Breath of the Wild Mysterious Rito(?) Friend of foe?

[Spirit]

So one of the biggest mysteries of the new BoTW trailer (aside from: is that Zelda or Link with boobs?) Is who and what that mysterious bird character is.

We all instantly thought Rito (and then Falco) but if we have a long look he may be a new race entirely...

I want to bring a couple of things up about him though. Because while i dont think he'll be a villain, i think he may be a rival on a quest similar to Link... another hero brought in perhaps by his own race to defeat the oncoming Calamity....


Okay. So look at him. He's wearing the same 'champion blue' as Link does. Its not the same design but this seems to be how to tell the good guys from the bad guys in this game, even the mysterious women are wearing it.

Secondly, look at his bow. The ends of it are gold and look to me like the wings on the crest of the goddess. Could this be a bow upgrade, or could he be carrying some sort of goddess bow that he'll give to Link later? He looks angry but he seems to be on the side of good with the bow and the blue. We also see Kass which tells us that this new bird race isnt a wholly violent one.


The one thing that does bug me though is the air ship he is flying towards. We thought this may have been a floating island but we know now its a big ass mech bird airship.... and its pink! The same pink we see in calamity Ganon and the corrupted Guardians.

This bird guy is flying towards it. Is he going to attack it or is it his base? The ship clearly means harm with its pink glow, so... have these bird people turned on Hyrule in part?

Is he just going to try and liberate his ship with Link's help or is he fool-hardy and trying to do it all himself?

Either way he'd make a great enemy fight. Itd be pretty cool to take on someone armed with that bow and mad flying skills.


So what do you think. Friend, foe or friendly rival?

 

[hwrdjacob]

Friendly reminder that Fokkas given the context are likely Hyper Evolved Loftwings.

Also reminder the airship he's on is in the shape of a Loftwing, as is his face (at least, closer to a Loftwing than a Rito)

Yes I'm insinuating the possibility this may be a Fokka, given Nintendo's belligerent insistence on BotW being "connected to the NES games"

 

[Dio]

So one of the biggest mysteries of the new BoTW trailer (aside from: is that Zelda or Link with boobs?) Is who and what that mysterious bird character is.

We all instantly thought Rito (and then Falco) but if we have a long look he may be a new race entirely...

I want to bring a couple of things up about him though. Because while i dont think he'll be a villain, i think he may be a rival on a quest similar to Link... another hero brought in perhaps by his own race to defeat the oncoming Calamity....


Okay. So look at him. He's wearing the same 'champion blue' as Link does. Its jot the same design but this seems to be how to tell the good guys from the bad guys in this game, even the mysterious women are wearing it.

Secondly, look at his bow. The ends of it are gold and look to me like the wings on the crest of the goddess. Could this be a bow upgrade, or could he be carrying some sort of goddess bow that he'll give to Link latet? He looks angry but he seems to be on the side of good with the bow and the blue. We also see Kass which tells us that this new bird race isnt a wholly violent one.


The one thing that does big me though is the air ship he is flying towards. We thought this may have been a floating island but we know now its a big ass mech bird airship.... and its pink! The same pink we see in calamity Ganon and the corrupted Guardians.

This bird guy is flying towards it. Is he going to attack it or is it his base? The ship clearly means harm with its pink glow, so... have these bird people turned on Hyrule in part?

Is he just going to try and liberate his ship with Link's help or is he fool-hardy and trying to do it all himself?

Either way he'd make a grwat enemy fight. Itd be pretty cool to take on someone armed with that bow and mad flying skills.


So what do you think. Friend, foe or friendly rival

I'm sure he will be a friend. The colour scheme and look of the Rito doesnt scream enemy to me. In Zelda, evil tends to show in your physical appearance and based on that and the fact he takes flight away from link towards the big flying machine, it indicates he at least doesn't mean harm.

 

[hwrdjacob]

I'm sure he will be a friend. The colour scheme and look of the Rito doesnt scream enemy to me. In Zelda, evil tends to show in your physical appearance and based on that and the fact he takes flight away from link towards the big flying machine, it indicates he at least doesn't mean harm.

