Groose

“	You know, we're all getting tired of how you never let anyone you and Zelda go way back. You've been friends since you were kids? Big deal. It doesn't change the fact that you float through life with your head in the clouds. Would you wake up, straighten up, and grow a backbone already? Dopes like you are dragging our honored academy through the mud.	„
	~ Groose bullying Link.

“	Nah, don't worry about me. I'm gonna hang back here, Link. That stupid monster doesn't know when to quit, and Grannie here keeps yapping on and on about how we never know when it might bust free again. Someone's gotta stick around and guard the place. Might as well be me. Besides, if I'm not here, who's gonna look out for the old girl? And you know what… Naw forget about it…	„
	~ Groose accepting his role and vowing to guard the Sealed Grounds.

Groose is a major character of the 2011 action-adventure game The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. He is a knight-in-training from Skyloft and the rival to the main protagonist, Link.

Initially an egotistical bully who antagonizes Link, vies for Zelda's affection, and deludes himself into thinking he's the Chosen Hero, Groose's arrogance is shattered upon reaching the Surface and realizing how powerless he truly is. After accepting that he is not the hero of the story, Groose slowly warms up to Link and becomes one of his most valuable allies in the quest to stop Ghirahim from freeing the Imprisoned.

Biography[]

Groose is first seen jumping off Skyloft with Cawlin and Strich to summon their Loftwings as they go to capture Link's Crimson Loftwing and placed planks in a small opening to prevent it from escaping. Off-screen, Fledge witnesses this, but Groose coerces him to not to tell anyone about it. It was on the day of the Wing Ceremony, where students participate in order to graduate to the next class, but they must be the first to grab the Bird Statuette from the Golden Loftwing. After Zelda pushes Link off Skyloft, initially believing that Link is making excuses to not practice riding his Loftwing, Link whistles for it, only for it to not arrive and kept on falling. Realizing what had happened, Zelda summons her blue Loftwing to save Link and bring him back; she apologizes for not believing him when he could not sense his Loftwing's presence and her father insists that he asks the students about its whereabouts and he will delay the ceremony until he can find his flying companion.

While investigating, Link overhears Groose and his cronies admitting out loud that they were responsible for its disappearance, not knowing that Link was nearby. He is startled by his presence, and wondered how long he was standing there, before proceeding to taunt him mercilessly about his Loftwing and his relationship with Zelda. The girl herself approaches Groose and angrily calls him out for his rude behavior, telling him not to bother Link. Groose and his friends depart from the plaza and board their Loftwings. Pipit is able to get Fledge to spill the beans to Link about what happened to his Loftwing, which is through the waterfall cave. Link and Zelda are able to free it and she gives him the tutorials on how to pilot the Loftwing. After that, Zelda lets the Headmaster know about the good news and Groose returns and goes back to picking on Link for getting special treatment for the delay and begins to think out loud about having a special moment with Zelda; however, Cawlin and Strich suddenly start trying to get his attention. He gets mad at them for interrupting his daydream, only to be taken off-guard when he then sees that Zelda is right behind him, who then asks suspiciously about "their special moment". Groose tells her that they will have a fair competition, and fibs on how happy he is that Link found his Loftwing and they take their leave. Zelda doesn't buy it, knowing Groose to be a terrible liar.

The bells ring and everyone is assembled and the mentors lay out the rules on the competition and adds that this ceremony is special, since it is the 25th anniversary of its foundation. Groose begins talking to himself before one of the teachers shouts at him. During the Wing Ceremony, when Link attempts to grab the Bird Statuette from the Golden Loftwing, Groose rams into him and he and his cronies throw eggs at him to impede his progress, but they failed miserably to stop Link from taking the Bird Statuette, marking him the winner and Link and Zelda wrap it up together. However, a fateful event occurs during their flight together when Zelda and her Loftwing are blown down to the Surface by a black tornado and Link and his Loftwing are blown away trying to save them. Groose was down enough to not have won the Wing Ceremony, but the fact that Zelda disappeared made it worse as he is seen standing in front of his mirror and he will blame Link for these events if he goes to visit him in his room. According to Cawlin, he lashes out at everyone, including him.

After Zelda and Impa narrowly eluded Ghirahim by going through the Gate of Time and Impa destroyed the gate to heavily intercept the Demon Lord's pursuit with Link's help, Groose resolves to go to the surface, and as Link is freefalling off his Loftwing towards the Sealed Grounds, he is extremely flabbergasted to see Groose falling towards him at a fast pace. Even when Link used the Sailcloth, they still had a rough landing. As Groose had lived in the sky all his life, he is blown away over how vast and different it was compared to Skyloft and was a bit overexcited and terrified at first, shaking Link roughly as he asked questions about The Surface and Zelda’s well-being, but he soon calms down after Link just pats him on the arm in a reassuring manner and lets him know that Zelda is still alive. Groose thought of giving the land a name and quickly settles with "Grooseland". Still bent on saving Zelda before Link, he goes on to the Sealed Temple where he meets the Old Sage, whom he would often address her as "Grannie", where she drops the bomb on him that only the Chosen One, Link, can do such a difficult task, much to Groose's disfavor, and he refuses to believe it before taking his frustrations out on Link before storming out of the temple in a huff.

