User blog comment:Brandon Rhea/THE CHOSEN ONE: Chapter 16 released!/@comment-20644-20100228035334

Indeed.

SPOILER ALERT

Also, a few other things I wanted to mention. I think I mentioned this somewhere else, but the battle scene in this chapter was basically a replacement for the swoop race that was shown in the novel's first draft. I was going to use the swoop race again, but it just didn't make any sense to have Annikin take Sarus up on that offer. It would've been totally out of character. With this, I was able to have an exciting new sequence, plus a catalyst that made sense and helped propel Annikin towards his destiny.

Also, I wanted to mention something about the character Emmanuel that you briefly see here. The name Emmanuel, which is in turn derived from Immanuel, means "God is with us" in Hebrew. The name and specifically its meaning was the inspiration for the character. That's why you see him saying "You're with us" to Annikin, the supposed savior.