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Sometimes horror is intentional, and sometimes things are horror without meaning to be.
Legend of Zelda has both. Though as the intentional horror has been softened in the newer iterations of the game, the unintentional horror seems to have grown in sharp relief.
Let me explain.
In older Legend of Zelda games, bokoblins, bulblins, moblins, and other commonly encountered foes were part of a military force. This is not to say they couldn't be interpreted in a sympathetic light, just that they are predominately a fighting force.
However, in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, they could literally just be...a farmer (BOTW bokoblins)...literally just someone taking a nap (some of the moblins)...some guy picking berries (the TOTK bokoblins have such cute little packs for this 🥺)...a random traveller who's just minding their business until you come along (the Yiga). And yes, while all of them will pre-emptively attack you, it's hard for me not to interpret that either:
1. In a watsonian fashion as a defensive strategy of a regular person that is simply doing their best to defend themselves in a hostile world.
2. In a doylist fashion as not having to make significant changes to the gameplay mechanics or to the basic good vs evil narrative structure of the story.
And then there's the additional horror of Link using monster parts in his potions. Some poor farmer or berry picker's guts could be in that stamina potion. Link performed highway robbery on that poor Yiga civilian.
Legend of Zelda has both. Though as the intentional horror has been softened in the newer iterations of the game, the unintentional horror seems to have grown in sharp relief.
Let me explain.
In older Legend of Zelda games, bokoblins, bulblins, moblins, and other commonly encountered foes were part of a military force. This is not to say they couldn't be interpreted in a sympathetic light, just that they are predominately a fighting force.
However, in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, they could literally just be...a farmer (BOTW bokoblins)...literally just someone taking a nap (some of the moblins)...some guy picking berries (the TOTK bokoblins have such cute little packs for this 🥺)...a random traveller who's just minding their business until you come along (the Yiga). And yes, while all of them will pre-emptively attack you, it's hard for me not to interpret that either:
1. In a watsonian fashion as a defensive strategy of a regular person that is simply doing their best to defend themselves in a hostile world.
2. In a doylist fashion as not having to make significant changes to the gameplay mechanics or to the basic good vs evil narrative structure of the story.
And then there's the additional horror of Link using monster parts in his potions. Some poor farmer or berry picker's guts could be in that stamina potion. Link performed highway robbery on that poor Yiga civilian.
