ihateghirahim
The Fierce Deity
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2013
- Location
- Inside the Moon
Neither the series nor link could survive a gender switch.
Oh, but I can. SS - and the "spirit of the hero" argument you brought up - holds no water in regards to Link being male/female.
1) Spirit is an intangible thing. A formal definition of it would be "The nonphysical part of a person that is the seat of emotions and character; the soul." (thanks Google). That has absolutely nothing to do with gender in the slightest.
2) As I said before, Link isn't one character. Each Link is distinct from one another. You quoted Demise and said that every Link's fate is pre-destined, essentially. What does that have to do with Link's gender? Nothing. My sister Leia could be destined to face off with Darth Vader. Or, my brother Luke could be in the same situation. Gender has nothing to do with it.
Well, if Link were female, he would obviously be treated differently. It would definitely change the series. Not to mention Link is a character. He's a Nintendo icon.
1) It has EVERYTHING to do with character! The spirit holds the character of a person, and the gender is a part of the characteristics of a person. Go back and read my post, I already explained that gender DOES in fact play into the character and spirit of a person. Gender goes far beyond what dangley bits they have in their nether regions, and instead reached into damn near every aspect of their being. Men and women are different, plain and simple.
I'd argue the opposite. By inheriting the Spirit of the Hero, all that takes place is the person absorbing the original Hero's ideals (and possibly mindset?). They seek justice where justice is deserved. They're typically calm in all situations. They've a zeal for what is good, and a disdain for what is bad.2) Actually, I could make the argument that, well, they ARE all the same person underneath, just thrust into different times and life situations. Since they inherit the soul, the center of character from the Hero of the Goddess, they kinda are the same person, just reincarnated over and over.
We could consider the soul to be the actual person, since it carries with it the character of said person, so if somebody in the future were to have inherited this soul at birth, like every Link not in the Child Timeline has, it could be argued that they are just that original person all along. It would certainly serve to explain how, among the millenia of Hyrule's existence and even among different timelines, the Hero always seems to be very similar to one another. And in order to inherit this Spirit of the Hero, they would need to be male as well, since the SotH is male.
Men and women can both possess the same character and attitude - just not the same anatomy. Other than anatomy, gender plays no role in a character whatsoever. I've seen girls act 100x the brave one that boys have. I've seen vice versa, and I've seen the middle ground where girls and boys had the same bravery. To say that a person will act differently because they're male/female makes is nothing but gender stereotyping. I.E you're conditioning either sex to act a certain way simply because you're used to it!
I like that you consider the soul to be the actual person - their thoughts, feelings, attitude, et cetera. However, all of my ideals have no correlation with my gender or my looks. TWW Link wasn't even linked to the Legendary Hero; he just looked like the guy by chance, and became a Hero himself (at 12 years of age...damn). My point is, anyone, with the right ideals in check, can become a Hero - can become "Link". It doesn't matter if they're male or female - that's just an arbitrary limitation. If Link were one static character, I could understand why changing his gender would be a huge deal. It'd be like making Kingdom Hearts' Sora a girl; Sora is very clearly a boy right now (unless you count Xion). EDIT: But he isn't. Every Link is specific to the time period they reside. It's like saying Lucina and the Hero-King Marth are one person simply because they go by the same name. Truth is, they aren't, but they have the same general spirit: an unending yearning for justice and averting the problems that may come to pass. :I
Ventus, we mean you simply can't alter a characters gender without seriously altering the character we all know and love.