#i'm very inconsistent

[beanofspace]

A wip comin a soon-

This is just at the corner of the next drawin owo!

Uwaahhh ;w; is she is cuuute (っ´▽`)っ

Oops uh hallo! Why ya open this-

[olivetelfie]

Track 1: Intro - The Game Cara roped them all into doing this by claiming it was for her dissertation - no one knows if it's true

A little extra:

[nouverx]

"I want to eat you" is their love language and you can't change my mind

[terastal-luxray]

Just a heads-up about me, I have multiple sexuality headcanons for the same characters.

For example: Sometimes I'll hc SpongeBob as being ace panromantic and sometimes I'll hc him as being gay. It pretty much depends on how I feel or whatever seems to make sense at the moment.

[spilycoris]

no, really. you shouldn't have.

[hasello]

OKAY SO I cannot make a comic to save a life, BUT I really needed to get this idea out so here we go!

kid me hated 2012 raph with all her passion and yet now I just want to hug the shell out of him, cause I'm sorry but this poor kid- is just a kid ffs

DUBBING, go check it out!

[neon-ufo]

✦ Ektor ✦ Miloš ✦ Huf ✦

[phykoha]

Introducing HEA Yuichi Usagi!

In the Elder Brothers' future, Lee and Usagi were married. The rabbit led his own squads, did near perfect supply runs, and could easily cut down Kraang Hounds on his own. Unfortunately, Usagi and one of his squads were ambushed during a patrol. Lee was with them. He was the only survivor...

In the present, Usagi is a regular yokai teen. He goes to school, plays basketball for the school team, and has a part-time job on the weekends. He's not that smart- Heck, his grades are pretty bad- But man, he's great with a ball. And a katana. He could probably give Leo a run for his money.

More HEA content!

[hongjoshuaz]

could beat picasso any day

[foxwmulder]

just found the fake MSR texts I made a million years ago. it's the green messages for me

[cluescorner]

I cannot imagine being a Damian stan right now. You've got both Zdarsky's bullshit (where he clearly doesn't give a shit about your boy) and The Boy Wonder (where Juni Ba clearly gives so many shits about your boy) coming out on the same day. The whiplash must be insane. I hope y'all get some nice warm soup for your efforts jfc

[beanofspace]

I do draw art yiss, i just recently been motivated by glass.

ANYWAY-!

Thems two characters belong to @chibichiibs (the blue jar with the pixie dragon) and @blackkittensketches (Literally Black in a pool of strawberry milk)

I lasted for a good few hours.

AND I WILL MAKE MORE, MORE JARS-

M O R E

lookie!

Rainbow!

U W A A A H

Beautiful uwu

Back to the grave i go-

[superfallingstars]

Snapetober Days 8 & 9: Crepuscular & Flight

edit just realized I messed up the days so this is actually 8 and 10 lol oh well

[adm-starblitzsteel-4305]

BEHOLD!!!

𝕄𝕆𝕋ℍℝ𝔸 ℝ𝔼𝔹𝕆ℝℕ!!!

MY VERY OWN TAKE OF MV HUMAN!MOTHRA REBORN ON GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE!!!

Yes, I redesigned her version into GxK and the results were indeed phenomenal unlike my KOTM style! Definitely one of my hardest challenges to do such an exquisite art!

And I added an extra design of her waist! Since she is worshipped also by the Iwis, I wanted to add a red linen cloth like Jia to further emphasize that she protected the Iwis.

From now on, this would be my official design for Mothra Reborn on GxK. I hope you absolutely love it!

( @sassyassblog @mossizi This is for both of you as a surprise! ) 🤩🥰

AND!!!

Here's the original design of my first MV Mothra Gijinka in KOTM.

I WORKED, 5 HOURS!!! ALL I WANT IS TO FINISH MY UNFINISHED ART BUT WHY FUCKING WHY?!?!?! I'M ALMOST STARVING AND GOT MY HAND HURT!!!!!

*ANYONE WHO POSTED MY ART WITHOUT PERMISSION SHALL RECEIVE WARNINGS, FLAMES AND VALID REASONS*

[owlyflufff]

Keiji always knew Koutaoru has a gentle touch.

