#IRON TYRANT

[isanarte]

50 Shades Of Red

Another commission for @xiranjayzhao about their Iron Widow book! This time a lil fun 50-shades meme about their Iron Widow sequel, Heavenly Tirant, I cannot wait until it's out this december!! I'm so hyped!!!

Patreon | Ko-fi| INPRNT

[else-creates]

So I didn't preorder "Heavenly Tyrant" by @xiranjayzhao because of the delays, I just decided that I'd get it online or in person when it was released.

I genuinely thought it came out at the end of this month, I didn't know it had already been released until I saw it on a shelf today.

My girlfriend managed to swipe it out of my hands before I could pay for it though.....So now it's a Christmas present.

[viinas]

Girls like me are karma I'll rule the earth, I'll be the sky And I'll be all of your worst nightmares

My friends and I made an EP inspired by Iron Widow by @xiranjayzhao called Empress of Nightmares and it's streaming everywhere and to celebrate, I drew this Wu Zetian.

(lyrics are from @soc-ck's Concubines song Girls Like Me Are Karma)

[high-quality-tiktoks]

🤷‍♂️publishing can’t ask us to write bestsellers for them on no money

[incorrect-ironwidow]

OUR FIRST EVENT IS HERE!

It's my honor and joy to announce our first Iron Widow Event! And nothing better than a Reread so we can once more be in @xiranjayzhao's world and, of course, be ready to Heavenly Tyrant release!

During the event, challenges and games will be released weekly. It's your choice to just read with us, or participate in the challenges. The main discussions will take place every Saturday on our discord server. If you're not already there, you're more than welcome to join us (this is a link, click here)!

Below I will give you our official reading schedule and the first challenge of the week! (And let's all thank @fren-wyrm for these marvellous designs!!) Any questions, feel free to ask me in the comments!

Are you ready to be their nightmares?

[ashmackenzie]

It’s release day for Heavenly Tyrant, the sequel to Iron Widow, by Xiran Jay Zhao! I'm still proud of this one a few years later, if you haven’t yet it’s definitely worth finding a physical copy to see the full wraparound. I also have prints available in my print shop!

Many thanks again to AD Terri Nimmo for working with me on this one!

[iwouldliketoeatrandy]

Inspired by this post, I wanted to fancast Iron Widow! I really liked these picks, especially Nini who would do a great job as Wu Zetian, but didn't want to just copy and paste.

Li Meng as Wu Zetian

She was a wonderfully cruel and charismatic villain in The Double and I would love to see her rage and passion in Wu Zetian's character.

Yu Shi as Li Shimin

Ok listen I think he's handsome, but also he could do it.

Tan Jian Ci as Gao Yizhi

For our wealthy scholar. His 2023 and 2024 characters were polar opposites characterization wise, and I'd love to see him continue to challenge himself with a unique character like Yizhi.

[pancakepoet]

[machinel1ke]

Shimin: I could fix her Yizhi and Zheng: And I could accept her as she is! You don't like the murder? Grow up. The atrocities are a part of her. And I've decided that they're funny.

@xiranjayzhao is this accurate

[feyres-divorce-lawyer]

waiting patiently for heavenly tyrant to see what atrocities zetian will commit to get shimin back

[shayminlucario07]

"A society that takes care of its own does not produce children who dream of burning it down."

-Xiran Jay Zhao, Heavenly Tyrant, page 208

(Not saying who says that line to avoid spoilers)

[brothersnackariahsbitch]

I just finished Iron Widow and I will accept NO CRITIQUE of this book. It is amazing. I love having a strong yet unhinged female lead who dives straight into a villain arch. I love the discussions of gender and misogyny. I love the references to real people in Chinese history. I love the nods to Chinese mythology. I love the true love triangle that turns into a poly partnership. I love the twist at the end. I 👏🏻 love 👏🏻 all 👏🏻 of 👏🏻 it 👏🏻. I cannot wait to read Heavenly Tyrant!!!!

[viinas]

My friends and I made an album inspired by the Iron Widow books by Xiran Jay Zhao and here is the song I wrote for it! It's called "Venom" and is meant to be sort of like an anime opening for the book. Ft vocals by my amazing friend Victoria Carbol! Empress of Nightmares by the Bookish Songs Collective is streaming everywhere now~

[thistle-nightshade]

Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao

I received an ALC through Libro.fm for this title.

I have been waiting since April 2022 with baited breath for this book, and was of course worried my expectations would be let down after so much anticipation. They were not. This was really damn good.

I think if it had been the same as Iron Widow, I would have been disappointed. But Heavenly Tyrant has very different tone and pacing. I loved it. It feels like growth. So you took your rage and smashed your oppressors, now what? How are you going to use power for good? It honestly mirrors my own journey of becoming aware of oppression, getting angry, and learning so much more of how the world works. Building a better world takes more thought and effort than angry me would have expected.

The relationships were INTENSE. The world building was so EXTRA. The DRAMA. Goodness gracious I can't wait for the next one. 

[incorrect-ironwidow]

IRON WIDOW REREAD: WEEK 8 + SPECIAL SURPRISE!

So it's time for our final week, and here I'm to reveal our final challenge as well! For the 8th week we say our goodbyes to Iron Widow by thinking about Heavenly Tyrant. The second book is just around the corner, which means this is your last chance to theorize about how it's going to begin and how it's going to unfold! So create a piece about it! You can write, draw, do whichever fan content you like more to imagine the 'world' of Heavenly Tyrant!

As always, feel free to link all your challenge answers HERE (our AO3 collection now has all the Reread Challenges as prompts, so you can directly pick the one you like more to create about). If you post on tumblr remember to tag #IronWidowReRead and #IWChallenges. You can do this week or the other weeks challenges in any order you prefer!

But that's not all I'm here to announce, is it? 👀

It was so cool seeing everyone's commitment to our weekly discussions and themed games, which take place on our Discord Server, that we realized you'all deserved more! So, it's my honor to announce that, after talking to @xiranjayzhao, we are going to give an extra prize to the ultimate winner in our reread games...

Now, not only this fan will be crowned our loremaster at Discord, but they will also win the preorder's campaign semi-transparent overlays! Yes, future loremaster, you're going to get in your hands this special pack with such amazing arts from Heavenly Tyrant!!

I'm really happy to be able to announce this treat for you'all! It has been really awesome to organize this event and see such commitment and receive so much kind messages about it! This fandom has amazing fans, for real! ❤️

ANYWAY! I desire good luck to everyone who is going to try and win this amazing prize given by Xiran! And all you need to do is simple; read the book with us and be part of the games that will happen after our book discussions this Sunday (4pm -3UTC) and next Saturday (5pm -3UTC)! Every week we add up the points from the week's game into a final ranking. At Dec 28, the final winner will get this amazing prize, so I encourage everyone to participate because you still have a chance to get it!!

As always, feel free to ask me anything you need ❤️🙏🏼

[front-line-head-line]

Thought of the Day: To fault the Emperor's Word is an act of sedition