Yes, I am not saying that epilogue really existed, but I personally am not 100% sure that's bs either, especially because TH had a sequel planned too.blabla100:
Yes the premise is certainly there with the Guifang clan and Xiang Liu's ties to them, and I would certainly love to see her explore this part of the narrative, though based on what she said, the Guifang clan was meant to happen in the prequel before the events of LYF. Nothing would make me happier if we see Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao cross paths again one way or another. However, if it was now Fangfeng Bei who came back to life, not Xiang Liu, and certainly without his memories, then he is no longer the same man, whatever his appearance. The person who shared the lovers bug, who loved Xiao Yao so completely was always Xiang Liu, not the real Fangfeng Bei. The man she loved was Xiang Liu too. Having Fangfeng Bei return would be equivalent to having the shell (or perhaps not even that since the real Fangfeng Bei looked nothing like Xiang Liu) without the soul.
Another point that made me highly doubt a sequel in the vein of the 2nd epilogue would ever materialise is the fact that doing so would require Tong Hua to definitively say that Xiao Yao loved and still loves Xiang Liu, to want to keep remembering him long after his death. Unfortunately, I cannot see Tong Hua ever making such an unassailable statement unlike the smoke and mirrors that was so much a part of her narrative in LYF, at the risk of losing a chunk of the LYF fandom.
I haven't seen Scarlet heart 2 and I am not sure if TH herself wrote the script for it, but I believe that's the route they took for that sequel. Also, unlike Ruxi and XL to a degree, XY did say that given the choice, she would rather remember than forget.
Don't. Whatever you do, even if you have nothing else to watch, do not even bother watching Scarlet Heart 2, which was simply riding on the coattails of the original's success but was a disaster without a strong script to back it up and tainted its association with the original drama. It went down in flames and does not deserve to be resurrected in any form.
Xiao Yao did say that she would choose to remember rather than forget, and whether she wanted to or not, I don't think she would ever forget him, nor would she be willing to. The literal title of the novel "Eternal Yearning" applies as much to her as it does to Cang Xuan, and she will miss and yearn for him for the rest of her life, losing him the way she did.
She once told Jing that "... In the past, I was always running away, not simply because of the knot in my heart that made me refuse to face them. It was also because I knew that once I entered the palace gates, leaving would be as hard as ascending to the Heavens." Sure enough, right up to Xiang Liu's death, she was still unable to bring herself to escape the confines of her birthright and lineage. Only his death gave her the impetus and resolve to finally break free and leave without a backward glance, to grasp the life she wanted for herself but could never obtain. It was just tragic that her freedom came as such a cost, and would always have a hollow ring because the one she kept buried in her heart was no longer there.
AH :
These pics are so CUTE!
That last pic reminds me of a childhood memory. I was in a wedding party and the girls in the wedding party who were under ten wore white dresses (the older girls wore a different colour), but I was the only one with semi-short hair. So the other girls had half-up, half-down hairstyles and I had a white barrette very much like that one along with a white dress. ^^
Heh! I'm not sure how Mr. Grumpy would feel about being reminded of a young girl. He will probably sulk and give me the cold shoulders all day :-)
I also used to have short hair as a kid. Although mine was from being shaved off due to head lice :-). To make up for my lack of long locks, my mum would buy me lots of pretty barrette and headbands. I don't have head lice anymore (thankfully), but still keep my hair perpetually in a bob. Just don't wear barrette or headbands anymore. So I just stick them on Mr. Grumpy here instead :-)
ZYHLJ:
@blabla100
The problem with Xiao Yao is that she has never acted like a mature, knowledgeable enough about herself, wise and assertive woman, so Xiang Liu made a judgment and decision for her. But what if she was a woman like Eowyn from Lord of the Rings? Do you think Xiang still won't seriously consider her desire to risk being with him?
Yes! They wouldn've shared blissful moments together, maybe had a child, and as he rode to battle, would gave her a kiss still perched on his horse.
XY would lost XL, but death is just a temporary separation because they meet again in the afterlife. She will have her child(ern) to accompany her. CX would spend his whole life making it up to her. And maybe by then, Jing would be less of a conniving fox, and try support her from her grief.
