'Why Does Link have to be Female?'

[CaptainMarvelous]

Though that does remind me, I was discussing this with a friend of mine last night. How much of this hesitation to make a femLink is possibly due to the gender social structures in Japanese culture? I know only vague bits of how it works, but is it possible that a lot of it is just simply due to their culture frowning on representations of women in power? In roles as anything other than a support role/love interest?

Personal take, they just have a way more laser focused approach to appealing to demographics. Like having manga that's Shounen and Shoujo, it's written for teenage boys and teenage girls respectively but it's not that weird for people to read/like manga that isn't 'for' them (like dudes rocking out to Sailor Moon and how many girls in Tokyo love Attack on Titan). There's also the fact Japanese games tend to have a greater number of female protagonists but also have a bad tendency to make them fan-servicey in a jaded attempt to plumb both markets.

OT: I'ma be honest, I do think Metroid feels like a Sci-Fi Zelda in a lot of ways with the exploration and weapon acquisition so I do think of her as a Female Link, but I'm pretty sure people want Fem!Link because its way popular and lots of Female gamers have it in a special place in their heart. SWEEPING generalisation, but that's just what I've encountered and kinda why I think its had such a notable push.

 

[Something Amyss]

And meeting the soul of a previous Link does kind of shoot down reincarnation, as it's explicitly a separate entity from the Link you're controlling, not some past memory.

But then, the Hero's Shade also says that these are skills that can only be passed down through the "Hero's Bloodline," which confirms the other theory, which would indicate that you can't necessarily count on either as gospel.

Further, unless this has been specified, we don't know how "souls" work in Hyrule, nor what process animates the Hero's Shade. He is mostly an animated skeleton, but what process animates him? I mean, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a vampire has all your memories but a demon kicked your soul out and is now living it up in your body. Is a shade the actual soul? Does it specify that? Could it be an echo? Magic imitating? Something not immediately coming to mind?

It doesn't shoot down reincarnation unless we know more.

But if we take Twilight Princess as gospel, then it's confirmed that anyone who learns those maneuvers is from the hero's bloodline.

 

[FrozenLaughs]

I see no problem with having a female protagonist in TLoZ. It just doesn't have to be done by gender swapping anyone. The story already follows what is basically a reincarnation kind of story with the three main characters. Any one of their descendants could be male or female. Or, simply rotate who is born with which triforce. Play a game where Zelda is born with Courage (or Power!) Maybe Link is a wise sage or a helpless prince? How much more damage could Ganon inflict with Wisdom? It's not hard to think outside of the box a little while still using your canon characters, without immediately heeding the SJW calls.

 

[Kajin]

Honestly the suggestion I made in one of the other threads about this is probably the best for everyone involved. Make it so that one of the games Link is born as a set of fraternal twins, the other one being... Linkle... (Ugh, I hate that name so damn much). He's the spirit of the hero reincarnated, as always, but because of the whole fraternal twin thing Linkle somehow ended up with the Triforce of Courage.

Bada bing bada boom, you got your female Link while simultaneously also having a male Link. Pick which one you want to play as from there. Maybe the other one is an NPC companion, or goes off to fight monsters while you do the dungeon spelunking. It doesn't matter. One half got what they asked for, the other half got what they asked for, everyone wins. Bonus, we also get a brand new character to exploit for awesome merchandise and potential sequels/spinoffs. Everyone wins even harder.

The only thing I ask is that you give Linkle a huge ass crossbow. Heroines love crossbows. Get that heroine a ballista.

 

[Gamerpalooza]

I see no problem with having a female protagonist in TLoZ. It just doesn't have to be done by gender swapping anyone. The story already follows what is basically a reincarnation kind of story with the three main characters. Any one of their descendants could be male or female. Or, simply rotate who is born with which triforce. Play a game where Zelda is born with Courage (or Power!) Maybe Link is a wise sage or a helpless prince? How much more damage could Ganon inflict with Wisdom? It's not hard to think outside of the box a little while still using your canon characters, without immediately heeding the SJW calls.

While we can speculate how it can work. The problem will eventually be that people will want the races to become an available option and other aspects the game includes. It will be a demand that wont be easy to achieve. The series will eventually stray drastically away from its roots this way.

 

[Orga777]

Because not everyone wants to play a male protagonist. Namely a large number of female gamers would like to have female protagonists that they could enjoy playing as, for the self-insert quality. It's why I personally prefer games with a male protagonist, because it's easier for me to insert myself into the role when I share the gender of the person I'm playing. Plenty of women and girls are the same way. My 3 god daughters all, if given a choice of characters to play as, (in games like Hyrule Warriors for example), pick a female character, because they enjoy them more.

For the most part yes but he probably said that in retaliation. Since it isn't new in the industry the kind of pros and cons it brings to a company to "expand" that way. So he probably doesn't want to deal with such fixation since he looks to be more focused on the way he wants his creation to grow and expand. Especially when we see the 4 sword games. Personally I'm glad we even got to see a Hyrule Warriors franchise and get to play more than just two female characters such as Zelda and Shiek. Since I had that experience first with smash and the novelty wore off pretty quickly.

