#the magic lotus lantern

[ruibaozha]

I hope this question doesn't bother you, I only know the 1999 Lotus Lantern movie (if anyone wants to see it, it's subtitled in English on yt) but I wanted to ask, are there other accessible Lotus Lantern media? I think I only know two versions of the story and the TV show.

Hello! I've been looking for a free to access PDF of the story itself, but this website has a very solid translation and I have used a few of their translations of Canonization of the Gods sometimes. I can personally verify it's validity.

https://pages.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/chin/chtales/story011.html

I also located a TV series under the same name. There aren't subtitles available though.

This also falls into Chinese Opera, first popularized during the Tang Dynasty. I have added links to both part one and two on Youtube. I hope this is what you've been looking for, despite lacking translations.

[sketching-shark]

You know it can be pretty fun and funny to compare and contrast Xiyouji retellings but it is genuinely wild just how different the stories of Sun Wukong’s tudis are.

Tudi #1: An unnamed prince of the Jade-Flower District in India that the pilgrim group passes through on the way west & who becomes an amazing martial artist under Sun Wukong’s tutelage. Is also endowed with “divine strength” by the Monkey King. He’s a minor character, but he clearly admires and respects his shifu

Tudi #2: Liu Chenxiang, the demigod hero of “The Magic Lotus Lantern” folk tale. Faced many hardships and traumatic events on account of his uncle Erlang Shen killing Liu Chenxiang’s father and imprisoning his mother Sansheng Mu underneath a mountain for the crime of falling in love with a mortal. Some versions of the story say that Sun Wukong was his shifu in the martial arts. The Monkey King is also often presented as the one who made a magical axe that allowed Liu Chenxiang to split open this mountain and be reunited with his mom. His relationship to Sun Wukong is a little more tense, but overall he’s presented as admiring and being very grateful to his shifu.

Tudi #3: Qi Xiaotian, the generally cheerful protagonist of the cartoon Monkie Kid who Cannot Catch A Break Ever. Mr. “Have-Some-More-Trauma-While-Everyone-Dunks-On-Your-Shifu-all-while-Sun-Wuking-frequently-makes-things-worse” himself. Seems to still at least love the Monkey King, but a part of him also seems to be wondering why. Oh no.

[themetallicnemesis]

Funny little modern day Lotus Lantern au, that's pretty much just an excuse for me to draw my Wukong with cool outifts

[ryin-silverfish]

Lotus Lantern: The Summaries, Part 4

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Chenxiang Jiu Mu Cixiong Jian ("Chenxiang and the Male-Female Swords")

-As the last Chenxiang tale in the collection, my feelings about this one are...complicated. Some parts are not as dramatic, but it also has some interesting changes to the plot that haven't really been taken up by modern adaptations.

-Also, it's the only version where Erlang wasn't the main antagonist.

-Anyways: in the Tang dynasty, during the reign of Dezong, there was a poor orphan named Liu Xi. He hoped to change his fate through the imperial examinations, and while he was on his way to the capital, he came across the temple of the Third Lady of Mt. Hua.

-Just like in the Precious Scroll of Chenxiang, she was out attending the Peach Festival, and when Liu Xi asked about his examination results, her Jade Maiden attendant threw him two divination slips: "Majorly Auspicious" (上上) and "Majorly Inauspicious" (下下).

-The conflicting results annoyed Liu Xi greatly; he proceeded to write a poem on her temple walls calling her worship a sham, good only for cheating fools out of money. Upon her return, the Third Lady wasn't too happy about that, and whipped up a truly biblical storm while she went after the scholar.

-Trapped in the midst of it, a terrified Liu Xi lamented that he was going to die before repaying his dead parents and making them proud.

-Suddenly, the Gold Star of Venus showed up and blocked the Third Lady's entourage, and was like "You are destined to have two months of romance with Liu Xi, by the Jade Emperor's decree! Don't you remember?"

-Also, because the storm she summoned had damaged the crops of mortals, she had violated heavenly law and was due for punishment.

-Still, the Third Lady went on to commiserate her two-month marriage with Liuxi before abruptly revealing her true identity, for the terms of her sentencing had arrived and she'd soon be imprisoned inside the Black Cloud Cave of Mt. Hua.

-She gave Liu Xi a precious sword, told him to take it to the capital, then disappeared in a huge sandstorm, together with the mansion she conjured when they first met. Liu Xi, still disoriented, wondered if he had been charmed by a demoness for the past two months.

-After arriving at the capital, he tried to sell the Third Lady's sword for some money, but no one offered to buy it. Just as he was lamenting his fate, he was interrupted by the entourage of Minister Wang, who instantly recognized his sword.

-See, his daughter, Wang Guiying, had received a similar sword from the Old Mother of Mt. Li, who told her it was the "Female Sword" and she was fated to marry the man carrying the "Male Sword", which just happened to be the one Liu Xi was trying to sell! 

-So Liu Xi attended the imperial examination, got very good results, and married Minister Wang's daughter. Some time passed before a Tudi god suddenly showed up at the family's front door, carrying baby Chen Xiang, his son with the Third Lady.

-Guiying was overjoyed and promptly adopted Chen Xiang into the family. Later, she also gave birth to a son called Qiu Xiang. When the two boys had both reached 12, they were sent to the mansion of the emperor's uncle-in-law for further study, and met the Imperial Uncle's 14 years old son, Cun Ge("Brother Cun").

-Chen Xiang, however, soon got into a fight with him, and when Cun Ge called him an illegitimate bastard, he killed the boy in a fit of rage. Just like before, he was forced to flee and decided to go to Mt. Hua to seek his birth mother, taking the Male-Female Swords with him.

-While he was busy getting lost at the foot of the mountain, the Thunderclap Immortal rode by on a cloud, saw him being miserable, and took him in as his disciple.

