Explaining Link’s gender in Breath of the Wild
GAY TIMES gaming columnist Eli Cugini explores what makes The Legend of Zelda’s Link unique gender appeal to LGBTQIA+ players.
WORDS BY ELI CUGINI HEADER DESIGN BY YOSEF PHELAN Link, the protagonist of the Zelda games, is designed to officially be a boy, but a strange kind of boy: a boy who’s supposed to make you question his gender.
After early Breath of the Wild artwork hit in 2016, featuring a conspicuously androgynous Link – soft-featured, big-eyed, face framed by long, loose strands of hair – the elfin protagonist’s look sparked rumours that maybe Link would, this time, be playable as a girl.
Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma quashed those rumours in an interview with Time, asserting that Link is ‘definitely a male’, but that Breath of the Wild marked a return to the character’s original ‘gender-neutral’ design in the Ocarina of Time period: ‘I wanted Link to be gender neutral […] I wanted the player to think ‘Maybe Link is a boy or a girl.’’ In the official Nintendo narrative, Link is safely marked as a straight boy, but allows for some gender fluidity as a marker of inclusivity – girls can ‘relate to’ Link, just like boys can.
