‘A man is good when he is a whole. A man is evil when he has lost what makes him morally human.’-Philisophical Proverb, Author.
Once, a king of the desert amazons ruled the world by the very genius of his wisdom and power. One would think that, if such a man could govern the world, he would be the very key to recovery from past darkness.
The king of the world was called Ganon. He was renowned for his amazing powers in magic, and his superb wisdom to battle wits. He vanished men with his magic, and he manipulated people with his great wisdom. Some had revered him as a god, while others had named him a demon.
Ganon had a terrible aspiration for power, and the very power he sought was that of the Heavens. When he ruled the world, many were told he was, in fact, of the Heavens itself. When he appeared before the people, he rose his left hand as if in a salute, and revealed a golden mark upon his fist to confirm his divinity. A Golden Triangle it was, and that was the power of the Heavens.
With this divine power he changed the world to his liking; and came to pass that Ganon never made decisions that were in the favor of his subordinate peoples. It was widely known that Ganon was merciless in his chase for power; death would line the pavement for his success if necessary. He destroyed nations or corrupted their officials, and had no mercy for anyone who could stand against him.
Ganon would often have to eliminate foreign leaders in secret, and he wanted the best in that killing art. And in the village of Kakariko, a strange and mysterious folk, known in tale only as the Sheikah, settled there. These people were the very inspiration for assassins, as these people could become the very shadow of their prey. And Ganon wanted that.
However, Ganon was too late to enlist their aid, for they already swore to the Royal Family of the land of Hyrule, and they were in allegiance to the Heavens. Ganon, in a fit of rage, condemned the village to be haunted by horrible creatures of the darkness that not even the Sheikah could cage. The Sheikah were completely wiped out, all but their leader, who was missing.
When marshalling forces against other nations, Ganon trusted the Gerudo, the very people he first ruled. But he needed weapons, and he could not win wars only with spears and catapults. He went to the Mountainmen, the Gorons, to build weapons of war and enlist powerful Goron warriors. Their leader, Darunia the Fiery, refused, on the grounds that he could never trust a man who betrayed a superior. Before Ganon was Ruler of the World, he was chief advisory to the King of Hyrule.
Just as he was angry at the Sheikah, he was twice to the Gorons. To punish them for refusing him, he imprisoned Darunia’s people in the topmost mountain, and then he awoke an ancient demon that haunted the Gorons in the past. Ganon had learned to tame that demon, the Dragon Volgavia. Until Darunia accepted his offer, Ganon would continue to feed his people the horrid beast.
It was known to the people that he sought power, although he had divine power. They could not grasp why this man, whom they referred to as an angelic demon, would continue his path of destruction to find power when he had it. After all, he destroyed nations, predestined people as it were, and changed the world to his will.
It was only until after the world was freed by a boy named Link, also known as the Hero of Time, that its people discovered Ganon’s mad reason to seek power. When Ganon claimed the Power of the Heavens, the Triforce, he took only a piece of it; the Force of Power. After this, Ganon discovered that, in order to be perfectly divine and powerful, he needed to have the other two pieces. And those pieces lay in the hands of the Hero of Time, Link, and Hyrule’s Princess, Zelda.
The destruction of nations, and the damnation of his people, were factors of a search for two people. And to find even one of then, Zelda, he did horrible things. He damned the Sheikah, he imprisoned the Gorons, he let loose hell upon a children folk (the Kokiri), he choked the life out of a people of the water (the Zora), and he even enslaved his own people (the Gerudo).
All for what? To find two people? What madness drove Ganon to desire such power? I write this prose to take a deeper look into our favorite villain. It is fictional, of course, and represents my view on the matter. Honestly? This is my expression of the Zelda world. And here, I express myself by explaining Ganon and his reason for being evil.
Reference from Childhood
Ganon was born in the Gerudo Valley, a place where a group of amazons, the Gerudo, hid from the outside world as they plotted to attack the clans of Men. Being different, they had a custom: every 100 years a man would be born to become their king. Cycles of centuries passed until Ganon was born. His father was a mere man picked from the outside world to be his father. His mother was the queen, and was, more importantly, a woman with divine powers."It was already predetermined, through his mother, that Ganon was almost angelic— even in childhood. He had the power to change things, and he was destined to be a man of change. And, like all things at the start, he was a good person. In fact, in his youth, he was a noble leader; wise and humble. According to some scrolls, Ganon once aspired to join his people with the outside world. He had coalitions with Hyrule’s King, Harkanion, and sought for peace between the two."
"His mother instructed him in the ways of magic. At the age of 15, he was what many could call an intermediatewizard. It was clear that, without a doubt, Ganon was gifted."
Ganon was taught by the best in wisdom and power. But of all teachers, he loved his father, who was a fisherman in the nearby river. He learned the importance of flow and rhythm, and to have harmony with nature. He also learned that to have gained power is one thing, compared to being given power. Ganon learned to respect his luxury, and to respect those who could gain power through him.
It was, however, just recently known that Ganon had no love for his mother.
"She often scolded him and beat him when he was not doing as she pleased. When he announced the joining of his people with Harkanion’s people, she whipped him until he was too weak even to use magic to defend himself. Ganon carried this memory through the rest of his life, remembering that he was beat by someone of higher power than him."
