Vaati

Vaati (Pronounced, ) is the main antagonist in the Four Swords subseries of The Legend of Zelda games, appearing in The Minish Cap, Four Swords and Four Swords Adventures. Vaati, much like Ganondorf, appears in both humanoid and monstrous forms, although the former only appears in The Minish Cap. In The Minish Cap, Vaati also takes on three other forms, one before his human form, one after his first monstrous transformation and one in between.

The Minish Cap
Vaati is a Minish that once lived in the Minish World as Ezlo's apprentice. Over time, Vaati became fascinated with the evil in the hearts of men and began to desire power. He learned the legends of the Picori Blade and Light Force, two gifts that the Picori gave to the humans. These gifts were used by the Hero of Men to seal away the evil terrorizing Hyrule. Vaati decided to go to Hyrule and look for the Light Force, a relic said to be the source of unlimited magical power.

Since the portal between Hyrule and the Minish World was about to open, Ezlo created a gift for the humans. He fashioned a powerful magical cap that was able to grant the wishes of the one who wears it. Vaati put on the cap without permission and transformed into a sorcerer. In order to spite his master and show off his new power, Vaati cursed Ezlo, turning him into a living cap. Before leaving, Vaati revealed his plan to cross into the human world through the Minish Door and obtain absolute power.

Vaati learned that the Picori Blade was being used to seal a chest, which he thought contained the Light Force. He decided to enter a competition in the Picori Festival because the winner had the honor of touching the blade. As he approaches it, he blows away the guards protecting it and breaks the Picori Blade, releasing all the evil contained in the chest. Zelda is guarded by a mysterious power which Vaati recognizes, and he turns her to stone to prevent her from interfering with his plans. To his surprise, the chest didn't contain anything other than the monsters, but he vows to continue searching for the Light Force.

To aid in his search, Vaati impersonates King Daltus and orders the soldiers to look for the Light Force. Many of the guards don't believe in the tales of the Light Force,  even suspecting that the king is not the same person, but continue looking for it under the threat of being imprisoned for disobeying the "king". Vaati learns that the location of the Light Force will be revealed if the Four Sword is reforged, and allows Link and Ezlo to continue their quest. The two eventually unlock a hidden room in the Elemental Sanctuary containing stained glass which tell that the Light Force resides within Princess Zelda. Vaati then thanks the heroes before knocking Link out and teleporting to look for the princess.

By the time Link reaches Vaati, he's already managed to extract some of the Light Force from Zelda and transforms into his tall sorcerer form known as Vaati Reborn. Link defeats the form with the power of the Four Sword, and Vaati transforms into a demonic one-eyed black orb known as Vaati Transfigured, but is vanquished again. In his anger, Vaati transforms yet again, into a larger, more powerful version of this form known as Vaati's Wrath, but he is defeated in this form as well. Zelda then proceeded to use the magical cap to restore what Vaati had done, destroying the cap in the process.

Vaati's Five Forms
In the game, Vaati is seen in a total of five forms: a Minish, a human, a demonic sorcerer, a wind mage, and a true demon form. His humanoid demon sorcerer form has an attack pattern that strongly resembles that of a Patra from the original The Legend of Zelda, his wind mage form moves and looks like Wart in Majora's Mask, and his final form resembles the Nightmare's final form from Link's Awakening.

The figurines for Vaati's boss forms are hidden; they cannot be won in the figurine lottery without first defeating Vaati. However, if Link defeats one of Vaati's forms but fails to defeat the next immediate form, the forms Link had successfully beaten will become available in the Figurine Shop's lottery.

Four Swords
Peace returned briefly to Hyrule as Vaati was presumed dead, until he one day reappeared to terrorize the land once more. No longer remembering his days as a Picori, Vaati kidnapped many beautiful maidens and brought them to the Palace of Winds in the sky that he had taken. At that moment, a hero wielding the legendary Four Sword appeared. Using the sword, he split his body in four to defeat Vaati and seal him away inside the Four Sword in the Four Sword Sanctuary.

The seal on Vaati was apparently weakened over time, and a long time later Vaati managed to break out of his prison within the Four Sword. In order to commemorate his return, Vaati kidnapped Princess Zelda and took her to his palace to become his bride. After traveling over three different lands and the dungeons they contained, the four Links confronted the wind mage in the Palace of Winds, the seat of Vaati's power. After an arduous battle between the sorcerer and the heroes, Link was able to reseal Vaati into the Four Sword's blade.

Vaati has two forms in this game. The first is Vaati possessing a statue of himself, encased in armor, similar to the Vaati's Transformation form from later in The Minish Cap, and the battle is very much like the battle against Cyclok in the later Phantom Hourglass. In the second form, he appears as he does in the opening cutscene.

