Content uploaded by Byron Kimball
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Byron Kimball on Nov 27, 2018
Content may be subject to copyright.
PURE Insights
&63<4- 9;1+3-
e Gerudo Problem: e Ideology of e Legend
of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Byron J. Kimball
Western Oregon University*214*)334)13>6<-,<
6336>;01:)5,),,1;165)3>692:); 0E7:,1/1;)3+64465:>6<-,<7<9-
!)9;6.;0- 91;1+)3)5,<3;<9)3#;<,1-:64465:
C1:9;1+3-1:*96</0;;6@6<.69.9--)5,67-5)++-::*@;0-#;<,-5;#+063)9:017);1/1;)364465:' %;0):*--5)++-7;-,.6915+3<:16515
!%"5:1/0;:*@)5)<;0691A-,-,1;696.1/1;)364465:' %69469-15.694);16573-):-+65;)+; ,1/1;)3+64465:>6<-,<
2<5,):4)13>6<-,<*)2-9:+4)13>6<-,<
"-+644-5,-,1;);165
14*)33@965C--9<,6!96*3-4C-,-636/@6.C--/-5,6.(-3,) +)915)6.$14- PURE Insights&63
9;1+3-
=)13)*3-); 0E7:,1/1;)3+64465:>6<-,<7<9-=631::
e Gerudo Problem: e Ideology of e Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of
Time
Abstract
C1:7)7-93)9/-3@+65:1,-9:;0-1,-636/1+)3+65:;9<+;:6.;0-15;-5,6=1,-6/)4- e Legend of Zelda:
Ocarina of Time>0-9-15;0-=)916<:1,-636/1-:)5,*-31-.:)::<47;165:)5,=)3<-:-?79-::-,)5,-:76<:-,
*@;0-/)4-;096</0,1)36/<-/)4-73)@)5,:-E15/+0)9)+;-9+65:;9<+;165)9-,1:+6=-9-,)5,)5)3@A-,*@
1,-5;1.@15/79-:-5;-,)5,:<//-:;-,-3-4-5;:C96</0)51,-636/1+)3+91;18<-)9/<-;0);;096</0;0-/)4-B:
769;9)@)36.)'-:;-95<967-)5:;@31A-,+63651:;76>-9):)*-51/5147-91)315D<-5+-)5,6.6;0-9+<3;<9-:
):1476;-5;)5,69-=136;0-9:'-:;-95+63651)31:41:1,-)31A-,):)5)++-7;)*3-5694C-<:-6.9)+1)3
:;-9-6;@715/;096</0.)5;):@9)+-*):-,:6+1-;1-::-9=-:;6,-:1/5);-)++-7;)*3-)5,<5)++-7;)*3-6;0-9:
-:7-+1)33@159-/)9,:;6):;-95 91-5;:;-9-6;@7-,+<3;<9-:
Keywords
A-3,)6+)915)6.;14-;0-3-/-5,6.A-3,)1,-636/1+)3+91;1+1:40-/-465@9)+-*):-,:6+1-;@691-5;)31:4
6;0-95-::
Creative Commons License
C1:>6921:31+-5:-,<5,-9) 9-);1=-64465:E91*<;16565+644-9+1)36-91=);1=-'692:
1+-5:-
Cover Page Footnote
C-)<;069;0)52:01:.)+<3;@:765:699413@!3-+.69;01:67769;<51;@)5,.69;0-19.--,*)+2)5,
/<1,)5+-
C1:)9;1+3-1:)=)13)*3-15!%"5:1/0;: 0E7:,1/1;)3+64465:>6<-,<7<9-=631::
A publication of the Program for Undergraduate Research Experiences at Western Oregon University
The Gerudo Problem: The Ideology of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of
Time
Byron J. Kimball, Western Oregon University
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Emily Plec
This paper considers the ideological constructs of the 1998 Nintendo video game The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
,
wherein the various ideologies and beliefs, assumptions, and values expressed and espoused by the game through
dialogue, gameplay, and setting/character construction, are discovered and analyzed by identifying presented and
suggested elements. Through an ideological critique, I argue that through the game’s portrayal of a Western
European-stylized colonist power as a benign imperial influence and of other cultures as impotent and/or evil others,
Western colonialism is idealized as an acceptable norm. The use of racial stereotyping through fantasy race-based
societies serves to designate acceptable and unacceptable others especially in regards to Eastern/Orient-stereotyped
cultures.
Keywords:
zelda, ocarina of time, the legend of zelda, ideological criticism, hegemony, race-based society, orientalism,
otherness
Introduction
It would be an understatement to say that The Legend
of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
, Nintendo’s 1998 Nintendo 64
title, was well received upon release. Months before the
game hit shelves in the United States and in Japan,
expectations were high for the title. Half a million
consumers in America pre-ordered the title before its
November 23rd release, though the title would be
released just days earlier in Japan, on November 21st
(The Free Library, 2014). Over the course of the game’s
life, millions of copies would be sold internationally
(Nichols, 2014). To this day, critical and consumer
acclaim for the title remains high.
