This one is long overdue, yes I did several skim on the game and only skim the important ones and I used to think that Ghirahim is still a cut. But after seeing the game, what's my stance on him now? I'm mellowed down a bit but I really really still think he's a cut but nearly. I just don't think that compared to some other Zelda villains, he really stacks out well. Anyways, for further elaboration, here's my proposal for him and regardless, I think this is one of the characters that deserve a dissection really:
What's The Work[]
Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is the Video Game from Legend of Zelda franchise that serves as a prequel of all Legend of Zelda games really. The story? I'll copy this from TV Tropes page:
"The story follows Link, a young man who lives in a land above the clouds called Skyloft, where knowledge of the surface below is all but lost. Among Link's friends in Skyloft is a girl named Zelda; Link wins Skyloft's annual bird-riding contest and he gets to take her out on a date afterwards. As they fly among the clouds, a dark whirlwind springs up around the two, separating them; Link's Loftwing saves him from his fall, but Zelda is lost to the surface. Upon returning to Skyloft, Link is visited by a mysterious being named Fi, the spirit who inhabits a weapon, hidden in the temple of Skyloft, known as the Goddess Sword.
In order to save Zelda and restore peace to Skyloft, Fi leads Link to a land below the clouds devoid of humans and inhabited by strange creatures facing an onslaught from monsters who seem just as interested in locating Zelda as Link. Link must travel back and forth between the surface and Skyloft in order to find Zelda and defeat the forces of the Demon Lord Ghirahim, the evil ruler of the surface world who is planning to use Zelda to awaken an even greater evil from a dark, bygone era."
Alright, so yes, once upon a time, there used to be a demon king that ravaged the land named Demise in order to steal the Triforce but he was sealed by the Goddess Hylia. As a result of this, his own living weapon, Ghirahim, tries to revive him and to that end, he needed Zelda to participate in his schemes because she is a Holy Maiden who happens to be the reincarnation of Goddess Hylia. With that said and clear, you know who's the guy going to be discussed right?
Who is He/What Has He Done[]
Ah yes, good ol' Ghirahim. Basically, he's actually a sword of Demise that takes a humanoid form and develop sentient thoughts. Seeing that his master was sealed, Ghirahim had no choice but to revived him and as a result, take an interest on the maiden who happens to be the reincarnation of Hylia, Zelda. To that end, after Link and Zelda finished the bird competition, Ghirahim then summoned a huge tornado that resulted on both Link and Zelda getting separated. (In the original EP that put him up, it is stated that his tornado Skyloft. This is...Inaccurate considered the fact that when Link and Zelda was separated by Ghirahim's tornado, they were truly far away from Skyloft really.)
Ghirahim is first encountered in the Skyview Temple at the surface where he tries his damnest to kidnap Zelda for his own purposes. When defeated, Ghirahim makes a promise that he will beat him to an inch of his life and retreats. Most of the time, Ghirahim just tries to capture Zelda who was escorted by her bodyguard named Impa from Temple to Temple with his own Bokoblin army that he created while also sic a huge monster to defeat Link while slowly descending to madness where the plans doesn't go on his way. (If he hasn't already)
Anyways, once Link manages to learn Song of the Heroes in order to get rid of Demise once and for all, Ghirahim then manages to kidnap Zelda and then perform a ritual to revive Demise by torturing her in a flamboyant version by I guess tickling her in the neck with his sword which Zelda responds painfully by that? While performing the ritual, Link attempts to stop it and retrieving Zelda's body which Ghirahim responded by sending a hoardes of Bokolbins towards Link, knowing that they will end in Link's blade and threatens them cuz why not.
After Ghirahim fights again with Link face to face, Ghirahim then threatens to torture him while fighting against him and despite being defeated, he successfully manages to revive Demise as Zelda's soul was consumed by Demise's soul while also gloating that the world belongs to darkness and belongs to his own master before being painfully turned as a sword by his master given that Ghirahim is a sword of Demise, it makes sense.
