#jiang and venka and rin and kitay and all the others

[k9punkout]

Sort of a rant about tpw fics, no hate intended to anyone. I love all the poppy war fics, this is just to talk about what I would like to see more of

Okay I said it before and I WILL say it again. I'm all for creating what you want, so pls don't take this as judgement, but I want to see more fanwork of tpw characters going crazy/overcome with anger. ESPECIALLY RIN AND KITAY.

Ppl tend to forget just how angry Kitay is in the series, and how he's not just "smart mouth big brain soft boy". Like, he nearly went insane in the series, ffs he killed Niang and burned Rin with a candle. He only has remorse for civilians, none for people he already has beef with.

AND AS FOR RIN, I'm a little disappointed with how many times her rage is played off as "eheh, cute lil tsundere bad at feelings". It's nice, especially in a modern au/no war au, I'm not saying I dislike that sort of thing, it can be very cute if done correctly. But there just isn't much about how genuinely angry she is, how she literally lost her mind. I want to see more of her just being full of actual rage and visceral hurt, and not in the "gentle sobbing" way, in the "screaming at the sun brutal murder tearing the room to shreds" way. I just feel like ppl write her as too calm and gentle sometimes.

IN CONCLUSION, these two are literally tortured to the point of insanity and there's not a lot written about that. THEY DESERVE TO BE MAD, because anger was the only thing keeping them going and it got them into terrible situations too.

[i-dont-even-know-by-this-point]

I just finished reading ‘The Poppy War’, and… christ.

I was having fun in the first half the book. I was enjoying myself.

(Spoilers UTC and me just rambling incoherently about the book)

I can’t say I expected Rin to go ahead with genocide, because usually in this fantasy genre the protagonist is generally quite morally upright and even if they make mistakes and bad choices, they ultimately choose against them, but I really liked the subversion of expectations in that regard and how she started losing it slightly near the end; trying to justify it to herself and all that. It’s refreshing to see a protagonist who makes the wrong choices and refuses to admit they’re in the wrong, especially when it’s out of fear. It makes Rin seem very messed-up, and feel very human in that regard.

On the note of trying to justify it, Kitay is the best. I love how he’s not having any of it and pointing out Rin’s hypocrisy and hatefulness. I hope to god he doesn’t die in the other books.

Also… I stumbled across some spoilers in fanart and NEZHA LIVES. I called it. Because the last we saw of him was him getting dragged away by Federation soldiers, not lying dead on the floor, so I was holding out a string of hope that he was alive. I’m assuming that foreshadowing/ plot point being brought up earlier that he might be shaman because he healed his spine and whatnot so quickly has something to do with his survival: if he has some sort of healing ability/ connection to some god of healing or medicine, it would make sense that he survived the gas.

I was also hoping he’d survive because it would be really interesting to see such a visually attractive character have his looks taken from him by the gas — something which will happen, judging by the fanart I saw. He hasn’t been established as particularly vain before in regards to physical appearance alone, but it’ll be interesting to see if he struggles with self-worth or acceptance somewhat because of his looks being taken from him. I don’t know if that will happen, but it would be interesting to see; and I also wonder how Rin will react, because her perspective hasn’t exactly been subtle about how attractive she finds him.

Also, Jiang is a legend. Love that guy. I suspected he might be the Gatekeeper, and honestly, I expect no less of him.

I like how dark the story got in the second half, even if it was disturbing. The narrator didn’t shy from making the war really feel like hell, especially during the discovery of the massacre in Golyn Niis and Venka’s experiences during the war. It was gut-wrenching, and I say that as somebody who isn’t squeamish or easily put off by graphic descriptions. Just… god, it made my skin crawl.

I wonder whether Rin will keep going down the dark path she’s kind of set herself on. I find it really interesting how there seems to be an established cycle of violence going on, and hypocrisy and dehumanisation on both sides, and again, the fact that the protagonist didn’t try to end the cycle of violence but rather perpetuated it further is a very interesting route to take the story. It would be interesting if Rin pulled an Eren and became the antagonist of the series, but I don’t know if it’ll go that far.

Anyway. Good book. I need the second one.

[pearypie]

tpw hs/sports (???) au hcs

DEE. not soph. DEE. im sorry dee. dee tpw server told me to do this im not financially responsible for any of these

the yins. LMFAOOOOOOO

vaisra did crew in high school, was the captain of the team, as is yin family tradition. there are rows and rows and rows of sinegard acedemy team photos in the yin mansion with generations of yin men staring soullessly at you in their conspicuously revealing shorts with their conspicuously beefy thighs

jinzha also did crew.

nezha however. nezha was a Deviant.

nezha decided to play...

water polo

now this is a nightmare for the respectable yins. not only is water polo not crew it’s an objectively bad sport. you are a boy in speedos and an ugly ass helmet surrounded by other boys in speedos and ugly ass helmets. to the eyes of a respectable yin man that's not just cringe that's GAY.

