Nintendo has had an...interesting history with the transgender characters, to say the least. With characters of transgender experience, Nintendo has done nothing more than suggest. However, even the mere suggestion of non-normative gender expression sends fans up in arms for years and years, even more than a decade, afterwards.
When it comes to characters with transgender experience in video games, most people think of Birdo, that strange, pink dinosaur-like creature from the Mario games. But there is another, from a well known video game called The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
Long story short, the main character, Link, has to save the damsel-in-distress, Princess Zelda, as well as the land of Hyrule from the evil Ganondorf. Link is known as the Hero of Time -- so obviously, you play with time. You play a portion of the game as child Link (10 years old) and adult Link (17 years old). There's even a dungeon where you have to complete the first part as a child, and then the second part as an adult.
During Link's adult phase, he meets a mysterious young man named Sheik, who helps our hero along the way. Sheik teaches Link songs, gives him hints, and all together seems to know a lot more about what's going on than Link does. Right before the final battle, Sheik finally reveals himself to be Zelda.
The mysterious Sheik turns out to be Princess Zelda. The repercussions of shock that erupted throughout the fandom then can still be felt today.
In this article I will explore how I, as a transgender child, related to this character as I played through this game for the first time. I also look at the ongoing debate raging amongst fans about Sheik's "true gender," and what I think they're missing because they've been so hung up on Sheik's anatomy. I emphasize how these fans should refocus their attention on what Sheik/Zelda represents as an individual of transgender experience.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is one of my favorite video games. I recall when I finished fourth grade with at the top of my class, my mother took me to Toys R Us and let me choose one video game. I looked through the titles and I saw the cover for Ocarina of Time. It had a sword and a shield on it and it looked cool, grown-up. And I, as a ten-year-old, thought it was about time I stopped playing with short, fat, mushroom consuming plumbers and started playing some more mature games. Plus it had the word "legend" in the title (You can't go wrong with a game that has the word "legend" in the title, right?). So Ocarina of Time it was.
The cover does look grown up, doesn't it?
The rest is history. Ocarina of Time would be a game I would play several times over the next decade. I not only own the version on Nintendo 64, but got the Gamecube version in 2003 and its 2011 re-release was the reason I bought a Nintendo 3DS during the summer. Nintendo would come out with other Legend of Zelda games, and each new game offered improved graphics, gameplay, and storytelling. But for some reason I keep coming back to Ocarina of Time. For a long time it alluded me why I was so obsessed with this game. I would repeat it even when I had memorized every dungeon and every secret grotto and I had collected everything several times over.
It wasn't until I had come out as transgender -- and this was during my second year of college -- did things really fall into place and I realized why I loved this game so much.
I remember the first time I played Ocarina of Time, I was ten years old. The first time I encountered Sheik -- I thought he was pretty cool. I was drawn to him, fascinated by him. He was mysterious, eloquent. He played the harp like a badass. Sheik quickly became one of my favorite characters.
I, being a ten-year-old, wasn't yet too keen on narrative twists, so the whole Sheik/Zelda being the same person thing completely blindsided me. First I was shocked -- but Sheik is a boy! But he's really Zelda! Which means Sheik is actually a girl! Why would a girl do that? Why would a girl want to dress up as a boy? That's so weird! The shock swept up my little child mind into this vortex of confusion that surprised and frightened me in its intensity.
Once my nervous system finally subsided and I could finally think clearly, I realized how exciting this whole concept was. What Zelda did -- that was awesome. Living as a boy was something that I had always, deep down secretly, wanted to do. How strong a desire it was, it surprised me. But it also delighted me, how I saw someone like me on the television screen. It made me feel a little less weird. If Zelda could do it, so could I.
