How Link is Related to Darknuts (Zelda Theory) 

Check out part 2, covering Iron Knuckles! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9iP8gPi_vE8.html What enemies should make reappearances in the Sequel to Breath of the Wild? I'm thinking... Darknut! Lol

Darknuts have and always will be my favorite Zelda enemy. Just stalwart knights protecting dungeons from an over powering hero. I'm so glad a mis-translation gave them such a unique, if somewhat funny with modern wording, name

Also like to point out that Link is technically not human; he's hylian. So you could argue that it could be common for hylian males to continue growing even into adulthood. (could explain why Link always seems so short...)

Keep in mind when adult Link wakes up in the Temple of Sages in OoT, he's basically been in a coma for 7 years and had no exercise. I'd say it would be odd if the Hero's Shade weren't taller than OoT Adult Link lol

We're Iron knuckles, unlike Darknuts we don't chuckle

The size can also be explained as a side effect of the "evil energy" used to corrupt the Darknuts. In the whole series there is a correlation between evilness and size and every time someone gets corrupted he also becomes bigger, like the size difference between Ganondorf and Ganon or Darbus and Fyrus or a ton of minibosses who are bigger versions of normal enemies.

Remember when Arin Hanson from Game Grumps said that Darknuts and Iron Knuckles were the exact same thing? Yeah I wanted to reach them rough the screen too.

After you pointed out that in wind waker they had “Anubis like jackal heads” I noticed that in twilight princess they had a certain symbol on their chest armor very reminiscent of the scarab beetle which is also, like Anubis, part of ancient Egyptian beliefs

Weren’t the Jackal forms due to the corruption of ganon? I mean the Dark World or realm (whichever it is) did turn people into beasts.

What’s interesting too about the darknuts is they have ranks, in twilight princess the last darknut you fight in hyrule castle is tinted in gold, no other darknuts are that color. Same with wind waker, there are red darknuts and they’re stronger than the silver variant.

Fun Fact: In the german Game Version the Darknut is called "Schattengarde" wich you could translate into "Shadow Guard".

I always believed that the humanoid-looking Darknuts were haunted, possessed suits of Hylian armor formerly belonging to slain soldiers and knights.

I would like for you to talk about the knuckles.

honestly i didn’t even know that mnb looked like that until he put it on screen

The jackal headed knights could possibly be suffering from similar effects to going into the Dark World in a Link to the Past.

I know it is entirely unrelated ti the video but the talking about ears got me remembering something. After a lot of browsing and research, I found out that there are 2 species of human in Zelda. I don't know if this is me being slow and only just finding this out, but canonically, there is the Hylian species that we see 90% of the time, and then the Human species, which are seen in small settlements often such as in Ordon Village. The only difference between these peoples is that Humans have round ears and that Hylians have pointed ears. I'm not much of a theorist, but these are intentionally made artistic choices. Because in Twilight Princess, both hylians and humans appear, so there definitely seems to be something deeper at play here

I liked this theory! Good thoughts and interesting connections I had never really thought of. As for the height thing, I kind of feel like their height doesn't necessarily have anything to do with their natural cycles of life and instead it has to do with their corruptions. Darknuts being sworn into Ganon's desires and wishes makes me think that Ganon's magic could have altered their height. I say this because if you notice, practically in almost every Zelda game Link is shorter or smaller than the Darknuts and Iron Knuckles present in the games. I do feel that Link is not short, he is actually a rather average height in the games. If compared to other normal people like villagers or townsfolk of Hyrule Castle Town, Link's height fits right in. When Link is up against a Darknut however, he suddenly feels so small compared to the size of a Darknut. I feel once again this is because of Ganon's magic altering their height which in turn alters their speed, strength, etc. into some sort of super-inhuman knight of darkness. I also believe you mentioned that the suits of armor sitting in Hyrule Castle were the same size as a Darknut or even Ganondorf? If Ganon's magic caused them to morph and change their height I would like to think that their height matches that of Ganondorf's for that sake of Ganon using his magic on the Darknuts. From a design standpoint, I think the reason Darknuts are just overall bigger than Link is because it is supposed to make you feel truly threatened when you have to take on your first one. This knight of darkness towers above you, the hero, but with your courage you take on this knight in cladded armor and prove yourself worthy of the hero's title. Anyways, great theory overall! Just wanted to spew out my thoughts on these things. Great video! :)

My cousin didn't stop growing till he was 25 hes like 6ft 5 inches and looks like a foot ball player.

