Ghirahim

"Still... it hardly seems fair, being of my position, to take all my anger out on you. Which is why I promise up front not to murder you... No, I'll just beat you within an inch of your life!"

- Ghirahim to Link before their first battle.

Ghirahim is the central antagonist of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. He is an immensely powerful Demon Lord born from Demise's sword. He aims to capture Zelda, the reincarnation of the Goddess Hylia, and use her to free his master, Demise the Demon King.

Appearance
Ghirahim is a tall, slender humanoid with pale, grayish white skin and white hair, which form a lock hiding half of his face. He wears a white jumpsuit with diamond-shaped cut-outs all over, white gloves, a golden belt with a red gem, a red, forked high-collared cloak with diamond motifs, a round left ear and a blue diamond earring on his right ear.

When Ghirahim strengthens his arms, his skin turns black and metal-like, with black streaks on the rest of his body. At full power, he becomes much taller and a lot more muscular, his clothes disappear, both of his ears become pointed, his skin becomes metallic and reddish-black, with white lines covering his body, a diamond-like core on his chest and a smaller on his forehead, and his eyes become glowing and pupil-less.

Under such aspect, he looks similar to Link's sword spirit Fi, fitting his nature as Fi's evil counterpart. Indeed, after his last defeat, it is revealed that like Fi who is the spirit of Link's Goddess Sword, he is in fact Demise's sword given life. His sword form looks similar to the Master Sword, only black, spiky and a lot bigger, with the Triforce motif pointing downwards.

Personality
"This news has just filled my heart with rainbows! Since I know I can be honest with you, I’ll admit that I got a little sulky. It was frowns all around."

- Ghirahim’s rather unique way of describing his mood

"Do you have any idea how that made me feel inside? Furious! Outraged! Sick with anger!!!"

- Ghirahim expresses his rage with much emphasis

At first glance, Ghirahim appears to be very calm, poised, equanimous, imperturbable, collected, and flamboyant: He acts with grandiose gestures and over-the-top theatrics, he likes to dance and hum (his own theme tune) when happy, and he displays the disturbing habit of coming too close to people and invade their personal space, to toy with them or intimidate them. Ghirahim is extremely dedicated to his goal, he hates anything standing in his way, and he is abusive and unforgiving towards his underlings. He is very conceited and frequently evoking his high position of authority, which he describes as the reason behind his dignified manners and his "mercy" towards Link. He also exhibits strong narcissism, evident with all the praises he uses to speak of himself.

Ghirahim acts in a polite, dignified, praiseworthy, and well-mannered way. However, this phlegmatic exterior is but a facade he keeps to hide his cruel, violent, aggressive, and sadistic temper. To his core, Ghirahim enjoys bloodshed: as seen when he licks his lips when facing the prospect of violence, when he licks his foe's blood off his blade, or when he relishes in his foes' torment. He describes someone’s agony as a "great stress reliever".

Ghirahim's mood can snap from relaxed and playful to focused and brooding to angry and violent at the drop of a hat. He is also easily angered, and vituperative, as he lashes out loudly, yet he most often keeps it at bay in favor of his refined facade. During their first encounters, he acts rather friendly (albeit in a creepy way) towards Link, but the more Link meddles with his goals, the more irked he gets, becoming increasingly furious each times he sees him, promising him gory punishment which he describes with much details.

Finally, Ghirahim is very haughty, arrogant, egocentric, and presumptuous. He scorns humans too much to remember their names, instead giving deriding nicknames, and feeling outraged that a mere human could best him at every fight, no matter how hard he tries to take them down. He refuses to acknowledge Link's worth to the very end, claiming that all his successes are due to his magic sword.

Powers and Abilities
Ghirahim is an exceptionally powerful, dangerous, and obstreperous fighter, with immense speed, spryness, strength, and skills with weapons or hand-to-hand combat; being able to perform long dashes or incredible acrobatics with no effort, or burst his way through a huge mass of boulders in a single strike. Being a living weapon made to kill, this hardly comes as a surprise.

He is a master swordsman who can wield different types of swords with perfect expertise, to telegraph sword strikes precisely, or to catch his foe's blade with little effort and to pry it from his foe's hand. He mostly fights with rapier-like sabres and short-swords, either one of them or both, but can use a big claymore in serious fights. The more he reveals his true form, the mightier he becomes. Under his true form, his steel-like skin makes his limbs like weapons.

