Feature: The Legend of Zelda, orientalism, and perpetuated stereotypes

Orientalism is a term coined by Palestinian Scholar Edward Said,  which explains Western prejudices and views towards Asian countries and cultures. Said emphasises orientalist views of SWANASA (South-West Asian, North African and South Asian) cultures. Orientalism permeates through Western culture, with one major example being Disney’s Aladdin, delivering a fallacious and stereotypical view of Arabic cultures while melding together elements from other ways of life, one which has arguably become the dominant view for many in the Global North.

Many games have also fallen into Orientalist traps, perpetuating stereotypes out of ignorance or even outright hatred. The Legend of Zelda is one such series that has succumbed to these pitfalls. While it is my favourite game series of all time, it’s certainly not the best when assessed through the lens of orientalism, and particularly how it follows suit with the ignornace present in the Global North.

The subject of primacy here is The Gerudo: a fictional race in the Zelda universe, first appearing in Ocarina of Time and subsequently appearing in Majora’s Mask (albeit under a different name) alongside many other mainline titles and also spin-offs like Four Swords Adventures.

The Gerudo are a group of female-only warriors and thieves who survive in the desert. Their leader is the singular male born into the tribe every 100 years; for most of the series that is the main antagonist Ganondorf. Immediately, they are presented as an ‘other’ to the rest of Zelda‘s Hyrule, being largely isolationist. Even the more fantastical races, like the Zora and Goron tribes, are seen regularly interacting with Hyrule’s people (known as Hylians) and each other. In this sense, the Gerudo are exotic and marginalised, reflected in their designs: they’re clothed in the stereotypical belly-dancer attire while also mixing in Indian ideas such as a jewel on the forehead — possibly an allusion to the Bindis worn by Hindu people. Hylians also have more unique designs across the NPCs whereas there are only two total Gerudo designs when excluding story-relevant characters, most of whom are framed as antagonistic figures.

Having the Gerudo be a warrior race forced to steal to survive in contrast to the Hylians also adds to the formulation of their ‘otherness’. They even had Islamic imagery in earlier versions of the game like the crescent moon, although Nintendo had (and potentially still has) a non-religion policy, resulting in its removal.

Gerudo landmarks are also called into question with the Desert Colossus which hosts the Spirit Temple dungeon. Ocarina of Time‘s in-game companion Navi describes the face of the Colossus as evil despite nothing else in the game to really suggest this, especially as most of the Gerudo rally against Ganondorf. Navi’s perspective is ignorant and is likely a reflection of how the player was meant to internalise Gerudo culture.

Ocarina of Time was the origin of the Gerudo, but they sequentially appeared in the direct sequel, Majora’s Mask, where their portrayal is arguably worse but also quite different. Majora’s Mask reused many character models from its prequel title due to the chaotic development. While most of them were given further depth and became memorable standouts, the Gerudo as a whole became sizeably worse as they lacked even a semblance of a culture beyond their piracy.

Their absence in the 2006 game Twilight Princess is particularly bizarre as the Gerudo Desert lacks the Gerudo completely. In-game environmental hints suggest that there was a genocide of the Gerudo by Hylians, with many being either killed for supposed allegiances to Ganondorf or forced to flee further into the desert. Likely only one remained, that being Telma, but it is unconfirmed if she is Gerudo and only (albeit heavily) implied.

Outside of spin-off appearances, the Gerudo were MIA until 2017’s Breath of the Wild, which, along with its sequel Tears of the Kingdom, took major strides to improve representation. The Gerudo now have an actual town instead of a mere fortress, and freely interact with the other races. Despite this, the town itself is still female-only (with exception to Link in Tears of the Kingdom and the Gorons because they are male-only). Their culture is more developed through pastimes and even their own language, allowing them to finally be on par with much like some other mainstay races in the franchise.

They are less of an ‘other’ now. But they are not perfect, leading onto another component of orientalism: fetishization.

Circling back to their attire, it’s clear that the Gerudo are meant to be far more exotic than the native Hylians, leading to further fetishization (one NPC even demonstrates this, although the game rightfully views him as creepy). This is noted in Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess in relation to the character of Telma as well. In Breath of the Wild, Link also had to wear a (somehow even more) stereotypical outfit to sneak into Gerudo Town. While it’s great that Nintendo is willing to give one of their most iconic characters more gender-neutral clothing (with their attitudes to sexuality being more progressive in more recent years), it shouldn’t come at the cost of adequate SWANASA representation because the issue of fetishization and blending of cultures is arguably exacerbated (something Tears of the Kingdom fares better with).

Why does this matter? Orientalism is a component of racism; viewing other cultures as exotic creates false impressions and stereotyping, leading to the construction of said racism. There’s a reason why many Hollywood films depict Arab people as antagonistic terrorists, or how there’s a large amount of war games like Call of Duty set in the Middle East, and primarily post-9/11. In that same vein, fallacious ideas about culture can create a desire to colonise or a sense of racism. While I mainly focused on Zelda here — a franchise where the issue isn’t as prevalent — it is nonetheless important to look out for orientalism in gaming (and not just for SWANASA people, but really anywhere that isn’t Europe or North America) and call it out where it stands. These are archaic ideas and they should not have a place in our modern culture.