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antidotefortheawkward-art · 1 year

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Realized that in my Immortality Speedrun AU, even though Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing likely wouldn't have had the opportunity to get thrown from Heaven since they'd be working overtime at their posts, Ao Lie very much would still have the opportunity to land himself on death row as a prince, so.... Sun "An enemy of Heaven is an ally of mine" Wukong gets a roommate for buddy comedy reasons

[ID: 1. An illustration of Ao Lie and Sun Wukong. Ao Lie is in his princely attire, but notably disheveled. His green outermost robe is hanging half open, with burnt and ripped hems. The red sash at his waist is hanging in tatters as well. His hair is loose down his back and he's holdining a sword in his right hand. Sun Wukong is in his human disguise, wearing an open checkered daoist's robe. His white inner robe is not tucked into his pants and a red dudou is peeking out from underneath it. He's staring at a book in his left hand while chewing on a piece of willow, his right hand scritching his chin thoughtfully.

2. A sketched comic, with Ao Lie in teal and Sun Wukong in orange. In the first panel, Ao Lie bursts into a cave in a rush. In the second panel, Sun Wukong is sitting on the floor of the cave next to a table, looking at Ao Lie at the cave's entrance. SWK says, "Uh. Hi? This cave is already occupied." In the third panel, Ao Lie attempts to pull otu his sword in surprise, crying out "Stay back!" before he's interrupted by Sun Wukong casting a freezing spell "定!". In the fourth panel, Sun Wukong has a cheerful but annoyed facial expression as he approaches the frozen Ao Lie. He says, "LOL Nice try, punk- Now what the hell are you doing in my cave?", then, "Wait a min-". In the fifth panel, Sun Wukong is looking up at Ao Lie with a surprised and incredibly amused expression, exclaiming, "Wait- You're the Ao kid who managed to set his father's palace on fire underwater!". Ao Lie looks back at him with a tense expression, saying, "Please don't tell me you're gonna hand me in." To which Sun Wukong replies, "Hell no I won't!"

3. A sketched comic, again with Ao Lie in teal and Sun Wukong in orange. In the first panel, Sun Wukong is reading some plans in the foreground and Ao Lie is in the background. Sun Wukong says, "Xiao Long, could you head out and fetch me some lingzhi? I'm fresh out. In the second panel, Ao Lie responds, "I'm a prince who has an active warrant out for his arrest, and you're just some rogue brewing illegal immortality. Wouldn't it make more sense to go out yourself?" In the third panel, an unimpressed Sun Wukong presses a basket to Ao Lie's chest. Sun Wukong says, "I've got arrest warrants for crimes you wouldn't even imagine. Plus, it's my magic and my cave keeping you hidden, so pull your weight, Princey." Ao Lie rolls his eyes and has his hands up in a mock defeated pose. End ID]

#my art #journey to the west #jttw #xiyouji #sun wukong #monkey king #bai longma #ao lie #immortality speedrun au #sorry for only doing silly au doodles lately </3 normal jttw is still my bread and butter but ough #AUs are like junk food for me. fun and thoughtless and not filling but still taking the place of what i really should be doing instead </3 #bc thats all my tired brain can handle during this mad dash before winter break 😭#ANYWHO #this ao lie still has long hair bc the moment he heard 'death penalty' he booked it the fuck out of there #its kinda hard to see but the tips of his horns are also discolored and desaturated :>#bc ive always envisioned sea dragons' horns as coral so stress = dying coral #also ao lie gets increasingly 👁️👁️ at swk the longer he's around him bc #this is the most unassuming man in the world.#yet he's powerful enough to be willing to harbor a heavenly fugitive #and keeps insisting that he's on the run for something more heinous than what ao lie's on the run for #yet ao lie has never fucking heard of him in his life #he gets increasingly unhinged theories as to who swk is #'a follower of shen gongbao? a disgraced or dismissed disciple of some high-ranking god?'#'whoever he is he's gotta be old as hell to be this powerful'#idk what swk's fake name is yet </3

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littlemisssatanist · 1 month

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doting

fu hua x female reader

my darling xiuying...

details

teacher-student relationship / age gap / oral sex / reader is afab / y'all i'm not dead / 580 words

Nobody was doted on by Jingwei-dárén like you were. She liked you far much more than others, that was clear. You would sit on her lap for hours, talking about anything and everything that came to mind. Her arms would be wrapped around you, hands fidgeting with various trinkets attached to your outfit. Her chin resting on your shoulder as she watched you avidly, not interrupting you unless you paused for breath.

Fu Hua is almost curious about your actions. She has lived for far longer than you, and even though she had been born a human, she had long since forgotten how they truly act. She finds your tangents fascinating-- she had shied away from the more extroverted girls in her class because of their large personalities, but something about you drew her closer.

Hours would pass, and the sky would grow dark. By now, you would have settled even more comfortably against her, bodies completely melted against each other. Fu Hua's hands would brush down your body, cupping your breasts as gently as possible. Her fingers would flick at your nipples through the fabric of your hanfu, smile growing at the sound of your whimpers.

You would try to be quiet-- there were other people living in the house, after all. Jingwei-dárén would huff a laugh, a soft breath against your cheek. Her hand traveled further downwards, reaching towards the apex of your thighs.

