The Legend of Zelda's main problem is it's main character

The Legend of Zelda has become one of Nintendo's flagship franchises over the past three decades and for good reason.  It started off pioneering adventure games, setting the standard for top-down entries in the genre and, even now, continues to set sale and review records with Breath of the Wild and its recently-released follow-up, Tears of the Kingdom.

(Image property of Nintendo)

It was when I was playing through Breath of the Wild for the second time recently when I had something of a realisation about the game.  While I loved its gameplay and its world, I still felt cold on the narrative.  The first time I played the game, I felt this too but I chalked it up to me being new to the series and needing to get into it.  Nowadays though, I'm no longer new but still not really caring.

I thought about this issue as I watched the flashback where Zelda falls crying into Link's arms in the rain, a scene that I knew I was supposed to feel sad at, but just didn't.  Instead, I was focused on how incredibly awkward Link looked and wondered why he did nothing to really comfort Zelda.  And then it hit me.  My problem with the game was not that I couldn't get into it but rather that its main character was actively stopping me from getting into it.

Thus, I want to examine here what exactly the problem is with Link as a main character but also what I think could be done with him at this point.

The Blank Slate Problem

To preempt some criticism of my point of view here, let me start with a question.  Who is your favourite Zelda character?  If you're like me, Princess Zelda, especially in the newer games, is a strong contender.  Alternatively, what is your favourite thing about Link as a character?  Again, if you're like me, you will struggle to find anything to say in answer to this question beyond surface-level elements like his design.  Herein lies the rub.

(Image property of Nintendo)

If I had to pinpoint my exact issues with Link, I would say that he does not feel like a character to me.  He grunts in combat but, beyond that, he shows no real emotion outside of determination in a fight or dull surprise as things people have said to him.  His voicelessness is the obvious barrier to Link showing more character but the same can also be said of his animations which portray very little in the way of personality.

Strangely, while Link has always been like this, I don't think it has always been a problem.  The obvious example is Windwaker Link who is cartoony and full of character while also, incidentally, being panned by Zelda fans at the time for not being gritty and serious enough.  Even the original games though, made a mute Link work.  The NES had no choice but to make Link mute due to processing and storage limitations but, instead, players began to project themselves onto him where they were the adventurer and could experience their own thoughts and feelings rather than his.

(Image property of Nintendo)

For me, Link's lack of character has only become an issue post-Windwaker and has only come to a head with Breath of the Wild.  Why is it an issue with these games?  In a word, story.  It's very clear from scenes like Zelda's breakdown that Zelda is trying to tell a more character-focused story nowadays.  However, a character-based story only works if you have some characters.

Due to Link's muteness and lack of facial-expressions, he offers nothing for other characters to play off.  In Breath of the Wild, Zelda struggles with all sorts of emotions because of her status, her self-doubt and pressure from her father.  This is often communicated through flashbacks where she shares these thoughts with Link.  However, instead of being emotional, these scenes feel incredibly awkward because Link just stares at her, saying and doing nothing.  It's like Kate Winslet trying to perform a scene from Titanic while Leonardo DiCaprio's role is filled by a bored Golden Retriever.

You may still be thinking, 'Yes, but doesn't him being mute still let you project your feelings onto that scene?' to which I would say no, not really.  You see, we can't project when it's a cutscene because we have no control over Link's response.  

The reason I highlight this as a post-Windwaker issue is because that's when games started having more realistic-looking cutscenes to tell their stories where the player is not in control of Link's actions.  By doing this, Link becomes separated from the player and is no longer just a point of view character but rather a completely separate individual within the plot with implied thoughts and feelings beyond the player's.

(Image property of Nintendo)

In case you wonder what I mean, let me give another couple of examples from Breath of the Wild.  Multiple times, Zelda refers to Link in a way that suggests he exists outside of the player's control.  In one scene she refers to Link's relationship with his father.  In another, she tells him to ride back to the castle and tell her father to leave her alone.  

These lines suggest that Link not only exists outside of the player's control but also that he has interpersonal relationships that he could only maintain if he did speak.  This is not only distracting, making you wonder if Link does actually talk just not on camera, but it also gives him agency as a character beyond what you tell him to do as a player, making it impossible for you to fully project onto him, leading to the aforementioned awkward interactions with his fellow characters.

This is then exacerbated again by the fact that Link has dialogue options in the rest of the game with merchants and quest-givers.  As a player, this really just makes you wonder in those emotional scenes with Zelda why he doesn't pipe up and say something useful like he's done about twenty times in the last four hours.  The problem with a selectively talking main character is that, beyond extreme social anxiety, it makes no sense for an ostensibly real person to ever go completely mute for prolonged periods.

As such, the problem with Link's character is that he doesn't have one.  This needn't necessarily be an issue, as it wasn't in older games, but has become one as the Zelda games try to tell more character-based stories.  The barrier appears where they have to do this while continuing to make it impossible for Link to fully interact with said story. 

Let's try spicing things up

There are two questions at play for me here.  What can Nintendo do about this, and what will Nintendo do?  In answer to the latter, absolutely nothing.  Zelda continues to sell well and win awards for its great gameplay and so they have very little reason to care.  What they could do though, raises a much more interesting question.

On the one hand, they could move towards the Windwaker writing-style again.  If that game proved anything with its younger, more cartoonish Link, it's that Zelda can tell very endearing stories, even if they aren't gritty and realistic.  

(Image property of Nintendo)

The problem with this approach is that, while many people would enjoy a return to more old-school Zelda, it is harder to compete with the God of War-s and The Last of Us-es in the Triple-A sphere when your game is too cute to market itself as a sweeping epic.

Alternatively, they could always give Link a voice.  It would certainly help deal with a lot of my issues with his character.  However, this opens a whole wasp's nest of issues.  

First of all, if you remember the backlash to Windwaker's reveal when people despised it simply because of its cartoony art style, you can probably image the sheer hurricane of rage that would come from upending one of the series' defining characteristics, its mute main character.

Secondly, another downside to this solution is that you run the risk of doing a Metroid: Other M and making your main character incredibly irritating and poorly-written.  Arguably, leaving it to the audience to decide what Link is thinking for you saves the problem of worrying about bad writing.

As I have said, though, I get no impression that Nintendo will change Link in any way any time soon.  Perhaps at some time in the future, if the series or a Nintendo console are flagging for some reason, they will feel the need to make more radical changes, something they have done before with Breath of the Wild's gameplay, but for now there is no risk of that.

While I maintain that I don't see Link as a character, I also accept that it is not detrimental to the experience.  It is unobtrusive to gameplay for starters and, even then, the story is The Legend of Zelda after all, not The Legend of Link.  I'm simply aiming to raise the issue here that, as long as Link is lacking in character in the ways I've described, Zelda will struggle to tell the character-based stories that its most recent entries are trying to.  They'll simply have to settle for being some of the most acclaimed and beloved games of all time for other reasons instead.