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lindalofbroome · 5 months

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original sketches

DELTORA FASHION CONCEPT ART V2

hello i have finally coloured some rough sketches of some deltoran fashions, a redraw of some really old sketches from ages ago.

im a pretty amateur concept artists and i hate designing clothes so truly was a challenge for me hahah BUT it has given me plenty of time to think of headcanons. im not sure what i've already posted about or not so im just gonna go ahead and rant

these characters were originally just models for me to draw the clothes on, so i didn't need to draw a new person every time; although in some of my earliest sketches of different people groups i did a bunch of people. but naturally these characters have developed a little and some of them are my beloved adin-era OCs <3

[about 4,500 words]

⬜ JALIS

since the jalis are reknowned for their warrior prowess and their signature gold armour, i thought it'd be neat that even if when they're not wearing the full set, they are always wearing their arm guards. it's a sense of pride and identity, they probably receive them as a rite of passage into adulthood. not every jalis is a knight, but they value a heart of courage and great feats and they all have them, and would wear them always (or at least special occasions if one prefers not).

i headcanon that jasmine was gifted her own set of arm guards as an expression of their respect and admiration of her. her relationship with glock grew so much and was cut off, but she earned her "heart of a jalis" and we didnt get to see much of jasmine and gers together, but theres plenty of time post-DQ3. i think my jasmine and the jalis thoughts should be a separate post though, otherwise this post will never end 😂

i dont imagine that the jalis had special party clothes, i think they just turn up in their usual clothes and get drunk and dance their hearts out maybe start a brawl thats none of my business

i cant remember why i've been giving them this geometric sort of pattern tbh. i think i drew someone at some point and wanted it to look different to mcbride's design but im not sure if i like it or not. the plus is that i can make diamond motifs though!!

i also cant really remember how my brown skin gold hair came to be 🤔🤔 wait backtracking i think what happened is that i decided to draw del people as black latinx inspired, so it wasn't that big a step to make jalis also dark skinned since they're both in the south (deltora geography is weird tho so like it's not that deep) and then i think i made them blonde as i "why not??" situation but tHEN i thought maybe it's connected to their jalis gold?

my headcanon is that their armour is made of a unique metal that can only be found in diamond territory, it's super hard, tough, and light etc. so maybe whatever is In The Ground is also in them and their blood and shows in their hair????

🥳 fun fact 🥳 wasn't until i had to draw steven and glock side by side that i had realised what i'd done?? i.e. steven canonically has brown skin gold hair too¹. which now forces me to think about whether it should be a coincidence (like it is) or shall i headcanon that steven and nevets' father was jalis² 🤔 ¹ pretty sure it's about the dichotomy, to show contrast but connection between the brothers. i have many steven and nevets thoughts but that should also be another post ² i am.

🟩 DREAD GNOMES

these characters are adin-era, so unfortunately this would be when the gnomes still hunt the kin. whats weird is that i realised that i was picturing the caramelly brown fabric that this gnome is wearing was the kin pelt and not the big furry parts?? i usually picture the kin as more like velvetty. idk what the thicker fur parts would be though?? literally any other animal i guess 😅 i dont know it doesn't make sense and it's only occurring to me right now i shall have to think about it lmao

anyway made them green because why not. maybe they come in different colours idk. this gnome is pre-gellick so does go out in the sun, gellick-era gnomes would be waaaaay more paler they probably looked white. this could be similar to the jalis and like theres something in the grounddd

gla-thon claims that the dread gnomes knew that lesser gems had weaker but the same powers of the great talisman gems (sots), but im not sure if they knew it before adin. would be interesting if they did 🤔 and how they figured it out?? (side note but now im wondering about how withick knew what to write about the gems??) would imply that if they got the great emerald than they could deduce there are others surely. unless they thought it was a freak accident/miracle. anyway we know they love gems and gold etc etc so they obviously decorate themselves with heaps of jewellery

triangle motifs in homage to their mountain 💚

i gave them a sort of war paint ritual. i'm not sure if they all do the same markings, but this one was specifically to symbolise a bow and arrow (arrow going up the nose). you can see it a bit better here lol. i also decided that sometimes they wear it for purely cosmetic purposes. im not sure what the substance is exactly though. i think in my head i was imagining something similar to kohl, but maybe not.

🥳 fun fact 🥳 bre-tak and az-zure are lesbians (i make the rules)

🟦 MERE

oooooh baby this is my guy my babygirl my everything

okay so i think this headcanon developed recently when i last drew sky of rithmere and i thought that mere superstition encouraged them to wear their charms in random spots to avoid them cancelling each other out. it could be construed to be they were inspired by the night sky and the pattern of the stars perhaps. this led them to prefer asymmetrical fashions, mostly prominent in the armour i put badr in

🥳 fun fact 🥳 badr means "full moon" 👀

i think i originally decided the mere had leather armour just to give them something different iirc but the mere characters we see are usually the lithe, speedy, crafty type, so maybe light, mobile armour does work for them lol. anyway the main reason is that i had the image of studded leather, and i was like ohohoho STARS

i generally think of them with muted colours but sometimes they have a bold blue for their prized garmants. like zillah and co, the leaders of rithmere in adin's time were described with bright blue and starry cloaks. (i checked the wiki just to check zillah's name lol and apparently it's actually canon they have leather armour?? so not sure why i thought otherwise) anyway i do currently have minecraft brain but i did vaguely remember that people made ultramarine pigment from grinding lapis lazuli into a powder and im not sure if thats something the mere would do or if there's some strong blue dyes they can get from plants or something native to their territory 🤔

actually im liking that idea now? it would be incredibly time-consuming and labour-intensive but that would add to its value?? real world lapis lazuli has a horrible yield rate of 1kg lapis to 30g of pigment apparently, but it's a strong pigment (unless i misunderstand). alternative name for ultramarine is "permanent blue" apparently so. anyway ultramarine irl is more of a paint pigment, but in roddaverse maybe the mere make a lucky blue dye to use on cloaks and scarfs and shawls etc for good fortune?? me frantically checking that i put badr and luisa's wedding garb in bold blue lmAO oh i did but it's a little muted. they mix in oils and stuff to make the paint, so it doesnt seem like a stretch that they can mix different ingredients or ratio to make a cloth dye (to my very amateur understanding).

so im imagining now that they have a special (probably secret within the mere) process to create bright blue thread speckled with white (also gold to me. im pro deltora lapis with gold) and weave it into their beautiful starry night fabric. the amount of labour and the use of their prized lapis lazuli makes it very special, and maybe some people think it's the lapis that makes the fabric lucky or maybe some people think it's the work of love and time that makes it lucky, maybe both.

