More thoughts came to mind last night as to my hypothetical Zelda game, specifically how to introduce some plot differences between it and the other games that always have Ganon gaining the upper hand before being brought low by Link and Zelda. So...

As revealed in Skyward Sword, there is an eternal curse on the Princess and the Hero that the hatred of Demise will revive again and again in an endless cycle. In two of the three timelines Ganon is considered dead, but one of those is simply because his resurrection keeps being prevented and who knows if he’s available to be revived in the other. In the third timeline we know him to be sealed away in the Four Sword.

Anyway, the idea is that Demise (generally in the form of Ganon) haunts the Links and Zeldas of the World. Now, something else we are aware of is the Gerudo tribe is all female with one male being born every hundred years. This male is destined to be the Gerudo King.

I would want to play with these two ideas. Side Note: this would actually help place the game into the timeline, putting my hypothetical game either after Four Swords Adventures or Zelda II. If after FSA, there can be even more plot fun-times.

So how do I play with these two ideas? It will be part of the backstory of the/one-of-the Big Bads. A male is born into the Gerudo tribe. He shows none of Ganondorf’s raw power, but is brave and willing to learn from the Gerudo elders. But as he assumes leadership, he begins to be haunted by the specter of Ganon/Demise’s hate. He comes to believe it is his fate, however unwelcome, to bring the cyclical curse back into play. Perhaps Koume and Kotake can make an appearance?

My preference, as I think about this, is that the game take place after FSA with Ganon sealed away in the Four Sword. New Gerudo King launches the military assault on Hyrule while Zelda and Link are away. As Zelda and Link arrive after up to three consecutive campaigns, he is in the basement of the Temple of Time, in the buried Four Sword Sanctuary. As Link and Zelda enter the room, he breaks through the barrier placed around the sword and steps forward.

“Princess. Hero. I do not serve the dark. There is no evil in fate.”

He then draws the Four Sword and releases Ganon from within, not to mention splits into four. As the Dark King is awakening from his seal, the reluctant conqueror decides to “have mercy” on Link and Zelda by activating what he’d been keeping as a trump card: the time creature summoned from Termina.

How this is reflected in the future timeline is that the next-to-last boss is a hugely powerful beast, like-unto forms Ganon has taken in previous games, flanked by four aged warriors. The beast actively and aggressively attacks you, the four warriors are defensive and perhaps may be made to surrender if you defeated the overpowered husk that remains of Ganon without killing any of them.

Even if not all four surrender, the last of the four always will. He expresses his regrets before he is cut down by the final boss of the future timeline: the ruler of Hyrule and full expression Ganon’ hatred reborn, a direct descendant of the Demon King himself.

So yes, I'd like a reluctant villain who believes himself to be entrapped by fate. His reluctance is what gets him to dismiss Zelda and Link from the present time rather than fight them, and he never takes the throne but ends up the immortal check on Ganon's power as the ages pass. When you return from the future, you have to fight him once more. Perhaps he can have a change of heart and turn on the power he was attempting to unleash.

I think it would make a nice change from how the plot of a Zelda game usually develops.