The power dynamic between Bingqiu is so complex and unhinged.
On the one hand, Shen Qingqiu is the Shizun, and Luo Binghe the disciple. He still pretty much serves and defers to him as such. Shen Qingqiu is the master, the elder, the superior, in a way that can never change in a culture so steeped in respect for such hierarchies, and where reversal or equalization is simply not a thing. Shen Qingqiu himself still refers to himself as "this master" for most of the story (even post canon? I can't remember), and the one quality he appreciates in Luo Binghe (at least that he says aloud) is his obedience. In both their minds, he's very firmly the one who raised and trained Luo Binghe - though with very different connotations depending on who you ask.
On the other hand... well... Luo Binghe plays the obedient puppy-ish disciple, but he pretty much cute/pathetic-bullies his way into anything he wants, because Shen Qingqiu is weak to him and can't say no. So Luo Binghe plays submissive, cries a little, then gets to top Shen Qingqiu into next Sunday in the most unfillial way imaginable lol. Also, and I cannot stress this enough, he's the most powerful person in the world, he doesn't have to serve anyone in a humble cottage. He literally has an empire and is a ruler, but he plays housewife and meek disciple to this one spoiled guy who gave him the correct manual once and head-patted him with abandon.
Also let's not forget that, to Luo Binghe, Shen Jiu and Shen Yuan are pretty seamlessly the same person. This serial head-patter is also the guy who poured hot tea on him and would string him up to beat him and made him sleep in the woodshed like a particularly miserable Cinderella. To him, one day, his cruel master deemed him worthy of his love after he made him go through many trials, and then slam-dunked him into the abyss, and then self-destructed to save him and then turned out to be alive and avoiding him like the plague and then sulked because Luo Binghe did not properly ask his hand in marriage. Luo Binghe may be the most powerful man in the world and have Shen Qingqiu wrapped around his manipulative golden little finger, BUT the grip and ascendant Shen Qingqiu possesses over Luo Binghe's psyche is unparalleled.
BUT the other side of this equation is that Shen Qingqiu feels so guilty, and loves Luo Binghe so much, he can't bear to make him unhappy and folds like a wet paper towel any time there is the merest hint of tears - which is a conscious strategy on Luo Binghe's part! Shang Qinghua told him acting pathetic works, and it does, and so he milks it! Who knows how much of it is real? Not me. Not Shen Qingqiu either, who also does not care that he's being manipulated. He knows he's being manipulated! But it works anyway!
Because what are you going to do when a cute puppy makes sad eyes at you?? Not give him the bit of meat???
You're his master but he owns your heart so that's your fate, now. He's huge and could maul you but he loves you too much and prefers to act spoiled. He sits when you say sit, comes when you say come. You tell him no but he climbs into your lap anyway and you are helpless to stop him so you pet him. It's messy, full of pathos, possibly unhealthy. You're both living your best life.
That's Bingqiu.
The secret to a good Luo Binghe characterization is that he's always the smartest most fuckable person in every room. His IQ is as high as his dick is long and his issues are as vast as Mobei Jun's bossom. He'd grab his husband's hand and say with starry eyes: "I never needed a father, I had you" and mean it.
I read a fic recently where mu qingfang was like "sometimes if we get VERY lucky, shang-shidi knows some miracle cure" and ive thinking about that in terms of 'god sqh'. Like you mention how x disciple is gonna die of the hyperdeath dying flower and your martial brother speaks in tongues to himself for a moment before stuttering and stammering his way into a 'this might work but good luck' possible cure. Reality takes a sharp turn for half a second and then when you try it, it works. He dismisses it and himself but it keeps happening. Not always, but sometimes. Often enough to be a pattern. Is he some kind of seer? Diviner? Or just divine? He's very protective of his personal rooms so you're not going to be able to get evidence either way. He keeps a garden of poisons and cures that he supplies you with personally, anyway. You're not gonna pry. Then later when everyone is screaming crying throwing up because he betrayed the sect you interrupt his demon king? Boss? Something. To be like hold up. Shang-shidi can I have an address for any emergency letters I might have to send you. Oh and also have you got a supplier for your meds in the demon realm? Hm? Oh yes very powerful demon Lord your flustered servant takes anti anxiety medicine. Yes it's a mix of herbs that forces him to be in less of a state- yes he gets worse than this. Shang-shidi don't whine I've seen you off your meds I KNOW you get stomach aches from anxiety so bad you can't work. Yes the 'category 5 tummy event' is not a secret. We know about them shang-shidi.
