Characters / Hyrule Warriors: Dark Forces

Hyrule Warriors Main Character Index
Hyrulean Forces | Dark Forces | DLC Characters | 3DS Warriors | Giant Bosses | Captains | Others

The evil forces who threaten the peace of Hyrule. Some are new warriors and some return from the ages, but one thing is for certain: these guys mean business.

All characters on this page are available by default in Definitive Edition.

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Cia

The Dark Sorceress

Weapon: Scepter

^{Without mask & hat}

Voiced by: Minako Kotobuki

The main Big Bad of Hyrule Warriors, Cia was a witch tasked with watching over the balance of the Triforce, before she fell in love with the Hero of Hyrule she saw across the timelines in her Crystal Ball. Her heartbreak for Link and jealousy of the Reincarnation Romance he shares with Zelda left her vulnerable to corruption from an evil being.

In the original Wii U version, she becomes playable with an update patch. In Legends and the Definitive Edition for Switch, she is instead unlocked alongside her tale in Legend Mode by clearing the original game's final chapter.

Cia's weapon of choice is the Scepter, a magical staff whose head detaches to be used as a whip. Starting with the Scepter of Time, which bears a mace-like crystaline head, she proceeds to upgrade it to the Guardian's Scepter (which bears her equivalent of a Guardian's gate) and then the Scepter of Souls (which sports a modified Gate of Souls).

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• Alas, Poor Villain: Her final defeat is depicted as such. Link, Zelda, and especially Lana visibly pity her.
• All Love Is Unrequited: She developed intense feelings for Link during her job as Guardian of the Triforce, and it left her vulnerable to Ganondorf's corruption, which twisted those feelings into insane jealousy and obsession, causing her to declare war on Hyrule just to have Link.
• Ambiguously Brown: Post-corruption, as a result of being Hades Shaded.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes:
  • She gets her outfit◊ from before her corruption through the Master Quest DLC pack / Master Quest Map. She also gets a green-and-blue costume◊ that has an unnerving resemblance to Link's outfit.
  • From the Twilight Princess DLC◊ pack / Twilight Map, she gets a Palette Swap that uses Lana's colors instead of hers (it also recolors her hair to blue, but only on the Wii U version of the costume).
  • The Majora's Mask DLC◊ pack / Termina Map gives her the eponymous mask to wear as a costume.
  • The Boss Pack DLC gives her another green outfit◊, this time an olive green based off of Manhandla's color scheme. This outfit is unlockable through the Rewards Map mission "Evil Power" in Legends.
  • In the Great Sea Map in Legends, she can get colors based on Jalhalla from Wind Waker.
  • The Master Wind Waker DLC pack / Master Wind Waker Map for Legends gives her a color scheme based on Aryll, Link's sister from the same game, in her pirate outfit.
  • The Link's Awakening DLC pack / Koholint Map for Legends gives her a color scheme based on the Wind Fish.
  • The A Link Between Worlds DLC pack / Lorule Map for Legends gives her a color scheme based on Princess Hilda from the same game.
• The Anti-God: Although not a god in the sense of the three Golden Goddesses and Hylia, Cia was the absolute guardian of time. She is immortal, all-seeing, and beyond powerful in magic. She even defeated Ganondorf, the series' technical Anti-Christ on her own.
• Anti-Villain: While she did cause a lot of trouble, she was nothing but Ganondorf's Unwitting Pawn all along.
• Arch-Enemy: She is Lana’s. This is best shown by her victory animation, which has her summoning four Dark Links to defend her against Lana's magic blasts, then siccing two of them on her (or at least, what is implied to be her) while she stands over the camera, laughing.
• Area of Effect: All but one of Cia's attacks results in her attacking the immediate area around her, usually a circle around her. She doesn't have much range, though.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Her main battle strategies rely more on force than cunning and basically boil down to "throw monsters at problems until problems go away". Thanks to her ability to summon a seemingly endless supply with the Gate of Souls, it's all she really needs.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: In the Dark Witch story, Wizzro, Volga, Zant, and Ghirahim all needed some "convincing" to join her army.
• Back from the Dead: At the end of Legends, she's brought back back to life, and she and Lana begin guarding the Triforce together.
• Badass Boast: Gives one to Ganondorf after she seals him away when he tries to take the Triforce from her.
  Cia: I will reclaim the Triforce! It shall be mine alone! As will the Hero...
• Bad Boss: Fitting her Dominatrix-themed personality, Cia constantly berates her subordinates and conscripts Wizzro and Volga through brainwashing after beating the stuffing out of them, and Zant and Ghirahim through sheer force. Ghirahim is the only one to willingly go with her, though it's heavily implied he only does so because he knows he's outmatched. It could also be that he sensed Ganondorf's energy on her and intended to use her to find his way back to his master.
• Battle Aura: She often wreaths herself in dark energy.
• Battle Theme Music: "Eclipse of the Moon" serves as her boss theme when she's masked in Adventure Mode. "Eclipse of the Moon GT" serves as her boss theme whenever she's unmasked in Adventure Mode. The latter also plays during the boss battle with her on the second visit to the Valley of Seers in Legend Mode, while the former is played as you start battling her forces in the same level. Neither version plays whenever she's the enemy commander of the Dark Ruler squares though, since the missions are deliberately picked from the missions that play "Under Siege", which won't stop playing until Ganon is summoned, which causes his theme to override whatever music is playing.
• Berserk Button: Zelda is one to her. This is best shown in Cia's Tale; despite her and her forces invading Hyrule Castle to capture fairies, the moment Zelda appears, she immediately orders her forces to kill her.
• Betty and Veronica: She's the Veronica for Link. Zelda's the Betty. The thing is, she knows that Link and Zelda are bound to each other by destiny, and the jealousy drove her mad (not helped by Ganondorf's corruption). The entire war and attempt to seize the Triforce is essentially one massive case of Murder the Hypotenuse. Or at least intending to wish on the Triforce to break the destiny that joins Link and Zelda's spirits.
• Big Bad: Notably, one of the few female ones in the series. However, she is nothing more than an Unwitting Pawn to Ganondorf, who corrupted her in the first place.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Although she managed to wrest the Triforce away from Ganondorf, using it to seal him caused the fragments of Wisdom and Courage to return to their rightful bearers, leading to her downfall.
• Cast from Lifespan: Cia uses dangerous Black Magic to empower her army with her own life force when she begins to suffer her Villainous Breakdown.
• Casting a Shadow: She has powerful Black Magic to contrast Lana's White Magic. It's also her Scepter's element (Darkness).
• Chainmail Bikini: Her armor leaves quite a bit of her body exposed.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Inverted. Many Adventure Mode missions that have Cia on the player's side will be about weeding out traitors in your ranks. Although since it's Cia, they could just be resisting her Mind Control.
• Classic Villain: Ambition, Envy, Lust, Greed, Pride, and Wrath. (Especially Lust and Envy.)
• Cool Mask: She wears a bird-shaped mask that conceals her eyes. She ditches it after Midna punches her headpiece off. It's meant to hide the fact that she looks like a tanner, white-haired Lana.
• Crystal Ball: She used one to gaze through the timelines. It gets destroyed during the final visit to the Valley of Seers.
• Cool Gate: Much like Lana's Summoning Gate, Cia can use her ability to call the Gate of Souls in combat as Rings of Death and generators for Tornado Moves, Beam Spam, and, of course, as a conduit for her Summon Magic.
• Crossover-Exclusive Villain: She's completely original to Hyrule Warriors, and doesn't appear in any of the games before or after it.
• Dark Action Girl: Notably one that has a large connection with Link.
• Dark Is Evil: She's called the Dark Sorceress and is a major antagonist of the game.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Post-Heel–Face Turn in Legends.
• Deadpan Snarker: She almost rivals Midna in this regard. She seems to come up with all manner of witty comebacks for any situation.
• Death by a Thousand Cuts: Cia's basic attacks are generally fairly weak, hit for hit. Her attack combos usually result in hitting enemies multiple times to whittle them down, essentially Cherry Tapping them. The end of her B B B B B combo even has her summoning spinning blades that rotate around her, also doing very minimal damage but hitting for dozens of times. (This combines well with her Darkness element, which has the in-game gimmick of amplifying its attack power with each successive hit on a single enemy.)
• Demonic Possession: She was possessed by Ganondorf until the fragments of his soul are released from the separate timelines; upon his leaving, however, she remains corrupted without Lana.
• Determinator: She will make Link and the world hers, even if it kills her. And indeed it does. Or, at least, for a while.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Fades out of existence in Lana's arms.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Once Cia is defeated, Ganondorf takes center stage.
• Dominatrix: Has all the trappings of one with the whip, the black revealing outfit, the bossy, dominating personality, and the overflowing sex appeal.
• Doppelgänger Attack: When low on health in the boss battle against her in Legend Mode, she creates three more copies of herself, and they must all be defeated to stop her for good.
• Double Entendre: Some of her quotes can be interpreted as these, fitting her seductive personality. Though they are mostly directed at Link.
  Cia: [to Volga] Why don't you cool down? It's embarrassing to see you talk so big and perform so poorly.
  Cia: Oh ho! Link! Did you get a shiny new sword? Mmm, I'd like to see it... Come to me! [...] Link, stop wasting time with these petty brawls! Come and show me what your sword can do!
• Downloadable Content:
  • She gets her Observer outfit◊ from before her corruption through the Master Quest DLC pack. She also gets a green-and-blue costume◊ that has an unnerving resemblance to Link's outfit. Additionally, despite herself being free, Cia's Level 2 and 3 weapons are part of the DLC.
  • From the Twilight Princess DLC◊ pack, she gets a Palette Swap that uses Lana's colors instead of hers.
  • The Majora's Mask DLC◊ pack gives her the eponymous mask to wear as a costume.
  • The Boss Pack DLC gives her another green outfit◊, this time an olive green based off of Manhandla's color scheme.
  • The Master Wind Waker DLC pack for Legends gives her a color scheme based on Aryll, Link's sister from the same game, in her pirate outfit.
  • The Link's Awakening DLC pack for Legends gives her a color scheme based on the Wind Fish.
  • The Phantom Hourglass & Spirit Tracks DLC pack for Legends gives her a version of the Scepter of Souls called Crackling Scepter, with which she can deal Lightning damage in addition to Darkness damage.
  • The A Link Between Worlds DLC pack for Legends gives her a color scheme based on Princess Hilda from the same game.
• The Dragon: She refers to the disembodied Ganondorf as her master when she opens the Gate of Souls for the first time.
• Dramatic Unmask: After getting in a scuffle with Midna and Lana, revealing her to be identical to Lana.
• Drunk on the Dark Side: Corruption by Ganondorf + possession of the complete Triforce = completely batshit crazy. The narrator even lampshades it in Cia's Tale, describing her as "intoxicated by the power".
• Dub Name Change: She's called Cya in the French and Spanish versions.
• Easily Forgiven: Post-restoration in Legends, everyone is willing to forgive her for what she had done. Justified as she was under Ganondorf's influence.
• Elemental Weapon: The Scepter is a Darkness-based weapon.
• Enemy Mine: Teams up with Lana to defeat Ganondorf in the final stage of Cia's Tale.
• Epic Flail: Can use the jewel on her scepter as this for physical combat.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: As Cia is the dark half of Lana, she is merely acting on the repressed jealousy she feels towards Zelda and is confused by Lana's decision to assist the heroes to stop her, unable to understand the latter's reasons. As Cia lays dying, she asks Lana how can she live day in and day out knowing that in each era, Link will always choose Zelda and she'll be left behind. Lana replies by saying that you don't always get the person you think you deserve and that she can live with that.
  Cia: Lana... I thought this was what you wanted.
• Evil Costume Switch: What can be interpreted from the images of her backstory shows that she originally wore a white, more sensible-looking robe before being corrupted. After being corrupted, she ditched it for her current look.
• Evil Counterpart: To Lana. Or rather, Lana is her Good Counterpart.
• Evil Is Petty: Her entire motive in the game stems out of her jealousy towards Zelda for being with Link.
• Evil Knockoff: She can summon Dark Links for attacks through her portal magic.
• Evil Laugh: Tends to let one out at times. Particularly as a playable character and when Ganondorf takes control of her.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Even if the voice acting in the game is reduced to simple grunts and battle cries, you can still tell she has a deeper voice, especially compared to her good half, Lana, who has a high-pitched cutesy voice.
• Evil Versus Evil: Though she is freed from Ganondorf's control, she still remains corrupted and resolves to take the Triforce for herself. This puts her at odds with Ganondorf, and though she manages to fend him off twice when he tries to take the Triforce from her, she ultimately loses the fight with the Hyrulean Forces, allowing Ganondorf to take the Triforce anyway.
• Evil Wears Black: Post-corruption, she wears her current outfit.
• Expy: Of Veran from Oracle of Ages; she shares several design and personality aspects and uses Dark Links in a similiar manner.
• Facial Markings: Black stripes under her eyes.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Half of her outfit covers her. The other half doesn't.
• Final Boss: Cia is used as the enemy commander for the Dark Ruler mission of most of the Adventure Maps (the exception being the Twilight Map, where Zant replaces her) where the aim is to seek out a boss key to open her base, then defeat her and Ganon to complete the map.
• Final Boss Preview: The group meets Cia in person early on, but she defeats them, takes the Triforce pieces, and opens doorways to the other eras of Hyrule.
• Foil: To Lana. Both of them are hopelessly in love with Link, but while Lana is content to let him be with Zelda, Cia is an obsessive Yandere who's determined to get him for herself. Their use of the powerful magic that's In the Blood for both of them is also opposite: Lana's magic is selfless and used to protect others (reflected in her Barrier Warrior abilities) while Cia's use of magic is selfish and benefits no one but herself (seen in her use of Cast from Hit Points and Summon Magic). Lastly, their fighting styles are polar opposites: Lana zips around the battlefield with acrobatic flips and dashes, obliterating foes in her wake, while Cia stands in one place and clears the field with her long-ranged magic. It helps that they're two halves of the same person.
• For the Evulz: Possibly the only discernible reason why she turned Midna into an imp. Or so we're told, given that Midna's already an imp in Cia's Tale.
• General Failure: Downplayed, as the only flaw in Cia's leadership abilities is that she doesn't inspire loyalty in any of her minions, or at least, not without a good amount of brainwashing.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: The red eyes on her mask glow when she actively uses her magic.
• Good Colors, Evil Colors: According to Word of God, it's stated that since Cia is Lana's polar opposite with her evil heart, her main colors are likewise the opposite to that of Lana's.
• Good Girl Gone Bad: She used to be a good person before her affection for Link led to her corruption.
• Good Witch Versus Bad Witch: She shares a mysterious connection and mutual animosity with Lana. For a good reason.
• Guardian of the Multiverse: This is what her original job description entailed, to watch the timeline and not interfere despite her great magical power.
• Graceful Loser: Surprisingly, Cia manages to be this at the very end; she comments that Lana was always her better half as she fades away.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Her affection for Link turned into jealousy towards Zelda for being able to be with him, not helped by Ganondorf's corruption. In fact, one of her goals during the initial siege of Hyrule Castle was for either Volga or Wizzro to kill Zelda.
• Hades Shaded: She is a fair bit darker in skin tone post-corruption than she is pre-corruption.
• Heel–Face Turn: After being brought back to life in Legends.
• Hot Witch: Of the temptress variety, with her eyes set on Link.
• If I Can't Have You…: While she has an obsessive desire to make Link hers, she seems to have few qualms about offing her "love" if things don't pan out. Of course, it helps that due to her ability to access other timelines, she'll never run out of Links to pursue.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: At the end of the day, this is Cia's ultimate desire. All she wants is for Link to love her like he does Zelda. Ganondorf's corruption ends up twisting this desire into insane jealousy and obsession, which only gets worse when she undergoes her Sanity Slippage.
• Immune to Flinching: Her basic Special Attack gives her a dark aura which makes her entirely immune to being interrupted, stunned, or launched by attacks. This makes her a dangerous boss and a powerful playable character.
• It's All About Me: Her main motivation is to have Link for herself, though eventually the Triforce itself is also added to her goal.
• Jack of All Stats: Statistically, Cia has an average Power stat. Outside of that, Cia's moveset has many different tools for any situation that are simple and easy to use, having at least one move for close range attacks, long range attacks, crowd control, stunning enemies, and buffing herself. Together, it lets her combo enemies or zone them out, make short work of crowds, and take down most giant bosses in the game. However, her damage output, while respectable, is surpassed by stronger fighters/weapons, her attack speed is nothing special, and she is outcomboed by others. Ultimately, while Cia is versatile with good options in every category, she is outclassed by other, more specialized characters/weapons in every category as well.
• Kick the Dog: After running into Lana and Midna, she takes the time to taunt Midna for being stuck in her imp form. Midna loses her cool and retaliates by punching her in the face with her Prehensile Hair.
• Killed Off for Real: Following her defeat, she fades from existence. Though, if you want to get technical, she physically lives on through her goodness made manifest, Lana. In Legends, however, she is revived by the end of the game, resuming her duty of guarding the Triforce alongside Lana.
• Lady of Black Magic: Poised, proactive, and provocative.
• Leg Focus: The camera pans up her exposed leg as part of her pre-boss fight cutscene.
• Literal Split Personality: Cia's original personality was actually split apart into two characters when she was corrupted. All of her bad traits were retained within her while all of her good ones manifested into Lana.
• Love Makes You Crazy: If all her previous behavior wasn't enough, her Stalker Shrine to Link proves this without a doubt.
• Love Makes You Evil: Her feelings for Link are what left her vulnerable to corruption, leading her into obsessive villainy.
• Loves the Sound of Screaming: She'll occasionally comment that the sound of her enemies screaming is like music to her ears, and will encourage the proverbial maestro to keep on playing.
• Loving a Shadow: She fell for the idea of the Hero's Spirit by gazing at Link's past lives in her Crystal Ball, and the narrator even comments on her conveniently ignoring his shared destiny with Princess Zelda.
• Madness Mantra: When she undergoes her Sanity Slippage during Cia's Tale.
  Cia: The hero is still by my side... The hero is still by my side...
• Magic Wand: Her weapon is a large jeweled scepter for casting her dark magic.
• Male Gaze: Her boss intro gives some noticeable close-ups of her legs, butt, and breasts.
• Me's a Crowd: During the battle against Cia, when her health is low enough, she summons copies of herself to aid her.
• Mind Control: What she uses to keep Wizzro and Volga in line. They both manage to break out of it towards the end, though.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: She attacks Hyrule with the intention of getting rid of Zelda and taking Link for herself.
• Ms. Fanservice: Just look at her and her mannerisms. It's pretty blatant.
• Mystical White Hair: She has white hair under her mask, along with mystical powers.
• Mythology Gag:
  • She (or rather her main costume) might be modeled after Meg, one of the Poe sisters from Ocarina of Time.
  • When Cia possesses the Triforce of Power, she actually holds the golden triangle in hand, as opposed to Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf manifesting the crest on the backs of their hands. Princess Hilda did the same thing with the Triforce of Wisdom.
• Navel-Deep Neckline: It goes all the way down below her navel.
• Navel Window: Ms. Fanservice, after all. In contrast with her counterpart Lana, who shows her entire stomach, Cia shows a shrinking sliver of her stomach that just reaches the navel before ending.
• Nominal Hero: She saves Skyloft from an attack by Ghirahim and The Imprisoned simply so she could recruit the former into her army, and turns on the Skyloft Forces after achieving her goal. She becomes a genuine hero after being brought back to life, see Heel–Face Turn above.
• No-Sell: She cannot be stunned with the Boomerang.
• Of Corsets Sexy: Wears a corset as part of her Observer costume.
• Original Generation: She's a character unique to this game.
• Parody Sue: A villainous version. Cia is a strikingly beautiful and powerful sorceress who is in love with the hero Link, defeated the perennial Zelda villain Ganondorf, and bends the antagonists of other games to her will. The deconstruction comes with the gradual relevation that Cia is a Psychopathic Womanchild who was driven insane over being forced into the thankless task of maintaining the timelines for eternity, and for all her power, is completely unable to change the Zelda canon on her own. By the end of the game, her followers grow sick of her and make way for Ganondorf to return.
• Peaceful in Death: Seems to take comfort in Lana's final words to her before dying.
• Power Floats: She hovers when dashing.
• Red Baron: The Dark Sorceress.
• Redemption Rejection:
  • After rescuing Cia from Ganondorf, Lana tries one last time to convince Cia to stop for her own sake. Cia tells her to screw off.
  • Averted in Legends, as she finally atones after being reborn and rescued from the darkness.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: A variant, her eyes are violet but her pupils are red.
• The Rival: To Zelda and Lana — the former due to Cia's jealousy and the latter due to their mysterious connection.
• Sanity Slippage: As she undergoes her Villainous Breakdown, Cia becomes desperate and starts to use her own life force to bolster her dark magic. Not only is this slowly killing her, but it also makes her more unhinged and delusional. This is shown most prominently in the final level of Cia's Tale as everything falls apart around her and her allies abandon her, and gets lampshaded by both Volga and Lana.
  Volga: As I suspected, the constant use of dark magic is unhinging the great sorceress.
• Sexy Backless Outfit: Part of her Stripperific design.
• Shock and Awe: The Crackling Scepter from Legends does this in addition to Darkness damage.
• Shockwave Stomp: More like a dominatrix-esque foot tap, but the principle is the same.
• Smug Snake: While she's probably the most dangerous person in the game next to Ganondorf, or perhaps even more so, she's also overconfident in her resources and extremely impatient. Most of her strategies revolve more around force instead of cleverness in an attempt to win as soon as possible, and she never takes into account anything that could go wrong. Despite all that, she clearly believes herself to be a mastermind among masterminds who acts like everything is always going according to plan, even though she is slowly losing.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: Cia vs Midna is just this side of You Fight Like a Cow.
• Solitary Sorceress: In her backstory, it is shown that she watched over the balance of the Triforce alone, but this is subverted when she is corrupted.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Underneath the mask of the domineering Femme Fatale is a sad, lonely girl whose affections towards Link are forever doomed to be one-sided.
• Stalker Shrine: Her entire palace is decorated with portraits and statues of Link's various incarnations, including Young Link, Wolf Link, and right-handed Link.
• Stalker with a Crush: To Link.
• Statuesque Stunner: Whenever she and Link are actually seen together, she's actually taller than him.
• Stripperiffic: Her clothing leaves a lot of skin exposed.
• Summon Magic: She can summon Dark Links to assist her in battle.
• Summon to Hand: How she calls and dismisses her Scepter.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Her reaction to Volga being beaten for the final time.

