There's a lot to be said about the diversity of Zelda supervillains. Do you have a favorite? I think... I choose Zant.

Below you will find a little bit of info to help jog your memories oh Negative World!

Agahnim (The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past)


A servant of Ganon? Or Ganon’s own alter ego? Either way, this powerful sorcerer gained the trust of the King of Hyrule when he brought peace to the land. He then turns around and begins his reign of terror, capturing the descendants of the Seven Sages and sending them to the Dark World.

Dark Link (several games including The Legend of Zelda: The Adventure of Link



Dark Link has appeared in multiple games including the final boss in Zelda II. In Ocarina of Time, he plays a less significant role. Do his battles simply represent Link’s struggle with his darkness within (a cleansing of Link’s soul, if you will)?

Majora (The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask)


The demonic mask whose intent is to destroy the town of Termina by bringing down The Moon on top of the city. For most of the game, the mask is worn by Skull Kid on the Clock Tower, drawing the Moon to Termina. Although the Skull Kid was unaware, Majora's Mask gradually began to take complete control of his mind, turning his harmless pranks on people to acts with malicious intents. The mask itself is the subject of many great theories in the Zelda legend.

Onox (The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons)


The “General of Darkness,” his appearance is that of an iron Knuckle, but like, Veran, he serves only to revive Ganon. His armor hides his true form, the Dark Dragon.

Vaati (several games including The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap)


One of his strongest features is that he acted on his (no Ganon manipulation here) and basically pursued power for the sake of evil. As a member of the Minish race, he cursed his master Ezlo and became a powerful sorcerer.

Veran (The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages)


A loyal servant to Ganondorf, she is dedicated to bringing about the Dark Lord Ganon's revival by bringing sorrow to the hearts of everything in Hyrule. Known as the Sorceress of Shadows and has the ability to possess anybody she wishes to.

Zant (The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess)


Calls himself the Twilight King. Midna refers to him as the King of Shadows. A member of the Twili race, his helmet hides his face for most of Twilight Princess. His lust for power and his desire to bring the Twili back into power in the World of Light, Hyrule, makes him an easy target of Ganondorf’s evil bidding.

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I think Majora has the most potential to be the best villian within the zelda series next to Ganon. When I played MM I used to get the chills seeing Majora's mask accompanied with the effectively creepy music that was presented in parallel. I was in seventh grade when that came out and after i beat it i used to spend my study hall time in class imagining what a zelda game would be like if ganon got his hands on that mask.....

I liked Zant until the character fell apart towards the end. That was... unfortunate.

Other than that, Majora I guess. None of the other main baddies in the Zelda games have resonated with me.

@Kal-El814

remember the part in TP after you beat the water temple where zant appears out of no where? I got the chills during that part, probably the best part of the game.

@Kal-El814 He was definitely like two different characters. Straight up badass most of the game. And then... he gets wacky. I'm not totally sold on it, though in time I kind of liked the idea, like... he was trying to hold himself together but just couldn't contain it anymore.

Still, I voted for him.

I was torn between Majora and Zant...
I ultimately went with Zant. He instantly came to mind when thinking "Villain other than Ganon." Like many have expressed in the past, he became kind of less bad-ass as the game concluded, but I still liked him a lot. For me, his transition to the crazed goofy side worked.
With Majora, I considered Skull Kid the main villain in that game. I would, however, LOVE to see a game focus on the backstory of the mask. I feel like that could deliver the ultimate non-Ganon villain storyline.

Love for my boy Agahnim. He was that guy that originated the Zelda stapel of rebounding an enemy's attack back at them, and he was the king of banishing princesses to the nether-regions!

He's got my vote.

Majora is the best, but I had to vote for Vaati so he'd get some love. I thought his character and his portrayal was pretty damn cool in Minish Cap, and I loved the battles with him.

I love Zant's design, he was super intimidating and the air of mystery about him for most of the game was great. But, the Ganondorph tie-in sucked, and Zant's Loony-Toon antics during the boss fight (while fun) just ruined his appeal.

Zant, even though he just went mad in the end. Not like demonic mad...cartoon mad. That was just weird.

@ludist210

Yeah, that's probably a good way of putting it. I wouldn't have needed him to remain constant for him to be a compelling villain, but his descent into a complete joke came way out of left field. It was completely unbelievable to me.

Zant is really cool.

Shadowlink! (Dark Link)

How can it be anyone else? :P

Chozoman said:

Love for my boy Agahnim. He was that guy that originated the Zelda stapel of rebounding an enemy's attack back at them

I believe you're forgetting about Carock.




