#ao bing dragon form

[kasirose]

How to Train Your Ao Bing 👀

Combining two of my current fav animated movies hehe

[sillysoliloquyshits]

Just occured to me that Ao Bing's dragon form is gonna be seen more often as he becomes more of a mode of transportation since he's very helpful anyway (and the flying pig is gone and being on a dragon helps ferry lots of people together). But what bums me is that it's not gonna be just funny in how Ao Bing's likely gonna get backaches from carrying everyone together (and Ne Zha feeling the most guilty and likely admonishing his own master for wanting to ride on Ao Bing as he's lazy to fly himself), this could be where we see Ne Zha's considerate side as he starts caring for Ao Bing more and getting everyone fly by themselves lol-

[darkflierazura]

It occurred to me that 2019 Ao Bing has an incredibly similar outfit color wise to 1979 Nezha

Some non-academic thoughts below

Boy howdy those first 11 chapters that detail King Zhou’s corruption r not at all relevant today, yep. But we don’t care about that. We care about chapters 12-14

It’s been floating around with some other posts but I’d figure I’d share my own thoughts on the changes between the 封神演义 and 哪吒闹海

It’s been floating around with some other posts but I’d figure I’d share my own thoughts on the changes between the 封神演义 and 哪吒闹海

Ah right. The version I’m reading a complete translation by Gu Zhizhong, with an Introduction by a Professor Shi Changyu.

So Nezha 1979 mostly takes its story from Chapter 12, with bit from chapters 13 and 14. (Namely Nezha’s fight with the Ao Guang and his death (13) and the method of his rebirth (14))The biggest change between these two works is the recasting of Ao Guang and his family as tyrannical villains who demand human sacrifice and bring disasters seemingly for fun. In addition to that, Nezha is recast more heroic (from my perception anyways). In the novel, Nezha is a wrathful and vengeful brat (I read someone else comparing Heracles to Nezha and it’s not a bad one), unfortunately he’s also supernaturally strong and armed with magic weapons. Ao bing is described as having a lance, and his father says that Ao Bing was appointed as a god of rain by the Jade Emperor. Nezha doesn’t attempt to kill his dad, or rather, he doesn’t get the chance to attempt patricide.

The conflict begins because Nezha’s huntianling is so powerful, that when he dipped it in water, it caused earthquake level disruption to the dragon palace of the east sea. The yaksha who’s sent to investigate gets mad at Nezha for calling him a beast and attacks first. Ao bing attacks after Nezha admits he killed the yaksha.

The 1979 film obviously makes Nezha more heroic, his conflict with the dragons changed to being about defending Chentang pass, though the two parties are brought into direct confrontation for the same reason. While he’s capable of great violence, throughout the film I think he’s generally portrayed innocently and more reactive to threats than proactively causing problems. Also it helps that the lady Shiji conflict is completely ignored too (which makes sense when writing a stand alone narrative)

Side note: in the 2003 legend of Nezha Cartoon, which also seems to more or less be an adaptation of the full novel, Lady Shiji is adapted into a greater Villain who’s present throughout the entire show (at least, I think that’s what was going on??? I didn’t watch the show, just a few episodes without subtitles cause I wanted a better look at xiao longnu) working with Shen Gongbao and also maybe the fox spirit. In the novel, as far as I know, she’s introduced in chapter 13 and dies in it.

A second side note, I really love how Heaven is depicted in the 1979 film. That wide shot of Nüwa and Fuxi (I think) supporting respectively the Moon with the jade rabbit and the sun with the sanwuzu, on either side of the heavenly palaces. Ye

Right so. Why the changes. Idk. Probably the political landscape at the time.

Other things to spout about

There’s a ton of little visual nods to 1979 Nezha in the 2019 movie. The man servant has a markedly similar design. A scene I personally haven’t seen mentioned is the gifting of the Fire tiped spear. 1979 Nezha does a routine with the spear upon receiving it, the 2019 movie has the huntianling perform a shortened version of the same routine with the spear during the birthday party.

Here’s a dumb question, in the 2019 movie why is Ao Guang white? the east (directional) is traditionally associated with the color qing, while the west is associated with white. Is it to make him match with Ao bing? Did all the dragon kings get their colors shuffled around?

I thought about doing a more thorough summary and consideration of the adaptational changes, but eh.

Edit: after a bit more thinking. at least initially, Nezha doesnt quite resort to violence til after he’d been attacked. First by Li Gen, then Ao Bing. However, during his conflict with Lady Shiji, Nezha opts instead to attack her disciple, the one who’s going to speak with him, immediately instead of trying to have dialogue with Lady Shiji about the accident. (He accidentally kills one of Shiji’s disciples). I wonder if this decision was reached by experiencing the prior assaults + the fact that when Nezha admits his crime to Ao Guang, the dragon King opts to get further bureaucracy involved to punish Nezha’s parents.

[the-music-maniac]

It is very exhausting being in western fandom spaces sometimes. Tell me why I just wanted to enjoy a cute oubing ship vid on tiktok, and half the comments section was about people saying you can't ship them???

I wanna complain into the void, so here's a comprehensive of why Oubing/藕饼/Lotus Root Cake is fine (and even if it wasn't, why I don't give a shit):

(Spoiler warning for Nezha 2)

1. "You can't ship them cause they're brothers'": No, they are not brothers. Not by any definition of the word. Not by blood - not even sworn brothers technically, because they only refer to each other as best friends. They each have their own parents - those parents are not related to each other in any way, shape, or form. One of them is a freaking dragon, an entirely different species. Also, they're technically made of lotuses now. They weren't raised together either. Clarifying this point feels ridiculous.

2. "But they used to be part of the chaos pearl": If you wanted to define them by any type of relationship, they are soulmates. This is not me trying to spin them romantically, I mean they are literally soulmates. Their spirits are each half of a single Chaos Pearl, and they each represent opposite halves. They are literally soulmates and yin and yang.

3. "But they're children!": Are they three years old? Yes - and also no. (this is edited: I saw an official post that did say their ages were 3, not 6). They've been alive for centuries as a chaos pearl. I need you to understand that the original entity we saw at the beginning of Nezha 1, IS a creature that has been alive for thousands of years. They had personality too while they were fighting Taiyi. They were made into the pearls by the cauldron. Now, their mortal bodies as we understand it, is 3 (again edited. I originally said 6 cause I wasn't sure whether or not to count the 3 years of pregnancy). But because they're not really human, and their developmental stages therefore don't mirror a human, the movie shows them maturing into an adult form in the span of about 3 years. How do we know this? Ao Bing is the same age as Nezha, and he went from a baby to his adult form in those 3 years. The only reason Nezha is still in a child form is because he has the qiankun circle suppressing him. This is also the reason that putting the circle on his wrist releases his adult form. Also it's sort of maybe implied by the end of Nezha 2 that he may stay permanently in his adult form, since he reformed his body into it while he was in The Soup™. I dunno how accurate this part is so I suppose we'll see by Nezha 3. I would like to point out further that no three year old talks or acts like they do. Ao Bing and Nezha have very complete vocabularies, and are able to understand the complexities of their circumstances. They're both new to the world in this form, but they're not at the mental capacity of a 3 year old. It's like if you were dropped into a new form of existence with an adult brain.

4. "Nooo, why are you shipping them now": This ship is NOT NEW. It's been around since at least 2019. It is WILDLY popular in China. Back when Nezha 1 first came out, oubing literally won an award for best couple. I want you to understand the scale - from my understanding, they beat wangxian in cql. Y'all can correct me if I got this part wrong because I can't find the source of where I read this information, but if it's true, that's wild. I know the award part is correct. There was an official shampoo ad that reads like a shipping comic. Now that Nezha 2 came out, it is still one of the most popular ships. Every other post on my social media has been about Nezha 2 and at least half of that has been Oubing. There are over 2000 chinese fics on ao3 currently. Stop with this "why are you shipping them now", WE'VE BEEN SHIPPING THEM.

5. "It's not canon.": Not that I give a shit what's canon or even what the original creator thinks about shipping usually, but Jiaozi, aka the director of the movie, has stated that while he wrote Nezha and Ao Bing to just be a friendship that he thinks it is fine if people ship them. I'm pretty sure he also said something along the lines of 'people can interpret things how they want' or something.

6. Even if all of the points I made were not the case, I cannot stress enough how little I care about what someone should or should not ship. If you don't like it, just block the fanart/fic/video and move on. I promise society will not crumble because someone decides to ship two fictional characters from a mythology movie. We will be fine.

(Also if you see anyone in the chinese fandom write 藕饼cp, the cp stands for "couple". Just to clarify. They use different terms for shipping in chinese fandoms, they'll say they "ke CP" aka ship a couple)

Some of the comments I've seen make me wonder if people have even watched the movies. 'You can't ship them cause they're brothers', god don't make me laugh.

Don't let them find out that the chinese fandom is also shipping Ao Bing and Nezha from the 1979 cartoon, they'd lose their minds.

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

Ao Bing's father and aunty. His father is Ao Guang敖广, Longwang of the East Sea, and his aunty is Ao Run敖闰, Longwang of the West Sea. (lóngwang龙王 means sovereign of lóng龙)

Scholars used to use the word loong but its pronunciation is significantly different from the Chinese character "龙". Long is better but still not the same. The aunthentic pronunciation is more like [lɔ:ueng] and it's pinyin is lóng.

Translators use the word dragon merely to facilitate better understanding, but the Chinese "龙" and the Western "dragon" are vastly different, fundamentally distinct, much like two creatures that aren't in the same dimension.

The Chinese 龙lóng is a sacred mythical creature; they are considered holy beings, existing in a dimension above that of mortals. They hold the responsibility of controlling the wind, lightning, thunder, clouds and rain, regulating the weather, and blessing the abundance of crops. The copulation of 龙lóng with nine other creatures gave birth to various divine beasts, each bearing some characteristics of the 龙lóng, but the true 龙lóng is regarded as the purest and most noble of all.

