Talk:Zorro

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I do not agree to include Antonio Banderas as El Zorro. In the film, Don Diego / El Zorro is Anthony Hopkins and Banderas is just another person who wears the costume. If that were the case, then please include Sergeant Garcia as well, since in a chapter of the Disney series, he also wore the costume. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.121.193.246 (talk) 16:25, 22 April 2019 (UTC)

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First thread

The following should be deleted: "In the Disney television series starring Guy Williams, Zorro's alter ego, Diego de la Vega, differs markedly from the character Diego Vega in McCulley's original. In The Curse of Capistrano, Diego is known to be a deadly swordsman who masquerades as a decadent aristocrat. Everyone knows he has the ability to do what Zorro does, but nobody imagines he would care enough to bother." In McCulley's The Curse of Capistrano, Diego is not known to be a deadly swordsman; everyone does not know he has the ability to do what Zorro does.68.215.244.79 02:30, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Basement? I thought it was a cave!

By the way, it has been claiimed that the original Don Diego Vega Zorro has never been played by a Latino performer in a US made film or TV series. Is that correct?

Yeah, say that to Antonio Banderas. --Sharkb 19:25, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

• And to Guy Williams, whose real name was Armando Joseph Catalano, which sounds at least a tad Hispanic by ancestry. Wahkeenah 00:12, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

Zorro also refers to sheer farhad of the Lower Barrarah who helped kick out the evil Montrodolleh from Barrah

I think its more accurate to say the first Zorro was never played by an Hispanic actor. If it was then I had no idea Douglas Fairbanks was Hispanic... HuronKing

Williams was Italian. Banderas did not play Vega, Anthony Hopkins did.

Italians are latinos, but not hispanics. I know Americans tend to ignore the fact tha titalians are latinos (the most latinos of all), but they are. And don't give me the crap, "they are latin but not latino". "Latino" is latin in most romance languages. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.80.62.37 (talk) 05:48, 19 November 2011 (UTC)

Spoken like someone who hasn't a clue what he's talking about. "A latino or latina is a person considered part of an ethnic background that is traditionally Spanish-speaking, especially a citizen of, or an immigrant from, a Spanish-speaking country." Please specify what part of Italy is Spanish-speaking. Ancient Romans spoke Latin; that does not make them (or their successors, the Italians) Latinos. 12.233.146.130 (talk) 00:06, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Henry Darrow, definitely Latino, played Diego in Zorro And Son, admittedly a sitcom, but US, live-action, & authorized. Ted Watson (talk) 20:39, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

• As of 2007 Christian Meier became the first and still only Latino/Hispanic to play Zorro(De La Vega) in a US made film or TV series - In the 2007 telenovela Zorro: La Espada y la Rosa produced and broadcast by 'Telemundo (an American television network). — Preceding unsigned comment added by JoaquinFierro (talk • contribs) 00:30, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

Dénouement location

Should not the character's "dénouement" be at the end of the article, not the beginning? Maybe some of Zorro's adventures from other movies and stories could be described loosely beforehand.

Inspiration for the character?

"Zorro became key inspirations for The Phantom, Batman, Green Arrow, Doc Savage, and other non-superpower endowed pulp and comic-strip action heroes."

Why is any of this under Inspiration for the character? And really "non-superpower endowed" what does that mean?

Very clearly it means a heroic character who does not have "super powers", either within themselves, or through technological enhancement, such as Superman, Flash, Green Lantern, Spider-Man, Iron Man, etc. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.125.225.205 (talk) 17:54, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

Skills and Resources?