Ghirahim possesses immense powers, and displays extensive knowledge of magic and rituals. He is able to conjure objects out of thin air, to animate things into autonomous beings, to teleport, to perform telekinesis, to summon monsters, to control the weather, to conjure a giant tornado, to sense people's presence, to raise barriers of energy, and so on and so forth.

In battle, he can conjure diamond-shaped daggers that float in formation around him, serving as a defensive barrier, and are hurled toward his foes when he snaps his fingers. He can also send pillars of energy crash on the ground and infuse his hands with purple energy to increase the might of his blows.

Skyward Sword
"Next time I will do more than beat you senseless. I’ll make the affair so excruciating you’ll deafen yourself with the shrill sound of your own screams."

- Ghirahim, promising torment to Link should they meet again

Ghirahim encounters Link several times, as the latter is trying to rescue his childhood friend Zelda (in fact the human reincarnation of the goddess Hylia). In the beginning of the game, as Link and Zelda are riding Link's giant bird, Ghirahim conjures a tornado to make them fall to the surface. He goes to the Skyview Temple where Zelda is to capture her, but she is taken away by Impa. Ghirahim then encounters Link and decides to pummel him to calm his anger, but he is defeated. (It must be noted that Ghirahim held back.)

As Link is travelling the world to empower the Goddess Sword, Ghirahim goes to the Earth Temple after hearing that his monsters cornered Zelda here, only to find that Impa thwarted him again at the last minute. When Link arrives, he releases the monster Scaldera, but Link destroys it. Later, in the Ancient Cistern, he animates the gold statue Koloktos, who also gets defeated.

Ghirahim eventually catches up with Zelda and Impa in the Temple of Time. Impa conjures a magic barrier, but cannot hold him off for long and is nearly killed. Fortunately, Link's interruption allows them to escape through the Gate of Time, which Impa destroys to prevent the Demon Lord from following them.

When Link ventures in the Fire Sanctuary, he meets Ghirahim again, who just found about a second Gate of Time from the rooms illustrations. When Link arrives, Ghirahim offers to let Link go in exchange of the location of the Gate of Time, which he knows, but Link refuses. The two do battle and despite fighting much more seriously, Ghirahim is once again defeated.

After Link makes his wish with the Triforce to destroy Demise, Ghirahim barges in and takes down Link and Zelda with a pillar of energy. He makes quick work of Link's friend Groose and Impa, kidnaps Zelda and take her into the past (where Demise is still alive) through the Gate of Time. There, he starts a ritual to use her soul to release Demise from his imprisonment in the Sealed Grounds.

Link follows Ghirahim into the past and battles his way through the hordes of monsters sent by the Demon Lord to buy him time. (Ghirahim knows full well that his minions stand no chance but could not care any less.) Enraged by Link's meddling, Ghirahim fights Link at full power but ends up defeated for the third time. Alas, the battle took enough time for the ritual to be finished, and Demise is reborn.

Once his full power is restored, Demise transforms Ghirahim back into a sword; with Ghirahim laughing maniacally all the while, hinting that this is what the Demon Lord wanted all along. After Link defeats Demise, the sword dissolves into nothingness, presumably killing Ghirahim.

First Battle
Ghirahim calmly walks towards Link, who must strike away from his raised hand to deal damage, otherwise, he catches his blade between two fingers. If Link does not pry it from his grasp, he steals it, mocking his predictability, and strikes him with it. Blocking his blow with the shield sends it flying, enabling Link to take it back.

After taking enough damage, Ghirahim fights with a rapier-like sabre and starts teleporting, striking, launching dash attacks, conjuring waves of five daggers that can be struck and sent back at him, and parrying Link’s blows. Link must use well-timed attacks at unprotected parts to bypass the Demon Lord’s guard until he wins the skirmish.

Second Battle
The Demon Lord fights like he did before, but he is faster, spryer and can conjure up to four daggers, which he uses as defense, to block Link’s blows, and offence, when he fires them. Link must destroy the daggers before attacking, but Ghirahim can and will still catch his blade if Link does not catch him off-guard.