The fabrics of your hanfu would inevitably get in the way, and Fu Hua would take a few careful minutes to take it off, leaving you only in your light-pink dudou. One of her hands would slip underneath it, coming back to your breasts, and the other would quickly make her way back to your cunt.

She would push a single finger through your folds, relishing the soft gasp you let out at the sensation. Qīn'ài de, Fu Hua whispered sweet nothings into your ear as your moans grew louder by the minute. Your body tensed as the string inside you grew taut, as she slipped more and more fingers inside you.

Her lips would meet yours; they were sweet and sour like the bīngtáng húlu she preferred to feed you, sneaking her own little bites in between yours. Her tongue would slip through, and you would shift on her lap to get into a more comfortable position. As you move, her fingers would dig deeper into your cunt, reaching a small spot that makes you groan into her mouth.

Jingwei-dárén would chuckle. Her free hand would come up to tweak your sensitive nipple before she would pull away, a thin strand of saliva still connecting the two of you. She would break it, her fingers sliding out of your cunt like a knife sliding through butter, slick with the fluids of your arousal.

The two of you would switch positions-- you would sit in her chair, and she would kneel in between your legs. Her eyes would dart up to meet yours, a mischievous smile on her face as she moved closer to your wet pussy.

Your head would roll back, the familiar dull ache in your stomach as Fu Hua's tongue would press against your folds, slipping inside and out. Catching onto your clit as your hand darts out to nestle in her silver hair. She would moan as you push her further into you, the sound sending vibrations through your body.

Yes, nobody was doted on by Jingwei-dárén quite like you.

#fu hua x reader #honkai impact #honkai impact 3rd #fu hua #honkaimpact3rd #honkai fu hua #fu hua smut #smut #x reader #honkai x reader

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umahumahumah · 2 months

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I've heard it said that what China is wearing is a dudou 肚兜 (a historic Chinese women's underwear)

I was guessing it was probably some sort of cultural clothing, but I wasn't sure how to describe it, so thanks for correcting me!!!

China really likes his women's garments huh... And he's going to kill someone in his underwear. Now that I think about it, it'd make sense for him to take off his clothes before killing someone. Don't want to get all that blood on your clothes, after all! I don't think his victim would mind either tbh

#hetalia #aph #hws #hws china #aph china

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relmint-draws · 1 year

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Nezha moment

[ID: A full-bodied illustration of Nezha donning a serious expression on his face. His short black hair falls above his shoulders, some wrapped in twin buns with a red ribbon. Underneath his bangs, a red huadian peeks out in the middle of his forehead. He is wearing a red dudou paired with a green skirt mimicking a lotus leaf. He has a golden ribbon tied around his waist. He is wearing a golden band around his neck accompanied by a pink yunjian that mimics lotus petals. He has golden bands around his ankles and is wearing red and gold arm braces. He floats over his Wind Fire Wheels which look like lotus roots, while clutching onto his Fire-tipped Spear in his left hand, and the Universe Ring in his right. He has the Red Armillary Sash around his shoulders. END ID]

#i know the fire-tipped spear is supposed to be on his right and his universe ring on his left....#but when I realized I made a mistake it was too late </33 #oh well HAHAHA #nezha #nata #third lotus prince #marshal of the central altar #rel'sart #srry for how stiff the drawing is it's literally just for me to figure out how to draw him HAHAHA #jttw #xiyouji #journey to the west

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1bringthesun · 10 months

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alright. we’ve reached deranged o’clock. today, i, tai, will be dissecting the garb of Fyodor (bsd). if someone has done this already, oops! let’s begin.

to start, an image of Fyodor for reference.

so i’m kicking us off with his hat, because that’s probably the easiest part. the fandom has collectively agreed that it’s an ushanka, and yeah, i tend to agree. it pretty much looks exactly like this (image pictured below: white ushanka from this link).

so that’s that. to balance it out, i’m doing his cape next, because what the fuck. it looks like a pretty normal cape at first glance. one with fur lining. like this (image pictured below: a black cape with fur lining at the top near the collar from this link.)

but i urge you to go look back at the reference image, because not only does Fyodor’s cape not attach at the top, not only does it have buttons along the edges, but it has a notch lapel (a type of collar lapel; basically those foldy things by the sides at the top of a trench coat). and once again, it doesn’t attach at the damn top.

so that leaves us two options: either it’s an unbuttoned coat with sleeves that don’t show because it’s so dark and a fur lining, or it’s a really weird cape. and please spare me, because i know nothing about fashion. i’m doing this all for fun. so let’s explore each option.

it could definitely be something like this, except with fur added (image pictured below: soviet officer’s naval uniform from this link)

except… you know. it doesn’t have sleeves. but his cape doesn’t have anywhere to clip onto at the top, and it also has that collar lapel, and also buttons, so it barely looks like a cape at all! what are you WEARING, Fyodor??

there’s one last possibility, but it’s not a style of cape so much as it is one specific thing i found that looks like the discolored version of what Fyodor is wearing. because i know i’m going to hit the image limit, i’m just going to tell you to visit this link if you wanna see what it looks like. it’s just a lora piana cape.

in any case, his cape does look like a personally tailored version of something that originally came from the russian military, so there’s some food for thought. moving onto his shirt.

the one clothing item that looks most like what he’s wearing is a qipao/cheongsam top. for all intents and purposes, the style and everything looks quite similar—the buttons and how they’re in the middle, where the purple-colored trim would go on Fyodor’s shirt and how it aligns with the sewing, etc. here is an example.

