Current Events > Hot take: Link sucks.

(+) Yeah! (+)

It's kinda silly that one of the biggest game franchises in the industry has been starring a faceless, personality-less avatar character for 30 years straight. But what's even more silly is that when Nintendo looks to try and change those things, fans get up in arms over how Link shouldn't talk, Link shouldn't look that way, etc...

Link is barely a character. And I know the counterargument of "Blah blah he's supposed to stand in for the player", and yet he really doesn't. The amount of player-input on customizing Link when playing Zelda games is microscopic. The closest we've gotten was BotW and even then people were still annoyed he didn't have his hat + tunic from the start.

Idk. It just rubs me the wrong way. He's barely a character, but he's not quite an avatar. It's stupid.

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link has personality, ever play the CD-I games >_>

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You havent read my fanfics

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https://youtu.be/lDPRwLlpdTU

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You're suppose to project onto silent characters. If they suck it's cause you suck :3

Ness is me as a youngin, that's why he's fuckin awesome

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Lost_All_Senses posted...

You're suppose to project onto silent characters. If they suck it's cause you suck :3

Ness is me as a youngin, that's why he's fuckin awesome

What happened here?

Ah, edited while I was posting.

Anyway, the first part, I remember playing the lttp once while high and imagining myself as link going back and forth from the dark world and trying to explain myself to the villagers that were still mostly on my side.

How I had to murder these guards that kept coming after me and there were these magical portals to an alternate dimension hidden in hard to reach places. The dark lord was controlling everything from behind the scenes and I had to keep wandering into dungeons until I found the big bad and kicked its ass.

Was a lot of fun really, keeping that narrative running in my head as I played the game:

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Alteres posted...

What happened here?

Im only half serious. I think you really are suppose to project on silent characters. But the rest is me just being a silly goose.

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I've never considered Link to be a stand-in or avatar character and I wouldn't want him to be. Link is fine the way he is.

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I always thought Link being a personality-lacking mute was the point.

He's a self-insert for the player into this fantasy world. Christ his name is literally "Link" for fucks sake.

It's not like Ellie from the last of us where it's just a bland character with no interesting personality. He's supposed to be a blank slate.

That was my interpretation anyway

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UnfairRepresent posted...

I always thought Link being a personality-lacking mute was the point.

He's a self-insert for the player into this fantasy world. Christ his name is literally "Link" for fucks sake.

It's not like Ellie from the last of us where it's just a bland character with no interesting personality. He's supposed to be a blank slate.

That was my interpretation anyway

This guy gets it. Though I don't hate Ellie outside her singing. Her awful fuckin singing.

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Theres a lot to unpack here; better to just throw away the whole suitcase.

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linklaugh.jpg

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UnfairRepresent posted...

I always thought Link being a personality-lacking mute was the point.

He's a self-insert for the player into this fantasy world. Christ his name is literally "Link" for fucks sake.

It's not like Ellie from the last of us where it's just a bland character with no interesting personality. He's supposed to be a blank slate.

That was my interpretation anyway

Right but like I said, despite being a self-insert, you can change nothing about him to reflect that. RPG/Adventure games that are meant to have a player serve as the main character let you customize their appearance. Up until BotW you couldn't do that to Link at all, and even now, you can change his clothes slightly.

You a girl? Self-insert yourself onto this dude. You're Black? Self-insert yourself onto this light-skinned character. That's my point. Like I said in OP, he's stuck in an awkward position between sort of character, and sort of avatar.

Hell, the fact that people have said both "He's a stand in" and "Nah I don't think he's a stand in" in this thread is a good example of it lol. Nintendo doesn't know what they want him to be.

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@Lost_All_Senses

yo, I fixed that shit, I was agreeing with you btw

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Alteres posted...

What happened here?

Ah, edited while I was posting.

Anyway, the first part, I remember playing the lttp once while high and imagining myself as link going back and forth from the dark world and trying to explain myself to the villagers that were still mostly on my side.

How I had to murder these guards that kept coming after me and there were these magical portals to an alternate dimension hidden in hard to reach places. The dark lord was controlling everything from behind the scenes and I had to keep wandering into dungeons until I found the big bad and kicked its ass.

Was a lot of fun really, keeping that narrative running in my head as I played the game:

You got a good imagination. I never got that far with it. I could definitely see it elevating thr overall experience tho. I might try it out. Recently I've gotten into really looking an environments in post apocalyptic settings and trying to imagine how exactly they got that way. You can go into that with as much depth as you want.

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LostForest posted...

Right but like I said, despite being a self-insert, you can change nothing about him to reflect that. RPG/Adventure games that are meant to have a player serve as the main character let you customize their appearance. Up until BotW you couldn't do that to Link at all, and even now, you can change his clothes slightly.

You a girl? Self-insert yourself onto this dude. You're Black? Self-insert yourself onto this light-skinned character. That's my point. Like I said in OP, he's stuck in an awkward position between sort of character, and sort of avatar.

Hell, the fact that people have said both "He's a stand in" and "Nah I don't think he's a stand in" in this thread is a good example of it lol. Nintendo doesn't know what they want him to be.

I don't think you need to have character custimization to be a player stand in

A black girl can still self insert as Link.

I think you're being a bit hyperliteral. It's not like Link takes his pants off and plays video games for 7 hours. He's a vassal for us to enter his fantasy realm and he's blank because his personality is ours. He's basically just our eyes and ears

I mean for the sake of argument, Commander Shepard has a character creation, can be interracial, gay, male or female and you choose a ton of her decisions. But I still wouldn't consider her a player insert. She's still a character with a ton of personality, just some player agency.

I'd argue a black girl playing Link can self-insert into him in Hyrule more than a black girl playing black girl commader Shepard can self insert into her on Palaven's moon.

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Do any other Links beyond Minish Cap have effectively a vacuum item? I think he's the only one that really ever sucks things

Not a fan of silent protagonists at all.

cousinvini posted...

Not a fan of silent protagonists at all.

I like them but as a minority. I prefer voiced protaganists.

I do see the dilemma. I hate it when I'm playing a game, a giant monster bursts through a wall, rips a human being to pieces, lunges at you, you combat roll out the way, shoot it with a barrage of MP5 fire.

And then your character quips something like "Well this day just keeps getter better huh?" and it's just jarring. Makes them out to be some kind of cold-blooded, socially awkward, emotioally mal-adjusted weirdo.

Silent protaganists don't have that problem because their interpretation is yours.

Is Gordan Freeman horrified when the soldiers start firing on the scientists? Or he is thrilled to finally get to live out his murder fantasies? Or is he a paranoid schizopheric like Ross Scott?

He's whatever you think he is.

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LostForest posted...

It's kinda silly that one of the biggest game franchises in the industry has been starring a faceless, personality-less avatar character for 30 years straight. But what's even more silly is that when Nintendo looks to try and change those things, fans get up in arms over how Link shouldn't talk, Link shouldn't look that way, etc...

Link is barely a character. And I know the counterargument of "Blah blah he's supposed to stand in for the player", and yet he really doesn't. The amount of player-input on customizing Link when playing Zelda games is microscopic. The closest we've gotten was BotW and even then people were still annoyed he didn't have his hat + tunic from the start.

Idk. It just rubs me the wrong way. He's barely a character, but he's not quite an avatar. It's stupid.

you leave Mr. hero alone!


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