Before I say anything, this article contains SPOILERS.

I know that this is going to be an unpopular opinion, but before you get on my case, let me say this: I adore Breath of the WildThe game is great and I would say that it’s the best Zelda game by a long shot. That being said, it is not without its faults. While many of them were minor things, but there was one thing that I couldn’t get past: Ganon.

Over the years, Ganon’s character has evolved. In the beginning, he was just a facet of evil with no personality. He was a step towards beating the game. In A Link to the Past, Agahnim was the personification of Ganon. He was given personhood and became more than just a mindless evil. In Ocarina of Time, he was finally realized as a primary antagonist with defining characteristics. He had a signature look that, while altered over the years, has always resembled the original from Ocarina of Time. In Twilight Princess, he was the mastermind behind an elaborate plot to overthrow the Twilight Realm and and taking over Hyrule.

However, the last time we saw a rendition of Ganon or Ganondorf was in the form of Demise in Skyward Sword. We were given a backstory for him, learning that he was the Demon King that began the cycle of hate between his spawn and Link and Zelda’s reincarnations. He was a menacing foe that was a perfect way to begin the story of Ganon and Ganondorf.

This brings us to the Ganon in Breath of the Wild. This Ganon is solely a creature of evil. It has no personality; we don’t know any of its motivations. It’s weird, for a game that’s so invested on building its main and supporting characters, that one of the most important forces in the game has absolutely no characterization. Furthmore, we don’t even see Ganon until the end of the game. (I’m not really counting the Blights.) Even when we reach Ganon, he turns out to be just another generic evil bad guy.

A big complaint with Marvel’s movies is that the villains tend to be poorly developed. They’re more just a vehicle through which the story is progressed, aside from Loki, who has some sort of characterization. However, many of the other villains can easily be replaced with anyone else. They don’t add anything to the story and they don’t have any significance. (See Iron Man 1-3, etc.) Similarly, Ganon in Breath of the Wild could easily be replaced by any generic evil force with no consequence to the story (See to the right: the new iteration of Ganon: Sca- I mean Lion Ganon.). He’s not unique, he doesn’t have a personality or characterization, and is weakly used.

This would not be a problem if we hadn’t had the previous villains: Ganondorf, Vaati, Demise, Ghirahim and so on. They brought something unique to the story. Ganondorf, for example, was unique because his motivation was to rule over Hyrule, having experienced its prejudice and hatred against the Gerudo for some time. He envied the life found outside of the barren dessert. This was the motivation behind his actions.

Once I got to Ganon, it was a major let down. I fully expected a monologue or something. If you’ve listened to the podcast, you’ve heard my dream scenario, so I may have set myself up for a bit of a letdown. However, the battle itself was a bit too easy, especially if you’ve finished the story and freed the four beasts. The battle was built up to be the ultimate fight with Ganon unlike we’ve ever seen before. But as Darrin, our editor has said, fighting a Lynel is actually more difficult than fighting Ganon.

So with no characterization, despite having such threatening and iconic villains in the past and having such an easy fight, what is Ganon’s purpose? What does he do in the game? Well, just like a good Marvel villain, he’s just a vehicle to further the story. He’s so inconsequential that could be replaced by a Stone Tallus with an angry face drawn onto it. It seems like the only reason Ganon is in the game is for the nostalgia factor. Aside from being the evil of the day, he is really quite inconsequential. He’s an inciting incident and a footnote of a conclusion in an otherwise amazing story for a Zelda game.

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