#CTB lore | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

wutheringmights · 4 months ago

Note

A humble request for chapter commentary. At your leisure. Because wow. That was a chapter.

One of these days, I will realize that I should write the commentary as I write the chapter so that it does not take me so much time/effort to make it. Alas, I am convinced that one day people will not want to read my ramblings, and I refuse to do any work that is not absolutely necessary.

As always, massive spoilers for the newest chapter below. Read at your own risk.

So this chapter took a massive chunk of time to write, which was not my plan. Last chapter, I was all gung ho about cutting down on my production time and going back to as close to a monthly schedule as possible. That was November. It’s February now.

I really underestimated how busy the holiday season was going to make me. From Halloween up until post-New Years, I think I had two weekends where I didn’t need to shuttle off somewhere or someone wasn’t shuttling up to me. Not a lot of writing time.

This could have been avoided if I didn’t stop writing mid-week. I’ve complained about this before, but in 2024 I stopped writing during the weekdays. I told myself that it was because I have zero time, but the real problem is that somewhere along the line, I told myself that if I didn’t have two hours to write, I couldn’t write at all.

Well, I’m over that. I’m squeezing in at least 20 minutes a night as much as possible. I will not let myself make excuses anymore, especially because my mood drops when I’m not able to write for a while.

I was also experiencing that classic “oh god why is my writing suddenly terrible?” panic, which I solved by forcing myself to slow down and stop trying to just the chapter. I wanted to actually take the time to make what I was writing good. Did this make the chapter take even longer? Yup, but I can’t regret it.

So here we are. No promises this time as to when the next chapter will come out, but I’m still aiming for a near-monthly pace. Sadly, this might mean that I won’t have the time to write an extra side story this year for the CTB birthday in April (yeah, I gotta really plan this out in advance). I guess we’ll see how I’m feeling in a few more weeks.

Now that’s out of the way, let’s talk this chapter.

You can tell that I was having fun trying to figure out what it would be like to have someone else’s emotions messing around with your head. As Jakucho suggested, Link is already so bad at handling himself that having to put in the work for two is a lot for him.

The way breath is used to cope with Proxi’s emotions is inspired by the way breath is used in, like, every yoga video I use.

I really hope that I’m properly portraying Link as “idiot white dude who is doing his best to be respectful of a culture he’s kinda fascinated by” and that it’s not the prose itself that is ostracizing the real world cultural practices that I’m putting under the Sheikah umbrella. Maybe the fact that I’m using a mismatch of things is already a bad sign.

The same can be said of my vague descriptions of Kabuki theater.

The play Link and Proxi see is inspired by two Shakespearen plays: A Merchant of Venice and The Twelfth Night. Merchant has a plotline where three suitors have to undergo a trial to prove their worth to a wealthy heiress, while Twelfth Night has the misadventures of the servants and the skeevy servant rising above his station to marry his mistress.

That later is meant to be a little world building nod to how deeply entrenched the class system is in Hyrule where the idea of a peasant trying to enter the upper classes is discouraged to outright mocked in classical art. If this play was real, the skeevy servant would be one of those comically disgusting characters the audience is meant to laugh at, like Malvolio from The Twelfth Night.

And of course, the foreign prince would traditionally be a Ganondorf caricature built on harmful Gerudo prejudice-- something akin to Shylock, to keep the Merchant of Venice allusion going.

Mostly, I imagine that the princess, hero, and Gerudo king are a set of narrative archetypes that appear over and over again in Hylian storytelling, for better or for worse.

This was a very long worldbuilding exploration for what essentially was an excuse to talk a bit about how the line of succession works in Hyrule, because I realized when I was writing about the role of women that I never actually explained this.

Side note: I have been so fascinated lately by the ways stories establish the presence of a patriarchy in their worlds. Legend of the Galactic Heroes has one of my favorites: using the way characters talk about Annerose as a litmus test. I will now refrain from elaborating on that because we are not here to talk about animes from the 1980s I am obsessed with.

The secret Sheikah techniques being Judo is 100% because I do Judo and I need to justify spending so much time at practice somehow.

The throw Ayane does is meant to be o-goshi-- one of the beginner throws that is excellent for a short person like Ayane to use on a bigger opponent. Because her hips would be lower than his, he would be pretty easy to tip over them.

Because o-goshi involves being flipped over your head, it’s kinda a scary way to be thrown in the beginning. Genuinely, poor Link for being thrown like that when he had just learned how to fall (here’s a demonstration of the side fall he would have learned, though he would have started from a squat as opposed to standing at full height).

All that’s to say that: do not throw someone who is not ready to be thrown.

Arlo, a character you may remember from that time everyone ran across a battlefield, was almost included among the gaggle of soldiers trying to navigate across Kakariko. The reason why has everything to do with Icarius.

For the sake of Icarius development, he assumed a role on the narrative of an unnamed, unremarkable soldier Link was going to have a short rendez-vous with. While that unnamed soldier was never going to be Arlo, I had toyed around with having Arlo be present as the soldier’s disgruntled roommate who got kicked out of the hotel room for the sake of the tryst.

It’s not plot-vital for Arlo to have met Link earlier in the story; in fact it would be kinda silly if Link kept on running into the same few people over and over again. But I have an impulse to try to use every character, even the more minor and impulsive creations, to the max.

I imagine the Teachings of Din as a cross between a socratic dialogue and the Art of War (though I’ve never read the latter), which is why it’s framed as a conversation between a knight and Din.

I also remember someone once telling me that old military strategy books like the Art of War has a lot of text dedicated to telling the upper class dudes reading it to treat their peasant armies fairly. I have no idea how true that is, but that factoid always stuck in my brain. I guess I’ll just hope that it’s true.

I like the idea that if you were to look just at the book, it would seem like Link’s past actions would have been completely rejected by the military as being too horrific. But in practice, despite everyone above him having read the book, no one thought what he did was out of pocket.

Link and Proxi’s conversation at the table was first referenced during the Fever Dreams in chapter 18. In that version of the scene, Link immediately confesses to Proxi what he did. Back in (checks date) 2022, that was my vision for their relationship. Finally writing it now, it was obvious Link was not ready so I pushed it off for him. That means that I retroactively made that moment in the Fever Dreams go from being a real memory to an idealized version of his past. I think it works, since one of his biggest regrets is his inability to truly confront his past quick enough.

There is also an early reference all the way back in chapter 9, when the Chain first passes through the refugee camp, that Link had helped built some of the homes there.

Link is someone who doesn’t quite understand who he is and what he wants from life, primarily because he has spent his whole life up until this point trying to be what others wanted. The way he clings to construction work has less to do with his actual enjoyment of it and more with him actually being given a choice in what he does with himself. If he didn’t have an ongoing identity crisis, I don’t think he would gravitate to it at all. After a few months, he would be sick of it and move on to something else, just like a child cycles through different after school sports and activities until they find their passions. It’s a part of growing up he’s never had access to before.

In a weird way, post-engineer Link’s story is some sort of coming of age story, which makes it a bit less compelling for me to write than literally anything that happened before it. But it’s important. I knew when I started this story that this latter part of the story was going to have a heavier emphasis on growth and healing; still, I really do miss getting to write Link being a horrible person and emotionally spiraling

If I really wanted to go for the dramatics, I would have Link turn the corner on his growth by having him argue with Proxi, or just be dragged into being a better person kicking and screaming. But that wouldn’t feel as sincere as him deciding for himself to be better.

And that’s the tragedy of it, isn’t it? Link decided to be a better person early on, but that desire didn’t get him far enough. Being better than he was isn’t the same as being the best version of himself. Who gets to decide when he’s fully improved anyway?

Ending with Link marching up the next half of the hill was a very heavy handed visual, as well as the reference to spring arriving soon. Connecting winter to depression and spring to happiness is so, so trite and I kinda stumbled into it by accident. But as cliche as it is, I love doing it. There really is something satisfying using old tropes and discovering why they became cliches in the first place.

Onto the present--

Fun fucking fact: I thought this chapter was going to be super short. Why? All my outline said was that I needed to a) do the Knights of Hyrule shit and, b) Kill Lincoln. I usually have to juggle twenty different plot points. I only had two, and it still spiraled out of my control!

Part of that is just that there were things I forgot would take time to explore, like how Warriors would win the Triforce back (which I will get to later), and the other times there just was a lot of plot machinations I needed to do to get to the important stuff.

And that’s been a theme with this last third of the story. Chapters 28, 29, 30, and 31 were all supposed to be a single chapter. Warriors and Spirit were going to have their Hot Mess, and the next chapter Lincoln was going to be dead in Castle Town. I just completely, severely underestimated how much plot machinations would be needed to get from A to B.

The Hot Mess all the way to now is about a year of my life. It took be a fucking year to cover one whole point on my story outline. Do you understand why I have been so frustrated about how long this story is taking me? Why I have been pulling my hair out? Does that put any of my feelings into perspective for you?

There was a lot of hubris involved. I think I have everything paced much more reasonably now that I shouldn’t need to add more than one or two, if any at all, extra chapters.

In massive hindsight, I should have realized that the plot to take control of Castle Town would be more than just a chapter. But I also think I was in denial about how much longer this story was going to be.

Ugh.

Anyway, the actual chapter. I should talk about that.

I am very amused by the idea that Endicott, for all of his faults, is the first person in the Royal Guard to truly take Warriors seriously. Warriors tells him about the black blood, and he not only believes him but is actually helpful. Kudos to you, Endicott. You’re not such a bad guy after all.

Endicott also had the lovely function of being a good tool for reminding the readers of some lore that they might have forgotten in the long stretch of story since we last dealt with the black blood stuff. I always prefer to have diegetic exposition over textbook narration.

Which then carried over to Warriors’s briefing while everyone else armored-up. Whenever I have Warriors make a grand plan like that, I always worry that there’s a glaring plot hole that I don’t see myself but a smarter reader would be frustrated by.

There is an extremely stupid bit in this chapter where Spirit puts his foot on the chaise in order to intimidate Warriors into agreeing with him, which Sky sees and copies because, hey, if it worked for Spirit it might work for him. Which Linkle mimics when she tries to convince Warriors to take her side. I tried to have Warriors snap at everyone to stop putting their feet on his chair, but I couldn’t make it work with the pacing.

Also, shout out to Icarius who has decided that Linkle is his enemy for shooting him in the leg and tries to hurt her with his words. Aka, the dictionary he uses to communicate.

I also enjoy that despite seeming like it would be the reverse, Warriors has turned into the doting older brother for Linkle while Spirit is the one who calls her a little shit. I wanted to subvert the expectations readers would have for their dynamic when first learning about how Linkle views both of them as her brothers.

I almost cut Time and Lincoln’s truce because I thought I was painting too big of a target on Lincoln’s back. But I kept it so that Time could have a moment of growth, and because I already shouted that Lincoln was on the chopping block by him making plans with Warriors for the future at the end of the last chapter.

I also enjoy Lincoln’s chapter-long thread of being utterly terrified of the black blood and still deciding to get involved anyways. It’s a quiet demonstration of his courage, and a bit of tragic foreshadowing (more on that later).

