Dear Diary: Notes of a Villain

Joseph journeys into the minds of Nintendo’s Most Wanted.

By Joseph Nelson. Posted 07/20/2012 14:00 Comment on this     ShareThis

Dear Diary: Notes of a Villain masthead

The Super Smash Bros. and Wario game series notwithstanding, the majority of Nintendo games set the player in the role of the protagonist. Throughout the game, we are made explicitly aware of the main character’s motivations and drives, and as the story progresses we learn more of their raisons d’être. When it comes to the villains of the piece, however, very rarely do we gain any insight into their actions. We see them attack our hero, and carry out their plans, but the only reason we are ever really given is that they are evil, and they are just doing what comes naturally to them.

But what if there is actual logical reasoning behind their actions? What if, in reality, they are just doing what they feel is best, and it just so happens that we are made unaware of this because it would impact so heavily on the story that we would not want to stop them? Here, I take a look inside the heads of two of the most treacherous villains Nintendo has to offer, and explore whether they’re truly evil, or simply misguided.


The Ganondorf artwork at the top of this article was originally created by Rinerdar.

Pages: 1 2 3

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Log In 0 points Log in or register to grow your Ninja Score while interacting with our site.
Nintendojo's RSS Feeds

All Updates Podcast
News Comments
Like and follow usFacebookTwitter Friend Code Exchange + Game with Us Join the Team!