A female Link?

[Pandaxclone2]

This is indeed noteworthy for predicting Linkle two years before it happened.

Not to intentionally drudge up an old thread, but I believe a female Link in a canon Zelda game would actually be alright. As far as the current story goes, the many many Links throughout the timeline aren't all blood-related but they all do share one thing: The original Hero's Spirit which Hylia blessed to be re-incarnated to fight evil. In a way, that's really no different to the Avatar from Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra.

It would also help with what Link has already. He serves as a blank slate to project yourself on to immerse yourself with the story, so a female Link would allow a person of the same gender to project further onto that blank slate. That isn't saying that this would be an easy hurdle for nintendo however, because unless they're fine with Princess Zelda being rescued by the heroine it'd mean a female Link would have to show up in a non-Hyrulean setting a la Holodrum or Termina.

At any rate I believe that as the Hero's Spirit has been set up, this could be a very likely possibility in a future Zelda game.

 

[MindzEye]

Wow... Looking at this thread reminds me how stubborn these people were.

"Link can't be a girl! Period!"
"Well... as long as Zelda is a boy, I'll be cool with it!"
"We can play as Zelda! What's wrong with that!"

There are no rules here! If Nintendo wants to pull something off, it has every right to. And if the fans ask for it, they'll give it to them one way or another. (Take for instance, Angry Birds for Smash. Look at the Wii U's target smash game and tell me with a straight face it's nothing like Angry birds.)

I'm pulling for "Select your gender." Personally, I enjoy having the capacity to be a free as I wish to. And as I am simply playing a video game, I take no real offense for no real lives have been changed in the making of the game.
And as there is young and adult Link in HW, Girl Link was never far from the picture in the first place.

 

[423]

It took 2 years, but female Link (Linkle) is finally making her official debut in an LoZ game - Hyrule Warriors: Legends! She looks a lot different from her concept art, which is to be expected!

 

[freezebot]

so there has been a lot of people going on about if there should be a choice of there being a male link and a female link. for some reason people are saying having a choice of a female link is a bad idea and it will ruin the zelda franchise and fall the same path sonic 06 fell down in. my opinion on this is that i am completey fine with this as long as they keep male link because I LOVE VARIETY and plus this can draw a lot of new player to the zelda series. so what is your thoughts of there being a female link.

 

[Pandaxclone2]

I believe that since each and every Link turns out to be a reincarnation of the Hero's Spirit a la the Avatar Spirit, then yes inevitably we should get and welcome a Linkle to the main series. Link is mostly kept silent for the purposes of allowing the player to project themselves onto Link and immerse themself in the gaming environment, but allowing a female choice could add to that more.

 

[Mikaya]

I think it would be too similar to the Pokemon series of games, personally, since you're able to choose from a guy or girl. The Legend of Zelda series is just better off with a male Link, because the very nature of the game is different from Pokemon. I guess there is still hope with Linkle eventually starring in the main series, but I'm not really sure if this would really work out in the long run. xD

 

[Pandaxclone2]

Not that I'm saying your analogy is off, but a lot of games take the gender choice route. Even if they didn't decide to do gender choices, it would still be in the realm of possibility that a game is released where we have Linkle as a static protagonist, at least for once.

And all the more for gender route choices if they do decide to do that, seeing as they've given a reasonable justification for said female Link and even a design, albeit only in a non-canon title at this point. If anything Linkle is a sign that the developers have given this some thought.

 

[Tyrone]

I like male link a lot, but I'm actually loving linkles design and crossbows, if they make a game for linkle it would be cool, I just hope it won't replace the male link. Besides that, I really love linkle due to her design and crossbows and i really like how Nintendo made her, I just hope she doesn't replace the male link. A sequel to links crossbow training would be nice though, linkles crossbow training would be awesome <3

 

[pokedog123]

I find the female link thing weird, they could have made someone similar to link and change the name more, it's like: " let's make female versions of all of are popular Nintendo characters!" I'm going to be expecting Maria, star foxy and captain dove or swan(or any other bird that reminds you of a female)by 2017.

 

[Link06]

Link will be always male!!!!

 

[Ace]

What if Nintendo approached did the same thing they did in Fire Emblem or Pokemon, and allow for Link's gender to be optional for either boy or girl?

 

[championyt]

In all honesty i think a game where you play as a female link would be cool It would be strange but pretty damn cool but i dont think thats happening soon or maybe ever


My Thought on a female link!!!!!!

 

[ESP]

I know this is from years ago but I honestly wouldn't care what Nintendo did. Although, I will say that it is something new and interesting. Link seems like a character who could be either gender. But it looks like your prayers have been answered in the form of Linkle.

