#my thoughts: qin

[creativeafterdark]

Decided to sketch out some female demons, these ladies are based on the Queens of the World of Darkness from Mandaeism. Hekesha is the only one that's mostly original, as Hekesha is, apparently, another name for Lilith.

Speaking of:

So far in my Mythology Mixup Story, Qin is one of the Primordial Beings, and considered a mother of the Succubi and Incubi, among other demon types. After her fall from Eden, Lilith was adopted into the family, but marries a different fallen angel instead of Lucifer.

The horns represents their age and power.

The designs are not final, aside from Lilith's.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girl found dead in a hidden room.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[joys-of-everyday]

SVSSS’s women and MXTX’s commentary on sexism

Every time someone starts with ‘MXTX is great but her women…’, I feel conflicted. I think the way she writes women is secretly brilliant, but that was a conclusion I came to after a long hard think about SVSSS (which was the third series I got into). I absolutely went through the 'MXTX is great but her women...' phase.

So thoughts for my fellow travelers on this journey of enlightenment or whatever. I’m focusing on SVSSS here, because otherwise the post would be more than three times as long. I'm also not... idk how to phrase it... 'starting at the basics' since I think there's plenty already out there on MXTX's strong/not strong presence of female characters. (There’s this for advertisement. Then a somewhat more involved post on Su Xiyan which is brilliant btw. defo recommend.) This is more like... side notes, of things I have yet to see discussed. (maybe someone has discussed them and I've yet to find it.)

1. Ning Yingying, Institutionalised Sexism, and Growth

There were also some incredible female cultivators, but on the whole, these girls’ strength and mental fortitude was lacking, and they often required help… they spent their time playing around instead of actually working. Basically they looked quite hopeless.

What I really have to appreciate about SVSSS is that it slaps you around the face with a giant cucumber so you really can't miss it. This was the passage that made me put down the book and think. Why is this here? What is the point? Idk it just stuck out to me.

So there's a lot to say here about SY's stunning narration, what that says about his internalised beliefs, as well as the portrayal of women in certain genres and how frustrating it can be as a reader/viewer (looking at you, shonen), but I wanted to divest for a second to mention implicit sexism (for no other reason than I happen to care).

In SVSSS, there isn’t much explicit sexism aimed at female characters in world. By this, I mean there is no point at which a character in the world of SVSSS says sexist things to a female character, nor are there moments were female characters are specifically barred from doing anything because of their gender. Of course, it could in part be due to SQQ’s blindness to such issues, but there’s also another facet to this – the abundance of implicit sexism.

The Little Palace Mistress was the Old Palace Master’s beloved daughter. Her martial skills were the product of his hands-on teaching… Meanwhile, Ning Yingying was the beloved youngest shimei who was pampered by the entirety of Qing Jing Peak; she very rarely encountered danger and had virtually no real battle experience.

Ning Yingying is never pushed. She’s loved and cared for, but not expected to excel. The thing with implicit/institutionalised anything is that it’s hard to point to any specific case and go ‘that’s sexist’ or whatever. The effect is only clear when taken over a larger group. Returning to the Immortal Alliance Conference, what do our female participants look like? We have LMY doing her thing, ofc. But QWY? QWR? Their immediate reaction to danger is to cling to the nearest strong person and rely on them for protection. It feels like they’ve never learnt to stand for themselves.

MXTX’s later works often get the ‘there aren’t enough female characters in positions of power’ or ‘all the female characters die’ kind of remarks, but I think there’s something deeper to be said about the kind of commentary it's making on society. Anyway, I won't go deeper here, but the subversion of NYY’s stereotypical role (and so arguably the whole point of her character thematically) is that she doesn’t continue to be the loli icon with IQ 40. When NYY is forced to fend for herself and given the space to grow, she does grow. And isn’t that a nice message?

