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

[scorptatious]

I would be fine with it.

As you said, it's not the same Link each game. (With the exception of OoT and Majora's Mask)

Although as others said, a new Zelda game where you play as Zelda would be nice.

 

[Asita]

Come on, it's a different Link every time[footnote]Well, with a few exceptions. Majora's Mask explicitly uses Ocarina of Time Link[/footnote]. There's no reason that one of them couldn't be female. Heck, there's no reason each protagonist has to be blonde or named Link! That's the beautiful thing about the Legend of Zelda situation, really. The characters across the installments can be radically different simply because we're already looking at the franchise across the span of generations and even branching timelines. Link from Ocarina of Time =/= Link from Skyward Sword =/= Link from Wind Waker =/= Link from A Link to the Past...At best each Link can be viewed as being a descendent of the character's predecessors, and that gives the devs a lot of wiggle room if they ever thought to use it.

 

[Pink Gregory]

Know what I'd like?

Elderly Link.

I'm sure more people would like an alternative Link than we might cynically presuppose. It's just about having the conviction to do it, and naturally to do it well.

 

[Angelous Wang]

Link is already kind of on the fence, he's very got a very androgynous design.

I find that fan art work try to make him seem more masculine than Nintendo tries. SO id' imagine there would be a whole load of fan backlash on this.

That said to me if you told me the next Link was going to be female I'd be fine with it, especially since I don't own anything Nintendo so I won't be playing him with ether a penis or boobs.

 

[Loop Stricken]

Would it be OK with you if Link was a girl in the next Legend of Zelda game?

Yes. I honestly think I'd prefer it... as long as her outfit wasn't skimpified to be all about sex appeal and showing off the assets.

 

[Coakle]

So, I thought some more and have to recant my yes vote.

Main point : Link has to be a Guy in LoZ.
Why? : Zelda must be a Girl in the LoZ.
Why? : Femininity signifies a connection to divinity, which is a central part of Princess Zelda.

In the Legend of Zelda mythos, the world was created by three Goddesses. The hero always conquers evil by borrowing the power of these Goddesses. This is done by using a 'divine object' as a conduit for their power. These objects have been the Goddess Sword (later made into the Master Sword), the Ocarina, the Windwaker, the Wolf form (which is referred to as a 'divine beast'), Light arrows, Din's fire, Nayrue's Love ect. The people who are able to create and maintain these items are either the Original 3 Goddesses, the Great Fairies, and Princess Zelda. So it's clear that femininity is a crucial ingredient for divine objects. This gets hammered home pretty hard in Skyward Sword. Fi's essence is imbued into the master sword indicating that this gives the sword its divine property to seal evil. Being female is a way to show closeness to the Goddesses.

Spoiler: OOT Pic

Take a look at OOT pic. How Zelda is situated as the top part of the triforce and above Ganondorf and Link. The shot is composed like that to reinforce Zelda's strong connection to the divine.

On the contrary, Link is the Hero chosen by the Goddesses. He does not have any innate sacred power. A female Link wouldn't need items bestowed with the power of the Goddesses, since she would have the innate ability to directly tap into those sacred powers. At the most, Female Link would just have to learn how to use those powers. This would be a drastic change from the Hero?s relationship with the Sacred Realm. On the other hand, if the LoZ creators wanted to create a game where the Link has innate power, Link would have to be a girl.

I still maintain that a new Ganondorf could be female, since Ganon?s power seems to be gender neutral. I may be wrong though, but that OOT shot may indicate that his form isn't as constricted.




'Looks at post' What the? I'm not even a big Zelda fan.



EDIT:

Spoiler: Oops, my theory is wrong

At the end of Skyward Sword Link and Zelda created the royal bloodline together. I made the assumption that a new Link had to be distantly related to the old Link. This would mean that Link and Zelda would both be descendant from Hylia.

That brought up the issue of why Zelda was the only one who had divine power. I assumed that being a girl made it easier for divine power to 'synchronize'. The fact that everything that could use divine power was also a girl seemed to support my theory.

Unfortunately for me, A new Link just needs the "Spirit of the Hero". So anyone with that spirit can become Link, bloodlines don't matter.

EDIT II

Spoiler: Never mind, my theory holds some water

Hylians (descendants of Hylia) are all magical - It's Canon.

This explains OOT's Link's magic meter and why drinking potions replenish it. This means that Zelda and Link are both descendants of Hylia.

It would still be possible for a Gerudo girl to be Link. There would be enough degrees of separation from Hylia and that sweet divine power.

 

[Combustion Kevin]

To everyone who'd want to play as Zelda, please think about the character in question:

Zelda is a ruler, the governer of a state, and a sorceress by extention.
She has far greater responsibilities than going dungeon crawling and traversing the land whilst skirmishing with the local goblins, or whatever those things are.

Her role in the series is about this responsibility, she bears the triforce of Wisdom, she keeps the realm from disintergrating while Link fixes whatever evil has caused it.
Even if Zelda does get captured, that does not make her a weak or bad character, combat is simply not part her skillset.
Magic is though, and damgae control too, even though it is Link that defeats and banishes evil from Hyrule, it's Zelda that gives him a fighting chance in the first place, and a home to go back to.

Link is basicly the incarnation of heroism, the triforce of courage, and already an established character, what would be the point of making him female out of the blue, other than having a female protagonist?

Having a female protagonist instead of a male one is not an improvement, it is a difference, and gender-switching an established character makes it an alienating difference, the same would be true for genderbending samus, which is already explained above.

 

[JagermanXcell]

Eh, whatever. All it'll be is a small gimmick in an otherwise standard Zelda game with yet another blank slate Link but female (That is unless you make a Wind Waker-esque FemToon Link, I think that'd make for a fun character, I f***in adoooore Toon Link).
But I'm more inclined to say i'd prefer to have and original IP with a strong, well written, and fun female protagonist then gender swapping an iconic hero just because feminism is all the rage. We already have Deviantart for that anyways.