What is the point of this section? It looks like it was copied from and RPG sourcebook. Suggest it be deleted.--Lepeu1999 15:06, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

stub

This article says next to nothing about Zorro's life and feats. Someone who is more acquainted should add more about the character Pictureuploader 23:53, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

Was there a real Zorro? His name was Estanislao. He was a great American hero who served God and served his people by leading a revolution, organizing an army and training his people to fight the Mexicans in California. His name is used in Stanislaus County and River in California. The Walt Disney stories, and the Wikipedia article, have entirely missed the purpose of Estanislao's life. He was not a bandit, thief or renegade. He was an inspiration. What a shame that the Wikipedia article is so wrong. Many of us were raised hearing Estanislao stories as children in California. Estanislao was a Yokuts Indian who revolted against the Mission system that was responsible for a drastically declining population of California Indians. Estanislao's life is documented in "The Stanislaus Indian Wars" by Gray and is depicted in a historical novel "Estanislao - Warrior, Man of God."

The Fictional History section also needs to place Zorro within an historical context: late 18th Century - early 19th Century Southern California under Spanish rule. The historical context is an important part of the character's roles as a revolutionary and freedom fighter. AusJeb (talk) 15:36, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Although this is not the arena for it, I HAVE to state that Zorro is probably the most boring character ever to achieve a level of popularity. There is just nothing interesting about him, his adventures, his surroundings, or anything else. Bizarre. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.125.225.205 (talk) 17:57, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

Anti-Zorro?

The page refers to The Mask of Zorro as "an anti-Zorro playing against tradition." This is not mentioned on the movie's page. Does anyone know what is meant by this? Ace of Sevens 08:55, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

I agree this does not seem correct. "A variation on the Zorro tradition." perhaps - though is it that far from 1925's Don Q ? -- Beardo 05:39, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Maybe it refers to the Banderas character. Regardless, it should be clarified. --D'Olivier 19:41, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

I do not understand that either. 69.3.250.96 23:05, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Zorro and Don Diego nicknames

Is this section really necessary? This article should talk about the character, and how the character is treated in various media. If no one objects, I'll delete this section in about a week. --D'Olivier 19:39, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Zorro: Generation Z

• Zorro: Generation Z will begin in 2008. 81.48.193.127 12:08, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

Ownership edits

See Talk:Bran Mak Morn#Ownership edits. Nareek 12:26, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

• As I understand it, the first Zorro-related copyright will expire in 2028, 70 years after character-creator Johnston McCulley's death. See this wikipage: [1] Mdiamante 23:10, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

In the United States, all works published before 1923 are in the public domain. See Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States. Nareek 00:00, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the input, Nareek. Your linked Cornell thing shows that the Wiki article is incorrect in reading "in current law, the copyright in a published work expires in all countries when all of the following conditions are satisfied [...] 1) The work was created and first published before January 1, 1923, or at least 95 years before January 1 of the current year, whichever is later; 2) The last surviving author died at least 70 years before January 1 of the current year." Provided the Cornell article is correct, the word "all" should be "any". I am making that change now. Mdiamante 03:00, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

"Any" is not quite right either; a work may be in copyright in one country and out of copyright in another. Nareek 03:28, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

True, and I left out that the "public domain" Wiki article does say "Copyrights are more complex than patents; generally, in current law, the copyright in a published work expires in all countries when any of the following conditions are satisfied (except Colombia, Cote d'ivoire, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Samoa, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, on all these countries are fair use)[2]". I had omitted these bits earlier for clarity's sake, but there they are. Mdiamante 04:45, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Article desperately needs cites!

Just about every other sentence in this article makes some assertion that needs a cite, yet I don't think that there is even a single cite in this article!
Please see Wikipedia:Citing sources, especially the section on "Why sources should be cited", and Wikipedia:Attribution. -- 201.50.254.243 03:31, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

The Franchise

This new franchise has been handled very poorly. The continuity between the first and second movies is practically nonexistent. Didn't Alejandro Murrieta and Elena De La Vega get married and have a daughter at the end of the first film? The second movie starts and they all of a sudden have a ten year old son and no mention of a daughter. Also what's the deal with Alejandro Murrieta changing his name to "De La Vega" this is very un-Spanish. Plus everyone knew that the Anthony Hopkins character was Diego De La Vega. Is everyone just suppose to pretend that Antonio Banderas is now Don Diego??? NathanielPoe 18:44, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

