Twilight Princess was released in 2006 on the Wii and later the Nintendo Gamecube. It was a new style of art for the Legend of Zelda series at the time, finally jumping out of the cartoon-style of games like The Wind Waker and The Minish Cap. It was originally nicknamed “Wind Waker 2” by fans as it followed after The Wind Waker. Later, it became known that the game would eventually become its own branch in the history of The Legend of Zelda series.
However, even though some have claimed that the game is about as good as the “masterpiece” known as Ocarina of Time, I beg to differ with that logic. Below, you will see my top five thing I absolutely despise in Twilight Princess, beginning with the fifth.
Before I do that, let me explain, I do like Twilight Princess. It’s about my eight favorite Zelda title (which the list constantly changes the more I think about it). I don’t have a problem with the game play. I don’t even have a problem with the graphics. My dislikes deal with the story, characters, or other little small things that the average player may not care or notice that much.
Click to read my peeves!
5 – Horse Call
Sitting at number five is the moment Link collects the Horse Call. After recovering all of Ilia’s memories (which we still don’t know exactly how she lost them, seeing as she was only hit by an arrow to the back) Ilia gives Link her most prized possession, the Horse Call. By that part of the game, Link already has access to change to his wolf form at will and the ability to warp to any location in Hyrule by asking Midna. All he has to do is finally reach the City in the Sky and Hyrule Castle, making the Horse Call mostly ineffective.
Perhaps the developers were going to allow you to save Ilia at Kakariko Village before shipping her into Lanayru Providence just to give Link a reason to even rid the rest of the twilight. But it would have made more sense to possible keep her in Kakariko, give Link the Horse Call, and possibly make Malo and Talo the ones who were shipped to Lanayru Providence.
4 – The Light Spirit Lanayru
Congrats, you defeat Twilit Aquatic – Morpheel, get the final piece to the Fused Shadow, and are about to—whoops! Zant appears, stuns Link forcing the Hero to step back before the powerful Light Spirit, Lanayru, appears to defend Link, but Zant easily overpowers the beast, sink the light it was holding, back into the very waters the beast actually sleeps in. Thus the twilight returns, turning Link into his wolf form, exposing Midna, and making Zant show his strength.
After trying to convince Midna to join him for the sake of their people, Zant uses his magic to lift up Midna which at that point causes Lanayru to appear, stunning and wrapping light around Midna and Link, warping them to North Lanayru Field and then seemingly disappears for the rest of the game, like the other Light Spirits until the end of the game.
Why wasn’t Lanayru able to stand against Zant? Was it because of Ganondorf’s power that Zant has? Why was it that Lanayru’s light, when sunk under water, turned the land back into Twilight for a short time? Why did Lanayru appear when Zant forced Midna close to the sacred waters and then hurt Midna before eventually warping her, an “evil” Twili, and Link to North Lanayru Field?
There are many questions that just leave me frustrated trying to understand the developers thoughts.
3 – The Mysterious Time-Travelling Mirror Shard
Yes, as the header explains, one of my dislikes about this game is how we are never told how Armogohma was given the Mirror Shard. Zant destroys the Mirror of Twilight in present day Hyrule, yet Armogohma, a special breed of Gohmas, somehow came in contact with the Mirror of Twilight and became mutated by it becoming a huge spider.
To me, I don’t understand how Armogohma could have ever gotten the Mirror Shard. To even get to the past, first the chosen one must be able to get past the two statues in what would be the lobby of the Temple of Time, the Master Sword must be drawn and, finally, later it must be temporarily placed back to activate the door to travel to the past. And if you know Zelda as much as I do, the Master Sword is often referred to as “The Blade of Evil’s Bane” and has the “power to repel evil”. There is absolutely no way that Zant himself could have even touch the Master Sword (not even Midna herself could come in contact with the blade) to even send the Mirror Shard into the past.
The develops had goofed up here, not even giving an explanation on how the Mirror Shard was even able to transport back in time. I can understand the the other two pieces would be tossed towards Snowpeak or even to the City in the Sky, but since when is piece able to travel back in time. Since when was a Zelda villain able to travel back in time (excluding Veran who possesses Nayru in Oracle of Ages)?
This still stumps me and is a major dislike to me, but it’s not as bad as the next two.
2 – Midna Shatters the Mirror of Twilight
This part of the game, which indeed is sad, still makes no sense. While Midna nearly admits her feelings for Link, she decides to shatter the Mirror of Twilight, in which Midna says she will “see” Link “later” which is impossible once the Mirror of Twilight is completely shattered.
What makes this worse isn’t part of the game, but the developers, who decide to “troll” the fanbase by asking them in they want to see her come back, sparking many people to develop fan pages and websites like Want Midna Back in hopes of trying to reach out to the developers to bring back the imp.
1 – Ganondorf
Just about everything about the famous villain in the Legend of Zelda series just screams to be the top of the list. From his backstory, to his involvement at the end, and even to his looks, Ganondorf just manages to blow away everything on this list away in terms of how much I despise some of the things in Twilight Princess. Let me list them in order.
First off, when we learn about Ganondorf its after we defeat the boss in Arbiter’s Grounds. After getting the broken Mirror of Twilight out of the sand in Arbiter’s Grounds, we are welcomed by the Sages of Hyrule, who, in this game, act like judges. They begin to talk about how the Mirror was shattered, how Zant got his power, and ultimately drop the bomb: Ganondorf started it all.
