Poll: Would we all be cool with a female Link?

[TheRiddler]

Hear me out:

It's not the same Link in all of these games, rather, several incarnations of the Great Hero/Chosen One/whatever. Who's to say that the incarnation of Link in the next Zelda game couldn't be female this time? I mean, women [b/]can[/b] use the Triforce. We've seen Zelda do it all the time.

It wouldn't feel too cheap or gimmicky as a female Mario or Kratos, as there isn't anything particularly masculine about Link. He's not really a muscleman and the green tunic is more or less unisex. He was pretty much intended to be merely a blank character for the player to project onto, and really the only personality aspects I can think of to define him are pretty gender neutral: brave, intelligent and competent in situations of crisis.

I mean, I'm not really saying that Nintendo necessarily [i/]should[/i] do this. I'm just wondering if you all think it would work if they did.

Sidenote: Are there other characters to whom this would apply? Where gender/race/sexuality/etc are so insignificant that changing them would leave the overall character unscathed? Off the top of my head: Chell(Portal), Master Chief (Halo) and Kirby (well, Kirby).

 

[Zhukov]

I feel compelled to point out that the question in the thread title and the question above the poll are phrased so as to provide opposite answers. This will invalidate the result of the poll since you won't know which question people were answering when they voted.

This irritates me most severely.

EDIT: You ninja-corrected it while I was typing this post. Well done.

...

Anyway, no, I would not have a problem with an ovary-bearing Link. Then again, I'm not into Zelda to begin with, so I'm the wrong person to ask.

I'm sure it would piss off some people though.
- "It's political correctness gone mad! Stop being inclusive!"
- "Change something?! Not on my watch!"
- "Them conniving woman-y types are muscling in on my male spaces!"

 

[TheRiddler]

I feel compelled to point out that the question in the thread title and the question above the poll are phrased so as to provide opposite answers. This will invalidate the result of the poll since you won't know which question people were answering when they voted.

This irritates me most severely.

Fixed it. Sorry about that. It was pretty unclear.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Yeah, for Link I honestly wouldn't mind since, as stated, it's a different Link each incarnation.

I'd prefer an Ocarina of Time spin-off game about Shiek though. That would only be all kinds of sweetness, plus it would probably play differently to the other Legend of Zelda games (since Shiek has a completely different skill set), and would actually have a reason for the gender swap.

I mean the Legend of Zelda series does need something to spice up the gameplay and change the formula, at least for one iteration, but if you just have a gender swapped Link then that really doesn't do anything for the rest of the game. If they were going to change to a female character I kind of wish it would actually make some kind of change in the gameplay.

 

[Requia]

That would deviate from the formula of remaking the same game every couple years *forever*. I'm not sure if I like or dislike that. But if they're going to deviate I'd like a sheik game more than a gender swap too.

 

[dyre]

meh, it seems a bit tryhard but I don't particularly care. I'm with the previous poster; using an existing female character would probably be a better idea.

 

[Caiphus]

I wouldn't mind. Haven't played a Zelda game since Majora's Mask, of course, but yeah. Link is a, well, not overly masculine character, and is mostly silent.
It really wouldn't change much, I think.

 

[Coakle]

It might seem to be a nightmare to plan for. It's basically canon, in the console LoZ, that female characters are gonna crush on Link. It is part of the charm. Assuming Nintendo wants to avoid a gay relationships, they will have to have guys making innuendos toward Link. Before Skyward Sword I thought Nintendo could not write an enjoyable bit on a guy crushing on the main character. Now, I would have fun with a guy like Groose crushing on female Link. Make it happen Nintendo.



It would be simpler if Ganon came back as a girl. Ganondorf died in two timelines and does not have personal relationships with any character. A gender swap wouldn't require any extra planning beyond the character design phase.

 

[Maximum Bert]

I dont have a major issue with it but I dont think it would be a good change as Link is an established character now regardless of whether you see him as one character or a lot of different characters he is very definitely male and suddenly changing that would be very strange without a very very good reason.

Now the next Zelda game staring Zelda that would be something I would be interested in as I am not sure she has been playable in any Legend of Zelda game to any real capacity except in the CDI games.

 

[Bernzz]

I'd rather a Prince Link being kidnapped, and then the village girl/whatever other past Zelda becomes the Hero of Time.

But basically yeah, I'd be more than cool with a female Link. It'd garner my interest more than, say, Skyward Sword did.

 

[Dandark]

Oh God the fanfiction that would result! THE FANFICTION!

