Lady @Lady@cat.family

@coriander (obligatory read “Zelda, Don’t Be Racist.” if you want more on OoT Zelda and her learning not to be racist: <https://archiveofourown.org/works/2379302>)

@coriander like in ocarina of time young zelda drops a hornet's nest on ganondorf's head because she thinks he looks menacing and “has evil eyes”. in the world where ganon takes over she becomes sheik and is a genuinely good person. in the child timeline where that never happens… idk but from what we see in twilight princess it doesn't look good

@coriander especially i think there is a case to be made that whatever crisis ganondorf triggers is NECESSARY for zelda to realize how fucked up things are and NOT turn into the evil nazi queen but actually be a good person

@coriander some of it is just fantasy tropes but also, and idk why this is exactly, the zelda writers just really love portraying hyrule as kind of fucked up, or more specifically hyrule's kings

like they've turned on and banished the sheikah Multiple Times. the sheikah themselves ran big torture chambers on behalf of the royal family (that's the Shadow Temple in Ocarina of Time)

in Twilight Princess, the Spirit Temple, which was a sacred place to the Gerudo, is turned into the Arbiter's Grounds, a massive prison and execution site, and the Gerudo are Notably Absent From The Game

even in Breath of the Wild they make Zelda's dad an extreme asshole at the very least

this gives Zelda a really interesting character depth because it's not like you're saving her just for things to go back to normal. you get (imo) the distinct impression that things were actually really fucked up and you NEED her because she is (a) young and (b) the bearer of Wisdom to set things right. which is an entirely different justification from the racially-motivated one in hylian religiosity and lore

and i think that tension is REALLY interesting

@coriander this stuff is NOT present in every zelda game but it's pretty notable in some of them (including my favourite, twilight princess) and like you can't just pretend it's not THERE

like the games themselves i think when taken as a whole are not nazi (e.g. in Twilight Princess it's the ordinary-human Ordonians who play a prominent role in saving the day) but that is only INTERESTING because the premise they are responding to, which is buried in the mythos itself, is one of nazi hylians

@coriander talking about the games, not the character

important stuff:

• hylian religion maintains that they are a divine race, the most fit of the people of hyrule (long ears that can hear the gods, etc), that the entire land is their birthright

• mythical golden age of advanced sophistication contrasted with present age of ignorance, degradation, and squalor. in nazi rhetoric this is because of racial dilution and in zelda it's not NOT because of racial dilution

• (many games contrast pointy-ear hylians with ordinary humans; when there are ordinary humans they usually outnumber the hylians)

• varying levels of racial purity given material significance in the game, with Zelda always being depicted as Most Pure and Most Fit on sole account of her purity

• (oftentimes the plot is literally “we must corrupt the Most Racially Pure Zelda and plunge Hyrule into chaos!!”)

• anyway the common plot of Hyrule being invaded and overtaken by evil monstrous foreign forces (always coded as nonwhite) is at the very least xenophobic

boring stuff which you could use to make the case if you wanted to be annoying:

• blond hair, blue eyes, etc

• the yiga are portrayed as evil for worshipping a different god from you and you totally genocide them for it

why i still like the zelda games despite the above:

• the above points only apply to hylians; the gorons have done nothing wrong

• all evidence points to zelda, the person, herself wanting absolutely nothing to do with any of this and i think that is both interesting and hilarious