Do girls who play Zelda games identify with Princess Zelda? Is she a female role model?
Do girls who play Zelda games identify with Princess Zelda? Is she a female role model?
Cooper White
Blake Brown
The answer for this probably depends a lot on what Zelda game you played as a kid.
When I was a kid I played OoT, and I never got far enough into the game where I saw her do much (I was not good at Zelda games). In MM she wasn't even present. WW I actually did (almost) complete, but Tetra was so radically different from the Zelda's in other games I had a hard time ever thinking of her as the same person. In Twilight Princess she's useless.
I liked Zelda, and would play as her in games like Smash, but I never really felt anything stronger than a surface level appreciation for the Princess aesthetic. As I got older I started to realize this and liked her even less; the qualities I did like about her were ones I'd imagined rather than being actual parts of her character.
But in Skyward Sword and BotW, Zelda is a way more developed character. Skysword Zelda in particular would have appealed to me a ton as a kid. I'm too old to view em as role models but I could see kids these days identifying with them.
Connor Murphy
You think you would have changed your mind about OoT Zelda if you saw the final fight and her magic against Ganon and her dialogue? Also how she was actually Shiek.
Bentley Morris
Im friends with a girl who finds Link hot and will speedrun botw but is a normie. Bizarre.
Thomas Morales
I'm a boy and I wanna be Zelda
Charles Wood
I'd probably like her a lot more. My ideas about her and Shiek were wildly incorrect; I thought Shiek was a totally different person she was "cursed" to become, not just her assuming a disguise.
TP Zelda was the first one I really wanted to like though because I loved her design, and still do. In that game she looks pretty, refined, and dignified. Its my ideal vision of a Princess who isn't just an empty figurehead or one that just bucks the Princess role entirely (which is what Terra falls into). But I cannot remember a single notable character trait about TP Zelda. I only like her on a surface level, and that's what kept her from ever being any kind of role model.
Jeremiah Gray
My first Zelda was ALTTP I identified with Link. Although I admit I identified with Midna when I played TP. It's a weird familiar feel, a bit close home really.
Brandon Clark
>identifying as Link or Zelda
Fuck that. Ganon is the good guy.
Cooper Evans
you shouldn't be self-inserting or trying to identify with a character if you're over 18, regardless of gender.
Austin Young
But OoT Zelda is also Sheik, she went along with you for most of the journey.