No, the baby born at the end of Mask is Joaquin. And Murrieta changes his name so as not to be identified with his outlaw brother. He probably claimed he was a Spanish-raised Vega family member or something. Mdiamante 02:25, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

Fair use criteria

The use of images not in compliance with our fair-use criteria or our policy on nonfree content is not appropriate, and the images have been removed. Please do not restore them. — Moe ε 03:32, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

Television

In this section it is mentioned two animations: "The Legend of Zorro (快傑ゾロ), 1992" and "Kaiketsu Zorro (1996)". 'They are the same' 1996 anime from Katsumi Minoguchi (and not Minogu Katsuki) and not from NHK/Mushi but from Toho and Ashi Productions (according to wikipedia-japan). It was indeed NHK who broadcasted the series in Japan. (All this to say the information is repeated and could induce people to a mistake.) 217.129.246.217 13:06 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Republic's Zorro-esque serials

I previously placed this on the talk page of the Zorro template, but have now found the film list in the main article itself, and have decided this may be a more appropriate venue, as this list should be affected as well. Does anybody else think that Republic's serials that used their Zorro costumes, etc., but not the names should be recognized here, since most of the acknowledged serials weren't really any closer to McCulley's work? In fact, the officially Zorro-less The Vigilantes Are Coming, with its 1844 California setting, is closer than any except Zorro's Fighting Legion, but it is set in central Mexico, not California, albeit during the Spanish colonial era. Most that use the name are essentially indistinguishable from Man with the Steel Whip and Don Daredevil Rides Again. Indeed, you could change the title of Zorro's Black Whip to The Black Whip, remove the big credit "card" for McCulley/Zorro, and nobody would take it to be anything but another unlicensed rip-off, just like those two. Don't misunderstand me, I do mean separated from the other titles and labelled as unauthorized, but acknowledged here at least, because they are as faithful as most of the same company's legitimate (or at least properly licensed) Zorro serials. Ted Watson (talk) 20:39, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

I notice that the TV series Queen of Swords is listed under "Appearances in media/Television" while being much the same as the serials discussed above: that is, the character is neither Zorro nor a Vega, despite great similarities otherwise (in the case of those serials, they greatly resemble most of Republic's Zorro serials which are more like the masked gunslinging cowboy "the Durango Kid" played by Charles Starrett in a series of Saturday matinee programmer features from Columbia Pictures in the 1940s, rather than the more familiar late 18th/early 19th century swordsman). I make the motion that Queen should be moved to "Pop culture," and the officially non-Zorro Republic serials be added there as well. The floor is now open to debate! --Ted Watson (talk) 21:40, 28 November 2008 (UTC)

I have become expert on QoS and in an interview posted on youtube Tessie Santiago admits it is similar to Zorro but with it's own defined characters. In fact when taken as a whole, except for a couple of duff episodes it was far superior to anything Zorro productions have produced especially as stories are centered round a woman who is not stronger (maybe more skilled) than her opponents. The lead villians were believable,no buffoons, nobody played it for laughs. I wonder if there is any truth to the rumours that Zorro killed the show because no official DVD has ever been released except in France and then under another name, that was not even the French TV title.REVUpminster (talk) 20:52, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

I was beginning to doubt that anyone was ever going to say anything here. Thanks. I'll consider this confirmation that QoS doesn't belong in "Appearances/TV" but in "Pop Culture" and will move it. Anybody have any case either way for those serials? --Ted Watson (talk) 21:29, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

I have put this link here [2]as it was not appreciated on the Article page to confirm my sentence. it also adds some credence that Zorro Inc killed the series,REVUpminster (talk) 23:54, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Zorro.com[[3]] have adapted The popular culture section of wikipedia Zorro on their site so maybe even they accept Queen of Swords nowREVUpminster (talk) 18:58, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Should QUeen of Swords be in "Pop Culture" or "Influences?" It's currently in both. BoosterBronze (talk) 19:23, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

