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[UnemployedVillain]

Tetra, a pirate, gets turned into a princess. And to show just how much more magical and royal she is, they lighten her skin. Sorry this is difficult for you to comprehend.

You're doing a GREAT job selling your game btw

Because it's a stupid argument that tries to bring the very valid issue of racial politics with character shading, into a situation where it's not present at all. They made Tetra tan because she's a pirate. They made Zelda pale because that's what every Zelda in the series has been, because she's a princess.

This is a series where completely different versions of the main character (Link) have only differed slightly, by age and hair style, and yet some of you are trying to concoct a narrative for why Zelda, who has similarly strayed very little in design, once again, strays very little in design. Not to mention, Tetra rejects her role as princess and in future games attains a position higher than princess as the founder of the new Hyrule

 

[IrishNinja]

Sad shit. If the black character ain't evil, they're angry(Barret) or an idiot(Sazh) or a mix of both(Cole Train).

yeah, this feels like an old trope in manga/japanese games: black dudes are usually old and scary, unless they're just old & comedic relief. if, however, it's an athletic competition, they're huge and have the power of instantaneous movement™

Spoiler

and don't even get me started on the roach caricature apologists

Tetra, a pirate, gets turned into a princess. And to show just how much more magical and royal she is, they lighten her skin. Sorry this is difficult for you to comprehend.

You're doing a GREAT job selling your game btw

Yeah, and she loses the tan when she becomes a princess. Because tanned skinned is for peasants.

yup - these are literally things that speak to the video's key points and are obvious with even a moment's reflection, but here we are ya'll

white fragility is a powerful thing, and dark skinned people don't play a substantial role in some folks' lives, "simple as that"

 

[dickgumshoe]

Yeah, the secret of today's society: tell everybody what to do. Criticising someone because the bad guy is dark skinned is laughable, unless there's a racist message behind. And no, the examples given are not racist. Like Tetra being tanned is racist? Are you people for real?

What are you talking about? Criticism is not telling other people what to do. It's telling someone that you (sometimes partially, someimtes completely) don't agree with something, or don't like (an aspect or the whole) of something. If a creator of something can't stand that, then they shouldn't put it out there.

And I can't speak for anybody else, but I didn't call, for example, the 'evil' Ryu and Ken color swap racist, I'd call it ridiculous and stupid and unnecessary, and reenforcing racist stereotypes. Differentiation can help.

 

[Messofanego]

Because this bears repeating. Give this video a watch.

Enough people still haven't seen this Clark Doll experiment.

 

[User123456]

Sad shit. If the black character ain't evil, they're angry(Barret) or an idiot(Sazh) or a mix of both(Cole Train).

Sazh is essentially the only sane and rational voice in the entire FF13 cast tho. Also the best character in general.

 

[Boy Wander]

And than tan disappears as soon as she turns into Zelda... why exactly? It's not like she actually spent months indoors. It just happens instantly, by magic, as soon as the King completes the Triforce piece. Same person, but as Zelda, not only do her clothes change, but she instantly loses the tan, by magic because she's "pure" now and apparently it's really important to signify that by changing her skin-tone and not just her clothes. Why are people even making up this bullshit that the game doesn't even try to justify like that?

It's not making up bullshit. It's trying to figure out why. Do you think this is a subconscious racism thing? I mean, if she is literally turning back into Zelda, my proposed theory still holds water. I'm not discounting the fact that there could be a subconscious racism thing going on here, I'm wondering if there could be other explanations. We shouldn't discount any explanation just because it doesn't fit our agenda. But this is GAF and that happens all the time. Especially around sensitive issues.

 

[RuinerPrime]

Sazh is essentially the only sane and rational voice in the entire FF13 cast tho. Also the best character in general.

and what about Fang!? where does she fit into this?!

 

[BassForever]

I understand the main point in question and as a whole I agree. At the same time in the case of something like evil Ryu and other characters corrupted by darkness having parts of their body become darker to show this corruption makes sense visually since it's in the word darkness. Maybe you could make them a shade of purple to have the same effect without making it look like making them black/brown made them evil? Though would tinting them a shade of purple make them look too silly to be taken seriously?

Getting sucked into a case by case argument of why specific examples should or should not count is losing focus on what's the main topic of discussion here.

