Mysteries of Sheik-Male or Female???

[MasterIckolas 2]

According to the Manga, Zelda physically transforms into a boy, and "works for Ganondorf" So, Problem Solved.

[Knuckle 484]

That would solve the problem, but the manga isn't canon, so any information from it is false.

[Dark Young Link 0]

Sheik is a Female!

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

'''Sheik''' is [[Princess Zelda]]'s alter ego in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time]]''. Zelda passes herself off as a male [[sheikah]] known as Sheik. With voice muffled and face concealed, wearing a form-fitting blue suit with the red Sheikah eye in the center, the character is essentially unrecognizable. Sheik plays the harp and teaches Link new songs to help him on his quest. When [[Link]] arrives at the [[Temple of Time]] near the end of the game, Sheik uses the [[Triforce]] of Wisdom to transform back into Zelda. It is assumed that she uses her magical skills (as a [[sage]]) to change her skin tone, hair length, and eye color (and presumably her voice), as well as her build and her clothing. It has also been argued that Sheik's build may be simply concealed armor Zelda wears over her torso; however, this would restrict Sheik's flexibility and agility significantly, and so render this argument void.

The game is mum about the true nature and origin of Zelda's transformation/disguise. As to Sheik's gender, a scene towards the end of ''Ocarina of Time'' reveals that Sheik was Zelda in disguise all along. Zelda was a female who passed herself off as a male, which perhaps raises issues of gender identity in the Zelda series, something unusual (though not unheard of) for a [[Nintendo]] title. One of the [[Gossip Stones]] scattered around Hyrule in ''Ocarina of Time'' describes her royal highness as a tomboy. Also, according to the trophies and the instruction booklet for [[super Smash Bros. Melee]], Sheik is a female (it should be noted the the Super Smash Bros. series is not canon with any of the games that it's characters originate from). It is also interesting to note that Sheik's poses and general body form in Super Smash Bros. Melee are much more feminine than in ''Ocarina of Time''.

Yet, in the ''Ocarina of Time'' manga, author Himekawa Akira depicted Zelda requesting her true identity be sealed. [[impa]] transforms her into a male for her protection, then teaches him the way of the Sheikah (although this manga is also non-canon). Thus, Sheik's gender are controversial topics amongst fans of the franchise, and it is a popular device in The Legend of Zelda fan-fiction to use both characters, as separate entities. However, according to an issue of the ''Nintendo Power'' magazine, when Ganondorf attacked Hyrule (The time period in which he ruled over Hyrule), Zelda became incognito and hid with the Sheikah tribe, learning their ways and culture, giving her the ninja-like, red-eyed, secretive counterpart we know as Sheik.

As evidenced by her tendency to disappear using [[deku nut]]s, as well as her overall motif in Super Smash Brothers Melee; Sheik's movements and design are very ninja-like. This guise of Zelda has proven to be very popular amongst the series' fans, and many highly anticipate any kind of new appearance by Zelda's ninja-like form in future installment of the series

Edited 10 Jun 2008 by Dark Young Link (see edit history)

[Goron Merchant 1]

Is that from wiki. . .?

[Ralon 0]

Zelda Manga is not apart of the series and therefore is not applicable. Melee is not canon with the series therefore is not really applicable either. No one will really ever know if she is female or male. But like i have said before. We are not talking about human's here. Therefore the regular rules for human's do not apply. We are not talking about earth therefore physics does not apply. We are talking about a fantasy world where anything is possible. Personally i believe she wears shoulder pads to extend her shoulders do that she is not found by Ganondorf. She can tape her breasts down. This would explain why she is exceptionaly flexible, more so than any normal man is. If she truly did become a man then she would have to readapt her life as a male. It would take her years to learn how to just live normally as a male never mind be a ninja! There are so many arguments for and against Sheik being a female. No one will ever know until someone finally asks the designers what her gendre is. But i believe, and will always believe, that she is a female.

[Crowned Twili Princess 0]

One thing that always convinced me that Sheik is a girl disguised as a boy is every time I see Sheik-it doesn't matter which game it is-her eyes always look feminine. When I first played OoT, I believed (and still do) that Sheik was a girl because of her eyes. They don't look like the eyes of a boy to me.

