#those characters say 'plant' in chinese

[lkaruss]

An extensive KFP 4 rant (spoiler heavy)

So, Kung Fu Panda 4 was… an experience. It took about 3 glasses of whiskey to get through it.

There is so much wrong with this movie, from the pacing to lore breaking issues. However, this is an attempt at trying to formulate my opinions regarding the film, and explain why certain story decisions were detrimental.

My live reaction to the film:

The movie makes it clear right from the start that it was made for very young children. It’s filled to the brim with jokes. If there is a chance to make a joke, then there is a joke. Regardless if it's appropriate or if it hurts the story/lore/characters. In normal circumstances, this would be offset by the fact that the jokes are creative and unpredictable, but they aren’t. I would say most of them can be seen either from a mile away, or they just fall flat. I think I only managed to laugh once or twice when Po’s dads were doing something, but outside of that, the film couldn’t get a chuckle out of me. On the contrary, I found many to be cringe, and some even made me uncomfortable.

But why am I talking so much about the jokes? In the previous Kung Fu Panda films, the jokes were used to break tension. The way the seriousness of the story and the jokes were in harmony is what made those films so memorable and impactful. The story (and films) took itself seriously, but it would sprinkle in jokes that fit the universe, the situation, and most importantly originated from the scene themselves. 

Compared to this, the jokes in KFP 4 are, unoriginal, forced, and usually can be traced back to pop-culture. The last one being important as the original Kung Fu Panda films stayed away from referencing pop-culture as it would break the immersion and authenticity of the setting.

This ties into the ERA that these films depict.

Setting

Based on my limited understanding, the original films have done an excellent job at depicting a world that is supposedly set in an authentic ancient China. From the way names are handled, to symbolisms, everything was well done.

The same cannot be said about Kung Fu Panda 4.

I’m not an expert on chinese culture, but from what chinese friends have told me, „Juniper” city doesn’t sound Chinese at all, or has a meaning in Chinese. It’s essentially a Latin word for a common plant that can be found all over the globe.

The architecture of the city is also questionable. It’s trying to give off a metropolitan feel, which doesn’t fit the ERA. Additionally, the architecture of the buildings is odd. It’s like a mesh of the architecture of several Asian cultures.

Then there are some of the names. „Steve” and „Scott” to be specific. These are the names of some masters and I don’t think I need to explain why these don’t fit the setting at all.

I was constantly questioning what movie I was watching as it was hard to believe this is Kung Fu Panda.

Identity crysis

What made me question the film’s identity the most however is the story.

This 4th film felt like a 1st installment rather than a sequel. It conveniently disregards everything from the previous movies that would contradict its plot and world.

The film immediately starts with Shifu coming out of nowhere and saying Po has to choose a new Dragon Warrior at that very moment. Not only did this feel incredibly random, but it’s also thematically incorrect.

First off, why is Shifu saying this? Why would he want Po to pass on his „title” if it's destiny? Why would he want him to do it now? Why did he not even consider ANYONE FROM THE FIVE and instead got 5 randos as candidates out of the blue?

The issue with the whole premise is incredibly flawed. Let me explain…

Po was chosen as the dragon warrior in the first film. There he proved his worth as such. The key to this is that he is the chosen one because it’s his destiny to deal with threats that no one else can. 

This doesn’t necessarily mean that he is the best. He is the guy who is and will be in the right place at the right time, with the right tools to deal with threats that no one else can deal with. But I digress, it's a different topic.

The point is that Po’s role as the Dragon Warrior is his destiny. The „title” merely represents that role in the world. So you can pass the title to anyone you want, but that does not change the fact that due to destiny, it’s still going to be Po’s role.

This is not just a coincidence though. Po has shown many times that he has a very open view of the world. This is then combined with his traits of being is warm, outgoing, energetic, friendly, goofy, and unorthodox. He represents the Dragon, Yang in the Yin Yang.

All of this is important to understanding why there is only 1 dragon warrior, and that is Po. End of the story.

The film however completely throws all of this out the window and goes with the new Dragon Warrior plot anyway.

That means the new Dragon Warrior is literally right there next to him. Master Tigress.

Now you might be asking why that would be the case.

This film, although throws out all the symbolisms of the previous films, still shouldn’t disregard the other characters that are around Po.

The 2 characters work like the 2 sides of the Yin-Yang, as complementary forces. They are opposite forces that need each other in order to create balance. 

Her influence is extremely necessary throughout the three films, particularly the second and third. It is her companionship, her support, and her constant push against Po’s natural instincts that lead to the best outcome.

Po has achieved a lot of spiritual enlightenment and character development. A lot of it through his own means, but without Tigress he wouldn't be where he is right now.

The Yang is the strongest when it contains the Yin, and the Yin is the strongest when it contains the Yang.

But this dynamic goes both ways. Although we mostly see the effects of this relationship on Po as the films focus on him, it has also changed Tigress. This leads to her opening up more and being more expressive as the films went on, giving us glimpses into the compassionate person she truly is.

While symbolically she is not the dragon, the 4th film establishes that it doesn’t care about the symbolisms or anything that the previous films have established. So naturally a character that compliments Po this well,  should be put into the spotlight and get the character development that she deserves. A character that went through serious changes, but is still left incomplete. You might as well make her the new Dragon Warrior then.

She - altough deserved the title the most even in the first film - lacked the ability to see the world from a perspective that's required to handle certain situations. The Dragon Warrior is way more than just being the perfect warrior. Po's presence was necessary for her to change her attitude. Leading to her slowly becoming her best self. Knowing all of this, it's not such a wild thought that if there has to be a new person who takes over that role, then Tigress would be a great choice for that.

But what is there for her to learn from Po? Spirituality.

Tigress has always been a grounded, by-the-book character. This can be mostly attributed to her upbringing. Her changing and becoming more open, seeing things differently would have been something interesting to explore, and this would also take care of the issue of the „new trilogy” copying the original trilogy’s main character development.

However, the film completely ignores her existence, and the new Dragon Warrior is instead a random Zootopia fox.

The (new) deuteragonist

There is so little to say about Zhen. The best thing I could compare her to is an untreated wooden board. 

It’s rough, full of splinter, and there are many like it. Probably one of the most cliché characters I have seen in a very long time.

She is generic, has an overused „misunderstood fox thief” trope, and a character arc that is so predictable that we all knew what was going to happen just from reading the film’s synopsis at the beginning of 2023.

Her backstory is a copy of Tigress’ except if Shifu was evil. An orphan who is taken in by a master who emotionally neglects her. Said orphan doing what her master wants in order to be loved/accepted by said master. Except that Zhen doesn’t seem to have any attachment or loyalty to the Chameleon. So the „Sad backstory” fails to garner any sympathy towards the character.

Her dynamic with Po is non-existent, which is why their „friendship” is forced. The creators tried so hard to make the two bond, that they forgot to give them time, shared experiences, or anything that would resemble an emotional connection between them. They just quickly went over everything that they have in common in a dialogue and that’s it. There was no prerequisite completed that would make Po care about Zhen or vice versa.

Furthermore, Zhen doesn’t fit the traits that the dragon has, she is not spiritual either or has an open view of the world. So why is she the new one then?

And I wanted to avoid talking about this, but the character is a textbook Mary Sue.

per wikipedia

Zhen is more than capable in a fight to keep up with Po, even though it was not shown why she is so good at fighting. One thing is for sure, she shouldn’t know Kung Fu as she certainly didn’t learn it from her „master” the Chameleon if the film’s plot has any consistency.

She is not only able to manipulate Chi, but also to use Po’s staff without knowing anything about either of those.

A previous character’s role being retconned so that she can take it for herself (See the rant about the Dragon Warrior title above)

She always gets along with characters that matter, getting what she wants. 

No real character drawbacks.

A throwaway character like this, should be a minor support character, not the new main protagonist for crying out loud.

Her inadequacies are so blatant as a character, that no wonder they didn’t even want to have at the very least Tigress in the film as Zhen would immediately become irrelevant to the audience. They put all the spotlight they could on her, at the expense of the story, and in the end achieved nothing in return.

Tell me with a straight face that a character that has an entire movie focusing on them - who still remains a generic, boring character by the end, without any story potential - should be the new main protagonist. The fact that most people don’t even refer to the character by her name, but by the actress’ name Awkwafina should tell you everything about how memorable she is.

Most new characters and animal designs don’t fit the KFP art style.

A good example of this is Zhen.

This is how a fox would look like in Nico Marlet’s KFP style:

And this is what we got:

Sorry, wrong picture. I meant this:

Now, I’m not a character designer, or a professional artist, I only draw a couple of his characters, but I can see that this is way too far off from his work. If not from personal experience, then from the interviews that Nico Marlet himself gave.

The same issue applies to the villain of the film, the chameleon, but atleast with her they tried (somewhat).

The Villain

They say a film is as good, as its villain. This seems to be true in the case of this film too.

The Chameleon sucks.

She has no connection to anyone from the cast. She has no emotional leverage or pressure on the cast. She is not scary or powerful enough to make the audience care about the cast. Her motivation is so terrible, it might be one of the reasons why the Five was kept out of the film because their mere existence single-handedly demolishes her reason for breaking bad.

Outside of this, the character is unoriginal and uninspired. She basically can “lick” people and steal their Kung Fu? I honestly don't know how to put this into words because it doesnt make any lick of sense (I did the funny). If anything it's a budget version of Kai.

They didn’t even bother to give her a name.

What I will say though is that Viola Davis did what she could with what she was given. I found it amusing that she managed to give the chameleon those serious villainous vibes, while at the same time, the character is a joke. If that’s not a testament to the voice actor’s abilities then I don’t know what is. She was definitely wasted on this role.

As for the “returning villains”. I knew they were only there for cash-grab from the moment they said that all of them would return. Shen, is dead. He is not a Kung Fu master, he doesn’t have any connection with Chi, and he hasn’t been banished to the spirit realm. Then there is Kai, whose soul/spirit doesn’t exist anymore.

The only one that could ever return was Tai Lung. However, due to the gravity of his character, if he does return it has to be done perfectly regardless of what direction his character takes.

Now, many of us knew from the start that whatever they were gonna do with him would be bad (I mean there is a massive beef between Tigress and him, and yet she is not even in the film), but I think I speak for all of us when I say that they managed to somehow lowball it even worse than expected.

Basically, the Chameleon brings him back from the spirit realm, licks the Kung Fu out of him, he says like 3-4 lines, and returns to the spirit realm…. what the actual f*ck.

I’m sure I don’t need to go into a 10-paragraph rant on how much storytelling potential was wasted with this, because everyone knows. From reconciling with his dad, to her little sister having a crazy beef with him, to having to accept all the wrongs he did, accepting that he is not the Dragon warrior etc. etc. etc…

There was always only 1 chance of bringing him back. If he came back in a new film or show (again) it wouldn’t have anywhere near the same impact as it should, and it would also feel weird to the audience.

DreamWorks, you had 1 chance to bring this guy back, and you wasted it all on this film.

The non-existent magic system.

Or rather, how this film didn’t care about it at all.

Kung Fu Panda has a relatively grounded world. It’s animals that do Kung Fu based on their natural abilities. The closest thing we got to supernatural was Chi, but it was well handled in the 3rd film in my opinion.

Chi is life force and not magic. This means if you use it, you are exhausting your own life force. This means you would only use it in certain situations, such as healing someone who is mortally wounded, or perhaps to enhance an attack in a desperate fight.

The film doesn’t care about this and handles it as just a regular, inexhaustible force of energy. This can mostly be seen with Po as he uses it whenever he feels like it.

The other type of magic is what the Chameleon is using. It’s not explained, or shown how it works. It’s just there to further progress the plot so that the character can take the Kung Fu from others. (Seriously, how does that work?)

The Kung Fu action

The fight scenes were also a downgrade compared to the previous films.

In KFP 4 they felt less energetic, less grounded, and overall too cartoonish. As an example, Po can jump ridiculously high because… I don’t know, I guess the film just ignores the fact that he is Panda who sometimes even struggles to pull himself up to a rooftop. 

The previous films incorporated the strengths and weaknesses of the animals that fought. Po is not very mobile, but he is very durable, and his fighting style compliments this. However, when he really needs to get somewhere, his lack of mobility is then offset by his friends, the Furious Five.

The Furious Five

Their absence can be severely felt throughout the movie. That is because in their place was a generic character that had forced interactions with Po.

They have great synergy with him, that cannot be replicated, however minor their role might be sometimes. They serve as a great way to fill in those empty spots in the story, and to elevate the villain. Additionally, their fight scenes are entertaining and help to spice up the choreography.

Although they are great companions, if the film really doesn’t have the time to spare for them, then it's understandable if they aren’t around. However the same cannot be said about Tigress.

A Kung Fu Panda film has to have Po and Tigress interact, due to the reasons already explained above regarding her, and also because of the following:

They are direct opposites, which is why their relationship is so entertaining, regardless if you look at them as platonic best friends, or as a potential couple. 

Po is warm, outgoing, brash, energetic, friendly, goofy, and unorthodox, however, he is also serious when needed. While Tigress is introverted, calm, calculated, passive, and intuitive, but deep down she is also a very compassionate and conflicted person that we rarely see. This is then in conjunction with the emotional bond that the previous films have built up between them. These are the reasons why just putting these two in a room is enough to create entertaining scenarios. They add a lot of fun, heartfelt, and emotional moments to every film.

Whenever Po is facing a problem, she is right there to help him through it, whether by talking it through or by beating some sense into him (literally).

She has always been quintessential in Po’s development and motivations.

Memberberries, Memberberries everywhere…

It was jarring to see the film disregarding the existence of the previous movies to justify its plot, but at the same time heavily relied on tropes, and scenes from said films. I’m not kidding when I say that there were moments that were ripped straight out of them.

One of those moments is the standoff between Po and Zhen before the final fight. Zhen wants to stop Po to avoid him getting hurt, but the fight ends with her hugging Po….

Yeah… it was a blatant copy of the prison scene from the 2nd film. However, I think the 2 scenes here perfectly encapsulate why the previous films worked, and why the 4th film doesn’t.

The prison scene in the 2nd film was essentially an emotionally unstable Po being held back by a caring Tigress. Po is so focused on getting to the truth that he forgets the reason they are there, and would put his and his friends’ lives in jeopardy to know what happened to him and his parents. So much so that Po was ready to get beaten to a pulp by Tigress instead of staying down there and waiting until the Five finished the task.

But instead of that happening, Tigress saw how lost Po was, and realized she needed to calm him down to help him understand their situation. And so the person who has always been portrayed as an unfeeling, hardcore, essentially perfect warrior gave Po an unexpected hug and told him he is too important for her to lose him.

This moment has gravity and weight, because of how she is perceived, because of how Po views her, and because Tigress was forced out of her comfort zone to emotionally connect with Po, to help him. It’s a moment of pure comradery and care towards each other that ascends the situation they are in. It’s a moment that in many ways defined their relationship going forward.

In comparison to this, the scene that copied this in the 4th film has none of the emotional underlinings that I discussed, and so it falls flat and feels cringe rather than heartfelt and warm. This is mainly due to Po and Zhen having no connection, bond, or reason to care about each other. But then there is the other element that I discussed when talking about the villain. Po is in no real danger, and it never felt like he was.

Production

From the early leaks, it was blatantly obvious that the production of this film was rushed. Between the artificially forced plot, the generic character designs, the non-existence of the Five, the lack of time, money, commitment, and care was apparent.

However, due to an interview that the Co-director did with some folks on the subreddit discord, light was shed on the nightmare that was the production. I won’t go into details, as everyone should read the Q&A for themselves, but I’ll touch upon a point that was brought up as an excuse for this film turning out the way it did.

(this is a real concept art from the production btw)

Some are saying the reason the film turned like this was due to the budget restriction. That they simply didn’t have the money to have characters like Tigress return due to Angelina Jolie costing a ridiculous amount of money.