 

[IrishNinja]

It's not making up bullshit. It's trying to figure out why. Do you think this is a subconscious racism thing? I mean, if she is literally turning back into Zelda, my proposed theory still holds water. I'm not discounting the fact that there could be a subconscious racism thing going on here, I'm wondering if there could be other explanations. We shouldn't discount any explanation just because it doesn't fit our agenda. But this is GAF and that happens all the time. Especially around sensitive issues.

i adore zelda, but let's not pretend that this very thread didn't illustrate

pale/light skin = princess
dark evil desert thief = villain, because lore

i'd say it's fairly safe to assume, at best, subconscious racism going on here that is about as far as you can get from being limited to this series/medium...but that kinda talk upsets a lotta folks who "just wanna play games" and continue not being bothered by things that affect others

I understand the main point in question and as a whole I agree. At the same time in the case of something like evil Ryu and other characters corrupted by darkness having parts of their body become darker to show this corruption makes sense visually since it's in the word darkness. Maybe you could make them a shade of purple to have the same effect without making it look like making them black/brown made them evil? Though would tinting them a shade of purple make them look too silly to be taken seriously?

at the end of the vid in the OP, he mentions things like making the eyes red - i think stuff like that works far better, and there's tons you can do to visually indicate a heel turn

 

[Boy Wander]

i adore zelda, but let's not pretend that this very thread didn't illustrate

pale/light skin = princess
dark evil desert thief = villain, because lore

i'd say it's fairly safe to assume, at best, subconscious racism going on here that is about as far as you can get from being limited to this series/medium...but that kinda talk upsets a lotta folks who "just wanna play games" and continue not being bothered by things that affect others



at the end of the vid in the OP, he mentions things like making the eyes red - i think stuff like that works far better, and there's tons you can do to visually indicate a heel turn

One thing I've definitely noticed in the past is that black protagonists are almost always edgy and street, almost as if they have some whiff of cool criminality about them. It's not often you just get a regular guy with dark skin.

 

[StromboliProtocol]

Guess these days we can find anything to complain about. Sorry but this is ridiculous.

This. A thousand times.

Black/white dichotomy never had anything to do with racism. White as a *color* represents good and hope. Black as a *color* represents evil and despair. Depicting a vilains with brown skins have nothing to do with racism: this is basically iconography, nothing more.

God, what's next: stop buying black clothes when you're fat???

 

[Kinyou]

Why all the discussion about Tetra? She's one of the heroes. Hell, people like her more than the transformed Zelda.

 

[BassForever]

i adore zelda, but let's not pretend that this very thread didn't illustrate

pale/light skin = princess
dark evil desert thief = villain, because lore

i'd say it's fairly safe to assume, at best, subconscious racism going on here that is about as far as you can get from being limited to this series/medium...but that kinda talk upsets a lotta folks who "just wanna play games" and continue not being bothered by things that affect others



at the end of the vid in the OP, he mentions things like making the eyes red - i think stuff like that works far better, and there's tons you can do to visually indicate a heel turn

The simple response is, if it wasn't subconcious racism and tetra was always Zelda and Zelda is someone who's reincarnated whenever she is needed to save Hyrule... why couldn't this Zelda have been reincarnated with dark skin? And on the flip side if this zelda was born white like the others why use magic to change her skin tone when all you really needed to do was change her hair color to help her avoid detection? Was it really as shallow as "oh they'll never expect a black girl is a princess?"

Though I guess one could flip side argue dark skinned tetra is depicted as competent and heroic while light skinned zelda is iirc instantly captured and has to be saved by a man (yeah I know zelda helps in the final battle but that's many hours later). Though that is opening the pandora's box on the tetra/zelda argument that could really be it's own thread.

 

[Shaanyboi]

Because it's a stupid argument that tries to bring the very valid issue of racial politics with character shading, into a situation where it's not present at all. They made Tetra tan because she's a pirate. They made Zelda pale because that's what every Zelda in the series has been, because she's a princess.

This is a series where completely different versions of the main character (Link) have only differed slightly, by age and hair style, and yet some of you are trying to concoct a narrative for why Zelda, who has similarly strayed very little in design, once again, strays very little in design. Not to mention, Tetra rejects her role as princess and in future games attains a position higher than princess as the founder of the new Hyrule

Firstly, later games are kind of irrelevant to the arc and intent of Wind Waker's characters. They didn't make Wind Waker with sequels immediately in-mind.

