Link is an obnoxious whiny jerk?
By maryvarn on April 13th, 2010Posted In: NPC Blog,Random Geekiness
The Legend of Zelda
Have you seen The Legend of Zelda animated series? I recently discovered these on Hulu and watched the first episode, “The Ringer.” It opens on Link in bed, complaining about his life. He gets up and whines about how he has to sleep on a bed and live in a castle instead of adventuring across Hyrule like he used to. He looks out his window to see a buxom Princess Zelda below on her balcony, and calls out, “Lookin’ good princess! Especially from THIS angle!” Wow. Smooth one. Did I mention he’s wearing a short nightgown? Then some orcs (they’re orcs, right?) attack him in his bedchamber and the little adventure for the episode begins. Zelda tags along and calls Link on his crap, to which he usually responds, “Excuuuuuuuuuuse me!” It’s cringeworthy and certainly isn’t representative of my idea of Link from the cherished video games. Doesn’t look like it lasted very long; it ran for a few months in the fall of 1989. The fact that this was even made is astonishing to me, so I just had to make a post about it. Excuuuuuuse me!
Sounds horrible! I love Link and the whole Legend Of Zelda empire <3 He needs to be portrayed correctly. He is a true hero =)
It was part of the Nintendo Saturday morning show, hosted by live versions of Mario and Luigi. They alternated what cartoons were shown so there were only a few Zelda ones – Yeah, just looked it up – Zelda was only shown on Fridays! I remember it fondly….so I refuse to watch it now that I’m old and jaded…..well maybe just a peek.
I tried watching that a year back, and I couldn’t even make it through two episodes. It definitely got canceled, so that’s one saving grace. They didn’t even make Link blond! So can we all just pretend it was his annoying, disgusting twin brother we never knew he had?
Ignore the animated series. Just another cash-grab in.
I downloaded it last year because it sounded cool but it got deleted halfway into the seconde episode.
As a little kid I used to watch the Super Mario Bros. Super Show after school, and they would always preview the newest Zelda episode on Fridays. I would always look forward to watching it on Friday, but then when class got out on Friday I would always go and spend the entire afternoon outside playing with friends. I think I went through my entire childhood thinking that this show was awesome, yet I can’t recall watching a single episode. I just watched it last year when my little brother let me borrow his copy of it, and wow — amazingly bad. So far, Voltron is the only thing from my childhood to have withstood the test of time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPxY8lpYAUM
Sadly. Even without hulu here (yay copyright), I have heard how cringeworthy it is.
The above link will make any zelda gamer want to cry.
If you pause ep1′s hulu video at 2:52, you can see something unpleasant. You have been warned.
That… was…awful…Not blaming you, just bringing attention to the fact that a Y7 TV show defames a classic character in such a disturbing way….My one question is… why!??!?!
Well, growing up playing Zelda in 87, the cartoon resembled more so a fantasy version of Moonlighting. That was all the rage back then in the 80′s to have two potential romantic leads be as nasty to each other as possible. The Princess is pretty haughty herself but yes, it was written for children using tropes that adults were eating up then. The moblins attacking him and Ganon instructing Stalfos how to fight was pretty awful but d-mn was it drawn well.
The hair, I can accept. He had auburn hair to dark in the first manual and promotional art at the time.
There really wasn’t too ever meant to be too much personality to Link anyway when you consider him. It was up for the gamer to supply in the sparse game then what he’s thinking. So again, there really isn’t much to expect. Some later episodes had some interesting concepts such as what happens when Link gets killed and has to be saved by Zelda but for the most part it was written for a grade school audience in mind.
I was also thinking about what you said, about how bickering budding romances were the thing then. Still kinda are, but it sure seemed popular in the 80s (Han and Leia anyone? Or did they only bicker in 1977?) And I agree, Zelda seemed pretty over the top herself. I think the writers overshot on trying to make interesting flawed characters and wound up with really unlikable ones.
well it certainly wasn’t the most cringe worthy (that was without a doubt the Link from the Philips CD-i) look it up at your own risk btw. But I personally loved the Nintendo cartoons/animes excuuuuuse me!
If you do no think that fits you idea of Link have you ever happened across the show the legend of Neil? It is NSW and very alternative zelda story.
http://www.effinfunny.com/legend-of-neil
Oh yeah, I saw that series. Hated it. That whole, “Well exuuUUUUuuuse ME, princess!” got really old, and I thought Link was supposed to be noble, not an eleven year old brat (and pervert…)!!1!!!1!!!!!one!!!!
I remember that cartoon and I have to say that I’ve only seen one other game based series that sucked that bad, Final Fantasy Unlimited. There is a differance between the two though. Final Fantasy Unlimited had some cool ideas but seemed to be aimed at a much younger target audience. That and the fact that I actually did sit through the whole thing. I watched two episodes of Zelda mainly because I had to make sure that yes, they actually did miss everything that made the games engaging. You would think that managment types would go and find people who were into Zelda as gamers to make the d-mn thing but really, there are only a few examples of that in film making. Sam Raimi and Spiderman one and two are a good example of what I’m talking about.