After taking enough damage, Ghirahim fights with both a sabre and a sword. He is faster and more dangerous than before, and has better defence, so beware. He teleports, deals normal strikes, double strikes, two strikes in succession, and dashes. When he jumps before teleporting, Link must run away for he will reappear in the air doing a powerful diving stab. Ghirahim can conjure a ring of daggers around him to send three successive waves, that can still be sent back, or around Link to be fired at once, forcing Link to destroy them all with a whirling blow.

Third Battle
"If only I’d put you in your place from the very beginning. Show a human a little mercy and next thing you know, he thinks himself as your equal! […] But instead of scurrying away like any creature with a basic instinct to survive, you just kept coming back. Again… and again… and again."

- Ghirahim

Ghirahim creates two platforms of energy floating in the sky, where he fights Link for the last time, under his metallic form. He fights with punches and high kicks, and if too close to the platform’s end, can catch Link to switch positions. He blocks blows with his forearms, or his hands infused with purple energy. Link must strike him repeatedly until he falls to the platform below, and follow him to land a Finishing Blow while he is down.

After doing it thrice, Ghirahim returns the platform to the ground and fights with a sabre. He teleports, lands stabs and downward strikes, fires energy discs from his blade which can be struck and sent back to stun him, and conjures a wave of daggers one after the other that must be blocked with the shield. Link must bypass his guard to strike his damaged core, but this proves quite uneasy, so stunning him with Shield Bashes when he strikes is advised. After taking enough damage, the Demon Lord conjures a massive Zweihander, which increase the range and strength of his strikes, and which he uses to block all of Link’s attacks. Link must strike the undefended side to destroy the Zweihander, and attack Ghirahim when he restores it, until the Demon Lord is dealt with once and for all.

Hyrule Warriors
Ghirahim serves as the true secondary antagonist in this game, inspired from the Dynasty Warriors series. He is summoned from the Skyward Sword era by the Black Witch Cia via the Gate of Souls, and he forms an alliance with Cia's vicious subordinate Volga. Together, Ghirahim and Volga plot an attack on Skyloft, releasing armies of monsters to prevent Link and his companions from reaching the Gate of Souls and deactivating it.

Both Ghirahim and Volga are temporarily defeated, but Ghirahim manages to escape to the Sealed Grounds where he personally protects the Gate of Souls. As Link and his followers arrive, Ghirahim summons The Imprisoned, Demise depowered form, to destroy them, though The Imprisoned is destroyed instead. As a last resort, Ghirahim fights Link once more but ends up being smashed through the Gate of Souls and sealed away.

Following Cia's death, Ghirahim is revived by Ganondorf along with Zant, and employed to serve him during his quest to obtain the Triforce. Ghirahim pledges obedience to Ganondorf, recognizing him as Demise's successor. He and Zant assist Ganondorf when he takes over Hyrule, and command his forces in the Gerudo Desert, but they are both defeated when the Hyrulean forces retaliate, and are once again and finally destroyed.

Ghirahim is also a playable character, unlockable in Adventure Mode. He is very fast and fights with the sabres, swords and flying daggers he uses during the boss battles against him. He can also cause platforms of energy to rise under his foes' feet before exploding; create barriers of dark energy around his foes or himself to blast them with dark energy; summon monsters; create an onslaught of daggers and swords from all directions; assume his final form to increase his might; and even assume his sword form to attack as if wielded by an invisible hand and cause devastating explosions of dark energy with his strikes.

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS
Ghirahim appears as an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS. When summoned, he witll teleport towards opponents and attack them by slashing his blade or by throwing daggers.

Trivia

 * In Ghirahim's first two forms, his right ear is pointed, whereas his left ear is round. However, in his final form, both ears are pointed. It is likely that the designers shortened his ear in the first forms to make animating his hair easier.
 * Ghirahim acts as the counterpart of Fi, as they are both the humanoid forms of swords. Ghirahim's weapon form resembles a dark version of the Master Sword. In addition, Fi is generally regarded as calculating and emotionless, while Ghirahim is very open and dramatic about his emotions.
 * When seen beginning the ritual to revive his master, Ghirahim can be heard humming his own theme music.
 * Ghirahim is similar to Zorg from The Fifth Element:
 * They are flamboyant villains who answer to a shadowy evil entity, but they drive the plot of the story.
 * They both have their hair draped over one eye.
 * They are both killed off before the heroes face the ultimate threat.