#did you know there was a limit as to how many links you can put in one post bc i just learned that the hard way
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✨2023: A Summary✨
Post your most popular and/or favourite edit/gifset/analysis for each month (it’s okay to skip months!)
Tagged by @lurkingshan, and also @colourme-feral and @troubled-mind as I was working on it, thank you ❣️
My two main ~things~ are uploading actors' photos, and doing my own favorite X posts from shows I'm watching, and considering I've uploaded 5593 posts in 2023, in this essay I'll focus on my own.
disclaimer 1: I started posting my edits in March, so the first two months of the year will be just actors' pics to not skip them
disclaimer 2: as for favorites the answer is always my favorite shots posts because each and every single one of them is my precious baby
disclaimer 3: I added SHOWS to each month for my compilation posts for them
JANUARY:
- most popular: First Kanaphan from their trip to Japan I think
- favorite: ArmyJoe stills from gmmtv twt
FEBRUARY:
- most popular: Fluke and Thor TWE bts
- favorite: this MosBank
MARCH:
- most popular: Our Dining Table promo picture
- favorite: Midnight Museum ep5, The Eighth Sense ep2, first Shared Location
APRIL:
- most popular: P'Jojo explaining the use of thai soap opera cliches in Our Skyy 2: Never Let Me Go
- favorite: T8S x train ride, Jaewon calling Jihyun his boyfriend, shadow kisses, Midnight Museum moon shots 4/4, the post where I save links to all the shows/movies I make posts about
- shows: Our Dating Sim, The Eighth Sense, Destiny Seeker, Midnight Museum, Blueming, Bed Friend
MAY:
- most popular: P'Jojo posting about Only Friends getting the green light
- favorite: Man's hands, this Between Us scene, this ONHCT scene, OS2 x Win's Adventures
- shows: OS2: The Eclipse, OS2: NLMG, Happy Merry Ending, ABAAB, Love Mate, ONHCT, Dear Ex, Please Tell Me So, A First Love Story 1, A First Love Story 2, Step For You
JUNE:
- most popular: Cooheart in a bridal dress at Bangkok Pride
- favorite: Fluke's hair poll, IQ subber in House of Stars, ODT Tane
- shows: Star Struck, Our Dining Table, Love Tractor
JULY:
- most popular: NeoMark Only Friends Q photo
- favorite: these two Tokyo In April Is parallels, this Semantic Error scene
- shows: Step by Step, La Pluie, House of Stars, My Ride
AUGUST:
- most popular: P'Jojo talking about sex scenes in Only Friends
- favorite: ML Shin being Shin, this scene in SMC
- shows: Tokyo In April Is, Sing My Crush, Egoist, Low Frequency, Stay Still, Sonnet 18
SEPTEMBER:
- most popular: the epic journey that was Red Peafowl cast announcement
- favorite: Leehyun repeatedly calling An his boyfriend, Joohyuk x Sungmin, hyung, EarthBank
- shows: Laws of Attraction, Love Class 2, Marry Go Round, Minato's Laundromat 2, Hidden Agenda, Bon Appetit
OCTOBER:
- most popular: P'Jojo roasting Boston
- favorite: IFYLITA dream dancing, bloody Papang, bloody GG kiss&murder
- shows: My Personal Weatherman, Only Friends, Grand Guignol, Semantic Error: The Movie
NOVEMBER:
- most popular: new YinWar show Jack&Joker pilot
- favorite: this Mermaid's Jade scene, this The Devil Judge scene, these Playboyy posters
- shows: I Feel You Linger In The Air, Mermaid's Jade, Kiseki: Dear To Me, Pure Vanilla, One Room Angel
DECEMBER:
- most popular: Babe causing Billy to malfunction
- favorite: JellyfishBolster compilation, this AobPuen, DFF I've been impaled
- shows: Sweet Home 2, Shadow, To My Star s1, Absolute Zero, Bake Me Please, Moonlight Chicken
Tagging everyone who wants to do it and haven't already, this site helps!
#did you know there was a limit as to how many links you can put in one post bc i just learned that the hard way#woah what a trip down the memory lane#thank you!#tagged post#blmpff rumbles
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Is there a list of all the challenges the pilgrims went thru and what they mean/represent?
There is a list of all the challenges that the pilgrims went through as graciously given by GuanYin in the last chapter.
What they are meant to represent, though I think would be more up to the reader's interpretation, and while I would love to give each trial its own literary analysis, afraid that for 81 trials, that would come out to be more of an essay worthy of being a thesis than anything else.
But I could try to give a little snippet to each one.
1. Gold Cicada banished is the first ordeal [chap. 8]; Particularly the first few ordeals are just for Tang Sanzang (唐僧) in particular and that Sanzang's first life being banished from heaven does have a lot of meaning when it comes to how important both being attentive in a lesson and the rice the Golden Cicada (金蟬子) spilled. We do not know a lot about the Golden Cicada in particular beyond his role as the Buddha's second disciple, and his friendship with Immortal Zhen Yuanzi (hence why he wanted to give him the ginseng fruits). Also that the information about Sazang being the Golden Cicada was leaked and wasn't intended to be well-known among demons. For a more in-depth look at him, try here! Sanzang is based on the Monk Xuanzang who went on his own 17-year-long journey to India and from there recorded his own called the Great Tang Records on the Western Regions and was popularly re-told again and again until it was what inspired the Xiyouji we have today! Despite being the reincarnation of the Golden Cicada, Sanzang was chosen for his own merit, being a kind and compassionate soul, hand-picked by Guanyin herself. He is to face many tribulations in his life starting at his birth.
2. Being almost killed after birth is the second ordeal [chap. 9]; Sanzang was about to be murdered by his stepdad Liu Hong with the help of his fellow boatman Li Biao until his mother had to save him. Liu Hong murdered his father, Chen Guangrui, but luckily he was saved by a river dragon that he contingency saved him before when he was trapped as a carp and Chen Guangrui put him back into the river. Moreso just highlights how he was separated from his parents and his mother's love which is something he’s leading bullied for. The river does have a lot of symbolic meeting later down the line, especially when they get to the end of the journey and again, they have to cross the river. But this is definitely the start of his new life and can also show how it’s also the start of his next life.
3. Being thrown in the river hardly a month old is the third ordeal [chap. 9]; That is kinda symbolic of him being put into fate's hands to lead him on his path to being a monk but more just setting him up for his monk life. He was founded by the Jinguang Temple and was raised as Jiang Liuer or River Float. Again this touches on how this is the start of his new life from the one that he could’ve been born into, but instead due to circumstances he was directed into a life of being a monk. I believe that the original Xuanzang started being a monk around 10 years old but here it shows that even before he was a year old he was adopted into the monastery.
4. Seeking parents and their vengeance is the fourth ordeal [chap. 9]; Sazang at the age of 18 was really pushed to find his parents after being bullied by his classmates. I did find it interesting as this was like the first time Sanzang was upset enough to get revenge for his parents, finding his maternal grandparents and blind fraternal grandmother and rallying soldiers to arrest the men that 'killed' his father and have them executed. All within the confines of the law of course but still the only time we see him trying to seek out that kind of justice. While the men were still brought to justice, his mother was in a horrible depression after being forced into marriage with her husband's murderer. Luckily the after does come back from healing underwater right now. Would have been a big happy family but his mother still took her own life despite clearing her name...
5. Meeting a tiger after leaving the city is the fifth ordeal [chap.13]; This was when General Yin (寅將軍) came and captured them as General Yin is the first yaoguai that Sanzang encounters and he is a tiger yaoguai.Kinda interesting as his element is meant to be fire and the tiger is a fire element as well. Hence why I believe why that Sanzang was the one to make Wukong's tiger pelt to show their connection and later down the line, he becomes a tiger as well. There is a legend that in the Han Dynasty Li Guang shot a tiger despite there being a lack of known tiger populations suggesting General Yin is an extinct North China tiger.
6. Falling into a pit and losing followers is the sixth ordeal [chap.13]; Sanzang losing his first two disciples sounds pretty traumatizing (though we never get their names) I know some media has it that they ran away to save themselves but these guys really tried to keep him safe but ended up dying as well. They were eaten by the Bear Mountain Lord (熊山君) and Occupier of a Special Place (特處士) These were the three monsters right outside Gongzhou city and it is said that because Sanzang was so eager to leave that morning extra early was the cause of their meeting. He was in such a rush they fell into his trap. To think he just started and just for his own enthusiasm he and others are to be punished for that. Horrible start to a journey. It was an a lot to say about these demons in particular, except that they were able to get away with their crimes and never address again. It was only because of Taibai Jinzing that he was able to survive.
7. The Double-Fork Ridge is the seventh ordeal [chap.13]; This is where he lost his followers and he was on his own, about to be eaten by just normal animals SEVERAL times. Very nature vs man fight right there as it was clear he was not able to handle it himself. Maybe this was the start of his having to humble himself that he really can't do this on his own. After losing his disciples and being saved Sanzang had to go up the mountain alone. It was only when Liu Boqin the hunter was able to save him last minute from being eaten alive that he was even able to make it to the next mountain. He did exercise their home of their relative's spirit free of charge for spending the night and they gracefully made him a vegetarian diet when he excused himself from dinner.
8. The Mountain of Two Frontiers is the eighth ordeal [chap. 13]; This is where he had to save Sun Wukong (孙悟空), and the start of where they are going through ordeals together. These two come from such different backgrounds with one being an ex-warlord and the other being a young monk. Ther are so many different dichotomies to be played with how Wukong and Sanzang reflect each other with how they but heard to how they interact with one another. Wukong being a symbolic meaning of the Mind while Sanzang is the symbolic meaning of the Heart. This being in the character 心 that they would both share. Esnically they are to both play the struggle on the journey as while they are struggling with different battle, both can reflect the other. Sanzang is battling a mental fight while Wukong’s battles are more of will. And both endure physical fights as well. Wukong Wukong it is about endurance while Sanzang it is about survival. Sanzang is going into the world to be question and tempted on everything he has ever known, while Wukong must learn how to rain in his desires for bloodshed and temper, both fighting an uphill battle. There are so many connections between the two but this start does show that Wkong was more than grateful to Sanzang for saving him from under the mountain and even comes back on his own because he does want to keep that promise. Sazang is more than happy to take him on but within their week he has already see how bloodthirsty Wukong is when they encountered 6 robbers. Wukong plays with them before killing them soundly which led to their first fight about what it means to value life. This was a lot about trying to have two flawed people with different worldviews can be around one another, knowing that one needs the other but the other knowing he has to repay him back while also having them both being on equal footing. Wukong is so much more powerful than Sanzang and Sanzang is just a normal human being trying his best in a terrifying situation. It’s also to be noted that symbolically they are two different philosophies as well, Sanzang has been written to be more Confucius in this version and Wukong practicing a more Daoist attitude. The start of their relationship is fascinating in that Wukong can show such gratitude but also let his rage get the best of him whenever he is met with criticism and Sanzang also has a quick temper and hates being proven wrong but is forced to see the world with new eyes full of dangers he never knew and has to keep moving on. They both are lost in their own worlds at the start but it is fascinating to see how they grow as the journey continues.
9. Changing horse at a steep brook is the ninth ordeal [chap.15]; Wukong fighting with The White Dragon Horse (白龍馬) and changing out the horse can have a LOT of meaning in a previous post. Paricualty how the horse and the monkey have such a deep meaning with one another when it comes to the Mind Monkey and the Horse of Will and what they mean for one another. Before the Havoc in Heaven with Wukong rejecting to be the Bimawen he wasn't ready to practice self-control and train his mind but how he captured Bailong and started the journey shows how this journey is his path to self-reflection. He is finally putting in the work and dedication needed to change who he is, at first as a sign of gratitude for his life being saved, but now it is also seen as him having the inner perspective that he needs to change if he wishes to show his gratitude and perhaps becomes a better version of himself. Bailong is the third son of Ao Run, the Dragon King of the West Sea, and is called the third prince of Yulong. He was sentenced to death by his biological father for setting fire to the jewel in the temple and was rescued by Guanyin. He was waiting in Yingchou Stream of Snake Pan Mountain but he did lose his scales, horns sawed off, and formed into a horse for most of the journey.
10. Burning by fire at night is the tenth ordeal [chap.16]; this was mostly how Wukong rather than stopping the fire that the Jinchi Elder (金池长老) at the temple tried to kill Sanzang for his cassock, Wukong actually increase the flames so that Sanzang was the only one safe but everything around them burned to the ground. This could be about these monks' own hubris and how it was their own downfall, Wukong just took the chance to push it over the edge. But it is to show that anyone could be an enemy within the journey as well, there are good and bad yaoguai, good and bad celestials, and even good or bad monks, whether they be Daoist or Buddhist. Anyone can make mistakes and be pushed to the edge if the temptation is there, hence the need for constant struggle to keep oneself in check. This abbot, in particular, couldn't handle that he just lost everything in a fire and did commit suicide before Wukong could question him about the cassock. In his moment of greed, he let himself try to take the life of another person and instead lost every material wealth he valued, valued more than his own life apparently as he did not wish to continue to life without it.
11. Losing the cassock is the eleventh ordeal [chap.16]; this was Wukong's own hubris being his downfall as none of this would have happened if he listen to Sanzang and didn't show off their cassock. Sanzang was against the idea claiming that he didn't want to show off and perhaps draw attention to his own treasures but Wukong has always been a shameless individual (and we love him for that) and loves to show off even what isn't his. Letting the Jinchi Elder at the Abbey look at their cassock, leading to being taken by the Black Wind King (黑風怪) who was the one teaching the Jinchi Elder how to live longer in exchange to learn more about Buddhist scriptures. Funny enough it might be this that saved him as when Wukong got Guanyin to help capture him he was taken under his wing as the Mountain Guard of her sanctuary. At this point, more humans have died on this journey than demons lmao. Also Wukong first instinct of using vore as a tactic. This whole chapter was to symbolize greed and what it can do to a person. Even Black Wind King intended to go to the abbey to help stop the fire but was so intrigued with the cassock that he forgot about his friend, the Elder, and left with the treasures. One can't be able or willing to help their friends in a time of need if they are blinded by their own greed and this need to get rid of that greed. It is also in this chapter that Guanyin disguises herself as Lingxuzi (淩虛子) a wolf spirit that Wukong had killed Wukong jokes that Guanyin has turned into a demon, and Guanyin laughs along but does say how "One's origin means nothing." She is suggesting that it doesn't matter if one is a human or a demon for it is what is in the heart that matters, and Guanyin shows that if someone still has greed in their heart, then it is what makes them a demon. Even she could become a demon if she allowed greed in her heart for greed, hatred, and ignorance (plus two others) at the roots are suffering. Black Wind Demon's own greed led to the death of two of his friends White Robe Scholar (白衣秀士) and Lingxuzi despite their friendship.
12. Bringing Eight Rules to submission is the twelfth ordeal [chaps.18-19]; Zhu Bajie (豬八戒) being the 12th ordeal! I have definitely gone off about Bajie and changes throughout the story here but I do know there is a lot I didn't get a chance to say. Once a Marshall of Heaven was sent to earth after coping a feel on Chang'e when he was drunk he was reborn as a pig to regain his merit. Wukong pretending to be his wife Gao Cuilan to lure Bajie into a false sense of security is just hilarious all the way around but our first taste in how Bajie was pretending to be a hardworking man only to stop working once he thought he finally got what he wanted. I think this was kinda a jab at how people once they get what they want change into who they truly are. Bajie is to represent the desires, most of the body and mind as he lets his jealousy of Wukong cloud even his own judgment. His own slander and need to provoke Wukong is played both for comedy and drama within the story as it is only when Bajie started cutting off the desires of his heart does he becomes a team player, even becoming Wukong's best helper in fights as they work together to defeat demons and ride west. Although he never makes it to the point where he loses all his vices as Wukong or Sanzang did in the end, he still showed much more sincerity and concentration than at the start, the genuine desire to help others finally coming through. He is to represent a human's hard-working, simple, and straightforward qualities; you don't have to be the smartest or the strongest to still be valued by those around you. He is to represent a human's greedy and selfish nature but also that people have the ability for more than that as well. He is a to be a human, a god, and a pig in his nature. Even his name is a limitation set on him of what he can and cannot eat, a constant reminder that he is supposed to abide by these new rules for his own good. He is the clown of the story, there to offer entertainment through more low-brow humor while Wukong covers more high-brow human (piss jokes aside) but also Bajie is to be seen as what one's own insecurities can do to a person if they are overwhelmed by them, only being a harm to others and themself. I think a lot of people can relate to Bajie as well, as while Sanzang and Wukong are to be the heroes of the story Bajie is to be the one that still has vices that he must battle. Wukong struggles are far different from Bajie's own struggles and it depends on the person to who they can relate more. Bajie's different personality does make him hard to work with but more often than people find him cute and even relate to his desires for a simple life. He is a selfish, lazy, simple-minded, playful, and hard-working coward full of dichotomies and changes. They say his origin may lie with the story "猪臂金铃" by Gan Bao in Jin Dynasty. Or that he was inspired by He Bo Feng Yi, because the prototype of Feng Yi is a pig. Wu Zimu's "Meng Liang Lu" mentioned that "Tianpeng" was originally a Taoist fairy official. Some people also think that the prototype of Zhu Bajie comes from Indian Buddhist scriptures, as Chen Yinke said. There is a portrait of "Pig Head Bodhisattva" in the Thousand Buddha Caves in Kizil, Xinjiang, excavated in the early Tang Dynasty. He is called "Marizhitian" in Buddhist scriptures. Zhu Bajie has something in common.
13. Being blocked by the Yellow Wind Fiend is the thirteenth ordeal [chap. 20]; This one is funny cause Sanzang actually was worried about demons down this path, only for Wukong to assure him that he could handle it. And of course, Wukong got excited in a fight and left Sanzang alone so he can join Bajie in his fight against a Tiger Vanguard (虎先鋒). He was the one to actually use the "Golden Cicada Escape" to shed his tiger pelt and escape Wukong... which is gross. But he was killed by Bajie eventually. The first time I think Wukong gets his taste that he can't just fight he needs to learn how to protect. However, Wukong was blinded by Yellow Wind Demon (黃風怪) and his Samadhi Wind leading to Bajie having to help him out to be healed. Yellow Wind Demon is our first demon that is an escaped Heavenly beast that needed to be subdued and captured. He was able to gain his humanoid form by listing to scriptures at the food of Lingshan and stealing oil in a glass cup. Funny enough he is to be considered a demon that didn't see Saznag worth eating as he was already tired of cultivating from Taoism.
14. Seeking aid with Lingji is the fourteenth ordeal [chap. 21]; This was more just for them searching for someone that can subdue Yellow Wind Demon and they finally found Lingji Bodhisattva to get his weasel. Think this could be the first time Wukong starts to let it sink in that he needs to rely not only on other people but even start to get help from even immortals, celestials, or other Yoaguai if need be. It was also here that Wukong was the first time critically injured forcing him to rely on Bajie in his blinded state until Guanyin was able to heal his eyes.
15. Hard to cross Flowing-Sand is the fifteenth ordeal [chap. 22]; this is when they meet Sha Wujing (沙悟淨)! I do love this arc myself as they were only fighting because of miscommunication and Wujing didn't know that was the monk he was waiting for and that Wukong's first choice is often "hit first ask questions later." Also that Wujing possibly ate all of Sanzang's past lives. But needless to say, they were having trouble crossing the Flowing Sands River as it was far too long and too deep for anyone to travel without a boat. I did talk about Wujing's importance in the novel before and his importance to the book desire for his quiet role. He claims he made the monk's head into a necklace, not knowing what else he wished to do with them as not even a goose feather was able to flow on the Flowing-Sand River, so he knows they must have been special. Wukong and Bajie did make a plan to lure Wujing out of the river but because of Wukong's impatience, Wujing was able to get away from them time and time again. This led to Wukong having to get Guanyin who cleared up the whole miscommunication.
16. Taking in Sha Monk is the sixteenth ordeal [chap. 22]; I do find this funny that by crossing the river and then actually finally communicating with Wujing, Wujing has able to have the upper hand against two stronger opponents because of his location in the river. Maybe this could suggest this was harder on the group as either this was more than just replacing the previous guards, or that Wujing being an ex-cannibal was a larger hurdle to overcome. Wujing was the Rolling Curtain General in Heaven who broke a glass cup at the Peach Blossom Festival. Whether this is an act of anger, defiance, or even an accident is hard to tell but he was punished by being sent to the Flowing-Sands River to be pierced by flying swords for every seven days, being spared the death penalty. This is what lead him to hide in the river to avoid this punishment and eat all the fish in the river and started eating humans as well. Wujing plays the role of more of the last line of defense if Bajie or Wukong is out of the picture at the moment, leading to him having fewer moments of both skill display and power as his elder brothers are the ones to take the spotlight first. But he is the best when it comes to guarding and even underwater adventures, proving to be a reliable and level-headed member of the team. Though his anger and emotions do start to become more prevalent as time goes on, his stoic behavior melts as he becomes more emotive, both with happiness and sadness, throughout the journey. He is to be considered both gently and conservatively but not afraid of hardships and indispensable. He is considered rough after years of isolation but he is true intentions, and despite his brutish looks he has spiritual wisdom that he speaks a few times. he is to be loyal and selfish, he is most willing to bear the more laborious tasks of carrying the luggage but another sign of his dedication. While easy-going and obedient, he doesn't stand out too often due to his more quiet nature and thus being overshadowed by his louder elder brothers. While his obedience is noted he rarely gets a chance to speak his own thoughts, only showing more willingness to speak as the years go on. He is the least distracted of his brothers as he takes his role as a protector very seriously, trying earnestly to learn but also very laid back when it comes to participating otherwise. He's a symbol of 'clarity of mind' showing his obedience and kindness but at the cost of showing his own emotions. It is only in moments of crisis he is able to express himself, either expressing great anger or great encouragement to his brother in times of need. People see him often as the most unlucky of the pilgrims suffering the most for one of the weakest crimes, leading him to have a subdued spirit and lacking resistance to fighting back. But he has shown to be a righteous fighter with a strong will in both words and deeds and while he is content with his life, a contract to those that are eager for quick success and instant benefits, Wujing is able to enjoy in the present. Some scholars believe that the Wukong comes from the image of the deep sand god of Esoteric Buddhism from "The Poetry of the Tripitaka of the Tang Dynasty" as Shensha. Shensha God exists as an authentic Buddhist god however, in the scriptures translated by Zhu Tanwulan in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Shensha and Fuqiu existed as evil spirits, rather than Dharma protectors. In the Tang Dynasty, the worship of Shensha God was serious
17. The Four Sages' epiphany is the seventeenth ordeal [chap. 23]; this was when they were met with Lishan Old Mother, Guanyin Bodhisattva, Manjusri Bodhisattva, and Puxian Bodhisattva disguised as a widow with three daughters. Of course, they were tested to give up the monk lifestyle for a good wife and a land full of luxury. And each one gave up that temptation. Sanzang for his mission, Wukong had no interest, and Wujing would rather focus on his redemption, but Bajie was the one to give in in the end (after being bulled a bit by his fellow brothers). This was more for comedic effect was Bajie was greedy and wanted to marry all three daughters, leading him to be blindfolded and resulting in a buried face and nose. He got trapped in a pearl shirt over it and when he woke in the morning tied to a tree he promised to give up the idea of finding a wife and focus on his goal to get the scriptures in the end.
