Ever since Link first picked up his sword, Ganondorf has usually been there as the main antagonist. Dubbed the King of Evil, Ganondorf (also known as Ganon) is supposedly the reincarnation of hatred, malice, and pure evil. His goals usually involve attempting to take over Hyrule or to destroy Hyrule, depending on the game. For many of the Zelda games, your goal is Link is to stop Ganondorf from completing his evil plans.
Between his eye-catching design, his impressive power, and truly intimidating presence, Ganondorf has become one of Nintendo’s most popular villains. Whether he’s fighting with his twin swords or attacking as a giant beast, Ganondorf is always ready to take conquer and destroy. Personally, he’s one of my favorite gaming villains, and I always enjoy going up against him in a battle.
As Zelda games have progressed, we’ve seen a progression of the character of Ganondorf. Some games depict him as more human with genuine struggles, and others depict him as just a monster bent on destruction. But many gamers have theorized that Ganondorf isn’t as bad as we all may think. In fact, he could even be considered a good guy. There actually is some solid evidence behind this idea, especially if we look into the history of Hyrule.
And yet, on the other hand, we can’t ignore all of the terrible things that Ganondorf has done. So we’re looking at the reasons why Ganondorf could be considered a good guy, and the reasons why he is still seen as evil.
Do you think I missed anything? Be sure to let us know in the comments!
15 Good: He Cares About His People
Ganondorf comes from the Gerudo Tribe, a group of people that live in the desert. Now, throughout the games the Gerudo are viewed in an unfavorable light, often referred to as thieves and violent people that can’t be trusted. In Wind Waker, Ganondorf talks about how what he actually wanted to do was bring his people from the barren desert to the lush fields of Hyrule. He wanted a better life for his people.
In Ocarina of Time, Ganondorf has pledged allegiance to the King of Hyrule, likely as a means to better help his people. In some ways, we can see that Ganondorf is fighting the racism that seems to be directed at his people. He does crave power, but he initially wanted to do it to help his people.
14 Evil: His Body Count Is Seriously High
No matter how you look at it, Ganondorf has quite the body count at his hand. In his attempts to conquer Hyrule, he has killed many people including soldiers, civilians, and the royal family. He also killed the Deku Tree and countless people as he has ravaged Hyrule multiple times. And those are just the deaths that he was directly responsible for. He’s also indirectly killed many people as his dark influence spread.
In general, Ganondorf has little to no regard for life. He wouldn’t hesitate to kill someone if it meant he was closer to his goal. In fact, he froze the Zoras and attempted to kill all the Gorons. Not to mention that Calamity Ganon was responsible for countless deaths, including the King of Hyrule and the Hyrule champions. With Ganon, death is a part of the price to pay for his climb to power.
13 Good: He Tried To Restore Hyrule
In Wind Waker, Ganondorf talks about his issues with the gods and how they essentially destroyed Hyrule upon his return. The whole reason that he is trying to assemble the Triforce back together is to rise the flooded Hyrule from its watery grave. He talks about restoring Hyrule to its former glory, to give the people of Hyrule a second chance with him as the ruler.
In this case, Ganondorf is simply a man who wants to bring back a kingdom he loves. If that means taking extreme measures, then he is willing to do that. He does believe that the ends justify the means. If it means he has to steal, kidnap, and murder, he will do it, because what matters to him is bringing Hyrule back.
12 Evil: He Attempted To Commit Genocide
In Ocarina of Time, when Ganondorf took over Hyrule in the Adult Timeline, he captured all of the Gorons. He kept them prisoner and was planning to feed them to the dragon Volvagia. All of this because the Gorons refused to work for him. This is pretty diabolical, and a little extreme if you ask me. It’s only thanks to the efforts of Link and Darunia that the Gorons are saved.
This isn’t the first time though that Ganondorf tried to wipe out the Gorons. When Link is a kid, Ganondorf caused a huge stone to fall in front of the cavern where the Gorons get their food. Because of his actions, the Gorons almost starve to death. Ganondorf must really have it out for the Gorons for some reason.