I'm not saying that Princess Zelda of Ocarina of Time is transgender -- at least, the evidence presented in Ocarina of Time doesn't suggest that at all. It is hard to deny though, that Zelda at least was an individual of transgender experience. She understood what it took to pass as a male. And for a transgender person, passing as one's true gender identity is harder than you'd think. It's not just how you look. It's the way you act, the way you talk. The Sheik of Ocarina of Time moved in a masculine manner, and spoke in a deep voice. Zelda had it down. She had to know a thing or two about passing as a male. After all, she did it for seven years.
Sheik's theme from the game. I remember as a kid I'd get super excited whenever I heard it, because that meant there was going to be a cutscene featuring Sheik doing something badass in the very near future.
Surprisingly (or perhaps not so surprisingly), one of the most heated and controversial points of discussion within the Zelda fandom is the gender presentation of Shiek/Zelda. Since Zelda has skills in magic, did she simply use magic to transform her body into a cismale body? Or did she use strategies used by transmen (binding the chest, packing the crotch area, etc) in order to pass as male? The fact that the debate still rages on today (more than ten years since the original release) signals to a major discomfort gamers (and the general public) have surrounding someone's gender identity and biological sex. The thought of Princess Zelda -- a character regarded as eye candy -- for any incarnation of her to have a cismale body (and thus a penis) really makes gamers uncomfortable.
It's gotten to the point where gamers have actually made fan videos trying to prove Sheik's biological sex through one-second sound bytes. How far people go to prove a fictional character's "true gender" is beyond me.
Why were gamers so uncomfortable about Sheik's biological sex? Why the passioned arguments? Why have web pages like this, which demonstrate the elaborate lengths fans go through in order to "prove" a detail that, in the end, isn't even that important anyway?
Nintendo tried to remedy the debate when it released the Ocarina of Time manga. The manga attempts to explain the Zelda/Sheik divide by stating that Zelda actually put her female consciousness to sleep and replaced it with a male identity. Yes, Sheik technically had a cisfemale body -- however, Zelda and Sheik were two different consciouses. Similar to how Link's consciousness slept in the Temple of Time for seven years, Zelda allowed her own consciousness to sleep until it was safe for her as Zelda to emerge once more:
(Read from right to left.)
A page from the Ocarina of Time manga that explains Sheik's identity. (source)
I have a lot of problems with the manga's interpretation -- their effort to literally paint Sheik and Zelda as two different people within the same body bothered me, as if it completely erased the possibility that Zelda could be both a masculine and feminine person within the same consciousness. Also, saying that Zelda's consciousness was asleep while Sheik was conscious also erases all sense of agency in Zelda, to the extreme of taking away her control over of her own body. (Of course, the manga also contains other inconsistencies with the video game, and for the most part the manga is not considered canon, so I'm done ranting about that.)
Nintendo also included Zelda/Sheik as a fighter in their popular fighting game series, Super Smash Brothers. Zelda has the ability to switch between her Sheik identity and her princess identity. It's interesting to note that Nintendo made the conscious effort to make Sheik more obviously female-bodied. Of course, Super Smash Brothers is also considered non-canon, so despite her redesign, fans to this day are still raging on about whether or not Sheik has a penis or a vagina (because apparently, something like that so totally matters!).
Nintendo made the extra effort to make Smash Brothers Sheik a much more feminine character.
Personally, I think that people were (and are still) so preoccupied with the debate of whether or not Sheik has breasts and have completely missed an important point here. All emphasis is placed on Zelda/Sheik's body. Not one of these debates have touched on Zelda/Sheik's experience.
I actually replayed Ocarina of Time a little while ago. I hadn't played this game -- or any video game, for that matter -- for a long time due to school, so I was going to enjoy every second of this experience. I was playing kid Link, and wandering around Hyrule field, rediscovering the little secrets and such. There are these large, creepy rocks called Gossip Stones you can talk to if you have a certain mask on. As you can tell from their name, they tell you little bits of gossip and secrets about the folk of Hyrule. I came across a Gossip Stone near Hyrule Castle that said:
They say that, contrary to her elegant image, Princess Zelda of Hyrule Castle is actually a tomboy!
