#4 Chinese Guardians

[blossom49451]

Mask Masters: Shumi's Transformation

[dorothygale123]

Raise your hand if you've heard of the 4 Guardian Beasts before. Anyone? If you don't, it's cool. That's what learning is for!

Now, anime fans like myself may be more than a little familiar with these guys as they've shown up in more than a few properties (ex. Fushigi Yuugi) but the concept, like many things in Asian culture, was originally Chinese. Also called the 4 Symbols, the 4 Gods, and the 4 Cardinal Creatures in English, the 4 Guardian Beasts are very popular in East Asia. We'll be calling them by their Chinese name, the Sixiang, because it's much shorter than any of their English titles because it's shorter. Do excuse me if I call the beasts themselves by their Japanese names, as it's what I know them best by.

The Sixiang are an astrological concept, with each one governing a portion of the sky. Each of these 4 sections had 7 constellations consisting of parts of the beast that when looked at together shows the beast as a whole. Pretty different from Greek constellations, huh? Anyways, these 28 total constellations were very important to Chinese cosmology as each one was seen as housing a different part of the Heavens, where the gods did their business. Let's take a closer look, shall we?

Azure Dragon/Canglong/Seiryuu, Guardian of the East

Fun fact: back in ye olden days azure was used to describe a shade of green, so while there are many depictions of Seiryuu as a blue dragon a lot of really ancient art paints him green. Surprisingly, he's associates with the element of wood rather than water. His constellations house the Heavenly Gates and several parts of the Jade Emperor's palace (including the stables where a certain naughty monkey did a stint). He's generally seen as the most important member of the group as a result.

White Tiger/Baihu/Byakko, Guardian of the West

As the name suggests, Byakko is a massive white tiger that rules over all other beasts with a terrifying roar. He's said to be in tune with all 5 elements (water, fire, earth, wood, metal) but is most associated with metal. He carries the 'essence of heroes' and means business. His constellations mostly have to do with the Heavenly army, with the prison, garrison, and granary all falling under his purview.

Vermillion Bird/Zhuque/Duzaku, Guardian of the South

Often confused with a Phoenix, Suzaku is actually a distinct creature. The fact that Eastern and Western Phoenix's are very different in concept doesn't help matters, especially since cultural osmosis has led to the Eastern Phoenix becoming more and more similar to it's Western counterpart. Suzaku himself is very similar to a Western Phoenix, being associated with fire and elixirs of immortality. His constellations are very functional, housing heavenly the wells, wardrobes, kitchens, and other such things.

Black Turtle/Xuanwu/Genbu, Guardian of the North

Now I say turtle, but Genbu is a bit more of a dual creature. Sometimes they're 2 animals, a turtle with a serpent on it's back, and others it's a turtle with a long snake-like neck. Sometimes it goes full chimera and is a turtle with a snake for a tail, head included. No matter which way you slice it though, Genbu is some mix of snake and turtle. Naturally, it gets associated with the element of water. Sometimes it's even credited as once having been the turtle that carried the floating city of Penglai (which I'll get to eventually). Genbu's constellations seem to be wealth-based, as it presides over the temples, treasury, and non-military granary.

Okay, so I know I said 4 beasts, but the Sixiang are sometimes shown with a 5th member that takes it's place in the center of the group. Occasionally it's a yellow dragon to represent the Yellow Emperor, but personally I prefer when it's the qilin/kirin, the Chinese Unicorn. Now it's called a unicorn, but like many Chinese creatures it's a bit of a chimera. With the head of a ram, the hooves of a horse, legs of a wolf, body of a deer, scales of a snake, tail of an ox, and horns of a dragon. Calm and intelligent, it is often seen as a symbol of nobility and scholars. Another fun fact: the Japanese word for giraffe is kirin because of their remarkable resemblance to the mythical beast.

This was a bit of a long one, but I had fun! What about you guys?

Sh*tpost Masterlist

[hideyseek]

what does pre canon even mean in guardian like if it happened between kunlun time loop and before show start. is it pre canon or what

[kyri45]

ISAT Sky Cotl AU Headcanons Masterlist

Here's the masterpost of the AU with all the comic! Feel free to suggest more if you want!! The list will be updated as the story goes to avoid major spoilers

About the Light /Wishcraft

Everything that is triggered originally in SKy in the AU is triggered by wish craft, which is a power that comes directly from the stars.

The island is filled with mechanism that recognize wish craft users and are modelled based on constellations

Most emotes are the equivalent of different forms of advanced craft hand signs, and each can be used like in Sky to activate certain doors (or to be able to call for creatures, or do other stuff like floating etc...)

There's a high concentration of star (wish) magic at the highest point of the Kingdom (where the eye of eden is currently) and if the habitant get's too far away from the island they wont be able to use some of their original abilities derivated from them (like for example they can't regenerate their wing levels)

About the habitant of the Island

Everyone is born naturally, but they all come from a line of people who were moslty made of stardust

The different seasons are periods of time like the chinese years, and are used as a reference for when people were born or even occurred.

