Dork Shadows

Disclaimer: The majority of the fandom is not like this, as far as I know. Most fans ship everything they see and enjoy their own content in peace, but as we all know, 1% of 10,000 people being assholes still means there's 1000 assholes scrambling around. And in a fandom as huge as Nezha 2019/2025, that 1% can feel like a wildfire that won't go out.

And again, blanket note of caution- if you read on, you are prepared to see anything and everything. If you are OK with all this, then- let’s go! 

Most of the drama takes place across pockets of weibo and xhs, less so on lofter but if the drama is big enough, you'll catch whiffs of it. People who don't want to be part of it just close their eyes and pretend not to see it, which is a very good strategy. But other people are jumping into the drama with their eyes wide open and making it everyone else's problem.

To prepare you for the absolute nuclear takes below, I'll first mention some light drama that nobody cares about. This is what I call, "people squabbling in a corner" because these takes have enough people saying them to warrant a mention, but not enough people participating to deserve more of our attention. And again, these are a very small minority among the fandom, because as I said, the majority are just vibing. I won't mention oubing here because that's for the main event. And we're not going to name any ships besides the top 7 for simplicity's sake, but if you're interested, someone on lofter ranked the popularity of each ship here.

Top 7:

Oubing

Bingzha

Dilong

Lubao

Longwangbao (Ao Guang/Shen Gongbao)

Luhe (Lutong/Hetong)

Runhe (Ao Run/Hetong)

(I'm leaving you to figure out everything else on the list at your own risk fyi)

Anyway, you know how astronauts have to go into those spinning things to do anti-gravitational training before heading to space? That's what this is. I'm preparing your tolerance for insanity before launching you into its very depths.

Ready? here we go! 命由我不由天!

The Trinity of things people take turns complaining about:

Emasculated Ao Guang ("What kind of freaks think a 280cm beefcake is a bottom??")

Trophy Wife Ao Bing ("The fujos ruined Ao Bing!")

Punching Bag Shen Gongbao ("Why do you people always have to make him the most miserable person on Earth??")

People Squabbling in a Corner:

Wuliang Xianweng apologism exists for some reason. Not only are there people who believe Wuliang is not a villain, they also think he is the REAL hero of the story! Because everything he did was on behalf of the human race! They are passionate about it too.

Some sickos think a live action adaptation of the movies would be a good idea.

Every once in a blue moon, someone complains about all the Shen Gongbao whump content and calls it "immoral." No, this did not deter anyone. They're still throwing Shen Gonggong into the meat grinder every day. Lots of Things happen to Ao Guang and Ao Bing too in this fandom, but it's particularly excessive and brutal when it comes to SGB, so his is the only one that's prevalent enough to have people complaining about it. That's why "Yuxu Gong abuses cats" is a thing now.

Fanboys are still arguing over who deserved to be the 12th Golden Immortal more, Taiyi or Shen Gongbao

Oubing/Dilong/Lubao shippers are sometimes victims of drama and sometimes instigators. People are not normal about ships they don't like and characters they don't like. Usually not for anything the characters actually did or the actual dynamics of the ship, but instead because the other character/ship gets in the way of another ship or isn't attractive to op.

I originally listed a bunch of bad takes from individuals but deleted them all because it was singling haters out and turning into me going, "get a load of this asshole, guys!" because quite a number were coming from the same people. That's not fair to all the other haters out there! Every time you think someone's come up with the dumbest post, another person comes along to dethrone the last person. It's only fair they all get mentioned at the same time! So instead, see my example of the average weibo vaguepost when you put every terrible vaguepost (yes... these are real takes, and not even all of them asdfasdf) from every hater for every ship and every character out there side by side with each other. No paragraph breaks for true immersion (CW: fandom idiocy):

"Hope you enjoy dilong when Tiandi comes out as an ugly old man! Get your ugly old man away from lutong and go fuck yourselves, lubaos. he belongs to [whoever else I ship lutong with]. Stop mooching off of shen gongbao's popularity and get your abusive deer away from our leopard. also go fuck yourselves lubaos, he belongs to [whoever else I ship sgb with]. nobody likes lutong, fuck that guy. if you think jinzha is a bottom, kill yourself. fans of the ship I don't like all hate my fav even though my fav is 1/2 of the ship, stop making my fav top, stop making my fav bottom, tall people shouldn't bottom, ugly people shouldn't bottom, feminine people shouldn't top, nonexistent characters shouldn't even be here, no Li should ever bottom. Shen Gongbao fans go fuck a bike because you like faces that look like bicycle seats so much. Hope Tiandi enjoys the smell of Ao Guang's giant foot, loser dilongs. Luhe shippers go to hell. Self-shippers, jump off a cliff. Kill the switch fan, kill the switch fan right now!! RunHe shippers fuck off. Dilong shippers invented lubao to fuck with longwangbao. Bingzha shippers are sick in the head. all shippers die. all solo fans kill yourselves. Only X fans ship XY, only Y fans ship XY, YX fans die. Anyone who doesn't ship my ship should burn in hell. My ship will be canon and theirs will burn! I need to vague this loser's idiotic headcanon, unlike my headcanon, which is totally canon. Only a guangying shipper would like longwangbao. Of course an Ao Bing stan would say that, wow die bottom Nezha fan. Oubing fans are delulu because Ao Guang's true love is clearly [redacted for your sakes]-"

Are you following any of that? No? Good, neither can I. The scariest part is that you'd think most people saying those things are minors. No, the worst of them are adults with real jobs.

Thankfully, all that pointless squabbling never led to anything except more vagueing. Any attempts at harassment lacked the manpower of the dilong/guanying drama. So it usually boils down to a couple people beefing it with each other while their friends show emotional support by leaving likes and going "Yeah! That's right, fuck [whichever ship or character's being bashed]."

And yes, the SGB fans being vagued, vagued the "ugly, old man" accusations back by saying "we know he's old and ugly, that's why we're into him <3 we love riding bikes <3" Ironically, I think both the SGB fuckers and the SGB haters are unaware that "bicycle" has a very specific connotation in English fandoms LOL!

Citing a fanlore article I just googled:

Little Black Dress (LBD) refers to a character who, like a little black dress, "goes with anything." These are characters who are easily paired with almost any other character, including crossover characters from other fandoms. Also known as the Fandom Bicycle ("everyone gets a ride"), the Launcher of a Thousand Ships (a reference to Helen of Troy), or the Cargo Container (gets shipped everywhere).

In addition to actually wearing that black dress, SGB is indeed the one character with the most ships now (they're not necessarily hyper popular ships, but they exist), including with characters that aren't even in the movie (Hello Jiang Ziya and King Zhou). It's easier to count who he hasn't been shipped with at this point. He's not just a bicycle anymore, he's the fandom bicycle.

And yes, the dilongs are doing their best to manifest a hot Hao Tian to prove the haters wrong.

