#character: chong zhao

[heymeowmao]

白月梵星 | Moonlight Mystique E15 ° It's not fun if it's just the two of us.

[movielosophy]

Moonlight Mystique | We'll have 2 children (1/2)

[hvtmessxpress]

I love song mo sm, but the man is so crazy 😭. Past life he committed patricide, fratricide, and regicide (2x), plus sacked the capital for revenge. When he was going down he took both the emperor' sons with him. This life he was willing to kill dou zhao's whole family over a baby, imprisoned his family in the shrine (twice), nearly cut open a corpse to prove a point, and almost burned his father alive. The only thing tethering him to sanity is dou zhao's pretty smile.

He's not evil and knows and shows goodness, but he's very much willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish his goal.

[academyofbrokenhearts]

There is something so incredibly heartwarming about the fact that Song Mo came to propose immediately after securing Dou Zhao's freedom of choice concerning marriage via imperial edict. That man was really all like "marry me, I will value and protect you, and btw, the royals said that no one can force you into a marriage you don't want, so if you refuse me, I will never bother you again" like????? is there any wonder homegirl was ready to jump into fire for him the very next episode???

[nexttimeisnotthesame]

九重紫像素小人 © 波子汽水兑水

[academyofbrokenhearts]

This is an absolutely stellar analysis, and I have nothing to add, except...

HE STOPPED A FLYING ARROW WITH HIS BARE HANDS TO SAVE HER HE STOPPED A MOTHERFUCKING FLYING ARROW WITH HIS BARE HANDS NOW I MUST WATCH UNTIL THEY GET TOGETHER OR ELSE I AM GOING TO EXPLODE

I was wondering if there was going to be some obstacle to their rapid soulmatism and here we are.

This drama is so well-written. Because ostensibly it's a stray arrow by an idiot during a hunt but to her it brings all her trauma from first life back - both being shot at and his saving her (she does not react to any danger the way she does to arrows and it makes so much sense.)

And then she has that desperate conversation with the mysterious book author when she asks him, despairingly, that if she's changed so many things, why is it all still going the same way and his answer is basically nobody can change the grand sweep of history.

That is her conclusion, and that's when she loses it, and that is why she spends the rest of the episode pushing puzzled Song Mo away (even if she doesn't plan to marry her idiot first life husband either.)

Side note - I love that he makes it clear no he does not enjoy torture or being superior. She just said what she said because she's upset and terrified and grieving and lashing out, but he takes everything she says to heart. Every time he's so earnest tho it makes her more terrified because she does want to protect him, she wants to protect herself, and it reminds her of how dear he is and how doomed they both are by the narrative.

It makes SO much sense - she has decided that the ultimate fate is unavoidable and she's panicking and flailing - maybe if they are apart, they won't die together, she gets to live and so does he (though she's clearly worried even that won't work) or at the very worst, she won't have to see his tragic ending.

But that is what makes this so delicious - it's not just that for once a freak out makes sense (no ridiculous misunderstanding or case of idiocy here) but that clearly they will get married partway through the drama and will have a loving marriage all that - which means that at some point she goes "there is every chance of tragic ending for us - of his losing everything, of rebellion, opprobrium and death - every chance we will die together" and then still chooses to be with him, to love him, to try to overcome the unovercomable fate or if she can't do so then live with him as long as she can. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

She goes in with eyes wide open, knowing this is likely to end badly but going "worth it." I CAAAAAAN'T!!!

(Side note - I think the salvation is that the monk may be right - she may not be able to change the grand sweep of history. But she does not need to - she just needs to change at the margins so they get to live longer and happily. I mean it's all a question of what is big picture enough to be immutable - in one sense, everyone's life ends in death - so yeah the ending is the same in the sense both her and SM are bound to die some day - but maybe she can change enough they get to die old and after a good life.)

[ryin-silverfish]

Ask/Writing Masterlist (irregularly updating)

Ryin(阿璎), 23. She/They. First Gen Chinese student. Ryin_Silverfish on AO3. Currently hyperfixating on old Chinese novels. casual Zhiguai tales and LMK enjoyer.

Investiture of the Gods/FSYY:

Why are the Daoist immortals fighting?

Did Yuanshi Tianzun manipulate Shen Gongbao?