  Cia: Volga lost? Well, of course he did... I'm surrounded by failures!

• Swiss-Army Weapon: Her scepter can spring its head off attached to a cord, making a combination whip and flail. And, of course, Magic Wand.
• Tattooed Crook: She has red markings on her leg. This is probably meant as some sort of Power Tattoo, but considering that she's a bad guy...
• Time Master: Cia can manipulate space-time, using it to open portals to various other eras.
• Took a Level in Kindness: In Legends, after being resurrected and freed from the darkness in her soul, she thanks everyone (including Lana, who rescued her in the first place) for helping to defeat Phantom Ganon.
• Tragic Villain: She started out as a good person who had the bad luck to fall in love with someone she could never have. Then Ganondorf twisted that love into insane jealousy. Lampshaded by the narration, which refers to her as "tragically corrupted" when she remains evil even after breaking free of Ganondorf's dark influence.
• The Unfettered: No matter what it takes, even if it means her life, she will make Link and the world hers.
• Ungrateful Bitch: Tells Lana to fuck off after the two of them manage to drive away Ganondorf. She's taken a level in kindness after her resurrection in Legends, thanking them after they take out Phantom Ganon.
• Unrequited Tragic Maiden: Her affections were always doomed to be one-sided, but her corruption and subsequent obsession and delusions only serve to twist the knife further.
  Cia: Ahh, no matter what betrayals I may suffer, at least I know the hero will always love and protect me...
• Vapor Wear: Seriously, how could she wear undies under that thing?
• Villainesses Want Heroes: Her main goal, above all else, is to make Link hers.
• Villainous Breakdown: She undergoes a gradual one that spans from meeting Ganondorf all the way to the final battle with Link at the Valley of Seers.
• Villainous Crush: Her crush toward Link causes her to be opened up to turning evil.
• Villain Protagonist: She and her minions are the protagonists of their own scenario, which covers how they met and their attack on Hyrule.
• Villain Team-Up: Cia uses her space-time manipulation abilities to recruit various Zelda villains to help in her war on Hyrule.
• The Watcher: The backstory explains that before her corruption, she watched over the balance of the Triforce and observed the events of Hyrule. She fell for the reincarnating soul of The Hero, Link, through her observations.
• Weakened by the Light: As an enemy, Cia takes extra damage from Light-based weapons.
• Whip of Dominance: Cia's scepter has a built in whip for melee attacks, which goes hand in hand with Cia's sultry Dominatrix theme.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Her heart wasn't always black and she still has some affection for Link, though it's gotten darker thanks to Ganondorf. Her Observer outfit shows that her hair was lavender before she was corrupted and when Cia and Lana were one being.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The Black Magic that Cia abuses after her defeat at the Temple of Souls not only eats away at her life, but her mind as well.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: A once kind person who had the misfortune of falling in love with someone she could never have, then was corrupted by an evil force and driven mad by her obsession and jealousy.
• Yandere: She is so obsessed with Link that she declares war on Hyrule to kill Zelda and take him for herself.
• Your Days Are Numbered: During the third visit to the Valley of Seers, both Lana and the narrator note that using the darkness of her heart and her life-force to enhance her troops is taking a toll on Cia's spirit and she will not last much longer. And sure enough, she dies not too long after the final battle with Link and co.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: Cia's base of operations is the Temple of Souls, a place that exists in another dimension that is implied to represent a person's mental state. Thus, the palace represents Cia's obsession with Link and her insane jealously towards Zelda.

Wizzro

Twisted Wizard

Weapon: Ring

Voiced by: Tadashi Miyazawa

Originally a ring that increased its power by luring in people and absorbing their powers, Wizzro was sealed away in Eldin Caves by the Goron tribe, only to be reborn as a sorcerer thanks to Cia's magic. Though he pledges loyalty to Cia, his loyalty only holds until he finds someone more powerful.

In the original Wii U version, he becomes playable with an update patch. In Legends and the Definitive Edition for Switch, he is instead unlocked in Legend Mode by clearing the first scenario of Cia's Tale.

Wizzro's weapon is the Ring, which focuses his magical energies. Its three default levels are the Blue Ring, Red Ring and Magical Ring.

