The Trouble With The Timeline: The Rise And Fall Of Ganon

Ah, the Zelda timeline. That which vexes all

nerds

hardcore Zelda fans and causes ridiculous amounts of heated debates to be sparked over the tiniest of details. I’m not sure any other series can create such a fanboy rage as Zelda with its complex storyline. There are many plausible and interesting theories out there of how exactly the story of Zelda should be told, but none of them are flawless. There are certain aspects of the Zelda timeline that simply can’t be perfectly explained, and in any timeline, some contradictions are bound to exist.

Now, this doesn’t mean I think everyone should just stop trying. On the contrary, I myself am a huge

nerd fan of Zelda theorizing. Instead, the point of this article, and futures articles of a similar nature that I plan to write, is to examine each of these theorizing roadblocks, to get to a better understanding of how to build a good timeline.

So if you’re new to theorizing, and want to know what some of the major obstacles are in figuring out the chronology of the series, or whether you’re more experienced, and would like to see all the angles of some of the more controversial subjects hashed out, these articles are for you! In this first one, I’ll be exploring the deaths and re-appearances of Ganon throughout the series, and what effect they have on the timeline.

Ganondorf is one of the most iconic antagonists in all of the video game world. Generally regarded as the ultimate face of evil (no CD-i jokes) in the Zelda world, he’s been a thorn in Link’s since the beginning. The corrupter of the Sacred Realm, the Great Demon King who stole the Triforce of power, the wielder of the ancient and evil Trident, and the commander of the vilest and darkest of enemies, he has been Hyrule’s greatest enemy for centuries and centuries.

Throughout the series, we’ve seen him in many different forms, with various different background stories of how he rose to power. Conversely, we’ve seen him brought to justice many different times and in many different ways, and this is where the controversy arises. No matter in what order you construct your timeline, there’s no way to fully explain how Ganon is always still alive despite his many deaths without at least some controversy or contradiction. Even the best of timeline theories seem to have at least one unexplained instance of Ganon being alive and well when he should be dead.

The Deaths Of Ganon

In looking at every game, it can be established that Ganon has died five times throughout Hyrule’s history. There is much debate as to whether or not Ganon is ever truly “dead” in all sense, as his spirit is implied to survive his destroyed body in several instances. We can pinpoint all of his physical deaths though.

His first death was in the very first Legend of Zelda. Wielding the Magical Sword and the Silver Arrows, Link was able to defeat Ganon. Reduced to just a pile of ashes, the Triforce of Power was left where Ganon once stood, signifying that he had been destroyed and his control over a piece of the Triforce was no more. In the game’s sequel, Zelda II: Adventure of Link, his minions attempted to revive him, but they were unsuccessful.

In A Link to the Past Ganon did not physically possess a piece of the Triforce. Instead, by touching the Triforce and making a wish, Ganon manipulated the power of the completed Triforce to corrupt the golden Sacred Realm into a dark and twisted mirror of Hyrule. Once again Link stormed Ganon’s hideout armed with Silver Arrows, but this time he was also carrying the “Blade of Evil’s Bane”, or Master Sword, which was specifically crafted to be able to counter any evil force that intended to misuse the power of the Triforce.

Once again, Ganon fell to the combination of a sword and Silver Arrows. Upon his demise, he exploded, leaving nothing behind. The Essence of the Triforce confirmed to Link afterwards that Ganon was no more.

In the sister games Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons a secret ending can be unlocked by playing through the linked game. Each game has its own individual plot involving the evil plots of Onox General of Darkness and Veran Sorceress of Shadows, but only when playing through the linked game is the true plot revealed.

As it turns out, Ganon is dead throughout the happenings of these games, and the actions of Onox and Veran are all part of a plot by the witch sisters Twinrova to resurrect him. In the linked ending, they succeed, and Ganon is brought back from “wandering around in the darkness”, but due to Link’s intervening, the resurrection is only partially successful, and a raging, mindless Ganon bent only on destruction is created. Unlike the previous two appearances of Ganon, Silver Arrows are not a necessity to bring about his demise, and Link dispatches of him mere minutes after his partial resurrection. Just like A Link to the Past, Ganon explodes upon his defeat, leaving nothing behind.

Wind Waker contained Ganon’s next death; the most controversial one to this point in the series. Again Link showed that Silver Arrows were not a necessity to kill Ganon as in previous games, but this time they were replaced with Light Arrows. Light Arrows had previously made their debut in Ocarina of Time, but in that game, Ganon was only sealed away, and not killed. With the exception of the mindless semi-successfully resurrected Ganon of the Oracles, the was the first time Ganon had truly been shown to be capable of defeat without Silver Arrows.

