I’m a huge fan of the Legend of Zelda games. Some of my fondest childhood memories involve helping hero Link on his quest to rescue Princess Zelda from the evil clutches of big baddie Ganondorf. But one wonders how Link would react if he discovered the princess he had just risked life and limb to save was a dude in a dress.
The internet erupted earlier this month with news of the casting for the much-anticipated Zelda live-action movie. British actors Benjamin Evan Ainsworth and Bo Bragason are set to portray Link and Princess Zelda, respectively.
Activists were enraged that their preferred choice for Zelda, one Hunter Schafer, did not get the part following endless rumors he would. I emphasize he because Schafer is a man who claims to be a woman.
The gender cultists argued that in one heavily stylized photo, Schafer closely resembled Zelda’s appearance in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. If you squint, Schafer could share some features with the titular princess, minus the Adam’s apple and five o’clock shadow, of course.
The push for Schafer’s casting was clearly driven by activists’ desire to embed transgender ideology into mainstream entertainment. Those promoting Schafer were explicitly aiming to reshape Zelda’s legacy into one that affirmed an agenda, regardless of fan opinion or narrative coherence. It is an intentional distortion of reality itself to have a male portray Princess Zelda. It falsely implies gender and sex as fluid and interchangeable, a longstanding mission of the radical left to undermine biological reality. Zelda, however, is a woman, and thus must be played by one onscreen.
But amidst this debate over casting a man as a princess, leftist hypocrisy was impossible to miss. Though clearly a ruse to hide a deeper agenda, LGBT zealots’ public argument for Schafer’s casting was a passing resemblance to Princess Zelda. But casting actors who actually look like the characters they’re playing is a rallying cry from the right. The identity-obsessed left has consistently sneered at those who want accuracy in casting decisions, pretending all criticism of politically motivated choices is based on bigotry or sexual frustration.
Indeed, when fans complained that Bella Ramsey looked nothing like in-game Ellie in HBO’s The Last of Us, activists dismissed them as shallow manbabies who were disappointed she wasn’t hot. This was despite Ellie clearly being portrayed as an adopted daughter figure.
Compounding the issue, HBO cast Kaitlyn Dever as Abby from The Last of Us II, despite her closer resemblance to Ellie than Ramsey and no resemblance at all to the muscular soldier Abby.
The inconsistency is glaring: Dismissing fans who care about accurate portrayals as angry incels while fawning over a man for superficial resemblance under ideal lighting conditions smacks of hypocrisy.
But consistency isn’t the point. Like most things in the leftist cultural project, the selective outrage is about narrative and control. So when HBO faced backlash for casting a black actor as Snape in its new Harry Potter show — and leftists were forced to repeatedly play defense as Snape was very clearly white in the books — it didn’t matter because activists still got their way. Accuracy and fidelity to source material apparently only matter when they conveniently align with leftist political goals.
If the left wants a man to play Princess Zelda, he should be cast because he kind of looks like her. But if leftists want an ideologically aligned actress to play Ellie, then looks don’t matter and you’re a jerk if you care.
This activist-driven strategy of bullying studios to foist leftist and LGBT propaganda on fans mirrors insidious efforts by the porn industry to promote queer sexual fantasies to broader audiences. Porn producers routinely swap genders in familiar roles or scenarios to deliberately blur sexual distinctions, cultivate new audiences, and normalize queer fantasies among viewers. Activists similarly weaponize beloved franchises like Zelda by imposing gender reversals that serve ideological purposes.
If the Zelda brand hadn’t been studiously guarded by Nintendo, it seems almost inevitable that the Princess would have become an ideological tool. She would have been cast as black, lesbian, or transgender. Perhaps all three. Thankfully, the Japanese company stood firm, refusing to sacrifice Zelda’s authenticity to activists seeking another cultural notch to put on their belt.
The selective outrage of those who only value authenticity when politically convenient reveals that the left’s casting controversies aren’t about fidelity to beloved stories but control and ideological dominance. It is good that Nintendo tuned them out and made a decision that prioritizes the integrity of the product. Link can thankfully focus on fighting Ganondorf and his army of monsters, not the zealots in our world.