0:00
So, I said something totally normal like
0:02
Christ is king. However, Hyrule is
0:04
fictional and they have the three
0:06
goddesses who made Hyrule. There isn't
0:09
Christ in the game. Never was. And
0:11
somehow that turned into a full-blown
0:13
meltdown. John F. Trent from Phantom
0:16
Pulse accused me of gaslighting, moving
0:18
the goalpost, and lying about Nintendo
0:21
scrubbing the Bible from the original
0:23
game. And to make things even dumber,
0:25
this all started because of a simple
0:28
casting announcement. Nintendo posted
0:31
the Zelda movie cast and Trent replied
0:33
with this. Will Link be a practicing
0:36
Christian in the liveaction film? I
0:38
thought that was a little cringe of a
0:40
thing to ask. So I quote tweeted it with
0:43
that Christ's king line to acknowledge
0:45
my own faith, but also to remind
0:48
everyone that Zelda has its own
0:50
mythology. I didn't expect to get
0:52
dragged into a religious lore war over a
0:56
pixelated video game from 1986. If you
0:58
played any Zelda game past Ocarine of
1:00
Time, you would know that the lore
1:02
centers around the three goddesses who
1:04
created the world of Hyrule. They gave
1:07
birth to the Triforce and they kicked
1:09
off this whole hero of time cycle.
1:11
That's the canon. All right. That's what
1:14
the games have reinforced again and
1:16
again. From Skyward Sword to Breath of
1:19
the Wild to Tears of the Kingdom, you
1:21
name it. So, when I said there isn't
1:23
Christ in the game, never was, I wasn't
1:26
saying Zelda never had religious
1:28
imagery. I was saying Christ as in
1:30
Christianity isn't part of the Zelda
1:33
mythos. But Trent jumped on that tweet
1:36
like I personally insulted the Pope. So,
1:39
he posted this screenshot of this Bible
1:41
item from the original NES Zelda, the
1:44
Japanese version, and said, "You're
1:46
wrong. The Bible is clearly in the game
1:48
and was scrubbed by Nintendo of
1:50
America." And that's where the firestorm
1:52
began. Here's the part that makes zero
1:54
sense. I actually agreed with him. I
1:56
said, "Yeah, early Japanese versions of
1:59
Zelda did have Christian references.
2:01
Basically, the Book of Magic, which is
2:04
what it was changed to in North America,
2:06
was a Bible in Japan. It even looks like
2:08
a Bible. There's crosses on Link's
2:10
shield. There's crosses on headstones.
2:12
All of that. But that doesn't mean
2:15
Zelda's story was ever about
2:17
Christianity. That was just early 8-bit
2:20
fantasy design. And that's a trope that
2:23
lots of Japanese games had at the time
2:25
back then. So I said, "Hey, the current
2:28
accepted Zelda mythology essentially is
2:30
based on the three golden goddesses that
2:32
canon has been solid since the N64 era.
2:35
I mean, we're going nearly 30 years of
2:38
canon, and that's not a dodge, okay?
2:41
That's literally what Nintendo has
2:42
committed to. Every major Zelda game,
2:46
every major timeline explanation, even
2:49
the Hyrule Histori, the actual book
2:51
itself, backs that up. But that wasn't
2:54
enough to him. He decided to get snarky
2:56
with me, which is surprising. I've
2:57
always had good conversations with John
2:59
F. Trent. He flat out just goes, "It was
3:01
the Bible. Do not gaslight me. do not
3:04
move the goalpost. Like, I'm out here
3:06
running some kind of Nintendo deep state
3:08
conspiracy theory. Right? So, I clarify
3:12
Nintendo moved the goalpost, not me. The
3:15
item has literally been changed. It's
3:17
now just called the Book of Magic. And
3:20
there's no change in that. So, he fired
3:23
back again saying, "I'm being dishonest
3:25
and that the Bible was scrubbed to
3:27
remove Christianity from the franchise
3:29
essentially." which yeah, Nintendo had a
3:32
lot of western localization policy back
3:34
in the day. That was before the set lore
3:36
was even created in 1986. There was no
3:40
background. There was no story about
3:41
triforces and golden goddesses and
3:44
whatever. Okay, they didn't have a set
3:46
lore. So, at this point with the way he
3:49
was acting, I realized that this isn't
3:51
about the game anymore. He doesn't care
3:53
about Legend of Zelda. This is about
3:55
narrative control, just like the whole
3:57
GoGate conspiracy that him and his
3:59
friends went all nutto over. I tried to
4:02
be fair and I said, "Yeah, okay,
4:04
stylized." Right? I said stylized in my
4:06
original tweet. And maybe that wasn't
4:08
the perfect word, but the point stands,
4:10
right? That specific Bible item is gone.
