Jester+Princess / Butch+Femme Lesbian Fantasy Story Idea With A Focus On Secret Identities And Forbidden

Hmmmmmm I’ve heard and seen that villainizing Erlang Shen is becoming more common in the western jttw-adjacent fandom and so I do think we should all keep in mind that besides Erlang Shen still being a very important deity in the Daoist pantheon (to say nothing of his role as a deity who’s saved countless humans from floods) he also does have a number of understandable reasons for many of his actions. For example, he played a vital part in capturing Sun Wukong on account of that monkey wrecking heaven, & to a degree even his role in imprisoning his own sister Sansheng Mu under a mountain is comprehensible because of the mindset that the gods absolutely can’t afford to have any human emotions under any circumstances on account of the chaos they could wreak if they let feeling such as jealousy, anger, want, etc. define them. I mean, one popular myth even says that the first goddess Nüwa had to give up her own life to repair both heaven and earth because of a catastrophic, nearly apocalyptic war that the gods waged based on the desire to control heaven, so you can understand why the rule that the gods can’t allow themselves human emotions would be absolute.

Now don’t get me wrong, I think that Erlang Shen makes an amazing antagonist when done well, and the possibilities involved in exploring things like his unrelenting belief in the righteousness of all his actions even for things like (again) imprisoning his own sister & burning thousands of the Mt. Huaguoshan monkey yaoguai to death could make him a terrifying figure. HOWEVER, I think it does a massive (and potentially really disrespectful) disservice to his character from both a story-telling & a cultural standpoint to paint him as a 100% despicable villain who fully deserves to be demonized. He’s a figure who’s done SO MUCH for the good of humanity, and that’s not something that should be immediately dismissed.

As always I need to note I’m in no way shape or form an expert on Chinese mythology, but I am relatively confident in saying that when it comes to the conflicts between humans, yaoguai, and deities there is plenty of violence and strife, but the narratives you can weave about them are much more interesting & meaningful when you’re not reducing any of these groups to being the one designated “bad guy.” If anything, as Journey to the West itself makes explicitly clear, the line between the three groups is blurry at best, they are ALL responsible for numerous atrocities, and there’s plenty of blame, as well as opportunities for truly doing good, to go around.

Dont know if you were joking about needing catboy references a couple of weeks back but here ya go

Theres one for sheep too if you need that

the sacred texts.... thank you for bestowing it upon me

Fanfiction Authors: HEADS UP

(Non-authors, please RB to signal boost to your author friends!)

An astute reader informed me this morning that one of my fics (Children of the Future Age) had been pirated and was being sold as a novel on Amazon:

(And they weren't even creative with their cover design. If you're going to pirate something that I spent a full year of my life writing, at least give me a pretty screenshot to brag about later. Seriously.)

I promptly filed a DMCA complaint to have it removed, but I checked out the company that put it up -- Plush Books -- and it looks like A LOT of their books are pirated fic. They are by no means the only ones doing this, either -- the fact that """publishers""" can download stories from AO3 in ebook format and then reupload them to Amazon in just a few clicks makes fic piracy a common problem. There are a whole host of reasons why letting this continue is bad -- including actual legal risk to fanfiction archives -- but basically:

IF YOU ARE A FANFIC AUTHOR WITH LONG AND/OR POPULAR WORKS, PLEASE CHECK AMAZON TO SEE IF YOUR STORIES HAVE BEEN PIRATED.

You can search for your fics by title, or by text from the description (which is often just copied wholesale from AO3 as well). If you find that someone has stolen your work and is selling it as their own, you can lodge a DMCA complaint (Amazon.com/USA site; other countries have different systems). If you haven't done this before, it's easy! Here's a tutorial:

HOW TO FILE A COPYRIGHT COMPLAINT FOR STOLEN WORK ON AMAZON.COM:

First, go to this form. You'll need to be signed into your Amazon account.

Select the radio buttons/dropdown options (shown below) to indicate that you are the legal Rights Owner, you have a copyright concern, and it is about a pirated product.

Enter the name of your story in the Name of Brand field.

In the Link to the Copyrighted Work box, enter a link to the story on AO3 or whatever site your work is posted on.

In the Additional Information box, explain that you are the author of the work and it is being sold without your permission. That's all you really need. If you want, you can include additional information that might be helpful in establishing the validity of your claim, but you don't have to go into great detail. You can simply write something like this:

I am the author of this work, which is being sold by [publisher] without my permission. I originally published this story in [date/year] on [name of site], and have provided a link to the original above. On request, I can provide documentation proving that I am the owner of the account that originally posted this story.

In the ASIN/ISBN-10 field, copy and paste the ID number from the pirated copy's URL. You'll find this ten-digit number in the Amazon URL after the word "product," as in the screenshot below. (If the URL extends beyond this number, you can ignore everything from the question mark on.) Once this number has been added, Amazon will pull the product information automatically and add it to the complaint form, so you can check the listing title and make sure it's correct.

Finally, add your contact information to the relevant fields, check the "I have read and accept the statements" box, and then click Submit. You should receive an email confirmation that Amazon has received the form.

Please share this information with your writer friends, keep an eye out for/report pirated works, and help us keep fanfiction free and legally protected!

NOTE: All of the above also applies to Amazon products featuring stolen artwork, etc., so fan artists should check too!

The cuteness believes they can fly!

I miss Bland Potion and the bad wizard that made them. They were adorable together. I would join the Bland Potion club!

They are the perfect duo!

i know (we all know) that the highlight of Monkey King: Hero is Back was the dadkong moments but 

good GOD the transformation scene during the climax was everything

Hell, sometimes i need a moment because this man:

is also this man:

And it kinda fucks me up. Just a bit. Maybe a lot-

thinking about the variations of a redemption arc, but Buddhism style

LBD: wanted a chance deep down, but now that she got it, she'll complain about it the whole time

Mayor: saw the errors of his way and is genuinely trying his best

Red Son: got dragged kicking and screaming through every step of the way, but it somehow worked

I made a new sketchy brush and decided to test it on Ozzy ✿

𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗝𝗮𝗻 𝟰𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝘁 𝟲𝗽𝗺 𝗣𝗧

Heyo, my PC died and I need to save up for a new one. I unfortunately cannot offer too much due to my limited technology, but I will do my best!

I'll drop a google form like usual that day!

Have Marshal Liu and his boys! Liu personally trains three young lads to become his right-hand men and hopefully, one day they will become generals like him!

The boys have no names yet, but they are brothers and are very mischievous! They have kind of taken Liu as their father/uncle so they are very close, although sometimes it's hard to resist creating some trouble for fun even if Liu says no. They are good boys tho!

I want these two to be happy! I ship pearl mostly with big gems but ya know I ship PearlXHappiness and GregXHappiness more then anything. Give these two an emotional break and get over the barriers that life and earth puts in their way! I want my birdmom and rockdad happy, is that to much to ask?

The development of Greg and Pearl’s friendship.