Ganon or Ganondorf is the main antagonist of the phenomenal video game series, The Legend of Zelda. We have had many showdowns with the Dark Lord across several decades ever since his first appearance in The Legend of Zelda for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986. Since then, players have taken on the role of the Legendary Hero known as Link, countless times in order to save Princess Zelda and take back the land of Hyrule from the evil clutches of the King of Thieves. Said to be the reincarnation of The God of Evil, Demise. Ganon has had many names, each one just as disturbing as the last. So why not find out the most disturbing secrets about the Great King of Evil! This list of strange secrets will give you insight into the villain as a character and how he fits into the confusing timeline, as well as some sweet factoids about his development at Nintendo. So draw your Master Sword, prepare your Hookshot, and raise your Hylian Shield because here are some disturbing secrets you definitely didn't know about the infamous villain. Beware! Revealing some of these secrets may put you high up on the Dark Lord’s Servants wanted list, so be sure to keep them to yourself! Or maybe spread the word in hopes that the Goddesses will hear and the Legendary Hero will be reincarnated once again to rid the world of Evil!
15 Ganon’s Laugh
In Zelda II: The Adventures of Link on NES, Ganon is featured in the Game Over screen as an ominous figure that laughs at the player. However, did you know that the audio sample used as Ganon’s evil chuckle was actually a reused sound asset from Punch Out! It is exactly the same as Soda Popinski’s laughter except that the sample was slowed down for its use in Zelda II to better match the ominous demeanor of Ganon himself. There is another time Nintendo reused sound assets for the laughter of their main antagonist of The Legend of Zelda series. In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 64, Ganondorf’s laugh was also the same sound clip as the laughter of the Poe’s in the Forest Temple. The ghostly Poe’s have a distinctly high pitched voice and chuckle so the sample was slowed, and pitch shifted down to a more manly vocal range to match Ganondorf’s look and feel.
14 Shadow Of The Colossal Ganon!
As we all know Nintendo Power used to be a great tool to finding out secrets in games but one article in the 225th issue gave us some insight into a disturbing yet cool idea that would have completely changed our battle against Ganon in Ocarina of Time. The article featured an interview with Yoshiaki Koizumi, the current Deputy General Manager of Nintendo and the guy responsible for Super Mario Galaxy. Yoshiaki also worked as character designer on Ocarina of Time and stated that they were playing around with an idea where they wanted to have Ganon be an enormous creature that would act as the boss arena as well as the boss itself. Much like in Shadow of the Colossus, players would have to scale a giant Ganon. This Idea was later scrapped before finalization because the Nintendo 64 lacked the power to deliver the idea while keeping up a decent performance.
13 He Has Two Mothers
Did you know who Ganondorf’s mother is? In fact, Ganondorf has two mothers and they are both 400-year-old witches that you may remember! Koume and Kotake are recurring characters in The Legend of Zelda games, most notably from Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask. They are witches, complete with broomsticks, that not only secretly lead the Gerudo tribe but chose to fuse together to form the mighty Twinrova, who you might have fought in the Spirit Temple of Ocarina of Time. They stayed fused as Twinrova to carry and give birth to Ganondorf. There is much mystery surrounding the father, as Koume and Kotake are Gerudo who are known to be a race of females. Some say that Gerudo’s give birth to a male every 100 years and others have reason to believe they do have boyfriends from time to time. All we know is, Ganondorf has some daddy issues
12 A Different Setting For Ocarina Of Time
During the early development stages of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, series creator and industry legend Shigeru Miyamoto was skeptical of the Nintendo 64’s graphical power. He wanted to create a full 3D Zelda game but was unsure if Nintendo’s new console would cope. However, Miyamoto had an idea that would possibly make it manageable. He thought that if the entire game took place inside Ganondorf’s castle, by reducing the scope of the game, this would be a much more manageable task for the developers. He also thought of having Link jump into paintings to enter different areas of the game, much like in Super Mario 64 which was released just prior. Thankfully, Nintendo trusted their 64-bit system and the talent of their developers because we were granted with the closest thing to an open-world console game we had ever seen at the time.
11 Ganondorf’s Subtle Theme In Twilight Princess
In Twilight Princess, the final dungeon and lead up to the climactic battle with Ganon is the corrupted Hyrule Castle which has been taken over by the Twilight dimension. When you first enter the castle you hear the traditional Hyrule Castle theme from previous entries albeit much more mellow and somber. However, what many fail to notice, is that the composition slowly and subtly changes to Ganondorf’s theme the more you progress through the castle and up to the tower. By the time you reach Ganon, you are almost seamlessly transitioned into the fully orchestrated masterpiece that is Ganon’s theme. It is cleverly composed, and the transition is almost unnoticeable to the untrained ear. What makes this truly disturbing is the way that it represents Hyrule’s slow and painful decline to the almighty Ganondorf's control.
10 Ganondorf’s Real Height Is Menacing!
According to the Hyrule Historia book, which was released by Nintendo to commemorate the 25th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda series. Ganondorf’s official height in Ocarina of Time is a whopping 7’6”! We always knew that Ganondorf was a tall and menacing character but it is sometimes hard to tell how tall he would be in real life because we are used to judging him next to young link or even adult link in the final confrontation though he is on his horse. To put this in perspective, Ex-basketball player Shaquille O’Neal is supposedly 7’1”. So this means if a Video Game stand-off between Shaq Fu and Ganondorf were to happen, then Shaq would be looking up at Ganondorf!