🥳 fun fact 🥳 i forgot that "bless your lucky stars" is like a real saying until recently lol

a starry cloak is probably something only the really rich could afford, but i think that they are more like heirlooms and states of office? im not sure if these pieces are things that one would purchase or something they would receive. bit hard to imagine people doing it for free but maybe it's one of those staple things that they revere and everyone else works to support them as well etc like the cooks in noradz are prized. idk. but yeah like a poorer family couldn't get a new one, but they would have one that has been in their family for generations you know? and i think that there would be something about like. idk youre meeting up with your doctor or something and youre nervous and you put on your family's best clothes (the most lucky ones) and maybe youre cynical about the whole good fortune stuff but there's something comforting about wearing the cloak your mother wore and your grandmother and your great grandmother wore, who also had to do such things. something something gives you the confidence to make your own luck because youre no longer pessimistic and allowing avoidable mistakes to happen

this means that the mere giving adin a cloak was a REALLY big deal because they definitely dont just go throwing those around and they would probably only give it to an outsider in trade for a steeeeeeeeeeeep price. which of course means that there would be knock offs with bad quality dye. lmao thats perfect actually. like 10000% there would be merchants in rithmere trying to sell cheaper versions to people that are expensive but still affordable to the average person. some would be different shades of blue, but the more crafty might have dyes that are strong but not lasting.

oh also i headcanon that palace fashion was a conglomerate of aspects from all the tribes but this should be it's own post i think. but i just remembered that i put gold thread in badr's braids in the formal wear sketch. i did that to tie in with the veins/flecks of gold (technically pyrite) in irl lapis lazuli. as such, people at del palace were inspired to weave gold into their hair too.

also gives me another thing to ship badr and luisa lmao. badr can wear some gold and luisa can wear some blue as a treat for me <3 moon and stars ocs beloved

🟨 DEL

alright. okay so del is definitely very white western patriarchal coded (most just a bias of living in that type of society i reckon) but it sucks and i'm passionate about making del NOT that. i think i've said this a million times now but this should be it's own post too, but most succinctly del is a very vibrant, curious, and daring sort of culture (e.g. their recklessness, exploration, trading). they were already marrying non-deltorans before adin (i imagine that some might have dared to marry outside of del, but it would have been way more politically complex so it was rarer and often kept quiet and rural). people of del were moving to other countries (like dorne) and people were probably moving to del, so del is definitely a big mix of different people and languages and superstitions and stuff.

but anyway i wanted to set a sort of base for before that. i've had art on the wip pile for YEARS about this and i'd flesh this out properly when it's done lol (hopefully we see that day) but since the topaz has the power to summon spirits, i really wanted to develop an aspect of del culture around that? i was inspired by Día De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) and i still want to do some more in depth research and explore it more properly, but i like the idea that del will celebrate their lost loved ones life, coming together to remember, if they were lucky the got to see and even talk to their spirits. maybe pre-talisman they did know about topaz properties and they had a big deposit of gems that they would wheel out for the festival and the huge pile under the full moon would be enough to allow the spirits and people to interact? anyway this is a longwinded explanation of why my sketches of del fashion could be latinx inspired.

circle motifs in homage to the moon. the trim decoration on luisa's scabbards are based on moon phases :D

i also arbitrarily decided that del people love swishy clothes. they're all about the drama of cloaks and twirling in sundresses etc it's fun. not sure if i will actually follow through with that lol or maybe that can just be luisa.

🥳 fun fact 🥳 i think hearing luisa laugh would heal me

there's no particular reason for why i've been drawing a lot of del people as black, other than maybe spite lol. i think i drew jasmine and that got the ball rolling. del is a blank enough slate that they can be anything. im tired of white people being the front runners asldkjfhalsdf. bUT again del is multicultural, so there isn't a particular look for anyone in del. being del is more a state of mind and being part of community i think. you move to del and you participate in their society in one way or another and boom youre del now they adopted you.

🌈 PLAINS

hiran attire inspired by french aristocratic fashion. i cant remember who posted about it but pretty sure this was something that circulated around the fandom at least a little bit at some point.

added some subtle rainbow to harlow's outfits because he's the strong silent type. but i suppose there are so much more gaudier and extravagant outfits.

i was going to say this was just hira fashion and not like, rural plains fashion but i guess this is the same for all of them. it's just like a general direction for what someone might wear.

the swirly patterns?? i dont know. i drew them when i did adin's pre-battle speech as the last supper but i dont think there's a particular reason. i remember that i was trying to do something unique because lief recognises the cup in the city of rats as the same/similar to the one in noradz, so there had to be something to be recognisable lol but i probably just did it this way because it's relatively easy to doodle, just takes a bit of time.

🥳 fun fact 🥳 harlow was a cook before the shadow invasion. out of desperation, he and many others had to train to defend hira. he's big with natural balance and reflexes so he excelled and is a pretty adept warrior, but he will always think of himself as a cook first, warrior second.

now the armour!! freshest headcanon piping hot. yesterday when i was colouring i was sitting there like wow you look like a tin can man and you are so boring. we went from pretty colours to blank. im almost certain the hiran soldiers were described as silver with white plumes, so i was planning on doing that but they had intricate details on their armour because they are Extra, so it has the swirly patterns you can see on harlow's coat.

but then suddenly i was like. what if. pearlescent.

and honestly i loved it so much i didnt care i was setting myself up for some difficult work ahead lmao. but my general idea was that they're armour looked like it was silver, but if the light catches it at the right angle it exposes the rainbow in it. most of these headcanons i've had baking for at least a year, but this is very new so i dont any hard details yet. kira mentioned enamel or ceramic and lowkey interested in having a look into that so that theres another armour material. maybe it's gonna be like special jalis gold and special plains silver. maybe something else. i also just remembered bismuth exists (same boat as gold as very heavy and soft) but i think maybe it's too loud, i think im liking the more subtle pearlescent thing aLTHOUGH it's a good metallic rainbow reference 👀 maybe there is an esteemed plains warrior with a rainbow sword

ANYWAY pearlescent armour really hit my heart because oh my god once upon a time the plains had a shore and they could visit the sea,,,, lowkey ocean vibes without an ocean [screaming crying cat spinning in a void.gif]

🥳 fun fact 🥳 i have NO idea what food harlow has made. i think i had ratatouille on the brain at the time????

🟥 RALADS

⚠ PROPAGANDA ALERT ⚠

ruby territory best territory. ruby symbol of happiness. warns of danger AND antidote to poison. double helpful. ralads are so sweet and so smart. architectural and engineering marvels. living in harmony with the land and beasts. D'OR!!! manus and nanion friendship underrated and so special to me. horse girls. AND. broome. god theres so much i could say about broome that i cant say anything. anyway you guys know im normal about broome yes of course. separate post etc etc

i think technically this is a headcanon but it's not that big a stretch surely but as above i always picture ralads as in harmony with nature. never take more than they need, know how to work with not against, theyre not the main attraction but an equal part of the bigger picture.. this isn't even about how smart they are with engineering and their perfectly round houses with bricks that are cut perfectly. im thinking about their knowledge of their world is so strong and wide and diverse. they have the most vibrant and potent dyes and pigments around, they have the most colourful fabrics and clothes around. the plains has many colours but it can't compete, and they have different styles. i think that the hirans would trade for the dyes though (maybe undercutting pre-adin, maybe more equal post-unification). i think that they would also have a pretty decent blue dye but it is still inferior to mere lapis lazuli blue. it is probably a dye that could be used for a mid range mere garment?

maybe it's the anime fault but i do usually imagine ralads as barefoot but i also drew iris with construction tools and just the idea of ralads walking around a construction site barefoot was not fun to me. but it could be a hobbit tough soles situation. anyway i drew some shoes so i had a vague reference if i wanted to draw ralad shoes.

obviously had a problem drawing warrior attire for a non-war race. but i thought what if i leaned into the stories the hirans tell about how the scouts and soldiers they send into the ralad wilds never returned and were often found dead with broken bones or whatnot. definitely big watching but never seen vibes imo. so i decked iris out in some camouflage lol

🥳 fun fact 🥳 im sure the ralads can whistle and whatnot to make birdcall signals, but i thought it was fun for iris to be able to make birdcalls with her flute