But don't take that as a picture of the fandom at large. I've noticed that most people ship oubing/dilong/lubao (and other assorted ships) without drama, sometimes all at the same time. Or just don't talk about things they don't like, which is a very hard task for some fans! Truly the one challenge that keeps all fandoms connected regardless of race, nation, or creed.

Meme Updates:

This time, I have no fanon lore updates for everyone. Nothing's really changed since last time. But there are some more meme variations of Sun Wukong meeting Shen Gongbao. Some examples-

SGB: "The prejudice in people's hearts is like a mountain. No matter how hard you try to move it, it remains immobile." SWK: "So true, they wouldn't even let me be the Jade Emperor!" SGB: "Wait-"

SGB: "The prejudice in people's hearts is like a mountain. No matter how hard you try to move it, it remains immobile." SWK: "Skill issue." *invades heaven*

SGB: "The prejudice in people's hearts is like a mountain. No matter how hard you try to move it, it remains immobile." SWK: "That's a YOU problem. I'm different.*invades heaven* SGB: "I was the only demon disciple under Tianzun. SWK: "Oh cool. Were you your Master's favorite too? SGB: :) :) :) :) :)

EDIT to add: also some random trivia since it's a joke that gets lost in the subs. "Gonggong" is a way to address eunuchs. In court, they're referred to as "[surname] gong gong" so in the first film, Shen Gongbao wasn't just offended that Nezha was mispronouncing his name, Nezha was calling him a eunuch.

A Breather before the next load of insanity:

I don't know if the algorithm's the same now, but a while ago on douyin, the search box would lead to a rabbit hole of search words when I plugged in #dilong or #lubao. As in, enough individuals were searching for these terms that it autofilled asdfasdf:

"Ao Bing gets tied up, Ao Bing gets crucified, Ao Guang gets crucified, Ao Guang gets crucified and tortured, Ao Guang gets bullied by Tiandi, Shen Gongbao gets tied up by Lutong, Lutong tortures Shen Gongbao, Shen Gongbao almost dies, Shen Gongbao coughs up blood, Shen Gongbao gets tied up and tortured, Shen Gongbao gets beat up, Shen Gongbao and his dad get beat up."

No, none of those yielded any results though you're welcome to try LOL. Wait, no actually one of those did yield something- it was someone's dilong fic about Hao Tian beating the shit out of Shen Gongbao and refusing to stop unless Ao Guang agrees to marry him, and then when Ao Guang does, Hao Tian gets really mad that he cares about another man. Average Tiandi behavior. Average day in Shen Gongbao's life.

And Jiaozi and co. work hard, but you know who works harder? Lubao shippers. They finally found a frame of their ship together in the same shot and angled in a position that allows face to face eye contact, and a with a lighting scheme that validates all of their headcanons to boot!

Now, THE MAIN EVENT. It's a wild one, so please strap on your seatbelts!

Solo Nezha fans vs Solo Ao Bing fans vs Oubing shippers vs Bingzha shippers vs Jiaozi vs Everyone Else

If I'm wrong about any of this, please feel free to jump in and correct me. Because I am NOT looking at any of this again. All that weibo-vaguing was hard enough for me to look at, but this next section took away at least 100 years of cultivation from me. But that's how much I love you all, Nezhaheads!

"The human capacity for drama is like a mountain. No matter how much you try, it can never be moved!" - me as I climbed up the mountain with what remained of my brain cells.

This drama, battle, whatever it is, was actually briefly mentioned in my first writeup. Everyone ignored it because it was just some unhinged people going at it with each other, and it never left weibo. Until it did. Then this drama that's been festering since as far back as February has finally reached its fever pitch.

To start us off with the seeds of this drama, you need to understand that there is a minor but extremely loud group of Nezha fans that really hates Jiaozi. To them, Jiaozi is like, Satan. These people are self-proclaimed fans of the "real" Nezha- the deity, the character from fsyy, the character from the 1979 movie, Black Myth Wukong, jttw, and so on. Basically, they stan classic!Nezha.

They hate the Jiaozi movies so much that they have entire tags dedicated to hating on him and his films and his characters and their fans. Mile-long essays, extremely angry rants, etc. They hate the movie, and they especially hate all the attention Nezha 2 got because it's a totally distorted picture of the Nezha myth and an offense to Nezha's character! They also spend like, everyday, writing frame-by-frame analyses of the films with citations and stuff, even though they despise it so much.

(Actual depiction of the Jiaozi haters)

As you can imagine, they HATE Ao Bing, who, according to them, is just an evil throwaway villain that did not deserve this much of a place in Nezha's story. This adaptation is distorting facts by making Ao Bing sympathetic! Tricking children into thinking Nezha is friends with that monster! How dare Jiaozi!? They claim Jiaozi is constantly bashing Nezha to elevate his precious Ao Bing and his precious dragon OCs. And bashing heaven/the Chan Sect to make the yaoguai look better. The spirit pearl/demon orb plotline especially offends them because Ao Bing RUINED Nezha's life by doing that! Poor Nezha suffered so much in his own movies, all because of Ao Bing! And Ao Bing rubbed salt in the wound by calling Nezha ugly! What an asshole, pull out his spine right now!

These stans/haters also spend a LOT of time insulting Ao Bing, unironically calling him "ugly," calling him unpopular ("see? he's not even as popular as shen gongbao! pathetic!"), weak, shameless, "girly," and every other insult under the sun.

By association with Ao Bing, they also despise Ao Guang and Shen Gongbao and Jiaozi's attempts to make us sympathize with them. But they can't decide which one of those two bastard men has more responsibility for the pearl switch-up- it changes depending on their mood. What matters is that Jiaozi is Satan, Ao Bing is the original sin, and Ao Guang/Shen Gongbao are the devil's minions, and they just want to see these two horrible men punished for their crimes. Coincidentally, Ao Bing, Ao Guang, and Shen Gongbao have all been accused of being Jiaozi's self-insert.

(imo, if they were paying attention, they would know that nobody punishes Ao Guang and Shen Gongbao more than their own fans. Every day Ao Guang fans wake up and think to themselves, "what else can we do to Ao Guang?" Every day, Shen Gongbao fans wake up and think to themselves, "what haven't we done to Shen Gongbao?")

Their hatred of Ao Bing extends to Oubing/Bingzha shippers, who they constantly bash, vague, and harass (when they get the chance). Because Ao Bing is just mooching off of Nezha's popularity ("Nezha is the main and most popular character! Nobody cares about Ao Bing aside from shippers!") and anyone who ships him with Nezha only cares about Ao Bing clearly. Nezha is just being used as an ooc plot device for them to further victimize and elevate Ao Bing.

These classic Nezha stans then start overlapping with the Nezha stans from the Jiaozi movies. As in, fans of Nezha the character from the 2019/2025 films, who like him exclusively and believe Ao Bing/Oubing fans are just using him as a prop for their loser fav. They believe Oubing is the worst thing to ever happen because Nezha is always a side character for Ao Bing, an ooc bully towards Ao Bing, a walking yaoi dick with no characterization, etc. They say Ao Bing would have 0 fans if it wasn't for Oubing. Unlike Nezha, who would still be the most popular character and the lead of China's greatest box office success, even without Oubing. In fact, Oubing shippers are just a small minority of losers, and the REAL people responsible for the box office numbers are solo Nezha stans.