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• And Your Reward Is Clothes:
  • His Master Quest DLC pack / Master Quest Map outfit gives him a blue coloration to make him resemble the classic Wizzrobes.
  • His Twilight Princess DLC pack / Twilight Map outfit gives him white robes with sky-blue accents, the same coloration as the Poes from that respective game.
  • The Majora's Mask DLC pack / Termina Map nets him the Captain's Hat.
  • The Great Sea Map in Legends colors him mostly brown, a reference to the alternate color scheme used by the classic Wizzrobes.
  • The Link's Awakening DLC pack / Koholint Map for Legends gives him a color scheme based on the Grim Creeper, a miniboss from the same game who also doubles as one half of the dungeon's main bosses.
  • The Phantom Hourglass & Spirit Tracks DLC pack / Grand Travels Map for Legends gives him a color scheme based on Phytops from Spirit Tracks.
• Artifact of Doom: He is one, being an amalgamation of evil spirits trapped within a cursed ring. It has apparently claimed the souls of many magicians foolish enough to take it for themselves. Oddly, the three rings making up his default weapon set were benevolent magical items used by Link in a few of the canon games.
• Ax-Crazy: Some of his quotes while commanding the Dark Forces give off this vibe. Of course, being an amalgamation of evil spirits doesn't necessarily guarantee sanity.
  Wizzro: Attack! Destroy! Massacre! Kill the royal whelp before I grow impatient!
  Wizzro: There's nowhere for them to hide! Crush them! Beat them! Grind them to dust! Hiya ha ha!
• Black Mage: Exclusively wields dark magic to attack rather than wielding any weapons.
• Body of Bodies: Wizzro is really an amalgamation of evil spirits and powers collected in a cursed ring.
• Brains and Brawn: The Brains to Volga's Brawn. Whereas Volga charges in headfirst with no strategy, Wizzro plans everything out.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: After the first mission of Cia's Tale, Cia brainwashes him after his failed backstab attempt, making him blindly loyal to her. When she suffers her Villainous Breakdown, Wizzro gets enough free will back to try to sign up for Ganondorf's team.
  • The trope is otherwise subverted in that being brainwashed did not make Wizzro crazy. He was always like that. If anything, the Mind Control only made him even more dangerous by focusing his madness onto a single cause.
• Casting a Shadow: Uses various dark magic attacks, from fireballs to energy beams to summoning monstrous shadows. It's also his Ring's element (Darkness).
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: He betrays Cia for Volga at the first sign of trouble and then later on meets his end when he tries to sell her out to Ganondorf.
• Co-Dragons: He serves as this to Cia along with Volga.
• Color-Coded Wizardry: His magic is purple.
• Combat Pragmatist: How many other villains are smart enough to try killing Link while he's drawing the Master Sword? It fails, but still, bonus points!
• Composite Character: He takes several cues from the Wizzrobe enemies and the 3D games' Poes. From the Poes, he got parts of his appearance, his dark fireballs, and his undead nature but, like the Wizzrobes, he doesn't cast his magic using an item (unlike the Poes, who channel their magic through their lanterns), parts of his appearance makes him closely resemble a hooded wizard (the classic Wizzrobe appearance) rather than a Poe, and he can also use bolts of darkness like the standard Wizzrobe. Additionally, his name is based on the Wizzrobe name, and his Adventure Mode sprite use the classic Wizzrobe sprite. Costume-wise, his recolors are based on both Wizzrobes, Poes and other ghost enemies in the series.
  • His use of rings is a nod to a few of the older games in the series, including Classic and Link.
• Cyclops: He only has a single, glowing red eye, though sometimes it morphs into a mouth filled with jagged teeth.
• Dark Is Evil: He's the Dark Wizard and an ally of Cia.
• Death from Above: One of his Focus Spirit attacks has him sinking into the ground while a Wallmaster slams the ground.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Playing as a Long-Range Fighter such as Wizzro can be tricky if one doesn't know how his Stuff Blowing Up mechanic works, as his fireball attacks seem completely useless at first glance (it doesn't help that his weapon descriptions don't even mention it), but if properly mastered, a leveled-up Wizzro can keep the battlefield at arm's length and can easily demolish a boss's Weak Point Gauge, making him especially useful in the "Defeat All Giant Bosses" missions.
• Dirty Coward: He resorts to underhanded tactics like impersonating Zelda to demoralize the Hyrulean army, manipulating the ghost soldiers while posing as Lana and attempting to get a cheap shot at Link while he's drawing out the Master Sword. When he's usually backed into a corner, he quickly caves and tries to beg for mercy.
• Downloadable Content:
  • His Master Quest DLC pack outfit gives him a blue coloration to make him resemble the original Wizzrobe. Additionally, despite himself being free, Wizzro's Level 2 and 3 weapons are part of the DLC.
  • His Twilight Princess DLC pack outfit gives him white robes with sky-blue accents, the same coloration as the Poes from that respective game.
  • The Majora's Mask DLC pack nets him the Captain's Hat.
  • The Link's Awakening DLC pack for Legends gives him a color scheme based on the Grim Creeper, a miniboss from the same game who also doubles as one half of the dungeon's main bosses.
  • The Phantom Hourglass & Spirit Tracks DLC pack for Legends gives him a color scheme based on Phytops from Spirit Tracks. This pack also gives him a version of the Magical Ring called Darkwater Ring, with which he can deal Water damage in addition to Darkness damage.
• *Drool* Hello: His victory animation has one of his floating eyeballs do this to the camera in the middle of it.
• Dub Name Change: In the Japanese version, his title is translated to the Magician of Darkness. In the US version, it is Twisted Wizard.
  • His name is Iscerro in European French.
• Elemental Shapeshifter: Can sink into the ground as a shadow.
• Elemental Weapon: The Ring is a Darkness-based weapon.
• Enemy Summoner: Can summon monstrous shadows with More Teeth than the Osmond Family to attack foes.
• Evil Genius: He is Cia's main tactician, and his battles usually involve a lot of devious strategy.
• Evil Laugh: He lets one out in his boss intro. His dialogue box even gives him his own distinct laugh, "Hiya ha ha!"
• Evil Sorcerer: It's even in his Epitaph.
• Eyeless Face: His lone eye can turn into a demonic mouth filled with Scary Teeth.
• Faceless Eye: The red eye appears to be his only facial feature.
• Fatal Flaw: His Chronic Backstabbing Disorder which inevitably happens when he sees that there's a more powerful villain to serve, first with Volga and then with Ganondorf. Both times, Cia punishes him for his treachery.
• Foil: To Volga. They are both servants of Cia, but whereas Volga is a stalwart, honorable warrior who faces his foes head-on and whose reason for trying to abandon Cia was that he wanted his free will back, Wizzro is a cowardly Combat Pragmatist who will betray her for someone stronger at the first sign of trouble.
  • Also to Zant, his counterpart on Ganondorf's side. Both are insane psychopaths, and are intelligent enough to serve as the strategist for their respective master, but Zant is completely loyal to his master unlike Wizzro who backstabs and needs brainwashing by Cia to keep him in line. Wizzro's plans, while decent, are also more poorly thought out in comparison to Zant's, and whereas Zant can hold his own on the battlefield and typically sees his fights to the end, Wizzro vastly overestimates his strength and typically flees for his life when cornered.
• General Failure: Most of his battlefield strategies tend to be just Attack! Attack! Attack! ones which are easily countered by the heroes.
• Ghostly Glide: The way he moves.
• Giant Hands of Doom: He can summon a gigantic Wallmaster-like hand from his body for melee attacks.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: His single eye has an ominous red glow.
• Graceful Loser: He tells Link and the gang where Cia's base is before retreating from the Temple of the Sword.
• Hate Sink: When put next to Cia and Volga, Wizzro is the only one of the Original Generation villains to have almost no redeeming qualities, even for an amalgamation of evil spirits. Not only is he openly psychotic and constantly insulting his enemies, he'll gladly betray his current allies if he sees someone stronger to ally with.
• Horse of a Different Color: One of his combo finishers has him riding one of his living shadows to attack enemies.
• Humanoid Abomination: A living ring turned into an Evil Sorcerer that resembles a ghost with a single red eye that can turn into a mouth and a hand that occasionally comes out of his chest.
• I Fight for the Strongest Side!: His bio states that although he acts as a subordinate to Cia, he has a tendency to follow those in power blindly. This is proven true in both his first and last appearances in the main story, where he betrays Cia first for Volga and then later for Ganondorf.
• Insane Equals Violent: As noted above, Wizzro is composed of several evil spirits all trapped eternally within a cursed ring. Thus, he's quite insane and utters hardly a single line of dialogue that doesn't relate to hurting someone or insulting them.
• Jerkass: He's violent, short-tempered, arrogant, obnoxious, and not in the least bit trustworthy.
• Kamehame Hadoken: Can fire a large beam of dark energy from his hands which serves as a combo finisher and a Weak Point Smash when playable.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Knows full well when to scram if the odds are against him. After Sheik exposes him with the Mirror of Truth, Wizzro bids a hasty retreat.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: His victory animation has one of his dark spirits drooling on the camera before he summons his Wallmaster hand to attack the camera.
• Lich: A unique case where the Soul Jar is the original entity.
• Light Is Not Good: When impersonating Zelda and Lana.
• Long-Range Fighter: Wizzro's main attacks come in the form of long-ranged barrages, his only physical attack being in the form of the Wallmaster hand he summons from his chest.
• Made of Evil: Again, an amalgamation of evil spirits and powers that, when released, can take on a corporeal form.
• Magic Missile Storm: Can launch you into what feels like a Bullet Hell game.
• Making a Splash: The Darkwater Ring lets Wizzro deal Water damage.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Named after, and resembles, a Wizzrobe and the Poe Collector from Ocarina of Time. In addition, when Wizzro is present in a battle on the Adventure Mode map, he is represented by a recolored spirte of a Wizzrobe from the original game.
  • The giant hand he uses resembles the Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask version of the Wallmasters and Floormasters.
  • His Level 1 weapon, the Blue Ring, takes its name from a magical item that appeared in the first Zelda and in Oracle of Ages, where it served as a magical source of armor for Link.
  • His Level 2 weapon, the Red Ring, likewise also originally featured in the first Zelda and in Oracle of Seasons; it was a more powerful armor item in the first game, and doubled Link's attacking power in Seasons.
• Necromancer: Those shadow monsters Wizzro summons? Those are the spirits of restless dead wizards the ring has absorbed. Also, in the Temple of The Sacred Sword, Wizzro takes control of the various ghost soldiers to attack the heroes.
• No-Sell: He cannot be stunned with the Boomerang.
• Oh, Crap!: Tends to really wear his worry when a plan goes south. Especially when his admittedly clever ploy to kill Link whilst drawing the Master Sword just didn't take.
• Original Generation: He's a new character, although he does bear a resemblance to the Poe Collector.
• Purple Is Powerful: He's dressed in a purple robe and most of his magic has a purple color scheme.
• Red Baron: Twisted Wizard. On the outset of the game, his dialogue box refers to him as the Dark Wizard.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: It even glows.
• Ring of Power: He was created from an evil one that has absorbed the souls of countless magicians, and can be seen wearing one on his left index finger. His boss intro has him materializing his body around the ring.
• Sadist: Not hard to call him one, considering most of his battle quotes revolve around how much he loves to see others suffer.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Was sealed in the Eldin Caves by the Gorons until Cia freed him. He gets resealed back into his ring when he tries to backstab her in favor of Ganondorf during the last mission that details Cia's side of the story.
• Smug Snake: He's very proud of his own intellect and considers himself to be smarter and more competent than anyone else, especially Volga, who is the brawn to his brains.
• Squishy Wizard: In gameplay, Wizzro's fighting style consists of various long-ranged attacks which are good at keeping enemies at a distance and good for crowd control, but Wizzro can't take many hits in return and moves and attacks slower than most characters.
• The Starscream: In Cia's Tale, he tried to betray Cia and take control of the dragon folk in Eldin Caves to take over Hyrule. The key word is tries. Cia quickly changes his mind. And he tries it again in the last level by teaming up with Ganondorf, and he pays for it with his life.
• Stuff Blowing Up: While it's not as obvious as with the other characters and isn't even mentioned in his weapon descriptions, his unique mechanic relates to the fact that his attacks produce 2 types of projectiles, flames and orbs, with orbs turning into flames after a certain point of time: if a flame is hit with an orb, it blows up, knocking any enemies near it into the air. This is best seen with one of his finishers, which creates a group of 5 slow-moving flames; this seems useless at first, but they do massive damage to enemy weak point gauges when you blow them up.
• Summon Magic: Can summon monsters and other creatures to assist him in battle and is usually the one to summon the giant boss creatures in the game. Many of his attacks also summon monstrous cycloptic Living Shadows with More Teeth than the Osmond Family.
• Technicolor Fire: His flames are purple.
• There's No Kill like Overkill: In the Faron Woods stage, Wizzro decides the best way to kill the Hyrulean Forces is to burn down the Deku Tree (and probably the whole forest with it).
• Too Dumb to Live: Wizzro, was it really a good idea to keep fighting Link when you know you don't have a chance against him while he has the Master Sword? And was it really a better idea to double cross the powerful and unhinged sorceress who enslaved you not just once but twice?
• Villains Want Mercy: After being beaten by Cia in a failed attempt to betray her, he's reduced to shamelessly begging for his life. Works the first time, but backfires the second time, and he is sealed back in his ring, apparently for good.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: He has the ability to change his form to anyone he wishes and thus deceive others. In particular, he disguises himself as Zelda to sow discord. Sheik, however, uses the Mirror of Truth to expose him. Later, he apparently disguises himself as Lana when the heroes go to retrieve the Master Sword.
• Weak, but Skilled: While Wizzro has powerful black magic at his disposal, he doesn't offer much in the way of physical combat and must rely on trickery and deception to win.
• Weakened by the Light: As an enemy, Wizzro takes extra damage from Light-based weapons.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: In the original release of Wii U version, he vanishes from the plot completely after his defeat at the Temple of the Sacred Sword, strangely absent from Cia's final stand. The DLC for Cia's Tale reveals that this was because Cia resealed him back into his ring after he tried to defect to Ganondorf.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: He has the ability to absorb the soul of anyone who wears his ring, particularly if they are a magician.

Volga

Dragon Knight

Weapon: Dragon Spear

Voiced by: Yoshihisa Kawahara

An ally of Cia, he is a warrior who can turn into a dragon and was brainwashed by Cia into serving her. Headstrong and bloodthirsty, Volga commands Cia's forces in the war with Hyrule.

In the original Wii U version, he becomes playable with an update patch. In Legends and the Definitive Edition for Switch, he is instead unlocked in Legend Mode by clearing the first scenario in Cia's Tale.

His weapon of choice is the Dragon Spear, a polearm that sports a claw-like head crafted from dragon bones. Starting as the fairly normal-looking Dragonbone Pike, which features a naked blade of bone, he then upgrades to the Stonecleaver Claw, which is more ornate looking and sports a claw-like guard below the blade, and then to the very organic and trident-like Flesh-Render Fang.

