Opinion: Sorry Zelda Fans, Link Being Gender-Neutral Would be a Good Decision for Nintendo

Disclaimer: This article was written by a member of the Zelda Informer staff unless otherwise stated. The thoughts, opinions, and information presented strictly belong to that of the author and do not represent Zelda Informer on the whole.

Update: A note from the author is available at the bottom of the editorial.

Yesterday, we shared with you a harmless fan project where a father modded

A Link to the Past to make Link appear gender-neutral for his daughter. The result is that Link can be whatever gender the player wants Link to be. This is typically the gender of the player. The father did this by taking every time the game referenced Link as a male, and changed the gender pronouns into gender-neutral terms, such as “kid” instead of “boy.” Needless to say, the fanbase lost their minds.

“Link is a male!,” “You can’t change that!,” and “Ew, get this SJW trash out of here!,” was the theme of the feedback. It appears as if the fans don’t want a gender-neutral Link. That’s fine. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, no matter how popular or unpopular they may be. However, the idea of changing a past Link’s gender is not the issue here. You can’t just make A Link to the Past‘s Link a girl and call it canon. What Nintendo can do however, is make future Links gender neutral. Yes, I know the veins might be showing on your neck right now, but please bare with me.

What exactly is a gender-neutral character in a video game? To demonstrate what it is, I’ll be bringing up one of my favorite games from 2015:

UNDERTALE. Regardless of whether you love or hate UNDERTALE, it is the perfect example of a gender-neutral protagonist (in this case, their name is Frisk). The character’s sprite could easily belong to a male or female, and is never mentioned using the pronouns “he” or she.” Instead, Frisk is referred to as “they.” That’s all there is to it.

As I’m sure has been drilled into your head by now, Link is meant to be an avatar of the player. This is evidenced by his name, Link. He is a link between the player and the game. This is very old news, and common knowledge by now. However, we can not overlook this fact. During the Linkle controversy, this debate was everywhere on Zelda Informer. The debate brought up the issue of Link’s gender, with fans saying

“Link is an established character and has a set personality, so how could he be female?” in regards to making Link possibly having a gender option in a future Zelda game. On the flip side, some fans said “Link does not have a personality and is meant to be the player’s avatar. A gender option would be fine.”

I’m not even going to argue whether or not Link has a personality. To me, that doesn’t mean anything. His personality could be well established or non-existent, but that doesn’t impact the opinion that he could or should be gender-neutral. It does slightly impact how much he can represent the player as an avatar, but that’s for a whole different editorial.

Now, below are some tweets from Canadian YouTube personality Josh, who is the owner of Really Freakin’ Clever.

The Legend of Zelda is one of his favorite game franchises, and this was his response to the above referenced A Link to the Past hack as well as it’s toxic feedback:

How can Link be an avatar for everyone if he is established as a male? The answer is he can’t. In a past

Zelda game, you can give Link the most feminine name you can think of, but because Link is established as a male in those games, it doesn’t mean a thing. The fact is, Nintendo making Link gender-neutral or at least giving players a gender option in future Zelda games is harmless. If you don’t like this idea, that’s fine — it won’t affect you at all. If Link is gender-neutral in Zelda U, then he’s a male for you if you want that. If there’s a gender option, pick male. It’s simple. Nintendo’s decision in this area can not hurt you at all.

You may say, “Link has been a male for 30 years, why change him now?” My answer to that is, why not? If we want Zelda‘s audience to grow as a fanbase, why not make Link gender-neutral? It would certainly raise a few eyebrows and create a few headlines, and bring in some more fans. If you think it would drive fans away, then I go back to my earlier point: Link as a gender-neutral protagonist would not affect you at all.

In regards to the inevitable argument: “Why stop there? Why not make Samus Aran from Metroid a male?,” I think Josh summed it up nicely. In reality, Link being gender-neutral in future games would not affect old canon. Nowhere does it say every incarnation of link must be a male.

Link being gender-neutral is a step in the right direction, and will be a more accurate representation of what Miyamoto wanted Link to be: an avatar. Link’s representation of the player would only benefit from being gender-neutral. I’ll go as far as to say even if Link was not supposed to be the player’s avatar, it’s still a good decision for Nintendo. I know some females (not all, mind you) feel alienated or unrepresented in the gaming universe from the abundance of male characters and a lack of female protagonists. Gender-neutral protagonists solve this problem, and Zelda can help be a solution by making this slight change to Link.

I hope what I’ve said makes you think about the topic in a new light, and possibly convinces you that a gender-neutral Link is harmless (even beneficial to the franchise). As always, feel encouraged to engage in discussion below in the comments section.

EDIT 2/23/16 4:03PM EST: It’s not about politics, or being an “SJW.” I just like the idea of a future incarnation of Link being a gender-neutral protagonist in a future Zelda game, for the above reasons.

EDIT 2/24/16 11:21AM EST: I really didn’t expect 1.5k comments. I expected about 600-700. This comment section, to me, is a reflection of the Zelda fanbase in a way. Some fans such as myself are willing to discuss opinions in a civil manner with the owner of that opinion, while a staggering amount of fans raise their Nintendo Defense Force flags high and viciously ridicule everyone for being an SJW and interjecting politics into gaming (which I did not do, my major points had nothing to do with social justice or politics).

Anyways, looking back, this definitely was an interesting discussion, and I’m glad I kept up with most of it in the comments. I talked with many, and other times just lurked because I was tired of defending myself with the same reasons over and over to new people. I’m astounded, because more people agreed with my position than I had originally thought there would be. Sure, there was an overwhelming negative response, but a chunk of the people in this comment section agreed with me.

Also, some of the ones who disagreed decided to be adults and have a calm discussion. Some even thanked me for being willing to jump into this crazy comment section and have a normal debate with fellow Zelda fans. I’m really glad I published this editorial, because not only was I able to express my opinion, it gave me a chance to discuss with and examine a large part of this wonderful mixed-up fanbase that we are a part of. Thank you, everyone.

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