Tears of the Kingdom had many great boss battles and iconic moments, however, Nintendo missed one opportunity to have one of the best boss fights of all time. We fight Queen Gibdo, Mucktorok, Flux Contructs and even Ganondorf himself, however, a Twinrova boss battle could have been epic. Today I’m going to have a look at Twinrova’s appearence in Tears of the Kingdom, where they come from in the Zelda series and why they are important, plus how a Twinrova battle could have been great in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom.

Tears of the Kingdom is full of great battles; not only against the bosses of various temples, but worls bosses and random bosses too. The first time I had to take on Phantom Ganon, I wondered how I was going to defeat this thing given I only had a few hearts and some lacklustre weapons. Flux Contructs are an early challenge on the Great Sky Island, plus we have Master Kogha down in the Depths to name a few bosses. There’s two bosses we didn’t face, which could have made the build up to fighting Ganondorf even more statisfying, and that’s Kotake and Koume, otherwise known as Twinrova, surrogate mothers of Ganondorf.

Tears of the Kingdom’s story is similar to Breath of the Wild’s, in that you can find the story components in any order, by experiencing the Dragon’s Tear memories. These memories provide the cinematics for the story including Zelda being sent back in time, meeting Rauru and Sonia, learning more about Ganondorf’s plan and eventually going onto fighting the Imprisioning War against the Demon King who kills Sonia and steals the Secret Stone’s power for himself. One of these Dragon Tear memories stands out with a couple of characters that call back to Ocarina of Time and the Oracle games.

Kotake and Koume in Tears of the Kingdom

In “A Show of Fealty”, the 7th memory, we can see the two twin Gerudo Witches behind Ganondorf for a few seconds. Ganondorf is reluctantly pledging his services to King Rauru and kneeling, with Kotake and Koume flanking Ganondorf very closely. They aren’t directly referenced in the game, or have any speaking parts, but we can clearly see it’s the surrogate mothers of Gaondorf. We can see their distinct skin tone is the same as Ganondorf, and they are wearing identifyable sashes over their shoulders. The design of these garments is similar to the headbands the pair wear in Ocarina of Time. The Gloom Weapons also have an inscription on them that translates to “Kotake Koume” in Hylian script, which is another direct, albeit hidden, reference to the pair in Tears of the Kingdom. Ganondorf’s Sword in Wind Waker had the same inscription.

This representation of Twinrova is very different to their original incarnation in Ocarina of Time. They are Kotake and Koume, Gerudo Witches known as the Sorceress of Ice and the Sorceress of Flame. They are the boss in the Spirit Temple, plus also appear in Majora’s Mask and the Oracle games. Back then they were 400 year old witches, shriveled yet powerful, but now they appear as much younger Gerudo, but still identifyable by their blue and red colours representing fire and ice.

It feels like a missed opportunity here that Nintendo didn’t include Twinrova as a boss battle in Tears of the Kingdom. The two Gerudo Witches fighting side-by-side trying to stop Link from getting to Ganondorf, especially as the boss of the Spirit Temple, in what could have been a major call back to Ocarina of Time. Instead we got the Seized Construct, while interesting, wasn’t as good as a potential Twinrova fight.

The potential for this boss fight is huge. Both weild magic; one ice and one fire. Perhaps Link could have fought one witch, then the other, then they combine just when you think you have defeated them. Then you have the combination of the elements, and the need to defend yourself against fire and ice. Nintendo have done a great job bringing back enemies from the past in the 2 latest installments of the Zelda series including Lynels and Gleeoks. Perhaps Nintendo thought Twinrova was just too obscure, or in the end they simply ran out of time. It feels like including them in a cutscene is such a tease, to not include them in a potentially very exciting boss encounter later on. Imagine when we have to take on Ganondorf’s army just before the final fight with the Demon King, we dispose of Ganondorf’s Army, only for Kotake and Koume to jump in and say “Now you fight us”… that would have been very cool.

DLC disappointment

At first I thought this was all fine, not to worrry… we’ll meet them in DLC. But now Nintendo have come out and said we’re not going to be getting any substantial DLC for Tears of the Kingdom. This is a shame, and the Twinrova angle would have been great to explore for DLC.

Given Ganondorf’s downfall in Tears of the Kingdom, having Twinrova revive him would make sense in terms of the timeline of the Legend of Zelda. They worked together to revive Ganondorf in the Oracle games, before combining to fight Link once again. That could have been the perfect set up for DLC, or even a sequel to Tears of the Kingdom. However, now it looks like our time in this version of Hyrule has come to an end with Eiji Aonuma saying he and the team have told all their stories they want to tell in this Hyrule, and we’re likely to see something different in the future.

Kotake and Koume did appear as younger women in the memories, with the potential for them to turn into the old, wrinkled, scary witches we know and love from Ocarina and the Oracle games, however, their appearence in the “Show of Fealty” memory appears to be just that for the time being, an easter egg. It could have been an epic boss battle calling back to Legend of Zelda history, and it would have been awesome to explore that in DLC, but for now it looks like Nintendo are drawing a line under Tears of the Kingdom and moving on with their new projects. For now, we’ll have to go back to Ocarina and the Oracle games on our Nintendo Switch via Nintendo Switch Online and relive those moments with Twinrova, and hope that Nintendo puts them into a future game.

Let me know what you think of Kotake and Koume’s brief appearence in Tears of the Kingdom, and let me know what you would have liked to see in the game.