The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is iconic for plenty of reasons, but a big part of that is thanks to its villain. Ganondorf is one of gaming’s great bad guys, a reputation that has only been enhanced by appearances in later games like Wind Waker and Tears of the Kingdom. While Ocarina of Time’s Switch 2 remake does the Demon King justice, it’s also a reminder that the Zelda series has another excellent, and far more underappreciated, foe: Twinrova.
First introduced in Ocarina of Time, Twinrova makes for one of the best bosses in Zelda history. In the Spirit Temple, Link encounters two evil sorceresses who serve Ganondorf, Kotake and Koume. They’re classic witches: a pair of bickering old ladies flying around on brooms. The character concept is fun enough on its own, but the fight itself is memorable, too. Link has to use his Mirror Shield to absorb their elemental attacks (fire and ice) and reflect them back at the witches. It all culminates with the duo coming together Transformers-style to become Twinrova, an even more powerful witch.
The sisters’ real star-turn moment happens after Link vanquishes their Twinrova form and they separate once more. Halos appear above both witches’ heads as they begin floating up towards a light. That sets them off into a panic as they realize they are dying, prompting an unexpectedly great sketch comedy routine.
Koume: But I’m only 400 years old!
Kotake: And I’m just 380 years old!
Koume: We’re twins! Don’t try and lie about your age!
Kotake: You must have gone senile!
Koume: Who are you calling senile?! Is that how you treat your older sister?
Kotake: We are twins! How can you be older?
The remake not only preserves that screwball dynamic, but plays it up tenfold. The witches are fully voice acted, and they sound exactly as you probably always imagined, speaking in cartoon squawks. New animation lets Nintendo go all in on their final argument, as the two taunt and shove each other as they rise into the light. It’s a delightful moment of levity right before Link’s adventure gets serious en route to Ganondorf’s castle.
All of that has left me begging for Nintendo to lean on some Zelda villains other than Ganon in future games. Twinrova got a moment to shine as the big bad of the Oracle games, but they’ve rarely been seen in the 25 years since. There are a lot of villains like that who haven’t been revisited in decades while Nintendo keeps returning to Ganon: Agahnim, Vaati, Demise, Majora, and more. All of them are underexplored in Zelda’s mythos compared to Ganon.
There’s a case to be made, of course, that villains like Twinrova are so special because they’re not dragged out over and over again. They appear in games where they feel relevant to the story and design, so why force them into games just for the sake of fan service? Maybe Nintendo is better off creating new villains, like Echoes of Wisdom’s Null or A Link Between Worlds’ Yuga.
I can get behind that, though there is a good opportunity to revisit Twinrova if Nintendo decides to do so. You can spot the younger version of Koume and Kotake in Tears of the Kingdom, and they play a role in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment. A new game set in that era, with some incarnation of Link facing off against them, could expand the Zelda mythos in a way that feels natural. After all, the witches are 400 years old (give or take) by the time we meet them in Ocarina of Time. I’m down to see what hijinks the siblings were getting up to at the young age of 104.