#ganonthots

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They really showed us this in the first TotK trailer and really expected us to believe that Ganondorf was just going to be a one-dimensional Evil McEvil 😔

#ganonthots #where is this game??? #you can't show me his sealing in this sort of framing and expect me to believe that all the fault is on his shoulders

[bloobluebloo]

If you must know I am still displeased that I have to share the love of LoZ with crackers who think that supporting Ganondorf is equivalent to supporting zionism like get your hands off of him there are plenty of cracker god-loving genocidal folks for you to go fuck out there if that's what gets your rocks off.

#ganonthots

[bloobluebloo]

I do find it interesting that people are very interested in the idea of Ganondorf being morally gray when it comes to his probable conflicts of interest (wanting sovereignty for his lands, having some form of respect for his people and culture, and despising the imperialism Hyrule imposes upon him while also harboring an inherent desire for power and conquest and thinking he'd be better at the whole ruling Hyrule thing) but bristle when Link and Zelda are described as morally gray. It is almost as if moral grayness is associated with a character's baseline morality being based in evil. A character who aligns with good cannot have any gray spots I suppose.

#going through my drafts and I saw this and was like #I was cooking with this one I know it #ganonthots

[bloobluebloo]

My tldr is this: this fandom treats Ganondorf very poorly as a character.

#ganonthots #of course im not saying everyone #but at large #its why I curate my space very carefully #he's not some great genial guy but he isn't as awful as people make him out to be either

[bloobluebloo]

you can probably guess what people on twitter had to say about that totk ganondorf edit despite it being a simple edit that has no influence on nintendo lol (i had added some comments in later reblogs bc ... at least here i can complain about it)

*Puts on twitter glasses simulator*

-He’s supposed to be green because his dark magic makes his skin green

-Evil Gerudo just have green skin and good Gerudo have brown skin

-It’s just a game stop trying to make things politically correct

-Why are you being racist it’s racist to make his skin brown when he’s evil

-His eyes are not supposed to be that color

*Takes off glasses simulator*

So, I didn’t add the vitriol but how did I do 💅

#they’re so fucking predictable #ganonthots

[bloobluebloo]

Bro really said “:3”

He did!!!!!

#:3 #ganonthots

[bloobluebloo]

Anyways I still find TotK's story so funny like there was this whole thing about bringing Ganondorf back after so many years to finally join Link and Zelda in the Era of the Wilds only for the three of them to like, tangentially interact. Ganondorf's conflict is with Rauru and Sonia who he does get rid of, in some form (except Rauru's force ghost is so exceptional that it always comes back whenever it wants to even after final goodbyes). While Zelda is more or less concerned with Ganondorf because yeah he is sort of scary I guess her main concern is getting back to her time. Link's concern is finding Zelda and then discovering where she is and going "oh...guess I'll just pretend I'm still looking for her while running after people looking for her". Ganondorf's speech to Link really feels like "well you know I prepared all this so someone has to hear it, guess it will be you mister I-Got-Doxxed-By-Rauru" and Link is more or less like "I'm only here because I have done literally everything I can to try to get Zelda back except stab you so I guess this is my last resort". There is no chemistry, just coincidences.

#ganonthots

[bloobluebloo]

Hey do you guys remember, in the first trailer we got for TotK, seeing the mural with Ganondorf on his horse? Holding a trident? Leading what really looks like Gerudo archers on horseback?

Pepperidge Farm remembers 🫠

#is this what became the molduga attack #anyways he was an absolute evil king MY ASS #ganonthots

[bloobluebloo]

I was just reminiscing on how hard this fandom was shilling for a complex Ganondorf for the wilds era, and this wasn't even confined to niche parts of the fandom. Every time there was a hint that Ganondorf might be involved in some way, the fandom went wild with speculation. It's like people these days, when defending TotK's poor handling of Ganondorf's writing, forget that a complex Ganondorf, or at least a Ganondorf that had a bit more character depth than a puddle on sidewalk, was something *everyone* wanted. Most people were not content with an "evil for the sake of being evil" Ganondorf.

When the first trailer and images of BotW dropped, a lot of people saw the cloth around Link's forearms and noticed the patterning there. Many thought it was similar to Gerudo patterning. Lo and behold people began speculating that Link may have a close relationship with the Gerudo, and perhaps with Ganondorf him. Cue all the theories and fanart and fanfic of Link and Ganondorf growing up together, being close friends, knowing each other, before Ganondorf's turn to darkness. Okay so as BotW's release approaches we learn about Calamity Ganon and then we see this mysterious old man. He seems pretty large in stature and is dark skinned. Cue the second wave of rumor mills that this may be Ganondorf. Perhaps a weary old washed up soul, or perhaps a manipulation tactic while his real form, the calamity, keeps Zelda trapped inside the castle. The tapestry with the red haired hero. This one causes a big wave of rumors that perhaps the past hero was a Gerudo, maybe an iteration of Ganondorf.