If they hate 19/25 oubing, they despise Shangmei/1979 oubing for twisting Nezha into an unrecognizable pervert and Ao Bing into a helpless victim, when Nezha was clearly a pure hero in the original and Ao Bing was a dastardly evil monster! Whose fault is it? Oubing shippers. You guys know why the sun sets at night? Oubing shippers. Oubing shippers are all that is wrong with the world.

[For the context/lore behind Shangmei oubing, see this writeup by the lovely yunsound]

But is it only the Nezha stans running amok? LMAO of course not, this is the war of the (terminally online) gods here! Enter Ao Bing stans, who are, you guessed it, exclusive Ao Bing fans who don't care at all about Nezha. Now take all the arguments those Nezha solo stans made, and flip it around- that's what Ao Bing solo stans sound like.

They believe Ao Bing was cheated out of a good storyline in favor of being reduced to fanservice for the fujoshi. He's clearly the best character and so much cooler than that loser Nezha! And everyone else would see that too if Jiaozi and co. weren't so biased against Ao Bing.

Nezha glowed up, but Ao Bing got downgraded in the sequel! This movie has not one, but TWO protagonists, and the filmmakers were horrible for not seeing that! He was reduced to a plot device to elevate Nezha, and all Oubing shippers ever do is make things worse by turning Ao Bing into Nezha's punching bag, feminizing him into an ooc mess, making him weak in order to show how cool Nezha is, etc. Clearly ALL Oubing shippers are just Nezha fans who don't give a shit about Ao Bing.

They even made callout posts (like with screenshots, timestamps, and everything asdfasdf these are legit endlessly long callouts) of all the horrible things Nezha did to Ao Bing... in fanfiction. This stuff was used as proof of what those nasty Oubing shippers are like and how those nasty Nezha stans are always bullying Ao Bing.

Instead of @ ing Jiaozi like you'd expect, fans cut out the middle man and went straight to Nezha temples to pray for more Ao Bing screentime in the third movie. This riled up the Nezha stans because how dare Ao Bing stans bring their bullshit fantasies into their temple!? Ao Bing stans also kicked up a storm over this one official poster where Ao Bing was standing on the side, while Nezha was in the center with Ao Guang and Shen Gongbao (maybe Nezha is bonding with his in-laws?? ever thought of that, Ao Bing stans? checkmate!). Because they saw that as a sign of neglect and bias from the official team!

Ao Bing stans and Nezha stans then kept going back and forth with each other, while taking turns harassing various popular Oubing artists and accusing them of just being fans of Nezha or fans of Ao Bing and using the other character in the ship as a tool for their sick fantasies. I even saw one artist come out and apologize because?? she was friends with a lubao shipper, who *checks notes* reblogged solo Ao Bing art???????? That's how wild it's gotten. Some of these stans also attempted to harass Ao Bing's VA at some point or something, it was just a mess all around.

And coming into the ring, we have Oubing stans hating on Nezha stans and Ao Bing stans as well. They say that if not for oubing, neither Nezha or Ao Bing would be half as popular as they are today. And the WORST stans are the ones who enjoy all the art/fics/etc. made by Oubing/Bingzha creators, only to turn around and show how much they exclusively love 1 character while not caring about the other. Some of them even dared to view ship art as platonic, or worse, solo art! Depending on which character the Oubing stans favor, they'll either only call Nezha stans the scum of the Earth or only call Ao Bing stans braindead losers.

We also have the combo of Nezha stan + Oubing stan or Ao Bing stan + Oubing stan, who do everything the solo stans accuse Oubing shippers of doing!

In case you're wondering, this is how everyone else in and out of the fandom is reacting to the Nezha/Aobing/Oubing battles:

This behavior is "normal" in real person actor/idol fandoms, but seeing it play out with animated characters was truly a first for many, many people LMAO

And then when the stan wars reached new heights, the 31st ComiCup (CP31) came along. That's the biggest fan convention in China. It primarily focuses on Chinese media (donghua especially), but also includes animanga, hollywood shows/movies, novels, etc. I don't think creators, actors, etc. ever attend it- it's a completely fan-based convention for fanartists and writers to sell merchandise for their blorbos, ships, and favorite media. This year, it happened in Shanghai.

From what I can gather, anyone can set up a booth for their ship, character, etc. but to have an entire "street" (a whole lane/aisle of booths) officially dedicated to your fav character or ship is the highest honor. It gets put on the map guide for con-goers. And it means there's 1) enough creators for your blorbo/ship to host a whole street of different booths 2) enough people interested in your blorbo/ship to pack the whole street. While with the booths, you're just one of several numbered areas in the wider fandom lane.

Anyway, both Oubing and Bingzha had official streets. Every ship mentioned in this writeup (and not mentioned too!) had booths too. Dilong had its own street as well, and they're hoping Jiaozi will notice.

But there were no solo streets for Nezha or Ao Bing, or anyone else in the movie... except one character. It's Shen Gongbao. The only character from the entire cast to have a whole street dedicated to his content. And it's Shen Gongbao. Even his haters had to look at that and begrudgingly respect the dedication of leopard stans. Nobody would believe you if you told them this would happen in 2019, but here we are. So I guess you could say that at the end of all this, Shen Gonggong won the deification war?? greatest plot twist of 2025.

Me, explaining this in American terms: "This is like witnessing the popular kids fighting over who will be prom queen for an entire year, and then on prom night, the cranky old teacher from down the hall gets voted queen in front of the whole school"

Oubing/Bingzha stans were ecstatic either way, because this proves that the solo stans were delusional from the start and that the world belongs to the Nezha x Ao Bing shippers (and Shen Gongbao fuckers too, apparently). They're still mocking the solo Nezha and solo Ao Bing stans as we speak. I don't know if there's any way of this drama ending unless Nezha himself descends to Earth and tells everyone to shut up, but I think it'll be like the ABZ drama- something major happens or it just fizzles out on its own.

There's another big con coming up in Chengdu, and this time, in order to avoid being owned by the Shen Gongbao fuckers again, the Nezha stans were quick to establish their street! In order to participate in the Nezha street, you have to obey the following rules: "No Ao Bing content, No Oubing content, No content for the 2019/2025 Demon Child movies)"

But also once again, Oubing/Bingzha and Shen Gongbao have their streets set up.

Lastly, for some better news after ALL THAT!

Pop star Silence Wang, changed the lyrics to his song 梦幻诛仙 to make it Oubing-coded during a recent concert.

The one ship that's had zero drama arise from it is Yishen (Taiyi Zhenren x Shen Gongbao). Why? Because Taiyi is the ultimate Chad.

