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velvet-vox · 19 days

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The complete and utter alienation of Tai Lung: Part 1

First thing first: I am not a Tai Lung defender so consider this an unbiased post.

So, Kung Fu Panda color theory is pretty much well known across all of the fandom, and it's obvious even from an outside perspective.

Po and the heroes are yellow/gold

Then Lord Shen's red

Kai's and Oogway's green

And finally Tai Lung colour is blue

(Also Chameleon is also yellow but this ain't about her).

And this is the one I want to touch upon in this post.

You see this graphic?

These are the three primary colours /yellow, cyan and magenta/ that come together to form the main secondary colours /blue, red, green/.

If you are in the fandom, or you just simply pay attention, you'll also know that:

Tai Lung's backstory has ties with Shifu.

Lord Shen's backstory has ties with Po.

General Kai's backstory has ties with Oogway.

But Kai backstory doesn't just simply have ties to Oogway like we were simply led to believe at large, but it also has ties with Po, because of his ties with the panda village and its effect on Oogway's reformation.

And with that, as you might have noticed, both Kai and Shen have, according to the chart, the colour yellow as a part of their secondary colour scheme.

With Shen in particular it goes a step further in that Po has red as a complimentary colour to yellow in some scenes.

Shen is also the least isolated of the villains (mental state doesn't count); always surrounded by his goons who he's going to use to conquer China and the Soothsayer, Shen is only truly alone at the end of the movie on the boat scene where he's just been defeated.

And Kai, despite the fact that he doesn't have goons that can bounce off his dialogue, is also never truly alone whenever we see him; he was a warlord leader of a huge army, he now has a jade zombie army and he often speaks to the Oogway amulet and narrates him whatever is happening, and, like Shen, he only becomes alone during his death scene.

They do tend to isolate themselves from others of their own volition...... but Tai Lung?

He has absolutely nothing. Nobody. Never had.

Returning to the colour wheel, his main colour is blue and he has ties with Shifu's backstory who, after the first movie, loses relevance for the rest of the movies. And blue itself is a pretty alien colour in the entire series (extended material included), it doesn't have any ties with yellow, much like Tai Lung doesn't have any personal ties with Po despite being in opposition, and Tai Lung itself doesn't interact much with the setting besides being a looming threat.

And it all ties back to his isolation and how it probably tied back to his turn to the dark side.

From the glimpses that we see of his childhood, Tai Lung doesn't interact with anyone else aside from Shifu and possibly Oogway, and I'm pretty confident in saying that he probably lived a sheltered life in the Jade palace. A childhood like that can inflict serious damage on a person's mental health in the long run as you don't have anyone who you can confront your experiences with, and it clearly carried on into adulthood, better explaining his fit of rage after being denied the dragon scroll.

Sadly, his loneliness carried on for the 20 years that he spent in jail. And after he escapes, he tries to claim back the dragon scroll by himself since he doesn't have an army or ways to gain allies, so he just carries on with nobody to support him and then he dies of a lonely, gruesome death that reflects on the way he lived.

The franchise itself then continues to portray Tai Lung less as a character and more as a figure of power in Po's journey, completely and utterly dehumanising him in every possible and conceivable way.

Ok, I must admit, maybe I gained a brand new appreciation for Tai Lung while writing this.

Next Part>>>>

#kung fu panda #kung fu panda 2 #kung fu panda 3 #kung fu panda 4 #color theory #kung fu panda po #kung fu panda shifu #kung fu panda oogway #kung fu panda tai lung #kung fu panda lord shen #kung fu panda kai #kung fu panda soothsayer #character analysis #essay #kfp #villain

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alidravana · 2 months

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Hello! (｡･∀･)ﾉﾞ

First of all, congratulations for the 300 followers! Here's to another 300 !°˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°

For the drabble, may I ask for Ghost x Jade with the prompt 'pulling other one towards them' (preferably Ghost pulling Jade towards him)? I'd really love to read your take on that one (⁄ ⁄>⁄ ▽ ⁄<⁄ ⁄)

Thank you and once again congratulations! (★‿★)

So it's been way too long since I asked for these requests and am only now writing them, but here you go Sleepy, I hope you enjoy it!

It wasn’t the first time that Jade was in this position, or even the second or third.

She could vaguely remember the first time that she was suddenly pulled up against Ghost’s chest, the two of them squeezed together in a closet as they tried to stay hidden from enemy soldiers.

The second time it was actually her that initiated the contact, as she dove on top of Ghost to get him out of the way of on-coming bullets.

