The History of Ganondorf - ZELDA LORE

Ganondorf King of the Gerudo the human form of the dark Beast Ganon the demon Thief himself is back and it's certainly been a while we last Saw ganondorf's human form causing trouble back in 2006 Twilight Princess where he was defeated by Link and Princess Zelda but naturally his fingerprints are all over the convoluted Zelda timeline and with tears of the Kingdom Reviving The Ginger devil what better time to refresh yourself on the history of the Legend of Zelda's iconic villain so from his Origins within the desert dwelling Gerudo tribe through to his return in tears of the Kingdom this is the complete timeline of Ganondorf [Music] first things first the basics Ganon or Ganondorf is featured in a multitude of different forms and geysers across the franchise which can confuse things slightly so let's break down the key differences between your ganons giganendorfs and even your Calamity ganons for starters Ganondorf is the true human form of the iconic villain a man born into the desert dwelling female-centric Gerudo tribe upon utilizing the power of the Triforce Ganondorf is able to transform into the monstrous pig Beast Ganon who ensure is a Reincarnation of the original Demon King demise from Skyward Sword more on him very shortly and finally there's Calamity Ganon who is simply put more of a destructive force of nature [Music] we only see this rendition of Ganon in breath of the wild which is set about 10 000 years into the future and so presumably Ganon has rejected his physical form in order to fully commit to demise's Pure Evil he still looks a bit like a giant pig though albeit a Nifty neon pink oh and when he's having his 100 year long hibernation in breath of the wild he takes on the form of a creepy spider-like monster too so add that to the pile [Music] while Ganondorf doesn't come into the complex Zelda Timeline until Ocarina of Time his Origins actually start right back at the very beginning of it all with the cheerful tale of demise [Music] demise was the original flame-haired Demon King Who Rose from within a great chasm in the ground at the beginning of time after a lengthy battle between demise and the goddess hylia The Demon King was sealed away but that seal didn't last after a lengthy hibernation demise was finally reawakened by his flamboyant Lieutenant a lad called girohim during the conclusion of Skyward Sword but a young hero known as link and a girl called Zelda who turns out to be the reborn goddess hylia by the way were successful in fighting back against demise and upon his defeat at the hands of the master sword he poured all his hatred for hylia and the world into the iconic blade which kick-started a curse that would last for eternity and so the foundation for ganondor's rise to power was established [Music] OK during the era of the hero of time Ganondorf is Born Into the Gerudo tribe the desert dwelling people have a strange tradition that sees one male born into their tribe every 100 years and our Ganondorf just so happens to be that one lad in a century and as per Gerudo custom this makes him the de facto leader of the tribe he's raised by the twin sisters kume and katake AKA twin Rover and as they are rotten to the core Ganondorf grows up to be a real bad egg due due to his possession of rare magical abilities and an all-consuming desire for power Ganondorf rallied against the control of the kingdom of Hyrule killing and thieving in the name of the Gerudo who he felt had been marginalized after a lengthy Civil War the Garuda tribe eventually swore fealty to Hyrule and Ganondorf bent the knee to the king but this act just provided him with the cover to secretly set an action his plans to seize the Triforce and Ganondorf succeeded in this treacherous plan soon after his duplicitous deal with the King shadowing young Link and following him into the sacred realm to take possession of the Triforce only when he got his hands on it the Triforce split into three pieces with only the Triforce of power remaining in the hands of the demon Thief His invasion of the Sacred realm turned Hyrule castle and the surrounding Town into a hellscape and Ganondorf went about hunting down the remaining two Triforce pieces in his quest to own them all Ganondorf came back into the path of the hero of time and Princess Zelda and in his mad attempts to possess the entire Triforce he transformed into the dark Beast Ganon for the very first time [Music] and well this is where things get a little confusing foreign oh yep the big timeline split in Zelda is well documented even by me on this very Channel and Ganondorf is right at the heart of it with all the timey whininess of Ocarina of Time the Zelda Timeline splits three ways depending on various outcomes from the climactic battle between link and Ganondorf there's the hero is defeated branch and the hero is triumphant branch which itself splits two ways following a timeline where link returns to his childhood and one which follows on after he vanishes yeah it's confusing but our loud Ganondorf or his alter ego Ganon feature in all three of them so let's get into it foreign let's start with the defeat timeline Ganondorf is successful in defeating the hero of time and for his troubles he takes possession of the full Triforce which transforms him into his Porky Beast form Ganon despite his victory he's still sealed away in the sacred Realm by its protective sages which