#he’s the inspiration for this tumblr honestly

[ryin-silverfish]

Sorry for the very late reply: I stayed off Tumblr for like, a month or so. But this is a long reblog with a lot of interesting points I wanna respond to.

Honestly, the most common form of JCT doesn't stem from A Chinese Odyssey. It's inspired by the webnovel that's kinda a fanfiction to said movie, Biography of Wukong.

The predecessor to BMW, Asura Online, takes a lot more inspiration from the webnovel than its spiritual successor, and even tho BMW isn't trying to be a direct continuation of AO, I would argue that some of its themes and worldbuilding still slipped into BMW.

You mentioned not seeing JCT in the game according to my definition, and I feel like it's a matter of exposure. For someone who has Chinese as their first language, they are gonna to be 1) exposed to a shit ton of JTTW media, and 2) see a lot of interpretation about the novel proliferate that an English audience is completely unaware of.

BMW is not the most extreme or common form of JCT, but the general ideas are still recognizable. Like, just because it doesn't make all the gods evil, or all the yaoguais innocent victims, doesn't change the fact that the main narrative is still one of Oppressive, Conspiring Pantheon vs. Oppressed Yaoguais.

(Example: the lore entries' implication about Lingji and the Yellow Wind storyline is that Lingji is creating the weird stone Buddha heads and the Fuban yaoguai to 1) collect Lingyun, the "soul" equivalent, and 2) artificially create a threat so that he can rescue the Flowing Sands kingdom from it and convert them to Buddhism.)

(Instead, the Yellow Wind Demon became the rescuer and the kingdom started worshipping rats, which was why its people were all turned into rats.)

(Or, the most obvious one: the Western Heaven's genocide of the Yakshas in the Bull King family backstory.)

(As for Erlang: why do you think you find him inside a painting, which, according to the lore entries, is implied to be the result of him asking Maitreya for refuge from the Celestial Realm?)

And it's made even more jarring by the fact that the game wants to create a facsimile of the original novel through quoting its poetry and imitating the vernacular novel dialogue style, and make allusions to SWK's role as the Mind Monkey, without realizing how it conflicts with the Biography of Wukong-style interpretation.

You mention the lore entries, and that's actually my favorite part! Both the Ming-print style illustrations, and their simulation of the Zhiguai short story style.

But, again, there is a dissonance. The funny and strange Zhiguai-style entries are noticeably different in tone compared to the "main storyline" entries about major characters and backgrounds, which is written like modern short stories instead of a classical Chinese text translated into Mandarin.

And my problem is not that the adaptation is different, that it may want to change the allegory or reinterpret the themes for a modern audience.

It's the feeling that they want to have it both ways——be faithful to the novel (or at least create a facsimile of faithfulness), yet also stick to the Bio of Wukong style popular reading that proliferates in modern JTTW media for mass appeal.

And to me, the dissonance in the two narratives weakened the thematic coherence. Frankly, if it sticks to one or the other, I wouldn't have been writing these critiques: if it's a proper exploration of the original novel's allegorical themes, I'd be praising and loving it, and if it's JCT thorough and thorough, I'm just going to be like "Yeah, not for me" and leave it at that.

But it's this mixture of things I love and things that frustrate me that drives me to write and get down to the bottom of those conflicting feelings, which has little to do with JTTWR's original posts and his attitude towards adaptations.

Lastly: I'm very much coming from the perspective of a native speaker complaining about Chinese JTTW media and popular interpretations. My own opinions are not mainstream in the Chinese JTTW fandom either——JCT is so popular precisely bc it has mass appeal.

Just a thing to keep in mind.

I'm a Theravada Buddhist. I saw many people interpreting the story and meaning behind Black Myth Wukong, differently. But I hope the devs team didn't intend to insult Buddha Dhamma by recreating this new story and distort the meaning of Buddhahood or Enlightenment itself..

I don't know if they intended to insult Buddhism, but I can say that their presentation of Buddhism in the game is disrespectful.

@ryin-silverfish recently posted a wonderful essay on what's known as the "JTTW Conspiracy Theory," which is a method of interpreting the story by twisting details, making the heavenly hierarchy look evil. The game follows this method. I recommend that you read the essay:

I unknowingly ran into the JTTW Conspiracy Theory a couple of years ago. A Chinese article claimed that the Buddha lies in the novel. This is my rebuttal.

[pussybow-agenda]

Nobody pulls off a PBB like Kim Beom.

Via joysara on twitter.

[reunitedinterlude]

phil: whenever i see an ambulance, i like to think there is a baby being born, rather than a death (1, 2, 3)

[scaralover34]

get ruffled king

@lakesbian

[thatzombiecat]

AAA I appreciate this so much! 😭😭

Brace yourselves for this longread is gonna be loooooooong!! (I'm really sorry for the gargantuan sized post this about to become, jamming this all in one, BUT I have to)

For this Giving Thanks-Week I really want to extend my personal gratitude for everyone below.

RT fandom is honestly the loveliest thing ever happened to me over a long period, and it's been such a joy and honor to be a part of, truly. So happy sharing the space and connecting and meeting with such an amazing creatives and passionate people.

