I am Not a Bai Yu Stan

Hello people, it’s me again, ancient_moonshine on ao3. Thanks to you and your generous donations, my friends and I were able to start our own charity drive which primarily seeks to help pandemic-affected jeepney drivers and their families. :D We’re currently aiding 9 jeepney operator and drivers’ associations within Metro Manila, with 637 members total. To date, DIWA has set up four community gardens for four different jeepney operators and drivers’ associations, as well as provided some of the drivers’ children with gadgets and internet for distance learning purposes. Through the Rotary Club, we’ve also coordinated with the Department of Health to provide them with maintenance medicines, and Rebisco food company to give them food packages. In the aftermath of Typhoon Rolly, we’ve also helped out evacuees from Guinobatan, Albay, by providing them with water after lahar buried their homes.  Check us out at facebook.com/Diwa Uplifts. However, I have to ask for your help again. I’m sure people have heard about the terrible flooding Typhoon Ulysses caused in the Philippines [international name: Vamco], right at the heels of Typhoon Rolly [international name: Goni]. Our current beneficiaries are drivers belonging to the San Mateo Maly-Philcoa Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association based in San Mateo, Rizal City, and the Tumana-Balara Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association in Balara, Quezon City. The drivers of both JODAs live in Rizal and Marikina, the worst-affected cities in Metro Manila, and many of them wound up with their homes and belongings submerged in floodwaters. These people are now staying in evacuation centers, or living in their jeepneys in their terminals while they fix up the damage to their homes and try to salvage their belongings. I will spare you the images because they’re honestly extremely upsetting, but here are some links to news sites for you to see how bad the damage is:  https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1359823/typhoon-ulysses-triggers-worst-floods-in-metro-manila-in-years

https://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/2020/11/13/Marikina-state-of-calamity-Typhoon-Ulysses.html https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/12/asia/typhoon-vamco-philippines-intl/index.html

Disclaimer: this is a rant, and it’s antiCQL. So those who like it, pls ignore and refrain from posting your counter arguments to me. I just want to vent my displeasure of this live action and only welcome those who agree with me to comment and share.

Being a massive fan of MDZS, I just have to get this off my chest. I am sick of all these brainwashing and gaslighting by so called “fans” of the original work who are singing high praises for this shambles of an adaptation.

The live action series should be ashamed of themselves because they’re simply using the popularity and following from the franchise and totally disrespecting the core of the story and characters. Before these nincompoops come and wax lyrical about adaptations being different from the source material, there is an obvious difference between a genuine adapatation to screen whereby the major plot lines are maintained, the core stories are maintained, the character histories are maintained and superfluous or extrapolated materials are minimised, also where there are obvious gaps of non-explained or non-elaborated space only is where things are created and imagined. Whereas a rubbish excuse of an adaptation is what CQL has done. Because what it did was to use the characters names, take the fantasy world setting and cool elements, and then totally walk over the storyline by completely meshing and mixing and stirring everything and everyone into a big pot of dog poo. And testament to them just using the franchise’s popularity to milk money and attention is by completely unashamedly BL-bait with all the WangXian interactions including many that are either not in the book or extras, or not in the right context or scene, or completely nonexistent and made up. And then the shameless tag that it’s just a platonic bromance since censorship in China wouldn’t allow this. Right.