allows a shaky piece to descend on Hyrule but ganondorf's sheer hatred and ill will towards the hero of time and Princess Zelda is enough to ensure that his imprisonment in the sacred realm isn't Everlasting and while in the sacred realm Ganondorf gives it a little makeover turning the place into the dark world that players visit in A Link to the Past talking of a link to the past that's where we venture next seeking to break free of the Dark World Ganon sends the priest of Darkness agonim to do his bidding and create a path to Hyrule wide enough for the giant pig to fit through only he's once again thwarted by a young hero dressed in green who defeats him once and for all while also taking back possession of the Triforce for the Hyrule royal family [Music] 's death the Dark World eventually Fades away Ganon doesn't stay dead for long though he's resurrected via a dodgy ceremony led by his old mates a pair of twin witches known as twin Rover in the Oracle games the ceremony itself is something of a botch job though and twin Rover end up having to sacrifice themselves after Link's Intervention which leads to Ganon returning as a brainless Pig suffice to say this version of Ganon does not last long Ganon is then resurrected once again at the climax of A Link Between Worlds by an evil wizard fella called Yuga who seeks to fuse himself with the giant pig as a means to save his world of Laurel at the hands of its more privileged twin Hyrule once again a young Laden green Rises to the challenge and overcomes the revived Ganon once more but wait there is one more Resurrection in this branch of the timeline and that's ganon's appearance in the original 1986 Legend of Zelda he's resurrected off screen in this iteration though and after so many resurrections he's merely a shadow of his original human form either way the giant pigs amassed an army of demons and is stormed through Hyrule prompting the latest Princess Zelda to split the Triforce of wisdom into eight pieces which he scatters across the land enter link once again who Hoovers up the Triforce pieces and definitively destroys Ganon well at least in this timeline [Music] okay let's put the never-ending resurrections to one side and Rewind back to the pivotal chronology split at the end of Ocarina of Time to focus on the next Branch the child timeline here we follow the outcome where link is successful in his fight against Ganondorf and after having a big old celebration with Zelda and the sages returns to his own childhood to warn a younger Zelda of ganondorf's treachery this leads to ganondorf's imprisonment and then eventual execution an event that we see play out in Twilight Princess but here's the kicker as link was in possession of the Triforce of Courage when he traveled back in time the remaining pieces found their way into the hands of Zelda and Ganondorf respectively and so when he stabbed through the chest in Twilight Princess with a great big bloody sword the Triforce of power protects him what he's not protected from though is his subsequent banishment to the Twilight realm as he did previously with his exile to the sacred realm Ganondorf works the new surroundings to his advantage and he joins forces with an evil member of the Twilight race known as Zant with magical powers gifted to him from Ganondorf sant's influence over the Twilight realm increases and he eventually leads an invasion on Hyrule with the backing of the Demon King Zant knocks into an entirely new breed of Link and he's eventually defeated by the Elfin hero who's aided by another Twilight known as midna foreign but all of this is just subterfuge for ganondorf's ultimate endgame which is complete dominion over Hyrule he returns from the Twilight realm and takes control of Hyrule castle where he kidnaps and possesses Princess Zelda but after three rounds with link one of which sees the Demon King transform into Ganon Ganondorf is finally defeated and in his defeat the Triforce of power abandons him which ultimately leads to his death but that's certainly not the last we'll see of the ginger warlord in this branch of the timeline oh no somehow Ganondorf in return yep Ganondorf returns to cause Havoc several hundred years later during the events of four Swords Adventures the Hyrule Historia simply States he's born into the world which uh I don't really know what to make of that either way he's back and he's pissed he starts by violating the laws of Gerudo Village by trespassing into an ancient pyramid and stealing a powerful Trident before nicking a dark mirror from the Cheery sounding Temple of Darkness the story of four Swords Adventures is a bit of an afterthought to all the multiplayer dungeon hopping but in a nutshell Ganondorf sets about resurrecting the evil wind Sorcerer of vati who literally hasn't been seen for Millennia at this point in the timeline as he sealed within the fabled 4 sword which itself also hasn't been seen since way before Ocarina of Time it prompts a mad Adventure where link is quadrupled by the aforementioned blade to save the lands the links defeat vati in his Palace of winds which doesn't sound as intimidating as it's probably meant to and that prompts Ganondorf to rage out into full Ganon mode the four links and Princess Zelda venture defeat the great big beast with the four sword and that brings ganondorf's story within the child Era timeline to a close [Music] all of which brings us to the final branch