Zelda is supposedly racist

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This is this Salon article here, which makes a misconception that there are necessarily white people in the Zelda series, but I have seen it elsewhere:

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/05/the_leg ... nd_racist/

What this article fails to take into account, however, is that the makers of the video game, a Japanese video game company and a largely Japanese staff working on the game, may not agree that the Hylians and Kokiri are white people. In cartoons, drawings are not necessarily the most realistic and you can't necessarily go off colors in determining the race of the character. Also, when the race is ambiguous or where the drawings are especially simple, viewers tend to project the character's race on them, usually going off what is considered the "default" race in their culture. Look at Marge Simpson, who has yellow skin and a blue afro, Americans generally consider her to be white, the "default" human in the U.S. Because of this, many video game characters from Japan we see as "white" are likely not viewed the same way in Japan, where the "default" human is Japanese. This example and the concept of the "default" race in someone's culture and the Marge Simpson example come from this article about the misperception that anime characters are mostly white. I think this can be applied to Japanese video games as well.

http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/20 ... -as-white/

That the Hylians are white might be the Western view, but it's likely not to Japanese view. Demanding that Japanese video game makers change their art styles so to make Westerners less likely to perceive their characters as white is unreasonable, in my opinion, because this perception of characters from Japanese video games being mostly white is a Western problem, not a Japanese problem.

Other than this, I don't really object to the Salon analysis.

I fail to see how the Legend of Zelda is racist, it's a bloody fantasy game for anyone to play.

People calling it racist is just stirring up the hornet's nest for no reason. Then again Salon and sites like that tend to produce SJW-friendly articles to get clickbait views and to make insane statements.

If they don't like it, they can play another game or ignore it. It's a non-issue.

TBH, I haven't played a nintendo game in almost two decades but I can't remember a black character in any major Nintendo game. Mario Bros.- white, Zelda- white, Metroid- white, early Final Fantasy games-- a party of 3-4 white kids. Do they even have a major character that's a minority? I mean I don't even see that many oriental characters and they're a Japanese franchise...

And this is an example of reading, far, far too much into something.

Kids these days; Seeking out things to become offended by. I think it's an epidemic.

I honestly think it is the opposite for the exact same reasons. As an aside I would also say that Hylian really are not Caucasian, and I might also say they are a bit separate from Asian also. In general I think the ambiguity of both their race and language is an important factor of how they fit in Zelda.

While the Gerudo are most definitely a different ethnicity from the Hylians, and are characterised by being thieves, and kind of Amazonian, the games actually do a lot of detail that they are a victim of circumstance. That the Gerudo need to steal because they are living in a barren desert, and even for the continued survival of their race. And they don't even stay bad, Link totally gets accepted by them, and you learn that they are not all that bad. The game world sets up that these different groups are segregated and different, only for some of the last scenes to show them all together, the representatives of the: Kokuri, Goron, Hylian, Sheikah, Zora and Gerudo. They are all different but can stand together.

I have put a lot of thought into the subject, you can find some really good theorise on places like YouTube that look into all small pieces of the franchise, tiny hints leading to big stories (an account called M.Productions has some interesting ones). Anyway one of my absolute favourite parts hidden under the surface of the franchise is the Sheikah, a race often characterised by red eyes, tanned skin, the so called shadow people, and one of the big good guys. Although some of my favourite theorise go into that even this is not always the case, that rather than race it comes down to particular people, that the Interlopers were Sheikah, but also that Hylians themselves committed kind of a bad thing before hand "unifying" the races under them.

Later games go into greater detail of putting things like Ganondorf acted largely out of feeling that his people were cheated by the Hylians who plentiful resources, and also that you might say he is the victim from being the incarnation of an ancient evil. Common theory holds Gerudo ancestry comes from a people like Groose as a foundation, a character strongly about accepting people different from you. Even as possible retcons I think the franchise has gone a way to be quite inclusive of races.

