#edlingweek

So, for those of you who are interested in my thoughts behind what I named in my drawing files "Tale of Two Queers"...

💕I wanted Edward's and Ling's sides to give off different types of lonely vibes in situations that parallel each other as they aged! The two of them with their moms when they were around 5 or so. Both feeling distant from their moms for their different reasons around 10 or 11. Hateful words and adversity while simultaneously unsure of their own identities around 15. Tired and jaded shown in their reflections around 17-18. Reluctantly conformed to what others want from them around 20-21 but finding kinship in each other that helps them shatter that conformity. Then them existing as they want to exist in the ensuing years after their meeting!

💕Edward was clearly valued and cherished by Trisha, so her death represents a loneliness caused by a physical absence. Alternatively, Ling's mother is physically there but distant. She may hold Ling's hand in early stages, but she still looks away and is more focused on her phone conversation than her child while the mother-daughter pair in the background is actively engaged with each other. This represents emotional loneliness.

💕Ling's mother also gets more 'distant' with each picture on Ling's side. First, it's just her face we don't see. Then we only see from the neck down. Then we only have a shadowy silhouette in the background in the mirror before she disappears entirely!

💕Most of Edward's pictures have Sweet Peas (or flowers based on Sweet Peas) in them. The few times flowers appear on Ling's side, it's a Jonquil flower or one that is reminiscent of Jonquil flower. Flower languages vary based on culture and flower colour, of course, but from what I've seen in multiple places: Sweet Peas symbolize gratitude, whimsy, and purity while Jonquil flowers represent good fortune, hope, and new beginnings.

💕The barrier I use to 'divide' their individual stories cracks and shatters into pieces and dust for the picture where their hands touch to symbolize their stories joining together!

💕Their positioning is also intentional! At first, their backs are turned away from each other and towards their mother with their profile visible to the viewer. Their faces are obscured with their respective 'darkness' and as time passes, their backs begin to turn towards the viewer until all that can be seen other than their back is a more jaded reflection. Their backs are still fully turned away from the viewer when they meet and begin looking towards each other because they're still uncertain in themselves but are beginning to find their hope and whimsy again. In the end they're still looking towards each other but are now front facing towards the viewer now that they're comfortable with themselves.

💕The captions are, as mentioned earlier, lyrics from ATEEZ'S Now this house ain't a home (more specifically from the English translation I read along to while listening along), a song that I feel like is about broken homes and broken upbringings. I tried to match the vibe of the lyrics I used for the pictures they were captioning!

💕There were two different backgrounds for the final picture that I experimented with but didn't end up using for various reasons. One was to counter the typography of the second picture where Edward's side would say "Not a phase" while Ling's would say "Grow into yourself", however I couldn't write them in a way where it didn't look awkward on Ling's side. The second was like the one I went with but included one other pride flag in the mix for each (genderqueer for Edward, asexual for Ling) so the background was split into quadrants rather than halves, but that made the colours of the background too cluttered.

💕I do still consider Ling ace in the context of these pictures, but because of how the hands were drawn, I couldn't nod at that with a black ring on the middle finger. I do, however, nod to Ling being transfem with🍥matching earrings and necklace. I picked that up back when I first saw this post!