---

• Affably Evil: Though Volga is quite arrogant, he is quite respectable to his allies and is capable of showing begrudging respect to those who manage to best him, assuming that the victory was won fair and square.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes:
  • His Master Quest DLC pack / Master Quest Map outfit colors him more brown, like the original Volvagia. Additionally, despite himself being free, Volga's Level 2 and 3 weapons are part of the DLC.
  • His Twilight Princess DLC pack / Twilight Map outfit colors his armor black while keeping the red ponytail, making him look like a humanoid version of Argorok, but also gives him a closer resemblance to Dynasty Warriors's Lu Bu^*Fitting, given their gameplay similarities.
  • He can unlock the Giant's Mask in the Majora's Mask DLC pack / Termina Map.
  • In the Great Sea Map in Legends, he can get colors based on Valoo from Wind Waker.
  • The Master Wind Waker DLC pack / Master Wind Waker Map for Legends gives him a color scheme based on Mothula from Wind Waker.
  • The Phantom Hourglass & Spirit Tracks DLC pack / Grand Travels Map for Legends gives him a color scheme based on Byrne from Spirit Tracks.
• Animal Motifs: Dragons.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Extremely arrogant, views everyone as beneath him, and if he does lose, he's quick to brush it off. This is lampshaded by Ghirahim of all people. His pride ultimately becomes his undoing.
  Ghirahim: That Volga, so full of himself. He forgets that it is I, Ghirahim, who leads the demon tribe.
• Badass Boast: Over half of his battle quotes are these.
  Volga: Make peace with your gods... before I make pieces of you!
• The Battle Didn't Count: Volga never admits defeat. Whenever he loses, he brushes it off by saying Link cheated somehow. He's usually right. When Volga appears in a stage, your first objective is usually finding some way to get an advantage before facing him directly.
• The Berserker: Volga's motto is shoot first, ask questions never. He's even called the Scorching Berserker in the Japanese version.
• Blood Knight: One searching for a Worthy Opponent, which he finds in Link.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Volga always enters the battle loud and proud.
• Brains and Brawn: The Brawn to Wizzro's Brain. Wizzro plans out his moves, Volga merely charges in head-first. That's not to say that he's stupid, however. Among a few other things, he correctly deduced that Cia's overuse of black magic was causing her to go insane, and he's pretty well-spoken, all things considered. It's just that his temper usually gets in the way of everything else.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: After the first mission in Cia's Tale, when Volga's desire to stay out of human affairs trumps his Worthy Opponent-seeking nature, Cia brainwashes him so that seeking a Worthy Opponent is the only thing he lives for. When she suffers her Villainous Breakdown, if you're playing as Cia, Volga snaps out of it enough that he angrily defies her orders and goes to fight Ganondorf, only to be repelled by a barrier, and then refuses to help her. If you're playing as Volga, there's hints of More than Mind Control as he's clearly free from her control, but keeps helping her. However, Definitive Edition has canonized the former scenario. Either way, though, she puts him right back under mind control right after this, because by the next stage, he is back to fighting for her and is suspiciously silent and kept out of the action up until she forcibly powers him up with dark magic... At which point he begins screaming in pain.
• Breath Weapon: He breathes fire, and can do this in both dragon and human forms.
• Casting a Shadow: The Darkfire Fang from Legends lets Volga deal Darkness-based damage.
• Co-Dragons:
  • He serves as this to Cia along with Wizzro.
  • Volga has his own pair of dragons as well, the Lizalfos and Dinolfos Chieftains.
• Counter-Attack: Trying to hit him too much when he's blocking will result in him doing a spin with his spear before jabbing it into the ground; this move can't be interrupted. Ironically, the vulnerability from this stab is one of the easiest ways to wear down his counter for finishing moves.
• Cool Helmet: His helmet bears a strong resemblance to Volvagia's head.
• Crafted from Animals: His lance's head is decorated with a dragon's claw.
• Devil's Pitchfork: Volga's Flesh-Render Fang has three forward-jutting blades; one central straight spike, two slightly curved ones on the side with wickedly barbed exteriors. The overall silhouette is of a horned draconic skull.
• Dragon Knight: It's his exact title in the English localization of the game; fittingly, his powers are draconic, with shapeshifting and fire breath included.
• The Dreaded: Oh yeah. The Hyrulean Forces know exactly how strong Volga is and that he should not be taken lightly. During the first visit to the Valley of Seers, when he gets in a fight with Impa that quickly turns in his favor, the game pretty much tells you to drop whatever you're doing and stop him. General rule of thumb — the moment Volga Turns Red is the time to change those pants and run for your life.
• Downloadable Content:
  • His Master Quest DLC pack outfit colors him more brown, like the original Volvagia.
  • His Twilight Princess DLC pack outfit colors his armor black while keeping the red ponytail, making him look like a humanoid version of Argorok, but also gives him a closer resemblance to Dynasty Warriors's Lu Bu.
  • He can unlock the Giant's Mask in the Majora's Mask DLC pack.
  • The Master Wind Waker DLC pack for Legends gives him a color scheme based on Mothula from Wind Waker.
  • The Phantom Hourglass & Spirit Tracks DLC pack for Legends gives him a color scheme based on Byrne from Spirit Tracks. This pack also gives him a version of the Flesh-Render Fang called Darkfire Fang, with which he can deal Darkness damage in addition to Fire damage.
• Dub Name Change: In the original Japanese version, his title is 灼熱狂戦士, which translates to Scorching Berserker^note This is likely a further reference to Volvagia, whose title in the Japanese Ocarina of Time translates to "Scorching Cave-Dwelling Dragon". In the English version, he is simply titled Dragon Knight.
• Elemental Weapon: The Dragon Spear is a Fire-based weapon.
• Establishing Character Moment: He nearly kills Link and Impa at the outset of the game and was only thwarted because the Triforce of Courage awakened and saved them.
• Expy: With his immense strength, violent Blood Knight personality, spear wielding, costume similarity, and the fact Hyrule Warriors is made by the same company who made Dynasty Warriors, Volga is this game's Lu Bu skinned as Volvagia from the Zelda franchise. The Twilight Princess DLC pack / Twilight Map furthers this by giving Volga a dark armor Palette Swap that matches Lu Bu's.
• Facial Markings: Black streaks under his eyes.
• Fantastic Racism: He despises humans and initially didn't want to join forces with Cia because he didn't want to involve himself in human affairs. During the Skyloft part of Cia's Tale, when Cia and the gang pretend to be allied with the human soldiers, Volga can barely hide his disgust at the thought of working with humans.
  Volga: I've come to...ugh...aid your cause. Together we will make short work of these creatures.
• Fatal Flaw: His Pride. Volga's pride and desire for a good fight often cause him to do things without thinking, and he can easily be manipulated. Zelda manages to turn this against him during the final battle in the Valley of Seers by convincing him that he should fight with his own strength rather than the dark power Cia granted him, which made him markedly stronger than he already was. This ultimately ends up costing him the battle and possibly even his life, as he is beaten by Link and the gang. Though to be fair, it's shown that these aspects of his personality were simply amplified as a result of Cia's brainwashing, and prior to that incident he was more than happy to live away from humans with his reptilian legions.
• Fiery Redhead: The tassles on his helmet give him the impression of a more literal example than most.
• Flaming Hair: His dragon form sports a flaming mane.
• Foil:
  • To Wizzro. They are both servants of Cia, but whereas Wizzro is a cowardly Combat Pragmatist who will betray his master at the first sign of trouble, Volga is a stalwart, honorable warrior who faces his foes head on, and his reasons for abandoning her in her Tale's finale are because he can see she's gone mad and to try to fight Ganondorf, not join him against her. And while Wizzro would love to fight and kill just for fun even when he's not being controlled, Volga actually isn't really evil and just wanted to be left alone before being dragged out and having his desire for a strong opponent used against him. And despite both of them being Cia's servants, Wizzro is ready to ditch and join someone more evil as soon as he can while Volga throws off her Mind Control of him so he can regain his free will and to fight the very person Wizzro betrayed her for.
  • To Ghirahim as well, his counterpart on Ganondorf's side. They both serve as the muscle to their respective factions, are extremely skilled with their weapons, and the human forms they take are not their real form (with their true form reflecting their inhumanity as a dragon for Volga and a sword for Ghirahim respectively), but whereas Volga is direct and cares for his subordinates, Ghirahim is a bit more manipulative and would sacrifice his own subordinates without a second thought. Volga also tends to pick fights that he could have avoided more often than not without any care to the plans of his master, whereas Ghirahim knows when not to fight and sticks to or furthers the current plan of action. Ghirahim is also completely loyal to his master, whereas Volga had to be brainwashed into service (and still requires brainwashing to be anywhere close to completely obedient).
• Get Out!: When Cia tries to recruit him in the first scenario of Cia's Tale, he bluntly refuses and tells her to leave.
• Giant Flyer: In dragon form.
• Graceful Loser: Accepts defeat content in the knowledge that he at least had a good last battle and did so without relying on any outside help.
• Hates Small Talk:
  • Much like Ganondorf, Volga is all business on the battlefield, so don't expect friendly conversation from him, as shown by this quote when rescuing allies.
    Volga: Save your breath for fighting.
  • And if one of the other characters congratulates him for killing 1000 enemies:
    Volga: Trivial. Where are the real foes?
  • However, if he's an ally on the battlefield, he'll give you an amiable, "I must admit I wasn't expecting such a showing from you!" if you kill 1000 enemies. He's also rather good at talking smack, particularly if he's just defeated an enemy officer or boss.
• The Hermit: He lived in recluse in the Eldin Caves with only a bunch of Lizalfos and Dinolfos for company.
• Hidden Eyes: His eyes are hidden by his helmet, which was apparently a deliberate decision by the developers to make him seem more mysterious.
• Honor Before Reason: What ultimately becomes his undoing. During the final battle in the Valley of Seers, he rejects the dark power Cia granted him, which made him much stronger than before, in order to fight with his own strength. As a result, the heroes manage to defeat him.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: When Link first fights him in Hyrule Field, things go poorly and both he and Impa nearly get roasted alive.
• Horned Humanoid: Due to his helmet and when in dragon form.
• Hot-Blooded: Fittingly enough. His desire for a strong opponent is what allowed Cia to brainwash him. Otherwise, the one thing he wanted more than a good fight was to be left alone by outsiders.
• Hypocrite: Defied. Whenever he loses a fight with Link, he criticizes his victories by saying that Link only won due to outside help. And when Cia uses her dark magic to power him up during the final battle of the Valley of Seers, he, with some convincing from Zelda (or Ruto, if you're playing as Zelda), rejects the power and fights with his own strength. Though doing so ends up being his undoing.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
  • Granted, Volga goes around in search of a good battle and can be a jerk when he is bested. But he commands the genuine respect and loyalty of the Lizalfos and Dinolfos tribes that inhabit the Eldin Caves with him, and he seems to treat them pretty decently. He also accepts defeat gracefully during Cia's final stand in the Valley of the Seers, and the official guide describes this event as him leaving as a true warrior, never to be tainted by evil's touch again. Some of his dialogue in Adventure Mode suggests this as well, being surprisingly humble for someone with his personality.
    Volga: [grinning] Well, then, I guess I win.
    Volga: I take no pleasure in this, but it is done.
    Volga: Not bad. I hope to fight you again someday.
  • Also, if you play as him for the final mission in Cia's Tale for Legend Mode in the original Wii U version of the game, he will actually try to warn Cia against continuing on her current path.
• Kick the Dog: An absolutely brutal line that can appear in Adventure Mode, if an enemy captain is defeated while he's the commander.

  Volga: You're weak, but I never expected you to be useless as well.

• Kill It with Water: As an enemy, Volga takes extra damage from Water-based weapons. He's notably the only antagonist who isn't weak to Light, which is noticeable in the "Evil Power" Rewards Map mission.
• Large Ham: Oh yes! Loud, boisterous, and very haughty on the battlefield.
• Lightning Bruiser: Fast, agile, can take a lot of punishment, and can deal out heavy damage.
• Mind Control: What Cia uses to control both him and Wizzro. In his case, it greatly warps and amplifies his desire to seek out strong foes.
• Morphic Resonance: Volga's helmet and armor are shaped like his dragon form's body.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Named after and heavily resembles Volvagia from Ocarina of Time. The official guide states that the developers wanted players to look at him and go, "That's Volvagia!"
  • Also shares some similarities to General Onox from Oracle of Seasons due to their ability to turn into dragons.
• Never My Fault: Volga never loses, his opponents just cheat somehow. Except in Adventure Mode, where he instead praises you and wants to fight you again someday. He kind of has a point with this, though — at least twice, you will have to find a way to take him down a peg through outside means before actually engaging him in combat.
• Noble Demon: Volga always fights fair, and he's quite affable to his allies, the Lizalfos and Dinolfos chieftains in particular.
• No Indoor Voice: It's possible he doesn't even know the meaning of the word subtle.
• No-Sell: He cannot be stunned with the Boomerang.
• One-Winged Angel: Can turn into a dragon for some attacks.
• Original Generation: He isn't present in the main series, but was designed to have a very strong resemblance to Volvagia.
• Overly-Long Tongue: His dragon form's.
• Partial Transformation: If it suits him, he can transfigure his arm into a dragon's claw or just sprout dragon wings on his back to fly rather than change completely.
• Personality Powers: A Hot-Blooded Blood Knight with fire powers.
• Playing with Fire: Uses Fire magic alongside his Dragon Spear. It's also his weapon's element.
• Puny Earthlings: Volga has a very low opinion of humans and lived in recluse, disinterested in their affairs.
• Recurring Boss: He is fought multiple times in the main story.
• Red Baron: Dragon Knight.
• Scaled Up: He can turn into a dragon for some attacks, such as spitting out fireballs and divebombing enemies.
• Screaming Warrior: Described by his character bio as having a powerful war cry. And indeed, his boss intro has him letting out a thunderous war cry. And when Cia forcibly powers him up during her final stand, he begins screaming in pain. Depending on how you play it, this moment can be the first time his dialogue box even appears during this scenario.
• Secret A.I. Moves: A minor example, but as an enemy Volga can transform into his dragon form, spit a fireball, then divebomb you; the same attack when playing as him omits the fireball part.
• Slide Attack: He can charge at enemies to impale them on his spear, leaving a trail of flames in his wake. It serves as his Special Attack when playable.
• Turns Red: When fighting him in Skyloft, Volga powers up after taking enough damage and is too powerful to fight directly. Link and Fi have to get Levias to weaken him first. And it happens again during the final battle against Cia's forces in the Valley of the Seers, where Cia forcibly powers him up. Fortunately, Zelda/Ruto manages to convince him to reject the power by appealing to his pride and telling him to fight with his own strength.
• Uncertain Doom: His ultimate fate is rather ambiguous; after his defeat during the final battle against Cia, it's never made clear whether or not he survived the battle.
• Unstoppable Rage: In Skyloft, he cannot be defeated without a Great Fairy-powered bolt from Levias; his health will constantly regenerate to full until the Magic Circle is activated. He himself lampshades it:
  Volga: I would have defeated you if not for the sky lord's interference...
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Can change any part of his body into a dragon part, such as turning his hand into a dragon claw.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: After Link manages to survive a potentially fatal blast of Volga's fire breath in the first encounter, Volga temporarily withdraws from the battle.
• Weredragon: He can turn into a dragon, either wholly or partially, for his attacks.
• Wolverine Claws: Can turn his hands into dragon claws to slash at enemies, launching three shockwaves.
• Worthy Opponent: He is in constant search for one, though he was happy enough living completely away from humans until Cia brainwashed him so that his whole life revolved around this.

Zant

Usurper King

Weapon: Scimitars

Voiced by: Masashi Tamaki

Zant is the usurper king of the Twilight Realm. Once Cia used the Gate of Souls to open a portal to the Twilight Era, Zant was free to continue his shadowy misdeeds in Hyrule and beyond. He answers his liege Ganondorf's call once more, serving him loyally much like he served his era's Ganondorf in the past.

He may look rather calm at a first glance, but his true nature is very frantic. He will go into fits of hysteria once he's driven into a corner or doesn't get his way.

In both the original Wii U version and Legends, he is a playable villain that can be unlocked on the original Adventure Map in an area that unlocks after beating the Era of Twilight in the main story.

Zant wields Scimitars as his weapon of choice, upgrading from the hook-tipped Usurper's Scimitars to the triple-bladed Shadow Scimitars before finishing with the straight-bladed and ornately designed Scimitars of Twilight.

