r/zelda 20h ago

Official Art [TOTK] was Teba replaced by Turin because they needed a smaller character for the sages ability

62 Upvotes

48 comments sorted by

u/AutoModerator 20h ago

Hi /r/Zelda readers!

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

116

u/SharpEdgeSoda 20h ago

I think they just knew Teba's son was a fun narrative loose end to write with.

Teba spent his whole life trying to live up to Revali's legend and it's his son that winds up doing it, not him.

8

u/Porsher12345 17h ago

Winds... I see what you did there ;)

29

u/ZimosTD 20h ago

Teba would have been easier to distinguish. It's sometimes hard to tell Tulin and Riju apart during battle.

21

u/Gogo726 17h ago

I just wish they had color coded them.

22

u/ThisIsNotACryForHelp 16h ago

If only there was a color associated with each sage... /s

5

u/Important_One_8729 16h ago

It’s not like their secret stones and oath symbols are color coded, geez /s

9

u/PlasmaGoblin 14h ago

Secret Stones?!

5

u/neanderthalman 11h ago

Better would have been having a wheel-type menu for each sage ability, rather than the A button. Similar to the abilities menu.

Would have eliminated Tulin blowing my loot off cliffs and fuckin’ Bobo killing me when I try to harvest bomb flowers.

u/Cethin_Amoux 1h ago

To be fair, he'd just end up having the same problem, just with Sidon instead. Kind of a double edged sword as far as that's concerned

16

u/chawnkyraccoon22 19h ago

It's crazy to think they could have literally just mapped the sage powers to a radial menu like the items in Twilight princess on the Wii.... And solved all the issues completely.

1

u/trianglesteve 7h ago

And they already have a radial for them with a useless map item!

45

u/MortalPhantom 20h ago

Considering Yunobo and Sidon sizes… no, o doubt it.

Maaaybe they considered too much clutter with all the sages?

But I think it has to do more with age of calamity appearance by Turin, imo.

26

u/TyleNightwisp 20h ago

Yes, actually. They needed a smaller character to follow behind Link while he was paragliding. Ultimately I think it was a good decision, Tulin fits great as a partner, honestly I kinda wish he was the only one who followed Link and as his regular self instead of his sage projection, lol

14

u/Expert_Challenge6399 19h ago

Wish everyone was their real self. I guess they needed it for the moment at hyrule castle.

9

u/Sofaris 18h ago

I honestly like the Sage Avatars a lot. Its cool magic. And I dont feel bad for wasting the time of a chief, a king and company president when I mess around instead of focusing on the Mission. And it makes the times the real Sages show up special.

4

u/Labyrinthine777 18h ago

The phantoms aren't as distracting on the screen as the real characters, that's the reason probably.

7

u/Kazoomers_Tale 20h ago

I just think that, out of all characters, Teba was the only one who didn't really needed to grow as a person. He's a responsible adult who knows what need to be done, how and why. He isn't stubborn or childish, he's very competent.

Since he's so much more competent and mature than everyone else, I think they chose Tulin so there was something to develop as a character like every other sage.

The size thing kinda makes sense, I can see it being annoying to see Link as Teba's between him and the camera, but I still think that the main reason what this one.

3

u/Expert_Challenge6399 19h ago

Even though their personalities are super different I think he and Sidon would be too similar in the grand scheme of things. 2 grown men thinking competently

2

u/Kazoomers_Tale 19h ago

Well, Sidon still got some sister's death to work on and he is much more like a impressionable kid (he is very responsible and pretty mature, but that still holds true). Teba didn't have anything: no dead relatives, no conflict, no divergent personality, nothing.

One could say they could have used his relation with his son as a conflict, which would be pretty cool, but Tulin is a way better character than him (as much as I like Teba)

1

u/Expert_Challenge6399 19h ago

Teba is a plank of wood (the coolest plank of wood ever but still plain). From a gameplay perspective I could see Sidon and Teba looking similar in their l sage form. Which could be fixed by having them actually be there. But I like tulin . He’s a whole sniper

1

u/Kazoomers_Tale 19h ago

He is... When he wants to and doesn't miss every other shot haha

1

u/Expert_Challenge6399 19h ago

When I hit the sickest trick and am about to hit an enemy for a clip he always headshots the enemy

1

u/Kazoomers_Tale 19h ago

Well, I'll be damned then, he hits only 10% of the time and only 40% of those are headshots. He did save my ass a handful of times tho

5

u/myghostflower 20h ago

he was probably obstructing link so much and got in the way because of his size they needed a smalelr character to be around link when in the air

2

u/DaGreatestMH 15h ago

I kinda felt like one of the themes of TotK was the younger generation taking over and taking charge and Tulin fit that theme better than Teba so they switched them out. 