so mingzha is still alive. but vaisra still hates nezha because he plays fucking water polo

and saikhara hates nezha because water polo is gay

moving on. venka does archery but always loses to qara in nationals. she has a one-sided rivalry with qara

qara doesnt gaf

rin plays soccer she's an absolute fucking destroyer of peoples shins

also rin nezha and venka all do... some sort of martial art. yadda yadda the canon combat/tournament plotline, whatever, we know how that goes

venka DEFINITELY did gymnastics as a child, was one of those toxic toxic toxic gymnastics girls, probably switched to archery after an injury or got tired of the culture (stares pointedly)

altan also played soccer! was captain of the soccer team and generally well respected

trifecta.. jiang never did a sport but he was more athletic than most athletes, or he did hip-hop or acro dance. daji was a dancer. riga did fucking.... hockey.

none of them (the trifecta) went to sinegard hs but they did all test into sinegard uni, the college that shs is meant to be a feeding school for, where riga met vaisra and subsequently they Beeféd

kitay did not do a competitive sport! he does however do chess tournaments AND robotics AND (leans in real close) lincoln douglas debate

[fangruninsimp]

Crack Fics

Of Course, I'd Let You Break my Heart Again by sir_numso169 (Vaisra/Tarquet, T, 685)

Vaisra had always known the Hesperians would help him, but it turns out they would do so in ways he never expected.

His life flips upside down when he meets him. Neither of them had believed in love at first sight, and yet...

checkmate, I couldn't lose by sloth_slushy (Jiang/Jun, T, 453)

Jiang and Jun's blossoming romance.

Nezha's Tall Tower by sloth_slushy (T, 1.3k)

It starts off with a yard sale, and ends with Rin buying Harry Styles. The usual pipeline.

these characters all need therapy so I gave it to them by chenkitays (G, 7.4k)

Rin, Nezha, Kitay, Vaisra and Jiang attend a group therapy session led by one (1) exhausted Strategy master. spoilers for the entire trilogy.

tags updated with new chapters

You're Just As Sane As I Am by sloth_slushy (G, 2.8k)

Crack fic written at 3 am, so far featuring drunk!Dumbledore among other Hogwarts shenanigans. Read at your own risk.

and He said, "love thy ducks." —Ephesians 3:20 by sloth_slushy (G, 731)

Rin and Kitay walked up to a lemonade stand and they said to the people, running the stand, "Hey!" (Bum bum bum) "Got any grapes?"

Nezha and Venka said, "No, we just sell lemonade. But it's cold and it's fresh and it's all home-made. Can I get you a glass?"

Escapé by sloth_slushy (Chaghan/Altan, G, 1.2k)

The Poppy War cast decide to go to an escape room. Shenanigans ensue.

The poppy war and online classes by nobeliumoxygenoxygen (Rin&Kitay, G, 2.5k)

In which lockdown is announced during the first years' four-day Summer Festival break and classes move online. For Rin and Kitay, that means quarantining together at his estate.

Also, Rin and the many times she wants to kill someone.

--

(some silly headcanons about the Sinegard first years and their lovely experiences with online classes)

[warrioreowynofrohan]

Welp, I’ve finished The Burning God and wow, R.F. Kuang really did decide to cram every major atrocity in a century of east and southeast Asian history into one book series.

This is the book that dives fully into “villain protagonist”. It’s not just the Rin is violent, brutal, and filled with rage. It’s how she exemplifies the combination of arrogance, and ignorance/incompetence that characterizes villains in so many other book series. It’s demanding an army while having no idea how to lead it, and being hostile and resentful to the person who does know, does have experience, and is giving her good advice. (Souji was as ruthless as her, but so, so much better than her in other ways - in terms of knowledge, in terms of competence, and in terms of actually respecting, caring about, and listening to the people he rallied, guerilla and civilian alike.) It’s the surety of victory and superiority, followed by being outmaneuvered, and refusing to learn from that. (Numerous times, but Xuanwu stands out.) It’s making the worst choices in a host of circumstances, being clearly warned that they are the worst choices, going ahead anyway, and then abruptly realising that hey, this is the worst choice only the instant that it starts to have any negative consequences for herself. (The Trifecta.) It’s the utter callousness - and in some cases, utter stupidity (making them abandon their warm clothing before leading them over a mountain range) with which she treats both her own soldiers and the civilians she’s supposedly liberating.

Above all, it’s the overwhelming demand for power and authority without the accompanying responsibility. To Rin, power just means people do what you say without question, even when you waste their lives to no purpose. It means loyalty even when you do nothing to earn it, and everything to lose it. It doesn’t mean taking responsibility for the people who follow you, or making sacrifices for them, it only means the ability to sacrifice them for your own ends. As she spirals to her own paranoid destruction, this spreads more and more to the people closest to her, when she kills Venka as a traitor while Venka is trying to save her life and insists even after that deaththat Venka was a traitor, on the flimsiest of evidence; and at last, when she turns against Kitay because he cares more about keeping the people of their country alive than about her project of endless war.

It’s one heck of a corruption arc, most of all because much of it isn’t a fundamental change from the Rin of The Poppy War, only a continous amplification of existing traits. She’s always wanted power and respect, she’s always hated restraint and responsibility and counsel (as in her resentment of Jiang when he warned her of the consequences of becoming a shaman).

…so when the teenage protagonist blows up. the entirety of Japan. in Book One, where does a series go from there?

[alectology-archive]

What are your thoughts on daji and jiang from tpw?

