#She Who Became the Sun
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today's episode of being obsessed with The Radiant Emperor: this conversation (even before the ''you don't kneel" moment) is insane for the parallels it shares with Ouyang's internal struggles. Aside from the obvious ''Why can’t you make it easier for me to hate you?/Would that I could only hate, It would be easier", it makes me want to chew on glass that Ouyang seems to never have considered forgiving Esen for (essentially) being Chaghan's son and is so taken aback by the fact that Esen considers forgiving Baoxiang simply because he loves him. Ouyang could never conceive of such notion even if what he subconsiously wants the most is to live happily ever after with Esen!
Another thing is the parallel between Ouyang being like ''oh no, Esen, why can't you see reality for what it is" several times (even if he admires that) and Esen here going ''oh no, Ouyang, why can't you imagine a different reality"... For all the poetic Ouyang waxes about Esen's naivete he doesn't share I find it sooo interesting this instance of Esen dragging Ouyang for his lack of imagination because this is ultimately what doomed him...
#if there's one word Ouyang's vocabulary lacks it's forgiveness#i get that huge trauma and a lifetime of suffering its effects makes one stingy with forgiveness#but if he could just grant it to two people: himself and Esen... life would have been better for him#anyway. brb i'm going to walk into the ocean#also this is one of their conversations when Ouyang is seemingly talking about a given topic but really he's talking about himself#and Esen absolutely misses it#(more instances to come)#she who became the sun#the radiant emperor#esen temur#general ouyang
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babygirl the way you forsake your happiness on your relentless quest to vengeance, your complicated relationship with gender and the way you're covered in blood have bewitched me body and soul
#blue eye samurai#mizu#she who became the sun#general ouyang#jwqs#qi yan#the radiant emperor#clear and muddy loss of love#turns out I have a specific type of blorbo#i'm rotating them in my mind#1k#he xuan#beefleaf#tgcf#can't believe I forgot my original genderfluid revenge babygirl#5k#10k
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TOR WRAPPED 2023
Books for every Spotify Wrapped listener class!
VAMPIRE
Masters of Death by Olivie Blake
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
Mordew by Alex Pheby
HYPNOTIST
The Library of the Dead by T. L. Huchu
Daughter of Redwinter by Ed McDonald
Spring’s Arcana by Lilith Saintcrow
ALCHEMIST
The Bone Orchard by Sara A. Mueller
The Genesis of Misery by Neon Yang
The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey
SHAPESHIFTER
Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher
The Warden by Daniel M. Ford
Wolfsong by TJ Klune
FANATIC
Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree
The Fragile Threads of Power by V. E. Schwab
TIME TRAVELER
Kinning by Nisi Shawl
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab
MASTERMIND
The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake
Red Team Blues by Cory Doctorow
Exadelic by Jon Evans
COLLECTOR
The Wolfe at the Door by Gene Wolfe
Cassiel’s Servant by Jacqueline Carey
The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan
#spotify#spotify wrapped#tor books#the great hunt#the wolfe at the door#cassiel's servant#jacqueline carey#robert jordan#gene wolfe#exadelic#jon evans#red team blues#cory doctorow#the atlas six#olivie blake#kinning#nisi shawl#she who became the sun#shelley parker-chan#the invisible life of addie larue#v e schwab#mistborn#brandon sanderson#bookshops & bonedust#travis baldree#the fragile threads of power#thornhedge#t kingfisher#ursula vernon#wolfsong
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one day, in a thousand years
#I THINK I HAUVE COVID#oh to meet your love after a thousand years at a museum exhibit of your past lives#thinking about them makes me so sick so ILL DISEASED#I AM NOT IMMUNE#spc i’m cursing u forever for this wtf. WTF bro wtf#ouyang’s last thoughts were a desperate plea for esen to wait for him.#he has NEVER called him by first name he has NEVER asked him anything#and his last thought is asking him to wait#and esen does. bc he would have given ouyang anything he asked for#god i hope u get rawed so good it makes up for all the lost lifetimes u earned it#he who drowned the world#she who became the sun#the radiant emperor#general ouyang#esen-temur#(zhu also present in the golden imperial dragon and the golden light of gayness that brought them together again)#my art#not super proud of how it turned out tbh tbh it looks better in my head 😔😔#would’ve stayed in the drafts if not for my need to feed this 4 ppl fandom#and if not for robin motivation nfngdjfb ty kissa you forever#id in alt text
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Spring hunt.
#artfromthefrogs#he has been posted.#esen sun symbolism odyssey#esen-temur#esen temur#she who became the sun#he who drowned the world#the radiant emperor#tre#swbts#hwdtw#art#this is not very symbolism. it ended up too realistic for that.#anyway im thinking to do a different sun symbolism piece that accompanies the ouyang bloody moon i did a while ago#oooo maybe with a baoxiang solar eclipse..... ideas ideas ideas however tragically i have 82459205 obligations first#anyway enjoy Him! i worked very hard on him! the things i do for 20 notes....