[Mao 0]

There are plenty of guys out there that have womanly eyes. You can look at countless animes and mangas that have guys with feminine eyes. One could classify Sheik as a bishounen.

'The stereotypical bishounen generally has long hair, a slender, graceful figure, and lacks facial hair. Bishounen tend to appear androgynous or feminine. They are also likely to have certain personality traits, like sensitivity, secretiveness, moodiness, refinement, and a dark, tormented past.'

Urban Dictionary exerpt.

Isnt Shiek bishounen in a sense?

[Luneth Uchiha 72]

Sheik is Female,

nintendo wanted to keep the game E rated so Sheik is a female

[Final Hyrule Finale 0]

shiek is a GIRL get that through your thick skulls that shiek is a GIRL!!!!!!!!

[Ocarina Man 0]

Zelda IS the seventh sage, so she must have used magic, but i have another theory. She might have drunken a potion.

[Heartsauce 0]

Well shiek is a girl by ACTUALL gender, however sheik as a character is in fact a male, therefore it is a girl acting like a guy/

[Young Link Addict 67]

There are plenty of guys out there that have womanly eyes. You can look at countless animes and mangas that have guys with feminine eyes. One could classify Sheik as a bishounen.

'The stereotypical bishounen generally has long hair, a slender, graceful figure, and lacks facial hair. Bishounen tend to appear androgynous or feminine. They are also likely to have certain personality traits, like sensitivity, secretiveness, moodiness, refinement, and a dark, tormented past.'

Urban Dictionary exerpt.

Isnt Shiek bishounen in a sense?

That's anime, and manga's every man in those shows are gay. I learned that from in the anime topic.

[Zeruda 1]

Heh heh... the ol' female/male argument, eh? I respect the opinions of both sides, but I do have my own opinion as well:

First, it depends on which Sheik is in question. OoT!Sheik is OoT!Zelda, we all know this. But does that mean that when Zelda is in disguise that she's still a female? Perhaps, perhaps not. The real question is, did she use her magic to change her gender, or did she simply change outfits? I lean towards the belief that OoT!Zelda did indeed change her gender. Her entire body changed- everything from her skin color to her musculature. Allow me to explain with some notes:

M1: Pecs. Yes, folks, these are pecs. I've seen 'em, you've seen 'em, we all know. One thing that bothers me is the theory that Zelda wraps her breasts with bandages or whatever. Yes, OoT!Zelda has a small breast size (A cup, clearly. Ladies, you know.). Even somebody with a small A cup can not wrap their breasts and achieve the look of pecs. It is impossible. A woman may be able to minimize the look of her breasts, but she will not achieve pecs. Even a buttload of pushups will not give a woman pecs. Sure they will make the area look bigger, but no pecs would appear, because as the muscle structure of a breast grows, the fatty tissue inside grows along with it, increasing bust size. Obviously, OoT!Sheik has pecs in this picture.

M2: Bulge. I have pointed this out before, and people have actually argued that the bulge shown here is the pelvic bone. No, kids. No. On a woman, even the skinniest of them, the pelvic bone does not show at the lowest point of the crotch. It shows up higher at the hip. Last time I checked, women don't have crotch bulges. And that's certainly not a cameltoe there. Notice you can only barely see the highlighting on the right (Sheik's left) of the bulge, and the rest is covered in shadow. This is common in almost every piece of child-safe artwork where a male's crotch is visible. If the bulge was not there, highlighted and all, there would be no need for dark shadowing. I know, it's not a huge bulge, but you have to take age into consideration. OoT!Link is 17, right? Zelda is around the same age... so if OoT!Zelda transforms but is still around that age, there won't be a huge bulge. Males, don't try to convince me that a 17 year old is going to have a huge wang. They don't even stop developing until early 20's. As much as he may want to, a 16/17 year old male isn't going to have a man-package. This is most likely the reason it's visible, but not "big". Also, notice the hips. See and womanly curves? No, I didn't think so.

M3: Biceps/triceps. Yes, woman can build them, too, but only the very buff and/or lean will be able to have them this accentuated. As we can see, Sheik is built. Slim, but built. Like a male gymnast, yes? Yes. Also, the biceps are a tad bit larger than the triceps. On women, what makes theirs stand out more is actually a larger tricep, as they don't build biceps the same as men.

