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It´s not uncommon for big games news sites such as Polygon and Kotaku to bring up the “gender bending” subject in the world of games (“8 Impressive Girls-As-Guys Cosplays,” “It’s time for more leading women in games,” “Gender-Bending Game Characters: The Revenge” to name a few). And before I even start I want to point out the following. I have no problems with gender-bending in games, animes, movies or whatever (no matter if it´s done by a female or a male). However, these “news sites” tend to use the gender-bending scene as a ragebait for their articles (either by using really provoking headlines, or by trolling the living hell out of the targeted fan base). Here´s the truth though. “Gender-bending” wouldn´t be a such a big deal, if it wasn´t for those who make “gender-bending” into a bad thing. And i´m not even talking about looks here. I´m talking about when Polygon and Kotaku use much beloved game characters (and series) in the name of gender-bending, just to piss people off (all for the clicks).

Like when Kotaku´s Jussi Perttola made his infamous “#whatifzeldawasagirl” tweet (as seen down below).

Zelda is a girl…

Sure, I don´t know if Jussi made a mistake (confusing Zelda with Link) or if he did it on purpose. However, it doesn´t really matter as he used the “#whatifzeldawasagirl” (Link) hashtag and he stated, “If they only made Zelda (Link) a girl…“. Besides, it´s not the first time that Kotaku (or Polygon) target Link like this. Sure, I don´t have any problems with having a playable female version of Link (or any other character for that matter) though. It just has to be done right. Like when Bioware made the female version of Shepard in Mass Effect 3. It also has to be done in such a way that it fits the story and plot of the game (or else it´s just going to mess everything up). And speaking of a female version of Link, Team Ninja (and Omega Force) were actually very close to add their own interpretation of Link as a female (Linkle) to “Hyrule Warriors” for Wii U (as seen in the picture down below). Sadly enough though, Linkle didn´t make it to the final version. Don´t be sad though, because it seems like the 3DS version of “Hyrule Warriors” (which is set for a early 2016 release) will feature Linkle as a playable character.

If so, then Linkle will be the very first female version Link in the history of the Zelda series!

Linkle never made it to the final version of “Hyrule Warriors”.

And speaking of good examples of gender-bending game characters. David Stonecipher´s art of gender-bending game characters are really well done I have to say. That´s art though, it´s a totally different thing to transform well-known male game character such as Cloud, Ezio, Sephiroth and Geralt into a female character. However, there is a compromise solution to this problem. You simply create a playable (separate) female character that´s just as bad ass as the male version. Just take The Witcher 3´s Ciri for example, she´s basically the female version of Geralt (but with her own unique personality, plot and so on). Even so, I have to admit that I don´t like the thought of seeing a gender-bender version of Samus Aran as a male. Simply because I want Samus Aran to be a female, that´s who she was meant to be. Anyhow, I have added some “good” examples of gender-bending done right down below (games and cosplay).

So feel free to share your thoughts on the subject by leaving a comment in the comment section!

Gender-bending game characters (art done by David Stonecipher):