-After Chen Xiang mastered the Male-Female Swords, Thunderclap Immortal told him that, in order to save his mom, he must first go to his uncle Erlang's temple at Guanjiangkou, where the Mountain-Cleaving Axe was kept.

-So he went and was greeted warmly by Yuan Hong, head of the Seven Brothers of Plum Mountain who was also a monkey spirit. Unfortunately, Erlang was out attending the Peach Festival, and would be back in about...200 years.

-Chen Xiang really couldn't wait that long and pleaded to borrow the Mountain Cleaver Axe, please, he'd return it real quick! To which Yuan Hong replied that no one was allowed to touch the weapon without Erlang's permission, then resumed his patrol of the mountain.

-So Chen Xiang decided to just steal the weapon instead, and thought the best way to create an opening was…turning his swords into flaming dragons and setting Erlang's temple on fire. Yeah. 

-After putting out the fire, the Plum Mountain Brothers found the axe missing, quickly put two and two together, and went to hunt Chen Xiang down. Chen Xiang then challenged Yuan Hong to a one-on-one fight, cleaved his horse in half with the Male-Female Swords, and dashed away to Mt. Hua to free his mom.

-Mother and child had a heartwarming reunion; Chen Xiang updated her on everything that had happened, just in time for the Plum Mountain Brothers and their army of divine soldiers to arrive. Since he couldn't fight his way out, especially with his mom by his side, Chen Xiang cried out the name of his master.

-Seconds later, the Thunderclap Immortal showed up and captured the entire divine army in his sleeves. Then the Gold Star of Venus also showed up, bringing with him the Jade Emperor's pardon for the Third Lady, before being interrupted by an angry Erlang.

-He was basically like "Kid, I'm not mad because you stole the axe, but why the hell did you set my temple on fire?! Also, where are my brothers and soldiers?" After the Thunderclap Immortal told him the whole story and released the Seven Sages + their army from his sleeves, however, he did calm down and go back to Guanjiangkou.

-After going on a quick detour to save his father, stepmother and half-brother from jail (yeah, they were thrown in prison for Chen Xiang's crime), Chen Xiang took the whole family into the clouds for a reunion under the the South Gate of Heaven, and all is well.

[time-woods]

How would you describe the kingdom in your medieval fantasy au? I'm so curious about its rules and society

ok i need to put this down somewhere so im gonna take this as the opportunity to do such bc this things been brewing in my cranium-

The kingdom is a fairly young one, destroyed a few hundred years ago by a falling asteroid, it created a crater in its place. Few survived but those who did instilled the fear of the sky and what dwells in it to those who remained. So anything from the sky is no good, this includes birds. Things that aren't grounded basically. They also blamed it on magic and that a evil magic moon god did this to them, sending one of its children down to tear down their home.

the interesting thing is- they didn't relocate. they cleared what remained of the asteroid, using the stone as their new foundation. They say this is like showing their power over what tried to destroy them or whatever. but yea they built their new kingdom in the crater. Now I hear you saying 'what abt when it rains? wouldn't everything flood?' your right. but you see, they hate what dwells above, they covered the top. its flat. the kingdom is flat up top. (besides those who don't live at the heart of the kingdom- like farmers who need land n such)) Everything is illuminated by thousands of lanterns that carry a flame said to be of the very asteroid that created this pit. This is yet again them taking power over what crushed their kingdom all those years ago. (flame that never dies? doesn't sound very grounded to me mr kingdom..) Those at the crown seemingly hate magic and any form of 'ungrounded' thinking. They are tolerant to those who are half human but if you are deemed too 'monstrous' they lose that tolerance very quickly. rumors are that the kingdom in recent years has started getting double standards for what they allow in their home. aka the head guard being 'half monster' (hes a bug. hes literally a whole bug. there's no human there at all) when the people thought entrusting that care to someone unlike them would be unthinkable, but surprisingly they've been safer these past years with him at the helm.

also yea most of the kingdom is this purply rock cause of this, as well as the flame in the lanterns. despite it being underground it manages to be fairly bright !

OH YEA one of their symbols is a stylized lotus/flame (lotus' can be seen as a symbol of rebirth and that put in place of the asteroid's flames makes for a good cycle like a phoenix sorta)) (this design is seen on Carmine's armor/ alt version on the bg guards))

this is just some stuff thats been in my head as of late that i havent gotten round to writing down.

[angstandhappiness]

READ IT, ABSOLUTELY DIVINE

@sketching-shark : #hey besties you should all totally read this#definitely one of the better fanfics that i've come across#earl-of-221b#also dang now i'm imagining some aftermath to all of this that involves sun wukong taunting erlang shen#about for as much as the war god might look down on him & his fellow yaoguai#his nephew begged to become the monkey king's tudi#after fiercely rejecting yang jian and everything he had come to stand for

#new gods yang jian#erlang shen#chen xiang#the magic lotus lantern#this is going to be so tragic and so funny all at once <3#also i’m really hoping that they still keep in the part about chen xiang running away from erlang shen & studying under sun wukong#world’s oldest 25-year-old loses custody battle to a monkey grandpa#but yeah erlang shen with lotus lantern as an extension of his story is so fascinationg#because you have an uber powerful deity so dedicated to the cause that he inflicts the same trauma on his sister and nephew#that was inflicted on him by order of his uncle#and then his nephew basically does the exact same thing he did#like aaaaaaa PLEASE make yang jian aware of narrative & familial repetition & respond to it

@sketching-shark oh my god. You should……you should read my fanfiction from 2017 - How the Black Sheep Breathe.

[samadhifired]

In JttW, changing ones name is quite common and usually accompanied by a big changes in their life (mostly for Buddhist reasons). And LMK seems to acknowledge this since they have used both the pre-Journey Zhu Ganglie as well as his later Zhu Bajie names when talking about the Pig Pilgrim.

And with this line of thought: there is no way that Iron Fan is is PIF's birth name.

