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"Ganondorf's Monlogue"Ganondorf's MonologueBy: JanuaryGanondorf in his tower, up in the organ room. The 'final showdown' is over and he has won. Link lies helpless against the wall, gasping for breath. Ganondorf paces before Link. GANONDORF: You never understood, did you, kid. You just saw the world from one point of view. You saw it how you were the courageous hero, saving the world from evil me. Well, it's not always like that. I once thought like you. I was a kid too. I played games and thought the world consisted of my little valley. Well, I grew up when I was younger than you were. You're what, seventeen? I had to face the world when I was just seven. Now I'm twenty-four. You want to know how? I'll tell you, kid. Not like you're going to be telling anyone else very soon. I was a normal kid. As normal as a Gerudo male can be. I was this great warrior. I had a family. I loved my mom and dad. I was the darling century male of the Gerudo society. My dad was a magician, though he called himself a scientist. My mom was a pretty Gerudo girl, a skilled fighter, so sweet, but you'd never know it now. But you know what? The world doesn't like people to be happy. Anyway, Hylians never liked us. The king, yes, that's right, the King of Hyrule, Princess Zelda's daddy, sent the Hylian Knights to exterminate us Gerudos. Not the guards, the Knights. Those whose shield you bear. They're all Poes and Redeads now. We fought back, of course. The Knights got us cornered in a side cave. Where the Horseback Archery is now. My dad and mom tried to get the other dozen Gerudos and me out of there. The Knights kept sweeping forward with their lances and swords and every time a Gerudo would fall. Finally it was just my parents and me. Dad told Mom to take me and get to the back of the cave. Mom didn't want to leave him, but she'd always done what he told her. So she picked me up and carried me back and shielded me with her own body. Dad stood there, one young man against a hundred Hylian Knights, and he raised his arms for a spell. We heard words like darkness and death and fire all in one. Then it seemed like all the light in the whole cave and the light from the sun and all the light just started to rush toward his hand and there was this big black emptiness that he was holding. That's what I threw at you. That's why you're lying there, dying. Oh yes, spit at me, will you? It doesn't matter. We'll all be dust too soon. Where was I? The spell. So Dad's standing there with this ball of darkness, and it's hurting him so much. Mom and I could see him turning all white and his jaw set and his blue eyes turned dark as night. Then Mom cries out to him that it's not worth it, and then he throws this nothingness at the Hylian Knights. It explodes into light when it hits them. All of them seemed covered it lightning, and then they all fall to the ground. Dead, just like you will be. And the lightning goes up against the walls, too, and it starts to shatter. Dad turns around, all pale and deathly and his light-red-dark-red hair is all damp from sweat, and he smiles at us. You can see how tired he is, and how hurt at all of those Knights slaughtered, but he did it because he loved us. Mom picks me up and we start to walk towards him. Then you see his face change with horror and fear. He yells across the cave, "Look out!" Mom looks up and sees this huge boulder falling towards us. She's too shocked to do anything. We just stand there, frozen, holding hands, looking up at death. Then Dad runs across the cave like the wind, trying to reach us. He dives at Mom and knocks her and me out of the way just as the boulder falls. He cries out just once as it hits him and rolls across his body and rolls down the canyon and smashes against the wall. Mom puts me down and we run to him. Dad's lying on his back, moaning, gasping like a fish out of water. He's still all pale and he's covered in blood. You can see some of his bones sticking out of his chest like bloody knives. Mom bends over him, her flame-colored hair over her face, and she says, "Beloved, why?" And Dad answers her, somehow, "Because I love you." And then his eyes focus on me. "Because I love you." And then he kind of goes limp and his eyes close and he breathes out, once. And he's dead. Does that touch you at all, kid? I was seven. My whole world just came apart. I watched my dad die right in front of me, dying because he loved us so much. And you know why I hate you and Zelda so much? Because you were born the very minute that my dad breathed his last. I hate you because you were happy and your families were happy beyond words when I felt like dying because there was nothing left to live for. I loved my father. Oh, Goddess of Power, you don't know what it was like. My mother and I sitting there, on either side of my dead father, throughout the cold night with dead Gerudo thieves and Hylian Knights all around. No birds flew that night. The King of Hyrule said it was because they were celebrating the birth of his daughter. But it was because the greatest magician in the world died. Just me and my mother and my dead beloved father and the moon shining down. Isn't that perfect for a legend? Yeah, it would have been, if it hadn't been my father lying dead. My mother loved him so much that she grew to hate everything but me. We gathered the surviving Gerudos and rebuilt everything. The King left us alone after that. After all, every single Hylian Knight had been killed in that valley. Once the society of Gerudos was organized again, my mother and her heart-twin and I traveled out to the Desert Colossus. You don't know that word, do you, kid? Heart-twin is a Gerudo thing. It's when two people can go from hating each other to unconditional love. My mom and she grew together over my father. He married both of them. My mother gave birth to me, and my adopted mother gave birth to a girl. My mother and she called themselves heart-twins. So they took me to the Desert Colossus. Her heart-twin left her daughter with the other Gerudos. She never loved her. My mom used one of the only spells she knew to warp all three of us to love only each other and hate everything else. She used the night and the fire and the ice that lies far beneath the sand. Each of us took one of these as our emblem. I took night for the darkness in my heart. My mother took ice for the ice in hers. Her heart-twin, my adopted mother, chose fire for her consuming hatred and pain. It backfired, though. She didn't just warp our hearts, she warped our bodies too. I was a cute kid, like you. I would have grown up to be a handsome young man, like you.. My mom and her heart-twin were prettier than the average Gerudo. But with this misfired spell, all of us became like you see us now. My mom's experiment with the fire and ice really hit them hard. They looked like old hags, ugly witches. And I nearly