Skyward Sword as an Expansion of Twilight Princess’ Themes
First of all, the director of the Zelda games, Eiji Aunuma, has expressed great interest in fixing up the Zelda timeline with future games. He wrote the bulk of the story for Twilight Princess as an attempt to tie in to older games and provide some foresight into the stories of future games. Although it was given major changes by Mitsuhiro Takano and Aya Kyogoku which removed some of the connections, Twilight Princess still did its job of establishing the basis for a new story arc.
Since 1998, Ocarina of Time has been considered the major focal point of the story, from which all future Zelda games are based on. Skyward Sword will be the next major focal point in the Zelda timeline. When Aunuma wrote the story for Twilight Princess, he already had his ideas for Skyward Sword in mind, and TP began to shift the focus away from OoT and instead used the ideas for Skyward Sword as its main backstory.
The Sky World
Skyward Sword is about a society of people living in floating lands above the clouds.
"…Link … lives on this floating land called Skyloft that's above the soil – above the clouds … and while he is journeying back and forth between these two worlds, the mystery of why the worlds have been divided and separated becomes clear to him." -Eiji Aunuma, on Skyward Sword
This story element was actually introduced in Twilight Princess. That's right, the Oocca race seems to be descended from the people who lived in the sky world in SS.
"The common opinion is that Hyrule was created by the Hylia people, the race closest to the gods, but truth be told, there's also a theory saying that in ancient times there was a race even closer to the gods than the Hylia people, and THEY created it. And they, simultaneously with the birth of the Hylia people, created a new capital, a capital that floated in the heavens." -Shad, Twilight Princess
What I think this means is that Link and Zelda in SS are actually the ancestors of both the Hylians and the Oocca. While the people who went on to form the kingdom of Hyrule became known as Hylians, the people who stayed in the sky capital became the Oocca.
Or could it be a clue to the origin of the mysterious spirit of the Skyward Sword/Master Sword, the one called "Phi"? Maybe she is the ancestor of the Oocca people...
Twilight Princess makes even more foreshadowing of Skyward Sword with this quote:
"Among the legends of my clan, there is a story from the time when the Oocca still maintained contact with the royal family. Yes, it said that a mysterious rod was handed down from the people of the sky, and it was called the Dominion Rod… The rod was only to be carried by the messenger to the heavens when the royal family needed to communicate with the Oocca." -Impaz, Twilight Princess
It sounds a lot like this "messenger from the heavens" is referring to Link from Skyward Sword... Does this mean that Skyward Sword will also feature the Dominion Rod? Perhaps the Dominion Rod is made up of the same magic/technology that created the Master Sword?
The elements of a Sky World have been touched on previously in the Zelda series as well. Ocarina of Time at one point was meant to have a Light Temple located in the sky, in which the triforce would be located. In fact as early as the story for A Link to the Past was made, the triforce has been said to rest in a floating land in the sky.
Could Skyloft be part of the Sacred Realm?
The Interloper Conflict
Twilight Princess introduces a backstory that seems to scream out the foreshadowing of an unreleased prequel...
"For a long time, the world was at peace, with people's hearts being deeply faithful…
But at length, a rivalry ensued over Hyrule, the holy land.
In the midst of the people, interlopers who excelled at magic appeared.
With powerful sorcery, they tried to rule the holy land.
But the goddesses sent us light spirits to seal away the powerful magic of those interlopers.
And that very sorcery is the black power… the Fused Shadow." -Lanayru, Twilight Princess
Perhaps the Light Spirits will appear in Skyward Sword to help Link seal away the interlopers? It is unknown whether Ghirahim is one of the interlopers mentioned in this story, but if so it would tie a lot of things together nicely. The "rivalry" that ensued over Hyrule could refer Ghirahim's people and the people of the Sky World both fighting to claim Hyrule as their kingdom.
I'd imagine that the triforce will be a big part of Skyward Sword's story, and it could be the reason why Zelda is captured.
The Temple of Time
In Ocarina of Time, we are told that the Temple of Time and the Master Sword were built by the ancient sages to seal away the Sacred Realm from evil forces. The Master Sword is the final key to gaining entrance to it. In Twilight Princess, we are told that the ancestors of the Hylians built the Temple of Time. Again, it seems that the people of the Sky World are in SS are connected to the Oocca.
The Ancient Hero
In Twilight Princess, we are told many times about an "ancient hero" that saved Hyrule in the past. At the time TP was released, most would have assumed this was referring to OoT Link, however, TP occurs after the child ending of OoT where Hyrule never needed saving in the first place. We are told that the Hero's Bow and the Green Tunic belonged to the ancient hero, I believe this is actually referring to Skyward Sword Link. Just look at how similar their outfits are:
Twilight Princess:
Skyward Sword:
Both have a chain mail underneath the tunic.
And what about the Magic Armor? This also belonged to the ancient hero.
And it looks like something that would be worn by royalty... It could be that at the end of Skyward Sword, the kingdom of Hyrule is officially founded, and Link and Zelda become its king and queen?
Apparently Nintendo has been doing a lot of preparation for Skyward Sword. In fact they had been working on this game since before Twilight Princess even came out, and it was being simultaneously developed along with Phantom Hourglass (link). Clearly this game will mark the next major turning point in Zelda history... and it's scheduled to be out in November, just three months away!
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