But then I have to ask: They had the budget for characters like Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), Po’s dads (James Hong & Bryan Cranston), Tai Lung (Ian McShane), who in the end turned out to be completely irrelevant to the story, but not at the very least for Tigress (Angelina Jolie)?

I’m not saying that you cannot make a story with these characters, because you obviously could make a great one. What I’m trying to point out is if you have such a limited budget, are you really going to blow it all on actors who play characters that essentially add nothing to the story? This is why I call bullshit on them not getting at least Angelina Jolie back to play Tigress. 

Let’s not even mention how you could always recast these characters anyway (although it's clear that the execs are the ones forcing the use of A-list actors).

So for the sake of the argument, let’s come up with a story, that has a reason to exist, has characters that you can do something with, and fits the budget that you are given.

For me - considering that this film was essentially a buddy adventure film - it's an easy task. Just have Po help Tigress explore her origins. I know it's cheesy and basic, but at the very least you have what’s needed for a decent story that would be able to expand on a beloved character, and even help develop Po into a spiritual leader as he has to aid her best friend.

Another idea is what my friend and I had come up with. Have Po bring Lei Lei (now much older, and is a student under him and Tigress) on an adventure. You wouldn’t even need Tigress to appear in the film, because these characters would reference her many times. Lei Lei is a copy of Po in the sense that she wanted to do Kung Fu because she puts Tigress on a pedestal. Because of how influential she was in her life, Lei Lei’s personality is a copy of Tigress’.

I’m just shooting ideas here, but at least these wouldn’t ruin the continuity of the franchise and would be able to navigate the studio limitations that the creators had to face. (from the ones we know of).

"Limitation is the mother of creativity"

KFP 4 was a shallow, artificial story that didn't add anything to the franchise, only degraded it and stripped it of it's remaining value. It's missing the foundations of a KFP film, such as the heart, artistry, and warmth. It's not unexpected as none of the original brains worked on this film.

So what can be expected from this franchise going forward?

Well, not much honestly. It was a weak attempt by DreamWorks to continue the main storyline, not for the sake of the story, but to milk as much money out of it as they can. Even though with a little bit of effort they really could have at least made a good film in the end. However, between the incompetence of the decision makers, the rushed production, and the new people not knowing much about the franchise, that was never going to happen.

The only thing that we can hope for is a spinoff (which is about a decade late at this point), that focuses on Tigress. It’s the only way I see anything for this franchise going forward and hopefully, this film served as a wakeup call for the executives.

Thank you to those who had the patience to read through my inessential rant. Let me know what you guys think about the film.

#kung fu panda #kung fu panda 4 #kfp #kfp 4 #review #rant post

[moonstruckdraws]

Plant Portraits

(pst- psssssst!- Hey, hey you. Yeah, you! Want to see something cool? look at this post by @hellishgayliath. It's about the characters shown here! They worked on it for a week straight, so check it out!) . . .

Hi, yes, hi, hello. Yeaaaaaah- steering away from the angst me & Helli brewed while I recover from crying. This was inspired exactly a month ago from this ask I made to Helli ask bout their oc's fav plants. I wanted to try out a new rendering style & thought this be a good opportunity + plant practice

Pico; He likes cinnamon plants/trees & likes to knaw on cinnamon sticks. So I did cinnamon plants! Specifically Cinnamomum cassia, or known as Chinese cassia, that is the most commonly sold cinnamon in North America (yes you are getting plant facts this took longer to research than to draw mainly because I like learning but that's besides the point and I wanna share knowledge) I really like how the leaves came out! Twas very fun. His plants are well maintained, healthy, & green (maybe too green lol) which shows his craft in gardening & care. Luci doesn't have teeth, so she can't really 'knaw' on things, so she didn't like trying Pico's snacks when she stole one. She was coughing on cinnamon for the next hour after. Pico laughed at her, obviously Ingenuity: the quality of being clever, original, and inventive

Bao; He likes wisteria flowers, the purple variation (my fav colour)! I loved loved LOVED coloring these plants, but it feels the most empty out of all of them (Clem is all over the place lmao) but I also kinda like it. Like it reflects their personalities this way, like he's the most upkept in society (despite his utter lack of gardening knowledge). Apparently, American wisteria is a host plant to native butterflies and moths! Add that to another reason Luci likes Bao lol. I feel like anytime she comes to the tea shop, Bao would bring her to the garden he & Pico would be working on. And everytime he's show her the plants he managed on his own they'd be drooping and dying lmao. Bao would be so confused & Luci is just unsurprised. And yes, I did think of & look at the wisteria in demon slayer Versatility: the ability to adapt or be adapted to many different functions or activities

Clem; She likes (take 3 seconds to guess) citrus fruits!! Like her name. So I of course did citrus fruits, lemons & oranges. She has my FAVORITE pose, her reaching for the fruit while juggling some in her other arm is adorable. And of course that cute face of hers! Her plants are just EVERYWHERE & is the only one to touch the ends of the canvas (that I wanted to avoid but oh well, it didn't look good otherwise). Besides, it shows her big personality and chaotic energy children have. Apparently, they're sometimes called 'Christmas oranges' because they're in season in winter months. I thought that was interesting. Does Clem like the cold, Helli or does she despise it like Pico lol? Apparently, they are also those cuties or halos oranges I use to devour as a child lol. And because of said memory, I say that Clem does too. I like to think Luci learns to share, like a child, from Clem, a said child. Luci sells back people's stuff overpriced all the time, and only shares things with Repo. She obviously isn't sharing anything with Pico & she mainly hangs out with Bao at the tea shop so she only buys things. She stole Clem's fruits in front of her once. Let's just say a bunch of sad faces and crying, not only bleed her earholes, but made her feel bad (but she'll never admit it). Does she share things now? Kindaaaaa- no. No, not at all. Only Clem & Repo Affability: the quality of being friendly and easy to talk to

aaaand my inspo board just cuz I was going to draw Vera, I really was! (I was so FRICKIN EXCITED to draw the plant with the braided stock next to the pink flower) but... one look at her head and the pose I chose, I said "No."

Bao was already troubling enough I don't need to build up hate to a character I barely know & already like by getting frustrated with their head (again). So no Vera, Helli, sorrys. Her descriptor was going to be 'nobility' btw

GO CHECK OUT HELLI'S POST IT'S SO GOOD (sad) BUT AMAZING!

#helli's children #pico the possum #clementine the opossom #bao the tanuki #plant portraits #sorry Vera #maybe next time or whenever im bored and open this file again #i was excited to draw succulents & cacti but oh well #lightening the mood from the cloud of angst lol #to brighten your day Helli #& the sleep I hope youre getting #just don't hibernate- even though rabbits don't do that but still- #i've reread that post 20 times counting im not even joking #i swear i notice a new detail everytime from Pico's tears to Bao's hearing aid #to the trembling hands and the texture difference in Krangg Pico & past Pico's fur #beyond WAY beyond honored that you included Luci in it #Im over the moon (me ha) about it still; its stellar truly #you're literally amazing get loved idiot

[sombredancer]

How to be a more interesting character than the Main Hero (Pt.3)

Shangjue and his didi (pt.2/2)

Yuanzhi wants to save Shangjue from any kind of pain so badly, and not only because he feels guilt for brother's loss, but also because he is able to see brother's true personality: Shangjue is an invisible root of Gong tree.

When an assassin and didi have a conversation in the final part of the drama, she says that there are people, in front of whom Shangjue could be vulnerable, but Yanzhi smirks and says that the Martial World won`t allow it. And it happens to be true: he knows that Shangjue’s fiancée is an assassin and he knows that, no matter how much Shangjue is into her, she would not hesitate to kill him if she had a chance, so Shangjue`s soft spot for something (such as a woman he likes) would be his doom. But he needs to look invincible, because the whole clan counts on him and relies on him.

Because Shangjue is a root of Gong clan, everyone sees only thriving and green branches and beautiful flowers (which are wealth, power and secure of Gong clan), but no one sees that it wouldn`t be possible without a root, strong yet hidden under the soil (aka one hardworking man).

I often find the fate of Shangjue's type of heroes very unfair: a person unnoted takes care of everyone and is rewarded at the end only with sufferings and death. But this story is different, because Shangjue has got his didi, who doesn't care about world but eagerly takes care of him while he takes care of anything else. This scene was the second one during the drama that upset me a lot. I spoiled myself some shots of Yuanzhi crying over brother's body and I was sure he would die because he isn't fluffy and spotless enough to stay alive in Chinese drama. Fortunately, he didn't:

It works vice versa, too:

Yuanzhi is, I suppose, coded as someone like Asperger: he is kinda genius, he preferred insects and plants to people as he was a child, he couldn`t understand why people cry and felt uncomfortable with someone`s touching (he slipped out of Shangjue’s grip when Shangjue took his hand). And Shangjue did a great job socializing him.

Being an adolescent, Shangjue hadn`t problems with feeling expression. Things Shangjue taught his didi in a flashback are the opposite to those the Main Hero’s mum taught MH and to those Shangjue believes now. Shangjue told Yuanzhi that a man should cry because in that case someone would understand one's woe and this sympathizing could help to recuperate one's soul, but now he never cries in front of someone. However, Yuanzhi learned his lesson well and isn`t embarrassed to express his feelings freely.

I found this scene very weird (if not taking into account that the flower is obviously a red herring): the Main Hero and Shangjue both fancy girls, while didi fancies a magic flower. But later, as I finished the drama, I understood: didi fancies Shangjue the most. The unique and almost extinct flower isn`t some treasure for him, it matters only that this flower can save Shangjue`s life and increase his inner powers. The previous one was taken away from Shangjue, and Shangjue allowed it to happen, because his needs didn`t matter to him compared to prosperity of his clan. (Later, as we know, it was spent in vain by a villain, which made me feel terribly sorry for Shangjue). But his didi values him enough to try to take care of him once more (and for this time he has planted more than one, in order something would end up in Shangjue’s hands even if clansmen would need this flower, too. How smart of his!). And I like that his love is not in vain – Shangjue loves him, too, and believes him in any situation, and that warms my heart. I love their relationship a lot.

And the most vivid feeling that he freely demonstrates is a jealousy towards Shangjue’s fiancée (btw, I like that Shangjue understands it and pardons his tantrums):

"Go ahead, tell me what's on your mind." *opens his mouth to start talking* "Well, rather don`t. I can see it on your face." *smiles*

So, in the part 4 I will talk about Shangjue and her.

#cdrama #my journey to you #yun zhi yu #云之羽 #cheng lei #gong shangjue #丞磊 #mjty #gong shang jue #宫尚角 #gong yuanzhi #tian jia rui #田嘉瑞 #宫远徵 #SDaboutMJTY

[void-writing]

"Leaving so soon...?"

"Queen of the Mountain" Chapter 8

My interpretation of what it looked like for Shanzha--queen of our hearts, though not the mountain--hunted down a yellow-bellied chicken for sport :)

@centuryberry

(a few little details:

The design I made for Shanzha's fancy fit includes a pink sheer sash that's draped over her arms. Here, she's used it to tie back the long sleeves of her outfit so they didn't get in the way of her draw :) I took archery classes when I was younger, and one of the principles they drilled into us was that if you have long hair, you either tie it back or resign yourself to the likelihood of getting a chunk of your hair yanked out by the bowstring. I figured this principle would also apply to fancy clothes with elegant, flowing sleeves (Shanzha's hair is pulled back enough that she decided it was worth the risk to take the singular shot she needed without binding it further).

You can't really see it, sadly, but on the little seals at the ends of Shanzha's bow, I wrote out the (simplified) Chinese character for "ice". It's a small detail that sadly didn't render well, but it's there.

The flowers in Shanzha's hair are hellebore (the pink one on the viewer's right)--representing peace, serenity, and tranquility, though also anxiety, stress and scandal, which I think encapsulates Shanzha's otome game route AND her present life pretty well--and glory of the snow (the two blue ones on the viewer's left)--meaning hop, renewal, and resilience in the face of adversity, which I think also fits Shanzha's character pretty well, with the added bonus of it being a winter flower as a nod to the frigid climate she lived in before.

She also has archery bracers on her arms! For that detail, I also was calling upon my experience in archery class with this because these guards are meant to protect the archer's forearm from getting smacked by the bowstring. I had put one on Shanzha's left arm because it was more central and easier to see before tricking myself into thinking it wouldn't make sense for her to have an arm guard on the arm holding the bow (which was a whoops on my part because that's where you're supposed to put it. I guess I was mixing it up with the finger guard tab that you have on your draw hand) and so Shanzha has one on both.

This has the fun implication that Shanzha is an ambidextrous archer (say that five times fast), meaning she can draw on either side (another fun archery fact is that the arm you hold the bow with is determined by what your dominant hand and eye is. In my case, it was my left eye, so despite me being right handed, I used a left-handed bow. However, it's possible to use any bow, especially if it doesn't have an arrow shelf--the little hook an arrow can rest in as you line up your shot, which is frequently what determines if a bow is right or left handed (the arrow shelf being on the opposite side of what the name would imply, meaning a left-handed bow is held in your left and drawn with your right and vise-versa). Shanzha's doesn't, so it's an ambidextrous bow! It just happens that in the case of this image, she's firing left-handed because her quiver--and thus her draw hand--is on her right.

Art process notes:

I ended up only using like...2/3 of the canvas lol and didn't realize until I had already done up my line art. So that's why there's a big empty blue space in the bottom 1/3.

Rim lighting, my beloved.

I used two of the color palettes from @fantasy-angelo 's Yue reference in coloring Shanzha (Dreamscape and Heather House). I mostly tried to stick with a cooler color palette which I think helped make those gold accents pop.

I did a little concept sketch on a sticky note before actually buckling down to do it, but when I started with the line art, I decided to push the perspective and line of action more, which led to the wonderful little detail of Shanzha having her foot planted on Peng's back and her resting her right hand on her quiver.

(The sketch in question)

I kind of phoned it in a little with the ice and the metal armor highlights and used an airbrush to give it the glow effect, but I'm actually really happy with how it turned out regardless! Work smarter not harder lmao.

The waterfall behind Shanzha (aka, the entrance to Water Curtain Cave) was done with a watercolor brush. This was actually my first time painting a waterfall and I'm very pleased with how it looks! The foam at the base of the waterfall was, once again, an air brush (specifically a droplet one, which gave it that nice splattery particle effect). I liked how the waterfall looked spilling over the boarders, so I didn't erase it :3

And now, I leave you with a meme:

(I was originally going to have her hold her bow, but I didn't like how it looked so I changed it to the big ass knife Shanzha cut the lion's head meatball with)

#screaming from the void #my art #queen of the mountain #lego monkie kid #that ice took for fucking EVER but im pretty happy with it :) #i tried a lot of new things in this so im proud of myself

[harringtonstilinski]

Always The Babysitter - Chapter Twenty: The Case of the Missing Lifeguard

Author: @harringtonstilinski​ Characters: Steve Harrington x Olivia Henderson(OC) Word Count: 2,060 Warnings: fluff, Smut: no | yes; A/N: Hi, friends! If you like this chapter, please do not hesitate to reblog and give some feedback, whether it be in the reblogs, comments, or my inbox. As always, read at your own risk and enjoy 😊

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As always, I went to Steve’s house for the night after dropping Dustin off back home. I had changed into my pajamas when I got to his house. 

Standing at the bathroom sink now, I was brushing my teeth when I watched Steve come into view, wrapping his arms around my middle before resting his chin on my shoulder.

“Yes?” I mumbled, mouth full of toothpaste. 

“Can’t I just watch my beautiful girlfriend brush her teeth?” he asked.

I leaned my head back against his shoulder, continuing my brushing. Once I felt my teeth were cleaned enough, I leaned forward to spit the foam from my mouth before rinsing, Steve brushing his when I moved out of the way. 

