I love your post sksw hc ideas! one thing I'm curious about is how you percieve Ghirahim's interactions (if any) with the residents of Skyloft, since he naturally wouldn't seem very willing to speak with many people
Anybody who is able to understand german, read Skyward Sword: Glimpses PLEASE! Or, idk how good the language models are so far, translate it! It's so worth it AAAARRGGGHHH GRAAAAGGHHH!
Bc this fic is basically what I based my HCs on... the main difference is just that I didn't make Ghirahim a human and kept him a demon.
Anyway. I will start rambling now lol
Ghirahim thinks only the lowest of the people there at first. It's only Link he respects (since he is the best sword fighter alive and he is the best sword at hand, so in his mind this is only a natural fit) but would also not tell him that to his face. I think about their relationship a lot as Link saying what he feels without Ghirahim ever telling him such things at all (at least not in a language Link could understand) and instead showing it (sub)consciously in his behaviour and actions. Which includes trying to make himself fit in to a certain extent.
This would not be an overnight thing. It would take at least a year. And at the beginning I think he would avoid most contact outside of the one with Link at all. There's nobody he would respect to any amount and Groose would avoid him A LOT anyways and with Zelda it's complicated.
Zelda had to accept Link's decision (he would function as a voucher for Ghirahim and his actions and be responsible if anything went south) and even though it hurts her, she feels a bit responsible for him going that route.
Ghirahim would be extremely hesistant to face Zelda. In the grand scheme of things this wasn't a personal matter. And Zelda would understand that too. However, he still tried to kill her, so she wouldn't be too keen on reaching out to him in the first place.
[For me this whole thing is about facing and working through trauma/mistakes a bit and living life through your own terms and choices made by yourself and not a Goddess that planned out your existence. That's why Link would even come around to finding the sword at all.]
But Zelda is an emotionally intelligent person and she would see the difference in both of their behaviour/demeanour and relationship and would have to come around to accepting that this is good for Link (however shocking that might be) and it's even better for Ghirahim (however reluctant and negating he'd be). She would have to accept the loss as well and stop chasing a boy that still loves her more than anything but can't anymore in the way she dreamed about. And with that acceptance I think she would be the one to take the first step and approach Ghirahim more often.
This might come in small ways like seeking his advice on matters regarding the settlements, inviting both of them for a dinner explicitly or (and I think that would break the ice lol) asking him about anything fashion related. This would be a shared interest for them after all. They would get around to liking each other (which would be even more shocking) and they would have a talk about what happened and what is happening right now and bam! This is actually one of my favorite and absolutely most underdeveloped friendships in fandom!!! Like wake up people!!! They would be so fun together aaargh! Sorry. Back to the script.
With Zelda being friends with the demon, suddenly he wouldn't seem so scary and distant anymore. The beloved Goddess Hylia and the even more beloved Zelda spends so much time with this weird creepy man, he can't be that bad, right? And suddenly you have more and more people mustering up the courage to approach them. First only with either Link or Zelda around, then some even on their own.
At some point there would be talk about the residents needing to make more weapons to secure the settlements and surface more. Link would be quick to ask Ghirahim — who is a very talented blacksmith — to make a sword or two to show them his skill.
[Girlies (gn)... I love the HC that Ghirahim (a weapon) makes weapons in his free time!!! In my HC all weapons he uses (except for the rapier) are made by himself. I also love that Link does wood carvings and Ghirahim does metal work!!! Gggraaagghhh I love them so much i'm going to kms!!!]
And people would lose their mind over the quality. Suddenly Ghirahim sees himself at the end of admiration mixed with a bit of fear left in the back of people's minds. Exactly what he craves lol. I'm not sure if I want him to make a business model out of this as well or if it's a thing he does under Zelda... his swords would become smth of a status symbol... hmmm... in my fav fic he makes it a business which makes sense in the narrative (and omg Lebenssinn is so good you guys don't understand 😭😭😭) but idk how this would be handled in my HC...
But yeah! This is how it would play out over the timespan of at least 13 months... maybe a bit less, depending on the speed of the settlement... Groose would be also more willing to accept him around bc of Zelda but would never be like close friends with him to any degree. It's a "I trust you as far as I can trust Zelda and Link, but we don't need to get along" relationship that is very mutual.
Just rediscovered your Zelda art & it is DIVINE…you’re gonna make me relapse into skyward sword fandom if I’m not careful. Notice you ship Groose/Zelda, I can’t see the vision currently but I can see the edge of it just out of my grasp. You should sell me on it.
I'm really interested in learning more about how your opinion on BOTW soured so drastically.
Well let's go
So. Trust me when I tell you I was HYPED for this game. The first trailer came out (on the Wii U) and the game was still called Zelda U, that trailer had me in a chokehold. I was on deviantart back then and still remember drawing fanart already for it! (That acc is nuked don't even try...)
