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Should Link Have A Voice In The New Zelda Movie?


With us all living in an amazing time where video games are being adapted to movies and TV shows and they are actually good, it was only a matter of time before Hollywood set its sights on one of the most iconic video game franchises of all time -The Legend of Zelda. Well we have had a few announcements recently regarding the Zelda movie and it left me with one burning question - Will Link have a voice in the upcoming movie?

The Legend f Zelda movie is set to be live-action and has Shigeru Miyamoto and Avi Arad as producers, and Wes Bell as the Director. So it is in pretty good hands. But fans worry about the depiction of Link and how they will tackle the fact that Link has been a none speaking character in every one of his games. We have only seen him given a voice once before and that was in the truly awful 80s Legend of Zelda cartoon where he have the very annoying catchphrase "well excuuuuuuuuseeee me Princess". It is fair to say that giving Link a voice was not a smart move when it came to that show. But maybe we are ready to give Link a voice again. For me I am genuinely split down the middle and I will discuss both angles because I think there is a very strong argument for both. 

Firstly, I have a member of my family who is mute and seeing representation would actually be awesome. They don't have a lot of characters to look up to, and giving them one of the most iconic video game characters would be pretty amazing! Also there are examples of non-speaking characters working really well in film and TV and it can sometimes give a different and unique way of storytelling. My mind goes to things like 'Drive', 'Sissu' and from a more comedic perspective, 'Mr Bean' and 'Fool's Paradise'. Link's quiet innocence is one of the things that makes him such an endearing character and he is very much the avatar in which we experience the world through. I love seeing actors work with restrictions. I believe that limitations spark creativity and perhaps making Link none speaking would be a way of presenting a unique performance that really stands out.

If this was an animated movie I think it would make a lot of sense to have Link as a none speaking character, as animation can be used to tell more of the story visually, but live-action does make it harder. It also could be argued that we need to be less protective over characters if we want them to evolve, grow and develop. I think of Kratos from the God of War franchise as a good argument for that. This dude was an insane, angry rage monster and then he got reinvented as a pensive, wise and caring father and people loved it. As gamers we are passionate people, and we are so protective over the things we love that we struggle to embrace change, but maybe letting people reinterpret characters is a way we can fall in love with them in new ways.

Link does not live in the same world we live in, it is a world of fairies and monsters and big green men with orange hair. Link isn't a human he is a sort of woodland elf. Perhaps they just make it that woodland elves don't speak and they communicate in a different way. Then when Link goes out into the world be struggles to communicate with others, making an interesting struggle for the character. Or perhaps there is a way to please both groups. Link could be a character who doesn't speak due to a form of anxiety, we start the movie with him young and outcast, perhaps too shy to speak to anyone in the village and therefore being bullied or ignored. Then he is forced to go out in to the world and learn to become a hero and find his voice. This could please everyone or piss everyone off, I am undecided! 

I recently did a poll on my instagram on whether Link should have a voice, and genuinely the votes were pretty split down the middle. This means that whatever the team decides with this movie, some people are going to be unhappy. I think personally it comes down to the script, story and characters. If it makes sense for the character to speak then do it, but make sure that the essence of who Link is is still there. I honestly am trying to keep an open mind, when the trailer is released then I think that will be the time to decide how it feels seeing Link speak, or not speak. But either way the team have a massive responsibility on their hands, but if they nail it, then even more people will be introduced to the Zelda universe and that makes me excited!

What do you guys think? Should Link have a voice? What other aspects would you like to see represented in a Zelda movie? Comment below.

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