Where is the Triforce in the Era of the Wild games? This is a question that many Zelda theorists have asked, and while there have been multiple theories, there has never really been a clear answer. But today I am going to revisit one of those theories and expand upon it a little more, and provide some more evidence to it. Spoilers for botw/totk by the way. In Breath of the Wild, when Zelda uses her sacred sealing powers, the symbol of the triforce appears on the back of her hand. And in tears of the kingdom, the symbol is glowing on the back of her hand when she is healing the decayed Master Sword. It’s a little hard to make out in the cutscene, but you can see it clearly depicted on the official artwork and amiibo for Zelda. Many have speculated if this symbol indicates that her sealing powers is actually the power of the triforce. And while it was always possible that this was true, there wasn’t any other evidence to support this theory. After all, it could just be a symbol that appears while using the sacred power, and it barely has a connection to the triforce at all. Now here is the thing that seems could either disprove this theory, or not affect it at all. And it’s that in totk, it’s never directly said but it’s heavily implied that Zelda inherited her sacred light powers from Rauru. And while I guess it is possible for a zonai to wield the triforce, it just doesn’t seem very likely that Rauru would have it, because the Zonai aren’t as connected to Hyrule in the same way the goddesses and Hylians are. The triforce isn’t even featured on the Zonai version of the Hyrulean crest. But there’s a few things I’d like to point out here. If the symbol that appears on Zelda’s hand really is just the symbol of her sacred power, and she theoretically inherited this sacred power from Rauru, then shouldn’t this symbol also appear on Rauru’s hand? And yet, in every instance that we see Rauru using his powers, the symbol of the triforce never appears. So that means that the symbol on Zelda’s hand must have something to do with Zelda herself. It could be that she is a Hylian, or that she is the descendant of the goddess, or it could be that she has the triforce within her. Another thing, Rauru’s power is sourced from the Secret Stone, which means whatever power he had originally has been amplified. But even with the secret stone, he doesn’t seem that powerful. Sure, he sealed down Ganondorf, but that was at the cost of his own life, and it wore off eventually. He did also wipe out the wave of Molduga, but that was with the help of both Sonia and Zelda’s power. Other than that we don’t really see him do much. I mean, if he was that powerful, then Ganondorf wouldn’t have been so hard to defeat. But that all is with the secret stone amplifying his power. His original, base powers would have been much weaker. Meanwhile, Zelda, with no secret stone, with just her light power alone, was able to wipe out an entire fleet of guardians, hold the Calamity in the castle for a full 100 years, communicate telepathically with Link and teleport him places on the side, create the Bow of Light, and ultimately seal away Calamity Ganon in a giant ball of light. That is WAY more than Rauru ever did! She is extremely powerful just on her own. So while their powers could still be related in some way, it seems that Zelda’s power must have been amplified or sourced from something else. And judging by the symbol that only appears with her when she uses her powers, it could probably be the triforce. Now, I don’t have an explanation for how exactly she ended up with the triforce in the first place, but judging by these observations, it seems most likely that she does have it. Perhaps since we are getting a new Zelda game that features a mysterious fairy named Tri as Zelda’s companion, who most likely has a connection to the Triforce, maybe we will get an explanation for where it has gone in the Era of the Wild games. But what do you think? Do you have any theories for where else the Triforce might be? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. (Also there is a bonus theory in the credits)
Thumbnail by me Bonus Theory: Where did Rauru get his light powers from anyway? If Zelda’s powers really do come from the Triforce, then what about Rauru? Well, we do know of one other being in the Zelda franchise who wields light powers and is named Rauru, that of course being Rauru from Ocarina of Time. They clearly aren’t the same being, considering OoT Rauru is a Hylian and TotK Rauru is a Zonai. But are they connected somehow? Well it’s most likely that OOT Rauru existed first, because it is widely believed that Gaepora, Zelda’s father from Skyward Sword, is actually Rauru in disguise considering they look a lot alike, and he shares the name of Rauru’s owl counterpart, Kaepora Gaepora. So knowing that, it could be possible that totk Rauru is actually some sort of spiritual reincarnation of OOT Rauru. Not just him taking a mortal form, but his power and his name taking the form of a Zonai. Now, why would he do this? Well if Rauru founding Hyrule takes place after the timelines merge instead of after the events of Skyward Sword (either one is possible) then maybe he reincarnated because Hyrule was no longer unified under a royal family and needed to be refounded. Another possibility, as well as that one, is that Ganondorf was born as the reincarnation of Demise around the same time, so maybe Rauru came to combat the demon king and stop him, due to the absence of a hero at this time.
