Gibdo

Gibdo
Artwork of a Gibdo from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
First appearance	The Legend of Zelda (1986)
Latest appearance	The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (2023)
Notable member(s) Gibdo Queen Pamela's father
Variant of	Stalfos
Variant(s) Moth Gibdo ReDead ReDead Knight

“Ah! Thisss! Thissss! I bear you no remorssse!”

– Gibdo, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

Gibdos are mummified humanoids commonly found as enemies. Gibdos are generally quite durable and powerful and have been depicted with a multitude of unusual abilities, though they are also generally extremely slow. Due to their wraps, they are commonly weak to fire, and when they are burned they will sometimes regress into a different corpse-based enemy, such as Stalfos or ReDead, depending on the game.

History

The Legend of Zelda series

The Legend of Zelda

Gibdos first appear in The Legend of Zelda, where they are first found in Lizard, the 5th labyrinth. They act essentially as a more powerful version of Stalfos from the first labyrinth, and like them, they can visibly carry items within them, such as keys and bombs. However, they do not shoot sword beams in the Second Quest.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

In The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Gibdos are found in Skull Woods. Here, they resemble Stalfos with bandages and skin and are found wandering the rooms aimlessly, taking slightly longer to turn than Stalfos. They are still quite powerful, but they are weak to the Fire Rod, which defeats them quickly. Of note for this game is that both the manual and the Player's Guide use the term "Gibdos" in the context of both singular and plural, unlike other games.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

In The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Gibdos are found in Eagle's Tower. They act as they do in The Legend of Zelda, but are not knocked away when being hit. Upon being burned, they turn into a dodging Stalfos.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Gibdos are first found in the Bottom of the Well and are later in the Shadow Temple. They are either found standing upright or within sarcophagi; in the latter situation, they rise if a nearby torch is lit. Gibdos act much like ReDeads in this game, in that they have paralyzing screams, will cling to and bite Link, are temporarily stunned by the Sun's Song, will burn for a while if caught on fire, and will be defeated with two hits from a fiery weapon. Unlike ReDeads, they are not distracted when others are defeated. When they are defeated, they drop Magic Jars of either size.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

In The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, Gibdos appear prominently in Ikana Canyon, primarily Beneath the Well, where it is said anyone who enters to claim its treasure will be cursed to become a Gibdo (likely a reference to written "curses" on Egyptian tombs). They initially appear circling around the Music Box House of Pamela and her researcher father, trying to get to the latter. He had previously been studying Gibdos and became one himself when he tried to enter the well. To save him, Link needs to defeat Sharp in the Spring Water Cave, allowing the water to run and turn the wheel on the house, thus playing a carnival-style song called "Farewell to Gibdos," which makes the Gibdos go underground. Link can then play the Song of Healing for him, restoring him and granting Link the Gibdo's Mask, which allows him to speak to Gibdos.

Inside the well, the Gibdos will request the masked Link to give them varying items using obtuse hints. Most of the items can be kept within empty bottles, and most are also found somewhere in the well. Once given to them, each Gibdo will tell Link that they "bear [him] no remorse" before disappearing into the ground.

In this game, if a Gibdo is burned, it will become a ReDead. However, they still have the same behavior as Gibdos.

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons/Ages

In both The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages, Gibdos retain their appearance and behavior from The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. When burned, they become orange Stalfos, which can throw bones. In the former game, they debut in Unicorn's Cave, and in the latter game, the Skull Dungeon.

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords

In The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords, Gibdos are now depicted as hunched over and muscular, with glowing green eyes. They can perform two attacks, and their eyes brightly glow before performing either. They can quickly charge across the room or throw their bandages, which can temporarily paralyze a Link.

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures

In The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, Gibdos are found in the Desert of Doubt, where they are once again top-heavy, now with glowing red eyes. They appear with either tan or gray bandages. Once again, they do not flinch when attacked, though they make gasping moans. When one of the tan ones is defeated, their bandages will come apart to reveal a Stalfos, which is then transported to the Dark World. However, the gray ones inside the pyramid are simply destroyed.

