#the parallels and similarities between them!!!

[la-muerta]

[莲花楼 Meta] Di Feisheng and the Three Kings

While looking through the cast list and end credits, I noticed that there had been actors cast as 炎帝白王 Yandi Bai Wang and 四象青尊 Sixiang Qingzun even though we don't get to see them in the final cut. Reading the original script, they appear in a deleted scene (unsure if it was actually filmed) in Episode 05, as a flashback during this scene with the robe in Jiao Liqiao's rooms.

It's explained in the script as Di Feisheng's old Alliance leader ceremonial robe, but in the final cut of the show, it seems to be implied as wedding robes Jiao Liqiao prepared for Di Feisheng.

Scene in original script:

FLASHBACK: Ten years ago, at the headquarters of the Jinyuan Alliance. DI FEISHENG is wearing that luxurious robe, sitting around drinking with the THREE KINGS. The TWELVE PHOENIXES are standing guard at one side. YANDI BAI WANG looks over at the TWELVE PHOENIXES and laughs.

YANDI BAI WANG: Each of our twelve beautiful protectors has her own charms, but we have never seen our Zunshang show any interest in any of them. Could it be… that Zunshang already has someone in his heart? 

SIXIANG QINGZUN (shaking his head): Romantic entanglements and ruling the world are not of interest to him. Our Zunshang is only obsessed with martial arts, and all he wants is to be number one in the martial world.

DI FEISHENG (raising his cup proudly): To have a worthy opponent to discuss martial practice and duel for life and death for a hundred battles without getting weary of it, that is the only life I wish for!

YANDI BAI WANG (realisation dawning): If so, the lady you marry must be the most trustworthy, so that she can handle the affairs of the Alliance wisely while Zunshang concentrates on his pursuit of martial arts.

DI FEISHENG (laughing in surprise): That would be ideal!

YANDI BAI WANG (laughingly): I wonder which lady will have the honour!

The TWELVE PHOENIXES continue to stand guard but cannot hide their reaction to the teasing. The THREE KINGS raise their cups and laugh, and from where she is hiding in a distance, JIAO LIQIAO shoots a venomous look at the other women.

END FLASHBACK.

--

This scene is a parallel to Li Xiangyi's 18th birthday celebration, where the Sigu Sect members were urging Li Xiangyi to formalise his engagement to Qiao Wanmian. (Di Feisheng would have been around the same age as well.)

--

Also an interesting point about the titles that Three Kings picked for themselves. Assuming that they were around the same age as Di Feisheng (perhaps with Sixiang Qingzun being the oldest since he was already married and might have been around the age of the other three Nanyin descendants), then their titles might seem rather overblown for a bunch of teenagers/young men in their early 20s lol.

There's however a connection between their titles and the Four Auspicious Beasts (四象) in Chinese mythology; in fact, it's even in one of their titles! (Yes, I know it's translated by iqiyi as Four-faced but I disagree with that translation and I'll get to that.)

1. 四象青尊 Sixiang Qingzun As mentioned, 四象 or Four Aspects/Images is another name for the Four Auspicious Beasts, and "青尊" (Azure Lord) is another name for the Azure Dragon 青龙 of the East. So his title actually translates more accurately to "Lord Azure Dragon of the Four Aspects". I'm pretty sure I'm right because his wife, 两仪仙子 Liangyi Xianzi, has a related name. In 《易经 I Ching》, there is a phrase "两仪生四象" (the two modes – yin and yang – results in the formation of the Four Aspects). And it just happens that she practices a skill that allows her to change her gender!

2. 炎帝白王 Yandi Bai Wang "炎帝 Yandi" is an honorific for the leader or king of a civilisation that dates back to the Neolithic age. Another civilisation from a similar era used "黄帝 huang di" (yellow emperor), and that's why Chinese also call ourselves 炎黄子孙, because we can trace our ancestry back to these two civilisations. So his title translates more accurately to "The Flame Emperor, the White King/Prince". One of the Four Auspicious Beasts is the White Tiger of the West, so it is possible that his title refers to that.

