Because I do love research and worldbuilding l'm still going from a previous post. What, then, is malice?
Malice (and gloom) is transformative, corruptive, destructive. Here's a theory someone wrote in the wiki:
As good a theory as anything else, though I'd argue that malice is the basis for all dark magic, and not the other way around, seeing as ganon is using malice that originated from his 'patron' demise, and pretty much all dark magic in loz is the same purple/black/red, implying a similar source/origin. Blood could simply be a good conduit for it.
Here's some quotes from the game and official guide too:
But the reminder of the glowing eyes in this screenshot is actually super interesting. A big glowing eye, usually red/orange, is a super common theme in the zelda series because it's an easy weakness for kids to understand. From a Watsonian perspective, however, an evil eye as a source of malice would also make total sense. Defeating the boss of a dungeon with its big red eye is typically the win condition of clearing the dungeon. Save the nearby town, take the treasure, wipe out the monsters that took over the temple or mansion or cave or whatever else. Often the bosses are gargantuan versions of smaller enemies, sometimes they're robots or suits of armour, sometimes they're revered spirits that got infected, sometimes they're allies who got possessed. Almost always, they were something else first. And the big glowing eye sprouting out of them is their monstrous form's big fat weakness.
Basic stuff, I know, but good to put into words nonetheless. Big orange glowing eye where it shouldn't be -> infected with dark magic.
And in botk we see big glowing eyes just chilling on their own, and they're accompanied by great wads of malice goop and infinitely spawning monster skulls. And they're still the weakness of the malice around them! Shoot them and everything will explode!
So, across the whole series (which is REMARKABLY consistent for loz lmao), we could argue that the eye is the core, or even the source of malice/dark magic in an area, corrupting whoever and whatever it's placed in - drawing or even creating monsters that then run amok in the dungeon.
But you know what's funny? Let's look at the cultural side of things.
All of a sudden that head gem is looking rather like an evil eye itself. And what is ganon? A powerful dark magic user. Channelling malice, summoning monsters and corrupting innocents.
Similarly, all dark mages (yiga, vaati, yuga, astor, twinrova) follow the same general dark colour scheme and a little sphere on their foreheads, usually red.
Some are just more... Obvious than others.
And with the relation to ganon so many of these evil sorcerers have, often being empowered by him directly, and ganons direct connection to Demise and his malice hatred?
I think I can fairly say that I believe that all dark magic in hyrule utilises Demise's hate. Hate is, in real life, a destructive, transformative, corruptive force. And Demise, who talks about his hate as though it is a real, physical thing, a thing that can be renewed in an endless cycle of pain and conflict as each dark mage rises up to try and conquer the land in unending succession. When hate becomes the hunt for power no matter how unethical, when something grants you that power, as long as you hold onto that hatred, it can feel like hatred is power. And it's human nature to hold on to what makes you feel powerful.
So a curse of hatred.... I don't think it's Ganondorf, necessarily, or even the other dark powers that rise over and over again. I think it's the source of those powers.
I think the black and purple malice is the source of all dark magic, and that Demise's curse was not ensuring 'interesting times', but that by giving humanity* the ability to harness power from their own negative feelings, they would, on their own, create that self perpetuating cycle into infinity, for as long as the people of hyrule exist, there will be those that turn to hatred.
To corruption, to transformation, to destruction.