Not only is it way too on the nose (unless PIF chose/was given her fan because of her name), she also has gone through a huge change in her life: abandoning her life as a Celestial Maiden and marrying DBK.

Which means... There is a huge opportunity for the show (or fanfic) writers to give her a double identity.

And part of me kinda hopes, if canon, that identity will be Yang Chan; the sister of Erlang Shen.

I mean think about it.

As Celestial, she was shown to have an equal standing with nephew and (kinda) grandson of the Jade Emperor. This makes it very likely that PIF is also related to the Jade Emperor in one way or another.

If she is Yang Chan, her mother would be Yunhua (Yaoji?); a goddess whose job by some sources was to "limit the gods' mortal urges such as love, greed, and ambition". Is it just me, or aren't those also major traits of Iron Fan as a character?

You could argue that DBK getting imprisoned under a mountain is loosely inspired by The Magic Lotus Lantern, the main story Erlang's sister is known for (forbidden marriage, parent getting imprisoned under a mountain by their brother, the son getting a weapon linked to Sun Wukong is a key item at freeing the said parent.)

IronBull family has been part of every single season so far. And when the time to choose the next Jade Emperor comes, it would be so easy for the writers to use PIF (who is still Celestial enough for Azure to refer her as such) as an excuse to get them involved in the progress. Double so if it actually turns out that PIF (and Red Son) has a claim for the throne.

The mere idea of Erlang and PIF as siblings is absolutely hilarios

[glitcheslikeslego]

Some funky things about my Skylanders LMK thing

it's a few ideas I came up with while drawing cause i don't think i've talked abt it on here :0

Jin and Yin are defected Arkeyan Machines, while drawing Jin I came up with the idea of their faceplates being similar to the Arkeyan Conquertron (so i can include the horns)

Nuwa is a Life elemental Giant, some other Giants include the Scorpion Queen (Dark), the Jade Emperor (Light), and Azure (Magic) after he kills the Jade Emperor

After some back and forth, I decided it would be really funny to make the little girl (Bai He) a portal master

All of the spiders have the Undead element, except for Syntax, who has the Tech element

Macaque's body has a ghostly bottom half and wields his Shadow Lantern as a weapon, inspired from Ninjini's wispy body and her bottle

Also with Macaque, before he became an Undead element, he used to be Dark

Red Son and Sandy are the only ones of their element, being Fire and Water respectively

And the element with the most characters is Undead, having Macaque, Lady Bone Demon, The Mayor, Spider Queen, Huntsman, Strong Spider (or Goliath), and the Nine Headed Demon

Nezha has the Life elemental and not Fire, this is because I really wanted to double down on the lotus theming and expand his move set a bit more

A lot of the inspiration for this came from Skylanders: Giants cause that is my absolute fav ever <3

i'll add some more later, but this is what i have for now :3

[mykingdomforapen]

courage of stars | a writer's commentary

It's here! The end of the fic is finally here. Oh my gosh, I cannot believe it. I'm so thankful to have gotten to write this fic and share it with you. Thank you for joining this journey with me, and for enjoying this story enough to want to read the behind the scenes. I'm really excited to shout obsessively about the thought process that went into this story, to the point where this commentary is +3k words rip.

Of course, major spoilers for the story ahead:

Original Inspiration

After finishing ‘spinning silk,’ I knew that I wanted to write a story about Cheng Xiaoshi and his mother. It took me some time to settle on how that story would play out, but the one thing I knew for sure I wanted, because this was the image that kickstarted my desire to write about them, was the idea of Cheng Xiaoshi diving into a photo and then stumbling into his mother, equally diving, who realises he is there and goes, “Little rabbit, is that you?” 

I also knew that whoever Cai Liangxing embodied would have a birthmark on their forehead, which I will get into later. 

Initially, I was going to make it a story that drew loose inspiration with the Magic Lotus Lantern story, which is about a demigod boy whose mother is stolen and trapped underneath the mountains by her godly brother, and he had to go on a quest to eventually be capable enough to break open the mountains and save her. In this story, his mother would have had some kind of photograph-related curse instead of abilities that fell upon her somehow, in which at random and uncontrolled moments, she would look upon a photograph and suddenly be sucked into it, and into the person within the photograph (not necessarily the photographer). She wouldn’t have control over it, which means it could happen at random, she can never go forward in time but backwards. Cheng Xiaoshi would have to keep diving into different photos further and further back in time to look for her, which would have led the narrative to explore different decades in Chinese history until he would find her. At one point, they would have agreed that whenever she was and whoever body’s she was in, she would bite her finger and place a small bloodied dot on her forehead so that Cheng Xiaoshi could find her. 

Slowly, though, I realised I didn’t want that to be how the story went. The dot on the forehead is in reference to a Chinese legend that I wanted to explore, and I realised that if I wanted to explore it to its full potential, the story had to go differently. So I scrapped the tumbling down into time idea and leaned more into this legend. This is how the legend goes: there was once a young prince who loved his partner, but something arose (intruders, I think) in which she was fatally wounded. As he held her in his arms and wept, she bit her finger until it bled and painted a small dot on his forehead and said, when I’m reborn, I will have this birthmark on my forehead. I will find you again. And then she dies. 

Many years passed, and the prince became the king. As king, he one day met a young man with a birthmark on his forehead and realised that this was his lover reincarnated. Of course, the young man did not retain any of those memories, but the king showed him great favor and took him in as his own, and eventually the young man grew to become the king’s trusted advisor. However, this young man slowly became corrupt, his allegiances were elsewhere, and it eventually became evident that he was a traitor to the kingdom and to the king. With a mournful heart, the king ultimately executed this young man. 

