#i know he has a different name in the chinese dub

[timetravel-might-just-happen]

Name a more iconic move than naming your red haired son Red Son

[kerubimcrepin]

A random analysis of the Japanese subs.

This post is so, so self-indulgent, but I hope it'll be fun.

The reason I am making this is simple: I am a linguistics major, I like Dofus and Wakfu, and I really like the way the Japanese language allows one to express themselves by using pronouns and honorifics, both for oneself and others.

It's always fascinating to see what can be said about characters through their usage of Japanese language: both in translations, and in original texts. I'm sure you've heard about the Japanese translation of Undertale, and for a good reason.

...Just like every other post on my blog, this will only be about Kerubim, Atcham, and Joris. But this time, not just because I am so hyperfocused:

Our main sources for Japanese translations of Wakfu are fan subs (hard to find), the lost media dub that has been wiped from the internet (impossible to find), and the official Netflix subs. I do not have Netflix, so I had to employ @dullard's help in this endeavour... except Dullard doesn't know any Japanese, and since Netflix is very anti-piracy, we couldn't screenshare it, which means he had no help from me. It made finding interesting dialogues hard, and the thought of covering more characters is actually scary.

I hope you will enjoy this regardless, and mind the fact that I am not a Japanese speaker — just an enthusiast. (I do study foreign languages for my future profession, but they are English and Chinese, not Japanese...)

A cursory Japanese lesson.

In Japanese, there are many pronouns that mean "I" and "you", instead of just a singular word for each, like in English. It is a little bit similar to the tu/vous system many languages have.

In Japanese, it's quite rude to say "you", and usually, people just use each other's names: "[asking someone named Alice] Does Alice want tea?" is the polite, proper, normal way to ask people things. Saying "you" is usually either something done between people who are close, or people who are way above you on the social ladder.

(For example: "anata" is used/was used by wives towards their husbands, is a generic word when you don't yet know someone's name. It can sound arrogant. "kimi" is used by older male superiors towards employees, older friends towards younger friends, and boyfriends towards girlfriends. It can convey the feeling of closeness with one person taking care of another, or, it can show that someone doesn't respect the other person. "omae" is used to express anger and hate, or to playfully show affection between close friends and family. As you can see, all these words imply a degree of intimacy, when used positively.)

The most common personal pronouns are "watashi" (neutral in polite settings, feminine outside of them), "boku" (soft masculine, light polite), and "ore" (harsh masculine, not polite)

It is normal for pronouns to change with age. All young boys start out using "boku", and usually begin using "ore" or other pronouns later in life. Besides that, many people use different pronouns in different situations: a man might use "ore" with male friends, "boku" with family and women, and "watashi" at work.

However, in a lot of fiction, a character's most used pronoun (and sometimes, the ways they deviate from those pronouns — with whom, and why?) is a part of their character design. Besides pronoun usage, there are also sentence ending particles that exist to show emotion, or speaker's attitude, and their personality. Really, the possibilities are endless. This usage of Japanese is rarely realistic, and is instead something unique to anime, and it's called "yakuwarigo", or "role language".

So, today we will be having a look at the ways the three guys this blog is about were translated in Japanese.

NOTE: Due to anti-piracy functions of Netflix, the screenshots came out completely blank, save for the subs. For this reason, I just added the official Japanese subs to screenshots of the English fan sub + added some colours to a couple of them, in longer sentences, so you can see the boundary of different words.

Atcham

"Ninmu kanryōshita zo" [Mission accomplished]

"ぞ" [zo] is a rough masculine sentence ending particle Strongly asserts one's will, opinion or decision. Very masculine, and at least in media, almost always seen paired together with the usage of "ore" personal pronoun.

Speaking of which...

"Asshu ni fukushū suru chansuda. Ore mo iku!" [It's a chance to get revenge against Ush. I'm going too!]

"俺" [ore] - I, me. Masculine personal pronoun, and like everything masculine, in japanese it's associated with a certain degree of arrogance, antagonization, and rudeness.

PERSONAL NOTE: This pronoun is not something one can use in polite speech, but imagining Atcham resorting to using "boku" or "watashi" gives me psychic damage. If Wakfu was a Japanese series, I assume he'd be a character who is always a bit rude.

We can also observe the usage of the informal "だ" particle, and "行く" [iku], which is a verb that means "to go" in an informal conjugation.

Kerubim

"Washi-ra o hīrō hyouzou no korekushon ni kuwaeyou to" [He wanted to add us to his hero ice sculpture collection, pretty much.]

"わし" [washi] I, me "わしら" [washi-ra] - we, us Here we can see the personal pronoun "washi" with the pluralizing suffix "ら" [ra]. In media, "washi" is used by well-learned, elderly men. If there's a white-bearded centuries-old wizard-king who gives out quests, he probably uses "washi". Gandalf from Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit uses "washi" in the Japanese translation.

PERSONAL NOTE: I think Kerubim, as someone who perpetually dies and is reborn and has to re-age, would probably spend most of his life switching between "ore" as a "young" man, and "washi" as an "old" man. He cares a lot about appearing a certain way, and "a strong man" as well as "a nurturing mentor" are his two favorite images of himself.

"と" [to] is a quote and opinion marker. Japanese language favours vague statements, instead of saying that you're sure of something. There will be a more interesting usage of it later, but here it simply shows that this is being observed. It softens the statement, in a way.

"Washi mo iku, hisabisa no Ekafurippu da. Kono neko ni makase toke!" [I'll go too, it's been a long time since I've been to Ecaflip. Leave it to this kitty!]

There isn't much to say here, besides noting another usage of "washi". The only interesting thing is that Kerubim isn't using official speech, — especially with the informal だ [da] ending particle, which fits him, and the situation itself, well, — as well as the fact that he explicitly calls himself a kitty. (cute)

Joris

"Arumando Ōji, dengon-o otsutae-shitaku, ekken-o oyurushi itadakemasu ka?" [Prince Armand, I would like to deliver a message. Won't you please grant me an audience?]

Three words of this sentence use polite conjugations usually reserved for royalty (shocking, I know...), or someone else much higher than oneself on the social ladder.

"伝える" [tsutaeru] — to report, to convey. This word has had the honorific prefix "お" added to it

"許し" [yurushi] — pardon, forgiveness, permission. This word has had the honorific prefix "お" added to it.

"いただけます" [itadakemasu] — to be able to receive. This is the polite (kenjougo, humble form showing being lower than the person being spoken to) version of multiple other verbs. (don't confuse this with "いただきます" [itadakimasu], which is said before eating food.)

"Desuga! Bonta no masutā kara tsuyoku iwaremashita. Sheran Sharumu-ō e chokusetsu todoke nebanaranai to." [Nevertheless! The Master of Bonta had strongly insisted. It was said to me that the message must be delivered directly to King Sheran-Sharm.]

"ですが" [desuga] - nevertheless, however, alas. It is a polite word, mostly used in official written texts and not in casual conversations, which is befitting this conversation.

"言う" [iu] - to say, to speak, to tell This word is heavily conjugated into the next forms: "言われる" [iwareru] - to be told (impolite) -> "言われました" [iwaremashita] to have been told (polite)

ねばならない [nebanaranai] - must, should, have to This word is mainly used in literature, and is not the typical way to say "must/should/have to" in day-to-day life. It is not just polite, but downright literary/stiff language.

"と" [to] - grammatical quote marker, "it was said..." particle marking a quote that the speaker heard.

"Sagare. Watashi ga aite suru." [Get out of my way. I'll handle him.]

"下がる" [sagaru] - to move away. The word is conjugated with a "-re" ending, which gives it an extremely strong and authoritative tint, as if used by someone in a position of power towards someone below them.

"する" [suru] - to do, to take on, to perform Has no polite ending here. and is very casual/impolite.

In this "heat of the moment" situation, he drops all politeness out the window, and commands Armand to get out for his own safety's sake.

Here we also get Joris's personal pronoun:

"私" [watashi] - I, me (polite, feminine) Because it is used here with someone Joris has used polite language with, like Armand, it doesn't mean much. But when used with people he otherwise drops his politeness with, — or is supposed to drop it, —  this pronoun takes on a different tint. It sounds cold, distant, and aloof, — like he is treating even casual conversations like a buisiness exchange. And if it's not aloof, then it might sound a bit feminine.

"Maa, ochitsuke" [Heey, calm down]

"まあ" [maa] - well, I guess, just, now, This is an adverb used in casual speech, used to express things like a mild level of hesitation or uncertainty, or to soften a sentence or a request into a more gentle, relaxed one.

"落ち着く" [ochitsuku] - to calm down The conjugation here is, once again, the commanding imperative. However, it's less of a big deal in this situation, considering:

rough language is good and normal, in casual, friendly speech between men.

it's not him using it with a prince that he was previously showering in highly polite speech, but instead a man he's been living with for 600 years (even if said man is his father).

"Watashi no nou wa mada koutteru rashi" [My brain is still frozen it seems]

This sentence is neither polite nor rude. Mostly notable as a yet another usage of "watashi" in the translation.

