Sexism and Zelda
This isn’t going to be an easy post to write, but I’m challenging myself because if you can’t trust someone named Mighty Ponygirl to be intellectually honest, who can you trust? I, like many girl gamers, hold a special place in my heart for the Legend of Zelda series. I love it. And because of that, I’ve been reticent with regards to the topic of sexism in the Legend of Zelda series. But no more!
The Zelda franchise travels a dozen unique titles (14 if you want to count the CDI titles, which I don’t), and so individually dissecting the titles for their themes would be a little longwinded, particularly because the series has so many similarities.
Link and Zelda
First, we’ll focus on the only absolute constants in the series: Link and Zelda. As the protagonist of the Legend of Zelda series, you can’t call it a Zelda game without Link, decked out in green, charging around with a sword and shield. The Hero of Time, the Hero of the Gods, he’s the one who quests for the Triforce (the Golden Power) and works to defeat evil. But for as much screen time as he gets, we don’t know much about Link. He doesn’t speak, he merely nods compliantly whenever someone suggests he (you) goes off on a mission to save the world. In this way, the player is free to see themselves in the character, which may account for the frachise’s huge success. (Similarly, Hello Kitty, another invention of a Japanese company, doesn’t even have a mouth. I have read accounts of how this helps to create a tabula rasa personality onto which consumers can project themselves).
Link is, however, the very definition of the hero. He wields a full compliment of weapons including sword, bow, boomerang, hammer, and hookshot with ease. There is no mission he will fail to undertake. Whenever he detects a person in trouble (Hylian, Goron, Zora, or otherwise), he will not hesitate to charge into whatever dungeon holds the monster afflicting them and kick some ass. You don’t get this sort of rote heroism written anymore; he might have been written from a French lai for all of the soul-searching he has to do before agreeing to help someone. This may have something to do with the fact that he has the Triforce of Courage embedded in his being.
While it is difficult to determine Link’s driving animus, one thing that adds an interesting element to the discussion of whether or not his behavior is gender-determined is the evolution of his physical appearance over the years.
He has gone from this:
To this:
While it’s hard to extrapolate anything from 8-bit data, the trend over the last 20 years has turned Link into what it known as a Bishōnen (or “Bishie” for short). Let’s just say that when they decide to turn the Zelda series into a movie, they’d better give Orlando Bloom a call. This may play a part in the series’ popularity amongst female gamers. Typically, women like playing games where they can choose to play a female character, however Link may just be ‘close enough.’
The other constant of the game is the titular character, Princess Zelda. She has appeared in most every Legend of Zelda game, even if for only five minutes. The princess of the land of Hyrule, Zelda is the possessor of the Triforce of Wisdom, and naturally is a bit of a target as a result. While Link’s courage can offer him the sort of get-up-and-go he needs when Ganon comes a-callin’, Zelda finds herself captured.
Over, and over again.
The good news is that she’s friends with Link, who naturally will come to her rescue when she falls into the evil clutches of Ganon (or Vaati, or Agahnim, or Zant). The bad news is that despite some pretty impressive advancements made to her character over the years, she still sits passively by until Link comes to her rescue.
I find myself struggling to imagine a game where Zelda isn’t captured. After all, as Link–the hero of the game–it doesn’t follow that you should spend hours of your life completing complex story lines only to have the heavy lifting done by someone else. The only Zelda game which featured Zelda as the protagonist was, well, stupid. And Nintendo franchise spinoff games haven’t always done so well (I don’t know anyone who’s ever praised Luigi’s Mansion). This unfortunately has to remain a mitigating factor when discussing the problem of sexism in the series — it wouldn’t be a very fun game if you gathered all nine shards of the Triforce, battling monsters and puzzles, unlocking the tallest tower of a magically-sealed Hyrule castle, only to walk in on Zelda standing over a trussed-up Ganon, asking what the hell took you so long.
But if Zelda’s damsel-in-distress act is an unfortunate side effect of the Zelda series, Nintendo can at least be credited with making Zelda a little more proactive through the years. She’s gone from Sleeping Beauty (in Zelda II: The Adventures of Link), to the leader of the maiden sages in Link to the Past, the desert-ninja in Ocarina of Time, to pirate captain in Windwaker. In the last few titles, Zelda has taken bow in hand to fight alongside Link in the final battle sequence, offering him some support while not depriving Link (you the gamer) your right to kick the badguy’s ass yourself.