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oh him? he's just a monk. no he doesn't harbor deep desires of greatness don't worry about it
#zhu my little bug (literally)#he's a praying mantis a cricket a cockroach...#i love her#AND HE HAS DIMPLES#i imagine she's the type to stare a lot at people. and it elicits an interesting reaction in them#with this polite yet knowing almost-smile and her piercing wide eyes#also i know she's described as ugly in the books and i respect that. but i want her to be just a bit alluring in a fucked up way. like#now. this took sooo long. for absolutely no reason#i redid it like 10000 times and still didn't feel 100% satisfied but today i decided to set it free#i hope you guys like it anyway!#:)#zhu chongba#zhu yuanzhang#she who became the sun#he who drowned the world#the radiant emperor#shelley parker chan#fanart#myart
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father father
father father
father father
father father
why have you forsaken me?
in your eyes, forsaken me
in your thoughts, forsaken me
in your heart, forsaken me
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Lord Esen in she who became the sun
And General Ouyang in he who drowned the world
#finished the radiant emperor duology in December#AND I’M OBSESSED#And I can’t suffer alone#the way Esen no longer existed in the world anymore but haunts and echoes the narrative is so…#:(#and the bracelet thing ):#ah#she who became the sun#he who drowned the world#the radiant emperor#esen temur#general ouyang#ouyang#my art
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It's not a lot but it's weird that it happened thrice
Art credit: @teardew, @ash-and-starlight
#fgep#female general and eldest princess#lin wanyue#the radiant emperor#she who became the sun#he who drowned the world#zhu yuanzhang#mizu#blue eye samurai#moje
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#mods are asleep time to post cringe#the radiant emperor#she who became the sun#he who drowned the world
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Give the design team a raise
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portrait practice with the general
#yix gallery#digital art#ancient china#chinese eunuch#the radiant emperor#she who became the sun#he who drowned the world#general ouyang#yuan dynasty
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Ma Xiuying from the Radiant Emperor duology!
Design/research notes under the cut
The characters read 馬秀英 (Pinyin: mǎ xiù yīng), her personal name, and 孝慈高皇后 (xiào cí gāo huáng hòu), her name as Empress.
There's certainly no dearth of material on Chinese clothing history out there. That is, if you can read Chinese, which I can't, so everything I have is from secondary and tertiary sources and/or relies on translation software. Fortunately, we're dealing with historical fantasy here, so some anachronisms are not only allowed but encouraged.
While Shelley Parker-Chan takes many liberties, the books are still set in a very specific time period, which is both a blessing and a curse. Most readily accessible resources will tell you about dynasties, which can span hundreds of years, and the duology takes place in a transitional period. So how to dress a Semu girl from the Yuan dynasty who lives with Nanren rebels wanting to revive the Song dynasty and who later becomes the first Ming empress?
Let's go through them one by one. The best resource was this book which is on the Internet Archive. I disregarded Mongol and Semu influences for the design since clothing is very much political and a way to either stand out or fit in with the surrounding society, see for example Wang Baoxiang wearing a topknot in Khanbaliq. Ma, I imagine, would want to fit in with the Nanren around her, so she's pretty much wearing the attire of Han women under Yuan rule. For the hair I went for something that looks youthful while being plausible, though I found very little on hair in this period, so who's to say.
The next one is from a specific scene in the book, so there is some description to go on: red, long sleeves with gold embroidery, high hair, red and gold ribbons. Since this is the scene where Ma declares herself queen and future empress in front of the Red Turban, it has to be a very deliberate dress. It therefore takes inspiration from Song aristocrats' broad-sleeved gowns as well as from 翟衣 (dí yī), the highest ceremonial gown of both Song and Ming empresses. (Some examples for 翟衣 are in this post, which also features the bird shaped crown I just had to include, and this post.) Her hair still has the loops, but it's much more sculpted.
Finally, Empress Ma! This is mainly based on the two actual portraits I could find of the historical figure that Ma is based on, with elements taken from other portraits and paintings. It includes 凤冠 (fèng guān), the phoenix crown, 霞帔 (xiá pèi), the sash, and 禁步 (jīn bù), the jade belt. This video shows how Ming dynasty layers are worn, but it refers to a much later period so it's not quite the same as Ma's.
(Some additional, historically irrelevant notes: I realized too late that a right-to-left timeline might be more appropriate. Oh well! Also, how the colours photograph frustrates me, I swear I did not make her this deathly pale. And finally, some of the characters look a bit smudged because my cat spilled water on them. I did what I could to save them.)
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oh 12.65 litres of blood clinging to the outside of my body, we're really in it now
#what happens when OP cannot figure out the esen sun symbolism#fine ill do ouyang moon symbolism then!#artfromthefrogs#blood tw#general ouyang#he who drowned the world#hwdtw#she who became the sun#swbts#the radiant emperor#tre#ouyang#art#this was supposed to be like a tarot format but it looked shite so (as usual) i scrapped a ton of work to make it look good#when zhu is trying to become emperor but youre too busy having the most tragic yaoi in china and also you must kill the khan#me when it turns out that killing the object of my affection means that he is dead.
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later, ouyang thought esen wouldn't even had noticed: the moment his stillness of anticipation flicked into the stillness of shame, as quickly as capping a candle. his blood ran cold; his body burned. it was the feeling of a blade slid gently into his heart.
#[transmigrates into this book to prevent esen from opening his mouth]#if he had kissed him here .....#anyway this scene lives in my mind rent FREE#it all started with me wanting to draw ouyang with his hair down like a sad wet cat. then i thought ha what if he had sheer silk inner robe#AND THEN i thought what if esen's hand ended up in his mouth. like just hypothetically .#i must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul so i did just that#i'm so soo soso normal about ouyang's pretty face as you can tell#general ouyang#esen temur#('s hand)#the radiant emperor#she who became the sun#he who drowned the world#shelley parker chan#fanart#digital art#myart
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took a break from reading to quickly draw Zhu ☀️ i'm rooting for her so much!!
#she who became the sun#shelley parker chan#illustrators on tumblr#my art#jessmontz#female illustrators on tumblr#female artists#illustration#artists on tumblr#digital art#fan art
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