Spoiler Villains in Zelda Are Crap.

[Kombatgod]

Here's a little rant:
Zelda is a nice series, of course I love it, but there's something that not only I hate, but it leaves me breathless for the lack of imagination from Nintendo: the series' main villains. I'm complaining about storyline, not character design, eh. They may be cool villains, very evil-looking, but when it comes to their backstory, it's always the same thing: he's an evil master who once attacked the land, but was defeated and sealed away... Dude, are you serious? So basically Nintendo has no imagination over a charachter's backstory, so the only thing they can come up with is that he has already been defeated? That's very cheap! I'm ok with Zelda II, The Wind Waker and the Oracles, where we got Ganon returning from a previous defeat, and in ALttP where it's the first time they stated Ganon was sealed, but then everytime they include a new villain, it's always the same: In Four Swords there's Vaati, who was sealed in the Four Sword, in Phantom Horglass there's Bellum, who was sealed in the Temple of the Ocean King, in Spirit Tracks there's Malladus, who was sealed underneath the Tower of Spirits... What about Twilight Princess? I can see them developing the story: "It takes place in the Child Timeline, where the events of Ocarina of Time never happened, so Ganondorf wasn't sealed in the Dark Realm... Ok, so where is he now? Uhm... Let's say he was sealed somewhere else!" I don't know about you, but I really hate it. I may even be fine with the seal story, but apart from it the enemies have no backstory at all! They just want power. Come on! Can't they make a villain who has a more particular objective? Even Bowser is more interesting, at least he kidnaps Peach for love!
Majora's Mask and Four Swords Adventures are a little different, but they follow the same formula, with a first villain who is later revailed to be under control from the true one. You may think this is what Zelda's about, it's a must-be like Link with the green tunic, but no, it's not true, because the few time they tried something else they made an excellent work: in Link's Awakening you're in a dream and the enemy is the Nightmare who don't want the dreamer to awake or he'll disappear! That's brillaint! In Ocarina of Time and Minish Cap too we got very interesting villains (The first Zelda is a special case as Ganon has no backstory, but the game itself has almost no story at all). But in these games, apart from LA, they were forced to make a different story, because they are prequels to other games and actually tell the enemy's first defeat...
So, when I heard that SS was going to be a prequel to OoT I thought: "Maybe they'll explore the Gerudo's backstory even more! Maybe they'll tell about the Hyrulean Civil Wars! Maybe they'll make a new villain that's a little more intriguing!" And finally what I got? Demise. an evil master who once attacked the land, but was defeated and sealed away... Aaaaaaaahrgh!

 

[SwiftestPhantom]

I agree, they could have been MUCH more creative on the backstories of the main Villains, and I would have been glad, had they explore more of the history on the Gerudo and the other races, but, they sadly didn't...and, thruthfully, was there even a SINGLE Gerudo in SS? But, back on the topic a bit more, I agree with you on the lack of backstory. :/

 

[lightmagician60]

i agree, it's the same story over & over, that why my fav zelda based on story is MC,

 

[Maikeru]

I do agree. While I do enjoy playing the game, more interesting villains would definitely be nice. My favorite in the series is Majora for that reason. Him and Zant actually.

Nintendo could at least give them more reason for doing what they do. It's not THAT difficult to create a backstory.

 

[Kikirini]

I hate to say it, but I never even thought about it. That is a little lame. Here's hoping in the future games, they are a little more creative.

 

[YogLink]

I like them

but i dont give much crap about backstories anyway so youre probabily right =)

 

[chucker173]

I agree that the villain of Zelda(singular since the whole series has only ganon as a villain) is always the same. I do wish nintendo would come up with a way of dealing with this problem, that way there could be a new spice to the series. the only problem is what is the legend of Zelda without Ganon? nothing! well not really but still without ganon there is no need for link. Hopefully the creators of the Legend of Zelda will find better ways of bringing ganon into the story besides resurrecting him.

 

[DuelMark]

While I agree they could use backstories, I don't think the villains suck.
Just because most want the same goal, they approach it differently. Ganon wants the Triforce, Vaati wants Zelda's power being the only real thing I can think of. Those two are the only real villains with actual backstories. The other villains, primarily the hand held villains, aren't that impressive.
Veran was the closest to being the most interesting of them because she's the only female villain, but she's ultimately a female Ganon who is extremely vain.
Onox though, while he's visually intimidating, he doesn't have that much of a personality.
The Nightmare and Bellum, the Eldritch Abominations of the series, are just okay. And while I think they are interesting in concept, they just aren't that great to me.
Malladus isn't interesting at all and has no interesting appearance.

