Final Case Study: Legend of Zelda

Cultures and Controversies found in the Zelda Universe

The Legend of Zelda (first released 1986) is a long running series created by Nintendo, with the game usually centered around Link who helps to save the world and Princess Zelda from an existing evil, which is most often controlled by Ganondorf. The stories and styles vary from game to game, but almost always follows the same formula and has reoccurring characters.

For example, there are different species of characters found in the game repeatedly. These characters have very close knit cultures, and rarely in a Zelda game will you find them interacting outside of their environments, or in a multi-cultural environment. They are separated but not hostile, so this is a bad example of politics and interactions between characters of different culture.

It's easy to see where the inspiration comes from for certain species. The Zora are inspired by fish, blues, oceans, while Goron are rock, warm browns, and obviously belong on land. But beyond the visual inspiration, there is many religious influences. Influences that many gamers may not be aware of in the West, as many things were censored out of the Japanese version before release.

This study case is not focusing on just one game, but instead the entire series with regards to religious influences in fantasy character species, as well as other criteria set by my critical framework.

I want to begin by addressing Christianity in the Zelda games. Due to religious censorship  all of the influences I'll research were removed in the West. The "Book of Magic" is originally refered to as a Bible in the original game. The word "Temple" was removed for several years, and introduced later. The word "God" was removed, and an in-game "Priest" were turned into a wizard. These clear symbols are signs of how prominent the Christianity structure is used within the Zelda universe, but it does not contribute to the visuals. Therefore, a change of name under censorship did not alter or obscure the visuals (with the exception of the "Book of Magic", still sporting a crucifix, as well as Link's shield).

Visual influences involving religion are found in the game The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time. As briefly mentioned, Christianity was the base for the Zelda game, before the Goddess of the Triforce were in place. Even still, Hyrule has a style reminisint of Christianity, with European style, the Wizards robes, and even Princess Zelda in The Ocarina of Time resembling a nun when younger.

The Gerudo race (see picture above) had ties to the Islamic religion it was influenced from. The original Gerudo symbol was a moon and star, but was replaced due to it's similarity to the Islamic icon. It can still be seen on Ganondorf's (A Gerudo and villian) clothing. But ultimately, this is proof that the Gerudo race was designed with Islamic cultures influence.

The Gerudo are in appearance tanned with red hair, and large pointy noses. They are all female, and a male is born once every 100 years to be their king. In this cycle, it's Ganondorf, who is represented as an evil person with bad intentions. The Gerudo women have low opinions of Hyrulian's. The Gerudo's clothes represent their environment of dessert and are filled with Egyptian and Middle Eastern influences. The Spirit Temple has strong ties to the Gerudo, housing the pictured above Mirror Shield containing the Gerudo symbol. The Temple itself sits in the desert and has ancient Egyptian and Arabic architecture and music influences. Finally, it houses a statue of the Goddess of Sand, the main deity of the Gerudo.

Religion in-game; The entire land of Hyrule (the Earth) seems to follow the legend of the Triforce, with the three Goddess'. The Triforce is seen on every temple, and is a symbol of courage, wisdom and power. It is neutral in good or evil, but instead offers its strength to those who deserve it (e.g. Link has the blessing of Courage, Ganondorf is often seen with the blessing of Power).

Cliche; Zelda is often renouned for it's creativity and originality. Even Final Fantasy claims to have been inspired by the Legend of Zelda. But despite it being old and creative in the games catagory, it is still littered with stereotypes of culture and religion, following the set rules of Europian Christian archetiecture, fashion and lush green/brightness evident at Hyrule Castle, to the desert, tanned, harsher and secluded people with Islamic influence with the Gerudo, and even the Goron, of the earth and their colour palettes. It's evolved as the games have evolved in technology, but these are still prominent stereotypes.

Results as compared to Critical Framework:

Final Case Study: Final Fantasy X

Religious/Spiritual influences on characters of Final Fantasy X 

Final Fantasy X (2001) is set in the fantasy world of Spira, in which a giant monster named Sin is terrorizing the world. The only way to stop Sin is by following the teachings of Yevon, an organized religion created by people in order to support sacrifices to Sin for a period of Calm, and to stop people from using machina (machines) and convincing them technology is the reason for Sin's rampage.

