Is Link a character?

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

He's more of a recurring personality archetype of the hero's journey. He has a personality that grows with each iteration, and the expressive nature of games as the tech grows to allow more fluidity in the ability to express.
I know that is convoluted, but Link definitely has some sort of character. The people who know said era's Link fill in the blanks of his character for us through the comprehension of their one-sided conversations with our hero. Its not deep, it doesn't need to be, but there is a character there beneath the archetype.

 

[09philj]

Sometimes he's a character-ish. He's a character in Wind Waker, kind of. Less so in Twilight Princess and Ocarina of Time and basically all the ones not with Toon Link. He's a different incarnation each time anyway, so there's no particular reason he couldn't be a girl for once. Mario is Mario, but Link is not Link.

 

[2xDouble]

The main problem here is the fact that each "Link" is a different person in a different world. Each of them is a character in their own right. They all have their own stories, and relationships, and lives, but there is no one character "Link".

Link not one single character, but an ideal, a title, an embodiment of the Newtonian reaction to active forces. Link is the Dread Pirate Roberts, he is the Batman, he is the Lifestream, he is... the protagonist.

 

[Eacaraxe_v1legacy]

As best as I can remember, whichever one of the goddesses feels kinkiest at the time shuffles the immortal soul of the original Link back into Hyrule meat space when shit's about to hit the fan, and it's usually a kid carrying Hylia's blood from the time she Jesus'd herself into the original Zelda and apparently pooped out some kids. "Link" is as much a title as it is a name.

So, it's a combination of Fei/Abel/"Contact" from Xenogears, and Phil from Groundhog Day. Except Hyrule's goddesses are assholes, and never let Link have any kind of shared or ancestral memory like Zelda and Ganon apparently tend to have.

In the metagame sense, well...yeah. Link is a player avatar. So is every other PC in an interactive medium, regardless of internal characterization.

 

[Nazulu]

I'm a bit lost on this one and need more time to think about it.

I see Link as a character, by the fact he's been a 'he' for so long, it seems like it's the same guy prophesied to piss off Ganon till the end of time or whatever. I thought that was what they were going for, and that also being that way so to focus on less of the story and just aim on pumping out the games themselves.

At the same time, it doesn't seem to matter if Link does get a gender swap because how much will it really take away? Unless it's Linkle, because it's a fucking stupid name idea. Does the name really need to be tacked on there too? Give her a real name so I don't have to hear that crap.

However, at the same exact time Again, I feel like Zelda should be the one changing positions. It's the legend of "Zelda" after all. Give her the spot light for once so the name makes sense.

 

[Silvanus]

So, it's a combination of Fei/Abel/"Contact" from Xenogears, and Phil from Groundhog Day. Except Hyrule's goddesses are assholes, and never let Link have any kind of shared or ancestral memory like Zelda and Ganon apparently tend to have.

Well, unlike the other two, Ganon may in fact be the same individual in each appearance. Rather than being reincarnated, he is usually resurrected (or survives) after the long intervals.

 

[Naldan]

In-Universe, it is absolutely uncontroversial that Link could be female. It supposedly is always a different Link and honestly, all his "character traits" so far don't define him as female.

Sorry, but if this hits resistance, I'm totally lost since it doesn't make much sense lore-wise to stick to a gender.

For the most part with few exceptions, the body is nothing but a vessel. Regarding incarnations, why is it linked to a specific gender? Maybe, if at all and as mentioned above, Ganon could be seen as defined enough to not have a different gender. He's always a Gerudo and if they stick to their lore, he's always been special since male Gerudos are born every I think 1000 years. But that's all that really defines his gender.

Could also be Prince Zelda. If you watch very old Soviet movie tales you can see how feminine those princes there act aside from saving the princess and fighting. But then again, Zelda is known to be a good fighter from Zelda title to Zelda title sometimes.

Nah. Since Zelda almost always deals with generation changes from one title to another, it's totally plausible that the genders get switched around here and there.

Link is a character and, as with so many silent protagonists in games, is mostly defined by bravery and you, the player.

 

[Redryhno]

Depends honestly. Some games he's more of a character than others. In some he's essentially just the Hero of Time, others not so much.

Personally if we're going to have a female Link, at least make it optional. To me, Link's gonna always be a guy. And no offense, but if he's just a prop and blank slate, what exactly is the point of changing anything? What exactly is the reasoning behind adding definitive sexual characteristics to an already intentionally androgynous character? What is the point behind making something as subtle as an avalanche in this instance? What is exactly stopping you from role-playing and imagining him as a she? It's just a matter of mentally adding a letter to the pronouns used after all.

However, at the same exact time Again, I feel like Zelda should be the one changing positions. It's the legend of "Zelda" after all. Give her the spot light for once so the name makes sense.