Tpw!jiang is batshit wild and kind of fun to read about although he's often seen straddling the line between helping rin and enabling her bad habits. I didn't care for the other two sequels and paid very little attention to them so I honestly have no idea what I think of him but I recall really disliking him for some reason idk. He's supposed to generally be a good guy but he annoyed me for reasons i can't explain. It probably stems from the books' refusal to really devote attention to the hinterlanders after giving them such crucial plot points in the past and present.

Su daji... I love her cunning and ruthlessness. And also i just love her. I have nothing really else to say since there's very little of her in the books anyway and I don't remember the last two very well - but she was done the dirtiest along with venka lmao. So much of tdr/tbg's plot revolves around purposeful miscommunication for the sake of ~plot~ that the books ended up feeling like really badly written tpw fanfic. There was no reason for all the weird drama between rin and su daji in tdr only to later reveal she was Good all along. None of the women seemed to be able to communicate with each other or trust their female friends which really didn't sit well with me since Rin spent all of the series trusting and fighting for horrible men and being thrown aside every single time they'd managed to accomplish their goals.

The thing is, I actually kind of agree with the idea of the trifecta needing to die so the 'trifecta' of rin/kitay/nezha can take centre stage - something something the cyclic nature of tragedy and violence that hurts the children the most, I guess. But it was badly done and there was no resolution to their personal conflicts after spending all that time with flashbacks and they were simply offed after rin used su daji as a plot device for a short while. Again, a lot of my annoyance stems from rin's corruption arc being done very badly - I still can't honestly answer why rfk thought of applying a real-life dictator's misdeeds to the last survivor of a genocide who's dark-skinned and doesn't want to bow down to invading forces who treat the people of her nation like literal animals. Tragedy in the context of the inevitability of empire can be done but this sure wasn't it and the azula fanfic really jumped out in the last book.

[fgodump]

Connections to “The Poppy War”

The setting and characters to The Poppy War has derived a lot of inspiration from historical events and myths alike. This is meant to discuss which characters have a relation to those preexisting. Of course, you do not need to know this information to enjoy the books, but I think knowing them will elevate your reading experience. None of this information is official. This is just the conclusions I came to while reading. Feel free to make comments

MAJOR MAJOR SPOILERS FOR ALL BOOKS

Locations

Nikara: Qing Dynasty. 

Mugen: Japan (Meiji Period)

Hesperia: Britain

The Hinterlands: Mongolia (unsure)

Murui: Yellow River

Tianshan: Kunlun

The different provinces were based off the Chinese Zodiac

The Poppy Wars: the Opium wars, as they have the heavy involvement of foreign invaders

Fang Runin: Rin’s character does not seem to take from a specific person, however the wiki stats that she was inspired by multiple people, such as Azula from ATLA and Mao Zedong

Chen Kitay: It's pretty obvious his character is inspired by Zhuge Liang in Romance of the Three kingdoms. In actual history, he wasn't that much, but in the book, Zhuge was a monster at strategy. 

In the first book, Irjah proposes a question, which Kitay replies “to bait the enemy into giving them arrows by rolling out a boat of strawmen”. This is something that Zhuge did as well.

Sring Venka: Honestly I'm blanking on Venka. I think perhaps Venka isnt supposed to represent a character at all, but instead all the comfort women and victims of the Rape of Nanking, based on what happened to her during Golyn niis. 

Yang Souji: He and his group the “Iron Wolves” remind me so much of the Shinsengumi. He even shares a name with Okita Souji, the captain of the first unit. 

The Shinsungumi were also nicknamed “The wolves of Mibu”

I know the glaring problem with this is that the Shisungumi are Japanese, and should have been Mugini in this book, but I think these parallels are pretty cool in any case.

Chiang Moag- Ching Shih. Woah, as soon as I heard Lady Pirate, it was undeniable who Moag is. Ching Shih, the most famous pirate in China perhaps, and she was a woman.

Their backstories share similarities too. Ching shih was a prostitute, just like rumors around Moag. 

The Cike: During the Zhou Dynasty, Wu Zetian (China’s only female emperor) had a secret police force that assassinated everyone she needed. This sounds incredibly similar to the way Daji used the Cike. 

Altan Trengsin: I believe that Altan is like Rin; either an amalgamation of many characters or simply someone Kuang made for the sake of the story.

Ramsa: I believe him to be Nikara’s representation of the creation of fireworks. Not based off a person, but instead one of the Four great inventions of China. Or maybe I’m looking too far into it lol, since he doesn't strike me as being inspired from a myth, since he is not a shaman

Baji: Zhu Bajie of Journey to the West. Based on his description and his name, I had him guessed before they even said anything about pig.

His weapon is even the same as Bajie’s, a nine-toothed rake. 

He also shares his desires, both of them being lusty for beautiful women

Suni: Sun Wukong. I had him guessed by his name as well. Although I believe the connection to be true, I cannot help but feel disappointed that the avatar of Sun Wukong was killed off so easily

The traits that these two characters share are pretty different, much more different than Baji had Bajie. 

