Whose Blog?: Wink, Wink, Nudge, Nudge
July 6th, 2006 at 9:14 pm

It’s time for Whose Blog Is It Anyway?! The show where everything’s made up, and the points don’t matter! That’s right, the points are about as useful as all the guards in front of Hyrule Castle! Hi, I’m your host, Drew Linky. C’mon let’s have some fun!

So it’s time for another Whose Blog. I certainly hope that you’re enjoying these as I am. Since we’re doing things a bit differently, I figured I should let someone else play the role of Drew Linky so as to keep my bias out of the selection of the character. So I asked Darth Citrus to do the honours… so let’s begin.

Today we’re going to be playing a game called Character Studies. This game is for TML, if he’ll come on up. The game is about talking off the top of his head about a character within the Zelda series, however he wants to do it. Now if I could have a character from the audience? *gets inundated with requests* Nudge! Nudge… that’s a new one. Thank you. You’ll recall, TML, that Nudge is one of Tetra’s pirates from Wind Waker who was guarding Tetra’s room early in the game. So the category is Nudge… and… off you go.

~~~

Were I to be asked a week ago the gender of each of the pirates of Tetra’s crew, I would have replied with absolute certainty that, aside from Tetra, the entire gang of them were rootin’ tootin’ males livin’ upon t’ sev’n seas! Yaaarrrr! I mean, why don’tcha be takin’ a look at this motley crew? A sight fer sore eyes it be! Yaarrrr!

( Taken from The Desert Colossus )

So imagine my surprise when commenter SmashManiac confronted me with a very intriguing point… a point that for all of about ten minutes completely shattered my beliefs and disillusioned me beyond hope. How can I call myself a Zelda fanatic have I become when I cannot recognise the difference between man and woman!? Oh no, woe is me! Doomed I am! (Come to think of it, Sheik fooled me too. Double drats! Oh, woe woe… double the woe!)

But this is my article… and I figure that I shouldn’t get too melodramatic here. I can still save face. As we all know, there are two sides to every story (those sides, in this case, are as different as Venus and Mars), and I figure I should get to the bottom of this one myself. So… without further adieu, the crux of my point.

Nudge by no means is a character that I expect any of you to remember. (I had to play the game again as well as reference my handy-dandy player’s guide.) Let’s face it, Nudge probably has about eight lines of dialogue the entire game… and that’s probably a gross overestimation as is. (No, I’m not going to replay the entire game just for the purpose of counting! Dedication I have for you, but not that much!) As our commentor mentioned on the ‘Blog, Nudge is the person standing by the door to “Miss Tetra’s” room the first time we–as Link–step aboard the Miss’ ship. For a clear visual, check out the person in the upper-right corner of the graphic above. Yes, that’s him, the dude in purple… although that’s probably more a lavender with just a touch of mauve. (Fashion statements galore!)

Now take a look at this beauty found in Waker’s Hyrule Castle:

( Thanks to Zelda Universe )

The two pictures are, as the quick among you have already guessed, related. The characters in one are found in the other, thus showing that Tetra’s entire crew was created from the courtiers and aides that obviously existed back in Hyrule Castle. (This also included Tetra/Zelda’s mother at one point before her untimely passing.) It’s rather easily done once you see the parallels. Three big persons in each, three little persons in each. Start matching up facial features and the process goes rather smoothly… up until Nudge.

Add in the fact that Nudge has a voice akin to a mad scientist creepy woman, and what do you get? One must certainly conclude, in words Austin Powers might say: “That’s not a man, Basil! It’s a minx, baby! Yeah!”

So what gives here? Woman in one life… and then poof, you’ve got a man with the almighty power of the soul patch? Alrighty then. At first blush, it seems as if the only ways to get out of this contradiction are to call up Phoenix Wright (Take that!) or to send Nudge away to a circus as the bearded lady.

But other than what we see here, the only other real tidbits of character that we have to go on are Nudge’s figurine description, which, reads:

Personality: Who knows?
Talent: Sewing

