Ganondorf's Mother?

[snilges]

We all know that Ganondorf's surrogate mothers are Koume and Kotake, the Twinrova Sisters. But who is Ganondor'fs actual mother? It can't be Nabooru, because she is to young, although that would make one heck of a heart-string puller. And it can't be any of the thieves, because they are too young, too. Who could Ganondorf's real mother be? Could she have had an influence on Ganondorf's evil intent? Thoughts?

 

[BoxTar]

Hmm...never thought of that one before...

A theory of why we may not see her is dying in child-birth, or dying shortly after he is born. Could store up some problems for him, but nothing like world domination or evil intentions. Just loneliness, maybe, as a kid. That's all speculation. Even after she hypothetically passed on, he still had Koume and Kotake...the crazy hags.

Ganondorf was evil not because of mommy issues, but destiny and...y'know they never did explain why. Whatever. That's my theory. She was mostly likely an elder Gerudo, one who ruled possibly. The better question: If there is only a male once every generation, who would his FATHER be?

 

[OcarinistOfTime]

Maybe Ganondorf is his own father through some crazy time paradox since he's the only Gerudo male ever seen, I'm not sure how much of that statement is a joke. As for Ganondorf's mother, it's pretty clear that Koume and Kotake bred Ganondorf to be a powerful and evil king. Perhaps the witches killed his mother to obtain a slice of power in the Gerudo Valley by raising the king. It doesn't seem beneath them at all.

 

[felipe970421]

Hmm, have you ever noticed how all Gerudos are 20-something females, and how Ganondorf seemingly lives for 100s of years? This age may be due to the influence of the triforce, but then there's Koume and Kotake, who claim to be "only" 400 years old, who's to say the Gerudo age the same way as Hylians?

 

[ihateghirahim]

Well Koume and Kotake are 400 years old, but a Gerudo male is born every one hundred years. I like to think they all give birth by the existing Gerudo male, and some enchantment prevents others from being born. I guess the Gerudo practice incest. This probably led to total inbreeding and that's why they all look the same. So they're a bunch of freaky inbreeders, way to go nintendo!

 

[DekuPrincess]

The flirtatious behavior of the Gerudo and various comments by besotted Hylian males seem to indicate (in a very E-rated Nintendo way) that the fathers of Gerudos are not necessarily Gerudo--that only the mother has to be a Gerudo. There are real life examples of predominantly female societies where partners are taken from outside the society and then discarded and all male children are sent away--the difference with the Gerudo is that they have a genetic marker which prevents the birth of a male child more than once every 100 years. It could be that the only way a Gerudo gives birth to a male child is if the father is also Gerudo, which would help to explain why there are so many evil Gerudo kings; they pass that trait down patrilinearly but the trait of being a Gerudo is matrilinear.

Additionally, as far as the identity of Ganondorf's mother and subsequent influence, I think that it is most likely that Ganandorf's mother either died in childbirth or shorty after or was separated from him in some other fashion. It wouldn't make sense for Koume and Kotake to be surrogate mothers to someone whose actual mother is in the picture.

 

[Satsy]

I find it interesting that realistically we know as much about Ganondorf's parents as we do about Link's. The people who birthed the protagonist and the antagonist are relatively obscure throughout the series. Heck only in one game do we actually see Zelda's father, and that's Minish Cap (The King of Red Lions wouldn't have been Tetra's father as he was the King who saw Hyrule sink. He's an ancestor, not likely her father). More often than not they spend their time growing up under guardians, or indirect relatives. It's actually kinda cool that Ganon, for his unpleasant role in their destiny, shares even that much with those he's always fighting.

 

[Dragoncat]

Heck only in one game do we actually see Zelda's father, and that's Minish Cap.

Skyward Sword shows him too.

But on the subject of Ganondorf, I think Twinrova killed his mother and possibly his father too, then raised him to believe the hylians did it, and that's where all his hate comes from. As far as the identity of his birth parents...who knows? The mother was obviously a gerudo, likely a high ranking one, or else she wouldn't have been assassinated by the witches. There are two possibilities for his father. Either the previous gerudo king, also killed by the witches, or a random male hylian. Random male hylians probably father a lot of gerudos. What happens to them afterward and before is anyone's guess...I mean, we know the Kakariko carpenters were captured, but were they going to be used as gerudo studs, or were they considered too weak and wimpy? Anyone else find it odd that Link wasn't put in the same cells? They let him keep all his weapons, and after he managed to rescue the carpenters, they let him run around the fortress freely. Looks to me like they found him a much better option than the carpenters...Nabooru even implies it...

 

[OcarinaBoy]

I have a bit of a theory on this one as well. My thoughts stem from my childhood, back when I didn't know what the term "surrogate" meant. I always viewed Kotake's and Koume's fused form (Twinrova I think. I can't remember if that's the name of their fusion or a collective name for the two of them, but I'm using it as the former for distiction between the three beings) as Ganondorf's mother. Now that I'm a bit smarter, I've managed to work that thought into a theory that makes quite a bit sense (to me at least): Twinrova, their fused form, is Ganondorf's mother, and the two as seperate beings would be surrogate mothers since Kotake and Koume as individuals both technically are and are not his mother. I did a bit of digging to back this up, and I found something interesting in Navi's comments.

Navi states for Kotake and Koume: "Ganondorf's surrogate mother. Sorceress of (Ice/Flame). She seems vulnerable to (high/low) temperatures." (Note: Kotake's comment uses the first word surrounded by parentheses and Koume's uses the second).

For Twinrova, Navi says this: "This is the combined form of Kotake and Koume. Turn their magic attack back at them!"

Notice that as soon as the two fuse together, Navi completely drops the surrogate mother comment. I believe the reason for this is that Twinrova is not Ganondorf's surrogate mother, but his actual mother.

The better question: If there is only a male once every generation, who would his FATHER be?

As for this, there is a Gossip Stone somewhere that basically answers this question for you. It states, "They say that Gerudo sometimes come to Hyrule Castle Town to look for boyfriends". So that answers that.