Hetong canonly reads transmigration novels

Jiaozi is now "unsure" how dragons procreate and says he's toying with the idea of it happening without the need for a partner. Ao Guang m-preg confirmed? Either way, congratulations m-preg Ao Guang fans

There's so much Shen Gongbao whump they were able to play a whump bingo for him LOL! He suffers in canon-era content, he suffers in post-canon content, he suffers in pre-canon content, he suffers in modern AUs. He even suffers in his own self-ship fics. There has to be some kind of lifetime achievement award we can give him for this because in a mere 4 months, there's been so much whump angst content for him that he can give *checks notes* MCU Loki a run for his money. At first, I thought maybe it was just coincidence that every time I clicked on his content, things like this popped up. Then I realized that no, it was because there truly was that much of it. Something about Shen Gonggong compels his own fandom to see him horribly injured in every way possible, good for them.

I made a English ver. bingo here just so the SGBheads can see all the common things he Goes Through in cn fandom. I was not exaggerating about it in any of the writeups. And this is just some of it! There's a lot more going on in that part of the fandom (like- Shen Zhengdao dies in front of him, King Zhou & Daji are actually super nice to him but die violently in front of him, all manner of public humiliation, starvation, brainwashing, a complete lack of self-worth, and so on) :

Maybe because of all the angst now associated with him, half the fandom's legit convinced he'll heroically sacrifice himself for everyone else in the 3rd movie, bringing his "redemption arc" full circle. Are they right? Only time will tell.

Obligatory disclaimers again:

This is NOT about the people who happened to watch the movie, the people who are just interested in box office stats, the people who really enjoyed the movie, or the people who just really admire Nezha. This will be about the fandom fandom, the truly invested, the brainrot (affectionate) in its purest unfiltered form. This is a post about brainrot for those also suffering from brainrot.

This is a collection of patterns mainly from lofter, but also from douyin, weibo, bilibili, and xhs. I don't know how to warn for some of the things mentioned here, so just a blanket note of caution- if you read on, you are prepared to see anything and everything. If you are OK with all this, then- let’s go! 

PART 2 HERE WE GO:

Firstly, the general fandom is as creative as ever, and everything you can think of (and more!) has been written/drawn/discussed by somebody somewhere. I've seen Shiji Niang Niang bring Shen Xiaobao back to life, I've seen Ao Bing studying for the TOEFL, I've seen a Jane Eyre AU fanfic for Ao Guang/Shen Gongbao, I've seen Taiyi go on a diet, I've seen 1979 Nezha transmigrating into the 2019/2025 world, etc. etc.

The Lu Tong meme is also not even a meme anymore- lots of people seem to genuinely believe that randomly spamming any and all content featuring Lu Tong/He Tong with paragraphs of praise will result in them granting their wishes. So that's why you'll come across lots of comments with phrases like: "Lu Tong is the manliest of all men, the most powerful of all celestials, the strongest deer... please Master Lu Tong, grant me a raise from my boss."

Also, I didn't include these extremely cursed memes last time because I felt that they might cause people to die. BUT since everyone was strong enough to survive writeup part 1, I think you've proven yourselves strong enough to see these in writeup part 2--behold! Popular FAMILY GUY NEZHA edits:

These cursed images are popular enough that multiple people have made them their profile pics. That's not even the end of it...

Not only that, the fandom has also made "fusion" edits of the characters in the vein of the Nezha/Ao Bing fusion we saw in canon (as in, a Taiyi/Nezha fusion exists). If you wondered what things would be like if 1) Nezha possessed Ao Bing instead or 2) Shen Gongbao never stole the spirit pearl, wonder no further! Here is the answer:

Next, congratulations to lubao for completing the transformation from surprise crack ship to third most popular pairing in the fandom (4 and 5 probably go to Ao Guang/Shen Gongbao [longwangbao] or lutong/hetong [luhe] depending on the platform). Coincidentally, lubao is now no. 3 trending on weibo (Update: was no. 3 trending in March, no longer the case; dilong and oubing are the only ships remaining in the top 10), beating out dilong. Professional cosplayers are also doing lubao cosplays for clout (to 10K+ likes on bilibili and even 100K+ likes across douyin, etc.). They even have their own animatics now. -> Every individual (main) character and ship has plenty of animatics; if you want to see them, just add the word "手书" (hand book) after whatever subject you're searching for. EX. For oubing animatics, just search for 藕饼手书, and many many will come up.

The lubao lore has also expanded since Feb.:

In Nezha 1, Shen Gongbao told Ao Bing he can teach him how to hide his horns in public. Lu Tong, as a deer, should also have antlers (as shown by his demon/animal form), but doesn't! This clearly means that Shen Gongbao taught Lu Tong how to hide his antlers with the same method he offered for Ao Bing.

Fans noticed that Lu Tong's eyes are brown in deer form, but as a human, his eyes are green- specifically, the exact same shade of green as Shen Gongbao's. They believe it means Lu Tong purposely turned them green because he took inspiration from Shen Gongbao's appearance.

EDIT: I'm adding a correction to the above. Lu Tong's eyes are the same shade in deer form and human form. AKA inexplicably the same color as Shen Gongbao's.

They also noticed that in the post-credits, Wuliang and He Tong didn't seem to know where the underground prison was. Lu Tong guided them over. They believe this means Lu Tong was the one who brought Shen Gongbao into the prison and tied him up in the first place.

You can make the assumption that Shen Gongbao, Ao Bing, and Lu Tong all have the same hairstyle. Why? Because Shen Gongbao combed Ao Bing's hair (with the approval of Lu Tong's #2 enemy, Ao Guang), and he previously combed Lu Tong's hair. Out of love/obsession for him, Lu Tong has kept that same style. And now this is yet another thing Ao Bing STOLE from Lu Tong!

As of 3/9, Jiaozi put out this drawing of Shen Gongbao riding a leopard while acting as captain of the demon hunting team (to celebrate Nezha breaking the 14.6 billion record at the box office):

Since Lu Tong had that exact same pose, while also riding an animal from the same species, lubao fans took this to mean Lu Tong was again trying to copy everything Shen Gongbao did because he's just that obsessed with him.

As for fanon expansion, there is now a version of He Tong who is not only aware of Lu Tong's obsession, but also supports, abets, and contributes to his actions because she too felt abandoned by their shi shu. Now Shen Gongbao can never leave them again! Theirs forever! Too bad that pesky Ao Bing keeps getting in the way and doing annoying things like "saving his master" and "having morals."

And a little round of applause for Shen gonggong too for going from cartoon villain barely anyone cared about to earning the highest honor in fandom--becoming the resident whump angst pain machine. This was unofficial in the previous writeup, but now it's safe to call it official! You know his poor meow meow status is cemented when the average SGB-centric fsyy crossover is now, "Wuliang and his disciples torture the cultivation out of Shen Gongbao, seal his powers, and give him to King Zhou to do as he pleases. The royal court proceeds to treat him as some kind of party animal, all while using and abusing whatever's left of him-" (paragraph 1 of 100)

The average pre-canon story is also, "everyone except Taiyi tortures and mistreats Shen Gongbao at Yuxu Gong-" He's an alcoholic in these too, and he hates himself, and he's depressed and (insert any form of trauma here, he has it)- Someone said that they knew Shen gongong was doomed (by the fandom) the moment he showed up like That in the easter egg scene, and I think that person had the gift of prophecy.