Know what I'd like?

Elderly Link.

Know what I like?

You, for saying what i've wanted for years now.

 

[Smiley Face]

Huh, it's a little surprising, but not really. I mean, if he had anything of a generally established character, or a familiar voice, then I might take issue with changing it for no particular reason, but because he's basically a blank slate already, I don't actually see it changing the game all that much - heck, Link probably wouldn't look all that different.

 

[FrozenLaughs]

I'd love to see a Legend of Zelda where Ganon gets smart and captures Link first, assuming Zelda is no threat. Then we play as Zelda as she sets out to save him.

Not quite "female Link" but would be a fun twist. Would make the most sense in the Ocarina timeline.

 

[FrozenLaughs]

To everyone who'd want to play as Zelda, please think about the character in question:

Zelda is a ruler, the governer of a state, and a sorceress by extention.
She has far greater responsibilities than going dungeon crawling and traversing the land whilst skirmishing with the local goblins, or whatever those things are.

Her role in the series is about this responsibility, she bears the triforce of Wisdom, she keeps the realm from disintergrating while Link fixes whatever evil has caused it.
Even if Zelda does get captured, that does not make her a weak or bad character, combat is simply not part her skillset.
Magic is though, and damgae control too, even though it is Link that defeats and banishes evil from Hyrule, it's Zelda that gives him a fighting chance in the first place, and a home to go back to.

Link is basicly the incarnation of heroism, the triforce of courage, and already an established character, what would be the point of making him female out of the blue, other than having a female protagonist?

Having a female protagonist instead of a male one is not an improvement, it is a difference, and gender-switching an established character makes it an alienating difference, the same would be true for genderbending samus, which is already explained above.

I see what you're saying about Zelda's responsibilities. But think about Ocarina of Time: When Link was removed from the picture (7 years in the time temple) Ganon took over the realm. Zelda was overthrown. She took up the guise of Sheik, and it was obvious she knew what she was doing. She's capable of handling things herself. If it wasn't for the caveat that Link was the hero of Time, and the Master Sword is required to kill Ganon, she could have easily done the rest of the game. Dungeons, bosses, side quests.

What if instead of the triforce of courage being required to weild the Master Sword, it was just *a* triforce?

 

[Imp_Emissary]

The only people who would have problems with it are adult babies.
I don't see why the concept would not work. In all the games descriptors of Link, he is described as a hero in green garb. Sex, race, bodyshape, etc. never played a factor in that.
Hell Link could be a Goron and it could work.

All I care about is that the game is good.

This idea was actually done before at least once. (Female Link, not the Zelda game where you play Zelda)

Though, it wasn't "official".

A dad made a mod for a Zelda game where he just changed a lot of the "he"s to "she"s and what not.
And, BAM! Link's a girl.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-11-09-man-mods-wind-wakers-pronouns-to-make-link-a-female-role-model

Guy did it all so his daughter could play a game as a girl.

So as for a reason for why Nintendo should do this? It would be nice of them to throw their female fans a bone.
Plus, for a game as big as Zelda, it wouldn't be hard, or that much of a risk.

That said, a game about Zelda does sound cool too.

Not just as Sheik. It would be neat to see how Nintendo would make a game for Zelda, seeing as she uses a lot of magic.

What could be cooler than playing as a elf using magic, who can also kick ass as a ninja?!

 

[McMarbles]

There are things I hold sacred. Link's wang is not one of them.

 

[Raikas]

I voted "yes", but primarily because a Zelda game could easily have a player character that's the Link role but female. I think they'd probably want to rename the character to avoid confusion, but if we're using "Link" as a shorthand for "protagonist in Zelda game", then it works.

That said, I'm not a Zelda fan, so I don't really have enough background to know how integral to the success of the series the specific character of Link is (versus gameplay, world, etc).

 

[Mr.Squishy]

Lemme just get the obvious joke out of the way - I wouldn't mind the hero of time finally being someone we can fap to =P.
With that out of the way, I really don't have much of a stance, but between this and Dr. Who, what's with long-running legacy series where the protagonist often changes incarnations, but save for tiny differences in age and personality, it's the same dude, where people are now; quite forcefully I might add, suggesting that the next incarnation be female? And possibly black, oh and secretly trans, and why not otherkin too =P.

Only kidding, people, please don't get all riled up over a silly joke.

 

[FrozenLaughs]

There are things I hold sacred. Link's wang is not one of them.

Pics or it didn't happen

Errrr.... Wait...

 

[keniakittykat]

I'd love it if there was a female Link incarnation! Zelda should still be Zelda though.

 

[wulf3n]

On the contrary, Link is the Hero chosen by the Goddesses. He does not have any innate sacred power. A female Link wouldn't need items bestowed with the power of the Goddesses, since she would have the innate ability to directly tap into those sacred powers. At the most, Female Link would just have to learn how to use those powers. This would be a drastic change from the Hero?s relationship with the Sacred Realm.

That to me sounds like a female Link would be a better choice, as she could skip several of the dungeons and save the day faster

 

[MrBaskerville]

I can't see how it would make any difference, unless you played the series for its story (Does anyone do that???), i wouldn't mind and i think they should just go or it, cause why the hell not?

And Link has been looking really weird in the last couple of games, may e a gender swap would fix that.

 

[EvilRoy]

What if instead of the triforce of courage being required to weild the Master Sword, it was just *a* triforce?

Not really up on the lore, but wouldn't that imply then that Gannon could wield the Master Sword and thereby become unkillable? Or even just like draw the blade, which is what I was under the impression you needed the ToC for, and then hide/destroy it?