"Perhaps this memory is a factor to Ganon; a reason for his turning to darkness. Yet a memory alone cannot dictate a person to become evil; it is only a hint. A person is not truly evil unless he is missing of something a good person has."
"Can we compare him to Link? If we can presume Link is, by birth, royal, then yes, we as people curious about Ganon can. Link is a brave young man who has honorable motives to do what he does. Ganon could do the same, and do even more accomplishments than Link, if you think about it. But without humanity, as Link has, Ganon does not do so. Instead of having pity to others, he has, in this scenario, pity to himself. His mother beat him, he’s the ruler of a clan that despises men; and he really wants the two together. As it turns out later, his people end up going against his wishes; they turn to his mother instead. And his mother constantly beats him and whips him to do better; to do her wishes."
"Through this, we can denote that Ganon becomes evil because of his search for power. And through this scenario, we can explain why he seeks for power because he wants to show he cannot be pushed around; that he is not someone as little as a man to be pushed around. The Gerudo are a very pushy people; they are feminist and very ruthless. He wants power so that he can make people do what he wants, and have them not do otherwise. This is also to avoid his mother, whom he despises."
But what of his father? What became of him?
In scrolls later discovered, Ganon’s father died mysteriously at the age of 36. Ganon did not take his seat as leader for a month to mourn for his dead father.
"This was a blow that hurt Ganon for the rest of his life. He loved his father more than anyone else, because his father was someone he could turn to. He was someone who did not wish to use him. Ganon very much fell into his fathers arms a lot of times after his mother beat him. And it would pain Ganon to know that his father could not do anything to his mother, or else his mother would fry him up and kill him. So his father had to live with that fear to his mysterious death."
And Ganon could not figure how he could live without his father. He went to his father for advice on very fragile issues Ganon was not well wise about. His father, being a wise fisherman, would always have the answer Ganon needed. He never told what Ganon wanted to hear; he felt that would destroy Ganon’s sense of reality versus fantasy (which is a funny thing to say when talking about a fantasy story, if you think about it). And that was out of the question; his father loved him too much to mislead him.
But what his father’s old fishing proverbs and words of wisdom keep Ganon under the light of being a good person? Would all he learned as a child from his father help him stay away from the forces of evil? As it turns out at the beginning of Ocarina of Time, sadly, it does not.
In the Land of Men
When Ganon came to the age of 18, he felt he was old enough to finally take full command of his people and defy his mother’s will. He literally forced a militant escort, a representation of his people, to accompany him to Harkanion’s castle in the land of Hyrule to discuss terms of peace."His people, the Gerudo, were not very happy about that decision at all. They felt they were being used against their will, that, their rights as individual women were being ostracized. But they failed to remember that, no matter how individual they were, they were still under patriarchal rule, which is a society ruled by a man. If women are ruled by men, they are not going to have free passes or the like. Ganon was no exception; in fact, he was harder on his folk than his past ancestors. Many of his people called him Mandrag Ganon, which was a very crude name to give to a person; to a man, in particular."
When they got to Hyrule, Ganon’s people were very touchy. At all times, they were very upset and angry with their leader. Never was there a moment when a woman would curse his name and make gross jokes about him to another woman, and undermine his authority. They were a very undisciplined folk.
"The discipline of the Gerudo was so horrible when they reached Hyrule that Ganon finally made harsh decisions. In the fall of that year, when they were nearby Lon Lon Ranch, Ganon was walking through the encampment when he heard a sri-yagro (platoon leader) talk horribly negative about him to her zolgo (platoon). Ganon immediately pulled out his horse whip and whipped the sri-yagro until blood covered every inch of her body. But Ganon did not stop; instead, he proceeded to showcase a torture in front of her platoon, using her as the victim. And this was all to scare his people."
"In a recovered prose, the writer states that Ganon not only whipped her with a horse whip, he also tied her up to a stake and then proceeded to torture her, using menacing words and terrible treatments. He also humiliated her and took away her dignity by ripping her clothes off, making her starch naked. He then continued to torture her by putting a torch on fire and then repeatedly pressed the torch to her bloodied skin."
"He cut her hair, broke her arm; he did horrible things to her. And her platoon, all the while, had to stand at attention and do nothing, because she told them to do nothing. And, who could in a situation like that? She was screaming until she could lose her voice."
Such an act devastated the Gerudo. Never again did anyone talk bad about Ganon after that event. But, ironically, Ganon did not stop crucially disciplining the people in his militant escort. By the end of the journey, every woman in that regiment was bald and had no emotions in their faces.
At the end of fall, Ganon and his militant escort finally reached Hyrule Castle. There, the people hesitantly received Ganon and his militant escort in Market Town. They escorted them to the castle, where the king warmly welcomed Ganon.It became quite clear in scrolls that Ganon and Harkanion become somewhat of a duo of close buds. Ganon had lost any kind of male connection when his father died, and, meeting the king was almost a deliverance from that pain. And Harkanion was a good friend in any case.