Four Swords Adventures
After Link had rescued Zelda and sealed Vaati in Four Swords, Hyrule was at peace for a time. This changed when Ganondorf stole the Dark Mirror from the Temple of Darkness. Creating Shadow Link to kidnap Zelda and the Shrine Maidens, Ganondorf tricked Link into releasing the Four Sword, unsealing Vaati in the process.

During his adventure to save Hyrule, Link found out that Vaati was not the real enemy. Instead, Ganondorf had instigated the ordeal with Vaati to distract Link, allowing Ganondorf the time needed to steal the power of the Hylian Shrine Maidens.

Over the course of the adventure, Link rescued the Shrine Maidens and Zelda, and restored his good name upon defeating Shadow Link with Zelda's help. At the final battle, Link and his split selves defeated Vaati, and sealed Ganon within the Four Sword with the help of Zelda and the Shrine Maidens. With this, peace returned to Hyrule, and the Four Sword was laid to rest in its shrine. With this being the last tale in the Four Swords era, Vaati is finally defeated in this game.

Four Swords (Manga)
In the adaptation, Vaati mirrors his role from the game. However, when Link first splits into four, the demonic mage first appears as a stone golem. After the golem's defeat, the wispy form of the wind mage escapes to the Tower of Winds. After the four Links are separated, he sends Big Poe to the Temple of Darkness to eliminate Red and Blue. Later on, he takes the guise of Princess Zelda, luring Link's father into his trap, seeing him as a possible way to kill Link. This plan is foiled by the Links and his father who destroy the disguise. At the final battle, Vaati sends the Links into a surreal world which he commands. But he is ultimately defeated by the four Links and Shadow Link.

The Minish Cap (Manga)
Vaati appears in, reprising his role as the main antagonist of the story with his background remaining virtually unchanged though there are some heavy differences that occur in the final battle. During his final fight with Link, he assumes a previously unseen form referring to himself as the Great Demon Vaati, in which he adorns new clothes and a helmet. However, he does not utilize this form for long before assuming his reborn form. However, things go awry as he loses control of the light power whilst his body goes through an uncontrollable transformation into a form resembling his Wrath form, as then he is seen begging to be saved from himself, which Link promptly does, using the Sacred Blade. Unlike the game, the sword purifies and redeems his being as he shrinks back to his original Minish form, apologizing to everyone for the evil he had committed in his conquest for power.

Potential Origin
Several fans speculate that Vaati might be Ghirahim reincarnated. Demise's curse was that darkness would reappear for Link and Zelda's descendants. Given how Ghirahim decayed along with Demise, this could imply that Ghirahim is under the effects of this curse as well. This is further supported by Vaati's similar appearance to Ghirahim. However Ghirahim's similar design was noted to simply be a design choice. There is little evidence for this theory otherwise.

Alternately, Vaati may be a reincarnation of Demise himself. While Demise's curse was meant to establish Ganondorf's appearance, chronologically, Minish Cap and Four Swords both precede Ganondorf's first appearance in Ocarina of Time, and Vaati persecutes both Link and Zelda as the curse instructs. A potential contradiction to this idea is that Vaati is still alive even while Ganondorf exists; however, Demise's curse stipulates that "an incarnation of [his] hatred will ever follow [Link and Zelda's successors]"; interpreted literally, this could mean that Vaati's sealing in the Four Sword (which rendered him unable to "follow" his targets) was offset by the birth of a new incarnation to replace him—Ganondorf. Later, in Four Swords Adventures, Vaati was eventually killed, leaving Ganon once again the only known reincarnation of Demise. If true, this could mean that Ganon's sealing in the Four Sword will lead to the birth of a new villan altogether to replace him (at least in the Child Timeline).

Trivia

 * Vaati's Japanese name, "Gufū", translated into English means "tornado".
 * The pronunciation of Vaati's name has been disputed among fans. Some examples would be "VAH-tee", "Vat-ty", "Vat-TUH" or "VAY-Tay". The weekly show on Wii's Nintendo Channel has confirmed his name is pronounced "VAH-tee" on its September 29, 2011 broadcast.
 * Vaati's name means "demanded" in Finnish.
 * Vaati's name is similar to Venti, the Italian word for winds.
 * In The Minish Cap manga, during the final confrontation with Link, Vaati in his first form wears a headpiece that bears slight resemblance to the Fused Shadow piece Midna wears in her cursed form.
 * His laugh resembles that of the Happy Mask Salesman.
 * Although he abandoned his Minish heritage and form in The Minish Cap, Vaati is still technically a Minish, and is therefore the only Minish to have appeared in other games thus far.
 * Vaati, especially his final demon forms, resembles some things that have appeared in The Legend of Zelda series, namely:
 * The Nightmare's final form from Link's Awakening.
 * An image over a doorway of the Spirit Temple in Ocarina of Time.