The category 5 tummy event he's so me đ
The idea of Mu Qingfang just knowing that yeah Shang-Shidi most often then not probably has the cure to this Very deadly disease and doesn't bat an eye he's just like well as long as they live I GUESS.
Also the person with the balls to go staring up at this incredibly cold and dangerous demon with a straight face to tell Qinghua to take his meds
Mobei would definitely listen and take notes
im sexy and i know it girl look a dead body girl look a dead body
What the fuck one of you 6 just liked a post I made I thought you lot were bots and I was safe doing whatever on this account.
Why what where. how. How did you find me. who r u.....
Free to use bnha icons! Credit would be very appreciated but not needed. Sorry I couldnât do the whole class I only had enough energy for 6 (+ an extra kiri because⌠that maskâŚsmh) so I chose my faves.
edit: removed the white border sorry!
oh man oh fuck its the alaskan bullworm
Too many times we left, one time we stayed together.
finally finished my animated bingqiu mv! thanks for watching!!
yt link here!
recommending scum villain to a friend like: itâs so fucked up. itâs a comedy. itâs a tragedy. itâs satire. itâs commentary on sanitisation and sacrifices made by queer authors in order to sell. its about the ripple effects of a single change on an entire world. itâs about people struggling to be loved and plants that can make you so horny that itâll literally kill you. itâs the sexiest and least horny thing youâll ever read. the narrator is genderqueer and homosexual and the most queerphobic person youâll ever come across. heâs a reddit incel who can and will do his best to convince you that heâs not the decent person that he genuinely is. he genuinely believes that he is straight despite having the most obvious fanboy boner for his love interest. his love interest is an alpha male with severe abandonment issues begging to be dominated. itâs about a guy who gets put into a 3000+ chapter harem novel that he hate-read in 20 days and left dissertation-comments on every installment of. the author of said novel has also been stuck in his own story as some random guy that just happens to be close to the glacial bitch mountain of a demon that he created based off all of his preferred kinks. the author and the reddit incel are normal-human versions of their respective love interests, and neither of them seem keen to address it. thereâs a donghua that looks like it belongs in an early 2000s PC game but it only has ten episodes. you will beg for scraps of content and enjoy it.
Hereâs a story about changelings:Â
Mary was a beautiful baby, sweet and affectionate, but by the time sheâs three sheâs turned difficult and strange, with fey moods and a stubborn mouth that screams and bites but never says mama. But her motherâs well-used to hard work with little thanks, and when the village gossips wag their tongues she just shrugs, and pulls her difficult child away from their precious, perfect blossoms, before the bites draw blood. Maryâs mother doesnât drown her in a bucket of saltwater, and she doesnât take up the silver knife the wife of the village priest leaves out for her one Sunday brunch.Â
She gives her daughter yarn, instead, and instead of a rowan stake through her inhuman heart she gives her a childâs first loom, oak and ash. She lets her vicious, uncooperative fairy daughter entertain herself with games of her own devising, in as much peace and comfort as either of them can manage.
Mary grows up strangely, as a strange child would, learning everything in all the wrong order, and biting a great deal more than she should. But she also learns to weave, and takes to it with a grand passion. Soon enough she knows more than her motherâwhich isnât all that muchâand is striking out into unknown territory, turning out odd new knots and weaves, patterns as complex as spiderwebs and spellrings.Â
âArenât you clever,â her mother says, of her work, and leaves her to her wool and flax and whatnot. Maryâs not biting anymore, and she smiles more than she frowns, and thatâs about as much, her mother figures, as anyone should hope for from their child.Â
Mary still cries sometimes, when the other girls reject her for her strange graces, her odd slow way of talking, her restless reaching fluttering hands that have learned to spin but never to settle. The other girls call her freak, witchblood, hobgoblin.
âI donât remember girls being quite so stupid when I was that age,â her mother says, brushing Maryâs hair smooth and steady like theyâve both learned to enjoy, smooth as a skein of silk. âTime was, you knew not to insult anyone you might need to flatter later. âSpecially when you donât know if theyâre going to grow wings or horns or whatnot. Serve âem all right if you ever figure out curses.â
âI want to go back,â Mary says. âI want to go home, to where I came from, where thereâs people like me. If Iâm a fairyâs child I should be in fairyland, and no one would call me a freak.â
âAye, well, Iâd miss you though,â her mother says. âAnd I expect thereâs stupid folk everywhere, even in fairyland. Cruel folk, too. You just have to make the best of things where you are, being my child instead.â
Mary learns to read well enough, in between the weaving, especially when her mother tracks down the traveling booktraders and comes home with slim, precious manuals on dyes and stains and mordants, on pigments and patterns, diagrams too arcane for her own eyes but which make her daughterâs eyes shine.