 

[Pandaxclone2]

^ This exactly. I'm pretty sure a major factor in the reasoning of a female Link and why it would work well may be due to how Link's character works. To give an example, lets look at cosplay for an easier reference of filling in a game characters shoes.

Some video game characters are strictly more oriented towards male or female that seeing someone of the opposite gender may raise eyebrows; a woman cosplaying as Solid Snake or a man cosplaying as Chun-Li for example would look really out of place (and I'm not saying this just because or that I'm sexist or something, because general public thinking unless changed usually differs from individual thoughts on the matter.)

Link however more often than not exhibits bishounen or androgynous traits (more likely the former) in his appearances. In this way any gender could cosplay as Link. Another thing that helps this is that the above-mentioned characters have more or less solid backstories and personalities and are usually a single person, while Link is just known for being the hero, sometimes having a bloodline to something important and screeching a lot in addition to being different people in the franchise. There's a lot of wiggle room there to fill in his shoes.

So with that in mind it makes the idea of Link being a female character more acceptable.

 

[Dark Eevee]

Wouldn't mind it. In some cases it could be great, especially in games with no Zelda(like majoras mask and propably some other one) and they already made the character Linkle who could take his place... IDK I'd have to see some fan art...

 

[KnighddDd]

Linkle already exists and is a lame character so idk what this thread is about, oh a REAL female link, i wouldnt like that, linkle is already lame enough we dont need something else and great prediction by the way, we need ou to predict the next smash's characters pls lol

 

[oshul]

#linkl is a lazy name for a female link

 

[Blue Knight]

I completely disagree with the notion that it would be "okay" and that it wouldn't affect anything if Link was female.

See, to start off, despite his original intent; Link is not, in fact, an avatar or stand-in for the player. He is indeed used for the player to experience the world and the games, but he's his own character, with his own characteristics and a broad, but solid personality. And example of an avatar of the player would be the main character in Monster Hunter games.

Second, the spirit of the hero does not work like the avatar spirit. The avatar is very much any random person chosen by Raava (...I think it was his name), people of different ethnicities, personalities and genders. Meanwhile, while each Link ks a different person technically, they are all for all intents and purposes a copy of each other. It's not like a nature spirit is granting it's powers and past knowledge to a random person, it's an individual reborn through the ages with his past incarnations still being different people. In this case, the incarnation is that of the hero of hylia, who was male. It's that guy reincarnating. The very lore of the series is pretty big on Demise's essence, the goddess (female pronoun) in mortal form and the goddess's chosen hero (a male individual) reincarnating throughout the ages.

Tl;dr no, there's no reason for a female Link to be made in canon, no, there's no reason to do a gender option and think of Link as an avatar of the player, and yes, it would affect the series lore in a pretty big way.

 

[Pandaxclone2]

A character who for a majority of games has no canon name (I say majority because it is confirmed in some games while in others it isn't touched upon), doesn't speak and is usually just given yes/no answers to choose between questions. Can't get more avatar/stand-in then that barring a create your own character feature.

Raava didn't just pick any random person. It's established that the Avatar Spirit is Wan's reincarnations with Raava tagging along. If it wasn't clear the Avatar is a similar concept to the real life Dalai Lama, another being who is said to have been reincarnated as several people over the generations. Even the method shown in A:TLA where Aang picked toys belonging to previous lives mirrors the same method used to determine which child is the Dalai Lama. So yeah, same person, different incarnations. So aside from not being granted knowledge of past lives, Link is still very much in the same boat. He has the Spirit of the Hero throughout, aka his first known incarnation. If anything he doesn't have an entity residing in him like Raava but regardless he's the sole wielder of the Triforce of Courage and the Master Sword as a result, presumably granted from SS's plot/Goddess Hylia, so there's not much difference.

The only Link who doesn't follow this is Wind Waker Link onwards in the Adult Timeline, as the Hero of Time literally vanishes from existence in that timeline i.e. there won't be any incarnations here. This is why WW Link has to earn his keep with the Triforce of Courage.

tl;dr Conversely, there's no reason for a female Link to not be made in canon, there's no reason not to have a gender option (especially if it has literally no impact on the plot beyond aesthetics) and yes it would affect the lore in a big way.

 

[Blue Knight]

But thing is, Link is his own character. He does have a personality and yes, he does talk. It just so happens that thr player can't listen to what he says.

He's the same individual reborn, let's see, it would be jarring for me if I was suddenly reborn as a dark-skinned bald female after ages of being reincarnated as a man. Again, Link isn't an avatar of the player, the player uses him to immerse themselves into the world.

To put this another way, let's turn the Triforce into a square or circle. After all, it's just an aesthetic change, right?