Ah, but that's the kicker isn't it? The gameplay may indeed be from Link's perspective, but how often is it Zelda that drives the plot forward? How often is it that Link is following Zelda's instructions or wishes? We're playing Link, sure, but most games it's very much centered around Zelda. Link's just the guy that does the dungeon crawling, Zelda's the one that knows what's actually going on and most times Link would never win against Ganon without her help and/or intervention.

Way I've always seen it is that we're playing through Link's eyes, but it's most definitely Zelda's story the majority of the time.

Edit: clicked post instead of preview for formatting errors...

I do agree with you that I'd like to have a Zelda game with Zelda as the player's avatar though. She's a badass in all of her incarnations in some way, and I'd love to see some things unfold with her at the center of it instead of how we largely see it from Link's perspective.

 

[Bad Jim]

Link looks like a girl anyway. If they wanted, they could be completely ambiguous about Links' gender without having to rework the character models.

Spoiler

http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=645

 

[MeatMachine]

Actually my explicit aim was to NOT make this topic about whether Link should be a girl or not. Its more about whether or not you think he is a character in his own right or not.

As with most silent protagonists, he serves mostly as a vessel for the player to project themselves into the world that character inhabits, which makes for a more immersive experience.

To answer OP's primary question, yes, each individual Link is a character in his own right, and his being a different individual in every Zelda game doesn't change that. However, he is designed in a specific way to make him as malleable to the player as can be, and what we see in him is often what we imagine him to be.

To answer the question OP wasn't as concerned with, I actually have no problem with a female Link, or the option to choose between female or male. The only reason why Link is a familiar character at all is because of his iconic appearance as an elf in a green tunic and Phrygian cap - his established characteristics are basically non-existent.

That being said, I think I'd still prefer his traditional male incarnations.

 

[ManutheBloodedge]

Well, I would agree that there is more than one Link, and every one of them is a character in his own rights. They share similarites and have differences, and saying that the Link from Twilight Princess and the Link from Wind Waker are the same character feels very wrong. So, "Link" is not a character on his own, the name generally describes a multitude of characters with the same role, like an alias. There have been more than one Robins in Batman's history, and no one would argue that Jason Todd is the same character as Dick Grayson.

And I know this is not the main topic of this thread, but there have been female Robins before, so... yeah. Female Link option is the best way to go, no doubt. I would be opposed to a Zelda game where you play as Zelda though, because that would go against the essence of the lore.

 

[kekkres]

Depends on the game he's in.

In Wind Waker he's definately a character. He gets happy, sad, tense. He also gets super hyped when he's beaten a Boss. If he didn't have any character I'd doubt he'd be as likeable as he is that game.

In Twilight Princess he's blank hero man with a perpetual expression of determination on his face.

i would disagree TP link convayed a strong sense of guilt and regret to me, he seemed upset at himself a lot, and wanted to make things right. Its not a lot to be fair, but its more than say OoT or the orical games give.

 

[SmallHatLogan]

Link is essentially a bunch of ideas and specific imagery slapped on a character model. Prerequisites for link are pretty much: silent (apart from noises of exertion), represents courage, has a sword, has a shield, has a silly green hat. Is he a character in each game? Eh, he straddles the line between being a blank slate and being an incredibly underdeveloped character.

As for whether I'm for or against female link (even though apparently that wasn't the point of this discussion), I say go for it. Although if Nintendo specifically want to make a Zelda game with a female protagonist I'd rather just have a game where you play as Zelda.

 

[Joccaren]

Yeah, Link is a character, but not quite in the traditional sense. Each incarnation of link has a certain amount of character to them, some more, some less, however the over-all-incarnations link is also a character. In some ways, its like the Avatar in the animated series. Aang is a character. So is the Avatar as a whole though, there are certain facts about them that make them the Avatar. No, in that show gender is not one of them, since the spirit being passed along is giant-good-spirit-squid-goddess-thing instead of necessarily the first Avatar's spirit. Link is a character in the same sense, or I guess the concept of link is some level of a character, and one could make the case that it is by-necessity male, as its the reincarnation of the male hero who saved the Goddess Hylia or W/Es spirit over and over, whilst Zelda is the reincarnation of the Goddess Hylia, and Ganondorf is the Reincarnation of Ganon over and over, and they are the same characters, repeating the same story, over many generations for all eternity. That said, they could also easily insert a bit of lore that allows Link to be female sometimes.

