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Where did the cats go?

Link Floyd

ᵒⁿ ᵗʰᵉ ʳᵘⁿ
Joined
Sep 23, 2014
In Breath of the Wild, we have dogs, wolves, goats, and of course, viscous half horse half lion things called Lynels. But we never see any cats, do we? Where did they go? We see them in TP, specifically gathered by that golden guy's house in Castle Town, so they have existed in Hyrule at some point.

First of all, we have to consider BotW's placement in the Zelda timeline. If the game takes place in the Downfall Timeline, it's very likely that they never existed in Hyrule at all, since we never saw them before and during OoT.

Same goes for the Adult Timeline. There is no evidence for cats existing in this era either.

So with all of that in mind, our attention goes to the Child Timeline. As far as I know, they only appear in TP. And there's no NPC that mentions they own a cat or anything in any other game.

So could the existence of cats be the key to figuring out BotW's placement in the timeline? And what about their existence in TP? What happened to them after that and in the other timelines? Maybe they adapted and turned into an enemy (possibly WW Keese) and we just never saw them as cats before? What do you think?
 

Dio

~ It's me, Dio!~
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First of all, we have to consider BotW's placement in the Zelda timeline. If the game takes place in the Downfall Timeline, it's very likely that they never existed in Hyrule at all, since we never saw them before and during OoT.

I'm going to have to correct you there. You see...
latest

This very attractive lady in OOT does indeed have a cat so we know whichever timeline branch BoTW takes place in there will have been cats existing in hyrule at some point before it.

I think Lynels have to be Ganon's creations so I don't believe they are the descendants of cats. It is possible then that cats became extinct at some point before BoTW.

How this happened is anyone's guess. Perhaps they were an easy food source right after the great Calamity.
 
Joined
Nov 14, 2015
In Wind Waker, Link imitates a cat noise to throw Mila off of the fact he's following her, implying that both him and Mila are familiar with cats and their meowing to some degree meaning that - while not seen - they do at minimum exist to a certain point on the Great Sea.

The miniboss of the Unicorn's Cave is also a sabre-toothed tiger named Syger, which also confirms that cats (or at least big cats) are present in the Downfall Timeline.
Syger.png
 
Joined
Aug 28, 2016
There's also a pet cat in OoS as well... you have to lure it out of a tree as part of the trading sequence.

However, as OoS is set in Holodrum, this still leaves Hyrule without cats in the downfall timeline.
 

PalaeoJoe

The Diplomatic Dinosaur
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I don't think the existence of cats in Breath of the Wild has any bearing on the timeline.
My thoughts exactly.
This is a silly question. When theorizing you have to distinguish between game features which are statements about the world and which ones are simply outcomes of developing a game. This is such a small detail, the presence or absence of normal animals in the game world. The only reason why there are no cats in BotW or any game with out them for that matter is because the developers didn't bother putting them in the game. It has no baring on whether or not they actually exist in the game world.
Another example Deer, why are we not theorizing about why deer have only appeared in the time line when BotW takes place. "Why did they exist in no part of the time line before BotW?" Because we know that deer didn't magically appear in Hyrule just for this game they were present in the world of each game but the developers simply didn't put them in. We can say the same thing for any mundane animal that appears in BotW or any other game unless we have a Good reason to suspect otherwise.
 

Dio

~ It's me, Dio!~
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My thoughts exactly.
This is a silly question. When theorizing you have to distinguish between game features which are statements about the world and which ones are simply outcomes of developing a game. This is such a small detail, the presence or absence of normal animals in the game world. The only reason why there are no cats in BotW or any game with out them for that matter is because the developers didn't bother putting them in the game. It has no baring on whether or not they actually exist in the game world.
Another example Deer, why are we not theorizing about why deer have only appeared in the time line when BotW takes place. "Why did they exist in no part of the time line before BotW?" Because we know that deer didn't magically appear in Hyrule just for this game they were present in the world of each game but the developers simply didn't put them in. We can say the same thing for any mundane animal that appears in BotW or any other game unless we have a Good reason to suspect otherwise.

Nintendo don't really seem to care anymore about building a strong narrative and lore and having the games connecting properly.

Knowing this you could say it is silly to theorise about anything in Zelda. But it's fun to do. One of the developers at the time might have decided to sneak in a bit of story or had an idea in mind as to why or why not to include certain animals. We know Aounuma and Koizumi both snuck story aspects in past Miyamoto when making OoT and MM so maybe they thought they wouldn't include cats because they were being fed to Ganon by Zelda to pacify him for 100 years. This is just a fun question. There is no point in complaining about it being asked. Go and make a thread theorising about deer if you like.
 

Link Floyd

ᵒⁿ ᵗʰᵉ ʳᵘⁿ
Joined
Sep 23, 2014
Nintendo don't really seem to care anymore about building a strong narrative and lore and having the games connecting properly.

Knowing this you could say it is silly to theorise about anything in Zelda. But it's fun to do. One of the developers at the time might have decided to sneak in a bit of story or had an idea in mind as to why or why not to include certain animals. We know Aounuma and Koizumi both snuck story aspects in past Miyamoto when making OoT and MM so maybe they thought they wouldn't include cats because they were being fed to Ganon by Zelda to pacify him for 100 years. This is just a fun question. There is no point in complaining about it being asked. Go and make a thread theorising about deer if you like.

Well said!
 
Joined
Jan 16, 2019
SS: Remlits
MC and the FS games: Cats
OoT: Baby Tiger
Downfall Timeline: Syger Lynel and Cats
Child: TP cats
Adult: Toon Link is kitten
BotW: Lynel
 

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