#*cogitation

[echoinglight]

Hey do you still write Ghiralink? Because I had this idea years ago about Ghirahim meeting fierce deity Link, and it somehow never occurred to me to ask anyone to write about it?????? Wasn't anything with a plot really, just skyward sword link somehow finding the mask and trying it on to surprise ghira or something, and ghirahim finding him suddenly and upsetting handsome.

HOLY SHIT this ask is from a long time ago but I haven’t been in my inbox in awhile and apparently I just Didn’t Get A Notif thanks tumblr. anyway

yes I very much still write ghiralink and I’m obsessed with this idea ajkshskdf like I always thought that Fierce Deity was like… this absolutely larger than life character I mean does no one else get absolutely floored by the fact that he’s… a GOD… AN ACTUAL GOD WITH THE WHOLE GODLIKE POWER AND EVERYTHING. WHAT THE FUCK. so I just really love him as a character, as a device, as everything he is and can be bc we’re given a very fallible character this infallible persona and it just fucks me up bc of the possibilities? I would LOVE Ghirahim meeting Fierce Deity, because Ghirahim is all civility and sanctity so he would be absolutely enthralled with FD - but he’s also incredibly powerful and I feel like we never really see the extent of his powers in SS (I’ve talked about this at length before) so putting a God and a Demon in the same room would be like. electricity crackling, man. their dynamic would be so good

but ALSO I mean it’s relatively unclear if the Fierce Deity’s power is wielded by Link, or if the mask possesses the spirit of the Fierce Deity itself and putting it on allows it to control Link, or a combination of both. so Sky putting it on and assuming that form would be fascinating bc it’s like, is he still in there? is Ghirahim still talking to Sky, a version of Sky funneled through the mask, or an entirely different entity? ohohoho spoooooky

ultimately yes though let me tell you the dilemma of Ghirahim finding the Fierce Deity form to be maddeningly handsome would be extremely real. mmmMMM

[echoinglight]

imagine zelda being all protective and motherly like towards link when link and ghirahim first get together. she even goes as far as to say to ghirahim "if you harm a single hair on his head, i will end you..." and ghirahim constantly having to reassure her that no harm will come to link and that he will protect his master with his life

oh my gosh this is great because this is pretty much how i think of it but you put it into words!!!! 

like Zelda is all suspicious of Ghirahim and has all these talks with Link about it (that when heard from the outside are basically just “my son is getting close to that no-good greaser” ghfjs) and Link keeps reassuring her, even back when he too was nervous, that its gonna be okay but she still worries and always really stiffly confronts Ghirahim about his “effect” on Link. they already hav e this tense relationship that’s just made worse by the fact that she’s unsure what his intentions are even though he’s actually being honest

Ghirahim always replies really arrogantly or flippantly until finally one day, when he and Link have truly worked out a lot of their relationship, he looks at her with such seriousness and bows his head low as he tells her he only wants to protect Link and she’s like. completely floored because Ghirahim rarely addresses her without a smirk on his face or disdain in his voice

she always has that motherly haughtiness to her around Ghirahim but she starts trying to be more easy going for Link’s sake because well. Link does seem to be recovering and Ghirahim hasn’t majorly fucked up yet

i love this dfhgjk i feel like Zelda’s relationship with Ghirahim doesn’t get factored in as much as it could considering she will still be a major part of Link’s life so it’s something i really try to put thought into omg

[echoinglight]

Aaaaaa that's so amazing But consider also: drunk ghira

yes… yes

I think Alisha @siaitama and I talked about this and I wanted to write it omg??? like it takes forever but Ghirahim FINALLY gets drunk and hes just a ridicULOUS FUCKING SAP like all over Link saying he’s the best master ever and oh my gods hjdfghdkf it’s silly and it makes my heart happy i have got to write this one day

[echoinglight]

Ghiralink but Ghirahim being utterly, hopelessly clumsy. Also drunk ghiralink??