 

[Forlong]

Wow. If you think Ganon sucks, I'd hate to see what you think a competent villain looks like. While you're at it, why not go to a forum for Portal and say that Glados sucks too.

When I read the title of this thread, I was thinking "okay, he's going to talk about villains that are totally lame". Instead your complaining about WRITING. The stories have little to do with if Ganon is a competent villain. If you're going to complain about stories, well that's fine. But don't lie in the title of the thread and make it seem like the subject is something else.

FYI: Ghirahim is the villain in SS, not Demise.

Also, how could you not have brought up Vaati? If you want to talk about terrible villains, he's as good a place as any to start.

 

[Kombatgod]

Well, maybe I could have found a better title, but I didn't say: "Villains that are crap" I said "Villains are crap." so all of them. This also include Ganon. But still, I think some of them are better than others. Also to me "writing" a character's story is as important as "designing" his look and behave. Actually it's not that I care too much about it when I play, because the games are so well created that you totally enjoy them without caring about the enemies' backstory, but after I'm not playing any Zelda game for a bit and start looking at them, I feel like they're not putting too much effort into it. Still, this is just my opinion.

 

[Ochibi]

It seems Nintendo's potential bin is overflowing once again.

I do agree with you in some aspects.
As much as I love the villain designs, their personality and character (or lack thereof), compared to all the other villains out there, when you really look into it, they'll end up in the 'average' part of my Villain tier--
>TOP - Villain who thinks/claims intentions will have a positive impact.
>BOTTOM - I lieka da evil! Mwyahahahaha!

When I finished SS, I was slightly disappointed that Nintendo would just jump past another character potential and just chuck in Demise. That's an awful excuse.
My sister an I had a running "gag" about Gannyderp's backstory-- It'll take too much time and space to explain it all, but I'll say this- It's was really stupid and silly, but I would think it would've been better than Demise's so-called curse.

I grow tired of Nintendo making these bland and, well frankly, evil Villains. Even if it leaves room for theorists to make backstories for themselves, I'm annoyed that Nintendo won't explain anything and never will! Is it supposed to be a so-called mystery, or is it just bad narrative and design? We're not still in a world of Princesses and Evil Wizards. Villains these days are characters and they need legitimate character, goals and backstory.

If they have a well developed Villain, maybe we can be attached to them, so after will kill them it'll leave an impression on us and maybe we'll actually want them next time 'round :\

Oh god, this just turned into a rant-- a rant to do with Ganon and nothing more ):

 

[Crofty]

You complain that Ganon has no backstory, then praise Ocarina of Time for showing Ganon's origins? Ganon being sealed away and returning multiple times works, both because of his origins in Ocarina (became too powerful to truly destroy because of the triforce of power, and said he would return and destroy their descendants) and because it allows for the secondary villains that he manipulates, such as Zant, Agahnim, Onox and Veran, etc. While one-off villains like the Nightmare, Majora and the like are good, the point of the overall story is the struggle for the power of the Goddesses. If Ganondorf was ever truly destroyed then that story would be over, and if he wasn't sealed away then how else is he going to be stopped?

 

[Dio]

Ganondorf is a great villain, most other villains in the series try to imitate him which is annoying, Malladus for instance.

 

[Agent B]

I totally agree with you, Nintendo needs to make a villain completely different and doesn't have anything to do with sealing away.

 

[Kombatgod]

You complain that Ganon has no backstory, then praise Ocarina of Time for showing Ganon's origins? Ganon being sealed away and returning multiple times works, both because of his origins in Ocarina (became too powerful to truly destroy because of the triforce of power, and said he would return and destroy their descendants) and because it allows for the secondary villains that he manipulates, such as Zant, Agahnim, Onox and Veran, etc. While one-off villains like the Nightmare, Majora and the like are good, the point of the overall story is the struggle for the power of the Goddesses. If Ganondorf was ever truly destroyed then that story would be over, and if he wasn't sealed away then how else is he going to be stopped?

In fact I said I'm mostly fine with Ganon because everytime he's returning from a previous defeat! I hate that everytime they make a NEW villain, they say he was sealed away in a previous battle and nothing more. It's just a cheap excuse for a backstory!