#if you're looking for indicators of legato's mental state...i might also suggest looking at his relationship with sleep

[starlight-eclipsed]

Hey okay so I know I've sent a lot of ask recently but I just got hit by a ton of revelations while reading Duped and I need to scream.

In the most loving way possible and with so much respect for your writing and universe, pray we do not meet because it is ON SIGHT.

Hey so you know that feeling when you start reading something that re-contextualizes everything you know about a character and how they act?

That's me right now!

(Its like entering a building knowing that you have to duck a little to get through the entrance except you misjudged how much you had to duck and slam your head into the frame. You saw the obstacle but didn't notice how much space it took up until it was too late!

I knew Legato was having issues with alienation and forming connections and generally being self-sacrificial except Duped came out and suddenly everything was so much worse than I realized for my favorite little guy.)

Now Duped by itself was fine! Heartbreaking and a wonderful prologue to the series that establishes Legato's mindset going into it but then I finished writing my commentary/analysis on Four & Legato throughout Puppet Show to To Dance on a String. And then I did a comparison between Porcelain Veneer and To Dance on a String and I proceeded to get hit with so many realizations all at once.

What do you mean Legato's profound sense of alienation and self-sacrifice at the start of the series is partly stemming from his grief over losing Ravio?

Ravio, his Lorulean(?) counterpart, who followed him back to Hyrule and stayed and became his home.

What do you mean Legato has been operating on the assumption that his home abandoned him without warning (again).

(His uncle left him first. Died in the sewers and left Legato alone to save a kingdom. The guards who were supposed to protect him as a citizen of Hyrule tried to murder him on his first adventure without questioning why they were attacking a 9-10 year old child. The villagers who half raised him who did things that Legato avoids thinking about during his first adventure in Puppet Show.

Marin and Koholint Island in general.

Chain ver. 1.

Cadence whose relationship with both Legato and Zelda hasn't been discussed.

That's all the ones I can think of on the top of my head without research and it definitely doesn't include all of his games.

Legato doesn't get to keep the people he cares about in his life. He had Ravio. He sort of has Zelda but he also doesn't because she has a duty to Hyrule at large above anything else and she's stuck in the castle more often than not while Legato is out there.)

WHAT DO YOU MEAN LEGATO LOST THE PERSON WHO HAS CONSISTENTLY CALLED HIM OUT ON HIS BS AND FOUGHT FOR LEGATO AND NOT THE HERO OF LEGEND

Their relationships had a rocky transactional beginning but it would be false to say that Ravio doesn't care now. He cares so much about Legato now!

His last words to Ravio were about it being better to die than to abandon someone in need and then Legato proceeds to do exactly that in Cadence of Hyrule. He doubles down so hard on that belief that he dies repeatedly. It's almost like he needs to make a point to himself! Or worse that he doesn't care now that he's lost his strongest anchor point to the world!

Legato loves being a hero and traveling and meeting people but he's doing it at his own detriment.

I've had this little joke to myself since I started writing my Four & Legato commentary that Ravio is Legato's missing purple self as a funny haha thing.

NO IT IS NOT A FUNNY HAHA THING ITS A VERY SAD AND SHARP KNIFE!

DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH I HAVE TO REVIEW ALL MY ANALYSIS AND THE SERIES WITH THIS CONTEXT

THAT'S NOT EVEN CONSIDERING LEGATO ALREADY GRIEVING CHAIN VER. 1.

(There are some parallels in Legato & Four's relationship that I can see echoes of in Legato & Ravios relationship but the dynamic isn't the same because Four is a hero and Ravio isn't.

Ravio understands and contrasts Legato in such important ways and will always care more about Legato than Hyrule.

And I don't think Four can do that.)

Yeah so if we ever meet I will have to fight you on principle after all of this.

It shall be a duel for the ages! >:D

Do you realize how agonizing it was to talk about Legato's thought process throughout the series without bringing up Ravio??? Like you're fully justified in screaming but I assure you I have suffered in turn XD

The nature of Ravio's departure was something that I kept forgetting was a secret. But yeah, Legato was indeed operating on the (very untrue but reasonable under the circumstances) belief that Ravio finally got tired of dealing with him and left without so much as a goodbye.

It creates a bit of an interesting parallel between his first and second time adventuring with the Chain. If traveling with ver. 1 of the Chain taught him that it was okay to open up and care for people again, ver. 2 is about him getting it hammered into his head that he is loved. That his loved ones are just as unwilling to let go of him.

Yeah, Legato's love for adventuring has kind of gotten distorted. He's still genuinely having a good time in most instances and will say so if asked. But for a while there he felt like it was the only thing he had left. It defines his whole life--which is a bit more concerning for an apparent child than it is for Legend (which is something I wanna address in the future if circumstances allow).

All in all: Duped was challenging to write but I'm thrilled to see that it had its intended effect <3