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yourlocalzombiewriter · 8 months ago

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Okay May I request Lego monkey kid Wukong and Macaque with minor deity Reader? Reader lives in a garden and was isolated for so long she genuinely forgot what the outside world was like at times. (Cause humans were getting greedy and they been emotionally and physically hurt at times). Reader values connect so deeply and the garden is hidden by a talisman and guarded by her pet aka giant monster. Headcanons pls and apologies if it too much. I love your work. You can do Black myth Wukong too if you want

Oh, but love grows where my Rosemary goes,

And nobody knows like me.

(Lego Monkie Kid head-canons,

Black myth: Wukong head-canons.)

Author note: hello!, thank you so much for your request!, I hope you enjoy. Thank you for requesting!. ♡´･ᴗ･`♡

Just to reiterate, English isn’t exactly my first language so I apologize for any spelling or grammar mistakes.

★ ✵ ★

Lego Monkie Kid:

☀︎Wukong☀︎︎

Loves visiting frequently!, especially when your peaches are in season if your garden homes them.

This is a little head-canon of mine, but he knows how to make flower crowns. He use to make many when he was younger for the other young monkeys.

He always picks the ones he deems prettiest for you.

Depending on if he met you when he was younger (during Journey to the west) or older (during the time of him mentoring MK), he use to love playing hide and seek in the lush trees and bushes. But now older, he loves taking naps under the shade the beautiful trees provide.

Shoo’s off any demons or humans wondering too close to your garden for his liking. Especially after hearing what happened in the past for you to disconnect yourself from the outside.

He knows you have a guard animal but he still does his part as a boyfriend, after all he doesn’t want you to go through unnecessary stress.

Loves your guard animal!, though, the few first times of visiting your garden he either had to trick it or you had order them to stand down.

Once him and your guard animal are more acquainted he loves messing around with them, or feeding them treats. He knows their supposed to be scary and all but he just can’t help it!. Also does that thing where one person is the owner and the other isn’t and sees who the animal chooses first.

If you ever do wish to go outside, he’ll be right there to help you, and lead you to wherever you desire to go.

He loves watching you maintain the garden, he usually hangs up on a tree munching away at whatever fruit is nearest as he watches you water the flowers and crops with such care.

Brings you gifts from the outside as frequently as he can, and if your interested he’ll catch you up on the latest news.

Sometimes he manages to bring two steaming bowls of noodles from pigsy’s to you.

He loves admiring you as you relax on the soft grass, and the sun bathing you softly with its light, you look un-real to him.

Sometimes, when it’s a particularly hard day, he enjoys hiding away in your garden as well. Cuddling up next to you for comfort as you both lounge around the garden.

He doesn’t mind quite moment’s, when it’s so silent you can hear the grass shift with the soft wind, or hear the leaves rattle. How could he?, with you sitting there looking off so peacefully, and him looking at you so happily.

You are his version of your garden, a safe place, and home that no one can intrude upon.

★ ✧ ★

☾Macaque☾

He teleports over frequently when he feel’s overwhelmed with the noise of the outside world.

Because all he can hear is your sweet voice and the comforting sounds of the nature your garden nurtures.

He loves sneaking up behind you from the shadows of the trees. He loves the reactions he gets from it!.

Keeps his distance from your guard animal, but warms up to it eventually!.

Loves visiting at night and seeing the moon light bathe the place with its soft light.

He adore the tranquility of it all, it feels like time slows when he’s there with you. His fast paced days now coming to a slow stop when he’s laying in your arms and watching the flowers dance and sway side to side from the soft blow of wind.

Uses his shadow clones to help around the place if you ever need extra hands.

Has memorized every plant and flower you grow in your garden, but doesn’t stop you from spilling facts about them.

Mk sometimes wonder where he lounge around at when he’s not with the group. Of course, a good guess is his dojang (I believe that is what his home is called apologizes if it’s not!) but in reality he’s resting with you on flower beds.

Never mentions your garden to the crew unless you give the go ahead, but even then he tip toes over the subject, knowing your past experiences.

Puts on shadow plays for you on a particularly uneventful day. He likes seeing the smile that graces your face everytime.

His ears always picks up someone approaching your garden before your guard animal does so he’s quick to alert them.

He adores you, he truly does believe that your as beautiful as your garden, the center piece. He doesn’t understand the good karma he has received to meet you but he’s so greatful.

☀︎ ☁︎ ☀︎︎

Black myth: wukong

Bajie probably stumbled upon your guard animal and Wukong had to jump in.

Paranoid of leading enemy’s to your garden, not that he isn’t assured in himself that he can beat it. But he’d rather you not be stressed out or worry about it.

This doesn’t stop him form pranking you from time to time by transforming to a bug and buzzing around annoyingly. Prepare to have your patients tested by him.

If you have a big enough tree, he probably climbs and chills out in the branches.

Sometimes pulls you up with him and lets you rest and balance on him. He counts this as rest and bonding time.

Absentmindedly picks a flower and places it in your hair in the middle of a conversation.

On cold months, depending on how your garden on works, he either brings the finest cloths and blankets to you. Or if your garden is magically frozen in a spring or summer season then he spends the whole winter season with you, so good luck with that.

Although not one to be picky with fruits, he just prefers the one from your garden the most. To him they taste richer, and juicer.

When a certain fruit is growing on a tree and it’s time for them to be picked, he always picks you up and lets you rest on his shoulder so you can reach them easier. Could he just pick them himself?, yes, but how could he pass an opportunity to show his strength to you.

If you ever wish to venture out of your garden, he’d greatly recommend his mountain as its already protected from demons. He’d happily feel you cling onto him as he flys you over in his nimbus cloud.

On his way to visit your garden sometimes he does see people or demons lingering too close for his comfort. He easily scares them or defeats them before your guard animal encounters them.

Speaking of your guard animal, he’d be pretty neutral about it, he’s glad that he can keep some sort of peace of mind when he’s away from you knowing your under protection. But at the same time not very interested in it. Maybe annoys it from here to there when it’s off duty but aside from that let’s it do it’s job, knowing how important it is.

Brings you some souvenirs, ranging from gold incrusted bracelets and necklaces. To flower’s you may not have in your garden that he thinks you’d enjoy!.

You have on multiple occasions, almost ran out of peaches due to his rapid consumption of them. It’s almost concerning watching him be able to stomach all of them in one sitting.

He likes the peacefulness you and your garden bring him, like as if nothing was wrong, the world is silent and inhabited by only you two. He gets agitated when this peace is disturbed by intruding strangers. And although he has learnt the virtue of patience’s, he can’t help but take offense on your behalf for the intrusion. He likes the thought of you and your garden being only something he gets to indulge in. Your to much of a lovely sight for mere demons and humans to admire.

❁ ☀︎︎ ❁

Thank you so much for the request!, i hope you enjoyed it!.

( ⸝⸝•ᴗ•⸝⸝ )੭⁾⁾

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animatorweirdo · 7 months ago

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World of the Tainted

You wake up to a world where Morgoth had tainted the elves into something worse. You decide to journey toward the east where you might be safe. However, you end up getting hunted by your former lover and his brothers. Will you escape and survive? Or will you be caught and possibly suffer a fate worse than death?

Fearie AU

(Author note: I was inspired by my friend's @lamemaster 's latest fics. This is an AU version of my The Heart of Autumn. Bonus points if you recognize who the two birds are. )

Warnings: dark things, violence, getting hunted, getting bitten and wounded, mentions of possible rabies, angst, and reader not having a great time.

----------------------------------------

When you broke free from the ice and walked out of that cave, you immediately knew something was off. The land around you seemed normal at first glance, but something in the back of your mind was telling you that something was not right. Your suspicion became more evident when you decided to try to find a settlement and you walked through the woods.

The trees and the wildlife around you seemed more wild than usual. All kinds of plants grew around the roots in good health which was unusual since Morgoth’s influence in the north did not usually allow such abundance. Then there were the animals. They did not seem afraid of you when they saw you. They just stood there and watched as you walked past them. It was enough to send creeps through your spine. You had once read a survival book on how to avoid supernaturals and one rule told you that if you ever felt like you were being watched then you needed to leave the area, so you walked out of those woods faster than ever because it felt like you were being watched by everything.

You then came across an abandoned human town. By the worn-down woods and the structures that had suffered from the exposure of elements, you could conclude the town had been abandoned for longer than a decade. It was strange as there were no signs of fighting so nothing raided the town which meant the original residents left by their own will. Now one question remains--- what made them leave?

You scavenged whatever useful items you could get and continued your journey toward the west. More questions arose when you found more abandoned human settlements and the world around you became more unnerving. During nights, you hear strange sounds and notice shadows moving in the darkness. You didn’t dare to set up a fire and used one of the old camping techniques you learned from Camilla’s family, which was finding a sturdy and tall enough tree to sleep and stay safe from whatever lurked in the darkness.

When you found your way to what seemed to be an elven port city, you were left unsettled as it was abandoned too— there was not a soul in sight. It left you with questions you couldn’t answer. What happened? Where was everyone?

You stayed in the city for a day, using the abandoned fishing equipment to catch some fish to feed yourself. With luck, you managed to find some maps and other useful gear. You decided to try your luck with the nearest dwarf city. If even the dwarves had abandoned their underground homes, then there wasn’t a single soul left in Beleriand.

Following the map, you traveled to the mountain where the dwarven city was located, and to your relief, it was not abandoned like all the other places. The dwarves seemed surprised to see you but did not deny entry. They allowed you to stay and told you everything that had happened over the past decades.

Morgoth had been defeated and forced into hiding. However, before his defeat, he did something that caused the magic of the world to become untamed, tainting the elves. The taint turned them into something so sinister that even Morgoth became terrified of them, going into forever hiding. Their once bright nature turned them more prone to evil and their beauty combined with the world around them. They hunted down the orcs to extinction and even humans were not safe from them. The humans fled to the east, even far away to Rhun where the tainted elves did not follow them. Some of the untainted elves tried to escape the taint by sailing west, and not a single thing was heard of them since. The dwarves refused to leave their mountain homes. The tainted elves lacked interest in the dwarves thus they were relatively safe from their twisted nature. Some dwarves decided to continue dealing with these elves as they shared a love for gold and jewels, while some were forced to fight them.

Their description made you think of the faeries, or faes for short, one of the most dangerous types of fairies in your world. Now that you have thought about your experience so far, the state of the world and the woods made more sense to you.

The dwarves shared they hadn’t seen a human for many years and marveled how you managed to survive without being ensnared by the tainted elves. You were most likely lucky because you would have fallen into a trap now that you knew the elves had become something like the faeries.

Most of the elves who dwelled near the shores had fled to the west or whatever islands they could find, so their fates were uncertain. The Sindar had become one with their woods, so they mostly stayed in their forest. However, the Noldor were most affected by the taint becoming twisted rulers of the north, filled with lust for blood and other things unimaginable. The Feanorians had become hunters who hunted down anyone who dared to cross their lands.

You did not want to imagine your Maglor as a bloodthirsty hunter, but since the world had changed, you decided to believe what the dwarves said. It only made you more worried about what became of Camilla. There was a chance that she fled when things began to go wrong. But what if they did something to her before she could do so?

The dwarves said you should leave Beleriand, go to the east, and reunite with your kin in Rhun. Since you were a human, Beleriand was now the most dangerous place for you. You considered their words and decided that it was for the best. The faeries of your world adapted to your world’s society, but their tricky nature still made them dangerous as they sometimes twisted the rules and found loopholes to do what they wanted. If the elves became anything like them, you did not want to take any chances.

