#ChiYou

[milky-rozen]

My entry for St Valentine's contest: just two evil coworkers hanging out together ✨

[bellatrixobsessed1]

Just Hair

Note: Quick little one shot inspired by the preview pages (more specifically that Chiyou has a name now so I can properly ship it).

Summary: Azula lets her friends give her a haircut. She isn't sure of the results.

“I don’t know about this.” Azula mutters, folding her arms over her chest. 

“Come on, it’ll be cute.” Zirin insists. 

“Cute?” Azula frowns. “I’m not aiming for cute.”

“Neither are we.” Ningka quirks a brow. “Trust me, neither are well.”

She does trust Ningka on that one and that is precisely what scares her. That and the scissors in Chiyou’s hand. The scissors that are snipping away. Locks of hair fall to the grass below and with each strand, Azula’s heart leaps. 

What if this ends up looking stupid. The shaved hair works for Ningka. And the dye works well for Chiyou. But for her? She has always been so…

So traditional. 

Every little bit of her itches to tell Chiyou to stop. That she isn’t like them, that she is regal and extravagant. That she is the beauty standard that they juxtaposed themselves against. Her hair has been so long for as long as she can remember. It has always been elegantly combed and extravagantly styled, adorned with elaborate headpieces and hair ornaments. 

Her face is soft and delicate, with just enough edge to make her look fierce. 

She is so unlike her new friends. 

Her new friends who are so bold and unapologetic. 

She can wear her hair like theirs but she has a feeling that she will definitely be issuing some apologies not just to herself but to everyone who has to look at her and her perverse haircut. A style that is surely going to deviate very far from what the Fire Nation is used to seeing. Let alone seeing on her. 

Somehow there is intrigue in that. 

Somewhere deep down she craves it. 

Someplace within there is a need to cut and prune away parts of herself. 

But she is afraid. Afraid that it will look ugly if she does. That this new look won’t suit her. It is silly, it is just hair. It will grow back, just as it had the last time. And then she will be the same person that she had been before. And nothing will change.

“That’s enough, Chiyou.” Zirin closes her hand around the girl’s wrist. “She’s clearly uncomfortable.”

“I’m fine.” Azula insists. “Keep going, please.” She straightens her back. She needs this. She needs to be someone new. Even if it looks ugly and ridiculous. Even if it doesn’t flatter her at all. She needs to cut these parts of her away. Maybe she will like the result. Maybe she will just have to wait until her hair grows out again so that she can fashion it in a new way. 

“Azula…” Zirin frowns.

It isn’t just hair. 

It is never just hair. 

“Continue.” She prompts and so Chiyou does. She snips and snips until Azula is someone new. Her head feels lighter and her stomach sinks. She can feel the morning breeze on her scalp. Her tummy flops twice over. Just how much had Chiyou cut? She stares at the ground, at the total carnage. That has to be all of her hair! There is so much!

Chiyou reaches out and fluffs her hair so she certainly has some left on her head. 

One of the other girls whistles her approval; she wishes that those three would just take those masks off already; it isn’t as though they are on a mission at the moment and those are not toys. She had very painstakingly crafted all of them. 

“She does look kind of cute.” Says the tallest of the three.

“But you can tell that Chiyou styled her hair.” Adds the smallest. 

Azula isn’t certain if this is a good or a bad thing.

“Do you want to see?” Ningka asks. 

“I don’t think that she does.” Zirin laughs. 

“I–I do want to see!” Azula flushes. She gets to her feet and makes her way over to the pond and it’s undisturbed surfaces. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before letting her gaze settle on her reflection. 

She swallows, for a second she isn’t staring at herself, but someone entirely different. She has to touch her cheek just to be sure that the girl with the jagged, slightly asymmetrical bangs is her. It…it’s so short. Perhaps not shaved but a bit too close for comfort. She swallows again, her lips part slightly. 

“It’s not quite done yet.” Chiyou startles her. 

“N-not done!?”

“It still needs some floof!” Chiyou declares, giving her a peck on the cheek. 

“Volume.” Ningka adds. 

Before she can protest, Chiyou is massaging some sort of gel into her hair. By the time she is done, Azula’s hair is delicately spiked and her stomach is fluttering wildly. Chiyou’s face falls, “you hate it, don’t you?”

Azula shakes her head. “I–it’s different.” She replies quietly. “I didn’t realize that it would be so…” sharp, bold, dramatic. “Different.” 

Zirin chuckles. “I warned you.”

And she hadn’t listened. The haircut makes her chin look so pointy. She hadn’t realize just how starkly a simple haircut would alter her appearance. But she certainly seems to fit in much better with the group that she had created. 

“Is different good?” Chiyou takes her hand.

Azula squeezes it back. “I think so?”

Chiyou stoops slightly and kisses the tip of her nose. “Well let me know when you decide. One day I’m going to open up a haircutting place and I think that ‘princess approved’ is a good advertisement.” 

Azula sniffs. “We’ll see about that.” She runs her fingers through her hair. She supposes that she will see about many things. She takes Chiyou’s hand again, eyeing those black nails. Not for the first time she wonders what she has gotten herself into. Not for the first time, she considers that this thing, whatever it is, might be a good thing.

[why-so-serious-lucifer]

The Kingdom: K-pop Discography Deep Dive

The Kingdom (formerly known as Kingdom) is a group built around the idea that each member represents a different well-known king from a different country; in order, King Arthur of Britain, Emperor Chiyou of China, Emperor Ivan (the Terrible) of Russia, King Dann of Korea, King Louis XIV of France, Emperor Jinmu of Japan, and King Jahangir of India. Chiyou left for personal reasons in 2022, and an…

[dorothygale123]

Last time when I was talking about the Red Emperor I mentioned Chiyou, so let's learn a bit more about him today.

As I said, he's a descendent of the Red Emperor who also tried to overthrow the Yellow Emperor and failed. There are a lot of parallels between them, but plenty of differences too.

For one, Chiyou is described as being a childhood friend of the Yellow Emperor. If we combine this with the fact that the Red and Yellow Emperors were half-brothers, we can infer that Yandi, the Red Emperor, was older. Anyways, Chiyou got all jelly of his bestie and tried to do a coup.

He was also the eldest of 72 brothers. Sources vary on whether these were actual blood brothers or sworn brothers a la Sun Wukong and his posse, but they were loyal to Chiyou and ready to help him overthrow the Yellow Emperor. They had lots of big awesome battles and stuff, but Chiyou eventually ended up losing when his plan to use a rainstorm was thwarted by the Yellow Emperor's daughter Nu Ba, a drought spirit.

I think the biggest difference between Chiyou and Yandi's coups is how they ended. Yandi was allowed to live and continues to be a respected god until he retired, while Chiyou was executed for his crimes and beheaded by the dragon Ying Long at the command of the Yellow Emperor.

However, just because he was dead doesn't mean he was forgotten about. He was still often prayed to as a god of war for victory in battle, so he still maintained a decent amount of respect after his death.

[comicwaren]

From Iron Fist Vol. 6 #003

Art by Michael Yg, Sean Chen, Victor Olazaba, Keith Champagne, Don Ho and Jay David Ramos

Written by Alyssa Wong

[gachagachaart]

[shouty-y]

Experimental Jiang Jiuli sketch 😈

[sunnylaurels]

Finally managed to sort out some of my thoughts on how marvel fumbled the marketing for iron fist 2022 and ugh I am SO mad about it now

Like first of all why the hell would you try to keep the identity of the new iron fist a secret

Not only is it obvious to anyone familiar with Lin Lie and/or read DODS: White Fox but the bigger problem is that. Well.

Lin Lie is an obscure character. There's no denying that. And you put the set up for him becoming the next iron fist in a tie-in featuring another, slightly less obscure character.

Ami's never really been pushed so most people aren't going to read her tie-in (which does a great job of introducing both Lie and Ami whilst endearing them to the reader as well). The result is too much exposition needing to be crammed into Lie's story.

What marvel really needed to do was give both Lie and Ami more publicity. Like, maybe give Ami an actual book instead of a four-issue infinity comic (that could tease Lie's return as the new iron fist)? I'm 99% sure that Alyssa Wong wants to write one. Or at least admit that DODS: White Fox is borderline required reading to make sure that the readers know what happened?

You know, since iron fist 2022 isn't a continuation of the previous iron fist storyline? It's a continuation of Lin Lie's story (and Ami's, to a lesser extent) so marvel should have been upfront with that.

But just focusing on the fact that marvel is finally making an asian iron fist simply feels lazy and gives the impression that they're only doing this for free diversity points.

At least they could still fix it with a White Fox & Iron Fist team-up series. You know, just like Power Man & Iron Fist. Except with Ami Han and Lin Lie instead of Danny Rand and Luke Cage. And a bigger focus on the mystical side instead of the street-level one.

Edit: AND the fact that Ami is an actual demon should get more attention. Just imagine Lin Feng trying to turn her into a demon with his magic and she just. slaps him

[laotwormz]

old randy art (lin feng edition)

[lieblogger]

“it always starts with a fall” -> lin lie’s sword starts working once he falls off a building

[waterblobbu]

wait no im interested can i hear more -that guy that asked about your ocs

OH OKAY. UM!!!

im going to put these under the cut because they're very long!!

SO

THOSE FIVE OCS HUH

they are called:

Ruan Kailin (阮凯琳): He's the guy in green in the image. The main character of the story, he was from the mortal realm and basically isekai'd into another realm.

Qingyuan (清源): She's the blue one with the dragon. She's fierce but reliable, and acts as a mentor character and sister figure to Kailin.

Huamin (花敏): The red one with the tailfeathers. She's the youngest of the group and the most mischievous, but she's also a genius and enjoys crafting gadgets for use. She's also a tricky shapeshifter.

Fenjing (奋精): He's the guy in greys. A solemn and calm figure with impressive martial arts prowess. He also has a mischievous side to him, and gets along well with Huamin.

Xiuying (秀英): She's the one in black. She's stoic and emotionless, only ever executing orders like a machine. She's the tanker of the group and the most powerful.

now. the other stuff.

im gonna put them in bullet points

THE SETTING

The story is mostly set in the Celestial Sphere. In the original culture, the gods and constellations essentially share one realm, but for this story they are separated and each division of the sky is ruled by each of the Four Beasts (the Azure Dragon, Vermillion Bird, White Tiger, and Black Tortoise)

The Yellow Dragon used to rule the Central division of the sky, or the area currently known as the Purple Forbidden Palace

Other celestial objects are used in this story and represented by either celestials, immortals, or demons

Demons are split into four categories here. Most are represented by the aforementioned celestial objects; the most powerful class of demon is Black Hole

THE PLOT

Based off the creation of black holes in the universe, the sole ruler of the celestial sphere used to be a massive star.

The Four Beasts were constellations circling around it. This massive star was essentially their mentor

The star also adopted a recently born star and named him Chiyou. He was set to be next in line to the throne.

Since most of the mythology here is sustained by human belief, eventually the Yellow Emperor ascended and took center stage of the cosmos. In this story, he takes on the form of his animal version, the Yellow Dragon.

But since the aforementioned star was already the sole ruler of the celestial sphere, things got a little...dicey

In Chinese culture, there's this concept of the Mandate of Heaven; the Mandate is basically a concept that allows Emperors to claim their right to the throne ("It is the will of Heaven" etc etc). This concept applies to humans irl, but I've applied it to the constellations in this story for thematic value

So the Yellow Dragon and this one star start to fight over control of the celestial sphere, both claiming the Mandate for themselves

Eventually...all stars must explode and die. The old star, already deteriorating, turns to demons inhabiting the celestial sphere for help. This horrifies the Four Beasts, who stop being neutral and change their allegiance to the Yellow Dragon

The Yellow Dragon eventually kills the old star...which explodes and transforms into a Black Hole.

Obviously this is Bad for everyone. Black hole demons consume stars and are able to command the other demons. They dub the newly formed demon king Heiyan and set about trying to suppress him

Eventually, total war breaks out, but with the collective effort of the Five, they manage to imprison the demon king somewhere and seal it tight

So with that mess over, the Yellow Dragon breaks up the celestial sphere into 5 divisions and gives 4 of them to the Four Beasts as thanks.

Meanwhile, Chiyou is still….the star equivalent of 5 years old while all of this is happening, and has no idea what is going on other than his father went missing and that he now has control over the demon court

The Four Beasts are reluctant to kill him as he was basically like a nephew to them. The Yellow Dragon, on the other hand, sees a potential threat

While Chiyou was willing to work with the Five (and try and fail miserably to convince the demons to do the same), the Yellow Dragon gathered the other Four and fearmongered them into killing the prince off

The Black Tortoise was initially sent to do the job, but they didn't have the heart to do it, so the Yellow Dragon did so with his own claws

This betrayal shocks and enrages Chiyou…and this rage turns him into a Black Hole as well. But…a baby one

The Five are panicked because of this so the Yellow Dragon kidnaps the guy and locks him up as well to see if he can revert him back

In the meantime, as a backup plan in case either of the Black Holes break out, the Five create artificial vessels to incubate their powers

This is where the five main characters happen. All of them are artificial humanoids crafted from various materials. In the og lore, the five are referred to as the Champions, but are individually referred to by the colors of their creators (Yellow Champion, Azure Champion, etc)

Fast forward to a few years later. The Yellow Champion and Azure Champion (Qingyuan) are playing together in the Yellow Dragon's palace while their creators are having a meeting

They stumble upon the room that is holding Chiyou captive (he is trapped inside a little brazier, like the kind that trapped Sun Wukong in Journey to the West)

Out of curiosity, the Yellow Champion opens the lid

Chiyou instantly kills and devours them. Qingyuan runs to get help, but it's too late. Chiyou immediately gains strength from the power that has been incubating inside the former Yellow Champion and he breaks out

This kicks off another war in the celestial sphere, as Chiyou heads back to enact his revenge on the Five

During the confrontation, the Central Kingdom is destroyed and the Yellow Dragon severely weakened. As a last resort, he creates a new vessel, stores almost all of his power inside it, and sends it to the human realm where Chiyou rarely ventures

With the collapse of the Central Kingdom, the demons take over it and turn it into the Purple Forbidden Palace division of the sky.

As of the main story, the Four are currently locked in a bitter struggle against the aforementioned division, and they have lost contact with one another in order to focus their efforts on fortifying their individual kingdoms.

Meanwhile Chiyou is searching for his father's hidden prison with the intent of releasing him...

...and that's all I can share so far (as in, the concrete stuff that isnt floating around in a vague soup in my head)

thanks for reading all of this and having an interest in my ocs!!!

[trans-li-ling]

I dont know if there's a word to describe the stark difference between the amount of information being provided vs. How much I am able to understand and process. Fucking what

[mcnjushcge]

since traditionally its said that the chinese are the descendants of the yellow emperor could i say that hes yao’s papa and not be yelled at

[why-so-serious-lucifer]

K-pop Discography Deep Dives: Kingdom

A Disclaimer: I was planning, when I first started Tumblr, to be a lurker, but then I began an office job and needed something to listen to to keep myself occupied. And then, I started going through entire K-pop groups’ repertoires, album by album, and jotting down my thoughts. And then, I stumbled into K-pop tumblr and decided, you know what, there’s at least four people on this hell site who would read in depth rants about these discographies and at least five who wouldn’t read it and then get mad because it’s kind of our job as K-pop fans. My lukewarm takes should be taken with an entire silo of salt and the knowledge that this is completely for fun and occupying my very bored, very neurodivergent brain. With that being said, enjoy!

I’m talking about Kingdom today, so let me lay out my credentials. I’ve been a casual fan since around 2022, although I wouldn’t call myself a Kingmaker just yet. This discography deep dive is getting me there though! I’m considering going to their US tour this year, if they come anywhere close to where I live. We’ll see. Obviously, just like the (G)I-DLE one, I’m being harsher than I usually would be as a usual listener because this is a review, after all.

Let’s start with the concept. Kingdom is a group built around the idea that each member represents a different well-known king from a different country. Before we dive in the music, I wanted to talk for a minute about the controversy surrounding the very idea of the group, which boils down to the question: what counts as cultural appropriation and what counts as appreciation? For a group with such a focus on internationality, all 7 members are Korean, which means that they’re inevitably going to be representing cultures that they aren’t a part of, and, indirectly, profiting from them.

Personally, I’m unsure what to think about this. As a lover of history, I really enjoy what they’re doing, and it’s clear to me the amount of work that went into the research and stories for each piece. That being said, with the exception of the Russian one, I don’t belong to any of these cultures, and it's not my place to declare it all fine. Everyone needs to make up their own mind. So, with that out of the way, let’s start.

For this group, we’ll go album by album, starting with History Part 1: Arthur. As befits a legendary monarch from a millennium and a half ago, Excalibur feels otherworldly, from the angelic choir to the outfits that are an odd combination between common k-pop leather stage clothes and medieval knight’s armor.

Overall, what’s most notable about Excalibur is that it truly feels like a beginning: the song exalts Arthur and shows none of the later cynicism of the other monarchs featured. It seems to be the start of his reign, full of hope and bravery, and a revolution, with the phrase, “Follow me now, history begins with us." The accompanying album is also pretty good, with Night Air standing out as a softener to the army-like march of the title track.

The next album focuses on Chiyou, who in Chinese mythology is the God Of War. While this era isn’t my personal favorite, I do think it's the one that best captures who they are as a group. This song, Karma, may be their prettiest, a unique blend of traditional Chinese strings and flutes and modern trap.

Surprisingly, the god of war doesn’t get a song about battles, but the opposite: a song about moving on from the pain of loss that they bring and the need to find salvation for both oneself and future generations by striving for peace, with the visuals balancing the red-tinged fighting the song warns against and the blue-lit tranquility it’s is advocating for, as dancers spin with colorful fans. This album has several good b-sides, with the best being Magical.

Album three switches things up a bit, not only by transporting us to Russia, but also by focusing on a real person for their central character: the incredibly divisive Ivan IV, better known as Ivan the Terrible. It’s probably no coincidence that Black Crown is also the first song to paint its protagonist in a negative light, as Ivan struggles with whether to let the darkness corrupt him after taking control.

The song itself is neither their best or worst, but does an excellent job of building tension with classical strings and very sharp ballet movements. This idea of power, who has it, and the price they’d pay to keep it is a running theme in Kingdom’s work, but this song is the most upfront about it. This accompanying album is alright, although I prefer the first two, and the b-side On Air is quite good, especially in the melding of voices. My biggest gripe is that its instrumental intro is the best album track, with lovely combinations of electronic and classical, and I wish more of it carried into the song as Karma’s intro does.

With Pt. IV, Dann, the middle of the planned seven albums, we finally reach Korea, which, to no one’s surprise, makes the title track Ascension the most historically accurate of them all, being filmed at an actual Korean palace. The main character of this album is Dangun, the legendary founder of Korea, who spends Ascension lamenting the failures of his reign that have caused the people to revolt; they’re now outside, prepared to break the palace gates down, and he has nowhere to run.

Like Ivan, Dann has let power corrupt him, but unlike Ivan (and Arthur), Ascension is his ending, not his beginning. The instrumental of this one is rife with ancient drumming and EDM, a match that shouldn’t work but absolutely does. Similarly, the accompanying album is the best of the six so far—I couldn’t decide between Illusion and Blinder as a hidden gem—and somehow it hangs together despite seeming as miscellaneous as the others; the dual title tracks definitely help with the balance and cohesion.

Speaking of which, the other title track deserves some attention as well. Promise isn’t only a song with a music video that could best be described as a three minute and twelve second historical kdrama, but also just absolutely beautiful. It’s a very traditional Korean ballad, with a backing piano, building strings, and of course, a soft drum beat as the base layer. It starts quietly, as many ballads do, but it's at its post-chorus, which is full of pained yearning and the begged question, “Why does my love hurt so much,” (and which I’ve heard accurately described as “utterly transcendent”), that the song catapulted its way into my absolute favorites, not just of Kingdom, but of k-pop in general. It was while listening to this song that I noted that Kingdom has lovely voices and a real talent for harmonizing with each other, and I desperately wish more of their title tracks would use it.

Anyway, rant over, back to the main albums, and Part V: Louis. The title track Long Live The King is about the “Sun King” Louis XIV of France, who was famous for his very long reign, and his struggles with watching those he loves die and the world change around him since he lives to be so old; again, another thing someone exchanges for power, although he isn’t as vilified for it.

Normally with Kingdom’s title tracks, the East Asian songs are more historical while the European ones are more fantastical, which isn’t surprising, although this one looks as though it could’ve been filmed in Versailles with its 18th century costumes and gilded decor. But, while the song itself is pretty good, its album is the weakest, with none of the b-sides quite working for me.

And the last album focuses on Jinmu of Japan, a mythological figure said to be its first emperor, but the title track Dystopia, despite its name, moves away from the price that rulers pay for power and instead, like Excalibur, appeals directly to the audience, this time asking them to throw off the chains of society and break free from the pain inflicted on them.

Unfortunately, again like Black Crown, it doesn’t incorporate the classical sample close to enough to be on par with the others, and also doesn’t have the slowly built tension of Long Live The King or the beauty of Karma, and so kind of…meanders around without a strong identity of its own. The accompanying album this time is decent again, with Song of The Wind what should have been the title track. Unlike many k-pop groups, their ballads are all excellent and feel more genuine than their “cool”, rap heavy songs, like Warning, Burn, or Elements.

When finding groups, I always want to figure out what makes a group unique, worthy of my time, and to see if they have an established identity, which Kingdom has in absolute spades. The issue I have isn’t with any of their ideas or songs themselves, but with their work as a whole. What’s odd is that, while they do have this clear identity in their title tracks, they don’t follow through with it in the rest of their discography, and end up sounding a lot like other groups of their time. But when they’re good, they’re really good, delivering songs full of questioning power and catharsis.

My top five are Promise, Excalibur, Night Air, Ascension and Song Of The Wind. Overall, Kingdom gets a 7.5/10 from me. (Which I want to emphasize is still very good). I enjoyed this deep dive too, and especially getting to learn about the members of the group, who I didn’t know much about when I started. Who knows? Maybe by the time their American tour makes its way to me, I’ll be cheering in the stands too.

So, see you next time for a girl group!

[dorothygale123]

Let's talk about the Red Emperor, shall we? I discussed him briefly in my first sh*tpost, theorizing that he may be related to the Demon Bull Family and possibly even a previous incarnation of Red Son, but I haven't really done more than mention him in passing since then, so let's fix that.

As I stated in that previous post, the Red Emperor/Flame Emperor or Yandi was an agricultural diety that is said to have taught humans how to farm and make metal tools. He also was the half-brother to the Yellow Emperor (Huangdi) and tried to usurp him before being defeated. He was a part of the group called the 5 Emperors along with his half-brother and was the lord of the south. He also had some connections to the sun, which makes sense with his fire and farming associations.

He has a lot of overlap with both Shennong, another farming god, and Chiyou, a war god who also tried to overthrow the Yellow Emperor and failed. Yandi and Chiyou also have bull or oxen-like features, and some sources claim that Chiyou is his descendent, which makes it slightly awkward when Chiyou starts his rebellion and starts gunning for Yandi first. That was closer to the end of Yandi's life and, being really tired of fighting, decided to just book it to his brother's place and ask for help rather than fight it out with junior.

Aside from Chiyou, who could be anything from his son to his great-something grandson, Yandi also had 3 daughters. One of these girls was, confusingly, named Nu Wa. It won't be confusing for long though, since she died when she was in her teens and turned into a bird named Jing Wei that was so angry that the ocean drowned her she decided to fill it up with sticks no matter how long it took. Checking her progress, I can't say she's made much headway but I guess it isn't surprising that she's stubborn as an ox (ba-dum-tsss) considering who her father is.

No word on how daddy felt about his little girl drowning, but I can guess it wasn't good. Might be why he was so tired by the time Chiyou came kicking down his door.

Sh*tpost Masterlist

[radio-ghost-cooks]

oc lore: bickering (Some Gremlins)

Chiyo and Andy: gods they can't just bicker, oh no. these two full on ARGUE. like, five seconds away from a fistfight (same goes for Chiyo and Hajime). they largely avoid each other, so it doesn't happen often, but gods help the poor soul who's stuck with them when it happens.

Chiyo and Mila: poor Mila baby. girl u need a backbone. we get it ur down bad for Chiyo but they're so fucking toxic. there's a reason Tarou broke up with them. so yeah they don't bicker at all.

Andy and Mila: they bicker every once and a while. normally it just starts as the two of them having equal and opposite takes and then it turns into a small argument. but they're both on the debate team so it checks out. they just see it as good practice and don't hold onto it for very long