I wanted this idea of someone Cheng Xiaoshi loved being in the body of someone else, but who is losing themselves entirely until they are someone who causes Cheng Xiaoshi harm. I replaced reincarnation with the Cheng family��s photo hopping abilities, and eventually (and might I say, through tremendous and late-night efforts lol) developed SUn Yihan, the one who really had to carry the story’s stakes. I also knew that I still wanted this story to be deeply tied to Chinese modern history, and so Sun Yihan’s backstory was the way it was. 

There were three scenes I knew for sure I wanted to write, that really propelled the direction of the story: 

1) “Little rabbit, is that you?” 

2) Cai Liangxing, knowing of Lu Guang’s abilities, speaking to him through a photograph, and 

3) the scene in heaven of Cheng Xiaoshi and his parents, “Oh, Yinhe, he’s so beautiful.” 

I just knew I wanted to keep these concepts in and write them in whatever way possible. 

I also would be remiss if I didn't mention the song from which the title of the fic originated. Also, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that its music video left an indelible mark on me, and is probably from where the imagery in the final chapter drew inspiration!

Epigraph

The epigraph for this story is one of the most famous poems from Li Bai, a Chinese Tang dynasty poet. It’s so famous, in fact, that I hesitated to use it because it’s famous to the point of cheesy. Elementary school children recite it, it’s one of the first poems you will learn in any Chinese language class. It’s very simple, and yet the themes just felt fitting. 

Here it is again in Chinese: 

床前明月光

疑是地上霜

举头望明月

低头思故乡

Here is its English translation: 

Before my bed lies a pool of moon bright I could imagine that it's frost on the ground I look up and see the bright shining moon Bowing my head I am thinking of home

The moon is such a crucial symbol in this story, and Chinese literature/art is FLUSH with moon imagery. This one I felt to be really fitting because I felt it reflected Cheng Xiaosh and Lu Guang all at once. Cheng Xiaoshi’s relationship with the poem a little more in its literal meaning, in that his mother had told him in the beginning of the story to look at the moon when she is gone because Mama Rabbit is always looking after him. And how, as Cheng Xiaoshi walked to the forest to his death, he looked at the moon and saw it for what it meant, rather than what it was, to draw courage from it. 

Lu Guang’s relationship to this poem is more tied to its context. Li Bai was writing this from a place of reflecting on filial piety. The inspiration from which he wrote it was imagining a Confucian scholar in the employment of the emperor who misses his hometown on Mid-Autumn Festival. It’s almost a little too on the nose for Lu Guang, isn’t it? Haha. 

Sun, Moon, and Stars

When I first wrote the opening of “courage of stars,” with Cheng Xiaoshi and his parents stargazing on their last night together, I honestly expected that to be the extent of celestial bodies’ presence in the story. All I had asked from it was for the stars, representative of his parents, to reflect that myth of stars being long dead but their light still reaches us. In this scant use of the motif of the heavens, light still represented love. 

In fact, the mention of Mid-Autumn Festival aligning with CXS’ death scene was just for my fun, since his death might coincide with Mid-Autumn on any given year (albeit not any year that the story could logically take place, but we’re assuming that they live in an alternate earth anyway hahaha). It felt like it would be fun to make the slowly filling moon reflect the passage of time that draws closer to CXS’ death day. In short, the sun and the moon were really meant to be somewhat melancholic motifs, and not much more.

Also, I liked to draw a through line between Cai Liangxing and Chang’E, the legend of the moon goddess. In order to protect her husband’s magic, Chang’E consumed a magical pill that a cruel man was trying to steal, which made her levitate all the way up to the moon. She kept the villain from taking the pills, but in turn she was trapped on that moon with no way to come down for the rest of eternity. Much like…

But the more that I wrote, the more that my appreciation for the moon and what it could symbolize really took root, particularly in the moment where CXS and LG reconcile after their painful conflict. Chapter 7 is really precious to me because I wanted to write a reconciliation between best friends that showed them in all their messiness and earnestness. I wanted these two best friends to be confronted with the shortcomings and pitfalls of each other and their own ability to love, and to still be able to comfort each other. I think for me, I err on the side of writing a friendship love in an idolizing way, putting it on a pedestal as the Ultimate Source of Love, when that isn’t really sustainable. CXS and LG aren’t going to be perfect friends to each other. They’re going to be messy and selfish and their love for each other will not be complete. But it is still precious. 

So when I wrote the last scene of them in LG’s bedroom, forgiving each other, the moon motif struck me. I thought about how the moon, in its pearly luminescence, is really reflecting the light of the sun. It glows, it is gorgeous, it is the stuff of poems and music, and it is in truth a reflection. My writing is really guided by my faith, and I often think of the line from the musical Les Miserables: “To love another person is to see the face of God.” My experience with love and with faith has often been best described as that we people are riverbeds, receiving and outpouring love to one another whose source is the Living Water. So when I wrote about the moon, it just…clicked. Ah, it’s a fountain. From the sun, to the moon, to the earth. Light as water as love. Cheng Xiaoshi shines with love to Lu Guang, but he doesn’t have to have the pressure or the burden of being Lu Guang’s only source of it. They are both joyful, earnest riverbeds, whose imperfections are not enough to stop the flow of love coming to one another.

After that, it really guided me in my writing, especially as we reached the climaxes, and Mid-Autumn approaching. The filling moon, and the holiday, still held this ominous tone to them because they do still indicate Cheng Xiaoshi’s coming death day. But, much like the memories of other motifs in this story, painful imagery also live alongside hopeful and encouraging ones. The full moon that terrified Lu Guang is also the moon that lit Cheng Xiaoshi’s way and followed him, symbolically, when he was afraid. We all go through journeys in life where none of our loved ones can follow us all the way, physically or emotionally, whether because they leave or because they simply cannot. Only we can feel the heartache in our own chest, even when someone is holding our hand. In that moment, as loved as Cheng Xiaoshi is by his friends, he must take this journey to his death alone. His own mother had literally forgotten him. But the moon, sunlight reflected, this story’s motif for love and courage and mercy, followed him every step of the way. 

