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scrawnytreedemonAKA Attempts to Outline a Groose/Ghirahim Fanfic I’ve Had Planned Since I Was 13 (Wow!); Reflections on Character Dynamics, Gender Expression and Slash Shipping in Skyward Sword’s Fandom.
Actually using my blog as a blog? Can you believe it! But yeah, post is what it says on the tin; it’s an odd topic with quite a bit of background, so I figured it’d be interesting to unpack.
(This is a long one, chaps, 3k words - Buckle up.)
One of the fanfic archetypes that was and still is common for this ship is the post-game new master scenario. As the name implies, with Demise dead and Fi sealed, Ghirahim and Link attempt to fill the void with each other. Plots vary wildly, but common themes involve Link struggling with a lack of purpose and unresolved trauma, his estrangement from his loved ones (especially Zelda) as they fear for him and the likelihood of demonic influence and how that stands to imperil the community, the tension as to how loyal (if at all) Ghirahim is to his foe-turned-master and if he is truly exerting the covert, supernatural manipulation everyone else suspects him of, and of course the erotic slow burn of battle-sparked chemistry, moral conundrums, and if co-existence (let alone companionship) is even possible between them.
To put it succinctly (albeit crudely): This Bitch Toxic, Can We Save Him? (The answer is usually “yes.”)
At around the same time, a common theory in the Skyward Sword fandom was one positing Groose as a sort of proto-Ganondorf, owing to their similarities with his red hair, yellow eyes, broad stature and antagonistic disposition, bound by Demise’ curse to reincarnate alongside Link and Zelda but always doomed to be set against them, or as an ancestral father of the Gerudo and thus Ganondorf’s biological forebearer. It’s not one I really hold to anymore, nor does it seem to crop up with the frequency it used to, but it is a foundational element of this discussion. Combine that with the tendency then (which still crops up now) to view Ganondorf as a more direct incarnation of Demise himself as opposed to just inheriting or being strongly affected by his karmic hatred, and you can see how this all begins to fit together.
And so with a brain purpose-built for connecting things together that do not belong together with red string and thumbtacks, 13 year old me did just that. It went a little something like:
“If Groose is the forerunner of Ganondorf, and Ganondorf is the primary incarnation of Demise, and this is all presumably because Demise’ purpose would be to weaponise Groose against Link and Zelda in an act of karmic malice, wouldn’t that make him a suitable inheritor for Ghirahim? Demise might not even need to have targeted Groose at all, if Ghirahim, who was present for the pronouncement of the curse, sees an opportunity to avenge his master and punish his enemies in one fell swoop by entangling Groose within it.”
And there I had it: fuel for a unique fic that no one else seemed keen to tap into, and a new rarepair to stake out myself in a deed of crack-brained pioneering. It would provide an excellent opportunity to explore these volatile characters in a way rarely seen, and serve as a dissection of the new-master trope I was fond of as I interrogated its workings and assumptions. At the very least, it was bound to tilt a few heads.
So I got to plotting. The story as I had began drafting it in early 2018 went as follows:
It had been some years after the events of the game, with Link and Zelda choosing to dwell on the Surface while Groose remained in Skyloft, having recently become captain of the knights. The people of Skyloft are debating whether to begin colonising the Surface, and have decided to put the matter to a vote. Groose, all too aware of the perils of the Surface and unsettled by the prospect of such a tremendous upheaval, has significant reservations about the whole ordeal. Additionally, while he has reformed and proven himself a worthy knight, Groose struggles to form close bonds with most of his former classmates turned coworkers on account of his hostile past, which is exemplified when Pipit and Karane host a class-reunion at their place and his very presence makes the atmosphere awkward and uneasy.
To make matters worse, he can’t shake this sense of mounting dread, like he’s being watched. One night when he’s coming home, a usually friendly remlit swipes at him with no warning in the middle of him petting it. He tries to brush it off as cat-shenaniganery, but can’t help being reminded of how Batreaux’s demonic presence had turned them toward aggression. It’s as he struggles to doze off that he recognises where he felt this unease last: the Sealed Grounds, looking down into the pit where Demise lay. It’s then, fueled by the determination to find out what’s causing this evil presence, that he heads out to the Waterfall Cave with nothing but a lantern and a sword — And who does he find at the end outside but Ghirahim, cracked, and splintered, and hungering for a new host.
Ghirahim starts waxing poetic about threads of fate, goes swordmode as he beseeches Groose to wield him, and for some reason the sheer dark allure of this huge, powerful blade is enough to get Groose to abandon all sense to take Ghirahim up and become his new master.
