Linkle’s Backstory May Make Us All Fall in Love With Her, but She is NOT a Female Link

We’ve talked a lot around Zelda Informer about Twilight Princess HD and Zelda U since the most recent Nintendo Direct, but what about Linkle, the new character announced for Hyrule Warriors Legends? This single character has sparked many different debates, including people claiming that Link (as confirmed by Eiji Aonuma) in Zelda U is actually Linkle and that there is a gender option in the game. I just… I need to stop people right there. Linkle is not a female Link. Linkle was never a female version of Link. Linkle was always an original charcter concept for a spin off game that was directly related to Link as his sister. I mean, are we calling Aryll a female Link? That’s about how silly this debate really is (despite the wholly silly naming convention and lack of originality in it for the new character).

Of course, I’m not hating on Linkle (outside of the silly name). I think she looks like a really interesting character in Hyrule Warriors Legends. What drives my excitement for her is that apparently she as a really engaging back story that may make us fall in love with her even more. This comes from Chris Pranger, former member of the Nintendo Treehouse team who was fired for revealing things about Nintendo he wasn’t supposed to on a small podcast. Apparently the very last thing he got to work on was the writing for Linkle. Here is what he had to say about the character:

“Linkle was the last character i was writing for before I left Nintendo. I wanted her to be special. I think everyone is gonna love her. Once you know her full backstory, I think everyone is gonna fall in love. I like her more than Lana, and I loved writing for Lana.”

As we know, Lana has a very intriguing back story *SPOILER WARNING* in being essentially a split personality off of Cia, something you learn throughout the course of the story mode in Hyrule Warriors *END SPOILER WARNING*. The fact Linkle’s could be much better than that has me intrigued as I absolutely adore Lana’s story. So as I said, don’t take me calling out a select group of fans as me disliking the character that is Linkle. Rather, I want us all to treat Linkle for what she is. She is not a female version of Link, and I greatly apologize if we helped spurn your confusion since we’re not innocent in referencing her in this way in the past. I just want to be crystal clear about this – it’s something that as an avid fan and follower of this series for most of my life can be a bit upsetting to read people assuming it’s female Link and now she’s magically in Zelda U.

Now, that doesn’t mean I am against having gender options and character customization in Zelda – I just feel using an original character created by Koei Tecmo for a spin off game is really the wrong way to start that sort of conversation. Instead, I think you could build this conversation off of Link’s various attire over the years, his typically pretty boy style look that almost makes him gender neutral despite clearly being a male character, and the strong presence of a solid female audience for the series already. Whether or not you are for or against this idea, that sort of evidence above could be used as the launching pad to either support or not support such a change. Let’s let Linkle be who she is and enjoy her story.

I will give you a pass however if you happen to think Cia or Lana are going to magically appear in Zelda U too. At that point, you just believe Hyrule Warriors isn’t actually separate from the rest of the series (even though it’s been stated it is), and I can’t really argue against that. Obviously you can desire for Linkle to be in any game you want – I can’t tell you what you want, just know that Linkle is very much her own character – not a female version of Link.