For one, Suni is generally calm when he is not being taken over by his god, and is pretty gentle and nice actually. This is very unlike Sun Wukong, and also the reason why I think Suni was a bad body for Wukong to take over, since I think their desires do not match up like Rin and Phoenix

Aratasha: The last in the trio, Sha Wujing. I was confused at first, since Aratasha is no fighter, but I realized his name sounds incredibly similar to Sha Wujing. Wujing was a sand river demon in JTTW, so I don’t think it was a stretch to believe that Aratasha was based off of him (his god is a river god, after all)

Plus, Aratasha died before Baji and Suni did. Wujing in JTTW was weaker than both of his companions. 

Chaghan and Qara Suren: This may be a stretch, but I think Chaghan was inspired from Genghis khan. Gengis Kahn united the Mongols, like Chaghan united the Ketreids and Naimads. Even though the time period would be centuries apart (Genghis 1206, Qing Dynasty 1644-1912), it is the most likely option. It is unrecorded whether Gengis had any sisters, so I believe that Qara was made for the sake of plot (anchor). 

Yin Family: The entire Yin family was taken from the story of Nezha. You can read more about the original story by searching his name in Wikipedia. R F Kuang kept a lot of things from the original tale, and these notes are what I have noticed

Yin Vaisra- Li Jing. Li Jing was also a great general, and in other stories, he was the head general in the Jade Emperor's Heavenly Army. If you know about “Journey to the West”, it was him who attempted to subdue Sun Wukong. 

Yin Saikhara- Lady Yin

*its interesting how Kuang decided to make the mother’s name the family name for the Yins. Originally, I would have thought it was Li instead.

Muzha and Jinzha’s name were lifted directly from the source material

Mingzha is a character Kuang added, for Li Jing only had three sons (or 2 sons and a daughter in this case). There is no source material for how Muzha and Jinzha’s characters are; even in adaptations we rarely get to see any exploration of them.

Yin Nezha- Nezha:

Yin Nezha, like his original counterpart, was the third child of his father. Since Muzha was changed to a female, he is actually the second son. 

He has the powers of the Dragon of the Western river (TBG 392), likely referring to the White Dragon in myths, who is the dragon ruler of the western sea. 

Like the Nezha in the myth, Yin Nezha had an occurrence with a dragon that changed his life. 

At the first battle between Nezha and Rin in TBG, it is stated he wears golden rings around his wrists and ankles. Guanyin bodhisattva did this to Nezha in Journey to the West, in order to placate him. 

The Trifecta: All of the figures in the Trifecta were based on the Fengshen Yanyi (AKA the Investire of the Gods).

Jiang Ziya: His name was directly taken from the novel. 

Su Daji: Her name was directly taken from the novel, as well as some of her penchants for murder. Daji, in both history and the novel, was infamous for her torture methods. 

Jingzha being delivered back to his father in a dumpling holder would qualify as a toruture method. I applaud Kaung for being creative.

Yin Riga: I do not know if Riga is meant to be King Zhou or Ji Fa (the man who overthrew Zhou). Perhaps he was inspired by both of them, or neither. 

Since Kuang did not go into depth into which gods were in the pantheon, I will make a list to who I think is there

Gods mentioned in the books:

Erlang Shen

Sanshengmu 

Sun Wukong *implied through Suni

Zhu Bajie *implied through Baji

Huxian *implied through Unegen, and also Daji

Phoenix

Nuwa

Fuxi

The Four Dragon Kings (Yin Riga was likely the Dragon of the East) *There is no confirmation that there are multiple dragons, but I believe it was strongly implied

Chang’e

Xi Wang Mu, Queen Mother of the West

Zhenniao *implied through Pipaji

The Four Guardians (Azure Dragon, Vermillion Bird, White Tiger, and the Black Tortoise) *implied through Dulin, who summoned the Black Tortoise

Wong Tai sen *implied through Lianhua (Actually I am not sure, but I could not think of any other healer god in Chinese myths)

Gods not mentioned but I believe are in the Pantheon: 

Yudi: Usually depicted as the husband of Xiwangmu

Hou Yi (Since Chang’e is there. However, there is a possibility that he is in Chuulu Korikh as punishment for killing the sons of Yudi)

Shennong: He exists between Nuwa and Fuxi as the “human”

The Eight Deities

Guanyin: (Since Wukong is implied to be a god) showed up in JTTW

Yanwang: (Since Wukong is implied to be a god) showed up in JTTW

Other tidbits:

Arlong’s name may have been the combination of “Azure” and the chinese word for dragon “Long”. 

Aquebus are guns, but they shoot very slow. This aint a AK 47

The Red emperor could have been based off of Qin Shi Huang, or even the Jade Emperor himself.

Chuulu Korikh’s origin, although explained, has ties in Chinese myths. It was the mountain that encased Sun Wukong before he was broken out by Xuanzang. This means that the mountain was put there by the big B, Buddha. (Actually I can't remember if Kuang said who put the mountain down, but if she didnt specify this is what I think happened) 

I am more familiar with Chinese history and myths, rather than Japanese ones, so if im missing something feel free to correct

[st-just]

Semi-coherent Thoughts on the Poppy War Series

(Because I really need to start forcing myself to write semi-consistently again)

So I’ll say outright that I actually liked the series quite a bit, which does mean I actually got engaged and invested enough to start turning it over and picking it apart in my head after I finished it. So, like, this is probably going to come across as more negative overall than my actual opinions of the books.

