A theory some people have is that Calamity Ganon is the culmination of the buildup of Malice from Ganondorf’s mummy body as seen in TOTK over the 10k years. This would make Calamity Ganon essentially a mega phantom Ganon of sorts.
It’s not much of a theory, that’s literally what it is. Ganondorf’s hatred is boundless that it turned into a physical force. Why else would it happen in a 10000 year time frame if not a build up? His hate spills out once it overflows
Japanese version pretty much states it's a phantom, which the fact a phantom was strong enough to do all this and now we got the man himself? Ooohhhhh boy
I like the idea that Zelda's cage over Ganon collapses just as Link arrives not just because "its time", but because Ganon's rage upon sensing Link's arrival is the power surge he needed to break free: if Link does not go to confront Ganon then Zelda's cage would hold.
Game play wise it makes sense there's no need to burden players of a open world game with a time limit lore wise yes link arrival did give him a power boost to break free bur also he was building his power and was on the verge of breaking free just imagine a scenario where links just exploring not ready Dicking around and Ganon broke free.
@@heroofmasks that sounds like some banger ideas for like super-ultra-nightmare difficulty😂 the game just has a random timer after which ganon gets unleashed and the map becomes like Dragon Dogmas post game.
I believe, in the compendium, it says that Ganon was building himself a new body, but when Link arrived, he was forced to come out in an incomplete form of cobbled together shiekah tech glued with malice in order to defend himself. I believe, at some point, ganon had already reached a point where he could exit if he really tried. I just think that he realized that he could just bide his time and get stronger. If he could wait 10,000 years, then what's another 100?
When you realize that Calamity Ganon, the thing that destroyed Hyrule and dominated the greatest technology ever developed by the Sheikah was essentially just Ganondorf projecting his mood out as a ghost while he was asleep.
Well, spoiler, looks like sheikah tech was basically reverse engineered zonai tech. And since the royal family shares blood ties with zonai, it explains why they banned it.
i really like how ganondorf in ocarina, twilight, and windwaker are all the same character, just each at different stages in life and with different experiences. twilight princess's ganondorf is similar to the one from ocarina of time, because in the child timeline he never had a chance to take over, he was stopped before he started, he was bitter, very brash. hes contrasted very well by windwaker's ganondorf who, in the adult timeline, did take over, for 7 years he ruled hyrule, until he was humbled, defeated, and sealed away. he had time to reflect, to mature, until he broke out and the gods flooded the land due to there not being a hero, cause he went back in time to live his life as a child.
The funny thing is, in all of the zelda timeline before botw, there was only two of him. Aside from Four swords adventures, it was always the same ganon
I was always sad Wind Waker Gannondorf didnt get more screen time. Hes such an intresting character with how he was clinging to the past. It almost made me wish he succeeded. Especially because he didnt seem particularly... Evil? I mean yes kidnapping children with a giant murder chicken is evil but his intent was never to kill Link or Zelda, he even said so. Only to bring Hyrule back to the surface so he could rule, which might have been different then the first time, as everything about him seemed to change, not just his personality but his fighting stlye, his mannerism... would have been a cool final battle on risen Hyrule
To add on about your analysis on calamity ganon himself, in the book Creating A Champion, it says that ganon formed that body the moment he knew Link awoken. That body was rushed, imagine if he prepared himself physically for 100 years.
It also states that in the description of Ganon when you take his photo as well. The explanation of Ganon waiting is explained in the game. He was rushing building a body to confront Link.
24:49 It's called dramatic irony. The PLAYER knows Ganon's life story. But none of the characters have a clue that he was a living man before he became a demon. Even the Gerudo think IT disguised ITSELF as one of them, rather than it being a Gerudo who was possessed by Demise's evil. Even when Ganondorf rampage is briefly mentioned in Zora's domain, it's simply "an evil man once tried to conquer Hyrule", not has a clue they're the same entity.
@@acrazyweeb7225 There must have been: A Gerudo male has been born everyone 100 years. They can't all be evil Ganondorfs even if they were all named "Ganondorf."
@@acrazyweeb7225 I'd love it if the Gerudo came back in the next game and for the first time in the series had a male ruler that wasn't Ganondorf and actually had their best interest at heart.
I recommend looking through the japanese versions of the dialogue, because, as usual, there are some pretty big discrpencies between translations that really change the context. For instance, the line "He has given up on reincarnation" actually came from a phrase that more closely translates to "he has refused to give up on revival."
So, it may be a mistranslation, but it's not entirely inaccurate. Ganon was trying this whole time to build himself a cyborg body, but once Link destroyed it, he (literally) went ham.
I believe the mistranslation has also resulted in a misunderstanding too, as many believe ganon have up his cycle of reincarnation where it more likely meant he gave up on reincarnating this specific body to go full ham
Wouldn't really call it a mistranslation as Reincarnation and Revival are two different things and both statements are technically true to Ganondorf, he's given up on Reincarnation as noted that no other male gerudo has ever appeared cause he's just a lich mummy thing underground never truly dead and constantly bringing the calamity and wanting to "revive" his body
@@Rageouz it's not that he's givin up of reincarnation he just can't the hand holding his body down its keeping him barely alive probably to stop him from reincarnting. Although with good intentions they probably didn't know that the outcome would be calamity Ganon appearing mainly from the wound in his chest.
Malice is such a useful weapon. Possession of technology and flesh. Forming waves of enemies. Revives the dead. Communicates back to host. Is ever present in the world, even if Ganon/Ganondorf are not. Powers up others.
I think the flesh part was only in Age of Calamity. Otherwise he would have been able to possess and Corrupt Zelda as she tried to seal him away within him in BOTW. Seeing how moblins are just another extension of Ganon, their malice forms are likely just the next evolution. Malice was a lot like a parasite that eats away at whatever it is possessing.
At best, it can be read as “he is giving up [on this attempt at] reincarnation”, meaning he is not longer attempting to grow a physical form. What remains is a spiritual form that is unstable and will last just long enough to crush the Hero and the Princess.
Or that he's giving up on reincarnating Calamity Ganon so he can be strong enough to take down Link and Zelda. After his defeat, Ganondorf will be reawakened at a certain time. That's what I think anyway.
@@sethmiles9436 I mean, it happens more than you would expect.... A lot of Elden Ring is mistranslated in that kind of way. Like, both Ranni, and Goldmask's endings sound bad in English, but when properly translated, they're the best outcomes for that game's world. And there are many, MANY more mistranslations in other games....
calamity Ganon is essentially the largest phantom Ganon we've ever faced that not only has gained immense power but also advanced intelligence thanks to the Sheikah tech and the vast amount of time it's been accumulating under the castle. Since we're lead to believe that it's operating independently of Ganondorf it puts on display just how dangerous malice is
Until mummy Ganondorf was revealed, I always thought that a bunch of botched resurrections, forced reincarnations, and monster transformations had just degraded The Calamity into a force of nature. Now he's just a glorified Puppet Ganon.
To clarify the "Ganon has given up on reincarnation" line is actually a massive mistranslation. The Japanese text suggests pretty much the exact opposite and lines up almost exactly with your theory. Calamity Ganon assumes this form because his stubborn refusal to give up on Reincarnation has cause his body to mutate into this creature of pure malice. Malice and Hatred Incarnate.
I wouldn't say Calamity Ganon is the same as the Old One, since the TOTK trialer shows us that Ganon has been mummified & locked away beneath Hyrule, all this time. His humanid og form, wasn't gone, but sealed for all this time. That changes the context of his character, or seemingly lack there of one. His spirit is literally being torutured, trying to break himself free both phyiscally & spiritually.
I think the reason the writers jumped the gun on revealing the nature of Calamity Ganon was because of how easy it would be for players to figure out the connection. Calamity Ganon takes the form of a demonic boar. In previous Zelda titles Ganondorf often transforms into a demonic pig or boar. So a Demonic Boar creature hellbent on destroying Hyrule, who does that sound like...
As BOTW was also my first introduction to Zelda, I don't think a mystery to who the antagonist would have been as fun for me. It presented a pretty compelling call to action for me knowing what I was up against.
@@Nichrysalis You know I didn't think of that point of view. I've been a fan of the series since I played Ocarina of Time and Majora's mask on the N64, when I was a toddler. Considering BOTW is a reboot of the series, it is a shame they didn't keep the name of the big a secret till the end. It still would be easy for long time fans like myself to guess the Beast's true identity, but for new fans I can see why that would be disappointing now.
something i dont think people mention enough is that there has only been one ganondorf, at least that we see on screen. throughout his appearances (other than TOTK of course) we can track this one dude. he gets started in ocarina of time, and is then either A) imprisoned and released in twilight princess B) imprisoned and released in windwaker or C) turns into ganon and wreaks havoc throughout the fallen hero timeline, getting resurected a stupid amount of times, until finally he dies and is replaced by another gerudo king we don't even see. for most of the timeline he's just one dude, living for hundreds of years and watching everything he knows disappear slowly, normally from behind a seal. hes seen a lot.
Actually there is one other gannon in four swords adventures, so there two unless gannon in totk is different than the oot gannon. But there are other reincarnations of demise, such as vati, that nightmare squid thing, and potentially the demon king in spirit tracks, but he could just be another demon king and have nothing to do with demise’s curse
@@RaiJolt2 i don't think vati is a reincarnation of demise, since he is alive and still sealed in all timelines other than four swords adventure and you can't really reincarnate if you're not dead. also the second gerudo king we dont see that i mentioned was that one from four swords, i just forgot what game it was in.
@@WarningStrangerDangerwell to be fair, he was sealed away deep in the castle. What link fought was probably his hatred/malice pouring out of his body from years of being sealed away.
@@kyps1259 I’m not finished with the game yet, so I am hoping that some of the stuff I’ve seen with the story will be explained or expanded upon. Edit: now that I finished, I am really curious how Ganondorf’s lore works now. He was in first generation Hyrule but was also in oot where he didn’t seem to be known and wasn’t imprisoned. It’s gotta be a timeline thing or something because there should only be one Ganondorf as a dude. He doesn’t have the same reincarnation as Link or Zelda he is just one incarnation of Demise’s hatred.
I think the symbolism of a boar fits Ganon as emblematic of relentless violence rather than filth. Boars especially are characterised by their reckless disregard for injury coupled with their raw strength and endurance. Fitting for a being obsessed with seizing power through violence, heedless of how many failures it suffers over and over again. Ganon as the curse of Demise recklessly charges his foe time after time after time with no success and yet undaunted. The boar never quits, never stops trying.
Something to take note of is that the adjacent timeline of "Age Of Calamity" brought forward by Terrako's time travel as seen from a different angle of the final BOTW memory shows us what Calamity Ganon would've looked like if Zelda's powers hadn't kept him in stasis for 100 years: a much more humanoid form with hog elements across his body, and a body/facial structure that looks much more like the classic Ganondorf that we are all used to.