I say this because if he did make a female protagonist or create a Zelda game it would quickly escalate into a realm where people will never be satisfied because they would want their specific female in this franchise to get attention.

Since we have Zelda (And her many timeline forms), Tetra, Shiek, Lana, Cia, Great Fairy, Fi, Impa, Ruto, Agitha, Midna, True Form Midna, Marin, Medli, Sarah, the 3 Djinns, etc.

So I understand why he backed away. He already deals with a lot of conflicting reception with his own titles to bother dwelling into this kind of abyss.

That is just silly a fear and quite nonsensical, IMO. Princess Zelda, unlike pretty much everyone else on that list, has been in more than one game. Her name is in the title of the series. Having her playable would not cause a fit because X character needs a game too for people to be happy. When Tingle gets two games, it is kinda dumb that Zelda hasn't been playable yet.

 

[Gamerpalooza]

That is just silly a fear and quite nonsensical, IMO. Princess Zelda, unlike pretty much everyone else on that list, has been in more than one game. Her name is in the title of the series. Having her playable would not cause a fit because X character needs a game too for people to be happy. When Tingle gets two games, it is kinda dumb that Zelda hasn't been playable yet.

Many of those games are created by other teams. It's the reason we've been able to see that Tingle game, Hyrule Warriors(supervisor), Oracles/Ages. How those go about I haven't bothered with the specifics.

People get Hyrule Warriors and still people aren't happy. So yeah the fear is justified.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

That is just silly a fear and quite nonsensical, IMO. Princess Zelda, unlike pretty much everyone else on that list, has been in more than one game. Her name is in the title of the series. Having her playable would not cause a fit because X character needs a game too for people to be happy. When Tingle gets two games, it is kinda dumb that Zelda hasn't been playable yet.

Many of those games are created by other teams. It's the reason we've been able to see that Tingle game, Hyrule Warriors(supervisor), Oracles/Ages. How those go about I haven't bothered with the specifics.

People get Hyrule Warriors and still people aren't happy. So yeah the fear is justified.

I always think how hilarious it would be if "they got one, why aren't they happy?" were reversed.

"Gee, wow, we got a third party game where the main character is still Link, everything is better forever."

 

[Gamerpalooza]

I always think how hilarious it would be if "they got one, why aren't they happy?" were reversed.

"Gee, wow, we got a third party game where the main character is still Link, everything is better forever."

It's funny ain't it?

I don't bag on people about this just because. Hell I would be demanding all sorts of things to be done to many franchises just like many others but I would rather they do it willingly. Especially when they ask for consumer feedback that's the best time to bring it up peacefully not in an authoritarian manner. Since there's many companies that feel pressured to give consumers what they want, franchise wise, and they don't even do it properly. Then use that chance to bag on consumers with nonsense like "something is better than nothing" or "stop being entitled". I don't see a point in falling for that kind of trap that creates division between creators and consumers.

 

[CrazyBlaze]

Why does he have to be male? Why not female? Personally I do think it would be cool but I would wouldn't expect it to happen. Though the excuses they gave are just stupid. Just say you didn't want to do a female Link. Instead of all the garbage they gave us instead.

 

[RJ 17]

Edit: So apparently I'm crazy for thinking that people wanting a female link are people who want a female action lead video game, which we would have if we had another Metroid game. My bad. Deepest apologies.

I'm not going to call you crazy for that position, but I will say that the two are likely completely unrelated.

For starters with the way the community is right now, there's a higher demand for female protagonists for two reasons:
1: In a more general sense, people are getting tired of having Generic White Guy #847 as their protagonist.
2: In a more specific sense, people are wanting more gender diversity in their protagonists.

Now, with regards to the outcry for a female link, this goes back to Hyrule Warriors in which Linkle (FemLink, if you will) was introduced. People saw her as a possible hint that maybe the upcoming Zelda game would have a female link. This would be absolutely ground-breaking and seen as an incredibly progressive move for Nintendo. They'd be taking one of their Big 3 franchises and going with a very substantial change to the established format. Change means new, and people saw this kind of new as being good.

Now I don't have a source to link, but I could have sworn I heard somewhere that Nintendo hinted that they were indeed going to be making Linkle playable in the new Zelda game (this is before anyone had seen the game yet), so people were highly anticipating it. Even if it was simply an option to pick your gender.

Then comes the reveal of the game and Linkle is nowhere to be found. When fans asked "What gives?" Nintendo gave some very lame excuse, basically saying "We've already got a female in the game, so if we made the main character a female, Zelda wouldn't have anything to do."

This excuse was seen as being on par with "Quiet is half naked because she breathes through her skin!" and "We can't put female playable characters into Assassin's Creed: Unity because it would be too hard to animate them!" Which is to say: utter bullshit. All Nintendo had to do was be honest and say "Look, we thought about it and decided with didn't want to shake up the established format. Zelda games have always been stories about Link, Ganon, and Zelda, and so that's why we're keeping it the way it is." While disappointing, to be sure, it's an understandable reason as opposed to a lame excuse.

