Zelda Wiki:Goddess Collection
Zelda Wiki regards the books within The Goddess Collection trilogy (Hyrule Historia, Art & Artifacts, and Encyclopedia) as Canon material. There are several reasons for this that stand in spite of concerns from fans over authorship and plagiarism.
Authorship
Though there are concerns over whether the books in The Goddess Collection truly represent "Word of God" from the core developers given that the easily named Eiji Aonuma and Shigeru Miyamoto had no direct writing role in the creation of these books, an encyclopedia that connected and expanded the lore of the core series of games, which was later expanded into a trilogy, was Eiji Aonuma's idea.[1] As can be seen in the attribution section below, Eiji Aonuma and Nintendo as a whole had a direct supervisory position in the creation of the trilogy of books in much the same way that the games themselves are overseen and guided by these recognizable entities. The books themselves are therefore written with the consent and will of the creators of The Legend of Zelda to represent the Canon story.
The purpose of these books is to expand the lore of The Legend of Zelda series, primarily through the Timeline narrative that connects the titles in the main series. Though fans have the right to disregard the narrative of the Timeline that was first established in Hyrule Historia and later updated through Encyclopedia, Zelda Wiki does follow the official timeline as the true narrative and we seek to make note of when discrepancies arise. The canon and the timeline of the series are malleable and subject to change with each new iteration in the series, so the latest chronological iterations of the lore are considered to be the best representation of the canon, following the spirit of the disclaimers provided in each book and quoted at the top of this page. While the lore established within The Goddess Collection remains a significant part of the canon, this may change with future releases in the series and our articles will update accordingly to follow with the will of the developers and writers of the series.
With that goal in mind, we also remain critical of any errors found within these books. They are not perfect or complete works by any means, but that does not mean that we should disregard them wholesale. A list of errors from Encyclopedia can be found here.
Plagiarism Concerns
Following the release of the Super Mario Bros. Encyclopedia, people noticed that many of the names and terminology within the book reflected those on various Mario fan sites including fan-made names found on Super Mario Wiki.[2] Consequently, some people have also expressed concerns that this breach in professionalism may have also affected the books within The Goddess Collection. There are many reason why this is not the case, namely that the writer responsible for copying names from unofficial sources, Zack Davisson, was a sole actor who had no part whatsoever in the creation or localization of the books in The Goddess Collection, as evidenced below.[3]
Super Mario Wiki's name sourcing processes differ from Zelda Wiki's, though both wikis undergo their own rigorous processes to determine an article's name. An explanation of Super Mario Wiki's naming procedure can be found here. In short, names are cited directly when the subject is obscure or the subject is unnamed in recognized source materials. Conjectural titles are employed in circumstances where no official name can be used, though these must be marked with a specific template to notify readers when the name listed is unofficial. As such, Super Mario Wiki is in no way responsible for any negligence from official representatives of Nintendo to verify official names.
Zelda Wiki's process requires that we cite all statements and terminology in particular, and we typically do not host or create articles if there is no official term that matches the conditions of our guidelines. To ensure that all names provided are as accurate as possible, we make use of the Term template. Though we do not condone deriving names from Zelda Wiki for official purposes especially if they are unsourced, it is extremely unlikely that an official source would be drawing names created by the fanbase if they were to refer to our articles.
If you have any concerns about potential instances of plagiarism for terms derived from Zelda Wiki, feel free to join our Zelda Wiki Discord server and we can work through it with you. As an example, there were concerns that Zelda Wiki came up with the name for Odolwa's Insect Minions because of the presence of the name on our article for Enemies in Majora's Mask prior to its appearance on page 196 of Encyclopedia. However, as the edit in which the name was added to the article explains, this name actually originates from page 45 of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask—Official Nintendo Player's Guide by Nintendo Power, not from Zelda Wiki. This wasn't adopted as an actual term on Zelda Wiki until it was later affirmed in Encyclopedia, as evidenced by the fact that the article for Odolwa's Insect Minions wasn't created until after the book was released.