You stayed with the dwarves for a few days, reading everything they had on the now-tainted elves and learning all the necessary tricks you needed to avoid them. It had been forever since you did such research but it was better to be ready than sorry. The dwarves provided you with some supplies and items in case you encountered tainted elves. They showed you safe routes you could use and you managed to plan out your path. They gave you a pony and once you were set, you bid them farewell and a thank you for their hospitality. They wished you good luck and hoped Aule would look out for your safety. You will need it because if you got caught, then there was a high chance you would suffer a fate worse than death.

You were nervous but kept up a calm head as you started your journey.

You first came to pass the great woods of Doriath. The place looked more ominous than last time, so you could only wonder what it was like in Menegroth. You thought about Luthien and her family. You hoped they were safe even though it had been years. If things weren't so serious, you would have entertained the idea of visiting them, but since it was not safe for you, you left the idea.

You heard voices coming from the woods and realized it must have been elves singing. You knew the elves’s singing could cause you to follow them or get enchanted and one way to prevent that is to sing a catchy tone to distract them. So, you started singing one catchy travel song you knew. The singing stopped. It was a good sign but just to be sure, you continued singing until you passed the woods.

You came across a small lake and saw what seemed to be a white long-tailed duck and a cooper’s hawk. An odd pair, but not just as odd as the hawk being in a color of purple and pink. They observed you with keen caution and you looked at them back. They must be some kind of faes, so you kept caution as you rode past them. Oddly enough, there was something familiar about them.

The ride went smoothly despite the oddities. You then continued toward Ossiriand. Due to the feanorians’ influence over the north, you decided not to risk using the road across the blue mountains because it would force you to go to their lands. However, you did need to be cautious since Ossiriand was known to be home to some elf groups.

All seemed well, but your luck seemed to have run out as one coming night, you heard the dreadful sound of a hunting horn. The dwarves warned you about the feanorians playing their horn as it was a sign that they were nearby and on a hunt. However, hearing the horn made even the wendigo feel weary which was not a good sign.

There would be no way to outrun them if they caught track of you, and having met Celegorm, you did all you could to hide your tracks. You released the pony, taking her gear and wishing her good luck. You felt relieved that you didn’t decide to set up a fire and once all tracks were hidden and the pony was gone, you hid yourself and all your items beneath a small cave that had running water. One way to hide any scents and sounds was to be near running water. You then listened when you heard horses coming to your former campsite.

You heard them talk in their language. You flinched as the Quenya came out of their lips like whispers and hisses like a snake. You recognized the voices of Celegorm, Curufin, and Caranthir as they looked through your camp. You counted them through the sound of the hooves and voices. One, three, four, five, and six. You counted six riders. Where was the seventh? Which brother was missing?

Celegorm found tracks of your pony and you could nearly feel the thrill of a hunt in his voice. It was enough to send shivers down your spine. You didn’t get along with him before since he was a bit of an asshole, but now he sounded like a psychotic killer. You did not want to imagine what he would do if he knew you were there.

They decided to go after your pony’s tracks. You sensed through the earth as the thundering hooves galloped away and you counted that all six of them left. You quietly released a breath of relief and prayed for your pony’s sake.

You waited till the morning before continuing your journey on foot. If Maglor and his brothers were anything like the faeries of your world, then daytime should provide you some safety and time to travel. Faeries usually allowed their twisted nature to flourish when it was dark.

Walking through the land was tiring, but you forced yourself to continue. You stopped for a moment to take a drink from your bottle. It allowed you to notice the purple hawk and the white long-tailed duck from Doriath sitting on a tree, observing you. They were together and seeing them there made you feel odd.

However, since their appearance did not alert the feanorians on you, you concluded they were not there to rat you out. You continued your walk after your break.

After an hour or two, you tried to find your way to one of Ossiriands great rivers, but for some reason, you were walking in circles. The day was also hot as hell and you soon realized that most of your water was gone. You settled beside a river, concluding it was clean and attempting to fill your bottle with it. But then, the white long-tailed duck showed up, quacking and flapping its wings at you.

“What do you want?” You asked, confused as it was stopping you from taking the water.

You then heard what seemed to be soft humming. You looked around as there was no one yet the voice seemed to be trying to lure you to the water. You soon realized why the duck stopped you and quietly stepped back into the woods. Despite your heart being compelled to return and follow the voice, you ran as fast as you could away from the river.

One of the positive perks of being cursed with a supernatural spirit was that it made you immune to other supernatural beings. Something like a siren lurked in those waters and that duck just saved you.

When you noticed you came back to another circle, you took out a normal compass and the arrow was spinning like a crazy. It made your blood run cold. The good news is, you now knew why you were going around circles. It was because you were inside a magical fae trap that made you unable to leave.

You then heard the horn again. They were on to you. You were being hunted.

You took out another compass, a special compass given by the dwarves. They had discovered that the fae traps were never perfect, thus there was a hole the person could escape through and the compass showed the way to the hole. You felt relieved when you got a direction and started running.

Unfortunately, the feanorians weren’t the only ones hunting you. They had hunting hounds. Their dogs snuffed you out and came after you. You were forced to use drastic maneuvers to evade them as they charged at you. Unfortunately, one of the mutts managed to plunge its teeth into your leg, tearing through your flesh. You cried in pain but used a dagger to stab the hound, forcing it to let you go.

However, the hounds surrounded you, ready to tear you apart. In pain and crippling anxiety, wendigo took control. You struck one of the hounds with your strength before growling and charging at one of the hounds, tackling it down and plunging your teeth into its hide.

The sudden display of savagery scared the hounds away. You snapped back to reality after killing the dog and tasting its blood in your mouth. You panicked. You apologized to the dog and continued running away.

With your wound, you were forced to stop. You became desperate as you lost the compass when you got bitten by the hounds. It was too big of a risk to go back for it. You then saw the duck and hawk again, waiting for you. They let out sounds, indicating you to follow them. You decided to trust them and they led you to a hiding place, where you managed to address your wound properly.

The hound got you hard. Adding the medical herbs felt awful but the pain subsided after you managed to tie it with bandages. You fell sick and dreaded what would become of you. You were in some real shit hole and possibly got rabies.

The purple hawk suddenly landed beside your head, looking down on you with its pink eyes. It felt ominous as it then laid its wing over your eyes.

“Sleep,” You heard a familiar voice but fell into a painless slumber.

You then woke up in the morning, feeling something strange in your mouth. You pulled out a strange leaf with weird spots in it. It left your mouth dry but you didn’t feel sick anymore. You tried to figure out what happened last night and only one person came to mind about who that voice belonged to.

Your thoughts vanished when you saw a giant leaf with clean water in it. You grabbed it and drank the water, quenching your thirst and feeling refreshed.

You looked around for the strange birds. You were now certain that they were helping you, even though you didn’t know why. Perhaps they were good faes as that was not impossible. Maybe not all elves turned evil.

You found the duck, who quacked and patted its feet. The hawk stood on a tree expectantly. You didn’t know what it wanted but it looked like they wanted you to follow them again. Without your compass, you were going in blind so you decided to trust them and follow them as they led you somewhere.

The birds led you to a forest. You hid yourself when you saw horses and elves, dancing around, singing. They looked nothing like their former selves as some had features of animals and some had features like they were part of nature itself. They looked like the fae though more unnerving. The duck quacked and flew in another direction. You were confused as to why they would lead you right to your pursuers but decided to trust them as they didn’t alert the elves of your presence.

The duck and hawk stood on the trees as you were watching the horses. The horses nearly looked ordinary except that some of them also looked different. You saw a few with extra eyes, some in other colors and some even looked like birds. You guessed they were changed too as some of the horses were from Valinor. You tried to guess what the birds wanted you to do because you did not want to risk trying to steal one of the horses. Elves shared deep bonds with their equine companions, so the horses were loyal, they would definitely either kill you or alert the elves of your presence.

You bickered with the birds as you couldn’t risk stealing. The pair then looked away from the horses and you followed their gaze. Away from the horses, stood a black horse, without a saddle and eating grass alone. You narrowed your eyes as the horse looked familiar and sneaked closer to have a better look. When you recognized the horse, you finally realized why the birds led you there. They led you to your salvation as the lone black stallion was your own horse, Goliath.

“Goliath…” You uttered in disbelief.

The giant picked up its head and looked toward you. There was some gray in his snout and coat, most likely due to his age. You noticed feathers on his coat and figured he had been morphed like a raven. However, he still looked young and healthy like the last time you saw him. It was your sweet giant Goliath.

Goliath looked at you with caution but when you showed your face and called him again by his name. His tail whisked and he whined as he nearly galloped to you, allowing you to embrace him and nearly cry with joy. He still remembered you.

It also seemed he had remained loyal to you even after your supposed death since he bore no saddle or didn’t stand with the other horses.

You patted him and gave him sugary treats he liked. You realized the birds had reunited you with your equine best friend and possibly given you your salvation. There was a high chance Goliath knew how to get out of the trap.

You asked him if he was willing to help you escape. You did not need to guess if he agreed because he then laid down, allowing you to climb on his back. You had no hesitation to climb on him and ride as he then took you away from the elven camp.

You held onto his mane as he ran through the woods and fields. You felt hopeful as the path seemed new. However, you felt slightly anxious as it would not probably take long for the elves to notice that one of their horses was missing. The hawk and the duck followed you through flight.

You were right as you heard the horn in the distance.

You also heard hounds so you guided Goliath to run beside a river in hopes of hiding your scent. However, the white duck suddenly quacked in alarm as it flew near you. You didn’t have time to question why it was suddenly alerted but your answer to the missing seventh rider was answered when a dark rider with his horse jumped out of the river, reaching out to you with his clawed hands. You pulled back, falling from Goliath’s back.

You groaned from the fall as the impact caused the wound on your leg to open, but quickly fled into the forest. However, with your wound burning like a hot knife, you didn’t get far and when you heard the rider coming for you, you lost control of the wendigo again.

When the rider was about to strike you, you screamed and pounced high enough to tackle him from his horse. The helmet he wore got thrown on and you roared at him as you laid on top of him. His horse whined and tried to attack you, but Goliath came back, kicking and preventing the other horse from approaching you.

Seeing the rider’s face and realizing who was below you snapped you back in control. You stared in shock as it was Maglor who looked back at you. His skin was pale as snow and his hair was darker than ever. He had what you could describe as scales dressing the skin below his eyes which were sharp like that of a snake. You then realized that he must have been your siren from before as he was the one who came out of the water and most likely kept track of you. Now it made more clear why the white duck was so alarmed when you were near water.

“Maglor?” You uttered in disbelief as you stared at each other with shock and bewilderment.

However, when you heard the horns and sounds of horses, you quickly climbed back on Goliath and rode away from Maglor. You looked back for a moment, seeing Maglor looking after you but making no attempts to chase after you. You shook your head and focused on escaping.

Goliath ran like the wind and when you got to the end of the forest, you suddenly felt like you went through something and like a heavy spell had been lifted from you. You realized that you had finally escaped the trap and urged Goliath to keep running, you did not want to risk Maglor and his brothers coming after you now that you had officially escaped them. Celegorm would most likely not take it lightly that his prey got away.

However, it did not stop you from thinking about Maglor and how he had changed. There was a chance he didn’t know it was you when he tried to lure you into the water. Now you were concerned about what he would do now that he knew it was you. For a moment you thought you saw his old self when you looked at him in the eyes. However, you did not decide to stay and find out.

You rode toward the east on Goliath, guided by the white duck and the hawk as you left Ossiriand. You could only hope your journey would get easier from there.