"kimi-tachi mo issho ni tsurete ikitaiga, mada keiken ga tarinai" [I'd really like to take you two (affectionate, derigatory, arrogant) with me, but you're lacking in experience]

Here we can see the first translation error: plus tous jeunes being translated as "too young", instead of "not young anymore". But we'll disregard this, and instead focus on something that deranges me:

"君" [kimi] "君たち" [kimi-tachi] - you (plural) "たち" [tachi] is simply a pluralizing suffix, identical to "ら" [ra] in usage.

Yeah Joris "君" [kimi]'d them. He kimi'd them to death. He looked at his dad and called him kimi. He looked at his uncle and called him kimi too.

I know it's likely that the translator just doesn't know better about their relationship, but Joris WOULD do that. he DOES do this by calling them "kids" in french here, so it fits! (I have a huge analysis of this entire scene in my drafts...)

...What is even wrong with him. I love him.

[wolfofcelestia]

So I went through all the dub voices for both Sylus and Zayne

And here's how I'd rank them and my thoughts on each one

(Long and rambling post lmao)

Sylus:

Trad. CN > English > Japanese > Korean > Sim. CN

Ok listen, I don't really know the difference between the two CNs but I can understand Trad. CN a tiny bit more and holy shit what a difference between the two. Trad. CN sounds much more confident and stronger. He has the smugness that Eng and JP has. And while I usually go for the JP dub, Sylus's seiyuu just happens to be one I don't really like lol

If I actually understood Chinese (LMAO), Trad. CN Sylus could have probably won me over more but me disappointing my ancestors made sure I went with the doctor instead of the criminal adslkjgjchf

(Also he actually made a sound when he bit her hand so that's a plus lmao)

Korean Sylus sounds... soft but kind of mysterious I guess? He has an aura that a high ranking leader should have, minus the smugness and... the brashness that JP and ENG have? His voice is clean and polished but lacks an edge. It does sound nice, objectively, but considering the language barrier, it's a little hard for me to get into his voice

Japanese Sylus just sounds like Bubs GBF, I'm sorry. I can't be seduced by Bubs pls. But he has the smugness, arrogance, and confidence that you'd expect from Sylus, so objectively, it's a good fit for him. Just not for me lmao. If I didn't have a personal distaste for his voice, I'd probably put him at #2

Sim. CN Sylus just confuses me tbh. He doesn't sound like what I'd expect Sylus to sound like. He just sounds like some random guy. There's no forcefulness, no smugness, or arrogance. He's just. There.

English Sylus is (MIRACULOUSLY) my main Sylus... which I defaulted to because I can't be seduced by Bubs (lol) and because it's the only other language I can understand. I do have big criticisms about his voice, but he is starting to hit a few targets in me.

Yes, petnames and all. I feel like he's the type of guy to keep using them, ESPECIALLY if you get annoyed by them. But him using petnames for the person he likes also feels like an in-character power move. He won't call you by your name. Instead, he'd call you a name he chose for you

English Sylus does have the confidence, smugness, and arrogance that you'd expect from him, but he just... needs to speak faster and fix the weird inflections that make it sound like he's reading from a script

Zayne:

Japanese > Korean = Trad. CN > Sim. CN

(I already dunked on Eng Zayne enough today so I'm just not gonna include him here lmao. He just doesn't exist to me)

Ok so... Trad. CN Li Shen made me tear up fROM BEING SO FUCKING SOFT AND WHISPERY AAHHHHHH 😭😭😭😭. He's blindsided me about three times in such a short test period. He sounds so fucking comfy, I could curl up in his voice. He gets more flustered when you touch his dick too lmao

Yeah I'm sorry Lee Seoeon, I thought you were my only #2 but you're just gonna have to share that spot with this guy

If I actually understood Chinese more, I'd have like... two... husbands... Li Shen and Rei. So like. Li Shen x 4 and Rei x 4. I'd have... 8 husbands... who are all the same person 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

OG Li Shen sounds fine. I don't really have any strong feelings about him. He sounds like how he should sound and I really hear how SatoTaku incorporated his nuances into his portrayal of Rei. This Li Shen feels familiar mainly because of that. He's just the Chinese version of Rei

I could freely accept this version of him and consider him just Rei speaking Chinese... that's how familiar he is to me, but also... he feels a little more distant because of that language barrier

Lee Seoeon feels like he's constantly trying to seduce me uwu. The moment I switched to Korean and heard his voice, I just stopped breathing for a few seconds 😭😭 Sir, I have no idea what you're saying but if you'd like to take me home, I would not refuse adfasldkfj we could just stay in the office tho

Rei is undoubtedly my favourite for personal, sentimental reasons and because of his voice performance, of course. His voice is comforting, a breath of fresh air, and is the perfect amount of warmth and confidence. And when the situation calls for it, SatoTaku can put out absolute banger acting skills too

Li Shen(s) and Lee Seoeon are fine and all but Rei is my Rei 🥰

[lu-zijing]

I am reading the BSD Manga right now—

(Am trying so hard to catch up so I can see why people have said certain things..... Like that it's no point trying to describe the plot to someone at this point.....

((Lookingforwardtothenewchapers--

Do You remember the whole talk about:

"HOW THE HECK does Fitzgerald understand Japanese??"

Still in love with this thing- Have been seeing it around on Pinterest: BIG credit to whoever made this:

He likely learned Japanese, I mean come on, he's rich, AND in the business work, of course, he could or would learn it. If not for anything else, then likely for the Work.

I feel like Royalty and Rich people tend to learn many languages, compared to "commoners" -of various reasons-, I mean at least in movies, I don't know how the real world works—

That's what I'm thinking now, but not gonna lie in the start I was like: YEAH HOW THE HECK DOES HE!!????

But Anyyyhoww, I was reminded of it again as I was reading the manga and came to this panel:

Even though Fitzgerald DOES speak Japanese, he has difficulty remembering some of the names -at least, parts or sounds of the name.

This is something shown more or less as a joke at least two times in the series of what I know of, possibly more.

Here in the panel, I showed just now, which is from Chapter 64 of the manga - Atsushi directly SAYS (or well, "thinks") that Fitzgerald's bad at remembering JAPANESE names. Not just names. Specifically JAPANESE NAMES.

And it was the same that one time in the anime when he couldn't remember Akutagawa's name.

Chapter 34 in the Manga:

THAT WAS LEGIT ME IN THE START—!

As a person from the West who does not speak any Asian language- ((YET—) I can relate to this.

(( I Swear I relate SO MUCH with the fact that he couldn't say Akutagawa's name right, -and just ended up with:

"Yes. That."

I relate to it with more names than just Akutagawa🥲

Heck I even first learned how to write it here recently- Thank all I am not the only one and it's actually a thing-

So you see, I have especially had difficulty remembering Japanese names. Something I noticed after beginning to watch much more anime.

In the start, I always switch the names up, don't hear, or more exactly: don't remember the little differences between names such as for example Tetchō and Teruko.

Until I hear them a couple of times, see them written, hear them clearly, etc.

-When I see it written like this I find it obvious, but not when I hear it for the first couple of times -

I assume it's because the sounds are so foreign to -in this case- English-speaking users, and therefore we easily mix the small differences up.

But it wouldn't sursprise me if some might be better at it than others, for various reasons of course -for example watching a lot of Japanese media, and hearing the language a lot - like watching Anime, but not the dub ofc- but well, generally speaking I think there must be more people who has it like this.

I mean even IN the show-! That's kinda relieving—

Like, I have an easier time remembering Chinese names than Japanese. Are Chinese names simpler? Is it because I have watched AND read a lot more Chinese material? Maybe because I'm learning Chinese? Or am I just better at remembering Chinese names??

Sorry me rambling there *ahem* back on track-

POINT BEING:

This definitely shows that even though Francis definitely SPEAKS the language he's still a Native English speaker, having apparently not been in Japan long enough -or whatever reason- to stop mixing the sounds in names up as we sometimes do.

Or perhaps he just isn't bothered enough to try, I could imagine he could be like that-

A little Fun Fact which I found cool, since I relate to it!

Can't believe Francis is the first character I "officially/publicly" announced I could relate something with.

I mean it's not like I am the only one who can relate with this, it's not that rare to speak English but still, that it was the first thing- It's not that I don't like it, I had just not expected it.

Some people out there must relate to it as well? Guys??

Please don't tell me it's just me -and apparently Francis- who has it like this-

Although, having an In-character-from-the-show on your side isn't bad. Especially when he's one of my favorite side-characters- ~

But anyhow! No matter what, Thanks for reading~! ✨  Hope you found it interesting-！

[jedineedlove]

Sun Wukong Inspired Character

This character comes from the sonic universe comics. In the accurately named “Journey to the East”

Name: Monkey Khan

"He is a Mobian Chinese Monkey."

He lived in a village of pacifists his original name was Ken Khan. he wears a power ring headband meant to look like the fighting band of JTTW. He wields a powerful staff and rides on a cloud which sounds just like another monkey we know.

He once had a boisterous nature and did not fit in with his pacifist village. He had a father Lord Lau Khan. He survived roboticization because of this he was sealed in a metal crate. He was then released by Sally Acorn.

Similar to Monkey King being sealed under the Five Faces mountain. When he became robotized he gained red glowing eyes like when Wukong came out of the furnace.

Abilities: Enhanced Strength, Enhanced durability, enhanced speed, lighting bolt direction, nimbus summoning, martial arts, staff fighting.