HONESTLY THERE’S NOT ENOUGH CLUMSY GHIRAHIM???? IT GIVES ME SO MUCH LIFE LIKE JUST IMAGINE THE POSSIBLITIES. Like Link being horribly cute and Ghirahim absolutely losing his shit oooohhhh my godssss. like it’s obvious to have Ghirahim being all suave and collected but that makes the moments he loses his cool that much better. fucken, Link is being all sad and Ghirahim is like oh uh okay im gonna. yeah im gonna do a comforting... thing??? thats what humans want, right??? so he’ll stop being boring and sulky?????? idk okay i got this I GOT THIS and he accidentally insults Link instead and he’s like ah damn that was ACTUALLY UNINTENTIONAL um. fuck this is hard and Lin k is just ??????? are u trying to be... nice... what but of course Ghirahim is trying to get his 2Cool ass back together and failing miserably

Link realizing that the only thing Ghirahim Actually Knows™ about humans is the little he has observed and maybe read (aka. little to nothing about their daily lives) and Ghirahim constantly fucking up at like what is this thing humans need, what is this human tradition, why the fuck do you do these things you do and Link is endlessly amused by getting to basically teach Ghirahim about his world while Ghirahim is just like uuuuhhhhh what is happening. what is the point in this

THERE IS ACTUALLY SOME DRUNK GHIRALINK HERE BUT IF YOU WANT ME TO WRITE SOME CLUMSY DRUNK GHIRAHIM RN I WILL DO MY BEST

[echoinglight]

the best part about being roxas is that if you're not sora you're suddenly somehow ventus??? like c'mon people did you not?? see the meaning of his struggle that wouldn't solve anything :/// but thank you for that rant bc I consistently describe the scene in 3D as Roxas being resigned/exhausted bc how much effort does it take to exist inside a person who is trying to absorb you?? and after you accept that he's a good person?? I could say a lot more but word limit, just wanted to thank you !!

>>the post in question

I KNOW RIGHT it’s like, say he escapes from the obsession others have that he’s Sora - next thing he would get is oh hey you’re Ventus, and uh you now need to give yourself up for HIM so he can live. No matter what, Roxas is caught in the position of “stop whining and do it because you have to or people will die” when it’s not nearly as simple as that. He’s not throwing a fit because he’s a stubborn selfish brat, he’s legitimately aching and traumatized because he never asked to be brought into existence but now that he is, he’s expected to give it up as though his feelings don’t matter? Like I love Sora and Ventus very, very dearly as well and I want them to be able to live their lives too, but… wow it’s awful that Roxas basically has to die for that. I think too many people see it like “but without Roxas, Sora and Ventus won’t be whole/alive (?) and that’s tragic especially because Sora is the hero!!!!” and fail to realize that “but… then Roxas will die, and it doesn’t matter how many people (or whose life is considered ‘more important,’ holy shit) that saves - no one is under any obligation to give up their life to save others.” Martyrdom is way too commonly expected, which is awful! You’re not a bad person for literally wanting to keep your life.

So this is way too much of a decision to be on his shoulders, and it’s no wonder he eventually stops fighting it since literally almost no one will accept him for who he is. It’s hard to stand completely alone against wave after wave of being told you don’t matter. and oh god now my heart hurts really bad I’m sorry to make this even heavier

ajfgdjfdjhk so you’re welcome!! I’m really happy to hear the agreement because I feel like this is a super important thing for the game, for many teenagers in general, and for me personally to have others understand. so thank you for talking about it with me (sorry I ended up expanding the rant fghjksdg it’s just. amazing to talk to someone who gets it). ;O;

[echoinglight]

so lately I’ve been thinking a lot about Roxas (oh surprise) and I’m getting increasingly confused by how he seems to be received. all I ever really hear about him is that he’s “a whiny brat,” or “a cute smol child,” or people commenting on his being “temperamental and hot-headed.” he seems to get blamed a lot, or outright ignored. what I don’t see is anyone talking about why he’s so angry (and how it’s entirely justified), and I definitely do not see anyone talking about how Roxas made the greatest sacrifice he (or honestly anyone) possibly could... and that’s really heartbreaking when you realize what his struggle truly is. 

I’d like you to imagine that you popped into existence one day - you’re a teenager, you don’t know where you are, you don’t know how you got there, you don’t even know your name. all you know is that you are alive. but - wait. next thing you know, you have people telling you that you don’t exist. all of the confusion and passion and pain you possess... it isn’t real. you aren’t real, nor do you have the right to be. but what the hell - you didn’t ask for this! you didn’t ask to live, you didn’t have any say in your creation, but what you do know is that you very much do exist because... you’re standing and thinking right now. then you get told that not only do you not exist, but there is someone out there who is the “real” you. there’s someone who deserves to live more than you, has an identity more real than you, that is more valid than you and in fact, you should give yourself up for him. you are told this over... and over... and over. by everyone. you start to lash out at them, because jeez, man! you barely know who you are, and now you’re already being constantly invalidated! you start to get angry, and mistrustful, and defensive, and downright miserable. you want out. you don’t want to be around people who think of you as a nobody anymore. all you want to do is learn who you are. so you leave.

