Man jailed for publicly carrying replica of Legend of Zelda’s Master Sword, sparking suspicions Ganondorf rules Warwickshire

UPDATE (07/03/24, 17:28 BST): Anthony Bray appears to have committed a number of offences in the past, including burglary.

Okay, you read the headline. A man has been arrested by Warwickshire Police and sentenced to four months in prison after walking down a city centre street with a replica of the Legend of Zelda Master Sword.

As detailed in a statement from the Rozzers (that’s slang for the police if you’re not from the UK), Anthony Bray of Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England, received the sentence after being charged with “possessing a sharp object in public”.

This included carrying the “small replica” of Zelda’s Master Sword, which the statement identifies as having a six-inch-long blade, down a street in Nuneaton on June 8, with officers approaching Bray after he was spotted doing so on CCTV.

Bray claimed he bought the sword online to use as a toy. However, police argued that “despite its original purpose, it was in fact a sharp object that could be used as a weapon and could cause others to fear it would be used against them.”

Although Bray admitted that the master sword “could be perceived as threatening” by others, he also told officers that he would not have used it as a weapon. In addition to the aforementioned four months in prison, he must pay a victim surcharge of £154, or about $196.

Although it is important to emphasize that We here at VG247 are clearly not lawyers or crime prevention experts.This penalty may seem a bit harsh at first glance given that it was a toy sword, assuming that is all Bray did and that he was not, for example, also violating an existing order against him.

Our dear Alex Donaldson, known among other things for owning a number of video game-related items, also owns a replica of the Master Sword and claims that the blade on it, while longer than the three inches that seem to be the main sticking point in British law, is not exactly sharp. But then again, that’s assuming that Bray’s sword wasn’t different in some way.

In any case, explaining the reasoning behind the action taken, Sergeant Spellman of Warwickshire Police’s Patrol Investigation Unit said: “We have zero tolerance for sharp objects in public, and Bray was a victim of this practice. It is possible to find toys to manipulate that are not six-inch blades. It is possible not to walk down the street holding them in front of you. With a little more self-awareness, Bray could have avoided contact with us altogether.”

So yeah, maybe don’t plan on hosting an outdoor cosplay-focused Nintendo convention in the centre of Nuneaton any time soon.