







ReDead from Ocarina of Time 3D. Source: http://zelda.gamepedia.com/ReDead

Link is ambushed by a Yiga Clan assassin. Source: DivDee on YouTube

Master Kohga in all his splendor. Source: Zelda Gamepedia









Breath of the Wild's world is populated with many monsters such as Bokoblins, Moblins, Lizalfos, Chuchus and Lynels. But seasoned fans of the series will notice a few fan favorites are missing: Poes, Gibdos, ReDeads, Stalfos and Stalchildren, for example.What do these enemies have in common? They are all. ( Though Nintendo has admittedly tried to retcon the ReDead into being a magical, non human creature. ) Indeed, though Breath of the Wild has tension and atmosphere, it very rarely engages with the dark locations and enemy designs that Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess or even Ocarina of Time dealt with.At this point, you may question the premise, pointing out that the absense of the aforementioned enemies simply resulted from Nintendo's choice to steer away from disturbing locations and enemies, and not actually a problem with killing humanoid enemies specifically. However, considering which enemiesin the game, the problem with this argument becomes clear: most common enemies have a 'Stal', or skeletal, equivalent.In other words, Nintendo had no problem involving undead skeletal enemies... so long as they weren't human or Hylian. On top of Stalnoxes, Breath of the Wild includes Stalkoblins, Stalmoblins and Stalizalfos,However, Breath of the Wild actuallyhave humanoid enemies. It's time to address the elephant in the room: The Yiga Clan.The Yiga Clan, though masked, are confirmed to be Sheikah defectors and thus part of the same race of people, and Link is able to fight them. However, the way these fights end proves the original premise furter:They are completely unique in this regard.The one exception is Master Kohga, who does seem to die after you defeat him.But rather than having Link strike him down, in the cutscene after his battle, Kohga brings about his own demise by summoning a large metal sphere which ends up pushing him into a chasm. Words don't do it justice; You can view the clip here. And even Ganon himself, whose human form Ganondorf met a grisly end in Wind Waker and Twilight Princess,. Instead, his first form is a monstrosity with a vaguely human head.Interestingly, though thousands must've died in the events leading up to Breath of the Wild, Link isn't allowed to seriously harm any human being, alive or undead. Human enemies are kept to a minimum, with even their skeletons replaced by those of standard enemies, and human enemies that do appear aren't killed. That's why I think Nintendo consciously decided that