Frogs/Corpse Pond

Frog Guang has become such an icon from this fic that I feel like I must make a little section for the frogs! 

When I was writing ‘spinning silk,’ there was a moment where Lu Guang is reliving his childhood and there’s a moment where he is with his grandfather, and he’s showing his grandfather a fat frog that he found. It was a throwaway line, and I do not intend for the universe of silk to be the same as stars (for the most part, I intend for each of my fics to all be of different universes, not even different timelines, but they simply cannot coexist), and there are differences in each Yeye’s backstories. But that throwaway line did plant that idea in my head that Lu Guang loved frogs, to carry over into ‘stars.’ 

I’m not a frog aficionado myself, although this headcanon has made me a lot fonder of them. I am ever thankful to Rulos who knows much more about frogs than me and told me frog facts and types to flesh out Lu Guang’s favor for them. But I do have an echo of frogs in my own family history. When my grandmother was pregnant with my father, this was during the famine years and she was like, 36kg/81lbs. There just wasn’t a lot of food! So she ate frogs that came from the pond in her neighborhood to supplement her nutrition. That was a story she told us and it stuck to me ever since, especially because said pond is one I am very fond of in my own life. For, of course, very different reasons than hers. Which leads me to my next subsection…

Hunger

The motif of hunger vs abundance came almost naturally, as a result of the frogs. One of my readers (I see you Juno) aptly noticed the juxtaposition between Lu Guang having a love for frogs that his grandparents ate out of desperation, and I was so excited that they saw that because that’s exactly what I was trying to capture. Hunger vs abundance. Starvation in Yeye’s anecdotes, and even Sun Yihan’s adulthood (for my parents’ generation, it was indeed so rare to eat chicken that it would only ever be eaten on New Year), compared to Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang basically having tons of snacks and meals in every chapter. And then, the way that hunger can really make people go impulsive and reckless and foolish. I know I make some dumb decisions when hungry just to fill my stomach. Anecdotes of people in horrible situations, be it in war or genocide or famine, hurting or killing others just to have a small bite to eat. Cheng Xiaoshi was so, so hungry for want of his mother that he betrayed Lu Guang. Sun Yihan/Ye Ci, starving for lack of a father figure and a sense of belonging in the world, betrayed his mother. Remember that you have been hungry, too. 

Names

I was very excited about the fact that I could make each chapter name of ‘stars’ correlate to a name, or to a meaning of a name/name-adjacent, because names really do play such a big role in this story. For one, plot-wise it is what put Cheng Xiaoshi in so much danger. Cai Liangxing and Cheng Yinhe’s names being oh so symbolic. Cheng Xiaoshi’s and Lu Guang’s childhood nicknames become almost motifs in and of themselves. And of course, Sun Yihan’s chosen name marking him as a punishment versus his secret, lost birth name of Ye Ci (which shares a character with the word ‘mercy.’) 

Also I want to emphasize that whenever he talked about him, Grandpa Lu always referred to Sun Yihan by the family name (Sun zai) because I didn’t want him to really interact or acknowledge his self-given name of Yihan. As he always said before, Grandpa Lu has no regrets meeting SYH, and he wishes SYH would not either. 

And I do love when a name is thematic. Cheng Xiaoshi naming Lu Guang’s new frog ‘Cassini’ is so important to me. 

Alternate Scenes/Ideas

Yeye was originally going to have abilities! His abilities would have something to do with being able to see a room in the past, so time traveling within a confined space of a room. He would have been able to use the traditional art of paper cutting that, if you pin it onto the wall, you would be able to see what had occurred in the room during the past (although, not necessarily able to interact with it). I did want to try to create a power for him where one could interact with the past, but then realised it would get messy and also would be very ironic of Lu Guang to be so adamant about his time scruple. The wall art magic would have been the original way that LG and CXS find out about CXS’ father’s death–witnessing it, not so much living through it. Sorry, CXS.

Lu Guang initially was supposed to be able to talk directly with Cai Liangxing while she was in the past. So LG was actually going to be the person to tell CLX that CXS has an unchangeable death node, and they would have come to some kind of agreement that they would do everything in their power to save him. Something about his abilities combining with Yeye’s would have made that possible, however I scrapped it because I couldn’t think of a way to do it elegantly, and that would stay true to the rules of the magic/universe. 

Qiao Ling at one point would have tried to use her abilities to look into a photo of Cai Liangxing, and would notice that when she peeked into Cai Liangxing’s mind, it would be exactly the same as when she would try to peek into Sun Yihan’s, thus emphasizing that the two have molded into one person. 

Sun Yihan was actually going to be something of a serial killer. He would have murdered young men with the surname Cheng in order to absorb Cheng Xiaoshi’s abilities, albeit he doesn’t know if he found the right Cheng Xiaoshi or not. Scrapped because I realised that would lean him towards villainy, which wasn’t what I ultimately wanted for his character, so…serial kidnapping. 

On that note, Cheng Xiaoshi would hae been recruited by Captain Xiao to dive into the photo of one of the victims to find out who the killer was. Upon discovering that it was SYH, LG would have panicked at him to get out and that would be how they realised SYH is hunting CXS down and for what reason he was killing all these young guys. I ultimately took all the tension I wanted from such a scene and put it into CXS diving into his father. 

CXS was initially going to get kidnapped by SYH (no Lu Guang as bait) and forced into experiments, which would lead him to dive into SYH’s mother at one point. He would inherit her emotions towards her son. I scrapped it when I reasoned that she probably would not have had any chance to take a photo between getting accused and getting killed. 

Fanart

I am so blessed to have artists share fanart of the fic with me. I wanted to put them all in one place, and will continue to add to this doc as I know one of my commissioned pieces from Sunny will be posted sometime later today. Thank you so much for everyone for sharing their imagination and vision of this little world with me. I'm so touched. Everyone please please please feast your eyes on these arts and show the artist love!!

