Poll: Should Link be female in the next Lengend Of Zelda

[EtherealBeaver]

No. Links character is male so he should remain male (or there should be some explanation as to why he suddenly turned female as well as a discovery of what that means to him) just like Zelda is a woman and therefore should remain a female character (or, in the case of gender swapping, have a quite in-depth story of why, how and what it means to the character) - zelda being an adventure game with heavy focus on puzzles and discovery rather than story would however make that quite infitting for a zelda game.

A Zelda game with zelda as the progerganist would be fine though (and would lead the main character to be female) just like letting the player play as ganon or any other character in the franchise would be.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

No, that would like making Duke Nukem female.
Now, I don't have anything against being given a choice whether to play a male or female character.
And if I'm given they choice, I'll pick the female one.
But they should give her a different default name.
Like Hyper or Chain.

 

[The Heik]

snip

*sigh* OK, I'm getting tired of arguing in circles with you. You are so hung up on the lore saying that Link can be female that you think it will trump 25 years of everyone and their dog seeing Link as a male character. Newsflash: Just because you know about that tidbit of lore doesn't mean everybody else does, or that even if they did that they would care in the slightest. Lore is a secondary consideration when compared to cultural perceptions, which is the be all and end all of gaming narrative. It's why Mario and Luigi are white guys despite the fact that black people live in Italy. It's why Captain Falcon is a big muscly dude despite his name being gender neutral. These things will not change because the vast majority of people see these characters in that specific way, and no amount of lore is going to change that. Link is in the same boat. It doesn't matter that "He" is technically a whole bunch of otherwise unrelated people who "could" be any gender, the character is identified as a singular overarching being by the vast majority of the populace, and that singular being is identified as male. That's not going to change any time soon, and if you have a problem with that, well too bad for you. At this point I don't care anymore.

 

[Agent Cross]

SNIP

You're hung up on this singular idea of eliminating an established character so it can be substituted for a new one. Why do that?

Nintendo did that.

They also made Link in such a way to cater to your experience. Link is just an avatar for you to project your experience upon. You know, role-playing. You can already change the character's name. Why not just ask for customization options instead then? That way everyone gets their own personal experience. Otherwise your asking for a change to suit your personal preferences at that expense of alienating someone else.

It's a great start. But as the prophecy goes on with more an more males chosen as heroes It'll become increasingly apparent that there is a sexist pattern in place which undermines the egalitarian nobility of the hero prophecy.

Agreed. And I think my answer above might satisfy such a dilemma.

Yes. Because of the lore... UUUURGHHH! How many times will I have to explain it.

Courage is what counts. A quality of character. Not birth, like Zelda's royal inheritance, not by the advantage of being born with a penis.

The elders know when a young adventurer who may be any one of the citizens of Hyrule has the courage and morals to take up a quest, they gift him with powers knowing he will be brave enough to use them and moral enough to use them for the good of Hyrule.

Ummmm. Lore? The hero, Link (or whom so ever you wish to call him) is chosen by the Goddesses to protect Hyrule. Not the elders. C'mon now.

That and smashing people's pots to steal rupees...

What?! Steal rupees. Renegade Link

 

[Treblaine]

snip

*sigh* OK, I'm getting tired of arguing in circles with you. You are so hung up on the lore saying that Link can be female that you think it will trump 25 years of everyone and their dog seeing Link as a male character. Newsflash: Just because you know about that tidbit of lore doesn't mean everybody else does, or that even if they did that they would care in the slightest. Lore is a secondary consideration when compared to cultural perceptions, which is the be all and end all of gaming narrative. It's why Mario and Luigi are white guys despite the fact that black people live in Italy. It's why Captain Falcon is a big muscly dude despite his name being gender neutral. These things will not change because the vast majority of people see these characters in that specific way, and no amount of lore is going to change that. Link is in the same boat. It doesn't matter that "He" is technically a whole bunch of otherwise unrelated people who "could" be any gender, the character is identified as a singular overarching being by the vast majority of the populace, and that singular being is identified as male. That's not going to change any time soon, and if you have a problem with that, well too bad for you. At this point I don't care anymore.

So, you don't know and don't care to know about the game nor series and nor do most other people, that is why it is the way it is and always will be because everyone ignorantly expects it to be. So the people who don't know nor care about the game will decide how the game will be.

There are no words... only...

Who can possibly top that?

 

[Treblaine]

Ummmm. Lore? The hero, Link (or whom so ever you wish to call him) is chosen by the Goddesses to protect Hyrule. Not the elders. C'mon now.