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap

In The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, Gibdos are found in the Royal Crypt, Palace of Winds, and Dark Hyrule Castle. They resemble their Four Swords incarnation but are larger and with blue eyes. Like in the first game, they can visibly hold keys and bombs. If one gets close enough to Link, it will wrap its bandages around him and start draining his health, but he can escape with enough movement. If burned with the lantern, they become a blue Stalfos.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

A Redead Knight in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Gibdos are known as Redead Knights or Redeads. They appear in Arbiter's Grounds and some floors of the Cave of Ordeals, usually around quicksand in dark areas. Redead Knights are either found upright or laying in sarcophagi. Redead Knights have enormous broadswords that can deal a large amount of damage. Redead Knights retain their paralyzing scream, which they make when Link approaches them. While Link is paralyzed, the Redead Knight takes out its sword and slashes at Link.

Redead Knights cannot be stunned. While laying down, they are invincible, but if a Redead Knight is upright, Link can use either bombs or Bomb Arrows to heavily damage it. Link can instantly defeat a Redead Knight with the Ball and Chain or by performing a Jump Strike or a Mortal Draw. If Link is paralyzed, he can avoid damage from a Redead Knight if the player targets it and repeatedly tilts the Control Stick either left or right. As a result, Link rolls out the way, giving him the opportunity to perform a Back Slice on the Redead Knight, which heavily damages it. As a wolf, Link can attack a Redead Knight by latching on and biting numerous times. By doing this twice, the Redead Knight is defeated.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

In The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Gibdos look and act as they do in A Link to the Past, and are again found in Skull Woods. They are also found in the Treacherous Tower. In this game, burning them with the Fire Rod turns them into Stalfos, like in Link's Awakening.

The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes

In The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes, Gibdos appear in The Dunes, particularly Gibdo Mausoleum, and are also found in the Desert Zone of the Den of Trials. They look like the ones in A Link Between Worlds, but are much more aggressive, charging at a Link on sight. They are larger than Stalfos in this game, but will still revert to them if their bandages are burned with the Fire Gloves or pulled off with the Gripshot.

CD-i games

Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon

In Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, a Gibdo is found in the mausoleum behind Sakado, where he plans to enslave the living with his Ghini and Stalfos minions. Upon reaching him, Zelda can defeat him by throwing the Magic Shroud over him.

Zelda's Adventure

In Zelda's Adventure, Gibdos are first found in the Shrine of Destiny. Like most enemies in the game, they simply wander aimlessly. They take many hits to defeat but do two hearts worth of damage to Zelda on contact, making them quite dangerous, especially in groups. In one room, a Jack will spawn for each of its three Gibdos that are defeated.

Hyrule Warriors

In Hyrule Warriors, Gibdos use their Twilight Princess design. They also have a fiery version called ReDead Knight in English as a nod to the name in the Twilight Princess Player's Guide. Both versions act the same, but with varying amounts of strength. They can shot their paralyzing screams forward or in a small area around them, both marked with a white wind-like effect. They can also spit purple poison, and in later versions of the game conjure up an area of poison around them. After all non-sword-based attacks except the spitting attack, they will be open to stronger attacks against them. The area-of-poison attack leaves them open to certain items as they prepare it.

Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer featuring The Legend of Zelda

Gibdos again appear in Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer featuring The Legend of Zelda, where they have large heads and small bodies and come in white, green, and black. They have four hit points and move towards the player character every four beats, based on the Golem enemy from the original Crypt of the Necrodancer, but smaller. ReDeads share this behavior, but grab the player character as well. Hitting a Gibdo with a fire attack turns it into a ReDead.

Gallery

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  The Legend of Zelda

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  Zelda no Densetsu 1

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  BS Zelda no Densetsu

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  The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX

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  The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures

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  The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D

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  Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer featuring The Legend of Zelda

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  Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer featuring The Legend of Zelda

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	ギブド Gibudo	Gibdo
Spanish	gibdo	-
French	Gibdo	-
Dutch	Gibdo	-
German	Wickel-Zombie (Ocarina of Time) Gibdo	-
Italian	ghibdo	-
Russian	гибдо gibdo	gibdo
Korean	기브도 Gibeudo	Gibdo
Chinese	吉波得木乃伊 Jíbōdé Mùnǎiyī 吉波得 Jíbōdé	Gibdo Mummy (Ocarina of Time) Gibdo

Trivia

• Presumably as a script oversight, it is indicated that one of the Gibdos in Majora's Mask knows some amount of molecular chemistry, as its hint for water is referring to it as "H20."