Ganon
is a character and the main antagonist of Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda video game series and franchise, as well as the final boss in many Zelda titles. In his humanoid Gerudo form, he is known as A massive and malevolent porcine monster, Ganon first appeared in the original The Legend of Zelda game in 1986, while his alter ego, Ganondorf, was introduced in A Link to the Past and made a physical appearance in Ocarina of Time. He has since appeared in the majority of the games in the series in various forms. He is the archenemy of the protagonist Link and Princess Zelda of Hyrule and originally the leader of the Gerudo, a race of humanoid desert nomads before becoming the ruler of his demon army.
His specific motives vary from game to game, but most often involve capturing Princess Zelda and planning to conquer Hyrule and the world at large. To this end, he seeks the Triforce, an omnipotent artifact that grants any wish its bearer desires, and usually manipulates several other villains to realize his ambitions. In most games, he possesses the Triforce of Power, which gives him godlike strength, boundless mystical power, and invulnerability to all but the most powerful sacred weapons, such as the Master Sword.
As the main villain of the series, Ganon has also appeared in a variety of media, including an animated television series and manga. He appears in various spin-off games, such as Hyrule Warriors and Age of Calamity, and the Super Smash Bros. series. The character has been well received by critics and is one of the most recognizable villains in gaming. He has been praised for providing some of the most memorable boss battles and has been named as one of the greatest video game villains of all time.
Concept and creation
Ganon was conceived as the antagonist of The Legend of Zelda video game by Shigeru Miyamoto working alongside Takashi Tezuka.Characterisation
Ganon has two basic forms that appear throughout the series: one is a gigantic porcine form and the other is his humanoid Gerudo form. In the original The Legend of Zelda, A Link to the Past, Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages, Four Swords Adventures, A Link Between Worlds, and Echoes of Wisdom he is depicted as a blue, bipedal pig wielding either a large sword or a trident. Ocarina of Time marks the first appearance of his humanoid form named Ganondorf, the physically imposing and armor-clad king of the Gerudo.For the development of Ocarina of Time, Ganon was designed by character designer Satoru Takizawa. He imagined Ganon as a "crooked and complex thief, who was basically an all-around abominable human being". However, script director Toru Osawa thought that Ganondorf should have "parts where he is rather good", comparing him to the character of Raoh in Fist of the North Star. With this idea in mind, Takizawa created a tentative model of Ganondorf based on actor Christopher Lambert. Since Ganon had appeared earlier as a boar-like creature, Takizawa decided that Ganondorf should transform into such at the end of the game and wanted to consult Shigeru Miyamoto on this, but realised that he had no opinion on the matter. He decided on making Ganon a beast "with the feeling of a pig" to reference A Link to the Past.
Following the release of Tears of the Kingdom, the game's director Hidemaro Fujibayashi said that he had approached Ganondorf as a main character due to his long history in the series. He added that he considered Ganondorf to be the perfect opposing character to Princess Zelda due to being a king of the Gerudo with his own motivations. Series producer Eiji Aonuma said that although Ganondorf had been portrayed throughout the series as an evil character, Tears of the Kingdom was the first game to firmly establish him as overwhelmingly evil by including a violent scene where he kills another character.
Names
Ganon was originally known as "Hakkai" during development of the original The Legend of Zelda, in reference to a humanoid pig character known as Zhu Bajie from the 16th century Chinese novel Journey to the West. The character was given the name "Ganondorf Dragmire" in the English version of the A Link to the Past instruction manual while his monster form's name was "Mandrag Ganon". In 2017, Nintendo reconfirmed that "Dragmire" is the character's surname on its official Zelda website.Ganon was sometimes spelled inconsistently in earlier games. In the Japanese versions of the first three games, his name is anglicized as "Gannon". This spelling appears in two Western releases: the original The Legend of Zelda, and the non-canonical Zelda's Adventure.
Character design
Like all Gerudo, Ganondorf possesses olive dark skin, amber eyes, and red hair. Ganondorf is around and was first drawn with a "sharp, birdlike nose" that is characteristic of the Gerudo and "strong, supple muscles". Ganondorf's clothing in Ocarina of Time was designed in the style of a 1980s visual kei band, with producer Toru Osawa suggesting that his design incorporate a color scheme of red, black, and gold.In The Wind Waker, Ganondorf was designed as an older version of his Ocarina of Time incarnation. The artists depicted him as middle-aged and created drawings of him "with an Eastern flavor". His robe was decorated with patterns that were designed to be a twist on the mark of the Gerudo seen previously. Ganondorf's reappearance in Twilight Princess returned him to a similar age to his original appearance in Ocarina of Time. His design was created to look like a warrior, dressed in armour. He also transforms into Demonic Beast Ganon and this concept art was created with the caption "Pig Ganon".