Nobody cares that Tetra has a tan. The problem is that when they do the reveal to show off how beautiful she really is, how almost holy she is, part of the way they achieve this is by lightening the tone of her skin. Why?

 

[IrishNinja]

One thing I've definitely noticed in the past is that black protagonists are almost always edgy and street, almost as if they have some whiff of cool criminality about them. It's not often you just get a regular guy with dark skin.

yeah, we had a thread or two about this a while back as well - you get the "white devs don't know 'how to write a black protag otherwise'" (because the same as you would another doesn't work?)...but the more damning thing, i thought, was that the mind gravitates towards these stereotypes so easily, that when someone's creating a fantasy setting for their game, darker skinned characters still often exist in jungle/street/etc or equivalent settings. it's far more common than say, an advanced Wakanda like one, sadly.

 

[Boss Doggie]

Red eyes are kinda hard to see in the palette though.

Besides, the whole idea is that your whole body is bathed in evil, hence the whole dark clothes and body. Since we might as well just accept Ryu having black gi is fine.

 

[UnemployedVillain]

Firstly, later games are kind of irrelevant to the arc and intent of Wind Waker's characters. They didn't make Wind Waker with sequels immediately in-mind.

Nobody cares that Tetra has a tan. The problem is that when they do the reveal to show off how beautiful she really is, part of the way they achieve this is by lightening the tone of her skin. Why?

They make her look like EVERY other Zelda in the series when she's adopts the name Zelda. That's literally all there is to it. Neither Link nor Zelda ever get significant changes to their appearance

 

[Ushojax]

Firstly, later games are kind of irrelevant to the arc and intent of Wind Waker's characters. They didn't make Wind Waker with sequels immediately in-mind.

Nobody cares that Tetra has a tan. The problem is that when they do the reveal to show off how beautiful she really is, how almost holy she is, part of the way they achieve this is by lightening the tone of her skin. Why?

I should say that I don't think it's racist in this instance. It's classist, but there is no doubt that the idea of white/pale skin being more "pure" feeds into racist thinking.

 

[Jonnax]

This. A thousand times.

Black/white dichotomy never had anything to do with racism. White as a *color* represents good and hope. Black as a *color* represents evil and despair. Depicting a vilains with brown skins have nothing to do with racism: this is basically iconography, nothing more.

God, what's next: stop buying black clothes when you're fat???

Blah blah blah.

Black people = evil
White people = good

Not racist because that's the way it is.

=/

 

[BassForever]

Red eyes are kinda hard to see in the palette though.

Besides, the whole idea is that your whole body is bathed in evil, hence the whole dark clothes and body. Since we might as well just accept Ryu having black gi is fine.

Red as a color to represent evil REALLY doesn't work in a country that that historically been racist towards native americas.

 

[StromboliProtocol]

Blah blah blah.

Black people = evil
White people = good

Not racist because that's the way it is.

=/

Lol.

Black *color* man. Color. Learn to read. Also educate yourself as to why white and black as colours are perceived the way they are and why they are used in iconography the way they are.

 

[Boy Wander]

They make her look like EVERY other Zelda in the series when she's adopts the name Zelda. That's literally all there is to it. Neither Link nor Zelda ever get significant changes to their appearance

This is how I would see it, but I'm sure I'll get told that this is because I'm white or naive or both.

 

[CSJ]

Ah yes, cherry picking examples to make a point, there's no confirmation bias for viewers at all. I really, really hate this type of reporting. Good reporting involves both sides of a claim, not finding examples to prove your point.
Even when you could counter argument with decades worth of examples, it's hard for me to not come across like I'm being a dick.

This is the first time in my life I'm just shaking my head thinking no, no.. there are other things to complain about and this one is fruitless.

Edit: No, I'm not wasting my time giving examples, people have given a load already and it was the job of the person in the OP's video.

 

[snow in jamaica]

Red as a color to represent evil REALLY doesn't work in a country that that historically been racist towards native americas.

I'd assume literal red would be associated with Satan in the context of demonic powers.

Lol.

Black *color* man. Color. Learn to read.

This thread is about brown skin. It's in the title.

 

[Shaanyboi]

They make her look like EVERY other Zelda in the series when she's adopts the name Zelda. That's literally all there is to it. Neither Link nor Zelda ever get significant changes to their appearance

So if she hadn't had her skin lightened, she would be nigh unrecognizable as Zelda.

