Spoiler below for leaked HOFAS bonus chapters:
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So in one bonus chapter Azriel of all people is subtlety hinting that Nesta and Cassian should have a baby and in the other … Cassian is … once again taking Rhys’ side against Nesta, mad at Nesta and letting her be threatened by Rhys, and showing 0 affection whatsoever.
Oh yeah, that’s for sure a couple that should be having a baby.
Also the irony of Cassian being mad at Nesta for a compassionate action when he used to be mad at her for not caring enough … WHICH IS IT MAN?!
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Exposing SVSSS Fanon: 18/∞
SHEN QINGQIU WEARS A CINNABAR MARK ON HIS FOREHEAD
Rating: FANON-NEUTRAL
Many artworks, both fanworks and official art, will depict Shen Qingqiu with a red dot or vertical line in the center of his forehead. While this is not something that is mentioned in the novel, it is not something that would necessarily be unlikely.
Oftentimes in visual coding in guzhuang (ancient costume) dramas, a cinnabar mark on the forehead, over the location of the third eye (this is different than the huadian I discussed a bit in this post), will represent a person with strong spiritual powers or connection to the spiritual realm, especially when used for male characters. It also denotes a particular wealth and status-- basically, meaning that this person is someone powerful and important in cultivation society. Whether there is actual historical precedence to this, or if it is a purely modern aesthetic phenomenon, I am not entirely certain. If anyone has more details or sources on historical precedence for this depiction, please share those!
Cinnabar/vermillion also has a long history of auspicious significance in Chinese culture, both in regards to wealth and status as well as being used for religious or spiritual purposes in ancient Daoist tradition. To this day, vermillion red is still one of the most auspicious colors in Chinese culture, especially used in weddings and at new year's festivities.
Therefore, while it may or may not be historically accurate, because PIDW and SVSSS are novels written during modern times and with modern visual perceptions, it would not be out of the question for Shen Qingqiu to wear such a mark.
As for the common depiction in fanworks, my hypothesis as to the origin of the use of this visual signifier for Shen Qingqiu specifically is the official Thai cover art, which is one of the main influences of fandom portrayal, and depicts Shen Qingqiu with such a mark on his forehead, though I wouldn't be surprised if it were common before that release as well.
Sometimes in fanworks, the presence of a vermillion mark will be used to show a difference between Shen Jiu and Shen Yuan-- with Shen Jiu wearing the mark, while Shen Yuan does not. Personally, I think that this may be more of a visual distinguisher than anything else, but it also would make sense with symbolic design-- with Shen Jiu's character traits of placing high value on his cultivation and also portraying himself as someone of high status, it would make sense for him to wear such a mark while Shen Yuan, who takes those things for granted, does not. It would also make sense for both of them to wear it, as Shen Yuan does still like to portray himself that way, even if his concern about his image comes from a different source than Shen Jiu's. It would also make sense for neither of them to wear a cinnabar mark, if an artist chooses to simply not use this visual signifier.
The only characters actually mentioned in the novel as having any sort of forehead mark are the heavenly demons. Therefore, while Shen Qingqiu's cinnabar mark may be a solid visual depiction, there is no support for or against it in canon.
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ive read mdzs years ago and stalled on tgcf (mainly bc i got really busy and then forgot everything lmao), but never really tried scum villain. if you don't mind, can you share why you like it? personally, the summary didn't really draw me in and the animation looked unfortunately really .... low budget.
hi anon! you've activated my trap card, which is Talking About Things I Enjoy At Length! congratulations! congratulations! congratulations! important things must be said three times!
(i also stalled w tgcf btw, bc it's so long that i could never summon up sufficient interest. and i will say that the svsss donghua is less than inspiring. i thought it was fun but that's speaking as someone who watched it after already being in love w the source content, so ymmv. i wasn't a particular fan of the animation style either, but considering that scum villain is the black sheep of mxtx's works in terms of the official content that gets produced, i was glad for what i could get.)
reasons to love scum villain!
hilarious use of unreliable narrator. shen qingqiu is one of my top favorite characters ever. he's not stupid or even, despite common fan depiction, all that oblivious--he's just incredibly genre-savvy and hasn't realized that the genre has changed. also he's hysterical.
but then sometimes, too, you look more objectively at things he glosses over and have a 'wait a sec' moment bc it's actually deeply disturbing.