HEY ALSO headcanon about ralad hair. i was making some dragon art from a doran pov that i was going to save for that but i cant wait now. but we know from Tales that the ralads had a good relationship with the ruby dragons, could even summon them (unless im misremembering and it was more like a premeditated calling) but i was thinking about how they nest with .. human? hair. and i was thinking what if they grow out their hair? and then they offer it to a dragon when they are ready? i dont know if there's a nesting season for dragons but it could be something like that? ralad-dragon ceremony and party time. this isn't a rite of passage type of thing, just something that they like to do. not everyone does it probably, but most do it once, some people do it several or many times in their lifetime. it's an honour, but not really a sacrifice to them. it's part of the world balance and theyre willing to serve the dragons as the dragons serve them as they water the plants and the plants feed them and they feed beasts and beasts feed them.

also dont remember why i did the hair so bright and orangey??? genuinely perplexed lmao. probably was leaning into irl ginger but like THEYRE BLUE so i could probably make them actual red. not sure if this is also like a "theres something in the ground" situation also that makes their hair red but maybe 😂😂

side note but it's lowkey so wild to me that rodda was like yeah these guys are blue-grey with red hair, and then everyone else is like an average person, BUT the mountain people are short. like they're all just some guy basically???

it does make return to del so so funny because fallow is like AYO look at these MONSTERS they are UGLY and WEIRD

but i guess thats part of the motivation to give the deltora tribes some basic unique traits.

🟪 TORANS

okay so toran robes as inspired by japanese fashion is definitely something that's floated around the fandom for ages. i can't remember if it was before or after seeing posts about it that i started my first concept sketches but i think it probably had a hand in helping me visualise what rodda was talking about when she described their robes as butterfly wings when they speed-travelled. like yeah big deep sleeves and floor trailing hems WOULD probably look like colourful butterfly wings in the wind,,

🥳 fun fact 🥳 azami be always hungry. if only she knew someone who liked to cook 🤔

i don't have much to say design-wise, kinda just did various doodling. they would probably be second in extravagance to the plains, but it's a different sort of detail? they are probably a bit more refined and elegant than the hirans who are probably more bold in their designs. torans grow to be vain and selfish (it's already started by adin's time) so they probably have a high value on the beauty of their belongings, and it probably began with imagery of beasts and plants and dragons in amethyst territory, "true" pictures. but as time went on it probably distorted a bit and became idealised and/or fantastical etc.

OKAY SO my brain bluescreened just now for a moment trying to figure out how a people who use magic to make life easier, were also the ones known for their weaving, a manual hands-on task (lief's cloak is praised as being worthy of toran looms, implying high grade; pretty sure this was supposed to be a hint that his mother is not who he thinks she is also). some conclusions are 1) they weave with magic (sad, horrible), 2) they weave as a past-time, for fun etc (okay) but i took it to a third option

for a long time ive been thinking about toran magic as like, a balance and an energy thing (because i like that stuff lol) they cannot create something from nothing, only change things. they couldnt summon a fire, but they could change a piece of wood to fire and start a campfire, or those more advanced could even change the air into fire. but honestly it's left me a bit unsatisfied. like how does that explain the tora-del highway? hELL tora itself? what happened to the marble that got carved away? also how can that mountain have been so perfect there was no cracks or seams?? or did they carve those bits out lol. questions for another day.

anyway i was thinking about how hobbies are good for you, you dont have to be good at something but it's good to do stuff for fun and when you do crafts you get a cool thing at the end of it that you made. but it's also like skills you can develop? and i wondered what if weaving is a starter skill that they learn, some of them at least. maybe there are different activities, and they do the one that speaks to them the most. there were other types of artisans in tora, just not as talked about (i guess they're robes are pretty iconic so it's easy for people to go wow robes wow weavers who made fabric for the robes so soft) like i distinctly remember barda remarking about how tora was untouched and why bandits wouldn't have stolen the carved box that ended up holding the auto-reply letters from the palace.

so what im thinking is that maybe this builds a foundation to help torans visualise and perform their magic?

it actually solves a problem ive had in my headcanons i feel like ive got seven eyes open rn 😂😂 but in relation to del culture and traditions, i've been thinking about there being a physical and spiritual realm of course, and maybe it's the comfort of threes but it felt like something was missing.

i dont know what to call it yet, but im thinking the third thing is like the glue, it connects all things, it's in everything. it's like a third realm but also more of like a medium maybe? kind of sappy but we can just call this the magical realm for now. i actually used to think of toran magic as being like a subset of the greater deltora magic, but now im thinking it's more like torans are more receptive to the magic realm, as del are to the spiritual, and the ralads to the physical; theyre the experts in these things, which is why unified deltora is important 😂; likewise dread gnomes specialise in gems, jalis in combat, mere in cunning, plains in hope perhaps? literally never thought about it quite like this so maybe i will process it different later and designate different specialties.

so when the torans are young, they learn a craft and these skills help them sort of "tap into" the magical realm. so in the case i first thought of, when a toran weaver starts to see and interact with the magical realm, the easiest way for them to engage with it would be to think of it as weaving. they might see the magical realm as threads that connect everything, and weave things together to get what they want. a potter might see it as a malleable mass and sculpt what they want. a carpenter might see it as something to carve, something to break and put together.

the magical realm is not a concrete thing at all, up to interpretation, perhaps a unique experience to anyone who could glimpse in; don't strictly have to be toran, but they are perhaps naturally receptive to it or it could even be entirely a knowledge thing and that they are taught about it more; someone like verity who had her eyes opened to this realm, and learned to interact with it on instinct. does open questions to what the hell is up with the plains lmao but i think thats another post.

sorry about all the "i'll tell you in another post" i was attempting to stay on track 😂😂 also there's a 90% chance im gonna forget to come back and write about them so if anyone is dying to know feel free to send me an ask or something???

also if you want to know more about these OCs let me know 👀 i can find an ask game or something maybe. it's a case of i know a lot but will forget it all if asked to speak freely, i need specific questions. i have also developed the first four a bit more, but the last three are not without character so they can still be included. maybe it will be a group effort and they will have Background.

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from-the-coffee-shop-in-edoras · 5 months

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I see you very much as an expert on all things Rohirrim, so I bring to you this question, hoping I can pick your brain for info to use in my own fics (full disclosure). 😅

It seems to be a popular fanon that the Rohirrim/Riders of Rohan have tattoos, and that body art is a part of their culture. Do you have any thoughts or personal HCs about this that you're willing to share?

Thank you in advance! I appreciate you and your blog so much (if you didn't already know that).

Oh my goodness!!! I am so very honored to be thought of as a person who is knowledgeable about my beloved Rohirrim, and I hope very much that I can live up to that reputation. Thank you!!!

I’m not aware of any real textual evidence for body art among the Rohirrim, and the historical record in the medieval Anglo Saxon and Norse societies that Tolkien used as a reference for them seems to be disputed. But I absolutely understand and agree with the conventional wisdom that tattoos are a thing in Rohan. It just fits well with a warrior culture that has a wilder, dare-I-say more pagan aesthetic as compared to the smooth solemnity of Gondor or the formal elegance of the elves. And since they’re a culture that doesn’t document things in written words, pictorial representations such as tattoos and body art would be one way to fill that gap (along with their songs and oral traditions).

In my mind, tattoos in Rohan are common but basic—they’ve really only got the technology for the “stick and poke” method so the designs are kept simple because anything too elaborate is difficult to pull off well. They’re mostly in black line (using soot) but some have color using powder made from grinding up certain dried roots and plants.