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• Adaptational Badass: In Twilight Princess, his swordplay was a clear-cut example of Unskilled, but Strong, basically boiling down to a crude mix of Teleport Spam and wild flailing, and he could get easily winded during battle. In here, thanks in part to the Dynasty Warriors gameplay style, Zant's swordplay is much more fluid and graceful, though still a bit erratic. He also has far more stamina, able to fight for longer periods of time. He can also better mesh his swordplay with his magic to make him even more unpredictable than before — best shown when he finishes off a boss by using a Spin Attack to launch himself into the air and then grow giant to deliver a Finishing Stomp in the Wii U version and Definitive Edition. However, he can still get dizzy and leave himself vulnerable if he's not careful in battle.
• Adaptational Intelligence: In Twilight Princess, Zant remained very smart for most of the game, but suffered a bout of Bond Villain Stupidity that ultimately led to his downfall. In here, Zant is a No-Nonsense Nemesis who, despite his eccentrics, can come up with surprisingly good strategies and can improvise if said strategies fail. It seems his previous defeat has taught him a few lessons.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Seemingly. His Twilight Princess incarnation was stoic and subdued up until his Villainous Breakdown. In this game, however, he's more overtly erratic, eccentric, and hammy. He's also less arrogant than he was in Twilight Princess. However, it may also be that his stoic, arrogant attitude in his debut game were because he'd already won and his personality in Hyrule Warriors is more in line with how he normally acts given his reaction to the king favoring his daughter over Zant was to beat his head on the ground while screaming.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes:
  • In the Master Quest DLC pack / Master Quest Map, a special costume recolors Zant's standard outfit with a red and black color scheme to make him resemble the Shadow Beasts from Twilight Princess.
  • In the Twilight Princess DLC pack / Twilight Map, a special costume recolors Zant's outfit to make him resemble Phantom Zant from the titular game.
  • The Majora's Mask DLC pack / Termina Map gives him the Troupe Leader Mask to wear.
  • The Great Sea Map from Legends gives him the color scheme of Gohdan, a boss from Wind Waker.
  • The Link's Awakening DLC pack / Koholint Map for Legends gives him a color scheme based on the Mask Mimics, an enemy based on the more famous Shy Guys from the Super Mario Bros. series.
  • The A Link Between Worlds DLC pack / Lorule Map for Legends gives him a color scheme based on the Helmasaur, a mask-based enemy from the Zelda series. It could also be based on The Bee Guy or an Armos..
• Animal Motifs: As usual, his clothing is decorated with serpents and reptiles.
• Arch-Enemy: He is Midna's as usual. This is especially shown when Midna fights Zant in Adventure Mode, where he gets a special dialogue box that doesn't appear in Legend Mode.
• Ax-Crazy: Much like in his home game. Though in this case, he's more eccentric than flat-out insane.
• Battle Aura: Aside from Focus Spirit, a gameplay mechanic gives Zant a special power meter that fills up as he uses attacks. When the meter is full (telegraphed by the scimitars glowing), Zant wreathes himself in black and green twilight energy and can use two new attacks. Just be careful not to overdo it.
• Beam Spam: A few of his attacks involve machine-gunning energy balls at his opponents. Depending on the condition of his energy meter when he starts, he can keep it up for quite a while.
• Belly Flop Crushing: Taken to extremes after becoming gigantic in his Focus Spirit finisher or when Weak Point Smashing a boss (this one is only on the Wii U version).
• Beware the Silly Ones: Zant seems even less lucid than he was in his home game, but he still shows he's not to be taken lightly Lampshaded with one of his quotes in Adventure Mode. Even if his attacks can seem comical, they pack a lot of punch.
  Zant: I'll show you why I should never be ridiculed!
• The Caligula: He is not the picture of mental health one would hope for in a king.
• Casting a Shadow: Wields the dark magic granted to him by Ganondorf.
• Characterization Marches On: In Twilight Princess, he was a stoic, almost menacing figure whose facade only broke when he was on the verge of defeat. In this game, his Psychopathic Manchild traits are more prominent and he's more prone to bouts of histronics and hysteria, though he still retains his smart moments. The end result is that he comes off as more eccentric than normal.
• The Chessmaster: Much like in his home game, Zant can be quite the competent tactician when he's lucid.
  • During the Twilight Palace stage, he orders his forces to demolish the bridges when the heroes capture the Lower East Keep. Later, while Lana and Midna are busy trying to chase Argorok away, he orders reinforcements to attack the Allied Base and then orders his Commandos to kidnap Agitha to distract them while giving Argorok time to heal and letting his troops retake the eastern keeps.
  • During the Valley of Seers level, when Impa makes multiple copies of herself to distract Ganondorf, he quickly realizes that the best way to find the real Impa would be to attack Lana. Even Ganondorf compliments this strategy.
  Ganondorf: That's not a bad idea.
  • On Hyrule Field, he's quick to warn Ganondorf that things will end very badly for them if the Hyrulean Army manages to get the Great Fairy to help them. ^note Justified in that he knows from experience how powerful the Great Fairy is.
  • And finally, during the Gerudo Desert stage, He and Ghirahim create copies of themselves to fight the heroes and lure them away from their base while they lead from the safety of the Sacred Grounds. Zant even takes advantage of Lana's diminishing stamina from the heat and isolates her from the group.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: Not nearly as bad as Agitha, but he has his moments. It's best shown by his victory animation, which has him wildly spinning onto the screen, bending over backwards while making a weird moaning noise, then... promptly teleporting away. All done for no apparent reason other than randomness and for the lulz.
• Co-Dragons: Serves Ganondorf alongside Ghirahim.
• Collapsible Helmet: His helmet can collapse to reveal his head.
• Color-Coded Wizardry: Red and black, to contrast Midna's turquoise and yellow.
• Confusion Fu: Zant's fighting style, if anything, is even more erratic than it was in Twilight Princess. From telekinetically slapping enemies with Zant Hands, to crushing them with totem poles, to belly-flopping the battlefield, Zant's fighting style is a constant guessing game of "What will he do next?" Yousuke Hayashi himself even lampshades it.
  Hayashi: Tricky moves are definitely Zant's specialty.
• Cool Helmet: One that resembles a chameleon's head. Two of his attacks summon a giant copy of it to spin into enemies.
• Dark Is Evil: In contrast to Midna and the Twilis in general. Naturally, most of his quotes in Adventure Mode reference darkness as well.
  Zant: The darkness consumes all.
• Didn't See That Coming: While Zant is a very competent schemer, his plans are always undone due to some outside interference and he has no way of dealing with it when it happens. Examples include:
  • In Cia's storyline, Zant summons Argorok to distract Cia's forces as he makes his way to the Magic Circle. However, Agitha ends up wandering into the Twilight Realm and finds a key to the West Palace door. Cia manages to get the key from her, allowing her forces to intercept Zant.
  • In the Shadow King chapter in Legend Mode, Argorok's repeated attacks were wearing down Lana and Midna's base due to the dragon always retreating and staying out of their reach. But Agitha comes to the rescue again when her Goddess Butterfly leads them to the Great Fairy, who helps them bring down Argorok. Zant doesn't take it well. Though Zant does learn from this defeat, as in the Hyrule Field stage, he warns Ganondorf to stop Impa from reaching the Great Fairy.
    Zant: How did they manage to pull Argorok down to their level?!
  • In the penultimate stage in the Gerudo Desert, he and Ghirahim create copies of themselves to fight the heroes and lure them away from their base while they lead from the safety of the Sacred Grounds. Zant even takes advantage of Lana's diminishing stamina from the heat and isolates her from the group. However, Lana uses her tome to summon the rest of the heroes to help them and they eventually figure out their plan.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Trying to avoid Overheating Zant's combos can be difficult for first-timers as you're so busy fighting enemies you forget to keep an eye on the meter. But when properly mastered, Zant's wild combos are great at dealing with large groups of enemies and helps him dominate the battlefield.
• Downloadable Content:
  • In the Master Quest DLC pack, a special costume recolors Zant's standard outfit with a red and black color scheme to make him resemble the Shadow Beasts from Twilight Princess.
  • In the Twilight Princess DLC pack, a special costume recolors Zant's outfit to make him resemble Phantom Zant from the titular game. It also gives him the 8-bit Magical Boomerang(s) to use as makeshift scimitars.
  • The Majora's Mask DLC pack gives him the Troupe Leader Mask to wear.
  • The Link's Awakening DLC pack for Legends gives him a color scheme based on the Mask Mimics, an enemy based on the more famous Shy Guys from the Super Mario Bros series.
  • The Phantom Hourglass & Spirit Tracks DLC pack for Legends gives him a version of the Scimitars of Twilight called Darkwater Scimitars, with which he can deal Water damage in addition to Darkness damage.
  • The A Link Between Worlds DLC pack for Legends gives him a color scheme based on the Helmasaur, a mask-based enemy from the Zelda series. It could also be based on The Bee Guy.
• Dual Boss: The penultimate main stage in Legend Mode has you fighting both him and Ghirahim in the Gerudo Desert. Earlier, in the Palace of Twilight stage, if you don't defeat Argorok fast enough, Zant himself will leap into the fray to assist him.
• Dual Wielding: Zant once again wields a pair of Sinister Scimitars into battle.
• Elemental Weapon: Zant's Scimitars are a Darkness-based weapon.
• Energy Ball: Fires some during his totem pole and giant mask finishers. His Special Attack has him tossing a large energy ball at enemies. He can also fire off some as a ranged attack when activating his maskless mode.
• Evil Counterpart: This game makes him one to Midna much like Ghirahim is one to Fi. Both are Twili with powerful dark magic at their disposal. Both of their fighting styles involve gratuitous use of Twilight Portals. Even their Special Attacks are virtually identical to one another, mainly consisting of throwing a large ball of green Twilight magic. And both had to be defeated by one of the characters to get them to join their causes. (Lana had to defeat Midna and Cia had to defeat Zant. Bonus points for Lana and Cia being essentially the same person.)
• Evil Genius: Not shown as often as Wizzro, but Zant can be quite the tactician when he's not in Psychopathic Manchild mode.
• Evil Is Bigger: As always, Zant towers over most of the characters. Only Ganondorf, and possibly Volga, dwarf him in size.
• Evil Laugh: Does this liberally when playable. Also, his dialogue box, the one with the mouthguard on his helmet removed, has him doing a proper evil laugh.
• Evil Redhead: When not wearing the helmet.
• Evil Wears Black: Zant dons black clothing as he did in his last appearance.
• The Faceless: His face is concealed by his helmet, though he takes it off more often than he did in Twilight Princess.
• Fighting Clown: He's a top contender for being the most bizarre fighter in the game, bested only, perhaps, by Tingle.
• Final Boss: Zant is used as the enemy commander for the Dark Ruler mission of the Twilight Map in Adventure Mode where the aim is to seek out a boss key to open his base, then defeat him and Ganon to complete the map.
• Foil: To Wizzro: Both are insane psychopaths that have powerful dark magic at their disposal, they both plan things out before, and during the battle, they have both been forced to change things up if things don't go as planned, and both serve as the main tacticians to their respective leaders. The difference is that Wizzro is prone to backstabbing and betrayal if he finds someone stronger than the one he's currently serving, and has a tendency to turn tail and flee or beg for his life if things go south for him, while Zant is completely loyal towards his own master and if directly confronted he typically stays and fights to the end. Zant is also, compared to Wizzro, more aware of his own strength in comparison to the enemy's, his plans in general are better thought out, and he is also a more powerful force on the battlefield if he actually has to do some fighting.
• Force and Finesse: The Force to Ghirahim's Finesse.
• Get Out!: In Cia's storyline, she tries to recruit Zant for her army. Zant bluntly refuses and tells her to leave.
• Giant Hands of Doom: One of his combo attacks has him summoning a Zant Hand and telekinetically slapping enemies around with it.
• Greed: Zant's Fatal Flaw, as pointed out by several characters.
• Immune to Flinching: During his giant stomp combo attack, Zant is immune to all damage while he's giant and can rotate around to attack enemies on all sides. This makes him dangerous as a boss and very useful as a playable character.
• Informed Ability: According to the Prima Official Game Guide, Zant is the strongest magician in his family. Considering that Zant, like Midna, is an upper class-Twili, it can be assumed that his family is a very powerful one.
• In the Hood: Wears a yellow balaclava under his helmet.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: In Cia's story, he summons Argorok to distract Cia and the others while he escapes to the Magic Circle.
• Large Ham: Most of the cast does a lot of screaming, he takes it even further. Also, his battle quotes in Adventure Mode are quite over-the-top as well.
  Zant: This party isn't truly underway until I have arrived!
• Laughably Evil: Gameplay-wise, anyway. Zant's wacky fighting style, combined with him getting dizzy and tripping over himself, as well as his over-the-top battle quotes, makes it hard to not at least smile whenever you play as him.
• Laughing Mad: He does a lot of maniacal laughing while in combat. This becomes a drawback during his Energy Ball combo attack. After tossing the energy ball, Zant will stop to clutch his chest and laugh, leaving him open to attack. Though, like with Ghirahim, this is easily rectified by dashing out of the way.
• Lethal Joke Weapon: The Twilight Princess DLC pack gives two 8-bit Magical Boomerangs from the original Legend of Zelda for Zant to wield like scimitars.
• Magic Knight: He attacks with his swords in his regular attack string, but also packs his vile sorcery for everything else.
• Making a Splash: The Legends exclusive Darkwater Scimitars lets Zant deal Water damage.
• Maniac Tongue: His helmet's design invokes this.
• Mask of Sanity: Mostly averted — Zant doesn't make much of an effort to conceal his lunacy in this particular game. If anything, the trope is partially inverted — while in Twilight Princess Zant had a cool and competent Evil Overlord facade that utterly broke when things went wrong, Hyrule Warriors Zant behaves like a raving lunatic more often, yet is much more competent and smart.
• Mêlée à Trois: When Cia first encounters him in Cia's Tale, he is busy fighting Midna. Cia uses this to her advantage and defeats Midna in an attempt to win him over, but Zant refused to join and Cia was forced to defeat him as well.
• Me's a Crowd: His Special Attack has him summon two Phantom Zants to assist him in battle, using them to toss a large ball of Twilight Magic, similar to Midna's Special attack.
• Mind over Matter: Some of Zant's attacks involve the use of his telekinesis.
• Mood-Swinger: Just like his home game, he possesses a veneer of calm but is liable to fly off the handle at any provocation.
• Mythology Gag:
  • His boss intro has him making the exact same erratic movements he did in the cutscene before the boss fight with him in Twilight Princess, and a majority of his attacks are taken directly from said boss fight.
  • His Level 1 weapon, the Usurper's Scimitars, also look almost exactly like the weapons he wielded during his boss fight. His Level 3 weapon, the Scimitars of Twilight, look like the sword that Zant used to revive the boss Stallord.
  • He, not Cia, is the enemy commander of the Twilight Map's Dark Ruler mission, one of the only maps released on the Wii U version which does not have Cia as the Dark Ruler enemy commander. The reason for this is of course because Zant was the main antagonist for most of Twilight Princess.
  • His character portraits have him in three distinct stages of unmasking, all of which appeared in Twilight Princess; full mask (most of that game), mouth exposed (post-Lakebed Temple), and fully unmasked (before and after his battle).
• My Rules Are Not Your Rules: Zant's Weak Point Gauge works quite differently than other captains. While most enemy captains expose their weak point after performing a special attack, the game applies the same rules to him that it does when he's playable, so Zant only exposes his weak point when he tires out. Thus, players must block Zant's attacks until he tires out. This is downplayed in Legends, where he does have some standard weak point windows at the end of his moves, but the tiring mechanic is still there and will create longer openings.
• Nerd in Evil's Helmet: While Zant is not nerdy, he's considerably less threatening without his helmet on.
• Non-Indicative Name: His Level 2 and Level 3 "Scimitars" aren't really scimitars at all. The Shadow Scimitars more resemble Wolverine Claws than swords, and the Scimitar of Twilight is a longsword that was previously used to power Stallord in Twilight Princess.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: In contrast to his appearance in Twilight Princess, where his ego got the better of him, Zant does not fool around in this game. He plans for every contingency and instantly comes up with counter-strategies if his original one fails.
• Nothing Up My Sleeve: He hides his scimitars in his sleeves when he uses magic.
• Obfuscating Insanity: In very stark contrast to his original appearance in Twilight Princess, where he presented himself as a calm and cold ruler until he found himself up shit's creek without a paddle and his madness shone through. In this game, he makes absolutely no effort to conceal his lunacy, yet is simultaneously far more competent than in his source game, making it easy to underestimate and dismiss him as nothing more than a raving madman and fail to notice his dangerously sharp mind until it's too late.
• Overheating: A part of Zant's moveset. You can extend his combo attacks by mashing the strong attack button when he's executing them, which also fills his Twilight gauge. However, if you don't stop pressing the button after the gauge is full and blinks red, Zant will mess up in some manner (tripping, falling off his totem pole, hurting his foot, etc), get stunned and left open to attacks, emptying out the gauge. When the gauge is partially filled or full, using his strong attack causes him to take off his mask and makes the gauge drain rapidly, allowing him to either do an extended Spin Attack that traps any non-giant enemies he hits with it into it or a ranged Spam Attack with balls of energy.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Underneath his calm facade, this is what he really is.
  Zant: Ow! Ouchies!
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Despite being an insane usurper, Zant is not afraid to lead by example. This is especially shown in the Palace of Twilight stage. For most of the stage, he guards the Gate of Souls and leads from the sidelines. Once Argorok is defeated, however, he decides to take a direct hand in the field. Ganondorf himself will chide him for this if he requests his help in battle, telling him that as a king in his own right he should be able to handle things himself.
  Zant: I'll lead you myself if I have to! Charge! Your king will show you how it's done!
• Reality Warper: Can change size, teleport, conjure portals, summon objects/weapons, etc.
• Rebuilt Pedestal: While he may have snapped Ganon's neck at the end of Twilight Princess, since the Demon King had no intention of reviving him, once Zant sees how Ganondorf really flaunts his power in person, his loyalty and admiration to him are revived.
  Zant: Now THIS is the power of a god!
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: His Scimitars are black with red twilight markings, and most of his magic is colored the same way.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: His helmet is shaped like a chameleon's head, his shoulder guards are decorated with snakes, and his shoes are designed to resemble crocodile heads.
• Screaming Warrior: Zant alternates between insane giggles and manic shrieks as he slashes his enemies.
• Secret Character: Unlocked through Adventure Mode, instead of Legend Mode.
• Shockwave Stomp: He throws tantrums and attacks with the stomps he does in the process; these are exaggerated when he makes himself gigantic.
• Sizeshifter: Zant is once again able to change size at will and will turn gigantic for either a stomping attack or a full body slam.
• Smarter Than You Look: Zant may be an insane psychopath, but he is far from incompetent.
• Smug Snake: Surprisingly downplayed in comparison to his debut appearance. In Twilight Princess, he held a megalomaniacal belief in his abilities despite being an Unwitting Pawn to Ganondorf. While he is still as confident as ever in this game, he also respects the strength of his opponents and even acknowledges that he can be defeated, as shown by two of his Adventure Mode quotes, which are surprisingly humble for someone like him.
  Zant: Someday I may fall, but it shall not be to you.
  Zant: You were strong... But it turns out I was far stronger.
• Spam Attack: As an alternative to his maskless Spin Attack, his ranged option is simply rapid-fire volleys of energy blasts. They're excellent at stun-locking opponents.
• Spectacular Spinning: Zant's boss intro, victory animation, and over half of his moveset has him doing some rapid spins and twirls.
• Spin Attack: His spin attack returns as both one of his maskless mode attacks and his Weak Point Smash, dizziness included. His Weak Point Smash even has him summoning a black tornado from a Twilight Portal to trap enemies.
• Squishy Wizard: To contrast Ghirahim's Lightning Bruiser, and a rare Magic Knight example. While he's not particularly slow, Zant's sword swings are slow and wide and focus more on area coverage, his real strength coming from using the right combo attack in the right situation, then making effective use of his maskless mode when his gauge is full. Proper usage will make Zant flow seamlessly from one attack/combo to another, stopping only when the enemy are all dead. Unfortunately, Zant is usually stationary (which makes him fairly vulnerable) when using a combo, and while he can dodge-cancel out of the combo attack that leaves him the most vulnerable, it does interrupt Zants flow. It doesn't help that overusing Zant's combo attacks can tire him out and leave him more vulnerable.
• The Strategist: He's Ganondorf's main tactician and usually the one giving him, and by extension the player, advice.
• Summon Magic: A staple of Zant's fighting style has him summoning various objects through Twilight Portals, similar to Midna.
• Sword Plant: Plants one of his Scimitars in the ground when activating Focus Spirit.
• Telephone Polearm: He summons a totem pole and tips it over as a combo finisher.
• Thinking Up Portals: Zant summons things through his Twilight Portals just like Midna.
• Undying Loyalty: As always, Zant remains loyal to Ganondorf to the bitter end, what with deeming him his god and all.
• Unskilled, but Strong: While not as bad as it was in Twilight Princess (see Adaptational Badass), the fact that he trips over and gets dizzy during some attacks shows that Zant's fighting style is still far from flawless.
• The Usurper: He stole the throne of the Twilight Realm when he was passed over for Midna.
• Villain Team-Up: He initially teams up with Cia's forces but later switches completely to Ganondorf's alongside Ghirahim. Considering he served as The Dragon to Ganondorf in Twilight Princess, this makes perfect sense.
• Weakened by the Light: As an enemy, Zant takes extra damage from Light-based weapons.
• We Can Rule Together: Cia offers this to him in Cia's Tale, but Zant flatly refused and had to be beaten into submission.
• Wolverine Claws: Played with. His Shadow Scimitars◊ are triple-bladed and somewhat resemble these.
• Would Hurt a Child: During the Palace of Twilight level, after Lana and Midna manage to chase Argorok away the first time, he orders the commandos to kidnap Agitha.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: As mentioned above, Zant can pull this off when he wants to, often coming up with good strategies, and he can improvise when they fail. However, when something arises that he has no control over, he has no way of dealing with it when it happens.
• You Got Guts: One of his quotes when facing him in Adventure Mode.
  Zant: You have guts to dare face me.

