#both of which are features typically given to male characters

[tabooiart]

pokey train is FINALLY done!!!! train pokey!!!! hes a lounge car, specifically a private lounge because yknow. i dont have a ton of notes about his design. his belt is vaguely supposed to look like a mic belt, hes wearing spats yadda yadda. I think he takes a lot of pride in his role and job :)

lil lineup of all the designs together under the cut!!

i do plan on doing a drawing of all of them together!!

[jedineedlove]

Legend VS LMK

Nüwa

Legend:

Name:

Mother Goddes, and Member of the Three Sovereigns of Chinese Mythology. The sister and wife of Fuxi. Nuwa is considered the goddess of creation and the female emperor of mankind. Her reverential name is Wahuang (Chinese: 媧皇; lit. 'Empress Wa'). That is due to Nuwa’s position of honor in the Chinese pantheon, Nuwa was given a character completely unique to her name – Wa. Nu is the character of woman and is often used as a prefix for goddesses.

Shes is a godess in Chinese folk religion, Buddihsm, Confucianism and Taoism

She is one of the most venerated Chinese goddesses alongside Guanyin and Mazu.

Origin:

Nuwa was created by her mother, the goddess Huaxu. While wandering the heavenly realms, Huaxu stepped into the footprint of the god of thunder Leigong and suddenly became pregnant. In the earliest versions of the myth, Huaxu gave birth in the earthly realm to only Nuwa.

In later versions, Huaxu gave birth to Nuwa and Fuxi. Nuwa and Fuxi were born with the bodies of snakes and the faces of humans, however, they could shapeshift into humanoid figures with two legs and a tail.

Nüwa & Fuxi Appearances:

The iconography of Fuxi and Nüwa vary in physical appearance depending on the time period and regional differences. In tomb murals and iconography, Fuxi and Nüwa generally have snake-like bodies and human faces or heads.

Nüwa is often depicted holding a compass or multiple compasses, which were a symbol of a dome-like sky. She was also thought to be an embodiment of the stars and the sky or a star god.

Fuxi and Nüwa can be depicted as individual figures arranged as a symmetrical pair or they can be depicted in double figures with intertwined snake-like bodies. Their snake-like tails can also be depicted stretching out towards each other. This is similar to the representation of Rahu and Ketu in Indian astrology.

As some tales of Nüwa and Fuxi, both sprang from the same mother at the same time, Taoists believed that Nuwa was the primordial personification of yin energy (female, gentle, intuitive, and receptive) and Fuxi was representative of the yang (male, fast, active, fierce). Coming together symbolized the reunion of the yin and yang energies which then united to create human existence.

Fuxi and Nüwa can also appear individually on separate tomb bricks. They generally hold or embrace the sun or moon discs containing the images of a bird or a toad (sometimes a hare) which are the sun and moon symbolism respectively. Them holding the sun and the moon appear as early as the late Western Han dynasty.

Other physical appearance variations, such as lower snake-like body shape, depictions of legs. and wings with feathers that protrude from their backs as found in the late Western Han Xinan Tomb or smaller quills found on their shoulders, and in hats and hairstyles.

the Gansu murals dating to the Wei and Western Jin period, one of the most typical features of Fuxi is the "mountain-hat" which looks like a three-peaked cap while Nüwa is depicted wearing various hairstyles characteristic of Han women. Both deities dressed in wide-sleeved clothing, which reflects the typical Han clothing style also commonly depicted in Han dynasty art.

Nüwa and Fuxi Other Stories:

In one version of their myth, soon after the birth of Nuwa and Fuxi, a great flood struck the earth, and only Nuwa and Fuxi remained unharmed after escaping by boat. As the years passed, and with only each other to keep themselves company, Nuwa and Fuxi longed for companionship. Unwilling to violate the laws of heaven by sleeping together as brother and sister, they prayed together seeking a sign of approval.

As they were the only humanoids of their kind left upon the earth, the Emperor of Heaven accepted their union. After mating, Nuwa gave birth to humanity, becoming the matriarch of mankind by giving birth to a ball of meat. Nuwa and Fuxi then divided the meat into pieces shaped as humans and scattered them across the world.

In another version of the creation tale, found in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, Nuwa and Fuxi lived upon legendary Kunlun Mountain. Trying to keep warm on a cold night, the twins created two fires. As the fires burned, they eventually became one. While watching the fires merge, Nuwa and Fuxi joined together as husband and wife. Deciding that they would like to have children, they molded clay into the shape of humans. Using their powers to imbue the small figurines with life, Nuwa and Fuxi created humanity.

Duyi Zhi volume 3, written by LiRong over a thousand years ago, gives a slightly different account of the Chinese creation myth – “There was a brother and a sister living on the Kunlun Mountain, and there were no ordinary people at that time. The sister’s name was Nuwa. The brother and sister wished to become husband and wife but felt shy and guilty about this desire. So the brother took his younger sister to the top of the Kunlun Mountain and prayed: “If Heaven allows us to be man and wife, please let the smoke before us gather; if not, please let the smoke scatter.” The smoke before them gathered together. So Nuwa came to live with her elder brother. She made a fan with grass to hide her face. (The present custom of women covering their faces with fans originated from this story).”

"But most versions give sol credit of humanity's creation to Nuwa. But in some of those Fuxi is credited with introducing a number of innovations and inventions that made significant improvements to the lives of his wife’s beloved creations. One of these, for instance, is the invention of fishing and domesticating animals. "

Creation:

After the goddess Hauxu gave birth to Nuwa, Nuwa roamed the earth alone. The earth was young and teeming with life, filled with blossoming trees and flowers. The lush grounds were covered with many types of animals, the skies were filled with birds, and the seas were full of fish. But while the earth was beautiful, Nuwa felt very lonely, despairing that there was no one to accompany her.

While walking one day, Nuwa was struck by the idea of creating living beings herself. First, she made a new type of bird that could not fly away from her by creating chickens. Then she wanted to make an animal that would be a constant companion, and Nuwa created dogs. On the third day, she made sheep. Then pigs. Then cows. On day six, Nuwa made horses On day seven, while Nuwa walked along a riverbank, she stopped to admire her reflection. As she stroked the hair from her face, she was struck with inspiration and thought to make life forms that looked like her. Nuwa began to scoop and mold yellow clay into figures that had arms and could stand upright upon legs. As she worked the mud in her hands, the figures came alive and began to move and speak. Soon, the creations began to sing and dance around Nuwa while honoring her. All of the loneliness Nuwa had known went away.

Thrilled at her results and filled with passion for her creation, Nuwa desired to make more humans faster. She realized that she could drag rope across the mud and mass produce them, as creating every person individually was beginning to take too much time and hurting her hands. Soon she began to whip the rope, flinging mud and making people faster and faster.

The people Nuwa molded by hand became the wealthy nobility. The ones she made by dragging the rope became commoners. And finally, the ones Nuwa made by whipping the rope became the servant class. As she finished making the last batch of humans it began to rain. Because some of these figures had not yet dried, the rain began to mark them and melt them. The last batch of humans that Nuwa created were damaged by the rain, and thus were the ancestors of those with sickness and deformities.

"She molded humans individually by hand with yellow clay. In other stories where she fulfills this role, she only created nobles and/or the rich out of yellow soil. The stories vary on the other details about humanity's creation, but it was a tradition commonly believed in ancient China that she created commoners from brown mud."

The Pillars:

One of the enduring myths of Nuwa is that of the repairing of the Pillar of Heaven. In the early days of earth’s existence, The earth was separated from the sky by four large pillars which had once been the arms and legs of the creator god, Pangu.

During these early days, the god of water, Gong Gong, and the god of fire, Zhu Rong, had been at odds for many years. Unable to hold back their fury at one another, they engaged in battle to determine who would be the god of the heavens. As they fought, fires raged and floods began to destroy the new earth.

Gong Gong was finally subdued by Zhu Rong, but in his rage, he slammed his head against Buzhou Mountain, one of the four pillars of heaven that had once been Pangu’s leg. An earthquake shook the earth, and the pillar collapsed tearing a hole in the skies.

Looking upon the earth, Nuwa was filled with compassion for her children who were suffering. The new creation of earth had been torn to shreds from the battle between the water and fire gods. Fires burned out of control and water poured in a deluge from the hole in the sky. Nuwa desired to help her children, so she sought out the sky turtle, Ao.

Nuwa threw herself at Ao’s mercy, hoping for a miracle to save her many children. The sky turtle, feeling compassion for the mother of humanity, took Nuwa’s sword and cut off one of his legs, offering it as a substitute pillar. After leaving Ao, Nuwa collected five colored stones (red, yellow, blue, white, and black) and melted them together to repair the hole in the heavens, while using Ao’s leg to replace the pillar.

( The five-colored stones symbolize the five Chinese elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, and water)

Waters poured on her relentlessly as she pushed the leg into position, and once in place, she shoved the ashes of burnt reeds into the remaining holes to plug the leaks. After replacing the pillar and stopping the deluge, Nuwa fell exhausted upon the earth and died.

While many are familiar with the Chinese myth of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, some areas of south China revere Nuwa as one of the Three Sovereigns, reigning as Empress Wa after the death of Fuxi and the rise of Shennong.

Tying into China’s strong ancient matriarchal beliefs, after the reign of Fuxi, the Empress Wa’s rule was challenged by a neighboring tribal chieftan. After defeating the chief in battle, Nuwa dragged her enemy to the peak of Mount Buzhou. Filled with shame, the chief banged his head upon the mountain, tearing a hole in the sky.

As the waters poured from the heavens, the entire world soon flooded, killing all of creation except for her army which was protected by her godhood. Nuwa then found five colored stones and melted them together, patching the hole in the sky.

In other versions of the Pillar of Heaven myth, when Nuwa attempted to fix the sky with the five melted stones she soon found that there was not enough to fix the hole in the sky. Knowing there was no other choice, Nuwa used her own body to fix the remaining hole, sacrificing her life to keep her children safe. With the hole repaired the deluge ended, and humanity was able to thrive and multiply again.

"In all of the myths of the repair of the Pillar of Heaven, due to Ao’s leg being slightly shorter than the original pillars, Nuwa could not align the sky and earth the same as they were before. The sky slanted to the northwest. The earth slanted southeast.

Since the repair, the sun, moon, and stars all rise from the east and set to the west, and all of the rivers in China flow southeast. And due to the use of the multi-colored stones, the clouds of heaven now had different colors."

Other:

In southwest China, many of the minority groups still celebrate Nuwa as their primary goddess and honor her with the yearly Water-Splashing Festival. There are many temples to Nuwa and Fuxi, but the largest temple to the pair lies in Hebei Province, believed to be the ancestral home of all humanity.

The Classic of Mountains and Seas, dated between the Warring States period and the Han dynasty, describes Nüwa's intestines as being scattered into ten spirits.

In Shuowen Jiezi (c. 58 – 147 AD), China's earliest dictionary, under the entry for Nüwa author Xu Shen describes her as being both the sister and the wife of Fuxi. Nüwa and Fuxi were pictured as having snake-like tails interlocked in an Eastern Han dynasty mural in the Wuliang Temple in Jiaxiang county, Shandong province.

In the collection Four Great Books of Song (c. 960 – 1279 AD), compiled by Li Fang and others, Volume 78 of the book Imperial Readings of the Taiping Era contains a chapter "Customs by Yingshao of the Han Dynasty" in which it is stated that there were no men when the sky and the earth were separated. Thus Nüwa used yellow clay to make people. But the clay was not strong enough so she put ropes into the clay to make the bodies erect. It is also said that she prayed to gods to let her be the goddess of marital affairs.

In Ming dynasty myths about the transition from the Shang dynasty to the Zhou dynasty, Nüwa made evil decisions that ultimately benefited China, such as sending a fox spirit to encourage the debauchery of King Zhou, which led to him being deposed. Other tales have her and Fuxi as exclusively the "great gentle protectors of humanity" unwilling to use subterfuge Another telling of that story is from the famed Ming Dynasty novel Fengshen Bang. Nüwa is revered since Xia dynasty for creating the five-colored stones to mend the heavens, which tilted after Gonggong toppled one of the heavenly pillars, Mount Buzhou. Shang Rong asked King Zhou of Shang to pay her a visit as a sign of deep respect. Upon seeing her statue, Zhou was completely overcome with lust at the sight of the beautiful ancient goddess Nüwa. He wrote an erotic poem on a neighboring wall and took his leave. When Nüwa later returned to her temple after visiting the Yellow Emperor, she saw the foulness of Zhou's words. In her anger, she swore that the Shang dynasty would end in payment for his offense. In her rage, Nüwa personally ascended to the palace in an attempt to kill the king, but was suddenly struck back by two large beams of red light. After Nüwa realized that King Zhou was already destined to rule the kingdom for twenty-six more years, Nüwa summoned her three subordinates—the Thousand-Year Vixen (later becoming Daji), the Jade Pipa, and the Nine-Headed Pheasant. With these words, Nüwa brought destined chaos to the Shang dynasty, "The luck Cheng Tang won six hundred years ago is dimming. I speak to you of a new mandate of heaven which sets the destiny for all. You three are to enter King Zhou's palace, where you are to bewitch him. Whatever you do, do not harm anyone else. If you do my bidding, and do it well, you will be permitted to reincarnate as human beings." With these words, Nüwa was never heard of again, but was still a major indirect factor towards the Shang dynasty's fall.

Nüwa and Fuxi were also thought to be gods of silk

LMK:

Long ago, Nüwa sculpted humanity out of clay and mud. She believed her children would not survive the primordial sea of chaos, so she built the Pillar of Heaven and forged the cycles to protect them. But, a cataclysmic event left the pillar shattered. Nüwa crafted five-colored stones and reconstructed the pillar back to its original state. She entrusted four stones to the Four Symbols: the Vermillion Bird, the Black Tortoise, the White Tiger, and the Teal Dragon, the final one to be guarded by the Jade Emperor. After Monkey King's birth, Nüwa repurposed his stone to carry the Harbinger of Chaos. She was saddened by the creature's existence to sacrifice himself but knew that this was a necessary sacrifice to keep her children safe from the chaos beyond.

Thoughts:

Throughout the whole research into her real-world mythology. She has been credited for creating a few animals though monkeys are not mentioned that could be just my research or something else. But I actually found something similar to her pillar story number 3 that nearly matches the LMK version of her fixing the pillars. She was never in the JTTW. But some other thoughts on Nuwa and the pillars I think when she fixed the pillars she accidentally made Wukong. I don't remember where I read this but I think there was a version of JTTW that had the Jade Emperor say something about " Made with the essence of fragments of Godess Nuwas Power" Even if that might not be what I remember right. Maybe it could be in the LMK universe when the crew fought the Nine-headed demon, he used his chaos powers to bind them to certain sections of the wall.

MK is placed over his mural self, the silhouette of his destiny. And the others are placed over the sotnes that would later be them when they smashed them.

But then look at Wukong who is placed in Nuwas hand in the mural of her molding and creating humans.

This could be foreshadowing that it might be revealed and it might hold something of importance later. It might also explain why the goddess chose Wukong as the templet for her harbinger of chaos.

Other Media:

She does appear in the film "The Monkey King: Havoc in Heaven's Palace" and "Journey to the West II", both of which feature Nüwa creating Sun Wukong using one of the five-colored stones. The former film also features Nüwa sacrificing herself to rebuild Heaven, similar to her actions previous to Season 5.

Thnak you for reading if you have something i missed please leave it in the comments thank you :)

[bellamer]

Just woke up sweating from my nap because I was feeling weird about some portrayals of Pavitr and did the whole Alex The Lion Madagascar 2 Escape from Africa "De Ja Vu Like I've Been Here Before" scene realizing where I've seen this before and why I don't particularly like it

In my own words:

They're doing to Pavitr what they did to Kakyoin which is turning him into a yaoified feminized skinny bottom twink who's only there to make sassy remarks and be the manic pixie yaoi boy, they're gonna do what they did to Jotakak with Chaipunk because I mostly see this happening in Chaipunk fanart and fanfiction

It's the typical case of a character being hyper feminized by the fandom, like how it tends to be in a lot of yaoi series because someone always has to be "the girl" in the relationship because the "bottom" is always portrayed as small, skinny with hyper feminine features or traits and the "top" is always portrayed as some dark, hyper masculine, tall, looming figure

And it tends to bleed into most mlm ships even when the characters in the source material are completely portrayed as being opposite as this like say for instance idk another JoJo ship like Josuyasu where just because Josuke takes pride in his appearance like Pavitr, fans automatically label him the "feminine one" or the "girl" in the relationship and tend to draw him smaller and skinnier than he is and by default draw Okuyasu bigger and taller when Josuke is actually taller than Okuyasu by an inch and the two more or less have the same build but I know you've had to seen it somewhere before because it runs so deep when it comes to MLM ships that I've seen it happen in the fucking OSMOSIS JONES FANDOM (don't ask, you don't wanna know. Unless you do want to know, then I'll share with you the shitshow of what I saw)

And this isn't about the people who may have headcanons of Pavitr being transfemme, ya'll keep doing what you do.

