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breathofmagic · 1 year ago

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“Riju… Beloved daughter of the Gerudo.”

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the-mountain-flower · 4 months ago

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Theory/Personal Headcanon

So, without going too deep into the many issues with how The Legend of Zelda portrays the Gerudo, there's one part of it those issues that actually has to potential to be less problematic and make a lot more sense, if you view it in a non-binary perspective. Specifically, in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

Disclaimer that this totally isn't the intent behind how the Gerudo are written or anything like that. However, the canon portrayal has so many issues that I really don't care for it, and this theory makes so much more sense anyway. It doesn't decrease the issues with canon, but it makes for a better interpretation.

So the whole "all-warrior-women who get one man per century and that man is destined to be their king" thing really doesn't make sense. It's one of those things that, despite being so obviously fictional creative liberty, I could never really suspend my disbelief about.

Groups of all-warrior-women definitely aren't unheard of, most of which nowadays take inspiration of the Amazons from Hellenic mythology. That's not the part that I have trouble with at all, in fact the trope itself can be pretty cool if handled well.

It's the "king-male-per-century" part that just reeks of sexism. Only partially because in an entire culture of badass warrior women, a single male shows up and is automatically destined to be the most powerful among them. What the heck?! And that's not even touching on the extreme sexualization of Gerudo women, or the many other issues that arise from the way they're portrayed.

Now, story-wise this does make a liiiittle sense, bc "the one with a unique trait unlike any other is a Chosen One" is a really common trope, and them getting destined the title of leader/ruler is something that happens fairly often. And, it gives credence to another theory of mine, that the reason the reincarnation of Demise's hate has been a Gerudo man at least three time, is specifically because that position automatically grants him so much potential for power.

But if that's the case, why would the Gerudo keep the "Gerudo man=king" rule? And of all ways to use that trope, did it really have to be in the form of "man > any other woman"?!

And, finally getting to the point, it's so strictly binary. And as anyone with an ounce of critical thinking knows, sex and gender is never binary.

It doesn't account for intersex or transgender Gerudo, and has shown no way of accounting for any natural divergence outside of that system.

BOTW and TOTK isn't any better at this. In fact, it reiterates almost all bigoted tropes the series has played into over the years.

It did however, introduce the Gerudo having their own language, including the terms "vai" and "voe" which allegedly mean "woman" and "man". Basically every time it's brought up by a Gerudo person, they say "vai" and "voe" instead of "man" and "woman". While it's implied that this is because the terms are interchangeable, in practice this doesn't seem to be the case.

My theory is that "vai" doesn't directly translate to "woman", and "voe" doesn't directly translate to "man". Instead, those are just how it's translated into Hylian, and is falsely portrayed as a sex binary when it really isn't.

I think the biggest example to support this is the presence of gorons in Gerudo Town. In the Era of the Wild, as well as in the series as a whole, we apparently never see any female gorons. All gorons referred to in third-person pronouns are referred to using "he/him", and all call each other "brother". Language that is most commonly used to refer to those who are male. But if that were the case, then why (diegetically) wouldn't they have a corresponding explanation for why we apparently never encounter a female goron? And, most importantly, why would they be allowed in Gerudo Town, a place that so strictly forbids the presence of voe?

It makes infinitely more sense that A) gorons don't have societal differences between sexes, if they even have significant sexual/gender divergence at all, and B) "voe" isn't actually the same as what's labeled as "male", and the gorons fall into the category of vai instead.

It's entirely possible that gender doesn't play a role in whether someone's a vai or voe. It would answer the question of how intersex and transgender Gerudo would fit. It's a binary is, at least partially, separate from sex/gender.

So why is it translated as "man" and "woman"? Well, because that's it's being translated into Hylian. Hylians/humans are usually the dominant species/culture in the world of TLOZ. If the characteristics of Gerudo vai are most commonly shared with Hylian women, and those of Gerudo voe most commonly shared with Hylian men, then it's reasonable to assume that it was either used as an indirect translation, or that it was assumed to mean the same thing.

Not necessarily part of the theory bc this is a fantasy world, but it does still lend it credence: In the real world, most cultures do actually account the existence non-binary identities. The societal construct of a strict gender binary, as well as binary gender roles, are the direct result of white colonization. And in Zelda lore, there have been instances of Hyrule falling into the role of colonizers, and it's not a stretch to say the government of Hyrule hasn't always been on the right side of history. And, the Hyrule royal family has always been portrayed as white (they even made Tetra become pale-skinned when revealed as the princess WTF), and the Gerudo has always been portrayed as brown.

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kashkadavr · 2 years ago

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I was today years old when I found out that they were part of a love triangle and none of them stayed with man. So hear me out - neither of them are with a man because they are with each other.

#botw #tloz botw #tloz gerudo #gerudo #botw ashai #botw isha #breath of the wild #legend of Zelda breath of the wild #wip #kashkadavr art #game art #wlw art #Ukrainian artist #украрт #botw ishaxashai #ishaxashai

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wolfsteax · 6 months ago

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