All of this, of course, is to emphasize the level of
impact Ocarina of Time had among players, many of
whom may have very well been children around the time
of the game’s initial release. Despite the game’s success,
little has been written about the game’s impact upon
audiences nor what messages players, especially
children, may internalize from spending hours with the
game. This, perhaps, may have much to do with
perceptions of video games, as “toys for kids, rather than
sophisticated vehicles inhabiting and disseminating
racial, gender, or national meaning” (Leonard, 2003, p. 1).
It is Ocarina’s perceived status as a childhood toy,
however, that provides precisely the best motivation for
examining its ideological constructs in further detail. Of
interest is how Ocarina
, a Japanese-produced title
marketed heavily towards Western audiences, expresses
various ideas concerning race, culture, and colonialism.
In this essay, I offer an ideological critique of Ocarina of
Time
. Through using Ocarina as an artifact for analysis, I
argue that through its portrayal of Western colonialism as
an accepted, idealized norm, Ocarina of Time furthers a
colonialist hegemony wherein Western European culture
is privileged and idealized at the expense of colonized
cultures.
Literature Review
Though little has been written specifically about the
Legend of Zelda franchise, the ideologies espoused by
video games has been of some interest to scholars since
video games first entered the public conscious. A
literature review reveals a growing history of examining
the ideologies presented and reproduced by video
games across academia. As early as the 1980s, when the
majority of video games were simplistic and often crudely
rendered offerings on arcade machines or early home
console systems, scholars considered their ideological
impacts. Early research was often concerned less with
racial and cultural themes present in games and moreso
with whether video games could influence a child or
player’s aggressive ideation. Graybill, Kirsch, and
Esselman (1985) concluded that children may, at least in
the short-term, adopt more aggressive ideation after
playing video games with violent themes. Other scholars,
such as Kaplan (1983) and Kiesler, Sproull, and Eccles
(1983) concluded that depictions of female characters
and female players in media and in games themselves
often positioned women as “second class” citizens,
digitalcommons.wou.edu/pure
ⓒ2018
Kimball | The Gerudo Problem
which one can identify as reproducing a hegemony that
priorities the agency and societal power of men.
Examinations of the specific ideologies of video
games, alongside the growing technical refinement of
video games as a medium, expanded further in the
1990s. Much of this, perhaps, can be attributed to the
growing sophistication of video games and of the
improvements in home console technology that allowed
for such leaps in complexity. As the 1990s continued,
video games grew beyond their initial origins of 8-bit
arcade games and simplistic renderings: video games
with more colorful and advanced graphics, more
nuanced characters, broader and more complex
storylines, sophisticated soundtracks, and so on were
beginning to emerge. By the end of the 1990s, around
Ocarina of Time’s
1998 release, most popular video
games featured three-dimensional, polygon graphics that
allowed for more realistic renderings of people, animals,
and settings. Scholars began to further consider video
games as a site for reproducing ideologies, including
Gottschalk (1995), who accused many video games of
reproducing “decidedly violent, paranoid, individualistic,
racist, sexist, militarized, and oversaturated” ideologies
where players “brutally enforce a ‘zero-tolerance’ policy
towards drug-smugglers and a great variety of others,
while keeping women ‘in their place’” (p. 14).
Modern ideological criticism of video games
often considers a variety of ideological implications,
including perceptions of race and culture, the effects of
violent imagery, and gender/sexuality. Monson (2012),
when considering depictions of race and culture in the
popular role-playing game World of Warcraft
, concludes
that Warcraft
, along with many other fantasy games,
perpetuates problematic ideologies of race as biological
essentialism where “alliances, language, intellect,
temperament, occupation, strength, and technological
aptitude” and culture are influenced by the race of
characters within the game, whether controlled by
players or not. This, of course, is not a phenomenon
exclusive to games such as World of Warcraft.
As
Leonard noted video games, regardless of genre, often
feature troubling gender and race stereotypes. “Such
stereotypes do not merely reflect ignorance or the
flattening of characters through stock racial ideas but
dominant ideas of race, thereby contributing to our
commonsense ideas about race, acting as a compass for
both daily and institutional relations” (pp. 85).
Little has been specifically written about the
specific ideologies or racial/gender stereotypes present
within Ocarina of Time or other entries in the Legend of
Zelda franchise, despite the popularity of the series.