Sometimes, I deliberately chose lower-case-e "elders" as it's not always a The Goddess, but some other elder power to bestow gifts on the worthy, everyone from the Great Fairy to Deku Tree.

 

[Agent Cross]

Ummmm. Lore? The hero, Link (or whom so ever you wish to call him) is chosen by the Goddesses to protect Hyrule. Not the elders. C'mon now.

Sometimes, I deliberately chose lower-case-e "elders" as it's not always a The Goddess, but some other elder power to bestow gifts on the worthy, everyone from the Great Fairy to Deku Tree.

Goddesses. It's plural. I'm just nit-picking. Seems like you might do the same if the roles were reversed.

So how about the customization option. Is that suitable? Seems like a win win. Might even increase the replayability of the game.

 

[Vault Citizen]

]I'd actually liked to see a Zelda game with Zelda as the main character. She has proven herself to be a capable fighter in several of the games, at least more so than someone like Princess Peach. Instead of items she could gain different spells to get around dungeons and solve puzzles. Just as Link has to face several trials to prove that he's a true hero, She should also be facing several trials to prove herself as well, or perhaps a more traditional setting where Link's the one in trouble and Zelda has to save him instead. I think this would be more of a breath of fresh air than just simply genderbending Link.

How about no:

(Sorry, couldn't resist)

I still wouldn't genderbend Link because someone would question why we haven't done it to Samus and then there would be a shit-ton of problems.

The difference with the example of Samus is that Samus is a singular character where as Link is the name used for multiple people spanning not only multiple generations but multiple timelines as well. If Samus were suddenly male it wouldn't make any sense but there is nothing implausible about the latest in a long line of Links being a girl.

 

[Flutterbrave]

I'm leaning towards no, because I feel that regardless of whether all the links are or are not the same person, they are, to some extent, the same character - see Doctor Who, although not really because the doctor could plausibly be a woman because his incarnations vary physically to a large degree. Links incarnations may not appear identical, but they are all physically similar - blonde haired, pointy eared, fairly slight and vaguely elfin. Gender is a big physical difference to suddenly throw in there. Imagine if the next link was a red-head. Most players would consider them to be very 'not link' in appearance, regardless of the presence or lack of ginger prejudices.

Besides the physical, it's also worth considering that masculinity and femininity are important parts of how we receive any character. Link might not be the manliest man to ever have manned, but he is very clearly male and to change that is to change who he fundamentally is.

That said, a spin-off series focused on Zelda would be very welcome.

Link was originally very obviously with Brown hair and Dark eyes. Now he has bright blond hair, blue eyes and much sharper features.

And look at the huge stylistic change between Majora's Mask and Wind Waker, and from there to Twilight Princess.

There is nothing fundamentally male about being courageous and going adventuring.

I'll grant you the hair colour, but I'd argue that even from the earliest games, Link has had a similar 'pointed' appearance (as much as graphics would allow). The point is that while all the Links have not been photocopies of each other, they have been extremely similar in appearance - hence why he's taken as basically just being the same guy by a large proportion of players. Also, saying he looks significantly different in WW and MM is somewhat redundant - WW as a whole has a more cartoonish appearance, and the link in that looks basically like what you'd get if the link from MM was drawn in that kind of style.

Anyway, the point is that lore does state that the hero of time can be anyone, but from what we actually see, there's a certain consistency in appearance, and suddenly having a female link is a very big and frankly unnecessary change to that appearance.

I'd agree there's nothing wrong with having a courageous-female-centred adventure game, but I don't see why link should be that female, when he already has a certain degree of masculinity attached to him.

 

[Kecunk]

Well since link has never really been more than a sword arm with a controller where his brain should be his gender doesn't really matter.

with that being said making him a girl would accomplish nothing more then nintendo could say "look we made him a girl"

 

[Treblaine]

Anyway, the point is that lore does state that the hero of time can be anyone, but... having a female link is a very big and frankly unnecessary change to that appearance.

How can it be anyone (of the Land of Hyrule) if it can't be a female?

This is just conservatism, resistance to change at the cost of undermining the hero-prophecy by making it unnecessarily sexist.

"but I don't see why link should be that female"

Because the de-facto hero of hyrule has always been known as Link. Remember, you can select your name in every game, it's just strongly hinted or assumed you'll CHOOSE the name "Link".

 

[Mr Cwtchy]

Sure, and while we're making completely pointless changes to well-established characters, let's make Link ginger too.

I mean really, if you're trying to have more female protagonists starring in games, why not just use a well developed female character that's already there instead of screwing with a male one?

 

[Flutterbrave]

Anyway, the point is that lore does state that the hero of time can be anyone, but... having a female link is a very big and frankly unnecessary change to that appearance.