Shortly after, Link uses Zelda's Goddess Harp to bring up the extra Gate of Time, but before the Old Sage could explain his next mission further, an earthquake suddenly occurs, startling them. The Old Sage fears the worst that the seal has broken and tells Link to check on the seal at the bottom of the pit. Groose is utterly horrified by this new experience as Link investigates the phenomenon. A black behemoth, The Imprisoned, emerges from the ground and makes its way up to the Sealed Temple, which Link is instructed to prevent. After a tough fight, Link successfully seals it away before it happened. The Old Sage realizes that the seal is weakening significantly and would not be surprised if it happened again. Groose began to understand the situation and recognized Link's courage and status as the chosen hero, but he feels distraught over this revelation and thought of himself as useless as he leaves the temple to sulk over it. Link is given the task of finding all three Sacred Flames that will upgrade Link's Goddess Sword so he can activate the Gate and meet with Zelda and Impa.

Groose eventually comes out of his depression after realizing that he can make himself useful and contribute to the cause, even if it wasn't as grand as Link's. Knowing that the monster is going to escape imprisonment again at some point, he prepares for the next breakout by constructing the rails to maneuver his own weapon. He can later be seen testing out a catapult and he tells Link that it's not ready yet. After Link collects all three Sacred Flames that upgrade Link's sword into the Master Sword and returns to the Sealed Grounds, Groose tells him that it is complete, and brags that he constructed everything by himself after coming to terms with the circumstances and names the catapult the "Groosenator". Before Link could activate the Gate of Time, the seal breaks again; Groose is more prepared to handle it and wastes no time manning the catapult while Link handles the rest face to face with The Imprisoned again. During the battle, Groose will call out to Link whenever the Groosenator is ready and will fire bombs at The Imprisoned to prevent it from using its arms to climb up to the temple as well as stunning and slowing it down to give Link an advantage and the monster is sealed away again.

After Link is able to activate the Gate of Time, Groose's nicer side cracks out more as he came to hold Link in higher regard, seeing him as more of a friend than he did back in Skyloft and asks Link to tell Zelda "What's up?" for him. After Zelda updates the Master Sword to the True Master Sword, she goes into suspended animation inside of a crystal to strengthen the seal on Demise and instructs Link to find the Triforce so he can use it to obliterate the demon. After Link goes out to save Levias from Bilocyte's control, Fi senses danger at the Sealed Grounds again and he and Groose engage in another battle with The Imprisoned, who can use its halo to fly its way to the Temple as a last resort, but Groose shoots it down and Link seals it back to its place. During the mission where Link has to cure the dragon Lanayru from its illness, Groose is seen curiously staring at the soft spot, and Link goes into the past to plant the Life Tree Seedling, due to how long it takes for it to mature. It becomes a tree with a Life Fruit in the present era.

Once Link clears Sky Keep and finds all three Triforce parts, Link stands on the Goddess Statue's hands where he wishes for Demise's destruction. The Goddess Statue breaks away from Skyloft and descends into the Sealed Grounds just as The Imprisoned is about to escape for the fourth time, and the beast is crushed under the Statue. Due to Demise's destruction, Zelda's age long sleep is no longer needed and she breaks out of her crystal. She reunites with Link and is surprised to see that Groose is there as well, who breaks down in joyous tears that the worst is over, or so they thought. Link and Zelda are suddenly ambushed by a pillar of magic and the latter is knocked out. Ghirahim proceeds to abduct Zelda and announces his plans to sacrifice her spirit to Demise by going back in time when his master is still alive. Groose attempts to defend the Old Sage and stop Ghirahim from going through the Gate, but the Demon Lord responds by insulting his hair before kicking them away and getting through the gate with Zelda in tow, and Link gives chase.

After Demise is revived despite Link's efforts to prevent it, he attempts to kill the soulless Zelda by throwing her against the wall, but Groose managed to catch her just in time and lets Link know that there is still hope in freeing her lost spirit from the Demon King and spends the rest of the game in the Temple in the past era with Impa and the comatose Zelda. After Link successfully destroys Demise, Zelda's soul is subsequently restored and brought back to life. Impa gives Link, Zelda, and especially Groose their eternal gratitude for their heroism, and the latter jokes about naming their story “The Legend of Groose” despite the fact that Link and Zelda have done the majority of their good actions to get to where they are. When Zelda pleads with Impa to come with them, she refuses and tells her that she must keep watch on the seal so that Demise doesn't try to break out and gladly accepts the task. Zelda gives Impa one of her bracelets to remember them by and Impa promises that they will meet again.

The Sword Spirit, Fi, also gives her good-byes to Link, who is told to conclude their companionship by placing the Master Sword to its pedestal, but not before telling him that she is able to experience happiness, despite being unable to feel any emotions, which gave her a robotic personality. She then goes into a sleep without end and they return to the present where the Old One was waiting. The trio instantly realize that the sage was Impa the whole time upon seeing the bracelet that Zelda had given her. The aged Impa smiles before vanishing away, much to their sadness. During the epilogue, Groose is last seen returning home to Skyloft with Cawlin and Strich on their Loftwings and bids Link and Zelda farewell, as they resolve to stay on The Surface to watch over the Triforce.

Other Media[]

Super Smash Bros. Series[]

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U[]

Groose appears as a trophy in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate[]

Groose appears in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as an advanced-ranked primary shield-type spirit. His spirit battle is against Wario on Skyloft where the said Wario starts with a Bomber, has increased powers of throwing items and loves to jump.

Quotes[]

“	Uhhhh... Whoa... You're kind of imploding my mind right now... But I think I get what you're saying. If I've got this right, Zelda is down here somewhere, and she's...OK? She's... She's OK. Oh, wow! That's so great! Duh huh huh... Hearing that is such a...huge weight off my mind.	„
	~ Groose

Trivia[]

Groose's relationship with Link is similar to Link's relationship with Revali in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. At first, the two can't stand each other, but both Groose and Revali ultimately have to acknowledge their character weakness and sincerely support Link.