Breath of the Wild Female Link Rumor

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Robyn

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“Back during the Ocarina of Time days, I wanted Link to be gender neutral. I wanted the player to think ‘Maybe Link is a boy or a girl.’ If you saw Link as a guy, he’d have more of a feminine touch. Or vice versa, if you related to Link as a girl, it was with more of a masculine aspect. I really wanted the designer to encompass more of a gender-neutral figure. So I’ve always thought that for either female or male players, I wanted them to be able to relate to Link.

During the development of Twilight Princess, I went a different route and created a version of Link that was more masculine. But after Twilight Princess I went back to the drawing board and decided Link should be a more gender-neutral character. Hence I created the version of Link that you see in Breath of the Wild. As far as gender goes, Link is definitely a male, but I wanted to create a character where anybody would be able to relate to the character.” So that’s why I think the rumor went around that Link could be a female. Because maybe the users were able to relate in that way.” — Eiji Aonuma

Reggie said that considering the popularity of Female Link, it is certainly an option. However, Aonuma also stated that making Link female, or Zelda male, would cause disruption when it comes to the triforce and their piece divisions. Personally, I wouldn't mind a male or female link, but normally I would prefer it to stay male because if Nintendo does make female Link, the next thing would be "Make Samus a Guy, or make Mario a girl."
 
I honestly don't want a female Link in any main Zelda game, a spin-off like Hyruke Warriors is enough, since those are non-canon.

Sounds sexist? Yeah. Fact is, Nintendo is right in not making a female Link, exactly the same reason why Samus should never be male either.
 
I disagree with the above notion. While yes, characters that are set in one gender usually tend not to stray from that gender (like the Samus example,) Link is completely different in this regard. He is not one singular character throughout the entire franchise like most, but rather a group of characters that all have one thing in common; the Hero's Spirit which has been re-incarnated a handful of times over by now.

What does this mean? Simply that Link's character is changeable as Nintendo sees fit and is malleable enough to even incarnate a different gender. Think Avatar: The Last Airbender and its sequel The Legend of Korra, where both protagonists are male and female respectively yet their link is the fact that they are re-incarnations of the Avatar Spirit. The same would apply to the Hero's Spirit in Zelda.

And to be completely fair, they stand to lose nothing by adding a female Link aside from potential canonicity confusion by some fans. Link's entire personality is nothing more than a blank slate for the player to project themselves into his shoes, hence why he never has a voice beyond screeching and hurting. Giving him a female option compliments this design choice.
 
They'll have to face the fact that they wrote that Hero's Spirit stuff into the lore sooner or later anyway. :p And I'm sure popular demand for a female character will make it happen eventually.

The only problems I can potentially see with having a female Link is with the whole Zelda/Link dynamic, which would probably mean such a character would have to have their own adventure outside of Hyrule most likely a la Majora's Mask.
 
I wouldn't want it to happen. Making a company bend down to political correctness is never a good thing tbh.

Also, the Hero's Spirit thing doesn't mean any random hobo can get to be the hero, all incarnations of Link thus far can be made a case of them being descendants of previous ones, or reincarnations, for all intents and purposes, we can take it as Link manifesting in many eras, kinda like Ganondorf :p
 
The notion of all Links being descendants of one another in all games is already debunk. :p While it's true that ALBW Link is descendant to LttP Link and Twilight Princess Link to Majora's Mask Child Link, both LttP Link and Wind Waker Link are shown to be noticeable breaks in any sort of blood line.

In WW it's that the Hero of Time disappeared (and no, that's not code for "he hid away", he literally vanished from the Adult Timeline after being sent back by Zelda) and in LttP it's because the Hero of Time just straight up dies and then the sages have to seal Ganondorf inside the Sacred Realm to prevent anymore damage. The fact is he wasn't walking around during his 7 year coma so it's very unlikely that he had any children.

Of course, there's always the possibility that there are other family members but a break in direct bloodline is still a break in the bloodline. So basically it is possible for random hobos to become heros here, like WW Link; it's just a matter of proving yourself to be worthy of one.

At the end of the day it's fine if you don't want a female Link having the spotlight in a main title, that's just opinion (although expect a few raised eyebrows from some other fans); ultimately it's Nintendo say. Right now they don't want to mess with it but give them time to experiment and who knows what the future of Zelda games will have in store for us?
 
