With the recent Tears of the Kingdom trailer release, Legend of Zelda fans have been speculating the next mainline Zelda game may bring back a fan favourite character and theme, and that’s Midna and The Twilight Realm from Twilight Princess. Today I’m going to have a look at the evidence we’ve seen, plus speculate as to how and why Nintendo might bring elements from Twilight Princess back in Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom.

Before we get stuck into the video today let me know if you want to see Midna and The Twili return in Tears of the Kingdom, and what role do you want them to play?

Originally release in 2006, Twilight Princess is a much darker version of the Legend of Zelda. At the time Wind Waker suffered a backlash from fans who wanted to see a more realistic Link, Zelda and Hyrule compared to the cartoon-style we had with Wind Waker. In Twilight Princess Link can turn into a Wolf and access the Twilight Realm, with the ultimate goal of stopping the Twilight Realm taking over Hyrule once and for all.

The Twilight Realm is different from Hyrule, and has a different leader in the form of Midna. Midna is cursed by another powerful magician, and she’s also very vocal in her dislike for Princess Zelda. She changes her mind when Zelda sacarifices herself for Midna. The game has much darker themes than many other Legend of Zelda games, and there have been loud calls recently to bring an updated version to Nintendo Switch, given the current best way to experience this game is through Twilight Princess HD via Wii U.

There are a few potential connections between Twilight Princess and Tears of the Kingdom found in the trailers released by Nintendo.

The Master Sword

We’ve seen in delay trailer the Master Sword broken, it looks to have been melted or erroded in some manner. In the most recent trailer we see the Master Sword appear in the logo, and it looks to be repaired, however, the bottom half appears different. It looks similar to visual treatments we’ve seen in Twilight Princess, so perhaps we end up traveling to the Twilight Realm to ultimately repair our trusty blade.

Link’s Vials on his hip

Link is wearing what appears to be a new device on his hip in Tears of the Kingdom. In the new trailer we see Link burst open some double doors in on a Sky Island, he starts to run forward and we can clearly see a new device on his hip, one that we haven’t seen before. It’s though that this device could be some source of power, whether it’s used to power up Link’s arm abilities, or perhaps to collect the Tears of the Kingdom. It’s similar to the device used in Twilight Princess called The Vessel Of Light. It’s a container which is used to collect and hold Tears of Light. This could be a variation of, or an updated version of the Vessel of Light, and perhaps we have to communicate with Midna to access it once again.

The Mysterious Character

There is a lot of story content hidden in the tapestry seen in the new trailer. We have a mysterious new character, a big character, surrounded by seven items, thought to be the literal Tears of the Kingdom. We see a female character, passed out and raised into the air, thought to be Princess Zelda. We then see her again, holding hands with a character off screen. Nintendo is deliberately holding back who this other chaarcter is. It could be the camera pans out to reveal this other character is in fact Midna.

Zonai Dragons

In Breath of the Wild there are Zonai ruins all over the place, covered with their signature swirl. A prominent structure in the Faron region is the Dragon-like Structure by the Spring of Courage. This is likely a homage to Farosh, the lightning Dragon that roams around the Faron region.

Dragons are also linked to the Zonai through their carvings and ruins left in Breath of the Wild. We can see in the logo for Tears of the Kingdom, a Dragon eating it’s own tail forms part of the logo. As Link opens the door in the new trailer, we can see the ouroboros on the door, much like we see in the logo.

In the E3 2021 trailer we’ve also seen another Dragon Head, used on Link’s left arm as a flame throwing weapon. It appears as if Dragons are going to be very important in The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, and they could be directly related to The Zonai tribe, as well as an indication of the circle of time (check out my recent The End Is the Beginning theory for that one).

Twilight Realm

We can see in the new trailer an area in the sky shrouded in darkness, much like the Thyphlo Ruins in Breath of the Wild. Zelda lore theorists have linked the Zonai and the Twili, given the Zonai are referred to as the “Shadow Race, condemned to the Twlight Realm” after they tried to claim the Triforce using magic. For example, they are a race, that exists in a different dimension, surrounded by darkness.

In the official Breath of the Wild: Master Works, originally published in Japanese, refers to the Zonai as magic users who disappeared due to a “powerful curse”, which sounds very similar to the Twili. The same book describes the disappearance of the Zonai “the greatest mystery in Hyrule that hasn’t yet been solved!” from the Zelda developers themselves. Perhaps in the new trailer we’re looking at an entry point into the Twilight Realm, and we’re going to unravel some of the history of the Zonai and prove the links to The Twili.

There are certainly a lot of links between the visual design between Twilight Princess and Tears of the Kingdom, but let me know what you think, I’d love to hear from you.

Thats it for this look at The Twili Returning in The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom. For more Legend of Zelda content like this check out Triforce Times on YouTube and subscribe today.