Nintendo Explains Where Tingle Came From

Always talking about getting laid by hot chicks while being wildly flamboyant and wearing tights brings the obvious question, are they gay, or are they straight with odd mannerisms? The question was asked, and it was the latter, according to Nintendo. The PCness is blindingly strong in here, need some sunglasses for this ignorance.
None of this is relevant in Hyrule. Even thinking that such a question needed answering is the height of absurdity.

This line of questioning makes me wonder when Kotaku is going to ask where all of Kirby's inhaled objects go. I anticipate a "I bet he's stuck in a bathroom for a while! It'll be like a bomb went off!"-style quip from the Kotaku side.

Ridiculous.
 
You gotta keep in mind most gamers never leave their house to interact with other humans so they can only pass judgement on things with a limited knowledge of crude stereotypes. It's sad really.

Does wanting my Tingle/Salvatore slash-fic to be canon make me a terrible person?
 

OmegaX

Member
Some people think Ike was written this way. I haven't played the Radiant series enough to say if this is true or false.
Wait, only some people think that Ike is gay? I thought it was pretty obvious. At least Soren was definitely in love with him.

Edit: Regarding Tingle, I remember a lot of people on Facebook being angry when Tingle was announced as a character in Hyrule Warriors. The most common reason was because they thought he was supposed to be a pedophile.
 

L Thammy

Member
I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong with asking whether or not Tingle is meant to be gay. A lot of people do make that assumption, like it or not. It's nice to have Aonuma differentiate between "odd" and "gay".
 

Damian.

Banned
None of this is relevant in Hyrule. Even thinking that such a question needed answering is the height of absurdity.

This line of questioning makes me wonder when Kotaku is going to ask where all of Kirby's inhaled objects go. I anticipate a "I bet he's stuck in a bathroom for a while! It'll be like a bomb went off!"-style quip from the Kotaku side.

Ridiculous.

You're wildly over thinking this.
 

Matriox

Member
Huh. Never occurred to me that he was gay, just weird/creepy. Figured he was overly creepy since MM has a lot of creepy elements.
 
None of this is relevant in Hyrule. Even thinking that such a question needed answering is the height of absurdity.

This line of questioning makes me wonder when Kotaku is going to ask where all of Kirby's inhaled objects go. I anticipate a "I bet he's stuck in a bathroom for a while! It'll be like a bomb went off!"-style quip from the Kotaku side.

Ridiculous.

I'm all for bashing Kotaku but neither of those questions is ridiculous. A lot of people want to hear the canon story from the Word of God. For some, "it's a video game" or "it's magic" aren't good enough answers. They want to know the justified "science" behind what happens and I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
 
Probably because he is flamboyant
cover_large.jpg

Also funny because in that game he shows an interest in girls. ;D
 

Kamina

Golden Boy
Edit: Regarding Tingle, I remember a lot of people on Facebook being angry when Tingle was announced as a character in Hyrule Warriors. The most common reason was because they thought he was supposed to be a pedophile.
Who came up with that retarded idea?
And why complain about an optional DLC character?

I for my part found that Tingle was a funny little character, not more and not less. Now he is an icon.
 
Wait, only some people think that Ike is gay? I thought it was pretty obvious. At least Soren was definitely in love with him.

Edit: Regarding Tingle, I remember a lot of people on Facebook being angry when Tingle was announced as a character in Hyrule Warriors. The most common reason was because they thought he was supposed to be a pedophile.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=972590

Well

Totilo's assumption that Tingle is "gay" pretty much solidifies my argument.
 

OmegaX

Member
Who came up with that retarded idea?
And why complain about an optional DLC character?

I for my part found that Tingle was a funny little character, not more and not less. Now he is an icon.
Probably because he is a grown man that dresses like Peter Pan, and likes to hang out with kids.
 

rhandino

Banned
This is as weird as that time someone ask the Ranma 1/2 mangaka (A very old series about a boy who transforms in a women if he to touches cold water and a boy with hot water) what would happen if Ranma get pregnant in his female form and then touches hot water... she was not amused to say the least.

Sometimes "It's Magic" is the best answer... and this one was answered already in a previous games. Sadly America hates Tingle and we weren't blessed with those =/.
 
Back when MM first came out I remember thinking Tingle was supposed to be gay. Chalk it up to western (American) media portraying all gays as eccentric stereotypes I guess. Plus we never got the games that explicitly detail Tingle's lust for ladies, apparently.

Of course that was fifteen years ago now. We all think dumb shit when we're young and relatively sheltered. I never got the gay vibe from any of his later appearances and now that I'm playing MM again I'm realizing it was never really there to begin with.
 

Calamari41

41 > 38
Probably because he is a grown man that dresses like Peter Pan, and likes to hang out with kids.

When does Tingle hang out with kids? The only time I can think of is when you first meet him in Clock Town and he's floating around in the same quadrant as the boss of the Bombers.
 

MCN

Banned
It confuses me that people feel the need to ask about the sexuality of video games characters in games where sex doesn't play any part. As if it makes any difference whether Tingle is gay, or Groose is bi, or Ganondorf can only get off to photos of himself.
 