Each village/community has its own distinctive tattoo motif that is worn by all of that community’s members. So you can tell just by looking at someone whether they’re from Upbourn (a fish because it’s a river town) or Dunharrow (mountain peaks since they’re in the White Mountains) or Everholt (a boar in honor of the wild boar that live in this part of the Firien Wood), etc. And soldiers also tend to share tattoo designs specific to their éored—getting your éored’s mark is a formal rite of passage for the younger members when they first get assigned to their company. These shared tattoo designs are important both for group cohesion and as a means of identifying fallen Rohirrim even if the deceased isn’t known to whoever finds the body.

Beyond these ritualized and practical functions, I do also like to think that there are some purely decorative tattoos among them as a means of personal expression and/or to help cover small scars that so many Rohirrim have from battle, riding accidents or other mishaps. Obviously horse-based designs would be very popular, as well as other flora and fauna of Rohan. But they’re a very sentimental people and so I think little emotional signifiers would also be very common (again, especially because they generally don’t have a means to pay tribute to beloved people/things in written form, this sort of symbol would serve the purpose of making some kind of record of those tributes).

In terms of specific people in my head canon: Éomer has a little simbelmynë blossom for each of the major figures in his life that he’s lost (forearm). Háma had a sun to remind him of his wife, who brought warmth and light to his life (shoulder). Théodred had stars in the shape of a particular constellation that is visible every year on his mother’s birthday (chest). Éowyn has a representation of her father’s sword (left wrist) and gets a quill (right wrist) to represent Faramir after they get married. (Faramir got a little running horse in her honor on his first trip to Rohan. He was glad he did it, but he never wants to sit through that again.)

Merry brought tattooing back to the Shire when he showed up with a tobacco pipe on his bicep (both for its association with Buckland and in tribute to Théoden, whose last words to Merry were about smoking together someday when peace was restored). Unsurprisingly, tattoos did not catch on with the other hobbits, but Merry remains very proud of it.

Anywayyyy…I hope that was in any way helpful! Thanks so much for asking!! I remain a huge fan and am so grateful to you for helping convince me to put some of my thoughts and stories out there vs keeping them all in the confines of my own Google drive!

#lord of the rings #lotr #tolkien #asks #answered asks #rohan #rohirrim #éomer #éowyn #háma #théodred #merry #faramir #lotr headcanon #tattoos

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ejaysstuff · 2 months

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DESIGN REFERENCES FOR LI JINZHA

⚠️NOTE⚠️ I am NOT a researcher, meaning I did not go beyond his baike article for this post, so please don't take this post as a concrete, definite description of Jinzha. Remember that there are different versions of mythology characters all the time, and these are simply some of them. I'm only making this so others can have a starting point in designing him!

Any rbs with corrections/additions are highly welcome!!

Throughout my year of Li Brother Illness TM, I've seen some li brother designs which always makes me incredibly happy. However, I still thought it'd be neat if I shared some stuff that helped inspire my headcannons/designs of the li siblings. This one will be about Jinzha!

I hope this gives a little more insight to my beloveds while also generating more ideas for them <33

Jinzha is described as a handsome young man who wears light yellow/white Taoist robes. Sometimes the ends of his Daoist robes is drawn poofy which is so cute,, he is also depicted wearing a golden hair crown (束发金冠). Other figures like Sun Wukong and Lu Bu wear this too, but with pheasant feathers attached to it

There are also designs that depict him in armor!

SNAKES (蛇）

This is an older version of Jinzha, Bodhisattva Jundali Mingwang. He is a Buddhist figure, and can be seen decorated with red snakes and yellow-collared snakes around his body. He also has a spirit snake (灵蛇), which could either mean a magical snake or a fast and precise one. He uses it as a weapon, which I think means he flings the lil guy at his opponent and it just starts biting them (erlang shen strat with his dog)

While this isn't fsyy Jinzha, I still think it'd be neat to include snake motifs in Jinzha's design more,, plus I think it'd tie in nicely with his Dragon Stake :)

(Bodhisattva Jundali also wields other weapons such as a spear, a whip and a polearm that looks similar to a halberd (戟). Jinzha doesn't have any of these in fsyy, but just gonna put these here if you want more weapons to draw him with :>)

DRAGON STAKE (遁龙桩)

I've shown this weapon briefly here, but I'll show it again so it's much more organized! The Dragon Stake appears time to time in fsyy alongside Jinzha's swords, and is a weapon that can bind any opponent. It's commonly depicted as a pole with three rings. It seems to be able to change its size, growing bigger when in use. In fsyy, Jinzha would sometimes bind the enemy first with the Dragon Stake before finishing them off with his swords.

I was luckily able to find an illustration showing how it looks like in action!

This weapon was used by Jinzha's master before it was passed onto Jinzha. It's also what was used to subdue Nezha when he tried to kill Li Jing

More illustrations with Jinzha holding it:

more illustrations of Jinzha and the stake!

(^illustration credits: 苍狼野兽 on weibo)

VASE OF SWEET DEW (甘露宝瓶)

(For those who use his wikipedia article, the 'Ganlu Treasure Vase' is this.)

甘露 gān lù, meaning sweet dew, is a special substance that functions like holy water. It is contained in a vase, and Bodhisattva Jundali used this to defeat demons. This one doesn't seem to have a particular design, but it looks similar to the one that Bodhisattva Guanyin holds in her hand.

I did find some variations of it online though!

I hope this can give more ideas when drawing Jinzha! There aren't many english sources about him, so maybe this helps make researching a little easier <33

#jinzha #li jinzha #fsyy #chinese mythology #needed my dad to help translate for some of this pfff #jinzha was that kid with a hardcore reptile phase pass it around #manifesting for jinzha content

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copperhawkthoughts · 4 months

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Dressed to the Neins 2 - Percy

Ah No Mercival Percival, my beloved…

Rambly design details below the cut!

As I said in the video, the design elements that drew me to this pattern for Percy were threefold:

1. The central four-pointed star motif just really looks like jewellery - something off of a crown or out of the vault of some kind of European royalty. In fact if anybody here reads Girl Genius, it reminds me strongly of the family emblems Gil, Tarvek and Agatha wear at their throats.

2. Paired with point 1, the fact that there is this thin, meandering row peeking out from behind the central motif was too good to pass up - it’s so easy to read that as curse smoke leaking out from collar and cuffs, from behind Percy’s veneer of embarrassed nobility.

3. The last big one is these “trees”, which I took to stand for Whitestone, and symbolize its ruin and recovery.

When it came to picking the colours, this palette was pretty straightforward. The sapphire blue was first - that’s Percy blue. I knew I also wanted to represent Vex in this square, so that’s the peacock teal.

After that we had to have black for Orthax (fun fact - the only other characters to get the true black in their squares are Vax, obviously, and through him Kiki and Vex), silver for wealth and nobility but also the polished gleam of a gun barrel, and white for Percy’s hair and also the sorts of things white usually represents in (western) art.

Last we have brown, for the dying Sun Tree and the ruin of Whitestone, and then that particular shade of green, which represents both the fresh hope of newly budding leaves and is also a little radioactive-looking, representing the residuum whose production and export eventually restore the wealth and power of Whitestone as a seat of innovation and industry.

When choosing the colour placement, I put Percy’s blue + white at the core to represent past & future Percy - the young lordling with the bright future and the fully-fledged Lord of Whitestone, recovered. Also, the alternating rings of colour look like a target :D

Silver borders that, both because it reinforces the visual of a piece of jewellery and also because that way it sort of looks like looking down the barrel of a gun, if that gun was a…four shooter? Look I know that’s not a thing and it’s a stretch but my brain made the association and now I can’t shake it.