One thing that's always frightened me about Calamity Ganon in Breath of the Wild is that it's not actually Ganondorf himself, it's the destructive embodiment of all the hate, failure and suffering that every iteration of Ganon has endured since the creation of Demise's curse. This... THING singlehandedly brought the destruction of Hyrule as a Kingdom along with all of it's chosen champions and it wasn't even Ganondorf's true form.
Yeah this guy wants Ganon to be conflicted which is a horrible take imo because Ganon is pure evil just like Demise, Windwaker fans want Zelda villains to be soft.
With ToTK Calamity Ganon seems like a projection of Ganondorf who couldn't fully escape his underground actual being, and the fact that it's still this powerful really speaks to how strong the real deal is in the sequel!
He takes the form of a boar because a boar (and suids in general) have a connotation of being ravenous devourers, a symbol of gluttony, because Ganon is a glutton for power.
I find that while yes I do agree with you keeping the calamity’s identity a secret would be much more intriguing and interesting the fact that the name Ganon has become synonymous with ruination is very cool.
Love me some Zelda. Please do a video on "Dark Charisma" for Senator Armstrong from MetalGear Rising. Man is so charismatic he has people agreeing with him even though we wouldn't if someone else said the same thing.
Zelda: Does not reincarnate, her connection is her bloodline. Demise: Does not reincarnate, his connection is his hate was the curse catalysis, it the demon tribe itself that's kind of attracted to link and Zelda. Link: Does reincarnate, his connection is the spirit of the hero which is not directly inherited. Ganondorf: Does seem to reincarnate sometimes and not others. His connection is that he seems to have co-opted sand transplanted himself into the curse out of his shear hatred of Link and Zelda.
Ganondorf does not reincarnate. He is either reawakened or resurrected. The only exception is Four Swords Adventures but that game is weird,it uses Wind Wakers art style in A Link to the Past's Hyrule while taking place after Twilight Princess.
I am curious though about the Hero’s Shade since it’s basically the spirit of a previous Link meeting the current one. Doesn’t that defy the reincarnation process or no?
@@acgearsandarms1343 not necessarily. With reincarnation people can visit and communicate with past lives through various practices depending on the mythos. It is a pretty common understanding of reincarnation. It only becomes a problem if they both are alive at the same time. The only way for two of the same spirit to exist in the physical world at the same time is with time travel. In the spirit world it is timeless so that's why multiple identities of the same spirit can exist at all times. It's a very fascinating mythos honestly, and Zelda follows it thoroughly. That's also how we know Zelda doesn't reincarnate, other than proper translations we've also had multiple Zelda's existing at the same time with the same destiny, no time travel involved. We don't see multiple Links at the same time, not even a mention of a parent, a dead ancestor yes, but not a parent. Ganon is the only odd ball with four swords adventures.
@@GuyIllusion Thanks for explaining. I suppose my understanding of soul and spirit defines how I see the curse works. So far it’s only ever been the first Zelda that was the reincarnation of Hylia as an example. Just of her bloodline which is defined in the curse by Demise himself. So for Link, I understand it’s usually a Link that’s not directly related between the incarnations, just confused when there’s a situation like with the Shade due to the nature of the curse.
@@acgearsandarms1343 No. All Link’s are the incarnation of the Hero, but they are all different people. Let’s use an example. Do you know who Ghost Rider is? He is a Marvel Hero. Basically, Ghost Rider = Spirit of Vengeance + Human. Any human can be Ghost Rider if they possess the Spirit of Vengeance. But the human side is not the same person each time. Links are similar. They are Human + Spirit of the Hero. The Human part is not the same, but the Spirit of the Hero never changes. Though, for some reason, he is always called Link. Actually, I have the perfect example. It’s from Naruto. Sasuke is the reincarnation of Indra. Madara is also the reincarnation of Indra. But Madara was resurrected while Sasuke was alive. How is it possible? Because Madara is not Sasuke. They are two different people who just so happened to possess the Spirit of Indra.
Wouldn't it be a sweet twist, that the royal family knew of Ganons' imprisonment, but, lacking a way to truly kill him, teamed up with the Zonai, and sealed him away. And in order to keep the public calm, the royal family told a royal lie, and Zelda discovers it, in TotK. What a nugget of potential character development that would be.
I truly think they decided to go with a human form of Ganon again, because of Wind Waker's Ganon. He was somewhat melancholy and sympathetic, not exactly the pure form of evil that Demise was. You understood his motivations. Think about it from Ganon's perspective - to spend thousands of years reincarnating, because Demise's curse - a curse Ganon was chosen to be part of (probably unknowingly, against his will). How is his evil not easily mistaken for rage? How could you simply dismiss him as just an empty villain, when it's obvious his part in all this is always for him to die? He must realize this at some point in the timeline. Surely the game developers want to take some time with that story, as his design is very reminiscent to Wind Wakers - as opposed to Ocarina or Twilight. The best villains are those you sympathize with and Calamity Ganon - though being great, is still just an empty shell.
I like Zeltic's idea of this Ganondorf being a Litch. Absorbing the souls of the Zoni, or at least most of them, to seal and preserve his body, soul and mind whilst allowing him to gather, store and release power in the form of Calamity Ganon. It makes a lot of sense. The only thing is that he must have been resurrected and enough time must have passed for the three timelines to effectively unify. So enough time must have passed for the thousands of years of time in each timeline must be insignificant in scale relative to the time before BoTW. So I wouldn't be surprised if this Ganon was 100,000 years old. There are ruins which should have eroded in that time though. It's appropriate that Hylia is the Godess of time. The whole timeline like one full turn of a clock. A failed hero who ultimately succeeded, a demon king victorious but ultimately defeated and sky islands over a devastated Hyrule.
Man, you did a good job showing how creepy BOTW is! Gives me chills! Just creepy how you can have hope and confidence in something and then for it to blow up in your face.
I liked the way you brouht up that Calamity Ganon is the first ganon to really embrace the reincarnation cycle. Individual games are fun, but addressing that more would definitely be interesting
Personally my theory for the connection between Calamity Ganon and Ganondorf in TOTK is that in the distant past, some ancient civilization, possibly another iteration of Hyrule or the Zonai (who seem to be influential in this game in some form from their stuff popping up), split Ganondorf and Ganon into two entities. This has been a thing in the series for awhile where Ganondorf is the person aspect of the ultimate evil while Ganon is a more purely monstrous raw form of them. They were still connected and this ancient civ sealed Ganondorf but could not contain Ganon himself who would transform into Calamity Ganon now that he was not bound within a humanoid form at least until he was defeated by that era’s Link and Zelda. Now that we’ve destroyed Calamity Ganon, he perhaps returned to his dead humanoid form and has revived him.
Even for me, just seeing the original Ganon trailer for totk, my impression was "oh shit, Calamity Ganon was a small leak of Ganon's true power. Calamity Ganon was also a Phantom Ganon, and he took out Hyrule for 100 years."
Is it weird to say Ganondorf is my favourite LoZ character? I find his story pretty interesting and often at times felt pity for him. Had his circumstances been just a bit different, he could have been one of Hyrules greatest rulers and even a hero, leading his race to an age of prosperity. .... Also i will say Rehydrated Ganondorf is my favourite design of him :3
@@JackSilverGamingOcean Narcissistic is interesting but i doubt ganon cares about helping other people much. And many heroes explicitly grow out of narcissism, that's always their arc
@@havewissmart9602 True but not all the time. Think of things like the Warioland games. Wario does act as a hero and help others but is always vain and greedy. That's just one example from the top of my head. :)
If I recall correctly, the whole "Given up on reincarnation" line is supposed to refer to Calamity Ganon's desire to create a proper body for its current incarnation. The prior form looks like an unfinished cyborg creature because its body weren't fully formed yet. In other words, Calamity Ganon gives up on reincarnation because it was still in the process of reincarnating when we defeated it. It didn't stop the cycle, it just put a premature end to this current form. Edit: I checked the Creating a Champion source book, and this is indeed the case. Its primary motivation in BotW was reincarnation above all else.
I have a suggestion for the next deconstruction: Kreia/Darth Traya of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2. You do such great work with these breakdowns, and Kreia is such a fascinating deuteragonist.
I would suggest that part of the reason Ganon has such a form is because he HASN'T died as often as Zelda and Link. Many times he gets sealed away, stewing in his anger and hate for hundreds if not thousands of years. Rather than being given a clean slate at reincarnation, he keeps waking up/ escaping bitter from his previous defeat. Like how much more difficult it is to clean a car if you wash it once a year rather than once a month.
Wind Waker Ganondorf was also jealous, he envied the fact that his people lived in the Desert and had almost nothing, while Hyrule existed in a lush relative paradise and its people had everything they could ask for. Something I like about every Ganondorf is that they don't overtly invalidate the existence of the others. OoT may have been a trickster and trying to seize power, but his motivations aren't really fleshed out meaning he could feel the way WW Ganondorf does. And Twilight Princess being a consequence of actions in Ocarina of Time doesn't have to be true but doesn't really conflict either. Even him leading a war in the prologue to Link to the Past doesn't interfere with any other instance. Them all being able to overlap is what makes me so excited for Tears of the Kingdom's representation
Watching this with Tears of the Kingdom so close to release, I can't help but remember when I first beat BOTW. My first playthrough I stuck to getting the Master Sword, then freeing the divine beasts then smashing Ganon. Second was when I did everything except the Koroks. I just had no desire to keep pushing on that one. But I remember very specifically the first time I beat Calamity and Dark Beast Ganon. My reaction was "That was it?" I was really confused. My confusion only intensified when I watched others beat Ganon with just plain old weapons. The Master Sword wasn't necessary. Hell, Link was only necessary in so much as he could fight Ganon well enough to let Zelda deal the finishing blow. Beating Ganon as a team effort is nothing new, but this was much more pronounced. Paired with how easily Ganon went down, I began to suspect that something was up. That there was something more to this situation than we could see. And when the first trailer released and I saw dehydrated Ganondorf bent backward in agony, Malice pouring out of him, I knew I was right in suspecting that something else was going on behind the scenes. I cannot wait to see what TOTK holds for us.
I had a similar experience, I prioritized Divine Beasts, memories, and the Master Sword then yeeted Ganon only to be met with similar confusion at how easy it was to destroy it
I absolutely love how Breath of the Wild had set such a high bar for you that you've had such wonder and eagerness for Tears of the Kingdom. Only to find and realize that not only is the new Ganon is boring and stuck in a basement, but also the four divine mecha were ignored and the writers had just had to do time shenanigans to even make it somewhat coherent.
