unfortunately, making Ganondorf anything other than a cartoon villain would break the two directives Nintendo has for the Zelda series, which are "never use any of the series's concepts to make the main characters interesting" and "never be normal about brown people"
Reposted from
Hatok
Ganondorf being a tragic villain or outright hero would be such a cool wrinkle but Nintendo probably has some insane internal reasoning like "Ganondorf is an enemy which means he deals damage to the player, so players will be confused if he's not evil"
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Alternatively, he's the robber from Catan and Zelda keeps rolling 7s
2D Zelda has some good options though!
When people describe some games explicitly as Zelda-likes or alternatives to Zelda and they end up playing or feeling like pale imitations, I feel underwhelmed. I have yet to find a 3D Zelda-like that can rival 3D Zelda games. The closest things are OoT hacks
https://bsky.app/profile/heyitsscrappy.bsky.social/post/3ljlxji3htk2x
and then totk erases her personality. botw zelda was an accident probably
On the other hand, simply no defense on the brown people side lol
Both have cultural influence from the same general area (WW Rito looking vaguely Babylonian) and Gerudo sounding like Garuda (a mythical bird)...but apparently the fish people had to escape the rising water.
And yeah everything around them from the music, to the insistence that they're always bandits, to the cartoonishly pointy noses is just kinda racist
IT WOULD BE SO FUCKING EASY TO MAKE A GAME WHERE GANONDORF TEAMS UP WITH THE HEROES BECAUSE OF THIS SHIT, AND THEY JUST WON'T EVER
“Hello, my names Ganondorf, would you like to fish with me?”
And Link’s just like:
They made plenty of interesting games and were pioneering a lot of stuff in the gaming industry, why the hesitation? It makes no sense!
What’s the point of Demise if there’s nothing building on top of it? Why have evil Master Sword, etc.
At least the gameplay has been solid in the latest entries, but Nintendo always prioritizes that.
OH COOL!
NEAT!
Are... are ya gonna do anything with that...? Nintendo?
*He's a pig sometimes*