Swiftblade the First is the Hero of Men

[DeletedUser9]

So I was replaying The Minish Cap recently and, for the first time really, I managed to acquire every sword skill. That was when I realized something I never realized before. I dunno if this was already commonly known or not -- Zelda Wiki mentioned it in their trivia section about the Blade Brothers -- but I'm pretty freaking sure that Swiftblade the First is intended to be the Hero of Men shown in the intro.

The ghost of Swiftblade the First says:

"This is a technique that only I have mastered... Only one who holds the sacred blade can perform...the Great Spin Attack!"

Only one who holds the sacred blade can perform...

...a technique he teaches you. This means he also could perform the technique, which means he used to wield the sacred blade (the Picori Blade or the Four Sword). Now, maybe there's some undisclosed intervening hero between the guy in the intro and Link in The Minish Cap, but there's nothing to really suggest that. Furthermore, both Swiftblade the First and the Hero of Man look basically identical (granted that applies to all the Blade Brothers, but that's only because they all look identical in general):

I don't see how this can mean anything but that Swiftblade the First is anything but the hero from the backstory, but hey, discuss.

 

[Pennycan1800]

When I read the quote a few years ago I thought the same thing. The Hero of Men in the intro and Swift Blade look identical. Plus he is the only dead one of the Blade Brothers. I'm in agreement with you that Swiftblade was the Hero of Men.

 

[Justac00lguy]

Hmm, I've never thought about this possibility before but it seems to make sense.

I'm slightly sceptical about the connection between the appearance of both figures as I don't see any stand out similarities, but of course the only known image of the Hero of Men is a design on a stainglass window.

To be honest, I can't think of anything to disprove this so far, the Hero of Men is an obscure figure who defeated evil once before, some have speculated that he is a past Link - which could be very likely due to their similar heroic roles and visual design. This eldest Swiftbalde is a ghost if I recall and has obviously died previously. Well this could link into to your theory as roughly 100 years passed between the events of the Hero of Men and The Minish Cap - we know this because it's the 100th anniversary of the Picori Festival. So it's very likely that the Hero of Men passed away naturally through age as shown in his aging appearance.

Now that I think of it, this seems to be a similar scenario to the Hero's Shade from Twilight Princess. It's confirmed that he is in fact the Hero of Time (a previous Hero to Link) and he is taking it upon himself to teach Link special moves, not to mention the "Great Spin Attack". I see quite a lot of similarities between Swiftbalde I and the Hero's Shade as both take on similar roles in teaching the current hero sword techniques, overall I think it's very likely that he is in fact, or was in fact the Hero of Men.

 

[Turon]

So the ghost of Swiftblade is like the Hero's Shade! That makes perfect sense! Could that mean that his ghost could be a manifestation of his regrets as well?

 

[hero of time 20]

seems legit

 

[tenkashixd]

So the ghost of Swiftblade is like the Hero's Shade! That makes perfect sense! Could that mean that his ghost could be a manifestation of his regrets as well?

I feel as though nintendo took this idea and incorporated it into TP as they do for many handheld to console games, for example skyward sword getting the digging ability from hand held games.

as for shade's regrets I feel they added that to add to the dark theme of TP. Would it have changed anything if he didn't mention his regrets.