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General Zelda Link's Gender

snakeoiltanker

Wake Up!
Joined
Nov 13, 2012
Location
Ohio
something told me this would be a heated discussion as soon as i seen the title. Look, i understand both sides of this argument. However i am leaning more on the side of Link being a Male, or just sticking with the androgynous idea. I agree, since i was a child, i agree that Link is not you typical Macho Hero. He's an "elfy" looking kid, and elves tend to look.... dont hate..... but girly. Is he courageous... yes, is he strong..... yes. is he awesome..... for sure!

I agree that link has always been portrayed as his namesake. He is a Link between the game and You! and with him being mute, the game leaves you to speculate or decide what it is that Link is feeling or saying. With that being said, i understand where a female fan of the game could argue that a choice on Links' gender should be made available to you. However OcarinistOfTime said it best. this series is over 25 years old, and Link has been an Icon in the gaming industry for the past 20 years. That right there is reason enough that i feel they should not change Links gender. Its not cuz i feel a Male is a better fit for a hero, but because LoZ is about a boy who discovers his destiny to rid the land of oppression. I would be saying the same thing if they made Link a Female out of the gate. i would be sitting here saying that Link cant be a Male. I'm all about change, but that would be too big a change if you ask me, the series is way past the point of being "defined". Basically the game can change anything they want, EXCEPT for the two main characters, Link and Zelda.

For all you girls (or guys) out there who wanna play as a female hero, i feel that a game covering the 7 years Link was sealed by the Sages in OoT would be a great way to put a female heroine into LoZ. Just think how cool is would be to play as Zelda during those 7 years when she was doing the Sheikh thing. i think it would be fun, and and a nice change of pace and game play for the series. but thats a whole other topic.
 

HBC

HyrulianBlackcat
Joined
Jan 21, 2013
Location
A forgotten forest
I'm a little hesitant to join in on this, but I think it'll be an interesting discussion, so I'll put in my two cents.

I am for male-only Link. Most of the reason for this is because I grew up with him as my imaginary friend and, as I grew older, my dream crush. However, I have a few other reasons as well. I'm not going to try arguing the women-are-just-as-good-as-men thing, because I don't think it's really about ability. I mean, everything Link can do, a female Link would be able to do just as well. So, I'm going to use a different approach.

The story would take a good change if Link could be boy or girl. For one thing, there's all these female characters other than Zelda who fawn over him. Take for instance, Ruto. If OoT allowed you to change Link to a girl character, you wouldn't get those comdey scenes after Jabu-Jabu or in the Water Temple, where Ruto proclaims love for Link. There's also the bit in Ages with the Maku Tree. She also proffeses love for Link, something that is unlikely to happen if he was actually a she. There's also Ilia in TP, although it's possible they could change her to a best friend.

There is also the issue of the setting. The Zelda games are set (for the most part) in a Middle Ages time period. During that time, women and girls weren't given much respect. If you had a female Link, she would have a lot more difficulty getting information or help she needed. She might not even be allowed to buy weapons, such as arrows or bombs, because women aren't expected to need or even want those things.

Finally, personality. I'm not saying that a female Link couldn't have the same kind of personality as a male. I'm saying it's unlikely. Men are willing to run half-way across the country and back just to deliever hot spring water (TP), or mushrooms (OoT), but women are unlikely to do something so mindless for what honestly seems like a dismal reward. (No offense to any guys reading this). Also, women aren't as quiet. I find it rather unlikely that a female Link would be content to only talk when fighting, and even then only yell wordlessly.




...I feel like I did a bad job trying to put words to what I feel...
 

ihateghirahim

The Fierce Deity
Joined
Jan 16, 2013
Location
Inside the Moon
Don't feel bad HBC, these things can be hard to articulate. Some people just don't understand the obvious truth that women and men do act differently. A female link would require so many changes, and I think the women of Zelda play a big enough role already.
 
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Dragoncat

Twilit wildcat: Aerofelis
There is also the issue of the setting. The Zelda games are set (for the most part) in a Middle Ages time period. During that time, women and girls weren't given much respect. If you had a female Link, she would have a lot more difficulty getting information or help she needed. She might not even be allowed to buy weapons, such as arrows or bombs, because women aren't expected to need or even want those things.
In real life, yes, it was like that. But in a medieval fantasy, not always. Remember Ashei in TP? Or Karane and Impa in SS? Leads me to believe there's more gender equality there. Sure, we never saw Karane with a weapon, but she was a knight student, and I bet she'd be allowed weapons just like the guys.