I put it in influences as well where I think it should be, but left it in popular culture because of the official zorro website. It was originaly in TV series. QoS is a special case when you list its similarities mentioned in the pop culture. I have recently managed to track the court case from Sony and there is a second case brought by a woman claiming to have created it in 1980. Except for her name I can not find any more details. Even the horse harness is identical if not the same. Check this youtube link [4].REVUpminster (talk) 19:47, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Name question

I have never read the pulp story so I will defer to someone who has. But every movie I have seen Zorro was never called "Senior Zorro" ("Mr.Fox" except by a Priest or something) but he was mostly referred to as "El Zorro" ("The Fox") or just plain Zorro. The Batmaniac —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bernard ferrell (talk • contribs) 18:28, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

I read a paperback collection of the original magazine serial "The Curse of Capistrano" (as The Mark of Zorro) that was published to ride the coattails of the Anthony Hopkins film and "Señor Zorro" was used frequently there. --Ted Watson (talk) 17:30, 25 April 2009 (UTC)

Apart from fox there is possibly a second word behind Zorro, one with some historical profoundity (in McCulley's article says that he was a history buff). The homerical word zoros (ζωρός), almost the same with the modern Gr. ζωηρός, means strong, alive, brave. It is used in Homer only once (Iliad, 10, 203) refering to strong wine, but is common in Greek, having the same root with zoe (life), from which we have zoo-logy etc. If McCulley was really a history buff, obviously he knew a little about Homer or other Greek texts and he could have searched there for a name more proper than "fox" for his fighter hero.

Interesting thought, but I don't understand why "fox" would not be proper. More importantly, Wikipedia only takes facts from reliable sources, not anonymous online speculation. DreamGuy (talk) 01:38, 25 March 2011 (UTC)

missing buzzword

Swashbuckler.
--Jerome Potts (talk) 06:33, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

mix of articles content

Shouldn't the stuff in the "fictional history" section rather be in The Curse of Capistrano article?
--Jerome Potts (talk) 06:40, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

The Alain Delon incarnation

Of possible interest: in the 1975 film starring Alain Delon, Don Diego witnesses the oppression and brutality inflicted upon the common folk, and is revolted by it. But among those poor people, especially the children, exists a legend, perhaps even a belief, the hope, of an avenger/liberator, possibly a phantom-like spirit, named Zorro who leaves his "Z" signature here and there as a warning/threat. Diego elects to become that man; the costume is his own creation, the legend not having specified the character's appearance.
--Jerome Potts (talk) 07:13, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

What really inspires Diego to become Zorro in this version is the assassination of a friend in a position of some authority, while on his way to investigate reports of corruption in a Spanish colony in South America (rather than the usual California). As the friend dies, he extracts from Diego a promise not to kill anyone. He goes to the colony, impersonating the friend—as a fop, of course—and fighting the local leaders disguised as Zorro. Anybody have a citable source synopsizing this film accurately? It is already in the article, described briefly as "Zorro meets the spaghetti Western," but a better fit to that are a pair (at least; two are all the Leonard Maltin book describes, and BTW he also gives the SA locale for the Delon film) 1960s films starring Frank Latimore. I'll get my copy and add them. Ted Watson (talk) 22:21, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Tatlong Baraha

In Metro Manila Film Festival film entry "Tatlong Baraha", fictional Filipino Superheroes Leon Guerrero, Julio Valiente, and Zigomar, collectively known as Tatlong Baraha (Three Cards) were resembled to Zorro. Zigomar, a character played by Filipino actor Maynard Lapid, was strongly resembled to Zorro. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Firerat45 (talk • contribs) 16:09, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

Queen of Swords ?

Why is this under Appearances in media ... Television? As far as I know this was not a Zorro show or even a spin-off. If it is not related to Zorro, maybe it should go under Influences or Popular Culture. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Orzzo (talk • contribs) 09:45, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

Just yesterday I raised this question and made your second suggestion, along with pointing out its implications to my already existing question, in updating my thread "Republic's Zorro-esque serials." I ask anybody who's interested to please deal with this concept there.

Influences ?

