So Interesting - Tumblr Posts
wow
and suddenly i dont feel so fucking weird anymore
or at the very least the weirdness was your fault, not mine
so interesting to find that out over a decade later
Language map of New Guinea and surrounding area, the most linguistically diverse area in the world.
Completely crack theory that has no basis whatsoever and is a joke (i shared it with @/2flowerz a while ago too lmao)
There is no Hyde.
Not in the sense that Hyde isn't his real name because Leo said that Dante probably isn't Dante's real name so it's safe to assume most of the faculty work under pseudonyms and Hyde isn't his real name either. But in the sense that there's only one Haizono brother. Hyde is Sho.
Hyde and Sho have the exact same eye color and pattern AND SIMILAR SHAPE and mostly the same hair color. Sho has a high ponytail and Hyde has a low one, so adjacent hair style too--Sho's hair is almost covering one eye while Hyde's fully covers the other too. Adjacent default expressions. Compare that to our other pair of brothers who have different hairstyles(but the same base hair color) and similar but different eye colors and shapes and expressions(but well one is a ghost and one is barely alive.)
Their hair colors aren't as similar on my phone comically I think I have some sort of enhanced color setting on here, BUT YOU CAN STILL SEE THE VISION THEY BOTH HAVE ALMOST WHITE HAIRlmao
So why would Sho and Hyde be coexisting if they're the same person? Well if there are timeloops like we suspect and not everyone loops perfectly, perhaps Sho is sent back in time as his last-living self when the loop resets, as opposed to being reset to a certain point.
Instead, Sho is sent back to when he was younger, in his last-living state, but with the child Sho from the new timeline still intact--and thanks to his existing knowledge of anomalies and the outcome of the world, he's able to fabricate the existence of an older Haizono child for his own family and neighbors. The Institute would obviously notice that uh actually this person doesn't exist and notice something was wrong and approach him--but since he's not out to harm anybody, he would get more or less immediately brought in to Darkwick and the Institute to be observed and eventually to help out. Since he already knows so much(he's not Leo but they both memorized the textbooks, they both got very high marks, Sho is extremely intelligent) he'd excel in the field of anomalous biology and everything would go smoothly.
As long as he makes sure Sho(as he himself would, by now, be Hyde) made it to Darkwick again, he could help him survive and maybe change the outcome that he'd experienced in the first timeline as Sho. [According to Sho in the campus chat I can't find my screenshots of] Sho is taking advantage of Hyde because it's "practical" and he can use Hyde to "get ahead" but Hyde(Sho of the previous timelines) is really trying to help him get ahead and use him to change whatever outcome happened in the pre-prologue timeline. He's using everyone else too, since every time there's a reset he learns more from the Sho of that timeline's experiences--but he's just trying to look out for himself and maybe save everyone in the process.
Taiga doesn't trust him because he remembers the first timeline. Hyde didn't exist. Who is this guy and why is he trying to pull all these strings? Where did he come from? Maybe Hyde tried to explain once and Taiga didn't believe him, or since Hyde is Sho Taiga can't actually see anything relating to him and just gets feedback on Sho instead--technically there should only be one Sho in each timeline, so his ability to see through time only works on the one that should be there. Which only makes it harder to trust him.
THERE IS NO BASIS OR REASONING BEHIND THIS THEORY BEYOND 'SHO AND HYDE LOOK EVEN MORE SIMILAR THAN JIRO AND ZENJI'. THANK YOU FOR COMING TO MY POST.
Feminist fantasy is funny sometimes in how much it wants to shit on femininity for no goddamned reason. Like the whole “skirts are tools of the patriarchy made to cripple women into immobility, breeches are much better” thing.
(Let’s get it straight: Most societies over history have defaulted to skirts for everyone because you don’t have to take anything off to relieve yourself, you just have to squat down or lift your skirts and go. The main advantage of bifurcated garments is they make it easier to ride horses. But Western men wear pants so women wearing pants has become ~the universal symbol of gender equality~)
The book I’m reading literally just had its medievalesque heroine declare that peasant women wear breeches to work in the field because “You can’t swing a scythe in a skirt!”
