Ganondorf Is Great, But Zelda Games Need to Introduce New Villains

September 19, 2025, 6:00pm

There have been 21 mainline games in The Legend of Zelda. In only a few of these games, the final boss has been someone besides Ganondorf. Even in some instances, like Skyward Sword or Twilight Princess, the villain is either the first version of Ganon or is being controlled by the Demon King. Vaati, Null, and Majora stand out as some other villains in Zelda, but they aren’t as prominent as Ganondorf looms large over the entire franchise. For this reason, it might be wise for Nintendo to consider giving its second-most iconic big bad a little break.

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The Legend of Zelda Has and Can Come Up With Some Cool Villains

The Legend of Zelda does so many things well. It’s the best action-adventure series out there, and its puzzles are among the most iconic and fun in all of gaming. It has fantastic characters, too. But one of the best things this franchise routinely does is create villains. Ganondorf, naturally, is the headliner, and he’s one of the most prominent video game villains of all time. But he’s not the only one, and he’s not even the only good one.

Null, who debuted in Echoes of Wisdom and immediately made an indelible mark on the series, is fantastic. Majora is also incredible and is featured in maybe the most thematically rich of the Zelda games. Vaati is fun, too. Nightmare from Link’s Awakening, General Onox from Oracle of Seasons, and Dark Link from Zelda II are good, but they mostly pale in comparison.

When looking back at all the final bosses in this series, there are actually more non-Ganon bosses than initially expected. The reason it feels like there are hardly any is that Ganon gets all the attention in the mainline games. With such an iconic villain coming around every so often, it’s hard for others to get the deserved love and appreciation. To better help them, it might be time Nintendo let Ganondorf rest for a little while.

Why Nintendo Should Give Ganondorf a Little Break

Ganondorf doesn’t need frequency to be a good villain. In this instance, less can absolutely be more. One could argue that he’d be more fearsome if players didn’t defeat him every few years. This would allow the other villains some time to shine.

It would give Nintendo two opportunities. First, the developers could flex their creative muscles here and continue coming up with new baddies. Clearly, that’s a skill Nintendo still has, because Null was first introduced in 2024 and immediately became a huge piece of the lore and a genuinely excellent antagonist. Coming up with new ones shouldn’t be a problem for this team if they choose to go down that road.

Instead of flooding the series with new villains, though, Nintendo should bring back some older ones. If Ganondorf can return endlessly thanks to a curse put on Hyrule, then so can others. Majora would quickly become a legendary villain with more usage. Vaati, Null, and several others would as well. They’d all become much more notable, thereby spreading some of the love from Ganondorf between them.