Ganon evolved into other monstrous forms for his appearance in Breath of the Wild. He is presented as a primal evil force that is visible as a serpentine cloud circling around Hyrule Castle. His physical form Calamity Ganon is a grotesque monster that resembles a spider equipped with various weapons. His final form is Dark Beast Ganon, a giant boar similar to previous iterations. Artist Yuki Hamada explained that his enormous size was due to the team wanting the game to end in the vast open plain of Hyrule Field. In addition, the Blight Ganons that Link encounters in the Divine Beasts were designed with similar design features, such as his red hair, as the artist Takafumi Kiuchi wanted players to feel Ganon's presence at all times.
For the return of Ganondorf in Tears of the Kingdom the character's design was reassigned to Takizawa. Fujibayashi said that he had given him the task of making him a "very cool, very awesome demon king" due to him being a crucial character within the series. He said that the designer intended to give Ganondorf an evil appearance but also wanted him to appear good so that anyone could fall in love with him. The team spent time designing his facial expressions to give him brutality but also a sense of humanity. Ganondorf's appearance was designed with the flavour of a Japanese warlord. Every aspect of his design was carefully considered to give the impression of strength, elegance and intelligence and to portray a character with fine tastes who takes care of his appearance.
Portrayal
Ganon has been voiced by several voice actors. In the 1989 The Legend of Zelda animated television series and Captain N: The Game Master, he was voiced by Len Carlson. In the Zelda series and other spin-off games, the character has been voiced by several Japanese voice actors, including Takashi Nagasako in Ocarina of Time, The Wind Waker, Super Smash Bros. Melee and Ultimate; Hironori Miyata in Twilight Princess, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U; Taiten Kusunoki in Hyrule Warriors; and Kōsuke Takaguchi in Tears of the Kingdom. In the English dub of Tears of the Kingdom, he is voiced by Matthew Mercer, who unofficially portrayed the character in the live action web series There Will Be Brawl.Characteristics
Ganon is the main antagonist in The Legend of Zelda series. He usually appears as the final boss at the end of each game. A recurring storyline in the series centres around the protagonist Link fighting to save Princess Zelda after she is captured by Ganon. Over the course of the series, Ganon has been depicted in various physical forms. His humanoid form known as Ganondorf is the king and only male member of the Gerudo, a race predominantly consisting of female warriors. His monstrous bestial form, Ganon, resembles a giant boar. In some games, either Ganon or Ganondorf appear as the final boss, whereas in others, he transforms between the two.Throughout the series, Ganon has been characterised as the embodiment of evil and is placed in direct opposition to the protagonist Link and Princess Zelda across multiple generations in the fictional timeline. In Skyward Sword, he is implied to be the manifestation of the antagonist Demon King Demise's hatred following the character's defeat. The game was presented as the start of The Legend of Zelda fictional timeline and the origin of his endless battle with Link and Zelda. In Breath of the Wild, his Dark Beast Ganon form is described as "Hatred and Malice Incarnate".
The character's motivations typically centre around destroying Hyrule or placing himself in a position of power as ruler. His destructive influence is illustrated in Ocarina of Time, when Link awakens from a seven-year sleep to discover Hyrule transformed from a peaceful kingdom to a place of fear shrouded in darkness following Ganondorf's rise to power. In Breath of the Wild, his destructive power is so great, that he almost wipes out the entire civilisation of Hyrule in a cataclysm known as the Great Calamity.
In the fictional lore of the series, Ganon is the bearer of the Triforce of Power, one of three components that form a core symbol of the series, a divine relic called the Triforce. The three pieces of the Triforce represent the qualities of the three characters, with Ganon being the bearer of the Triforce of Power and Link and Zelda bearing the Triforce of Courage and Wisdom respectively. A recurring plot element in the series is Ganon's desire to obtain the completed Triforce, which offers limitless power to its bearer. This struggle for control of the Triforce has been a central aspect of several games, such as Ocarina of Time, and binds the three main characters in an eternal battle across the fictional Zelda timeline.