Ganondorf, after the events in Ocarina of Time (see our article about my Timeline Theory explaination) went onward to lay siege to Hyrule Castle. Before he is able to do any damage, Hyrule was already on high alert and he was captured. He was sentenced to death at Arbriter’s Grounds, located surprisingly in his own kingdom, Gerudo Desert. But before he was able to be successfully killed, the developers dropped another bomb: Ganondorf is given the Triforce of Power to gain temporary immortality.
This is where I begin to get peeved about Ganondorf. I know he is constantly revived time and time again in the Legend of Zelda series due to Demise’s curse, but since when do the developers run out of ideas, drop a bomb, and make Ganondorf immortal just to survive long enough before Link kills him off again? It makes the “all mighty” sages appear as if they are incredibly weak, even though there is six of them against one man. (Author’s note: After getting Hyrule Historia, I figured out why Ganondorf got the Triforce.)
Seeing that they couldn’t do anything else after Ganondorf just completely wastes the water sage, they activate the Mirror of Twilight to banish him into the same realm where the Interlopers, the now Twili, lived.
“Yes. That’s a good idea. Let’s send a man with the power of the Triforce inside him to a race full of powerful mages and we’ll all be okay. Surely nothing will go wrong there!”
After being sent into the Twilight Realm, Ganon’s body could not handle the power of the Twilight, and in his already weakened state, he… turns into a flaming fireball version of his head? Okay, I can understand that at this point, the Triforce of Power probably turned him into a spirit form similar to how Link was turned into his wolf form and the spirit form made him appear like a god-like being like Zant calls him. Anyways, Ganondorf appears as this flaming floating head and decides to give his power to the most miserable and easily manipulated of the Twili, Zant. After giving his power to Zant he decided to wait until his spirit had completely healed and he learned how to control the power of the Twili himself before emerging again after Midna’s life was saved.
We don’t hear about him until we get the backstory from Zant, in which I just described. After defeating Zant, we learn that even defeating Zant would not return Midna back to her true form and Zant mocks Midna saying even if Midna defeats him, Zant will be revived again and again by his master, similar to how Demise’s curse revives Ganon from death.
My second peeve is when you find Ganondorf at the top of Hyrule Castle for no clear reason and don’t know how it happened. We get to Hyrule Castle, get through the ridiculously small and easy final dungeon in the game, and manage to get to the top of the castle where we find Zelda suspended in midair above the throne, where, unsurprisingly, Ganondorf sits on.
He gets up, explains how he was revived back into his real body (“Their anguish was my nourishment.”) and then decides to possess Zelda’s body and combine her strength of the Triforce of Wisdom along with his dark magic to try and defeat Link, which to no avail as he gets his magic redirected with the Master Sword and an empty bottle of Ordon Goat Milk.
Zelda life is spared once Midna somehow manages to control the ancient magic of the Interlopers. Ganondorf is extracted out of Zelda’s body, but he combines himself and turns into Ganon, his beast-like form, which is tip of the hat to Ocarina of Time. Ganon rampages and tries to attack Wolf Link but can’t seem to stand walls as he’ll just completely disappear before he strikes them.
After being defeated yet again, he seemingly loses his physical form and once again turns into the giant flaming head. Midna warps Link and Zelda to safety as she combats Ganon. Meanwhile, Link and Zelda are warped to Eldin Field, when Ganon returns, back in his mortal body, and chases them with the spirits of the dead. Ganondorf makes one last stand after being defeated on his trusty steed (which at this point just completely vanishes for no reason) and takes Link head on himself with the same sword the sages used to kill him.
My third peeve is during the final battle with Dark Lord Ganondorf is one of the most retarded things I’ve seen in the Legend of Zelda series. Ganondorf at this point is able to be distracted by a mere fishing rod.
While not taking over Hyrule, you can see Ganondorf at Lake Hylia fishing for the illusive Hylian Loach.
I was dumbfounded when I saw this. Sure, when I was playing this game a few years ago and found this out through the magic of Youtube, I found it hilarious and it made Ganondorf easier to fight. But the more I see this, the more I think it’s remarkably stupid. Ganondorf, the great Dark Lord, distracted by a mere fishing rod. Well that distraction cost him his life.
My final peeve is Ganondorf’s death, which still makes fans confused. He holds onto the Triforce of Power, but even then, the Triforce of Power seemingly just disappears for no good reason. Ganondorf then stands, his eyes half closed as if he is getting close to accept death before he sees an image of Zant. Zant stares him down before he snaps his neck, thus ending Ganondorf’s life. However, it doesn’t end there. Ganondorf just stands as he dies; any person or animal that dies would not have any energy in their muscles to support the body to stand.
Well that is my top five dislikes for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Once again, I will repeat that I do enjoy playing the game for just the game play and the graphics, but the story really kills me. As a gamer and a fan of the Legend of Zelda series, I should be able to piece the reasonings for why things happened, like how I explained what I think happened after Ocarina of Time. However, I cannot completely understand the developers’ thoughts when they made this game, their own cultural reasonings (like Ganondorf’s death) and other things. It just frustrates me.
Feel free to respond with your own thoughts on my list or feel free to add your own responses as to what else in Twilight Princess that annoy you.