He isn't foreign to the callouses and marks that etched along his partner's fingers. His high school years informed him much that his star could send spike after spike relentlessly, the sound resonating throughout a gym, arena even if Bokuto was eager enough. There on the sidelines he'd look over to see Bokuto sending in the most obnoxious high five, wishing the unfortunate soul that would be on the receiving end of Bokuto's "pat" to the back a get well soon and seen how enthusiastic Bokuto's every movements have been over the years he's known him.

However, Keiji knows just how gentle Koutarou's touch had always been.

For those very same hands were the ones that welcomed him warmly when he first joined Fukurodani's volleyball team. Those same eager movements so easily passed and shared food to him from his bento box. Such hands offered him kindness Keiji didn't think he should hold when his thoughts started to overrun him.

They wrapped bandages around his fingers from careless mistakes and hasty injuries, they hugged his own fingers tight and offered warmth when Akaashi's own fingers were surrounded in cold. Such movements held him close when he sobbed, fingers interlaced as the curtains closed on their last match and they offered their goodbye to the court.

If Keiji can trace along his skin, he could trace the fondest memory of Bokuto quietly reaching for his hands, looking him in the eyes and telling him the most earnest words with the stars being their only witness, an earnest I love you.

By then Koutarou's touch had only grown more gentle, stolen touches underneath the table during group dinners, merely sitting side by side a bench or finding comfort in sharing a bed and finding rest in each other's presence.

Keiji always knew Koutaoru has a gentle touch.

And as he watched from the distance, there is something to be said about how small and fragile a young child's hand could be as it reached out for Koutarou's own. The little kid jumped and hollered, bouncing as it requested for Koutarou to teach him how to spike once more. If anything Koutarou was surrounded by numerous children, all running and prodding to learn volleyball that their eagerness almost had Koutarou being swept up in their tidal wave of unbridled energy.

A reflection of who Koutarou once was, a reflection of who Koutarou still is regardless of all the years that have passed.

It makes Keiji laugh.

It makes Keiji smile.

It makes Keiji cry, almost.

He watches on as Koutarou eagerly but carefully guides those children, positioning their arms and rubbing their heads over a successful spike, hands so full of care and love that Keiji could never feel so deserving of it even now.

Keiji always knew Koutarou has a gentle touch, and in turn he wants to offer all those in kind. Offer his support, his care, his love really to the man that had left him speechless since day one. To the man who still leaves him speechless with all the children he's surrounded by.

And as Keiji stands up from the bleachers and makes his way over to Koutarou and the kids, there's he would offer Koutarou his own gentle touch, with one hand holding Koutarou's own and the other holding a ring from behind with the promise of forever.

[cloudravine]

🪷 The Lotus Flower in Mysterious Lotus Casebook 🪷

i. Growing Deep Roots

As noted by difeisheng, Li Xiangyi is an image more than he is a person. He’s the “symbol” and “beating heart” of the Sigu sect; “he embodies everything [the sect] stands for” and “has become one with every person he represents” in his role as a leader. As such, one might say he doesn’t exist as an individual who’s allowed the luxury of flawed, fluid humanity. Rather, he’s fixed into an object: a shield protecting those under his care, a mirror reflecting those he’s taken upon himself to be the champion for.  

While a heavy burden to carry, this identity as image is also shown to be brittle, hollow, like a hazy mirage which is more dazzling appearance than substance. Even Fang Duobing introduces Li Xiangyi to Li Lianhua by showing him a painting of his shifu — ink on a page, a person turned into a hero to be worshipped and idolated. 

Li Lianhua, over the ten years that pass after the Great Battle of the East Sea, works to plant and cultivate a new identity in the same way one might grow flowers. Li Lianhua forms deep roots and grows out of the mythical hero’s shell he’d been carrying as Li Xiangyi, thus developing an identity which is solid and grounding in contrast — an identity which involves “walk[ing] within a crowd instead of [soaring] above it.”

This shift from image to person is itself rooted in the lotus mantra (written by Buddhist Layman Pang during the Tang Dynasty) which Li Xiangyi first encounters after monk Wu Liao rescues him:

一念心清净 莲花处处开

The heart attains peace with a single thought; Lotus flowers bloom all around.