Spirit being snippy with Wild about sharing the horse is such a silly thing to use valuable page-space for, but I also knew that I could not state that they would share a horse without explaining how they got there.

Way later in the chapter, Lincoln asked Spirit why he never said anything about Rudeo not being under the black blood’s curse. But he did here before the scene with Remarque: “There’s a couple of dark spirits. Maybe three.”

Was he being super clear? No. If Warriors was any less stressed, he might have picked out the discrepancy. But as is, Spirit technically did say something.

One thing about this chapter is that we go in reverse of the Castle Town plot. We started at the Temple of Time with the wiseman Sevas, went to Colonel Remarque’s post at the wall, then ended in the castle with Endicott. And this chapter takes us in reverse. It looks like I did this on purpose, but as you can probably guess by the one year to cover one plot point debacle, I Did Not.

In the context of my long term plan for Spirit, giving him a moment to pure heroism now-- publicly renouncing his story to save Warriors --is just... he has a lot going on, and a lot of his previous moments of heroism haven’t been kind. This is truly his moment of selflessness, and it really is coming at the perfect time.

In terms of sillier moments in this chapter, I really like how much Warriors enjoyed making the soldiers squirm when they realized they were going to have to figure out how to handcuff a man with only one hand.

In meeting up with the Knights of Hyrule for the first time in actual years, I really wished a gave all of them more to say and do before the fight. Gaudin and Shigeo had plenty to talk about, but Faiza and Rudeo were kinda pushed to the side.

That being said, I had a lot of fun giving Lincoln a chance to confront Gaudin; it’s been a while since we’ve seen him with peak “I am someone you should not mess with” energy, even if it didn’t lead him far

In a political view, Lincoln is interesting in that he’s not particularly charismatic or likeable but he doesn’t need to be when his power is very secure; which is meant to contrast how Warriors has spent his entire career being likable in order to have a modicum of power

Sky was an interesting factor in this chapter in that he has this entirely separate grudge against the knights that is independent from what Lincoln and Warriors want; I had to make a decision as to how much closure if any I can give Sky

I landed on having Sky be at the head of the charge, particularly in terms of fighting Gaudin, but never giving him a real chance for revenge-- mostly because as angry as I think Sky is, his heroism streak is stronger than the average person. I don’t think he would allow himself the catharsis of revenge. He’s a master of repression, so give him a few years to realize he can’t ignore or repress his feelings about this.

I am really happy that I squeezed in a conversation with Shigeo, if only to better illustrate how much the black blood’s curse works with a person’s existing mind.

That being said, I think the effect would have been way stronger if I had featured Shigeo more prominently in the past like I had intended. Shigeo was meant to be the closest thing Warriors would have had to a friend or ally during his time in the war-- like an older brother figure. The relationship would have fallen apart when Warriors/Link started projecting his insecurities on Shigeo and perceiving anything he did to help as an underhanded attack. I cut this when I realized that Link’s downward spiral would be easier to sell if he was already extremely isolated emotionally without anyone but the engineer to rely on.

The protest outside the Temple of Time-- I had a good time writing that in that it was a little hard to nail. I wanted the protest to be motivated by anger, but I didn’t want to portray it as an act of violence in itself. I didn’t want the story to inadvertently paint protestors as aggressive, even if what they’re protesting is our hero.

I actually waited until the last minute to figure out their chants since I wanted them to be an emotional punch in the gut to Warriors without being too mean? My problem is that when I wrote the Turncoat Revolt, I was a little peeved that a lot of readers viewed the turncoats as evil because they tried to kill Link, the engineer, and the child despite the fact that politically speaking, the turncoats were right. Yes, you can like these characters but they are on the side of the government that’s ruining people’s lives.

Then I got over myself and remembered that I can’t really control what conclusions the reader draws from the story. So I kept the chants on the more viscous side.

This was a strangely hard battle to write. I usually can pop off a fight scene really quickly, but this one really gave me trouble. It took me way too long to string together what exactly I wanted each person in the fight to be doing and how to jump the narration from each pocket of the fight.

A lot of readers noted that it comes off much more like a in-game boss fight than any other fight scene in this story so far; I can’t say that was intentional, but it is convenient in emphasizing how out of a normal person’s wheelhouse the black blood is.

My favorite moments include Spirit tossed Sky his sword; once more, Spirit prioritizing getting the job done right over any petty grievance. A true MVP of this goddamn chapter.

Rudeo’s death... first, the Chekov’s gun of this story is establishing in Rudeo’s introduction scene that he will die if the sword in his neck is removed. Like, of course this guy is going to die by having the sword in his neck removed.

As I explored in the narration, Rudeo was meant to be another reflection of Warriors in terms of his struggles to maintain a footing in an oppressive power structure leading him to make bad political decisions. I wanted the irony of Warriors being unable or unwilling to realize that there was someone else in the same position as him. I needed Rudeo to linger in the background for this to have the thematic effect I wanted.

Nonetheless, I really wish I did more with Rudeo before this moment. Yes, he needed to be in the peripheral of Warriors’s life, but couldn’t I have thrown in one conversation before this about what he was feeling?

I was expecting at least one person to realize that Rudeo couldn’t have been infected since he didn’t eat meat, but no one did. I didn’t have any characters bring it up in-story because I thought it was an obvious plot hole but I guess I should have gone ahead and added it in anyway.

Okay, let’s talk the Triforce scene. Ooooh boy.

This was not in the original plan. I just wanted Warriors to get the Triforce of Courage back, and then move on with the story. But when I was writing that earlier scene where Lana talked to Shigeo, I suddenly remembered how significant the Triforce was and realized that I needed to make the moment Warriors got it back way, way bigger.

I fully believe that no matter how much or how little Legend of Zelda lore you know, there will always be one tidbit that is so bizarre that it boggles your mind whenever you remember it. Mine is the fact that the Triforce is sentient.

I can’t get over it. The Triforce is sentient and it means absolutely nothing. It rarely comes up, even in regards to how the Triforce judges its holder’s character (not for goodness or what not, but whether you are wise/powerful/courageous enough). It’s so wacky. I hate it, but my god, it made the basis for a really cool scene.

I love his conversation with the Triforce. I haven’t gotten to write a scene where reality is weird for a really long time.

The way the green woman couldn’t be looked at, messed with his memories, and put palpable “walls” around his mind and emotions-- it reminded me a lot of eldritch horror, but in the sense of a being from the 3rd dimension being pushed into the 4th or 5th. I like the idea that the Triforce’s realm had to be simplified for him to comprehend it.

Warriors being Farore’s tool is my favorite idea from this scene. It not only adds context to some of Zelda’s struggle with Nayru, but it upsets Warriors’s worldview. He is special, but he’s not loved. This is a man who wants to be appreciated and loved deeply, but even with Farore, he’s been denied that. But at the same time, he should be thankful that he has the freedom that comes with only being the goddesses’ tool.

Warriors’s declaration that he was going to become a better person no matter what put into words a theme I have been exploring throughout the story: what makes someone an idealized good person is not always realistic. And if it’s not realistic, how do we determine if someone is good or bad?

Plus, if heroes aren’t chosen because they’re morally good people, then what actually makes you a good hero? How do you define heroism when the gods themselves do not view it as a question of goodness?

In a related note, I also got a chance to acknowledge that Warriors being forcefully denied the “ability” to hurt someone isn’t character developement. It’s an excuse, and he still has to consciously decide to change his behavior.

So after I went through the whole emotional process of realizing that I have to hype up the Triforce way more, I then realized that I had to make a decision about what to do with Dark Link (because the black blood in the original LU comic is obviously him and I will not pretend otherwise).

My original policy was to not do anything with Dark Link. I wasn’t here to solve LU. I’m here to solve CTB. The black blood has been here as an excuse to propel the characters into the plot I actually want to solve. AKA: the war.

But I also realized that at this point, it would be weirder if I didn’t try to address what is going on with the black blood, especially if it’s been a subplot this entire story and is going to be the reason Lincoln dies. I could have left it alone. This is fanfiction, after all. You could go to the source material to find out about it. But... leaving it alone would have kept CTB very dependent on LU, which means that CTB will continue to fall apart as LU gets more specific with its lore. If I wanted CTB to stand on its own, I needed to provide my own explanation.

So now I was on the hook to try to explain the black blood, which would mean I would have to provide a Dark Link backstory.

He couldn’t be unrepentantly evil since that would go against the themes I’ve already established in CTB. But he still needed to have justification to, you know, possess people. And whatever backstory I come up with will have to be conveyed in the shortest amount of time and space possible.

I know I over thought this, and no one would actually care if I did this well or not. But now I cared, so I had to do this right. Luckily, Dark Link seems to care only about the heroes and not any other part of the lore, which provided a good set of parameters to work with

So I landed on him more or else being what remains of the First Hero after he’s reincarnated. Not only does this give him a very solid motivation to go against the heroes (just wants to have the other half of his soul back), but this explains an existing discrepancy in the lore: how could Time’s soul linger on as a living skeleton while the Hero’s Spirit was with Twilight. If the Hero’s Spirit was one half of a whole, where there would be something not reincarnated into the next hero, it could be possible.

I could also make Dark Link more morally gray by establishing that he was never just the dark parts of the First Hero’s spirit, but whatever parts of the hero Hylia didn’t like.

Actually, this is a bit of storytelling I am very proud of. As we know, the official-to-fanon lore is that there was a romance between Hylia and the First Hero. In my version, whatever romance they had was bordering on the unrequited. Whatever feelings the First Hero had for Hylia could not triumph over the fact he was already married. Even if it wasn’t a love-match, he was so chivalric that he would not betray his legal wife. So when he was reincarnated, Hylia left that part of him behind.

Side note: I have been listening to a lot of Noble Blood for months now, and I have a growing fascination with marriages based on politics that are affectionate, as opposed to love matches. I have been kicking around a lot of non-CTB story ideas that play around with marrying for any reason except romance, and it turning out perfectly.

I also just like how it’s a play on Arthurian legends, where chivalry, romance, and marriage seems at constant conflict with itself. This time, the knight chooses to remain loyal to his wife instead of the otherworldly beauty in pursuit of him.

And for the First Hero to have this torrid romantic affair while looking average at best? I love it.

I had Warriors not believe Dark Link’s story because I wanted to leave the door open for a later reader to insert whatever LU’s actual answer for Dark Link is. Officially, Dark Link in CTB is lying if you want him to be.

And finally, beheading him was such a good place to circle back to the whole Orlanda thing. Her death was this surprising moment where I feel like a lot of readers realized things were not okay (somehow?), and so I have been looking for a way to use it as a bookend for Warriors’s growth.

Did I want to do so much with Dark Link? No, and please do not expect any of this to be super relevant for this last half of the story. Everything here was an obligation.

Unfortunately, I also think all of this was interesting as hell and doing a full backstory will be added to the list of CTB spin offs I do not have time to write.

Also! One last note about the Dark Link scene I almost forgot about. There is an implication that Twilight's soul lingered behind like Time's did. That is because I headcanon Twilight being this ghost wolf that haunts the desert looking for shards of the Twilight Mirror (I think I wrote a drabble about it years ago). And that's how Wolfie managed to be in Breath of the Wild.

