a banished tribe that invaded the Sacred Realm to obtain the Triforce.

I think the problem with the Zonai vs. the Twili is that "when" the Twili are active is not really up for debate: before Ocarina of Time.

The Zonai could operate anytime from before Skyward Sword to after Zelda 2, Four Swords Adventures, and Spirit Tracks, or in an entirely separate timeline. Their "influence" could either be over two games (BotW and TotK) or all the games.

So it points to the Zonai existing outside the confines of anything established in the original lore, which is disappointing compared to the way other tribes have been introduced in the series. Like, we don't know a huge amount about the Twili, but we know a lot more about them and how they fit into history laid out in previous games than we do with the Zonai.

Yes this is exactly right. I would argue that they definitely fit somewhere within the established lore, but the fact that it is totally feasible for them to exist in their own box separate from everything else makes theorizing unsatisfying.

In BotW they were a complete bag of nothing. Just a random name thrown into the game to get theorists to talk about them despite the fact that they had absolutely nothing interesting about them whatsoever. It was just yet another way BotW pretended to be well made without actually putting in the effort.

I think the Zonai's impression of depth in BotW is strong, but I'm not gonna convince you anything about that game is good. The issue is that when you time-travel answer the questions about the thing that was impressed, you have to be really solid, and they absolutely were not.

Can't be a soft reboot if your continuity never made sense or mattered to begin with.

The only game that is as problematic as TotK is FSA (and whatever meteor hit Hyrule between OoT and TP). The rest fit pretty well.

 

[thePlinko]

I think the Zonai's impression of depth in BotW is strong, but I'm not gonna convince you anything about that game is good. The issue is that when you time-travel answer the questions about the thing that was impressed, you have to be really solid, and they absolutely were not.

What impression of depth? There was a single name and some generic “ruins.” Literally the only thing that was different from hundreds of other generic ruined areas was that this one had some slightly different generic carvings. The Zonai had as much effort put into making them interesting as if I had just stacked a bunch of Lincoln Logs on top of each other and called it “my new fictional civilization.”

 

[Ryuu Kage Desu]

What impression of depth? There was a single name and some generic “ruins.” Literally the only thing that was different from hundreds of other generic ruined areas was that this one had some slightly different generic carvings. The Zonai had as much effort put into making them interesting as if I had just stacked a bunch of Lincoln Logs on top of each other and called it “my new fictional civilization.”

I would say that the Zonai have the most depth we have seen in a group added to the series, upon their first game, so far. As far as the other introductions go, we may get an explanation that the people have always been around (or that they used to be another group), and we may or may not see them next time. If we were not told, in dialogue, that the new group has a backstory, we would have nothing to go on. Most introductions don't even give us the Lincoln Logs.

 

[The Dashing Darknut]

I would say that the Zonai have the most depth we have seen in a group added to the series, upon their first game, so far. As far as the other introductions go, we may get an explanation that the people have always been around (or that they used to be another group), and we may or may not see them next time. If we were not told, in dialogue, that the new group has a backstory, we would have nothing to go on. Most introductions don't even give us the Lincoln Logs.

We kinda just know that they’re being on levels of goddesses with stones though. That’s kinda it. Idk, I thought the Twili were more interesting with their lore of their ancestors and how their realm looked and the technology of it, Zonai tech is just shiekiah but green

 

[thePlinko]

I would say that the Zonai have the most depth we have seen in a group added to the series, upon their first game, so far. As far as the other introductions go, we may get an explanation that the people have always been around (or that they used to be another group), and we may or may not see them next time. If we were not told, in dialogue, that the new group has a backstory, we would have nothing to go on. Most introductions don't even give us the Lincoln Logs.

Except TotK wasn’t our introduction to the Zonai, BotW was. Literally every other species in the series at least showed us what they looked like in the first game.

 

[Ryuu Kage Desu]

We kinda just know that they’re being on levels of goddesses with stones though. That’s kinda it. Idk, I thought the Twili were more interesting with their lore of their ancestors and how their realm looked and the technology of it, Zonai tech is just shiekiah but green

The games literally tell us, even shows us, that the Ancient Shiekah were connected to the Zonai.

I absolutely love what we did get with the Twili, but it's only one game, and there's no connection to them in the world of Hyrule. We have to be told about the Twili's history. We can't see the impact of their conflict, which was supposed to have been devastating. A pre-banishment-Twili structure would have been amazing. As is, if we were never told about their connection to Hyrule, there would be nothing to make the connection. Just a portal and an alternate realm.

Except TotK wasn’t our introduction to the Zonai, BotW was. Literally every other species in the series at least showed us what they looked like in the first game.

That's the introduction I was talking about. We are given the evidence of the people; enough so that we didn't need to see them to know about them. Then we get more in the second game. How often do we get evidence for a people, in these games, before we actually meet them?