#I am leaning perilously close to forgetting that it’s not remotely canon

[toushindai]

just a general question about your headcanon's on the ship. Do you think that maybe, in another life or universe Ganondorf and Rauru could love each other? Like maybe the goddesses don't want them together because they would be too powerful. ☕ I'm really looking forward to read your new fic. You're really talented!

That’s a really interesting question! I’m going to have a hard time answering it because once I’ve got one set of headcanons set up, I have a really hard time looking at alternatives to it because I’ve spent so much time getting all the pieces to fit together (this is why I read very little fic that’s not my own), but let’s give it a try

I think, first of all, that Ganondorf would have to be allowed to be a person in a way that TOTK, frustratingly, avoids. There’s a universe out there somewhere, I want to believe, where Ganondorf and Rauru bond over the solitude inherent in their positions: Ganondorf’s lone male of his culture to Rauru’s one of the last few members of his species. But to get to that, you need a Ganondorf willing to identify and feel his own loneliness, which I don’t think the guy we have in canon is inclined towards.

I wonder if this also requires Rauru to have allied himself not with the Hylians but with the Gerudo. That would be an interesting choice—in canon, allying with the Hylians makes sense because of their shared reverence for Hylia (seen in the existence of our familiar goddess statue not only in the GSI Temple of Time but also on Dragonhead Island). The Gerudo, for contrast, revere the Seven(-to-Eight) Heroines, to the near exclusion of goddess worship at all; in Creating a Champion, it notes that Gerudo Town’s goddess statue is out of the way and nearly forgotten for this reason. So a Zonai is going to be received differently among the Gerudo than they are among the other people of the land.

Rauru is a curious guy, though! Maybe it could happen like this: intrigued most of all by the people with whom the Zonai have historically had little in common—I have additional things to say about that but let’s wait until I have things finalized in my fic before I get into it—he made his descent to the land in the desert rather than in Hylian territory. Of course he was not permitted into town, but what if the Gerudo allowed him to stay in one of their other settlements? Let’s say the Northern Temple (what are now the Northern Ruins) just ’cause. But the prince of the Gerudo—who knows his place in his society, theoretically—by definition, by the uniqueness of his birth he can have only one place in his society—is equally intrigued by this foreign voe. Could he be the first other voe Ganondorf has met? Wait, was he actually, I should keep that in mind for my fic too They get to talking, they grow to know each other on an honest level. I think they could grow to love each other in a story like this. I do think the sex is a little less flavorful in this case tho so what good does it do me? Well, anyway.

And what then? If we trust the Sage of Lightning’s perspective—and we might as well, lacking any other insight on Ganondorf prior to the Gerudo Assault cutscene—it was not until after Ganondorf became chief that his hunger for power really began to develop. So what do we believe caused this? Is this just an inherent flaw in his personality? The curse of Demise rearing its head inevitably? (I should disclaim that I’ve never finished Skyward Sword and am only trying to use these words the way I’ve seen others use them.) In that case, both options—Rauru reviling his lover’s thirst for power and betraying him, or Rauru and the power of the Zonai turned in service to Gerudo conquest—are fascinating.

But if we are looking at Ganondorf as a person who gets to make person choices, then when he ascends to his position as Chief of the Gerudo and there is no neighboring nation consolidating an unearned power over the rest of the continent, what then? Might he be less driven towards conquest?

#I am leaning perilously close to forgetting that it’s not remotely canon #that Ganondorf’s desire for power is at least in part a response to Rauru’s rise #but to this headcanon I am devoted #ganondorf (totk) #rauru (totk) #ganauru #thank you for letting me ramble anon #every day I sigh 'if only Ganondorf could be a person rather than a Ganondorf' #Nintendo wants to keep that from me #but I take it anyway #or try to at least #and we were both kings 😳 #totk spoilers #thanks for the ask!