Now that all that’s out of the way, let’s get to the real meat of this chapter, which is killing off Lincoln. Yay.

Before I hop into what happens on page, there is a really fun bit of foreshadowing earlier in the story I want to point out. In chapter 19, the Chain minus Twilight, Legend, and Wind are at the Temple of Souls when Lincoln tells Lana about his plans to save the knights. And she provides this warning:

“You’re just a mortal man,” she said at last. “Careful not to trifle with what you cannot understand, Master Knight.”

This is, coincidentally, the first chapter to contain a character death warning, albeit for Clementine. But yeah, I mostly just wanted to point that out because it’s the first in-story suggestion that this subplot is going to spell his doom.

What kinda screwed Lincoln in the end was him jumping in to fight Gaudin and help Warriors when he knew he shouldn’t have. As Lana said, he trifled with what he did not understand.

I didn’t invent Lincoln to die, but as I was first drafting the plot back in 2021, I knew that I should kill him off. As I always do, I explored what the story would look like if I kept him alive, and I actually came up with an alternate ending to CTB that I can’t discuss right now because it contains a spoiler to how I want CTB to end.

So I knew from the beginning that he was meant to die, and I knew that I wanted to take the reader from hating him to liking him. This is why we meet him before chapter 5, which is the chapter that establishes how Link starts to fuck up the engineer. Link was a bit of an ass before that moment, but Lincoln’s dislike for him seems way more irrational.

The dual-timeline structure also became really helpful here since Lincoln’s harshest moment with Link, when he was rescuing the engineer in chapter 22, comes afters Lincoln’s proved himself by rescuing Warriors and carrying him across Hyrule. The reader is primed to like him at the same time they’re prime to hate Warriors.

To be fair, I think what made people like Lincoln the most was him being married to Ganondorf. If he had approval ratings, it would skyrocket.

As much as I was bitching about taking four chapters to cover one plot point, it did come with time for me to push Lincoln and Warriors’s reconciliation, going from tentative allies to family. Which in turn, made his death all the rougher.

Okay, back to the plot beats.

As a lot of you guys pointed out, the first sign that something was wrong with Lincoln was that he let Linkle run off to fight the curse. The second sign, was him calling Warriors son. As mentioned in story, that is a verbal tic that has never applied to Warriors before. If Warriors ever thought something could be wrong with Lincoln, that could have cued him.

I had a lot of different ideas for how Spirit would be involved with Lincoln’s death.

One version of the reveal I really liked was Lincoln having gone off to scout the area, leaving Warriors behind. Spirit would sprint in, demanding where Lincoln was because his spirit had disappeared while a new dark spirit was walking around. In the middle of the conversation, without looking, Spirit would raise his gun and shoot something off to the side. Of course, this would be Lincoln who would have moved out of the way just in time to only be grazed.

Lincoln’s possession really revealed how little he trusted Spirit. If Lincoln had a better relationship with him, he probably would have less readily believed Spirit had betrayed him.

Also, it is such a Spirit move to try to convince the curse to just leave Lincoln by promising to protect it from the others. As much as he wants to get the job done, the job went from “defeating the dark spirit” to “keeping Lincoln alive.” If he’s got to bend his morals a little to make that happen, then so be it.

And there is something sad about how Spirit ultimately does like Lincoln enough to betray himself a little to save him, but Lincoln did not like Spirit enough to not be easily swayed into attacking him.

My original vision for the duel against Lincoln would have been Spirit and Warriors teaming up like they did on the battlefield in chapter 23-- Spirit with the sword and Warriors with the shield. The problem is that I gave Sky the Lokomo sword.

I think Spirit is a great fighter, even if he had to be dragged into it kicking and screaming. I also think he relies heavily on being viscous over real technique. He could probably fight with an unfamiliar sword well enough normally, but he’s also really beaten up and weak at this point. There would be no way he could hold up against Lincoln no matter what I did.

So between that and the fact that Spirit and Warriors have already teamed up before, I decided to cut it. But now I’m starting to think I could have still included it but focused way more on Spirit getting his ass handed to him.

It’s really hard to sell an original character as being better at something than the canonical characters to the reader, which has always made Lincoln’s skills as a duelist a little interesting to sell. It helps that he’s a guy since there’s way less of a knee jerk reaction to label him as a Mary Sue. Nonetheless, I really wish I did a bit more to show off that Lincoln is one of the best fighters in the story.

You know that line Lincoln dropped around Marigold? Don’t worry about it. We’ll get to that can of worms eventually haha

I could not stop crying when working on Lincoln’s death scene. From writing to editing, I could not stop crying. This is not an exaggeration. I have been pumped to kill this man off, and I still found it deeply trigger.

One reason is that a lot of this scene was based on the emotions I experienced when my mother died. That description of helplessly staring down the inevitability of death-- I know what that felt like, and I splattered that experience across the entire scene.

I am also very close with dad, who is nowhere near young anymore (my parents had children later in life). Killing off Lincoln forced me to confront a lot of my fears about watching my dad die. When Warriors said that Lincoln couldn’t die because his mother was already dead-- the injustice that you will have to experience the grief and loneliness of losing your parents long before any of your friends ever will-- those are my feelings.

I know I have cracked jokes about Lincoln dying, but this scene inevitably became something very personal for me. I wanted this to be devastating because the very thought of having to experience a parent’s death again is paralyzing for me.

Every little moment of his death made me cry, but the biggest triggers were a) Hyrule saying “I’m sorry”, b) Linkle’s various pleading, c) Lincoln asking to wear his ring, and d) Lincoln admitting he’s scared.

The moment with the ring is my favorite. The small, quiet amazement when Lincoln realized that here, at the end of his life, he could wear his ring around his finger-- immediately crushing.

I was tempted to share the line “Can I Wear It” out of context as a “hahaha this is such a simple line but it’s gonna make you cry” post, but I decided to keep mum and not preemptively ruin my own moment.

I intended for one of Lincoln’s last lines to be an blunt realization on his part about where he went wrong as a father, but I cut it because even in death I don’t think Lincoln would be good at expressing himself.

The line is kinda important for, you know, the themes and stuff (I am so sorry that I keep talking about themes), but I think I can squeeze it into the next chapter.

So Lincoln admitting he’s scared... okay, let me get on my soapbox for a moment.

The older I get, the more I realize that everyone is terrified of dying. One day you are going to wake up and you are going to know someone who died very abruptly and far, far too soon. It will put a fear of death into you, and it will happen far sooner than you realize.

By virtue of having older parents and straight up bad luck, I had already been to a lot of funerals before I hit my 20s. Whatever fear I had got worse not only after my mom’s death, but also the deaths of other people in my circle. I had a college professor who died of an aneurysm. She was only in her 30s.

Everyone I know is at least 2 handshakes away from someone who abruptly died. I have had lunch dates with friends where all we’ve done is exchanged stories of really sudden deaths we’ve heard about from other parts of our social circle.

And there’s this point where you this that surely you’re going to get used to this, and death will stop being terrifying once more. But because my parents were older when they had kids, all of the adults in my life are also much older than average. They’re in their late 60s and mid 70s now. You would think they would be more comfortable with death.

But, no. They are also plainly scared of it. They have similar discussions around the dining room table about the people in their lives who have abruptly died, and the numbers rise every year. It scares them.

I think we invented this trope of the wise mentor who embraces death as a way to cope. We want to believe that there will be a point where we too will be so intelligent and world-weary that we could accept death with open arms. I’m starting to realize that I am never going to be prepared for death. That is not a fault of my character. That is the natural response.

Nonetheless, it’s still distressing to look at your own father who is only getting older and realize that he’s distressed by the thought of dying. He wants to cling to the world, even when he says he doesn’t. You want him to face it with grace because it will make his eventual death easier on you. But death is never going to be easy.

He’s not dead yet, but when he will, it’s going to hurt. And I just wanted to have a moment where Lincoln showed that fear of death because it felt real to life. Your loved ones will not go gently into the good night. They will rage, and it’s going to suck.

One last note about Lincoln’s death-- this scene contains one of my favorite uses of the “he lied” tag:

Warriors swallowed. He took Lincoln’s hand. “It’s like going to sleep,” he lied.

I love experimenting with this tag and finding the most effective ways to use it. This one is my favorite. It says so much about how Warriors views his actions, and it refrains his lying as an act of kindness. I love it.

Another really small moment I love is Lana kissing the back of Linkle’s head. I love that tiny moment of tenderness.

For killing off Lincoln, I knew it was going to be either Warriors, Spirit, or Linkle.

For Warriors, it would be a monkey’s paw moment for the reader who probably wanted him to kick Lincoln’s ass back when we all agreed he was being a dick.

For Spirit, it would have been another moment where he’s been forced to make another ugly, terrible choice because no one else will. Another moment of injustice.

But Warriors and Spirit were beat out very early on in my plotting process by Linkle.

I have tried writing my thoughts on Linkle multiple times, but I keep veering into a rant about the way people treat female characters that has absolutely nothing to do with Linkle. I’m going to try to stay on topic.

Linkle’s thematic (so sorry to bring up themes again) purpose is to give Warriors an opportunity to break the cycle. This entire story is about how maybe that whole system where we allow children to save Hyrule and solve everyone’s problems was not a good idea, and maybe allowing that to happen has devastating consequences. Yes, there’s Warriors and his fucked up bullshit. But there’s also the lowering of the draft age, Kat’s underage prostitution, and so on. Maybe the whole system is broken.

So enter Linkle: she wants to be heroic and fight. She’s very upbeat about it, and there’s a comedic bent to how Lincoln can’t quite stop her from running off and doing whatever.

My plan was for the reader to start out wanting to see Linkle be some kind of badass, only to slowly realize how badly that would go by virtue of learning more about Warriors’s past.

I don’t think that was successful. I think the desire to see Linkle do cool things outweighed any other argument. I don’t know if that is my fault or not.

On one hand, I think playing up Linkle’s desire to be heroic as comedic undermined the point I was trying to make. Plus, my desire to have Linkle involved in the plot meant that she had a lot of moments where she got to do very hero-esque things without consequence.

On the other hand... I don’t think I was subtle in establishing Linkle as both reckless and naive. Lincoln, Warriors, and the like all have moments where they outright explained to her (and the reader) why she needs to stay out of everything.

And most importantly, her pathologic need to be useful in order to earn love is a direct parallel to Time when he was a child.

I thought I was being heavy handed, but I don’t know. I guess time will tell if I actually did any of this well or not.

Warriors turned another really important corner in his growth in that he finally doesn’t fall back into his old patterns. Saving the kingdom, or even his political plans, are no longer worth the price of dragging another person into his mess like he did with the engineer and (to an extent) the Chain afterwards.

I almost named this part of the chapter “The Cycle Ends” because it’s such a significant moment for him. He’s clawing his way out, though it comes at the consequence of Linkle’s guilt.

As explained in the narration, she doesn’t get the luxury of having a grand purpose. She did this and, unlike Warriors, she can’t explain it away. She’s kind of speedrunning Warriors’s arc of realizing that your actions are your own and no divine pact can excuse them away.

