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. We last saw Ganondorf’s human form causing trouble back in 2006’s Twilight Princess, where he was defeated by Link and Princess Zelda. But naturally his fingerprints are all over the convoluted Zelda timeline.

With Tears of the Kingdom reviving Ganondorf, what better time to refresh yourself on the history of The Legend of Zelda’s iconic villain. 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.

00:00 - Intro
00:37 - Ganon or Ganondorf?
01:54 - Origins
03:03 - Ocarina of Time
04:47 - Timeline Split
05:27 - Defeat Timeline
07:53 - Child Timeline
10:54 - Adult Timeline
13:53 - Breath of the Wild Era

Ganondorf is the true human form of the iconic Zelda 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 in short 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.

We only see this rendition of Ganon in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which is set 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 in 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.

#TimelineExplained #LegendOfZelda #GameSpot

This video features music from the acclaimed Zelda and Chill albums:

Music by Mikel
Mastered by Dj Cutman
Composed by Koji Kondo, Manaka Kataoka, Yasuaki Iwata, Toru Minegishi
Originally from the Zelda series

Today's featured bundle is:

[gamespot]

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[Randmname]

"But that seal didn't last." The entire Zelda timeline summed up in one sentence.

[ellowell]

As brief as it is, Ganondorf's Wind Waker monologue might just go down as one of the finest in all of gaming. Just a great little bit of poetry. Never fails to bring a tiny tear to my eye.

[branchy]

Imagine how confused Ganondorf is that every single time he's revived a random kid in green always called Link and who always happens to be the person who holds the triforce of courage kills him with the help of the princess who's always called zelda and also happens to have the triforce of wisdom everytime.

[Soraviel]

Ganondorf has massive amount patience to be waiting for incarnations of link

[Woopor]

Everyone knows Ganondorf’s most notable appearance was his TTS cover of “Suavemente”

[aprev]

End of a Zelda game: And thus, Ganondorf was sealed away forever. Hyrule is safe.
Start of the next Zelda game: Alas, Ganondorf has returned.

[antonstiensen]

The thing is, BotW with that particular iteration of Ganon as a pure evil entity instead of fleshed out made the closure possible. But all the shenanigans TotK brings cancels that, instead it feels more like a new alternate branch. (don't misunderstand my words, I love both those games with a passion)

[xKOSATx]

I hope that you do an update video to this one. Tears of the Kingdom seems to really shake up Ganondorf's history

[MyLalalalalalalalal]

I was so hyped when ganondorf mentioned Rauru in ToTK, thinking it was a reference to him recognizing them and refering to OOT Rauru, only then for 'Rauru' to show up...

[barbjones]

If the first king of hyrule fought a ganondorf then wouldn’t that mean there is a massive amount of hidden details between the timeline that are unknown

[samplautz]

One thing I’ve always wanted someone to explain is why does link dying only matter in Ocarina of time? Like wouldnt ganon also win all of the other games when you die, and doesn’t that then further change the timeline?

[YangSuiSan]

Genuinely, this is such a good video to explain the History of Ganon/-dorf.
You did an amazing job! Thank you!

[TerrenceMcGinnis]

A pretty accurate representation. Though, I think part way through you forgot something you said early on in the video; the curse. You mention being confused on him being born into the world of Four Swords Adventures, but the curse explains that pretty well. Ganondorf/Ganon will keep being revived or reborn so long as the curse remains. Also I’m unsure if the Ganondorf in TP is the same as the one in the child timeline. He isn’t immortal until after he is stabbed, and his stabbing happened quite a long time after OoT - a century actually. You think he lived in jail for over 100 years?

[thelegendof]

Twilight princess Ganondorf to ME is his best model. That's who i always picture when i think of Ganondorf.

[danielhiggins]

Ganon is more like a mononym he becomes known by than just exclusive to the beast form.

[Killjoyfiend]

You forgot to include Ganon's suave timeline.

[chadpeterson]

There are a few criticisms I have with the info and spoilers for Tears of the Kingdom for the first one

2:03 actually because of Tears of the Kingdom, there is another Ganondorf that appears before Ocarina of Time. To be more specific. This Ganondorf appears when Hyrule was founded which is before Minish Cap. So yeah.

6:18 Aghanim is not Ganon’s minion, Aghanim IS Ganon.

7:07 Yuga doesn’t want to save Lorule, he wants to destroy it an Hyrule and remake Lorule in his image.

9:46 it’s not the same Ganondorf as the mainline Ganondorf

[johnnydang]

I like to imagine that Tears of the Kingdom has the first incarnation of Ganondorf. I haven’t beaten the game yet so idk the whole story.

[DrMostacho]

BOTW and TOTK are from the timeline of the fallen hero and the flashbacks of TOTK tell the story of the imprisoning war that happens between OOT and ALTP.