Death Sword & Stallord Theories

[sivelki]

Hi,

I want to theorize about the Death Sword (TP Miniboss) and Stallord.
I find this two creatures (along with the Arbiter's Grounds) very interesting.


Death Sword:
My theories are that the Death Sword was Stallord's soul.
Or perhaps an ancient demon who terrorized the Gerudo, and then they sealed him.

Stallord:
It makes no sense how did a giant monster got inside the arbiter's grounds, so i think the "arbiters" got it into the big room, and locked it with sand.
Why? Perhaps they send the condemned there , to kill them. (Because the Arbiter's ground was a gallow. In the spanish version the Arbiter's grounds are called "Patibulo del desierto", and Patibulo means Gallows. So all the people who died there, turned into Staltroops. And then when the arbiter's grounds got condemned, they had to kill stallord with those swords he has on his head.

So my questions are:
Who was the Death sword in life?
What meaning could the room who he is have in a Prision/gallow?
What are the 4 poes?
Could the 7 sages have lived in there?​

Bye.​

 

[felipe970421]

Oh drat, I though you would elaborate after the image, onto the actual theorizing, I don't think your death sword = Stallord soul is valid here, but you do make interesting points, I also played the Spanish version, and I have been intrigued by this a well, I do not know the definition of "Arbiter", but it is stated multiple times that it was used as a death sentence, so I just kind of (probably wrongly) inferred the definition.

Regarding those poes, I think they are based off the Poe sisters from the OoT forest temple, arbiter grounds does bring questions in, like "was the quicksand always there?" or "who are these sages?".

Wait, something just crossed through my mind, TheGermanLegend, could you please tell us the German name of the place (and a rough translation of it)?

 

[A Link In Time]

Interesting theory, however, I believe the entire Gerudo Valley in Twilight Princess to be a metaphor of Ganondorf's life between the events of Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess on the Child Timeline. Ganondorf was captured, put on trail, and sentenced by the Sages and subsequently sealed in the Twilight Realm. In the meantime, the civilization of his people crumbled into ruins. In this respect, I believe the Death Sword and Stallord are allegories for what Ganondorf experienced in his own personal life.

The Death Sword isn't necessarily someone who served a particularly important role in life. My guess is that he is a deceased Gerudo who was most likely born sometime in the centuries between OoT and TP. I also doubt the seven sages lived in the Arbiter's Grounds but rather used it as an area to judge criminals. Due to this belief, my other theory is that the Death Sword executed those sentenced in the court and hence his name.

 

[Skyloft's Hero]

Interesting theory, however, I believe the entire Gerudo Valley in Twilight Princess to be a metaphor of Ganondorf's life between the events of Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess on the Child Timeline. Ganondorf was captured, put on trail, and sentenced by the Sages and subsequently sealed in the Twilight Realm. In the meantime, the civilization of his people crumbled into ruins. In this respect, I believe the Death Sword and Stallord are allegories for what Ganondorf experienced in his own personal life.

The Death Sword isn't necessarily someone who served a particularly important role in life. My guess is that he is a deceased Gerudo who was most likely born sometime in the centuries between OoT and TP. I also doubt the seven sages lived in the Arbiter's Grounds but rather used it as an area to judge criminals. Due to this belief, my other theory is that the Death Sword executed those sentenced in the court and hence his name.

I like your theory about the death sword being used to execute, but there is one thing. If that was the case, then why didn't the sages try to use it to kill Ganondorf?

 

[A Link In Time]

I like your theory about the death sword being used to execute, but there is one thing. If that was the case, then why didn't the sages try to use it to kill Ganondorf?

The sages wouldn't have used the Death Sword to kill Ganondorf because he wielded the Triforce of Power. As seen in the flashback following completion of the Arbiter's Grounds, however, the sages still underestimated his power and this ultimately precipitated the death of the sage of water. And so the prophecy was validated that only the one who bears the Blade of Evil's Bane can slay the king of evil.

 

[sivelki]

Arbiters means "referee", or in this case , judge. Because the arbiter's grounds was along with a prision, a court

I got a new idea: perhaps the royal family, and the hylians used the arbiters grounds as a "coliseum", and they imprisioned the gerudo in there, and as they were all warriors, the hylians gave them swords and shield, and sent them to fight against stallord. (and thats why the stalltroops have got shields and swords).

And that could be the explication of why is there the statue of the Goddess of sand,...

 

[felipe970421]

I have to replay TP and try to imagine the Arbiter grounds in a non-ruin state, it could help explain a lot

 

[A Link In Time]

I got a new idea: perhaps the royal family, and the hylians used the arbiters grounds as a "coliseum", and they imprisoned the gerudo in there, and as they were all warriors, the hylians gave them swords and shield, and sent them to fight against stallord. (and thats why the stalltroops have got shields and swords).

