It would be fun to write him as Hannibal Lecter tbh

[rynling]

One of the problems I’m having with a multichapter fanfic WIP is that I have trouble writing Link.

Ganondorf imperils all sorts of people, but he seems to find the act of killing distasteful. In fact, Ganondorf goes to great lengths not to kill people. If Ganondorf consents to kill someone, then he has a very good reason to do so.

Obviously murder is wrong, but listen. Who among us has not fantasized about killing a king.

Zelda canonically commits ethnic cleansing, as does Hylia. In addition, she happily unleashes Link onto the world. Her only regrets are about Link’s feelings, not the lives of anyone he kills.

Obviously genocide is bad, but listen. My fellow Americans. Who among us is not complicit.

I can sort of understand Ganondorf and Zelda. Ganondorf desires power because he comes from the position of being forced into submission, while Zelda believes she must sacrifice the few for the benefit of the many. I think both of them are horribly fucked up, but I get it.

On top of that, Ganondorf and Zelda are asking difficult questions about empire and resistance and cycles of violence, and these questions are interesting to explore in fiction.

Meanwhile, Link just kills for fun. This is fine when he’s the protagonist of a video game, because that’s how video games work. Unfortunately, as soon as you try to fit this behavior into a framework of psychological realism, Link gets very scary very quickly.

I can write Link in an AU where he isn’t out hunting non-government-approved “species” of people for sport. Canon compliant Link is a monster, though.

The problem with trying to work through Link’s character in fandom spaces is that people will come out of the woodwork to share political opinions that I really wish they’d keep to themselves. It’s intense, not to mention demoralizing. And worst of all, it doesn’t help me with this stupid fanfic.

Comments

[deemoyza]

Link being a silent protagonist definitely doesn't help, I imagine. While I haven't personally played a Zelda game since Ocarina of Time, I have kept up with the series via others' posts and YouTube playthroughs, and it bothers me that while the worldbuilding and lore in later games became more complex, Link essentially remained the same. I get that he's supposed to be a blank slate for the player to project onto, but that places him further and further out of touch with the actual events playing out around him, until he's more of a machine than a character, and I can't even begin to imagine what must be going on in that pretty little head of his.

And addressing your follow-up post here, too, the developers' choice to change Ganondorf from a blue pig-demon cursed into that form as a punishment for his greed (which already carries plenty of its own negative connoations) to a recognizably human character with darker skin than our heroes' whose motivations are more political in nature (as opposed to the generic bad-guy "I want everyone to suffer" motivation) set up an uncomfortable dichotomy that is simply reinforced with each iteration of his character. Just as Link is set up as the hero by default, Ganon is always assigned as the personification of evil, with no hope for change. "Light, good; dark, bad." It's a played-out trope that, even disregarding its relevance to real-world politics, undermines the move to more complex narratives and lore. It would be nice to see different, nuanced interactions between the three principal players in Zelda stories. (Hell, even Bowser got a chance to be a "good" guy in Super Mario RPG! I'm sure Ganondorf would welcome the chance to not be the designated punching bag for a change, as well.)

All of this to say that I definitely see where you're coming from, and that perhaps the most problematic aspect of the way the Link & Zelda & Ganondorf relationship has developed is others' refusal to see any problem with it at all.

[rynling]

Thank you so much for adding your thoughts! This is so well stated, and it's a relief that I'm not the only person who's troubled by this mess.

But you're right, the most frustrating thing is the fandom. I happily commit war crimes in the Zelda games, and I have a great time doing it. I definitely think you can critique a story while still enjoying it, but fandom culture has gotten weird.