Old Man alternate (although implausible) identity in BotW

[Neil Almack]

I'll start this by saying that though I've been a lifetime fan of the Zelda series, I have not played all the games, nor do I claim this to be my belief, but more if a thought exercise.

As stated above, I've missed some games (mostly the handhelds). I don't remember another game where Link started out as anything other than a boy/man, and especially not being awoken from a 100 year sleep. Since there seem to be multiple incarnation of Link, what if whoever put Link in the 'rejuvenation pod' in BotW did so with the hope that a new Link would be born and then they could awaken the Link from the pod so that the two Links could try to overcome Gabon as just one didn't seem to work before (and hence why one Link is in a rejuvenation pod). Somewhere along the way though, something happened and Link was not roused when the new Link was born. In comes the old man. Perhaps he is the new incarnation of Link that finally found how to wake pod link up, which would explain why he is so close to the cave and why he helps him out at the beginning of BotW

Would love to hear what anyone thinks of this as a possibility or even why to the reasons that this could not happen.

 

[DekuNut]

Link isn't simply reincarnated. He's reincarnated with the spirit of the hero, and there's only one spirit of the hero. If a new Link was born, then that would take the spirit of the hero away from the already dead Link, as the spirit would've moved on to the new Hero. Therefore, I find it highly unlikely for the Old Man to be a different version of Link.
Even so, your evidence is all circumstancial. Yes, he's right there outside the spawn and helping Link. Just like a mysterious old man who shows up to give Link his sword in the first game. Or somewhat similar to a mysterious old man-boat who saves a drowning Link from the Forsaken Fortress. You provide no reason why he would be Link, only the idea itself.
Anyways, welcome to the site Neil.

 

[Tibari]

Funny idea and would be a great plot twist, but it seems implausible as you said unfortunately

 

[Neil Almack]

Link isn't simply reincarnated. He's reincarnated with the spirit of the hero, and there's only one spirit of the hero. If a new Link was born, then that would take the spirit of the hero away from the already dead Link, as the spirit would've moved on to the new Hero. Therefore, I find it highly unlikely for the Old Man to be a different version of Link.
Even so, your evidence is all circumstancial. Yes, he's right there outside the spawn and helping Link. Just like a mysterious old man who shows up to give Link his sword in the first game. Or somewhat similar to a mysterious old man-boat who saves a drowning Link from the Forsaken Fortress. You provide no reason why he would be Link, only the idea itself.
Anyways, welcome to the site Neil.

Thanks for the response. Again, more of a thought exercise than anything else, but I will give more insight into why I thought there might be something to this. Obviously, with limited information since the game has not been released, I just caught one of the things that the old man said that was interesting to me. He said something about Link being an "enigma." While this is most likely just the old man noticing there is something special about Link, I thought that maybe he said it for a different reason. Perhaps he said it knowing that he also a hero of time and it was just surreal seeing what was essentially himself in someone else literally. That coupled with the fact that nobody else seems to be around, I thought that as a hero of time he could keep himself alive with ease against random enemies around, but that he didnt have the skill, power, courage, etc. to take on Ganon. So knowing (somehow, maybe from the Shieka that are mysteriously missing despite all of their tech and symbols all around) that the other Links location, he either tries to wake him but doesn't know how or he waits for him to awaken st a pre set time, which happens long after expected, leaving him as an old man.

So ya, lots of speculation, but that's whats fun about new Zelda games coming out and sneak peaks that are ambiguous. Again, thanks for the response.

 

[DARK MASTER]

Three likely possibilities:

Spoiler: If correct spoilers!

1. The Old Man is actually Hyrule’s former king. We’ve seen this previously with Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule and even a bit with King Daltus Hyurule.

2. The Old Man is actually Link. We've seen the Hero's Shade (an ancient Link) guide Twilight Princess Link through his journey.

3. The Old Man is actually a servant/sage/wise men. This would certainly follow precedent because of Sahasrahla, Aginah, Uncle Rupee, Old Man, Rauru, etc….

Though what do you folks think?

 

[Neil Almack]

Three likely possibilities:

Spoiler: If correct spoilers!

1. The Old Man is actually Hyrule’s former king. We’ve seen this previously with Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule and even a bit with King Daltus Hyurule.

2. The Old Man is actually Link. We've seen the Hero's Shade (an ancient Link) guide Twilight Princess Link through his journey.

3. The Old Man is actually a servant/sage/wise men. This would certainly follow precedent because of Sahasrahla, Aginah, Uncle Rupee, Old Man, Rauru, etc….

Though what do you folks think?

I think the first is probably what most people think is true based off of what I've seen so far from the internet.
I like the old man being Link himself, but as stated earlier that it's more of a wish than what I actually think is true. It's kind of like in Avatar when Ang is frozen for 100 years, but instead of what happened in that show, the universe actually made a new hero in the absence of the first one, allowing for multiple incarnations to be alive simultaneously.
The third is also likely given past games and having an old man assisting you in some capacity.
All possible in some ways. The timeline placement will also shed more light on which ones can be thrown out and which ones are more likely than the others. Is the timeline usually released by Nintendo before the release of the game? How was it done in SS?

 

[DARK MASTER]

Is the timeline usually released by Nintendo before the release of the game?

Nintendo was usually vague prior to releasing their official timeline in HH, but I suspect they'll tell us after BotW's release like ALBW and TFH, or wait a bit.

 

[ITheSuperior]

It's highly unlike, but its a great idea.
maybe for another Zelda game, and maybe put some timetraveling Link from the future who came back to do things differently.
Actually a game where Adault Link goes back in time to warn OoT Link not to open the gate to the Sacred realm and allow Ganon to take the Triforce
(Also travel with a different way than the Ocarina, which allows for 2 links to exist simultaneously)

 

[Spamomanospam]

This is an interesting thought I hadn't considered. I think there's enough evidence to call it plausible, even if unlikely. We've only seen two separate incarnations of Link in one game before, being the Hero's Shade in Twilight Princess, so the idea that multiple instances of Link cannot simultaneously exist is disproven, in my opinion. (Sorry, Deku Nut). In addition, Breath of the Wild features Wolf Link, so there are already two Links in the equation.

 

[Carol Lepoudre]

It's highly unlike, but its a great idea.
maybe for another Zelda game, and maybe put some timetraveling Link from the future who came back to do things differently.
Actually a game where Adault Link goes back in time to warn OoT Link not to open the gate to the Sacred realm and allow Ganon to take the Triforce
(Also travel with a different way than the Ocarina, which allows for 2 links to exist simultaneously)

I like these ideas as I love anything to do with time travel.

 

[HikerLink]

This sounds great, and I immediately also thought of the Hero's Shade, making 2 Links coexist at the same time.
There's also another instance of the same spirit being present twice at the same time, and it is Impa in Skyward Sword.
Maybe it is a trapped in time Link that travel to the wrong era, or even another Link that was in stasis and some system failed and woke up too early.

I can't wait for the game to come out!

 

[ELDYLO]

Doesn't the spirit of the hero only appeare when it's needed?

 

[Neil Almack]

Doesn't the spirit of the hero only appeare when it's needed?

Ya I think so. So in my mind this is what happens... Link is almost killed or even killed and put in a pod that will rejuvenate/revive him by someone, probably Shieka people. They set someone up to wake him, but that person cannot because they die or whatever. A new Link is born, but Ganon is too strong to win alone, though he has heard of the legend of the pod and goes out to find this other hero. He finds the pod and either A opens it or B waits nearby in the hopes that someone else will open it or it will open on its own after some time.