Will Link ever not be Hylian?

[Spirit]

Link has always been Hylian, but unlike most Nintendo characters such as Kirby or Mario, Link COULD change. There's no reason for Link not to be a Hylian at some point.

With BotW going open air and having a handglider to get around, many people think this item will persist into the future or at least have other means of quasi-flight, some people assume the Loftwings will come back or more interestingly Link could be a Rito... this would help him get around.

I heard one idea recently where someone floated the notion of another 2d trilogy like the ill-fated Oracles but have Link a different race each time like a Rito, Anouki etc...

But outside of that i think a Gerudo version of Link would be incredibly interesting. In BotW a Gerudo makes mention that the race is still recovering from the fact that Ganon was once a Gerudo. Something which brought the race a lot of prejudice from all over Hyrule.

Having Link as a Gerudo would be an interesting flipside.

Though i dont think we'll ever see a 7'6 dark skinned Link....

But what about other races, would it work and would you like to see it?

 

[Night Owl]

Well, you had Link the goron in Oot and Link-goro in MM, so other races have used the name Link before.


It really depends on whether the Spirit of the hero is passed on through direct decendency or not. If being descended from a previous hero is not a requirement, then I'd assume that other races could possibly become the hero.

I think the biggest problem is with the outrage it would cause rather than any real problem lore wise. Fans tend to get outraged at any minor changes to Link's character. I mean Linkle caused a stir when it was thought she'd be a female link for hwl.

I would love to have a zelda where link is a fulltime rito. The game could have a very strong flight theme that makes use of the sky. Maybe you could start your story as a postman delivering letters.

 

[Jirohnagi]

i think another question is will zelda ever be something other than hylian? Will Ganon be something other than pig/gerudo?

I kinda think not to all three areas for the fact nintendo's done it for long enough and just won't want to do it, a white, blonde, blue eyed hero is what they think we want when in reality we want a boulder smashing fast swimming link. Hell MM actually gave us that and it should be expanded on.

 

[DragonEleven]

I think genetics in the Zelda franchise are a little different to regular genetics, based on the fact that we see no characters with obviously mixed ancestry, even though we know there is cross-breeding between the races due to the Gerudo... so there could be far more characters with mixed ancestry than we are aware of.
It's actually implied that Zelda is part Sheikah in OoT, yet her Hylian genetics are obviously dominant, so even though the royal bloodline can be mixed with other races, the question is whether or not the Hylian genetics will remain dominant... I personally expect they will, in order to preserve the blood of the Goddess.
Link's reincarnations are tied to Zelda's reincarnations, which will likely keep him the same race as Zelda in each reincarnation, and even though they may not all be related, it appears that he is typically born into a family of Hylian soldiers (which may also explain why he's frequently a orphan), likely to keep the two close in each reincarnation, and as there don't appear to be any non-Hylians in the Hylian army, chances are he will always be Hylian.

 

[PalaeoJoe]

When I read "Will Link ever not be Hylian?" I inturprited it as "Will link ever be born outside of Hyrule". Hylian is of course the human ethnicity that is most common in Hyrule and look like Europeans of earth (for the most part). While in other parts of the world I am sure there are other "European" people but they don't have the divine blood and blessing that Hylians have. Link, I am sure will always be Human (as his main form) but the interesting question is: Will we ever see a Link (or other main player character) who is born and becomes a Hero in a land other then Hyrule.
I think that Link will always be a human native of Hyrule for reasons as stated above me (divine destiny, reincarnation) but it would be cool to see a Hero who is of another land.

 

[Aku]

I think it might be possible we could get/see a Gerudo Link, mainly if Nintendo ever wants to explain that red-haired bearded figure in the old tapestry.

 

[Castle]

I doubt it. Ninty isn't that original.

I guess, maybe Link isn't Hylian in TP? I mean... what is Hylian? Is it a race, ethnicity or country of origin? Because in TP Link is presumably born in Ordon and he's given no backstory to suggest otherwise and Ordon is strongly implied to be beyond the borders of Hyrule - perhaps a sort of province or just a sort of territory ungoverned by Hyrule. But the Ordon villagers all appear to be for all intents and purposes Hylian in terms of appearance and they probably originate from Hyrule anyway.