2. LMY, the Daoist Nuns, and Sex Positivity

Because her face was excessively beautiful, capable of stealing souls, she had to hide it behind a veil all year round, rendering her like unto a flower on a high cliff, unattainable and out of reach.

The women of SVSSS are all about subversions of troupes, and the subversion of LMY’s troupe is twofold. At first, she is introduced as the ‘pure’ one, in contrast to SHL’s ‘sexy’ (commentary on the ‘two types of women: frigid and slut’ narrative). Then she’s the ‘not like other girls’. She’s beautiful but doesn’t care for her looks. She doesn’t care for men but they fall at her feet. She’s stoic and competent, the ideal of a ‘strong independent woman’. And then, right at the end, we learn that she writes very kinky gay porn.

I think there's a lot of disappointment around for LMY's potential not being fulfilled, and while I agree SVSSS on the whole wrapped things up very quickly, honestly? I think this is the funniest twist ever.

LMY a fanfic writer, a shipper, a BL enthusiast. The kind of woman whose literature has always been regarded with something between confusion, denial, and disgust: from the rise of shonen ai and Yaoi of the 60s-80s, or slash fiction in 70s, to the popularity of danmei in China. The CP fan, in all its bravery and ugliness. She's not a hero, she doesn't particularly do anything, other than pursue her hobbies. She's neither ‘pure’ nor ‘strong’, but touchingly realistic.

And even better, she’s not alone. There’s the Daoist nuns, who (hilariously) are nuns who in an apparently life-or-death situations suggest dual cultivation??? (Now celibacy was necessary in some Daoist schools but not all, but since Shen Jiu mentions specifically that there’s nothing strictly wrong with him sleeping with prostitutes because they’re not a Daoist sect, it feels like there’s a subversion lurking there.) (idk they have Catholic girl school vibes.)

ngl, I just love LMY. She's very sexy.

3. LPM, QWY, and Breaking Down the Mean Girl

If LMY is ‘not like other girls’ then the LPM is the ‘mean girl’. Also, the ‘girl who tries to break up the MLs’ of a BL. The two troupes are in the same ballpark. Rich, pretty, privileged. Also petty, stupid, and unnecessarily cruel. More generally, the Huan Hua trio - LPM, QWY, QWR all take different elements of the 'unlikable girl'.

I don’t have many deep thoughts about this, other than their abject failure to make a dent on LBH’s devotion to SQQ being really funny (and an excellent post on QWY which breaks down her character and her relationship to og!LBH), but something that snagged with me is the comparison between these extracts.

Why did he act like one of those bitter courtyard complex concubines with too much time on their hands?

This is about Shen Jiu. Ya know, Shen abuses children Jiu.

He very much did not enjoy the sight of a sixty-year-old coot and a young girl in her teens cooing at each other right in front of him.

This is one of two (?) times that svsss mentions a young girl being married to an old coot (the second being SJ's mysterious jiejie). If you didn't know, the situation of women in much of Chinese history is... not great.

The Little Palace Mistress: Bitter, locked-up woman. She herself says that Luo Binghe treats her like a kept pig.

Also, the existence of Wang Lingjiao in MDZS, servant turned lover, who everyone hates (she’s the one stuck to Wen Chao if you’re like me and forgot her name most the time).

There’s condemnation there (none of these characters are portrayed in a sympathetic light) but there’s a hint of pity there too. LPM has lost a father. QWY a sister. And in MDZS, WLJ is plagued by the anxiety of an unfaithful lover who she relies on entirely for her power.

(Someone (irl!) mentioned Beauvoir to me in a (not svsss!) conversation (lol the brain rot is real but not 100% yet) and now I feel like maybe I should go back to the Second Sex for svsss reasons (so maybe the brain rot is real 🤔). Beauvoir writes a lot about 'bad women'.)

Anyway, this is not particularly organised and doesn't really have a point. I might expand some more on something at some point, but that requires me having coherent thoughts, which probably requires me having actual conversations to get a few things straight, so no guarantees. Whatever. Have a great day :)

[incorrect-record-of-ragnarok]

Alvitr, about Hades: You don't miss him?