People wear pendants with the season symbol they were born in. The season you were born in doesn't necessarily reflect your personality but can influence your passion

Every year, on the birthday of each sky kid, they meditate at the temple of the prince to visit Orbit and gain more power from the stars. They then come back with new "wings" every time. All kids do it with their parents or guardians until the age of 17th, which is the mark of them gaining their 6th wing wedge. From then on, they are officially considered an adult and can fly to orbit by themself. (I'm dividing the sky levels in half, since no one could live up to 200 years, so 4 wings is 5 y/o, 5 wings is 10 y/o, 6 wings is 17/18 y/o, 7 wings is 27 y/o, etc…)

People can decide to follow one of the Elders based on what they want to do in life/ which elder they are closer to (Dawn elder teaches navigation throught the stars, Forest elder teaches creativity and architecture, Valley twins trains your phisical ability and the Vault elder teaches you about the more advanced crafts). After they succeded in all the quests and finished their studies, they are blessed by the elders (which is the equivalent of finish one of the constellations, so you get the same gifts. Yes, the Valley Twin gift is literally them just allowing you to copy their haircut)

Moths are the equivalent of very young kids who still haven’t figured out which kind of person they want to be, which Elder they prefer to follow.

Elders are as big as they are for the same reason of the King in ISAT, the abnormal amount of craft they use is reflected in a collateral effect in their body

About their colture

Paper boats are rituals they used to send messages and wish anonimously, and are crafted so they can't get wet in the water

All capes are crafted so that you are always not too cold or too hot regardless of the climate

Creatures such butterflies, manta, fish and bird all are made of stardust as well, and recognize sky people as one of them and are able to charge them like in Sky

Their language is written with an alphabeth based on constellation shapes

SInce constellations are seasonal you would end up having different events based on the constellation they are under at the moment (days of nature, days of color, days of love, days of fortune)

About Siffrin

lived on the more outside part of the island, in the towns over the black sand beach (isle of dawn) which is the only part of the Kingdom open to visitors, travellers, traders, merchants.

Siffrin was born during the season of Performance and the Performance Guide was one of their first childhood presence during his first years. He continued to be passionated by acting even though he didn't live in Valley, but he and their parent still visited the Village Theather occasionaly to see some of their spectacle.

Had their cape made by his mother as custom, and before coming back to the island could never understand why it was so important that he should always wear it.

Siffrin before the events in the game always felt weird when it rained, was like slowed down and tired and sleepy. (by @forwonderfulpeople)

His call is the bird one (by @lone-owl-s-nest )

About The Wish (AKA The Eye of Eden)

The wish created a cataclysm so big people, not even Elders, can rememeber which was the original wish that caused it.

it made dissapear all people who were on the island, leaving only a spark of their memory

The Wish make you both forget and lose your wish craft power.

Krills are very big sadness

[enka-antix]

:O

What is Mango??

Well while I Was making Sunny I wanted him to have some sort of guardian, something that protects him so I was looking through a bunch of chinese myths and well I already liked the idea of some sort of cat and so I stumbled on a "huan" a beast that's sorta like a wild cat with 3 tails and only 1 eye :333

Huans are said to "ward off evil"

Also they're coats and stuff can cure a certain disease so when Sunny found him injured in a cat like disguise it was because mango was being hunted and escaped.

The fact that mango is a huan is only revealed around season 4 tho

[talistheintrovert]

Hi, Talis! I have a bit of a random question - do you have any sort of 'starter pack' recommendations for Chinese dramas? (I've really been enjoying Mysterious Lotus Casebook, but haven't been sure where to go from there.)

oooooh, EXCELLENT question!!

If we're going via "these men are in love but [CENSORSHIP SIREN RINGS LOUDLY]" then I'd go for

Guardian: semi-modern sci-fi/fantasy featuring a chaotic bisexual detective and the all-powerful god-like uptight professor he bothers into loving him. 10/10, bonkers CGI and ridiculous side characters only add to the enjoyment

2. Sound of Providence/Ultimate Note (really any of The Lost Tomb series but these are my personal favourites). Three idiots that call themselves The Iron Triangle (said idiots are a genius, a wiseguy, and a semi-immortal amnesiac) and their various tomb-raiding adventures!

Also has iconic side characters, might I add. The chronology of this whole series is so baffling and ridiculous I may have to make a video about it, but these two series hold a special place in my heart - they came out within weeks of each other, but in one the characters are in their 40s and in the other they're like... 22? at most? ICONIC, BEAUTIFUL, SHOWSTOPPING-

also the genius and the immortal amnesiac are in love, and the wiseguy is basically their third, it's a whole thing

3. Under the Skin

modern day crime series, featuring a detective and an artist. The artist is a SAVANT who can basically draw ANYTHING he puts his mind to, but in the past it meant he accidentally got an undercover cop killed without knowing. A few years later, he decides to become a police sketch artist as repentance. Said cop was our detective's mentor, and he's still salty about it but OH LOOK, THEY'VE BEEN PARTNERED UP!

4. WORD OF HONOR

my favourite of the fantasy homoerotic dramas, and the one that inspired me to start writing a video essay about them. Two soulmates meet who are destined for nothing but misery - one is trying to destroy the entire martial arts world for revenge and the other is an ex-assassin who's chosen to die slowly as penance for his murders. Through each other (and their idiot adopted son) they find happiness, kinda. This show is part of why I liked Mysterious Lotus Casebook so much - very similar found-family vibes, except they start out as enemies in MLC, whereas in this they start out as reluctant allies.

non-extremely-homoerotic recs:

Love Story Between Fairy and Devil

Evil being who has been trapped in a magical prison escapes said prison by accidentally body-swapping with an innocent fairy, but even after they swap back, he's tied to her (feels pain when she does, etc.) and so has to keep her around against his will. Enemies to lovers gorgeousness.