cried when I saw them like that. You're a bright kid, you've figured it out by now. My mother was Kotake, the Gerudo sorceress you fought in the Colossus. Koume was her heart-twin. My half-adopted sister is Nabooru , the Sage of Spirit. You saw what they looked like, the results of heartbreak and a spell gone wrong. And me. It's easier for you to see me as evil, kid, because you've always believed that evil and foulness and unattractiveness go hand in hand. It's not always like that, kid. Kotake and Koume raised me like a weapon. Koume taught me how to fight physically, with swords and spears and arrows. Mom taught me all the spells she knew so that I could fight the supernatural. Then, when I was seventeen, I went to Hyrule Castle as leader of the Gerudos. I pledged myself to the King of Hyrule, but that was a lie. I remember seeing you there, peeking in through the window. You and Zelda. That's when I knew who you were. That's when I knew that it was you two I hated and you two I'd have to destroy. There was something in your eyes that told me. And Zelda sent you to go do her work and fetch the Spiritual Stones for her. To keep evil me from the Triforce. And I waited until you opened the Door of Time and then I seized it before you. I don't know why I even wanted it that badly. I mean, kid, everyone wants it. Everyone wants a crack at ruling the world. I guess I thought that if I had it, I could change time. Restore my father. Make my mother happy and beautiful again. But once I touched it, the blasted thing broke. And I was left with only one piece embedded in my right hand. You think you know the rest of the story, kid? How could you? All you've got is a few weeks. You don't know anything about the Seven Years. I redesigned Hyrule Castle. I gained power and control. I restored the Gerudo's reputation and let Nabooru lead them. I didn't know my mother had brainwashed her. I cut mercy and tradition for efficiency. I wasn't evil at first. Did you ever fall in love, kid? Do you love Princess Zelda? Do you love that farm-girl, Malon? Or the Zora Princess, do you love her? I don't think you could. Love changes a person. I know. I fell in love. She was seventeen, my age. She lives in Kakariko Village. Anju, the Cucco girl. I though she was the most wonderful person in the world, beside my father. I thought she was pretty, for she looked like my father, a little. And she loved me too, I know she did. We were going to be married. I was planning to give up the Triforce and all my power and settle in Kakariko with her. But that would have been a happy ending, and I've told you how the world hates happy endings. Kotake and Koume heard about it and flew to Hyrule Castle. They accused me of being disloyal to our vow. Remember? I was not to love any other. They performed another spell, forming them into one entity, Twinrova, and strengthened the vow that had become a curse. I could not love my darling Anju. I nearly died of agony. I had to go back to Kakariko and tell her that I could not marry her. She just looked at me with those big blue eyes and said, "I'm sorry." She didn't even cry, but I knew she was dying like me. I said, "Beloved, why?" and she answered me very quietly, "Because I love you." And I acted like a fool and ran out. Because that was what my father had said to my mother. She wrote me once. I burned the letter because I was afraid of the wrath of my mothers. I was afraid that I would find a particle of love left. I haven't seen her for six years. I loved her so much that I refused to love. Can you not show any reaction, kid? Can you feel nothing but hatred and disgust for this pitiful, warped mockery of a man who stands before you? Not that I blame you. After all, it is my fault that you're lying there with your blood staining your clothes and running over the floor. You did the same thing. The girl, the youngest Sage, what's her name? Saria. Your forest friend. Did you ever stop to think of what you were doing to her? Saria loves you more than her own life. Didn't she always defend you, encourage you to be great? She gave you her precious Ocarina when she knew everything would change. She tried to tell you then how she felt. You were embarrassed and ran. Later, she taught you the song that would let you talk to her any time and ask for her advice. And you know what you repaid her with, kid? You almost never spoke to her. You became engaged to another girl. You even threw away her Ocarina for one that Zelda gave you. No word from you for seven years, and she still believes in you. Then you return, all grown up. You go to rescue her not because you care, but because you're trying to help Zelda. Think of what a shock that must have been for her, seeing you almost a man. She grew up too. Think of being a child, a little ten-year-old, who carries the knowledge and wisdom of the world. She gave you everything and look how you treated her. When was the last time you saw Saria, kid? Did you look into her face? She's changed because of you, kid. She's suffering deeply. She's doing everything she can to hold the world together while her heart bleeds. Did you see how thin she is, how hollow her face? How her pretty blue eyes that should be laughing and sparkling look like those of a hunted animal, with tears locked away? You did that to her, kid! I suppose I'm being unfair. I shouldn't taunt you while you die. After all, you never asked to die. I did. Oh, Goddesses, I want to die. Maybe even by your hand. Are you suffering, kid? Are you in pain? I once thought I'd want you to die slowly. I see now that I don't. Because we are similar, kid, you and I, and seeing you die physically makes me think of my death spiritually. You hate that idea? You don't want to be like me? I can understand that. But look, kid.what's the use. You can't understand why I understand that. I don't really hate you anymore. Even through all I said. I just wish. Do you want to live, kid? I have the power to do that. I can raise you up and battle you again. I could let you walk free across this desolation that is Hyrule. I could take my sword and end your life quickly, if that is what you desire. I never got what I desired. I never will. Once you take your last breath, I'm turning back time. I'm going to tear myself out of the fabric of history. Hyrule will continue the way it should have been. What's your name, kid? Link? It's a name that means nothing, like mine. Hah. How stupid the world is. Are you dying, kid? Can you see me looking down at you. Is that your final breath? Look at me, Link, please. Just once. Look into my eyes and tell me what you see in me. Just once before we all die. So that I will die with the truth. You see what, kid? I cannot hear you.speak up, Link.Your blood has run out all over my floor. Are you gone, kid? No.you breathe still. Are you glad you listened to me? I wish I could.undo everything. But you're dead now, Link. |