When he was through, we walked back to his room, where we crawled into bed. I sighed, placing my head on his chest. “I’m so tired.” I looked up at him, eyebrows furrowed. “Steve?”

His eyes were closed, mouth slightly ajar, light snores coming from him. I smiled a little to myself, placing my head back down on his chest, closing my own eyes and falling fast asleep.

~~~

I didn’t need to rush to get dressed and back to the house since Steve followed me and Dustin back home last night, where I dropped off our mom’s car before getting into Steve’s. I went with Steve to the mall so that he could open the store, Robin coming in a few minutes later.

Dustin also came back to Scoops. I guess he biked his way here. What confused me about seeing Dustin was the fact that he had his binoculars with him. I mean… what? He’d asked me to come with him and Steve on a stakeout, looking for a Russian dude.

“This is stupid,” I said, squatting behind a plant by the Chinese place in the food court. Looking back at it for a moment before turning my sights back to Steve and Dustin, I whined, “This is making me hungry!”

Ignoring me, Dustin asked Steve, “You see anything?”

“Uh, I guess I don’t totally know what I’m looking for,” Steve said, looking around through the binoculars.

“Evil Russians,” Dustin said matter-of-factly.

“Yeah, exactly, I don’t know what an evil Russian looks like.”

“Tall, blond, not smiling.”

“Mhmmm,” I said, sitting on my knees between them. “Look for earpieces, too.”

“Camo, duffel bags, that sort of thing,” Dustin added.

“Right, okay, duffel bags,” Steve noted, still looking through those damn binoculars for a moment before he whispered, “Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me. Baby, look at this.”

He handed me the binoculars, the neck strap still around his neck as I put them to my face and said, “Oh, my gosh.”

“What?” Dustin asked.

“Anna Jacobi’s talking to that freaking meathead Mark Lewinsky,” I said. 

“Liv, if you’re not gonna focus, just gimme the binoculars.”

“Whatever fucking happened to damn standards?”

“Lewinsky never even came off the bench,” Steve added.  

“You two are the worst spies in history, ya’know that?” Dustin said.

I was watching Lewinsky miming a shot for a basket when the binoculars were pulled from my hands, Steve saying, “Stop. Hey, stop.”

“Besides, I don’t even get why you’re looking for girls,” Dustin said. “You’ve got one right beside you.”

“Thanks, Dustin,” I deadpanned.

“Your sister just so happens to be in the ballpark of where my type is,” Steve said.

“Oh, you mean, funny, anti-social, clumsy, bit of a bitch at times–”

“You’re not–”

“Awww, thanks,” I said, sarcastically.

Gesturing towards me, Steve said, “Sarcastic.”

“Will you two get a room?” Dustin asked. “But, now that you’re both out of high school, which means you’re both technically adults, don’t you think it’s time you both moved on from the primitive construct such as popularity?”

“Oh, primitive constructs?” Steve said. “That some stupid shit you learned at Camp… Know… Nothing?”

“Camp Know Where, actually,” Dustin said. “And, no, it’s shit I learned from life.”

“You telling Steve to stop caring about his popularity is like telling me to quit graphic tees and Converses,” I said. “It just won’t happen. You can’t fix something that isn’t broken.”

“Yeah, uh-huh. Liv, instead of dating somebody you think is gonna make you cooler, why not date someone you actually like being around?”

I opened my mouth in shock. “You little asshole! I do like being around Steve!”

“I was using that as an example.”

“Oh.”

“Like me and Suzie.”

“Oh, Suzie,” Steve and I said. “You mean, hotter than Phoebe Cates.”

“Yeah, that Suzie,” Steve continued. “And, uh, let’s think about how exactly did you score that beautiful girlfriend? Oh, yeah. With my advice. Because that’s how this works, Henderson.”

I looked at him like please, continue.

“I give you the advice, you follow through. Not the other way around, pea-brain.”

“Watch it, Harrington,” I said. “No one calls him names except for me.”

~~~

Dustin was still trying to find his evil Russian, so I decided to treat myself to the Chinese food behind us. I had just walked back to him and Steve when he said, “Target acquired.”

“Where?” Steve asked, taking the takeout box from my hand.

“Hey!” I exclaimed as he took a bite of my chow mein.

“Ten o’clock, Sam Goody’s,” Dustin said.

“Give me that,” Steve said, taking Dustin’s binoculars. “Shit. Duffel bag.”

I looked around, seeing the person they acquired. Snickering, I said, “Oh, no.”

They looked at each other, both saying, “Evil Russian,” before they both stood up, Steve grabbing my elbow gently to guide me along.

We climbed the escalators, people dodging us as I said, “Excuse us. Sorry.” When we made it to the landing, Steve tried booking it to stay as close as possible to this dude, dodging in between crowds of people.

“Babe, slow down,” I said, taking a small bite of food.

“We’re losing him,” Steve said.

“You’re getting too close,” Dustin said.

Since I had looked down at my noodles to take another bite, I felt myself being moved out of the way, a “Watch it, dickwad,” following.

The guy went to turn around as Steve turned me in front of a plant, kissing me as he did so. It was just a simple kiss, but I wanted it to last longer than what it did. He turned his head away from me as he said, “We’ll finish that later,” before grabbing my hand to pull me along behind him and Dustin.

We hid behind a mall map, a smile on my face as I was finally able to get to eat some of my food. I stood next to them, watching the dude walk into the Jazzercise store, a small grin on my face as he did so.

“Alright, everyone, listen up!” the guy said, unzipping his duffle bag, revealing a boom box. “I just have one question for you.” He took off his sunglasses before dragging the big box out of the bag, asking, “Who… is ready to sweat?”, the women in the store cheering.

“That’s right! Okay, let’s start it nice and easy,” the guy added, taking off his black windbreaker jacket.

I looked over at the boys, trying not to laugh as they looked at the ladies doing Jazzercise; Steve gawking, and Dustin looking horrified.

My little brother looked at me, asking, “You find this amusing?”

“Heck yes! You two were tailing a Jazzercise instructor,” I chuckled.

“Wait, you knew?” 

I nodded, chewing my bite of food. “I took a few classes when the mall first opened.”

Steve turned his head towards my direction, my eyes shifting up to meet his. “And you didn’t tell me?”

I shrugged. “You were working.” I took my last bite of food as I turned back in the direction we came, heading back to Scoops, the two of them having a conversation as we walked back. 

Once we actually made it back, Steve said, “Yo, Robin, you’re not gonna believe who Dustin thought was a Russian.”

“You did, too,” Dustin said.

“No, I did not.”

Robin ran in between me and Dustin, an “excuse me, Liv,” coming from her as she did.

Curious, I ran after her, wanting to know if everything was okay. When I saw her in the middle of the food court, I said, “Robin, you okay?”

“What are you doing?” Steve asked.

“I cracked it,” she said.

“Cracked what?” 

She hoped down from her stand on the ledge. “I cracked the code.”

I was so freaking happy, I squealed and gave her a hug, pulling away as I laughed. “I can’t believe you did it!”

~~~

I looked over at Steve, raincoat on my back with the hood on my head. “I’m going to murder you.”

“Look for Imperial Panda and Kaufman Shoes,” Robin said over the rain.

I watched Steve push his hair back some out of his face, wet in all its glory. “You look good wet,” I whispered.

Have I ever been turned on by Steve? Yes. Have I or we done anything about it? Partially. Seeing Steve wet from the rain was doing things to me that I didn’t want to act upon with Dustin sitting next to him.

“They’re with that whistling guy, ten o’clock,” Dustin said. He was looking through his binoculars.

Turning my head to look away from my handsomely good-looking boyfriend, I saw a couple boxes with a panda on it. The same panda that was on my takeout box from earlier.

“What do you think’s in there?” Steve asked.

“Guns, bombs,” Dustin and I said.

“Chemical weapons?” Robin added.

“Whatever it is, they’re armed to the teeth,” Dustin said.

I winced and moved closer to Steve as a loud thunderclap sounded above us, watching as he rubbed his eyes with his fingers before putting his arm around me as he said, “Great. That’s great.”

Two doors opened, a shit ton more boxes being shown.

“Hey,” Robin said. “What’s in there?”

“It’s just more boxes,” Dustin said.

I felt Steve move as he said, “Let me check it out.”

“No, I’m still looking.”

I guess they were fighting over the binoculars as Steve said, “Lemme see it,” before he stood slightly, Dustin saying, “Hang on!” before a very loud thud sounded.

Not wanting to get caught, I quickly turned around, pressing my back to the top of the building, the back of my head against the ledge we were just leaning on.

Both of my hands were being held; my left by Steve, and my right by Robin.

“We need to get off this roof before we die,” I said, turning my head back and forth to Steve and Robin.

We quietly went to the roof access door, surprisingly opening it quietly before heading down the steps, somehow dodging the Russian.

Walking down the hallway, Robin said, “Well, I think we found your Russians.”

~~~

When Steve and I got back to his house, we took a shower… together. There wasn’t anything sexual about it, more… intimate and romantic, I guess would be the words. We took turns washing each other’s hair before I washed his chest and back, letting him wash his own legs. I turned around so that he could wash my back before he let me wash my own legs.

When we were both done, we dried off and got dressed before we started brushing our teeth. Grabbing my brush, I went to start brushing my hair, but Steve stopped me, grabbing the brush from my hand and doing it for me.

“Wow, Harrington,” I mused. “This is a different side of you I’ve never seen before.”

“What?” he asked.

“All… domestic and shit.” I smiled. “It’s nice. I like it.”

“A side for only you to see.” He kissed my shoulder, continuing the strokes on my hair.

We stayed up for a little while longer to let my hair fully dry. I was reading a book when I noticed Steve looking at me from the corner of my eye. Turning to look at him, I asked, “What?”

Putting his own book down, he looked at me after removing his glasses and said in the softest voice, “Read to me.”

I smiled as I turned my back to him a little, relaxing on his side, his arm around me. As I started reading, I couldn’t help but feel that four letter word even more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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A/N 2:  hi, friends! pls be kind and reblog! it really helps us content creators out <3

Additional Note:

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Posted on March 11, 2024

#steve harrington x olivia henderson #steve olivia #steve harrington x oc #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington #olivia henderson (oc) #stevia #always the babysitter #atb #dustin henderson #will byers #lucas sinclair #eleven hopper #mike wheeler #nancy wheeler #jonathan byers #max mayfield #billy hargrove #joyce byers #chief jim hopper #season three epsiode three #original character #home slice olivia was all me #stranger things fandom #steve harrington imagine #steve harrington fanfic #steve harrigton fanfiction

[pillowbo]

I have sadly absorbed so much of that "write when you don't want to" "writing is discipline not fun" crap that I began to associate writing as something I have to do so I stopped because I can't make myself do anything.

My brain will just shut down due to demand avoidance. The message that I have to do something is the antithesis of what I need to succeed much less to find that it's even worth doing.

I have started writing again because it doesn't feel like I HAVE to do it and even though it's just trashy smut drabbles they were written with true passion that I haven't felt for a very long time.

For some people, telling them they need discipline is the last thing you should ever say to them, or indeed yourself if you're anything like me and your brain shuts down like a TV that lost its signal at even the implication of a demand.

PDA autism is such a difficult thing to understand until you figure out that at the heart of it is the drive to be in control, which I cannot be no matter what when a thing feels like a requirement.

Yes, even when it's me telling myself I need to do something. Yes, even when I want to do that thing. Telling myself I just need to power through it was the hugest fucking mistake because that message to my brain is anathema and it DOES NOT WORK.

It doesn't mean I'm lazy. It doesn't mean I'm this disgusting human being who just doesn't care enough to try. It means that I'm neurodivergent so certain motivators that may help many neurotypical people are disabling for me.

I have the passion. I have the bravado. I have the scenes burning through my mind. I told myself that I needed to write them and it all came to an ass-grinding halt, and I could keep saying I needed to write until I was blue in the face and it did not matter.

I couldn't squeeze a sentence out no matter how many times I repeatedly closed and opened my document until I eventually gave up, my day ruined.

I crawled into bed and the second "I need to write" left my head, BAM, wild dreams about my characters. Holy shit that was awesome! Holy shit I need to wri-wash, rinse, repeat.

The subconscious portion of me, or whatever the fuck I guess is the greater version of me, the completely beautifully feral part of me that is one hundred percent credited for all of that filthy smut I wrote when I stopped "needing to write" has its claws hooked in my ass, and it will dig its heels in and resist demands at all costs.

My brain is like a Chinese finger trap. I have needlessly pulled, and believe me I've pulled hard, over and over with "just do it" motivational speakers and TED Talks, none of which ultimately planted my ass in a chair to finish a novel despite that those hours sunk into watching YouTube were quite entertaining.

Even when I DESPERATELY want to do something, the second I feel internally like it's a requirement my brain will go nope sorry man, then go blue screen of death, and I'm stuck there in limp noodle mode completely unable to cut through the static.

It has made me want to scream in frustration because I didn't understand my own brain and I inadvertently rendered myself INCAPABLE, not unwilling to, do what I want to do more than anything, WRITE.

You know where the pain stems from? It's not a lack of discipline. It's years of trying to change and praying that I could change something completely immutable inside of me.

And you know what? Knowing now that no amount anything can ever "fix me" and that I can never change freed me and healed my soul. I can't fit in the round hole, and I realize that now to my sweet relief, that it's a fucking beautiful thing.

All of which to say writing will never be a requirement for me, and I will never be disciplined or determined or any of that bullshit again. I will write whatever I want, whenever I want, and if I never want to write again then I will never write again.

The End.

#i wrote this because i wanted to #not because i had to #radical acceptance #pda autistic #pda autism #autistic #autism #authors #writers #writer on the spectrum #pervasive drive for autonomy #demand avoidance #autism acceptance #neurodivergent #neurodiverse #nerodiversity #autistic spectrum #autism spectrum

[aguinhaac]

Well, the new ecological miracle episode has just been released, you know what that means~

Today we will be reviewing the shortest miraculous special until now, Miraculous season 5 episode Action.

Let’s see what they did with the episode with the concept of one of the few kwamis I still like.

We start the episode with Marinette and Adrien driving to Luka’s boat house, and we know the episode is good when the animation looks like this

They didn’t even try.

Nino calls them in because he has some important news which is that people were throwing trash in the sena river and it was going to the ocean.

Nino: if no one handle the plastic problem, who will?

the show spent 1:14 minutes without throwing the lesson in our face, that’s a record!

And really, I really don't like it when people have an eco episode and just have the main characters, I think it's much better to have the main characters help the background characters protest, clean up, plant a fucking tree, or whatever whatever they're doing, it helps the scene feel more organic, when it's just a bunch of teenagers doing something, it looks like the characters are just Mary Sues because, you know how many environmental groups? Very little, so yeah, a bunch of kids would be able to get the whole fucking town to participate.

Well, anyways let's give a look at the group's plan.

WTF-

THEY CONVERTED THE HOUSE BOAT INTO AN ECOLOGICAL WATER TREATMENT PLAN? HOW? WHERE DID THEY GET THE MONEY TO DO IT? AND WHAT ABOUT THAT THERES PEOPLE LIVING THERE? THOSE THINGS ARE NOISY, HOW IS ANYONE GOING TO SLEEP? AND WHAT IF IT IS TOO HEAVY FOR THE BOAT? IT WILL SINK AND YOUR FRIEND JULEKA WILL BE HOMELESS, actually, DID LUKA’S MOM AGREED WITH IT? IS THIS EVEN LEGAL

AND I’M NOT EVEN GONNA MENSION HOW THE FUCK DID THEY BUILD THIS.

