#the radiant emperor series
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As painful as it is to imagine Esen joining the ghosts that follow Ouyang, I really don't think he does.
Ghosts in SWBTS are described as hugry, restless and born of resentment, but Esen accepted his death! He didn't understand Ouyang enough to know this was coming, but his death was inevitable from the very beginning of the story and Esen only understood that when Ouyang had already staged a coup against him. It doesn't matter that they loved each other, it doesn't matter that Ouyang will spend the rest of his life haunted by his choices, Esen needed to die for Ouyang to be free and complete his revenge. If Esen didn't accept his fate, why would he just let himself be killed?
#in other words. that book messed me up a little.#swbts#she who became the sun#shelley parker chan#tina rambles#he who drowned the world#(can august just come already the early reviews made me so impatient)#i NEED to see zhu get worse <3#& ouyang haunted and grieving and tortured by choices he made#they both deserve it#the radiant emperor#the radiant emperor series
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Zhu Yuanzhang; the radiant emperor, fated to be the greatest of all.
Zhu Chongba; just a humble monk at your service.
#the radiant emperor#zhu yuanzhang#she who became the sun#he who drowned the world#my art#look I feel like I could have done better especially with the shadows#but I've had a cold for ages and my eyes are irritated#so I just wanted to finish this#I do like it though :)#Zhu is SO gender honestly#I'm still getting used to drawing digitally#feels like I have to re-learn everything I already know when it comes to traditional art#oh well guess I'll just have to practice#:)#please don't steal my art I worked hard on this#the radiant emperor series#added the black background#I think it looks better but I also liked the red because of the rebbels#get you a girlguy who is described as having an insect like face/ as a cricket or a somewhat ugly man#but a the same time pulls people in and fascinates them
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no art in a while since i’m moving. but. i just finished she who became the sun and. i am AFRAID of what is going to happen. (runs and reads the second book asap)
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“…there are no kind solutions to cruel situations.”
She Who Became the Sun (by Shelley Parker-Chan)
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HELL FUCKING YEEEAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!
#i am so fucking excited you don’t understand#i’m in the woods eating dirt. i’m loosing my mind.#she who became the sun#he who drowned the world#the radiant emperor series#shelley parker chan#swbts#hwdtw#mine
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So much respect for She Who Became The Sun expicitly stating that the antagonist was stunningly hot while the protagonist is genuinely ugly.
#this is not a radiant emperor quote#she who became the sun#radiant emperor#radiant emperor series#ouyang#general ouyang#zhu chongba#zhu yuanzhang
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Just thinking about hwdtw is basically about how you need to get in touch with your emotions and femininity, or perish
And how the only level-headed pov character is Ma who is sapphic and femme and whose compassion is what really helps the ppl around her to let go of old, harmful patterns and build something better instead
EDIT: This post was never meant to imply that being cis and sapphic is somehow superior to being trans or any of the other myriad expressions and identities the characters in the series have. I realize it probably comes off that way and I regret that. Linking this post for context and more nuanced takes.
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Character, book, and author names under the cut
Loki- Loki- Where Mischief Lies by Mackenzi Lee
Nathan Allan- I Wish You All The Best by Mason Deaver
Dekka- Gone series by Michael Grant
Ouyang- She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
#Loki#Loki- Where Mischief Lies#Where Mischief Lies#marvel#Mackenzi Lee#Nathan Allan#I Wish You All The Best#Mason Deaver#Dekka#Gone series#Gone#Michael Grant#Ouyang#She Who Became The Sun#the radiant emperor#tre#He Who Drowned the World#general Ouyang#Shelley Parker-Chan#polls#lgbt books#queer book character tournament 2.0
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She Who Became The Sun Duology Summary:
Zhu Chongba is given a fate of greatness, which sounds great right up into he starves to death. But if there’s a great fate to be had seems a waste to let it die too so his sister will just have to fulfill it. A reimagining of the Ming Dynasty’s rise to power that has the gumption to ask ‘is it a woman’s body if a woman doesn’t inhabit it?’
The Traitor Baru Cormorant Summary:
Lesbian autistic accountant infiltrates the evil Empire to take it down from the inside, commits atrocities bc the ends justify the means
#she who became the sun#the radiant emperor#radiant emperor#shelly parker-chan#the traitor baru cormorant#the traitor#baru cormorant#the masquerade series#the monster baru cormorant#seth dickinson#lgbt books#lgbt literature#queer books#queer literature#lgbt#lgbtq#lgbtqia#poll#bookblr#booklr#books#literature#queer lit
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1, 6 and 16?
.1. fave book?
MEAN why did you ask me that when it was one of the options, hard question. My default answer is Aron Ralston's autobiography, Between a Rock and a Hard Place (what the movie 127 Hours is based on). I've read it quite a few times and Twin gave me a signed copy for Christmas one year. Idk, reading about a man's mental and physical survival journey to cutting off his own arm (and all his adventures before this moment) hits me in the right spot. Books I've read recently, as I'm getting back into the whole reading thing, I supremely enjoyed Six of Crows and The Goblin Emperor.
6. fave trope?