But in terms of Link being of another race or from another nation or country or region outside of Hyrule? Okay, we have the latter in Wind Waker where Hyrule sorta doesn't entirely exist anymore and Link is from an island called Outset. Link is of Hylian descent in WW but he isn't Hylian. As for being another race? Yeah we have Goron Link and Zora Link and Deku Link in Majora's Mask, but those are aspects of other people's spirits that Link is assuming. I suppose they're technically changing his "race" superficially but it's really a masquerade not a fundamental transformation.

The prospect of Link being born Gerudo is interesting though, given that the Gerudo custom of male heirs being the Gerudo Prince would put him in the same position as Ganondorf. Imagine how The Dorf would feel about that. And it would be an opportunity to explore the Gerudo and their relationship to Hyrule more thoroughly from the Gerudo perspective.

But is this even possible? I don't think so because I think it is more than likely that the reincarnation of the hero bollix is hereditary. As in, passed down through the same family. We've already seen an implied ancestral connection between TP Link and the Hero's Shade who is confirmed to be the ghost of the Hero of Time. It is not unreasonable to assume that ALttP Link and all others are part of the same lineage. This would mean they'd be Hylian or descendants of Hylians. Somehow I doubt Hylians, Zora and Goron are biologically compatible so mixed raced ancestors are out of the question, but a mixed race Hylian/Gerudo is... questionable given that Gerudo men and women clearly seem to inherit the genetics of their mothers primarily with Malon being a possible (implied/theorized) exception. But Gerudo Link could still be born of a Hylian father.

The biggest problem with the prospect of changing Link's race would be the fundamental alteration of his character. Fans already argue over whether the "true" Link is a child or an adult... and let's not even get started on this "why can't Link be a girl???"/Linkle hissy fit. Link also exists as a name brand recognizable series mascot. Nintendo isn't going to change him too much since mascots are supposed to be recognizable and Link already has an established look.

 

[DJ Twitch]

I doubt it, and I don't really think it should happen. Changing his design is one thing since it's usually a different guy we're playing as, but changing race would be too bold and unnecessary. If they do decide to make a move like that, he'll most likely end up being a new race they made up.

I really just want buff Link next time.

 

[MW7]

I feel like Majora's Mask already paved the way for this. Link was a Hylian, Deku, Goron, and Zora in that game. In MM, his true form was Hylian. However, technically until he learned the song of healing, his "permanent" form was at one point a Deku since he was transformed without knowing that he would regain his Hylian form- he wasn't just wearing a mask at that point. Same thing with wolf Link to an extent in Twilight Princess.

I feel like Nintendo could make a game with Link as any race and if it's good, most fans would go along with it. Not all would, but most would.

 

[Aku]

The prospect of Link being born Gerudo is interesting though, given that the Gerudo custom of male heirs being the Gerudo Prince would put him in the same position as Ganondorf. Imagine how The Dorf would feel about that. And it would be an opportunity to explore the Gerudo and their relationship to Hyrule more thoroughly from the Gerudo perspective.

Well, if this Link is/was Gerudo, it would probably have helped 'redeem' the Gerudo from the perspective of the Hylians. For the most part, save for Naboroo, the Gerudo were little more then thieves with an ultrapowerful 'king' they followed without exception. Having a Gerudo Link would explain why they are are no longer thieves and why they now have males born 'very rarely' versus a single male that was born only 'once a century.' Also something happened that gave them long ears and green eyes, which would have to involve people other then just Naboroo 'turning good,' for all of those changes to take place in the whole group. Not only this, they rejected tradition and stopped considering their rarest and most venerated of members (a male) lone male be their king. That is pretty big. One thing I also wanted to point out, if you look at Calamity Ganon's ears, they have returned to their old round shape and are no longer pointed, with his glowing eyes remaining yellow, so this isn't a backwards projecting retcon of the Gerudo. It's likely an indicator that something big happened to make them look this way, possibly something that now shows their distance from Ganondorf even more. (If this was a wholesale retcon of the Gerudo, CG would have probably been given green-glowing eyes and pointed ears to 'match' them.)

I would also say that Nintendo rarely likes to reveal something like that without following up on it later. It's possible they might do a 'prequel' game, just because it would kind be something they've done before, like letting people be that hero that is talked about in the legend.

