Racial Representation in The Legend of Zelda franchise




The Legend of Zelda franchise has had a number of popular video games since the release of its original game in 1986. Despite its success and popularity, the Zelda games exhibit a common problem in today’s society, racial representation. Although there are numerous examples of this throughout the franchise, for my purposes I will be looking specifically at Ocarina of Time (1998) and Breath of the Wild (2017).
Princess Zelda in Breath of the Wild
The protagonist of the game, Link (see above), is often portrayed as a young boy with blonde hair and blue eyes. Link is a hero in the land of Hyrule, a fictional kingdom occupied by many different races. First and foremost there are the Hylians, which are humans that are almost always blonde with blue eyes. This is the race that Link, the king of Hyrule, and his daughter, Zelda, belong to. The Hylians are named after the goddess Hylia and are said to be her chosen people. History tells that the Hylians colonized the land that became the kingdom of Hyrule and subdued all the other races already present to create the kingdom known to game players. These races are the Gerudo, the Goron, the Zora, and the Rito.
Chief Riju (Gerudo; BOTW)
The Gerudo are an all female tribe that lives in the desert of Hyrule. These dark-skinned, red-haired women are extremely tough and no men are allowed to enter their city (which ultimately leads to Link having to cross-dress in order to enter their city in Breath of the Wild, but I digress). The Gerudo are often described as thieves and have a very Arabesque culture. They are also the only example of people of color in the entire world of Legend of Zelda and coincidentally (at least I think they want you to think it’s a coincidence?) the recurring antagonist, Ganon (AKA Ganondorf), is a male of the Gerudo tribe. In Ocarina of Time, Ganon is depicted as a dark skinned man with red hair dressed in all black and riding a black horse. I, like many game players, find it odd that the antagonist is a man of color in a kingdom dominated by white supremacy and it has been suggested that Ganon is supposed to symbolize terrorism. Perhaps Nintendo really meant nothing by it but it definitely would be a strange coincidence.
Darunia (Goron; OOT)
The rest of the races in Hyrule are more animal-like humanoids. The Gorons are a rock-eating humanoid species that live in the volcanic regions of Hyrule. Led by a patriarch, they are much larger than humans and look almost like rocks themselves. Their weapons of choice are bombs and physiologically they are extremely heat resistant.
Prince Sidon (Zora; BOTW)
In contrast, the Zora people are an aquatic humanoid race, which live in the rivers and lakes of the Zora domain inside Hyrule. The people of this region are depicted as very graceful and almost dolphin-like in Breath of the Wild but still definitely more animalistic than human. They have their own king (which serves the king of Hyrule) and in Breath of the Wild are capable of swimming up rivers. 

Revali (Rito; BOTW)
Finally, we have the Rito, a bird-like humanoid species that lives in the mountains and like the Goron have their own king. The Rito are masters of the air and skilled archers. However, once again they are more animal than human because obviously it’s simpler to have bird-people than more brown people in Hyrule.

Ganondorf (Gerudo; OOT)
Eöl the Dark Elf
And above all else, there are humans…white humans. In Breath of the Wild, Hylians make up a larger portion of the kingdom of Hyrule and have more settlements than any of the other races. Additionally, as previously mentioned the only non-white humans in Hyrule are the same group from which the main bad guy originates. Ganon is an extremely problematic character for many people because he is blatantly from a Muslim-like culture (the Gerudo used a moon and star emblem at one point before it was removed because of controversy) and invades Hyrule to wreck havoc on the inhabitants. This association between a dark character and evil nature is very similar to what we saw with Eöl in the  Silmarillion.  In Ocarina of Time Ganon even kidnaps Princess Zelda like Aredhel was abducted by Eöl. Ultimately, it is up to the super-white Link to save the day while rescuing his equally white damsel in distress from the dark-skinned evil desert man. Overall, I absolutely love the Legend of Zelda franchise but I cannot ignore some of these more obvious problems with racial representation.


Comments

  1. Meda WrightFebruary 14, 2018 at 7:42 PM

    I would argue that Breath of the Wild has a greater degree of diversity than you’re giving it credit for. Many of the background characters in the game are people of color. One only needs to look at Lurelin Village, where the entire population is non-white. The Sheikah are also pretty obvious self-inserts of the Japanese people. Besides the white hair that is characteristic to their race, their homes, garments, and way of living seem in line with traditional Japan. Many of the people at the stables tend to be non-white as well. I can’t speak for Ocarina of Time, however, as I’ve never played it. I will agree, however, that there tends not to be a lot of representation of POC in the Legend of Zelda franchise, but I think they’re getting better with it.

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  2. ZakFebruary 21, 2018 at 6:19 PM

    While several of the points you make here are very noteworthy, I do think that there is a bit more representation, in both OOT and BOW, than it makes it seem like here. I think the first thing to look at would be the Gerudo. While Gannondorf is a Gerudo, and the portrayal of the Gerudo in OOT leaves a bit to be desired (magical enslavement is bad, who knew), most of the other times the Gerudo show up, they tend to be portrayed rather positively. Breath of the Wild in particular has the Gerudo as probably the most helpful of the various other races, at least in terms of abilities they provide. In addition, their representative seemed to be the most trusted by Zelda herself in the backstory, which says a lot about the race as a whole. I think that while there is some improvements that need to be made, but Zelda as a whole is a lot more diverse than it feels like you are giving it credit for.

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  3. tom blakeMarch 17, 2018 at 6:03 PM

    I really enjoyed reading the post and comments here! Diversity is a great step in world-building in medieval fantasy. However, it isn't enough in terms of the kind of representation we've been talking about in class. You can have diversity and still have what Helen Young calls "habits of whiteness" and you can still have Eurocentrism. Let's take one of the examples cited in the blog above: the gynocracy of the Gerudo is portrayed positively sometimes as brave, but the culture is somewhat inspired by an exoticized exaggeration of how the West viewed the Near East in the 19th century, a clearly fetishized Orientalist framing that informs the Gerudo. Does that mean that having the Gerudo in the game isn't diverse? No! Of course having POC will improve diversity in the game. But is this enough? I'd ask you to consider that it isn't. Think for example in terms of our campus. Austin College is a majority minority campus, but does that mean by default that every student receives equal treatment? Not necessarily! That should be a goal, and it IS a goal, but that is not diversity but rather inclusion. Do the Gerudo have a similarly complex, empowered and fleshed out role in the world of Hyrule? From this blog post, it seems like they might not since they are colonized and Gannondorf as a POC is one of them. While comments make valuable points, many are from the standpoint of diversity but not always from the standpoint of inclusion. I REALLY enjoyed reading this thread. Well done!

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