Well, they teach the little kids that plastic doesn’t decompose easily and there I already saw the thing was for little babies that don’t know the basic and I lost all hope this episode would be at least decent.

the boat starts to shake and they go to check what is happening and we find out that a large increase of plastic coming from… fans vending machines….. so, people can cool off…. Ugh, first of all, who buys fans that aren’t for decoration? people to buy AIR CONDITIONERS OR FANS (the not Chinese one) did Astruc ever used a Chinese fan? Those things the more you shake it, the more your arm hurts, second, really? Vending machines? The problem isn’t people putting plastic on everything even if they don’t need to, and after that not discarding it properly, the biggest problem with plastic in the ocean is fans? And third aren’t fans made out of like paper? Or like this super light material? There are some fans made out of plastic but this looks like a paper fan.

How much do you bet they just put that the biggest treat is vending machines so they cannot work at all on how to resolve the conflict and make an ending that doesn’t make sense?

Well because there was too much plastic everyone evacuates and the ship explodes… yes. the ship fucking exploded.

So Juleka IS homeless now, all plastic does to a ship is making it get stuck, and showed to us What overheated was the engine, so what caused the boat to explode and what caused it to clog, SO WHO'S FAULT IS THAT? WHO’S FAULT IS IT THAT JULEKA IS NOW HOMELESS HUH? WHO’S FAULT IS THAT?

Juleka and Anarka just accept they don’t have a home now and Nino tells Adrien to talk tp his dad.

Adrien: you know how my father is, he won’t listen!

Marinette: what if we try to resolve this another way? By going to the root of the problem,

Ok that was kinda creepy, Marinette what are you doing to do? MARINETTE WHAT WILL YOU DO TO THE VENDING MACHINES? MARINETTE NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

All joke’s aside, Marinette asks her dad if she and her friends can pick up the bakery supplements which he says yes so, they rush their way to there.

They get the boxes and Marinette asks if they can see the new character they made for the special only and after that will be forgotten even if he could be important, you know? As always, his name is plastic king but I’ll just call him “the boss”

The guy then shows they were the boss lives and- Marinette is gonna break into his house huh? At this point I’m not even surprised.

Nino makes everyone disguise themselves but they are immediately discovered, but Marinette uses her main protagonist powers and they’re able to pass the staff.

So, they reach the boss

Bro looks like that one villain from the Gnomeu & Julieta movie

Well, they make a little presentation about plastic which really, it's short but I really liked it they didn't demonize plastic, but instead said that plastic IS important for our society and that we shouldn't just stop producing it, instead they say that people buy thing and throw them away right after, putting the blame not in the company but in the people, which surprised me, EXPECIALY for a miraculous, I actually think that's the better portrait of taking care of our planet In a kids show I've ever seen.

The boss explains that this of people buying and throwing it away so they can buy more is design like that and nothings gonna change, RIGHT BEFORE SHOWING ALL WE HAVE IS MADE OF PLASTIC DEMONIZING IT AGAIN AND MAKE MY COMPLIMENT USELESS, CONGLATULATIONS SHOW

The group then fuck off out of the guy’s office and Marinette has the idea to go talk to the mayor, how did Marinette without Zoe’s help was able to have a face to face with the mayor I don’t know but oh well.

Andre: But Parisians love the fans my young friend, remove the vending machines installed by the hall across Paris

Marinette: Would make it possible to reduce pollution

Andre: But it would be very damaging to my image

That’s the character that in the end of season 5 we were supposed to be rutting for, and being happy he was able to stay with the nice daughter and his dream job, THIS GUY.

Adrien demonizes plastic to his dad but without success he fucks off.

Marinette then tries to ask Nadja to talk about it in her program but apparently the boss controls the tv channel, and it’s kinda of a bad choice to make a character you’re gonna throw away later such an important person.

We than have a time skip where everyone is now in…. Luka’s boat house….

For the miraculous theorist, I think we can safely conclude, Anarka is fucking rich.

Anyways the group + the people from the around the world special proceed to help max HACK NADJA TV PROGRAM.

WTF? WHY? ARE IN THAT “Just Stop Oil” ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST GROUP? Is the show really influencing that these crazy people are doing the right thing? THEY HACKED A GOD DAMMIT TV SHOW, JUST MAKE THE CHARACTERS THINK THERE’S NO HOPE LEFT, BUT THEM THEY ENTER IN A NOT CRAZY ACTIVIST GROUP AND THE MESANGE WOULD BE DELIVERDED, DON’T GIVE FUEL TO THESE PEOPLE!

We than have one of the most nonsensical scenes of this show. Don’t believe in me? Let me show you.

Firstly, Nino is pointing a camera at the group which means he is doing a live

But we have video of the boat they’re in, underwater shot (which is just the most beautiful water I've ever seen) UK (probably) shot. Japan and NY shots.

Throwing away a perfectly good fan that could be reused when the whole special is LITTEREALY ABOUT RECYCLING

This thing being a worldwide thing but Marinette and Adrien don’t know about them.

The fact that even after being haked the tv show the executives said to Nadja say good things about those idiots.

“nAtUrAlLy I WaS nOt aWaRe oF tHiS, BuT aS sOoN aS i WaS InFoRmEd I hAd EvErY MoRtAl FaN mAcHinE ReMoVeD fRoM PaRiS”

DO YOU SEE MY POINT?

Anyways we see a scene of the boss screaming to Gabriel on his alliance ring that he lied and that Gabriel knew the fans were polluted, again, Gabriel is a character we were supposed to like in the end of season 5.

Well, the boss gets mad and monarch Akumatizes him into king of plastic.

First of all, this doesn't look like plastic, it looks like he's made of candy, THOSE THINGS ON HIS SHOULDERS ARE JELLY BEANS AND NO ONE CAN TELL ME OTHERWISE, I can understand why his skin is pink, his logo is basically just pink, but why black? It doesn't feel like plastic either, and what's with his feet? He has these blisters that look like he's having an allergic reaction or something, and why is his weapon a sword? I understood that when Karami and Tomoe's weapons were a sword, they were linked to swordsmanship, but why is his weapon a sword? Let's be real, the producers just gave him a sword to make him look cool, ok for the things I liked, I liked his crown. It's shaped like a king's chess crown, the design is creative and I liked the look of its lower parts like the lower parts of a doll.

Well, I think I will give him A 5.8/10 I don't know if just making him a gigant version of his logo would be better, no I was just kidding- it's just a joke- please don't do that PLEASE NO NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Monarch gives him the bee powers and KOP (plastic king) rushes to paralyze the mayor and we see what his powers are about, he turns people into plastic, ok that's actually a good power, it kind of reminds me of the villains from season 2, do you remember season two? When was the show good? And did we have character development? I miss that too.

He transforms the police in plastic and decides to go to the Agreste mansion.

Marinette and Adrien while Adrien was teaching Marinette how to say hi in mandarin, like the language her mom is fluent, and that Sabrine would teach her how to say at least a “Hello”? anyways they both see the Akuma so Adrien leaves her house and they both transform.

KOP transforms the gorilla in plastic so the writers can have the heroes know his powers and that he’s dangerous just for the heroes to not care about that and attack him without thinking twice, but relax guys he just throws them, phew for a moment I thought they wouldn’t do it.

He transforms chat’s staff and well-done king. He doesn’t deserve his staff, or his powers, OR HIS STANS, THAT REFERENCE WAS HORRIBLE I SHOULD JUST SHUT UP.

Ladybug: you’re the tycoon who makes all these polluting fans! The king of plastic, aren’t you?

Chat: the king of pollution you mean.

KOP: miss information, plastic is fantastic!

Ladybug: fantastic would be you ending your reign and all the pollution you’re causing!

Ugh, another show to demonize plastic, actually I think I didn’t said what demonizing plastic is, demonize plastic is put all the fault of plastic pollution in the plastic bottle or the company that made it, and say that the companies should be ashamed of that and they should stop producing plastic, first, we NEED plastic, it became an essential part of our lives, the computer the miraculous teem made this episode is made of plastic, the tv the mlb fans watch It is made out of plastic, everyone has multiple things made out of plastic, the problem isn’t making plastic, the problem is and not recycling it, and not re-using it. and is it the company fault? Me and my family used to travel a lot, and every time we got thirsty, we would buy a water bottle just so when runned out, they threw it away and buy another one, and then I ask you, who fault? The companies or my family’s? but shows tend to just throw all the blame at the companies and forget that we are the ones using it once and throwing it away, but really, I knew since the beginning of the episode they would demonize plastic.

Well KOP go to Luka’s boat house to take revenge on the kids, but ladyboob and cat noar show up to stop him, ladybug then activates her lucky charm which is a plastic bag.

They realize that the plastic bag can’t be turned into plastic because it is already made of plastic so ladybug comes up with a plan.

Alya tells the group to turn on the boat plastic collector system, so chat noir cataclysms the engine, which makes the boat explode in trash again, how many times is Juleka gonna get homeless in one episode?

Well, KOP Drowns in the most beautiful trash I've ever seen and that the MLB producers totally didn't just download from the internet.

Ladybug breaks the sword and purify the Akuma.

The boss: what am I doing here? This is disgusting, aren’t you gonna help me?

Ladybug: this is exactually what millions of sea animals are going through around the world.

Chat noir: and they don’t always have a super hero to offer a helping hand and save them.

The boss: you just covered me in a pile of trash woman, its not my fucking fault people are throwing trash at the sea I just sell plastic, Jesus Christ could you help me I can’t fucking move.

I wish he said it, ok here’s what he actually said.

The boss: ok maybe plastic isn’t always so fantastic.

Aaaaand they rushed the conclusion so that everything would end up in a happy ending, I warned ya.

Ladybug gives him a magical charm so he can remember he got one of the most rushed character developments in history.

We have a scene showing that now everything’s ok, everyone is using the kids’ ideas and tomorrow everyone will forget about recycling and everything will go back to how it was. And that’s where the episode ends.

Ok this episode is not very good.. it’s not the worst thing I’ve ever seen still it isn’t good, there’s a lot of conveniences, the animation is worst than usual, even if I liked the villain, I must say his powers were used billions of times, I liked they give more screen time to the fight though.

The episode was generic and I’m almost sure they made the episode just for 1: people go “oh they are so nice!” so they can cover up the racist (intentional or not) in the show. and 2: for sell merch of Marinette’s water bottle for 65 bucks each.

The message was very over the top, and they didn’t do much to try make something original out of it, they just made a check list with every single trope they use in cartoons ecological episodes and made it, and it looks like they didn’t care to much about logic, that thing in Lukas’s boat house was totally illegal and dangerous, the group just found the boss office because a random dude that worked for him showed them without thinking twice, they can just get into places they shouldn’t be able to and it doesn’t even make sense, they resolve all their problems via hacking a channel network, which doesn’t make sense and even if they were able to do it there are billions of tv ads about recycling and they never get attention, I know it’s a kid show but couldn’t they make the characters say “this fight won’t be easy, but we are gonna fight for a better world, are you with us?” it would be better in my opinion.

The characters literally hacked a network, break into a dude’s office and there’s just no consequences, I know it was for a good cause but still. it looks like the writers knew it was a filler episode and didn’t care about researching any of it, if they did, they would know that MOST BAKERIES USE PAPER BAGS, OR THAT FANS AREN’T MADE OF PLASTIC, OR THAT YOU CAN’T DO A LIVE SHOWING ANOTHER CONTRY IN REAL TIME.

Over all if you enter in this side this episode because a mess, but if you just watch the episode, it isn’t too bad.

And a fun fact this episode was made without Astruc, “but AC, if you think the episode was shitty why does it matter to you?” well my dear summer child, let me tell you, first of, I always thought if the miraculous team could do an episode without Astruc telling them what to do it would be just the best episode of mlb, and after the awakening movie that theory just confirmed itself from me, but no, it wasn’t, not even close.

And because I loved that they didn’t use Chloe in the episode, I bet all my life savings that if Astruc worked on the production Chloe would appear and say something like “ WhO EvEn cArEs AbOuT nAtUrE?” or make Andre seem a nice guy who just wants the best for his city and that totally wasn’t corrupt, so at least that a good thing about this episode.

Anyways I’ll give this episode a 6/10. Thank you for reading until the end, hope I’ll see you in the next post.

#miraculous ladybug #mlb #miraculous #ml #miraculous salt #mlb salt #mlb sucks #miraculous ladybug salt #ml salt #miraculous season 5 #mlb s5 spoilers #mlb season 5 spoilers #mlb season 5 #miraculous spoilers #action special #action spoilers

[nikofortuna]

JTTW Chapter 14 Thoughts

Chapter 14 for the @journeythroughjourneytothewest Reading Group! Another nature heavy one! Potential TW: under the cut is a parasitic plant that kind of looks like yellow spiderwebbing or something similar.

Though first a little by the by as I have mentioned before I actually prefer this aspect of the German translation, which translates Xin as heart instead of mind.

Anyway it’s flower symbolism time! Wisterias in Buddhism stand for humility and reflection, which is very fitting for our monkey to be overgrown by under the mountain.

Additionally if we go with the saying ‘somebody has something coming out of his ears’ which means that someone had enough of something, the detail of those flowers growing out of Sun Wukong’s ears is even more fitting. Though I’m not sure if it’s the same in English, but that’s how the saying goes in German.

Wisterias are also very pretty and grow very abundantly which is just a gorgeous sight to behold.

However there is actually some discrepancy found between translations about which plants grow out of his ears and growing on the mountain for that matter.

In the German translation the “creepers and vines” are actually specific plants. The first is called creeping fig or climbing fig (ficus pumila or 薜 bì), which is also the one mentioned in the J.F. Jenner translation.

They can grow to cover entire surfaces too! Like this wall for example.

Dodder or amarbel or how I like to call them ‘forbidden spaghetti’ (cuscuta or 蘿 luó) is the second one.

They have little flowers too.

Those two plants stand for eremitic life in Chinese symbolism. As that note is citing the Chinese characters, I’m inclined to take this for the accurate translation.

Regardless both plants function equally well in terms of symbolism in my opinion.

Continuing with translation shenanigans “axe or drill” in the Anthony C. Yu translation is “axe or chisel” in both other translations, which sounds more natural to me. Though “drill” does bring to my mind a funny little picture of Tang Sanzang with a hard hat and a handheld drill trying to drill away the mountain above Sun Wukong.

Checking out the original Chinese with Google translate I’ve also come across something interesting. 斧鑿 fǔzáo when separated from the rest just gets translated to “axe + chisel”, but together with the full section it gets translated as “axe to chisel” instead. However when translated as part of the complete speech it’s just “But I don't have an axe.”

“Only when he […] saw the handsome features of Tripitaka” an early instance of Tang Sanzang looks having a greater influence on people.

Love to see Sun Wukong getting along with people!

A little side note because I just find it to be a really cute detail regarding the whole “sugar man or honey man”, in the German translation specific sweets are mentioned because they start with the same letter. I just think that’s neat.

I love when a bit of Slice of Life is sprinkled in and attention to detail is paid for everyday things, I hope we see some more in the future!

Ah, the first time Tang Sanzang falls from his horse.

I must admit that the names of the six bandits are more straightforward and easier to understand in the J.F. Jenner and German translation. For the J.F. Jenner translation specifically they are translated as “Eye−seeing Happiness, Ear−hearing Anger, Nose−smelling Love, Tongue−tasting Thought, Mind−born Desire, and Body−based Sorrow”. This also makes the reactions of them easier to understand as they are actually matched to one bandit each! “This made the bandits happy, angry, loving, thoughtful, desirous, and sorrowful respectively” as in the J.F. Jenner translation again. It barely comes across that those are matched in the Anthony C. Yu translation.

The bit about monks looking out even for insects is very sweet! Especially since I am a moth enjoyer, they are so fluffy and adorable.

Shigong’s shoe-based shenanigans made me briefly try to link it to Cinderella. Journey to the West is known for starting a bunch of tropes, so it makes sense my brain would try to link it with a lot of stuff, but Cinderella is probably not related. A humorous thing to imagine still.

Closing this post with another note on Tang Sanzang. Ohoho so our dear monk is able to lie. And right after telling Sun Wukong that a monk should not lie as well. He has flaws! Very neat, I quite like that actually. Character development will be something very interesting to keep an eye out for.

