I think what annoys me whenever people bring up that Wind Waker Ganondorf must have been lying during his "My country laid in a vast desert" speech is that they often argue against what other fans have extrapolated from his speech and not against what he actually said. My country lay within a vast desert. When the sun rose into the sky, a burning wind punished my lands, searing the world. And when the moon climbed into the dark of night, a frigid gale pierced our homes. No matter when it came, the wind carried the same thing... Death. But the winds that blew across the green fields of Hyrule brought something other than suffering and ruin. I coveted that wind, I suppose.
Ganondorf is clearly talking about himself. He never mentions that coveting the winds of Hyrule was the will of his people, nor does he mention that saving his people and bringing them into Hyrule was what he desired. He was unhappy with his lot in life, and desired something that was better and pursued it. I'm not sure why people look at this and go "yep, he's just lying". "But the Gerudo desert in OoT looks fine to me" Okay, here me out here. Right on the border of the Gerudo fortress you literally have the "Desert Wasteland" which have howling winds that make it impossible to navigate without the lens of truth or any visual assistance. Is it really impossible to believe that those winds never reached the Gerudo Fortress? Additionally, when we think of the wilds era, the notable feature of the Gerudo desert is that it gets so cold at night and so hot in the day that it is impossible to navigate without specialized clothing. It isn't impossible to live there, but it is a lot more difficult to live there than in Hyrule where the weather is so mild that you can run around in your underwear at all times and be perfectly fine. Food for thought.