I feel like I should have more to say about this. Like a final parting note about this tragic turn in Linkle’s story. Maybe I will in a few days, but I have already been working on this commentary for a week now. I need to be done with this already.

I don’t know. If you have any insight, let me know! You probably have more valuable to add to the conversation than the bozo who has been staring at these characters for too long.

#your bonus fun fact is that the bit about Warriors's favorite color being a cosmic joke is a repurposed headcanon I originally had for Wild #Amnesiac wild would have done all this self-exploration to realize his favorite color was green only to be disturbed to realize that it was #the original hero's color. I like the idea of the headcanon a lot but I am also never gonna write that wild-centric story idea I had back i #2021 so i figured the core concept could be reused here #me rambling #lu ctb #linked universe #ctb commentary #director's commentary #lu call them brothers #ctb lore #ctb spoilers #bonus bonus fun fact is that originally spirit was going to help Warriors with the necklace but i changed it at the last minute when #i remembered the bullshit going on in Spirit's mind right now. oh spirit... the things you are going to do....#ask

25 notes · View notes

wutheringmights · 1 year ago

Text

Title: Smoke The Pipe Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Additional Tags: Implied/Referenced Abuse, world building, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), (kinda), Side Story, Call Them Brothers Spoilers, takes place after chapter 22, Alternate Universe, the one where Spirit goes home, sorry kids you need to have read ctb to read this one Summary: Two years ago, Royal Engineer Link Macaryll disappeared. Linebeck III was the last person who saw him alive. (A Call Them Brothers side story. Takes place after chapter 22.)

Happy 3 years to Call Them Brothers! 🎉🎉🎉🥂

Thank you so much for everyone's continued support and interest in this niche, not-so-little story that refuses to end in a timely manner. I would not be able to keep the story going without all of you.

For this year's celebration, I wrote a tiny little side story about Spirit's return to New Hyrule. Please give it a little read. I am actually pretty proud of this one.

As always, please feel free to drop in any CTB asks to celebrate the day! Unfortunately, I am busy with real life things all day today, so I won't be able to answer any of them until tomorrow (how dare real life responsibilities get in the way of my career as a mid-tier fanfic writer!).

Thank you so much! Here's to another wonderful (and hopefully last) year!

Best,

Frankie 💛

79 notes · View notes

wutheringmights · 1 month ago

Note

WAIT ALSO!!! If no one has asked for directors’ commentary yet, i do so now !! 🙇🙇🙇🙇

This is late because of my moral failings as a person, etc.

Spoilers for the latest chapter. Contains discussions of suicide and other triggering content from the chapter.

I want you guys to know that despite taking me two full months to complete, I actually was On It this chapter. I was writing with a consistency that I haven’t had in a long time. Unfortunately, that can only get me so far when a) the chapter is still 46k words long, and b) I had to split it into two. CTB is my never ending hell,sisyphus is happy, etc.

I won’t make any predictions about how long the next chapter will be in terms of length or time, but I plan to hop on it ASAP.

That being said, I hope to spend more time writing about Link and Proxi this upcoming chapter, as they often get the short end of the stick when it comes to my time and attention.

If you couldn’t tell, this was the section that I waited until the very last minute to write, with the final bits of the garden party not being finished and refined until the day of. I’m not too happy with the results, but it gets the job done.

Linkle’s first appearance in the past was way back in chapter 12, where Link sees her practicing her aim. I actually don’t think most people connected that kid being her; I remember someone once sending me an ask about looking forward to Linkle and Link’s first meeting, and me being confused because they already met.

But obviously, her appearance back then was brief and lowkey on purpose because I wanted readers to know how little she mattered to Link. This was supposed to contrast with Linkle’s introduction in the modern day where Warriors very clearly knows who she is and is already over her bullshit; there’s the implied they met before and Warriors hated it that I wanted readers to infer.

Link gaining weight as a sign of recovery, especially when being on the road so much for war business meant that he was often running on fumes; I initially planned for a scene with the tailor where the tailor was going to talk about how happy they were to see so many young men needing to let their clothes out because they were finally out of the dangers of war and eating well.

In my brain, seeing all of the Knights of Hyrule alive and well in the past after seeing all of them suffer or die in the present is supposed to make the reader feel as disconcerted as Link; he’s not expecting to see them ever again, and now so do you.

In that vein, I wanted Lincoln to be the first one Link sees and talks to, but I couldn’t make it work logistically.

Nonetheless, I like the idea that after we go through all the mourning and grief of losing Lincoln in the present day, we see him again but wrong. He’s alive and well, but he’s not the Lincoln we know and it’s infuriating. It’s like seeing a ghost. He came back wrong, but not really.

Similarly, it turns a normal bit of banter between Lincoln and Jakucho (“I don’t have a lot of time left on this earth” vs “Neither do I”) into a fun little bit of dramatic irony.

Fun fact: somewhere in the present day is a line about how Warriors hadn’t seen Lincoln since the war that is clearly incorrect now but I have not been able to find the line to stealthily fix it.

That line was there because, while I had the idea of a pilgrimage south to the Spring of Courage (as hinted in the first chapter), I had been convinced I would never have the space to include an arc like that and decided to cut it. As I got deeper into the story, I realized that actually it was doable.

There was meant to be a lot more about Shigeo, his home life, and estrangement from his family in this chapter that was going to give a bit more context to his suicide; all of this got shoved off to the next chapter so please be on the look out for more belated Shigeo development.

There’s definitely an argument to be made that giving the Knights of Hyrule (and Proxi) the spotlight now when they are all mostly dead in the present doesn’t do much for the reader anymore. I agree with that to an extent, but I also like how the split-narrative gives the sense that the past is haunting the present.

Like, now that they are all gone, Warriors is stuck thinking about and remembering them more acutely than he ever did before; it’s similar to how the engineer was the focal point of the past until Spirit entered the present. Then the engineer was gone in the past and Warriors was left to remember the fallout.

I sort of imagine the plot being something that folds in on itself, you know?

Linkle and Ayane were originally going to run into each other during Warriors and Four’s escape from the Kakariko Well, which was cut for space. If I had kept it, the reader was going to learn that these two not only have met before, but they lowkey hated each other. This question was of course going to hang over the reader’s head until now when we finally see their first meeting.

Ayane and Linkle’s rivalry is funny partly because they are ridiculously similar to each other, and those similarities is what makes them hate each other. Ayane hates that Linkle has Shigeo’s attention, and Linkle hates that Link is seemingly really nice to Ayane.

But even absent of their mutual jealousy, they’re both total opposites. Ayane was conceived to be a teenage mean girl who is a little intimidating but overall very cool. Linkle would be more like an enthusiastic nerd-type who would be really annoying. Even if they met each other in completely different contexts, they would hate each other.

I saw some confusion about their ages as well, so here’s a point of clarification: in the past, Linkle would be 12/13 years old while Ayane would be about 11/12.

Linkle reads as being more childish because she is; she tends to hide behind cheerfulness, and her response to having Lincoln as her stable parent is to let loose and be irresponsible.

Meanwhile, Ayane reads as being slightly older because she’s trying to act more mature than she is. Her family puts a ton of pressure onto her to make up for Shigeo’s failures, so she responds by acting like she’s above it.

Generally, I find that maturity levels for preteens in particular can be wildly different depending on the kid.

Jakucho asking Lincoln about the arson case is a reference to that time twelve year old Lincoln helped Meemaw with tax fraud. I like to imagine that Meemaw knows that Lincoln did it and he knows she knows, but they are stuck in a stalemate about it.

I feel like that’s all I have to say about the past? This is one of those scenes that really just served to set up much more interesting stuff in the next chapter. Note to self to skim through the chapter agan

The pacing for the present day stuff feels a bit weird in part because I had a list of events I needed to happen before a different plot line could occur, and I never thought too deeply about what order they should go in. I ended up arranging things in such a way that each one would push Warriors closer and closer to the edge. We didn’t get to the actual tipping point this chapter due to spacing issues, but hopefully you’ll see what this is leading up to.

This scene with Sky was not in the plan. I wanted to open with the next scene: Warriors learning that Ganondorf is on his way to Castle Town. However, the original version of that scene was a mess because the timeskip left me scrambling to quickly explain like 10 different off-page developments. I switched back and forth between the conversation with Endicott and Warriors so many times that even I lost track of what was happening.

So I split off one of those updates-- Sky and our thoughts on the curse-- into its own section to tighten things up. This gave me a scene where I could talk politics and the curse separately from the Knights of Hyrule and Ganondorf.

I also worry that I have not been showing enough of the Chain these past many chapters, so having this scene with Sky pretty much forces me to sit down and remedy that.

One of the really fascinating lore LOZ tidbits to me is that there was an entire civilization before the events of Skyward Sword; SwSK is this proto-BOTW in that its post-apocalyptic, and I am so curious as to what that pre-Skyloft world was like. I barely got to reference it here, but I think pointing out that Sky would be to the first hero what Wild would be to Sky is a good vision of what that would mean.

I have been working on improving my writing style, primarily to cut down on over-writing. My challenge to myself this chapter was to let the dialogue speak for itself and edit down on minute body movements and speculative narration. I think I did a pretty good job, and hopefully you guys also noticed the writing being tighter and easier to read.

Like I said, I originally wanted the chapter to open with the announcement that Ganondorf was on his way; I like the idea that he’s this looming presence in the back of Warriors’s brain, like this is a threat even though we can’t articulate how.

Endicott is my choice for MVP of this chapter, somehow. This man was on it with being the emotional support literally every other adult in this goddamn plot.

Funnily enough, I never intended to give Endicott any kind of emotional depth. But when I was introducing him way back in chapter 29, I added that tidbit of Lincoln knowing him as a quick and dirty way to provide some backstory. This snowballed into a full-fledged backstory, and now Endicott has an emotional stake in the well-being of all these people.

This also led to surprise relationship between Endicott and his wife, and Faiza and her husband.

The newspaper submissions were a lot of fun to write. I actually wrote all of those at the height of the DOGE bullshit, so I was using a lot of public comments about that as inspiration. You can probably reread them all and see how they blatantly echo February’s talking points.

“Can the real Link Macaryll please stand up?” This line is way more anachronistic than I prefer, but I couldn’t think of another line that conveyed the same wry humor and disdain.

Spirit almost had one appearance this chapter, and it would be meeting him in the hallway outside of Linkle’s door. Warriors would see Spirit hesitating to knock before deciding to turn away. This was cut because Spirit would not only be off doing something else, but it is physically impossible to sneak up on him like that.

The post-Hot Mess character growth for Warriors is him finding the limits of his “devotion” to Spirit (if that’s the word for it). And this chapter is the fruits of that breaking point, where Warriors is willing to let Spirit slip out of his grasp if only because there are other more important things he needs to worry about.

As many of you already pointed out, a lot of this chapter plays with role reversals. FOr example, there are tons of examples of Warriors playing the role of Spirit, or another character giving a glimpse into alternate fate for Warriors.