He has some burst of villance and anger. He has trouble controlling himself. With little care id he scored or hurt others.

He, Sonic, Tails, and Sally go on the journey to gather enough forces to go against the Iron Queen and King which are similar to Iron Fan and Bull King.

Iron Queen:

She is meant to represent Iron Fan as the antagonist. But she is different of course from the original as in there is no love between her and Bull King and she has an affair with Snivley.

But there are simularlities.

"The Iron Queen set Mount Stormtop on fire for over a hundred days and would not lift the spell until the villagers agreed to bow down to them. Sonic and Tails were told by Li Yuen that only the magical Fan of Fen Xing could blow out the flames on the mountain."

This is similar to the Firey Mountains story of JTTW except she made the fire.

Iron King:

A mobian ox who has an affinity for collecting weapons. He was completely, unaware of his wife's plans to cut him out of the picture and rule alongside her new love, Snively. Which I feel like this might be a reverse of JTTW's event of Bull King and Jade Face.

Extra Notes:

His name Ken Khan is meant to reference King Kong.

Sally During the Journey acted like Triptiak keeping Khan calm and being his conscious. But that is where the similarities end because the two became an item.

This is an old character design of him where there is more Wukong reference.

My favorite Comic Dub of this monkey.

Thank you for reading and enjoying :)

[frank-o-meter]

JAMES BOND in DR. NO

When I was in high school I read many of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels. But I mostly remember them from the Sean Connery films. Recently I came across some BBC audio dramas based on the books and I’ve listen to Dr No and Goldfinger. They are both pretty good.

The audio dramas follow the plots from the novels and are also set in the 1950s when the early books were written. Toby Stephens, son of Maggie Smith, plays Bond. He’s good and could have been great as 007 in a movie. Instead Stephens’ played a Bond villain, opposite Pierce Brosnan, in Die Another Day (2002).

I’m not sure if I ever saw the Dr No film (1962). If I did, I don’t remember many details - mostly that the Chinese villain was played by a white actor. And the first appearance of Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder rising out of the ocean in her white bikini. This scene would be recreated twice in later films. First by Halle Berry as Jinx in Die Another Day (2002) wearing an orange bikini. Then again in Casino Royale (2006) with Daniel Craig wearing snug blue swim trunks.

In the audio drama David Suchet played Dr. No. Suchet is famous for playing Hercules Poirot, his best role. I absolutely did not recognize his voice in the audio drama. Suchet’s Dr No is very creepy.

This week I decided to rent the Dr. No movie on Amazon Prime. Sean Connery is incredibly handsome in it. Immediately you understand why he became so popular.

Between the 1960s and 1990s, Bond films were famous for the Bond Girls. And that was all introduced in Dr No. Connery has sex with at least 3 women:

Sylvia Trench, a beautiful woman he meets in a casino early in the film (she was originally intended to be a recurring girlfriend in the Bond films.)

Miss Tao, a double agent in Jamaica. Bond has sex with he even tho he knows she was plotting his death.

Honey Ryder - the beautiful bikini clad sea shell hunter played by Ursula Andress.

But there are several other women (receptions, hotel clerks, and Miss Money Penny of course) who swoon at the very sight of Bond. A couple make a point of checking out his butt as he walks away.

I used Wikipedia to compare the plot of the book to the audio drama and to the film. Most of the changes involve the villain Dr No. But they all agree on his main effort - he uses radio waves to disrupt rockets launched from Cape Canaveral.

Dr No is played by Joseph Wiseman. He isn’t even mentioned by name until 35 minutes into the story. And he doesn’t appear on screen for another 30 minutes. He has one scene where he monologue’s his nefarious to Bond. On the whole, Wiseman forgettable (David Suchet in the audio drama made a much stronger impression.)

Bond also meets up with his CIA counterpart - here played by Jack Lord (who would later become famous for the Hawaii 5-0 TV series). Lord had been asked to return for Goldfinger but he wanted a lot more money. He didn’t realize how easily he could be replaced. (BTW - Felix Lester was played by 5 different actors between 1962 and 1973.)

Here’s another piece of trivia… Ursula Andress’ voice was dubbed. Although she had been in Hollywood for nearly 10 years before the movie was made, she still had a heavy Swiss accent.

Is Dr. No as great Bond movie? Truthfully no. While Connery is good, the pacing is slow, too much time is spent on procedural stuff, the fire breathing “dragon” is laughable, and the villain is weak. But if you are a Bond fan, Dr. No is worth watching, to see how the building blocks evolved.

[miraculous-rewrite]

Miraculous World - Shanghai

Now you may note, this one's a little different than usual, it's less of a pilot special and more of a 'episode Zero'

a preview of what's to come

We open on an aether, a magic type void. 

There are gentle sparks of light, not quite stars, pink in color. And the gentle, sweet trilling voice of a Kwami drifts through the aether. 

“Do you know that feeling, when you’ve only just awoken? When you haven’t opened your eyes yet and the world around you is soft? When you know you could just roll over and curl up deeper into your bed and fall right back asleep? That feeling that doesn’t feel like it truly has a name? That blend of comfort and serenity and sleep and contentment?”

Those pink sparks coalesced together until they were in the rough approximation of a Kwami, one with big ears and wings. “That’s me with you as you drift between sleeping and wake. I am called Tranqii in this era. I am the embodiment of sleep.”

Tranqii in this light approximation remains curled up and clearly at peace. “I knew there were others like me-” there are all around Tranqii explosions of sparks in different colors, red and green and blue and purple and yellow and a million more, one for every Kwami we’ve ever seen and then more. None of them seemed to disturb Tranqii in their slumber. “I knew they were all having fun, living their lives in the physical. Enjoying being awake. But I'd never really felt the urge to join them.”

But then there’s a flicker, purple sparks turning into a deep violet and a similar experience happening to blue sparks. And Tranqii opens their eyes when light brown sparks erupt in front of their face 

The scene then rapidly shifts to a room we saw only very briefly in the Shanghai special oh so long ago, a young chinese woman with her hair in a ponytail is huffing and fussing over a wristband she was trying to make JUST right. And over her shoulder is a Korean woman with a round face. A-Fei and Yun Eun-Ji look over the work that A-Fei had settled on, A-Fei leans over to consult the large tome of Miraculous that was resting nearby once again, and tranqii’s voice came out dubbed over the scene.

 “But then, even the soundest sleepers are awoken when they are truly needed.”

Cue Intro, rather than the more simple miraculous world theme we’re instead greeted by an edgier ‘Batman beyond’ vibe type intro, of Yun Eun-Ji, A-Fei, and Sun Min standing against unrelenting odds, notable faces of the old order we actually know are seen, Wu Lian is seen with the scorpion Medallion along her neck, and Zhao Kai is spotted, much more serious than we used to see him, and running along with them is a familiar face of a certain New Old Order Member that got away. But the intro ends on the three young heroes standing atop the temple they hold down’s roof, gazing out at Shanghai, which they seem to be at the outskirts of, able to see the city but not fully interact with it. 

But that’s just the intro, when we fully return back to the story we return to A-Fei talking with her parents, a conspicuous bracelet cuff around her wrist. 

“-I just think it would be good for me to spend some time away from home.” She reasoned, but her mother sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. “Sweetheart, you’re always proposing these things and never following through! I just worry we’re going to force some poor monks to escort you back home because you lost your nerve studying under them ‘for practical college credit’” She sighed and folded her arms, leaning against the counter she’d been chopping vegetables on. 

“Frankly, it sounds more like you’re doing this so you can avoid helping me out at dinner.” A Fei sighed, from where she was currently sat peeling carrots, her mother continued to look skeptical. 

“I’m… I'm not doing it alone, mother. I’m going to have other students there with me.”

“And Who might those students be?”

“Well there’s this Korean Girl, her names’ Yun Eun-Ji, and there’s Sun Min he’s-”

“A boy?” Her mother turned sharply to her and A-Fei groans. “And What, I’m guessing you’ll all be in the same room too? And not to question it?”

“Mother, I won't be trying to SLEEP with him!” A-Fei shrilled, scandalized. But her mother scoffs, unaffected by her denial.

“What about him? And this Korean girl as well? Even if he’s not after you, you’re MUCH too young to be finding a sock laying next to your door.” “Oh Heavens above…” A-Fei sighs, letting her carrot fall into the pile of skins for a moment before reaching back in to retrieve it. “Mother, if you can’t trust me on my own then why are you letting me go to college at all?” That gives her mother pause, and A-Fei takes the opportunity. 

“Look, give me just this weekend, just this weekend to test things out, and we’ll see what happens. If you think I'll flake you’ll be able to tell by Monday. And if I won’t then…?”

Her mother thinks for a moment, and sighs. 

“Fine. the weekend. But you’d better actually DO the work they tell you do. Listen to the lessons they teach. And 我的女孩?” She reaches over to gently cup A-fei’s cheek-

Before pulling her hand into a playful pinch to it. “Your mother will KNOW if you try to cheat your way out of doing any work, Lazy girl.” A-Fei whines and squirms out of her mother’s grasp, their relationship is a little strained, but still loving it would seem. 