Although the exact timeline is left to interpretation, it’s implied that the lotus mantra operates as a catalyst of change for Li Xiangyi and that he changes his name to Li Lianhua after reading it. Now what is it about it that speaks to Li Xiangyi so deeply in that moment? As noted in 《 人間福報 》, the lotus mantra teaches us that a pure heart will result in an open and enlightened mind. One subtle, profound thought rife with compassion is enough for a person to glimpse Buddha in a flower, a leaf, a grain of sand or a speck of dust. In short, “if you can find peace within yourself, then you will find peace everywhere.” Perhaps Li Xiangyi, at his lowest point, finds solace in the prospect of stripping his life down to its very core and searching for purity, wisdom and peace within his troubled heart.    

By renaming himself 莲花/liánhuā lotus flower, Li Lianhua takes his destiny into his own hands; he empowers himself into reshaping his identity and laying down the foundations for the person he wants to become. Similarly to The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity which tells us that “names are the shortest spells in the world,” Li Lianhua’s new name functions as a spell which speaks a new him into existence. It’s a deliberate choice, a conscious attempt at breaking free from the suffocating shell Li Xiangyi was trapped in and become a person of his own choosing. 

The act of (re)naming notably also extends to Li Lianhua’s abode which he dubs 莲花楼 “Lotus Tower.” In addition to this significant choice of name, it’s interesting to note that Li Lianhua starts growing vegetables inside Lotus Tower when he’s left with nothing after his demise at the East Sea and is facing starvation. As such, his home is quite literally a site not only of self-sustenance and survival, but also of growth — a growth which requires hard work, patience and faith and nearly brings Li Lianhua to tears when his hopes are finally rewarded and the seeds he planted begin sprouting. The act of physically planting vegetables and learning to cook those vegetables speaks of a refreshing and grounding simplicity — of something disarmingly vulnerable and human after playing the role of a god-like figure. Li Lianhua has sweat on his brow and hope in his heart; he plants seeds, watches them grow and keeps himself alive by his own hands.

It seems it’s not only Li Lianhus’a home, but also his very person, which steadily grow into a lotus flower. Li Lianhua wears a variety of hairpins directly linked to the lotus, and the colour coding of his garments moves from the red he used to wear as Li Xiangyi to a lighter palette filled with greens and blues — colours which are more obviously linked to nature.

ii. Life Borrowed and Given Away

The lotus, both traditionally and within the drama itself, is closely connected to the theme of rebirth. On a literal level, the exotic lotus flowers of Cai Lian Manor grow directly from the corpses of the victims drowned in the pond, thus embodying life born from death. thawrecka writes in their story that Li Lianhua is “nothing but a lotus nurtured by a walking corpse, a body that doesn’t realise it should already be dead.” On a figurative level, the lotus grows in muddy water but blooms unsullied every morning, thus symbolising rising from a dark place and growing into something beautiful and colourful despite all the odds. The different stages of the lotus’ blooming can be taken to represent the beginning, middle and end of a spiritual path in Buddhism — a parallel to the theme of 趟/tāng taking a journey which underscores the drama in various ways.

Li Lianhua’s journey, more specifically, is that of a lotus being reborn. The soundtrack piece 《 一壶莲花醉 》 “A Pot of Lotus Wine” emphasises this connection in the following lines:

问一句莲花的悲喜 断一柄弃剑入青泥

I ask about the joys and sorrows of the lotus; A broken, abandoned sword is thrown into the mud.

Not only does Li Lianhua keep stressing at different points of the drama that Li Xiangyi is dead and all that is left behind is Li Lianhua; he even breaks his own sword Shaoshi at the end of the story, thereby physically reenacting a process of destruction—death—and rebirth. As Li Lianhua writes in his farewell letter: 

剑断人亡

My sword is broken, and I will be gone.

The significance of Li Lianhua’s action is further intensified here by the fact that the sword in the song is said to be thrown into 泥/ní mud, the site from which a lotus flower grows.

Considering that Shaoshi operates as a device embodying Li Lianhua’s character development throughout the drama, the fact that Li Lianhua decides to break it in the last episode should be taken as a key moment in which he chooses how his own narrative is going to end. Li Lianhua decides to kill for good the glorious image of Li Xiangyi which has become sullied with pain and regret in his heart, so that a simple, fragile peace can begin growing in its place like a lotus flower amidst the mud.

However, the tragedy of Li Lianhua’s narrative is that the rebirth he works to achieve for all these years is not his own to enjoy and never was intended to be. After the Great Battle of the East Sea, as Li Lianhua is reborn from Li Xiangyi and starts planting seeds all around him, he has already accepted that he’s nothing but a ghost, “wandering in the jianghu to close his loose ends and finally [...] vanish without a trace, not even a body left behind.” As mx-myth remarks, even the shift in his garment colours to an overwhelming amount of white as the story progresses makes it clear that he’s resigned to go and has “already started dressing for his own funeral.” 

The lotus flower symbolism permeating the narrative accentuates this bone-deep, unshakable resignation. While imprisoned by Jiao Liqiao, Li Lianhua is full of an aching, bittersweet fatalism when he recites a section of Guan Hanqing’s《 窦娥冤 》“The Injustice to Dou E”:

花有重开日 人无再少年 不须长富贵 安乐是神仙

Flowers will blossom again, But a man can never be young again. Seek not eternal wealth; You only need to be content.

Independently from the original meaning of the lines written by Guan Hanqing, the words seem to take on a sad, wistful quality when spoken with a bitter smile by Li Lianhua. In this scene, while the speaker reflects that rebirth occurs outside of themselves in flowers, they acknowledge that their own reality is one inevitably bound to end in old age and decay. Instead of looking forward to a bright future, the speaker doesn’t express any dreams nor ambitions and is only grateful that they’re alive this minute, this second, without any future prospects awaiting them. Perhaps a similar sentiment is reflected in the following lines from 《 一壶莲花醉 》 “A Pot of Lotus Wine”:

了了心事只 不负众生 而已

After settling my worries,  I just want to live up to all sentient beings.

Li Lianhua’s connection to the lotus flower, in fact, was always meant to be one of non-attachment. While Buddhism believes desire to be the root of all suffering, the lotus symbolises non-attachment due to being “rooted in mud (attachment and desire)” while “its flowers blossom on long stalks unsullied by the mud below.” This explains in part why the lotus is considered pure and noble. For Li Lianhua, this non-attachment takes on sorrowful connotations: it means that he stubbornly refuses to reap the seeds he sows and focuses his purest heart and will into ensuring those around him get to reap them instead. Non-attachment means allowing himself enough (a roof over his head, food on his plate) to survive, but rarely letting himself indulge in the precious luxuries of reciprocated love and care — of carefree joy and thirst for adventure.  

The ten years he lives after his first death at the East Sea are, for him, only borrowed time he didn’t deserve — borrowed time not dedicated to himself, but rather dedicated to others.

In many ways, Li Lianhua’s path effectively goes full-circle by the end of the narrative. When he and Di Feisheng reminisce about the moon they remember from ten years ago, they conclude that today’s moon isn’t any brighter than the one alive in their memory: rather, it remains constant, unchanged, as though the past ten years never existed as anything other than a short pause in the story, a coma, long enough for wrongs to be righted but not  for an already-dead person’s fate to be changed.

It’s interesting and particularly significant that the Styx flower (忘川花, from 忘川 “River of Forgetting” in the original Mandarin) is said throughout the drama to be the only thing capable of saving Li Lianhua’s life. In traditional Chinese culture, the Styx or River of Forgetting is part of the process of reincarnation; only by crossing it (and forgetting everything they’ve ever experienced and everyone they’ve ever loved) can a person finally reincarnate. For Li Lianhua, salvation through rebirth comes at a high cost — a price he’s evidently been ready to pay since the beginning, even if it means turning him into a ghost who must vanish from the story in order for those around him to grow and thrive further.

