Stallord's Species

Stallord was obviously one of the highlights of TP. However, every time I see him I can't help but think What the heck is he?

Some say he's a dragon, but he has fur on his neck, which means he's really a mammal. He also has opposable thumbs, indicating a very evolutionary advanced species. It may just be through Zant's magic, but he can also breath some sort of toxic gas or fire.

Another interesting detail is that he's trapped in a giant prison, impaled with several spears, and surrounded by corpses. What was he in life that so many people died trying to kill him?

Maybe he is a good portion of the evil that came out of the Sacred Realm during the Seal War (if the Seal War is before OoT). Otherwise he could have been created by the Dark Interlopers to help them establidh dominion over the Sacred Realm.

There's more than one of them, due to LCT.

... opposable thumbs do not make an organism more advanced... its just a trait that became beneficial... just throwing that out there...

Anyway, I couldn't even guess what the heck Stallord is. He looks like a mutant antelope! Haha. But I've never understood what the Stalchildren were supposed to be either. They are OBVIOUSLY not human skeletons, which imo would be a lot better. My guess, even though it may be obvious, is that Stallord, the Stalchildren, and even Stalfos? are supposed to be the same things... who knows?

Originally Posted by eiyuu_004

... opposable thumbs do not make an organism more advanced... its just a trait that became beneficial... just throwing that out there...

Name one advanced species that doesn't have opposable thumbs.

Dolphins don't count.

Originally Posted by Mr Mander

Name one advanced species that doesn't have opposable thumbs.

Hedgehogs (such as Sonic the Hedgehog).

Anyway, I would assume that anything that has the prefix "Stal-" in its name would be in the same species.

Originally Posted by Mr Mander

Name one advanced species that doesn't have opposable thumbs.

Dolphins don't count.

define "advanced species"

Originally Posted by Beemnorv

Hedgehogs (such as Sonic the Hedgehog).

Anyway, I would assume that anything that has the prefix "Stal-" in its name would be in the same species.

I'm sure Stal is more like a "hylian" way of saying skull/undead.
I don't think they belong to the same species but the stal prefix merely marks them as skeletal/undead beings.
Stallord, Stalfos, Stalhounds, Stals (from ALttP, nothing but a jumping skull btw), Stalkin, etc. I think it's not a big leap to say that Stal means skull.

I think they are all undead/skeleton forms of whatever they were in life, and like what bitterlime said, they are all just named similarly by the prefix "Stal-".
Which means Stallord could've been some greater being, possibly a "king" or dominant creature over whatever his species was.

And, y'know, he probably terrorized villages or something and was sought after to be killed or imprisoned for it. Also, besides the opposable thumb thing, maybe he was a bit intelligent, because why would they bother locking him up in prison when they could just kill him if he was too savage and primal?
If he was an uncontrollable wild creature, wouldn't it be easier to just get rid of him instead of going through having to keep him in a huge prison that could've possibly been built just for him?
He could've had some sentience, enough to be aware that he was going to be in jail forever and possibly agree with it.

And the toxic gas or fire he breathes was most likely an effect of Zant's sword or magic, because he really didn't have any organs to allow him to do that naturally...

Am I overthinking this?

Dolphins don't count.

Why not?

Tamarins have thumbs and are less advanced than many organisms that don't. It's only (groan) a rule of thumb

Originally Posted by Mr Mander

Name one advanced species that doesn't have opposable thumbs.

Ants

I always figured that Stallord was some kind of dragon and that the "fur" was really just rotted, dusty tissue. It was probably killed by the army that would later make up the zombified soldiers surrounding Stallord, and I personally believe that the Arbiter's Grounds was built (or finished) after Stallord died.

At first I thought Stallord was Volvagia, due to the appearance of a dragon and the similar battle music. But then I thought about it and I don't think so now.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure Volvagia was female. Therefore the name StalLORD makes little sense.
Volvagia was slain in Fire Temple, which is in Death Mountain. So how did the corpse end up in the desert?
The skeletons proportions are way too large. Volvagia's skull was roughly half of Link's adult size.

