The standout feature of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is undoubtedly how much creative freedom it gives players. The introduction of the Ultrahand ability opened up a multitude of possibilities for players to build, fuse, and transport almost anything. While Ultrahand was designed to be used seriously as a form of progression for Tears of the Kingdom, however, the unprecedented creative liberty it offers has become something the developers likely never expected, fueling countless memes and allowing players to make some of the most hilarious, bizarre, and sometimes even cringe-worthy creations ever seen in a video game.
One of those memes has become the game’s most viral and enduring joke, as players have taken what was meant to be a fun side activity and turned it into a dark-comedy science experiment that can often leave horrible images burned into the minds of those bearing witness to it. This meme, which sees Tears of the Kingdom‘s adorable Koroks tortured in a variety of ways on account of Ultrahand’s near-unlimited power, was never the plan, despite the fact that the developers have stated they foresaw it happening. Nevertheless, it is now one of the game’s biggest jokes, and it just goes to show what happens when players are handed all the freedom in the world.

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Korok Torture Was Never the Plan, But It Became the Joke
When The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild launched and had players scouring the map for tiny Korok Seeds that could literally be anywhere, the adorable creatures quickly became a meme even then, primarily due to the overwhelming number of seeds in the world and the underwhelming reward for finding them all. Then, Tears of the Kingdom added a new layer of Korok gameplay in which players were required to reunite lost Koroks with their friends by any means possible. Nintendo likely implemented this to encourage exploration and reward curiosity, but it didn’t take long for players to rebel against that design.
Once players unlocked Ultrahand in Tears of the Kingdom, the freedom it offered them to build led them to experiment with fusing Koroks to rockets, vehicles, and chains in ways the developers probably never imagined. What began as a physics playground that fueled creative problem-solving quickly turned into a bit of an unspoken joke across the community, where the goal was no longer about helping Koroks but about coming up with the most elaborate ways to torture them. Now, that humor feels like an essential part of the game’s identity and a key reason why it is likely to be remembered for years to come.
The Meme’s Growth Shows the Power of Player-Led Gameplay
Ultimately, the Korok torture meme’s growth shows the power of player-led gameplay, which has always been the heart and soul of Tears of the Kingdom‘s Ultrahand. It was meant to give players more freedom to create their own path forward in a way that would defy linearity and boxed-in level design — an admirable goal, to say the least. However, the Korok meme exploded for that very reason. Ultrahand was designed to allow for unscripted moments in Tears of the Kingdom, and that’s exactly what the meme thrives on.
Once players unlocked Ultrahand in Tears of the Kingdom, the freedom it offered them to build led them to experiment with fusing Koroks to rockets, vehicles, and chains in ways the developers probably never imagined.
While the game asks players to be friendly to these lovable creatures who merely want to find their way back to their friends, Ultrahand all but asks them to do whatever they want. Essentially, the players wrote their own chapter into Tears of the Kingdom‘s legacy, all while showing how powerful sandbox tools in games can be at uniting a community, even if those tools are being used in ways they were never intended to be. If nothing else, it’s a reminder that the most memorable moments in a game are sometimes those that were never created by the developers but by the players themselves.