It would be nice if Zelda were seen as a little more active in the series. Even her character in Super Smash Brothers: Melee doesn’t exactly scream ass-kicker:
Someone didn’t quite convey to Zelda that Dazzler was not the most badass X-man
The good news is that Zelda’s character has progressed, the bad news is that as the only constant female character of the series, she simply fulfills too many stereotypes of the passive, caretaker figure. While it isn’t necessarily a bad thing to have characters who are compassionate, cerebral, and nonviolent, it seems that the moment Zelda puts on her pink dress, she forgets how to be a ninja, or a pirate, or whatever skills of the secret identity she’s hiding from Ganon from with would give her. If I can dig up an old savegame, I might just see if, in the last battle of WindWaker, I could just have Link avoid and defend while Zelda keeps capping him; but I’m going to bet that the arrows are doing negligable damage in the overall fight.
Ganon
One of the other near-constants of the Zelda series is Ganon. Whether he’s a human Gerudo king named Ganondorf (which, I’m sorry, has never sounded any less silly in all of these years I’ve seen it in the games), or a big blue pig, he’s the bad guy. He wants to rule the world, it’s your job to stop him — there isn’t a lot to be said, really, except…
An interesting element to Ganon is the backstory behind Ganondorf. In the canonical Ocarina of Time, we learn that once every 100 years, a male child is born to the Gerudo tribe (an Amazon-like tribe of desert bandits). This male child is destined to become their king. If that isn’t patriarchy, I’m not quite sure what is. However, the point of this story in Ocarina is that this is categorically a bad idea. Nabooru, the leader of the Gerudo’s before Ganondorf seized power, knew that he was up to no good, and didn’t want to serve under him. It may be grasping to look into the events that followed–her imprisonment and brainwashing at the hand of the two hags; but the point of this article is to look at these issues knowing that no one else will. The hags (Twinrova) represent a duality, bickering women who work together to advance evil…
Hey, that sounds familiar:
…
Maybe? No? Okay.
Miscellaneous characters
Nabooru and the Gerudos aren’t the only female ass-kickers in Ocarina of Time: Impa (Zelda’s minder) is obviously a very capable warrior, though she necessarily ultimately fails in her job of protecting the Princess.
Not every woman in Zelda is empowered, however. In Ocarina alone, in fact, two women are ‘betrothed’ to Young Link (in a tongue-in-cheek fashion). It’s bad enough that the first girl is handed over to Link because he brought her father a chicken… but then you have Ruto, princess of the Zoras, who can’t even be bothered to walk — she plunks her ass down on the ground as soon as you find her and the only way to move her from room to room is to carry her over your head. Once you’ve carried her out of the dungeon, she tells you that she’s going to marry you when you’re older.
(Naturally, this is where I enter with a shrill: What sort of example are we setting for our children? Won’t somebody please think of the children?!)
Other female characters in the Zelda series
- Anju, from Majora’s Mask, a quiet shop girl whose fiancé has mysteriously disappeared. Since she has to mind the shop, she puts you in charge of finding him.
- Aryll, Link’s sister in WindWaker, who is mistaken for Tetra and kidnapped by a giant bird at the beginning of the game,
- Link’s grandmother in Windwaker, who sits by the fire while he charges off to save his sister and occasionally makes him chicken soup when he can be bothered to drop in and make sure she isn’t dead,
- Romani from Majora’s Mask — a spirited little girl who wants to save her farm from aliens invading her farm and spiriting off the cows, but once the invasion begins, she disappears into the barn and leaves you to do all the work…
- Ilya, Link’s “friend” in Twilight Princess, who is shy and kind and takes care of sick and wounded creatures… oh yeah, she’s kidnapped at the beginning of the game,
- The Roma Sisters, a dancing duo in Majora’s Mask whose impatient disposition is only cured when Link shows them how to really dance (they fall prostrate before him and give him their heart).
- Telma, the owner of the bar in Twilight Princess. This one hurts because she could have been such a great mitigating factor: she was brash, “ballsy” if you will, and not a little stick of a thing. She had her eye on the Shaman from Kakariko Village, but you learn later on that he can’t stand her, which is a little depressing.