"At this stage in his life, although he seemed demonic through the journey to Hyrule, Ganon remained to be kind and gentle with anyone else other than his people. In fact, in the market, a girl rushed to him to inquire about his strange tattoos, which were symbols of his Gerudo kingship, and he took the girl in his arms and told her very humorously that they were just painful things to say he was king. Of course he set her down, but, that moment told everyone that Ganon was a very human person."
Quite contrary to what some fans may think, Ganon was well received by Harkanion’s family. Harkanion’s eldest son admired him, and the rest of his children were amazed by him. But, one child, Harkanion’s newborn child, Zelda, seemed to love him. Ganon even held her in his arms, and Zelda held him in an awed gaze.
"And this very meeting seems iconoclastic to the belief that there was always hateful despising between Zelda and Ganon in the games. But it makes the characters more in-depth to indicate that there was a love between them. Because, then, in OoT, when Zelda introduced Ganon to Link, her words can echo a mourning for the Ganon she used to know; not for the Ganon that she knows now. And one can then feel pity for her, and also mourn for Ganon as well."
Ganon’s request to join his people with Hyrule was well taken by the King. Harkanion granted that the two come together. But their peoples decided against it.
"And behind Ganon comes his mother, Twinrova, with a pack of angry Gerudo who want to, in a sense, veto Ganon’s bill. The Hylians, Harkanion’s people, do the same just to avoid conflict with the Gerudo. And, to the dismay of both Ganon and Harkanion, the idea dissipates to avoid confrontation between the two peoples."
So now Ganon is angry not just at his own people, but also Harkanion’s people for going against his wishes. Now, with this bundled with the past experiences and tales, his fury then escalates to a higher level. But he has not reached OoT yet.
The Unifying War
Although Ganon and Harkanion made efforts for their peoples to combine, it would then come to be that these two people would come together with the other races—Zora, Goron and Sheikah—to come against the common foe: the Moblin."A Moblin is almost an Orc in the world of Zelda, except there are less Goblin-like and more hound-like. Some even take the forms of hounds while others have a more werewolf appeal. It is only after Ganon becomes evil that the Moblin becomes the familiar bore monster."
It was almost like a wish came true for Ganon and Harkanion when their peoples joined forces to fight the Moblin armies. All species came together to fight for their freedom against the monsters. Grave losses came to pass during this long war.
At the Battle of the Hylian Plains, Ganon fought alongside Harkanion and his closest friend Airion, Protector of the Throne. However, it was only Ganon’s people and Harkanion’s people in this fight; everyone else was held up in the mountains to the east. The Moblins managed to break through and attack Market Town, attacking everyone. They came to the castle and slew almost every nobleman and noblewoman. However, one nobleman and her boy managed to escape.
It was in this battle, which Ganon and Harkanion failed to win, that the myth of Link being taken from war and into Kokiri Forest emerges. It was here that the tale really began for Zelda fans, when Link was taken to Kokiri Forest as a babe.
"What is most interesting about this battle is that it was not Link’s father who helped him and his mother to escape. His father died earlier, defending the king from a cluster of moblins. It was, in fact, Ganon who helped Link and his mother to escape. This is an irony that would later amaze the two of them, when they fight together."
"In the end, the Moblinsburn down the town and the castle, and then they leave. It is strange that they just burn the castle and leave, because, that was the end of the war. The Moblins came just to destroy the castle, and that was it. It seemed that the Unifying War was a waste; the Sheikah had become partially extinct, the Gorons were wasted, the Zora went into respite, and the Hylia were stunned for a long time. The Gerudo, however, seemed very controlled about themselves."
"In retaliation to what the Moblins did, Ganon advises Harkanion to ignore the Moblins and rebuild everything on the foundation. At this time, however, Harkanion feels that his nobility and honor has been destroyed because the Moblins had gotten through, and he blindly chastises Ganon. From here, Ganon starts developing a cold-heartedness to his friend. As the days go by, Harkanion hides to himself as he rebuilds his kingdom, oftentimes not speaking to anyone; not even Ganon. Harkanion asks for the aide of Impa to help care for his family as he becomes a sad man for the rest of his life."
"So now Ganon starts to lose respect for his friend, because Harkanion has lost respect in himself. Harkanion hides in his study when not addressing the people or meeting with important people. Impa oftentimes has to do the work for him while looking after his daughter Zelda. And, in a sense, the kingdom of Hyrule starts to collapse."
And what of Ganon’s kingdom?
It is recorded in scrolls that Ganon’s kingdom actually started to thrive in response to the Unifying War. Many of his women had secretly kidnapped men and used them to get pregnant, and had also gotten stronger. At this point in time, Ganon had the upper hand in terms of military and population.
"So now, Ganon’s people seem to be the top people of the land. The Gorons were recovering from attacks, the Zoras were recovering from attacks, the Sheikah are almost extinct, the Hylians are utterly stunned… but the Gerudo remain mentally secure and strong. Why is this?"
Scholars can only make a theory based on myth that it was during this time that Ganon’s mother, Twinrova, had finally committed to being a witch of the dark forces, and had begun to brainwash Ganon’s people. By this at, they worked harder than ever before, and would do anything Ganon would say. Ganon was shocked at the actions his mother took, but was now pleased thathis people were not going against his wishes.
"A desire great,
A throbbing fire within;
All is greatfor Man.
But a blind madness
Soblasphemous and heinous?
