RolStoppable said:
Hm... how about this one from last year about The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, titled "Is it still acceptable to consider AlttP an all-time great?" Everyone of you should have heard of The Legend of Zelda, and most of you should know about the SNES installment A Link to the Past. It was certainly a great game during its era, but times change and so should our perception of classic video games. Is it still acceptable to consider ALttP an all-time great? I don't think so, and I'll explain why. The game's introduction is about how the seven sages did their job in the past (I won't go into detail here) which is then followed up by a cut to the present where the sorcerer Aghanim corrupted the King of Hyrule's mind and captured the descendants of the seven sages to break the seal that was put into place in the past. All of the descendants happen to be females, no exceptions. This fact reveals that the developers saw females as the only appropriate sex to fill the victim role, because it is too much of a coincidence for all of the descendants to be female. Meanwhile, the hero of the game is of course male. The first task in the game is to save the last remaining descendant who happens to be Princess Zelda. She's locked up in the basement of Hyrule Castle. Once you've made your way down there, she doesn't seem to be particularly grateful and instead urges you to hurry up and get to the throne room. Once there, she is quite blunt in telling the hero, "Push the throne. Come on, do it already!" At this early point in the game it's already clear that females do not get portrayed in a sensible manner. They are either helpless victims or nagging bitches. It doesn't get better once Princess Zelda has been brought to a safe place. The next task is to pay Kakariko village a visit. There you encounter hysterical women who don't ask questions and instead immediately call for the guards before they run off to hide in their houses. Well, of course, it's seemingly not possible for females to behave in any reasonable manner. The picture that the developers paint of women couldn't be further from the truth. Once the player has obtained the Master Sword and is tasked with saving the helpless maidens from the various dungeons in the world, it's time to abandon all hopes that the female characters in this game would ever see respectful treatment. Every time you save one of the descendants of the seven sages, the hero will be told how awesome he is, how much faith the girls have in him and how much they are looking forward to do absolutely nothing while the hero will go on to do all the work to save the world. The sexism in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is so rampant and blatant that we as gamers cannot continue to hold this game in high regard. Not only should we be better than this, we need to be better than this. Our medium won't be respected as an art form as long as we keep clinging to the conventions of the past. Conventions which have long been outdated. We must move forward together. If you like A Link to the Past, chances are good that you are a sexist. Don't be like that. Be better than that. |
Wait a minute, I thought you were saying I was biased for trying to evaluate his article fairly. I wasn't defending him or anything. I didn't know anything about this article. Damn, sorry.