Qin: No.😎

Alvitr: Remove your bandana.

Qin: 🥺

[qqgk-incorrect-quotes]

Yu Wen: If you two adopted a child, would you want to adopt a baby or like a teen? Qin Jiu: A baby, I guess Yu Wen: Whoa I thought you'd better prefer teens, easier to handle You Huo: For babies it's easier to change their settings

[the-sill-of-all-sills]

"You disappoint me, Fusu," he hissed, his voice as dark as smoke.

-

Zack woke up to a low voice singing near his ear, gentle as a lullaby.

"There are fúsū trees on the mountains; there are lotuses in the pond..."

Just finished my reread of Zachary Ying and the dragon emperor by Xiran Jay Zhao and this scene already stuck with me on my first read so this time I just had to draw something inspired by it!

[tonyglowheart]

I wish there was qq fic I liked on ao3 cuz I finished rereading qq so once again I'm like, "so now what...."

[shwizles]

Kind of want to re read this novel again. My mind is having fragmented scene of this novel, they be reminding me that i should re read this novel. But not gonna lie this novel was soo good.

[aromanticasterisms]

baizhu's story quest is sooo funny when you know he and kevin share a va

[veilchenjaeger]

I'm trying to make sense of Qin Wanyue, and turns out that she's more interesting than previously considered. There are a couple of things that I'm pretty sure are intentional on MXTX's part that just don't add up if you take her coy, sweet persona at face value, and that's pretty intriguing. I'm currently trying to figure out what the hell she wants from Luo Binghe.

[ikarosapollo]

oh how badly I want to write an au where Qin Su doesn’t die and she becomes the sect leader until Jin Ling is ready to take over

[beastofmoss]

1/7 concept modded followers on hero forge(which I have been on for the last couple hours)

Concept: A high elf? Boomer? Who knows, but anyway they're a bard and they be studying something called tonal magic plus it's relation to each culture (example: swordsingers, dragonborn, greensingers), grew up in redguard culture("twins" with another character), and oop got themselves in soul-sucking situation ;). Also they/them

Planned romancable character

[theskyexists]

Unfortunately people will always be imperial bastards but damn, China has a history of 3000 years of being imperial bastards. THREE THOUSAND YEARS. And it's not me saying that - it's them.

[opalandwoof]

Shi Qin Huangdi would wear a “make China legalist again” hat. Change my mind.

[tiredbitchposts]

Look, i know that Shen Yuan died a virgin and while he had no sexual experience he canonly kissed before getting with Luo Binghe, but do y'all know what would be hysterical in my opinion? If Shen Yuan had a gaggle of ex girlfriends he left behind when he died. Now, you may be wondering, what's so hysterical about that? Well, for one, it just tinkles me pink to think that the same guy who indirectly died from how angry a webnovel he dedicated a great amount of time commenting on made him actually got/could get bitches but decided that verbally abusing Airplane over his shit writting sounded more fun. I also think that knowing the system he'd at some point fall victim to some type of plant or curse that'd force him to name all of his ex lovers out loud unless he wished to die while the rest of the sect watches. Can y'all imagine Yue QingYuan, Luo Binghe, Liu Qingge and fucking Airplane's faces while he's there naming "Yu YaoYao, Mei Ling, Jiang Qin, Fei Liao" plus who else with a pained look on his face while trying to guess if middle school and internet relationships also count??? Plus, i just know he rationalized any lack of sexual thoughts he had towards his exes with "Well, i can't think sexually of a woman who's not my wife, that'd be disrespectful"

[5water-kohaku]

I was daydreaming my Blade & Soul OC Keze having a battle against Baifeng from Qin's Moon. At first, I thought of young Wei Zhuang. However, Baifeng has more fun skills that could be more creative against Keze, a Gunslinger. At least, in my head I was able to think more creative stuff. XD