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[SPOILERS FOR SKYWARD SWORD] Ghirahim's Origins (A Theory)


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Posted

Spoilers if you haven't beaten the game. :I

I finished it recently and it got me thinking.

So basically Ghirahim is a Demon Blade (or the spirit of one anyways). Most would say ‘He’s on the same level as Fi’, right? Well, the Goddess created Fi; I guess we’re to assume that Demise had a similar power and created Ghirahim. The problem being that the Goddess waited a number of years to be reincarnated in Zelda’s body, right? How would Demise know how far in the future to send Ghirahim after Zelda? Moreover, how was the Goddess able to let slip a rogue sword through the Gate of Time? EVEN MOREOVER, Ghirahim could not have gone through the Gate of Time at the Sealed Grounds because in Skyloft’s time, he had no idea where that gate was. He knew the one at the Temple of Time, but not the other one until the very end of the game. Also that second Gate of Time in the Sealed Grounds was, well, sealed away. Link had to learn the Ballad of the Goddess and raise his sword to open it.

So how would Ghirahim be THE original Demon Blade?

My theory? Demise set about a curse that would make the soul of his sword infect another being somewhere in the future. He did the same for Ganon, so why not Ghirahim? I’m sure when Ghirahim was born, the soul of the Demon Blade was sucked into his body and he became obsessed with reviving Demise. The memories of the blade were probably carried along as well at Demise's demand, so Ghirahim knew what to do when he came of a certain age (y’know, with all of his lines, ‘I’ve waited my entire life for this moment!' and 'I was born to resurrect Demise with the Goddess’ power!’) He probably took a number of years to aquire all of the Demon Blade's memories anyways, similar to what Zelda went through.

It’s tragic if you put it that way; honestly he was just a poor creature infected with Demise’ hatred. In the end he even died as the Demon Blade. ;_; Also, Ghirahim having a kind/species in the Zelda series may make sense; doesn’t Vaati look a little bit like him?

Anyways at the end of the game Demise probably realized that his Demon Blade plan was a disaster, so he just placed his hatred in a new being entirely: Ganon, and of course cursing Link, Zelda and their line of incarnations.

Thoughts?

Then again I could just be forgetting something and am completely tired.

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Posted

Isn't Vaati a Minish though? So I doubt he'd share a kind with Ghirahim.

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Posted

I'm not suggesting

Vaati was alive during Ghirahim's time. I'm saying that Ghirahim was a part of a species that Vaati could be descended from.

I mean SS is the first Zelda game in the timeline, right?

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Posted

Yeah but that would suggest that all Minish come from/are related to Ghirahim and that seems totally unlikely to me.

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Posted

Well what's the Minish backstory in Minish Cap? I haven't really played it so I don't know about them.

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Posted

The Minish have just always been around, in every Zelda game, and they are the explanation for why items are in the grass/bushes. They supposedly hide them there because they thrive on the happiness of humans. They are essentially the shoemaker elves, and in fact, they directly reference that folk tale.

Ghirahim and Vaati don't really bear much similarity anyway. Vaati's skin is light purple, he has red eyes, etc. The only thing they have similar is the hair, kind of.

I don't see what you mean when you talk about Ghirahim being sent through the Gate of Time by anyone. As thoroughly as I enjoyed SS, I did not see this implied anywhere. Just as Fi resided in the sword until Link came of age, and subsequently for all time at the end of his journey, I am fairly sure Ghirahim was merely created by Demise as a weapon to combat Hylia's sword, which also had a spirit. (Or maybe Hylia created the sword in retaliation to Demise's?) If you think about it, the Goddesses make a ton of lesser gods and incarnations to do their work for them, so why not a weapon too? Then, because they're not technically human, they just lived a very long time until their time arrived. For Fi it was a lot simpler because destiny and whatnot, and because Link was on a small island forever where the sword lie in wait, but with Ghirahim he'd just been wandering around waiting for the reincarnated Hylia to fall through the clouds.

By the way, I have my own personal mini theory, call it a speculation, that when Demise said that he would curse all those tied to the spirit of the Goddess and the Hero, that that meant pretty much anyone involved with Link or Zelda would get dragged into it. And yeah, that'd make sense and all, and it's cool, but I think Groose, being the largest focal point in between Link and Zelda, was cursed to eventually become Ganondorf. I mean, just look at the two. Both dark skinned individuals with yellow eyes and red hair. And buff. Groose originally had built up hostility against Link while trying to get Zelda, and this pretty much is like a caricaturized version of every subsequent Zelda game where Link has to defeat Ganondorf, who tries to kidnap Zelda. And what better punishment from the definitive Demon King than to turn a friend against his comrade and unrequited love for all eternity, forcing them to work together to kill a once faithful comrade time and time again? Ganondorf doesn't get a whole lot of personality in the other Zelda games, but he's always yearned for Power. Which is something Groose hated himself for all that time for lacking, because he couldn't protect Zelda. It's a really tragic story, when I think of it like that, and if that's what Nintendo was going for, then I have to give them all the props I can, because that legit just makes me sad. ):

The only thing that really bugged me about Demise, other than The Imprisoned's limbs in general, is that he wasn't ever given a complete backstory. He simply said that he hated the gods more than anything, and that his hate would resound throughout history in the form of a curse. Why did he hate the gods? Or humans, for that matter? He was a really cool villain, don't get me wrong, but it's just disappointing that they didn't elaborate on the guy more. Pretty much the only implication I can muster is that he had a thing for Hylia. He did praise her original presence and compare her to her apparently lacking reincarnation.

