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Ardi as the "Good" Gerudo woman

It's next to impossible to divorce Rauru's positioning as an inherent good in the Wilds era in contrast to how the game defines Ganon's evil. Central to this is Ardi, who acts as a native informant to communicate their heroism and villainy respectively to the player.

CW: Zionism, Colonialism, Discussion of Rape and Sexual Assault in the video link provided

Ganon isn't just a bad guy, he's excessively patriarchal. One of the first scenes he's introduced in makes a great effort to present the game's most sympathetic native informant (Ardi) as being intimidated, controlled, and later betrayed by him.

This is contrasted with how open minded, forgiving, and progressive Rauru is to not only "forgive" the Gerudo for attacking him (which is framed in such a way that it's entirely Ganon's doing and something Rauru and in turn Hyrule is acting entirely on the defense from) but to continually believe in peace with the Gerudo at large.

That push and pull with Ardi's character is key. She clearly defies Ganon's word and her defining trait is wanting peace. She doesn't want to fight Hyrule and wanting peace is one of her defining character traits but the evil Ganondorf is clearly threatening her into it.

As with many stereotypes of ethnic others, the predominant images of Arab women in U.S. popular culture lie at two opposite poles: Arab women are either represented as erotic, romanticized, magical, and sexualized, as with most images of belly dancers or harem girls, or they are portrayed as helpless, silent, and utterly dominated by an excessive Arab patriarchy, as in representations of the veiled woman or the harem slave. It benefits the creation and propagation of these images to make them appear to be as different, and, indeed, as opposite as possible, since variation implies accuracy or, at the very least, diversity beyond stereotypes. - Imagining Arab Womanhood

The violence he commands may not be direct, but her command makes it clear that he is an oppressive force lording over what Rauru and Sonia sees as largely good, peace loving people.

In other words the narrative is committed to the belief that by and large there are good and bad Gerudo but the only one we see as evil are Ganon and the two outliers that serve directly beneath him who answer to his word.

This then means by all accounts that there's some evil outlier who is causing the conflict and that Rauru and Sonia are enlightened enough to recognize that they're not all bad.

See how evil he is that he forces them into a battle they don't want? That he sets them up on a failing mission and double crosses them, then attacks his own people after ruling the world because...reasons?

You fight robots demons, evil spirits and SWANA women in this game. The only time you fight other people are explicitly in the context of sparring matches that are understood to be friendly battle. Yet mechanically the Gerudo women are placed on the same level as literal beasts to be hacked up.

If this was just about how "power corrupts" or how Ganon is an agent of chaos or whatever people are saying to avoid just calling this a racist, imperialist story, then consider how ToTK ends.

ToTK ends in the exact same way that led to the problem in the first place--by swearing loyalty to a ruler of Hyrule with a bunch of secret stones. If anything they're far worse off now than ever because now there are even more stones about that could fall into malicious hands.

Why did they erase the knowledge of the construct but leave in memory the stones that literally set the conflict into motion?

Because the problem was never wielding power or chaos. It was specifically the idea that there is an evil other who, upon invading Hyrule ruined everything and must be executed. The evil other who murdered Rauru's wife, subjugates women and children.

It's not the first time we position Ganon's evil directly through the harm of women and children nor is it the way that the Gerudo's conditional heroism is presented to the viewer.

Taking it outside fiction, this is especially relevant considering the way this framing and rhetoric surrounding selective focus on "women and children" is deployed from the war on terror to the still ongoing genocide and occupation of Palestine, and not at all solely by conservatives.

Take for example Bernie Sanders, who has repeatedly affirmed he supports Israel's ongoing genocide and occupation of Palestine and please also take note of how he frames who he perceives as an innocent Palestinian.

Mohammed El-Kurd has a note speaking to this very problem in "Perfect Victims And the Politics of Appeal:"

Finally, throughout the book, there is a disproportionate use of masculine pronouns. That is done on purpose. For far too long the Palestinians have been reduced to “women and children.” One implication here is robbing women and children of their agency and their political or revolutionary contributions. Another is the further demonization of Palestinian men as deserving of death and unworthy of mourning, exiled from their loved ones’ embrace. I often use “he” in reference to “the Palestinian” because I want to force the reader to come face to face with the Palestinian man. I want the reader to contend with that complex and contradictory demographic, and not just those assumed to be the gentle or generous among us—not only the fathers, but the fighters as well.

