The Hero

“Fool. Of course I can’t be slain. Ganondorf is eternal and forever.”

What he doesn’t want to tell you is that story that so many have parroted for ages is an absolute lie. The more people who believe he’s invincible aside from the Master Sword, the fewer resistances he has to put up with.

However, as the Hero of Time and the Hero of Twilight have shown us, Ganondorf’s body is absolutely not invincible to conventional means. He cannot be killed by any flesh wound, true, but his body can be destroyed with sufficient force.

Disembowel him, rip out his heart? You’ll just piss him off.Tie him down and drop a mountain on him? Yeeaaah, he’s gonna get crunched.

If I may add a slight counter/balance point to this? Arguable BotW spoilers ahead.

Honestly, I think that BotW’s Ganon works better when you consider what Ganon has gone through as a soul and a person.

If you keep in context this thought and the context of where Breath of the Wild potentially takes place in any of the timelines–a minimum of ten thousand years after any of the last titles in their established timelines, probably longer since the Sheikah would need time to become prominent and construct the towers, guardians, divine beasts, etc., you do kind of need to think of what that will do to a psyche of a spirit, even one as cunning and intellectual as Ganon. Thousands of years of being defeated, resurrected, defeated, reincarnated, defeated, again and again, it’d quite literally be hell on earth for him.

in my personal opinion, as someone that’s played with the idea of an insane character or two, that’s literally what Calamity Ganon is–the shattered fragments of Ganon’s psyche taking the form of pure hatred, fittingly called “Malice.” There are signs of intellect there, however, as Ganon outsmarts the Hylians of 100 years prior and is one step ahead. But then the fact that the Hero he swears he killed is back, and he’s beaten the first form he’d been hibernating in for 100 years in, he’s now backed into a corner. And you’ll never know what a cornered beast might do.

And BotW’s Beast Ganon is literally that–a cornered beast. Ganon has been pushed over the brink of sanity one final time, and his back is against the wall. In a last ditch effort to slay the hero that’s plagued him for eons, he takes a form both familiar and primal in its fury. He’s done. He’s had it with the curse, he’s had it with the cycle, he is literally a beast of pure hatred and rage at this point, having been tortured by Demise’s curse for millennia. The formation into the great boar many not have even been by his design, but by a subconscious feeling of familiarity for the Malice to take that shape. It’s not Ganon’s intellect, cunning, and evil being given a true form like the blue pig Ganons, it’s his anger and rage.

My point is that BotW at least has an excuse if you consider the context and potential implications of the storyline. Twilight Princess, not so much, because it’s a design choice that kind of just clashes a bit with the lore. Is it stupid that Ganon is getting played second fiddle to Ganondorf these days, and being shown off as a dumb beast? Yeah, kinda. But BotW’s makes sense, in my opinion.

Oh no, I’m not arguing BotW’s Ganon is wrong for the setting, because that Ganon is, as you’ve expressed, a pure manifestation of Ganon as a concept, not an individual. It is the world-destroying force beyond any singular incarnation. It’s not Demise, it’s not Ganondorf, it’s technically not even Ganon himself, it’s the very force that they are born of given shape.

I know I didn’t reblog the unpopular opinion meme, but I’m giving one. This is something that’s been on my mind for several years regarding the Zelda series, and with BotW, I feel I should speak out on this.

This form, right here, is the worst thing to ever happen to the Demon King Ganon.

Let me explain.

This is what Ganon is meant to be. Albeit a touch Yuga-possessed. No, I don’t mean the blue pig-man strictly, not “they changed it so it sucks” because OoT’s was fine, I mean what he really is. Ganon is a almighty demon warlock, driven by an unbridled and unlimited hatred, mercilessly brutal in how he operates – but he is absolutely not mindless. In fact, he is devilishly clever and underhanded. His cleverness is often regarded perhaps the most dangerous thing about him.

His being a boar is not secondary, it is his “true self”. It is the emergence of his heart’s true shape brought about through the broken power of the Triforce.

Why does this make the Twilight Princess form a problem? Well, on paper, it doesn’t. However, in hindsight coupled with the circumstances of the time, it was a really bad move.

The “Dark Beast” form is understandable within the game and considering nothing else. The design and purpose is clear: portray Ganon as an evil mirror to Wolf Link. I get that, I do. And because Wolf Link was the game’s gimmick, the Wolf Link fight couldn’t be the final phase, thus nor could Ganon. 

However, the effect of this incarnation of Ganon wasn’t restricted to this entry like it should have been. With the coming Smash Bros, this was the Ganondorf used, and this was the Ganon used for his Final Smash. Okay – 2008 title, TP was the most recent, that’s fair. However, the game before this was Wind Waker, and Wind Waker had no showing of Ganon either. Within that game, the reason was that Ganondorf was a shell of his former self, like the King of Hyrule, pitiably clinging to old ambitions and glory. However, this meant we hadn’t seen a real Ganon since the N64.

Now, with Breath of the Wild, a true Ganondorf did not make an appearance as you might expect – however, when the true form of Ganon emerged, it…was just a boar again. It reinforced the precedent you see everywhere; Ganon is treated as secondary to Ganondorf because an entire generation of gamers only have exposure to Ganon as a secondary form, a dumb animal. This coupled with the Twilight Princess setting becoming the perfect “middle ground” Zelda setting to use for anything makes this appear as what should be the case.

For those of us who grew up in the SNES days and knew the villain before Ocarina hit the big time, we know that should not be the case. Ganondorf was introduced for the sake of becoming Ganon. It tied into the origin story ALttP provided.

This is why I feel the Hyrule Warriors Ganon is absolutely perfect.

They updated his classic look but did so in such a way it blended wonderfully with modern conventions. Blue pig-man? Check. But they gave him Ganondorf’s fiery mane, gave him an upright, apelike stance coupled with several of Ganondorfs garments to visually indicate intelligence. They gave him back his epic trident, the Trident of Power that we only saw hint of last in a main title with Ganon’s three-pronged swords in OoT, his signature weapon.

Not to mention, the way they gave him “gear”. By implementing the Giant Bosses’ powers in the form of grotestque semi-transformations, they not only reintroduced Ganon as he is meant to be, but they did so in a way that heavily emphasizes the “demon” aspect made far more important since Skyward Sword.

Here’s the new locations, corresponding to the tags I’ve used for them as their urls! Be sure to follow these subblogs if you’d want to interact with Zelda and Ganondorf!

bladeofcourage – Link, the Hero (Currently Here!) crownofwisdom – Zelda, Queen of Hyrule fistofpower – Ganondorf, The Demon King

Here’s the new locations, corresponding to the tags I’ve used for them as their urls! Be sure to follow these subblogs if you’d want to interact with Zelda and Ganondorf!

bladeofcourage – Link, the Hero (Currently Here!) crownofwisdom – Zelda, Queen of Hyrule fistofpower – Ganondorf, The Demon King