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Online petition asks Nintendo to change Link to a young black female in the next Zelda Wii U game


Just Crouton

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A new petition on Change.org is calling for Nintendo to change Link to a young black female in the upcoming Legend of Zelda game on Wii U.

 

Anton Watabe from Detroit, Michigan has started the petition.

 

"For too many years have the black community been underrespresented [sic] in the video game industry," Watabe wrote on Change.org. "Nintendo went too far this time when they chose to make the new Link white and white only. We need to end this injustice, equality has sadly still not been truly achieved."

 

The petition currently has 48 supporters, but judging from the comments, it seems like some who've signed think the whole campaign is one big tongue-in-cheek joke.

 

What do you think of the petition?

 

______

 

Check your privilege, white patriarchy. Ya'll crackers' days are numbered.

 

Link gonna be a sista, and when we done, we be callin' her "Shalinkua."

 

Fo life.

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It's pretty humorous if it's a joke.

 

If it's serious, they're really dumb.

Indeed, It's bad enough people always call him Zelda. It wouldn't be good for them to change Link to a female. At least make it like a new playable character or something. But that isn't Link. Maybe have Link, Zelda and this character be selectable as playable characters. Maybe even Lonk Fronk+s+Cousin+Lonk_279207_4907987.jpg

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Add a way to change Link's Skin Colour or heck have a CHaracter creator like today's bigger RPG's. Sorted. Mass Effect did it right.

 

This is making me think of Resident Evil 5 all over again with the whole "Durr you're a white guy and you shoot black people in Africa!"

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It wouldn't be good for them to change Link to a female.

 

I wouldn't have a problem with this, it's not impossible for at least one incarnation of Link to be female, and for a short while after the reveal of Zelda Wii U, some actually thought that was the case. Japanese games have always had androgynous male characters, which is why such a change wouldn't be that Farfetch'd.

 

But unless some crazy s*** happens, Link will never be black.

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The part I'm confused at is how they say that, " "For too many years have the black community been underrespresented [sic] in the video game industry,". There are MANY video games with African American cast members. Final Fantasy VII, SoulCalibur III, Left 4 Dead 2, Resident Evil 5 and many more games. Now if this was meant to be a troll, this is hilarious, but obviously it's a real thing. My opinion on this is that the guy who wrote this petition obviously didn't do his research and keeps saying that Nintendo has been going too far for not giving Link an African American(Black) color scheme, really? My main question about this is, How in the hell is it going to improve the gameplay if Link's color scheme is changed to black?

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More 4chan idiocy trying to "infiltrate" the feminist community? Why are we even giving things like this attention? All we're doing is either letting them play their joke or letting folks who should know better, such as

Are you kidding me... Are you f***ing kidding me! Link has always been a white little blonde boy, and now your saying that Nintendo making him the same as he's always been is going to far!? Literally what the hell is this.

The part I'm confused at is how they say that, " "For too many years have the black community been underrespresented [sic] in the video game industry,". There are MANY video games with African American cast members. Final Fantasy VII, SoulCalibur III, Left 4 Dead 2, Resident Evil 5 and many more games. Now if this was meant to be a troll, this is hilarious, but obviously it's a real thing. My opinion on this is that the guy who wrote this petition obviously didn't do his research and keeps saying that Nintendo has been going too far for not giving Link an African American(Black) color scheme, really? My main question about this is, How in the hell is it going to improve the gameplay if Link's color scheme is changed to black?

actually fall for it.

I have no problem with a Zelda game offering players to change how Link looks both in race and gender. Aonuma has specifically stated that the character is supposed to represent you, the player, so being offered the ability to change how Link looks makes sense. Even diegetically. As Shradow stated, Link reincarnates over and over, reincarnation in religions never really has folks reincarnating as a white male every time. So it's definitely not a completely illogical thing to allow.

Oh, and Kirito, you can offer up a few examples of black characters, but that's a VERY small percentage. A percentage that's nowhere near the percentage of the actual black population or even gamer population. That's underrepresentation, by definition. At the same time, you have to look at how the characters were portrayed within the games you're giving as examples. Resident Evil 5? Not exactly the example you want to give for black characters in your video games.

Nintendo doesn't need to do anything, and I don't think necessarily asking for Link to be black is the best way to go about this. I would rather just ask for Nintendo to make a game with a black protagonist. That being said, the idea of asking for Link to be a black female isn't a dumb question, but the way the petition goes about it is clear that it's a troll attempt.