We follow A-Fei for a little longer, she finishes setting up lunch with her mother, some really tasty looking bowls of noodles (insert anime food joke here) and the family table is lively as everyone chatters about the goings on of the world. Cousin Xiuying went to Japan recently. And she didn’t stop over on a plane layover to say hi? The comings and goings of average family life, and other such trivial but hearty things. Until they’re finished and one of A-Fei’s friends we saw briefly back in the Shanghai special rolls up. And She’s just barely able to get out of doing the dishes since She’d helped cook, saddling her Dad with them instead as she gets to roll off. Her mother shouting behind her that she’d better be back before dinner and she’s able to ride off on the back of one of her friends’ bike. From here we see a bit more of the life of A-Fei, how her friends aren’t any particular niche, they hang out at the arcade and the skate park with equal ease. One boy, now dubbed as Yuan Zhong, is a part time lion dancer for parades and such, and hates it since he’s always the butt of the lion. Another (known to be Liang Jiao) delivers pharmaceuticals for his family’s home remedies business, and the third (Xie Kang) is unemployed, and the designated rich boy of the group (despite being barely upper middle class) as he buys bubble tea for everyone. The boys comment that it’s been awhile since she’s hung out with them, she’s been ‘so preoccupied’ with her ‘project’

A-Fei brushes it off, but then Yuan leans in and asks if it has anything to do with that cute girl she’s been hanging around lately. Xie adding on that the boy was cuter, and maybe she could hook them up? A-Fei rolls her eyes and insults the lot of them for being gross.

“They’re just people I'm working on the same project with, you bunch of freaks…”

“Lot of effort to put into project partners-” Liang Jiao brings up, pulling out his phone and idly tapping on it. “Didn’t you guys go out of town for something last year? That’s what we were covering for you for, right?”

“Hey yeah it’s been like a year hasn’t it?!” Yuan brings up, scandalized. “And we still haven’t officially MET them?! FeiFei this is OUTRAGEOUS.”

“You guys wouldn’t even LIKE each other! Sun Min is Soooo boring! And Yun Eun-ji’s a jerk anyway!” She scoffed. And the boys all look unimpressed at her. 

“Sounds like something someone who doesn’t want us to know about her extremely cool friends would say.” Xie huffs and looks away in upset. 

A-Fei sighs, but just as she does so her phone chimes, she looks down at it and lets out a surprised ’eep!’ “Sorry guys, I think I have to go!” “Yeah yeah, back to that ‘project’ we’re not even allowed to know what it is.”

“I Signed an NDA Yuan!” Yuan is unmoved.

But A-Fei sighs and looks around for a moment. “Fine- I’ll… I’ll see if I can arrange something for all of us to do so you can meet them okay?”

The three boys all look between each other before as one, nodding. And A-fei sighs. “Alright. Thanks.”

But just like that she turned and ran off. 

“Oh she’s definitely ‘with’ one of them.”

“No doubt, no doubt.”

But we clip back to A-Fei quickly, the girl ducking into an alley and opening her jacket to reveal for the first time, Tranqii. Asleep in a pocket in the inside of her jacket and snoring blissfully. 

“Tranqii, it’s time to wake up.”

“Mmmm no.” the Kwami grunted, turning over in the pocket so they weren’t facing her. A-Fei sighs and pulls from her bag a pouch happily labeled ‘health friendly roasted crickets’

She shook them around a little and Tranqii turns, squinted big black eyes at the bag of crickets, then back at her. “I’m starting to think you might play dirty…” the little bat huffed, and A-Fei laughed.

“Tranqii, Transform me!”

We watch A-Fei dart across the rooftops of Shanghai, a little clumsier than expected, but in her defense, she’s very new at this. Every so often she hits a fire escape and has to scramble up to avoid falling down the side of the building, people inside nearly seeing her before she darts out of the way. 

She’s very much keeping her presence a secret, not just her identity. And for a time all it seems she’s doing is simply enjoying the world around her. She seems to be delighting in it. Eventually she stops at a random rooftop, sighing and leaning back in position slightly. Here we get the best look at her current uniform, it’s not very different at all compared to the one we saw when she made her first appearance, just a few small details being changed, such as the pink accent color being in some different places but otherwise unchanged. The least interesting take of anyone so far. 

But as she’s simply enjoying the scenery, one of the fake bat ears on her head twitches, and sure enough as seen from behind her a shadowy figure is seen crouching low in the shade of the roof entrance. A-Fei doesn’t seem to notice at first, the figure creeps closer and closer, dropping low as if to pounce

Without warning we cut to the figure’s POV, slowly creeping closer and closer, trying very hard to not make a sound, when an orange glove seems about to reach out to grab her and-

“Don’t even try it.” she turns her head and makes eye contact, where we switch back to 3rd person camera. 

Sun Min stumbles back in surprise, but laughs, he’s transformed much like her, but his costume is much different than we saw him last, much more black than before, as if he were trying to create a sort of ‘stealth mode’ with his look. 

“You’re a real pain in my neck aren’t you Mister Lion?”

Sun Min laughed and plopped down beside her. “You know we have like ‘hero names’ right?”

“You do in Paris, but what’s the point in having them here? NORMAL criminals don’t know who we even are, why should we be concerned about those ‘Old Order’ clowns?” “Because you just fought in a war with them like a year ago and you nearly died several times?” Sun Min laughed as if it was all a joke, A-Fei didn’t laugh back, she just looked perturbed. She huffed and puffed and Sun Min sighed. “Look… Yun Eun-Ji and I only like, JUST finished making sure there weren’t any more magical booby traps on the old temple, but now that they’ve taken some time to lay low this is the EXACT sort of time where my old masters would try to pull something. Because they know we won’t expect it. Or if we do then we won’t think they’ll do it NOW.” He sighed.

“And that’s why we’re moving my training up?”

“And that’s why we’re moving your training up.”

She sighed and leaned forward a bit, bracing her chin on her arm, and arm on her knee. “And I don’t suppose that you have anything in your spellbooks that can make my family and friends STOP asking questions because people are starting to grow sick of me hiding things and flaking out at everything, my mother almost didn’t let me sign off on this at all because she thinks I drop things willy-nilly now…!”

Sun Min sighed. “I’ll… I’ll talk to her.” But A-Fei turned back to him, expression suddenly grave. “What?”

“But don’t like- I was being facetious, don’t actually do anything to my mom’s brain.” Sun Min laughed and was clearly more at ease than before. 

“I won’t do any magic that will mess with your mothers faculties or subvert her free will. Okay?”

A-Fei sighs. “Okay.” But like that, they were both standing, stretching, and she took out her bolos, and he took out his knuckle dusters and they began training. 

What follows is a simple sort of sparring scene where Sin Min clearly has A-Fei outpaced and outclassed, but they’re both clearly still having fun, laughing and lightly shoving and all that good stuff. 

As they’re both training and enjoying themselves, there’s another set of eyes on the two of them. But these ones remain in the shadows until-

A teal ninetails whips out and catches Sun Min’s leg, tripping him up at the exact right time for A-Fei to land a blow to the solar plexus.

“Always expect the unexpected!” A cheerful voice responds, and a-Fei turns and grins when she spots the girl. 

“Yun Eun-Ji!” She chirped darting over and giving the girl a hug. “I was worried I'd have to wait a WHOLE nother week to see you!”

“Such a tragedy!” The octopus wielder laughed as She let go of her ninetails and let the lion wielder struggle in it for a little longer. “So what did your mother say about staying at the temple with us?”

“She said she’d give it the weekend and see if I'm full of shit or not.” Yun Eun-Ji narrowed her eyes at her, oddly serious for a moment. 

“Are you?”

A-Fei looks shocked for a moment, before laughing and pushing her arm. Yun Eun ji Laughs too and the tension is broken. 

“You’re such a jerk!”

“So are you!” They simply shove each other back and forth a few more times before Sun Min pops his head back up and rolls his eyes very dramatically.

 “Come on ladies, let's not make a scene in front of the lion. A-Fei did you want to see what we’ve been up to in the temple or what?”

A-Fei looks over, surprised, and sure enough one rooftop race later they’ve arrived far out of town, to the more grassy surroundings. 

The kids have all detransformed, and roll up on a motorcycle driven by Sun Min, the other two girls piled onto the back, and they roll up to an otherwise perfectly normal looking buddhist temple, albeit one that looked like it had been abandoned for some time. 

And as we pull up on the kids they continue a conversation. “Well the ACTUAL buddhists left ages ago once a big enough city had popped up right next to their damn temple, So for centuries it was exclusively an Order of Miracles Temple putting on the facade of Buddhism.” He takes off his helmet and is notably the only one wearing one, parking his bike and hanging his helmet on the handlebars. 

“And as we know other than the ‘not getting involved with the world around us’ part there wasn’t actually much in common between the two.” 

“Yeah the edifice complex of ‘we’re better than these whimps that didn’t do this’ thing runs DEEP.” Yun Eun-ji adds on. “‘S part of why they stayed in Shanghai, literally JUST so it could be more of a practice to look down on people than they were before.”

“Or at least that’s how Yun Eun-Ji interpreted the stories.”

“And I was RIGHT”

“Being right about our teachers being screwball crazy and being right about every elder in the order ever being sociopathic god complex loonies are two very different things.”

But Sun Min throws open the doors, and, well… the place looks like an abandoned buddhist temple. 

