Phantom Ganon

Phantom Ganon as he appears in The Wind Waker.
Phantom Ganon
Eye color	Yellow
Relatives	Ganondorf (creator)
Debut	The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Phantom Ganon is a recurring boss character from the The Legend of Zelda series. He is a shadowy phantom created by Ganondorf in his own image to test potential threats. Phantom Ganon has had two different forms over his appearances, but both have similar powers: the abilities to shoot magical blasts (which can be easily deflected at Phantom Ganon) and create fake dopplegangers.

Background

The first Phantom Ganon resembled Ganondorf with a horned skull for a head and had his own horse and trident. He haunted the Forest Temple in Ocarina of Time and acted as the adult Link's baptism of fire. His first attack consisted of leaping out of paintings to attack Link while dopplegangers appearing in other paintings confused him. Link saw through the illusion eventually and slew the horse with his new arrows. Then Phantom Ganon used magic balls on Link, but Link turned his own magic against him by deflecting the magic balls back at Phantom Link. Though Phantom Ganon would parry the ball back at Link with his trident, the phantom lost most of these mini-tennis matches, and his own magic stunned him long enough for Link to sneak in an attack. Eventually Phantom Ganon was defeated, and even his own creator Ganondorf shunned him, calling him a "worthless creation" and banishing him to "the gap between dimensions".

Phantom Ganon's original appearance in Ocarina of Time

Another version of Phantom Ganon appeared in The Wind Waker. This one was a shadowy, horned version of Ganondorf who held a large sword instead of a trident. During his first fight with Link in the Forsaken Fortress, he teleported around, engaged Link in quick sword fights and fired the magical balls (which now could even be deflected by Empty Bottles). After a first defeat, Phantom Ganon returned in Ganon's Tower to challenge Link in every room of a maze backed by his dopplegangers and some unreflectable blasts. The nuisance was finally eliminated when Link found the Light Arrows, as it took only one Light Arrow to eliminate Phantom Ganon.

The second version of Phantom Ganon made a return appearance in Four Swords Adventures. He first battled the four Links on the roof of Hyrule Castle, repeating the same tactics he used while fighting in the Forsaken Fortress. Phantom Ganon's presence was the first hint of the real Ganondorf's involvement in Vaati's scheme. The Links and Phantom Ganon had another rematch in the Temple of Darkness, where he repeated the tactics he used when battling the other Link in Ganon's Tower.

Trivia

• Phantom Ganon can be said to be partially based on Agahnim, who was an alter-ego for Ganon. The attacks Phantom Ganon uses are identical to the ones used by Agahnim, even including later appearances where Phantom Ganon would create duplicate copies.
• In Twilight Princess, the miniboss of the Arbiter's Grounds is an enemy called the Death Sword. Only his sword is visible, and the holder can only be seen with Link's wolf senses. Although not official, the Death Sword's holder has an uncanny resemblance to Phantom Ganon (as he appears in Ocarina of Time), and his sword resembles Phantom Ganon's sword (as seen in The Wind Waker).
• In The Wind Waker, his sword is inscribed with Hylian symbols that read "Zubora Gabora". Those are the names of the two blacksmiths, from Majora's Mask.
• In Breath of the Wild, the four bosses of the game are (the Blight Ganons), who are described as phantoms created by Ganon, similar to Phantom Ganon. Additionally, a Phantom Ganon armor set appears as part of the second DLC pack. The three pieces of the set (the Phantom Ganon Skull, Armor and Greaves) had been stolen from Hyrule Castle by the Great Thief Misko and could be found by Link in different parts of the Faron Woods. The armor set is based on Phantom Ganon's design from Ocarina of Time. The armor set reappeared in Tears of the Kingdom, but it was now called the Evil Spirit armor set, and each piece was earned by completing one of the Lomei Labyrinth sidequests.
• A sticker of Phantom Ganon (using his art from Ocarina of Time) appears in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.