#mxtx tolkien

[fistfuloflightning]

Put aside the ranger. Become who you were born to be.

Aragorn as a MXTX character via @brigwife thanks hon! <3

#lotr #mxtx #aragorn #character design #my art #tolkien art #art prompt #mxtx tolkien

[holy--milk]

people be like "stop calling mxtx a genius, she's not even the best author in her particular niche",

and i'm like "but have you considered that i don't care if she's not objectively the best author as long as she's able to write characters and stories that make me go Insane for literal years?"

#like who else does it like her #(don't answer that. it's a rhetorical question) #the only other author who's ever been able to keep me up at night thinking about blorbos #is j r r tolkien #and tbh that was when i was younger and more into that particular flavour of fantasy #there's just a very particular something about those two and their writing #that makes my brain go brrr #if you know what i mean #mxtx #svsss #mdzs #tgcf

[stardust-falling]

I've noticed a bit of a trend in my feed lately, so please indulge my curiosity:

#polls #mxtx #silmarillion #genshin impact #i am very curious about the overlap #tolkien #svsss #mdzs

[yea-baiyi]

i’m sure people smarter than me have said this, but the odyssey is the sequel to the monomyth actually. in the hero’s journey the hero departs from home, from innocence, from safety, to fulfil his destiny. in homer’s the odyssey, the war is over, the destiny fulfilled. next comes the real fight, the unwinnable fight—to return to everything you left home to fight for.

in the first half of the poem, while odysseus fights tooth and nail to return home, his home fights with its last breath to give odysseus a home to return to. and time is running out. his wife penelope is down to her last desperate excuse. suitors have invaded his home, eating through his household and his wealth. his son, telemachus, almost grown, leaves home for the first time to find out if odysseus is still alive, if there is still a reason to keep fighting. having lost everything he had, over and over, odysseus is finally allowed to arrive in his homeland. at first he doesn’t recognise it. and he is cursed to look old and decrepit, so that none of his loved ones would recognise him.

for the second half of the poem, he has returned and miraculously, he has not been displaced or forgotten. but now he has to reclaim what was his. and removing the rot, restoring this place to the home odysseus remembers, is long and painful. instead of walking through the front door, he must sneak in through the back or risk being thrown out. not a single person knows him by sight; odysseus must prove his identity over and over, to every member of his household. he must retell story after story, share secret after secret, reveal every marking or scar upon his body, to finally be recognised by his own family. and then he destroys every last trace of the intruders—kills the men, kills the servants, wipes the slate clean.

by athena’s magic, he is restored to his former youth and glory as he reunites with his wife. the families of the slain suitors try to seek revenge, but zeus, lord of the skies, intervenes. odysseus, filled with his god-given strength, is home, and ready to fight to protect it.

it’s a complete sequel to the heroes journey, but what makes it part of the monomyth is the horrible truth about odysseus’ tale: that it’s impossible. that you will leave, and your home will change in your absence, and someone might fill your place; your family won’t recognise you, your wife met someone else, intruders have destroyed your home, and you will never be as young as you were. you will return and you will fight with every ounce of your strength and it won’t be enough to turn back the clock. it’s the terrible last chapter to every hero’s story that we don’t like to talk about.

and yet, of course, it’s the same story we tell over and over: we’ve won the war, now all we want is to return home, but home is no longer somewhere we can reach.

#the odyssey #hero’s journey #the monomyth #greek mythology #odyssey #homeric hyperfixation haze #sorry this has nothing to do with mxtx but i’ve been sitting on this thought about the odyssey for months #like. i’m sure this isn’t a new thought but. #you think of tolkien and the scourging of the shire #all quiet on the western front #narnia #all the chinese poets #i want to go home. but i am home. #think about how the odyssey ends at the very second athena declared the conflict over. #we don’t see odysseus reaction to it. we see him ready to fight. athena declares a peace. #but it is abrupt. as if athena is slamming the window shut. he won he’s happy that’s enough. #does he manage to live after that? we don’t get to know #i was sitting on this thought for ages. and then i read the greek tragedies. was helping my friend with a paper on home by toni morrison #and yeah this all clicked. got irresistible

[symphonyofsilence]

Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....Thanks...

Oooh such a difficult question! I have like about...50 top 10 favorite characters somehow and they're ever increasing lmao! (like the 10 is in the Real numbers axis not natural numbers.lol.) So, after lots of thought, I decided to consider the factor of how well-written they are. The ones who had the most ups and downs and the author managed to hit every emotional chord every step of the way.

So, in no particular order:

Maedhros (Tolkien's legendarium)

(Art by @elfinfen )

I have waxed poetic about Maedhros on many occasions. Namely here. But to be brief: he just has one of the best fallen hero tragedies ever! And one of the most beautiful, rich, tragic, and enticing journeys! One of the best parts of the Silmarillion is following his journey from the son who fought with the rest of his family over the Teleri ships and then disagreed with Fëanor over the burning of the ships, and paid the most dearly for that mistake, and then healed because "the fire of life was hot within him" and fought with everything he had to protect the Middle-earth and unite all the houses and all the races, to the Maedhros after The Nirnaeth, who led three Kingslayings and came to actually involuntarily help the Malkor whom he fought so hard against for so long and was tortured with his own deeds so much that he ended his life with fire, right after he won the one thing he was fighting for from the beginning of his story. Only to have lost everything else.

2. Fëanor (Tolkien's legendarium)

He's the fire. He's the forest. And he's a witness watching it. Has a man ever destroyed so much even as he kept creating? Has a man ever dreamed so big his dreams crushed his reality beneath their feet? Has a man ever ruined everything and everyone he loved from the moment he was born down to the moment he last closed his eyes on the sight of the sons that followed him to their demise? Because he was burning so hot that everything close to him burnt with him? Has a man lost all he stood for in the way of fighting for what he stood for?

He brought his own end and there's something really appealing, really humane, really real about self-made tragedies.

(Also he's absolutely unhinged and his lines are all bangers & I love him for that!)

3. Jin Guangyao (Mo Dao Zu Shi/The Untamed)

Just the place JGY occupies in the narrative, as WWX's parallel and the story's antagonist who is basically also kinda the protagonist in this very story if you look at it from another angle is fascinating! You can write essays about him!

