I'll be honest: after I rolled credits on The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, I assumed the biggest remaining issue in Hyrule was figuring out how many Silent Princesses I accidentally ran over with my hoverbike. But no. 😅 Somewhere in the Gerudo Desert, Riju is probably staring at a baby shower invitation and realizing that her job description is about to get extremely awkward.

Hyrule has a way of ignoring the fine print, and the Gerudo custom concerning male births is a doozy. In TOTK, Link gets help from a new set of Sages, and Riju is the Lightning Sage and Gerudo chieftain. She spends the whole game wrangling sandstorms, fending off Gibdos, and generally being more competent at 16 than I am at any age. So why should I be worried for her after the credits? Because the Gerudo rulebook is about to throw a tantrum.

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The Gerudo Are One Birth Announcement Away from a Governance Crisis

Here is the short version of Gerudo genetics: male Gerudo are rare, only one can exist at a time, and the custom says that lone boy gets to be king. Riju is a chieftain, not a queen, precisely because the throne is technically reserved for a male ruler. During Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, there hasn't been a male Gerudo in over 10,000 years. That sounds great for Riju, right? Wrong. It only worked because a certain angry boar-shaped problem was still squatting on the Gerudo bloodline.

Ask yourself: what happens when the only two Gerudo males in existence are Calamity Ganon and Ganondorf sealed under Hyrule Castle? You don't get a new baby boy, because the quota is already maxed out. But after TOTK, both of those disasters are dead. Oh, and it has been well over 100 years since the last male birth. So both conditions are finally satisfied. If I were Riju, I would be sweating through my sand boots.

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Why This Isn't Just a Birthday Party

The Gerudo have every reason to side-eye a new king. Historically, their male rulers don't exactly have a great track record of staying in their lane. Ganondorf is basically the poster child for bad bosses: power-hungry, Triforce-obsessed, and absolutely incapable of leaving Hyrule Castle alone. Even if some old stories get dismissed as myths, the Gerudo in BOTW and TOTK are famously wary of men. Link literally had to sneak into Gerudo Town in a vai outfit in Breath of the Wild, and in Tears of the Kingdom he needed special permission. So if a newborn boy gets handed the crown, are we supposed to expect confetti or a protest?

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Riju Deserves Better Than a Newborn Boss

Let's compare resumes, because apparently that's what we do now.

Candidate Experience Notes
Riju Led the Gerudo through the Upheaval, commanded troops against Gibdos, woke up as a Sage Literally saved her people 🌩️
Future male Gerudo Zero days experience, cannot hold a scimitar, probably drooling Will be king because of tradition 👶

Can you see the problem? Riju became chieftain at only 13 years old and has spent years proving herself. She has the loyalty of the Gerudo, the respect of Link, and enough lightning to ruin a Yiga's afternoon. A newborn king isn't going to negotiate with the Zora or coordinate desert defense. He's going to need a nap and a bottle.

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Could Riju Actually Lead a Rules-Change Rebellion?

Here is where I think the next story could get really interesting. Riju does not strike me as someone who will simply hand over her sand seal just because a baby boy turns up. She might push to change the law, declare herself queen, or inspire a very justified rebellion. And honestly, would the Gerudo stop her? They watched Ganondorf cause the Upheaval. They saw Riju fight through it. The people who were stationed in Gerudo Town didn't hesitate to follow her orders when Gibdos attacked. If Riju says, 'Hey, maybe we don't automatically crown a person with zero qualifications,' I think most of the Gerudo would say, 'Yes, chief. I mean, yes, queen.'

Of course, the alternative is that the next male Gerudo turns out to be completely gentle, obsessed with sand seal plushies, and totally uninterested in ruling. That would be adorable. But honestly, after thousands of years with no king and one spectacular female leader, why tempt fate? The Gerudo have built something stable. Tossing it all aside for a tradition that produced Ganondorf feels like a recipe for a disaster that not even Link can fix with a well-timed shield parry.

So yes, I'm thinking way too hard about a video game. But in 2026, long after the credits of Tears of the Kingdom, I still find myself wondering about the poor kid who is about to be born into a political crisis. The real monsters in Hyrule were never the Lynels. They were the Gerudo inheritance laws.