When it comes to fans’ love of video games, it can drive them to do many cool and wondrous things. It can lead them to want to make video games themselves or do things like fan art or cosplay so that they can “emulate” or “recreate” something they love about the games. It can even lead to them buying various reproduction items of characters and items from the titles they dig. We’ve all seen gaming statues or versions of legendary weapons being sold at things like Comic-Cons, and The Legend of Zelda has had that happen multiple times with things like the Master Sword and Hylian Shield. Among other items from the series, of course.
That brings us to the UK, where a man was straight-up arrested for having a Master Sword “fidget toy” on them. Confused? Well, the man in question, a 48-year-old named Anthony Bray, was shown on camera footage in a public space having some kind of bladed item held out in front of him. It was small, but it was enough to get the police involved, as they felt he might be a danger to others.
When they confronted him about it, they found he had a six-inch replica of The Master Sword from The Legend of Zelda. He claimed that he had it only as a “fidget toy” and that he was just carrying it around with no intent of hurting anyone with it. The toy could lose its sheath at the press of a button, so it could be perceived as dangerous in the wrong hands.
Given the gaming context, you might think that Bray got a slap on the wrist and a warning. But you’d be wrong. Instead, he got arrested, will be put in jail for four months, and has to pay a fine to boot! All because he carried that blade. That’s because, in the UK, you cannot carry any knife above three inches without “good reason.”
Carrying around a mini-Master Sword definitely doesn’t qualify as a “good reason” for scaring folks, and since it was double the legal length, he was arrested,
“We take a zero tolerance to bladed articles in public, and Bray has fallen afoul of this,” Sgt Spellman of Warwickshire Police’s Patrol said in a statement that VGC posted. “It is possible to find fidget toys that aren’t six-inch blades. It is possible not to walk down the street holding them out in front of you With a bit more self-awareness, Bray could have avoided contact with us completely.”
