Man, rewatching this video is hilarious to me. I was SO sick when I recorded the script, I sound so dead inside, lmao. ☠️

On the part that the gossip stones speak a strange language, I thought of something interesting. What if the gossip stones are neither speaking to the npcs or Link? What if they aren't speaking a language native to Hyrule? What if..  they speak English (or Japanese/other languages we understand)? What if they aren't speaking to Link, but instead the Player?

Just a thought.

Hold up with their absence in BotW/TotK.

Hear me out here; it's something I believe we have all overlooked.
The Yiga clan has covered every statue they see with their bands to blind the stones; what if every stone we see covered by a Yiga clan symbol was believed to be a gossip stone and they were worried that their plans were being watched? We have already seen the Yiga are... slightly paranoid but true to their old ways (the actual Sheikah ways, not the current ways of the sheikah post dropping their ways in favor of agriculture and history. If the Yiga defectors continued the old ways of the sheikah; it would make sense they would cover the stones in fear of who is really watching/listening. The Sheikah were the og spies of the Hylian royal family afterall; the Yiga woud have known this and made every attempt to cover (pun intended) their plan and hideout.

Knowing their hideout is in the Gerudo region, surrounded by 6 statues, each with their face covered as well?

Originally I just thought the Yiga were being extra (you can't find us, but here is a clear path with marked stones). No. They were legitamtely in hiding; any stone with eyes that wasn't a goddess statue has been covered.

Knowing Ganondorf/Ganon believed in said gods, they would want Hylia (or the Gods in general) to see what was happening with no way out; whereas the gossip stones are straight up spies - watching and listening, gossiping to those who listen.

I love the idea of the theories being spit out by the gossip stones, how hasn’t this become a symbol for the Zelda community yet?? Looking forward to videos to come.

I can’t believe this is a first video, its very well done and the editing is fantastic. Good luck starting your theorizing journey later than many others. You have my subscription sir.

The nice thing about Gossip Stones not existing in ALTTP is you can make up any reason why they're not around.

I think Ganon ate 'em.

Look. You just became a pig beast, had your greatest victory, and are now the unquestioned king of the land - you're gonna be hungry, and sentient stones made by the Goddess just might be exactly the thing to sate that hunger before the sages throw you in a hole for centuries.

Sheikah towers and shrines can pop up from and vanish into the ground and Gossip Stones seem to be Sheikah in origin and SS Impa said the Sheikah had worked for Hylia as her chosen guardians. Gorko even says they "appear out of nowhere." Mystery solved.

It's always exciting to me when Zelda theorists include Spirit Tracks. It's such an underrated gem.

I think that the reason why the gossip stones didn’t appear in the downfall timeline is that they were simply destroyed either by Ganon in his victory over Link or by Agrihim.

In all the games with gossip stones the Sheikah are all but nonexistent. Besides Impa, there’s no true Sheikah left from what we can see. What if the Sheikah stones are sentient because they mark where a Sheikah died in service to Hylia? Their sacrifice is rewarded with being able to continue their existence, albeit in a reduced capacity, and because of their dedication they continue to help the hero whenever he is in need. This could also have evolved into the shrines in BOTW, which is why we don’t see them there.

The reason there's no more gossip stones is because Link kept putting bombs next to all those he found.

I think that the gossip stones of spirit tracks and phantom ourglass look different because they are in a diferent part of the world, where the sheikans didn't existed; "The kingdom of the king of sea", and "New Hyrule", were there are other "guariands" like the lokomos. Kinda like humans having diferent outfits and culture things through the world. The Gods did them diferent depending of who were in those part of the world.

It's sad cause if we don't get a hard puzzle like zelda again we won't see those stones again

Good video, I like the theory that the gossip stones are sheikah monks like in Breath of the Wild. Except that maybe instead of being purposefully preserved to serve the hero they were just doing it to be silly and hang out

In Majora's Mask, if you played the Ocarina and/or wore a Transformation Mask, the Gossip Stone will Change Color.

If you Bomb Gossip Stones then hit them while they Flash 1 of 2 Colors, they will also change to that Color.

Their Height can also be Shifted as well. I'm not sure if it's because of a Transformation Mask and playing an Ocarina Song or Bombing the Gossip Stone, but one of these has to be true as well.

Pretty cool analysis you made here, I personally have always found gossip stones kind of eerie, but fascinating nonetheless.

Its worth considering, the Gossip Stones only say time remaining. While that perfectly lines up mechanically with the fall of the moon and end of a cycle, but remember that the cycle and the time that the moon is set to land is likely purposefully matched to the eve of the carnival. EVERYTHING in Clocktown revolves around time and especially the the start of the festival. The clocktower opens at midnight in an event mirroring the ball dropping at new year, and EVERYONE is preoccupied with getting their preparations for the celebration done. So its very likely that the Gossip Stones in Termina are not the twisted recreation of Skull Kid recontextualizing a royal symbol into a taunt for the possibly dead hero supporting whatever wild pocket dimension theory some people (and publishing companies) tout, but instead just a Terminian repurposing of Hylian technology to tell the time and play automated messages about upcoming events...
Actually that might imply that IF there were previous tensions between Hyrule and Termina... that Hyrule is now spying on them with back door Sheikah surveillance equipment... shit dude.

The reason Spirit Tracks gossip stones have ears might be to hear more secrets and lore.

Here's something that I noticed once, along with my personal theory.

In Breath of the Wild, King Rhoam describes the Guardians as free-willed machines that were taken over by Ganon. Gossip stones have always seemed free-willed to me, or at least sentient. I wouldn't go so far as to say that Guardians are upgraded war gossip stones (although that would be really cool,) but I also wouldn't be surprised if they were created with the same technology!

17:06 arby n the chief reference, nice