Shigeo plays the role of Warriors in being the person who had done wrong. So we see Shigeo apologize with the same language Warriors has used in his apologies before. But now Warriors is playing the role Spirit, and he can see what the limits of verbal apologies are.

My hot tip for writing overly elaborate stories is to have your subplots and sub-relationships mirror the themes and offer alternate takes on the events of the story; I do the same thing with the House of Nephus being a reflection of the Three Brothers.

When you write a story about a character looking for forgiveness, you have to ask yourself why that traditional apology might not be enough. I feel like a lot of stories that have redemptions or revenge as central themes sort of frame the crimes in question as like a pair of scales that have to be righted. That doesn’t feel right to me-- or at least, feels way too Catholic of a perspective.

My solution was to step back and probe more into why seeing someone who hurt you move on would infuriate someone, and I landed on how personal responsibility plays into recovery.

This is all probably really simple thoughts, but at least for me, it felt like a better angle than straight up retribution.

If there is anything I could have cut from this chapter, Icarius and Four’s conversations are prime real estate. However, I kept both of them since it’s been a really long time since we last saw Icarius and I wanted to do more scenes with the Chain.

With Icarius, I mostly needed to go in and throw some lore stuff about him and Nephus’s goals that I think I had up until this point only mentioned on tumblr.

I have said many times before that I write Four to have low empathy and how a scene that explores this idea has been planned since the Fever Dreams but has been constantly cut out. Finally, it’s here on paper. Thank god.

In the games, the Four Sword is meant to only duplicate and it’s the manga adaptation that spins it as Four’s personality splitting; I decided to marry the two ideas by having the Four Sword be the product of Four’s hubris. Four fucked around, and he found out.

I never really liked the idea that the Colors are the ultimate version of Four. I have always thought Four by himself is more compelling, in part because you can play with the idea of what a magical split like that could mean for him.

I was originally going to call the four parts of his mind logos, pathos, ethos, and charisma; but I realized that using terms already firmly associated with building critical arguments would be more distracting than anything.

For those curious: Vio is logic, Red is emotions (both for obvious reasons), Blue is ethics (he’s typically angry because he can only focus on perceived injustices), and Green is charisma (he’s the best at reading other people and conducting himself socially, which would make him a good leader).

As someone with low empathy, it was important for me to establish in-story why empathy is not Warriors’s specific problem. It’s easier than not to say that there is something psychologically wrong with Warriors that made him terrible, and I want to establish as much as I can that Warriors was never pre-destined to be a monster. Everything he did was a choice.

I think you can tell that this conversation with Four was meant to happy way earlier in the story, as it’s not so much of a revelation to Warriors now as it would have been pre-Spirit.

I knew that I wanted Shigeo to commit suicide, but I debated for a long time if that was something I had the right or ability to portray. I worried it would be too much. I ended up going for it because this story is already fairly mature and I knew I was including it for more reasons than just to be edgy.

I did my best to not sensationalize it without undercutting how tragic this is. My lingering concern is that it happened way too abruptly, like there should have been more time between talking to Shigeo last and him dying. But I also think the abruptness works and feels very real to life.

While not intentional, I ended up taking a lot of cues for how to deal with Shigeo’s suicide from an episode of the podcast You’re Wrong About. That episode talked a lot about copycat suicides, and one of the guides their expert brought up was to not share the suicide note. That’s why while I did my best to describe the note’s contents, I didn’t write the whole thing.

I really wish I managed to provide that extra context about Shigeo in the past to help convey what his life was like before this happened. It actually really bugs me, and unlike some of my other writing “mistakes,” this one can’t really be fixed.

The Gossip Stone is the perfect name for a Hyrulean tabloid, and I really hope you guys appreciated that.

Also, obligatory reminder that as I continue to heavily feature the role of media and publicity in all of Warriors’s shenanigans, I am really, really regretting cutting the journalist OC.

There is a lot of politics concerning the government vs the representatives that I know I am not writing well. I feel like I shot myself in the foot by not introducing more relevant politicians into the story sooner and giving them clearly defined agendas. Yes, there are key players like Ganondorf and Zelda, but I’m talking more about these nameless ministers. It bugs me that the Hyrulean government is this faceless entity that exists to be a problem for Warriors without really defining itself.

Warriors is constantly waffling between maintaining the institution and tearing it down. The latter makes sense to the reader, but I have never put in a good effort to clarify why someone would want to maintain the status quo without sounding utterly evil. If I want this to be a nuanced political situation, I should probably put some effort into fleshing out every side.

Now that I type that out, I could probably get Zelda or Impa to voice that stance, but by then, it might be too late...

Showing Ganondorf utterly breaking down at Lincoln’s death is part of my agenda to show older adults stricken by grief.

I have avoided giving Lincoln a solid age much the same way I have avoided giving most characters solid ages because I am terrible at keeping track of the passage of time.

That being said, I wanted the reader to see that he was only forty-eight when he died to be shocked that he died that young. On one hand, his life was cut abruptly short. On the other, everyone treated him like he was unspeakably old and wise despite not being that old.

The tavern was originally going to be called Sal’s Place, but I changed it to Babe’s Spot after I read Torrey Peters’s Stag Dance (which has a character named Babe).

I also just really enjoy the idea that the only two pictures anyone might have of Lincoln on hand are a portrait of him when he was seventeen, and his wanted poster-- and the bar put up the latter.

Gaudin this entire chapter has been a study in grief. There was of course his denying responsibility for what happened with the curse, and then him breaking down at Shigeo’s death. This scene in the bar is the true culmination of this poor man’s journey through mourning the loss of his friend.

That moment when Gaudin talks about screaming for Lincoln to come back is probably my favorite moment from the chapter.

This part of the chapter is called “The Fallen Idols” because nearly every scene features Warriors realizing he was wrong about someone he admires. You can apply that thesis statement to Shigeo, Four, and even Endicott. For Gaudin, it’s that he doesn’t have the strength to pull himself together to do the right or mature thing in the face of grief.

For Lincoln, it’s that he was a product of a shitty childhood, and that he was as flawed as anyone else. He never actually got over that childhood and has been in a repeating loop of habits and coping mechanisms.

Last chapter, during his death scene, I was going to have Lincoln vocalize a final moment of self-realization; he was going to tell Linkle and Warriors that he spent so much time trying to just be a better father than his own that he never really tried to be a good dad. Being not-terrible didn’t make him good.

I cut this because Lincoln is incapable of articulating his feelings clearly, and I had (unrealized) hopes that I could get Gaudin to articulate it.

Another “fallen idol” in this chapter is, of course, Marigold. More will be said about her in the future, and all I ask is that you be patient and trust that I will provide as clear of an answer as I can to what had happened.

My to toot my own horn, but saying that Marigold was “unspooled” was a purposeful allusion the spool of yellow thread that Warriors used to keep as a memento. The spool of thread was largely featured in chapter 17, and was later traded for a deck of cards.

Alright, let’s talk Ganondorf.

Oooh boy

Let’s start from the beginning. My Ganondorf was created by asking what would a Ganondorf be like if he was self-aware that he was the villain of the series? If he knew that even a morally correct political gambit or revolt would inevitably be interpreted as evil by virtue of his involvement, what would he do? Well, he’s the embodiment of power so he’s going to have to outsmart the story and exert power elsewhere.

I also knew that I wanted Warriors to be outsmarted by a sort of political dark house who he would not realize had tossed their hat into the ring until it was too late.

In terms of story structure, Ganondorf was not brought into the story to embellish Lincolns plotline; Lincoln was brought in to give the reader access to Ganondorf.

On top of all that, Ganondorf’s appearances are and few inbetween. His first appearance wasn’t until I was a year into writing CTB, and he has since only appeared in a couple of chapters at a time, each set separated by a year. Whenever it was time to write him, I had to sit down and figure out what I had to do to lay the building blocks for Ganondorf’s gambit without the reader realizing.

The answer really was to just write him in character. Which, obviously. For example, during the family dinner, Ganondorf and Spirit debate improving trade routes through the desert. Ganondorf outright says that he doesn’t want to do that because he doesn’t want to give up his monopoly on trade-- a savvy if not cunning political move on his part.

Ultimately, him being married to Lincoln did a lot to endear him to readers and discourage anyone from thinking too hard about what he was up to.

Speaking of which-- remember how I did not want to reveal that Endicott was being bribed by Ganondorf, but felt like I had to because of plot reasons? Part of my panic was that I was all but outright revealing that Ganondorf had a scheme and that the reader should be worried about it. I was genuinely frustrated that I had spent years trying to be subtle, only to fumble at the last minute.

Except, not one reader found it suspicious. Barely anyone remarked on it, and those who did celebrated how Ganondorf came in clutch to save Warriors. I was sitting there like “really???????????????”

This entire chapter was a series of tiny puzzle pieces I have been gathering finally coming together, and this one for Ganondorf was the most satisfying. You can just tell I was experiencing the euphoria that can only come from seeing years of effort finally pay off.

In terms of the role reversal theme, Warriors embodies Spirit again by sacrificing his life for Linkle’s. He even got the return of the dog motif. The moment he knelt down to Ganondorf was also meant to be a callback to chapter 15 when Warriors knelt to Lincoln and begged for help. Ganondorf even placed his hand on Warriors’s head the same way Lincoln had done to him. Ouch.

Also, I love the idea of a character’s worst fate being to, in another story, win. Warriors is going to make himself the most powerful man in all of Hyrule, and this is his bad ending.

There are a few plot and character decisions in CTB that originated as me being a little “meta” with the fandom at large. Warriors being royalty used to be a frequent LU trope, and back when I was initially plotting the story, I decided to incorporate that into CTB with a twist.

Ganondorf’s retort for Warriors’s jab about the Triforce (“What use would I have for such a trifling thing?”) was planned for years to be “What use would I have for such a pithy thing?”

Unfortunately, I misunderstood what pithy meant so I had to change it. And it’s such a shame too because, on a audio-level, pithy has a certain punch to it that trifling doesn’t quite had.

Besides that, I just adore how that line illustrates Ganondorf’s point of view perfectly: not only does he not need legend to help him be powerful, but it’s below him entirely. I have to agree with Warriors; by not needing the Triforce, Ganondorf ironically embodies true power.

For the Fallen Idols theme, Ganondorf’s gambit is an obvious example, but Lincoln gets one more fall from grace: did Lincoln know about Ganondorf’s plan.

I want it to be as up-to-interpretation as possible what Lincoln’s culpability is, with evidence being just vague enough that it can be proof in either direction.

This also means that Warriors’s lying has bit him in the ass once more, as he could have figure out this entire plot sooner had he told Lincoln about Endicott.

This is also the final example of the roll reversal theme, as Lincoln now plays the role of Warriors

We now have to ask ourselves how much can we trust Lincoln’s change of heart? If Warriors can’t trust Lincoln to have changed for his sake, how can he believe that Lincoln thought Warriors had also changed? The question then becomes not “is Lincoln guilty?” but more “did Lincoln still hate Warriors?” And Warriors has no answers.

And finally, Spirit’s return. The entire next chapter is going to be about him, soI will say nothing about him and his one line of dialogue for now.