PM_Paint

@sailboat-sparrow 1, 2

Blepps

@quarriart Quarri

@sgdlr-asdfghjkl Niebo

intothefrisson (sunny)

@doublxpresso (DX)

Thank you...

I just want to dedicate this space to say a HUGE thank you to my wonderful beta and dear friend, @fluffy-rulos. Rulos was cheering me on as I wrote this monster of a fic, tracked the mystery for me, gave me suggestions and feedback that helped me make the fic better, and of course, gave me all the frog facts for Frog Guang. I am so thankful for her and this story wouldn’t be the same without her. This story took about five months to write, writing for almost every single day of the week, and I don’t know how I would have made it this far without her encouragement and excitement. Thank you for joining me on this adventure my friend!! 

And thank you to everyone who stayed with the fic from beginning to end. I really hope you liked it and enjoyed reading the behind the scenes. I'll miss you all <3.

[ruibaozha]

Does Investiture of the Gods happen before or after Journey to the West? What about the Lotus lantern? Is there a chronological order to the stories? Which happens before or after?

Hello!

Technically Canonization of the Gods occurs before Journey to the West. Canonization itself is a heavily fantastical retelling of the collapse of the Shang Dynasty and the rise of the Zhou Dynasty, so figure around 1046BC, while Journey to the West is set in the seventh century - itself a fantastical retelling too.

However, it is extremely detrimental to assume the two are connected in any way, and this includes assuming the story of the Lotus Lantern to be related to the aforementioned stories. Canonization and Journey to the West were written down oral retellings by two very different people in two very different time periods. The ‘release’ of the Lotus Lantern was during the Tang Dynasty predating both Canonization and Journey to the West by a minimum of 500 years.

I understand the desire to want to make such connections though and have a well established timeline regarding the deities involved, but the fluidity of these stories and conflicting information within other external tales is a testament to the thousands of people who have listened to and retold such pieces of folklore.

Myself and @digitalagepulao were theorizing earlier about the sheer amount of story variation in China while Greek literature doesn’t seem to have many changes. Decidedly it’s a combination of sheer territorial expansion differences and Greek literature cases like the Iliad had actual lists of family names that needed to be maintained because any variation was seen as blasphemy; especially after the involvement of Christianity.

It is worth speculating on, especially for anyone involved deeply with the examination of various global mythologies and the many influences these belief systems were subject to. I hope this answer wasn’t too confusing, and thank you for asking!

[sketching-shark]

Friends can you believe that I haven’t done anything with Lotus Lantern up until now?! Well now rectifying that, here’s a sketch of Liu Chenxiang and Sun Wukong training in the martial arts. Here’s hoping he can get strong enough to defeat his uncle (a literal war god) and free his mother!

[totallynotokguys]

Lego Monkie Kid Rewatch: Season 3

Episode 8, Benched

Through my rewatch, I've been trying to pay attention to the smaller details and people in the show, so I can really appreciate the world.

Thank you animators, for taking the time to draw this disgruntled birb getting poofed by snow. There's no big reason here for the bird besides illustrating that its snowy now, which background scenery is already showing us. But nope! The show went the extra centimeter to include this lil birb, giving this world a little bit more depth and vitality.

"I didn't like how any of them turned out, though."

It's the circles isn't it. Circles are hard.

I love this city's design here so much!

The lanterns, snow, warm glowing signs. Look at that crane! Or the lotus! And those lantern kites! I love their mix of modern with traditional architecture! Please tell me they made a lego set of this city! And look at the people! I want every single one of these lego figures in that picture. Cute coats, cute hairs, cute winter accessories! And the toy monkey! I love it!

… ah…

Don't get me wrong. If I saw this before the show I would have thought it was a cool shopping district. But when compared to the ambiance the show gives and the background characters designs… It's just… sigh.

Monkey King casually throwing someone else' property and or merchandise like he oh so carefully threw the ring probably. Looked like a steam bun basket… ah! I bet there were some delicious baozi in there!!!

Love the accessories! So fitting that MK got a cute Monkey King stuffy. And Mei's lantern bag is the best 10/10 I would buy please give me.

I'm trying to figure out what accessories Monkey King got. I see the pin, but what are the patches on his hoodie?

Did…. Did Wukong buy a sticker pad and instead of pealing the stickers out, he pealed the whole backside and thwacked it to his clothes randomly?

Please say yes! That would be hilarious!

I'm crying again. Just look. LOOK!

Look at the way this image makes you feel. Grand. Warm. Dazzled. Festive. Cozy. Green, gold, and red all incorporated perfectly together to make a stunning block pallet! This is what we could have had! I want a set that makes me feel this!

"Can't read?"

MK. Don't just call someone out like that! You gotta ask these things delicately, in private, with a show of compassion so they don't feel judged and are more likely to be honest with you.

Sandy has to wear glasses to read?!!!! How did I miss that the first time! Sandy, I've failed you.

"But none of us have any talents! There's no way we can win!"

Ouch. MK. What is up buddy? Why are you so carelessly hurting everyone's feelings today?

And now, compilation of Monkey King freaking out. Because we all need this in our lives. I guarantee you can relate to at least on of these expressions.

"You're benching me?" "Mm, pretty much."

MK!!!! Stop hurting people's feelings! Honesty doesn't mean you have to be brutally blunt about it!

This here is a gungzheng, and it is amazing! Sadly the show doesn't do it nearly enough justice, though I am thrilled about its inclusion.

If you want to here it for yourself, here's some links to two of my favourite songs with a gungzheng!

These are my favourite nuisances. I love this family.

Tang: I feel hurt, like no one takes me seriously and I don't matter in this friend group. But since I'm a mature and rational adult I know exactly how to handle these big feelings.

Tang: By stealing!

"I'm not useless!"

Tang, dear, don't cry! You matter! They care about you, I promise! Just don't jump off that roof!