#silmarillion #silmarillion x reader #tolkien #middle earth x reader #silm fic #middle earth #silmarillion imagines #maglor x reader #silmarillion fanfiction #fae maglor #tw:dark #maglor

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sincerely-sofie · 4 months ago

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Did you ever think up a name for the goat's patron? Curious because I love their desgin and I cant get them out of my head. Also, if its not too much trouble, do you mind going into your thoughts behind their design? For some reason I interpret it as vaugely Chinese/Journey to the West inspired (which has partly resulted in me calling them pigsy in my head), but idk if thats your you were going for.

(referencing the design found in this post)

Her name is Freya! She's the goddess of both life and death in her world, chained by her siblings to guarantee themselves immortality. She was freed from her chains by the Goat stealing her siblings' crowns and using their weapons to sacrifice himself in a vicious ritual that should have led to him being impossible to bring back from death's clutches. But Freya was terrified of losing him, and tried to stop him from slipping away as he died. She only managed to pin him between life and death, trapping him in the moments of his passing for what seemed like eons... Until a newly-crowned goddess from another world with an affinity for such things found and released him. (At least in the scrapped storyline / alternative AU where he appears!)

The main inspiration behind her design was that I wanted her to be an animal that's seen positively or negatively depending on the culture it's in, and has a connection with luck in order to contrast Narinder's being a black cat and fulfilling those requirements as well. So I made her a pig as a result!

I wanted her to contrast the Goat's very gloomy and dark design. She would have warm brown, bright gold, and vivid purple as her central colors as a result, though I didn't color her in the piece she appears in, so that's not clear at all, haha.

I'm not the best at conveying it in my art, but Narinder, at least in his updated design I never really draw, is meant to have diamonds as the main shape that his design is built around. He's supposed to have diamond-shaped eyes, ears, face, etcetera. And Freya has hearts to contrast that! A shape that has roundedness to its points.

I wasn't very inspired by Chinese motifs while designing Freya beyond the symbolism of pigs in that culture helping me choose her species. But her earrings were semi-inspired by furin wind chimes, which originate in Japan! You can read about those on their Wikipedia page here. I imagine that Freya would be the inspiration behind her world's lore for their version of furin.

As a little bit of parting trivia: the Goat was the one to do all of the plotting to free Freya, contrasting the Lamb and Narinder's dynamic. He was so utterly head over heels for her after she saved him from the massacre of his people, ashamed of her siblings' actions, that he was willing to do whatever it took for her to see the world she loved again, free of shackles.

#i recently learned of shamura being confirmed as the Goat's patron and have been cooking for that. but that's a story for another day #better the wool au #cult of the lamb #cult of the goat #cotl goat #cotl oc #cotl #sofie answers asks #sofie says stuff #(kinda)#creativity tips with Sofie #(kinda??? im just talking about my process. but still.)#stuff by Sofie

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ultra-violet-heart · 1 year ago

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Fanfare for Frieren (a fan translation)

This is the English fan translation of Fanfare for Frieren (奏送), the accompanying short novella for the opening theme of the Frieren anime, Yuusha by Yoasobi, written by Jirou Kiso with the supervision of manga writer Kanehito Yamada. The images here are from its print/digital version, which has been a bonus from the special edition of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End Volume 12.

Disclaimer: This translation is made by me for fandom purposes only. This unofficial translation is not affiliated with the official Frieren franchise or with Yoasobi. All rights reserved for Frieren: Beyond Journey's End to its respective committees, committee members, staff and rights holders.

Please ask my permission and credit me+this post if you will be re-translating this to other languages. PLEASE DO NOT REPOST THIS OR ITS IMAGES TO OTHER SITES. PLEASE DO NOT REPOST ANYWHERE ESPECIALLY ON YOUTUBE AND TIKTOK. Please take the fan translations here with a grain of salt.

I'm posting my Ko-Fi here as currently, I've been having financial trouble regarding my medicine, so if anyone can donate, I would be much grateful for the help, thank you very much.

Five years after the death of Himmel the Hero.

Central Lands, the Capelle [1] Region.

A small city, commonly referred to as “Music City”, was located not far off west of the Royal Capital.

Many renowned musicians, who had established the foundation of court music, went there to study, and they each created orchestras there which continue up to this day. Day and night, orchestral and operatic performances kept theatres crowded, and these performances were well-known in the Central Lands.

The hymns that could be heard from the church also evoked such amicable ties between culture and religion. The singing voices and the performance, both tranquil and powerful, were pleasing to the ears.

There’s unexpected magic in places like this, huh, Frieren thought while walking through the streets with light steps.

She couldn’t visit this place during her journey to defeat the Demon King, but she thought it would have been nice to have taken a detour on the beginning. The journey started from the Royal Capital to the east, she recalled with a little regret.

To that extent, the city was much of a beautiful and isolated place.

The cobblestone pavements reminded one of a flowing music score, while the radial houses reminded one of a well-organized orchestra. The entire city had this atmosphere of welcoming people, so that there was music there for people to listen to.

There might be a wealth of music-related magic in this place. She wasn’t particularly knowledgeable when it comes to music, but folk magic rooted in a distinctive culture was worth collecting for that reason alone.

Following the signboards that were shaped like sheet music and musical instruments, Frieren continued walking.

Just near were an opera house and a museum adjacent to it, and the sound of some rhythm coming from somewhere.

Various sounds overlapped the whole city, however, strangely enough, there was no cacophony at all.

Suddenly, among those sounds, one of the most awkward sounds caught her ear. The timbre sounded like it was carefully walking on ice.

Apparently, a small marching band was passing by in front of the church located in the city’s center. The boys and the girls were preparing for their practice that day, carrying brass instruments too big for their stature and with more percussion instruments than their hands could handle.

A boy wearing a red feathered military hat―or rather, was made to wear one―had this desperate expression as he continued blowing his horn, unconcerned about his reddening face.

Even though from a very young age, all this city’s people had been living together with music.

The sound the boy made while carefully holding the horn, which was said to be the most difficult instrument in the world for humans to play, was not the clearest at all.

However, sometime in the future, that sound will reverberate gallantly and kindly.

Frieren felt it was a timbre suitable for the city.

Frieren continued to walk, as if the small orchestra was pushing her back.

The rustling of leaves, the gurgling water of the fountain, the happy hubbub from the cafeteria. All the sounds of nature and the noise of daily lives here and there gave the impression they were all pleasantly tuned.

It might be said she could stay in here for years while exploring the city thoroughly.

In one corner of the city, there stood an old-looking music store. Its appearance, reflecting its long age, made it stand out.

For some reason, she entered the store. It was a place she wouldn’t normally stop by, but her feet were strangely drawn into it.

Beyond the store’s creaking door, however, a strikingly different but still atmosphere hung about.

Beautifully polished wind instruments. Stringed instruments without a speck of dust. They were placed on a cramped space, lined like capillary vessels. The store’s appearance made it feel like one could hear the breathing of the old craftsman running the store alone.

As she searched for a narrow foothold and was about to head deeper,

“You.” A voice said. Frieren felt it was a matured voice that carefully aged over many years.

An old man, whose white hair was tied up clumsily, peeked out from the back of the store. His sleeves were still rolled up, as if he was still tending to his instruments a short while ago. She caught a glimpse of the old man’s muscles, which were well-toned for his age.

“You… seemed to have lived a life unconnected to musical instruments.”

Adjusting the monocle on his eye, the old man fixed his gaze on Frieren.

“How can you tell?”

“Because you are a face I have not seen before. Those who love music and those who are loved by music will have visited this place sooner or later.”

The old man asserted his words with such sincere belief.

“Those who love music will immediately be obsessed with the instruments here. Those who are loved by music are people my eyes immediately recognize. So, yes, I can tell. Will you let me see your face?”

And then he beckoned her to come closer.

“My, my, I am surprised. It seems like you are the latter.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your ears, the corner of your eyes, your features. You appear to be an elf.”

“I am an elf, but…”

Frieren didn’t immediately catch the drift of the conversation.

“I have something I want people like you to have.”

After saying, “Wait for me,” the old man turned on his heel and took out a small wooden box from the back of the store and opened it. Inside was a palm-sized ocarina-like musical instrument.

The instrument’s intricate design was obvious even to the untrained eye.

“This is the Möglich. [2]”

“Möglich?”

“Its other name is ‘the Impossible’ [2]. It’s an instrument said to take a hundred years to master.”

“I once heard the horn is said to be the most difficult instrument in the world for humans to play.”

Frieren replied, recalling the boy from the marching band earlier. She remembered him struggling to play.

“That is a topic for ordinary humans. This instrument, however, was originally made by elves. You seem to be unaware of this.”

“That’s right. I didn’t know. Though it’s not strange if some elf did invent something like that.”

Frieren knew some of her own kind who spent so many years just killing time. [3]

“My great-grandfather inherited the Möglich, and he analyzed its structure. Apparently, it is impossible to produce a sound with this instrument unless they continue infusing in a small amount of mana while maintaining a perfect equilibrium. It would take more than ten years to produce a proper sound on this instrument. Fifty years is not even enough for an experienced mage to play one tune with it.”

“Really?” Frieren replied vaguely, not making it clear whether she was interested or not.

“I heard after one hundred years of diligently studying it, the sound one can play from this instrument is unparalleled.”

In fact, the old shopkeeper spent his life trying to master it. However, it was impossible for him to master the instrument as he did not possess any magical power. He could not even make it produce a sound.

“There is yet no one who has mastered it, much less know how to play it, so this instrument is still for sale, waiting for a buyer.”

The instrument had this eye-popping price tag. It was an amount that could already buy a house, and there was no way Frieren could afford it, not with the travelling-expenses-money she had on hand.

Of course, Frieren had no intention to buy it.

Certainly, it was rather interesting a fellow elf spent part of their long life in the form of developing this musical instrument. What kind of elf are they? Why did they give it to humans?

Most likely, she felt that this might be no more than a prank. It was an instrument that made sounds that could not be produced within the very short, fleeting lives of humans, after all.

“I am here because I want to hear the Möglich’s melodies one day. I have long sought for that timbre no words can describe. For so many years, this whole time. I eagerly awaited any who loved music or is loved by music to come here and finally fulfill my wish. It might be an impossible dream now, but I feel the guidance of the Goddess is at work that I am able to meet you, an elf.”

“I’m sorry, but…”

“I have no need for your money.”

“I can’t pay, then.”

“I want an elf like you to have it.” The old shopkeeper said with a strong tone.

His eyes held no arrogance on them, as if he was pushing his impossible dream onto someone else, but instead were filled with unadulterated hope.

“………”

After some hesitation, Frieren replied.

“If there’s no other buyers, I’ll think about it. This should be bought by someone who should own it though.”

“I see… Come back. I am sure you will.”

“I’ll be back. I plan on staying here for a while.”

The old man, as if to remind himself, called out to Frieren as she was about to leave.

“What is your name?”

“Frieren.”

“What a fine name. A name loved by music.”

The dusk was casting its shadow over the city by the time she left the music store.

Frieren felt how the city’s tune changed between day and night.

Unlike the bustling daytime and the soundless midnight, the comforting evening was like a soft breeze caressing her cheeks.

Let’s have dinner, Frieren thought.

During the time she traveled with Himmel and their party, Himmel always decided where they would eat. He had this exceptional ability to find out any restaurant that had what Frieren and the others wanted without them telling him what they were in the mood to eat.

How did you know? She once asked him at the dinner table.

“You all have this way of showing what you’re thinking on your faces.”

Himmel smiled as he said this.

“Heiter’s face now has the color of a ditch.”

Eisen took a glance at the drunkard next to him.

“What?!”

Heiter looked back at Frieren, his face looking like an undead. He was so dead drunk he couldn’t tell the difference between Eisen and Frieren.

“You reek of booze.”

Frieren kicked him while Himmel laughed.

