#the malice

[cyberangelsoftware]

lowkey becoming more like my dad by the day 🥀

[ultraericthered]

MY GUIDE TO THE INCARNATIONS OF MALICE

DEMON KING DEMISE

Greater-Scope Villain of the entire franchise who originated the curse known as Malice that ensured great evil would always be plaguing Hyrule and going after the reincarnations and descendants of the Hero and the Goddess, the greatest of such evils being those who’d be born and reborn as vessels for the demon god’s undying hatred. 

Appeared only in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

Voiced in my head by Fred Tatasciore.

GANONDORF PROTO (DEMON KING GANON)

First incarnation of Demise’s Malice and the first Gerudo king to be born with the name of Ganondorf. A warlord who sought to conquer Hyrule during the founding days of the kingdom. Coveted the power of the Zonai Secret Stones, swore false fealty to King Rauru only to murder his wife and steal her Secret Stone, embraced the Malice and transform himself into a Demon King who led dark legions in an effort to conquer Hyrule until he was mummified and sealed by Rauru.

As it was his malice that leaked through the seal, reached Warrior King Ganon and created Calamity Ganon, he ironically has ended up as the first Ganon AND the last Ganon simultaneously; the Alpha and the Omega. Appears in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of The Kingdom

Voiced in the English dub by Matthew Mercer.

GANONDORF PRIME, THE GREAT KING OF EVIL

First reincarnation of the Malice, the OG Ganon who appeared in the most titles due to his timeline splintering into three divergeant paths.

Always starts off where we meet him in Ocarina of Time, but if exposed for his treachery while Link and Zelda are still children, his path is set towards Twilight Princess. If as the great King of Evil in the Bad Future, he kills Link and claims the whole Triforce, his path is set towards A Link To The Past, which itself is later followed by the Oracle games and A Link Between Worlds. But if Link is triumphant and Ganondorf is sealed into the Sacred Realm, his path is set towards The Wind Waker. He’s also appeared in Super Smash Bros. Voiced in my head by Tom Wyner (A Link To The Past, Ocarina of Time, The Wind Waker, and Oracle of Ages/Seasons), Steve Blum (Twilight Princess), Len Carlson (Agahnim in A Link To The Past), and Sam Ramey (Ocarina of Time 3D).

GANON, PRINCE OF DARKNESS Second known Ganon reincarnation, born in a timeline many years after the original Ganondorf was killed for good in Twilight Princess. He only appeared in The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventure.

Voiced in my head by Steve Blum.

WARRIOR KING GANON/CALAMITY GANON

Third known Ganon reincarnation, born into realities that aren’t considered official canon to Nintendo’s timeline, yet his physical form seems to have been what Demon King Ganon’s malice latched onto in order to make Calamity Ganon out of, as seen in Age of Calamity.

Appears in Hyrule Warrirors, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, and (kinda, sorta) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Voiced in my head by Jamieson Price.

YUGA (YUGANON)

Lorule counterpart to Ganondorf who serves as the Big Bad of The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. A far more narcissistic and self-obsessed character than Ganondorf ever was, and is effete and mincing whereas Ganondorf is masculine and no-nonsense, keeping with the idea that Lorule is like a distorted mirror of Hyrule. Most impressively, he hijacks Ganon rather than the other way around!

Voiced in my head by Michael McKean.

DEMON KING MALADUS

Another incarnation of Demise’s Malice who appears as the Big Boss of The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. He is never fully explained.

GANONS WHO DON’T COUNT

Incarnations of the character appearing in The Legend of Zelda (1986 NES game), fan-made games, the CDI games, the 80s cartoon show, Cadence of Hyrule, and Animal Crossing.

Maybe this is blasphemy, but I personally do not think of the original NES game and its immediate oddball sequel, The Adventure of Link, as canonical to the rest of the series despite Nintendo’s insistence of shoving them neatly into a timeline. They stand out way too much as having no story in them aside from what’s All There In The Manual, and I’m supposed to believe that OG Ganon, in this timeline, was resurrected thrice over (Oracle games, A Link Between Worlds, and the original game) and THIS is how he gets done in once and for all? Nope, not having it. To me, the true final battle with Ganon in that timeline was the linked finale of the Oracle games, with Yuga’s later hijacking of his spirit being his final appearance and involvement. 

As for the others - the fan-made games and CDI games are obviously non-canonical and their Ganons barely a thing like him, the cartoon version is a Skeletor-esque idiot who’s just a boar man for no real reason, Cadence of Hyrule’s take is okay but not part of the timeline and a major Adaptational Wimp, and Animal Crossing? C’mon, that character is just a silly blue pig pretending to be his idol.