Dont forget the reason as to why Gannon is so distorted: unlike Zelda and Link who are reborn anew each new conflict devoid of mempries of past turmoils, Taking on each fight refreshed. Gannon remembers, He references his past conflicts and defeats
On a personal note, I really like this kind of story that deals with cosmic cycles that have been going on forever. Stories where the main conflict is a charade, and the actual struggle is against the cycle itself; how can the characters trapped in it manage to break out of it?
I find it interesting how little Zelda subverts the charade. Most stories dealing with cycles of evil and good have the charade resolved in the second act and the cycle healed in the third act, but in the Zelda series everyone's already resigned themselves to the charade.
Literally me, and now that age of calamity exists the cycle will continue to persist on ANOTHER timeline. It's almost as if it will never end, it's impossible to break, Demise made a promise and proceeds to keep it.
I don't think hylians remember enough to realise how long the cycle is. There is no way cycle will ever get broken ( since Zelda continues to make money and these characters are icons)
Considering that if you go straight to Ganon without doing the divine beasts, you end up having to fight the blights in the castle, I'd argue that they are a part of him.
all this power and unbound evil and it's JUST a phantom, made from a dilute and impure form of Ganondorf's gloom One of many experimental puppets for a greater devil lurking far below the castle
I agree with basically everything except the mystery of Calamity Ganon part. I can agree on the fact that maybe they shouldn't have revealed everything in the first cutscene, but having a mystery of who this dark figure is, only for it to be revealed as Ganon again like halfway through the story would have been kinda disappointing. Like wow, the big bad of the game was actually...the big bad of the entire series again. It's the same gripe i have of Twilight Princess' story: you get so far into the story with Zant as a great villain, but at the end suprise, it was Ganondorf again. I would have loved to either have just Zant, or just Ganondorf introduced earlier. Imagine if in a Mario spin-off game there was this mysterious evil cloud looming in the sky causing havock in the Mushroom Kingdom, Peach and everyone else is trying to analyze it and when you finally reach it you discover it was just...Bowser's new machine or something.
It's interesting, that just above where Calamity Ganon is resting in his little cocoon, you can see that there's some kind of piping interwoven all around. You can go there without fighting him, and get a close look at it- and it seems very, very similar to the piping present at the Shrine of Resurrection, that revived Link. This is also, I suspect, related to what Zelda means when she she says that Calamity Ganon has 'given up on reincarnation.' It's not that Ganon doesn't care about reviving anymore- it's that he's trying to recreate himself. That it's been SO long since he lost his human form and became an otherworldly, malevolent entity, that he needs to work to recreate a body of his own. That cocoon he bursts out of wasn't made by Zelda to contain him; it was essentially a womb where he was creating his new """human""" body. Repurposing Shiekah Tech, to try to fashion the Malice that he's made of into a form that resembles the one he remembers having once upon a time, augmented with tech and weaponry. Calamity Ganon is an entity that no longer remembers quite what it was like to be human- but is trying very, very hard. Until you battle him, and he gives up and simply assumes what has become his base state- raw, unfettered, monstrous power. ....Of course, now that TOTK is out, it can safely be said that NONE of that is true.... but ehn. It's still fun to share my theories from when BOTW was all there was to go off of. And who knows, maybe even though this is an entirely new Ganondorf, the spirit and Malice inside him that leaked out every 10,000 years he was sealed in the form of Calamity Ganon, WAS the spirit of Demise and the soul at the heart of all Ganondorfs- seeing as how this Ganondorf seems to have no memory of Calamity Ganon's exploits, implying that it was a consciousness and intelligence entirely seperate from his own, that still seeped out from him while he was sealed.
My theory is, Calamity Ganon is basically the ego of Ganondorf, empowered by years of pain and anger, and the "Ganondorf" we see in TotK is actually the body of Ganondorf, but filled with the demonic power of Demise. That when Ganondorf became Calamity Ganon, Demise took his body, which and gave Calamity Ganon a boost in power.
Since showing the ganon mummy in the TotK trailer its probably safe to assume to stop ganondorf they separated his power from him and without him rampaged unchecked becoming a worse threat.
also in windwaker when you pull the master sword he basically says “yeah you got that dull ass blade i’ll give you that… but you also just freed all of my monsters you incel”
Possible light TOTK spoilers: It's funny, when you mentioned about how ganon uses the hero's progress against him, when i kept finding that the bokoblins were mining zonite in the depths and just about every monster in the depths dropped zonite when defeated, the whole time i was thinking "oh crap, Ganondorf is going to use zonite against me and knows it's potential for zonai devices" And i was super disappointed that i saw nothing to payoff that. Like why would the developers purposefully have enemies mining zonite underground and then do nothing to explain why? Unless i missed something on that playthrough
You did miss something zonaite is formed from soul energy which powers all the zonai and sheikah tech. The tree you fight ganondorf in has its roots spreading everywhere in the depths. He's draining the life out of the world itself. The bokoblins mining zonaite is just another way for him to gain more soul energy without having to do the extra work himself
Great video. I also thought similarly in 2017 about how Calamity Ganon was an almost tragic fate for Ganondorf after being killed and reincarnated countless times over tens of thousands of years in a degenerative fashion, eventually losing a physical form or any connection to his former tribe until he is manifested only by pools of malice infecting the land of Hyrule like a virus or a natural disaster. (The fact that there has been so much speculation about the origin and nature of the Calamity also suggests that Nintendo's exposition dumps in BotW were not quite as heavy-handed as you stated here.) Unfortunately, TotK's ultimate explanation that Calamity Ganon was a separate entity from Ganondorf himself, essentially a "Phantom Ganon" on steroids that wreaked havoc while Ganondorf slept beneath Hyrule Castle for 10,000 years (after just a single defeat by Rauru, and NOT by any incarnation of Link), is much less satisfying than the lore that fans had come up with, even before you factor in the huge inconsistencies with the rest of the Zelda timeline presented by TotK's retelling of the founding of Hyrule and the Imprisoning War, which effectively place both BotW and TotK on a parallel timeline to OoT (and hence to any of the three previously-established Zelda timelines). By keeping its story vague, simple, far in the future, and focused on environmental storytelling, BotW did not create similar continuity problems, and so the impact of seeing (presumably) the same Ganondorf from earlier franchise entries in this hideous incarnation appeared to be more profound than what Nintendo has now canonically reduced it to.
Calamity Ganon gave me the same kind of dread I felt when playing Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion when I was younger. Just the threat it emanated in the middle of such a peaceful looking world. Very much reminded me of the oblivion gate and how scared I used to be of those back then.
One missed opportunity of TotK was to use the time-travel plot to retroactively explain Calamity Ganon as being Ganondorf's endless attempt to resurrect after failing in TotK and finding a way through time to do it... but in doing so he became a complete shell of what he was. Sadly that's not what the implications are, but I really would've liked that.
I believe the thing with calamity Ganon is that he is BOTWs form of phantom/puppet Ganon. In the trailers for TOTK you see malice pouring out from a wound in his abdomen and looking more like flames/tendrils, we even see it move and consume a rat. He is deep underground, though how deep has yet to be seen, and his malice is moving up through who knows how much rock and what not. Either by it getting changed by going though so many things, or that it's "signal" back to Ganondorf weakens and looses its natural form, turning into that sludge. In the story it's said that malice is a part of him, and he is making a new body (which is Calamity Ganon). Since malice is just a part of him, what if he could move his consciousness to the new body, leaving his previous one below ground, completely discarding it or to give himself a way to free his real body.
The cage Ganon is in is reminiscent of a heart, it pulses and seems to pump Malice from it. But it is more of a tumor, encapsulated by the body (Zelda) to protect the whole (Hyrule).
From what it looks like, Ganondorf on his own is the reincarnation of Demise. His Gerudo form is simply the house for the soul, an anchor with a lust for power. Ganon, the demonic boar form, only really appeared once he had the Triforce of Power, that ancient hatred given form by divine influence. I feel like Calamity Ganon is the power of Demise, the soul, given power, allowed for flourish while the physical house of the soul, Ganondorf, stayed bound until the events of TotK. The princess has the demon bound, the boar caught by the tail. This doesn't change the fact that it has the ability to kill the unprepared.
Notice, that Zelda saying that Calamity Ganon had given up on reincarnation is a translation error btw. In Japanese she says the opposite. The localisation is a mess as a whole.
I loved how this Ganon still had a form of his intelligence. He knew that the divine beasts would be used and came up with a plan to ensure it wouldn’t work. I’m hoping Tears wraps up the Demise curse. It’s time for Zelda to introduce new villains. I wouldn’t mind more modern mindset villains. I also wouldn’t mind a 2 Link story. Both brothers, one good, one bad. Majora’s Mask shows us that Zelda can have an intimidating, intelligent, and just wicked villain that isn’t tied to Ganon.
The biggest difference between Ganon(dorf) and Link and Zelda is that, while there have been many incarnations or reincarnations of both Link and Zelda, most, if not all, occurences of Ganon(dorf) have been the same person - even the times he's killed rather than being sealed away, he gets resurrected as the same person rather than being reincarnated as a new version. So where Link and Zelda are new people who share the spirits of the Hero and the Princess (who is an incarnation of Goddess Hylia herself) most of the time, Ganon(dorf) is the same guy who's been through the wringer without ever getting refreshed by being reborn. The Zelda Timeline is an obvious lie from Nintendo - some games can be fitted together, but the timeline as a whole just doesn't work, even before Tears of the Kingdom abandoned any pretense at being in continuity with anything before Breath of the Wild. So you can't reliably draw conclusions from details of past games, except possibly where they do fit together.
BoTW always reminded me of Miyazaki’s Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Castle in the Sky. Glad to see I’m not the only one who saw ghibli in this game lol ;)
I love your theory, it makes Calamity Ganon feel so horrifying but somewhat sympathetic, how you describe how it was his own painful emotions and endless cycle of torment that have made him no longer human Also, I feel like BotW and TotK have a little bit of a problem with explaining things until they're blatantly obvious rather than letting people only piece them together You know, I feel like the exposition early on was a big part of why people say BotW has no story, the story got explained to begin with
I have to make a correction here. Ganon isn't purely a loser, who always loses, and always destined to loose. While in-game, we always win is absolutely true. But it is the stuff that happens off-screen, implied, and confirmed as Ganon canon that suggests he has won on multiple occasions . The most obvious and easy to distinguish example is the split in the timeline that occurs after Ocarina of Time. We have the Adult Era timeline, the Child Era timeline, and then... the Fallen Hero timeline. One timeline dedicated specifically to where Link dies in his quest to stop Ganondorf, quite possibly in the final confrontation when Ganondorf takes his beast form, for Ganon's appearances from here on out in this era are also all beast. There are several implications that suggest that Ganon could've won just as many times as he has lost. Who knows how many decades or even centuries Hyrule has suffered under a dark shadow, fought their own wars where a hero didn't rise up to save them? I'd personally like to see a game where you're not on a quest to stop Ganon or Ganondorf from rising to power, but a world where you were already born into darkness. Ganon/dorf has already won and oppressed the world, but you rise up from mediocrity as a rebel to dethrone the forces of evil. After all, this is an idea that Retro Studios bounced around where you played as Sheik instead of Link, in the events after Ocarina of Time where Link lost. This could've been part of the Sealing War mentioned in the official timeline. But as we saw, this game never came to be. It's all ideas worth delving into and exploring further.
