It’s a tried and true convention that has been copy-pasted over and over again across various forms of media. Whether it’s video games. movies, or television, the trope speaks to fairytales of a gallant and brave rescue, and it is those fairytales that inspired the premise for The Legend of Zelda and the games that came afterwards.

In most Zelda games, a male protagonist named Link utilizes his courage in order to overcome the obstacles necessary to save Princess Zelda. The exceptions to this tradition, of course, exist, but Zelda games generally follow the premise of one person saving another. Recent years have shown media overturning the perhaps sexist nature of what was typically a male saving a female, yet it still exists as a trope. Because the Zelda series also tends to stick to that, which Zelda game do you think handled the dynamic best and why?

I think that the Zelda games that handled this the best are the ones that presented Zelda as less of a defenseless damsel in distress and more of a capable and wise princess who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. In Ocarina of Time in particular, Zelda disguises herself as Sheik to hide from Ganon for seven years, a time that she no doubt sustained Sheikah training. The only reason she was captured was because she let her guard down in front of Link, a weakness that makes her character well thought-out and complex.

Perhaps Breath of the Wild 2 will change who is being saved, or perhaps it will do away with the trope all together and present a new objective like in Link’s Awakening. Is that something you would like to see? Which game do you think handled the trope best? What do you think about the trope in general? Let us know in the comments below!

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