- Medli, from WindWaker, a young bird-woman who is being primed to become the caretaker of Valoo the dragon (Virgin sacrifice, anyone?) She’s saved from that gruesome fate by learning that she is to be the sage of the gods, and will likely spend the rest of her short life hanging out in a dungeon with her harp, until Link completes his mission and the next round of monsters comes seeking to destroy the power of the Master Sword and kills the sage in order to do so.
- And oh yes…
The Great Fairies.
I’m not sure what I can add to this except… wow.
That’s not a canonical list by any means. But there is a very disturbing trend to the games — it’s not that all of the female characters are helpless whereas all of the male characters are powerful, it’s that the frailty of the female characters is so pronounced in relation to the male characters that it goes beyond simple “You’re the hero and you have to save the day.” The most interesting, powerful female characters seemed to appear in Ocarina of Time, and the strong female has been on the decline ever since. Hopefully, Nintendo will remedy this problem, but I don’t think I should count on it.
Pros
- Link is becoming more gender-ambiguous as the titles progress,
- Some improvement has been made in showing a more proactive, self-reliant Zelda,
- The patriarchal rules of the Gerudo tribe were obviously a very bad idea.
Cons
- Zelda is always captured and held for Link to rescue
- Female characters are almost uniformly passive, healer-types.
- What the hell is going on with the Great Fairies?!
March 12th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
Oh, agreed. It’s almost as bad as Princess Peach in the Mario games. Princess Toadstool — who later got renamed to Peach since I guess Toadstool wasn’t properly princessy and girly — kicked ass in Super Mario Bros. 2. I always picked her when I played that game, not just because she was the only girl except maybe the ambiguous Toad, but because she was the best character in that game. After that, she was relegated to the role of Girl Hostage.
But one thing I loved about Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker was the theatrical trailer (which can still be found at GameTrailers.com (just scroll down a little bit and select the Movie Trailer. Zelda’s narrating the whole thing from durance vile, and by the time she gets to the end — “all to fulfill his destiny, which is, above all else, to save… me.” — she sounds pissed.
I would love to see a Zelda game where we get to play Zelda going to rescue Link’s punk ass. Even better would be if she went and dressed up in the green suit and did all the Link stuff her damn self.
The Great Fairy laugh freaks me all the way out.
March 12th, 2007 at 9:30 pm
Clearly there’s something wrong with my parentheses going on there. Oi.
March 13th, 2007 at 9:19 am
Word on always playing with Princess Toadstool in Mario 2. You got to float! To Float!!! It was like cheating, without the codes!
The CDi console actually licensed two horrible Zelda games from Nintendo. One of them, “The Wand of Gamilon” starred Zelda as a protagonist. I’d posted a link to the ending, but you should definitely check it out. You won’t know whether to laugh or cry.
March 13th, 2007 at 9:39 am
I loved Zelda when it was on Nintendo, but then my family moved on to Sony (cause that’s where Final Fantasy went and really it was my first game love even though my older brother wouldn’t let me actually play Final Fantasy and I could only watch, sigh. But now I’ve got emulator and roms, so it’s s’k now.) and Zelda didn’t go with, I was pretty upset, but not upset enough to try and figure out where it went to… though seeing the gifs for the newer versions, I’m kinda sad now. Oh well, I have FF12 to console me!
Though I’m really pissed that FF13 is only going to be on the PS3.. which sucks, cause 1. it’s too expensive and 2. it doesn’t play all the old ps and ps2 games which makes it not worth it. I don’t need more than one game system thanks, and if it can’t play my old games (plus it costs a fortune) then I’m not interested. Unless they want to undo all the coding to make it easier to do Emulators and ROMS for them that is. If I could play my old games on my PC for free, then I could see myself buying a PS3, next year when I get my income tax return. Or dammit, they could just make FF13 for the PS2 as well!!! DAMMIT!
March 13th, 2007 at 9:41 am
I always played the princess in SM2 as well, she was kick ass. I was only 5 at the time but I loved it! Floating made defeating those evil egg throwers soooooo easy!
March 13th, 2007 at 10:08 am
So Rhiannon, what consoles do you have now? Just a PS2?
March 13th, 2007 at 10:21 am
Yes, that and a computer. I love WoW, I’ve been playing since it came out - though I can never seem to stick with a character past level 25… ;p
I have NWN2 but I haven’t really gotten into it yet. (My daughter has a V-Smile for her console, I’m getting her hooked early, lol.)