M4: Legs. What do you notice? Or, what don't you notice? The lack of curves. When it comes to lower body strength and muscle building, women excel while men excel in upper body strength and muscle building. When women gain muscle in their legs, they have a more fluid curve between the calf-ankle/thigh-knee area. In this image, OoT!Sheik's calf muscle sticks out while the rest of the back of his leg remains thin. The muscles in his thigh thing down where they meet the knee. These are characteristics of a male's musculature. When women gain muscle in their legs, their thighs also become thicker. In this case, OoT!Sheik's thighs are still somewhat thin, very much unlike that of a woman's.

M5: Feet. One of the most common characteristics of male characters is larger feet. What do we have here? Large feet! Very unproportional to a female's, these feet are very masculine in shape and size.

Compare OoT!Sheik to OoT!Zelda (http://www.zeldadungeon.net/Zelda05/Characters/OfficialArt/Zelda2.jpg) and notice the major differences in body shape. In her female form, Zelda has hips, thin arms, smaller shoulders, and small breasts. In my opinion, OoT!Sheik is male only in body. Mentally, he is still Princess Zelda, a female. Zelda has merely temporarily changed her body. If she changed her eye color, skin color, hair (color and length- bangs of Sheik's length could not be tied back as they are in Zelda's true form), and muscle structure, why wouldn't she just become male? Even her voice changed. It's not muffled, it's a whole different tone altogether.

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Then we have TP!Sheik. Yes, I know TP!Sheik only appeared in Brawl, but the design was intended for TP (then not used), so it can still be considered canon. This is where I think Nintendo made a great decision- making the new Sheik a female. OoT!Sheik and TP!Sheik are two different Sheiks, as they belong to two different Zeldas (OoT!Zelda and TP!Zelda). Let's look at more notes:

F1: Breasts! Boobs! Whatever. They are there, and they are visible. They are not wrapped, even though there are bandages there. If both Sheiks have their chests wrapped, but only one has boobs, then the other must be male, yes? Yes. TP!Sheik has boobs, kids. That alone should be enough, but I'll continue anyway.

F2: Feet. Look at that! They're not huge man-feet! They are proportionately female. Oh my. They are even feminine in shape!

F3: Butt. Boo-tay. Sheik's got back. TP!Sheik, most definitely, has a nice, round bum. Feminine and proportionate to a female's body shape, Sheik's posterior is nowhere near that of an average male's rear. We even see the dramatic curves between the back and the rear, creating a female figure.

F4: Thighs. Unlike OoT!Sheik's thighs, TP!Sheik's thighs do not become very thin where they meet the knee. They are meaty and shapely. As mentioned before, women with lower body strength have thicker thighs and rears, and this is clearly visible in TP!Sheik's model. The thighs meet up at the rear in a perfect curve, whereas with a male's figure, there would be a slight indentation where the thigh and rear meets.

F5: The calves! Unlike OoT!Sheik's calves, TP!Sheik's calves have more of a curve to them- they don't slim down dramatically as a male's would. They curve elegantly, once again showing off TP!Sheik's athletic, female build.

With TP!Sheik, it's quite easy to tell that she is female. Even the hair remains long, though the eye color and skin color still changes. Her arms are still slender, though the outfit gives off the illusion of larger muscles. Sillhouette the figure, and you will see that the biceps/triceps are much smaller than OoT!Sheik's. With TP!Sheik, we can easily tell that Zelda simply uses magic to transform into a different outfit with slight bodily changes. It would have been nice if they had actually used TP!Sheik in TP, but Midna stole the show, folks! Not that it was a bad thing.

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Nintendo was smart enough, I think, to put an end to the male/female Sheik debate (or at least they tried....) by giving the fans a second Sheik- a female one. This way, F!Sheik fans can enjoy TP!Sheik, while M!Sheik fans can enjoy OoT!Sheik.

[Dusty 0]

that sure cleared it up

[Xats 0]

And if you read the OOt manga It is confusing that "it" thought that "it" was "male" even under a illusion when you don't have "the goods a man has" unless "it" used magic as Mei Ling says in Brawl.