 

[minkus_draconus]

Mario: Super easy, he eats a mushroom/flower and turns into a woman. He's turned into racoons, fire breathing dude, a tanooki (whatever the fuck that is), and any number of bizarre creatures that we totally accept as valid. Why not have a plant that he chomps down on that changes his plumbing (haha! Plumber reference!)

Tanuki are magical shape-shifting raccoons who have large testicles. See the film Pom Poko for more details.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Tanuki are real raccoon style Japanese critters which have been given powers in myth, kinda like how the nine tail fox has. They are quite cute too.


I don't get people who pick playable chars based on gender, I just pick based on who I find the coolest. As proof, in a lot of fighters I use female chars, when there's also male chars.


When you tell me nothing else would change except the gender, and the game would be more fun for you just with that, and it isn't some sort of dating sim or something, I just am befuddled. Like, I don't really think I am Link just because he has balls and a penis too, because despite that similarity, lots of our other traits differ significantly enough to set it to stone that he is a separate entity and I am seeing the world through his experiences.

This all seems to be rooted in idetitarian notions of groups, and I just try to see the individual and ignore the group, as that would be bigotted.

 

[Sean Renaud]

Isn't the reason Link is always a boy is because he's the reincarnation of the goddess Hylia's Chosen Hero?

Exactly how the hero mantle is passed on isn't nailed down in the games. Twilight Princess kind of shoots down the reincarnation theory, as you meet a previous Link (The skeleton that teaches you moves), while the descendant theory is shot down by Wind Waker, where direct relation to the previous hero (The Hero of Time) is impossible.

The real reason is, of course, that the Zelda timeline was thought up years after the SNES game, and that the entire thing is is looser then a mother in a mom joke. And even if it was accurate and without more holes then the Bismarck, neither the direct descendant theory, the reincarnation theory, or the 'Goddesses are just being tricksy' theory preclude Link from being female.

Not to mix media but in the anime and Manga Naruto we saw at least two incarnations of the same being in the same place at the same time. Madara Uchia and Sasuke are both reincarnations of the same person as are Naruto and Hashirama. Additionally if we treat Legend of Zelda and The Adventure of Link as cannon either the Zelda from the first game is essentially a namesake and not ACTUALLY Zelda because the real one had been sleeping for years OR there were two incarnations of Zelda presumably both living, breathing and interacting with each other. (Unless the Zelda from the first game dies sometime prior to the completion of the sequel and we were never told.

I think 'The Goddesses are just being Tricksy' combined with what you accurately point out is the truth. The Zelda cannon was at the earliest solidly conceived with Ocarina and I don't believe they had a plan until Wind Waker and even then took a few more years trying to sort through the mess they had created and stupid shit they had said in interviews.

 

[PurplePonyArcade]

I do not care about Link either way. I despise the people asking for female Link and that is sad. Fact is Link is bland nothing and pretty sexless either way so he can be whatever. THAT SAID to me if he HAS to female she'd better be a bland dullard with no personality at all. "B-but that's miss male video game character" yes and that is exactly what you fucking asked for.

 

[Rastrelly]

TLOZ fanboys being TLOZ fanboys. Barely playable dull LEGEND OF GAMEDEV, so DEEP and eternally RELEVANT, especially this topic.

 

[Yoshi178]

Edit. nvm. ignore this post.

 

[MHR]

People are wanting a female link because they want anything to shake up the LoZ formula, and they saw a picture of a Linkle waifu they wants.

Also because they can't imagine a ninja game with Sheik being fun. For some reason. Too edgy, no cutesy I guess.

It doesn't need to happen. Talk about shoehorning in some bullcrap when you have a perfectly good girl right next to you that you could be noticing, Senpai!

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I would love a Zelda Gaiden lol, though I am not the biggest zelda fan admittedly, I like games mainly for story or intense/competitive gameplay. Zelda Musou was a good step.


I think people diss the Sheik game because it isn't a "main entry" so in some bizarro world where that imparts more "power" to the game, a spinoff would be of lesser significance, and as this a is clearly about power and not quality games or fun to some, as this whole thing seems to be a way for some to earn more power (hey there Vergil) a Sheik Gaiden would be undesirable lol.

 

[Wary Wolf]

One aspect about Link has always seemed to be the fact every female in Hyrule wants a piece of his Elf meat. And he generally stands around completely oblivious to it. One aspect of Link that might not go down well if you gender swapped it.

But fine, you can remove that aspect of Link.

Another aspect of Link is... Well let's not beat about the bush. He seems to have severe cognitive dysfunction. He keeps dive rolling into walls, he side jumps everywhere and drinks the milk that has been in that bottle for several days now. Not to mention he lacks basic language skills.

*HNYA!* *HI-YUP!* *RAAARRR!*

It's derpy enough when male Link does it. I think the designers don't want to put a female character through the Derpicator.

Alas, it will be while before we can reach true gender equality.

On a serious note. The next game will probably include a gender option because of this "kerfuffle" and no-one will care.