To be honest I wouldn't mind a female Link but I feel it would come across badly. It just seems like changing a character simply because feminism is a hot topic. It would be like changing Samus to a man, it wouldn't be the same character.
Now Link doesn't have that much of a character so it could work but it would still seem kinda forced.

I would rather have a game about an existing female character like Sheik instead.

Captcha: Kindness of strangers
No captcha this is the internet, there are no kind stragners. No Captcha! Its a lie! He doesn't really have chocolate in that van!

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well as far as I understand the games are all in separate universes so I guess it would be in keeping with that idea.
But I would go one further and establish that Link has no sex at all, that way they got something to point at when another political rights group shows up to demand their righteous reward.

 

[Coakle]

That just screams changing for the sake of having a female character. Why not just create a Zelda like game with a female?

I don't know about change for the sake of change. I thought the OP wanted your opinion on Nintendo's ability to create a LoZ game with a female Link while maintaining the LoZ formula. What areas would Nintendo revise, so that they would be able to create a female Link?
It's a thought experiment in game design. The poll is for people who think Nintendo would undermine the character Link by making this choice. If I thought Nintendo didn't have the talent to create a female Link, I would have voted "no" in the poll.

Previous posters maintained that LoZ would remain the same since the Universe allows reincarnation or that Link's clothes are gender neutral so they would remain the same too. I mentioned how LoZ games traditionally have girls interested in Link and the problems that may pose to Nintendo's writers.


Although your question is interesting when applied to Nintendo due to their philosophy of creating characters to serve gameplay. It would go against that philosophy to create a new girl character to star in a Zelda-like game. A poster above me suggested a Sheik spin-off might be viable, since Sheik would play different than Link. But we are getting a bit off-topic.


OP: If my interpretation of the topic is wrong, I'll delete this post or delete if you can. Don't want to put words in your mouth.

 

[Barbas]

I used to think Link was a girl, so it wouldn't bother me in the slightest. I'd rather they just created a new and interesting female character, though, rather than doing the same thing but flipping the gender of one of the characters. Seems a bit lazy.

 

[lapan]

Why not, as long as it is well written the gender doesn't really matter.

 

[Auron225]

I like the idea - it would certainly mix up the formula a lot, but I wouldn't swap anyone else (Zelda, Ganon if he's around) as it would seem a tad much... like if we swap one characters gender, we must swap them all!

I remember there being a thread about this before that descended into madness & bickering so honestly I'll be surprised if that doesn't happen again... just as a heads up! Then again, I am surprised at the current poll results. Last time it was a near landslide victory for "NO! LINK IS A MALE!"

EDIT:

So instead of you know, actually trying to make the pie bigger, ya want to take existing franchises and do a 180 on it because....no really you really don't have an actual reason as to why it should happen.

I'm not sure I'd call making Link female a 180. Playing as Ganon and trying to murder everything? With guns? That's more like a 180.

It isn't any place of any fan or outsider to tell any artist on what they should be doing especially if the end result is to reaffirm their own biases, beliefs, or morality.

Every time I walk into a library not every book is going to be a book I want to read. Same with movies, same with art, same with music. I'll always have the power of choice. Just like how any has the power to create the content they want.

I think the thread title & poll question are worded a tad more timidly than you're imagining. Where I see "Would it be OK with you if Link was female?" I think you're seeing "Let's MARCH on the stronghold of Nintendo and slaughter every man, women & child until they meet our demands and make Link have tits! WHO'S WITH ME!?".

People are making new & successful games with female leads. Or at least, they are trying to. Whether or not they try or succeed, Nintendo are going to make another Zelda game - the series is damn near immortal at this point. This isn't even making a stand for womens rights or anything like it, it's just an interesting twist on a franchise that is going stale quickly but will exist so long as fans are around to justify continuing.

EDIT 2: Haha, just noticed I typed Zelda a few times there where I meant to type Link Corrected now.

 

[Ushiromiya Battler]

No, Link is Link, but I would want to play Zelda in a proper game.

 

[default]

That would be cool, and not just because of the slew of cute/sexy fan art it would generate. Not that DeviantArt isn't already littered with it...

It certainly makes sense within the universe and would be an interesting dynamic, I would definitely like to see that (plus I doubt it would make much difference seeing as Link is generally quite a blank slate). I can imagine it working very well as long as they don't pull any attention to it (except for the cute flirting present in most Zelda games anyway) and make the character design work with the rest of Link's iterations.