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Twilight Princess Did You Know That Zant Was Crazy Before He Flipped Out?

Zant is famous for a lot of things, being a 'pawn', looking like a big fat blue ooccoo and being 'crazy'.

Through my first playthrough of TP, I knew something was odd about him and knew that he wasn't all there and could probably be prone to random bouts of crazy, I was right and not surprised when he lost his mind in the Palace of Twilight, but did you know he was going to flip out? Did you know he was crazy before he went crazy?
 
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JuicieJ

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I never saw it coming, so I initially found it jarring. However, the story is written to where he was always crazy, but he restrained himself until the end. It wasn't handled as well as it could have been, but... Wait, no no no. Tangent. Bad JJ.

No, I didn't know he was. :)
 

Violet Link

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Well when I first began playing TP, I actually knew something was up with Zant. The way he acts to Midna and everything. When he whispered to Midna after you completed the Water Temple, well, my suspicious began to rise on him.

As I reached at The Palace of Twilight and realized the boss was Zant, I was half surprised- one was I didn't expect that he was going to be a boss since he's such an important character and the other is he's really weird.

So yeah, I do realize that he was crazy before he even went crazy.
 

Justac00lguy

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I actually never saw it coming o_o

At first I was like "whoa" who is this? Zant seemed very strange he had that presence, the way he just took over Hyrule Castle with ease, his appearance even the music...everything all just fitted and Zant still remains the only Villain today to give that scare factor. Now just as we though we were progressing after the Lakebed Temple
Zant appear's out of know where and then we get an insight into just who he is, he seems to just take out the light spirit as if it was nothing and then he manipulates Midna and the fused shadows he then with a small ounce of his magic curses link
At this moment of time I was thinking that Zant may just be the most fearful and powerful Villain I have ever seen.

When we reached Zant is the Palace of Twilight I was in a way expecting him to be just as fearful as he was before but instead he flipped out! As soon as he took his mask off I was disappointed he straight away lost a bit of his fear factor and when he started going all crazy all the fear and build up the game was creating had indeed went. Don't get me wrong I still like Zant, the battle was good and it made for a neat plot twist but it seems all that build up was for nothing and Zant was just a decoy (Spoiler) for the real Villain Ganondorf and of course in a way Nintendo had to tone down Zant as at that moment for me Zant was a better Villain than Ganondorf had ever been.
 

ihateghirahim

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He wasn't totally crazy. He was calm and collected throughout the game. I guess he just broke down from it all towards the ending. He caused too much pain and failed too many times.
 

DarkestLink

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It seemed obvious from the first time Link actually met him. He was acting very weird and somewhat spazzy at times with how he was moving, not to mention his appearance (from what we could see at the time). Take away his high voice and I couldn't really notice a difference in behavior.
 

Sir Quaffler

May we meet again
I didn't see it coming.

I think that it's a very interesting aspect of Zant, how he can play the cold, intimidating, and fear-inducing villain throughout with his mask on, but when revealed at the end, his true persona is that of a raging, frothing lunatic.

I think that it should have been handled better, that we should have seen slightly more insight into his true personality before the very end, but I still like it for all it's worth.
 

TheRizardon

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I didn't know he was crazy before the Palace of Twilight. I couldn't really tell by the way he was acting. It was unexpected for me.
 

Random Person

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As stated, the story was written so that Zant was always crazy, but no I did not see his outburst coming. This is something I actually dislike about TP (I'm sorry TP, please forgive me but I must state my beliefs! :kawaii:). I've seen Zant's stereotype many times before: a Person trying to keep cool but is really not all there. The problem with Zant is that he doesn't show any signs of the "not all being there" that I've seen before. He's completely calm throughout every encounter with Link and Midna. He never loses his cool even when he loses. Zant going insane at the throne scene had no build up to it, similar to the Fi emotional scene at the end of SS. If he had slowly changed over a course of time, like Ghirahim did, a jump to crazy would seem much more realistic. Now I'm not against instant change. Groose went through an instant change and is one of my favorite characters in the series. The difference between Groose and Zant, however, is that Groose went through something that made him change instantly (witnessing Link defeat a horrible monster-beast-shark-whale-thing), whereas Zant sparactically changed so while telling a story. Without either proper build-up, or an event that calls for it, changing Personalities on the fly like that is very... well... Random.

I did not see Zant's Personality change coming and imo it was executed poorly.
 

DekuPrincess

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Zant going insane at the throne scene had no build up to it, similar to the Fi emotional scene at the end of SS. If he had slowly changed over a course of time, like Ghirahim did, a jump to crazy would seem much more realistic...I did not see Zant's Personality change coming and imo it was executed poorly.

I disagree. I also didn't see it coming but for me that actually made it more powerful. When you watch someone gradually losing control, like Ghirahim, it doesn't have much of an impact when they fully disintegrate mentally. Seeing someone who is trying and trying to hold it together just snap like Zant does is much more chilling, imo, because it means that this craziness was inside the whole time but we just couldn't see it. It makes you start to wonder, who else is barely holding it together? Who else could snap at any minute? The first time I played through the game I found the whole scene in the throne room so unsettling that it resulted in the actual fight being one of the most stressful in the game because I wasn't expecting such a dramatic shift in his behavior and felt completely unprepared for what was coming as a result. For me, it is one of the greatest moments in the game, and I still get a little shaky headed into that fight.
 

Random Person

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I disagree. I also didn't see it coming but for me that actually made it more powerful. When you watch someone gradually losing control, like Ghirahim, it doesn't have much of an impact when they fully disintegrate mentally. Seeing someone who is trying and trying to hold it together just snap like Zant does is much more chilling, imo, because it means that this craziness was inside the whole time but we just couldn't see it. It makes you start to wonder, who else is barely holding it together? Who else could snap at any minute? The first time I played through the game I found the whole scene in the throne room so unsettling that it resulted in the actual fight being one of the most stressful in the game because I wasn't expecting such a dramatic shift in his behavior and felt completely unprepared for what was coming as a result. For me, it is one of the greatest moments in the game, and I still get a little shaky headed into that fight.

Fine, you're entitled to your opinion. But...

As I said in my first post, I'm not against instant change. If executed properly, instant change is awesome. As I said, Zant had no real reason to instantly change, unlike Groose, whom had just witnessed something awe inspiring that forced him to humble himself and realize his place. Zant was retelling his story to Link and Midna. Where in this situation is there a need to go crazy, or as other people put it, suddenly reveal what he was keeping down? Perhaps his emotional past finally made him lose it? Perhaps his anger finally had an outlet? These are assumptions that are very difficult to make with the information given, especially since Zant has shown absolutely no sign prior til.
 

DekuPrincess

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I always saw it more as the trope of the psychotic who is dying to tell his story to someone but the telling of the story is what makes all of their carefully constructed walls crumble to reveal the previously well hidden insanity.
 
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Yes. The game kind of hints that that's the reason why Zant was passed down for the throne.

Personally I love that Zant's crazy. I feel that it makes him stand out from all the Ganon wannabes.
 

Vanessa28

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In the very beginning no. But especially after the Lakebed Temple scene you could see a change in his behavior. He still remained calm but was losing his temper a bit. I thought him going beserk was really cool though. He completely freaked out because of his frustration and anger and hate but still it was funny to see him jumping up and down. However in the battle he lost a bit of his cool and funny attitude
 

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