18. The Five Villages Temple is the eighteenth ordeal [chap. 24]; this would most likely be when Wukong and the gang stole the ginseng fruits and were being punished for it. Sanzang denied them being off put how human-like they looked while Wukong, Bajie, and Wujing enjoyed three for themselves, Bajie wanting more afterwards. Because Qingfeng (清風) and Mingyue (明月) (both are to be about 1,200 to 1,300 years old but have child bodies) wouldn't stop insulting Sanzang and the gang Wukong lost his temper and destroyed their tree. The Great Zhenyuan Immortal (鎮元大仙) of the Abbey (a friend of the Golden Cicada) was going to boil them alive for ruining his ginseng fruit tree. Wukong was able to get away about twice times I think but they would run away all night only to be caught in the morning, meaning they went three days without sleep trying to run away. This was the first time Bajie, Wujing, and Wukong did something together and the first time the fillet was even mentioned to Bajie and Wujing. But otherwise, Wukong did feel responsible for Sanzang being punished when he was defending his students against the other immortals' accusations, even going so far as to say he will repay them back for the fruits himself because his disciples are his responsibility. But Wukong let his anger get the best of him and ruined the whole tree which only escalated the situation.
19. The ginseng hard to revive is the nineteenth ordeal [chap. 26]; Wukong tried serval times to trick Zhenyaun with imitation clones to avoid their beating without it working. This is where Wukong went to Gaunyin to fix the tree after he found he couldn't fix the tree himself. He relies on Guanyin a lot in these ordeals as she was able to heal the tree without huge issues from her previous experience. In the end, they were able to enjoy another taste of the ginseng fruits and even got the Immortal to be his sworn brother after that. The ginseng fruits are to be considered a sign of spiritual roots that needs 10,000 years to bloom, bear fruit, and ripen and giving 47,000 years on someone's lifespan if they eat one and 360 years just by smelling one. Zhenyaun is a master when it comes to roots and how everyone has spiritual roots and can return to these roots instead of the obstinate learning of emptiness and extinction, mistaking the human root and ignoring the immortal root
20. Banishing the Mind Monkey is the twentieth ordeal [chap. 27]; This was def the hardest time in the pilgrimage I have already talked about this a lot here about how it means who is right versus giving someone the benefit of the doubt. White Bone demon (白骨精) is clearly the bad guy and obviously wants to eat and kill Sanzang but also despite her intentions she hasn't done anything yet either. Wukong just knows demons enough that any demon trying to hide their true self is simply just trying to lure their prey into a false sense of security. And while Wukong is so very right to be suspicious, Sanzang also has that mindset that he should give everyone a chance until proven wrong. That whether Wukong is right or wrong, if he should be allowed to kill someone who hasn't hurt them yet and that Sanzang should trust Wukong's judge of character when it comes to how demons operate. Sanzang is still naive in his thinking of course but not having faith in his own disciples as well. Wukong has shown that he doesn't hesitate to distinguish between human and demon at this point but still, Wukong's understanding of how demons operate should have been listening too. Didn't help that every time Sanznag was about to believe him Bajie would turn up for payback at the teasing for being hung by Guanyin. This was the true test of the pilgrim's loyalty to only another as Sanzang let his anger get the best of him while Wukong was quick to show that he was right before risking Sanzang being kidnap and risking his life. This was all part of White Bone Demon's plan to separate Wukong from the group, allowing her to finally prey on Sanzang, until Wukong used the other gods of the day and night to hold her to finally get rid of her. Her plan still worked as Sanzang banished Wukong thinking he was out of control and not even he could help. She was the first demon to learn about eating Sanzang would give one a longer lifespan, something not even Yellow Wind knew about. This one is really a test of character and if you can to should judge a person on what they are or rather their action, but even then if their intentions are true or not. There is giving people the benefit of the doubt but there is also being naive and too trusting with one's own safety. The Bone Demon some inspiration from the drama "The Peony Pavilion", which was written almost at the same historical period as "Journey to the West", the heroine Du Liniang in the play was exhumed and opened by Liu Mengmei three years after her death, and was resurrected. The two married in private and Tang Xianzu clearly stated in the script "Inscription" that "it seems that the capital of the Jin Dynasty guards Li Zhongwen, and Guangzhou guards the affairs of the sons and daughters of General Feng Xiao." What is said is all about the "resurrection" of the young girl who was born in the sky in traditional Chinese culture.
21. Getting lost at Black Pine Forest is the twenty-first ordeal [chap. 28]; This was def how Sanzang was kidnapped by the Yellow Robe Demon (黃袍怪) right off the bat. He is another example of a celestial coming from heaven, but instead of being a beast that cultivated and came to earth, this is the first human/deity that does so. He was the Kuimu Wolf Star of the 28 stars in the sky but he wished to be with a Jade Servant and together they planned to escape heaven and meet on earth (because getting married in heaven is taboo). It was only when Bajie went to find food did he fall asleep on his duties, and as such Wujing follows after him thinking he got lost. And of course, Sanang is about to faint he gets so hungry and wanders off to get food and WALKS RIGHT INTO A DEMON LAIR. It was disguised as a pagoda and he thought he would find monks there but still. From there, Sanzang meets the princess to rely on her family where she is. But Yellow Robe Demon only let Sanzang go when the Princess asked him to and Bajie was under the delusion that he could protect Sanzang without Wukong's help. There is a lot of good Wujing and Bajie moments here since they are the one playing off each either but Bajie is getting a bigger head than he should have head only leads to more trouble down the line.
22. Sending a letter to Precious Image Kingdom is the twenty-second ordeal [chap.29]; It was only through the princess's mercy that Saznag was the one to send the king the Princess's letter about her kidnapping. This task was easy enough in itself but does lead Yellow Robe Demon to know that the monks gave away their position and thus starts his plan for revenge. Bajie of course volunteers himself to go save the princess thinking it would be fine, but Sanzang urges Wujing to join else he knows that Bajie is going to get killed. I do like how they worried about each other but now they are the ones to save a princess. I really think this is more Bajie's journey at this point, him being so full of himself now that Wukong is gone only to be knocked down to his lowerest when he sees that he really can't do all this on his own. It is given here that the gods of day and night do assist Bajie and Wujing when Sanzang in near, kinda like a boost, but without Sanzang near Bajie and Wujing lost the battle horribly. More great scenes of Wujing protecting the princess too. It is said this trial could be about the relationship between a husband and wife. Yellow Robe and the Princess are like the wood that restrains soil. The one who restrains the husband is a wife, the earth color is yellow, and she is a yellow woman; The "robe" is covered with wood and soil, but it is a loess garment, and the yellow robe is added to the body, which is also an image of exercising power at the right time. It describes the appearance of a devil, and it is called "blue face and blue hands", and the general shape is green with the color of wood.
23. Changing into a tiger at the Golden Chimes Hall is the twenty-third ordeal [chap.30]; This one is another connection between Sanzang and the tiger as he was turned into one by Yellow Robe Demon and hunted by the people of the palace. He was stabbed, whipped, and captured and it was said id he didn't have the spirit protect him and that it isn't his destiny to die that night HE WOULD HAVE DIED from the torture. It was said that it was enough pain that 20 other monks would have died over it and reduced to minced meat. I cannot stress enough that he was TORTURED. He couldn't speak, he couldn't communicate, and no one believed him when he said he wasn't a demon... but no one listened. I really think this reflects how Wukong felt when Sanzang didn't listen to what he said. The tables were turned and Sanzang felt what Wukong felt in that moment of what it is like not to be listened to and being punished for trying to be honest. Yellow Robe was able to completely have everyone on his side with his good looks and magic abilities but at the same point, Sanzang was the object of ridicule here. And sadly this isn't included here but Bailong stepping up and trying to attack the Yellow Robe Demon himself. He didn't succeed but he did succeed in getting Bajie to go get Wukong which I really think it the crux of the story itself. Bajie knew he had to right to ask Wukong, he was the one that made Sanzang push him away even if that wasn't his intention. It was Bajie finally humbling himself and while he still wasn't honest in his intentions Wukong would clearly see that Bajie was trying to downplay his own grievances. There was a single scene where when Wukong was done teasing Bajie in that he wasn't coming he does ask to stop and let him bathe. He had killed about 10,000 hunters when he was back home and I think this was him trying to cleanse himself of that sin before going back to meet his brothers. I don't think he regrets what he did... but he defiantly didn't want them to know about what he has done when he was gone. That he was so quick to go back to being violent and murderous without any supervision and this single act was his only way to try to rid himself of that past. Even in the end when Wukong meets with Sanzang again, he acknowledges that Sanzang is the kind of man that even pities demons, not that he didn't believe him that she was a demon, but that even human OR demon Sanzang didn't agree to kill her before she commits any crimes (yet). And whether he was wrong or right for having that stance, he was still the one to push Wukong to leave which was his own downfall in giving up on Wukong. Wukong knew that White Bone was going to attack and his mission was to protect but over and over again Wukong shows that in coming back was how he recognizes the differences between them. Wukong was the one to accept that they may not agree on everything but didn't have to make them at odds. And it was in the end that Wujing and Bajie other addressed how they stood by and let Wujing get kicked out, kneeling down to show their regret for their inaction or sabotage. Wukong has the stance that he doesn't forgive easily, rather than dealing out punishment harshly but it was only here that we see him saving Sanzag in his tiger body. Sanzang even says that he owes everything to Wukong and that he should have all the merit for his actions. I think that Sanzang could learn through his own struggles what it means to be looked over and ignored when they were in the right as well, and only then could he see what he was putting Wukong through as well.
24. Meeting demons at Level-Top Mountain is the twenty-fourth ordeal [chap. 32]; this was the chapter they meet Golden Horned King (金角大王) and Silver Horned King (銀角大王). These two are also heavenly beings that fell from heaven, being Laozi's fire tenders that stole five of his magical weapons and wanted to make it big on earth. Funny enough Bajie was the first to get kidnapped here because he went on ahead after being bullied a bit more into it. Good stuff. Wukong just thought if worst came to worst he could save Bajie himself... but it did lead to Sanzang and Wujing being kidnapped as well while Wukong was trapped under ANOTHER mountain and very pissed about it. This is where we get to see Wukong's greatest show of strength when he was about to run a comet speed with a demon weight about two mountains on his back. But Wukong was sadly put under ANOTHER mountain and forced to stay there until he bullied the mountain deity to GET IT OFF HIM. From there he was about to infiltrate and learn about the Brother Kings from Sly Devil (精细鬼) and Wily Worm (伶俐虫) not to be caught in their treasure... only to be caught in their treasure.
25. Being hung high at Lotus-Flower Cave is the twenty-fifth ordeal [chap. 33]; this was when Wukong finally was able to infiltrate the cave as Nine-Tailed Vixen (九尾狐狸) who might be the same fox from Fengshen Yanyi. There is a lot of history to the Nine Tails, especially in other media but she isn't a major enemy in Xiyouji as she is in other media. She is meant to be a punishment to Kong Zhou (along with two other demons) when he claimed to make Nvwa his concubine and thus Nvwa sent the Nine-Tails (and company) to reach havoc for him and his kingdom as his new concubine. She was only taken out by Jiang Ziya in the end as he was the only one to overpower the control she had in the courts. The idea was while they were created for the sake of chaos they got addicted to and disobey's Nvwa's decree in the end. That all being said in Xiyouji It is noted that this is the ONLY demon that Wukong has ever bowed to, even under the disguise of the servants Hill-Pawing Tiger and Sea-Lolling Dragon. He was forced to show her the same respect as a servant would their superior, leaving him to tear up from pure frustration. But she is killed by him without much fanfare or acknowledgment of her heavenly ties or connections with Nvwa. This chapter was especially good as while the gang was tied up in the cave being hung up and Bajie was up there and saw Wukong's ass just knowing it was him. But Wukong is founded out and they had to battle Nine Tail's little brother King Fox Number Seven (狐阿七). I can't say much here as Bajie was the one to take him out and Laozi was just able to save his fire tenders before Wukong beat them both to death (he already beat Silver Horn to death Golden Horn was just left). These two had the most treasures out of any of the demons they have fought before but at the same point, they only used two out of the three in a useful manner. They were both cautious in their planning but in the end, they were still overwhelmed but Wukong's own cleverness and cunningness as they got lazy and allowed Wukong to take advantage of their laziness. If anything there is something to be said about how the heavens are making trials for the pilgrims and purposely making their road harder, yes it is for the sake of them reaching the 81 trails mark to be enlightened but at the same point Wukong is right to call them out on that behavior.
26. Saving the ruler of Black Rooster Kingdom is the twenty-sixth ordeal [chap.37]; This was when Sanzang was met with the Black Rooster Kingdom's dead king and how they had to save him from the well. This was surprisingly similar to how Sanzang's own father 'died' and then revived as well. Might be a call back to his own trauma. Pretty much the kings advisor, someone he thought, as a Daoist Immortal came by to help him with his drought issues and while the drought was dealt with the king gave his utter trust in the immortal. Sadly, the Daoist was actually a cultivated demon in disguise as he tricked the king into getting closer to a well to push them down, and essentially kill him. From there the demon transformed himself into the king, and took over his life, from his kingly duties to his family. It shows that people that help you and you come to trust can still be using you and stab you in the back.
27. Running into a demon's transformed body is the twenty-seventh ordeal [chap.37]; So this is the Lion-Lynx demon (獅猁怪) or rather the Azure Lion (青毛狮子怪) as he will become to know later in the novel when he returns but right now he is solo and pretending to be king of the Black Rooster Kingdom. Saznag was visited by the ghost of the king, whose body was preserved in a well, VERY similar to how Saznag's own father's body was preserved as well. But Wukong was able to have the King's body become alive again with a immortal pill from Laozi and this trial took a more diplomatic approach as it was their goal to convince the prince first that Lion-Lynx that has been pretending to be his father. This leads to a lot of reveals and can't say too much there besides a family being reunited which is lovely and might be how Sanzang was reflected with his own. (He was lucky that the Lynx-Lion was gelded else his mom could have made some baby demons.) I can't say much beyond it was seeing a demon wanting to take another person's life, and while he served as a fine king, he still murdered someone that trusted him and took over his life.
28. Meeting a fiend in Roaring Mountain is the twenty-eighth ordeal [chap. 40]; this is when Red Boy (紅孩兒) was on the trail, mostly trying to get the guys to come and save him. Wukong actually does a good job of steering Sanzang away from Red Boy until Sanzang heard a child's cries for help and can't help but need to help him. Another trap of course but it shows that Sanzang still wants to help anyone he can even if there are demons after him and that is still seen now when Red Boy says that his parents have died and he is all alone. Wukong either in a moment of lack of empathy or can see through Red Boy's lies suggests that the kid would be better off dead since his family is dead is actually funny not going to lie. Red Boy is the son of Princess Iron Fan and Demon Bull King but his inspiration comes from Shancai, who is Guanyin's faithful servant. Shancai in Buddist legends once traveled south to visit 53 teachers and achieved Buddhism. Mahayana Buddhism is used here as an example of becoming a Buddha in one body, and its process of seeking the Dharma represents the various stages of Huayan entering the Dharma Realm. According to the 54 entries into the Dharma Realm of the old Huayan Sutra, Shancai is the son of the elder in Fucheng. When he is in the womb and born, all kinds of treasures emerged, so he was called good fortune boy/child of wealth. Later, he was taught by Manjusri Bodhisattva and traveled all over the southern countries to visit Bhikkhu Gongdeyun, and received the samadhi of reciting Buddha. It is more so that Red Boy is meant to be a reference to Shancai as while they have different backstories they are meant to be the same character as well.
29. The sage monk abducted by wind is the twenty-ninth ordeal [chap. 40]; Wukong gladly took the opportunity to carry Red Boy as they were traveling up the mountain as he thought this would be a great time to finally kill him. He attempts to throw Red Boy off a cliff he turns into a wind and kidnaps him right off the horse. They are getting more creative with how they kidnap him, even just taking him right in daylight without Wukong just being nearby. It might be another example of how Wukong was more focused on killing his enemy rather than trying to protect at the moment. This was a sweet moment for Wujing as he was the one to cheer Wukong on after they lost Sanzang, Wukong thought at this point, even if he tries to kill demons BEFORE they attempt to kidnap Sanzang it still doesn't matter. Really hits him hard that he thinks he is a failure and for the first time it shows that he really thinks he can't do it. That is until telling them how they are untied in this front, and no matter what as long as they stick together they can overcome any obstacle. Even Bajie is moved by his speech and agrees they must always try and says how he is sorry for even doubting their group. It was only then that they were able to move forward to save Sanzang.
30. The Mind Monkey being injured is the thirtieth ordeal [chap. 41]; this was honestly so sad with how Wukong was teary up from the smoke and sire and how it affected his eyes. Legit it looks like his old injuries from Laozi's furnace affecting his eyes as he feels that burning smoke, so painful that he passes out. It was here that Wukong is truly defeated in a combat situation and it's from someone he saw as family. He was going in with the hope to appeal to that family loyalty as he was DBK's sworn brother but was rejected again and again by Red Boy that he both didn't believe Wukong or that he just didn't care about those relations either. This lead to Bajie having to be the one to resuscitate Wukong while Wujing is terrified over his life. Wukong didn't want to attack Red Boy at least not when he found out that they were, what he considered, family. But in the end, it was not enough and while Wukong through he could handle the flames the pain from the smoke in his eyes lead him to faint. This is the ONLY time that Wukong has never been in such pain that he has fainted. No other treatment has ever put him in such a state, maybe the Yellow Wind demon but even then he was blinded, not down. Wujing really thought he died, starting to cry over Wukong's body because he thought he lost their brother. Bajie instead didn't believe it for a second, didn't think for a moment that Wukong was dead, and instead started right away to resuscitate him. It was like Wujing was overwhelmed with sadness while Bajie just couldn't even think of Wukong being defeated like that. It was only because they got to him in time that was Wukong not permanently hurt or perhaps even dead from such an attack.
31. Asking the sage to subdue monsters is the thirty-first ordeal [chap. 42]; this is when Wukong went to ask Guanyin to help subdue Red Boy which she does so as Red Boy himself was disguised as her and using her image to trick Bajie, leading to his capture. Gaunyin actually comes with the lotus platform of swords to capture Red Boy and I think that there is actually a big connection with how Red Boy and Wukong were similar when they were starting off as their own kings of the mountain. Similar to how Wukong was so powerful at the start of his warlord career, Red Boy as well showed great powers from the start, being more than powerful to run his own mountain. And that Red Boy is trying to fight people that are arguably stronger than him, only to be taken down by a Bodhisattva that being GuanYin while for Wukong it was Buddha. From there, after he tried to attack Guanyin again she subdued him with golden bands and was taken under to be a disciple. They are not exactly a one to one, but I like to think that Wukong saw a lot of his younger self in Red Boy and how he was going down that path of destruction that could only lead to hundreds of years of punishment if he wasn’t taken down at the moment. Maybe Wukong thinks about how he could’ve avoided a lot of the mistakes he made if he just had someone stronger than him make him see reason. Also that Red Boy is the one to become Shancai who does have a different origin story in Indian lore but in Xiyouji, Red Boy is the one to become the Child of Wealth and be at Guanyin's side forever, along with Muzha and Longnv.
32. Sinking in the Black River is the thirty-second ordeal [chap. 43]; This one is what I remember this is a more underwater adventure with Tuolong Black River God (鼉龍 or Xiao Mojie) and Wujing getting his timeline a bit more as it’s very much underwater. Wujing went underwater to find out who took Sazang again and it was Four Dragon King's sister's (I guess there are five siblings now) ninth son. But after the death of her husband Dragon King of Jingehe (The same dragon from the start of the novel actually), Ao Run (Bailong's father) was the one in charge of raising them. Surprisingly very little is being said about Bailong despite his imminent family being involved in this trial. Tuolong played a boatman as Sanzang and Bajie got on his craft only to flip the boat sending both Bajie and Sanzang into the water. Toulong was going to invite Ao Run to eat Sanzang (and Bajie is there) WITH him as a way of showing thanks for raising him all these years but in reality, it was because he has not done anything with his life and has been causing mischief, trying to get back in his Uncle's graces. Ao Run after being confronted by Wukong with these accusations of trying to eat Sazang admits that he thought his nephew was cultivating and had no idea of the trouble he was bringing. Ao Run sent his eldest son, Ao Moang, Bailong's eldest brother, to go subdue Toulong else Wukong was going to kill the guy himself. Wukong and Ao Moang were able to subdue him and Ao Moang took him back to Ao Run to be punished for his crimes. Wujing in this one finds Bajie and Sanzang and frees them luckily. This might have something to do with the youngest sibling, trying to prove himself by capturing Sanzang and giving it to Ao Run in honor of him, being his father figure, but in reality, he’s just being selfish, and jealous that all his other brothers were able to integrate with society just fine with respectable jobs but he has not. But this story does touch on children that grow up without a father, especially losing them quickly is to be seen as more sensitive. And how Toulong losing his father to the rules of heaven, shows his defiance of not falling the same rules that lead to his father's death. Toulong's sense of rebellion also comes from a sense of entitlement that he should be the exception to the rules for his own suffering as if trying to justify his actions to bring suffering to others.
33. Hauling at Cart Slow Kingdom is the thirty-third ordeal [chap. 44]; this one is definitely a personal favorite due to the humor, but there is a lot to be said when the gang comes to the kingdom that is enslaving Buddhist monks in favor of Taoist monks. The ones pulling the strings behind this abuse are Tiger Strength Great Immortal (虎力大仙), Elk Strength Great Immortal (鹿力大仙), and Antelope Strength Great Immortal (羊力大仙) that are controlling the king. This is the chapter most would recall Wukong, Bajie, and Wujing trick these three immortals into drinking their piss but I do find it fascinating how Wukong, Bajie, and Wujing take the places of the three pure ones when they are crashing the feast and take the places of the most important figures in heaven. Wukong as Laozi, Bajie as Yuanshi Tianzun, and Wujing as Lingbao Tianzun. I’m not sure if that was supposed to be meta-commentary about anything like how the three might be bringing in a new heaven or Age of Enlightenment themselves, but I did greatly enjoy the political symbolism that it could provide. This one definitely highlights how there were a lot of religious tensions between Daoism and Buddhism and how is that even because of these acknowledgments of the tensions, this book was banned in certain areas. But rather than Sanzang or anyone in the pilgrimage trying to refute Daoist beliefs, rather acknowledge that both are looking for the same thing when it comes to personal self-improvement and how well they can be different they can still respect one another (though there is some bias is that Buddism is better). Wukong saving the monks also shows how they put so much faith in waiting for Wukong and how he even gave each one of them a hair to keep them safe. It shows a great deal of compassion on his part from what I believe at this point. Not to mention I really think that this is the arc that is important more generally when it comes to character interactions as we get to see a lot of how they start to become more comfortable with one another. And this is just like in the Ginseng Fruit arc where they are all stealing food similar to before, but rather this time, they all agreed to cover each other’s backs.
34. A mighty contest is the thirty-fourth ordeal [chaps. 45-46]; In each of these test the immortal either loose face or die and honesty if they have kept the challenges simple with Saznag then they could have lived... sucks to be them. This one I do find to be one of my favorite segments personally only because it’s toeing the line of monks should not lie which Sanzang refuses to do however, it’s not lying because Wukong is simply changing the answers, kind of proving that the Yaoguai either had prior knowledge of what the answer should have been and can’t work around the new answers and rather Wukong is the one cheating for Sanzang rather than Sanzang cheating himself. Wukong definitely does most of the heavy lifting, but it shows his increasing durability throughout it all. Personally, think this was meant more to show off his powers and I could be missing the significance of each one of these powers, but that is what I am aware of. The first test of one of bringing the rain. Sanzang can't bring rain (he says a much) but Wukong goes up and THREATENS the people if they make rain for the Tiger he will beat them to death... so they don't and do rain on Sanzangn's turn. Diplomacy! Elk and Saznang have meditation content in which they try to cheat and a bug tries to break Sanzang's concentration. But Wukong turns into a bird and eats that thing and then turns into a centipede to break Elk's concentration and it works! Last is where they guess within the box and Antelope guesses fine clothes, peaches, and a Toaist disciple. Wukong goes into each box, tears up the clothes, eats the peaches leaving only pits, and shaves the disciple's head to make him a Buddhist monk. In each segment, Wukong was pulling the strings as Sanzang followed Wukong's instructions on what to say. They could have lived if they stop there but... nah. Tiger continues to have a head-cutting-off contest. Wukong has his head is cut off and it is kicked away, but he just regrows a new head while Tiger loses his head, and when he can not put it back on in time he dies. Elk tries to have a disemboweled contest but Wukong easily took out all his guts to "clean in there" while Elk died as he tries to gouge out his own heart. And finally, Antilope and Wukong could see who could live in boiling oil. Wukong pulled a prank and pretended to be dead but showed that he was just fine. Antilope did try to cheat and keep his oil cold but Wukogn quickly fixed that and he boiled alive. Overall a decided victory.