What is more horrible."
--Japanese-Inspired Proverb, Author
The Path to ArchDivinity
A few years have passed, and the world is slowly recovering from the Unifying War. Ganon, disappointed with how little his magic and swordfighting skills helped him during the war, focuses more on developing his mental, spiritual, and physical capabilities more than ever. He starts doing weekly patterns of exercises on all three levels to increase his potential. He meditates for hours, puts himself through horrifically painful physical exercises, and delves into the most thoughtful philosophy to increase his knowledge and wisdom.
"Right now, around the ages of 20, 25, Ganon is working harder than ever before. He would do the most painful exercises a human could accomplish, and could go into his own mind farther than anyone has gone before. His magic became so powerful he was higher than a wizard. He was on his way to becoming an angelic deity, as it were."
And rightly so was this calling ofhim being an angelic deity, for even his own mother became afraid of his power and majesty. With the power to destroy legions and control inanimate properties that could be used for fighting, nothing could stand in his way.
"I myself think Ganon himself finally realized how he could become an angelic figure when he delved deeper into the tales of the Triforce, about the Power of the Gods. And he discovered from his mother, being afraid of his power felt she needed to tell him, that there was a temple in the Forsaken Desert which held ancient scrolls that were entirely devoted to the Triforce and its history. So, Ganon challenged the might of the desert’s horrible winds and deadly sands, and he made it to the Oasis, which was where the Temple of Spirits stood."
Ganon had brought enough provisions to last him a several months so that he could devote himself to the lore of the Triforce. And it was during this time that he also became interested in the girl who helped him bring the provisions. He discovered that her name was Nabooru, which was a very royal name for a Gerudo girl.
During his time at the temple, not only did he devote himself to the ancient lore he valued to learn, he also began to dote on Nabooru.
"Gerudo Kings were allowed to marry at any age, but could only marry a girl who was 16 years of age. Luckily for him, Nabooru happened to be 16 and able-bodied enough to bear a child."
"But she did not want to marry him. She respected him, but was most of all afraid of him. And she was also a very strong young woman; she was not the kind of person who easily gave up, and certainly did not allow anyone, man or woman, to boss her around."
"This was probably why Ganon felt attracted to her. All his life he was bossed and pushed, and now here was a young woman who had been bossed and pushed herself and did not like it either. And he was very upset when she declined his offer. And, remembering why he was at the temple, he let go of the matter and focused more on the Triforce. It was until he came back from the temple that he asked her again, and, she accepted."
"From this journey, Ganon gained two things: great knowledge of the Triforce, and a woman to bear his child. With this in mind, Ganon could raise a boy more powerful than himself to rule the lands. Ganon, at this point, had one goal: to dominate the world.""And the concept of having a child was born out of the idea that after he ruled the world, his son could carry on after him. But Ganon didn’t stop there. Ganon also had mad ideas about ruling the Heavens. Such exclamations both dazzled and made his people wary. His own wife, Nabooru, felt afraid of him and for him."
Nabooru had come to love this man who was totally beaten upon all his life, and also could not deal with most of his troubles with a sound mind. Nabooru eventually became someone Ganon could hide behind when things got too heated. This made Ganon look very selfish and immature, but really he was scared.
And Nabooru understood it, and took it in two ways. She felt sorry for him and cared for him, and felt burdened by it. Greatly. After a while, it became the reason for her making distance between her and her king.
"There were many disappointments and heartbreaking moments for Ganon in his life. Most heartbreaking of all would have to be when he discovered that his firstborn had died at birth. Ganon was broken."
It hit him hard and painfully when his son had died at birth. He was deeming to name him Razhajin, which meant ‘Rising Sun’. And there wasgreatgrieving when he had not a rising sun, but a falling star.
In a desperate attempt to make sure he had an heir, Ganon began a procedure that would greatly and forever change his life and the lives of his people. He was going to reinsert Razhajin into his wife’s womb and reanimate him with magic, using his wife as a carrier of energy to pass into Razhajin. But to his dismay, this not only failed, but it also damaged Nabooru physically and mentally; she could never bear a child again. This also made Nabooru despise Ganon for using her so objectively.
Nabooru swore she would never be intimate with her husband ever again; she even threatened to step down as queen and become a wisewoman. Twinrova was unaffected by it, but, Ganon would not see that happen. He felt he possessed her and she was his forever, and so he had his mother brainwash her.
From then on, Ganon never tried for an heir again. Instead, he desired the one thing any mortal thing could not achieve: immortality
He knew the only way he could become immortal was to have the Power of the Heavens, the Triforce. But no matter how he read the scrolls or what he read, he could not find out where the Triforce was. Instead, he decided to find it himself blindly. He toured the world, looking for specifically holy artifacts that could point him in the direction of the Triforce. He spent a year searching, but found nothing. It was only during a trip to Hyrule Castle, on a dead-end attempt to ask the king for help, that he finally discovered where the Triforce was: in the very heart of the Hylian Kingdom.'Ganon finally discovered where the Triforce was. Through the Hylian scholars, he learned that the Triforce was in an ethereal dimension called the Realm of Light, and only a few men have ever been there; and they all have been heroes of Hylian legend. So Ganon spent many hours trying to find out how he could get there, and soon discovered that the realm was blocked by a gate which existed in this dimension."