This is about the people who will look at a mlm ship and force hyper feminine and hyper masculine traits onto both of those characters just because they need someone to be the "girl" in the relationship and they choose who's the "girl" based on traits they might consider feminine, example, Pavitr takes pride in his appearance, he's typically cheerful and happy go lucky, he's short (shorter than Hobie at least) and he's "sassy" (Y'know the whole chai tea rant which wasn't really him being "sassy" it was more so him ranting about western cultural appropriation and people using words they don't even understand incorrectly but I digress)

And of course Hobie is given the hyper masculine traits because he's a tall black man which is a whole other problem I'd have to make a whole different rant about of how whenever black men are in mixed race mlm ships they're always automatically made out to be the hyper masculine ones because black men have always had hyper masculinity pushed on them and they're never allowed to be the "soft" ones in the relationship, even if a black male character is canonly portrayed as being not being typically masculine the fandom will still write them or draw them as having some secret " aggressive dominant dark side"

In ChaiPunk's case ? It's literally just feminized asian person and masculainized black person with all the shit I said before about how fandoms always need to make someone the "girl" in the relationship and yeah

Y'all get the point

[godsofhumanity]

I like how the character Wonder Woman is a Embodiment of Feminism and she was created by A MAN!!!! Yet people said she presents some bigoted ideas

It's also interesting how she's inspired by Greek mythology and had heavy ties to Greek Gods,her mom was a daughter of Ares and I think the first time I saw her,she was given life by Zeus via his lightning bolt,hence he's technically her dad typical Zeus

I think she's a great character, it's just that many people don't really GET her character and ended up making her a man-hating sexist,a man-izer, basically a male version of womanizer, it's a huge misinterpretation

I'm sure you understand how misinterpretations feel,many mythologies were botched just for the sake of someone's ego and interests anyway

I shared the misinterpretation with my teacher and he said Zack Snyder's version is the best one yet,cuz in that iteration,she doesn't hate men or thinks men are pigs etc,no, she's simply interested with the ideas of men and she's totally fine with them,which makes sense

I mean the woman was raised by only Women and only lived around till she's an adult,so ofc she's interested or curious. I don't think the Amazons generally hate men, they're just aware of how terrible some men are cuz that their nature

Also my first movie of Wonder Woman where I first knew her,featured her love interest,the guy who got stranded on Paradise Island,where the Amazons reside and when he saw a bunch of Amazonian ladies bathing, I think he looked seduced and tidied himself to "look nice for the ladies", I remember he very clearly he didn't seem embarrassed when he saw a bunch of women bathing outdoors in a pretty discrete place

Okay I don't really blame him,the place was called Paradise Island becuz so many beauties live there, it's literally paradise on Earth, it's also my bisexual's ass dream world

No hate for him btw, he's cool ig. Also I think he pretty much explained why Paradise Island is a no-man area. Can't blame the ladies for not liking guys there,they have their reasons I won't comment

The Amazons even spared that guy for literally trespassing and if they really did hate men,they wouldn't let him go back to the mainland alive. One of the central points of that movie was Wonder Woman bringing him back home and therefore she got a chance of learning about the outside world

I'm gonna search for that movie one day

very interesting and valid points, Anon.

as a child, i never cared much for Wonder Woman because she always wore that skimpy skirt barely covering her ass and to me, a little girl, i just thought that was gross.

but now, as an older girl, i see Wonder Woman as hugely successful, hard-working, kind, strong both mentally and physically, and she still dresses up so gorgeous. i have huge respect for her now because she works hard to get it both ways; so now i really have no problems at all with Wonder Woman or her pretty, but short, clothes. i think she really is kinda wonderful tbh,, one of the better heroes.

tbh i haven’t seen the movie you discussed— i have only ever seen Gal Gadot’s WW, and i’ve seen the old comics i used to read as a kid. i do like the new WW. i hope you are able to find the film and watch it again!!

[duckprintspress]

Fandom 101: Everything About Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics You Wanted to Know (but were Afraid to Ask)

A guest post by Aeryn Jemariel Knox. (@jemariel )

Omegaverse, also known as Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics or a/b/o for short, is one of the most baffling paradigms that fandoms have ever invented. Even within fandom, most peoples’ reactions on discovering a/b/o range from bemusement to disgust to fascination. I’ve had some non-fandom friends ask if it’s related to the alpha male/beta male concepts that have become so popular in certain corners of Reddit; I’m very glad to say that no, it is not—that is an example of convergent language evolution. At best, they both call back to the same misunderstanding of wolf pack dynamics, but the typical “Alpha Male” would be cast as a villain character in most a/b/o stories, if he’s present at all.

At heart, a/b/o can best be categorized as a science fiction sub-genre. Yes, really. It’s speculative fiction that examines current societal assumptions, problems, and fears through a lens of alternate physiology. If you thought a/b/o was just an excuse for porn, well… being honest, most of my best and deepest stories start out as “an excuse for porn.” My thoughts on that are best saved for a future blog post.

The most common defining feature of a/b/o is right in the name—humans are biologically stratified into two or three sub-, or secondary, genders: alphas, sometimes betas, and omegas. Alphas are typically described as socially dominant, physically strong, and they have certain physiological traits that we’ll get into later. Omegas are generally assumed to be socially submissive and physically weak, though in most a/b/o stories there is some element of challenging those assumptions.

A/b/o has its roots in the “kink meme” days of the late 2000s and can more-or-less be traced back to tropes common among people writing werewolf erotica. Lots of early a/b/o has a significant focus on pack dynamics and more “wolfy” characteristics. This is still an element of a/b/o as it’s currently written, but it makes up a smaller percentage of the overall works produced than it once did. A reader can see these roots in genre tropes such as children being referred to as “pups” in most a/b/o stories. The first a/b/o fic—as far as anyone in my social circles has been able to determine—was a Supernatural RPF AU story, and, even in the genre’s inception, there is an element of challenging assigned gender roles. The assumed roles of an omega are present and accounted for: that they belong barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, that they should be relegated to caretaker roles, that they shouldn’t work, etc.—think every stereotype of a 50s housewife. Similarly for an alpha: that they are hyper-sexual and domineering, to be feared by most omegas, inherently predatory, etc. But the characters who are the focus of the story deliberately and obviously go against these trends, expressing their individuality and bucking what their society expects of them. In a very 2010 sort of way, they are “not like those other girls.” There are critiques to aim at that trope as well, but the point stands: subversion has been a part of a/b/o since moment zero. Not every author chooses to lean into this aspect of the genre but, in my opinion, subverting the genre tropes makes for the most interesting a/b/o stories.

It’s tempting to describe a/b/o as a setting, but that’s not accurate. It’s more like a toolbox from which an author can pick and choose elements to add to any setting they are writing their story in, then use those elements to help them tell their particular stories in a unique way. I’ve read historical a/b/o, fantasy a/b/o, modern-day a/b/o, canonverse a/b/o, science-fiction a/b/o, western a/b/o… you name it, it’s probably been combined with a/b/o. And not all authors will apply the same level of focus to any given aspect of a/b/o: just because you add some cinnamon to your chili doesn’t mean you’re suddenly making a dessert. Every author puts their own spin on the world—that’s part of the fun. 

So, keeping in mind that hardly any a/b/o stories will use every single genre trope, here’s a list of some of the most common features that make a story recognizably a part of this genre.

Societal stratification: To varying degrees, societies in most a/b/o stories are divided by secondary gender. This can mean anything from “omegas experiencing easily recognizable misogyny or other discrimination,” to “cultures that have strict hierarchical structures in which omegas are segregated, barred from certain social opportunities, or kept as property.” How many people are born each designation (a term often used to refer to the types of sub-genders in the genre) varies widely depending on the story. Sometimes, all humans are either alpha or omega and there are no betas; sometimes, alphas and omegas make up only a small minority of the population. Sometimes only men are divided and women are all betas, if they’re incorporated in the sub-gender system at all. (If there is one major weakness to a/b/o, it’s the lack of focus on how women are affected by this social structure, but if I get into that, we’ll be here all day.) Depending on the author’s goals with the story, these social structures may be used to make commentary on our modern society, to create obstacles for our heroes to overcome, or it may be leaned into by people who enjoy the power dynamics and differentials that result from the a/b/o set up. Other works have egalitarian a/b/o societies in which the different genders are treated equally! Oppression and discrimination are not a requirement of the genre, it’s just an often-seen element.

Pheromones/Scents:One of the many physiological differences often present in a/b/o is that humans give off pheromones or some otherwise-defined personal scent. These scents serve a variety of purposes: they’re linked with attraction; they often indicate where an individual is in their mating cycle (see the next paragraph!); they aid identification since each person has their own individual scent; and more broadly one can usually tell who is an alpha, an omega, or a beta) by their scent. Often, someone’s scent gives clues to emotional state, especially extreme distress or sexual arousal. A compatible pair may know instantly that the person they are scenting is their “true mate,” or may be particularly attracted to this person’s scent. Betas may or may not be able to pick up on these scents and may have a “neutral” scent or no scent to speak of. Scent blockers may or may not be used in polite company, and even if scent blockers exist in a specific a/b/o ‘verse, they may fail at narratively appropriate moments. It’s a frequent genre element that scents emanate from a “scent point” on the characters’ necks, and that the spot in question is especially sensitive to touch/kissing/etc.

Mating cycles: Likely the most well-known aspect of a/b/o is the hormone- and/or pheromone-driven mating cycles. Omegas experience an estrus or “heat,” and sometimes alphas also experience “rut” though this is somewhat less common. A person’s secondary gender is often a mystery until they “present”—usually marked by going through their first heat or rut—sometime during puberty. Pheromones given off during these times can have a disproportionate effect on people of the “opposite” secondary gender who happen to be in the vicinity; in some stories they provoke such a powerful reaction that omegas cannot leave the house during heat for fear of sexual assault. This is where the genre starts to display some of its more non-consensual elements, which are not always present; sometimes heat just makes them horny. But sometimes they absolutely must, er, resolve their heat with an alpha, which leads to a “Fuck or Die” situation—a trope as old as slash fanfiction itself. 

How frequently heats and ruts occur varies by story; the most common are monthly (mirroring human menstruation cycles) or every three months, six months, or year, mimicking various animal species (for example, dogs go into heat every six months, so stories that emphasize the wolfy aspects of a/b/o often have heat cycles on a six-month pattern). Trying to figure out how to navigate a life/job/family while working around mating cycles is a frequent feature of a/b/o stories.

Mpreg, which is genre-speak for “male pregnancy:” In most a/b/o stories, omegas of any primary gender have the ability to get pregnant and carry children. It’s a mainstay of the genre, but like any other trope in the a/b/o playbook, the level of focus on it varies from author to author. Sometimes, it’s glossed over entirely or deliberately omitted. Sometimes, it’s only suggested for the sake of—for lack of a better phrase—“breeding kink.” But some authors use this genre to tell stories about familial relationships and explore the emotional and physical journey of pregnancy through the eyes of their favorite (generally male) characters. Mpreg stories can also incorporate lactation and may follow the characters’ post-pregnancy lives to segue into the kidfic genre. The extent of the omega male character’s feminization often increases in proportion to the focus on mpreg in the story (though, as with all of these tropes, I am wary of making sweeping generalizations because a writer is absolutely free to write an mpreg story where the pregnant character remains thoroughly masculine throughout). Note that a story including mpreg doesn’t automatically mean the fic is a/b/o. There are other fandom tropes that can result in mpreg, but the most common trope that leads to mpreg in modern fandom is a/b/o.

Medicines: As part of mirroring regular society, it’s also common for a/b/o stories to incorporate elements of genre-appropriate birth control and other types of medication. For example, scent blockers have already been mentioned; scent blockers are often incorporated to enable an alpha, beta, or omega to navigate society without people judging them based solely on their scents, or to enable them to present themselves to the public as a sub-gender different than their birth sub-gender. Another common medication is “heat suppressant,” which is what it says on the tin—an omega on heat suppressants won’t go into heat (until they fail at a narratively appropriate moment, anyway…noticing the genre trends yet?). On the flip side, “heat inducers” are also absolutely a genre feature, with obvious results.

Related Genres: As said earlier, a/b/o can be combined with any other genre. But it does have some sibling tropes that are more often coupled with a/b/o for fiction-writing purposes. When I first started reading a/b/o, there was a heavy emphasis on the power dynamics inherent in the existence of “dominant” alphas and “submissive” omegas; that made it feel close to the biological Dom/sub genre (a sub-genre where being a Dom or being a sub is inborn and is essentially a sub-gender in a similar way to a/b/o). That seems to have been a feature of that particular fandom, though, which leads me to wonder how different a/b/o looks in different fandoms. (Full disclosure, most of my experience has been in the Supernatural fandom.) A/b/o stories set in modern/contemporary settings tend to be more common than other types (such as science fiction, fantasy, etc.), though that’s been changing as a/b/o continually ripples outwards into more fandoms. In stories where omegas are considered property, they heavily overlap tropes with slave fic; some more romantic a/b/o can read like a soulmates au, with people recognizing “the one” immediately by scent and a focus on true mates and/or the formation of a strong mating bond, usually for life. 

Of course, coupling a/b/o with these tropes isn’t required. Nothing in a/b/o is required. These are all simply options; as I say, it’s better to look at the aspects of a/b/o as toys in the toybox—play with the ones that appeal to you, ignore the rest.

Other Anatomical Differences: This is where I cannot avoid getting sexually graphic, so for those who’d rather avoid an explicit rating, I’m putting this section at the end (under a Read More on platforms that include that functionality).

So, what’s the point of all this?

If you ask a hundred people why they like a/b/o, you will get two-hundred answers. Some people come to the genre for the primal, animalistic appeal of heats and ruts, pheromones, and the, uh, anatomical differences. A lot of people enjoy  the “he couldn’t help himself” trope in fiction; non-con fantasies are extremely common, and the fantastical elements of a/b/o make it a great way to explore them at a safe remove from real-life situations. Or perhaps you’re drawn to the opportunity to explore pregnancy in a safe way with your favorite characters, or maybe you really enjoy the strict societal structures and the obstacles they create. Maybe you love that moment when the omega realizes that this handsome alpha is his true mate and they live happily ever after.

For me, as may already be clear, a/b/o is strongest when it’s used to shine a light on the oppression of marginalized classes and the ridiculousness of strict gender expectations. Over and over, a/b/o stories focus on omegas overcoming their oppression and empowering themselves. But my favorite corner of a/b/o that I’ve found, my weird little a/b/o niche, focuses not on alphas or omegas, but on betas.

There was a time when I wondered to myself, why would anybody focus on betas? Why would you write an a/b/o story and then focus on the people who don’t experience heats and ruts and mating cycles? Who don’t have a scent? In a world where all interpersonal relationships are defined by this rigid structure, why would you focus on the people who are outside of it?

And then I realized that I had to write a story about betas.

The result is the most personal story I have ever written, which gets deep into my experience of being nonbinary (or genderqueer, or gender fluid, I’ve used all those labels at different points of life) through the lens of somebody who is neither alpha nor omega, but is instead distinctly “other.” The joy of using a/b/o to tell this story, and what makes a/b/o such a strong vehicle for telling subversive stories of all stripes, is that it magnifies everything about gender and sexual attraction, making it all bigger, brighter, more obvious, which lets you dig into the nuance of an character’s experiences when they don’t fit the status quo. 

The number of people who have read this story and said “I’m not genderqueer, but I relate to Dean’s struggle of feeling other” has been hugely rewarding. In the end, that’s the story I was telling, through my own experiences but with the personal “serial numbers” filed off, which allows it to be a story accessible to anybody. That’s the beauty of using a fantasy or sci-fi language to tell a real story: when it doesn’t directly reflect anybody’s exact experience, it’s easier to see yourself in the mirror.