The third was during a mission, they had to infiltrate a warlord’s mansion during a gala, requiring them to go undercover as a couple, leading to some rather, well, seductive dancing. Jade still blushes when she thinks about that mission.

Honestly, there were probably a handful of other scenarios that she simply wasn’t remembering at the time.

Because this time, it wasn’t Ghost that had pulled her up against his chest…it was Simon. And it wasn’t because bullets were flying, or because they were undercover, or because they were avoiding enemy combatants, but because of any other reason other than Simon wanted to. And she wanted Simon to.

But now that Jade was up against his chest, no longer temporarily distracted by the warmth and the strength of his arms, she was starting to pick up all the other details. His increased heart rate, thumping under her ear, the slight tremble in his arms, the hoarseness in his breathing as he cleared his throat, and she couldn’t help but smile, relieved that she wasn’t the only one nervous to be there.

Before she could pull away, reluctantly she might add, and suggest that they go for a walk or something else that might be more relaxing for the both of them, Jade was surprised to feel a soft kiss planted on her head. “What was that for?” she asked, startled at her own bluntness, but still persisted nevertheless, looking up at Simon for his response.

“Because it felt right,” Simon replied simply, letting his hands fall to cup her cheeks.

This time, it felt like he was waiting for an answer, his gaze matching hers, and so Jade nodded, her eyes closing as Simon leaned in, his warm lips meeting hers.

It really did feel just right.

#call of duty #follower celebration #simon ghost riley #charlotte jade le jardin #sleepy's oc #drabble #all the kisses

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lizzieraindrops · 1 year

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Destiny is a story about shapes and grief.

I think I may have figured out Destiny. I don't think the primary conflict between the Light and the Darkness is the philosophical issue we thought it was.

I got thinking about it after all this talking, with many others but especially @jazzhandsmcleg, about the way all of The Witch Queen DLC and its 4 seasons have had overarching narratives surrounding trauma and cycles of violence and grief, and the way the Darkness and the Light are characterized by their different approaches to it.

In TWQ, Savathûn is given a true second chance for her species in the Light. But as Ikora points out, she struggles to break free of the learned patterns of the Darkness, continuing the pattern of deception and violence.

Same with Season of the Risen - it’s the Warlords and Dark Ages all over again, but this time it’s the Hive. It forces once again to ask: what does it mean to be given a second chance if this is what you do with it? Temper this with Saladin’s story about the girl from the Dark Ages who he protected, but who became a cruel mortal Warlord in her own right. Crow objects to the mental torture of the Hive Lightbearers and he tries to break from the cycle of interspecies violence, but unintentionally ends up continuing it by killing the Psion and heightening tensions between humans and the Uluran.

Season of the Haunted!!! Literally, the entire thing is about confronting your traumas and greatest fears and the worst parts about yourself and beginning to heal them, making something better from them. Completely changing the game by turning Nightmares that torment into Memories that guide you. Crow with the memory of Uldren, Zavala with that of Safiyah, Caiatl that of Ghaul - and most importantly, resolution focuses on how they, specifically have been held back from healing by their self-incriminating Nightmares. It challenges the cycle of continuing violence on a very personal level. Eris even has patrol dialogue describing the a Nightmare as a thing of pain craving only more pain: "Such is the cycle."

Season of Plunder brings up the very same questions on a much higher organizational level. It gives us Eido and Eramis taking very different jaded vs. new-hope approaches to the legacy of the Whirlwind, asking: can we change? Are we defined by generational trauma forever? Can we continue to grow and change for the better even though it can never be undone? Though Eido is clearly young and naïve, we're clearly given the opportunity and narrative nudge to sympathize with her desire and hope for growth and redemption, both for the Eliksni overall, and for Eramis in particular.

And we're not even done with Season of the Seraph, but it already goes incredibly hard asking the same questions, again from a more personal angle. How far, and through how many generations is trauma transmitted? From the Bray family to Rasputin, to Felwinter to Osiris to Ikora – how do we fix this? How do we fix this? How do you defeat an enemy who IS war itself? What can you do to end an endless cosmic cycle of violence?

Go back and back and back in Destiny's lore even back to D1, and the majority of conflicts seem driven by this cycle of grief and revenge and violence. The entire line of humanity's war with the Hive goes back through Oryx's grief for Crota and the First Crota Fireteam and Eriana-3's grief for her wife Wei Ning. Even the Hive siblings' pact with the Worm Gods, though manipulated by Rhulk, was driven by the pain and grief they endured for themselves and their people, and wanting to escape that cruel pattern. The entire predicament of the Eliksni and their conflict with humans is driven by the trauma and grief and loss of the Whirlwind. Even Caiatl's empire, a conquering force that would be highly regarded by the sword logic, now must reckon with the same kind of loss in the Fall of Torobatl.

