Character Bios

Ghirahim- Abilities

Ghirahim is an exceptionally powerful and dangerous fighter, with immense speed, spryness, strength, and skills with weapons or hand-to-hand combat; being able to perform long dashes or incredible acrobatics with no effort, or burst his way through a huge mass of boulders in a single strike. Being a living weapon meant to kill, this hardly comes as a surprise.

He is a master swordsman who can wield different types of swords with perfect expertise, to telegraph sword strikes precisely, or to catch his foe's blade with little effort and to pry it from the foe's hand. He mostly fights with rapier-like sabres and short-swords, either one of them or both, but can use a big claymore in serious fights. The more he reveals his true form, the mightier he becomes. Under his true form, his steel-like skin makes his limbs like weapons.

Ghirahim is known as a master sorcerer among the Sheikah Tribe, possessing immense powers, and displaying extensive knowledge of magic and rituals. He is able to conjure objects out of thin air, to teleport, to perform telekinesis, to raise barriers of energy, and so on and so forth.

In battle, he can conjure diamond-shaped daggers that float in formation around him, serving as a defensive barrier, and are hurled toward his foes when he snaps his fingers. He can also infuse his hands with purple chakra to increase the might of his blows.

Ghirahim's poor grades in the Sheikah Academy gave his prospective instructors the impression that he would be an unremarkable ninja. This ends up not being the case; he is the only member of the main cast to become a chūnin in The Adventure of Link and he is one of only two to become a jōnin by the time of The Adventure of Link 5. His skills are apparent to those who get to know him, with Demise, Midna, and Colan Snow all believing he possesses qualities befitting the Headmaster. Although he does not want the Headmaster's responsibilities, his skills nonetheless result in other responsibilities being appointed to him: he is frequently placed in charge of his own team, he inherits the job of chief-strategist of the entire World Anbu, he becomes the right-hand of the Seventh Knighthood, and he rules over all the demons in the Demon Realm. Many of these responsibilities are given to him involuntarily, but he is on occasion able to find his own motivation and proves to be no less competent, as when he defeats Heather Paula of the Jiniyuri by himself, to the surprise of his peers.

Not including his inherent laziness, Ghirahim's only real shortcoming is his chakra supply, which is consistently too small for him to use all the tactics he comes up with. His combat style usually relies on keeping his distance from his opponents, for which reason he rarely uses taijustu except when doing so directly benefits one of his strategies. Ghirahim is shown, even if he's unable to compete offensively, to at least have the skills to defend himself, being keenly aware of his senses even when in complete darkness so that he can avoid an opponent's attacks.

Ghirahim briefly uses a tantō; he fails to decapitate his opponent with it as intended the one time he uses it, but still manages to leave a large gash in their neck. He is able to create shadow clones. Ghirahim's natures include fire and earth, but he almost exclusively uses the Yin Release of his shadow-based techniques.

Ghirahim's specialty is in manipulating his own shadow. His signature move is the Shadow Imitation Technique, which he learned before even entering the Academy. By connecting his shadow to his target's, Ghirahim can use the Shadow Imitation Technique to restrain their movements and force them to mimic his own. When used against opponents, they may be able to resist his control, requiring that Ghirahim exert additional effort to keep them bound; when used for whatever reason on allies or others who have been incapacitated, no resistance occurs and the process is accordingly much easier. Ghirahim must perform the appropriate hand seals in order to his shadow.

After he becomes a chūnin, Ghirahim is taught the Shadow-Neck Binding Technique, which allows him to use his shadow to strangle those who have been bound with the Shadow Imitation. Like the Shadow Imitation itself, the Shadow-Neck Binding can only be used on flat surfaces, for which reason opponents can resist it if they're strong enough. Ghirahim is able to use his shadow independently of surfaces: with the Shadow Sewing Technique, he can make his shadow into tendrils to either pierce targets, destroying them if small enough, or alternatively sewing them in place to assist his Shadow Imitation; with the Shadow Gathering Technique and Shadow Clutch Technique, he can use his shadow to interact with his shadow's surroundings, picking up things and moving them as he chooses. After the death of Demise, Ghirahim inherits his chakra blades. Rather than use them in hand-to-hand combat as Demise did, Ghirahim channels his shadow into the blades, allowing him to throw the blades at shadows of targets that are out of his reach, pinning them in place in the same way as his Shadow Imitation does.

Demise noticed that Ghirahim was much sharper than his Academy scores indicated. By disguising a number of intelligence tests as games and puzzles- the only way Demise could get Ghirahim interested- Demise discovered that Ghirahim has an IQ of over two hundred; his poor grades were because he was too lazy to take any of the written exams. It is chiefly because of his intelligence that Ghirahim receives as many responsibilities as he does, with the Fifth Knighthood routinely pushing Ghirahim to use his intellect for his allies' benefit. Indeed, the Knighthood's faith in him is well-founded, as Ghirahim remains acutely aware of his and other's limitations, allowing him to avoid surprise and unnecessary risk. He is regarded as the smartest person in Civilized Village.

Whether he is about to go into combat, issuing orders to those who are in combat, or is personally involved in combat himself, Ghirahim's general approach is the same: he remains aware of all actions that allies and opponents make, even things that seem insignificant at the time or that he doesn't yet understand; he keeps track of where everything is located in relation to everything else, even features that lacks obvious practical use; he studies the behavior of all opponents, gradually learning how they react in any given situation. By then focusing on this vast amount of information- which he usually does by closing his eyes and cupping his fingers- Ghirahim can quickly think ten moves ahead of his opponent(s) and devise over a hundred strategies, from which he instantly picks the most effective. Such strategies are often highly elaborate and use multiple layers of misdirection, where he takes small victories just to eliminate extraneous factors, pretends defeat in order to reposition opponents, and engineers conditions that will lead opponents to defeating themselves. Tim regrets that Ghirahim's ability to see through deception and correctly put them together seemingly unrelated pieces of information is "wasted" in service in the Fourth Great Ninja War.