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THE END OF HYRULE

 

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD - https://youtu.be/iE5vx18Qym8

 

You can't move forward while clinging to the past.

 

The way this ending goes is definitely not what most people playing a Zelda game would expect. You win by saving Hyrule, right? But then why does Ganondorf want the land restored, and is the King of Hyrule just being contrarian?

 

No, you have to really pay attention to the motivations at play, here. I definitely didn't get it as a kid. I just knew Ganondorf had to go down to beat the game. But the key is in what happens if Hyrule is restored. If the land is restored, then it's a huge swath of land that's basically devoid of people. The only ones who can really stand against him are a pair of barely-adult youngsters who, let's be honest, barely match him on a good day. He just punches us out before we can move, so long as he doesn't care about torturing us.

 

Meanwhile, with Hyrule gone, the Triforce (which is tied to the land itself) is sealed away, forever out of Ganondorf's reach. He can't get to it and he certainly can't use it. This is to be the last time the Triforce is ever used in this timeline. (The Zelda series has multiple timelines.)

 

The only reason we're actually able to win here is because of a couple of things. One is Ganondorf's arrogance after assembling the Triforce; you might notice he's standing a few feet from it while making his demands, since the only other people he knows are present (Tetra and Luc) are currently barely conscious. Meanwhile the ghost-king is actually able to touch the Triforce just before Ganondorf gets to it. The second reason is tied to the first: Ganondorf is beyond infurated that he failed in his moment of glory. Just like Demise before him, he's absolutely certain that he can win (and he could, if he didn't try to be fancy) and so decides to torture Luc and Zelda using his katanas in one final battle before they all drown. But we were a little over-prepared and so he just doesn't have the ability to overcome us in battle. (That was the first time I ever used Elixir Soup and if I didn't care to use it at all I could have just had my magic armor active the whole time. I started with 2938 rupees and only lost 800 after activating it.)

 

And that's all for my ~100% quest! I got all hearts, all figurines, and all major items and upgrades. The missing items were the Gold Beedle Membership, one treasure chart, finishing all the slide puzzles and reaching 999 hits against Orca. I do like getting 100%, but I also value my time. And I have a lot of games to get through. We're not done yet, because I do want to show off the translated Hylian text, but otherwise that'll be all for Wind Waker!