I appreciate that you included that in most of the games is a teenaged boy. Also the thickness of the armor and the internal padding for the knights could add a little to the wearer’s height or size.

I completely missed this video somehow, my bad! Must have got busy after the update video but great work as always man! Another cool detail on this topic is that the Knight Statue at 7:00 strongly resembles the stripped down Darknut from TP body wise :D

In such a magical world, I wouldn't be surprised if there's also something magical about the bloodline that causes the knights to grow larger than average people when they officially become a knight.

Make a video on iron knuckles please have a nice quarantine

The iron knuckles have connects to majoras mask, please cover them I need to know more about Majora lore.

I honestly wonder who the hero of time's mother was. How did she know about the great deku and how did she even get to Kokiri Forest in the first place without turning into a stalfos?

Not every Link has knights as His ancestor. What about the Minish Cap Link? He was the grandson of a Smith, and not of a Knight or something similar.

I want to see also a video on the iron knuckles please. Also who says that the more human head looking darknuts are per say alive....they could also be corrupted spirits of knights after all it wouldn't make sence for the knights to just be corrupted when evryone else is turned into a spirit in twilight princess....also we have seen that the castle was invaded so there would be plenty of spirits of dead knights to corrupt there and maby even posess some armor that is on display. Another thing we don't know is if the Darknuts are completly corrupted. Since we don't see someone else other than link traversing those regions and normally there are no other enemys other than the darknuts in those locations, we could assume that the darknuts attck evrything that comes near as a corrupt and twisted way of theyr former mission to protect the royal family and objekts they had to protect. So it could be possible that Ganon/Ganondorf just simply left them there because they where such good guardians and never personally interacted with them. After all we never see him walk around the castle(exept for ocarima of time and the horse chasing sequence) or other locations do we? And even so he has multiple ways of interacting with things outside without leaving his place with his phantoms and other magic.

Darknuts in BotW2 *COULD* be either large Bokoblins OR Hylians aligned with Gannondorf. It would be cool to have Darknut Enemies around the open, empty fields of Hyrule- The Akalla Citadel & Barracks, etc. Then it would also make sense for larger (Gerudo?) warriors to use the large swords found throughout BotW/2. Specific Darknut/Dark Knight Weapons for BotW2: - Knight's Claymore - Golden Claymore - Rusty Claymore - Royal Guard's Claymore - Great Flameblade - Great Frostblade - Great Thunderblade - Ancient Battle Axe+++ I mean Lynels are the only enemies who use Elemental Swords, and the only Weapons on display in the castle/ruins happen to be larger than Link? I call Darknut/Dark Knight *SHENANIGANS*

Yeah. I'd be interested in seeing your thoughts on Iron knuckles

The japanese names of darknuts and iron knuckles, Tatonakku and Aian nakku, suggests at least some similarity between the two, the Zelda team often uses naming conventions to denote characters that are related through lore. Think Moblins and Bokoblins, or how "stal" usually implies a skeletal character type. I think then it's pretty safe to say that they're made in a similar fashion. In OoT we see that Nabooru is almost made into a Iron Knuckle, but when the armor falls off her face is revealed. This doesn't happen with regular iron knuckles so either Nabooru was a special case or the armor is animated by imprisoning people in it. The other knuckles may have once had people in them too their bodies long since decomposed leaving only the armor animated by the trapped spirits of its captives. This is similar to the phantoms in phantom hourglass which gives another clue. The whole idea of preserving soldiers through death to keep defending those they served in life isn't new it was employed in ancient China, Sumeria, Mesoamerica, and perhaps most relevantly Egypt. In Wind Waker we see the first knuckles (Using knuckles for both darknuts and iron knuckles because the part that gets translated to 'knuckle' is in both names) without their helmets revealing a jackal-like face. This is evocative of ancient Egyptian iconography which may sound like a stretch but in phantom hourglass we learn that sometime prior to the game the very Egyptian-esque Cobble Kingdom was destroyed. We also learn that the inhabitants of the Cobble Kingdom like Kayo manifest as ghosts after death, which is another hint towards the possessed armor theory. So the Knuckles in Windwaker and the phantoms in hourglass could be some sort of warrior race from the Cobble Kingdom, and interestingly even on the faces of the knuckles in WW we see their eyes are vacant, as if they're entranced or not alive.