(image pictured below: a white qipao/cheongsam top that honestly looks a lot like what Fyodor is wearing from this link)

that looks pretty similar, right? right?!?! but damnit Fyodor, you had to make things complicated, didn’t you?! because … because your collar? that is NOT a qipao/cheongsam collar. (image pictured below: official art of Fyodor holding his hat and smiling with no cape on from this link)

the only thing that would explain how this was still a qipao/cheongsam top was if he was wearing a fengxian collar. and even then… it’s not quite right. (image pictured below: woman wearing a red dudou with a fengxian collar from this link.)

…but putting so much effort into styling one single shirt… i mean, i couldn’t find any men’s examples of the fengxian collar because styling your qipao is more of a feminine thing to do. so let’s visit russian fashion again.

ah, but there’s the slight kicker. 19th century russian fashion was, to my knowledge, influenced by asian fashion. for example, the khalat, also known as a russian cape, which— huh, do you think he could be wearing a khalat?

….i finished talking about his cape. and as i was writing about the weird collar on his shirt, i remembered this official art, which i grabbed and saved directly from the manga so i don’t have a link source. (image pictured below: newish official art released in the manga—Dazai and Fyodor standing next to each other with yellow paint(?) severing their heads from their bodies and TV screens with various pictures surrounding them.)

Fyodor’s collar! look, it’s straight! maybe he IS wearing a cheongsam! the cape still has that weird collar lapel (goddamn it) so i can’t really say anything enlightened about that, but… the shirt!!

cool! alright! his pants! so this is really straightforward. idk if it’s pants that come as a pair with the shirt or something, but they just look like normal white linen pants to me. (image pictured below: linen, white pants on a woman from this link)

finally, his shoes. i only have one image left before i hit the image limit, so i hope you’re willing to scroll back to the top, where you’ll see his shoes look very strange, but surprisingly, they’re easy enough to label.

i think it’s likely he’s wearing Renaissance boots, given how they look almost identical to his sans the fact they’re disconnected in the front, but Renaissance boots DO have gaps, it’s just not pictured in the specific image of these specific boots i chose. (image pictured below: Renaissance boots from this link.)

yeah, they’re a little short, and maybe they don’t look EXACTLY right, but you can’t deny it’s the same style. if you think the shoe quarters look a little less attached to the vamps, then i’d just tell you to consider the fact he’s wearing spatterdashes and call it a day. (more about spats here.)

and finally, if you’re interested in 19th century/historical russian fashion, given Fyodor’s outfit seems pretty inspired by that, i advise you check out this link, which goes into some detail about things i didn’t.

of course, i hope you enjoyed my disorganized insanity, and may you have a good sun-out time or moon-out time!

#fyodor dostoyevsky bsd #bungou stray dogs #bsd #fashion #russian fashion #russian history #i dunno what else i can tag this with #cosplay advice #maybe cosplay advice?? not sure if it counts as that #Fyodor bsd #bsd Fyodor #yeah maybe i’m abusing these tags but i spent time on this and i want attention for it

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auranova26 · 9 months

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Hsien-Ko Design Notes and Inspiration

One thing about Cryas Darkstalkers is my desire to not only write and think of the characters differently based on official information and headcanon, but also try to redesign them to fit the world I imagine and their personalities in the mythos. Today, I want to talk about my process and notes regarding the official design of one of the main protagonists of Cryas Darkstalkers: Shao Hsien-Ko!

Compared to her original version, she actually isn't too drastic of a change. Honestly, her original design is already really well done and awesome. However, I had some ideas and thoughts to make her stand out from the original. For the foundation I stuck with the design of her from Vampire Hunter/ Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge.

If you were not aware, Hsien-Ko basically has two official designs. This version of her and the one from the official art for Darkstalkers Resurrection. I chose the Hunters design as I generally really love the overall idea of the qipao for this version of her. The DSR version goes for a qipao with two flaps, front and back. I am not a fan of that on top of the change to her hat where she has a bell on the top rather than a ball.

Now what about that necklace she wears? Probably the most notable feature of her, I actually do have an inspiration. The idea of the necklace stems from the story 'Monsters and the Secret of Immortality'.

Hsien-Ko's overall design is interesting in that story as she is portrayed as much wilder and psychotic in her demeanor. But I also think aspects of the design are… well too busy. But among the design elements, the necklace caught my eye the most. In Cryas DS, to mirror the… well mirror that Mei-Ling has, Hsien-Ko wears the necklace that her mother wore as a physical memento of her on her journey to save her. The character on her necklace was changed to 邵 (shào), her family name in Cryas Darkstalkers. Now while in the main timeline it is 少 (shǎo), I already was too used to 邵 that I decided to stick with that pronunciation and way the character is written.

The two yellow strings that follow along the side of her breasts and torso were inspired by a piece of art I saw that showed an idea of strings on her qipao, granted they were much smaller elements. I would share the art, but honestly unless it is official art, my art, or art I commissioned, I would rather not share. Even with giving credit, it just wouldn't feel right. However, one piece I will share is this:

The way Casa drew Hsien-Ko here, specifically the way the strings were attached to her qipao were different compared to how I originally did it. I loved the idea and made that official to her.

