Favorite Zelda Moments: The Death Sword Appears

October 18th, 2012 by Axle the Beast

Arbiter’s Grounds from Twilight Princess was an interesting dungeon… a Hyrulian prison set deep in the desert and, seemingly, run by the Sages. Being the game’s scary dungeon, it had plenty of undead and a creepy song. What a lot of people don’t realize, though, is the opening jingle of the song — that demonic breath, or growl — foreshadows something later in the dungeon, something that also happens to be one of my favorite moments in Zelda and one worthy of Halloween.

In the mini-boss chamber deep within the dungeon, the player enters a dark room and is locked inside. It’s an epic scene, in which Link cannot leave the chamber until he cuts one of the seal-covered ropes tying down the Death Sword, the mini-boss itself. As the sword pulls itself up out of the ground, it utters another growl-like breath almost identical to the opening jingle of the dungeon.

The battle begins against the disembodied sword, but using your animal senses in wolf form reveals a figure carrying it… and then once you attack the beast, the true form of the demonic ghost wielding the sword is revealed.

This fight is one of my all-time favorites of the series. In terms of atmosphere, it’s practically unbeatable. Few other moments in the series have this much build-up and presentation, even beyond other mini-bosses. Twilight Princess gave its mini-bosses as a whole quite a lot of love, but never as much as it gave the Death Sword; Nintendo clearly put more love into this mini-boss than any other in the series, putting a lot of work into all that atmosphere and an epic multi-stage song that accelerates as you’re about to reveal the Death Sword’s true face. It’s also worth noting that since Stallord was only revived after Zant himself appeared at the end of the dungeon, the Death Sword was actually the main evil lurking in the dungeon. Whatever it was is a mystery, but we know it was a horrific entity, and for whatever reason it was sealed within Arbiter’s Grounds, its demonic sounds heard even upon entering the tomb-like prison. It’s an epic concept and a frightening beast.

It’s too bad the Death Sword is such an easy battle, because it’s not only one of the best concepts of the series, but it has some of the best execution too. A pity the gameplay couldn’t live up to that, but even if it didn’t, the Death Sword is still one of the best moments in Zelda for me and an easy favorite out of Twilight Princess.

But what about you? Did you think the Death Sword was a cool, scary concept, and did you think Nintendo executed him well? Or did you feel the opposite? And what did you think of the fight itself? Where does the Death Sword stand in terms of your favorite Zelda moments? Tell me in the comments!

Categorized under: Discussion Questions, Editorials, Twilight Princess
Tagged: Appears, Arbiter's Grounds, Axle the Beast, Death Sword, Editorial, favorite, mini-boss, miniboss, moments, Music, the, TP, Twilight Princess, Zelda

Jono

Haha, I totally forgot this even existed. It was just weird and forgettable for me. I guess it was kinda cool, though. The Arbiter’s Grounds in general was my least favorite dungeon in the game.
Gorongo

Haha it really does look like my neighbour. Loved the battle though and love how you just slash the hell out of its head then it turns to tiny little insects that just fly out
JuicieJ

I love the Death Sword. Not only is he one of my favorite creatures in Zelda, he’s one of my favorite creatures in all of gaming. Everything about him just oozes epicness.
- Midna’s Sister
  
  Or even a replacement for Darknuts!
  - ET34
    
    NOOOOOOO darknuts are awesome
    - Midna’s Sister
      
      Maybe ther could be both at the same time >:3
Demise

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH i clicked the link with the song while wearing my headphones “that opening roar” just made me deaf for life.
- Sir Quaffler
  
  Welp good luck with that, hope you know sign language!
- EOTW
  
  I guess that is Karma for eating Zelda’s soul.
- Omega
  
  Are u serious?
king of red lions

I absolutely loved the Death Sword fight, but I absolutely hated Arbiter’s Grounds. Least favorite dungeon in the game…
Anonymous

He was one of the best main enemies, period. I just wish AI was higher… Maybe a change of pattern, recognizing a repeated move and anticipating it next time.
- http://axlethebeast.com/ Axle the Beast
  
  Yeah that’s basically what he needed.
BloodyNights

My most remembered boss in Twilight Princess was the Dragon from the City in the Sky. Mostly because I am personally scared of heights, and even though it was just a video game, my stomach turned as I was forced to go up and up to the top. But after playing the most annoying dungeon in the entire zelda franchise imo I had to complete it lol

However this mid-boss seemed pretty cool when I fought him, but ultimately he was way too easy. But I’ll be honest none of the bosses or enemies are hard in that game at all. I kinda wish nintendo had a difficulty setting for Zelda titles in the future.
- Mseevers95
  