He just wanted to honor his mother, he just wanted his father's approval, he wanted the world. He wanted the world just to have some safety he never had. He never got any safety even when had the world. He did many evils to get the world. He wanted the world just to do some good in it. He was the best Xiao Shushu. He took his nephew hostage. and even then he didn't lose his nephew'slove. He played a game designed against him and won. He lost in his own game to the man he didn't even know was playing. And he truly loved and cared for that man. He was so kind, he took personal risks with no benefit for himself to save people. He couldn't afford to be a good, righteous person who would always be kind. He kinda taught this to WWX the hard way. He plays the role of a villain in WWX's story. His endgame was to just run away and WWX interrupted him. They barely knew each other. They respected each other. He died by his love's hand and his last deed in life was to push his love out of danger.

He never had a chance. At no point could he have been happy, or saved. He was doomed from the beginning. And yet he went as far as went. And there's a certain appeal to this kind of soft power, resilience, determination, hard work, cleverness, brilliance, and competence. To not just give in to fate and if there is no chance to take, then create some. To just forcefully carve a place yourself in the world of the world has decided that you have no place in it.

And everything he does he does with STYLE! AND HE'S SO POLITE EVEN WHEN TALKING TO THE PEOPLE HE'S TAKEN HOSTAGE! HE'S SO COOL AND SO ELEGANT AND SECRETLY SASSY AND SO COMPETENT I CAN'T HELP BUT STAN!

4. Jiang Cheng (Mo Dao Zu Shi/The Untamed)

Ah, the grumpy but kindhearted characters. They always have my whole heart.

Nobody can convince me Jiang Cheng is not my actual little brother!

I love this tsundere wet cat so much! He's a loser, he's won at everything he's ever started, he's a mess, he's a badass, he's a wet cat, he's a war hero and a competent sect leader and an excellent Jiujiu, he's broken and betrayed, he's so full of love that he gives freely and unconditionally.

And isn't it kinda the point? To go on and continue even while crying and screaming? To break down and grieve, but get up again and keep going? To love, despite many things that stand against it?

Jiang Cheng's character is introduced in a way that at every turn, you're waiting for the moment when he turns against Wei Wuxian and kills his brother. And it never comes. Instead, he loves him. At every turn, when you'd think that anyone else would have given up, Jiang Cheng keeps loving more and more fiercely. Even in his last scene, as he leaves the story, he leaves you astonished by all the love he has given and still has to give.

(And he's a sassy queen which is a very important factor.)

5. Mu Qing (Heaven's official blessing)

Mu Qing is another character that was introduced to us in the most unfavorable way possible and as we go on, we learn that all his actions had been misinterpreted and this lil grumpy, sassy, bitter cat is actually very, very kind. And loyal, and insecure. and he does all his kind deeds without expecting anything, even acknowledgment in return even though he knows his actions will probably be misinterpreted again. and even though he has seen nothing but ungratefulness before when he helped others! he just never ceases being kind and going out of his way to help! because that's who he is! HIS NAME MEANS "YEARNING FOR AFFECTION"! I LOVE HIM SO MUCH!

6. Geto Suguru (Jujutsu Kaisen)

This one was truly "dead from the beginning". And you don't even know what a gentle, sweet, lovely soul you've lost until you learn this right at the same time when you learn you've never had him to begin with.

Geto Suguru, with his voice so soft, with his smiles so sweet, with his eyes so kind, with his manners so soothing, so full of consideration, with his heart so gentle that it will bring his downfall, so concerned with the thought of ALWAYS saving everyone that he forgot to save himself. So, so loved that he'll haunt the narrative till everyone who knows him is dead.

The doomed child, the broken man. Gentle, and so very loved and loving to his last breath. And even beyond (to the point that he comes back to life to save Gojo!)

Has anyone ever fallen so tenderly, so gently, As he holds the hands of the two little girls he's saved after the one little girl he couldn't?

His fall came so understandably, so naturally, you feel like you walked the path with him and nobody not even in-universe can blame him.

As almost anyone who knew him in-universe would agree, loving Geto Suguru comes very easy.

7. Wanda Maximoff (MCU)

What can I say about Wanda Maximoff? The girl who kept trying to grasp at the only things left for her, be it her brother, her husband, or her children only to lose and lose and lose again. The girl who kept choosing to save people again and again. The girl who was afraid of her power because it could kill people but still chose to use it to help others, who then came to the point that she took an entire town hostage? The girl who had to kill the love of her life thrice only for it to mean nothing? The girl who looked relieved as she turned into ashes when the blink happened? The girl who just wanted a little domestic life in their little house with her husband but had to save the world but her efforts were never enough? The girl who nearly killed Thanos singlehandedly? The girl who ran across universes to kill her other self to be a mother to her children?

And as Steve said, "she's just a kid."

What can I say about Wanda, the Victim, the te****ist, the scarlet which, the mother, the kid?

I love her so much!

8. Zuko (Avatar the Last airbender)

What can I say about Zuko that hasn't already been said numerous times and way better than I could? The best redemption arc I've ever seen. And one of the most adorable social disasters ever.

9. Azula (Avatar the Last airbender)

Azula's breakdown will always haunt me.

She was so cool, so calm and in control, so confident, and so competent you forgot she was only 14. Until it hit you hard in the face when she imagined her mother telling her that she loved her in the mirror. And you see her break down and scream, defeated on the ground, when she sees her brother with his friend. Victorious, because he had people who helped him.

But Azula was alone and let down by every adult around her. When she told her father "You're treating me like I'm Zuko!" you understand how all her life, she's been afraid that if she was "almost" perfect she'd be put aside like Zuko. and how being the perfect child for her father would mean being a monster to her mother. and she chose the parent who gave her praise instead of judgment, and even that parent's love wasn't unconditional. He was a narcissist and took advantage of her. when Ursa in the comics told her "I'm sorry I didn't love you enough." and Azula burst into tears IT BROKE ME!

