Will BOTW 2 Move On from the Champions?

No matter how much people love Breath of the Wild‘s Champions, the four warriors Zelda chose to protect Hyrule, its sequel may just choose to move on. After all, starting fresh is always exciting, especially for a Zelda sequel. To keep the fans interested, BOTW 2 is likely to move on from the Champions and Divine Beasts storyline – here’s why.

The Divine Beasts Don’t Seem to Have a Place

From what we’ve seen in the trailers, Hyrule already seems extremely different. Hyrule Castle is hovering in the air, there’s a whole new underground world, and Stone Taluses have become the new enemy camps. And the Divine Beasts don’t seem to have much place in it all.

Of course, they’re not going to play the role of dungeons again (that would be boring), but do they still exist? Are they deactivated, destroyed, or gone? There is a possibility that the New Champions (Riju, Sidon, Teba, Yunobo) may play minor “sidekick” roles, but not do anything more than that. It would make more sense for the focus to be Zelda, Link, and Ganon(dorf). The original Champions are probably not slated for a return in BOTW 2, though. After all, they are all dead and their spirits have already vanished. Without Divine Beasts to control, and their role fulfilled to defeat Calamity Ganon, they have no more purpose in BOTW 2’s story. All I know is that I’ll lose myself if the Rito don’t show up at least once.

Vah Ruta Stopped Working

In [spoiler] Breath of the Wild‘s “true ending,” Princess Zelda holds the Sheikah Slate and overlooks Hyrule with Link. In the process, she states that Divine Beast Vah Ruta of Zora’s Domain stopped working. What does this mean for BOTW 2?

There are multiple theories on why Ruta suddenly shut off. One of them is Mipha’s wish for peace. Now that Hyrule is in peace, she sees no need to keep a machine of war still operating, and shut it off herself. Another popular theory is the passing of Mipha’s spirit. She is what makes her Divine Beast active, since Champion and beast must bond to successfully work. This means that Vah Ruta would remain dormant until a new Champion (Sidon?) learned to pilot it.

The Champions are meant to work as a team, and with one player down, they lose their power as a force. Without Mipha, Hyrule would only be left with Revali, Daruk, and Urbosa, and Nintendo probably doesn’t want to simply ditch her like that. They probably just chose Ruta to fail since it was the first thing that came to mind.

Vah Medoh and Vah Rudania Are Missing in Trailers

Medoh and Rudania, from Rito Village and Death Mountain respectively, are strangely absent from BOTW 2 trailers. In a shot of Hyrule Castle rising, Death Mountain and the Hebra corner of the map are visible in the scene, but the places where the Divine Beasts should be are empty. Is this intentional, or is it simply a tiny detail the editors forgot to smooth over? It can’t be simply an accident, considering Nintendo’s overall precision. And the Divine Beasts are no small things. They were even present in the first BOTW’s ending cutscene in their proper locations.

If they were in the first BOTW’s panorama of the exact same locations, it can’t simply be a coincidence that the Divine Beasts are not present in BOTW 2’s identical one. But where could they have gone? Perhaps they teleported away, being Sheikah technology, to a different unseen realm. Still, who knows? Whatever it is, there is a sadly high chance of the Champions and Divine Beasts becoming at least partly unimportant in BOTW 2’s new storyline. And we can’t help but theorize while we wait for Spring 2023.