What about the flower on the flap of her qipao, you may ask? Honestly, I never came across a design that inspired me, it was more so something involving the origins of Hsien-Ko's name in Chinese, 仙姑 (xiāngū). Her name derives from the Xian that is among the pantheon of the Eight Immortals of Chinese mythos, 何仙姑 (hé xiāngū). In tellings of the story, the Xian is said to hold a lotus flower and in general seems to have a strong association with the flower. Because I wanted to still add something more to Hsien-Ko without getting too extremely away from the core of her generally simple design, I thought it would be lovely to add a lotus flower design to her qipao. Not only pretty but tapping more into her Chinese roots. While her old hanfu and dudou have a more traditionally designed lotus flower, the one on her current garb is a more stylized take on the flower, courtesy of Mei-Ling.

Another minor detail, but one I wanted to still bring up. The story 'Lei-Lei (Hsien-Ko) Returns' by Takashi Mibu is another excellent anthology story centering around the Shao sisters. I love the general expressions they draw Hsien-Ko in, really showing off her fangs. But what I wanted to bring up is the trim on her qipao. You can see here that rather than be flat, it is made to have volume. Like a stuffed trim. I liked that and rolled with it.

While initially I somewhat stuck to the general shape of Hsien-Ko's hairstyle in the main timeline, it evolved into something more wild and less rigid. As time went on, while the general idea of her hair fanning out reaching towards the length of her shoulders was still the same, the shape it took on was more claw and fang like. Wild you could say. While not exactly the same, these characters Daisy and Sabrina were ones to sort of plant the seed.

The idea of describing it as wilder, I say I can still somewhat also point to 'Monsters and the Secrets of Immortality's design of Hsien-Ko for that.

Because I genuinely get sick of Hsien-Ko being draw in such small/thin/…. well anime proportioned manner, I wanted to go back to what Vampire Hunter established in official art and her sprites in game: her muscles. Granted, I took it a step further as I altered the general shape of her body to be more muscular and wider build. One could say thicc, I prefer warrior build. I can point to three sources that I think of when I think of her body shape. Kratos from the modern God of War era, a sketch my friend @yourweebmystic made some time ago, and the way an artist who goes by the name Rayluaza draws the character Chi Chi. To show an idea of Rayluaza's way of drawing strong women, I'll share a commission I got from them of my Hsien-Ko. Honestly, Rayluaza did a perfect representation of what I believe for Hsien-Ko in Cryas Darkstalkers in terms of her body shape and build.

That sums it up for Hsien-Ko, but there is more to her than her base state. Let's take a moment to talk about the design elements of another notable power of Hsien-Ko in Cryas Darkstalkers: Xié è De Yōngbào/Dark Embrace.

The Dark Embrace Burst was based on something for one of my OCs in terms of a Burst they have of a similar name: Ebony Embrace. Now that individual is a single person, but Hsien-Ko and Mei-Ling are two people who are closely connected. In essence, like as jiangshis, they are two halves of the idea of this whole Burst. Hsien-Ko is the wild, raw power of it. Her upper clothes tear away only because that is where the shadow attaches to her body when Mei-Ling attaches. The hat vanishes to help accentuate the wild look to her. Seeing her hair full on. The markings? An underlying thing about the Burst is its connection to the substance, Corriyami. Norocier, a Corrian, is a being that was born from the substance. In a way, it is a physical manifestation of those with this kind of Burst would look like if they were Corrian. Now the markings took on different ideas over time. Two sources I can fully acknowledge that helped to steer the course of the markings were these two pieces.

The first is done by the artist tana_taka_3rder and the second is done by my friend @capyguava

A small detail, but still important to me. Initially, Hsien-Ko's eyes in the Burst were more so based on the idea of glowing eyes I saw with the likes of Anti Form and Rage Form Sora.

However, when I saw this art that was made by Alejo, I then went with the idea that their general eye shapes stayed the same. When in most states of mind/ levels of emotion, they had lines to represent their iris. But when sufficiently enraged or in a high state of negative emotion, they disappear to give off a more intimidating appearance.

While art tends to vary between artists about the eye color of Hsien-Ko officially, I stuck with Yellow. I feel the color contrasts well, even compliment her blue skin. Plus if you think about Chinese color theory and beliefs, one of the ideas is that yellow is symbolic with heroism. This is something very prominently used in the Kung Fu Panda series as the main protagonist Po is seen quite a lot with the color yellow. The villain of the first film, Tai Lung, had Yellow eyes. This went well where he felt like a wronged individual. A hero in his own mind. And many scenes with heroic moments or those of triumph feature the color a lot. So honestly, I think it stands Hsien-Ko sticks with that general idea as well due to her Chinese roots.

Oh, I should probably explain the ideas behind Hsien-Ko's human design. So of course I wanted her to look like a Qing woman of the 1730s-1740s since that is the time period she was alive. Skin tone and eye color were for the more typical tones that a Chinese individual could easily have. However compared to Mei-Ling and her mother, she has a bit more melanin to her.