11 Good: He’s A Man Of Honor
Believe it or not, many villains are honorable. Most villains have some moral code of conduct. And while Ganondorf is a villain, he is a man of honor, to an extent.
When it comes to combat, Ganondorf does adhere to some rules of honor. In Ocarina of Time, when Link confronts him as a child, Ganondorf is more amused than anything. He could have easily killed Link right then and there, but instead he lets Link go. Each time he faces Link, he prefers to face him fairly in combat. In Wind Waker, he’s also shown to spare Link’s life multiple times. In several games, when Ganondorf is facing Link, he seems to be holding back at least until the end. So it seems that when it comes to combat at least, Ganon has some form of honor.
10 Evil: His Kidnapping Record Is Extensive
Ganondorf has quite the kidnapping record, but this is especially true in Wind Waker. Ganondorf is looking for the wielder of the Triforce of Wisdom, Princess Zelda. To do so, he has his giant bird go around and grab young girls who appear Hylian, having pointed ears. That’s what sets Link off on this entire adventure since his sister was one of the girls captured. When Link goes to rescue her, he finds several other girls being held captive in Ganondorf’s fortress.
This is creepy, even for Ganondorf. Taking young girls from their families and holding them at his fortress is pretty disturbing, especially since we don’t know what he was going to do with them should they not be Zelda. We’ve already established he’s not afraid of killing, so he might have killed them in the long run.
9 Good: He Employed Thousands Of Monsters
Granted, it may be due to Ganondorf that these monsters have appeared in the first place. But Ganondorf does give these monsters a place to go and a purpose. Think about all the monsters that reside in Ganon’s Castle, or the Forsaken Fortress. These guys wouldn’t have a job without Ganondorf. If not for him, they’d likely be wandering around causing more mischief.
Also keep in mind that while these monsters are more or less evil, they are still living beings. Ganondorf is pretty powerful and technically wouldn’t need the help of monsters to guard his place, but he chooses to have them guard his strongholds anyway. Now that doesn’t mean they’re actually good at their jobs, but he still keeps them around. That’s pretty cool of him.
8 Evil: He Brutally Killed A Sage
This is a pretty brutal move for Ganondorf, but considering the events, his actions are somewhat explainable. After being tried for conspiring against Hyrule, Ganondorf scheduled to be executed by the 7 sages. And they seem to do the job, impaling him with a sword. But thanks to the Triforce of Power, he survives, breaks out of his restraints and kills one of the sages with his bare hands.
Granted, the sages did just try to kill him, so his reaction is understandable to an extent, but it also seems a bit extreme. Ganondorf in Twilight Princess does seem to be a lot less stable than he is in previous games, so that could be a good explanation of his violent actions. Still, it’s a pretty terrible thing to do to kill a sage.
7 Good: He Tried To Bring The Twili People Back
When Ganondorf was banished to the Twilight Realm, he came unto Zant and gave him power in order to take over Hyrule. Now, you could argue that he only did this in order to have another pawn to help him take over Hyrule. But what if Ganondorf wanted to help the Twili people?
We know from the history that those that lived in the Twilight Realm were people from Hyrule who were banished as criminals. Yet that whole scenario seems a little sketchy. What if someone was falsely accused? Even if they weren’t innocent, banishment to another realm seems a bit of a stiff punishment. Granted, Ganondorf wanted to take over Hyrule, but he also let Zant transform it into the Twilight Realm. You could argue that Ganondorf simply wanted to bring the Twili people back and give them a second chance in Hyrule.
6 Evil: He Destroyed Hyrule… Multiple Times
Ganondorf has taken over Hyrule multiple times and has destroyed Hyrule at least three times. Well two of the times he’s partially destroyed Hyrule. Bascially though, whenever Ganondorf comes into power, it rarely ends well for the people of Hyrule. When he takes over in Ocarina of Time, Castle Town is destroyed, Zora’s Domain is frozen over, and monsters run amuck everywhere. In Wind Waker, his return prompts the gods to destroy Hyrule through flooding. And in Breath of the Wild, he comes back as Calamity Ganon, destroying most of Central Hyrule, as you see in the ruins.
