Is ‘Tears of the Kingdom’ a prequel to ‘Skyward Sword?’

There have been rampant theories in recent months regarding the upcoming Legend of Zelda title, Tears of the Kingdom, that insist it is a prequel to 2011’s The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. These rumors were started on TikTok by a user known as zeldatendo/tiktok and since sent fans into a frenzy. All across the web, the rumor gained traction, eventually becoming a widely held belief. As always, there are bound to be naysayers, but as it turns out, the skeptics were actually right in this instance.

Further evidence to support the theory lies with streamer Eric “PointCrow” Merino as detailed by Inverse. PointCrow referred to “a quote from Nintendo’s Bill Trinen, who told IGN in 2021 that releasing the subtitle of the game would be a spoiler.” Although Tears of the Kingdom didn’t seem like much of a spoiler in itself, assuming that Hyrule is the ‘kingdom,’ all eyes were on the word ‘tears’ and its implications. Merino believes that it wasn’t the title that contained spoilers, but rather the logo.

“The logo is a spoiler!” PointCrow says in the below YouTube video. “It’s an Ouroboros, a snake eating its own tail. It’s a symbol of a loop or infinite. This could mean that the Zelda timeline is a loop.”

Overall, this theory doesn’t have a sturdy foundation besides the Ouroboros, so for now, we can safely assume that — contrary to popular belief — Tears of the Kingdom is not a prequel to Skyward Sword. We have to stress that this is purely speculation. As articulated by N4G, the aforementioned TikToker in question assuredly “claimed that the logo, which is an ouroboros, represents the cyclical nature of the Zelda timeline. Zeldatendo essentially claims this cyclical nature is a hint to a loop in the Zelda timeline, as cursed by Demise in Skyward Sword.” However, Nintendo has yet to confirm any connection between Tears of the Kingdom and Skyward Sword, so there’s no truth to these false claims.

Although we can’t safely say that both games are connected, we do know for certain that Tears of the Kingdom is a direct sequel to 2017’s Breath of the Wild and belongs to the Great Calamity timeline, as we’ve outlined here.

We assume that more will be revealed, if not in Tears of the Kingdom then certainly in the future. Grab your copy of the latest Zelda release when it becomes available on May 12, 2023.