Mallindine (2015) proposes that Ocarina of Time
, through
favoring masculine styles of interacting with a landscape,
such as through combat or exploration, and through
favoring the agency of male characters such as the
game’s protagonist, Link, devalues feminine styles of
interacting or doing, such as through relating to others,
and portrays such gameplay styles as less important and
female characters as less able to express their own
agency without the intervention of a male. Previous
literature has, for the most part, ignored the ideological
implications of the Legend of Zelda
franchise and of
Ocarina of Time
, leaving unexplored space to consider
such implications.
Method
Ideological criticism concerns itself primarily with the
concept of an ideology or “a system of ideas or a pattern
of beliefs that determines a group’s interpretations of
some aspects of the world” (Foss, 2018, p. 237). By
adopting a theoretical lens that seeks to “look beyond
the surface structure of an artifact to discover the beliefs,
values, and assumptions it suggests” (Foss, 2018, p.
237), one can further consider what ideology the
author(s) of a media artifact reproduce or perpetuate,
whether consciously or unconsciously.
Ideological criticism, as a practice, concerns a variety
of elements, including the formation of hegemonies,
defined as ideologies so deeply embedded into the
general cultural makeup of social groups or societies that
such ideologies are “privileged over others,” resulting in a
“dominant way of seeing the world” (Foss, 2018, p. 239).
For instance, in mainstream American culture, one such
hegemony may be the concept of individualism or
self-reliance, as opposed to a hegemony that values
collectivism. Hegemonies can become so deeply
ingrained that they are normalized among the people of a
particular culture or social group, to the extent where a
member of such a group may perpetuate or uphold the
ideas behind a particular hegemony without questioning
such values. Such questions may be seen as abnormal or
even offensive to others in the culture. For instance,
members of society that favors a patriarchal hegemony
may view someone who questions such a system or who
suggests a more gender egalitarian structure in a highly
negative or dismissive light.
Ideological criticism, as a theoretical lens, has its roots
in a variety of critical methods, including semiotics, or the
study of signs and symbols. Though studying semiotics
may not lead one to necessarily focus specifically on the
hegemonies or ideas put forth or perpetuated by a media
PURE Insights
Volume 7, Issue 1
Kimball | The Gerudo Problem
artifact, analyzing symbols and signs, which may include
examining the use of color, references to other works,
and other such elements of a work and what such
elements are meant to inspire in the minds of readers
(Berger, 2012), involves a deeper level of consideration
that lends itself well to considering how such symbols
may speak to a particular ideology or hegemony.
To begin to analyze or uncover the ideologies
reproduced by a particular medium, scholars may draw
upon a number of theoretical lenses, including that of
Marxist analysis, where the social, political, and
economic arrangements of a society and ideas
perpetuated by the ruling class of such a society (often
concerning such arrangements in a capitalistic society)
that a given media artifact was produced in are
considered through examining the values, attitudes, and
culture perpetuated by the examined media artifact
(Berger, 1982). The concept of “unmasking” ideas and
ideologies reproduced by a media artifact is by no means
unique to Marxism. Feminist theory, which often
emphasizes a focus on gender roles and upon the nature
of oppression in various media artifacts, can be said to
be a very specific form of ideological criticism (Foss,
2018). While it is not necessary to draw upon either
Marxist theory or feminist theory or other such lenses
when performing an ideological analysis, such existing
theoretical lenses speak to the potency of examining
hegemonies and ideologies.
When we consider video games, a more than cursory
examination belies stereotypes of video games being a
mere toy. This is not to say that toys offer few avenues
for ideological criticism. Quite the opposite. Toys may
function to reinforce social norms through child’s play,
including norms related to culture or economic class
(Lima, 2012). Like toys, video games are rich in material
with which to consider what values, beliefs, and ideas
they communicate to players, whether subconsciously or
overtly (Bogost, 2006). Through music, visuals, game
mechanics, characters, and setting, one can examine the
ideologies perpetuated through video games and their
impact upon the worldviews and values expressed and
internalized by players, many of whom, like a number of
players who encountered Ocarina of Time back when it
was first realized, may be young children who accept
such ideologies in a more passive manner than, say, an
adult player.
To perform an ideological critique, whether of a video
game or of another media artifact, one conducts a
number of steps to successfully unearth the ideologies
buried within the artifact’s construction. First, after an
artifact has been selected, a researcher must begin to
examine the presented elements in a text, which may
give hints as to what ideologies the media artifact adopts
and presents. Such presented elements can take a
number of forms, including allusions to other artifacts in
the work, dialogue, characters, or particular, notable
terms (Foss, 2018). After identifying the work’s presented
elements, a researcher then further examines these
presented elements to determine the artifact’s suggested
elements, or what “references, themes, allusions, or
concepts...are suggested by the presented elements”
(Foss, 2018, p. 245). For instance, if a game requires that
a male protagonist must save a princess who is unable to
save herself, a researcher may determine that the artifact
is suggesting that men are more competent than woman
and that women require a savior. After uncovering an
artifact’s suggested elements, a researcher would then
formulate a “coherent framework that constitutes the
ideology [they] suggest is implicit in the artifact” (Foss,
2018, p. 245).