Hm yes story checks out
peasant women definitely never did farm labour in skirts
skirts definitely mean you’re weak and fragile and can’t accomplish anything
skirts are definitely bad and will keep you from truly living life
no skirts for anyone, that’s definitely the moral of the story here
FORBIDDEN ATTRACTION ( MASTERLIST ) ┊ ENHYPEN HYUNG LINE
hogwarts au ┊ wizards!enhypen x witch!reader
SUMMARY ┊ your life at hogwarts couldn’t be more perfect; you’ve got high grades, an envied social life and everyone’s eyes are always on you. a good reputation is what matters in this school, and you certainly have it. so nothing will happen to you if you end up fucking the hottest guys of each house - right?
WARNINGS ┊ better listed in each chapter. but of course heavy, heavy SMUT. and the main character is anything but a sweet girl. also, enha represent their houses in a stereotypical way sooo beware of a very proud heeseung and a very mean jay. but keep an eye on a very nerdy sunghoon and a very innocent (or not?) jake too ;)
FIND CHAPTERS BELOW !
001. PARK SUNGHOON ┊ “THAT’S THE HELP YOU NEEDED, HUH?”
when your best friend sunoo challenges you with a bet, you already know that refusing is not an option. although he’s confident that you’re never going to win. not when the bet – and its prize – revolves around none other than the studious prefect of ravenclaw – park sunghoon.
but all you need is a study session, breaking some rule and you know you’ll get his undivided attention.
READ HERE
002. SIM JAKE ┊ “THIS ISN’T WHAT YOU EXPECTED, RIGHT?”
rumors at hogwarts run fast, most of them involving the most popular boys. however, your mind seems to be stuck on one particular rumor you’ve once heard in the girls bathroom (and you took it as an universal truth). “jake sim, the hufflepuff boy. you know him right? sweet, angel face? well, he fucks like an animal” you heard a girl saying.
and now more than ever you want to test that theory. just like any potion needs its recipe, like any spell needs its practise, you have to know if jake sim is all you need to feel good.
READ HERE
003. LEE HEESEUNG ┊ “ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO PLAY WITH ME?”
if anyone was more popular than you at hogwarts, that person had to be lee heeseung – the young quidditch prodigy who has every girl at his feet and every boy following him like his puppies.
and it doesn’t help that he’s so full of himself – a true gryffindor. especially since he’s so sure that he will win you over, no matter what. and you’re not blind, you can see how attractive he is. and perhaps you should feel honoured that he wants no one but you.
but should you give in so easily? or maybe play with him your own way?
READ HERE
004. PARK JAY ┊ “YOU THINK YOU’RE BETTER THAN ME?”
jay park has to be the most irritating person you’ve ever met in your entire life. he seems to have a personal mission to make your life a living hell - as if being your rival in… well, everything, isn’t enough!
he’s top of his classes, the most promising wizard of your year and a heartthrob who’s only aim in life is to be better than you. maybe that’s part of his nature - being a pureblood slytherin surely shaped him to be a certain way.
or maybe it’s just you. you, the constant thought in his head, the cause of his frustrations and of his relentless lust you awaken in him whenever you challenge him.
maybe you should just… find a solution for your pent up feelings.
CHAPTER COMING SOON…
DRABBLES
001. ravenclaw!sunghoon ┊ fun in the prefects’ bathroom
OO2. ravenclaw!sunghoon ┊ no more love potions
OO3. ravenclaw!sunghoon┊ hold you close
OO4. hufflepuff!jake ┊ jake’s special gift
OO5. hufflepuff!jake┊a secret meeting
OO6. huffepuff!jake┊ make you mine
OP, you can’t just lure us in with this loving information and then leave us without the title of the book(s)!! Give us the title!