This was my first zelda release after all, so obv I was sweating over all the news that came out around it. (I also picked out the first location I wanted to go to based on the trailer (Twin Peaks)) And when the game got released, I had to wait 3 months more until my birthday to play it (bless my mom for buying me the special edition 🛐) so the hype was extra hyped 😭
And yeah... the first time playing this game... I feel like I almost know how people back in 1998 felt with Ocarina of Time. We all had this one moment of "...wow..." but yeah... that held like.... 50h for me... WHICH IS A LONG AMOUNT OF TIME!!! DON'T GET ME WRONG! (I have 230h+ in this game) and then I was REALLY just kinda fed up with it and wanted to get it over with... I really had the feeling of "no actually. I don't wanna play this anymore." (After like 60h playtime) and went to ganon.
So as you can maybe tell I left the game with the feeling "...that's it...?" Like I was actually disappointed. BUT(T) I have to say here i'm all for the story and puzzles in zelda games! I love having that "aha!"-moment and feeling like the dumbest smartest mf of all time. Skyward sword was my first zelda game and well. I loved that so hard I might have gotten lasting brain damage from it... so you can tell I got that zelda formular in its most formulaic instilled in me...
Then my interest on botw just kinda didn't exist until a-perplexing-puzzle posted Pinesong (I was following her back then bc of her ghiralink fanfics, especially BBN) and at first I ignored it and rolled my eyes when I got the notif mails until like chapter 3 was released and I went "FINE!" and read it... well. Cried like a baby. Got into revalink, got into the story, got into the characters... and boom. Obsessed. AND NOT UNJUSTIFIED! The game has an amazing silent story, you just really need to explore (ha ha) it. I loved all the themes it carried.
Then aoc came out AND THAT WAS MY GAME LET'S GOOOOOOOOOO. No but fr it was all I could ask for. I loved the champions, loved the past and the story beats surrounding it. SO YES! THAT'S MY SHAYLA! It was a fanfic game and oh boy did I want a fanfic game, so for me... there wasn't really much left that I could want...?
Then botw 2 was announced and hell yeah, I was excited and then it just... didn't release...? Like... Nintendo... if you need half a century to get the game out, don't announce it yet... so just over time my hype for the game got lost naturally... And ik that most people around that time that really LOVED zelda (classic) got fed up with the hype around the modern games. Bc I think it's just natural to develope a bit of resentment for something that belittles the thing you enjoyed so much. I had A LOT of practise with that, skyward sword was never the popular game, let's be real here. And even I got to a point where I thought "you all cannot be for real? Botw was not a perfect masterpiece. And everything before that was not trash..." I heard a lot of people saying stuff like "that's how the game is supposed to be! It's like the NES original!" and a subfandom surrounding the modern games developed more and more and that gatekeeping feeling creeped up more and more (which I hate).
Totk was out and – even tho I was already kinda out of zelda – I really hoped the game would have you play as Link in the past and Zelda in the present (kinda what skyward sword had planned, where you would play both stories) and become the first hero. BUT NO! They took the easiest and laziest way possible (that's modern Nintendo for ya ngl) and deleted all of botw and put totk over it...
Since I was never a big fan of the open world formular (I hate not getting told what to do... I hate it... I wanna experience something and not make the experience myself, just a personal preference) and mostly clicked with the story through fandom, this game basically erased all that since I can't really enjoy anymore what I did enjoy bc there is a set in stone story... I have to live with the fact that everything that I thought would be neat post botw is now down the drain, so what is actually holding my sympathy for this game now? Nothing...
The game left me feeling fed up and in the end a bit bitter, the fandom has moved on from the things that held my interest and the game GENRE (bc yeah! Zelda is a genre you can fight me over it!) is changing so drastically with no sight of a u-turn in the near future that I had to ask myself: "what is there left for me to love about this franchise?"
Yes, ofc I still love all the games before but that love fell dormant sadly... and that for the BIGGEST love I e v e r felt for a franchise... still insane to me...
TLDR:
Botw was in the end the reason I fell out of love with the franchise and so I kinda hold a grudge against it, even tho I had amazing moments through/bc/with the game and especially in the fandom!
Besides SS, are there other Zelda games you like? :o
OFC! Pretty much all of them (well... except for the modern games tbh 😔... (even tho botw will always make me feel a bit 🤏 soft inside))
In an alternate universe I would be the BIGGEST Twilight Princess fan! I love this game and its world SO MUCH!
I'm also a big lover of the DS games... especially Phantom Hourglass 😭 ik people hate this game but my taste in zelda is usually the things the majority hates so... who cares lol
I'm more of a 3D-zelda enjoyer overall! These games usually lean more towards the story-heavy side and I grew up with the N64/GameCube so it makes sense...
The first zelda I actually "played" was Ocarina of Time (with 4 years or smth... a bitch could not read, so I just ran around in Kokiri Forest 😭 and was scared to leave lol), and I did the same with Wind Waker and Twilight Princess.
AND THE FIRST ZELDA GAME I ACTUALLY PLAYED PLAYED was Skyward Sword ✌️😔
