So in Breath of the wild, there are 3 massive skeletons in different locations. There’s a sidequest to take a picture of all 3. One of them is instantly recogniseable as Levias, the giant flying whale in Skyward Sword (Or at least a creature of the same species). You can tell this due to the large plate on the head.
The other two leviathans seem to be just generic whale skeletons (of enormous size). Specifically, Humpback whales (minus the baleen.)
And for a while, I thought nothing of it. I figured they snuck a little easter egg in the game in the form of Levias’ skeletal remains and the other two were just generic whale skeletons.
But then I did the side-quest again in my recent playthrough and I noticed something odd about the gerudo leviathan which, thankfully, can be seen in this image I found online.
Do you see it? Cause I somehow missed it the first 2 times I played through this game. This leviathan has a weird limb on its back. Two, actually. The other broke off, but the base of it remains. And they’re very short limbs, at least in comparison to its massive size.
What whale-like creature have we seen in Zelda games that possess disproportionately small limbs on its back?
The Wind Fish.
And with the 3rd skeleton being a completely unremarkable whale skeleton (aside from its size), we can assume that it may be a reference to the 3rd whale-like entity we’ve seen in Zelda games.
The Ocean King.
While these skeletons are likely not intended to literally be these characters, they are without a doubt directly referencing them. Levias, The Wind Fish, and the Ocean King. The three leviathans of the Zelda universe.
At least I hope its not intended to literally be them, because two of these dudes exist in different timelines, and that would just make BotW’s placement even more difficult to pin down
now hold up, the ocean king lives in a dimension outside of the one that hyrule exists in so it should not be used as evidence of adult timeline. The only leviathan that would have any indication of which timeline is the wind fish who existed in the same realm as hyrule, somewhere off the coast of either labrynna or holodrum and placing it wherever you believe lttp, the oracle games and links awakening
i’m pretty sure “cats and humans can never have a bond as strong as a dog and a human” is just code for “i’ve never even tried to treat a cat correctly in my life”
At the beginning of the Four Swords manga, after Shadow kidnaps Zelda, he takes the center piece of her decorative armor. He tosses it to the Links the next time he sees them, presumably to taunt them with the proof of the Princess’s capture.
(It’s a bit needlessly dramatic, to be honest, considering they watched it happen. They know he has the Princess! Then again, “needlessly dramatic” is pretty much Shadow in a nutshell, so…)
Well, I was looking up costume references for Zelda, and it occurred to me to check whether Zelda was still missing the armor piece in later appearances. And as it turns out, she is! Throughout the rest of the manga, she’s depicted without the center piece of her armor.
A+ attention to detail, Akira Himekawa!
But you know who didn’t pay quite enough attention to detail?
Vaati.
When he disguised himself as Zelda, he included the armor piece, despite the fact that she wouldn’t have had it at that point. None of the other characters catch the hint (the Captain wouldn’t have known she’d lost the piece, and the Links were too distracted to notice) but I think it’s cool that Akira Himekawa included a detail like that!