Chan, Jie, and possible prejudice against yaoguai

Azure Lion and the other Bodhisattvas' steeds in FSYY

Daji's fox form in FSYY Pinghua

The historical Su Daji

Is Shen Gongbao a yaoguai?

Are all yaoguai irredeemable monsters in FSYY?

Ao Bing and the dragons Nezha fought

Does deification wipe your memory and personality?

Bi Gan and the Great Fox Massacre

More discussion about prejudice against yaoguai

How old was Su Daji the human when she died?

Differences between FSYY novel and Pinghua

Musing on FSYY's view of fate and its possible effects on Yang Jian

Master Yuding

The messy marriages of FSYY

Is Daji a goddess in the novel?

Names of immortal masters in FSYY

Just for fun: the FSYY drinking game

Nezha's age in FSYY

Nezha's death and resurrection in FSYY

What happened to the original Daji?

Lady Shiji aka the Rock Demoness

Chinese Fox Spirits:

Auspicious/Demonic Foxes

More on fox spirits

The inner core of foxes

Foxes and their association with Fire

Notable fox spirits

The foxes of 狐狸缘全传

Has Daji ever been worshipped as a goddess?

Fox masks

The foxes of Liaozhai

Weaknesses and abilities of fox spirits

Three resource collections on Chinese fox spirits: 1, 2, 3

Human-fox hybrids

Can foxes and their descendents magically know if someone's telling the truth?

The magical properties of fox saliva

Fox exams and Heavenly Foxes

Are male foxes more malicious?

More on fox exams

Offerings to fox spirits

The "Lady Fox Immortal"

Chinese Mythos in General:

The Precious Scroll of Erlang

Into the Erlang-verse: Li, Zhao, Yang

Can immortal masters romance their students?

Why we don't power-rank characters in God-Demon novels

A brief overview of Chang'e

On Chinese Religion and "Respect"

The 28 Lunar Mansions

Can the Heavenly Emperor be replaced + a primer on dynastic successions

A Guide to the Chinese Underworld (and what it isn't)

Is Nüwa JE's daughter?

Weaver Girl

Can yaoguais a/o their descendents enter the Celestial Bureaucracy?

Queen Mother of the West and her husband(s)

Bixia Yuanjun, Lady of Mt. Tai

Erlang's dad

The story that gives us the name "Yang Jian"

On the transformation of Erlang's image (and his relationship with JE in JTTW)

Erlang's mom, Lotus Lantern, and a neat little discovery

Erlang cameos in other stories and Zajus

Erlang's mom-saving story in Chinese operas

Child Manjushri, or: the absurdity of pinning a definitive age on gods

The strange modern ship of Mengpo/Yuelao, and Mengpo's myths

The half-beast form of QMoW

Does Erlang have a wife/love interest?

Nezha's mom

A overview of Gonggong and his mythos

Some introductory sources on the Chinese Underworld

Mythos-inspired Worldbuilding:

Dragons of the Four Seas

LMK S5 and a possible "Celestial Council of Regents" AU

LMK S5 Fix-it: the Four Divine Beasts

Character/Story Analysis (JTTW + LMK)

Heart and Mind: Tripitaka

Local Lion Uncle enjoyer goes on a rant

On SWK and his fear of death

Why the Dead People Supreme Court?

No, seriously, why?

Chinese Underworld =/= Christian Hell

LMK S4, Havoc in Heaven, and revolutions

Why I dislike the "class warfare" reading of Havoc in Heaven

In Defence of Li Jing...ha, as fucking if

On Yin-Yang, Chaos/Order, and the Harbringer

JTTW's view on the Three Religions

Disjointed S5 Reactions

"Chaos doesn't work that way in traditional Chinese Cosmology"

Xiangliu, the Nine-headed Bird, and Jiutou Chong

Lotus Lantern: The Summaries

Part 1: Precious Scroll of Chenxiang

Part 2: The Epic of Prince Chenxiang

Part 3: Lotus Lantern 1.0 + 2.0

Part 4: Chenxiang and the Male-Female Swords

My Fanfics:

Climbing the Sky

The Wild Son

Bodhicitta

The Serpent and the Deluge

South Seas Sojourn

Journey of the Gods AU sideblog

Masterpost 2

[sombredancer]

Asian dramas and Love tropes

There are my favorite characters and their love stories as a list. Enemies to lovers

Drama: Her Royal Highness/长公主在上 Characters: Gu Xuanqing x Li Yunzhen Screentime: Main A boy is sent to be a servant in the unruly princess`s palace in order to find some dirt about her and to help his master to overthrown her, but something goes wrong... The HE is attached.