To wrap this thing up: do you think Lincoln knew about Ganondorf’s plan? I would add a poll to measure the results, but I guess we’ll just have to do this the old fashion way lol

#it is late and my ibs is flaring up so queuing this for sometime tomorrow #bonus fun fact: another “meta” character decision was Spirit's personality flip #Back in ye old 2021 depictions of Spirit were either “wind but he's more shy” and “wind but he's a dick”. CTB Spirit is both but at #different times #me rambling #lu ctb #ask #linked universe #shoot-i-messed-up #ctb spoilers #ctb lore #ctb director's commentary

19 notes · View notes

wutheringmights · 6 months ago

Text

CTB Side Story: Icarius Backstory Draft

I am chipping away (slowly and surely) on the next ctb chapter. I needed a bit of a creative break from figuring out this scene I've been stuck on, so I took some time today to write out what would be the opening scene for a ctb spin off story about the Icarius and Nephus backstory.

I don't know if I will ever finish this. If I do, it would not be for a long time. But please place your eyes upon this and give me validation or something.

Content warning: depictions of violence.

Only in his dreams did Icarius remember being branded.

To be humane, the thrall must be branded when they are still very young. They were easier to hold down and placate, limiting potential injury. Young skin was faster to heal. A child could take the time to rest and heal the way an adult couldn’t. A child’s memory would fade with age, until the whole ordeal was nothing more than a footnote.

It bred less resentment for the hands that held them down. The hands couldn’t feel horrified by what they did either-- it was more humane to brand a child who would forget than an adult who would remember.

Nonetheless, Icarius knew some thralls who claimed to remember the day perfectly. They were lying, even if they didn’t realize it themselves. He supposed it made them feel rebellious, holding onto a memory they were ordered to forget. It was pathetic.

As a thrall, you already were nothing. You were less than human. One of the cattle. The suffering of everyday was more tangible than the ever-fading echo of a memory. Why waste your time?

In waking hours, Icarius could barely remember his branding. He only knew the basics because his mother had described it to him. No matter how he worried the sigil seared onto his breast-- the octopus of the House of Nephus--nothing ever came to him.

But in dream, he swore he could still feel the hands that held him down: one of a slave-driver, and the other of his own father. He writhed and screamed to be let go, only for more hands to clamp down on his ankles and legs. He screamed so loud that a rag had been stuffed into his mouth.

In reality, he had been blindfolded. In dream, he saw the red-hot iron be lifted from the flames. From molten red to smoldering gold it was hefted high before being bore down onto his chest, right over his heart---no, no, please don’t hurt me.

He screamed until his voice went hoarse. His words lost shape until his sobs were unintelligible croaks.

He didn’t faint. He cried and wailed, but he had been conscious through it all. His father would call it an impressive show of strength, but he always said it with a pin-point glint of pity. “Thank Opreun, you do not remember it,” he would say.

After the branding iron was pulled away, his dream melted. The dark forge and the smell of burnt flesh slid away. The agony radiating across his heart would dull as dream was replaced by memory.

It was his first time inside the main estate, his father’s hand on his back as he was ushered before the paterfamilias: a slight man who cut a more imposing figure than he should have been able to, with eyes that crinkled in good humor.

A ceremony he did not quite understand played before him. Even at six years of age, he knew well enough to avert his eyes and wait patiently to be addressed, even as his uniform itched and the open V of his tunic invited a chill as much as it showed off his mark of the House of Nephus.

What he did understand was the little boy he was brought before. Two years his younger, he was still a baby shyly hiding his face in his nursemaid’s skirts. Both she and his mother had to peel his chubby fingers away to face Icarius.

His freckles were the brightest Icarius had ever seen: beautiful white flecks adorning each cheek, bridging across his nose like a constellation map.

“See this, Vas?” Heedless of her beautiful dress, the lady of the house knelt down to her youngest son’s height. A sheer veil conformed to the ridge of her nose as she held his shoulders straight and pressed her cheek into his. “This is Icarius. He’s the son of Papa’s valet. You like Papa’s valet, right? Well, his son is going to be by your side for now on. He’s going to take very good care of you.”

Bug-eyed, Vasileios turned and whispered something to his mother.

She sung a laugh. “Yes, Vas,” she said. “He’s yours, so you have to take care of him too.”

Vas accepted that with a solemn nod. When he looked at Icarius again, he flushed but managed to stretch his mouth into a smile so wide, Icarius could count each of his teeth. His cheeks were so chubby, his eyes disappeared into his brows. It was cute.

His father nudged him. “Go on, Icarius.”

Icarius knew to bow his head and mutter his thanks to the paterfamilias for such a prestigious position. He knew he was still a thrall, but now he was something else as well, something that made him a step above the mud. He knew he was special, even with a common sigil branded into his flesh.

He knew that if he had one thing in this world, it was Vas.

He was Vas’s, but Vas was his.

Then the dream would end, and he woke up.

#we can pretend the dream vs reality theme for icarius mirrors warriors's real vs false memories for thematic reasons #and not because i am a predictable bitch #me rambling #lu ctb #ctb lore #ctb side story #lu call them brothers #writing this felt really good. working on the same scene over and over again was really getting to me #when will i finish this? no idea. if i ever finish this at all #<- has an incredibly solid plot outline in her brain

22 notes · View notes

wutheringmights · 8 months ago

Note

Thank your for the chapter. This is me submitting my request for director's commentary.

Sorry this is very late.

But, you know.

*gestures wildly at the state of the world*

This is the first chapter in a long time where I was actively having fun writing more than 30% of it. Writing doesn’t always have to be “fun” for me to write it, but spending most of this year stuck on two chapters I absolutely hated did a number on me.

I still didn’t get to everything I wanted in this chapter; I have been trying to get to the fallout for the Knights of Hyrule encounter for most of this year now (jfc!), but I’ve had to expand the plot points leading up to it. This entire Castle Town arc was planned to be one chapter. Past Frankie was insane for thinking that was possible.

Pacing-wise, this chapter really did need to be on its own. The important plot points needed their own space to breathe; trying to shove all of this and the contents of the next chapter into one would have led to a lot of things being overshadowed. So even though everything is still moving along relatively slowly, the pacing is somewhat on purpose this time.

As previously stated on this blog, I sorely neglected updating AO3 with the new chapter total. There is 6 chapters left (5 plot chapters, then an epilogue). Rest easy. This story will take me a while longer yet to complete.

That being said, don’t be too surprised if I keep budgeting in more chapters. But if this story needs more than 40 chapters, I will abscond from society and become a sheep herder in, like, Iceland.

(Sorry to front-load the housekeeping information; I usually keep this stuff for the end, all of this provides context for my first bit about the actual chapter.)

I am so happy that pre-heart connection stuff with Proxi got its own chapter, as opposed to being included with the post-connection drama of how Link starts clawing his way out of his depression.

I mentioned last chapter that everything with the first Proxi meeting was an utter failure to me. While this chapter doesn’t erase the problems of the former, it nonetheless is an improvement and more in-line with how I wanted this Proxi storyline to go.

Link’s depression baths is 100% me projecting-- I had a season of my life where everything in my life kinda fell apart and I became extremely depressed and anxious. One of my coping mechanisms was to constantly take showers. Like Link, I got up to around four showers a day before I was told to knock it off for the sake of the water bill.

Depression causing a lack of hygiene and self-care is fairly well-represented in media at this point. I relate way more to depression causing a spurt of “good” habits (that are just maladaptive coping mechanisms in their own right) more, and I want to include more of them into my writing. Link seems like the kind of guy who would overcompensate like that too.

The events of the chapter were condensed from my original vision. The party and the fireworks were going to be two separate incidents, but I wanted to cut down on the bulk of writing each chapter requires of me (more on this later). Luckily, the original idea for the fireworks also included celebrating a holiday (New Years), so the change was easy to pull off.

I did lose an aspect of that scene I really liked though: Link knowing he was experiencing a trigger deciding to hide in his cellar, all the while congratulating himself for reacting normally while Proxi is like hiding in a cellar isn’t coping, Link!!!!

Fireworks being a trigger is a bit of a cliche, and a part of me really wishes I found something more unique to trigger Link with. But fireworks is a really effective shorthand, partly because it’s so prevalent in real life, and partly because contrasting a celebratory activity with war trauma is so evocative.

It’s also very silly how significant events in Link’s life keep coinciding with holidays and birthdays. I want to acknowledge both for the sake of world building, but going through the effort of developing them is only worth it if there’s a plot point attached.

But who hasn’t had moments of great revelations while at the family Thanksgiving party?

I like the idea of various holidays/feasts in Hyrule having different levels of importance depending on your tribe or what region you live in, as well as them being celebrated differently depending on your culture.

Both the Sheikah and the Hylians would place heavy significance on the feast since Hylia is one of their main goddesses, but they would be celebrated differently. I brushed a bit on the idea of the religious ceremonies being different, but I cut back on sharing more of my ideas for the specific celebrations.

Very specifically, I wanted the Sheikah to have a tradition of performing theatrical plays of significant cultural moments (basically a kabuki-theater version of a nativity play) (can you tell I was raised catholic?).

I have plans to do something involving a kabuki play next chapter, so I won’t elaborate more on what the play was supposed to be. However, the play did get cut because I planted Link in the banquet hall with no care to move him from that spot.

I like the idea of moms who are flawed moms in really normal ways. The way Ayane’s mother is very sweet to Link while having these rigid standards for Ayane is very real to life, in part because it’s based on how a lot of mothers I know act to their child’s friends versus their actual child.

In a similar vein, I’m also fascinated by mothers who fail their children in such specific ways that it would only be a failure to their child-- like a mother giving too much independence to a child who needs more help, etc. That’s my design for these slow (and hopefully subtle) reveals of how Link struggles with his mother’s memory. On one hand, it’s obvious that he was made to feel like a failure of a child, and he probably knows that was wrong of her. On the other, she was a good parent overall and she’s dead. If you have never experienced that particular cocktail of guilt, let me just say that it messes you up.

The kids who were doing the snowball fight are Ayane’s friends, which is why one of them remarked that Link was going to yell at them again (see: when Link yelled at Ayane the first time he picked her up from school). Katsuki is the only friend of Ayane’s I’ve consistently named-dropped, so I hope that cued you in to who these kids were.

Speaking of which: I stole that name from Bakugo from My Hero Academia. I was watching the show at the time, and I like the character. Ergo, I stole his name.

Link being very aware that he had been triggered during the fireworks show-- I have a very specific gripe about the way people write PTSD that bleeds through this sequence that I cannot explain in a sentence or two. But what’s important is that I have experienced that moment when your body is triggered but your brain isn’t-- so you can start to feel yourself freaking out while in your mind you know there is no threat, yet the body’s reaction starts to cloud your mind, causing a spiral of anxiety and panic.

Proxi visiting the fairy fountain in Kakariko is one of my favorite scenes. I just like how simple it is, and how it gives a glimpse into what Proxi’s life is like outside of Link.

I did momentarily freak out after posting because I was worried I didn’t make it clear before this chapter that while there is magic lingering at the fountain it can’t heal. But no one has mentioned it yet, so I think I’m safe to wait until a future chapter to clarify that.