I finished my Rome book and have now begun one about Pompeii. I’m 65 pages in and I already love it: yes, it covers the volcano, but most of the book is about “this is what the town and daily life of it would have been like, actually.” Fascinating stuff. Things I’ve learned so far:
- The streets in Pompeii have sidewalks sometimes a meter higher than the road, with stepping stones to hop across as “crosswalks.” I’d seen some photos before. The book points out that, duh, Pompeii had no underground drainage, was built on a fairly steep incline, and the roads were more or less drainage systems and water channels in the rain.
- Unlike today, where “dining out” is expensive and considered wasteful on a budget, most people in Pompeii straight up didn’t have kitchens. You had to eat out if you were poor; only the wealthy could afford to eat at home.
- Most importantly, and I can’t believe in all the pop culture of Pompeii this had never clicked for me: Pompeii had a population between 6-35,000 people. Perhaps 2,000 died in the volcano. Contemporary sources talk about the bay being full of fleeing ships. Most people got the hell out when the eruption started. The number who died are still a lot, and it’s still gruesome and morbid, but it’s not “an entire town and everyone in it.” This also makes it difficult for archeologists, apparently (and logically): those who remained weren’t acting “normally,” they were sheltering or fleeing a volcano. One famous example is a wealthy woman covered in jewelry found in the bedroom in the glaridator barracks. Scandal! She must have been having an affair and had it immortalized in ash! The book points out that 17 other people and several dogs were also crowded in that one small room: far more likely, they were all trying to shelter together. Another example: Houses are weirdly devoid of furniture, and archeologists find objects in odd places. (Gardening supplies in a formal dining room, for example.) But then you remember that there were several hours of people evacuating, packing their belongings, loading up carts and getting out… maybe the gardening supplies were brought to the dining room to be packed and abandoned, instead of some deeper esoteric meaning. The book argues that this all makes it much harder to get an accurate read on normal life in a Roman town, because while Pompeii is a brilliant snapshot, it’s actually a snapshot of a town undergoing major evacuation and disaster, not an average day.
- Oh, another great one. Outside of a random laundry place in Pompeii, someone painted a mural with two scenes. One of them referenced Virgil’s Aeneid. Underneath that scene, someone graffiti’d a reference to a famous line from that play, except tweaked it to be about laundry. This is really cool, the book points out, because it implies that a) literacy and education was high enough that one could paint a reference and have it recognized, and b) that someone else could recognize it and make a dumb play on words about it and c) the whole thing, again, means that there’s a certain amount of literacy and familiarity with “Roman pop culture” even among fairly normal people at the time.
Lang Qianqiu saying “If I didn’t charge in, nobody would have,” when being scolded for the commotion he caused in the gambler’s den is actually so good and so self-aware of him. I think people tend to think he’s too naive in his actions but I honestly don’t think so. He was self-aware enough to understand the situation— he was self-aware enough to know not to reveal his identity by using his spiritual power despite fighting a losing battle against a stronger opponent. I don’t think it’s that Lang Qianqiu is naive with his actions, I just think his principles are so heavily built on righteousness and honor that he aims to set an example when he acts out. He’s interesting because he’s what happens when a hero-archetype is subverted— broken away from the main spotlight and looked at as foolish or reckless for wanting to do the right thing and do it honorably. Lang Qianqiu would break his own arm to make a fair fight against a weakened enemy, regardless of how angry he is— this isn’t naivete, it’s honor despite anger. It’s setting the example. It’s holding to a principle.
(Then there’s the way his character changes with Qi Rong but that’s a whole other can of worms that I’m not going to get into rn lol)
should we talk about the interlace on gwayne's horse's armor?