I think you fall to mention one fundamental aspect of Ganondorf: he is always the same Ganondorf, he has not been reincarnated, resurrected yes, but not reincarnated, every Ganondorf and Ganon we know are Ocarina of Time Ganondorf, so by BotW his form is so distorted because his body and soul has been resurrected and killed so many times
"If Ganon were an actual character, there'd need to be a reason why he just sits around in the castle the whole game" >Cut to OOT Ganondorf playing Minecraft in Hyrule Castle while he waits for Link to awaken the Sages
Really great vid and thorough breakdown of the character's history. I thought I'd have a big issue with Breath of the Wild and the lack of a "human" villain, but Calamity Ganon worked well for the open world setting. I'm happy to see Ganondorf, the individual, returning for Tears of the Kingdom.
Demon souls also did a thing with its antagonist because as you play the game you actually do meet characters with personality and motivation. Once you make it to the end you choose an ending based on how those characters influenced you. Not only is there a mystery to solve but its about what that entity means to the characters of the game.
So I have a couple things to say, firstly on the lack of mystery with Calamity Ganon. Breath of the Wild was my first Zelda game, so I had no understanding of who or what Ganon was. As a result, the name "Calamity Ganon" had an aura of menace and dread due to it's unknown nature. The second thing is a bit of an allegory to Dungeons and Dragons. In D&D, there are beings called Fiends that embody the sins and vices of mortals, with three particular subcategories embodying the alignments of Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil, and Chaotic Evil respectively. The Chaotic Evil fiends are the Demons, or Tanari, of the Abyss. They are vessels of primal rage and destruction--- hatred and malice incarnate. What's interesting is how similar the mere concept of Demons are to Calamity Ganon. Demons spread across the D&D multiverse like a cancer, with the Material Plane literally warping in response to their corruption. Similarly, Ganon's Malice warps and poisons the world of Hyrule. Both Ganon and the Demons are also capable of monstrous cunning, particularly the monstrous Demon Lords such as Demogorgon, Orcus, or Lolth. I find it interesting that both Ganon and the Demons have so much in common: superficially mindless, yet incredibly cunning, and an unnatural cancer on the world born from primal hatred.
Personally, it not being a mystery about who “the beast” is, never once bothered me. For me, the mystery of it wasn’t who it was, or what it was, for me, it was more about why it was. Why he got to this point. And in my opinion, I personally think they did an amazing job with that.
I'm sure that Calamity Ganon is just a mindless puppet controlled by the real Ganondorf, to act as a diversion for whatever he's cooking in Tears of the Kingdom.
Before I knew that the whole "giving up on reincarnation" thing was a translation error, my headcanon (or should I say headGANON (I'm here 'til they kick me out)) was that maybe his new resurrection in TotK would be against his will. Which would be a lot more interesting in my mind, but hey, here we are
That is a super, super cool analysis. I'm currently still watching, about halfway, but I wanted to share my own thoughts. I think the main reason for Calamity Ganon's lack of a personal character is because BOTW is not his story, it's not even really the story of the three reincarnated ones fighting again: it's a story about hyrule, and about its tragedy. Think about the things that ARE properly expanded upon: The champions, their descendants, the impact that the rampaging divine beasts have upon the people that ARE still alive, the shattered Hyrule. Even Link and Zelda's main storyline isn't about calamity ganon, but it's what is being told to us through the memories: their previous relationship, and how it and both of them suffered in the tragedy, being separated by the calamity. That is the emotional core, and the important part. We get to learn first and foremost about those who died, those who survived, and still survive in this tragic world. It's the story of the tragedy of the ruined kingdom of Hyrule, and her people. And why shouldn't it be? We spend possibly dozens of hours exploring and dicking around in this place, climbing mountains, doing quests, interacting with the world. Hyrule itself is given all the focus, all the characters and depth because BOTW is about that. Calamity Ganon is what set it in motion, but the reason is not as important as what is being told. What I'm trying to say is that, for what the devs were trying to tell, Calamity Ganon wasn't actually important at all. Any force that would have caused the calamity or the tragedy of the kingdom would have sufficed. But what little it DID do, set things up for the future. In ToTK, we can already see that Ganondorf is being given character, because that will be his game. The story focus in there is going to involve him much more personally, and NOW it will matter that he is the one out there taking action. We've had a whole game entirely about Hyrule, and now it's time to have a game about Hyrule's heroes and ultimate villain again. But yeah dude, awesome video! Keep it up, it's great stuff.
I think the huge exposition dumps in this game actually work well. Given the fact that you're free to challenge Calamity Ganon as soon as he's revealed to you, despite being woefully unprepared, it's good to understand the true threat he presents. Any player foolish enough to go ahead and face him knows exactly what they're getting into. Any player choosing (wisely) to prepare for the confrontation can use the hints in the cutscenes to effectively weaken him. This is a massive open world, after all. While little direction is given aside from the ultimate goal of the game, players do need at least a clear understanding of what CAN be done to achieve it. As an example... Skyrim may not have cutscenes in the traditional sense, but still has exposition heavy sections for each major questline. "This is what we are. This is how things work. This is who the enemy is." After the scripted sections, players are free to achieve the goals in their own way... the difference being that failure is possible for some of them. But the point is that the player still knows what they're getting into and can prepare however they see fit without missing any of the story beats. Stringing out the exposition evenly in different areas for either game would undoubtedly leave a rotten taste in most players' mouths since "fully experiencing" the game would then require multiple playthroughs... and it's not like the average person has 80+ hours to spare on the first go around in the first place.
Keeping Gannon a mystery could have been woven in with the hidden memory mechanic. Having to find those and then piercing together the past as you recover your lost memories only to discover the blight is Gannon once you collect every memory and revealing a final extra hidden memory with the revelation at Hyrule castle itself. It could have been done quite easily honestly. I honestly think the story will probably be served better once we get our hands on Tears of the Kingdom. Gannon has always been a mindless beast form where Gannondorf is the more compelling form which we will probably get in the upcoming title. Keep in mind defeating Gannon usually requires link to collect the Triforce before sealing him away; a step that wasn’t covered in BotW. My theory is the Zonai are probably keepers of the Triforce (or at least hold knowledge of it and the sacred land) I’m so excited to see where the story goes.
My personal headcannon: Zelda sealing Gannon away destines him for reincarnation, since Gannon's essence wasn't eradicated. Gannon *did* give up on reincarnation to become Dark Beast Gannon, and if he died that'd be it, but if he died, all of the malice would be left over, so Zelda seals him away. Gannon even tries fleeing when this happens, kind of like a "JUST LET ME DIE ALREADY!".
Not to spoil too much of TotK, but Ganon seems more smug and cockier than we've seen him in the past. The first interaction they have with him, he destroys not only the Master Sword, but Link's right arm as well. And the first thing he says to them is "Is that sword that seals the darkness? A blade that shatters so easily against my power cannot save you from me." followed by "Rauru placed his faith in you...and that was all you could do?" while giving a sort of smirk. Mind you, the sword was still at full power, and the malic was pretty easily able to break it.
The newest ganon looks the most like Demise reincarnate now. Since all the malice was destroyed in botw, thats probably just why he looks like that now
28:06 When I first saw this scene, I was struck by how much Link looks like Ganondorf. I was fully expecting some kind of twist reveal that the whole divine beast legend was actually just Ganon's very successful propaganda.
A theory some people have is that Calamity Ganon is the culmination of the buildup of Malice from Ganondorf’s mummy body as seen in TOTK over the 10k years. This would make Calamity Ganon essentially a mega phantom Ganon of sorts.
That makes a lot of sense.
It’s not much of a theory, that’s literally what it is. Ganondorf’s hatred is boundless that it turned into a physical force. Why else would it happen in a 10000 year time frame if not a build up? His hate spills out once it overflows
Usually the trio reincarnate every hundred or so years, so when the lore told us a gap of ten thousand years, it was pretty suspicious.
Japanese version pretty much states it's a phantom, which the fact a phantom was strong enough to do all this and now we got the man himself? Ooohhhhh boy
@@josephwang8589 well that’s why they seal Ganon even if he eventually breaks free so there’s longer periods of peace
I like the idea that Zelda's cage over Ganon collapses just as Link arrives not just because "its time", but because Ganon's rage upon sensing Link's arrival is the power surge he needed to break free: if Link does not go to confront Ganon then Zelda's cage would hold.
Game play wise it makes sense there's no need to burden players of a open world game with a time limit lore wise yes link arrival did give him a power boost to break free bur also he was building his power and was on the verge of breaking free just imagine a scenario where links just exploring not ready Dicking around and Ganon broke free.
@@heroofmasks that sounds like some banger ideas for like super-ultra-nightmare difficulty😂 the game just has a random timer after which ganon gets unleashed and the map becomes like Dragon Dogmas post game.
@@saarthak421 makes me think of majoras mask coupled with the countdown of early dead rising games. Or the awakening meter in Mechanicus
@@saarthak421 Feels similar to Bowser's Fury
I believe, in the compendium, it says that Ganon was building himself a new body, but when Link arrived, he was forced to come out in an incomplete form of cobbled together shiekah tech glued with malice in order to defend himself. I believe, at some point, ganon had already reached a point where he could exit if he really tried. I just think that he realized that he could just bide his time and get stronger. If he could wait 10,000 years, then what's another 100?
When you realize that Calamity Ganon, the thing that destroyed Hyrule and dominated the greatest technology ever developed by the Sheikah was essentially just Ganondorf projecting his mood out as a ghost while he was asleep.
That’s some hell of a way to use astral projection.
Something something Stand Power
Something something JoJo reference
Well, spoiler, looks like sheikah tech was basically reverse engineered zonai tech. And since the royal family shares blood ties with zonai, it explains why they banned it.