But that's what that supposed epilogue meant by bringing FFB back to life? Did the real FFB had any connection to the Guifang clan that they wanted to revive him? I had a different interpretation when I read it, the one who got revived by the clan was FFB's shell, as you put it, with XL's genes, so to speak. Sort of like a way for TH to bring back XL, without the burden or the memories of XL, but still XL at core, only that this time he's a free XL to give to XY, as she wished for.
As far as we were told from LYF, Xiang Liu was the one with ties to the Guifang clan. There is no mention of any connection between the real Fangfeng Bei and the clan itself. It is possible that Xiang Liu made a deal with them to revive Fangfeng Bei after his death. As for the reason... might it be in repayment to the person who gave him the opportunity to experience a mother's love, and live over 400 years in the bustling mortal realm? Perhaps, seeing that Xiang Liu never forgets a debt of gratitude, and would give his all to repay it.
Interesting concept of having Fangfeng Bei's shell but Xiang Liu's soul / essence as opposed to my thought of completely reviving Fangfeng Bei, while forcibly sealing off any part of Xiang Liu. However, a Xiang Liu without the memories (not even their shared ones) and burdens... would that be the same Xiang Liu Xiao Yao loved? Would he love her in the same way in return? But perhaps it would not matter, as long as he came back.
I desperately would have loved to read 千方相 since Xiang Liu is there and it should shed light to the mysterious relationship between him and the Guifang clan. I believe those ties were what gave life to the theories that Xiang Liu left his demon core with the Guifang clan before the final battle, since nothing was left of him except black blood.liddi:
Is there precedent for a demon leaving their demon core with someone else for safe keeping before death in the Dahuang universe? The only remotely comparable demon death I can think of is the dogwood demon who loved Qing Yang, who killed herself to join him in death and turned into dogwood flowers across his grave.
Anyway, do you think a prayer circle would work in this case?
A prayer circle that XL's demon core was preserved, giving him a chance to come back to life?
And dare I hope... that the LYF/Healer mashup story is in the works? Hopefully one day you'll announce the happy news!
The concept won't leave my head, but it's all very scattered. I'm not sure it would be possible to actually turn it into the kind of fic that I'd want it to be without reading Once Promised... and maybe taking a year off work. ^^" But it's fun to keep playing with the idea and fleshing out certain pieces in my mind, since I can't seem to escape it.
I am uncertain about the timeline between Xiao Yao's birth and the final battle - hopefully someone who has already read Once Promised in its entirety can enlighten us.
Ah Heng was in a coma for the first year after XY was born in Gao Xing, that much was included in Koala's translation at least. Then XY spent more time in Gao Xing after Ah Heng woke up from her coma, but idk how much time that would have been. Then I think someone in this thread mentioned that XY lived on Xuan Yuan mountain with Ah Heng, her grandmother and CX for eight years before she went to Jade Mountain? Not sure if I'm remembering the exact timeframe correctly. But if that's more or less correct, I figure by the time XY ran away from Jade Mountain she had to be at least 80 years old.
As for Jing and Feng Long, I agree that 80 years is probably nothing much. When you think about it, Shao Hao was 1000 years older than A Heng, so what is 80 years in their grand scheme of things?
Yeah, 80 years as an adult deity seems to be nothing. Maybe the same would be true for deities who were young adults or not-quite-adults, like the equivalent of university students or maybe even high school students. But I thought TSJ and Feng Long were childhood friends in such a way that if an 80+ year difference (probably more like 100+ years, depending on how much older TSJ is than XY?) could be significant enough to separate a child deity from a young adult deity (like the difference between a 12 year old human and a 18 year old human?) then they wouldn't be peers and the idea of them being childhood friends who grew up together wouldn't make sense.
As for Cang Xuan and Xiao Yao, A Heng medicated herself to keep Xiao Yao from being born, in order to keep up the deception that the child was Shao Hao's (they pretended to consummate the marriage after she told him she was pregnant with Chi Chen's child, and he announced her pregnancy to the world 6 months down the road). Cang Xuan was actually conceived more than six months later than Xiao Yao, but because A Heng delayed her birth, he was born before her (she was born in 4th month of the 2nd year after the supposed conception). So in actual birth age, he would be at least 6 months older than her, but in actuality, she was conceived before him. Thus the age difference would not be that significant.
Oh I didn't know CX was conceived after XY! And they're closer in age than I expected. Very interesting tidbit!
