There’s a couple bits of context that I would like to add.
1. When I referred to the morality of the Gerudo, I was referring to throughout the franchise as a whole since a majority of Gerudo characters are seen as heroes. Nabooru, Urbosa, Riju, Ardi, Sholani, Ronza, and Buliara to name the most noteworthy examples. So since a majority of the Gerudo in the franchise are seen as benevolent, it’s clear that any antagonistic attributes the Gerudo did have were circumstantial, for instance Ganondorf himself implied that the Gerudo being thieves was due to desperation, not just stealing because they were bad. And to add to this point the whole definition of racism is discrimination against an entire ethnic group or culture, not picking and choosing 1 or 2 bad people and the rest are either neutral or good. So saying that Nintendo’s depiction of the Gerudo is racist is still a lie.
2. Twinrova is technically two people since she consists of two people. Koume and Kotake. And no I don’t count Veran since she has enough differences that make me say she is not a Gerudo. Even if she is aligned with Twinrova to an extent and she’s definitely one of the most vile characters in the series. And also when I referred to the morally good male characters, I was referring to male characters overall in the franchise since Ganondorf is the only male Gerudo seen, and that’s mainly due to Nintendo being a bit lazy with them not introducing any other male Gerudo, not any racist agendas. That being said I will say that this is probably my weakest point, I’ll give you that.
3. My point is that when someone is depicted in a racist way, the racism angle is meant to denigrate them and make them look as bad as possible in multiple different ways from morally to intellectually, and all sorts of ways. Ganondorf is evil yes, but since he does have a few shreds of good, he isn’t all evil. Ganondorf is also shown to be intelligent and cunning. And since some of the writers at Nintendo wanted to explore Ganondorf’s complexities in both OOT and WW and they also wanted him to be a character who is cool as well, especially given all the times he’s seen aura farming, so because of all of that, clearly any racist connections made by those who claim that there is an agenda being pushed were unintentional. And while I do agree that if it’s unintentional it still deserves to be constructively criticized, even Nintendo themselves knew that using the cut designs would have been a bad idea which is why they were cut in the first place. And also Nintendo has actively explored bigotry before including at least 2 Zelda villains who are racist, those being Demise and Zant who actively look down on humanity.
So yeah, my point is that while I understand where some may be coming from (although others are definitely doing it for the sake of rage bait), I do not think Nintendo actively meant to have Ganondorf or the Gerudo in general be depicted in a racist way and that any racist connections made where unintended. Especially since Nintendo actually has explored bigotry before, including in the Zelda series.
Also if I did block him, it was because I prefer to filter out the toxicity and I prefer to be a bit more pragmatic in terms of media coverage, and if I’m being constantly bombarded with negativity over even things that can be disproven or at least mitigated to an extent by simply looking at the full context, it will lead to me thinking less of a fanbase. It’s why I hate the Mortal Kombat, and Smash Bros fanbases despite me liking both franchises.
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