Hua Cheng Layouts!

im sexy and i know it girl look a dead body girl look a dead body

The power dynamic between Bingqiu is so complex and unhinged.

On the one hand, Shen Qingqiu is the Shizun, and Luo Binghe the disciple. He still pretty much serves and defers to him as such. Shen Qingqiu is the master, the elder, the superior, in a way that can never change in a culture so steeped in respect for such hierarchies, and where reversal or equalization is simply not a thing. Shen Qingqiu himself still refers to himself as "this master" for most of the story (even post canon? I can't remember), and the one quality he appreciates in Luo Binghe (at least that he says aloud) is his obedience. In both their minds, he's very firmly the one who raised and trained Luo Binghe - though with very different connotations depending on who you ask.

On the other hand... well... Luo Binghe plays the obedient puppy-ish disciple, but he pretty much cute/pathetic-bullies his way into anything he wants, because Shen Qingqiu is weak to him and can't say no. So Luo Binghe plays submissive, cries a little, then gets to top Shen Qingqiu into next Sunday in the most unfillial way imaginable lol. Also, and I cannot stress this enough, he's the most powerful person in the world, he doesn't have to serve anyone in a humble cottage. He literally has an empire and is a ruler, but he plays housewife and meek disciple to this one spoiled guy who gave him the correct manual once and head-patted him with abandon.

Also let's not forget that, to Luo Binghe, Shen Jiu and Shen Yuan are pretty seamlessly the same person. This serial head-patter is also the guy who poured hot tea on him and would string him up to beat him and made him sleep in the woodshed like a particularly miserable Cinderella. To him, one day, his cruel master deemed him worthy of his love after he made him go through many trials, and then slam-dunked him into the abyss, and then self-destructed to save him and then turned out to be alive and avoiding him like the plague and then sulked because Luo Binghe did not properly ask his hand in marriage. Luo Binghe may be the most powerful man in the world and have Shen Qingqiu wrapped around his manipulative golden little finger, BUT the grip and ascendant Shen Qingqiu possesses over Luo Binghe's psyche is unparalleled.

BUT the other side of this equation is that Shen Qingqiu feels so guilty, and loves Luo Binghe so much, he can't bear to make him unhappy and folds like a wet paper towel any time there is the merest hint of tears - which is a conscious strategy on Luo Binghe's part! Shang Qinghua told him acting pathetic works, and it does, and so he milks it! Who knows how much of it is real? Not me. Not Shen Qingqiu either, who also does not care that he's being manipulated. He knows he's being manipulated! But it works anyway!

Because what are you going to do when a cute puppy makes sad eyes at you?? Not give him the bit of meat???

You're his master but he owns your heart so that's your fate, now. He's huge and could maul you but he loves you too much and prefers to act spoiled. He sits when you say sit, comes when you say come. You tell him no but he climbs into your lap anyway and you are helpless to stop him so you pet him. It's messy, full of pathos, possibly unhealthy. You're both living your best life.

That's Bingqiu.

found out in the lemire run matt is canonically jake lockley's lawyer and subsequently lost my mind

i don’t often think of bingqiu and hualian in terms of parallels because their stories are so different and the parallels i’ve seen discussed have felt a little intuitive, but one that i’ve never really thought about isn’t a parallel between the red/blacks and the white/blues, but instead luo binghe and xie lian, and consequently shen qingqiu and hua cheng.

we’ll actually start with shen qingqiu and hua cheng—who are they? well, they’re both strong individuals that are originally (or throughout the story) cast in sort of villainous, disreputable roles. the ghost king, the scum villain. their styles of devotion are completely different in that hua cheng is infinitely more demonstrative and verbally/physically affectionate than shen qingqiu, completely lacking any shame when it comes to xie lian, but they’re both in some way quietly (and sometimes less quietly) devoted to their partner, to the point of physical sacrifice for them. devotion is obviously a key theme throughout all three of mxtx’s work, there’s more to it than that with tgcf and svsss.

neither hua cheng nor shen qingqiu are all that aware of their own innate value to the world around them. and, consequently, neither quite understand why their partners are with them, consciously or unconsciously. shen qingqiu spends plenty of time mentally blue-screening the first few times that luo binghe shows him affection and wonders why he isn’t bestowing it upon his theoretical future wives, and hua cheng was so ruthlessly tormented for his appearance that he can’t fathom being called handsome or worthy of so much as a touch on the hand from xie lian. the roles they’re cast in by their societies further drive this: shen qingqiu doesn’t internalise the good he’s done in changing the world of pidw, the people whose lives he’s saved or positively impacted just by existing, and hua cheng is hua cheng. immensely powerful, frighteningly knowledgeable, endlessly devoted. he’s an excellent artist, a clever mouth, a talented carpenter (sorry)—all of this, external to his vices and usefulness as a ghost king. they both have their values to the world that we the audience can pick out, but when do either ever say, “hey. i did a good thing, existing. my existence has value, and i should protect it accordingly,” (looking at you for that self-detonation, shen qingqiu)

compare these two to their husbands—brilliant, beautiful, devastatingly, mouth-wateringly powerful luo binghe and xie lian. luo binghe knows his strengths, even if he places all his value in the hands of his shen qingqiu—he knows he’s beautiful, he knows he’s strong, he knows he’s clever and talented and all these things. despite how these things have no value to him if shen qingqiu doesn’t care for them, he’s still conscious of their existence. similarly, xie lian was crown prince of xianle, the strongest martial god, so talented that he ascended at the age of 17. again, he knows the nature of his strengths, even if they matter little to him in the grand scheme of his 800 years of ascent and descent, suffering and anger and thinly-veiled depression.

it’s an interesting contrast to what you’d expect, that when it comes to their feelings towards their relationships—the fact that they’re actually involved with these people that they admire so deeply, are devoted to in ways that are either heartbreakingly over-the-top or subtly devastating—hua cheng and shen qingqiu are the ones that share this glaring similarity.

ignore any inconsistencies i am but a weak and feeble human

Luo Family from PINTWILF by @tossawary

SeriRei Week 2020 extremely late day 2: touch

sfkdghksjlf I have dumb bitch disease, I thought I already posted this. I’m not going to do all of the prompts but uhhhhh I can’t NOT draw at least some of them

also I FINALLY found a website with some good free textures and now I’m going to use them for everything

every night

Second batch of bnha icons. Again, free to use, credit appreciated. Thank you guys for all the suggestions!

bro shut the fuck up im analyzing homoerotic subtext