10. V (V for Vendetta)

Originally I was really pondering whether I should give this place to Jamie Lannister or Xue Yang, Shen Jiu, The Corinthian, or Sansa Stark. Until I suddenly remembered the one character that I always fall in love with all over again EVERY TIME I watch the movie. How does one make a character(AND AN OBJECTIVELY TERRIBLE MAN THAT IMPRISONS AND TORTURES A POOR ALONE GIRL!) so charming, so charismatic, so lovable that literally everybody who watches the movie falls in love with him? (DID HE GIVE US ALL STOCKHOLM SYNDROME?!)

Also, every word out of his mouth is golden and iconic and delivered with such a unique personality. He's so interesting! He's simultaneously so nerdy and so cool! His actions are so cool and so is his style! And he's the personification of "freedom". In most countries, most of the time, people, each to their own degree, are fighting for their rights and freedom. V represents a universal wish, hope, and fantasy. V is the power of people. The courage, capability, strength, determination, vengefulness, the yearning for justice of tortured but unbent, unbowed, and unbroken people. and So that's a huge part of his appeal.

Also HUGO WEAVING'S RICH VELVETY VOICE!!! GOD!!

Here are the other characters that definitely deserve a place among the top tens but I just don't know who to replace them with because they all also deserve their places:

Xue Yang(Mo Dao Xu Shi/The Untamed): the sassy little adorable delinquent who thought he was at the top of the world doing whatever he liked because he could. and this time he had the power to take his revenge from the world that had him powerless, only to find warmth and peace in the name of taking revenge in the place he least thought, with his enemy and the kid who hated him. Only to find that peace and warmth were what he most wanted. Only to ruin it all irrevocably with his own hands. Only to die in the way of hopelessly trying to get back the one person who showed him genuine kindness and warmth. (also he's a sassy lil shit <3)

Shen Jiu (Scum Villain's self-saving system): The child-abuser scum who was introduced to us as the ultimate villain of the story. Until we learned about his story and how he died cruelly and unforgiven, with his name tainted while he only did some of that™️. While still a bitter man, and a child abuser, his heart wasn't so tainted. But by the time we learn that, he's already dead. With his story unfinished and his heart heavy because he never learned why the only person he deeply cared about left him behind. And nobody even noticed his passing to mourn him. AND EVERYTHING WAS BETTER FOR HIS DEATH!

Jamie Lannister (A Song of Ice and Fire/ Game Of Thrones): How can an author make you stan a character who pushed a little kid, and A POV LITTLE KID AT THAT! down a window because the kid saw he and his sister fuck in the first few chapters?! GRRM SOMEHOW DID THAT! Even if I'm still not very fond of the end of his story in the show, both in the show and in the books, he had one of the best redemption arcs and developments ever. (Though I started to like him when Catelyn told him "You pushed my son out of the window. You wanted him to die!", and Jamie answered: "Nah sometimes I shove kids out of the windows because it's good for their growth." Lmfao. What a little shit!)

The Corinthian (The Sandman): the being hated by his creator because he was so good at what he was created for he transcended the barriers his creator had set for him. so good at his assigned purpose that what he did was beyond his purpose. AND HE WAS SO HEARTBROKEN BY WHAT DREAM SAID TO HIM! And after he was recreated he startet being a babysitter to gain Dream's approval again. it was so sweet!

Sansa Stark (ASOIAF/GOT): from the girl who wanted to get out of Winterfell to follow her dreams to the girl whose dream became to go back to Winterfell, from the delusional little girl who lived in her dreams, waiting for her knight, who learned the cruelty of the world the hard way, to the deliverer of some of the most iconic lines of the show/book like "I'm Sansa Stark of Winterfell. This is my home, and you don't frighten me."/ "My skin has turned to porcelain, to ivory, to steel." She went a long way and had one of the best character developments. In the book, you can already see her bringing her ladylike behavior and political game that she learned from the best in action to manipulate Hardyng and Robbie. Like Cersei's white mirror. But she still has the kind heart of the girl who once after being attacked by the commoners said that if it was some bread they wanted, she would have given it to them if she had some with her.

Honourable mentions:

Qi Rong (tgcf): my favorite little shit! The best dad! And what @jin-zixun told about his story in the tags of this post really made me emotional!

He Xuan (tgcf): he had so much potential and instead all his life he and his family suffered on someone else's behalf while that someone else stole all his fortune. Then during his revenge plan, he met that person and he learned that maybe had things been different, he would willingly suffered all of the misfortunes of that person's life (the ones that didn't include his family) but as it stood, in this life, they had no chance. And even after his revenge he didn't find any peace and happiness.

Klaus Hargreeves (Umbrella Academy): A sunshine who always lights up every gathering, and is always ready to help others and always sees the good in others!

Five Hargreeves(Umbrella Academy): A murderous, sassy, tiny, bitter grandpa in the body of a teenager who'll do everything for his family! what's not to love!

Nakahara Chuuya (Bungo stray dogs): *Wonder Woman's voice* A BABY! The grumpy characters with golden hearts who always go out of their way to help others and will follow their friends to the end of the world with many, many complaints and screams always have my whole heart!

Dowager Countess of Grantham (Downton Abbey): EVERY LINE SHE SAYS MUST BE WRITTEN IN GOLD! the perfect combination of sass and class! goals!

Fleabag (Fleabag), Thomas Barrow (Downton Abbey): I love cringe-fail hot messes who had no control over many shitty things that happened in their lives and what they could control, they fucked up and now have to deal with their consequences. but still, they push through and try to make the most of it.

Pam Beesley(The Office): the story of this seemingly unremarkable, shy, quiet girl who learns to pursue her dreams, and make opportunities for herself, and speak up for herself was one of the best plotlines of The Office.

Toph Beifong (ATLA), Ranpo Edogawa (BSD): the tiny little extraordinary, extra- competent, reliable, confident, super blunt, lovable cuties always have my whole heart!

Flynn Rider (Tangled) & Nick (Zootopia): still two of my all-time crushes! It's the charm and wit and golden heart while being an outlaw, and supportiveness probably.

Death of The Endless(The Sandman): she's so kind and gentle! Her presence is soothing! And to think that she's death coming so kind, soothing and merciful and as a relief to accompany people on their one last lonely journey is really beautiful!

