[Concept Art Discussion] What if Zelda were a girl?

I hope you find it an enjoyable read! Thank you for your patience.

Female Link

Female Links have been relevant lately. With some of you having just been introduced to my work, I think dedicating this Concept Art thread to my Link is a good idea.

As you no doubt know, I've been drawing female Link for a great many years. But the portrayal of this character has changed throughout those years. She started as a much more average and unassuming character; I didn’t want to draw a lot of attention to her, or treat her too differently from how a male Link would be.

Link? But, like... A girl? 

A few people erroneously think that my Link is a genderswap of the hero from A Link to the Past, but that's not quite true. In fact, Link's hair was not ACTUALLY pink -- it was purely just a design decision made in-game to help the hair read better against the surrounding hues. Pure coincidence.

Initially, she was designed as a strict genderswap of Link from the original Zelda, but I like to think that, now, she is a combination of several interpretations of classic Link (pre Ocarina of Time). Here are some of those sources below:

1. Captain N: Sewn-on shoulders
2. Ishiniomori LTTP manga: Link’s silly & short hat
3. JP LTTP Dance Commercial: Circular belt buckle (Link’s dancer also had one)

The belt buckle is one of the clearest indicators that this is a Legend of Zelda character, and not just a nondescript green-clad elven adventurer (because let's be real, Link's design is by no means a unique one). The classic design of Link was even more generic. 

Naturally, I worried that my Link wasn't visually interesting enough, and was thus, quite easily forgettable. Although it was initially by design, brown hair doesn't stand out. It's very average, so I opted for something much more obnoxious -- pink hair. I drew inspiration from the neon-coloured hair that many characters in old anime had. It also adds an air of femininity to the design.

A lot of my inspiration seems to come from content created in the 70s - 80s, it seems.
 

Let's look at some of the noteworthy traits of this design that have stood the test of time.

Shoulder Pads

Although she does not always wear them nowadays, the shoulder-pads were prominent elements on her design. The purpose of her shoulder-pads was to reference Power Dressing, an 80s fashion phenomenon in which women would dress in ways to establish authority in male-dominated fields. Shoulder padding made women’s shoulders look wider, and this helps my Link look stronger & more masculine in silhouette (to offset the width of her hips, haha).

Even when I don’t draw her with padded shoulders, I often try to evoke the shape it creates. A recent take on her design features a pair of lapels, which help to suggest a similar shape in the composition of her design.

Skirt Slit

The skirt slit breaks up the monotony of what was previously just a flat horizontal line wrapping around the pelvis, and so it adds an extra dynamic quality. But it also serves another important service: Sex appeal.

The cut in her tunic shows off her thighs, and it’s really got this gratuitous fantasy element that you could’ve easily found in something like Conan the Barbarian, where these warriors would be NEEDLESSLY showing skin. Coincidentally, it brings a bit of focus onto her hips, contrasting with the masculine shape language of her shoulders.

There is a blend of masculine & feminine communication language across many of the designs I’ve given her. Not unlike Nintendo’s Link, who is generally androgynous.

In a lot of ways, I didn’t want my Link to feel too differently from an official Link. Yes, she is a woman with large breasts, but I don’t think she’d feel out of place in any other Link’s place – and I don’t think any other Link would feel too out of place in hers. Even Nintendo’s Link gets sexualized plenty too, so I think I’m in the clear.

On the Subject of Breasts

The works featuring my Link tend to have breasts of varying sizes. There are two reasons for this.

1. It's good to appreciate all kinds of boobs.
2. I'm too lazy for consistency.

But when it comes to an actual ongoing narrative, where the focus isn’t on sexual gratification on behalf of the viewer, I’ve got a surprisingly difficult question that I need to think about. How big do I want her breasts to be?

Sure, it’s a silly question – but it’s a genuine one! We like boobs, and they offer a really neat dynamic element to the design. We also really like boobs. But going too large poses a risk. Given the considerably more serious tone a comic like this offers compared to my silly comics, a pair of breasts that are TOO large make it difficult to take the character seriously in context, and they come off feeling a bit too gratuitous. I think it’s going to take some time before deciding upon the most appropriate size. 

But it’s very tricky, because, like… Boobs are fun to exaggerate.

Not only that, but large breasts pose logistic issues too. It’s harder to design an outfit with specific shapes when the breasts get in the way, and they’re just hard to dress in too. One of the reasons you seldom see my Link with a belt across her chest is because they clash with her boobs… Belts between bobbles don’t seem very comfortable.

Ideally, I think we’re going to want something that appears balanced. I think it’s important that her hips don’t feel too large or too small in comparison to her breasts. A large contributing factor is the style of the art: the more cartoony & stylized the art, the larger breasts can be without feeling too gratuitous. I think it has a lot to do with the proportions of the character’s head.

