#allowing Ganon some fun supernaturally accurate insight in to Link's mind the better to torment him with those freaky hands

[solomonara]

I was looking for a good screenshot of gloom spawn to show a friend who hasn't played totk, and I noticed something I never got close enough to see before (because if there's a gloom spawn I am up a tree a mile away firing bomb arrows before you can say 'complete the compendium')

Spoilers ahead.

This screenshot is from Nintendo via Polygon (source), so I assume it hasn't been edited.

The hands are wearing rings.

The rings look like the rings on Link's borrowed hand. They do NOT look like the rings Ganon is wearing - his are on the index and middle fingers only.

TOTK has a pretty heavy emphasis on hands. There's Rauru's hand, of course, but also the very near miss of Link grabbing for Zelda at the beginning of the game (using his decayed hand specifically), which is finally rectified at the end when he IS able to grab her as she falls.

Consider also the obvious connotations of depression associated with gloom sickness.

I had been assuming that gloom spawn were extensions of Ganon, especially given Phantom Ganon, but this makes me think that perhaps the gloom spawn are supposed to be a representation of Link's fears and general state of mind - of his own hands betraying him when it mattered most.