The sneaky row is black, of course, and the row after that, which actually obscures a lot of the black stitches by design, is Vex “take off the mask, darling” ‘ahlia’s teal blue. The last two rows of the centre section are silver and Perce blue for the man himself, and the way he builds himself back up, wraps himself in his coat and his dignity and keeps going.

I said enough already on the brown and green rows, so the last two are black (can’t ever truly shake that darkness, Freddie) and white - for healing, for peace, for hair that’d have gone white by now anyway.

If you read all that, wow, thank you. Same bat time, same bat channel next week for Keyleth!

#critical role #dressed to the neins #crochet #cr fanart #vox machina #percy de rolo #granny square #fiber art

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mshroom1e · 1 year

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Hello! I'm here to request for The Wanderer! Hope it's not too specific.

So Scara's been kinda doubting himself lately so his s/o tries to cheer him up by leaving him food with little notes telling him how much they love him.

Hello! Thank you so much for your request! To be honest, I wasn't really sure what to do with the story for this one, so I tried to just go for a single short and sweet type of fic. I hope you enjoy!!

To the Heart | Wanderer x GN! Reader

type: fanfic

Summary: they say that the fastest way to the heart is through the stomach. It appears that the same can be said for people like The Wanderer as well.

1.2k words

Warning(s): none

Saying that food was your speciality was a complete understatement. You were proud of your cooking and took great pride in it. You always found a way to share your cooking with others, and your beloved, The Wanderer, was no exception.

He was snarky and sometimes a little mean, but you knew that it was just his way of showing that he cared. He never overstepped boundaries and kept the playful teasing and remarks to a minimum. However, it was very rare when you saw him without some form of humour or smile on his lips as if the thought of doing something to tease you crossed his mind. You could read between the lines and knew exactly what made him tick, even though it may look like that he didn’t care. In reality, he was prone to self-doubt.

You also learned that he often had nightmares about past events that occurred in his previous home. That fact alone was enough to make you feel guilty every night since you knew that those incidents were caused by one single person, but that person was most definitely not you. It just hurt that you couldn’t do anything to change the past, so there wasn't much that you could do except help him get better.

Lately, for the past week, you haven't been able to find the time to spend it properly with The Wanderer. In the little moments that you were able to be together during the day, you noticed he seemed a little down. You wondered if it was because of your regular, untimely absence or just his mind catching up with him. It wasn't the same without his snarky remarks and teasing you that almost always backfired on him. He wasn't being himself and it didn't take long for you to notice.

The first thing that crossed your mind was food. You saw the way his eyes lit up and sparkled whenever trying the dishes that you made during your travels together. He always gave a curt reply, briefly telling you that he enjoyed the food while avoiding your eyes, but you could see right through him. You knew it meant that he appreciated it.

So, here you stood in the kitchen of the Inn you and The Wanderer were staying at for the next couple of weeks. You asked the owner for permission to use it for cooking (with a bribe of one of your best dishes, of course). You decided to go for a simple Inazuman-styled lunch, something that would remind him of his first home. You knew about his past and how much sadness and regret he felt when it was brought up, but the fond, faraway look in his eyes only proved to you that the feelings associated with his home weren't fully negative.

You hoped you could bring back a new, wonderful feeling with your food. Something that would make him smile softly as he ate it, while shyly trying his best to give a sincere compliment.

And off you went, cooking up a storm.

Kuni woke up with sunlight gently kissing his sleepy eyes. From the looks of the position of the sun in the sky, it was about midmorning, the usual time he woke up. The gentle, savoury scent of rice, meat and vegetables flowed through the air.

When he arrived at the kitchen which was the primary source of the delicious smell in the air, he saw that you were nowhere to be found. On a table that stood at the centre of the room, there was a light blue lunchbox. Strangely, the pattern of the box matched the motif of his outfit, that alone earning his curiosity. He raised an eyebrow, partially scowling, hoping he wasn't wanting his time.

"Might as well..." He muttered to himself and stomped towards the box. His scowl remained as he opened the lid, not fully convinced it was left with the intention of being for him, but the lunchbox's design said otherwise.

He let his guard down, soon realising the lunchbox was from you. His eyes grew the tiniest bit more eager, but he still had an annoyed expression painted on his face.

Then, he opened it.

He felt his eyebrow twitch and his frown deepen when the first layer of the lunchbox was unleashed to be viewed by his eyes. A note. In your handwriting.

'Eat well, cutie. Meow.'

He blinked. Then he blinked again.

A wave of heat travelled up his neck and invaded his entire face. Of course, the note was from you. You were the only one who had the guts (and stupidity) to call him dumb, cutesy names like that. It irked him, especially how you managed to call him things like that so casually. To be completely honest, he kinda liked it. But still!! It was so- ugh...

He felt the dark cloud that plagued his mind clear up after reading the note. Your usual ridiculousness easing his tense face into a smile when he couldn't conceal with his usual smirk or scowl. Anticipation built up in his chest as he got closer to see what you made for him this time.

It was a cute, simple dish. A portion of rice shaped like a cat, which made the 'meow' on the note slightly less weird, but The Wanderer still thought that you were ridiculous for that. The cutely shaped serving of rice was surrounded by various spiced vegetables in the shape of flowers and slices of meat cut into hearts. Some of the cutting was a little clumsy, but it was clear that you gave it your best when putting it together.

When he started to eat, the flavours melted in his mouth. Even someone without a heart could feel the emotions and flavours that were all packed into that first bite.

He took another bite. Then another. And another. The bursts of flavour felt exactly like home. Not the home that abandoned him, but the home that he found with you. His mind welled up with emotions that he wasn't even sure he was able to feel anymore. Eyes glossed over, tears glazing over them and giving them an iridescent sheen. Feelings of sadness and self-loathing loathing being washed away by just a single gesture. Little did you know about the overwhelming impact that your actions had on the young puppet.

He didn't even realise he was crying until a drop of water fell on the smooth paper, causing the affected area to become a shade darker.

Usually, when you left him a meal like this, it was because you were too busy to make something with him during the day. Your work usually meant that you'd be away from The Wanderer for a few days, or only be available at odd hours in the morning. When you weren't busy, you would make something for him and yourself, chatting about your week while he watched you with adoring eyes but a frown on his face to veil the joy he spent from spending time with you.

#gn reader #genshin #genshin fanfic #genshin impact #genshin impact fanfics #genshin x gender neutral reader #genshin scara #scara x reader #scaramouche #the wanderer #wanderer #wanderer x reader #scaramouche x reader

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my-lady-macbeth · 7 months

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step in, the bells invite you!

Here’s a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of hell-gate, he should have old turning the key.

welcome to the murky depths of my blog

ABOUT ME

my name is thea

my pronouns are they/she (pronoun page here)

i'm an aries ♈︎ sun, taurus ♉︎ moon and cancer ♋︎ rising

i'm lesbian as fuck

i'm a minor (people who are 18+ can follow just don't be a creep)

infp, 4w5

xgirlidiotx as a tribute to xboygeniusx !!

⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧

I love music (spotify here) and if you stick around you'll probably see a lot of me obsessing over boygenius. other artists I like include big thief, adrianne lenker, fiona apple, clairo, mitski, ethel cain, florence and the machine, muna, the cure, tori amos, hozier, the japanese house, girl in red, elliott smith, the last dinner party, weyes blood, better oblivion community center, the smiths, japanese breakfast and more !! (please please follow me on spotify I make the most scrumptious playlists)

I also love writing !! does that mean I'll ever post my own work on here... probably not... but I have to say it so my lovely writing mutuals know how very much I appreciate their work and their bravery to send it out like a paper aeroplane into the big scary internet

talking of writing... I have a metaphor obsession (tm). I love love love symbolism and religious imagery and motifs and the like to an unhealthy extent. for that reason you will frequently find me englishteacherposting

I also post a lot about (usually queer) media and art and my own all-consuming thoughts regarding this (whether it's literature, art, film, theatre... it doesn't matter, I'll let the obsession eat me alive)

other stuff I like: walking, stormy weather, killing eve, lavender, spicy food, shakespeare, candles, jeannette winterson, cheesecake, writing excessively long paragraphs, tarot, acting, autumn, cooking, journalling, ornate daggers, chai, women, evil women, listening to the same album until I feel sick, portrait of a lady on fire, ghosts in art

other stuff I love: you. thank you for being here

TAGS

#girlidioting <----- my textposts

#englishteacherposting <----- me acting like an english teacher

#whatever queue want <----- for queued posts

#beloved mutuals <----- for my mutuals

TALK TO ME

my ask box is always always open

as are my dms

as lucy dacus once said: talk to me until your words run dry

if we're close you can ask for my instagram

no DNI outside of the obvious (bigoted people and creeps will be blocked)

that is all, now safe travels!!

#intro post #girlidioting

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marcusagrippa · 3 months

Note

regarding the…Strabo passage from the biography. the one that you tagged as “the sea that defines the contours of the man”. i agree so much…

from a narrative perspective it has always seemed to me that water (in its various forms) is a very very appropriate theme in Agrippa’s life….Agrippa, born-feet-first, reluctant to leave the water of the womb…Agrippa, ager-ripa — the field and the river bank, the land that meets the seashore….his construction of aqueducts and clearing of sewers, the veins of the empire that run above it and beneath it, one who stands firm upon the uncontrollable waves and then steps back, returns and leads the tamed waters of the empire into the cities and baths and fountains…Augustus’ affiliation with Apollo and Diana mirrored by the steadfast sea — the sea that reflects the brilliance of the heavens in the day and the tides that shift with the moon at night….even the scattering of his ashes from the mausoleums by the visigoths 400 years later, washed away by wind and rain….:”

(Also. On the point of the name etymology. Ager and ripa aren’t actually a proper pair of words for his name’s etymology but it struck me because it is so symbolic….if you’re interested in more scholarly interpretations of his cognomen in poetry, I’d recommend “M. Agrippa in Horace 'Odes' 1.6, Author(s): Francis Cairns”!)

hi anon! i agree entirely with water being a running theme throughout agrippa's life - all the points you've made are really intriguing, and may or may not have given me some ideas for my wip (thank you ashgfkhsdj). i didn't know about his ashes being scattered by the visigoths - that's fascinating. do you have any further sources/articles you'd recommend in regards to it?

juxtaposing his water motif - and by extension the tides, and the moon - with octavian's association with apollo and the sun (very off topic but one of my favourite examples of this is suet. aug. 94.6) is something i think about. a lot. how they reflect and mirror each other; how agrippa's cast into shadow (ish) by octavian's 'brilliance', so to speak... ough. ow owie. and while we're on the subject - agrippa offering to raise octavian to the heavens in the pantheon:

(cassius dio 53:27 my beloved)

kind of the sun-moon thing again. especially with their statues in the anterooms, mirroring one another - as it resembles the heavens, they are heavenly bodies themselves? augh.

sorry, off topic. going back to the water thing - in addition to the contemporary sources while he was actually alive, he's also been depicted more recently on two panels of the trevi fountain:

(i really like the first one lol. look at him go. point boy.)

and even here, he's shown discovering the source of the aqua virgo. water as veins and the empire as a living thing, and agrippa in the middle of it all (even now!).

that article was really interesting, thank you so much for recommending it. i personally know very little latin/greek so i'm sure a lot of it went over my head, but still! the etymology of his name is definitely something to look into more closely. ager-ripa might not be 'proper' but i agree - the symbolism, the symbolismmmm. augh.

#asks #sorry this is long and not very coherent. however. unable to be normal about him.#thank you so much for the ask !!!!! lots to think about ough........#marcus agrippa #agrippa #guys tag

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random-senpai · 7 months

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Master Rule Guesses

Pain - If Tozuka knows anything, it's foreshadowing, and imo there's plenty for Pain to be the first Master Rule. The main thing is that God is an asshole (Sun mainly, Luna is too though tbh), making the first thing consistent through loops be Pain and suffering fits their MO. Second, remember in the first loop back when Juiz talks to Victor the first thing he recalls about his experience is the pain from the vacuum of space, and when Luna talks to Fuuko after Earth is destroyed, she talks about Andy's pain just like Victor's. Third is the commentary from the UMAs themselves. Some of them can't recall anything other than being told to bring Pain and suffering to humanity from a voice they assume to be God and wreak havoc as an offering to God. Others are actively forced to bring it and are taken over when they try to defy him (Spring my beloved). Master Rule 1 being Pain also explains why he looks more regular than the rest. Pain is naturally ingrained into every living being, so there's no need for him to be over the top or flashy. His appearance falls in line with the more modern idea of a sadist. He's well-dressed, attractive, and charming. His attitude towards Fuuko could be seen in that way too. Like a predator playing with its prey, amused to see it fighting back before crushing it beneath its might.

Death - Originally I was thinking that she was Faith or something like Religion. But some people pointed out the similarities between her carrying Luck and Andy and Fuuko alongside what #3 says she smells like. Then I got to thinking about it more. A nun being Death makes perfect sense as she's a servant of god. Death is what drags people into despair and suffering, whether it's their own mortality or losing someone they hold dear. With how much importance Sun places on UMAs bringing humanity pain and suffering, it makes sense that the next thing he makes consistent in the loops. Well, after pain and suffering itself. Making her a Nun is consistent with how death serves as one of God/Sun's greatest servants.

Sex - No real questions about it. DNA in her hair, the fact that she has the appearance of an attractive woman. Sex being both the scientific definition as well as a "sexy" femme fetale is pretty much self explanatory. The only thing I would like to add is that the numbering makes sense that she's the next Master Rule after Death. By bringing in reproduction to the world more lives are born, which means there's more people to die and suffer.

Luck (pretty much confirmed) - No real question about this either. Even if it wasn't for #2 calling them "Lucky" you could tell from the design alone. On their head is the Wheel of Fortune and on their cheek is a bandage. Tozuka loves to make Negators and UMAs share something visually. For Enshin and Burn they have similar hair. For Chikara and Move they both have dice. For Fuuko and Luck they both have the bandage. Also another fun thing to note is that Luck is the 4th master rule. The number 4 is actually infamously unlucky in China to the point where casino tables outright skip it due to high Chinese player bases. Why? because it's pronounced almost identically to "Death". Which further adds into my theory that #2 is Death.

Fair - Originally thought it was Justice due to the knight motif. But someone on Reddit pointed out and hypothesized that it was Fair due to the fact they have spurs on their shoes just like Billy. Given the other negators sharing a design aspect with their UMAs I agree with them. A knight being the personification of fair also makes sense as they're seen as enforcers of their lord's authority. Also it's very reminiscent of the Judges from FFXII.