Different Outfits

The green tunic is cool, but recent games have shown that Link doesn’t NEED it TO BE Link. Also, it’s fun to dress up.

Each story can be its own little adventure, with a different set of circumstances. Some adventures may require certain types of apparel. Whether that’s simply to dress in the local fashion or to achieve a strategic advantage, like warm clothing in the snow.

Though I begin to wonder… Where would Link store all these outfits? She can’t realistically carry every piece of apparel with her like in a video game. There are a few options we can use, but I don’t think they can account for every instance. Here are some of those:

1. Link stays at inns, leaving her less relevant gear.
2. Alternatively, staying with townsfolk. More secure, less natural.
3. Does she have a horse? Access to someone with hammerspace?
4. They're only temporary outfits loaned or traded for the task at hand.

Hammerspace is an extradimensional, instantly accessible storage space in fiction. This is often how video game characters can produce objects out of thin air.

It seems unreasonable to justify owning & replacing so many of her outfits. Where does her quintessential green tunic go when she’s wearing a different outfit?

1. Does she sell it, only to buy it back later? Impractical… 
2. Being repaired? But why not just wait for it to be fixed? 
3. Did she leave her clothes with a trustworthy person? 
4. How does she transfer large quantities of clothing across the world? 

Travelers probably don’t own very many pairs of clothing, as they don’t have very many storage solutions. Unless Link has a horse, she doesn’t have a reliable way of storing her stuff. Even if her tiny pouch has hammerspace, it can’t fit an entire outfit through it. Not to mention that, if it could, it would invalidate the need for practicality in terms of physical space.

Should she get a backpack then? Like the travelers in BotW? That is kind of bulky though. Will it get in the way aesthetically? Does she have to put it down before every fight? It can get stolen that way! Aaaah decisions, decisions…

Anyway...

Here are a few quickly sketched outfits based on apparel from Breath of the Wild. Rather than strictly translate the same exact outfit onto my Link, I wanted to use them as a base and re-contextualize them. Her primary green tunic has so many interesting qualities that it would be a real shame to do away with them just because we’ve got a new outfit – I think it also helps to establish her sense of fashion.

Hylian Tunic

Many of Hyrule’s travelers appear to have some sort of interpretation of this outfit. In fact, here is the in-game description:

A common garb that achieved widespread popularity in Hyrule, particularly among travelers. Its light-yet-sturdy fabric doesn't limit movement.

It can be assumed that the Hylian tunic is a rather fashionable choice. Furthermore, the designer’s use of colour & shapes feels reminiscent of an older illustration depicting the Hylian fashion in the age of A Link to the Past:

[courtesy The History of Hyrule]

Of course, in my interpretation, I changed up the breast plate to cover both her breasts and exposed some of her thighs. This makes it feel a little bit top-heavier to give that emphasis on the shoulders, while still showing off some sexy leg. The poofy sleeves from my older design returns too!

Snowquill Tunic

One of my favourite outfits in all of Breath of the Wild, so I’ve kept it largely unchanged. The outfit the Rito sells Link in BotW mirrors their own fashion, so I’ve taken a closer look at the details of the female outfit. The shoulder-pads from the male outfit remain though, for obvious reasons.

And more...

Desert Apparel

While I still fully expect to draw Link in the Gerudo Vai outfit that we all love, she doesn’t need it to gain access to the city, and thus, there’s not a narrative requirement for it. She’s already presenting as a woman, after all. The male Gerudo outfit, however… I don’t like.

The BotW Artbook has a collection of small sketches for what the male outfit was going to look like previously, and I liked them all much more. So, that’s the direction I was leaning towards here, but it still needs some work.

Zora Armor

I totally pulled a blank for this outfit, so it’s incredibly unfinished. But I do like the helmet, so I thought that was good enough to show off. I’ve given her a pair of goggles to provide protection and to make seeing much easier when underwater.

(Because I want to have a story set underwater).

Unlike most of her hats, which are short and silly, I’ve given her helmet a longer tail. This means it should float around while she’s in the water, allowing us to better communicate that she’s underwater – and it resembles the long head fins of the Zora people.

I want to make this outfit look like a swimsuit (but fullbody) so it needs a lot more work.

Phew… That’s a lot of information, isn’t it? Let’s take this moment to take a brief break.

Breathe in… Pace yourself. Take it easy. Stop to smell the roses. Everything’s okay.

Anyway, back to best girl…

But who is Link as a character?

As I’ve previously mentioned, giving Link a distinct personality can be tricky, as there’s always going to be someone who won’t like it. Link, as a silent protagonist, can be given a multitude of different voices by different players. But he is still his own character.

