The Legend of Zelda is a franchise full of secrets to uncover, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom holds the latest batch. As it's built on the back of one of the oldest known kingdoms of Hyrule from Breath of the Wild, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom hides many historical artifacts, locations, and trivia within its three-tiered open world. Investigating and imagining how this storied world fits together is left to the player, and this freeform approach to storytelling combines with TotK's open-ended gameplay to make a truly special experience.
One of Tears of the Kingdom’s most significant contributions to BotW’s lore is the Zonai. This mysterious tribe has long been absent from Hyrule, but once descended from the skies to participate in its founding. In particular, Rauru, the Sage of Light, became the first king of Hyrule, with the Hylian Sonia as his queen. Players learn more about both of them throughout Tears of the Kingdom, uncovering one of the longest chronological stories in the Zelda franchise. However, even after seeing their story to its conclusion, it still feels like a vital piece of their history is missing.
What Tears of the Kingdom Says About Rauru and Sonia’s Family
While finding Dragon Tears to uncover Princess Zelda’s story in the distant past, players may notice something strange. Rauru, Sonia, and Rauru’s sister Mineru are able to sense that Zelda shares Rauru and Sonia’s respective powers of Light and Time through their bloodlines. The Hylian royal family was already known to have mystical abilities attributed to the Goddess Hylia, and the concept of hereditary Sage powers explains why the descendants of Breath of the Wild’s four Champions inherited powers of their own. Even if it's a slight retcon, everything checks out so far.
There’s A Missing Link Between Zelda and Hyrule’s Founders
By that logic, Zelda being directly related to Rauru and Sonia implies that they had at least one child to continue their bloodline. Despite their biological connection being all but directly stated, the player never sees or hears about any children in the distant past. In Tears of the Kingdom's early Dragon Tear cutscenes, it feels like Rauru and Sonia are treating Zelda like an adopted daughter, but neither that nor Mineru being Rauru’s only visible Zonai relative leads to further discussions about their family. Sonia is never visibly pregnant during the Dragon Tear scenes and is assassinated by Ganondorf on-screen, leaving players who noticed this inconsistency scratching their heads.
Figuring Out Where Tears of the Kingdom Put Rauru and Sonia’s Child
It can be assumed that Nintendo didn't want to portray a child losing their parents before being abandoned by Zelda out of necessity, so it chose to sidestep the topic. Even so, including dialogue that implicates the deceased founders of Hyrule in Zelda's ancestry without establishing how is bizarre. Things get even stranger if one considers the Ancient Hero’s Aspect, Link’s unlockable Shrine completion outfit that references an iconic Breath of the Wild tapestry. Its description claiming that a “spirit of a hero” inhabits it can be interpreted as confirming a Hylian-Zonai hybrid’s presence during Hyrule’s earliest battle with Calamity Ganon, but that just loops back to the existence of TotK’s unseen child.
Rauru and Sonia's Child Is Just One of Tears of the Kingdom’s Unresolved Issues
Perhaps the worst part of this situation is that it's not the only one of its type. From small details like the unexplained disappearance of Breath of the Wild’s recurring NPC Kass, to the almost-complete disappearance of ancient Sheikah technology, Tears of the Kingdom has many unsolved mysteries. The absent royal child is among its less pressing questions, as players can easily envision their necessary existence, but when a single sentence could excuse the absence of Rauru and Sonia’s offspring, it's a wonder why Tears of the Kingdom didn't at least have that much.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
- Released
- May 12, 2023
WHERE TO PLAY
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the sequel to the beloved open-world adventure, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This installment once again sees Link and Zelda battling to protect Hyrule from falling to Ganondorf. This new adventure takes place in the same land of Hyrule as Breath of the Wild but sees something called the Upheaval, which allows link to travel to Sky Islands, as well as deep into the Depths beneath Hyrule. Players can use special abilities to fuse together weapons, and build items to help them progress through the release.
- ESRB
- Rated E for Everyone 10+ for Fantasy Violence and Mild Suggestive Themes
- Developer(s)
- Nintendo
- Publisher(s)
- Nintendo
- Franchise
- The Legend of Zelda
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2
- Genre(s)
- Adventure, Action, Open-World
- How Long To Beat
- 59 Hours
- Metascore
- 96
