Phantom Ganon is a major antagonist in The Legend of Zelda franchise, serving as a boss in its appearances as well as the secondary antagonist of Tears of the Kingdom.
It is an evil clone created by Ganondorf himself that acts a loyal enforcer to his commands. While it is nowhere near powerful as the original, it still retains power enough to make him a deadly foe.
In Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, and Four Swords Adventures, it was voiced by Takashi Nagasako, same as Ganondorf himself. In Tears of the Kingdom, while disguised as Zelda, it is voiced by Yu Shimamura in the original Japanese, and by Patricia Summersett in the English dub.
Its Evil Ranking[]
Its Villainous Deeds[]
Ocarina of Time[]
- It likely imprisoned Saria in the Forest Temple.
- It attempts to kill Link after meeting him.
Four Swords Adventures[]
- It attempts to kill the Links twice. First in Hyrule Castle, and then in the Temple of Darkness.
The Wind Waker[]
- It ambushes Link in the Forsaken Fortress and attempts to kill him.
- It does the same thing in Ganon's Tower and forces Link to go through a tedious maze, making copies of itself to increase the difficulty.
Tears of the Kingdom[]
- In the past, it attempted to kill Queen Sonia with a tossed scimitar and even though it failed to kill her, it still sadistically laughs as it vanishes which shows that it wasn't just a mere assassination attempt, but a distraction to help Ganondorf get close to the queen and kill her to get her Secret Stone to become the Demon King.
- As the Gloom Spawn, it will viciously pursue and attack Link and drain him of energy when they grab him and when they are defeated, Phantom Ganon itself appears to fight him.
- It committed most of its crimes while posing as Zelda, thereby framing the real Princess Zelda for many things she never did, and it doesn't help that nobody in the present is aware that she actually time traveled during the Upheaval.
- It infected the Great Deku Tree from the inside with Gloom, which made him fall very ill and caused any of the Koroks that were away from the forest to be unable to find their way back home due to the thick Gloom emitting from him, and even worse, caused the Koroks who were presently in the forest to be frozen in time, unable to move or speak, subjecting them to a fate worse than death.
- Under the guise of the princess, it banned all study of the ancient ruins to prevent them from learning of the fifth sage, Mineru.
- It caused so much turmoil in each of the regions in different ways to ensure all communication between the ancient Sages and their descendants are blocked out.
- In the Wind Temple, it locked the opening of the Stormwind Ark to prevent Link and Tulin from reaching Colgera.
- In Zora's Domain, it unleashes the Sludge Like on Sidon's father, King Dorephan which has him and Muzu seclude themselves to recover and on top of that, Muzu doesn't trust Link when he finds them as he is afraid that he will do the same thing. Even if the attack is offscreen, it definitely shows Dorephan in a wounded state.
- It plays a larger role in the Death Mountain arc and is even more suspicious when it gave Yunobo a strange mask that changed his personality into one who is really mean spirited and disrespectful while influencing him to spread the Marbled Rock Roast to the Gorons to incapacitate them and when Link confronts them, the phantom unleashes Yunobo on the former.
- After Yunobo is freed, it lured them to the top of Death Mountain where it has Moragia attack both of them.
- In the Fire Temple, it pretends to be trapped within Marbled Gohma to get Link and Yunobo to save it and when they get past the door, it sics Marbled Gohma against them.
- During the Crisis at Hyrule Castle main quest, it plays a prominent role where Link goes to the ascended castle and the phantom will call Link to various rooms and when he does arrive, it will spawn monsters to attack him and immediately vanish several times, up until it calls him to the Sanctum.
- Once Link reaches the Sanctum, Phantom Ganon gets eerier as it seemingly changes the location back to the way it was before it was deformed by Calamity Ganon over a century ago, but this is not a good deed as not only was it an illusion, but it also straight up tells Link in a sadistic manner to take in all the details as it will be the last thing he will ever see, before Ganondorf himself taunts Link about the Phantom misleading him and bringing him into a trap as "Zelda" reveals herself to be a mere puppet that he created. Phantom Ganon will try to kill Link only to be defeated by him.
- When defeated by Link, it sends 4 more tendrils of gloom to kill him, only failing due to the intervention of the sages. (Sans Mineru).
- This is made worse by the fact that one of the sages (Tulin) is a preadolescent child and two others (Yunobo and Riju) are teenagers. This proves that it has no issues with harming (or even killing) minors.
- While other regional villains like Colgera, Mucktorok and Queen Gibdo arguably do worse, Phantom Ganon has fewer resources than they do.
Why Doesn't It Stand Out?[]
- It is quite literally made of evil as it was created by Ganondorf and has no moral agency or self-awareness.
- Additionally, it fails the heinous standard as all of its actions are done under Ganondorf's control, proving that it has no self control either.
- When it does speak, it is always Ganondorf talking through it, so it is also insufficiently characterized.
- It rarely (if ever) shows signs of personality or true sentience, and even when it does, it is not enough for it to reach NPE, so it is overall a generic doomsday villain.
Trivia[]
- Its "Era of the Wilds" incarnation used to be NPE (due to being controlled by a separate incarnation of Ganondorf) but was removed and demoted to Villainous Benchmark due to all of its actions being done under Ganondorf's control.
External Links[]
- Phantom Ganon on the Villains Wiki
- Phantom Ganon on the Zelda Wiki
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 Villainous Benchmarks
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Vaati | Interlopers | Twinrova | Ganondorf | Phantom Ganon | Bellum | Princess Hilda | Master Kohga | Colgera | Marbled Gohma | Mucktorok | Queen Gibdo See Also |