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Good Morning, Wife Wen!

Extremely silly (and hopefully fun) baob3i modern au!

Dedicated to @gatoraid and @mispatchedgreens without whom this wouldn't exist.

Ma Xiuying from the Radiant Emperor duology!

Design/research notes under the cut

The characters read 馬秀英 (Pinyin: mǎ xiù yīng), her personal name, and 孝慈高皇后 (xiào cí gāo huáng hòu), her name as Empress.

There's certainly no dearth of material on Chinese clothing history out there. That is, if you can read Chinese, which I can't, so everything I have is from secondary and tertiary sources and/or relies on translation software. Fortunately, we're dealing with historical fantasy here, so some anachronisms are not only allowed but encouraged.

While Shelley Parker-Chan takes many liberties, the books are still set in a very specific time period, which is both a blessing and a curse. Most readily accessible resources will tell you about dynasties, which can span hundreds of years, and the duology takes place in a transitional period. So how to dress a Semu girl from the Yuan dynasty who lives with Nanren rebels wanting to revive the Song dynasty and who later becomes the first Ming empress?

Let's go through them one by one. The best resource was this book which is on the Internet Archive. I disregarded Mongol and Semu influences for the design since clothing is very much political and a way to either stand out or fit in with the surrounding society, see for example Wang Baoxiang wearing a topknot in Khanbaliq. Ma, I imagine, would want to fit in with the Nanren around her, so she's pretty much wearing the attire of Han women under Yuan rule. For the hair I went for something that looks youthful while being plausible, though I found very little on hair in this period, so who's to say.

The next one is from a specific scene in the book, so there is some description to go on: red, long sleeves with gold embroidery, high hair, red and gold ribbons. Since this is the scene where Ma declares herself queen and future empress in front of the Red Turban, it has to be a very deliberate dress. It therefore takes inspiration from Song aristocrats' broad-sleeved gowns as well as from 翟衣 (dí yī), the highest ceremonial gown of both Song and Ming empresses. (Some examples for 翟衣 are in this post, which also features the bird shaped crown I just had to include, and this post.) Her hair still has the loops, but it's much more sculpted.

Finally, Empress Ma! This is mainly based on the two actual portraits I could find of the historical figure that Ma is based on, with elements taken from other portraits and paintings. It includes 凤冠 (fèng guān), the phoenix crown, 霞帔 (xiá pèi), the sash, and 禁步 (jīn bù), the jade belt. This video shows how Ming dynasty layers are worn, but it refers to a much later period so it's not quite the same as Ma's.

(Some additional, historically irrelevant notes: I realized too late that a right-to-left timeline might be more appropriate. Oh well! Also, how the colours photograph frustrates me, I swear I did not make her this deathly pale. And finally, some of the characters look a bit smudged because my cat spilled water on them. I did what I could to save them.)

That's how it went, right?

can’t believe the first murderdads I draw are a meme

2, from lin shu/mei changsu to character of your choice?

2, from lin shu/mei changsu to character of your choice? “You’re too young to hate the world.”

Tingsheng takes a leaf from Fei Liu’s book and hides.

Keep reading

How could I ever compare?

Week 1: Secret Crushes for the COP February event #ArcaneLoveLetters

made her a lil airship as a nod to mechanic!Vi from LoL lore

My dream of dreams for Arcane season 2 is to have a sweet little montage of Vi ans Jinx just running around causing chaos in Zaun to this song. Just them having fun together as sisters again and nothing else matters for them.

“if you can’t brush your teeth that’s fine uwu one step at a time” posts are supportive and that’s great but I’m about to have a 4.4k$ dental bill because I wasn’t taking care of my teeth when I was super depressed so uhh brush your fuckin teeth

the ideal Daisy/Hazel dynamic 🤗

reference image under the cut ⬇️

some old fan art I did about two years ago when I was watching Arcane.

must enemies turn into lovers? can't they be the mirror of each other, connected by a defining trait of their character and arc, but ultimately separated by fate or ideology? can't they feel each other's presence in the crowd, a tether, a like calls to like, and at the same time repulsion for the distorted reflection they find in their enemy? can't they be each other's most feared destiny? can't they squash every time they meet the tiny fragment of empathy and connection that refuses to die, despite the opposite ideas, despite the blood, despite and because of the tragedy of it all?