Reincarnation is not, however, out of the play :p

To me, and I'm sure to Nintendo as well, changing Link to female would break one of the biggest traditions in the series, if they do bend over to the vocal minority, they'd also have to give leeway for many other fan circle-decided changes, which is a quick spin into damaging the series in an attempt to pander to a certain demography.

By then, they might as well change the whole genre of the franchise, do not want. Experimentation isn't always a good thing.

I'm sure people will rise eyebrows at it, but if they made changes due to X factor of the series being controversial, we might end up having a female Link, a disabled Link, a black Link, an albino Link, an Otaku Link, an emo Link and whatnot.
 
If by "Reincarnation is not, however, out of the play :p" you mean "spiritually they're still linked (pun intended)" then we've come back full circle; Like the Avatar Spirit.

It's not like male Link would be wiped away thus throwing the whole setup they've been rolling with for years into utter chaos; they'd just have to work out how to implement a female Link into the game.

Regardless, I'm fairly confident that if there ever was a female Link in a future main Zelda title, it would be welcomed. Nintendo doesn't necessarily have to bow down to any demographic, they can just experiment with the idea (which they have for a little while now) and see what comes of it. Linkle being in HW is more or less a demo for audiences to voice their feedback for this exact reason, to see if people like it or not.
 
  • #10
I'm mainly anti-female Link, though I'd be fine if the player does end up getting to decide whether they want a Male or Female Hero. I feel it would be weird to have a character that was originally made to be male and has been for many, many years to suddenly become both genders, although it would be okay because the female Hero option would not actually be Link, it could be another new character with a similar name, such as Linkle.
 
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  • #11
I'm mainly anti-female Link, though I'd be fine if the player does end up getting to decide whether they want a Male or Female Hero. I feel it would be weird to have a character that was originally made to be male and has been for many, many years to suddenly become both genders, although it would be okay because the female Hero option would not actually be Link, it could be another new character with a similar name, such as Linkle.
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Exactly. Personally I wouldn't mind if a female Link had a canonical spot in the franchise but choosing between genders a la Pokemon "are you a boy or a girl?" is a good option too and would probably be easier for fans.
 
  • #12
Honestly I can agree and disagree with this gender neutral Link idea. I mean in Zelda Breath of the Wild there doing exactly that where link looks pretty feminine. And in Hyrule Warriors Legends Linkle does not look feminine she looks masculine for a girl. I can agree because if done right it does not change all that much. If Zelda Breath of the Wild was making link out to be the best hero with lots of things to overcome and what not, it wouldn't work because we see link as a strong male character and thats how he was made to be.

What Nintendo is doing though is working we don't yet know what this new link will do. The reason people like toon link is that he isn't portrayed as a character of major strength, hes is show as a child who steps up to the plate to save his sister. We associate child with weak, since that was there you couldn't have adult mature link you had to have another link that filled the position better. The new zelda is doing this. Since link isn't shown being the only hope and the one chance its ok for him to be feminine and cartoonish. At the end of the day its what the link in question stands for that determines if his design will work or not, and if he can be feminine or not.
 
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  • #13
“Back during the Ocarina of Time days, I wanted Link to be gender neutral. I wanted the player to think ‘Maybe Link is a boy or a girl.’ If you saw Link as a guy, he’d have more of a feminine touch. Or vice versa, if you related to Link as a girl, it was with more of a masculine aspect. I really wanted the designer to encompass more of a gender-neutral figure. So I’ve always thought that for either female or male players, I wanted them to be able to relate to Link.

During the development of Twilight Princess, I went a different route and created a version of Link that was more masculine. But after Twilight Princess I went back to the drawing board and decided Link should be a more gender-neutral character. Hence I created the version of Link that you see in Breath of the Wild. As far as gender goes, Link is definitely a male, but I wanted to create a character where anybody would be able to relate to the character.” So that’s why I think the rumor went around that Link could be a female. Because maybe the users were able to relate in that way.” — Eiji Aonuma

Reggie said that considering the popularity of Female Link, it is certainly an option. However, Aonuma also stated that making Link female, or Zelda male, would cause disruption when it comes to the triforce and their piece divisions. Personally, I wouldn't mind a male or female link, but normally I would prefer it to stay male because if Nintendo does make female Link, the next thing would be "Make Samus a Guy, or make Mario a girl."
Click to expand...
I have no problem with a male or female link I think link is you the player. If Nintendo would like they can probably do a thing like "play as a girl or a boy" in the main menu of the new games.
 
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