Let’s look at what can be considered the most quintessential traits of his character:

1. Always willing to help, regardless of how shallow the request is. 
2. Adventures on their own and is often alone with their thoughts.
3. Regularly finds new places, people, and snippets of information.
   

These three traits can be argued to be at the core of Link’s character, regardless of what kind of hero your PERSONAL Link is when you play the game. This is especially true with games like the classic Legend of Zelda or Breath of the Wild. So, where to from here?

What can we extrapolate from Link’s in-game actions and these traits?

Empathy

Link is a hero. She helps anyone she can. It’s that simple. Whether it’s helping a child find his mother, saving travelers on the road, or making someone’s day better by lighting torches in town… In a world where so many people can be sad, it’s nice when someone’s there to bring happiness into their life. Link does “link” the people of Hyrule together in times of turmoil, after all.

Admiration & Sympathy

Link is someone we can aspire to be like – kind & strong. But also, relatable. As a hero, the weight of the world is on her shoulders, so she struggles in her most private moments. Alone. We all know that feeling. I hope that, when she is sad, it makes readers sad also.

Silent, but Profound

Link does talk but isn’t a proactive conversationalist. She is often alone with her thoughts & meets a lot of people with useful advice. Perhaps there is worldliness & wisdom under her stoic demeanor. As a solver of puzzles, she also has a penchant for critical thought. Not to mention that Link has come across many wise sayings in the events of Zelda 1 by virtue of the Old Man.

Though she may not be very talkative, I like to think that Link has a lot of worthwhile things to say. Perhaps she just doesn’t know how to always put it into words, or perhaps she’s just quick to communicate her ideas as clear & as measured as she can. 

My Link is a character who listens; someone people can confide in. This helps to make her more likeable – someone you can trust and admire. She wants to support you as best she can, so she’ll generally let other people take the lead in conversation.

I’ve always enjoyed Conan the Barbarian (1982) because the film features so very little dialogue to communicate its ideas and emotions. 

I think keeping the vast majority of Link’s dialogue simple can help viewers more easily accept her AS Link. It prevents Link from imposing too strongly on the viewer, allowing for an easier separation between the two entities. She isn’t going to share all her thoughts to the viewer in absolute detail. In a way, it might make her a less interesting character – but perhaps there’s greater power in what goes unsaid – or in the exact words chosen.

Solitude

Although not every Link was alone for their journey, my Link is most inspired by the original games in the series, in which Link was alone.

This loneliness is important, I feel, as it allows us to see just how small Link truly is in the face of Ganon’s evil, and even the world around her. It helps to make her feel just a tiny bit sadder too. Of course, there’s also beauty to being alone and I’d like to communicate that in some of her illustrations too. This also allows her interactions with characters to feel much more impactful.

Link could have some recurring companions, facilitating the building of relationships, but I’m not sure she should have a constant companion (Midna, Navi, etc) if I want to preserve the feelings of the previous paragraph. I think there are a lot of interesting NPCs in Zelda, especially BotW. But I feel like there could’ve been just a tiny bit more to their stories… Just a bit. I’d like to give some attention to those kinds of characters – characters who are insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

In a way, these other characters and their feelings should be treated as more important than Link’s. Link’s just a passerby in their stories, but their stories provide an opportunity to suggest how Link feels without outright saying it.

The Great, Big World

Of course, the world is bigger than Link, even if she is the main character. Given that the games in the Downfall timeline are the most comparable to my Link’s experience, with Zelda being kidnapped and the Triforce of Wisdom being shattered… I wonder…

Just what happened to the rest of Hyrule during that time?

Did you know that Legend of Zelda (1986) takes place in a small portion of Hyrule? The following game features Northern Hyrule, but we don’t actually know what happens to anyone other than Link during the events of the first Zelda.

Are there any other noteworthy figures? What about the king? What did he do? What did Hyrule do during the absence of their Princess? If only someone explored these ideas.

If only…

Perhaps I should?

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a story told from the perspective of Hyrule’s king, and I think it could be an interesting one – and offer a bit more narrative direction compared to my earlier thoughts of assorted adventures. Perhaps it’s down the line in Link’s own story – when the poop starts getting a bit more real and the tension rises.

I’ve had some really interesting thoughts concerning that lately, and perhaps I should spend one of the next Concept Art & Discussion threads sharing a bit of that. Maybe.

Anyway, this was a REALLY long thread… These always feel long, but this felt longer than usual. I had a lot more that I could’ve talked about, but I worry about information overload. Also, this takes a long time to write.

Thank you for your support, and for reading!

Don’t forget to eat & sleep!