Ganondorf's Origins- The Twinrova Confusion

Ever wonder where Ganondorf came from?

"Ganondorf's surrogate mother: Sorceress of Flame/Ice." ~ Navi (Ocarina of Time, English version)

There are just some things that make me angry.

A few of these things are bad translations, click-bait, and people talking about things they have no clue what they are talking about.

When I was sucked into click-bait doing research for my fanfiction I started to notice a common thread in the "10 facts you didn't know about Ganondorf" posts. Firstly, they all contained common knowledge. I love reading 'Ganondorf is the first male Gerudo born in 100 years' thinking that I don't know that. Seriously? Almost everyone who has played a Zelda game knows this! The biggest trend, however, was the Twinrova debate.

When I read my Hyrule Historia and my Encyclopedia I had assumed that when Twinrova were termed surrogate in-game had been a mistake in translation and that my books were a correction of the translation. When I read blog posts, however, there are HUNDREDS of theories of why and how Twinrova gave birth to Ganondorf...

After reading this, I became confused. The game did say Kotake and Koume were his surrogate mothers. How can the game say one thing but the books, our guide to the Zeldaverse, say another?! So, I did a little extra digging.

FACT: Twinrova DID NOT surrogate Ganondorf.

I'd like to point out that in Hyrule it is almost physically impossible to be a true surrogate. Secondly, there are no known male Gerudo before Ganondorf so who would have his father been anyway? I'm pretty sure no Hylian was going to go fight his way through the desert to have some witches surrogate his baby. They didn't magically conjure him with black magic or whatever you may come up with for the sake of theory. All Kotake and Koume did was simply raise him.

WHAT?!

Shocking, I know.

You see, as I had mentioned earlier, everything is in the Historia or the Encyclopedia. Twinrova has been referred to as his 'adoptive' parents or it states that they raised him.

BUT THE GAME SAYS SHE'S A SURROGATE!

Yes, it does. But do you know why? It's a result of poor translation. I'm not saying whoever translated the game to English did a bad job, because, for the most part, the translation is spot on! What I am saying, however, is that the English version is exaggerated for dramatic effect. They gave the English version a bit more flamboyant language than the Japanese. So while translating I think it's safe to assume this is a word that was either misunderstood or simply dramatized.

You have to remember, in 1998, hardly anyone cared about the timeline. If they changed a word for the effect it wasn't going to matter then.

In the Japanese version of the game, Navi phrases Kotake or Koume like this "Ganondorfu no sodate oya" or "ガノンドルフのソーダテ大屋".

'Sodate' is the equivalent to 'sodateru'. This quite literally translates to "foster".

Somehow, somewhere, during the translation process, 'sodate' must have been confused with the word 'dairi', or in English, 'surrogate'.

Why is this so important?

Ganondorf already has a dark and mysterious past, I mean, isn't being raised by two witches enough? We don't need to add unnecessary layers or create tension over something that just happens to be a misinterpretation. Ganondorf's mother was just like any other Gerudo. She went to Hyrule, found herself a Hylian man, and gave birth to him. In my opinion, it's even more tragic because Ganondorf would be part Hylian himself.

I'll talk more about Ganondorf in another post later though.

One of my biggest pet peeves with the Zelda fandom is people who think they know everything but they haven't even read the Hyrule Historia. My binding is falling off my copy I read it so much! It kills me internally when people who know nothing make lists and blog posts stating facts that are theory or, like this case, just plain untrue. This is one of the BIGGEST culprits in why the Zelda fandom is so confused all the time! Gaming sites generally don't care if they are accurate or not when it comes to submitting canonical information about Zelda. They will type something as fact as long as it makes sense in their mind. We end up with mass amounts of untrue knowledge that people believe which leads to online fighting and eternal agony for the fandom. Stay safe, read your Historia and Encyclopedia.

I hope this sheds some light on the topic and clears things up for you! I'd love to answer your questions personally too! Leave a comment and I'll get back to you as soon as I possibly can!

Cheers! ~L.D.Mire