35. Expelling Daoists to prosper Buddhists is the thirty-fifth ordeal [chap. 47]; When the king saw that his advisors were indeed three Yaoguai that were most likely planning to kill him (similar to Lion-Lynx’s plan) he was shaken out of his stupor and saw the error of his ways. The monks that escaped at the start of this chapter were able to come back home and gave him back his hairs as they were finally freed from their sufferings. This kind of goes back to how the tensions between the two religious groups were high but I believe the intention was for there to show how despite differences there can be bridges to connect those gaps. Wukong being one of those bridges as he trained in Daosim and even received all his powers from it, but he is still a proud Buddhist monk as well. Having both knowledge did not hinder him, and either way, but if anything, it allowed him to excel in both philosophies. Wukong is nearly as familiar with scripture as. Sanzang is and even knows it a bit better in some cases. It kind of shows how that kind of relationship gap can be bridged through a general respect for both practices, and I think Wukong was meant to be that kind of representative for that respect.
36. Meeting a great water on the road is the thirty-sixth ordeal [chap. 47]; They are blocked by the very large river and as such stay with the Chen family (which funny enough is also the surname of Sanzang) and find out they have had to sacrifice their children to this demon for the past few years and after Sansang saying they have to help (Wukong suggesting buying more kids to sacrifice to save their own kids, no that is not a solution) Wukong and Bajie agree to go undercover as the children and fight the demon King of Spiritual Touch (靈感大王). The demon does get away but everyone thinks that is the end of that while the demon does see Saznag and plots to kidnap him being suggested by the Perch Mother. That was the trial itself rather than actually fighting The Spiritual Touch King. I’m not sure if there’s a lot of significance here besides perhaps highlighting how Sanzang misses his home, especially surrounded by people with his surname. That might be more of a plot detail, than huge significance allegory-wise.
37. Falling into the Heaven-Reaching River is the thirty-seventh ordeal [chap. 48]; this one was an elaborate trap as the gang is forced to walk across the huge river as it has iced overnight. I do enjoy this part only as Bajie was the one to make sure Bailong's horseshoes can walk on ice and Wukong even makes sure that the ice is thick before walking across it. Sadly while they were in the middle of the river this is when the Spiritual King breaks the ice and despite best efforts does kidnap Sanzang. As much as I did love how there was a lot of teamwork between Wukong, Wujing, and Bajie, as they were trying to lure the demon out of the water for Wukong to fight him properly, Spiritual King was able to escape due to its advantage of being underwater. As such this is what led to Wukong getting GuanYin again as he saw no other way that Bajie and Wujing could handle him on their own as the King locked himself up in his palace and no amount of goading was going to get him out again. Even faking they were hurt, to faking defeat wasn't enough to get the Spiritual King is risk fighting against them as he knew he was eventually going to lose.
38. The Fish-Basket revealing her body is the thirty-eighth ordeal [chap. 49]; I do find this particular way of entrapment to be very interesting as it touches upon Gaunyin and her connection with the fish basket. There’s actually a famous story about this as well, but the story is about a beautiful woman who is selling fish and comes to a village, and how every man in the village wants to marry her but she would only marry someone that would recite Suntras every day and release all the fish she has, and whoever could memorize the Suntras, would be able to marry her and pretty much it was inspiring people to learn more about Buddhism. The one man that was able to memorize all the scriptures she called for, decided to continue his life and still teach in her honor. It was a famous story, showing the fulfillment of learning scriptures. This arc was made in reference to that story and I do find that a great way to tie her into the narrative as well.
39. Meeting a fiend at Golden Helmet Mountain is the thirty-ninth ordeal [chap. 50]; This chapter I do find interesting the fact that this is another heavenly beast that escaped heaven Single Horned Rhinoceros King (獨角兕大王) and at this point, it’s almost standard for heavenly steeds to be the enemy for the sake of there being enough trials. This time Sanzang and the gang are in the middle of a snowy mountain and Wukong goes off to find food while leaving them in a circle. There’s actually a lot of symbolism in this chapter, especially when it comes to circles. Wukong creates a circle around his party as he goes off to try to find a village for food, a creation of his own making intended to keep them safe as long as they follow the instructions that he has given them. While, in the meantime, his party escapes the circle and put some of themselves in danger. This kind of circle symbolism is also seen in how Wukongs two iconic symbols are also circles that being his fillet and his golden hoop rod. His fillet is a circle that constraints, created for the purpose that he is to act in a certain limitation that he can't act solely on his own desires but rather focus on his own self-restraint to work with others but his staff is a circle that breaks his limits, allowing him to transition the limitation said he has been given through sheer force of will and power to overcome obstacles in his path. And it’s specifically here that Wukong gives his own limitations to the party but they bypass those limitations, and find themselves in danger. Similar to how when Wukong breaks his own limitation he puts himself in danger and others when he acts without thinking. It is almost karmic when Wukong tries to impose limitations on others when he himself is known for breaking these limits again and again and seeing what it feels like to be unheard when he only has the best intentions for his party. When Wukong tried to break into a new realm as the Jade Emperor he also had to except the dangers that came with that, hence, his punishment. It’s that kind of symbolism I personally think of when it comes to breaking barriers you have to also expect the risk that comes with it and accept it. Sanzang and the gang fall right into the Rhino King's trap and are taken in by him.
40. Heaven's gods find it hard to win is the fortieth ordeal [chaps. 51-52]; Not much to say he’ll personally except that this enemy has proven to be stupidly strong because of his magical item. The amount of extra power that this item has given him is insane, considering that Wukong needed to get the heavenly armies and Nezha in order to fight this guy, and it still didn’t win. But even Nezha lost all his weapons due to the Rhino King's Golden Ring to simply steal magical weapons from other people. Wukong lost his cudgel here, a symbol of his ability to break limitations and overcome the odds, and thus is left powerless without gods that also lost their magical weapons. And this is where I really enjoy seeing that Wukong really understands that he canceled all his problems through brute strength, but rather he needs to understand his problems in the first place in order to overcome them. He has the entire army of Heaven on his side but he can’t defeat this demon and it’s because he doesn’t understand how his powers walk in the first place but once he does understand where his powers came from. Once he learns even more about his enemy, he’s able to defeat him properly showing how cunning and willing Wukong can go when it comes to figuring out battle strategies and finding weaknesses in others. The amount of times that Wukong actually had to play peacemaker amount the troops because the armies were getting discouraged over losing the weapons is amazing, I don’t think it really shows how Wukong is also a great leader, especially when it comes to facing horrible odds against him. This is most likely the strongest enemy that Wukong has faced during the journey. Sun Wukong not only asked the Jade Emperor to find out the origin of this person, but also asked Li Tianwang, Nezha, Lei Gong, Huode Xingjun, Huanghe Shuibo, Tathagata, Eighteen Arhats and many other masters in the world of immortals and Buddhas for help
41. Asking the Buddha for the source is the forty-first ordeal [chap. 52]; Pretty much Wukong couldn’t find how to get any more information about his enemy, and of course had to go to the highest level to know who this guy was, and how to defeat him. If anything, I think it’s more of a humbling moment that Wukong had to do in order to ask than anything else, and it kind of shows how far he’s willing to go when it comes to protecting his party even if it means admitting that he needs help in the first place. And considering how prideful and arrogant Wukong is at the start of the story I think that’s a trial within itself. Even Sanzang at the end, admits that he should’ve listened to Wukong and promised to try to do better. A lot of humbling in the chapter. There is an actual legend to how Laozi got this Rhino in the first place as when Laozi was 8 or 9 years old he found a rapid divine bull that was eating people in the wild. Laozi and his brother at that young age went to cut the grass for baskets and play games. The bull came out of nowhere that has been eating people and the two confronted it for all its crimes to their neighbors. Laozi knew better than to hit it head-on rather than wait for the bull to run over him and stab it in its underbelly with his sickle. It ran away and they chased after it and after a fierce battle, they rode the bull down the mountain in their victory. From there Laozi took the bull as his own and domesticated him to eat only grass and pull plows and carts.
42. Being poisoned after drinking water is the forty-second ordeal [chap. 53]; it was actually a lot of symbolism when it comes to the Mother-Birthing River especially when it comes to Hindu mythology. There is an old legend about how a prince got pregnant himself when it was supposed to be his wife but he was still able to give birth. And that’s kind of reflected here as well when it comes to finding that kind of in qi energy and reaching enlightenment, I believe. It is quite interesting that the ones chosen here are Sanzang and Bajie. I think Sanzang was chosen for the symbolical representation similar to the prince while Bajie was for all the jokes that Wujing and Wukong absolutely throw his way because they find the whole situation Absolutely hilarious. They had to face off against Immortal Ruyi (如意真仙) who is Bull Demon King's younger broth and the Uncle of Red Boy. He was more of a nuisance than a threat as he kept making Wukong spill the Aborition Water so he had to get Wujing to help him out. Wukong claimed he only pared him because he is Demon Bull King's younger brother, or else he would have beaten him to death.
43. Detained for marriage at Western Liang Kingdom is the forty-third ordeal [chap. 54]; this one was interesting, and the fact that the main villain, for most of the arc, wasn’t the scorpion demon, but rather it was the Ruler of Women's Country (女兒國國王), because she absolutely refused to let Sanzang go and holding him hostage until he agreed to her demands for marriage. Wukong of course says they cannot attack else they would have to kill all of her soldiers as well and does push for Sanzang to play along with her fantasies, even though Sanzang is absolutely terrified that he would be forced to fulfill the “marriage vows.” But I do think this one shows how much trust Sanzang has gathered for Wukong because he follows the instructions to play along in order to avoid fighting with the entire kingdom or the army and they just leave the kingdom last minute… which honestly would’ve worked if it wasn’t for the last-minute demon. I do love how protective Bajie gets in this one, even Wujing lifting Sanzang off the carriage to get him away from the queen, kinda reflecting on Bajie's own past actions with women and how he is coming around to the importance of boundaries. In the end, the queen admits to feeling ashamed of her actions once she sees how Sanzang and Wukong and gang had such powers and were meant for greater things than just being kings. She was convinced that their union was set up by the heavens and refused to let him say no. She was very direct in her approach, very different than before trying to seduce Sanzang with no hope as he was more frightful than tempted. She is the only woman that isn't a demon that has tried to seduce Sanzang and while she is honorable and respected she shows that same kind of tenacity. There are not all good humans in the book and at times the gang has to be creative with how to get around them. She was willing to give up her own country based on Sanzang's own beauty showing a single-minded desire to have him as their own.
44. Suffering at the Cave of the Lute is the forty-fourth ordeal [chap. 55]; if anything, this one just shows how another heavenly animal escapes and this being the Scorpion demon (蠍子精). This is one of the only times we see an attack actually affect Wukong beyond the samadhi powers as this kind of venom does hurt him extremely. He got horrible headaches from the poison, enough to take him out of the fight for quite a while. Wujing and Bajie were unable to help in that case. Funny enough this is also just because of this one power that Wukong acknowledges that brute strength cannot win against her, and hast to go to another person for help. In the end, they were able to sub to her and she has to be sent back to heaven, but this was definitely kind of leaning into the idea of being trapped by lustful desires. She was more of a pest that was listening in on Buddhist scriptures than anything else being brushed away by Buddha until she stung at him, being the only demon known to inflict damage on Buddha. She took Sanzang in his moment of freedom only to trap him in a similar hostage situation of being forced to marry but I do notice how she did prepare vegetarian meals for him alongside her human meals... so awkward but how polite? Sanzang rejected her every time until she was annoyed enough to tie him up until he changed his mind. It wasn't until Wukong at the Pleiades Star Offical (a rooster) to subdue the Scorpin Demon was about to be killed by Bajie as well. A noticed trait is that Bajie is usually the one to kill female demons that have committed similar crimes as him when it comes to sexually harassing people. I like to think it is to show Baije's own personal fight with his own sexual and romantic desires. The Scorpion Demon is taken from the Xiyouji Zaji play when they have the 17th episode "The Queen's Forced Marriage where the Queen's brutal side is the direct reflection of the demon and how the two are more connected in the play. Considering that the only other demons in that play were the Demon Bull Family it shows how she was considered quite popular with this arc as well.
45. Banishing again the Mind Monkey is the forty-fifth ordeal [chap. 56]; this is the Six-Eared Macaque (六耳獼猴) Arc and I kind of did a deep dive about the symbolic meaning of the monkey mind and all this here, but this is definitely one of the defining points of the chapter is right in the middle of the journey. I didn’t know that this was such a big question but apparently, a lot of people did wonder why did Wukong progress back into violent killings in this chapter in particular with the robber and while I do admit that Wukong has come a long way there hasn’t been yet a really defining point of him, addressing the fact that he does go overboard when it comes to his enemies when he believes that it’s justified. He has been doing a lot to show more empathy to his companions in even to other people, but I really think halfway through the journey. This is him trying to find more empathy for people that he believes don’t deserve second chances despite him receiving a second chance as well. It’s almost hypocritical for him to think that people he believes others should have to die for their crimes, and that he should be the judge, jury, and executioner in these circumstances. It might have been because even the family itself never really said they valued the son's life more so they only want to keep him as he has no other heir, which is also sad within itself that a family only sees value in the son at this point because he can continue the family rather than value him as a person that he’s just done so much damage. And Wukong also has such filial respect, and how much importance he puts to family and elders. Kind of pushed him to his limits even when this particular burglar has been given a second chance by Wukong by not killing him the first time he met with his group rather than just killing his leader. If anything Wukong probably thought he was already justified in showing him mercy and the guy just came back again trying to hurt his party after being shown that mercy was pushing him over the limit.
46. The macaque hard to distinguish is the forty-sixth ordeal [chaps. 57-58]; This shows the progression of how far Wukong has come, both were fighting enemies and fighting with himself and who his identity is. Wukong not fighting with his identity is one of the main things in Xiyouji that I think anyone could take away from it as Wukong has been shown to be defying limitations on himself but also never really having that kind of ability to fit in a category, either making him very alone as well. And I think this chapter really highlights how Wukong can either be seen as a character that fits nowhere or the only character that truly is able to bridge the gap between different realms and be able to fit everywhere thing. He was able to see the worst traits of himself being pushed into his face and overcomes what those traits inside of him mean and even what they represent. He never denies who he is but rather shows that he is much more than what he sued to be, that he can grow and change and learn and become more than what he once was. When Sanzang sent Wukong away in this arc he really thought that he could not help Wukong anymore and that he has failed as a teacher but rather it was Wukong's own battle that he had to fight first as no one can force himself to change besides Wukong. The Six-Eared Macaque created duplicates of the entire gang, planning on killing them all and replacing them so he can gain credit and glory for bringing back the scriptures and becoming the "Sun Wukong" of legend. It was only under Buddha's eyes that was he able to discern the two (and a hell cat) and the truth of the matter came to light about the four spiritual monkeys that are the same species as Wukong. The phrase "Six Ears" has two different meanings. 1. meaning "A third party, outside intervention," such as an eavesdropper when two people are to be having a private conversation. Like saying make sure a sixth ear isn't listening in. Something that Wukong even says at the start of the book when talking to master Puti about their classes. Guan Hanqing's "Butterfly Dream": "Three people make big mistakes, and six ears do not conspire." In the novels of the Ming Dynasty, there is also the phrase "six ears do not preach", and "six ears" has gradually become an external object that refers to the hindrance of "preaching". The 2. meaning in from Buddhism has the theory of "six roots" of "eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind". From the "six roots", "six consciousnesses" are born. It should be eliminated first on the road of practice. At the end of the story, when the demon is eliminated, this point is also pointed out: "God returns to the heart, the Zen formula is fixed, and the six senses eliminate the pill." This is to show how those that now the truth cannot be tricked by falsehoods as such, discerning between the true and false monkey. The truth must be false, and the truth will be let go; the false will be true, and the false will be attracted. It is because real practitioners are regarded as false practitioners, and false practitioners are also mistaken for real practitioners. Those who are "four monkeys mixed with the world" have the four minds of greed, anger, ignorance, and hindrance. Sun Wukong symbolizes the "mind", and the six-eared macaque is the "evil" that deceives it. " Longing and the contradiction of "superego". Just because Sun Wukong's mind is turbulent, and he is often in a state of "ego" but "ID", so "evil" has an opportunity to take advantage of. The process of Sun Wukong destroying the demon is the process of "doing good and eliminating evil" in one's heart. In fact, the Six-Eared Macaque not only symbolizes the delusion of Wukong alone, but also the delusion of the party as whole as they are originally one. Therefore, after the "false heart" was destroyed, there was a description of the master and apprentice and the other three also "cutting the two hearts", and the team worked together and went to the west.
47. The road blocked at the Mountain of Flames is the forty-seventh ordeal [chap. 59]; this one was a hard trial to get past as they were literally trying to go around flaming mountains, but this is like the first time I’ve actually seen where Wukong’s past actions have influenced the road ahead as the fire only started due to Wukong pushing Laozis furnace to earth. Not only did this cause tremendous changes to the landscape, but also it led to the people of us being punished as well in the crossfire. Innocent people were forced to enter these harsh heats and we’re only able to five because Princess Iron Fan (鐵扇公主) took advantage of the situation, making herself the immortal of the mountain. From there, she was actually able to gain power because of these grievances. I think this is very interesting and how even unintentional consequences can have large repercussions. Princess Iron Fan is a Rakshasa within the novel and mother of Red Boy and the wife of Demon Bull King. Princess Iron Fan is a symbol of material love but also envy as she is alone without both her son and husband at her side, taking her anger out on one she could without restraint at least. Her Xiyouji creation was inspired by three different courses the first being the 10 Rakshasa who is in charge of guarding and reciting the Lotus Sutra from Buddha lore. The Guizimu God also from Buddhism lore who lost her own child in a miscarriage sworn in the neck life to be a demon that eats other's children which did happen. She saw the error of her ways and came to the heavens to protect the Dharma. And the last is the Iron Fan Immortal who is a Taoist Immortal from the Xiyouji Play where she has different family relations such as being the sister of Li-shan Laomu and is connected to another legend where she was a Taoist Wind goddess that was friends with the Queen Mother (and Pilanpo), however after a slight party over the Queen Mother bringing her own wine Princess Iron Immortal went to earth where she became a demon. She never married in this version and plan to keep it that way and thus she was greatly offended when XingZhe kept hitting on her. All these inspired her Xiyouji debut.
48. Seeking the palm-leaf fan is the forty-eighth ordeal [chaps. 59-60]; this one was definitely the most elaborate, as this was a lot with the family situation. Wukong encountered their son Red Boy just a few years ago, and because of his intervention, Red Boy became a disciple under GuanYin, a position that could be considered even higher than being claimed as a deity in Eastern Heaven. Wukong isn't wrong in saying that their son is better off being a disciple under the goddess of mercy, rather than running amok on his own mountain, being a king, yes, but only building himself up to be taken down in a few years, similar to what Wukong had to go through. If anything, he could’ve saved him a lot of pain and suffering in the long run because his power and arrogance were going unchecked. But of course, no parent wants their child to be dethroned, and as such Princess Iron Fan wishes to get revenge on her son’s behalf. Wukong may have saved Red Boy’s life in the long run, but he did separate a family as well. There is something to be said when it comes to seeing two choices that both have negative consequences within them. At the time I’m sure Wukong wasn’t even thinking about how Princess Iron Fan or Bull Demon King (牛魔王) would react to seeing their son gone but definitely doesn’t make it any easier when he has to be the one to take responsibility for that separation. Wukong had to pretend to be Bull Demon King while he was away with his new concubine Jade-Faced Princess (玉面狐狸) who wanted to keep him to herself. She was the daughter of the Long Live Fox King who left behind all his fortune and Princess Jade Faced wanted someone strong enough to protect her and her territory. Wukong was able to get the fan but it was taken again by Bull Demon. This led to a confrontation between brothers and after Wukong's change of heart and mind, he sees how that change is being put to the test, being forced to fight someone he sees as a brother.
49. Binding the demon king is the forty-ninth ordeal [chap. 61]; Wukong is fighting someone that he sees as a brother, someone that he has looked up to for many years, and still looked up to him, even while they were fighting. They have similar paths and similar backgrounds and of being similar minds, these two really reflect each other but while one was able to hone his mind the other did not. He wanted to go easy on him because of their brotherhood and in fact, does time and time again, going easy on them because he doesn’t want to hurt his family. He sees Iron Fan as his sister-in-law and Bull King as his brother but because of his actions toward the child, they refused to help him in his quest. And this kind of tension and stress kept building and building until Wukong had to completely destroy their brotherhood and arrest Bull King, Wukong knew he couldn't leave without the fan else their entire journey would be put to a halt but both Iron Fan Princess and Demon Bull King refused to help Wukong, rather wishing to hinder his quest. And I think that kind of betrayal, no matter how emotionally justified, still hurts because Wukong is a very family-oriented guy. And I think that this arc being right after the Six Ears arc is a coincidence as that arc was supposed to symbolize Wukongs own turning point within the journey and now we get to see how Wukong is shedding his past relationships in order to move forward with his new life. Bull King was another reminder of his warlord years and well I’m sure he would never want to hurt his family… sometimes cutting people out of your life is the best way to move forward and heal at least in the circumstances. Also, Bajie being constantly there assisting Wukong and all the fights kind of shows how Wukong has moved on from his old brotherhood and has gained a new one. Wukong faced off against Bull Demon but at the same time, they are at a stalemate until Wukong gets backup from Nezha. The prototype for Bull Demon was Demon Bull Xisuo from “往世书” where Xisuo was an incarnation of Ashura and planned on doing harm to the world and was only stopped because the multi-armed goddess Durga was able to subdue him. This might make a connection to why Nezha who also had a multi-armed form, was the one to subdue Demon Bull King. this one I think, is without a doubt, the hardest fight that Wukong has to go through at least emotionally.
50. Sweeping the pagoda at Sacrifice Kingdom is the fiftieth ordeal [chap. 62]; this within itself wasn’t too much of a trial, but it was a moment that I really enjoyed between Wukong and Sanzang in how Sanzang has made his own promises to himself about sweeping pagodas they visit and how Wukong is insistent, that he still helps and stays up with him. There was no reason for this, no obligation, just Wukong and Sanzang cleaning a room together, which, of course, let the funny to encounter with Benbo'erba (奔波兒灞) and Babo'erben (灞波兒奔) at the top of the tower who just so happened to be bragging about the sacred treasure their master stole and how the monks took the blame for the fallout. Their boss has been causing the town a lot of grief and trouble and as such the monks were being blamed. The first two generations of monks were tortured to death so... extreme. But that wasn’t the trial itself. The real trial was the cleaning aspect, which I think shows that, despite all the demon fighting that was to still be considered of the utmost importance. This is probably the first time we see Wukong and Sanzang doing so domesticated together and I think it hits home how Wukong's change of mind and heart has affected how he interacts with those around him.
