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May 5th, 2008 at 10:16 pm by
Nathan
Zant, for those that are unaware, is the second to last boss in Twilight Princess. Most people find his story to be in distaste, that Zant really turned out to be a disappointing character. Up until you find out his real story, he really seems to be one of the darkest characters in the entire series.
Zant, to me, is one of the most misunderstood characters to date in Twilight Princess. The first major thing to hit on is his misrepresentation as the “Twilight King”, and his now forever popular name: “The Usurper King”
There are a few references to who is the king of twilight in the game. Let’s examine those in a bit more detail. The one that seems to seal the deal on his kingship is in the first cut scene with Zelda. You can watch it in full here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Oq4CSK3J25o
In that scene Zelda references that Hyrule was taken over by the King of Twilight. Then, it shows a scene of Zant taking over Hyrule castle. So, it would seem the case is closed. Or is it?
There are two other references, located here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Jog6QPjBcyg and http://youtube.com/watch?v=SpIXfmYV7kg&feature=related
A logical argument could be made that Zelda assumed that Zant was the king, when in reality the “power of the Twilight King”, or as Zant references, the power granted by “my god” is the true King. It meant that Ganondorf was the true King of Twilight, and that Zant was just the loyal servant. Further argument is presented when Zant calls Ganondorf “my master”. King’s have no masters. Now, this debate doesn’t flare up very often, and there are times I wish it did. Unfortunately, there is not a definitive answer. Hence, when Zelda refers to Zant as being the Twilight King, we must assume she is not mistaken. Still, it interesting when you delve into it.
So, it has been decided then. Zant indeed is the King of Twilight. The Usurper King title does fit nicely, just because usurp means to take over by force or without legal right. However, were Zant able to respond to such a title, he would most certainly whole heartedly disagree.
Zant is a member of the Twilight Realms Royal family, or so it would seem safe to assume. The cut scene when Zant receives his power shows that he indeed was the successor to the throne, and Midna even goes so far as to say why they decided to not name him King. In Zant’s mind, the throne was his all along, and thus all he did was remove the wrongful ruler, and put himself in the position for which he belonged. Hence, Usurper King to him would be an insult of a title. So, how did this name come about? Good old Nintendo. He is called the Usurper King on the battle screen just before the fight starts. If Zant was able to protest his creators, surely the first thing he would mention is that he does not feel that he is indeed a Usurper King, but the rightful King of Twilight. Alas, he never did get a say and hence, he is known under a title I seriously he doubt he would of ever wanted.
Now, this article is titled a story of revenge, and I have lightly touched base on what that means. Zant was next in line for the throne, but because of the “evil in his eyes” they (who they are, no one knows) chose Midna to be the ruler instead. He was furious with the decision and in going outside to vent his severe disappointment, in a rather childlike manner, Ganondorf appeared in the sky and offered him the power to overthrow Midna in exchange for turning the world of light into complete darkness. He agrees, and thus his story of revenge is born. Not only did he get his revenge against Midna by dethroning her and turning her into an imp, he punished all of the people in the realm for not choosing him as ruler. He turned them all into Shadow Beasts.
Many people, however, find the story of Zant to be rather disheartening. To put it plainly, his part in the whole story, and his personality, felt disappointing to most. It would seem that Zant has forever been labeled as an “antagonist that is forgettable”. He showed a lot of promise throughout the various cut scenes in the game, and was made out to be a very dark character. The fact Ganondorf was in the game, and that Zant was not just a pawn in the big scheme, but seemingly a crybaby, really turned people off.
To me, Zant is one of the more interesting bosses to date in the entire franchise. Outside of Ganon/Ganondorf, we never really get much back-story about the other major antagonists in the series. Zant related a lot to what people wish they could do in the real world when they believe they are about to receive something, but it gets taken away. Zant to me turned out to be a very dark character, who really turned on his evil side at the prospect of gaining severe power. Zant exacted some revenge, and I really enjoyed the ride. Filed under Editorials, Games, Twilight Princess Follow This Entry | Leave a Response | Trackback | ||
32 Messages from the Gossip Stones about “Zant: A Story of Revenge”
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Pingback from My blog about consoles » Blog Archive » Zant: A Store of Revenge:
May 5th, 2008 at 10:26 pm[...] ZeldaBlog wrote an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerpt: Zant, for those that are unaware, is the second to last boss in Twilight Princess. Most people find his story to be in distaste, that Zant really turned out to be a disappointing character. Up until you find out his real story, he really seems to be one of the darkest characters in the entire series. Zant, to me, is one of the most misunderstood characters to date in Twilight Princess. The first major thing to hit on is his misrepresentation as the “Twilight King”, and his now forever popu [...]