2. 19th Floor

fantasy/sci-fi drama where a group of strangers get thrust into an AI world (in a good way, the way AI ACTUALLY MEANS) where if you get hurt in the game, you go into a coma in real life. Every level has a different extremely fucked up mechanic to solve, and the cast are an absolute delight, also the main male lead is played by one of my favourite actors, so I'm slightly biased. Extremely cuntslay show.

3. My Journey to You

A group of female assassins go undercover in a kingdom to apply to be wives to the royals in order to take them down from the inside but OH NO, MIGHT THEY ACTUALLY FALL IN LOVE WITH THEIR TARGETS???? Also the female assassins are weirdly sapphic with each other, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and Esther Yu is one of the hottest women to ever exist and you may quote me on that.

gif from here: https://talistheintrovert.tumblr.com/post/730663645629054976 because it wouldn't let me do it properly (credit: @xiaolanhua )

4. You Are My Glory

dorky romance between two of the most stunningly beautiful people I've ever seen in my life, seriously, it's ridiculous. Their chemistry is good, the story is easy, and it's generally a fun, romantic watch.

5. Love You Seven Times

two gods(?) forced to live seven different lifetimes together because of a mishaps, it's glorious, it's gender envy, it's enemies to friends to lovers to enemies to lovers to friends to lovers excellence.

6. Till the End of the Moon

Did you like Love Between Fairy and Devil? then you'll LOVE this show, which has functionally the same plot, except that the female lead KNOWINGLY tries to seduce the future evil villain in order to either assassinate him or stop him from becoming evil, it's a coin toss for her. A brilliant show with fantastic performances and some of the best costume design on this list (which is a high bar, the costumes in all these shows serve unbelievable amounts of cunt).

I hope those are enough to keep you going for a little while! I'm always here to answer rec asks fr, it's one of my favourite things.

Anyway, I'm off to cross the nullabor, so I'll be out of range for the next few days, I hope you enjoy this nonsense!

[fabseg-creator]

Miraculous Pride Month 2024: Marinette and the Cat Girls

I've made an image about Marinette having a lovecrush-panic about Cat girls. 😳🐱

This happens in an AU:

Marinette a.k.a. Ladybug loves cats. But there is a lot of cats who make some trouble and confusion in her mind: she thinks about six Cat miraculous superheroines. that makes her heavily blushing. She is still hesitant between these Cats girls about confessing her love feelings to these people. She doesn't know how to choose who she could be in couple/date with. She doesn't have an idea of what Cat she could adopt.

The Cat Girls here:

1. Zoé Lee/Kitty Noire

Zoé has a crush on Marinette. Marinette knows her friend's confession but she doesn't know this girl is Kitty Noire.

2. Fei Wu/Hēisè de Māo (translation from chinese: the black cat)

Fei has given the role of Guardian of the Prodigious to her three friends from Shanghai for go to Paris for join Marinette.

3. Cerise Bianca-Lenoir/Alley Cat (from the Opposite AU(?))

It's Alley Cat with the design from my Opposite AU fanfic. I don't know if I must consider her as Cerise Bianca/Lila Rossi or the Cerise from the Opposite Universe. She has a crush Marinette but she is too shy.

4. Adrian Agreste (Fem!Adrien Agreste)/Pussy Noire (genderswapped Cat Noir)

In this AU, Adrien is born girl and her name Adrian. As Pussy Noire, She is the most frequent Cat partner who Ladybug works with. She is in love with Ladybug while Marinette/Ladybug is in love with Adrian (but it was initially).

5. Kagami Tsurugi/Kuro Neko (not the Cat-giant sentimonster ☝️)

Kagami enjoys to be free when she talks with Plagg and when she is Kuro Neko. She knows her friend Marinette is Ladybug. And Marinette knows Kagami is Kuro Neko.

6. Marinette Dupain-Cheng (Emonette from the Re-Verse)/Shady Noire

In this AU, the Supreme has given the Cat miraculous to Marinette. She redeems herself (like in the Paris special). After the Supreme's overthrown, she travels to the Ladybug's universe for visit her counterpart. The two girls know their identities each other (As Ladybug/Lady Noire for Marinette and Shady Noire for Emonette).

I would like to add Chloé and Alya as Cat Girls in the list but I didn't have any space enough for draw the two of them.

Happy Pride Month 2024 ! 🏳️‍🌈

Cerisette Alleynette post

Cerisette Cerinoire post

Zoenette sketches

[ryin-silverfish]

LMK S5 trailer, Chinese pantheon infodump, and some ideas

…Man, normally, I feel the urge to write fix-it AUs after rewatching episodes and coming across particularly bizarre theories and takes, not before the new season's even out.

Thanks, S5 trailer.

Consider this your spoiler warning, because the rest of this post will all be my personal opinions about a few major story beats that were revealed + the rough outline for a fix-it AU.

