Tears of the Kingdom: Ganondorf doesn’t have nipples? So what

Nintendo released The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Official Trailer #3 and some viewers were quick to question whether the Ganondorf unveiled in the trailer has nipples or not. But I’m here to question if that’s really what matters.

Ganondorf is the one male born every 100 years in the all-female Gerudo tribe and is said to have a connection with the calamity that befell Hyrule. Along with the new trailer, we also got key art for Ganondorf, and as far as we can tell from these sources, he doesn’t have nipples.

“Do not look away. You witness a king’s revival…and the birth of his new world.”

The mighty Demon King, Ganondorf, returns in The Legend of #Zelda: #TearsOfTheKingdom. pic.twitter.com/JuBCVQ1Wjk

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) April 13, 2023

But what about in-game Ganondorf? Let’s take a look at the 3:02 mark of the new trailer where he appears. We get a brief glimpse of the character surrounded by a red aura, but even going through frame by frame, we couldn’t confirm that he had nipples on his chest.

Why are people so concerned about whether or not he has nipples in the first place, though? One reason is simply that the character was revealed without a shirt on. Up to this point in the series, it’s a side of Ganondorf we haven’t seen much of. Perhaps he was made shirtless to further highlight his connection to the Gerudo tribe or to show off his physique.

But is whether or not Ganondorf has nipples really that important? I (the original author of this article) argue that it isn’t. From the start, it was highly unlikely that Link would have exposed nipples on his character (related article). Link’s key art keeps his nipples concealed, and in Breath of the Wild, with the exception of the Gorons, characters generally do not have nipples. In other words, from the perspective of the game’s setting, this world’s human characters are thought to not have nipples. It would go against common sense for Ganondorf to be the only human-like character in the game to have them.

With that said, Ganondorf is a chaotic being. We can’t simply overlook that if there was a character in this nipple-less world to break away from the established lore and have nipples, it would be Ganondorf. However, it seems unlikely that the development team would adorn Ganondorf with nipples just to get such a message across. Ultimately, it seems more likely that the character just doesn’t have nipples.

Amidst all of the new information that’s been revealed, I question if the amount of attention placed solely on Ganondorf’s nipples is necessary. It’s been a long time since Ganondorf has appeared in human form, and I think that’s where we should be turning our attention.

Nipples are ultimately a single facet of expression in video games. Of course, nipples can tell us an innumerable amount about a game’s setting and its inhabitants. But if we focus on them too much, we may overlook other aspects of a game’s appeal. It’s not that I don’t understand the interest in a character’s nipples, but rather than just looking at them, I want to focus more broadly on a game’s appeal as a whole.

Written by. Nick Mosier based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2023-04-14 10:28 JST)