#xiyouji #journey to the west #jttw #tang sanzang #sun wukong #jttw reading group #jttw book club #wisteria #climbing fig #dodder

[littleeyesofpallas]

can you do Bleach Name game for ichigo's friends in Karakura Town?

Ya know it's weird that i haven't done it already... I kinda thought I had, honestly. Yeah, let me resurrect this long dead series of posts...

Inoue Orihime[井上 織姫] read most literally as something like "Well+Top"(as in the top of a well(for water)) and "Weaving+Princess" but of course the name Orihime is just taken directly from the mythological figure behind the tanabata festival. It's possible the name Inoue in that context could be used to reference the Well Mansion, one of 28 categories of constellations in Chinese astronomy. Although in Tanabata Orihime refers to the star Vega, which as far as I can tell is not part of the Well Mansion.

In any case, the myth of Orihime and Hikoboshi was the basis of Kubo's original Bleach one-shot, which itself got reworked into the plot with her brother Sora, the hollow Acidwire. Ichigo lost prettymuch all of his associated hikoboshi themes in the transition from the one-shot to the serial title, so her name is kind of vestigial. The one lingering detail that was never built on was how her rejection powers were said to verge on the territory of god, and in the tanabata myth Orihime is the daughter of Tantei[天帝]:"Heaven Emperor" one of several epithets for the Jade Emperor, a figure hailed as a human ascended to immortal, the First God, and a supreme ruler over other gods. But despite that very slight thematic alignment, she was never given any divine origins.

Her bother, Inoue Sora[井上昊] reads, "Well+Top" and "Sky/Heaven," where Sora[昊] is a synonym with Ten/Ama[天]: "Sky/heaven" and both a synonym and homonym with sora[空]: "sky/heaven/void." (And it's a bit of a tangent, but that last one is the same word Kubo uses in the name Kuukaku[空鶴], Karakura town[空座町], and when Aizen says, Ten no za no kuuhaku[天の座の空白]: "The Throne of Heaven is Empty.") He was a rewritten from what was originally Orihime's late grandfather in the one-shot, which aligned more obviously with the father Heaven King role of myth.

Sado Yasutora[茶渡 泰虎] I think I've mentioned before, reads "Tea+Ferry" and "Peaceful+Tiger" which just seems to literally describe him as an immigrant(traded over on a boat, like tea) and as a gentlegiant type. It's also very possible Kubo just wanted to nickname him "Chad" and found a name he could squeeze into that, rather than worry about the meaning of the name first.

Arisawa Tatsuki[有沢 竜貴] I don't really know how to parse part of her surname here, "Posession/Existence+Swamp" seems to be the literal breakdown? It's also just an actual surname people have, as is Inoue --Sado by comparison however, is not. In any case, her personal name is "Dragon+Noble/<indicator of high rank or status>." This is why she and Orihime get a paired Princess and Dragon motif.

Asano Keigo[浅野 啓吾] reads "Superficial+Rustic/Unsophisiticated" and "Disclose+Me" basically just calling him surface level, simple, and open. He's exactly what it says on the label. Can be read like an open book. Then there's his sister...

Asano Mizuho[浅野 みづ穂] and her name is the phonetic MIDZU+"the ear of a plant/head of a spear/tip of a brush." There are kanji that could go with that but for one, I'm not just gonna take blind stabs, and besides if Kubo had wanted to ascribe obvious meaning to it, he'd have done so. No idea what to make of that one. Considering she's extremely minor and secondary to an already minor character at that, I'm willing to bet he just picked it to be aesthetically pleasing.

Kojima Mizuiro[小島 水色]: "Little+Island" "Water+Color," that is of course as in "Color (of) Water" and not to "water color paints," those have a different name entirely in Japanese. I don't know that his name really says much about him, but considering a lot of weird little details of his fairly minimal appearances across the series, I have my own crackpot theories about Mizuiro, but this isn't the time or place...

Honshou Chizuru[本匠 千鶴]: "Book+Artisan" and "1,000+Crane(s)" the association of paper craft and cranes points pretty obviously to origami, and 1,000 origami cranes (senbazura[千羽鶴]) which evokes a meaning of longevity and recovery from illness. Also the Bookishness vibe seems to be evoked in her general glasses girl design.

Kunieda Ryou[国枝 鈴]: "Country+Branch" and "(Small)Bell." "County" like a "nation/kingdom," not like "rural" as in Asano's name. The small bell evokes a clear but subtle ring, which is kind of reflected in her quiet and intelligent demeanor.

Ogawa Michiru[小川みちる] "MICHIRU" is phonetic so no attributed meaning, but her surname just means "brook/stream" (lit."Small+River") a very on the nose nod to her diminutive size. I never noticed until now but she always has different sheet music notation hairpins.

Natsui Mahana[夏井 真花]: "Summer+Well" (again, like with Inou, the structure you fish water out of, not the adverb) and "Pure/Genuine+Flower." She's an extremely minor character so I don't see there really being much overt meaning to this. Summer seems to evoke her tan*, and Flower beauty, and she's a busty tan girl. (*you know I said that on reflex, but now that i think about it, I don't know that Kubo himself ever actually drew her in color... that may have been an anime thing.)

Ochi Misato[越智美諭]: "Surpass+Wisdom" and "Beauty+Admonish" which I guess I've never looked at before now. It's not that she isn't a cute character design(and I've got a thing for kind of homely teacher characters anyway...) but I didn't realize Kubo was trying for, like, a "hot teacher" thing with her?

And those are basically all the important ones, and frankly a couple not so important ones... I'm not getting into any of Kubo's little inbetween doodles, or god forbid that ridiculous number of random Karakura High students he dumped into Burn the Witch.

(sorry i got lazy and didn't finish digging up pics for everyone, but I at least made sure to have reference for the obscure characters that some people might not remember)

#bleach #random meta #sort of? #name stuff isn't exactly meta when it's just reading literal words

[demonslayedher]

Why is it that demons are averse to wisteria? I have been trying to look into the meanings behind wisteria but I can only find what wisteria symbolises in European cultures. Is the relationship between demons and wisteria something that already exists in Japanese folklore, or something Gotoge decided, and if so, what might have been the reasoning/symbolism for choosing that particular plant over others?

AHA!!!! I knew I had written this up before, I just couldn't find it! I finally remembered that is was in my longer post theorizing that Muzan was from an offshoot of the Fujiwara clan! That wasn't exclusively about wisteria, but I'm copying-and-pasting here the long part that was, see below the cut. The Prof. Owada I refer to below is a retired Shizuoka University professor who wrote a book called “Japanese History of Demon Slayers” to directly capitalize on the success of Kimetsu no Yaiba, and to dive into a lot of ties between the series and what it may pay homage to throughout Japanese history and culture. It is not an official Shueisha publication and therefore not canon material, but it takes canon and fan theories into according pretty thoroughly. Since he's already done the breakdown of "why wisteria" I'm simply borrowing it. Short answer: No, this does not already exist in Japanese folklore and is unique to KnY. However, Gotouge usually has reasons for things and people love to ponder those reasons.

One such question is, why were wisteria lethal to demons? According to Prof. Owada’s research, there is no historical basis for this. Some of the talk online is that: 1. Wisteria are in fact poisonous, and consuming too much of them would cause vomiting and diarrhea (though I’ve also seen people make jam out of them because of the fragrance, so, like???) 2. Beans are thrown around at Setsubun to ward off demons (like so, Feat. Muzan and Kimetsu Beans), and wisteria are of the bean family 3. Wisteria like sunlight, so perhaps like Nichirin, they soak up some of the sun’s properties that are lethal to demons 4. In the language of flowers (Hanakotoba), wisteria symbolize kindness, welcomeness, refusing to leave someone’s side, being drunk with love, being straightforward and truthful, not losing the humanity in one’s heart, thereby containing a lot of meaning contrary to the conduct of demons Interesting, but some of its kind of a stretch. While still finding it a stretch to apply it to wisteria being poisonous to demons, Prof. Owada goes on to say that since ancient times, while the wisteria has some negative connotations of how it was sometimes written with characters meaning “doesn’t heal” (不治) and growing downward with smaller and smaller flowers like symbolize the slow downfall of a family line, it conversely also carries positive connotations of longevity and flourishing family due to the fact that its vines grow upward.

Now, you might picked up at some point that the Japanese word for wisteria is “fuji.” Not to be confused with Mt. Fuji (that’s written differently), it IS the same fuji as in “Fujiwara”: 藤.

Prof. Owada goes on to explore the association with the use of Wisteria crests in Kimetsu no Yaiba, especially on the houses of supporters of the Demon Slayer Corp. His recurring thesis is that the pandemic is partly responsible for Kimetsu no Yaiba’s popularity since demon legends have long since had origins in epidemics, and he supposes the Wisteria crest has a protective effect on the houses, similar to a talisman used in a lot of real life rituals for warding off illness and then often displays in or on the entries of houses to protect the family every year (I have one such item gifted to me, it stays by my doorway, along with a couple sticks of charcoal (but the culture of charcoal is a post for some other day)). The talisman is in reference to a god of Hindu/Chinese origins being treated with hospitality by the So clan, so although other families perished in disaster/disease, he promised to always protect the So clan descendants, so the talisman says “Descendants of the So Clan” so that any household may try to claim that divine protection. The gratitude-exchange of hospitality and protection and sure sounds familiar! Prof. Owada isn’t done yet. While the crest design used in Kimetsu no Yaiba isn’t an actual family crest in in real life, there are lots and lots and lots of family crests that use a wisteria design and have the character for “wisteria” in the name. Any time you hear “—tou”, like Satou, Saitou, or even Gotou, you can typically assume it’s 藤. It’s very common nowadays, but the first family to be granted the use of this name was the Fujiwara clan, when one of the pre-Heian and very powerful emperors granted their clan head this surname, which was a major honor, and it marked the start of the Fujiwara clan’s political dominance (there was already influence leading up to this, but meh, we like clear-cut stuff to simply centuries of history, don’t we?). Furthermore, although we often think of the Fujiwara clan for their influence at court, and we might think of the Minamoto clan for warrior heroes who fought demons, Prof. Owada concludes his argument of wisteria’s protective influence by pointed out a long list of Heian period Fujiwara warriors who also were the heroes of demon slaying legends, stating that their name has also long been tied with demon slayer culture.

#kny nerdery

[deedala]

🌿w e e k l y 🍄 t a g 🕯️ w e d n e s d a y🌙

thanks @darlingian for writing this week!! and thanks for tagging me @creepkinginc @energievie @metalheadmickey 💖💖💖

which character from any media would you like to have as a father?: oh hey yeah i am going to have to also say Bob Belcher. He is dad goals.

if money, laws, time, and effort were no object, what animal would you want to have?: im sorry i have a whole entire me and 2 kids to take care of i dont want anything else lmao

what is your Chinese takeout order?: veggie fried rice and veggie egg rolls!

what's your favourite emoji?: omg i dunno uhmmmm 💖 is probably up there!!

would you rather have a library, greenhouse, or home theater in your house?: okay i am a legendary plant killer but i would LOVE to be able to just hang in a greenhouse. thats my vibe. i just cannot be responsible for those plants ok

what childhood tv show do you think of the most fondly?: david the gnome!

what was your tumblr like when you first joined?: for a really long time my tumblr was just my silly little artworks, from like 2011 to late 2014. in 2015 it became more of my dragon age artwork and fandom blog. and then a few years ago i just started reblogging whatever the fuck i wanted. and well now its a whole mess huh. my beloved trash pile.

what clothing style do you love but don't feel compelled to replicate yourself?: cottage core and dark academia

if you were plopped into a fictional world, which one would you know the layout of the best?: Thedas hoo boy

what is your favourite piece of art?: hmmm birth of venus by william-adolphe bouguereau

do you have a water bottle? what does it look like?: aluminum cup with a straw style, its blue and green and has a leaves design on it

what fanfic trope is a quiet fave? uuhhh...i dont know if i have a quiet fav?

do you carry a daily bag? what does it look like? what's the weirdest thing in it?: lately its been an addidas black drawstring bag. i just dug through it and found absolutely nothing un-normal haha?? i guess the most uncommon thing in there might be the epi-pens??

If you had to ship Mickey with another Gallagher, who would it be?: what kind of choice is this?? im going to go ahead and be a cheater and say i BFF ship mickey with debbie

what is a fanfic trope you didn't expect to like and then very much did?: ack...again i dunno?? i just like all the basic things and i dont know enough about the other stuff? maybe i need to try more things that i think sound unfun lol

Do you think s11 Mickey can still carry s11 Ian?: lmao hes so inexplicably swole, yes absolutely

who got custody of the killing bat when they sold the house?: i want debbie to have that, she deserves it.

Okay here's some nuggets who i think might want to play!! @michellemisfit @too-schoolforcool @mickeysgaymom @heymrspatel @gallawitchxx @gardenerian @callivich @juliakayyy @mmmichyyy @jrooc @sam-loves-seb @crossmydna @suzy-queued @tanktopgallavich @lingy910y @transmickey @rereadanon @palepinkgoat @sickness-health-all-that-shit @suchagallabitch @thepupperino @sleepyfacetoughguy @tsuga-of-mars and also you person not tagged you can lie and say i tagged you as always i will corroborate~

#weekly tag wednesday #tag game

[accio-victuuri]

CPN: BoXiao and Bamboo 🎋

Another symbol that is tied to our boys but more so with Xiao Zhan. We have a couple of these things that we associate with them and this is an effort to try and make a post for each one. from stars, little prince, spongebob, moon, spiderman and now this.

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

In traditional Chinese culture, bamboo (竹 zhú), along with plum blossoms (梅 méi), orchids (兰 lán), and chrysanthemums (菊 jú) collectively form a group called the Four Gentlemen. Each member of the group was used to symbolize some aspect of the character of an ideal person in traditional Chinese culture.

Certain behaviors and character traits are traditionally associated with each of these plants. In the case of the bamboo, its strength lies in its grace — it is tranquil, flexible, humble and simplistic, and an emblem of modesty and mental strength. Its deep roots denote steadiness. ( source )

Well that description sounds a lot like WYB or XZ if I ever did read one. It is a perfect way to explain to someone what these two are like as people and why they work so well together. Let’s start with the sweetest connection we have with it. In one of the BTS released, XZ was seen describing WYB as a Bamboo:

We know XZ likes to tease WYB about his face being so small and the fact that he ( XZ ) cannot compare to that. They are just so comfortable around each other and why is XZ observing him so much that he is able to make that kind of comparison? I also find that when XZ does this, he describes WYB as someone who is almost unreal. XZ speaks about him like he is a friend/fan and really says the truth whether WYB takes that as him just teasing him or not. At that time, they called it rainbow farting but when it comes to them, it’s not exaggerated. It’s the truth.

• In this other BTS, XZ calls his hairstyle as a wealthy bamboo. Then here, you can see him pole dancing lol and trying to catch Web’s attention.

• XZ once posted a meme of a bamboo rat and he went on hot search because of it. He mentioned that he liked it because it looks helpless and needed to be held. Months before that, WYB held a bamboo rat for TTXS. What a coincidence. Another one is them having the same bamboo background on their photos released on the same day. WYB’s is an Ad tho.

• I like this one, photo of a scenery with bamboos in it. I wish WYB would also share his photos 🙃

• and well this ever popular piece of fandom candy, XZ’s post below with a bamboo emoji in it. @twolonesomestars explains the meaning of it over here ( go to the post-japan trip section ) . Also the song he is supposedly referencing, summer’s wind has been analyzed by @jcisthebestfightme here. 🤍 If you’ve seen those photos of them on the rooftop and with the bamboo in view, this emoji use makes more sense too. I feel like they both have good memories of that night and everything about it.

