#I'M sorry for the block of text you activated my trap card aklsdJkla

[shannonsketches]

What are your thoughts about Ganondorf and his relationship with his people (OoT timelines)? I personally think he started out with the intent to bring them a better home in Hyrule or at least stop Hyrule's constant attacks on them due to the gerudos refusing to give up their sovereignity by joining them like all the other races were forced to do during the height of the wars. (The racism against them in the game is pretty extreme so I think they were at war and taking shots at each other since the beginning of said wars, which I believe were 100 years long? Probably longer due to the thing I'm mentioning). So that was why he first went after the Triforce, hoping it'd grant him the wish to take Hyrule and end all his people's suffering. Instead he was left with just Power and had to make do while trying to get Wisdom and Courage. Then went totally batshit along the way due to all the pressure of having to defend himself, his people, and deal with all that new power for 7 years. Also sorry for this block of text.

I'm not gonna draw this one because I need to warn you in advance that I was working on an OoT Gan backstory comic for like ten years prior to even Skyward Sword's release, so my view on this is skewed HEAVILY toward OoT and I haven't done a ton of work headcanoning re: TotK's information, but, generally, YEAH. So, the way I wrote Ganondorf is not totally unlike TotK, the biggest difference is that obviously in TotK Ganondorf is not only alive during the civil war but an active leader during said war. In OoT I headcanoned him much younger, and that he was born into an immediately post-war Gerudo Valley that was torn up and freshly having lost a civil war, in which Twinrova was leading a diplomatic olive branch effort toward Hyrule to maintain peace (and of course set up a chess game for the new Gerudo king). So my headcanon is that he was raised very strictly by Twinrova (god I'm so sad Smackjeeves went down, I had comic pages from back in the day up that display it haha), and was initially very isolated from his people, and for a long time knew more about Hylian culture than his own (which is part of why his costuming is so different than anything else we see in Gerudo Valley and is more Hylian in terms of armor and patterning overall, save for the few pieces of Gerudo patterning, which reflect Twinrova more than anything). So as he gets older and gets more involved with his people and has to keep coming back to this desert after experiencing the climates in the fields and town and really being able to change Nothing, he gets frustrated with the realization that he's essentially a king in decoration only, despite being a "Divine" king in birth, and that's where his bitterness toward the gods starts festering. They don't listen, and he feels helpless, but ah, there is an ancient story about a way to fix that, isn't there? So he gets obsessed, and his people fall to the wayside, and he's back to focusing primarily on Hyrule. The triforce becomes the only thing he really cares about, and sure, he tells himself it's for his people, and believes it's true, but deep down it's about him, and it's about control, and revenge -- not just against Hyrule, not just for the war, but against the gods themselves, for the situation they've saddled him with. And the triforce requires a perfect bearer, yes? He's balanced, he's powerful, he's smart, he's brave, he's got this. Except he's ANGRY. He's So Angry. And so the triforce Splits, and it leaves him with what he really wants.

Power.

And the corruption bleeds out of the sacred realm and all throughout Hyrule, and it's hilarious. Now they all get to suffer like the Gerudo have suffered. Unless they play ball with their new King and let him complete this triforce. And why not? He just wants to rule the world, and he can't possibly do a worse job than the last guy. That guy buried 90% of the Sheikah and then called himself a peacekeeper.

Ganondorf just wants to give the Gerudo a place to live where people won't die every night choking on sand. And be in charge. A man can want two things.

The downside, of course, is -- yeah, he's got broken god matter leaking into his body for seven years straight while he's hunting down this fucking flute that a little girl ran away with, and the guy who has it turns out to be in a godcoma the whole time, and now that he's up he's jumping back and forth and changing reality, which is really fucked up to live through when you're already outside your goddamn mind because there's a literal monster living under your skin doing its goddamn best to dominate what's left of your conscious mind. But despite that!! Despite all that!! Gerudo Valley is STILL the safest place you can be in all of Hyrule. Despite the monsters and the ghosts and the death pineapples, you can have Impa's protections and get murdered by chickens and the ghost of a prisoner of war in the well, OR, you can chill in Gerudo Valley and get paid to shoot arrows. So tl;dr: Ganondorf fucking loves his people, and yes, wanted to rule initially to give them a better lot in life. But he is not an affectionate man, and he is selfish and young and angry and desperate and can see Exactly, Precisely how to solve the problem. And that's hard to be cool about when you're a leader and your people are actively dying. So he's on his own, unless he wants to start another war, which we simply do not have the resources for. If you don't listen to the manga, which I don't, Ganondorf took over Hyrule without the Gerudo. He did it with himself and some good old fashioned necromancy and used Hyrule's soldiers against it, which I always liked to think meant he didn't want his people involved if he failed (which, I mean, in TP he was the only one executed,so he must've taken responsibility solo, because his people would've died protecting him, they worshipped him). I do enjoy that he lets you know though. Every single dungeon there's Gerudo blocks. He said 'don't fuck with me child I'll bury you like the dunes I came here from'