 Yesterday I made a video detailing an article that came up from last September about a member at GamesRadar basically saying that one of the most divisive mechanics in Breath of the Wild that has been confirmed to return in Tears of the Kingdom was climbing and the fact that climbing uses stamina. If you want to watch that video, I highly suggest you go do it. If you want to sort of explore part one of me exploring the media's attempt to slander a game before it's even come out in Tears of the Kingdom and we have a more recent piece from a few days ago published over at Game Rant by writer Martin Wood. Now I want to note that we shouldn't actually be attacking the authors or seeking them out or trying to go after them in any sort of way. The point of these videos is to point out media bias against Tears of the Kingdom as well as discussing the points brought up. This article in particular is one that actually got me pretty upset when I initially reacted to this live stream. I'll put a link down to the live stream down below if you would like to see my initial reaction to it. But we're going to go through this article and find out what the heck this media person and this website, it was GamesRadar yesterday. Today we got Game Rant, what problem they have with Tears of the Kingdom before it's even gotten here and how maybe the entire premise is just laughable at their complaints. So here we got Zelda Tears of the Kingdom may unfortunately reduce the titular princess to a damsel in distress again. Now just off the title alone I can already tell you this article is going to be fun because Zelda at no point in Breath of the Wild was a damsel in distress, but this isn't Breath of the Wild, it's Tears of the Kingdom. So the subtitle says players might be hoping for a bigger role for princess Zelda in the legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, but early signs seem to suggest otherwise. Okay that might be a fair point. I also will say I know already because I've already read this article the author really just wants Zelda to be playable and I understand those desires. I think if you were to make an article about Zelda being playable there's a much better approach to go about it than essentially fabricating imaginative points in your mind about Zelda's actual role in the series, but we'll get to that. So first paragraph reads though princess Zelda's role has always been hit and miss at best across the series I sure many are anticipating that much like its predecessor the Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom will be another game in which the titular princess is kept tangential to its story. That word tangential basically means a peripheral to the story. I find this to be a laughable point just looking at this article because Zelda is at the core, the center of the story. The champions are all trying to help Zelda discover her hidden ability thinking that might be the only way to stop Calamity Ganon, so yeah she's central to the story. In fact Link isn't even alive if it isn't for Zelda. We'll get to that later. After her role in Breath of the Wild was split between backstory told through flashbacks to her imprisonment with Ganon. This is where I had my first major red flag with this piece. She was never imprisoned with Ganon. She was there by choice. She was the jailer. Calamity Ganon was a prisoner of Zelda. Zelda was holding Calamity Ganon at bay with the power of the Triforce through the powers granted to her from being a goddess. Let's just call it what it is. We find this out in Skyward Sword if you don't know. Sorry to spoil it. Zelda is an extremely powerful individual and she is single-handedly keeping him at bay. She is jailing Calamity Ganon, not the other way around. She's not imprisoned with them. She's there by choice. Anyways, the role of Princess Zelda might be more involved with Link and Tears of the Kingdom's story, but as the game releases years it's becoming unlikely she will finally break with tradition. I don't know what tradition we're talking about because the tradition for Zelda is she's a pretty big badass in the Zelda series, but we'll get to that in a moment. Predictions about Zelda's role within Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom have ranged from her becoming a playable character as the series first to, well, sorta first he kinda played with her in Spirit Tracks. First to wilder theories about being potentially killed in-game. Despite long-running hopes among Zelda fans that Zelda will sooner or later take on a more engaged role in the series named after her, there's a lot of engagement from Zelda throughout the series. It seems Tears of the Kingdom will continue to focus on Link, a renewed war with a revived Ganondorf, and potentially a revelatory secret unearthed through Hyrule and the sky above. Detailed from Link's arm to snippets of trailer footage, all seem to indicate that as Zelda will once again take a backseat in the upcoming sequel. Zelda's never had a backseat in any story involving Ganon or Ganondorf. She's literally one-third of the Triforce, so is Ganon slash Ganondorf, so is Link. All three of them have been integral in every story involving them. Literally Breath of the Wild's entire story was built around Zelda, I'm confused. Alright, so Link always takes center stage in Zelda. It has become a running gag online that Link is often called Zelda by unwitting outsiders due to the incongruence of the series name where he's the main character. I love how they use fancy bigger words than everyone understands. Let's just put it out there. Yes, it's a long-running gag, but it's kind of just a gag. Almost everyone knows who Link is at this point. Why? Because Breath of the Wild sold 30 million copies. Before that, Zelda just wasn't a big enough