+ Web playing with the Bamboo toy ( in TTXS ) that looked like what A’yuan was playing with in The Untamed 🥲

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

As individuals, well, WYB loves to watch a channel dedicated to watching pandas and one of their activity is ofc eating bamboo. Also this photoshoot for his Bio-e fanmeet. Yes, the same event where he said that the older a man gets, the more handsome they are. 😏 and that event was close to XZ’s birthday - 9/30/2020. Finally, this photoshoot video from YBO that featured him amongst bamboos.

Now for XZ, he loves to pose with it too and the most notable one is his 29th birthday photoshoot 😎 as well as his most recent one. He also made an artwork that incorporated bamboo shoots in it.

We can’t forget WWX’s bamboo flute that XZ practiced irl and his most recent advertisements incorporating Bamboos. 🎋

However the most important connection for XZ would have to be the song Bamboo in the Rock! 🎶

"Bamboo and Rock" is a seven- character quatrain created by Zheng Xie , a calligrapher and painter in the Qing Dynasty . This is an inscribed poem . The first two sentences praise the inner spirit of Jinzhu, which is rooted in the broken rock, fully expressing the tenacious vitality and fortitude of Jinzhu. The last two sentences further describe the harsh objective environment for the tempering and testing of the bamboo. No matter the wind and rain, despite the frost, the cold, the snow, the green bamboo still stands proudly.

parts of the actual song that I like and think relates to XZ are :

The thousands of hardship only bring about greater fortitude

Never relenting to winds from any direction

;

Never questioning its path

Irregardless of the sweet or the bitter

The reason why XZ sings this so well is probably because he understand the meaning of the song and the importance of having this particular characteristic of a Bamboo. He was performing this before all the 2020 disaster but he had a couple of experiences even before that were he’d gone through hardships and he remained firm. Even in his interviews, he makes it clear that he is someone who is not afraid of hardships because he knows it’s necessary. What is important to him is that he learns from it and that he continues on to reach his goals. 🤍

- END. Have a good weekend everyone! 🥰

#yizhan #bjyx #all of this is cpn #if there is a symbol you want me to talk about feel free to drop a reply here but no promises

[purplekoop]

OFFICIAL BLOG POST ABOUT THE PLANT TWINK

So uh. full disclosure, this was meant to be a breakdown of the entire blog post, but there's not anything super interesting besides one piece of concept art I ended up having a LOT to say about and another tiny piece of info I'll explain in another post.

So, this post starts off showing the ideation for the basic design of the character, see here:

Here we see a wild array of drastically unique potential Support hero designs, varied in gender, ethnicity, and costume design, which the post says culminated into the final design. Gonna throw in a bit of personal speculation on what these earlier designs might've been planned to do:

The leftmost one seems to bending water or some other kind of substance as they float slightly off the ground. Possibly could've used water to help their teammates move around the map more freely? Definitely the simplest design of the bunch, but not bad either.

Next is a... wanting to say Japanese or Chinese but not totally certain man who appears to be holding small (acupuncture?) needles and carrying a gourd jar (I think? Not sure what they're called, again not totally sure please don't kill me). My guess is that he would've had a kit based in large part on traditional medicine from (whichever part of the world it is). I'm assuming that he would've thrown those needles as an attack/healing ability like Ana's darts, and the container would be some kind of throwable burst heal/utility? All that does sound just like a mix of Ana and Kiriko though, so that's why I'm assuming he got shelved. Okay so, belated edit: the only character of the 4 that has any specific accompanying text says: "One of these pieces features an older physician who drew healing energy into his hands and blasted it into his allies, a bit like Moira’s Coalescence." I misinterpreted this for a while as being for the fourth character of the set, but I realized this was almost certainly the "Older Physician" of the bunch. If I'm understanding it right this time, I think his healing would've essentially been healing with hadoukens?? I can definitely see this working visually with Lifeweaver's healing mechanic.

The detail sticking out to me the most is that he appears to have...

a Chronal Accelerator?? Probably not, but this does seem to be a very specific high-tech part of his design. Speaking of specific high-tech design details that remind me of other characters, there's one detail that did make it from this guy to the final design of Lifeweaver:

The little uhhh. Tube thingy. Around the collar. Yeah that. I don't know what it does. But they both got it!

Third design features a woman wrapped thoroughly in some kind of vines, with a familiar-looking flower behind her body (though this one 6-pointed instead of Lifeweaver's 5, which makes her look even more like Volcarona). I'd wager this is where the devs were starting to figure out how their ability ideas would be executed in a similar means to the end result. Personal theory: This character would've ended up being another Oasis scientist and would've been headcanonned to hell and back as Moira's rebound. Good for her.

Now oohohoohohohoooo, this last one

Look at this MAN. This ABSOLUTE LAD. Frankly I'm mad they showed this guy off, because now I wish this guy didn't get shelved.

With the exception of the plant themes, I think this guy could have very realistically had all of Lifeweaver's current kit, at least in some way. The large clock emblem on the ground could've materialized into the floating platform. And instead of pulling allies back to safety with a vine, my theory is that he would've had a targeted recall, sending allies back to where they were a few seconds ago.

This also ties into my hypothetical lore theory: This guy almost certainly would've had something to do with the Chronal tech that Tracer uses. This would go along with the trend of new heroes tending to have direct ties to existing heroes, and despite being the poster girl, Tracer doesn't really have any unique ties to other heroes outside of being friends from Overwatch, so having some character with at least a shared technology tying them together would've been interesting.

So uh. Yeah sorry flower boy, but if you and this guy were dangling off a bridge about to collapse, I know who I'd be saving.

But yeah! Very interesting set of concept art, and while sadly it doesn't seem like any one of these concepts went too far, or if they did then we didn't get to hear about what happened before they got shelved, it's still super cool to see them anyways. Always happy to get a chance to analyze Overwatch's hero design process.

#overwatch 2 #overwatch #long post #lifeweaver #overwatch lifeweaver #overwatch development history

[sasaranomiya]

Koukyuu no Karasu Volume 2 Chapter 1 - The Blue Swallow (Part 5)

Finally, the end of this chapter...so many things happened in this section...anyways welcome new followers! 

TW: mentions of sexual assault involving a minor

Here’s my Ko-fi if anyone is feeling generous

Translation Notes

1. The characters for Kouei are 黄英, which is another name for chrysanthemums. This comes from a short story called “Huangying,” which is included in the Chinese short story collection Strange Tales from Make-Do Studio. Chrysanthemum spirits show up in the story

2. Roumitsu (臈蜜) is apparently hardened honeycomb/wax that’s used as a base for ointments or something like that

3. “Furen” (腐人) literally means “rotten person”. It actually is another name for eunuchs in ancient China. Couldn’t think of a good localization for it so I decided to keep it the way it is

4. This is based on the Japanese caste system under the Ritsuryo legal system. The upper-class is the ryomin (良民 or good citizens) and includes regular citizens, nobles, while the lower-class is the senmin (賤民 or lowly citizens) and includes servants and slaves.

Previous || Index || Next

That night, around the second watch of the night (nine to eleven p.m.), Koushun came to Yamei Palace, bearing lilies in hand.

“So even you have a mind to bring someone flowers?” Jusetsu asked, somewhat surprised.

“I didn’t prepare these,” Koushun looked somewhat puzzled and displeased at the same time. It was rare for him to show such feelings. “It was Shou Kouei.”

“Who is that?”

“The Swallow Lady. Didn’t you meet her during the day? When I visited Hien Palace, she told me to give these to you.”

That woman? Jusetsu recalled her face. Not that Jusetsu was in any position to speak on it, but how could she use the emperor like an errand boy?

“I heard you cut some rabbit-ear irises and gave them to her. She was delighted.”

“Even if I decorate this place with flowers, they will only wilt, so I gave them to her. To begin with, they are flowers of Hien Palace, so there is no reason to give a thank-you present.”

“Kouei seems to have taken a liking to you. I heard you smiled at her.”

“I have no recollection of that. The Swallow Lady must have misunderstood something. She was afraid of me to begin with.”

“She told me that she thought you were a mysterious and scary consort, but you were actually a lovely person.”

“…The Swallow Lady is a bit odd, isn’t she?”

“She was raised carefully in the depths of her estate, so she knows little of the world. She’s afraid of adult men and older women. She’s even afraid of Kajou. I’m younger than Kouei, so it seems to be a little better. She prefers playing with children and young girls.”

What were her parents thinking, throwing her into the inner palace? Jusetsu thought.

“Why don’t you plant some chrysanthemums at Hien Palace?” (1)

“Why?”

Koushun asked, looking sincerely confused. Jusetsu was astonished.

“Don’t tell me you’ve never given her a chrysanthemum?”

“…I haven’t.”

“Even though she’s your wife? You once said that I’m not sensitive to the feelings of those around me. I can say exactly the same thing to you.”

Koushun stopped whatever he was going to say, his mouth still open. It seemed that he couldn’t find anything to say in reply. Kajou must have said something similar to him. In place of Koushun, who couldn’t say anything, Ei Sei, who was standing behind him, looked angry.

Koushun cleared his throat.

“…Putting that aside, you’re kind to women and children.”

“I wasn’t trying to be kind.”

“I can count on one hand the number of times you’ve smiled in front of me, and you’ve never given me flowers.”

“Are we not the same in that regard?”

“I brought flowers today, didn’t I?”

“Are those not from the Swallow Lady?”

Koushun was speaking without any expression, so it was always difficult to tell whether he was joking or serious. She didn’t think he was the type of man to make jokes, though. It was annoying either way.

“How is Ishiha doing?”

Because she was annoyed, she changed the subject. Ishiha was entrusted to Ei Sei. Koushun glanced back at him. Ei Sei knelt and answered.

“For the time being, he is under my employ as a servant at Gyoukou Hall.”

“He must be a bright child.”

“Yes, he is.”

Because there was a suggestiveness in his response, Jusetsu asked, “Do you not like him?”

“No, it’s just that he’s too honest.”

“Is it bad to be honest?”

“It makes him inflexible,” he said without hesitation. “He can’t communicate subtly.”

Jusetsu hmmed.

“Then, he cannot work under you?”

“I’m not saying he can’t,” Ei Sei glanced at Jusetsu. “But I cannot guarantee his safety.”

Jusetsu frowned. Although the empress dowager was no longer in the world, it seemed that danger still surrounded Koushun.

“Why not put him in Yamei Palace?” Koushun said. Jusetsu cast down her gaze, her brow still furrowed.

“It must be very inconvenient to be without a single eunuch.”

“I had no palace lady until recently. It wasn’t particularly inconvenient for me.”

“You don’t realize an inconvenience is an inconvenience. You should add a few more people here now.”

“…I…”

“A chi’er who has been abandoned by his shifu would have a hard time no matter where he goes. If you had created that impetus, you must look after him. Isn’t it awful to get involved in his life, and then tell him to live in good health and abandon him?”

Koushun’s voice was quiet and calm, but it pricked at Jusetsu’s chest. She remembered that Ei Sei had said something similar to her before. She wondered if something similar had happened between the two of them.

“…Does that mean you looked after someone?”

Koushun was silent for a moment, glanced at Ei Sei, and then replied, “I did.”

“I took Ei Sei as my personal attendant when I was ten years old. Ei Sei was twelve or thirteen. I took him away from his shifu at that time and made him an official of the Eastern Palace.”

He didn’t say much. Ei Sei’s shifu or someone like him was most likely an awful eunuch.

“I don’t know if it was a good thing or not, because he had to suffer plenty of hardship when I was the deposed crown prince.”

Koushun said detachedly. Ei Sei widened his eyes, as if to say, That’s outrageous.

“What are you saying? It wasn’t hardship. Compared to the suffering that preceded it, it was nothing.”

“Is that so?” Koushun said and smiled faintly. Jusetsu stared at the tea on the table and pondered.

——What I did was not so different from what the former Swallow Lady did to Yuisa in the past.

Unrestrained kindness and consideration were invisible poison. She shouldn’t have reached out her hand so thoughtlessly. She had made a mistake from the beginning. She didn’t know what to do——.

“The previous Raven Consort…”

Jusetsu raised her gaze at Koushun’s voice.

“She taught you how to write, how to speak, and gave you knowledge and wisdom. But, you would have been fine without those things. They can be expressed in another way—by what we call love.”

The image of Reijou flashed through Jusetsu’s mind. From the time Jusetsu was brought here, Reijou looked like an old woman of considerable age. She wasn’t someone who smiled much. However, she was patient. She was a person who patiently poured her love into the vessel that was Jusetsu’s empty heart.

“You should also have someone to love. Whether it’s one person, two people, or several people. Think about it.”

Jusetsu cast down her eyes. What Koushun said seemed understandable, but it wasn’t. He said difficult things with seeming ease.

“Ishiha will stay at Gyoukou Hall for a while. Let me know when you’re ready to receive him,” Koushun stood up. “If you’re not sure, ask for advice.”

“Ask you?”

“That’s right.”

Jusetsu gave a small smile. “I have no need for that. You only speak of serious things.”

“So you want unserious advice? I’ll think of some.”

Koushun turned on his heel and headed for the doors. Ei Sei opened them. It was night outside, and it was as if everything was painted with black ink. There was no moon, and the starlight was unreliable. As Ei Sei was about to light a candle, Jusetsu pulled a peony from her hair and held it out. The flower shook and melted, lighting a pale red flame at the end of the candle.

“It’s the new moon tonight. Take it with you so that Yeyoushen will not catch you.”

It was said that if you wandered around at night, you would be taken away by Yeyoushen, so people warned against going out at night. That was why they closed all the street gates and forbid people from coming and going.

“Wulian Niangniang wanders about as Yeyoushen on moonless nights, right?”

Koushun remembered what Jusetsu said before. She didn’t answer, and instead said something else.

“Don’t visit tomorrow.”

Tomorrow? Koushun was suspicious. “Why?”

“I will be tired tomorrow.”

“What do you—”

Koushun tried to question her, but Jusetsu refused him and told him to “leave immediately.” Koushun looked down at her intently.

“…I’ve also told you before,” Koushun said. “I want to talk with you. I want to hear your story.”

“Talking about myself is—”

“I want to know what gives you hardship, what makes you sad, and what delights you.”

I want to know those things, Koushun said, and left. As he turned away, the quartz ornament that hung from his hip swayed and glittered in the pale red flame. It was a quartz fish. Jusetsu had a similar ornament. He had given it to her. Koushun’s was transparent, while Jusetsu’s was milky white with a light pink tinge. It was a token of their oath.

Jusetsu had put it in the cupboard. There were other things there that Koushun had given her. An amber fish. A wooden rose carving. Sometimes, Jusetsu would look at them. On a moonless night like this, for example.

The light of the moon was lost, and the light of the stars were absorbed. The darkness of the night became deeper and denser than the night sky. The shadows were astir. Something was about to crawl out from the depths of it.

——No!

About to cry out, Jusetsu covered her mouth. The pale red flame of the candle was flickering faintly in the distance. Koushun was there. If she raised her voice, would he come back?

―What would that do?

The darkness seemed to become more viscous and entangling, so Jusetsu returned to her room and closed the door.

She had already made Jiujiu retire and rest for the night. She opened the curtains and stepped inside. There was a door in the back of the room and a narrow passageway on the other side. She opened the door and walked down the passageway. At the end of the passage was a small room. A large black mystical bird with a woman’s head—Wulian Niangniang, was painted on the wall, and in front of it was an altar. When she blew on the candlestick, a white flame flared and flickered. A musky scent filled the room.

Jusetsu pulled a peony from her hair and threw it into a white lapis-lazuli bowl. There was a sound like the tinkling of a bell in the distance, and the flower dissolved. This was a custom she did every three nights.

She exited the small room and returned to the original room. She let down her hair and laid down her bed, finding it too bothersome to change into her nightgown.

―I’m afraid of closing my eyes on moonless nights.