Ventus brought up FE, another great medieval fantasy game. Plenty of female warriors there too. So I don't think the setting would be much of an issue.
 

ThePurpleKnight

ThePurpleKnightmare
Joined
Dec 11, 2012
Location
Canada
In OoT Gerudo fortress was a female only area, female link gets to skip the whole stealth thing, would be kinda cool.
 

Ventus

Mad haters lmao
Joined
May 26, 2010
Location
Akkala
Gender
Hylian Champion
The story would take a good change if Link could be boy or girl. For one thing, there's all these female characters other than Zelda who fawn over him. Take for instance, Ruto. If OoT allowed you to change Link to a girl character, you wouldn't get those comdey scenes after Jabu-Jabu or in the Water Temple, where Ruto proclaims love for Link. There's also the bit in Ages with the Maku Tree. She also proffeses love for Link, something that is unlikely to happen if he was actually a she. There's also Ilia in TP, although it's possible they could change her to a best friend.

Who's to say that Ruto doesn't like girls as well as boys? :brow: Also, the argument at hand isn't changing Link's gender in pre-existing titles. It's giving "Link" a gender swap for a FUTURE Zelda title! I agree that changing Link's gender in a pre-existing game could be troublesome at quite a few turns. But future Zelda? Nah.

There is also the issue of the setting. The Zelda games are set (for the most part) in a Middle Ages time period. During that time, women and girls weren't given much respect. If you had a female Link, she would have a lot more difficulty getting information or help she needed. She might not even be allowed to buy weapons, such as arrows or bombs, because women aren't expected to need or even want those things.
It's actually a fantasy period; there is no correlation between Zelda's setting and the real world. You're right, though - in the Middle Ages, women would be denied a LOT of things. I don't disagree with that in the slightest. But within Zelda? Girls can get whatever they want.

Men are willing to run half-way across the country and back just to deliver hot spring water (TP), or mushrooms (OoT), but women are unlikely to do something so mindless for what honestly seems like a dismal reward.
In that, there brings up quite a few arguments regarding altruism. In both instances you cited, Link was merely acting for the good of another. Humans do it all the time in the real world - girls are no exception. Is there a problem with helping others with no immediate benefit to yourself? Eh...some would say yes. Does your doing so matter if you're male or female? Nope!
 

Sir Quaffler

May we meet again
I completely disagree with everything you said. Link in fact is not a male; for what the story knows, Link is a nameless Hero(ine) who combats evil. Yeah, intros such as TWW say "a young boy" et cetera, but that's merely to agree with OoT or whatever game they might be referencing. There is nothing that even remotely says Link *has* to be a male. Tell me, what things does he do that a female can't? If you're gonna tell me that he saves Zelda, save it; I've seen much more intriguing storylines where a female saves her female friend, and even where a female saves her own FATHER - the pater familias -- from his death, and heroically at that.

I'm not arguing about what heroic acts are exclusive to what gender, I'm well aware that females can be just as heroic as males. I'm also not arguing about whether Link might have been a boy or girl; if they had switched around the gender near the very beginning of the series I'd be more inclined to go along with your argument. I'm arguing about what actually happened, and what has happened is that Link has been a male for the past 26 years now. That's pretty set-in-stone if you ask me. I don't like using the "it's tradition" approach, but it fits in this case. It's tradition to have Link be male, and to go against that would be to commit a travesty against all that had come before. If they want to have a female heroine in the next Zelda game, great, I'm all for that. Have Zelda or some other female take a more active role or, hell, even make her the next lead. But she cannot be Link because Link is male, and that's non-disputable. He may change slightly in appearance from game to game, but the same basic idea of a hero is always in play. Link is male because he has always been male.

@The "canon" reason
Do you have any in-game text that suggests this? Again, there aren't many things a male can do that a female can't, and being heroic is one of the things that BOTH genders can do, and equally so. I wouldn't even use SS as an example; it's a fanfic in all reality. I could be the son of a long line of Zeldas and I'd technically have "the blood of the goddess". Remember, I am the SON of a Zelda. Are you saying that i have to be a female to have the blood of some chick? Becuase that isn't true in the slightest.