To identify the suggested and presented elements and
to formulate an ideology present in Ocarina of Time
, the
author conducted multiple play-throughs of the game.
Other titles in the Zelda series were excluded, with only
Ocarina of Time considered. Through playing the game,
notes and observations were taken, identifying presented
elements in the title including dialogue, characters,
various settings players have the ability to encounter in
the game. Optional side-quests and interactions with
side or non-playable characters were considered as well.
Once present elements were identified through an
extensive list, suggest elements were generated and
proposed for each presented element. These suggested
elements were then grouped into two broad categories:
elements concerning race/culture and elements that
considered societal structures. Examining these two
broad categories allowed for formulating ideas and a
broader ideology present in the identified suggested
elements.
To introduce my personal motivations for pursuing this
research, I had grown up playing Ocarina of Time
regularly as a child. It remained a favorite video game
among myself, my older sister, and various childhood
friends for years after the game’s release, like many fans
of the game. Such an early exposure to the title from a
young age provided much interest to perform a detailed
ideological criticism. My research considers how the
ideas presented in the title might influence ideas and
approaches to race and culture held by players who
played Ocarina as children or who resonated with the
game. It is not to say that such research is meant to
accuse Ocarina of potentially encouraging problematic
PURE Insights
Volume 7, Issue 1
Kimball | The Gerudo Problem
ideas, rather that we may realize the ideologies often
perpetuated unconsciously by a game beloved by people
who accepted such ideas with little overt notice.
The Ideology of Ocarina of Time
Ocarina of Time
, like other entries in the Legend of
Zelda
franchise, features protagonist Link, a young
elf-like boy tasked with saving the magical land of Hyrule
and the ever-periled Princess Zelda from Ganondorf, the
villainous king of a desert tribe. Though most entries in
the series feature Link, Zelda, Ganondorf, and Hyrule,
little continuity is established between games in the
series. Link is often merely just a reincarnation in a long
line of Links, as are Zelda and Ganondorf reincarnations
of their own respective lines (Stars, 2007).
As is typical, however, for most Zelda titles, Link (and
the player) must conquer dungeons, battle monsters, and
interact with various NPCs, or non-player characters, in
order to advance through the game’s story. In Ocarina
,
Link is called upon to save the medieval-esque land of
Hyrule after learning that the evil Ganondorf seeks a
magical relic, the Triforce, that will allow Ganondorf to
rule the Hyrule should he get his hands on the item and,
thanks to the guidance of a prophecy, Link is the only
thing that stands between Ganondorf’s rule of the land.
Despite players’ attempts to stop him, Ganondorf obtains
the Triforce and usurps the Hyrulian throne halfway
through the game. Link then must battle Ganondorf with
the aid of an array of magical items and through
awakening the powers of six magically-gifted allies
known as the Sages. Throughout, Link continually
time-travels between the past and future with the use of
a magical sword, in order to shift between the form of a
child and of a young man (Bainbridge, 2013).
Within the first moments of the game, wherein Link
finds himself called upon to save Hyrule, the player is
centered upon Hyrule and the ruling family who reins
over the collected provinces of the land. Like many
fantasy settings in media, Hyrule, Ocarina’s
setting,
emulates a Western European-style kingdom. Store
fronts and homes in two of the game’s main areas,
Kakariko Village and the aptly named Castle Town,
feature Germanic style façades and thatched roofs.
Hyrule Castle is the very picture of a stereotypical
medieval castle, complete with turrets and a draw bridge.
Though Kakariko Village and Castle Town are far from
the only areas in the game, they are among the few
regions of Hyrule in which players must return to
frequently in order to advance the plot and interact with
important side-characters. Link must even continue
revisiting Castle Town in order to access the Temple of
Time, where he is able to travel between time. The
Temple of Time, for that matter, even bears a strong
resemblance towards a Gothic-style Catholic Church,
with high steeples, sharply pointed spires, and ribbed
vaults. As the main political hubs of Hyrule, it is Castle
Town and Kakariko that players are meant to focus their
attention upon saving. One may, of course, argue, that
the game cannot truly emulate Western ideals due to
having been produced in Japan and by a predominately
Japanese production team. Japanese culture, of course
is not immune to the effects of Westernization. A long
history of adopting and adapting Western ideals, since
the Meiji period of the late 19th century, has existed in
Japan (Wachutka, 2016). One cannot also discount the
possibility of Nintendo tailoring the title for Western
audiences.
