#hw ganondorf default

[link-is-a-dork]

[rastea]

Random Vampire + other supernatural stuff AU where Vaati is mistaken by the general populace as a Vampire but he's actually a Seelie type fairy who left the courts (the unseelie don't like him either) because he was fascinated with the dark magics humans could wield and had no interest in being nice to them, and was much more selfish than his brethren. He learned their magics and other human sins and has left his fairy life a long time ago to live amongst humans for his own fun and gain. (more au ramblings under cut)

He's spent at least 200 years in the human world and is a bit notorious amongst other long living beings as being a huge flirt and having many girlfriends at once. In truth he prefers the chase than actually having the prize so he's seen as very fickle and has broken many hearts who actually fell for him.

At some point one particularly plucky girl ended up having children with him. Even now he carries a locket of paintings of his kids when they were young even though they are all in their twilight years now (though having fairy blood in them they are longer lived than humans). He will gush about them if given the opportunity. He may not be as involved in their families as he used to be but their bloodlines are blessed by him.

His default human form actually looks about 12 (to his annoyance) but he is a skilled shapeshifter who likes to keep his appearance anywhere in the range of 18-25 because it's easier to flirt with people that way.

He slipped into a ball held by who he assumed was the powerful and infamous Cia but turns out she had been long killed by Colonel, who was turned against his will and took his revenge. The ball was to celebrate a curious new addition to the household. A massive, handsome man named Ganondorf with curious stitching scars and the scent of curious magics about him (tldr: my witch Ravio did a Frankenstein) and despite the many other beauties at the ball became absolutely enraptured by the man. And after the ball he decided he MUST know more about him. Thus the courting began. The others at the mansion are suspicious but his intentions are very innocent.

(AU tldr:) (Hyrule Warriors Link as the Vampire Lord of the house, Twilight is a werewolf and was once a monster hunter, a totk Link is HW's beautiful vampire bride, Ravio is a witch who traded protection from persecution (long story) to being the maid/butler of the house and allowed to explore his craft, and another totk Link is a angel/demon hybrid who was also a vampire hunter and knew Ravio when they were children. They are one big happy family and definitely nothing bad ever happens to them and they will all definitely live for a long time.)

[rawliverandgoronspice]

You kno, I always (since I started playing LoZ 20+ years ago+additional ideas that came later) assumed Ganondorf is green bc of Koume and Kotake's influence. They're two powerful witches, and the occasional depiction of witches being green has probably also spread to Japan, so from that to show Ganon's ties to them, they were all three turned shades of green bc magic. It also sounded in-game like those two were a big reason for why Ganondorf went power mad and pushed war, even tho the other Gerudo didn't want him to go that extreme. Doesn't explain totk Ganondorf since there's literally no reason or backstory for him, but maybe it's like "tradition" by now. I also know there's a Chinese saying "putting on a green hat" which means the same as being green with envy, so I could imagine smth similar exists in Japanese, smth that could have worked with Oot's Ganondorf's envy of Hyrule's life giving lands. Since TP and WW, and HW Ganondorf are all the same guy, that kinda still works? I know it's really being viewed critical why he looks like he looks w the green skin, so thought I'd share a thing I basically came up with as a kid. (Except the green hat, only found out later, but the green with envy thought I did have back then.) Green hat works more for Link in the literal sense, so maybe Ganondorf has a figurative green hat. 😩

Hey! Yeah, I assumed the same for a very long time, and I'm pretty sure it's still the intent today.

I still think it's worth mentioning the trend has been really exacerbated with time; even back in OoT, his skin tone is not... that off the charts. Like yes, it does lean green, but after doing some color picking, it still stands reasonnably in the brown. It is a little sickly/olive, and there is a big gap between the concept arts and the model in-game already then (and in Smash, he's pretty much in the browns in his default model too), but it *could* be somebody's skin color. It's the same thing for WW Ganon btw, where his skin is definitively brown in the concept art and got much greener once modeled in the game. TP Ganon is the one where the difference between concept art and in-game skin is the least noticeable, but he also has the darkest shade by far so it doesn't read super green, even if it is quite there if you color pick. TotK Ganon is the color of a spinach smoothie in comparaison; even in the concept art itself, which might be even greener than the model in-game (a first!)

To be generous and fair to the whole thing, I think it used to be a case of what looked the most dramatic in-game, and a green hue does look less natural, colder, deader and scarier than a red-base one, especially in extremely intense lighting situations where Ganon often finds himself in, where it is easy to use that base color for contrast, especially with the red of his hair or the gold of his eyes and his little forehead jewel. This coupled with the influence of Twinrova and the association with envy probably pushed this direction even further every time.

But again, it is also hard to extract these choices from the history, in fantasy and sci-fi, of how to still dehumanize archetypes of PoCs without actually having them "being PoCs", or using excuses of inherent evilness to make their treatment by the narrative more acceptable. I am not mad at this choice inherently, but I am critical of it in the light of every other choice made in the year of our lady Hylia 2023 and the fact that I *so often* see this being used as protection against criticisms of both orientalism and a lack of care for what it implies about the worldbuilding of Hyrule. In OoT there was the connection to dark magic and the Twinrova; but in TotK, the Twinrova are easter eggs at best, not an active part of what shaped our antagonist and made him who he is. His evilness is made profusely clear the second he grabs the stone and becomes basically Satan with very cool hair, in a design that does lean super red and black anyway; one would think he'd rather try to hide his true nature before this?

(there is also history of PoC being turned green to avoid direct critique in fantasy/sci-fi worldbuilding, I think Star Trek is one of the big culprits but don't quote me on that)

Again, it's the package that is weird; and even more than the package, gradually changing PoC features over time in a way that, while not maybe being the only reason for the change, does allow the heroes to clearly identify the source of evil as Unlike Them while also distancing themselves from the more direct racist implications instead of... kind of allowing this to complicate the conflict, and accept that the conflict *is already complicated* no matter what is retconned or emphasized or changed. But the priority is simplicity and cleanness, and so Ganon and the gerudos do bear the blunt of these choices more often than not; the green skin being one of the more visible examples.

[link-is-a-dork]