Anyway, first off I really do adore Rin as a protagonist (I’d say ‘heroine’, but, well, no). Now partially this is because I always love even minimally sympathetic morally grey (..grey like coal soot, in this case) protagonists. But she’s just also such a complete garbage fire of a person, it’s kind of endearing. Well, that’s a bit callous – her entire personality is more or less a conflict between different kinds of unhealthy responses to powerlessness and trauma. Be she’s also just such a mess, and when she really starts leaning into delusions of grandeur you can’t help but root for her and hope things do actually turn out okay, regardless of how many fivers of blood she’s currently fantasizing about creating.

A big part of that is just how thoroughly awful the entire setting is, and how terrible everyone in it are, of course. Like, there are basically exactly three developed character in the entire trilogy who are unambiguously at least mostly good people (Chen, probably Venka, specifically the amnesiac and semi-delusional version of Jiang, but that’s being generous), and the fact that they stick around with Rin right to the end kind of puts that into doubt, honestly. Beyond that – almost every family has negligent or abusive parents, and literally every political figure is a bloody-handed tyrant ruling through violence and fear. The Hesperians are racist imperialists convinced they have a divine mandate to conquer the world, the Mugenese are every horror story from the IJA during WW2 translated to a pre-industrial fantasy setting, the ruling elite of Nikara are so many racist, scheming, power-hungry snakes with no concerns except their own position....

And, part and parcel with how terrible the setting is, Kuang does an incredible job of making all the worst things Rin does (until the final act, anyway) incredibly cathartic and badass and fun-in-a-fucked-up-way to read. There’s a terrible sort of awe while she turns the main islands of not!Japan into a pyroclastic hellscape. And whenever she gets a chance to enact any of her numerous revenges on some of the many people who abused and betrayed her it’s always poetic, in a Count-of-Monte-Cristo sort of way, and so kind of sickly compelling, even beyond it being some of the only times Rin’s really hopeful and happy. (Also, there are fun villainous monologues and quippy post-murder one-liners!)

Also, all forms of love are a terrible idea 100% of the time and is only going to end in at least one of the parties dead, abused, or (more or less literally) killing themselves in order to keep up with the other/earn their approval/try to keep them together. (I mean, Rin mostly had horrible taste in men, but Chen wasn’t able to stay mad at her for longer than a few months even after the whole ‘genocide’ thing, which he’s just about the only person to react to with any horror whatsoever. And look at how that ended up working out for him, so-)

I’m sure comparing grimdark fantasy to A Song of Ice And Fire is thoroughly out of fashion by now, but the overall perspective really did strike me as incredibly similar to Martin’s, a lot of the time. ‘Legitimate’ power and ‘lawful’ authority are ultimately nothing but polite fictions maintained by violence, terror and brutal oppression. War is a hell suffered most keenly by civilians with the misfortune to live and die in the middle of it, and least of all by the people with the power who actually start and end them. A flawed and unequal peace is very often preferable to dragging everything to hell with you as you die for the sake of freedom. And so on.

Now, to start the nitpicking – this is entirely personal and aesthetic, but it was kind of annoying how each of the first two books ended in moments of megalomaniac grandeur and terrifying empowerment, and then the next book started with a timeskip of things having gone to shit and her back under someone else’s thumb, and then a solid majority of the text is spent getting manipulated, betrayed, and finally crawling and clawing her way back out to the same point (both emotionally and in terms of independence/vision) that she had been at the previous book’s climax.

This isn’t anything even close to unique to TPW, of course – everything going to shit between the end of one story and the start of the sequel is kind of endemic to a lot of genres, really. And it is frankly incredibly in character for Rin to go through cycles flipping between resentment at being manipulated and used, and desperately craving authority figures to tell her what she should do and give her validation as valuable or useful. Still a bit annoying to read, though.

I’m sure it’s more me than the books – not like they didn’t put in the effort – but I could just never get really invested in the whole enemies-to-almost-lovers-to-enemies-again-to-? Thing with Nezha. Like, he’s interesting in that you can do a 180 perspective flip and he’d clearly be just as suitable a protagonist as Rin is, and his life’s very sad and everything. But, like, we get a front row seat to Rin’s internal monologue, and she gets thirsty for plenty of terrible men (and one awful woman), the only thing that makes Nezha special is that he’s not at least twice her age. So I never really got nearly as emotionally invested in them as the books seemed to expect me to. Which does kind of hurt the whole final act of book three.

Speaking of – okay, the ending isn’t awful or anything, but it is kind of disappointing in being exactly what you would expect it to be, as far as Rin’s character arc goes? Which might be just because I was already primed to compare this to ASOIF and she just literally pulls a Daenerys (fire-aligned vengeance/justice character with revolutionary impulses and an autocratic sensibility is willing to burn down the world in the process of freeing it, goes mad with power and paranoia, needs to be put down for the good of the country), but still. Her reading Venka throwing her to the ground to avoid an assassination attempt as a betrayal and burning her to death before she realized what was happening was just really heavy handed, you know? Same with turning on Kitay, who at this point is her actual literal soulmate. (Also sad in a broader sense, because those two are like literally two of the only characters in the entire series I’d actually peg as worthy of/capable of being trusted with political power.)

