#also vv interested to see Spirit’s lowkey corruption arc

[shoot-i-messed-up]

I remember I showed a line from this chapter that described Green's eye color and someone theorized that it was Legend. And it made me so giddy. I was like "heehee this person doesn't know that the Colors are in next chapter."

That was me 😓😓😓 guilty as charged

Also, I don’t think I mentioned this in the comment I left on that chapter, but I loved Warriors’s mommy issues speech. Idk, I just think it was such a small but powerful detail that made so much sense with his character.

looks like i gotta be the one to ask for some director's commentary for chapter 16

And we thank you for your service!

The flashback section for this chapter was a last minute decision. I originally was going to move onto the next major plot point, but I realized that I needed to do some more ground work for the plot point to make sense

I thought the opening section with the rumors was a genius idea until I started writing it and realized that, no. It was not that great of an idea. But it was an easy way of conveying information so I stuck to it.

I have been trying to have another scene on the battlefield where can I reiterate that the child is still running around using his transformation masks (because it's extremely important), but there has been so much interpersonal drama that I have not been able to make it happen. rip me I guess

The dance Link does in this chapter is supposed to be the same dance in chapter 4

Link and the child hanging out together are definitely my favorite part of the chapter, even if child endangerment is involved

Everything with the engineer is just building up to the major plot point next chapter, and I thought I made it pretty clear what was going on with him, but so far no one has gotten it(?)

The plot point is one of those things where I have meant for this at the start and have alluded to it already in the present day, which means I have to commit to it. But I also worry that a lot of you are not going to like it

Moving onto the present day

Was it fun to start with Warriors losing the Triforce? You know, that plot point I should have ended the previous chapter with until I dumbly left it out?

Admittedly, starting with the loss of the Triforce made for a kick ass opener. But as I predicted, it got drowned out by the sheer weight of everything else that happened

You might be wondering: what is the plot hole I spent a week fixing? Originally, Four caught up with Warriors way sooner, about a whole, and disguised as a minish, he spent time with Warriors before before Warriors was delivered to the Royal Guard. During this time, Warriors was going to build a bond with Four and tell Four secrets he wouldn't have told otherwise

Mainly, Four was going to learn that Warriors knows that Wind is doomed to die young

But here's the problem: I picked Four to be Warriors's rescuer because he was the only member of the chain who could single-handedly rescue Warriors from the Kakariko Well. How? With the Colors, of course!

But if Four could split into the Colors at any given time, then why wouldn't he rescue Warriors before he was handed over to the Royal Guard? If four people could take on the whole well, then it would make sense that they could also take on, like, 10 guards.

So I had to trash 2k-3k worth of Four and Warriors bonding to make it so that Four didn't catch up to Warriors in time to rescue him

(By the way: Four had to catch up with Warriors before his hearing with the generals so that Four would know where Warriors was sent to. Like, having Four do a surprise rescue was not an option)

I just think this plot hole is funny because I have had this planned for over a year and I didn't realize until I wrote it that it wouldn't work despite me picking Four expressly for his competence

Moving on

My favorite part of the present section is Warriors's speech about his mother to minish!Four. I have known logically what his relationship with his mother was like and how that shaped who he is now, but as cliche as it was, I feel like Warriors didn't tell me himself until now.

Like, I understand fully now what his mommy issues are, so look forward to seeing some more about it

So much of this chapter is just Warriors in despair, and honestly glad that you guys found that compelling(?)

My other favorite scene is (surprise) Warriors spitting on Zelda and yelling at the generals. It was immensely satisfying to write, especially since we can finally see Warriors start to make different decisions from his past

When I planned this story, I thought I was going to have an interesting interpretation of the Kakariko Well, but when it came time to write about it, I came up short and went with this setting that combines a hospital and a dungeon. I really wish I was more creative with it

Kei and Warriors's guard (who I swear has a name) were based on a different character concept of a torturer who, upon realizing that they were going to have to torture the Hero of Hyrule, put their foot down and said that they weren't going to do it.

There was a bit more to that character that would take more space that I have now to describe. Just know that they wouldn't have worked.

I had this whole idea of having "His hand hurt" repeat through the chapter, building up to a single line to describe Warriors being tortured. I'm not sure if I picked the right line, though. Other options include "it hurt" and (of course) "his hand hurt." I went with "he hurt" because it sounded a little clunky, which I hoped would make it more memorable.

(Yes, minute difference between lines are sometimes a thing I care about)

Also, Warriors got a hair cut! Fair warning that his appearance is going to change again fairly soon

I hope that the non-existent Toto fans out there enjoyed their confirmation that he's still alive. I'm quite sure that if I did a vote on the most popular OC's in this story, Toto would be at the bottom. rip

When I first got into LU, I really wanted a Colors reveal fic that played more off of Four using the colors strategically. I had this scene in my head that of the Colors leading the Chain out of a prison they were locked up in, expect the Colors were switching out with each other without anyone realizing

I never found a fic that did that and the comic is obviously not going to do it now, so I used that idea here to confuse Warriors

I remember I showed a line from this chapter that described Green's eye color and someone theorized that it was Legend. And it made me so giddy. I was like "heehee this person doesn't know that the Colors are in next chapter."

I would be the first to admit that I could have cut the wallmaster scene to save space, but I could not resist the metaphor having a monstrous hand hunt down Warriors after he spent weeks thinking about how much his own hands hurt

I just... really like hands...

I don't think I made this clear in the chapter, but the reason Four didn't split again when he saw Impa was because he was now injured. Reforming as Four mitigated Vio and Red's injuries, but it also means that if he split again, all of the Colors would be similarly injured

You will find out next chapter what Impa's plan is, but you could figure it out now if you tried. There's (hopefully) enough evidence. You can do it!