Five rings from the Oracles games used as vague connectors to discuss systemic racism.
Blast Ring: Link finds this ring on the Eastern Coast of Holodrum, also known as the not bestern coast, after helping the skeleton pirates with their bell problem. Wearing this ring increases bomb damage because I guess people use bombs to attack enemies in these games. Link must transfer this ring using ring secrets if he wants it in Labrynna.
The destruction of property and looting during demonstrations asking for justice for George Floyd’s murder sparked a lot of outrage in the last week. I live near some of that destruction. I have tried to explain to many that when a group of people are summarily denied the ability to civilly demonstrate, like the non-violent demonstration of kneeling during the national anthem, then they must use more overt and inflammatory methods to spark a discussion. If you weren’t talking about race equity before, you should be now.
Rang Ring Level 1: Found in Holodrums Samasa Desert, equipping this ring increases Link’s boomerang damage.
Racism is insidious. Many people in the USA think that our country can’t be systemically racist because we have specific laws against that sort of thing. What many people don’t want to see is the deeply human element that returns to the same old racist rhetoric time and time again because this country was founded on racism.
GBA Time Ring: This ring can be purchased in the Advanced Shop. Link can only enter this shop if playing the game on a game boy advanced. This ring only serves to commemorate you having a game boy advanced.
People love their freedom fighters battling against oppressive reforms in movies. The monstrous behavior of the oppressive regime is clear and obvious and they often don’t look like the audience. The problem is that the oppressive regime in most countries is representative of the majority and the my are not painted as monsters but rather people doing their best to keep the country together during times of unrest. In the real world, people demanding change often don’t look like the majority and are painted as monsters and outlaws.
Maple’s Ring: Found randomly throughout Holodrum and Labrynna, this ring increases the frequency of visits from Maple the Witch, Syrup the witch’s granddaughter.
There isn’t a simple solution. We can’t just slap a pretty bow on things and call it good. Due to the fact that we have to do a lot of hard work and fundamentally change our approach to some core American concepts, many people don’t want to even try. The bill is too hard to climb so we should even attempt it for fear of upsetting that status quo that serves the same people resist change. We can’t just have a nice press conference where we say the tag lines and then move back to business as usual.
Steadfast Ring: Equipping this ring decreases the amount Link can be knocked back. He can find it beneath Holodrum in Subrosia’s Sword and Shield Maze.
Around the world, there are people who are living comfortably because their comfort is built upon the backs of other less fortunate people. In the twin cities, there are a ton of high paid business people who commute into the cities from their suburban houses. These people can always go out and buy lunch from a place where the workers make $9.86 an hour and can almost never get full-time hours. They get their offices cleaned primarily by older women of color. They can ignore the weather when they park in climate-controlled parking ramps and then walk through downtown in climate-controlled skyways to climate-controlled offices where there are people who can’t afford heat in winter, let alone AC in the summer.
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I had originally planned this post to be a fun mega-man themed post where each ring was a virus given to a friendly program by a villain to make them into a monstrous boss. That seemed tone-deaf to the current climate in the world. I live in the Twin Cities, and I want nothing more than for most of if not all of the money that goes into policing to be used to uplift and improve the lives of the citizens of the cities. So much could be done to help people, free education and healthcare are two big causes close to my heart, but we spend money outfitting cops to be ready for the riots that almost never happen. Why spend so much money on riots that are rare when people go hungry and I helped every day.
If you are saying, “I don’t want to get politics where I get my entertainment!” To that I say, “Life is inherently political. I have the privilege of not having to worry about police brutality most days, which means I have the responsibility of changing police brutality.” In the presence of injustice, silence is harming the cause of justice.
As always, be excellent to everyone.
-Ceph
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