âWe need an herb garden,â her daughter says, hands busy, flipping from page to page, pulling on her hair, twisting in her skirt, itching for a project. âYarrow, and madder, and woad and weldâŚâ
âWell, start digging,â her mother says. âWonât do you a harm to get out of the house nowân then.â
Mary doesnât like dirt but sheâs learned determination well enough from her mother. She digs and digs, and plants what sheâs given, and the first year doesnât turn out so well but the secondâs better, and by the third a cauldronâs always simmering something over the fire, and Maryâs taking in orders from girls five years older or more, turning out vivid bolts and spools and skeins of red and gold and blue, restless fingers dancing like theyâve summoned down the rainbow. Her mother figures she probably has.
âJust as well you never got the hang of curses,â she says, admiring her bright new skirts. âI like this sort of trick a lot better.â
Mary smiles, rocking back and forth on her heels, fingers already fluttering to find the next project.
She finally grows up tall and fair, if a bit stooped and squinty, and time and age seem to calm her unhappy mouth about as well as it does for human children. Word gets around she never lies or breaks a bargain, and if the first seems odd for a fairyâs child then the second one seems fit enough. The undyed stacks of taken orders grow taller, the dyed lots of filled orders grow brighter, the loom in the corner for Maryâs own creations grows stranger and more complex. Maryâs hands callus just like her motherâs, become as strong and tough and smooth as the oak and ash of her needles and frames, though they never fall still.
âDo you ever wonder what your real daughter would be like?â the priestâs wife asks, once.
Maryâs mother snorts. âShe wouldnât be worth a damn at weaving,â she says. âLord knows I never was. No, Iâll keep what Iâve been given and thank the givers kindly. It was a fair enough trade for me. Good day, maâam.â
Mary brings her mother sweet chamomile tea, that night, and a warm shawl in all the colors of a garden, and a hairbrush. In the morning, the priestâs son comes round, with payment for his motherâs pretty new dress and a shy smile just for Mary. He thinks her hair is nice, and her hands are even nicer, vibrant in their strength and skill and endless motion. Â
They all live happily ever after.
*
Hereâs another story:Â
Seguir leyendo
A quote and thoughts regarding Shen Yuan's opinions on Liu Mingyan and the "sexiness" of the Liu Mingyan versus Sha Hualing setup. He knows what he should be feeling in this situation as a "normal straight guy", but I don't think he's actually feeling it.
"Shen Qingqiu was very fond of this female lead, and it wasn't only because Liu Mingya's beauty points were the highest. It was also because she had great poise. She always understood the big picture and grasped the general situation, and her conduct was fair and honest. Even in Luo Binghe's gigantic harem, a wife with both intelligence and moral character was rare.
There was one more appeal factor. Liu Mingyan was the only female character for whom Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky didn't write detailed sex scenes. Many readers had been highly dissatisfied with this arrangement, to the point that they spammed the comments with their ranting, but this had given Liu Mingyan something no other female lead had: an image as clear as ice and pure as jade!
Can't be helped, the unobtainable ones are always the best.
[Sweatdropping shrug kaomoji that I can't type out.]
This was what made the second match worth watching. An evil demoness naturally demanded a righteous saintess as a rival. Every man dreamed of being caught between an angel and a devil. To watch them jealously vie with each other over him one moment, then risk life and limb for his sake in the next - that was the highest, most sacred, perverted fantasy of every male organism. He could drunk off the wild, untamed charm of the wicked seductress, and at the same time his heart would ache for the austere taste of the pure saintess who kept pulling him closer only to push him away!
One had to admit, "Great Master" Airplane was genuinely good at nailing what people found satisfying. Shen Qingqiu couldn't help giving Luo Binghe another glance.
Luo Binghe found it very hard to not care about that gaze. Why exactly did Shen Qingqiu keep looking at him? Was it possible that Shizun... really had an interest in him?"
Volume 1, Chapter 2, pages 111-112.
I'm not sure where to start with this! It's a lot! I'll just work backwards: it is very funny to have Shen Qingqiu repeatedly looking towards Luo Binghe, trying to see Binghe's reactions to Sha Hualing and Liu Mingyan, and Binghe's just like, "Shizun is looking at me???" I think "interest" in this case just means interest in Binghe as a disciple with potential, rather than anything else. Binghe is not paying any real attention to Sha Hualing or Liu Mingyan's attractiveness.