Now for the main event! Dilong, Aobing Zhuan, and the reaction (or lack thereof) of Guangying shippers:

Yes, that's Jim from The Office. The above is a circulating meme made by disgruntled dilong shippers.

Translation:

If you look like this

("Nezha 2" Ao Guang) Your husband doesn't look like this

("The Sons of the Dragon" Ao Guang) Your husband looks like this

*The Sons of the Dragon is a nickname (derogatory) for Ao Bing Zhuan because detractors think it focuses on all of Ao Guang's sons except Ao Bing

I'm not too familiar with Aobing Zhuan itself, so if you or your loved ones know more about the storyline or drama, please feel free to tack onto this post with your own links, writeups, and/or input!

Dilong fans finally had Enough of the nonstop harassment and put together gigantic takedown posts on why Aobing Zhuan sucks, featuring citations, side by side images, and so on.

In addition to accusing the author of using Yinglong as a self insert, they also accused Yinglong of being a genderbent version of Ao Guang (as he used to be drawn in Dilong fanart back in 2019). They pointed out that the author modeled toddler Ao Bing after her own goddaughter instead of his image in the movie. Said author has also gone on record saying Ao Bing is the "least charming" of Ao Guang's sons. Aobing Zhuan gave Ao Bing a healthy number of friends as part of the supporting cast too; when readers asked how this is possible if his first and only friend is Nezha, the author said "The friends are dead, so they don't count!"

The receipts also tell us that even though Ao Guang (and his siblings) made Ao Bing's coat in canon, Aobing Zhuan credited that to Yinglong. His martial arts also came from Yinglong, even though everyone knows it came from Shen Gongbao. And it gets deeper-- as the story goes on, Ao Bing has less and less screentime and barely any "cool" moments. The story becomes completely about his older brothers (specifically his second eldest brother, Ao Yi), while all canon characters are ignored or shafted. It also goes wild with epic wars, battles, and subplots that the movie never even mentioned.

This leads to the fandom nicknaming Aobing Zhuan "OC Zhuan" (and yes, they are using OC the English way. This is not the Tale of Aobing, this is the Tale of Original Characters not even made by Jiaozi). Another nickname is "The Tale of Ying" not because Yinglong herself has that much screentime, but because ABZ fans have spent so long harassing literally everybody else in the fandom while using her as an icon and constantly saying "look, you've made yinglong sad" "how disgusting of you to split up such a loving couple" "you're not allowed to ship anything besides the canon couple" etc. etc.. while spamming fans of literally every other Ao Guang ship with pictures of Yinglong.

Even in non-shipping content involving Ao Guang and Ao Bing, they'll constantly talk about Ao Guang's wife and Ao Bing's mother and how totally important she is to them + the story. Guangying shippers have also constantly used a mother's day screenshot (of the official Nezha account wishing Yinglong happy mother's day with an image of her and Ao Bing in ABZ) as proof that she's officially married to Ao Guang, and you are therefore NOT allowed to ship him with anyone else, including yourself. It turns out that screenshot doesn't exist- the Nezha weibo never posted it. Guangying shippers faked the image.

Someone even asked deepseek (or baidu?) who Yinglong is and it said, "Yinglong is Ao Guang's father!" (incorrect btw, but this is proof that yinglong has no mythological connection to Ao Guang anyway). Fans also noticed that Aobing Zhuan- despite having a physical publication- wasn't featured at all in Nezha 2 merchandise. Instead, there's a cute picture book featuring parts of little Ao Bing's childhood (with NONE of ABZ's events).

The book is called "Memories of the Three Realms" 《哪吒·三界往事》and contains little stories about the entire cast before the events of the movies. This book was promoted as part of Nezha 2's merchandise, so it's safe to consider it a direct tie-in with the franchise. Noticeably, Ao Bing's family in the book consists of only himself, his father, his master, his aunt, and uncles. No brothers, no mother.

So TLDR, Aobing Zhuan "fell apart" in the fandom's eyes because:

It directly defies canon ideas and events

Guangying shippers faked screenshots to make it look like the Nezha team acknowledged ABZ more than it actually did

The art style is "ugly" (imho, it's less that it's ugly and more that it's very off model when it comes to canon characters and just doesn't fit Nezha's art style)

ABZ constantly puts down Ao Bing/Ao Guang/Shen Gongbao in order to elevate its OCs

Ao Guang doesn't like Ao Bing very much in ABZ

The author doesn't care about Ao Bing and was only using his name for clout; the author exclusively only loves Ao Yi

Yinglong is the author's self insert and arguably a plagiarized version of dilong!Ao Guang. Ao Yi has also been accused of being a plagiarized design of dilong!Ao Guang. (imo, not so sure about how valid these particular accusations are because all three designs are commonplace throughout all xianxia art)

Ao Yi, Ao Jia, and Yinglong (Ao Bing's brothers and mother) are fanmade OCs and might not even have those same names if they appear or come up in the movies

ABZ attempted to make a love interest for Ao Bing, but backtracked after backlash from oubing fans

The Nezha team seems to want nothing to do with it

The takedown was brutal. The rest of the fandom, specifically the confused people who had no idea why other fans were going on and on about Ao Guang's wife (who does not appear in the films) and closet dilong shippers, went, "Hey, ABZ does suck!" Why did it take so long for them to notice it sucked? General consensus is that because the comic was not very good in the first place so nobody talked about it or noticed it. Now they notice because 1) guangying shippers shoved it in everyone's face 2) guangying shippers/ABZ fans bullied literally Everybody else in the fandom

Then overnight, the fandom turned on ABZ and all its OCs. Now it's considered #cringe to like Yinglong, Ao Yi, and Ao Jia. People regretted paying for the comics, people tried get it refunded, and people apologized to dilong fans for hating on them based on falsely believing they were "splitting" a canon couple (and not because idk, harassing strangers over cartoons is rude??).

Regardless, everyone who secretly enjoyed dilong now came out to openly enjoy it. Dilong rose to #3 trending on several platforms, and dilong shippers rejoiced for finally being vindicated after literally 5 years of harassment. I mean pretty offensive and terrible harassment (CW terminally online fandom harassment methods): mass reporting, being accused of being degenerates, being accused of being uNpAtriOtIC, being accused of TrEAson, being told they should have died in their mothers' wombs, getting doxxed and suicide baited. Multiple dilong authors and artists were bullied into deactivating. The harassment got especially bad after Nezha 2 came out, so-

The tables turning on Guangying shippers can only be divine karma at work. Now in videos of people bashing dilong shippers, you can see comments saying, "hey op you dropped your clown nose!" and "get with the times, OC Zhuan fell from grace." Unfortunately, this drama has led to collateral damage in the form of-

Drama in the cosplay world:

However, there are lots of big name cosplayers doing Yinglong and Guangying cosplays. These people spent Big Money on their costumes. Now they're being told that ABZ has "fallen apart" and Yinglong was just somebody else's OC this entire time. Yinglong cosplayers feel personally victimized and don't know what to do with their costumes now.

To add fuel to the fire, fans have been insulting Yinglong cosplayers in the comment sections of their videos. Ao Yi cosplayers are facing a similar dilemma. Which leads to-

Yinglong fans react + Dilong fan conspiracies:

You'd think this would lead to some self reflection on the part of Guangying fans or an apology to their victims or maybe some attempt to be on better behavior. But why do that when it's easier to double down and play victim!

ABZ fans and Guangying shippers now believe themselves to be the biggest victims in the fandom. They feel that the takedown was made in bad faith and several points don't even line up-- Yinglong doesn't resemble dilong!Ao Guang that much, Yinglong is not the author's literal self insert, the spinoff is still canon, Ao Guang loves his son very much in ABZ too and those calling him a cold father in ABZ are pulling panels out of context, etc. They think they shouldn't be judged just for enjoying a comic and multiple people have called on Jiaozi to step in and acknowledge the Drama. Indeed, they shouldn't be judged or harassed for liking Yinglong or ABZ.

But I'd feel more sorry for them if they didn't spend the past month bullying and lying to literally everybody in the fandom, ranging from spamming all Ao Bing content with guangying comments to threatening Ao Guang x anyone else shippers with physical violence. Even on the notes of the last writeup, we have firsthand accounts of their cyberbullying:

^This is the kind of thing guangying fans do on a regular basis. (I'm so sorry they harassed you over something so stupid! All 6 of them owe you a kowtow and apology.)

The Drama continues:

According to dilong fans, ABZ and guangying fans have gone quiet but not gone away. They've changed tactics and can now be spotted on random Ao Guang content commenting, "I wonder who Ao Guang's wife is! I'm so curious!" and on Ao Bing content saying, "Oh I bet Ao Bing misses his mother and brothers so much." This is allegedly an attempt to get new fans to ask them about Ao Guang's wife and Ao Bing's mother/brothers + an attempt to do damage control for ABZ now that it's uncool to mention it publicly. Personally, I think the dilong fans are right about this theory. Makes perfect sense to me, especially given everything else ABZ fans have done so far.

Next, tying back to the cosplay drama, dilong fans believe the people attacking Yinglong cosplayers are guangying fans masquerading as dilong fans. These guangying fans are hoping to harass enough people for something major to happen (conveniently taking the heat off of ABZ). Then the wider media will report on cosplayers being harassed by dilong fans, resulting in the wider public going "Nezha fangirls are so scary!" resulting in cancellation of Nezha ships (specifically dilong) altogther in a complete repeat of 227 (the date in which Xiao Zhan fans mass reported AO3 over a real person fic, resulting in the AO3 ban in China and the ensuing backlash that caused the absolutely most nightmarish time of poor Xiao Zhan's life). Is this there truth to this theory? I have no idea, but wilder things have happened.

And lastly, no, Fei Wo Si Cun (established web novelist that published a dilong mpreg fanfic on main, as mentioned in the previous writeup) has not acknowledged the Ao Guang discourse drama at all. Jiaozi and the rest of the Nezha team have also not said a peep despite guangying shippers' desperate attempts to reach them.

Update to add: there was ALSO some fight between solo!Nezha stans and solo!Ao Bing stans on weibo. It didn't have that big of an influence, but was certainly an Online event.

And that's the end of the ride for now. Nezha 2 is still playing in theaters. Nobody knows what will happen once it hits STREAMING :D after all, 命由我不由天!

General patterns:

I can't speak for other site stats, but at least on Lofter, Nezha/Ao Bing as a ship is #1 and #2 trending (as Oubing and Bingzha respectively) out of all fandoms and topics on Lofter. But curiously, Ao Guang (#8 trending) and Shen Gongbao (#9 trending) are more popular as individual characters than Nezha and Ao Bing. The latter is noteworthy because Shen Gong Gong's tag was pretty barren circa 2019.

Some Oubing fans have decided that they don't have enough oubing content so they've started shipping Oubing.... from the 1979 movie. This is also in the top 10 trending. Their inspiration comes from this advert.

Ao Guang vocally disapproves of his son dating Nezha, but he can't do anything about it. The real victim here!

Any pairing you can think of exists. Any pairing.

Character/Reader fics exist for everyone in the main cast except Wuliang Shenweng and Taiyi Zhenren

There's a vibrant self-shipping community again for everyone except Wuliang and Taiyi

Lots of M-preg

CEO Ao Guang is common in modern AUs

Nezha is usually in his powered up form in Oubing/Bingzha content, but in his gremlin form in content focused on anyone else

Lots of "The characters themselves react to watching the movie!" type of stories

Shiji Niang Niang has been shipped with both Taiyi Zhenren and Shen Gongbao. The latter has spawned a meme. There's a comic I won't repost because I don't know who the original artist is, but it's very powerful. It goes like this:

SGB: "Prejudice is like a mountain in people's hearts-" SNN: "So I exist in everyone's hearts? That's beautiful <3"

"Lady Yin LIVES!" AUs aplenty

Wuliang's nickname is "Evil Peach"

Lots and lots and Lots of Shen Gongbao whump

Ao Guang has been separately interpreted as a daddy dom, a malewife, an old guy TM, a himbo, and a baby girl AND as all of those things all at once

Ao Run and Ao Bing are the only dragons considered to be smart

Shen Gongbao tends to have very low self-worth. This comes from a 2019 Jiaozi interview where he directly says our leopard lacks confidence

Any AU you can think of: modern AUs, mafia AUs, republican era AUs, actor AUs, musician AUs, wuxia AUs, this one AU where the Ao family are American senators for no reason, omegaverse, and so on

Lots of Journey to the West (a lot of Black Myth specific ones especially) and FSYY crossovers

There's a meme about the real Lu Tong using his antlers to attack people in their dreams if they dare make sexual content of him because someone who made "bottom" Lu Tong content claimed they were attacked by him in a dream. Others took this to mean that he only attacks if you make him a bottom. People who interpret him as a "top" claim that they won the lottery and their lives are going great.

Ao Guang and Shen Gongbao are usually on a first name basis. Ao Guang calls Shen Gonbao 公豹兄 (Gongbao Xiong, "Brother Gongbao") and Shen Gongbao calls him "Ao Guang" directly. This is sort-of canon because this is how they address each other in 敖丙传 "The Tale of Ao Bing/Aobing Zhuan". for those who ship it, their ship name is 龙王豹 (longwangbao/ dragon king leopard) *Keep Aobing Zhuan in mind. This will be important towards the wildest part of this writeup.

Now for the elaborate fanon lore behind two specific ships that seemingly came out of nowhere. Everyone knows about oubing, but what about the other popular ships out there? They're absolutely wild, but- HEAR THEM OUT.

