rlinwriteslu

[rlinwriteslu]

Four's a Crowd was written with sweat, blood, and tears.

Sweat of the writer, blood of the characters, and tears of the reader.

[rlinwriteslu]

MS word banger of the day

[rlinwriteslu]

North East Basement 1 <<Previous          Next>> (coming soon)

ComicArchive / About / Linktree

[rlinwriteslu]

Unfortunately, it seems like things are shaping up as I feared and there's no way the next BMM chapter will be finished before finals. Or for that matter, for the fic to be finished this year. Oh well, it was worth a shot.

[rlinwriteslu]

I've spoken a bit about some of these individual ideas on the Discord, but this sums it up fairly well, I feel.

It's always useful to know what is in the comic and what isn't, especially if it shapes how you might approach a set of ideas. It doesn't necessarily mean that you should automatically dismiss something out of hand if it isn't directly supported by the comic or the games, but I also do believe that awareness is both useful to writers who might try exploring fanon ideas in a new way or trying to dig deep into their emotional roots or readers just getting into the fandom. I have been on both sides of this, and a lot of this information would have been really helpful to me if I had it 4.5 years ago.

While I believe that people should be allowed to write whatever they find interesting, it sometimes makes me a little sad that the common fanon portrayal of Legend as a generally grouchy person who hates adventuring and seems to hate Hylia in particular seems to be the predominant portrayal of him in the fandom.

I get that people aren't necessarily under an obligation to write him exactly as he appears in the comic, but I feel like the pure ubiquity with which his fanon self is portrayed has caused a lot of people to just think he's that way, leading to them deciding to write him that way because they think that's just the character he is. I feel that there is often a dearth of other interpretations of his character that you wouldn't necessarily see for some other characters.

There is certainly a certain appeal to the fanon version of Legend (though it's no longer my cup of tea, it certainly was at one point), and there's also appeal to the version of Legend that appears in the comic. People don't feel beholden to the canon, as is the nature of fanwork, but by that same logic people are under no obligation to stick with fanon either. If you have opinions on him (or any character, really) that doesn't really go with all the super common headcanons, please, just put them out there anyway. It's not like they're going to be any less canon than the fanon version of him.

It'll be much more interesting to have more interpretations of Legend out there than less, and it'll certainly be more interesting to have more varied interpretations of him than just the one. Just having one version of him gets tiring after a while.

[rlinwriteslu]

It's been far too long since I've last touted "Phantom" as a great nickname for Spirit Tracks Zelda, so here's why it's so great:

Pairs well thematically with "Spirit," a fairly common nickname (and my typically preferred one) for Spirit Tracks Link

Zelda got to possess Phantoms a lot! It's like a major mechanic of the game!

It's just plain a cool name!

This has been my obligatory "Spirit and Phantom" propaganda of the day.

[rlinwriteslu]

I got a bunch of characterization thoughts yesterday and man do I wish I could character build like this on demand. Usually what happens when I think characters is that I tend to just go over stuff I've come up with already, so it's not nearly as common that I just suddenly come up with cool new ideas.

At the same time given the kind of character narratives I enjoy the most I think my characters would be happy if I had less new and exciting ideas about them.

[rlinwriteslu]

It appears that I have tapped into an opinion that has been simmering in the fandom for a while. To the point where when I noted how many notes this post got on the LU discord, people commented to agree with me and add their own thoughts.

And also the Hylia thing inevitably gets brought up. I'm not a massive fan of Hylia bashing either, but that's a post for another time.

While I believe that people should be allowed to write whatever they find interesting, it sometimes makes me a little sad that the common fanon portrayal of Legend as a generally grouchy person who hates adventuring and seems to hate Hylia in particular seems to be the predominant portrayal of him in the fandom.

I get that people aren't necessarily under an obligation to write him exactly as he appears in the comic, but I feel like the pure ubiquity with which his fanon self is portrayed has caused a lot of people to just think he's that way, leading to them deciding to write him that way because they think that's just the character he is. I feel that there is often a dearth of other interpretations of his character that you wouldn't necessarily see for some other characters.

There is certainly a certain appeal to the fanon version of Legend (though it's no longer my cup of tea, it certainly was at one point), and there's also appeal to the version of Legend that appears in the comic. People don't feel beholden to the canon, as is the nature of fanwork, but by that same logic people are under no obligation to stick with fanon either. If you have opinions on him (or any character, really) that doesn't really go with all the super common headcanons, please, just put them out there anyway. It's not like they're going to be any less canon than the fanon version of him.

It'll be much more interesting to have more interpretations of Legend out there than less, and it'll certainly be more interesting to have more varied interpretations of him than just the one. Just having one version of him gets tiring after a while.

[rlinwriteslu]

Apparently for a bit I was responsible for maybe a full 30-40% of mentions of major character death on the LU Discord. I think that would explain why it was a running joke for years after I finished Four's A Crowd that I like to kill off my characters.

The reader tears make a fine vintage though.

[rlinwriteslu]

I want to talk about how I write the version of Mask I write for Forging A Chain sometime (especially if someone puts in an ask), but being as short on time as I am at the current moment, I'll just share something that stands out to me when I think about my version of the character compared to other interpretations of a younger Time.

Specifically, I generally do not write him like a child. He simply does not think like one or act like one (unless he is deliberately trying to shape others' perceptions). Maybe it's because I've ended up setting him up as some sort of narrative foil to Legend but he also thinks and monologues a lot. But perhaps most importantly, he really does not make it easy to tell what's going on in his head unless the scene is directly in his point of view.

It's a version of him that I haven't really seen elsewhere, though I think it's one that thematically lines up with OOT and MM quite well.

