Chapter 36: The Hero's Dream & the King's War
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Additional Tags: Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), Alternate Universe, Character Study, War, world building, Trauma, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Political Intrigue, Found Family, Angst and Humor, Warriors is a very complicated person, Warriors also does not know Time is Mask, Warriors (Linked Universe)-centric, Canon-Typical Violence, Heavy Angst, Manipulation, Morally Ambiguous Character, Please read content warnings before each chapter, Abuse, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Physical Abuse, Implied Sexual Content, Power Imbalance, Implied/Referenced Torture, Blood and Injury, Disabled Character, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Implied/Referenced Suicide
Summary: “You are going to hear a lot of terrible things about me. Most of it is going to be true.”
Being the hero who saved Hyrule from a bloody war was a thankless job that left Warriors with more regrets than he cared to remember. He only started to heal after meeting his fellow heroes from across time and joining them on their quest to defeat the black-blooded monsters.
But when his time-hopping journey takes him back home, he finds his kingdom on the brink of war once more. This war threatens to ensnare not only Warriors, but his newfound family as well.
Warriors will do whatever it takes to keep them safe, even if that means becoming a traitor to the kingdom he gave up everything to save. But the harder Warriors works to protect his family, the more the secrets of his dark past come to life. Who is Captain Link Walton, the Hero of Warriors? What happened to the two other heroes he had once fought alongside all those years ago?
When this is over, will Warriors even have a family left to save or is he doomed to repeat his past mistakes?
(Once, there were three brothers: the captain, the engineer, and the child. Their story did not have a happy ending.)
Wow, it only took me just under three months to update. Compared to my history of updates, that is very, very swift. I think I am finally getting my shit together.
I hope you enjoy this chapter. As always, it is a doozy at just under 38k words. Please tuck yourselves into bed and have fun :)
In this chapter of the final arc of my never-ending fanfiction:
Link's attempts to help Proxi reunites him with an old friend
Now the head of the army, the burden of war falls squarely on Warriors's shoulders
Hyrule Field is soaked in blood and covered in flames
Not only is this allowed but it's something i encourage all writers of any kind to play with! :D
The idea that all writers know what to say all the time and just splash fully-formed drafts out one word after the other is false. There are some who can do it, but i think most of us... can't. Which is why we need tricks like square bracket notes! They're not cheats or lazy writing or some other flavour of Not Allowed, but instead really really important tools that we should use as much as we need to.
Some of the most helpful tricks I've collected over the years are:
make some notes in square brackets – e.g., I had to write a scene on a sailboat, but I know nothing about sailing so i literally just had notes like [boat part] and [how to do X thing?]. If you use square brackets as punctuation anyway, use something else like [[double square brackets]] or a unique letter combination like XY at the start of the note; the point is to pick something you can search for easily later on.
(You can also style inline comments in a different font/colour. Scrivener has an inline annotation feature; if you use Word, you can make a specific Style to make notes stand out at a glance, etc.)
bullet-point your way through any tricky parts – this can be pure stream-of-consciousness vague ideas. it only needs to make sense to me later. much more helpful than just leaving big blank gaps that Future Me has to work out how to fill, but also better than dwelling on a piece of writing forever.
use comment tools – mostly do this if I have ideas for alternate events and/or phrasing, or if I want to check something for continuity purposes.
write out of order – Best advice i ever got for academic writing is to know or even write your conclusion first and your introduction last, which your main argument in between. Similar principles apply in fiction, or any kind of creative writing. If there's a part of the essay that I can visualise clearly or a part of the story that is particularly exciting or important, I might write that first, then figure out how it fits/how everything fits around it.
keep a loose scenes and/or "outtakes" folder – anything that i write out of order goes here, along with any notes for how I think I want to incorporate it into the full text. In the same vein, if I delete something but don't know for sure it will never be relevent ever again, it gets cut and pasted into an outtakes folder.
Basic rule though is that you do not have to get your writing perfect on the first try. This is where drafts come in. The way I see it is to treat each draft as a fresh start – I create/open a new document (well, new Scrivener file) and start over as if from scratch. Each draft gets a narrower focus than the last. This is my process, as an example:
first draft is the word vomit. You do whatever you need to do to get it onto the page, and it can be terrible. In fact, it probably should be terrible. You can fix everything later. it's fine.