Ghirahim

Demon Lord

Weapon: Demon Blade

Voiced by: Anri Katsu

A vain and effeminate figure who reigns over the horde of demons that prowl the Surface World in the Era of the Sky. After his time is connected by the Gate of Souls, he aids Volga in his campaign to topple Skyloft and the Sealing Grounds, and is later summoned by Ganondorf to serve him as he served the previous Demon King, Demise.

In both the original Wii U version and in Legends, he is a playable villain that can be unlocked on the original Adventure Map in an area that unlocks after beating the Era of Skyloft in the main story.

Ghirahim wields the Demon Blade, a slender-bladed, almost rapier-like longsword. His default weapon, the Demon Tribe Sword, is quite minimalistic, becoming slightly curved as the Demon Longsword and then developing an ornate, curved, almost multi-bladed appearance as the True Demon Sword.

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• Agent Peacock: Very flamboyant and effeminate, but still very powerful.
• Airplane Arms: His dash animation.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes:
  • His Master Quest DLC pack / Master Quest Map outfit gives him a Red and Black and Evil All Over makeover, possibly based off of Demise's Sword.
  • His Twilight Princess DLC pack / Twilight Map outfit is the exact appearance he had during the second duel with him in Skyward Sword; sans cape, with cracks of his true self showing through his skin.
  • He gets Kamaro's Mask in the Majora's Mask DLC pack / Termina Map.
  • The Great Sea Map from Legends gives him the color scheme of Kalle Demos, a boss from The Wind Waker.
  • The Master Wind Waker DLC pack / Master Wind Waker Map for Legends gives him a color scheme based on the Helmaroc King.
  • The Link's Awakening DLC pack / Koholint Map for Legends gives him a color scheme based on Prince Richard, a cameo from For the Frog the Bell Tolls.
  • The A Link Between Worlds DLC pack for Legends gives him a color scheme based on Osfala, one of that game's Seven Sages.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: His is the personification of Demise's sword.
• Ax-Crazy: Would we recognize Ghirahim any other way?
• Badass Fingersnap: How he activates his magic, much like his home game. He also opens treasure chests in the same way.
• Bad Boss: Subtle, but as one of his many comparisons to Fi, Ghirahim's common-drop item for badges are Moblin flanks, which means that to get skills, you'd have to have him kill his own men. Considering this is the same guy who sent an army after his era's version of Link just to get them to throw themselves on his sword to slow him down, it's fitting.
• Barrier Warrior: One of his attacks has him summon the platform he uses in his "Endless Plunge" attack before he snaps his enemies upwards into it, another is to summon a circle of barrier diamonds around himself only to make them explode, and his special attack has him ensnaring enemies in a barrier to bombard them with a Storm of Blades before finishing them off with his BFS.
• Beware the Silly Ones: He's got all the Camp he did in his original appearance, along with the blood lust, magical prowess, and the finesse with his sword.
• Bright Is Not Good: Girahim wears a good deal of red and yellow, but he's definitely a bad guy.
• Blood Knight: Wouldn't be Ghirahim without it.
• Casting a Shadow: Much like Fi, he can enhance himself with magic, though his magic is much darker in comparison. It's also his Demon Blade's element (Darkness).
• Chrome Champion: He can shift to his Sword Spirit form in battle with Focus Spirit activated.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Not in the main story, but several of the Adventure Mode missions on the base Adventure Map seem to involve him starting out as an ally, then turning traitor not even a minute in, with little to no warning.
• Co-Dragons: He and Zant play this role to Ganondorf in the latter half of Story Mode.
• Cool Sword: He wields his fencing saber as a main weapon, then in tandem with his straight sword as well as alongside his greatsword, just like in Skyward Sword. He can also transform into his weapon form like Fi.
• Dark Is Evil: When he goes into his Chrome Champion form.
• Death from Above: One of his attacks has him rising in the air on a platform before leaping off to punch the ground with his fists powered by dark energy. His Weak Point Smash has him teleporting into the air before slamming the ground with his broadsword.
• Downloadable Content:
  • His Master Quest DLC pack outfit gives him a Red and Black and Evil All Over makeover, possibly based off of Demise's Sword. This pack also lets him find and wield the 8-Bit Wooden Arrow as a makeshift blade.
  • His Twilight Princess DLC pack outfit is the exact appearance he had during the second duel with him in Skyward Sword; sans cape, with cracks of his true self showing through his skin.
  • He gets Kamaro's Mask in the Majora's Mask DLC pack.
  • The Master Wind Waker DLC pack for Legends gives him a color scheme based on the Helmaroc King.
  • The Link's Awakening DLC pack for Legends gives him a color scheme based on Prince Richard, a cameo from For the Frog the Bell Tolls.
  • The Phantom Hourglass & Spirit Tracks DLC pack for Legends gives him a version of the True Demon Blade called Darkfire Demon Blade, with which he can deal Fire damage in addition to Darkness damage.
  • The A Link Between Worlds DLC pack for Legends gives him a color scheme based on Osfala, one of that game's Seven Sages.
• Dual Boss: The penultimate main stage in Legend Mode has you fighting both him and Zant in the Gerudo Desert.
• Elemental Weapon: His Demon Blade is a Darkness-based weapon.
• Evil Counterpart: To Fi, being the personification of the demonic equivalent of the Master Sword. It's actually even highlighted by the names of their main weapon variations. Their first-level variations are called the Goddess/Demon Tribe Sword, the second level-variations are called Goddess/Demon Longsword, and finally the third-level ones are called True Goddess/Demon Blade, respectively. Even their 8-bit and lv. 4+ weapons contrast each other, with Ghirahim getting the wooden arrow and darkfire demon blade as opposed to Fi’s silver arrow and liquid goddess blade.
• Excessive Evil Eyeshadow: Guyliner edition.
• Face–Heel Turn: In the base Adventure Map stages where the mission is "Defeat all the giant bosses", if Ghirahim is initially an ally to you, he will defect and become a hindrance.
• Fangs Are Evil: When in Chrome Champion form.
• Faux Affably Evil: Acts like the consummate gentleman at first glance, but it's all an act, and one that falls apart quickly when he loses his temper. Volga lampshades this in Cia's Tale, warning Cia not to trust him since his compliment to her upon joining her army rings hollow.
• The Fighting Narcissist: The major drawback to playing as him, in payoff for his relative power, speed, and the range on his basic attack string, each of his finishers has him strike a pose, laugh, or otherwise show off before the attacks connect or after they hit, leaving him wide open. However, most of them can be cancelled by evading while he poses.
• Flaming Devil: He is still as camp as can be.
• Flash Step: He can do short distance warps to attack from different angles.
• Flechette Storm: Firing torrents of diamond shaped knives is one of his specialties.
• Flying Weapon: He doesn't need Demise to get the job done. Of course, he has experience doing this with knives.
• Foil: To Volga: Both are fierce warriors whose true form is a far cry from the humanoid appearances they take, demonstrate exemplary skills with their weapon of choice, take pleasure in fighting strong enemies, and who serves as a champion to their respective leaders. But whereas Volga was brainwashed into servitude and is more direct no-nonsense and to the point when he fights, Ghirahim is far more flamboyant in his fighting style (to the point where it can be a detriment) and willingly gives his all for his master, and while Volga commands the respect and is an overall good leader to his Lizalfos/Dinolfos associates, Ghirahim by contrast treats his subordinates poorly. That said, while his tactical genius is nowhere near Zant's, he is able to come up with some good plans and tactics on his own and knows not to immediately pick a fight and submit to his instincts, unlike Volga (well, after Volga got brainwashed, in any case).
• Force and Finesse: He is the finesse to Zant's Force.
• Ground Punch: After lifting himself up on his Endless Plunge platform, he dives down with a magically charged pound.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Do you have any idea how it makes him feel inside? Furious! Outraged! Sick with Anger!
• Happy Dance: He breaks out his bizarre dance moves again, and once again they are used in a ritual to awaken Demise (or, rather, The Imprisoned in this case).
• High Collar of Doom: When wearing his cape.
• Hypocritical Humor: In Skyloft, he chastises Volga for his arrogance. This coming from someone who exudes egotism.
• Large Ham: In both voice and behavior, he goes beyond being hammy and into outright Camp.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Ghirahim's nature as a Living Weapon, his ties to Demise, and his Chrome Champion form are never revealed until the very end of Skyward Sword, but in Hyrule Warriors, these facts are some of the first things you'll hear about him.
• Laughably Evil: By far the most comical villain.
• Lethal Joke Weapon: The Master Quest DLC pack gives the 8-bit Wooden Arrow from the original Legend of Zelda for Ghirahim to fight with like a blade.
• Licking the Blade: Ghirahim will occasionally lick his blade after defeating enemies.
• Light Is Not Good: His albino skin and white clothing contrast his villainous nature.
• Lightning Bruiser: Especially when using Focus Spirit, which pretty much makes him the fastest character in the game next to Sheik. The main drawback to him is that while he also has effective long-range attacks which is rare for a Lightning Bruiser, he has a tendency to pose, show off, or otherwise leave himself vulnerable after (or sometimes before) an attack.
• Living Weapon: His true nature as Fi's Evil Counterpart is Demise's sword.
• Magical Gesture: Some of his spells activate by his over-dramatic flailing, while others are triggered by a Badass Finger Snap.
• Magic Knight: His magic being more focused on conjuring weapons than conjuring energy.
• Maniac Tongue: He once again has his infamous gesture of randomly spastically sticking out his tongue.
• Mind Control: He manages to hypnotize several of the Hyrulean Forces during the Sealed Grounds level.
• Mind over Matter: One of his attacks is to psychically lift up enemies and slam them into a magically-generated ceiling panel.
  • It's easy to miss, but his chest-opening animation has him flick up the lid without even touching it.
• Multi-Melee Master: He wields three different types of sword, four if you count himself.
• Mythology Gag:
  • One of his attacks has him bind an enemy to him with a red string of energy. In Skyward Sword, he mentions twice how he and Link are connected by a Red String of Fate.
  • If he retreats without being defeated (i.e. being the 'incorrect' answer in an Adventure Mode quiz), he sweeps his blade in a circle before vanishing, as he did after his first two boss fights in Skyward Sword.
• No Biological Sex: Though he is usually referred to as male.
• No Brows: Definitely to invoke the unsettling look.
• No Flow in CGI: His coat is rather static.
• No Sense of Personal Space: Much like in his original game, he likes teleporting right next to people to taunt them: this is shown in his intro cutscene, where the camera struggles to keep up with him before he teleports right in front of it and brandishes his tongue at it.
• Overly-Long Tongue: Because some things never change, Ghirahim seems incapable of keeping that tongue in his mouth.
• Pimped-Out Cape: This time, he keeps it on in battle rather than taking it off (his Twilight Princess DLC pack / Twilight Map outfit lets him do so).
• Playing with Fire: The Legends exclusive Darkfire Demon Blade lets Ghirahim deal Fire-based damage.
• Reverse Grip: He holds his sword like this during his dash animation.
• Secret Character: Unlocked through Adventure Mode, instead of Legend Mode.
• Shapeshifter Weapon: Of course, it's part of his true nature as a Living Weapon.
• Sissy Villain: If he could be described with just one word, it would certainly be fabulous. That said, he is far from harmless.
• Spontaneous Weapon Creation: He summons evil swords and knives as part of his fighting style.
• Storm of Blades: He has picked up the ability to fire his sabers as well as his knives, used in his Special Attack.
• Summon Magic: He can summon enemies as well as weapons.
• Super Mode: While all playable characters can use Focus Spirit, his deserves special mention, as while other characters (excepted Young Link) are simply wreathed in a Battle Aura, he turns into his Chrome Champion form (like with Young Link turning into Fierce Deity Link).
• Sword Beam: Can fire his evil version of the Skyward Strike as a ranged attack.
• Sword Plant: When transformed into his weapon form, he can do this to summon a torrent of black diamonds.
• Symbol Motif Clothing: His clothes bear diamond-shaped cutouts, a recurring motif in his magic.
• Teleport Spam: Like in his home game, Ghirahim can teleport and will do so rapidly to attack from different angles.
• Undying Loyalty:
  • To Ganondorf, whom he recognizes as Demise's successor.
  • He also initially swears loyalty to Cia rather easily after being defeated during Cia's attack on Skyloft in her story. However, he only did so because he sensed his master's presence within her.
• Villain Team-Up: He initially teams up with Cia's forces, but later switches completely to Ganondorf's alongside Zant. Considering that Ganondorf is the reincarnation of his master Demise (as stated by the Hyrule Historia), it makes sense.
• Weakened by the Light: As an enemy, Ghirahim takes extra damage from Light-based weapons.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Has white hair and is an evil demon.
• You Remind Me of X: Ghirahim mentions that Ganondorf reminds him of a previous Demon King he served, which makes sense given that Ganondorf is Demise's reincarnation.
  Ghirahim: Ganondorf reminds me of my lord, Demise... May his reign never cease!
• You Will Not Evade Me: Ghirahim has a special feature that creates a red thread of energy to latch on to a nearby enemy. While active, the attack button is replaced by a Flechette Storm, and all of his combo finishers summon blades from the ground that hit the linked enemy wherever they are.

Ganondorf

The Demon King

Weapons: Great Swords, Trident (Legends)

Voiced by: Taiten Kusunoki

The wicked King of the Gerudo Tribe and the real bearer of the Triforce of Power. Existing as an entity of evil in human form, he appears with the goal of uniting the Triforce and using its power to dominate the world.

In the original Wii U version, he is a playable villain, and the only villain (and last character) unlocked through Legend Mode, achieved by beating the last scenario of the Epilogue. In Legends, he is unlocked in the same manner but is far from the last character (or villain) unlocked this time around.

Ganondorf is the only member of the Dark Forces to have two choices of weapon load-out. His default weapons are the Great Swords; two huge blades that he uses in either hand, upgrading between the Swords of Despair, Darkness and Demise, getting increasingly brutish with each transformation. His alternate weapon, introduced in Legends and available for purchase in the Wii U version, is the Trident, upgrading from the fairly simple Thief's Trident to the ornate, golden-bladed King of Evil Trident and then to the viciously barbed Trident of Demise.

