I'm just going to begin that I am a semi-certified Legend of Zelda stan. The lore is beautiful, the wild timeline intriguing, and the amount of energy and soul put in these games are just a whole new level of lit. I still remember my very first playthrough of Ocarina of Time, and just being blown away by the amount of heart in these games my dude. I gotta hold myself back a lil' bit because I could go on forever about why the Legend Of Zelda deserves its iconic cult status. However, an issue that lies within the series is the fact that it's held on to many conventions without changing much in the past (which is just a bunch of little details that really don't matter in the context of this article).

That's why when the next installment, Breath of the Wild was unveiled recently at E3 last week, I shed a few lil' baby tears learning that SO many old standards of the series were being challenged with a breath of fresh air, such as a true-to-form open world environment (not seen since the first installment in the series), and even the craziest thing I've ever seen out of a flagship title of this much hype; you can go straight to the final boss after the opening moments of the game without completing its story. Will your faves ever do something this wild??? That's literally getting your cake and eating it too. Y'all always say it isn't possible but Nintendo is literally giving you cake, and letting you eat it too.

However, with this new title, a long-standing issue of late with the series has once again come into play. Why isn't Link female this time around? And before you start sighing, and shutting down on me, and wondering "why do people ask for so much nowadays, that's just how it is!", hear me out when I explain the story of Link, the hero of time, and why this is a much bigger issue than some perceive it as. (And no, Linkle, a non-canon character in the series, doesn't count).

Link basically is a concept and changes within every installment in the series due to a main theme of reincarnation. With every Legend of Zelda game, no two Links or Zeldas are the same. They are all different; the only thing holding the timeline together in these games are recurring themes and incarnations of integral characters. The series basically operates in a system of alternate worlds with different timelines and characters with the same name popping up now and then. Think of how many different actors have played Spider-Man or Batman. All different people but they all play the same (or different) Peter Parker or Bruce Wayne. Or even more relevant, the fact that there's a female Thor and an African-American Captain America. Different folks, same role.

The problem is that Link has been so many different people and so many different things within the series, yet the idea of a female Link is so frowned upon. Link has been blonde, brunette (contrary to their staple blonde hair), a young child, a teenager, a wolf, a ghost, and so many other entities it's almost absurd. It's crazy. Wild my dude.

So why can't Link be female, although the mythos of the series quite basically breaks down the idea of Link as a recurring concept and a role to fill and nothing more? For anyone who's played the games, the series makes the playing field relatively gender-neutral; Link doesn't have any true speaking roles, to begin with, has always been mute, and is already androgynous to begin with. The building blocks for Nintendo to create a Legend Of Zelda game with a female lead are literally already there, and could go into full swing if Nintendo were willing to go forward with it. And it totally could happen! (And to address those who are up to snuff with their Zelda lore; a gender swap between title character Zelda is always possible too, along with Ganon). However, Nintendo is not willing to admit that they do not want to do it, and continue to shy away from the issue at hand with excuses that just don't fit the rules they set themselves.

That's what pushes the argument into the size that it truly is. In Japanese society, gender roles are still VERY prominent; all the way down to stay-at-home-dads being an extremely foreign concept, and female neurosurgeons swapping their scrubs for a stay-at-home gig and putting their careers on hold indefinitely although a man is more likely than not capable of doing the job (sorry, but we can't play ourselves here my dudes!).

Not only that, there is a big lack of strong female leads within your long-established media franchises and flagships. Legend of Zelda with its lore has more room than any other gaming or media series to change this simply with how its mythos is set up. Not many games or television shows have the type of power Legend of Zelda has, and especially aren't blessed with the amount of flexibility the series has either. A female Link could force an industry-wide revolution, establishing many more female leads that the industry needs. (Not everyone is a Caucasian male in this world of ours.) A female Link could also push a cultural revolution of sorts within Japan too. Many female leads are built for the male gaze and are set into specific roles. With a female Link, these binds can be broken. There can be a figure who can change these conventions and inspire individuals.

A female Link is much more than "millennials" and "hyper-sensitive people" looking for the world to cater to them. A female Link could quite literally change the game for many within the industry and out, and set a precedent for the future where representation can truly be a widely accepted thing.

And with that, I'll see you all next week.