51. Recovering the treasure to save the monks is the fifty-first ordeal [chap. 63]; this one was more for the sake of clearing, the monks of this kingdom were blamed for the stolen treasure which is the Rishi mushroom (part of transitional Chinese medicine). It was stolen by the local dragons, and also the Nine-Headed Insect (九頭蟲) that convinced the Wansheng Dragon King (万圣龙王) his father-in-law and Wansheng Princess (萬聖公主) his wife and to do so. Wanseng Dragon wasn't always this high and mighty, between his Son-in-law's persuasion and his backing from Bull Demon King he became quite bold with his power. He was the one that Bull Demon King stopped his fight with Wukong so go have tea with. Friendship with Wukong has died, new friend is Wangsheng Draong King. This arc does tie in with another legend about the Nine-Heads which is why he got away with the story. It is because he’s actually connected to another legend. The Nine-Heads was most likely inspired by the Nine-Headed Bird from "Shan Hai Jing Da Huang Bei Jing" and how the legends grew that a house of blood drops will be blamed on them, similar to what happened in the story. Quan Xiaotian was about to bite off one of his heads before he ran away. And also it was just great to see Erlang Shen and how he and Wukong became sworn Brothers as well. (Please note that for years I was duped by the 1986 series into thinking the Wansheng Princess and Bailong were ex-finances like I believed that for YEARS). But also I have already done a whole thing as to why Wukong was so grateful to Erlang in the first place, mostly being that he was under the family-ties punishment order and he was supposed to kill all of Wukong's little suns, but give them time to hide and let them live, hence why Wukong is so grateful that he had a family to come home to. I could go on for days about Erlang and his importance and how he foils Wukong's own story but this is his only major character appearance.
52. Chanting poetry at the Brambled Forest is the fifty-second ordeal [chap. 64]; this one was particularly said, in some instances as this was one of the few times Sanzang was kidnapped by demons (that is common enough) but rather than trying to eat him or sexually harass him, instead spend the entire chapter reciting poetry to one another and talking about philosophy. Sanzang spends most of this chapter with three spirits Shiba Gong (勁節十八公), Guzhi Gong (孤直公), Lingkongzi (凌空子), and Fuyun Sou (拂雲叟), and their servants Naked demon (赤身鬼) and Apricot Immortal (杏仙) Sanzang has shown time, and time again that he does value all life and that includes demons as well. He doesn’t like the idea of Wukong killing them he does ask Wukong to spare them when he can... he just usually never gets a chance as they are already dead by the time he is recused. He never really gets a chance to show this kind of appreciation for life, because while Wukong does try to kill the demon to save Sanzang there are a lot of demons that are arrested and sent back to heaven. And I think that this is a great chapter to show how Sanzang does enjoy talking philosophy with other people, but it also shows how he would ever enjoy interacting with other Yaoguai when they are not harming him. Sanzang even asks Bajie to spare them in his rampage as while they did try to push Sanzang to marry Apricot Immortal he didn't think they actually hurt him. Wukong claims that even yaoguai that go through self-cultivation eventually give in and try to mooch off qi off of humans, as that is the quickest and easiest way to cultivate. Wukong has always had a “hit first, question later” mindset and I think it’s really submitted hear how he even treats Yaoguai similar to his warlord days with an iron fist. And perhaps how his empathy still needs room to grow.
53. Meeting disaster at Little Thunderclap is the fifty-third ordeal [chap. 65]; this was doing the fight with Yellow Brows Great King (黃眉大王) and when he was impersonating Buddha. Something I find very interesting is how Wujing, Bajie, and Sanzang all fell for his track, but Wukong KNOWS Buddha. Yes, fought with him, but definitely knows a fake when he sees it. Funny enough this guy isn’t trying to kill them for the sake of trying to gain immortality rather it’s similar to Six Ears desire for fame and glory particularly he says he’s after the right fruit. He wishes to be the one to deliver the scriptures to China and I think this is because he is also a fallen celestial that was a disciple of Maitreya Buddha. This one is a lot of Sanzang lamenting that Wukong was right and how he should’ve listened, which is very cathartic. But this could be an allegory about how the heavens aren’t perfect either and how anyone can be susceptible to their own desires if they let them get the best of them. Hence, why cultivation and practice are always a continual thing rather than a destination and you always have to keep yourself in check
54. The celestial gods being imprisoned is the fifty-fourth ordeal [chap. 66]; But also, this is another enemy that is extremely hard for Wukong to face head-on because of the magical items that he possesses the Golden Cymbals. While they did break that treasure he had another treasure to trap Wukong and his reinforcements in a bag. Twice. It starts to get very frustrating every time Wukong has to get more reinforcements to help his previous reinforcements. This leads to a lot of humiliation on Wukongs enough to make him cry and leads to him also having to use more elaborate schemes in order to defeat him… schemes which include turning into a watermelon seed to be eaten and jumping inside his belly until he gives up. Always a classic.
55. Being blocked by filth at Pulpy Persimmon Alley is the fifty-fifth ordeal [chap.67]; this one’s probably a very forgettable chapter as Python Demon (蟒蛇精) in this chapter doesn’t actually speak because it is said that she is not cultivated enough to speak. She has to rely on eating humans to cultivate rather than practicing, hence the increase in human killings. It is definitely a larger version of his animal form but she has not yet reached a humanoid form, just making her a giant monster at the moment. This one’s more banter between Wukong and Bajie when it came to them, trying to trap this demon together and honestly, I really did enjoy more of the interaction, in this chapter rather than any overarching themes, I believe. Wukong is again eaten by this demon and just grows until he punches a hole in her belly to kill her. Wukong considered this one of the weak demons he has encountered due to her low cultivation. But overall this was a good example of how Yaoguai try desperately to eat humans in order to take on a humanoid form of their own. Another popular legend of a snake demon is from “The White Snake,” where a Yaoguai and a human fall in love and it’s a forbidden tragic romance. That actually has no connection with this demon sadly, but I still thought that referencing other similar demon types could still provide some kind of insight.
56. Applying medication at the Scarlet-Purple Kingdom is the fifty-sixth ordeal [chaps. 68-69]; this is one of my favorite chapters, mostly because of the comedic aspects again. This one is about how Wukong ropes Bajie into agreeing that they are going to heal King Zhu Ziguo by taking a piece of paper and Wukong shoving it in Bajie's back pocket for a prank. The entire palace is terrified of what they look like having Wukong before medical practices behind a curtain at first. But this really shows Wukong's ingenuity and creativity when it comes to talking his way out of situations. The best example of this is how Wukong demands a little bit of every kind of medicine they have just so when he creates the end product no one in the kingdom is able to replicate what kind of medicine he did create. The creation itself has actually been of soot from a frying pan and Bailong’s own urine. Apparently, it has magical properties which I cannot deny but also that they had to ask BaiLong in the first place is absolutely hilarious to me. And then he proceeded to ask Ao Guang for rain, which last-minute the best he could do is sneeze a few times without his rain equipment leading to two kinds of dragon fluids in the medicine.'
57. Healing fatigue and infirmity is the fifty-seventh ordeal [chaps. 68-69]; Despite the questionable materials that Wukong used within the medicine in the end he was actually able to heal the king from his ailments, as he has shown that he just needed another, push to finally get himself out of bed so to speak. I’m not sure how much of the dragon fluids what part of that or if perhaps it was a placebo effect, but in the end, what mattered was that king was more than convinced that he was all healed up and then proceeded to say the source of his ailment started when he game depression from losing his wife. The reason he was fated to lose his wife was that he once shot two young birds, male, and female, children of the Bodhisattva Peacock King. After the Peacock King repented and the Buddha Mother ordered the king to suffer for three years losing his own mate, and he became ill.
58. Subduing monster to recover a queen is the fifty-eighth ordeal [chaps. 69-71]; Wukong was able to infiltrate Sai Tai Sui (賽太歲) lair and even have the kidnapped queen who was his hostage help steal Saitaisui's magical treasures the Purple Gold Bells while he was under the disguise of Spring Grace (春娇), the queen's demon servant. It was with this help that Wukong was able to defeat him. The queen was protected all these years with his own treasure the Five-Colored Dress which made it impossible for anyone to touch her from Immortal Ziyang. It’s actually quite lovely to see how Wukong even cooperates with the captives in their own escape plan, as they already have a trusted position with the demon. Wukong disguises himself as Going and Coming (有来有去) and once he gets the treasure he still wanted to keep the treasure for himself, but in the end, Wukong shows how his patients and planning were able to win another battle. This demon was Guanyin's celestial beast that escaped heaven, her wolf mount, and she was glad to take him back to heaven.
59. Delusion by the seven passions is the fifty-ninth ordeal [chap. 72]; this one was quite sad to me, only in the fact that Sanzang insisted on being the one to get water on his own, as a thank you to his disciples for always being the ones to get food and water for him. He wanted to start putting in his own work, despite just being a human and leading by example. Sadly, this does lead him to be the only one to encounter the seven Spider Demons (蜘蛛精) and of course, being taken back to their home. Despite all his attempts to leave peacefully, he was unable to do so and even pleaded with them to let them go else they might have to face his disciples. In the end, I just find it quite sad to think that, despite him trying to just get something as simple as water he was punished for such things. The seven spider sisters are supposed to resemble the seven emotions so there’s a lot of symbolism with the sisters themselves. There is also an appearance of Wukong fighting the seven sisters and seven adopted sons, listed as Bee (蜜), Hornet (蚂), Cockroach (蠦), Cantharis (班), Grasshopper (蜢), Maggot (蜡), and Dragonfly (蜻). All of them were given the choice of either being adopted or eaten by the sisters... they choose "forced adoption".
60. Being wounded by Many Eyes is the sixtieth ordeal [chap. 73]; Wukong was very much solo in this arc of this kind of journey as his companions have been poisoned and leaving them unconscious by the Hundred-Eyed Demon Lord (百眼魔君) who is the elder brother of the seven spider sisters. But their brother they did not share a cultivation master, but rather simply cultivated together by proximity. Wukong is actually very distraught for a lot of the chapter over the idea that his companions might really be dead. Hundred Eyes is powerful in that his eyes can produce golden lights that still inflict damage on Wukong's body of gold and steel. It’s only when he’s able to receive help by searching for his natural enemy himself that he was able to get what he needed not even from a person, but rather the same person that he used to fight the Scorpion Demon, the Star official Pleides... who is still a chicken. It was only with that chicken they were was able to subdue the centipede demon at the cost of his sisters. While the sisters call Hundred Eyes when Wukong held them hostage, Wukong offered to release them for the exchange of his party. The sisters begged their senior brother, but the senior brother abandoned them for eating Sanzang and as such Wukong took the sisters lives for his choice. The man was able to be subdued himself and even taken in by Plian who said he will keep him as his mountain's guardian, similar to Balck Wind Spirit and Gunayin. He was able to keep his life but this shows that even those that you considered family do not always have your best interests in heart and might betray you for their own selfish needs.
61. The way blocked at the Lion-Camel Kingdom is the sixty-first ordeal [chaps. 74-75]; this is arguably the largest amount of enemies that Wukong was forced to face and it is a possibility that Wukong could just go headfirst and defeat all of them. He does say he could make his staff as larger as a mountain range and smash his enemies to death. But the amount of damage that it could cost to the landscape and even leaving his party behind could have unspeakable consequences. Rather, it was so clever and amazing for Wukong to go behind, enemy territory, disguised himself as Small Wind Cutter (小钻风), and uncover information about his enemies, which is always a delight to see how Wukong it’s very clever and so charismatic that he’s able to sync on his feet quickly. Immediately he is indoctrinated within a demon army that they just give him all the information about their kings, Golden Winged Great Peng (金翅大鵬雕), Yellow Toothed Elephant (黃牙老象), and Azure Lion (青毛獅子) and be able to make plans for how to counteract the demons of camel ridge. We see a lot of changes in his reaction throughout this journey especially now that he’s actually becoming more remorseful when it comes to killing Yaoguai and especially when it comes to the protectiveness he feels for his group. If anything, this is a great chapter as it’s three-on-three with Peng, Elephant, and Lion verse Wujing, Bajie, and Wujing respectively. The Lion has the power to swallow enemies whole, Elephant can use their nose to capture people, and Peng with his golden wings to move faster than anyone else. Peng ate the king of Lion Camel Country 500 years ago, right after Wukong was imprisoned. He was the one to team up with Lion and Elephant to defeat Sun Wukong with their combined strength.
62. The fiends divided into three colors is the sixty-second ordeal [chaps. 74-77]; Wukong's first mission in order to counteract these demons is when it comes to trying to separate the group into three parts, leaving them far more defenseless than they have originally been. By creating rumors and lies within the ranks, he was able to disband the army by the thousands as they all left the stations leaving the path between his party and the other side of the mountain more unguarded than they originally planned. It was also through this that Wukong was able to even infiltrate their own caves and see these demons firsthand. Honestly, the amount of gaslighting Wukong does on these demons is actually masterful, and it kind of goes into that saying how knowledge is the most powerful weapon in any warfare kind of ideology. Also, very interesting to see Wukong very much voicing out to the younger demons that they are not going to get any benefits from serving their kings, very much a kind of rebellious attitude that I think follows him heavily down the line. While Wukong does disband the armies he still gets caught by the kings for a moment, first in Peng's flask which he had to use his three hairs gifted by Guanyin to escape, and the second being drunk by Lion and punishing his way in his stomach. He also breaks his teeth when trying to bite down on him but he bit on his Iron cudgel instead and then tying him up and has the other two surrender... only to fight Elephant later.
63. Meeting calamity in the city is the sixty-third ordeal [chaps. 76-77]; Sadly despite best efforts Sanzang is still captured and taken to the demon city that we have created. This is only because Wukong was able to capture Elephant and keep him hostage. He knew when he was captured by his trunk to just stab him from Bajie's advice, but Sanzang truly believing that the demons have learned a lesson asks for Wukong to let them go once Elephant says they will just escort them out of the mountain and they can continue living in their demon city. Sadly, Peng finds that he cannot live with a slight. Despite Wukong subduing Lion and Elephants he still left them alive and Peng organized another attack, tricking the party and leading to Sanzang being captured. This again leads to another battle between all six of them with Wukong fighting Peng, Bajie fighting Elephant, and Wujing fighting Lion. Which does end with the entire pilgrimage being captured due to their secret abilities until Wukong is able to escape and stop them from being cooked alive in a giant steam pot. However, Peng hearing this, spreads the rumor that Sanzang has already been eaten, trying to deter Wukong from saving him. Instead, this plan backfires and leads to Wukong and Bajie destroying the entire demon city and the entire mountain once they heard rumors that Sanzang was eaten and plan to avenge in a single night by destroying the entire demon army and kingdom. Teamwork makes the dream work!
64. Requesting Buddha to subdue the demons is the sixty-fourth ordeal [chap. 77]; Wukong actually goes to Buddha himself once he believes that Sanzang is dead to complain about how he could do this to him. Wukong went in and destroyed the entire city of demons to avenge his master but it still didn't bring him back, he was distraught and blamed Buddha himself for doing this to him. He goes right to Western Heaven to blame Buddha for this enough and there he demands that he fulfill Sanzang's mission himself as his last wish or for Buddha to let him go since he just plans on playing these games. Of course, Buddha explains to him that Sanzang is not dead in his mission and isn’t destroyed, but in fact, goes himself to take down the demons as one of them is, in fact, his uncle, due to interesting relationships. This is what led to the Lion, Elephant, and Peng are to be taken back as heavenly beasts. Lion is the steed of Manjusri Bodhisattva and escaped earlier as well when he was the Lion-Lynx King and pretending to be a prince's dad. The Elephant is the steed of Puxian Bodhisattvawho was actually blown down to earth by the Yellow Wind Demon who was one of the first demons. Being the six-tusked white elephant means he was most likely inspired by Sakyamuni and his white elephants that he road with six tusks as well. The white elephant holds a lot of symbolism connected to Bodhisattvas showing his connection to heaven. And Peng is the most connected to the heavens, making him the eldest brother of the trio as he is to be subdued by the Tathagata Buddha himself, similar to how Wukong had to be subdued by him. Peng tried to fight off Tathagata but as Lion and Elephant were panicking at their own masters he was quickly taken down. Peng was a descendant of a phoenix and his sister a Peacock as another demon that ate Tathagata Buddha. Instead of killing the Peacock, Tathagata Buddha made her his godmother, making Peng his Uncle, hence their connection. Pengs, or rather Garudas, are known to be dragon eaters in Indian mythos, being their natural predators but they are usually seen as more positive symbols in literal beyond Xiyouji or even Fengshen Yanyi. The Golden Peng here is VERY similar to Wukong in both his arrogance and his symbolism. Great Peng is also an of the unity of the Buddha and the demon, similar to Wukong as well, but while Peng was given his stance in Buddhism, he rejected it for the sake of glory, while Wukong is working TOWARDS that stance of enlightenment. They are reverse mirrors of each other, coming from different backgrounds but having similar fillings in life for their pursuit of powers. Peng and Wukong are both cunning and clever but while Peng was fighting to become glorious, Wukong fights with himself to become a better person.
65. Rescuing the lads at Bhiksu is the sixty-fifth ordeal [chap. 78]; this one was definitely one of the most convoluted trials as this was a White Deer Spirit (白鹿精) tricking the King of Bhiksu into thinking that his illness can only be healed with the hearts of 10,000 baby boys. Sanzang is moved to compassion and asks Wukong to save the boys he gets thousands of local spirits to take the boys into the woods, and feeds them fruits until he’s cleared up the mess with the kingdom. The mess was White Deer being the King’s father-in-law, and saying that this was the best way for him to heal. There’s a very funny moment where Wukong is pretending he is Sanzang because now the White Deer is saying that they should just eat Sanzang and I’m not sure if a human would gain immortality by eating Sanzang but I think it’s safe to say he’s been very much manipulated. Wukong pretends to be Sanzang when he is asked for his heart, Wukong literally starts ripping out nine hearts from his chest and says he doesn’t have a black heart to give. I think this shows how he thinks of Sanzang and how he greatly enjoys using his body to scare his enemies. White Deer Spirit was originally the mount of the Star of Antarctica and escaped when he was not paying attention, also stealing his panlong crutch as a weapon.
66. Distinguishing the true from the deviate is the sixty-sixth ordeal [chap. 79]; Sadly White Deer's plan to use his adopted daughter White-Faced Vixen Spirit (白面狐狸) is what leads to her own death as she was the one in charge of feeding lies to the king and uncovering her as a demon trying to use him for power. White Deer has the audacity to try to defend himself saying that he should be allowed to practice his own beliefs, but Wukong quickly shuts that down when he says that it doesn’t come at the cost of sacrificing literally thousands of other lives for his own selfish benefits, which I think shows his own kind of growth of how he shouldn’t sacrifice other for the sake of his own gains. Similar to how Wukong showed very little empathy for his sworn brothers' armies in the past (while Wukong's army was safe his sworn brothers' armies were captured by the heavens), and now see how he is changing his worldview that it doesn’t matter who you sacrifice know when it should be the cost of your own benefit. Similar to how White Deer is subdued, but in the end it cost him his own adopted daughter White Vixen who died. The Vixen is a symbol of how often foxes are used to symbolize the fall of a country, like in the Nine-Tails Fox story, White Vixen here was poisoning the mind of the king with false promises and using her beauty to cover her scandals. She is killed by Bajie again showing the continuous trend of Bajie being the one to fight demons that use their power of seduction to get what they want.
67. Saving a fiend at a pine forest is the sixty-seventh ordeal [chap. 80]; I find this trial to be absolutely fascinating, especially when it came to like how far the journey mates have come, but also shows that Sanzang still refuses to compromise on his own beliefs. Lady Earth Flow (金鼻白毛老鼠精) is of course, pretending to be a woman in need and while Sanzang is all for helping her Wukong tells him that she could be a demon in disguise that could hurt him. And of course, Bajie says otherwise. If anything Sanzang was actually more prone not to believe Bajie at this point, especially when he accused Wukong of just wanting to sleep with the woman himself, and Sanzang knowing Bajie is lying at that point started to walk away from the fiend. But she played the old “what kind of monk doesn’t help someone who asks for help” and Sanzang does feel guilty for compromising his morals. He explains to Wukong that while he does agree that there was a high chance that she could be a demon in this could all be a trick, he cannot give up a chance to help someone that still calls for help, human or a demon. And it’s that kind of mine said that put him in danger a lot but it’s also that kind of mine said that I think is very hard to keep especially after everything he’s been through. He’s still willing to put himself in danger if that means he can help someone that’s actually in need. Yes, that could be considered very foolish of him, but I think it also shows that he’s still very brave as well, that he doesn’t want to become someone that questions every single person he helps just for the sake of himself.
68. Falling sick in a priestly chamber is the sixty-eighth ordeal [chap. 81]; this chapter is very interesting because it actually dives into what the Golden Cicada actually did in order to be forced down to earth to live out 10 lifetimes. This is the only real connection we get to learn about the Golden Cicada as a lot of this before it’s just brushing off his punishment of defying the scripture in a vague way. And honestly, it’s understandable because the Golden Cicada really isn’t that vital to the story, rather, this is just about Sanzang’s own merit. I think a lot of people get confused that Sanzang was chosen because he was the Golden Cicada, but I really don’t think that’s the case. Rather Sanzang was chosen because of what he has accomplished, hence why GuanYin had to go look for someone to complete the mission in the first place. She didn’t immediately suggest him and that wasn’t the entire plan, but rather it was just the perfect opportunity for Sanzang to live out his final 10th lifetime and because of what he has accomplished in the past before. Sanzang has done a lot of work himself, and it is a shame when people usually brush it off to think it’s just because of who he used to be rather than who he is. He does fall ill and Wukong and the gang stay at a monastery for him to heal up and rest. Meanwhile, a certain female demon is keeping her distance but rather aiming for OTHER monks in the meantime.
69. Being imprisoned at the Bottomless Cave is the sixty-ninth ordeal [chaps. 81-83]; this is of course when Lady Earth Flow finally shows her true colors, and it shows that she is in fact, a Yaoguai. Surprisingly took quite a while, and she even waited until after Sanzang was feeling better to kidnap him, of course. In the meantime, she kidnapped other monks, making the whole vibe of the arc kind of like a murder mystery, but it really wasn’t in murder mystery because it’s very obvious that it was her. But to the rest of the monks, they were just wondering who could be attacking them while Wukong immediately confronted her but sadly she was able to slip away and steal Sanzang. Wukong was able to infiltrate the cave and see that she recognized King Li and Nezha as both her godfather and godbrother that he went to heaven to confront them. From there, they accused him of lying and tired him up with rope and the whole debacle of Wukong not wanting to sue King Li. This led to one thing after another, honestly of trying to appease Wukong who wanted to roll all the way to the jade emperor’s court to sue. Luckily, the star of Venus was able to come and down, and of course, Nezha and King Li were able to get the lost adopted relative under control. She was a heavenly pest in heaven, a golden nose albino rate, and was considered to be the Banquan Guanyin as she took two candle sticks from Tathagata after being vouched by King Li and Nezha she was renamed Banquan Guanyin and took on the mantle Lady Earth Flow.