The specifics aside, I’m a miserable enough person to appreciate how unsatisfying the actual resolution at the end of the book is – imperialism wins! Literally no choice but to sign those unequal treaties and hope you’re eventually able to grow strong enough to force them out! Everything is the same as before this forty-year cycle of wars except much, much worse! - but yeah, I really just don’t actually care about Nezha enough as a character for it to really land. Also Kitay and Venka deserved better, even if literally no one else did.

Anyway, yeah, good series. Would recommend if you like the genre and can stomach all the, well, everything.

[wishesofeternity]

rambling thoughts on The Burning God:

(SPOILERS)

It was pretty obvious that Kuang was writing a more open book and intending on asking more questions than answering them, blurring fact and fiction to mirror real-world history, and it was really well done. Although I would've honestly preferred some things to not be so open to interpretation lol, but I guess that's a personal thing

God, all the military tactics and psychological warfare. Also, trigger warnings for pretty much everything. It's a brutal series.

The parallels between the Trio and the Trifecta. Kitay and Jiang, Daji and Nezha, Rin and Riga. How Rin had been Riga all along.

“darling, fucking what?” 

Jiang remembering who he was and still choosing to save Rin.

The Trifecta-content was kinda disappointing overall, though. They were so hyped up, especially Riga, and I really thought we were going to get a lot of them, but they just kinda ... fizzed out. 

And speaking of disappointments: Venka. One of my favourite characters for so many reasons - her growth, her trauma, her survival, her healing, her rage. I’m gonna make another post to properly write this later, but to sum it up: she was the one character whose fate I was completely fucking against, from a writing perspective. She did not have to die, and I am angry that she was killed.

Rin and Kitay. Rin and Kitay. They are soulmates and they love each other and I love them. 

CIKE 2.0!!!!!! I loved all of them, but I think it's ridiculous that they were introduced so late into the game only to be almost immediately killed off.

(Also, Kitay deserves better.)

Rin and Nezha. I just - everything. The dynamic of fire and water, of purification and regeneration, of Rin blazing out in destructive glory and Nezha living on in haunting chains. How they loved each other so much but it didn’t matter, because they were always going to be trapped by the patterns of history, and they were always going to be parallel lines, doomed to be on opposite sides. They could have never been anything other than a tragedy. 

How Hesperia wasn’t defeated in the end. How it would have to be survived for years, probably decades, for Nikan to truly begin to heal. How that small, flickering, desperate chance was still worth it. It would always be worth it.

Nezha being the last one standing. It was fucked, and infuriating, and I hated it, but it made sense.

Riga would have broken Jiang, but Rin gave up because she couldn’t bring herself to break Kitay. 

Rin choosing to die, to write herself from the narrative, both following the pattern of history and altering it from its course.

Rin dying in Nezha’s arms, just like she did in his nightmares.

Rin dying in Speer.

The ending. The ending. It was blazing tragedy and fragile survival, and it felt so very wrong and so very right. It felt inevitable.

“She’d nearly destroyed this country. And then she’d given it one last, gasping chance to live.” 

[yinnezha]

incoherent the burning god things i need to get out of my chest (spoilers)

YIN NEZHA

KITAY

rin dying in speer, the very place where she crossed the point of no return with the phoenix

nezha running away to speer of all places

JIANG IS NOT DEAD YOU CANNOT CHANGE MY MIND

darling, fucking what?

RIN FIGHTING KITAY

KITAY AND RIN NEVER FIGHTING EVEN AT THE ACADEMY BECAUSE EVEN PRETENDING WAS SOMETHING THEY COULD NOT DO BUT THEN THEY WERE FIGHTING IN THE END FUCK MY LIFE I WANT TO PUNCH A WALL

KITAY’S YOU’RE HURTING ME TO RIN I HATE EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!

KITAY BEING THE TURNING POINT FOR RIN

RIN GIVING UP BECAUSE SHE COULD NOT BREAK KITAY

SHE

COULD

NOT

BREAK

KITAY

RIN USING NEZHA’S HAND TO KILL HERSELF LIKE???? YOU KNOW WHAT KUANG??? NO THANK YOU FUCK THAT SHIT i wanna d*

NEZHA REFUSING AND HIS FINGERS GOING SLACK

IT’S THE CRUELEST THING I COULD DO

RUIN ME RUIN US AND I’LL LET YOU

the absolute love these three kids had for each other i don’t want to think about it it hurts too much

RIN AND NEZHA SPENDING THE WHOLE BOOK CONFRONTING EACH OTHER AND TRYING TO KILL EACH OTHER BUT NEVER GOING THROUGH WITH IT

THEY!! COULD!! NOT!!! KILL!!! EACH OTHER!!!!

NEZHA SAVING RIN FROM THE DRAGON

“you should have killed me” “i never wanted you dead” LMAO I’M IN PAIN

RIN DYING ON NEZHA’S ARMS EXACTLY LIKE IN HIS NIGHTMARES

venka saving rin and DYING AND RIN ON HER PARANOIA BELIEVING VENKA WAS A TRAITOR FUCK EVERYTHING!!! (was she though??? idk i’m exhausted)

JIANG SAVING RIN EVEN AFTER HE REMEMBERED WHO HE WAS HE STILL CHOSE TO SAVE RIN

(and he is not dead the fuck you’re talking about??? lmaooo) :(((

CHEN KITAY!!!!

rin :((( my god i love her so much i’m having a hard time processing that we couldn’t save her

and kitay following rin until their end

nezha... fuck

[k9punkout]

random poppy war headcannons

• while she was studying for the keju, kesegi asked rin about her new scars. rin would come up with an action packed, overly exaggerated story on how she got each one. they both knew it wasn't true, but kesegi loved listening to the stories and rin loved to tell them, it took her mind off of all the stress she was under.