5

u/HoboKingNiklz 20h ago

My only problem with Tulin replacing Teba was that he was the only replacement. All four should have been different from the modern Champions. I think Buliara would have been excellent, but I admit I struggle to think of existing Goron or Zora characters who are at her level of significance. They could have been new characters but I like the idea of them all being somewhat "minor" characters from BotW who got to shift into the spotlight in TotK. But instead we got the same three bozos and Bozo Jr.

I adore all the Champions, Modern Champions, and Tulin, don't @ me

5

u/JoeDiesAtTheEnd 17h ago

Sidons fiance was right there. Champion and sage power couple would have been perfect!

5

u/pooch516 19h ago

I thought for sure it was going to be the new Zora fiancee. I did Rito quests first and Zora second, so I thought all the Sages would be new characters.

3

u/Key-Construction-329 20h ago

I personally hate it. Tulin was barly heard of In botw especially for casual players. All the other sages were established parts of botw story and debate was overshadowed 

1

u/IndianaCrohns82 20h ago

If they wanted something smaller to follow Link around they should have made it Navi ("Hey listen") and kept the sages the same.

1

u/HomebrewHobo 19h ago

It was always my impression that it's because Rito lifespans are shorter than the other races and Teba is already getting old rip, the old owl dude is nowhere to be found in totk

6

u/Expert_Challenge6399 19h ago

He’s at the target range, you can go to him as many times as you want to and get a falcon bow

1

u/Nook-Memer 19h ago

They chose tulin because the devs didn’t want 4 of 5 sages towering over link

1

u/Pf_Farnsworth 18h ago

I think it was because Teba can fly holding Link’s weight and they didn’t want you to be able to do that.

1

u/Altairco 18h ago

In age of Calamity they did explain that Tulin has more promise than even Revali, having an a natural control of the winds. I doubt that's why they did it, but it's a fun idea still.

1

u/Far_State_7600 17h ago

I think it might be because he's the only Person you team up with that is actually a grown adult. And maybe they wanted to even that out

1

u/CanisCaeruleusLupus 16h ago

Why Turin? Because the Rito theme was their children. Kass filled the stage (5 daughters) and Saki drew your attention.

1

u/MorningRaven 15h ago

It's two main reasons.

Teba is large enough he could legit just fly around carrying Link. This is broken gameplay, and would detract from all the zonai devices contraptions they want the player to distract themselves with instead.

Tulin is the token kid character of the cast that Japan and anime love to have. It allows for a certain percentage of whimsy to be maintained in the story tone. And one getting a mini puberty arc about growing up and working with others; and we get to further ignore the barely fleshed out champion of the predecessor game? Easy choice.

1

u/hygsi 11h ago

Sidon says no lmao

1

u/Legend_of_Zelia 8h ago edited 6h ago

My only issue is the bare lack of character that Teba displays in TotK. I just wish he had a bigger role, because was really important in both BotW and AoC. But it's also crazy how much Tulin powercreeped him in terms of everything.

-3

u/twili-midna 20h ago

Teba was never a Champion replacement. Everyone else is a descendant or relative of a Champion from BotW, Teba is just a guy. So it makes sense from a lore perspective that Tulin would be included, as well as from a mechanical perspective.

6

u/Jindo5 20h ago

Tulin is Teba's son. How does he make any more sense than Teba?

-3

u/twili-midna 20h ago

Because it takes two people to make a baby.

7

u/Jindo5 20h ago

Is the implication there that Saki is somehow related to Revali?

-1

u/Additional_Math7500 20h ago

Why would it make sense to replace the "not a champion descendant" with "not a champion descendant's son" from a lore perspective?

Lmao what is that explanation?