Will they make him black? Not likely. Like at all. However, I could see them making him female. And I certainly wouldn't mind playing that game.
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Q.Q #Easily fooled, I suppose that's what I get for posting while I'm half awake.

 

To an actual point though, the same could be said of any other racial group (obviously exempting whites), and in fact Latinos and Asians are probably more under-represented that African Americans are.

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On a serious note, I do wish there was a slight character customization thing in the new Zelda. Even if it was limited similar to how FE: Awakening was. I just wanna play a female Link. :<

I disagree - ain't Link meant to pretty much always be an incarnation of a former Link, or something like that? Character customization options seem to go against his character. Just my opinion, though.
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I disagree - ain't Link meant to pretty much always be an incarnation of a former Link, or something like that? Character customization options seem to go against his character. Just my opinion, though.

What character? He's supposed to represent the player, who isn't always a guy, he never talks and he's constantly referred to with a title that does not denotate his gender, he's never the same Link, and reincarnation allows the diegetic means for him to be anyone.

I don't think it goes against anything for them to make him a girl in one game, or allow one some customization in his appearance.
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What character? He's supposed to represent the player, who isn't always a guy, he never talks and he's constantly referred to with a title that does not denotate his gender, he's never the same Link, and reincarnation allows the diegetic means for him to be anyone.

I don't think it goes against anything for them to make him a girl in one game, or allow one some customization in his appearance.

 Being a silent protagonist doesn't mean he's supposed to represent the player, though some slight clothing customization would always be welcome.

 

And if he's gonna be a chick, don't make him Link for God's sake, make him Zelda. Any look but the classic pale skin, blonde hair, blue eyes, green tunic look just wouldn't really feel like Link. Besides, we've never seen anyone with truly dark skin in LoZ, so why does it matter? They just don't exist in that world. That'd be like fighting for cat-people in real life.

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Being a silent protagonist doesn't mean he's supposed to represent the player.

Saying he's supposed to represent the player was in reference to Aonuma and Miyamoto saying that he's supposed to represent the player.
 

And if he's gonna be a chick, don't make him Link for God's sake, make him Zelda. Any look but the classic pale skin, blonde hair, blue eyes, green tunic look just wouldn't really feel like Link. Besides, we've never seen anyone with truly dark skin in LoZ, so why does it matter? They just don't exist in that world. That'd be like fighting for cat-people in real life.

You could make him pale skin, blonde hair, blue eyes, and green tunic but make him be a girl. It's clear that they can do that just based on the confusion over whether the new one was.

The last part is why I'm more okay with them not making him black. Although the comparison to cat people is odd considering black folks aren't a different species. You could also argue that several of the characters in Twilight Princess were of a different race, and the metal worker in Skyward Sword is most definitely black.

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More 4chan idiocy trying to "infiltrate" the feminist community? Why are we even giving things like this attention? All we're doing is either letting them play their joke or letting folks who should know better, such as
actually fall for it.

I have no problem with a Zelda game offering players to change how Link looks both in race and gender. Aonuma has specifically stated that the character is supposed to represent you, the player, so being offered the ability to change how Link looks makes sense. Even diegetically. As Shradow stated, Link reincarnates over and over, reincarnation in religions never really has folks reincarnating as a white male every time. So it's definitely not a completely illogical thing to allow.

Oh, and Kirito, you can offer up a few examples of black characters, but that's a VERY small percentage. A percentage that's nowhere near the percentage of the actual black population or even gamer population. That's underrepresentation, by definition. At the same time, you have to look at how the characters were portrayed within the games you're giving as examples. Resident Evil 5? Not exactly the example you want to give for black characters in your video games.

Nintendo doesn't need to do anything, and I don't think necessarily asking for Link to be black is the best way to go about this. I would rather just ask for Nintendo to make a game with a black protagonist. That being said, the idea of asking for Link to be a black female isn't a dumb question, but the way the petition goes about it is clear that it's a troll attempt.

Will they make him black? Not likely. Like at all. However, I could see them making him female. And I certainly wouldn't mind playing that game.

I somewhat agree with this due to the nature of reincarnating. But it does seem an odd choice. As much as you say he isn't a "character" he is. As much, or more than, Mario is at least. And I don't see people complaining about how Mario is always Italian. (Key word, don't see, I'm sure some do.)

As for making him a girl, make Zelda playable more and make sure she's useful, well done, and fun to play as.

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