I got way off topic though. Pretty much all I have to say on this topic is that he was probably always a sword, and that he is naturally immortal so he just waited on the ground until Link and Zelda showed up. I mean, Ghirahim is the one who spawned all the monsters on the ground, correct? So why would the Kikwi evolve specifically to hide from those monsters?

so ya

Sahaqiel

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Posted

Ah, ok I can see that.

So basically you're saying that

after the Goddess sealed away Demise the first time, his Demon Blade was left intact and the Goddess could do nothing else because she was so weak and had to transfer her soul to a mortal body. I mean Ghirahim would had to have been in sword form and not completely destroyed by the Goddess' power to survive. I just originally thought that there was no point in sending Ghirahim through the Gate of Time because he didn't know where or when the Goddess transferred her soul. I guess waiting would make sense, considering there was no Goddess to supervise the Demon Blade. (At least, I think there wasn't?) I mean she placed a seal there over time, but it couldn't have been that powerful if she was being reincarnated as a human.

It'd be interesting to take Impa into consideration here too. I mean she waited as long as Ghirahim (which was apparently thousands of years, according to her); I wonder how long a Shiekah's lifespan really is?

Interesting though. The Goddess had enough time and power to make an elaborate plan to determine the legendary Hero through trials and such, but not enough to destroy Ghirahim/Demise's Demon Blade.

And I agree on your

Groose/Ganon theory. I was looking at some designs of various Ganons and Ganondorfs and there's a few resemblances in their clothing and stuff, besides the hair and skin color.

The emblem on the back of Groose's blanket/tarp thing he wears around his neck looks slightly similar to the circular symbol with two pointed wings jutting out that WW Ganondorf and OoT Ganon have. Also OoT Ganondorf wears a lot of cloth (so cloth/tarp parallel); but then again, he's lives in the desert. That point's not greatly supported.

I also think I remember seeing similarities between the designs on Groose's sleeves and various Ganons/Ganondorf's sleeves too. But my memory's vague there.

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Posted

If anything, Groose's clothing is a lot more reminiscent of WW Link's clothes, oddly enough, lol. At least, that's the vibe I get. But I mean, they're just generally similar.

OoT Ganondorf

WW Ganondorf

TP Ganondorf

I linked them because if you press Ctrl and +, you can zoom in on them and see their eyes are yellow. Zelda is a fantasy setting, yes, but gold eyes are uncommon. Now let's see Groose.

groose.jpg

He's not nearly as dark, but he fits nearly every other description. Red hair, gold eyes, pointed ears, buff build, etc. He also looks a lot more, uh, fluffy and non-threatening, but then pretty much everyone looks a lot warmer and kinder in this game, including Zelda. Imagine him as dark as regular Ganondorf, and he looks like a younger version of the guy. Then he's got personality traits that at first I thought might just be a silly reference to Ganondorf, like his power inadequacy, his hatred for Link and his want for Zelda, but at the end of the game, I was about 80% sure that Groose was cursed to be Ganondorf. If you notice at the end of the game, Link, Zelda, and Groose were grouped together, and they were arranged in a triangle. They weren't in the typical Power on top and Wisdom and Courage on the right and left arrangement, but Zelda was in the center, so I think it's still significant. To me it looked like a representation of Demise's curse. Forever, they would be locked in a struggle with Zelda at the center. Hence, the legend of Zelda. Demise merely took host in a human, Groose, just as Hylia took host in Zelda. It makes sense in the grand scheme: Hylia was reincarnated as someone who became the royal figure of her people, and so did Demise. Link is merely the hero who is doomed to repeat history for all eternity. I can't tell you how much impact that realization was on me, lol. Like, it's actually really sad. ):

By the way, I've been meaning to assemble a theory about Hylian longevity. For Impa, I am pretty sure the power of the Goddess was sustaining her all that time, hence the dissolution into sparklies. Maybe god-related power deaths just always happen that way. Demise even dissolved into sparklies. So I don't think that Sheikah tend to live multiple centuries.

But for Hylians, there is evidence of them living for a very long time. For instance, in Minish Cap, they offhandedly hint that the king of Hyrule at the time is over a hundred years old. They have a festival every century celebrating the sword that locked away all the monsters. The king says he remembers entering in and winning the swordsplay competition they held as a youth, which means he'd have to be as old as Link, plus a hundred years, and still maintaining the look of Daphnes Nohanson Hyrule from Wind Waker. He wasn't senile or bedridden, so I think it can be assumed that Hylians live for quite a lot longer than the average person. Then again, it might be the Goddess' resounding power throughout the royal family, or the Light Force that was battled over in Minish Cap. Point is, longevity isn't quite that surprising. Think about Impa from OoT. She looked a little old. What if she died of old age in between the child and adult transitions? You never saw her again as an adult.

So yeah, that's what I have to say about that.

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