When I was a kid, the darknuts in the first LoZ looked like cats to me based on their helmet shape, I never considered they looked like people under there.

You said they were only found in hyrule castle and temple of time but there also found in the trail of ordeals do u think it could be of some significance

some enemies I'd love to see in BotW 2: Darknuts and Iron Knuckles in a partially rebuilt Hyrule Castle Poes (you'd think they'd be everywhere after the calamity honestly) Skulltulas Tektites Like Likes

Also, keep in mind the Hero's Shade doesn't technically have a physical form in Twilight Princess. He could theoretically be as big as he wanted. As for the Darknuts, it's entirely possible that being turned into monsters just made them bigger.

I can imagine what the guy was thinking when naming them. “Okay, we gotta name these big bois, they’re evil/bad or they have dark coloured armour so Dark something, they’re covered in full heavy duty armour which has layers like a nut... *DARK NUT* “

Always thought that the Nut un the their names has something to do with a Juggernut, them being sturdy, and big, and all that, but it's just a thought hahaha. Great video ✌️

I've only played Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, and Link's Awakening. So never faced a Darknut but Iron Knuckles are pretty tough.

The darknuts are also much older... By several generations. If the races of Hyrule are slowly shrinking over time (explaining how Hyrule & its landmarks keep getting bigger over time, comparatively), then that would also explain the darknut size difference. Same goes for the Hero's Shade's size.

it could just be that the non-Jackal Darknuts hight is also attributed to some kind of transfiguration magic placed upon them when they were cursed to be Darknuts too, at least that's what I think could have happened since we rarely see may actual Hylians that are as huge as the Darknuts in game if any exist at all.

Thanks for pointing out the hero's shade is a ghost and not a Stalfos. I think someone mistakenly used that point when they were trying to prove Link was dead in Majora's Mask - which was a super dumb argument and Nintendo themselves debunked it.

fitting a jackal headed darknut face into the twilight princess darknut helmet would require a significantly less drastic change in head shape than we've seen from, say, moblins, or bokoblins

Okay you just blew my mind. Awesome channel, can't wait to see what else you got! Don't know if I can handle it, but no turning back now!

You should take a look at these dark nuts especially the ones with the dog faces and compare them to the snow peak ruins. just a thought but everyone's always hinted that the Lizard armor looks a little off and of a large size.

Think your on to something but I'd like to point out potential evidence that you didn't discus. In BOTW there are two sets of knight gear one of them is fairly typical where as the other is a dark theme that is wielded by the very best knights. Knowing how meticulous Nintendo is it may have been a reference to this being true. It always did seem weird that the top knights in Hyrule would have a dark theme to them.

Fierce Deity? He seems tall enough to be a Darknut... Could Link be pulling from some ancient ancestry ?

Not bad! Do you think the Darknuts guarding items in the Temple of Time and Tower of the Gods were voluntarily transformed to serve as tests for the hero?

“In Twilight Princess, the only place you fight darknuts are temple of Time and Hyrule Castle.” Cave of Ordeals: am I a joke to you? But seriously in the Cave of Ordeals there is a big fairy at the end of the 50 FLOOR DUNGEON THAT WAS PROBABLY BUILT BY HYLIANS BECAUSE THERE IS DOORS SO IT ISNT ENTIRELY NATURAL which was probably guarded by Hylia guards. This leads me to ask, WHAT IS THE CAVE OF ORDEALS!?!?!?

i would love to see a video about your iron knuckle theory

4:28 "And a lighter sword for colse quarters combat" meaning the bigger one is long range?

Great video. Going off it here's an idea for an adult Link Majora's Mask sequel: Corruption of the knights of Hyrule and the kingdom gets thrown into chaos. Maybe Dark Link could be behind this as the turmoil within the hero of time's mind is quite high after his adventures, and he in turn corrupts the other knight's and messes with Link. In this situation it could be shown how the hero of time became the hero's shade.

I love the Darknuts because they're typical gigantic, armed to brim, sword and shield wielding knights.