“Frieren, you see, I enjoy nothing more than having a meal with the four of us like this. I choose the food every one of us like as I want to make sure we all have a good time.”

She recalled wondering even then if it was the answer to her question.

She then looked at the restaurant now in front of her and thought it had the same appearance and atmosphere as the one from that time.

This restaurant, called Parlante [3], was such a calm place it was like it was not her first time entering it.

“What did Himmel like?”

Thinking back, Himmel always ordered his food last. It was often a different dish from theirs, or he would choose a dish that was easy to share between the four of them.

After that, he would portion out his food little by little, share that, and say, “Isn’t it more fun to have a variety of dishes at once?”

They had eaten around the table in as many places as she could remember. They partook of seafood when they were in coastal towns, they ate wild greens and hunted game in campgrounds, and they particularly were fond of each region’s local specialties.

“The food that can only be eaten in the place you’re in becomes a shared memory with the people you went in with. Even if you forget, you’ll remember again when you go there and eat the local food. That’s how I want to travel.”

Frieren remembered them talking about this one day, so she then called the waiter.

“Is there any dish you can only eat at this restaurant?”

Would Himmel be surprised to find out she had started thinking like that? Or would he laugh and say, “It’s written on your face,” as if he had already predicted this would happen?

The waiter flipped carefully through the menu pages.

“Our specialty is the l'oeuf omelette [4], made of ten chicken eggs. This dish has four servings, so shall I bring you a quarter of that?”

“No, I’ll order it as it is. If I can’t finish it all, I’ll have the rest on take-out.”

This dish, which was loved by well-known musicians, was bigger than expected and took up a large space on the table.

The evening for one person went on, her recalling that lively dinner table she once shared with others.

It has been a month since she stayed, but she had been so distracted by the magic tool shops and the cityscapes, she wasn’t able to fully explore the small city.

Every time she passed the music store, however, the old shopkeeper would enthusiastically call Frieren’s name.

It had become routine for both of them to exchange small greetings.

It wasn’t particularly a trouble to Frieren, but somehow, she felt like going somewhere a bit different for today.

Not far off the city center, there was a street lined with monuments of musicians. Some were well-known, but others were unknown to Frieren.

At the end of the line, however, she found a rather out-of-place statue.

It was a bust of Himmel holding a violin. It was probably commissioned by the time he was travelling alone in neighboring countries after the Demon King’s defeat.

“He was here, too…” Frieren muttered unconsciously.

His eyes were closed, but his facial expression on the chin rest conveyed such a strong will. This must be the work of a skilled craftsman. One could tell a lot of time was spent making the statue. The finish it had was unique even among the more than one hundred types of heroes’ statues.

“So, he could play such a musical instrument.”

She muttered those words to herself, not wanting anyone else to hear, but from behind her came an unexpected response.

“It’s just as Master Himmel said.”

When Frieren turned around, she saw the speaker was an old woman. There was quite a gap between the woman’s voice, which was quite youthful, and the woman’s elderly appearance. The woman continued with a well-projected voice.

“Might you be Lady Frieren?”

“……?”

For a few moments, Frieren couldn’t understand the words directed at her.

“What do you mean?”

“Master Himmel said that when he came here before.”

The old woman, using skillful vocal acrobatics, reenacted her and Himmel’s state during that time.

“One day in the future, a mage named Frieren will visit this city. I want to make a statue that will serve as a landmark for her.”

“A landmark? Won’t everyone just stop in front of Master Himmel instead?”

“I’m sure they will. But I’m also sure they’ll recognize her immediately as she gazes at me.”

“Is that how it is?”

“Yes, it is.”

The old woman cleared her throat once, ending her little performance. Frieren felt it was strange, given the woman was surprisingly good at imitating voices. She was then told the woman was a former star performer at a circus troupe. It was no wonder that the woman’s voice carried through strongly.

“My apologies for the late introduction. My name is Flöte [5]. I got too excited at meeting you, Lady Frieren. This is embarrassing…”

Her cheeks blushed, a complete change from moments earlier when she was still acting with different voice tones.

“I witnessed a good performance.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

Flöte smiled like a blooming flower.

“It seems like the statue was worth making.”

“Master Himmel lamented the statue wasn’t enough to convey his charm to the public.”

“Himmel would probably say that.”

Frieren then wiped the rust off the bronze statue’s flowy hair with a rag she carried.

“If only there was a ‘spell that removes rust from bronze statues’, this clean-up would be easier.”

“Let me help you.”

“It’s all right. I can do it on my own. So, why did Himmel say that?”

As all the rust was wiped off and the statue’s smile returned, the old woman answered Frieren with a mysterious look on her face.

“I have a favor to ask of you, Lady Frieren.”

She said it so apologetically that Frieren got an anxious expression.

“…What’s the reward?”

“A grimoire with the ‘spell to record sounds in a book’.”

At that point, Frieren broke into a smile.

“All right, I’m in.”

“So, you want to dispel a spell that will not dispel until the caster dies?”

Frieren asked again, repeating the old woman’s words.

“That’s rather difficult. Nearly impossible, even.”

“’I’m sure Frieren will do it’, that’s what Master Himmel told me before.”

“That’s absurd.”

“I’m also embarrassed to say… I am the caster in question.”

“I’m not getting the situation. What do you mean?”

“I ought to speak in order, then.”

As the old woman said this, she began narrating her personal history.

Flöte was not born in the Capelle region, but in a family of mages, and her parents moved to the area as they hated the horrors of war, and there they established a magical circus troupe. She didn’t originally want to join the troupe, but due to the education she received, she was able to use various magic spells back then.

One of those spells was the ‘spell to erase one memory until death’. It would be a terrible spell if abused by others, but the spell was restricted so that it can only be cast on oneself.

There were many rumors about its effectiveness, which were never true. Some people said it reminded them of the moment of death where one’s whole life flashed before one’s eyes, while others said it meant like being buried in eternal darkness.

In any case, it was a mysterious kind of magic.

One day, when she was 15 years old, having mastered the spell at such a young age, she then cast it upon herself.

Since then, Flöte had lost that one memory, even until now.

“In short, I want to dispel that oblivion spell I casted upon myself.”

“What memory did you erase?”

“That’s the thing: I don’t know. I did erase it, after all.”

With downcast eyes, she connected her words.

“However, I began to wonder if I did lose something important on a whim, especially as I grew older and get closer to death. If, due to the heat of the moment, I buried that memory I shouldn’t have lost with the magic spell I learned, at least, I want to remember what it is before I die. I’m sorry, you might think of this as a selfish request.”

The old woman finally spoke in a voice appropriate for her age.

“When Master Himmel was in the city, I got an opportunity to tell him about it. He then told me about you, Lady Frieren. That Lady Frieren is sure to do something about it.”

Observing Frieren carefully, the old woman then appealed to her.

“Please, will you grant my request? I want to spend the little time I have left, which will pass in the blink of an eye, without any regrets.”

The old woman spoke eloquently, but Frieren didn’t reply, seemingly getting lost in her thoughts.

She walked through the city after, letting time pass, and when night came, she booked a room in a tavern.

Late at night, when the tavern earlier filled with cheerful music finally went quiet, the events of the day came to Frieren’s thoughts as she leafed through the pages of her grimoire.

“This journey must have been a blink of an eye for you,” Himmel said.

The comment came as perfectly natural as picking vegetables in the market.

“I’ve almost died so many times, but now that I’ve made it here, everything feels so nostalgic.”

After the Demon King’s defeat, Himmel continued on as he rode the shaky carriage back to the Royal Capital.

“Frieren. I know you don’t think of this as nostalgic yet, but the day will come when you remember this journey, us, and this moment. I don’t know when that will be. Maybe after I die. Even so, I’m sure you’ll be able to laugh and say, ‘That was a silly journey, wasn’t it?’”

“It’s too early for the serious talk! We haven’t truly defeated the Demon King until we return home!”

Heiter continued to tease them while smiling.

“Well, we still have requests to fulfill.”

On his return to the Royal Capital, Himmel received many requests. He took on small tasks to help people, fixing roads, even searching for lost things.

Their current request back then was from the village undertaker, who asked them to eliminate a monster that only reacted to human corpses.

When asked for more details, the undertaker said there was a dragon blocking the only bridge that connected the village and the town. Since the dragon damaging the area only occurred when corpses were carried away, it was concluded that the dragon had the tendency to target only corpses.

It didn’t respond to scarecrows, and pretending to be dead didn’t work on it either. Since it only paid attention to real human corpses, Frieren guessed it might have eyes that could detect whether a person is alive or dead.

“I’ll act as bait.”

Himmel spoke resolutely, as he always did.

“You just defeated the Demon King, and you want to die here?” Eisen said. “Stop being reckless!”

“Even Eisen, who doesn’t die even if he was eaten by monsters, is useless this time, huh.”

“Heiter, shut up.”

Frieren looked at the two badmouthing each other and then asked.

“Can’t we just borrow a corpse?”

“We can’t do that, Frieren.”

Himmel continued, as if to admonish her.

“A dead person is the image of a life lived fully. We can’t recklessly put that in danger. Besides, even if I’ll be acting as bait, I won’t truly die. Frieren, you can put me in a state of suspended animation, yes?”

“A state of suspended animation?”

She once casted the ‘spell to encase a living creature on ice’ on a ferocious enormous fish. Himmel must have that time in mind when he said this.

“Are you sure? If I make a slight mistake, you’ll truly die.”

“You can do it, right?”

“I don’t know.”

Frieren shrugged her shoulders and…

“Just do it this time. You’re capable of it, after all.”

“Go for it!”

Heiter and Eisen happily cheered.

“I don’t know what will happen.”

Himmel stood on top of the bridge as Frieren took out her staff.

“Frieren. Fire at me.”

A flash of mana concentrated on the staff’s tip then enveloped Himmel. The air around froze, and Himmel quietly collapsed.

Soon after, a very large shadow appeared on the bridge. A dragon came on sight. As it circled the sky above, it went straight at Himmel, as if it had set its sights on him. Its piercing eyes and the sharp claws it brought out now loomed nearer.

Facing that, a large swing of the warrior Eisen’s axe violently exploded.

A heavy, dull sound echoed throughout the area.

White smoke and cold air blended, then wafted away as if they were thawing. One could see that Eisen was the last one standing.

Frieren then promptly used the ‘spell to warm up the skin’ on Himmel’s cold body.

Regaining his breath, Himmel smiled at Frieren with a reddened face.

“See? I told you; you can do it.”

Frieren snapped her grimoire shut.

“The ‘spell to erase one memory until death’, huh.”

The next day, as the morning sun rose, the city became slowly filled with sound.

Frieren woke up on the hard floor far from her bed, and with bed hair she went to Flöte’s house.

It was to put a theory into practice. This was a drastic measure, but in Frieren’s opinion this measure would work.

“Lady Frieren, good morning. Did you find out anything?”

The old woman’s voice seemed refreshed.

“You’ll have to die.”

“Huh?”

“That’s why I’ll put you into the state of suspended animation.”

“……”

There was a moment of confusion from the old woman, then silence. However, after a while, she looked like she had made up her mind.

“Please. I’ll do whatever it takes.”

As soon as she heard those words, Frieren gently raised her staff.

“Lie on the bed. I’m starting.”

“I’ll do whatever it takes, indeed, but are you all right with this…?”

“I’ve done it once before. I can do it.”

“If Lady Frieren says so, then it will be all right. Please do so.”

The spell Frieren casted on the old woman enveloped the latter’s body, and for a moment her body stiffened.

Soon after, however, the old woman’s body regained movement, just like how coloring paint flowed when dissolved in water. She then wore this childlike expression, showing a trace of the young girl she once was.