From there, Groose would have had to keep Ghirahim a secret and maintain a tight leash on him as the people of Skyloft commenced their colonisation of the Surface. They’d scour the land for a place to settle, braving the terrors of this alien world and fighting monsters along the way. Ghirahim would begin to worm his way into Groose’ mind, plucking at all his old insecurities and driving him, slowly but surely, from his community and into the darkest recesses of his mind. The seduction would come into play as the tension ratchets up, with Groose grappling with his sexuality and falling under Ghirahim’s influence as he depends on him more and more. Whether Ghirahim returns these feelings and to what extent or if he’s just toying with him to get him where he needs is, in true new-master fic fashion, a major point of tension.
The ending could have gone all sorts of ways depending on how the story developed, but the one I remember planning at the time was one where Ghirahim succeeds in transforming Groose into the new demon king by polluting him with malice from the monsters he’s slain and poisoning his mind, forcing Link and Zelda to either seal or kill him, cementing his place in the cycle of hatred. Alternatively, it would have been Ghirahim who takes Demise’ place as sovereign and enslaves Groose as his blade, which would then follow onto the fic I was writing at the time, Raijin.
Very poetic, very angsty, lots of opportunity for character growth (if of a decidedly malignant variety), action and worldbuilding.
Just one problem:
What on earth could possibly make Groose willing to take up Ghirahim as his sword to begin with?
No amount of repressed bitterness, jealousy, entitlement or inflated pride was going to make Groose forget that this creep, this freak kidnapped Zelda with the intent of using her soul to revive an entity hellbent on subjugating the world, the very evil that had forced them above the clouds to begin with — NOR the fact that he kicked granny and insulted his hair!
While pride cometh before destruction, it is also this very pride and oftentimes futile striving toward heroism that inoculates Groose against such fatal seduction.
This stumped me. No matter how hard I tried, I could not think of a convincing way to circumvent this. And so the draft remained frozen at that moment when Groose raised the sword, wincing at the clang of Ghirahim’s metallic voice ringing in his head, and gathered dust, for years.
I had severely underestimated how vital Link’s personal contact with Ghirahim was in binding the whole scenario together.
With no ache for a phantom limb, no conflicted feelings about the thrill of battle or wondering about his compulsive mercy to muddy the waters, Ghirahim remains one thing and one thing alone: an aberrant threat that must be stopped.
Some of the other elements don’t quite add up either. The current captain of the knights, Eagus, is firmly in the prime of his life during the events of the game, so it’s unlikely he’d be retiring anytime soon. Additionally, while I can see Groose becoming a competent knight, his true calling seems to be in constructing machinery, so his place in the military (if we can call it that) at the start of the story would be better served managing armament. This isn’t to say his role won’t become more traditionally active once they’re on the Surface and he’s equipped with Ghirahim, but starting points are important, especially in a story that chronicles a rise and fall like this. Also Ghirahim shows up way too early in the narrative. He’s better off sizing Groose up from afar and subtly influencing him (if this is even a plausible option for him), and it’d make more sense for them to have their first meeting after Groose arrives on the Surface and has been there long enough for the weight of the task to have worn him down enough to even entertain the idea of an alliance.
The actual circumstances leading up to (and thus justifying) the meeting continue to be difficult to set up, but at least at this point I figure it’ll likely involve some horrible combat incident or an attack on the camp that kills at least one of (if not more) of Groose’ squadmates, bringing into sharp relief the perils of the Surface and the powerlessness of the Hylians against it (which will also serve as justification on Groose’ part for wielding Ghirahim behind his community’s back — It’s for everyone’s good, really. This is his burden to bear).
But considering all the trouble I have to go through to even set the stage for this story, to the point that this fic made no progress for more than half a decade, I think it’s fair to ask… Why even pair them at all?
You want a pessimistic deconstruction of the Ghiralink new-master fic trope, why not just do that? If you want to explore Groose regressing into old vices and becoming an agent of evil through his fall from grace, why do you need to involve Ghirahim? Hell, you could even have Groose obtain Ghirahim’s sword without knowing who it is, and have the chaos unfold regardless without Ghirahim making himself known until the end.
The answer to that is that I think these two mirror each other in interesting ways.
Ghirahim within the narrative of Skyward Sword serves as a foil to most of the characters within the main cast: namely Link, Fi, Impa, and key to this discussion, Groose. The most clear parallel within the story itself is that he, Link and Groose are all united by their pursuit of Zelda; Link by love, duty and fate, Groose by a desire to receive her romantic affections, and Ghirahim by his enduring loyalty and its consummation in his millennia-long goal to revive his master.
Both Groose and Ghirahim define themselves by their perceived superiority to Link: Ghirahim through his social rank and combat prowess, and Groose through his masculinity and fitness as a potential partner. Both men are repeatedly rebuked for their arrogance, with Groose eventually realising he has his own part to play in protecting the world and developing respect for Link, and Ghirahim reeling from the fact that he, a sword, has been well and truly bested in combat by Link, struggling to comprehend how he allowed this child to outgrow him. Groose finds purpose in his craft, while Ghirahim fulfils his by reviving his master (only to have this labour then squandered by said master…).