We need a video series of over simplifying in a low key not too over simplified way lol
the OG hater
i really like how ganondorf in ocarina, twilight, and windwaker are all the same character, just each at different stages in life and with different experiences. twilight princess's ganondorf is similar to the one from ocarina of time, because in the child timeline he never had a chance to take over, he was stopped before he started, he was bitter, very brash. hes contrasted very well by windwaker's ganondorf who, in the adult timeline, did take over, for 7 years he ruled hyrule, until he was humbled, defeated, and sealed away. he had time to reflect, to mature, until he broke out and the gods flooded the land due to there not being a hero, cause he went back in time to live his life as a child.
The funny thing is, in all of the zelda timeline before botw, there was only two of him. Aside from Four swords adventures, it was always the same ganon
The fact that WW Dorf is Lawful evil, if not true neutral while TP and OOTs versions are as close to true evil as it gets amuses me to no end
I was always sad Wind Waker Gannondorf didnt get more screen time. Hes such an intresting character with how he was clinging to the past. It almost made me wish he succeeded. Especially because he didnt seem particularly... Evil? I mean yes kidnapping children with a giant murder chicken is evil but his intent was never to kill Link or Zelda, he even said so. Only to bring Hyrule back to the surface so he could rule, which might have been different then the first time, as everything about him seemed to change, not just his personality but his fighting stlye, his mannerism... would have been a cool final battle on risen Hyrule
❤
To add on about your analysis on calamity ganon himself, in the book Creating A Champion, it says that ganon formed that body the moment he knew Link awoken.
That body was rushed, imagine if he prepared himself physically for 100 years.
It also states that in the description of Ganon when you take his photo as well. The explanation of Ganon waiting is explained in the game. He was rushing building a body to confront Link.
@Wilt&Blush you're very weird
@@internetguy7319 What?
@@Gokulosestoavirus that also explain how going straight for Ganon has you fight the blight Ganon it's to give him more time to build the body.
@@sfrert2759 if I had to guess he read AOC as the politician rather than Age of Calamity
24:49 It's called dramatic irony. The PLAYER knows Ganon's life story. But none of the characters have a clue that he was a living man before he became a demon. Even the Gerudo think IT disguised ITSELF as one of them, rather than it being a Gerudo who was possessed by Demise's evil. Even when Ganondorf rampage is briefly mentioned in Zora's domain, it's simply "an evil man once tried to conquer Hyrule", not has a clue they're the same entity.
I wonder if there were any good Gerudo kings who weren’t like Ganondorf; kings who sought the betterment of their people and country.
@@acrazyweeb7225 there must have been, before ganondorf, I would ve loved to have learnt about them
@@acrazyweeb7225 There must have been: A Gerudo male has been born everyone 100 years. They can't all be evil Ganondorfs even if they were all named "Ganondorf."
@@acrazyweeb7225 I'd love it if the Gerudo came back in the next game and for the first time in the series had a male ruler that wasn't Ganondorf and actually had their best interest at heart.
I recommend looking through the japanese versions of the dialogue, because, as usual, there are some pretty big discrpencies between translations that really change the context. For instance, the line "He has given up on reincarnation" actually came from a phrase that more closely translates to "he has refused to give up on revival."
So, it may be a mistranslation, but it's not entirely inaccurate. Ganon was trying this whole time to build himself a cyborg body, but once Link destroyed it, he (literally) went ham.
I believe the mistranslation has also resulted in a misunderstanding too, as many believe ganon have up his cycle of reincarnation where it more likely meant he gave up on reincarnating this specific body to go full ham
@@The94Venom I will gladly escort you to the dungeons for that pun.
Wouldn't really call it a mistranslation as Reincarnation and Revival are two different things and both statements are technically true to Ganondorf, he's given up on Reincarnation as noted that no other male gerudo has ever appeared cause he's just a lich mummy thing underground never truly dead and constantly bringing the calamity and wanting to "revive" his body
@@Rageouz it's not that he's givin up of reincarnation he just can't the hand holding his body down its keeping him barely alive probably to stop him from reincarnting. Although with good intentions they probably didn't know that the outcome would be calamity Ganon appearing mainly from the wound in his chest.
Malice is such a useful weapon.
Possession of technology and flesh.
Forming waves of enemies.
Revives the dead.
Communicates back to host.
Is ever present in the world, even if Ganon/Ganondorf are not.
Powers up others.
But at the cost of humanity and rational thinking
I think the flesh part was only in Age of Calamity. Otherwise he would have been able to possess and Corrupt Zelda as she tried to seal him away within him in BOTW. Seeing how moblins are just another extension of Ganon, their malice forms are likely just the next evolution.
Malice was a lot like a parasite that eats away at whatever it is possessing.
@@gio9255 Links arm is in big trouble now 😰
@@MilestheDirtyMindedGoblin2099 that doesn't appear to be malice, it's vibrant green, malice is redish/purple.
@@GuyIllusion true, but his arm is hit by malice at the beginning of tears of the kingdom .
Ganon giving up on reincarnation thing is a mistranslation. In japanese it said that he was refusing to give up on reincarnation.
At best, it can be read as “he is giving up [on this attempt at] reincarnation”, meaning he is not longer attempting to grow a physical form. What remains is a spiritual form that is unstable and will last just long enough to crush the Hero and the Princess.
How could something like that be mistranslated?
Or that he's giving up on reincarnating Calamity Ganon so he can be strong enough to take down Link and Zelda. After his defeat, Ganondorf will be reawakened at a certain time. That's what I think anyway.
@@sethmiles9436 I mean, it happens more than you would expect.... A lot of Elden Ring is mistranslated in that kind of way.
Like, both Ranni, and Goldmask's endings sound bad in English, but when properly translated, they're the best outcomes for that game's world.
And there are many, MANY more mistranslations in other games....
That's what happens when the lead English script writer doesn't even know the language he is translating from
calamity Ganon is essentially the largest phantom Ganon we've ever faced that not only has gained immense power but also advanced intelligence thanks to the Sheikah tech and the vast amount of time it's been accumulating under the castle. Since we're lead to believe that it's operating independently of Ganondorf it puts on display just how dangerous malice is
Until mummy Ganondorf was revealed, I always thought that a bunch of botched resurrections, forced reincarnations, and monster transformations had just degraded The Calamity into a force of nature. Now he's just a glorified Puppet Ganon.
To clarify the "Ganon has given up on reincarnation" line is actually a massive mistranslation. The Japanese text suggests pretty much the exact opposite and lines up almost exactly with your theory. Calamity Ganon assumes this form because his stubborn refusal to give up on Reincarnation has cause his body to mutate into this creature of pure malice. Malice and Hatred Incarnate.
I wouldn't say Calamity Ganon is the same as the Old One, since the TOTK trialer shows us that Ganon has been mummified & locked away beneath Hyrule, all this time. His humanid og form, wasn't gone, but sealed for all this time. That changes the context of his character, or seemingly lack there of one. His spirit is literally being torutured, trying to break himself free both phyiscally & spiritually.
I think the reason the writers jumped the gun on revealing the nature of Calamity Ganon was because of how easy it would be for players to figure out the connection. Calamity Ganon takes the form of a demonic boar. In previous Zelda titles Ganondorf often transforms into a demonic pig or boar. So a Demonic Boar creature hellbent on destroying Hyrule, who does that sound like...
As BOTW was also my first introduction to Zelda, I don't think a mystery to who the antagonist would have been as fun for me. It presented a pretty compelling call to action for me knowing what I was up against.
@@Nichrysalis You know I didn't think of that point of view. I've been a fan of the series since I played Ocarina of Time and Majora's mask on the N64, when I was a toddler. Considering BOTW is a reboot of the series, it is a shame they didn't keep the name of the big a secret till the end. It still would be easy for long time fans like myself to guess the Beast's true identity, but for new fans I can see why that would be disappointing now.
Twilight Princess’s Ganon dying while still standing will always be his most badass end for me.
something i dont think people mention enough is that there has only been one ganondorf, at least that we see on screen. throughout his appearances (other than TOTK of course) we can track this one dude. he gets started in ocarina of time, and is then either A) imprisoned and released in twilight princess B) imprisoned and released in windwaker or C) turns into ganon and wreaks havoc throughout the fallen hero timeline, getting resurected a stupid amount of times, until finally he dies and is replaced by another gerudo king we don't even see. for most of the timeline he's just one dude, living for hundreds of years and watching everything he knows disappear slowly, normally from behind a seal. hes seen a lot.
Actually there is one other gannon in four swords adventures, so there two unless gannon in totk is different than the oot gannon.
But there are other reincarnations of demise, such as vati, that nightmare squid thing, and potentially the demon king in spirit tracks, but he could just be another demon king and have nothing to do with demise’s curse
@@RaiJolt2 i don't think vati is a reincarnation of demise, since he is alive and still sealed in all timelines other than four swords adventure and you can't really reincarnate if you're not dead. also the second gerudo king we dont see that i mentioned was that one from four swords, i just forgot what game it was in.
Can't wait to see what they do with Ganondorf in TOTK.
Same
I've been playing it. They ACTUALLY have him in the game unlike in BotW where he wasn't really around.
@@WarningStrangerDangerwell to be fair, he was sealed away deep in the castle. What link fought was probably his hatred/malice pouring out of his body from years of being sealed away.
im really NOT liking what they doing to the TOTK story, they are retconing everything
@@kyps1259 I’m not finished with the game yet, so I am hoping that some of the stuff I’ve seen with the story will be explained or expanded upon.
Edit: now that I finished, I am really curious how Ganondorf’s lore works now. He was in first generation Hyrule but was also in oot where he didn’t seem to be known and wasn’t imprisoned. It’s gotta be a timeline thing or something because there should only be one Ganondorf as a dude. He doesn’t have the same reincarnation as Link or Zelda he is just one incarnation of Demise’s hatred.
I think the symbolism of a boar fits Ganon as emblematic of relentless violence rather than filth.
Boars especially are characterised by their reckless disregard for injury coupled with their raw strength and endurance.
Fitting for a being obsessed with seizing power through violence, heedless of how many failures it suffers over and over again.
Ganon as the curse of Demise recklessly charges his foe time after time after time with no success and yet undaunted.
The boar never quits, never stops trying.
Something to take note of is that the adjacent timeline of "Age Of Calamity" brought forward by Terrako's time travel as seen from a different angle of the final BOTW memory shows us what Calamity Ganon would've looked like if Zelda's powers hadn't kept him in stasis for 100 years: a much more humanoid form with hog elements across his body, and a body/facial structure that looks much more like the classic Ganondorf that we are all used to.
One thing that's always frightened me about Calamity Ganon in Breath of the Wild is that it's not actually Ganondorf himself, it's the destructive embodiment of all the hate, failure and suffering that every iteration of Ganon has endured since the creation of Demise's curse. This... THING singlehandedly brought the destruction of Hyrule as a Kingdom along with all of it's chosen champions and it wasn't even Ganondorf's true form.
The way that tears of the kingdom adds to the lore of breath of the wild is just absolutely mind boggling.
