What did Link do wrong?

[CaptJohnSheridan]

At 2:55 you can see a box for Ocarina of Time.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?123015-1/marketing-violence-children

What did Link do wrong? Link is a knight? Aren't knights considered military? Has Link ever done anything that would get a common soldier court martialed? What would that LT Col Dave Grossman think of Link? He loves to talk about the "knights of old".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wI7qIpTsnc

What other video game characters of a military background deserve a court martial? Master Chief? Commander Shepard?

 

[Pseudonym]

I know this fearmongering about video games is dumb but this is 1999. Things have changed so no need to panick too much over this. Right now it is rated by the ESRB, PEGI or some similar agency. It is considered all ages in the US and 12+ in Europe. Both list violence as a possible concern. Such things aren't just about Link but also about the general violence on display. Some people want to keep that away from their younger children and depending on the child and the age that might be reasonable.

 

[Bad Jim]

Has Link ever done anything that would get a common soldier court martialed?

Spending hours or even days fishing, gambling and hunting gold skulltulas instead of doing his mission.

 

[Kyrian007]

What other video game characters of a military background deserve a court martial? Master Chief? Commander Shepard?

All of them? I think so.
People in the military are trained to be the best single part of a larger "machine" or operation in an effort to make that machine the best. In general video games don't operate that way because that would make for a fairly boring video game. Games require their characters to be the best individuals they can be. Best warrior, or archeologist, or whatever the protagonist is. And that very x factor that makes them, the protagonist, the best... makes them stand out. Something you can't do (in general terms) in an organized military, where the best soldiers fit in... as opposed to stand out. Its the difference between learning to be a great duelist swordsman, or learning how to lock shields in a phalanx. You make the videogame out of the duelist fighting because its dynamic and exciting to watch. You protect an actual city with a phalanx because its far more effective... if boring to watch. That's why I think all of them, video games generally require the player to be trigger happy mass murders stealing everything that isn't nailed down. In general militaries have a tendency to not like that type of person. Court martials seem like a pretty standard military reaction if faced with somebody who acts like a video game protagonist typically does.

 

[sXeth]

Ignoring how few of Link's activities would even begin to fall under regular military purviews. I can't actually think of one where he was an actual authorized knight or soldier other then Breath of the Wild, sort of.

 

[Catfood220]

Ignoring how few of Link's activities would even begin to fall under regular military purviews. I can't actually think of one where he was an actual authorized knight or soldier other then Breath of the Wild, sort of.

In Skyward Sword, he was training to be a knight. But I agree, I'm hard pushed to think of any other games in which he is a part of the military. Especially in Ocarina of Time where he is just a random bloke from the forest.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Mass Effect 2 Commander Shepard should by all accounts probably get court martialed. Pretty much the entire game is her doing stuff no real soldier should be able to get away with, starting with going awol to join a known terrorist organisation and ending with being directly responsible for the destruction of a Mass Relay, an entire star system and the deaths of 300,000 Batarians, which risked sparking a war the Alliance could ill afford.

IIRC, the 3rd game opens with her under house arrest and having to appear before a disciplinary hearing, but that's honestly rather mild despite her good intentions and reasons for doing it all, all things considered.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

Mass Effect 2 Commander Shepard should by all accounts probably get court martialed. Pretty much the entire game is her doing stuff no real soldier should be able to get away with, starting with going awol to join a known terrorist organisation and ending with being directly responsible for the destruction of a Mass Relay, an entire star system and the deaths of 300,000 Batarians, which risked sparking a war the Alliance could ill afford.

IIRC, the 3rd game opens with her under house arrest and having to appear before a disciplinary hearing, but that's honestly rather mild despite her good intentions and reasons for doing it all, all things considered.

To be fair, can you truly be AWOL if you were declared dead first? Plus, one of the first things you do is go to the Citadel and as long as you're not an extraordinary douche, you can be a granted Spectre status again, functionally absolving Shepard of most of their legal issues. Especially since most of ME2 is taking place in the Terminus Systems.

 

[sXeth]

Ignoring how few of Link's activities would even begin to fall under regular military purviews. I can't actually think of one where he was an actual authorized knight or soldier other then Breath of the Wild, sort of.

In Skyward Sword, he was training to be a knight. But I agree, I'm hard pushed to think of any other games in which he is a part of the military. Especially in Ocarina of Time where he is just a random bloke from the forest.

Oh right, never played that one because I enjoy not having carpal tunnel syndrome <_<.

I forget the first two, if they even went into any real detail. His uncle or whatever was a knight in Link to the Past, but he was just some kid essentially, and actively murdering (possessed) soldiers left and right. There's no central authority in Wind Waker. You could make an argument that once he meets Zelda in Twilight Princess she authorizes him, but he's still chased by the guards for being a wolf more often then actually working alongside them.

 

[DeadProxy]

Either I'm blind or that time stamp is wrong, cause I couldn't see the OoT box, and I'm not scanning a 4 hour video to make sure.
Oh...It's at 2:55:00, and not 2 minutes in, ok then.
Couldn't the inclusion of Link (or the game in general) be focusing on actually arming a child? The kid is barely cracking 10 years old, if that and he's walking around with a sword and bombs, with seemingly no one to guide or mentor him on how to not be a murderous terrorist.

 

[CaitSeith]

A moral panic video from 1999... You're scrapping the bottom of the barrel, aren't you? The OoT box is there just as a prop, you know? No character from the game was mentioned or even inferred (let alone, judged). Heck! You call Link a knight, but he isn't a knight in Ocarina of Time. What's going on with the OP!?

 

[Zeraki]

Mass Effect 2 Commander Shepard should by all accounts probably get court martialed. Pretty much the entire game is her doing stuff no real soldier should be able to get away with, starting with going awol to join a known terrorist organisation and ending with being directly responsible for the destruction of a Mass Relay, an entire star system and the deaths of 300,000 Batarians, which risked sparking a war the Alliance could ill afford.

IIRC, the 3rd game opens with her under house arrest and having to appear before a disciplinary hearing, but that's honestly rather mild despite her good intentions and reasons for doing it all, all things considered.

I guess saving the galaxy from terrifying mechanical Cthulhu monsters(until the ending made them stupid) from outside the galaxy has its perks.

 

[Drathnoxis]

In Ocarina of Time? Well for starters there's all of those pots he smashed. He stole that poor balding fishing hole owner's hat and threw it in the pond. He cheated at the treasure chest game. And there's all the times he slashed that cursed skulltula man just to hear him scream. And those poor chickens. He stole a horse. And the grave robbing, there's that too. He drained the well, I don't know what Kakariko is going to do about water now. He killed the Deku Tree. Oh and he practically handed the Triforce to Gannondorf dooming the world to seven years of torment and suffering.

 

[Drathnoxis]

#LinkDidNothingWrong