In China, many people claim to have seen lóng, with plenty of folk records both before and after the founding of the People's Republic. In the internet era, there are also many videos of lóng. One of the most famous is footage taken by a college student on her dormitory balcony on a cloudy day, where a lóng appears in the thunderclouds and then turn its head to gaze the girl. Another notable incident is the CCTV live broadcast of the Gaoyou Lake lóng water spout event (interestingly, CCTV later edited the live footage, changing the scene of a real lóng spiraling and disappearing in a flash to show three ridiculous birds that didn’t follow the rules of perspective). These videos can be found on Bilibili if you want to check them out. I think the dormitory and Gaoyou Lake videos are real like they're truely lóng (the dorm one is especially striking because it looks exactly like the watery ink long on ancient Chinese paintings, with an extraordinary and otherworldly vibe, exuding an overwhelming sense of oppression). Other real videos show that lóng can fly at incredibly high speeds, like lightning. Folk culture says lóng can switch between physical and ethereal forms at will, which is why they can move so fast. There are also many fake videos to get clicks online, so one gets to use their own judgment. It’s widely believed that lóng appeared as early as the creation of the world, and they made a pact with the ancestors of Chinese people and have been protecting the 'Celestial Realm and Divine Land of Huaxia'华夏神州 ever since. In the unique Chinese twelve shengxiao生肖 culture, lóng is the only mythical creature—the other eleven are common animals. Some scholars think that when shengxiao was created, many people had actually seen lóng and accepted that they're real, which is why it became one of the twelve shengxiao.

[earl-of-221b]

Nezha 2 spoilers - on the character of Sheng Gongbao.

More on Sheng Gongbao, because I think what the movie did in introducing this classic antagonist's parent and kid brother may feel really random at first, but totally recontextualsies him to be (1) an even closer foil to Ao Bing and (2) a new foil to Nezha.

Ao Bing

In Nezha 1, Shen Gongbao explains his nature to Ao Bing so he could share the similarities of their situations: that he is a leopard demon, and demons suffer the same disrepute and disadvantage of dragons in the world of cultivation. That's why he did all this scheming from Ao Bing's birth to set him on a path that can diverge from his own - so he can prepare his disciple to advance where he can't - so Ao Bing can climb higher on the cultivation ladder. Shen Gongbao would benefit from Ao Bing's advancement as the master who trained, raised, and sponsored him to advance on the celestial stage. Ao Bing's father and people would also benefit from Ao Bing's ascension.

The foil Shen Gongbao plays for Ao Bing is being a demon - underpriviledged, undesired, having to struggle and claw his way in everything, being twice as good and yet not good enough, all because of what they are and how they were born. But he's known to Ao Bing only as his master and senior, someone who understands how the world works and whom taught Ao Bing his martial arts and magic.

In Nezha 2, the characters Sheng Zhengdao, the father, and Sheng Xiaobao, the kid brother, are introduced. This immediately changes the reading of Shen Gongbao. Not only is he a master, senior and an 'adult' in the complicated and cruel cultivation world - but he is also a son. Not only is he a son, there is an intricate backstory about what kind of son he is - he's the son who left his home and backwater town to go to celestial university, he's the first in the family to be accepted into the Chan Sect, the son who achieved human form, the over-achieving son, the son with a career, the son who made it, the absolute pride of the family. The eldest son who's family think he is living it up.

He is..........decidedly not. This is where the 'demon' storyline comes back: he has hit wall after wall. He's done dirty quid pro quo. He's been decieved, used, and even cowed by the system. One can't be treated fairly as a demon. Since he cannot make it any further by himself, he's resorted to relying on Ao Bing.

However, Sheng Gongbao's new role as a 'son' now paints him in an interesting light to both Ao Bing and Nezha. We instantly see that his motivation isn't just about feeling oppressed as a demon and wanting to be recognised for his merits. There is also clearly some insane filial piety driving him - because his position and ascention is supposed to benefit his kid brother and aging father back home! He is not just doing it for himself. He did all that dirty quid pro quo, being used as a tool, cowed by the system....because he needed to be the good son for his family. Because the truth is he has not made it at all. But if only he trains the perfect disciple, more perfect than himself...if only he gets him accepted into the celestial word...if only Ao Bing becomes a god of the Fengshen Bang...if Sheng Gongbao is reocognised as one of the 12 Golden Gods.........

On and on. His foil to Ao Bing as a son adds an extra dimension to Nezha 1. Ao Bing trained his whole life (being given the advantage of being the 'Yang pill') to advance his father's and people's position. To the point of being convinced, even if for a moment, that levelling Chentang Guan and killing all the people to keep the shameful secret of his dragon nature, was the only way forward...This now sounds very similar to his master. This is the solution his trusted, experienced master sold him. In Nezha 2, we learn Shen Gongbao has done terrible things for the celestial Wuliang (his senior cultivation brother)...it follows he would unload that same treacherous cycle onto Ao Bing.

2. Nezha

In a broad sense, Sheng Gongbao as the son becomes 'young,' a former protagonist himself, the hero of his own story, with his own parents and brother to appease. What I found endlessly interesting, is that with this new role, Shen Gongbao explicitly becomes a foil to Nezha as well. But the specific foil to Nezha in this case is 'being a son who will go on a total rampage out of love for his parents/family.'

With the knowledge of his parent's 'deaths,' Nezha goes on a total rampage out of love for his parents and the pain of losing them, that ends in beating up dragons and locking them in a huge magic furnace, completely playing into the hands of the evil celestial Wuliang. When our hero Nezha mitakenly fights the Eastern Dragon King Ao Guang, with the threat of his unfinished flesh body being disintegrated (he's not ready to fight in that condition yet!) - what does he say? He says "I don't care if I'll die, so long as I kill you!" The urge to avenge his parents is stronger than his self-preservation. But it's a twist. His parents are alive!

In the furnace scene, Nezha is offered a chance to save his parents who are getting cooked into cultivation pills by Wuliang. To accept a pill that makes him lose his memory and fall under the control of Wuliang. But Nezha's mother bats that thing out of Wuliang's hands, that's stupid and her son will never be a puppet for nefarious gods! Nezha, in the end, comes from a loving and supportive family who knows and understand him. They accept him for who he is. They would never stand for it. And so Nezha is protected from being manipulated.

Upon the Chentang Guan plot twist, it's revealed Shen Gongbao actually has the same reaction Nezha has when he thinks his family has died. Except for the point that his kid brother really does die - right in front of him! After whisking away Nezha's parents, Sheng Gongbao steps out again to the war-torn Chentang Guan, to fight off a thousand demons and the three traitor dragons. All by himself. There's dialogue, Nezha's parents ask Master Shen Gongbao what is he doing - where is going - why doesn't he take shelter with them?! And Shen Gongbao answers with bitter acceptance, "What's the point? My family's gone." And he goes out to fight. To take a last stand. To die.

Going back to Nezha, doesn't that reveal Sheng Gongbao's deepest motivations as the same as our hero's? He wasn't really doing it - all of it - entirely for himself. Now that his father and kid brother are dead, there is no reason to strive further. Shen Gongbao can let go of being one of the 12 Golden Gods or whatever. He's going to go out into danger, satisfy the urge to avenge his father and brother, and die.

Which takes me to the very delicious, delicious, diabolical end credits scene. The villainous Wuliang goes to a terrible prison where Shen Gongbao and his barely-ok father are alive. In a scene that totally parallels Nezha's choice in the furnace, he presents the same offer to Shen Gongbao. Accept a curse on his mind and body that will enslave him to Wuliang in exchange for his father's life.

But Shen Gongbao doesn't have the same honesty, understanding, protection from his father...because all this time he has been away from home...not returning because he hasn't made it...his father under the impression he is living it up as a celestial...his father not even conscious...

His kid brother died.

He has just this one family member left.

A person he was supposed to be doing all this for, to make proud.

A person he was ready to get revenge and die for.

After all he has already done - what is a little curse on Sheng Gongbao for the benefit of his father?

[dorkshadows]

The Writeup

Thanks for the interest! As promised, I've come out of retirement for one (1) day to do this writeup about the intense things going on in the Nezha 2 fandom.

Once more, this is NOT about the people who happened to watch the movie, the people who are just interested in box office stats, the people who really enjoyed the movie, or the people who just really admire Nezha. This will be about the fandom fandom, the truly invested, the elaborate fanons behind certain ships that will make you go "wait what?", the rabid Ao Guang discourse that will also make you go "wait what?," the brainrot (affectionate) in its purest unfiltered form. This is a post about brainrot for those also suffering from brainrot.

This is a collection of patterns mainly from lofter, but also from douyin, weibo, bilibili, and xhs (I'm grouping everyone together because most artists/authors repost to multiple sites or have their content shared on multiple sites, so everyone ends up looking at the same things if they follow the relevant tags on each site). I didn't filter out or blacklist a single tag. I stared directly into the sun to collect this information!

Disclaimer: I genuinely have no idea how to warn for some of the things mentioned here, so just a blanket note of caution- if you click "read more," you are prepared to read about anything and everything. If you are OK with all this, then- let's go! 命由我不由天!

The movie has been out in China in for roughly 3 weeks. In those 3 weeks, all of this has happened in the deepest layers of fandom.

General patterns:

I can't speak for other site stats, but at least on Lofter, Nezha/Ao Bing as a ship is #1 and #2 trending (as Oubing and Bingzha respectively) out of all fandoms and topics on Lofter. But curiously, Ao Guang (#8 trending) and Shen Gongbao (#9 trending) are more popular as individual characters than Nezha and Ao Bing. The latter is noteworthy because Shen Gong Gong's tag was pretty barren circa 2019.

Some Oubing fans have decided that they don't have enough oubing content so they've started shipping Oubing.... from the 1979 movie. This is also in the top 10 trending. Their inspiration comes from this advert.

Ao Guang vocally disapproves of his son dating Nezha, but he can't do anything about it. The real victim here!

Any pairing you can think of exists. Any pairing.

Character/Reader fics exist for everyone in the main cast except Wuliang Shenweng and Taiyi Zhenren

There's a vibrant self-shipping community again for everyone except Wuliang and Taiyi

Lots of M-preg

CEO Ao Guang is common in modern AUs

Nezha is usually in his powered up form in Oubing/Bingzha content, but in his gremlin form in content focused on anyone else

Lots of "The characters themselves react to watching the movie!" type of stories

Shiji Niang Niang has been shipped with both Taiyi Zhenren and Shen Gongbao. The latter has spawned a meme. There's a comic I won't repost because I don't know who the original artist is, but it's very powerful. It goes like this:

SGB: "Prejudice is like a mountain in people's hearts-" SNN: "So I exist in everyone's hearts? That's beautiful <3"

"Lady Yin LIVES!" AUs aplenty

Wuliang's nickname is "Evil Peach"

Lots and lots and Lots of Shen Gongbao whump

Ao Guang has been separately interpreted as a daddy dom, a malewife, an old guy TM, a himbo, and a baby girl AND as all of those things all at once

Ao Run and Ao Bing are the only dragons considered to be smart

Shen Gongbao tends to have very low self-worth. This comes from a 2019 Jiaozi interview where he directly says our leopard lacks confidence

Any AU you can think of: modern AUs, mafia AUs, republican era AUs, actor AUs, musician AUs, wuxia AUs, this one AU where the Ao family are American senators for no reason, omegaverse, and so on

Lots of Journey to the West (a lot of Black Myth specific ones especially) and FSYY crossovers

There's a meme about the real Lu Tong using his antlers to attack people in their dreams if they dare make sexual content of him because someone who made "bottom" Lu Tong content claimed they were attacked by him in a dream. Others took this to mean that he only attacks if you make him a bottom. People who interpret him as a "top" claim that they won the lottery and their lives are going great.

