| Gerudo | |
|---|---|
| The Legend of Zelda race | |
 Various Gerudo women in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild | |
| First appearance | The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998) |
| Created by | Nintendo |
| In-universe information | |
| Home world | Hyrule |
The Gerudo (ゲルド) are a fictional race of people in The Legend of Zelda series. The race was first established in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in 1998, though a member of its race, Ganondorf, was conceived in the original The Legend of Zelda in 1986. The Gerudo are an isolationist race, consisting almost entirely of women, with the exception of a male said to be born every 100 years, who is to become king. One of these men is the aforementioned Ganondorf, who serves as the main antagonist in multiple games in The Legend of Zelda series.
Since appearing in Ocarina of Time, Gerudo have been received generally poorly, criticized as a negative depiction of Middle Eastern and South Asian people. Multiple writers have described how the Gerudo are depicted as violent and representing the "Oriental other." Writer Hussain Almahr felt that, despite having identifiable elements from Middle Eastern culture, it comes off as "window dressing."