Poll: Villains of Zelda

Villainy abounds in Hyrule. But who’s the evillest, anyway?

By Andrew Hsieh. Posted 11/14/2011 01:30 3 Comments     ShareThis

It’s Zelda week here at Nintendojo– thank a certain game coming out on November 20 for that– and so we need a fitting poll! Thing is, well … it’s chock-full of options. See, our question this week asks for your favorite Zelda villain of all time, and while we think we know who you’ll pick (does it rhyme with Shannon?), we also think everybody else in Link’s rogues gallery should get a fair go at it. Link’s been around for twenty-five years, after all! He’s garnered quite the menagerie of enemies.

In fact, here’s a quick recap so you know who to vote for! Yes, there are minor spoilers (namely, the final bosses of each game). We’re sorry in advance! You can just skip down and vote if you want!

  1. The Legend of Zelda: Ganon, here merely the Prince of Darkness. (Who’s the king? Who knows?) He kidnaps Zelda to try and get her Triforce of Wisdom, little knowing that she’s divided it into eight pieces and spread ’em across the land. Link impales him on a Silver Arrow.
  2. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link: Deep in the Great Palace, Dark Link waits to test Link one final time before bestowing the Triforce of Courage. Naturally, Link beats the pretentiousness out of his doppelganger and wakes up Princess Zelda.
  3. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: While the rather intimidating Agahnim is the antagonist for the first half of the game, he ends up being a lackey for Ganon (now named as Ganondorf), who takes up refuge in the Dark World’s Pyramid of Power. Link studies on killin’ him.
  4. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening: The atrocious Nightmare haunts the Wind Fish’s dreams, trapping Link in a world of his and the Wind Fish’s own imaginations. When Link kills Nightmare, though, the Wind Fish wakes– and all the friends Link has made vanish forever.
  5. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: Ganondorf‘s a real jerk here, manipulating Link into collecting the Spiritual Stones to open up the Temple of Time, and then totally trapping him for seven years while he takes over the world. Fortunately, Link and Co. seal him, for the first time chronologically.
  6. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask: That darn Skull Kid screws up quite literally every single life Link meets in Termina, most famously the tormented couple, Anju and Kafei. Turns out, though, that Majora himself is behind all this. Good thing Link reverts it back into a harmless mask.
  7. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons: Veran and General Onox respectively fill out the roles of antagonists nicely in these two games, though even their mad kidnapping of two great oracles is eclipsed by the return of Koume and Kotake. Though the two ultimately fail to resurrect Ganon properly (read: sanely), they do it anyway. Link stabs him, of course.
  8. The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords: Vaati, a Wind Sorcerer from far in Hyrule’s past, is freed from the Four Sword’s seal. Four different Links beat him up all at once. Ouch.
  9. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker: The Helmaroc King kidnaps Aryll, and though Link successfully gets her back to Outset Island, he continues to find the ultimate culprit: Ganondorf, natch. Despite Big G’s Shakespearean dialogue, Link jumps really high and stabs him in the face.
  10. The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures: Dark Link, though a different one (presumably), tricks Link into freeing Vaati again. Four Links smack Dark Link around a little bit and completely eradicate Vaati, before realizing that Ganon, who has just found his legendary Trident, is behind it all. They seal him in the Four Sword. Hilarious!
  11. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap: This game tells the origins of Vaati, who enters a tournament for a legendary sword; he breaks the sword and turns Zelda into stone. Link, of course, is tasked with beating him up and sealing him back into the Four Sword.
  12. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: Zant prances throughout the entire game, spreading the Twilight Realm across Link’s world, until Link beats him up in his own realm; turns out Ganondorf‘s been behind this all along. (Surprise!) Link uses a fishing pole to distract him and then seals him away inside the Twilight Realm. Woo hoo!
  13. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass: While trying to find Tetra, Link ends up hanging out with the notorious Captain Linebeck, and realizes that the evil Bellum has spiritually dominated the Temple of the Ocean King. Link’s smarter than Bellum, though, and so when Bellum tries a sneaky body possession trick, Link isn’t having any of it. He beats him up.
  14. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks: While Link never directly combats Malladus, he fights the things and people that Malladus possesses. When Malladus possesses Chancellor Cole and turns into a giant monster, Link and Zelda team up; Link impales Malladus’ forehead with the Lokomo Sword, and all is well. Zelda rules again, and Link watches over it.

Remember all those villains? It’s time to vote! And if you’re voting for Ganon, hey … at least tell us which game’s Ganon is your favorite. Let us know in the poll, and hit us up in the comments!

[poll id=”82″]

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