"And it was by sheer luck that he found that gate. While passing through an aisle in the Hyrule Castle Library, holding a candle in his hand and looking for specific books, his candle bumped into a book and its wax got slathered on two books. Taking the wax off, he discovered a single page edged between the two. This paper revealed that the gate was of Time, and its keys were of treasures."
Ganon by now had become very adept in Hylian literature and language to understand what the phrase ‘was of Time’ meant. It pointed directly at a temple called the Temple of Time, which stood in Market Town below Hyrule Castle.
At the Temple of Time, Ganon is now fully convinced by its heraldry, stained glasses, and statues of angelic figures and lore that this was the gate to the Realm of Light. Now he had to know what the ‘keys’ were. He was quickly answered when he walked up to the altar, and noticed writing on it, and three blank holes at its shelf. Ganon had now found the gate, and was soon finding the keys.
The Spiritual Stones
Seven years after the Battle of the Plains, the world has started to recuperate. The Gorons smiths were now lit up again and working, the Zoras were once again swimming in Lake Hylia, the Sheikah built a village in Kakariko Valley, and the Hylia were standing on their feet again. The castle was fully rebuilt, the town was complete. It would seem that the world has now come in a balance again.But unbeknownst to the people of Hyrule and of the world, that by now Ganon was hot on the trails of the keys to the Heavens. He spent days looking up old documents before he found the location and bearer of the keys.
As he discovered that day in the Temple of Time and discovered again in the scrolls, three keys crafted by the Sages of Hyrule were scattered across the land. Each of them were made by a distinct sage representing an important element of human existence. They were called the Spiritual Stones.
“Each stone had a significant being, not just as keys. Legend told that only a specific person could carry the stones and have significant reactions from them. What is not told is that Link himself was changed after every stone was claimed. Each of them gave him more power than before, granting him the gift of magic as it were.”
And Ganon knew that the stones granted power, as well as the gateway into greater power. He wanted them terribly.
The easiest stone to find was the Goron Ruby. Ganon read that the Goron leader, Darunia, had been passed down the ruby since the beginning of reckoning. The ruby served as a symbol to represent the Gorons, shaped very much like a Goron paw.
When Ganon first tried to convince Darunia to give him the stone, he was sincere and thoughtful at first. But after asking Darunia for the ruby more than five times, Ganon was impatient.
“A year after discovering that Darunia had the ruby, Ganon finally got so impatient that he confronted him. Ganon threatened him with a spell which made all the Goron men fallible in their knees. It was an ancient jinx that could make anyone unable to move; and, because the Gorons were a constantly moving about race, to see this happen was very propounding.”
“Goron Men make the race move. They are what drive the culture to live on. Without them, the race would go extinct, and the women would then curl up in some deep cave and stay there until they died. In response to death, Gorons would spend a month curled up in a cave, mourning for their dead.”
Although seeing his brothers fallen on their knees was horrible to witness, Darunia was as solid as a rock. He refused to give in to Ganon’s demands. Ganon, quite taken aback, released the jinx, and decided to make things worse.
“The Gorons lived on Death Mountain, and on one side of it there was a cave that the Gorons go into to eat rocks. Gorons were a rock-eating species, and, this cave happened to have delicious rocks inside. They made it their storage place for food.”
But what was also in that cave was a beast that feasted on Goron meat. Scrolls describe it in a way that indicates that it was a malformation of what modern civilization would call a rhinoceros. To the Gorons, they called it Dodongo.
“The Dodongo was a huge, monstrous creature that lived in the cave because there were long and deep tunnels to hide in, and it was cool down there as well. Scientists now-a-days find it remarkable to think that the Dodongo is an ancestor to the Dodongus Prime, a recently discovered reptile that is almost as large as a horse.”
“By what the scrolls say, the creature was a more landish version of a dragon, because it was a reptile and it also breathed fire; dragons are also considered reptiles but is more airborne, and dragonsalso breathe fire as well. Plus, both the Dodongo and dragons have an appetite for Gorons.”
“But at this point in time, the Dodongo had been extinct. The Brothers Kharin, Darunia’s ancestors, slew the Dodongo with their ‘special crop’, which was, very oddly enough, a bomb flower. It was a flower that could be used as a bomb, and so the Brothers Kharin destroyed the Dodongo.”
“And they took its head and they put it into the walls to frighten away unwanted visitors or sneaking Gorons who wanted food. And the Dodongo was very big, very big. Big enough to eat a whole crowd in one bite.”
Ganon knew that without food supplies, the Gorons would quail and buckle. So, in a daring attempt to get what he wanted, he shook the entire mountain with the power of his fury. Because of this, the cavern was blocked off by a huge boulder…
…and worse, it awoke the Dodongo’s children, who had been laying in hibernation since the days of the Brother Kharin, being a secret from everyone.
“Now the Gorons are in trouble. Not only do they have a powerful necromancer who is trying to get their heirloom by cutting off their food supplies, but they also now have to deal with the Dodongos.”
“And in a dire attempt to protect himself and the ruby, Darunia takes the ruby and locks himself in his throne room, sending emissaries to reach Harkanion. But, sadly, those emissaries never do reach him because Ganon intercepted them.”
