The Disturbing Side of Twilight Princess...

I always found it interesting that when Twilight descended on an area most characters never even realized it. Many characters you listened to would indicate that they knew something was off, and obviously many more cowered away from more immediately threats, yet the greater threat, the fate that had already befallen them, was something that struck them while they were still completely unaware of it.

The moment you learn that the "shadow beasts" are just physically corrupted Twili citizens and perhaps some are even Hylians (based on in-game dialogue). So all the shadow beasts you slay in the story are Midna's people.

TP will always be my favorite entry to the series. I still remember my Mom taking me to Toys R Us and picking it up with on a buy 1 get 1 free deal. I got Twlight Princess and Rule of Rose. As soon as I got home, I popped the TP disc into my Gamecube, and found myself lost once again in Hyrule. But this time it was different. The Hero's journey that i was to embark on would not be the same hero's journey I had experienced before. The game gave off an air of uneasiness and the world itself felt much more desolate and oppressive.

In regards to the children being kidnapped, I think there are two possible reasons. 1. TP takes place after MM in the child timeline so Ganondorf suspected the next hero might also be a child. OoT Link also grew up in the forest and Ordon Village is close to the Forest Temple so that's another connection. Perhaps the Moblin's working for Ganondorf are searching for children who bare a Triforce mark on the back of their hand. 2. If none of the children have the mark they can still use them as bait to draw out the actual hero.

One interesting thing in Tears of the Kingdom is at one point, a Zonai construct under the Shrine of Resurrection referred to the Yiga as "Interlopers". what if Interlopers were former Sheikah tribe members who hated the Hyrulean Royal family and worked against them?

This video more than anything demonstrates a deep understanding of Twilight Princess' inexplicably heart wrenching tonal artistry. It's dark, but it's also so much more than that. It's half-smiles, the colour of the sunset, and wishing that things were better. It's working hard, succumbing, spiralling, but still always dreaming of the sunrise. It is unapologetically sombre as a game, but every story section feels like it ends on a note that is a half pitch up from where it started. Due to the nature of the world, things are never truly resolved, never fully healed, but everyone gains a greater sense of responsibility and hope as time continues, which will hopefully eventually come to create a world with as much light in it as possible. I adore the open free camera shots you used which permeate this video and illustrate the evocative feelings that Twilight Princess elicits with all of their wordless nuance in the most effective way. I'm only 4 minutes in, but I've found the whole experience very moving so far. Thank you for taking the time, but from how you talk about it, I can tell it wasn't really work at all. Cheers.

The ending of that game made me literally yell out loud for Link to stop Midna.

“the links in this timeline have been through a lot” yes!!! i would LOVE a similar video on the isolating terror of Ocarina considered from links perspective; being mentally ten years old in the body of a young man and having to speedrun maturing those 7 years because you’re instantly forced into cavernous dungeons ALONE with only Navi to guide you and Sheik popping up once in a while with a vague poem and some moral support. What it must have been like to soldier alone through a temple actively trying to burn you alive, or lure you into a dead hand’s lair

I always looked at Twilight Princess as how things really looked rather than the stories told in OOT and Skyward Sword. The Kokiri forest is abandoned, with only the ghosts of what was still haunting them. The Temple of Time tells stories of the Hero of Time on its walls, as does the Desert Prison. The Hero of Time is now a benevolent spectre, guiding the current Hero into being a better swordsman. The whole thing leans into horror, but it also has a lot of depth that many other Zeldas lack.

As a kid, that cutscene scared me so much that i would always skip it when i played through the game.

This whole video was excellent but shout-out to your timing during those first few seconds of the intro, genuinely gave me the creeps while simultaneously amping up the anticipation for what follows. Really great work!