There is legends of Cintāmaṇi or the 如意寶珠 a wish-fulfilling jewel within both Hindu and Buddhist traditions. The Cintāmaṇi is one of several Mani Jewel images found in Buddhist scripture. Later texts portray the Mani Gem in an unexpected way. It was said to have been owned by the god Indra in the beginning, but it fell to the ground during a conflict with the Asuras, granting the wishes of those who possess it. The Mani Pearl is also spewed out by the Treasure-Vomiting Rat/Ferret(吐宝鼠) in Vaisravana's hand. The rat is on a lot of statues of Vaisravana in the Devaraja Halls but the few Tibetan buddhist temples have the rat actually spewing out pearls that gathered in a bowl at the bottom of the wall painting. This rat is probably an inspiration for Lady Earth Flow being the adopted daughter of Li Jing, who merged with most of Vaisravana's iconography
70. Difficulty in going through Dharma-Destroying Kingdom is the seventieth ordeal [chap. 84]; this one was more insane over how in the first place this all came to be. The Ruler of the Kingdom of Miefa (滅法國) has slaughtered 9,996 monks within his kingdom within just 2 years and was aiming to go for 10,000 monks to kill. Not only is this just a ludicrous amount of people dying within the time frame, but specifically that he wanted to kill monks because priests in the past have 'slandered' them. Gee, I wondered why. The gang tries to bypass through under the disguise of merchants but are trapped in wardrobe boxes when trying to hide and are taken to the king directly as the boxes were "stolen goods." But Wukong at this point has stopped himself from attacking first and asking questions later, showing that he rather use manipulation tactics to show people the error of their ways. Wukong in the middle of the night, he made thousands of razor blades and decides to shave every head within the kingdom, not a single head was spared in that whole kingdom to make them all look like monks as well. Luckily this entire act was met with the king humbling himself a great amount when Sanzang and company came in to ask for permission for the travel receipts. If anything Wukong was the one really leading the situation, changing the foundation of an entire kingdom enough that they changed the name to Dharma-Honoring Kingdom. Really shows what a leader Wukong can be and how intelligent he is to convince an entire kingdom.
71. Meeting demons at Mist-Concealing Mountain is the seventy-first ordeal [chaps. 85-86]; this one, in particular, is one of the most emotional chapters, without a doubt as this is another chapter where the King of the Southern Hill (南山大王) tricks Wukong, Bajie, and Wujing into believing that Sanzang was eaten, and in fact, he gives them a fake human head to sell it. Wukong at first sees through the first deceptions but when they are given a real human head (of someone else) this lead to them all mourning Sanzang. This demon knows that he is not strong enough to actually fight Wukong head-on, and is one of the few demons we see that doesn’t have a treasure or special ability to fight Wukong. He understands he’s not strong enough and thus he has to use more tactics than usual with the help of his vanguard Iron Backed Grey Wolf (铁背苍狼). It’s actually very sad to see how much the gang goes through the morning process because they think Sanzang is truly dead. Big mistake on the Southern Hill King's part in thinking that they would leave after three days of mourning because instead of leaving or anything like that, Wukong and Bajie both agree that they should avenge the master and kill every demon within the cave, and then burn the cave to the ground. Not a lot of symbolism, though it’s very straightforward, especially when it comes to avenging one's master but it’s great teamwork to be seen and the reunion is absolutely adorable. Wukong back and forth between saving Sanzang from his ropes and killing the passed-out demon not knowing which is the better option. But Sanzang gives thanks to the dead man whose real head was used because if it was not for him, his disciples wouldn’t have tried to invade the cave and then save him in the process. The demon was said to cause havoc in the Zheyue Lianhuan Cave of Yinwu Mountain, referring to Mount Zhongnan, which is one of the birthplaces of Taoism and an excellent place to cultivate immortals. This leopard spirit claims to be the king of the southern hill, but he is boasting as the narrator in the original book calls him the old monster of the southern island.
72. Seeking rain at Phoenix-Immortal Prefecture is the seventy-second ordeal [chap. 87]; this one, in particular, is more about how Heaven interacts with the Earth, and how heads of state or responsible for their people in particular. It’s common in Chinese mythos, that if there’s ever a great famine, or if there are just natural disasters, it is to be blamed on the current king or person in charge of the province. And this was a way of saying the person in charge at the moment is a bad omen, and that should either be removed from power or they appease heaven forever for crimes they commit. This includes usually tax refunds, pardoning people, and giving back to the community in some way or form in order to not only appease the community doing these hard times but also to appease heaven. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t. And in this case, the King of Phoenix-Immortal Prefecture (凤仙郡王), insulted Heaven by flipping a table when his wife gave him some terrible news. As such the land around him with the drought for about three years. The king was unaware of his crimes because he was in a fit of rage and once he was able to rectify said crimes rain was able to come back to the prefect.
73. Losing their weapons is the seventy-third ordeal [chap. 88]; this chapter is focused on Wukong, Bajie, and Wujing's weapons because this is the chapter where the three all take on disciples that is in the form of three princes. They were so incredibly amazed by the gang's magical powers and weapons, that they practically beg to be taught under them. Of course, because the princes want little copies of the masters' weapons, the weapons were sent to the forge to get measured. Sadly, when they were out of the sites was when Tawny Lion Demon (黃獅精) was able to snag them in the middle of the night. This does lead to more shenanigans than originally thought, but it’s quite interesting to see how Wukong was able to bless these princes with supernatural powers in order to keep them strong and young even longer than they originally intended. Luckily, Wukong has about to find out where their weapons were taken thanks to Shifty (刁钻古怪) and Freaky (古怪刁钻), two demons that were talking too loud. It is noted that these demons do not usually involve themselves in the affairs of humans and were considered to be very low-key until this point.
74. The festival of the rake is the seventy-fourth ordeal [chap. 89]; the original weapons were going to be taken by the Tawny Lion and like his six other brothers, Gibbon-Lion (猱獅) Snow Lion (雪獅) Suanyi (狻猊) Baize (白澤) Wildcat (伏狸) Elephant-Baiter (摶象) who just wanted to go for that fame and recognition from the weapon festival that was to be held soon. Wukong, Bajie, and Wujing designed themselves to be Shifty, Freaky, and a goose header to infiltrate inside. I do enjoy this as this is the first time we see Wujing use his transformation powers and the group's first infiltration mission together. The demons seem to have often made trade with humans and even buy their food stock supplies from them. they were not about to make it far as another demon Child Blue Face was able to call them out on their inconstancies. It is revealed that these seven brothers are the god-grandson of a heavenly beast Grand Saint of Nine Spirits (九靈元聖) and feel the right to take the weapons. I can’t say too much about the implications of this battle but I do want to just reiterate how the heavenly beast often wants to go down to earth, and why did they adopt other demons into the family or simply create a new family it is quite often to be met with disaster, how they brought them into the schemes. Funny enough while Nine Spirit is high in power he does not have a humanoid form yet, whether it be from his own choice or that he hasn't had enough time to cultivate one, he still was able to amass an army and speak without any trouble. But it is nice to see demon civilizations that are not hunted down just for being demons, rather it is always a moment of being provoked on either side that starts this conflict, and in this case, it is theft.
75. Meeting disaster at Bamboo-Knot Mountain is the seventy-fifth ordeal [chap. 90]; it was definitely at the height of the battle after losing his grandchildren does Nine Spirits finally joins the battle, does more clever tricks of trying to figure out who these people are, and from there Wukong finds Nine Spirits' owner Tianzun in order to wrangle him in. In the end, it’s very sad to say that the runaway heavenly beast lost all his grandchildren because of this constant battle between the two. If anything, I do find it kind of a reflection of how Wukong also treated his subjects as his own grandchildren and what kind of devastation it would feel to lose any of them. Wukong lost his own subjects, those that he saw as his own adopted grandkids and similar Nine Spirit lost all seven of his adopted grandsons. Nine Spirits at this point did not kidnap Sanzang for the sake of immortality but rather wanted vengeance for his own children’s lives. While he was a loving grandfather he still indulged in his grandchildren's theft when he knew they were outgunned from the start, leading to the loose of all his family. He does kidnap the princes and all of the group other than Wukong but the main idea was to have revenge for his little lions rather than the idea of eating.
76. Suffering at Mysterious Flower Cave is the seventy-sixth ordeal [chap. 91]; this one was just sad how Sanzang can’t even do a simple thing like worshiping without the risk of being kidnapped. Wukong just let him out of the site for a single second and the Yaoguai pounced on it, just a second before Wukong could warn Sanzang to look out. This one is mostly dealing with three demons King of Cold Protection (辟寒大王), King of Heat Protection (辟暑大王), and King of Dust Protection (辟塵大王) that have been tricking a monastery into that they are Buddhist deities and have been stealing the oil supply the entire time. At this particular moment, when Sanzang was bowing to give respect Wukong was just a fraction too late to tell him about his suspicions and Sanzang was quickly winded away. I actually really enjoy this chapter for the sole purpose that Sanzang tries to warn his kidnappers not to take him, and actually brags about his disciples. It makes the demons more alarmed, but he did try to spare their lives. At this point, Sanzang knows strong demons versus weaker demons and does try to give them a warning about his disciples for their own sake. Even when the rhinos plan to eat him quickly, Wukong, Bajie, and Wujing are already at their door and they try to hide Sanznag.
77. Capturing the rhinoceroses is the seventy-seventh ordeal [chap. 92]; Sadly despite being on time to stop the demons, Wujing and Bajie do get kidnapped themselves and Wukong need it back up to save them. This leads to him asking the four-star offices to help with taking them down, and they tried to run away to the west, the Dragon Prince of the West Sea, Ao Moang, (Bailong's brother) stops them and helps Wukong in their capture. They are about to free Bajie and Wujing and Bajie killed Cold Protection, but they were able to arrest Dust Protection and Heat Protection who would be executed. Kind of brutal, but it is interesting to see how Wukong how has become very well-versed in which criminals go where to be properly charged for their crimes rather than being the executor himself. Something that he has brought about is that he knows exactly who to go to, and for what solution as he has ties with every person. I think it kind of just pushes on the fact that Wukong rather than being seen as the only one of his kind, rather sees himself as being connected to everyone and therefore can go where he pleases to get help, advice, or backup.
78. Being forced to marry at India is the seventy-eighth ordeal [chaps. 93-95]; this one is a personal favorite as it doesn’t get a lot of attention, but the Jade Rabbit Spirit (玉兔精) is the enemy of this particular arc where she is trying to sleep with Sanzang under the guise of being the princess. The Jade Rabbit already has a lot of lore behind them, and this one is quite interesting how instead of playing a pet, or at least a supporting role, they are the antagonist within the story. In the end, it actually touches back to Bajie and his connection with Chang’e as they had to get her to retrieve her pet back to the Moon Palace. They have to go to a kingdom to find the real princess but once the real princess has been revealed, Jade Rabbit does kidnap Sanzang for a while instead of trying to play princes any longer. This is supposed to be another test of preserving one’s body, which Sanzang completes flawlessly, and even Wujing has some great one-liners in this. Bajie despite all that he has done so far, still shows that he is head over heels for Chang’e still for one seeing her Wukong has to slap him out of his stupor. The Jade Rabbit usually smashes medicine in the Moon Palace but this time they slipped out of the palace and fled to earth and took over the appearance of Princess of Tianzhu who was reincarnated by Su'e. Su'e was a fairy that kicked the Jade Rabbit while in the Moon Palace, something that the Jade Rabbit still has a grudge against, and thus in Su'e reincarnation, the Jade Rabbit planned to have revenge by taking her likeness and kidnapping Sanzang to be her husband as the cherry on top. There are serval legends of the Jade Rabbit, one being that they are Hou Yi transformed by the Jade Emporer after his shooting of the ten suns and another is that they were once owned by the Queen Mother and a gift to Chang'e who was turned into a toad when she came to the Moon Palace to have a partner to help her create medicine. However, the toad legend was dropped cause it wasn't that popular with people when it came to Chang'e's beauty. Another legend has it that Wu Gang, the woodcutter on the moon was offered a meal by a fox, monkey, and rabbit. The fox and monkey gave him food but the rabbit offered itself and threw itself in the fire. As such Wu Gang and Chang'e were so moved that the rabbit became immortal and became the Jade Rabbit. Another is that the Jade Rabbit is one of the zodiac animals under the Jade Emporer. Or that the Jade Rabbit is actually the incarnation of Chang'e. In Taoism, the Jade Rabbit is often opposite to the Golden Crow, representing the coordination of yin and yang in the cultivation of the golden elixir. There are a lot of legends is what I'm trying to say.
79. Jailed at Bronze Estrade Prefecture is the seventy-ninth ordeal [chap. 97]; this one is absolutely one such defining chapter because it is a reflection of the first arc that Wukong and Sanzang went on together. Because in this one, they also face robbers that have come to steal from them. But rather than in the original site where Wukong fought the six robbers and let them get a few hits on him so he could kill them… can you freeze in them all and ties them up so they can be properly arrested for their crimes. This is such a big difference from where he was at the start of the journey, where he would just kill them for their transgressions, but it shows that he found it recognizes that he knows how powerful he could be, and while yes he could kill them without any effort, he decides to subdue the humans rather than killing them, and I think this shows growth from his past actions to his present actions. Of course, they still get blamed for the murder of Squire Kou (寇洪) because they were the 'last people there' when it was actually the robbers they just arrested. Kou was a kind man trying to feed 10,000 monks and he just reached 9,996 when he was luckily visited by the gang to complete his number. Sadly, he was killed the next morning and his family wanted swift justice, and his wife made it to frame Sanang and the gang as she blamed them for this calamity in the first place. They have to spend the night in jail but Wukong just pretends he’s a ghost, and told them to let them go, get the robber's testimonies, or else he’ll still haunt them. The wife admits her false allegations from fright and the four are sent off again. Wukong even goes to Hell to make sure that Kou gets his life back and even gets to live longer for his good deeds.
80. Delivered of mortal stock at Cloud-Transcending Ferry is the eightieth ordeal [chap. 98]; this one it’s kind of tricky, as technically Sanzang "dies" in this circumstance of events. He goes through a transformation, similar to that of a cicada when he loses his mortal shell in favor of his new immortal body as they watch his old body float down the stream. This can be similar to how he was first brought into the world, floating down the stream to keep him safe and now he is still watching himself float as he enters a new life for himself. The gang watches his body go down the stream as Bajie, Wujing, and Wukong are already immortal and when they finally cross from then on, he finally reaches his long way to go of reaching the Mount. It’s very emotional probably what he has to go through seeing his own model carcass leave him, but in return is the new body he attends. And while this most likely is not a trial I do want to say they were almost ricked by Ananda (阿傩) and Kasyapa (伽叶) two of Buddha's disciples that if they did not bribe them with material goods they wouldn't give the scriptures and while Wukong wished to report them they give in... only to give them FAKE scriptures. They were only aware when White Heroic Honored One warned them and they went straight back to complain and get the real ones. Buddha pardon them saying that since they came in with empty hands they were to get empty scriptures and they could be used as scriptures if one was already enlightened... which is kinda rude considering the scripture were there to help that in the first place. But in the end, gave them his alms bowl, the one that was gifted to him by Gaunyin and funny enough the whole room called the two out for their shameless behavior of asking monks for gifts in the first place. But they still kept the bowl.
81. Thrown off by the White Turtle [chap. 99]; and the final last-minute trial in order for them to reach enlightenment was being thrown off by the Great White Turtle (大白老鼋) and soiling in the scriptures they work so hard to attain. This is the same turtle whose home was taken away by the King of Spiritual Touch and once he was taken back to Guanyin this turtled offered to take them across the large river in promised that Sanzang would have how long he has until he can cultivate into a human body as he is already so old. However with all the confusion, Sanzang forgot to ask Buddha and thus the turtle shakes them off his back, ruining some of the scripture. The four try desperately to salvage what was wet by drying them on a rock and all throughout the night man deities, demons, and spirits tried to take the scriptures if not for Wukong and Sanzang mere presence of enlightenment. Heaven and Earth were both so envious of the descriptions that both gods and demons were trying to snatch them away. The scriptures was dried by some were ripped, leaving their make on the rock and thus it is called Scripture Drying Boulder or something. Wukong in all his wisdom says it is because neither the Heavens nor the Earth is perfect either and as such having perfect scriptures, would not fit such a World. Instead, there should be room for doubt and should be room for ambiguity in order for the world to resonate with the scriptures. I do find it quite philosophically and interesting that a book that is saturated with religious allegories still tries to push for the idea that there should be a sense of searching for one’s own path as well and not all the answers are going to be in scriptures, but rather you’re going to have to take things into your own account of what you believe as well. Also, this is supposed to reference Xuanzang’s own pilgrimage back home and how he also lost some scriptures in a river and spent many years trying to recover that lost information. It’s such a tragedy that he spent so many years getting them, only to lose some on the way back, but I greatly enjoy how Wukong within this novel explains that not everything in the world can be perfect and as such fits to have imperfect scriptures in an imperfect world.
AND THAT IS ALL THE TRAILS IN THE 14-YEAR JOURNEY!
#I know I'm missing stuff and don't take this all to heart it's more observations from a single person and all that.#But this did take me a long time to answer.#I tried to add more linkbut insane enough there is a limit to how many links you can put on tumblr post#I didn't even know that was a thing#Also yes things are mispelled#don't @ me#I barley get along with english#if you want to check out anymore of the demons I wasn't able to link just use Baidu and use the Chinese pinyin#Like for real you can read and translate the information for any eng readers#but I think i said enough#anonymous#anon#anon ask#jttw#journey to the west#xiyouji#sun wukong#zhu bajie#tang sanzang#sha wujing#bailong ma#ao lie#bai longma#literally analysis#yaoguai#demons#deities#celestial#buddha#bodhisattva guanyin
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TL;DR: Steam just made library sharing so much fucking easier and so much fucking better. Instead of login-trading, it's just a simple goddamn invite.
Read this. Really. It's a good read. Because it shows that, full-stop, Valve isn't just doubling down on their stance to make sure that people can and should be able to share their copies of digital goods as easily as they can physical ones, but they're making it better and easier than ever.
But you know how Steam allowed you to, with either friends or family, link accounts with another person to be able to establish an ability to share game libraries with one another? The general gist of Steam Family Sharing was that, with a limit of five people plus you (six in total) on a limit of ten computers total could share account access to willingly mix your libraries. You could play theirs. They could play yours.
This was a huge boon. It was meant to emulate sharing a physical copy of a game. A way to allow children to play games their parents or siblings had bought without having to fork over double the cash to buy it a second game. But it had some major limitations and drawbacks, and was archaic to use.
If a person did not share the same computer, you had to manually log into that computer to give it and the accounts on it access. This wouldn't be a problem if both accounts were used on the same computer, but many households (and astronomically more family and friend groups) had multiple computers, all used by different people.
If that computer, at any point, was hard reset to any point before the sharing occurred, you lost access. And had to do the whole process again. This was also an issue with computer transfers. The whole kit and kaboodle needed to be redone on upgrades. On top of that, the old computer is now just dead weight that you may not realize you have to manually revoke access to.
Putting your account information on another person's computer opens up security issues. They could, intentionally or accidentally, land themselves on your account if the login information was stored. Which could easily lead to purchases or bans you did not want to happen.
If anyone was, at any point, playing any game on their own library, you had no access to their games. Even if it was a totally different game, you had to wait your turn as if waiting for their computer to be freed up to sit at. (Admittedly this is kind of like the "mom said it's my turn on the xbox" meme, but hey, kinda archaic.)
You could not choose whose library you accessed a game from. Not at all. It always prioritized the first library it gained access from, DLC access and multiplayer be damned. If another friend you were accepting games from had more DLC? Too bad.
And yet here we are. Steam Families Beta fixes EVERYTHING about the above issues. By just going through Settings > Interface > client Beta Participation and clicking onto Steam Families Beta? You get:
No more login sharing.
No more computer links.
You can now choose which person's library you borrowed from.
And you can play any other game from someone's library, even while they're in-game. It just needs to be a different game than what they're playing.
Pick five people. Invite them to your family. And now everyone has access to everyone's library. My goddamn library went from 150-ish to almost a goddamn thousand in ten minutes of setup.
Account sharing and password sharing are dirty words that "lose" billions of dollars. Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Max. They aren't game storefronts, but they still allow you to access massive libraries and scream like you murdered their firstborns for daring to share your password with your mother after you moved out.
Microsoft tried pushing to demonize and undercut used games sales and borrowed copies of physical games. Remember the first attempt to reveal the Xbox One? People forget, but these vultures tried to make an always online console that checked to see if you were the account that owned the game, even if you had a physical disc, and prevent access to the disc's contents if you weren't the original downloader.
Valve walked the fuck up.
Valve tapped the mic.
And Valve dropped the fucking thing right onto the ground with one feature's revamp.
About the only issues I can see with this are twofold:
If someone sharing your library gets banned from a game's servers... so do you. No one else in the family does, but the both of you do. This is... rather unpleasant, because banhammers can be dropped quite frequently by mistake. I'd urge Valve to rethink this one, but I see the logic: don't cheat and effectively bite the hand feeding you. Still making me side-eye that, though.
If you leave a family you've joined? You have to wait a YEAR to join a new one. It's to prevent people form jumping ship to another group and screwing over who's in the former one in the process, but a YEAR? OUCH.
Problems aside, though... it's probably the biggest fucking power move I have ever seen a media distributor make in the current economic climate. It's the kind of thing that would let so many new games be available in a way that's easier than ever. Just a few clicks to send or accept an invite, and bam. Permanent access to dozens or even hundreds of new games with so much more freedom than earlier drafts of the system.
It's the kind of thing that slaps you in the face with positivity after so many Ls from the games and media industries. And I'm all the fuck for a W like this.
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I ADORE YOUR WRITING!!
what about a reader who’s unknowingly flirting with the twst wonderland cast (specifically savanclaw, octanaville and diasomnia) because of culture differences and species differences?
e.g petting their ears, giving them gifts, smiling with teeth (bc for moray eels that’s how they mate 👀)
OR fem reader who has her period and some of the twst students can smell it I LITERALLY HAD A NIGHTMARE ABOUT THIS 😭😭😭😭
OMLL I APPRECIATE ITTT!!! sorry for the wait!!! i chose some from each dorm bc of my character limit btw!!
azul ashengrotto
despite how much azul continues to do his best to learn about life on land… relationships are certainly difficult for him to understand sometimes considering how long he has spent his life in the sea and though there are many similarities between merpeople… there are still some differences. once azul is rather close to you he does become unintentionally— clingy with you. (when you two officially get together that's another story) but he has a habit of wanting to lean close to you or have a hand on you in some way, like on the small of your back when showing you something in the mostro lounge.
so needless to say, he is in love with any sort of touch from you he takes that as some sort of hope and sign that you reciprocate how he feels haha. jade and floyd tease him ALL the time about it especially when he was struggling to keep his cool-headed composure after you once gave him a hug after he did something to help you once.
like I've said azul really doesn't think about it or even try to be this way around you he just does aljdfajdkhf. he’ll feel like a smitten fool as he sits in the vip lounge as he's doing papers and just think about how you playfully linked your arm around his to bring him somewhere. small things like that are actually quite big to him when it comes down to the differences.
jade leech
he's aware you probably don't know that you're unknowingly flirting with him, but he finds it amusing and plays along with you, nevertheless. he thinks it's cute that you don't know and all the more enticing, you’ll find him chuckling, trying to hide his grin with his gloved hand “oh my, I didn't know you liked me that much fufu” he’d say. you can't help but feel confused as to what he finds so interesting… like you literally just yawned.
it'll take him a while to actually tell you what it means since he finds the obliviousness to be quite cute. you only put two and two together when he tells floyd about what you did right in front of him and the two laugh about it. now you've got floyd teasing u about it..
like azul he is a little more affectionate just in a different more. in a less obvious fashion, though there definitely have been a few occasions where he likes to bring your hand to his lips and see your reaction, he finds it so amusing. he always has his teethy grin plastered on his face.
leona kingscholar
he hates the way he can always tell when you're wearing cologne or perfume and he hates that he likes it as well, he may or may not be a bit addicted to your scent. he literally can tell if you're near just because he knows the damn fragrance you use.
if you two are particuarly close... like him falling asleep around you and such. if you happen to pet his head and his ears, he immediately shoots you this look then mumbles something before being too tired to do anything about it or give you some retort. he just lets it happen... he does enjoy it anyway. slowly he kinda doesnt realize how clingy he can get with you because of it. he becomes a little needy and wanting more attention from you. he cant help it.... i mean you basically just showed him that you're fine with it anyways.
leona seems to be someone who can get pretty possessive, unintentionally too over you. kind of territorial, like if you're someone he has eyes for then he doesn't expect others to really get in the way of that.
malleus draonica
malleus is not only a fae but a pretty sheltered one too, I’d think he’d take almost anything from you as a sign of you being completely infatuated with him as he is with you. you could offer split your ice cream or invite him out somewhere, show any sort of interest in him as he talks about gargoyles as he’s doing single club activities. the one time you asked curiously and wanted to touch his horns, he’d be searching for the loveliest jewel to bestow you for your wedding day.
speaking of jewels… he gifts to you a lot especially after you give him anything first (it could be a cool rock you found) and he’d be so smitten and glad to reciprocate that by giving you earrings, rings, necklaces etc. and when you accept them even though you're not exactly fully understanding why he takes it even more as a sign of you accepting his advances.
after taking any of your little acts of being somewhat kind to him and he’s already so deeply into you, lilia would certainly be someone who hears just all about it. i think he would only feel happy for malleus, as it appears he must’ve found the right one. he is just supportive of malleus and is simply overjoyed to know he has some little human that makes him so happy.
lilia vanrouge
he has lived long enough and in different places to understands human courting's and more so than someone like malleus. he knows how different it is, trust me he is fully aware, but he thinks it's amusing. lilia pretends to take it the wrong way and watch you get all confused, when he's just being playful.
just cant help that he finds it so adorable when you unknowingly show him affections as a fae would in his culture. even just being slightly affectionate with him is enough to have him giggling and warning you to be careful to what fae you do that to. they do tend to take very kindly towards any affections and gifts!
lilia will straight up tell you though too, you could gift him and give him something neat you found or made, and he'd look up at you with a stupid grin like "kfufu... i accept your love, dear" NO???. he still holds onto anything from you with the utmost joy.
#twst#twst x reader#disney twst#twisted wonderland x reader#THE LAST PART NOOOOOO#twst headcanons#twst wonderland#disney twisted wonderland#twst imagines#twisted wonderland#malleus draconia x reader#malleus x reader#malleus draconia#azul x reader#azul ashengrotto x reader#jade x reader#jade leech x reader#leona x reader#leona kingscholar x reader#lilia x reader#lilia vanrouge x reader
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Hi, I’m A.D., I’m a historian, and let’s talk about the nuclear bomb and why the one that exploded at the end of QSMP’s Purgatory Event probably didn’t kill all that many people upon initially exploding.
The nuclear bomb, as everybody knows, has only ever been used in a war twice. Both explosions were caused by the United States in their war against Japan at the tail end of World War Two in one final terrible last ditch attempt at ending the war through any means necessary.
Pictured above are the atomic explosions at Hiroshima (left) and Nagasaki (right.)
These are big huge clouds, which makes sense! Nuclear weapons, on average, have the strength of somewhere between 10 and 50 megatons of TNT. Hydrogen bombs, meanwhile, are WAY worse, with the first test coming in at a whopping 10 MILLION tons of TNT.
To put it in Minecraft terms for all you nerds out there, imagine Doomsday from the Dream SMP and how it razed an entire nation to bedrock level by using somewhere in the range of 20 stacks of TnT (if I’m remembering correctly.) A nuclear bomb, in these terms, would have blown L’Manberg up something like eight times over and then some.
So that’s. Bad. Right?
Well, here’s the QSMP’s bomb as was constructed by our favorite depressed detective, q!Maximus:
This bomb, notably, is underground. It was never dug up, it was just moved somewhere else. It isn’t above ground, and it never left this room. Watch the cutscene back (linked here), the bomb never left the room.
So this is where underground nuclear testing comes in.
Underground testing began in 1951, and it remains the only form of scientific nuclear testing not banned by the Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963.
No big surprise, a lot of early underground tests were conducted by the US out in Nevada, where they kinda tested nukes legit fucking EVERYWHERE in the desert for a long time. Below are some photos, just for funsies:
What’s important about underground nuclear explosions is that they actually end up releasing less radiation into the atmosphere than regular nukes do. What happens beyond that depends on whether or not the radiation remains contained.
A contained explosion’s aftermath:
And an uncontained explosion’s aftermath:
There hasn’t really been many negative biological effects reported from these underground tests, which is really saying something considering how close to nuclear blasts the US had its guys at most of the time (see below)
The worst you got out of the underground tests was some radioactivity in cows’ milk, which is NOTHING compared to the effects of the above-ground nuclear testing at the Nevada Site:
So… what does this mean for the QSMP?
Well, if we’re going off of historical and scientific precedent, legitimately nothing substantial happened to the islands of Purgatory. There’s more of a risk of dying from the pre-established radioactive rain disaster effects as well as the earthquake and meteor disasters.
Fun fact! Underground nuclear explosions usually registered as weaker than actual fault line activity, aka actual earthquakes.
If Maxo’s nuke was dropped from above, the devastation would be greater. Nuclear fallout is no joke; even today, cancer rates in the American West are still pretty high from the above-ground testing conducted at the Nevada Site. The Bikini Atoll will never be the same after all the testing the US did there, either.
But, because this nuke seemed to have gone off underground, I can safely assume that the damage done to the islands above was minimal at worst. Maybe there’s a radioactivity leak, but everybody staying on the islands had already experienced radiation up to that point.
It’s important to remember this because several characters did stay behind on the islands, and the fandom is assuming them dead because, well. A nuke went off. But those characters aren’t dead yet (outside of q!Maxo, who was possibly directly above the nuke when it went off and thus would’ve been hit full-force by the explosion.) Many were on the beach, far from the the nuke. They’re fine, and you can prove it with history!
TLDR; the nuke from the end of Purgatory was assumedly set off underground, which would have negated a lot of its potential damage, so everybody’s fine except for the unfortunately deceased q!Maxo
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I have heard of Hbomberguy and the "why Sherlock sucks" but had not actually watched any of his stuff until today. The recent plagiarism video is long and extremely good:
youtube
The main bulk of the video is about James Somerton, a video essayist who I was only vaguely familiar with. I watched the Our Flag Means Death video he made and thought it felt kind of flimsy, and moved on with my life.
Turns out he's been lifting words from other published sources, many of them queer writers who were paid freelance rates or possibly nothing at all. This is a screenshot of the transcription of the video he did on queer horror (ID in alt):
I have legit never seen this level of plagiarism before. I am honestly surprised these videos sound thematically coherent at all, given the variety of sources he's cribbed them from. (There's a lot you can say about queer horror, and not all of it is going to overlap.)
The thing I don't understand is that given how much work it must have been to compile these sources, he could have done all the fucking reading himself and synthesized it in his own words. He could have just thrown up a Pastebin of links he consulted and nobody would have noticed.
One of the reasons plagiarists steal is because they have no respect for the effort put into the work or people who do said work. A (presumably cis) white man stealing the words from other queer people, many of them economically marginalized and/or of color? I'm going to say that probably figured into it.
I don't know how much he made, but it was a significant fucking amount. That's money he took from the mouths of other queer people who are probably way worse off. That's discoveries of ideas and words people have been denied because they thought they were his.
(Hbomberguy is donating proceeds from this video to as many people who Somerton ripped off as he can track down. It's absolutely not his problem, and I imagine it's going to be a bitch and a half to identify and contact all these people. It is a mitzvah, in both the colloquial and religious sense, to do this.)
And as marginalized people, we know that context (historical, global, personal) is important, sometimes essential. Removal of that information greatly hampers comprehension and understanding in ways we are already limited or denied.
It feels like a deeply personal betrayal because we like to think we (as in people who have this particular trait or share a community) are all above cynical sociopathic bullshit. But [trait/thing] people are people, and sometimes people fucking suck. I regret to say that despite knowing this in my head, my emotions do not always remember.
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I realized that the updated Tag Search function makes it way easier to attempt to parallel search relationships including a specific character.
This method works better for characters who are not glitter and shipped with every person and creature and object under the sun.
This tutorial is written for people not familiar with tag ids. If you know how tag ids work, you should read the last two paragraph of this tutorial first.
You can find the Tag Search by looking at the menu at the top of the AO3 page that’s off to the left side.
Click Search and click Tag (the third option from the top).
Type in your character. If the character only ever appears in one fandom, you also include that. If the character you want to search as a very common name, you will probably have to include a fandom to avoid pulling in unrelated tags. Do not include more than one fandom otherwise the result will only pull up any tags that exist in all the fandoms you listed.
Select Relationship for type
Select Canonical
Hit Search Tags
The results should pull up every relationship that includes that character for that specific fandom or if you did not restrict by fandom, every relationship that has character with an identical name to the character you’re searching for.
For the character I picked, “Arm”, there are 29 results.
Open the Work Search page in a new tab or window. You can find a link in the same menu as Tag Search.
Or you can also open it through button labeled Work Search beside the Tag Search heading.
On the Work Search page, find the Any Field box.
This next part will be time-consuming but you will need to format all the relationships you want to parallel search like this: "X/Y" OR "X & A" OR "B & Z".
The tags need to match how they were shown on the Tag Search page. Each relationship needs to be placed between straight quotes. Curly quotes will break this search. Between each relationship tag, there needs to be an OR in all caps, but not one at the start or end.
After you’ve formatted things like this you can paste it into the Any Field box. (You could have just composed your search in there but if you’re parallel searching many relationship tags, doing it in notepad or something may make it easier to see what you’ve already included.)
There are filter options on this page. If you want to sort by completed or such, this is the point you need to do it at this point. This kind of search does not allow you to filter after you have clicked search. Unlike filtering on a specific tag, there is no filtering sidebar. A few other caveats:
If you want to exclude tags, you will have to input them into the Any Field box alongside the relationship tags. Those excluded tags will need to be formatted like such: - "tag 1" - "tag 2"
Basically they just need a minus sign in front of them. You do not need to include OR between them.
If you include more than one tag in the Character, Relationship, or Additional Tag boxes, the search will only bring up results that match all of your search parameters. So if you inputted “Fluff” and “High School” into the Additional Tag field, it would only bring up works that have both the “Fluff” and “High School” tag as well as any of the relationship tags in the Any Field.
I just want search for every work that includes Arm so I have no other filtering added. It looks like something below.
Once you’ve finished setting up your search, click the search button.
In the case of my search, I only set it up to pull up any of the 29 relationship tags I found that included Arm. When I saved this screenshot, there were 412 results.
A few important things to note. While AO3 doesn’t really restrict how many text characters you put into the Any Field box, most browsers have a limit. So if you want to parallel search a lot of relationship or any tags in fact, you may run into your browser breaking your search.
If you’re searching a high number of tags, it’s better to use tag ids instead because they’re shorter and so you’ll be able to include way more information with less text characters. The tutorial works similarly except the list will be formatted like such: filter_ids:123 OR filter_id:456
You will not need to put quotes around a tag id. To find a tag id, you can open a specific tag and look at its RSS Feed, or by using the following script: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/29917-ao3-display-tag-id
#AO3#archiveofourown#Tutorial#should I also just recreate this tutorial with tag ids?#wick meta#I cannot find the readmore function anymore so sorry everyone
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Febuwhump collab day 12 — semi-conscious
This one’s been on ao3 for a bit I just sort of forgot to put it over here XD This one was suggested by @zeldathusiast, I hope you all enjoy!
No specific warnings apart from a mentioned kidnapping/being held captive, and a bad headache.
Today’s lovely art
Ao3 link
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“He has to be here somewhere, right? That tip we got said he’d be here, but maybe they were wrong, Dad kept being vague on where he got it so I don’t know if we can totally trust it, and we should be prepared to get out of here if it’s a trap and if it was wrong we should plan to check that other—”
“Green, we’ll find him, alright?” Twilight reassured for the fifth time in as many minutes. “Don’t worry.”
Green’s mouth clicked shut, and he gave Twilight a tiny nod.
Twilight watched him turn away, the shadows under his eyes more prominent in the harsh artificial lighting they were sneaking past, and felt a familiar squeeze of worry at the similar expressions on the other colors’ faces.
Four had been split almost a week now, and with Red gone missing during a fight, he couldn’t reform.
Four had never been apart for so long, and that along with the panic of not knowing what was happening to Red, he was acting more and more strange, the remaining pieces of him veering more sharply towards what they represented.
Green had been getting more jittery, obsessing over Red’s whereabouts, and acting overly protective over the other two, which was driving them both crazy. Vio had turned to research and often closed himself away, poring over what information they had, and Blue would blow up at even the smallest slight, face red with tears in his eyes.
Twilight could only imagine the state Red was in.
The behavior grew more severe with every passing day, and while nobody said it, as they watched the colors fall apart they all silently wondered how long Four could even be split.
Did he have a limit? Was he nearing it?
And if he reached it..?
Nobody wanted to find out, and their efforts towards locating Red had only gotten more desperate as the days ticked by. All of them were worried and frightened on Four’s behalf, and Twilight knew he wasn’t the only one who was thinking back to that first terrifying week when Sky had gone missing, and stayed missing.
But Time had finally gotten some information that narrowed down where Red could be, to only a few places as compared to the entire city they’d been scouring before.
Which is why Twilight was now sneaking down a harshly lit hallway with a handful of his brothers, trying not to be consumed by worry while they searched.
“We close?” Twilight asked, and Legend nodded, gesturing to an upcoming split path.
“He should be in one of these hallways somewhere, but they’re pretty long. It might take us a while to actually find him,” Legend said with a frown. “...With time we don’t have. We should’ve brought Wild.”
“Well it’s too late now,” Blue snapped from beside him, his hands tightening into fists. “Why didn’t you think of that before we left?!”
“Well sor-ry, Wild’s checking that other place with Dad and Wind, twerp, I didn’t know we’d need him,” Legend snapped back.
“Guys, knock it off,” Twilight said sharply. Good grief, we’re all running on way too little sleep. “We’ll just split up into groups of two.”
“There’s five of us,” Vio pointed out.
“I know that Vio, I meant you and Legend and Green and Blue can pair up, and I’ll go by myself.”
“That seems like a bad idea,” Vio continued with a raised eyebrow. “Aren’t you always saying it’s better we stick together?”
Twilight took in a steadying breath at his snarky tone, ignoring the urge to be sarcastic in return. “Yes, but not in this case.”
“Why don’t we three just go together, and you and Legend team up?” Green suggested, and Twilight and Legend exchanged short glances.
“...No. Better we do duos,” Legend said, and jerked his head towards a hallway. “C’mon. Let’s get going. Come with me Blue, Green and Vio can check the opposite end from us. Twi can check the other hall.”
Twilight nodded when nobody argued, and they all split off, Twilight grateful that Legend would be able to see all of the colors from where he was.
There had been an unspoken rule as of late not to leave any of them alone. Not with how they’d been acting.
Twilight ran down his assigned hallway, peering through every door that had a window, and opening the ones that didn’t. They’d “borrowed” a keycard to use to get into the facilities, and managed to make copies so they could all get past the doors.
Twilight methodically checked every door, working steadily down the hallway. His worry grew the longer he didn’t find any sign of Red, and he picked up the pace, looking more frantically. He was nearly at the end of the corridor, and there’d been no sign anybody was down this way.
Are we sure that info was real? he thought as he approached the very last window in the hall. Mom hasn’t contacted us yet, so her group hasn’t found him... or maybe it was all faked just to give us false hope...
Twilight looked inside, and relief washed over him, intense and thick.
A little figure sat huddled against the wall inside, red clothes bright against the dull color of the room. His blond head was pressed to his knees with such an air of sadness that Twilight’s heart ached, and he quickly ran to the door.
It slid open with a quiet swish, but the figure didn’t move even with the sound, or when Twilight stepped inside.
“Red?” he called.
That made his little brother’s head snap up to stare at him, eyes wide and startled. His gaze landed on Twilight’s face, and his expression turned even more surprised, Red letting out a gasp as he jumped to his feet.
“Twilight!” he shrieked, and bolted, throwing himself into Twilight’s arms with a sob.
Twilight hugged him back just as fiercely, Red crying into his shoulder, and he quickly clicked a button on his radio four times, the signal they’d all agreed to use for “I found him”.
“We found you Smithy, you’re okay now, I got you,” Twilight soothed, his shirt steadily growing damp. “It’s okay. Are you hurt at all?”
“N-no,” Red hiccuped, face still pressed to Twilight’s shirt. “Th-they mostly left me alone, I d-don’t think they even wanted a-a hostage.”
Twilight squeezed him tighter. “I’m so sorry Red.”
Red didn’t reply, aside from another hiccuping sob.
Twilight knew they should get going, but he couldn’t bring himself to make Red move just yet, so he held him a little longer and just let him cry. Red’s louder sobs eventually petered out, and Twilight gave him a comforting pat on the back as Red finally sat up a little, still sniffling.
“Twi, is e-everyone else here?” Red finally asked, letting out a hiccup. “I-I don’t want to be separate anymore.”
“Yeah they came, they’re close by,” Twilight reassured, and Red visibly relaxed, though he still looked upset.
“It was awful being away from them so long,” he whimpered. “It felt...”
He swallowed and didn’t continue, and Twilight gave him a squeeze.
“Well if we want to get you back together, we should get going,” he said, and Red eagerly nodded, wiping his sleeve over his face.
Twilight helped him up, and then turned into a wolf, gesturing for Red to hop on. He gladly did, and they ran went back the way Twilight had come, opting less for sneakiness and more for pure speed. Twilight didn’t want Red to have to wait a second longer than necessary to be back with the other parts of himself, and he loped down the hallways as fast as he could without slipping on the shiny floors.
Red in turn clung tightly to his fur, his head not quite buried in it. Twilight could just barely feel Red’s tears dampening his fur as he sniffled again, and his stomach clenched, even with the relief pounding through him.
The part of Twilight, the more wolffish part of him that longed to protect had been going haywire all week, and even now that he had Red secure on his back, it still bayed for justice.
Twilight ignored it. He was pretty sure Red’s captors were long gone, and going after them now wouldn’t be productive in any way. Even if he wanted to demand answers as to why they’d grabbed a nine year old and locked him in a room for a week.
No. Red safe and secure on his back was plenty for now, and as he firmly told himself that, the wolf began to calm.
Though he knew it wouldn’t completely settle until they were all back together and safe at home again.
Twilight turned a corner near where he and the rest of the group had split up, and Red sat up and shouted, pointing excitedly down the hall. The rest of the colors were already making their way towards them, but they all zeroed in at Red’s shout, relief on all three faces.
“RED!” Blue yelled, and all three of them bolted, Red leaping off Twilight’s back and crashing into them with a happy cry.
All four of them began chattering simultaneously, asking questions and crying and in Blue’s case, giving Red a punch on the arm that wasn’t as hard as it could have been.
Twilight smiled in relief as they huddled together, turning back into a human, and realized that the rest of the team they had brought was coming up behind them, Legend Hyrule and their mother all looking extremely relieved.
“Red— never do that again,” Green said as they hugged, and Red nodded rapidly.
“I won’t! I won’t, it wasn’t even on purpose, they just grabbed me, a-and I couldn’t get away, and nobody heard me yell,” Red said in a watery voice, and Vio gave him a soft pat on the head.
“Well you’re okay now, you don’t have to cry,” Blue grumbled, but his arm didn’t leave Red’s shoulder.
The colors didn’t talk any longer after that, only hugging a few moments more before they began to glow, unable to wait a second longer to reform. A pulse of multicolored light shone around the hallway, bouncing off the pale walls, and Twilight had to look away until it began to dim.
Four stood alone, his eyes closed as the last of the glow faded away.
Then he doubled over with his hands clenched to his head, face twisted up in pain. Twilight darted forward and caught him before he fell, and Four whimpered in his arms, eyes squeezed tightly shut.
“Four, hey, what’s wrong?” Twilight asked, trying not to panic.
Four flinched at his words, and the sound of the others running up as well, and tried to curl into a ball, still clenching at his hair.
“What’s wrong with him?” Legend asked with wide eyes.
“Four, are you okay?” Hyrule asked, and Four only let out another whimper.
“Give him some space,” Malon said, and they slid back a bit, giving her room to kneel by Four. She placed a gentle hand on his back, and rubbed it as Four let out a pitiful groan. “Four? Honey are you okay?”
Four only groaned again, and Hyrule scooted over and set a glowing hand on his head, eyes closed in concentration. But he withdrew after a moment, gaze slightly bewildered.
”His head is fine, I didn’t see anything,” he said, and Twilight frowned.
“Did they do something just to Red then?” Twilight asked, trying to keep his voice calm and only partially succeeding. “That would hurt him when he merged?”
“I don’t... think so?” Hyrule said. He sounded uncertain though, and wrung his hands a bit.
“Seriously? We would have noticed if they’d done something,” Legend shot at Twilight.
“How do you know?” Twilight answered just as sharply. “It might not be physical!”
“Well maybe he’s just—”
“Boys shh, you’re hurting him,” Malon said a bit sharply, and they went silent, another quiet whimper from Four the only noise. “Four? Can you tell us what’s wrong?”
Four dragged his eyes open, and Twilight stared, the normal blue of his eyes completely overrun by jagged swirls of red, green, and purple, blue scattered throughout. As he watched, the red got larger, and Four flinched, once again slamming his eyes shut and falling mostly limp in Twilight’s arms.
“Four, we can’t help unless we know what’s wrong,” Twilight tried, running a hand through his hair.
Please Four, can you give us something?
A few long moments ticked by, Four’s shaky breathing the only sound in the bright hallway. Finally Four breathed out, the noise hitching in the middle, and his fingers tightened in his hair.
“T-too— much,” he finally bit out, voice hitching and wavering. “M-Memories, different—”
Four pressed his head tighter against Twilight’s chest, his breathing trembling. He let out another small groan, and Twilight ran a helpless hand over his hair as he tried to curl himself up even tighter.
“Oh. I get it,” Legend said quietly, and they all looked at him inquisitively. Legend sighed. “Look, he was split all that time, right? Normally getting back together is no big deal for him, even if it’s been a little while. But his experiences as Green, Blue, and Vio this time were so vastly different from Red’s that when he reformed...”
“...all of those stark different memories got put in one head,” Malon finished, and ran a gentle hand through Four’s hair again. “Oh sweetie, I’m so sorry.”
Twilight wasn’t sure if Four even heard her, with the way he was curled up in a ball, hands still clenching at his head, face screwed shut in a wince.
“Can we help him?” Hyrule asked, and Malon looked uncertain.
“I don’t know, hon. It looks to me like he’ll just need some time to adjust,” she said, gently running her hand through Four’s hair. “Is there any way we can help, Four?”
Four didn’t say anything in reply, but he gave a tiny, pained shake of his head.
“We should get him home then, right?” Twilight spoke up, trying not to sound overly worried despite how fast his heart was still pounding. “If he just needs to adjust. He’ll be able to rest better there, and we need to get out of here anyway.”
Malon nodded, and Twilight scooped Four up into his arms, relieved his brother was fairly lightweight. Four curled into his hold, face still drawn with pain, and Twilight held him tight as they worked their way back towards the exit.
Somehow zero alarms had been triggered by their presence, and Twilight was starting to suspect the place had been abandoned what with how silent and empty it was. The fact that that meant the people who’d kidnapped Red had basically abandoned him here all alone was enough to reawaken the protectiveness in Twilight’s chest with a snarl, and this time he only half-heartedly reeled it in.
For their sakes, they had better not show their faces again anytime soon.
“Tw-i..?”
Several minutes of the trek had gone by before the whisper came from Twilight’s arms, and he looked down at Four, still limp in his hold.
“Yeah bud?”
