Iron Knuckle - The Gerudo Secret

May 8th, 2013

You are looking at the ultimate female bad-ass in The Legend of Zelda series.

Yesterday I went on the site "Did you know Gaming", and proceeded to spend an hour looking up a ton of rare facts about videos games I loved. Most notably to me was this one in Zelda:

"The Iron Knuckles enemies in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time are actually just Gerudo thieves in heavy armor."

Short lesson: The Gerudo are a group of women in the deserts of Zelda that are tough as nails and kick ass! It's no secret that they are rough, but this revelation was mind blowing to me! The enemy "Iron Knuckle" is among the most difficult in the series and this just made them better!

I've always admired strong women in gaming, and Nintendo has always been a step ahead in that aspect. Samus from Metroid is a great example! Well... at least, until 2010. To me, learning this fact was amazing and it made me reevaluate the way that I draw women, how I want to portray strong female leads in my work. The look in her eyes scares the crap out of me!

To me, one of the biggest reasons this is an amazing fact is because you don't realize its a woman, and more importantly, its secondary. The most important thing is that Iron Knuckle is an amazing enemy that is a tough fight. When I drew this, I wanted to keep that aesthetic and draw Iron Knuckle as being tough.