3. 阎王寻命 Yan Wang Xunming "阎王 Yan Wang" is a transcription of the Sanskrit name Yama Raja or King Yama, who is the Chinese god of death and ruler of the Ten Courts of the Underworld. 寻命 is a little more tricky to translate but I think in this context it means to find your fate/destiny and face the inevitable outcome. So his title translates to "King Yama Seeking Fate". Assuming he also represents one of the Four Auspicious Beasts, then he is likely to be the 玄武 Xuanwu of the North (literally "dark/mysterious warrior", usually depicted as a black tortoise intertwined with a snake).

But it's supposed to be four beasts, so who's the fourth? The obvious candidate seems to be Di Feisheng as 朱雀 Vermillion Bird of the South — his official Alliance leader robes are red. Perhaps the Three Kings asked him to pick a fancy title to match theirs, but Mr "Dao is a Dao" refused to participate XD Maybe it's Wuyan, who does have some red in his clothes, which would then make Di Feisheng 黄龙 Yellow Dragon or the symbol of the emperor, which doesn't really match imo.

(As an interesting aside, the original novel 吉祥纹莲花楼 Auspicious Pattern Lotus House is published as four volumes corresponding with the Four Auspicious Beasts.)

[dreamwreaver]

Kinda hoping the Lucilith flashback references the way Charlie and Alastor met. So I imagined how the scene would go:

After being scorned for his dreams by his fellow angels, Lucifer flew down to Earth for a reprieve from them and had been enraptured by a sorrowful song, compelling him to find the source of these doleful notes and finds the first woman, Lilith, by her lonesome. She sings of her rebellion, refusing to bend to her destined spouse's will and yearns for her own autonomy and freedom with a saddened cadence.

The seraphim, perched on branches of a nearby tree, resonates with her words and wishes to know more and attempts to talk to her. "Hel-," but before he could fully blurt out his greeting, the branch under him broke and he plummeted to the ground at Lilith's feet, startling her.

Lucifer rights himself up, attempting to quickly recover from such an ungraceful fall and is nearly stunned silent by the beautiful yet suspicious stare of the first woman in front of him. He finishes weakly, "-lo."

She is wary of the angel in front of her, not saying a word in reply so Lucifer tries to diffuse the awkward situation. "Uh, I'm Lucifer Morningstar! One of the archangels who just got shunned by heaven for having wacky ideas, haha... So, I'm uh, taking a little break from their judgemental stares and, uh, may I sit here for a while? I-if that's okay by you?"

Still cautious of the strange being in front of her but slightly charmed by his weirdly adorable mannerisms, she stiffly says, "You may."

(The show would most likely never have their meeting go the nearly same way as their daughter and her hotelier did but it's nice to imagine, considering the show did unintentionally make Lucifer and Lilith have parallels with them.)

I agree that there's far more parallels between Charlie's parents and charlastor than the canon pairing. Charlie and Lucifer are both fairly fantastical, and while we know next to nothing about Lilith I cannot see her having more similarities with vaggie aside from being some sort of grounding force for her partner. And given that their separation likely stems from Lilith being disappointed in how Luci gave up hope on their people rather than try to empower them like she did; I can't see vaggie doing the same for Charlie. We saw in hello Rosie she'd sooner defer to Charlie while knowing she'd wallowing rather than try to do anything on her own. And I feel like I'm in the less vocal camp about this; I don't hate vaggie. I just think she's better matched with literally any other woman in the show rather than the one she has. As of right now post season 1 at least, I'll hold out hope that season 2 does them a bit better but given there's only 8 episodes I doubt it.

This is perhaps partially motivated by spite but since Lucifer still wears his ring; I want Lilith to come back and for those two to be so sickeningly in love that it's nauseating. I want full gomez and morticia vibes from them.

[starlightshadowsworld]

Some parallels and similarities between Atsushi and Fyodor.

They both tried to kill Dazai in their first appearance (granted Atsushi didn’t do it on purpose.) To which Dazai replied “even all your strength can’t kill me.”

This one found from TikTok (@ hehehheehehheheheh_ on TikTok) Atsushi’s has been depicted as covering his left eye with his hand (same eye Dazai covers in the PM.) And Fyodor has been depicted covering his right eye with his hand.

(Left image is from the Volume 10 manga cover. Right image comes from Chapter 56/ Season 5 episode 6.)

When Fyodor is killed his ability allows him to take over another’s body. It reverts their body back to his original one.

When Atsushi’s injured his ability is able to revert his body back to its original state (hence no injury.)

Several characters have referred to Fyodor as a demon and Shibusawa called Atsushi an angel.

Atsushi has been called a bringer of calamity/beast of calamity. Fyodor is currently (118) inhabiting Brams body for his ability. Which was known as one of the 10 great calamities.

Atsushi kills Shibusawa with his tiger claws which Fyodor mimics when he slashes Shibusawa’s neck with a knife.

Fyodor’s been called a rat by many and Atsushi is a weretiger and has been called a cat by others.

Both of them predominantly wear white and have purple eyes.

They both seem to have ties to religion given iconography can be seen in Atsushi’s orphanage. And Fyodor quotes the bible when he dies.

When they meet (118) Fyodor’s standing in the light and his eyes are bright. While Atsushi is in his shadow and his eyes are full of darkness.

[fatalism-and-villainy]

Other thing about Chiyoh - I suspect she was Hannibal’s gateway into realizing his tendencies towards mentoring others and enticing them into murder. Hannibal is defined not just by his violence, but by his drive to test others. And Chiyoh was present during such a formative period in Hannibal’s youth, and was the subject for his scent-recognition training - the prototype of what he later does with Abigail. (As a side note, given the visual parallels between Abigail and Chiyoh in Will’s vision of Chiyoh suspended on antlers, and the fact that Abigail seems very connected to Mischa in Hannibal’s mind, it seems as though Chiyoh took the role as a stand-in Mischa for him. I fully believe that had his sister lived, Hannibal would have enacted a similar sensory and extra-moral education/temptation process with her.)

And since Chiyoh and her prisoner are trapped together in a location that symbolizes Hannibal’s origins, it seems fitting that that place reflects not only Hannibal’s initial foray into revenge-murder, but also his initial foray into compelling others to murder as well. And then of course Will comes along and Chiyoh plays the same role for him, in making him realize his capacity inciting others towards violence (if with different motives). Just… mmm. Chiyoh as someone who others are always trying to push to action, but who only reflects back key aspects of themselves instead.

[struggling-jpg]

Aventurine and Boothill as a duo is just so funny to me. Boothill and Dan Heng already gave us the impulsive shooter-stressed guy energy so I imagine that Boothill and Aventurine are the impulsive shooter-amused enabler dynamic.

They both have concerning "good" luck and a willingness to risk everything for their plans/goals so just imagine that Boothill would have this wild plan that involves a staged hostage situation with only vague details and an even more vague backup plan, and out of curiosity, amusement, and the means to get themselves out of there if need be, Aventurine would be like "Yeah, sure, all or nothing, friend!"

Just imagine all the shenanigans these two would start on their mission to get revenge on Oswaldo. I hope Star Rail makes it fun and has all the emotional payoff v-v

[anakirui]

hot take ??

the only reason people say that "mafuyu and tsukasa have nothing in common" when presented with mafukasa parallels is because they equate mafuyu and tsukasa being similar to "tsukasa has depression" because the fandom equates mafuyu's personality to being depressed and nothing else.

it doesn't help that people (primarily younger people in the fandom) who DO believe in mafukasa parallels end up making the mistake of portraying tsukasa as depressed because as of right now he is not (although it's possible he was in past because of his Very Unclear Middle School Backstory but that's irrelevant)

anyways, mafuyu and tsukasa are narrative foils because their core personalities are built off of the concept of wanting to make the people around them— especially their families— happy.