Castle Town and Kakariko Village are, of course, the
only areas of the game featuring distinct character
models for each NPC, all of whom appear to be
white-passing. Players do not encounter their first human
character of color, not counting members of nonhuman
races or the verdant-skinned Ganondorf, until they reach
an area of the game known as the Gerudo Valley, where
they meet the members of the predominantly female
Gerudo tribe, over whom the villainous Ganondorf rules.
Many players do not encounter the Gerudo until the end
of the game. Only three character models are used for
the entire Gerudo tribe, aligning the Gerudo more with
Hyrule’s non-human fantasy races, including the rock-like
Gorons and the mermaid-esque Zoras, who are, for the
most part, nearly identical to other members of their own
race. Despite the other races existing within Hyrule and
under the jurisdiction of the Hyrulian royal family, only the
elven and white townspeople of Kakariko and Castle
Town are referred to throughout the game as Hyrulian.
Through aligning Castle Town and Kakariko with the
“real” Hyrule and aligning the aforementioned areas with
Western Europe, Western European culture is cast as the
superior culture in Ocarina of Time
.
It is, of course, the imperial rule of Hyrule, portrayed
as benign, and even beneficial to subordinate cultures,
that players are asked to assist in enforcing. One must
note the very name of the land Link is asked to save:
Hyrule, which denotes a “higher rule” and connotes
superiority, righteousness, and justice. A hegemonic
structure is implied through both the name of Hyrule and
through the very stratification of Hyrulian society in itself.
Castle Town is ruled solely by the king and the royal
family, with only the provincial townsfolk and an array of
castle and town guards underneath them. There is no
PURE Insights
Volume 7, Issue 1
Kimball | The Gerudo Problem
nobility to shoulder the weight of carrying the upper
echelons of Hyrulian society. Other areas in the game,
including the lands in which the fantasy races of the
Gorons, Zoras, and the Gerudo dwell, echo this
hegemonic structure, with a single king/chief heading the
clan and a crowd of underlings below, though each race
remains under the thumb of the Hyrulian royal family.
Each of these races, whom we will consider further,
feature an arrangement of simplistic character traits,
shared by all members of each race: the Gorons are a
pacifistic cavern and mountain-dwelling people who
resemble large, orange ogres; the Zoras, who exhibit
humanoid and fish-like traits, prefer rivers and springs as
their abode; while the pre-dominantly female Gerudo
tribe dwells in Hyrule’s western desert. Like games such
as World of Warcraft, race becomes synonymous with
culture. We may consider the races of Hyrule to exist
within race-based societies, where “race is central to the
organization of their social structure” (Monson, 2012, p.
49). Though one can easily perceive the term “race” as
being interchangeable with “species” when the races of
Hyrule are considered, “the very use of the world race
(rather than species) is significant as it simultaneously
draws upon and reinforces the preconceived notions of a
race-based society” (Monson, 2012, p. 53). Though it
should be said that the races/species present within
Hyrule, with the exception of the European-esque
Hyrulians and the Gerudo, are fantastical and clearly
intended to not be perceived as human races or species,
note that such depictions are rooted in ideas of
contemporary racial politics and ideologies and that the
game’s use of the word race cannot allow such ideas to
be ignored or dismissed.
Halfway through the game, protagonist, Link, learns of
a war that forced his mother into hiding in the Kokiri
Forest, where a soon-to-be orphaned Link would be
raised. Players never see the events of the war. A side
character informs Link that “Some time ago, before the
King of Hyrule unified this country, there was a fierce war
in our world.” The player learns nothing further about the
history of Hyrule or of the war within Ocarina of Time but
can, however, infer that this war resulted in the
colonization of the other races and cultures existing
within Hyrule, including the Gorons and the Zoras. The
respective leaders of the Gorons and Zoras claim to have
sworn fealty to the Hyrulian King. In the world of Ocarina
of Time
, their colonial subjugation is largely depicted as a
necessary and positive concession to create a united
Hyrule. Only through conceding to the hegemonic
structure that compromises Hyrule do either race find
peace. The other races are seemingly protected from
outside threats. One may even miss that each race is
under rule from a colonialist power- for the most part, the
larger Hyrulian government seems to leave each territory
alone, with minimal physical intrusion. But players are
notably able to gain access to hidden areas, including the
private chambers of one political leader, through
demonstrating connections to the Hyrule Royal Family,
often through playing a special song or by displaying a
letter from a member of the family- in one instance, one
area in the Goron’s city is denied to even members of the
Goron race, though players are able to easily bypass the
barrier through their connections to the Royal Family. In
this sense, the claim of colonial power supersedes even
the claim colonized regions once had to areas and
resources created and inhabited by the colonized.
