A lover of history and specultative fiction

witch hat atelier colouring yay yay yay

And nowadays it's published in Comic Bunch Kai, which is a digital magazine, so we don't have more covers (such a shame).

But NOPE! He's just as crazy or maybe even crazier than any other character!

I don't know if you see my vision, but... I present to you the Grumpy Siblings! (tentative name)

"Entire life goes into disarray once they meet an older man that that they find slightly annoying at times."

Shoutout to this user on Batoto, who opened my eyes.

Known today as the basis for adorable trinkets and collectables, Kewpie dolls and cartoons were a wholesome cultural phenomenon. Artist Rosie O'Neill described Kewpie as “a benevolent elf who did good deeds in a funny way" in her autobiography.

Wholesome though they were, O'Neill also used her Kewpie characters to promote women's suffrage, critique elitism, and advocate for marginalized communities. In particular, Kewpie lent celebrity to the suffragist cause and helped reshape feminism in the popular imagination.

I actually like the changes the anime is making from the manga. Namely in regards to Kail and Yuri’s relationship. While the desire is still evident between them, they’ve toned down the overt sexual elements which will hopefully make their dynamic more romantic. At least for me it was somewhat a struggle to get the connection between the two when most of their “bond” was purely physical. Only issue I could see with the changes would be someone innocently expecting wholesome romance from seeing this and then being surprised at some of the content in the manga. I like though that they’re keeping Kail’s confident personality and Yuri’s sweetness but making him less, let’s say aggressive, towards her. We’ll see if they change it as it goes on but I’d rather have Kail who’s clearly intrigued and interested than the one who’s just driven only by lust.

I’m also hoping that Yuri will be less two-dimensional in this adaptation than she felt reading the manga. It often came across like she was merely an object to be passed around between the rotating carousel of men who desired her and then the people who worshiped her. While there was a semblance of “empowerment”she was little more than a lucky person and didn’t have much the mind for leadership beyond being from the future. That being said, I’m not for pulling the opposite of the damsel in distress and making her a “girl boss” either or just a bossy girl more like it. Hoping they emphasize how she starts off a foolish young woman who makes mistakes but can learn from them and become a grown, mature lady. Just don’t want it to be a constant string of naivety.

In today's media , sadly , strong female characters is just your average "John Wick" wannabe but she's Jenna instead . It preparates further the faux notion of strength that not only makes acts of violence normalised , but also , congratulates them . Especially in male characters .

Both "sword" and "leadership" signify that strength in her can only be shown through these aspects . The book actually potrays how weak such female characters could be AND how hypercritical the society was towards them when they actually expressed these characters and nothing else , take Yu Ziuyan for example. Even the male characters are shown to have strength have more depth to them than simply these . It's just that people simply value the overpowering of others as a primary example of strength.

It's thoughtless simplification, most people don't want to change their understanding and views upon the actual notions of what strength both interpersonal in a society or s family and an inner strength actually entails.

Jiang Yanli is a very important character not only by means of representation but also an expression of what strength could actually look like in a not physical manner , something that was so more significantly important in so many moments we see . Even Wen Qing is a great example of inner strength.

Context based , Jiang Yanli genuinely could not say that she forgave Wei Wuxian in her end moments but even so , she expressed that despite everything she loved him . She was distraught , she'd lost another person she loved so deeply after the wounds of her loss of her parents had yet to heal and even then , she had the maturity, the emotional strength to relay this notion to prevent any downwards spiral of Wei Wuxian .

Jiang Yanli really couldn't forgive him for killing her husband so early into their marriage ( time regardless , it would be horrible but the point still stands ) . And she's completely justified in this situation. But fans don't want that . They want her to posess strength to aid in the war efforts or to prevent her mother's abuse upon him . Which I will personally never quite understand, because she's a CHILD herself. A neglected child with no autonomy, authority or say in her own life .

The only descision she'd made willingly was to love Wei Wuxian and to die for him in the end . Sometimes, to chose love despite everything, and to hope takes far more strength than swinging a sword to kill those who have wronged you . Strength can be expressed without physical parameters being present constantly . Jiang Yanli is a complex character that fits the views of what patriarchy asks of women but even so , possess great strength , exceeding even the male characters she's often made tk resemble. She's flawed and complicated and she's done wrong but even so , she choses repeatedly to be good . And that is a strength not seen often , neither congratulated in women .

I've seen so many fans praise Wei Wuxian for his constant choices made towards being good but not many express the fact or praise Jiang Yanli for actually being a very important reason that Wei Wuxian is so kind and considerate of others .

Most fanfics don't even wanna touch the fact that Jin Zixuan was an ass . A horrendous ass to her . But despite this , she still harbours affection for him

Young Jiang Yanli looks at her mother's anger and her lack of warmth towards herself and her ruinous expectations towards her brother and her father's lack thereof, his passivity and thinks she could solve her future hypothetical / inevitable marriage by loving her would be husband. That she could love her brother and ease his pain . (This detoriates her mother's affection towards her even more . Meishan Yu born Yu Ziuyan finds her daughter's weak core and passive nature with a peacefull deposition as an affront to her blood . )

She's not given frienships , she not given peers. She's given a boy to love as if she were already a grown girl . And a little boy to raise , now two .