War/Violence - The uniform reminiscent of Nazi Germany. The half bone face and smoking a cigar. Alot of people think it's War and I agree with them for the most part. But part of me thinks that he might be Violence itself and he's dressed in war attire because that's where he's at his peak.

Change - People think that it may be Time because of the clock and he's an old man. But I think he might be Change because he's like the antithesis of Gina. And old man with fashion inspired by western culture, is the opposite to when she was projecting herself to be a young woman in Gyaru fashion. I think that like Gina in loop 100 this isn't his true form and is a "shell" that he's projecting to appear as an old man the way she was projecting herself to be forever young with her unchanging makeup shell. Plus with how central Gina has been to Fuuko this loop having Change itself as part of the enemy roundtable makes it an interesting battle to look forward to.

Knowledge - Not much to say about this. She has a bookish appearance and hasn't looked up from her reading at all lol. The headpiece being architecture is interesting though and reminiscent of older buildings. Her librarian-esque appearance combined with the buildings on her head could be a nod to the famous Library of Alexandria.

Dominance/Instinct - The more feral design, he gives off the vibes of an "Alpha" in the ACTUAL meaning, not the weird stuff that insecure dudes have been saying they are. Specifically the Alpha Male of a wolf pack, going by the pelt he wears. I think he will represent the more bestial urges in living beings, whether that being their natural survival instincts, or the authority to dominate those weaker, it's yet to be determined.

Sick (confirmed) - Cut in half lol

#undead unluck #Undead Unluck Spoilers #UU Spoilers #I'M LATE #but yeah these be my guesses

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aroceu · 10 months

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patpran's matching outfits

this was originally part of a thread on twitter but i figured i should stick it here too!

over the course of bbs patpran wear some...interesting outfits, but as they get together their wardrobe is a lot more coordinated and matchy 🥰 in particular, i think brown/orange seems to be associated with their happiness and comfort; red/blue symbolizes them together; and black/white i think is a little bit more of a pat motif but in the same way that stripes are pran's—black and white stripes show up quite often for both of them.

episode 2

blue is pat's color and red is pran's; however, as soon as episode 2 we see that their night clothes have swapped this:

episode 4 & episode 7 & episode 12

their most iconic redgreen moments—without a doubt i know this was intentional. (and also with pran's stripe motif weaved in all of them too!):

yes, in the last pic pat is wearing matching socks to pran's sweater. can you believe it. UGH.

episode 5

i'm sure everyone and their (baseball) mom has pointed it out, but their color swap at the top of the roof—pran in pat's blue, pat in pran's red—remains to be iconic of them. chef's kiss:

episode 6

patpran in blue and orange, which incidentally are ohm/nanon's colors (except ohm is orange and nanon is blue) in reverse! idk if this counts as matching but i wanted to point it out:

episode 7

this is when we start to see both of them mingle the red and blues together equally/in the same scenes, which of course indicates that their feelings are starting to become knowingly mutual 🥰 also special note that pat's shirt does covertly make it look like it reads "your man," while he's talking to pran

episode 7 & our skyy

this one is less matchy but instead evidence that they share clothes—because yes, the sweater pat wears at the end of ep 7 is the same one pran wears at the end of our skyy 2, which is only fitting as the scenes are parallel (patpran (almost) kissing over food and getting interrupted by pa):

episode 8 & episode 12

the black/white/orange-brown motifs my beloveds!! it's so basic at first in episode 8—indicating the start and novelty of their relationship—but is very, very obvious in the episode 12 scenes if you look for it:

episode 8

and of course we can't forget their iconic matching orange shirts in episode 8 too—this is what made me feel like orange in particular is supposed to indicate their comfort with each other:

episode 10

we start really early on with patpran both in red and blue together—really symbolic in how easily they've adapted into their relationship and each other:

i also found this really interesting—pat's shirt says "SUN SUN SUN" while pran's shirt has a rainbow on it (with "radiate positivity," lol) both of which definitely go together, however subtle this matching is!

and then of course when they go to the high school. this is definitely one of the most visually standing out matching outfits between pat and pran, the red and blue and pran's tote bag and the necklace bag all blending beautifully together. pran carrying his necklace bag, a gift from pat, while pat carries pran's tote. pat in the blue and light red, and while pran is mostly wearing his red and white stripes, you can really notice in this shot how many things he has are shades of blue—shades of pat:

not sure if i can draw a matching set from these two outfits but i still love them so i'm putting them here anyway:

episode 12

we see pran in pink a lot even when pat is donning pink/red himself—so of course it makes sense for pran, in the last scene, to don some blue. also, together comes the return of the black/white/orange-brown color palette! and of course pat wearing the smiley face shirt we saw from a brief pan over in episode 1, which we know makes pat think of pran (that shot led right into the pond flashback)—it's also the same type of smiley face that was on pran's bag when he was in high school, and fits in with the rest of the smiley faces in pran's room, symbolizing that this is where pat has always belonged: with pran.

special mention to:

pat at the beginning of episode 8! we can agree this is pran's shirt, right? pran's the one with the striped shirts with collars—pat definitely decided to wear his boyfriend's shirt after a very long night:

#an aroceu original #bbs #can you believe i've become a bad buddy wardrobe enthusiast #because. well. i can.

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princesselisabethofhesse · 9 months

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1902-1903 Postcards

In December 1902, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig began his trip to India and Egypt. During his journey, he sent his daughter, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse, numerous postcards, which are preserved in the Hessian State Archives in Darmstadt.

When he departed in December 1902, Ernst Ludwig left his first “Gruss Haus Darmstadt” postcard for his beloved daughter, where he wrote in English: “Goodbye my darling. God bless you. Papa’s love is always near you, sleeping or walking."

On the outward journey, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig sent numerous postcards to Elisabeth, e.g. “tender kisses” from Paris or a picture of his hotel in Marseille with details of his balcony.

On the postcard above, written on board the Arabia on December 16, 1902, Ernst Ludwig told his daughter: "I send you a big kiss. Till now the weather was bad & I was seasick but now it is lovely & the sun is shinning & it is warm. I saw flying fish. A big kiss from Papa.” He celebrated Christmas on board the "Arabia" and Elisabeth sent him and his entourage a Christmas card.

On January 1, 1903, Ernst Ludwig enthusiastically reported to his daughter about his impressions from Delhi: “All those many people dressed in every color of the rainbow. It was lovely. A big kiss from Papa.” The cards are mostly in black and white, but for her daughter to get a better impression, he also described the colours of everything he saw.

On the postcard above, written on January 15, 1903, he wrote: "This lovely place is all in white marble with a blue (sky ?) & lots of green parrots flying about & screaming. They are green with red beak & a red ring round their necks. Papa"

Almost every day he sent his daughter postcards with picturesque pictures and short, sweet greetings. Postcards with motifs that were exotic to Elisabeth document his journey to destinations in northern India that are still classic today, such as Benares, Agra with the Taj Mahal, Jaipur and Fatehpur Sikri.

At the end of February, Ernst Ludwig finally began his return journey - but made a stopover in Egypt. On March 5, 1903, on a postcard from the Shephard's Hotel, the most famous luxury hotel in Cairo at that time, Ernst Ludwig announced to his daughter what should not be missed on a trip to Egypt: “Today, I go for a week up the Nile.”

On March 11, 1903, he sent birthday greetings to Elisabeth on a card from Aswan. He also visited Luxor and Karnak and, of course, the pyramids of Giza at the end.

