I'd be okay with her being optional. Loads of games let you choose between girl and boy.

Leave it optional Mr. Aonuma, OPTIONAL! Choice is a wonderful thing.

I don't understand all the negativity in this thread. We've never even seen Linkle in a game yet. We literally know nothing about how she would be in a game. Yet people seem dead-set against her being in Zelda. It's almost as if....no, never mind.

lol fuck off linkle

That means she wont be in any other game (that's how Aonuma works for you :P).

Hopefully she drops the double crossbows then..

For the record, I wouldn't really be a fan of making Samus a man either.  It kind of just feels...unnecessary.

I just hope that Nintendo does this tastefully and doesn't turn link into some genderless protagonist that the gamer decides at the beginning of the game.  Like another poster said, maybe a brother/sister duo could be a good idea for a game or even one where the gamer flashes between the stories of each sibling.  I could see Nintendo doing some pretty cool stuff here if they mix time travel in with a dual story concept.  

Basically, I am OK with Linkle as long as she is adding something meaningful to the gameplay and storyline.  If her presence is just to appease culture warriors and ends up diluting the Zelda experience, then I am not a fan.

I've said quite a few times that Link isn't defined as a boy throughout all of the Zelda universe. Link is just a incarnation of heroes, and each Link is a, ahem, link, in a long chain of heroes. Why can't one of those Links be female? I mean, is the gender of the hero predefined?

Link isn't one character, unlike Samus, Mario, Peach, Master Chief, Kratos, Nathan Drake, whatever, so it wouldn't be changing the gender of an already pre-defined character, because Link isn't a pre-defined character.

So I'd be completely fine with a LoZ starring a female Link. However screw the name "Linkle". Link sounds just as much like a girl's name (if not more) than it sounds like a boy's name, so just call her Link.

Oh gosh, please no. It's basically fan service--it's breaking the fourth wall. I'm WAY WAY into them introducing cool new characters, but basing a girl on Link and calling her Linkle? It's not right on so many levels. Perfect for something like Hyrule Warriors, horribly out of place in a canonical Zelda title. Just give us a cool girl with a crossbow.

I'd be down for playing as Linkle in a spin off or mainline game. If she keeps her cross bow as a main weapon, that could be an interesting new way to play a Zelda game.

I said it before, I'll say it again. Who cares? If she's in, great. If she's not, whatever.
Does the gender of the main protagonist matter so much that it will make or break a game/franchise? Like... Fucking really?!?
Since it's such a hot topic, I guess I'll share my 2 cents.
I can see them making it similar to Pokemon and Fire Emblem in a sense, where you choose whether the character is male or female. In the case of Pokemon, the change is completely cosmetic and has no bearing or impact on the game whatsoever.
And the original concept of Link was to represent the "Link" between the hero in the game and the person playing the game. So I can see them adding Linkle as an option to try to build a stronger "Link" between the hero, with the female player. If that's what they do, great. More options for the player don't hurt. But if they don't do it, whatever.
Bottom line is, I do not care what they do with the concept because that's not what makes or breaks a Zelda game for me. The gender of the main character of a game or the story within the game, in this case Zelda, has absolutely nothing to do with the actual quality of the game itself. Which is all I care about.
Just make each individual mainline Zelda game the best possible game it can be. Whether I'm playing as Link or Linkle, male or female, it doesn't fucking matter!
Just make whatever Zelda game you happen to be working on at the time, the best Zelda game it is capable of being, so that the new elements of that game, whatever they may be, provide a refreshing, rewarding, and enjoyable take that provides a new spin and different flavor that sets it apart from the other games in the franchise, while simultaneously keeping the basic foundations of the formula and perfecting those foundations so that it still feels like the Legend of Zelda that I know and love so much.