That’s part of why I limit myself to one or in this case two consoles and a smattering of games, if I have too much choice I get bogged down and end up never finishing the game… like right now I’ve been at the point right before the final boss battles in FF10 for a couple of months now, but I haven’t touched it in favor of FF12… I really should finish that game… Youtube has clips of the end to music, but that really isn’t as good the whole ending I’m betting…
March 13th, 2007 at 11:23 am
Rhiannon, you’re not alone. I’ve managed to keep myself to one server recently, but I still have six characters there. One of them just hit 40 last night.
I still haven’t finished FFX-2 or FF12 (though 12 gets much love if only for Balthier — I like Fran’s voice but hate hate hate the toon), and the final boss in Metroid Prime II remains unbeaten, alas.
If only I didn’t have to sleep, I’d be able to get more gaming done.
~`~
Ms Ponygirl? You owe me a new brain. I watched the end of Wand of Gamilon, and mine broke.
March 14th, 2007 at 8:03 am
More on topic. If we ever actually get to play a Zelda where we’re playing the NAMESAKE of the GAME, I would totally consider buying the console it plays on (as long as it’s reasonably priced) just for that. Especially if they didn’t do the whole “bimbo-rambo” or “frilly princess” thing. I hate that.
March 14th, 2007 at 8:12 am
Well, they’ve definitely laid the groundwork. Zelda has been Sheik and Tetra, (Ninja and Pirate, respectively). She’s shown that she knows how to use the bow and arrow, and she has magic.
Of course, the CDi had that horrible Zelda title…
March 15th, 2007 at 11:54 am
At least in some Mario games, he gets captured himself. But I was thinking, who would capture Link anyway? If the game’s objective was to save Link, then I’d imagine the assailant to be a… predator. Eww, I don’t want to play that game. On the other hand, Zelda is a Princess, and who doesn’t want to capture a princess these days?
I dunno.
March 15th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
I’ve postulated before that in a future Zelda title, Tingle will team up with Ganon, with the agreement being that Ganon gets the Triforce of Power and Tingle gets Link. The sad thing is, no one has yet to challenge me on whether or not Tingle would do that.
March 15th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Actually, why wouldn’t the bad guys kidnap Link? He’s always kicking their butts, foiling their plans and rescuing the princess.. You’d think they’d be seriously pissed and wanting some payback. Who’d have thunk the princess would then come to the rescue, eh?
March 15th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
Seeing as how Zelda is already as much a puzzle game as an adventure game, having the princess with the… oh, I dunno triforce of wisdom embedded in her soul as your protagonist does make a lot of sense.
Back in the Game Boy Color days, there were two Legend of Zeldas released on the same day: Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages. The idea was that each game had an individual emphasis: one was more about fighting bad guys, and the other was about solving puzzles. The idea was that at the end of beating one, you were issued a code that you could choose to enter and play the other one, which would unlock certain areas/puzzles/etc.
It would be awesome if they could release a Wii title that featured both Link and Zelda as protagonists, working together (jeez, the co-op mode would make Four Swords look like Crystal Chronicals). Link kills the monsters, Zelda solves the puzzles.
March 15th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
I really enjoyed this look into the Zelda franchise. It’s important for a community known for its sexism to take a look at itself and see if the accusations are true. Zelda was a risky choice; gamers love it almost too much. N4g.com put it on their Wii section of the page today.
Do you think now that Eiji Aonuma is slowly taking over more and more of the franchise workings that we might get a sort of enlightened version of Zelda? I don’t know too much about him, but he is younger and may be slightly more aware of the prejudices in the games.
March 15th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
Wow, reading the comments on the N4G link was funny–no one bothered to read the post. Thanks for letting me know, the blog’s not even a week old and I have a feeling we’re about to get his with our first troll infestation!
