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Race and Villainy
Oct. 25th, 2017 07:20 pmI recently posted a very short essay in which I expressed discomfort concerning the racist stereotypes used to portray Ganondorf in fanwork and in the Zelda games themselves. I got some intense pushback from unexpected quarters, so I want to attempt to refine and clarify what I was trying to say.
( Read more... )
In other words, it's totally normal to have a character who is a villain with dark skin, because expecting characters with dark skin to be perfect while denying them the full range of human experience and emotion is a stupid and ridiculous way to approach representations of racial and ethnic difference. That being said, it's weird and gross to have a character who is a villain BECAUSE he has dark skin.
This all seems obvious to me, which is why I'm surprised that I encounter almost comically racist themes and tropes so frequently in fanwork based on the Zelda games. It's been my experience that fandoms for other video game franchises (like Dragon Age, Borderlands, Final Fantasy, and so on) don't isolate discussions of the more problematic characters from the main fandom, and I can't help but wonder how different Zelda fandom would be if conversations and fanwork portraying its villain characters weren't pushed so far out of the mainstream.
( Read more... )
In other words, it's totally normal to have a character who is a villain with dark skin, because expecting characters with dark skin to be perfect while denying them the full range of human experience and emotion is a stupid and ridiculous way to approach representations of racial and ethnic difference. That being said, it's weird and gross to have a character who is a villain BECAUSE he has dark skin.
This all seems obvious to me, which is why I'm surprised that I encounter almost comically racist themes and tropes so frequently in fanwork based on the Zelda games. It's been my experience that fandoms for other video game franchises (like Dragon Age, Borderlands, Final Fantasy, and so on) don't isolate discussions of the more problematic characters from the main fandom, and I can't help but wonder how different Zelda fandom would be if conversations and fanwork portraying its villain characters weren't pushed so far out of the mainstream.