Whether you decide to dive into this genre or not, I hope this has been useful in understanding the, er, ins and outs of this strange little world that we, as a community, are continually collectively creating. Happy reading!

(read more)

Did you scroll down to read the naughty stuff? *cough* As it were. We’ve got you covered. Be forewarned, there’s NSFW text describing unusual genitalia ahead:

THE PORN PART:

Okay, so let’s talk about knotted dicks and self-lubricating asses.

…that’s it, really.

Alphas generally have a “knot” of extra erectile tissue at the base of their penises that inflates and becomes firm during orgasm with the intention of locking their penis inside the omega’s penetrated hole (which is usually, but not always, the anus). This is where the werewolf origins of a/b/o are the most obvious, because yes, this is modeled after canine genitalia. The knot inflates to a size that makes removal impossible or highly painful for the omega, although if left it where it is, being knotted is generally described as highly pleasurable. Most of the time, the alpha can enjoy multiple orgasms while he’s in there, and ejaculate tends to be, uh, copious. This lasts for as long as the author decides is narratively appropriate and provides a great opportunity for post-coital conversation, either awkward or heartfelt depending on the story. Because the knot means the penis grows quite large, a common a/b/o sexual trope is size kink; less common but still fairly frequent is “inflation” or “bulge” kink—which is a kink related to the feeling of being “full” of a partners ejaculate to the point of feeling swollen (in a good way), and also being able to feel or see the penis moving within the bottoming partner when looking at the bottom’s backside and/or belly.

Omegas, on the other hand…

There’s much more variety in omega biology. On one end of the spectrum, you have male omegas who are written as having both a penis (sometimes smaller than human average) and (usually) testicles and a vaginal opening located somewhere around the perineum. Sometimes, a male omega won’t have any penis at all. More commonly in the a/b/o that I, personally, have enjoyed, the omega has a fully functional penis and testicles (sans knot), but when aroused, he will produce personal lubrication in his anus, which is the intended orifice for sexual intercourse. This personal dampness is usually called “slick” and has a habit of popping up at the most inconvenient of times and staining one’s underwear and/or being noticeable by scent. When an omega is in heat, this slick becomes copious and uncontrollable, often to the point of requiring rubber sheets on whatever unfortunate bed the omega has confined himself to. Generally, slick is described as having a similar aroma to the omega’s scent, but more concentrated, and also as being delicious to the alpha. Rimming is thus quite a common sexual act in a/b/o fics, more common in a/b/o than in other mlm genres.

It’s also worth repeating, while discussing sexual kinks in a/b/o, that due to the “uncontrolled sexual need” aspect of omega heats, consent issues are common in a/b/o. Rape/non-con are mentioned above, as the omega-in-heat becomes irresistible to the alphas around them; however, even in a/b/o stories that don’t utilize that trope, omegas in heat will often desperately plead to be sated. Consent can be dubious at best for either or both partners; it’s common that the couple settles those consent issues after the act, when they’ve both calmed down enough to discuss what happened and offer up their mutual expressions of “no, you didn’t hurt me, I would have wanted you anyway.”

In spite of all the relatively high-minded ramblings above, there is a huge amount of totally valid a/b/o that is pure, unadulterated smut, and if you happen to enjoy these kinks, you have a plethora of options to pick from. (Trust me, they are much hotter in context than when laid out bare like this.) The beautiful thing about fanfiction is that we don’t have to choose between interesting, empowering, subversive stories and sizzlingly hot filth. They frequently go hand in hand, and in no genre  is that more evident than in the wide, wild world of a/b/o.

Thanks for reading!

Now that you know the basics, ready to read some a/b/o? Check out the oh-so-erotic “Heated Desperation” by Aria D. Leren.

Love what Duck Prints Press does? Consider supporting us monthly on Patreon or ko-fi!

[elfdragon12]

Came across a post (that I don't want to boost) saying "if the Transformers were genderless, they wouldn't use he/him!"

My brother in Christ, both Bob Budiansky (OG creator of many original Transformers concepts, writer of most the US Marvel Transformers comics) and Simon Furman (OG UK Marvel Transformers comic writer) were writing the Transformers as genderless in the late 80s.

Bob Budiansky writing the US Marvel Transformers #53 in 1989 (panel features the Pretenders character Cloudburst and an alien woman):

I don't even have to find panels where Furman writes the Transformers as genderless because he's very loud about how much he hates female identifying Transformers because it "doesn't make sense for robots to have genders" (even though he actively knows that the Transformers are "boy" robots and, by his own logic, his vitriol towards female identifying robots is nonsensical because it's just as reasonable for robots to use she/her pronouns as it is for them to use he/him if they only adopt the concept of gender for their human associates. It's all honestly such a thinly veiled cover for the fact he hates women and has used his position writing for a male dominated franchise to write them as raging harpies whenever he can get away with it. If the Action Force/Transformers summary the TF University podcast gives in episode 109 is to be believed, he even pulls this with Scarlett of GI Joe/Action Force in UK Marvel Transformers #125, Action Force #24-27).

Aside from that, Bob Budiansky originally intended for Ratchet to be a female identifying character.

[This reads "Profile: Ratchet was known as the best tool-and-dye gal on Cybertron. In her work-area bay, she can fashion anything from a pin to a cruise missile and repair most of the Autobots and their specific parts, given the right materials. Her rough language and manners belies the stereotypes associated with her sex and prefers getting skunked on tainted 40-weight to all other leisure activities. "When does the party begin?" is her usual query after she's completed patching up her latest fallen comrade. She's more prone to giving her leader, Optimus Prime, a lot more backtalk than the other Autobots[.]"]

It's all made up and the points don't matter! If the robots do not have genitalia and do not sexually reproduce (which is typically the case, in canon), then they are actually sexless robots who only take on a sense of gender when dealing with other races. In which case, it's a free-for-all and the robots can use whatever pronouns they feel like and it does not matter what writers choose for them.

[incomprehensiblelentils]

I posted 4,186 times in 2022

That's 590 more posts than 2021!

89 posts created (2%)

4,097 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@purlturtle

@mystery-ink

@theomenroom

@loved-the-stars-too-fondly

@jenny-dreadful

I tagged 3,421 of my posts in 2022

Only 18% of my posts had no tags

#fuck - 247 posts

#lmao - 171 posts

#animals - 163 posts

#art - 158 posts

#stories - 151 posts

#omfg - 141 posts

#eels - 128 posts

#goncharov - 102 posts

#the magnus archives - 91 posts

#oh my god - 81 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#lol my college roommate’s dad said ‘’i feel like you’re hiding something bc you keep looking around the room while you talk and not at me’’

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Hey how fucking dare Jake just casually say “tell me your feelings and I’ll tell you I need you” IN A SHORT REST WHILE NOT ACTUALLY RP’ING AS HARDWON AND NOBODY COMMENTED ON IT I’M????????????? just casually busting out one of the most romantic lines I’ve ever heard like it’s nothing Jesus Christ

50 notes - Posted November 29, 2022

#4

If I ever write a sex scene that doesn’t involve some element of praise kink, it’d be one of those “things I post to clue my followers in that I’ve been kidnapped” memes

77 notes - Posted February 20, 2022

#3

I lost the post I was trying to reblog about how it’s sexist of fandom to make jokes about the token lady character of a particular media being the Braincell Holder of the male-majority group, but what I was gonna say was the great thing about NADDpod is that in every single campaign the Braincell Holder is absolutely NOT the lady PC under any circumstances. Emily Axford would NEVER

77 notes - Posted June 18, 2022

#2

i need recommendations for some lesbian movies. My wife wants to watching something gay, but is tired of gay men's movies

oh gosh I am so sorry I'm just now getting to this - I was out of town the whole weekend and got back yesterday evening, when my brain was melting out my ears from the heat. without further ado!

I have categorized this list into a few sections:

Well-Made/"Good" Movies I Can Vouch For

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019): you have probably heard of this, but in case you haven't, it's a French historical drama about a painter who is commissioned to do a wedding portrait for a reluctant bride-to-be. It's lush, emotional, bittersweet, and breathtakingly shot. Content warnings: mention of a minor character's suicide, brief abortion scene featuring a secondary character, one scene of the leads doing drugs together.

Saving Face (2004): This is a lovely film about a young Chinese surgeon who is juggling her secret relationship with the drama her mother causes. Content warnings: intergenerational trauma.

Carol (2014): Again, you've probably heard of this one - it's another historical drama, this one based on Patricia Highsmith's novel The Price of Salt. A young aspiring photographer is captivated by a mysterious woman named Carol. After Portrait came out I find myself not as enamored of this one (I think Rooney Mara is not very good in it lmao), but it's a lovely film worth a watch. Content warnings: period-typical homophobia, Carol's shitty husband.

The Half of It (2020): From the director of Saving Face, this is a high-school coming of age movie inspired by Cyrano de Bergerac, in which a second-generation Chinese girl ends up volunteering to write love letters to her crush, "from" the jock who is also in love with said crush. Some really beautiful stuff about immigrant Chinese families in here, and I was really touched by the friendship between the two leads. Content warnings: racism, homophobia, bullying, intergenerational trauma.

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (2017): This is based on the life of William Marston, creator of Wonder Woman, and his partners Elizabeth and Olive. I am given to understand that the relationship between the two women was probably not romantic IRL, but I really love the way the movie treats both the triad and the women as a couple. I also think the BDSM stuff is cute. Content warnings: age gap/power differential romance (two professors and their TA), homophobia including a brief violent attack, brief cancer subplot towards the end of the film.

Summerland (2020): A WWII movie about the bond between a reclusive writer and the young boy she is reluctantly forced to care for due to the London evacuations. I will spoil this for you because it gave me severe anxiety: the lesbians both live to the end, and they get to raise their son together! My main complaint is not enough Gugu Mbatha-Raw. Content warnings: WWII imagery/setting, parent death (offscreen but significant part of the plot), brief child peril.

The Favourite (2018): This is a weird little black comedy about two cousins who are vying to be the favored paramour of Queen Anne in 18th century Britain. It's some fun fucked-up drama. Content warnings: animal abuse/death (toward the end of the film), manipulation, non-consensual drugging.

I Can't Think Straight (2008): I haven't seen this one since college but I remember liking it - it's about two women, one Palestinian and one Indian, who meet and fall in love despite unlikely circumstances. Content warnings: cheating (one character is engaged to a man).

V For Vendetta (2005) - in case you forgot, this has lesbians! Content warnings: torture, attempted sexual assault, hanging, child death, panic attack, homophobia/dead lesbians

Birds of Prey (2020) - Harley Quinn is canonically bisexual! Also I love this movie. Content warnings: cartoonish violence, graphic torture including of a child, child death (implied/heard), implied sexual assault by the villain (of a minor character).

Booksmart (2019): High school comedy about two best friends who decide they're sick of being dweebs and want to go to a cool party before they graduate. I think it's largely delightful and I love the lesbian character's story. However, the subplot with the teacher who has sex with her (19yo) student is BAD and I won't defend it, nor will I judge anyone for wanting to skip based on that. Content warnings: extended non-con drugged sequence (played for laughs/nothing bad happens to them), aforementioned age gap/power differential romance (secondary characters).

But I'm a Cheerleader (1999): Clea Duvall and Natasha Lyonne star in a satire of conversion therapy camps, also featuring young Dante Basco. Personally I think it keeps things light and silly enough not to trigger me with the religious rhetoric. Content warnings: conversion camp setting and corresponding conservative Christian rhetoric, general homophobia, uh, RuPaul is here at one point?

In the Heights (2021): This movie is very much not perfect, chiefly for the colorism in the casting choices. BUT I like that Daniela and Carmen are gay now. Content warnings: racism, prejudice against undocumented individuals, grandparent death.

Movies I Think You Should Watch Maybe - Are They Good? I Couldn't Say!

D.E.B.S. (2004): This is a deeply silly movie about an all-girls' spy school in which the star pupil falls in love with international supercriminal Lucy Diamond, directed by queer icon Angela Robinson and featuring lesbian grandma Holland Taylor as the headmaster. Content warnings: cartoonish (PG-13) gun violence.

Imagine Me & You (2005): This was baby's first f/f movie for me, and so it has a very special place in my heart even though it is Problematic because it's about a lady cheating on her husband with Lena Headey, and also nobody remembered bisexuality exists so they say "lesbian" pretty exclusively and that sucks. Lena Headey and Piper Perabo are so good together though, and I genuinely like everyone in this movie. Content warnings: cheating (one character is married to a man).

Happiest Season (2020): Do not @ me this is MY movie!!! Kristen and Mackenzie are PERFECT. Content warnings: homophobia, manipulative behavior, one weirdly intense interrogation scene with mall cops that frankly should've been cut, mentioned fish death.

A Simple Favor (2018): This movie...it is batshit. If you like trashy drama, you will probably like this movie! Linda Cardellini plays a lesbian artist and I love her so much. Content warnings: manipulation, murder, incest (adult half-siblings not raised together), intense discussion of murder-suicide, gun violence

The Falling (2014): This movie is also batshit and not good, but I need more people to watch it, because I've seen it four times and I have no idea what it's trying to say. It features Maisie Williams and Florence Pugh as British boarding school teens who have an intense "friendship" and then suddenly everyone in the school starts having collective fainting spells. Please, I just need to find the person out there who gets what this movie is doing so they can explain it to me. Content warnings: unexplained medical issues (fainting), seizures, incest (consensual? sex scene), attempted suicide, grief, discussion of sexual assault and trauma therein (secondary character)

A New York Christmas Wedding (2020): This movie is ALSO batshit in a completely different way than the other two, and again, I need someone to explain it to me. It's, uh, sort of It's a Wonderful Life but with a bisexual heroine, and some batshittery along the way? Content warnings: suicide (secondary character), teen pregnancy, weird pro-life vibes, parent death, way too much church, homophobia, Chris Noth

Movies I Haven't Yet Seen Which Have Been Recc'd To Me

Crush (2022)

Pariah (2011)

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020)

Fear Street Trilogy (2021)

The Handmaiden (2016)

149 notes - Posted June 28, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Wild mass guessing about the theme of the Dimension 20 sidequest being announced tomorrow, loosely ranked from most to least likely with reasoning:

Fairy tale remix (this has been thrown around as a suggestion in fandom before, just seems like a fun idea)

Superheroes (potentially with the Masks system, though I know Chapter and Multiverse is doing a shorter campaign with that system right now)

Unsleeping City spin-off, possibly prequel with mentioned characters (not sure if Brennan would want someone else DMing in this world, I just think it would be neat)

Horror survival campaign (PVP/permadeath more likely with guest players, but might be too intense/dark for the D20 brand. BUT Brennan just DM’d EXU Calamity and was a goddamn nightmare over there)

Mice and Murder s2 with partial or all new cast (possibly new DM, but unsure how popular s1 was comparatively)

Misfits and Magic s2 (Erika and Aabria are very busy but four episodes could’ve been filmed in a couple weekends at most)

Real Housewives RPG DM’d by Izzy Roland (funniest possible option; extremely unlikely)

Warrior cats (I lied. this is the funniest possible option)

206 notes - Posted July 20, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[i-like-soup-2]

Neon Genesis Evangelion (Part 1)

From the second episode one began, I knew this was going to be an amazing anime. I’ve heard the intro song, A Cruel Angel's Thesis, millions of times before – it’s renowned as one the biggest bops in the anime community and is beloved by many of my friends. It’s one of those songs that even though you don't know the anime, you still know the song bar for bar. It was nice to finally put a backstory and plotline to the song. It slightly reminded me of Mobile Suit Gundam at first, but quickly unfolded to be much more interesting in my eyes. However, just like with MSG, both anime stressed that teenagers are the solution to humanity’s problems, and quite frankly that stressed me out a bit. But at the end of the day, we are, in fact, the future and there is definitely no changing that. 

There was quite a bit of unnecessary sexualization going on within the first assigned episodes, with many scenes focusing on close ups of the female body. The opening even featured Misato’s introduction as her shadowed, naked body rather than a nice picture of her posing happily. And there was also the scene where Shinji falls and brings a naked Rei down with him, presenting a typical male-on-top-of-female dominant position. It was definitely on purpose to draw in more of a male crowd, but honestly unnecessary in my eyes. The anime would’ve done pretty well without it, but given that it was made in the 1990s, I might not know the audience as well as I think. 

