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GameSpot: No Playable Female Character in new Zelda [UP: Additional Comments in OP]

Exactly my point.

If the creators want to make Link a male, it's fine. If they want to make Link a female, also fine. If they want to make a create-a-character, great.

Link isn't a set character like some people think he is.

He is until Nintendo says he isn't. Right now they say he is.
 

Yogg

Member
This is not a good argument because Link from one game is not the same Link from another. And it's not some weird time issue, it's explicitly stated that they are not the same individual.

They painted themselves in a bit of a corner with having Link look the same game after game after game, but there is no reason Link cannot be a female, a child, an old man, a goblin, or anything else.

The only reason there is is that the developers designed him as a male character from the start. Samus won't ever be male, Link won't be female. There's no fault in that. It's part of the games.

And that's not an issue !
 
Link isn't a set character like some people think he is.

Which is why people are peeved that there's not even an option to have a female link. And why it's also pretty gross when some people in this thread are insulting others for wanting that option and using a poor argument of "but but Mario isn't a female."

So there isn't a precedent set for Aloy to not be Alloy as we know her. Like there is with Link.
 

CronoShot

Member
Jesus, the responses in this thread are insane.

The rumor of female Link was always just that: a rumor. And beyond that, Emily Rogers never even said "Female Link" but rather a female playable character. People just immediately assumed female Link, and are now pissed that Nintendo didn't enact their interpretation of a random rumor.

As for "What would Link do if Zelda were the protagonist" I still think the idea of Zelda being the hero in an era where Link never appears is intriguing. They did say they thought about it, so maybe some day we'll see it. But not for this game.

So anyway, I guess everyone can go back to ignoring all the games Nintendo makes with female playable characters and claim they're sexist because of this one game.
 
My bigger fear is that we see a female Link/playable Zelda in future games who is traditionally femme like Linkle.

People weren't hoping that Wii U Link was a girl just because they want a playable female LoZ character, but because the character design is so badass. Masculine enough to be considered empowering.

To the people arguing for a female link, would you also prefer to see Jane Bond?


Or even worse, a black James Bond?

Yes to both. Especially Jane Bond. Imagine the swag.
 

levyjl1988

Banned
Such weak reasoning. Nintendo will always be cliche and never progressive.

One of the reason I went with Skyrim than Skysword in 2011.
At least I can play as a female character in Skyrim.
 
D

Deleted member 471617

Unconfirmed Member
Nice. Very happy that there's no female playable character in Zelda and that the franchise is staying what it's always been.
 
Oh please. Get over yourself. Men are every bit as capable of seeing sexism as women. We may not be victims of sexism as often but don't think men can't understand or empathize with women. Our opinions may even add to the discussion by *GASP* offer a differing perspective than a woman. God this thread is depressing.

This is pretty hard to reconcile with a history of women and minorities having to fight tooth and nail to demonstrate that supposedly neutral laws and institutions were in fact discriminatory. It can be true that men are capable of understanding and empathizing and seeing sexism and also true that they are more likely to miss certain things.
 

N.Grim

Member
Honest question: Would it really be that difficult to make a female link skin and give the option? What more does Link do than generic noises? Last Legend of Zelda I played was Windwalker, haven't played since is why I ask.

Dialogue would change in certain parts, and yes there is more work that would have to be put in, but I am hard pressed it would be significant int he grand scheme of things.

The reasoning is awful regardless.
The reasoning is awful because there should not be a reasoning
 

Toki767

Member
I'm kind of ambivalent over there being a female Link or not.

I do think it's silly though that their main concern for not making Zelda playable is that they wouldn't know what to do with Link.

It's called The Legend of Zelda, not The Legend of Link. I'm sure they could probably figure out a way to work Link into the game if they really wanted to make Zelda playable.
 
Jesus, the responses in this thread are insane.

The rumor of female Link was always just that: a rumor. And beyond that, Emily Rogers never even said "Female Link" but rather a female playable character. People just immediately assumed female Link, and are now pissed that Nintendo didn't enact their interpretation of a random rumor.

As for "What would Link do if Zelda were the protagonist" I still think the idea of Zelda being the hero in an era where Link never appears is intriguing. They did say they thought about it, so maybe some day we'll see it. But not for this game.

So anyway, I guess everyone can go back to ignoring all the games Nintendo makes with female playable characters and claim they're sexist because of this one game.
.
 
