Is Tingle in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom?
The Legend of Zelda’s Tingle has always been a curious character, a fairy-loving map dealer who’s often found dangling from a red balloon. He was first introduced in 2000, in The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, a character created by Nintendo game designer Takaya Imamura; he was always meant to be a weirdo, a mid-30s man who never wants to grow up, Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma has said.
He’s held similar and more minor roles in a handful of games since Majora’s Mask, including The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, and The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. Sure, Tingle’s shown up in Easter eggs since then — as a wanted poster in The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass or a plushie in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword — but the man himself, Tingle, hasn’t been in a major Zelda game since 2004.
Aonuma told gaming magazine EGM in 2005 that American players didn’t like Tingle very much — perhaps explaining his absence from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. It’s been almost 20 years since Tingle’s last major Zelda appearance. Could The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom be Tingle’s next stage?
Nintendo’s given no indication of Tingle’s whereabouts, but the environment around Tingle as a character has changed immensely since Majora’s Mask. It’s Tingle’s time.
Tingle is now a beloved Zelda character and incredible meme fodder, but this wasn’t always so. Early on, Tingle was targeted because he embodies several stereotypes that people read as gay, and the character got a lot of hate for that. People also found him to be flat-out annoying.
“You know and hate him,” IGN wrote in 2012. “That nutty clown freak that spoils the lands of Hyrule like a
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