The moment you saw "the beast" be a giant phantom pig, you shouldve known who it was.
Yeah this guy wants Ganon to be conflicted which is a horrible take imo because Ganon is pure evil just like Demise, Windwaker fans want Zelda villains to be soft.
With ToTK Calamity Ganon seems like a projection of Ganondorf who couldn't fully escape his underground actual being, and the fact that it's still this powerful really speaks to how strong the real deal is in the sequel!
He takes the form of a boar because a boar (and suids in general) have a connotation of being ravenous devourers, a symbol of gluttony, because Ganon is a glutton for power.
I've always wondered why they use boar imagery
I find that while yes I do agree with you keeping the calamity’s identity a secret would be much more intriguing and interesting the fact that the name Ganon has become synonymous with ruination is very cool.
Love me some Zelda.
Please do a video on "Dark Charisma" for Senator Armstrong from MetalGear Rising. Man is so charismatic he has people agreeing with him even though we wouldn't if someone else said the same thing.
It's on the list, buddy. :)
@@fatbrett Awesome! Thanks man :D
Zelda: Does not reincarnate, her connection is her bloodline.
Demise: Does not reincarnate, his connection is his hate was the curse catalysis, it the demon tribe itself that's kind of attracted to link and Zelda.
Link: Does reincarnate, his connection is the spirit of the hero which is not directly inherited.
Ganondorf: Does seem to reincarnate sometimes and not others. His connection is that he seems to have co-opted sand transplanted himself into the curse out of his shear hatred of Link and Zelda.
Ganondorf does not reincarnate. He is either reawakened or resurrected. The only exception is Four Swords Adventures but that game is weird,it uses Wind Wakers art style in A Link to the Past's Hyrule while taking place after Twilight Princess.
I am curious though about the Hero’s Shade since it’s basically the spirit of a previous Link meeting the current one. Doesn’t that defy the reincarnation process or no?
@@acgearsandarms1343 not necessarily. With reincarnation people can visit and communicate with past lives through various practices depending on the mythos. It is a pretty common understanding of reincarnation. It only becomes a problem if they both are alive at the same time. The only way for two of the same spirit to exist in the physical world at the same time is with time travel. In the spirit world it is timeless so that's why multiple identities of the same spirit can exist at all times. It's a very fascinating mythos honestly, and Zelda follows it thoroughly. That's also how we know Zelda doesn't reincarnate, other than proper translations we've also had multiple Zelda's existing at the same time with the same destiny, no time travel involved. We don't see multiple Links at the same time, not even a mention of a parent, a dead ancestor yes, but not a parent. Ganon is the only odd ball with four swords adventures.
@@GuyIllusion Thanks for explaining. I suppose my understanding of soul and spirit defines how I see the curse works. So far it’s only ever been the first Zelda that was the reincarnation of Hylia as an example. Just of her bloodline which is defined in the curse by Demise himself. So for Link, I understand it’s usually a Link that’s not directly related between the incarnations, just confused when there’s a situation like with the Shade due to the nature of the curse.
@@acgearsandarms1343 No. All Link’s are the incarnation of the Hero, but they are all different people.
Let’s use an example.
Do you know who Ghost Rider is? He is a Marvel Hero.
Basically, Ghost Rider = Spirit of Vengeance + Human.
Any human can be Ghost Rider if they possess the Spirit of Vengeance. But the human side is not the same person each time.
Links are similar. They are Human + Spirit of the Hero. The Human part is not the same, but the Spirit of the Hero never changes.
Though, for some reason, he is always called Link.
Actually, I have the perfect example.
It’s from Naruto.
Sasuke is the reincarnation of Indra.
Madara is also the reincarnation of Indra.
But Madara was resurrected while Sasuke was alive.
How is it possible? Because Madara is not Sasuke. They are two different people who just so happened to possess the Spirit of Indra.
Wouldn't it be a sweet twist, that the royal family knew of Ganons' imprisonment, but, lacking a way to truly kill him, teamed up with the Zonai, and sealed him away. And in order to keep the public calm, the royal family told a royal lie, and Zelda discovers it, in TotK. What a nugget of potential character development that would be.
Ganon's in this state, and the way you describe it, it more like Godzilla, than a man. And I love it.
I truly think they decided to go with a human form of Ganon again, because of Wind Waker's Ganon. He was somewhat melancholy and sympathetic, not exactly the pure form of evil that Demise was. You understood his motivations. Think about it from Ganon's perspective - to spend thousands of years reincarnating, because Demise's curse - a curse Ganon was chosen to be part of (probably unknowingly, against his will). How is his evil not easily mistaken for rage? How could you simply dismiss him as just an empty villain, when it's obvious his part in all this is always for him to die? He must realize this at some point in the timeline. Surely the game developers want to take some time with that story, as his design is very reminiscent to Wind Wakers - as opposed to Ocarina or Twilight. The best villains are those you sympathize with and Calamity Ganon - though being great, is still just an empty shell.
I like Zeltic's idea of this Ganondorf being a Litch. Absorbing the souls of the Zoni, or at least most of them, to seal and preserve his body, soul and mind whilst allowing him to gather, store and release power in the form of Calamity Ganon. It makes a lot of sense.
The only thing is that he must have been resurrected and enough time must have passed for the three timelines to effectively unify. So enough time must have passed for the thousands of years of time in each timeline must be insignificant in scale relative to the time before BoTW. So I wouldn't be surprised if this Ganon was 100,000 years old. There are ruins which should have eroded in that time though.
It's appropriate that Hylia is the Godess of time.
The whole timeline like one full turn of a clock. A failed hero who ultimately succeeded, a demon king victorious but ultimately defeated and sky islands over a devastated Hyrule.
Man, you did a good job showing how creepy BOTW is! Gives me chills! Just creepy how you can have hope and confidence in something and then for it to blow up in your face.
I liked the way you brouht up that Calamity Ganon is the first ganon to really embrace the reincarnation cycle. Individual games are fun, but addressing that more would definitely be interesting
Calamity Ganon is, put simply, magical power combined with his hatred that has been emanating from the mummified Ganon underneath Hyrule Castle.
Personally my theory for the connection between Calamity Ganon and Ganondorf in TOTK is that in the distant past, some ancient civilization, possibly another iteration of Hyrule or the Zonai (who seem to be influential in this game in some form from their stuff popping up), split Ganondorf and Ganon into two entities. This has been a thing in the series for awhile where Ganondorf is the person aspect of the ultimate evil while Ganon is a more purely monstrous raw form of them. They were still connected and this ancient civ sealed Ganondorf but could not contain Ganon himself who would transform into Calamity Ganon now that he was not bound within a humanoid form at least until he was defeated by that era’s Link and Zelda. Now that we’ve destroyed Calamity Ganon, he perhaps returned to his dead humanoid form and has revived him.
Even for me, just seeing the original Ganon trailer for totk, my impression was "oh shit, Calamity Ganon was a small leak of Ganon's true power. Calamity Ganon was also a Phantom Ganon, and he took out Hyrule for 100 years."
Is it weird to say Ganondorf is my favourite LoZ character? I find his story pretty interesting and often at times felt pity for him. Had his circumstances been just a bit different, he could have been one of Hyrules greatest rulers and even a hero, leading his race to an age of prosperity.
....
Also i will say Rehydrated Ganondorf is my favourite design of him :3
How tho? Isn't he almost always a narcissist?
@Have Wissmart Just because he's narcissistic doesn't stop him from being interesting. Plus, many heroes are narcissistic.
@@JackSilverGamingOcean Narcissistic is interesting but i doubt ganon cares about helping other people much. And many heroes explicitly grow out of narcissism, that's always their arc
@@havewissmart9602 True but not all the time. Think of things like the Warioland games. Wario does act as a hero and help others but is always vain and greedy. That's just one example from the top of my head. :)
If I recall correctly, the whole "Given up on reincarnation" line is supposed to refer to Calamity Ganon's desire to create a proper body for its current incarnation. The prior form looks like an unfinished cyborg creature because its body weren't fully formed yet. In other words, Calamity Ganon gives up on reincarnation because it was still in the process of reincarnating when we defeated it. It didn't stop the cycle, it just put a premature end to this current form.
Edit: I checked the Creating a Champion source book, and this is indeed the case. Its primary motivation in BotW was reincarnation above all else.
I have a suggestion for the next deconstruction: Kreia/Darth Traya of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2.
You do such great work with these breakdowns, and Kreia is such a fascinating deuteragonist.
There is a person that has done this here’s a link
th-cam.com/video/-Z0S0Z8lUTg/w-d-xo.html
I agree completely. Does FatBrett have a Patreon where suggestions can be… suggested?
Would be awesome. I love the Philosophy of Kreia and it's sequel The Failure of the Grey Jedi videos.
Dude your analysis video’s honestly change the way I view the narratives and themes of a lot of these games. I can’t believe you don’t have more subs.
"cant believe you dont have more subs" 😂😂
@@Hugo_Tate what’s so funny?
I would suggest that part of the reason Ganon has such a form is because he HASN'T died as often as Zelda and Link. Many times he gets sealed away, stewing in his anger and hate for hundreds if not thousands of years. Rather than being given a clean slate at reincarnation, he keeps waking up/ escaping bitter from his previous defeat. Like how much more difficult it is to clean a car if you wash it once a year rather than once a month.
Really great video, botw was my first Zelda game and calamity ganon was so compelling to so I’m very excited to see ganondorf in totk
I mean... frankly, just seeing the boar-like head gives away that it IS Ganon.
Wind Waker Ganondorf was also jealous, he envied the fact that his people lived in the Desert and had almost nothing, while Hyrule existed in a lush relative paradise and its people had everything they could ask for.
Something I like about every Ganondorf is that they don't overtly invalidate the existence of the others. OoT may have been a trickster and trying to seize power, but his motivations aren't really fleshed out meaning he could feel the way WW Ganondorf does. And Twilight Princess being a consequence of actions in Ocarina of Time doesn't have to be true but doesn't really conflict either. Even him leading a war in the prologue to Link to the Past doesn't interfere with any other instance.
Them all being able to overlap is what makes me so excited for Tears of the Kingdom's representation
Watching this with Tears of the Kingdom so close to release, I can't help but remember when I first beat BOTW.
My first playthrough I stuck to getting the Master Sword, then freeing the divine beasts then smashing Ganon. Second was when I did everything except the Koroks. I just had no desire to keep pushing on that one.
