Keep Ganon Evil!

 You read the title, I stand by it, despite it being a popular idea. The idea of a redemption story for “the king of Evil” is the worst idea Nintendo could make with the exception of the next Mario game having a sex-tape between Wario and Princess Peach. 

Ok why can’t a redeemed Ganon work? Firstly it would mean that Nintendo couldn’t use the character again. The legend of Zelda has one playable hero, Link and to quote Yoshinori Kitase on the creation of Cloud for Final Fantasy 7. “The protagonist has all these secrets to unravel. He isn't a straightforward hero like Superman; rather, he has many mysteries, self-doubts, and a real dark side.” But instead of Superman, he could’ve easily said Link. Link is your straight forward, happy-go lucky hero to muddy the water with the idea he isn’t the helpful hero would undermine the franchise. Link is so good because he is fighting a villain so evil. Link has no doubts and the player (who is embodying the role of Link) has no reason to doubt his motives. This would ruin the game, because unlike other games Legend of Zelda is more simplistic escapism, you want to go to a world with clear cut heroes and villains because the real world is messy. You want to go to a world were the biggest problem can be stopped by fighting an evil warlock in a duel.

In Windwaker Ganon gives a speech about why he did his horrible acts. His reasons were that the “desert is cold at night”. Yes that’s it, that’s why he attempted 3 different genocides. He was trying to alleviate the suffering of a people who are perfectly adapted to the desert climate. Yep, he infested Hyrule castle town with the undead forcing thousands from their home because he didn’t know what a blanket was. He fed the Gorons, (Rock people who live by a volcano) to a dragon because he couldn’t make a fire. He froze the Zora (fish people) because, well, he had no justification. 

No Ganon was originally the king of the Gerudo, being the only male he was their king or the god. All the female Gerudo fulfilled his every wish, but that wasn’t enough. He grew more and more jealous of the king of Hyrule because he wanted to be the only one who was worshipped. So the Gerudo became bandits, so that Ganon could have more and more. Once he had enough wealth he tried to overthrow the royal family and take the Tri-force. But he was only worthy of one third, he did not have the Wisdom to use it properly or the Courage to do what’s right (those thirds belong to Princess Zelda and Link). His lust for power transformed him into his perfect avatar and drooling pig. Later in Breath of the Wild he became an entity of pure evil energy called “Malice”. Ganon is  not a nice chap.

 

So why would anyone want a redeemed Ganon, well it all comes from fan art. Because somebody drew a hot Ganon the concept of physiognomy came into play. Nothing from the previous games would support anything else, but people libidos overrule the fact he’s literally called “the King of Evil”.