Ao Guang and Shen Gongbao are usually on a first name basis. Ao Guang calls Shen Gonbao 公豹兄 (Gongbao Xiong, "Brother Gongbao") and Shen Gongbao calls him "Ao Guang" directly. This is sort-of canon because this is how they address each other in 敖丙传 "The Tale of Ao Bing/Aobing Zhuan". for those who ship it, their ship name is 龙王豹 (longwangbao/ dragon king leopard) *Keep Aobing Zhuan in mind. This will be important towards the wildest part of this writeup.

Now for the elaborate fanon lore behind two specific ships that seemingly came out of nowhere. Everyone knows about oubing, but what about the other popular ships out there? They're absolutely wild, but- HEAR THEM OUT.

DiLong:

This one has its origins from the first movie. 地笼 AKA "Prison Cage/Emperor Dragon." It's a ship based on Tiandi (Emperor of Heaven) x Ao Guang. The Di in "emperor" is pronounced the same as ground "di," which is also the first character that makes up the word "prison." And "long" (dragon) is pronounced the same way as cage (also "long"), hence the ship name.

Some time after Ne Zha (2019) came out, someone pulled out one of Ao Guang's lines and ran with it. It's a quote where he essentially says that even though the dragon clan was loyal to heaven and its emperor, the heavens betrayed and imprisoned them in the sea anyway. This section of fans took this to mean that Tiandi charmed Ao Guang on false pretenses, took advantage of Ao Guang's love for him, and then left him to rot in the eastern sea... after impregnating him with 1-3 kids. And this changed Ao Guang from an innocent beauty into a resentful dragon desperate for vengeance.

Things of note about dilong:

Tiandi 天帝 is NOT the Jade Emperor (Yu Di). Their mythos overlap, but the Emperor of Heaven is considered the supreme ruler of Everything in the universe while the Jade Emperor rules over the three realms. So Tiandi ranks higher than the Jade Emperor. (But he's also a more obscure figure in popular worship if we get technical)

At the time, Ao Guang didn't actually have a name in 2019 canon. So the fans referred to him as 敖广 (that's what the eastern dragon king has always been called, but Nezha 2 reimagines him with a different name that's pronounced similarly: 敖光).

Tiandi's given name, or rather, the name that the fans gave him, is Hao Tian 昊天, which is the actual name of one of the mythological Tiandi's many variations

Tiandi does not appear in either Nezha movie. His entire character (appearance, personality, etc.) is purely built on headcanons. He is usually written as a playboy, a heartless manipulative bastard, a deadbeat dad, an ungrateful power greedy monster, and so on. But he is always written and drawn as #Hot.

Ao Guang gave birth to Ao Bing in the Dilong universe.

As you can tell, this is a very angsty ship that usually ends in anger and suffering, but there are plenty of fix-its and happy ending versions out there too, mostly about Tiandi feeling bad for being such a shitty bastard in the past and trying to win Ao Guang back

Regardless of how you feel about Dilong after reading all this, if you are in any way fond of Ao Guang's design in Nezha 2, you owe your life and soul to Dilong shippers because Jiaozi's original idea for Ao Guang was making him a bearded geezer. The Nezha team saw how popular the humansona for Ao Guang was (from dilong fanart) and they incorporated it into canon.

#Dilong had a resurgence in popularity thanks to Nezha 2 (it's the no.6 trending topic on weibo as of right now). But you'll notice that pre-2025 Dilong may feel ooc now because Ao Guang is, for lack of better word, interpreted more as a softspoken twink than the beautiful himbo he is now.

*Keep Dilong in mind as well. It is the source of much insanity below.

LuBao:

Next, in a similar vein to Dilong, another wild ship has risen over the horizon! In terms of quantity, dilong is more popular, but in terms of engagement, this is doing bigger numbers nowadays. I'm talking likes in the ten-thousands range. That ship is.... Lu Tong x Shen Gongbao. AKA 鹿豹 (LuBao, DeerLeopard)

You might be thinking "HUH!? Why!?" My answer for you is that it's all Taiyi's fault. Both inside and outside the movies, Taiyi consistently screws Shen Gongbao over. Life imitates art! This section is a little longer than the dilong section because there is a Lot going on here. I'll admit that one of the most profoundly beautiful and well-written stories I have ever read is a lubao fic on lofter, I understand now

Just as the fans did for dilong once upon a time, this section of fans pulled a blink-and-you-miss-it quote from Nezha 2, where Taiyi tells Nezha that the previous captain of the demon hunting team was Shen Gongbao (after they meet the current captain, Lu Tong).

From there, the lore just got deeper. When Lu Tong greets Taiyi, he calls him 师伯 (Shi Bo, senior martial uncle). But you only call a male relative 伯 in Chinese when that person is your father's older brother. Wuliang is Taiyi's elder (martial) brother (Shi Xiong, as I'm sure you all know), so Lu Tong's address is incorrect. Taiyi knows this as well, so he corrects Lu Tong and says "It should be 师叔" (Shi Shu, younger martial uncle). Lu Tong continues calling him Shi Bo anyway. The fans took it to mean one of two things:

Lu Tong did it on purpose because he only acknowledges one (1) person as his Shi Shu and that's Shen Gongbao

Lu Tong is officially Wuliang's disciple, but he believes himself to truly be Shen Gongbao's disciple and since Taiyi is Shen Gongbao's elder martial brother, he'll call him Shi Bo

Then it got even more elaborate. The fans surmised that since the celestials are so condescending towards demons, Lu Tong and He Tong were ostracized and bullied when they first arrived at Yuxu Gong. And the only person who was nicer to them/protected them/stuck up for them was Shen Gongbao since they're the only demons there. This is why you'll sometimes see fanart of the three of them together in the "Yuxu Gong days."

When Shen Gongbao immediately realized Shen Xiaobao's wound came from Lu Tong's arrow, the fans decided this meant that he was familiar enough with Lu Tong to know his fighting style. When paired with the above headcanon, this directly turns into "Shen Gongbao himself taught Lu Tong archery."

Whenever Ao Bing possessed Nezha, fans noticed that there was always a closeup of Lu Tong's reaction. They decided this meant that Lu Tong recognized Ao Bing through recognizing his fighting style, taught to him by Shen Gongbao.

The fans also think Lu Tong did not have to go off that hard on Shen Xiaobao and Shen Zhengdao. There's following your boss's orders and there's following those orders in the most hyperviolent over the top way possible. Their conclusion is that Lu Tong knew that was Shen Gongbao's family and did it on purpose. Because when Shen Gongbao left Yuxu Gong without telling him, Lu Tong took that personally. And when he took Ao Bing on as a disciple, Lu Tong took that more Personally. So Lu Tong has decided to do his best to kill everyone Shen Gongbao ever cared about until he has nobody left but Lu Tong. Audiences complained that Lu Tong lacked a personality in the movie- the fandom has assigned him a personality and that personality is "sadistic freak obsessed with his Shi Shu."

Things of note about LuBao:

dilong was requited at some point in time, but lubao is an aggressively one-sided ship where Shen Gongbao only requits 1% of the time either because it's a complete AU, none of the movie's events happened, or he has amnesia (inflicted on him by Lu Tong)

A common trope revolves around Lu Tong hoping and hoping for Shen Gongbao to take him on as a disciple, which never happens, planting the first seeds of disappointment and HATE

Lu Tong really fucking hates Ao Bing, whom he considers to be the antagonist of his life because Ao Bing STOLE all of Shen Gongbao's love that rightfully should have been Lu Tong's. He also really hates Ao Guang too, again for stealing HIS shishu. actually, he hates Taiyi sometimes too. He hates anyone Shen Gongbao ever talked to.

He Tong is the only person who knows Lu Tong is this way.

Sometimes Lu Tong meets Shen Gongbao as a primitive deer, a fully adult celestial-in-training, or a literal "deer boy." During his time as captain, Shen Gongbao usually takes Lu Tong under his wing at some point and/or is the person who spares Lu Tong from being slaughtered by the rest of the team or convinces the others not to kill him. OR, even wilder, Shen Gongbao interacts with Lu Tong for 5 minutes 200 years ago and that's enough to cause Lu Tong to go on this spiral. Whichever the case, Lu Tong imprints on Shen Gongbao.

90% of LuBao content includes Lu Tong taking his revenge on Shen Gongbao after Wuliang imprisons him. This includes all manner of graphic torture.

Lu Tong wants Shen Gongbao to hate him because he believes Shen Gongbao left him in the past due to indifference towards him. "Hate lasts longer than love."

Shen Gongbao: *exists* Lu Tong: I'll kill your family. I'll kill your disciple. I'll kill your disciple's father and your disciple's best friend. And Taiyi Zhenren too. I'll kill everyone who ever interacted with you. Then I'll break you and break you some more until you're nothing but bones and dust. I hate that you made me love you and that you left me. What do the dragons have that I lack? Are my antlers lesser than their horns? We both have blood on our hands and yet you think yourself nobler than I. You are inherently kinder than me and I hate that the most about you. My dearest revenge is dragging you down to my level, to make you hate me as much as I hate you. If I can't have your love, I will have your hate and your pain and your tears- Ao Bing & Ao Guang: 有病!??????? WTF.

恨明月高悬独不照我 is a phrase now permanently associated with this ship. It translates to "I hate that the moon in the sky shines for all but me." Lu Tong hates that shishu shares affection with everyone except him.