Also, you're right. They don't significantly change the appearance of these characters whatsoever.

No noticeable differences here. Not sure why I posted so many character images that are clearly so indistinguishable.

 

[Azoor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs7sTH5PO-A&t=19s

I'd argue that this is a very subjective reading of the words White and Black.

 

[UnemployedVillain]

Also, you're right. They don't significantly change the appearance of these characters whatsoever.


No noticeable differences here. Not sure why I posted so many character images that are clearly so indistinguishable.

I know you somehow think this helps to prove your point, but it really doesn't. Congrats though! You've cracked the mystery that different art styles look different!

 

[BassForever]

I'd assume literal red would be associated with Satan in the context of demonic powers.

Except nowhere in the bible are these things described with any kind of color outside of general "dark/darkness" comments. So people associating red/black/brown with darkness/evil is something society came up with, and low and behold those 3 colors accurately reflect the 3 races that have historically been treated like garbage. I think it says a lot about us as a society that when we eliminate black/brown from our colors to represent evil so many instantly go to red.

 

[Fliesen]

I know you somehow think this helps to prove your point, but it really doesn't. Congrats though! You've cracked the mystery that different art styles look different!

the argument was: Within the same art style they could've put Zelda into the familiar princess outfit, yet not bleached her skin.

 

[Majukun]

This. A thousand times.

Black/white dichotomy never had anything to do with racism. White as a *color* represents good and hope. Black as a *color* represents evil and despair. Depicting a vilains with brown skins have nothing to do with racism: this is basically iconography, nothing more.

God, what's next: stop buying black clothes when you're fat???

pretty much this.

 

[Boy Wander]

So if she hadn't had her skin lightened, she would be nigh unrecognizable as Zelda.

Also, you're right. They don't significantly change the appearance of these characters whatsoever.


No noticeable differences here. Not sure why I posted so many character images that are clearly so indistinguishable.

In a thread about skin tone, that you made, why are you posting pictures of different clothes / hairstyles / art styles?

Post pictures that show that Zelda hasn't always been a white girl with blonde hair.

 

[UnemployedVillain]

the argument was: Within the same art style they could've put Zelda into the familiar princess outfit, yet not bleached her skin.

Any my argument was that they wanted Zelda to look exactly the same as she always does. White skin with blond hair. Now an argument could be made why she always has to look like that, especially considering she's a reincarnation, but as for the question of why Tetra changed to look like that, it's simply to maintain the same look Nintendo is intent on Zelda always having. There is no deeper, subconscious symbolism behind it. They're just sticklers for not changing up Zelda and Link's designs aside from hair styles, clothes and age.

 

[dickgumshoe]

This. A thousand times.

Black/white dichotomy never had anything to do with racism. White as a *color* represents good and hope. Black as a *color* represents evil and despair. Depicting a vilains with brown skins have nothing to do with racism: this is basically iconography, nothing more.

God, what's next: stop buying black clothes when you're fat???

What you don't seem to grasp is that something can be made without bad intentions and still have a negative effect. And that's why I criticize these things. You don't have to presume that developers are racist. You can still talk about what effects their works may have.

From personal experience, I can't talk about racism, because as a caucasian white in a majority white country I didn't experience any. But I experienced the effects of homophobic slurs: At school, the word 'gay' was constantly used with negative connotations. For me, trying to come to terms with my homosexuality, constantly hearing this, a reminder of how society viewed gay people, let's just say it didn't help. Whether or not any of the other students intended to cause those problems, or if they were even aware of that, was irrelevant in that situation (I wasn't even out then). What matters is the effect it had. Since then I've come to terms with my sexual identity, but I continue to criticize people when they use the word that way, because I know what it might cause for young people. When I criticize someone, I don't call them evil, I just explain it to them. If they continue to use it though, I reserve the right to call them an insensitive a-hole.

Now skin color is obviously not the same, as one can successfully hide his or her sexual identity, but I think where both are similar is that whether or not something was or wasn't intended to cause problems is not the only relevant part, it can still have a negative effect. And I think it's reasonable to point that out.

 

[Boy Wander]

Honestly OP, if you really want to see how endemic this is, go through your game collection. You should get a rough idea rather than cherrypicking a few dubious examples. Report back to us with your findings.

 

[IrishNinja]

This. A thousand times.

