Scarlet

At first I wanted to draw her as a princess because I absolutely loved her when I was a child and, was obviously heartbroken when her relationship with Duncan was over…As toxic as it was.

And I gave her another outfit because I like to imagine her with a school girl outfit like in these old school American movies.

I like to imagine that she was trying to hide but Sierra caught her crying in a closet and took a pic of her with a title like “SHES STILL CRYING LIKE GURL MOVE OOOOOON!!!!!!”

Free my queen (I know she’s annoying, bare with me)

Well well well (long post incoming, if you like Chinese culture, please read it hihi) — ENGLISH IS NOT MY FIRST LANGUAGE 🙏🙏🙏

First of all, I know her design is considered as offensive and honestly, I understand why (like, the yellow skin. Sigh)

That is why I tried to make her more “gold like” while respecting her color palette because she is sadly, gorgeous. Yet, I wanted to adapt the offensive design into a properly historical look. Buckle up because I’ve done a lot of researches about Chinese history (aaaand my two years of Chinese classes, let’s make it worth it). I explain my choices of representations with facts — perhaps I confused Taiwan and Chinese culture (as Taiwan also speaks mandarin while using traditional writing BUT different expressions that could be less common in China….Sorry.) I did not used Wikipedia. All my sources are in French, but I still can send them if anybody asks.

In my headcanon, Jinafire is not named this way, it’s literally English and doesn’t make any sense for a Chinese dragon to be named this way. In China, the names are based off of what the parents want for their children, to be strong (山 shān ; mountain = more for boys) or to be pretty (月 yuè ; moon = more for girls) or personality (that’s how my Chinese teachers explained, I may be wrong). I won’t get into the foreigners names case because it does not apply here (but if you have questions I can answer :3).

龙 lóng = Chinese dragon (literally in context)

黑 hēi = dusk (also used as a surname)

秀 xiù = elegance, beautiful, gracious

So, her name would be 黑龙秀

In traditional writing : 黑龍秀

So, translated literally it means dusk dragon elegant.

In a more poetic manner, more like : The graceful dragon of the setting sun.

Context :

龙秀 lived during the Tang dynasty (from 618 to 907), it is considered as the golden age of China’s civilization for its development in culture, economics and technics. Education was mostly open to everybody (yes, even women, who EVEN were able to get to higher work or in arts).

龙秀 is protected by the only empress of China, 武則天 (Wu Zetian) (duration of reign : 690 to 705). She is the only woman who ever got to become empress in Chinese history who made many changes for agricultural development and women’s place. Lowering the taxes, creating medical centers for women, proposing help for widowers (husbands died) and giving more time for mourning when a mother dies, to make it as long as for the fathers (there was a different time allowed depending on who died). While also turning her reign towards buddhism instead of Taoism.

NOW, WITH ALL THIS CONTEXT, LETS GET TO IT!

As said before, 龙秀 is protected by the empress, not really by charity but more as a curiosity. 龙秀 is an anthropomorphic female dragon. She has golden, shiny scales, strange strand of green hair among the black ones, lizard eyes, a tail, and yet….She acts, speaks and dresses like a human. The empress treated 龙秀 like a woman, but was still weary of her as she was still half dragon, so she created quarters specifically for her.

龙秀 mostly entertain the empress and her court with her tricks, involving flames, during banquets. Her existence needed to be a secret, but the word quickly spread that an abomination was living among them.

Sometimes, 龙秀 was allowed to go out only at night, dressed as a member of the court or even higher position just to not be approached, along with guards. She had to keep an umbrella low, to hide her ears, her eyes….Her scales.

She was proud as a dragon, but fearful as a human. She was half, and never full. Loving herself became secondary, to completely forgotten. Her only need was to be loved.

It was hard to understand when she even was born, as she mostly spent her time underground, hidden…Until she was found by Wu Zetian’s guards during an exploration of the caves for military purposes.

In this illustration, 龙秀 is depicted sat on her knees, in her quarters, wearing a 齐胸襦裙 (Tang dynasty’s typical dress), though they aren’t as “fashion” compared to the court’s, fluid or light. Anything she owed weren’t truly hers anyway. She is also wearing 花钿 (drawings of flowers on her forehead), 面靥 (dimples near the mouth), 朱唇 (red lips painted like a “button”) and red blush on her cheeks. She is holding her umbrella as low as possible, drinking tea, has 胡饼 (a type of bread) like an offering. She put down an incense, whether for a prayer or the parfum.

She is next to a window. It is still the night. The only source of light comes from the candles in front of her, which are melting quite miserably. Clearly, nobody, not even 龙秀 think of changing them. Because at the end of the day, 龙秀 is a monstrosity and does not need any light. Nobody wants to see her, only her tricks and flames.

She dies a few months after the empress’s death. She had been discovered by the new emperor, 唐中宗 (Tang Zhongzong), as she was like a threat for his people.

龙秀 was beheaded at the dusk. Along with the member of the court and guards who still hid her even before the empress’s death, after her destitution. All of this still in secret, as it wasn’t needed to create panic or worse, to make people question the choices of their leader (in Wu Zetian’s case).

龙秀’s head got thrown into the fire. And her naked body into the sea. No makeup, no clothes could be thrown away for her.

Version with and without text — I took it from this scene (the episodes with the guns).

More or less a headcanon but LORDS do I imagine Ragatha animated like in old cartoons + acting as if she has no bones! Like she’s made of clay or something.