Nudge seems to understand Tetra best of all the pirates and often counsels her in her decision making. He’s actually stronger than Gonzo.

(I’ll bet Nudge enjoys taking long walks on sandy beaches as well.)

The first possibility, as our friendly commenter mentioned, is that Nudge is Impa. It seems pretty sound at first… stronger than the leader pirate Gonzo and closer to Tetra/Zelda than any other. But sewing? Impa? Colour me a sceptic, but I don’t see the connection here. Beyond that, this falls back to the age-old “Is Sheik a guy or gal?” debate, but this time we’re talking about Impa. Now maybe I’m wrong, but Impa–and Sheikah in general–don’t seem to me like someone who’d have to pose as someone from another gender just to be taken seriously. (I mean… c’mon, you all had to have had some respect for Ocarina’s Impa, yes?) So, no, I definitely don’t think this is the case. Not impossible, but I just don’t think Impa is… that timid to do that.

But this solves not our flagrant mystery! And I know you want an answer (because if I don’t give you one, you’re all going to throw rotten tomatoes at me for having just wasted a ton of your time!). So let’s make something up for fun, something plausible, and then let’s run with it.

Nudge I think would have to be Hylian; the name just doesn’t cry out for someone who is Sheikah… and Gerudo is right out because of that whole gender inequality thing. There doesn’t seem to be anything special about him… her… whomever; there’s not a provable ounce of magic anywhere near him/her/it, and he/she/it blends rather well into the background as if he/she/it didn’t exist. Given the fact that, in a former life, Nudge was obviously female, I see no reason why Nudge has somehow had a gender change during Waker. (After all, with all the maps that you have to buy from Tingle, who could afford the rupees to get one in that day and age anyways!?) As for why she looks like a guy, I’m betting the answer has much to do with the fact that, in the pirate business, big, strong, muscular, male-types definitely make a statement, especially if you’ve got three of them. (That statement has got to be, “How’s my sailing? Call 1-800-GET-LOST!”) Presence is everything, especially when you’re “negotiatin’ fer gold dabloons!”

But this has got to be a definite challenge for a lady of the Court who had a propensity to wearing dresses day in and day out? Indeed, this perhaps is roughly the same “growing pains” that Zelda had to take on with her life as her alterego Sheik. I mean, can you see the first day aboard their ship? “But ‘Tra, I don’t wanna swab the deck. But ‘Tra, it’s hot; can I go lounge around for a candlemark or three?” Yet obviously, now that they’ve been sailing for some good bit of time, she’s adapted herself despite the difficulty such a situation would present to her.

As for why she’s working for Tetra, well, I reckon the answer is that she owes some sort of life-debt to the King of Red Lions, likely passed directly onto Tetra herself. After all, their former king did spirit the lot of them away from Hyrule Castle and into the mountains above the oceans. This is no small gift for him to have given her, even if the gift was really impurely driven… for the most part. It’s probably true with all of her crew, in all honesty. (Not much to see there, so scurry along, kids.)

And Nudge has got to be friendly, willing to exchange gossip with Link the moment she laid eyes on him. Her first quote is that Tetra is really 35 years old. (Oh wait, she’s just kidding, you know. Tetra is only Miss Tetra because because her mum got knocked over the side of the ship by the mizzenmast and fell to Linky Jones’ locker.) Along with her closeness to the former princess, she is definitely a people person, willing to accept people rather quickly, such as Link. (This is another trait I definitely do not see in everyone’s favourite Sheikah). But she’s also serious when she needs be–advising Tetra on whatever with that which Tetra would needed assistance. (”Tetra, I think you should wear your blue outfit today! The green one just doesn’t match your eyes.”)

Of course, this is all an educated guess, and my theory isn’t anything lock, stock, and barrel. (I’d be honestly lucky if I just had the barrel!) So please, if you disagree, there’s always the comment section. (But keep it nice, or I’ll make you walk the plank! :D )

Written by The Missing Link

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