- Joined
- Aug 25, 2012
- Location
- Indiana, USA
...Wow. I wasn't even paying attention, and this poll became pretty popular.
Ganondorf kind of walks a fine line. On one end, he risks becoming too familiar and losing his luster, like Bowser from Mario or Ridley from Metroid. On the other, he represents a primal human fear: inescapable death. Because he keeps coming back, because you just can't kill him for good, he turns into a guy you kind of have to respect. And I do have to hand it to Nintendo for not obligatorily featuring him in almost every Zelda game. They give time for his presence to cool down, then show him off again when the time is right.
It's kind of like an actor's relationship to his fans, when you think about it. If you liked him the first time, you'll want to see him again. See him too often, though, and you may get sick of him. Ganondorf didn't start off as an interesting character, but his constant presence in the series has gradually built him into one. In the Oracle games, we see just how far his surrogate mothers go to revive him, even bringing him back as a mindless, broken beast. In The Wind Waker, it's hinted that he probably had a heart and a soul at one point before being fully corrupted by evil. Skyward Sword, of course, introduced the concept that he, Link, and Zelda were bound by a curse to always return. As time has passed, he's turned into a guy a lot of people want to know more about, and Nintendo hasn't really seized that opportunity like they should have. Which brings us back to Zelda U.
Ganondorf kind of walks a fine line. On one end, he risks becoming too familiar and losing his luster, like Bowser from Mario or Ridley from Metroid. On the other, he represents a primal human fear: inescapable death. Because he keeps coming back, because you just can't kill him for good, he turns into a guy you kind of have to respect. And I do have to hand it to Nintendo for not obligatorily featuring him in almost every Zelda game. They give time for his presence to cool down, then show him off again when the time is right.
It's kind of like an actor's relationship to his fans, when you think about it. If you liked him the first time, you'll want to see him again. See him too often, though, and you may get sick of him. Ganondorf didn't start off as an interesting character, but his constant presence in the series has gradually built him into one. In the Oracle games, we see just how far his surrogate mothers go to revive him, even bringing him back as a mindless, broken beast. In The Wind Waker, it's hinted that he probably had a heart and a soul at one point before being fully corrupted by evil. Skyward Sword, of course, introduced the concept that he, Link, and Zelda were bound by a curse to always return. As time has passed, he's turned into a guy a lot of people want to know more about, and Nintendo hasn't really seized that opportunity like they should have. Which brings us back to Zelda U.
