#(again I don't count all the conversations on imperialism as ambivalence or nuance as they are not textual imo)

[rawliverandgoronspice]

I think what bugs me with TotK's Ganondorf, beyond the uhhh everything here and here, is that... This version, the reintroduction of this character after 17 years of patient conversations, tries so super hard to kill any ambiguity he once possessed? I have come across many posts here, on youtube and elsewhere that focus on, just, settling down the flicker of doubt and complexity that could have been extracted as: no, he was just an evil prick all along without any depth and layers, and those who saw anything more were both wrong and manipulated.

(which could have been absolutely great if the gerudos' perspective had been centered as his first victims and how exactly that played out for them tbh --but here it just feels... I don't know, patronizing, a little bit? It's not like people hallucinated these elements, they were present in the text and resonated with people in a way that wasn't cynical at the time)

Again: obviously the fandom will do something cool with ambiguity regardless, but... I don't know, I want the media I consume to be interesting and layered also? I'm not saying TotK should not have him be evil (I think it's good that he is, I was dreading the redemption arc personally), but just... maintain the doubt? keep the conversation going? especially since it kind of condemns any further apparitions as a variation on this one-note interpretation of the character (which I think will get stale pretty fast), and also retroactively tries to reinterpret his previous iterations in the same breath. I think it's partially why I'm a little hostile to this version, even beyond its role in the narrative: Zelda is great when it reinvents its characters, but I'm not fond of sweeping statements that try to simplify the entire canon of the series for the benefit of the hylian heroes and their absolutely undisputable moral purity (and everything it implies).

I don't know, I think I'm just a little sad for what could have been.