#also Mei I love you

[mariposiel]

LMK S4 Spoilers

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Three silly guys!!

[average-hua-cheng-fan]

another reason i think that xie lian felt an instant connection on the ox cart is because he and hua cheng both grew up in xianle.

there are maybe 4 people still alive that grew up in that culture. based on my own experience, you can pick up on things like accent, cadence, references, and humor that suggest a person is from the same place as you without consciously noticing it. that sense of comfort and similarity probably played into their instant chemistry.

[levemetal]

Watercolor test to get back into it! It's botched, especially the chair but eh. Gonna post anyway ٩( ᐛ )و

Mei Nianqing, inspired by the lovely @kimbapchan's gorgeous design of him in their swap AU <3

[ningadudexx]

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I got to meet stephanie sheh and micheal sinterniklaas at a con!!!!! :DD I made her fanart to keep and i also brought a version for her to sign! I was dressed as mk and i think i was the most excited person in line to meet both of them, they are like my heros!! this show means the world to me and inspires me everyday, voices like mei and ao lie mean so much to me :)

Ive been a huge fan of this show since season 2 began airing and ive been thinking about it everyday since!! it was so cool to ask him about his favorite part of voice directing and to ask her about her favorite part of playing mei! and after i was done talking to him, he asked to take a picture of my cosplay and sent it to sarah harper!!!!! thank you so much to the both of them for being huge inspirations to me, this show means so much to me!

If i ever see micheal sinterniklaas again at a con, i will print a version for him to have too!! im still super sorry i didnt print a third version D:

[shyhandart]

Comms for @mei !! Always love working with you, and this character is just the sweetest :3

[phantomrose96]

is a Riteru read of ABoT the intended one?

It can be if you want it to be buddy. Go enjoy the world!

More genuine answer: I'm an aro-ace writer with a long long streak of gen-fic. Shipping doesn't interest me. I don't hate it; it just doesn't click for me at all. I joke that the only way romance ends up in the story is if it's a plot-necessity (Tetsuo and Jun are there because 'married man suspected of having an affair' is what pulls Reigen into the entire Mogami-possession plot. The Kageyama parents are married because they're, well, the parents. Teru and Mei's relationship is a joke until it's plot-relevant.)

So to me, I'm not writing Ritsu and Teru's relationship as a ship. But also? This is all pretend. It's all transformative. This is for fun. I absolutely know that if I were a ship-writer, Riteru would be the obvious choice. I know they're one angry-kiss away from being someone's enemies to lovers fic. So if you look at Ritsu and Teru in ABoT and say "they're holding hands, to me", go right ahead, go hog-wild, come play Barbies with me.

[imminent-danger-came]

So, this parallel, right.

That parallel and the 4x11 shadowpeach fight as a whole:

Macaque: "No that's YOU! You're the one always running off! Looking for more power, more sources of immortality—you're the one who wouldn't quit while were were ahead! Not the great sage, he's got to drag EVERYONE else into his mess!" Sun Wukong: "You're not in this mess, you're still free! Everything I did was for us!" Macaque: "You did it for yourself! You've become like this, obsessive demon! I told you going against the Jade Emperor was a bad idea, but no, Wukong doesn't listen to anyone! He just does whatever he wants! You put yourself here, not me."

(4x11 A Lifetime of Mistakes)

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A large part of Wukong's motivation to keep getting more power was the freedom of it—the more power you have the easier it is to do whatever you want. It's easier to ignore everyone else and focus solely on yourself. It's also easier to ensure yourself and your loved one's are protected and have the ability to do what they want.

So, a punishment where the great Monkey King is imprisoned and trapped for hundreds of years? It's effective and tragic and fitting. Wukong wanted to have the freedom to protect the people he cared about, and in trying to reach for the power to do that, he completely had his freedom removed. He went from the mountain, to then the circlet, and then all of a sudden he had morals and was bound to those.

And then I think about his end of s3 choice to go face the Lady Bone Demon alone. Once again Wukong was trying to protect his loved ones (not to mention the whole reason he went after the Samadhi fire to begin with was to have the power, the freedom to stop LBD (which in itself is another case of SWK believing he needed to be stronger for such freedom)), but he also wanted to make sure MK and himself both had agency. He didn't want MK to have to fight LBD, and he didn't want LBD to end the world.

This is exactly the sentiment he tells Macaque in the 4x11 flashback:

Sun Wukong: "It's so we don't have to worry about anything or anyone ever again! Just living a lazy life, sitting in the sun, eatin' fruit, and doing whatever we want!"

But where does it all lead him?

To possession, imprisonment. Once again Wukong no longer had the freedom to do what he wanted (which is to protect the people he cares about). Once again in his attempts to help his loved one's, he only hurt them.

This can be applied to his relationship with Macaque, to MK in s2, hell, even Wukong trying to get the map in the first place left him powerless, which then led to him and the gang being imprisoned in 3x02. It's a familiar pattern, one we see with antagonist and protagonist alike.

MK in s2 trained to become more powerful, which in the end only strengthened LBD and forced him and his friends on the run. Mei in 3x12 protects MK by letting herself get captured and placed into LBD's crystal. Mei in 4x05 goes to protect MK, breaking her sword and leaving her vulnerable to being captured by Kui Mulang ("How am I supposed to protect everyone without my sword?"). DBK reached for more power and then became possessed by LBD, hurting his wife and son. Azure reached for the Jade Emperor's power and bound himself to that role, jeopardizing Peng and Yellowtusk in the process.