The first trailer for TotK drops, we see the murals, Ganondorf's corpse, what looks like a horrifying vision of how he ended up here. Rehydrated Ganondorf starts trending. People are wild with speculations of who he was. Many link him to the hero on the tapestry. Most speculation about Ganondorf now is what sort of horrendous thing happened to him that he would end up here, and less about how evil he must have been to end up here. The official "rehydrated Ganondorf" art drops. Everyone sees his design, how he seems more heroic in this art piece. Again, people are still speculating on how complex this Ganondorf might be, between what we have seen thus far. Many note he is not smirking in this art as he usually is, perhaps a hint that his character this time might be different. And we have reached TotK Ganondorf, with the most generic evil villain writing we have seen of him yet. Ganondorf is a big appeal of the LoZ games. He deserves more than just being hot.

#ganonthots

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Anyways I really think Nintendo went and made the eighth heroine a Hylian to spite Ganondorf fans. Whaaaaaat you mean you saw nuance in our awesome Demon King? Absolutely not! *Shoves Link in our face* Only ONE hero allowed!

#ganonthots

[bloobluebloo]

OKAY so now that I have a moment.

On the framing of Imperialism in LoZ lore in general. This is a little long so I will put it under a read more.

So, I've often seen that, in the criticism of TotK's story and how it frames imperialism, that other LoZ games come up where it has been demonstrated that the Kingdom of Hyrule's hands are not clean. It feels like a lot of people bring this up with the argument that the lore was showing that Hyrule was morally gray. Yet, when you look at the framing of these misdeeds, that doesn't seem to be the case. The most pertinent example of this is the Shadow Temple in OoT where it has been insinuated that the Royal Family did torture enemies of the crown. There is also the rampant racism that is directed towards the Gerudo, the Sheikah having all but disappeared except the one Sheikah who also happens to be a servant of the Royal Family, the Kakariko well, the tomb of the Royal Family overrun by redead, and the Civil War for which no explanation is offered except that the end result was the unification of Hyrule. (I know there is a manga that explains that the Civil War bgean as some sort of dispute between the Goron and the Zora but, as I understand, it is not an officially licensed manga and thus not canon. Regardless.)

Twilight Princess seemed to be the most overt in its exploration of Hyrule's dark past. We learn that Hyrule had a habit of dumping its criminals into the Twilight Realm, ignorant or (or very likely) refusing to acknowledge that there were people living already there, that the Gerudo desert is devoid of Gerudo save for the Arbiter's Grounds which serve as a Hyrulean prison and execution ground, and how these people living in Hyrule's shadow not only held mistrust for the dwellers of light but actively hated them too.

Then you have A Link Between Worlds which, while Lorule isn't *exactly* Hyrule, it is framed as a reflection of Hyurle. It demonstrates that, if a kingdom is in a dire condition, that a reasonable solution would be to attempt to take the very artifact that would save it from another kingdom, even at that other kingdom's expense. Hilda is the antagonist but she is framed in a sympathetic light, as someone who had the best interests of her people at heart and would not have harmed anyone otherwise. (Funny how Ganondorf is never afforded that sort of grace. When he expressed that his homeland was plagued with drought and suffering the solution was to destroy him and everything he ever held dear. Moving on.)

