It has been over a year since the first trailer for Breath of the Wild 2 was released at E3 2019, and fans still have little news about some of the big reveals made in the trailer. Ganondorf appears to be alive, though certainly looking far worse for wear in the upcoming sequel.
Ganondorf is The Legend of Zelda’s most famous villain by far and has had a lot of different incarnations as he’s battled Link throughout the ages. Judging by Ganon’s history and some hints revealed in the trailer, however, the version of Ganondorf in Breath of the Wild 2 could differ from previous games in a few key ways.
Ganondorf received most of his backstory in A Link to the Past where it was revealed that he wasn’t always the demonic boar shown in The Legend of Zelda but was, in fact, once a Gerudo. Anyone who has played the original Breath of the Wild and made it through the scorching desert to Gerudo Town will know that male Gerudo births are extremely rare, often occurring only once a century. Any male born to the Gerudo is automatically made the King of the Gerudo, assuming there are no other males currently alive.
This version of Ganondorf gained the trust of the King of Hyrule and managed to get ahold of the Triforce of Power, which he uses to conquer Hyrule. In Ocarina of Time, Nabooru, the second in command of the Gerudo, says that she stopped following Ganondorf because he stole from women and children and was not above killing people to get what he wanted in pursuit of the Triforce and his goal to rule over Hyrule.
However, in The Wind Waker, it’s claimed that Ganondorf’s motivation for conquering Hyrule comes from the fact that the Gerudo live harsh lives in the desert while the Hylians live in the rich valleys and rolling grasslands of Hyrule Field. Despite giving him more sympathetic motivations, it is clear by the time of Breath of the Wild that Ganondorf (or, perhaps more specifically, Calamity Ganon) has surrendered himself to pure hatred, spreading Malice throughout the land.
Ganondorf has had many different forms over the history of the Legend of Zelda series. He has appeared as a giant demonic boar, like the form seen in his smash ability in the Super Smash Bros series. He has also appeared as a more anthropomorphic giant boar, usually carrying a trident. His pure beast form is known as Ganon, and it is this version which appears in The Wind Waker after he escapes from his prison.
Calamity Ganon is a version of this beast form infused with Malice itself, and it appears that Malice might have some role in Ganondorf’s survival in Breath of the Wild 2. The trailer for BotW2 shows Malice or a substance like it crawling through the twisting corridors of Castle Hyrule as what sounds like music running backward. This appears to hint that whatever the future has in store for Ganondorf, it will be intrinsically linked to his past.
The Gerudo symbol on the necklace of the corpse that reanimates in the trailer appears to confirm that this in Ganondorf, but it is unclear exactly how much agency Ganondorf will have in the story. On the one hand, Calamity Ganon was one of the most bestial versions of the villain seen in a Zelda game so far, and the new version, while a reanimated corpse, is far more human looking and could potentially communicate with Link and Zelda unlike the version in the previous game.
On the other hand, it appears that Ganondorf may have completely surrendered to forces beyond his control at this point in the timeline. Malice is an external energy, and it appears to be by Malice’s will that Ganondorf is reanimated, making it unclear exactly how much control he’ll have over himself at this point. It’s also unclear how much of Ganon’s humanity remains at all, but the rewinding sound effect could also imply that Ganondorf has somehow gained control over time itself, and players could see multiple versions of Ganon from different time periods if Nintendo runs with the theme.
Franchise producer Eiji Aonuma has confirmed Breath of the Wild 2 will be “a little darker” than Majora’s Mask, already considered one of the darkest installments, if not actually the darkest, of the Zelda franchise. This could be building up to Ganondorf as a more tragic figure, a king consumed by hatred and left as a withered corpse still unable to see the error of his ways and still doomed to repeat the exact same cycles of failure and defeat over and over again, at least in this timeline.
It is also possible that Ganondorf’s relationship with Zelda will be explored more in the upcoming Breath of the Wild sequel, with some fans hoping that Zelda might be included as a playable character in the new game. The rewinding sound effect and the fact that Hyrule Castle appears to take off with Link and Zelda still inside of it could imply that the game will focus on the strange way that the three are tied together by fate, and could see the trio portrayed more as reflections of one another than in any previous installment in the franchise.
Ultimately, the exact nature of Ganondorf in Breath of the Wild 2 remains to be seen, but the trailer makes it seem very likely that the version seen in the sequel will be very different from the bestial Calamity Ganon. Ganondorf’s remaining humanity, if it exists at all, could be an interesting focus in Breath of the Wild 2, and could add some depth and development to one of Nintendo’s greatest villains.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 is in development.
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