Except for when Sun Min leans over on the inside of the gate and presses a sigil of the old order on the wall. Wherein the magic of the place LIGHTS the whole temple up, It’s a beautiful display of color and light as they dance about the realm before them. A-Fei gasps.

“No way… this is AMAZING!”

“Less amazing when it’s five am and the sun hasn’t risen yet and that's the only reason the lanterns are on…” Sun Min comments and Yun Eun-Ji elbows him in the gut. 

A-Fei looks nervous then. “We’re not… actually gonna wake up at five…?”

“Of course not, that was sleep deprivation to rob us of our common sense. We’ll start at Six.”

A-Fei looks at the two of them, unsure if she should be relieved or not.

For a time we see a bit more training, Yun Eun-Ji and Sun Min really putting A-Fei through the paces, transformed for a while, and then A-Fei’s transformation drops with Tranqii yawning and saying they’re tired. They crunch down happily on their crickets as they watch A-Fei get her butt kicked.

We hear their voiceover once more.

“It’s an odd thing, living in the physical. There are many good things, like crickets. But bad things, like being tired. But…” 

A-Fei looked back at them for a moment and smiled, waving, before getting a boot to the face. “It’s good, I think.”

But as we begin to pan out, we see shadows in the background, hiding in the trees, and in the passing of a leaf across the screen, they’re gone. 

“I think my time in the physical world will be a very interesting one indeed.”

Fin

[night-faye]

Glad you’re enjoying all this ^_^ don’t worry about straining your eyes, by the episode doesn’t mean every episode, you actually can’t miss the change ;) Between whatever the OP before episode 8 was and those at the end, it’s in the last frame. A couple more trivia for you :D Sorry I keep referencing Macky’s episodes LOL esp this one but S3 Ep 4 that screenshot where he dumps the Skeleton Key in the grass and walks off is reminiscent of the scene where Wukong first leaves his staff in the pilots and walks off. And between two storyboard artists, we’ve seen Red Son being drawn in gender nonconforming fashions, using all pronouns and I quote, “Red Son cannot be contained by one measly gender and will be taking all the genders.” The characters are also given their own Pokemon Team by the artists ;) and although they aren’t stated to have confirmed ages so the fans are able to see them however, they are stated outside of the show to be seen as certain ages. Pigsy is 43, Tang is 41, Mei is 23, and MK is at least 18 but fandom mostly places him at 21. MK has also been thought of as going by He/They pronouns and was shown with the transgender flag. Wukong in JTTW is one of four celestial primates who is described as “knows transformations, recognizes the seasons, discerns the advantages of earth, and is able to alter the course of planets and stars.” While Macaque is "a sensitive ear, discernment of fundamental principles, knowledge of past and future, and comprehension of all things." And his name comes from the saying "a secret is not safe between six ears" or "the dharma is not to be transmitted to the sixth ear" which has sneaky dialogue potential. I love playing around with it. Also, the characters are merged with other JTTW characters of similar names. That goes for the entire Brotherhood + Macky, who is merged with the Macaque King who is presented as female in the English translation. This is where the “Great Sage Informing Wind” title comes from for Macky in fics + the wind and shadow magic people sometimes tie together with him. Altho you don’t see his six ears in the show, we get a lot of references through the mech, how sound effects him, and his…unique ability to react as if having heard into the future. You’ll see in the special. But his model sheet does show him with six ears if you ever wanted to know. But fandom draws him with rainbow colorful ears based on another show that has these monkeys :D Lego’s Chinese TikTok (official one) refers to him as “handsome max charisma villain” + mandarin dub calls him “phantom lord” LOL. In a game, he’s very tsundere about admitting he has a monkey king poster in his room. In S4 we like to say he’s homeless. I’m still struggling to verify if it was a show producers tweet I read about him forgetting to pay rent and losing the dojo. Mei’s placeholder name was “mary sue” and it makes me cry, why they do my girl like that 😭 Time passes differently in the Celestial Realm, so a few hours or days on Earth can be weeks or years up there. Might've been why Wukong was rushing in S2 yet seems to have been gone for months :) Lmao, I gotta catch up to where you're at. I've been slowly writing these up since Pitiful Creatures. Ah, it seems you've seen how MK parallels Mei leaving in S3 here! Fun times for everyone ^_^

Glad you’re enjoying all this ^_^ don’t worry about straining your eyes, by the episode doesn’t mean every episode, you actually can’t miss the change ;) Between whatever the OP before episode 8 was and those at the end, it’s in the last frame.

Aye aye cap'n I'll keep my eyes peels. about to go into nine so should be fun! (I missed it on eight because I wasn't looking)

A couple more trivia for you :D Sorry I keep referencing Macky’s episodes LOL

Never apologize for referencing Macky episodes. I wanna go insane over this monkey

esp this one but S3 Ep 4 that screenshot where he dumps the Skeleton Key in the grass and walks off is reminiscent of the scene where Wukong first leaves his staff in the pilots and walks off.

👀

And between two storyboard artists, we’ve seen Red Son being drawn in gender nonconforming fashions, using all pronouns and I quote, “Red Son cannot be contained by one measly gender and will be taking all the genders.”

THAT IS SUCH A MOOD!!!! HOLY SHIT! Red Son I feel you so hard

The characters are also given their own Pokemon Team by the artists ;)

If Macky doesn't have my (second behind squirtle) fave Mimikyu I will riot

and although they aren’t stated to have confirmed ages so the fans are able to see them however, they are stated outside of the show to be seen as certain ages. Pigsy is 43, Tang is 41, Mei is 23, and MK is at least 18 but fandom mostly places him at 21.

Noted noted noted :)

MK has also been thought of as going by He/They pronouns and was shown with the transgender flag.

👀

Wukong in JTTW is one of four celestial primates who is described as “knows transformations, recognizes the seasons, discerns the advantages of earth, and is able to alter the course of planets and stars.” While Macaque is "a sensitive ear, discernment of fundamental principles, knowledge of past and future, and comprehension of all things." And his name comes from the saying "a secret is not safe between six ears" or "the dharma is not to be transmitted to the sixth ear" which has sneaky dialogue potential. I love playing around with it.

Yeee I knew this. hehehehe. I am going to have such fun with this hehehe

Also, the characters are merged with other JTTW characters of similar names. That goes for the entire Brotherhood + Macky, who is merged with the Macaque King who is presented as female in the English translation.

Oh fascinating!

This is where the “Great Sage Informing Wind” title comes from for Macky in fics + the wind and shadow magic people sometimes tie together with him. Altho you don’t see his six ears in the show, we get a lot of references through the mech, how sound effects him, and his…unique ability to react as if having heard into the future. You’ll see in the special. But his model sheet does show him with six ears if you ever wanted to know. But fandom draws him with rainbow colorful ears based on another show that has these monkeys :D Lego’s Chinese TikTok (official one) refers to him as “handsome max charisma villain” + mandarin dub calls him “phantom lord” LOL. In a game, he’s very tsundere about admitting he has a monkey king poster in his room.

>*Taking notes very quickly*<

In S4 we like to say he’s homeless. I’m still struggling to verify if it was a show producers tweet I read about him forgetting to pay rent and losing the dojo.

WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING TO ME? LMAO

Mei’s placeholder name was “mary sue” and it makes me cry, why they do my girl like that 😭

JUSTICE FOR MY GIRL

Time passes differently in the Celestial Realm, so a few hours or days on Earth can be weeks or years up there. Might've been why Wukong was rushing in S2 yet seems to have been gone for months :)

Time passes differently you say 👀 oh I could Do Things With That

Lmao, I gotta catch up to where you're at. I've been slowly writing these up since Pitiful Creatures. Ah, it seems you've seen how MK parallels Mei leaving in S3 here! Fun times for everyone ^_^

I'm in pain :)

[ocelberich]

. kaeya alberich has joined the adventurer's guild !

# OCELBERICH ━━━ private, roleplay blog for kaeya alberich of genshin impact; interpreted & loved by barely ( any pronouns ); affiliated with gnostic hymns.

portrayal notes.

as stated in the handbook, i prefer to use the chinese dub for kaeya's characterization though i will likely compare it to english & japanese dubs for nuance. though i play the game in english, my preference differs.

a slightly major difference, to me, between the dubs is that, unlike in the english & japanese versions, kaeya sounds more similar to a teasing, older brother figure that you know nothing of, rather than the handsome mysterious companion that i'm familiar with as an english-player. ( though this isn't to say that he isn't a handsome mysterious companion of ours. it's simply a matter of how heavy one mood is compared to the other. ) his inflection is different between performances, of course, but i rather enjoy the tone SUN YE chose to use in his. thus, my kaeya will be written with such.

last canon appearance is, correct me if i'm wrong: version 3.8, secret summer paradise, thus he will be written as of then!

though i keep a document on all muse-related dialogue & information that is constantly updating, i have yet to fully make my document relating to khaenri'ah. so, if you see me yapping incorrectly and want to politely vibe check me, please do! i welcome all vibe checks.

though kaeya's application was written exactly one month ago, i did not expect to write him and, thus, am a bit shy about how i may portray him. this is simply to say that, yes, i will make mistakes, so please be patient with me.

patience, too, comes with shipping. while kaeya is friendly, his ability to recognize certain bonds as real will come late and in due time as a result of his distrust in the world & and himself. while i'm open to shipping romantically, i'll be leaving that to ooc discussions before anything is incorporated on the dash. likewise, my headcanon of kaeya being demiromantic will swiftly be realized, as romance is a wary concept to him.

for now, that's all! thank you for reading and i hope to write with you in the near future 💕

navigation.

i. handbook ━━━ includes mun information, blog rules, art credit, writing specifics, & more! ii. character ━━━ if you click this link, you sell your soul to me in a blood pact because the about doc is nowhere near finished and i made sure to warn you beforehand iii. talents ━━━ necessary talent page, as of the affiliated group's rule

tags explained.

