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General Zelda Link's Gender

Sir Quaffler

May we meet again
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.

1) It has EVERYTHING to do with character! The spirit holds the character of a person, and the gender is a part of the characteristics of a person. Go back and read my post, I already explained that gender DOES in fact play into the character and spirit of a person. Gender goes far beyond what dangley bits they have in their nether regions, and instead reached into damn near every aspect of their being. Men and women are different, plain and simple.

2) Actually, I could make the argument that, well, they ARE all the same person underneath, just thrust into different times and life situations. Since they inherit the soul, the center of character from the Hero of the Goddess, they kinda are the same person, just reincarnated over and over. We could consider the soul to be the actual person, since it carries with it the character of said person, so if somebody in the future were to have inherited this soul at birth, like every Link not in the Child Timeline has, it could be argued that they are just that original person all along. It would certainly serve to explain how, among the millenia of Hyrule's existence and even among different timelines, the Hero always seems to be very similar to one another. And in order to inherit this Spirit of the Hero, they would need to be male as well, since the SotH is male.
 

ThePurpleKnight

ThePurpleKnightmare
Joined
Dec 11, 2012
Location
Canada
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.

Think of how awesome it would be in Smash Bros, am kinda tired of it being Smash Bros There will always be two versions of link in a smash bros game, how interesting would it be if the next one had Link and then the other link wasn't "young link" or "toon link" but maybe Lynk?

Infact if thinking of smash bros they could make a Co-Op Zelda game, you use two character each which pick up their own items making both characters have different items in Smash Bros. THEY COULD BE SIBLINGS! Ugh I seem to be going through another idea thinking phase, I think I'ma stop for now before I think up a whole new game.
 

Ventus

Mad haters lmao
Joined
May 26, 2010
Location
Akkala
Gender
Hylian Champion
1) It has EVERYTHING to do with character! The spirit holds the character of a person, and the gender is a part of the characteristics of a person. Go back and read my post, I already explained that gender DOES in fact play into the character and spirit of a person. Gender goes far beyond what dangley bits they have in their nether regions, and instead reached into damn near every aspect of their being. Men and women are different, plain and simple.

Men and women can both possess the same character and attitude - just not the same anatomy. Other than anatomy, gender plays no role in a character whatsoever. I've seen girls act 100x the brave one that boys have. I've seen vice versa, and I've seen the middle ground where girls and boys had the same bravery. To say that a person will act differently because they're male/female makes is nothing but gender stereotyping. I.E you're conditioning either sex to act a certain way simply because you're used to it!

2) Actually, I could make the argument that, well, they ARE all the same person underneath, just thrust into different times and life situations. Since they inherit the soul, the center of character from the Hero of the Goddess, they kinda are the same person, just reincarnated over and over.
I'd argue the opposite. By inheriting the Spirit of the Hero, all that takes place is the person absorbing the original Hero's ideals (and possibly mindset?). They seek justice where justice is deserved. They're typically calm in all situations. They've a zeal for what is good, and a disdain for what is bad.

We could consider the soul to be the actual person, since it carries with it the character of said person, so if somebody in the future were to have inherited this soul at birth, like every Link not in the Child Timeline has, it could be argued that they are just that original person all along. It would certainly serve to explain how, among the millenia of Hyrule's existence and even among different timelines, the Hero always seems to be very similar to one another. And in order to inherit this Spirit of the Hero, they would need to be male as well, since the SotH is male.

I like that you consider the soul to be the actual person - their thoughts, feelings, attitude, et cetera. However, all of my ideals have no correlation with my gender or my looks. TWW Link wasn't even linked to the Legendary Hero; he just looked like the guy by chance, and became a Hero himself (at 12 years of age...damn). My point is, anyone, with the right ideals in check, can become a Hero - can become "Link". It doesn't matter if they're male or female - that's just an arbitrary limitation. If Link were one static character, I could understand why changing his gender would be a huge deal. It'd be like making Kingdom Hearts' Sora a girl; Sora is very clearly a boy right now (unless you count Xion). EDIT: But he isn't. Every Link is specific to the time period they reside. It's like saying Lucina and the Hero-King Marth are one person simply because they go by the same name. Truth is, they aren't, but they have the same general spirit: an unending yearning for justice and averting the problems that may come to pass. :I
 
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ihateghirahim

The Fierce Deity
Joined
Jan 16, 2013
Location
Inside the Moon
I've got to say I do think that each hero is in fact a reincarnation of the last one. They don't have the same experiences, but the physical and emotional ideas are there. (I realize it's non-canon, but the HH manga outright states this, so people are at least thinking about it over there at nintendo.) The Link's really do bear great resemblence to each other, and their clothing they likely come upon through the work of the gods and Triforce. TP makes all of this blatantly obvious, where you inherit the Hero of Time's appearance, clothes, items, and O forget it you are the Hero of Time reincarnated. Link is a single entity that is reborn (I can't believe we've gotten this deep into it), gender, appearance, and skills reincarnated over and over again to defend Hyrule, and he simply cannot be born as a girl because of this. Sorry, but Link shall stand a male, and Zelda shall stand a girl, so long as the Hylians need defending.
 

Draymorath

Destroyer of Destruction
Joined
Sep 28, 2011
Location
Probably in my room.
OK, first things first. This is a REALLY good post. You wouldn't happen to be a professional author/journalist would you?

Secondly, I don't see any reason why Link couldn't be made female in some future game. I mean, sure, he's known around the gaming industry as a male character, but I don't think it would hurt to have a game, or two where the player could choose Link's gender.
 