This is such a prevalent characterization of Lu Tong at this point that "obsessed with Shen Gongbao" is now his defining trait even in content where neither he or Shen Gongbao are main characters

If its an Ao Guang/Shen Gongbao fic, Lu Tong sometimes shows up as SGB's abusive ex, abusive stalker, or a guy that Ao Guang finds extremely creepy and annoying

If you're still here, this next and final section puts everything else to shame!

The Ao Guang Discourse

There is a lot of drama surrounding Ao Guang now, not because of anything he did as a character, but because of who's he's shipped with. But there's actually only one side of the fandom instigating all the arguments.

Now, remember Aobing Zhuan? That's a spinoff comic focused on Aobing's childhood that came out circa 2021(?). It goes into depth about his early days with Shen Gongbao, his brothers, and even his mother, 应龙, Yinglong. (Yinglong is a real mythological creature, a powerful dragon with a place in old mythos and folklore as well, but that's not entirely relevant here lol). Yinglong is older than Ao Guang, is beautiful, strong, etc. She dies in the spinoff.

A significant number of fangirls latched onto Ao Guang (as presented in Aobing Zhuan), and projected onto Yinglong, the mother of his children. After Nezha 2 released, Ao Guang understandably gained even more fangirls. Most of them became GuangYing shippers.

Now, it's a golden rule in CN fandoms to tag your content so others can avoid. GuangYing shippers do not care about this. They go onto any and all m/m content with Ao Guang to insult the authors and argue that their disgusting ways are disrespectful to canon, disrespectful to Ao Guang, and disrespectful to women everywhere. It doesn't matter that Yinglong is not in the movies and also dead--Ao Guang is not allowed to move on from her ever, and also he is STRAIGHT. Is there not enough gay content out there?? Why can't the heterosexuals have this one man to themselves?? The injustice!

Edit to add: m/f is also unsafe from the wrath of guangyin shippers. They also attack Ao Guang self-shippers for daring to be sluts coming in between him and his true love, Yinglong.

They especially hate dilong and have been harassing all dilong content for the past month. Dilong is their main target, but it's not their only target- you can also find them under Ao Guang/Shen Gongbao content claiming that "they're just besties" and "Ao Guang just sees Shen Gongbao as a pet" asdfasdf

Dilong shippers retort by saying all Guangying shippers do is attack and harass others instead of making their own content, which is why their content is so lacking and pitful. They also called into question the canonicity of Aobing Zhuan. Jiaozi supervised it, but he's not the actual author. They started bashing Aobing Zhuan as focusing too little on Aobing, making Aobing look bad to make his brothers look good, accusing the author of being a Xiao Zhan stan in the wake of the ao3 ban, creating events that directly contradicted with canon, crediting things that Ao Guang or Shen Gongbao did for Aobing as things that Yinglong did, the official Nezha team is embarrassed of the direction Aobing Zhuan went in and doesn't acknowledge it anymore, Yinglong is the author's self insert, etc. And back and forth-

And then, 匪我思存 (Fei Wo Si Cun), acclaimed web novelist, author of multiple novels, including 东宫 (Goodbye My Princess 2019) and 9 more that were turned into TV shows.... published a Dilong fanfic on main (weibo). It referred to Ao Guang as 敖广 and involved M-preg, of him giving birth to Ao Bing, who is also Tiandi's child here. Yinglong and Tiandi's wife are both in the story too- they are a lesbian couple who double as beards for their husbands.

The Ao Guang fangirls, I mean, Guangying shippers LOST IT. They came at Fei Wo Si Cun with full throttle rage. Countless socmed posts about what a horrible disgusting disgraceful thing this author did! How dare she use her wide platform to do this instead of putting it somewhere where nobody can see!? Some have even accused this one fic of destroying Nezha 2's image on the global stage. This one story about this one ship has DESTROYED the reputation of ALL OF CHINA. This is TREASON. Now when normies see Ao Guang and Ao Bing, all they will think about is M-preg.

Not only that, Fei Wo Si Cun had the audacity to do something as misogynistic as turning Yinglong into a lesbian beard! It is a SIN to break up a "canon" pairing and a sin to change the character's sexualities into anything except heterosexuality!

Correction: the lesbian couple part is hearsay and probably came from FWSC saying (that in her fic’s setting) Yinglong and Tiandi’s wife married their husbands because they can’t be with the people they love for “reasons”

The Yinglong crowd is still going at it as I write this. FWSC has not deleted or apologized for this fic. China's reputation has, last I checked, not been DESTROYED by this one story about an animated dragon man from a kid's movie, and dilong shippers are still suffering.

And that's a wrap for now. I may or may not update this if something even wilder happens. I want to say no, this is the end of the ride, but we are only 1 month in. There's plenty of time for more to crop up!

UPDATE: This post is already out of date LMAO! For those interested in updates on everything mentioned above, here's the follow-up: Writeup Part 2.

[nezhapreferences]

Hi, what would be ao Bing and nezha's ways of showing their s/o affection or appreciation? Gifts they give them etc.

How They Show Their Love For You

Here you go! This was about 831 words excluding the a/n :) Hope you enjoy!

Nezha

We all know Nezha doesn't follow the rules, affection is no exception. However, there are no rules to a proper relationship, so Nezha's best bet is to think outside the box.

One of his best ways of displaying his love is words of affirmation… kinda.

We all know Nezha loves to make improv rhymes, because it's sort of his way of hyping himself up. Of course he's gonna come up with one for you! Whether you're a well known soldier or a stall owner in a market, Nezha admires you because you make what you do look amazing.

His rhymes? Eh, they're good… if you were getting ready for war.

Can someone explain why Nezha decided to wake you up with a rhyme… at the top of his lungs? And then have the audacity to act confused when you woke up with a fright??

Nezha means well, I swear! He only ever sings your praises even if they may be considered mediocre. Then again, he does like to ‘remix’ his rhymes about you, maybe add in a random and unrealistic feat here and there.

However, that was put to a stop when Shen Gongbao challenged you to a duel after hearing Nezha sing about how you could beat him.

Out of all the ways he's attempted to show his love for you, his rhymes might just be your favorite. It's when Nezha's (somehow) at his loudest and proudest, he's so unashamed to make sure everyone knows that you can't be topped at what you do.

Two other love languages he aces at are tied between physical touch and quality time. He's not a creep when it comes to touch like others are, but he is touchy in his own way. Quality time isn't spent like some couples, but none of them have Nezha in them.

In public, Nezha doesn't need to have you in his arms, but he will have a hand on you somehow. Whether it's a hand on your ankle when you two laze about or tugging at your limp fingers, he's gonna find a way to keep touching you. All six arms come out when you two are alone though, he can't ever get enough of holding you.

His form of quality time, besides lazing about, is training. Whether you're already a skilled fighter or not, Nezha's not letting you go anywhere without a few moves under your belt. He does make sure to go easy on you, because his excitement of training with you might make him lose control over his strength.

Nezha just hopes that these moments mean as much to you as they do to him. They're the highlights of his day, as well as the best ways he shows his affection for you.

Ao Bing

Gift giving till the very end!

As a dragon that has the freedom to go wherever he wants, Ao Bing tends to bring this and that back home with him as a memento of his time in a new place.

It’s so important for him to share this with you, the wonder of being exposed to new things is something he loves to see from you.

Even if you've already seen these trinkets before Ao Bing brings them to you, the excitement is still there. These moments are when Ao Bing is at his happiest, even if he's already an expressive guy.

More often than not, you'll be going about your day when Ao Bing shows up with a new souvenir and a grin on his face. For the next few hours, he's going into the history of the item, what it's used for and just becomes a nerd about it.

He's a bit of a collector himself, but he tends to give you his better finds. That's one of the ways you know Ao Bing loves you.

I think another way he expresses his love is physical touch. From the ghost of a guiding hand on your back to you getting lost in his curled up dragon form, Ao Bing likes to know that he can feel you.

He'll never do anything that would make you uncomfortable, Ao Bing behaves as if you'll run off if he makes sudden moves, even after your relationship is established. That way, you'll be aware of his next move and have the chance to reject, even if he already got your consent to touch.

When he holds you, it's such a pleasant moment for the both of you. Knowing that you love each other and this is physically the closest way you can get to each other's hearts is so intimate and sacred to him. You don't even understand how deeply Ao Bing thinks of these things, he's in his own rabbit hole about it.

Ao Bing loves you so much. Even if he doesn't say it often, the volume of his actions are deafening.

There we go! A slow comeback with a cute request! I hope you enjoyed reading this, cuz i enjoyed writing it :)

[yunsound]

For any Ne Zha 2 fans and especially Oubing fans, may I recommend: Shangmei Oubing

Oubing (Ne Zha x Ao Bing) is probably the biggest ship in China right now. I'm sure we can all understand why. Soulmates, red blue, enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, angst, hurt, comfort, THE WHOLE PACKAGE DEAL.

Oubing is generally a very sweet, vanilla and heartwarming ship. For those of us that like the darker stuff, though, I have something for you: 上美藕饼, or Shangmei Oubing.

What TF is a Shangmei? Shang-mei is an abbreviation for Shanghai Animation Studio, a company that made many beloved animated childhood films in the 60s-90s. They made the most iconic Ne Zha film, which is the 1979 Ne Zha Nao Hai (Ne Zha Conquers the Sea).

In the 1979 version, Ne Zha and Ao Bing are definitely not friends. Ne Zha plucks out Ao Bing's tendons and skins and kills him, and Ao Bing eats children. Ao Bing 1979 is also kind of really ugly (his dragon form is really pretty though!)

This doesn't exactly seem like ship material right? You're correct.

BUT!

Shanghai released a short promotional video to celebrate a collaboration. The promotional video featured Ne Zha and Ao Bing from the 1979 version. In the video, Ne Zha didn't kill Ao Bing. No. In this video, Ne Zha and Ao Bing have a bit of a... scary dynamic.

You can probably find the video on Douyin or XHS, but in it, Ao Bing appears in a familiar-looking red wheelchair. He looks very different from his 1979 design- he looks more human, and he's in a half-dragon half-human form. Generally much prettier than his 1979 design.

Throughout the video, he wears a slightly terrified and miserable expression on his face. His phone screen is a selfie with him and Ne Zha in which he's smiling VERY awkwardly. Ne Zha, in fact, has opened up a seafood shop for the two of them.

Probably the biggest thing is that Ne Zha in this promotional video calls Ao Bing "Bingbing". Ao Bing also calls Ne Zha "Zhazha." So cute, right? Seems normal?

