Everyone thought Zelda was going to be playable in Tears of the Kingdom. I certainly did, and I welcomed the fact that the eponymous princess might have more to do than wait for Link to rescue her for the first time in her life. No, Sheik doesn’t count. Nor does Tetra. Okay, so Zelda has been technically playable a couple of times already, but we were expecting more in Tears of the Kingdom.
From official tweets making suggestive comments about Sheikah Slates, to her short new hairdo that would be easier to animate for a playable character, the hints have all suggested that playable Zelda was on her way. But the final Tears of the Kingdom trailer might have put that theory to bed.
The trailer was jam-packed with stuff to unravel. It told us the premise of the story and introduced about five new mechanics in rapid fire fashion, never dwelling on anything long enough for us to fully understand what we were seeing. However, there are Robot Wars-esque vehicle jousts, cart fights on rails straight out of Donkey Kong Country, and allies to join you in, you guessed it, more fights. While having a Goron or Zora by my side is incredibly exciting, it was the story portions of the trailer that really got my Zelda sense tingling. By which I mean, I went “wow cool.”
From the giant stone colossus to Ganondorf’s reveal (finally!), I couldn’t help but be pulled into Link’s adventure. One thing stuck out to me more than anything, though, and it was Zelda’s perilous situation. Captured by Ganondorf once again, she has quite literally fallen into his underground realm. While I had previously hoped that this would be a playable area like a traditional Zelda dungeon, now I’m not so sure. Link will probably make his way there eventually, but any idea that Zelda might be the one to explore this subterranean lair has been thoroughly and unceremoniously shit on.
Zelda’s whole spiel in this trailer boils down to, “help me, Link.” Stop me if you think that you’ve heard this one before. It channels Princess Leia and calls back to classic Zelda games in the worst possible way. She’s the damsel in distress again. She’s there to be saved. Link may be the Hero of Time, but why can’t Zelda be the hero of our story?
Breath of the Wild did things differently. Instead of a damsel in distress, Zelda was saving Hyrule, containing Ganon by using all of her not inconsiderable power. It meant she was absent from gameplay, but at least she was doing something. After the latest trailer, I’m worried that Tears of the Kingdom will take a step backwards, forcing Zelda into an archaic archetype that she has long since outgrown.
There’s plenty to love about the new trailer, and my excitement is still palpable. But I’m worried about Zelda. Nintendo has been dropping obvious hints that she’ll be playable for months now, so I’ll be really annoyed if it turns out they were just playing us all for fools. I don’t think fans were reading too much into it – okay, maybe we were with the hair, but the tweets were practically explicit – Nintendo clearly knew what it was doing. If it turns out she’s not playable after all, this marketing tactic should be called out.
I’m not suggesting we actually riot if Zelda isn’t playable, but we’ll be within our rights to be aggrieved. This isn’t just the series taking a step backwards, it’s scummy marketing to capitalise on baseless fan theories with complete disregard for how far female characters have come since the ‘80s. Tears of the Kingdom has a chance to push the series further than ever before, and it would be a shame to waste that opportunity after so much anticipation.
Of course, she might still be playable, and the final trailer was all a bluff. Maybe she escapes Ganon’s clutches in the first act, delivers him a Sheik-esque karate kick to the face and continues as a playable option from that point onwards. She does hold the Master Sword briefly in the trailer, after all. If that’s the case, I’ve been royally baited and you can disregard this entire article. If that's the case, I'll never have been happier to have been wrong. Touche, Nintendo. Or fuck you.