Nintendo’s most ambitious Zelda game, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, known for its immersive open world. It’s filled with mysterious landmarks like the Zonai ruins and the three Leviathan whale skeletons, but the most interesting and frustrating is the conflicting Seven Heroines statue and its lost counterpart, the Eighth Heroine statue.
It may not be as packed with things to do as other popular open world games, but Breath of the Wild》There’s a lot that’s right about the open world. Much of Hyrule is pretty barren, but that helps it avoid being on the to-do list of many open-world games. It’s not short of interesting locations, either – the landscape is dotted with environmental stories that have kept fans theorizing long after the game’s release, like the aforementioned Gerudo heroine statue.
The Seven Heroines appear to have a fairly simple explanation at first glance, but their origins are complicated by the Eighth Heroine. Theories about the statue’s true identity are far less reliable than those of some of Hyrule’s other mysterious ruins, and there are numerous inconsistencies that make the statue’s identity an unsolvable riddle. But that doesn’t mean fans haven’t come up with some possible explanations.
Breath of the Wild: What we know about the heroine statue
The seven heroines and the missing eighth heroine each have many clues hinting at their identities and relationships with each other. Here’s a breakdown of everything known about the statue.
What we know about the seven heroines
The Seven Heroines are a group of large stone statues located in the East Gerudo ruins on the edge of the Gerudo Desert. They stood facing each other in a semicircle, each holding a sword in front of them in a pose similar to that of Buliala, Captain of the Gerudo Guard. The front of the statue is written up and down in Gerudo language: “Seven Sages.” An NPC named Rotana told Link that it is said that the heroines are the sacred protectors of Gerudo, and each of them has different powers—— “Skill, spirit, endurance, knowledge, flight, movement and gentleness.” Each is also associated with a different color and symbol as part of the shrine’s mission, called “Seven Heroines”.
What we know about the eighth heroine
The eighth heroine is an almost identical statue located on the side of the Gerudo Highlands mountains, opposite the Gerudo Desert. Its sword was separated from it at some point and currently lies on the high ground between the desert and the statue.The entire statue is a mirrored version of the other statues, so it “The Seven Sages” The text is flipped.It is said that the prototype of this statue is “Erase from history” For unknown reasons, though she is apparently still worshiped by her loyal followers in the Gerudo Highlanders.
The only inhabitant of Gerudo Heights at that time breath of the wild The Yiga clan is a branch of the Sheikah tribe that worships Ganon. The Yiga Hideout appears to be a structure built by Gerudo and occupied by rogue ninjas, with eight statues in a room near the entrance. The statues, although much smaller, bear a resemblance to the heroine, and as decoded by YouTuber NintendoBlackCrisis, they have the following text: “Grudo has no conflict” “Grudo is like water, we flow with life” and “The flawless desert flower of Gerudo[wer]”.
Breath of the Wild: Who is the heroine of Gerudo?
If the statue of the Eight Girls did not exist, it would be very simple to find out the origin of the Seven Girls.The text embedded in it literally means “The Seven Sages” This would see them as an all-female Gerudan interpretation of the Seven Sages, mystics who appear again and again in the world. Zelda series.In fact, the text of the eighth heroine also reads “The Seven Sages” The reversal could suggest that there were actually only seven heroines in real life, and that the strange mirrored statue was just a design mistake that Gerudo wanted to discard.
However, the presence of eight heroine-like statues in Yiga’s Hideout suggests that the heroine statues may have been intentionally carved into eight units. If Zelda is counted as the leader of the group, connections between worlds There are eight saints, so according to the norm, it is possible to exceed seven.But in fact, statues including the eighth heroine say “seven” Showing that the Gerudo Lord civilization never viewed them this way.
One possible explanation is that the seven heroines are seven sages who were once respected by Gerudo, but one of them betrayed the rest. The Saints were replaced and most of the Gerudo shunned the Betrayer, but a group of followers split off and created a secret temple for all eight of the Highlanders. They also built a large statue to match the others in the desert, inverting its carved text as a symbol of the supposed eighth heroine’s denial of tradition.
Unfortunately, this story also has holes. If it’s true, why isn’t Yame’s sword with her statue? Why do the Yiga—descendants of Sheikah, not Gerudo—worship it, as the game’s text about today’s loyal followers suggests? Nintendo Black Crisis explores many other possibilities for the heroine’s identity – including Link and Ganondorf – in two videos on the subject, but all theories have holes or possible counterarguments.
Because of these ongoing contradictions, the mystery of the Eight Heroines is almost impossible to solve.Sadly, the most likely explanation is that Nintendo threw this mystery in without much thought, similar to J.J. Abrams’ infamous “Mystery Box” storytelling. Perhaps Nintendo will give fans the key background information they need to decipher the mystery of the eighth heroine. Breath of the Wild》’s sequel. At the moment, the eighth heroine appears to be either a vague symbol of the Yiga clan’s evil, or an orchestrated example of Hyrule’s lack of understanding of its long and complicated past.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Released for Nintendo Switch and Wii U on March 3, 2017.