Drama: The Legends/招摇 Characters: Li Chenlan x Lu Zhaoyao Screentime: Main A leader of a demonic sect died trying to get a demonic sword. Her soul returns to the world full of wish to get revenge on the current leader of her sect, who, as she thinks, killed her in the past. Found the way to be close to him, she learns that he wasn't the reason of her death and, moreover, desperately in love with her for many-many years. This is an adaptation of the novel "Ostentatious Zhaoyao", which I love more than a drama, but it's a good story in both variants. The HE is attached (although it`s a little bit obscure in the drama).

Drama: Till the End of the Moon/ 长月烬明 Characters: Tantai Jin x Li Susu Screentime: Main A boy who is destined to become a Demon God and to destroy the World tries to fight his doom. In a process, he falls in love with a transmigrator, who was sent 500 years back in the past to prevent his transformation into a Demon God. The irony is,making him falling in love is the only way to kill him for good... It`s an adaptation of the novel "Black Moonlight Holds the BE Script", which I like way-way-way more than the drama, not the least because the drama has BE and the novel has HE. I just watched it as a visually beautiful fanfic to the novel.

Drama: Love Between Fairy and Devil /苍兰诀 Characters: Dongfang Qingcang x Xiao Lanhua Screentime: Main My favorite drama of all times! Trying to save her love, a girl accidently falls into a secret prison for immortal criminals, revives the most fearsome demon of all times and heals his ability to feel. Later, forced to spend his time together with the girl from the enemy camp, the demon finds out that he actually likes her... The HE is attached. I wrote A LOT about them and made recap of the whole drama from the point of their relationship development in these posts: one, two, three, four, five and six.

Drama: My Journey to You /云之羽 Characters: Gong Shangjue x Shangguan Qian Screentime: Secondary In order to destroy the martial artist's clan, a female assassin was sent in there. While she is trying to seduce one of clan's young masters, he tries to expose her lies, but, eventually, falls in love with her. Unrequited. Maybe. This story has an open ending. My analysis of their relationship is here.

Drama: Butterflied lover /风月变 Characters: Ling Changjin x Bao Zhu Screentime: Secondary A wicked nobleman marries a princess because of her miraculous blood: it`s able to bring his zombie sister back to life. The princess allows him to treat her bad because she has been in love with him for a long time and believes he is a good person. Bit by bit he starts believe in it himself and begins to cherish his wife more... The ending is obscure (in a traditional Chinese way).

Drama: Moonlight Mystique /白月梵星 Characters: Fu Ling x Chong Zhao Screentime: Secondary The most wildest version of the trope. The story starts with the confrontation between an absolutely ruthless demon girl general and a righteous boy from immortal clan. Then the girl falls for him, turns him into her side (kind of) and they become a villain power couple! After that they both change their side and enjoy a bit of normal life as good guys! And the last twist: the righteous guy turns to be a Demon God, as ruthless as the demon girl at the beginnings but the girl stays the same righteous. Yes, it all happens in one single cdrama. And of course there is no HE for these guys, but the philosophy behind this particular type of BE is beautiful. The full recap of their relationship is here and here.

Drama: The Blue Whisper /与君初相识 Characters: Li Shu x Xue Sanyue Screentime: Minor A cat demon prince infiltrates the valley of demon hunters in order to set free the great demoness, but falls in love with one of demon hunters. Mutually. The ending is traditionally Chinese - they met again in another life. Т_Т

Drama: Immortal Samsara / 沉香如屑 Characters: Xuan Ye x Ran Qing Screentime: Minor An Asura king infiltrates the Heavenly Realm in order to steal the artifact that can help him conquering the world. The keeper of this artefact is a brave and honest goddess and he can't help but fall in love with her. After, he needs to choose: to be with his lover or to rule the world. He wants all at once, but there is no way to get it all. No HE for this pair. Pride and Prejudice

Drama: Lighter and Princess / 点燃我 Characters: Li Xun x Zhu Yun Screentime: Main A girl from a rich family with an anxious type of attachment falls in love with her classmate from a poor family with an avoidant type of attachment and tries to win his heart. It`s a problematic ship in a full meaning of these words and I like it this way. Yummy! The HE is attached.

