No one’s a fan of Tingle in Breath of the Wild

Probably the strangest part of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s first downloadable content pack, out now, is this:

Nintendo

A Tingle outfit is one of the new collectibles in the game for DLC Expansion Pass holders. Link dressed up as Tingle is not something we knew we needed in our lives, but now it’s here and everything’s changed. That’s clear from how the game’s many, many characters react after taking just one look at Link when he’s clad in a green bodysuit.

Nintendo via Reddit

Of all people in the Zelda universe to be afraid of, Tingle’s an ... odd choice. But the little guy’s long had a bad rap, so maybe series fans’ widespread dislike for him has bled into Breath of the Wild.

Just this week, designer Mari Shirakawa vouched for Tingle, recognizing his polarizing place within the canon. But maybe players should open up their hearts to him, she wrote.

“I remember how shocked I was — shocked right down to my bones!—when I first saw Tingle,” Shirakawa said in a blog post anticipating the DLC release. “I thought ‘he's such an unsettling character ... but ... he's also so adorable ...’ When I started thinking about it, I realized that sometimes hate can slowly turn into love. If you didn’t care about someone at all, you wouldn’t feel ‘love’ or ‘hate’ for him …”

Maybe that’s true. Maybe later in the game, Link succeeds in turning Breath of the Wild’s NPCs into Tingle lovers. We’ll have to dip into the new content and find out.