Only most of them. For the only one to slip through Ganon’s grasp was the Last of the Sheikah, Impa.
“Impa was the last of her kind; the rest of the Sheikah had been wiped out in the wars or had gone away, never to return. And because the Sheikah swore fealty to the Royal Family, they looked after the Royal Family itself. Sadly, Harkanion’s sons had been killed in the Unifying War; and his wife died from grief. And Harkanion was despairing, and he needed someone to look after his daughter as he recuperated. So, he asked Impa to nurse Zelda, and she did so.”
“Around this time, Zelda is a young girl, and is starting to get wise about the world through Impa. She was a very intelligent young girl, considered to be quite beyond her years even at her age; and she is, at this point in time, eight or something. Zelda’s wisdom was quite befuddling to some.”
But did Impa ever get the chance to inform the King of Ganon’s heinous acts? Alas, she did not. The king was still saddened by the loss of his wife, and of the humility of losing the War, that he did not want to hear anything from her. He simply requested her to look after his family while he looked after himself. Sadly, Harkanion became a selfish man, almost like Ganon.
“Interestingly enough, both Impa and Ganon were stuck in a situation they couldn’t wrestle with. Impa could not get a chance to reveal Ganon’s crimes to the King because Ganon was always with the King. It would seem somewhat sensible for him to kill Impa, but he went a different way. He threatened Impa that if she said anything to the King, he would go after Zelda. And Impa knows Ganon is more powerful than she is, and all she can do is play innocent and protect Zelda. At this point in time, there is absolutely nothing Impa can do.”
“But she does do something. Instead of going after Ganon, she starts educating Zelda in private, in the hopes that she could defend herself when the time came for her to fend for herself. And Ganon knew nothing of this.”
But Ganon as distracted by other matters.Although Ganon did not have the Ruby, he still had the other two to look for. From Hylian scholars, he discovered the second stone; Zora’s Sapphire, which was in the safekeeping of King Zora.
“And so Ganon decided to do a different approach to acquiring what he wanted. If he could make a deal with the King, Ganon felt he would get the stone.”
“What Ganon didn’t know was that in order to get the Zora’s Sapphire, he had to marry the King’s daughter, Ruto. And when he decided to do a ‘trade’ with the King, and he found this out, Ganon was infuriated. Ganon suddenly recalled the terrible incidents in the past with marriage, and he dared not do it again. The very thought of marriage was horrifying to him.”
When Ganon grew angry after hearing that he would have to propose marriage to the King’s eight-year-old daughter just to get the stone, King Zora felt he was at the mercy of a demon, for Ganon’s magic started to emulate and shake the very throne room. Yet, King Zora would not give up the Zora’s Sapphire.
Ganon felt even more wrathful; now another King was refusing him. Refusal… it was a word that made Ganon lose all thought for reason. He wanted to punish King Zora.
“In the games, the Zora folk live in the caves under a lake which poured into a river. At the head of the lake dwelt a giant fish they named Jabu-Jabu. They worshipped this fish as their deity, and fed it daily with fish.”
With this new discovery, Ganon thought hard not only on how he could convince King Zora to relinquish the Zora’s Sapphire, but how he could punish King Zora for disobeying him.
But Ganon was distracted for a moment, when he discovered a strange and tingly feeling he got when he looked to the south east. He felt something magical and incredibly holy thrive there.
“In the South-east of Hyrule is a vast and large forest, known as the Lost Woods. Its name was given after a lot of people started noticing that whenever people left for the woods, they never came back. They presumed that they got ‘lost’.”
“And yet some people also called this the Fairy Forest. Only few survivors had ever come out of that wood; one of Harkanion’s ancestors was one of them. He came out and he spoke about ‘glowing lamps’ that spoke to him. He called them ‘fairies’.”
No story of being lost, or story of mystical fairies, could sway Ganon with his interest on this forest. And one day, he ventured into it, and did not come out for two weeks. But during his visit, he discovered an entirely new world inside. He had come across a land inside this forest, where all its inhabitants, the Kokiri, were children blessed with immortality. And their leader was the Great Deku Tree, a supernatural tree that was as old as Time itself.
“It was no doubt that Ganon felt the magic of the Great Deku Tree; or at least felt a magical reaction from the Great Deku Tree.”
Around this time, two years have passed since Ganon had discovered about the Spiritual Stones. Link and Zelda were at the age we first meet them in ‘Ocarina of Time’.
And it is around this time that the Great Deku Tree, Link, and Zelda, have been receiving dreams from a supernatural source. All of them point to a man from the west looking for divine power.
He had finally come.
“When the Great Deku Tree first saw him, he knew that this was the man that was in his premonitions. And Ganon had been receiving the dreams about the Great Deku Tree just recently during his journeys in the forest. He perceived this tree as a barrier, for whenever he walked a certain direction, the Great Deku Tree stood in his way. And Ganon, being always impatient, felt he needed to destroy this barrier.”
“And so, having these two meet, was like having two god-like titans coming face-to-face with each other, and they didn’t even have to touch each other.”
The two, knowing fully well both were not on the same side, collided in a spiritual battle, where neither of them won. Ganon had met his match, and the Great Deku Tree was old and frail.