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Pingback from Zelda Elements - Blog Archive » Zelda Blog Relaunches:
May 7th, 2008 at 3:23 am[...] “…a crybaby, really turned people off.” in Zant: A Story of Revenge [...]
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May 5th, 2008 at 10:33 pm [quote]
I don’t see why or how anyone would confuse Ganondorf as the actual Twilight King. Zant referred to Ganondorf as his god. This is no different than medieval kings referring to the Christian God as their master and king.
Zelda mistakes Zant for the true Twilight King because she doesn’t know he stole the throne from Midna, or who Midna even is when she surrenders Hyrule, making the “usurper king” title accurate.
May 5th, 2008 at 10:35 pm [quote]
I always thought Zant was just insane. I mean literally insane.
May 6th, 2008 at 12:08 am [quote]
To be fair Mike, it’s not exactly the same as a king referring to the “christian God”. God never gave someone real power, nor did a God ever ressurect himself. Meh.
I am not so sure Zelda is mistaken in calling him the Twilight King, despite my argument. At the time, Midna was overthrown, and thus he did technically rule the twilight realm, making him King. Usurper appears accurate, however Zant has never been claimed to be king of hyrule. In fact, the idea was engulf hyrule and make it all part of his “twilight kingdom”. Usurper title is correct in theory, I was merely stating that Zant would not agree because he feel the twilight throne is rightfully his to begin with.
May 6th, 2008 at 9:13 am [quote]
In the real world, the delays were good enough t help develop the story, but they should’ve given the Twilight Realm a little more development time.
In game storyline, I now see why Zant had gone mad. Of course, it raises more questions, not exactly related to this subject.
May 6th, 2008 at 9:34 am [quote]
I must say I enjoyed this article greatly and I agree with what you have to say entirely. Though the series of comments I am finding very distasteful. For one thing I am a christian and I don’t entirely like having God compared to Ganon, but I see what Mike was getting at. However, Nathen you are one of the most uneducated people I know in christian history. Christian or not. God gave numerous people power and resurrected himself as well. I find this strange that you don’t know this because almost everyone I’ve ever met does. Anyway, great article.
May 6th, 2008 at 9:37 am [quote]
Twilight realm needed more development time? Interesting, care to elaborate on that?
May 6th, 2008 at 10:52 am [quote]
Zant was refered to as a King while I remember Ganondorf being refered to as a God. The title of King really does refer to Zant in my oppinion.
BTW I remember watching the Twilight Princess trailers a few months before the release of the game and I was so convinced that Zant was Agahnim, I sooooo want to see Agahnim again.
May 6th, 2008 at 1:24 pm [quote]
Well yeah, I consider him the Twilight King, if only because, well, he ruled over the Twilight, no matter how he came to be so. Ganondorf was never the Twilight King in my opinion, if that’s what you’re trying to say, he’s just…different. Well yeah, there might have been a different Twilight King before, but I feel that after usurping him, Zant directly became the King, even though he wasn’t a righteous one.
As for whether or not he deserved it, as it was in his family, I feel he shouldn’t really have the right to do so, due to the fact that Midna was chosen as the rightful heir (if I racall correctly, long time since I’ve played it…) so he didn’t really have any rights to take the throne, much less through force. So yeah, he did usurp it.
Oh yeah, definitely! I’d especially like to see what they’d do to him in a new game, and how he’d be pictured, both his personality and looks. But, I suppose he’s just one of those villains whom we shall never see again, just like the Nightmares, Majora’s Mask and Bellum. Wait, I’m allowed to talk about Bellum, right?…right?
May 6th, 2008 at 2:48 pm [quote]
I dont know if anyone is familliar wih the Anime Tenchi Muyo, but, I always pictured Agahnim as being similar to Kagato, lol.
May 6th, 2008 at 2:50 pm [quote]
Please don’t drag Christianity into a video game -_- Please keep real life things in real life, and video game stuff into video games. No offense, but it’s just a really really really great, and I don’t wanna see it being ruined for anyone because of their opinions on life.
We just got a little bit of land, and a big castle. Although I liked the castle, they could’ve given the area more land to explore, more people to talk to (especially that talking thing)
May 6th, 2008 at 3:01 pm [quote]
@Flava:
Come on man no distaste was meant. We all know Ganondorf wasn’t really a god, but Zant thought he was. I was commenting on Nathan’s statement that “King’s have no masters.” Not earthly ones, but medieval kings recognized that there was a “king of kings” from another plane of existence. It’s the same correlation Zant made IN HIS MIND about Ganondorf, because he didn’t know at the time that Ganondorf was just a man.