But I remember very specifically the first time I beat Calamity and Dark Beast Ganon. My reaction was "That was it?" I was really confused. My confusion only intensified when I watched others beat Ganon with just plain old weapons. The Master Sword wasn't necessary. Hell, Link was only necessary in so much as he could fight Ganon well enough to let Zelda deal the finishing blow. Beating Ganon as a team effort is nothing new, but this was much more pronounced. Paired with how easily Ganon went down, I began to suspect that something was up. That there was something more to this situation than we could see. And when the first trailer released and I saw dehydrated Ganondorf bent backward in agony, Malice pouring out of him, I knew I was right in suspecting that something else was going on behind the scenes. I cannot wait to see what TOTK holds for us.
I had a similar experience, I prioritized Divine Beasts, memories, and the Master Sword then yeeted Ganon only to be met with similar confusion at how easy it was to destroy it
I like how calamity Ganon is a nod to dragon Ganon in the next game I see too much similarity
I absolutely love how Breath of the Wild had set such a high bar for you that you've had such wonder and eagerness for Tears of the Kingdom. Only to find and realize that not only is the new Ganon is boring and stuck in a basement, but also the four divine mecha were ignored and the writers had just had to do time shenanigans to even make it somewhat coherent.
Dont forget the reason as to why Gannon is so distorted: unlike Zelda and Link who are reborn anew each new conflict devoid of mempries of past turmoils, Taking on each fight refreshed. Gannon remembers, He references his past conflicts and defeats
On a personal note, I really like this kind of story that deals with cosmic cycles that have been going on forever. Stories where the main conflict is a charade, and the actual struggle is against the cycle itself; how can the characters trapped in it manage to break out of it?
I find it interesting how little Zelda subverts the charade. Most stories dealing with cycles of evil and good have the charade resolved in the second act and the cycle healed in the third act, but in the Zelda series everyone's already resigned themselves to the charade.
Literally me, and now that age of calamity exists the cycle will continue to persist on ANOTHER timeline. It's almost as if it will never end, it's impossible to break, Demise made a promise and proceeds to keep it.
I don't think hylians remember enough to realise how long the cycle is. There is no way cycle will ever get broken ( since Zelda continues to make money and these characters are icons)
Like (Elden Ring)?
If you haven't read the wheel of time series, you should
In TotK Ganondorf seems to have no trouble waiting around. Just make him über confident that he doesn't feel the need to be proactive 😅
Considering that if you go straight to Ganon without doing the divine beasts, you end up having to fight the blights in the castle, I'd argue that they are a part of him.
Phantom Ganons were literally the answer to the 'main villain in open world' issue in TOTK. Great game design
all this power and unbound evil
and it's JUST a phantom, made from a dilute and impure form of Ganondorf's gloom
One of many experimental puppets for a greater devil lurking far below the castle
I agree with basically everything except the mystery of Calamity Ganon part. I can agree on the fact that maybe they shouldn't have revealed everything in the first cutscene, but having a mystery of who this dark figure is, only for it to be revealed as Ganon again like halfway through the story would have been kinda disappointing. Like wow, the big bad of the game was actually...the big bad of the entire series again. It's the same gripe i have of Twilight Princess' story: you get so far into the story with Zant as a great villain, but at the end suprise, it was Ganondorf again. I would have loved to either have just Zant, or just Ganondorf introduced earlier. Imagine if in a Mario spin-off game there was this mysterious evil cloud looming in the sky causing havock in the Mushroom Kingdom, Peach and everyone else is trying to analyze it and when you finally reach it you discover it was just...Bowser's new machine or something.
Calamity Ganon is just a very large phantom Ganon.
It's interesting, that just above where Calamity Ganon is resting in his little cocoon, you can see that there's some kind of piping interwoven all around. You can go there without fighting him, and get a close look at it- and it seems very, very similar to the piping present at the Shrine of Resurrection, that revived Link.
This is also, I suspect, related to what Zelda means when she she says that Calamity Ganon has 'given up on reincarnation.' It's not that Ganon doesn't care about reviving anymore- it's that he's trying to recreate himself. That it's been SO long since he lost his human form and became an otherworldly, malevolent entity, that he needs to work to recreate a body of his own. That cocoon he bursts out of wasn't made by Zelda to contain him; it was essentially a womb where he was creating his new """human""" body. Repurposing Shiekah Tech, to try to fashion the Malice that he's made of into a form that resembles the one he remembers having once upon a time, augmented with tech and weaponry. Calamity Ganon is an entity that no longer remembers quite what it was like to be human- but is trying very, very hard. Until you battle him, and he gives up and simply assumes what has become his base state- raw, unfettered, monstrous power.
....Of course, now that TOTK is out, it can safely be said that NONE of that is true.... but ehn. It's still fun to share my theories from when BOTW was all there was to go off of. And who knows, maybe even though this is an entirely new Ganondorf, the spirit and Malice inside him that leaked out every 10,000 years he was sealed in the form of Calamity Ganon, WAS the spirit of Demise and the soul at the heart of all Ganondorfs- seeing as how this Ganondorf seems to have no memory of Calamity Ganon's exploits, implying that it was a consciousness and intelligence entirely seperate from his own, that still seeped out from him while he was sealed.
My theory is, Calamity Ganon is basically the ego of Ganondorf, empowered by years of pain and anger, and the "Ganondorf" we see in TotK is actually the body of Ganondorf, but filled with the demonic power of Demise. That when Ganondorf became Calamity Ganon, Demise took his body, which and gave Calamity Ganon a boost in power.
Since showing the ganon mummy in the TotK trailer its probably safe to assume to stop ganondorf they separated his power from him and without him rampaged unchecked becoming a worse threat.
also in windwaker when you pull the master sword he basically says “yeah you got that dull ass blade i’ll give you that… but you also just freed all of my monsters you incel”
Bruh right as the king said "I think you are now ready, ready to hear what happened 100 years ago..." I got a un-skippable add 💀💀 💀 💀
I'm glad he wasn't a mindless force of destruction in AoC, he actually thinks this time. In BoTW the only thing he did was override the Guardians.
Possible light TOTK spoilers:
It's funny, when you mentioned about how ganon uses the hero's progress against him, when i kept finding that the bokoblins were mining zonite in the depths and just about every monster in the depths dropped zonite when defeated, the whole time i was thinking "oh crap, Ganondorf is going to use zonite against me and knows it's potential for zonai devices"
And i was super disappointed that i saw nothing to payoff that. Like why would the developers purposefully have enemies mining zonite underground and then do nothing to explain why? Unless i missed something on that playthrough
You did miss something zonaite is formed from soul energy which powers all the zonai and sheikah tech. The tree you fight ganondorf in has its roots spreading everywhere in the depths. He's draining the life out of the world itself. The bokoblins mining zonaite is just another way for him to gain more soul energy without having to do the extra work himself
I'm a simple man. I see a 55 minute video from one of my favorite TH-camrs on one of my favorite video games, I smile and I click.
Now, when you defeat some annoying hands, he appears to beat your ass.
Great video. I also thought similarly in 2017 about how Calamity Ganon was an almost tragic fate for Ganondorf after being killed and reincarnated countless times over tens of thousands of years in a degenerative fashion, eventually losing a physical form or any connection to his former tribe until he is manifested only by pools of malice infecting the land of Hyrule like a virus or a natural disaster. (The fact that there has been so much speculation about the origin and nature of the Calamity also suggests that Nintendo's exposition dumps in BotW were not quite as heavy-handed as you stated here.) Unfortunately, TotK's ultimate explanation that Calamity Ganon was a separate entity from Ganondorf himself, essentially a "Phantom Ganon" on steroids that wreaked havoc while Ganondorf slept beneath Hyrule Castle for 10,000 years (after just a single defeat by Rauru, and NOT by any incarnation of Link), is much less satisfying than the lore that fans had come up with, even before you factor in the huge inconsistencies with the rest of the Zelda timeline presented by TotK's retelling of the founding of Hyrule and the Imprisoning War, which effectively place both BotW and TotK on a parallel timeline to OoT (and hence to any of the three previously-established Zelda timelines). By keeping its story vague, simple, far in the future, and focused on environmental storytelling, BotW did not create similar continuity problems, and so the impact of seeing (presumably) the same Ganondorf from earlier franchise entries in this hideous incarnation appeared to be more profound than what Nintendo has now canonically reduced it to.
Turns out botw ganon is made of pure salt. And in totk ganon wakes up and unleashes his rage nuking all sheikah shrines.
Calamity Ganon gave me the same kind of dread I felt when playing Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion when I was younger. Just the threat it emanated in the middle of such a peaceful looking world. Very much reminded me of the oblivion gate and how scared I used to be of those back then.
One missed opportunity of TotK was to use the time-travel plot to retroactively explain Calamity Ganon as being Ganondorf's endless attempt to resurrect after failing in TotK and finding a way through time to do it... but in doing so he became a complete shell of what he was. Sadly that's not what the implications are, but I really would've liked that.
That's literally what the explanation is
Such a well-thought out, thought provoking video! Keep up the good work!
I believe the thing with calamity Ganon is that he is BOTWs form of phantom/puppet Ganon.
In the trailers for TOTK you see malice pouring out from a wound in his abdomen and looking more like flames/tendrils, we even see it move and consume a rat. He is deep underground, though how deep has yet to be seen, and his malice is moving up through who knows how much rock and what not. Either by it getting changed by going though so many things, or that it's "signal" back to Ganondorf weakens and looses its natural form, turning into that sludge.
In the story it's said that malice is a part of him, and he is making a new body (which is Calamity Ganon). Since malice is just a part of him, what if he could move his consciousness to the new body, leaving his previous one below ground, completely discarding it or to give himself a way to free his real body.
The cage Ganon is in is reminiscent of a heart, it pulses and seems to pump Malice from it. But it is more of a tumor, encapsulated by the body (Zelda) to protect the whole (Hyrule).
The Giving up on reincarnation was confirmed to be a mistranslation, I forgot what it was exactly, but it makes a lot more sense
it was actually saying that he has refused to give up on reincarnation
Calamity Ganon was just a distraction from the true threat underground
From what it looks like, Ganondorf on his own is the reincarnation of Demise. His Gerudo form is simply the house for the soul, an anchor with a lust for power. Ganon, the demonic boar form, only really appeared once he had the Triforce of Power, that ancient hatred given form by divine influence. I feel like Calamity Ganon is the power of Demise, the soul, given power, allowed for flourish while the physical house of the soul, Ganondorf, stayed bound until the events of TotK. The princess has the demon bound, the boar caught by the tail. This doesn't change the fact that it has the ability to kill the unprepared.
Notice, that Zelda saying that Calamity Ganon had given up on reincarnation is a translation error btw.
In Japanese she says the opposite.
The localisation is a mess as a whole.