Despite those thoughts, her eyelids involuntarily drooped and her limbs became heavy and immobile. As she closed her eyes and darkness fell, Jusetsu felt as if her body was sinking lower and lower. The air that clung to her body was cold and heavy. Her breathing was labored. It was if she was being dragged to the bottom of the water. Once she sank to very bottom, she rose to the surface afterward. She emerged much faster than when she sank, but her body stopped midway. Only her mind climbed higher and higher.

Jusetsu let out an inarticulate scream. As her mind climbed upward, her body tightened as though thin silk threads were coiling around it, and she felt a pain like she was being torn apart. The mind, however, had risen to the surface on its own despite that and was now faraway from her body, under the night sky.

The threads twisted around her limbs tightly, bit into them, and tightened. Her limbs were going to be torn off.

The imperial palace was below her. Fires were lit everywhere, brightly illuminating the dark night. With a backward glance at that, the mind was flying somewhere. It had wings. Glistening black wings that seemed to absorb everything. The mind flapped its wings in a big, leisurely flap, and flew far, far away. Each time they flapped, a spasm of pain shot through Jusetsu’s body. The pain was so intense that she felt as if her flesh had been shredded and her limbs were severed.

It wasn’t Jusetsu’s mind that was flapping its wings. It was a human-headed monstrous bird with jet-black wings. The goddess from across the sea.

It was Wulian Niangniang.

Jusetsu resented the first Raven Consort, Koushou. Why did she accept such suffering? Did she love Ran Yuu—the Summer King—that much? The man who had locked her up in the inner palace and refused to let her call herself the Winter King.

Koushou became the warden of Wulian Niangniang. She made sure the goddess was unable to escape. She bound her to herself.

The life of the Raven Consort was one with that of Wulian Niangniang. The Raven Consort also couldn’t escape from the goddess. Thus, the goddess was imprisoned beneath Yamei Palace.

However, when the moon disappeared and the darkness deepened, it was no longer possible to contain Wulian Niangniang. Slowly, slowly, she began to melt into the darkness and roam around the night. The Raven Consort felt pain as if she was being torn apart by the moving Wulian Niangniang.

Sometimes, Wulian Niangniang flew around all night, and sometimes she returned after just a single lap around the imperial palace. Tonight, it seemed that she was going to be flying all night long. She flew past the imperial palace, through the area near the palace, and beyond. She could smell spoiled water. There was a river below. Wulian Niangniang was flying along the river. The river snaked across the open plain, passing between villages and over hills forested with strangely shaped rocks.

——Where is she headed?

Jusetsu gazed out at the scenery as she became overwhelmed by the pain. Soon, the lights of a town came into view. As expected, lanterns were hung all around town in fear of Yeyoushen. Wulian Niangniang glided over the houses. The doorways and windows of the houses, built of piled-up stones, were covered with cloth. The lanterns under the eaves were round and curiously shaped. The streets were narrow and maze-like, and there were many slopes. There were no people outside the houses. Jusetsu could smell sea water. They seemed to be near the sea.

Light was now leaking out from the second floor of a house. The wooden shutter that covered a window made the cloth fly up as it was opened. A young man looked out from inside. He had a pale face and dark hair hanging down loosely.

That young man looked up at them.

——Owl!

Jusetsu didn’t know why she thought that. But that was the voice that echoed in her mind. At the moment she saw the young man’s face—no, the moment their eyes met.

Jusetsu suddenly opened her eyelids.

“…”

Letting out a wild breath, she slowly moved her head. She was in Yamei Palace, on her bed.

Her back was sweaty and uncomfortable. The pain that felt as if her body was being torn apart was no longer there, but her strength was being drained away from the inside. She had no strength to sit up, so she turned over with difficulty. As she laid on her side, the cool darkness enveloped her back.

As soon as Wulian Niangniang saw that young man, she returned here in an instant. Jusetsu sensed a flash of something like fright there.

“…Who was that…?”

Her tongue was heavy, her throat was hoarse, and she couldn’t put together words properly. There was no voice to answer Jusetsu’s hoarse murmur. The only thing by her side was darkness.

“Close the shutters, Shougetsu.”

Hou Ichigyou reprimanded his apprentice for opening a window on the night of a new moon.

“Okay, Master.”

Shougetsu said expressionlessly and obediently lowered the wooden shutter. His loose black hair contrasted starkly against his pale face. Though his way of speaking was rough, he was an obedient young man. A month ago, Hou had found him collapsed in the street and took him in. Since then, he had kept him by his side as an apprentice, but in reality, he was no different from a servant who did chores. He didn’t complain about it, but rather aloofly obeyed Hou. Instead, he never smiled and never got angry. He had nothing that could be called facial expressions. Even now, he was a young man who Hou still didn’t know much about.

Hou put down his writing brush and rubbed his eyes. Writing at night was hard on an old man’s eyes. He had been asked to write a letter on someone’s behalf. In this small port town, there weren’t many people who could write, so Hou was valued as a scribe. This wasn’t his original job, however. There were many such port towns in this country, which was a large island with several smaller islands.

Shougetsu was preparing Hou’s bed. Before going to bed, Hou took his tools out of his bag and checked them, as was his usual custom.

Paper talismans with cursive, illegible characters, blank talismans, red-ink sticks, cinnabar, roumitsu, (2) needles…After arranging them all on the desk, he carefully put them back into the bag. Next to the desk, there was a cane sword.

All of them were tools used in sorcery. Hou was a sorcerer. However, he seldom practiced the art. When the previous dynasty fell, Hou abandoned it and fled the country. Even though he had a disciple, a young man from the imperial family he was about to adopt――

“Master, I’m done.”

Shougetsu indicated the bed that had been made up. Hou put his hands on the desk and slowly stood up. His knees creaked and ached. A groan escaped from his mouth despite himself. Shougetsu helped him to his feet. Hou looked at his face from up close. He had a pale face and glossy black hair. His upturned eyes were sharp but captivating. He had a beauty that made it hard to tell whether he was a man or woman.

——They don’t look alike.

He didn’t even remotely resemble the disciple that Hou was about to adopt. That disciple had silver hair as magnificent as moonlight, and a crisp beauty that seemed to dispel the darkness of the night. However, Hou gave this young man, who he had found collapsed in the street and whose name was unknown, a character from the name of his former disciple. Perhaps it was because they were the same in apparent age and height.

——Hyougetsu.

When he thought of that name, bitter regrets and sadness spread through Hou’s heart. The executed imperial grandson. Without even seeing his corpse, Hou escaped the capital, snuck into an anchored ship, and fled the country. The reason was that there were orders to capture the sorcerers who had been used frequently by the previous imperial family. Many of them were executed.

He was afraid of death. He was familiar with ghosts and thought that death was something close to himself and not to be feared, but when there was the possibility that he might be killed, he ran away. ―I left Hyougetsu to his death.

Sitting on his bed, Hou let out a deep breath. Since his return to Shou, he had moved from one port town to another and had never set foot in the capital. He didn’t intend to ever set foot there again. He had no right to bow his head for Hyougetsu at the Ran family mausoleum.

“Master.”

Shougetsu stood by Hou’s side and called his name. What was strange about him was his voice. It couldn’t be defined as either low or high-pitched, but it had a quality that left the listener entranced.

“What is it?”

“I want to ask you something.”

Hou wondered where Shougetsu had lived before, for everything around him seemed novel to him, and he asked all sorts of questions about them. Thinking that it was the same for this time as well, Hou nodded and said, “Tell me.”

“I want to go to the capital. How do I do that?”

In the morning, Jusetsu couldn’t get up from her bed. She had no strength. She had to summon up all her energy even to move a finger. Jiujiu was so worried that she sent a messenger to the medicine official even though she told her not to. They brought her rice gruel with water chestnuts and pine nuts and soy milk. Jusetsu had no appetite, but Jiujiu and Kougyou were anxiously watching her, so she lifted her spoon.

“If you don’t have an appetite, then please drink the soy milk first. It’s sweetened with honey.”

Certainly, the soy milk was sweet on the tongue and seemed to soak into the back of her throat. Once she drank the soy milk, the rice gruel also went down her throat. After she had eaten, her strength returned. Her complexion improved, and both Jiujiu and Kougyou lowered their trays, looking relieved. As if to replace them, Onkei came over. He had been sent to the medicine official by Jiujiu, who was worried about Jusetsu.

“The color has returned to your face, Niangniang.”

Onkei was placing a medicinal decoction he had brewed in the kitchen on a tray. Jusetsu glanced at it.

“No, sorry to have sent you on such an unnecessary errand,” she said, trying to get him to back down.

“Your body must be feeling weak, so it would be better for you to drink this decoction.”

The decoction was most likely a mix of ginseng, di huang, and huang qi. It was meant to restore one’s strength. What Onkei was saying was right and she should drink it. However—the most effective medicines were often bitter.

Onkei silently urged her, so Jusetsu had no choice but to pick up the bowl. It had cooled down moderately. However, judging from the scent, it was bitter. Her brow furrowed naturally, but she couldn’t say she didn’t want to drink it because it was bitter. Resolving herself, she held her breath and gulped down the decoction in one go.

It was bitter. She frowned, unable to withstand the bitterness that lingered on her tongue.

“Shall I bring you some hot water?”

“Mm…”

Onkei went into the kitchen and then came back with the hot water.

“It seems to have honey dissolved into it.”

The hot water she held in her mouth was slightly sweet. Like the soy milk from earlier, it was probably the servant who had been here for a long time, Keishi, who suggested adding honey to the water. When Reijou was alive, she always prepared this sweetened water for Jusetsu after she drank a medicinal decoction. Keishi probably remembered that. She was a taciturn and unsociable old woman, but her work was brisk and surprisingly meticulous.

——You must never keep a palace lady. You need only a single servant.

She recalled Reijou’s voice. Her teachings always tugged at Jusetsu’s sleeve. Eunuchs are out of the question, she had admonished her strongly. Because they would want to form a faction.

The Raven Consort must not gather people around her. They would become comrades, become a faction, and eventually they would swell. They would become the elite of the Winter King.

Therefore, Jusetsu had to live alone. ——And yet, she had already broken Reijou’s orders.

Jusetsu put the bowl back on the tray. But Onkei didn’t leave and remained standing there. She looked up, puzzled. Onkei looked as though he wanted to say something.

“What is it?”

“…You may think that I am being too forward, but may I say something?”

“I do not mind. Tell me.”

Onkei thanked her, placed the tray on the small table next to her, and spoke. “It’s about Ishiha.”

Jusetsu lowered her gaze at that name.

“Niangniang, do you regret helping Ishiha?”

“…If I had not gotten involved, Ishiha wouldn’t have been chased out by his shifu, and he would have eventually risen through the ranks. He is a clever boy, after all.”

“For those from a rural minority tribe, without an exceptional promotion, they would remain a lowly eunuch for the rest of their lives. He would have continued to receive beatings.”

That may be so, she thought. It was a fact that Jusetsu got involved, and it was also a fact that it changed Ishiha’s life and future. Jusetsu was afraid of getting acquainted with others and changing way of life. That was true for both Jiujiu and Kougyou as well.

“I have changed Ishiha’s path by meddling in his life. Whether it will do him good or not, it is Ishiha that will walk that path. Not me, who changed it. If I couldn’t bear that responsibility, then I shouldn’t have gotten involved.”

It was as Ei Sei and Koushun said. Jusetsu had irresponsibly interfered from the side and pushed Ishiha onto a path that had no guideposts.

“…I was once an acrobat in a wubang.”

After a short silence, Onkei opened his mouth.

“You’ve said so.”

She had heard this from him before.

“One year, we were employed by a certain official. We were summoned to every banquet he held. Some of us were musicians, and some of us were good at magic tricks. There were also many acrobats like me. …The banquet that night was held for the friends of the official. I don’t remember what the celebration was for, though. Both the official and the guests were drinking heavily. We retired to our rooms after we were summoned, but one of the guests asked us to send one of our colleagues to his bedroom. The one he wanted was a girl who played the biwa. She was only thirteen years old.”

Onkei closed his mouth briefly. She didn’t know why he was starting this story. But Jusetsu was listening with bated breath.

“We were not in that sort of business. So we refused. However…”

After some hesitation, Onkei seemed to collect himself and resumed his story.

“The guest forcibly dragged the girl into his bedroom. She was a gentle and quiet girl, so she was frightened into not shouting for help. I searched for her when I noticed she disappeared and found her by the well in the rear garden. She was washing her face and rinsing her mouth. She was quietly sobbing under the sound of the water—even now, I can hear her sobbing. ...I went to the guest’s bedroom and struck him as he was snoring loudly. By the time the official’s manservants pulled me off him and held me down, the guest was covered in blood. I intended to kill him, but I couldn’t carry it out. That is why I am still alive today.”

There was no expression on Onkei’s face as he spoke dispassionately, but his voice grew colder and colder.

“The official tried to keep the matter private without it going public, but the blood-covered guest told him to make me into a furen.” (3)

Furen was another name for eunuchs. It was also a derogatory term.

“I was taken to a pecking house. It’s a house that creates eunuchs. The guest laughed as he watched them cut it off.”

Jusetsu felt a chill at the bottom of her chest and couldn’t speak. With difficulty, she muttered, “How cruel.” Onkei looked at her.

“When I was held down by the servants and beaten until the guest was satisfied, when everyone else found out what the guest had done, and when I was taken to the pecking house, not one person said anything like that near the official and his people. Of course, there was no one who stopped them. After all, I was from a wubang, and people from those are of low class.”

The people were divided into upper and lower classes. Slaves, prostitutes, and musicians were classified as lower class citizens, and they weren’t allowed to marry upper class citizens. (4)

“Niangniang, there are not many people who would have said, ‘How cruel,’ out loud. Even more so for those who intervene when they see a eunuch being beaten. You are unaware of that. …If only just one person had said, ‘This is cruel’ at that time, even if it wouldn’t have saved me, it would have—it would have saved my heart.”

Onkei’s voice was bleeding. Fresh blood was flowing from a wound that hadn’t yet healed.

“Do you know how precious a person like you is to us? What a salvation it is, to have someone like you here who is willing to lend a helping hand to the weak. We don’t need you to bear any responsibility.”

Onkei knelt down, his forehead touching the ground.

“As a eunuch, I would like to express my gratitude to you. Thank you for helping Ishiha.”

Jusetsu couldn’t find the words to say to the kowtowing Onkei. She got off her bed, got on her knee, then placed her hand on his back. “——Onkei.”

Onkei was crying silently. His shoulders were shaking uncontrollably. Jusetsu stroked his back without saying anything.

“I’m sorry. I have not only dirtied your ears with my story, but also your hands.”

Onkei raised his head after a while, and his face was back to its normal appearance.

“You did not dirty them in any way,” Jusetsu said, putting as much conviction in her voice as she could. She used the hand that had been stroking his back to help him stand up. There wasn’t a single tear left on Onkei’s face, but his eyes were moist as if there was a film of water covering them. She thought they were beautiful, sad eyes. “May I ask something?”

“What is it, Niangniang?”

Jusetsu put her face close to Onkei’s ear and whispered, “Do you know the names of that ‘official’ and ‘guest’ you talked about?” Her voice was surprisingly cold even to herself.

Onkei was silent for a moment, then his eyes softened.

“Niangniang, you don’t need to concern yourself with them anymore. …When I told this story to Attendant Ei a long time ago, he asked the same question.”

In other words, Ei Sei probably already did something about them.

“Oho,” Jusetsu’s eyes widened. “Ei Sei, huh.”

“Niangniang, I recommend Ishiha to be your eunuch. He will be of great help to you. I am your guard, but since I work under Attendant Ei, I may not be with you at all times. I think it will be better for you to raise a eunuch like that.”

“I cannot raise a eunuch.”

“All you have to do is to tell him what you need him to do. He will learn with that. Then, you can teach him how to read and write.”

“Reading and writing, huh. I also learned how to do those things from Reijou.”