And that could be the explanation of why is there the statue of the Goddess of sand,...

Yes but there were already near no Hylians populating the land of Hyrule by the events of Ocarina of Time with obvious exceptions such as Link and Zelda. And why would such a race even perform such barbaric actions? Personally, it would seem that the Goddesses created the Hylians to serve as a model of purity for all other races. The cutscene following completion of the Arbiter's Grounds definitely validates its existence as a place of judgement, however, I don't understand your subsequent chain of logic.

 

[Smoore]

I agree with A_LINK_IN_TIME. There is nothing to suggest that the Hylians participated in a sport like that. The Arbiter's Grounds function much better as a place of judgment than a coliseum.

 

[Cfrock]

The Arbiter's Grounds makes more sense as a 'court' than a colosseum.

Death Sword always came across to me as a dangerous object the Hylians(or possibly Gerudo) chose to lock away in what was surely one of the most secure structures in Hyrule, trying to prevent anyone from getting hold of it. Since the evil power of the sword only 'awakened' once Link cut the ropes, it struck me that they were keeping the malevelont force within sealed. There is a theory that it was sealed rather than defeated since the evil spirit can only be seen in wolf form and not by humans meaning whoever tied it down wouldn't have been able to see the spirit.

As for Stallord, I've never really had a specific theory related to it but since it starts off half buried in the ground, is it at all possible it was just a giant beast from the desert that tunnelled into the Arbiter's Grounds by mistake? Or perhaps drawn to the activity in the area? Perhaps it got stuck or was killed by whoever was actively using the Grounds at the time. I don't know, just throwing a could of possibilities out there.

 

[felipe970421]

I'm not saying there's any truth in this whatsoever, nor do I have any compelling evidence, but I was always reminded of Phantom Ganon when fighting Death Sword. Even the sword itself seems to bear some resemblance to the sword used by WW Phantom Ganon. In particular the all black appearance, pointed tip at one end and the strange runes written along the side.
View attachment 25503

Death Sword and OoT Phantom Ganon also share similar horns atop their head.

As for Stallord, it seemed to me that he had forced entry into the boss room rather than being invited. The re-dead that appear seemed more to me as people who had attempted to kill him rather than prisoners sentaced to death due to their armour that bears striking resemblance to the various castle guards seen throughout the game. I think the fact that they are called staltroops also serves to somewhat strengthen this idea.

That's an interesting comparison, I heard somewhere that the rune on death sword says "Shriek" in Arab and the markings on phantom Ganon's sword says the name of one of the blacksmiths from MM in hylian

Also, hate to be a buzzkill, but staltroop is a fan created name, your theory does hold well with all the other evidence though

 

[Danigo92498]

TP was just a whole bunch of Zelda games put together. The four poes were obviously a way to bring back the Poe sisters from the Forest Temple in Oot. Arbiter's Grounds somewhat resembled the Spirit Temple or Gerudo Fortress from OoT. The reason the stalltroops had weapons was because they were guards. In TP, it probably was what you could call a prison/morgue with all of those coffins. Deathsword was probably demon who was with Ganon before he was locked away.

 

[oshi_yoshi]

"Referee" isn't exactly the best definition for arbiter. An arbiter is one who mediates a problem. This definition keeps it from being too specific, like referee. Arbiter is from the Latin for "supreme judge."

And I just thought Death Sword was one of the Dark Magic users who was so powerful all the Sages could do was bind his spirit to the sword and contain the sword with the ropes.
Stallord seemed like the electric chair of the Hylian world. It was one of the most painful deaths imaginable for criminals. (But not magic-using criminals, seeing as they were sent to the Twilight Realm.)

 

[Majora]

As amusing as Death Sword being Stallord's soul would be, I just thought Stallord was a monster sealed in the basement and Death Sword was a lynched criminal.

 

[Dio]

Who was the Death sword in life? I think that he must have been a demon of some kind, if I remember correctly he's about 20 feet tall so he's definatley not human, the horns on his head also suggest he is a demon. He must have been sealed in a sword at some stage and the ropes are labelled with spells to prevent his escape.

What meaning could the room who he is have in a Prision/gallow? The room is just one of imprisonment. I don't think it has significance

What are the 4 poes? They could have been the arbiters in life who passed judgement on prisoners, now that they are dead they protect the mirror of twilight

Could the 7 sages have lived in there? The sages can appear at will and I believe they inhabit the sacred realm, I don't think they live in the world that the humans inhabit at all, they may only appear when they are needed.

I'm sure Stallord was not always the size that he was. I imagine he lived and grew in arbiters grounds and was pitted against prisoners in a sand filled arena.