Author: Rich Meister
While I spent time with Skyward Sword’s recent remastered release, my feelings on the game changed quite a bit from those I formed a decade ago, but one positive note was only amplified by replaying the title. Groose is quite frankly the best and most well-formed supporting character the Zelda franchise has ever had.
As a franchise, The Legend of Zelda franchise only has a handful of leading players that appear across most entries. Zelda herself, Link, Gannon, and Impa are probably the few that come to mind. You can make arguments for characters like Tingle and the King of Red Lions, both of whom are great. The King of Red Lions is another arguably fantastic supplementary character for the series.
Warning: From this point forward Skyward Sword spoilers are fair game.
Groose, of course, is one of Link’s classmates at the Knight Academy in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. He radiates some authentic 1980’s bully energy, and I’m pretty sure is just the Hyrulian equivalent of Biff Tannen. For the first act of Skyward Sword, Groose is little more than just that; he kidnaps Link’s Loftwing to sabotage him during competition and spends his free hours lifting weights with his cronies and hitting on Zelda. It isn’t just this comically bumbling energy and a sweet pompadour that make Groose so appealing, though. He’s the only character in the Zelda franchise that isn’t a recurring central cast member that feels like he has a real arc.
Before we get to the depth that makes Groose so memorable, let’s talk about the surface. Groose’s character design is over the top and eye-grabbing. His bulky red pompadour wasn’t enough; even his Loftwing companion has one. His sniveling lackey’s excel at making him look powerful by comparison, and to top it all off, his theme is lifted from Windwaker’s pirate theme.
As I mentioned earlier, Groose spends most of his screentime in the early game just being a typical bully; hell, the dude even has a picture of Link attached to a sandbag in his bedroom. It’s not until Groose follows our hero to the surface of Hyrule beneath Skyloft that we see some real growth for the character. Sure, when he first arrives, he makes the comments you would anticipate about how Link can sit this one out now that the real hero is here. Still, that exterior is broken down relatively quickly by the elderly Impa inhabiting the temple in the woods.
While Link goes off on his journey to strengthen his sword and save Zelda, Groose opts to stay behind, even leaving his friends in Skyloft so he can stick around with the old lady and help in any way he can. He even constructs a mobile cannon outside the temple grounds to assist Link in his battle with the monster sealed away within the temple grounds.
It would’ve been easy to make Groose one-note, but instead, he’s written as a goofball of a bully who’s slowly broken down into one of the most charming characters in the game and a true friend to Link and Zelda. After ten years, Groose’s story was the one part of Skyward Sword’s story I truly looked back on fondly and replaying it now; it still holds up.
Groose is a dunce, but he’s the sort of bumbling idiot you can’t help but love, and he might just be my favorite supporting character in the Zelda franchise.