As for the actual topic, should Agahnim and Dark Link even be options? After all, if we're excluding Ganon, shouldn't that mean that Ganon's alter-ego should be excluded as well? As far as can be told, Agahnim is just a manifestation of Ganon's power in the Light World. The two beings are essentially one and the same (though Agahnim is a limited version of Ganon that seeks to free the rest of Ganon). I suppose you could look at the guy as being a wizard that was possessed by Ganon from the Dark World, but he does specifically call "Agahnim the Dark Wizard" his alter-ego, which leads me to believe that the two are the same guy more so than the alternative.

And as for Dark Link, he's not really a villain. He's just an obstacle that's put in place to make sure villains don't get what they're after. In AoL his purpose was protecting the Triforce of Courage (and he was one of the creations of the ancient, good King of Hyrule, so there's no way he's evil in that game; in fact, all of the palace bosses were placed there by the King of Hyrule to protect the way to the Triforce of Courage). In OoT he appears to just guard the Longshot in the Water Temple. Again, he's not being evil. He's protecting the treasure of the Water Temple. Now, if we're talking about Shadow Link, instead of Dark Link, i.e., the little guy that was created by Ganon during FSA, I'm all on board for calling him a villain (even though there were hundreds of him; it wasn't just one guy), but he was a nuisance at best, IMO. Certainly not worth the vote over some of the other villains.

So based on what we've seen of the villains so far, as far as motivation, achievement, and threat go, I think I have to give it to Vaati. Onox, Zant, and Majora more or less failed at what they were attempting (though all succeeded in little pieces of their plans; Veran and Vaati both did a lot more damage than the other guys). Majora, Onox, and Veran didn't even really show much motivation for why they were doing the villainous things that they did (though we got a pretty good explanation for why Vaati and Zant were doing what they were doing).

And the big reason why Vaati is my pick is because he specifically managed to do what Ganondorf has tried to do for several games without even trying! Vaati was able to take over Hyrule without breaking a sweat, and he still wasn't satisfied. Vaati was more ambitious than Ganondorf, and that says a lot to me. Granted, his maiden-kidnapping ways of FS and FSA do bring him down a bit overall, but his TMC incarnation is easily my favorite non-Ganon villain.

And even though I wouldn't have voted for them, why no Bellum, Malladus, or Chancellor Cole?

Shadowlink said:

Shadowlink! (Dark Link)

How can it be anyone else? :P

You sir, have impeccable taste in both villains and screen names.


That said...for the longest while I've been say that I would LOVE to see Vaati be the star villain in a 3D Zelda game.

@V_s

Thanks for your inputs, I knew I could count on some Zelda fans who are a lot more knowledgeable about the series than I am. I can see why Agahnim and Dark Link may not even qualify.

V_s said:

And even though I wouldn't have voted for them, why no Bellum, Malladus, or Chancellor Cole?

Later after I posted this, I couldn't believe I had left out Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks.

But I would argue they're not as recognizable as the others on the list. Well, maybe just as much (or more) as Veran and Onox.

Eiji Aunoma

@Dillo64

I was waiting for that.

And looking over this list... it's interesting that many of the Zelda dungeon bosses are more memorable to me than the main antagonists. Though as someone who generally doesn't care too much about the plot of any given Zelda game, that probably makes sense.

Zant's descent, if you could even call it that, to madness was a total joke and ruined the character for me. He had a very realistic way of presenting himself throughout the game, then the next time you see him after hours of him not showing his face he's beating his head into the ground. Terrible way to end a character.

I'd say Majora is the better villain, because he was evil and crazy. Not an exciting character, but a good villain. The rest are all kind of eh. I'm with Kal on this one, Temple/Dungeon bosses are usually more memorable to me. I know which game featured the villains, I just never really felt like they made that big of an impact on a game.

Come on guys! Give Veran some love!
She can possess people, plus she gets bonus points for possibly being a Twili.

@V_s

You know, I REALLY wondered why I had to fight Shadow Link and who the hell the old man watching was. Thanks for the explanation!!

Zant is more of a character than Majora, but I like Majora more. The whole endgame where you're on the moon gave that character a ton of mystery.

V_s said:

(and he was one of the creations of the ancient, good King of Hyrule, so there's no way he's evil in that game; in fact, all of the palace bosses were placed there by the King of Hyrule to protect the way to the Triforce of Courage)

Do you think the dungeon monsters in the original LoZ are the Royal Family's monsters or Ganon's?