It's also a bit ranty, and features some criticisms of the general narrative, so if that's not your cup of tea, feel free to avoid this one.

Li Jing becoming JE/the regent of the Celestial Realm is just hilariously absurd. I mean, it makes a teeny tiny bit more sense than the "Nezha will be the new JE" fan theory, but that's not a very high bar.

1) In-universe, he had done a grand total of nothing while shit was hitting the fan, and only showed up after it was all over. Which, tbh, isn't too far from his role in FSYY. No, wait, at least in FSYY, he killed Luo Xuan via a pagoda to the head, after the guy had all his fire-based magical treasures neutralized and taken away by Princess Longji.

Yeah, congrats, LMK's Li Jing, you've somehow become even more useless than your FSYY and JTTW counterparts——which is a true feat.

2) Even if someone's making him JE/regent, it wouldn't be the Ten Kings. To put it simply: the Underworld doesn't have that authority. They are the most pathetic of all divine bureaucracies, who pretty much only show up to get pushed around and revive the occasional dead guy in JTTW (and I still love them).

Like, they ain't no Hades or Satan. Just the 10 judges of the Dead People Supreme Court. To heavily paraphrase Di Ting in the original JTTW novel:

"How much power do Underworld gods really have? (幽冥之神，能有多少法力)" "...Certainly not enough to stop a rampaging demonic macaque who's as strong as SWK, if I say the truth out loud in here and piss him off. Just send them to the Buddha, please."

An analogy: if the Celestial Host is the imperial court, the Underworld is the ministry in charge of judicial processes and prisons. They don't even have authority over the imperial censors who answer directly to the emperor, let alone the power to determine a successor to the throne during a major crisis.

If this was to make the tiniest bit of sense, Li Jing would be the one commanding THEM, not the other way around. Or if it's Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha himself giving orders to Li Jing…for some reason.

But we know that ain't happening bc of the show's strange aversion to showing Buddhist deities on screen, not to mention it would be very OOC for Ksitigarbha, whose job is granting relief and salvation to souls in the Path of Hell, not judging and punishing them like the Ten Kings.

3) If you must make Li Jing the emperor/regent, you have a more mythos-accurate and obvious choice than the Ten Kings, considering you already got the Four Divine Beasts involved!

Yes, I'm talking about their bosses, the humanoid "directional + elemental gods": Lord Father of the East (Wood), Queen Mother of the West (Metal), Emperor Zhenwu of the North (Water).

No South though...because our mythos can't agree on a single directional god of the South, but for shit and giggles, just imagine Zhurong, Yandi, Huaguang, and the Star of Fiery Virtues all sitting on the same narrow bench, staring awkwardly at each other.

Maybe we can have Ziwei, Great Emperor of the Central Sky and North Stars, who is one of the Four Sovereigns(四御) in Daoism (two of which could also be an alternate choice, but maybe a bit too obscure for foreign audiences).

He commands the stellar deities and heavenly bodies——which the Four Divine Beasts would technically fall under, as guardians of the four quadrants of the sky, each in charge of 7 Lunar Mansions.

4) But if you already have these deities, why the hell would any of them make Li Jing the regent? Wouldn't it be more likely for them to create a Celestial Council of Regents themselves, with Devaraja Li Jing under their command as the leader of what's left of the celestial army?

Like, you can still have them, or one of them, going after the gang and ordering Li Jing to put the fillet on SWK.

I can see Zhenwu the Demon-Vanquisher doing that, since the fillet isn't too different from what he did to Huaguang and a lot of the demons he subdued in JTTN: feeding them magical water/fire pills that would corrode/ignite their insides whenever they tried to resist.

(Yeah, compared to that, the fillet would look like the lenient option, since it's just pain and won't actually dissolve/cook you alive from the inside out...)

And it wouldn't be bc he thought SWK was to blame for the Brotherhood's epic fuck-up...somehow. Like, what even is that logic?!

I mean, I can kinda see the Ten Kings doing it as a pre-emptive "Don't blame us for our shitty security, blame that guy over there!" move...except they are no longer answering to any higher authorities who'd hold them responsible at that point!

"What about Li Jing?" You may ask. Yeah, WHAT ABOUT LI JING? Why does Li Jing have to get involved in this?

If he's forcing the Ten Kings to pass judgement on the gang (which surely doesn't look like it in the trailers), why's he enlisting the help of the weakest faction and not, y'know, his celestial soldiers and other gods?

If the Ten Kings get Li Jing to be their enforcer...well, how the Eighteen Hells did they manage that? What could the Ghost Supreme Court and their crappy prison-torture chamber-soul customs office complex even offer Li Jing as a bribe?

And if their goals were to avoid responsibilities by blaming someone else, how stupid did they have to be to actively involve/create a higher authority who can punish them once the cat gets out of the proverbial bag, instead of, I dunno, just stay where they are and keep their head down???

So in my fix-it AU, it's more of a "Better safe than sorry" scenario, where every demon working for the new Celestial Council must prove their loyalty via swallowing the water/fire pill, now that even more dangerous demons have escaped and are running around in the aftermath of S4.

And Great Sage and company are not exempt from that new law either——"If you are truly righteous and Not Like Them and not planning to rebel, what's there to be afraid of?"