Both the Gorons and Zoras are depicted as impotent
in the face of to resolving internal or external pressures
threatening the safety of their cities and territories without
outside intervention: Link’s first encounter with the
Gorons involves needing to save them from monsters
who have infested a cavern through which the Gorons
typically harvest their main food supply: rocks, though
the Gorons live in a mountainous region and series of
caverns surrounded and built of stone. For this, players
are made to understand that the Gorons simply “prefer”
the higher-quality rocks present in the infested cavern
and their own perceived laziness and/or snobbery
prevents them from considering other options. The Zoras
are nearly as impotent: Link must save their princess
from the belly of a monstrous giant fish, which happens
to be the Zoras’ deity, Lord Jabbu-Jabbu. Later in the
game, after Link has traveled into the future in order to
become an adult and fight Ganondorf directly, he finds
that the entire Zora tribe has been placed under a sheet
of ice, unable to save themselves.
In coming to the rescue of the Gorons and Zoras and,
later, the Gerudo race, Link becomes something of a
white savior, utilizing modern weaponry and savvy in
order to save what the game paints as primitive tribes.
Buescher and Ono (1996) describe how intertwined
colonialist ideologies may become through Western
media: “The ideology of colonialism was rewoven into the
social fabric through popular cultural products such as
movies, television, novels, radio, and consumer goods”
(p. 130). Ocarina of Time participates in this colonialist
social fabric through its depictions of settings but also,
as suggested previously, through the representation of
the characters.
Link/the player can later, through an optional
side-quest, obtain masks that allow him to adopt the
faces of the other races: the Goron, the Zora, and the
PURE Insights
Volume 7, Issue 1
Kimball | The Gerudo Problem
Gerudo. In the case of the latter, reception to his disguise
is often profoundly negative, with characters often
reacting in either fear or disgust at the idea of
encountering a Gerudo thief. That Link can pretend to be
a woman of color, not to mention the implications of
wearing the faces of other races beyond the Gerudo, and
use her face as a feat of play-acting is a troubling notion
in itself. There is no corresponding Hyrulian mask, for
instance. The Gerudo, along with other races, become
something that can be carnivalized and adopted as
costume.
Link is aligned with the very land of Hyrule itself.
Though he, as a child, was raised by the Kokiri tribe, a
race of child-like forest people, he learns later that he
truly holds Hyrulian parentage. Alignment with the forest,
foretold both by his childhood spent within its boundaries
and his penchant for wearing green, connects him with
the natural landscape of Hyrule. Thus, only a true
representative of Hyrule is capable of saving it. His
heritage as a Hyrulian legitimizes both his quest and his
destiny.
The Gerudo, described as an all-female race
(excluding their patriarch, Ganondorf) of horse thieves,
exist apart from the rest of Hyrule, though they appear to
exist under the larger banner of Hyrule with minimal
interference from outsiders. For this, the Gerudo are not
received kindly by Hyrule at-large. Residents of Kakariko
and Castle Town express, through dialogue, that the
Gerudo are to be hated and feared. Stories are recounted
of the Gerudo tribe riding through town and stealing
away men, to serve as “boyfriends” to tribe members.
Their sexuality, in this sense, becomes a weapon,
through which the rest of Hyrule, and players by
extension, are meant to reject and fear them for. The
Gerudos, unlike the Hyrulians, seem to be visually
associated with the Middle East. Their clothing suggests
stereotypes of Arabian women, complete with veils and
curled toe shoes. Though little is said about the culture of
the Gerudo, other than their penchant for thieving and
their society being comprised mostly of women
(Ganondorf is the sole Gerudo male), their iconography
aligns them with the Middle East as well. The Gerudo
symbol appears frequently throughout Ocarina of Time
,
often appearing on blocks, hazards, and certain items in
the game, including a special shield Link must obtain to
advance through the game. This serves to distance the
Gerudo from players and mark them as “Other.” In early
editions of the game, before the symbol was updated in
subsequent remakes, the Gerudo symbol was even a
mirrored-image copy of the traditional Islamic crescent
moon and star (Lee, 2014).
This was not the only change to iconography in
Ocarina
, as it relates to the use of Islamic/Arabic imagery.
As well as updating the Gerudo symbol/insignia,
Nintendo even removed Arabic chanting from one
temple’s soundtrack (GameTrailers, 2012). A problem, of
course, had been recognized and addressed. However,
the Gerudo to this day, across Ocarina of Time rereleases
and remakes, remain visually marked as Middle Eastern
and Other in terms of dress and symbolism, and, in this
sense, “foreign”.
