User blog:G-Monster/Pure Evil Proposal Demise

Alright, so I have a pair of candidates to discuss from a video game I played a while back. The game in question is The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

What's the work?
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is a 2012 installment in the much-beloved Zelda franchise, and chronologically the first installment in the series' history. Here, Link and Zelda are youths from the floating city of Skyloft, who ride giant birds called 'loftwings' and for most of their existence are completely unaware there even is a world below Skyloft. A tornado blows Link off Skyloft and he ends up separated from Zelda, thrown onto the land of Hyrule below where he begins an epic quest to save the land from destruction.

Zelda turns out to be the human incarnation of the goddess Hylia. Her steadfast enemy is the overarching villain of the entire Zelda franchise: Demon King Demise.

Who is Demise? What has He done?
The lord of all monsters and a power-hungry demon who coveted the power of the Triforce, Demise in the ancient past had his monsters sweep over the land, slaughtering countless lives and reducing everything they came upon to ashes. Demise and Hylia engaged in a brutal war for the fate of Hyrule, and to prevent Demise from taking over the ashen remains of Hyrule, sealed Demise away.

This being Hyrule, you can't keep a good sealed evil away for long. Demise is behind the acts of the sinister Ghirahim, who himself is simply Demise's living weapon. Demise also repeatedly attempts to unseal himself to devour the land as the monstrous Imprisoned, resulting in a sequence of (hair-pullingly annoyingly) boss fights to slam him back in his can. Finally, Demise breaks out of his seal and forcibly turns Ghirahim back into his sword, while attempting to agonizingly devour Zelda's soul to achieve his full power again. From there, Demise intends to eradicate all those who oppose him and rule a ruinated Hyrule forever.

Impressed with Link's fortitude, Demise conjures a pocket dimension for them to have their final duel while noting Link's allies and family are all next on the chopping block. When he's finally defeated, Demise, a final act of spite, curses Link's lineage to be followed by an incarnation of his own hatred for all time. This "incarnation" of hatred is Ganon, who will commit countless more atrocities in the future against Link's descendants and the land of Hyrule (regardless of the timeline)—all as a symbol of Demise's hatred, as he perishes laughing at the "blood-soaked sea of darkness" he's condemned Link's lineage to.

Any mitigating factors?
Okay, I believe that there will some people saying that Demise had some mitigating factors that might prevent Demise from counting. However after looking back at the game, I dont believe they hold up. While it was argued  that Demise had a sense of "honor", the thing his "honor" just stems to complimenting Link a few times and entertains his valor, only to turn around and condemns all of his descendants to be followed by suffering and death out of spite. So yeah Demse doesnt really have any actually honor like at all.

Also Demise isn't remotely affable. Every word oozes with contempt and he can never go a few sentences without reminding everyone about how puny mortal life is and how the world will be crushed underneath his foot. He regards Link as an entertaining curiosity at best and his final touch removes any indication of genuine respect of honor he might have.

Heinousness
Now, Demise's onscreen rapsheet is pretty basic, but it has enough touches to cross him over in the end. Demise is obviously worse than the other apocalypse-type villains in the series' history (like, say, Malladus ) and, oh, yeah, he's behind Ganon's entire existence, a retcon that places Demise squarely behind the largest and most persistent source of bloodshed in the franchise's history. Also unlike Ganondorf, Demise isnt Made of Evil and there's no suggestion of that. He is, ultimately, Hyrule's Satan equivalent.

Final Verdict
I think Demise does enough to count