“Thanks,” Four whispered into his shirt, and though he didn’t elaborate, Twilight knew what he meant.
“You’re welcome,” Twilight replied gently, and Four tucked his face against his neck, the pained creases on his face slightly eased.
#Incredibles au#linkeduniverse#linked universe#lu four#lu colors#lu twilight#lu legend#hyrule and malon are there but don’t do much#linked universe fanfic#febuwhump#day 12#semi conscious#writing from the floor#Incredibles au fic
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Caplan's Disney Celebration
Rules:
You don’t have to follow me, but its definitely encouraged!
PLEASE use a summary!!
If the fic is more the 300 words, use a keep reading feature!!!
Tag the challenge as #
There’s no limit how many prompts you can chose!
Tag my url & the challenge name in the a/n’s note before the fic along with the hashtag please!
No due dates
Any character you’d like to write for!
once a fic has been given to me, they will be placed in a masterlist
If i do not respond to your fic within 24 hours of posting, PLEASE message me a link!!
Dialogue Prompts
"Take it with you so you'll always have a way to look back ... and remember me."
"Have you ever seen something so wonderful in your entire life?"
“How did you survive being locked up in a castle for all this time?”
“What do you mean, you’re the lost princess?”
"Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten"
“It’s called a cruel irony, like my dependence on you.”
“I warn you child. If I lose my temper, you lose your head. Understand?!”
“Perhaps you shouldn’t turn your back on me.”
“A true loves kiss. If only there was someone out there who loved you.”
"Today is a good day to try"
"Love is putting someone else’s needs before yours"
"If you ain’t scared, you ain’t alive"
"Any day spent with you is my favorite day. So, today is my new favorite day"
"He fell into despair, and lost all hope. For who could ever learn to love a beast?"
“You really shouldn’t come back here, you know. It’s not safe.”
“I told you to stay away from this wing!”
“He was this close—just staring at me.”
“Do you trust me?”
“(And) You will always be in my heart.”
“I especially love his smile.”
“New and a bit alarming.”
“Now kiss her.”
“How can I prove myself if no one will give me a chance?”
“People around here think I’m crazy, but I don’t care.”
“I’m a damsel. I’m in distress. I can handle this. Have a nice day.”
“Guys….I want a castle.”
“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothin’ at all.”
“When I look at you, I can feel it. I look at you, and I’m home.”
“Put that thing back where it came from or so help me.”
“There’s no one I’d rather be than me.”
“It was worth it…if you learned something from it.”
“You deliberately disobeyed me.”
“I’m surrounded by idiots.”
“How could you do that to me?”
Song Lyric prompts
“And I’ve got friends on the other side.” - Dr. Facilier, “Friends on the Other Side”,
“But you’ll be rewarded when at last I am given my dues. And injustice deliciously squared! Be prepared.”
“I admit that in the past I’ve been a nasty. They weren’t kidding when they called me, well, a witch.”
“If she doesn’t scare you, no evil thing will.”
“I’ve reached the top and had to stop and that’s what botherin’ me.”
“Ain't got time for messing around”
“People down here think I'm crazy”
“I put a spell on you, and now you’re mine.
“Don’t forget it, you’ll regret it.”
“Every hour we spent together Lives within my heart”
“Never thought she'd look my way And she smiled at me and held me”
“I was the master of my fate.”
“I learned the truth too late.”
“I let her steal into my melancholy heart.”
“I'm where I'm meant to be”
“He has never been one of us.”
“Now I know she’ll never leave me.”
“I should thank you...but it’d be more fun to kill you.”
“This crown gives me a feeling of power!”
“It’s not my fault, I’m not to blame”
“He asked for trouble the moment he came”
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Hi :D Did you see the latest episode? Morpheus as a cat was amazing! Could you write something about Morpheus interacting as a cat with human reader and / or behaving like a cat, with reader teasing him and enjoying every second of it? Thanks :)
Lord Meowpheus
WC: 2,5 k (I was inspired and had no chill) AO3
Relationship: Morpheus x reader
Notes: Morpheus as a cat, established relationship, a literal cat-and-mouse game, a little spicy at the end.
Dear anon, thanks for your request, this was a blast! I hope you all enjoy.
If you've enjoyed this story, check out this prompt, this story, or the sequel.
In the Dreaming, you’ve seen wonderous creatures, enjoying how the limits of your fantasy are pushed every time you explore. Your highlight is still Cain and Abel’s baby gargoyle.
You should visit them, you muse idly as you pass through the main hall of the palace, almost missing the patch of black at the edge of your field of vision.
You turn around to see a black cat stroll around, and you tilt your head in confusion. It would make sense that the Dreaming is also home to animals, but seeing a cat just walk through the heart of the palace still surprises you.
“Hey there,” you call out softly, dropping to your knees and extending a hand. The cat turns around and you realize that it might belong in the Dreaming after all. Its eyes are gleaming gold, and as it slowly approaches, you notice that it might be bigger than usual cats.
The cat carefully nudges its head against your palm, and you marvel at the soft fur as you gently rub the right spot underneath the chin. As you continue, the cat starts to purr, a low noise that puts a smile on your face.
Far too soon, it takes a step back and you leave it be, knowing that a cat can’t be forced into something while hoping that you will see it again.
You’re quite certain that people would shake their head in disbelief if they saw you spend your time in your room inside the palace instead of pushing the boundaries of the realm, riding a unicorn, swimming through a rainbow-colored sea, or at least having a date with Morpheus.
But the King of dreams is busy, and you would never keep him from his duties. So you rest on your canopy bed, knowing from experience that one can sleep in a dream.
The door is slowly pushed open, and you sit up, expecting Morpheus or Lucienne to enter. Instead, it’s the black cat, meowling once before jumping on the bed.
“Nice to see you too,” you say, waiting for the cat to approach you. It bumps its head against your hand, sprawled on the blanket, and you raise it to stroke the soft fur. Like before, it immediately starts purring. You’re living the dream as a cat whisperer.
“That’s kind of you to keep me company,” you say, looking into the deep, mesmerizing gold of its eyes. The cat lies down on your lap, and you let out a surprised giggle before continuing to drag your fingers of its head and back.
The comfortable weight of the cat on your lap and the soft purring start to lull you into sleep, and you wonder if the cat would be offended if you go for a nap. You scratch it behind the ears, letting out a yawn when suddenly the weight shifts, becoming much heavier.
Looking down, you stare into the half-lidded eyes of Morpheus, his head resting on your lap where the cat used to be, your fingers gliding through the silky strands of his hair.
You gasp loudly, willing your body to remain seated instead of jumping up.
“Don’t stop,” Morpheus demands, and you raise one eyebrow at him. You know a secret, a very important secret. Lord Morpheus, Dream of the Endless, king of dreams and ruler of the nightmare realm, likes physical affection.
You continue, catching a mischievous glint in his eternal blue eyes as he reaches out to link your free hand with his.
“I didn’t know you could be a cat,” you wonder aloud.
“I can take on many forms,” he explains, letting out a pleased hum as your thumb trails over the shell of his ear.
“I assume you can appear as a cat because cats dream too?” you ask, and you feel him nod.
“Animals dream too, and I visit and cross through their dreams.”
“Lord Meowpheus, ruler over cats and dreams,” you announce, keeping a stoic mine for one second before cracking, your head tilting down as you laugh. Morpheus now raises one eyebrow at you, giving you one of his small, precious smiles.
In one fluid move, he arises, all feline grace and reminding you of the former form, while pulling you upright with him.
“Now, let us walk through your dream.”
______________________________
You keep on hoping that you would see Meowpheus – you adore that name – again, but it would be odd and weird to ask the ruler of the Dreaming to be a cat for you.
Maybe you can motivate him somehow. You have half a plan as you walk to Abel and Cain’s cottage. Abel once told you in private that your visits always put Cain in a good mood, resulting in quick and painless deaths for Abel. It had really hammered in the fact that these were biblical figures, the first murderer and the first victim.
“Here to visit us and Goldie?” Cain greets you and you nod. Goldie flies towards you, croaking as it circles around you once before landing in front of you.
“You’ve grown since my last visit!” you exclaim, earning yourself a loud croak. You drop into the soft grass and let your fingers glide over the scaly skin of his head.
“Aren’t you the most adorable?” you coo loudly, hoping that somebody else in this realm hears these words.
“Goldie is our pride and joy,” Abel says, nervously glancing at his brother. You can’t imagine what it must be like to be killed by your own brother for all eternity. You once asked Morpheus if there wasn’t a way to make their lives better. There isn’t.
You don’t see him coming, but you notice how Cain and Abel’s expressions change as they start bowing.
“My Lord, what a surprise and honor to see you here,” Cain says. You’re still busy with Goldie, the little gargoyle rubbing its head against your hand.
“I have found who I am looking for,” he says, and with one last boop on its nose, you stand up. If Morpheus were Meowpheus right now, his tail would be swishing right and left. You remember your friend Sam complaining that she thinks that Mina, her Maine Coon, is destroying furniture on purpose if she doesn’t get enough attention. The picture of Morpheus breaking one of the pots around here is so hilarious that you must bite your lip to stop the giggle trying to escape your lips.
You say goodbye to Cain, Abel and Goldie and let Morpheus guide you away.
____________________________
You find yourself back inside the confines of your own dream, close to a lush forest. As you turn to marvel at the emerald leaves, you notice the black cat standing next to you.
“Lord Meowpheus, what an honor,” you bow dramatically, and you find out that even in this form, Morpheus can still roll his eyes at you.
“Is this not what you wanted?” You startle after hearing Morpheus’ voice inside your head.
“Relax, my love.” Meowpheus presses himself against your legs, and you take a deep breath. “I am simply communicating with you.”
“Of course. Stupid of me.” This is still Morpheus. You card a hand through your hair before sitting down. You hope that the Dreaming never stops surprising you. “What do you want to do?”
“I would like a chase. I haven’t had one in this form in a while,” Morpheus answers, stretching and dragging his claws over the ground.
“I don’t envy the mice here,” you joke. Sam keeps on complaining about the dead or half-alive presents Mina leaves at her doorstep. Cats are still predators.
“I would only pursue one particular mouse.” His golden gaze seems to pierce you, and the penny drops.
“Can I even be a mouse?” you ask, before mentally face-palming yourself. It’s the Dreaming, it’s your dream; anything is possible.
“Do you want to find out?” The question hangs in the air as an exhilarating mix of excitement, curiosity and a little fear rushes through you. You know that you’re perfectly safe, that Morpheus would never put you in harm’s way. But are you ready to be chased by him?
“Yes,” you blurt out before you can chicken out. “Yes.” This time you say in with determination, and Morpheus gives you a small nod.
“Close your eyes.”
After you open your eyes again, the world has changed and has become much bigger.
______________________
Being a mouse isn’t that difficult. You’re relieved that you still can see all the colors, and the tail is less of a problem than anticipated. Moving around on four is even fun. The only real issue is that everything is so big and far away.
You’re running around under the watchful gaze of Morpheus. He’s lying down, his head resting on top of his paws. Unfortunately, just like the rest of the world, he’s big, a large, frightening menace for a small mouse like you. He doesn’t even need to stand to loom over you. As if he needs another advantage.
“Ready?” you ask in your mind, knowing that he will hear you. He stands up, suddenly baring his teeth at you and you let out a very mouse-like squeak before realizing that he’s smiling at you.
It has been decided that you will get a head start to level the playing field. You want to head straight for the forest, hoping that there will be plenty of trees and boscage to hide. If Morpheus can’t reach you, he won’t catch you.
“My love, run.” His low command makes adrenaline rush through you, and your little body brings you into the forest. You don’t want to stop to see if Morpheus has started chasing you, but the ignorance will drive you insane. Your tiny feet carry you over grass, leaves, mud, and soil as you run past flowers and hedges. You wish you could enjoy the view, but there’s a big cat chasing you, catching up on you sooner rather than later.
The rustling of leaves to your left catches your attention and you see a big shadow before you know that your time is up. You race towards the narrow, exposed roots of the tree closest to you, hoping that Morpheus can’t follow.
Your little heart is beating like a drum as you find yourself underground, standing on dry leaves, and you watch a pair of golden eyes narrow.
“Let us continue,” Morpheus asks, his voice a deep purr inside your mind, and you make one small step towards the exit before stopping.
“You would like that, wouldn’t you?” you reply, your voice on the edge of taunting and teasing. You stick your tiny tongue at him, only for Morpheus to let out a terrifying growl.
“Come out now and I shall give you chance.” He leaves and if you could sigh as a mouse, you would. While you’re safe here, it’s also boring, and you don’t want to take your chances as a mouse with Morpheus as a disgruntled cat.
After checking if the coast is clear, you bolt away, not knowing that this is only the first of many times.
A few times, you managed to run for so long that you started hoping that you had shaken him off, only for Morpheus to reappear. The last time, he had even pounced on you, giving you a heart attack as you saved yourself in the last second by diving into a tree hole. You had taken a very long break in your hideout, with Morpheus taking an ever longer time to coax you out, using honeyed words and his wonderful voice.
Each time Morpheus would wait in front of your hideout, either lying in wait or moving around, but never letting you out of his sight.
You’ve been following a small steam of a river, grateful for some sort of orientation in this maze of green and brown. While you’re still not physically exhausted, you’re starting to become tired, but your pride and competitive spirit are keeping you from calling quits.
Listening for any treacherous noise, you keep your gaze focused straight ahead. You’re skipping over stones and jump onto dry ground. Maybe you’re running through some sort of ravine or dry riverbed?
Your stomach twists into knots as you realize that you are stuck, a large wall of stone blocking your path. There is no way you can climb or hide.
You pray that Morpheus is still far away as you turn around to run all the way back. A black cat approaches at a leisurely pace, and you squeak again.
“Well done, my love.” His praise should put your mind at ease, but it something about his controlled steps and the cold determination in his eyes that makes you want to bolt.
You’re backed into a corner, your tail pressed against the rigid stone. Morpheus has almost reached you. This is it, your last chance; you will try to run underneath his belly and between his paws, hoping that he doesn’t expect one last, desperate move.
You wait for the right moment before pushing yourself one last time. Suddenly, your movement is cut short, and you realize that a paw is weighing down on your tail, keeping you from escaping. At least it doesn’t hurt.
Morpheus is giving you another snarling smile as he lies down, his body trapping you against the wall.
His mouth is coming closer, and you are screaming internally that you’re not in danger, your mind reminding your body that despite being a mouse this close to a cat, you won’t end up as snack. A rough tongue glides over your cheek, connecting with your whiskers.
“This was terrifying and amazing. Next time, I’ll be the cat and you’ll be the mouse,” you think, making Morpheus chuckle and you melt inside at the sound.
“Close your eyes.” One moment later, you’re human again, and it feels so good. You’re still pressed against the wall, with Morpheus resting his head on top of yours.
“Do you know what a cat usually does with a caught mouse, after it played with it?” Morpheus asks, his lips now brushing over the shell of your ear. You can only shake your head, your knees suddenly wobbly as you inhale sharply.
“It devours it.” Before you can come up with a smart reply, you feel Morpheus press his body against yours, his lips brushing against yours, stealing the air you just inhaled. This is nothing like the soft kisses you usually share, but untamed and raw, with his tongue demanding entrance as his hands roam over you. You open your lips, letting him explore and taste you, grateful for the rough wall behind you as your hands rest on the back of his neck.
His lips leave yours and you gasp for air, only for Morpheus to trail a path across your jaw, down your neck, until they are resting on your pulse point. You’re clinging to him as you wait for him to go for the kill.
Nibbling at the soft flesh, he sucks until you know that it will leave a love bite, and you feel him smile against your skin.
“Thank you, lord cat,” you say breathlessly, your body and mind serene and mushy at the same time.
“Thank you, dear mouse.”
#the sandman#morpheus x reader#dream of the endless#dream x reader#sandman x reader#my writing#my sandman fics#lord meowpheus
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"You're bleeding."
It's an obvious statement, one Tanguish feels a little foolish for. Of course Helsknight is bleeding. He just won his match. It's amazing how strong these Colosseum fighters are, how much damage they can do to each other, especially when they're matched up well. And Helsknight is the Champion of Hels -- if for no other reason than the popularity with the crowd, every one of his matches is a good match. It has to be. Anything less and it's not the Champion, is it?
Helsknight looks dazed. It's a familiar look. After a particularly rough fight. It's like the knight can't believe the fight has stopped. It takes a few minutes for his heart to stop sprinting. So he goes through the gate, dragging his sword up to the nearby wall and plants himself on the bench, and he stares into the middle distance, breathing, bleeding, waiting. It's a familiar look. Today he's spattered up to the elbow in blood, and it runs between the links of his chain mail in thin calligraphy lines. It gathers in the bends in his pauldrons, makes more stark the dent in his chest plate. If it's not cleaned and polished off in the next few hours, it'll settle in those places and poison them with rust, and the next time Helsknight fights, he'll be more vulnerable. Blood is such an insidious thing sometimes, the way it weakens when it flows.
Tanguish moves to the knight, a bowl of water in one hand, a healing kit in the other. He takes the knight apart like he's a machine, slipping delicate fingers across the gauntleted hand, undoing straps and buckles to show the bruised knuckles beneath the armor. Metal and leather can only do so much. Bodies break surprisingly well, when they're testing their limits. Helsknight sighs as Tanguish massages his hand, searching for broken bones. The knight is almost feverishly hot to his frost-laden touch, and Tanguish watches the swollen skin start to pale as the cold soothes it.
"You don't have to do that," Helsknight says, his voice a thin and distant rasp, still lost somewhere in the adrenaline crash. "Just... give me a minute to rest."
"I am," Tanguish answers him gently and keeps working, unclasping the buckles on the chest plate and pulling it free. He lays it gently on the ground, and takes pride in how Helsknight breathes easier. The knight rests, eyes fluttering half-closed and sighing as Tanguish works. Cold hands trace over blooded armor and fevered skin, setting right the wrongs. He dabs at cuts, eliciting hisses of pain that he immediately soothes. He puts ice to bruises, and water to sweat and blood, and Helsknight revives, slowly. His breathing lengthens and deepens. The flushed skin cools. The muscles relax.
"How did the fight go?" Tanguish asks when Helsknight's eyes flutter open again.
"I won."
"You can say it better than that."
Helsknight smirks, his vitality slowly returning. He sniffs and runs a tongue across his teeth, making room for the words where there once was blood. Tanguish doesn't know how the knight stands the taste, but then again, Helsknight has been in a great many fights. Maybe blood loses its flavor after so long.
"You watched the fight."
"And so did they," Tanguish looks up to the ceiling, where the cheering of the crowd still sometimes surges and roars. "But none of us can tell the story the way you can."
"Blood is memory without language."
"See, that's what I mean."
"Weaving bard's tales already?" someone asks, another fighter sitting on another bench, cleaning a bloodied sword. "You haven't even rested yet."
"He's resting now," Tanguish says, running the damp cloth over a gash in Helsknight's arm. That one will need stitches, or a health potion. Helsknight's hand shakes when Tanguish cleans it, and there's color in the cut that means its too deep, gruesomeness he doesn't want to put names to, for fear it'll make him sick. Helsknight spares the wound a glance before pointedly fixing his gaze away from it. It always strikes Tanguish as funny, that the knight can't look at his own wounds. He can inflict them, he can tend them in others, he can ignore them, but admitting he's wounded is a mountain he struggles to climb.
Helsknight closes his eyes again, but the eyelids keep moving, like a man dreaming or searching for words.
"Where do you want me to start?"
"When they opened the cage."
Helsknight nods. He sits in silence for a long moment. In a few days, when all wounds are healed and all aches soothed, Helsknight will write in a little book he keeps under his pillow:
Blood is memory without language
The wounded creature screams
And though the sand drinks life away
We lay linked by crimson streams
Brothers you and I, creature
Kin on parched and bitter sand
Though mine is spilt for glory
Yours is spilt by crowd's command
What place is this, what hell endured
That brings us to this yield
But happenstance and hubris
And hungry crowd's bone field
What beast are you to me, creature
What creature I to you
You are a footnote in a story
And I the death of you
Again repeat what we both know
Whilst life, for now, entwine
That we are linked in blood my love
Shared memory divine
#the barking writer#helsknight#tanguish#redstone and skulk related#[loud shrugging] something about blood man i dunno#it's one am i've been listening to NFWMB on repeat for two hours
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Hunter's Character Arc: A Hopeful Narrative
Wrote this for the 2-year anniversary of Separate Tides, especially since we now have the boi's full story arc too. This meta could come to life after I re-read the one I wrote about enmeshment (link).
You also get my geeking out about cinematography and visuals this round, instead of the mental health angle that I usually come in from. What I found is this: while some fans feel that the writing put him through too much, the frame composition of every Hunter scene - no matter how dark and horrifying the scene is - wants to paint him as an empowered survivor, and root for him, getting us viewers to be on his side in a way that is never really overt.
The way he is framed within the 'camera', evolves as his story arc evolves throughout the show: from being so high-ranking that only Belos appeared to be superior to him, to actively participating in society as an equal, to not only learn from others and be loved by others but also impart knowledge and love to the world.
Bringing his scenes to life wasn't just about Zeno Robinson's voice acting, along with how animators draw his expressions and poses; the camera also has to be placed in certain ways to add to the emotional weight of his scenes (even if in a subtle manner). These all add up in less obvious ways, to get specific emotional responses from us in the audience.
What I remember from the cinematography classes when I studied animation (honestly the only areas I didn't suck in were the preproduction and film analysis modules, everything else was bleh) are some general rules:
1. Shots with characters that are further away with a wider angle, are often to establish the setting (location and mood). Shots that are closer to the characters are more personal, of course.
2. Both low angle shots and high angle shots provide us with info about power/hierarchy, control and vulnerability in characters. Low angle shots may empower a hero, making them look more heroic if they're roughly facing the camera, but could make them appear vulnerable if their back is to the camera. High angle shots usually depower a character, making them feel small and feeble.
3. Shots with a height that is at eye level with the character(s), allow us to connect more directly with a character.
4. These rules can be creatively bent at times, in shows and movies. And you'd also have to factor in where and which characters are placed within the shots, e.g. their back is facing the camera, vs. us seeing them in full front-view.
- An extra, not-so-important note: There's the rule of thirds, a rough guide for the screen's composition during important moments, to be more aesthetically pleasing to the human eye (which isn't an area of focus in this particular analysis).
There are so many screenshots I could've fit into this post! But there's the 30 pics limit and I've chosen the best ones I could think of.
Diving in...
It's stating the obvious, but the camera gets closer to Hunter as we get to know him more. When we start out, his presence feels distant, ominous and impersonal, like he's a smaller cog in a massive machine, just someone that Belos has sent out to do his bidding:
But the sense of his personhood, its importance, and his desire to fight for it, is felt more and more by us as time passes.
A really strong contrast would be this comparison:
Not quite knowing who this kid is (camera is far away and impersonal), vs. being terrified out of our wits as he appears helpless while possessed, because we're personally so invested in his wellbeing by that point. He has become a literal puppet, 100% physically coerced to do what Belos wants, in a more violent way than Belos previously coercing him to perform his Golden Guard duties using emotional manipulation.
After he was unmasked in Hunting Palismen, we connect with him and his vulnerabilities, since we can see through the armor (both literally and metaphorically) that he has to put up to survive as long as he did in the Emperor's Coven, prior to his decision to run away. We journey alongside him through the good and the bad.
Things become a bit less obvious when we get to low angles vs. high angle shots, plus the eye level shots.
Low Angle Shots:
Before being unmasked, he appears to be an intimidating antagonist who is not to be trifled with (though Luz manages to hold her own against him) and we feel that Luz is vulnerable to being possibly hurt by him:
but once he has met Luz and his mask comes off...