She remembered it fondly.

“Once he becomes a qualified eunuch, he can work in another department. It is difficult for someone like Ishiha, who has been abandoned by his shifu once, to find someone who will nurture him to that level. That’s why…”

“So, you’re saying that I should raise him up to that point?”

Onkei nodded.

“That’s correct, Niangniang. If you are concerned about your own responsibility, but cannot keep him at Yamei Palace forever, then this is the best way.”

“I see. ―You’re quite smart.”

“I’m honored to receive such praise from you.”

On one hand, she thought it might be a good idea, but on the other hand, she also felt that it was still a bad idea. However, after glancing back at that indecision, Jusetsu agreed with Onkei’s idea. Perhaps, she truly was looking for a reason to keep Ishiha here.

Reijou would surely be angry with her.

Jusetsu didn’t know if this was the right choice.

It was most likely the wrong choice.

Previous || Index || Next

#koukyuu no karasu #koukyuu no karasu 2 #shirakawa kouko #translations

[bookofjin]

Collecting Seeds, QMYS Section 2

Continuing the Qimin yaoshu齊民要術 (“Essential Techniques for the Common People) by Jia Sixie (fl. c. 540). Advice for the selection, storage, and treatment of seed grain.

[Books quoted by QMYS in Section 2, in order of appearance]

Yang Quan楊泉 (d. after 280) was a philosopher and author of several different text. The Wulilun物理論 (“Essay on the Order of Things”) covers the author's concept of nature. It is now lost except in fragments. The quote in Section 2 is the first of four in QMYS.

The Fan Shengzhi shu氾勝之書 (“Book of Fan Shengzhi”) is the oldest known Chinese agricultural treatise. Fan Shengzhi might originally have been an easterner, but during the early Western Han served as an official in the Guanzhong region. The original book has been lost, but it is extensively quoted in the QMYS, and also by Tang and Song encyclopedias. I assume Fan Shengzhi shu氾勝之術 (“Methods of Fan Shengzhi”) is the same book. This is the second QMYS section to quote from Fan Shengzhi. The last previous was Section 1 (“Tilling the Fields”).

The Zhouguan 周官 (“Officials of Zhou”), also known as the Zhouli周禮 (“Rituals of Zhou”) is a Warring States era text describing the different state officials of Western Zhou, their rank, duties, and number of subordinates. The text was considered one the Three Ritual Classics. Many of the officials described really existed during Western Zhou, however the system described is at best a later idealized version. This is the first QMYS section to quote from the Zhouguan.

Zheng Xuan鄭玄(127 – 200) was a famous scholar at the end of Han who wrote an influential commentary on the Three Ritual Classics. This is the second QMYS section to quote from Zheng Xuan. The last previous was Section 1 (“Tilling the Fields”), from his commentary on the Liji yueling.

The Huainanzi淮南子 (“Masters of Huainan”) is a collection of philosophical treaties compiled during Western Han at the court of Liu An (179 – 122 BC), vassal king of Huainan. It covers a wide range of topics. This is the third QMYS section to quote from the Huainanzi. The last previous was Section 1 (“Tilling the Fields”).

Cui Shi崔寔 (d. c. 170) was a Han official and author of multiple works. The quote in QMYS Section 2 is presumably from the Simin yueling 四民月令which details, in the style of the Liji yueling each month's agricultural activities at the large estates of late Han North China. The original book is lost except as fragments in other books. This is the second QMYS section to quote fromtheCui Shi. The last previous was Section 1 (“Tilling the Fields”).

Shi Kuang師曠 (“Counsellor Kuang”) lived in Jin during the Spring and Autumn era, and is said to have been born without eyes but with perfect hearing. Presumably the Shi Kuang zhan師曠占 [“Counsellor Kuang's Divinations”), now lost except fragments, collected divinations attributed to him. This is the first QMYS section, out of five, to quote from the Shi Kuang zhan.

[The original text is a mix of large and small characters. I have collected the small text sections together as indented notes within {} brackets.]

[Translation starts here]

Section 2, Collecting Seeds

{Yang Quan's Essay on the Order of Things says: “'Millet' [liang粱] is the collective name for broomcorn millet [shu黍] and foxtail millet [chi稷]. 'Rice' [dao稻] is the collective name for irrigated plants. 'Legumes' [菽shu] is the collective name for the many beans. The three types of grain each have twenty different kinds, which makes sixty. The produce of legumes and fruit-trees helps the grain with twenty each, which in total makes a hundred kinds. For that reason the Poetry says: '[We] sow their hundred grains'”} [Yang Quan's quote appear twice in the Poetry. The usage of liang粱 as a generic name for millet is special Yang Quan and is not the general usage in QMYS.]

In general, for the seeds of the Five Grains, if they are damp and dour, they do not grow, and those that do grow likewise soon die. If the seeds are mixed, the stalks will from beginning to end be unequal, the pounding will then be reduced and will be difficult to cook. The grain seller will see it as defective due to the mixed blend, and the cook will miss out on the signs of raw or cooked. The means by which they individually ought to be held in thought are not possible to follow. Foxtail [su粟], glutinous broomcorn [shu黍], non-glutinous broomcorn [ji穄], large grained [liang 粱], and glutinous foxtrail [shu秫]millets are always separately harvested year after year. Select fine ears of grain with pure colour, cut them off and hang them up high. Arriving at spring put in order and select from from them, and grow them separately so as to prepare for next year's seeds.{A} Those separately grown for seeds always require additional hoeing{B}. First put them in order and then separately bury them{C}, moreover use the ordered stalks and straw to cover the pits{D}. When about to plant, roughly twenty days before, open and take them out to wash in water{E}. Promptly expose them to sunlight to make them dry out, and plant them. Rely on the Officials of Zhou to assess what is appropriate for the land, and then fertilize and plant them.

{A: When seed-drill sowing and covering over the seeds, one dou can plant one mu. Measure for the family fields what is required for seeds, many or few, and then plant them.} {B: If hoed often, they will have no empty ears.} {C: To first put them in order, purify them in an open field that they do not mix. Burying in pits is also superior to stowing in vessels.} {D: If not, you will surely worry over mixing them.} {E: The floating empty ears will go away, and then there are no weeds.}

Fan Shengzhi's Methods says: “Lead the horse to make it go to the grain heap and eat several mouthfuls, and use what the horse has trampled through as seeds. They will have no armyworms [zifang虸蚄], and will spurn armyworm insects.”

The Officials of Zhou says: “The Grass Person [caoren草人] is in charge of the rules for soil improvement. He considers the different lands, assesses their suitability, and then carries out the planting on them{F}. In general for fertilizing seeds: Red-roan-coloured and stiff: use ox. Red-yellow: use sheep. Mound loam: use elaphure. Dried-out wetlands: use deer. Salt-marsh: use badger. Bursting-loam: use red fox. Hard clay: use pig. Firm and tough: use hemp seeds. Light and airy: use dog{G}.

{F: Zheng Xuan's Annotations says: “'The rules for soil improvement' is to improve it and make it pleasing, similar to Fan Shengzhi's Method. 'To consider the different lands' is to inspect its shape and colour. When 'carrying out the planting on them', the yellow-white ought to be among where is planted millet [he禾].”} {G: These are the duties of the “Grass Person”. Zheng Xuan's Annotations says: “The general means by which to fertilize the seeds all speak of cooking to catch the juice. 'Red-yellow' is a light orange colour. 'Dried-out wetlands' are places formerly [covered by] water. 'Salt-marsh' are salty. Badger [huan貆] is the tuan貒. 'Bursting-loam' is that which is powdery and loose. Hard clay is that which is sticky and crude. 'Firm and tough' is that which is firm and hard. 'Light and airy' is that which is light and pliant. In old books, 'roan' xing 騂 is qie挈and fen墳 [“mound”] was written 蚠. Du Zichun [fl. c. 60 AD] for qie挈 read red-roan [xing騂], and said the land was coloured red and the soil was stiff and strong. Minister of Agriculture Zheng [Zheng Zhong, d. 83 AD] states: 'To use oxen is to use ox bone juice to soak its seeds, which is spoken of as fertilizing seeds. Piled-up loam has much moles and mice. Loam is white-coloured. Hemp seeds [fen 蕡] is hemp [ma麻] Xuan speaks of piled-up loam as soft and loose.}

The Huainan Method says: “From winter solstice, the days are counted until the coming year's New Year's Day. Fifty days, the people have enough to eat. If not fully fifty days, daily decrease with one dou. If there are left-over days, daily increase with one dou.”

The Book of Fan Shengzhisays: “If seeds are damaged, wet, clustered, or hot, they will give birth to insects.”

“To acquire wheat [mai麥] seeds, when observing they are ripe, they can be harvested. Select the ears that are large and solid, cut them off, bundle and set them up in a high and dry place within an open space, and sun-dry them to make them really dry. Never cause there to be 'white fish', if there is, immediately scatter and order them. Take dried mugwort [ai艾] and store mixed with them, for one shi of wheat, one handful of mugwort. For storage use pottery or bamboo vessels. Obey the season for sowing them, then the harvest will regularly be double.”

“To acquire millet [he禾] seeds, select those that are tall and large, cut them off beneath the first node, and hang them up by the handful at a high and dry place. The sprouts will then not fail.”

“When wishing to know what will be suitable for the year, use cloth bags filled with foxtail millet [su粟] etc. and other various seeds, evenly measure them out, and bury them in shaded ground. 50 days after winter solstice, pour out and measure it. For those that have swelled very much, the year is suitable.”

Cui Shi says: “Evenly measure out one sheng for each of the Five Grains, fill small pitchers, and bury them north of a fence or beneath the shade of a wall.” The remainder of the recipe is similar to the above.

Shi Kuang's Divination Methods says: If the apricot has much fruit but not insects, the coming year's millet [he禾] will be good. The Five Wood are the predecessors to the Five Wood. If [you] wish to know the Five Grains, only observe the Five Wood. Select that wood which is flourishing, and in the coming year plant many of it, and out of ten thousand [you] will not lose one.”

#chinese history #qmys

[kimium]

Picking one character from each NRC dorm (plus a faculty member if you like) tell me what you think their favourite flower is and why! 💜

Oh! Thanks for the ask! I love flowers and flower meanings with all my heart! I'm delighted to answer this! I know you said "one from each dorm" but my brain has automatically defaulted to the dorm leaders. Sorry... Let's get started! Also, as a final note, I'm picking flowers mostly based on meaning, though aesthetic can count.

NRC Dorm Leaders and their favourite flower

Heartslaybul - Riddle - Daisy

It is super tempting to say "rose" for Riddle given the aesthetic of Alice in Wonderland, but I'm picking a daisy for him. Daisies, to me, are a flower that represents being a kid. Riddle was unable to act like a child growing up, so I want a flower that can represent childhood.

Their meaning also relates well for Riddle. Daisies can mean "new beginnings and rebirth", "love", "cheerfulness", "beauty", "purity", "innocence", "hope", and "affection". I feel many of these meanings can relate to Riddle post overblot, where he can slowly let go of rigid rules and his inner fears.

Savanaclaw - Leona -Orange Day Lily

For Leona I'm picking a day lily. First, day lilies are a perennial flower and that makes them hearty and sturdy. That's a quality I associate with Leona. Next, day lilies can come in a variety of colours but I'm imagining orange day lilies for Leona. Mostly because my mother always grows yellow and orange ones.

As for the meaning, day lilies in general have many. In Chinese culture they symbolize "devotion to your mother". In Victorian times they meant "flirty" and "forgetting worries". Orange day lilies in particular mean "confidence, pride, and wealth". While I cannot speak to how Leona feels about his parents (though probably not positive, given his backstory), I think all the other meanings can apply to him!

Octavinelle - Azul - Lotus Flower

This is a very self-indulgent choice. I adore lotus flowers with all my heart. In relation to Azul I wanted a flower with a relationship with water for Azul. However, the meaning to lotus flowers is what truly drew me in and picked them for Azul. Lotus flowers grow in the water, rising up from the mud. Due to this, they are a symbol of strength, resilience, and rebirth.

These qualities 100% suit Azul who was bullied as a child, rising up to being the dorm leader and (ruthless) creator, owner of his own lounge, and struggling with fears around his insecurities that lead to an overblot. Yet, through those struggles and challenges, Azul overcomes them.

Scarabia - Kalim - Orchid

First, orchids are an ornamental plant and considered exotic. They can also be finicky to take care of. Next, they represent love, luxury, beauty, and strength.

To me, all these qualities suit Kalim. He loves and he loves endlessly. Truly, a character that wears his heart on his sleeve. Kalim is also a character above everyone else in Twisted Wonderland, that to me fully represents luxury. Everything about Kalim from his family to his clothing, to his signature spell. He's the character in game that imagery of wealth is consistently thrown at us.

Kalim is also a character with immense strength, though I think the fandom might be too caught with the superficial to notice. Kalim's love is strength. Backstory reveals the tragedy of multiple kidnappings and poisoning attempts on his life when he was a CHILD. Yet, Kalim has not allowed despair and fear to overtake his heart. He could easily be a withdrawn, suspicious character of everyone but instead he's warm and welcoming. Kalim's strength is also displayed during Jamil's overblot, as his character also needed to grow along side Jamil's.

Pomefiore - Vil - Lavender

For Vil there was no other option in my mind. Lavender is versatile: it is a flower, a smell, and a colour. Lavender can be used in baking, cooking, and steeped as tea. It is also a popular scent in candles, hygiene products, and incense. The colour is stunning and purple has long been a colour associated with luxury and royalty.

Like lavender, Vil is versatile. He's an actor, model, student, dorm leader, and mentor. No matter how Epel might want to disagree with that statement. Vil also willingly took the NRC Tribe under his wing in Book 5.

If we look into lavender's meanings my search says "purity", "silence", "devotion", "serenity", "grace", and "calmness". All these qualities suit Vil in my mind. (Devotion can also mean his devotion to Rook because they're such a great ship!)

Ignihyde - Idia - White Chrysanthemums

While I know chrysanthemums can symbolize "friendship", "happiness", and "well-being". In many cultures or countries, white chrysanthemums are a flower of mourning and grief. They can be a common funeral flower. And you see, that's why this flower is perfect for Idia.

Idia, who tragically loses Ortho. Idia who spent years mourning and grieving his brother, creating a robot replica of him to fill the void. Idia, who overblots because of Ortho, because of his sorrow. Ortho may have taking Vil's advice the wrong way in Book 6 and became corrupt but Idia overblots because of Ortho.

Yet, on the flip side, Idia gains friends. At the end of Book 6 he's playing video games with Yuu and everyone else in the Ramshackle Dorm. He's happy and more importantly he's taking care of his "well-being". It's a small step, as grief and sorrow are complicated feelings that won't fade away immediately, but Idia will eventually move past the sorrowful meaning of white chrysanthemums.

Diasomnia - Malleus - Morning Glory

One of my favourite flowers, morning glories are a vine plant and that imagery alone is strong enough to carry it as my choice for Malleus. However, putting that connection aside, according to my search morning glory flowers mean "love and affection", representing and unyielding love that overcomes all challenges. Does that not fit Malleus perfectly? Look at how that man loves his Diasomnia "family". Outsiders may think Malleus is stoic or stone cold, but inside he's bursting with love. Love for Lilia, Silver, Sebek, and of course, Yuu. So much love that it can be corrupted, which is tragic considering morning glories can also represent unrequited love. Ouch! My heart!

There you have it! These are my picks for favourite flower from the NRC cast! Sorry I cannot do an in-depth faculty member as my brain fried itself in circles thinking about flowers and meanings.

Though, if we want a quick thought, I think Trein likes carnations as those are a common flower children can purchase because they're usually cheap. I bet his kids often bought those for him and it tickled his heart.

Let me know what you think! What would you pick? Eager to read your ideas!

#personal #replies #twisted wonderland #my headcanons