The wilds era also explained where the Yiga came from, that they were the Sheikah that refused to bow to Hyrule's demands that they dismantle the very technology that they had built in service to it, that they were persecuted and chased out for their refusal. In the present, they are seen as a cult that are unreasonable, a joke, and meant to be dismissed and annihilated. These are but a few pretty obvious examples. However, my point isn't to prove that LoZ lore did demonstrate that Hyrule itself has perpetuated crimes of its own, but how they choose to frame said crimes. You, as the player, learn these things but you learn them in a matter-of-fact manner, and you never question it afterwards. This violence that Hyrule perpetuates is simply the cost of business in keeping a peaceful kingdom. Because Hyrule's intentions, just like Hilda's, supposedly stem from a desire to bring peace, order, and light to the kingdom, their violence is seen as something good and divinely ordained. As a result, when you learn about it, no matter how horrific it is, you are sort of made to simply store this knowledge in mind and continue with your efforts in preserving the status quo. The kingdom is restored to its original state at the end of your journey, and the people who have been victim to Hyrule's violence simply are meant to persist and accept that this is their fate, never given any sort of acknowledgement in how they suffered. Now, some may argue that, in Twilight Princess, the plight of Midna's people was acknowledged. However, the framing for their suffering largely puts the blame on Zant and Ganondorf, and doesn't quite make it so obvious that this entire mess is a result of Hyrule's actions over hundreds of years. It is there, subtle in the background, just like everything else we ever learn when it comes to Hyrule and its less than stellar deeds. In fact, one of Midna's big character moments is acknowledging that the dwellers of light were not as bad as she had imagined they would be which, was she wrong to have misgivings to begin with? Meanwhile, when someone like Ganondorf enacts violence, his actions are framed as not only evil, but selfish. There is absolutely no other reasoning for his violence beside his own selfish desire. Even in moments where he does reveal that his desire stemmed from overseeing a kingdom that was suffering, he is still treated as someone acting selfishly, as someone who did not act on behalf of his people. Why is that? Why is it that when Hyrule tortures and expels people that they are seen as acting in the name of the collective good, but when Ganondorf, a king in his own right, does it it must stem from selfish desire? A lot of people, for example, like to point to OoT Ganondorf as being very evil because of his actions against the Kokiri, the Zora, and the Goron, but did what he do really differ from what he had witnessed Hyrule do to anyone who opposed them? I do like the angle that some people mention, that he purposefully uses the title King of Evil in a more tongue-in-cheek manner because he is willing to acknowledge that what he is doing IS evil, unlike Hyrule who insists that anything they do is good.

The point I'm trying to get at here is that, while it is great that LoZ lore does recount of Hyrule's dark past, its framing isn't to depict Hyrule as a morally gray entity. It is framed to depict that any kingdom, or empire, in seeking order and stability, does have a "right" to react with righteous violence in order to maintain said order. So long as this violence is done in the name of preserving the empire, it is acceptable no matter how violent. Meanwhile, anything done that resists or opposes the empire, no matter how small, is seen as evil and must be eradicated, no matter what the reason. We know this for a fact because the majority of the fandom doesn't acknowledge that Hyrule has done any wrong, no matter what you learn about it. Princess Zelda is her princess and Link is her hero so how can they be wrong? This is also imperialist rhetoric.

#admiral's log #ganonthots

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I dunno if this is my hardcore peddling of Ganondorf propaganda affecting my reading on things, but seeing so many people over on the tweeter say that Rauru is the best dad figure in LoZ games is just like...hmm.

He does try to help her in terms of gathering information in how to get back to her time, but otherwise sort of only pays lip service to any concerns Zelda has when it comes to Ganondorf. Zelda is no longer a young princess that is under the thumb of her father's expectations; she is a ruler in her own time, well aware of what plagues her country. However, even though Rauru acknowledges who she is, he still, like Rhoam, thinks he knows better than she does. Even when Zelda advises him to not confront Ganondorf, knowing full well what she saw in the present, Rauru is arrogant enough to think that because Zelda is here in the past that things will turn out different this time and decides to disregard her advice. He never gives her a concrete explanation for his actions, basically just telling her "not to worry about it" as if she is a child complaining about a boogieman under her bed and not what is possibly the origin of a calamity she spent 100 years holding back. In a way, Rauru becomes this sort of protective father figure where he wants to take the burden of all the hard things off her shoulders and let her focus on finding a way back home. However, considering Zelda herself is a ruler who already put her life on the line for her kingdom, she does not need to be coddled in this way. After all, she is also speaking in the interests of protecting what she knows to be home. It often feels like Rauru is infantilizing her instead of taking her concerns seriously, in the same way Rhoam did. It feels like this infantilization extends to Ganondorf as well, whom he allows to come to court and swear his fealty after attacking Hyrule, as if such a brazen attack was simply a child throwing a tantrum and not a tribe making a bold statement as to what they thought of his "repeated invitations". And then of course he keeps him on a short lease right after instead of treating him as a true threat to his kingdom. It does make me wonder if that was the reason why Zelda confronted Ganondorf with Sonia alone, with Rauru nowhere to be found. Was this yet another instance of King Zonai being dismissive of Zelda's concerns, and Sonia being the one who decided to listen?

Can one be considered a good father figure if he never bothers to treat you like an equal that has something of value to say and to consider? At what point does the kindness become condescending?