The big problem is that Nintendo thinks Link is a well defined character and that changing the gender would be akin to making female Mario or a male Lara Croft. What they don't realise is that despite spending decades making Zelda games, Link is still just as one dimensional and flimsy a character as he was back in the SNES era. He's literally just a mute with blonde hair, elf ears and feminine facial features that puts on a green outfit, grabs a sword and fights evil - one which becomes a completely blank slate with each instalment.

The fact that people are even having discussions about a potential female Link rather than shooting them down immediately is proof that people have little to no established thoughts of who Link is as a character.
 
Does it really matter if at the start of the game you could have a 'choose your hero' screen where there's a boy Link and girl Link - no one is losing anything by having more choice.
 
Such weak reasoning. Nintendo will always be cliche and never progressive.

One of the reason I went with Skyrim than Skysword in 2011.
At least I can play as a female character in Skyrim.

Yeah fuck them for putting women front and center of their main E3 output and thus sending a positive message to women who have ambitions to work in the industry.
 

Hcoregamer00

The 'H' stands for hentai.
I do think that there is two parallel gender discussions here.

1. Aonuma's statement on why Zelda can't be the lead character
2. Female link or a female link equivalent as the main character or as a playable choice

What I find fascinating is that the first, there is complete solidarity. On the second, there is an all out brawl and we are seeing "discussion"
 

Mithos

Member
Now this is an interesting thought.

Would this nameless female become the heroine instead of Link? Would Link still exist in this hypothetical game? I'm curious.
I would assume she would become the heroine/hero, YES. Whether Link the boy would exist depends on the story would it not, maybe the hero (boy) never showed up just like the story leading into Wind Waker states, so instead a Heroine shows up.

The rumor of female Link was always just that: a rumor. And beyond that, Emily Rogers never even said "Female Link" but rather a female playable character. People just immediately assumed female Link, and are now pissed that Nintendo didn't enact their interpretation of a random rumor.

Maybe her info comes from the time when they were looking into adding Zelda as a playable character and her info is just too old.
 

Whompa02

Member
Does it really matter if at the start of the game you could have a 'choose your hero' screen where there's a boy Link and girl Link - no one is losing anything by having more choice.

I assume they asked themselves if this was possible within the narrative that they wrote and said, "nope."

But who knows.

Personally, I don't like being "the character." It didn't work at all for Xenoblade Chronicles. I like being a player of the character. Link still has a personality. Even without a voice.

I respect the directors decision to direct the game he wants to direct it. Nice to see he considered it at all.
 
This is pretty hard to reconcile with a history of women and minorities having to fight tooth and nail to demonstrate that supposedly neutral laws and institutions were in fact discriminatory. It can be true that men are capable of understanding and empathizing and seeing sexism and also true that they are more likely to miss certain things.

Completely discounting someones opinion because they are male is no different than a man discounting a womans opinion because she is a woman. They are both equally shortsighted and demonstrate a lack of intelligence.
 
For the record, a company not allowing an option to change a 30 year old iconic male character to female isn't SEXISM.

Is there a rule written somewhere that says that if different incarnations of a character have all been male for 30 years then some kind of diversity escape clause is triggered?

If anything it should indicate that a change is long overdue. See : James Bond, Dr Who etc...
 

Wavebossa

Member
They are both pandering. You either pander to the audience that wants a male link or you do it for people who wants Link to be a woman.

Just because it is not pandering to you does not makes it bad

No.... that's not what pandering means


As for their reasoning... terrible reasoning but I don't disagree with the actual decision.
 
If this drama has taught me anything

is that Koei does what Nintendon't by adding what is basically a female incarnation of link in Linkle in hyrule warriors~

Koei should handle all future Legend of Zeldas.
 

Yogg

Member
I'm kind of ambivalent over there being a female Link or not.

I do think it's silly though that their main concern for not making Zelda playable is that they wouldn't know what to do with Link.

It's called The Legend of Zelda, not The Legend of Link. I'm sure they could probably figure out a way to work Link into the game if they really wanted to make Zelda playable.

Playing a female Link wouldn't be silly at all. But it just doesn't HAVE to happen. It not happening shouldn't be an issue. If they chose to portray Link the same way they always have done, they're not creating any issue. They're just making their new Zelda game.
 