Another hard one. For this I'll say... main character denying that they're Special as they figure out they're Special. I'm listening to The Way of Kings at work and the few chapters it took for Kal to realize something was up, making excuses for why x or y happened, was delightful.
16. fave day?
Fan of Thursdays. Something about it being over the hump of the week, get to look forward to the fact that tomorrow is Friday and then the weekend. It's nice.
faves ask game
#i appreciated the goblin emperor for how straight forward it was#loved the main character and you were absolutely rewarded as a reader for paying attention and predicting things#and then obviously six of crows - kaz is a blorbo and that heist is french chef's kiss#this is now just books i enjoyed and gideon and harrow the ninths both get mentions here#gideon was just a great ride and then harrow had the *best* twist. the pov reveal i had to pause and walk around for a minute#it was So Good#and i've been enjoying Way of Kings!#my friend sent me the audio book because she and another friend are obsessed with it#so i report to them as i get to different parts and have thoughts about what's happening#fun for everyone#kaladin has the worst fucking time guy can't catch a fucking break#i have a whole prediction for where he ends up but i dont know the pacing of this series for what happens when in what book#or even what the necessary overarching plot is of the entire series#the war obviously and uniting the kingdom i suppose - and the return of the knights radiant and the implications of that#but again idk the pacing of it - i'm almost done with book 1 and Kal is still having a terrible time with bridge four#and my prediction is that he's obvi gotta get out of there and end up in a place of prominence in the army#probably with dalinar because he's not a sack of dicks - and get a shard blade#(even though he doesn't want one I know - so it has More Implications when he does accept one)#my pet theory is he gets Dal's#but - again - first he has to get out of being a bridgeman#which assume will be a terrible time for him yet again and all his fellow bridgemen will die on their escape attempt#ah fuck and then however Shallan fits the fuck into all of this what is she even doing#any way if anyone else has read way of kings/stormlight archives enjoy my probably very wrong predictions#please do not spoil it for me i'm having a great time listening and guessing#ANYWAY thank you for the ask lizzie lol#ask game response#ask response
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In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness.
In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.
When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother’s identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.
After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu uses takes the chance to claim another future altogether: her brother’s abandoned greatness.
#She Who Became the Sun#Shelley Parker Chan#The Radiant Emperor#fantasy#historical fiction#book series#chinese rep#asian rep#genderqueer#genderqueer rep#queer#queer rep#gender nonconforming#nonbinary#nonbinary rep#alt-history#fiction#lgbt fiction#lgbtqia#bookblr#daily book
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Quick pencil sketch of Esen! My phone camera really did him dirty but oh well😭
After having spent so much time drawing Ouyang lately, I couldn't not draw Esen at least for a quick sketch
#the radiant emperor#the radiant emperor series#she who became the sun#he who drowned the world#esen temur#my art#sketches#esen temur my beloved#most babygirl#dumb idiot but also the most perfect guy ever#finding good sources for mongol hair and beards in the yuan dynasty took like five times as long as drawing this did lmao
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Destroying what someone else cherished never brought back what you yourself had lost. All it did was spread grief like a contagion.
She Who Became the Sun (by Shelley Parker Chan)
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what is cosmere? (is that what its called?)
The Cosmere is a big, interconnected fantasy universe that is the setting of most of the works by the author Brandon Sanderson. The cool thing about his books is that each series is contained to its own world, and you can read any of them in isolation without realizing you're missing anything, but if you read them all you get a sense of the larger plot happening behind the scenes as those worlds start to collide and things cross over.
Brandon's magic systems tend to be very rule-based and well-defined, with a lot of twists being characters finding interesting ways to use those rules of magic. This lends itself well to the crossovers, because all the magic systems (as different as they are) share the same underpinning principles.
Here's some quick rundowns of different series and standalones in the Cosmere:
The Stormlight Archive
Planned ten-book series, currently four books are out.
A massive sprawling epic about the world Roshar, that's hit by a hurricane about every four days, and all the life has adapted to survive that environment. Knights Radiant -- superpowered individuals with a close bond to a spirit -- are starting to re-emerge in the world after being absent for centuries.
Because there are so many characters, this is where a lot of the character fandom tends to focus their efforts. I wouldn't recommend starting with it, though -- the first book alone is a thousand pages. I'd wait until you have a sense of Brandon's writing. But it's very good.
Mistborn
One trilogy (completed), one tetralogy set a couple hundred years later (completed), two trilogies some time in the future.
One cool thing about this series is that it follows one world (Scadrial) from a vaguely Renaissance tech level in the first trilogy, to 1920s in the second series, and eventually 1980s in the third and space-age magic in the fourth.
The magic itself is very intricate and all woven around metals -- there are people called Metalborn who can ingest metals and burn them in their stomachs to get different effects, including super-senses, strength, and Magneto-ish metallokinesis. That last bit makes the gunfights in the second series particularly fun.
The first book is a heist novel about robbing a thousand-year-old God-Emperor blind. It's a pretty good place to start, although it's a pretty hefty novel to start with.
The Emperor's Soul
I'm putting this one in a different category from the rest of the one-offs for a very good reason -- it's, in my opinion, the single best place to start reading the Cosmere.