“How are you?” Frieren asked shortly after. “You technically have died once, so your memory should be back.”

“Hahaha… I was worried like a child…”

The old woman seemed to have recovered her lost memory.

As an adolescent, she didn’t want to join the magical circus troupe. Instead, she yearned for a particular musical instrument.

“The Möglich, the instrument said to take a hundred years to master…”

She strongly yearned for it, but it was too expensive, and she could not spend a hundred years on it, so as a child, she thought she could just forget it existed.

So, she sealed that memory instead. She put the lid on that unattainable wish and began to live on reality.

“I’m glad I remembered… I’ll put my life on the line even if it takes years before I reached my dream, and I’ll start learning from now on.”

“I see. Then, you should have that instrument.”

As the Möglich was an instrument which used magical power to produce sound, without doubt, it would be a good match for Flöte, who was a mage.

“I’ll tell the music store shopkeeper. That there is this customer who has wanted it for a long time.”

“Oh, no. Are you truly sure?”

“I want someone who loves music more than me to have it, you see.”

“Thank you very much. Lady Frieren, I cannot thank you enough.”

“I get rewarded anyways, so…”

“Yes, you’re right.” The old woman took out a grimoire from her bookshelf. “This is the grimoire with the ‘spell to record sounds in a book’. I’m ashamed to say I have already recorded various sounds in this book…”

Flöte’s eyes went downcast as she said this, just like when she and Frieren first met.

“It sounds like a strange hobby, isn’t it? As it was routine for me to travel to various places as part of the magical circus troupe, I had a lot of once-in-a-lifetime chance encounters, and I wanted to preserve them in some form. The local people and the sounds from nature became my source of support. Among these are the recordings of my meetings with Master Himmel.”

“This isn’t a strange hobby. Himmel would have said the same.”

Frieren said she would return the grimoire when she finished reading it, then left the room.

On the same day, Frieren went to Restaurant Parlante, which was now a completely familiar place for her, and ordered an omelette. When she went to bed with a full stomach, she then opened the grimoire the old woman gave her.

Just as Flöte said, the grimoire had sounds from various ages, places, genders of people… some of them were sounds from nature, some being the noise of daily lives.

“You… you look familiar.”

Was this how the old music store shopkeeper sounded like when he was younger?

“I’ll have the ten-egg l'oeuf omelette, please!”

The voice of a very well-known musician continued.

“This time, I’m thinking of starting a marching band in this city.”

“One day in the future, a mage named Frieren will visit this city. I want to make a statue that will serve as a landmark for her.”

She heard Himmel’s voice as she turned a page. His voice was a bit different from the last time she met him, but it was still Himmel’s voice from her memories. It felt nostalgic, too.

And she realized that Flöte’s voice imitation before was a bit exaggerated.

“Please pose quickly! You’re just holding a violin…!”

This was probably the heartbroken cry of the craftsman who made that Himmel bust.

It seemed like Flöte, as a young girl, followed her interests and recorded these sounds from the various places she went, and the chance encounters she cherished. Frieren could just imagine how she looked like during then.

“………”

It might not be a bad idea to retrace that journey with everyone, she thought, looking at the east towards the Royal Capital.

In the end, Frieren decided to leave after staying in the city for around three months.

When she said goodbye to the music store shopkeeper, he excitedly said, “Flöte loves music and is loved by music.” He said the old woman mastered producing sounds on the Möglich at an extraordinarily fast pace, something that would have normally taken ten years.

After all, it was appropriate for those who should own it to have it.

As she was preparing herself to leave with these thoughts in mind, a marching band passed by in front of the tavern.

The boy playing the horn had grown taller in a short time, and his hat now fitted him better. His fingers holding the horn now had calluses on them, and his blowing on it sounded less labored than before.

The sound was brave and gentle, but eventually became grainy.

A celebratory fanfare sounding like a parade salute echoed on Frieren’s back as she left the city.

(END)

Translator’s Notes:

[1] Written as カペッレ in katakana. I decided to translate it as “Capelle”, as the word means “the private orchestra or band of a prince or church”, which is a reference to the marching band in this short novel.

[2] Written as メークリヒ in katakana. In German, “möglich” means “possible”.

[3] Written as パルランテ in katakana. “Parlante” means “a piece of music to be sung or played in the style of a recitative”.

[4] In French, "l'oeuf" means "egg". In short, this word is just a fancy term for "egg omelettes".

[5] Written as フレーテ in katakana. In German, “Flöte” means “flute” or “whistle”.

[6] Frieren was most likely thinking of Milliarde, an elf friend of hers who first appeared in Chapter 69.

#frieren: beyond journey's end #sousou no frieren #frieren #葬送のフリーレン #フリーレン #yoasobi #frieren anime #frieren at the funeral #himmel #heiter #eisen #kanehito yamada #jirou kiso #yuusha #勇者

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jadelotusflower · 5 months ago

Text

And Kansas, she says, is the name of the star

So, Wicked. I actually saw it two weeks ago but have been letting my thoughts marinate a bit. As with anything currently dominating the cultural zeitgeist, the film has received both overwhelming praise and unmitigated hate - although the latter seems to be directed more towards its stars than the film itself, where the line between playful meme-ification and genuine unkindness has been crossed.

Like many, I've been a fan of the world of Oz since I was a child, not only the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, but the quasi-sequels Return to Oz (check out my rewatch/analysis here) and the animated Journey Back to Oz (yes, the one with Liza Minelli). I read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz at some point in my childhood (and have been making my way through the rest this year) but it was the films that really captured my imagination. Also a long time fan of musicals, I was first exposed to Wicked through the documentary Broadway: The American Musical, and was able to see the show in London in 2007 with Kerry Ellis and Helen Dallimore (+ Miriam Margolyes), and subsequently in Australia with Lucy Durack and Jemma Rix (interestingly, Glinda and Elphaba billing swapped for this production). I also read Gregory Maguire's novel shortly after first seeing the show, although have yet to read the sequels.

I very much enjoyed the film, even if for me it isn't really the definitive version, but simply another interpretation of a classic story, a different telling of the same fairy tale. Oz is particularly malleable in this way, the story very much of its time and yet also timeless. As Gregory points out in his preamble of the Wicked musical program: "Tolkein's Middle-Earth reinvigorated readers' interest in older narrative conceits of the hero in battle just as Europe was tumbling towards its mid-century paroxysms of genocide and war. Lewis Carroll, three quarters of a century earlier, had gently mocked Victorian certainties and niceties by portraying Wonderland as an anarchic dreamscape...While Oz was being invented and charted by Baum at the turn of the twentieth century, the American experiment in democracy was coming to resemble, in ways both bad and good, a great and powerful empire."

Maguire wrote his own revisionist tale in 1990, at the end of the Cold War and the beginning of the Gulf War, the musical adaptation premiered on Broadway just after the invasion of Iraq, and now the film is released in times that are no less turbulent, and in which the threat of fascism and the power of propaganda are more acute than ever. It's a story that was resonant in 1900, and is resonant now - albeit in different ways and through different perspectives.

It's all a parable - whether it be Baum's fairyland of childhood adventure, MGM's loving devotional to "the young at heart", Disney's dark fantasy of a splintered mind (and later, their own take on the villain/anti-hero origin story), Maguire's exploration on the nature of evil, the musical's bittersweet ode to the power of friendship, and the film's empowering of the other - a folk tale, a dream, a prophecy, a cautionary tale, a tick of the Time Dragon Clock.

But my thoughts! Here they are. Needless to say, spoilers for the film, stage musical, and all other Oz-related media.

Oz has always been a story that centered its heroines - in the books the arrival of the Wizard disrupts the natural order of the world by usurping Ozma, his power an illusion compared that of the women who surround him - good in Glinda the witch of the South and the unnamed witch of the North, and the wicked in the witches of the East and West. The Wizard and his successor the Scarecrow must both be deposed - the former by Dorothy (albeit unintentionally), and the latter by Jinjur and her girl army, until finally harmony is restored when Ozma returns to her throne.

Wicked of course plays with this notion, where good and evil are not so linear, where Elphaba (in the musical) is the only witch with actual magic - other than Madame Morrible, the true power behind the Wizard’s throne. It's not so simple as restoring a queen to the throne to benevolently reside over a utopia - Elphaba's activism either ends with her death (in the novel) or her escape from Oz (in the musical), Glinda replaces the Wizard as figurehead with the Grimmerie she doesn't know how to read, and the intention to deploy her other skills and popularity this time "for good" - whether she succeeds is unknowable. But I'm getting ahead of myself, because the film is only Part I, aka Act I of the stage musical.

On that point, it was absolutely the right decision to split into two films, even if Part I is almost double the runtime of Act I and seems to add very little (although I enjoyed what it did add). It’s Part II that will benefit from breathing room to pack in a lot of plot (and hopefully flesh out some of the holes). Although from the audible groans in my theatre when the “to be continued” title came up the marketing did its job hiding the split.

But back to my point, it's so gratifying to see not only a big-budget musical that's unashamed and unapologetic to actually be a musical, but one that so unequivocally is a story about women, not only their own struggles, but embracing their own power and exercising their own agency. Elphaba's faith in the Wizard as the cure for all her problems, both internal and external, is viciously shattered and she must take responsibility for her own destiny, Glinda as the epitome of privilege must learn to look beyond the superficial of both herself and others.

It's almost reflective of the classic golden age musicals that were often driven by women and their stories - Maria in The Sound of Music, Eliza in My Fair Lady, Anna in The King and I, Dolly Levi in Hello Dolly!, Fanny in Funny Girl, Mama Rose in Gypsy, and of course the (literal) mother of them all, Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. And I think Wicked in some ways does hearken back to that classic style of movie musical in the setpieces and choreography, though not as much as I would like (more on that later). I don't think its a coincidence that Wicked's audience is skewed 70% female and it's been enormously successful, and much like last year's Barbie, has shown that women will show up an support a film about women when the story and characters are captivating rather than just lazy girlboss faux-empowerment sludge.

The casting is across the board good - I admit I had my reservations about Ariana Grande and while I don’t think she quite hits the rich vocal heights of Chenoweth, she certainly sells the comedy moments, even if there is more calculation and less ditz to her Galinda - there’s very little Billie Burke in her. Which is not a criticism, it's a valid take and her reverence for the musical is clear so of course that's her guiding light, while also making the role her own.

But the emotional core of Part I is Cynthia Ervio’s Elphaba, her isolation and otherness powerful astride her vulnerability and immense inner strength. I’ve always felt in the musical Glinda is the meatier role just because she has a more dramatic character arc, but splitting the film into two has really allowed the first part to centre Elphaba, and Ervio brings the emotional moments - her faith in the Wizard and subsequent loss of it in particular, as well as her humiliation at the Ozdust Ballroom which is just heart-shattering and so relatable. Ervio brings a fragility to the role where on stage there was hostility, and I actually think she is my favourite interpretation.

Michelle Yeoh brings steely manipulation to Madame Morrible, it was a good change to siphon off the comedic elements to new character Miss Coddle (heh) and lean into Yeoh’s natural gravitas. Yes, she talks on pitch rather than sings but who cares. There’s a menace to this Morrible, and yet we see her manipulation of Elphaba so very deftly (setting up Elphaba to need to prove her powers to the Wizard by reading the Grimmerie for example). I'll watch Yeoh in anything, although I do wish we'd seen her actually deliver "this wicked witch" line rather than Elphaba both times.

Jonathan Bailey is appropriately handsome and charming as Fiyero, with enough fluidity of movement to foreshadow his transformation into the Scarecrow (although not to the extent of my favourite Fiyero Adam Garcia, whose limbs were practically liquid).

