Amidst the discussion of Breath of the Wild 2, Zelda's shorter haircut and role in the trailer has had fans wondering if she might be playable this time. Which naturally moves into the realm of whether a female Link should be a thing too. From what I've read, pretty much no one shares my opinion on all this which is: no to playable Zelda, yes to female Link, no to picking your gender of Link at the beginning of the game.
To elaborate, it's gotten me wondering about the nature of video games a little bit. Where established characters can be expected or even demanded to be playable solely because they're major characters. Personally, I don't want playable Zelda. At least, if she's doing what Link is normally doing. I actually think Zelda is a great character. She has a distinct part in most of the stories as both a tactician and a selfless ruler, and I think having her playable would be as strange as, say, having Tom Nook playable in Animal Crossing. She's one of my favorite female characters in gaming largely because they haven't felt the need to make her just "Link in a dress;" you can have a strong character without needing to have them fight.
Maybe part of it is that it'd be weird seeing her catch fire, tumble violently off cliffs, etc?The larger question on my mind is, why do so many people want a well-defined character to break character in order to become playable? I don't get it. Is it a video game thing? I consider other non-combative characters in media and pretty much no one is asking for Alfred to be Batman or C-3P0 to blast TIE Fighters in an X-wing.
That being said, I wouldn't mind female Link, though. The reason why this is different from just gender-swapping Mario (or Samus for that matter) is because Link is a fairly unusual character in that he's basically several different reincarnations of a hero. And with each passing game, those versions of Link have less and less in common; before ALttP, he had no family. Before OoT, he had no origin story. Before TWW, he was an only child. Before BotW, he wore green and a cap.
Lastly, I would hate to have it be an option between male or female Link. I think picking a sex would dilute the story of the game because even though Link isn't super active in the plot, there are often plot elements that rely on him being the sex he is. OoT's Ruto had a crush on him and that tied into the Zora's Sapphire story. TWW's Ganon was specifically kidnapping Hylian girls. TP and SS had romantic interests in danger that kickstarted their plots. BotW featured sneaking into an all-woman city, etc.
So there are my thoughts that no one asked for on the Zelda series and girls. :p My larger point is about playability inherently being tied to combat and characterization contradicting that. At the end of the day, it all comes back to LUDONARRATIVE DISSONANCE.
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