popular enough series, so it was common to misconstrue something that not everyone has played. After Breath of the Wild, everyone knows who Link is. It's not really a problem amongst most gamers, so I don't really think that this is even an issue worth bringing up anymore. Anyways, but ultimately this demonstrates that most, if not all games in the series, has always put Link front and center and not Zelda, where the story is told through his eyes and gives him the most agency. And do you want to know why that's the case? Link is us. We are Link. We are the character. This is us. Link has always been intended from day one according to Shigeru Miyamoto and later E.G. Ayanomo that he is us. We are projecting ourselves into Link. So yes, he's going to be front and center because we are the player in a video game. Link is us. That's the entire point. If it wasn't centered around us, it would feel like we're watching a movie, right? Anyways, where the story is told through his eyes and gives him the most agency. Therefore, Tears of the Kingdom is highly unlikely to suddenly change this. Yeah, what a shocker. A game built around us, the player, is going to continue to be built around us, the player. Zelda is not us. She's never meant to be us. Anyways, especially when several of Zelda's previous direct sequels follow stories that omit Princess Zelda entirely, such as Majora's Mask or Link's Awakening, but let's ignore Link between worlds, Phantom Hour, Last Spirit Tracks, Zelda II. Look, there are far more examples of Zelda's heavy involvement in direct sequels than there are examples of Zelda just not being there entirely. This is a just a factually inaccurate point meant to further his argument when the facts don't actually work in his favor with direct sequels. Most direct sequels have Zelda heavily involved. It's there's like two that don't and he's of course named those two and just pretended the other ones don't exist. Anyways, however, there are early signs that Tears of the Kingdom will also be putting the spotlight on Link, okay? Not just because he's the main character. Well, I mean, that's actually precisely why the spotlight's on him because he's the main character. He's us. It's us. The spotlight's on us, everyone. So yes, that's exactly why the spotlight is on him because we are him. We are Link. That's the entire point of the character. Hence, the link between the world and us. His name alone infers what he is. Anyways, because the game's story could be intrinsically linked to him and his relation to Ganondorf. For instance, Link's corrupted arm is one detail that indicates Tears of the Kingdom story could be about Link battling an infection of malice or fulfilling a purpose forced onto him by those who seal Ganondorf away. Also, Ganondorf's revival could hint at Tears of the Kingdom returning to Zelda tradition, possibly bringing with it expanded roles for the Triforce and the Master Sword, a return to tradition with then not bold will for any possible fan theory regarding the princess. A return to tradition would mean Zelda has a massive role in this game because she is literally one-third of the Triforce. So if the Triforce is a central theme of this game, that means Zelda is a central theme to this game. Her role is as a badass. Look, for those who don't understand, maybe you haven't played all the Zelda games out there, Link and Zelda need each other to defeat Ganon slash Ganondorf. Sheik helped Link survive in order to face off against Ganondorf in Ocarina of Time and then after she gets captured late in the game, Link frees her and then Link has his Master Sword knocked away from him and he is cut off from getting to it as Ganon is about to kill him. And who comes to the rescue? Zelda, getting the Master Sword, tossing it to Link to complete the victory. They need each other. Link would be dead in Breath of the Wild, as would everyone in Hyrule if Zelda was not using her power to hold Calamity Ganon at bay. It is a massive misconception that Zelda has been anything other than a badass for a vast majority of the series. She's a literal pirate in The Wind Waker, one of the most pivotal characters and most memorable characters in that game. Zelda, even when she quote unquote died, she ends up coming back to life later, but even when she died in Spirit Tracks, she joins Link as a literal sidekick controlling Phantoms, helping Link. Link literally could not save Hyrule or new Hyrule in this case without her. They have always worked in tandem to stop Ganon slash Ganondorf. So Ganon slash Ganondorf being the enemy, the Triforce maybe having a big role, just makes Zelda more important. Zelda's fate has already been hinted at. As of most Zelda games, players will typically see the Princess sidelined throughout the majority of gameplay. While she is in an invariably essential part of the game's story, Princess Zelda's relationship with Link usually has her hold up offscreen while he adventures away. Aka, we're not seeing the story and the world and everything unfold from the eyes of Zelda, because she's not the playable character because we are not Zelda, we are Link. So we're going to see the perspective of the game through our eyes, not through Zelda's, who is a completely independent character. That doesn't mean she's not important, it doesn't mean she's just stowed away not doing stuff. In fact, we know she does stuff, because we see it happen. And that's just what we see, let alone the stuff that could be happening that we don't see that's inferred by the story itself. Anyways, Breath of the Wild for instance, saw her trapped in Hyrule Castle alongside Clamity Ganon. She's not trapped. Do you not know the story of Breath of the Wild? She's not trapped. She's trapping him. It's the other way around. She is trapping