Prince Jing with Mei Changsu VS. Prince Jing with Lin Chen [fanart] 蕭景琰, 梅長蘇, 藺晨 “琅琊榜” Nirvana in Fire | © stari1013i1310isj

Mysterious Lotus Casebook 6/?

MLC 1 | MLC 2 | MLC 3 | MLC 4 | MLC 5 LLH 1 | LLH 2 | LLH 3 FDB 1 | FDB2 DFS 1 | DFS 2 JLQ 1 JLQ 2 FEIHUA 1 | FEIHUA 2 | FEIHUA 3 | FEIHUA 4 | FEIHUA 5 | FEIHUA 6 OT3

not romantic not platonic but a secret third thing [what would happen between earth and the moon if the earth stopped spinning as illustrated by xkcd randall munroe]

Tiredest man in Meiling

I just read an interpretation for “the moon that year was not as bright as tonight” / “the moon that year is just like tonight” on bilibili that blew my mind：

When Di Feisheng says “the moon that year was not as bright as tonight”, he means that he did not appreciate their relationship ten years ago like he does now. And since saying “the moon is bright” is basically a love confession according to Chinese romance novel / drama conventions, Ah Fei is saying that he wasn’t in love (or didn’t realize he was in love) with Lianhua ten years ago, but realizes he loves with him now. (This is very plausible, imo, because ten years ago, he was single-mindedly focused on Lianhua’s power and channeled his obsession with Lianhua into their rivalry)

But when Li Lianhua tells him that “the moon that year is just like tonight”, he is confessing that his love for Ah Fei had never changed: he loved Ah Fei ten years ago and loves him still to this day 🥹

I really like this headcanon / implication that Lianhua was the first to fall in love with Ah Fei ten years ago (and not the other way around). Because imagine Li Xiangyi / Lianhua at the height of his power ten years ago, realizing that he has a crush on his arch-rival who only sees him as a challenge to overcome. Nevertheless, he manages to win Ah Fei’s trust and they sign a truce, only to learn shortly after that Ah Fei “betrayed” him and killed his older brother / shixiong! Imagine his despair and heartbreak as he storms into Ah Fei’s yacht / ship to fight him!

And then, ten years later, after he lost all is power and resigned himself to waste away as a dying man, Ah Fei shows up, tells him he didn’t order his shixiong’s murder, vows he will cure him, and refuses to leave his side. They settle into their old banter. They instinctively rely on each other but cannot fully trust each other.

And this is when Ah Fei, who has only known a life of violence and has never found a moment of peace until now, begins to realize that he can love! He doesn’t have to relive his childhood over and over, killing everyone better than him until he is the last man standing! For the first time in his life, Di Feisheng feels safe with someone, he wants to protect rather than destroy. With Li Lianhua, he can finally enjoy the mundane and simple pleasures of life. Of course the moon looks brighter tonight.

A dragon who decides to hoard mint and various types of mint plants (and not knowing that mint has the mushroom’s blessing of inevitability were ever its planted) can go one of two ways.

1: The dragon is absolutely horrified as the mint engulfs and takes over its den. Its gold? Mint. Its gems and goblets? Mint. Its stores of wine? Mint. No matter what they do they can’t get rid of it.

2: The dragon is delightfully ecstatic as the mint engulfs and takes over its den. It’s a self growing hoard. No matter what any adventurers or knights do, they can’t get rid of it.

Growing up Mormon AND with long hair that I didn’t cut because of pressure from my mom, to me the metaphor here is pretty obvious… you can read it how you want though.

I Am Not Your Asian American Doll: a comic for AAPI Heritage Month 2023

I usually spend a lot of time editing and fine-tuning my comics so that they come across as polite and inoffensive. But honestly, I’m really tired of the way Asian cultures and countries are treated / talked about while Asian people themselves are excluded, and thought it was about time I really let my rage out lol.

id in alt

ok, but that would make it my best birthday ever

⬆️ DO NOT INVITE THIS MAN TO YOUR BIRTHDAY PARTY. HE WILL RUIN YOUR SPECIAL DAY FOR POLITICAL PURPOSES.

I love it when people tell me about me because I have no idea who I am

'Mid' autumn festival? I find it quite based actually.