Twilight Princess Do You Think Zant Was a Good Villain?

[it068]

This poll has probably been uploaded before, but I want to know what people think of Zant.

 

[Myriadviper42]

If they had given some indications before the end that Zant was a bit unstable, then yeah. He was cool at the beginning, he was insane/cool at the end, but there was no transition. Ghirahim had a transition, becoming more and more pissed at Link every time they met. There were stages. For Zant it was: Cool quiet guy for most of story. Suddenly goes insane and dies. The end.

 

[Terminus]

I was a bit more freaked out by Zant until I got to the Twilight Palace. He just was really weird. Liked it, but that helmet must have been cutting off his air supply or something. It would have been better if he'd had any idea he was a pawn. All of a sudden it's like "Whoa, its Ganondorf!" Overall 8.5/10

 

[JuicieJ]

I thought he was a great villain until his personality was completely ruined at the end of the game. He was so cool, so calm, so collected at first, and it made him a total badass. Then they gave him a plight, and it gave him some character development. But, instead of having him go back to how we remembered him before like with WW Ganny, they turned him into a total lunatic that barely posed a threat. He was such a great villain at first that I can't bring myself to call him bad, but he was definitely stripped of his superb status.

 

[Mariley]

I thought Zant was a unique & pretty interesting villain overall. I didn't really care for his story arch by the end of the game however. Some missed potential there for sure I think. His transformation to totally insane, desperate character would've been more effective had it not been so sudden.

 

[A Link In Time]

I'll have to agree with previous posters here. Zant was a very dark and mysterious villain at first but was lost in transition towards the end especially approaching the Palace of Twilight when he lost his cool. His mental instability was completely uncalled for. Nintendo offered no previous indication that we would break down in an outburst. Many people complain about how Ganondorf was in Twilight Princess but I'd argue that wasn't the problem at all; rather it was how Zant was handled in his final moments, bridging the way for his master.

 

[Ronin]

In the primary half of the game, Zant was a remarkable villain. When he first strode into the throne room of Hyrule Castle, we knew he stood for trouble. And then he halted a few feet from Zelda and nonchalantly announced: "It is time to choose: Life or Death. Oh yes... A question for all of Hyrule." His composure sent a chill down my spine; if he could cockily invade the highest place of Hyrule without taking one casualty, then he might even cause those with the most rigorous courage to shudder. Zant bore this same unflappable aplomb when he confronted Midna and Link in Lanayru's chamber. He made Link revert back to his beast form and exposed Minda to the light she 'cherished so much'. So in addition to being imperturbable, he was cruel to those who resisted and or refused him.

But in the latterly half of the game, when Link finally infiltrates the Palace of Twilight and fights his way to Zant's courtroom, we find Zant laxing back on his throne. Almost immediately there's something noticeably different about his behavior. He starts out speaking calmly as ever, but as soon as his mask comes off he becomes a raging psychopath. He warps around various spots in the room and even dances around some, as if performing a melodrama while recounting his plan. At that point all credibility of his former character dropped for me. It made me wonder, Was he always this crazy? I'll admit his daftness somehow made the fight more appealing, but I'd still rather see him maintain his confident nature.

Since there was no smooth transition from collected to crazy, as Myriadviper42 mentioned, this brings rise to the belief that Zant could have been controlled by Ganondorf. That's a bit of a stretch, I'll admit, yet when Zant told the tale of how he'd formed a covenant with his master, Ganon said something along the lines of, "I will give you my power..." Desperate as he was from being cast out from the Palace, Zant accepted; but his connection with Ganondorf must have caused his mind to go unstable, and slowly lost its normal functionality. The way I see it, when Ganondorf removed his support from Zant when Link made it into the real Twilight Realm to unseat Zant. And so he was reduced to nothing more than a pawn which Ganon exploited for his own devices.

Zant was an awesome villain to begin with, and even when he turned loopy he wasn't so bad. I just think it would have been better if Nintendo let him be the ultimate antagonist, although the Twilight Princess rendition of Ganondorf was/is my favorite. Therefore I'm kind of torn between them.

 

[r2d93]

Zant IMO is a great villain. I actually feared him. Everytime he walk into sight and that strange demented screeching sound played i would cringe. Zant was so mysterious and cool throughout the whole game (minus the end)

And I loved how Zant was used. He was given powers by his "God", and decided to flaunt that power, completely unknowing that he was being manipulated and used by the very power that he worshipped. It would've mademe feel pity if he wasn't arrogant and a great threatening villain.

And personally I loved that he freaked out at the end, however they made him freak out in the wrong way. There aremultiple kinds of crazies, and they chose the wrong kind of crazy for Zant at the end. They had a great opportunity to transform Zant into an unstable, extremely dangerous lunatic -- however they chose to turn him into a goofball. It would've been perfect had he actually became the kind of crazy that scares the hell out of people, and had an intense final battle before his death. I did enjoy the Zant fight as it was fun, however it most certainly was not intense, nor did i really feel a sense of danger

 

[Justac00lguy]

Future Zelda games need to take on note on how to create a good villain because at the start of the game we knew nothing but his presence then we got to learn his name, then his devious plan and when we actually first encountered him he seemed very powerful but as the game got on and we finally faced him he turned out to be really weird.

I could see what Nintendo was trying to do but i think this game didn't need Ganondorf, Zant was a strong enough villain to carry the story meanwhile Ganondorf was just thrown in at the end but i have to say the final series of boss battles and cut scenes were amazing!

 

[AnimeHat]

I loved Zant. Every moment of Twilight Princess, I was waiting for the last dungeon where I would have to fight Zant. I was ready for the intense fight. But once I finally go there, he upset me in two ways. The first, he turned out to be a complete psycho instead of the calm and collected usurper king I had witnessed up to this point. The second was that he wasn't the actual villain. That Ganondorf was the one really behind him. Although Zant was the basic role model for Ghirahim, I ended up disappointed with Zant. But I still think he was a decent villain overall.

 

[PokaLink]

I really hated Zant, he was mysterious and cool at fist, but overall there was no charecter devolpment, he never changed throughout the game, just that mysterous persona, and then there was a horrible change were he suddenly goes beserk, and dies, we never really learned why he suddenly went crazy, and overall he was simply to easy, just dead, no dramatic death, just dead, also we didnt learn enough about his backstory he was simply an outcast i guess and he suddenly met this all mighty man.

 

[Link's Shadow48]

He was uhhhhh... Different, but he was a unique boss in the franchise,

 

[Potatoeslol]

I thought Zant was a good villain, I liked how he was cool and calm in the beginning. It made him seem more mysterious. However, I think Nintendo went the wrong way with making him lose his marbles so suddenly in the end. I might have liked it if there was more of a transition from calm to crazy. Zant was still a decent villain, though. But he would've been better as the main antagonist, in my opinion.

 

[oracleofcanada]

he was awsome.. until you fight him that ruined it for me

 

[PhantomTriforce]

Zant was a great villain. Even though he might have had a little...tantrum towards the end, he was great because he was constantly messing up Link's plans and even almost killed Midna.