4:13
It's not canning. It's not canon. It's
4:16
not canon. It's not part of Zelda's
4:19
modern mythology. Instead of
4:20
acknowledging that nuance though, he
4:22
tells me that I'm being dishonest, that
4:24
I can't even be honest with myself, and
4:26
that there's nothing further to discuss.
4:28
And then he rage quit the entire
4:30
conversation and ends up unfollowing me.
4:34
Big yikes. Dude went from is Link a
4:36
Christian to you're a liar who hates the
4:39
truth in under an hour. Like, this was
4:41
literally like a 10-minute conversation.
4:44
What blows my mind is I never even
4:46
attacked his religion. I never
4:48
disrespected his beliefs. I literally
4:50
even said Christ is king and
4:53
acknowledged that Jesus is my savior.
4:55
And I literally agreed with part of what
4:57
he said that it was a Bible and then it
5:00
was changed and it's no longer canon. I
5:02
wasn't just going to sit here and
5:03
pretend that Tears of the Kingdom is
5:05
secretly a Bible study tool. But here's
5:07
why I think this hit a nerve, right?
5:09
Because this is part of a bigger thing
5:11
that is happening in gaming right now.
5:13
People are trying to rewrite the past to
5:16
fit an agenda. You know, whether it's
5:18
denying early Christian elements ever
5:21
existed or pretending modern Zelda is
5:23
secretly Christian lore, it's all the
5:26
same energy. All right? It's not about
5:28
what's in the actual game. It's about
5:30
who controls the interpretation of it.
5:32
Nintendo has been very intentional about
5:35
the Zelda mythos, guys. They built their
5:37
own creation story with the three
5:39
goddesses. They made their own gods,
5:41
their own heaven, their own
5:43
reincarnation cycles. It's not
5:45
Christian. It's literally fictional
5:47
religion. That's the whole concept
5:49
behind The Legend of Zelda. Now, that
5:52
doesn't mean that Christianity was never
5:54
visually referenced. Okay? We literally
5:56
have crosses on The Shield, on the Book
5:59
of Magic, on headstones, but it does
6:01
mean that it's not canon anymore. It's
6:04
not coming back. And if they shoehorn
6:06
that into the movie, that's a massive
6:08
lore break, which was my whole point.
6:11
And it won't just upset atheist or
6:13
non-Christians if there's some kind of
6:15
Christianity reference in there. It'll
6:17
upset actual Zelda fans who care about
6:20
the source material, who care about the
6:22
story that they followed for decades.
6:24
So, here's where I'll leave it. Yes, the
6:26
in the original Zelda, at least in the
6:28
Japan version, the Book of Magic was
6:30
literally called the Bible. That's real,
6:33
but it's not anymore. Nintendo moved on
6:35
quickly from that. They made a
6:37
consistent mythology that lasted 30 plus
6:39
years. That's not censorship. That's not
6:42
scrubbing Christianity.
6:45
That's storytelling. So, the only person
6:47
moving goalpost here in the situation
6:49
wasn't me. It was John F. Trent. So, let
6:52
me ask you these guys. Should the Zelda
6:55
movie to bring back that old Christian
6:57
symbolism and and make Link a practicing
6:59
Christian like John F. Trent wants or
7:01
would that completely shatter the canon
7:04
that they've built since then? I I think
7:06
it'll shatter it. And there's nothing
7:07
wrong with that. That doesn't mean that
7:09
I don't believe in Christianity and I'm
7:11
a liar and I'm I'm not facing the truth
7:13
like John F. Trent tried to paint.
7:15
That's almost unhinged of him. That's
7:17
Mercante levels. Dude, do journals do
7:19
this type of stuff all the time. Twist
7:21
people's words. Comment down below. Like
7:23
the video if you're tired of people
7:24
rewriting gaming history. And subscribe
7:26
for more real talk like this. And if you
7:29
haven't seen it yet, go watch my last
7:31
video where I break down how a used copy
7:33
of Bayer 3 permanently banned somebody
7:36
Switch 2 from going online. Yeah, that's
7:38
a whole different level of insane.
7:40
Anyways, I'll see you on the next one,