Drama: Derailment /脱轨 Characters: Qi Lian x Jiang Xiaoyuan Screentime: Main A boy accidently meets his school sweetheart after many years of radio silence and understands that something is wrong with her. It turns out that her body is occupied by a transmigrator from a parallel world. At first he hates transmigrator for replacing his lover, but bit by bit he learns, that a transmigrator has not only the same appearance but the same habits and way of thinking, and falls in love with this new personality again... The story ends with HE but not in a way that you may think it would.

Drama: The Love by Hypnotic /明月照我心 Characters: Li Qian x Li Mingyue Screentime: Main In order to build relationship between two countries an emperor arranges marriage for his son. His fiancée is from a barbaric tribe: she is good at horse riding and archery, but knows nothing about palace etiquette and ladies stuff. It`s a light and sweet story about finding a path to each other's heart. The HE is attached.

Drama: The Long Ballad /���歌行 Characters: Hao Du x Li Leyan Screentime: Secondary A tsundere of a low background with a poker face does his ruthless job in a court, that's why a young princess thinks he is an awful man and is scared of him. But in reality he is a loyal servant and son and, moreover, secretly in love with the princess, who can't stand him... The HE is attached.

Drama: Miss the Dragon /遇龙 Characters: Xue Qianxun x Qingqing Screentime: Secondary A very naïve bird demon girl accidently meets a tsundere god of netherworld and turns his well ordered life into havoc. He starts liking it, though. The HE is attached. Forbidden love

Drama: A Frozen Flower /쌍화점 Characters: Hong Rim x No Guk Screentime: Main A gay king needs a heir, so he forces his lover to conceive a child with a queen. In a process, a boy, who was groomed as a king's lover from his childhood, finds out that he likes women much more than men. A traditional Korean tragedy. Very beautiful and full of feelings, though. (No GIFs because they all would be erotic ones).

Drama: 100 Days My Prince /백일의 낭군님 Characters: Moo-yeon x Kim So-hye Screentime: Secondary An assassin who is working for a wicked court official is secretly in love with a wife of a crown prince, who happens to be a daughter of the killer of his parents. Forbidden love doubles! But it's mutual, unfortunately for him. It's a very beautiful and full of desperation and feelings story. No HE, we die like Koreans. More detailed story of their relationship is available here, here and here.

Drama: The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity/晴雅集 Characters: He Shouye x Zhang Ping Screentime: Secondary A woman, who is destined to restrain the undying evil within her body for eternity in solitude, falls in love with Yin-Yang master. Her love is mutual, but her lover can't be with her forever, so he leaves with her his guardian demon to brighten her loneliness. Protecting her for ever starts being the only goal of demon's life... A tragedy, but a beautiful one.

Drama: The Legends/招摇 Characters: Gu Hanguang x Shen Qianjin Screentime: Minor "The Legends" once more! The main doctor of a demonic sect is in love with a leader of a righteous sect. A girl is not allowed to love anyone, otherwise she will suffer from the poison, so he anonymously sends her packages of medicinal herbs. She is curious about anonymous sender, too. But nothing can be kept in secret forever... Unfortunately, no HE for these two. In the novel he is safe and sound, but he has no love plotline at all. So is a price of love Т_Т.

I will talk about my other favorite characters and tropes in the next post.

Also you can see: Enemies to Rivals/Lovers recipe Asian dramas and relationship dynamics (Pt. 1) Asian dramas and relationship dynamics (Pt. 2) Asian dramas and my favorite types of characters

[fake-married-my-dead-fiance]

Blossom (Jiu Chong Zi) a spoilery review

Overall, I loved it. The main characters were lovable and felt realistic. I really liked that Dou Zhao wasn't focused on revenge, she just wanted to live her best life. Song Mo's entire life was relatively unmitigated horror (twice!), so I'm glad he got to be happy in the end.

I really liked that the emperor was never redeemed, he sucked the whole time. His plan was bad (to imprison the Duke of Ding so he'd be loyal to the crown prince), and he should feel bad. I found it kind of annoying that this drama continued the trend of redeeming horrible fathers but not stepmothers (Dou Zhao's family), but then again Song Mo's father sucked and died for it so maybe it's balanced. And the little half-sister got to be good in her second life, though she died.