Horrified by the Demon-Vanquishing Mansion's 16th century standards of "justice" and "mercy", they naturally would not have any of it, and thus the conflict begins.

Not only would this show the fallout of Azure's misguided rebellion——that, in trying to make a better world, he had made it 120% worse for both humanity and demonkind in less drastic and more realistic ways aside from dooming reality to irreversible destruction, it would also help with the major show-not-tell problem about Celestial cruelty bc the "good guys" in power saw no problem with this kind of shit.

If you want your lawful antagonists who take Order to its extremes, the warrior sovereign in black leading an elite army of demon-hunters + penal legions made of "reformed" demons would be a better choice than the Ghost Supreme Court, don't ya think?

(Fun fact: in Zaju plays, Zhenwu was often said to be the boss of Nezha and Erlang, so him commanding Li Jing wouldn't be too out of place either.)

Now, you may ask, why do I even care? After all, isn't it clear that the show is neither mythos-accurate nor trying to be, considering the JE got K.O.ed by a Bodhisattva's cat of all things?

Not to mention the season's not even out yet, so why jump to conclusions so quickly? Maybe the actual episodes will have explanations that make sense. Relax.

...Cause I don't mind less-than-stellar animations if the story's good, and since I keep noticing the less-than-stellar animations, it clearly isn't good enough.

Also, it's not like it's only the implications that are absurd——my problem is with the whole premise of "Li Jing becoming the new JE/Regent" and "The gang is prosecuted by the Ten Kings for bullshit reasons, even though these guys should not, and never have the power to enforce anything over SWK."

I don't like calling narrative choices "wrong" per se, and prefer to see it on a gradient of "least to most narrative potential". When it comes to adaptations, if the option that is faithful to the original work will result in a less interesting story, then I'll happily take the one that isn't as faithful and takes creative liberties, but makes a better story.

And here, I feel like being faithful to the Chinese mythos inspirations will add to the narrative potential instead of subtract from it, and the idea they come up with kinda...goes against how Chinese pantheons work, in a very simplified and "westernized" manner.

Mostly bc I am a Chinese Underworld mythos lover and think they deserve better than being ominous Hades/Grim Reaper knockoffs. And out of all the possible Chinese gods, Nezha's asshole dad is the least qualified or interesting candidate to fill in the power vaccum left by JE's death.

[bl-bracket]

Anyways I was going to make a post about the process of picking bracket topics and whatnot and was trying to come up with some examples of types of topics that would or wouldn't work and for whatever reason I thought of the concept of a "best murderer bracket" and I can't stop thinking about it lmao

it's just like such a funny concept? the idea of fictional murderers battling it out, especially ones from bls (which like I don't think is most people who are not super familiar with the genre as having a lot of characters who have killed people) is just funny in like an absurd way. like abstracting yourself from tumblr and tournament blogs, the idea of telling someone else that there's a tournament going for fictional murderers from east asian mlm tv shows, a genre that for several years was primarily shows about high school and uni students.

anyways that devolved into thinking about it more seriously, and then deciding a more practical way of doing it would to make some kind of directory of bl murderers. which would then lead to a lot of interesting statistical analysis, like characters with highest on screen kill counts, which countries have the highest proportion of fictional killers, etc. you can then make a separate category for characters with implied kills that aren't explicitly shown on screen or vague. and you could track how the number increases over time, which I assume exponentially goes up as more bls are exploring darker and more serious genres.

anyways back to the country stats, I started thinking about what the breakdown would look like so here's my guess based on zero research and just my general knowledge of shows

China. While having very few bls (censored or otherwise), they have a very unfair advantage and that is genre conventions. The 3 biggest Chinese bls I can think of are: The Untamed, Word of Honor, and Guardian. With The Untamed and Word of Honor, the conventions of xianxia and wuxia genres means that there are a lot of characters and almost all of them have killed before (usually nameless canon fodder but still). And then with Guardian, it's a supernatural detective mystery show with murder plots in it and a lot of characters, which again leads to a pretty high kill count. So even only counting these 3 shows, China will probably have the most killers in bl, or at the very least most kills done.

Thailand. It's a numbers game on this one. There's just so many Thai bls and an increasing number of like detective or mafia ones. A show like Kinnporsche has a lot of killers and deaths. Then there's other shows that include a few murderers (but less than Kinnporsche) like The Sign, Manner of Death, 4 Minutes, 3 Will Be Free, Never Let Me Go (Palm did shoot a couple guys dead elt's nto forget), Dead Friend Forever, etc. However the numbers also hurt Thailand in terms of proportions, since there's a lot more Thai bls that don't have murder, so it actually might be 3rd.

Japan. You're not getting much murder from your Cherry Magics and Old Fashion Cupcakes, which is what a significant portion of bl fan's primary exposure to Japanese bl is, but let's not forget that there's a lot of dark Japanese bls where murder is definitely on the table. Now I don't actually have a good gauge of what the numbers on this is, cause I haven't really delved that deep into this corner of the bl market, so I can't make a good estimation but I bet there's more than I'm aware of.

