i don’t often think of bingqiu and hualian in terms of parallels because their stories are so different and the parallels i’ve seen discussed have felt a little intuitive, but one that i’ve never really thought about isn’t a parallel between the red/blacks and the white/blues, but instead luo binghe and xie lian, and consequently shen qingqiu and hua cheng.
we’ll actually start with shen qingqiu and hua cheng—who are they? well, they’re both strong individuals that are originally (or throughout the story) cast in sort of villainous, disreputable roles. the ghost king, the scum villain. their styles of devotion are completely different in that hua cheng is infinitely more demonstrative and verbally/physically affectionate than shen qingqiu, completely lacking any shame when it comes to xie lian, but they’re both in some way quietly (and sometimes less quietly) devoted to their partner, to the point of physical sacrifice for them. devotion is obviously a key theme throughout all three of mxtx’s work, there’s more to it than that with tgcf and svsss.
neither hua cheng nor shen qingqiu are all that aware of their own innate value to the world around them. and, consequently, neither quite understand why their partners are with them, consciously or unconsciously. shen qingqiu spends plenty of time mentally blue-screening the first few times that luo binghe shows him affection and wonders why he isn’t bestowing it upon his theoretical future wives, and hua cheng was so ruthlessly tormented for his appearance that he can’t fathom being called handsome or worthy of so much as a touch on the hand from xie lian. the roles they’re cast in by their societies further drive this: shen qingqiu doesn’t internalise the good he’s done in changing the world of pidw, the people whose lives he’s saved or positively impacted just by existing, and hua cheng is hua cheng. immensely powerful, frighteningly knowledgeable, endlessly devoted. he’s an excellent artist, a clever mouth, a talented carpenter (sorry)—all of this, external to his vices and usefulness as a ghost king. they both have their values to the world that we the audience can pick out, but when do either ever say, “hey. i did a good thing, existing. my existence has value, and i should protect it accordingly,” (looking at you for that self-detonation, shen qingqiu)
compare these two to their husbands—brilliant, beautiful, devastatingly, mouth-wateringly powerful luo binghe and xie lian. luo binghe knows his strengths, even if he places all his value in the hands of his shen qingqiu—he knows he’s beautiful, he knows he’s strong, he knows he’s clever and talented and all these things. despite how these things have no value to him if shen qingqiu doesn’t care for them, he’s still conscious of their existence. similarly, xie lian was crown prince of xianle, the strongest martial god, so talented that he ascended at the age of 17. again, he knows the nature of his strengths, even if they matter little to him in the grand scheme of his 800 years of ascent and descent, suffering and anger and thinly-veiled depression.
it’s an interesting contrast to what you’d expect, that when it comes to their feelings towards their relationships—the fact that they’re actually involved with these people that they admire so deeply, are devoted to in ways that are either heartbreakingly over-the-top or subtly devastating—hua cheng and shen qingqiu are the ones that share this glaring similarity.
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.
The Outbursts of Everett True was a comic strip that ran in papers from 1905 to 1927, wherein the aforementioned Everett True regularly beat the everliving shit out of rude people as a warning to anyone else who might consider being rude. Men have not only been taking up too much room on public transport for about as long as public transport has existed, but the people around them have been irritated about it for at least a hundred years. The next time someone tries to claim that manspreading is a false phenomenon, please direct them to this strip so that Everett True can correct their misconceptions with an umbrella upside the head.
imprisoned for his crimes of being too babey
oh hey, its the two most annoying anachronistic assholes on the planet
Second batch of bnha icons. Again, free to use, credit appreciated. Thank you guys for all the suggestions!
june 2020
a force that can’t be heard / coming in louder than words
closeups under the cut
Seguir leyendo
recommending scum villain to a friend like: it’s so fucked up. it’s a comedy. it’s a tragedy. it’s satire. it’s 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. it’s about people struggling to be loved and plants that can make you so horny that it’ll literally kill you. it’s the sexiest and least horny thing you’ll ever read. the narrator is genderqueer and homosexual and the most queerphobic person you’ll ever come across. he’s a reddit incel who can and will do his best to convince you that he’s 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. it’s 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. there’s 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.