they both developed personalities at a young age based on someone they looked up to. for tsukasa, it was seiichi amami's performance that inspired him to be a star— a hero that could cheer anyone up. for mafuyu, it was her mother taking care of her that inspired her to be a nurse— and you can see the similarities from there.

for mafuyu, her identity would first come into conflict when her mother expressed her want for mafuyu to be a doctor— suddenly, "everyone's" happiness didn't match what she wanted to do, leaving her in a state of disorder and eventual depression.

for tsukasa, his identity was something he nearly forgot in its entirety at the start of the main story— becoming arrogant and fully absorbed in a hero persona, forgetting the kind person he truly is. furthermore, his current character arc seems to be foreshadowing that what "being a star" to him is going to be called into question— maybe it is something more than just being the main character that saves everyone.

their insecurities are incredibly similar.

in mafuyu's first mixed, mafuyu feels insecure towards ichika because unlike ichika, she feels as if her lyrics have no genuine meaning to be expressed to other people— despite them being her very real feelings. this is brought up again in her second mixed as well.

in tsukasa's third focus event, something similar happens. when watching seiichi's performance, he thinks that his acting is "real" and feels inferior towards him, which is ironic because tsukasa has been method acting this whole time. when tsukasa is acting out rio or bartlett or really anyone at this point in the story, it's not just those characters— it's a reflection of his traumas.

just like mafuyu, tsukasa undermines his passions he's poured his feelings into because someone else's work is more genuine in his eyes.

now, then, foils have many similarities and parallels (and i could honestly list a lot more), but how i define them is that they usually have some kind of major branching difference that MAKES them foils.

for mafuyu and tsukasa it's pretty straightforward.

mafuyu's people pleasing behavior comes from external expectations and pressures— her mother's demands.

tsukasa's people pleasing behavior comes internally, from himself— if he can't meet his own standards, if he can't be the perfect big brother or the perfect star, then he is nothing.

and even then, there's some overlap.

tsukasa's behavior was indirectly encouraged by his mother praising him for being a "good big brother" over the phone instead of asking him if he was okay while home alone.

mafuyu's terrified to be herself around other people because she doesn't want to worry or bother them— she doesn't want to be a burden— and projects her mother's expectations onto them, not realizing that they would prefer the real mafuyu if they knew the truth.

and the concept of mafukasa being foils is most perfectly and blatantly portrayed in these two cards.

mafuyu, the marionette, sitting limp on the floor— puppeteered by her mother's demands and donning a mask to hide her true self.

tsukasa, the jester, standing above everything else— puppeteering silenced plushies— his feelings. he's not being completely honest with himself, and he doesn't even realize it.

mafuyu has cut her strings and ripped her mask in half. she has acknowledged her true feelings and expressed them to her mother, even if she had to run away in the end.

tsukasa has not yet cut his.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

ISAT & Dungeon Meshi swap!

[croudjay]

POV: You accidentally stumbled across two immortal warmongers who crave for blood

I know "drawing your two comfort characters in that steven universe meme" trend is old now but I wanted an excuse to draw them together. Like if they were in the same universe, they would've been besties.

Anyway here's a diff version // The original trend // The original picture for those who don't know

Trend by EGGNETS, Steven Meme by hausofdecline

[berrydoodleoo]

i am the emissary and i shall never die

[starheirxero]

After revisiting your "came back wrong" comic, absolutely wonderful btw, I came to a rather haunting realization.

Because it became true. But instead of Bloodmoon, it's Eclipse. And that's both much worse(for the characters), and much better(for the narrative).

Because both him and Lunar went through the same, and in a way seem to parallel each other, though that's probably me overthinking.

Both of them died. Both of them were blown to smithereens. Both of them came back after several months. Both found themselves in a body not their own. We've seen what they look like in every other universe.