The second draft is a half-hearted cleanup attempt. I'll re-type everything because everything is subject to change, from the characters' personalities to the pacing to the order of events. It's all primordial goop, basically. i'm just poking and prodding and making a few adjustments, but mostly trying to create a more stable version of the first draft. All shortcut tricks continue to be my best friend.
By draft three I'll let myself copy-paste between documents if I'm particularly happy with a passage, but try not to get hung up on anything specific. I'll still make liberal use of square brackets etc. as I need to, but try to address as many from the previous draft as I can. This is where I get more brutal with making decisions and trying to fix parts of the story in place.
Draft four is usually my final draft, but there's literally no rules about how many drafts you're allowed to write. It's at this point that I try to keep square brackets etc. to a minimum (unless i've diverged significantly from the plot of a previous draft and having to rewrite large chunks), and make sure to address all the notes and problems encountered in previous drafts.
This is when I move on to revisions. Revisions are the "final do-overs", for me. I start them when I'm satisfied with all the large-scale aspects: plot and chronology; characters' personalities, motivations and arcs; large-scale pacing (so the over-arcing pace, rather than the pacing in individual scenes); backstories; and worldbuilding. I'll copy the last draft's document instead of starting with a blank one. First I run through those large scale things one more time and tweak until I'm happy, not just satisfied. Then I shrink my focus to in-scene pacing, dialogue, and the quality of the writing itself.
I'll also rewrite my plot outline between each draft, too. The act of actually re-writing stuff is very helpful for making your brain think about it.
Drafting like this isn't for everyone, but realising that you can just bullshit your way through chunks of text was a massive game-changer for me. Some people will do a draft, then work on something else, then come back and do another draft, work on something else, etc. Some people's drafting process will look more like what I consider to be revisions. Do whatever works for you. Just remember that from the moment you first decide you Want to Write a Thing to the moment you hit "post" or "publish" or give your manuscript over to a publisher, you can keep making as many changes as you like in any way you like. (And if you go the querying to traditional publishing route, you'll probably get suggestions for, and have space/time to make, changes to the manuscript quite far into the process).
I don't believe I've ever met two writers who have exactly the same process. Every writer I've spoken to about the craft of writing has their own process, usually developed over years and years of practice and trying things out.
For example, I don't rewrite at all, that sounds horrendous, I just save-as to create a new draft. I also get the big structure stuff done in outlining, but I'm a weirdo who writes 20k word outlines. As mentioned above, I am one of those people who needs space between drafts--or at least, between rough draft and first revision. And I do my first revision on paper, always. The human brain processes screens and hardcopy differently! I write all over my printed rough draft, and then go back to the doc and apply those edits and anything else that occurs to me at the time, so my draft 2 is more sort of draft 2.5??
There's a lot more, obviously, and it's different between novels and short stories (I don't print short stories unless I'm really struggling). But I'm always experimenting with different ways to write, and sometimes they work and sometimes I get stranded and have to go back to the drawing board. Some people have a lot more hand writing in the prep stages, in notebooks or on index cards--I visited someone once whose dining room walls were covered in butcher paper and index cards with pushpins!
So if you're a newbie writer, experiment! Read about a bunch of different ways to get those words down! Try new things! Put notes and placeholders and such in your drafts, write by the seat of your pants, try out the whole in-depth outline thing, revise every paragraph before moving on to the next one, whatever works!!
Also please feel free to come talk to me about it! I love hearing about how people write.
every so often i post a few passages from this. it’s by ken liu, whose explanation of silkpunk i just reblogged, and it’s an excerpt from his story paper menagerie (linked here in its entirety; it won the hugo, the nebula, and the world fantasy awards, the first work of fiction to do so). it is not remotely an easy read, particularly if you are a child of a diaspora, particularly if you have ever struggled with assimilation, particularly if you are struggling with cultural and personal identity. it shouldn’t need to pull its punches, and it doesn’t. if you haven’t read it already, i cannot recommend it highly enough. it will not make you feel better, but it is an axe for one’s internal frozen sea, if you will. sometimes a story like this is the only way to stay alive.
Paper Menagerie is my favourite short story of all time. The first time I read it, I cried in public. Not many short stories affect me on such a complete and visceral level.
Here comes a lot of GBA-style pixel Links! (and a couple of Zeldas.) Ignore their heights. I usually try to keep height differences in mind, but I prioritized appearance this time, so we've ended up with weird situations like LU Four looking too tall and HP Four looking comparatively tiny.
See below for the original artists. See if you can guess who they are!