It's a cycle of reaching for power, endangering others, and then being imprisoned.

So anyways, here's why MK is going to lose control (his agency) next season and hurt his friends with his own- *get's shot*

[saltyb0ba]

"you always beat the level before me, but i had fun anyways!"

AU/prediction for S5. MK goes beserk in his kaiju form and mei shows him a drawing he made of him and mei back in S1 MK runs to mei to knock her out but he stops just a few feet in front of her when he sees what she's holding.

more AU since i don't think this will happen but there's always a chance!

[terrible-monkie-kid-aus]

Shit Red Son does to his love interests

[blue-rhapsody]

PLEASE IM WHEEZING

[hiro-doodlez]

Mei + Dream Sans BECAUSE MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHH SMOKE BOMB!!

[abyssmalice]

(tl;dr flower has Super Important Thonkies ft. how to describe and address my tonis bc let's face it - having two characters with technically the same name and origin point within the same media also is kinda hard to juggle in terms of how to address them by literal name without confusing even me dgsdyugdsyugsdyu)

so as everyone knows, i basically have two tonis on this blog -

they are the same character but also not - they follow a specific AU each, but also exist in a concurrent state that allows them to interact with each other in addition to other muses.

which is definitely very weird to read and wrap one's head around, but borrowing from the honkie games -

you can think of the two tonis in the same vein as expies - like how impacto three and star railing has a character named Bronya, both of whom are the same but also very much not, and exist concurrently (hi3 bronnie is on earth, hsr bronnie is in a different galaxy; they can Technically encounter each other, circumstances permit. and im not even going to touch upon the silver wolf = haxxor bunny connections lol).

though really, my tonis are a lot closer to how hi3 does expies - the same character but very much not, split between different cycles of history.

if that helps make it make sense then yessss hooraaaaay!!!!!

im not done yet though.

so!!!! now that we have the premise of "here are two tonis who are the same but not" laid down, here's where my main thonkie is!! with how to actually distinguish them when addressing one of the two.

both of them are named Tonia, albeit with a different surname. their personalities, positions, experiences and even physical appearances are very different from each other - but there's still some overlap here and there, which can get confusing if certain details are mentioned.

ive tried my to make it super clear which toni im discussing without being super in-your-face about it - with icons, references to details that are exclusive to one of them, or with my silly nicknames (that i enjoy still tbh lmao) but ive been thinking........... even for me, this is kinda annoying to manage LMAOOOO

so!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what is flower's solution to this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

well them having the same name is the issue and its the easiest identifier for anyone sooo.

ive technically had this means in place from the beginning and its also lowkey enforced in my rules too - but the other older toni, the abyssal one, according to the lore ive written for her, has the alias of "Freyja" that she primarily goes by anyway.

which is to say!! im basically pulling a real childe on the older toni and having her referred as and with her alias name (Freyja vs Tonia) like how childe does (Childe/Tartaglia vs Ajax).

her real name i.e. Tonia will be treated in a similar vein - not common knowledge unless in the right position to be having said information, or she's given it out and allowed your muse to address her as such.

(truly going back to her meta origins as the original roleswap au i had for tonia............. heehaw..................................!!)

and yeah, as mentioned - this is a thing thats sorta already been in place for a while, but im enforcing it in full now!!!!!!!! even in ooc talks thats how ill be addressing her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! which further means that any future mentions of Tonia will usually just be the main, harbingy one - unless the context demands otherwise, or more likely, if i am addressing Tonia in the plural (tonis.... sssss.................)

[shokupanko]

I’m back from the dead muhahaha!

This is An Mei, she’s an OC from my sister and I’s AU!

[lenateliier]

Everyone's favourite idol!!!

[pocketwei]

so sorry for going through ur entire onep tag but i just. yeah ur art is rlly good. anyways do you have any further beckman thoughts especially beckman shanks mihawk thoughts

oh anon let me give u warm hug...... thank you for liking my silly little outputs and for telling me you do, it brings incomparable Human meaning to my jester's antics <333

now do I have beckman thoughts........ anon I am plagued with them........... I'm quite fond of that. strange dynamic he has with akataka. Standing between/on the sidelines of this incommensurably large and all-consuming Love, nurturing it, acting like an anchor point. I think he just loves to indulge Shanks, he's taught him a lot (I like to think he was more or less his first, or rather his second, to Mihawk only, he stands no chance and he knows it and he's ok with it, he's not in for the competition anyway). He's let Shanks' outward, transparent affection and adoration, bleed onto him, despite not being Like That himself. Personal biases make it so that I cannot ever be immune to captain/first mate dynamics ajdjfh

Mihawk, to him, is like your friend's lunatic cat that has seen you a million times but that you have to acclimate all over again every time you visit. He respects him and Mihawk respects him too, they are at a safe distance usually because both seem quite. Aloof in their own way. Mihawk in a very. Offputting fucking WEIRD way, Beckman is more grounded and reasonable, but both operate on fundamentally different levels than Shanks, and are way closer to each other in terms of temperament as they are to him. They're brought together by the sheer amount of indulgence and attention he requires. They have to be two to handle him....

[imminent-danger-came]

do you have any fun mk and mei thoughts you’d like to share?

I feel like I'm not good at coming up with head canons, so take this sketch of MK and Mei instead: