Link teased to not be hero in new Legend of Zelda game - Polidicks

I'm not a fan of the horse face and '80s bangs. Skyward Sword Link is cutest Link. [editline]n[/editline] Or Wind Waker Link.

[QUOTE=Bazsil;45069563]Because I'd prefer a franchise with a canon as interesting as LoZ's not have said canon be shattered just "for the hell of it" I'm not even gonna dignify the second bit with a response because if you'd stop kneejerking and read you'd have my answer to that already[/QUOTE] youre citing canon in a series that has no real fixed canon and the one most official we have is inconsistent. Hell you play as a furry/otherkin hybrid in one of them. the idea that you think people can only make a female protagonist to pander to some sjws and not just make one for the sake of making one is laughable.

Nintendo's gonna do whatever the fuck they want. If they make Link female then that'd be cool, and if they don't we have a new cool female character who looks a hell of a lot like Link. I'm fine either way although I'd prefer the first for a change of pace. If Link is female, it's because they felt like it, not out of any social message.

[QUOTE=mchapra;45069645]youre citing canon in a series that has no real fixed canon and the one most official we have is inconsistent. Hell you play as a furry/otherkin hybrid in one of them. the idea that you think people can only make a female protagonist to pander to some sjws and not just make one for the sake of making one is laughable.[/QUOTE] This just in: Lara Croft confirmed to be designed for SJW feminiazi man-hating castratotrons

[QUOTE=Skyward;45069516]Remember kids, you can't decide to [B]change things up within the perfect reasonable confines of your story[/B] and have a female lead character- or else you're just pandering to SJWs![/QUOTE] but that remains to be seen and is the whole point if they make a new character and it's female and it's a good character, great if they make link a female and explain why/how that happened, great but if they just slap some boobs on link and never touch on the fact that he's a chick this time, how is that anything other than pandering or frankly just lazy writing since my crash analogy was dumbed for whatever reason, think of literally any other popular character, doesn't matter. one that has been around forever and has been the same in every game (put aside that link is technically a different person in many games, because as said before he's the same character in the sense that he is the reincarnation of the original "Link" which is why he always looks the same and is always paired with a similarly reincarnated Zelda) and now swap sexes. I don't know, Tomb Raider I guess. Lara Croft. Now a dude. No reason given. Does that make things different? How about Mega-Man, Mega-Man is now Mega-Man the girl, again no reason given. Samus Aran, dude for no reason. That's just not how you go about making female leads in games. You don't just plop a lazy female reskin into an existing game. Literally the entire point I've been trying to make since my first post is that as long as it is explained, and they set female Link apart as a character, then good. Great even! But if they just lazily went in and made an established male character female for no reason, how is that good at all. That is lazy, and at that point it might as well not even be a girl if the change is as two dimensional as "oh btw he's a her now but we don't talk about that, it's just because" To further this, with all the "well why can't he be reincarnated as a girl this time?" arguments, that is a decent point. Why not? Well, so far the reason would be because it hasn't happened before, and Link and Zelda are supposed to be reincarnated from their original counterparts who were male and female and looked similar as you'd expect. Could this be changed? Sure it could, but that is something that would need explaining and falls back onto my original point yet again, as long as the change is explained, then fine. [editline]banana[/editline] dumb bombing is the best type of rebuttal the best part is that I'm not even on the opposite side of the argument from those of you who are dumbing me I would welcome a female protag in a zelda game, I would just prefer my female protag to be a strong character not a lazy 2D reskin gg no re

Just want to say, its not reincarnation for Link and Zelda. It is at best descendants. Skyward Sword establishes the exact nature of it. [sp]Demise's exact words are that "Those like you (the first Zelda and Link)... Those who share the blood of the goddess and the spirit of the hero... They are eternally bound to this curse." He states that an incarnation of himself will forever follow their kind.[/sp] In Wind Waker [sp]Ganon refers to the Hero of Wind as the Hero of Time reborn, but there are a few issues. One, the Hero of Time ceases to exist in the branch Wind Waker is a part of after his fight with Ganon, he returns to his branch as a child to stop Ganon from ever breaching the Sacred Realm, or he dies fighting Ganon which creates the Link to the Past branch, a different branch itself. But the Adult Link branch is left without a hero, which is why Ganon goes unchecked and Hyrule has to be flooded. As well, only Ganon refers to him as the Hero of Time that once, the others refer to him as the Hero of Wind and simply following in the footsteps of the Hero of Time like every other. Third, its already established that future games override the canon of the previous ones.[/sp] So with all that taken in to consideration; no, Link and Zelda are not reincarnated, its just new generations that share the blood of the Goddess and the spirit of the Hero. Further, reincarnation in most cultures is not a complete, perfect copy. Reincarnation is the continuing rebirth of the spirit in a new form. In Buddhism for instance, how one is reincarnated is determined by the actions of their life. So if someone lives properly and according to Buddhist teachings, they will ascend to a higher form. If they do not, they appear as other forms. Interestingly enough, being reincarnated as a cripple or a woman in Buddhism means you did not live well in your previous life and could be viewed as a punishment.

Although this doesn't sound quite right, it made me think what would a Legend of Zelda game be like if Link wasn't the only hero. What if he was actually doing only half the work alongside some other hero? Sure Link is the hero of Hyrule, but not everywhere else.

What I love is that nobody cares about the character being so totally androgynous that no one is able to actually tell if it's male or female, just whether it's specifically labeled male or female by the company. Like, if they just put in a male/female option at the very beginning of the game that only switched the pronouns used later in the game, would you even notice?

[QUOTE=Doctor Zedacon;45069690]Just want to say, its not reincarnation for Link and Zelda. It is at best descendants. Skyward Sword establishes the exact nature of it. [sp]Demise's exact words are that "Those like you (the first Zelda and Link)... Those who share the blood of the goddess and the spirit of the hero... They are eternally bound to this curse." He states that an incarnation of himself will forever follow their kind.[/sp] In Wind Waker [sp]Ganon refers to the Hero of Wind as the Hero of Time reborn, but there are a few issues. One, the Hero of Time ceases to exist in the branch Wind Waker is a part of after his fight with Ganon, he returns to his branch as a child to stop Ganon from ever breaching the Sacred Realm, or he dies fighting Ganon which creates the Link to the Past branch, a different branch itself. But the Adult Link branch is left without a hero, which is why Ganon goes unchecked and Hyrule has to be flooded. As well, only Ganon refers to him as the Hero of Time that once, the others refer to him as the Hero of Wind and simply following in the footsteps of the Hero of Time like every other. Third, its already established that future games override the canon of the previous ones.[/sp] So with all that taken in to consideration; no, Link and Zelda are not reincarnated, its just new generations that share the blood of the Goddess and the spirit of the Hero. Further, reincarnation in most cultures is not a complete, perfect copy. Reincarnation is the continuing rebirth of the spirit in a new form. In Buddhism for instance, how one is reincarnated is determined by the actions of their life. So if someone lives properly and according to Buddhist teachings, they will ascend to a higher form. If they do not, they appear as other forms. Interestingly enough, being reincarnated as a cripple or a woman in Buddhism means you did not live well in your previous life and could be viewed as a punishment.[/QUOTE] At that point it's just semantics really, I mean, they come out looking the same and have the same names and it's always been that way in the game. Overarching story aside, Link and Zelda have been strikingly similar in every game itself so a deviation of that would require some kind of explanation I use the term reincarnation because it's easier than saying "over the years they keep naming kids link and zelda and it always turns out bad for everybody but nobody has learned their lesson" :v:

The fact that this is an issue for others is bothersome. "Canon" is a bit of a weak excuse, guys. They broke consistency a long time ago, and the inconsistency of TLoZ is a unique element that keeps things fresh. In other words: Who actually cares? Is your perception of TLoZ going to be shattered because of a [I]gender[/I] inconsistency in a long line of other inconsistencies? Change hasn't been an issue up until this point, and [I]now[/I] you're complaining? Maybe there's another reason why you're complaining: [video=youtube;Ow---AaOIEo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow---AaOIEo[/video]

[QUOTE=Pretty Obscure;45069743]At that point it's just semantics really, I mean, they come out looking the same and have the same names and it's always been that way in the game. Overarching story aside, Link and Zelda have been strikingly similar in every game itself so a deviation of that would require some kind of explanation I use the term reincarnation because it's easier than saying "over the years they keep naming kids link and zelda and it always turns out bad for everybody but nobody has learned their lesson" :v:[/QUOTE] That's not really an audience thing to comment on. There is no official material saying Link has to be a dude, "hero" is not a gender specific term. They wouldn't be contradicting anything by making him a chick, and so they wouldn't really be obligated to offer any further explanation. I'm guessing that Nintendo wants to keep Link more or less the same "character" between games, and so they might feel like that's a reason to not make him female. I can see that, I can respect that. But if they felt so inclined to not stick to that, they would be wholly within their rights. There's no lore restricting them there. I mean, what "explanation" are you expecting? Ganon futzed with spacetime and caused the ethereal Hero's Spirit to swap gender identities or something?

Honestly, imp form Midna should be the protagonist for this game, and every game after forever and ever a hundred years imp Midna.

[QUOTE=Mr. Scorpio;45069778]That's not really an audience thing to comment on. There is no official material saying Link has to be a dude, "hero" is not a gender specific term. They wouldn't be contradicting anything by making him a chick, and so they wouldn't really be obligated to offer any further explanation. I'm guessing that Nintendo wants to keep Link more or less the same "character" between games, and so they might feel like that's a reason to not make him female. I can see that, I can respect that. But if they felt so inclined to not stick to that, they would be wholly within their rights. There's no lore restricting them there. I mean, what "explanation" are you expecting? Ganon futzed with spacetime and caused the ethereal Hero's Spirit to swap gender identities or something?[/QUOTE] Well so far every game has shown them as male and female, that's as official as you're going to get. But you're right, that doesn't mean it has to always be that way. And never did I say that is should be 'The Legend of Zelda: "Why do I have boobs now?!" - Link goes on an adventure to find out why he's a chick!' All I'm saying is that some kind of separation would surely be needed? I mean, the original Link was male and every Link in game has been male and now he's female. There's no avoiding that change, so it has to be touched on in [I]some[/I] way, I would think. I'll be damned if I know what it is, but then I'm not the one writing it. I don't really know. I just don't really understand why this argument even blew up like it did in the first place. You know, on the matter, what would female Link even be called? I wouldn't think Link would work as a female name.

I'd love a female Link, or switching up the protagonist in general. Playing as Zelda would also be fun. Honestly, I don't even care what they do with it. I've loved every game in the series and I have absolute trust in that they will make it work. They can make him a slime-monster otherkin transvestite with a faux-hawk for all I care, as long as the game and story is good I'll happily go along with it.

[QUOTE=Pretty Obscure;45069817]You know, on the matter, what would female Link even be called? I wouldn't think Link would work as a female name.[/QUOTE] It's not really a gendered name

Well if Aonuma isn't trolling and the character's the protagonist, then it's not really Link to begin with obviously so... It's actually weird arguing about Link's lineage in terms of name, though; although 'canonically' he's always been named that, you're supposed to be putting your name there to help immerse yourself into the world, so it's a little awkward when you have the heroic lineages of Zelda.. and William, no joke intended since that's my real name. (Although I usually put Link by default anyway. :v:)

[IMG]https://31.media.tumblr.com/66fe746bd218907043ada178b74109ae/tumblr_n6z3ft3j2S1r42s8uo1_500.jpg[/IMG] If this is Link this is my favorite theory about the new design

[QUOTE=MaxOfS2D;45069914][IMG]https://31.media.tumblr.com/66fe746bd218907043ada178b74109ae/tumblr_n6z3ft3j2S1r42s8uo1_500.jpg[/IMG] If this is Link this is my favorite theory about the new design[/QUOTE] It'd actually be kinda hilarious to have characters throughout the game not be able to recognize your gender as a running gag, considering Nintendo's penchant for humor in the series.