It also depends on which timeline and game we're talking about, and where its set. For example, Wind Waker went on to immediately become Phantom Hourglass, and kid Link was used in both games. Doing something like that, then suddenly allowing a change of gender would be... weird. Same for OoT and MM. Not sure, haven't played them, but I think the Oracle games were similar. And then in a Link Between Worlds, it mentions Link from a previous game marrying the princess or something in some murals at the Royal Palace, if I'm interpreting them correctly, and that sort of reflective thing couldn't be done if you don't know the gender of the hero.

Overall though, yes, Link is a character. Both the individual Links themselves, even if they're not always the most characterised outside player actions, but the concept of Link in-universe as well. Doesn't necessarily exclude a female Link, but at the same time it doesn't really immediately allow one either.
In any case, its Nintendo's game, they can do what they want with it, and so long as the gameplay - Zelda's strong suit - is good, and its story isn't horrible, the game will probably do fine.

 

[Saltyk]

He's sort of both.

I mean Link is a character. He has traits and a bit of personality. But that usually amounts to he is brave, selfless, and learns to use things perfectly upon picking them up. The Powerpuff Girls have more characterization than him. And they are pretty shallow characters.

But he's also the player avatar. Used to connect the player to the world and allow then to interact with it.

I don't think there's any problem allowing players to play a female Link. There's no problem letting players play a male/female Shepard, right?

 

[Bocaj2000]

Yes, Link is a defined character... all of them. Now what gets weird is when you look at the lore of Zelda and how the Hero of Time is a series of reincarnations. By that standard, the HoT could be a Hyrulian of any gender. Maybe Link is a common name in Hyrule idk.

But yes, they are all characters. The "player avatar" excuse is BS. This is because PAs have no canon names or characteristics. This includes most created characters, but some such as Shepard are more defined than they appear to be at first. I could go on but meh. I don't think anyone cares.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

I've always considered Link as an archetype more than a character. It's in the name, honestly: he's the "link" between all games and all timelines - the representation of the Required Heroic Figure - something that's boiled down to a gameplay-sustaining quasi-sense of character.

I'd almost compare him to Gordon Freeman, as the man is essentially an empty shell waiting for the player's own emotional involvement to come to life. Even at his most emotive, Link usually steers as far away as possible from having an actual personality - right down to the point where you can ignore his highly symbolic name and go for something less evocative, like "Douchebag McTwatterson", if you so choose.

Then again, I guess it's up for interpretation. Someone above me thought that Wind Waker's little "I killed a boss!" or "I snagged an item!" animations were indicative of personality; I just see them as tone-setting indicators, the visual expression of "Good job, player! Here's the tool you came for or the doodad the plot says you deserve!"

In another medium, consider Mad Max. Past the first movie, Max becomes the intervening figure, the guy who sticks his nose in pre-existing troubles and, essentially, pre-existing narratives. In Fury Road, Max is less a character than Furiosa (at least to me) and feels like more of an audience surrogate and the focus of the series' core metaphor than an actual character. He grunts, points, attacks and shoots - but he never expresses himself. Furiosa and the others handle the emoting. In fact, Furiosa and the Vuvalini more or less restore Max's personhood by the time the movie ends.

On the other end of the spectrum, you've got Saints Row's curiously nameless Boss, who's still so passionately voiced and animated that their namelessness doesn't detract from the fact that they're a *character* all their own. Player prompts translate into overt actions no sane protagonist would consider - but the Boss nonetheless does.

There's that, and the fact that they talk. A whole damn lot.

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

Link is just an Arthurian Hero who returns to save the day when Hyrule is in need; a call that is answered not by Link, but by you, the player, anytime a new Zelda game comes out.

I can't even think of a way to describe him, because he has no dialogue, so his actions are strictly a result of the player's doing. At best he's 'courageous' for being forced through all of those dungeons by us, and at worst, he's a psychopath that runs around taunting chickens, damaging personal property, and is totally cool with leaving the kingdom in peril for a few days longer to play some carnival games and go fishing. So take your pick there. People mention Wind Waker, the game where he has the most emotional range, but he's not even the true incarnation of the Hero of Time, and thusly a completely different 'Link.' So technically speaking, the games have already confirmed that anyone can be Link and do what he does.

The only time I've seen Link as an actual character was in that late 80s cartoon show where he was an arrogant dickhead who was more than a little rapey towards Zelda. Well, there's also those weird as hell CDI games, but those don't count, do they? He's just an avatar for the player, nothing more. He's not a character.

 

[CaptainMarvelous]

I think there's a problem here with how everyone is seeing the reincarnation thing. It's not like Avatar where its one spirit in different bodies, it's the same person. They might look different due to the graphics and act different due to the current state of Hyrule but they intrinsically ARE the same person.

In that regard, the Lore very much DOESN'T support a Female Link. Just not how the reincarnation works.

Personally? Don't really care either way. As far as I'm concerned Female Link is just Samus. Mute, Blonde, Badass.