Green Arrow? Why is this guy here? I get he's got the whole millionaire by day masked "swashbuckling" vigilante by night thing going on, but is that it? By the time this guy was created that was already becoming a staple of the medium. While with Batman the influences was more eminent - especially since we have Kane's word saying so - Zorro may have been the last thing on Weisinger and Papp's minds when they came up with Green Arrow. Batman was now the new template, and obviously Robin Hood the main influence, not to mention there were already a handful Arrow themed heroes in the industry already.

I question listing Doc Savage and some of the others too? Maybe listing the thematic and stylistic "firsts" Zorro may have brought to the pulps, comics, superhero etc. would be better then a list of characters that may have only been indirectly influenced.Orzzo (talk) 10:26, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

In the "Inlfuences" section there is mention of the "Swamp Fox" and Disney's animated Robin Hood, apparently based soley on the use of the word 'fox.' Unless a stronger cited connection can be made, these don't belong BoosterBronze (talk) 17:07, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

There's nothing wrong with pointing out that Zorro (like The Scarlet Pimpernel) is part of a long line of wealthy men who did heroic deeds in secret or disguise. Don't we have an article on the "Disguised superhero"? If not, we should. Bruce Wayne fighting crime as Batman fits the mold.

I don't care to speculate on whether one creation was an influence on another. I'm only interested in pointing out the similarities. --Uncle Ed (talk) 22:16, 30 April 2012 (UTC)

The All-Story Weekly cover as the main Zorro image?

While it's important to know where the character came from and how he was first depicted, is that the best representation of how the character is/was known, what it has become? So far, has anyone ever gone back to that representation of the character? McCulley did not, he abandoned it for good. And wile the image is important, it should appear somewhere, shouldn't the main image of this article be something more easilly recognizable as Zorro? The one that McCulley himself would come to promote? The link to Curse of Capistrano article uses that same image (and more appropriately so, I think) since that is how he was described in that story. But he is no longer described that way. Can we put something here that people now (and by "now" I mean since 1920) recognize as Zorro? Orzzo (talk) 11:06, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

I agree. There are several other images that better represent today's "typical" Zorro. →Wordbuilder (talk) 15:08, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

I'd suggest this image since it is how Zorro Productions, Inc. is currently choosing to license and portray the character, and it's a pretty standard image of the character full body. The image has been scaled to the right size but needs to be put in the proper place with the proper fair use rationale so it dosn't get deleted.

Trouble is, the All-Story pic is public domain, and the rest aren't, and we should use a pd pic in such a prominent section if possible. The picture above is neat, but the name behind his head would look funky in the infobox. Since there have been so many Zorros in so many mediums, the All-Story image is probably most appropriate.Mdiamante (talk) 06:44, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

That one looks good... one vote here for putting it in - though you may want to crop the top and bottom a bit, to emphasize the costume on the small infobox. Mdiamante (talk) 01:33, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Vandalism

This article is vandalized with all these statements that Zorro is merely a Mexican cowboy and nothing more. I am going to do the best I can to clean up these unsourced statements. --LuciusPius (talk) 00:07, 22 September 2009 (UTC)

Official Zorro website

The official website has a popular culture page[5] edited from this article. I do not think we should delete items they are prepared to use.REVUpminster (talk) 14:36, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

I'm not sure that a website list, that is itself a copy/paste job of THIS VERY ARTICLE, is the best thing to refer to for this article. Given that the 'Popular Culture" section is longer than almost the entirty of the rest of the article. Even if Queen of Swords or A Cinderella Story are worthy of mention, do they both need a plot synopsis to serve their use in this article?BoosterBronze (talk) 16:31, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

They only adapted the wikipage leaving out what they did not want such as parts of Queen of Swords and others. I am sure it is longer than it used to be as Texas Tech was not there before. But it will look odd to anybody coming from Zorro Official site to wikipedia not to find what they have just been looking at.REVUpminster (talk) 17:01, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Even if the Zorro.com page is a good measuring of what 'Popular Culture' appearances are worthy of mention, the section is still overlong and full of superfluous details, such as the summary of "A Cinderella Story." It doesn't seem reasonable to include much more than a quick refrence and a hyperlink to the film. BoosterBronze (talk) 19:21, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Fictional History

