Summary
The Legend of Zeldaspans decades at this point, providing gamers with more than 20 games, several fascinating kingdoms with their own lore, and countless Princesses, heroes, villains and everything in between. There are numerous selfless heroes, such as Link, who are always devoting themselves to the greater good and saving anyone in need.
But for every selfless hero, there needs to be a more selfish, not-so-heroic character, for the sake of balance, and the world ofZeldais certainly no exception to this rule. Greed, cowardice, and self-interest run rampant among certainselfish characters inThe Legend of Zelda.
Link’souting on the Nintendo Wiiresulted inSkyward Sword. Set on the floating island Skyloft, high above the old and abandoned Kingdom, the hero eventually plummets to answer the call of what would become a mission spanning lifetimes: saving Zelda and the entire kingdom. But first, the player spends some time on Skyloft, becoming acquainted with the other denizens, with some being less polite than others.
Unfortunately for Link, he becomes the target of Groose and his lackeys, who relentlessly bully him, all the while he proclaims he will become Zelda’s beau. Groose would stop at nothing to earn Zelda’s affection, even interrupting Link’s mission for the greater good by jumping off Skyloft himself. Heroic, maybe, but Groose himself quickly makes it clear that he only wants to be the true hero of the story to get the girl, undoing any good will his actions may have carried.
In a sea-faring adventure such as thePhantom Hourglass, the services of a ship would certainly be needed to navigate the water-logged world, and a reliable Captain would be required to man the helm. This is what Link finds in the character Linebeck, but he ends up getting more than he bargained for.
While Link is only interested in accomplishing the selfless deed of rescuing his kidnapped friend Tetra, Linebeck’s interests are more self-involved. Arrogant enough to name his ship after himself and only motivated by the promise of a reward, Linebeck’s interest in helping Link is for the promise of gold rather than helping someone for the sake of helping. Although his character does grow and quicklybecame selfless and heroictowards the end of the game, it’s impossible to undo all the selfishness he displayed earlier in the game.
The Minish Capintroduced players to Ezlo and the Minish people, who are mostly well-natured creatures only visible to children with good hearts and intentions. But every family has its black sheep, and Vaati fills in that role inMinish Cap.
Once an apprentice to Ezlo, who becomesLink’s traveling companion, Vaati learns about unlimited power in Hyrule and betrays and curses his own master as he sets off to obtain said power. Vaati certainly won’t let anyone get in his way and won’t hesitate to forcibly remove any obstacles between him and his selfish goals. What he would do with this power, thankfully, no one finds out, but it is a safe bet that it wouldn’t be anything good for the realm.
One of the darkerZeldagameswasMajora’s Mask, a sequel toOcarina of Time. In this title, Link sets off on a journey to track down his friend and companion from the previous game, Navi, only to fall into the mysterious kingdom called Termina, with a new, wooden makeover courtesy of Skull Kid. But this is one of his more harmless pranks, as he sets about doing all sorts of mischief to the other citizens in Termina.
By far his most dangerous prank isn’t a prank at all, as he calls down the moon above Termina to slowly descend in order to destroy the entire city, giving Link only 72 hours to save the land. It turns out that Skull Kid, while mischievous before, was made evil under the influence of Majora, the sentient mask that possesses others and then carelessly discards them when it no longer has any use for them.
Asthe main recurring villainofThe Legend of Zelda, it is impossible to pinpoint which game Ganondorf is the most selfish in, as his goals remain the same: take over the kingdom of Hyrule by any means necessary, no matter who stands in the way.
Ever since his first incarnation in the series, Ganondorf has always worn the mantle of a selfish, greedy, and downright dangerous villain that Link absolutely must stop for the good of the kingdom. When searching for the most infamous, self-serving villains in gaming, Ganondorf is undoubtedly one that will immediately come to mind, and anyone familiar with theZeldafranchise will agree.
The spiritual successor to aLink to the Past resulted in one of the mostambitious and greedy villains of all time, Yuga. Released only for the 3DS, many players might not think this largely underratedZeldatitle wouldn’t be up to much when compared to its home console counterparts, but they would be missing out on a new, fantastic villain.
Yuga’s self-serving goals are to use the essence of the Seven Sages and Princess Zelda in order to resurrect Ganon, not for him to rule but to use his power to lord over the kingdoms of Hyrule and Lorule, and raise herself to a deity status. Ganondorf’s missions were always only limited to Hyrule, so for Yuga to have her sights set on two kingdoms makes her outshine him in terms of ambition and greed.
1Demise (The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword)
Desires The World For Himself
Thought to be the very first incarnation of Ganondorf, the main villain of the entireLegend of Zeldaseries, it is no surprise Demise is one of the most selfish characters. He was once an entity that conquered time itself, an eternal and unending threat. Once the Goddesses departed the land and left the Triforce in the hands of Hylia, Demise knew this would be the best time to strike and claim what he wanted most.
He waged a bloody war, raising an army of monsters he launched against the people of the surface. His machinations were eventually put to a stop, and he was imprisoned, but this didn’t last long. Even when finally defeated by Link, heutters a cursethat allows him to be reborn in an eternal cycle and never to be truly defeated, highlighting how his selfish needs truly know no bounds. Out of all the variants of Ganondorf that exist, this alone makes Demise the most selfish and dastardly.
