The Legend of Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma has revealed the story behind the creation of Tingle, while also addressing the character's sexual orientation.
"I guess the heart of the character there is a little bit of a gag kind of feeling to it," he told Kotaku. "The way the design of the character started is that we needed to think about how the character—the player—would get access to maps in this game."
Aonuma went on the explain:
We ultimately ended up with a character here that had a little bit of humor to him that [came from] thinking of…'What sort of person would sell a map?' And, well, we decided it would be the kind of person who makes a map. And the way that he makes a map is by floating through the air so that he can see the contours of the land and draw them. But as soon as we got that far in the process, we realized anybody that would fly through the air making a map has got to be a really weird.
So when we made the character, we had this notion that one of the ways he might be a little bit weird is that he had this notion that he never wanted to grow up. And so I think, to that extent the clothes do fit this image of him. And the whole thing comes together as a very Peter Pan kind of visual. You know, if you think about it, it's this guy in his 30s in a green suit and is flying and never wants to grow up, it all sort of comes together around that.
Finally, when asked whether or not the character is gay, Aonuma responded simply by saying, "He's not gay. He's just an odd person."
So there you have it. Wonder no more.