The ONLY thing remotely racist about Zelda is how the various races live mainly segregated. I mean the Zora live in one area, the Gorons in another ( though you do see Goron merchants traveling more often now ), Gerudo in another....Hyrule Castle Town & Kakariko Village are pretty much exclusively Hylian people. Honestly I hope the new Wii U Zelda has a bunch of towns a la Zelda II ( though much better ) and that those towns are filled with people of all Zelda races

Gerudo were punished for their actions, thus the reason why their area is desert.
They didn't always live in a desert or lived separate from society.

This is the new symbol used after the Ocarina of Time controversy (Right)
This is the old symbol used in the first 3 versions of Ocarina of Time (N64) (Left).

There is literally 4 versions of the Ocarina (N64) each featuring set of changes.
The 4th version is Gamecube and VC port.

You can read more about the versions here:
http://zeldawiki.org/The_Legend_of_Zeld ... n_Versions


The first Zelda game saw changes to the story removing the story of the 3 goddesses, fearing it would offend those in the West.
It also featured a few other minor changes when it released in the West.

Zelda II - has minor changes along with all the head stones on graves featuring crosses due to pressure from Catholics.

ALTTP (SNES) had these changes:


Majora's Mask only real change was adding quick save feature to the Owl Statues.

WindWaker saw the triforce quest simplified for the international version.


Mario has long been considered a communist for featuring red stars and other symbols in the games.
He is also supposedly a sexist character.

But hey, that's just a theory, a Game Theory.

You might think they're white, but that doesn't mean that Japanese in Japan do. When it comes to cartoon drawings, especially when they're simple, what race they are is often in the eye of the beholder.

Please read this article "Why do the Japanese draw themselves as white?" to see more clearly what I mean:

http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/20 ... -as-white/

Wow, so now Zelda is "racist"...only in 2015 would we see racism injected into a fantasy video game world created in the 80s...this stuff has gotten way out of control.

I don't buy it, it's a fantasy universe, where there actually are different species of intelligent life. It's not the same thing as the social construct of race that humans try to apply to differently adapted groups. It would make sense that in a medieval type society that they would live in close proximity to their own species for reproduction purposes. I don't know if most of Nintendo's characters are supposed to be white or not. I don't really think it matters either.

You can use all the "other" theories you want but the truth is Mario is an Italian plumber-- a major Japanese company rests on the shoulders of a Caucasian character. I'm not even saying it's wrong or bad, I'm just saying it's really odd.

That one of those characters had a nationality declared still doesn't change my basic point: Just because you see a character from a Japanese video game as white doesn't necessarily mean that the Japanese in Japan do, whether it be the creators or consumers. That most characters in Japanese video games are white is an American opinion, not necessarily a Japanese one.

(Picture at source.)

http://skepticsplay.blogspot.com/2015/0 ... mport.html

Technically Link keeps changing.

In the first game he was red haired and beige skin. Zelda has brown hair and pale skin. Gannondorf looked like a bipedal elephant warrior who was shades of blue
Second game he had gold hair, gold eyes and slightly paler skin. Zelda hair was darker in the game and you couldn't really make out skin tone. Gannondorf didn't appear in game.
In the Super Nintendo game Link had purple hair and darker skin tone, Zelda gained her current form, Gannondorf is purpler. 3DS game uses this style.

Nintendo 64 games Link, Zelda and Gannondorf gained their current forms.
The Gamecube Windwaker saw them all become more asian looking, which carried forward.
Wii game Link looks more feminine.
Wii U game Link is more feminine.

There is nothing racist and sexist about it.

Though to be fair the biggest groups that buy video games are white people, Japanese and South Koreans, Hispanics, and Mexicans.
Of course games will appeal to those make up the majority of the market.

The rest of the world including India, China, Africa, Middle East, South America video games are mostly banned, and those allowed are highly censored and taxed to death.

Now the controversy over Metroid being sexist and exploiting women for profit could be debated since the series main character is a woman bounty hunter.
I mean Nintendo profits off that series by using a woman to "drive" profits.