♛ ━━━ ❝ what is treason to the bloodied plumes of royalty? ・ 【 𝐈𝐍 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑 】 . ( all posts that are "in character", hence the tag )

♛ ━━━ ❝ whoops! the cavalry captain without his cavalry! ・ 【 𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑 】 . ( all posts that are "out of character", ex. shitposts, maintenance, meta, etc )

♛ ━━━ ❝ they will know him as the captain with a crown of lies beneath his cape ・ 【 𝐆𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐑𝐘 】 . ( reblogged art, including possible art by the mun, of the muse )

♛ ━━━ ❝ the incarnate of a hunted bird's misery ・ 【 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍𝐒 】 . ( posts centered around a muse's headcanons, meta, etc )

♛ ━━━ ❝ to enjoy is to consume; to consume is to sacrifice ・ 【 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐓𝐒 】 . ( all reblogged posts with prompts, ask memes, sentence starters and the likes )

♛ ━━━ ❝ he is what a father has made him; what a nation expects of him ・ 【 𝐈𝐍𝐁𝐎𝐗 】 . ( all posts that are replies to an ask, excluding threads made from certain asks )

♛ ━━━ ❝ thread name ・ 【 𝐀 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃 】 . ( the threads tag )

♛ ━━━ ❝ support tag ・ 【 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐄 𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄 】 . ( support tags for all muses this muse interacts with, always liable to change )

[viatrixtravels-a]

🛏️ [for xiao :3c or Ei bc do they even sleep xD]

Send 🛏️ for a headcanon about how our muses would sleep if they shared the same bed!

// I agree that Xiao probably doesn't (or rarely sleeps) but I'll write some HCs anyway because it's Xiao and I love him. >3

Xiao

As an adeptus, Xiao rarely ever sleeps. So I imagine he is simply staying by her side after she subconsciously called his name while being haunted by a terrible nightmare.

Lumine would try to convince that she is fine and that it was just a bad dream but he is not having any of it.

Especially since she was literally in tears when he arrived. (And Xiao knows better than anyone that mental or emotional pain can be just as bad if not worse than physical pain)

She might ask Xiao to tell a story from his past, since he has been alive for so long, he sure has many interesting tales to tell. uwu (This depends on which dub you play the game in but Xiao's Chinese VA has such a soothing voice. ;w; There's this video of him reading Xiao's birthday letter and UGH. I can't. Imagine this voice talking to you as you fall asleep???)

Once she has fallen back asleep, he might gently pat her head. Of course, he would never admit it, haha.

When she wakes up in the morning, Xiao would be gone, but she will find a couple of Qingxin flowers on her pillow. uwu

Ei

Lumine introduces her to the concept of 'a slumber party' -- and with party it's really just the two of them haha.

Ei has never worn a modern-day pajamas in her whole life so she's very much confused by the concept at first. (Lumine gets them matching ones >3)

They try out different hairstyles together, eat a bunch of sweets and they might even gossip a little. <u<

Ei tells stories about the past while Lumine fills her in on how much has changed in Inazuma (and the other regions) while she kept herself isolated.

The night ends with a pillow fight but Ei takes it a bit too seriously and no pillow makes it out in one piece. (the whole room covered in feathers xD)

Neither of them got much sleep that night but they had fun. uwu

[meletesmusings]

Further Musings on Kaeya Post01 (3/4)

Continued from Post01 (2/4)

With all that said, now I have thoughts sprung from this that I don't know where to go with at this time.

  With Kaeya's name possibly being derived from a jackdaw and his constellation being a peacock... that would give him direct reference to the story "The Bird in Borrowed Feathers" which has Greek origins (I would like to discuss the implications Greek origin subjects have and potentially the Hellenistic era itself in terms of lore but that'll be for another day so just put a pin in that for now).  And this story and its relation to Kaeya is not a new idea and has already been discussed. However, if Kaeya is connected to Odin/Irmin and Odin's corvid relations, does that then change some of the context of the Borrowed Feathers story? What then is Odin trying to pass-off as? And if we are to now consider the possibility as of 3.5 that "The Sinner" is King Irmin and if we were to go even further as IslandXD and Ashikai have posited in their recent videos that King Irmin may be King Deshret (or mirroring him at the very least) then what would that further mean?

I do think it's worth noting that many feel that the way "The Sinner" speaks in the English dub has some of the qualities of the way Kaeya speaks. However, this is not something that seems to be present in all available audio languages. I would like to put a pin in this because I wonder if this might be a situation where differences between the languages are meant to give us aspects that collectively give us a larger pool of information to work with. What I mean is in the sense that in English the Archons are called "Archons" but they're referred to as 魔神/Demon Gods in the Chinese version. In this case the two aspects together both contribute to information about this group of beings as 'Archons' are beings in Gnosticism which the game is heavily inspired by as well as the fact that they are demons; and while worshipped as gods are seemingly not quite gods the same way as the Primordial One may be considered.

So if Kaeya has all these Odin traits intentionally, what does that make his connection to Irmin? From what we are told: he's an Alberich and he's stated to be descended from Chlothar. But I do wonder if he's actually directly related... as it seems the main Chlothar historically that has relevance to Genshin's had brothers... Could he not be an Alberich by way of Chlothar's brothers? However, it is possible that Genshin's Chlothar is an only child and Dainsleif seems quite sure that Kaeya is indeed descended from him but we already have established Dainsleif's memories aren't quite what they used to be. Speaking of memories, I sometimes doubt if Kaeya's birth father... is indeed his birth father. While I do not doubt the man that left Kaeya at the winery raised him for a time, what we know of him is from Kaeya's recollection from childhood and the viewpoint of the profile page (which I'm unsure is fully reliable after the events of the Sumeru Archon Quest). Could it be possible that man is not Kaeya's biological father but Kaeya genuinely believes he is? This may be absolutely nothing and maybe the game has given us the full truth but after Sumeru's Archon Quest I've been scrutinizing a lot of information I've been taking as fact up until recently. Could he still be a descendent of Irmin somehow? Could he be an aspect of Irmin in the theological sense the way the Primordial One and Istaroth had incarnations of themselves in 'The Parable of the Tree' from 'Before Sun and Moon' without needing to fully be the Primordial One or Istaroth? (I will be discussing the concept of aspects in this nature in future posts, so another pin) Or could Kaeya be a vessel for Irmin or some of Irmin's powers?

And what of Kaeya's eye he keeps hidden? If Irmin is indeed the figure represented in the Statuette drops... what's going on with his right eye? While we don't see his left eye, is it because it is indeed missing or that there's something about his right that is of greater note? (I also will discuss thoughts on the statuette series drops in the future, they fascinate me greatly) The right is also where Dainsleif and Pierro wear their masks and Kaeya keeps his eyepatch on. Is the eyepatch hiding something that'll directly connect him to Irmin? In the description of the Silver Twig Quest Item we are told of a sage that hangs upside down on a tree which is referencing Odin hanging upside down from Yggdrasil. But before that happens in Odin's case, he sacrifices one of his eyes and threw himself on his spear Gungnir in ritual sacrifice in order to gain knowledge and understand runes. Which can lead us to a whole other tangent about 'Legend of the Shattered Halberd', one of the in-game books but let's not touch that for now. Could Irmin have also done something similar to Odin and did that event contribute to whatever is going on with his eye? Could it be a physical manifestation of the knowledge he gained? Forbidden knowledge even? Who's to say?

And if we can connect Kaeya to Hermes, I wonder about Kaeya being Khaenri'ah's last hope. While Hermes and Odin's cunning and wit are traits we can see in Kaeya what I'm more interested in is Hermes' role as a psychopomp. Given how the Khaenri'ans are cursed to an undeath could Kaeya being their last hope involve him leading them to finally peacefully rest? Hermes also is a protector of travelers and thieves ... hmm...