him. He didn't trap her. She trapped him. Get it right. She literally is the one person in the game preventing Hyrule from being destroyed. She is that powerful. She is that important. She is trapping him. I don't know how that was missed. I don't know. Anyone could play that game and think anything but that. It's literally shown in the cutscene that she is the one saving the world. She just needs a little help, because he's powerful. She's powerful too. Turns out it takes two-thirds of the Triforce, Link and Zelda, to fully defeat him. And Link didn't even get to use the Triforce in Breath of the Wild. So, anyways. Judging by early Triforce figures, Zelda could also be absent from much of the game. She ends up separated from Link once again. We also see early cutscenes which we never saw with Breath of the Wild, where she is traversing with Link. So, yeah. She could be even more involved, actually, if you want to infer. We never saw her in trailers for Breath of the Wild, at least not in the early trailers. And now we saw her in the early trailers for Cheers of the Kingdom, suggesting she has a major role to play at the beginning of the game, suggesting that yeah, she could be part of it. Will she be separated from Link? Well, of course. She's not a soldier. She doesn't have a lot of combat experience. However, she also has the Sheikah Slade at her side, so she's got some abilities that might come up later in the game. And yeah, the character is going to be, the game is going to be about us, our perspective, what we're doing, not what she's doing, because we're the player, we're Link. Anyways, once such trailer released back in 2021 at E3 has a Blink and you'll miss it moment, where Zelda is seen falling down a chasm in an environment similar to the caverns from other trailers. I'm not sure which similar caverns they're talking about here, but I'll let that one go. Though some theories parallel tears of the Kingdom to Majora's Mask as Darker. Well, that's because Eiji Anomu literally said in an interview that this is going to be a Darker Zelda game. Those are just words from the producer of the Zelda series. That's where the whole idea that this is Darker coming from. And then obviously what we presume to be Ganondorf with those glowing red eyes, of course. So that's sort of, that's sort of where a lot of the Darker stuff comes from, but we know it's rated E, but re-enrated E10 plus doesn't preclude it from being Darker. Majora's Mask was not a T for Teen Game, right? And people consider that Dark. So anyways, though some theories parallel tears of the Kingdom to Majora's Mask as Darker, Dark Seagulls, and it's just the players, we'll see Princess Zelda fridgeed. And I didn't understand what fridgeed meant. So I opened up this article just to see what fridging is. And it says it's a widely criticized trope as fridging reduces these female characters to little more than plot devices denying them agency. Okay, but what does fridging actually mean? Fridging, right here, is coined from pop culture where female characters are abused, attacked, or killed in only to provide male character development. Link doesn't have traditional character development. He doesn't have traditional character development. Link is a fully formed individual that we get to experience the adventure through through our eyes and our mind. Princess Zelda at no point in Breath of the Wild was abused. She was the literal glue holding the entire Kingdom together, even if people didn't realize it. It sets up Zelda to become Ganondorf's prisoner once more. In the early 80s, the damsel in distress thing was an obvious trope in Zelda. Hasn't been that way in a long time. Zelda's a badass for many, many reasons. Anyways, the story might explore how Ganondorf became mummified below Hyrule and how Link can defeat him, but ultimately Zelda's involvement is like to be reduced to the damsel in distress all over again. This couldn't be further from the truth. Zelda helps in almost every situation against Ganondorf. I find this just to be a pathetic attempt to, maybe, I don't know, I don't want to get into certain movements that have happened online too much. But this is just not true. Zelda wasn't a damsel in distress in Breath of the Wild. She was a badass. She looks like she's a badass again. I don't see anything happening to suggest Zelda is going back to being some sort of helpless damsel. Look I, guys, it infuriates me to see not only Zelda's name tarnished for her actual role in the Zelda series, but it hurts me to see these articles that seem to be going out of their way to diminish a game before we even really know what the game is. Tears of the Kingdom is likely going to be one of the most amazing Zelda games ever made. It's got the longest development time of any Zelda game. It's got the biggest budget. It's got the biggest team. And it obviously has all the experience of making the first game in Breath of the Wild that went on to sell 30 million copies. Do we not trust the Legend of Zelda team at this point to know what Zelda is and make an amazing product even if it ends up being our direction you don't like? Like let's say they don't go back to having more dungeons and stuff. Reality is that they've earned our trust. And articles like this to me are just straight up hit pieces that I don't know why they exist. Maybe to piss people like me off, but I'm going to continue to cover any time that it seems the media for a game we know very little about is attempting to slander something that we don't even know to be true and do so in a way that is speaking a bunch of falsehoods about the core of the actual franchise. Anyways guys, you let me know what you think about this down in the comments below. I am Nathan de Ruffelgeance and I'll catch you in the next video.