The Twili have a connection to the Sheikah. The Sheikah are the SHADOW of the Royal Family of Hyrule of the Light World. The Royal Family of Hyrule are linked to the Goddess Hylia, the Goddess of Light & Time. The Goddess Hylia anointed a selection of Humans with her Sight & Light. These Humans blessed by the Sight of Goddess Hylia became the Sheikah. That's why the Fused Shadow has the Sheikah Eye on the back of it. In fact, the Sheikah are behind A LOT of the chaos that exists in Hyrule's history. There's a reason why they are decimated after the Hyrulean Civil War by Ocarina of Time's era. The big mystic seal on the Shadow Temple near Sheikah-founded Kakariko Village. The seal that looks like the Sheikah Eye covering up a Torture Chamber called a Shadow Temple. The Shadow Temple that tells of Hyrule's history of greed & hatred. These dirty secrets that only the Right Hands of the Royal Family would know, those Shadow Folk—the Sheikah. The CIA of Hyrule with all the negatives that entails. That's why the King of Hyrule 10,000 years before Breath of the Wild era told the Sheikah to destroy those Divine Beasts & Guardians. He feared that these machines that subdued Ganon would one day be turned on the Royal Family of Hyrule. And some of these Sheikah turned on the Royal Family when he told them to tamper down. These Sheikah became the Yiga & turned on the Royal Family just like the King thought. My theory is that the Sheikah are behind the Gerudo turning on the Hylians. All 3 groups come from the same source. They are all Humans not Humanoid Rocks or Humanoid Fishes. The Sheikah were enhanced by Hylia for a special mission as she descended into mortality as Zelda. But Skyward Sword shows us that both the Hylians AND the Gerudo came from the Skyloftian Humans left over. Groose is the ancestor of the Gerudo with his darker skin, yellow eyes, red hair, tall strong build, & vain haughty attitude. And Groose was one of the heroes in the battle against the Demon King Demise. He went WEST from the Temple of Hylia after the battle in the direction of the Lanayru Desert. That's where he founded his Grooseland. That's where the Gerudo Dragonfly flourished. That Lanayru Desert eventually became the Gerudo Desert, the Desert that's ALWAYS on the West Side. I believe the Timeshift Stones & Ruins of Industry in the region made this the ideal place for Groose's civilization. Timeshift Stones can revert the desert back to its healthy fresh & green state. But what happens if the Timeshift Stones stopped working? It then only remains a deathly desert. The Sheikah remember the now-emerging Gerudo as Groose's tribe & remember Groose affinity with Granny Impa. Granny Impa is a Sheikah so out of loyalty to one of the heroes of the Demise battle, the Sheikah wanted to help the Gerudo with their crisis by using the Triforce to make things better. But the Royal Family of Hyrule said no. And THIS is what led to the Interloper War & all of the chaos referenced in that creepy Interloper cutscene. The Gerudo held a grudge ever since & some Sheikah wanted to help them against the Kingdom & its allies. This is how the Gerudo learned the secrets of the highly-protected Sacred Realm & how to breach it. Twinrova, a fused pair of Gerudo Witches, had this knowledge & passed it on to the rare Gerudo male, Ganondorf. Through Ganondorf who unwittingly houses the spirit of Demise, the Gerudo & Sheikah Rebellion waged war on Hyrule. This is the beginning of the Hyrulean Civil War that ended in the false truce that gets exposed in Ocarina of Time. The Shiekah Rebels who were found out were hunted by the Sheikah Loyalists & hence the Shadow Temple's Torture. Bad things happen when the Sheikah split & Nintendo has quietly seeded that message over & over again. Basically when Hylia blessed these Sheikah with her godly Sight, it made them too powerful & power corrupts. They were designed to serve Hylia & her mortal incarnations but they were smart, TOO smart, & tried to outsmart Hyrule. Since these Sheikah rebel against Hylia, they instead serve Demise & try to bring demise to Hylia's Kingdom, Hyrule. The Sheikah turned against the Gods & decide to help their enemies the Devils or Demons. There's a REASON why the Fused Shadow reminds you so much of Majora's Mask. SAME link, SAME people. The Sheikah Interlopers who became the Twili have a hand in BOTH artifacts, I bet money.

Sigh. I miss this game. I will never understand why Nintendo won't bring it and Wind Waker to Switch.

Reasons like this are why it is truly the BEST Zelda game! Masterfully crafted is a perfect description. Great video, very good watch for this TP mega fan :D

This is the greatest analysis of Twilight Princess' subtext I've ever watched. Almost 20 years later and I'm still learning new things about this game. I've never thought of the children being kidnapped as not making any sense but you're right. It makes no sense, absolutely brilliant 💛🔥 Really good job pn this one

King Bulblin was under the influence of Ganondorf. As he explained in the end: “I follow the strong. That is all I’ve ever known.” Ganondorf ordered the kidnapping of the Ordanians to stifle Links ascension to hero. In my theory, Link was kept secret in Ordan because the Royal family already had knowledge of his destiny, since he was born with the mark of the triforce. So naturally, Ganon’s knowledge of Link makes sense to me. But that’s just me though.

I never considered how terror links all the characters together. But now it makes total sense and I appreciate the world more. Thanks saria!