Jiang yanli did not "Fall in love " , she was betrothed by birth and she let herself love the child who would one day be her husband, much as she ignored everything to love Wei Wuxian knowing how much strain his presence puts on her parents marriage. She loved him like a brother , like family . Jiang yanli is virtuous and noble . She's also a little girl who comes with her own problems and ignores them or copes with them by taking care of others. She finds the emergence of resentment in her brother's countenance towards Wei Wuxian due his closeness with their father and tries to circumvent it with coercing them to built a "loving" relationship. She's a child , her world view is limited, a noble lady barely allowed outside, and this is the best descisions she could take . Much of Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng's codependency and messy brotherhood stems from their upbringing at her behest and the regard they have towards Jiang Yanli . She's often worrying about them , so , hiding their pain , their fights , in their understanding provides her peace and much of their principles hold Jiang Yanli as beacon .Only Jiang yanli not only genuinely loved and cared for them , she was also using this as a means to escape her emotions, her own problems. She finds herself not of much use to her sect save for solidifying the sisterhood of her mother and her mother's closest friend Madam Jin . Jin clan had ties with the Jinag clan even without the marriage simply because Madam Jin had great regards towards her supposed sister , both being from Meishan Yu . Caring for her two brothers made her a useful person. A person with more worth to herself than a pawn , a baby maker. We see this even in wars , where despite being a noble she does the work of servants , cares for the wounded and injured and helps medical practitioners.

She loved Jin Zixuan willfully because what choice did she have , her weak core was already disappointment enough for her mother and her mother in law adored her , if only out of her own personal bias . Jin Zixuan was an ass to her , has always disrespected her . But have we taken into account that while Jiang Yanli chose passivity towards her situations , Jin Zixuan chose to defy them ? That this marriage was forced upon him too , with a girl who's lauded by his mother, the one person out of both his parents who actually cared about him . And Madam Jin has always had a peculiar bitterness in her treatment of her son . She's protective of him allright , but never had she openly showed him affection .

Doubtlessly, Jiang yanli has made , or tried to make the best of her life . She loved her brothers . She gives them a safe space and complete acceptance , despite everything. She married the man who would one day inherit the sect that calls for her pseudo brother's blood . She marries so Lotus Pier , her other brothers sect may have means of an income and support. So he may support the pseudo brother. Its messy , it's horrible. The marriage is not her choice, was never her choice. She's given these situations and she tried to chose the ones that would serve her family best . Jiang yanli is loving towards her FAMILY , not every person she meets. She's a noble lady with high regards for herself, she's prideful. And she's also constantly fucking desperate. She's always in some horrendous delimma . She choses to remain patient, to hope for the best .

I've seen so many fanfictions where Jiang Yanli steers Jin Guangyao out of trouble and that she aids Nie Mingjue . And I love them just as much as the next person but do you think Jiang Yanli, with the war and her parents' death so recent, who didn't even have time to mourn them , has a brother living in estrangement and another desperately trying to rebuild his , their home and the only parental figure in her life being her mother in law is going to go against Madam Jin ? She has such little agency . The Jin sect has Jin Guangshan as sect leader and she's a newly married young girl without parents or elders or political sway as wife of heir , not Sect Leader . She's defenceless with her oblivious husband in a place of vipers with Madam Jin her sole support . And the only things she knows about Jin Guangyao is that he was a spy , and that he killed Wen Rouhan himself with a knife to the back . And Nie sect was one of the loudest claims against Wei Wuxian, she will NOT care for someone who endangered her brother.Also , more importantly . Jiang yanli is not someone responsible for the well-being of every one she meets . That is the most important thing we as fandom forget . Jiang yanli is not the allegory for Guan Yin . She doesn't have unlimited love and regards for others .

The most angering thing about this premise is that post Jin Zixuan death , fanfics potray Jiang yanli as the very forgiving type where canonically, she WAS angry at Wei Wuxian for KILLING her husband when she finally , finally had a family , something she had come to dream of ever since she were a child . Because these are the situations she is provided. She only wanted to see her brother because she knew of his predeposition towards guilt and overthinking, but even then , facing him , she couldn't forgive him , she couldn't say it's fine . Her brother has made her child an orphan , she no longer has a husband she's always been made to dream of , right when she finally , FINALLY had his regards. And what CAN she do in this situation ? A widow with a child in a family that regards women as nothing put property ? Can she ask her brother to kill himself? Ask the other brother to kill him ? Can she ask to bring her husband back ? Is that allowed? Can she being her parents back ? Can the long line of her loss be cut ? With how much regard people give to Wei Wuxian's grief and even Jiang Cheng, despite him not being well liked , so few actually take into account Jiang Yanli's grief. That she lived little , her life too short but it was a fraught life , filled with pain .

The drama has done well but it's kind of watered down the tragedy that is Jiang Yanli. They mellowed out her dysfunctional parents and even Jin Zixuan's bullshit . They made her to be well regarded by her mother when so much of her personality is affected by the lack of maternal love she's faced .

Meet me in the woods, I have a secret to tell you 🪭⚔️

My illustration for My Liege - A Queer Knights in Love artbook from @dames-zine and @novaandmali !

48 hours left on the KS!