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Why the Hero of Time never defeated child timeline Ganondorf?

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in Twilight Princess Ganondorf is sealed in the twilight in Hyrule Historia says that Hero of Time warns Zelda about Ganondorf and the events of Majora Mask happen i wonder if Link never returned to Hyrule again that will explain why he never face Ganondorf and the Hero of Twilight face him instead
 
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In HH (and ZE i think (and a couple other places)), the character The Hero's Shade is supposed to be the dead skeleton ghost spirit thing of the Hero of Time, meaning that, somehow, the Hero of Time got out of the Lost Woods, had kids, died, turned into a Golden Wolf with what looks to be infinite access to the Sacred Realm from any point, and can now commune with his descendant.

The timeline for what happens after Majora's Mask has not been laid out by any source, and the current timeline is unconvincing as of COURSE the Hero of Time would fight Ganondorf; AND WIN as he had done before. Unless his adventure in Termina took longer than 3 days...but then how many days did it take?
 
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Ganondorf doesn't get the Triforce of Power in the CT until his attempted execution, so he wasn't so strong that the HoT had to face him. Since the Royal Family was warned before hand, I'm sure that the Knights of Hyrule and the Ancient Sages would be able to capture Ganon.
 

silent lion

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In HH (and ZE i think (and a couple other places)), the character The Hero's Shade is supposed to be the dead skeleton ghost spirit thing of the Hero of Time, meaning that, somehow, the Hero of Time got out of the Lost Woods, had kids, died, turned into a Golden Wolf with what looks to be infinite access to the Sacred Realm from any point, and can now commune with his descendant.

The timeline for what happens after Majora's Mask has not been laid out by any source, and the current timeline is unconvincing as of COURSE the Hero of Time would fight Ganondorf; AND WIN as he had done before. Unless his adventure in Termina took longer than 3 days...but then how many days did it take?
The problem is that the hero of time turning into the hero's shade doesn't prove that he escaped the Lost Woods. The shade looks a bit like a stalfos, actually, and I remember reading a theory once that he turns into a skull kid or similar and then an undead stalfos, but because of being the hero of time he was able to retain his goodness, as it were, and his undead spiritual nature allowed him to appear to TP Link and give him visions and whatnot.
 

Spiritual Mask Salesman

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The Hero's Shade is a much more skilled swordsman than the Hero of Time was in Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, so that alone implies he didn't die in the Lost Woods. Also the Link is Dead theory is easily disproven by the fact that the fall the theory claims killed him actually isn't fatal because Link lands on a Deku Flower, which asorbs any fall damage in the game, even while in human form.

To answer the OP, Ganondorf didn't have the Triforce of Power so capturing him probably wasn't too hard. They were going to execute him but then he recieved the Triforce of Power randomly and became too strong to kill, so the sages trapped him into the Twilight Realm. They probably never thought he could escape the Twilight Realm.
 

mαrkαsscoρ

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The problem is that the hero of time turning into the hero's shade doesn't prove that he escaped the Lost Woods. The shade looks a bit like a stalfos, actually, and I remember reading a theory once that he turns into a skull kid or similar and then an undead stalfos, but because of being the hero of time he was able to retain his goodness, as it were, and his undead spiritual nature allowed him to appear to TP Link and give him visions and whatnot.
the fact that he's a fully grown adult w/ knight armor is proof enough that he grew up and lived a full life, at least long enough to be a seasoned knight
 

Dio

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Ganondorf was captured and killed by the sages probably very soon after Link returned to the child timeline. Young link would not have been able to kill Ganondorf by himself in his child form and wasn't going to murder the sages prisoner either. He had no idea that Ganondorf would receive the triforce in that timeline and probably considered him to not be a problem after his capture. I also expect the sages never spoke of their botched execution to anyone so Ganondorf was forgotten and considered finished.
 

