Spoiler Was the Ending Unsatisfying for Anyone Else?

[Wil]

After spending pretty much my entire week playing this game I got to the Demise fight. After seeing him I thought he was gonna be really hard so I went through the Thunder Dragon's little boss rush to get that wonderful shield, i gathered 5 fairies that I didnt even need, and after beating the easiest last boss in any Zelda game I've ever played..I was rewarded with the worst ending possible. Link doesnt even get to at least hug Zelda! I thought the whole point of the quest was so Link could get his girl?Not say his goodbyes to his sword. What did Zelda want to tell Link before Ghirahim's fabulous tornado knocked her out of the sky? And all i get is Link's stupid laugh after she asks him what he's gonna do. I was pretty upset about this ...anyone else?

 

[Batman]

Not me. I was happy with the way it ended. I do wish Zelda and Link would have hooked up, but other than that...I thought it ended great. I actually thought the Demise battle was pretty cool. It could have been harder, sure, but it didn't disappoint me.

It wasn't perfect, but I don't really have any problems with the ending. I thought it was quite emotional.

By the way, welcome to ZeldaDungeon

 

[Azure Sage]

Are you really surprised Link doesn't get the girl? When has he ever? ... Except Adventure of Link, maybe. I'm actually surprised you were disappointed with it. The ending was beautiful and moving. Link saying goodbye to Fi brought a tear to my eye, no joke. And when the old woman at the Sealed Grounds' identity was revealed, I almost cried.

At the very end, after the credits, when Zelda asked Link what he wanted to do, did you really think Link was going to "answer"? He can't talk, remember?

The whole point of his quest wasn't to get the girl, it was to save her. Not the same thing. Just thought I'd point that out.

 

[A Link In Time]

My opinion regarding the most recent Zelda game has varied from pure lampooning to blissful praise. That said, the ending is without a doubt my favorite in the entire franchise. Events went full circle and the epic scope Wii's only exclusive Zelda game deserved was finally achieved. I didn't feel the slightest bit of strain or worry upon entering the Sealed Grounds and observing Ghirahim summon the Bokoblin Horde. The enemy design was so abhorrent and the AI so foolish that I hardly realized the fate of Skyloft and Hyrule was at stake. Everything changed after the amazing third Ghirahim fight and Demise's appearance.

The Imprisoned was one of the sole dangerous denizens to ever imbue fear into my heart in any Zelda game. From the beast's fearsome fangs to the stressful set-up of battles against it, I loathed every moment and felt as though a genuine danger was just around the corner. This was compounded in Demise's persona. He displayed the same slick and scream inducing design of his previous form while gaining an increasingly poetic edge. For the demon king he was rather soft spoken but extremely well developed. It was refreshing to see a villain not hellbent on consummate destruction for once. While he did threaten to tear the world order apart he offered Link time to rethink his pursuance. As for the fight itself, the first phase was easy but the second certainly stressed me out as Demise lifted his blade to inject it with lightning. The words spoken after the Master Sword pierces his flesh are among the most symbolic and explanatory the series has ever offered.

With respect to the romantic facet in Skyward Sword, censorship and fear of offense certainly was high on Nintendo's part as the company chose not to include a scene with Link and Zelda kissing. Skyward Sword appeared the most logical installment for this development and yet it never surfaced. That said, seeing peace return to Skyloft with the Loftwings flying overhead brought joy to my heart. The perfect ending to the storybook, however, was seeing Link with harp in hand and Zelda together on the statue of the Goddess. After learning of Hylia's mortal form this was nothing short of a stunning conclusion.

 

[MikauIncarnate]

I actually thought the ending was Heartbreaking. I'd had inklings about Grandma for a while, but when

Spoiler

she dissappeared,

I came very close to tears. I also thought Zelda and Impa's parting was really sad, reminiscent of Midna's departure in Twilight Princess. I also thought that the very final ending with Zelda and Link on the Goddess was a perfect way to finish it off. I certainly liked it a lot more than had Link flown off into the distance or something. I was, however, expecting more out of the credits. I wanted something like from Majora's mask or A Link to the Past where they show everyone you met all being happy and stuff. I really liked the montage of what happened in between Zelda's fall and her first meeting with Link. So, all in all; no, the ending was not unsatisfying for me.