I remember reading that, long ago, but I hadn't really any sort of connection. But reading that line, with my present consciousness, that got me thinking.
I'm a writer. I'm someone who likes to create things. And from that experience, I know that every aesthetic choice -- from word to image -- is a deliberate one. And the fact that Nintendo actually included this single sentence here might suggest that Zelda wasn't forced into living as a boy, and that living as the identity of Sheik for as long as she did may have been a deliberate choice on her part.
Was Zelda taking on Sheik's identity merely a disguise, a means of hiding, as the manga suggested? Or was there something more to this? A desire, perhaps, that Zelda wished to fulfill? Yes, it would have been easiest to throw off the villain, living as a boy, but I feel like there's a lot more than that. After all, Zelda lived as Shiek for seven years of her life. If the true intention of the disguise as Sheik was to allude Ganondorf's capture, wouldn't it have been easier to switch disguises every so often, and not stay in the same identity for seven years? Because let's face it -- living as not only another identity, but another gender for seven years -- that takes some dedication. There had to be some sort of deeper motivation behind for Zelda in her decision to live as Sheik.
I know how it is to live as a gender that's not my own. I had to live as female for a good twenty years of my life -- it caused a good deal of grief on my part. I hated it. I felt awkward all the time. I felt like I didn't belong. I was incredibly unhappy. It wasn't until I came out as a transman and I began transitioning did I finally feel happy with myself.
Usually, when you're trying to allude capture, you hide. You try not to be seen. I remember when I was female, more often than not I just wanted to hide, just be by myself where no one would see me and I wouldn't have to interact with anybody.
But no, Sheik was out there. Sheik was free, going on adventures, helping out Link. There was a sense of joy and animation to Sheik that never was present when I watched cutscenes with Zelda. Zelda moved with an an almost awkward, delicate daintiness that I don't know, just bothered me. As a child, I identified with Zelda on that level. Even now, with the awareness of my transgender identity, I still relate to Zelda's character, perhaps even with a stronger intensity than how I related to her as a child. I relate to her awkwardness as female, the inner conflict between her feminine appearance and her desire for more masculine pursuits. Yes, the destruction Ganondorf wrecked upon Hyrule was unfortunate -- however, it finally gave Zelda the opportunity to live out the more masculine life she desired. It let her shed her awkward royal dresses and jewelry and finally male clothing that allowed her to move around as she wished, in a role not burdened by formality and propriety.
Her role as Sheik was instrumental in Link's journey to destroy Ganondorf. By the time Link reaches the final battle with Ganondorf, Zelda has reverted back to her princess self. She has also been captured and Link has to save her. At that point I wonder. She's lived as a boy for seven years. And now she has to go back to living as female -- as a role playing the damsel-in-distress. What are the feelings going through her head, as she watches Link fight Ganondorf? Does she wish she was in the fray? Does she miss her days living as male? Does she feel bitter about being forced once more into a role that made her feel uncomfortable as a child? After Ganondorf's defeat and her ascension to the throne as queen of Hyrule, would she still disguise herself as Sheik and have her own adventures?
I think that's all what makes Zelda a fascinating character. Unfortunately, fans have been so wrapped up on Zelda/Sheik's anatomy that they don't realize the implications and the richness of her transgender experience. To this day Sheik is one of my favorite characters because he is one of the few characters in popular culture today whose experience resembles mine. And it's comforting, to know that my experience is reflected, even as much suggested. The depiction of Sheik made me feel a little less alone when I was a kid. And we need more characters like that, to help more kids who were like me when I was ten years old. We need to have more characters who might be a bit more gender ambiguous, and show players that hey, maybe it doesn't matter what gender this character is -- I mean as long as they're cool, and can kick ass, then who cares?
Now that's something fans should stop arguing about and start thinking about.