In accordance with this week’s reading, a hegemonic male is one who is capable of stepping up and thriving in violence and the objectification of women. Our main character, Shinji, can’t do either of those. Initially, he didn’t want to step up and fight inside a giant robot – something many war men would beg to do. And he didn’t want to participate in objectifying Rei and her body. Thus, Shinji doesn’t exhibit hegemonic male traits, which leads us to believe he exhibits a queer masculinity rather than a hegemonic masculinity. 

[micamaconceptart]

Concept Art:

Practice 2: Human vs Inhuman

With the ideas I explained from my previous post, I went ahead in developing a character design of Thai-culture. I envisioned this character to resemble aspects of the nationality, such as having the occupation of a Muay Thai champion. This meant that the body shape of his design would have to be extremely fit, in order to appear similar to that of a strong and enduring fighter. Also, the traits that I would like him to have in his design would relate to the previously explored Yak giant features, thus making him to be a 'taller-than-average' humanoid. With this, I want this design to communicate both human and inhuman characteristics, through both his outer appearance and personality.

To make it possible in adapting the Yak features into this character, I further studied the mythological species to understand their gestures and shape language better - through silhouette practice. In the national epic, Yak giants are seen to be holding specialised weapons used to injure trespassers, resembling a form of baton. Furthermore, Yak giants have particular motions to their movements when they engage in conflict; akin to the expression displayed in traditional Khon performances.

Due to their size, yak giants are speculated to be sloppy fighters, yet are heavily armed with massive weaponry and strength. The powerful impact of their strikes makes up for the slowly delivered anticipation of their movements. The shape language I learnt from previous post is still retained through my studies, as it helped me figure out the main triangular features yak giants possess, thus being another aspect I can implement within my character design.

Once I felt more comfortable with illustrating my chosen 'inhuman' species, I went ahead to water it down through my first sketches of the character design. As discussed prior revolving around the concept of modern conceptualisations of mythical beings, I envisioned my inhuman character to be acquainted with popular human activities, as well as dressed in casual clothing. However, I do want to communicate his design bearing the traits derived from the ancient Thai epic, to signify a relation to his yak giant ancestry.

I decided to name him Nadech (ณเดชน์), since it is one of the more common names given to boys in Thailand. I was also inspired by popular fictional characters like Wolverine from Marvel, who show very clear silhouette every time they appear in a medium. However, I wanted to avoid the similarity to such characters and instead produce a unique silhouette for Nadech in general. I did this by prioritising the significance of his head silhouette.

Regarding this project, my tutor's feedback was for me to improve the shape language of Nadech's head and hoodie, as implied from his initial sketch. Something revolving around his hair had to be significant enough to take notice of, though I wanted to further push the cultural accuracy of his character. Furthermore, I went to do more research into hairstyles for Thai men.

Recent Thai romance / drama flicks like ฮักหลายมายเลดี้ (2023), ลมพัดผ่านดาว (2023), and แม่ปูเปรี้ยว (2023) have male protagonists with appealing appearances; their attractive looks and hairstyle trend in Thailand. Even retellings of popular Thai horror legends like 'Mae Nak Phra Khanong' (แม่นากพระโขนง) have produced series of more defined characters that were involved in the story - with historically accurate hairdos to match.

I took one of the men's hairstyles from the movie พี่มาก..พระโขนง (2013) and adapted the bun's style to my hard-lined design, while playing around with its shape outline. Some of the designs are from me trying to relate it to the triangular features of the yak giants' helmets, whereas some where meant to bear more of a resemblance to elements, such as fire - the Ramakien often portrayed yak giants as 'demons' more than typical giants, of which are known for their chaotic nature. Thus, I wanted to incorporate a bit of that trait into Nadech as well.

The sketches labelled as A to F were my first round of bun shapes, before I picked A and B to mix them up further. This led to my final two designs for Nadech's head, labelled as AB1 and AB2. I also briefly explored his hoodie's shape and how they would sit on his head while up. The sharp, angular headband for the character's bun hints at the materials I observed while studying yak giants, which include valuable goods of golden accessories.

In the end of this practice, I was able to further experiment with shape language, as well as learn more about my cultural roots. Exploring the development of this character design had been fun, though in the future projects I also wish to branch out into more environmental aspects. Had I had more time with this project, I would have included one more development sheet, focusing on combining his body shapes to his newly fleshed out head shape.

[snowymuses]

Name: Y’ukihime Ywons Alias: Crystal Exarch, the Exarch, Ukihime, Uki, Hime Species: Miqo'te Class: Paladin, Scholar, Red Mage, (All Rounder) Height:5'0 Age:24(appearance), ~324 (actual) Birthday: Third Umbral Moon, day 18 Gender: Female Orientation: Panromantic/Bisexual Hometown: Isle of Val, Crystal Tower of the Source Occupation: Caretaker of the Tower, Adventurer

Physical appearance:

A young appearing Miqo’te woman, her hair a mix of blue and red in her youth, the red has faded to a white/pink hue in her age within the tower. Originally her eyes were dual colored, one cyan and the other red, the latter symbolizing her Allagan heritage. After the events with the Crystal Tower and as the Exarch, both of her eyes are red. Small brown markings surround her face and a small ruby adorns her forehead when her face is exposed. Otherwise, she wears a hood to eclipse her face from people, which now has lines of crystallization across it.

Now that she has returned to the Source, she wears her hair in a bun and braid, her face fully exposed, as well as red and black clothing reminiscent of her Exarch robes. (FOR FULL REFERENCE AND A SILLY PICTURE, CLICK HERE)

Personality:

Originally very playful and rebellious, Y’ukihime stood against traditions and took to her own way. However, as the Crystal Exarch, she is very calm, motherly as a figure, and distant most of the time. Pleasant and well spoken, she may seem youthful, but offers an air of wisdom that denotes her age better than her features

Concerned about others, she holds those worries close to her heart and instead offers smiles and conceals things that are problems from others, intending to do much of it herself when it comes to others. She is secretive for the most part, until she feels she is fully able to open up to someone without anything to hide. Even so, she is devoted to the Warrior of Light and the people she has helped shelter with the Tower’s influence.

Story:

Y’ukihime is an AU Exarch, and was once a Warrior of Light, and is connected to my own G’raha Tia. This is a character/verse dependent upon G’raha not becoming the Crystal Exarch.

(TL;DR, they are twins that were separated at birth. Whether this is the case and which one became the Exarch is dependent on partner preference. Typically, I have it where Y’ukihime became the Exarch instead of G’raha.)

Y’ukihime Ywons was born to a Miqo’te woman in the G tribe, at the same time as her twin, G’raha. However, with both sharing a singular Allagan crimson eye, it was said their birth was an ill omen and were to bring destruction should they remain together. She was given to the Y tribe, where a Doman refugee woman had lost her child recently. Named Ukihime, or “Princess of Rain,” from her royal blue hair. Y’ukihime never felt out of place among her family, but upon learning of her adoption, decided to become a Student of Baldesion.

She became highly interested in the Allagan history and Crystal tower. She wanted to investigate things that fascinated her and did not delve into her true family, thinking to look back further than any member of her tribe could live would avoid the burdens. While there, Y’ukihime encountered a young male Miqo’te by the name of G’raha Tia. Although fleeting, their meeting spurred her to have strange visions of a crystal, and from then on could peer into the memories of others. Realizing that she had awakened to the Echo, this set her off to a journey across Eorzea, becoming a person dubbed a Warrior of Light, despite that one had already been found and had aligned themselves with the Scions of the Seventh Dawn. Still curious upon the Crystal Tower, she pushed to investigate it with the rest of the team, which had been dubbed NOAH by the selfsame Miqo'te she had met once.

Within the confines of the tower, two people were encountered (Doga and Unei), who confided in Y’ukihime of her linage from the Allagan nobility and her red “Royal eye" and spoke of how her and G'raha Tia were of the same linage, but more so, siblings with equal parts of Allagan blood. Within the tower the Cloud of Darkness reigned, which began to attempt to take over and infect Eoreza. Despite the realization, Y’ukihime pressed on, accepting the bloodline that flowed through her and the companion, whom she now counted as her brother.

Upon the Cloud of Darkness’s defeat, Y’ukihime and the others discovered Doga and Unei intended to remain within the tower to sever the Cloud’s ties to Eorzea and restore balance with their own Allagan blood. Before sending the group off and out of the Tower, the duo infused portions of their blood into Y’ukihime and G'raha to grant them control over the Crystal Tower, allowing them to learn the last will of Salina, an ancient princess who used Allagan technology to infuse her DNA into their ancestor so that her family could restore the Crystal Tower as a beacon of hope.

With the realization that only one of them needed to be with the Tower, both twins knew that the world in it's current state was not sufficiently ready to adapt to the Allagan technology within and did not want both of them to be trapped as Unei and Doga had been for all those years. Refusing for G'raha to join her, Y’ukihime sealed the Crystal Tower with herself inside, intending to guide the Eorzeans once they reached the same technological level as the ancient Allagans, and for G’raha to watch over them until such a time came to pass.

By the time the Crystal Tower reopened two centuries into the future, Y’ukihime became partially fused with the tower to prolong her life as its keeper. She learned of the Eighth Umbral Calamity that claimed the life of the Warrior of Light and the Scions along with the endless conflict that followed. Acting on a hypothesis proposed by Cid, Y’ukihime sent herself and the Crystal Tower to the First sometime after the Flood of Light occurred. Discarding her name and taking on the identity of the Crystal Exarch, Y’ukihime established the Crystarium as a haven for the people impacted by the Flood.

As the condition of the First worsened and finally gaining the ability to do so, Y’ukihime attempted to summon the remaining Warrior of Light to the First via the Calling, but ended up summoning the Scions instead. Due to the time difference, the Scions ended up appearing years apart from each other. Only confiding in Urianger the truth of the calling, and asking him to be her accomplice in a scheme to prevent the Rejoining of the First to the Source, Y’ukihime gave with full knowledge that the negation of the Eighth Umbral Calamity would erase her and send the Scions back to their world fully restored.

When the Warrior of Light finally arrives on the First, Y’ukihime, now known fully as the Crystal Exarch, acted as the Scions’ guide and leader, directing their efforts in defeating the Lightwardens. When the final Lightwarden was defeated, Y’ukihime reveals the true plan: to steal the light that the Warrior had absorbed from the Lightwardens and the transportation of the Crystal Tower and herself to the Dimensional Rift. Trapped there in her state, the light would be expunged and she would die where no one else would be hurt. The plan was thwarted by Emet-Selch, who had figured out her true identity and origin, and captured her.

When the Warrior of Light prepared to battle Emet-Selch, Y’ukihime used her power to summon heroes from other worlds to fight alongside them. After Emet-Selch’s defeat, Y’ukihime returned to the Crystarium, where she reclaimed her old name and continues to aid the Scions in finding a way to return to the Source, with no secrets held back from the Warrior of Light or the Scions.

5.3 Update. Spoilers Ahead!

Discovering that her own blood would be the key to returning the Scions to the source, Y’ukihime went to work straight away by infusing her blood into the Auracite. Making several, including one for herself as a tester, she had full intent to breach the gap between worlds and go to the other side with the others, ensuring the path was safe. However, with Elidibus gaining control of the tower, Y’ukihime did what she could to stop him, but had to protect Beq Lugg and transported them far from the tower.

The course of her work led to most of her body facing crystallization, but she did not have fear. Accompanying the Warrior of Darkness back to the tower even with her crippling form, she managed to hold out until the very end, unleashing an ultimate attack of the aether stored within her body from the Tower to quell Elidibus. This, however, diminished the rest of her life span, and with final movements and offering the copy of her soul and memories to the Warrior of Darkness, her inspiration, she placed herself as a statue atop the tower, as a never ending vigil for the place she had helped cultivate.

Within the Auracite, Y’ukihime witnessed the world of Norvandt beside her friend, and when the time came for her to awaken, it was a slow and painful process. The younger version of herself nearly rejected the memories of the older, but with the help of the Warrior of Light, the two began to meld and once more, Y’ukihime Ywons awoke in the Source.

After many treatments from Krile, her health returned from her slumber, and despite the offer from the Scions to join, Y’ukihime declined, for now. Her desire to journey and seek out new things in the Source, as well as find a way to make a bridge between worlds for all of them to go back and forth through became her top priority.

However, Y’ukihime will always offer her aid to the Scions, but leaves the heavy lifting to G’raha Tia, who desired the position more than she ever could. Verses:

Adventurer/Non Crystal Exarch: Within this verse, Y’ukihime still became a Student of Baldesion, however she did not obtain the Echo when encountering G’raha Tia. Instead, before the Isle of Val vanishes, Y’ukihime had gone on an expedition to Kugane to see how much of could be salvaged of their history from the Garlean Empire. She will still be related to G’raha Tia, at partner’s preference. (Tag: |V: Adventurer|)

[themovieblogonline]

Why Does Luv Ranjan Keep Making Misogynistic Movies Like Tu Jhoothi Main Makkar?!

I’ll never understand the appeal that Bollywood filmmaker Luv Ranjan has. As a writer-director, all his movies feature some form of misogynistic representation of women. Almost every movie. And now, in the first month of 2023, there’s a trailer for a new movie of his, which seemingly has the same issues. I usually don’t cover Bollywood trailers, but there’s a lot to say about this one. The Tu Jhoothi Main Makkar trailer (You’re A Liar, I’m Deceitful) tells a new story about the dynamic in a man-woman relationship, and it’s honestly, a little messed up. But not surprising at all though, given that it’s a Luv Ranjan movie. Read on to find out the main issue with the Tu Jhoothi Main Makkar trailer, and why it continues a disturbing trend from the filmmaker. Tu Jhoothi Main Makkar Trailer Seems Fun https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx_Dtwn4ayw Starring one of Bollywood's biggest stars, Ranbir Kapoor, along with the talented Shraddha Kapoor, (no relation) the Tu Jhoothi Main Makkar trailer is everything a typical rom-com should be. The trailer sees the lead couple, each with impeccable style, oozing charm and fit bodies, hook up in a seemingly whirlwind romance. But when things get serious, there’s trouble. The trailer opens with Ranbir’s character talking about how easy it is to get into relationships these days, but hard to get out of them. So he details a convoluted plan about how the best way to get out of a relationship, is to make the girl feel like it’s her idea. Basically by planting seeds of suspicion and manipulating her in other ways. But then, he seemingly falls in love. The Hypocrisy And Double Standard In Tu Jhoothi Main Makkar Trailer As the trailer progresses with cool songs and an upbeat vibe, the second-half twist comes when things get serious. As Ranbir’s character falls in love, for reals, the couple starts marriage talks. This time, it’s Shraddha’s character who has doubts about the relationship. Her voiceover repeats exactly the same thing Ranbir said in the beginning. But her approach to breaking up is to make it seem like it’s the guy’s fault, while she maintains her innocence and remains on good terms with his family. So they both basically hook up for something casual and are both manipulating each other to get what they want. Which is fine. There is nothing wrong with characters who are grey and don’t have the typical hero/heroine attributes. The problems start when double standards rear their head. Apparently, Ranbir’s character has an issue with Shraddha’s character's approach to breaking up. The same tactic he boasted about earlier in the trailer, by the way. So he decides to ‘make her pay’ or something to that effect. So it’s fine when he’s bragging about being manipulative to end a relationship he doesn’t want. But if a woman treats him the same way, she must fear the wrath of man! Really? Luv Ranjan Has Done This Before https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy0m-4meolQ The most upsetting part about the Tu Jhoothi Main Makkar trailer isn’t this particular movie or this story. It’s very easy to write off one movie that looks bad and move on with our lives. The issue here is that the writer-director Luv Ranjan has a disturbing trend of this kind of content in almost all his movies. The women characters in his movies are all depicted as shrewd, conniving and somehow threatening the masculinity of his male characters. Resulting in the men standing up for themselves and fighting back against the evil woman in their lives. Like, what?! His debut movie as a director, Pyar Ka Punchnama, as well as its sequel, both featured Karthik Aryan in a leading role. In many ways, Aryan was put on the map by Ranjan and his movies. But while the movies themselves were once again a male versus female perspective about relationships, love and life, it very much leaned one way. Aryan’s character famously has this long one-take monologue in both movies, where he basically craps on women. While the monologue itself is admirable, the content is extremely problematic. Ranjan then doubles down on his whole ‘women are evil’ viewpoint in this next directorial, Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety. The story is about how a man feels threatened when his best friend gets engaged to a confident and outspoken woman. The woman begins to influence the friend, her fiancee, to eat better, take care of himself, etc, the usual things in a relationship. But this level of control is apparently manipulative and evil, so the man takes it upon himself to free his friend from her clutches. I ask again: what?! Why Are We Still Getting Movies Like This In 2023? It’s baffling how these movies, which clearly seem to demonize women characters, are still being made in 2023. You would think that studios, producers and other creatives would be more aware of the optics of crafting a story where a man has to get payback from a woman. And then doing it repeatedly. It’s a troubling and disturbing thing that makes Bollywood movies so questionable, especially when, as a fan, you know they can do better. The more irresponsible thing about Ranjan’s films is that he packages these kinds of damaging ideas in very mainstream, lovable, bubbly aesthetics with great music and likeable stars. On the surface, the Tu Jhoothi Main Makkar trailer looks like a lot of fun. But if the trailer is an accurate representation of the story of the movie, then it’s hella problematic. And I don’t think Ranbir’s tanned abs are going to be able to make me ignore those issues. Tu Jhoothi Main Makkar releases in select theatres on March 8, 2023. What did you think about this trailer? Do you have the same issues as me? Or do you think I’m making a big deal out of nothing? Let me know in the comments below. Read the full article

[gabrielle-writes]

Walking On My Grave - IF

DEMO | PLAYLIST

You live in Bravo, one of the biggest and most advanced cities of the Known World, built upon the strength, knowledge and energy of Souls and Undeads along centuries. In the last 10 years, you have made a name for yourself as trustful and efficient with the City Council and the Academies of Magic. When problems with the Undead and the Soul-based technology arose, it didn't really came as a surprise the summons and the mission: Go to the Blood Prophets and get us knowledge and advice so we can solve this.