•ramsa would randomly ask for piggyback rides from basically anyone in the cike that could pick him up

•chaghan used to get bullied as a kid because of his weak build, and qara would protect him every time she saw it happening

•nezha loves the concept of makeup and hair-care. venka is the only person he trusts enough to express this with, and he always asks her about beauty routines. his interest in such "feminine" things is still a huge insecurity for him tho

•kitay is neurodivergent, i don't have so much evidence to back this up, but im sure he is

•kitay and rin often make jokes about kitay being rin's "right hand man"

•get it

•bcs her hand was cut off

•ramsa and baji are banned from sugar consumption for the greater good of everyone around them

•rin has the humor of a twelve year old boy and her time spent with jiang and the cike only encouraged her further

•pipaji dulin and lianhua developed a sibling relationship much like the watterson family in the amazing world of gumball

•altan has an irrational fear of arachnids. idk i just like the idea of him turning into a completely different person when there's a spider around

•rin and altan make jokes about the genocide of speer sometimes

•"rin, istg keep testing me, i will bury you in the ashes of our ancestors."

•"what are you gonna do about it altan? tell your parents? oh, wait."

•"you went there huh? see this is why i hate speerlies, mangy dirtskinned savages, all of them."

•of course, if anyone else joined in on these jokes they would get a memorable (and very painful) reminder that they do not have the right to speak that way

•kitay can waggle his eyebrows in a horrendous manner and he uses this skill to terrorize his friends

•jiang does the same thing with hanelai and the trifecta

•ppl say venka doesn't have a role in the whole trifecta reincarnated thing, but i say her role rlly fits hanelai, she was never as famous, always an outsider no matter how important of a role she played, n just like hanelai she is full of rage at the men who did her wrong

•hanelai would have been an amazing mother

•after rin tested into sinegard, tutor feyrick worked hard to quit his gambling addiction

•in a happier universe kid altan and kid chaghan would have a little treehouse with a big "NO GIRLS ALLOWED" sign on it. sometimes, they'd invite the rest of the cike over to play as well.

•of course, rin and qara are the only exceptions to this "no girls" rule

•baji does a terrifyingly accurate impression of quandale dingle and he uses this ability for the utmost evil

•nezha flirts with himself in the mirror

•vaisra never ate dumplings or anything related to the food after the whole jinzha incident

•in a modern universe jiang would purchase like 300 tiny plastic babies and leave them around the whole school for ppl to find

•rin has a distaste for sex jokes, she always responds with a "don't be disgusting" to every intercourse related joke she hears.

•venka likes giving rin mixed signals, one second she'd be throwing the most wonderful compliments ever created at her, next second she's calling her the ugliest most hotheaded stupid asshole to ever exist

•this leaves rin far too confused to feel flattered or offended

•suni cries when he sees other people cry

[its-ashleyreads]

Finished: 27/03/2021

The Burning God by R. F. Kuang

They would take back the south with sheer numbers. The Mugenese and the Republic were strong, but the south was many. And if southerners were dirt like all the legends said, then they would crush their enemies with the overwhelming force of the earth until they could only dream of breathing. They would bury them with their bodies. They would drown them in their blood.

Rating:  ★★★★☆

Summary:

After the Dragon Republic’s betrayal, Rin returns to the south to raise an army and fight for herself and her people. But the Southern Coalition isn’t much better than the Republic, there are enemies everywhere Rin turns and while they may have the numbers, they don’t have the time or the training to win the war. But there is more than one way to win a war, Rin knows firsthand how easy ending a war can be, if you only have the right weapon…

Review:

This review has been a long time coming. I finished The Burning God over a week ago but even after talking it out with my book club, I’m still not entirely certain about how I feel about what happened. The first thing I want to mention though, is that while this was definitely my least favourite of the trilogy and didn’t leave me feeling totally content with the ending, The Burning God was a very good end to this series and I can at least sort of understand why certain decisions were made, even if I don’t agree with them. That being said, on to the review!

To start off with the things I liked, Venka, Kitay, the little nods to moments from the other books in the series, the characterization, some of the battle scenes.

Things I didn’t like, the boring trek scenes that took up approximately 50% of the book, the Hesperians and their gadgets (which were always mentioned but never explained), Nezah, the trifecta, the exact same thing happening for the third book in a row where Rin trusts someone and they stab her in the back, especially since at the beginning of the book she had a whole monologue about how she wasn’t going to let herself be used as a weapon and was going to fight for herself this time. And last but certainly not least, the murder of my innocent babies, Venka and Kitay.

