In addition to the support characters, the big reveal in The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom trailer 3 is the red hair villain that we see part way through, which hinted at the potential of Demise. There’s bound to be a lot of OG Zelda gamers that will have had similar thoughts, but for anyone not sure who or what is beneath those red locks here’s everything you need to know.
Trailer 3 has cemented the game’s iconic status and presented it as being way more than just a continuation of the story. The game looks huge and with the reveal of support characters to fight alongside you, Zelda being alive (fingers crossed), a resurgent Ganondorf and the red hair of the ultimate villain, which was suspected to be Demise, there’s a lot to unpick.
AdvertisementHowever, it’s also easy to be a pretty big Legend of Zelda fan and still not know who the the character is. The reality is that he was the final boss of a single game in the series and while it has had a recent remake, there will be plenty of gamers both new and old that just don’t know who or what it is, so the details below will give you a good starting point.
The reality is that it isn’t Demise, but the look of the character in question does more than enough to call back to it. With the huge success of Breath of the Wild and now TotK, maybe it’s setting things up for a trilogy that would build to him returning to the franchise.
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Who is Demise?
As mentioned above, the character with the red hair looked a lot like Demise and for anyone that doesn’t know him he’s the source of evil in Hyrule. You might think that honor goes to Ganondorf or his demonic form Ganon, but the reality is that he is just the conduit for the evil of Demise.
He was the final boss fight in The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword on the Nintendo Wii and the recent remake for the Switch. In the timeline for the series, the game is the original starting point of the Saga and everything that follows is a direct result of what happened.
AdvertisementWhen Link and Zelda beat Demise back in the very beginning (well, back in the past of the beginning… it’s complicated), he curses their future to perpetually face the reincarnated essence of his rage. It’s this rage that has imbued Ganon with his power and destruction throughout the various iterations of the cycle.
With Ganon defeated in Breath of the Wild it seems like there could have been some twist that might bring back Demise. This could have either been a natural continuation of the curse to bring back Ganondorf, or Ganon’s forces find a way to kick start it all one more time.
That doesn’t turn out to be the case, but the visual comparisons with Demise that you can see in the 3rd trailer for The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom is a pretty good indication that he might just return as one of the main bosses in the series at some point. It’s also a distinct possibility that he might even be a future final boss, although that honor goes to Ganondorf in TotK.
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The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom Trailer 3’s Demise comparisons
You can see the !Demise! reveal at 1:18 in The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom trailer 3 above. You don’t see his face, because the camera cuts away just as he’s turning around, but the hair is more than enough to draw comparisons.
AdvertisementThe fact that one of the few remakes to come out between BotW and TotK was The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword is another big point. It was like Nintendo wanted to remind us about him before putting out the sequel.
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The sheer volume of speculation for the final boss fight is a pretty good indicator that the fan base would be keen to see a return for Demise at some point in the future. It’s going to be tough for Nintendo to top its latest game and bringing back the character might just be the only way to do it.
We’ll update you with more details on the Villain when the sequel to The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom eventually gets announced. Check out our computer games section for more news and features on TotK, or visit the official website at https://www.zelda.com/.