  That Dragon reminds me of an evil Charizard.
- Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule
  
  That’s what Master Quest and Hero Mode are, essentially. And you can always opt not to collect heart containers for more of a challenge.
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/James-Best/100003863840372 James Best
    
    Those things are a step in the right direction, but they really should be unlocked from the start. Aside from Master Quest on the GameCube, all of those modes are unlocked after beating the game.
    - Gen
      
      Not 3-heart run. You can do that any time!
      - http://axlethebeast.com/ Axle the Beast
        
        3-Heart and Minimalist Runs force the player to skip out on portions of the game to get an increased challenge. They should not be forced to do that in an ADVENTURE game; we should have difficulty levels instead.
      - Jono
        
        Write a post about this!
      - http://axlethebeast.com/ Axle the Beast
        
        Perhaps.
  - http://twitter.com/mikejcsauer Mike Sauer
    
    Unfortunately, neither of those are in Twilight Princess.
- Jono
  
  That was the best dungeon in the game, IMO…. I never understood all the hate for it, honestly.
  - http://axlethebeast.com/ Axle the Beast
    
    I don’t agree it’s the best, and I didn’t like the Wolf portions, but yes, it was quite enjoyable.
Anonymous

I really enjoyed Arbiter’s Grounds. I thought it was an epic presentation of how a dungeon should be (except the ReDead Knights….hated those -.-) and the Death Sword was an extremely menacing and epic mini-boss. Loved his fight and the revelation that that is its growl at the beginning of the song. I wonder how cool it would have been if HE was the actual boss…..
Florence

Love It!!!!! I was nervous when I got to this part, I knew somthing freaky would happen.
pickleslkw

I loved this guy/spirit/entity… I whole-heartily agree with with the atmosphere/ everything with Death Sword. Very fun, though the battle did go by rather quickly.
Jam9t3

Umm, I think that they accidentally named the title: “Favourite Zelda Moments” instead of “Creepiest Zelda moments”. Seriously though, this miniboss was just a leap out of a Zelda game and into a horror game, it was just something that you would NOT expect.
- http://axlethebeast.com/ Axle the Beast
  
  Creepiest moments would be among my favorite moments. =P
Pizzaman

The first time I was fighting this guy, I thought “WHY IS THIS TAKING SO LONG!?! I’VE HIT HIM ABOUT 60 TIMES ALREADY!!”
That’s when I realized I had the Ordon sword equipped instead of the master sword.
- Sir Quaffler
  
  So wait, is the Master Sword absolutely required for this fight, or can I still do my minimalist run with the Ordon Sword with the Death Sword?
  - Pgpaw3
    
    You should be able to do it with the Ordon Sword, but it will take far longer to kill him than it would with the Master Sword.
    - Sir Quaffler
      
      k cool, thanks!
    - http://axlethebeast.com/ Axle the Beast
      
      It’ll take way longer if you do a glitched Wooden Sword run and use that instead. =P
      - Pgpaw3
        
        That is also true.
- Midna’s Sister
  
  xD
BlackRaven6695

I love the sealing tags on the sword when you first come into the room. (even though the were a bit out of place considering the dungeon is Egyptian themed yet here we have very Asian-themed sealing tags). I was actually kind of afraid to free the sword. Hopefully Death Sword can reappear as a miniboss in a later Zelda game.
- http://axlethebeast.com/ Axle the Beast
  
  I don’t think the culture clash matters much, because it happens constantly in the series. For example, a medieval European kingdom that uses an Indian name for its currency and uses Aboriginal toys for weapons? =P
  
  I also would love to see the Death Sword reappear, but I doubt it will. Maybe we can at least get a similar concept.
LinksFanGirl231

The first time I saw the monster holding the Death Sword I was like “Lol he looks like Jar Jar Binks” XD
- http://www.facebook.com/people/James-Best/100003863840372 James Best
  
  A zombie-fied Jar Jar Binks. “Meesa be wantin’ yo brains!” Good luck sleeping tonight!
Isa

I loved the battle and the whole game itself, but the game was a bit easy. I like the style though. The monster looked awesome! All battles just gave me a thrill because of that! This one I remember also as one of the most mysterious and cool. the whole dungeon By the way.
Natakiro

I really liked the temple/dungeon in general. Too bad this is one of the easiest and shortest dungeons. When I was playing it on my GC, the final boss pt.2 can be downed in one fall, spamming the spin attack of course (which is not possible in the wii version). I wish Zelda bosses weren’t patterned, like how they used to be.