On the postcard above, written on March 22, 1903, he proudly reported to Elisabeth about his climb to the pyramids: "I klimbed (sic.) up the pyramid yesterday & got very out of breath. Today I krept (sic.) into the inside. It was very difficult because all was so very slippery. Papa."

On the postcard above, written on March 23, 1903, Ernst Ludwig sent his daughter "a big hug from Papa".

He finally returned to Darmstadt via Genoa on April 3, 1903. In the following months, Ernst Ludwig continued to send postcards with loving greetings to Elisabeth from his travels through Germany. In one of his last cards, written on August 6, 1903, he told her: “Next time you must come with me.”

source: landesarchivhessen.de Thank you Thomas Aufleger for sharing this little treasure with me!

#princess Elisabeth of Hesse #Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse #1902 Letters & Diary entries #1902 #1903 Letters & Diary entries #1903 #1902 Biography #1903 Biography

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alexiethymia · 2 years

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ramblings about taichihaya

I’ve finally read the last chapter of the manga, and it was just, it was beautiful.

Incoherent ramblings abound. I felt a bit sad when I read someone post sorry to chihayafuru fans because they were put through an ichiruki situation, because i have always thought there was no such thing as a fated love in Chihayafuru. (Also this is ironic, because while I slightly preferred ichiruki, no way would I say that ichihime was farfetched, in the same way that there is absolutely no way taichihaya was farfetched considering the development, and again ironic because both chihaya and taichi have the sun and moon motif so they actually healed my heartbroken ichiruki heart, but I digress -)

Anyway, I need to process my words. When I say there was no such thing as fated love, I mean that as much as I loved taichihaya, if Chihaya and Arata ended up together, I wouldn’t say that there was no basis. There was such a thing as fated friendship between our trio, but unlike other shoujo manga I’ve read, I wouldn’t consider either Taichi or Arata as Chihaya’s soul mate (I consider the three of them soul mates). Other people have shed insights about how Chihayafuru is a story of transience and youth, and I think the finale maintained that theme until the end (like Arata’s joke for example about wanting to be with Chihaya at 28, as he said the future isn’t set in stone).

What I loved about the ending is how it was a culmination of everything they were passionate about and fighting against. For Arata and Chihaya who were passionate about Karuta, and for Arata fighting against or for what his Grandfather means in the Karuta he plays now, for Chihaya growing up to be more sensitive to the world outside of Karuta (her wonderful conversation with Retro comes to mind, as well as her gaining a new dream in becoming a teacher). In the same way that this story was all about passion, and for Arata and Chihaya for that passion to be directed towards Karuta, I find that there’s nothing wrong with Taichi’s passion to have been directed at another person - specifically - Chihaya, even as he was fighting against himself.

I loved the finale, because it showed how much the people around Arata and Chihaya, specifically the people who had nothing to do with Karuta, like Arata’s childhood friend and Chihaya’s older sister impacted them and meant so much to them winning.

As a taichihaya shipper, I really loved the finale because it shows that it’s not just Taichi’s nearness that caused Chihaya to love him back, but at the same time it was him going far away that really puts things into perspective for her. It was just so Chihaya to confess even when she thought that Taichi had already lost his feelings for her. In others words, even if Taichi no longer loved her romantically, his confession impacted her that much that she had to answer it with a poem of her own.

I love taichihaya not because I was sure it would be canon, but because I just really preferred it, and these are just some of the reasons.

1. the parallels with harada sensei and his wife, as well as kana-chan and komano

I love parallels, ok? The parallel with harada sensei and his wife actually works two ways, harada sensei paralleling Taichi with the latter also becoming a doctor in the future, and both Chihaya and harada sensei’s wife saying all they wanted was to see their important person smile. It also works the other way around in that both harada sensei’s wife and taichi steadfastly supported their loved one’s drive to become the meijin and queen respectively.

kana-chan, our beloved taichihaya ship captain. I still remember how she compared chihaya and taichi’s match with her match with komano, and how they were each pair’s best matches precisely because of how well they knew the person they were facing. the irony and not of how it was these two who finally managed to push chihaya and taichi to get together.

2. the heartaches of love

I love how they each exemplified the highs and lows of love. How Chihaya showed how love could be greedy, in Hanano’s words, and how their experience was reflective of Taichi’s comment about love in the beginning of the series, about how love was painful but you still wanted to be with the other person.

How it showed from the very beginning that even if Chihaya wasn’t fully conscious of it, she had always been jealous of the girls around Taichi, first with his girlfriend, and even in the last chapter when Taichi mentioned Hanano.

I always mentioned this, even after the angsty confession and break-up (?). Chihaya relies on Taichi like no other. To be honest, they were practically co-dependent. Which is another reason why I loved why everything played out the way it did. Chihaya’s crush on Arata always seemed easy in that it didn’t seem as if she wanted it reciprocated (a happy crush mixed with admiration), meanwhile Taichi needed to confess to have Chihaya reevaluate what he meant to her and how she was supposed to relate to him.

And yet I’m so happy they made up first, Taichi was finally at peace with himself, and even chose to go somewhere for himself, even if it meant being physically apart from Chihaya.

It shows that Chihaya’s confession was not out of fear that she had to reciprocate to keep Taichi by her side like she wanted because Taichi had reassured her that their friendship along with Arata would remain strong even if she didn’t reciprocate. In other words, their friendship would remain the same, but it was now Chihaya who realized she wanted more.

3. spending your whole youth on it

Taichi’s conversation with Harada-sensei about wasted youth was both about Karuta and Chihaya, and yet despite his fears, he still kept working hard, still kept trying to reach out for the Chiha card.

The confession and Taichi’s behavior throughout the entire series always screamed to me about how self-sabotaging he really was. He is the one to bring Arata up during his confession. He never acts in a way to get Chihaya to like him because he was already sure that Chihaya loved Arata.

And despite all that, despite all his fears, in the same way he was sure that he no longer had any luck in the draw, in the same way he was sure that he had no chance with Chihaya, he still loved her anyway, still supported her the best that he could. Wasted effort but one that he no longer considered wasted even if Chihaya never loved him back because he was finally at peace with himself. But of course, he was overjoyed when she said she loved him, because as he said, he would always be helplessly in love with her.

I’ve always thought that in the same way throughout the story Taichi thought Chihaya didn’t notice him, it was also about Taichi never noticing how much Chihaya noticed him (the towel scene is really symbolic of this). It’s quite ironic how Taichi considers Chihaya dense, when he’s also a bit dense when it comes to Chihaya.

4. how taichihaya might as well be self-fulfillment for ariwara no narihira and the empress

listen, listen, brilliant people who are more well-versed in poetry have pointed out the parallels between narihira, the empress, the emperor and taichi, chihaya, and arata. It was pretty on the nose with how narihira was even drawn to look a bit like taichi, and now chihaya and arata are the queen and meijin respectively.

with how shinobu pointed out that the chiha and tachi cards were always paired together, nothing will now stop me from imagining chihaya and taichi as the empress and narihira who were reincarnated and can now be together.

I just really loved them, even way back in the beginning when I was just watching the anime. I was prepared for heartache, but even then, it wouldn’t diminish what they went through, so to have that last chapter is really heartwarming. I’ll probably be rambling more about Chihayafuru once I reread everything. Thank you for these past ten years Sueguetsu-sensei!

#chihayafuru #taichihaya #ayase chihaya #mashima taichi #wataya arata #chihayafuru analysis #taichihaya analysis #manga #ships #ramblings about chihayafuru

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