oh him? he's just a monk. no he doesn't harbor deep desires of greatness don't worry about it

Sketchdump 2

I think what really elevated Zhu’s character for me was the excellent cheer in which she goes about doing the most morally corrupt things. She’s mild and funny and grins a lot and jokes with her friends and flirts with her wife and loves her sooo tenderly (the end of swbts though oughhh); she’s a monk who can’t fight for shit (or ride a horse) and is altogether a pretty chill guy. And idk it’s so refreshing because the author subverts the (incredibly infuriating) trope of squashing every ‘badass’ non-male character into the snarky-and-cold-and-hates-everyone cast. Zhu is warm and loving and wily and incredibly fucked up and it’s so much more fun to watch than whatever is going on with most YA leads

Ouyang and Zhu biting scene being a blowjob metaphor and also a handshake of absolute trust and a proof of concept of intimacy via cannibalism but also it’s auto-cannibalism because they’re the same person which would also make it auto-fellatio - masturbation? but also it’s not ‘romantic’ it’s an expression of deep solidarity between queer people and also it’s literally just some guy biting another guys hand. also it is a blowjob. there’s never been a book like this before.

"Ouyang was the only person in the world who knew what it felt to be loved by Esen. When Ouyang died, that knowledge would go with him. It would be destroyed, and it could never be undone"

- Shelley Parker-Chan, He Who Drowned the World

more from the reincarnated band au in the form of: sometimes you're just a girl who wants to have a nice lunch date w your partner, but then her incredibly rude coworker stalks in (bc he stalks everywhere) and then you realise you've miscalculated bc the shop is one block away from the gym and his appearance makes sense, he does leave the gym at this hour (you're annoyed that you know ouyang's routine). Some random jockman is trailing after him and ouyang appears as pleased as he is desperate to evade him, and they both sit down with you and you end up eating your noodles next to some sweaty guy you just met, while zhu and ouyang bicker gleefully at each other about music.

just finished she who became the sun, enjoy my shitty memes

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8/30, Day 6 - Snow / Destiny

8/31, Day 7 - Like Knows Like / Two Unlike Things / Free Space

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I've been in a meme mood lately for some reason

monk zhu chongba

General Ouyang 😤

Spoilers for hwdtw!

can we talk about zhu's genderfuckery. she's a girl when girl-on-girl violence is thematically relevant, and he's a dude mostly to piss ouyang off and be best bros with xu da. she's a dude because the alternative is a peasant girl, and he makes his final stand as a peasant girl because fate is funny like that. zhu's gender is a giant gleeful raspberry blown at the world, while simultaneously being a vehicle for themes of gendered violence and discrimination and toxic masculinity and girlhood. i am so normal about this duology btw

Ah yes my favorite gender: was born a girl, but willingly took the identity of a boy and now I identify as a fucking problem

Of course you have immense desire for greatness at any cost and unstoppable determination dictating your every waking thought and action. And pronouns.

Character, book, and author names under the cut

Achilles- Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Zhu Chongba- She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

Danny Tozer- Dreadnought by April Daniels

Nina Zenik- Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo