When he last appeared in The Legend of Zelda series, Calamity Ganon was a massive, horrible-looking scorpion-spider thing with far too many limbs and eyes – in short, not the kind of thing most people would find attractive, save for the weirdest corners of the internet. However, that consensus seems to have changed with the release of the second trailer for Breath of the Wild sequel Tears of the Kingdom, where Nintendo gave fans their first look at Ganon in his human form Ganondorf – and the internet cannot get enough.
Longtime fans of the Zelda franchise will know that while Ganon appears in some form or another in all of the games, his Gerudo form – known as Ganondorf – is a much rarer occurrence, with Ganondorf’s last mainline game being 2006’s The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. However, he did make an appearance in Hyrule Warriors (2014) and as a playable character in Nintendo’s flagship fighting game Super Smash Bros Ultimate in 2018. And while Ganondorf’s appearance in Tears of the Kingdom isn’t necessarily a new revelation, prior trailers for the game have always shown him as some kind of shriveled, dehydrated mummy.
“Rehydrated Ganondorf,” as the internet has taken to calling him, is a whole other ball game.
As a Ganondorf simp, I am in shambles right now
That's my king. Lay thine eyes upon his glory and be humbled! 😍 pic.twitter.com/TCnlCp1Qxd
— 💀 Wax Witch (@WaxTheeWitch) April 13, 2023
Ganondorf shows up in the new Tears of the Kingdom trailer around the three-minute mark, looking remarkably healthy, hearty, and able to wield some kind of evil magic, which looks similar to the kind spawned by the blood moons in Breath of the Wild. The trailer also shows important events like Hyrule Castle potentially being destroyed, armies of Bokoblins and Lizalfos, not to mention the corrupted Master Sword, and whatever’s going on with Link’s arm. Apart from that, fans have latched onto Ganondorf’s new look – and rightly so, because, as Comicbook.com puts it, this new Ganondorf is “arguably more attractive than he’s been in any previous appearances, and it seems like there’s going to be an awful lot of fan art of this design cropping up over the next few weeks.”
With roughly a month to go until Tears of the Kingdom‘s release on May 12, it’s not hard to imagine the wave of Ganondorf fan art that’s going to be hitting the internet. That is, if it hasn’t started already – as the old saying goes, the devil works fast, but artists work faster, especially with prime material like this.
people seeing the new ganondorf pic.twitter.com/7kTgtFubCc
— The Mechanical T. Rex is here and also behind you (@mecharex1) April 13, 2023
The appearance of “rehydrated Ganondorf” has also brought some of his previous appearances to light decades after they appeared in their own games, with fans insisting that Ganondorf’s always been this hot, and it’s not a new phenomenon by any means. Ganondorf’s new form has also been described as similar to his appearance from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess run through a Wind Waker-style filter – fitting since Tears of the Kingdom is reportedly going to be “a much darker game than Breath of the Wild,” similar to Twilight’s Princess‘s whole edgy vibe, “but will still retain [BOTW’s] sense of slightly more whimsical adventure,” per Den of Geek.
Aside from being all big and muscly, Ganondorf’s new appearance in the Tears of the Kingdom trailer has also revealed some things about the story of the game itself – eagle-eyed fans that weren’t too busy drooling over Ganondorf have noted that of his three different forms, at least one of them isn’t in Hyrule Castle, meaning that unlike in Breath of the Wild, Link might have to face Ganondorf in the wild, or in multiple locations, which certainly doesn’t bode well for Hyrule or Link and Zelda, who also seem to be traveling to new lands. It’s been theorized that the differences between these three forms could mean Ganondorf is rejuvenating himself somehow – maybe by feeding off the corrupted Master Sword or something – but Nintendo hasn’t confirmed any of this yet. They probably won’t until Tears of the Kingdom’s actual release next month.
We see Ganondorf in three "States"
1- Mummy
2- Mummy skin but muscular
3- Fully Rehydrated and w/ tied up hair pic.twitter.com/8ktf41Lm3Z— Greenland Scholar // Fionna & Cake Spoilers (@FlameMinion) April 13, 2023
Ultimately, the only thing for fans to do at this point is to wait until Tears of the Kingdom hits store shelves – in the meantime, though, at least they’ll have plenty of time to soak in Ganondorf in all his rehydrated, kingly glory through fan art. What did you think of Ganondorf’s new look in Tears of the Kingdom? Are you excited about his appearance in the actual game? Let us know in the comments!