since I spend altogether too much time looking at stills and gifs of gwayne anyway, I figured I might as well share some observations I have about the really interesting visuals that are happening with his horse's armor
this is part art historical analysis, part gwayne meta, and part "let's look at some gorgeous images under the guise of doing visual analysis" so if that's your thing, please read on! if not, that's also totally fine – I get that this is hyperspecific and also a symptom of my very serious gwayne brainrot, so I'm putting everything else below the cut! 💚💚 (also it's quite long – sorry! 😅)
okay I want to be upfront about my qualifications and my shortfalls here: I'm an art history phd student and so basically all I do is visual analysis of objects. I've studied a number of medieval manuscripts that feature interlace (which is where I'm going to draw most of my knowledge from here), and I've taken a seminar (an advanced graduate course) specifically on medieval manuscripts, for which I wrote a research paper entitled "From Kells to Celtic: The Aesthetics of the Book of Kells Illuminations as a Marker of Irish Identity." HOWEVER I am NOT a historian of armor, so I will be taking my knowledge of interlace on other objects and applying it to the armor we see in the show
a short intro
so, the first thing that struck me about gwayne's horse's armor is that it's really different than the other equestrian armor we see, even amongst the other men who came with him from oldtown. to be honest, my guess is that this was likely done in the show to help him stand out and also show that he is a special and precious princess (which he is btw 😌😌) who needs fancy armor for his horse. I'm not sure if further thought went into it than that (but maybe it did! I'm happy to stand corrected here!)
however, the catastrophic levels of brainrot I've developed over this man have compelled me to read much further into it than that, which I shall now proceed to do with great enthusiasm! ☺️
first, let's look at the armor:
it's hard to find really detailed close-ups, but it's clear that the armor is incredibly intricate. not only do we have this very complex interlacing, but certain designs are marked out with different colors and internal patterning, making the whole thing even more visually interesting and complex
while interlacing is used across a vast range of time, cultures, geographical regions, and artistic mediums, given both the visuality of this armor in particular and knowing that westeros is based on medieval europe, seeing this interlace instantly called to mind a style that we today call "insular fusion" (I'm not going to go into all the specifics of it here because that's a post all its own lol 😅). it's a style perhaps most famously exemplified by The Book of Kells, but it is found throughout many different objects of the same period (ca. 700-900 CE)
now let's look at some fucking interlace hell yeah!!!!!!
from The Book of Kells (ca. 750-810 CE)
from The Lindisfarne Gospels (ca. 698-721 CE)
and two non-manuscript examples:
Animal Head Post from a Viking Ship Burial (ca. 825 CE)
and a later example, but one of my favorites:
Wooden Portal of the Urnes Stave Church (ca. 1050-1070 CE)
do we see the vision??? are y'all picking up what I'm putting down???
"okay, charlotte, I see the similarities, but why does this matter?" you may be asking yourself (or maybe you aren't idk), and the answer is: this type of interlacing had some super fascinating meanings and uses, some of which I think we can apply to gwayne! 💚💚
let me break it down from least to most potentially related to gwayne:
the aesthetics of interlace as an identity marker
use of interlace in a religious context
interlace as a status symbol
the protective potential of interlace
and now let's go into detailllllllll!!!!!
the aesthetics of interlace as an identity marker
I bring this one up because it's what I focused on in my personal research on the topic of interlace, but I also think it's the least relevant to gwayne. my argument in my paper was that the aesthetics of the interlace in the Book of Kells have been thoughtfully and intentionally re-used throughout history and into the present as a clear visual marker of identity that draws a narrative back to the production of the Book of Kells. however, in terms of the show, we have very little indication that the particular style of interlacing we see on gwayne's horse is associated with any larger identity concepts. it doesn't seem to be associated with house hightower, as none of the other men with gwayne seem to borrow this motif, nor do we see it associated with alicent (as far as I can tell from the little looking I've done, but I'm more than happy to revise this!). for it to make sense as some form of identity marker, it would have to be clear what identity he's visually referencing, and since his use of interlace seems unique, I think it's doubtful that it's part of a larger visual invocation of identity
use of interlace in a religious context
part of what makes insular fusion so interesting as a style is that it is indeed a fusion of a number of different regional styles, including vine scrolls from the mediterranean, triskeles from the northern british isles, and zoomorphic (meaning "in the form of animals") interlace from northwestern mainland europe. although insular fusion is used to decorate christian objects (like gospel books and churches), its component parts are much much older and have connections to various pagan religions that significantly pre-date christianity. obviously it's impossible to be 100% certain of the exact significance of interlace in any of these religious contexts (there are no written records explaining it), but scholars have a few guesses
one suggestion is that interlace in some way represented the spirit world/the world of the gods, or perhaps even a point of connection between the human world and the world beyond. although the religion of westeros is obviously different than any of the real-world religions that used interlace in this manner, I do still wonder if there could be a religious connection here. it's pretty clear that gwayne's mother was quite religious, and alicent is as well. although we don't totally know gwayne's relationship with religion, we could certainly guess that it's at least a little bit important to him, given the beliefs of the women in his life. I know that the most common religious symbol in westeros tends to be the seven-pointed star, which is not something I see on the interlace on the armor, so I'm not sure how far I would want to take this hypothesis, but I did want to put it out there for anyone who might have further thoughts!