So fun fact, in reality there really wasn't any kind of uniform for a martial artist during those time periods… or even later on in history. They would generally fight in their day clothes. So, while pertaining to the general dress idea of the Qing period, I still wanted Hsien-Ko's clothes to still look comfortable and easy to move around in. The colors scheme just works for her since she has some association with those colors. And even in some sprite art for Hsien-Ko in VHunter, her qipao was red, so a nice nod. As for her hairstyle, that was inspired by the design I saw in the Tetsujin Drama doujin. I think it is a nice contrast to what would become a much wilder hairstyle that grew from her original style.

Hopefully this gives you a good feel for the ideas I had behind redesigning Hsien-Ko. For any artist I credit, please check them out and show love to their art!

#cryas darkstalkers #darkstalkers #hsien ko #shao #chinese #jiangshi #design notes #auranova26 #weeb and alm are super awesome and I love my friends #hsien-ko #I love hsien-ko a lot if you couldnt tell #night warriors #vampire hunter

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rarepears · 1 year

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For the parrot harem, the ONLY woman included in that is an asexual woman who escaped a forced marriage, which would have otherwise lead to bingge og wife #199 being born, by marrying the mystical -maybe existing- parrot who belongs to a peaklord(?) And has a widely spread harem and many admirers who wish to be included, her first move was literally wrestling the birbo inside of her dudou(?) In order to claim her "chastity has been stolen so naturally i belong to this birb and thus have no need to marry that dick" in order to get the protection.

Good thing nro. 1, it traumatized the birb to stay away from her in the matters of the sex, good thing nro. 2, shen yuan has a stronk fast waifu ready to hunt down anyone who tries to harm her platonic husband in order to wed her or someone in her hubbys harem.

Bad thing, now it has become hard for anyone else to join the harem, since there is both a scary father-in-law and the only female wife who will gladly "be filial" and follow the orders of her father-in-law, basically like hades and cerberus.

(maybe the lady IS a demonic/spiritual beast gained human form as well-thing? A three headed dog daughter-in-law.)

This is PERFECT.

Skip the Sha Hualing demon showdown. Luo Binghe's true opponent is this female wife.

(Also in Cang Qiong's eyes, they probably see the parrot's harem as yet another one of Shen Jiu's perversions. He doesn't want to truly tie himself to any person or harem, so in order to have a harem without being legally obligated to the members of the harem, he arranges for the harem to belong to his pet bird instead.)

[More in the #shen qingqiu has an emotional support parrot and hijinks happen au]

#scum villian self saving system #shen yuan #svsss ideas #svsss #svsss au #scumbag self saving system #shen qingqiu #shen jiu #parrot #shen qingqiu has an emotional support parrot and hijinks happen au

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rongzhi · 1 year

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important question. were you a Nezha kid or a Sun Wukong kid growing up? (or secret third thing calabash brothers kid)

Nezha kid if I had to choose? But tbh I did not get to watch a lot of TV growing up, and those we did were the same VHS tapes over and over.

We had a couple live action JTTW movies I think but they were the sort burned onto CDs that they’d sell in random collections on the streets back in the day. We have one cartoon movie that is also JTTW I think (demon slayer? Spider demon? Idk, there was a kid with red hair and huadian and a purple dudou as a second villain, is all I remember). Most Chinese movies I watched were xianxia or historical dramas my parents watched after they put us to bed and then we sneaked back downstairs and watched from behind the couch. (We usually got found out when someone died and either me or my sibling had an existential crisis about it and started crying LOL)

Actually the main Chinese cartoon I watched growing up was 大头儿子小头爸爸， which we had a collection of… but I actually hated that show a lot because it gave me horrible second hand embarrassment whenever the characters gut up to shit, which was practically that whole show. Plus it was one of those eerie 90s animations, which in retrospect is very aesthetic but as a kid was nightmare fuel.

#text #answered ask #antidotefortheawkward-art #the truth is I was a Disney mulan kid growing up because I didn’t know it was an English movie until I was like 9 #I thought it was a Chinese movie 🤷🏻‍♂️

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journeytothewestresearch · 2 years

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My Changes to Marvel and DC's Monkey Kings

Sun Wukong has appeared in the published works of two major US comic book companies. The Marvel version is a queue braid-wearing crime lord from modern Beijing, China who is endowed with the powers and memories of the original Monkey King. He is a boastful, greedy, and thoroughly unlikable background character throughout his entire arc (2011-219), and his story ends with a rushed, pointless self-sacrifice during a battle. The writers involved were so painfully unfamiliar with the literary hero, that the abilities of his comic book counterpart are wildly inconsistent, even within the same issue of a single comic, and especially throughout his appearances in other storylines. Marvel's Sun Wukong is a prime example of people trying and failing badly to adapt a work from a culture that they clearly know nothing about.

The most recent DC incarnation of the Monkey King (2021-present) [1] has the benefit of Chinese-American creators, but it's still not a great adaptation. Sun Wukong is depicted as a staff-wielding, armor-wearing jokester even centuries after the journey's end, unlike the literary character which becomes an enlightened Buddha. And the main focus of the series, his son the Monkey Prince (here and here), is just a boring, inferior copy of the original, with the same exact abilities and weaknesses. His human mother is never mentioned (only adoptive parents), nor the reason why Sun would abandon his family. DC's Monkey King has largely been absent from the overall story as he was banished to the Phantom Zone by the New God Darkseid after a battle in heaven.