Despite what may have been his good intentions in the beginning, whenever Ganondorf gains power, he tends to go a little crazy with it and it usually ends up in being a bad thing for Hyrule.
5 Good: The Curse Of Demise Corrupted Him
We know that at the end of Skyward Sword, after Demise is defeated, he puts a curse on Zelda, Link, and sort of himself. He promises that his hatred will manifest again and again, and the princess and the hero will be forced to try and stop him each time. It’s been confirmed that Ganon/Ganondorf is a manifestation of Demise’s hatred. But the question is what would Ganondorf be like without the curse?
We’ve already discussed that Ganondorf had noble intentions for his people and even for Hyrule to an extent. But those intentions gave away to greed and hatred. According to one fan theory, it’s due to Demise that Ganondorf became evil. It’s an interesting idea and it gives Ganondorf some more depth. Without the curse, he may have been a good and noble king of his people.
4 Evil: He’s Incredibly Greedy
Ganondorf has always been associated with power, and rightly so. The man is obsessed with gaining more power; that’s usually his ultimate goal. And often this lust for power is what ends up corrupting him, making him blind to what his original intentions were. Ganondorf will stop at nothing to gain the power he wants. Over time we see him succumb to madness as he gets more powerful.
We see this in Twilight Princess and even more in Breath of the Wild. In Twilight Princess, Ganondorf is shown to be much less stable than in previous games. His lust for power has caused him to make rash decisions and be even more violent. But eventually each time, this thirst to get more powerful ends up being his undoing.
3 Good: He Was Falsely Accused
We know that in the Child Timeline of Ocarina of Time, Ganondorf was stopped before he took over Hyrule. He was then tried and executed, which got botched, but then he was sent to the Twilight Realm. But here’s the twisted part. We could argue that he was falsely accused since he was tried for something he was going to do. Since he didn’t actually do it, Ganondorf was technically innocent at the time of his “execution.”
With this in mind, it would explain his actions following his banishment. I’d be pretty angry too if I was accused of something I didn’t do, was nearly killed, and then banished forever to another realm. Perhaps Ganondorf realized the issues with Hyrule and he had set out to change them. Or maybe he was just angry for getting stabbed.
2 Evil: He Attacked Children
While in many cases, Ganondorf has shown honor when he fights, especially when fighting Link, that kind of goes out the window a bit in Wind Waker. There are two main times when Link goes up against Ganondorf, and he’s soundly beaten.
But here’s what makes this a little disturbing. If you think about it, Link is still pretty much a kid at this point. Granted, we don’t know for sure how old Link is, but we can assume he’s definitely not an adult. So the whole time Ganondorf is fighting Link and Zelda, he’s fighting a couple of kids. And those fights are pretty brutal, since it shows him punching Link out and backhanding Zelda. This just really adds to his no regard for life. Even kids aren’t really off limits to him in this game. True, he’s spared Link’s life, but that doesn’t stop him from taking him down pretty brutally.
1 Good: He Was Influenced By The Power Of The Triforce
Since the early Zelda games, Ganondorf has often been the wielder of the Triforce of Power. For him it makes since, since that’s what he embodies and craves. No matter his intentions, Ganondorf has always craved more power. And when he gets it, he doesn’t exactly handle it well. Each time we see Ganondorf get more powerful, we see his sanity disappear. Even Zelda in Ocarina of Time pities him, saying that he simply could not handle the power of the Triforce.
So we could argue that the Triforce influenced Ganondorf, causing him to go insane and do crazy things. It would explain why he went from someone who wanted to help his people to a crazy king that tried to destroy Hyrule. They say power corrupts, and Ganondorf was a prime example of that. So perhaps without the Triforce, he may not have been the evil king we are so familiar with.