interlace as a status symbol
as I mentioned to in the beginning, I do think it's likely that this particular type of armor was chosen for gwayne's horse because it does come off as a bit ostentatious. the manuscripts with interlace that I mentioned above were hugely expensive and time-consuming projects, and only the most affluent religious communities could afford such luxurious gospel books. given the level of detail on the armor, I have to imagine that the same is true in the world of the show. in some ways, it's a mode of conspicuous consumption; a demonstration of the hightowers' wealth and influence. there's a reason gwayne's horse's armor stands out: because it's meant to. it's meant to set him apart, even from the other soldiers who came with him from oldtown
now this next part is just my own conjecture, but I also wonder if the armor is meant to speak to a more artistic sensibility on gwayne's part. after all, equestrian armor is a very functional object with a very clear goal: to protect the horse. from a purely functional standpoint, the interlace does nothing to serve this purpose (and may actually hinder it a little??), it simply adds a complex visuality to the armor. aside from just flaunting the wealth that must have been expended to commission such a piece, it also suggests that it was crafted by artisans who had both functional and aesthetic goals in mind while creating it. whether it was gwayne himself who directed the commission or not, it seems significant that he chose to use this armor that doubles as a kind of art piece. he does seem to be someone who enjoys the finer things in life, so it wouldn't surprise me if he had an artistic appreciation too, and was using this armor as a way to demonstrate that (or perhaps even just as a way to show his own personal artistic taste/preferences)
the protective potential of interlace
technically, I think "interlace as a status symbol" is the most likely reason for the armor being the way it is, but this one is my favorite theory, so I'm putting it at the top. circling back to the religious uses of interlace, another theory of its religious significance is as a mode of protection. some scholars think that its creators believed that the weaving, intertwined lines of the interlace would confuse and trap evil spirits. building on this theory is the fact that complex interlacing was often used at transitional or liminal points, such as the beginning pages of a gospel book or on the doors of churches. the idea here is that the interlace wields its protective powers at these key entry points against any evil entities that might try to enter sacred or protected spaces
interlace as apotropaic (a fancy technical term meaning "protective," often used in reference to magic or magical practices) seems particularly poignant for an object that was literally going to be worn into battle. now, I admit once again that there is little canon evidence to suggest that interlace is thought of in this way in the world of the show, so I'm running with this theory more because I like it rather than because I think it's legitimately based in canon. but I just think it's very sweet that gwayne's horse would be adorned with this complex interlace that seems to be woven with protective powers. even if gwayne (or others) didn't literally believe that interlace had those kind of powers, the fact that he still made the choice to invoke the idea of protection against harm and evil is a lovely thought. (it makes me think of how people today still might carry a rabbit's foot or have charms against the evil eye, even if they don't actually place stock in the beliefs surrounding those objects. I just think it's cool that generations of cultural belief still imbue these objects with a kind of magical aura). I just like the idea that he (or someone else?? otto? alicent? his mother?) chose armor that might have been associated with protection against harm
and now I'll finally wrap up!!