This third installment of the series felt really rushed to me. Although there was roughly three-hundred pages dedicated to Rin making her way somewhere, all of the battle scenes and important moments between characters felt rushed. That whole thing with the trifecta took over half of the book but was over in two short chapters; Rin racing down the mountain after the temple was blown up took longer than the scene with Riga rising from the dead or whatever. Like, I understand that plan not working out, I do, but for how much time and effort was invested in that storyline it really should have amounted more to one boring fight. I personally think that that storyline should have taken a full book and then they could have dealt with the aftermath of Riga in another one but whatever, I’m not the author. Not to mention that Daji and Jiang both felt really weirdly characterized to me. I could tell that Kuang wanted the reader to feel some sort of sympathy toward Daji, and some sort of trepidation towards Jiang, but after two previous works making us think of them one way, it’s hard to make the reader reverse their feelings of them like that. And that’s what’s so disappointing, because Kuang did that. When Nezah betrayed Rin in The Dragon Republic I changed my mind about him so fast I got whiplash, but it just didn’t land with Daji and Jiang.

That scene where Riga is awakened was made all the more odd by the fact that the Hesperian’s just happened to show up? Kuang tried to explain it away by using Kitay and Rin to imagine what Nezah must be thinking but it just doesn’t make any sense, especially when later when they fight Nezah in battle and try to think of all the things he might do, Nezah outwits them? Which is it; are Rin and Kitay mind readers or dumb as bricks? Hesperian equipment was also so advanced and sophisticated but Kitay was able to figure out how all of their stuff worked in just a few minutes, even the weird gold bracelets that Nezah wore, Rin and Kitay seemed to figure out but was never explained to the reader? At least the other stuff Kuang gave half-hearted explanations to. The Hesperians in general were always mentioned but never actually showed up except for in the city where they found Kitay that the Hesperians had essentially converted into a Victorian steampunk city in less then six months. And I think that’s one of the big faults of The Burning God, that there’s not really any villain. I know that the first two in the series are morally grey by the ends of them, but during The Poppy War and The Dragon Republic there is a clear enemy, it’s only after that everything becomes muddled. With The Burning God, yes the Republic and the Mugenese are the enemy, but it mainly just feels like there is no enemy which I also blame on the long trekking sequences; I got so bored at some points I forgot who they were supposed to be fighting.

The real enemy of this book, however, was well and truly, R. F. Kuang since she murdered Venka and Kitay. I have spent all week trying to understand why she did it, but I just can’t. Venka, a survivor of brutal sexual assault, turned general had no reason to die in that way. I could maybe understand if Rin’s paranoia had her kill Venka with her own hand or something, but the fact that she just kind of died felt wrong and disrespectful. It was like the miscommunication trope, something dumb that could’ve been avoided but the author got lazy. Then there’s my sweet, sweet Kitay. Kitay was used and abused by Rin this whole goddamn series. He was apparently a pro strategist, but Rin always did her own thing and never seemed to listen to him. She caused him immense pain every time she called the Phoenix but did it on the reg anyway just to show off. (The scene where she calls more fire than she ever has, so much that it should have killed Kitay and neither of them ever mentions it. Also, what ever happened to Rin’s brother who Nezah may or may not have held prisoner and may or may not have killed? We’ll literally never know). But then Rin started losing her shit. I can understand why she ended up this way, after all of the betrayal this girl has had to face, I more than understand. But once they’re on Speer and she realizes what she has to do, Kuang could have found a way to save Kitay but she didn’t, and that’s what pisses me off. Rin’s story was done, but Kitay’s was not. As the author, Kuang could have had Rin even attempt to release Kitay from their bond but she didn’t even try. And the fact that their deaths happened simultaneously with only Nezah to witness it meant that most of the focus was on Rin, since he loved her. Kitay was given a few measly lines at most and I HATE IT. Chen Kitay deserved better and that is all I have to say about that.

While I seem to have focused on only the bad stuff in this review, I did really enjoy the characterization of Rin and a lot of the earlier stuff in the book. I feel more like I’m going to block parts of this book out of my memory but overall, this series was fantastic and I would highly recommend giving it a read.

[wenq1ngs]

[ID. Art of moments at Sinegard Academy from The Poppy War. The first panel is a lineup of all the masters. They are drawn from the knees up. All are wearing grey robes with a belt that is their pledge color. Above the masters is their name and subject. The order goes: Jun (combat), Yim (history), Jiang (lore), Jima (linguistics), Enro (medicine), Irjah (strategy), and Sonnen (weaponry). There is a speech bubble above Jima's head reading, "After your first year, you will be evaluated in combat, strategy, history, weaponry, linguistics, and medicine...". Jiang butts in saying, "and lore", to which Jima replies, "...and lore."

The second panel is comic style. Jiang is sitting under a tree, and Jun is standing over his shaking his fist. Jun is saying, "Jiang! Get out of my courtyard!" to which Jiang replies, "I don't see your name on it, darling". The drawing underneath is Jun from the neck up with an angry expression on his face. He says, "OUT." in all caps. Jiang smirks at him, replying, "make me <3".

The last panel's first drawing is stick figures of Jun chasing Jiang. Jun is screaming Jiang's name while Jiang laughs. Below that are rin and nezha hissing at each other, with Kitay, Venka, and Niang looking at them. They talk to one another:

Venka: Does this mean class is over??

Kitay: I guess so?

Niang: Are we ignoring the two behind us?

Kitay: Yes.

End ID.]

the masters of sinegard