#anyways this is my final thot for the night #GOOD NIGHT #ganonthots

[bloobluebloo]

Dark gritty Zelda game where they acknowledge that the divine right to rule and the expectation of fealty and submission from other tribes that hold sovereignty over their lands and really don't require Hyrule's protection is bad actually. Dark gritty Zelda game where the entire population's unquestioned loyalty to Princess Zelda, even when the request is absurd and dangerous, is seen as extremely concerning actually. Dark gritty Zelda game where Hyrule's genocides are actually acknowledged as something incredibly fucked up and that they face consequences for it. Dark gritty Zelda game where Ganondorf's resistance to submitting to Hyrule's Monarch du Jour is seen as a leader expressing his wish to remain independent and not an evil manipulative creep who has no redeemable qualities whatsoever who just wants to steal your land and set it on fire. They never talk about that dark gritty Zelda eh? It's always about going full tilt on making the Gerudo barbaric even when the Wilds era made them all shy and cutesy around men. Anyways.

#ganonthots

[bloobluebloo]

Thinking of the Arbiter's Grounds, I don't blame TP Ganondorf for being as unhinged as he is. We can argue all day about whether he really cared about his people or not. However, to see the most holy place of your land repurposed, redesigned in Hylian fashion, and converted to a prison. To have the sanctity your people had for the mirror be turned into a curse to banish those whom Hyrule deems criminals into the underworld, into literal hell. To have your enemies not only enter your lands but drag you back to the home you both adored and despised, in chains, to condemn you and execute you in the name of light and justice. To have the gods intervene in your favor after having lost all your agency and all your pride, being laid bare in the face of the ones who would wish to see you destroyed, standing at death's door.

It must have broken something really deep inside of him, that he no longer sees himself as a man, but rather as a force of reckoning for Hyrule. It's like his hatred and despair are not visceral, not of his own heart, because if he does acknowledge that hatred as his own then it would mean having to acknowledge how the light shredded every single part of his humanity and capability to feel anything and it would just kill him all over again. He cannot allow himself to die without at least letting Hyrule have at least a taste of his burning hatred for everything it represents.

#IM HAVING #A LOT OF FEELINGS #SOMEDAY YOUR PAIN WILL BE RIGHTFULLY ACKNOWLEDGED MY LOVE #ganonthots

[bloobluebloo]

Spent the morning listening to ancient videos (by internet standards) and came across an interesting paragraph on how Sakurai views Ganondorf, from a Famitsu interview:

"Ah, yes. I've gotten many complaints about Ganondorf. Why doesn't he use his sword more? Why isn't he as powerful as he is in Zelda? Well, when I decided to add him in Super Smash Brothers, of course he was a late addition included only because his physical appearance was easy enough to model swap over Captain Falcon. So I couldn't do as much justice as I wanted with him, but I worried people would be upset if I left out such an important and striking character.

Ganondorf is somewhat of a contradiction---in Smash Brothers, he's both powerful, yet sometimes comes across as a little worn down, a little tired. In a way, he was greatly influenced by my late father who passed away shortly beforehand. As a child, I viewed my father as a strict-disciplinarian, a man I both feared and respected. But when I grew up, I realized my father, that man I was saw as a powerful figure---a king---was often out of breath, and limped along. I wondered why I feared him so much? And in a way, that's how I've developed Ganondorf as a character. Personally I'm quite close to the character, and thus I find it difficult to bring myself to change him too much."

#Sakurai sees Ganondorf as a tired old man #he gets it #no wonder he often puts Ganondorf in very relaxed situations in smash #he’s giving him a break #because he sees the humanity in his character #ganonthots

[bloobluebloo]

I do find it funny that, on one hand, there are at least two known instances where people have seen Link and told him that if they looked like he did they would “consider a different job” *ehem*, suggesting that Link is rather aware that he is attractive and will use his shenanigans in his underwear to unsettle people for his amusement. On the other hand we have Ganondorf who has been stated to be very careful of his appearance and comes from a tribe that is very husband-finding and marriage obsessed and yet seems completely oblivious to his own goods looks or even sex in general. I can see Ganondorf being all smug that people are paying attention to him thinking it’s because of his intimidating presence and powerful aura and then being told “No, I mean isn’t it obvious they all wanna fuck you” and him being like “What? What do you mean? They are incoherent in my presence as you can tell.”

#sometimes thinking of him as oblivious asexual and completely focused on his desire for power and control #is funny actually because the tendency is to imagine him as some sort of sex god lol #ganonthots