Which also lends credence to this being a Fokka since despite being enemies they were devout servants of the royal family on par with the Shiekah.

This being a Rito doesn't particularly add up due to the differences between him and the Rito and the absence of Rito symbolism (Zora's sapphire, Chinese style dragons, etc.), the beak and eye shape as well as the airship's shape seem to specifically allude to Loftwings

I feel like if he's an enemy it will be along the lines of the Fokkas, Dangoro from TP, possibly the Darknut in the ToT from the same game- merely guarding an artifact from Link. If he isn't, that still aligns with Fokkas due to their benevolent nature

 

[Dio]

Which also lends credence to this being a Fokka since despite being enemies they were devout servants of the royal family on par with the Shiekah.

This being a Rito doesn't particularly add up due to the differences between him and the Rito and the absence of Rito symbolism (Zora's sapphire, Chinese style dragons, etc.), the beak and eye shape as well as the airship's shape seem to specifically allude to Loftwings

I feel like if he's an enemy it will be along the lines of the Fokkas, Dangoro from TP, possibly the Darknut in the ToT from the same game- merely guarding an artifact from Link. If he isn't, that still aligns with Fokkas due to their benevolent nature

The Rito featured in a TP Easter egg along with the Oocca where we see a carving on Castle Town wall depocting them which is why I think that these are in fact the Rito rather than a species that not many people know about and that hasn't featured since the very beginning of the Zelda series.

 

[Spirit]

We have the Koroks in BoTW already, perhaps this game is taking the races from WW (and elements from nearly every other Zelda game) so it would make sense if these new birds were Rito.

Standing them side by side, the Rito look much more humanoid than the new birds, the Rito have more human faces and limbs. The new bird race looks a lot more avian overall but...

The Koroks are a form the Kokiri can take. I dont think it is directly said that the Kokiri evolved on the water like the Rito did, rather the Kokiri 'took the form' of the Koroks.

So if the koroks just changed their form (because magic) and the Rito evolved then perhaps they are still evolving. Perhaps theyd become more and more bird like as time went on, this isnt that hard to believe because A) BoTW has a long time period both during and perhaps before the game. And B,The Rito used to be Zora, they used to be fish! Surely getting a little more bird like is less of a jump than fish to bird.

Plus. Perhaps they are 'elder Rito' who says we saw all the Rito there were in WW. Perhaps there are an elder race of Rito we didnt meet?

Obviously we dont know for sure what any of them are but still, food for thought.

 

[hwrdjacob]

We have the Koroks in BoTW already, perhaps this game is taking the races from WW (and elements from nearly every other Zelda game) so it would make sense if these new birds were Rito.

Standing then side by side, the rito look much more humanoid than the new birds, the rito have more human faces and limbs. The new bird race looks a lot more avian overall but...

The koroks are a form the kokiri can take. I dont think it is directly said thag the kokiri evolved on the water like the rito did, rather the kokiri 'took the form' of the koroks.

So if the koroks just changed their form (because magic) and the Rito evolved then perhaps they are still evolving. Perhaps theyd become more and more bird like as time went on, this isnt that hard to believe because A) BoTW has a long time period both during and perhaps before the game. And B,The Rito used to be Zora, they used to be fish! Surelt getting a little more bird like is less of a jump than fish to bird.

Plus. Perhaps they are 'elder Rito' who says we saw all the Rito there were in WW. Perhaps there are an elder race of Rito we didnt meet?

Obviously we dont know for sure what any of them are but still, food for thought.

If that's the case I think it's rather questionable the Koroks didn't evolve and indeed have the exact same names as their WW counterparts apparently if this takes place after ST.

I've never really subscribed to the figure being a Rito in TP due to the fact the Koroks can be easily integrated without the flood whereas Rito have a backstory dependant on it; however, we know the Skyloftians evolved into the Oocca so I believed it was quite possible the figure was an in-between of Skyloftians and Oocca (both parties having the same Japanese name and TP's backstory pretty much confirming the City in the Sky as Skyloft, being an ancient Capitol of Hyrule kingdom before Hyrule castle was first built)

It's perhaps possible they might slap the name Rito on something completely unrelated to the Zoras but I wouldn't bank on it. This figure also has symbolism more in line with Skyloftians than it does Ritos from WW.