The only thing I didn't really like was the poison plot. It felt too close to fantasy to me (and yes, I know the rebirth thing is fantasy too, but I enjoy a world that has 1 fantasy element and no others). It also wasn't done very consistently: Song Mo was coughing up blood and dying one minute and then commanding soldiers and whacking people with swords the next. I felt like you could have kept the drama going with just political intrigue. However, I did enjoy Dou Zhao defeating Noble Idiocy so there's that.

Would recommend.

[heymeowmao]

白月梵星 | Moonlight Mystique E14 ° What exactly do you want?

[movielosophy]

Moonlight Mystique | We'll go home (1/2)

[minnarr]

REFERENCE POST: very minor characters of Word of Honor

I originally gathered these blorbos together for a presentation called "Writing in the Margins: finding story in the minor characters of Word of Honor" (sometimes, in a pinch, I title slide deck party presentations like a paper because it's easy). My criteria for this presentation was that I wanted to highlight characters to whom a lot of people's reaction would be, "Who?" So characters like Gu Miaomiao and Gao Xiaolian and Deng Kuan, while my beloveds, are not here because they are just a bit too present in the story.

Why should you click through and read? Well, honestly, I'm adapting this as a resource for fellow fic writers who just want some folks to help flesh out the world. This post is divided into three sections: Chengling's Generation, Tianchaung's Orbit, and The Previous Generation. There's so much just going on in the background; let's take a look.

Chengling's Generation

Mu Yunge

Introduction: Episode 5* Suggested Episodes: 5, 7

* by "introduction", I mean the episode in which their name card appears, officially introducing them; for some characters, as with Mu Yunge, their first appearance in the show happens before that point

Mu Yunge is an interesting inclusion because I don't like him. He's pretty much there to suck, and then die. He's here for two reasons. One, he does a lot to flesh out his world; two, he's in the boyband in the concert they did after Word of Honor wrapped, and that is my favorite part.

I'm really only going to address the first one here. Oh, Mu Yunge. He's there to show how the Department of the Unfaithful operates, and how very present the violent misogyny they address still is in his world. He's also (to all appearances) a young man in good standing in the martial arts world. Deng Kuan is close enough to him that he's selected as one of the friends to take part in the deathmatch in his name. What does this say about the young men of that generation? And his death also has echoes in the background drama in the show: Mu Siyuan (his dad) becomes a loud voice against the ghosts and later Gao Chong.

Zhu Yaozhi

Introduction: 3 Suggested Episodes: 7, 14, & 24

Zhu Yaozhi is fascinating to me because he is such an encapsulation of what Word of Honor does with its larger plot. Because, like, there's all these moving pieces and a lot of them are moving in the background and the main characters don't really notice or give a shit, but they're definitely moving along arcs that make sense from their point of view.

This guy is a disciple of Yueyang Sect, Gao Chong's sect (along with Deng Kuan); we see him multiple times just doing kind of grunt work/investigation for them, most notably when he follows up on the guy Gu Xiang beat up for harrassing musicians and then is apologetic and embarrassed for believing his side of the story (episode 7). He's also buddies with Mo Weixu, Cao Weining's shixiong, and teases Cao Weining to him. (See this gifset for part of the scene in question, from episode 14). Early Zhu Yaozhi is a goofball who's just doing his job.

After Gao Chong's disgrace, he goes searching for Gao Xiaolian and we lose track of him until he turns up again in ep 24 being menaced by Mu Siyuan. Mu Siyuan wants him to say his master was evil and colluded with the ghosts, and Zhu Yaozhi refuses and tries to punch him. It's great. It also gives us Shen Shen to the rescue in the middle of his own loyalty/figuring out how to be truly righteous arc. I have a lot of feelings about this. He's such a useful character for showing us what Yueyang Sect is like and what becomes of it after Gao Chong dies.

Song Huairen (L) & Xie Wuyang (R)

Introduction: SHR: 5 / XWY: 8 Suggested Episodes: SHR: 5 / XWY: 9, 17

I've paired these because they're both Xie Wang’s competition, young men who also call Zhao Jing yifu. They are both disciples of Yueyang Sect; Song Huairen is supposed to be a favored disciple of Gao Chong. Xie Wang eliminates him the same night we meet him and plays it off to Zhao Jing as the shell game with the Glazed Armor going wrong.

