If There Was No Tri-Force, Would Ganondorf Have Ever Been Evil?

[The Joker]

Ganondorf's whole motivation for his evil deeds is to get the tri-force and abuse it's power. But what if there was never a tri-force? Would he still be evil without the very thing that drives him to be evil?

 

[bspurka]

Some people just want to watch other suffer. I feel like Ganondorf would still have his hatred for the world and want to destroy it.

 

[Ventus]

If there were*

Anyway, Ganondorf would still be evil I'm thinking. One thing we know to be true is that he desire to be the ruler of the world. Ganondorf is noted to be ambitious, and ambition typically leads to evil desires among other things. In The Wind Waker, Ganondorf speaks something about being covetous of Hyrule's fair wind. That right there gives the notion that Ganondorf is a man of jealousy, which makes sense when you contrast Hyrule mainland and Gerudo Desert. Perhaps that was a facade, to throw Link and Zelda off their determination to survive, but let's pretend for a second that he said what he did because he truly was jealous. The Triforce would be but one of many methods to exact his "revenge" on Hyrule, meaning, he could totally have ran after some other method.

So yes, from really small looks into his character, I believe Ganondorf would be evil if the Triforce didn't exist. Maybe not to the scale he is now, but to some degree.

 

[JuicieJ]

If there were no Triforce, Ganondorf would never have existed. Allow me to explain.

There's no telling if Demise would have attacked pre-Hyrule if the Triforce had never existed. If he had, though, there would have been no efficient way to defeat him, meaning he would take over some way some how, even if it was as the Imprisoned (it's stated that the Imprisoned has enough power to destroy the world). That would mean Ganondorf would never be born due to all life being extinguished. If Demise didn't attack, Ganondorf would still not exist. The differences in time would be way to severe for the same events to play out and cause Ganondorf's birth. That is, of course, if Demise's hatred just settled into him at birth. It could very well be that Ganondorf is just Demise appearing in a different epoch, like Fi says in her scan.

Bottom line, though, Ganondorf would definitely not have been evil if the Triforce had never existed because he himself would never be born.

 

[Shadsie]

Of course he would be... well, provided an ambitious Ganondorf was born to the Gerudo people. It depends upon the circumstances. If we assume that everything in Skyward Sword went as it did, but at the end the Triforce *ceased* to exist by going back into the heavens, or there was no Triforce but somehow Demise was defeated or something...

Well, yeah, I think a Ganondorf without a Triforce to seek would still be evil. I base this on the fact that the Triforce does not exist in *our* world, yet we have a history of evil dictators and "dear leaders."

 

[Dragoncat]

Well, yeah, I think a Ganondorf without a Triforce to seek would still be evil. I base this on the fact that the Triforce does not exist in *our* world, yet we have a history of evil dictators and "dear leaders."

Exactly.

 

[MikauIncarnate]

And are you sure the triforce does not exist? Hm?

Anyway, I think JuicieJ is right. Either all life would be gone, and therefore he wouldn't exist, or Demise would never have been defeated thus his hatred would not live on, and therefore he still wouldn't exist. So no. He would not be evil. Or living.

 

[Sir Quaffler]

I like the way JuicieJ puts it, the absence of the Triforce opens up a whole other can of worms besides just whether Ganondorf is evil or not. Most importantly, would anyone even be able to stop Demise without it? We know that gaining the Triforce isn't actually his end goal, it's either ruling the world for eternity or IMO finding some means of getting to the Goddesses themselves and killing them, his hatred for them being as strong as it is.

However for argument's sake I'm gonna go ahead and assume that the events in SS played out similar to how they did, only with the absence of the Triforce. Even supposing Ganondorf and his mothers Twinrova had no knowledge of the Triforce and had never planned any means of obtaining it, yeah he'd still be evil, being the incarnation of Demise's curse. Also, like Ventus pointed out, his upbringing in a harsh environment instilled in him a great envy and jealousy for the Hylians and their pristine land. Even with the Triforce out of the picture, he still wants to have Hyrule for himself. And in TP, he's utterly consumed by his hatred and just wants to kill everything, Triforce and Hyrule be damned.

 

[A Link In Time]

Yes, Ganondorf would still be evil even if the Triforce did not exist because of his surrogate mothers, Koume and Kotake, the witches Twinrova. The two don't care about the Gerudo man but rather their bestial master and the rugged environment of the Gerudo desert is naturally the best breeding place in Hyrule for a more durable stock.