I'm thinking Stallord is just an entire new monster, rather than being the undead version of a previously known type of monster. Nintendo and Miyamoto love to mess with us, so perhaps they stuck in the similar music for that purpose.

Name one advanced species that doesn't have opposable thumbs.

Had a thought- Spider Monkeys. They actively evolved OUT of an opposable thumb as it hindered their swinging in trees thus are more advanced than many thumb-ed monkeys.

Judging from how much of his body we see, he could be a horned dodongo. King dodongo had no horns so it couldn't be him, and since since he's a (stal) lord, the fur maqy be some kind of royal garb.

Originally Posted by Darkus Triforce

Judging from how much of his body we see, he could be a horned dodongo. King dodongo had no horns so it couldn't be him, and since since he's a (stal) lord, the fur maqy be some kind of royal garb.

I doubt it. Stallord was far too large to have been King Dodongo. Also, the skeletal structure was that of a long, sleek lizard/dragon. Not a hulking dinosaur type creature. As for the fur, a royal garb? I highly doubt that, since dodongos don't have organized society, therefore they wouldn't be using clothing.

Originally Posted by Average Gamer

I always figured that Stallord was some kind of dragon and that the "fur" was really just rotted, dusty tissue. It was probably killed by the army that would later make up the zombified soldiers surrounding Stallord, and I personally believe that the Arbiter's Grounds was built (or finished) after Stallord died.

Well, why would they bother putting his dead body in a prison? It's not like they knew he would reawaken years later, because of Zant's magic.

All of the "Stal" things remind me most of the creatures that inhabit(ed?) Ikana castle. And, they looked more like were-dogs. Perhaps there was once a species of dog like men that used to rule the world, but fell out of favor of the gods? Stal-lord could have been a heathen god in their pantheon.

I know it sounds fan-fictiony, but we're talking about a monster here. Not much to go off of.

there is no such thing as a hierarchy of evolutionary "advancement." The whole idea is just a biased claim that humans, particularly anglo-saxon males, are the best of all creatures on earth. Its a kind of ethnocentrism. Even when you get down to our human specialties that set us apart from other organisms, much of it is useless. Such as art, poetry, storytelling, and the rest enslaves us as much as it aids us. Every species has areas it is more "advanced in, but an entire species cannot take the spot of "most advanced" overall. That's all I'm saying. Sorry for being so picky, haha, I'm an anthropology major.

Anyway. I looked up the etymology of "stal" and think it best connects to "stale" which can be defined as "lacking freshness, palatability, or showing deterioration from age" by http://www.tfode.com/Stale. Some words that came up on the list under the definition that stood out to me were 'rotten' and 'putrid.' So, assuming there is a connection here, I'd say all these skeletal enemies are just re-deads like someone suggested above, and not related after all.

And I don't think Stallord being locked away in a dungeon necessarily means he was human-like in terms of intelligence. Maybe no one could kill him, and the peoples' best bet was to imprison him and wait for him to die on his own. I mean, he IS a giant skeletal monster that spits some horrible . Is it also possible that people who lived in the desert worshiped him as a god? His head shows up as a symbol all throughout the temple. But then again, we really don't know much about the people who lived in the desert, or anything for sure about the origins of the temple/prison, and it is highly debated by people on here, so maybe its best to avoid the subject...

As for the fur, lets not forget that these are mythical monsters created for a video game. Let's not get into another debate on the technical nomenclature of one of these imaginary things, anyone remember the Zora debate? Animals are clearly different in the Zeldaverse, and shouldn't always be held to our standards of classification. Stallord could still be some sort of dragon and still have fur in areas of his body. I think it makes him appear more horrifying to have hair hanging on to the bones...

In the end, I think we are ALL over-thinking it, but hey, what's wrong with that? As long as we don't get all angry and start attacking eachother, its all good!

I always thought he was somehow connected with Volvagia, as some theories suggest.