Oh! A rare compliment towards "Great Master" Airplane! Shen Yuan, don't strain those rarely used muscles!
I do find it amusing that Shen Yuan refers to Liu Mingyan as "moral" and "righteous" and "pure" here. The vibe I got with Liu Mingyan is that she sided with Luo Binghe to take down her brother's murderer, which I would agree is righteous and abides by a set of morals. But the first few pages of SVSSS inform us that PIDW Luo Binghe viciously destroyed the great cultivation sects, which means that PIDW wife Liu Mingyan either helped or stepped aside when a whole bunch of murder happened.
And the "my favorite wife is the one with no (or limited) sex scenes" is a classic Shen Yuan moment and one of the reasons he reads as being strongly on the asexuality spectrum to me. The way that he talks about heterosexual "male" desire gives me the same vibe. Like he's separated from it. Like he knows this is what he's "supposed" to feel and he just... doesn't... and it's possibly hard for him to recognize what sexual desire feels like (as opposed to, say, general sexual arousal that doesn't necessarily have a target) if he's never actually experienced it himself. He knows what he should be feeling if he was the "every man" reader of PIDW.
Even when he talks about Sha Hualing and Liu Mingyan's appeal, he says "wild, untamed charm" and "pulling him closer only to push him away" as the key components of the fantasy. Like, "being flirted with" and "being fought over and fought for" and "appreciating a distant beauty" are more important than "having sex". "The most appealing thing about Liu Mingyan is that she wouldn't actually go through with trying to have sex with me," says Shen Yuan.
He's like, "Oh, I can recognize that Liu Mingyan and Sha Hualing are physically attractive, that probably means I'm an Ordinary Straight Man." Even though the way that he talked about Liu Qingge's looks in the Ling Xi Caves was... not very heterosexual... and here, he mostly seems excited just to see one of his favorite characters.
Admittedly, Sha Hualing appears 15-16 here and I think Liu Mingyan is around the same age (she doesn't have her spiritual sword yet), so Shen Yuan is probably also not attracted to them just because they're teenagers. (I do not interpret him as sexually or romantically interested in Binghe at all at this point in time.) I headcanon Shen Yuan being 20-ish at this point in time, so he's probably not that much older than SHL or LMY, but they're probably around his younger sister's age (Shen Yuan's younger sister was old enough to be reading non-con, gay, BDSM erotica.) Sha Hualing shows up half-naked and Shen Yuan is just like, "Where are your shoes? Did you walk here like this? Wasn't that painful?"
In my opinion, Shen Yuan seems a little... relieved... to think that no one could be sexually or romantically interested in the scum villain. He does lament that it's hard to get a girlfriend like this, sure. He does think that he's going to die and that he'd eventually lose any woman to Binghe, so there's no point in trying. But he really, really does not try. "Oh, I can't pursue anyone because they'd never be interested in me! How frustrating! ...Anyway! Moving on to enjoy the many other little pleasures of life! Like food and monsters!" I think the closest he comes to flirting with anyone is when speaking to Liu Qingge in the Ling Xi Caves, while Liu Qingge is coughing up blood, and that did not seem intentional.
I think if he had transmigrated into any other character, who wasn't an "unappealing" villain, Shen Yuan still wouldn't pursue women. I think he'd be like, "Well, I want a beautiful woman, because I have standards! But all beautiful women belong to the protagonist, and no one is better than Binghe, there's no way I'd win that competition, so there's no point in trying!" At which point, it's just like, "Shen Yuan, anyone becomes beautiful when you love or like them; I don't think you actually want to fuck women."
I think if Shen Yuan had transmigrated in as Luo Binghe, he still wouldn't try to pursue women. He'd be like, "I'm just raising my standards for the harem! Some of those wives were not very intelligent or in possession of good moral character! Nearly three-digits is disrespectful to the better wives! I'm only interested in especially beautiful and skilled women, like Liu Mingyan, who's perfect! (And also won't try to have sex with me.)"
Like, I am not against a bisexual Shen Yuan. I am willing to be persuaded to go along with many different interpretations! But he does read to me generally as a gay asexual / demisexual who hasn't yet realized that a desire to be fawned over and an ability to recognize beauty is not necessarily the same thing as sexual attraction. (I do think he is attracted to Binghe after Binghe gets back from the Endless Abyss, but his feelings there are tied up in his very real, reasonable fear of murder and mutilation.)