One thing I loved about this (and Wind Waker, in Opposite-But-Similar veins) is that it had a bittersweet ending. Along that whole "You have to accept what happens" theme, it's very clear that over the course of the game Midna and Link become extremely close. Almost agonizingly so, with barely a sheet of paper between them by the end. By that time, you know neither wants to go, and Link isn't thinking of what needs to be done. But whether by dutiful obligation on Midna's part or Destiny itself, they vanish from each others lives, with not a single moment to spare to even begin to take in this truth or lessen the impact it will have. It just happens. Like death. And just like a death, they can no longer see or hear from each other ever again, with nothing but the memory of all that has happened and the empty space they once occupied that will be there forever more, that every event and happening will shape itself around in their lives going into the future. This is especially poignant considering that, in all the timelines and moments throughout them, Zelda and Link are fated to be "Together", whatever that may entail, which can vary heavily from one point in destiny to another. More often than not, they are usually "together" in a good sense, as friends, lovers, joyous neighbors, etc. In this one, it is clear that Zelda is a cold, aloof individual that we dont really ever get to know as a person; she's not friends with Link, they barely even know each other, with her shown through the vast majority of the game as merely this figurehead that is royalty and possesses the Triforce of Wisdom, and that Link and her are only "Together" in the sense that they were both required to stop Ganondorf. By the end it is inferred that Link is going out into the world by himself, and they dont really intend to go farther than that together, likely to drift apart slowly over time from the little kinship they formed. This is a very "isolated" kind of feeling. Sure, yea he's a Hero, most people know him, he has friends all over, and with Ilia a "Beyond The Sea" kind of thing going on, but there is a lot more happening behind the scenes; he had quite literally fulfilled his Destiny; nothing else for him, basically, other than to live his life. The other two Triforce holders he is linked to by that same Destiny are either dead or on their own path, and the Fire-Forged Friendship (trope) he developed with Midna (arguably a bond and relationship that developed deeper than any other he has had, or may even ever have, because of what they had gone through together) was simply gone . . . He has no one else to relate to. No one else who can truly understand him, what he's done, what he's been through, or what has happened. You are right about this being a game rooted in the concept of Terror, and perhaps the most visceral terror of all is the fear of being alone. This isn't just some "third-party-looking-in" thing we deduced and projected as an audience onto the situation, I am fairly certain he actually does feel alone. Because as the credits role he's riding off into the unknown world. By himself. A man doesn't just up and leave everything he's ever known, a home, people he cares about, a woman he might love or who loves him, unless he feels he needs something in his life, or he's looking for . . . something. In Wind Waker, it was bittersweet because the world we knew was being washed away, never to be seen again in it's glory. But what was lost was simply a legend to most people and they never knew it personally; most of it was because we as the audience knew what the implications of the entire thing were. Otherwise, everyone realizes that the end of an Era brings about new beginnings and fresh starts, a great wide world with friends and loved ones, who knew what you have been through and fought with you side-by-side, looking for new adventures. In Twilight Princess' case, it's different; he's going out into the world all by himself, with a void in his heart, no one to relate to, and what he's looking for is something he may never find. Link is truly alone here. As a Hero. As a man. As a person. It's heartbreaking and sad, and that part has stuck with and grown on me far more than anything else about this game has ever since I played it so many years ago.

Ganondorf kidnapping kids is pretty common play in the series, but due to the E for (Eternal nightmares) rating, its full implications probably can't be fixated on too much. As such, I don't think just how evil of an act targeting children specifically in an attack gets conveyed. It's pretty much one of the most vile, cruel and evil methods one could utilize in their tactics. Especially knowing Ganondorf usually sends monsters to do this, and they can be both unruly and get hungry while hauling their captives around. Plus, be pretty rough with their captives in general. Even Wind Waker Ganodorf (who gets the most sympathy from people) is still perfectly fine with sending a monster bird to attack and haul off kids. Can only imagine how terrifying of an ordeal that is. Probably to an almost certain degree quite traumatizing, too. It's one of those Zelda tropes that gets more disturbing the more you actually sit down and begin thinking about it as an adult.

Loved hearing your thoughts on this and also giving the respect that Twilight Princesses deserves because I feel it gets a bad rep which hurts me because it was my first Zelda game and what got me into the whole series. I loved hearing you talk about how this game didn't have a primarily happy ending (especially because we know the twilight realm was left in relative chaos after zant's usurpation and we don't know if/how midna quelled it with her return) even though the main antagonists were taken out (zant and ganondorf). Her whole return to the Twilight realm (combined with her complete destruction of the mirror of twilight -- also solidifying her position and the true ruler of the twilight) left us as players somewhat hanging and only further solidifying your conclusion that Twilight Doesn't have a 100% happy ending and it's one of the things I absolutely love about it. I'm starting to ramble, so I'll sum up everything quickly that, thank you for this video. I'm subbed to see more and excited to see what other Zelda videos you make!!