Episode 631: Ganon
Added 2024-08-09 07:00:06 +0000 UTCGanon's been the big boss of The Legend of Zelda franchise from the very beginning—even though he's taken a sabbatical from time to time. Whether he's a pig-man, or simply a dark wizard from some sort of sandy realm, Link's greatest foe always finds a way to break seals, cause downfalls, and generally be a real menace when it comes to enchanted triangles. On this episode, join Bob Mackey, Diamond Feit, Kevin Bunch, and Drew Mackie (from Thrilling Tales of Old Video Games) as the crew discusses Ganon and his various roles over the last four decades.
Comments
Oh and one more thing - It was wonderful that in SSB Brawl that Ganondorf was the ultimate leader villian for the Nintendo characters. From memory he was even going for duplicitous backstabbing against his patron god Master Hand, all without spoken dialogue.
Wood Duck
2024-08-28 23:24:52 +0000 UTCI think Ganon(dorf) has the potential to be a much more interesting and nuanced character. It's rather tragic that an individual gets hijacked to be a natural force of evil, with no say in the matter. Link and Zelda embody human qualities that need to be fostered and worked on in a heroic fashion whereas ol' Ganny just is yeeted full of swole magical hatred. I suppose the alternative is to take it at face value and just say he's just a pure force of evil without any more agency or complexity than your worker-day meteor strike or tidal wave, which is rather two dimensional. Even the grandfather of modern fantasy villains, Sauron in LotR, has more nuance than that (if you pick through all the extensive supplementary material) I was extremely disappointed that TotK used him as a generic anime villain and didn't bring any meaningful connection between Ganon and Ganondorf, but then that game did a very impressive job of ignoring almost everything from it's predecessors plot.
Wood Duck
2024-08-28 09:35:03 +0000 UTCDesign him “Link’s Awakening” Boarblin style and make it a Warrior Land clone.
Garlicnaut
2024-08-16 17:41:38 +0000 UTCSo if Link’s blood resurrects Gannon why does Hyrule even let Link out of the house?
Excitemike 64
2024-08-16 16:34:50 +0000 UTC*In Peter Griffin voice* “Hey Dragmire!” My personal favorite alias for Ganon is “Medieval Bebop” from “A Link to the Past 2: Turtles in Time.”
Excitemike 64
2024-08-16 16:33:59 +0000 UTC"Many things can be pigs, prove me wrong everybody"
Michael Castleberry
2024-08-15 20:45:07 +0000 UTCSatoru Takizawa returned to the art director role in the recent Zelda games and was in fact the one who made Ganondorf hot in TotK according to The Verge interview. The cameo Ganon thing goes back to Four Sword Adventures when they made a new Ganon as that game's final boss. The presence of Ganon is what puts FSA at the end of the Majora's Mask timeline instead of another precursor game like the original Four Swords.
Astrogamer
2024-08-14 16:00:34 +0000 UTCI like y’all’s ideas for a ganon game, but instead of making him more sympathetic I say you just give him more of a personality and make him more like Aku from Samurai Jack.
Gabriel
2024-08-12 16:31:04 +0000 UTCSuch a fun episode, makes le wish there was a second part upcoming
Kormakur Gardarsson
2024-08-11 13:38:59 +0000 UTCFun episode! Thank you for asking the tough questions about Ganon that other videogame journalists are too afraid to ask!
CapNChris
2024-08-11 03:11:59 +0000 UTC(pushing my nerd glasses up my nose) actually Ganondorf's presence in Twilight Princess is alluded to roughly halfway through the game. His status as a last minute twist is a popular conception of Twilight Princess, though, to the point where it inspired a TV Tropes page: Hijacked By Ganon. Personally, I'm fine with his appearance in Twilight Princess if only because he enriches the characterization of Zant as a bitter, insane second fiddle. I think the widespread misconception that he doesn't appear until the last minute is a symptom of Twilight Princess's kinda slapdash writing making it difficult to remember the order of events and what the connective tissue between them is. All of that being said, though, I actually kinda liked the last minute final villain switcheroo of Final Fantasy IX, so I'm kind of an unreliable narrator here.
Lambda
2024-08-09 13:52:53 +0000 UTCMy son's middle name is Ganon because my wife would not allow Ganondorf.
Hexed Hecate
2024-08-09 13:24:50 +0000 UTC