Finally, we haven't seen Valoo in this game. The Ritos' evolution pretty much starts and ends with Valoo's scales, so it's unlikely they'd evolve further without the scales (it's even alluded to this being the case because the "end of the Rito" is alluded to if Link doesn't calm Valoo).

I'm not saying they'll be called Fokkas but I think the concept (hyper evolved Loftwing guardians) is indeed the same AS the Fokkas, in much the same way Diaras and Lizalfos are pretty much the same creatures by another name

 

[Nicolai]

The one thing that does bug me though is the air ship he is flying towards. We thought this may have been a floating island but we know now its a big ass mech bird airship.... and its pink! The same pink we see in calamity Ganon and the corrupted Guardians.

This bird guy is flying towards it. Is he going to attack it or is it his base? The ship clearly means harm with its pink glow, so... have these bird people turned on Hyrule in part?

Is he just going to try and liberate his ship with Link's help or is he fool-hardy and trying to do it all himself?

I know I brought this up in another thread, but it's relevant here. In Zeltik's Bird Men theory video, he heightened the contrast on the image of the airship in the shot where it is farther away, which shows it glowing blue.

So therefore, in the scene where we see "Falco" flying up to it, it shows no signs of Ganon's corruption. He's definitely not going to try to save it in this scene. As to whether he's friendly or not at this point, it's hard to say, but I think its safe to assume that at some point in the game, he becomes your friend if he wasn't already.

 

[Spirit]

I know I brought this up in another thread, but it's relevant here. In Zeltik's Bird Men theory video, he heightened the contrast on the image of the airship in the shot where it is farther away, which shows it glowing blue.

So therefore, in the scene where we see "Falco" flying up to it, it shows no signs of Ganon's corruption. He's definitely not going to try to save it in this scene. As to whether he's friendly or not at this point, it's hard to say, but I think its safe to assume that at some point in the game, he becomes your friend if he wasn't already.

Whatever is going down i bet we end up with his bow at some point.

 

[Pen]

First of all I just gotta say that I'm a huge fan of this bird man's design. The clothing in particular. ^^

I get the feeling he'll be some pretty badass side character who fights for the same cause as Link. I don't think he'll be a villain, although I would honestly love to battle someone like him.

Anyway, I feel very confident that he is not a Rito. He doesn't look much like a Rito. Look at his beak. It's a straight up beak. The Ritos don't have straight up beaks, but rather a nose that looks similar to a beak, but it's still just a nose. Ritos don't have beaks that open like birds do. Instead they have their human-looking mouths underneath their beak-nose much like humans have their mouth beneath their nose. This new bird man character has an obvious bird beak, and to me that is enough to definitely deny the idea that he might be a Rito.

I do like what we've seen of him though, and I'd love for there to be a whole society and culture in the game of whatever creature he is.

 

[Tibari]

He's showing Link how to get on the ship. Indeed, there is wind for the paraglider and Falco is using it.
So he's probably a friend, maybe a rival?

 

[Spirit]

I love how we're calling him Falco.

Nintendo should call him that in the canon. I like the idea that Star Fox Zero was so bad that Falco had to look for work in another IP.

 

[Tibari]

I think a lot of people should be confused if his real name was Falco.
However it's a good placeholder name, and they will have to put a real good badass name on it to make us adopt it.

... Maybe the fact it looks like Falco is why I think he will be Link's friend rival, as for Falco and Fox ?

 

[Nicolai]

I love how we're calling him Falco.

Nintendo should call him that in the canon. I like the idea that Star Fox Zero was so bad that Falco had to look for work in another IP.

I mean, he looks just like him. There's no way he's not Falco.

I hope they give him another, yet related name, to be more subtle. "Lombirdi," or something.

 

[Amy Lu Minati]

we know the Skyloftians evolved into the Oocca

...Uhhh. I thought the "Skyloftians" are the people who became the Hylians. :/ I don't think this is something people "know" This is still unproven speculation isn't it?