Xie Wuyang meanwhile starts off as a character who makes Zhang Chengling’s life at Yueyang uncomfortable—up to and including whipping him during training. Very satisfyingly, Gu Xiang knocks him out when he’s giving Chengling a hard time in episode 11. Later on, after Zhao Jing has settled in at Yueyang, Xie Wuyang serves him in his private rooms doing stuff like giving him manicures. 

Mo Weixu

Introduction: 14 Suggested Episodes: 14, 26-28

Mo Weixu is the son of Mo Huaiyang (Cao Weining's horrible shifu) and Cao Weining's da-shixiong. When he first appears, he scolds Cao Weining for having no ambition but then shoos him off to check on Gu Xiang anyway, and we see this mix of sternness-as-concern and indulgence continue. He's kind to Gu Xiang, and helps guide her through greeting their shishu Fan Huaikong properly, but he also warns Cao Weining that she might not be everything she appears. He's kind of the level-headed ballast to Cao Weining's naivete and worries about him.

Mo Weixu is not at Cao Weining's wedding. Mo Huaiyang says he had to cleanse his sect because his disciple and shidi were bewitched by Gu Xiang. However, in episode 36, Xie Wang specifically says that they never found Mo Weixu's body, even though they definitely found Fan Huaikong's. Fellow fic writers: you know what that means.

Tianchuang's Orbit

Bi Xingming (L) & Cheng Zichen (R)

Introduction: 31 Suggested Episodes: 31

Disciples of Siji hidden in Tianchuang! These two were both taken as disciples by men within Tianchuang and took their surnames; Bi Xingming’s first shifu is Bi Changfeng, the guy who took the nails in episode 1. Cheng Zichen's is a guy called Cheng Xiu. They show up in like one episode but I’m obsessed with them. They lead the party of Tianchuang ducklings who rescue Zhou Zishu and then get inducted into Siji as Zhou Zishu’s disciples. Bi Xingming is specifically shown to be very eager about this, but is told he’ll have to wait to have a ceremony about it till his shixiong Chengling comes back.

Princess Jing'an

Introduction: 1 Suggested Episodes: 1

Talk about one-scene wonders—Princess Jing'an left an impression on me. What kind of past interactions does it imply that she calls Zhou Zishu Zhou-shixiong, but he doesn't know she and Jiuxiao were in love? I have questions and I want to answer them. Also even in her like 2 minutes of screentime we see her sharp and defiant and angry and it makes me want to write her SO bad.

Qingluan

Introduction: [N/A] Suggested Episodes: 30

She is literally mentioned in like 1 or 2 lines in episode 30 so she’s less fascinating for her Word of Honor appearance than for how she is mentioned here paired with her role in Qi Ye (the novel that's the prequel to the novel SHL is based on): In Qi Ye, Su Qingluan (originally named Su Cui'r) is a beauty who becomes part of the crown prince party, gets caught working against them, and is confined to a house as Helian Yi’s concubine for the foreseeable future.

In Word of Honor, she’s one of the people (the list also includes Zhou Zishu, Yunxing, Qin Jiuxiao, and Jing Beiyuan) who swore together in her courtyard to make Jinwang emperor, which implies a much more active role in their party than in Qi Ye. We also know she killed herself before the events of canon (or at least as far as Jinwang knows; in the same section, Zhou Zishu says that Jinwang poisoned Jing Beiyuan to death with a straight face). This seems to be part of the whole party splintering over time. Once more: implied story, free real estate (jazz hands).

Jing Beiyuan's six siblings

At one point Jing Beiyuan justifies being called Qi Ye (Lord Seventh) by saying he's the seventh kid in his generation. (There's a different, much more absurd, justification in the novels). I take him at his word just because that's the funniest option. I don't have more to say beyond just:

Six

SIX!!!!!!

are they worse than him? are they normal?

just

SIX

The Previous Generation

Qin-furen

Introduction: [N/A] Suggested Episodes: 12, 24

SIDEBAR: the moms. The dads have SO much narrative weight in the story in ways that most of the moms really don’t—they’re often nameless or fully invisible—so I leap at even the tiniest mentions of what they’re like and think a lot about them. Qin-furen’s the only one who really lands in the sweet spot for this post: enough info to play with and not make a total OC, not enough screentime that I expect to find many fics with her.