Delirium of the Endless(The Sandman): she's so broken and mysterious and so desperate for her family to be together! And she sometimes bestows wisdom to others through insanity!

Desire of the Endless(The Sandman): such a mysterious and complex character! They're by nature very cruel. But they're also so loving towards their family. They're there for their family when needed (be it Delirium, Despair, or Dream. Even when Dream didn't want to accept their help they turned into a cat and helped them anonymously). And even in their love they're cruel, and in cruelty, loving.

Nebula(MCU): I loved watching her escape from Thanos's abusive influence and become friends and sisters with Gamora! And her stoic but awkward personality is so lovely!

Cersei Lannister(ASOIAF/GOT): one of the best-written villains ever. She never ceases to be a villain but you really feel pity for her. From the moments she talks about her loveless marriage with Robert to when you learn that she's a pawn for Tywin's plans to the walk of shame to the loss of her children. And her lines are so iconic!

Frodo Baggins (Lord of The Rings): he's so kind-hearted! So sweet! He tried and resisted so hard even though it wasn't his war! He's so underrated!

Mo Ran (Husky and his white cat Shizun): one of the best-written protagonists with a complex, tragic backstory and a lovable personality with a beautiful redemption arc. I loved him both as Taxian-Jun and as Mo Ran.

Chu Wanning(Husky and his white cat Shizun): a multi-layered and lovable character. especially as Xia sini!

Crowley and Aziraphale (Good Omens): my favorite sweet, pure, kind-hearted loser lover boys who keep saving the world by being so incompetent they accidentally get the desired outcome by a series of incompetence that cancel out each other!

Moon Knight specifically Steven Grant (Moon Knight, MCU): I've only watched the MCU miniseries and his story was so heartbreaking! And Steven was so sweet! And seeing Marc and Steven find peace and love together was very beautiful!

Prof.McGonagall (Harry Potter): so sassy, so caring, so steadfastly dependable! From Aunt Hetty and Marilla Cuthbert to Professor McGonagall, I've always loved these types of characters!

Dervish Grady (Demonata), Nanami Kento(Jujutsu Kaisen): it's the caring, dependable mentors that always show up to fix everything and you form a deep bond with them for me.

Sirius Black (Harry Potter): his fiercely loyal, extreme both in love and hate, and unstable personality, his being stuck in more than a decade ago, occupying an uncertain place as a father- figure to Harry and a brother figure to James Potter-...'s son, and devotion to his loved ones, and how he wanted to always be there for Harry in the little time he got with him for all the years he couldn't be have captivated me.

Griffith(Berserk): I'm afraid I'm also experiencing the same obsession with this tragically fallen bitch of a man as Guts continues to feel. He's so well-written and so charismatic, (so obviously in love with Guts) he keeps haunting you. Like I keep being like: "I CANNOT BELIEVE HE WAS THIS MUCH OF A BITCH! HOW COULD HE! FFS! EVERYONE IN THAT BAND WOULD HAVE READILY DIED FOR HIM! THEY WORSHIPED HIM! THEY ENDANGERED THEMSELVES FOR HIM! EVEN AT THAT VERY MOMENT, THEY WERE ALL THERE FOR HIM! HOW COULD HE DO THAT TO CASCA ESPECIALLY!". And then I remember how pitiful his state was before that. He couldn't even kill himself. He couldn't even ask someone to kill him since he couldn't talk or write. And he went from being the next potential king to that state. He was a liability to everyone who looked up to him as a savior. And everything he did, while a horrible shock, was still so in character! He wasn't inherently evil. but he was inherently ambitious, self-centered, pragmatic, and detached... it all just came in service of his dark side after his fall. And he got everything he wanted only to yearn for what he used to have. *sigh* this bitch.

Sorry, it got so long and a lot more than 10! I shouldn't be allowed to talk about my favorite characters actually lmao!

Thank you for the very thought- provoking question!

#asks #mdzs #cql #the untamed #tolkien #lotr #the silmarillion #mcu #atla #jjk #the sandman #hp #asoiaf #got #good omens #I gotta stop myself before I write all of MXTX characters lol #Seth and Isis from volume1 of Ennead could have easily been on this list had Mohito not fucked up the manhua in the worst way possible! #they were such amazing characters with such a complex bond. Idc about Horus and his relationship with Seth is gross. #I was reading the Manhua for Seth and Isis and Anubis

[randomleafoflove]

You don’t know how much I love uncertain world building. I don’t mean unreliable narrator. Not even in the way that’s inconsistent, but deliberately uncertain.

Tolkien did this with saying The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were translations, and we don’t know how much was lost in translation.

On the other hand, MXTX did this in Scum Villain, by placing it in a xianxia stallion novel, and every inconsistency in the world can be blamed on the Great God Airplane.

This opens so many doors for fanfiction, because even the canon source isn’t reliable.

#world building #tolkien #mxtx #the hobbit #the lord of the rings #scum villain

[vaporwary]

Gimme uhhh Angbang, Beefleaf, and whoever the fuck you ship with SexPal (only the silliest sounding ships)

Angbang:

sometimes when an eldritch chaos god and the angel in charge of clockwork are sooo fucking obsessed with each other..... and I live by that.

Beefleaf:

Third Most Powerful Ghost In The World Gets Dragged On Stupid Gender Adventures By His Worst Enemy's Dumbass Younger Sibling. and the roleswap AUs? delicious.

aaand I chose Palamedes/Pyrrha:

Pyrrha told him that he was going to make someone a really annoying wife someday and he took that as a challenge. sometimes a family can be a 10000 yr old war criminal in her best friend's body; the president of the library planet borrowing HIS best friend's body; the librarian's best friend; the best friend's two knives; and a girl who is simultaneously ~13.8 billion yrs old, 10k yrs old, 18 yrs old, and 6 months old :')

#askbox #tolkien tag #the locked tomb tag #uhhh do i have a tag for mxtx's books here? #tgcf tag #cloudbower

[asksythe]

MXTX Interview with Risa Wataya for Subaru Magazine P.7

Which creative works influence you: 

Risa: Please tell us which creative works influence you. 