Wasn't Fierce Deity Link bigger than normal adult link? Nodding to the fact he'd grow up to be bigger than we saw him in OOT and what not

I wonder if they're connected in any way with the Yiga. Combatitive humans that sided with Ganon, that cover their faces (the yiga with masks or other identities)

funfact the japanese world for "turtle neck" is Ta-toNekku" so i always assumed it was related lol

You seem to forget about the knights in the spirit temple, resembling the Darknut in sheer size compared to the hero of time and a massive weapon

"King Daphnes, it's time for you to select your royal knights" "Hm how about a bunch of evil furries"

How Link is related to DEEZNUTS.

Theory:I think the hero of time is the hero of twilight's grandfather or father. Meaby when link (OoT) came back to hyrule he had kids with Zelda, and that's why link and Zelda (TP) don't have any romantic chemistry at all, because they are brothers/ cousins. Finally there's been plenty of times Zelda and link were involved in a romantic relationship, every Zelda is a descendent of the last one, and every link (except in the abandoned time-line) is a descendent of the original hero. So, the family trees of both are quite mixed. I think the royal family have had some incest throw out the years, just like in Spain... Creepy

You know, Zeltik's Darknut theory is that the Wind Waker Darknuts could be a race of augmented dog people created in the Snowpeak Ruins in Twilight Princess as an attempt to breed an army of loyal servants to the Hylian royal family. While it's not as plausible as this theory is, I find fun as well. Some commenters pointed out that the WW Darknuts resemble the Zonai we meet in Tears Of The Kingdom. Maybe our favorite jackal-headed knights gave rise to the beauties?

i dunno why but i like the idea that theirs a height requirement to join the hylian knights, and that's why all the other knight warrior guard in the game you see at the tavern are all short, skinny, or fat lmao, they didn't meet the height requirement for the speicial forces unit of the hylian military, something about that makes me chuckle, the idea of fantasy world having a very realistic requirement for a specific job in the game lol good video it makes a lot of sense

maskedNintendoBandit:on with the content. ad starts playing

Some people only stop growing at age 30, so it's possible that Ocarina of Time's Link got taller. Plus, there's an skecth of Link's family in the unused concept art of BOTW, and his father was way taller than him

Talk about the Knuckles too, they’re cool and don’t chuckle I forgot the rest of the knuckles rap.

A shade is a dead personality that can think it's the person it once was. A shade is a shell that a soul leaves behind before moving on to be reincarnated. The shade will slowly become dormant until something stimulates it. Something that could stimulate would be something like someone who is still alive thinking of that person or talking about that person. Usually a loved one or a friend. That's basically what happens when you take part in seances. A seance is just magnifying the energy when you do it that way. Which the game Zelda is HIGHLY influenced by.

I’m pretty sure that Iron Knuckles are just like elite Gerudo warriors.

Let’s just say being a Darknut isn’t restricted to one species, maybe it’s a Creed…

I can’t help but think of the CDI games whenever I hear “iron knuckle”

hey id like to make note that in a link to the past, while the corrupted soldiers arent dark nuts, they are corrupted soldiers of hyrule under the influence of aghanim (ganon)

Something I noticed is that the hero’s shade holds his sword similar to the dark nuts in twilight princess when in combat

I think the answer to why link doesnt fit in the armor is that in most if not all of the games link isnt an adult, its likely he just has to grow into it

It's a pleasure to support you! Your content is great ^-^ ❤

Just wanted to take note of something real quick, not sure if im just not seeing clearly but the darknuts form in Twilight princess kinda resembles the hero shades form. Knight of the royal family would be taught the same

3:14 And the Cave of Ordeals.

Yeah i remember this from a link to the past. I'm pretty sure the boss of the first dungeon in lttp was 6 fallen knights in the temple of courage. Sahasrala says something to that effect, im pretty sure. Its been so long.

I always assumed they were magic constructs and had no secret identity or former life.

I think it still may be possible for them to be jackals, just more humanoid. Maybe their ears are just smaller. Like the character Sesshomaru from the Inuyasha anime series. Except for being pointed, he has regular sized "human" ears even though he is a "dog" demon.

Is kilton like a more human bokoblin

I think darknut names comes from darkness influenced madness. They are nuts from darkness, darknut. I like your theory, that they are knights corrupted by evil forces. Good video.

You could do the Iron Knuckle theory, but I feel that one would be pretty short given the in game evidence as to their identities.

I think the dark nuts on breath of the wild van out of resources for the armor so they used Jean sizing to make them stronger and that's why they look like jackals.