of the timeline the adult era like the child ERA this Branch follows on from the conclusion where link is successful in his fight against Ganondorf and the demon king is sealed away in the sacred realm only this timeline continues on after the point where link returned to his childhood confused join the club anyway many years later Ganondorf creeps up from the depths of the Sacred realm to re-carnage Across the lands of Hyrule again as the hero of time has vanished from this timeline the Triforce of Courage is shattered into eight pieces and spread across the world and as a result no hero emerges to save Hyrule from ganondorf's destructive power this prompts the reigning king of Hyrule to reach out to the gods for help their solution is to flood the entirety of the kingdom of Hyrule thus sealing Ganondorf away at the bottom of the ocean hundreds of years pass and as per usual Ganondorf is resurrected once again he wastes no time in murdering a pair of sages who protect the master sword before taking up residence in the forsaken Fortress he uses this foreboding place as a base of operations for his search for Princess Zelda and the Triforce of wisdom and he starts kidnapping young girls from across the seas in a Relentless bid to find her but unlucky for him another young hero garbed in green Rises up to challenge him and this one's teamed up with a magnificent talking red boat who turns out to be The Reincarnation of the king of Hyrule this link swans around the oceans collecting Triforce shards and proving he's worthy of the Triforce of Courage all of which leads towards an inevitable confrontation with the Demon King this takes place at gannon's Tower which like the kingdom of Hyrule is currently resting at the bottom of the ocean and it's here where the three pieces of the Triforce are finally reunited with link bearing the courage section Zelda the wisdom piece and Ganondorf the power slab as the unified Triforce grants Divine wishes to those that touch it Ganondorf immediately reaches out to it to fulfill his ultimate goal of Reviving Hyrule and ruling over it but in that moment the king of Hyrule rocks up Beats him to the punch and wishes for Hyrule to be sealed away forever and in the ensuing Maelstrom Lincoln Zelda launch a coordinated attack on Ganondorf with the full might of the master sword and Zelda's light arrows and in his final moments Ganondorf reveals a core aspect of his motives for power all along where he says my country lay within a vast desert when the sun rose into the sky a burning wind punished my lands searing the world and when the moon climbed into the dark of night a frigid Gale pierced our homes no matter when it came it carried the same thing death but the winds that blew across the green fields of Hyrule brought something other than suffering in ruin I coveted that wind I suppose and with those compelling words still lingering Ganondorf has turned to stone and buried at the bottom of the ocean an act that frees him from his never-ending lust for power and brings his story in this branch of the timeline to a close [Music] as I mentioned right back at the beginning of this video the breath of the wild and tears of the Kingdom era of the Zelda Timeline actually take place more than ten thousand years into the future oh and they supposedly and somewhat confusingly unite all of the timeline strands into one chronology demise's never-ending curse is still soldiering on though and as a result Ganon is still being resurrected to terrorize Hyrule in the prologue to breath of the wild we learned that Ganon has become a manifestation of Pure Evil turning him into the devastating form of Calamity Ganon this form of Ganon is so powerful that it requires the sheikah tribe to create an entire Army of robot Guardians and four giant Divine beasts just to keep him at Bay before he's sealed Away by the latest incarnations of Link and Zelda fast forward 10 Millennia and Calamity Ganon returns once again and destroys pretty much all of central Hyrule Link and Zelda survived by the Skin of Their Teeth but Link's wounds are so severe that he needs to be placed in a shrine of Resurrection for a century Zelda meanwhile uses her Divine powers to hold Calamity Ganon at Bay within Hyrule Castle Q another time jumped to 100 years later link awakes and takes the fight to Calamity Ganon eventually defeating the giant pig monster in the center of Hyrule and that pretty much leads us right up to the point where Link and Zelda discover ganondorf's desiccated corpse in a crypt underneath Hyrule Castle in tears of the Kingdom as this is a history of Ganondorf video I'm not going to be going into any detail on ganondorf's story and tears of the Kingdom as at the time of this video is released people will largely be discovering that for themselves and I don't want to spoil it I hope you enjoyed this Ganondorf timeline thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next time

Channel: GameSpot

Views: 428,337

Keywords: legend of zelda, zelda, zelda timeline, legend of zelda timeline, zelda chronology, zelda timeline explained, zelda explained, link, ganondorf, triforce, breath of the wild, tears of the kingdom, ocarina of time, majora’s mask, skyward sword, twilight princess, wind waker, zelda lore, zelda history, history of zelda, nintendo, switch, nintendo switch, zelda switch

Id: OtduIP56WiY

Length: 15min 40sec (940 seconds)

Published: Mon May 15 2023