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. Other communities can claim Link, but they’re not going to get official recognition or validation in doing so. But the Zelda games craft layers of plausible deniability around Link’s gender and sexuality, and one of their ways of doing this is the way in which other gay/trans characters are used in the games. Overtly gay and trans-coded characters in Zelda are defined against Link’s mute prettiness. This brings us to Breath of the Wild and Gerudo Town.

Source: The Times February 14, 2024 09:13 UTC