Animation
Maleficent
Sleeping Beauty · 1959
The most elegant design in the history of animated villainy
Threat index 85
Sorcerer · Video games
Ganondorf
The same war, fought again in every generation
Attribute scores
Power94
Intellect80
Menace86
Fear factor72
Cultural impact94
Charisma78
Editorial estimates on a 0–100 scale, calibrated against every other character in the index. Not official canon.
Who they are
Ganondorf is a desert king who covets a piece of a divine artifact and returns, life after life, to take it. The series frames him as one third of an eternal cycle alongside the hero and the princess, which makes him less a person than a recurring condition of the world. His best version, in the 1998 title, spends most of the game having already won.
Defining traits
Triforce of PowerDark sorceryBeast transformationPolitical manipulationReincarnates across eras
What makes them dangerous
He holds a fragment of divine power and has repeatedly conquered the entire kingdom before the story begins.
And what undoes them
The cycle is against him. There is always a blade and always someone willing to pick it up.
Things you might not know
- The 1998 game shows him ruling a ruined kingdom for seven years while the hero is asleep, an unusually bleak midpoint.
- His humanoid form and the boar-like Ganon are treated as different states of the same being.
- The organ performance in his castle is played by the character himself, in-engine, as the hero climbs the tower.
Why number 9 in Video Games
Nine console generations of art styles and he is still recognizable, still the same war, still already sitting on the throne when you arrive.
Why number 11 in Most Powerful
He holds a fragment of divine power and has conquered the kingdom outright more than once before the story even begins.
Why number 25 in Most Iconic
The recurring antagonist of gaming's most respected adventure series, recognizable across nine console generations of art styles.