Row 1:
Sky (SS) from @tethered-in-myth
Picori (the Hero of Men) from @flm-linkedfissures
Minish (TMC) from @minas-linkverse
Four (Four Swords trilogy) from @linkeduniverse
Four Swords Link from @cokoakeostuff's Hero's Paradox
Row 2
Leaf (pre-OoT) from @marenwithanm's Little Links
Time (OoT/MM) from @linkeduniverse
Reaper (TP) from @chained-spirits
Wind (WW) from @heroesspirit
Tracks (ST) from @the-phantom-peach's Rift in Time
Row 3
Mage (ALttP) from @bonus-links (my followers might have seen this one already)
Totem (ALBW/TFH) from @linkbetweenlinksau
Ravio (ALBW) from @minas-linkverse
Silent and Echo (EoW) from @linderosse's Wisdomverse (my followers might have seen them, too)
Row 4
Hope (The NES games and the cartoon) from @linkedspirit-fanartfunart
War (HW) from @bonus-links
Aspect (the Ancient Hero) from @chained-spirits
Tears of the Kingdom Link and Zelda from @proxycrit's Familiar Familiar (Not a Links Meet like the others, but it was a big request from my sis, and I'm a huge fan of the always messy hair. Great series.)
--
I told myself I wouldn't do this but here are some design notes:
Pixel art this small can only handle so many details, but I tried to fit whatever I could.
If you look closely, you'll see a tiny reference to Sky's feathers on his hip.
I went back and forth on whether to include the red ties Picori has. In the end, they looked too much like hoodie strings, and the strap wanted to blend in with his face, so I had to chop the strings off and swap out the leather strap for his undershirt.
With Minish: I tried really hard to nail that stare of his. I'm a big fan. There was a ton of trial and error - and I almost gave up several times - but I'm satisfied with the result. His pockets are represented by a single light-green dot. :)
JoJo doesn't color eyes, so I had to decide if I would go with the blue of his games or the grey that fans tend to use. I went with grey. It was a fun challenge to incorporate that eye color into his deadpan expression. I drew his before Minish, which helped me figure out some tricks that made Minish's eyes more achievable. I also had to figure out how to give the bottom of Four's tunic the right shape. Every other tunic I had drawn up to that point was straight across in the center. The GBA sprite doesn't even include legs (those are my own additions wherever you see them), so it took some messing around to find something that worked. I think the result added to his accidental tall appearance. That, and his hair kept getting taller so it wouldn't look like a frying pan hit him. Hm... I wonder if I...? But then his arms would be too long...
I had a really hard time placing Hero's Paradox Four's earring. It kept wanting to blend in. Unacceptable! I ended up saturating the color quite a bit compared to the original to make sure the colors stood out. With a few exceptions like this, try to stick with the artist's art style as far as palette choices go. It also killed me to leave out the design on his tabard. It looked like a checkerboard.
I just realized I didn't put any greenery in Leaf's braids! For shame! Maybe I'll do a separate post with the fix. The tiny braids were fun to figure out how to draw with the little pixels. I wonder if it would have been easier or harder to figure out if I remembered the plants. I guess I'll find out when I fix it.
Time is the most obvious example of how GBA sprites don't have a center. They use an even number of pixels on both sides, so any center parts or markings had to choose a side (like in this case) or become two pixels wide (like in Reaper's case). I wanted to challenge myself with a heavily armored character. I didn't think about how many details his armor had before I made that decision. ( ; >_<) I'm sure someone with more experience could have done better, but I'm satisfied.
If you look closely, you'll see that Reaper has his nose scar.
I thought about including Wind's sword and Wind Waker, but I didn't want to complicate such a cute sprite.
I tried to give Tracks all four of his buttons. I don't think I succeeded, but I tried. It was fun to figure out his poncho-style coat.
Mage: Glasses are hard. I don't want to do it again. I had fun fitting as many details in as I could. He has a lot of details in his design, so almost all of them are dropped for clarity, but I enjoyed playing around with it.
Totem: I adore his hair. It's my favorite thing about him. But boy was it an experience to make sure the green section of his hair didn't look like it was meant to be the bottom of his cap. I ended up having to make it a lot lighter than the original.
I was excited for Hope because I have zero experience with tight curls. It wasn't as hard as I imagined in pixel form, though that might have been due to the great highlights and lowlights I could pull from the original art. Trying to make sure all the browns didn't blend together was another story.
