I realy have to get this off my chest, because of how much of a pet peeve it is for me.

So, we know Wind Waker has a lot of unused concept art of islands and races, thanks too Hyrule Historia.

You can find some art here.

Okay. So we know there are ideas in WW that didn't make it into the finale game.

We also know that at one point in development, the team had to cut two dungeons, due to the game being Christmas rushed.

Both of these points combined have lead to one of the biggest misconception regarding the making of a Zelda game...

The misconception

When discussing the two cut dungeons, the most common theories are 1. Fire Island and Ice Ring Isle. 2. A third goddess pearl dungeon and a Third Sage.

Regarding theory 2. Most people say the Third Sage was Aryll, which I can get behind. However there are others that say (and I'm not quoting anyone in particular) something like this...

Greatfish Isle was meant to be a an intact place with NPCs on it, and there would be a character, similar to Medli and Makar, that Link would help and get the third Goddess Pearl. This person would then be the third sage.

But then they ended up on a deadline, to get it out, so they just decided to have Greatfish Isle be destroyed, and get rid of this Third sage character, and all the NPCs

Yadda yadda yadda.... Blah blah blah....

No. Just no.

Yes. There were cut dungeons. Yes. Nintendo ended up on a deadline, meaning the game got Christmas rushed.

However. This happened LATE in development. Meaning, the intact Greatfish Isle and all it's inhabitants would have been modelled with everyone else by then. It's doubtful they would nuke and entire island and all it's people, just to get rid of a couple of dungeons.

And if your still not convinced, consider this....

Link and KoRL finding out Greatfish Isle was destroyed leads to a quest where Link has to go to Windfall Island, spy on the pirates, resulting in Tetra finding out he's alive. He then goes back home to Outset Island and discovers his Grandma is sick.

All this is WAY too perfectly scripted to be added last minute. And if it was, how would Tetra have found out Link was alive? I doubt the creators would have added the subplot of Tetra finding out about Links fate as a result of a deadline.