March 15th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
What about midna, she is by far the best girl character ever, she is so cheeky and i wouldnt call her helpless, infact most of TP is about her. Best character ever
March 15th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
Wow. Where to even begin disputing your points. I’m not going to cover them all, if I had to stop to argue every idiotic idea I’d never get anything done. Zelda is, at least in recent outings, depicted as a very strong woman. In Oot she outwits Ganon by going into hiding and fighting as a resistance force. In her alternate identity she’s a freakin ninja. Towards the end of TP you fight her, granted she’s had her bodysnatched. At the end of Oot, WW, and TP she helps Link fight Gannon. Yes she’s frequently kidnapped but thats because there are 3 parts to the triforce. Gannon is the evil one, Link is the player, that leaves Zelda. Link is captured probably many more times then Zelda. As for Ganon being the leader, thats just one male in 100 years, other than that the Gerudo’s, as seen in Oot anyways, are made up of women warriors. In smash brothers she can be just as lethal, in either of her two forms, as any other character in the right hands. For all those weakling females you mentioned there can be at least as many weakling males brought up, if not 2 or 3 times as many. Link has only been depicted as a ‘bishie’ 1.5 times (1 in TP, 0.5 in Oot). What should floating goddess be wearing? OH! Nevermind, it just dawned on me; either you just typed this up to meet a deadline or otherwise you have no idea what you’re talking about.
March 15th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
…and here they are!
Glyn: Yeah, I really gave it to Zelda with both barrels. :rolleyes:
Did you two even bother reading the post? Obviously not.
Theonlyone: I really did like Midna–I’d have to play the game at least once more to really deconstruct her character properly. She’s very complex–but her strength is her devious manipulation of Link–you spend so much time trying to figure out how she’s going to betray Link that you don’t spend a lot of time examining whether or not she’s strong or not. Of course, she needs a fair bit of rescuing too (I’m thinking after the water temple in particular), and watching Zelda appear to “Sacrifice” herself for Midna was very compelling. I would say Twilight Princess showed the best advancement for the game, overall. But the point I was trying to make wasn’t that Zelda was “all” sexist or that it was “totally sexism-free,” it was simply to examine the elements of the game critically — call stuff out as I saw it, and praise positive elements.
It’s really boggling that people are getting so upset about this, but not surprising I guess.
March 15th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
I see you received typical fanboy responses. I loved the article though I’m not much of a nintendo gamer. Your comment about females liking games where they can play female characters holds true for me. I stay away from MMORPGs that are gender locked and I loved Suikoden 3. The only POVs I played through were Chris’ and Koroku’s haha.
March 16th, 2007 at 9:09 am
Midna, Midna
March 16th, 2007 at 9:17 am
Yes, her name is Midna. Very good!
I might have to do a separate page on Twilight Princess, after a careful re-play of the game.
March 16th, 2007 at 9:26 am
Midna is the best girl ever, no competition and if you dont like her then.. your not cool
March 16th, 2007 at 9:31 am
Well, ok then. Thank you for playing. Run along now.
March 16th, 2007 at 9:49 am
Can you please make a article about midna or maybe just add a bit about her in this one, everyone would love you, as she is such a cool character, go on you know you want to…
please!
March 16th, 2007 at 10:08 am
I will take it under advisement. I would add it as another post to the blog, as this post is already at the bottom of the front page and will soon retire.
March 17th, 2007 at 3:27 am
[...] I also read on the internets this week about Feminist Gamers, a new group blog which is already accumulating a backlog of really good posts. Like Mighty Ponygirl’s take on “Sexism and Zelda“: [...]
March 20th, 2007 at 1:29 am
Zelda’s character in Smash Bros. is arguably the most powerful character in the game when used as Sheik.
March 20th, 2007 at 5:30 am
OK, so, arguments about who you’ve grown accustomed to using aside — why can’t she be powerful as a princess? Why is there a tradeoff, she’s the same person, after all. Why is there a trade-off being made: you can either be a pretty princess all dressed in pink, or you can be an androgynous ass-kicker?
March 20th, 2007 at 7:01 am
Seriously! What kind of message is that sending my child? You can either be a frilly pink princess OR a tree climbing tomboy (Gah! I hate that term.. suggestions?)? But not a mix of each? You can’t be really into pink and frilly stuff AND love to climb and rough house? Bah!
March 20th, 2007 at 7:53 am
Rhi~ You could in Chrono Trigger. Princess Marle was both a kickass tomboy and a frilly pink princess. But Lucca always had a special place in my heart. Yay for geek girls!
March 20th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Ooh! I love that girl! The princess who kicks but and defeats the terrible evil plaguing time/space and life as they know it!
I always named her Nadia (I think cause that was her Princess name and not the fake name she gives when she’s “in disguise” but it’s been awhile since I’ve played… Oh that’s right… I’ve beaten Chrono Trigger too… I’ve gotta add that to my meager list… sorry… where was I?
Oh right! To me they’ll always be Chrono, Nadia and Luna! And don’t forget the prehistoric cat-girl!