Well, in Ao Bing's phone screen saver, the selfie with him and Ne Zha involves him sitting on the wheelchair, smiling a pained smile. Ne Zha is hovering over his shoulder, smiling a very THREATENING smile.

Oh, and the wheelchair? The wheelchair isn't a wheelchair. It's Ne Zha's flying red sash, the Huntianling. Remember this sash obeys Ne Zha's will.

You can interpret this two ways.

Ao Bing has had a change of heart but is a little depressed because he's disabled now. He and Ne Zha are just good friends, and Ne Zha is taking care of him while also keeping a close eye on him to make sure he's not doing anything bad.

2. The popular interpretation.

Ne Zha, out of trauma (remember his dad is a huge asshole and he had to commit suicide very, very painfully) has formed an inappropriate attachment to Ao Bing, who is terrified out of his mind of Ne Zha, but is essentially prisoner because he can't even walk and is trapped within the red sash at all times.

Ne Zha forces Ao Bing to call him by a cutesy nickname, pretend that he loves Ne Zha, and essentially is speedrunning Stockholm Syndrome.

VERY toxic and very dark. Remember that Shangmei's Ao Bing is not a good innocent baby dragon- he eats children. Ne Zha is a protagonist who believes in justice, but he's also a kid who's been through a LOT of trauma and has never had a good family, whereas Ao Bing grew up cherished and loved.

For Ne Zha, this twisted love may be all he knows. For Ao Bing, he's terrified out of his mind, but knows he "deserves" this treatment- doomed to play happy family with his enemy, the enemy that crippled him.

I am NGL, I kind of like this dynamic. Being part of a big fandom is so satisfying. Whenever I'm full on sweet happy Oubing content I can switch to dark Shangmei Oubing content.

Shangmei Oubing is now one of the most popular ships in Ne Zha fandom. It's second only to regular Oubing. People also ship Ne Zha and Ao Bing in the 2021 New Gods Reborn movie: that ship is also really yummy. Oubing in general is yummy.

The dynamic I've seen the most often is as follows, with minor alterations depending on the specific fanwork:

After beating Ao Bing's ass, Ne Zha leaves him alive, but the rest of the myth and story proceed as usual (for the actual myth, see my Ne Zha post linked here). After Ne Zha commits suicide and is reborn in a body made of lotus roots, he ascends to godhood.

Ne Zha, traumatised and brimming with hate for his "father" Li Jing, searches for any source of love and affection he can find. He settles on Ao Bing, his old enemy- the little white dragon who was once so arrogant. He doesn't know exactly why: half jealousy that someone as evil as Ao Bing can have a better family than him, and half a desire for revenge since Ao Bing's death was what led him to have to commit suicide.

He kidnaps Ao Bing and keeps him captive on the red sash wheelchair. Ao Bing's father can't help him- he's already lost to Ne Zha multiple times, so Ao Bing can only resign himself to being Ne Zha's plaything.

Ne Zha, seeking love in any way he can get it, essentially begins to play house with Ao Bing- pretending they're best friends, calling each other cute nicknames (in some versions forcing Ao Bing to share a bed with him) and generally being very affectionate.

Ao Bing, terrified of Ne Zha, goes along and essentially lives a life of misery.

Ne Zha technically treats Ao Bing very well if he doesn't misbehave. If he does, however, well then...Ne Zha sometimes tortures Ao Bing emotionally (his trauma has made him ruthless and somewhat cruel) and humiliates him by making him crawl, since Ao Bing is now crippled. When Ao Bing cries or gets upset, Ne Zha tells him it's his penance for eating children.

Mpreg is a common tag, but more commonly it's Ao Bing finding some way to either commit suicide or he goes completely insane after years of living in fear. Ne Zha panics after seeing Ao Bing break down, and realises he's come to truly care for Ao Bing.

Toxicity adds flavour, everyone. Shangmei Oubing is actually so delicious.

[blankie-greenie-anon]

If I could write a scene in Ne Zha 3, I'd reference this:

For context, this is a retelling of Ne Zha's story, where instead of killing Ao Bing, he chooses to spare him because he's a cute little dragon. Ne Zha brings Ao Bing home as a friend, and places him in a goldfish pond to recover from the injuries he'd sustained during their fight.

The way I'd reference this story would go like this:

The duo fight an enemy who's capable of manipulating the Qiankun hoop. They make it so the hoop forces Ne Zha to return to his child form and also shuts off all his power. This is an underwater battle; Ne Zha was using his fire powers to generate oxygen. Now he's drowning.

Ao Bing quickly transforms into his dragon form and swallows Ne Zha to protect him. As Ao Bing hastily swims upwards, the enemy sends a barrage of attacks, and Ao Bing is unable to dodge the hardest hit.

Upon reaching the shore, Ao Bing coughs up Ne Zha, who can finally say the necessary incantation to undo the hoop and go back to his teenage form. Ao Bing also returns to his human form, badly injured.

The enemy bursts out of the surface. Ne Zha has all six of his arms ready—one pair to wield his spear, another to manipulate his silk, and the last to carry Ao Bing. He jumps onto his fire wheels with intention to get Ao Bing to safety while fending off the enemy. Of course, this form of multitasking is easier said than done, and the enemy manages to close the distance. That's when it's revealed Ao Bing is still conscious, and he touches the enemy, encasing them in ice so they fall straight to the ground.

At last, the duo reach a pond filled with goldfish. Ne Zha lowers Ao Bing into it, as dragons heal faster when submerged in water (source: I made it up).

Alternate direction:

Ne Zha isn't able to get the hoop off and is stuck as a child who's too weak to carry either a large dragon or a human teen, so he pleads for Ao Bing to take on a smaller form. Fortunately, Ao Bing is able to make himself into the size of a snake. Ne Zha quickly gathers him in his arms and runs to safety.

[ryin-silverfish]

A side-by-side comparison of Nezha's backstory in JTTW and FSYY

(Sth I've been working on for a while, as quick reference material for Nezha's story in the two novels specifically that doesn't go into the broader mythos.)

JTTW's Nezha:

-Born with the characters "Ne/Na" on one hand, and "Zha" on the other

-Has 2 older brothers and 1 younger sister: Jinzha, who worked as a guardian deity and attendant of the Buddha, Mucha, who was the disciple of Guanyin, and Li Zhenying, who's said to be 7 years old in JTTW (Chapter 83).

-There's also Diyong/Lady Earth Flow, the adopted mice sister that had eaten the Buddha's candle, was captured by Li Jing and Nezha, and spared on the Buddha's order.

-She shows up in Chapter 80, as a demoness who kidnapped Tripitaka for the purpose of marriage, and is subsequently recaptured to face celestial judgement.

-Three days after his birth, Nezha went off into an unknown ocean, stepped on a crystal palace and toppled it, and caught a flood dragon to use its tendon as a belt

-After that, Li Jing tried to kill him for being a menace, and Nezha did the "Return his flesh and bones to his parents" thing in anger

-His soul then drifted off to the Buddha's place, who performed the Lotus Resurrection Thing by reciting a mantra

-He then subdued 96 caves of demons, and went after Li Jing to take revenge for the "forced suicide" thing

-Li Jing pleaded to the Buddha for help, who gave him a pagoda with Buddhas sculptured on every level, and told Nezha to call the Buddha (on the pagoda) as his father from now on.

-The weapons he used in his Three-headed Six-Armed Form: The Demon-slaying Sword + Demon-cutting Blade, Demon-binding Rope + Demon-subduing Vajra, Embroidered Ball, Fire Wheel (held in his hand)

FSYY's Nezha:

-Is the reincarnation of Taiyi's oldest disciple, Spirit Pearl/Lingzhu Zi

-Is destined to be the Vanguard of the Zhou army in the upcoming War of the Investiture

-Has 2 brothers: Jinzha, disciple of Wenshu Guangfa Tianzun, and Muzha, disciple of Sage Puxian. (FSYY's quirk of making popular Buddhist deities into Daoist sages in a trenchcoat is at play again.)

-Mother was pregnant with him for three years, gave birth to a ball of flesh

-Jumps out of the ball of flesh when Li Jing cuts it open, wearing his Qiankun Ring as a bracelet, Huntian Sash wrapped around his stomach

-Was immediately taken by Taiyi as a disciple the next day, who told Li Jing that, born in the hour of Chou, Nezha is destined to break 1700 prohibitions against killing

-A 6 ft tall 7-years old (FSYY's sense of scale is really weird, like all old novels)

-Asked to go out and play in the river during summertime, unknowingly created a shockwave in the water with his sash that shook Ao Guang's palace in the East Sea.

-Ao Guang sent a Yaksha to check it out. Nezha sassed the Yaksha, who attacked him in a fury and got insta-killed.

-Ao Guang's soldiers reported the Yaksha's death. Ao Bing overheard the whole thing, asked to go deal with this random brat, and was granted permission by his father.

-Ao Bing rode out of the waves on his steed, and went "Who are you, sassy lost child, and did you just kill my Yaksha?!" And Nezha was like "Yeah, so what? Talk shit, get hit."

-Ao Bing charged Nezha with his weapon in a fury, got dragged down his steed by the sash, and was promptly bonked on the head by the Qiankun Ring, which reverted him to his dragon form.

-Nezha then pulled out his tendons to make a belt for Li Jing's armor and returned to Chentang Pass. Furious, Ao Guang hurried his way to Li Jing's mansion and accused him for the whole multiple homicide thing.

-Li Jing's first reaction was "My kid's only 7 and never goes out of the door, he can't possibly kill yours!" Then, when he indeed asked Nezha, Nezha flat-out admits it and went out to meet Ao Guang like "Yeah, sorry, doesn't know that's your kid. Anyways, here's his tendons, undamaged and untouched."

-Ao Guang, unsurprisingly, did not take it well and stormed off to press charges to the JE. Faced with his angry crying parents, Nezha also knew he had fucked up, and went to his master Taiyi for help.

-Taiyi's advice? Go ambush the dragon king on his way to complain to the JE and beat him up, mobster-style. Which Nezha promptly did, forcing Ao Guang to turn into a little snake and stay in his sleeves, to be carried back to Chentang Pass.

-The beatdown does not convince Ao Guang not to press charges. In fact, he said he'd get the other dragon kings of the Four Seas to press charges together. Li Jing raged at Nezha again, who assured him that it was alright, like, his master said he was destined to assist some Sage King and stuff.