Both of them came back wrong.

Lunar came back numb, quieter than before, with all their energy being a play. He came back running from unknown danger. They died a normal animatronic, and came back being more.

Eclipse is the opposite. He came back louder, erratic, full of madness. Where Lunar is running from unknown danger, he is sprinting towards it, not realizing the consequences until it's to late. Not to forget the star. Eclipse died being somewhat of a god, and came back as nothing more than a plaything, a puppet on a string.

In a twist of fate, they can relate best to each other now, and that might be the worst part for both of them.

Because what is there to do? Even though they understand, even though, one day, they might glance at each other and wonder "Do you feel the same?", they will never be able to confide in each other. Their relationship is beyond repair, and for good reason. Eclipse hurt Lunar, used and ab*sed him, and then blew him up.

This also opens up so much emotional baggage. What will Lunar think? Will he wonder "Do you regret what you did now, knowing how it felt?" Will a part of him feel the smallest bit of satisfaction? Will they ever be able to look at him at all, or will they forever hide away?

What about Eclipse? Will he feel guilty? He seems aware of the damage he has caused the celestial twins, even telling Ruin that he deserves what's coming for him, but he still showed no remorse when he talked to them.

I'm sorry this got so long, I am incredibly emotional about this right now, and I can't even begin to describe, how this makes me feel-

ANON OH MY GHOD /POS

DID YOU KNOW YOU HAVE THE BIGGEST FUCJING BRAIN EVER. DID YOU KNOW YOU'VE CONNECTED THE MOST PERFECT DOTS KNOWN TO MAN. HOLY SHIT.

LUNAR CAME BACK AS MORE AND ECLIPSE CAME BACK AS LESS BUT BOTH CAME BACK WRONG AAIAUAUAYAGAGGGHHHHHH

[evie-doesnt-write]

Revolutionary Girl Utena: Ep.22//Ep.34

[natashadewinter]

akechis your asuka

[dekusleftsock]

STILL NOT OVER THESE PARALLELS BTW

They make me want to KMS

Their hair covering their faces, Izuku unable to smile and wearing his hero mask and toga wearing her fake sad smile.

Toga wearing her school uniform to cover up herself as a normal girl, Izuku wearing the giant orange jacket to cover himself as bigger and cooler than he feels

The DOLLS all being stabbed, and the ITEMS are collapsed and dirty on the ground

LIKE MY GOD THEY ARE TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN

And the thing is, the reason why they have to parallel each other sm, especially during the time when these drawings were released, is BECAUSE THEY BOTHVHAVE SUCH STRONG FEELINGS OF SHAME AND DESPAIR BC OF WHO THEY LOVE

Bsisbsisjishdie I think about them so often the brainrot is strong

[pickletrip]

Lap sitting

Hands hands hands

The way they hold each other's faces, kissing so softly but passionately.

No thoughts anymore.

[gayvecchio]

due South - 1.20 Victoria's Secret pt. 1 || 4.12 Call of the Wild pt. 1

[clownjacket]

Okay my ‘why Kipperlily hates Riz’ theory: She handed out business cards first day, he handed out business cards first day, she’s tiny, he’s tiny, they’re both obviously overeager teacher’s pet type A rogues, they’re like male and female versions of each other and it��s obvious to everyone. What would most high schoolers do, in that situation, seeing another kid so similar to your friend on the first day that they somehow BOTH made business cards to hand out at school? AND they’re going to be taking classes together? You say “Omg, he’s literally the boy version of you, you’re SOULMATES, you’d be perfect together!” And what do you do when your type A tight-ass friend acts embarrassed by that? You tease her about it more obviously. You think it’s just good natured ribbing, and she KNOWS it’s just good natured ribbing, but for some reason she gets unreasonably angry any time she sees Riz after that. Maybe even uncomfortable? But she KNOWS she doesn’t have a crush on him, so why does it bother her so much?