Moxiang: Professor Jin Yong's wuxia novels (*)! Professor Jin Yong is my number one teacher in the craft of writing. His skill in crafting wuxia stories, his artistic palate, the sheer intellectual depth and philosophical complexity of his stories and characters. Professor Jin Yong's wuxia novels have a profound and immeasurable influence on all modern Asian creative professionals. 

(*: the legendary late professor Jin Yong. He's not as well-known in English-speaking spheres due to the complexity of his works being very difficult to translate to languages outside of the Sino-Tibetan language family. But in Asia, he's a literature titan. He's comparable to Tolkien in that he laid the foundation and codified the tropes of wuxia as a modern genre (alongside Gu Long and Liang Yusheng) and brought about the first and subsequent wuxia waves, and that there's also university courses and entire research field on Jin-Yong-ology. However, he's a much more prolific writer, having produced 15 wuxia series, among which 14 are of comparable length or longer than the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit combined. 

It would be no lie to say there's not a single creative professional in Asia that is not influenced by Jin Yong in some way, shape, or form. 

One of Jin Yong's trademarks is the overwhelming, often obsessive, sometimes destructive love that his characters exhibit. There's not one work of his that is not threaded through with larger-than-life romance, not just among the protagonists, but also among the villain characters. The trend of modern Chinese literature, especially wuxia and xianxia, to portray larger-than-life romance can be traced directly to Jin Yong's influence. 

Interestingly, he's also credited as having accidentally created the proto icon of danmei as a genre. 

I'm sorry. I'm so excited I want to cry. Professor Jin Yong is also my first teacher in the craft of writing. It turns out we all step in the footsteps of the giant, huh, Moxiang?) 

I also watch a lot of 90s Hongkong movies. Do you know "Shaolin Soccer'?  

Risa: I do know! 

Moxiang: Stephen Chow's comedy movies, Tsui Hark's wuxia, and fantasy horror movies. Lam Ching-ying's walking corpse movies. I love all of these. 

Risa: That's closer to jiangshi (*) than modern zombies.

(*: a type of Chinese walking corpse. The name literally translates to stiff corpse. Jiangshi is typically translated into Chinese hopping vampire in English due to their similarity to Western vampires. They are the dead that comes back to life. They suck yang energy from living people. They fear the smell of garlic. Etc... Jiangshi has real-life basis in an extinct profession in China: the corpse walker, i.e., people who made a living out of 'walking' corpses back to their home provinces in times of war and chaos. Corpse walkers are mentioned in Liao Yiwu's historical book 'The Corpse Walker') 

Moxiang: That's right. That's right. A hopping jiangshi. I watch a lot of such movies. Some movies are from before I was born, such as 'A Chinese Ghost Story' and 'Sword Man' (*). I have watched them more than ten times! If I meet someone who has never watched those movies before, I will enthusiastically drag them along while saying, "Let's watch them together!" My novel bears obvious and immense influence from these movies... For example, the funny scenes in my story are very close to the atmosphere of comedy scenes from Hongkong cinema. Or the walking corpses in my story. My inspiration came from these undead corpses. In the novel, I mentioned using glutinous rice as a cure for corpse powder. This knowledge came from the movie "Professor Jiangshi" (named 'Mr. Vampire' in English in the Wikipedia).

(*: Both of these movies are Tsui Hark's movies and are counted among the top 100 best movies of Asian cinema. They are known for their fantasy elements, eroticism, and homoeroticism. These movies came from a time where Asian cinema was pushing boundaries left, right, and center. Swordsman and its spin-off were adapted from Professor Jin Yong's The Smiling Proud Wander. The very same work in which he accidentally created the proto-icon of danmei. I wrote an essay about this as part of danmei history last year. I will make a separate post after this.)

Risa: To be honest, when I reached the part where glutinous rice was used to cure corpse powder in 'Mo Dao Zu Shi,' I was moved.

Moxiang: Ah? A Japanese author saw the glutinous rice scene in my novel and linked it to jiangshi movies... That is so surprising! 

Risa: When I was young, I watched a lot of jiangshi movies. I love them! 

Moxiang: I feel increasingly close to Ms. Risa now. As for other foreign literature, Emily Bronte's 'Wuthering Heights' greatly influences me. When I read it during elementary school, I was shaking from excitement. Perhaps because of the influence of Wuthering Heights, that whenever I see complex, intertwining love-hate situations, I feel such joy and nostalgia in my heart. 

There's also my favorite childhood mangaka Rumiko Takahashi! This kind of light-hearted, rowdy atmosphere where characters argue and rib each other is so cute! I especially like 'Ranma 1/2'. I think it's the best comedy manga. Other than that, 'Inuyasha' can only be described by the word romantic. Romantic! To this day, Kikyo is still a goddess in my heart. 

Risa: Although 'Ranma 1/2' is a work that features China in it, what do Chinese people think about it? 

Moxiang: The first thought that comes to my head is 'charming!' After that is probably fond familiarity. This work (Ranma 1/2) features many Chinese elements. I feel that the distance between our hearts is lessened.   

To be Continued (The next part will be the last) 

Translator: Sythe / NPD Khanh    

#mxtx #mdzs #Interview #Translation #jin yong #tsui hark #rumiko takahashi

[veliseraptor]

#fun with polls #sometimes i write things #let's see if the formatting works THIS TIME otherwise i give up

[taihua]

20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by @gekidasa whose answers were excellent to read at 2am when I couldn't sleep <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 91

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 437,726

3. What fandoms do you write for? TGCF obviously is the main one, and Tolkien fic is something I regularly write because it feels like going home. I dipped my toes into Genshin fic this year and I've been known to randomly drop one-off fics for other fandoms when the brainworms hit!

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

After Hours. The magnum opus. Deserves its place at the top.

I Want to Ki** You. I never expected this fic to get so popular so it amuses me that it's still near the top.

Further Precautions. Dumb humor win!

Carved in bone, heart engraved. The trope inversion amnesia fic!

Bet On It. So near and dear to my heart that I have spent the last two years trying to scrub off the serial numbers for publication and if that ever happens, it'll be amusing to see who recognizes it.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? I used to, but then a depression era hit and now I have Inbox (666) and it fills me with dread to look at the number. I do read each and every comment and 9 times out of 10 I start tearing up even if it's something short like "loved this, thanks!"

