Faculty Sponsor
Dr. Emily Plec, Department of Communication Studies
Abstract
This paper largely 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.
Recommended Citation
Kimball, Byron J.
(2018)
"The Gerudo Problem: The Ideology of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time,"
PURE Insights: Vol. 7, Article 5.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/pure/vol7/iss1/5
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