-He then wandered into the back garden, picked up the Qiankun Bow and Sky-shaking Arrows of the Yellow Emperor that were, uh, just kept there in the family attic, and decided to do some archery practice.

-Sadly, he didn't know how far that arrow would go. It flew all the way to the White Bone Cave, abode of Lady Shiji the Rock Demoness, and went straight through the throat of one of her two disciples, the Verdant Cloud Boy.

-Since Li Jing also carved his name onto the arrow (…), Lady Shiji headed immediately to his place and whisked him away with her treasure, the Eight Trigrams Hankerchief.

-At her place, Li Jing pleaded that he really didn't do it, since the Qiankun Bow was a mystical ancient weapon no one could use in a long, long time, and Shiji released him back to Chentang Pass to find the true culprit. At which point he put two and two together, found out it was Nezha again, and told him to go answer to Shiji together with him.

-Nezha, who did not think this was his fault, smacked Shiji's other disciple, the Colored Cloud Boy on the head with his Qiankun Ring, when he came out of the cave on his master's orders. Shiji was even less happy about that, took his weapons away with a single swipe of her sleeves, then chased him all the way to Taiyi's place.

-At which point Taiyi was like "Well, if you want Nezha to pay for his crimes, how about we go to the Jade Emptiness Palace together and let my master (Yuanshi Tianzun) sort it out?" Shiji refused, stating that he was just using his master's authority to lord over her and unfairly protect his disciple.

-Taiyi then revealed the Chan-Jie division that would later become a huge thing in the War of Investiture, and basically went "Sorry that your student died in Nezha's archery accident, Lady Shiji, but it is literally Fated to Happen, which means you totally shouldn't be mad at me or him."

-Shiji did not buy that explanation at all, and they fought. Taiyi blocked her hankerchief when she tried to use it, then threw the Nine Fire Dragon Bell Cover over her head, burning her to death and reverting her to her true form——a rock.

-Taiyi then informed Nezha that with JE's permission, Ao Guang had gathered the other dragon kings to go after Nezha's parents. Nezha begged him to save them, and his advice was...well, "kill yourself and the dragon kings will let them go". Literally.

-So Nezha did, which was very graphically described in the novel, after which his soul drifted off to Taiyi's place.

-Taiyi told him to go to his mother and tell her to build a temple for him at Mt. Cuiping. He did, and Lady Yin woke up from her dream crying.

-Upon learning the reason why, Li Jing yelled at her for crying after Nezha had brought all these troubles upon their family. Nezha's soul then haunted her in her dreams for a week or so, until she finally relented and built him a temple in secret.

-Half a year later, Li Jing found out about the temple while Nezha's soul was out and away for some unknown reasons. In a fit of rage, he smashed Nezha's statue and burned the temple down (I talk about how this resembles the destruction of 淫祠, illicit cults in IRL history here).

-Nezha returned to his temple only to find it in ruins, at which point he went back to Taiyi, who did the Lotus Resurrection thing and gave him back his weapons, together with a new spear, the Wind-Fire Wheels and a golden brick.

-Nezha immediately rushed back to Chentang Pass to take revenge, stating that after the whole "returning his flesh and blood" thing, they were basically unrelated and didn't owe each other anything, so he was perfectly justified to go after Li Jing for the destruction of his temple.

-They fought. Li Jing, quickly exhausted, turned tail and fled using the Daoist arts of Earth Travel, at which point he ran into Muzha. While they were talking, Nezha caught up with them.

-Muzha was like "How dare you!" and Nezha replied with "Who the hell are you?" Only after Muzha said his name out loud did he recognize his brother and recount the whole story.

-Muzha retorted that "Parents can do no wrong". Nezha pointed out that after his suicide, they were no longer father and son, and told him to stand aside.

-Muzha whipped out his sword to fight him. Concerned that Li Jing might get away in the meantime, Nezha threw his golden brick at Muzha, hitting him in the back and knocking him down.

-The chase continued. Li Jing, knowing that he couldn't run away forever, was ready to commit suicide instead of facing the disgrace of being struck down by his son.

-However, Jinzha's master, Wenshu, suddenly showed up to rescue him. Nezha demanded that Wenshu release Li Jing from his abode, and if he didn't, he'd poke three holes in Wenshu instead.

"And who are you, to make such claims?"

"I am Nezha, disciple of Master Taiyi!"

"Never heard of you. You can throw a tantrum elsewhere, but not here, and if you keep this up, you are in for a spanking."

-Nezha attacked him. In return, Wenshu unleashed his treasure, the Flying Dragon Pillar, tying Nezha onto it. He then summoned Jinzha, handed him a walking stick, and told Jinzha to give him a good whipping.

-Then Taiyi showed up to rescue him, telling Nezha to bow to Wenshu, his Daoist uncle (Context: Taiyi and Wenshu are both among the 12 Immortals of the Chan Sect), and scolded Li Jing a bit for the temple-burning thing.

-Then he told the two to get along and go their separate ways. Nezha was delighted, seeing it as basically a free pass to resume his revenge the moment he was out of his master's sight, and indeed, he did.

-Then Sage Randeng (also of the Chan Sect) showed up, gave Li Jing a buff, and told him to fight Nezha again. Nezha, having witnessed the whole thing and reached an impasse in the fight, attacked Randeng in an attempt to disable the buff.

-Randeng was not happy about this "unprovoked" attack on an innocent bystander, so he dropped a pagoda out of his sleeves and onto Nezha, trapping him inside.

-On Randeng's command, flames ignited inside the pagoda. At last, Nezha pleaded for the sage to release him, under the condition that he'd call Li Jing father (grrrr grrrr) again.

-He was planning to pull a second "resume patricide arc" the moment Randeng left, until the sage gave the pagoda to Li Jing and told them to go back to Chentang Pass and Taiyi's place respectively, to wait until the War of Investiture formally began.

-And they did: Nezha was sent to rescue Huang Feihu during his escape from the Five Passes in Chapter 34, while Li Jing only showed up much later in Chapter 64, to kill a fleeing Luo Xuan after he got all of his fire-based treasures neutralized and taken away by Princess Longji.

-I will not do a full campaign-by-campaign summary of Nezha's performance in the War of Investiture proper, for this post is already long enough.

-The broadest overview: together with his senior Daoist brother Yang Jian, Nezha was one of the biggest powerhouses on the Chan/Zhou side.

-His total kill count in the novel (only counting the named/deified ones) is 15, which is actually more than Yang Jian's (12-13).

-Much like Yang Jian, he was often the one who survived lethal attacks and AOE plague spells while the others were taken out. His lotus body also made him impervious to spells and treasures that work directly on the soul, usually by pulling it out of the body.

-After suffering an injury from the Blood-melting Knife of Yu Hua/his master Yu Yuan, Nezha was given his final power-up at Taiyi's place via three cups of wine and three "fire jujubes", enabling him to transform into his Three-headed, Eight-armed Form.

-At the end of the novel, Nezha, together with Li Jing, Jinzha, Muzha, Yang Jian, Weihu and Lei Zhenzi, became "Sages in Flesh"——which I understood as "a better sort of gods/immortals that don't receive their godhood via death and deification".

-The 6+ weapons he has: Qiankun Ring, Huntian Sash, Fire-tipped Spear, Golden Brick, Wind-Fire Wheel (in its most popular "hot wheels" depiction), Yin-Yang Swords, Nine Fire Dragon Bell Cover

[uovoc]

Nezha 2

lots of fun! theater was packed

theater is not showing Fengshen 2 but they are screening Condor Heroes? What gives? Condor Heroes but no Fengshen?

I'll never get tired of more fight scenes with Nezha and Ao Bing. The wheels... The spear... they don't seem to be a big fan of having him use the sash though. not badass enough maybe?

sad that AB only got to wield double maces for like one scene. Guess that's what happens when you don't have a body for most of the movie. I really enjoy that Ao Bing fighting hand-to-hand is all stylized forms and graceful poses but Ao Bing fighting with weapons is Hulk Smash

they're friends 🥹

I'll never get tired of Big Nezha. All his lines and mannerisms hit different when he's 6 ft tall with six arms.

the translated names sucked ass. Deero? Crana? Even literal name translations like they did for Legend of Hei would have been better than this. Give those kids their dignity back.

End credits finally gave Lu Tong and He Tong some personality. Hell yeah kids stick it to that old man. I hope we get to see more of them in the next movie

I wasn't expecting it but the Shen Gongbao character development was good. Graceful shift from cartoonishly villainous to bitterly disillusioned. Guess he's assigned sexy bad boy character now.

Xiaobao catboy? Catboy??? please bring him back for movie 3

Ao Guang assigned DILF??

Shen Zhengdao assigned DILF???

Dragon form Ao Bing never gets old either. Come on he gets to be a prettyboy 95% of the time. Let him dragon out. Too bad dragon Ao Bing and Big Nezha are for special occasions only.

[sillysoliloquyshits]

Ne Zha × Ao Bing headcanons

Physical contact (in a tame way)

1. LOTS OF HAND HOLDING LIKE LOTS ESPECIALLY AFTER THE EVENTS OF NE ZHA 2

2. Basically they've already been through life and death situations where holding hands helped them better channel their collective powers of absorbing energy when their souls were once the Chaos Pearl, so it's much more ingrained in them to find assurance and even safety in each other when both of them hold hands in even every day stuff or when they confide in each other

3. The kind of holding hands can be locking their fingers together or holding each other by the arms like in the opening art scene for the second movie

4. Sometimes they hold hands the most when watching the sunset or lying down in the ground stargazing or something

5. Both would probably hug a lot with lots of random cuddles when they're doing their own stuff, since their souls used to be one they would subconsciously gravitate to each other for solace (so you would see Ne Zha being the total koala on Ao Bing's back or something)

6. Ne Zha especially would love tight and deep pressure hugs that maybe only Ao Bing has the strength to give, as after the traumatic incidents of seeing his mom die (and possibly almost losing the will to live) and also the sheer agony of destroying his body and reassembling it might make Ne Zha vulnerable to wanting to just collapse into dust again so Ao Bing's embrace really does help him a lot to feel like he's literally in one piece again and life is worth living again

7. And Ao Bing would love embracing Ne Zha tightly as his tight but gentle hugs also remind him of his own father finding a hiding place in the sea so yeah (and if Ao Bing also wants tighter hugs no problem six arms it is)

