![]() Fighting on the summit of Ganon's Tower as the Great Sea is washing away Hyrule all around you, as Ganon descends into barely restrained insanity, we see his fearsome strength come forth at last. Finally, there is the monument to atmosphere that is the final fight with Ganon in The Wind Waker.Because yes, he's physically intimidating, yes he's a master strategist, but more than any of that, he is at least somewhat in the right. ![]() It works wonderfully to humanize Ganon, and to give him a moral standing- and more than anything else, that is what makes him such a frightening and fearful villain in The Wind Waker. He's calmer, more composed, and he has had more chance to reflect on things, especially since he now knows the very gods are set against him, even while trapping him in his perennial role as the seeker of the Triforce of Power. He recognizes his arrogance was his downfall. He has understood his brashness and rashness from earlier days. All of this actually works wonderfully within the larger mythos of the series- The Wind Waker takes place in a timeline where he was already beaten once by the Hero of Time. Ganondorf ultimately finally breaks when the King of Hyrule steals the Triforce from him at the last minute, finally descending into insanity. Within the game, he goes out of his way to not hurt Link or Zelda- he outright tells Link he doesn't want to hurt him, he just needs the Triforce in him so he can fully restore Hyrule. He reveals his original motivation for attempting to conquer Hyrule was to get his Gerudo people out of the harsh desert and into the lush and fertile fields of Hyrule. Ganondorf truly feels betrayed and abandoned by the gods who forsook Hyrule, and he wants to restore it. While the game tells us he is a bad guy, and the series' mythos tell us he is a bad guy, Ganondorf's own motivations and actions in Wind Waker don't necessarily come across as outright evil- at worst morally ambiguous. Ganondorf in The Wind Waker is sympathetic.A very important thing about this design is also that it retains and even emphasizes his humanoid form and features, which ties right into. One look at him very clearly pegs him as the antagonist, but also as a physical threat, especially juxtaposed next to the diminutive Link and Zelda, who are the characters who go against him. To start with, the design is fantastic.While Ganondorf totally fits into the more stylized and whimsical aesthetic of The Wind Waker, he also looks imposing and intimidating.There's a lot about him to break down, so I'm going to do my thing, and make this manageable by breaking it down into bullets: In my opinion, he remains the single best incarnation of the character ever, the single best character the Zelda series has ever had, and also Nintendo's best work of characterization to date. And a major, major part of that has to do with this guy: Ganondorf Dragmire, now mostly just known as Ganon. Wind Waker is one of my favorite games of all time, and probably the only Zelda game where I would cite the story and characters to comprise a major part of why I love it so much.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |