Hi guys, I'm alive. How many hours have YOU put in to Tears of the Kingdom???

On the subject of building the shrines of light, monsters were running rampant in Hyrule, so the shrines were built as a way to help repel the evil. As for why Rauru's hand let go of Ganondorf. I like to think he sensed Link approach and was like, "Sweet! Alright Ganondorf, that guy I said would come to kick your butt is here. Go get him, Link!"

If you translated all the tablets, one of them mentions that Sonia was "with chylde"( pregnant) when she and Rauru worked together to read the land of monsters and found the kingdom. So yes, their kid is around somewhere, probably cared for by Mineru and Zelda. Which must have been incredibly weird for Zelda, playing temporary parent to her own ancestor.

I mean, the easy answer for why the Sword didn't use Recall to repair itself is because it needed to become STRONGER than it oreviously was, and attain a higher power. That's why it goes back to Zelda, A Hundred thousand plus years ago. Not just to repair, but to become truly powerful and invulnerable to Ganondorfs Gloom

In regards to question 7: the reason the sword didn't just rewind a day or so is because it needed to absorb sacred energy to get stronger. It's said as much to our faces in the tear cutscenes.

In the Japanese version of the game, it is explained that Ganondorf wanted to create a world where only the strong and brave survive, a world where chaos reigned and peace was frowned upon. A world in his image.

I believe that the ancient zonai hero could very well be a hybrid descendant of Rauru and Sonia (a mix of zonai and hylian blood), I mean, he is mostly zonai, except for Link's blue eyes, but most importantly, the ears, which are physically hylian.

Ganondorf's character profile that you get after beating the game mentions that the magic holding him down was weakened due to Breath of the Wild's great calamity damaging the castle.

My personal theory for "why haven't we seen Zonai in other time periods before" is that the "hyrule" that Rauru is the first king of, is actually a new kingdom after the previous Hyrule fell into disrepair at some point after every other game in the timeline. There's probably a million tiny holes you could poke in this theory, but it's the only way I can wrap my head around it.

The shrines of light were created to seal away monsters. It's explained in one of the floating archives that monsters existed before Ganondorf and the shrines were used to seal evil away inside of them to prevent them from respawning and ensure peace within the kingdom, monsters only appear again after Ganondorf gets the secret stone. It's also theorized that Malic is a weaker form of gloom that was able to escape Raruu's seal and was based on anger and hate, while gloom is a much stronger form of those feelings.

In regards to the shattering of the master sword, I think it was already in a weakened state during BotW. I mean, you saw how messed up the blade was after fighting all the Malice infected guardians in the memories. If Malice is diet Gloom then the sword was already on it's way to breaking. The 100 year rest helped restore it to functioning status but under Ganondorf's targeted attack it couldn't hold up.
At least that's my own personal theory.

I believe the difference between Malice and Gloom might be intent. As in, right before Rauru seals Ganondorf, he speaks about how the years are gonna pass in the blink of an eye, which leads me to believe Ganondorf was in a sleep-like stage while he was sealed. That to say, I think the malice coming out of him while he was "asleep" is a physical manifestation of his hatred of the world and desire to conquer it seeping out of him, taking form and wrecking havoc but not necessarily directed by Ganondorf. Meanwhile, when Ganondorf directly uses his magic to attack (and as the seal weakens and he's regaining consciousness) is putting direct thought and intent in it, thus making it Gloom. I hope that makes some sense! Although it's still weird that Zelda was able to pick up on the change...

The Triforce is very much present in TOTK. It appears on the back of Zelda's hand during her transformation into the Light Dragon.

The biggest question I had throughout my playthrough of TOTK was where the heck all the Sheikah technology went. Divine Beast Vah Ruta could have washed away all the sludge. Vah Naboris could have lightening'd all the Gibdos. Each of them could have massively helped with all the regional phenomena and monsters, but they literally disappeared with no mention at all.

10:19 I believe it was the ancient Hylian text quest that has you visit all the flower-shaped islands in the sky for pictures of their inscriptions that explains that Rauru and Sonia set up the shrines to seal monsters away. This implies that monsters existed before Ganondorf got the secret stone, and possibly that by the time Zelda was sent back the monsters had all been sealed and were no threat.

My theory on the hand stopping at the exact moment Link and Zelda walk in is that Rauru's spirit knew they would come (since Zelda would have told him the story). So, in order to keep the time loop on track, he stopped holding Ganon (which was likely draining his energy) and dropped the stone for Zelda to pick up. We know that he still had some energy left in him since he grabs Link as he is about to fall into the Depths.

I tend to subscribe to the unified timeline theory, and that Rauru and Sonya’s “founding” of Hyrule is a re-founding some time after all the other games.
My headcannon as to why it isn’t more present or talked about is that some time after all the other Zelda games, the triforce was used to unify all 3 timelines into one, and this either resulted in it’s partial destruction from such a big wish, or it all ended up in an ancestor of Zelda’s afterwards. Maybe Hylia saw what a mess the triforce was causing, destroyed its physical form so no one would fight over it anymore, and only left its sealing power in Zelda.

The unmentioned child/children of Rauru and Sonia are worth a whole video honestly.  It is extremely weird that they weren't mentioned at all, and i suspect we might actually have an intentional paradox on our hands.  I think this will lead up to story that merges the timelines together in order to correct the paradox zelda created by preventing the birth of her own ancestors and prevent reality from unraveling.

My theory for totk Hyrule's birth is that it's not the birth that took place before/after Skyward Sword, but actually one that took place inbetween botw and the rest of the zelda games. The gist I got of botw's separation from the other games is that there was such a large gap in the time between them, greater than even the gaps between those earlier games, that there was time for Hyrule to fall and be re-established by Rauru and Sonia.
While it might seem convenient, it does save us from the litany of questions and issues that arise from totk Ganondorf being stuck underground and totk Zelda being a flying noodle throughout the entire timeline(s).

Triforce appears on Zeldas hand when she's holding and restoring the master sword in that little vision you have of her 4:10 Referring to this section around here. It's still in her possession in some shape or form