 

[Koosholts]

I agree that Link and Zelda should have hooked up; it was a shame they didn't since it could've really benefited the ending. Other than that, nothing really felt out of place; it was a fantastic ending.

I would like to criticize something in the OP though. The conflict driving Skyward Sword wasn't Link saving Zelda, it was Link stopping Demise's ressurection. With this in mind, re-watch the ending and maybe you can appreciate it a bit more.

 

[:Zelda:Druggie:]

I too was unsatisfied with the ending. There was so much hype about what an emotional game this was going to be however I felt the ending to be somewhat cold, especially on Link's part. I feel much more emotion was needed both during Fi's departure and the reuniting with Zelda. I'm personally still waiting for something to touch me like Twilight Princess did.

That being said, the ending was still happy in a sense. Good won over evil, "destiny" was fulfilled, everyone was at peace. Very nice ^.^

 

[Heroine of Time]

The worst part was when Zelda started crying, and Link stared at her. Just stared at her. No comfort, nothing. Unbelievable. XD

Although I was slightly disappointed that they didn't get together, I'm okay with it. I didn't feel "dissatisfied" with the ending. In all honesty, I was never expecting Zelda and Link to get together from the beginning – that's just the way Zelda games work.

 

[Lord Death]

The ending? Well I was happy with the Fi closure, happy with the Link and Zelda closure, but I was a bit unsatisfied with the Demise closure. Listen, ever since I heard Skyward Sword would, "give backstory to Ganondorf," my mind had been racing with ideas. Would Twinrova be involved? They were Ganondorf's mothers. Or when we learned about Demise, I asked, could Ganondorf be a weaker incarnation of Demise himself? But no. Instead, Ganondorf ended up being

Spoiler

an unending incarnation of Demise's hatred.

Really? That's it? Idk, it seemed like a cop-out to me. I was expecting much more in the way of backstory. I mean whatever, I know it's not the worst possible ending, but can I say I'm a little disappointed? Yeah.

 

[Spirit]

I really disliked the ending. The best part of SS as far the (near) end is concerned was my gf.

*Upon seeing Demise for the first time*
My gf: What's that?
Me: Ganondorf but not.
My gf: Dude looks like Akuma
Me: oh yeah....

Anyway... I was wholly unimpressed with the story of SS in its entirety, it felt like a fan-fiction. It had elements of a chase-style narrative but after the second dungeon you find that Zelda is actually in safe hands and not wanting to be rescued since she has to get her memories back- thus negating the chase element of the narrative entirely, yet its plot continued to follow the structure... that, coupled with the flimsy excuses to drive the game forward like the Song of the Hero just felt clunky and terribly thought out.

As for the ending though.. ugh.
I'll tackle it in two parts.

-Demise and 'the curse'
I face-palmed upon hearing Demise say 'eternally bound to this curse' because i knew how people were going to interpret it. I knew people were gonna say 'wow thats how it all started, Demise cursed Link...' no! Think about it. If Demise can't defeat Link, why would he curse himself to have to continually fight Link at every juncture if he knows that Link has a good chance of defeating him? Surely if there was to be any kind of curse, Demise would deny Link's existence in the future.... Demise did not have any cursing power, he wasn't that powerful, he has just spent the game as a huge whale with marshmallow toes trying to crawl out of a hole and he couldn't even do that. What makes anyone think he would have to power to curse Link to an eternal curse after getting his arse kicked?
It was the design of the goddesses put in place as a failsafe to stop evil when it rises.... why would Demise put that on future incarnations of himself? Demise never set out to destroy Link, Link just showed up... Demise didn't know about him until he met him.
And if the curse/design of the gods was placed upon Link at the end by Demise, then why has Link been having visions about the imprisoned for so long before the adventure even began? It makes no sense that Demise put the curse on Link, there is no curse.
If he were to have put a curse on Link he would have implied some ownership, something like; "I eternally bind you to this curse." but he didn't.

- Fi
I hated this bit too. I figured while playing through SS, given the way Fi spoke (like a robot) that her language would change or she'd start with some opinionated notions or something like that, but no she kept on with her probabilities, completely emotionless and then at the end, out of nowhere- boom- emotion, happiness.. it felt so tacked on and out of no-where and so cliche that it hurt.
A better ending for Fi would have been - Fi tells Link to place the Master Sword in the pedestal, he does. He steps back as he does in the game but stares at the sword, now completely still and empty he stares at the sword, his expression changes, the art-style is used for what its meant to be used for in bringing out the emotion through Link's face, the sword is dead, Fi is gone, he bows his head as the sadness swells and then on tot he next scene with Impa, as the game does. None of this cliche-tacked on stuff.

