Calamity Ganon: Anatomy of a Monster
Welcome to our first deep dive into a specific monster in our Anatomy of a Monster series. I have, for some time, been interested in delving into a particular monster from Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - the Calamity Ganon. Calamity Ganon is an interesting monster because of the form it takes, and its presence as a lingering threat in one of our contemporary mythological stories.
Breath of the Wild is a departure from the typical set up of the Legend of Zelda games. We discussed the nature of the series and how Breath of the Wild marked a departure in both the video essay on the Lanayru Promenade and in the blog on the Legend of the Legend of Zelda. In summary, Breath of the Wild is a post-apocalyptic world, set in a Hyrule that has already been devasted by the evil Calamity Ganon, a force which sprang from under the castle and engulfed the world in a plague-like smokescreen.
Breath of the Wild is not different simply because of the near emptiness setting in a vast post-apocalyptic world. It is also different in the way it approached the ultimate nemesis of the game. Main characters in the game, like the playable character Link, tend to be repeated, as if reincarnations or different versions of one another from game-to-game. In previous Zelda games, the ultimate baddie Ganon, or sometimes Ganondorf, was not some unformed entity. He took the form of a person or pig monster - a massive thing that took up physical space in the world. He may be, sometimes, a pig monster whose body takes up a large portion of early video game screens. Sometimes he takes the form of a human - the pirate Gerudo King Ganondorf.
Calamity Ganon, on the other hand, is not a concrete form in the way the pig or the Gerudo King is. The key to the difference is in his name “Calamity”, a term typically reserved for forces of nature - movements of the world not necessarily tied to the direct actions of humans. Ganon as a Calamity leaves it to something other - something different than the actions of a person or a beast. It is something other than, something different. In the game, it is depicted by strange outside-nature colours; too vibrant while also mixing with black goo. Flickering floating yellow lights which tint the world around the corruption with strange hues.
In our introductory post to the anatomy of monsters, we explored what it is that makes something a monster in our various mythologies from the perspective of boundary lines and categories. Ganon as pig monster is a monster through the breaking of beast and human; the making of an animal into something bigger than what it should be, and fiercer in its boarish presentation. Ganondorf, the human monster, is brought into the world of monster through the more monstrous forms of his personality, brought out through both interaction and depiction. He is not just human. His skin is tinted green in Ocarina of Time, a different colour than everyone else, even other Gerudo. He also has yellow tinted eyes which pierce into Link. His magic makes him other-than, and the full human façade breaks at the end when he transforms, once again, into the pig monster players recognise as the true Ganon.
Calamity Ganon is different from a few perspectives. He is not monster due to some alteration of the human category; any attempt to connect to the category of human is completely gone. In fact, the shadowy figure which wraps itself around Hyrule Castle in a demonstration of strength and power retains the boar-like figure of Ganon, while being trailed with the corruption smoke. Any figure connected to humanity is only seen in glimpses during the final fight with Calamity Ganon. The humanity peeking through the monstrous form only helps to solidify the strange intermingling of monstrous form.
Calamity Ganon’s form is not as simple as the monstrous boar, or even the human sorcerer. Calamity Ganon’s corruption is itself the form, a type of monstrous shadowy mass that alters the landscape and corrupts the other creatures which roam the hills of Hyrule. Calamity Ganon’s monstrosity is not just in the form it takes, but in the role it plays in the world.
Like the minotaur, Calamity Ganon’s form reveals a lot about its role as monster. The minotaur has a combination of beast and human, breaking the categories which are typically set in contrast – a categorical breaking that heralds it as monster. For Ganon, his form is breaking the categories of physicality and presence. He is both present and not. His presence is felt in the state of the corruption, and existing in the great event of the Blood Moon. He’s not so much a form that hunts you, nor is he just waiting in the castle with no other actions. He moves through the corruption that exists in the world, seemingly spying through the eyes that pop up from the corruption itself. He makes his presence known while never being a full entity with any kind of direct communication or even a hint of rational thought.
In many ways, Calamity Ganon’s description as “Calamity” demonstrates the kind of forceful in-between he is as monster. He is a force of nature with little direct thought, but still present, evil, and all-destroying like how he was before. He is both natural and unnatural at the same time; present and missing at the same time. He breaks the categories which typically are set up for the type of antagonist the Zelda series is used to.
His corruption is his main source of power and the demonstration of his ultimate monstrosity. He is not just a monster who prowls, but one that infects the world like a virus, changing things to be something other than their normal state. This is seen in its ultimate form with the corruption given to one of the dragons of Hyrule. He is not an easily defeated monster, despite how simple the final boss fight can be for people who have struggled through other aspects of the game. The defeat is not in just the final fight, but in the necessary cleansing of the world – an act which is far slower and more methodical.
Calamity Ganon is a very different kind of monster. He is not menacing through his actions or possession of magic, but because of his oppressive corruptive presence. The nature of Calamity Ganon may be more illuminated when the second Breath of the Wild game eventually gets released, so maybe this is a monster we will revisit in the future. But for now, the idea of Calamity Ganon as a sheer force of power, rather than some methodical sorcerer, is what makes him monstrous.