Ganon

Ganon / Ganondorf is depicted as the ultimate embodiment of evil. His roles range from plotting politicians to a deformed madman to a superpowered entity, sometimes in the course of a single game. Ganondorf is very arrogant, believing himself to be always in the right. Because of this, he never considers anything to be a threat and appears to put minimal effort into fighting, unless he believes it too important. Unsurprisingly, Ganondorf is often in total disbelief when he is defeated. He is not completely beyond sympathy, though; in Wind Waker, Ganondorf claims that his initial motives for seeking the Triforce and conquering Hyrule were out of jealousy for the lush lands of the kingdom, having grown up in a land where death from the elements was a common occurrence.

He is portrayed in Ocarina of Time as an ambitious, cunning manipulator, gaining the king's trust before betraying him and using Link (at the last minute) to open the Door of Time, which allows him to access the Triforce. In Twilight Princess, Ganondorf is stated as "the Scourge of Hyrule". In The Wind Waker, Ganon, trying to find Zelda, ordered a mind-controlled bird to capture twelve-year-old, blonde-haired Hylian girls.

Ganon / Ganondorf is a formidable warrior and sorcerer,[lower-alpha 6] and he is skilled enough a swordsman to combat Link.[lower-alpha 7] Despite his size, Ganondorf is very agile and is capable of dodging sword attacks and arrows. The Triforce of Power, a powerful artifact of the Kingdom of Hyrule, can make Ganon larger. In Ocarina of Time, he encloses Princess Zelda in a red force-field and teleports her to his castle. In Twilight Princess, He also uses the Triforce of Power to open portals.

He has also survived events as severe as having an entire castle collapse on him[lower-alpha 8] and being impaled by a sword, due to various abilities of the Triforce of Power. Once injured, he can be quickly thrown into a portal, taking him either to the Hidden Realm, or the Gap Between Dimensions, but this is often not effective, since he can escape, either by using the Triforce of Power to open portals, or by creating an opening in a thin spot in the continuum of the Gap Between Dimensions.

Ganon first appears in The Legend of Zelda, in which he raids Hyrule with his mercenary criminal army, blockading all of the races of Hyrule—therefore keeping all help from the Hylians—before attacking Hyrule Castle and stealing the Triforce of Power. He makes no major appearance in the sequel Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. He later appeared in the Super Nintendo Entertainment System game A Link to the Past, trapped in a place called the Dark World—formerly called the Hidden Realm before Ganon was exiled in it. The game focuses on Ganon's attempt to escape from the Dark World and conquer Hyrule.

He makes a major appearance in Ocarina of Time as Ganondorf; in the chronology of the series's story, it is his earliest appearance. In Ocarina of Time, Ganondorf schemes to take the Triforce, Hyrule's National Artifact, to take over Hyrule and "reform" it.

Ganon appears in the GameCube game The Wind Waker, trying to take his revenge on the royal family by kidnapping Zelda. In Twilight Princess, Ganondorf is the catalyst to the Twilit Invasion, allying himself with the Usurper King Zant to take over Hyrule.[16]

In the Nintendo DS game Phantom Hourglass, the direct sequel to The Wind Waker, Ganondorf appears in a cameo in the opening sequence that summarizes the plot of the latter game.

In the Nintendo Wii game Skyward Sword, the original form of Ganon makes an appearance in the game's climax, in which he is revealed to be the god known as the Demon King Demise. Heavily resembling his human form of Ganondorf, Demise is confirmed as the original incarnation of the character in Hyrule Warriors.

In the Nintendo 3DS game A Link Between Worlds, Ganon makes an appearance, though his past actions and influence greatly affect the course of events throughout the story and serves as the inspiration for Yuga. Yuga summons him back from his seal with the power of the seven sages, previously trapped within paintings by Yuga, and fuses with Ganon to become Yuga Ganon, but is defeated by Link. Ganon is mentioned by several characters and old legends, which describe his actions during the events of A Link to the Past, and his prior invasion between the events of Link's Awakening and A Link Between Worlds.