There you went, along with your companion given the same mission.

And at first it went fine, an uneventful trip through the roads, cities and small villages of the continent.

Until you were caught in an earthquake, the ground opened up under you, and you woke up lost in the middle of unknown and unexplored underground tunnels, only your companion with you, and no idea of the depths the both of you were or how to get out.

WARNINGS: This IF is rated +18, because of violence, possible gore and body horror, blood, possible suggestion of cannibalism, possible death, and possible suggestive sexual themes and situations.

Features

- Create and customize your character: play as an Undead Knight or as a Necromancer. Choose between female, male and nonbinary. Customize your appearance, your personality, your name and how you fight.

- Antagonize, befriend or romance your companion (A Necromancer or an Undead Knight, depending on with which you play) as you both try to escape and survive the tunnels.

- Explore the tunnels, discover more about how Souls and Death work, and, hopefully, complete your mission.

- Resist the Hunger. Resist the Need. Resist the Greed. Resist the Desire.

- Beware the tunnels.

The Possible ROs

The Undead Knight: Gehfeer Silb-Ziidre Custorti (Gender-Selectable, He/She/They)

Gehfeer is one of the best Undead ever brought back to life in the Academy of Necromancy; in only ten years, they were raised to the ranks of the Custorti, some of the most reliable Undeads, trusted in the presence of Soul Pearls and Living as no other can be. Always with a sarcastic answer on the tip of the tongue and not a lot of deference most of the time, strangers would doubt how fast they can be when necessary and their dedication to protect the ones inside the Academy. Maybe the Hunger seems to always be slightly louder than it should considering their experience, teeth and fingers always anxious to tear flesh apart, but it is not uncontrollable.

The Necromancer: Cosmos Tessere Morttatio (Gender-Selectable, He/She/They)

Cosmos is a prodigy. One of the few mages of the Academy of Necromancy that conquered the title of Morttatio, a Master at Resurrecting the dead, in less than the typical fifteen years after graduation. Easy to anger, Cosmos is not someone to be taken lightly, all their intelligence and magical talent focused since childhood to the advent of Resurrection, to find and choose the best Souls to guarantee the Academy and Bravo's safety. Maybe they should've had waited more between each Resurrection, the Desire is stronger than what it should be at their age, fingers and mouth anxious to weave spells and bring all back from the dead, but they can manage it.

DEMO | PLAYLIST

Written in Twine Sugarcube

Lore Posts - Learn more about the world!

Art Posts - See characters and the world!

[ash-rigby]

Fruits Of Her Devotion (Goddess) [F/F] [Trans]

Featured Characters: Trans female human and a lesbian goddess. Both are adults.

Description: Lyra serves as a Maiden of Itheia, an attendant to the goddess who oversees the well-being and happiness of all mortal women. She has fallen deeply in love with Itheia, but hasn’t pursued her feelings, fearing her desire for a being she sees as far beyond her station. A fear that she learns is unfounded when her goddess expresses reciprocation.

Contains: Sex Magic, Shared Sensation/Orgasm, Nipple Sucking, Oral Sex, Riding, Loss of (Adult) Virginity.

Content Warning: Lyra engages in penetrative sex in this story. This won’t be the case for all of my stories that feature trans women, but it’s an aspect of this one. It was done for trans woman readers who either prefer or don’t mind things being this way when they’re depicted in erotica. Care was taken to not fetishize Lyra in this act, but if anything has inadvertently come across that way then I’m open to criticism and advice from trans women so that I can do better in future works.

If you would rather read a story of mine involving a trans woman where this aspect doesn’t occur at all, then I invite you to check out Set In Stone [M/F, Male Gargoyle/Female Human].

Completion Date: November 28th, 2021

Word Count: 5112

-

The Temple of Itheia was awash in its typical serenity that morning. Lyra woke in her chambers to a gentle, blue twilight, her eyes slowly blinking away the remnants of sleep. The air was cool as she sat on the edge of the bed to stretch out her arms and spine. She stood, the floor chilly against her bare feet, and set about heating some water for her bath.

It would warm her, but it also served as a daily ritual that she was required to undergo as a Maiden of Itheia; an attendant to the goddess who oversaw the safety, happiness, and prosperity of all mortal women. The Maidens bathed themselves each morning in water which they would lavish with heliotrope petals. Bearing the favoured scent of Itheia upon their skin was an expression of their devotion and allowed them access into the inner sanctum where the goddess resided.

Lyra ran her hand through the basket of petals she had prepared the night before. She felt a small, wistful smile tug at her lips. Heliotropes; the flower of undying love. Unknown to anyone, Lyra’s feelings towards her goddess ran far deeper than what was expected from her as a Maiden. But who was she to desire so much from a deity?

With practised ease, she shook the thoughts from her head and went through her routine. A few buckets and an emptied basket later, she was stepping out of her nightgown and into the tub. Steam curled up around her, sweet with a combined fragrance of almonds and cherries from the petals floating on the water’s surface. She relaxed into it, humming and running her hands over her legs and arms.

The sun had fully climbed out from behind the horizon as Lyra finished her soak. Cloudless dawn allowed golden light to stream in through the window. She lifted herself from the bath, dried off and dressed in light blue robes and pale gold cords.

Lyra made her way out of her room and through the hall which held the doors to each of the Maidens’ chambers. They were treated well there; private quarters, abundant food, and various areas made solely for recreation rather than the Maidens’ spiritual duties (Lyra enjoyed the library most). Despite her divinity, Itheia demanded nothing less for those in her service. Many other gods would hardly even spare a glance at them let alone ensure their comfort and leisure time.

Most of Lyra’s fellow Maidens were gathered in the vestry when she arrived. Here they were given their set of daily tasks by the Head Maiden Valeria; a stern but not entirely unpleasant woman in her early fifties. Their duties typically entailed things like cleaning, tending to the sacred gardens, or handling the offerings brought to the temple.

But Lyra sensed that something was different that day. As she entered the room, all eyes were suddenly on her. A small sea of awkward expressions, save for Valeria who was regarding her neutrally. Still, it was unsettling. Lyra approached the Head Maiden.

“Good morning, madam,” she said, keeping her tone airy and polite as she tried to dispel the strange atmosphere.

“Good morning, Lyra,” Valeria said coolly. Her eyes were difficult to read behind her thick-lens spectacles and her mouth carried its usual light frown. “Eager as ever to go about your duties, I presume?”

“I am,” Lyra said. “Where have you assigned me today?”

Valeria adjusted her glasses. “Well, it’s not about where I would have you.”

“Pardon?”

“Lady Itheia has once again requested your presence today.”

Lyra’s heart began to pound, easily excitable at a single suggestion of prolonged time with her goddess. It was an honour to be tasked with staying directly by Itheia’s side and seeing personally to her daily needs. And it was one Lyra had been enjoying in abundance of late. At least twice a week in the last three months if memory was serving her.

Now that she thought about it, Lyra had never heard of any of her fellow Maidens being requested by Itheia herself. The task was typically given at random. A daring hope rose in her, but she squashed it. She was simply good at the job and Itheia recognized that. Nothing more.

“If that is what she wishes,” Lyra said. She started to turn and leave the vestry when she was stopped by Valeria’s voice.

“One more thing,” she said quickly. There was a shallow basket full of fruit on the desk near her which she picked up and handed to Lyra. “Lady Itheia requested you and these.”

As Lyra took the basket, a few of the other Maidens in the room began to titter among themselves.

Valeria cleared her throat, silencing them instantly. “Quiet, now.”

Lyra looked down at the fruit, puzzled. They had dark blue skin with lighter flecks around the top, were about the size of oranges, and gave off an aroma not unlike subdued vanilla. She figured they must have come from outside the temple as she had been in the gardens enough times to know that they didn’t grow there. But they seemed to be ordinary fruits. There was nothing inherently funny about them as her fellow Maidens seemed to think.

“Do you know what they are?” Valeria asked.

“No, madam,” Lyra said. “I’ve never seen them be—.”

Shock stilled her tongue as she saw the faintest hint of a blush on the cheeks of the Head Maiden. For once, Valeria wasn’t looking her in the eye.

“The Lady will surely tell you of their significance,” she said. With a shooing motion of her hand, Lyra was dismissed. “Off you go. She’s waiting.”

Lyra gave a small bow of her head and hurried out of the room. The halls were empty and quiet except for the sound of her footsteps against the elegant tile. Her hands tightly gripped the handles of the basket as she walked towards the inner sanctum.

She was barely keeping her composure, her mind buzzing. Nerves made her worry her bottom lip. What meaning could the fruit possibly hold that they had even Valeria nearing a flustered state? They had to be the cause; they were, to her knowledge, the only new element in her assignment. The delectable scent of them swirled about her, mixing nicely with the flowery aroma still clinging to her hair.

Lyra reached the extravagant doors outside of Itheia’s chambers. The gold accents on the intricately carved, pale surface glinted in the light. An array of flowers, trees, and birds that seemed ready to burst from their wooden confines at any moment. Lyra stood there, trying to banish her perturbed expression for something more kind. She brought her hand to the door handle and pushed her way in.

“Good morning, Lady Itheia,” she said pleasantly. She yelped in surprise as she found Itheia where she didn’t expect to; standing nearly right inside the door. The goddess was usually late to rise, so Lyra had expected to be the one to wake her.

Itheia startled a little as well before chuckling lightly. “Terribly sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you. I sensed you coming is all.”

She stood before Lyra in simple but silvery robes; thin, airy and sitting loosely upon her form. Gossamer fabric covered her scaled arms and her clawed fingers were notably bare of any rings. She had forgone jewellery entirely, which was uncharacteristic. Her white, waist-length hair seemed to shimmer with an ethereal light, crowned by tall horns. Eyes with slit pupils regarded Lyra warmly despite their icy colour.

“M-my fault entirely,” Lyra stammered, looking away and stepping around Itheia. “I forgot to knock.”

The door closed behind her with a dull thump. She turned, only remembering then to give her goddess a proper bow.

“I’ve brought you these,” she said, holding out the basket

Lyra tried to decide whether or not to voice her curiosity about the fruit as Itheia drew near—very near. Her face heated as only the distance of the basket’s rim separated the two of them. The goddess’ scent filled her nose; a stronger fragrance of heliotropes came about her naturally. Lyra’s eyes rose to view the regal face and were then drawn away to to the elegant point of Itheia’s long ear.

Itheia reached into the basket and plucked out one of the fruits. She turned it over in her hand and gave it a light sniff before smiling and returning it to the others.

“These are particularly excellent,” she said. “Tender and ripe to perfection given the smell of them. Thank you.”

“Of course. Only the best, my Lady,” Lyra said, ducking her head slightly. She froze, heart in her throat, as a clawed but gentle hand brushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear. Itheia had touched her in such ways before; mostly fleeting, but sometimes lingering. It had become a frequent occurrence and yet Lyra’s mind still descended into a brief flurry each time.

“You’re so good to me,” Itheia said fondly, her fingers lightly running along Lyra’s jaw before retracting at her chin. The motion had coaxed the Maiden to raise her head and look Itheia in the eye.

Lyra sucked in a breath at what her infatuated mind swore was a deep tenderness in those blue pools. “I…I’ll be sure to let the other Maidens know of your contentment under our care.”

“I meant specifically you,” Itheia said.

It was almost too much for Lyra. She couldn’t trust her tongue, which felt tied in her mouth, to allow her to respond to the sentiment in any dignified way. Was the deity toying with her as immortals were oft to do? Did Itheia get amusement from flustering her devotees in such a manner? Lyra didn’t want to accuse her of such things, but the alternative of true affection was far more outlandish. She couldn’t let her heart get away from her.

Lyra moved away from Itheia. It was only by a few steps, but it felt like worlds. Straightening herself, she forced a smile to her face and said, “I…I merely brought them here, my Lady; they were picked by another. Shall I put them aside for now?”

Itheia regarded her with a strange expression before nodding slowly.

“On the nightstand, if you please,” she said.

Lyra did as asked and then turned in place, standing with her hands clasped in front of her. “How else may I be of service today?”

“Your company is enough,” Itheia said. She sat on the edge of the bed and smoothed her hand over the space beside her. “Please; sit. There’s something I wish to speak to you about.”

“Oh…of course.”

Lyra took the Lady’s requested place. She couldn’t keep the tension out of her body as she awaited Itheia’s words. Had she done something wrong?

Itheia sighed then, though it wasn’t in exasperation. It sounded as if it came from a sorrow nestled deeply in her chest. Her voice was as tender as the touch that came to rest on Lyra’s trembling hand.

“Lyra, why do you deny yourself?”

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about, my Lady.”

Itheia gave her a strikingly doleful look. “It would be a sad state of affairs if the protector of women knew so little of their hearts.”

She knew? But of course, she did. How could Lyra have been so foolish as to not realize that? She could silence her voice and hold back her body, but she couldn’t put a gag and chains on the thunderous yearning of her soul. Avarice that reached out for something so beyond her mortal station. Lyra’s vision blurred with mortified tears as she dropped her face into her hands.

“F-forgive me, Lady Itheia!” she sobbed, thoughts of banishment from the temple running wild in her mind—if that would even be the worst of her punishment. She was surprised moments later when she felt herself being gingerly held and brought down to rest with her head in Itheia’s lap.

“It’s not wrong to love,” the goddess said. Her hand caressed Lyra’s back and smoothed her hair. “There is nothing to forgive.”

“But it’s not just love,” Lyra confessed. Words beyond her intention spilled outward like the floodgate holding the swelling river of her shame had burst. “It’s…I want to—oh, shut up, Lyra!”

Heat rose to her face which she chose to keep hidden. The comforting hands slowly retracted and she expected the worst.

“Lyra, look at me,” Itheia said, her voice still steady and blanketed in understanding.

Reluctantly, Lyra rose from her place and looked her goddess in the face. That same soft smile greeted her. Not a hint of anger or abhorrence. She bit the inside of her cheek as fresh tears spilled out in her confusion.

“Am I…am I not disgusting to you?’ she asked. “That a mortal dares to imagine you in such a—.”

Itheia cupped her face, effectively silencing her. “Has anything I’ve done and said, with me knowing full well how you feel, seemed like disgust?”

“N-no,” Lyra said after a moment’s thought.

“Did it seem like anything other than attempts to express reciprocation?”

Lyra sucked in such a quick breath that it hurt. “What?”

Itheia chuckled, wiping at the remaining tears on Lyra’s face before releasing her.

“Do you honestly believe that in the hundreds of years that humans have been in my service that you are the first to have feelings for me?” she said.

“I…no,” Lyra admitted. “That sounds impossible.”