Spiritual Mask Salesman

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Ganondorf was captured and killed by the sages probably very soon after Link returned to the child timeline.
See this is the thing that is very up in the air. We don't see the Arbiter's Grounds in Ocarina of Time and I doubt a structure like that was made quickly. We also don't see any evidence of the Gerudo inhabiting the desert, for example the Gerudo Fortress is gone in Twilight Princess. It almost feels as if there was a decent time gap between the initiative to capture Ganondorf and actually capturing him.

Granted maybe the Arbiter's Grounds is just located in a portion of the desert we never get to explore in Ocarina of Time and it was made long before that.
 

mαrkαsscoρ

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Ganondorf was captured and killed by the sages probably very soon after Link returned to the child timeline. Young link would not have been able to kill Ganondorf by himself in his child form and wasn't going to murder the sages prisoner either. He had no idea that Ganondorf would receive the triforce in that timeline and probably considered him to not be a problem after his capture. I also expect the sages never spoke of their botched execution to anyone so Ganondorf was forgotten and considered finished.
I don't believe we're ever told when the execution took place, but just judging from his looks (having a beard), I'd wager it was a bit of time after the ending to oot, I would also imagine there would've been a process to apprehend him and decide on his fate
 

Dio

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See this is the thing that is very up in the air. We don't see the Arbiter's Grounds in Ocarina of Time and I doubt a structure like that was made quickly. We also don't see any evidence of the Gerudo inhabiting the desert, for example the Gerudo Fortress is gone in Twilight Princess. It almost feels as if there was a decent time gap between the initiative to capture Ganondorf and actually capturing him.

Granted maybe the Arbiter's Grounds is just located in a portion of the desert we never get to explore in Ocarina of Time and it was made long before that.

We can't know for sure but I am of the belief that arbiters grounds was likely already in existence during OOT. The problem with Hyrule as represented in the games is that it's not consistent in size or geography due to technical limitations of the consoles and because of the time it would take to accurately create a continent and populate it with a realistic amount of people and detail. A structure not important to the story therefore might exist in one game and not another. Also ideas enter the series that were not thought of back in the day so they would have to be retroactively inserted.

One of the main reasons I suspect it should already be there in OOT is that the arbiters grounds contains language carved on the walls not used in any other Zelda game and it isn't hylian or gerudo. This to me suggests an ancient civilization neither Gerudo or modern Hylian built it possibly after Skyward Sword but before OOT.

The Gerudo fortress being gone in TP is only shown during the main game it could well be in existence during Ganondorfs execution. TP Link enters Gerudo desert hundreds of years after when all evidence of Gerudo civilisation seems to have been erased by time.

I also think Ganondorf was captured and executed in haste since he already planned to attack and claim the triforce for his own. Waiting for him to do so seems dumb as he already succeed the first time in the adult timeline.

I don't believe we're ever told when the execution took place, but just judging from his looks (having a beard), I'd wager it was a bit of time after the ending to oot, I would also imagine there would've been a process to apprehend him and decide on his fate

I suspect the beard of Ganondorf was a stylistic choice rather than anything to suggest much time passed between OOT and Ganondorfs execution. Though I won't rule your idea out, as I said above his attack was imminent therefore waiting to capture him seems foolish.

His immaculate and well groomed appearance however even at the moment of his execution suggests he also did not wait long at all to be executed and that the deed was done right after the moment of his capture which makes sense as they knew how dangerous he was.
 

Spiritual Mask Salesman

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I suspect the beard of Ganondorf was a stylistic choice rather than anything to suggest much time passed between OOT and Ganondorfs execution. Though I won't rule your idea out, as I said above his attack was imminent therefore waiting to capture him seems foolish.

His immaculate and well groomed appearance however even at the moment of his execution suggests he also did not wait long at all to be executed and that the deed was done right after the moment of his capture which makes sense as they knew how dangerous he was.
Maybe the attack on the castle was what got him arrested, the key difference being that the Royal Family knew he was going to be attacking instead of being caught off guard like they were originally. The sages in TP did say something about his capture was his own doing rather than them going out to forcefully capture him.
 