I loved how this Ganon still had a form of his intelligence. He knew that the divine beasts would be used and came up with a plan to ensure it wouldn’t work. I’m hoping Tears wraps up the Demise curse. It’s time for Zelda to introduce new villains. I wouldn’t mind more modern mindset villains. I also wouldn’t mind a 2 Link story. Both brothers, one good, one bad. Majora’s Mask shows us that Zelda can have an intimidating, intelligent, and just wicked villain that isn’t tied to Ganon.
ye , if metroid moved on with success zelda could do it too
The biggest difference between Ganon(dorf) and Link and Zelda is that, while there have been many incarnations or reincarnations of both Link and Zelda, most, if not all, occurences of Ganon(dorf) have been the same person - even the times he's killed rather than being sealed away, he gets resurrected as the same person rather than being reincarnated as a new version. So where Link and Zelda are new people who share the spirits of the Hero and the Princess (who is an incarnation of Goddess Hylia herself) most of the time, Ganon(dorf) is the same guy who's been through the wringer without ever getting refreshed by being reborn.
The Zelda Timeline is an obvious lie from Nintendo - some games can be fitted together, but the timeline as a whole just doesn't work, even before Tears of the Kingdom abandoned any pretense at being in continuity with anything before Breath of the Wild. So you can't reliably draw conclusions from details of past games, except possibly where they do fit together.
BoTW always reminded me of Miyazaki’s Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Castle in the Sky. Glad to see I’m not the only one who saw ghibli in this game lol ;)
I love your theory, it makes Calamity Ganon feel so horrifying but somewhat sympathetic, how you describe how it was his own painful emotions and endless cycle of torment that have made him no longer human
Also, I feel like BotW and TotK have a little bit of a problem with explaining things until they're blatantly obvious rather than letting people only piece them together
You know, I feel like the exposition early on was a big part of why people say BotW has no story, the story got explained to begin with
I have to make a correction here. Ganon isn't purely a loser, who always loses, and always destined to loose. While in-game, we always win is absolutely true. But it is the stuff that happens off-screen, implied, and confirmed as Ganon canon that suggests he has won on multiple occasions .
The most obvious and easy to distinguish example is the split in the timeline that occurs after Ocarina of Time. We have the Adult Era timeline, the Child Era timeline, and then... the Fallen Hero timeline. One timeline dedicated specifically to where Link dies in his quest to stop Ganondorf, quite possibly in the final confrontation when Ganondorf takes his beast form, for Ganon's appearances from here on out in this era are also all beast.
There are several implications that suggest that Ganon could've won just as many times as he has lost. Who knows how many decades or even centuries Hyrule has suffered under a dark shadow, fought their own wars where a hero didn't rise up to save them?
I'd personally like to see a game where you're not on a quest to stop Ganon or Ganondorf from rising to power, but a world where you were already born into darkness. Ganon/dorf has already won and oppressed the world, but you rise up from mediocrity as a rebel to dethrone the forces of evil. After all, this is an idea that Retro Studios bounced around where you played as Sheik instead of Link, in the events after Ocarina of Time where Link lost. This could've been part of the Sealing War mentioned in the official timeline. But as we saw, this game never came to be.
It's all ideas worth delving into and exploring further.
I think you fall to mention one fundamental aspect of Ganondorf: he is always the same Ganondorf, he has not been reincarnated, resurrected yes, but not reincarnated, every Ganondorf and Ganon we know are Ocarina of Time Ganondorf, so by BotW his form is so distorted because his body and soul has been resurrected and killed so many times
The giving up on reincarnation was a mistranslation. In the original Japanese Zelda said that he refuses to give up on reincarnation.
"If Ganon were an actual character, there'd need to be a reason why he just sits around in the castle the whole game"
>Cut to OOT Ganondorf playing Minecraft in Hyrule Castle while he waits for Link to awaken the Sages
Really great vid and thorough breakdown of the character's history. I thought I'd have a big issue with Breath of the Wild and the lack of a "human" villain, but Calamity Ganon worked well for the open world setting. I'm happy to see Ganondorf, the individual, returning for Tears of the Kingdom.
Demon souls also did a thing with its antagonist because as you play the game you actually do meet characters with personality and motivation. Once you make it to the end you choose an ending based on how those characters influenced you. Not only is there a mystery to solve but its about what that entity means to the characters of the game.
So I have a couple things to say, firstly on the lack of mystery with Calamity Ganon. Breath of the Wild was my first Zelda game, so I had no understanding of who or what Ganon was. As a result, the name "Calamity Ganon" had an aura of menace and dread due to it's unknown nature.
The second thing is a bit of an allegory to Dungeons and Dragons. In D&D, there are beings called Fiends that embody the sins and vices of mortals, with three particular subcategories embodying the alignments of Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil, and Chaotic Evil respectively. The Chaotic Evil fiends are the Demons, or Tanari, of the Abyss. They are vessels of primal rage and destruction--- hatred and malice incarnate. What's interesting is how similar the mere concept of Demons are to Calamity Ganon. Demons spread across the D&D multiverse like a cancer, with the Material Plane literally warping in response to their corruption. Similarly, Ganon's Malice warps and poisons the world of Hyrule. Both Ganon and the Demons are also capable of monstrous cunning, particularly the monstrous Demon Lords such as Demogorgon, Orcus, or Lolth. I find it interesting that both Ganon and the Demons have so much in common: superficially mindless, yet incredibly cunning, and an unnatural cancer on the world born from primal hatred.
Personally, it not being a mystery about who “the beast” is, never once bothered me. For me, the mystery of it wasn’t who it was, or what it was, for me, it was more about why it was. Why he got to this point. And in my opinion, I personally think they did an amazing job with that.
I'm sure that Calamity Ganon is just a mindless puppet controlled by the real Ganondorf, to act as a diversion for whatever he's cooking in Tears of the Kingdom.
Before I knew that the whole "giving up on reincarnation" thing was a translation error, my headcanon (or should I say headGANON (I'm here 'til they kick me out)) was that maybe his new resurrection in TotK would be against his will. Which would be a lot more interesting in my mind, but hey, here we are
That is a super, super cool analysis. I'm currently still watching, about halfway, but I wanted to share my own thoughts.
I think the main reason for Calamity Ganon's lack of a personal character is because BOTW is not his story, it's not even really the story of the three reincarnated ones fighting again: it's a story about hyrule, and about its tragedy.
Think about the things that ARE properly expanded upon: The champions, their descendants, the impact that the rampaging divine beasts have upon the people that ARE still alive, the shattered Hyrule. Even Link and Zelda's main storyline isn't about calamity ganon, but it's what is being told to us through the memories: their previous relationship, and how it and both of them suffered in the tragedy, being separated by the calamity. That is the emotional core, and the important part. We get to learn first and foremost about those who died, those who survived, and still survive in this tragic world. It's the story of the tragedy of the ruined kingdom of Hyrule, and her people.
And why shouldn't it be? We spend possibly dozens of hours exploring and dicking around in this place, climbing mountains, doing quests, interacting with the world. Hyrule itself is given all the focus, all the characters and depth because BOTW is about that. Calamity Ganon is what set it in motion, but the reason is not as important as what is being told.
What I'm trying to say is that, for what the devs were trying to tell, Calamity Ganon wasn't actually important at all. Any force that would have caused the calamity or the tragedy of the kingdom would have sufficed. But what little it DID do, set things up for the future.
In ToTK, we can already see that Ganondorf is being given character, because that will be his game. The story focus in there is going to involve him much more personally, and NOW it will matter that he is the one out there taking action. We've had a whole game entirely about Hyrule, and now it's time to have a game about Hyrule's heroes and ultimate villain again.
But yeah dude, awesome video! Keep it up, it's great stuff.
I think the huge exposition dumps in this game actually work well. Given the fact that you're free to challenge Calamity Ganon as soon as he's revealed to you, despite being woefully unprepared, it's good to understand the true threat he presents. Any player foolish enough to go ahead and face him knows exactly what they're getting into. Any player choosing (wisely) to prepare for the confrontation can use the hints in the cutscenes to effectively weaken him. This is a massive open world, after all. While little direction is given aside from the ultimate goal of the game, players do need at least a clear understanding of what CAN be done to achieve it.
As an example... Skyrim may not have cutscenes in the traditional sense, but still has exposition heavy sections for each major questline. "This is what we are. This is how things work. This is who the enemy is." After the scripted sections, players are free to achieve the goals in their own way... the difference being that failure is possible for some of them. But the point is that the player still knows what they're getting into and can prepare however they see fit without missing any of the story beats. Stringing out the exposition evenly in different areas for either game would undoubtedly leave a rotten taste in most players' mouths since "fully experiencing" the game would then require multiple playthroughs... and it's not like the average person has 80+ hours to spare on the first go around in the first place.
Keeping Gannon a mystery could have been woven in with the hidden memory mechanic. Having to find those and then piercing together the past as you recover your lost memories only to discover the blight is Gannon once you collect every memory and revealing a final extra hidden memory with the revelation at Hyrule castle itself. It could have been done quite easily honestly.
I honestly think the story will probably be served better once we get our hands on Tears of the Kingdom. Gannon has always been a mindless beast form where Gannondorf is the more compelling form which we will probably get in the upcoming title. Keep in mind defeating Gannon usually requires link to collect the Triforce before sealing him away; a step that wasn’t covered in BotW. My theory is the Zonai are probably keepers of the Triforce (or at least hold knowledge of it and the sacred land) I’m so excited to see where the story goes.
I always like to imagine what would happen if hyrule faced off against fury bowser. Yikes
My personal headcannon: Zelda sealing Gannon away destines him for reincarnation, since Gannon's essence wasn't eradicated.
Gannon *did* give up on reincarnation to become Dark Beast Gannon, and if he died that'd be it, but if he died, all of the malice would be left over, so Zelda seals him away.
Gannon even tries fleeing when this happens, kind of like a "JUST LET ME DIE ALREADY!".
This is cool, Im glad I randomly stumbled across this channel
Nobody:
Tears of the Kingdom: "lets throw everything you knew about the lore away"
It was honestly such an interesting direction for Ganon !
Not to spoil too much of TotK, but Ganon seems more smug and cockier than we've seen him in the past. The first interaction they have with him, he destroys not only the Master Sword, but Link's right arm as well. And the first thing he says to them is "Is that sword that seals the darkness? A blade that shatters so easily against my power cannot save you from me." followed by "Rauru placed his faith in you...and that was all you could do?" while giving a sort of smirk. Mind you, the sword was still at full power, and the malic was pretty easily able to break it.
The newest ganon looks the most like Demise reincarnate now. Since all the malice was destroyed in botw, thats probably just why he looks like that now
28:06 When I first saw this scene, I was struck by how much Link looks like Ganondorf.
I was fully expecting some kind of twist reveal that the whole divine beast legend was actually just Ganon's very successful propaganda.
TotK's explanation of this is apparently that that ancient hero was a goat boy :P