I believe JuicieJ's argument fails to take one pertinent and extremely important piece of information in mind. If Demise is in the Imprisoned form, this insinuates the Triforce was already created. Prior to surrendering her divinity and thus sealing Demise within the Imprisoned form, Hylia created the Triforce. The egg cannot come before the chicken in this case. In this case, Demise would still exist in his humanoid form which from in-game footage appears to be weaker although more agile than his Imprisoned form.

 

[Night Owl]

I believe JuicieJ's argument fails to take one pertinent and extremely important piece of information in mind. If Demise is in the Imprisoned form, this insinuates the Triforce was already created. Prior to surrendering her divinity and thus sealing Demise within the Imprisoned form, Hylia created the Triforce. The egg cannot come before the chicken in this case. In this case, Demise would still exist in his humanoid form which from in-game footage appears to be weaker although more agile than his Imprisoned form.

You forget that Hylia just hid the Triforce in Skyloft. The game never implies that she created it.
Demise also appears differently to each Epoch, I don't think that He has a true form per say.

Anyway, I think he would still be evil. I don't think that his character would be that much different without the Triforce.
He likely would have taken over Hyrule a different way.

 

[A Link In Time]

You forget that Hylia just hid the Triforce in Skyloft. The game never implies that she created it.
Demise also appears differently to each Epoch, I don't think that He has a true form per say.

Anyway, I think he would still be evil. I don't think that his character would be that much different without the Triforce.
He likely would have taken over Hyrule a different way.

You are correct. Sorry for the rash chain of thought. It was not Hylia but rather the Golden Goddesses who crafted the Triforce in a time before the land below existed as explained by the Great Deku Tree in Ocarina of Time.

Does Demise truly appear different to each Epoch or is his language merely figurative? Perhaps, his curse does not imply subsequent villains are his seed but rather the Triforce bonds Link and Zelda together with the wielder of the power third who coincidentally happens to be the wicked Ganondorf.

I do agree with you about the alternate approach, however. In Twilight Princess upon failed execution and sealing in the Mirror of Twilight in the Arbiter's Grounds, Ganondorf realizes the Triforce of Power is not sufficient to exercise his will over the domain of Hyrule. He therefore deceives Zant into believing he is the deity of the Twili thus gaining more might in the process.

 

[Night Owl]

I believe Fi states that Demise has conquered time. If He has conquered time, changing appearance is probably child's play.

I don't think the Triforce is intertwined with Demise at all. I think it merely destroyed him as the Imprisoned.
We really don't learn how it relates to Demise, other than Hylia putting it out of reach and it later finishing him off.

 

[Skunk]

I believe a better question would be,"If there were no Triforce, would Ganondorf still seek to take over Hyrule, and essentially the world," This is because asking if Ganondorf would still be evil is too vague a question. Ganondorf was born to a society of thieves, and he was there king. Ganondorf was raised by two witches, and was pretty much the only male in his civilization. He would still be over confident, self worshiping, and in his mind heir to the world. Proof of this is that inside the head of the Desert Collosus, the head of a statue made to honor a sacred goddess, is an alter to Ganondorf. This evidence alone is plenty of proof that Ganondorf would be evil if there were no Triforce. I imagine that the twin witches Twinrova made this shrine and wanted to use Ganondorf as a puppet too reach success. So, Ganondorf was raised in evil. All that said, the Triforce was merely a convient power source that would make achieving world domination simpler.

 

[Doc]

He would, because he claims in WW that he suffered in the desert while Hyrule was plentiful with greenery. He blamed them and seeked to control everything. The triforce just gave him the power to do this. The source of his evil is the need to make up for his pain by making the joyful one's suffer

 

[PAPezoneJr]

Of course he would have existed, he's a being. He's a Gerudo, a male, born once every one-hundred years. Would he have been the Ganondorf that we know him? Probably not. Without the ToP he probably wouldn't have been able to be revived, re-incarnated, escapted from Dark Realm, etc... however, he would have existed in Ocarina of Time. Ganondorf seeks power, and his search for the triforce was simply his path to obtaining the power he sought. Ganondorf the man, would have existed with the same ambitions for power, and in the magical world of Hyrule there would have likely been other means (though not as great) of obtaining power, though he most likely would end up failing due to the efforts of Link, Zelda, and the sages. So the short answer, yeah, he would have existed in OoT, however, most likely would not have appeared in any additional games.