The rest of the ending i don't really care about aside from the plot hole of the Loftwings breaking through the barrier, but that is one of many plot holes so something like that won't matter. I guess it depends how quickly the dense idea of a cloud barrier dissolves but the game didn't mention that at all.

TP's ending was better, OoT and MM's ending was better... an WW's ending was majestic and is something i expected from SS since it was so story driven but it just didn't happen.

though this is all just my opinion.

 

[Vanitas Remnant]

In the ending, I think it's implied that Link and Zelda got married, and did blah blah blah with Hyrule and stuff like that. I wasn't dissapointed. But the Final Boss was, somehow, difficult for me. Most likely because I didn't have a shield... or it broke during the battle, something like that, but that was the only time in the game that I died. Including the Silent Realm. But anyway, I'm good with the ending. But then there wasn't kissing

 

[Random Person]

I too did not like the SS ending, but that may be tied with the fact that I just didn't like the story in general. My major problem with the ending is the clicheness of it all. Demise's curse felt like a really big cop-out to explain Ganondorf's constant return. I'm not really upset that Link didn't "get the girl" but I can see your point. It does indeed feel like you're ripped off when the love interest is as obvious as it is in SS. Since SS was going out of its way to make the game cliche girl meets boy, they could've given the ending they had been leading up to. My biggest problem with the ending is, as others have said, Fi. Do not make a character emotionless throughout the whole game and then give them some at the last second to make them more "relateable". That's bad storytelling. I really liked Fi too. There were many other things, but not really worth complaining. Overall, SS's ending is just further proof of how SS could've been done so much better.

 

[JuicieJ]

Definitely not what I expected it to be -- I think we all know I was right alongside Axle in the Dark Tribe stuff (and I still think it's what was intended) -- but I liked the ending nonetheless. The story did a really good job of making some minor connections but still standing on its own, and, just like Axle pointed out in his latest video, that's really all Zelda should do. I don't mind a few more connections being made, but I quite like the stories to be standalone in the franchise. It helps each story remain unique and lets the developers' creativity flow much more fluently. This is a big reason why I don't agree with the complaints about Skyward Sword not making major connections to the series. Yeah, I was disappointed that the Dark Tribe stuff wasn't done, but, hey, the story worked just fine and I really like what was done with it. I really couldn't care less about SS's ending not being what I wanted it to be. Complaining about not getting what I wanted is really quite selfish and whiny, and that's something I refuse to stoop to. Especially since the storytelling was stepped up tremendously.

(The final boss battle sequence being the most epic one in the entire series didn't hurt, either.)

 

[Ventus]

Are you really surprised Link doesn't get the girl? When has he ever? ... Except Adventure of Link, maybe. I'm actually surprised you were disappointed with it.

IIRC LoZ, OoX Linked, etc.

I was thoroughly disappointed with SS' ending. We had the amazing buildup at the beginning of the game, what with Zelda being our childhood friend and suddenly being whisked away, but then once the Hylia took over everything took a turn for the worse. Demise fell as soon as he stood up (lol he's a baby), he's not worth an existence. My main problem with the ending, aside from the two most useless villains ever made in a Zelda game, is that Zelda wasn't the Zelda we knew anymore. Her "accepting her responsibility" thing that Nintendo talked about ruined a perfectly great character. Oh, and her lines

I...I think I want to live here. I want to feel solid ground beneath my feet, see the clouds above my head, and watch over the Triforce.

those were absolutely atrocious. Perfect, plot wise, but some of the most hated things ever done by a character in Zelda IMO. Especially given that she does absolutely nothing in the games that succeed SS in the timeline. Seriously, Nintendo, you could've done so much more with the Zelda character, but you ruined her for me...forever (unless you retcon Hylia out of the story, but even then this won't make SS' ending any better).

 

[Mangachick14]

I quite liked the ending. I didn't really expect Link and Zelda to hook up, because we never actually see him get the girl, but it would've been nice. What bothered me was that we never actually get to know what Zelda wanted to talk about just before she was sucked into the tornado at the begining. I also got pretty emotional with Granny and Impa and Fi and all that.