#i’ve been really enjoying the diversification of hyrule in recent games

[zeldadiscussions]

Another point of discussion on TotK is “it’s racist/colorist/colonialist/imperialist that Ganondorf, the sole cause of most of Hyrule’s problems, is a poc coded foreign man.” (Foreign to Central Hyrule, I guess.)

While you’re all super valid for being on guard about that… Rauru, the guy Ganondorf initially starts beef with in TotK, is also a poc coded “foreign” man.

Apparently there is concept art of TotK Rauru as an old white guy. That was probably based on the Rauru from OoT, and likely from earlier on in development. The final version of TotK Rauru is not only younger, but the coding of his people’s culture is both Mezo-American and [Correction] East Asian.

Also, [Correction] the Zonai descended from the sky. They literally like… immigrated to Hyrule’s surface.(It’s not completely clear unless I forgot something but either Rauru and Mineru came down themselves recently or they are the descendants of immigrants.)

Now, pointing this out isn’t to imply poc cannot be imperialists. The Chinese Empire is a historical rollercoaster ride of imperialism spanning several dynasties. The Persian Empire, the Aztec Empire, etc. Hopefully it’s clear here Rauru is not somehow immune to skepticism just because he isn’t white coded.

It’s just… if the primary basis of the concerns that TotK is imperialist propaganda or colorist is the belief that Rauru is white coded… he’s not. Judging by his clothes and his people’s architecture and iconography, Rauru is coded as poc.

He’s not the only one, either. Zelda is white passing but overtly canonically mixed race. Sonia is brown. Zelda’s dad Rhoam was also visibly tan. Hylians overall have much more variance in skin tone and cultural coding than they did in previous games (Lurelin villagers, the stable folk, etc.) It seems Nintendo learned from OoT that one poc sage wasn’t enough to offset the colorist/racist implications of your main villain being a dude from the desert who takes over a country of pale people.

So all in all it really doesn’t seem like Ganondorf is being othered here… Rauru is also an “other” to the ancient Hylians but he’s their leader.

#tears of the kingdom #loz #totk #the legend of zelda #rauru #ganondorf #totk ganondorf #king rauru #totk rauru #i’ve been really enjoying the diversification of hyrule in recent games #i hope Nintendo gives us another tan Zelda in the next game #like Tetra #just let her STAY tan ffs #edited once again for better clarity and accuracy hopefully #take into account also that it’s not just Ganondorf vs Rauru #it’s Ganondorf vs EVERYBODY ans at this point I believe most of the main cast is now poc coded #Link and Sidon are maybe the only exceptions