Jeff Goldblum is doing Jeff Goldblum things, although leans into the sinister - the Wizard is genuinely wicked and fascistic in this version even moreso than the musical. It is kind of amusing that there is absolutely no hiding his distinctive voice in No One Mourns the Wicked so it's blatantly obvious he's Elphaba's father even for those who haven't seen the musical. I do wonder if they are going to make him well aware rather than being told by Glinda at the end - the way he plays A Sentimental Man it's certainly possible.

On that point, the screenplay is actually very faithful to the musical's book, which makes sense since Winnie Holtzman wrote the former and contributed to the latter. There’s some great changes that tweak and tighten the narrative - the relationship between Nessarose and Boq is given greater foundation, as is Elphaba’s connection with Dr Dillamond and her meet-cute with Fiyero. Making Glinda's minions Bowen Yang (Pfannee) and Brownwyn James (Shenshen) comic relief was also a great addition - "Elphaba, love you and your shoulderpads" made me cackle and I kind of wish there was more of them.

However I do feel there were some opportunities missed - I had thought with Act I being it’s own film we may get a bit more meat to Elphie and Glinda after they become friends - we do see that they form a group with Fiyero, Boq, and Nessa but more would have been nice (there were evidently scenes filmed we may see in flashback in Part II). I did appreciate the setup of the Wizard and his diorama (a nice way to visualise Oz) but could have done without Glinda naming the Yellow Brick Road. Not everything needs a reference!

I wish there were some references to Ozma, but it makes sense that the Wizard’s propaganda would erase her from history in favour of the “wise ones” (perfect cameos for Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth). It's interesting that, like in Oz the Great and Powerful, they invoke a prophesy the Wizard co-opts - this really is a mashup of all the Oz lore than came before it.

It also seems they cut "I got what I wanted" from the Ozdust scene (unless I missed it?) which is one of my favourite Glinda moments, so that was a shame.

I did find John M. Chu’s direction oft-times too frenetic. While this is effective and dynamic in numbers such as What is this Feeling? cross-cutting between Elphaba and Galinda and their early rivalry across various school activities, in many others I was desperate for the camera to slow down (or stop!) already and let me see what was on screen. There were so many beautiful things to see! But I missed half of them because the dolly was seemingly fixed to a rollercoaster. The set piece in the library and rotating bookshelves for Dancing Through Life was fantastic, but most of the choreography is muddled by frenzied camera motion, as is the cacophony of the Emerald City. Coming back to classic musicals, I wish he'd taken more a lead from them in locking a wide shot and letting us see the dancing.

Perhaps this is just my sensibility, but although a movie musical must justify its existence and rise above simply becoming a filmed version of the stage performance, there’s power in keeping the camera still and letting the performance speak for itself. In The Wizard and I Elphaba speeds through Shiz passing lakes and hallways and people - now there’s coloured glass! now there’s a cave! now she’s running through a field! now she’s looking over the Deadly Impassable Desert! (a change I'm assuming was made to allow Elphaba and Fiyero to leave Oz through it at the end of Part II). Even I’m not that Girl has luminescent flowers blooming in the background as Elphaba wanders yet again, this time in the dark. It’s almost as if Chu doesn’t trust the audience not to be bored unless there are Things to look at every moment.

I also think it was a mistake to set so many scenes at night rather than leaving that for the narrative turn with the Wizard. The Ozdust Ballroom re-imagined as undeneath the lake at Shiz is inspired, but ultimately is gloomy and dull because of the way it's lit (or rather, not lit). The sets however, particularly Shiz, are genuinely beautiful so I give Chu a great deal of credit for not going full cgi.

There’s also been a lot of criticism of the colour grading and I don’t disagree with it, “muddy” effects and muted palette seems par for the course these days and the camera movement was much more distracting for me. I can appreciate that Chu wanted this to be a less colourful Oz to contrast to '39 visually as well as thematically, but I still would have preferred a bit more vibrancy, especially in Shiz and the Emerald City.

I also didn’t care for Defying Gravity to be so broken up - it’s like that on stage, but still feels like it’s all building to towards that incredible climax. But the film inexplicably breaks up the final verse which absolutely halts the momentum, rather than the build of So if you care the find me/Look to the western sky to And nobody in all of Oz/No wizard that there is or was, we get an interlude of the Unlimited motif which prevents the final lines from soaring as they should. I get what they were going for, but it seems that Elphaba delivers the lines about the West, then flies out and sees it, and comes back to deliver her denouncement when it should have been the other way around. For all the papering over of possible holes in the musical’s book, it’s odd that there wasn’t some foundation to Elphaba’s reason for choosing to go West. For example, if that’s where the Animals said they were going, or if she and Fiyero had discussed his homeland.

However these are minor quibbles! I enjoyed the film enormously, and is a worthy contributor to the Oz canon.

On that point, I've been interested to see fandom discussions around the film, and have noticed that quite a few viewers now see Wicked as "the true story" to the Wizard of Oz's "propaganda". While it's certainly a valid interpretation, if the goal is to interrogate narratives, who is telling the story, and why, to replace one version wholesale with another and declare it "the truth” seems simplistic. This is storytelling, it is both truth in its purest form and propaganda, as all art is on some level. There is not, and cannot be, a "true" version of the story - just different perspectives, and different retellings.

It’s easy to forget that while 1939 has defined so many iconic aspects of the story (ruby slippers, green skin), it was made after forty years of books and staged productions exploring the world of Oz - which the '39 film acknowledges in its opening text. This has always been a story that has grown and changed, been added to and subtracted from, each version taking what they want and discarding the rest, building upon what came before.

And perhaps this is an unpopular opinion - but Wicked (be it book, musical, or film) does not work as a strict prequel to either Baum's novels or the 1939 film - Elphaba is clearly not the Wicked Witch we see in ‘39 (there’s no way this Elphaba would ever try to straight up murder a child to get her hands on shoes), similarly Fiyero and Boq becoming the Scarecrow and Tin Man respectively is fine as a throwaway on stage but just doesn’t line up with the film characters. It's a different version of the same fairy tale - much like Barrie's Peter Pan is different to Disney's, which is different to Hook, which is different to Once Upon a Time etc etc.

If Dorothy’s Oz in is a dream where she needed to find the strength within herself, Maguire’s Oz is gritty nightmare where fate is inescapable. Wicked the musical finds balance between the two, although I am interested to see how they incorporate Dorothy in Part II, as she is very much a bridge between all adaptations as her character changes very little between them (I've yet to see Dorothy as the villain, and honestly hope I never do).

Baum’s vision was an American folk tale, the ‘39 film framing of “it was all a dream”, the stage musical takes place inside the Time Dragon Clock, a mechanical propaganda machine inside which book!Elphaba is literally born. Even this film opens with the haunting voiceover of Glinda’s announcement of witch’s death, purporting to tell the "true story" but even that can only be from her own perspective, coloured by her own guilt. Maguire’s novel bills itself as the “Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” - it’s the telling of a story, the employing of a literary device.

I love thematic mirror, and the Oz of Wicked is in many ways a mirror-verse of the Oz of Baum/MGM - flipping the narrative to re-examine good and evil, to see familiar characters from the other side of the glass. Mrs Gultch takes Toto away on her bicycle to be destroyed, Elphaba take the Lion away on her bicycle to save him from captivity. Ruby slippers return to being silver shoes, the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion are not just happenstance companions of Dorothy but the result of Elphaba's magic - even Elphaba's "i want" song in The Wizard and I can be mirrored to Dorothy's Somewhere Over the Rainbow, their respective unmasking of the Wizard as a fraud can be contrasted, and in the end the Wizard abandons Dorothy, but pursues Elphaba.

Glinda is perhaps one of the most fascinating mirrors from previous works - where she is the ultimate deus ex machina, stepping in at just the right time to save the day. But she is removed from the action, the hand of god, arguably the most powerful being in all of Oz. Wicked seems to both tear down this goddess figure and feed into it - in Part I Glinda wants to be seen as benevolent and perfect and kind when she starts as anything but, and ultimately Glinda the Good is a persona she adopts, like the Wizard she has no real power herself, only the power of myth-making.

Each of the character arcs in Wicked revolves around the stories they tell themselves/others juxtaposed against who they really are. This is a further mirror to the archetypes in Oz - the good witch, the bad witch, the powerful wizard. Elphaba's wickedness is confected, her otherness amplified to make an enemy of the people, but even before this she was using her exclusion as a shield, as Glinda observes, she cares deeply what others think of her, she just pretends she doesn't - and by the end of the film she throws off those shackles, willing to be cast as a wicked witch rather than betray her cause. Fiyero pretends to be "deeply shallow" while Elphaba sees through to his unhappiness, Morrible presents herself as wise mentor but is revealed as cruel puppetmaster, etc etc.

However, even Baum plays with this notion of artifice - the Emerald City is not in fact made out of emeralds, instead visitors don green-tinted glasses on entry, even his Wizard proclaims himself “a good man, just a very bad wizard” but the narrative condemns him as the man behind the curtain - although the subsequent books can never really quite decide if he a lovable rogue with pockets of enchanted piglets, or is he a sly trickster who deposed Ozma. Ultimately, he is both. He is a man from our world transplanted into a fantasy world, and cannot help but corrupt it.

I really have so much more to say! I love Oz in all its various incarnations but have probably rambled long enough.

#wicked 2024 #wicked movie spoilers #wicked part 1 #the wizard of oz #jlf watches #wicked #wicked meta #long post #(but of course)

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the-monkey-ruler · 8 months ago

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if someone wants to get into journey to the west and the story of son wukong, what's a good place to start?

I would say watching a show is what personally got me into it!! I made a list a while ago depending on what you are looking for but really just depends on if you want something like a really good movie (but can't fit all of xiyouji content due to time) or do you want something that focuses on accuracy to the novel (even if the show doesn't get to focus too much on individual characters) or something that is more of a drama series (that isn't too accurate but has fantastic character exploration)!

Personally, I would say if you are new then to watch something ACCURATE then you should choose from 1987 tv show, the 1999 cartoon show, and the 2011 tv show (links in the top link)

Or if you want a really good movie to just have a quick way to fall in love with the characters then Monkey King Hero is Back 2015, Havoc in Heaven 1961, or Monkey King 2 2016 (yes the second one is my preference I think it is better than the first tbh)

But also a good place is just reading the books which I recommend the Yu translation as they are the most reliable as it doesn’t cut out any scenes like other translations.

Or if you are not much of a reader than the audio book for the Yu translation is always available! It is free and you can do work while listening!

There of course hundreds of ways to watch or consume xiyouji media but this is my personal suggestion for someone unfamiliar or new to the content. That way once you know more of the original stuff you know what they change in media. Not even show/movie is accurate and you are going to have a hard time finding something that is one-to-one so reading the book itself is always the safest option. But just be ready to go in with the idea that each director wants to show the world THEIR version of the story and how much it meant to them and how much it could mean to you! You have so many options to get into Xiyouji and nearly 100 years worth of media surrounding such a wonderful story!! I hope you have a great read/watch!

#sun wukong #jttw #journey to the west #xiyouji #ask #zhu bajie #sha wujing #tang sazang #bailong ma #suggestions

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lotusloong · 2 months ago

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Hi, me again. I'm just curious, when/why did you first get into Monkey King? I'd been aware of him for while (I kinda knew who he was, where he came from, that he inspired certain other characters like Goku in DBZ and Saiyuki and stuff) but only started learning more about him recently after I watched Monkey King: Hero is Back and fell in love. I watched an entire playthrough of Black Myth Wukong and, even though I had no idea what was happening storywise, absolutely loved every minute of it! Since then, I've gotten more familiar with the characters and story of Journey to the West, and devoured the three live-action movies, the Netflix movie, Monkey King: Reborn, New Gods: Nezha Reborn, and the Lego Monkie Kid series. I can't get enough of this guy! He's such a lovable little gremlin. I think my fav versions are Hero is Back Wukong and the Destined One.