it’s not Roxas’s fault that Xemnas freaked the fuck out and sent a damn retrieval squad after him. Roxas might have even been friends with the organization members, had they not insulted his identity constantly. he was angry, and hurt. when he was back in Sora, his rage leaked into Sora’s heart, and he lashed out at the people who had forced him to give up his life.

see like... eventually... Roxas got fucking tired. his admission of “it has to be you” sounds less to me like an understanding of himself as lesser, but an understanding that he will never ever escape everyone else viewing him as such. Roxas will never be looked at like a complete being unless people are seeing him with Sora’s face. All Roxas ever wanted was to live, and be Roxas, and in the end he had no choice but to do the exact opposite. in the end, he had to give up being Roxas to be Sora, because no one would acknowledge him otherwise. and if that is not the most heart shattering thing a person could do, I don’t know what is.

[echoinglight]

Also, I feel like the reason Ghirahim has his own feelings and self control in a sense, is because he got them over time. However, because his mind wasnt sure how they worked, and how to control them, he became a litteral flurry of emotions, slowly going crazy, and becoming phsycotic and very unstable. IMO of course

oh wow that’s an interesting way to view his character! I’ve never thought of it like that. that’s actually super cool and would make sense where he’s just like hO W dDO e mOTIOSn????? I’ve been playing around with a lot of different ideas of his origins myself and honestly he’s just so fascinating to try and make sense of because wow there’s a lot going on there

I’ve thought of him as perhaps being an already existent demon who was bound to a blade, which would be wild to go through how that happened and affected him. there’s also a lot of theories of him being created by Hylia before, after, or at the same time as Fi, and these seem to have some super credibility considering the fact that he has his own version of a Skyward Strike. but most of those theories have to do with the fact he was created/born with so much individuality and emotional instability that he was rejected - so to think he was the same as Fi and came into his own is something that could really be expanded into a lot of things.

[echoinglight]

So, heres the thing about Ghirahim and Demise. Ghirahim doesnt like Demise, he simply has a blade-master relationship, like Fi and Link. Therefore, Ghirahim's main goal is to serve his master until Demise's goal has been reached, or has been permanently sealed. Ghirahim couldnt give a shit less about him otherwise. Ghirahim is also immensely into pain, or thats how it seems, and why he laughs near the end, when he becomes Demise's blade

I’m not sure if this is an agreement or disagreement with my point aaahh but I mean, in a sense, yeah. Ghirahim doesn’t care about Demise. But I think his bond with his master has the potential to be incredibly deep and connecting if allowed, because the difference between Ghirahim and Fi is that he possesses emotions, free will, and individual thought. So Demise most likely pressed Ghirahim into service by simply claiming him, so then Ghirahim was stuck with it. Which is fine, I mean, yeah, he inherently holds a sense of loyalty to whomever his master is. But that craving for a bond would never be satisfied by Demise. 

Not only that, but Ghirahim has a very strong sense of pride, especially in the work he does for his master... he would appreciate praise. And quite obviously, Demise doesn’t care for Ghirahim as a living thing at all. He didn’t say a damn word to him when Ghirahim brought him back to life after a thousand years of hard work. And especially going by how Ganondorf talked to him in HW, it’s safe to say that when Demise did speak to him, it wasn’t anything nice. So Ghirahim is being constantly disrespected by his own master, treated like little more than a tool to be used and ignored. So while he could remain apathetic, he’s an incredibly emotion-driven and prideful being, and he’s being mistreated by the one he’s contractually bound to. And... that’s gonna hurt. Maybe not in a lay down crying way because that’s not how Ghirahim is, but in an internally breaking way, in a resentful way, in a way that when he is finally treated well he won’t even know what to do with the relief. 

You know, I never read his laughter in that scene as masochistic. It always sounded incredibly grating and sorrowful to me... here’s how I wrote it by putting those emotions through Link’s eyes: 

“He wanted it to stop. He wanted Ghirahim to stop laughing – at least scream instead. Somehow that would make it more bearable. But not this. It was a sound of utter defeat, and despair – he laughed like there was simply nothing else for him to do.”

I think there’s a lot of just, worn out pain in the demon lord, but it’s not in a way he would ever truly advocate for himself ever. So I’m just... doing it for him, I guess, because it pains me - tbh I feel he would probably be irritated by my pity, but appreciative of my recognition, so.