DiLong:

This one has its origins from the first movie. 地笼 AKA "Prison Cage/Emperor Dragon." It's a ship based on Tiandi (Emperor of Heaven) x Ao Guang. The Di in "emperor" is pronounced the same as ground "di," which is also the first character that makes up the word "prison." And "long" (dragon) is pronounced the same way as cage (also "long"), hence the ship name.

Some time after Ne Zha (2019) came out, someone pulled out one of Ao Guang's lines and ran with it. It's a quote where he essentially says that even though the dragon clan was loyal to heaven and its emperor, the heavens betrayed and imprisoned them in the sea anyway. This section of fans took this to mean that Tiandi charmed Ao Guang on false pretenses, took advantage of Ao Guang's love for him, and then left him to rot in the eastern sea... after impregnating him with 1-3 kids. And this changed Ao Guang from an innocent beauty into a resentful dragon desperate for vengeance.

Things of note about dilong:

Tiandi 天帝 is NOT the Jade Emperor (Yu Di). Their mythos overlap, but the Emperor of Heaven is considered the supreme ruler of Everything in the universe while the Jade Emperor rules over the three realms. So Tiandi ranks higher than the Jade Emperor. (But he's also a more obscure figure in popular worship if we get technical)

At the time, Ao Guang didn't actually have a name in 2019 canon. So the fans referred to him as 敖广 (that's what the eastern dragon king has always been called, but Nezha 2 reimagines him with a different name that's pronounced similarly: 敖光).

Tiandi's given name, or rather, the name that the fans gave him, is Hao Tian 昊天, which is the actual name of one of the mythological Tiandi's many variations

Tiandi does not appear in either Nezha movie. His entire character (appearance, personality, etc.) is purely built on headcanons. He is usually written as a playboy, a heartless manipulative bastard, a deadbeat dad, an ungrateful power greedy monster, and so on. But he is always written and drawn as #Hot.

Ao Guang gave birth to Ao Bing in the Dilong universe.

As you can tell, this is a very angsty ship that usually ends in anger and suffering, but there are plenty of fix-its and happy ending versions out there too, mostly about Tiandi feeling bad for being such a shitty bastard in the past and trying to win Ao Guang back

Regardless of how you feel about Dilong after reading all this, if you are in any way fond of Ao Guang's design in Nezha 2, you owe your life and soul to Dilong shippers because Jiaozi's original idea for Ao Guang was making him a bearded geezer. The Nezha team saw how popular the humansona for Ao Guang was (from dilong fanart) and they incorporated it into canon.

#Dilong had a resurgence in popularity thanks to Nezha 2 (it's the no.6 trending topic on weibo as of right now). But you'll notice that pre-2025 Dilong may feel ooc now because Ao Guang is, for lack of better word, interpreted more as a softspoken twink than the beautiful himbo he is now.

*Keep Dilong in mind as well. It is the source of much insanity below.

LuBao:

Next, in a similar vein to Dilong, another wild ship has risen over the horizon! In terms of quantity, dilong is more popular, but in terms of engagement, this is doing bigger numbers nowadays. I'm talking likes in the ten-thousands range. That ship is.... Lu Tong x Shen Gongbao. AKA 鹿豹 (LuBao, DeerLeopard)

You might be thinking "HUH!? Why!?" My answer for you is that it's all Taiyi's fault. Both inside and outside the movies, Taiyi consistently screws Shen Gongbao over. Life imitates art! This section is a little longer than the dilong section because there is a Lot going on here. I'll admit that one of the most profoundly beautiful and well-written stories I have ever read is a lubao fic on lofter, I understand now

Just as the fans did for dilong once upon a time, this section of fans pulled a blink-and-you-miss-it quote from Nezha 2, where Taiyi tells Nezha that the previous captain of the demon hunting team was Shen Gongbao (after they meet the current captain, Lu Tong).

From there, the lore just got deeper. When Lu Tong greets Taiyi, he calls him 师伯 (Shi Bo, senior martial uncle). But you only call a male relative 伯 in Chinese when that person is your father's older brother. Wuliang is Taiyi's elder (martial) brother (Shi Xiong, as I'm sure you all know), so Lu Tong's address is incorrect. Taiyi knows this as well, so he corrects Lu Tong and says "It should be 师叔" (Shi Shu, younger martial uncle) EDIT: Taiyi doesn't directly say "It should be shishu" to Lu Tong (that was an incorrect memory on my part). More accurately, Taiyi refers to himself as "Shi Shu" when talking to Lu Tong. Lu Tong continues calling him Shi Bo anyway. And more tellingly, Lu Tong doesn't refer to Taiyi as Shi Bo when Wuliang is around; he exclusively does it when Wuliang isn't there. The fans took it to mean one of two things:

Lu Tong did it on purpose because he only acknowledges one (1) person as his Shi Shu and that's Shen Gongbao

Lu Tong is officially Wuliang's disciple, but he believes himself to truly be Shen Gongbao's disciple and since Taiyi is Shen Gongbao's elder martial brother, he'll call him Shi Bo

Then it got even more elaborate. The fans surmised that since the celestials are so condescending towards demons, Lu Tong and He Tong were ostracized and bullied when they first arrived at Yuxu Gong. And the only person who was nicer to them/protected them/stuck up for them was Shen Gongbao since they're the only demons there. This is why you'll sometimes see fanart of the three of them together in the "Yuxu Gong days."

When Shen Gongbao immediately realized Shen Xiaobao's wound came from Lu Tong's arrow, the fans decided this meant that he was familiar enough with Lu Tong to know his fighting style. When paired with the above headcanon, this directly turns into "Shen Gongbao himself taught Lu Tong archery."

Whenever Ao Bing possessed Nezha, fans noticed that there was always a closeup of Lu Tong's reaction. They decided this meant that Lu Tong recognized Ao Bing through recognizing his fighting style, taught to him by Shen Gongbao.

The fans also think Lu Tong did not have to go off that hard on Shen Xiaobao and Shen Zhengdao. There's following your boss's orders and there's following those orders in the most hyperviolent over the top way possible. Their conclusion is that Lu Tong knew that was Shen Gongbao's family and did it on purpose. Because when Shen Gongbao left Yuxu Gong without telling him, Lu Tong took that personally. And when he took Ao Bing on as a disciple, Lu Tong took that more Personally. So Lu Tong has decided to do his best to kill everyone Shen Gongbao ever cared about until he has nobody left but Lu Tong. Audiences complained that Lu Tong lacked a personality in the movie- the fandom has assigned him a personality and that personality is "sadistic freak obsessed with his Shi Shu."

Things of note about LuBao:

dilong was requited at some point in time, but lubao is an aggressively one-sided ship where Shen Gongbao only requits 1% of the time either because it's a complete AU, none of the movie's events happened, or he has amnesia (inflicted on him by Lu Tong)

A common trope revolves around Lu Tong hoping and hoping for Shen Gongbao to take him on as a disciple, which never happens, planting the first seeds of disappointment and HATE

Lu Tong really fucking hates Ao Bing, whom he considers to be the antagonist of his life because Ao Bing STOLE all of Shen Gongbao's love that rightfully should have been Lu Tong's. He also really hates Ao Guang too, again for stealing HIS shishu. actually, he hates Taiyi sometimes too. He hates anyone Shen Gongbao ever talked to.

