Do the Cursed Bobokoblins Evolve into Redeads?

[Guest_1]

Your concern is essentially answered in the various sections below:



I was struggling to come up with the right term, but decomposition kept rising to the top. I basically meant the overall decay that time affected as it went from Skyward Sword's era to Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask, and so on—cellular deterioration, if you will. The skin of the Cursed Bokoblins became a brown shriveling rug that covered their bones, their faces became "wooden" masks, and the hair and horns fell off, although the eventual Redeads maintained their physical structure.



To me, this is where the emaciation comes in, although it I could be biologically wrong on this. I'm just thinking about becoming taller as they develop a scrawnier frame; not all things are tall and skinny necessarily, but Redeads are both of those. Another thing is that they're undead. Now, I'm prone to think that this means they're bodies aren't alive in any way which would also stymie cell growth), and that the evil magic is all that's keeping them mobile, but I also like surmising that the "curse" is not only what makes them move, but grow as well.

Both of these are things I can't validate, but I think the hypothetical curse justifies the explanation for them.



I don't know. Overall, I believe Nintendo has stuck pretty close to how the Redead/Zombokoblin designs correlate.

Wind Waker - Recall that these Redeads are found in coffins in this game. The enclosed space might have caused their bodies to not deteriorate or emaciate, but stay closer to the Bokoblin side of things. Contrary to OoT Redeads, WW's had a gray complexion instead of the original taupe, and they're almost more elephantine—just look at the ears—which tells me that they stuck to the Bokoblin side of things. Their predecessors could also have placed their undead bodies in coffins to ward off unwanted intruders in Dungeons and such.

Twilight Princess - And here the TP Redeads are wrapped in bandages. Now, this is later on down the timeline, so it's possible that the decomposition really begins at this point (as well as the curse's curative effects). They wear bandages so that their bodies don't deteriorate as quickly. That, or they were used to guard the prison known as Arbiter's Ground and were patched up as they lay dying from some huge revolt. I like to think the former suits this explanation better.



Really can't argue with that.

This is really just an attempt at branching this theory out a little more. Original hypotheses happen to be far-fetched a lot, but that's what makes seeking the end results seemingly worthwhile. Already more things came to mind because you prompted me to think about them better. In reality I'm not particularly good at theorizing—or rather, theorizing and backing it up sensibly. So thanks for putting up this challenge. x3

You have an interesting thought here, but if you look at it from that aspect, it isn't so much the undead creature in question evolving as it is the curse that created it, and the undead in turn changing because of the curse. While there is change going on there, that's not really what I'd call 'evolution', as deep down, they haven't changed from their original purpose at all. Of course, we'll never know for certain, but considering their body shapes, I can't really buy into them being alternate forms of the same creature. They may have similar faces, and similar functions, but that's about all they have. I do agree that they did stick to the same 'template' they did with the Redeads that they did with the Cursed Bokoblins.

 

[cucco002]

There is no need to say this again but its improbable the cursed Bokoblins and the Redeads are related directly or biologically as an evolution would imply, but I would believe that both are animated by a similar curse or evil magic.

Some people are mentioning the SSBM trophy

Seven years after Ganondorf took control of Hyrule, ReDeads roamed the ruins of Castle Town, moaning. At first, Link was shocked at the state of the town, and the apparent lack of survivors. He later learned that the townsfolk had evacuated to safety, and that the ReDeads were just magic animated into hideous humanoid shapes.

As you may expect, the SSBM little piece of information cant be the best source. I we look at the evidence in the Zelda games, one can assume that the Redeads could have been once human, name them Hylian, Gerudo or any other kind of human, there is not enough evidence to tell.

If we look at the Redeads, the WW interpretation would be the one that looks less human and more of a magical creation, at least to me. But lets not base it on the looks. In Majoras Mask there is a Gossip Stone that says:

The ReDeads in Ikana were once members of the castle's dancing troupe...

That explains why they are dancing around, but thats not where I am going. The evidence supports that the members of the Ikana Kingdom were once human or at least humanoid, many of their undead members are stalfos or stalchild, and its said that the Stalfos are what those who got lost in the woods became, while they may have not been turned into stalfos in the lost woods, one can assume they suffered a similar curse and, as I said, they were once human or humanoid. There are the Composer brothers, they have some parallels in Hyrule who once served the Royal Family, they probably were Hylians and their counterparts from Termina should not have been too different. Some design displayed in stone blocks, columns or the mirror shield in Ikana display human like images that are probably based off the ancient inhabitants of Ikana. In resume, it likely that the members of the dancing troupe were once human and turned into Redeads.

While we are talking about Ikana, lets talk about the Gibdos. They are very similar to the Redeads, actually, if you hit a Gibdo in MM with a fire arrow, their bandages will burn and it turns into a Redead.The idea that Gibdos and Redeads are pretty much the same is supported by the Redead Knights from TP, that are covered in bandages like a Gibdo. Pamelas father is cursed and starts to turn into a Gibdo, that means that a curse can affect a human, dead or alive, and turn him into a Gibdo and it cant be different for Redeads.

In resume, contrary to what the SSBM trophy says, the Redeads are probably cursed humans/humanoids whether alive or dead, and not just created by magic, though one possibility does not necessary means the other its not true. Then why do the trophy says that? Maybe they just did not want to tell the kids that they are dead people.