8. When Ao Bing changes into his Loong/dragon form and can even change in size from normally huge to maybe around Ne Zha's height, Ne Zha would love to cuddle and lie down on Ao Bing's coiled body or by the side and even hug him from the mouth area (a la Ghibli style)

9. Ao Bing could also wrap his coiled body around Ne Zha lols, and if he shrinks to a smaller size he could wrap himself around Ne Zha's hands or fingers and either rub his head or lick or bite his fingers, and Ne Zha can help scratch some of Ao Bing's scales with his nails like ack cuddles

10. If they're super bored they could have those arm wrestling competitions and Ne Zha totally won't cheat his way through (as if) even though Ao Bing somehow tends to win the arm wrestlings more XD

11. They could even have those brotherly fist pumps or punch each other in the shoulder or sometimes childishly try to trip or kick each other or even pinch each other's arms since yeah they're both playful

12. WE NEED FOREHEAD TOUCHES FOREHEAD TOUCHES FOREHEAD TOUCHES (and with forehead touches being more direct to their birthmarks it could maybe stimulate more vivid memories of togetherness in the past or a much closer psychic and spiritual connection between both in the moment when their foreheads touch)

13. When they do get more intimate they may start playing with each other's hair, like Ne Zha combing Ao Bing's long silk hair and even braiding it or messing it up, while Ao Bing either tries to comb Ne Zha's hair down and try different hairstyles or he just gives up and likes feeling the way Ne Zha's hair flows upwards

14. Ne Zha is soon allowed to gently touch Ao Bing's Loong/dragon antlers the way Ao Bing is also allowed to touch Ne Zha's demon markings on his cheekbones and cup his hands on his cheeks

15. When sleeping together or seeing the other sleeping, Ne Zha would secretly use his fingernails to lightly trace Ao Bing's tip of the nose down and maybe his lips when he's asleep, while Ao Bing also lightly touches and traces Ne Zha's throat and clavicle/chest when he's asleep

16. They could even rest on each other's chest or lap like a pillow

17. Overall in whatever physical contact they make since Ne Zha and Ao Bing literally have a harmonious yin-yang kind of dynamic going on, it's gonna be very reciprocal in how they show their physical intimacy, like you hug me I'll hug you back that kind I guess, which would be the cutest and most heartwarming thing ever

18. Over time because they're used to each other's physical contact and presence, they won't just be inseparable, their combined powers in combat would be much easier to tap into, which may not always involve direct hand holding (though they both prefer it for morale) but it could be strengthened if both of them had been cultivating a stronger psychic and spiritual bond with all the physical closeness and maybe even imagining the physical closeness they used to have could even be enough to spark their energy absorbing powers despite physical distance in battle which is a big plus against any villain who thinks separating both of them even more would be enough XD

19. They could get so used to each other's physical presence they could even sense where how close each other are by just sending their aura maybe

20. Whenever Ne Zha is close to or actually having a breakdown due to maybe bad dreams of his mom or just having a depressive episode (as I feel like he could be more susceptible to that), just Ao Bing's touch on the hand or arm or caressing on the back and hair would be enough to ground him and to calm him down, and likewise if Ao Bing feels like he's drowning in worry Ne Zha will try to squeeze him till he feels back in his body and in the moment

Okay this list was a lot longer than I thought sorry but you can comment or reblog any more ideas you have on headcanons!

[lotusloong]

Reunited

Relationship: Nezha Reborn!Sun Wukong X Female!Reader

AN: Was hit with the desire to write a little something for Nezha Reborn after finally getting a chance to watch it. The beginning does use some dialog directly from the movie, but it does diverge from canon.

When I mention reader shifting to a smaller form btw, I was picturing a shape similar to Chen Loong from Black Myth, a bipedal dragon form to walk around in.

Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Imprisonment, Reunions, Kissing, Not Canon Compliant, Female!Reader, Loong Dragon!Reader, Reader's dragon design is based off a lotus flower idea from another Wukong story I have in the works but you can imagine anything really

Summary: “Why would you hide yourself from him? Aren’t you on good terms?” Sun Wukong snorts behind his mask.

“We were. Then he stole something precious from me. I couldn’t risk stealing it back in case-…” He pauses in his steps. A growl leaves his throat, and Li realized he shared more in common with this living legend than he thought possible. The repressed fury he could feel emanating from the Monkey King was something he knew all too well.

Read it on AO3!

“The Dragon King thinks I’m hiding from my enemies…” Six Eared Mac-no…The Monkey King laughs as he drags Li closer to the wide pit in the center of the room, the carcass of Ao Bing sliding across the floor behind them. “But I’m just tired, don’t even remember where my golden cudgel is. The Dragon King doesn’t even know who I am, really.” Li Yunxiang looks at his mentor with confusion, letting himself be dragged around.

“Why would you hide yourself from him? Aren’t you on good terms?” Sun Wukong snorts behind his mask.

“We were. Then he stole something precious from me. I couldn’t risk stealing it back in case-…” He pauses in his steps. A growl leaves his throat, and Li realized he shared more in common with this living legend than he thought possible. The repressed fury he could feel emanating from the Monkey King was something he knew all too well. 

His mentor shakes his head before straightening.

“He knows better than to speak to the Monkey King after that, so I became Six Eared Macaque instead. At least then I could keep an eye on things.” Sun Wukong supports Li’s limping form as they come to a stop above the gaping hole in the ground. Li holds his throbbing stomach as he leans closer to see over the edge.

“Li Yunxiang, the red ribbon was your Astra. The Sky Ribbon.” With no effort his mentor throws the dragon corpse down the hole, and Li feels the breath get knocked out of him as his feet are suddenly lifted off the ground. He panics as the ledge gets further away, distantly aware that his mentor just picked him up and threw him. Before he can scream, the firm grip of Sun Wukong is on the back of his armor. He feels very much like a helpless kitten being held by the scruff of its neck over the hole stretching endlessly far below his dangling feet.

“This hole leads to the East Sea. Under a waterfall at the bottom is the palace of the Dragon King of the East. He keeps river dragons trapped there, harnessing their power for his Dragon Pearl. The thing is, river dragons need fresh water to live.”

The missing puzzle pieces slot into place in Li’s mind.

“So he stole Donghai’s water.” 

“Exactly.” With a forceful jerk, Li hits the ground, his mentor staring down at his kneeling form. “The Sky Ribbon is tethering those dragons into servitude.” Li feels remnants of his rage come back to him, his temper wanting to flare despite how exhausted he feels. His whole life, his family and friends and neighbors…All suffering from drought their whole lives so a dragon god can have even more power over the mortal world.

“It’s too bad, Li Yunxiang.” Sun Wukong ‘tsk’s where he stands above Li. “You can’t do anything about it. You are not Nezha.” His mask is suddenly much closer to Li, his words cutting like a knife. Li can’t stop staring at the hole before him.

“I’m not?” His voice is a whisper.

“Kid only appears when you’re murderous. But when you want to help others? Poof, nowhere to be seen.”

“But hey,” Sun Wukong leans away from his personal space, walking away like he doesn’t have a care in the world. Like he doesn’t share the same rage Li holds in his heart, the fury he saw a glimpse of just moments ago. “If you were crazy enough to try and do something, knowing you’re not Nezha, keep an eye out for a river dragon with a connection to lotus flowers for me, yeah? Tell ‘em I said ‘hi’.”

