Hmmmmmm I’ve Heard And Seen That Villainizing Erlang Shen Is Becoming More Common In The Western Jttw-adjacent

Hmmmmmm I’ve heard and seen that villainizing Erlang Shen is becoming more common in the western jttw-adjacent fandom and so I do think we should all keep in mind that besides Erlang Shen still being a very important deity in the Daoist pantheon (to say nothing of his role as a deity who’s saved countless humans from floods) he also does have a number of understandable reasons for many of his actions. For example, he played a vital part in capturing Sun Wukong on account of that monkey wrecking heaven, & to a degree even his role in imprisoning his own sister Sansheng Mu under a mountain is comprehensible because of the mindset that the gods absolutely can’t afford to have any human emotions under any circumstances on account of the chaos they could wreak if they let feeling such as jealousy, anger, want, etc. define them. I mean, one popular myth even says that the first goddess Nüwa had to give up her own life to repair both heaven and earth because of a catastrophic, nearly apocalyptic war that the gods waged based on the desire to control heaven, so you can understand why the rule that the gods can’t allow themselves human emotions would be absolute.

Now don’t get me wrong, I think that Erlang Shen makes an amazing antagonist when done well, and the possibilities involved in exploring things like his unrelenting belief in the righteousness of all his actions even for things like (again) imprisoning his own sister & burning thousands of the Mt. Huaguoshan monkey yaoguai to death could make him a terrifying figure. HOWEVER, I think it does a massive (and potentially really disrespectful) disservice to his character from both a story-telling & a cultural standpoint to paint him as a 100% despicable villain who fully deserves to be demonized. He’s a figure who’s done SO MUCH for the good of humanity, and that’s not something that should be immediately dismissed.

As always I need to note I’m in no way shape or form an expert on Chinese mythology, but I am relatively confident in saying that when it comes to the conflicts between humans, yaoguai, and deities there is plenty of violence and strife, but the narratives you can weave about them are much more interesting & meaningful when you’re not reducing any of these groups to being the one designated “bad guy.” If anything, as Journey to the West itself makes explicitly clear, the line between the three groups is blurry at best, they are ALL responsible for numerous atrocities, and there’s plenty of blame, as well as opportunities for truly doing good, to go around.

I MADE

A LEGO MONKIE KID THEMED OCTOBER ART PROMPT LIST !!!!!

LMKtober RAHHHHH

I won’t be using it myself bc I’m too busy, but feel free to use it and share it wherever !!!! use the tag #lmktober2023 if you do >:)

no rules or expectations, create any medium whether you write, doodle, paint, crochet, IDK man have fun w it !! do as many as you want, you don’t even have to make it LMK fanart - I’ve got a friend who’s gonna use the list n doesn’t even know LMK he just liked the words kekekewkj

HOPE YOU ENJOYYYYYYYY 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

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poison-toad-witch

7 years ago

As ya can tell by my header I am going to be trying rubber hose style for a bit but hey I am actually posting art and not just reblogs.

Also yes my artsona is this little toad, I like the toads from Mario series.

!!! COMMISSIONS OPEN !!!

If you'd like some art, do consider commissioning me! Check my info and exmaples below!

sparrow-in-boots.tumblr.com

.Pardal's Commission Info.

please make sure to read my TERMS OF SERVICE thoroughly before commissioning me! [ check my availability here ] PAYPAL ONLY - ALL PRICES ON

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poison-toad-witch

1 year ago

Using this anon hate I got as a teaching example

So if you get anon hate like this, there is a few things you can do. (Also once again the person linked is totally innocent, anon is just using a link to them for some reason, do not bother them)

First of all, Tumblr made it so only people who have accounts and are logged in can send anons AT ALL. So if you want to you can click the three little dots in the upper right corner and report them

Anyways once you're there, select the type of harassment you're getting, after consulting a few people on discord I decided it was the second to last one.

Then of course you fill out the little form

Afterwards you can hit "Submit and Block"

Fun fact: when you block an anon you permanently (there is no way to reverse it) block their IP address and they can't send you any more anons, also as a bonus, if you've received a LOT of anon hate and then you block one of them, reload your inbox to see how many it got rid of, because it might have just been one loser spamming you. If you don't feel like reporting them then that's fine too, just block those suckers.

And finally, you can take solace in the fact that you could never be as big of a loser as the anons sending people hate.

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poison-toad-witch

1 year ago

there is an insane amount of antisemitism floating around right now.

i just want to say:

this blog loves and supports jewish people.

this blog does NOT conflate the israeli government, or the atrocities it commits, with jewish people.

this blog is disgusted with those who use or express antisemitism.

this blog knows that if someone needs to invoke antisemitism, they do not actually care about helping palestine or the palestinian people.

this blog will do its best to insure that it remains a safe space for all.

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