Why Doesn't He Qualify[]
Now here's where he get into the interesting part that I need to rant a little bit. Though I'm still mellowed down a little bit, I still think that I want to do a removal proposal to preserve some dignity left because I'm not a big fan when a character going up with a rather overexaggerated information which serves a bit of a red flags at the end, yes, you could argue that I have no rights to talk about this because I did the same thing too in the past but even then, I don't want to see anyone to be just like the negative version of myself just to get a candidate up that would strip away your dignity.
Anyways, what makes Ghirahim not count in my opinion? Well, as far as mitigating factors go, I will agree that moral agency is not an issue because Fi himself is a bit capable of moral choices despite she too being a sword even though she spent most of her time as an Exposition Fairy, although to be fair, her sacrifice to defeat Demise does seems like enough for her to possess a moral agency and the same goes with Ghirahim. And as far as I concerned, Ghirahim's devotion towards his master is mostly out of pure fanaticism at best and that's not even considered mitigating. Those are not the reasons why I think Ghirahim is not a slamdunk on this trope.
Instead, the reason why I don't think Ghirahim breaches this trope at all is possibly the high heinous standard that is Zelda. Alright, step aside folks because this is the one that I need to dissect. First argument, it is stated that he attacks Skyloft with his Tornado just to get Zelda and Link. That is inaccurate because like I said, Link and Zelda were far away from Skyloft when the incident's happening and this is from the cutscenes btw. No one in Skyloft feels rather threatened with Ghirahim's powers at all.
Secondly, well...I need to bring this up aren't I. According to the original proposal, Ghirahim and his army of Bokolbins "sow chaos and destruction across the land"... This is half-true half-false because most of the time, his army of Bokolbins are standing in the province that was seemingly "threatened" by Ghirahim to be defeated by Link.
However, there is one argument to be made that could favor his inclusion just barely that claims that Ghirahim did sow chaos and destruction and that's the stunts his bokolbin army pulls in Lanayru Mining Facility where they sabotaged the machine that keep the robot alive and at one point, sucked one of the robot's electricity our of him. Keep in mind that the robots themselves are pretty much sentient and capable of human thoughts. Other than that, you could also make an argument to me that Ghirahim also fatally wounded the Water Dragon, Faron, that she had no choice but to sit in the basin to heal her wounds.
That and due to the hoardes Ghirahim had sent and most of the time, doing nothing but standing in there, some of the dragons had no choice but to cause a natural disaster just to get rid of them. (With Faron's case, she flooded the woods just to get rid of the monsters although last time I checked, most of the races that aren't monsters were safe with no casualties at helm at the end of the day and the Fire Dragon, Eldin, attempts to erupt the volcano just to get rid of the Bokoblins.) I'm not sure if I had to call this sow chaos and destruction across the land because rarely was played at stake (Except if you include the Volcano one...Just maybe) but that's just me.
Even with that argument, considered the fact that Skyward Sword is basically the prequel to all Zelda games. That and the fact that they intertwined with each other, I need to compare Ghirahim to all other villains that committed heinous acts. As far as destruction that Ghirahim compared, my issue is that the likes of Veran and Zant are worse in comparison when it comes to sow destruction and misery across the land. With Veran's actions destroying the Tuni Nut that could keep a small town stable, petrifying people, responsible of wiping out sentient monkeys or mass slavery to name a few and Zant's actions on freezing Zoras population to their imminent doom or his actions on causing twilight to happen that turned people into nothing but helpless spirits? Yea...
And that's not even getting started with Majora and Ganondorf as well with the latter has killed, corrupted, and overall messed with a lot of people across three timelines and the former...Well he ruined tons of people's lives as well as trying to destroy entire environments. With Majora's list of crimes is that turning Link into a Deku Scrub, turning Kafei into a child days before his wedding, attacking Koume in Woodfall Swamp, shattering the Great Fairy into fragments, and cursing each of Termina's four regions via the Skull Kid himself (That's not even getting started on Majora's way on destroying environments is poison the water in the Southern Swamp and having Snowhead experiencing endless blizzard) so I'm not sure if Ghirahim stand out in that regard.