When Li Lianhua breaks his own sword to allow for rebirth, it’s not himself he’s saving. His sole purpose throughout his journey as Li Lianhua is to use whatever meagre strength he has left, whatever passion and drive are still alive in him, to save the world in any small ways that he can. He becomes a doctor who heals people; he looks for answers and solves mysteries to atone for the sins he thinks he has committed and rectify the mistakes he thinks he has made, so that those he has hurt can finally find peace and comfort.

The most powerful legacy Li Lianhua intends to leave behind by the end of the story has nothing to do with himself and everything to do with the people around him who he never truly admits he loves — the messy, imperfect world that’s caused him so much pain but that he nevertheless insists on saving with everything he has. 

Most strikingly, Li Lianhua chooses—whether consciously or not—to leave the life and future he’s renounced for himself to his companions Fang Duobing and Di Feisheng. The only traces he purposefully leaves behind live in them: in the Yangzhouman coursing through Fang Duobing’s body; the home, dog and recipe book he passes onto him; the worthy opponent he leaves for Di Feisheng to fight in his stead after he’s gone… 

Fang Duobing, by the end of the story, has grown into more than a disciple and a friend to Li Xiangyi/Li Lianhua: he himself has become the lotus flower bringing renewed life after Li Lianhua has left the narrative, thereby taking Li Lianhua’s legacy into a hopeful, vibrant future. As mx-myth mentions in their colour analysis, Fang Duobing notably wears bright pastel tones including a large amount of green/blue — a colour coding which emphasises Fang Duobing’s connection to spring and, by extension, new life and beginnings. “Life will always go on if there’s spring”; and so Fang Duobing’s youth, vitality and optimism can grow in the empty space left behind by Li Lianhua after he fades into the autumn of his life.

While Li Lianhua’s predominantly light colour palette might appear to align him with other characters in the drama who have left the past behind and are looking towards the future, Li Lianhua made peace long ago with the knowledge that he’s destined not to belong in that future. Just as the Lotus Sutra teaches us that “the inner determination of an individual has great transformative power” and “gives ultimate expression to the infinite potential and dignity inherent in each human life,” Li Lianhua focuses all his transformative efforts on creating a future which, despite having no place for him, will be fertile ground for the entire martial arts world to grow deep, healthy roots. In Li Lianhua’s own words:

幼芽生枝 新木长成 武林也一样 这未来如何 谁又能说得清楚呢

The young sprouts and the new trees grow. The martial arts world is the same. What does the future hold? Who can say clearly?

Should we say, then, that Li Lianhua’s story is one of sacrifice, self-renunciation and resignation — of drifting inevitably towards death as a flower carried by a stream? As he disappears on a boat and is asked where he’s going, Li Lianhua gives a response which echoes his first death at the East Sea in a way that feels entirely deliberate:

小舟从此逝， 江海寄余生

From now on I would vanish with my little boat; For the rest of my life on the sea I would float. 

How are we to understand a person being reborn simply so they can pass on that new life to others, and being convinced that their only true value lies in their death?

Perhaps, in spite of it all, we can find some small comfort in the knowledge that, no matter how sorrowful Li Lianhua’s fate, it’s at least one that he chooses — one that he has full control over, even poisoned and robbed of his life force as he is. As the lyrics of 《 一壶莲花醉 》 “A Pot of Lotus Wine” underline, “it’s just a matter of picking an ending that you like.” Perhaps that’s all that truly matters. 

wuxia-vanlifer makes an excellent point when asking: “What would be more tragic? That he never believed he was loved? Or that he did, but vanished anyway?” While I don’t have an answer to offer, there’s one thing I can say. Li Xiangyi, Li Lianhua — they live and die by love. They can’t conceive of themselves as anything other than a sacrificial tool because, for all that they pretend to be aloof and untethered, they actually love others—and the world—in a bone-deep, profound way they’ve never loved themselves. That love is not only the true driving force behind Li Lianhua’s character and the fate he chooses: it’s the beating heart of the entire drama.

“In this life, I have loved and I have been loved. That is enough.”

Shoutout to the following authors and bloggers whose brilliant words and ideas inspire me, as well as this gorgeous video 💖

ao3: @extraordinarilyextreme @thawrecka

tumblr: @difeisheng @extraordinarilyextreme @mx-myth @wuxia-vanlifer @xinyuehui