Ganon asked for the third and last stone, and the Great Deku Tree refused. Ganon knew fully at least he could not attain these stones just by threats and curses alone. Instead, he would have to inflict pain.
Ganon had been, during his time after the Unifying Wars, dabbling in dark arts to increase his magic and necromancy. During this time, he had heard news of a horrible demon in spider form lurking around the world and hunting for food, in the shapes of trees and men. She was known only as Queen Gohma.
“Gohma was this horrid looking creature in the shape of a giant, malformed spider. She could spin webs, but, she also had strange suction tubes in her body to eat off of wood, for she was a tree-eater as well as a potential carnivore and scavenger.”
And Ganon was quite attracted to this monster, imagining all the things he could do with such a creature under his command. And he remembered her after his battle with the Great Deku Tree.
Ganon had the last strike of the battle, after the Great Deku Tree refused him. This strike seemed very harmful, and it only managed to befuddle the Great Deku Tree by an emotional distraction; Ganon had made acrimonious remark about the history of woods and trees, and how they are easily burned. This affected the Great Deku Tree, who was tired and weary from battle, and so his guard was down. Ganon had put a hex on the Great Deku Tree, making him vulnerable for a certain spider-queen to be feasted on.
“And Ganon left. Weeks later, in the night, Ganon had sent Gohma to make her move on the Great Deku Tree, who was hexed and open. So Gohma came upon the Great Deku Tree, and dug her way into her. This started the curse everyone knows about.”
“Ganon had cursed the Great Deku Tree out of spite, out of anger, and out of frustration. He was hurt within, and did not personally pity the hurts of others. And so he used this wisely to his advantage and gaining power, and that was how he got his ways.”
A few weeks later, the curse had gotten worse, and results were getting clearer to Ganon: no one was going to last long. Quite amazed by the results, Ganon decided to use the same tactics he used on the Great Deku Tree on the Zoras. This time, he used something more trivial in comparison. He infected their deity, the Lord Jabu-Jabu, with a virus which modern scientists call Magnus Barinadius. Or, the Barinade.
“The Barinade is virus that is first microscopic; but once it is left untended, it actually, through metamorphosis, grows into this huge parasitic anemone that releases electric shots through to the brain and causes its victim to grow insane.”
“One day, Princess Ruto had come to Lord Jabu-Jabu for his daily feeding. However, receiving chronic electric shocks caused Jabu-Jabu to have a spasm and accidentally swallow Ruto. This seemed to please Ganon, for, not only would it cause the Zora to get panicky about their princess, it also got rid of her; he never really liked her one bit.”
“Now that the princess was missing, people started to wonder where she had gone. Ganon did not reveal that he had quite conspicuously dropped a bottle in the lake containing a fake ‘rescue me’ letter from Ruto. He wanted them to find out later. But at that time, when King Zora asked Ganon about his daughter, Ganon only said, ‘I’ll look for her if you give me the Sapphire.’ And again he was refused.”
“But Ganon was not thwarted by that refusal at all. He had not only grown quite accustomed to it, but he also realized a vital aspect about the status on his goal for divinity.”
By now, he had everyone in his grasp: the Gorons, the Zora, and the Kokiri. Three races ready to extinguish if they did not surrender their spiritual stones. It all seemed as though Ganon would get them after all, and have total control over the Triforce.
But, Ganon read the scrolls again, and discovered that he had left an important race unchecked: the Hylia. He soon forgot that the keys would be useless without a special item that only the Royal Family had: the Ocarina of Time, a powerful musical instrument that had the power to control time.
“The Ocarina of Time is an heirloom of the Royal Family, passed down from generation to generation, which had the power to control time. Not only could it control time, but it was also a vital key to opening the Door of Time; otherwise the Spiritual Stones were useless.”
And who had the Ocarina of Time? Quite surprisingly, it was in the hands of Princess Zelda, who had received it from her mother just shortly before she died. And Impa protected Zelda and kept the Ocarina of Time secret.
But Ganon knew, and he wanted it badly. If he could control time, he could rewind the events. He could save Razhajin, win the Unifying Wars, and change the fates of people. But, most important of all, he wanted to save his father.
“Ganon, however, felt that trying to get the Ocarina of Time was the hardest task of all, because he had a place in his heart for Zelda, who seemed to have doted on him through her younger years.”
“And trying to get such a monumental artifact from such a wonderful girl was hard on him. He could not put parasites on her; he couldn’t starve her to death. This was a girl he held in his arms and first felt loved by. How could he deal with her?”
Ganon tried to do so in the kindest way possible to convince Zelda to relinquish the Ocarina. But Impa, knowing fully well of what Ganon had done to the Gorons, reminded Zelda that Ganon was a changed man. No longer was this king a noble king; he was a selfish and cruel person. Most of all, he had become an incredibly evil man.
“Zelda, being quite beyond her years, was horrified upon the news. She could not believe that Ganon, a man who held her in his arms when she was a baby, was now a man who was not worthy to hold a dying soldier who deserved a medal for his services. This broke her heart, and so began a hate for him.”
