Now, let's just take canon into consideration.
ChesseXCrackers said:
but in Twilight Princess Gorons don't seem to need to breathe at all
When/where was this? I never saw any instance, implication, or example of a Goron not breathing. In fact, I actually recall a small Goron bragging about
how long he can hold his breath. It just doesn't make sense.
don't you think adapting to salt water would've been much easier that sprouting wings?
Well, for one thing, it's rather difficult to adapt to that. Additionally, I'm pretty sure that the gift of flight is granted from Valoo, whose origin is, well, not explained. For that reason, no, it isn't easier to sprout wings. Zelda takes a lot from real life, usually taking real life cultures and applying them to the series (boomerang, anyone?). With that being said, Zelda would no doubt follow simple principles of water ecosystems. Ocarina of Time Zoras would no doubt be unable to survive in salt water, unless introduced to it in smaller doses; brackish water for instance. However, when Hyrule was flooded, it became entirely salt water. That much exposure would be impossible to adapt to before all of the Zoras were dead.
As for the Termina thing, well,
Locke said:
About fresh- and salt-water breeds, oddly enough, OoT Zoras are the backwards ones when looking at OoA. OoA explains that Sea [saltwater] Zoras are good while River [freshwater] Zoras are evil. So MM got it right, while OoT's Zoras should be evil. But OoA came out after OoT and MM and was made by Capcom so idk if anything was actually retconned.
This. I'm willing to bet that Capcom was not made aware of how this would affect things. The only thing I can come up with is that due to Labrynna and Holodrum being entirely different countries, the people there are different, and don't follow the same morals. Think of it like countries in which women have few to no rights, whereas in the United States, they have full rights. Basically, what I'm getting at is that different area, different behavioral habits. I can only assume that Hyrule and Labrynna/Holodrum are relatively far apart. And then you have to take into consideration rogue Zoras, or a rebellion of sorts. Something that resulted in the two sides splitting, and the evil, freshwater Zoras leaving Hyrule. Unfortunately most of this is in theory, and we can't be for sure.
PokaLink said:
Thats a very complicated theory as many people, including me believe that Link created Termina in his mind, and is in other worlds something that used creatures from Links past. Also saying that Salt water and Fresh water may be the diffrent between them is what water is fresh and what water isnt, we have seen Zoras swimming a lake wich could be Saltwater or Fresh also who says that the large expase of water in Termina is Salt or fresh, also Link probably didnt know if Zoras could swim in Salt or fresh as hed only seen then in a lake, so his mind told him they could swim anywere. Seclond the Goron point is very intersting, it could be that Links mind killed Gorons in water for its own reasons, or most likely be that Link had never seen a Goron in water and predict that most likely they couldnt breath under water, a good prediction but turned out to be wrong. But overall i believe that since Termina was Links mind Zora and Gorons in Termina were just what he knew about them. Of course it could be that like in Dragon Ball Z the creators werent sure what species could breath in certain places and accidently messed it up a couple of times.
Your theory is more difficult to explain than the one presented before us. I didn't understand half of it. All I got out of it was Link thinking up Termina, and being under the impression that Gorons can't swim. My question is this: where's the evidence? I don't understand how this theory can be even created. The tricky thing about a theory, is you need a foundation before you can start, you just can't shoot ideas out there. And I've never heard
anyone else say this.