whew that was a lot! if you've read this far – thank you so much!! I'm honestly not even sure if these thoughts were coherent, but I kept thinking about this when I looked at that interlaced armor, and I just had to get the ideas out of my head lol
but I'd love to hear what others think about this topic! I'm certainly not an expert on the matter, and I'd be super open to hearing if others have different interpretations!
if nothing else, I hope you learned something cool about interlace! (and also just how far I have descended into madness over this man that I am writing pages-long analyses of his horse's armor 😅🤪)
Too many...Failed experiments
Data log ■■/■■/■■
C34-status: dead
Fell down the stairs because of bad vision, which was upsetting. C34 said her sight was fine, why would she ☹︎✋︎☜︎ to me?👍︎☟︎✌︎☼︎✌︎ wouldn't have done that...
Data log ■■/■■/■■
C56-Status: Disposed
We had to dispose C56, too violent. She harmed a colleague, we couldn't let them out lightly...it's a shame...C56 looked so much like her...
Data log ■■/■■/■■
C365-status: dead
No pulse...
...
No breathing...
...
No signs of life...
...
I can't give up...
Data log ■■/■■/■■
C796-status: Disposed
Like C56 and C559, C796 however...She doesn't seemed panicked nor alarmed, she seemed more at peace with the ✞︎♓︎□︎●︎♏︎■︎♍︎♏︎. This isn't ☼︎♓︎♑︎♒︎⧫︎, something went wrong.
We have to dispose her, quick.
I'm sorry 👍︎☟︎✌︎☼︎✌︎.
Data log ■■/■■/■■
C803-status: progression
Selfish yet compassionate, I'm not sure what to make of this one. Hasn't spoken in three days until now.
It was a joke she made on the way to 🕆︎☠︎👎︎✡︎☠︎☜︎'s house, heh. Something really was fishy
Data log ■■/■■/■■
👍︎☟︎✌︎☼︎✌︎, it's 👍︎☟︎✌︎☼︎✌︎. There's no doubt about it. It's her. After so many trail and errors, I can see it. Her eyes, those rosey cheeks, that voice. She behaves perfectly, just like 👍︎☟︎✌︎☼︎✌︎. Almost a thousand failures, I brought back 💣︎⍓︎ ☼︎✋︎☠︎👍︎☜︎💧︎💧︎.
___________________
Silly sketch
Can't wait!
Upcoming Fics
I’ll update this from time to time with my list of fics that are being written/to be written :)
La Douleur Exquise
; Horse Hybrid!Taehyung x Lovebird Hybrid!Reader
; Genre: Fluff, angst, smut
; Estimated Word Count: 20k
; Synopsis: Taehyung is in love with his best friend. The problem? He’s a stallion, a horse hybrid who’s basic instinct is to collect a herd of women to protect and procreate. His best friend is a lovebird hybrid and they mate for life. He knows it’s pretty much impossible to be together and that you’d end up hurt, but what happens when he finds out you love him just as much?
-
Moonlight Kissed, Sunlight Blessed
; Crown Prince!Taehyung x Princess!Reader
; Genre: Fluff, angst, smut
; Estimated Word Count: 30k
; Synopsis: The floating city states of Selene and Helios are the biggest, and only, cities in a wide area. As such, they are forever linked together despite their differences and mutual dislike. Soleil Palace in Helios is your home but it will be your brother, Crown Prince Jungkook’s, future. Your future rests in Luna Palace with the Crown Prince of Selene, Kim Taehyung. Or as you know him now, your fiancé.
-
Van Helsing
; Vampire Hunter!Hoseok x Vampire Hunter!Reader
; Genre: Angst, smut, fluff
; Estimated word count: 20k
; Synopsis: For generations, Hoseok’s family has hunted vampires and eliminated the aberrations to protect humanity. As the combination of two of the most influential Clans, Hoseok Jung Van Helsing was practically considered vampire hunting royalty. What happens though, when the initiation he’s undergoing with the love of his life goes drastically wrong though?