It was pretty even as far as genders go. 3 girls, 2 guys(?), 1 robot, and 1 frog.
March 20th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Yup, there was Crono, Nadia/Marle, Lucca, Frog/Glenn, Robo, Ayla (who, awesomely enough, was the physically strongest chracter in the game), and the optional character Magus.
The sequel, Chrono Cross, has a massive list of characters to choose from — Harle was far and away one of the best, though there were doctors, cooks, children, fishermen, a Mexican-style masked wrestler…
March 21st, 2007 at 1:45 pm
Oh right.. Magus.. … I wanted to call him Lucian or Luke, but it was Magus… LOL.
I played Chrono Cross a little bit but the “trying to get all the characters I want” was a little too complicated… sort like Radiata Knights is … I even bought the strategy guide to help me figure it out… but no help! Why didn’t they integrate the options into the walkthrough? I don’t want to have look back and forth throughout… what if I miss someone I want? Then I have to start all over again! (Depending on how much I wanted them in the party) It’s complicated like trying to get everyone’s ultimate weapons in FFX. Makes me want to rip my hair out! And I’m no good at BLITZBALL so I’ll NEVER win enough games to get Wakka’s next Overdrive! Hmph.
Bah! NEVER had that problem with Sukidon, ANY of them.
March 28th, 2007 at 5:37 am
bah……..who cares its just a game
April 25th, 2007 at 10:13 pm
Zelda is often depicted hold a sword but what game does she use it? shes proven herself powerful as sheik, why cant there be a game where you can fight Ganondorf as Zelda-like co-op with link?
April 27th, 2007 at 2:21 am
why the hell wood you wanna be zelda……..
it wood suck ass
April 27th, 2007 at 2:22 am
This site doesnt care for games that much
April 27th, 2007 at 2:46 am
ohhh and wot about the male characters
April 27th, 2007 at 7:11 am
Lik totolee dood
gamz r fur teh coolzer peeps
Eye luvz teh MENZEZEZ karucturz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*drool*
April 27th, 2007 at 10:14 am
Peter, it appears you may have neglected to read that little link in the top right hand corner. Im sure you can see it, it clearly says “its just a game”. Im pretty sure it will prove helpful, provided you have the patience to read it all.
April 27th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
He doesn’t, and he won’t, we’re banning him.
May 3rd, 2007 at 4:33 pm
this is sooooo kool!!!! ok… u all suk!!!
May 13th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
You gals should start playing Fire Emblem. Some of the most influential characters in the series have been women. For example Lyn (a main character skilled with a sword and bow), Myrrh(uber powerful little girl who can turn into a dragon), Lute(Genius Mage Prodigy), Titania(Powerful Redheaded Knight), Mia(Skilled in the sword arts), Lethe(Tiger Woman), Nephenee(Extremely talented Halberdier, country girl(one of my favorite characters of all time)), Tanith(A leader of Pegasus knights), Lucia(Sword master), Ena(another extremely powerful dragon), Mist(A little girl who is more courageous than her friend Rolf)… and the list keeps going on and on. The Fire Emblem series has ten titles now and has always had powerful women intertwined within the story line and the game was created by Nintendo. My only wonder is why the game series has been overlooked for so long (most likely just because there only about three games that have been released out of Japan with very poor advertising)
May 14th, 2007 at 5:27 am
I’m actually a big fan of Fire Emblem, I was thinking about doing an article on it, but I have yet to finish a game (some of those battles get a bit hard at the end). I admit I have a bit of a crush on Titania. Let’s not forget that Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones actually had the leader of your army as a woman — Princess Erika. That’s a big plus.
May 15th, 2007 at 3:25 am
Also in Fire Emblem 7 Sword of Seal the first leader you start out with is Lyn. I just love all of the games. My favorite still has to be Fire Emblem 4 Genealogy of the Holy War though.
By the way i agree they should create a Zelda game where the player plays as Zelda. Although the last two times this has been tried it did fail miserably.
Hmm. Maybe I should create this game since I can use DirectX and C++ now, that might be a fun project. Hey thanks for the idea and the response.
Happy Gaming.
May 15th, 2007 at 6:21 am
Am I the only one who would want some more motives and back story on Ganon…..dorf? Not only was he my favourite character in Smash Brothers, it would help dismiss the idea that Zelda’s destiny is to be captured, Link’s destiny is to save the freakin day, and Ganondorfs is to simply be the bad guy who is beaten. Again. And again. And, oh wait a minute…….. Again.