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I'm too sappy to do actual unhappy endings, but Still Have Time sort of implies a cycle of toxic breakups that can't be fixed.

... I also forgot that I have that one Celebrimbor/Annatar pre-torture fic, which is objectively much worse than breakups now that I think about it. Does it count when Tolkien is the one who wrote the death-by-torture ending for Tyelpë, though?

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? All of them!!!!! But I'll nominate Money Maker, because it's the only fic I think I have ever written, for any fandom, that involves the couple getting married at the end. I bullied them so hard in this AU that I decided they earned it.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Never in the comments themselves, but I saw people being dicks about my writing on Twitter every now and then, which is the unfortunate downside of having a well-known fic in fandom. Not everyone has to like my fics, but like... I can see what you're saying on the public forum in the community that I myself am active in, guys.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? *gestures at my AO3 profile*

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? The most I've done is throw in a cameo from other MXTX fandoms, and I guess that one self-indulgent Sk8/tgcf fic that lives in my drafts and will never see the light of day. I just don't find "they meet!" to be enough of a plot to be worth reading or writing. The thought of writing all that introducing sounds like hell, sorry.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Yup, there was that time the person almost word-for-word replicated Still Have Time. They claimed it was an accident and apologized before taking it down when I commented, but that wasn't fun. I felt like a jerk for commenting even though it was blatant theft; they even left kudos on my fic :/

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Yes, I have a handful of my fics translated into Russian thanks to some Twitter pals!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Sadly no. I always thought this would be fun, though, so if anyone wants to try it sometime... just sayin'........ my inbox open....

14. What's your all-time favorite ship? 300,000+ of my AO3 wordcount is for Fengqing and they're always going to be one of the most specialest ships ever for me for many reasons, but I also feel like I have to give a shoutout to Maedhros/Fingon in Tolkien fandom for being my longest-running ship? I got into them in high school and they're the ship that I feel I can just sit down and write something for them whenever I want.

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? There was that Fengqing police AU I started and I thought it would be good, but it ended up not really feeling like them and that was part of what pushed me to focus on original writing instead of fanfic this year. Funnily enough, I Frankensteined some of the concepts from that AU into Constellate, which is to date my only unfinished WIP on AO3. I never really had a plan for what I was doing with that fic and I thought I could just power through it, which failed miserably.

16. What are your writing strengths? Humor, probably! It's hard to be funny in writing, but I do try.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? I have about a year's worth of fic that needs to be line edited and reposted because I was cueing--sentences like "He felt that he was afraid" rather than "His heart pounded in his chest" etc. A writing teacher pointed it out to me this summer and I've been consciously trying to fix it, but I know a lot of my fics are worse because of this.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I never see this done well in fic. Personally, if I'm writing Chinese characters in China in an English language fic, it's implied that they're speaking Chinese, so there's no need to stick "Hao jiu bu jian" in quotation marks, yknow? It only makes sense to change languages if it's implied that this section of language is different from the rest of the narrative, and even then it can be distracting in a bad way to have it written out rather than saying "'Hello,' he greeted in French."

19. First fandom you wrote for? Lord of the Rings probably. I'm not going to look at my FFN profile to check.

20. Favorite fic you've written? I have lots of favorites for lots of reasons, but I'll give a shoutout to No smoke without fire this time because it's my only OC-centric fic and I'm happy that people like it anyway even though OCs aren't really a thing in danmei fandom.

Tagging: I will take the lazy route and say steal it and tag me. I like reading answers to these

#meme answers #i miss fics so bad... rattling my cage rn!!!!

[fistfuloflightning]

…the light of stars was in her bright eyes, grey as a cloudless night; yet queenly she looked, and thought and knowledge were in her glance, as of one who has known many things that the years bring.

Arwen for the MXTX-Tolkien remix

#lotr #mxtx tolkien #mxtx #my art #tolkien art #arwen undomiel #tolkien #I have lots of ideas abt how the elven kingdoms being sects would work in ME since elvish immortality =cultivation #and how aragorn wouldn’t have a fully formed core/wouldn’t be able to cultivate to immortality despite being raised in the Imladris sect #and elrond would be against arwen breaking her own cultivation for him and be separated from her family forever #while they ascend as immortals and she dies a mortal #mostly an excuse for aragorn to call her shijie 🤭 #and a note on the feanorian stars: they were an unorthodox sect but elrond used their teachings after they got wiped out to build his own #he acknowledges his parents’ sects but the feanorians are where his heart lies

[stardust-falling]

《 If you like my creations, please consider supporting me on ko-fi or joining my Patreon 》

……

坠星落尘 (Zhuixing Luochen)/ 坠星 (Zhuixing)

Adult, He/They/他, ENG/中文/ESP OK!

Bluesky || AO3 || Patreon

……

Reading: 六爻 Liu Yao (priest) & 天官赐福 Tian Guan Ci Fu (revised, MXTX)

Watching: 长月烬明 Til the End of the Moon

Playing: Genshin Impact (Caught Up)

Writing: Ghosts of the Heart (original), SVLPO Season 2 (svsss, coming soon!)

TAGS

zhuixing writing: my fics & original stories-- update posts, behind-the-scenes posts, etc.

ghosts of the heart: posts about my original danmei novel, serialization beginning feb. 2024

zhuixing art: my artwork

zhuixing svsss: my svsss posts. meta, headcanons, au ideas, and ramblings.

坠星是谁?: things about me. dash games, uquiz results, etc.

library: reference & educational reblogs, chinese culture, art, & other topics-- go here if you want to learn something new!

wardrobe: clothing information & images. mostly hanfu

art gallery: reblogged art

cool rocks: rock collection

pretty moths: moth image, gif, & video collection

good news: record of good things that have happened in the world, to combat the pessimism

……

Zionists, TERFS, antisemites, sinophobes, and other unapologetic bigots blocked on sight.

Anon hate will result in instant block without response.

Invasive asks about personal details will be deleted without response and the sender blocked if it continues. My privacy is important to me.