Wow, I seriously can't believe you're just going to disregard the whole of SS; that's very unbecoming of a Hylian Knight if you ask me. You may not like the game, but you cannot just disregard the implications it has on the rest of the series and be expected to be taken seriously at the same time. It's canon, you can't just ignore it.

And this all doesn't have to do with the bloodline of the hero, but rather the spirit of the hero. Two different things. The spirit is not passed on to the next generation like a bloodline is, rather it comes into the world as a response to evil that comes up every so often. There are large gaps of time in between games in which no Link appears, because he is not needed or, as is the case with the child timeline, cannot appear. I'm not arguing about the physical abilities of heroes but rather the fate of heroes; nobody else can be Link because they do not share the spirit of the hero and aren't destined to protect & save the land and the people within. Throughout the Sacred Flames quest it is mentioned many times that Hylia is shaping the Spirit of the Hero into one who can use the Triforce and carry out her will to defeat evil. The spirit is one of the core aspects of a person, and it carries with it masculinity and femininity. That is not a mere difference of physical parts but rather a wholly different manner of acting. So if Link is physically a male, he is by extension a male in spirit as well; this is backed up by him appearing as a male in the Silent Realms, where only the spirit can cross over.

And to have some backup: Demise, in his final moment: "Those like you... those that share the blood of the goddess and the spirit of the hero... They are eternally bound to this curse. An incarnation of my hatred shall ever follow your kind, dooming them to wander a blood-soaked sea of darkness for all time!" So, all the heroes that have appeared (with the exception of the Child Timeline) have inherited this spirit of the hero due to this curse.

You may have noticed that there's a glaring hole in my explanation: the Child Timeline. None of the Links who appeared there have the Spirit of the Hero, and they don't have any predestined fate about them. They're just... some kids who stepped up to the plate and took on the role of the hero. If you want to argue that, in a future Zelda game located on this timeline, that Link should be female, I can't argue against that solely on my spirit-of-the-hero explanation, as none of them have it. But I'll still argue that it shouldn't be done, referring back to my "it's tradition" approach; rather it should be an entirely different female character altogether.
 

ihateghirahim

The Fierce Deity
Joined
Jan 16, 2013
Location
Inside the Moon
Ventus, you're my number one on this site, but SS is an established game. It and HH were nintendo's way of setting the canon in order. You may hate this almost as much as I hate the Star Wars prequels, but we must accept this as canon or we'll never get anywhere. We can debate the ideas of a female Link, but we have to at least accept that the games are our legitimate source. Wow, I really hate to say this, but I feel obligated.
 

Ventus

Mad haters lmao
Joined
May 26, 2010
Location
Akkala
Gender
Hylian Champion
Link is male because he has always been male.
Yes and no. SS Link was male. OoT Link was male. Every Link thus far has been male. But, "Link" isn't a character that spans a series; every "Link" is different in some way whether explicit or subtle. One cannot say "Link has to be male in every future game", because there are MULTIPLE Links. They aren't multiple histories put on one page; they're several pages that comprise a book.

EDIT: We do not say "Link, from the Zelda series". We say "Link, from Ocarina of Time." Why? To differentiate from the individual Links. Again, "Link" is a concept, not a character. Having a female Link - the black sheep, the odd duck, whatever - won't stop (her) from being true to the name [unless one doesn't like playing as females].

Wow, I seriously can't believe you're just going to disregard the whole of SS; that's very unbecoming of a Hylian Knight if you ask me. You may not like the game, but you cannot just disregard the implications it has on the rest of the series and be expected to be taken seriously at the same time. It's canon, you can't just ignore it.
Oh, but I can. SS - and the "spirit of the hero" argument you brought up - holds no water in regards to Link being male/female.

1) Spirit is an intangible thing. A formal definition of it would be "The nonphysical part of a person that is the seat of emotions and character; the soul." (thanks Google). That has absolutely nothing to do with gender in the slightest.

2) As I said before, Link isn't one character. Each Link is distinct from one another. You quoted Demise and said that every Link's fate is pre-destined, essentially. What does that have to do with Link's gender? Nothing. My sister Leia could be destined to face off with Darth Vader. Or, my brother Luke could be in the same situation. Gender has nothing to do with it.
 
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Kirino

Tatakae
Joined
Jun 19, 2010
Location
USA
Well, if Link were female, he would obviously be treated differently. It would definitely change the series. Not to mention Link is a character. He's a Nintendo icon.
 

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