“This hate was a mature hate, and it affected Ganon. In return, his heart broke, and his anger grew high, and he hated her. He was going to do whatever it takes to get the Ocarina; and he started with Zelda’s father.”
Ganon came to Harkanion, knowing fully well that the Hylian King was at loose ends on regaining his people’s trust. He proposed a guaranteed campaign to bring back the majesty of the Harkanion; but only if Ganon could be the King’s Head Advisor. Quite seduced by the contract proposal, and eager to have a friend help him, Harkanion accepted it, making Ganon the second most important man in Hyrule. He had no clue that Ganon, whilst under Harkanion’s nose, was plotting against him. Not only would he gain the popularity of his people, he would also take that popularity. By the time Harkanion could realize that he had been tricked, Ganon would throw a coup d’état and overthrow the government. This would ensure his reign over Hyrule, the greatest land in the world.
But his secrets were found out by Impa.
“And so Impa told Zelda, and Zelda knew she had to fight for her father’s life and kingdom. She felt it was her duty, as Princess, to defend her country when it really needed her.”
“Right now, at this point in time, there are no heroes. There were troubles, and no one was willing to face them. So, Zelda felt she really needed to do something; and that was when she began to realize she had divine powers herself.”
“With the help of certain scrolls, there’s a theory that certain Zelda scholars have made that says Zelda is the descendant of a martyred sage. This sage, with no name, had sacrificed herself in the name of the Heavens to ensure that her country would live on. And her martyrdom was heard, and many stood up and fought against oppression and darkness. Through this, it’s denoted that Zelda felt she needed to do the same as he sage ancestor.”
But Ganon would not allow it, knowing fully well of Zelda’s potential and of her desires for patriotism. So he decided to turn the people of Hyrule against her by spreading rumors and insidious remarks about her in a veil that made him look Hylian. And he succeeded, and the people of Hyrule began to despise the Royal Family. Such turn of events are compared to what happened in Russia, in our world, when Rasputin, the czar’s advisor, turned the people against the Royal Family.
“Through this, Zelda began to realize that there is nothing she can do now. She cannot stop this man she once loved from destroying her family and the country she was born to defend. The situation was completely out of her hands.”
But it would be the cries of pain from all the cursed races that would bring about the green-clad hero that we all have come to love. And one Ganon would come to hate.
Ganon, Link and I
In around 4365 BF (Before Flood), twelve years before Ganon would approach the King as a friend; Lady Minuva gave birth to Captain Cord’s son, a young boy, in Hyrule Castle, on March 18. This boy was already special throughout the pregnancy, and, at his birth, his parents fully realized how special he was.Whenever a Hylian child is born—in particular a boy—there is a special ceremony performed by a Hylian priest. In order for a child to be a true Hylian, he needs to be blessed so that he may be protected from darkness in the outside world, to be protected from turning into a monster (as non-blessed people eventually became), and as a rite of passage into the kingdom of the Gods.
“It is somewhat like how the Church of God baptizes their children. Only instead of blessing them from sin, Hylians blessed their children to protect from the monsters outside; and they were blessed in magic water.”
This boy, whom was called Marth, was particularly special. Upon his birth, a mark appeared upon his hand in the shape of the Triforce. This was the boy of prophecy; the Hero of Time.
“Of course, when Evil finds out it has an opposition. And it has to deal with it.”
That night, a fire started up in the castle. At the same time, hordes of monsters and demons surrounded the castle on all flanks, killing anyone in their way, and climbing up the castle for Marth. Cord rescued his wife the lady Minuva, and his king, and he bade them to run. As a sacrifice, Cord threw himself into the crowd of monsters while his family and Lord ran.
Impa secured a horse for Minuva, and she ordered her to take her child to the Lost Woods; the myth of the Fairy Children was true. “Take the child and go!” But as Minuva fled, a Moblin caught sight of her and shot an arrow at her. By the time she reached the Lost Woods, she was dead.
The Great Deku Tree sensed the special aura surrounding Marth, and he sent his children to recover the child. They brought back the baby, having found not the body of his dead mother, to their master. The Great Deku Tree discovered this child as the prophecy of legend, and accepted him as his own child.
He hylened him Link.
Fast forward twelve years later, during the time when Ganon was seeking the stones, he feared his luck had run out until he decided to meet with the king to talk about invading the other races. That was until he felt watched, and looked out the window to see the small face of a boy: Link.
At once he knew this boy. As if from a dream even Ganon could not shake off. He knew that face. And Link knew Ganon’s face as well.
"If you could imagine what either was thinking when they saw each other. On Link's part, he's looking at his potential villain; someone he is going to have to go up against. Now, Ganon is, what roughly six feet seven, wears dark armor, looks quite alien to him, is menacing, and is, like, close buds with the king. Link is probably horrified, especially to see that his dream might come true!"
"Ganon does not just see a boy that he happened to see in a dream. No, he sees a potential threat. If this boy appeared in his dream, and is with Zelda, then this boy means business. Plus, Ganon is magically sensitive because of his ancestry; he can FEEL Link; no doubt Link can feel him too. The magnitude either party feels is probably incomparable to anything they've felt before."
But Ganon soon realized the benefit of having this child around. He may bean enemy, but he could be the enemy of his enemy. He could help Ganon without even knowing it.
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