Here, I'd like to present the changes I suggested in my respective reviews of these comics. I feel they are far more faithful to the original narrative.

I. Marvel's Sun Wukong

(See here for background)

I would completely do away with the queue-wearing crime lord and replace him with a modern spirit-medium (Chinese: Jitong, 乩童; Hokkien: Tangki, 童乩; literally: “divining child”) from Chinese folk religion. Such individuals are believed to channel the spirit of the “Great Sage Equaling Heaven” (Qitian Dasheng, 齊天大聖), the celestial title of Sun Wukong. While inhabited by the monkey god, the spirit of the human host is believed to reside in heaven or some temple-based holy object (Chan, 2006, pp. 59-60; Graham, 2013, p. 330). Therefore, the person would be for all intents and purposes the Monkey King for the duration of the story. As a medium, the character wouldn’t wear a superhero costume. Instead, he would be bare-chested apart from a ritual stomacher (dudou, 肚兜) and a tri-panel dragon-tiger apron (longhu qun, 龍虎裙) over everyday pants and shoes (or no shoes). Such ritual attire is usually decorated with auspicious symbols and, sometimes, the Chinese name of the deity, in this case the Great Sage (fig. 1).

I would also like to make some changes that might seem weird for an adaptation of Sun Wukong. But I’m torn between pandering to the wants of comic book fans and my desire to portray an authentic East and Southeast Asian spirit-medium. The former would involve the character wielding the magic staff, but in the case of the latter, I’ve noticed that few mediums involve the polearm in their public performances. Those who do only use it to enhance the theater of their portrayal of the Great Sage. The weapon serves no ritual function. The latter would involve the character wielding the “Five Treasures of the Spirit-Medium” (Jitong wubao, 乩童五寶), a set of ritual weapons consisting of a spiked ball on a rope, a spiked club, a sawfish nose sword, a crescent moon ax, and a double-edged sword engraved with seven stars (fig. 2) (Chan, 2006, p. 73). Mediums use these weapons during a ritual dance in which they inflict wounds on their body. This self-mortification is believed to serve two purposes. One, holy energy from the weapons help the medium prepare “for a particularly difficult battle” by “supercharg[ing] him with spirit power” (Chan, 2006, pp. 108-109). And two, the resulting holy blood—for it is considered the blood of the god, not the host—is believed to have demonifugic properties. It can be used to write paper sigils commanding heavenly forces to attack demonic spirits (Chan, 2006, p. 108). Now, I’ll admit that this would no doubt be off-putting to the average comic book reader. So herein lies the dilemma. The only compromise that I can think of would be to use them both but more so in one case and sparingly in the other. An enchanted brass pole, like those used by Great Sage mediums during performances (fig. 3 & 4), would be the character’s main weapon. But when he runs into trouble, he could summon the aforementioned treasures to “supercharge” himself, and, if needed, he could draw blood in order to call on heavenly forces. This leads me to my next change.

Fig. 1 – An entranced spirit-medium wearing the stomacher and apron (larger version). Picture taken by me in Tainan, Taiwan. Fig. 2 – The “Five Treasures of the Spirit-Medium” (larger version). Found on Facebook and slightly modified. Here, the original biological sawfish nose sword (photo by me) has been replaced by two modern, metal, single and double-edged versions. Fig. 3 – An example of a brass pole used by Great Sage mediums (larger version). Fig. 4 – A detail of joss paper and joss sticks attached to the pole (larger version). Pictures taken by me in Jiayi, Taiwan.

Despite the Monkey King’s immeasurable strength in Journey to the West, I wouldn’t want to make the character an unstoppable powerhouse like, say, the Sentry. I would instead make him moderately powerful for a few reasons. First, there’s no fun in an invincible hero who one-shots all his foes; there has to be some struggle in order to make the character more interesting and relatable. Second, spirit-mediums only protect their local community and, therefore, not an entire country or planet like more powerful characters. And third, there are many Great Sage spirit-mediums across East and Southeast Asia. What’s interesting about this concept is that each medium is believed by their respective communities to be the Great Sage. For example, one very small temple I visited in Taiwan has an astounding seven Great Sage mediums. This means that, if a particularly nasty evil befalls the earth, an entire army of Great Sages, who in turn command their own heavenly forces, can be called on to deal with the villain! This would not only be authentic, but also reference Sun Wukong’s magic power of creating endless doubles of himself. [2] And the best part? The story could follow a series of different spirit-mediums in different countries. So the “character” wouldn’t be limited to a single person. The medium could be Chinese, Taiwanese, Malaysian, Singaporean, basically any person of Chinese descent who practices spirit-mediumship. And they can be young, old, and even women, too. That’s right, there are female Great Sage mediums! (video 1).

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Video 1 – A female Great Sage medium in Chinese opera-inspired attire.