“It’s not openly spoken about to avoid any ill thoughts or rumors spreading among outsiders about my ‘true intentions’ with you,” Itheia said. “But it’s not at all uncommon for me to sometimes be involved romantically with my Maidens.”

“Truly?”

“Truly,” Itheia affirmed. “In fact, there was a time many years ago when I enjoyed the however brief companionship of Valeria.”

“Valeria?” Lyra said, aghast. “Madam Valeria?”

“Difficult to believe, I know,” Itheia said. A sly expression spread over her features. “But stiffness can be worked out with the proper touch.”

Lyra didn’t think that she could feel more flushed at that moment but it happened. She cleared her throat.

“So…this is all right? You’re fine with this…with me?” she asked, more so gasping than speaking the final word as disbelief gripped her throat.

“More than fine,” Itheia said. She put her hands over Lyra’s whose fingers were twisted into the fabric of her robes. “It’s my greatest honour to have earned your love. Human lives are so fleeting. Your time and affection are among the most precious gifts that you can give. Especially to a being such as I.”

Her eyes were intense and Lyra could see the ages in them for a brief moment. Centuries worth of loss in a deep well of memory. But it was not without its light shimmering from the surface above; full of love, devotion, and free from regret. It was inviting. A warm welcome with open arms. Lyra fought herself no longer, choosing then to dive headfirst and make her place in that eternity.

She landed in Itheia’s embrace, all but melting against her.

“Then I’ll give it to you. My time, my love.” She paused, swallowing something that to tried in vain to trap her next words. “My body as long as it holds.”

“I know this is fast, but…may I request it now?” Itheia asked.

“Yes, my Lady,” Lyra said. Despite her rising excitement, she of all things thought to her Lady’s second request that day. Did Itheia foresee this outcome and want to involve it somehow? “This is silly timing, but is that fruit I brought in a part of this?”

She felt a shift. Itheia released her and stayed in her space, reaching over her to take one of the fruits from the basket. It was deposited into Lyra’s hand; still a fully innocuous-looking fruit, but it did smell delicious.

“It’s called an Ayaeva Fruit,” Itheia said. “You’ve not heard of them?”

“No,” Lyra said. “But the other Maidens acted so strangely about them, so they must be special.”

“Indeed; quite special. They’re a food of the gods.”

“Oh…then am I allowed to—?”

She cut herself off with a sharp intake of breath as Itheia placed a hand on her thigh. The goddess leaned in closer.

“Of course,” she murmured. Her voice seemed to trickle down Lyra’s spine like water. “I asked for them so that we may share if you would like.”

Lyra shivered as the hand on her slid slowly inwards, stopping just shy of travelling fully between her legs. “Th-they do look good.”

“Oh, they’re that and so much more,” Itheia said lowly.

“What do you mean?”

“When an Ayaeva is shared, it merges the pleasure of all who ate from it into one. Such intense connection is exhilarating to gods let alone humans…do you wish to partake?”

The tantalizing aroma from the Ayaeva was starting to make Lyra’s mouth water. She ran her thumb over it, feeling the round tautness of its flesh. It was like something eager strained from within it.

Lyra swallowed. “I do, my Lady.”

She raised the fruit to her mouth and took a deep bite. Its succulence should have been expected, but she was still surprised by the rush of sweet juices. They ran down her hand and—a little embarrassingly—some escaped her mouth, trickling down her chin. The flesh was tender and ambrosial. A taste like no other that made another bite irresistible.

After Lyra bit a second time, she felt tender fingers wrap around her wrist and gently pull the fruit away. She looked into Itheia’s eyes as she chewed. The goddess smiled playfully and brought the Ayaeva to her mouth, laving her tongue over Lyra’s bite before taking her own.

Lyra’s grip fell slack at the sight and the fruit tipped out of her hand, landing with a soft thud against the rug. She paid it no mind because Itheia was quickly leaning in to kiss her. Their fruit-sweetened lips met and Lyra felt like her universe had righted itself.

Magic flashed silver in Itheia’s eyes as she pulled back. Both women’s clothes suddenly fell away from them in cool, bright wisps that dropped and vanished like mist. Lyra shivered at the brief chill, gasping as her mind caught up and she realized what had happened. She was fully naked before her equally nude goddess and she couldn’t stop her eyes from roaming over what she had long wished to see.

The goddess was stunning. Lyra already knew this of course, but the absence of clothes had opened a new gateway to the appreciation of the immortal form—in particular the gorgeous, round curves of her bare breasts. Itheia had a single marking on her stomach; a white, upside-down crescent moon shape that curved under and up either side of her navel. Lyra found herself wanting to trace it with her fingers, but her hands froze.

She had never done this before; never touched or been touched by anyone like this. It was her first and with a god no less. Arousal and insecurity at her inexperience warred long enough for Lyra’s hesitation to become unmistakable.

But her goddess, ever patient, offered gentle guidance. A knowing look crossed her face as she took Lyra by the wrist and led her further into the bed.

“It’s all right,” Itheia said. “I have much to show you, but for now, just lay back.”

“My Lady?”

Itheia put her hands on Lyra’s chest and slowly pushed her back to lay on the bed, hovering over her. The scent of her was stronger; wafting from her body and ingrained in the bed covers. Lyra swallowed hard, her heart racing under Itheia’s palm.

“You’ve taken care of me so well,” Itheia said. “Let me take care of you.”

The goddess kissed Lyra again; deeper, more ardently. It became a desperate, breathless thing. New lovers satiating a deep hunger that had gnawed at them for too long. They feasted ravenously at each for a long while before Itheia roamed lower. She mouthed at a readily bared neck.

Lyra’s throat worked under soft, fervent lips; catching the intimate and erotic heat of her goddess’ breath. Her body gave itself fully to the alluring curls of a desirous flame. It consumed her greedily and she welcomed it, already panting by the time Itheia was at her chest.

Claws gently pressed into Lyra’s skin as Itheia’s hands caressed and squeezed her. She didn’t fear them; they would never hurt her. A warm tongue teased, running a slow circle around one of her nipples. It instantly perked and was soon enveloped in the warm, wet cavern of Itheia’s mouth.

Lyra trembled as she was sucked and lightly bitten at. She felt a touch at the opposite side of her chest; Itheia’s hand fondling her before starting to roll, pinch, and rub the other sensitive bud. Her body arched into such worship, need starting to throb between her legs. She couldn’t help it anymore and reached down to stroke herself.

The air grew hot and heady in a way that Lyra had never experienced on her own. Having someone’s hands and mouth on her this way made her feel wild.

Itheia’s affections moved, trailing kisses down Lyra’s abdomen. She looked up, lust deepening the icy blue gaze. To have brought such a look about the goddess was Lyra’s greatest pride.

“You have such a beautiful, honest body,” Itheia said. Her soft lips brushed Lyra’s inner thigh. “I would love to learn all of it.”

Lyra shivered. She spoke in a whisper, breathless. “My Lady.”

“Itheia,” the goddess said, softly but pointed. “Just Itheia.”

Her eyes lowered, fixating on Lyra’s languid stroking. “May I…?”

“Yes,” Lyra said, taking her hand off of herself. “Please, Itheia.”

Deep adoration graced Itheia’s features as she delved down and dragged her tongue slowly up Lyra’s shaft. She did it only once more before taking it in her hand and laving around the sensitive tip. Lyra gasped, her thighs shaking and her toes curling. She tried to speak, but all that came out of her was a series of desperate, whimpering sounds. ‘More’; was what she wanted to chant—to beg.

Any lingering, brittle inhibitions left in Lyra shattered as Itheia’s mouth started to take her length. The goddess’ movement was slow. Like she was savoring. Lyra’s head fell back hard against the pillow, a long moan leaving her parted lips.

Her hands went into Itheia’s hair and gingerly carded beside the lovely horns. It was soft under her touch, moving with the gentle bob of the goddess’ head. Itheia’s claws were on Lyra’s thighs. The sharp tips formed slight divots in her flesh as those scaled hands kept them spread. A reminder of lethal ability held back in favour of tenderness and care.

Itheia kept up her steady pace for some time before suddenly beginning to moan despite having gone untouched. ‘The Ayaeva must be taking hold’, Lyra thought, shaking under the added vibrations. Her suspicion was realized as she became aware of a sort of invisible tether to her goddess. Something alive and quivering; an elevated, full-body ecstasy that sent her heart pounding even harder.

The feeling coursed fully through her, undeniably divine. It was a deep, throbbing ardor that found its greatest intensity in her loins. Her hips twitched and her head tossed to the side, sweat sticking the long strands of her hair to her temples.

“Itheia!” Lyra moaned. “Oh, my—Itheia…it’s—ahh!”

Words failed her. This pleasure was beyond anything that she could vocalize. She thought she may melt with it, but if it meant melting into Itheia then she didn’t care. They could be wax, pooled as one in an indistinguishable swirl and it would be an endless bliss.

Itheia released Lyra then, looking up at her with wet, glistening lips that were parted around her panting breaths. She moved in an almost silent, fluid motion to straddle Lyra’s hips. The sight of her, so clearly inundated with excitement, was mesmerizing. Half-lidded but ever-piercing eyes stunned Lyra’s breath as the goddess lowered herself.

Wet heat came to rest on Lyra’s shaft. Her hands moved on their own accord, an overwhelming desire to touch her goddess puppeteering them. Her fingers descended lightly onto Itheia’s skin before she smoothed her palms down and caressed up to rest them high on trembling thighs.

She almost expected Itheia to fade under her touch; to wake from yet another lustful dream, aching and wanting in her bed. But no such disappointment came. The weight of the goddess and the press of her lewdly dripping arousal remained.

Lyra’s breath stuttered from her as Itheia began rocking her hips, gliding her wet slit up and down the length pinned beneath her. Each pass was heavenly. Their connection grew slicker by the second, Lyra finding herself dug deeply into the soft lips of Itheia’s folds—as close as she could be without being inside her. She jolted, dizzied by that simple thought.

The two women moaned, their combined pleasure growing to a fervid torrent that was set only on engulfing them. Itheia quickened the pace. Her breasts swayed with the motion, glistening with sweat.

“I’ve always loved your voice,” she said. “But to hear it like this…ah—to be the one making you sound this way is…” She trailed off and then smiled, a tease breaking through her otherwise wanton expression. “And I’m certain I’ve done it before without having to be there. Did you ever make such beautiful noises alone in your room? Whispering my name as you imagined that it was my hand?”

“Itheia!” Lyra cried, averting her eyes, but unable to deny her memories.

The goddess chuckled before a moan overtook her. “So adorable.”

She stopped then, earning Lyra’s returned gaze. They were pulsing against one another, hot and needing. Itheia raised herself; a clear, slick string keeping them connected. She took Lyra into her hand and started to gently rub her wet, swollen clitoris with the leaking head.

Lyra whimpered, both from the teasing and the anticipation of what she desperately wanted to happen next.

“Are…?” Itheia began, her breathless voice saturated with desire, but careful in tone. “Are you all right with…?”

“I am,” Lyra said. “I…I want it…please.”

Saying nothing more, Itheia guided Lyra backwards across her slit. She quivered as she briefly teased her entrance with the tip. Slowly, she started to sink; a beautiful, low noise of pleasure escaping around a bitten lower lip.

Lyra saw stars as Itheia’s welcoming heat sucked onto her. She could feel it twitching around her, almost beckoning her deeper. Each of her inches became sheathed and everything inside was deliciously wet. Soft, but tight; engorged with lust to hold her fast in that passage.

Itheia stilled only for a moment, sitting indulgently at the hilt. Then she began to rise and drop at a steady pace. Her strokes were short, but she would clench against Lyra with each downward motion, squeezing the turgid shaft.

The Ayaeva’s tether held them both under its influence. Lyra’s head spun as she experienced not only her own glorious sensations but those of Itheia’s as well; the phantom sensation of being filled. Her entrance twitched with it, wild throbs working their way through her and to the sensitive tip buried deeply in her goddess.

“Oh, Lyra,” Itheia gasped, reverent. “You’re exquisite.”

Her wetness at their connection had become excessive. Lyra panted, her eyes fixed there. She was hypnotized by the sight of herself disappearing into Itheia over and over again. The walls holding her quivered and an all-consuming desire to feel Itheia come apart from the inside spread its tendrils over her mind.

A carnal fever took Lyra then and she couldn’t stop her hips from wanting to thrash. She gripped Itheia’s thighs and began driving herself upwards. Itheia moaned with the increased pace and collapsed onto her. Their lust-glazed eyes met and it took only seconds for their mouths to hungrily seek each other out; sucking, licking, nipping.

The kiss broke as their pleasure boiled to its apex, steaming and sputtering. Lyra wrapped her arms around Itheia and held her as close as she could. Twin hearts beat in unison in the slick press of their chests. The frantic pounding sounded in Lyra’s mind until it was almost all she could hear, nearly drowning out their cries.

“Itheia…Itheia! We—I—ahh!”

They had melded. One body or one ecstasy had become indistinguishable from the other. They could scarcely breathe but were too ravenous for release to stop. The fervid clasp that held them was too tight; hot and swelling. They were close. They were going to—.

A tremendous, pulsating heat descending upon them—a divine orgasm washing over Lyra’s mortal body. Her hips rose off of the mattress with it, lifting them both as she shook and spent herself. Light flashed in her vision with every shock—a nearly literal shock—of pleasure that radiated from her loins to every extremity as Itheia went wild around her.

They rode their release together and came down from it the same. Lyra fell heavily back onto the mattress, feeling like she was dropping back into her own, separate body as the Ayaeva’s effect ebbed away. The burn of strain swiftly settled into her back and legs. She kept holding Itheia, staying inside her—against reason, it was how she wanted to remain forever.

As they wordlessly basked in the shimmer of lingering pleasure, Itheia started placing gentle kisses across Lyra’s collarbone, neck, and lower jaw. Warmth spread in Lyra’s chest. It was overwhelming; the sexual bliss and the joy that flooded her. She couldn’t help a few tears from escaping.

“Shh, it’s all right,” Itheia said softly, her breath warm on Lyra’s skin. “I have you.”

“Sorry,” Lyra said. “I’m just..,”

“Happy?”

“Yes…simply put.”

Itheia raised her head, meeting Lyra’s gaze. “I would have you know all the happiness in the world. In whatever way I can bring it to you.”

“Then may we lie here for a while?” Lyra asked. “Like this. All I want is to feel you right now.”

“Of course,” Itheia said. Her lips graced Lyra’s before she laid her head down on her chest. She gave a contented sigh. “I can hear your heart…it’s lovely.”

Lyra settled fully into the softness of the mattress. She traced her fingers up and down Itheia’s spine. Her eyes closed, but she did not sleep; her steadied breaths fluttering over Itheia’s hair and returning to her the sweet, loving scent of heliotropes.

End

Masterlist

[kdramabrainrotstation]

Okay, so I've been seeing quite a few posts around here saying that Soo Hyeon and Seun Ah deserved better, and that the writer is misogynist for treating them the way he(?) did, and as a woman, I have some Thoughts on it: (long rant ahead)

For some three or so years, I read mostly American YA fiction/fantasy, most, nay all of which were written by women and featured female protagonists and many female characters. I noticed a trend of "girboss-ifying" all the female characters: they were either chosen ones or world saviors or long lost queens, who could wield a sword and a gun at the same time, hated men (but would end up with one anyway) (God forbid women be single or worse, gay or bi), made some perfomative statement against the corrupt system or whatever, and honestly, after a point, it became so formulaic, predictable and downright boring. These women didn't even feel human anymore, they were just walking cliches for the writers to pat themselves on the backs for how progressive they were with.

Which is why when I began watching K dramas, it was such a refreshing change. I saw all kinds of women: good, bad, ugly, silly, compassionate, morally grey, downright evil. These women felt human, I could connect with them so much more. I didn't care that they weren't some mouthpieces for feminism; they were fleshed out, complex, well written characters.

Which is further why I liked Seon-ah (as a villain) and Soo Hyeon (well, I didn't really like the latter but more on that). Both of them had roles typically given to male characters (Seun-ah reminded of the dude whose villain arc begins with a woman saying no to him once) and I doubt anyone would've said they deserved better had they been dudes. Which is what I liked about them: Seun-ah is EVIL, and I loved her for it; I loved how unapologetic and cold and cunning and ruthless she was. I didn't like Soo Hyeon much after episode 12, but still, her character was a refreshing change from the types I see in YA.