When a game puts so much emphasis on “destiny” and “chosen one’s” it makes me wonder if anyone has any free will at all. And that Ganondorf isnt simply a pawn. Given his total lack of reasoning other than being a “very, VERY evil man” who “lusts after power” (something that isnt such a bad goal) it makes me pity his 2D villain character. Reminds me of Super Mario 64 for the DS, where a huge Goomba boss at one point questions if it is always their destiny to lose?
Maybe Im going too far, but I get the distinct impression Zelda games are always supposed to be epic. And it certainly falls flat on its arse when it comes to justifying the villain, in my opinion.
Still, I agree that Zelda certainly could do with some more of her potential being unlocked by the creators. Especially considering how annoying it was to hear her squeak when you get hit by the last boss on OOT. That along with the nearly-nekkid-fairies psychotic laughter was a crime against my ears.
But if Ganondorf is going to continue to appear, Id rather learn more about him.
May 18th, 2007 at 1:41 am
I’m actually writing a story where Zelda is the ass-kicker who holds the Triforce of Courage and almost becomes the Hero.
May 28th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
Sorry if this ends up being a double-post. I tried posting a comment earlier and nothing happened, and I just wanted to make sure my voice was heard too.
I thought this was a very interesting read, Mighty Ponygirl. You looked at the Zelda series in a way that I hadn’t given much thought to.
I just have one (small) gripe. Super Smash Bros. Melee is a game that I still play regularly, and Zelda is by far my favorite character. So when I read “even her (Zelda’s) character in Super Smash Brothers: Melee doesn’t exactly scream ass-kicker”, naturally I did a double-take.
As I said, I love Zelda’s character in Melee. When I use her, I don’t even bother changing into Sheik - I am at my best by far when using Zelda. I would argue that she kicks all sorts of butt, pink dress, tiara and all. I think she’s a “sleeper” character in the game, and to me that is a good thing. Her outward appearance may not scream “ass-kicker,” but don’t let that fool you. She is as tough as they come, and as someone else alluded to before, she is a force to be reckoned with in the hands of the right player.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, I like using characters like Ganondorf too. I also like the Ice Climbers because I love tag teams (yes, I’m a wrestling fan, please don’t hurt me…ha ha…). Princess Peach is also one of my favorites, in spite of the fact that her character seems to have gotten some harsh criticism here, and perhaps rightfully so. I like all the cool mid-air stuff you can do with her because of her floating ability. But in the end, none of these characters compare to the awesomeness that is Princess Zelda. In my mind, she is the greatest.
May 28th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
She’s not so much a sleeper character as a comatose character–they’ve made her character so difficult to use that it really does put her beyond even intermediate gamers. You have to really dedicate yourself to the game in order to make yourself a force to be reckoned with using Zelda (even moreso without just switching to Shiek first thing).
May 28th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
Well, I think you could make the “hard to use” argument for other characters in the game as well, not just Zelda.
For example, I would argue that Ness is a challenge to use at first too, but once you learn how to use him, he can be pretty darn tough to beat. I could say the same for Bowser as well; Bowser is not exactly quicker than a hiccup, so when using him, you have to learn how to time your attacks properly, and yeah, that can make it difficult to use him at first. I think Mewtwo is also tough to use, again, because he’s a slower character like Bowser and Ness.
On the flip-side, I would argue that faster characters such as Captain Falcon, Fox/Falco, and even Samus are among the easiest characters to use at first, because many of their attacks are quick and moderately powerful.
Any character in the game can be easy or difficult to use at first. I think it really depends on the player, their playing style, and yes, their dedication level. For some people, some characters [i]do[/i] take more effort and dedication to use and have a steeper learning curve than others. (Like, there are some characters, such as Kirby and Yoshi, that I don’t even bother using because I just can’t get the hang of them for whatever reason.) But to me, that’s the beauty of a game like Melee. Every character is different and has their own distinct strengths and weaknesses, and I think there’s an ideal character for every player. Zelda just happens to be mine.
May 28th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
Man, I messed up the HTML tags there. Ugh.
I also just wanted to add that I’m glad I’m not the only one who was freaked out by the Great Fairies in Ocarina of Time…ha ha…