II. DC's Monkey King and Monkey Prince - Part I

(See here for background)

I would do away with the Monkey King taking a Chinese wife centuries after he became a Buddha. Instead, the son could be born during the Tang Dynasty to Princess Iron Fan, the rakshasi wife of the Bull Demon King. Though seemingly impossible, there is precedent for this idea. An early 15th-century zaju play predating the novel describes Sun Wukong’s delight upon learning that the Princess is unmarried (Ning, 1986, pp. 139-140). He then resorts to seduction in an attempt to gain the iron fan needed to extinguish Flaming Mountain. For example, he recites a poem to her chocked full of sexual innuendo: “The disciple’s not too shallow. / the woman’s not too deep. / You and I, let’s each put forth an item, / and make a little demon” (Ning, 1986, p. 141). In addition, a 17th-century sequel to Journey to the West even describes the Monkey King having a number of sons with Princess Iron Fan. He faces one of his offspring, King Pāramitā (Boluomi wang, 波羅蜜王), during a final battle between all the armies of the world (Dong, Lin, & Schulz, 2000, pp. 123-124). In our story, the son could have been conceived during ch. 60 of the original novel when Monkey shares a tender moment with the Princess while disguised as the Bull Demon King (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 3, p. 144).

Being a half-monkey spirit-half-rakshasa demigod, I’d like to think the Prince’s base form would be more monkey-like. This would mean any lapse in concentration would cause him to revert to this state instead of a human form like in the original comic story.

I can already hear someone ask: “How can the Monkey Prince still be a teenager by the start of the story if he was born hundreds of years ago?” Well, this leads me to my next change. Instead of Zhu Bajie, it would make much more sense for his teacher to be the Bodhisattva Guanyin. After all, she tutors the children of several characters from the novel, including Muzha (木吒), 2nd son of Heavenly King Li Jing, and Red Boy (Hong hai’er, 紅孩兒; a.k.a. the “Child Sudhana”, Shancai tongzi, 善財童子), son of the Princess Iron Fan and Bull Demon King. [3] Already having a son under the goddess’ tutelage would make it easier for the Princess to send another child to learn from her. Also, Guanyin helped subdue both Monkey and Red Boy with golden fillets (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 1, pp. 316-320; vol. 2, pp. 251-252). Perhaps the Monkey Prince has a temper like his father and half-brother, so the goddess would make him wear Wukong’s fillet as it’s no longer needed once the latter attains Buddhahood (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 4, p. 383). Most importantly, the bodhisattva lives on the earthly paradise of Potalaka Mountain. The novel explains one day in heaven equals one year on earth (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 1, pp. 150 and 167). A similar constricting of time would no doubt happen in Guanyin’s holy land. Therefore, the Monkey Prince would still be a teenager even after hundreds of years have passed on earth.

Next, I would completely do away with the tacky superhero costume. As a disciple of Guanyin, he would just wear a monk’s robe, the golden fillet, and possibly even sport a tiger skin skirt (like his father) since he would technically be a heavenly guardian. There’d be no unnecessary logos, recycled costumes, or cursed sneakers. And the best part, this attire wouldn’t contradict the Monkey Prince’s hatred for superheroes, provided that was still a necessary plot element. Perhaps this hatred could be born from the fact that heroes like Shazam are given their powers (or happen upon them by accident), while the Prince’s abilities are the hard-won product of long years of spiritual cultivation.

My changes are less confident, however, when it comes to naturally fitting the Monkey Prince into existing canon. The first thing that comes to mind would involve the Shazam villain Sabbac, a hellish demon, causing havoc in Philidephlia’s Chinatown. Perhaps his assault could be related to the deplorable reports of Covid-related violence against Asians. A devotee of the goddess could pray to her in their time of need, and then the Monkey Prince is sent in her stead to exorcize the evil. But Shazam arrives while the Prince is battling the demon, and not knowing one from the other, he attacks them both. This might add fuel to the Monkey Prince’s dislike for Shazam.

I personally think the secret teen identity is a bit much. But if it is a necessary plot element, Guanyin could assign the Monkey Prince to watch over her flock in Philadelphia (and the rest of America?), and at the same time allow him to experience a slice of modern teen life. And, again, if necessary, we can borrow from the original story and have the Prince attend high school, where he feels drawn to Billy Batson because of his godly aura. A local earth god (tudi gong, 土地公) and his wife (tudi po, 土地婆) (fig. 5) could be tasked by heaven to act like his grandparents to keep up the appearance of a normal human family.

Fig. 5 – Religious statues of the earth god (right) and his wife (left) in my personal collection (larger version).

III. DC's Monkey King and Monkey Prince - Part 2

(See here for background)

I would do away with the Bull Demon King, Princess Iron Fan, and Zhu Bajie. Instead, the original heavenly army would meet the brunt of Darkseid’s forces upon their arrival. Playing off of the comic story, and acknowledging my own changes, Guanyin would send her disciples Muzha and Sudhana to take part in the battle. And taking more inspiration from the comic story, I would also have Erlang arrive but instead go toe-to-toe with Darkseid. The “Small Sage” (Xiaosheng, 小聖) is after all the only god to truly defeat the Monkey King, so he would be a worthy opponent. But lets say the invader somehow gets the upper hand, and so I would pay homage to the original novel by having the Jade Emperor call on Gautama Buddha to intervene. But he instead sends the Buddha Victorious in Strife, who obviously has experience with causing havoc in heaven. The Monkey Buddha shows off his power by easily nullifying the attacks of Darkseid’s army and even negating the omega beams by turning them into a shower of flowers, reminiscent of ancient biographies of Gautama Buddha:

The host of Mara hastening, as arranged, each one exerting his utmost force, taking each other’s place in turns, threatening every moment to destroy [the Buddha, but] … Their flying spears, lances, and javelins, stuck fast in space, refusing to descend; the angry thunderdrops and mighty hail, with these, were changed into five-colour’d lotus flowers…” (Beal, 1883, pp. 152 and 153).