Continued in Post01(4/4)

[mikka-minns]

Okay so there was this Mountain God who arrived at the Mountain Range called the Ba Vi Mountain which the 4 Immortals Mountain God, Son Tinh owns, he got there after Thuy Tinh was deposed from the Mountain, you see Thuy Tinh used to be one of the 3 Gods ruling that Mountain before he broke out in war against Son Tinh for losing to him at the Princess' Marriage challenge, people and Gods take that war he caused very seriously

This new Mountain God, his name is Cao Son, there are actually 5 Cao Son in Vietnamese mythology, they're different Gods with the same name and apparently THERE'S ONE WITH THAT NAME IN CHINA TOO

Btw the Chinese Cao Son is said to be an actual historical figure who traveled to Vietnam, the records said he loved it here! He wasn't an actual God but a well beloved figure here, still though he was so beloved we built temples to worship him, he can be a Mortal God, which is a term you can use to call Deified Humans

Somehow they overlap, researchers get so confused apparently, they dubbed it as eccentricity in Folklore Culture

Btw it's so funny to know 5 Gods worshipped here have the same name, Cao Son so everyone definitely got confused

The Ba Vi Mountain God Cao Son has a Water God, who's his brother, Quy Minh, this guy became the God who replaced Thuy Tinh after he was laid off his seat in the Ba Vi Mountain, he was responsible for controlling the rains and waters to help the common people, previously this was Thuy Tinh's job. Yes Gods here have certain jobs to do, it ain't free to be a God here, you got to have merits in order to be worshipped

Quy Minh was previously the Guardian God of a small Village, it said that he was protecting his Village from the damage, major flooding everywhere, Thuy Tinh was causing to the human in his rage during the Son Tinh-Thuy Tinh War, they're both Water Gods hence he was successful, though considering how he was just a Guardian of a small Village while Thuy Tinh damaged an entire country, I'm sure he was literally busting his ass to protect his Village and he was also said to have helped Son Tinh in defeating Thuy Tinh, they're from the same kind after all

Yeah I'm pretty sure Quy Minh hates Thuy Tinh considering what he did and all, lol imagine just being fine in protecting your small Village, then a fucking flood just come in out of nowhere and you have to try your best to stop it from destroying your Village. I think Quy Minh just acts hostile to Thuy Tinh anytime they meet, Thuy Tinh doesn't mind, he knows what he did and he already suffered for it

It's so interesting that a Mountain God and a Water God are brothers who reside in the same Mountain belonging to another pair of Mountain God and a past ruler Water God who were said to be friends/sworn brothers before the Water God lost against the Mountain God in getting a human bride hence they became opposing nemesis, the insane parallels. I'm glad the Later Mountain God and Water God didn't turn against eachother

Oh yeah btw Son Tinh is the Head of the 4 Immortals so his Mountain, the Ba Vi Mountain, also called Tan Vien Mountain, became the Ancestor of all Mountains in Vietnam as well as the Most Sacred Mountain, Tan Vien is actually Son Tinh's official name, he's actually titled Tan Vien Mountain Saint, Son Tinh is sort of a folk name/nickname. Yeah his Mountain became the greatest God's Mountain here because he is not only the Head of his Mountain as well as THE HEAD of the 4 Immortals, which are the highest ranked divine group here. It's actually simple they're the highest authority here, because they're the 4 figures that embody the core values of Vietnam

Oooh! More lore and some more drama! Keep it coming!

Wait so its Canon that some guy/god came from China and was like "i like it better here, actualy!" XD

[absolutebl]

Hi absolutebl! I was watching the trailer for MAME's Love in the Air. The end looked messy but I was amused with the uke of the Love Sky couple absolutely not wanting anything to do with the seme. Now the seme has no choice but to struggle to make the other boy look his way. Do you have any BL recs for a couple dynamic like this (which I am now going to dub as "the devil works hard but the seme works harder")? Thank you always! I hope you are doing well.

HI’YA! 

Ooo, hold on I think I do. 

Devil Work Hard But Seme Works Harder is a great way of putting it! 

I mean I love a pining seme which usually means he has to work hard, but devilish pining seme? Does there need to be an element of bully as well as hounding? Like say, JaeYoung in Semantic Error, Bohn in My Engineer, or Hao Ting in HIStory 3: The BL that shall not be named?

Like, would you count Shi De from We Best Love as one of these? Or is he too much a softie? What about Sky in SCOY? 

This is like pigtail pulling, or ink dipping, the: "notice ME no mater what the cost!"

Let me know a little bit more about what dynamic you are after meanwhile I do have:

Hard semes who turn into marshmallows (Korea likes this one, see Semantic Error)

And himbo bisexuals, who go from reluctant to enthusiastic.

Both kinda qualify as side versions of this trope.

I think it’s more common in Taiwan or early Chinese BL (percentage wise) than Thai. 

People who have idea/examples for this one comment? And if it’s enough different from the other two, I’ll put together a post about it. 

(source)

[manggaetteokkie]

So I haven’t made any posts yet today but I’m here with something very good this time.

Namely, further proof that the Word of Honor team really did film a happy ending, they just couldn’t fully show it. Fans noticed that Chengling’s explanation of what happened to Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu as they practiced the LiuHe skill did not match his lips at all (honestly any Chinese speaking person can tell, the dubbing is pretty obvious).

The video below is actually a fan’s re-dub of Chengling’s explanation which, compared to the mess of dubbing in the aired version, pretty perfectly matches his lip movements. Can’t blame the original dub though, the explanation is way too different to match his lips ;)

There are two sets of subtitles: the set on top is what was aired in the finale and the set below is what Chengling is supposed to have originally said (pre-dub over).

I have translated both:

Broadcast version:

Chengling: To master the LiuHe skill, there must be a person who wholeheartedly accepts turning their body into a furnace which they use to turn their own hard-earned cultivation into energy that is passed on to the practitioner. No matter how good your cultivation is, even if death is not immediate, the veins will still be cut off eventually.

Kid: So... did they master it?

What should have been the original script (and basically what is said in the video above):

Chengling: To master the LiuHe skill, the two must share the same heart/feelings, watching over and protecting each other. They must also whole-heatedly recognize the other as their soulmate, for only by maintaining their love can they pass the most critical stage by transmitting their internal qi (energy) to the other, thereby getting through the difficulty. Once the skill is mastered, the two will then become each other’s immortal protector.

Kid: So... they both survived?

-

So.

I dunno if that makes it obvious now but from Chengling’s original explanation, nowhere does it say that a sacrifice is needed to master the LiuHe skill. The two people just have to wholeheartedly love each other and be willing to give to each other completely, which would allow them to transmit the necessary energy to push pass the critical stage without holding anything back. In the end, they become immortal and protect each other forever.

This “theory” (I really should use “fact” but whatever) is completely supported by Ye Baiyi’s words as well. In a flashback, he tells Wen Kexing that he has a method to save A-Xu, but it would cost him his life and asked if he would still be willing. Wen Kexing didn’t even hesitate before agreeing, to which Ye Baiyi let out a pleased smile and replied with “You’ve answered well.”

According to my “theory”, this was merely a test to ensure that Wen Kexing would not have any doubts because if he did, he’ll hold back during the LiuHe cultivation process which could cost both of them their lives. It’s only by being wholeheartedly devoted to each other and willing to give each other their all that they can pass the critical stage.

Also yes, I know he said a bunch of stuff in voice over while the camera panned over WenZhou mid-cultivation but because I didn’t actually see his lips say that (meaning, I don’t have video proof of his lips actually uttering those words), I’m more inclined to believe what I do see. A voice over can be recorded at any time to fit broadcasting needs so 🤷🏻‍♀️

Anyways, all this just to reiterate what I’ve been saying this entire time: WenZhou have a happy ending where they both become immortal and are each other’s forever for eternity. No, they did not die. No, I don’t think it’s a bad end and no one can convince me otherwise 😤

[misdre]

some things about beyblade character names

there are a few names that keep popping up in fandom things that aren't the canon names of the characters and i find this just kind of curious, so i thought i'd look at some. (prefacing this by saying this is just explanatory canon stuff. do use whatever headcanon names you want regardless of what misdre is saying on the internet again)

kyouju/professor/chief/kenny: starting with a simple one but he somehow has exceptionally many different names. his actual name is manabu. (poor guy is never called this by anyone but his own mom)

takao's grandfather: it's ryuunosuke, as opposed to just ryu(u) which seems to be a fanon equivalent that i see used here and there. maybe ryuunosuke feels too long so people just chop it in half to make spelling easier, i dunno.

'brooklyn masefield' and 'mathilda alster/angelloni/some other version': they don't actually have canon surnames. i also use the fanon names for convenience in fics, but they are just that. the ones used for mathilda are actually so close to each other that i have wondered if there is some kind of source for them, though, since i've also seen japanese fanart using angelloni. but none of the manga material from aoki has this name on it for what i’ve seen.

volkov/vorkov/balkov: i know a good chunk of the fandom just calls him boris per the english dub but anyway. the 'balkov' spelling i believe also comes from the dub. in the original, his name is specifically spelled with the katakana formation for rendering letter v, which japanese innately doesn't have. whether it's supposed to be 'volkov' or 'vorkov' i don't actually have any other evidence on than volkov being by far a more common russian surname and given that all the other characters have john smith-esque names, i put my money on that one personally. but japanese uses r in place of l so it’s still dubious anyways for all i know.

rai and mao’s surname: it’s chen (or cheng) as written in the manga. the ‘chou’ version i believe comes from a weird misspelling in the anime, but there’s an occasion of DJ calling them chen there as well so i think that’s just the anime staff not knowing how to spell anything in latin alphabet (i mean, gouki is spelled ‘gouache’ in s2. it’s that bad) also ‘wong’ is an english dub fanon name i think, AFAIK not many characters had dub canon surnames

sergey's surname: it's rybakov. i believe a fanon version is petrov and the reason it's been used is that aoki only fairly recently called him sergey rybakov in the manga.

garland's surname: i see him called 'siebald' a lot and i don't know if that's from the english dub, but in the original it's.... well it's something else, frankly i haven't been able to figure out which real name it's supposed to be but it's 'shettobaruto' in japanese. zetbalt? schetbalt????

olivier's surname: it's bohringer. the ‘boulanger' fanoning i guess has just come from people who don't know either french or japanese very well going 'it kinda looks like this so i’ll go with it’, but bohringer and boulanger are actually pronounced differently and aoki confirmed bohringer in a bday art for olivier. and sometimes he somehow gets called ‘polanski’ and i can’t begin to explain why olivier would be called a pole but.

also, not a character name but anyway, the chinese team name in g-revolution: byakko/the white tiger is báihǔ in mandarin, the team name is that plus a -zu at the end which probably indicates the plural -s from english. japanese makes no difference between the fu and hu syllables which is why it’s technically spelled baifuuzu. lesson of the day is that it takes a bit of knowledge to tread the wild world that’s non-japanese names and words spelled in japanese because the system goes by how the words are pronounced according to japanese phonetics (and it’s crazy yes)

that's the ones i could think of. again, this is more like, for anyone who's interested or has wondered about some. not out here to judge people.