May 6th, 2008 at 3:11 pm [quote]
No, no, no, no, no, no. We are NOT bringing real world religion into a GAME. Please leave your beliefs in reality when you power up the game, thank you.
May 6th, 2008 at 3:27 pm [quote]
Comparisons are bound to come up in a series with its own religion. My comments were used as an example.
May 6th, 2008 at 8:33 pm [quote]
Nathan, this topic is golden! Quite honestly, I never saw how Zant and the Twili fit into everything in TP, but now a lot of it makes sense. The only loose end I don’t understand is…why does Ganondorf choose to aid Zant? Obviously he is a way into Hyrule, but is that the extent of his choice? I remember Ganondorf being banished into the Twilight Realm through the mirror, but what was his position there? And how did he attain such godly power?
It’s easy for one to mistake Ganon as the King of Twilight without knowledge of what passed during his time in the Twilight Realm. This article really cleans up some loose ends.
May 7th, 2008 at 12:09 am [quote]
Look, many people have said it - Keep real religion out of game talk. I am a Roman Catholic, and I know all about the “miracles” God has done over the course of history. My comparisons of what “God” did to what Ganondorf did was based purely off of another person’s comparison. Just because I believe God did something, doesn’t mean anyone else does. So, lets just agree to keep real world separate no?
First, I am really glad you enjoyed the article. The entire point was to make Zant’s character make more sense. As for Ganondorf… let me try to explain.
If you remember back to him being “banished” to the twilight realm… do you remember why he was banished there? In actuality, they were going to kill Ganondorf. However, when they went to do so, the power of the triforce piece within him came out and it was too strong. So, they banished him into the twilight realm as a last ditch effort.
Now, how he went from being banished (he still had his power), to needing to be ressurected… is a mystery. However, one could assume that the Twili were very upset at the world of light. Again, the world of light sent “trash” to them that they didn’t want in their world. Ganondorf, obviously a threat, could of then been killed by the twili. Also, there is another way it could be. When Link first enters the twilight realm, he is turned into a wolf. The magic of the realm did that to Link.
Now, it is possible the magic of the realm killed Ganondorf, or turned him into a spirit. Obviously, the twilight realm had to effect him somehow… we just are not told how.
So, why does he choose Zant? Well, as a spirit, his power was next to worthless. However, he apparently could instill it into another being. Now, the big deal about Ganondorf is that he is NOT part of the twilight realm itself. If you remember, Link could not enter the twilight realm without being brought there by someone who belongs to the realm (the shadow beast, Midna). Link also never leaves the realm without Midna… so in theory, Ganondorf simply can’t leave the twilight realm on his own, even if he was in full body at the time.
As a spirit, Ganondorf would obviously watch closely what was going on with the throne of the Twilight Realm. He saw a opportunity to use someone to not only expand the twilight realm all over the light realm, but he found someone that would do it willingly. Why would Zant? Because the power would also allow him to get revenge on his family, and dethrone Midna. Otherwise, without that motivating factor, one never knows if Zant takes the power, let alone does what Ganondorf asks. The whole time, Ganondorf is working on ressurecting his body… which again he does.
Whats sad is, as you see in this reply, I am making a lot of “safe assumptions”. To be completely honest, there is no definitive answer. This is just my take on the situation. Again, this is part of the reason people were upset Ganondorf was in the game. There just is a lot of open ended questions with no clear answer. At least with Zant, we know his story and why he is doing what he is doing, and how he is doing it. (of course, without Ganondorf, how he got his power would be missing from the story, and thus his story wouldn’t make sense). It’s a major reason I love Zant and Midna so much to be honest: They both have very interesting, intertwined stories that leave very little open ended questions.
Outside of Link, you usually do not get such clarity with the big characters from title to title. Zelda in the Wind Waker may have been the clearest for her in any game, and Ganondorf in OOT is the clearest he has been. Otherwise, for the most part, they always leave everything very open ended.
Presumably, however, the reason that Midna and Zant have such intricately explained stories, is because they appear to be a one and done combo. I would be surprised to see them return to a title… but again, you never know.
May 7th, 2008 at 6:59 am [quote]
Don’t forget, most people thrown into Twilight are turned into spirits, like most of the Hyruleans, and only being brought back into the light world could give them back their physical form. Link, Ganondorf, and Zelda are different. Link’s Triforce allowed him to turn into a wolf, Zelda’s Triforce and her purity left her completely unchanged, whereas Ganondorf’s left him as a demonic spirit. When Ganondorf returned to the world of light, he was exactly the same as when he was sent away, even the scar of light from the sages’ sword.