The use of such iconography as quick, visual
shorthand for the concept of ‘foreignness’ or to allude to
a real-world culture, much like the use of Western
European imagery and architecture as a visual shorthand
for Hyrule and fantasy, would not be particularly notable,
were it not for the use of such imagery to signify peril and
evil. Players are soon meant to identify against such
cultural trappings and against Ganondorf. The
association of the very idea of foreignness, and of evil,
with stereotypes of Middle Eastern and/or Islamic culture
suggests something deeply problematic. The depiction of
the Gerudo and of Ganondorf, who we will further
consider, harkens back to traditions of Orientalism, or the
appropriation of Middle Eastern and Asian cultural
iconography (often through the continual use of
stereotypes) by Western cultures.
One aspect of the electronic,
postmodern world is that there has been
a reinforcement of the stereotypes by
which the Orient is viewed. Television,
the films, and all the media’s resources
have forced information into
more and more standardized
molds...standardization and cultural
stereotyping have intensified the hold of
the...imaginative demonology of ‘the
mysterious Orient.’ (Said, 1978, p. 26)
Ganondorf serves an agent of the mysterious Orient,
representing Western colonialist fears of non-White,
“uncivilized” men harming women, both white and
non-white, both of whom are depicted as in need of the
interference of a white savior male; Link not only must
save Princess Zelda from Ganondorf’s grasp but he is
also tasked with, in one instance, rescuing a
scantily-dressed Gerudo woman who has been
imprisoned and enslaved by Ganondorf and his minions.
This is achieved through foregrounding not only
Ganondorf’s identity as an evil king but through his
associations with the untamed Gerudo desert and the
Gerudo tribe. It is Link, the white Westerner, who must
ultimately conquer Ganondorf and maintain Hyrule and
PURE Insights
Volume 7, Issue 1
Kimball | The Gerudo Problem
its Western ideals. And it is players who are asked to
align themselves with these Euro-Christian values to
identify themselves implicitly with the character of Link
and with the land of Hyrule.
Discussion
Is all this to say that Ocarina of Time is a racist or
problematic game? To venture such a statement would
be far too simplistic. When discussing hegemonies and
ideology, one may assume that a researcher operates
under the assumption that there exists an intentional,
clandestine effort to perpetuate racist/problematic ideas
to young players. Instead, one must consider that the
developers and producers of videogames are occupants
of the same hegemonic structures that the games they
produce are influenced by and, whether consciously or
not, may reproduce the ideologies behind such
hegemonic structures in media artifacts that they have a
hand in creating.
This, of course, implies another question. Though
Nintendo is an international company with a significant
reach in North America, the company originated in and
maintains headquarters in Japan. Thus, we cannot
critique or analyze the ideology of Ocarina through a
purely Western perspective. In this, I admit a
shortcoming: as Ocarina may be influenced by the
ideologies of the surrounding cultures that the game was
produced in, so my own views are influenced by the
culture I was raised in. Though I have done my best to
account for my limited experience and cultural lens, it
remains important to consider such shortcomings.
Racial/racist ideologies are certainly not a phenomenon
that is, of course, unique to American culture. Whether
the ideology perpetuated by Ocarina is a reflection
moreso of Japanese culture or an attempt to emulate
Western American culture and appeal to perceived
international tastes is another question. That the setting
in Ocarina is intended as one that emulates and
references medieval European culture would imply that
the perceived cultural constructs of such a culture were
heavily drawn upon. The idea that the player character is
asked to save and restore Hyrule takes such an idea one
step further: Hyrule, as a Western European colonist
power, is presented as an ideal within Ocarina
.
Further ideological research could identify whether
Nintendo has taken steps to address its depiction of
race-based societies in post-Ocarina titles and whether
depictions of characters such as the villainous
Ganondorf are depicted in ways that avoid the same
dependence of Middle Eastern or Orientalist iconography
to designate non-European cultures as evil “Others”.
With dozens of Zelda games released in the years since
Ocarina
premiered, one can only hope.
Video games prove especially ripe for ideological
discussion, both due to the idea that gamers often spend
hours absorbed in one particular game and due to the
intricacy of the games in question. Though Ocarina itself,
despite being over twenty-years-old, is a fairly
sophisticated game for its age, it is my hope that further
research will continue to explore the ideological
constructs and hegemonies of video games as mass
media artifacts through a variety of theoretical lenses.
Conclusion
The ideology of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
presents a number of troubling notions concerning the
alignment of Western culture with civility and goodness
and the alignment of non-Western, especially those
stereotyped as Orient, cultures as impotent at best and
evil at worst. This ideology serves not only to utilize
non-Western and Orient cultures as a visual shorthand
for evilness or Otherness but to position Western
European culture as that of a civilized savior, acting to
perpetuate its own interests and ideologies.