Black/white dichotomy never had anything to do with racism. White as a *color* represents good and hope. Black as a *color* represents evil and despair. Depicting a vilains with brown skins have nothing to do with racism: this is basically iconography, nothing more.

God, what's next: stop buying black clothes when you're fat???

holy hell, this post just needs an #alllivesmatter tag to round it off

like, dude really isn't gonna think about any of this in the context of a thread about dark skin color, or why he makes the obvious assumptions about that clearly not racist dichotomy, hahaha

Honestly OP, if you really want to see how endemic this is, go through your game collection. You should get a rough idea rather than cherrypicking a few dubious examples. Report back to us with your findings.

people do this with anita's videos when they take umbrage with a particular example..but usually, the point still stands

i mean, unless i'm reading you wrong here, you're kinda agreeing with the thesis statement. i hope no one really took this as an attack exclusively on this iteration of street fighter; i've literally got hundreds of games over here and would assume, more often than not, that if there's a darker skinned character in said game it'd prolly fit this trope as well

 

[Fliesen]

Any my argument was that they wanted Zelda to look exactly the same as she always does. White skin with blond hair. Now an argument could be made why she always has to look like that, especially considering she's a reincarnation, but as for the question of why Tetra changed to look like that, it's simply to maintain the same look Nintendo is intent on Zelda always having. There is no deeper, subconscious symbolism behind it. They're just sticklers for not changing up Zelda and Link's designs aside from hair styles, clothes and age.

uhm, but now we're moving in circles.

There is no "like she always does" not even her exact hair color is set in stone.

is this not Zelda?

 

[UnemployedVillain]

uhm, but now we're moving in circles.

There is no "like she always does" not even her exact hair color is set in stone.

is this not Zelda?

Am I on the Zelda dev team? You saw in the pictures above. She's ALWAYS white with blond hair. Are you guys being intentionally obtuse now? Do you honestly think I care if she's tan or blond or some other look entirely? My point is Nintendo does. We're not moving in circles, you're simply trying to insunuate this is for racially biased reasons when it's clearly because they have no desire to drastically change the appearance of Zelda and Link

 

[Fliesen]

Am I on the Zelda dev team? You saw in the pictures above. She's ALWAYS white with blond hair. Are you guys being intentionally obtuse now? Do you honestly think I care if she's tan or blond or some other look entirely? My point is Nintendo does. We're not moving in circles, you're simply trying to insunuate this is for racially biased reasons when it's clearly because they have no desire to drastically change the appearance of Zelda and Link

It doesn't have to be racially biased. I'm not calling Nintendo racists, i'm saying that there was no need to transform a "tanned white girl with blonde hair" into a "pale white girl with blonde hair" during the Tetra -> Zelda reveal.

This is about the message that is conveyed, regardless of intent.

 

[IrishNinja]

we really do gotta stop treating racism (and misogyny, etc) as a simple binary: that you are, or aren't, as whole...rather than the little ways many of us are, with or without intent

i don't usually give two tugs of a dead dog's cock about hearts & minds but by staying with this line, many just kinda kneejerk with the current zelda example because they feel nintendo is being called a racist organization/storyteller, rather than a company that continually puts out quality software but occasionally follows a troubled troupe that's sadly very common in the industry they exist in

 

[BlizzKrut]

All in all I just got spoiled on Tetra's real identity, spoiler tags man.

 

[sn00zer]

Yeah it is an issue. I think the black shadowy doppelganger is a bit of a reach, and I mean the color black not the skin tone Ala shadow link. Evil Ken and Ryu do give me pause though.

Zelda series has always been a bit odd about this since every link and Zelda are reincarnated set thousands of years apart, but are always the same gender and skin tone. I can understand some people not liking the idea of a character who has been traditionally one skin tone being changed to another (but if you're rebooting should be a free for all) but Link and Zelda are literally different people everytime. People not wanting to budge there always seemed odd

 

[snow in jamaica]

Post pictures that show that Zelda hasn't always been a white girl with blonde hair.

There's one in the post you quoted, and she had brown hair again right after Wind Waker.

 

[Fliesen]

we really do gotta stop treating racism (and misogyny, etc) as a simple binary: that you are, or aren't, as whole...rather than the little ways many of us are, with or without intent

i don't usually give two tugs of a dead dog's cock about hearts & minds but by staying with this line, many just kinda kneejerk with the current zelda example because they feel nintendo is being called a racist organization/storyteller, rather than a company that continually puts out quality software but occasionally follows a troubled troupe that's sadly very common in the industry they exist in

yup. There's a huge difference between saying "there was no need to whitewash your character during what is basically just a costume change into a more 'pure' and 'regal' costume, considering the message this conveys" and saying "Nintendo is racist".

