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PATREON | KO-FI
Comic Status: Active! (just reaalllllyy slow)
please don’t tag as LU!

if i look back, i am lost
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@bonus-links
The Master Post
First Page
Latest Page
Main Comic Tag!
Cast Height Chart
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Comic Archive
Old AU Archive
PATREON | KO-FI
Comic Status: Active! (just reaalllllyy slow)
please don’t tag as LU!
updated refs for the links we've met so far (sorry mage and spirit you don't count yet)
Is the panel of Spirit current or is that War thinking back to the past?
it’s a memory from the past
What do you see, little soldier boy?
.
@bonus-links Fanart!!
I’ve loved this comic for awhile and it’s a CRIME that I have not done any fanart for it!
Understandably in obssessed with Bonus Wars and whatever bullshit he’s done to himself.
woah war can't see the energy from the temples. what an interesting worldbuilding fact yes 🙂↕️✨
what an amazing detail for me to put in the comic definitely on purpose
I just came back to this after a long time away and had to binge read from the beginning. I so happy tho my boi spirit is here!!! Spirit tracks was my first Zelda game and I love it so much!!
Question tho. If war is in the fire temple shouldn’t the rails be blue? Cause of the energy that runs from the temples to the tower of spirits. Or is it a plot spoiler thing?
YAYY welcome back!!
oh no that’s not a spoiler I just totally forgot about that. I guess all my references have been Before the temple was completed and I totally forgot that’s the entire point of completing them 😭 just pretend like they’re lit up lol
I just wanted to say can we talk about how the frames related to War's court life (and ESPECIALLY the frame where he lies in front of Impa) have golden borders. makes me think of the gilded cage he has landed in. probably nothing intentional on the writer's part tho [I love this comic btwwwww]
yeah who put that there
BUT YEAHHHH honestly I didn’t do as much framing (gilding) on this update as I planned bc of the aforementioned desperately trying to get it done but I do love the trusty gilded cage. it’s both decorative and ironclad and u technically have the key to leave at any time. but that would be so difficult and honestly it’s pretty nice in here
So like....how *is* Cia? 👀
excellent question :-)
The way War won't even let his mask slip a little bit with someone who shows genuine care...
the mask stays on babeyyyyy he makes that choice himself
He isn't flushed red in the heat because he still got some thick foundation on
he’s gonna need it to cover up those undereye bags
would u believe I almost exported this update without drawing any of war’s eyeliner either. another crime but I fixed it
So much of this story is about messy habits someone forms in the wake of the Horrors. It’s very strongly about the different ways the links *dont* deal with their feelings, or deal with them poorly. Some of those are mental spirals, some of those are physical avoidance, some of them are temporary and some of them will stick with them for life. I think smoking or drinking as a vice in the wake of their games makes total sense to me in a story that was already pointing neon signs to “hey nobody is dealing with this in a way that’s being sanitized for observers”. Every character in this story is messy and that’s what makes it FANTASTIC because you expertly dodge ever making it into woe-is-me angst slop and instead feels like a very fleshed out set of characters who are more than just their worst moment or even their best, and for some of them those moments are the same memory. I really do adore your work as a writer but also as an artist, because the paneling and character detail work on this is expertly done to support the narrative you’re crafting.
🥺🥺🥺 RAHH THANK U!!! very happy to hear that bc it is 1000% my intention to explore all the different ways people respond to the things that happen to them. The tagline for the comic is “what happens when the quest is over” bc like. idk amongst all the time travel and rifts in reality and stuff that’s genuinely the real plot. What happens to people who are tools when the job is done?
I don’t include elements like this to be edgy or as pure angst fodder but just bc like. it’s a thing people do. extremely commonly. there’s humor in it and there’s also serious consequences in it, and it’s also a neutral thing, u know?
directors commentaryyyy plssss
okay i have a lot to say about this one here goes
i really like hiding war's face from u :D
there's like an underlying not-quite-argument Lana and Impa are indirectly having here lol, but talking to War instead of each other. Lana trying to remind War that his Hyrule's jurisdiction (and by extension its power over him) doesn't extend on the other side of that rift, while Impa reminds him that actually it does, because God Is Always Watching you.
obviously the nobles in this panel are whispering about him, but the other implication of this panel is like. War Is In This Picture. This is the exact kind of face he pulls while being snide to Lana in the last update. So it's one part, wouldn't it be nice to escape court (because they're awful to you) but also wouldn't it be good for you (because they're making you awful)
Is War just lying because Impa's in earshot here? Is he making it clear to Lana which side he's on? telling her to back off? you tell me. anyway I was really excited to draw this specific expression. like. the one you pull when you know exactly what someone is talking about but you want to make them feel crazy for actually voicing it. here are the notes for it in my script lol
bringing this screenshot out again. invoking farore at a spring for din, smh. also again we do not see whatever his reaction to this is untillll
he puts the Hero face on! i like the idea that war inside his head was like. oh fuck I looked too much like i was having a terrible time. quick turn the face on. say the little speech. THE DEPTHS OF MY DEVOTION ARE IMMEASURABLE, ETC.