It is the nature of Ocarina as a video game that raises
a number of questions concerning the ideological
perceptions of players. Players must explicitly assume
the role of Link, the savior of Hyrule. Doing so, they align
themselves with Ocarina’s colonialist ideology,
perpetuating it both within and possibly outside of the
confines of the game. Scholar Simon Gottschalk (1995)
writes that through utilizing white heroes and seemingly
foreign villains, videogames like Ocarina
“[imply] that
whatever is not-self...is most probably hostile,
dangerous, and involved in unacceptable activities” (p.
14). Video games, far from passive media, may impart
worldviews that are often accepted unconsciously and
unquestioningly by players, begging the question: with
what ideologies are players asked to identify with or
against? “As stimulating machines, video-games enable
active participation...as socializing agents, they might
offer more pleasure than television watching and might
thus displace it as a site/practice of ideological
communication” (Gottschalk, 1995, p. 15). Games such
as Ocarina are certainly no exception. The ideas that
players accept or are asked to identity against,
unquestioned, from Ocarina
, are worth consideration in
the face of hegemonic structures endorsed by players,
often unconsciously, later in life.
PURE Insights
Volume 7, Issue 1
Kimball | The Gerudo Problem
References
Andrade Lima, T. (2012). The Dark Side of Toys in
Nineteenth Century Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Historical
Archaeology, 46
(3), 63-78.
Bainbridge, W. S. (2013). eGods: Faith versus Fantasy in
Computer Gaming.
New York: Oxford University
Press.
Berger, A. (1982). Media Analysis Techniques
. Thousand
Oaks: SAGE Publications.
Berger, A. (2012). Media and Society: A Critical
Perspective
. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Bogost, I. (2006). Videogames and Ideological Frames.
Popular Communication, 4
(3), 165-183.
Buescher, D. T., & Ono, K. A. (1996). Civilized
Colonialism: Pocahontas as Neocolonial Rhetoric.
Women's Studies in Communication, 19
(2), 127-153.
Foss, S. (2018). Rhetorical Criticism: Exploration and
Practice.
Long Grove: Waveland Press.
GameTrailers. (2012, August 1). Season 1: Episode 9: The
Fire Temple Chants
. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOmOzWdHzHU
&start_radio=1&list=RDQMNX5gj4gz_I&ab_channel=e
picflames64
Gerudo Symbol
. (n.d.). Retrieved from Zelda Wiki:
https://zelda.gamepedia.com/Gerudo_Symbol
Gottschalk, S. (1995). Video-Games as Postmodern
Sites/Sights of Ideologies. Symbolic Interaction, 18
(1),
1-18.
Graybill, D., Kirsch, J., Esselman, E. E. (1985). Effect of
playing violent versus nonviolent video games on the
aggressive ideation of aggressive and nonaggressive
children. Child Study Journal, 15
(3), 199-205.
Kaplan, S. J. (1983). The Image of Amusement Arcades
and Differences in Male and Female Video Game
Playing. Journal of Popular Culture
, 16
, 93-98.
Kiesler, S., Sproull, L. & Eccles, J. S. (1983). Second
Class Citizens. Psychology Today
, 17
(3), 41-48.
Lee, B. (2014, June 27). The Legend of Zelda: Cultural
Impact, Controversy & Oddities, and Legacy
.
Retrieved from The Koalition:
https://thekoalition.com/2014/the-legend-ofzelda-cult
ural-impact-controversy-oddities-and-legacy
Leonard, D. (2003). Live in your World, Play in Ours:
Race, Video Games, and Consuming the Other.
Studies in Media & Information Education, 3
(4).
Leonard, D. (2006). Not a Hater, Just Keepin' It Real: The
Importance of Race- and Gender Based Game
Studies. Games and Culture
, 1
(1).
Mallindine, J.D. (2015). Reorienting Representation:
Gender and Space in Ocarina of Time
. (Master's
Thesis). Retrieved from:
https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/bitstream/handle/21
52/32209/MALLINDINE-MASTERSREPORT-2015.pdf
?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Monson, M. J. (2012). Race-Based Fantasy Realm:
Essentialism in the World of Warcraft. Games and
Culture
, 7
(1), 48-71.
Nichols, M. (2014, June). Zelda: Sales Numbers in
Context
. Retrieved from Zelda Data:
http://zeldadata.com/zeldadata_SalesInContext2014.h
tml
Said, E. (1978). Orientalism.
New York: Random House.
Stars, I. (2007, November 27). The Many Looks of Link
.
Retrieved from IGN:
http://www.ign.com/articles/2007/11/28/the-many-loo
ks-of-link
Wachutka, M. (2016). Technological Innovation and
Nationalistic Discourse in Late Nineteenth Century
Japan: The Incandescent Lamp and Perceived
Challenges to Ethnic‐National Identity. Studies in
Ethnicity and Nationalism, 16
(1), 63-82.
PURE Insights
Volume 7, Issue 1