...Okay now I'm going back to hide in my corner for realsies this time lol (sorry I'm shy)

I am so happy to get asks like this, thank you for fighting thru your shyness to send them!! Fair warning, I do get rambly (I'm an AuDHD writer, it's very hard for me to turn off my info dumping lolol)

First off again, I really really do appreciate getting asks like this!! I put my writing and silly ideas up because I want to interact with other fans!! Sadly within the past few years interaction with fan works has depleted, and so it does make it a struggle to keep up with the creative process. (I've honestly been feeling like I'm speaking into the void sometimes when I post my Wukong stuff. The thing that keeps me going and writing is the few individuals who consistently interact with me with their own ideas and comments. Other people's ideas fuel my ideas, so if you or anyone else has a thought they want to share I will love to hear it and respond to it.) With that said, on to my past!!!

Now, I've always been a massive fan of mythology, and I hyperfixated on Greek myth for years (like, this year is my 16th anniversary kind of hyperfixation). And I always told myself that at some point I would branch off into other mythologies.

I had always felt a connection with Daoism and Buddism because a lot of the philosophies made sense to me. I'm a zoologist, part of my job is teaching people at my city's science museum about nature and animals. A lot of Daoist philosophies are based on the ebb and flow of nature, but I just never found anything that actually hooked me to get me obsessed with it. It was more like a passing appreciation for what it represents and the ideals it holds.

Now complete subject change, I love FromSoft souls games. Up until Wukong, I would write for other fandoms, and get a couple fics in before moving on (and even then it's not a lot. Wukong just…does something to my brain to get me writing) but I adore FromSoft games. I love the combat (I don't think I'm like…competitively good but I can beat the bosses and I have some decent skill) and I especially love the lore. Those games are so rich in lore, I adore it!! About gods and monsters and magic practices, all amazing!

And back in February, a YouTuber I watch for mythology content did a whole video on Black Myth Wukong, explaining the lore of the different bosses. I was bored and hadn't heard anything about the game before, so I clicked it.

I had my mind fucking blown.

That intro to the game? Sucked me in like nothing else. I didn't even get 5 minutes into the video before I was exiting out and looking up how much the game cost and everything I could to learn about it.

Who was this sexy demon guy in gold armor flying on a cloud with this gorgeous music playing in the background? Holy shit this sexy demon guy is challenging a celestial army, he's so badass! Who is he!?!

I stayed up all night learning everything I could about Journey to the West. I bought the books that same night, I bought the game and started playing, I started looking up movies and shows, everything.

And then it hit me, “oh wait, I know who the Monkey King is! I heard that name before!!” And I realized how many things this god had influenced! Characters from all different types of shows and movies and games, all with nods to this story!!

I think my first real moment of being aware of Wukong was actually from the game Persona 5, funny enough. I was never big on anime (believe me, I've tried. Never could get into it) but I did like the Persona 5 game, I liked the art style and story telling. Now for those who haven't played this game, there is a character named Ryuji, who is my fav character.

Ryuji is a brash ball of sunshine who's labeled as a delinquent and constantly looked down upon by the adults in his life because he tried to do the right thing and got fucked over by an adult who was supposed to help him, but instead abused him. He has a Persona (his personality/heart given magical form, essentially) that started out as a pirate based on Captain Kidd. When you level his friendship up enough, his Persona evolves into - you guessed it - Sun Wukong. A pretty funky looking design but I thought it was still fun and kooky and it was the Persona of my fav character from the game, so I was going to like it no matter what. That is technically my first introduction to Sun Wukong 🤣🤣🤣

Since I've gotten Black Myth Wukong and the OG Books, I've been devouring content for Wukong wherever I can get it. I haven't watched the live action movies yet, but I've been watching the 1986 show 💖💖 I want to watch Havoc on Heaven but haven't found a decent quality with Chinese VAs and English translations sadly…

But I've watched all the other animated movies I believe, and I haven't caught up on Lego Monkie Kid (I have…mixed opinions on it) but I just love Wukong in any form!! I have been asked before what my fav version is and I'm gonna give the same answer I did then, I like all of them for different reasons. They all have their charm and flaws and funny moments that make me fall in love with them 💖💖💖

I really really hope to see more of him in the future, especially Hero is Back!! Nezha and Nezha 2 are the highest grossing movies, could you imagine if the same director and writing team did another movie focusing on Dasheng!?! I would die!! Not to mention whispers of Black Myth dlc this year!!! I want all the content I can get on our beloved monkey husband, I love him so much 💖🐒💖🐒💖🐒

#Monkey fun #i love talking about this kind of thing so much

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pompomqt · 2 months ago

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Journey to the West Chapter 75

Pigsy telling Sandy and Tripitaka that Wukong was swallowed by the Demon and is totally dead:

Welcome back to this week's chapter of Journey to the West with @journeythroughjourneytothewest. This week it's the final chapter of book three, so let's get into it shall we?

So Wukong enters the demon cave to find that it very much looks like a demon cave. I've very grateful that they didn't kidnap Tripitaka for this one, because I think all the human bones, hair and flesh laying around would probably freak him out. At least the main hall where the Demon Kings like to hang out is pretty nice though. We also get to meet our demon's of the week, a Green Haired Lion Demon, a Yellow-Tusked Elephant Demon, and a Eagle-roc Demon.

Monkey isn't intimidated however, and greets the three kings as Wind Cutter. When they ask how his patrol went and if he's spotted Sun Wukong yet, he tells them the same story he told the minion demon's outside about how scary the Great Sage is. Upon hearing this the first King wants to just cut their losses immediately and seal their cave shut to let the priests pass. However this alarms Monkey, since if they do that, he himself won't be able to make a quick escape. His solution to this problem is to try and scare them even more by saying he has dreadful plans for each of them, that he would skin the first king, debone the second, and rip the tendons out of the third. Yeesh. Anyways Monkey says they should probably be careful since Wukong possesses the ability of transformation and can turn into a fly and squeeze in here seize them all. To add to the drama, Monkey transforms one of his hairs into a fly to panic everyone further.

Unfortunately for Monkey, the sight of everyone losing their minds over a fly is enough to cause him to laugh out loud and cause his disguise to slip. The third demon catches him slipping and declares to his brothers that they were almost fooled, and that Little Wind Cutter here is really Sun Wukong. Wukong of course slaps back on his disguise and denies the allegations, and is actually helped along by the First King, who asks for his nameplate, which since Wukong stole it from the real Wind Cutter, is able to provide.

The, third Demon however is sure that he is right, so he has some minion demon's bring some rope to tie up Monkey before removing his clothes to show that he still has a monkey body. Because apparently while Wukong can transform into any animal, plant, or object he wants, when trying to transform into another person, only his face changes. Which is a really weird rule for his powers to have, can he transform into complete human if it's just a generic one? Did his body match a normal Wind Cutter, before he transformed into this specific one?

Anyways, the Lion King tells a minion to bring on the wine so they can celebrate their capture of Sun Wukong, but the Eagle-Roc King advises them that they should probably make sure Wukong is completely secured before they get plastered in his presence. So they have 36 minion demon's carry out the two foot tall mystic vase, before stripping Wukong naked and bringing him to the mouth of the vase where he is then sucked inside. They didn't even have to call his name to make this one work, guess it's a premium version.

Once inside the vase, Wukong finds it's surprisingly cool- up until he opens his mouth to comment on that fact, because apparently this vases melting feature is voice activated. The moment Wukong speaks, the vase becomes engulfed in flames, which is simple enough for Monkey to deal with with a fire repelling charm. However the vase isn't out of tricks just yet, this time it sends out forty snakes to bite him- which Wukong handles by killing them and ripping them to pieces. Next the vase upgrades to three fire dragons, and Wukong is starting to get tired of this nonsense so he tries to grow and shrink in size only to find the vase growing and shrinking with him.

Monkey is starting to panic and bursts into tears, after all if he dies or stays trapped here, Tripitaka is doomed to. Worrying about Tripitaka however helps him remember that when he first met him, and got the fillet placed on his head, Guanyin had given him three plot-resolving hairs to try and make up for it. He decides that now is as good of a time as any to finally use them, so he pulls them out and changes one into a diamond drill, the second into a strip of bamboo and the third into a piece of cotton rope. Using these three items he is able to drill through the bottom of the vase, which on top of letting him out, also makes the vase functionally useless so they can't use it against him again.

As a mole cricket, Monkey leaves the vase and lands on top of the First King's head. Coincidentally the kings also decide it's about time to check if he's melted yet and ask the minion demon's to bring it over. The minion demon's to their horror find that the vase is suddenly much lighter. The First King decides to check for himself and opens the vase only to find it empty. Monkey uses this opportunity to grab his stuff and book it to the door.

Monkey makes his way back to Tripitaka who is currently offering a prayer to the gods to aid Monkey in his current quest. Monkey is very moved by this and greets Tripitaka. Tripitaka is very sweet and praises him for his hard work and tells him he was worried about him when he didn't come back. So Monkey tells him the story about what happened, and when Tripitaka asks for clarification that Monkey hasn't actually dealt with the monster spirits later, and therefor can't proceed safely, Monkey takes that as a challenge.

Tripitaka suggests that he take Pigsy and Sandy with him this time to clear the mountain of demon's, but Monkey insists that Sandy stay to guard Tripitaka and that he'll just take Pigsy with him. Pigsy protests this saying he won't be much use anyways, but Monkey insists that he can at the very least provide moral support.

So Monkey and Pigsy head off, and when they get there Monkey just bangs on the door and demands they come out and fight him. Nice and straightforward this time I see. When the First King hears about this he asks who wants to go out there and fight him, only for everyone in the room to suddenly turn deaf. Left with no other choice, the First King decides to face them himself. So the King goes out to confront Monkey and asks why he's even harassing them in the first place, they didn't even do anything to him! Which is true. Monkey however points out that they were plotting from the very beginning to kidnap and eat Tripitaka, which is also true.

Anyways the Lion King is nice enough to offer to fight Wukong one on one instead of setting his entire army on them, so Wukong also tells Pigsy to wait on the sidelines. The King then offers a wager with Wukong, that if he can withstand three blows, he'll let them pass, but if he can't, Tripitaka is dinner. Monkey has heard this kind of bet before and asks if he can get it in writing. Well, Monkey doesn't get his written contract, but he does take the bet, and the Demon swings his weapon down on Monkey's head, only to hear a loud crack, but Monkey is completely unharmed. I mean he is the Stone Monkey, not to mention the whole thing with Laozi's stove.

Anyways take two, and this time, the weapon is 'able' to split his head in half, which immediately forms two Sun Wukong's. The Demon King is like 'Okay sure, you can split yourself in half, but can you put yourself back together! If you can you can hit me back!' Wukong immediately takes that deal, and rolls himself back into one, and immediately attacks him with his staff, only to have the demon block the attack, with his own weapon. The two begin to fight in earnest until Pigsy spots an opportunity and hits the demon with a sneak attack. The Demon, unsure of how much of a threat Pigsy actually is, panics and tries to flee.

Monkey and Pigsy give chase, only for the Lion Demon to pull the same trick he pulled on the celestial soldiers, and open his mouth wide to swallow them. Pigsy panics and high tails it out of there to go hide under a bush, but Monkey, never one to pass up the opportunity to use one of his favorite strategies for dealing with demon's, let's himself be swallowed. Pigsy despite having seen Monkey pull this exact stunt before thinks he's done for, and heads back to the rest of the pilgrimage to tell them the bad news.

