The Legend of Zelda is Racist

The Legend of Zelda is known for its many hidden meanings and messages and Dathen Boccabella recently found a new one. At first he thought that it must merely be a coincidence, but over time he has realized that there is too much evidence for this to simply have occurred by chance. The Legend of Zelda tells a message of racial suppression and racial superiority. That’s right, our beloved franchise is flat-out racist.

[Cyb3r]

People think everything is racist these days

[NukaCola]

Yeah, amazing how the Nazi's used a symbol 65 years ago that actually was created almost 5 thousand years ago....and no one ever seems to know this is far past their stupid socialists agendas. Plus this isnt a an even looking swastika. Post news guys, not this please.

[Gazondaily]

Read the whole article before jumping to conclusions. It's just satire.

[BattleAxe]

@DetectiveX

"Japanese are neither blond nor do they have white skin so why would they do something like this?"

White people aren't the only people capable of being racist. I have seen this from other cultures that have moved to Canada. I think what you said there is pretty much.....racist.

[profgerbik]

Yea Swastika means "To be good" ironic isn't it. Was used as you said thousand of years ago all throughout Asia.

Even some Korean games like Blade & Soul still use swastika's.

Funny Hitler just stole ideas from the very people he claimed to hate, found them inferior but good enough to use their items and ideas.

[madjedi]

@detectivex

And yet the stormtroopers are typically in bright white armor, how you miss that and yet obsess about the dark side or vaders uniform being black.

Sorry vader in a bright ass white uniform doesn't work for me.

Seriously white being considered good and black/darkness being considered evil have been around long before people were screaming about racism in anything.

Your a couple thousand or 10's of thousands of yrs late to change it.

Well said battle axe.

[3-4-5]

Or they are peaceful.....

[stragomccloud]

Of course they do. Didn't you get the memo? lol

[Fierce Musashi]

I couldn't stop laughing at that last part on Link speaking...... and Django Unchained. ROFL

[BlackWolf]

Really?...

[BanBrother]

I think it was a bit tongue in cheek. Sort of like; The evidence is strong enough to believe that there were some racist undertones, but at the end of the day who cares, as we can never prove it and the game is awesome.

That was my take on the article. Anyway, pretty cool read. Whether or not it was intentionally racist, we will never know. Even still, how could you prove it? Nice article nonetheless, extremely interesting read. Even if some of the things were only going off a hunch.

[Thepcz]

yeh, why does destiny always give the master sword to a white boy?

why cant link be black?

in fact, why cant anyone in any nintendo game be black? the only black character in a nintendo game i can think of is a boxer in punchout. and he was stereotypically black ie a dj/dancer/cool guy

[one2thr]

TJ Combo...
The chick that guarded princess zelda in ocarina of time...
Mr. Game & Watch...

Pokemon... There were a few black people..

James Bond(s)... There were some black people...

Prefect Dark... Same as bond..

Turok... I think there was a black guy in there...

Clay Fighters, that Voodoo dude I think he was a witch doctor...

And Ganondorf, I believe he was a black jewish indian ginger with pedophile like tendancies...

That's all the black character's that I know of in all the nintendo games ive played

[Reverent]

The "chick" that guards Zelda in OoT was Impa, a Sheikah. She was white, not black.

Anyways, @Thepcz as for Link always being white, well that one is just stupid. Link is reincarnated every Zelda game, but he's ALWAYS been Link. He will always be Link. Link is Hylian, Hylians just so happen to be white-skinned.

[just-joe]

Jynx does not count as a black person. XD

[Thepcz]

@reverent

link doesnt have to be white, and neither do hyrulians have to be white. hyrule isnt walled in, is it. it isnt the only place in the zelda universe.

in wind waker, there were other islands. why couldnt the other islanders be of a different race? why isnt there any multiculturalism?

if hyrule is accessible to other islanders and races, then hyrules inhabitants would change over time. ie, it may become more 'black' or asian etc. links ancestors could become bi-racial. link could eventually be black.

but no, nintendo prefer the entire universe to be made up of white people. with only the odd one or two 'brown' and 'red' people. who dont seem to have any other people who belong to the same race as them.

it might not be racist, but it is incredibly stupid. and i personally would think it would be amazing if link was black for one game

[Reverent]

It just wouldn't fit his character. It never would. I'm sorry, but Link will never be black.