Most arguments here are worthy of discussion, but the people painting Link as a characterless 'avatar' are loopy, ESPECIALLY when comparing Link to Samus, who is equally as lacking in emotion/character at times.
 

Guess Who

Banned
Things Link Can Be:

- A child
- A teenager
- Blond-haired
- Brown-haired
- Pink-haired
- Split into four color-coded versions of himself
- Partners with two other seemingly-identical but also color-coded Links
- A train conductor
- A rabbit
- A wolf
- A plant-thing
- A fish-man
- A rock-man
- A god
- An octorok
- A moblin
- A like-like
- A ghost inhabiting a suit of armor that teaches his future incarnation skills
- Partners with an alternate-timeline wolf version of himself

Things Link Can Never Be Because It Would Destroy The Whole Character, Nay, The Franchise:

- A woman
 

Giever

Member
Well...yeah. I'm not arguing that Link should be female. I'm arguing that there is no reason Link can't be female. Whether Nintendo wants to make Link female is up to them.

That's true of all of their characters, though. They can gender-bend any of them, if they want. The reincarnation thing just makes it slightly more palatable for a small subsect of people. It's a pretty trivial reason to hone in on a female Link option specifically.
 

Toki767

Member
Playing a female Link wouldn't be silly at all. But it just doesn't HAVE to happen. It not happening shouldn't be an issue. If they chose to portray Link the same way they always have done, they're not creating any issue. They're just making their new Zelda game.

I never said playing a female Link was silly?

I just said their reasoning for not letting you play as Zelda was silly.
 
I disagree and it'd be cool to hear some examples of why you feel this way. Please change my view on this.

Well for one we've seen multiple female characters show sexual attraction to Link such as Princess Ruto, Marin, Ilia, Malon, Zelda, and Midna so either we need to make a whole lot of characters bisexual, make them all male, or change a lot of lines of dialogue. In Twilight Princess the role a female Link would have been expected to play in the village would be different based upon how we see the villagers living their lives and you'd have to rewrite a lot of lines of dialogue to justify why this female Link would be handling the primarily male roles in the village. In Majora's Mask we'd have a huge problem when Zora Link showed up trying to pass himself off as someone else and had boobs, the lines around the deku princess would also have to be change since I think she challenges Link's manhood in his interactions with her (I think Tetra did too in Wind Waker but I don't remember the opening of that game very well) and who knows what kind of weirdness would happen when female Link attempted to turn into a female Goron. In Wind Waker we'd need to explain why female Link wasn't taken by Helmaroc King being a blonde female like her little sister.

Just off the top of my head but none of those are simple "make Link female and the game plays out the same" without a lot of effort going into changing things up to make it work.
 
Such weak reasoning. Nintendo will always be cliche and never progressive.

One of the reason I went with Skyrim than Skysword in 2011.
At least I can play as a female character in Skyrim.

They are pretty progressive, as far as female representation is concerned, in like everything thats not Mario (inbefore someone names a dead and irrelevant series like F-Zero).

They are so different (And Skyrim so much worse) from each other that I don't even see why you'd bring them up in the same sentence.
 
My bigger fear is that we see a female Link/playable Zelda in future games who is traditionally femme like Linkle.

People weren't hoping that Wii U Link was a girl just because they want a playable female LoZ character, but because the character design is so badass. Masculine enough to be considered empowering.

Yup.

They had a perfect Nausicaa on their hands.
 
Nintendo's not being sexist, they're just not being inclusive.

Those of you celebrating this and taunting people that prefer to play games as female characters are assholes -- probably sexist assholes.
 
Is there a rule written somewhere that says that if different incarnations of a character have all been male for 30 years then some kind of diversity escape clause is triggered?

If anything it should indicate that a change is long overdue. See : James Bond, Dr Who etc...

Nintendo can do whatever they want with their characters because it's their characters. I want true diversity which means adding new characters with their own identifies and games that last for 30 years like Link.
 
Well...yeah. I'm not arguing that Link should be female. I'm arguing that there is no reason Link can't be female. Whether Nintendo wants to make Link female is up to them.

Yes thats true but we don't typically see mascot characters simply getting a gender change. People can argue that his backstory allows for it but at the end of the day hes an icon character plastered all over nintendo products and a symbol of nintendo. They want to keep that recognition. At the same time if they want to expand on that they can if they want to.
 
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