It's a novella (just over a hundred pages) about a forger named Shai who uses magic to rewrite the histories of objects. She is captured by the government of an empire to reforge the soul of their Emperor, who has been left braindead after an assassination attempt, in the 100 days before the mourning period is over.
It's a fantastic meditation on art, a cool introduction to the way Brandon writes both characters and magic systems, and Shai herself is one of my favorite Cosmere characters. If any of this sounds at all interesting to you, I recommend you check it out.
One-offs
Brandon has also written a bunch of one-off novels in the Cosmere.
Elantris: His first book, and the one that my tattoo is from. About a prince who is affected by a dark transformation and thrown into a city of fellow undead, and the princess betrothed to him who arrives just in time to be told he died. Good, but suffers from some first book issues, pacing problems, and weird plot cul-de-sacs. Set in the same world as The Emperor's Soul, although there's basically no crossover.
Warbreaker: About a world where souls (Breaths) are bought and sold, and used to animate objects to do work, ruled by The Returned, living gods who require a steady dose of Breaths to live. One of my favorites, and an essential if you'd like to get into the crossover-y parts of the cosmere, as it introduces a bunch of elements that show up later (Especially in Stormlight)
Tress of the Emerald Sea: The first of his wildly successful Kickstarter project books, it's a fairy tale style story about a girl who braves a sea of bubbling, deadly spores to rescue the man she loves. It's lovely, especially if you're into a more Diana Wynne Jones kind of vibe to your fantasy. Probably a pretty good place to start!
Yumi and the Nightmare Painter: The third Kickstarter book. About a shrine priestess who stacks rocks to draw spirits, and a man who paints the nightmares that roam the streets of his city to banish them -- they become trapped in each other's places and must learn about each other's worlds to survive. This is currently my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE cosmere novel, oh my GOD it's so good. I'm not sure it's a great place to start, as a lot of the conclusion might feel a bit rushed if you don't have a good feel for the vibe of how Brandon writes magic, but honestly it might stand alone just fine even then.
The Sunlit Man: Fourth Kickstarter book. I haven't read this one yet.
Novellas: There are a bunch of novellas and short stories, some set on worlds we haven't otherwise seen, some set on Roshar or Scadrial.
If any of this sounds good to you, I recommend you give his writing a shot. He's one of my all time favorite writers (the tattoo should prove that, lol) and the Cosmere fandom is by and large wonderful and welcoming. I've made many lifelong friendships there.
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Thoughts on the motif of bathing in She Who Became the Sun.
Firstly, bathing presents a problem for Zhu. It’s a potential way for her biological sex to be discovered by the monks, and her solution to avoid bathing in public makes an enemy of Prefect Fang. This enimity culminates in Fang accidentally seeing her bathe, which leads to her defeating him for good, and getting noticed by the Abbot and receiving his support. Bathing starts out as a problem, but solving the problem shows Zhu’s ingenuity and ruthlessness. It started out as an obstacle, but overcoming the obstacle was empowering for her.
Bathing is also a way to show Zhu’s affection with Ma. After Zhu loses her arm, she jokes that Ma can wash her left elbow for her. Zhu and Ma spend the bathing scene after Zhu’s injury flirting shamelessly, and in doing so, Zhu feels safer about acknowledging her gender around Ma.
By contrast, bathing has much worse connotations for Ouyang.
He sees Esen after Esen has bathed, reminding him of how he is a eunuch where Esen is whole.
After his only bathing scene, Ouyang orders the servants to take down the mirrors in the bathroom of his new residence, because he can’t bear to see himself.
Finally, the “You really are as beautiful as a woman” scene happens directly after the scene where Ouyang has bathed in front of the mirrors, directly after he has had to be confronted with the image of his body - the body he loathes - undressed and vulnerable.
After Zhu loses a body part, she bathes, flirts with her love interest, and comes to terms with the way her body looks after the injury.
Years after Ouyang loses a body part, he bathes, gets flirted with by his love interest, but his love interest fucks it up, and at the end of it, Ouyang still hates the way his body is post-injury.
#this is not a radiant emperor quote#she who became the sun#ouyang#zhu#zhu chongba#general ouyang#ma yingzi#zhu yuanzhang#radiant emperor#radiant emperor series#bathing#motif#parallels#thoughts#analysis#esen temur#esen
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the radiant emperor series may be a buddy comedy, but it is also the worst group project ever. zhu and ouyang spend most of both books working towards the same goal in very different ways. a fraction of this is actually spent working together. ouyang fucks off halfway through hwdtw to do the thing they agreed to HIS way. they attempt to kill each other several times.
#the radiant emperor#swbts#hwdtw#hwdtw spoilers#zhu chongba#zhu yuanzhang#general ouyang#she who became the sun#he who drowned the world#this is why a faithful modern au would have them meeting for the group project from hell#*cough cough* read my modern au the radiant university *cough cough*#on the other hand wang baoxiang decides to do the work of 2 people on his own and does better than zhu + ouyang#or he works with madam zhang and takes all the credit ¯\_(ツ)_/¯#wang baoxiang#madam zhang
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