Rauru was kind and benevolent to have such a "progressive" view of the Gerudo to see they're not all evil, and in doing so he perpetuates the exact same imperialist rhetoric that has historically been used to oppress and justify the colonization of the peoples the Gerudo are based on.

This notion of the Ottoman East as the antiquated holding grounds of ancient ruins marked a significant shift in orientalist imagery from the French to the U.S. context that would impact the construction of representations of Arab womanhood for decades to come. Not only was the space of the Middle East now understood as a sacred and ancient site, but the apparition of the threatening “Terrible Turk” that had so determined French orientalist representations was now replaced by a weak, lingering Ottoman presence that was an irritating, if ineffectual, obstacle to the sacrosanct site of the origins of western civilization. While it is clear that an orientalist interpretation of Arab womanhood traveled from colonialist France to an imperialist U.S., it is also evident that it was “accommodated (or incorporated)” and “to some extent transformed by its new uses, its new position in a new time and place.” In other words, because of the different interpretations - Imagining Arab Womanhood

In order to communicate that Rauru is a wise, good and progressive ruler, it necessitates Ganon's relationship be interlinked with his excessive patriarchal control over the Gerudo women.

In this respect, it also imagines the Gerudo women and girls as a collective property to be kept out of the hands of a dangerous other. Rauru's belief and "arrogance" for letting Ganon get close is a cautionary warning that there exist dangerous others, the man of the desert, the desert man as the Zelda Franchise frequently labels Ganon, who will destroy everything, control women and destroy all hope for peace and serenity.

(The collective property line comes from the below video that does a great job at discussing the positioning and dehumanization of women to justify imperialist policy).

Obviously this is not to imply that SWANA, Muslim, or African men are incapable of being misogynistic or patriatrchal--far from it. However, this selective focus and construction around the woman as helpless victim of the creates a double erasure.

It first appropriates the real grievances and traumas of women victimized by Orientalist sentiments as they now have to combat both the in-community issues of misogyny in their own communities and the selective faux concern outside of it.

Second, this exact line of thinking is historically the go-to justification for imperialist violence carried out by states wanting to position themselves as the progressive figure.

The oppression of women is framed as providing insight, a vital clue, into why terrorism occurs. What is revealed “behind the veil”? An assault of evidence is then presented, testifying to the oppressive and backward nature of Islam, especially when it comes to women. Journalists often begin with a disclaimer—“It is impossible to capture the diversity of the Muslim world,” or “These are not Islamic practices”—before presenting an onslaught of evidence to prove the brutality of Islam. The disclaimer signals that the journalist is aware of the diversity of Muslim lived experiences and is making an effort to present a semblance of sensitivity and awareness. While lip service is paid to diversity and complexity, the vast majority of evidence supports the opposite idea. These female native informants are a version of the “good Muslim” who confirms to Western viewers that Islam poses a threat to women and to the West. Sunaina Maira writes, “By definition, ‘good’ Muslims are public Muslims who can offer first-person testimonials, in the mode of the native informant, about the oppression of women in Islam, . . . and the hatred, racism, and anti-Semitism of Arabs and Muslims. My point here is not that we should not feel outrage at human rights abuses and injustice. Rather, my point is that pity for the oppressed Muslim woman has been strategically used to advance US imperialism. This highly mediated evocation of outrage for the plight of the oppressed Muslim woman inspires support of US interventions in Arab and Muslim countries. Arab and Muslim victims emerge as particularly important to simplified complex representations because they allow viewers to feel for “the enemy.” The growth of this affect in turn comes to symbolize multicultural progress. Rather than demonize all Arabs and Muslims, having sympathy for some of them reflects an enlightened culture that can distinguish between the “good” and “bad” ones. Alsultany, Evelyn. "Arabs and Muslims in the Media after 9/11: Representational Strategies for a “Postrace” Era." American Quarterly, vol. 65 no. 1, 2013, p. 161-169. Project MUSE

This isn't everything I want to say about Ardi and the AoI Gerudo but consider it another sample.

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