it has a really fun way of of playing with transmigration stories and tropes. this was, in a sense, my intro to chinese web novel conventions as a western reader, and you can learn a lot bc mxtx is busy poking fun at all of them.
phenomenally meta.
luo binghe is a fantastic character. ppl who don't like him--i'll meet you out back. ostensibly the protagonist of the novel sqq has found himself in, supposedly blessed with every talent and the world prepared to fall at his feet, but MAN is it hard being luo binghe.
ppl will make a big deal abt lbh being obsessed w sqq but fail to acknowledge that sqq is just as weird and obsessed abt lbh. epitome of that AITA response of:
liu qingge
mxtx does so much with her villains, always.
as much as some of the miscommunication between sqq and lbh is contrived, it's also literally the only way that things could play out and makes absolute sense.
this classic scene, given utterly without context:
After a pause, Shen Qingqiu changed his angle. "What's your name?"
The first one replied. "Six Balls."
"What does that mean?"
"When I was born, my pa held me and said I was six balls heavy."
Shen Qingqiu was speechless. Shot put balls or ping-pong balls?! This kind of name is absolutely meaningless.
i think, honestly, my favorite thing abt scum villain is that you can read it quickly and have a good time, but if you're taking your time and paying attention, there is so much more happening underneath the surface! it's such a clever book, i'm honestly stunned (and humbled) that mxtx produced this as her first novel and at such a young age.
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and the thing is that dick *did* need tim's emotional support and help during the beginning of the batman reborn era because dick's life was also falling apart and they did need to help each other badly and tim leaving him to fix everything and handle the city and damian by himself *was* mean and a bit selfish, but also if tim had stayed to do this, there would have been no real chance for good independent growth for himself (in-universe and narratively speaking) and staying to help dick manage the city would have also meant deprioritizing his own wants and continuing to push down his own grief to do what's best for the greater good and ignoring both his suspicions and what he felt he needed to do at the time (search for bruce, prove himself right, have a breakdown around the world as he figured out his place in it) to focus instead on prioritizing what was currently best for current batman/dick's sake. which is just. kind of a continuation of what he's done/tried to do since he showed up in alpod. (would therapy probably have been a healthier option to move past this? well, yes, but unhealthy coping mechanisms or gtfo frankly) (anyways despite the fact he left to ostensibly find bruce, which is still batman related, leaving is still what allowed tim to get into situations that made him solidify himself as the person he wanted to be moving forth into adulthood + get to the point where he is still helping batman but also is starting to prioritize himself over prioritizing batman's needs so leaving was the objectively correct decision for himself)
anyways, they were both doing the equivalent of putting on their own oxygen masks first here instead of prioritizing what the other felt they needed at the time. and that's okay. they're both allowed to be a bit selfish at this point.
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Hey! Big fan of your stuff - just wanted to mention about your art: I really like how you draw figures without defaulting to thin-waisted silhouettes, especially with Superman!
It reminds me a lot of Curt Swan's depiction of the character, which is fun since he played such a momentous role in defining how the character would look for decades to come, but like a modernization of it? While still being its own unique and good thing, of course. :)
Always looking forward to more!
Oh what a kind thing to say!! Thank you! :')
My design of Superman is more or less lifted from Gurihiru's design (from Smashes the Klan) which is based on a classic look. I just added arm hair, haha.
I like Curt Swan's version too! I'm a fan of Superman designs that still have the broad shoulders but keep the strongman stomach!
Thanks again, I really do appreciate comments like these :>
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Okay my copy of agit came in the mail today and I just read the whole thing, so now I can finally share my thoughts.
First of all, love it, literally the only thing I was iffy about the whole time was the fact that they used smartphones and contemporary slang instead of keeping everything from the shows original time period. I personally would have preferred it maintain the 2005-ness of the original show, but I can understand why the author chose to modernize it.
Secondly, the whole two doors thing at the end where his choices were “no powers” or “no phantom planet” very obviously only existed so phantom planet could be retconned out of existence—not that I’m complaining, I’m just saying it was not subtle. (But also phantom planet no longer canon can I get a fuck yeah)
And lastly thank you AGIT for canonizing that Dan calls himself Phantom as his only name because goddamn it is so hard to write anything serious or emotional when the main character’s name is fucking Dan. I’m sorry ppl named Dan but I cannot take your inner turmoil seriously (not when I’m writing in third person, anyway. It really takes me out of the moment. The vibes are awful.)
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