Fairies being too small to have more than one emotion is of course taken from Peter Pan. As a long-time lover of fairies (my childhood hyperfixation), it’s a whimsical idea that I just adore. I originally wanted to use that idea as justification for Proxi mirroring Link’s emotions without Link mirroring hers.

There would be scenes where he is utterly calm while she’s freaking out or crying because he’s good at covering his feelings, but she can’t. I thought this would rid her of too much agency, so I changed it to a mutual sharing of emotions so that Proxi has more space to her own person while still being his “translator.”

I also like the idea of Link being able to gather the ability to talk, but only in relation to comforting Proxi. That’s development, baby.

I do wish I rewrote that last scene where he feels Proxi’s joy for the first time, as I really like the idea that he would feel a sense of helplessness and horror to be controlled by another person like that. What’s there now is fine, but it could be better.

Now, onto the present-day section:

It is very, very obvious that I meant to end the last chapter with that conversation between Warriors and Lincoln. Like I said, the original version really sucked (or at least, my original prose describing what the Chain’s arrival at the castle was like). It makes more sense for Lincoln to drop the information about Lionel in the same chapter Lionel is name-dropped.

Lionel was originally going to be Lincoln’s name, but I picked Lincoln since it has the more obvious tie to the Link-Linkle naming pattern.

Also, this chapter includes a much needed discussion about the ethics of blaming all of the nation’s problems on a single ethnic group. On one hand, it is stupidly effective to utilize bigotry to gather power, and it’s a rhetorical technique even a more morally-upstanding Warriors would use. On the other hand, that’s an objectively terrible thing to do oh my god.

So I kinda had to go in and cover my bases of having the characters talk and acknowledge what the implications of Warriors’s plan is. The big glaring issue of this conversation is that it also implicates Lincoln and rids him of his moral superiority.

Personally, I kinda struggle to think of a real-world equivalent to the dynamic I established in the story, where the institution of the Sheikah does a lot of harm while the people within the institution are experiencing the social-consequences of being associated with it. The best I can come up with is Mormoms.

Either way, I live in fear someone is going to tell me that this is actually about an underprivileged group I am not aware of currently, and I am contributing to their oppression by not critically analyzing Link and Lincoln’s plans correctly. Which would be a valid criticism to make, but one I could avoid if I had just worked out in advance what the hell is this is an accidental allegory for, educated myself, and then fixed the issue.

If you guys can think of something, let me know so that I can get started on educating myself and such.

The Castle Town arc’s recurring theme is just bureaucracy, which does not make for exciting storytelling. But I do think it’s fitting for Warriors, who used to benefit from the system, to realize all the ways it’s not made to actually help people. I also think he’s the kind of person to realize he doesn’t have the time or ability to rehaul it entirely and has to settle on trying to work within it.

I can finally reveal my “Midna is a fantastic public servant” agenda. My girl was explicitly stated to be a good and dedicated ruler in Twilight Princess, and I will not let anyone else forget it.

I really wish that this was more of an ensemble story so that I can write about Hyrule and Sky’s adventures in the Castle Town nightlife

If there is one thing I don’t really like about this chapter, it’s the sequence from Warriors talking to Lana about Cia to the end of Icarius’s capture. Reading it back, it really comes off as very corny and very carelessly written.

I initially planned for Icarius to be captured during the bell ringing in the lead up to Warriors trying to draw the Master Sword

I was imagining a scene where they are watching the news about the invasion be announced and, as Warriors is cursing the bad luck of it all, Spirit would just scrunch his brow and say, “Captain.” And Warriors, who is unfortunately drift compatible with him, would be like “go ahead.” And then Spirit would motion for Linkle to follow, and the two of them would reappear after the Master Sword rejected Warriors with Icarius already tied up.

The problem was that would block Spirit off from understanding the whole Master Sword rejection thing, and I really needed him to carve up Warriors’s hand.

So I punted this whole ordeal with Icarius off to another chapter, and I have been scrambling trying to find another spot for him.

Ultimately, I do think this worked out because I have no idea what the hell the would have done with Icarius during the networking scenes.

After being disappointed with how this version of the capture scene turned out, I was very tempted to cut it and just have Spirit and Linkle haul Icarius into Warriors’s office, but I didn’t want to cut out a scene of Linkle being a bit of a badass.

And let’s talk about Icarius, because it’s been a while since we’ve thought about him.

First off, you can tell that I was having a lot of fun this chapter trying to find ways to let them have a conversation with Icarius when he can’t speak verbally and they don’t know his sign. The dictionary combined with the gesturing seemed like a fun but logical solution.

Though, in the back of my brain, I kept remembering how stupid I thought that bit in Iron Flame about the translation was. So when I wrote about Warriors translating Faovarian with just a dictionary, I was sitting there feeling like the biggest idiot in the world.

This scene also reminded me how tragic it is that Icarius can’t speak, because I know how hilarious this man would have been with sassing his captors.

I also got a chance to put forth the core tenant of Icarius’s feelings for Warriors: mainly, that he thinks Warriors is both insanely handsome but ultimately stupid as all fuck.

When I first made it clear that the House of Nephus was a reflection of Warriors, Time, and Spirit, I totally thought someone would put together that Icarius, as the Spirit-equivalent, was trying to save Philo. No one ever remarked on it, so maybe it was too obvious to mention.

(If I were to ever do another one-shot side story in the style of Smoke the Pipe, I would probably do one about Icarius’s life before the events of the plot, if only because I have a lot of ideas of how Faovaria works and how Icarius and Nephus got to where they are now; though I doubt anyone would be as interested in my silly OC’s as I am).

I also thought someone would figure out Philo was related to the whole Fused Shadow plotline when, in his introductory scene, he used Midna’s powers. I thought it was obvious.

I also like the idea of the Dark Interlopers having different legacies outside of Hyrule; generally, I’ve just had a lot of fun taking different bits of canon Hyrule lore and figuring out how they could fit into a greater world. My favorite (not in this chapter) example is when Nephus referred the the Three Goddess as oracles mistaken for goddesses. We know Din and Nayru appeared as oracles outside of Hyrule, and Nephus’s line implies that they are still important folk figures in Faovaria, just not goddesses.

Spirit’s snarky good luck being the nice version of his thoughts is exactly the kind of bullshit I would pull as a socially-inept kid; he realized what he originally wanted to say was too mean so he wanted to convey some kind of recognition that he understood Icarius’s thought process but still wanted to warn him how hard it was going to be. He really, genuinely thought good luck would be the nicest way of conveying that. He’s so bad with people. I love him.

And, god. Time. Poor guy has walked around his entire life feeling like there has only ever been one person who ever cared for him, only for that one person to turn around and be like yeah I regret helping you.

Then there’s Warriors who is starting to learn to not let himself get tangled up in fights against Spirit, who is so wrapped up in trying to stop this war that he doesn’t even have the energy to entertain Spirit’s bullshit right now.

Which leaves Spirit alone, with only Warriors to cling on to.

His conversation with Warriors in the hallway is another favorite of mine, if only because it sounds really natural. I think my dialogue is too on the nose sometimes, so I’ve been trying to let the characters talk around themselves way more.

Hot tip: if you are writing about men, make sure you mention their facial hair and shaving habits. As a long-time lover of facial hair, I love hearing about characters growing stubble or having to remember to shave in the morning. It’s a little detail that gets overlooked in fiction a lot, and I’m so bitter about it.

Oh, the newspaper article. Let’s chat about that now.

Public opinion plays a big role in political intrigue, which I never see enough stories taking advantage of. I knew from the beginning that I wanted Warriors to get exposed in the newspaper after he was well into cleaning up his act, but I wasn’t sure how to go about it.

As many of you know, one of my most infamous cuts from the story is an original character who was a journalist during the war producing propaganda about Warriors. In the present day, this journalist would have felt so guilty for the role they played that they would have been on the pursuit of writing a story about what really happened back then. They would have been a neutral to antagonistic force in Warriors’s life.

You can probably guess that this expose was supposed to be their work-- a decision to finally report truthfully despite being asked to lie once more for the greater good. I really wanted to juggle with the ethics of propaganda, and to have a moment where Warriors straddles that moral line by wanting to utilize propaganda for the greater good (but for real this time).

I cut the character because a) there were too many bozos in this story already, and b) I didn’t think that a plotline about propaganda would be the most useful in a story about a kingdom where the people’s opinion does not matter (in retrospect, that’s a misconception on my part about what propaganda is used for).

In some ways, I think it did hurt the story a bit to not have a specific character attached to the article. However, I ultimately like having no specific journalist attached to it since it places the blame more squarely on Impa.

Writing the full article out was most definitely not the best use of my time or the best use of space, but I was worried that if I did not, readers would be really confused as to what the general public did and did not know.

Stylistically, the article is meant to be more of an profile/investigation piece over a straight-informative blurb. The best example I can find is this article from the Cut on Usha Vance.

(I have spent the past month deep in the anti-Vance think pieces. Fuck both of them. I can’t believe I am going to have to keep hearing about these bastards probably for the rest of my life.)

As you can see, there is the occasional use of first person and more storytelling techniques used alongside facts. I chose this style mostly to make sure the article wasn’t too boring to read.

I also struggled picking good numbers for the article that would sound severe, without being over the top. I think I picked some realistic stats. But if I messed up, it would be very funny and would invalidate all of my bitching about Fourth Wing’s bad numbers.

At least I got to use this as an opportunity to drop some new info on you, such as...

Marigold was 19 when she gave birth to Warriors. Yeah, there’s a bit more to the Marigold story that is still left to be uncovered. There is a thematic reason to why Warriors does not seem to acknowledge how young she was when she became his mother.

How do I put this? There’s an irony in him knowing that he was failed by being made responsible for the kingdom at 17, and then not realizing that Marigold was also failed in a similar way. I think people generally have a problem realizing that the problems they see in the world are more widespread than they are, and that they take on multiple forms. And when one thing is wrong in the world, it usually is reflected elsewhere in an unexpected way.

Warriors believes that Marigold had a responsibility to take care of him because she was his mother despite her age. Warriors had a responsibility to be the hero, despite his age. He understands that just because society at large saw this as his duty, it doesn’t mean it was right. He doesn’t realize this wasn’t Marigold’s duty either to take care of him.

I explored this idea earlier in the story with the use of child soldiers being contrasted with Kat’s underage prostitution.

Also, Anders Brecht. His last name is a reference to Bertold Brecht, the playwright.

It’s nice to get his story out of Warriors’s perspective of my friend betrayed me and into this is a well-educated activist who was executed for trying to make positive change in the world. To this day, it surprises me how many people were not sympathetic to the turncoats in this story.

Another thematic point: both Anders and Marigold were the Hyrulean-equivalent of leftists. Despite having their influence on him, Warriors still turned out far more moderate than them, and far more prone to causing harm. Insert rant here about how just because you surround yourself with good people doesn’t mean you will turn out like them, etc.