Pro-ship as in I don't care what you ship and you shouldn't care what I ship. Same with reading/writing, tropes, kinks, or whatever else. You don't know my life, I don't know yours, so it's not my place or your place to judge. If you don't like that I don't care what people do with fictional characters then feel free to block me.

I tag all ships, so if you just don't like a ship that I post about but are a reasonable person who isn't going to start accusing someone on the internet of real and serious crimes and don't care about following someone you don't fully agree with then you can feel safe blocking the ship name and it won't show up on your feed.

Don't send me fanfic of my original works! I will not read it during serialization, and I will not comment on it after serialization.

I don't usually post nsfw, but when I do it is tagged "zhuixing adds chili peppers" so please block that tag if you are a minor or do not want to see nsfw!

I've had a whole lot of trauma my entire life and living in this world is hard, so sometimes I will post rant/vent type posts. If you don't want to see these, block the tag "zhuixing cuts onions".

Any discussion of real-world happenings will be tagged "zhuixing posts current events" so block this tag if that sort of thing bothers you.

More about me and my writing below the cut…

……

MORE ABOUT ME AS A PERSON

I'm a queer & chronically ill full-time writer, part-time artist. Originally a city kid from central/northern China, currently living in the USA. Feel free to send me a message if you want to say hi! I'm fairly shy but I do my best to respond.

This blog is mostly scum villain right now, but I'll occasionally post about other fandoms too! The main things I enjoy are MXTX's other books, Tai Sui, Genshin Impact, Tolkien's Legendarium, Star Wars (especially TOR), and the Elder Scrolls.

I'm also writing an original xianxia/danmei novel, 《Ghosts of the Heart》 so please check out my patreon to read that, the first few chapters will be free for anyone to read & begin releasing in Feb 2024.

I'm really interested in language learning/linguistics study, Chinese culture, and hanfu construction & style, as well as a long-standing interest in pretty and cool rocks.

Please don't treat me as a consummate cultural authority! I love sharing things about my culture, but I have been isolated from it for over a decade until just recently, so I am still learning/relearning quite a bit and may make a mistake from time to time. Please be gentle if correcting me-- my lack of connection to my native culture is something I can be quite sensitive about.

我来自中���河南省，我也喜欢闲话我的故乡。我不会说中文很好，因为我多年前来美国了，不过我想要练习说我的母语。如果你想要，你就可以问我问题或发送消息！

……

MORE ABOUT ME AS AN AUTHOR

My writing pace fluctuates. I'm chronically ill and currently having to work retail on and off until my writing career builds up enough support to be my primary source of income. Working retail massively drains my energy, so until I make enough to support myself on patreon, speed of chapter releases won't be especially fast. I do try to post something, whether original or fanfiction early-access, on patreon at least once a week. If you like my writing and can afford to become a patron, please consider it. Every new patron helps me get closer to being able to write more & higher-quality work!

I don't read fanfiction of my original works until serialization is complete. This is primarily for legal reasons, to protect myself, but also to keep from being swayed during serialization by the prevalent ideas in the fandom. I also won't comment on fanfiction of my original works irt characterization or canonicity once serialization is finished. I'm personally more interested in seeing what the fandom comes up with and don't care to correct them. But if you make fanart please send it to me to see! I love that so much!

I believe that the current attitudes around copyright and "intellectual property" are BS. Art is meant to be shared and to grow in a community, and strict IP regulations prevent that growth. Part of the reason why I am so set on self-publishing via patreon instead of going with traditional publishing is so that I can create my own Transformative and Derivative Works policy (currently, the policy is a WIP but I will link it here once it is finished). As a long-time fanwork creator, I fully understand the amount of work and effort and care that goes into creating fanworks, and wish to take a different approach to the legitimacy of such works, allowing for a network of free creation rather than increasing restrictions with IP and trademarks, so I am working to draft a policy that will allow for free creation and expansion without compromising the integrity of the original work. If any independent creators wish to use some or all of my TDW policy, they are entirely free and encouraged to do so, as I would love to see a world where creators are not so constrained by strict copyright and IP culture, and where stories belong to both the listener and the teller as they have for thousands of years.

#pinned post #坠星是谁?

[layzeal]

on the tolkien x mxtx similarities diagram we forgot to include "will not show you anything that happens in the big badass super important battle"

#i respect it but also. lmao #i dont think any of us would have survived seeing the first siege tho #modao #lace speaks

[kaijuerotica]

i wanna do the 10 best books ive ever read thing but have suddenly forgotten literally every book ive ever read that isnt rote, tlt, tolkien, or mxtx

#and i consider series as 1 for those because basically everything ive read the past couple years has been series

[ardenrabbit]

Hi....If you don't mind, can I ask, what are your top 10 (or top 7) favorite media (can be books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series)? Why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before......Thanks....

What a fun question! Thank you for asking! I think I already answered an ask about favorite characters, but here's a list of some of my favorite media in no particular order 💜

1. Avatar the Last Airbender: If you didn't grow as a person if/when you watched atla I just don't know what to say to you. Watch it again I guess? Learn self-love and empathy and healthy coping tactics

2. Lord of the Rings, by Jolkien Rolkien Rolkien Tolkien, especially Peter Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring, Extended Version: Favorite movie. Nostalgia factor. Gandalf. Viggo Mortensen ruining all other men for me. Boromir being a Good Man. The soundtrack of this movie is Home to me.

3. The Goblin Wood, book by Hilari Bell: Friendship, magic, and angry, vengeful witches. Anti-colonialism. Great take on magic. Questioning dogma and learning how not to be a cop. A crotchety goblin named Cogswhallop who is my best friend.

3. Big Fish: Movie with Albert Finney, Ewan Mcgregor, and Marion Cotillard my beloved. Whimsical, heartwarming, and profoundly bittersweet story about people learning to communicate and share in each other's lives. I really just fucking love this movie.

4. ⭐ A Silent Voice: Japanese animated movie about a former bully learning to not hate himself, a deaf girl learning self-worth, and a lot of people learning to be friends. Fucking stunning visuals and music. Another profoundly bittersweet one with a happy ending, and one I wish I'd seen earlier in my life. Content warning: two suicide attempts.