[revenge-of-the-shit]

Writing Chinese characters set within Western worlds

If you don’t want to read it on tumblr, go check this out on medium or go follow me on instagram at @annessarose_writes!

Alright. You know what. I’ve seen plenty of stereotypes in fiction (and in social media) that are so incredibly pervasive I’ve seen many Chinese people within the western world internalize it themselves. So here’s a rough guide on writing Chinese characters in an English-speaking Western setting, written by me, a Chinese Canadian woman.

If you’re here to say something racist fuck off. Otherwise, welcome! This is not a comprehensive guide by any means. This is merely a brief overview based on my own experiences. My experience (as someone in North America) will differ from someone living in, say, Europe or South America. I’m not representative of every Chinese person because everyone’s experience is unique. So here were are.

1. Our names

Chinese names are usually written as follows: [family name] [name]. Let’s take a Canadian historical figure as an example: 黃寬先. In Chinese, it’s pronounced “Wong Foon Sien.” On Canadian documents — which are written [First name] [Last name], he’d be called “Foon Sien Wong.” He went by “Foon Sien” for most of his life. That’s his full “first name.” Nobody would call him Foon because that’s just half of his name (unless given permission). It’d be like meeting a stranger called Alex and calling them “Al” right off the bat. Sure, they could go by Al, but you don’t know that.

For those of us living in the Western world, some of us have both a Chinese name and an English name. In these cases, our Chinese name becomes our middle name in English (e.g. a character could be called John Heen-Gwong Lee).

For some people who immigrated to the Western world but were born in China, their legal name would be their Chinese name. Some choose to keep that name. Some choose an English name as their “preferred” name but keep their Chinese name on legal documents. It varies.

2. Parents & Stereotypes

There’s two stereotypes which are so pervasive I see it being used over and over in jokes even within Chinese (and, to a larger extent, asian) communities:

The [abusive] tiger mom and the meek/absent dad

Both parents are unreasonably strict/abusive and they suck

I have yet to see any fiction stories with Chinese parents where they’re depicted as kind/loving/supportive/understanding (if you have recommendations — please do send them my way). Not all Chinese parents are tiger parents. Chinese parents — like all parents — are human. Good god. YES, they’re human! YES, they have flaws! YES, they are influenced by the culture they grew up in!

That isn’t to say there aren’t parents like those tropes. There are. I know this because I grew up in a predominantly Chinese community where I had many a friend’s parent who was like this. Parents who compare their kids to the best kid in class. Parents who force kids into private lessons and competitions that the kid despises because the parents think it’s for the best. Parents who have literally called their kid a disappointment because they didn’t get 100%.

But please, also consider: there’s parents who support their child’s goals and who listen. Not all parents force their kid into the stereotypical trifecta of lawyer/doctor/engineer — I know of a good number who support their child in choosing the path they want. There’s parents who make mistakes and learn and try their best to support their child. So please, for the love of god, if you write a Chinese character, don’t reduce their parents to stereotypes.

3. Language & Learning

When I first read The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan, I was so excited to see a Chinese Canadian character in Frank Zhang. Finally, there was someone like me. Finally, there was representation in well-known western media.

While I do appreciate that RR added in Frank Zhang, it’s pretty obvious that he didn’t really know how to write a Chinese Canadian character. One of the most glaring examples: in The Son of Neptune, Frank reveals he can’t really read Chinese. In like, the next book (I think — it’s been a while since I read it), Frank is suddenly able to read Chinese because he “learned” it in two week’s time.

Nope. Nuh-uh. Learning Chinese is a pain, let me tell you. There’s thousands of different characters and it is something you need to devote a lot of time to learning (especially if you’re progressed past the best childhood years for learning a language). So if you’re writing about a Chinese character living in the western world, here’s what you need to know:

A character who was born and raised in the western world does not necessarily know how to read/write in Chinese.

If they were raised by their own family, the character would very likely know how to speak their own dialect. They’d be able to understand the language used in movies/TV and they sound like a native speaker, but they may not know how to use language outside of certain contexts (the term for this is heritage speaker).

They probably went to Chinese school. They probably hated it. Chinese school is usually universally hated and does not teach you jack shit other than a hatred for the place and a vague memory of learning how to read the language without actually retaining knowledge of what you learned.

Most of my friends who know how to read/write in Chinese learned from tutors, parents, or were born in China.

There’s two main types of written Chinese: Traditional (used by Cantonese speakers) and Simplified (used by Mandarin speakers).

There are MANY other dialects (which I don’t know much about). The most common ones are Mandarin (usually spoken by people from the mainland), then Cantonese (usually spoken by people from Hong Kong).

4. Fitting into the community

Usually, the story is one of two things: they’re the only Asian kid in the entire school, or they grew up in a predominantly East Asian community. Things to consider for both of these when you’re writing:

Growing up the only Asian kid

They’re “that Asian kid.” They’re different. They walk into a class and feel weird and out of place.

They bring food from home (usually ethnic cuisine) to school. Other classmates stare at it, make fun of it, demand what that strange food is.

“Where are you from?” “Here.” “No, like, where are you really from?”

“Your name is funny.”

People literally never getting the character’s name right.

And that horrible, horrible feeling: wishing that they were white so they could avoid all of this.

Growing up in a predominantly East Asian community

It’s not uncommon for Chinese cuisine to mix with other east Asian cuisines. For special occasions (or just for a casual night out), your character could very well go out to get some sushi, or go for some KBBQ, or get some Vietnamese noodles.

Screaming “AIYAA” at/with their friends unironically if they’re annoyed (I’ve done this a lot with Cantonese friends. Less so with Mandarin friends).

Slipping into Chinese for like, two words, during a mostly-English conversation to talk about food or some other topic that can’t be adequately conveyed in English.

Reading books by white authors and learning about white history and growing up thinking white names, white books, and white history is the norm and standard even though the community is surrounded by East Asian people.

When the character leaves this community, there’s a brief culture shock when they realize how sheltered they’ve been.

Things in common for both of these:

The character has grown up on ethnic cuisine. Yes, Chinese people do eat rice with many of our meals. Yes, boba (bubble) tea is extremely popular. No, rice isn’t the only thing we eat. No, not all Chinese people love boba (though as a Chinese person I admit this sounds sacrilegious to say…)

The character likely grew up watching film/TVthat originates from East Asia. It’s not uncommon to watch Studio Ghibli films. It’s not uncommon to watch Japanese or Korean shows with canto/mando dub (examples: Ultraman, Kamen Rider). If you want to see a classic Chinese film from Hong Kong that’s fucking hilarious, watch Kung Fu Hustle.

The character has felt or been told that they’re “too westernized to be Chinese, but too Chinese to fit into the western world.” They’re torn between the two.

5. General portrayal

It’s quite simple, really. We’re human. We’re regular people. We have regular hobbies like all people do. We’re good at some subjects and bad at others. We have likes and dislikes like all people do. So here’s a list of stereotypes you can avoid.

STEREOTYPES TO AVOID BECAUSE WE’RE REGULAR HUMANS AND WE DON’T FIT INTO A SINGLE COOKIE CUTTER SHAPE, DAMMIT.

The character is a maths whiz and perfect at all things STEM.

The character is a straight-A+ gifted/IB/AP student.

The character is the next coming of Mozart and is amazing at piano/violin.

The character’s free time is spent only studying.

The character is insanely good at martial arts.

The character is either meek and submissive or an explosive, dangerous force.

I’m not going to mention the other stereotypes. You know, those ones. The really obvious ones that make fun of and demonize (sometimes through multiple untruths) how we look and how we live our lives. You should know.

Of course, there are people who fit into one or more of these. That’s not the point. The point is: molding all Chinese characters to these stereotypes (which white media tends to do) is harmful and reductionist. We’re more than stereotypes.

—

6. Conclusion

We need more diversity in portrayal of Chinese characters. Reducing us into one-dimensional caricatures has done nothing but harm us — look at what’s happening now. This guide is by no means comprehensive, but I hope it has helped you by providing a quick overview.

If you want to accurately portray Chinese characters, do your research. Read Chinese fiction. Watch Chinese films/TV. Initiate a conversation with the community. Portray us accurately. Quit turning us into caricatures.