My baby!

At first I was kind of miffed that Macaque didn't just get the ring while the others were distracted. Like, come on Macaque. You're smarter than that. Wasn't he supposed to stop pulling his punches after LBD latest threats of complete deletion of his self?

But then I had a thought. Why does his shadow magic originate from under Tang? Does… does he need a living beings shadow to hop around? Was he unable to get up there unless someone else was there? That would be super cool mechanic of his powers!

"It's the guy sitting in the wings while his friend are busy having fun without him."

Ah, maybe this is where MK gets his 'bluntly saying the very thing that makes people feel bad right to their face' trait.

I love that Tang doesn't even respond to Macaque's goading. Yeah, you can see the shadow's words hurt him. But Tang sees the bigger picture, and that's getting the ring before LBD's henchman gets it!

Knowing what I do now about the Journey to the West and the encounter Macaque and Tang Sanzang had with one another… makes this fight between them way more intense and impactful.

Familiar faces bringing up some bad memories there, eh Macaque?

Once again, Macaque is blinded by his flawed perspective. His whole speech is about Wukong. No mention of MK, the main hero. Or Pigsy, the sensible one. Or Sandy, the caretaker. Or Mei, the passion. Macaque is acting like Wukong is the only opinion that matters in the team. As if the other's don't even exist. But a team is not a single player, it is defined and strengthened by all of its parts.

And this is Macaques greatest flaw. He does not look past Wukong's shadow or his own past.

"I know that my place is along side my friends. One day, I will become someone they can depend on, the way that I can always depend on them!"

Tang reminding us that we don't need power or wealth to matter, our true friends and family care for us because its 'us.' They are people we trust and look up to and who inspire us to become the best versions of ourselves.

Thank you for this message, lmk. Its important.

Love that Pigsy's singing overstimulates Macaque. The show finally remembers his full name, the Six Eared Macaque.

"I will grant you my aid."

Yeah… Doesn't look like Macaque wants it. Can he send it back?

NOOOOOO! Lantern City!!!!!

The cozy ambiance! The festive atmosphere! The cute winter apparel! All gone!!!!

[pearl484-blog]

List of Miraclass's Senti-monsters

As I've stated earlier, I STRONGLY feel as though the monster part of sentimonster has been underutilized in favor of exoloring sentihumans. So to rectify that, I've been thinking up some sentimonster designs in my head for the class to possibly use in my fanfic Replay.

Part 1

~*~

Alya's sentimonster represents her ambition to find and share knowledge at any cost, and the hunger associated with it.

It is a pale orange fox made of pure electricity with a bright Jack o lantern face. It's electrical body allows it to travel via electrical currents, and it cannot be knocked back. However, it cannot knock back enemies, only electrocute and paralyze others. Furthermore, it cannot easily interact with physical objects.

~*~

Nino's sentimonster represents his conflicting love for life and his suicidal ideation. It is a large cello with a water cello in its body, a cricket's head and legs behind the cello so the cello is its back and back of its head. And two smaller, double jointed shorter legs for movement and playing itself.

It's awkward build makes it difficult to do melee attacks, but it can use its body for sonic attacks and control its water like a gut enveloping prey before dragging it back in. It's heavy body and natural defense making it a great moving shield.

~*~

Sabrina's sentimonster represents her desire for love at all cost. It is a long Butterfly with double jointed fingers for wings. It's large enough to cover the human body and prefers to do so. It provides light armor and extra gripping abilities to it's bearer, and will curl up into a lotus shape when alone.

~*~

Max's senti-monster is named Trojan and represents his pride. It is a small, paneled electronic orb with several panels. It prefers to move by moving panels and rolling, but it can use it's panels to "walk" for short distances. It's front panel has a horse's head when "walking" or resting and it's back panel opens to reveal a tail made of cords that connect to everything. Along it's body are several plugins.

This monster specializes in hacking and will break into any system, magical or otherwise, but it's poor movement makes it a horrible fighter.

[quitealotofsodapop]

So one thing about Canon LMK I find absolutely hilarious is the fact Ruyi Jingu Bang was quite literally found in some rundown alley. Like, the opening scene of the first episode shows how Sun Wukong used it to seal DBK underground and how the Megapolis was built around it, and based on all the various merch seen in background and such Sun Wukong is a very popular character in the city. Yet his famous staff is just... sitting there. In some alleyway. Like it isn't the most famous treasure he owns and the reason their city could even be built!

Not only that, but we then get to see another city with a similar treasure of Wukong's in Lantern City. The absolute difference between how they treat the Ring of Samhadi that Wukong hadn't even intended to gift them and how Megapolis treats Ruyi Jingu Bang is absolutely insane! They literally gave festival's held for the ring, they built a shrine for it! Yet Ruyi Jingu Bang gets and alleyway and a peach tree

Yeah thats kinda odd...

Compare to where; The Monkey King's literal Golden Staff sealing a giant demon in Megapolis was kept vs some hot glowy ring he dropped in a hole;

My first thoughts were that maybe it was a case of hiding in plain site; SWK could have bought the area and pretended it was under construction forever so nobody would ask questions. But MK, PIF and Red Son just sorta walk in there, no magical barriers present. One stray urbex explorer could have found the Staff and circulated what they saw online.

Like, the Staff is stuck in what appears to be the remnants of a hill or mountain. Wouldn't it make more sense for the people nearby to turn the surrounding area into a city park/shrine?

I've been to parks/botanical gardens in Singapore before that had shrines and statues to different gods. They were pretty beautiful and tended to be in small alcoves just off the path. It would be easy for SWK or a city planner to be like; "Oh yeah thats a cool-looking staff. We can build a little shrine around it and say it's a recreation of the Ruyi Jingu Bang. Tourists will love it." (now my hc for what the Staff do be looking like at the start of the TMKATI au)

More confusingly for me though; is why the "Ring of Light", the literal treasure and power source of Lantern City, was the top prize in a talent contest?? Thats not something you just *give* someone like the Stanley Cup!