In a similar fashion to A Link to the Past, Ganon managed to assemble the complete Triforce, but before he could touch it and misuse its power, the King of Red Lions laid his hands on it first, and Ganon was left without any Triforce pieces. After being weakened by Light Arrows, Ganon breathed his last when he was stabbed through the head with the Master Sword. The controversy of this scene stems from the fact that, rather than collapsing or exploding, Ganondorf turned to stone, leading some to believe he wasn’t actually dead.

This controversy was put to rest with a quote by senior localization manager Nate Bihldorff on the subject of Wind Waker’s ending, and how the ESRB reacted to it.

There was no blood, and he turned to stone, and died. They took all that into account.

Clearly, the scene in question had more to do with keeping an E rating than it did with plot relevance.

Ganon’s fifth and final death to this point in the timeline surpassed Wind Waker as the most controversial one.

In Twilight Princess, Ganondorf again is in possession of the Triforce of Power, and faces Zelda and Link armed with Light Arrows and the Master Sword. In one of the darker and more bizarre scenes in all of Zelda, he’s stabbed through the chest with the Master Sword, and appears to die while standing up.

Earlier in the game, Ganondorf was stabbed, but the Triforce of Power revives him. When Link inserts the Master Sword into Ganondorf’s old wound, he looks at the Triforce mark on his hand, as if expecting it to once again save him. Instead, the mark begins to fade. Next, Ganondorf sees a vision of Zant, his partner in spreading Twilight across Hyrule, snapping his own neck. With this vision, Ganondorf’s eyes roll back in his head, and he stops breathing, but he remains standing. This death is so different from his other deaths that there is a lot of confusion as to exactly what happened.

Explanations Of Ganon’s Returns

For those who don’t know, there are actually two separate chronologies, or timelines, in Zelda. The game Ocarina of Time deals with time travel, and as a result, there are games stemming from it in two different time periods, independent of each other. This actually serves to explain two of Ganon’s returns. To put it simply, he doesn’t. If there are two separate timelines, we can assume that at the end of both timelines, Ganon is dead. There’s no need to explain how he came back for two of his deaths, because they can each serve as his permanent end on one of the two timelines.

A third return of Ganon can be explained by the Oracle games. Because Ganon is brought back from death in these games, it’s actually a requirement that he be dead before they take place. Thus, one of Ganon’s deaths sets up for the Oracles, with his return happening during the games.

Four Swords Adventures is widely believed to explain another of Ganon’s returns. There are numerous indications in the game that the Ganon in this game as a reborn or reincarnated form of the original. In the localized American text of the game, Zelda actually refers to him as the “ancient demon reborn.”

This still leaves us with five death and only four explanations of how he returned. Thus, in every timeline, no matter how you arrange the games, one of Ganon’s returns is simply unaccounted for. It’s important to keep in mind when creating your own timeline or analyzing another’s that flaws like these do exist. Until such things are sorted out by Nintendo, we can only do our best to create the most logical timelines we can, because perfection is not yet attainable.

Theories Regarding Ganon’s Unexplained Return

There are plenty of theories to try and explain the dilemma of Ganon’s unexplained return. In fact, there’s too many to document and explore, so I’ll just focus on two that hold a good amount of water.

The first and simplest of the two is that Ganondorf isn’t really dead in the ending of Twilight Princess. Some theorists hold that the fact that the Triforce symbol only fades, and doesn’t appear to physically leave his body, means he still retains it, and has the ability to revive with it at another time.

The second theory revolves around a little-known entry in the Zelda series called Ancient Stone Tablets. This game was only available via the download system of the Broadcast Sattelaview, and was never given any kind of release outside of Japan. It also doesn’t feature Link as the main character, but instead, the Sattelaview mascot is drawn into Hyrule and serves as the main character.

In this game, set six years after A Link to the Past, Ganon mysteriously returns from his death. In the end, he’s defeated again, but Zelda notes that she can still feel his “malicious essence” on Death Mountain. She states that this malicious essence was what drew the protagonist into Hyrule in the first place, so it apparently is able to live on despite the physical destruction of Ganon’s body. It’s not stated how this essence was able to take on a physical form, but if it was able to do it in between A Link to the Past and Ancient Stone Tablets, it could potentially do it again to set up for Ganon’s unexplained return.

Because this game never saw a global release and doesn’t feature Link, many hold that it cannot be considered canon, and thus, holds no value when explaining the storyline of Zelda. This remains a heated point of contention among Zelda theorists.