Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom shuts down queer readings

Many players have been able to celebrateThe Legend of Zelda Breath of the WildHyrule’s story provided just enough space for players to explore in ways that did not conform with its developers’ intent. Its story provided just enough possibility space for players to explore in ways that did not conform to its developers’ intent. Hyrule Field is a place that I’ve been to before, but this time it was different. Tears of KingdomThis time I felt more restricted.

Players have been looking for gender in this generation’s iteration of Link since before Breath of Wild released. Donning his tunic’s now iconic champion blue, Link’s androgyny in the game’s very first teaser trailer back in 2014 stirred mainstream audiences to scrutinize the player character’s presumed gender. And as early as that had come into question, so too did the character’s entire identity. A female Hero of Time was in the air. And if the character shown wasn’t Link, then maybe it was a playable Zelda.

Nintendo eventually addressed the speculation. Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma said that nothing so revolutionary as a woman was in the works, explaining that changing Link’s gender would “mess with the balance of the Triforce,” while focusing instead on Zelda as a playable female character would leave Link with nothing to do. “If we have princess Zelda as the main character who fights,” Aonuma asked, “then what is Link going to do?”

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

The assumptions made and the casual misogyny that they display reveal that certain types of gender are viewed as undesirable. A priori to the very land and cosmos of Hyrule — that the Triforce both represents and enshrines the subordination of women to men in the kingdom’s religion, and that courage and power must only be an essential trait of men. Many fans have been disappointed in Zelda’s continued sidelining, while the developer has been content to give Zelda little to do in her eponymous games. While his developers imagine Link as a blank slate for players of all identities, Sarah Stang contends that Link’s gender expression has never been incorporated into that vision. “Though featuring an androgynous protagonist can be viewed as progressive in a Western context,” she argues, “Link’s design fits in with Japanese cultural preferences and was therefore not an overly risky choice for Nintendo.”

Breath of the Wild’s gender trouble continued closer to release, as a series of leaked screenshots revealed Link’s encounter with the character Vilia outside of Gerudo Town, the all-female city in Hyrule’s desert. The screenshots suggested a transphobic punchline about crossdressing, and the game would deliver on the joke (the quest being a necessary step to completing the game’s true ending). After the release of the game, many players were able to express themselves in a queer way and find joy. Artists, cosplayers and writers of fan fiction embraced a crossdressing Link, while queer expressions in art, poetry and prose were also captured.

The reason I say this is because Tears Of The Kingdom so damning — it denies such space for imagination. Its narrative is ultimately not just a perpetuation of Hyrule’s status quo, but it introduces new constraints that deny queer subtext and even expression where once there was room before. We can trace these shifts by returning to the core of gender discourse. Breath of Wild: Gerudo Town.

Image: Nintendo via Polygon

Gerudo Town has a distinct gender and race, unlike other towns on Hyrule’s periphery. In addition to the rock people, bird people and fish people the Gerudo is a matriarchal, female society with a code that sounds vaguely Arabic. In both games, their culture creates friction and humor. Gerudos are both obsessed and scornful with men. They can be found either on pilgrimages in search of the one true love they have been taught to believe, or behind walls of a single-gender city.

Gerudo Town is open to women of all races, including the seemingly genderless Gorons. Men are barred from entry by an armed guard. In Breath of Wild, many still try their luck, with several characters’ whole personalities being a one-note joke about how it’s funny to watch men chase after women when they wish to be left alone. The Gerudo don’t police their own gender. Link’s attire is also welcomed by Vilia who is a trans woman. When he puts the clothing on, Link seems to be comfortable, but also bashful. Moreover, when Link reveals himself at the city’s health-replenishing spa, the innkeeper Romah implores him to relax. “We’re all vai here,” she assures, using the fictional language’s word for “woman.” Many more compliment Link’s appearance in strictly feminine terms. As both the Gerudo chieftain Riju and armor shopkeep Greta address Link as if he’s in disguise, we can infer that many perhaps see Link as a non-conforming person moving through the city.

A black-market armour shop is another way to dispel gender fundamentalist ideas, such as the one that Vilia was a man in a female dress. The following are some of the most common misconceptions about Vilia. Breath of Wild, the shop’s covert dealings of Gerudo armor for men suggests that there must be men in the all-female race, leaving one to assume trans men may be born of the Gerudo and, while not sanctioned in the city, are integrated into their material culture. The shop’s covert dealings of Gerudo armor for men suggests that there must be males in the all-female race, leaving one to assume trans men may have been born from the Gerudo and are integrated into their material culture despite not being sanctioned by city authorities. Tears of KingdomThe subtext that lurks beneath the surface is almost completely removed. Breath of the Wild’s surface.

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

Image: Koei Tecmo/Nintendo

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

Vilia is among the few named characters that are missing in Tears of KingdomThere is also no mention about her memory. The armor she gifted Link, which was once previously for sale in Gerudo Town’s market, is also conspicuously absent, just one of a few pieces of clothing to not return to the game. Instead, the game’s main quest takes players into a derelict Gerudo Town. Link has to infiltrate the sanctum, which is now an underground bunker. This time, however, he’s welcomed. The man as an individualAmongst women sheltering. Moving through the now underground settlement, Link is greeted with suspicion and novelty to the sheltered children who have not seen men before, and he’s treated as a presumed threat for his proximity. Gerudo Town previously rejected essentialist logics like the idea men are inherently dangerous to women — which undergirds real-world transphobia — but here it simply invokes such beliefs in much less humorous tones than it did even in Vilia’s quest.

And outside of town, a Hylian man mentions to Link that he’s looking for a black market armor shop that sells voe (Gerudo for “man”) armor. The new material is more like a cultural tchotchke, and denies queer themes of masculinity.

Tears of Kingdom The new sets of armor can be used to express yourself, but they are not explicitly female. The majority of the armor sets are Zonai, an ancient fictional culture which heavily borrows from pan-Mesoamerican imagery and Egyptian. As such, it’s hard to read their skirts and body paint as feminine when these were features of masculine presentation to their cultures. I guess there is the one-off Cece’s Hat, designed by a Hylian in Hateno, but it lacks a matching set of top and bottoms. So, there’s nothing really replacing the gender nonconformity that the vai armor introduced in Breath of Wild. But this would perhaps be less notable if Link’s gender presentation wasn’t so ridiculed across Hyrule.

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

In place of the calamities, the gender-based deviance is what has taken over the world. The gender deviance is what pervades the land instead of calamity. Tears of KingdomLink’s masculineness is frequently mocked in jokes by Link and other characters. At one stable, a Lurelin refugee laughs at the notion that “a skinny little guy” might attempt to rescue his village, while a Gerudo pilgrim jokes with Link that he couldn’t possibly be her destined lover. More than one Gerudo remarks on his short stature, while others reject the notion he may be the famed hero of time because he’s so short. The Great Fairy Mija, however fond of him, describes Link as “a slim little lad” in what is framed as a backhanded compliment. This comment envelops Hyrule in gendered standards, just as gendered social norms and beauty standards do here.

The queer joy of Hyrule, a land ruled by calamity, was accepted only in the unstructured and empty wilds. In a world filled with side quests, new settlements and a reborn monarchy there’s no room for a heroine who dresses like a woman. Tears of KingdomThe game presents an alternate Hyrule, wherein the Triforce is not the three spiritual elements of Power, Courage and Wisdom but rather the binary of gender.