Sir Quaffler

May we meet again
Men and women can both possess the same character and attitude - just not the same anatomy. Other than anatomy, gender plays no role in a character whatsoever. I've seen girls act 100x the brave one that boys have. I've seen vice versa, and I've seen the middle ground where girls and boys had the same bravery. To say that a person will act differently because they're male/female makes is nothing but gender stereotyping. I.E you're conditioning either sex to act a certain way simply because you're used to it!

Whoa whoa whoa, I think we need to back off a bit. I'm not meaning to make any damning statements about men & women - that was not my intention, and I'm sorry if I came across like that. Please, I don't want this to turn into an argument about women's rights or misogyny or anything like that. I'm just talking about Link in particular.

I like that you consider the soul to be the actual person - their thoughts, feelings, attitude, et cetera. However, all of my ideals have no correlation with my gender or my looks. TWW Link wasn't even linked to the Legendary Hero; he just looked like the guy by chance, and became a Hero himself (at 12 years of age...damn). My point is, anyone, with the right ideals in check, can become a Hero - can become "Link". It doesn't matter if they're male or female - that's just an arbitrary limitation. If Link were one static character, I could understand why changing his gender would be a huge deal. It'd be like making Kingdom Hearts' Sora a girl; Sora is very clearly a boy right now (unless you count Xion). EDIT: But he isn't. Every Link is specific to the time period they reside. It's like saying Lucina and the Hero-King Marth are one person simply because they go by the same name. Truth is, they aren't, but they have the same general spirit: an unending yearning for justice and averting the problems that may come to pass. :I

I think we're arguing two separate things here. Marth and that Lucia guy go by the same name and may share some ideals, the yearning for justice and all that. However, the Links in time literally share the exact same spirit; the spirit and character of the Hero of the Goddess is literally within all the Links who inherit it. That's the difference, we're not talking about unrelated people who happen to share the same ideals, we're talking about the original Hero literally being reincarnated within the timeline. And since I consider the gender as intrinsic to the spirit, that means all who inherit this spirit are also by extension male. It's a matter of technicality really; I'm not saying that a female can't be Link because she can't perform the same tasks as the male Links or can't be as brave as male Link, I'm saying she can't be Link because she can't be male. That's it. Link is male and cannot be female, because he's a defined person and you can't go against what's already been established; 26 years of Link being male is more than enough to solidify him as being a male character.
 

Ventus

Mad haters lmao
Joined
May 26, 2010
Location
Akkala
Gender
Hylian Champion
Ventus, we mean you simply can't alter a characters gender without seriously altering the character we all know and love.

Yeah, in my large, circular argument I understood what you and Quaffler meant. And it's understandable - when you present very similar images next to each other over a course of 25 years, you'd get attached to it whether for bad or good. To most Zelda fans, "Link" isn't a concept but a character. Whatever the reality is doesn't matter because hey, X sees "Link" as the guy in green and that's all that is important to X. :)
 

.:Brony:.

Head Brony of ZD
Joined
Feb 10, 2013
Nope, no "Linkette & the Sandwich of Courage" jokes yet.. Gonna keep checkin' in, just in case.
--

But ya.. How would this play out.

Link = Linkette (Proud black Hylian that don't need no man)
Zelda = Zeldude (Too proud to let Linkette save him, which would end in his death, and that would lead to Ganina gaining the Triforce of Power)
Ganon = Ganina (Power hungry female that wants a slice of that Zeldude pie if you know what I mean, and to reign over all the land, blah blah blah)
--

My point being if Link is a female, then Zelda must be a dude, right? Then what would we call the game? Zelda is a females name, and Link sounds like a guy's name. We would need a whole new story line.

But considering Link hasn't/will never die (hopefully) I don't see him being reincarnated into anything any time soon.
--

But honestly, as long as the story line works.. I don't really care who is what and what is who. I personally don't think it's the gender that matters, I think it's just the familiarity with the current gender Link is (and always has been) that people like/are comfortable with, and if he were ever to be a female it would just throw ppl off.
 
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Night Owl

~Momentai
Joined
Oct 3, 2011
Location
Skybound Coil Tree, Noctilum
Gender
Owl
I think the only problem with a female Link is that we have all come to expect a male Link from Nintendo.
In most of the games you could change the gender of the hero and have the same game for the most part.
The only thing that would need to change is some of the NPC interactions with Link.

If they want to introduce a female Link, I think they should let us choose between them when starting a file.
It wouldn't be that hard to essentially have the same game from two slightly different perspectives.
All that would need to happen, at the minimum, is that the game would look at the gender then say the reply.
Megaman ZX/Advent did a good job having the same game with minor differences depending on the gender.

As for dealing with the Spirit of the Hero, I don't think the gender would make that much of a difference.
Each Link is different in personality, yet has the same core spirit.
This would tell me that the heroes aren't necessarily the same person, but are united by the qualities that make each of them a hero.
They each pass the trials set before them, not because they are the same person reincarnated, but because they posses a quantity of courage and justice-sense that surpasses the rest of the people of the time.
 
Joined
Nov 25, 2012
Location
Monkey Island
I love female action leads in general, they're still kind of new in our society so it feels more unique. I completely understand all the arguments against turning Link into a female, because that screws around with his iconic-ness. I don't know how I feel about it myself.

So instead of a gender switch why don't we just switch the roles around? Zelda is the main character, Zelda embarks on an epic quest to save Link? It would certainly be a curveball from the traditional, but I'm sick of traditional when it comes to LOZ. I mean, it is the Legend of ZELDA after all. I want to see an action-y, badass Zelda as opposed to the princess/corny anime girl that has to get rescued all the time.
 

ihateghirahim

The Fierce Deity
Joined
Jan 16, 2013
Location
Inside the Moon
Dude Zelda already has a role. She has been Sheik, and a Golden archer. She shouldn't be the main hero. She might have some spin-off, but the main series needs to stay Link.
 

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