Sin

This is the backdrop for Final Fantasy X. This is an abridged version of the history suitable for people unfamiliar with the game, as the politics and war behind the game take place 1000 years prior and would be irrelevant to study and time consuming to discuss. I do however intend to look further into two different cultures in the world of Spira and how they are influenced by the Yevon.

The symbol for Yevon

The teachings of Yevon are the in world religion created by people, in order to control their faith. The Yevon faith is laced with inspiration from Shintoism (practice and temples), Buddhism (iconography) and Catholicism (hierarchical structure).

Al Bhed

Seymour (half human, half Guado) and Guado

The most spiritually connected subjects of Yevon are the Guado, who are charged with protecting certain holy lands. On the opposite spectrum are the Al Bhed; a culture of people who are considered as heretics for disobeying the teachings of Yemen, and use Machina to better their lives and survive. Because of this, they are feared and hated. It is important to note however, no culture here is right or wrong, good or bad, but rather have different views of faith and so disagree strongly causing this animosity between them.

Visually; Al Bhed are shown with industrial clothes, tight fitting with many cautionary pieces of clothing (e.g. goggles on eyes, respirators, thick gloves, etc) this reflects their image as mechanics and shows practicality in clothes. They reside mostly in the dessert, which the goggles may also be representing, but their main material of use and environmental substance is metal, and is well reflected in their clothes.

Home (Al Bhed mainlands)

Guado are much more natural in wear and look. They resemble elves with veins and hair similar to flora and wood. they have long thin nails, adding to a sense of natural fragility. Their clothes are looser and held together by fabrics (compared to Al Bhed's braces and buckles) and are brightly coloured. Their appearance co-insides with their stature of being protectors of holy earth on Spira, and also a reflection of their mainland, which is within a forest.

Guadosalam (Guado mainlands)

Cliches are not uncommon in any media, especially in fantasy. Inspiration is often drawn from the same places in this genre. As shown, the Al Bhed are modeled after mechanics and the Guado are elf like wooden creatures. But there's a breath of fresh air to the designs, and that separates them from other similar roles found in fantasy/sci-fi. They are also very serious in design, which is a nice change from stereotypical and caricatured roles. I find they compliment each other well, especially the difference between the natural, loose, and eccentric hair of the Guado, to tight, metal, alien looking  but non-threatening outfits of the Al Bhed.

Results as compared to Critical Framework:

Visual Representations of Critical Framework

This post and graph below will be iterated upon in the following weeks.

This weeks lecture showed Iain Donald and Dayna Galloway pitch their PhD projects to us. This gave me a clearer understanding of how a visual chart of critical analysis made will look.

This is the chart that will be seen throughout my dissertation showing results of analysis against my case studies, and final artifacts:

Personal Development: Pose

My last email exchange/update with Robin, I got some feedback with what I should tackle next for my final artifacts. I had begun drawing a basic model on a character sheet to be a base for my final designs:

His feedback was that everything anatomically was alright, but I should be focusing on pose > shape. He recommended me Posemanics.com which is amazing and I wish I had found sooner.

I will be dropping shapes, and focusing on poses for my final character character designs. This means I'll lose overweight and skinny. I won't be doing old or younger either. Sticking to moderate/normal sized 20 - 30 year old characters.

For this evening, I've done some 10 - 15 minute warm ups of poses I've personally liked. I'll be taking my time and designing from different poses and getting a feel for my characters next. My works will be compared to my critical frameworks criteria, and if it does not fit I will explain why, document my findings, and redraw. This will be an iterative but necessary step.

Personal Development: Evolving/Developing my Style

It is no secret that my art is often influenced by anime style art. I grew up with the style, trying to mimic my favourite manga books characters, and failing many times before finally succeeding to understand the proportions and style that is, anime.

My first ever digital drawing. Don't laugh.

The anime style has become very common, often badly done, and frowned upon as an art style in recent years, but I'm not ashamed of where I began. In-fact, I try my best to implement my anime style into my illustrations.

Digital painting practice. Combining life drawing with anime techniques I've learnt over the years.