5. Mo Dao Zu Shi, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu: Chinese web novel with several adaptations, about a lot of fascinating topics with oceans of nuance because MXTX is a genius tbh, but largely about questioning convention and doing the right thing, the different ways in which people can love, the meanings of bravery, and some zombies. I also love her novel Tian Guan Ci Fu but have to analyze the themes a little more before I can confidently talk about what it means? It's fucking incredible though (and like twice as long lol)

6. No. 6, by Atsuko Asano: Japanese web novel with a manga and anime adaptation (manga is the best): honestly just a fun time about destroying The System with gay love and bees. Deuteragonist is an edgy dumbass who lived in a cave, blows up government vehicles, and quotes too much Shakespeare. To this day I am endlessly entertained by Nezumi.

7. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss: Book series comprising The Name of the Wind and Wise Man's Fear. Someday will include the final book, Doors of Stone. Epic fantasy story about a bard-rogue-wizard with delusions of grandeur giving his memoir after all the damage he's caused. Involves the COOLEST magic systems in one world, does an amazing job of establishing a truly low-fantasy-feeling but simultaneously deeply mystical environment, and has exactly the kind of compelling eccentricity that I love in characters. Beautifully poetic prose.

8. Dragon Age: rpg video game series about a series of Unfortunate World Events. You play a different character in each game, the protagonist at the center of one catastrophe or another, and they all tie in beautifully in the overall world story progression. The characters you meet are multidimensional and SO worth analyzing, because they're all fascinating and flawed people (except Varric Tethras, who is Perfect and The Love of my Life (my wife knows and accepts this)).

9. ⭐ Gates of Fire, by Steven Pressfield: Okay, FUCK THIS BOOK for being about the battle of Thermopylae where you know EXACTLY how that ended for the defending army and MAKING YOU FALL IN LOVE WITH THE CHARACTERS ANYWAY. Insanely well-researched historical fiction. Sympathetic to the subject and emotionally and socially insightful to a devastating degree. The best representation of the camaraderie and friendship in warrior culture without all the awful macho bullshit we've come to expect and loathe. They really ask the question "what is the opposite of fear" and come to the answer "love." I have broken down sobbing while reading a story three times in my life, and TWO of those times were from this book. Seriously, fuck this book. I will never write half as well as Steven Pressfield.

10. ⭐ It's Such a Beautiful Day, by Don Hertzfeldt: Remember the animation show on YouTube, that absurdist hand-drawn animation with the robots? Yeah that guy made a whole emotionally gutting, bittersweet movie about the nature of life and coming to terms with the end of it. Intergenerational trauma, chronic illness, and a lot of introspection. Beautifully paced storytelling. This is an Important Movie. It's not immediately stylistically accessible to everyone, but seriously, open your heart and branch out. This movie made me a little more whole.

If I had to pick three of these to shove in people's faces, it would be the starred and red ones lol. Not enough people know about them or have taken the time to appreciate them.

#oh look it talks #trust me i have good taste

[ofdemonsandangels]

Rules: in a text post, list ten books that have stayed with you in some way. don’t take but a few minutes, and don’t think too hard — they don’t have to be the “right” or “great” works, just the ones that have touched you.

I was tagged by @philosophicalparadox! 

1. Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief- It’s the book that started it all for me. I wouldn’t be the reader that I am today if I didn’t pick up the Lightning Thief during my third grade class’ monthly trip to the school library. I love Percy and the world the Rick Riordan created and I’ll continue to love it.

2. The Poppy War- I was in a serious reading slump prior to reading The Poppy War, so devouring it all up in nearly one day and ordering the next book in the trilogy right after was a welcome surprise for me. This book reignited my love for reading and the historical fantasy genre. 

3. The Name of the Wind- If there’s one thing I love, it’s a hard and heavy fantasy book. Reading The Name of the Wind for the first time inspired me to finally open up a Google doc and write my first ever fic. I love its prose and how we’re in and out of Kvothe’s head throughout the book. Whenever I agonize over the fact that the Doors of Stone hasn’t been released, I reread The Name of the Wind to remind me that the wait will be worth it.

4. Mo Dao Zu Shi- You could say that I’m cheating with this choice but it is technically a singular novel broken up into smaller volumes. Where do I even begin with MDZS? I have yet to really fully read the official translation as I’ve already read the “official” fan translation, but I will say, reading that Exiled Rebels translation over the span of three hot and sticky summer night, completely in the darkness of my room, was one of the best reading experiences ever. I adore the rich world that MXTX built, from the sect politics to the admittedly loose laws of demonic cultivation. Wangxian is a couple that I love very dearly and I have yet to read a danmei novel that just grips me by the soul like they do. I was introduced to the danmei genre through this novel as well, and I couldn’t be happier that it was my first.

5. One Last Stop- This is my favorite of Casey McQuiston’s books. It’s a super cute and emotional sapphic book that fell into my lap at the exact same time that I was beginning to explore my sexuality and for that, it holds a very special place in my heart. 

6. Fool’s Fate- This quote and this quote alone is enough reasoning as to why I love this book so much: “I pushed his golden hair back from his tawny forehead. ‘Oh, Beloved’ I said. I bent and kissed his brow in farewell. And then, grasping the rightness of that foreign tradition, I named him as myself. For when I burned him, I knew that I would be ending myself as well.  The man I had been would not survive this loss.”

7. The Silmarillion- Unironically my favorite of Tolkien’s works, partly because the maiar and elves are hella gay and partly because I really like reading a fun history book from The Professor himself. 

8. The Hunger Games- It still stands as the best YA book I’ve ever read and I’ll happily reread it every year

9. The Tombs of Atuan- My favorite book of the Earthsea Cycle and arguably my favorite book from Ursula Le Guin. Tenar is just such a touching protagonist and her relationship with Ged is seriously sweet. I also really liked how Le Guin further built upon the world of Earthsea in this book.

10. The Way of Kings- Everyone has that one book that they wish they could forget about just to reread it again and The Way of Kings is that book for me

Tagging: @abyssalpeach @seaofolives, @beansterpie, and @marley-manson

#tag game #violetposts.exe