[josephayal]

he can't even just talk

[DwightOwen]

You can always tell who DOESN'T read articles...

"Footnotes

The ideas for this article are completely unoriginal and were pieced together, copied, and plagiarized from discussions on every Zelda forum on the net known to (white) man. Yeah, I know, some people really get right into writing about this stuff… oh… kind of like I just did. Oh well, it’s just an innocent gaming series, folks.

To misconstrue The Legend of Zelda as seriously racist you would have to be Toju The Militant Black Guy. So please vote for me on Balls of Steel.

Also, no disrespect is intended towards Dan Merill and his excellent work analyzing The Legend of Zelda series.

Have a peaceful, harmonious, and racially accepting day, Zelda Informer readers."

[RGB]

The swastika that way is a Hindu religious symbol I believe and it's obvious if you look hard enough you'll see anything you want anywhere! Clowns!

[Kennytaur]

Link being blonde is a good thing, there are too many dark-haired leads in gaming. This is an amusing article, and doesn't take itself very serious.

[rataranian]

Ah ha! ...So that's where the raft is! =P

[swice]

The swastika is supposed to have a tilt. This picture is from Tibet

[one2thr]

WOW!!! lmao I would have never thought about any of the stuff mentioned in this articleif I were to have replayed all the zelda games over again... And the info provided makes the most amount of sense, and yet it makes me laugh out loid thinking about, and I'm Black...

Even after reading this article, I can honestly care less about the hiddrn racial messages within those zelda games, because I had a great time playing them and I reufuse to let something this childish (racism) to destroy my one of my favorite childhood game series... No no not going to happen, so thetes nothing really worth doing except for laughing at it lol...

Ps.I'm at work, and my phones a piece of sh!ti lol

Bwt: There was a character in "Wind Wake(very old Game Boy game) r", that I always thought was Jamaican seeing that he would always say "Hey mon" or use to the word "mon" instead of "man" in his sentences....

[young7yang]

being mixed black and white.. i get really sick and tired of seeing these types of articles.. I love Zelda and can care less if it is racist. God forbid you travel to Japan, Nepal or Thailand and you run into a swastika which has been around for thousands of years and is a symbol of enlightenment. The world is not a fair place and will never be a fair place. deal with it and move on.

[Tapani]

Oh you culturally ignorant: that same cross has been used centuries before Hitler even started to use it as his political party's sign.

If you open up a normal Japanese tourist map, you will see tons of those. They are the signs for the frikkin BUDDHIST TEMPLES!

How about reading some books before posting articles about absolutely nothing.

[laxbeav]

Check out the footnotes at the end of the article. I'm pretty sure it was a joke.

[ApolloTheBoss]

*Sigh* blown outta proportion by something that isn't there. Will this race thing ever end? Being black, I don't have a problem with any race, and would gladly marry a woman of any ethnicity so long as she fits my criteria in personality. Simply put: With difference brings hatred, with hatred brings misguidance, and with misguidance brings misunderstanding. Teach your children to love all races, and this kind of non-issue will be gone in no time.

[kirbyu]

Gannondorf is the only black guy in OoT, and he's the villain.

[CouldHaveYelledUiiW]

LOL

That was hilarious.

Please, Look at the name of the site-
Please read the footnote and learn that the guy was joking.

[KidMakeshift]

It's in the wrong direction so no

[CouldHaveYelledUiiW]

True-

(Why do people take jokes so seriously? I've made jokes like this with a straight face and people just assumed I was being serious- dry humor and sarcasm are based-on people being able to see the ridiculousness of the statement.)

The Swastika is an old design and recurring design in the human Zeitgeist- Celtic and Chinese people used it long before Hitler "invented it" and made it infamous- and I am sure many more cultures.

It's also know as the Sun wheel.
See the Comic "Blade: the Immortal"

Below is the "correct" Nazis orientation:

"The swastika (卐) is an equilateral cross with four arms bent at 90 degrees. The earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the ..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

As you can see it is different than the Zelda dungeon's lay-out.

[ChickeyCantor]

Heil Ganondorf. May the goddesses grace you!!!

[Gaiten]

It's not even facing the right direction. The Nazi symbols "branches" point close-wise, irregardless, a clock-wise Sanskrit predates the symbol's usage by the Nazi regime.