AH :
I also didn't realize Hou Tu was a demon - a black-winged snake demon at that! Physically he sounds like a mix of Xiang Liu (snake demon) and Sir Bi (a fox demon with black wings).
Actually, the text refers to Hou Tu as 黑翼化蛇 - a 黑翼 (black winged) 化蛇 Huà'shé (literally "transformed snake"). The Classic of Mountains and Seas records that:
"Many of them were hua'she, which had a human face with a jackal's body, two bird wings on its back, and moved like a snake, coiling and squirming. Its voice was like the cries of a baby or a scolding woman. The hua'she rarely made a noise, but when it did, it would cause great floods."
So in his true form, he would not look like a conventional snake.
Some illustrations I found of the hua'she:
cr. sohu.com
cr. 传统文化很有趣 @ zhihu.com
Ah, so this is another example of Tong Hua drawing from Chinese mythology. Thanks for the insight and for finding some example images!
Although I must admit that I do not base my mental image of most of the LYF characters that Tong Hua adapted from existing mythological figures or creatures on the description of those mythological figures or creatures in classic mythology or depictions of those figures or creatures as they existed in their original myths. I tend to think of the LYF characters as inspired by the mythological figures / creatures, but not necessarily looking the same as the original figure / creature that inspired them.
Like I don't picture Xiang Liu's true form looking like:
(if you use dark mode on MDL, it's easier to see that image with dark mode turned off)
Description: An image of Xiangliu from the Complete Classics Collection of Ancient China.
or like:
Description: Xiang Yao*. Nine-headed snake body, self-circling.
* The name for Xiang Liu used in the Classic of Mountains and Seas.
I picture the true form of XL in LYF as looking more like this (and really huge):
----
I don't picture Gong Gong in the novels as looking the way he is described in mythology. Like the summary for his appearance in his wiki page says:
Gonggong (/ˈɡɒŋɡɒŋ/) is a Chinese water god who is depicted in Chinese mythology and folktales as having a copper human head with an iron forehead, red hair, and the body of a serpent, or sometimes the head and torso are human, with the tail of a serpent.[1][2]
-----
And I don't picture Chi You in the novels looking the way Chi You the mythological figure is described as looking. Like the summary for Chi You's appearance in his wiki page says:
According to legend, Chiyou had a bronze head with a distinct metal forehead.[7] He had four eyes and six arms, wielding terrible sharp weapons in every hand, similar to a description of fangxiangshi.[8] In some sources, Chiyou had certain features associated with various mythological bovines: his head was that of a bull with two horns, although the body was human, and his hindquarters were those of a bear.[8]
And the image used is:
Heh! I'm not sure how Mr. Grumpy would feel about being reminded of a young girl. He will probably sulk and give me the cold shoulders all day :-)HeadInTheClouds:
Woops, didn't mean to insult the mighty demon general. ^^
I also used to have short hair as a kid. Although mine was from being shaved off due to head lice :-). To make up for my lack of long locks, my mum would buy me lots of pretty barrette and headbands. I don't have head lice anymore (thankfully), but still keep my hair perpetually in a bob. Just don't wear barrette or headbands anymore. So I just stick them on Mr. Grumpy here instead :-)
Oh no! I imagine shaving one's head due to head lice wouldn't have been terribly fun. But it sounds like it worked out. And I'm glad the barrettes are getting a second life with Xiang Liu and we get to see it. ^^
My mother has relatively thin hair that is easy to manage and dries very quickly, but I have very thick, dense hair from my father that was a pain for her to deal with when I was little. So she kept my hair chin-length when I was little and also liked to use pretty barrettes, headbands and bows in it.
When I was a pre-teen I decided to grow it out (and ditch the accessories) and I've kept it long ever since. Funnily enough, the last time I was in a wedding party my hairstyle still had to be different from the other bridesmaids' for the opposite reason. The others had up-dos, but the stylist was worried that, because I had such long, dense hair, it would be difficult to keep it secure in the same style. So we ended up going with a styled ponytail instead.
XL would still look dignified even when he's dying inside of embarrassment :-)
Ok, so this is courtesy of nathsketh's who gave me help on how to tame Grumpy Pants' hair.
1. brush his hair back
2. Do a half-up-do
3. attached the weave to the hair that is not part of the top half. The higher/closer you can get to the demarcation line between the hair that is down and the one that will be tied up the better
4. Tie up the top part to cover the line of the weave. I used a butterfly-style clip. Secured his hair on the side with smaller butterfly clips.
