Reaction to Ganondorf's Dragonification in Tears of the Kingdom 

Yeah exactly. It really felt like Zelda still recognized Link and Ganondorf.

Mindless doesn't mean you completely lose who you are. You just wouldn't be entirely conscious of yourself or your decisions. The fact that Zelda and Ganondorf still saw each other as enemies and the fact that Zelda still helped Link doesn't automatically mean that they're self-aware. I'd debate it's more that it shows just how deep rooted those aspects of themselves are, where their very souls still follow a path similar to what they would have wanted in human form. In fact, it's this very thing where _something_ about that person is so embedded in their character where that's what they are. It's what allows the Secret Stones _(gods I hate that name, I'm sorry)_ to work in the first place, and why the Secret Stone even picks up an element to begin with. It's not that the Stone embeds on the User, but the User embeds on the Stone. That's why Ganondorf didn't simply become the Sage of Time simply for stealing Sonia's Secret Stone of Time - he turned the Stone into the Secret Stone of Darkness. Or why Zelda _also_ became the Sage of Time...and Light despite actually having originally Rauru's Secret Stone of Light the entire time. Zelda was the Sage of Light _(and Time),_ Ganondorf was the Sage of Darkness. Of course they'd be inherently combative towards each other. Mineru even kind of talks about this when Zelda first asks her, though not directly. She goes on about how you would still have some aspects of yourself (referring to the quality of that person that makes them a Sage to begin with), but that's all you'd become - a boiled down, mindless creature following your base instincts. At least, that's how I always saw it.

I came back from receiving the heart notification and realized the symbolism between the Light and Dark dragon has another layer to it and now I'm upset I didn't realize sooner. Zelda has Rauru's Stone. Ganondorf has Sonia's Stone. In a sort of symbolic way, those Stones were entwined from the start. That's why Link couldn't save Zelda until the end, because it took the power of both Sonia and Rauru to heal her. And Sonia was sort of stuck in a similar way the champions were stuck in BotW, or how the Sages were stuck in, well, every other game that had Sages.

@@veroxid Love the lore in this game

Thanks for enjoying!