So let’s talk about the plot. So WWX is not some grandmaster of demonic cultivation since it has already been going on behind the scenes with Xue Yang casually helping WRH practise some hardcore demonic cultivation and the fact that the Tiger Stygian Amulet is just some relic that’s been around for ages. Nothing to do with WWX’s ingenuity and talent for harnessing the resentful energy stored in that sword found at the TuLuXuanWu cave. Then apparently the TianNu statue that comes to life was already something that he and LWJ had encountered before in their youth whilst they go along to hunt for the Amulet pieces. And then WQ apparently is able to influence the zombified with a flute like instrument anyway. And then apparently Lan Yi and WWX’s mum knew each other cos nothing spells more destined love than when your respective previous generation also had some sort of bond and connection. And the bunnies were really reared by her so not a sweet little homage of the Wangxian love. And the forehead ribbon is not just ugly aesthetics wise but LWJ can’t decide if he’s steadfast about it or he is nonchalant about taking it off and tying it onto WWX’s wrist even when he was not intoxicated. And then WWX was already using some unexplained paper puppet powers which was apparently not seen as demonic cultivation in his youth to mess about, and he apparently could manipulate LWJ quite easily to get him drunk. And when things that are not canon like LXC and JGY they just had to make their first meeting so obviously charged with innuendo. And then WQ since the actress invested in the series, had to be important, so she is given some all so noble duty of being the good guy in the bad camp who is doing stuff that she doesn’t want to but she is still good and should be liked though she’s still a bad guy nonsense trope. So she goes to GuSu to get the amulet piece for WRH, because only when he gets the piece will she be able to somehow bring WN away. And WN was a great enough character both alive and dead as the Ghost General with his design from the source material, but no, they want to embellish it that he’s afflicted with some condition that makes him susceptible to being possessed and taken over by evil spirits. Wtf. And naturally, WQ should somehow capture JC’s eye, because why would JC want to be infatuated with a Wen person when eventually they cause the demise of his parents and his clan. But hey maybe he’d be so selective thinking WQ didn’t do it though so that’s okay. Like wtf.

Let’s talk about the actors. I like WWX’s look, the actor has a good face, he “looks” like a WWX, but damn his acting is bad. And damn, he cannot do the duality of WWX, because he does not exude that dangerous aura and the strength and power that WWX naturally possess because of his natural abilities, evident even before he was a Yiling Patriarch, much less if this guy wants to play a convincing Patriarch. He does all these ogling of LWJ from the get go since they met, cue all the cheap BL baiting. And he pouts and stomps his feet and acts cute the whole time. WWX is cheeky, naughty, devious, mischievous, but not girly, not a sissy. Wtf. Then we move onto LWJ. So that guy is some boy and heartthrob, but damn he has neither r looks nor the presence nor the acting skills to touch LWJ. WTF. The moment he appeared he made me want to slap LWJ, want to cry for his ru8ning of his whole imagery. The action sequence is so wooden, and the expressions are so constipated or dead. Everybody else looked bad. The actors I think chosen right for their looks were WWX, WN (alive version, the ghost general version has such awful make up it makes me cringe), NHS, JGY, XY (he apparently got to get a good looking dude to play him who also looks kind of evil and yet looks like an anime character walked out of the anime) and maybe JC (that’s because aesthetically he actually can be considered good looking and that is ridiculous because he’s better looking than the Twin Jades of Lan in this). LXC and his butt chin hurts my eyes. WRH looking like some voodoo witch doctor gone drag in his evil volcanic dungeon lair makes me want to throw an encyclopaedia at someone’s head violently. NMJ looking like a complete perverted uncle complete with hentai stache is just blasphemous. JZX just looks weird, no better way to put it.

So onto the make up, costumes and props. Make up is so shit that you can see up close where spots are done smoothed over or powdered down, the gore or the effects of veins and wounds are so fake and so obviously drawn on it looked like a 6yo went to arts class and took some marker pen and crayon and created these outcomes. The props are so cheap that the ghost hand looks like a rubber Halloween glove you get from the prop shop around the corner, the deity binding ropes look exactly like rough ropes. The Emperor Smile bottles look so tiny and white that it looks more like medicine bottles on ancient times than an expensive alcohol bottle. Where’s the YunMeng silver bell, the jade piece on LWJ’s robe. The forehead ribbon looks so cheap because it’s too thin and the stupid metallic piece in the middle is ridiculous. Why can’t they just stick with the original to have the silk cloth with the cloud patterns embroidered on the cloth. And the clothes, Lan sect is supposed to be ethereal, so why are they dressed in such plain white and tight clothes. They should have the flowing sleeves, the light blue tones, and the cloud embroidery. YunMeng needs to have their original violet colour, the Wen Sect does not need to be full body red like they’re getting married (see WQ), and the Jin sect needs their golden robes with the centrepiece of the JinXinXueLang peony, not some watered down white with yellow hues and nothing else to show for it. And what is with LWJ’s hair do and hair piece, it has such a disgusting look to it and it doesn’t look right. Do the bun properly and the accessory properly, not some weird plop of hair right in front on top of his head and then put a flat piece of elaborate metal on top of it.

me as soon as i touch the bed

Wang Duo 汪铎 as Gongzi 公子 (李嗣源) | Bloody Romance 媚者无疆 → ep.10 

“My Lan He, all grown up.”