Also, to be honest, i don't exactly agree with all points in the video in the OP, as i feel it'd be mistake to consider every single use of "shadow" vs. "light" to be a "racial thing."

 

[UnemployedVillain]

we really do gotta stop treating racism (and misogyny, etc) as a simple binary: that you are, or aren't, as whole...rather than the little ways many of us are, with or without intent

i don't usually give two tugs of a dead dog's cock about hearts & minds but by staying with this line, many just kinda kneejerk with the current zelda example because they feel nintendo is being called a racist organization/storyteller, rather than a company that continually puts out quality software but occasionally follows a troubled troupe that's sadly very common in the industry they exist in

This isn't a kneejerk or a defense of Nintendo. This is me stating that I simply don't think this is an example of what the topic is about. It's only a case of bad appearances if you read far more into it than was intended. As stated they have a very narrow view of how they think Zelda and Link should look and Tetra's change in appearance is simply a reflection of that, and nothing more.

There's one in the post you quoted, and she had brown hair again right after Wind Waker.

The pic after WW is from BOTW in which she's blond as well. It's just the lighting making it look "brown"

 

[snow in jamaica]

The pic after WW is from BOTW in which she's blond as well. It's just the lighting making it look "brown"

I was referring to Twilight Princess.

 

[IrishNinja]

This isn't a kneejerk or a defense of Nintendo. This is me stating that I simply don't think this is an example of what the topic is about. It's only a case of bad appearances if you read far more into it than was intended. As stated they have a very narrow view of how they think Zelda and Link should look and Tetra's change in appearance is simply a reflection of that, and nothing more.

okay, but then fairskinned princess, dark desert thief gannon, midna the exotic princess from darkland or whatever...like none of that pattern troubles you a bit?

 

[Fliesen]

The pic after WW is from BOTW in which she's blond as well. It's just the lighting making it look "brown"

But she's a white girl both as Tetra as well as Zelda.
If different shades of yellowish-blonde, ash-blonde, orangey-blonde, almost brunette are fine across the series, why does - within the same game - a white pirate girl need to be bleached into an even whiter princess?

Nobody's saying Zelda should be black. (not in here, not right now at least). We're arguing why a blonde white girl needed to have her skin bleached further when she transformed into Zelda.

Isn't the pic i posted a character that is unmistakably recognizable as Zelda?

(left: Zelda as in the game, right: Zelda had her skin not been whitened during the 'costume change')

i don't see how the right one would be any bigger of a change to how 'Zelda always looks' than her brownish hair in TP, her outfit in Skyward Sword, or her overall appearance in BotW.

 

[Joshmyersbv]

Because this bears repeating. Give this video a watch.

What the fuck! Thats messed up.

 

[Tizoc]

okay, but then fairskinned princess, dark desert thief gannon, midna the exotic princess from darkland or whatever...like none of that pattern troubles you a bit?

It's their exotic fantasy-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2hYdBxxTTM

 

[HeatBoost]

I don't quite think this is as big of an issue as like... some of the other issues about race in games. Like representation, for instance. Of main characters. Who aren't white. Or dudes. Or have brown hair. Or really, who aren't white dudes with brown hair.

But I will say that it's a bit of a cliche where dark skinned people are more "low" and worldly VS light skinned people who are all pristine and sitting pretty as icons of purity and transcendental beauty in... basically every culture that doesn't feature almost exclusively dark brown people? There's a reason "redneck" was originally coined to refer to poor rural people who worked outside all day.

It's total bullshit but it's hard to undo hundreds of years of cultural stereotypes just like that, even with the added element of (justified) outrage over racial prejudice as part of it. If decades of bronzed Hollywood cultural imperialism hasn't been unable to unseat it on a global level, I don't know what can.

okay, but then fairskinned princess, dark desert thief gannon, midna the exotic princess from darkland or whatever...like none of that pattern troubles you a bit?

Isn't Midna blue? Where do generally earthy toned Gorons, who have been nearly universally good guys, fit into this? What about Tetra, the cool bronzed pirate captain who don't need no man VS the perennial lily white damsel in distress?