Still, really cool enemy/boss.
itsameluigi1290

I think I freaked out at this part when the game came out, which was 6 years ago.
It was awesome when I replayed it though!
http://www.facebook.com/people/James-Best/100003863840372 James Best

Death Sword was a pretty cool boss. I remember that the second I played through Twilight Princess, I’d forgotten how to beat him.
Roth

“[S]ince Stallord was only revived after Zant himself appeared at the end of the dungeon, the Death Sword was actually the main evil lurking in the dungeon.”

Thinking about this, it would have been even more interesting if Zant had shoved the Death Sword into Stallord’s head, making the boss a renewed fight against the soul of this reaper. That would have been so much cooler than merely animating a dead dinosaur by his own power…
- baileygirl99
  
  That would be cool and a good story, but when you beat Death Sword, the death sword kinda….exploded. But you scenario would be cool.
  - Roth
    
    Yeah, well, obviously it would’t have gone boom for this to happen. Maybe disintegrated and scattered like Dark Samus does in Metroid Prime 2, so you could observe Zant gathering it back together and realize what he was doing.
- http://axlethebeast.com/ Axle the Beast
  
  Oh man, I didn’t think of that. I agree so much!
baileygirl99

I remember I was walking around the room goin “WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO HERE!!!!” But then I realized that I was SUPPOSED to cut the strings. This boss was hard and horrifying (with me being scared of skeletons, ghosts, and other undead stuff)
Amins

I always liked the introduction to this mini-boss. I think Nintendo tried to give the impression that something really deathly and powerful was hidden within that chamber and they did well. It’s a shame it wasn’t that deathly after all….
Zachary Morris

Definitely a great moment, everyone seems to like it as well. I think it’s just too much to say there aren’t better moments in Twilight Princess. Just about every boss battle had an epic buildup. How about the duel with King Bublin? Or the giant light bug battle?

Once again, it seems like Twilight Princess just doesn’t get enough respect. I think it’s the best game in the series.
- Darkgreyfire
  
  Best presentation and design. The only thing that hurt the game for me, was how easy the game was to beat. The temples were huge and beautiful though.
- http://axlethebeast.com/ Axle the Beast
  
  Almost none of the boss battles in Twilight Princess (or in the series) had epic buildup. The only ones that did were the plot bosses, Ganondorf, Zant, and King Bulblin. The Death Sword was the only standard boss in the game that had buildup like this. In terms of style, I preferred it over the plot ones as well.
  - Zachary Morris
    
    I would have to argue otherwise.
    
    Diababa is almost a Hollywood plot boss battle, starting the battle with no hope of winning, then Ook coming to the rescue.
    
    Fyrus is built up during the entire dungeon, not to mention he has a backstory.
    
    Morpheel starts with being dropped into a giant tank with no idea what is lurking there.
    
    Stallord has an awesome “resurrection” cutscene to start the battle.
    
    Armogohma didn’t have the greatest buildup but there was some forshadowing in the temple at least.
    
    Blizzeta? Three words: NOT TAKE MIRROR!
    
    Argorok in my opinion has one of the coolest buildups in the whole series. The open windy rooftop, with no music. Then the dragon attacking as the giant storm brews — nothing short of epic!
    
    That’s just my take. I guess different people experience it different ways. Hope this helps you see it my way.
Phosphorus

This is a little off topic, but this was your most recent post.
Majora’s wrath does not have tentacles. They are whips that make it look like he has tentacles. You can see his hands. I just wanted to make sure you (Axle) knew that. In a mailbag you said they were tentacles.
- http://axlethebeast.com/ Axle the Beast
  
  They grow right out of his hands as the fight begins. He uses them as whips, but they are tentacles.
IMFWeirdo

Everyone hates on TP dungeons and especially boss fights for being too easy, and although I wish they were harder, they were my favorite of the series because of their epic presentation. Idk, I think just the fact that TP’s dungeons and bosses were so physically huge really added to their awesomeness. If you compare the size of the bosses from SS and TP, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Sure, the scorpion in Lanayru Mines was fun gameplay-wise, but for me, it can’t hold a candle to the epicness of the Stallord fight. The whole Arbiter’s Grounds dungeon was a masterpiece in my eyes–the very fact that it was a Prison creeped the hell out of me even before I got to the dungeon, and when I did get there, it didn’t disappoint. People can have their opinions of the game, but for me, TP created the most memorable moments and the best environmental atmospheres of any Zelda game or any videogame in general.
- http://axlethebeast.com/ Axle the Beast
  