9 There Is A Timeline Where Ganon Beat Link!
As we all know, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was a story where Link went back and forth through time to alter the present. This story in the series is one that has always caused confusion in the Zelda Timeline. In the Hyrule Historia book, which was released by Nintendo to commemorate the 25th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda series. Nintendo included an official timeline for the series. However, the timeline was split into three different lines during the events of Ocarina of Time. In two timelines, Ganon is defeated, but in the other, the hero is defeated and then sets up the events of The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past! It is disturbing to think that in some alternate reality Ganon was victorious and Links hard work was nothing but a decent attempt at saving Hyrule.
8 Ganondorf Might Have Been In Majora’s Mask
What is more disturbing than Ganondorf doing evil and menacing deeds? Well, it’s the notion of Ganondorf doing normal, harmless and innocent hobbies! In Majora’s Mask 3D for 3DS, Nintendo revamped and expanded upon the fishing minigame, by adding more locations and more game mechanics surrounding it. This meant making many new assets for the game. One of these assets were never used in the final build of the game but was found hidden within the memory of the game file itself. It was none other than a fully finished character model of Ganondorf, looking much like he appeared in Ocarina of Time 3D. What ties this into the Fishing minigame, is the fact that the file is named “fishing_man.cmb”. Was it going to be possible to sit back and throw a line out with Ganondorf? Maybe it was a good idea that this was never used!
7 Ganondorf Is Why Wind Waker Is A Sea Adventure
After the events of Ocarina of Time and well after that incarnation of Link lived out his days. The seal of the Seven Sages weakened for a seemingly unknown reason. This actually allowed Ganondorf to escape his imprisonment and once again be free to piece together the Triforce and wreak havoc upon the land. With no hero in sight, this left the citizens of Hyrule with only one option, pray that the hero would return. Sadly, this did not happen. After the King of Hyrule failed to stop Ganondorf himself, the citizens pleaded to The three Golden Goddesses. They instructed the people to hastily make their way to the highest mountain tops in Hyrule. After which, the Goddesses caused a torrential downpour which flooded most of Hyrule, leaving only the mountain peaks as dry land! This is the Hyrule in which we sailed across in Wind Waker!
6 Calamity Ganon Is Soulless For A Reason
Though this fact is less disturbing and more interesting, I think we can all agree that Breath of The Wild’s Calamity Ganon is one of the more down right disturbing character designs in the series. The reason behind this monstrous but seemingly characterless persona is due to a clever and simple design choice. In an interview with Famitsu, director Hidemaro Fujibayashi stated that the reason Ganon is void of any character background, dialogue or any humanistic traits is that they wanted to avoid having to give player’s a backstory to Ganon this time around. They felt that if they personified Ganon then it would only serve as an obstruction to the player and would not impact gameplay in any meaningful way.
5 Ganon Is The Only Enemy You Need The Sword For!
In the original classic, The Legend of Zelda for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is entirely possible to beat the whole game without ever using or obtaining the sword. However, that is until you face Ganon. Most enemies can be avoided or defeated with bombs and various other equipment but only Ganon himself must only be defeated by using the Sword. This is something that would become a mainstay in many other titles in the series where it became only possible to harm Ganon or Ganondorf with the Master Sword, Light Arrows, or the Triforce itself. This is due to the Triforce of Power that grants him near-immortality thus making him impervious to most normal attacks. This rightfully elevates Ganon well above the normal grunts in terms of sheer toughness!
4 Link And Zelda Are Reincarnated. Ganondorf Stays The Same
It is well known by now that Link and Zelda are reincarnated for each mainline Zelda game, but did you know that Ganondorf is the same Ganondorf among many of the entries. Ganondorf is mostly the same one we all love to hate throughout the series but where it gets confusing is after the timeline split that occurs after Ocarina of Time. This caused there to be three separate versions of the reincarnate of the God of Evil, Demise. What is disturbing is the creepy commentary on life that this implies. The Good take on many forms but Evil is always the same? It is unsure why Nintendo have chosen Ganondorf to be the continuous character and not Link or even Zelda, the reason may be even more disturbing than realizing how many times you have defeated the same guy!
3 Fight Ganon By Accident!
In the final climactic showdown against Ganon in The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past, it is possible to defeat Ganon only to accidentally have to fight him all over again! The only thing more disturbing than Ganon himself is the possibility of him coming back from the dead! Once Ganon is defeated and the stairs to the Triforce appear, it is still possible to fall into the pit that surrounds the boss arena. If this happens, the boss battle resets much like it would if you fell in during the fight. The idea of that happening is enough to send shivers down any gamers spine, especially if it was the last night of your rental period back in 1991. Try explaining that one to your friends in the School yard!
2 You Are Not Worthy!
There have been many titles across The Legend of Zelda series where Ganon or Ganondorf was revealed to be the main villain after being lead to believe otherwise. In Twilight Princess, for example, we were lead to believe that Zant was the main antagonist only to learn Ganondorf was pulling the strings. This has led many to believe that Ganondorf does not believe anybody to be worthy enough to fight him, so has others do the fighting for him while he stays in the shadows and oversees. In Wind Waker, he even has a number of bosses that were literally puppets which only leads us to believe Nintendo is trying to let players into the psyche of the Dark Lord. He is so utterly evil that won’t even move a muscle for you and truly believes he would never have to.
1 How Ganondorf Keeps Surviving!
As mentioned before, Ganondorf has been the same Dark Lord across all of the games before taking into account the timeline split after Ocarina of Time. Link and Zelda, on the other hand, have been reincarnations of the Princess and Hero for each mainline title. This means Ganondorf has been able to survive throughout most of the continuity. The reason he has can possibly be narrowed down to one particular moment in Zelda canon. The final cutscene of Ocarina of Time. After defeating Ganondorf, a clip is shown where you can clearly see the Triforce marking still planted on the back of his hand. This implies that after Ocarina of Time he still has the power of the Triforce, thus, allowing him to live through many generations and transform into his beast form Ganon at will throughout much of the series!