Even though it’s a direct sequel, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 has a pretty mysterious plot. From the moment Nintendo first revealed Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2, fans knew that the new game was taking place in a very different context from the original game. Link and Zelda’s discovery of the presumed corpse of Ganondorf raises all kinds of questions about what exactly is going on in the Breath of the Wild sequel and how the game’s protagonists tie into the narrative. While Link will surely serve some major role as a force for good, fans also want to know what Nintendo is planning to do with Zelda.
Zelda’s potential role in Breath of the Wild 2 provoked conversation among fans as soon as Nintendo confirmed the game was in development. Many Zelda fans expressed optimism that Zelda herself would be playable, taking the protagonist mantle from Link for once. The Breath of the Wild 2 trailer presented at E3 2021 casts some doubt on that and generally creates some confusion about what will happen to Zelda. It looks like Zelda might be in some new form of trouble in Breath of the Wild 2, but what kind of trouble is it exactly, and how prevalent is it to the overarching story? What role will Zelda play in the Breath of the Wild sequel?
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The first Breath of the Wild 2 trailer, revealed at E3 2019, sent a heartening message about Zelda to the franchise’s fans. Seeing Link and Zelda delve into some mysterious catacomb together suggested that, for once, the two of them would truly be a team in the next Legend of Zelda game. In many Legend of Zelda titles, the two are often kept far apart, in spite of what the franchise’s name would suggest. Having Zelda travel alongside Link and help him on his next journey—or even become playable during some parts of the game—would make Breath of the Wild 2 a refreshing change of pace.
As exciting as this potential game plan was, the E3 2021 BotW2 trailer sent the opposite message. The trailer begins with a couple of different cryptic sequences. One of them shows a frightened Zelda falling into the darkness as if she’s just been thrown off a cliff. That sequence’s conjunction with Ganondorf's rising corpse, as well as several shots of gameplay seemingly showing Link alone, make it look like Zelda takes a back seat in Breath of the Wild 2 after all. She might be in the antagonist’s clutches, meaning Link has to save her from dark forces once again.
It’s hard to reconcile these two trailers. One suggests a level of independence and engagement with the plot that’s nearly unprecedented for The Legend of Zelda’s depiction of Zelda, while the other suggests she’s in a highly traditional role as a distressed damsel. One way or another, Breath of the Wild 2 plans on incorporating both of these versions of Zelda. Taken at face value, those two versions of her character might seem too dissonant to be mixed in any significant way. However, there are actually a few ways Nintendo might bring Zelda’s two potential paths together, making a narrative greater than its parts.
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One option available to Nintendo is making Zelda’s separation from Link relatively unimportant. The original Breath of the Wild was all about Link trying to free Zelda from her century of imprisonment inside Hyrule Castle by defeating Calamity Ganon. It’d be a little surprising if Breath of the Wild 2 was all about rescuing Zelda from the undead Ganondorf after delivering a game so hugely focused on exactly the same premise. Instead, the first act of Breath of the Wild 2 might require Link to quickly save Zelda after Ganondorf’s calamitous awakening. After that, she and Link might work as a team as the first trailer suggested.
A similar plot point that Nintendo could work with involves a major fan theory. Maybe early on Zelda does appear to be captured by Ganondorf, and Link tries to rescue her, only to learn Ganondorf was trying to protect her from whatever true evil lurks beneath Hyrule. Many Legend of Zelda fans think Ganondorf might not be a villain in Breath of the Wild 2, speculating that he was once Hyrule's true savior in this part of the timeline. Zelda's involvement in the two Breath of the Wild 2 trailers could just be leading to a surprisingly positive encounter with Ganondorf.
Nintendo could also consider making Zelda playable, but only in specific contexts. Strictly speaking, the E3 2021 Breath of the Wild 2 trailer only suggests that Zelda gets separated from Link; it doesn’t clearly claim that Zelda is in the antagonist’s clutches. It could be that Zelda is somehow trapped somewhere—such as in Hyrule’s underground—while Link fights evil on Hyrule’s changing surface. Nintendo could incorporate small sections where players take control of Zelda this way, like how Marvel’s Spider-Man sometimes had players take control of Mary Jane Watson and Miles Morales. Important BotW2 story beats reached by Link could be accented by a small section about Zelda making a discovery beneath Hyrule.
Many fans of The Legend of Zelda are tired of saving Zelda all the time. Breath of the Wild was a bold, refreshing take on the franchise in a lot of ways, but its central narrative borrowed the damsel in distress concept from many Zelda games that came before it. The title of The Legend of Zelda suggests that the story is truly about her, but that can be hard to believe when so many of the games are about heroic feats that Link accomplishes in search of an imprisoned or helpless Zelda. The princess herself deserves to take a more active role in shaping narratives in a franchise that borrows her name.
Breath of the Wild 2 could still be the game that breaks the damsel tradition. Even though the E3 2021 trailer suggests that Zelda is in need of help, Nintendo might still have a trick up its sleeve. Zelda's distress might only be a momentary conflict that helps get the story moving, or it might be used as a gameplay device unlike anything The Legend of Zelda has tried before. The Breath of the Wild sequel deserves to be as unique and clever as the first game, including in its means of storytelling. Breath of the Wild 2 could establish itself as a truly unique Zelda game by representing Zelda herself in some way that previous games haven't done before.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 releases in 2022 for the Nintendo Switch.
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