Pictures of the finished result.
And what on earth is my life coming to that I'm posting a tutorial on how to do my doll hair? :-)
Hey! I hadn't seen these before!! Looking good! But then again I always think he looks good :D
Thank you so much to you and @nathsketch
You're most welcome! Can't wait to see the pics of her coiffed Grumpy Pants.
And what on earth is my life coming to that I'm posting a tutorial on how to do my doll hair? :-)
Well, I'm on AliExpress looking into tiny shorts and a suit to recreate this look:
If there are tiny black socks too, even better.
So... I'm not really in a position to judge anyone ( ͡ಠ ͜ʖ ͡ಠ )
plor20:
@nathsketch
here's few stores I found , maybe they ship to you. Don't ask why I have it readily available. hahaha.
Just found this amazing item on AliExpress. Check it out! $1.35 | 1Set 20cm Cotton Doll T-shirt Overall Hats Fashion Doll Clothes Suit Casual Wears Pants Suits 1/12 Dolls Clothes Accessories
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mK0Nd14Just found this amazing item on AliExpress. Check it out! $3.22 | 20cm Plush Cotton Doll's Clothes Shoes Outfit Accessories for Idol Dolls Fashion Suit Doll Tops Shirt Pants Suit Kids Gift
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mqgdl2qJust found this amazing item on AliExpress. Check it out! $1.95 | 5Cm Black Doll Shoes Plush Boots Leather Shoes For 14.5Inch American Girl Doll,Nancy,Paola Reina,EXO Doll Our Generation Kid Toy
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mqQjPaOhahahha...
We need help, you know?
NO WE DON'T ahahahahahahahaha
Thanks, I'll see if they are available here :3
I've been snowed under so just going back to reply to some of the posts.
I agree with what that man was saying, that he's the better choice out of two, since FFB/XL, being level headed and aknowledging the futility of the situation never gave her the choice to pick him, not even for an hour.
Leaving aside the XL never gave her the choice since we very much disagreed on this point, are we looking at what Lie Chang is saying from XY's perspective or our own perspective? If XY who doesn't want to share her husband and who wants to be the first pick all the time actually thinks that being Jing's concubine is a better option compared to being with someone that she loves even though their time together will be short, then I'd say that her abandonment issue and fear of losing XL is very severe. After all, in both scenarios, she wouldn't technically be "first" - XL has his comrades and father, while Jing is duty-bound to FFYY and their child who will be first and not XY.
And if it's from our own perspective. Well, everyone on this board knows how I feel about Jing :-). No way in hell would l think this dude is a good option let alone being his concubine. No thanks :-). I'd say that she's better off with XL since he would love and protect her as long as he could, the same cannot be said for Jing. And she at least gets to be with the person that she loves.
Him allowing that guy to keep speaking and eventually agreeing with him was yet another attempt from XL part to put some sense into XY,
I don't see why XL shouldn't/wouldn't allow Lie Chang to speak. They were sitting at different tables; Lie Chang was not XL's issue - I don't see XL kicking up a fuss and telling Clie Chang to STF. Jing was sitting right there, you would think that Jing should be the one telling his friend to pipe down. But I touched on this previously, this is Jing using another person as his mouthpiece telling XY that XL/FFB is a bad choice and being his concubine is not such a bad option.
As for XL/FFB comment, “Every word he said is the truth. I’m not a guy suitable for a woman to follow. Isn’t that something you already know?” Isn't this what XY thinks and why she's reluctant to choose him - because he's here one day and gone the next so couldn't give her that someone who would never leave her thing that she wants so desperately? Isn't she the one who engaged herself to another man after 1st choice Jing got himself shackled up? Does he agree with Lie Chang or is this the same self-mocking attitude as when she told him that he was not suitable to walk into a girl's dream? Is this him asking her - do you agree with what Lie Chang is saying? I mean, XY chose to commit to two other men before XL - what on earth is he supposed to think here?
XL is not a fool. He also won't make grand promises to XY that he can't or doesn't think he could keep. The reality of the situation is that life with him is uncertain, but the choice is with XY - whether she is willing to brave it with him or not. And XY was always reluctant and XL is not going to push.
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