OmegaX

Member
When does Tingle hang out with kids? The only time I can think of is when you first meet him in Clock Town and he's floating around in the same quadrant as the boss of the Bombers.
He likes the Kokiri so much that he dresses like them. You don't see him actually chasing children but I suppose people just assume that he wants to hang around with them.
I don't think Tingle is a pedophile but some people do, so there must be a reason.
 

Giever

Member
I don't think people are necessarily homophobic for thinking he was meant to be a gay caricature, a lot of Japanese media has characters like that that embody the "Hard Gay" idea.

It didn't help he called himself a Fairy, which was a common gay pejorative back then.

Tingle copies a lot of really popularized okama style mannerisms that people associate with homosexual actions.

It's kind of complicated because it's fine if he is gay and it's fine if he's not, but to call his behavior which edges the stereotypical stage idea of a gay character "weird" is sort of reductive.

But whatever. The whole point is to not think about it too closely or the whole character collapses in on itself.

I wish more people would pay attention to these posts. It's frustrating seeing people get baffled or offended at others for thinking Tingle might have supposed to have been gay. People who think that (at least some of them) aren't necessarily thinking "someone who acts like Tingle must be gay." It's more that Tingle is imbued with a lot of characteristics that tend to be used to mock gay people in Japanese media. At least that's why I was wary of the character, because that would have been a shitty move by Nintendo.
 

Fandangox

Member
Wait, only some people think that Ike is gay? I thought it was pretty obvious. At least Soren was definitely in love with him.

Edit: Regarding Tingle, I remember a lot of people on Facebook being angry when Tingle was announced as a character in Hyrule Warriors. The most common reason was because they thought he was supposed to be a pedophile.

Soren probably, I personally think Ike is asexual.

Radiant Dawn did have that lesbian rogue, and Legault may or may have not been bisexual.
 
I had no idea who this dude was until about a week ago.

So I started playing Wind Waker HD semi-seriously, and got to my first interaction with him. The only things I thought were: "This dude is pretty odd, but in an amusing way".

Never once did it cross my mind to wonder about his sexual orientation. Which is irrelevant anyway. So what if he was gay? Doesn't take an iota away from his (odd) charm.
 

Giever

Member
I said gat damn

also, I just looked up Tingle images and stumbled upon "fan art" of a speedo-clad Ganondorf making out with Tingle

I even had safe search on

I recommend you don't turn safe search off, in that case.

Unless that's, like, your thing.
 

Neiteio

Member
My only criticism of Tingle is he appears to be a slave-driver in The Wind Waker

His Terminian counterpart is much kinder, selling maps to help his dad :-3
 

Watch Da Birdie

I buy cakes for myself on my birthday it's not weird lots of people do it I bet
I think people here are being too judgmental towards people who thought that Tingle may have been intended to be a gay character. There is nothing wrong with thinking that Tingle may have been a gay stereotype, nor is this some exclusive American-phenomenon as some have suggested.

It's quite common to see over-the-top gay caricatures in Japanese media...just the other day I was finishing up my Dragon Ball Z marathon, and in the last couple episodes there's a Freddie Mercury Leather Daddy who hits on kid Trunks. I don't think it's some huge stretch to think that Tingle, who has a similar flamboyant personality and has the "childish" element that tends to go hand-in-hand with gay caricatures in Japanese media, may have been partially intended to be a bit of a stereotype. While not of the same level of explicitness, take discussions about Mr. Popo and Jynx. Would you say it's the fault of the observer if they look at those characters and see a racial stereotype? I've seen many discussions about those two where the conversation was turned back around on those who were a bit bothered by how those characters are portrayed, and I see that happening here as well to a lesser extent.

Now, I do think there are those people who see Tingle as a gay stereotype, and hate him not because they find him in bad taste, but just don't like gay people, but I'm going to give most of GAF the benefit of the doubt here and assume that they're not homophobic just because they don't like a video-game character. I myself love Tingle, I'm mad as hell his games didn't come here thanks to IGN's smear campaign, and I wanted him in Smash Brothers. But I definitely can understand why some people might see him as a negative stereotype that conflates homosexuality with weirdness (and pedophilia, as the Dragon Ball example shows), and I respect that people can have that opinion. Remember, the games where Tingle hooks up with girls are unknown to much of the West...even in the countries they were released in, I imagine they're far more niche than mainstream Zelda, and looking at the covers of both, it's easy to see why the impression remains.
 

HUELEN10

Member
Yeah, Tingle isn't gay. I really hate stereotypes, like this, though I'm guilty as well; I thought Bob from Animal Crossing was gay when that game first came out. Is the dislike that people have had over tingle actually related in part to homophobia?mif so, that is a scary thought.
 
Thinking that Tingle might be a gay caricature isn't necessarily wrong. Disliking him because of it is what I have a problem with. The amount of homophobia I witnessed after he was unveiled as DLC in Hyrule Warriors was verging on self parody.
 
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