The biggest problem with the prospect of changing Link's race would be the fundamental alteration of his character. Fans already argue over whether the "true" Link is a child or an adult... and let's not even get started on this "why can't Link be a girl???"/Linkle hissy fit. Link also exists as a name brand recognizable series mascot. Nintendo isn't going to change him too much since mascots are supposed to be recognizable and Link already has an established look.

The main issue with this is that Link wasn't always a blond-haired blue-eyed Hylian. He used to have brown hair, and even once did have pink hair, but only probably since OoT was he often mainly this blond haired guy. If Nintendo is still intent on breaking Zelda conventions, then having a Link with different colored-hair and eyes will be the next way of doing that. It isn't like making Link a woman, as it actually harkens back to the oldest days when Links still had more hair colors other then just blond.

Besides, maybe shaking things up a bit and forcing people out of their comfort zone will give us more stuff to think about and the devs more freedom. Sure it might upset some parts of the fandom for a little while, but would that really be a bad thing? If the devs were focused on just pleasing the fans we'd probably never get beyond OoT, because initially people hate anything new, especially anything that could unseat 'their' nostalgic idea of the characters and events. It's always risky, but I would rather have a Zelda that gives me surprises over one that constantly wants to play it safe.

 

[Lonk420]

I doubt it. Ninty isn't that original.

I guess, maybe Link isn't Hylian in TP? I mean... what is Hylian? Is it a race, ethnicity or country of origin? Because in TP Link is presumably born in Ordon and he's given no backstory to suggest otherwise and Ordon is strongly implied to be beyond the borders of Hyrule - perhaps a sort of province or just a sort of territory ungoverned by Hyrule. But the Ordon villagers all appear to be for all intents and purposes Hylian in terms of appearance

But aren't the people in Ordon just normal Humans? And also Link is the only Hylian there. The manga provides an explanation for how Link could've gotten to Ordon from Hyrule

 

[Gorozoron]

Well, if this Link is/was Gerudo, it would probably have helped 'redeem' the Gerudo from the perspective of the Hylians. For the most part, save for Naboroo, the Gerudo were little more then thieves with an ultrapowerful 'king' they followed without exception. Having a Gerudo Link would explain why they are are no longer thieves and why they now have males born 'very rarely' versus a single male that was born only 'once a century.' Also something happened that gave them long ears and green eyes, which would have to involve people other then just Naboroo 'turning good,' for all of those changes to take place in the whole group. Not only this, they rejected tradition and stopped considering their rarest and most venerated of members (a male) lone male be their king. That is pretty big. One thing I also wanted to point out, if you look at Calamity Ganon's ears, they have returned to their old round shape and are no longer pointed, with his glowing eyes remaining yellow, so this isn't a backwards projecting retcon of the Gerudo. It's likely an indicator that something big happened to make them look this way, possibly something that now shows their distance from Ganondorf even more. (If this was a wholesale retcon of the Gerudo, CG would have probably been given green-glowing eyes and pointed ears to 'match' them.)

I would also say that Nintendo rarely likes to reveal something like that without following up on it later. It's possible they might do a 'prequel' game, just because it would kind be something they've done before, like letting people be that hero that is talked about in the legend.



The main issue with this is that Link wasn't always a blond-haired blue-eyed Hylian. He used to have brown hair, and even once did have pink hair, but only probably since OoT was he often mainly this blond haired guy. If Nintendo is still intent on breaking Zelda conventions, then having a Link with different colored-hair and eyes will be the next way of doing that. It isn't like making Link a woman, as it actually harkens back to the oldest days when Links still had more hair colors other then just blond.

Besides, maybe shaking things up a bit and forcing people out of their comfort zone will give us more stuff to think about and the devs more freedom. Sure it might upset some parts of the fandom for a little while, but would that really be a bad thing? If the devs were focused on just pleasing the fans we'd probably never get beyond OoT, because initially people hate anything new, especially anything that could unseat 'their' nostalgic idea of the characters and events. It's always risky, but I would rather have a Zelda that gives me surprises over one that constantly wants to play it safe.

Yeah to be honest I often like it when they shake it up toon link was fun they sort need to do that again maybe make mixes maybe mix toon link with og link then throw in the height of (adult)oot link and make a pretty awesome design