This is the wife of Qin Huaizhang, Zhou Zishu’s shifu. She’s mentioned in just a handful of lines and unnamed. She rescued rabbits and apparently was fearsome with her husband about it. She was friends with Chengling’s mom, who had a similar dynamic with her husband, according to Chengling. In episode 12, Zhou Zishu says, “I wanted to practice martial arts when I was a child. Sometimes, when my master forced me to play, I would seek help from his wife. She always stood by my side and criticized my master.” I have spent a truly stupid amount of time looking at her gravestone trying to glean info, and I’m still not really sure what we should be calling her.

Yue Feng'er

Introduction: 19 Suggested Episodes: 19

The eldest disciple of her generation at Healer Valley and the wife of Rong Xuan. She rough-houses with Shen Shen and is known by her own title as well as being the eldest of the Three Heroes of Healers Valley. She’s presumably well-known in the martial arts world, and woven right into the web of friendships that started off all this tragedy. And she also loved her husband so fiercely that when he was poisoned she used a forbidden technique and took the heart out of a living man to try to heal him. She’s a powerful healer and at least as much a monster as he is and I like her so much.

[academyofbrokenhearts]

One of my favourite things in the novel regarding the relationship between Song Mo and Dou Zhao is his tenderness and support towards her during and after pregnancy, and I know this should be normal stuff, but men properly taking care of their newborn children is rare even in the contemporary society, let alone in a period setting.

At one point, Dou Zhao muses to herself that she feels more supported with Song Mo at her side than with an entire army of nannies and servants, and that's !!!!

[eviltiddyproductions]

phew! on chapter 197 of Jiu Chong Zi

but I have to say things have gotten better and how !!!

I am not even joking babes, unless you love to see every tiny little aspect of a story unfold, feel free to zoom past or skim through the first 100 chapters. we find out that our girl Dou Zhao is smart and loves her grandmother and some of her aunts dearly and as wholesome and lovely as that is, you find these kernels and then have to go through 80 chapters of minor character nonsense (in my opinion). I know that this book is like 500 chapters long lol but I did not expect that we'd even get the povs of the step mom's family members. Like imagine having to read about her in-laws like we dgaf???? 😭😭😭 I actually had more fun reading about Dou Zhao planting flowers than whatever that was.

Around the 100th chapter mark, Ji Yong comes in and I can only describe him as an agent of chaos. He was ( I say was bc he's kinda lost his marbles and like most intelligent people hasn't really clocked the fact that he might like Dou Zhao a bit too much lol)

You can see that she's just kinda wary of him and enjoys his company when he's not about to make her pop a vein lol. He was fun till he started messing with her engagement plans (that she was trying to get canceled in her own way) did too many big things, got too many important people involved and made me want to flip a table!!! like calm down brother?!!! she kinda ate by asking him to respect her decision and back down. he still leaves her with a mess to clean up but we move but Ji Yong, you're currently on thin ice !

and ahhhh Song Mo :')))

man the last time it took my leads this long to interact with each other, I was reading the Double's novel and even then at least we had the Duke keeping tabs on her lol. Song Mo deadass shows up a good 100 chapters in but the wait is truly worthwhile.

he's whipped for her lmao. he's threatening and planning to kill her, she steals the baby they were supposed to take care of and as she lulls the baby to sleep while holding it hostage, our big bad Song Mo takes a second to simply notice how beautiful her eyes are lol.

what's even funnier is the calmer she is in her responses, the more he likes hanging around her and the whole time Duo Zhao's inner monologue is basically panic.

'must remain calm! he will kill me bc he deadass killed his father!!!'

he's very upfront and honest with her though and slowly, leaves all propriety in the gutter and takes what i'm imagining are the longest trips ever to visit her in the countryside and tell her that he's sad. i'm paraphrasing but it was actually hilarious how he showed up to her house to have a meal and rest and as he's lounging on a chair and dou zhao is on guard, deeply thinking wondering the cause for his visit and he just starts telling her about how he's having a terrible time dealing with the constant (and horrifying) deaths around him. he's very vulnerable around her from the jump.

man deadass took a trip from the city to the countryside at one point to confirm if she was a scheming person who'd hurt people's reputation for small wins. like he NEEDED to know lmao.

anyway, it's fun to read about how much he thinks about her lol. their moments are also very peaceful.

the book's getting good! (the pairing makes it worth it, i still despise how much extra info dump we keep getting about families i could care less about)

[academyofbrokenhearts]

Song Mo breaks my heart but also the way that even though you could tell he was so excited for his child, he still is concerned what it means for her in their situation and her wellbeing is paramount - he is basically offering for her not to keep it and I can't…

The plot of the novel is quite different from the one of the series in a lot of important aspects, but this, Song Mo's care for Dou Zhao, is one of the main things that is kept. I love how the drama understood the assignment and did such a stellar job at translating it on screen.

