The Legend of Zelda Old Topic, New to Me: Racism Ties to Art Design

[Octorock_N_Roll]

So I'm using Zelda Dungeon's excellent walkthroughs last night to play through 2 games I never played through as a child: Legend of Zelda and Zelda 2. I was really shocked by the inclusion of the manji symbol in LoZ. I know it's a Buddhist symbol for luck or whatever, but c'mon: the implication in the Western world is that it reminds people of a swastika, so why include it?


But I'm even more shocked by the art design of the Wizzrobes and the representation of the Thunder spell on the site (manual as well?) which couldn't have been more clear that they looked like a member of the KKK and the SS patch.


Is this just a case of "look what we included, aren't we edgy?" I'm sort of angered by whoever was in charge for their tounge-in-cheek inclusion of such designs to be associated with such classic games.

 

[Metroid.]

Keep in mind the swastika is a mirror of that. Also keep in mind this is in excess of 20 years ago. The wizzrobe looks more like a knight than a kkk member to me. They used more religious related themes than racist (if they even used any), as you can see the wizzrobe's garments don the cross. An example of this is Agahnim, who was a priest in the original game. To add to that, I don't think the Japanese would have too much interest in including the KKK in their game.

 

[guapo2003]

When I played it back in the day, I never noticed anything out of the ordinary, but I wasn't exactly looking for anything either. So that's an interesting find you found there, but I honestly wouldn't think too much on it.

 

[MrGray]

The only one I can see being intentional in the slightest is the Wizzrobe. The swastika is obviously JUST a manji, and not associated with the Nazi Party. The double lightning bolts is really a stretch, there's no other evidence suggesting any sort of connection.

The Wizzrobe caught my attention, but I doubt it has anything to do with the KKK. Even more so, the KKK robes were taken from an Italian religious sect that wears nearly identical garments but are entirely peaceful and not related to the white supremacy group aforementioned.

 

[Djinn]

You do not think that the Wizzrobe in any way resembles a 11th century Templar knight robe at all?

They were an order of knights and monks that were known to wear the red cross on white. Not to mention existing some 800 years before anyone ever thought about any kind of kkk in another continent. In fact the Crusader knight imagery is going to be much more well known in many more parts of the world especially in a medieval themed game than some small 19th century terrorist organization which really only North Americans would pick up on. I would have my doubts that the Japanese developers ever gave this any thought at all when implementing the character into the game nor would even think that people would draw insult from the pics. They most likely wanted something that was medieval themed, involving knights etc. and just added some random basic crusader type of design to a few characters. This might also explain the inclusion of a cross on Link's shield. They just wanted to toss a western style in it with as little research as possible.

 

[Kevin]

When I got my video of the Zelda NES maps featured on ZD people commented on my Youtube channel immediately about the manji symbol and wondered why I would make something so offensive. It's a manji, not a swasticka, and it's a very old game with roots outside of the US. In most Asian cultures the manji is a symbol of good things, and not associated with Nazism. The Wizzrobe looks kind of like a knight to me as well. The thunderbolts remind me of the SS symbols too, which is hard for me to counter.