[rlinwriteslu]

Mask held out the mask for the traveler to see. “This is the Keaton Mask. It’s of a character that’s been quite popular as of late in my era, at least among children.” He paused. “Though I do suppose the mask shop can’t run with its salesman out travelling.” He stood up and put on the mask. “Keaton’s pretty cute, don’t you think?” His posture shifted slightly as he put it on, and so did the tone of his voice. If Hyrule didn’t know better, in that moment, Mask could just have been like any other child his age. The Keaton Mask by itself was pretty cute, though, so Hyrule nodded. Mask took it off and shifted back to his normal demeanor, with that sort of relaxed confidence that he and Legend seemed to have. He sat down. “It’s a fun, childish thing for most, I suppose, but what’s just another silly thing now could be a treasured memory in a few years. For one person I met, it was a token of a long-held friendship. It’s interesting how these things turn out.” He paused. “I will say, there are legends of intelligent three-tailed foxes that bear a resemblance to this mask. Do you think that maybe Keaton may not be such a fictional character after all?” He gave Hyrule a knowing smile at that last part.

Another snippet from the upcoming Boy with Many Masks chapter, now for once featuring one of the masks in question. This is the more final version of a snippet I posted in the Discord a couple months ago.

[rlinwriteslu]

I've been thinking about how much I want to share about my work that I really shouldn't since it's plans for the far future that I can't even start to act on for a long time but I just remembered that there is a person who knows what's going on, my beta reader, and maybe I should start bothering him with my ideas again. It's been more infrequent that I have been doing so mainly because I've had less brainstorming/writing time as of late and also I've been placing an emphasis of posting snippets to help promote my work even if I can only really do so for things that are in-progress. So I need to get back to dumping ideas on him.

Even if at least a few of them are inspired off of a game that he has not experienced yet and I absolutely do not want to spoil. I think I'm safe just not saying where the ideas come from and why.

[rlinwriteslu]

While I believe that people should be allowed to write whatever they find interesting, it sometimes makes me a little sad that the common fanon portrayal of Legend as a generally grouchy person who hates adventuring and seems to hate Hylia in particular seems to be the predominant portrayal of him in the fandom.

I get that people aren't necessarily under an obligation to write him exactly as he appears in the comic, but I feel like the pure ubiquity with which his fanon self is portrayed has caused a lot of people to just think he's that way, leading to them deciding to write him that way because they think that's just the character he is. I feel that there is often a dearth of other interpretations of his character that you wouldn't necessarily see for some other characters.

There is certainly a certain appeal to the fanon version of Legend (though it's no longer my cup of tea, it certainly was at one point), and there's also appeal to the version of Legend that appears in the comic. People don't feel beholden to the canon, as is the nature of fanwork, but by that same logic people are under no obligation to stick with fanon either. If you have opinions on him (or any character, really) that doesn't really go with all the super common headcanons, please, just put them out there anyway. It's not like they're going to be any less canon than the fanon version of him.

It'll be much more interesting to have more interpretations of Legend out there than less, and it'll certainly be more interesting to have more varied interpretations of him than just the one. Just having one version of him gets tiring after a while.

[rlinwriteslu]

“You know, Veteran, I used to not know what the sky really looked like. I only found out maybe like a year ago.” “Really?” That was not something Legend would have expected from him. Mask seemed largely cut from the same cloth Legend was, in that they both seemed to like to soak in information around them like a sponge. So to hear that the boy hadn’t known about something as basic as the sky until that recently was very unusual, to say the least. “Yeah.” There was silence for a while, before Mask spoke again. “Where I grew up, there was this fog that would always cover the sky. It wasn’t until I left and started seeing the rest of Hyrule that I got to see the sun and moon and stars for the first time.” He paused again for a long while. “It’s so strange. The fact of their existence seems so obvious. With how much of the moon alone I’ve seen…” He trailed off. “It’s just… Can you imagine describing what a clear sky looks like to someone who has never seen one? If I were told that it was so blue just a little more than a year ago, I would have thought I was being messed with.” “There’s always a first time for everything,” Legend said. “Even something as simple as seeing a blue sky.”

So fun fact, the sun cannot be seen in Kokiri Forest at any time of day. This inspired a snippet I wrote and posted into the LU Discord a few months ago, and this is part of the more final version that has made its way to my current draft of the next Boy with Many Masks chapter.

[rlinwriteslu]

Shoutout to the time maybe about two or three months ago that I decided that, hey, I'd been playing a lot of TotK recently, I forgot how fun Wild's games are, I feel ready to make another Annotated Compendium entry, and then I started planning it out and figuring out what I wanted.

And then I realized that the next entry that need to be made was actually the Scimitar of the Seven, not the Lightscale Trident, and I had to throw out my plans. Whoops.

[rlinwriteslu]

I feel like the whole thing where my writing ends up either revolving around Time/Mask or Legend in some form or other despite the main premise not strictly being about them is like parents saying "I don't have a favorite child" and then very obviously having one.

I don't think it'll be hard to guess who my favorite characters are.

[rlinwriteslu]

Now that I've been thinking about it, my particular treatment of the Palace of the Four Sword and its potential implications for Linked Universe is closer to the creation of the comic than it is to the present day. That's crazy to think about.

I don't really browse AO3 for fics a lot but my vague impression is that the Palace of the Four Sword is something that comes up now and again, and I always enjoy it when something I read acknowledges it in some form or another. It's almost strange to think back in 2020 when I was initially plotting out what I wanted out of my own writing that I thought that it was underutilized and warranted more exploration. More likely than not there are more Palace of the Four Sword fics written after Four's A Crowd than before.

I wonder if my work has helped influence, directly or otherwise, others' work. I'd be happy, one way or another, if my writing has had an impact on other people.