Spirit being ashamed about the article-- Spirit is definitely someone who understands that just because someone knows you went through some shit, it doesn’t mean they will really give you the validation you want. He’s what happens when the vitamin fantasy doesn’t yield the acknowledgement you thought you were going to get.

And, finally, Warriors gets put into a corner and manages not to resort to using Spirit to his advantage. I enjoy that Warriors’s determination to not use Spirit as a pawn to sway public opinion back into his favor comes at the cost of, well, being on the verge of losing the goddamn fight. Oh Warriors, you can be a better person now but being a good person doesn’t win wars.

While the opening conversation between Lincoln and Warriors would have 100% worked better at the end of the last chapter, I do think it’s nice that their conversations are bookends.

I do think it’s kinda silly that celebrities have to apologize for doing something wrong to the general public, and a part of me wanted to use this story as a means to point that out. But I also have to admit that there is a social reason why we expect it, and I have come out on the side of pro-apology.

This is the first time in-story that Lincoln hugs Warriors.

Warriors really needed someone to tell him that they were proud of him and, I won’t lie, I also kinda needed it at the moment of writing. As much as Warriors still has a lot to learn and improve on, it feels good to see him get some of the praise he desperately needs.

Warriors’s character arc really is just him realizing that while he has to do his heroic duties, he would much rather be living a quiet domestic life with his family. Well, he always knew he wanted that. He just went about it wrong with Spirit and Time. He’s just getting to start over with a better perspective and less coercion.

And finally, the Knights of Hyrule are arriving. I’m not lying when I say that I have spent most of this year trying to get to this stupid plot point. I thought the trip to Castle Town to now was going to be one chapter. That was back in March. It’s November now. Ugh.

So yeah. That’s the chapter.

You might have noticed that my style is a bit different this chapter. Looking back on old chapters, I can see myself overwriting in a lot of places, especially in the narration the explore’s Warriors’s thought process. I’ve been trying to cut that back in order to both clean up my writing and cut down on the sheer bulk of words every chapter requires.

I think it’s working out so far, but I won’t blame anyone for thinking the chapter is a little underwritten, or it seems like I’m putting in less effort into the story.

Ideally, I would like to get two more chapters out by the end of the year-- one for each month. I have no idea how that will work out when I am as busy as usual and the holidays are coming up. But I will try my best.

(I also just realized that there is three weeks left to the month and I have not started the new chapter yet. Oof.)

(If I keep up the chapter a month pace, the story will end around April, aka: CTB’s next birthday.)

Thank you to everyone who has kept up with this story for so long. I love writing long stories, but there’s always a point where readership peters out (not surprising; comes with the art form). CTB has long hit this point (taking a four month break this year did not help), so I appreciate everyone who has kept up so far and everyone who has recently given this story a shot. Hopefully the next chapter will worth all the time and dedication you have shown this story so far <3

#your additional fun fact this chapter is that Icarius is like 2 years older than Nephus #which also makes him two years older than Warriors #so while warriors kinda likes people who are mean to him icarius likes to be in control and is attracted to men he can boss around #also every character is in this story is bi unless i say otherwise and I am saying otherwise for icarius. he is gay and is exclusively #attracted to men #me rambling #lu ctb #ask #linked universe #ctb spoilers #ctb lore #ctb commentary #director's commentary #my keyboard just crapped out on me in the middle of working on this so I just had to bust out my back-up #very annoying. is anyone knows why ubotie keyboards suddenly drain through new batteries / can't recognize new ones let me know

22 notes · View notes

wutheringmights · 9 months ago

Note

Okay I’ve been trying to put my thoughts together on this for a while. I would really like to hear about the matriarchy vs patriarchy in your Hyrule.

I mean, so. In the most recent chapter we heard a bit about the royal family, the queen of Hyrule seemingly was the face of the crown, with the king potentially being a less public figure, several daughters were born, and died until current Zelda was born. The king didn’t seem to think it was a bad thing that the last child of his late wife was a girl. So, obviously a woman can lead, and is allowed to rule the kingdom, although not uncontested, that may just be a facet of a power hungry kingdom.

This leads into the Shiekah, absolutely a matriarchy the militarist and spiritual leader (who is seemingly usually the same person) is assumedly always a woman, Impa. The Shiekah always serve the crown.

The generals of Hyrule as far as I can tell consist majorly of men and to my memory there is no named female generals, and, there are no female solders. Yes, there are Zora and sheikah “soldiers” but these are lent soldiers from different nations. At the start of the story the draft is specifically mentioned to draft every man older than fifteen. Meemaw’s sons both enlisted in the war, one was drafted the other seemingly enlisted himself. Kat was not enlisted. Of course it was only required for one son to enlist at the start of the war, and near the second Kat was unlikely to be forced to fight due to her condition. There are mainly woman and children in the civilian camp, the wives and family of enlisted soldiers. When Legend was in hiding he hid in the civilian camp and was a woman. Which to me implies that it is less suspicious to be a woman in the camp then a man. Which again to me implies that a woman is less likely to be drafted then a man. Which makes me believe that the draft is not applied to woman.

Now, the knights of Hyrule most certainly have woman amongst their ranks, but the knights seem to be more voluntary then the army. And! Feature many other nations in their ranks. Zora, Gerudo, and Goron, all have major roles within this organization.

Okay, maybe this is less of a question and more of an analyzes of the gender roles in the military of Hyrule .

I Do have a question at the end of this though!

Are woman allowed in the army? And if they are is it voluntary? Or are they drafted just the same as men?

Sorry if my phrasing is weird, I’ve maybe put too much thought into this! Thank you!!!<3<3<3

My initial vision for the Hyrule in CTB was for it to be very, very sexist society. I ended up curbing back that idea because I realized that I was the only person on the planet who wanted to see a shit ton of sexism in their loz fic.

Instead, Hyrule is a patriarchy in a post-feminism society. There was once a heavy amount of sexism affecting daily life that, while not blatant now, still makes the foundations of Hylian culture. Draft laws were made when there was a larger gender disparity. They have not been changed because, well, deep down no one wants to force women to go to war. The cultural value is still there even as society has become more equal.

That means that there are no female soldiers, and ergo no women in the upper brass. If a Hylian woman wants to join the military, she has to join the medical team or be in the support staff.

Gender roles are more rigid among Hyrule's elite, with men taking most positions of power. Respectable women are expected to spend their time in more traditionally feminine ways, such as managing an estate or charity. Gender roles are less rigid outside of the upper class. Some members of the middle class emulate the elite's rigidity, while others embody a freer perspective. Nearly every lower class woman works for a living, but there are some men who nonetheless idealize the subservient housewife. Not much different from life nowadays.

(I wanted to have Linkle be a budding feminist who had a really flat, naive view of what it meant to be feminist. For example, she would complain that women should be included in the draft so that women would be treated as equals, not that no person deserves to have their right to life taken by the government; I ended up needing to use Linkle's screen time for matters relating to the plot. That being said, a modern day Linkle would unironically have Notorious RBG merchandise.)

All that's to say that Hyrule is a fairly strict patriarchy. The way Zelda and the women of the Royal Family obtain "power" has less to do with any actual power and more to do with her function as a figurehead.

Because Zelda is Hylia incarnate, strict expectations of purity and goodness is imposed onto her. She has to be a madonna-like figure. Failure to embody this idealized femininity is not acceptable. As long as she conforms to this image, she has some influence. But if she ever dares to stray, she's is to be punished if not formally then socially. She would not only be a failure, but a pariah.

Because the monarchy's right to rule is derived from Hylia's bloodline, the crown can be passed on to anyone of any gender, decided by birth order. A son is preferred, but passing the crown onto the husband of the eldest Zelda is traditional. Queens can hold the throne, and there is a precedent of princesses becoming the primary monarch with their spouses regulated to consort.

However, that decision is based on politics. A princess who wants to be the primary monarch would have to campaign among the nobles to ensure that there will be no dissent. Some princesses train their entire lives to rule the kingdom independently. Other princesses plan on finding an advantageous partner who would become king while they manage more religious duties. And even more princesses are married off in their parents' political schemes.

Above all, the bloodline of Hylia has to stay on the throne. As long as there is an heir to inherit and produce more heirs, all is well. Twilight's Zelda married another woman, which was controversial because she would not be able to produce an heir within her marriage; she did not declare an heir before her passing in order to avoid an upset in court politics; her reign was quickly followed by a period of unrest as the nobles with vague royal ties made claims as to having the most of Hylia's blood within their family line. (I mentioned all that somewhere before; if not in CTB, then on this blog somewhere.)

But that's just the Hylians. The other tribes of Hyrule have different gender standards. (The Gerudo and Gorons more or less have one gender each, so we'll skip them.)

Rito are the most egalitarian of the tribes, mostly by way of being less of a cohesive group and more of a collection of nomadic flocks.

The Zora have a similar gender inequality as the Hylians, albeit slightly stricter. Zora woman had a higher social expectation to marry and product children. While working outside of the home is possible, it's seen as temporary step before marriage. Though, with their extended lifespans, most Hylians do not live to see when Zora women leave the workforce to become house wives; it's a common misconception among liberal Hylians that the Zora have a more egalitarian society. (In story, Orlanda complained that her parents still expected her to give up knighthood in favor of setting down and becoming a mother.)

The Sheikah are the true all-genders-being-equal culture (which is balanced out by the cultist ideology imposed on the members of the tribe). The head of the clan, Impa, is traditionally a woman because she is expected to be the handmaiden of Hylia incarnate. If there are no female heirs to Hylia's bloodline living, it is possible for a man to become the head of the tribe. He would shed his mortal identity and become Impaz.

And finally, let's talk the Knights of Hyrule. Believe it or not, but the issue of the clan's inclusivity has less to do with gender and more with race. Because the clan originated as a bloodline, women would have been expected to serve the clan in some form, with the sporadic woman achieving knighthood. Over hundreds of years, this became more frequent until it was a regular occurrence.

The clan opened up to non-Harkinians around 150 years ago in a bid to bolster the dying clan's numbers. Fifty years after that, the clan allowed non-Hylians. The knights were perceived as being a second-Sheikah clan that existed only to terrorize non-Hylians. Great-great-etc. grandparent of Warriors opened the clan to the other tribes in a bid to prevent the monarchy from stripping the clan of power or disbanding them entirely.

Gradually, non-Hylains rose in the ranks before becoming knights themselves. The speed and frequency depended entirely on the current Master Knight's beliefs. The clan was long integrated by the time Lincoln took power, but he has a goal to switch either the Knight of Forest or the Knight of Light to another non-human, preferably a Rito.

#sometimes i am asked a world building question and the answer is a sheepish 'i did not think that far ahead my dude'#but this is a rare time where the answer is 'i actually put a lot of thought into lore that will never reach the page'#assuming hyrule would have to be a matriarchy because of the hylia thing kinda irks me? I've seen people argue it before and like #i totally get it but at the same time there is sexism built into the hyrule we see in the games. it is already more complicated than 'we #defeated sexism because god is a woman'#all that's to say thank you for asking. i could talk about this shit all day #me rambling #lu ctb #ask #linked universe #ctb lore #kiwibirdkiwi

25 notes · View notes