Even on a superficial level, there’s plenty to compare and contrast: both are tall, muscular, flamboyant men with associations to knighthood. Both of their designs seem to be influenced by Ganondorf, with Ghirahim’s design explicitly stated to contrast his, and Groose’ seemingly intended to call back to it (albeit with heavy inspiration from Minish Cap’s Wind Tribe). They each bear a resemblance to the Gerudo; Groose for obvious reasons, while Ghirahim shares the pale lipstick, diamond earring, large cat-like eyes and sultry Orientalist flair characteristic of their Ocarina of Time appearance. If you really want to want to go full red-string-corkboard about it, it’s worth mentioning that they both have a red lozenge-cut gemstone on their outfits: Groose as a brooch for his mantle, and Ghirahim as the clasp on his belt.
One of their key differences involves gender expression. Ghirahim is a slender androgyne modelled off of stereotypes surrounding effeminate gay men, largely with the intent of conveying him as someone strange, humorous, unnerving, and ultimately predatory. Groose, by contrast, exudes machismo to the point of absurdity, with his main bullying targets (i.e. Link and Fledge) being young men he seems to deem as weak, undisciplined, and emasculated. Ghirahim likewise enjoys emphasising Link’s boyishness as something to ravage and break. Thus it can be argued that they represent male excess, with Ghirahim so feminine as to invoke an unnatural dissolution of sexual and gendered boundaries, and Groose masculine to the point of delusion and parody, with Link balanced firmly in the middle.
Many a ship founds its appeal on the clash and contrast between the parties involved; Ghiralink itself follows this pattern, with disparities in age, class, size, personality, presentation and moral values. I have demonstrated a similar trend between Ghirahim and Groose, with the added factor that they are both conceived as antagonist figures who contrast Link.
An eternal spectre hanging over the environment of any slash ship is the seme-uke dynamic endemic to Japanese BL media (top-bottom in broader parlance). The way this usually presents itself is with the older, taller, more assertive man taking the role of the seme, who provides, and conversely his younger, smaller, more submissive partner taking the role of the uke, who receives. The seme is almost always portrayed as more masculine and the uke as more feminine, even if this does not hold true to the actual presentation and mannerisms of the characters in their canon material. This approach usually follows the clean delineation of each partner into the dichotomy of lover and beloved, pursuer and pursued, protector and protected, wolf and lamb.
I bring this up, because despite sharing many similarities with Ghiralink, Groose and Ghirahim’s ship dynamic does not appear to be amenable to this trend. I believe this is for a few reasons:
Despite being close in (if not the same) age as Link, Groose is significantly taller than him and thus does not share a notable height gap with Ghirahim, and has a broader build than either of them (at least in reference to Ghirahim’s customary demonic form); he is aggressively, stereotypically masculine, and is seen actively pursuing Zelda, where other potential-ukes might be more passive or egalitarian in their approach to their love interests; this masculinity contrasts starkly with Ghirahim’s femininity, where Link’s does not and might even be seen as mild or diminished in contrast to Ghirahim’s bombast. Because of this, despite his older age, greater power and higher status, Ghirahim cannot so easily claim de-facto semehood as he might in other pairings.
Am I saying this pairing is egalitarian and lacks power imbalance? No — Ghirahim is a millennia old demon lord with a penchant for sadism and Groose is an insecure teenage boy — But what I am saying is that the shape, the texture this ship demands a level of negotiation that might not be pursued in similar pairings as the cut and dry dynamics that equate topping with dominance and bottoming with submission which so often crop up in slash discourse do not apply so cleanly here. A choice has to be made: whether you favour Ghirahim’s seniority, or Groose’ machismo, and how.
This is especially muddled in the fic on which this whole discussion hinges, as Groose is a young man in his early to mid twenties with a career, responsibilities to his community, and is positioned as Ghirahim’s master. Groose may very well see himself as the final authority on everything that happens in the relationship, and any overt power-grappling done by Ghirahim might be viewed in the same light a husband views his nagging wife — She’s getting out of hand forgetting her place, as feminine nature is wont to dictate. What this obscures, of course, is that there are decidedly feminine ways of wielding dominance in a relationship, many of which rely on subtlety and the assumption of the masculine party that he’s really in control, and whose influence can run all the deeper and inspire even more dependence for it.
I cannot say if or when this fic will be ready for posting. I can agonise for months, if not years over little oneshots; multi-chapter fics are not my forte. That being said, I find this fic and pairing as a whole such a rich confluence of fandom habits and attitudes and have been mulling over this for almost a decade with no indication that anyone else has come to the same place that I have. This post also ended up way longer and detailed than I intended — I’m currently sitting at 6 pages and 3k words for a post I started yesterday evening and assumed would be published in the next few hours. Not so!
I hope this has been food for thought, regardless of whether or not you’re personally interested in this ship.