So! I realized that not everyone knows what I do about clothes or scene examination, and decided to explain why Crowley is definitely dressed like a woman and Aziraphale like a man in these two stills.

First, environmentally: all the men in these scenes are wearing turban style headwraps; all the women are wearing looser scarves. Aziraphale is clearly aligned with the men via framing; in both shits only men are standing behind him, and vice versa for Crowley. None of the men have long hair; Crowley does. None of the men are wearing belts or have their waists emphasizing via draping and cinching, but Crowley does. Environmentally, this aligns Crowley with women and tells us he is dressed like a woman.

Second, historically:

As we can see from these two helpful pages on Biblical clothing, Crowley is still dressed like a woman and Aziraphale is still dressed like a man; they are clearly apart of the same group so they are not dressed differently due to cultural influences.

the women at the crucifixion, liturgically and in Christian art, are associated with empathy for Christ’s suffering. Like. That’s what women do, in that scene: they weep. In medieval drama and meditative texts, audiences get to enter into the pain of the scene through the women: the grief the women feel, and the pain Christ feels through the women’s grief at his pain. It’s traditionally through the voices of women, too, that anger and confusion at god’s choices are voiced.

Here’s Hans Memeling’s Crucifixion tryptich:

That’s Mary Mother of Christ in the black - conventions vary as to whether she’s in black or royal blue, but you can tell it’s her because she’s swooning into John the Baptist’s arms. Kneeling is Mary Magdalene (you can tell because her hair is uncovered, and it’s red - MM’s hair is often red or red-gold)

Now, this is late medieval. Further into the renaissance the veils the women are wearing in these scenes get less structured. Here’s Sofinisba Anguissola’s Pieta:

Mary’s wearing a wimple under her veil here, but the overall flowing effect is not dissimilar to what Crowley has going on.

But the Virgin is hardly the main iconographic reference that’s coming to my mind here. Red-haired Crowley, with a blue-black veil loosely slung?

Here’s Lucrina and/or Domenico Fetti’s Repentant Magdalen:

I’m sure I’ve seen similar Madalenes with brighter red hair, but I can’t find one right now. Nevertheless. If this resemblance wasn’t deliberate I will eat my hat.

Conclusions:

1. Crowley as a woman at the Crucifixion is extremely resonant and liturgically apt, because what Crowley is doing is a. experiencing empathy for pain and b. questioning and evoking doubt, both of which are roles largely assigned to women in post-patristic Christian tradition (yes, Peter and Thomas doubt. Jesus himself has that ‘take this cup’ moment. But medieval and renaissance Christianity loved to explore the contradictions of anger, empathy and faithful acceptance through both the archetypal holy woman, the Virgin Mary, and the archetypal redeemed sinner, Mary Magdalen). Gaiman has compared Crowley’s questions to the strong Jewish tradition of questioning and arguing with God - although Christian tradition has generally allowed less space for that, if there is going to be space for a Jewish-like Questioner of God in this scene, it’s always in the mouths of the women.

2. Crowley’s specific colouration, the long red curls, the fact the veil is slipping off? Mary Magdalen all the way. Is that meant to position him as redeemable, or as inherently a temptress? Both? Neither?

3. In the tradition of depictions of the Crucifixion, Christian and vaugely-Christian-aware audiences since… uh… at least the twelfth century have been primed to identify with the women (you still see it in contemporary evangelical worship and the like). Positioning Crowley as a woman in that image is apt to the text: that scene is meant to align you with Crowley, with Crowley’s empathy and questioning. 

Date night ready <3 A commission for  @asbestosheaven​

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someone give me validation this took forever 

Discredit - Excerpts from A.Z. Fell and Co.’s Yelp Page