How can it be anyone (of the Land of Hyrule) if it can't be a female?

This is just conservatism, resistance to change at the cost of undermining the hero-prophecy by making it unnecessarily sexist.

I think cutting out the middle section of my quote there changes the implications somewhere between significantly and completely. As I stated, the hero of every zelda game has had a consistent physical appearance - not identical, but the link of every game does look extremely similar, regardless of what the lore says. Throwing in a hero of time who has a significantly differing physical appearance (e.g. the other gender) isn't technically against the lore, but it's against the 'rules' which have heavily implied and reinforced with every subsequent games.

Please note that change is not inherently good and conservatism is not inherently bad. I'm afraid I simply don't understand what you mean by 'under-mining the hero prophecy', and the claims of sexism, while hardly unexpected are unfair. Saying that what is essentially a repeatedly reincarnated character should remain the same gender is not sexist, especially when this rule has been implied by every game so far.

"but I don't see why link should be that female"

Because the de-facto hero of hyrule has always been known as Link. Remember, you can select your name in every game, it's just strongly hinted or assumed you'll CHOOSE the name "Link".

Maybe I'm being stupid, but I'm not getting your point here. I'm just using the name link to refer to every hero of time we've seen so far.



Also, I think it might help things to clarify my position. The title of this thread is 'SHOULD Link be female in the next Legend of Zelda'. Should, not could. If Nintendo were to autonomously decide to have a female Hero of Time, I wouldn't consider it a bad move on their part - unexpected, but not wrong. However, I really don't think they are under any moral obligation to have a female hero of time to rebuff unfounded accusations of sexism.

 

[Auron225]

Snip

I do agree with you on almost every point you've made. Link is possibly the only character a gender-swap could work with since its almost never the same character in any game.

[MY OWN THOUGHTS HERE THAT DON'T HAVE MUCH TO DO WITH ANYTHING SO IGNORE THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOU WANT]
Personally I do think it would be interesting and I'm keen (as somebody else suggested quite a lot of posts ago) on a story involving Ganon already being some kind of world overlord and following some propehcy (or something else along those lines), the hero will be born in a particular place or during a certain time frame. Ganon assums it will be male (cause why wouldnt it be?) and orders the mass execution of every newborn boy in that place/time (cause he's evil like that). The godesses ensured this time the hero would be a girl so she would survive and one day stop him.

However, it seems clear that nobody you've been arguing with will at any point say "You're right, lets write a letter to Nintendo and request it". Ultimately, what does it matter if they change their minds? It doesn't make it any more/less likely. If they don't understand your points now then they never will. I did make my own post a long ways back so I've been following this for a little while now and I apologize for not diving in there to back you up but I didn't have anything to say that you hadn't said and I hate getting involved in this things.

I do recommend you leave it alone though. They're not going to get it and even if they do, it won't change anything. Some of us agree with you (at least 349).

 

[LiMaSaRe]

Female Link wouldnt be much of a noticeable difference. Link wears a skirt and has long flowing hair already. But a paradigm of LOZ is that every game features the same main character. Who happens to be male.

EDIT: I of course mean same in regards to appearance, personality, and skills. Im aware that there have been many reincarnations of "Link"

 

[VondeVon]

I don't mind his gender (although a blonde one would make me think I'm playing Zelda perhaps) so long as they CHANGE THE SETTING UP, please! I'm dying for future!Link, with a classic Master Sword and maybe the odd ruin (of familiar locales would be even better) being the only remnants of the world we know right now.

A world way beyond the great flood - c'mooooon!

 

[shrekfan246]

Oh... ohhhh...

Real quick on-topic: Sure, why not. Everyone seems to be focusing on the fact that there's no reason to do it, but there's not really any reason not to do it. If it has no great impact on the game, why get so worked up about it?

Now, if you'll pardon me.

 

[Cronq]

How about Link is a black trans-sexual Muslim who loves animals, recyling, and is fighting against Global Warming...

 

[The_Darkness]

I voted no. Not because I'm against the idea - it'd be interesting, to say the least - but because you phrased it as should this happen in the next Zelda.
No. There is no reason why it should happen, and especially no reason why it should happen in the next one.

That said, I'm all for the Zelda team changing up their formula a bit. As someone has played all the 3d games up to (but not including) SS, they are getting a bit predictable. Or maybe I've just grown out of them... (I want war in Hyrule! I want Dark Link! I want a dark Zelda game! But no, not because I want my games to be dark, but because I want my games to have contrast. There's a reason why MM and TP are my favourites...)