Taiwan. They've got a couple of mafia shows like HIStory 3: Trapped and Kiseki: Dear to Me, both of which have some implied and explicit murder (though less then you would expect if we're honest). That'll give them a few kills and they also have a relatively smaller pool of shows to pull from, meaning percentage wise it's a bit higher.

South Korea. Ok I am far from an expert of bls from South Korea, but unless there's like obscure short films I'm not aware of, the only drama I can think of from here with kills is Long Time No See? or I guess The Director Who Buys Me Dinner has like 1.5 murders? anyways Korea also has a not insignificant amount of bls to their name so proportionally it will be quite low.

The Philippines. Out of all the countries on this list, I am least familiar with the bls from here, but from what I've gathered during my routine mdl searches, basically all of them seem to be murder-free (unless of course there's some shocking plot twists in them)

anyways I'll probably never do this project just cause it would require a lot of time and collaborative effort and I've got a lot irl going on right now (hence why the submission period for most whipped is so long lol) and also have some other projects I'm already planning on doing so I don't really have time to do it. but I wanted to tell y'all about my thoughts on the matter.

also sorry if this is the weirdest thing I've ever posted. kinda had a major stress breakdown today but then resolved it relatively quickly cause I realized I could just reschedule the life altering appointment that was causing the breakdown lmao so I'm in a strange frame of mind lol

[moononmyfloor]

Love Game in Eastern Fantasy: Traditional Accessories

So apparently LGIEF based lots of costume designs on Chinese handicrafts and paid homage to intangible cultural heritage according to their Weibo. I'm not even familiar with some of these but as a fan of costume history and meta infopiling I tried my best to look them all up which I will link. All pics are from show's account.

Jinling Knotting: Baidu

Emm I couldn't find any article that specifically referred to Jinling Knotting so I just generally linked the Baidu page about Chinese knotting

Pingyao lacquerware: Baidu

Traditional Chinese Button Knots: Baidu

Ou Embroidery: Baidu

Nanjing Brocade Weaving Technique: Baidu

Miaomiao's Accesories (Made using Miao Ethnicity's Embroidery techniques, heh):

Ep 4: Longevity Lock Amulet

The image says- Intangible cultural heritage, hand embroidered, protects health, front display, back display

Ep 6: Guardian Tiger Amulet

The image says- Hand embroidered, rich in details, protects health, back display, side display

Ep 8: Azure Dragon Bag

The image says- Intangible cultural heritage handicraft, luxurious hand embroidery, protects health, bag display, shoulder display

Ep 15: Kite Brooch

The image says- Hand embroidery, rich in details, intangible cultural heritage handicrafts, embroidery display, brooch display

(Whatever ep that aired on 11-8 lol I don't rem): Rabbit Sachet

The image says- Good meaning, dispels cold and warms you up, natural osmanthus, back display, rear display

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More posts by me

[dorothygale123]

No, I'm not making excuses to talk about these figures more, because I DONT NEED THEM. I don't need this cute little chonker or his doodle-bopper, this post is for academic purposes! You see, Hundun isn't just a cute little nugget, he's also a primordial creation deity.

Hundun is often seen seen as a being of primal chaos from which the rest of the universe was created. As I stated previously, 2 gods (named Shu and Hu) felt bad for him and tried to carve him a new face. Shockingly, this had rather painful results and killed our little chonker. The universe supposedly came to be from his corpse, similar to the world egg. This could lead to the interpretation that Hundun is the world egg and that Shu and Hu trying to give him a face is what caused it to crack.

Whatever the case, he doesn't seem to have stayed dead as he's often reported to be among the creatures that live on the myhtical Mt Kunlun. He runs up and headbutts good people (like a cat), and leans on bad people (also like a cat). Basically baby boi is a six-legged, four-winged, headless, tailless chubby cat.

I also said that he was part of a set of creatures along with Taotie that mirror the 4 Guardian Beasts, so let's talk about those guys while we're at it. Together they're called the Sixiong, meaning 4 Fiends or 4 Evils. As far as I can tell they don't directly correlate with specific guardians (i.e. Suzaku, Byakko, Genbu, and Seiryuu), it's more that the group as a whole mirrors the Sixiang.

First up, Taotie. This guy, as previously mentioned, likes to eat so much he just full on ate himself. Yikes. He's described as looking like an ox with human hands and horns coming out of its back like a hedgehog.

Unfortunately, the next 2 don't have adorable minis, so we'll have to make do.

Something between a tiger and a dog with boar tusks and a human face, Taowu is one freaky looking peice of work, just like his friends. He's extremely stubborn and aggressive, willing to pick a fight with anything he comes across. Luckily, he's also very susceptible to reverse psychology as asking him to eat you will make him refuse out of spite.

Last but not least we have Qiongqi, who is supposedly descended from the Yellow Emperor. He's a huge tiger with wings and horns out the everywhere. It hates righteousness, so if it hears two people arguing it'll bite the head off the one who's right and the noses off everyone who agrees. Then he sidles up to the asshole and starts brining them his kills like a house cat. A massive, horned, man-eating house cat.

One thing I noticed is that while the Sixiong are all really monster-y, the Sixiang are a lot more normal in comparison. Suzaku is a big bird and Byakko is a big tiger. Even Seiryuu, the dragon, is part of a recognizable species. The only member who doesn't always follow this rule is Genbu, what with him being part turtle part snake, but even he is a lot less mixed up than any of the members of the 4 Fiends. It should also be noted that he just gets depicted as a big turtle a lot of the time anyways. An interesting point of contrast, I think.