@redbatchedcumbermayned RRRIGHT BACK AT UU FRAN!!!💖💖 Thank you for being a pillar and a source of inspiration for us all in the community, it's so good to have you with us!! And for your remarkable contribution in the fandom: the raw emotions and the feelings, the pacing, is what I admire most in the stories you tell which is a blast to witness every time in every chapter ;w;

Check out the latest chapter of 'Much Ado About The Lord Captain' with Heinrix and Isha von Valancius! from WrathOfFran!

@sotc For being here with us as part of the fandom and for your endless creativity! I'm so happy for the art trade that connected us and endlessly grateful for the opportunity, so happy to know you bestieeee!!! 🥺♥♥

Check out their beautiful RT drawings here on tumblr!

@maggotknight Fiiiinnnnn! Thank you for and your genuine support and faith and for being such a wholesome person as you are! Your big pieces and small doodles alike all fill my heart with such a joy every time I see them as I've said before♡♡ Omnissiah blessings be upon ye Archmagos!!

You have to see more of her amazing stuff here and say some nice things

@holylustration Your storytelling and narration approach are... gosh it's just simply indescribable as I couldn't convey it with words, it's such a thrilling adventure that making me fuzzy every time I read any of your piece. Thank you for sharing them all with us Holyyy!

Go read the latest chapter of 'Predator & Prey'! ft. Marazhai and Rogue Trader Aurelia von Valancius!

And also an honorable spotlight: my appreciations for Olga Kellner (dontrestyourhead) (although she's not present here afaik) and her writing team for sharing their stories connecting us all together, whose sparks of creativity generated a chain of flames fueling our arts and passion. She's an artist as well, and I hope our creations would inspire her team and her personally much like their own creativity inspires ours, and that we'll see more of her wonderful artworks and stories shared in the future ❤❤

Check out her artworks on the bluesky!

And for you all not mentioned above, but who contributed in the Rogue Artists legion, who shared your arts and things with us. Keep creating, keep going, yall are amazing. ❤❤

Giving Thanks-Week: Go celebrate your fav Rogue Trader creators and creations this week, repost, leave nice comments and show your appreciation too, don't be shy!

Rogue Trader Giving Thanks-Week

It is Thanksgiving week in Ameraland. In tandem with @holylustration 's Dopamine Week, I would like to propose a Giving Thanks week 💖

Send, asks anon or not, telling your fellow rogue traders how much you appreciate what they bring to the space!

and

Reblog this post with a shout-out to your favorite piece of Rouge Trader art. Let's daisy chain all the amazing things the Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader space has created!

[mianamakes]

Oh I’m sorry, I promise I’m doing my best, I just haven’t learned how to be human as you are yet

[poolpvrty]

Sirius Black as Dionysus; the god of wine, insanity, fertility, festivity, and theatre!

[killertoons]

THIS IS A YEAR OLD NOW BUT I FINALLY FINISHED IT!

I genuinely think wally would try to be friends with bendy, but bendy's not so trusting...and a lil rude.

[myriam-draws]

some starfires i’ve drawn a bit over time i miss her (i refuse to read titans 2023)

[anxiously-sidequesting]

you see Girls, i have this chronic clinical condition that has me vulnerable to sympathizing with irredeemable villains we as the audience are supposed to reject and despise in according to the narrative. it's called Woobifyitis. it's fatal and when i inevitably die in six days im going to be buried right inbetween malistaire and morganthe where i belong

[keeps-ache]

pals and other things :D

[ashironie]

i was on youtube checking my notifications and i saw on my subscriptions feed that mumbo had the little red dot so i gasped very loudly and very excited, because that meant mumbo posted and i just hadn’t noticed, since i always find out mumbo posted by my subscriptions feed

last video i found out via notification.

the subscriptions feed only updates when you look at it, not when you have looked at the video in question.

the disappointment was immense.

[hahahalfwit]

ah fuck it. might as well.

art 1/2 of my little nightmare-induced horror game idea

[vvitchynerd]

first of all i can explain skin color change - in lore people of Nox's clan, so the moon clan, have pale skin due to being active at night only, thus not needing much melanin to protect from sun. But them and sun clan originally come from same people and same lands, so if this to be removed moon clan's skin would be darker

Was experimenting with a brush and decided that drawing Nox in genshin-ish style would be a cool idea(specifically character icons style) First is with my lore thing and other is if fully in genshin world

to add i imagine Nox as electro catalyst from Sumeru if he was in genshin world

[kalloway]

tumblr’s feeling pretty dead for me (in terms of engagement) anymore so i don’t feel so shy about sharing this dumb Bloodborne art i did back in november im never gonna actually finish lmao

it’s for a fic i haven’t finished (or even posted) yet... there is a trend here 🙈

anyway Micolash is the slug man, change my mind

[im-just-a-simple-tailor]

Hi (: I‘m not dead <3

I actually have been sewing but i haven’t been on tumblr a lot in the past few months because I’ve had so much to do and I‘ve not really had the energy to post about my projects or take nice photos. so. sorry about that

I will be doing some catching up now though so for the like ten people who will read this, expect some posts about what I’ve been doing this weekend (because right now it’s chill but after that, guess what, I will again have very little time for tumblr probably)

<3