Rereading the article, Aonuma never actually says the character in this game isn't a girl.
It's not that I said that it wasn't Link. It's that I never said that it was Link. It's not really the same thing, but I can understand how it could be taken that way.
Technically, he still doesn't even say the character
is or is not Link here. He only refers to what he previously said in the VentureBeat interview.
It seems like it has kind of taken off where people are saying 'oh it's a female character' and it just kind of grew. But my intent in saying that was humour.
His intent in saying that is
wasn't Link was humor, he admits. He acknowledges the female rumors that resulted from his quip, but doesn't actually, verbally confirm here if they're
true or not.
You know, you have to show Link when you create a trailer for a Zelda announcement.
This is true. So why not make a female character who looks just like Link, so fans initially won't think it's an obvious different character? If fans do think it's a female character, is it still Link? He says in the Game Informer article he wanted to inspire speculation and discussion, and boy has he done so with these dodging, weightless statements. Also, this statement could just be a reflection of how obvious it is to Aonuma that the character in the trailer is some incarnation of "Link."
I don't want people to get hung up on the way Link looks because ultimately Link represents the player in the game. I don't want to define him so much that it becomes limiting to the players. I want players to focus on other parts of the trailer and not specifically on the character because the character Link represents, again, the player.
He says "him" in this translation, but if we never hear the original audio we'll never know for sure whether he specifically used a "male" pronoun in Japanese, which as a language doesn't feature gender pronouns in conversation as much as English. Even if he did, he could be referring to the male "icon" Link (who we've discussed) and
not the Link in this game.
I'm grasping at straws and feeding my bias and I love it. But I do want to point out that never once does he straight up say the character was Link, he only adds background to his prior comments. He also never disconfirms the female rumors.
'That was Link' in Zelda Wii U trailer and rumours it was a girl 'kind of grew'
This headline, written by MMGN.com, could actually be deemed misleading and reaching. Not once does he say "That was Link." His exact words are, "it's not that I said it
wasn't Link."
The "growing rumors" also still stand.
Goodnight everybody!