-
Stay In My Sky Like A Star
; Jungkook x Reader
; Genre: Fluff, slight angst, smut
; Estimated word count: 20k
; Synopsis: The story of soulmates is something you’ve grown up knowing; how fate created the first soul and split it into two so it would never be alone. When one half of the soul dies, the other dies too. When one is born, the other is born too. Each soul is eternal, reincarnating time after time and remaining dormant until their hosts 21st birthday. Your 21st is fast approaching and you’re eager for your soul to awaken, giving you access to the memories of your past lives. It also means you’ll hopefully find your other half, the mate to your soul.
-
Captain’s Log
; Starfleet Captain!Jungkook x Ex-Borg!Reader
; Genre: Fluff, angst, smut
; Estimated word count: 30k
; Synopsis: Freshly promoted Captain Jeon Jungkook is one of the youngest captain’s in Starfleet history. Sent on a mission to provide aid to a fellow starship, he grapples with multiple problems from a Q who seems to be trying to be human and calling himself Seokjin to having the only Romulan in Starfleet on board and the intricacies of dealing helping an ex-borg crew member readjust. Whether he’ll manage to succeed is another matter altogether, but he’ll try his hardest to prove the USS Yi Sun-Sin deserves a place amongst the most famous ships in Starfleet.
-
Silver For Monsters
; Witcher!Hoseok x Mage!Reader
; Genre: Angst, fluff, smut
; Estimated Word Count: 20k
; Synopsis: Hoseok of Jeolla, known amongst the Continent as the Silver Fang, has slain monsters for decades as per his training. After taking on a contract with a monster that’s more than he can handle right now, the silver-haired Witcher turns to his long time ally, the Mage of Oxenfurt…you.
-
Of Princes And Paupers
; Prince!Hoseok x Commoner!Reader
; Genre: Angst, fluff, smut
; Estimated Word Count: 20k
; Synopsis: When citizens of the Hae Kingdom talk about their Golden Prince, they’re talking about Crown Prince Hoseok. With a beautiful smile, a kind demeanour and a friendly personality, the prince is beloved by his citizens. What happens when that famous smile and warmth is directed at you?
The historical inspiration behind In Blossom’s Pan Yue
From Wikipedia (english version):
Pan Yue (Chinese: 潘岳; 247–300), courtesy name "Anren" (安仁), was a prominent Chinese fu poet in the Western Jin dynasty. He is popularly referred to as Pan An (潘安) and was well known for his good looks from a young age. "Pan An" has become the Chinese byword for handsome men.
The drama chose Liu Xueyi, known for his beauty in costume dramas, to play Pan Yue:
From Wikipedia (Chinese version):
三十余岁担任河阳县令，下令全县种桃花，有“河阳一县花”之称。
When he around 30 years old, he became the magistrate of Heyang County, ordered the whole county to plant peach blossoms, and was known as "the flower of Heyang County".
In the drama, Pan Yue buries his wife in a patch of peach blossoms near Heyang:
潘岳是中国历史上有名的美男子，据《世说新语》所载，潘岳每次外出，都会有不少女子手牵手地围着他的车子，又向他的车子投掷水果。成语“掷果盈车”即来自于此典故。
Pan Yue is considered one of the most famous handsome men in Chinese history. According to Shishuo Xinyu (A New Account of the Tales of the World, a 4th century anthology of biographical stories about scholars, musicians, and artists of the 2nd-4th centuries): every time Pan Yue went out, women would surround his carriage and throw fruits at him.
Here is how the drama recreated this famous episode:
妻：杨氏，元康八年（公元298年）去世。潘岳对亡妻甚是怀思，著有《内顾诗二首》、《杨氏七哀诗》、《哀永逝文》、《悼亡诗》等。
Wife: Madam Yang, died in the year 298 AD. To express his grief, Pan Yue wrote [a series of famous mourning poems that I am too lazy to translate].
Here is our fictional Pan Yue reciting an excerpt from one of the mourning poems historical Pan Yue wrote for Madam Yang:
:>
Thank you for this Luke carder fan club rise up
It's a silly thought because Kubo clearly didn't specifically account for it but I do sort of want to just take stock, i guess, of all the little wuxing oriented details that just kinda line up in Bleach.
