Khuutra said:
Helios, I think framing the King of Hyrule as man choosing to forge a new destiny for himself and humanity is somewhat off-base. Certainly it's about rejecting lands previously given to his people by the gods, but his destroying the place isn't a rejection of the gods' designs, it's an acquiescence. The gods had already taken Hyrule away, and would have destroyed it if Ganondorf hadn't interfered; in destroying Hyrule, the King is accepting the fate the gods have bestowed on his people, in opposition to Ganondorf who was trying to reject that same fate. As I said before, the role of the King of Hyrule, even acting as a destroyer, is about acceptance.
Ganondorf, on the other hand, is not one to accept the mandates of the gods on any occasion. Hell, in his earliest canonical appearance so far, he actually commits deicide - not once, but twice. One can't claim that he was actively defying the Deku Tree and Jabu-Jabu as deities, but it's easy to see the beginning of his rejections of the mandates of the gods (in that the Tree and Jabu decree that he cannot be allowed into the Sacred Realm). And yes, the Deku Tree is never canonically referred to as a god (unless he is in Wind Waker and I've forgotten) but his place as a god equivalent to Jabun, Valoo, and Jabu-Jabu proves the point well enough. The thing here is that Ganondorf commits deicide - and defies the will of the gods - incidentally to his quest for power.
It needs to be noted that his anti-god activities never extended to the major gods of the Triforce (or the goddess of time, or the goddess of the sands), partially because they are untouchable and partially because they've never intervened concerning his machinations. The Triforce goddesses never actually interfere in the goings-on of Hyrule; the Twili are banished by the Light Spirits, the Sages are the ones who seal Ganondorf away, on and on. They can be assumed to be the ones who flood Hyrule, but this is the only time they ever act explicitly. It's worth noting that at this point, they're not actually able to compeltely destroy Hyrule; Ganondorf, with the Triforce of Power, is able to act as a counterbalance, holding off the forces of the ocean and keeping the power of the gods from completely sealing away Hyrule's power.
In fact, the machinations of the gods have been given too much import in this discussion altogether, particularly in the identification of the "chosen ones" in Twilight Princess. We know (or can reasonably assume) that the Triforce was bequeathed on Ganondorf as a result of his obtaining it at the moment that split the timelines, and that its other pieces went to the two people who best suited them (namely Zelda and Link). His lack of knowledge concerning his holding the power of the gods is probably the reason he didn't just conquer Hyrule again, and probably the reason the Master Sword wasn't needed to subdue him. We know that the Triforce pieces can be passed down through generations, given freely to whoever a holder chooses, as when Zelda gives Wisdom to Midna or as when Wisdom is passed down the Hyrulian royal family for generations at a time. We know that LInk of Twilight Princess is a direct descendant of the Link from Ocarina of Time (or at least he shares the same bloodline); it's not inconceivable that the Triforce of Courage might have been inherited, in his case. Of course, that's ignoring one other agency, and that's the Triforce itself. Yes, the Triforce is important in that it can circumvent the mandates of the gods, but it's also important as an active force of change.
We know the Triforce has its own consciousness; we talk to it several times over the course of the series. We know that it's able to act of its own accord, to charge people with quests and choose people most suited to hold it and judge those who are not. We know that, as a whole, it's as powerful or moreso than the gods who forged it. As an independent agency it's limited by its own nature as a tool, but if any particular machinations for stopping Ganondorf have been set up then it's probably by the Triforce itself. This is all just to highlight the point that the agency of the goddesses has probably been given too much emphasis in this discussion.
What I'm getting down to here is that painting Ganondorf as a puppet of the gods is incongruous with his characterization and with his part in events in all of the games in which he appears. He is never a reactionary force; he is the instigator of destiny. The Triforce seeks out heralds in reaction to him. The lower gods seek out protectors in reaction to him. The gods flood Hyrule in reaction to him. His actions have never fit into any larger plan for the people of Hyrule; he is a singular corrupting force who ruins the fun for everyone, so to speak. Pretending that he's a puppet to the gods is tantamount to saying that the gods were looking for a chance to flood Hyrule and he merely fulfiled the role of convenient excuse; I reject that notion. Gods do not plan for Ganondorf, they react to him. Same with the people. The only one who's ever explicitly tried to scheme against him (Zelda) ended up his prisoner for playing into his plans. Half the major events in Hyrulian history occurred as a result of Ganondorf trying to conquer everything.
Hell, I'd be willing to bet that the Master Sword's creation will be in response to him, too.
Slightly off-topic for the above but in keeping with this topic in general: the Deku Tree's gonna bring back Hyrule regardless of what the gods decree. That's pretty interesting.
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