Into the Abyss by esama Pixel art inspired by Esama's work, "Into the Abyss" where Shen Yuan is a feral (badass) hunter in the Endless Abyss.
the pussy flower and testicle grapes made me cackle so hard i had to draw them
I think, on some level, that Shen Yuan is like enrichment for Airplane Bro's enclosure. I think Airplane Bro kind of fucking LOVES having this guy around. Like, I do think their relationship is nuanced, weird and full of contradictions and not always good for them, but I also think that some chaotic part of Shang Qinghua honestly likes having his #1 hater weirdo running around completely fucking up his world.
Shen Qingqiu, grabbing Shang Qinghua by the shoulders: "Why didn't anyone TELL ME that Binghe is GAY NOW?! I'm going to die because of MONSTER DICK?!?!?!"
Shang Qinghua: (internally, probably only half-consciously) "Incredible. Amazing. How did I live without you? You torture me with your bullshit. You complete me in every possible way. I think we might be soulmates and we should make out about it. I hate you. I love you. You mean nothing to me and everything to me. This isn't your story and you stole it from me. I wrote this for you without even knowing you existed. You are a fascinating mystery that I will never solve. I will throw you under the bus at the first opportunity and yet I can't stop risking my life to help you. Your stupid game of gay murder chicken with my emotionally and mentally unstable protagonist is going to destroy the world and kill us all and I've never felt more alive. You have changed me as a person. Let's do this forever."
Shang Qinghua: (out loud) "Lol, sucks to be you, bro. At least you can get laid."
the idea of shou going to school after mp100 is. so fucking funny to me. like Hell Yeah boy get an education. get to learning and all that. but like. imagining Shou is a school setting is hilarious to me.
the poor guy would like. on his first day pull a fire alarm. get in shit afterwards cuz his excuse was that he didn’t know what it did. but he genuinely Honest To God didn’t know what it did and it scared him so fucking bad he ran away
He Will Not talk to his classmates. he has no business with them. they have nothing beneficial to him.
but he latches onto ritsu because Obviously shou would make sure they go to the same school
his first gym class, he sends a guy to the hospital with a dodge ball. shou is banned from dodge ball
he Must be the best at every sport. Basket ball? track and field? tennis? fuck dude they could play fucking cricket in class and he Has to be the best
he thought that, when you take books out of the school library, you just get to keep them.
he never checked them out or anything. jsut walked in, saw a book with a nice cover or somethin about wrestling, took it and left. its his book now
no one noticed until all the animal books went missing
some snitch of a student mentioned that they saw shou walking out with a book on monkeys and ratted him out
they opened his locker to find like 200 books
shou is banned from the library
every school photo of him is blurry. like. he could be standing in a class photo and be the only one blurry in it
shou claims he doesnt do this but thats most likely a lie
random classrooms, some shou has never even had a reason to go into, have a picture of his face and big bolded text saying DON’T LEND THIS STUDENT ANY UTENSILS/PENS/PAPER/ETC
every class has a different reason
in one, he created throwing stars out of paper that were genuinely sharp and hucked them at people walking outside through the windows
in another, he conducted and ‘experiment’ with pen ink and dyed half the desks horrible brackish blue colours
no one ever sees him do work Ever but he always gets it done, hands it in right on time, and gets near perfect marks
the student council has put ritsu in charge of helping shou out and learning how the school works and getting him adjusted
aka ‘your boyfriend is unruly please calm him down’
it Kind Of works???? in the sense that once rules and stuff are pointed out he Is aware of what does and doesnt go in school
doesnt mean he abides by them still
when he found the art room No One could get him out of there
as soon as he started an art project he would become hyper focused on it and no one could interrupt him. taking away his paints or putting his papers and utensils somewhere was a Death Sentence
Serizawa would bring him lunches during his breaks at the office and Shou would do the ‘ugh you’re embarrassing me’ routine but it’d always be like. in the middle of a class
he becomes that like. One Student in school everyone gawks at and admires but like. a combination of the mysterious kid and the jock kid
once in the middle of class, Shou was being weirdly quiet and looking down at his lap, sitting completely still
the girl next to him asked him what he was doing and Shou just leaned back and there was a massive guinea pig asleep in his lap
when he figures out that he can like. be in and make clubs Shou goes apeshit
he makes an Animal Lovers club and technically not enough people join but ritsu Makes Sure that the student council doesnt close it down because hes never seen Shou so happy and he Wont Let Anyone Ruin That
the same guinea pig girl looked over his shoulder at his sketch pad once and just. saw millions of drawings of ritsu.
she complimented him on his art and Shou lit up
“thanks! it helps to have such a gorgeous subject”