May 7th, 2008 at 3:49 pm [quote]
Ah, right, ok. That’s not a bad take on what could’ve happened, actually. Thanks for clearing that up for me, it’s been awhile since I’ve played through Twilight Princess. Definitely looking forward to your next article!
May 7th, 2008 at 6:59 pm [quote]
Actually I’ve never thought about what’s behind Zant. After I played TP, I merely think about Zant as a puppet of Ganondorf whitout any relevance. But after I read this, defenitily I got to do a little of research.
May 7th, 2008 at 10:36 pm [quote]
Everyone, I really didn’t mean to cause such ruckus. I understand that a real serious topic concerning religion probably shouldn’t be brought into game talk unless it pertains to the game in question, and I apologize for that.
May 8th, 2008 at 8:00 am [quote]
It’s ok, all is forgiven by us, lol. Just doing my part in preventing spam wars.
May 8th, 2008 at 10:08 am [quote]
Glad you, and many others, really enjoyed the article. Well see what I can cook up for the next one. I try to space mine out, mostly, because with so many people taking part in Zelda Blog there is not rush to spot out even an article a week. However, I am still debating on my next topic to talk about it. There is SO much good stuff in this series it’s hard to choose.
May 8th, 2008 at 5:41 pm [quote]
I’ve done some research on the Twili over the Internet, and found that some people speculate that the creators of Majora’s Mask (I am another of such believers) eventually became the Twili, and I’ve noted on how other people noted that the demon of Majora’s Mask and Zant behave similarly in combat; wild, randomly, and chaotic.
May 9th, 2008 at 2:11 pm [quote]
Huh, that’s an interesting idea Jumanji. I don’t think it was intended by Nintendo, but I can see how in the future that could possibly be implemented. It is sort-of a stretch, but the similarities are there.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:22 pm [quote]
I wrote about on my website, and I’m waiting for the ZeldaBloggite Tribal Leaders to see my amateurish work. Later, I’m gonna check out to see if any of the claims from Zeldapedia are true. I’ve been thinking, though, in various games, there’s always a “dark tribe” that had threatened Hyrule one way or another, so I’m wondering if the ancestors of the Twili could be the “dark tribe” mentioned in various games.
Anyways, I’ve had a thought about Zant. Although he’s not as bright as Ganondorf thinks he is, Zant may have known something Ganondorf didn’t. First off, After Link dealt the final blow to Ganondorf, he stood for a few moments, uttering revenge while barely holding on, when the screen switches over to Zant, who pops his neck, and then Ganondorf died. I’m thinking, when he and Zant were (hypothetically) discussing how one would bring back the other, Ganondorf probably didn’t know that, whether it was voluntary or not, Ganondorf would have brought Zant back to life. Perhaps Zant was watching Ganondorf from the shadows, and learned of Ganon’s treacheries, so when Zant popped his neck, he severed their life force link or something, and without the Triforce of Power, Ganondorf died. I figured this because in the game, a lot of team work where the Twilit beings depended on one thing or another to exist, and TML mentioned before about how Link and Midna need each other, and Ganondorf and Zant needed each other, and beings of light need beings of shadow to go in or out of shadow.
May 10th, 2008 at 4:56 am [quote]
Do we know for sure that Zant intentionally popped his own neck? I’m not fully convinced.
May 10th, 2008 at 8:04 am [quote]
As far as I can remember, Zant wasn’t a member of the royal family. For some reason I thought he was a servant, not a member of the bloodline, and therefore could never become king in normal fashion. I could be mistaken, though.
May 10th, 2008 at 4:39 pm [quote]
No one else popped his neck (not even Snake) so I’m pretty it was intentional.
Wasn’t the ruling system democratic? As in voting for who would be their leader, ya know?
May 10th, 2008 at 8:30 pm [quote]
When were either the ruling system or the royal status of Zant actually stated in the game? For theories like this, sometimes links have to be drawn by the fan in the most logical matter; wasn’t this one of those times?
May 11th, 2008 at 7:34 am [quote]
I don’t think so… having a king implies having a royal family. I’ve got to quote a little Monty Python here and say, “You don’t vote for kings!”
If he were the prime minister or something, that would be different. But to be king, one must be part of the bloodline… or overthrow the current ruling family, which I think was Zant’s plan. Thus, he would be a “usurper.”
May 11th, 2008 at 8:51 am [quote]
Well, Zant only served the royal family, but the people chose Midna over him. Also, I haven’t heard anywhere where Midna was a member of the royal family. If there was, lemme know, I can’t remember in-game where the fact was at.