The wuxing to be clear, is a bit of daoist mysticism generally translated as "the 5 phases" and outlines the relationship between 5 core elements. But this structure is actually applied to a bunch of different sets of 5, and across those sets certain essential qualities are linked or shared.
So for example Wood is associated with East, with Green/Blue, and Spring and there are kind of some shared themes there around growth and plants and such. Fire and South and Red and Summer. Water, North, Black, and Winter. Etc.... They are also where the very popular 4 Auspicious Beasts motif comes from, something utilized pretty heavily in anime and manga and videogames: White tiger, Blue Dragon, Vermillion Bird, and Black Tortoise/Snake. There is also a 5th "direction" considered Center, and a 5th season considered the transition between seasons; it's associated with, variably, either a golden qilin or golden dragon, and sometimes the dragon is also just the chinese god emperor and thus interchangeably a dragon or a just a dude.
There are a lot of odd little idiosyncrasies, I won't get into all of them here...
Starting with the obvious, though... The 4 gates around the seireitei are directional, and each have a name evoking the corresponding and color, and even mythic beast. Honestly the gate guardians themselves don't appear to be super cohesively themed after the beasts, although the Dragon guy verymuch has an asian dragon beard thing going on, and the black tortoise guy is black.
There is no central guard but conspicuously Kirinji's name comes from Qilin, but apparently according to official height he's actually not nearly as tall as Kubo's drawings always made him seem. Not that he was on the same scale as the gate guardians...
Hacchi's big 4 Beast Gate kidou array he uses fighting Baraggan evokes this same motif with the correct color, and animals. He is also conspicuously large, but not to the degree of the gate guardians...
In regard to directions and associated colors, the Central 46 has a series of banners with made up hybrid kanji combining the 4 cardinal directions and the correct colors. And then the Royal Guard are introduced with according positions as General of the North, South, East and West, implicitly leaving Ichibee as General of the Center direction, which makes sense since he's the defacto leader.
I complained of it at some point when the anime was airing but it annoyed me that when they added the big tsuba crest thing when the royal guard killed themselves that they were not correctly oriented in any kind of cardinal formation.
In a small post I made forever ago, I lightly proposed that the Sword Five actually fit the elemental associations of the wu-xing in accordance with their names and roles as tools of smithing:
Tokie and Mera being Water and Fire are obvious,
but Hasuka being tongs is reflected in the "chopsticks" in her name which I associated with wood(plus flowers in her name),
Nomino being a chisel and having it in her name pegs her as the metal one,
and Tsuchimiya as hammer has a pun on Earth:"tsuchi" in her name.
Oddly the anime chose to give them each a unique color outfit, although they are the 5 colors in the wuxing they do not match the elements
But then there's the incomplete set of season that I actually think are being evoked in the 4/5 Noble Houses.
The Shihouin name and family crest reference the Japanese maple, and Autumn is traditionally the season for moon viewing, which feels like it pegs them as an Autumn themed family.
The Kuchiki name refers to dying trees, and the family crest features what appear to be cranes, and the Japanese red crowned crane is an icon deeply associated with winter and the snow.
Finally, my only very loose guess on the Shiba is that they're Summer themed mostly on the back of Kukaku's fireworks gimmick and summer fireworks in Japan, but also because the other evocations we get of the family's spiral crest are Kaien's whirlpools and Ganju's cliff and sand spell, which all seems to evoke the beach or waterfront bluffs, which again sort of point toward summer. No idea what theoretical spring or transitional season families would be like.
The LN's Tsunayashiro family does not fit this in any way I can recognize.
So like…. Is it true that only the visually impaired can be licensed massage therapists in Korea? And if so, why am I just learning this from reading a BL manhwa at 12:30 am?
To Cuphead and Mugman what are the reasons that made you want to become a witch and a knight
For cuphead, it wasn't much of a choice
And as for Mugman
Love adding bits of lore drops 😋
Feel free to repost 👍