#queen jiang

Minor or Extremely Minor

Design notes For Ji Fa, I think i got brain poisoned while working on those other birds I had to draw because he ended up with a bird motif. Bird sword, bird brother, bird bow, bird armor. IDK. He wears a lot pf white because white= west (traditional directional color). Why I didn't go with a tiger motif, I'm not sure, I think i just liked the bird idea more.

In the novel, Ji Fa is an extremely bland kinda naive ruler who is overly concerned with the ethics of the relationship between Lord and vassal. So my depiction of him is probably the farthest I'm straying from the novel and more into headcanon/adaptation territory. I do think the novel has some interesting bones though. In the novel he's unskilled in running a military campaign and leaves all matters to Jiang Ziya. He's also left in the dark until the last possible second a ton, such as the whole punitive expedition. . . I think those could be something interesting to tug on.

Princess Longji is a really cool character, shame she's not in more of the novel. Unfortunately like Deng Chanyu she's forced into a "because fate says so" marriage of inconvenience.

I've depicted her with two treasures, Four Seas bottle and Two Dragons sword. She's later deified as the Red Phoenix star, so I went with that type of coloring.

Poor, poor Yin Jiao. When I first read the novel, I was really hoping he'd join the Zhou army even though I knew he wasn't going to. His life is kind of one tragedy after another until he dies a pitiful death. Even in his daoist attire, I tried to include elements of royal clothing. It's my impression that he could never throw aside the worldly connection, and it's kind of what doomed him. His design also starts leaning more into my thoughts on adaptational changes.

The most interesting thing to note about his design might be his swords. The implication here is that he's had one as a child, and the other he picks up later. Eventually the Martial King ends up with the bird sword. (id probably draw Guang Chenzi with his own paired swords since in this adaptation he never gives them to his student.)

the final pic is an expansion of a specific Au idea- the Yin brothers accompany their masters to Xiqi during the 10 formations arc. I think it would be good to add to the tragedy. Even if new friendships form, the Yin brothers cannot escape their fates.