I want to play as a girl Link because I think that would be rad. Can't we just have things because they'd be rad?

[QUOTE=Janus Vesta;45069960]I want to play as a girl Link because I think that would be rad. Can't we just have things because they'd be rad?[/QUOTE] No that would make too much sense.

I like this character, regardless of how Nintendo takes them I really like how they look. I barely know anything about this series really but I know enough of the series to know that as a whole it's all quite loosely related to each other. Some people argue over the most petty things, imagine complaining that a game series which swaps around the design of the main character at the drop of a hat does that again but this time you don't like it.

[QUOTE=RikohZX;45069925]It'd actually be kinda hilarious to have characters throughout the game not be able to recognize your gender as a running gag, considering Nintendo's penchant for humor in the series.[/QUOTE] What if this is what Japanese character designers do when they know their game will get a western release? "Haha you know what would be funny if Europeans and American's can't figure out if this is a boy or girl." And it just went on forever [B]Edit:[/B] Wait a minute what if that's actually just Zelda, I mean the bow was Zelda's preferred weapon in TP and Sheiq's Smash right?

Link's a sissy anyway so no change in my view.

[QUOTE=MaxOfS2D;45069914][IMG]https://31.media.tumblr.com/66fe746bd218907043ada178b74109ae/tumblr_n6z3ft3j2S1r42s8uo1_500.jpg[/IMG] If this is Link this is my favorite theory about the new design[/QUOTE] What if this is a character customization thing and maybe this is your default appearance or one of them? I'm fine with either possibility, both would add a lot to the franchise in terms of diversity.

[QUOTE=Pretty Obscure;45069317]Imagine if they rebooted crash bandicoot and made him a girl and NEVER EXPLAINED THAT if they explained it was like magic or that it was a different character or something, okay that's totally fine, but if they just made him a chick "just 'cause" and never even told you why that's what I'm getting at, I wouldn't much care if they at least did a good job of explaining [I]why[/I] but if they literally just went off and did it for no reason and didn't bother to explain why other than trying to follow the new "if you don't let me be a girl you're sexist" rule that gaming journalism has made up lately, I personally would be a little peeved I'd still play it and almost certainly love it though, because I'm not that fickle.[/QUOTE] Well, keep in mind, Crash has Coco Bandicoot, who I'm pretty certain was playable at one point. To be honest, if they went and changed Link's gender without explaining it, I'd probably just shrug and go 'neat'

Really, how do we know that every other Link in the universe is born female and this is just the first game we get to play as one of them? It's such an ambiguous canon that they managed to retroactively fit 25 years of practically unconnected games into a single-ish timeline. Anyone getting pissed off about the possibility of this needs to calm down, there are a thousand ways it can be explained and chances are you'll never hear any of them because it doesn't even matter. [editline]11th June 2014[/editline] I'm on the side of that character being Zelda anyway. The horse doesn't look like Epona, the extra long bits of hair at either side of the face remind me of the braids which SS Zelda had, there is no sword or shield and she is using a bow which has been her weapon of choice in several games. Not to mention the comment about it not necessarily being Link.

people need to stop acting like link has always been one character hell, some of the games ask you your name at the start don't they?

This is a really weird move from Nintendo. I mean, why would they give Link a blue shirt instead of green without explaining it?

[QUOTE=MegaJohnny;45070597]This is a really weird move from Nintendo. I mean, why would they give Link a blue shirt instead of green without explaining it?[/QUOTE] To spark mysteries and interest through communites, so they keep talking about it.

[QUOTE=MegaJohnny;45070597]This is a really weird move from Nintendo. I mean, why would they give Link a blue shirt instead of green without explaining it?[/QUOTE] This would be the 4th or 5th game where Link starts without his tunic so it wouldn't be that surprising.