'In ancient times, the Sheikah were at the forefront of Hyrule's contemporary culture and leaders in technology. They used their knowledge in service of the hero, creating training grounds and mechanical soldiers to aid him in defeating Calamity Ganon. The shrines and Guardians that they created were so well constructed that many are still in perfect working condition today.'
— Creating a Champion, pg. 203
Tears of the Kingdom without a doubt changed a lot of things for Breath of the Wild. Like.. a lot. But there is something that seems to be evident throughout the land of Tears of the Kingdom... Where did all the Sheikah Technology go?
For one obvious instance, we are stepping forward after the Calamity from Breath of the Wild. But the Sheikah towers, the Sheikah Slate seems to be changed, dubbed as the Purah Plate.
And plus, if you go to Kakariko Village, the Sheikah Scroll that used to be behind Impa is now put upstairs and left to the dust. But the biggest and most noticeable is where the heck are the Divine Beasts, as they would be hard to miss. So what and where did the Sheikah technology go? Here are some theories and discoveries found in Tears of the Kingdom. Of course, there are major spoilers from Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.
Remnants & Deconstruction
One would assume that time has passed since the Calamity, and that merits a lot of truth. TotK seems to have likely taken place roughly 4-5 years after BotW. And at the ending cutscene from Breath of the Wild, Zelda states that Divine Vah Ruta has stopped working. What was assumed before Tears of the Kingdom was that the technology lie dormant or even stopped after Calamity Ganon's true defeat. So perhaps there's an explanation that the Sheikah and the Hyleans collected the remnant technology during and between the Upheaval event within Tears of the Kingdom, and deconstructed it for better use in the future.
When you visit many parts of where these towers and shrines where they seem to not only be missing, but vanished out of plain sight. The Shrine of Resurrection now exists as home to the Yiga Clan, the new Towers are seemingly borrowing Guardian's legs, and the ancient furnaces seem to be missing in action...
So where exactly did all of this ancient tech go?
Well, according to Purah (?), she claims that following the events of the Great Calamity, the Hyrulean people worried that Sheikah technology could slip into Ganon's hands again, which is why they were demolished and deconstructed after Breath of the Wild. Purah and the others, I presume, removed and reused the technology within, and the Yiga took over the Resurrection Shrine because it was unlikely to be used and checked on again, and their lair seems to be infested with monsters.
This makes the most sense logically because as stated before, Zelda expresses that a divine beast stopped working, which explains a purpose and reasoning as to why they deconstructed the Sheikah tech because it started to become un-operational or completely strapped and destroyed to avoid Ganon's malice to infect it.
However, there are is another theory that explains perhaps the Sheikah tech never existed because of Time Manipulation:
Time Manipulation
Tears of the Kingdom introduced a lot of new powers within the world. One that was particularly important was the Sage of Time. Zelda, who becomes the Sage of Time imports a millennium back into Hyrule's history and meets the first king of Hyrule and his wife Sonia. We see Zelda and Sonia able to manipulate objects and the thread of circumstances using this power, and thus, could change the design of Hyrule itself.
What if we don't see any Sheikah Shrines and technology is because it never existed? Now yes, this is far-fetched and gets into major loopholes within the story of Breath of the Wild, but let's look at some of the drawn-out evidence.
For one, the characters don't ever seem to mention certain technology involving the Sheikah and the Divine Beasts. While yes, the former Champions from Breath of the Wild do seem to exist previously because we can still see the dedicated idol made of Mipha- it does go without a doubt in my mind and others that time was manipulated so that the Zonai were now the fore-runners of this technology to test the hero, instead of the Sheikah.
The second reasoning requires us to look at smaller details of some characters:
When we get introduced to Mineru, the Sage of the Spirit, later on, she passes herself into the Purah Pad or Sheikah Slate as requested by Zelda. When Mineru transforms out of the Slate into her destined tear, she looks to be resembling something similar to any Poe or unresolved spirit we see within The Depths. It's very possible that time was manipulated to let Mineru command a part of the Sheikah technology for the past millennia and utilized spirits or her energy of the tear to power the tech. After all, her stylized 3rd eye has a tear below it, symbolizing the unforgettable Sheikah icon.
It's safe to assume the sheikah at the very least are either descended from the zonai or studied their teachings and technology, leading to the creation of the guardians, divine beats etc. And the masks of the sages represent the divine beasts. It just so happened long ago that the sheikah themselves forgot where they got the technology from, and were inspired to make their technology from the Zonai.
The other point of evidence is a time paradox, technically we can call both worlds alternate universes, or paradoxes from each other. Same but different. While Zelda in one instance never met the Zonai in the past in the Breath of the Wild's world and timeline, Tears of the Kingdom's timeline created an alternate reality that never had the Sheikah building tech because the Calamity never happened & the Zonai were never forgotten. This new reality had the Zonai's tech prevalent and preserved over the ages, while the Sheikah never took the step to build weapons against the Calamity.
Although this isn't the best explanation and theory, it does explain a little bit of maybe why the characters barely mention the Sheikah tech and history. But, as we know how Nintendo likes to do things, perhaps the characters barely mention the previous game to avoid spoilers for new players.
Retcon
While many will agree that the game suffers from not just explaining stuff events like the absence of the divine beasts, guardians, and ANY reference to the calamity. I think as hype dies down people are going to start being frustrated and disappointed that this game doesnt answer any questions we had about BotW and even adds its own unanswered questions and apparent plot holes into the mix. This is where we get to assume that Nintendo really did want to retcon the whole Sheikah advancement as a whole..
One would speculate that between the events of Breath of the Wild and the beginning of Tears of the Kingdom, Princess Zelda, Link, and the Sheikah actively worked to destroy all that was left of the Ancient Shiekah Tech. It would make sense, considering the technology was used against them in the past, and they couldn't risk a future Ganondorf retaking control and devastating Hyrule once again. But the Shrines and Towers specifically were never a threat in the first place. So I think that Robbie and Purah cannibalized all of the Tech and made their own Towers with what non-threatening tech they could salvage. An upside-down pair of Guardian's legs trapped beneath a platform isn't going to raze an entire village, after all.
It's just a big problem though, with the continuity with Breath of the Wild itself, I don't exactly know why Nintendo was implying this to happen or rather to avoid spoilers from the previous game, but it's very noticeable that these characters barely mention if at all the Calamity that sprouted and killed thousands of people in Hyrule. Yet there's just a small almost insignificant grave dedicated to them from Zelda?
Plus there are some lore inconsistencies for travel gates and the remade Sheikah tech, for one thing, we do know that in Breath of the Wild, the Sheikah needed to use the Ancient furnaces to turn on their power. But now that doesn't seem to exist and it's barely explained by Robbie and Purah as merely their inventions, without explanation as to how and where exactly they knew how to do this without those furnaces.
So yes, while many fans will consider Tears of the Kingdom creating a retcon within Breath of the Wild's lore, it's now going to be debatable if this is truly the sequel. With so many theories and lore implications about the Sheikah tribe, it leaves us fans to totally disengage with their past 10,000 years ago, and focus more on the Zonai & and time theories itself within Tears of the Kingdom...
But with that, we are going to wrap up, where do you think the Sheikah technology went? Let me know in the comments down below, thank you for watching, and I will see you in the next video.
list:
check Hateno Lab
check Ancient furnaces
check Akalla Lab
check Shrine of Resurrection
check old Yiga Hideout
Sheikah tech from botw in general is either nonoperational or has been destroyed.
Calamity Ganon was the manifestation of Ganondorf's hatred for the people of Hyrule
Comments