Ocarina of Time Bosses: Twinrova and Bongo Bongo

Playing through Ocarina of Time, I was always curious about the boss of the Shadow Temple, Bongo Bongo, and the boss of the Spirit Temple, Twinrova. My curiosity was furthered by finding online theories for Bongo Bongo, and the final words that Twinrova leave Link with after he defeats them in the Spirit Temple. Like my editorial on Bunnio, this will be more interpretive, looking at possible backgrounds and futures of the characters, rather than analysing what the characters are seen doing in the game. With that said, let’s get straight into it, shall we?

BONGO BONGO

This guy is the boss of the Shadow Temple in Ocarina of Time, and prior to the events of the game, he was sealed at the bottom of the well in what can be assumed is a torture chamber. The game doesn’t give us much at all to look at with Bongo Bongo, except for the form in which he is fought, and a quote from the Old Man in Kakariko Village.

“A long time ago… There was a man in this very village who had an eye they said could see the truth! Now usually, you have to train your mind’s eye most strenuously to actually see the truth… But this fella, no, they say he had a different way of doing things… His house stood where the well is now…”

Now, most wells are not built with torture chambers at the bottom, so we can assume that the torture chamber, like the house that used to be above it, belonged to this ‘fella’, as the Old Man calls him. And then this man also had the Lens of Truth, to see the truth, obviously. This has lead me to believe that he was interrogating people in his torture dungeon, primarily using violence to get them to talk, and then using the Lens of Truth to ensure they were telling the truth.

We also know that beneath the torture chamber, there was a cavern which housed ReDeads and Gibdos, and while there are other ReDeads and Gibdos around Hyrule, I believe that the ones at the very bottom of the bottom of the well are interrogation victims of this man.

As Kakariko Village was once the village of the Sheikah, we can also assume that this man was a Sheikah, and it was the Sheikah’s purpose to defend the Royal Family. The reason that this Sheikah man was interrogating people, I feel, is that he decided to take things a step further, and sought to protect all people by getting rid of crime, in the style of a vigilante (or an anti-hero, given that his methods were quite violent).

From there, accomplices were punished by being turned into ReDeads and Gibdos, and the actual masterminds of crime, or those that worked alone, were given to this man’s pet Dead Hand to be eaten. I don’t even want to hazard a guess at what Dead Hand actually is, partly because I like the mystery surrounding it’s origins, but also because I don’t have a good idea.

Getting back to the man, the other Sheikah soon found out what he was doing and executed him for his crimes. Given that the Shadow Temple is filled with guillotine-like obstacles, it’s reasonable to believe that he was executed using a guillotine, like many criminals were in the medieval times, and Ocarina of Time does take place in an era not unlike the medieval times of our world. Given that his hands were also removed, which was also a common punishment for criminals in the medieval times, I feel that the Sheikah would not have bothered cutting off his hands if they were about to kill him, which has led me to believe that the guillotine used to behead him also had slots for his hands, much like a pillory.

The man’s house was then knocked down and replaced with a well to seal off his torture chamber, and the Lens of Truth was left down there to prevent further use. Some side theories are that the man was talented in the area of music in his lifetime, which is hinted at from the boss chamber in the Shadow Temple being a largo bongo drum and the fact that spirit hums along to the beat while it plays the drum; and that the spirit of this man, the spirit that went on to become Bongo Bongo, is a shape changer, given that the form in which he escapes from the well is simply a shadow, and that the form in which he is fought in the Shadow Temple has no disembodied head along with it, instead replaced by a large eye on the end of its neck, surrounded by ‘petals’.

One final theory of mine concerns Bongo Bongo’s eye: why is it red with what appear to be several yellow irises in a particular organisation? This could simply be an aesthetic choice of Bongo Bongo, when it took on that form, BUT I prefer to think it is related to the Lens of Truth. I believe that overuse of the Lens of Truth caused mutations in the eye, leading to its red appearance. This could be heavily disputed if it were that single appearance, and technically it is, but the Hero’s Shade is also evidence for my theory. The Link of Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask was left handed, and would’ve held up the Lens of Truth to his left eye. The Hero’s Shade from Twilight Princess is essentially the form the Link of Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask had at the time of his death, and can be seen with a red left eye. The absence of the numerous yellow irises could simply be a result of different effects of the Lens of Truth on different races, as the man was Sheikah and Link is Hylian.

My theory depends on the idea of the man who used to live where the well now stands being Bongo Bongo, but given how mysterious Bongo Bongo is, there are infinite possibilities, so be sure to let me know what you guys thought of Bongo Bongo in the comments, but for now, on to Twinrova!

TWINROVA

Koume and Kotake are the Twinrova Sisters. In Ocarina of Time, they are the surrogate mothers of Ganondorf, and are the ones who raised him to be evil; you know, that old chestnut. Well, sort of. After the revelation in Skyward Sword that Ganondorf was a reincarnation of Demise, we know that Ganondorf would’ve been evil anyway, so really, Koume and Kotake only really taught him how to use magic, and encouraged his evil tendencies.

They evidently took the role of Ganondorf’s mother after his actual mother died (that’s usually how it goes), but I can’t help but feel like it was planned. The fact that both of them are his surrogate mother, not just one of them, is surprising, because the role of being a surrogate mother is usually only filled by one woman. It’s almost as if they killed Ganondorf’s mother just so that they could raise him, encourage his evil, and follow him in his evil endeavours; almost like they’re using him.

So are they using him? They’re encouraging him to achieve his desires like they were their own desires? And they said themselves in the game that they’re 400 years old, so they’ve been around for a while to do whatever they might want to get done themselves. But given that they have had so long, and the recent Hyrulean Civil War would’ve been a great opportunity to get whatever they wanted done (same for Ganondorf now that I think about it, but he must’ve kept from putting his plan into action when realising he would only come into power over part of the population of the land, and he could be overthrown), we must reach the conclusion that, like any mother, they raised their (adopted) child and supported them.

Well, that was a little anticlimactic… BUT what they lack in background info can be made up in future possibilities! When Link kills them in Ocarina of Time, as they ascend to heaven (I still don’t know how they earned that right), they make Link a promise:

“We’ll come back to haunt you!”

Quick side note, this is what they say in Ocarina of Time 3D, in the original, the quote says, “I’ll”, as opposed to, “We’ll”, as if one sister was saying it to the other, but the Ocarina of Time 3D version makes it clear that Twinrova want to come back and take revenge on Link.

Twinrova’s return occurred in the Oracle games, and sure enough, they semi-revived Ganon, which is a form of getting revenge on Link, but the return of Twinrova is yet to occur in the Child and Adult Timelines, and this makes way for a whole new plot in which Twinrova could be the primary villains and are trying to take revenge on Link themselves, rather than reviving Ganondorf, and there are infinite possibilities in which Twinrova could do just that, and I, for one, am really excited about the potential of these characters in the future, and I really hope that Nintendo doesn’t let it go to waste.

But what’s important here, is what you guys think! What are your theories on the origin of Bongo Bongo? What do you think is in store for Link should Twinrova return? Let me know in the comments.