Honorary Oakley April 2007
Princess Zelda - Wussy, but cool!

Back for another month and this time we’re celebrating gaming royalty no less. Please everyone, bow before Princess Zelda of the Hyrule royal family. It should be pointed out that Zelda isn’t the usual type of woman / girl / female we’d honor in the Oakley. The Honorary Oakley is all about strong women and independent kick ass chicks, Zelda appears to not really fit this very well when looking at the parts she plays within the games. What Princess Zelda does have however is an entire gaming franchise named after her, which we think is pretty cool, so here she is.

Bit of a princess...

As a lot of female gamers bemoan, there is nothing worse than a wussy female ‘hero’, it irks to have to play the leading man as he staunchly heads off to save the cowering damsel in distress. Sadly this is the case in much of the Zelda universe. Princess Zelda is captured and it is Link, the male hero who must save her from doom. That’s not to say that Zelda is a weak character, as she possesses many magical abilities, of course, this just makes the princess in distress factor all the more irritating to some. We’ll now take a very quick look at the overall role Zelda plays throughout the series.

Zelda – Evolution of a games character… Not

It’s a strange thing, that a game named Zelda in many instance’s, doesn’t feature a playable character of that name. As anyone playing the franchise will know, Link is the main protagonist within the Zelda universe and Zelda is always in need of rescue. In the initial outing The Legend of Zelda, Zelda is kidnapped and Link must save her. In the next title Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Link must rescue another kidnapped Zelda (yawn). The third game The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past sees Zelda imprisoned by the evil Agahnim and she calls Link to rescue her. The fourth Zelda game in the series The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time sees Princess Zelda captured by Ganondorf and rescued by Link (though there is a lot more to this story). The Legend of Zelda Majora’s Mask, barely sees Zelda at all, she merely plays a tool to the overall story. In the Oracle series, Zelda is captured and saved by Link. In the Four Swords, Zelda is kidnapped. Finally, in Wind Waker, Zelda throws off the shackles of the weak and kidnapped maiden and helps Link kick some ass. Likewise with Four Swords Adventures – seems like someone might have finally thought this was a good idea, but no, because in the next game Minish Cap, Zelda is turned to stone and abducted, later rescued by Link. The last game released at time of writing The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, once again sees Zelda captured and Link must rescue her.

Princess Zelda – Wussy but cool

Zelda Fitzgerald – Namesake & Flapper Princess

According to none other than Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto, the Princess Zelda of the Zelda game series gets her name from Zelda Fitzgerald, wife of author F Scott Fitzgerald. Why this is the case is anyone’s guess, given Zelda Fitzgerald appears to have been a woman fraught with mental breakdown and a problem with alchohol. Perhaps he just liked the name. Her mental breakdowns were later thought to have been because of schizophrenia, or even that she may have been bi-polar. Whatever the case, it’s thought by many that her problems stemmed from the bullying of her husband. In a strange twist, Zelda was thought to be imprisoned by her husband for quite a few years, perhaps that’s the ‘Link’ (oh yes, we know, it was a bad pun). This real life Zelda sadly died whilst trapped in a mental sanatorium as a fire ripped through it. Hardly a fairytale ending.

“More than a princess ”

So there you have it, another month and another cool female gaming character looked at, talked about and sadly in this case, wept over by the plethora of female gamers out there who think this kidnapped Princess Peach.. err.. sorry.. Zelda is a bit of a shame. Still, she has to be held in esteem for having an entire gaming franchise named after her, and a good franchise at that. Princess Zelda, we salute you!

Wait.. what do you mean she rescues me?!

All pictures used herein copyright their respective owners. Any pictures appearing here you feel should not, will be removed immidiately.
This article is in no way connected to or licensed by Nintendo and pictures herein remain their property. This is merely a homage. Zelda Fitzgerald is in the public domain.