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• Ambiguously Brown: Per his iconic depiction, he has skin that appears to be somewhere between a shade of brown to grayish green. This changes somewhat depending on which costume he is equipped with; for example, in his Great Sea costume, he develops black-gray skin.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes:
  • Through certain DLC, Ganondorf can be played as his depiction from either Ocarina of Time or Twilight Princess. Those have to be unlocked instead in Legends.
  • His Master Quest DLC pack / Master Quest Map outfit colors his armor black, red, and brown in a way that might be based on his Wind Waker design.
  • His Twilight Princess DLC pack / Twilight Map outfit gives him completely black and silver armor, as well as grey skin and bright-orange hair, to give him an even more striking resemblance to Demise.
  • Oddly enough, he gets Odolwa's Remains as his Majora's Mask DLC pack / Termina Map costume. Possibly in reference to his Dual Wielding and savage fighting style.
  • The Boss Pack DLC in the original game gives him an outfit who's colors are most likely based on either Gohma or a Cucco. This outfit is instead unlocked through the Rewards Map mission "Rulers of Twilight" in Legends.
  • In the Great Sea Map in Legends, he can get the color scheme of Wind Waker's version of Phantom Ganon.
  • His Toon Ganondorf appearance from Wind Waker is available as a Season Pass DLC for Legends, albeit redesigned to match the art style and body type he has in this game rather than the toon design it had in Wind Waker.
  • The Link's Awakening DLC pack / Koholint Map for Legends gives him a color scheme that colors him and his armor mostly green, but with a white chestplate and yellow and red jewelry, making him resemble Mamu, an NPC from that game (and who is better known as Wart, the main villain from Super Mario Bros. 2 or Doki Doki Panic).
  • The Phantom Hourglass & Spirit Tracks DLC pack / Grand Travels Map for Legends gives him Malladus's colors.
  • The A Link Between Worlds DLC pack / Lorule Map for Legends gives him Yuga Ganon's colors.
• Alternate Self: His Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess forms are available as DLC skins (given for free to Club Nintendo members who registered their copy of the game during the month it was released, then made available as paid DLC later), and the silhouette of the former can be seen when Cia's backstory is being discussed. His Wind Waker robes are later available as a pre-order bonus for the Legends DLC Season Pass.
• Animal Battle Aura: He can manifest a staticy black aura in the shape of Ganon.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Even moreso than Volga. Over half of his quotes in Adventure Mode are pretty much him saying how awesome he is and how much his opponents suck. That being said, he's got the power to back his words up.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Upon being revived by Cia, Ganondorf's first order of business is to amass an army to attack Hyrule and seize the Triforce for himself. How does he amass said army? By heading to the Gerudo Desert where all the world's monsters are and singlehandedly defeating their three biggest and strongest monsters.
• Badass Armfold: In his victory animation with the Great Swords.
• Badass Boast: One that's surprisingly meta.
  Ganondorf: The hero... I've outlived more "heroes" than you could imagine!
• Badass Cape: Sports one if the player uses him in his Twilight Princess appearance.
• Badass Longcoat: Wears one underneath his armor. The effect imitates the sash that Demise wears.
• The Bad Guy Wins: And you help him do it. Thankfully for Hyrule, it doesn't stick.
• Barbarian Longhair: He has a rockin' mullet in this game.
• Battle Aura: He can wreath himself in red-and-black energy, and manipulates it as a weapon for several of his combo attacks with the Great Swords.
• Battle Theme Music: "Eclipse of the World" whenever you face him as a boss in Adventure Mode. It's also the music for the final level in Legend Mode, where you and Ganondorf face each other for the fate of the world. Despite that, it's not always played when you face him, though that works to his favor as he is used as the enemy commander for every single Dark Ruler mission in Legends, some of which can't have his theme play due to the mission type.
• Beard of Evil: Has a wicked beard much like his Wind Waker and Twilight Princess incarnations.
• Benevolent Boss: Played with. Ganondorf may be a manipulative, cruel, and depraved tyrant, but he won't hesitate to rescue his minions if they are in a pinch, as Zant and Ghirahim can attest to. Though to be fair, it helps that he's confident of their complete and utter loyalty, being the sworn master of one and worshiped god of another. That doesn't stop him from being more than a bit annoyed and throwing out insults when he does have to rescue them, however.
• BFS: He carries two swords with him that are almost as big as he is, and when you consider how big he is, that's damn huge. The silhouette of his Ocarina of Time self shown in a couple of cutscenes is holding the greatsword from the SpaceWorld 2000 tech demo and Super Smash Bros. Melee.
• Big Bad: What did you expect? He is the franchise's main Big Bad.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: Those eyebrows of his are quite thick and even connect to his hair.
• Blade Spam: He just doesn't stop swinging those swords. This is most apparent in his second charge attack, which involves first sending any enemies in front of him into the air and then slashing them repeatedly with both swords for up to 5 seconds at a time if you keep mashing the button.
• Bling of War: Ganondorf's outfits across the series usually consist of a lot of brown and black colors, sometimes with pale gold or beige accents. His armor this time around is rich indigo with gleaming gold details and a pair of jeweled gold gauntlets.
• Blood Knight: Though a more subdued one than Volga.
  Ganondorf: This resistance was pitiful. Oh well. Not every battle can be one worth retelling.
• Bolt of Divine Retribution:
  • Played with. Being the Physical God that he is, it shouldn't come as a surprise that he can use his Trident as a lightning rod at the end of one of his combos.
  • Also, in the final level of Legend Mode, him summoning these to attack your forces is a gameplay mechanic you have to overcome.
• Card-Carrying Villain: He's pure evil to the core and proud of it.
  Ganondorf: I am Ganondorf, the Demon King. Don't take that title lightly.
• Casting a Shadow: He has several attacks that involve using his powerful dark magic, and it's (unsurprisingly) the element of his Great Swords. He can still use dark magic with the Trident he gets in Legends, but favors mostly electricity attacks for that weapon.
• Charged Attack: A gameplay mechanic in his Great Swords moveset gives Ganondorf a special power meter that allows him to charge up his combo finishers for extra damage. When his swords are glowing, the meter is full. Fully charged, his finishers can instantly clear Keeps. Using his Ground Punch attack depletes the meter.
• The Chessmaster: The entire game was Ganon using Cia to help recover his power and take the Triforce for himself.
• Close-Range Combatant: Ganondorf is decidedly this when wielding the Trident, most of it's combo options are designed to put him in the fray of things, and his only "pure" projectile move is at the end of his regular attack string.
• Composite Character: This Ganondorf takes cues from several sources. He shares his size and body shape with his point of origin, Demise, and takes his face and armor design from his depiction in Twilight Princess with the skin and hair coloration of his future self from Ocarina of Time. His hairstyle appears to be a combination of both Demise's and his Ganon form's in Twilight Princess. The first level variation of his main sword is a composite of the SpaceWorld 2000 demoSuper Smash Bros. Melee sword (rounded tip) and Demise's Anti-Master Sword (large spikes on the sides, black color), and his final variation is outright called the "Swords of Demise". His Dual Wielding is reminiscent of his battles in Ocarina of Time (as Ganon) and Wind Waker. Lastly, him using the trident incorporates his One-Winged Angel form, Ganon, whilst its final form is also named after Demise.
• Cool Crown: He has a very fancy tiara, much like the one he wore in Twilight Princess.
• The Corrupter: He split Cia into her good and evil halves.
• Cosmic Keystone: He is the bearer of the Triforce of Power, which he has come to consider his right to wield.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: His first playable scenario has him deliver one of these to Gerudo Desert. Blue team - Ganondorf, Ghirahim, Zant. No Mooks, no other allies (at least not to start). Red team - at minimum, three thousand five hundred Bulblins, fifteen Lizalfos, nine Aeralfos, King Dodongo, Gohma, Manhandla. Green team - an imprisoned assortment of Darknuts and Stalchildren, who may end up joining either red or blue. It is not only possible but easy to miss the Skulltula that appears after 1000 KOs by virtue of racking them up before the area it is located in has become accessible.
• Dark Is Evil: Would we recognize Ganon without it?
• Deadpan Snarker: Surprisingly, this Ganondorf has several moments of wry sarcasm. A good example is his reaction to Impa using copies of herself to distract him.
  Ganondorf: A double? Heh. You act as if I've never used that trick myself.
• Demon of Human Origin: If his "Demon King" moniker is actually accurate to his current state instead of being a badass title, he's turned from being a mere Sorcerous Overlord into a full-blown Humanoid Abomination.
• Devil Complex: While past incarnations of Ganondorf have been hinted have this behind their talks of godhood, this incarnation fully embraces the demon in Demon King. On the battlefield, he taunts his enemies that he has outlived many generations of heroes and that his title shouldn't be taken lightly.
• Devil's Pitchfork: Initially only wielding it as Ganon in the Ganon's Fury DLC, Legends grants him a Trident as a full alternate weapon, which is transferable to the Wii U version or purchasable separately alongside the characters introduced in Legends. The trident he wields as Ganon additionally appears as his Level 2 King of Evil Trident as Ganondorf.
• Difficult, but Awesome: His Great Swords' combo finishers have a fairly high start-up time, but spacing his attacks and using them right lets you combo enemy officers or zone them out, clear out hordes of enemies or keeps with one combo finisher, as well as deal with groups of officers. The 1.5 Wii U update made him less difficult to use, as many of his charge attacks are now faster or have additional properties that make them safer.
  • It's much more noticeable with the Trident in Legends, as the Trident has faster, but less effective attacks in contrast with the Great Swords' slower, but stronger attacks.
• Downloadable Content:
  • Through certain DLC for the Wii U version, Ganondorf can be played as his depiction from either Ocarina of Time or Twilight Princess.
  • His Master Quest DLC pack outfit colors his armor black, red, and brown in a way that might be based on his Wind Waker design.
  • His Twilight Princess DLC pack outfit gives him completely black and silver armor, as well as grey skin and bright-orange hair, to give him an even more striking resemblance to Demise. This pack also lets him find and get his Joke Weapon Great Swords: The 8-Bit Magical Keys.
  • Oddly enough, he gets Odolwa's Remains as his Majora's Mask DLC pack costume. Possibly in reference to his Dual Wielding and savage fighting style.
  • The Boss Pack DLC gives him an outfit who's colors are most likely based on either Gohma or a Cucco.
  • His Toon Ganondorf appearance from Wind Waker is available as a Season Pass DLC for Legends only.
  • The Link's Awakening DLC pack for Legends gives him a color scheme that colors him and his armor mostly green, but with a white chestplate and yellow and red jewelry, making him resemble Mamu, an NPC from that game (and who is better known as Wart, the main villain from Super Mario Bros 2 or Doki Doki Panic).
  • The Phantom Hourglass & Spirit Tracks DLC pack for Legends gives him Malladus's colors. This pack also gives him a version of the Trident of Demise called Burning Trident, with which he can deal Fire damage in addition to Lightning damage.
  • The A Link Between Worlds DLC pack for Legends gives him Yuga Ganon's colors. This pack also gives him a version of the Swords of Demise called Swords of Renewal, with which he can deal Light damage in addition to Darkness damage.
• The Dreaded: Even moreso than Volga. When he shows up at the Temple of Souls to take the Triforce, both Zelda and Cia react with an Oh, Crap! and Zelda in particular orders an immediate retreat. Keep in mind that he wasn't even at full power that time.
• Dual Boss: The Reward Map mission based on the "Chosen by Fate" illustration has you face him and Ganon, his monstrous form at the same time.
• Dual Wielding: He actually brandishes two BFS's, one of which distinctly resembles Ghirahim's sword form.
• Elemental Punch: His Great Swords moveset has him do more of an elemental claw swipe as his Weak Point Smash on officers and also has a shadow-charged Ground Punch as his normal Strong Attack. His Trident makes use of this far more often in his combo attacks.
• Elemental Weapon: His Great Swords are Darkness-based weapons while his Trident is a Lightning-based weapon.
• Energy Ball: He has a few energy attacks based on the ones he used in Ocarina of Time. One attack has him creating a large ball of dark energy and then punching it to damage enemies with the explosion. With his Trident, he has a few Lightning balls he can throw classic Tennis Boss style.
• Evil Is Bigger: He dwarfs Link and the rest of the heroes.
• Evil Laugh: He loves to let out a menacing chuckle after every few actions.
• Evil Redhead: As always, being an evil Gerudo.
• Evil Weapon: His Great Swords are said to be brimming with dark power, but special mention goes to his Level 3 Swords of Demise◊, which look like even spikier, almost organic looking versions of Ghirahim's sword form.
• Faux Affably Evil: Almost bordering on Affably Evil. While he's still as violent and bloodthirsty as ever, Ganondorf also begrudgingly, but genuinely respects the strength of his opponents, and he's willing to support his underlings and listen to them when they have good ideas. That doesn't stop him from throwing out snappy one-liners at both ally and enemy alike, however.
• Fighting Spirit: Can manifest a staticky black Battle Aura in the shape of Ganon to attack enemies.
• Final Boss: Of Cia's story. Ganondorf is also used as the enemy commander for the Dark Ruler mission of all five of the Adventure Maps introduced in Legends where the aim is to seek out a boss key to open his base, then defeat him and Ganon to complete the map.
• Fisher King: Obtaining the complete Triforce allows Ganondorf to reshape the world however he wishes. As such, Hyrule becomes every bit as twisted and monstrous as he is. When Link and co. defeat him for good, Hyrule is restored to normal.
• Flash Step: One of his moves while wielding the Trident is to throw it and then quickly dash forward to catch it, much like in A Link to the Past.
• Force and Finesse: He serves as the force to Ghirahim's finesse. Whereas Ghirahim is graceful and fluid with his movements, Ganondorf's swordplay is far less flashy and essentially boils down to "savagely hack the enemy to death". That said, given his sheer raw power, it's all he really needs.
• Full-Contact Magic: A large part of his Great Swords moveset as a showcase of his downright inhuman and supernatural abilities:
  • The first part of his second combo finisher has him stab the ground with his swords in order to launch a shokwave that acts as the part that damages and launches enemies in prearation for his sword slashes.
  • His third combo finisher involve him charging a huge, explosive Energy Ball over his head, then do an uppercut slash to fire it forwards.
  • His fourth combo finisher makes him create a dark barrier around himself using wide sword slashes all around him before detonating it.
  • His second-to-last combo finisher has him charge up a huge Energy Ball over his head, then punch it to split it into an arc of energy bullets.
  • His last combo finisher covers him in a dark Ganon-esque aura that swipes enemies away with an enormous dark hand, creating an extreme invisible (dark-elemental) shockwave around and in front of the monstrosity. The ending animation for this attack reveals Ganondorf as he's finished a similiar hand swipe, implying that Ganondorf himself had to go through the motions of the shadow form in order to execute the shockwaves.
  • His first combo finisher and special move has him rise up and punch the ground to create an explosion of dark magic. The overall range and power depends on how much dark magic Ganondorf has charged through his other combo finishers.
  • His Special Attack has him call down bolts of lightning into his sword (and in front of him), then fire it forward as a lightning beam through a wide sword slash.
  • Finally, his passive Focus Spirit finisher has him rise up with both fists charged with dark magic, then slam them into the ground to create a giant nova of powerful dark magic.
• Genius Bruiser: The mind to manipulate and the muscles and magic to intimidate.
• Giant Hands of Doom:
  • His Weak Point Smash with the Great Swords has him turn his right arm into a large shadowy claw to slash at enemies.
  • His last combo finisher for the Great Swords lets him summon a huge claw of black smokey Battle Aura that sweeps around in a circle, capable of clearing a base in one shot.
  • His Focus Spirit Special Attack with the Great Swords summons two Battle Aura claws that tear up everything before him.
  • He uses sometimes this while punching enemies with the Trident.
• Greater-Scope Villain: He's behind the 'darkness' that took over the Observer of Time and corrupted her badly enough to get her split into Cia and Lana. All for the sake of using Cia as his puppet to unseal all pieces of his soul to regain his body and power, so he can take over Hyrule and gain the power of the Triforce again.
