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Skyloft's Cloud Barrier

Lord_Cathaseigh

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Apr 21, 2012
As I'm sure everyone knows who's played Skyward Sword, one of the things that made it's sky world unique is it's cloud barrier. This cloud barrier prevents the denizens of the sky from being able to venture towards the surface, and protects said denizens from attacks from the surface.

Now one thing that's always kind of confused is the idea that well... This big mass of clouds at the bottom of the sky is supposed to prevent anything from getting through, save for those who have had a path illuminated for them by the goddess.

But then I my most recent play through, I remembered the chick who's bird you had to save mention the fact that a new island had just appeared (which turns out to be Fun Fun island). The way she mentions it though, it's as if she's not really all that surprised that a new island has appeared.

My theory then, is that Skyloft's Cloud Barrier isn't just made up of clouds, but also a thick layer of floating rocks that just so happen to a few rocks levitate in and out of Skyloft every now and then to make up for it's islands. This makes a lot more sense to me than just some "big, scary cloud mass" because it would actually make sense: no one is going to want smash blindly into rocks over and over and over again until they find themselves unconscious. It would also make sense that "once something falls beneath the clouds, it's gone forever" because no one is going to want to try to venture through that.

So what do ya'll guys think? Do you think that that makes more sense?
 
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Interesting, but Thunderhead also had a thick layer of clouds preventing you from entering, but a simple beam of light allowed Link to enter, so I don't know how legitimate this could be.
 

Lord_Cathaseigh

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Yeah, but I always considered the dangers of the thunderhead to be like, y'know... Inclement weather, lightning, hail, violent winds... I would kind say the same thing for the actual cloud barrier, if it weren't for the fact that you never really see it rain on the Surface. I would think that if it was the same thing that we would see us a bunch of storm clouds from the ground.
 

Dio

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I'd like to hear what she said in the Japanese version of the game. It could be a strange translation that makes it sound like a whole new island appeared.

What could be possible is that the clown just set up shop recently on the island.
 

Lord_Cathaseigh

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Hearing the Japanese version would be nice but... I think that it's probably gonna be a while until we can get to hear anything.
 

Spiritual Mask Salesman

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The cloud barrier isn't inpenatrable, in fact the game states it's just loftwings that can't break through it. Humans (Skyloftians) can. Zelda fell from the sky through the cloud barrier and survived which proves that it isn't some cloud barrier with rocks making it inpenatrable. The myth that nothing that falls from Skyloft is ever seen comes from the fact that they believe below the cloud barrier there is a vast expanse of nothing, when there is actually a whole land beneath them that they actually orginated from but forgot about.
 

Lord_Cathaseigh

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Zelda also had nothing that could have broke her fall if she really had fallen all the way through that cloud barrier. My instinct tells me that since Ghirahim needed Zelda alive, he wouldn't have just snatched her away and let her fall to her death.

Also as far as items go, falling from any where near that far high and reaching terminal velocity would have destroyed a regular object as soon as it hit the ground. If we wanted to rule out the possibility of a huge meteor field, then you have to take that into account
 
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Djinn

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The game was never really clear if the clouds really made some magical barrier that things could not move through, or if the loftwings refused to fly through the thick clouds (some birds will do this). Or if it was just made to totally obscure all vision between the ground and skyloft. So the people of Skyloft would not know there was a ground down there and not attempt to venture down, and Ghirahim would not know exactly where skyloft was to attack it. There was a demon present in Skyloft although we do not know how he got there and when. Ghirahim was able to penetrate the barrier when he made that tornado. Demise was also capable of extending influence past it to give Link nightmares of his returning. Scrapper moved back and forth from the surface to Skyloft a few times in the game.

I'd like to hear what she said in the Japanese version of the game. It could be a strange translation that makes it sound like a whole new island appeared.

What could be possible is that the clown just set up shop recently on the island.
Just about everything was translated back in 2012. But the differences between Japanese and NA are not as huge as TP or FSA. Mostly phrasing changes.

I don't think the landmass appeared for Fun Fun island, I think Dodoh just moved over to an uninhabited rock and built it up.
 
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Zelda also had nothing that could have broke her fall if she really had fallen all the way through that cloud barrier. My instinct tells me that since Ghirahim needed Zelda alive, he wouldn't have just snatched her away and let her fall to her death.

Also as far as items go, falling from any where near that far high and reaching terminal velocity would have destroyed a regular object as soon as it hit the ground. If we wanted to rule out the possibility of a huge meteor field, then you have to take that into account
And an item smashing straight into a layer of rocks would be fine and dandy? Either way, the items made it to the surface unharmed.
 

Lord_Cathaseigh

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Like I was saying, if it can survive an impact with earth going at terminal velocity (as well as possibly being superheated while passing through the sky) and come out unscathed, I hardly think it hitting rocks on the way down would hurt anything
 

Spiritual Mask Salesman

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Like I was saying, if it can survive an impact with earth going at terminal velocity (as well as possibly being superheated while passing through the sky) and come out unscathed, I hardly think it hitting rocks on the way down would hurt anything

My main point is that rocks would most likely prevent it from falling through in the first place
You both make good points. Though Cathseigh, Skyloft technically isn't that high up. We know that by looking down from were the openings for Link to travel to the surface that they are still only in the Stratosphere. If something was dropped from that height it actually wouldn't impact as hard as you might think it would. I'll admit if Zelda did free fall from that height she'd be dead, so maybe Ghirahim did manipulate her descentant.
 

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