Attribution
| Role | Person |
|---|---|
| Original Japanese Edition | |
| Publisher | Masahiko Shioya |
| Supervising Editor | Eiji Aonuma |
| Design & Editing | Akaharu Tsuchida |
| Yasuyuki Kato | |
| Kazuya Sakai | |
| Naoyuki Kayama | |
| Mika Kanno | |
| Ginko Tatsumi | |
| Hironori Sao | |
| Junko Fukuda | |
| Kunio Takayama | |
| Tadahikio Abe | |
| Coeditors | Florent Gorges |
| Kevin Die | |
| Chie Maruyama | |
| Original Cover Design | Akemi Tobe |
| English Language Edition | |
| Publisher | Mike Richardson |
| Editor | Patrick Thorpe |
| Assistant Editor | Everett Patterson |
| Translation Coordinator | Michael Gombos |
| Digital Production | Cary Grazzini |
| Chris Horn | |
| Ian Tucker | |
| Lead Designer | Cary Grazzini |
| Designers | Tina Alessi |
| Stephen Reichert | |
| Cover Design | Cary Grazzini |
| Translators | Michael Gombos |
| Takahiro Moriki | |
| Heidi Plechl | |
| Kumar Sivasubramanian | |
| Aria Tanner | |
| John Thomas | |
| Role | Person |
|---|---|
| Hyrule Graphics | |
| Publisher | Nao Yamamori |
| Editor and Planner | Kazuya Sakai |
| Assistant Editors | Daisaku Satou |
| Mika Kan | |
| Florent Gorges | |
| Takenosuke | |
| Art Director | Shion Saitou |
| Design | Freeway LTD. |
| Interview Composition | Akinori Sao |
| Photography | Shouji Nakamichi |
| Art & Artifacts | |
| Publisher | Mike Richardson |
| Editor | Patrick Thorpe |
| Assistant Editor | Cardner Clark |
| Designer | Cary Grazzini |
| Digital Art Technicians | Cary Grazzini |
| Chris Horn | |
| Cover Design | Cary Grazzini |
| Translation | Aria Tanner |
| Hisashi Kotobuki | |
| Heidi Plechl | |
| Michael Gombos | |
| Role | Person |
|---|---|
| Hyrule Encyclopedia | |
| Publisher | Takashi Yamamori |
| Editor in Chief | Kazuya Sakai |
| Editors | Mika Kanmuri |
| Naoyuki Kayama | |
| Yukari Tasai | |
| Writers | Akinori Sao |
| Ginko Tatsumi | |
| Chisato Mikame | |
| Data/Material Production | Masato Furuya |
| Nobuo Takagi | |
| Yuta Moro | |
| Photographer | Shoji Nakamichi |
| Editing Collaborators | Daisaku Sato |
| Kimiko Kanmuri | |
| Harue Kanmuri | |
| Takenosuke | |
| Takashi Okazawa | |
| Supervision and Collaboration | Nintendo CO., LTD. |
| Design | Freeway LTD. |
| Art Director | Shion Saitou |
| Encyclopedia | |
| Publisher | Mike Richardson |
| Editor | Patrick Thorpe |
| Assistant Editor | Dakota James |
| Writer (English) | Ben Gelinas |
| Designer | Cary Grazzini |
| Design Assistance | Justin Couch |
| Lin Huang | |
| Sarah Terry | |
| Digital Art Technicians | Cary Grazzini |
| Chris Horn | |
| Christina McKenzie | |
| Cover Design | Cary Grazzini |
| Translation Partner | Ulatus |
| Translator | Keaton C. White |
| Reviewer | Shinichiro Tanaka |
References
- ↑ Hyrule Historia, Dark Horse Books, pg. 238
- ↑ "For example, the guide's Super Mario Sunshine section names one of the enemy "Stoarin Stu'". This was a completely conjectural name made by the editor who created the enemy's wiki page (as the enemy is not named in he game proper) and was not based on any official sources." — Super Mario Wiki, Super Mario Wiki on Twitter: "Dark Horse's English translation of the ... , Twitter, published October 23, 2018, retrieved November 20, 2019.
- ↑ "Huh. That's weird. Especially since I am only one of two translators who worked on this, so they would have to somehow know specifically which pages I worked on... and I doubt they could figure that out... not to mention the editors and Nintendo folks who checked everything..." — Zack Davisson, Zack Davisson on Twitter: "@Zander_Shepherd Huh. That's ... , Twitter, published October 23, 2018, retrieved November 20, 2019.