My point is, I don't think it's misogynist to treat female characters this way, especially since we also had amazing female characters in the show itself like Elijah and Jin joo. Being a feminist also means acknowledging that women can do fucked up things, because we're HUMAN, and just because a show kills female characters or doesn't place them on some sort of pedestal, doesn't mean the creators hate women. I see male characters killed off all the time in YA, what's so wrong if a couple of female characters die? It's fiction, after all.

And honestly, I feel like I really needed to see women like Seun-ah. I'm sick to death of the stereotypical western girlboss, so these women were a refreshing change.

this ask is honestly so on point, and i'm so glad you came to me with it, because you put it into words that i couldn't quite manage. my two cents on it is essentially gonna be wordy agreement with you, but i have so many feelings about the way you spelled it out that i'm gonna break it down even further, on a level separating both characters and identifying their importance as they were.

the thing about both sunah and soohyun is that they were natural. they have their good and their bad qualities, but like you said, a part of feminism is identifying that women have positive and negative traits just like men do, rather than just outright saying they're perfect and can do no wrong. feminism is being able to understand women enough to put them on equal ground as men. it's not a desire to make them better or more morally-sound. it's giving female characters the same unique blend of characteristics as media often gives men. i praise the shit out of kdramas in general for knowing this balance perfectly when it comes to female characters. they give them their own personalities rather than just genres. they make them human.

i'll start with soohyun. she isn't a bad person, honestly. she just has the tendency to operate with her heart on her sleeve. i stand by what i've said in the past about her manipulating gaon, but she did it in a very human way. people in general don't like to be wrong about things. every human, i don't give a fuck who they are, thinks their view on morals is the right one. that's just human nature. soohyun is no different. she genuinely believes she is what's best for gaon, because it's always been the two of them. she has always taken care of him. even after his parents died, she tried to reel him in. she has a very strict view on right and wrong, and she has always extended that view out to gaon.

but she didn't do it because she knowingly wanted to control him. she did it because she cared for gaon and wanted what was best for him. i am a huuuuge kang yohan apologist, but just because i or the viewers or gaon might understand where yohan is coming from, soohyun's view is from the outside. gaon could have spelled out to her in gruesome detail why yohan did everything he did and soohyun would have still been against it, because her viewpoint says doing the wrong things to help the right people is still wrong.

when she got upset that gaon was at the scene of minister cha's suicide, she was meant to come off as unreasonable. she was supposed to overreact, because kang yohan happened to be there and there was obvious friction there. she identified yohan as a bad person who was going to drag gaon, someone she obviously loved more than her own life, into hell with him. she lashed out at gaon because he had stopped being so clear with her about what was happening and the next time she saw him he had blood on his hands and was sifting through the pockets of a dead woman.

soohyun wasn't meant to be perfect. she was meant to be caring and full of love but also misguided as a result of that love. the contrast between her and yohan was intentional--meant to encourage gaon to think independently because he didn't wholeheartedly agree with either of them.

but the way she was written wasn't meant to demonize women. it was meant to put on display just how human nature can sway someone's thoughts and actions to the extreme. the devil judge at its core is about humanity and its more ugly qualities. both women and men in the show have their ugly qualities.

i don't like soohyun as a character, but i definitely don't think it's because of misogyny. she loved gaon with her whole heart, but she let it consume her and, yeah, she was manipulative and selfish. i respect that the show was bold enough to show that rather than paint her out to be innocent just because she was a love interest.

now, sunah. to be quite honest, i adore sunah. villain or not, she is one of my all-time favorite female characters. i laugh at the fact that there are people who think she is badly written, because she is easily one of the most complex characters in any show i've ever seen.

the thing is, sunah is pitiful. but she is written in such a way that you don't see her that way until the end. yohan calling her out on it is the first time you see her waver.

to me, she is an example of overcoming adversity by becoming a beast. abused as a child, sunah at some point had decided she had had enough and dealt with her mother on her own. nobody else was going to help her, so she was going to help herself. nobody cared that she was suffering. she wasn't their problem. she hated the wealthy for looking down on the poor. from the beginning, she was going to take from the rich and live on a mountain of their bodies. she is a person built with drive--strength gathered from weakness. she is almost always in complete control, even when she operates as a secretary.

she is one of the few characters who can reel yohan in. she and he have so much in common but are also so vastly different. she saw how yohan was treated and related to him because of her own past. but she also saw how isaac treated him and she never got that. she was jealous, which is another very human trait, but she also never learned how to handle that. so despite being straight up in love with yohan, she wanted to put him in her place. she wanted him to see what her loneliness felt like.

so when gaon came along, she saw the perfect opportunity. but her storyline was never just about breaking yohan down or showing rich people their own asses. her storyline was about finding power for herself and showing that her worth was so much more than her social status. correct me if i'm wrong, but in korea, social status is directly tied to where you stand financially, too. sunah overcame that. she was incredibly powerful, and she wasn't just some one-sided demon.

if anything, i'm impressed by her. i don't think the writers were misogynistic with her at all. i think her character was about self-empowerment. on top of that, we get to see how she took it too far, and how she realizes she did. the virus, the farms, how the poor became science experiments because she let too much slide in order to stay where she was. seeing yohan break down over the cctv clip, how she cried at the end of all that. she took it too far and she knows it.

i genuinely find it laughable that anyone sees that as bad characterization. just because you don't like a character doesn't mean they were written badly. but purity culture and hive-mindedness tend to make people think very squarely. my point is you're absolutely right. both soohyun and sunah were brilliantly written, and there is nothing misogynistic about their characterization.

to be honest, that viewpoint probably stems from the fact that they both died in the end. which also wasn't misogynistic. their characters were just that way. soohyun was inevitably going to get herself killed trying to protect gaon, and sunah was eventually going to take things too far and succumb to guilt. nobody could take her life but herself. plain and simple.

[eclipsecrowned]

You got any good Lucien metas hiding in the back room of the blog waiting to be written? // @versin-surfin​ (ik you’re full to the brim of metas so this is an ask to let ‘em loose :3)

Lucien is Adam. As in, either the eastern religious Adam, or per the story told in Sandman issue 40, the first living male being that was later identified as Adam by humanity. Watch me cite my sources on this one.

It’s shown across The Sandman that all of the first family are employed by Dream in some form or fashion. This tracks, given his general love for humanity. The brothers Cain and Abel were given dominion over the House of Mystery and the House of Secrets, respectively. Eve and her three faces dwell in a cave, and weaves stories for those who reach her. This does, however, leave Adam rather absent from the narrative.

Until you take into account there is one last vintage DC Horror host among the cast. That would be Lucien, Dream’s trusted librarian and second in command. Cain and Abel keep their mysteries and secrets, Eve tells stories, and Lucien... Preserves them. Keeps them safe. Oversees them like a proper caretaker, like a patriarch -- Wait a minute.

There’s also a notable physical resemblance between Cain and Lucien. You can see that Abel has Eve’s coloring -- all dark hair, fair skin, and blue eyes, even if the eye color is typically dependent on the artist. That in mind, it does seem to support my argument that Lucien and Cain both have wild brown hair and long, thin faces, while also dressing similarly and wearing spectacles. Then again, these are both extant character designs that predated Gaiman’s involvement in the series, so I admit this is probably the shakiest evidence I have. I just find it interesting Eve might have been designed with Abel in mind, where both Lucien and Cain exist but their resemblance is never commented upon.

Lucien was the first Raven, though he has forgotten this fact in the long march of time. That raises the question, then, of what else he might have forgotten over the ages. If he’s the first Raven, does it stand to reason he might have been the first of something else? There’s also the fact Eve is a keeper of ravens -- as Cain and Abel were made to compliment as the first brothers, neighbors across the rest of eternity, is it possible that Dream gave Adam and Eve similar complementary arrangements?

That really taps me out for Sandman canonical evidence. The rest of what I have is purely from follow-ups that were declared non-canon -- ie Lucien appearing at a family event at the House of Mystery in The Dreaming (1990s) with little explanation, and later remembering his daughters buried him on the banks of an ancient river shortly before Cain and Abel’s sisters are introduced -- but I think the strongest non-canonical evidence for Lucien as Adam comes straight from a companion book.

See, in the nineteenth century, the Scottish author George MacDonald wrote what many consider to be his best work. This novel, Lilith, is a reflection on life, death, and faith, and features among its cast Mr. Raven, the ghost of a librarian. Our protagonist, Vane, catches glimpses of the former librarian where he appears as his namesake, a dark-plumed bird who haunts the bookstore the protagonist now owns. Mr. Raven takes Vane on a journey to a parallel world where sleepers dream until the end of the world. During one misadventure in this fantasy world, Vane discovers that Raven is Adam. Further struggles ensue against the eponymous Lilith, Vane is triumphant, but then awakens from the dream and all is well with his soul, etc, etc.

It’s easy to see how this novel might have had some influence on the Sandman comic. Namely, we have a librarian who is also a raven, as Lucien was revealed to be later on in the series. In turn, the librarian is a raven is Adam. Hy Bender first came to this conclusion in The Sandman Companion, which is where I first heard and latched onto the idea. To me, the pieces lineup too neatly. After conducting my own research into the theory, I came to the same conclusion that Lucien could absolutely be Adam, or I could at least make the theory my own personal headcanon for blog purposes.

[potteresque-ire]

More ask answer about Word of Honour (山河令, WoH) and the so-called “Dangai 101 phenomenon” under the cut ~ with all the M/M relationships shown on screen, does it mean improved acceptance / safety for the c-queer community?

Due to its length (sorry!), I’ve divided the answer into 3 parts: 1) Background 2) Excerpts from the op-eds 3) Thoughts This post is PART 1 ❤️. As usual, please consider the opinions expressed as your local friendly fandomer sharing what they’ve learned, and should, in no ways, be viewed as necessarily true. :)

(TW: homophobic, hateful speech quoted)

After WoH had started airing, I had waited for one of China’s state-controlled media to publish opinion pieces about the show. Specifically, I’d like to know ~ what is the administration’s current take on Dangai  (耽改), as a genre? How does it characterise the closeness of the same-sex leads—the closeness that is suppressed when the original IP, of the genre Danmei (耽美) was converted for visual media presentation?

This is important, as China is a country where the government’s attitude becomes the official public attitude. The state opinion pieces will be quoted and parroted, especially if they come from heavy-weight sources (state-controlled media also have their importance/influence hierarchy). Production of the upcoming Dangai dramas will adjust their scripts accordingly. Marketing tactics will also adjust, make sure it doesn’t spread “the wrong message”; Dangai and Danmei dramas have both been pulled off shelves during or immediately after its airing before (Addicted 上癮 and Guardian 鎮魂, respectively), despite having already passing the censorship board.

If a heavy-weight state opinion piece pans the one-lead-fawning-over-the-other scenes in WoH (there are a few of them), for example, scenes / lines of such suggestive nature will likely disappear from the upcoming Dangai dramas for at least a year or two. If the critique spills over to a harsh stance against the presence of queers in Chinese media, all future Dangai dramas can become strict “socialist-brotherhood” stories, their “no homo” message reinforced by, for example, by inserting a female lead (or changing one of the leads to female).

Whether the official public opinion equates the true public opinion or not, public behaviour in China is quickly driven by the official public opinion. Example: the Xi regime’s conservative stance on queer issues has already translated to a quick deterioration of queer tolerance in China; open expressions that were tolerated, even welcomed, just several years ago are now met with significant hostility in the public.

This is a reflection of the nature of their government. A quick thought experiment may explain this. Take … jaywalking. It’s probably fair to say we’ve all committed this “crime” before?

Will you still jaywalk if your government declares it immoral to do so? Where I am, in the United States, the answer is definitely a no. The public will probably laugh at (and make memes about) the poor official who made the declaration, kindly ask the government to do something useful for once (f*** off), and keep jaywalking.

Now, what if the declaration comes with a law that includes a one-year prison term + lifelong criminal record for jaywalking? Let’s say this law is fully executable and irreversible, given this being a thought experiment—nothing you, or the public, can say or do can contest it.

Will you still jaywalk, even if you disagree with government’s stance that the act is immoral? You’ve got a neighbour who continues to defy the law. Will you think twice before letting your young loved ones go out with them?

Very soon, jaywalking becomes “bad”—even though such “badness” had little moral basis at its origin. It is bad because the government has “characterised” it to be so—an authoritarian government that doesn’t allow challenge of the characterisation.

The retention of queer elements in Dangai is the jaywalking in the example. The Chinese government stepping in to characterise (定性) an event, a phenomenon etc is common, and the people know the drill well that they fall in line quickly.  

If a powerful state-controlled media publish a negative opinion piece on the queer elements in Dangai / Danmei, therefore, those elements can disappear overnight.

My question had been: will the state do it? The Xi regime has made its distaste for LGBT+ representation in visual media abundantly clear with its NRTA directives. However, while the Chinese government typically puts ideology (意識型態) as its Guiding Principle, exceptions have always been made for one reason. One word.

Money.

TU is a legendary financial success story every production company (Tencent itself included) wants to replicate. As a result, there are ~ 60 Danmei IPs (book canon) with their copyright sold for Dangai dramas; this long line of Danmei dramas in the horizon has been nicknamed “Dangai 101”, after the name of the show “Produce 101” Dd was dance instructor in. These dramas are all competing to be the next TU by profit.

Adoration from fans is nice, but money is what matters.

C-ent is currently in a financial bleak winter. The anti-corruption, anti-tax-fraud campaign started by the Xi regime in 2018, which cumulated to a sudden (and unofficial) collection of 3 years of back-taxes from studios and stars, has drained a significant amount of its capital; the number of new TV dramas being filmed fell 45% between 2018 and 2019, and production companies have been closing by the tens of thousands. The tightening of censorship rules also means production is associated with more risk. The commercial sector outside c-ent is also eager for replications of TU’s success—they need more “top traffic” (頂流) idols like Gg and Dd whose fans are sufficiently devoted to drive the sales of their products. Such “fan economy” would benefit the government, even if it doesn’t have direct stakes in the companies in and outside c-ent. People’s Daily, the Official State Newspaper, previously published a positive opinion piece on fan economy in 2019, estimating its worth at 90 billion RMB (~13.7 billion USD) per year.

But if the state allows the queer elements in Dangai’s to pass the censorship board (NRTA) for profit, how can it do so with the current “No homo” directive in place? From previous experience (scarce as it may be), the queerness has to be sufficiently obvious for the shows to make the profit everyone is wishing for. Dangai dramas in which the leads’ romantic relationship remains subtle have not sold the way TU does, even if they are well-reviewed and feature famous, skilled actors (as Winter Begonia 鬓边不是海棠红 last year.)

NRTA, and the government behind it, can’t just say I’m turning a blind eye to the flirting and touching for the money. What can it say then?

Here’s what I’d thought—what it can say, or do, is to “characterise” these Dangai dramas in a way that leave out its queerness. It did so for TU. TU’s review by the overseas version of People’s Daily devoted a grand total of two characters to describe WWX and LWJ’s relationship—摯友 (“close friend”). The rest of the article was devoted to the drama’s aesthetics, its cultural roots. (The title of the article: 《陳情令》：書寫國風之美 Chen Qing Ling: Writing the Beauty of National Customs).

How could it do that? The State’s power ensuring few questioning voices aside, I’ve been also thinking about the history and definition of Danmei (耽美)—Dangai’s parent genre as the causes. Based on the history and definition, I can think of 3 ways the queer elements in Danmei (耽美) can be characterised by the state, 2 of which provide it with the wiggle room, the movable goalposts it needs should it choose to want to overlook the queerness in Dangai.

The 3 characterisations I’ve thought of, based on the history and definition of Danmei (耽美) are:

1) The queer characterisation, which focuses on its homoerotic element. * Summary of the characterization: Danmei is gay.

2) The “traditional BL” characterisation, which focuses on BL’s historic origin as a “by women, for women” genre. The M/M setup is viewed as an escapist protest against the patriarchy, a rejection of traditional gender roles; displays of M/M closeness are often “candies” for the female gaze. * Summary of the characterization: Danmei is women’s fantasy.

3) The aesthetic characterisation, which focuses on beauty—from the beauty of the characters, the beauty of a world without harm to the romance. * Summary for the characterization: Danmei is pretty.

The queer characterisation (1) is well-understood, and likely the default characterisation if it is to be made by the fraction of i-fandom I’m familiar with. Most i-fans I’ve met, myself included, would likely and automatically associate the M/M relationships in The Untamed  (TU) and WoH with queerness.

The “traditional BL” characterisation (2), meanwhile, equates Danmei with BL as the genre of homoerotic works developed in 1970’s Japan for women comic readers, and has been widely interpreted from a feminist point of view.

Under such interpretation of “traditional BL” works, the double male lead setup wasn’t meant to be an accurate depiction of homosexuality. It wasn’t about homosexuality at all. Rather, it was about the removal of women and along with it, the rage, the eye-rolling, the unease women readers had often felt when attempting to interact with mainstream romance novels of the time, in which the female leads had mostly been confined to traditional women roles, and their virtue, their traditional feminine traits.

The M/M setup therefore acted as a “shell” for a het relationship that allowed removal of such social constraints placed on women. The lead with whom the woman audience identified was no longer bound to the traditional role of women, such as being the caregiver of the family. The lead could instead chase their dreams and roam the world, as many contemporary women already did or aspired to do; they were no longer limited to playing the passive party in life and in the relationship—and they enjoyed such freedom without risking the love, the respect the other male protagonist felt for them.

BL, in this traditional sense, has therefore been interpreted as an answer for, and a protest against the heteropatriarchal gender norm still dominant in societies deeply influenced by Confucianism, including Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China. The M/M setup is, at heart, (het) women’s fantasy. The inclusion of two young-and-beautiful male leads also satisfy “the female gaze” ~ the popularity of BL among het women has therefore been compared to the popularity of lesbian porn among het men. In both cases, the audience is drawn not for the homosexual element but by the presence of double doses of sexual attraction.

(Please forgive me if any of my wording comes as disrespectful! I’m not used to talking about these topics.)

The availability of the “traditional BL” characterisation (2) is key to bypassing queerness as a topic in the discussions of Danmei (耽美).

The aesthetic characterisation (3) is very closely related to 2) in origin, but deserves its own point as a characterisation that can stand on its own, and may be more obscure to the English-speaking fandom given the common English translation of Danmei (耽美) as Boy’s Love.

Boy’s Love, as a name, amplifies the queer characterisation (1) and de-emphasises the aesthetic characterisation (3); Danmei (耽美), meanwhile, does the reverse.

Where does the name Danmei come from?

When BL was first developed in Japan, it used to have a now out-of-fashion genre name: Tanbi. Tanbi was borrowed from same name describing a late 19th century / early 20th century Japanese literary movement, known as Tanbi-ha and was inspired by Aestheticism in England. Aestheticism “centered around the doctrine that art exists for the sake of its beauty alone, and that it need serve no political, didactic, or other purpose”. Along the same line, the core belief of authors of Tanbi-ha was that art should celebrate beauty and reject the portrayal of ugliness in human nature, the darkness of reality:

…Tanbi writers argued that the ideas of naturalism writers such as “objectivism,” “truth is more important than beauty” and so on would “oppress human beings’ desire” so as to “lose beauty and human nature.” Accordingly, they insisted on “acute mental and emotional sensibility” [Ye, 2009].

(Source, with more details on Tanbi.)

Neither romance nor homosexuality were requirements for works in the original Tanbi-ha genre. BL borrowed the name Tanbi because its early authors saw their work created under the same principles: the emphasis on the beauty of their characters, their love (romantic and platonic), in a world that was also beautiful and untouched by ugliness such as sexism and homophobia.

The stubborn persistence on keeping one’s eyes trained on the beautiful, the willingness to turn a blind eye to reality for the sake of the beauty is built-in in the genre’s name. Tanbi  meant more than beauty, aesthetics; its kanji form was written as 耽美;  耽 = to sink, drown in, to  over-indulge in; 美 =  beauty.

Tanbi, therefore, literally means to drown in, to over-indulge in beauty.

Over time, as the genre expanded its writing style, Tanbi eventually fell out of favour as BL’s genre name in Japan. However, as it gained popularity in the Sinosphere in the 1990s, starting with Taiwan and Hong Kong, the kanji of Tanbi was retained as the Chinese name of the genre.

In Mandarin Chinese, 耽美 is pronounced Danmei. A hyperfocus on the aesthetics, the utopian aspects of traditional BL is therefore retained in Danmei by its name. People’s Daily could therefore devote its review of TU on its aesthetics. Realism, including politics and all discussions of social issues, can therefore be swept aside in the name of respecting the genre’s tradition.

I’ve mostly been reading about and observing c-fandom, and I believe these 3 characterisations have all attracted its own kind of fans. Fans who care and talk about queer issues even when it isn’t encouraged by their sociopolitical environment, who shine a light upon these issues in their fan works. Fans who treat the M/M leads as if they were a traditional cishet couple, such as calling one of the leads 老婆 (wife) and assigning him biologically female functions when needed (via, for example, the ABO trope). Fans who insist the works must meet their beauty standards, rejecting those that fail (for example, if the leads are not good looking enough) by claiming they’re there for Danmei, not Danchou (耽醜, “over-indulgence on ugliness”). Fans who are drawn to the genre by a combination of these characterisations.

By the history and definition of the genre, all the above reasons for fanning Danmei are as valid, as legitimate as one another.

I thought about this related question then: are c-fans of the second (traditional BL characterisation) and third (aesthetic characterisation) groups homophobic? When I first asked this question, I—a fan whose fandom experience had been entirely in English-speaking communities—assume the answer was yes. I thought, in particular, the insistence of treating Danmei’s M/M couples as cishet couples in a homosexual shell had to be conscious queer erasure. How can anyone ignore the same-sexness of the leads? How can anyone talk about Danmei without associating it with homosexuality?

However, as I read more—again, specifically about c-fandom, and in Chinese—I realised the answer may be a little more complex.

Previously, I had largely thought about homophobia in terms of individual attitudes. This has to do with my current environment (liberal parts of the United States), in which the choice to accept or reject the queer community has become a close to personal choice. Pride flags fly all over the city, including the city hall, every summer, and most churches welcome the LGBT+ community. I hadn’t considered how an environment in which queers have never enjoyed full social exposure, in which education of related topics is sorely lacking, would affect Danmei’s development as a genre.

In such an environment, it is difficult for Danmei to evolve and incorporate up-to-date understanding of RL queerness.

The consequence I can see is this: Danmei is more likely to be “stuck” in its historical characterisation as (het) women’s fantasy inside than outside the Great Firewall, with its queerness de-emphasised if not erased—and it draws fans who are attracted to this kind of characterisation accordingly. This is, perhaps, reflected by the fact that the (het) women-to-queer ratio of Danmei / BL fans is significantly higher in China than in the West (Table 1 in this article summarises how Danmei / BL fans have split between different genders and sexual orientation in the Sinosphere vs the West in different research studies).

Another driving force I can see for Danmei to retain BL’s traditional feminist and aesthetic characterisations: women in China are not free from the social pressure that led to the birth of BL in 1970’s Japan. While many of them have achieved financial freedom through work and have high education, the young and educated have been subjected to immense pressure to get married and have children especially in the past decade.

In 2007, the China’s state feminist agency, the All-China Women’s Federation (中華全國婦女聯合會), coined the term 剩女 (literally, “leftover women”) for unmarried, urban women over 27 years old. The government started a campaign that, among other things, associated women’s education level with ugliness, and their unmarried status with pickiness, moral degeneracy. The reason behind the campaign: birth rates are plummeting and the state wants educated women, in particular, to nurture a high quality, next generation workforce. More importantly, the government sees a threat in the M/F sex imbalance (high M, low F) that has commonly been attributed to the country’s “one child policy” between 1979-2015, which encouraged female infanticide / abortion of female foetuses in a culture that favours surname-carrying boys. The state fears the unmarried men will become violent and/or gay, leading to “social instability and insecurity”. Therefore, it wants all women, in particular those who are educated, to enter the “wife pool” for these unmarried men. (Source 1, Source 2: Source 2 is a short, recommended read).

For Chinese women, therefore, patriarchy and sexism is far from over. Escapist fantasies where sexism is removed—by removing women from the picture—are therefore here to stay.

Danmei is therefore not queer literature (同志文學). The difference between Danmei and queer literature is highlighted by this reportedly popular saying (and its similar variations) in some Danmei communities:

異性戀只是傳宗接代，同性戀才是真愛 Heterosexuality is only for reproduction. Only homosexuality is true love.

The attitude towards heterosexuality is one of distaste, viewed as a means to an end the speaker has no interest in. On the contrary, homosexuality is idealised, reflecting the disregard / lack of understanding of some Danmei fans have towards the RL hardships of c-queers. The ignorance may be further propagated by gate-keeping by some Danmei fans for safety reasons, keeping queer discussions away from their communities for fear that their favourite hangouts would meet the same uncertain fate of other communities that previously held open queer discussions, such as the Weibo gay and lesbian supertopics. Such gatekeeping can, again, be easily enforced using tradition as argument: the beauty 美 is Tanbi and Danmei (耽美), remember, includes the beauty of utopia, where ugly truths such as discrimination do not enter the picture. A Danmei that explores, for example, the difficulty of coming out of the closet is no longer Danmei, by its historical, aesthetic definition.

[I’ve therefore read about c-queers viewing Danmei with suspicion, if not downright hostility; they believe the genre, by ignoring their RL challenges and casting them as beautiful, even perfect individuals, and in some cases, by fetishising them and their relationships, only leads to more misconceptions about the queer community. Dangai, meanwhile, has been viewed with even more distaste as potential weapons by the state to keep gays in the closet; if the government can shove the Danmei characters into the “socialist brotherhood” closet, it can shove them as well.

I haven’t yet, however, been able to tease out the approximate fraction of c-queers whose views of Danmei and Dangai is negative. The opposing, positive view of the genres is this: they still provide LGBT+ visibility, which is better than none and it would’ve been close to none without Danmei and Dangai; while Danmei may skim over the hardships of being queer, fan works of Danmei are free to explore them—and they have.

This article provides insights on this issue. @peekbackstage’s conversation with a Chinese film/TV director in Clubhouse is also well worth a read.]

That said, Danmei can only be dissociated from the queer characterisation if there’s a way to talk about the genre without evoking words and phrases that suggest homosexuality—something that is difficult to do with English. Is there?

In Chinese, I’d venture to say … almost. There’s almost a way. Close enough to pass.

The fact that M/M in traditional BL has been developed and viewed not as queer but as a removal of F also means this: queerness isn’t “built-in” into the language of Danmei. The name Danmei itself already bypasses a major “queer checkpoint”: it’s impossible to refer to a genre called Boy’s Love and not think about homosexuality.

Here’s one more important example of such bypass. Please let me, as an excuse to put these beautiful smiles in my blog, show this classic moment from TU; this can be any gif in which the leads are performing such suggestive romantic gestures:

How can I describe this succinctly? In English?

Two men acting in love? Er. That’s… the definition of gay, almost.

Two men acting gay? Well. GAY.

Right. Fine. Let’s go negative. Queerbaiting? … Still gay, because the word “queer” is in there.

[Pie note: for the record, I don’t think TU or WoH is queer-baiting.]

Personally, I find it impossible to describe the GIF above in English that I do not automatically associate with RL romantic love between two men, with homosexuality. But can I do it in Chinese?

… Yes.

There’s a term, 賣腐 (pronounced “maifu”), literally, “selling 賣 the rot 腐”, derived from the term known among i-fans as fujoshi and written, in kanji, as 腐女. Fujoshi, or 腐 (“rot”) 女 (“women”), describes the largely (het) female audience of the Japanese BL genre (>80%, according to Wikipedia). Originated as a misogynistic insult towards female Japanese BL fans in the 2000s, fujoshi was later reclaimed by the same female BL fans who now use the self-depreciative term as acknowledgement of their interest being “rotten”, for BL’s disregard of the society’s traditional expectations on women.

賣腐 is therefore to “sell the rot” to the rotten women; ie. the suggestive romantic gestures, exemplified by the GIF above, between the M/M leads are catering, performing fan service to their target audience.

[賣腐 is also a term one will see in the state opinion pieces.]

There’s nothing gay about this term.

I’ve therefore found it possible to talk and think in Chinese about Danmei while giving little thought to queerness. The history and definition of Danmei allow that.

Again, I’m not saying any of this to excuse homophobia among in Danmei and Dangai fandoms. The point I’m trying to make is this — given that Danmei has three potential characterisations, two of which can be discussed without abundantly evoking queer concepts and vocabularies, given that history of Danmei, as a genre, already favoured characterisation 2 (traditional BL), the government addressing homosexuality in its opinions on Danmei and Dangai is far from a given.

By extension, the popularity of Dangai may mean a lot or little to c-queers; by extension, the state can approve / disapprove of Danmei and Dangai in a manner independent of its stance on homosexuality, which is itself inconsistent and at times, logic-deying (example to come…).

This is both good and bad, from the perspective of both the government and the c-queer community.

For the government: as discussed, the “triality” of Danmei allows the state to “move the goalpost” depending on what it tries to achieve. It has characterisations 2 (the traditional BL characterisation) and 3 (the aesthetic characterisation) as excuses to let Dangai dramas pass the censorship board should it want their profit and also, their promise of expanding the country’s soft power overseas by drawing an international audience. These characterisations also allow the state to throw cold water on the popularity of Danmei / Dangai should it desire, for reasons other than its queer suggestions—despite the Xi regime’s push against open expressions of queerness (including by activism, in media), it has also been careful about not demonising c-queers in words, and has countered other people’s attempts to do so.

Why may the government want to throw cold water on Danmei and Dangai? They are still subculture, which the state has also viewed with suspicion. In 2018, a NRTA directive explicitly requested that “c-ent programmes should not use entertainers with tattoos; (those associated with) hip-hop culture, sub-cultures (non-mainstream cultures), decadent cultures.” (”另外，总局明确要求节目中纹身艺人、嘻哈文化、亚文化（非主流文化）、丧文化（颓废文化）不用。”).

Subculture isn’t “core socialist values”. More importantly, it’s difficult to keep up with and control subculture. 環球網, the website co-owned by People’s Daily and Global Times (環球時報), ie, The State Newspaper and The State Tabloid, famously said this on its Weibo, on 2020/03/04, re: 227:

老了，没看懂为什么战。晚安。 Getting old. Can’t figure out what the war is about. Good night.

The State also cannot stop subculture from happening. It doesn’t have the resources to quell every single thing that become popular among its population of 1.4 billion. What it can do to make sure these subcultures stay subcultures, kept out of sight and mind of the general public.

Characterisation 1 (the queer characterisation), meanwhile, remains available to the state should it wish to drop the axe on Dangai for its queer elements. I’m including, as “queer elements”, presentation of men as too “feminine” for the state—which has remained a sore point for the government. This axe have a reason to drop in the upcoming months: July 23rd, 2021 will be the 100th birthday of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and the state may desire to have only uniformed forces and muscled, gun-toting “masculine” men gracing the screens.

What about for c-queers and their supporters (including group I fans)? What good and bad can the multiple characterisations of the genres do for them?

For c-queers and their supporters (including group I fans), their acceptance and safety are helped by the Dangai genre, by the Dangai 101 phenomenon, if and only if the state both characterises the queer elements in these dramas as queer (characterisation 1) AND their opinions of them are positive.

Personally, I had viewed this to be unlikely from the start, because a queer characterisation would mean the censorship board has failed to do its job, which is embarrassing for the Chinese government.

Characterisations 2) and 3) are not bad for c-queers and their supporters, however, and definitely not “enemies” of Characterisation 1);  they can not only serve as covers for the queer elements in Dangai to reach their audience, but also, they can act as protective padding for the LGBT+ community if the content or (very aggressive) marketing of the Dangai dramas displease the government — with the understanding, again, that the “traditional BL” arm of the Danmei community is itself also highly vulnerable by being a subculture, and so its padding effect is limited and it also deserves protection.

The downside to achieving LGBT+ visibility through Dangai is, of course and as mentioned, that these dramas are, ultimately, deeply unrealistic depictions of the c-queers. The promotion of these dramas, which has focused on physical interactions between the male leads for “candies”, can encourage even more fetishising of queers and queer relationships. The associated (character) CP culture that makes and breaks CPs based on the dramas’ airing cycle may also fuel negative perception of queer relationships as attention-seeking behaviour, something that can be initiated and terminated at will and for the right price.

Finally, with all this said, which characterisation(s) have the government taken re: Dangai and/or WOH? And what opinions has it given to its characterisations?

PART 1 <-- YOU ARE HERE PART 2 PART 3