Tripitaka is waiting patiently with Sandy, but begins to panic when he see's Pigsy come back alone, Pigsy validates his fear by crying and telling him that Wukong has been swallowed by the demon. This causes Tripitaka to collapse and cry in despair. Pigsy instead of trying to do anything to... I don't know, comfort or reassure Tripitaka, immediately moves on to how they should divide up their belongings so they can each just go back to their individual lives. Oh and they can sell the horse to be able to afford Tripitaka a nice coffin at least, which just makes Tripitaka cry harder.

Meanwhile, we cut back to Monkey who is very much not dead, and who is in fact rather enjoying himself. Monkey refuses to budge from the demon's stomach, even as the demon tries everything he can think of to try and throw him up. Eventually he lands on trying to negotiate with Monkey and asks why he won't come out. Monkey says it's rather warm in here, so he'll just stay cozy for the winter. The Demon says he'll just starve him out, but Monkey points out that he can just eat the demon from the inside out. The Demon is beginning to panic, so he asks his brothers to bring him some medicinal wine to try and drug Monkey. However Monkey has put so many questionable things in his mouth during his life, what is there that he is afraid to drink?

When the demon tries to drink the wine, Monkey manages to swipe it from him and drink it instead. After eight tries, the demon gives it up, since he can't even feel it, Monkey on the other hand very much can, and becomes completely wasted. This is bad news for the Demon, because Wukong is apparently a hyper drunk, and showcases his drunkenness by doing cartwheels and prancing around the demon's insides. Ouch.

Current Sun Wukong Stats: Names/Titles: Monkey, The Stone Monkey, The Handsome Monkey King, Sun Wukong (Monkey awakened to the void), Bimawen (Banhorseplague), The Great Sage Equal To Heaven and Pilgrim Sun. Immortality: 5 + 94,000 years Weapon: The Compliant Golden Hooped Rod Abilities: 72 Transformations, Cloud-Somersault, Ability to transform his individual hairs, super strength, Ability to Summon Wind, Water restriction charm, and the ability to change into a huge war form, ability to duplicate his staff, ability to immobilize others, the ability to put others to sleep, and the Fiery eyes and Diamond Pupils, intimidating horses, churning large bodies of water, sleeplessness, seizing the wind, enhanced smell, discerning good and evil within a thousand miles, Spirit Summoning, lock picking, object transformation, distance reduction, vanishing in a flash of light, super healing, transforming others, Invisibility, Wind Immunity, Medicine Making, putting out fire from a distance with a glass of wine, weaving a straw dragon and Body Division Demon Kill Count: 752 + Unknown Number of Minions Human Kill Count: 1039 God's Defeated: 23 + Unknown number Defeats: 7 Crime List: Robbery, Murder, Mass Murder, Arson, Theft, Coercion, Threatening a Government Official, Resisting Arrest, Assault, Forgery, Employee Theft, False Imprisonment, Impersonating a Government Official, Treason, attempted murder, failure to control or report a dangerous fire, desecrating a corpse, breaking and entering, trespassing, violating Tree Law, looting corpses, trading counterfeit goods, criminal threat, animal abuse, Assisting or Instigating Escape, Damage to Religious Property, contaminating a substance for human consumption, Identity Fraud, Disorderly Conduct, Joyriding, unauthorized practice of medicine and Voyeurism Cry Count: 15 + 3 fake cries Mountains Trapped Under: 4

Current Tang Sanzang stats: Names/Titles: River Float, Xuanzang, Tang Sanzang, Tripitaka and the Tang Monk Abilities: Curing Blindness, making branches point a certain direction (allegedly), reciting sutras, pretty privilege, memorization, Heart Sutra, Meditation, and Being Heaven's Specialist Little Guy Cry Count: 40 Tight Fillet Spell Uses: 63 Paralyzed by fear: 6 Bandit Problems: 3 Kidnapped by demons: 13 Falling Off Horses: 12

Current Bai Long Ma Stats: Names/Titles: Bai Long Ma (White Dragon Horse), Prince of the Western Ocean, and third prince jade dragon of the dragon king Aorun Abilities: Transforming into a human, a water snake, and a horse, eating a horse in one bite, flight, Magic of Water Restriction, Singing, Sword Dancing and Magic Pee Cry Count: 1 Crime List: Arson, and Grave Disobedience. Contributions to the plot: 4 Kidnapped by demons: 3

Current Zhu Wuneng Stats: Names/Titles: The Marshal of the Heavenly Reeds, Zhu Wuneng (Pig who is aware of ability), Zhu Ganglie, Pigsy, Idiot and Eight Rules. Weapon: Rake Abilities: 36 Transformations, parting water, fighting underwater, cloud soaring, size enhancement, CPR and Shoveling Demon Kill Count/Kill steals: 15 + Unknown number of minions Kidnapped by Demons: 9 Human Kill Count: 1 Failed Flirtation/romances Attempts: 4 Cry Count: 4 Crime List: Sexual Harassment, Murder, Kidnapping, arson, defamation, Damage to Religious Property, contaminating a substance for human consumption, Identity Fraud, Theft, Forcible entry, Disrupting a Funeral, Violating Tree Law and Arson

Current Sha Wujing Stats: Names/Titles: The Curtain-Raising General, Sha Wujing (Sand Aware of Purity), Sandy and Sha Monk Weapon: Monster Taming Staff Abilities: Fighting underwater, Cloud soaring, and fetching water from a well. Demon Kill Count: 1 + Unknown number of minions. Kidnapped by Demons: 6 Human Kill Count: 1 Cry Count: 2 Crime List: Breaking a Crystal Cup, murder, desecration of a human corpse, Damage to Religious Property, contaminating a substance for human consumption and Arson

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#journey to the west #jttw #jttw read through #journeythroughjourneytothewest #sun wukong #tang sanzang #zhu wuneng #sha wujing #And that's it for book three! Just one more to go...#Once again Pigsy fails to be helpful in anyway #and Wukong tries his favorite tactic of beating them up from the inside

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canmom · 8 months ago

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Animation Night 188: Gisaburo Sugii and his cat films

Let me introduce you to a fellow.

Gisaburō Sugii, born 1940, is one of the oldest school animators still working in the industry. His early filmography is something like a history of anime, or at least MushiPro: he started on Hakujaden [AN149] (where he did inbetweens), but he was one of the leaders of the Toei exodus over the rubbish working conditions and union busting (Sugii's close friend Rintarō was among the first to follow him), especially when Tezuka appeared on the animation scene with a place to land.

So from the earliest days of Astro Boy/Tetsuwan Atom, Sugii was a core Tezuka guy. (Thanks as ever to Matteo Watzky for presenting such detailed histories in English!) He helped clean up Tezuka's rough animations in an early form of the layout system, moving to his own satellite studio, worked on all sorts of projects. In fact, we saw a number of them when we watched Tezuka's short fims on Animation Night 83. For example, Sugii animated the moth in Tales of a Street Corner.

Before too long, Astro Boy was wrapping up, and the time came for Sugii to direct his own series: this was Goku no Daibōken and in the words of Matteo Watzky, it represented "a complete and unconditional rejection of everything Mushi - or rather Tezuka - had done so far" - gags over story, extremely limited animation. Adapting Tezuka's manga version of Journey to the West, the project had some rather grand ambitions:

It was rather in the writing and direction. Sugii was extremely ambitious: not only did he want to do a complete break with what Mushi had done before, he wanted to broaden the general “animation culture” in Japan [14]. He therefore focused entirely on the gags, trying to make them all as absurd as possible and breaking all sense of narrative continuity. This was the reason he had chosen Boku no Songoku in the first place: the road trip structure made it possible to completely change the setting each episode and make things different each time [15]. He refused to compromise on anything and was an extremely harsh director: he himself admitted how many conflicts he had with scriptwriters and storyboarders, whose work he kept rejecting until it had lost any semblance of sense or continuity [16].

Goku no Daibōken's story touches on another major figure of anime history: Osamu Dezaki (AN95) appears here as an episode director, though you'd likely not recognise his work - he closely followed his mentor Sugii's wacky style. Unfortunately, the show did not really do much to broaden anything, and was pretty roundly rejected by audiences, and even Tezuka himself publicly said it was too avant-garde and needed to change and the show ended up a sore memory for everyone involved.

But Sugii did not quit, and continued to work with the increasingly ailing Mushi Pro up through Belladonna of Sadness (AN69). This last-ditch effort was not enough to save the troubled studio (a story told elsewhere, check Watzky's articles for a very detailed version) and MushiPro went under. So, coming into the 70s, Sugii left the anime industry to go travelling.

But not forever.

Now, let me introduce you to a book.

Night on the Galactic Railroad (銀河鉄道の夜, Ginga Tetsudō no Yoru) - written in 1927, and published posthumously in 1934 - is a classic Japanese fantasy novel by Kenji Miyazawa in which two boys go on a strange journey across the galaxy. It soon becomes apparent that the train that the boys ride on is kind of a psychopomp train. It has that fascinating blend of early science and odd religious overtones you often get in novels from the early 20th Century, with such themes as the difference between Buddhist and Christian ideas of heaven, as well as all sorts of odd adventures.

It does not star anthropomorphic cats. But then again, it doesn't say anywhere that its characters aren't anthropomorphic cats, right? If you're Gisaburō Sugii, that's enough!

In the early 80s, Sugii returned to Group TAC, a studio largely consisting of former MushiPro staff, full of memories of travel. He started out directing adaptations of the baseball manga Nine, but soon he ended up directing an cataptation of Night on the Galactic Railroad, which came out in 1985.

Jokes aside, the book is deliberately ambiguous about what its characters look like, so Sugii came up with the cat thing as a way to preserve Miyazawa's intent. His approach to direction heavily emphasises the landscape, embedding the characters in dark spaces that reflect their feelings and build the generally omnious mood as they journey into death. And it works! The result is a film widely regarded as a classic by those who've seen it.

One notable feature is the film's fascination with the constructed language Esperanto, among the earliest aspiring universal languages. The film features all kinds of Esperanto text and an esperanto subtitle track, and even has an alternative Esperanto title, Nokto de la Galaksia Fervojo. This was a fascination of Miyazawa's, though I don't believe it features in the novel particularly prominently, but Sugii evidently wanted that to be part of the tribute...

In the wake of that, Sugii... went back to directing sports anime, this time the series Touch about Tennis, as well as a number of other projects including a Street Fighter film in 1994. He didn't abandon literary subjects though, adapting the Genji Monogatari, a foundational work of Japanese lit, in 1987 - though I can find little more about this adaptation. He even directed a Lupin III film! But none of those films are about cats, so we're gonna skip right over them.

In 2012, Sugii - now 72! - returned to books and cats with The Life of Budori Gusuko, adapting another novel by Miyazawa - this time at MushiPro successor Tezuka Productions. The animation is certainly more elaborate...

The film follows abandoned child Budori Gusuko in a world frozen by strange storms. Left to fend for himself, Budori's problems mulitply as his sister his kidnapped, leading him on a journey into dreams as he tries to get to the bottom of all of it.

The story is notable for anticipating the idea of the greenhouse effect, albeit in a way that rings rather odd in the context of present climate change. It generally doesn't seem to be viewed quite as favourably as Galactic Railroad but it's too good a thematic pairing not to do, so tonight the plan is to watch both films! Elaborate old weird anime, we're so back. And not a boob in sight, so twitch should chill out.

All being well, Animation Night 188 will be starting at 22:00 UK time, which is about two hours from this post - we're back on twitch.tv/canmom, thankfully they didn't ban me for long. Hope to see you there!

#animation night #film #anime #animation #gisaburō sugii

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