Personally, I find that once you achieve the anime style, it can no longer develop your skills, or challenge you. Therefore, I enjoy learning new art techniques, skills, and being able to put my own style into it to create something new and not too animesque.

My twist on anime art. It's a never ending learning experience.

The reason I explain this is for Personal Development. So I saw this photo by http://www.vincentlambphotography.co.uk/ and immediately wanted to recreate it into an anime style. I asked permission of the photographer, and begun drawing.

I had to edit things into animesque without too much exaggeration, had to edit the males torso, the sitting females arm, shoulders, eyes, as well as simplify everything. But the lineart as drawn was drawn with special attention given to the photo, and I hope to continue to blend my style with that of realism.

I'll paint it in the future using the same lights seen in the photo above, but with a brighter colour palette.

The reason I've posted this is to document my advancements as an artist, and the long road I still have to go. :)

Feedback from Week 23 - 22/02/13 academic tutor meeting: Robin and Mus: Look at the masters to further as an artist, practice lighting for Drogo picture looks flat, etc

Week 22 - Final Pitch Feedback

Today was the final Pitch Week. I was unusually overly nervous for this presentation (I'm usually confident enough as a speaker...) but that shows some lack of faith in my current project ideals. In terms of feedback, the lectures confirmed what I was scared of. "It's still a bit blurry", "Needs tidying", "Not quite sure where exactly you're aiming for" "Very broad area"

It's at this point where I re-evaluate my religious works in conjunction with what I originally wanted to achieve  Do I want to focus on what religion and symbolism are, or do I want to focus on what is perceived as good and evil? "Anthropology" used by Robin struck a chord with me, and I realized how faith-centered my work is.

I need to show off more of my work. "Just get it out in the public!" I've been suggested to post work up in Whitespace and accept feedback from passerby's etc. I'm not 100% sure how to achieve this, as I work much better from home and wouldn't be around my area much, and I'm too shy to just post work up with a "Critique This!" sheet hanging from it... I need to think about this.

Areas to look at; Renaissance paintings, Hieronymus Bosch, Greek influences, separate my fashion and symbolism link into two separate areas, Anthropology(!!)

Positive feedback; Good progress, good to pursue advancing my digital painting skills (observing Renaissance paintings will improve this area too!), good to consider different areas of creating (e.g. character concept sheets should be laid out in a way others can understand it) and a stronger presentation as I have a better understanding now as opposed to previous semester.

Onwards!

Critical Framework

Long overdue is my critical framework. I've been too worried to write my own, but after speaking with my academic tutor Robin this past Friday, I have a better understanding of what is expected from me. I'll iterate this post if I need to overtime.

Aim: "To design fantasy characters that will visually express themselves as an individual of different backgrounds and beliefs"
Objective: "To examine cultural, religious and spiritual factors that impact on human appearance, and to embed this knowledge in the design of original characters for the fantasy genre"

Areas of Study:

- Existing cultures, history and influences
- Cliches in fantasy character design
- Existing fantasy cultures in video games, and how their characters look/behave
- The notion of 'good' people and 'bad' people
- Angels/demons as deity figures in media
- Fashion

Critical areas of focus:

Zelda - real life religion and culture in a fantasy mix, controversially censored.
Ni no Kuni - Humans live in different environments with different monarchs, and abide by those fashions and culture.
Final Fantasy X - An example of hatred between different faiths. Extremes. No individuality.

Religion - Angels and Demons in media

Fashion - Cultural differences are always noticed, drawing inspiration from location, and history. Fashion is also seen as a statement, and can reflect ones personality, can tell a story (where is that person from, what kind of climate/environment do they live in) and can even reflect someones faith. How is this translated in a fantasy world? Can it be done better?

Appearance - People do not physically look the same. Other than fashion, we physically differ from one another in appearance due to background and race. This is often stereotypical in fantasy/sci-fi video games.

Visual representations of Critical Framework:

My Final Critical Framework:

• The good/positive and/or evil/negative undertones towards a culture
• Religions influence in the game, how do they affect the characters
• Internal fantasy religion, how does that affect the characters
• Influences of culture, religion and spirituality in the characters design/fashion
• Symbols of identity in the culture
• Stereotype or cliche