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mαrkαsscoρ

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I suspect the beard of Ganondorf was a stylistic choice rather than anything to suggest much time passed between OOT and Ganondorfs execution. Though I won't rule your idea out, as I said above his attack was imminent therefore waiting to capture him seems foolish.

His immaculate and well groomed appearance however even at the moment of his execution suggests he also did not wait long at all to be executed and that the deed was done right after the moment of his capture which makes sense as they knew how dangerous he was.
I guess its a matter of how you look at it, though whether it was immediatley after his capture or some months/years following, the time frame of when it happened doesn't really change the outcome
 

silent lion

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Or, the entire Gerudo population were imprisoned in the Arbiter's Grounds after OoT in a frenzy of racism following Ganondorf's capture. They were already reported as thieves and in TP, there are no surviving Gerudo anywhere and their buildings are replaced by a giant prison haunted by it's dead inmates.
 

mαrkαsscoρ

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Or, the entire Gerudo population were imprisoned in the Arbiter's Grounds after OoT in a frenzy of racism following Ganondorf's capture. They were already reported as thieves and in TP, there are no surviving Gerudo anywhere and their buildings are replaced by a giant prison haunted by it's dead inmates.
while it's suspect that there aren't any gerudo in TP, I wouldn't necessarily take that to mean they all died off, mostly since FSA is chronologically next and does feature gerudo
 

Uwu_Oocoo2

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The problem is that the hero of time turning into the hero's shade doesn't prove that he escaped the Lost Woods. The shade looks a bit like a stalfos, actually, and I remember reading a theory once that he turns into a skull kid or similar and then an undead stalfos, but because of being the hero of time he was able to retain his goodness, as it were, and his undead spiritual nature allowed him to appear to TP Link and give him visions and whatnot.
The Hero's Shade is a much more skilled swordsman than the Hero of Time was in Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, so that alone implies he didn't die in the Lost Woods. Also the Link is Dead theory is easily disproven by the fact that the fall the theory claims killed him actually isn't fatal because Link lands on a Deku Flower, which asorbs any fall damage in the game, even while in human form.
I've always thought that Link turned into a stalfos in the lost woods. Sms made a good point about the hero's shade being an adult as well as a fully trained knight, but consider this...
It appears as though Link is going through the lost woods (looking for Navi) before he falls through the portal to Termina. This portla is similar to others we see in the lost woods, such as the passageways leading to Death Mountain and Zora's Domain. At the end of the game Link goes back to the same woods as before and continues on his journey. So if there were one portal leading to an alternate world, why opulent the be more? If Link were going through the woods, hopping into different areas in search of his home, it would explain a few things. He could learn different sword skills from different lands, earning his armor that isn't similar to anything from Hyrule. The main problem there is the hero's shade in tp, and how tp Link is supposed to be his ancestor.
This leads me to the theory I just thought of one minute ago. Perhaps he did find his way home after mm. After all, the happy mask Salesman seemed to know the way (seeing as he was presented as a wanderer and Skull Kid stole majora's mask from him in the woods outside of the termina tunnel). So Link came home, had a family, became a knight, whatever. But he still couldn't forget about Navi, and went looking for her in the Lost Woods, as an adult. And the time he didn't come back. The hero's shade expresses in tp
Although I accepted life as the hero, I could not convey the lessons of that life to those that came after. At last, I have eased my regrets.
As far as we know there were no wars in Hyrule directly following oot, not that anyone would have been strong enough to defeat him anyway. It would make more sense for him to die as a hero trying to do something for a friend, and ending up as a poe or stalfos as a cost.
Sorry for the mini rant, this just occurred to me and I'm curios to know if anyone else has considered this (or if there's any better evidence than me pulling one quote)
 

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