The fact that the name she picked refer to that poem is just the most gorgeous thing! (But also it means she's been thinking of babies for a while.)

In the novel, we have the scene with her telling him she might be pregnant, then cautioning him against becoming too excited by telling him that women can also experience symptoms of fake pregnancy if they wish hard to have a kid, which immediately brings him to the obvious conclusion that she wished to get pregnant with his child. I think this was the drama's way to convey this. :')

The adorableness! The way they shine! The surprise!

At last some good news for these poor people.

Song Mo breaks my heart but also the way that even though you could tell he was so excited for his child, he still is concerned what it means for her in their situation and her wellbeing is paramount - he is basically offering for her not to keep it and I can't...

They are both so amazing with and for each other.

The fact that the name she picked refer to that poem is just the most gorgeous thing! (But also it means she's been thinking of babies for a while.)

As fate and narrative keep pushing him to doom, she keeps giving him more reasons to live.

[romance-of-three-memes]

I'm never going to fully understand when people want Dynasty Warriors characters to stop color coordinating based on faction or for Samurai Warriors characters to start doing that more strictly. It's such an interesting expression of character design because it broadcasts the different political and social backgrounds of their periods, in the Chinese Three Kingdoms era there were a lot of smaller factions at first but they convalesced into the main three within about three decades, whereas in the Sengoku era everyone was splintering off and betraying each other for the political equivalent of a sandwich's worth of profit until the last few decades of the era, an era that lasted well over a century, when the three conquerors emerged.

So most of the characters in Dynasty Warriors neatly fitting into one of three colorways (four, if you count Jin getting light blue when it's introduced and Wei being assigned dark blue retroactively, which interestingly enough are actually considered totally separate colors in some languages like Russian and Turkish) and most of the Samurai Warriors characters doing their own thing is very thematically fitting. Moreover it's always interesting and kinda hilarious when one or two characters in a certain faction in Dynasty Warriors basically get a free pass to mostly do their own thing despite being in one of the main three kingdoms for Reasons™, Xiao Qiao only has one main outfit where red features majorly, orange and mint green are her most common main colors, dark blue has pretty much always features in Zhao Yun's outfits, and often more prominently than green, honestly I feel like it's because the devs decided early on that those were Their Colors and changing them would be weird.

You know Jia Chong is only very begrudgingly wearing a tiny bit of light blue because it clashes with his edgy goth vibe, meanwhile almost everyone else who's classified as being in Jin is mostly decked out in it. It's especially interesting because despite that and him falling into just about every shady, backstabby advisor trope, he's among the most loyal and is often the one rooting out the traitors. Zhang Chunhua is also an interesting exception, dunno if it's purposeful but I find it fitting amd hilarious given her dynamic with her husband Sima Yi in that series and how he's the one who's often beholden to her and he's intimidated by her).

But also in Dynasty Warriors color coordination isn't really all that sentimental for most of them. It means you're aligned with the same kingdom, it says fairly little about your loyalty to that kingdom or if you ascribe to your leader's and colleagues' commonly shared ideologies. You're coworkers, basically.

Meanwhile in Samurai Warriors color coordination suggests a much closer tie between those who do partake in it. It's often reserved for lords and their retainers or romantic couples, but there are certainly exceptions that go both ways. If you color coordinate with someone in Samurai Warriors it suggests a certain bond and sense of dedication that isn't as nearly as strong in Dynasty Warriors. It means at least one of the people who's color coordinating is very loyal to and closely identifies with the other(s) and usually it means both or all people involved are. That doesn't mean people who don't coordinate can't also be deeply loyal to one another, but it's less likely.

So if they were to suddenly break that trend it would take so much away from the series' design philosophies.