There should be some guidelines as to what works other than the original novels should or should not be included as part of the 'fictional history.' I would suggest as little as possible, otherwise it becomes hopelessly convoluted.BoosterBronze (talk) 20:24, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Reference Inspirations

I see that BoosterBronze on November 18, 2009 removed this from the article “One source of inspiration for The Mask of Zorro is probably Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo, where a wronged hero returns as an independently wealthy man, and under an assumed elegant persona wreaks vengeance on those who betrayed him, and does secret good for those who tried to help him in earlier days (all somewhat applicable to Alejandro Murrieta)”

The film the Mask of Zorro owes most of its storyline from the Count of Monte Cristo Anthony Hopkins character of Don Diego Vega is

1. Called a traitor by his enemy

2. Wrongfully imprisoned for 20 years

3. Escapes prison by faking his death

4. vows revenge against his enemy

5. Comes back into contact with the family he lost

The Second Zorro Alejandro Murrieta is even more like the Character of Edmond Dantes in that he starts off being young and unsophisticated. He can not read or write, he then comes into contact with Diego Vega who passes on knowledge and refines him into becoming a Don in order to get revenge on Colonel Love this is similar to the refining and training of Edmond Dantes by Abbe Faria in the Count of Monte Cristo. In the film Don Diego Vega passes on his fortune as well just as Abbe Faria gave Dantes’ the location of a treasure he knew about.

So I would like to point out that there is nothing “unlikely” in realizing The Mask of Zorro Film copied from the earlier work of the Count of Monte Cristo which was published in 1844. In fact In 2002 when the Count of Monte Cristo film was released those who did not know any better accused it of copying from the Mask of Zorro from 1998 as the stories in both films are so similar.

Zorro himself outside of this film is somewhat similar to the Count of Monte Cristo in that he dressed in Black and wears a Cape and has an underground hideout. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ed1829 (talk • contribs) 07:31, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

This might be correct, but as long as you have no reliable source to prove this theory it remains original research...--Narayan (talk) 12:47, 13 February 2010 (UTC)

• Reading this, it is ironic Sony sued Fireworks Entertainment unsucessfully re The Queen of Swords against copying the film and comics.REVUpminster (talk) 16:55, 13 February 2010 (UTC)

It's not OR to speak of how one character or story is reminiscent of another. I intend to say in the article tha Zorro is an apparent amalgam of Robin Hood and The Scarlet Pimpernel.

Note carefully that I'm not commenting on whether he's a "derivative" creation, in the sense of plagiarism or copyright violation; I just want to point out similarities. --Uncle Ed (talk) 22:11, 30 April 2012 (UTC)

Comic Variations

I was just wondering if there were any successors of the Zorror legacy that originated strictly from the comic books. 172.131.55.116 (talk) 20:23, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

Hat

Isn´t a gaucho hat, is a cordobés hat. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.120.149.231 (talk) 21:35, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

Rapier-dubious

I've added a {{fact}} template next to the first appearance of the word "rapier" in the article (the only other occurrence in the article is in conjunction with another pulp character, Spring-heeled Jack, about which I know little). McCulley does not refer to Zorro's sword as a "rapier" in The Curse of Capistrano; it is always described generically as a "sword" or "blade". The rapier would have been completely anachronistic (and as someone has already pointed out, McCulley was supposedly a history buff and would have known this), having been out of fashion for nearly 200 years by the time that Zorro "lived". It is more likely that Zorro would have used a more contemporary small sword or an espada similar in design to a spadroon. Unless someone can cite an instance in which McCulley referred to Zorro's weapon as a "rapier", it's incorrect and imprecise to call it that. 12.233.146.130 (talk) 00:32, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

