The Reason why Gorons are Allowed in Gerudo Town
In The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild, Gorons are allowed to enter Gerudo Town, even though only women are supposed to be there.
A character named Traysi actually researches this mystery, but doesn’t seem to figure out the answer, leaving fans to speculate more on their own.
But did you know? This mystery actually was solved in the original Japanese version of the game!
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After you’ve taken care of the Divine Beast in the desert, you can find Traysi (JPN: Mitsuba) in town, writing notes as she watches two Gorons.
In the English version, she just says this:
“Male Gorons seem to have no trouble getting into Gerudo Town…”
But in the Japanese version, she says this:
“ゴロン族は ゲルド人にとっては 女子扱いっと…”
“Apparently Gorons are treated like women by the Gerudo people…”
So, the Japanese version basically says that Gorons are considered women by Gerudo standards, but the English version has rewritten this detail.
Notably, the English version also has Traisy emphasize that these Gorons are “male”, which is actually not directly stated in Japanese here.
Since characters do wonder why Gorons are allowed in the town we can gather that most people would consider them male, but they don’t say it outright.
In fact, there are some more details when we look at the two Gorons Traisy is watching here, Strade (JPN: Stradon) and Lyndae (JPN: Gatorin).
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When you talk to Strade at this point in the game, he has this to say in Japanese:
“オデ… 友達できたゴロ”
“I… made a friend, goro.”
“でも… これって”
“But… Is this-”
“男友達ゴロ？ 女友達ゴロ？”
“A boy friend, goro? Or a girl friend, goro?”
Given this context, it also feels relevant that Lyndae has a traditionally feminine-sounding name in either language version.
In the Japanese version he also uses the first person pronoun 僕/Boku, which is considered masculine, but has come to occasionally be used by women and girls as well.
I do want to point out that Lyndae can also be found earlier in the game, wondering why he was let in:
“僕… なんで入れちゃったゴロン？”
“I wonder… Why’d they let me in here, goron?”
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All in all, the Japanese version seems to play with the potential androgynous vibe of the Gorons, but it also shows that the Gorons aren’t really used to be treated as female the way the Gerudo do.
To put in a bit of my own thoughts here, I think this can be a neat way of showing that while Hylians (and the presumed audience) would consider Gorons male by default, this isn’t actually something that is universally true, and other cultures like the Gerudo can have a different understanding of gender.
In turn, to me it seems that the Gorons are used to being treated as male by Hylians, but they also clearly don’t seem opposed to the idea of being considered something else, even if it’s a slight surprise for them.
In any case, I think it’s a bit of a shame that the English version omitted this tidbit in the localization.
But that’s just me, I’d love to hear what other people think of this!
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In a 1999 interview with the developers, script director Toru Osawa said this:
Q•ゴロン族にも女性はいるのですか?
A•いるはずですが、見分けるのは難し いです。 なにしろ男も女も自分のこ とは「オラ」って言いますし・・・ (澤・ スクリプトディレクター)。
Q: Are there female Gorons?
A: There are, but it is difficult to tell them apart. Both males and females refer to themselves with masculine pronouns… (Sawa, Script Director).
So this has been an intended thing for a LONG time!