Ganondorf appears in Breath of the Wild, now as Calamity Ganon. He faced opposition when the kingdom of Hyrule uncovered their ancestors' lost technology in the form of the spider-like mechanical Guardians and four giant Divine Beasts, attempting to use them in preparation for his return. After being beaten, however, Ganondorf turned both the Guardian robots and Divine Beasts against the Hyruleans. Link was severely injured during a subsequent battle with Guardian robots in an effort to protect Princess Zelda and was placed into a hundred year-long slumber to heal. Zelda awakens Link from his slumber to stop Ganon.[17][18][19]

Ganon appears in his "demon boar" form in two of the three CD-i Zelda titles: Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon and Link: The Faces of Evil. In Zelda's Adventure, he is a large, muscular devil-creature. In the first two of these games, he requires one hit to defeat and appears to be a sorcerer with features based on his cartoon incarnation.

Ganondorf made his first playable appearance as an unlockable character in Super Smash Bros. Melee (where he is based on his appearance in the Nintendo Space World demo, wielding the large, cleaver-like sword in one of his victory poses, though he does not actually use it in combat until Super Smash Bros. Ultimate),[20] and reappears in all subsequent installments in the Super Smash Bros. series: Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U (both using his Twilight Princess design), and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee, Ganondorf's moveset was a slower, stronger version of Captain Falcon's, which is unusual for a character belonging to a completely separate series; according to series director Masahiro Sakurai, Ganondorf was a widely requested character, but development constraints prevented him to be included in the game with a unique moveset. His tall build closely matching that of Captain Falcon allowed him to be included as a clone character near the end of development. Each installment gradually made more differences between the two. Eiji Aonuma said that his design team submitted designs for Ganon based on Twilight Princess to the developers of Super Smash Bros. Brawl.[21] Ganon appears in the single-player The Subspace Emissary mode, allied with Bowser and Wario (in which, near the end they leave Tabuu's side to join the heroes when his deception is revealed, as they believed they were working under Master Hand) as well as being a servant of Master Hand. His Final Smash is his "Dark Beast: Ganon" form from Twilight Princess, in which he transforms, charges across the screen, and then warps himself back onto the stage.[22] In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Ganon's design is updated to match his Ocarina of Time appearance, and he uses his sword in certain attacks. Ganon also appears as a boss fight in the game's Classic Mode and World of Light Adventure Mode.

Ganondorf appears as a playable character in the Zelda spin-off title Hyrule Warriors, revealed to have been permanently sealed when his soul was divided into fragments and placed in separate eras in time. But one fragment of Ganondorf's soul found the Triforce's overseer, the sorceress Cia, and corrupted her, purging her light side and transforming her into a dark sorceress. She created an army to gather the Triforce pieces and use its power to open gates across time to where the rest of his soul was imprisoned. But Ganondorf's purging of Cia's light side created the White Sorceress Lana, who helps Link and Zelda. When Ganondorf regained all but one fragment of his former self, he restored his physical body so he could take the Triforce from Cia.

Ganondorf is available as an unlockable "Mystery Mushroom" costume in Super Mario Maker. He is also playable in the Nintendo Switch version of Diablo III: Eternal Collection, with the Switch version of the game exclusively offering amiibo support and additional content based on The Legend of Zelda series.

Ganon was the main villain of 1989's The Legend of Zelda cartoon, which was shown as part of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! in syndication that year. In the cartoon, Ganon was a brown-skinned anthropomorphic boar and wizard. He was in possession of the Triforce of Power, and—despite having seemingly endless abilities and magical powers—lost every chance to steal the Triforce of Wisdom. He spent most of his time living in his subterranean lair, which was located in the Underworld. He is disintegrated when attacked several times by Link's sword, Zelda's arrows, or the Triforce of Wisdom. He was voiced by Len Carlson.[23]

In addition to the Zelda cartoon, Ganon (along with Link and Zelda) also appeared in Captain N: The Game Master, as a secondary villain in the episode "Quest for the Potion of Power".[24] This was something of a continuation of Ganon's appearance in the Zelda cartoon. The episode uses elements from The Legend of Zelda and The Adventure of Link. During the episode, Ganon is revived, double-crosses Mother Brain, and is killed by the reflected magic on Link's shield.

In the South Park episode "Imaginationland Episode III", Ganondorf is seen as one of many evil characters battling the good characters. In the Robot Chicken episode "Shoe", Ganon appears briefly but is killed by Link, who frees Zelda shortly afterward.

Ganondorf also makes an appearance in The Legend of Zelda manga.

Ganondorf is featured in two episodes of the long-running Rooster Teeth webseries DEATH BATTLE, facing off against Bowser from Mario in a fight to the death, with him emerging victorious. He returned to the series fighting Dracula from the Castlevania series, this time with a loss due to his opponent's superior abilities and source of power.