Zelda Voice Actress Patricia Summersett Calls Out News Outlets for Misrepresenting Her Statements on Link & Zelda’s “Relationship”
Posted on May 23 2023 by Emi Curtis
When one decides to work in journalism, there is often an unspoken commitment that one should be dedicated to reporting the truth of any given situation. The modern age of the internet has made reaching the truth of a situation all the more difficult however. Within that difficulty, there are quite a number of reporters who have sacrificed that commitment in the name of creating more and more sensational headlines from unclear situations. The realm of Zelda news is in fact quite rife with this issue.
Another such situation occurred just recently. In an interview with The Gamer, Zelda voice actress Patricia Summersett was asked about the prospect of Link and Zelda having a romantic relationship together, and she had the following to say.
“As a voice actor, looking at the overall relationship between Link and Zelda over the ages, I personally love the ambiguity and that if there is something there it’s, left to us. I guess in my own life, I can respect and celebrate relationships that aren’t conventional…
“It also dodges the ending, and you’re always wondering what may occur which keeps the relationship active. There’s a tension in that, and this defiance of a definition is something really nice. I always come back to that, and I really love it as both an actor and as a human. Those relationships are super important to portray too, and I think they’re the best relationships we have in life, whether it be friendship or something that doesn’t have to fit a definition. I know that [Link and Zelda] are in a relationship with each other, it’s active, there’s a lot of care and a lot of listening, and I just love that about it.”
Reading this statement in its entirety, it doesn’t really take much insight to understand that Summersett isn’t referring to a romantic relationship with that last sentence, but moreso the general sense of their friendship.
That did not however stop quite a number of gaming news outlets, including some very high-profile ones, from publishing the headline that Summersett had “finally” confirmed Link and Zelda were romantically involved. The final line of her statement without the context of the rest of her answer was spread, and it very quickly sparked through the news cycle. Summersett was reasonably quite annoyed to see her words misconstrued, and she commented on several Twitter threads clarifying her words and expressing disappointment in the promotion of “clickbait.”
The approach displayed by such news outlets not only misrepresents Summersett’s statement, but it also undermines the very point she was trying to get across. There’s an uncomfortable irony to the entire situation, given the whole of her statement. After the headline continued to be spread around despite her comments, Summersett published a statement on her own Twitter account calling out news outlets for their irresponsibility.
Hey friends,
I appreciate the passionate discourse on the subject, but must clarify: pic.twitter.com/02dLg34z2t
— Patricia Summersett (@Summersett_) May 22, 2023
A number of outlets have edited their articles to reflect Summersett’s rebuttals, but unfortunately, a lot of damage is already done at this point.
This loss of integrity is a large part of why getting information correct in the first place is important. Zelda Dungeon is proud to be committed to accurate reporting on matters regarding the Zelda series. We can’t always be perfect; we’ve had our mistakes in the past. However, we regularly pour significant amounts of time into confirming our sources in order to avoid creating misleading inferences in our content, even if it means not being the first to break a story.
What are your thoughts? Is accurate reporting of statements like these important to you? What other misinformation has left you frustrated? Let us know in the comments below!
Sources: Patricia Summersett, TheGamer
Emi Curtis is an associate editor with Zelda Dungeon, having originally joined the team in late 2020. She is a freelance artist, programmer, and streamer with a healthy love of both the creative and analytical. She can frequently be found playing RPGs and Adventure games, her favorite of which being The Wind Waker. She is also quite fond of playing Zelda Randomizers. Currently, she hosts a tabletop RPG series on Twitch and operates a freelance illustration business. She can be found on Twitter and Twitch as her VTuber alter-ego Gwen Myoty, creating nerdy artwork, dungeon mastering tabletop games, and playing RPGs.
