Zelda -Ages Manga-fanmade page

Raven knew the moment was near. The sudden rise of the crowd's concern...meant that the ax had been raised.

The captive hero braced himself...As the young man's eyes closed his firm and fierce expression faded to that of worry. Raven's concern is not for his own fate, but rather for the fate of those grieving and protesting below...He cannot help them now...he cannot even save himself.

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....Does he die in this story? Well if you are asking me that...go read the freaken manga! Oracle of Ages, you can read it here [link] It is awesome (it helps to read Oracle of Seasons first, and it is just as intense, Link nearly dies more than once...technically does die once!!!)

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Raven is from the official/Nintendo endorsed Oracle of Ages manga, he only exists in the manga and is not the game.

After Link gets thrown into the past he meets Raven, a knight working under a queen who is being controlled by evil. Unlike the rest of the castle guards, Raven has a clear sense of what it means to be a knight and does not blindly follow the queen. He remains employed by the enemy, secretly working out a plan right under the queen's nose...Including secretly saving those slated to be executed (including Link) leading them to a secret village which he helped to establish years ago and now protects.

Raven does all this despite knowing his head would be next if he got caught... And he does not fear the consequences of capture for Raven is a selfless hero, the kind who would willingly give up his life if it meant saving others...

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This part of the manga had me in s a tizzy fit HOWEVER I found it lacking that one last extra "punch" to send me into an epic angst fit...and so, I spliced together a bonus page that "completes" what my mind's eye expected to see in the story.

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The main scene and page composition are from my own imagination

But 3 pieces here are freehand drawn (not traced! Besides, that is like impossible to do via paper and a computer screen, lol) with manga bits as reference:

The castle with the crowd was borrowed and altered from the manga as is the scene with the ax. The close up is a modification of a panel from an earlier chapter (Raven had just told Link how he rescued those slated to be executed and brought them to the hidden village. This is the expression Raven had when Link said "Then me as well? But, if they find out about it, you'll be executed too." I love this expression, it shows his fierce resolve to do everything he can despite the fact his own life is on the line)

In the manga all we really see of this intense moment a side view of him being held captive next to the enemy, and the scene with the ax (as drawn above)...
I wanted there to be just a tad more, for Raven to show some acknowledgement of the coming moment...so I drew this.

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For those who do not care to read the whole manga but want to see where this fits: This (page 14 of chapter 8) starts up the situation behind this scene, [link]
The page I made merges parts of/fits between pages 25 and 26


PS I am pretty sure the arrow was taken out of his shoulder by this point... BUT we do not get a clear enough angle to see if it is there or not...so I chose to leave it there since it ups the angst.

PSS I have another Raven piece here [link]