Another argument that I want to bring is the Bokolbins. Now here's the thing, yes...Monsters are people in Zelda's universe with the Bulblins from Twilight Princess being the examples. Uhhhh...The problem with this is that most of the Bokolbins that you fight against? Are mostly mindless as hell and created by Ghirahim himself with them just being nothing than a regular mooks. I really don't like this argument, I really do because if that's the case, I will argue that Zant from Twilight Princess is worse in that regard considered that the Shadow Beast Zant has been using is actually his own people too that has been turned into Shadow Beast and as a result, Link has no choice but to kill him. That's not even getting started with Chancellor Cole who from what I heard, sending several monsters to Link which is treated on the same level as Ghirahim sending his own monsters. And lots of villains like Ganondorf create some monsters too (Did I even need to start with Veran who basically sent her goons to kill a tree sapling or Zant creating his troops by turning his people into shadow beasts?...).
If we also use this argument, then I'll argue that Bowser is heinous enough because he sends his monster died by Mario's hands, nevermind the fact that the monsters are people too and the monsters that killed by Link? They are sentient people too which makes things a bit worse in that regard...See what I mean on why I'm not the biggest fan of this argument? Like I said, sure, monsters are people, but most of the monsters that Ghirahim sent are pretty much mindless mooks created by himself. Maybe the argument can be made a little bit during Link's trip on Eldin Volcano for the third time but I am unsure about this considered that I just feel with this argument, a lot of the villains like Zant would become worse in that regard compared to Ghirahim and that's my two cents.
Also, as for Ghirahim's Omnicidal Goals, sure he boasts that the world will return to darkness as Demise was also getting revived by Ghirahim himself. But...Uhhhh Omnicidal villains aren't uncommon in Zelda universe. Let's start with Majora who basically attempts to destroy Termina by performing a collision course with the moon, Veran poisoning the ocean which would make all life perish and then there's Yuga who attempts to reshape the world in his own image and that's not even getting on how he turns people into paintings. Oh and his master attempts Omnicide too because why not? So like I said, I'm not sure if Ghirahim himself stand out in that regard and him boasting that the world will return to darkness before returning to Demise doesn't help matters.
This only left us to one thing and that's his torture on Zelda when performing the ritual. You could argue that this is personal enough given Zelda is Link's friend and all. But I need to note that there is one villain that is almost similar to Ghirahim and that's Chancellor Cole. He's not only tried to revive his own master who I think is responsible for some destruction but also murdered Zelda for his own plans, maybe Ghirahim is worse because of the torture but I'm not sure on this. That and I feel the other villains also responsible with personal and more visceral crimes such as Veran who is responsible of mass slavery, Majora who had a crimes on turning Link into a Deku Scrub, turning Kafei into a child days before his wedding via Skull Kid to name a few, Cole who outright murders Zelda so that her body can be used as a host and Yuga who trapped people on paintings. Maybe Ghirahim is worse but I don't know where villains like Veran and Majora roaming around in Zelda.
So in short, I don't feel it with Ghirahim. If the game is non-canon and doesn't connect itself with Zelda's universe, then maybe I could see Ghirahim going up. But given that this game serves as a prequel to all of Zelda games? The heinous standard is kind of muddied a bit that I'm not sure if Ghirahim is even unique for this trope as other villains like Veran, Yuga, Zant, Ganondorf or Majora had done worse in that regard...
Final Verdict[]
Unsure...I think he's a cut and you better give me a goddamn convincing arguments on this one and even I mellowed down, I still lean cut due to him not being heinous enough compared to other Zelda villains. Also, when Ghirahim got successfully removed, I need to remind this: please don't add him to some categories like Affably Evil, Insecure, Tragic, Redeemed or Remorseful... JUST NO! Because Ghirahim is not those categories.