And with those parting words, Li Yunxiang is left in the golden hall of the Dragon King.

~~~~~~~

It’s cramped.

You need space. You need room. You need freedom.

Your kin swirl around and around in circles with you, constantly moving, don’t sit still, if you sit still it’s worse-

It’s cramped.

You don’t remember how long you’ve been trapped here but it’s agonizing.

You used to be so much bigger. You were ‘yourself’ once, a river all your own. Your foggy memories are filled with visions of a gleaming waterfall, parting like a curtain to reveal paradise in a cave. Flowers of all kinds found nowhere else in the realms, immortal fruit trees and monkeys, a stone palace you shared with…with someone…

It was home.

And then the years pass and you see new rivers, new places. They weren’t the same but they still felt like home because of him…

You want to go back!

You would give anything to be free of here, to escape this maddening claustrophobic bowl, to stop churning water with your kin. After so many years, you fear it won’t ever happen. It’s been so long…

A rumbling shakes your prison, and you hear your kin screech in joy. 

A crack. 

A crack just along the rim of your cell, you watch as two of your kin slip through and burst towards the heavens, roaring their fury and anguish at having been trapped for so long. You can feel the others around you pulling their own power, screeching and roaring to follow, but the crack is forced shut. You throw your body against it desperately when you pass by, before being swept into a new lap by the other dragons surrounding you. Each one pounds their talons against the crack, throwing their whole body weight into the motion, desperate for that chance at freedom.

It works, you can see the crack opening again, another outside force trying to close it, but another rumble of the earth and the tower holding your cell topples, unleashing you and your kin.

None of you waste time, bullying your way through the salty water of the Eastern Sea towards freedom, uncaring of the damage you wreak. 

Fresh air.

Fresh water!

Freedom!

You give a mighty roar to match your kind as you ride the waves towards shore, thrashing in your excitement.

A feeling settles in your gut, something telling you to still yourself, you can’t thrash wildly and let your power loose. There was something…something about the land…your power could harm them all, they were so delicate…

A roar to your right distracts you, and the feeling is buried under your fury and relief.

You don’t care, you want to get revenge on the one who trapped you, you want to fly high into the open air and never look back, you want to see him again-

A sudden tightness wraps around your throat, jerking you back from the shore, from where you need to be, stopping you from getting back to your river. A trail of red and gold fabric loops around your long body, along the serpentine bodies of your kin around you, and pulls.

You choke, roaring in anger at being denied still. You won’t go back! You won’t! The ribbon will have to choke and kill you before you are confined to that horrible prison once more-!

You see your kin get pulled back as well, but they are released in a motion that sends them towards the heavens, clouds and thunder meeting them with open arms. You scream, desperate for them, any one of them, to turn back and help you. You’re pulled further and further down despite your struggling, decades of non-stop swimming in too close quarters with hundreds of other dragons with no breaks or food has left you weak and weary. You cry once more, reaching towards the heavens with aching claws.

You just wanted to see him once more…

“A lotus dragon…” A voice speaks near you. Through your haze you see them below you, two tiny creatures standing on folds and folds of red ribbon. The fog in your mind clears just enough for you to recognize them as human.

Well, one of them is anyways.

Your eyes reveal the truth of one of them, fire and power coursing through mortal veins. You growl low in your throat, tugging uselessly at the red ribbon connecting you to them.

“Wait, please. I-...Sun Wukong asked me to say hello to you, on his behalf.” The name has you freezing in place, all struggle put on hold as you stare with wide eyes at the not-mortal below you. 

“W-Wukong…” You rasp. You feel the bonds holding you tight loosen as the clarity returns to your eyes. Sun Wukong…yes. Yes, that was him. You needed to see him again, you needed it-

“Whoa, I understand, I’ll take you! Just, calm down please.” You take a deep breath, realizing you are much closer to the humans than before, your muzzle all but knocking over the not-mortal as you demand to see Sun Wukong. The red ribbon and fire surrounds you on all sides, shooting towards the sky and crashing down on the surface of the water with all the fanfare of a God. You let the ribbon lift your tired form out of the sea with the two humans, only now noticing the infant water beast the female holds in her arms.

Memories return to you, slowly. Moving to Donghai City with Wukong so many years ago, the giant metal tower he picked out right next to a serene and peaceful river flowing through the city. No other river dragon had claimed the water as theirs, so you had made it your own. The two of you lived happily; going on shared picnics to your new river, running through the city to cause mischief or watch live shows and performances, playing for hours on end with Wukong’s monkey subjects. The late nights you would come into his workshop to find him passed out over some new human invention, coaxing him to finally come to bed with kisses and the promise of warm cuddles…

You had built a life together here, after millennia of happiness and love. 

That had all been ripped away from you when the Dragon King of the East Sea had summoned you to his court.

“Almost there.” The not-mortal said. You watched ahead, eyes trained on the stone shoreline. A vehicle was parked at the edge of the water, a lone figure leaning casually against the metal shape before standing at the sight of your group. You leaned forward eagerly, your massive head casting a shadow over the creatures on the ribbon below you.

You didn’t dare hope.

There’s no way he would know you were here, right?

The not-mortal huffs in amusement, and the red ribbon lowers to anchor on the stone shore. He offers a hand to his human companion to help her get down, but you don’t need such help. Your massive claws grip the smooth surface of wet stone easily as the waves behind you crash together once more to form the sea.

His smell is the first thing you recognize on the breeze.

You immediately run over to the figure, dressed head to toe in pink with gold jewelry - if you still doubted this was your Wukong, you didn’t anymore after seeing his outfit - and all but tackle him with your large form. The Monkey King squawks, almost losing his footing as you press your muzzle into his stomach, your long body coiling around him. It’s only with his extraordinary strength that he can hold his ground against your nuzzling, his hands gripping your scaled cheeks like a lifeline.

“Fuck, baby, it is you, fuck-” There’s a ‘clunk’ sound as metal hits the stone below your feet, a mask made of steel and wood bouncing as Wukong presses kiss after kiss to your own face. You shudder as you breathe in, tears streaming down your muzzle and mixing with the rain currently pouring from the sky. Your long, sensitive whiskers wrap around and around Wukong’s smaller body, memories of his smell and heat and touch flooding your mind as you relish having him hold you once again. He chitters and chirps as he nuzzles back, his claws digging into your scales like you’ll disappear again if his grip loosens. The not-mortal steps close to you both, confident and self-assured.

“I got my astra back. And your girlfriend.” He steps closer, staring Wukong in the eyes. “I am Nezha.” And with that he turns and walks up the stone steps with his companions.

You glance at him, the red ribbon wrapped tight around his forearm.

Nezha.

Wukong must find the expression on your face funny, because he laughs. Gripping one of your whiskers, his other hand flicks a metal rod with a pair of dangling keys on it towards the other god.

“Make sure to bring it back in one piece. Need it to show my girl a good time.” Wukong snarks, and Nezha snatches the keys out of the air with hardly a glance.

“Got it.” He settles onto the seat of a motorcycle, black leather and studs gleaming in the sunlight, his companions settling behind him on the seat. As they drive away, you wrap yourself further around your monkey.

“That’s your ride?” You mumble into the warm fur of his neck. You feel his cackle as it ripples through his chest. His tail tickles your under arm where it wraps around your bicep.

“Yeah, you like it baby?” His lips press against your forehead, right at the base of one of your antlers. You realize you’ve been purring nonstop since you circled around him.

“It looks amazing, very hot.” You tease, a familiar habit you haven’t been able to participate in for years now. The wave of nostalgia and comfort that washes over you brings a fresh wave of tears to your eyes.

“Gonna take you on so many joyrides, baby. All the time, whenever you want. Just-fuck, just don’t leave me again-” Wukong grips your antlers with both hands, burying his face into the scales of your forehead. You feel the warm, wet fur of his cheeks and realize he’s crying just as much as you are.

“I won’t, I promise-...I’m so sorry my love…” You whimper into his stomach, inhaling the familiar smell of wood, stone, and peaches. The pink fabric of his suit feels soft against your muzzle. You heard him choke on a sob above you.

“No, I’m supposed to be sorry. You were trapped down there and I couldn’t-I didn’t do anything! I couldn’t risk him hurting you but I should have done something, anything-” Your heart breaks at his words. You muster up what little magic your exhausted form has and shift, growing smaller to fit in his arms. You straighten up, standing on your back feet with your tail circling around the waist of your Monkey King to pull him closer to your chest. Your dragon nature is still on full display, but this form is easier to maneuver in when living in a world meant for humans. Now smaller, you bring your claws up to cup Wukong’s fuzzy cheeks, your thumbs wiping away the tears still dripping down to his chin. 

You press your lips to his own, finally getting a proper kiss after so long. You don’t care about the rain pouring down on top of you, you don’t care that his lips are salty from his tears and your own, you don’t care. Not when you’re finally back together. When you pull away, Wukong gives a high-pitched chirp of protest, immediately pressing more kisses along the length of your jaw and long, winding neck.

“You got Nezha back. You got him to help, that’s enough-it’s more than enough…” Your voice is breathy and light, the feeling of Wukong’s lips pressing against you feels so good, you rumble with purrs at the feeling.

“Stars above, I almost forgot how beautiful you are. My peach, my flower…so beautiful…” Sun Wukong purrs against your scales, kisses interrupted by praise and compliments you happily try to return.

“Can we-” Another kiss, “go home?” Another kiss against the base of your sensitive whisker, and your whole body shudders in response. “I want to go home with you, my King.”

Your words have an effect on the Monkey King; his fur fluffing up, pupils dilating and contracting rapidly as he swings your legs out from under you. Your weight is nothing to him, and you loop your arms around his shoulders, claws digging into the pink fabric hiding him from you. Within moments you’re both floating on a cloud and away from the rock shore of the Eastern Sea and to your shared home.

“Anything for you, love.” Wukong whispers his promise, followed by another kiss as he carries you away.

[the-music-maniac]

I have so many thoughts rn about Ao Bing and Nezha. Specifically, the fact that, by virtue of choosing to love and care for the other, Nezha and Ao Bing have already saved each other from their own worst fates.

Specifically in context of the 1979 version of them, which gave me brain worms from this tweet. First of all, absolutely KILLER fanart. I'm aware people have likely already made these connections and they aren't new, but I just have to ramble.

Trigger warning: mentions of suicide (1979 Nezha) + gore (1979 Ao Bing):

I know Nezha 2019/2025 had already started off with different premises, specifically being that neither Ao Guang nor Li Jing are pieces of shit. So, we don't really have the plot of Nezha being forced to commit suicide, nor of Ao Bing not giving a shit about human life and having his tendons pulled out as retribution by Nezha. But, we do know the general lines of how Nezha's story usually plays out. Nezha dies and is reborn as a lotus. Ao Bing dies, as punishment for the atrocities he's committed. That doesn't really change all that much, from how I understand it. And it didn't necessarily change in Nezha 2019 either. Nezha and Ao Bing both still die.

The difference is that they saved each other from it being tragic.

Ao Bing does try to do something awful. His motivation for attempting to bury Chentang pass was somewhat understandable, because he was given an impossible choice between the village or the destruction of his species. But he still does it. And Nezha stops him. But even though Ao Bing tried to kill everyone, Nezha chose not to strike the final blow because he cares about Ao Bing. Keep in mind, at this point while they do know they are each half of the chaos pearl, they didn't have their memories until the lightning strike, so they hadn't known each other that long. But Ao Bing was still the first person outside of Nezha's family (or in the case of taiyi, someone assigned to him by heaven), to actually offer him friendship and understanding and comfort. Ao Bing gave him hope. Their fates as adversaries changed in the moment Nezha chose not to go through with the strike, which is why I adore the shot of Nezha stopping his attack to point his spear at Ao Bing's dragon form. It's like a message is being sent - this is where it could've ended. This is where they could've fallen back into the lines fate had carved for them to follow. But they didn't. It makes Nezha yelling about fighting fate until the end in their ensuing conversation even more significant.

And because Nezha chose not to hurt Ao Bing when he could've, when he would've arguably had a right to, Ao Bing chose him right back. He put himself in the line of fire to save Nezha from the heavenly retribution, because Nezha in turn, gave him hope too. A human that never showed him any sort of prejudice for being a dragon, that cared about him enough to spare his life, that showed him exactly how it's possible to defy fate, both in regaining control of his demonic powers and, unknown to Ao Bing, saving Ao Bing in this iteration of their story. And in doing so, Ao Bing also saves Nezha from a tragic fate of dying alone as a sacrifice for the good of others. As Shen Gongbao pointed out very clearly, Ao Bing's mission could've been accomplished if he had simply let Nezha die. Nezha's been told for the entirety of the movie by everyone outside of his family that the world would be better off with him dead. But instead Ao Bing had decided in that moment that Nezha was worth more to him than what the world had assigned him as - a necessary loss for the good of everyone else.

And then both Ao Bing and Nezha were reborn as lotuses in the second movie by Taiyi. Together.

They changed fate, merely by choosing to love each other. They're each other's salvation. I am actually losing my mind.

[3m0t10nal-cr1s1s]

Hey I'm curious about your Ao Bing's dragon form. How does he look?

Also I saw that his hair changed, because originally they were blue and later white-blue and does this also affects his dragon form or not?

How does Ao Bing look in his dragon form? Uhh..

Maybe something like a puppy that has grown just a bit too big. (He can make himself bigger or smaller if he wanted.)

He's always been a white dragon, but after his time in Diyu his hair got lighter from the stress of it all. Yes it affected his dragon form a bit. He still looks cute though!