the thing is. the depths of his devotion Are immeasurable. that part is real
because of the direction we read comments i'm able to pull off a little illusion of forward momentum even though we've actually gone backwards in page space. i mean. hopefully. ANYWAY YIPPEEE SPIRIT TRACKS FIRE TEMPLE!!! also baby's first dungeon for war lol
ooooh big shiny object symbolizing power. surely this means nothing
okay two things here. 1) when war is around other people he has his good boy face on but when he is alone he gets to look as irritated or simply Nothing At All as he wants. 2) Lana knows what she's doing by telling War that she can't actually see him, or tell where he is. i mean she does want him to help solve this problem but she also wants him to maybe live a little
one of the things i'm fascinated with is like. the evidence that the links must leave behind in the temples/dungeons after they leave. like, no one's there to clean up after them. broken pots are an obvious way to do that lol but I also meant to draw things like stray arrows and other equipment and i just like. straight up forgor. i think i drew one arrow in the corner there. anyway we can see some of spirit's old dried blood on the ground here too. guess he was injured before the boss fight and was looking for something to heal
I LOVE THIS PANEL it was so fun and I'm really happy with how it turned out :D i like getting to show how war moves as well? He can jump far enough to clear a gap spirit would have needed the whip for, he points his toes, etc. he also moves through the space very efficiently.
2 apples tall
seems like all the dungeon exploring was tiring lol. rip war u haven't slept in over 24 hrs and ur about to have to hike down another mountain. godspeed
AND FINALLYYYYYY THE SPIRIT TRACKS. the implication here is that war recognizes the tracks because spirit either described them or had photos during the war of ages. i was going to make them look like more functional train tracks but like. come on. they're magic and they're fun :D
hm. so it seems like things may have gone poorly during the war of ages. seems like spirit wasn't very nice to him. wonder what that's about. anyway the intention here was like. if the first update had all those paintings of the idealized version of what happened, this is a photo reel of the true events, or at least war's memory of them. and also like. even a photo is an image that had to be framed by someone, not a neutral representation of reality. and so on and so forth.
i somehow did not realize spirit smoking was going to be a shock to people at all. I think i am just really used to @wutheringmights' spirit, which once again i must always give frankie her flowers for how her work has influenced mine. actually even though it's become incorporated into my personal headcanons for ST link i associate it so strongly with that version of spirit that I debated whether I was gonna include it in the comic at all
what ultimately convinced me was like. okay imagine u have been smoking since u were like 15 because everyone u know does and then u get zapped into a magical time war with no notice and u have like maybe 4 precious precious cigarettes left in ur pocket. could u imagine. well that happened to my friend Link Spirit Tracks. and also jokes aside it ended up really working for the overall motifs of this update. fire theme->lit cigarette->the smoke of memory->something something. u know.
anyway. i'm going to show my work on how we ended up here i promise. very excited for more of spirit :D
oh is he reaching for the necklace because he figured out where he is? oh nope. flask. guess he's just not going to make a report then. also this is a full circle gag with impa stealing the champagne glass from him earlier. he actually gets to take a sip this time lol #thesubstanceabusebrothers
"farore preserve me" extremely hilarious response to this situation. sorry brother farore isn't preserving shit
ALSO ALSO his flask has been on him this whole time lol
i just realized via doing this commentary that i forgot to add a flush from the heat to war's face for this whole update. literally a crime i'm so upset.
i think that's all i got for now. thanks for reading!
A vision I had regarding the new @bonus-links update
If there is one link that would smoke it would be spirit !
Don't know much about steam train but I doubt that the smoke they can produce is good for your lungs, so what a few cigarettes are going to do ?
you get me! I like to imagine his hyrule as the most ‘modern’ a hyrule has managed to get lol kind of a steam-punk/victorian-ish era with medieval aesthetics still lingering? I’m mixing time periods lol. anyway cigarettes. they’re older than u might imagine
he works in a mechanic shop with a bunch of engineers twice his age+. like. he’s been smoking since he was a teen probably 😂
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Such a good update! I love how Lana does care about Link, how she is physically affectionate with him, the first one we see! Though Link's own feelings on it feels harder to pin, this man has so many layers to him that I feel a first glance reading will be wrong. I love him exploring the fire dungeon. It shows him so incredibly capable in such a fun way. Not boasting, or anything, just competently moving around, and looking for clues.
Also those panels of Spirit are hilarious, old grizzled man with his smoke imagery. I wonder if this is the world all of the time traveling links are in, or if there are about to be 2 groups through time of links. And then a Zelda hopping about.
thank you!! war’s got a lot going on in that noggin of his :-)
“old grizzled man” and the man in question is like 25 😂 he does give off that vibe tho. he’s going gray early from all this
Spirit is heeeereeeee!!!!!
Aaaah I'm so excited to see more of him!!!
HE’S HERE :D
genuinely very excited to show u guys more of him! I’ve said before he’s one of my more oc-ified links lol and I was going for a very specific mood for this first intro but. grips u all. I’m going somewhere with this I promise. spirit tracks I love u
OFF THE RAILS, pt. 4
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PATREON