ganonposting

protect them all

I swear I did not invent this for the lore.

I heard from an elder during Chinese New Year dinner this year that there are family stories about Mongol migration, and possibly old Jurchen / Wanyan history.

It is not exactly my direct ancestry line, more like extended family lore, but it still made me realize again how complicated family history and ethnic history can be in China.

The Jurchens were a northeastern frontier people in Chinese history. They founded the Jin dynasty, and Wanyan was the name connected to their ruling clan.

A powerful people from outside the “central kingdom” narrative.

A kingly, almost mythic image.

Conquest, fear, political memory, and being remembered through the eyes of the kingdom that saw them as a threat.

So when I look at totk Ganondorf’s design, especially the silk road imagery, Buddhist art influence, desert king image, and that powerful figure outside the central kingdom narrative, it hits something very specific in my brain.

Of course, real history and Zelda lore are not the same thing.

This kind of wrathful protector / dark guardian imagery is not a Japan-only thing. Many of these traditions have South Asian / Indic roots, and then traveled through the Silk Road and other Buddhist transmission routes, changing and becoming local in many places across Asia.

My hometown region also has a local Buddhist visual world connected to the Dali Kingdom, including Mahākāla / Daheitian traditions.

For example, Zhang Shengwen’s Dali Kingdom Buddhist painting scroll shows many Buddhist and guardian figures, shaped by religious and cultural exchange. Local Daheitian / Mahākāla statues also carry that same fierce guardian energy: dark skin, fierce faces, weapons, guardian-deity posture, and red hair / flame-like red crest details.

So when people reduce all of this imagery to only “Japanese Buddhism” I am just sitting here like…

Please look at the whole road. 😌💢

you are so right prev