He Tong is the only person who knows Lu Tong is this way.

Sometimes Lu Tong meets Shen Gongbao as a primitive deer, a fully adult celestial-in-training, or a literal "deer boy." During his time as captain, Shen Gongbao usually takes Lu Tong under his wing at some point and/or is the person who spares Lu Tong from being slaughtered by the rest of the team or convinces the others not to kill him. OR, even wilder, Shen Gongbao interacts with Lu Tong for 5 minutes 200 years ago and that's enough to cause Lu Tong to go on this spiral. Whichever the case, Lu Tong imprints on Shen Gongbao.

90% of LuBao content includes Lu Tong taking his revenge on Shen Gongbao after Wuliang imprisons him. This includes all manner of graphic torture.

Lu Tong wants Shen Gongbao to hate him because he believes Shen Gongbao left him in the past due to indifference towards him. "Hate lasts longer than love."

Shen Gongbao: *exists* Lu Tong: I'll kill your family. I'll kill your disciple. I'll kill your disciple's father and your disciple's best friend. And Taiyi Zhenren too. I'll kill everyone who ever interacted with you. Then I'll break you and break you some more until you're nothing but bones and dust. I hate that you made me love you and that you left me. What do the dragons have that I lack? Are my antlers lesser than their horns? We both have blood on our hands and yet you think yourself nobler than I. You are inherently kinder than me and I hate that the most about you. My dearest revenge is dragging you down to my level, to make you hate me as much as I hate you. If I can't have your love, I will have your hate and your pain and your tears- Ao Bing & Ao Guang: 有病!??????? WTF.

恨明月高悬独不照我 is a phrase now permanently associated with this ship. It translates to "I hate that the moon in the sky shines for all but me." Lu Tong hates that shishu shares affection with everyone except him.

This is such a prevalent characterization of Lu Tong at this point that "obsessed with Shen Gongbao" is now his defining trait even in content where neither he or Shen Gongbao are main characters

If its an Ao Guang/Shen Gongbao fic, Lu Tong sometimes shows up as SGB's abusive ex, abusive stalker, or a guy that Ao Guang finds extremely creepy and annoying

If you're still here, this next and final section puts everything else to shame!

The Ao Guang Discourse

There is a lot of drama surrounding Ao Guang now, not because of anything he did as a character, but because of who's he's shipped with. But there's actually only one side of the fandom instigating all the arguments.

Now, remember Aobing Zhuan? That's a spinoff comic focused on Aobing's childhood that came out circa 2021(?). It goes into depth about his early days with Shen Gongbao, his brothers, and even his mother, 应龙, Yinglong. (Yinglong is a real mythological creature, a powerful dragon with a place in old mythos and folklore as well, but that's not entirely relevant here lol). Yinglong is older than Ao Guang, is beautiful, strong, etc. She dies in the spinoff.

A significant number of fangirls latched onto Ao Guang (as presented in Aobing Zhuan), and projected onto Yinglong, the mother of his children. After Nezha 2 released, Ao Guang understandably gained even more fangirls. Most of them became GuangYing shippers.

Now, it's a golden rule in CN fandoms to tag your content so others can avoid. GuangYing shippers do not care about this. They go onto any and all m/m content with Ao Guang to insult the authors and argue that their disgusting ways are disrespectful to canon, disrespectful to Ao Guang, and disrespectful to women everywhere. It doesn't matter that Yinglong is not in the movies and also dead--Ao Guang is not allowed to move on from her ever, and also he is STRAIGHT. Is there not enough gay content out there?? Why can't the heterosexuals have this one man to themselves?? The injustice!

Edit to add: m/f is also unsafe from the wrath of guangyin shippers. They also attack Ao Guang self-shippers for daring to be sluts coming in between him and his true love, Yinglong.

They especially hate dilong and have been harassing all dilong content for the past month. Dilong is their main target, but it's not their only target- you can also find them under Ao Guang/Shen Gongbao content claiming that "they're just besties" and "Ao Guang just sees Shen Gongbao as a pet" asdfasdf

Dilong shippers retort by saying all Guangying shippers do is attack and harass others instead of making their own content, which is why their content is so lacking and pitful. They also called into question the canonicity of Aobing Zhuan. Jiaozi supervised it, but he's not the actual author. They started bashing Aobing Zhuan as focusing too little on Aobing, making Aobing look bad to make his brothers look good, accusing the author of being a Xiao Zhan stan in the wake of the ao3 ban, creating events that directly contradicted with canon, crediting things that Ao Guang or Shen Gongbao did for Aobing as things that Yinglong did, the official Nezha team is embarrassed of the direction Aobing Zhuan went in and doesn't acknowledge it anymore, Yinglong is the author's self insert, etc. And back and forth-

And then, 匪我思存 (Fei Wo Si Cun), acclaimed web novelist, author of multiple novels, including 东宫 (Goodbye My Princess 2019) and 9 more that were turned into TV shows.... published a Dilong fanfic on main (weibo). It referred to Ao Guang as 敖广 and involved M-preg, of him giving birth to Ao Bing, who is also Tiandi's child here. Yinglong and Tiandi's wife are both in the story too- they are a lesbian couple who double as beards for their husbands.

The Ao Guang fangirls, I mean, Guangying shippers LOST IT. They came at Fei Wo Si Cun with full throttle rage. Countless socmed posts about what a horrible disgusting disgraceful thing this author did! How dare she use her wide platform to do this instead of putting it somewhere where nobody can see!? Some have even accused this one fic of destroying Nezha 2's image on the global stage. This one story about this one ship has DESTROYED the reputation of ALL OF CHINA. This is TREASON. Now when normies see Ao Guang and Ao Bing, all they will think about is M-preg.

Not only that, Fei Wo Si Cun had the audacity to do something as misogynistic as turning Yinglong into a lesbian beard! It is a SIN to break up a "canon" pairing and a sin to change the character's sexualities into anything except heterosexuality!

Correction: the lesbian couple part is hearsay and probably came from FWSC saying (that in her fic’s setting) Yinglong and Tiandi’s wife married their husbands because they can’t be with the people they love for “reasons”

The Yinglong crowd is still going at it as I write this. FWSC has not deleted or apologized for this fic. China's reputation has, last I checked, not been DESTROYED by this one story about an animated dragon man from a kid's movie, and dilong shippers are still suffering.

And that's a wrap for now. I may or may not update this if something even wilder happens. I want to say no, this is the end of the ride, but we are only 1 month in. There's plenty of time for more to crop up!

UPDATE: This post is already out of date LMAO! For those interested in updates on everything mentioned above, here's the follow-up: Writeup Part 2.