Sh*tpost Masterlist

[deliveryboysomewhatequaltoheaven]

so i think these are the Azure Dragon of the East, White Tiger of the West, and Vermillion Bird of the South, three of the Four Symbols, the guardians of the cardinal directions in the 28 Mansions, from the Chinese constellation system. I wonder where the fourth, the Black Tortoise of the North, is.

Kui Mulang from Season 4 was one of the Mansions, the Wood Wolf of Legs, under the White Tiger.

And I suppose it makes sense that the star gods are being harmed by the heavens tearing apart... that is not good...

[shadowuserannie]

KOTLC X MLB AU (Part 4)

Previous parts are linked in 3. No I'm not going to relink them.

So! First off before anything else;

I'M NOT WRITING IF PEOPLE DON'T READ.

Just a general "this is a discardable WIP to me" "I can easily drop if people do not want to interact" "I have more WIPs I'm actually attached to" "reblog this more if you want the person who does not HAVE to write it, to actually write it"

I apologize for sounding like this. I'm in a bad mood today.

Now onto the Miraculous in this AU!

-Ladybug and Black Cat

So go read the previous parts first. *waits* Done? Cool. So now you know Sophie is the LB and Fitz is the CN. The deal up with the Guardians that makes them go "hmm there is more to this"?

Plagg and Tikki did not know the other was activated, and Fitz and Sophie help different people.

As in, one of them helps an old man, the other helps an old woman. These two strangers look very different. That, plus Plagg and Tikki being completely separate and surprised at the activation of the other? Alarm bells are ringing!

(The ambiguity of who is who is because I haven't PICKED who is who. actually reblog with who you think the "Guardians" should be, valid reasoning, just ironic pick, etc etc)

It's why one mystery will be the searching of who gave out the magic jewellery?

-Chinese Miracle Box: Wuxing/Five Elements Set

So apparently the Fox, Turtle, Bee, Peacock and Butterfly are the Five Elements. Cool. Anyway, I have at present not decided on the wielders. Dex will maybe be the Fox wielder, but that's not solid at the moment. Solidly decided is Alden with the Butterfly and Della as an ex-Peacock. I do want to use this set ATP right now, though.

-Western Miracle Box: Western Zodiac

FINALLY THE POINT OF THIS POST. So! After staring at the Chinese Zodiac set way too fucking long I decided not to use it. Why? BECAUSE I CAN'T FIT THE CHARACTERS TO THEM. Using the Western Zodiac set, I'm basically making my own customizable to the characters. Yay! Besides, this *does* fit the context of this AU, as the Miraculous are scattered worldwide. The Western Zodiac set *may not* be full, though.

Currently decided/solid: go check the Tam post. Yes he's got Scorpio/Scorpion. Go reblog with whatever else you think everyone else should be.

That's all! I'm going to drink more coffee to get my anger-created headache worse now.

[belphiegore]

LMK S5 spoilers // ~~~

………

OMG THE COLORED STONE GUARDIANS are part of the 4 SACRED BEASTS, the lords of the constellation mansions!!!! This is such a niche little bit of Chinese mythology that I barely see any art or reference to in most media

[journeytothewestresearch]

Mythological Horse Girls

It recently dawned on me that Sun Wukong from Chinese myth and Poseidon from Greek myth have something in common: they are both the god of horses!

1. Background

Sun Wukong

In chapter four of Journey to the West (Xiyouji, 西遊記, 1592), Monkey is invited to heaven to serve as the Bimawen (弼馬溫, “To assist horse temperament”), a minor post overseeing the celestial horse stables (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 1, p. 148). He takes the position seriously, caring for nearly 1,000 horses day and night, making sure they are all well-fed, exercised, and rested (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 1, p. 149). His position gives him power over all horses, even those of mortal stock. Chapter 14 reads:

When the horse saw [Wukong], its torso slackened and its legs stiffened. In fear and trembling, it could hardly stand up. For you see, that monkey had been a [Bimawen], who used to look after dragon horses in the celestial stables. His authority was such that horses of this world inevitably would fear him when they saw him (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 1, p. 309). [1]

Poseidon

He is considered the creator or even father of horses. Hard (2019) explains:

He was widely worshipped as Poseidon Hippios (the Lord of Horses), horses played a prominent part in his cult, and legend even presented him as the father of the first horse. [...] A legend from Thessaly in the north-east, which was a centre for the breeding of horses, represented Poseidon as the progenitor of the entire equine race. For when he had once been lying asleep in that land (where he was honoured under the title of Petraios, ‘he of the rock’), he had shed some of his semen on to the rocky ground, fertilizing the earth and so causing it to bring forth the first horse, Scyphios. Or, in some later accounts, he caused that earth to bring forth Scyphios (and Areion too in one version) by striking the ground with his trident. Or, in secondary versions that were developed at Athens, Poseidon fertilized the ground at Colonos, just outside the city, to produce the first horse, here called Sceironites, or else caused it to spring from the ground with a blow of his trident while competing with Athena for possession of Attica (pp. 126 and 127).

Astute readers will notice that Poseidon's other title, Petraios ("He of the Rock"), and ability to create life from stone is also related to Sun Wukong. You can read more about divine lithic births here.

2. Horse Girls Unite!

I previously thought of a UA where Heracles, guardian of the Buddha, is called in place of Erlang to end Monkey's rebellion in chapter six. And after Wukong achieves Buddhahood in chapter 100, the Tathagata asks Heracles to take Monkey through the Greek World system. There, the Victorious Fighting Buddha would no doubt learn of Poseidon's connection to horses.

I think both would bond over a mutual love for horses, perhaps geeking out about the subject for hours.

Notes:

1) This power was given to Monkey by the Jade Emperor, who gives him the Bimawen post. This was pointed out to me by Irwen Wong of the Journey to the West Library blog.

Sources:

Hard, R. (2019). The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology (8th ed.). United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.

Wu, C., & Yu, A. C. (2012). The Journey to the West (Vols. 1-4) (Rev. ed.). Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press.

[arithmonym]

20 questions for 20 writers!

thanks to @accidentallyadorable for tagging me! this was fun. :3

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

30! only 20 are visible from my profile, though. my older fics and drabbles are quarantined to a separate account, and a few things are posted anonymously.

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

113,190 words.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

it’s mostly the locked tomb these days. i also have a few old works for the penumbra podcast, the magnus archives, and the adventure zone—and a few even older works for harry potter and percy jackson, but those are on ff.net so i can pretend they don’t exist.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

it’s familiar (but not too familiar) - fluffy griddlehark time travel fic. this was my first attempt at writing them and i could definitely do a better job now, but the prose still holds up.

alive, barely breathing - post-canon griddlehark first time fic that’s fucked-up and sad. sometimes i look at the comments when i want to feel good about my writing. :3

bring your hunger - post-canon griddlehark grief/relationship study. also a WIP. (honestly, this one might go on anon for a bit—it’s vulnerable in ways i don’t want to explain, and i’m shying away from writing the next chapter because the Fear of Being Known got to me a little.)

it’s not unusual - fluffy modern AU where team 69 go to a bar and play catan. palamedes has an oral fixation, because of course he does. this one is campal with background griddlehark getting-together, but i might write a sequel from harrow’s POV someday.

bad idea right? - modern AU chatfic inspired by this post by eskildit. it’s about camilla dealing with the paldulcie situationship™️ & enduring so much dyke drama thanks to the nature of her friend group. it received a podfic recently, which is fun!

(… i also want to write a camdulcie sequel for this one. i’ve been rotating the idea frequently.)

5. Do you respond to comments?

almost always. there are a few scattered comments i haven’t replied to yet, but i like responding! it’s an excuse to drop more lore about the fic and the writing process, IMO.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angiest ending?

the ace cam fic i haven’t finished yet, which will probably be posted on anon. (i feel like people are going to attack me for poor representation or something, but it’s inspired by my own experiences, so. can’t win them all. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

something sweet is pure, uncomplicated fluff, so i guess i’ll go with that!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

not really. i’ve blocked a few people for being rude, but i haven’t gotten hate in years.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

occasionally. i’ve only posted 4 explicit fics, but so far it’s a pretty even mix of f/f, f/m, and other.

10. Do you write crossovers?

i have a tlt/w359 fusion AU i want to pick up again! i need to untangle some threads of the metaplot, though.

(also, the first fic i published on ff.net was a harry potter/rise of the guardians crossover. yes. it was cringe. yes, it’s probably still posted on the internet if you want to find it.)

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

nope.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

yes, actually! a few of my old hp fics were translated into spanish or chinese.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

i wrote a round-robin fic with the campal server once. i also started co-writing a fic with quinn a while ago (before we both got busy with school) that i’d like to return to at some point, because the concept still makes me vibrate with glee.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

i’m not sure that i have one, actually? i’m a multishipper to my core.

15. What's one WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

i have so many WIPs in my google docs that i’ll probably never finish.

i’d like to revisit my fic about necromancers & dysautonomia some day, but my writing style has changed so much since then. i might have to rewrite what i’ve posted.

16. What are your writing strengths?

i’m frequently complimented on my worldbuilding. i’m good at examining the implications of things that other people might not think about, so my plots are original even when i’m writing a fandom trope. (i can’t wait to post my harrow nova AU for this exact reason.)

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

sigh. pacing. i write from very close POVs, but sometimes i get too far into the character’s head, and it drags the story down. i’m trying to write sharper prose, but i’m going through an awkward growth phase as a writer—i know the structure i want, but it’s a struggle to get there concisely.

also, i over-edit instead of writing new words, which does me no favors.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

i guess it depends on context? i have a pretty good grasp on code-switching from being bilingual but not quite fluent, but the memory of that one klance fic haunts me.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

i mentioned my first published fic earlier, but the first fic i wrote was a percy jackson self-insert fic when i was twelve.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

indelible! cam and pal figure out that dulcinea isn’t who she says she is at the fifth’s anniversary party, but it doesn’t change anything. <3

///

tagging @harrowharkwife @friendamedes @cindthia @logicbutton @thewinterstale @sluggydrabbles & anyone else who wants to participate!