He is framed less and less as an antagonist, and lives out what he truly wants to live out, heroically braving many challenges and triggers to genuinely help others.
This even happens when things are really going south for him, when it appears that he has no way out:
To me, it feels like we are with him, at his level, as the storytelling aims to respect everything that he goes through. All thanks to the camera height, that can go as far as lowering itself all the way to the floor with him.
High Angle Shots:
An incredible difference would be between him watching Luz from the shadows below, even having power over Salty, telling the audience that he has control:
and fast forwarding to Luz offering him her hand during one of the pivotal moments in Hollow Mind:
I suppose this one shot is the one of very few that depower Hunter, and here, his old faith in Belos's reign is being dismantled. But whenever this is the case, it's from the vantage point of a kind-hearted character who will offer him help and never hurt him.
What stands out is, any high angle shots of Hunter do not ever show him being all alone with Belos. The closest to that would perhaps be these:
But I'd point out that in the Hollow Mind screenshot, Hunter and Luz in the present are watching from a distance: this moment is a step towards his empowerment because he reaches that awareness and clarity that Belos has been lying to him.
In the For the Future shot, it's the impact of Belos's abuse - the trauma sustained - staring Hunter in the face, not Belos himself. And while Hunter is all alone in the shot, he isn't completely consumed by anguish, having a support network that's obviously offscreen but nonetheless there with him.
The only shots where he is dangerously alone with Belos would be from moments like this:
But he hadn't been unmasked yet, and we weren't even so sure back then about details such as his age, true motives and true intentions. And...any high angle that involves Belos never seems to be used to depower him.
The crew took consideration to respect the portrayal of this kid's experiences of trauma, and his development.
When Luz and Willow look down at him, he may be temporarily rendered powerless, but we can already trust that they won't treat him poorly:
Eye Level Shots:
These seem to be used for moments of uncertainty, keeping us on edge. We may wonder for a moment, where Hunter's loyalties lie, or wonder if he will survive a horrible situation:
But the eye level shot is also for us to connect as directly as we can with him.
This important frame from Hunting Palismen seems like a pretty unique Hunter shot in his entire arc. I haven't come across any other shot composition like this which involves him, though I could be wrong. He's standing between a taller scout (and the scout is actually lower in rank than him, yet Hunter can't produce the proof that he's their high-up superior) and Luz who is shorter than him.
We may start to sense that he may be less powerful than we initially thought, and there are further confirmations of this in the subsequent scenes. This shot is not quite eye level, yet not a stark low angle shot.
With regards to the unhealthy vs. healthy mentorship he receives in the show, somehow we're told through the frame composition that wanting to be guided towards the right cause is very important for him, something he is emotionally invested in.
My ultimate takeaway from this is: the writers never want to convey that he is beyond hope and saving.
There seem to be far more low angle and eye level shots of him when he is both masked and unmasked, yet different meanings are communicated: control while masked (furthering Belos's cause to wield power in the Isles) vs. empowerment when unmasked (Hunter's own personal agency).
There are a few lovely subversions of what we normally expect from low angle and high angle shots:
An empowering moment where Hunter is part of something that is healthy for him, instead of high angle shots that are normally depowering for whichever character is in focus.
This low angle shot achieves two things, I think: not only to highlight how terrifying Belos is, but also that Hunter isn't alone and has Flapjack and Gus to help him (especially since Gus could disarm him with powerful Illusion magic just before Belos charged at Hunter). No matter how you slice it, Hunter isn't dangerously isolated and isn't rendered helpless here, despite being very terrified. This nicely presents an equal chance on both sides of winning this fight (before The Collector is freed from their prison), and keeps us on edge.
And only today did I notice a pattern from significant frames in all the S3 specials:
Being on his knees. Look at dat body language!! But the camera never stares him down in a condescending, insensitive and detached fashion: it's once again a low-ish angle that meets him at eye level. Which goes to show how much connection matters to this kid, even in the form of us viewers connecting with him.
To wrap this up...
When it comes to him feeling like he's part of something larger, we feel so different looking at these last two shots:
Belonging only to Belos, being owned, dangerously isolated but not completely silenced, reduced to someone whom Belos refers to as "this one", being a breakable "thing"...but later on: finding personal autonomy, his own voice, the things and people that he as an individual loves and wants to nurture and protect, not being above or below anyone in society.
To think that this gentle, empathetic kid's story started and ended at drastically different points.
#yet another spontaneous meta!! that's what this kid does to me#toh hunter#the owl house#toh analysis#golden guard#owl house cinematography#loz writes a meta
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Hey there! I hope you’re well! 🥰
So the prompt list you just reblogged, coupled with your response to my comment on your fic created a perfect storm for me to send a request in (if you’re still taking them, that is)
Would you be willing to write some more protective Tommy Shelby using this prompt: “I’m not jealous. I just know the intentions that someone like that has for you, even if you claim not to see them yourself.” ?? … you’re an absolute master at it and I’m excited to see what you’ll write!
Thanks in advance if you choose to! 🧡
Yep, requests are still open and thank you for sending this in! :D
I couldn't help but add in angst and pining because I'm evil.
I hope you like the fic :)
Title: Wanting
Prompt list: list
Peaky Blinders tag list: @stylesofloki, @ohshititsfenharel, lenaskyler02, @elenavampire21, @swordofawriter, @zablife, @cillmequick, @polishcrazyone, @nataliewalker93
Thomas Shelby tag list: @alreadybroken-ts, @darlingdevil, lyrxbz, @watercolorskyy, @notyour-valentine, @neonpurplestars89-blog
Everything tag list: greenrevolutionary, @byebyebreezywrites spngingerbread21, @layazul, @lov3vivian, @simonsbluee
You adjusted your hair one last time before turning around. You smiled at Tommy and gestured to yourself.
“Well?” you asked, “How do I look?”
Tommy didn’t answer. He looked away and lit another cigarette. You sighed and walked over to him, sitting down next to him.
“Too much?” you said
“No.”
“Then what is it?”
“How well do you know…” Tommy tried to remember the name of the man, you did tell him after all, “him?”
“James,” you said with a soft smile, “We’ve met a couple of times.”
“A couple of times,” Tommy smiled bitterly, “and you sure you really know someone after only meeting a ‘couple of times’.”
“That’s why I’m going out with him to dinner,” you said, rolling your eyes, “to get to know him. What’s the matter Tommy?” You smiled playful and nudged him, “You jealous?”
“I’m not jealous,” Tommy said firmly, “I just know the intentions that someone like that has for you, even if you claim not to see them yourself.”
You stood up quickly and wrapped your arms around yourself. A thick silence fell over the two of you. Silences were never awkward between you and Tommy. He was one of the few people who you felt comfortable being completely silent with. Ever since you started working with Polly, you and Tommy had become close. Well, as close as anyone can truly get with Tommy.
“I’m not stupid.” You said eventually
“I know.”
“Then why are you acting like I am?”
You heard Tommy stand up. Your breath hitched as he put his hands on your shoulders. He squeezed them briefly before saying quietly,
“Too many people I… care about have gotten hurt, love. I don’t want the same thing to happen to you.”
You turned around, gaze softened, and put your hand over Tommy’s. Tommy resisted the urge to link your fingers together.
“It’s ok,” you said, “I’m an adult. I can handle myself, can’t I?”
“I know.”
“Besides,” you removed your hand and pulled yourself out of Tommy’s grip, “Polly knows his mother. She assures me that he has nothing but the best of intentions.”
You grabbed your coat and headed towards the door. You turned back for a second and for a brief moment Tommy thought that you had changed your mind. That you were going to abandoned your meeting and agree to spend the evening with him.
“You know where my spare keys are right?” you said, “You don’t mind locking up when you leave? Although you know you’re more than welcome to stay.”
“Not wise to leave your spare keys under a flower pot.” Said Tommy
“And who’s going to fuck with someone who works for Shelby Company Limited?”
You gave him one last bright smile before shutting the door. Tommy closed his eyes and sat back down as the sound of your shoes clicking on the ground was lost to the night. He took another deep drag of his cigarette. He wished that he hadn’t let you go. He wished that he had pulled your back into his arms and never let you go. To tell you how much he loves you, those words that seemed so small and yet would change everything.
And Polly had done everything in her power to prevent that. With her actually knowing the family, and giving you her assurance, you would never be Tommy’s.
#fanfiction#peaky blinders#reader insert#request#thomas shelby#tommy shelby#thomas shelby x reader#tommy shelby x reader
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Why Tears of the Kingdom's Story Doesn't Work
While I will defend the lack of nuance in the text of Tears of the Kingdom, what I will criticize is how the story was executed. TL;DR: The writers tried to tell a story like Skyward Sword, but were limited by Breath of the Wild's nonlinear gameplay formula. Read on below the cut. Spoilers, obviously.
Let's start with Skyward Sword's story and how it was executed so well. There are three arcs: Find Zelda, find the sacred flames to purify the Goddess Sword, and seek out the dragons to find the Triforce. The first arc is notable here, because it's a suspenseful mystery. Link is constantly a step behind Zelda. He's chasing after her with no goal other than to just reunite with her.
The story is able to move from arc to arc and tell a story that evolves over the course of the game because of how rigidly structured the progression is. You will go from point A to point B, whether you want to or not. That way, the writers could drop the right story beats at the right time. It's traditional storytelling, because no other medium has the same level of interactivity as a video game, and it works. Regardless of how it feels to play, you can't deny that the story was executed very, very well.
Breath of the Wild, by contrast, is nonlinear to a fault. You can go anywhere, anytime. The writers were cognizant of this, so they wrote a one-arc story that was compartmentalized into four entirely separate plot lines. Link has one goal that never changes across the game: free the divine beasts to defeat Calamity Ganon. You go to one region, free that divine beast, then go to another at your pace and discretion.
Nothing carries over between plot lines. Nothing you did for the Rito has any impact on what is happening to the Gorons, because every plot line had be to designed so it could the first or last one you tackle. This approach deprived the story of depth or any sense of momentum. They aimed to make up for this with the memories: cutscenes that tell a linear story with more depth, but can be discovered in any order then rewatched in the proper order for the "complete" picture. Critically, though, the memories only provide context to the current events. Knowing what happened in the past has no bearing on the present.
Now we come to Tears of the Kingdom. They went the same gameplay approach as BotW: complete non-linearity. But they tried to tell a mystery story. This fundamentally fails because, like BotW, nothing carries over between the regional plot lines, and they should be impacted by the dragon tears (TotK's memories) but aren't. There are so many ways this falls apart. I'll talk about it through the order I played the game in: Zora, Rito, Gerudo, Goron.
Once Link returns to the Surface, witnesses Zelda appear and disappear at Hyrule Castle, and tells Purah what happened, she instructs him to investigate the odd regional phenomena. So he goes to Zora's Domain and starts working with Sidon. Zelda appears to them, and at this point, Link--and the player--has no idea what's going on. After that, Link goes to Rito Village, finds Tulin near the huge blizzard, and they see Zelda. Alright, something isn't adding up. By the time Link gets to the Gerudo Desert and sees Zelda there, he must know something is wrong. That is not Zelda, and it's pretty obvious at this point. But he still acts as if he knows nothing.
Finally, when he and Yunobo are chasing after her on Death Mountain, there is no fucking way he doesn't know it's not her. Yunobo is all like "oh no, we have to find Zelda! We have to go after her! Is she okay after going into the ceiling like that?" At this point I am screaming in my head, "Link! Tell Yunobo it's not her! You know it's not her!" Because Link is clever. He can put two and two together, so why the hell isn't he? Well, it's because he's doomed by the format of the narrative.
This is made doubly nonfunctional once you find all the dragon tears. Once Links knows that Zelda is the Light dragon, there is no way on God's green earth that he is fooled by the Zelda that he sees with any sage afterward. But he acts like he is. Brother, Link talks so much in this game. He's constantly explaining shit to people. They really got their mileage out of his "moving hands as if explaining something" animation. But when it matters most, he is fucking silent. It's disrespectful to the player's intelligence and Link's character.
Look. When you're trying to tell a mystery, as your audience's knowledge of the situation increases, your main character's knowledge needs to as well. If the character witnesses a major clue, they can't just forget that clue so they can discover it again but in a different place. It just doesn't work like that. There need to be bread crumbs. There needs to be momentum. There needs to consequence, cause and effect. Mysteries are linear stories. But when you try to tell this kind of story in the nonlinear way that this gameplay formula demanded, it does not work.
What kills me is that each of the four plot lines in TotK are well-written and fun (quick ranking: Rito, Gerudo, Zora, Goron). But through no fault of their own, they decline in coherence and satisfaction as you progress through the game. I can imagine that someone who played the order opposite I did was as mystified as Yunobo, but screaming at Link to just tell Sidon that's not Zelda.
The nail in the coffin of this story's nonfunctionality is that the longest side quest has Link going around Hyrule's stables, trying to find clues to Zelda's whereabouts. He works with Penn to investigate and set these stories straight. But once Link discovers that Zelda is the Light Dragon (or at least, that the Zelda who keeps appearing isn't really her), he should be able to tell Penn the truth. But he doesn't, because he can't for the side quest to function.
I managed to put aside how frustrating all of that is by rationalizing "well it has to be this way for the gameplay to work the way it does", and that's fine, but they didn't have to write the story they did. BotW's story worked because they wrote it in a way that it can be thoroughly enjoyed in any order. TotK's doesn't because they tried to have their cake and eat it too: tell a story with depth, but tell it in any order. They could have written a story that worked with the gameplay, but they didn't.
TotK did a lot of things right. On their own, I think the regional plot lines are more compelling than BotW's (especially the Rito one, and maybe except the Goron one). Having the soon-to-be-sages follow Link through the dungeons was a good choice. The search for a fifth sage provided a feeling of momentum that BotW was sorely lacking. And from the moment the search for the fifth sage starts, the story works just fine because it becomes linear. I had a fantastic time playing this game. I wouldn't have played it for over a hundred hours if I wasn't enjoying myself. It's just a shame it didn't turn out better.
#zelda#the legend of zelda#my own#zelda analysis#tears of the kingdom#tears of the kingdom spoilers#totk#totk spoilers
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wanda maximoff headcanons [01]
Warnings: brief mention of loss (it is canon compliant…), brief mention of internalized homophobia
A/N: these headcanons are canon-compliant and are independent of my one-shots and such. please let me know if you want more of my headcanons (compliant or non-compliant) thru this link — i have so many lol.
Main Masterlist | ao3 | Wattpad
…
when you first meet her, it was after coming home from the fallout in Sokovia. the two of you never crossed paths on the ground, but you knew she was powerful from the burst of energy you felt when Pietro had fallen (you did not know this until later, though).
you hesitated on introducing yourself and trying to get to know her at first. part of you wanted to give her space, given the course of recent events, but the other part of you could not help but be utterly fascinated by her.
therefore, the first time the two of you spoke was two days after returning to the compound. Wanda had limited herself to her bedroom and brief appearances in the kitchen and the training room. in a moment of bravery, you decided you were finally going to formally introduce yourself and put your best foot forward.
you spent that morning researching Sokovian cuisine. you were not the best cook, but you were not the worst either. thus, you settled on a relatively simply dish and decided to make two servings: one for you, the other of your new teammate.
it is shocking that you do not drop the two dishes on your way to her bedroom. shaking from anxiety, your knuckles barely tap the door. you wonder if she could even hear you knocking. before you can knock again, though, the door is cracked open.
Wanda is surprised to see you on the other side. it is not that she is inherently opposed to your presence; it's just that she does not know you very well. to say she does not like strangers, especially within the confines of her bedroom, was an understatement.
however, her eyes drift downwards from your face, and she notes the dishes in your hands. the familiar smell is comforting. two days ago, it would have probably made her sob; today, though, she is able to provide a soft smile with her tears contained. so, she widens the door and allows you to enter.
you take the chance to walk into her room cautiously (not because you are afraid of her but because you are afraid of scaring her in some way). Wanda watches your actions closely, almost quizzically, as you set the dishes on a nearby desk, finally turning to face her.
the two of you bonded on some level that night. you told her some stories from your past, from growing up in the States to your journey with joining SHIELD. Wanda did not share as much in return (and you understand why); but when she did mention some part of her past, you listened attentively.
as weeks pass, the two of you only grow closer and closer. you watched her favorite sitcoms together, and she made dinner for the two of you each week. most times, she would choose a Sokovian dish, and you loved each one.
(when you moan from the delicious meal and tell her as such, she smiles, and a soft blush floods her cheeks. you were too engrossed in the food to notice.)
your favorite thing that you introduced her to was spotify. from a young age, you loved music. there was something about certain songs that made you feel something like nothing else could. so, you made sure to download it for her and show her how to use it.
(you made her a playlist titled "for my little witch," inspired by the nickname you recently branded her with. each morning, Wanda would listen to each song you added throughout the previous day.)
her current favorite artists include taylor swift, phoebe bridgers, lorde, and fiona apple.
Wanda starts to develop feelings — romantic feelings — for you about two months after you had come to her door with dinner. at first, she wonders if it is simply codependency — perhaps she was merely attached to you due to the fact you made an effort to get close to her earlier than others on the team?
however, she knows it is more than friendship (at least, on her end) when she watched you lay out the food items out on the blanket. the sun was in the process of going down, creating this hazy orange appearance in the sky. you had decided that day to take her out for a picnic, except this time, you were preparing all of the foods — more specifically, you were preparing all of the foods you grew up with as a child. there was something about the glint in your eye when placing the ham and cheese sandwiches on the blanket that made Wanda's heart skip a beat.
(that does not mean she was keen to accept her feelings at first. given her upbringing in eastern europe during the 90s, she was always taught a woman should only feel this way with a man. moreover, it is not like she had much experience in the romance department due to her years with HYDRA. she gets over this issue somehow, having this odd, albeit vivid, dream one night of her talking to Pietro about you, about her feelings for you. 'i did not see that coming,' he had said. 'you falling for an avenger? wow. she sounds nice, though.' he noticed her apprehension. 'it is okay to let yourself be happy, Wanda, even if it is with her. that is all i could ever want for you.')
(it is safe to say she cried the following morning.)
she begins to wonder if you feel the same once you add a few new songs to the playlist one day: 'sparks fly,' 'we fell in love in october,' '400 lux,' 'crush culture,' and 'you are in love.'
(she definitely does not lay in her bed that next morning with butterflies floating throughout her entire body about what this could possibly mean.)
you were a coward. you knew you could not confess your ever-growing feelings for Wanda verbally, afraid you would spill your guts out if you even tried. so, you opted to do it the only way you knew how: hint at your feelings through the songs you added. retrospectively, it was so stupid.
thankfully, Wanda was not, and she got the hint. though she was often relatively quiet, she could be unusually confident around you. maybe it was your constant awkwardness around her (which she found endearing and, sometimes, entertaining). she decided she would bring it up later went the two of you had your weekly dinner in her room.
"so, i listened to the songs you added yesterday."
"oh? what um- what did you think?"
"i liked them..."
(you stayed silent, continuing to eat the food she made, still shocked that she was bringing it up right now.)
"... i couldn't help but notice they all had a common theme, though."
"hmm."
"if i didn't know better, i would think this was your way of saying something... to me."
you began rambling, apologizing if you made her uncomfortable and promising to not do anything like that again. before you can get very far, however, she stops you by grabbing your hand, weaving her fingers between yours, and squeezing it.
(your mind is screaming at how soft her hands are. then, it is screaming at the fact that she is holding your hand.)
Wanda does not say anything, looking directly into your eyes.
she takes this as her chance to lean closer toward you, noses lightly brushing. knowing you would not be the one to officially break the distance (not only were you a coward, but you were a 'self-proclaimed believer in chivalry'), Wanda finally leans forward enough that your lips graze hers, softly but surely.
it only lasts for a few seconds before she pulls away with a smile on her face, but those were the best few seconds of your life thus far.
(she had vowed to never read your mind without permission, but your mind is practically screaming past its mental walls and into hers: 'oh my god. oh my god. she kissed me. she actually kissed me.')
she chuckles at your internal response and leans forward to place a peck on your lips before grabbing the (now) empty and dirty dishes from dinner and taking them back to the kitchen. in her exit, she leaves you in her room, dumbfounded but ecstatic at what had just occurred.
End.
#wanda maximoff x reader#elizabeth olsen x reader#wanda maximoff x female reader#wanda maximoff#wanda maximoff x you#limarieb wanda maximoff#scarlet witch#marvel imagines#wanda maximoff headcanons
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Bee[more]hyped!
Hi! Okay! So I’ve hidden details below, but if you just want the download link here you go.
Download (SFS)
Requires: UC, Easy Inventory Check
Alright, so a while back I found this lovely beehive conversion from Foresty, which was based on Untidyfan’s 3to2 conversion, which is in turn based on Gwenke’s functional beehive. What a way we’ve come! Believe (bee-lieve) it or not this is actually the object that got me interested in modding.
What I didn’t like about the original object was that it used 2 different objects as the honey, and the overload of effects. Lots of lag. So I’ve made a few tweaks!
The first 2 are cosmetic, I’ve moved the hive from the gardening section to Hobbies.../Misc, and the default texture is yellow, but the original green is still available. Bees are yellow, duh.
Sims now harvest honey directly into their inventory, which they can drink or stock the fridge with. This is a 4to2 conversion of the honey, which I thought was neat.
The hive now only displays the bee effects when open, or when a sim angers the bees. It produces a jar of honey every 18 hours, and Gatherer sims have a 50% chance of harvesting an extra jar each harvest. Lucky sims have about a 5% chance, and these can stack. A Lucky + Gatherer sim can harvest 2 extra jars, potentially.
Sims will autonomously harvest honey and occasionally inspect the beehive, please let me know if these values seem off to you I wasn’t super sure on them. Cowards will never harvest honey. Too many stingers!
The hive now builds nature enthusiasm when it’s used, and sims can harvest multiple jars at once. I’m not sure if there’s a limit to how much honey the hive can hold? I guess just keep an eye on it.
There’s two 2 new memories included as well. If you’re not comfortable with custom memories in your game please leave them out of your downloads folder, the hive seems to work just fine.
Caveats
Bee-cause of course there are. I might work some of these things out, but right now I’m done with this project.
My beehive and Foresty’s share the same GUID, and my jar of honey does as well. I’m not sure if that’s shared across all these hives or not. But you can’t have both in the game.
Children can not harvest honey, I didn’t feel like working on the animations.
Sims can’t drink the honey straight from their inventory, it must be placed first.
The animations and tool used to grab the honey are a bit off, but not enough that it actually bothers me right now.
Finally, the jar of honey itself.
As you can see the textures aren’t great? But I don’t know enough about objects to get it right. I’ll put this out there, if someone wants to help me fix this I’d be forever grateful.
I also wanted to edit the anger bees interaction, but I couldn’t get the chased by bees interaction to work? So I gave up. I do think there should be more ways for sims to die by flies anyway, but it’s not my ideal interaction.
Lastly, I wanted to convert the Honey Cake from 4, but food again proved challenging, and when I got to trying to do the coding so it requires a Honey in the fridge, it looked like a LUA script to me? So I backed off. Maybe one day. Not today.
You might be able to get away with not having the UC for this, but I think at the very least you’ll need BV. I can’t support any installations other than the UC though.
Anyway, thanks for reading! I hope you guys enjoy this as much as I am! It’s just a fun silly little thing, but our sims need bees right???
Credits/Thanks: Foresty, Untidyfan, Gwenke. Your original objects and coding are amazing, I hope I’m not stepping on any toes here! I did DM Foresty, but I figured since Gwenke’s code has been reused a couple times now I thought I’d be fine.
Edit: 04/30/23: Moved honey jar out of the catalogue. Whoops. Had it in there for testing.
Edit 05/08/23: Bees no longer accumulate inaccesible honey in the winter.
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