#this isnt to shit on anyone saying it's referencing demise's cyclical curse on hyrule because that's a totally valid take

[tow-bees]

okay but like everyone saying that the title of Tears of the Kingdom is referencing all the trauma Hyrule has faced from the demise cycle n stuff make some real interesting points, but I don’t think that’s what the title is referencing at all.

Pretty much all Zelda titles have been pretty literal in some way, like ocarina of time references the physical ocarina of time, majora’s mask references an actual mask called majora, the wind waker the wind waker, four sword four sword, twilight princess the princess of twilight, spirit tracks has trains, skyward sword a skyward sword etc etc even Breath of the Wild is referencing the massive open world + freedom of movement which constitutes the main gimmick of the game. There are very few if any exceptions to this. They all reference a defining feature of the game, something concrete about the game that separates it from the others. Referencing the reoccurring trauma of hyrule...doesn’t really fit this bill, I think. It’s too vague, and applicable to pretty much any other zelda game.

I would wager that the tears reference a specific defining element of the game, something specific about the story or gameplay. In other words, I don’t think the tears are going to be a metaphor for something, like sadness or the longterm destruction of the kingdom, but rather actual physical tears.

I have three main ideas of how this could manifest:

1. We’re gonna get more sheikah lore.

It would make sense considering how much more they were elaborated on in botw. In fact, not only did botw provide pretty much the vast majority of the canon lore about the sheikah as of now, but it implemented many ideas that could definitely be elaborated on, such as the sheikah monks, the ancient technology, and the yiga clan. Especially considering how tears of the kingdom was originally supposed to be botw dlc but got too big for that, it makes sense that elaborating on some of these things would be the natural first step to build off of in tears of the kingdom.

But how does this connect to the title? The sheikah are the shadow folk who for generations served the hylian royal family. However, their symbol is an eye with a tear drop coming from it. I don’t think it is so absurd to imply that the sheikah themselves might be the tears of the kingdom.

considering how sheikah-centric botw was, I don’t think it’s too much of a leap to consider that tears of the kingdom would plunge even further into the lore behind them. And if the title isn’t referencing the sheikah themselves, it could still be referencing one of their technologies, such as...idk...

The TEAR DROP THING THAT UPGRADES THE SHEIKAH SLATE.

Like,,,, what is this magic goop stuff that powers all the sheikah technology??? WHAT IS IT??? and like IT’S A LITERAL MAGIC TEAR, I would not put it past nintendo at all to go “actually wait a minute what is this glowy blue shit, let’s make a dlc about that oops it got too elaborate”

which leads to my next proposition (which sort of connects to this one)

2. It’s drawing from those segments of Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess where link had to collect tears

many people have already proposed this but I haven’t really seen it connected to the first point I made yet so I’m proposing this anyway. So like, magic tears are not a new concept to zelda at all and there are probably many instances I’m forgetting of like random collectibles and potions but the two most prominent instances are in Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword where link is given a vessel to collect divine tears

and these vessels look miiiighty similar to 

this thing link has on his hip that replaces the sheikah slate...

now, as I said I am far from the first person to notice this or even connect the title to the sheikah and I am sure someone else has made this connection before but I don’t care because I’m just having fun lol but like

this new vessel could be collecting something that is or is similar to the blue liquid powering sheikah tech, maybe even some kind of substance that predates it that was later turned into the blue sheikah goo (especially considering the prevalence of zonai symbology, and considering they were strong magic weilders, maybe the sheikah tech goo was based off of magic zonai goo??) but idk I’m just saying shit now.

But I think this is especially plausible considering just how much botw pulled from skyward sword, with the stamina mechanic and the glider basically being a souped up sailcloth, and now with tears of the kingdom straight up having souped up skyloft...it would make sense that the zelda team might also revisit the tear collecting mechanic and soup it up. But like what do I know because

3. In all honesty it’s entirely likely that there is no way to predict what the title means.

Yes, nintendo did say the title would contain spoilers, which would imply that it is possible to extrapolate something important about the game from it. However, the legend of zelda also has a habit of not giving two shits about precedence and going in whatever wild direction it wants regardless of what it has done or established before. Honestly, I think that’s one of the series traits that makes it so amazing, but it also makes it incredibly difficult if not near impossible to predict anything about its future. Like, back in the ocarina of time days, no one would have guessed that one day link would turn into a wolf, ride a talking boat, or fly on an enormous red bird. There was absolutely no precedence set for that lmao.

So while I am confident in my theory that the title refers to something physical that pertains to the specific game rather than something that connects all the games, as well as the likelihood that physical thing connects to the sheikah (+ by extension maybe also the zonai?) and their technology goo, and that the game is likely taking inspo from the tears collection mechanic from skyward sword and twilight princess, I have absolutely NO DOUBT that even if all of that turns out to be true, nintendo is going to do something really wierd and unexpected from there and it will be near impossible to guess what. And honestly? I wouldn’t have it any other way.

(it also means my theory that link’s new glowy blue hand talks, has a personality, and has a personal, paper-related, vendetta is still on the table)