How do you escape this cycle and stay free of it?

I think, this year, we are finally seeing the beginnings of an answer.

I can't highly enough recommend the TWQ Collector's Edition lorebook (page scans & transcript) and The Hidden Dossier (page scans & transcript) that immediately follows it. What I've been calling Ikora's theory of "memory and grace" that she develops through the course of these two lore books is a balanced philosophy of memory/Darkness and grace/Light (which honestly deserves an entire post of its own). I think it clearly points toward the final resolution the story of the conflict between the Darkness and the Light.

In light of this, something in the Calus part of the new Lightfall CE lorebook (images, transcript) really jumped out at me.

“The doomed and the damned left the record of their downfall in the OXA. Your star got its name from the oldest myths in that archive. And when your mother told your father that story…the star became your name. A prayer that all will go as it must…and the way it must go is struggle.” “Aiat.” Not a word in Ulurant or any other Cabal tongue. “But Caiatl means something else..” “Yes. ‘It may not always go as it needs to go.’ A good name for a soldier." "A strange name for a daughter," I say. "Your father chose it for your mother's sake. Out of love."

And because the parallel is so overwhelmingly striking, I am once again going to reference philosophy/worldbuilding from the Young Wizards universe, which has great resonance with Destiny lore and which Bungie has been long aware of and has even been referenced in Forsaken-era canon lore.

“all the fair things skewed, all the beauty twisted by the dark Lone Power watching on his steed. If only there were some way he could be otherwise if he wanted to! For here was his name, a long splendid flow of syllables in the Speech, wild and courageous in its own way—and it said that he had not always been so hostile; that he got tired sometimes of being wicked, but his pride and his fear of being ridiculed would never let him stop. Never, forever, said the symbol at the very end of his name, the closed circle that binds spells into an unbreakable cycle and indicates lives bound the same way.” [...] “Nita bent quickly over the Book and, with the pen, in lines of light, drew from that final circle an arrow pointing upward, the way out, the symbol that said change could happen—if, only if—and together they finished the Starsnuffer’s name in the Speech, said the new last syllable, made it real.” Excerpt From: Diane Duane. “So You Want to Be a Wizard, New Millennium Edition.”

CAIATL’S NAME IS LITERALLY THE UP-AND-OUT SYMBOL.

I know I'm probably only talking to the handful of Destiny players from the (very small) Young Wizards fandom, but what you need to know is that this moment is pivotal and sets up the series-long theme of hope for an eventual exit from the cycle. It's the incredibly small, overwhelmingly improbable possibility of a second chance, a new start for the Lone Power, the source of all strife and suffering, who itself is driven by loss and pain. A concept of extended grace that is inherently tied to the philosophy of the Light.

“Billions of years, it took. All the redemptions there have ever been went toward this; from the greatest to the least. And finally in the fullness of time you came along, and took my role, of your own will, and woke up a race powerful enough to change the whole Universe, and gave them the fire.” She glanced up at the mobiles and smiled. “How could he resist such a bait? He took the gamble: he always does. And losing, he won.” [...] “The Defender reached down and put a hand into the shadow. “And we are going where such matters are transcended… where all his old pains will shift. Not forgotten, but transformed. Life in this universe will never have such a friend. And as for His inventions… look closely at Death, and see what it can become.” The long, prone darkness began to burn, from inside, the way a mountain seems to do with sunset. “Brother,” the Defender said. “Come on. They’re waiting.” Excerpt From: Diane Duane. “High Wizardry New Millennium Edition.”

This is the devil’s second chance, its homecoming. Grace among the memory. How do we heal this? By fixing it. By making and TAKING that opportunity of grace.

Likewise, Destiny is shaping up into its own universe’s story of this Reconfiguration, the remaking of everything that exists through the act of a second chance, both offered and taken, with full awareness of the irreversibility of harm already caused.

Destiny isn’t the story of the light and the darkness fighting each other. That happens, but that’s not what it’s ABOUT.

It’s “And I know exactly what we are. We’re best frenemies with a history of intense mutual hurt and messy reconciliation, leaving a deep tenderness as well as an almost impenetrable knot of scars. What could be simpler?” (Chalco)

It's “For so long, I believed peace was beyond my reach. No more. I have found it in guiding others down the same path that saved me. But… I might allow myself to want more than peace. What, I am not certain. Is joy the word? Might I find that again?” (Eris)

It's “Second chances… hm. Turns out I've been using mine wrong. I thought being a Guardian was my destiny. That wielding the Light for good was the most I had to offer. But it's clear now. This is what the Traveler chose me for. I was reforged in the Light for a purpose. To remake something dead and gone… into something beautiful. To learn how to forge something new from what we were. Everything Uldren did to the Reef, the Scorn… Fikrul. I have a responsibility — no — a calling to make them whole. And… I can't replace Cayde. But I can cover his old patrols — maybe organize the Hunters a bit, if they'll let me. Clean up some of my mess. I don't know if I can fix everything Uldren left broken… but I can try.” (Crow)

We aren’t defeating the Darkness. That’s never what it’s been about. It’s about breaking the cycle of trauma and grief with memory and grace. We're transcending the Final Shape, but we're not here to destroy it or become it. We’re harmonizing the Darkness and the Light into a sustainable balance to create something new from the wounded remains.

We're here to heal the broken relationship between the Winnower and the Gardener.

That's all that it is, in the end. They had a falling out, and now they hurt, and they hurt each other, and everything else, forever. Breaking free from that cycle begins and ends with them.

Is that fair? No, it's not.

But Destiny is – unhingedly, brilliantly, paradoxically – a FPS game about how to stop killing each other, growing ever more into a framework of restorative and reparative justice.

The story says, we are all culpable, we have all done awful shit and have endless potential to do more awful shit – AND, most critically, we all have the potential to do better (grace). AND, the act of making the conscious choice to do so and letting that happen is the only way for things to get better (memory).

The Collapse happened and it was horrible, the Red War happened and it was horrible, the Great Disaster happened and it was horrible, Twilight Gap happened and it was horrible...AND?? HOW ARE YOU GOING TO RESPOND? The Whirlwind happened and it was horrible! The Fall of Torobatl happened and it was horrible! Your species' Choice was stolen and you became the most prolifically violent killers in the universe and it was and is horrible! WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

Are you going to make it more horrible? Or are you going to make it BETTER????

Are you going to fight for the Final Shape, or for the gentle kingdom ringed in spears?

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sketching-shark · 9 months

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I am once again thinking about JTTW retelling potentials people have brought up in terms of Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing knowing Sun Wukong when they were all up in heaven, but specifically through the lens of a Monkey King characterization where he was a canny and ruthless warlord.

Like. Imagine you're a high ranking general in heaven, and one day this 4-foot-something monkey yaoguai starts scampering all over the place being friendly with everyone he runs across. And okay, you're at first kind of concerned by the fact that there's a literal yaoguai in heaven, especially when you hear about some of his exploits on Earth and against some of your fellow immortals. But the Jade Emperor gave the monkey his position, and he's not technically doing anything bad, just completely ignoring protocol and referring to everyone as his friends and brothers. Maybe you find it kind of annoying. Maybe it's kind of charming. But whatever he did before he's a silly monkey now that you don't even see that much.

And then one day all of heaven is in an uproar because it turns out this monkey not only stole tons of immortality granting peaches, but also golden elixir specifically intended for the Jade Emperor. So that's a bridge too far, and obviously means that he needs to surrender to heaven for punishment immediately or else his entire clan will be executed. But he and all his yao allies fight back. More and more and more deities have to be called in to try and subdue this one monkey. And when he is finally captured, it turns out nothing heaven strikes him with can kill him. So then he's there tied up and helpless, but still jeering at all the assembled deities because they have nothing stronger than him.

And then Laozi proposes that he be melted down. The monkey is struggling and crying for this to not happen, but maybe you see what you think is some discomfiting gleam in his eyes, something that indicates he wanted this to happen. But you're not sure, so you say nothing...

And it turns out the monkey's time in the furnace did nothing but refine him into an even stronger immortal than before. And as soon as he's freed he starts smashing a bloody swath through heaven with no one able to halt him until he's practically tearing at the Jade Emperor's throne. Even with twenty-five thunder deities and a host of other immortals trying their best, no one's able to knock him down, and he's laughing and screaming about how no one can stop him, that he won't stop until he's toppled the Jade Emperor and taken heaven's throne for himself, and oh, it seems like there's a chance he might be able to force his way into that position...