• Ground Punch:
  • His basic Strong Attack is one. If he's built up his meter with combo attacks, it can be a huge blast capable of clearing bases.
  • His Focus Spirit Finisher has him levitate into the air and charge up before dealing a massive double-handed diving gorilla-like ground slam.
• Ground-Shattering Landing: Most of his attacks when wielding the Trident that cause him to jump into the air will invariably result in this, along with his Focus Spirit manual finisher.
• Hates Small Talk:
  • Ganondorf is all business on the battlefield, so don't expect some conversation from him. Especially shown in one of his quotes when rescuing someone in Adventure Mode.
    Ganondorf: Don't waste time with pleasantries when there are enemies to slay!
  • And if one of the characters congratulates him for killing 1000 enemies:
    Ganondorf: Hmph. Flattery will do you no good.
• Hellish Horse: He rides his signature Gerudo stallion in his intro. Sadly, it's nowhere as "hellish" as it was in Ocarina of Time or Twilight Princess, instead being nothing more than a palette swap of Epona.
• Hijacked by Ganon: As if there was any doubt. It's revealed that he is directly responsible for Cia's corruption, and was using her to unlock the seals that were keeping his power locked away. As such, once Cia has been dealt with, he becomes the True Final Boss of the game per tradition. For some added fun, you actually get to play as him as he performs the hijacking.
• Hunk: His design, particularly the wild hair, probably makes him the most ruggedly handsome incarnation yet of the King of Darkness.
• Javelin Thrower: Since he can call back his Trident on command, a large number of his moves when wielding it involve this: he throws it at the enemies at the end of his normal combo, uses it to conduct lightning into his enemy at end of his giant boss Weak Point Smash and special attack and throws it at the enemy first before performing a followup attack afterwards at end of one of his combo finishers and basic strong attack.
• Klingon Promotion: To amass himself an army, he assaults the colony of rogue monsters living in the Gerudo Desert, slays their leaders, and appoints himself as their master.
• Large and in Charge: As per usual, Ganondorf is a very large man. He even towers over Elite Mooks!
• Large Ham: Par for the course for him. Though it's heavily toned down in comparison to his other incarnations, making him more resemble his Twilight Princess counterpart.
• Leaking Can of Evil: In spite of being sealed, Ganondorf's malice possessed and corrupted Cia and separated her in two.
• Lethal Joke Weapon: The Twilight Princess DLC pack gives the 8-bit Key and Magic Key from the original Legend of Zelda for Ganondorf to wield like swords as if he was a Keyblade master.
• Light 'em Up: The Legends exclusive Swords of Renewal lets Ganondorf deal Light-based damage.
  • Light Is Not Good: This makes him the only villain character in the game to have a Light-elemental weapon in Legends.
• Lightning Bruiser: In the same vein as Demise. Despite being a massive guy with massive swords or a big trident, his attacks are fast and frantic. He fits this more when using the Trident than when he's using the Great Swords though.
• Long-Range Fighter: Not to the extent of other long-range fighters, but the Great Swords' combo finishers tend to have quite the range to them, and many will knock back enemies, which is good since efficient play requires Ganondorf to space his attacks and make room between himself and enemies when using this moveset. He is also capable of using his Energy Ball to zone out single officers if little to no enemy mooks are in the way, and this can take even enemy characters' HP down from full to 0 with very little effort required from Ganondorf's part. That's not to say he doesn't have effective close range options either of course, but the moveset does encourage Ganondorf to keep his distance unless he's up against mooks or doing a combo.
• Loves the Sound of Screaming: In a very subdued way, though.
  Ganondorf: Those anguished screams... I can't help but find some satisfaction in them...
• Made of Evil: Thanks to Hyrule's prior method of defeating him, he has transcended physical mortality to become this, no longer needing the Triforce of Power to stick around. Not that he doesn't want it back, mind you.
• Magic Knight: He combines his Black Magic with gigantic swords or a trident.
• The Man Behind the Man: Well, Behind the Woman: He's implied to be the "dark force" responsible for corrupting Cia. And he is, in true Zelda fashion.
• Manly Facial Hair: Has his Twilight Princess beard which complements his long mane of a hair. And he's the most manly of all his incarnations, wielding two massive swords and personally leading his armies to conquer Hyrule, cowing the other villains and bosses to submission.
• Maou the Demon King: His title is "Demon King" rather than Dark Lord or King of Evil this time around. And he lives up to the title by conquering armies of monsters on his own, recruiting several past villains to his cause, and being the greatest threat on a multi-dimensional scale.
• Master of All: When using the Great Swords, he's statistically at least above-average in all categories, most notably in power.
• Mighty Glacier: Downplayed with the Great Swords moveset. While almost all of its combo finishers deal heavy damage with long wind-ups, the first few hits of his weak attack string are fairly quick to compensate, and he has a reasonably fast launcher in his dodge-canceled C2 as well.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • In his trailer, after mercilessly slaughtering countless enemies in a terrifying display of power, the end of the trailer has him... kicking open a treasure chest and finding a Heart Container, complete with the classic Item Get! pose. The smile he gives while doing so is quite jarring.
  • A little over halfway through the story, the Hylian forces have had a major victory against Cia, there's been a Big Damn Heroes moment where the others save Link from Dark Link, and all the heroes from the other ages have had their heartfelt departure. Then Ganondorf arrives out of absolutely nowhere and everything goes to hell in minutes.
• Mythology Gag:
  • In the cutscene where Cia's backstory is revealed, a silhouette of the Ganondorf from Ocarina of Time can be seen holding the sword he had in the SpaceWorld 2000 GameCube Tech Demo and Super Smash Bros. Melee.
  • For this game's design, Ganondorf has a body and long hair similar to Demise from Skyward Sword. Fitting, as he is Demise's reincarnation according to the Hyrule Historia. The long hair is also similar to the mane on the Twilight Princess version of Ganon, and he dual-wields like his incarnation in Wind Waker.
  • His pose in his official artwork is very similar to his pose in◊ Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
  • One of his combo finishers is a backhanded punch, nearly identical to his Warlock Punch special from Super Smash Bros Brawl. It essentially combines the Dead Man's Volley with the Warlock Punch.
  • The Level 3 variation of his Great Swords weapon set is literally called Swords of Demise.
  • Ganondorf's Special Attack, usable when he fills is Special Gauge, involves him raising his sword to the sky and summoning lightning bolts. Demise does something similar when you battle him in Skyward Sword.
  • Some of his trident attacks have him use his fists, coated with darkness, similiar to how he usually fights in the Super Smash Bros. series.
• Near-Villain Victory: This is probably the most successful incarnation of Ganondorf in the series. He lays waste to Hyrule, defeats Lana, Impa, Link, and Zelda - the latter two at the same time - and takes all three pieces of the Triforce for himself. It's only because he made a small mistake that the heroes even stand a chance. And you play as him as he takes over.
• Never My Fault: If he ever finds himself in danger of being defeated by enemies, he usually blames it on the incompetence of his allies before anything else.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: He tries to come back early with only three of the fragments of his soul and take the Triforce from Cia, forcing her to relinquish the pieces of Wisdom and Courage to Link and Zelda before sealing him, leading to her eventual defeat. Though defeating her worked in his favor anyways.
• One-Handed Zweihänder: And one in each hand at that!
• One-Winged Angel: He transforms into Ganon for the final showdown.
• Partial Transformation: His Weak Point Smash has him transform one arm into a massive, shadowy, furred claw and slash opponents.
• Physical God: Being the bearer of the Triforce of Power, the reincarnation of Demise, and now 100% Made of Evil makes him this. Then he obtains the complete Triforce.
• Playing with Fire: The Legends exclusive Burning Trident lets Ganondorf deal Fire-based damage.
• Power Floats: In his boss intro, complete with requisite Evil Laugh.
• Pragmatic Villainy: The reason he's such a Benevolent Boss to his subordinates. Unlike Cia, who constantly berates her subordinates, uses violence and mind control to keep them in line, and only listens to their advice when it suits her, Ganondorf shows them begrudging respect and listens to their advice, even complimenting them should their plans work. Thus, his subordinates are more loyal and more willing to work for him.
• Precision-Guided Boomerang: He is liable to throw his Trident at enemies like in boss fights with classic Ganon. Of course, you can hit enemies with the Boomerang Comeback.
• Psycho Electro: Downplayed; he does have Shock and Awe powers, and he is the King of Evil.
• Reincarnation: Ganondorf is the reincarnation of Demise from Skyward Sword as per the Hyrule Historia. This is alluded to in-game by Ghirahim once or twice in-game: The first is during the beginning of Ganondorf's takeover of Hyrule, wherein he notes that Ganondorf reminds him of Demise. Ghirahim also alludes to this during Cia's attack on Skyloft in Cia's Tale, wherein he senses a familiar presence within her — which so happens to be Ganondorf.
• Satanic Archetype: Can be seen as this to Hyrule. Cemented with the Trident he gets in Legends.
• Sealed Evil in a Six Pack: Prior to the game, a hero managed to defeat him and then split his spirit into four pieces, scattering three of them across space-time. Ganon, however, managed to corrupt Cia with his dark energy, taking control of her so he could recover his power. Also, Link accidentally broke the final seal on him by drawing the Master Sword.
• Serrated Blade of Pain: The right-hand sword of his default weapon set has a serrated edge, giving it a distinct resemblance to Ghirahim's sword form. The second form of the Great Swords also features a distinctively serrated/jagged blade on one sword. The final form for that weapon set consists of two blades that are just masses of almost organic-looking ripping Spikes of Villainy.
  • Also, the final form of his Trident weapon consists of three serrated blades clustered together in a loose trident shape.
• Shock and Awe: His special attack with his Great Swords is to charge them with lightning to fire off a large beam of concentrated electricity much like Demise in Skyward Sword. His Trident weapon introduced in Legends is a Lightning elemental weapon and can call down bolts of lightning.
• Shoryuken: One of his moves while wielding his Trident is a Shoryuken with his left arm coated in darkness.
• Skill Gate Characters: Or skill gate weapon, rather. His Trident moveset is much easier to use than his Great Swords moveset, being much faster, having a wide variety of easy combos, and having a fairly quick area of effect move for killing hordes. However, with sufficient knowledge of spacing and dodging, the Great Swords will outclass the Trident in every way, as the Great Swords has a more effective projectile, much larger area moves, and given enough practice, more powerful combos that do more damage than the Trident's do.
• The Snark Knight: In comparison to his other incarnations, this Ganondorf can sound pretty indifferent at times. His lines when facing opponents are usually some short quip about how weak they are. He scoffs and dismisses praise of his strength. Being deceived by an enemy's Self-Duplication doesn't make him bat an eyelash. He doesn't care in the slightest if Zant or Ghirahim have to retreat and leave the fighting to him, and even chides them for not being able to hold their own. Even when squaring off with Link, all Ganondorf can do is casually tell his archnemesis about how many of his ancestors he's already outlived, and mocks Zelda for calling him back when he gets too hurt in the following duel. The only times he busts out his usual Large Ham attitude are when he assembles the complete Triforce and when he transforms into Beast Ganon.
• Stout Strength: Like in Twilight Princess, he has some fat added to his mountains of muscle, but he's such a Lightning Bruiser in this game that it's hard to notice. In fact, like in Super Smash Bros., he's very tall but a bit shorter and stockier than the giant he was in Twilight Princess. His Ocarina of Time skin shows this best, since the athletic build he had in that game doesn't translate over to his Hyrule Warriors model.
• Super Mode: Ganondorf has a special combo meter that, when filled, causes his Great Swords to glow purple and deal extra damage.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: He has yellow irises, and is a powerful evil sorcerer and warrior.
• Sword Beam: He can shoot an Energy Ball from his sword tip for a combo finisher, and he inherits the lightning-charged version Demise used in Skyward Sword for his Special Attack.
• Sword Plant: In his victory animation with the Great Swords, he stabs his swords into the ground and levitates, laughing as his Animal Battle Aura surrounds him. In gameplay, he uses this as his C2, which sends out a shockwave to act as a Launcher Move. The combo finishers on his Trident moveset that doesn't involve throwing it outright usually lets him be able to plant it into the ground through the right follow-up.
• Take Over the World: His main goal, as usual, is to conquer Hyrule and obtain the complete Triforce.
• Tennis Boss: Referenced in his combo finisher where he pulls out a ball and back hands it; sending fragments everywhere. It essentially combines the Warlock Punch from Super Smash Bros. with the Dead Man's Volley. He almost frame-for-frame performs the Ocarina of Time version after planting his trident for his Special Attack with that weapon.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Or Trident in this case, as many of his moves in his Trident moveset involving tossing it.
• Tin Tyrant: He wears dark armor, although not as pitch black as his appearance in Twilight Princess.
• Truer to the Text: In his other major playable appearances, the Super Smash Bros. series, Ganondorf shows remarkably little of his canonical abilities, only with a few token sword moves and brawling moves vaguely resembling certain minor actions he did in the games. In contrast, his incarnation for Hyrule Warriors has his magical abilities, swordsmanship, and spearmanship on full display, directly taking inspiration from his iconic moves like his Ground Punch, Dead Man's Volley, and trident-throwing, all while taking some minor inspiration from his Smash moveset for a few actions.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Rule of thumb: when you save him from enemy troops in Adventure Mode, don't expect a thank you.
• Unskilled, but Strong: His Great Swords moveset doesn't actually have much in the way of sword swinging: Most of Ganondorf's combo finishers makes use of his black magic and his actual sword swings are bestial and unrefined, hacking-and-slashing enemies to death than displaying actual skill with the blades. And while the Trident is better in this regard, Ganondorf again displays more power than skill when it comes to his combo finishers.
• Villain Protagonist: Ganondorf is indeed playable, like the other mainstays. And in the main story, for the three chapters following Cia's defeat, you get to go behind the wheel and help him not only take command of the world's monsters, but assail Hyrule Castle, batter his eternal rivals Zelda and Link into submission, and take the Triforce for himself.
• Weakened by the Light: As an enemy, Ganondorf takes extra damage from Light-based weapons.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Ganondorf manages to defeat Lana, Zelda, and Link, and regain all the pieces of the Triforce, but he doesn't take care to finish any one of them off. When their situations are predictably reversed at the end of the game, the heroes do not return the kindness.
• Worf Had the Flu:
  • He tries to take the Triforce from Link and Zelda in the Temple of Souls, only to be defeated and driven away by Link due to not being at full power. He returns the favor later.
  • Cia pushes him back in their conflict, but the odds were really stacked against him, as she had the Triforce, which she had to separate, and later Lana had to weaken him in Cia's tale, while he had no piece of the Triforce and a part of his soul was missing, meaning he was in his absolute weakest. When in his full power, he is a bigger threat than her.
• World's Strongest Man: Everyone's reaction to fighting Ganondorf? They don't; they run like hell, unless that isn't an option. Unfortunately for the monsters of Gerudo Desert, they don't quite recognize who they're dealing with, at least at first... Which is just fine by Ganondorf, as he planned to take command of them all by invoking this trope on them.
• Xanatos Gambit: Prior to the game, he corrupted Cia with his dark energy and made her gather three of the four fragments of his spirit to regain his physical body. If the heroes fail to stop her, he can simply take the Triforce from her and break the final seal on him. If Link draws the Master Sword and defeats her? The final seal is broken and the last of his spirit fragments join together to bring him right back to full strength, allowing him to get the drop on an unsuspecting Hyrule and get the Triforce anyway.

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