Things that are human and enemies: ganondorf, yiga, darknut, those knight guys in games like link’s awakening and a link to the past, iron knuckle (I think)

Can this mean that Links dad was the Hero Shade that came back in the Twilight Princess to share his training with his son?

When the iron knuckles and dark knights can be transelated to nuts at the end of the name That kid: deez nuts

at 4:03 you can see a small triforce on his chest if you look carefully

WTF when MaskedNintendoBandit was about to start the video i got an ad and it was an ad about a father abusing his daughter LIKE WTF RU-vid!!

Maybe the Hero of Time growing up normally is part of why he's that tall, but that doesn't explain why the Link from Twilight Princess is so much shorter in comparison, despite being a descendant. He's easily the same age as OOT's adult Link, plus he grew up as a rancher. Not only that, but he's incredibly strong and can stop a charging goat in its tracks, so he's definitely very healthy. Perhaps Hylians get taller after the age of 17? Or maybe descendants of the knights get taller later in life? The Hero's Shade is obviously a lot older than Twilight Princess Link, not including the time he's been, well, dead. And, of course, there's nothing that proves or disproves this theory, as nobody else appears to be related to Link in any way in Twilight Princess (most of the people who live in Ordon village are apparently not Hylian - a sort of parallel on how most of the people who lived in Kokiri forest weren't Hylian either). Anyway good video!

Just stumbled across something while re-playing LoZ:BotW that I found rather interesting. North of Rito Village, there is the Flight Range (an area that is small, but key to the plot progression for taming Divine Beast Vah Medoh). Usually, throughout the game, Link can come to this location for a little mid-air target practice using the continuous, and very strong updrafts. While re-playing the Ballad of the Champions DLC portion of the game, I realized that those very strong updrafts were not present at the Flight Range prior to the Great Calamity 100 years ago! While watching the "memory" of how Zelda persuaded Revali to join as the Champion of the Rito Tribe, it clearly shows Revali having to use his newly mastered signature skill (Revali's Gale) again once he reaches the very bottom of the Flight Range (after destroying the first 3 targets with bomb arrows)! We can clearly see why Revali had to do this, because, throughout the entire "memory", there are no updrafts at all seen coming from the depths of the Flight Range!! This raises some pretty big questions about what initially caused the updrafts to start flowing at the Flight Range, and, if this issue has not already been covered in the "Hyrule Historia" or "Creating a Champion" books, I would enjoy hearing a Zelda Theory from MaskedNintendoBandit on the matter.

Totally spot on theory. Good stuff bro.

SS Link: *Is literally a Hylian Knight in Training* Bandit: 7:05

OH! In Breath of the Wild 2 there should be a boss battle with a Darknut that turns out to be Link's Father.

dammit now i want a zelda game where link is an 8 foot tall beast of a warrior.

Thanks for making me smile today

Maybe the Hylians race stops growing at a older age? And Link's height potential is still uknown

Depends. Which version of Iron Knuckle are we talking about? The Darknut rip-offs from Adventure of Link or the more memorable Iron Knuckles from the N64 titles?

Bouncing off this theory, is it possible that they got Jackal-like feature because of a dog’s symbolism of loyalty? The Knights of Hyrule have a sworn duty to guard and protect the Royal Family. Could this also explain why TP Link turns into a wolf?

Skyward Sword has even more proof about that Link's bloodline is the Hylian Knights, as he literally becomes a knight in that game, and especially since it's the first game in the entire timeline, it shows that not only that Link is a Knight, but that his entire bloodline has that in his blood (Since it's confirmed that Links are always decendants of BOTH the Royal Family AND other Links); also, if you look closely, the Darknuts literally animate the exact same as the Hero's Shade, indicating that their martial arts trainings were exactly identical (But that the Hero's Shade, AKA Link, as a higher-up Knight, as he had gotten high rank, had a lot more training for the advanced moves that he shows the other Link)

How would the Darknuts in the original Zelda game work as that's part of the downfall timeline where it's safely assumed the Hero of Time died in the fight against Gannon?

That heros shade and hero of time theory is ridiculous

you didn't mention the armored foes... or the pendant of courage... or the pegasus boots... and what the Zora's have in common with darknut lore and mythos... and CREATION!

"He dwarfs the Hero of Twilight by several feet at LEAST!!" > is only like a foot taller at most

Boy can grow until 25 when a bone i can't name solidifies in the the torso