• The cover of All Star Weekly, Zorro's debut does say "When Romance and Rapiers ruled in old California". The artist who drew the cover also provided the first costume superceded later by Douglas Fairbanks costume. This has led to to the minefield of copyright and trademark still raging to this day.REVUpminster (talk) 09:11, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Spanish language

I just read Capistrano this evening, and it has a lot of Spanish loanwords and a few Spanish words. I took out the overly-prominent pronunciation of the Spanish word Zorro, etc., because this is an American story written in American English. If anyone wants to help me make a glossary of Spanish terms like frailes (friars) and hacienda, I'd be glad to help. --Uncle Ed (talk) 22:06, 30 April 2012 (UTC)

Secret Identity

This page says that Zorro is the secret identity of Don Diego de la Vega. Shouldn't this be the other way around?

I am not entirely certain how the term is typically used in fiction, but in comics, it is usually used to describe the regular, "everyday" identity of the superhero--as in Bruce Wayne is Batman's "secret identity," Peter Parker is Spider-Man's, so on and so forth. I am not necessarily suggesting it need be changed, just thought I would express my confusion here. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.96.152.57 (talk) 03:47, 6 May 2013 (UTC)

Public Domain or Not?

Is Zorro in the public domain or is he not? The article is not clear on this. 24.67.94.109 (talk) 05:40, 4 February 2014 (UTC)

Zorro Inc sue anybody that use the likeness by claiming trademark, like Superman where no parody uses his "S", but most cases in the USA seem to be settled out of court. But with all the European versions nothing seems to happen. Zorro seems to be in the position of Dracula, Frankenstein, Sherlock Holmes which are also out of copyright. The porn parodies are an interesting in except for Superman they seem to get away with using comic book characters.REVUpminster (talk) 07:35, 4 February 2014 (UTC)

The only reason the article is not clear on this is that the very people falsely claiming ownership of Zorro keep putting misleading and sometimes outright false information into the article. The history of the article is littered with examples. DreamGuy (talk) 03:58, 31 August 2014 (UTC)

Queen of Swords Lawsuit

As the CEO of Zorro Productions, I was involved in this lawsuit. Judge Collins made two rulings in that case, one favorable and one not so favorable. In the end she vacated (i.e., threw out) both rulings, such that neither has the force of law. The proper way to handle this in Wikipedia is to treat the incident as a non-incident, in other words, the entire episode should be disallowed as though it had never happened. However, if you insist on including only one of the two rulings (and even if you cited both), then the disclaimer that the ruling was vacated must be added. Otherwise, it is as if you cited, say, a murder case without noting whether it resulted in a conviction or an acquittal. I appreciate that you enjoyed the Queen of Swords, but, in our opinion, it really was not only a rip off of The Legend of Zorro (as well as Lady Rawhide), but it was marketed by the producers as such. We believe that their marketing campaign was the smoking gun. In the end, Paramount, Sony and Zorro Productions entered into a settlement that we regarded as fair and favorable, though the details must remain confidential. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.87.223.190 (talk) 21:39, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

This section is about Copyright and trademark and the Judge said the copyright lapsed in 1995 or earlier. so is it out of copyright? The numerous European films (Alain Delon's Zorro the prime example) seem to suggest it is; like Sherlock Holmes or Dracula. As for trademark the Queen of Swords was a rip off of Zorro, and done better than any of the recent male versions in my opinion, but as in the illustration her costume was based on the Fairbanks version and not Film or TV versions. A strange coincidence or NOT was that in the Alain Delon 1975, TV Zorro 1990, and Queen of Swords 2000 all filmed in Europe the protagonist's horse wore similar or the same bridle and breastplate. Maybe it was kept in some film storage unit in Spain. REVUpminster (talk) 23:48, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not a place for us to argue over fine points of law. The simple fact is that the judge’s ruling was vacated. In other words, it was erased; it was as if the judge had never said anything at all. Therefore, the proper thing to do is to not cite the ruling on Wikipedia. Failing that, it must be noted that the ruling was vacated. I can’t understand why the fact that it was vacated should have been erased. But if that erasure is allowed to stand, then the judge’s statement should also be erased. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.87.223.190 (talk) 17:43, 4 September 2014 (UTC)

