Is Demise back in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom? It's complicated

gamesradar.com:

After The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's final trailer appeared to depict Demise, Zelda fans are wildly speculating how the ancient villain could factor into the plot.

Yesterday saw the final trailer for Tears of the Kingdom air, setting up the overarching story of the Breath of the Wild sequel with Ganondorf front and centre. Plenty of viewers picked up on one shot in particular though, seen just below, in which Ganondorf appears to show a huge resemblance to Skyward Sword villain Demise.

Is it just me, or is this supposed to be DEMISE!?!? pic.twitter.com/vazxAextrOApril 13, 2023

This has lead to heaps of speculation that Demise will play an active role in Tears of the Kingdom. But what kind of role, exactly? One common theory is that Ganondorf is actually transforming into Demise. When Demise is defeated at the conclusion of Skyward Sword, he promises to manifest again and again throughout history to curse Link and Zelda. Fans have generally taken that to mean that Ganondorf is a reincarnation of Demise, and seeing a connection this direct between the two would make a lot of sense.

Is Ganondorf TRANSFORMING into Demise? Notice how both shots have these pillars on the side, and Ganondorf is wearing a similar robe. Some sort of transformation using his powers? pic.twitter.com/umhWQeTw6vApril 13, 2023

However, some think this isn't actually Demise, but Ganondorf simply undergoing his resurrection. Based on past Tears of the Kingdom trailers, there's a great chance that Ganondorf starts out life as a husk in the sequel, and undergoes a transformation of some sort to become the fully-fledged Ganondorf we see in the new trailer (he basically gets rehydrated, in short).

I know there's a big desire for this to be