It would have been funny if when the Monkie Kid gang actually won the contest, they quickly find that the Ring of Light they got was a trophy replica. ("You honestly thought we'd give you the real Ring of Light for song?! No!! Thats our city's relic! Gtfo!") Then Tang's background mission would have had a much bigger payoff.

Also idea for a gag where trophy ring(s) is used to fakeout whoever wants the Rings of Samadhi. XD

Fun fact, the location of where the Ring was being kept occording to the Lego sets is apparently a hotel called the "Lotus Hotel". While in the show it was a large suspended lantern.

Making think of *another* infamous (lotus-themed) light relic associated with chinese folklore that SWK could have buried there...

[alexanderlightweight]

For a prompt can we have more flower loving Alec? Like Alec shows Magnus his greenhouse that he has designed?

hey! another part of "in his wake petals fall' thank you for the prompt!

i hope you enjoy

-lumine

-

Magnus stares in wonder as Alexander shuffles his feet and pouts. It started out as a scowl but when Magnus merely raised an unimpressed eyebrow, Alexander’s scowl had melted into a pout.

“It’s not as impressive as they make it out to be.” Alexander murmurs, as if his second-in-command and head of security both hadn’t caved to Magnus’ questions and offered the same, awed answer. That the only place their Commander truly cared about in the Institute was the greenhouse, which he designed himself and cultivated in the little spare time he had.

Magnus shamelessly insisted on seeing it — especially since he now knows how much his boy adores flowers and being adorned with them — and Magnus wants to better understand how important flowers are to Alexander. Because while Magnus enjoys them and appreciates and respects them, it is not to the degree that Alexander is delighted and awed and softened by them.

Magnus is hoping that this will be a little window, a key to the code of Alexander’s thoughts and he’s eager to learn more.

“Come now, sweetheart.” Magnus murmurs and he steps closer and brushes his lips across Alexander’s jaw and then the corner of his pout. “Won’t you let me decide that for myself?”

--

The garden is a twisted and tiered construction of glass and wood and marble and it’s full of plants that Magnus has rarely glimpsed. It’s as if a portion of Alicante’s most rare plants have made themselves at home here, comforted and grown with alexander’s touch and care.

“It’s magnificent.” Magnus says, not looking at Alexander even as he reaches out for his hand, so he can pull him along. “Tell me about it. All of it.”

Alexander does so, letting Magnus pick where they go and explaining the various plants and their properties and stopping to pluck a nephil lotus for Magnus. A sprig of shadow ivy is settled behind his own ear and Magnus wonders at all these small things he’s just learning now.

It’s with a curious hopefulness that Magnus uses his magic to summon several of the flowers from the greenhouse here and his own personal garden. Magnus uses magic to weave the flowers together and twines them into a crown that he gently rests over Alexander’s brow.

“A lovely crown for my pretty boy.” Magnus murmurs with a soft, helpless smile. He’s seen so many parts of Alexander, but this is so new, and Magnus brushes his fingers over Alexander’s cheekbones.

Alexander’s cheeks pink in a pleased little grin and he presses soft kisses to Magnus’ forehead as if in thanks.

Magnus throws his magic out, ensuring they are alone in the vast dimension of the greenhouse and then he locks the five entrances his magic finds. His fingers caress Alexander’s jaw and he tilts his boy’s head and presses delicate, soft kisses to Alexander’s mouth and cheeks.

There’s a delighted little hum from Alexander and he shuffles forward, arms wrapping around Magnus in a firm embrace and pulling him close enough to smell his own shampoo and soap on Alexander’s skin.  On top of that, however, is the delicate scent of lantern wisteria and Magnus knows that Alexander likes to shower when he gets home, but Magnus wonders if there is a way to create a soap with this same scent. Because Magnus finds he enjoys this scent, unique to Alexander, and he aches that it’s taken so long to know.

“I’m entirely put out with you.” Magnus complains, but he rubs his hands up and down Alexander’s back to reassure him that Magnus is teasing. Alexander huffs against his cheek and then he chuckles, a deep sound that Magnus hoards like a treasure in a chest. “I can’t believe you, darling. We could have been having meals here this entire time. I know neither of us like eating in your office, or the balcony and we get too distracted in your room.” Magnus nips Alexander’s jaw in a little tease and his boy shudders against him and grips his hips tightly in reprimand. As if Magnus would ever risk anyone seeing a moment of their intimacy that wasn’t planned out. “This is the perfect place to have privacy. It’s easily closed off and I assume most of your hunters avoid it while you’re here out of respect.”

Alexander shrugs but then nods and then he rests his head on Magnus’ shoulder and sighs with a soft content little noise. “That sounds nice.” He murmurs, which Magnus has come to learn as Alexander really wants but is unsure how to express it.

“Perfect, shall we start tomorrow? I’ll come by for dinner and then whisk you away for breakfast before you sleep. Hmm?” Magnus is tempted to pick Alexander up and twirl him but he’s not sure how Alexander will react. Then, because Alexander is simply too tempting, he does it anyways.

Alexander goes limp in a way that Magnus isn’t expecting but luckily has magic to compensate for until he can brace them both properly. He summons a rather large variety of blossoms from the Eternal Spring of the Unseelie Realm and then drops them both into a pile of them.

There’s a moment of silence and hazel eyes staring up at him in surprise and then Alexander smiles, a delighted grin on his face and his eyes crinkling with amusement as he settles back into the fragrant softness of the petals.

“You’re amazing.” Alexander whispers up at him, as if it’s a secret to be shared and perhaps it is, because Magnus isn’t sure he can bear to share anything Alexander says with anyone else again. He’ll have to, he knows it, but he’s going to wish there was a way to steal the memory of Alexander’s voice and words from everyone who hears them.