  I don’t think size alone is really that major of a contributor to how awesome a boss is. For example I thought the most epic fight of Twilight Princess was the final round against Ganondorf in that sword battle. Skyward Sword has a lot of smaller bosses, but I actually liked that and I don’t feel it diminished their presentation.
- OwnerofTriforce
  
  I am a huge fan of Twilight Princess and I love it for many of the reasons why other people may not like about. I will say that the bosses in Skyward Sword were better than the ones in TP, at least most of them. But the dungeons in TP, however, were incredible! They did not disappoint at all, and I think they were a lot cooler and better than the ones in SS.
- Roth
  
  For me it’s not the easiness, it’s the methodology. It takes until Stallord to not have bosses’ vulnerable moments be totally fixed (as in, you got it down, now it will wait for you to deliver exactly four strikes), and I think until Zant for a fight that’s, well, a fight, not a puzzle with a monster involved.
  
  Same thing with other aspects of TP: it’s not that it’s easy, it’s that it’s overspecialized, automated, forced, etc. I think most people who complain about the difficulty level are missing the real source of their discontent.
Neutopia

I thought that the death sword was really cool, I loved the atmosphere of the entire thing, it was pretty simple though over all, great article!
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http://www.facebook.com/Boss.Odio Bryan Odio

The “Am I late” Moment In Skyward sword. I was freaking out like a black dude seeing a magic trick.
http://twitter.com/koen12345678 koen

bloodynights is right zelda games are pretty easy but some parts are kinda hard so my conclusion the enemies can be harder
Mr. Resetti

Definitely one of the coolest moments and a great mini-boss.
The song from the Arbiter’s Grounds is actually really creepy on that video, it’s a shame that in the actual game it was so subtle in the background, few people really noticed it was even there. if they ever do a TP re-release the need to increase the volume of that song, hearing that growl and the ominous drum beat etc would have really added to the creepiness, so, sorry Nintendo but that was a missed opportunity there.
randg

Liked the post

rosesandgifts.com
Princess Zelda

Death Sword freaked me out! I was only 11 and I just HAD to go through the dungeon right before I had to go to bed. IMO, it was a great mini-boss, but too easy. I really liked the battle, though.
Omega

I didn’t really like this one, but I must say it’s rare that an enemy got me such creeps. I only got more adrenaline when doing Skyward Sword for the first time.
Midna’s Sister

My favourate game is TP and the fave dungeon has to be Arbiters Grounds, because of the epic feel and boss.
OwnerofTriforce

I agree with absolutely everything Axle’s saying here. Coming into the mini-boss room and see that sword in the ground with those strings attached to it was amazing. I came in and I just knew something incredible was gonna happen. Revealing the monster’s appearance was one of the most awesome moments I’ve experienced in the series. I think he looks so freaking cool, and is at least in my top 2 mini-bosses in the series. I think all of you know which one’s the competitor for the throne!

But yes, he was easy. All bosses and mini-bosses in Twilight Princess were. But I still love Death Sword. Great article. It’s great to see that you love something this much, seeing as there are a lot of things you didn’t like about Twilight Princess. Personally, TP is one of my favorite games ever and it’s one of the 3 Zelda games I like most.
- http://axlethebeast.com/ Axle the Beast
  
  I love it when his cowl comes off and you see his face, especially since it happens as he whirls around and roars, radiating violence. Definitely the best two seconds of Twilight Princess right there. I actually did like a fair amount of moments in TP though.
  - OwnerofTriforce
    
    Yeah, it’s definitely a highlight in the game. It was awesome. I know, I’ve watched your video where you talk about the things you do like in Twilight Princess. I just think it’s nice to see that there’s something in here that you love THIS much, if you understand :p You have really valid points and such, so I respect everything you say about anything in the series.
    - http://axlethebeast.com/ Axle the Beast
      
      I hear you. Thanks man. =)
TuLinkLoZ

I actually did like this boss alot. I wish that Nintendo would have made Death Sword was the boss for the Arbiter’s Grounds.
eron lowe

ya loved this battle maybe in a future game they could make his reappearance cuz when you beat him his body and sword turn into black bug things and go through the hole in the roof maybe he was a tortured soul and when link beat him his soul was set free.who knows but stallord i have a therory as far as what he was.
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InfiniteZero000

I loved Death Sword. I have a special save just for him. and sometimes I choose not to hit him as often as normal just to prolong the battle.
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