I am not American but the link Vacated judgment (so readers outside the U.S. knows what it means) with a cite should be added; the history of the case which basically compares it with the film should not be removed, but surely you could resolve the copyright status once and for all with a cite. When the Zorro page here had a trivia section it had sections from the official Zorro Inc. website which included the Queen of Swords but I see that has been removed.REVUpminster (talk) 18:34, 4 September 2014 (UTC)

It's funny that you argue that Wikipedia is not the place to argue fine points of law when you are here specifically to use your personal interpretation of law in a way that not so coincidentally supports a legal claim you are making on intellectual property that is clearly in the public domain. Any thing published in the United States prior to 1923 is public domain, period, full stop. You must stop editing Wikipedia articles to try to advance your own personal agenda, as it is a clear conflict of interest. Even if the judge's rulings were vacated for the specific case it does not change the fact that she said what she said, and there's absolutely no reason to think any other judge would say anything different, because the law is so clear cut here. One might even suggest that you settled out of court specifically because you knew you would lose and you needed to try to prevent others from learning that Zorro is in the public domain. DreamGuy (talk) 23:32, 4 September 2014 (UTC)

Two times the same picture

There's twice the same picture. Ok, it's out of copyright but once is enough. --Luckyz (talk) 12:04, 4 November 2014 (UTC)

In the copyright section it is to illustrate the QoS costume was taken from the Fairbanks film and not the ZPI disputed Zorro.REVUpminster (talk) 15:31, 4 November 2014 (UTC)

Spanish or Mexican?

The incipit says "He is a Californio nobleman of Spanish and Native Californian descent, living in Los Angeles during the era of Mexican rule (between 1821 and 1846),[1] although some movie adaptations of Zorro's story have placed him during the earlier Spanish rule." However, the cited source mentions that "Most Zorro stories make reference to California being a Spanish possession", adding that McCulley's works Zorro Rides Again and The Sign of Zorro take place in 17** and about 1800 respectively, though most of his other works have not a precise date. --Newblackwhite (talk) 17:55, 18 February 2016 (UTC)

Neither - more like Yankee propaganda for their landgrab three generations before. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.131.11.151 (talk) 17:13, 9 April 2017 (UTC)

Since there were no objections after almost two year, I'm going to edit the article to reflect the cited source. --Newblackwhite (talk) 10:23, 23 December 2017 (UTC)

sign of Zorro

A depiction of the Z sliced into things by Zorro's sword should be indicated in the article -- 70.51.46.39 (talk) 06:39, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

External links modified

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"Z (upcoming film)" listed at Redirects for discussion

An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect Z (upcoming film) and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2022 September 1#Z (upcoming film) until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. Steel1943 (talk) 20:08, 1 September 2022 (UTC)

"Zorro Reborn" listed at Redirects for discussion

An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect Zorro Reborn and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2022 October 18#Zorro Reborn until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. TartarTorte 17:54, 18 October 2022 (UTC)

"Sergeant Garcia" listed at Redirects for discussion

An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect Sergeant Garcia and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2022 October 20#Sergeant Garcia until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. 1234qwer1234qwer4 20:18, 20 October 2022 (UTC)

Ghost of Zorro

I edited the list of actors playing Zorro to include Clayton Moore. I cited Zorro’s Fighting Legion but it should have been Ghost of Zorro. He played Zorro just in a different serial. It was actually his role as Zorro that got him the Lone Ranger Role. 97.119.186.88 (talk) 07:38, 5 May 2023 (UTC)

Image

WP:FREER states that we should avoid fair-use images when possible, and that we should use Creative Commons or public domain images in their place. Since the character is in the public domain and he has several public domain images on Commons, I can't really think of any justification for keeping the copyrighted image at the top of the page. As such, I will replace the image. If you disagree, please discuss here. Di (they-them) (talk) 00:38, 6 November 2023 (UTC)