I could borrow still more from the novel and have the Buddha Victorious in Strife make Darkseid a wager, recalling Gautama Buddha’s bet with Sun Wukong involving his cloud somersault. But instead of betting that he can’t leap from his palm, the Monkey Buddha makes a wager involving the boom tube.

This is where I run into trouble, though. I don’t know enough about the cosmic hierarchy of the DC universe to go past this point. I say this because Darkseid is considered a “conceptual being” that lives outside of time and is capable of creating avatars of himself (Darkseid (New Earth), n.d.). I’m not sure how this stacks up against DC’s concept of an enlightened being. But from a Buddhist cosmological perspective, I believe the Buddha would be more powerful because he has achieved “nirvāṇa” (Ch: niepan, 涅槃) and broken free of the wheel of rebirth (Buswell & Lopez, 2014, pp. 589-590). However, the New God, even as a deva capable of creating avatars, would still be subject to the “Desire realm” (Sk: kāmadhātu; Ch: yujie, 欲界) of Saṃsāra (Ch: lunhui, 輪迴; shengsi lunhui, 生死輪迴) (Buswell & Lopez, 2014, pp. 230-233 and 411). Therefore, I imagine the Buddha Victorious in Strife plays a trick on Darkseid and is able to trap or even destroy his avatar. As mentioned above, this would make the real villain (in his home dimension) think twice before tangling with Monkey again.

I’m now obligated to insert my concept of the Monkey Prince into the story. Since he’s born during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE), he would be alive during the attack on heaven. But as a young, inexperienced disciple, he wouldn’t take part in the battle, just hear news of it from Guanyin during the event and stories of what happened from his half-brother Sudhana after the fact. This way, the Monkey Prince would remember the invasion and yearn to do his part when Darkseid reappears in the present.

Lastly, I feel it’s necessary to give the character a name. The comic calls him the “Monkey Prince” in his hero form and “Marcus” in his human form. I think Sun Taizi (孫太子), or “Prince Sun”, is a great name as it plays off of San Taizi (三太子), the “Third Prince” (fig. 6), one of Nezha’s titles in Chinese folk religion. (Fun fact: This deity serves as a heavenly vanguard in Sun Wukong’s own religion.) Borrowing from existing religious beliefs sparks the titillating idea that Sun Taizi’s heroic deeds would earn him devotees. Beyond his own continuing spiritual cultivation, he would grow in strength as more and more believers pray to and leave him offerings! This wouldn’t be the first time a monkey god is worshiped in America.

Fig. 6 – A religious statue of San Taizi, the “Third Prince”, from the Nine Dragons Prince Temple (Jiulong taizi gong, 九龍太子宮) in Tainan, Taiwan (larger version). Photo taken by me.

Notes:

His wager with the Buddha is briefly shown in Lucifer #75 (2006).

For example, chapter two reads:

Plucking a handful of hairs from his [the Monkey King’s] own body and throwing them into his mouth, he chewed them to tiny pieces and then spat them into the air. “Change!” he cried, and they changed at once into two or three hundred little monkeys encircling the combatants on all sides. For you see, when someone acquires the body of an immortal, he can project his spirit, change his form, and perform all kinds of wonders. Since the Monkey King had become accomplished in the Way, every one of the eighty-four thousand hairs on his body could change into whatever shape or substance he desired (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 1, p. 128).

3. Muzha (a.k.a. Hui’an, 惠岸) is already Guanyin’s disciple by the start of Monkey’s rebellion. In ch. 6, the goddess sends him to help in case his skills are needed (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 1, p. 175). Red Boy is taken in by her at the end of ch. 42 and beginning of ch. 43 (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 2, pp. 251-252).

Sources:

Beal, S. (Trans.). (1883). The Fo-Sho-Hing-Tsan-King: A Life of Buddha by Asvaghosha Bodhisattva. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/foshohingtsankin00asva/mode/2up.

Buswell, R. E., & Lopez, D. S. (2014). The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press.

Chan, M. (2006). Ritual is Theatre, Theatre is Ritual: Tang-ki, Chinese Spirit Medium Worship. Singapore: Wee Kim Wee Centre, Singapore Management University.

Dong, Y., Lin, S., & Schulz, L. J. (2000). The Tower of Myriad Mirrors: A Supplement to Journey to the West. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, The University of Michigan.

Graham. F. (2013). Vessels for the Gods: Tang-ki Spirit Mediumship in Singapore and Taiwan. In J. Hunter & D. Luke (Eds.), Talking With Spirits: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Spirit Mediumship (pp. 327-348). Brisbane: Daily Grail Press.

Ning, C. Y. (1986). Comic Elements in the Xiyouji Zaju. (Doctoral dissertation). Available from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. (UMI No. 8612591)

Wu, C., & Yu, A. C. (2012). The Journey to the West (Vols. 1-4). Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press.

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