Aspect's main difficulty was finding a good curl on his tail that didn't interfere with his long hair. And his arm jewelry. And his shirt. For some reason I really struggled with his shirt. It's such a simple shirt, too. I also struggled with the placement of his teardrop makeup. I'm still not satisfied with that.
Familiar Familiar Link also has his nose scar. It looks like stylistic shading if you don't know the original design, but I think it's cute with either interpretation. ^_^
Some of these AUs are probably going to see some more sprites from me. It was hard to choose which Links to prioritize for this set. Everyone had such fun designs! If there's a character or au you were hoping to see, please shoot me a request. I love making these little guys. OCs are welcome, too!
Artists, feel free to request a separate version of your character. Tumblr wouldn't have liked so many individual pictures in one post, so I grouped them together, but I can definitely send you singles if you feel like causing mayhem with a little transparent pixel guy.
Or if you want your character removed from this post, I can do that, too. 👍
a lot of you really need to internalize that acting avoidant isn't cute at all and that it will cost you experiences and life outcomes if you don't change course
April 6th, 2026 - Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Jeremy Hansen, and Reid Wiseman become the first human beings to travel farther than 248,655 miles from Earth, breaking the record previously held by the Apollo 13 crew.
hey waiter can i get a -- oh you can just beat the shit out of me right here? free of charge? man the service here is impeccable
anyways this is simple but it had been infecting me since the song CAME OUT and if i didnt expel it from my brain i was going to die. read call them brothers by @wutheringmights i am NOT asking.
Genuinely, I have no words. This is incredible. I love this song and I ADORE every bit of this comic. The visual of the boots from the hanged turncoats, the tangled red string (the bloody footprints!!), the COLORS, Spirit holding the knife— HONESTLY if I will just end up listing everything in this comic if you let me continue.
Thank you so much!!! I am throwing out the rest of my plans for the evening just so that I can stare at this 🥺💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛
wait can i ask something. if Spirit looks like any of his parents, do you think he'd look more like his mom or his dad? not that it'd matter much at the end but y'know,
Spirit takes after his mom, who is Hylian and a descendant of Aryll. She died when he was still very young, and he was raised by his dad until he was about 8-9 years old. His dad was Lokomo. Spirit only has his build (which did not make itself apparent until he was an adult), shorter ears, and curly hair. When he was a kid, it was often remarked that he and his dad did not resemble each other at all.
Spirit has complicated feelings about this, in no small part because he more easily passes as fully Hylian and often finds that his Lokomo heritage is dismissed.
art + commentary under the cut - warnings for teeth! also there will be spoilers, so read at your own risk 🙏
Byleth drawing hours - this time, the focus is the present section of Chapter 16 of @wutheringmights ' 'Call Them Brothers'. I'm probably just going to compile a masterpost for the art I draw because of this fanfiction because I foresee that there is more to come 🤣
This drawing is definitely a test of my skills and the stuff I am not confident on - side profiles, noses, perspective and light, horses, and teeth. It's given me a lot to chew on artistically, and I am pleased with how I've done things.
First! My thoughts on Chapter 16 - this chapter was really really good. Chapter 15 ended on a wild cliff-hanger and drew upon one of the past chapters that I did not expect, but when it came together, it was so so good. Chapter 16 followed on nicely. Something about the waiting of it all, the single focus on Warriors in the wagon, the lead-up to the Bottom of the Well built up a dread in me in such a good way. And then to have Four there, the rush to escape, a small break from the dread only for it to set back in when Warriors realises that the escape was a trap? 😱 I had to think about this chapter for a couple of days before even trying to draw anything because it landed so well.
Now, onto my artistic commentary + rambles!
The first thing I'm really glad that I could put to paper was the open mouth drawing of panel 2 -> as I read this section, I could almost imagine this mouth kind of mid-speech, revealing lots of teeth and being kind of unsettling. I can't picture things very well in my head, so to have a very clear idea on a picture a piece of writing is giving me is a very surreal feeling (in a positive way).
One thing I'm surprised with how it turned out was the horse. I have not dealt with horses much at all -> the only artistic piece regarding horses that I've done is assemble this wooden toy about ten years ago, and I put all of its legs on the wrong way round. To me, it looks like a funny dog on stilts, but I've also stared at it for too long 😭😭. I did pull up a reference of a horse, which helped a bit, so that's always good.
Also! I did realise that I drew Warriors in slightly the wrong position (he has his arms crossed rather than having his palms on the ground), so that'll be a potential task for another day to build on that skill.