Last thing to note - with the canonical Ganons, I love that they go the whole sliding scale of evil villainy, in appropriate chronological order. Demon King Ganon, like Demise, is a pure evil Complete Monster. King of Evil Ganon is a Classic Villain whose resume of dark deeds is particularly heinous across all his appearances. Prince of Darkness Ganon is a Classic Villain who is bog standard and generically evil rather than truly heinous. Warrior King Ganon is a tactically gifted and charismatic Magnificent Bastard with even some Noble Demon qualities to him, and then what Calamity Ganon devolves into is pure Generic Doomsday Villain (just like original NES Ganon always was). Truly one of the greatest villains in all of video gaming indeed.

[golvio]

Seriously, though, the Fuse and Ultrahand abilities make a lot of stuff about Calamity Ganon’s behavior and the Malice in general make sense.

The Malice being homebrew/bootleg Ultrahand Goo made from Ganon’s own soul/raw negative emotions makes so much sense. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this Ganon try to homebrew his own version of tech he found useful. Remember how the creepy cocoon he was incubating in resembled the Shrine of Resurrection?

He uses Malice for a lot of the same stuff Link uses Ultrahand for: sticking things in the environment together (remember the Akkala Tower puzzle where he superglued the iron bridge piece you used to move about the area just out of your reach?) and sealing off doors and rooms.

However, since Malice is a janky bootleg version of whatever the Ultrahand Ghost produces, it’s got some additional properties. For instance, it’s not well behaved and doesn’t stay in one place, instead draining the life force from its surroundings and continuously expanding to assimilate more stuff, a little like how cancerous cells won’t stop multiplying. In fact, it seems to house not only Ganon’s will, but his wish to reincarnate. When not given specific instructions, it starts attempting to build a body, growing into eyeballs or these weird “ribcage” structures or veins. When strategically applied, Ganon’s Malice is super effective as an environmental hazard/door obstruction.

The Malice can also Fuse things. It wants to Fuse with things. When not given instructions, it climbs the walls like kudzu or grabs at living things. Humans it devours, monsters it dissolves into skeletal revenants and assimilates into those floating skull defense drones. Passive fusions aren’t particularly strong or permanent, but the desire is there.

When actively used to Fuse things together by Ganondorf himself, the resulting constructs and creatures are a lot more dangerous. The Blights and the primary Calamity Ganon body were all actively-designed constructs created by Fusing Malice with Guardian parts. (I have some Malice! I have this discarded military-issue teleportation module! Uh! Thunderblight!) Interestingly enough, Malice can also Fuse on its own with monsters in a non-destructive way. Silver and Golden monsters who are “blessed with Ganon’s dark magic” were likely monsters who were able to Fuse successfully with large amounts of raw Malice, boosting their abilities beyond natural levels. Even low-level monsters have a little Malice mixed into them, which explains their supernatural vitality and ability to resurrect. We have not seen what happens when a human or other non-Monster person is Fused with Malice. Or have we? 👁️

Ganondorf in TotK is now actively Fusing monsters with additional materials to give them a little extra help in the martial arts department, which explains why their horns look so weird.

Anything Fused with Malice can be controlled by Ganon’s primary brain. We see it with the monsters mining for ore underground in the trailer, and we’ve seen it with Naydra. Ganon controlling the Divine Beasts? Likely because his little Blight-offshoots each Fused with the giant robot they commandeered.

Harbinger Ganon was a fusion-hungry little monster whose sole imperative was to construct a body as good at destroying everything as possible. Mutated Ganon is what happens when he Fuses with monsters of sufficient power. Main Timeline Terrako couldn’t be broken free of Ganon’s control because he wasn’t just possessed, but fused together with Ganon.

The reason killing Main Timeline Harby Ganon also killed the Calamity of the Alternate Timeline was because by that point they’d Fused into a single being. At one point offscreen, Harby Ganon and Alt Calamity Ganon gave each other a lil’ smooch and Fused together into a single omnicidal entity.

The Fusions Ganon creates are brittle. If you apply sufficient force to even his most powerful constructs or “kill” the Malice binding the Fusion together through hitting its weak point, it immediately falls apart. It remains to be seen whether the Ultrahand Ectoplasm is subject to this limitation or is a lot more stable than the Malice.

This is all I’ve got so far, but I’ll definitely have other thoughts as time goes on and we start learning more about what’s going on in the game proper.

[yourfavisfullofmalice]

The Malice from Legend of Zelda is filled with malice! *grumbles* The goo..

Requested by anonymous!

[mcnuggyy]

The amount of times I keep accidentally hitting the shop button trying to get to my own blog….

[miniboss000]

Some doodles during my break. (From left to right: "Bones", Skippy, Morc)

[zelvus-art]

Voiceless singer