So some 500 years later you're living in disgrace and traveling with this same monkey. He's subdued and snarky, and clearly much weaker than he had been before. But still, he's able to get you and your companions out of one jam after another. There's a lot of tension in the group, but it's softening over time. And you start seeing the monkey in a new light. You know how much he loves his "little ones" and wants to go back to his Earthly home. You've seen how capable he is of being gentle with children. And yet...

You've also been witness to the casualness with which the monkey takes human and yaoguai life. The plans he's formed to inflict massive amount of pain on his opponents to make them obey. They way he spies on those who present obstacles to your shared journey so that he knows exactly how they might best be dealt with swiftly and often brutally.

And at some point, you realize that he didn't havoc through heaven, he never does anything in a blind rage.

That even back then he had had plenty of time to consider what exactly he was going to do when he got out of that furnace. He chose not to flee Heaven as soon as he was out, but to kill as many as he could on the way to challenge the Jade Emperor himself.

And now you're on a journey together, which very well could end with this monkey becoming a buddha.

#journey to the west #xiyouji #jttw #sun wukong #monkey king #fully aware that evil demon warlord swk is getting into edgelord territory #but aaaaa when done well the monkey king's viciousness & his blunt honesty about said viciousness #presents a really disturbing but really interesting side to his character #monkey who's just as violent as all the other rulers but freely admits to it lol

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theforbiddenprinceseries · 1 year

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Question

Is this evil or what

#Jade Warlord #sailor moon #usagi tsukino #forbidden kingdom

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rosario-devilman · 9 months

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Original art by infinitydragon900 on Deviantart

#sun wukong #forbidden kingdom #spiderman #monkey king #saki yoshida #dr strange #raiden #sailor moon #jade warlord

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evilhorse · 1 year

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Here we go again.

#green lantern #kyle rayner #jade #jennie lynn hayden #john stewart #warlord #fantasy #delusion #uh oh #sexy #legacy heroes #dat rack #ron marz #darryl banks #dc comics #comics #00s comics

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legendscon · 9 months

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Panel Announcement: In Conversation With Michael Stackpole

Join the king of X-wings himself, Michael Stackpole, as he discusses his numerous contributions to Star Wars books and comics, including everyone's favorite Corellian Jedi, Corran Horn!

Don't miss the celebration of all things Expanded Universe this weekend at the Marriott Convention Center in Burbank, California!

Buy tickets now at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/legends-consortium-2023-tickets-541786186067

Full Schedule: https://legends-con.com/guests-programming/

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kookoofufu · 7 months

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Okay I'm noticing things re-reading the Zoro vs Mihawk duel, specifically how Mihawk gets as inspired as Zoro does.

Mihawk is very interesting because he's one of the few characters in One Piece who has actually achieved their dream: becoming the world's greatest swordsman. But he's not happy.

It's important that Mihawk is introduced frowning. Yes he has a RBF but I think the frowning is supposed to emphasize that Mihawk is bored and unfulfilled. He's completely stagnant, faces no real challenge and hasn't for a long time. His comment about picking on Don Krieg "for fun" is somewhat unbelievable, because he is clearly not actually having fun.

He also starts off mean as shit. Mihawk is usually very cool and detached, but when he first learns Zoro's dream he immediately starts putting Zoro down. This is notably different from the anime where he smiles in response. Why the weird intense animosity?

The animosity continues with his comments about swordplay during the fight. In the anime it seems like he's saying Zoro is more powerful than expected, but in the manga, given his early comment about subtlety, it's supposed to be an insult.

Mihawk starts to respect Zoro after his response to being stabbed, but when Zoro turns around with the "swordsman's shame" line at the end of the duel, it's the first time in the entire interaction where Mihawk smiles.

In One Piece, many characters (especially villains) dismiss and mock dreams. Mihawk seems the same at first, but this expectation is flipped when he smiles and gives a Big Damn Speech about Zoro surpassing him after the duel. He's the first major player to actually support Zoro and Luffy in pursuing their dreams!

I think this duel changed Mihawk from being jaded and angry about dreams to being supportive of the people (our heroes) trying to achieve them. Mihawk has something to look forward to, maybe for the first time since becoming the greatest. And isn't it awesome that some small fry pirate hunter from the east blue made a warlord want to lose? It ties into a theory/observation I saw floating around that the straw hats inspire villains by defeating them, jolting them out of complacency and making them want to pursue their abandoned dreams (i.e. Crocodile returning to the New World, Buggy wanting to become King of the Pirates). And I think that's neat.

#one piece #manga panel #dracule mihawk #ch 50 #ch 51 #write up

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